There was a time, as Peter Cook once joked, When Diana Dors Ruled the Earth. It’s a neat gag, but it’s also pretty telling. Swindon-born actor-cum-bombshell Dors had indeed loomed large in her heyday but, by the 70s,...
Read MoreWhat springs to mind when you think of Ken Dodd? Possibly it’s mad hair and sticky-out teeth, or tickling sticks, or Diddymen from Knotty Ash. It could be his marathon live shows or his idiosyncratic tax arrangements (he...
Read MoreIn April 1958, London-based theatre director Joan Littlewood received a package in the post from 19-year-old Shelagh Delaney of Duchy Road, Salford. It contained a play manuscript called A Taste of Honey, with a covering...
Read More“She was very intolerant of foolishness, vanity, empty talk, obsequiousness, time-wasting, cruelty.” That’s Lucy Worsley brilliantly capturing her heroine Jane Austen. The TV historian, educator and chief curator at Historic...
Read MoreThese days, Nigel Kneale isn’t a name that’s generally recognised by the man in the street. Trust me on this, because I’ve spent years of my life writing his biography, the second edition of which has just been...
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