Bobbie Scully – Page 5 – Ian Louis Harris

Left My Job At Newman Harris, Moved To Clanricarde Gardens And Started Work For Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants, 18 November to 1 December 1988

The end of 1988 was a momentous time for me. I’ll have quite a lot to write about those weeks on Ogblog.

The brace of events I am recalling in this piece, reflecting briefly on that time thirty years later, are the core happenings. I changed job and moved house within the space of a couple of weeks.

Clanricarde Gardens

A few doors down, picture linked from (and clickable to) Philip Wilkinson’s wonderful blog piece about our street

There is a superb blog piece about our street by Philip Wilkinson – click here.

I shall write up my flat hunting experience on a separate piece in the coming weeks. Suffice it to say here that my Clanricarde Gardens flat was the first place I saw and that I liked it straight away.

It was only the fact that I had nothing with which to compare it that kept me flat hunting for several more days. I have some interesting yarns to tell about some of the other places I saw. I asked to take a second look at Clanricarde Gardens on the Thursday and took Bobbie Scully with me to help me decide. “What are you waiting for? Just take it,” is a reasonable paraphrase of her sound judgement.

By way of context, I should explain that I was renting, not buying in late 1988. Some friends at that time thought I was bonkers by not jumping on the home ownership bandwagon “before it is too late”. But then some friends suffered some serious negative equity for several years after jumping on that bandwagon when it peaked back then.

Unusually, when I decided it was time for me to buy, in 1999, it was also an opportune time for the owners to sell, so I was able to buy the flat I had been renting for over 10 years. Try before you buy.

From Newman Harris To Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants (BHMC)

Again, I shall write more in separate pieces about these events over the coming weeks.

With the benefit of hindsight, taking just eight working days off between jobs with a view to:

finding a flat to rent;
moving into that flat;
learning to drive;
seeing friends and family in relatively large quantity;
going to plenty of theatre & stuff;
doing exam marking for Financial Training to help pay for all that…

…was a little ambitious, to say the least.

I rather like my only diary note on the day I started at BHMC:

Started at BHMC today – drink at lunchtime

Frankly, I probably needed a drink after that fortnight. But what a very 1980’s tradition for a new joiner at a City firm – the drink at lunchtime.

BHMC soon changed its name to BDO Consulting (BDOC). Five-and-a-half years after I joined the firm, Binder Hamlyn “merged” with Arthur Andersen (AA) and I concluded that the latter firm would not like my hairstyle. Michael Mainelli, who had not recruited me to BHMC but with whom I was mostly working by then, felt similarly about not wanting to persevere in Andersens, although not for hairstyle reasons…

…and thus Z/Yen was born.

I don’t remember meeting Michael on that first day or two at Binders – my memory of meeting him really starts at the Christmas lunch on 14 December. But Michael is pretty sure that he at the very least spent a few minutes saying “hi & bye” to me (probably to check that I didn’t have two heads or something) before packing me off the following week on a tough assignment with Save The Children Fund…from which the rest is history.

Reflecting On Those Weeks And Events

Further, when I look at my diaries and see what else I did during those momentous weeks, I still see many familiar names and activities.

Here are just two examples.

I went to Jacquie and Len’s place for dinner with Caroline on 30 November 1988. Janie and I are going to dinner at Jacquie’s tonight (1 December 2018) and only a couple of days ago, Caroline got in touch to arrange a get together.

27 November 1988, had John, Mandy, Ali, Valerie and Bobbie to lunch

I’m still in touch with most of them and am seeing John on Monday.

Those two momentous things I did in late 1988 have in essence been sustained for thirty years and still going. Also many of the people who were central to my being back then are still there too.

So I shall soon write up the many and various events of those frantic weeks.

Some of the tales will be about characters who entered my life only fleetingly – such as Larry the Drummer, the larger-than-life character I met through the Streatham Hill Driving School people, who became Larry the Man With A Van to help me move.

But some stories will benefit from the reflections of those people with whom I am still very much in touch.

And although, if I recall correctly, Michael Mainelli and I didn’t actually meet until I had been at the firm for a couple of weeks…

…1 December 1988 was, technically speaking, the date we started working together. So happy thirtieth anniversary, Michael.

