Author Archives: simon

The Goodies were pretty stupid. So was Monty Python, which preceded them onto the screen by almost exactly a year. It was, as Graham Chapman used to remind us when cutting short Python sketches, “all getting far too silly!” “An … Continue reading →

Glenn Close has the most beautiful eyes. They’re simple blue-green. But what powers her look is the bright and clear blue line around each, which softens and hardens with the inflections in her speech, underlining what she says. She is … Continue reading →

Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse are married. Not to each other – they both have wives – but they are a couple, comedy boyfriends. And have been for twenty years since University, mucking about writing voices and catchphrases originally roped … Continue reading →

Emma Thompson opens her door, extends her arms and with her infinitely complicated smile greets me soothingly. “Fanshawe…..” Only in England can a surname be a sign of real warmth. And Thompson is a very English woman. Her formality offers … Continue reading →

Elaine Stritch left Detroit for New York when she was seventeen determined to be a star. So wrapped up was she in achieving it, she says, she was a virgin till she was 30. Finally last year, when she was … Continue reading →

In those very rich east coast New England houses there are very rich east coast New England women, who unlike their Californian equivalent have no truck with therapies, fashions and self-development. Instead they are concerned with manners, order and social … Continue reading →

When Denise van Outen worked on a kid’s show called Scratchy & Co, she co-hosted with an ex-Just 17 model called Malcolm Jeffries. Where is he now? “I don’t know,” she says sweetly. And none of the rest of us … Continue reading →

Smoking in public in America is a sin. The Pope hasn’t pronounced on it yet but you might as well kick cats or steal from children for the disapproval it brings. But Boy George is happily dragging on a fag … Continue reading →

“I’m just a person and quite a dull one and I’m sorry about that. I feel it’s a disappointment to journalists. They think I am what I play. But I’m not like my character and also I have quite a … Continue reading →