Friday, September 12, 2008
The only good bloke in showbiz
Had lunch with an old radio hand. Talk fell to whether it is really the case that all stars are monsters drunk on ego. He had previously had the same conversation with a very senior executive in BBC Television and put this same question to him. This individual had in the course of a long and colourful career dealt with every major star in the light entertainment firmanent. He was challenged to name one who wasn't capable of behaving like a twat. He furrowed his brow and thought hard for quite a few minutes. Then he brightened. "Rolf Harris!"
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I had a lovely hour in the company of Mr Harris once, smashing. But read his autobiography, and he admits that he wasn't such a fantastic dad, so maybe that's the price you pay for being lovely professionally...
ReplyDeleteIn his defence, I think the most reliable sign of a good Dad is they don't think they were one.
ReplyDeletesorry to drop this here, but I have a crucial question to ask you: I've just finished season 1 of the Wire, and plan to chug my way through the whole damn lot. Having just had a crucial plot detail from a later series accidentally revealed in the comments over on Andrew Collins' blog, could I just ask you (before I sit and read it) if there are any spoilers in your big, juicy article in this month's word?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to read it, but I'm not sure if I can risk it or not!
Thanks (and actually, it was partly through your raving about the wire here that got me interested in the first place, so....thanks for that!)
ST
And more on topic, I had to explain the concept of Rolf Harris to my wife. She grew up in France, and had absolutely no idea who or what he was, or how he had become an apparently well-loved institution based on nothing much that she could see. I tried explaining Jake the Peg to her, but I'm not sure it helped.
ReplyDeleteST
I saw the biography about him on BBC1 maybe a year ago and was hugely impressed. I remember there was a period when he was quite big in the UK, in the early 70's maybe, featuring all the time on the BBC. And he had an offer of doing some low profile work in Australia - wish i could remember what it was, maybe teaching. Anyhow, he happily left the Beeb so he could go back home. It might not seem a lot, but I was very impressed that he could just walk away like that. Seems he had his priorities right.
ReplyDeleteWhen I met Rolf Harris he groped both me and my 25 year old PA. We are both quite plain.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, he also let us have a go on his wobble board and allowed the sound engineer to hug him, sobbing "I've loved you all my life"
The equal opportunity groping. Doesn't that make him an old-fashioned gentleman?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, subsequent events proved this not to be the case
ReplyDelete