We were meeting in town, old friends catching up. We’ve been doing a lot of it.
It’s a new venue … I’m first, I’m always first. It’s a joke among those who know me.
Light the crematorium fire fast … I’ll be early for my own funeral.
On the early shift in work they’d say: “Is that you? Who gets in early for an early?” but it beats sneaking about our house trying to let sleeping insomniacs lie.
In the door of work, straight to the kettle, tea always first.
But no more earlies, no more work. The days stretch ahead.
So we were meeting in town; old friends catching up.
“Could we have a window seat,” I asked the waitress.
She directed me to a seat by a window, with a fine view of a dark alley and the bottom halves of two window cleaners up a ladder.
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The banquettes at the front of the restaurant spilling light from the square outside were empty … perhaps reserved for the young and beautiful?
We may be silver of lock and slack of bladder, but we tip well and there’s life in these old dogs yet.
It’s been a week of admiring the wonder of the older generation.
If you haven’t watched The Sixth Commandment then do .. although I think their commandments are a little out of kilter with ours?
The wonder is in the brilliance of the acting – Timothy Spall and Anne Reid and Shiela Hancock. Spall particularly honoured the man he represented with true compassion and humanity.
And if we’re talking older then take Brian Blessed and Derek Jacobi … They sing life and the joy of it.
The BBC is bringing back I Claudius – that seventies TV series about power sex sadism - all domestic plotting and torrid toga tugging.
Sir Derek and Brian Blessed were on the radio looking back on the series they made nearly 50 years ago.
The rose tinted specs were out all round.
It made me feel old – someone who ought to take a side seat over a dark alley in a restaurant.
Derek Jacobi said I Claudius was a marvellous stage in his career.
Brian Blessed said Derek Jacobi was tremendous. It was a bit of a love fest.
But Blessed couldn’t quite believe he got to play Julius Caesar.
He confessed that he had been late in showing up for an episode of Z Cars back in the day (Evenin’ all) ... much to the annoyance of one Herbie Wise who was also at the helm for I Claudius.. Brian thought Herbie wouldn’t take him on.
“This is a joke” he said he thought when he was offered the part. Blessed doesn’t say anything, he booms it. He boomed on the radio that he was “absolutely shocked” to get the part.
Then as he was Caesar they said they were all having a lovely time but they’d have to kill him.
He had a five minute death scene which was unheard of.
“I want to see Rome die,” Herbie told him and he obliged. He owed him for being late for Z Cars.
“I’ve never enjoyed myself so much in all my life… I was outrageous at times,” boomed Brian.
He went on to tell a truly outrageous tale about Derek and him in rep when there was no toilet and he had to use Derek’s washbasin … liberally dousing it in harpic afterwards… them were the days.
It ended with a “see you on the other side” farewell.
“Bye Brian!”
“Bye Derek you lovely man, keep going.. hail Caesar!”
And all I could think was how much fun they had.. even when the 1970s make-up melted and cracked under the weight of the emotion.
And I thought how much fun we friends had even in what were the harshest and hardest times in journalism.
Ours were friendships forged at cordons and barricades.
In a riot, we watched which way Kate Adie and her crew ran, then ran the other… out of trouble.
We had a sense that we were all in it together. We had each others’ backs.
On the trickiest of markings, we were there for each other.
At the end of our dinner last week, we got up and hugged and said our goodbyes with all the warmth we still feel for each other.
See you on the other side, yes… just don’t light the crematorium fire just yet.
