Choice Cuts by June Whitfield

June write of her choices in The Times, first published Dec 2000

 

The actress still loves Terry . . . Mr Wogan that is....

I’m a TOG — one of Terry’s Old Girls — and I’m proud of it. I have always been a great fan of Terry Wogan and I have a suspicion that I will find a copy of his autobiography Is It Me? (BBC Consumer Publishing, £16.99) in my Christmas stocking this year. I have met him several times and was immediately smitten by his amazing sense of humour. I’ll be watching (watched?) his Christmas specials this year. (Auntie’s Sparkling Bloomers, Christmas Eve, BBC1, 7.55pm and Auntie’s Thermal Bloomers, Boxing Day, BBC1, 8.45pm).

Writing my autobiography has kept me busy over the past 18 months, so I haven’t been out as much as I would have liked. Most evenings you will find me in front of the fire with a crossword, but I do read a lot for inspiration. I have a real soft spot for Harry Potter. I’ve just whisked through the whole series of J. K. Rowling’s books.

I have also just read a fantastic book by Joanne Harris called Chocolat (Bantam, £6.99). It’s about a woman who opens a little chocolate shop in France, and it contains some wonderful descriptions of chocolate-making in it. You can practically smell the creations that she conjures up — it’s a wonderfully sensory experience which has been made into a film with Juliette Binoche. I shall look forward to seeing that.

I can’t stand violence on television and I hate the fact that every time I turn it on these days there are people spurting blood from some orifice or another. I also can’t stand soaps or women’s magazines, either. I prefer my entertainment to take me away from real life, like the old Carry On films used to. I love the old films and old musicals and I wish that those sort of things would come back into fashion.

My favourite film of all time is Gone with the Wind. It has everything: romance, beauty, adventure, passion and Clark Gable looking incredibly dashing.

I’m a big fan of One Foot in the Grave, too. It’s funny, but I have always thought of Victor and Margaret Meldrew as the logical extension of Terry and June.

I gave up on pop music quite early. I never progressed beyond Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. I like light opera and anything with a good tune that you can sing. But I cannot stand the sort of music that just has a horrible beat. Whenever I am under the dryer in the hairdressers they play drum’n’bass and all you hear is a dull thump. It drives me mad.

 

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