Ephraim Hardcastle
AMID statue-toppling fever, the BBC resists demands to remove Lord Reith’s bust from its London HQ over allegations the first DG had Nazi sympathies. But what about Eric Gill’s 1932 sculptures of Prospero and Ariel on the front of Broadcasting House? Gill sexually abused his daughters Betty and Petra as well as the family dog. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood called for removal, describing the sculptures as ‘intolerable’. Says the BBC: ‘There are no plans to remove or replace them.’ What were Gill’s views on slavery?
WILL English Heritage’s BLM-inspired reassessment of its London blue plaques prompt removal of those commemorating slave-supporting writers Daniel Defoe and Alexander Pope, as well as colonialist Captain James Cook? Deep waters.
THE jury is out on whether Liverpool’s Penny Lane commemorates slaver James Penny. What would John Lennon, who lived at the address as a child, make of it? Oh for a celestial ship-to-shore link to ask the dead Beatle for his view!
ACTOR Robert Lindsay outs the late Laurence Olivier, pictured, as a fan of Coronation Street, recalling the titled thespian sharing a dressing room with Doris Speed, Rover’s Return landlady Annie Walker, while filming King Lear in Manchester. ‘He went over to her with his crown on and said, “My darling girl, thank you on behalf of the entire theatrical community. I’d like to say we admire your performance, that has given such spirit and warmth to an entire generation... thank you from the bottom of my heart”.’ Lindsay adds: ‘Doris said to the make-up girl: “Who was that?”’
DAVID Starkey takes a pop at fellow historian David Olusoga, presenter of the BBC’s A House Through Time, saying he wouldn’t criticise an 18th-century house for not having the mod cons of hot and cold running water, electricity and central heating, adding: ‘So why then does he criticise its human contemporaries for not having held modern values about race and slavery? This isn’t history, it’s therapy.’
ALAN Bennett almost walked out of a theatre in Guildford after forgetting his lines three times during a pre-West End run of Talking Heads in 1991, telling Radio Times: ‘I never entirely recovered my nerve and thereafter lost any desire to act.’ Sounds like an ideal subject for one of his bleak monologues.
BARRY Manilow, 77 tomorrow and suffering from pandemic blues, says: ‘I never realised how much I’d miss the fans but I do. I miss my band, my crew and I sure do miss that audience.’ His remedy? ‘I asked Gary, my partner, can you just applaud for a couple of minutes so I can get that feeling? And he applauded.’ Let him blow out the birthday candles Barry.
AFTER a complaint, St John’s College, Durham, succumbs to political correctness and renames its annual sports ‘colour’ ceremony the Epiphany Awards. What would old boy Justin Welby make of it?