About Helen McCrory

Given that it is a bit irrational to mourn the death of someone you never knew, I was still sadder to hear of the passing of the actor Helen McCrory than of the Duke of Edinburgh a week before. Mainly because McCrory was little more than half the Duke’s age and left two children under 16, but also because she was a fabulous, compelling performer. And on the occasions when she wasn’t inhabiting another character, she appeared to be a wise, perceptive woman; here she is talking to The Chap in 2019.

I don’t think I’ve ever been interested in any play about the happy, successful, lighter moments of life. I think that’s a very modern, pervasive idea in our entertainment, whether it’s on Instagram or in fiction, to show only the good and the perfect side of yourself. It’s just a lie and it’s very dull, and it’s nothing that anyone should even strive for. Obviously when you’re younger, all the dark side of life holds a lot of interest. Every teenager listens to the Doors and reads Sartre.

About Toms

In a rare outbreak of common sense, the social media hive mind agrees that today’s instalment of the Sunday Times’s venerable A Life in the Day feature (by the talented and funny actor Tom Hollander), is very good indeed.

And, yes, yes it is. However - there always has to be a however, doesn’t there? - some silly digital sausages are suggesting that it’s as good as, or even better than, this one, by Tom Baker, back from the old days. And it isn’t. Because nothing is. Or ever will be.