People regularly invoke your name as someone they’d like to join them at the perfect dinner party. Are you such a fantastic guest? hhhhssss
When people say that, I usually reply: “Ah, you haven’t seen me eat.” It’s a very charming thing to hear, a way people get, I guess, to list qualities of their heroes or people they admire and imagine very kindly that I’m a good speaker or that I’m a wit of some sort, and hope I’m friendly. The list usually includes Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde and I always feel extremely unworthy, but I don’t want to bore anybody with, you know, the usual British modesty ritual. I’ll just say that it’s a great honour and I certainly try when I’m at dinner parties. Although, have you noticed post Covid, there seem to be fewer of them? Or perhaps it’s just that people have stopped inviting me.
“If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.” Was Melchett the godfather of Brexit? Shauny79
It’s a brilliant observation by whoever put that question that the speech of Melchett’s, which I loved saying, does so precisely fit the attitude to Brexit: “A total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face.” Playing Melchett was one of the great joys of my life. To be let loose on such powerful eccentricity and unpredictable barking madness is a great treat for any actor.
