Poll: Dawn and Lenny Tops

For all of the ink and pixels spilled over every sniffle and sigh of the Victoria "Posh Spice" & David Beckham relationship, it's interesting to find that poll results released last month from mobile phone service provider T-Mobile found that UK residents' favorite celebrity marriage was that of Dawn French and Lenny Henry. (You can, of course, enjoy a career-spanning interview with Lenny in the pages of 30 Years of British Television -- your helpful author.)

French, you'll remember, is the star of The Vicar of Dibley and one half of comic duo French & Saunders; Lenny Henry is the outrageous food maestro Gareth Blackstock in the sitcom Chef. (Check out the clip above for a French & Saunders sketch that not only features French and Henry, but also finds them playing opposite real-life marrieds Jennifer Saunders and Ade Edmondson.) Together they trounced such celebrity pairings as the aforementioned Posh and Becks (4th place), Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne (2nd), and former Prime Minister Tony Blair and wife Cherie (8th).

Other results of T-Mobile's adventures in public opinion:

• David Jason (Touch of Frost, Open All Hours) proved to be the most lasting television icon
• Doctor Who (3rd place) and EastEnders (8th) the most enduring shows
• The A-Team (8th place) among things that should've lasted longer than they did

Voices from the past

While away covering a trade show this week, I had the opportunity to visit my parents’ house, and to go through some of my old things there.

To my surprise I stumbled across the original cassette tape recordings of my interviews with John Inman (Are You Being Served), John Mortimer (creator of Rumpole of the Bailey), Stephanie Cole (Waiting For God), Blythe Duff (Taggart), and one or two other British television stars who appear in 30 Years of British Television. I had long thought these items lost.

Now that I know I have access to them (I didn’t risk taking them back on the plane through the X-ray machines lest they be damaged), I would very much like to have these historic recordings — all of which took place in the 1990s — transfered to a digital format and posted on the 30 Years of British Television Web site. The John Inman recording is especially prized, of course, since that wonderful entertainer passed away last March.

Would any British television fans out there be interested in downloading these interviews in the form of a podcast, or would you be more interested in listening to a few short interview sound bites on the Web site itself? Though I haven’t had the chance to listen to them recently, I’m sure the audio quality isn’t going to be brilliant, but it is still an opportunity to listen to these great personalities.

Thanks, Grant Naylor

During a project where cooperation was not the order of the day (the interviewees were all extremely helpful but there were some other institutions that proved not nearly so kind), I’d like to single out the kind folks at Grant Naylor Productions — makers of the Red Dwarf series — for special thanks.

Helen Norman, Doug Naylor and Co. kindly provided a photo for this book. That may not sound like much, but at a time when studios are charging exorbitant prices for use of their pictures, this really helped us out. This being Pamela’s and my first book, money is pretty scarce. If you’re a Red Dwarf fan, why not swing by the official Web site and let them know their generosity is appreciated.

Indextinction

I don’t know you, dear reader, and I certainly don’t have anything against you. Now that I’m feeling so avuncular towards you, I feel it my duty to give you a little piece of advice. If you value your health, your sanity, or the health and sanity of those who share your roof, never, under any circumstances, attempt to index the book you’re writing by hand. I only tell you this because I care!

I’ve spent the last three days indexing 30 Years of British Television, and I’ve learned some things about myself. However much you admire and respect the people you interviewed for your new book, no matter how often you’ve praised each and every one as a genius at one time or another, indexing will make you curse their very names!

Here’s the problem. Indexing starts easy enough:

Person A is on Page 3. Noted. We’re certainly off to a good start with this indexing business, aren’t we? And Person A was in shows B and C, also mentioned on Page 3. OK, no problem, noted. Smashing! This indexing business is a piece of cake. Now on to Page 4. Person A is talking about growing up in London…Do we NEED to index the word “London.” Ummmm, nawww. This is a book about British television for heaven’s sake, London is a given, isn’t it? OK, shan’t index that. Moving on.

Now Person A is really on a tear, talking about growing up, cracking up his mates at school when he was a kid…

And then you see it out of the corner of your eye. You can’t believe it! A few paragraphs down, Person A is dropping names like mints out of a tipped candy dish — his influences. Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd, the Marx Brothers — good heavens, do all of these people need to be indexed separately?! Oh thank you very much, Person A!

My better half suggested getting a bit of indexing software earlier, and I threw out my chest, struck a manly pose, and tutted at such an extravagance. It’s a shame, really. Had she stuck to her guns and insisted, she might not be facing the cross-eyed fellow who now peeks at her from around his computer screen muttering “you little name droppers!”