John White loves a bit of existential angst, so what could be a better choice for a Saturday night out than Huis Clos? Mandy was up for it. Annalisa was up for it. Off we went to the Lyric Hammersmith – the small Studio theatre there.
The play is set in hell, which is said to be a hot place.
It really was o-t ‘ot that evening. Clammy August and naturally the air conditioning system in the Studio wasn’t working.
Here’s my database/diary note for this evening:
The air conditioning had broken down on one of the hottest days of the year. The Lyric gave us all free squash in the interval because it was so bad. It did make the play about hell truly multi-sensory. The line “it’s so hot in here” had the whole audience in stitches.
This was the famous (or perhaps infamous) National Theatre production of Hamlet which took Daniel Day-Lewis to the very edge of reason and from which he quit part way through the run.
I went very early in the run – in fact it might even have been a preview – with Annalisa. I suspect that I had booked the thing with Bobbie in mind, but so long before the appointed date that Bobbie could no longer make it.
Let’s just say that, back then, I thought of Shakespeare as more Bobbie’s thing than Annalisa’s thing. Annalisa has latterly assured me that theatre, including Shakespeare, was very much her thing.
Anyway, I recall that we sat right at the front of one of those side wedges in the Olivier – you are very close to the action there, especially when the action is on your side of the stage.
I also recall that Daniel Day Lewis was a very wet Hamlet – by which I mean sweating and spitting his lines. Annalisa remarked afterwards that we should have taken umbrellas with us had we known.
It was a superb production, with a great many big names and several names that weren’t big then but went on to be big. National productions were a bit like that in those days – some still are I suspect.
I was motivated to write up this theatre visit while sitting at Lord’s in September 2018 watching, for the first time, Ethan Bamber bowl live. His father, David, was Horatio in this Hamlet production, nearly 30 years earlier.
Other big names/fine performances included Judi Dench, John Castle, Michael Bryant, Oliver Ford Davies & Stella Gonet. A young Jeremy Northam had a small part in the version we saw but stepped up to the plate when Daniel Day-Lewis walked out. Later in the run, Ian Charleson took on the role to much acclaim, just before he died.
I think this was still quite early in Richard Eyre’s tenure at the National and he directed this one himself, extremely well.
My only other recollection is a quote that Annalisa picked up from an American visitor to the National, who told his wife that he didn’t think all that much of the play – “too many of the lines were clichés”. I guess you can’t please everybody.
Postscript: An Enthusiast From Across The Pond Sought Help…
…in March 2024 I received some unusual correspondence from a gentleman in the USA, wondering whether I still had the programme (or playbill in his terms) as he was keen to see Daniel Day-Lewis’s biography notes from that production.
I have mentioned before that Ogblog serves as a fifth emergency service on occasions and this felt like such an occasion. No sirens or speeding vehicles through the streets of London needed, but I fortuitously was able to lay my hands on this particular programme with relative ease, having not yet returned that batch to deep storage.
If you simply go by my diary notes, I spent the ten days in the run up to Christmas eating and drinking that year. What’s changed/who knew?
I’m going to be a bit light on details with several of these:
Thursday 15 December: Went over to Bobbies for dinner
I’ll guess that there were other people involved, but the diaries are silent on the matter, beyond the above information
Friday 16 December: Went to Ma and Pa for dinner
One thing I do remember about this visit was me gently but firmly letting mum know that, now that I’d moved to Notting Hill, I wasn’t suddenly going to be making Friday evening visits for family dinner a regular thing.
Saturday 17 December: Driving lesson. Annalisa came over for meal in evening
That was my second driving lesson in Notting Hill (I’d had one the previous Saturday). I think that meal I cooked for Annalisa that evening might well have been the first time I cooked for someone other than myself at Clanricarde Gardens. No idea what I cooked for her. There are some Thai recipes on my jotter but I can see, from the context of the other notes, that those were jotted after Christmas, probably after I discovered Tawana.
Monday 19 December: Driving lesson in evening.
My instructor in Notting Hill Gate was a gentle fellow. I remember his girlfriend (or wife) was an orchestra musician from East Germany and he spent much of our chatting time railing against the Honecker regime, little knowing how close we were to its demise.
Tuesday 20 December: Bobbie came over for meal in evening
This might well have been the first time I cooked for Bobbie at Clanricarde. This will have been a meatier affair than cooking for Annalisa and/but probably a simpler meal being an after work job rather than a weekend job.
