Thursday 30 April 2020

I'll Drink To Them!



It was the 90th birthday of Mr Stephen Sondheim in March, and all sorts of lavish tributes were planned across the globe to celebrate his genius. Unfortunately, none of them are now likely to be staged.

However, the ever-resourceful talents of some great showbiz stars will not be stifled easily. And so, thanks to the wonders of Zoom/Skype/MS Teams/Facetime or whatever system they used, there's this utterly marvellous number out there for our delectation - courtesy of the "Ladies in Bathrobes", Miss Streep, Miss Baranski and Miss McDonald...


Here's to the ladies who lunch -
Everybody laugh.
Lounging in their caftans
And planning a brunch
On their own behalf.
Off to the gym,
Then to a fitting,
Claiming they're fat.
And looking grim,
'Cause they've been sitting
Choosing a hat.
Does anyone still wear a hat?
I'll drink to that.

And here's to the girls who play smart -
Aren't they a gas?
Rushing to their classes
In optical art,
Wishing it would pass.
Another long exhausting day,
Another thousand dollars,
A matinee, a Pinter play,
Perhaps a piece of Mahler's.
I'll drink to that.
And one for Mahler!

And here's to the girls who play wife -
Aren't they too much?
Keeping house but clutching
A copy of LIFE,
Just to keep in touch.
The ones who follow the rules,
And meet themselves at the schools,
Too busy to know that they're fools.
Aren't they a gem?
I'll drink to them!
Let's all drink to them!

And here's to the girls who just watch -
Aren't they the best?
When they get depressed,
It's a bottle of Scotch,
Plus a little jest.
Another chance to disapprove,
Another brilliant zinger,
Another reason not to move,
Another vodka stinger.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
I'll drink to that.

So here's to the girls on the go -
Everybody tries.
Look into their eyes,
And you'll see what they know:
Everybody dies.
A toast to that invincible bunch,
The dinosaurs surviving the crunch.
Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch -
Everybody rise!
Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise!
Rise!


I've risen to give them a standing ovation!

[The full two-and-a-half hour gala Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration is currently available on YouTube - I haven't watched it yet, but have no fear we will do!]

Wednesday 29 April 2020

Totty of the Day



Fundraising stunts during these crazy times can sometimes provide unexpected joys...

From The Guardian:
American actor Ansel Elgort has posted a picture of himself naked in the shower to help to feed healthcare workers in Brooklyn.

“Sorry if I offended anybody, but we did a good thing,” the actor told his critics. His efforts have so far raised more than $200,000 (£160,000).
Definitely no offence taken from my perspective, dear boy. Now pass the tissues.

Here's another assortment of totty who have no fear at all of stripping their clothes off - our houseboys Kazaky!


Push?

Don't mind if I do...

[Coincidentally, today is apparently International Dance Day.]

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Rinsing a packet of crumpets under the tap


Ever think you would end up rubbing every item of shopping you buy with antibacterial spray? No? What other bizarre habits are now normal?

Washing the shopping
Washing boxes of fish fingers used to be the kind of behaviour that Channel 5 enjoyed making lurid documentaries about. But now we’re all obsessive-compulsive clean freaks who think nothing of rinsing a packet of crumpets under the tap.

Wearing protective equipment to Sainsbury’s
Remember the days when the most you needed to pop to the shops was a jacket? Now a face mask and gloves are necessities, which must also be classed as essential because popping out for a bag of crisps could cause untold deaths.

Clapping on your doorstep
In the ‘before’ time, standing on your doorstep applauding the heroism of the Morrisons delivery driver would be looked upon with either derision or concern. Now the miseries who don’t are the ones who are judged.

Worrying the police will stop you for walking
Walking along, rehearsing stories about how it’s the only time you’ve been out that day officer in case you’re stopped, paranoid about being caught by police… all a ridiculous fantasy of a fascist state mere months ago. Unless you’re an ethnic minority, in which case same old same old.

Being obsessed with flour

Two months ago, the only bag of flour in the cupboard was a year old and full of mites and nobody cared. Now you rush to the baking aisle in Tesco, ignoring the one-way rules to get a precious kilo of super fine ’00’ grade. ‘This is real pure,’ you say, as you snort a pinch from the end of your knife.
The Daily Mash

Of course.

