On Saturday April 27 at 6.0 pm I will be hosting a showing of Accident, written by Harold Pinter and directed by Joseph Losey, at The Chiswick Cinema. All
welcome so do come.

I have just returned from the Royal Academy of Music
where I saw London Youth Opera's exhilarating
production of Pandora'a Box: a witty, melodic piece
(Stuart Hancock composer, Donald Sturrock librettist)
that deserves to be picked up by youth groups around the country.

Look out for The Remarkable Journey of Bernard Levin
on BBC4 on Nov 12 at 22.30. It tells the story of one of the great journalists of our time who was prolific,
controversial and always stunningly readable.

I would highly recommend The Empress at the Lyric
Hammersmith: Tanika Gupta's epic portrayal of British
imperialism and maltreatment of immigrants has
gained in resonance since I first saw it ten years ago.

Watching Jour de Fete on TV, I noticed a brief appearance by a character called Papa Godot. So did Jacques Tati influence Samuel Beckett? It seems highly likely.

A great day at the Linbury yesterday marking Wayne Sleep's 75th birthday. Janie Dee put together a great
package including an interview with Wayne, clips from
his Royal Ballet past and a reunion of Kit-Kat club
girls from Cabaret. It was a superb tribute to the
Puck-like Wayne.

If you want a potent piece of political theatre, head to
The Return of Benjamin Lay at the Finborough. Written by Naomi Wallace and Marcus Rediker, it tells the
extraordinary story of a 4ft-tall, 18th century Quaker
who became a fervent abolitionist. Mark Povinelli is
amazing.

I've just read a fascinating memoir, In Search of Truth by Eliza Harrison, from whom we bought our Chiswick House in 1976. The book is a compelling page-turner in which Eliza belatedly discovers that her real father was a famous Tory politician. I'd urge everyone to read it.

My second example of undimmed age is fictional.
Annabel Leventon and Tim Hardy are giving terrific performances in The Journey to Venice at the Finborough as Norwegian oldsters who go on
fantasy journeys and read Dostoyevsky and DH
Lawrence to each other.

Two examples of the resilience of old age. Today at
Irving Wardle's funeral we were reminded that this
great critic was doing comic improv classes and acting with a local amateur group in his eighties and nineties.

Good to see the massive public support for Gary Lineker. It shows there is still some decency in this country.

No-one, I'm told, reads Sir Walter Scott. But Old
Mortality is the fifth of his novels I have read recently and it is amazing for its portrait of the battle between religious fanaticism and royalist oppression in 17th century Scotland. Read Scott and relish him.

A magnificent service at St James's, Piccadilly yesterday
commemorating the multi-talented Tom Phillips. Some
sublime music and heartfelt tributes to Tom's artistic
genius from David Attenborough, Brian Eno, Simon
Callow and Tom's widow, Fiona Maddocks.

Have just finished Palace Walk: the first part of the Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. It is a great novel: a
vivid portrait of a patriarchal Egyptian culture and a fierce attack on the cruelty of the British during the years of the protectorate. A must read.

Loving watching the Lord's Test on TV but I wish Sky Sports would ditch Kevin Pietersen who talks nothing but vacuous drivel.

Do go and see Harry Burton's production of Pinter's The Dwarfs at the White Bear. It's an edgily funny account of
the writer's Hackney youth and you can't really understand Pinter unless you've seen the play or read the novel on which it is based.

To Poets' Corner last night for the dedication of a memorial stone to John Gielgud. A deeply moving occasion with speeches by David Hare and Richard Eyre and readings by Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Janet Suzman.

Go to Hampstead Theatre website, click on The Breach
and you will find an interview I've done with the play's
author, Naomi Wallace. She talks fascinatingly about her own work and about political drama in America.

Delighted to present the Best New Play prize, at the Critics' Circle Drama Awards, to James Graham for
Best of Enemies: a scorching look at the 1968 TV
debates between William F. Buckley Jr and Gore Vidal and at the unhealed divisions in America itself.

Have just read Mrs Gaskell's North and South: a
brilliant novel that deals with the perennial social schism in English life and with the dangers of unchecked capitalism and mob violence. As good as, if not better than, Dickens's Hard Times.