Author Archives: Paul

But we’re British, we’re hard-wired to moan about the weather. So what are we going to say about today, the hottest day of the year? I think we all know the answer to that.

I was invited to the end of year degree show because I’d helped one of the students add some sound and voices to his short film. He’s a nice kid, very talented and I was keen to see the finished article. Trouble was, I had to sit through all the other students’ finished articles too. […]

That’s where I found myself yesterday. Don’t ask. But it was fabulous. I’d always been baffled by people who were “proud” of their homosexuality. I’m not suggesting for a moment they should be ashamed of it but surely your sexuality is just the way you happen to feel. Something for which you can’t really take […]

My grandad did. So did most of my uncles. Nowadays, they’re far more commonplace but most of us aged between 40 and 60 remain unadorned. We’re the wrong generation for tattoos. And we’re the wrong generation for festivals. We associate them with old hippies or young hipsters so we won’t be going to “Glasto”. We […]

I’ve got nothing against Fleetwood or Mac (s) or Stevie or Lindsey. I bought Rumours and Tusk when I was at school but I cannot believe they’re still going. Tickets for the shows tonight and tomorrow at the 02 are now changing hands for £1,000. For Fleetwood Mac? The music’s okay, if a little bland, […]

My then girlfriend had tickets. George Michael at Wembley Arena? Bloke from Wham? Oh please, do I have to? But I went along under duress and have never been so wrong about anything (and that’s saying something) in my life. He was sensational and is the only artist I know whose cover versions are always […]

I cycled home through Clapton today. Down to Millfields Park, along the River Lea towards Tottenham and through Hornsey to Muswell Hill. Clapton was the childhood home of Helen Shapiro. It was where she lived when this topped the charts in 1961. Helen Shapiro was a huge star in that strange time between rock n […]

Stephen Fry is adored and admired for his humour, his charm and his formidable intellect. I can attest that in real life he is exactly how you’d want him to be – funny, kind and generous to a fault. I gave him his first voiceover and years later, he provided a laudatory review for my […]

Is probably the first one you ever attempted. “Now then, now then..Howzabout that then, guys and gals….” And then we all discovered that the man we simply found “a bit creepy” was, all along, a dangerous and predatory psychopath. I went to the Park Theatre to see An Audience With Jimmy Savile, starring Alastair McGowan […]

…is Food for Thought in Covent Garden, unchanged since the day it opened more than 40 years ago. Small, cramped and awkward, it serves the best and cheapest vegetarian food I’ve ever tasted. I’m not even a vegetarian but I’d happily have eaten there every day for the rest of my life. Sadly, this iconic […]