RIP Barry Norman.

By all accounts, including this one, one of the nicest people who could wish to meet. He presented Film ’72 until it became Film ’99 and he was unceremoniously dropped by the BBC. He was immediately snapped up by Sky and free to voice commercials, which is how I came to meet him. He was charming, erudite and kind. Despite being The Great Barry Norman, who’d met every movie star on the planet, he was fascinated by the fact that I used to work in a cinema. “You should write a book about this”, he said. And a few years later, I did. He told me that this was his one of his favourite records. “Particularly now”, he said, “because I’ve just turned 64″. Barry Norman is being remembered fondly this morning by practically everyone who ever met him. And why not?