Monday 27 April 2020

Beautiful? Dream?



After another lovely sunny weekend in the garden - potting up hanging wall pots with some petunias, lobelia and verbena the Madam managed to snaffle on a recent visit to Wilko, and transplanting the dahlias into their summer pots - it's grey and dank out there (which is highly appropriate), and I'm into the start of week six of working from home. Dammit.

I have however, found another excellent pick-me-up for this Tacky Music Monday!

We're all supposedly doing keep-fit and stuff [as if!], so let's see if we can all jiggle our bits along with this most frenetic of - ahem - performances...


I'm knackered, now.

Have a good week, peeps (as best you can in the circumstances)!

Sunday 26 April 2020

Update your home entertainment systems today!









Oh, the future is astonishing...

Saturday 25 April 2020

I feel like I wanna sing when you do your thing



Many happy returns to one of the biggest names in pop music Mr Björn Ulvaeus, the mastermind (with Benny Andersson) behind the hits of Abba - who is (scarily) 75 years old today!

Despite the jangly glam-pop and extravagant balladeering that became the mainstay of Abba's roller-coaster ride to world domination in the '70s and '80s, Mr Ulvaeus' roots were firmly founded in the strange world of Scandinavian folk music, starting with his very popular (in Sweden) combo The Hootenanny Singers.

As one wag said in the comments on YouTube: "I didn't know Max von Sydow sang with Bjorn..."


Thank heavens he discovered glitter and lurex!


Love 'em or hate 'em, everyone can still sing along to Abba...

Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (born 25th April 1945)

Friday 24 April 2020

Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo



Loathe though she normally is to share the limelight, she shares her celebrations with the divine Shirley Maclaine, Jean Paul Gaultier, Anthony Trollope, Paula Yates, Tony Visconti, Brian Paddick, Kelly Clarkson and the lovely Aidan Gillen - yes, it's MegaBabs' birthday! All hail.

It's also the end of another tedious week of working from home, it's payday (albeit with nowhere to go and bugger all to do), and there's a sunny weekend in prospect...

...so, with an appropriate "old favourite", let's Thank Disco It's Friday!


Have a great one, dear reader.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Oh, baby, when you talk like that


"Is that a cricket bat in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?" The Boy With a Bat by Walter Hawkesworth Fawkes

It's St George's Day again, dear reader - although I doubt there'll be much in the way of mummery or Morris dancing going on.

In the true spirit of recycling [well, it was the "hippie Xmas" Earth Day yesterday], here's a blog post I made (much) earlier...
On this, the feast of Saint George - patron saint of England (and of Portugal, Bulgaria, Malta, Georgia and - um - Lebanon) - what could be more English than to have a load of Oxford college boys camping it up on acapella versions of popular diva tunes?

Here's a double-bill of such cavorting, courtesy of the faboo Out of the Blue, starting with Lady Marmalade:
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?, indeed!

And, of course, here's their classic - Shakira's Hips Don't Lie:
Comprising students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, Out of the Blue has performed on the West End and on Broadway, reached the semifinals of Britain's Got Talent, and toured around the world to places including Switzerland, Canada, India, Hong Kong, and Japan. Their principal aim is fundraising, and donate their annual profits to Helen & Douglas House Hospice for Children and Young Adults.

Out of the Blue
Singing houseboys?!

Perfect.

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Yeah, I wonder if I'm dreaming



Heavens! The heartthrob of the mid-Seventies NME generation Mr Peter Frampton is 70 years old today....


I wish...





As I said a decade ago on the occasion of his 60th:
It's not very often that I feature rock guitarists - "legendary" or not - here at Dolores Delargo Towers. However, I sometimes make allowances for the pin-up fantasies of our youth. And in this case, a certain Peter Frampton certainly fitted that bill for some of us (he was apparently one of Madam Arcati's early wank fantasies).

It meant little to me at the time - I barely remember the furore that his Frampton Comes Alive album caused during the long hot summer of 1976, being far more into Noosha Fox and 10CC (I was only just a teenager after all)...