Wednesday 21 December: Radius lunch in afternoon. BHMC [Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants] & drinks after work
I cannot remember exactly who Radius were, but I am guessing that they were a software supplier. That week, and the week before, I had switched away from Save The Children Fund (who wanted me to return to do most of my assignment in the new year, after their massive Christmas Appeal surge was over), so I joined colleague/mentor Lars Schiphorst at Holland & Holland. My guess is that I was brought in at that place to look at the financial/accounting systems aspects of a project long since forgotten by all involved.
Thinking about Lars, who, despite having to tolerate teaming with me on that assignment and others, went on to be a good friend for several years at Binders before he emigrated to Australia…I wondered if it would be possible to trace Lars 30 years later.
Lars Schiphorst – ludicrously still recognisable/barely changed all these years later.
Friday 23 December: Pub lunch with BHMC mob – little work after
The thing I remember most about that lunch was chatting with Geoffrey Rutland, RIP, who was especially friendly, welcoming and helpful with advice. He also turned out, strangely, like myself, to have been a former scholarship boy at Alleyn’s – although in his case a few years earlier.
Actually I remember everyone at Binders being friendly and welcoming that December – I felt quite at home in that firm quite rapidly, despite the fact that I knew I had been recruited as canon fodder in a turf war between a handful of partners.
Obviously I was better from my 48 hours of food poisoning by the Saturday. I’m pretty sure I went in to work on the Friday and then a full weekend of activities.
Now I have had written complaints from Jilly already about my handwriting, so the above page is only for artistic effect. Here is the entry for the Saturday:
Saturday 10 December: Driving lesson & Orpheus Descending With Jilly & Annalisa Party
There – that wasn’t so challenging, now, was it?
I remember really liking this play and production. What a fabulous cast.
They made a film based on that Peter Hall production with some (but not all) of the cast we saw in it. Here is the trailer for that movie – far more melodramatic looking than the stage production I remember, but still it should give you some idea:
For that particular evening, I’m sure that the original idea was that Bobbie would join me to see this play/production. But when she had to pull out for some reason, it made a great deal of sense for Jilly to act as sub, especially as we were both invited to Annalisa’s party and were given leave to be fashionably late arrivals.
In truth, I cannot remember specific details of this particular party at Annalisa’s place in Hinde Street, but her parties were always popular, always lavish in hospitality and always late nighters. At that time, just a couple of years after Annalisa had finished at Keele, I suspect it was a very Keeley crowd that night.
As the diary says, on the Sunday, I:
…went to G Jenny with Ma & Pa…
…the next day, quite probably a little tiredly and sore-headedly. But Grandma Jenny no doubt wanted to know all about my new flat and my new job, so I’ll guess that I was centre of attention that Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday 16 July – Fairly hectic day at work – met Annalisa for lunch. Met Bobbie after work – had meal at Mayflower & went on to Woody Allen Film after – v nice.
Mayflower was one of the better Chinese restautrants in Chinatown – now (writing in 2020) resurrected as New Mayflower.
The Woody Allen film in question would have been Hannah And Her Sisters, which went on general release in the UK a couple of days later. No doubt we went to a preview at the Curzon West End (just opposite the Mayflower).
I still think Hannah And Her Sisters is a great movie. But gone are the days that I’d complain about a hectic day at work in which I had lunch with a friend and left work early enough to have a meal and then see a movie. Such a snowflakey-sense-of-entitlement-youngster, I was.
Pretty busy at work today. Went to LC [Laurence Corner] etc.
Met Graham Watson for a drink – Mike came too (is leaving office).
(Met Jon Graham on way home).
Earlyish night.
I hasten to add that Laurence Corner was, for me, work – not a fun outing at lunchtime. Mike (he who was leaving the office) must be Mike King, who, by that time, I think was doing much of the work on the Laurence Corner account and who was, presumably, handing over some of the reins to me.
Graham Watson was an old friend from school. I vaguely recall running into him in London and thus meeting up. Coincidentally Jon graham was also a friend from school and (if I recall correctly) I didn’t realise he was still hanging in Streatham until this chance encounter. Jon and I met up again more than once, IIRC. I’m not sure whether Graham and I did. Perhaps Graham gave me the bumps…again!
Several years earlier, Graham Watson & Paul Deacon giving me the bumps, Tim Church feigns a lack of interest, picture “borrowed” from Paul’s facebook posting with grateful thanks.
Saturday 7 December 1985 – Met Petra in morning – breakfast etc. (Lost handbag). Stopped off at shop – stayed in the evening.
