The Old Un’s Notes
* Our radio correspondent, Valerie Grove, has just unearthed a shaming letter she received from the great comedian Barry Cryer in 1970.
At the time she was, briefly, standing in as TV previewer for the Evening Standard.
‘Dear Valerie,’ wrote Barry, ‘I must thank you on behalf of those readers of the Standard who do not own a copy of Movies on TV by Leslie Halliwell and have therefore been saved 7/6d – as your film previews appear to be taken verbatim from this book, coupled with a few gems from the Radio and TV Times. Why not throw in one or two original thoughts of your own? Or are you, as I suspect, much too young to know, or even have heard of, many of the films in question?
‘If so, my congratulations on your sheer nerve, and please forward me the 7/6d I needn’t have spent…’
Valerie was duly chastened at