Last Night In Woodfield And First Night In Clanricarde, 29 & 30 November 1988

That Tuesday, 29 November, had been an action packed day, as described in the piece linked here and below…

Moving All My Stuff To Clanricarde Gardens With Larry The Drummer, 29 November 1988

…yet still I cooked dinner that evening for six of us: me, Bobbie, Vivian Robinson, Andrew (her beau), Neil Infield and Michelle Epstein (soon to be Infield). All of those people were living in the vicinity of Woodfield Avenue at that time, so I guess it was a sort-of goodbye to friends in that neighbourhood.

No idea what I cooked – I hope for my own sake that I tried to keep it simple – I probably did. If anyone who was there can remember details of that particular evening, I’d love to hear about it from someone else’s perspective.

The Wednesday was also a pretty packed day. Here’s my page of notes for that day.

That page doesn’t even mention the two driving lessons – one at 9:00, the other at 11:00.

Nor does it mention the ordering of a washing machine (perhaps I had already done that the previous day, as Pratts (Streatham’s John Lewis store) was specifically mentioned that day. I wrote copious notes, too detailed even for me and Ogblog, listing various makes, specs and prices of washing machine. I settled on Zanussi and the thing was delivered to Clanricarde Gardens on the Saturday.

A weird quirk of that era; a purportedly fully-furnished flat did not come with a washing machine and I recall that Tony Shaw said at that time that he was happy for me to have one there but that I would have to pay for it and own it. These days, unfurnished flats are the thing but a washing machine is seen as a standard utility item in an unfurnished flat.

I have also retained my shopping list from that Wednesday, which reads like something The Flight Of The Conchords might include in one of their lyrics. Cereal, coffee and wine – what else does a bachelor flat need?:

That page of notes also includes a note of Jackie and Len’s address for that evening (redacted in green on the above picture) plus a note to remind myself to take my Newman Harris P45 with me for Binders the next morning – good thinking.

I know I also left a chirpy note for mum and dad to find when they returned from their holiday on 6th December. Words to the effect of:

Have moved out, as promised.
If you are lucky, I’ll call and let you know where I’ve gone. Hope you had a great holiday.
Lots of love
Sonny Boy.

So, then on to dinner at Jacquie and Len’s place, joined by Caroline Freeman. How can I be so sure? Here”s the diary page:

I wonder whether Caroline remembers this particular evening? I cannot remember what we had for dinner but I don’t think it would have been a herring fest. More likely poultry was involved – for sure it will have been a splendid meal whatever we ate. This much later picture does show the actual table, although not the precise contents:

Briegal table, minimally laden when the photo was taken, thanks to Hils for the photo

One thing I do remember about that evening is that Len, on the matter of me having qualified as a Chartered Accountant and then immediately having moved away from that profession (his), seemed decidedly less perturbed than some. I remember him saying repeatedly:

The world is your lobster. Not just your oyster. Your lobster.

I was watching very little television by that time, so it was many years later that I discovered that this cute phrase was not Len’s own, but is an Arthur Daleyism. Not a very kosher metaphor, that oyster/lobster one. But “the world is your pickled herring” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?:

A Busy Weekend Socialising, Hoity-Toitying At The National Theatre And Setting Up My New Flat, 25 to 27 November 1988

Celebrated clinching the deal for the flat with Bobbie on the Friday evening, starting with an early evening visit to the National Theatre to see a platform talk about Kenneth Tynan. I think those Platform things were a new idea that autumn…an idea that is now more than 30 years old. Our first one had been Tony Sher some weeks earlier.

This Kenneth Tynan one was in the Cottesloe and was a really interesting, varied panel: Adrian Mitchell, Jonathan Miller, Edward Petherbridge, Kathleen Tynan and Irving Wardle.

As the diary says (if you can read it) we went on to the Archduke afterwards for dinner.

On the Saturday I collected the keys to Clanricarde Gardens and did some shopping. I remember spending more than a few bob in Tylers (which was up on Westbourne Grove back then) – I probably still have one or two of the items I bought that day – I’m pretty sure I am still on my first clothes horse, for example.

I also bought food for the Sunday, but the crowd that visited that day – John, Mandy, Ali Dabbs, Valerie and Bobbie would all have traipsed to Woodfield Avenue for that meal – I must have shlepped the grub from Notting Hill to Streatham Hill on the Saturday evening – the new flat was not yet fit for habitation.