I remember the “Petra lost handbag” incident quite well, but with some gaps. I think Petra took an early train down from Keele, having arranged to meet me in the morning and then go on to see her folks down in Sussex. We went to quite a swish place in Piccadilly for “brunch”.
Petra and I got about five or ten minutes down the road when Petra realised that she didn’t have her handbag. We returned to Richoux to discover that the bag had gone.
Despair.
But wait!
A waiter said he thought he had seen another customer spot the left-behind handbag and thought that the gentleman had handed it in to the police. The waiter suggested that we visit the local cop shop.
In those days, that meant a short stroll to Savile Row. And in those days, only very limited questions were asked of Petra to prove that she was the owner of the bag.
And in those days, believe it or not, the copper handed over the contact details for the gentleman who had spared Petra no end of trouble, as we said we wanted to get him a gift to thank him.
Back to Richoux we went for some chocolates and then up to Albany Street to The White House Hotel. In those days, no questions asked, we simply strode to the appropriate floor and knocked on the door.
The gentleman, half-opening the room door, seemed a little taken aback to be confronted by two smiling, grateful youngsters and a box of chocolates, which he rather sheepishly accepted before closing the door.
I’m sure the “Do Not Disturb” sign had been invented by then, even though GDPR had not.
Sunday 8 December 1985 – stayed at home today – went to Grandma Jenny’s – did some work, etc.
Monday, 9 December 1985 – started FT [Financial Training] course today – okay. Stayed in and worked in evening.
I spent quite a lot of time at Financial Training in Bramley Road those years I was articled and studying for my ACA exams. That building is now an abandoned, graffiti-ridden wreck, visible from the Western Avenue flyover, reminding me how dilapidated I might look after all those years if I didn’t take care of myself or have someone to take care of me.
I asked Google Flow to produce an artist’s representation of what the place looked like in the mid 1980s and I must say it (via Nana Banana 2.1) has done a cracking job, albeit an architect-style artist’s impression.
I do recall finding the course work extremely dull, especially in that first year as I had to do a lot of modules that were merely repeating stuff I had studied before (e.g. statistics, basic law) or was familiar with from years of doing practical accounting (e.g. basic book-keeping).
I remember spending breaks writing imaginary skits and songs about my fellow “kids in college” to relieve the boredom, sending them by post to Petra at Keele. I’m not sure that this comedy worked particularly well but it was possibly useful training for my post-qualification avocation as a comedy writer.
Tuesday, 10 December 1985 – course ok – worked at home in evening.
Wednesday, 11 December 1985 – FT went okay (evening messed up by call etc) – early night.
Thursday, 12 December 1985 – course ok – finished. Went up to Keele this evening.
Friday, 13 December 1985 went to union – did exam etc – went to Ben’s [Benita Wishart] for dinner in the evening – ok.
Saturday, 14 December 1985 – went to kiddie’s party in the afternoon for awhile – had a nice meal in evening.
Sunday, 15 December 1985 – lazy day at Keele reading papers eating etc- very pleasant.
At that stage, I was still very much enjoying the weekend visits to Keele and didn’t seem to mind catching a very early train from Stoke to Euston and going straight into the office. The very thought fills me with dread now.
Monday, 16 December 1985.– Came down from Keele. Back to work today – computer etc. – work ok! Had an early night.
Computer etc. will be to do with the regular problems Newman Harris was having at that time with its computer set up. The main machine (which was used primarily for payroll services) had a tendency to glitch out. Payroll was a very time sensitive affair in those days. The service was offered to quite a few retail and hospitality sector clients who paid their staff weekly and mostly in cash.
I think the firm lost patience with the “manager” who was supposed to be looking after the computer services and asked me (purportedly bright and young) to help hold the fort while they decided what to do.
A bit of common sense and an obsessive compulsive approach to backing up data regularly…which I have never quite got over since…meant that I ended up holding that fort for rather a long time.
(I have just pressed the “save draft” button, just in case. Even though WordPress auto-backs-up very regularly. I just pressed “save draft” again. To be sure, to be sure). Let’s move on.
It looks as though I used that run up to Christmas to catch up with lots of my friends.
Tuesday, 17 December 1985 – at Setty today – popped in to office etc. Bobbie [Scully] in evening had Indonesian meal etc. Very nice.
Wednesday 18 December 1985 – work etc – at Setty – went over over to Kate’s [Fricker] in the evening – had meal etc.
Thursday, 19 December 1985 – went to Setty -> office – ok – met Petra in evening – had Chinese meal etc.
