Television
Ageing beautifully
Wendy Cope
Whatever happens,' said a friend of mine 15 years ago, `at least we'll never be any older than Mick Jagger.' It was a comforting thought at the time but it aroused mixed feelings on Saturday as I watched the Whistle Test Special on the Rolling Stones (BBC2). We are, it is true, still younger than Mick but I am not at all sure that anyone would guess it to look at us. On the other hand it is encouraging to see someone in his forties dancing around like that and getting away with it. Mick is doing pretty well and perhaps we are not irrevocably past it either.
How does he manage it? I don't suppose he relies on Slimming magazine's Your Greatest Guide to Calories, a publication I have given to one or two men friends who are worried about their weight. They wouldn't be seen dead buying such a thing from a newsagent but they find it very educational, usually expressing surprise when they discover how many calories there are in a pint of beer.
The question of eating and drinking habits didn't come up in the programme, but there was a certain amount of talk about hobbies. This was because the pre- senter, David Hepworth, had decided he wanted to make a point about some of the Stones living just for the group, while others had outside interests. He was deter- mined to keep on bringing this up, even though the reaction of his subjects sug- gested that it was the kind of question they had got bored with long ago.
`I don't spend my time doing fretwork or anything,' said Keith Richards, wearily massaging his neck as he spoke.
Later on Hepworth asked Charlie Watts what he did in between making records. `Nothing,' replied Charlie.
`I understand', the interviewer persisted, `that you collect things.'
`Yeah. That's easy innit?'
Charlie, a reluctant interviewee if ever I saw one, gave Hepworth a hard time right up to the moment when he decided to bring the interview to an end. Then the drummer relented for a minute or two and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he informed us that his 25 years with the Rolling Stones had consisted of five years' work and 20 years' hanging around.
It was more than 25 years ago that I sat in the gallery at the Old Vic watching John Stride in Zeffirelli's stage production of Romeo and Juliet. Stride was Romeo, Judi Dench was Juliet, Alec McCowen was Mercurio and I was bowled over. I saw it five times and have followed the careers of the three leading actors with interest ever since. On Sunday night John Stride appeared simultaneously in two television plays and in both of them — a far cry from Romeo — he played a Labour MP. Was it bloody-minded scheduling, I wondered, or sheer coincidence that caused these two programmes to clash? I was able to see one of them as it was broadcast and the other on tape next day. Watching a television play at 9 o'clock on a Monday morning felt very decadent and I had to remind myself that a) this was work and b) it was a bank holiday anyway.
Both plays were worth watching. Peter Nicholls's Born in the Gardens (BBC1) was very funny, thanks largely to the character of the mother, beautifully played by Con- stance Chapman. This 75-year-old chats to the people who appear on her television screen, drinks crème de menthe with her lunchtime frozen haddock, and comes out with some nice malapropisms. `You're scatterbrained,' she tells her daughter, `hopelessly erotic.' She describes her younger son as 'an Aquarian bookdealer'. The elder son is the Labour MP, although his mother prefers to forget this and think of him as a Conservative. As a comedy about family relationships, the play work- ed marvellously. Unfortunately it was also meant to be a political allegory and on this level it didn't seem to me to work at all.
Douglas Livingstone's Long Live the King (ITV) was a more straightforward piece about a backbencher trying to get re-selected for a safe Labour seat. It was balanced and effective and very moral, showing a politician bringing about his own downfall by using dirty tricks. John Stride had more to get his teeth into here than in the Nicholls play. He has altered more with the years than Mick Jagger but I think the grey hair suits him rather well.
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