| The Times, March
2002 |
Books
It
was Gabriel Thomson, who plays my younger son Michael in My
Family, who got me started on Harry Potter. He went on and
on about J. K. Rowling’s novels. I happen to be such a
sucker for those kinds of fairy stories that it was just a
licence to indulge myself. They were totally unputdownable.
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Having
just finished The Human Stain by Philip Roth (Vintage, £6.99),
a truly incredible thriller, I am now in the middle of Sister
Crazy (Flamingo, £12.99), written by a friend of mine, Emma
Richler, a very, very clever girl.
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Television
I love Gimme Gimme Gimme (Friday, BBC1, 9.30pm) because it is
tacky and outrageous. I like bad taste. I saw The
Producers in New York the other week and Mel Brooks has put in
every tasteless joke he could think of - much more than in the
movie. There is a great number, with all these old ladies
on their Zimmer frames - the height of bad taste and very
good.
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Theatre
David Mamet’s writing is just extraordinary. Boston
Marriage, in particular, is very muscular and intricate as well
as being very clever. I find it an exhilarating play to do
because it is so different from the way in which he normally
writes. It is a marvellous piece of fun - one brilliant bon
mot after another.
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I
have seen a lot of things recently, but none that I would like
to comment on apart from a production of Jitney by August Wilson
at the National (Lyttelton, London SE1, until Nov 21) which was
flawless, technically brilliant and beautifully performed.
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Music
Music is such an important constant. It eases and uplifts
the soul and puts you in a good space. A CD called
Organized (Source), by a band called Morgan, has just come into
my hands. There is a line in one track, Paparazzi, that
goes: “Why don’t you take on Zoë Wanamaker?” I think they
were looking for something that sort of rhymed with
Schwarzenegger. It is a gas, very funny and a good song,
too. |
My
daughter has also introduced me to the music of Zero 7, who are
extremely groovy. |
I
do like to find out what is going on because music is so much a
part of our culture. I love classical music - Bach,
Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn; all those guys - and I would love to
see more opera. But, you have to plan these things way
ahead and I am not a “booker”. I cannot make a
commitment for two months in the future. |
City
One of the things that I find very sexy about New York is its
seasons. There is something exhilarating about the city,
but I can only manage about nine months in it and then I become
exhausted. I went down to Ground Zero when I was there
recently. At night it was dramatically beautiful in its
horror, and during the day, very moving and depressing because
of the dirt and devastation which is so inconceivable when you
see it on television. But the city’s vibrancy and
pioneering spirit is still there.
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Pet hate
Bad architecture. Especially one building in particular on the
Farringdon Road in London. I think it is No 20. How
you can build this piece of sh** when you are surrounded by the
beauty of places such as St Paul’s is mind-boggling.
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