Friday, 20 December 1985 – work okay – very tired in evening – had an early night.
Saturday, 21 December 1985 – lazyish day – library etc. Went to Andrea’s [Dean] party in the evening – ok – stayed over.
Sunday 22 December 1985 – hung around for a while. Went to Jilly’s [Black] in the afternoon and evening. Very pleasant.
Monday 23 December 1985 – work ok – did nothing in the evening.
Tuesday 24 December 1985 – work in morning – finished at lunchtime – met Annalisa [de Mercur] for lunch – went home – had lazyish time.
Wednesday, 25 December 1985 – lazy day at home – went to [Doreen & Stanley] Benjamin’s for evening – quite pleasant.
Thursday, 26 December 1985 – at home – worked most of the day. Watched some television also.
Friday 27 December 1985 – stayed at home and worked mostly – taped – went shops with dad in afternoon – worked in evening also.
Saturday 28 December 1985 – stayed in and work for most of the day and evening. Watched a film in evening also.
Sunday, 29 December 1985 – worked for most of the day – had Chinese lunch etc. Got quite a lot done.
Monday 30 December 1985 – Did home exam in morning – went to shops, taped etc in afternoon – lazy evening.
I was really into classical music by that stage of the autumn/winter and I have no doubt that the taping I talk about over those weeks will have been classical music.
But one track from the charts that late autumn does stick in my mind as having been a bit of an earworm:
“Artist’s Impression” of Keele Hall by Nano Banana 2 Lite
There’s something a bit “Hotel California” about Keele. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
On 15 July 1985 I wrote in my diary:
…left Keele forever at lunchtime…
…but of course that wasn’t true.
A sizeable piece of my heart never really left Keele – or possibly I should say that Keele never left a sizeable piece of my heart. Moreover, by October 1985, I was back again, albeit just for the first of many visits, especially in that first post-Keele year.
I had been at Keele for five years, which I have written up extensively in Ogblog, more than 200 articles, starting with…
…doing the Foundation Year 1980/81, Law & Economics 1981-1984, then an additional year as Education & Welfare (sabbatical) for the Students’ Union 1984/85.
During those first post Keele months – for most of the following year in fact – I visited Keele regularly. This October visit was the first of them, recorded in detail in my diary:
Friday, 18 October 1985 – rushed day at work – dashed off to Keele – had dinner at Petra [Wilson’s] – went over to Annalisa [de Mercur’s] and Kate [Fricker’s] flats – fairly late night.
Saturday, 19 October 1985 – got up late – did very little all day – went over to [Barnes] L49/L 54 – went to Pinocchio’s -> Ben’s [Benita Wishart’s] party / Union – another late night.
Sunday, 20 October 1985 – Got up very late again – left Keele. Got back to London tired and late.
From https://www.studentcrowd.com/hall-l1004515-s1043587-barnes-hall-keele_university-keele
In retrospect, I’m not convinced that those regular visits to Keele, at that time, were such a good idea. I wanted to maintain the relationship with Petra, although observation of others should have told me, and hindsight did tell me, that trying to keep that sort of Keele relationship going, with one of us being post-Keele in London, was not likely to last.
I also wanted to keep the many friendships going; in that regard I was far more successful. For many years, post Keele, most of the people I hung out with were my Keele friends. In several cases, the Keele friendships from 40-50 years ago are still the people I see socially today.
(He says, writing in Autumn 2026).
As I embark on writing up my diaries from those in-between years, late 1985 to late 1988, only a small number of the stories will have general appeal to Keele and former Keele folk.
I especially got into regular theatre and concert going during that late 1980s period. Some of my stories of that have appeal to the general public and the AI bots these days.
For example, the following article – a theatre visit with Annalisa in 1989 (I have already written up late 1988 through to late 2001), gets hits on Ogblog every day at the moment, and occasional real messages from real people with questions about it.
But the Keele / recently ex Keele angle of this story from autumn 1985 will only occasionally be central to my 85-88 postings. When it is central, I shall share the pieces on Keelie socials, but otherwise leave it to retro-blog addicts, ex-Keele addicts and search bots to trawl Ogblog for the stories.
I plan to post articles from this 1985 to 1988 series over the next two-and-a-half to three years. Coincidentally, that is roughly the duration of a typical Keele undergraduate’s time at Keele these days.
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” Bard Harris image by Nano Banana on my instruction.
Full day on [Financial Training] course – went to Annalisa’s -> meet John and Mandy. Saw Jumpers and had Chinese meal.