What did I cook that day? Can’t remember. Bound to have been Chinese and/or South-East Asian food though…just possibly Southern Asian for that crowd. It would have been good, whatever it was, though I say so myself. I must have been knackered by the Sunday, though. What a week it had been.

A Gathering In Islington & Dinner At Fredericks, 17 November 1988

The exact details of this gathering will doubtless be lost in the mists of time, but…

went to Sharani & Mark’s

…must mean that the gathering started at their place, which, from memory, was in Gibson Square.

Fredericks remains, as I write some 30 years later, a sprauncy Islington eatery…

with B+ crowd

…must mean Bobbie (who was my link with this crowd; Bobbie &
Sharani were fellow law reporters). The crowd probably included Ying Hui Tan, Peter (Ying Hui’s then beau), Maria (who ended up living in Clanricarde Gardens years later) Paul McGrath (Maria’s then beau) and possibly some others.

I’m going to guess that the purpose of the gathering was to celebrate Bobbie’s birthday with her. I’m also going to guess that it was a very jolly evening with good food and wine.

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, Olivier Theatre, With Bobbie, 15 November 1988

This production started its life at the Cottesloe, then went on tour and then returned to the National at the Olivier. Bobbie and I caught it on its return.

Theatricalia lists the production here.

I recall not much liking this play. We had seen a cast comprising mostly this ensemble perform The Tempest some months earlier, which I had loved. I think it was that experience that drew us to Cymbeline.

I also realised by then that I prefer smaller spaces than the Olivier – there was a comparatively impersonal feel to the Cymbeline and I remember wondering whether I would have liked it more in the Cottesloe.

Still, it was a fine production with an excellent cast. I wonder what Bobbie thought of it and/or recalls about it?

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review of Cymbeline:

Billington on Cymbeline Mon, May 23, 1988 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review, which also covers The Tempest:

Ratcliffe on Tempest & Cybeline Sun, May 22, 1988 – 39 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

This was my last week working for Newman Harris, I was doing exam marking for Financial Training college to make a few extra bucks and on the preceding Monday my parents went on holiday. How do I remember all that?:

Aida, Earls Court Arena, 29 June 1988

Within a few weeks of Bobbie’s and my first visit to the opera together, to see The Magic Flute…

The Magic Flute, English National Opera, London Coliseum, 7 June 1988

…we went to see the opera spectacular that everyone was talking about that summer; Harvey Goldsmith’s Aida at the Earls Court Arena.

It was only running for a few nights with massive crowds. It was big news:

We went the night after Chuck & Di attended the Royal Gala evening – by all accounts an iconic event.

In truth, by the time we got there – indeed by the time Chuck and Di got there – the production had been hailed as somewhat disaster-prone:

This clip dated the day we went – 29 June 1988

…Verdi’s Aida at Earls Court, with a cast of some 600 performers was bedevilled by mishap: Miss Grace Bumbry in the title role could only manage one act of her first performance due to a throat infection and a sun god fell through a trap door on stage…
from The Spectator 2 July 1988 – subscribers can click through to the archive and read the whole article.

I don’t recall it seeming like a disaster. I do recall it feeling more like being at a rock concert than at a theatrical production. I think we had good seats but were still at some distance from the action. It was big, bold and in truth not really me.

I don’t think this one was really Bobbie either – she might remember how she felt about it.

Below is Tom Sutcliffe’s Guardian review:

Tom Sutcliffe on Aida Tue, Jun 28, 1988 – 17 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here is an entertaining clipping from the Observer Arts Diary a few days later:

Arts Diary Aida Sun, Jul 3, 1988 – 39 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Changeling by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Lyttelton Theatre, 25 June 1988

Hot on the heels of seeing an excellent Uncle Vanya…

Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Vaudeville Theatre, 11 June 1988

…Bobbie and I saw a very good production of The Changeling at The National.

Miranda Richardson played Beatrice-Joanna, Rebecca Pidgeon played Isabella, George Harris as De Flores, Richard Eyre directing…

…here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.

