DAME MAUREEN LIPMAN
When Lockdown locked me down last March, I felt a curious sense of relief.We were all in the same leaky liner. Furthermore, for the first time in my life I was justified in freedom from ambition. No more grimacing at the telly when my peers stun in meaty roles, no more racing to Euston to catch the train to the Cobbles.Voluntary “resting” for the first time in 52 years. I started by making small phone videos for my grandchildren; “Help it’s Momo and I’m stuck in my armchair upside down.What should I do?” Their replies were suitably patronising. I followed up by doing drama lessons on Zoom. By July I was a size 14 again, sleeping in two-hour batches and using more Touché Eclat than the cast of Rip off Britain.Nobody was more thrilled than me to get back to work and get Evelyn Plummer of Corrie reborn. Live to work...? I cannot tell a lie.
A PROLIFIC burglar caught by a pensioner in her home tried to charm his way out of trouble by claiming to be a home help.
Shaun Shirley, 59, “seemed genuine” and asked to have a look around the property.
The vulnerable 83-year-old, who has not been named, was at first convinced before becoming suspicious as she does not normally have a home help.
But Shirley managed to snatch a handbag and bank cards before leaving the house.
He was later caught and was jailed for three years and four months after admitting burglary and theft at Lewes Crown Court.
Sussex Police have revealed that Shirley was a “prolific” criminal with 84 previous offences to his name, including burglaries and fraud.
Detective Chief Inspector Cath O’Connor, said: “Deliberately targeting an elderly person in this way is despicable.”
A COUNCILLOR faces tearing down three sheds in his garden after neighbours complained they could hear his son having sex in one of them.
Brian Ayling, 75, put up the £5,000 huts last year and allowed his son Luke, 33, to move into the largest one.
The retired telecoms engineer was refused retrospective planning consent by the development control he sits on at Southend-onSea Borough Council.
He had claimed that he did not realise he needed permission.
One neighbour told the committee: “His son and his girlfriend are sleeping in them.
“Just by sitting in my garden, I have to listen to them participating in sexual activities which I am sure members of the committee would not want to listen to.”
Mr Ayling, an independent councillor, said: “We are trying to address some of the issues by moving Luke into one of the other sheds further away from neighbours.”