Pat wrote:
Spaced out JERRY HALL'S co-star [in The Vagina Monologues], Josette Simon, is in less jocular form. When I point out that the programme notes have omitted her best known television role - in the 1980s sci-fi series Blake's Seven - she replies: "You're not going to ask me about that, are you? I am a Shakespearean actress. I have an OBE. It's so annoying when Blake's Seven is the only thing people want to talk about."
I thought this was wonderful. I know that it's understandable but I still felt that Peterborough should have replied. "These would be Ye Monologues of Vagina by William Shakespeare, a tragedy in five acts would they ?"
On the subjects of people being haunted by their popular work, I am reminded of one of my favourite Spitting Image sketches with Leonard Nimoy's latex puppet.
Nimoy: I am not Spock. I am Leo nard Nimoy, I can play Shakespeare, give me a chance ! Director (oov): OK Len, from the top. Nimoy: To be or not to be. That is illogical Captain. Aargh ! No ! Director: Next !
Or of course there is the sad story of Magnus Magnusson. For non-British Lystians, Magnusson is a scholar of Icelandic History who, by some quirk of fate, ended up presenting a quiz show called Mastermind. Mastermind ran for 20 odd years and became a National Institution. A number of the winners attained a degree of celebrity in their own right, notably a London taxi driver called Fred Housego. (Ob B7 - When I was 12, my Sunday school had a Mastermind evening which I won, my specialist subject being B7). Magnusson wants to be remembered for his scholarship, not hosting a TV show, which seems a somewhat vain hope. Apparently he was showing a visiting academic around an archeological dig in Iceland when the academic asked: "Magnus, there's something I've often wondered and you are the only one in the field who could answer this question". Magnusson smiled modestly and replied "I'll do my best". "Tell me, what's Fred Housego *really* like ?"
I think Josette got off lightly. Unless, when she went for her OBE HM the Queen said something like: "Ah, Josette, that Blake and Avon, repressed homoerotic tension or what ?"
Stephen.
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