It isn’t a jolly play and I did see it again only a few years later at Stratford, with Janie:

The Changeling by Thomas Middleton & William Rowley, RSC Swan Theatre, 29 October 1992

I think this National production was the better of the two.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review, plus an interview with Miranda Richardson

Billington on Changeling Sat, Jun 25, 1988 – 18 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Kate Kellaway’s Observer review is below:

Kate Kellaway on Changeling Sun, Jun 26, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The diary is silent on what we did afterwards. For some reason, is think that we ate at the National that evening. It is quite a long play and I think the restaurant there was doing arrangements to eat part of your meal during and part after show at that time. But I could be mistaken.

Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Vaudeville Theatre, 11 June 1988

I rated this production very good indeed at the time and I can understand why. Superb cast, with Michael Gambon as Vanya, Imelda Staunton as Sonia, Greta Scatcchi as Yelena, Jonathan Pryce as Astrov, Michael Blakemore directing…

…here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this production.

Bobbie and I went to this one. I recall sitting very near the front although probably not the very front row.

In 1988 I hadn’t yet formed an aversion to those old-fashioned theatre-land theatres, although we didn’t go to those places all that frequently.

I suspect that we had a late evening Chinese meal in Soho after the show – perhaps Poons, perhaps Mayflower, perhaps Joy King Lau…

A pretty darned good evening as I recall it.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review of the production:

Billington on Vanya Thu, May 26, 1988 – 19 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review is below:

Ratcliffe on Vanya Sun, May 29, 1988 – 38 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Magic Flute, English National Opera, London Coliseum, 7 June 1988

Now I’m not one to point the finger or anything like that, but my guess is that it was primarily Bobbie’s idea to give opera a go, not least because so many of her law reporting pals were into opera.

I’m pretty sure my previous experience of opera would have been Carmen in the early 1970s; a semi-professional production by the Putney Operatic Society who chose to typecast me and several of my primary school mates as urchins.

But I digress.

Roll the clock forward some 15 years and, like buses, it’s not one but two that come along at more or less the same time – i.e. two opera visits during June 1988. That’s quite a lot of opera just a few week’s before my Accountancy finals. The Magic Flute was the first of them.

Jeremy Sams directed it – I have seen a great deal of his work in the theatre of course. Nicholas Hytner produced it – I’ve seen a lot of his theatre stuff too. The production was sort-of revived many years later and the trailer for the revival is embedded below, so that should give you a feel for it.

The Magic Flute from English National Opera on Vimeo.

We went midweek – on a Tuesday – which will have been quite a late night. I was on study leave by then I think, so I suppose I felt that I was master of my own time management.

In truth I don’t remember all that much about this production, other than lots going on and rather liking the music because it’s Mozart and I rather like Mozart.

Bobbie might have more profound memories of it than me. I’ll ask her.

Below is Tom Sutcliffe’s Guardian review:

Tom Sutcliffe on Magic Flute Fri, Apr 1, 1988 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is BOGOF (buy one get one free) review by Nicholas Kenyon – two productions of Flute (including our one) reviewed together:

Nicholas Kenyon reviews two flutes Sun, Apr 3, 1988 – 39 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Danger: Memory! – I Can’t Remember Anything and Clara by Arthur Miller, Hampstead Theatre, 21 May 1988

The irony in the fact that I can hardly remember anything about this double bill of Arthur Miller plays is not wasted on me.

Nor is that irony likely to be wasted on Bobbie, with whom I saw this double bill at the Hampstead Theatre in 1988, but I’m guessing she remembers little about it. Nor on Janie, with whom I saw it all again at the Orange Tree in 2006.

There is a Theatricalia entry for this production – here.

I’m pretty sure this production was the UK premier of this double bill, which probably felt like an exciting prospect.

But I think we came away from the experience feeling that this was not top notch Miller.

This on-line review from the Guardian, of a subsequent London production, explains the synopses and supports my limited memory.

Here is a link to Frank Rich’s review of the original Lincoln Centre production in New York.

Below is Nicholas De Jongh’s Guardian review:

Nicholas De Jongh Danger: Memory! Fri, Apr 8, 1988 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Blake Morrison’s Observer review:

Blake Morrison on Danger: Memory! Sun, Apr 10, 1988 – 37 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Who needs memory once you have subscribed to a Newspaper clippings service?

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