Again, nothing specific about the Chinese Restaurant. Probably Mayflower or Joy King Lau, is my guess.
Jumpers. I remember enjoying the play and the production without being bowled over by it. The cast was very 1970s/early 1980s sitcom heavy, which made them familiar, perhaps to excess. At least in those days you didn’t get sycophantic audiences giving “stars” standing ovations simply for turning up and walking on to the stage.
I always was partial to a bit of Strindberg and had avidly read all the Strindberg I could readily get hold of. But I hadn’t read these short plays and thought this triple bill looked most enticing.
Annalisa was partial to this sort of theatre and herself brought authentic Swedish upbringing into the equation too. For sure she was up for this idea.
At that time, Annalisa, who was still at Keele, lived with her parents in Harley Street, just a stone’s throw from Cavendish Square, so meeting up with her while she was still on her summer vacation was a doddle.
This evening was especially memorable for me. It was my first ever visit to The Gate, in Notting Hill. Little did I realise in 1985 that, three years later, I would make my home just around the corner from there.
I remember this particular evening of theatre well, as it was so darned good. Typical Strindberg themes. I remember one scene with pipe-smoking women which seemed terribly Scandinavian.
I expect the Italian meal that Annalisa and I had afterwards was at the Notting Hill incarnation of Il Carretto, which was a reliable Italian place in that 1970s mould.
Let’s see if I can find some professional reviews of that excellent Strindberg production at The Gate.
Yes! Of course I can.
I knew I could rely on my friend, Michael Billington, who wrote highly of the evening, although he didn’t like the play with the pipe-smoking women by the looks of it:
My appointments diary remained ridiculously full of meetings right up until my term of office ended…and indeed for a while after it ended doing handover.
Sample from the appointments diary.
This article covers the two weeks ahead of the final day of our term of office.
Tuesday 28 May 1985 – rushed today with interviews, meetings etc etc. Cooked Petra some food in evening.
Wednesday. 29 May 1985 – busy in meetings all day – worked late. Cooked Annalisa a meal in evening.
Thursday, 30 May 1985 meetings all day – including NUPE over staff. Petra [cooked me a] meal in evening.
Friday 31 May 1985 – very busy day – hassled etc. Made Petra a meal late.
Saturday one June 1985 – Rose fairly early – went shopping (proper). Worked after. Cooked Petra meal
Sunday to June 1985 – Rose quite early – went to office for most of day – saw Petra later.
The question of who cooked whom dinner seems to have been my main personal diary concern that week.
Coincidentally, forty years on, Janie is cooking a pork stroganoff this evening of a very similar specification to the “strog” I used to cook back then. Obviously ingredients such as “shitake mushrooms” hadn’t been invented in 1985 and “three kinds of mustard” is at least two kinds more than I would have mustered back then, but still. We have no pictures of the food from 1985, as taking pictures of food hadn’t been invented. So here is a picture of the 2025 strog in the making:
Digression over – let’s move on to week two.
OK, I’ve heard you – you can’t read that diary page. Here’s a transcript:
Monday, 3 June 1985 – rushed today – meetings etc. Constitutional committee etc in evening – got back quite late.
Tuesday 4 June 1985 – choc-a-block today – meetings etc till late – cooked Petra a late meal.
Wednesday, 5 June 1985 – busy day – Union Committee, Ringroad meeting. Easyish evening at home – Petra came over.
Thursday, 6 June 1985 – worked hard & late today – Petra exams – made her grub – early night.
Friday, 7 June 1985 – busy day in office – not feeling too good. Cooked Petra meal in evening – stayed in.
Saturday, 8 June 1985 – lazy day – rose late – went shopping – had theatre supper around Having A Ball – very nice evening.
Sunday, 9 June 1985 – got up late had breakfast went to office for a while. Went to Kate’s for dinner.
Ah yes, Having A Ball at the Theatre Royal Hanley.
I’m glad that Petra and I had a pleasant evening. My memory of the play & production itself was of a very corny comedy, which was, in truth, not to my taste. Nor Petra’s, I should imagine, but we clearly enjoyed the “end of exams/end of tough week” escapism of it. I do especially remember thinking that the “having a ball” pun about being in a vasectomy clinic started to grind very quickly and was used far too many times.
I wonder if I might find a review of the production we saw…
…yup, from Newcastle a few days later. The critic’s view from 1985 concurs with my memory forty years on:
Listings Huis Clos Fri, Aug 4, 1989 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Huis Clos Listing Mon, Aug 7, 1989 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