However, I digress. Here is his most famous song - which in many people's memories is an anthem of the scorching heatwave Britain experienced [gulp!] 44 years ago:


I wonder how you're feeling
There's ringing in my ears
And no one to relate to 'cept the sea
Who can I believe in?
I'm kneeling on the floor
There has to be a force
Who do I phone?
The stars are out and shining
But all I really want to know

Oh won't you show me the way, every day
I want you to show me the way, yeah

Well, I can see no reason
You're living on your nerves
When someone drops a cup and I submerge
I'm swimming in a circle
I feel I'm going down
There has to be a fool to play my part
Someone thought of healing
But all I really want to know

Oh won't you show me the way, every day
I want you to show me the way, oh
I want you day after day, yeah

Yeah, I wonder if I'm dreaming
I feel so unashamed
I can't believe this is happening to me
I watch you when you're sleeping
And then I want to take your love

Oh won't you show me the way, every day
I want you to show me the way, one more time
I want you day after day, yeah
I want you day after day, hey

I want you to show me the way, every day
I want you to show me the way, night and day
I want you day after day


Oh, yes! Summer...

Many happy returns, Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22nd April 1950)

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Earworms...



'Tis bizarre. I pay very little attention these days to discovering "newer music" - it used to be quite a regular feature on this here blog - then suddenly three notable "earworms" hove into my consciousness. All courtesy of BBC Radio 2, d'accord.

Each of them shares something in common, however (and this could probably explain why they caught my ear) - they all hark back to the sounds of my "heyday" in the 1970s and 80s...

[I deliberately chose not to post the official video for this, as it's far too gory for the tastes of a refined Lady of the Parish]

[Yes, I know her "Aguilera-lite" voice grates on the nerves a bit, but I love the song]

[Please excuse the rap - they can't help themselves these days]

Thoughts?

Monday 20 April 2020

That Monday Feeling



I'm with Alexis!

It's gorgeous out there, and I'm sat in the living-room dealing with work stuff...

Never mind, eh? On this Tacky Music Monday, there is always Raffaella to cheer us up! A whole set, no less...


Oh, joy!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Sunday 19 April 2020

Fresh Air



The unexpectedly sunny weather today (it was very grey and blustery yesterday) has meant another several hours soaking up the sunshine and pottering in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

For anyone doing the same (or just in need of solace at home or anywhere during this lockdown), here's another perfect and soothing hour-long soundtrack, courtesy of the geniuses over at Soft Tempo Lounge:


Track List:
00:00 Nelson Riddle 'It's Your Turn'
03:14 Les Vladimir Cosma 'Vacances d'Alexandre'
05:22 The Sante Palumbo Group 'Arcadia'
07:33 Paul Desmond 'You and I'
10:23 Barbara Moore 'Touch of warmth'
13:01 April orchestra 'Bossa d'April'
15:37 Roger Webb 'Easy Going'
18:16 Valto Laitinen, Henri Contet 'Someone Like You'
20:53 Bruno Nicolai 'Mary'
25:04 Charlie Steinmann 'Safe It'
27:18 Cortex 'Automne (Colchiques)'
29:54 Skip Heller's Hot Seven 'Spy Perfume'
32:31 The Fantastic Los Vegas 'Sunshine'
34:46 Cortex 'Troupeau bleu'
39:38 Sven Libaek 'Soul Thing'
42:44 Letta Mbulu 'What's Wrong With Grooving'
46:18 Puccio Roelens 'Dorothy'
47:29 Kieth Papworth 'Coral Reef'
50:17 Polish Radio Orchestra 'Now or Never'
53:29 Laurie Johnson 'Flamingos Only Fly On Tuesdays'


Oh, I feel so much more chilled after that...

Enjoy the previous compilations I featured here and here.

Saturday 18 April 2020

A good Barber is hard to find



Having enjoyed our "Trad Jazz moment" earlier this week so much, I was overjoyed to discover that one of the last surviving maestros of that pre-Beatles era Mr Chris Barber celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday - which gives me the perfect excuse to post a little bit more of the same...




Many happy returns, Donald Christopher Barber OBE (born 17th April 1930)

Friday 17 April 2020

A few times I've been around that track



Short week or no short week, my bones are aching and my body and soul will both be greatly relieved to see the back of another "working-from-home week", once 4.30pm comes around...

Our little gang is actually planning another virtual "party" this evening via the newly-ubiquitous Zoom, and so I think we need a little something to get ourselves into the mood for a bit of a bop, and to get our energy levels up for a (hopefully) warm Spring weekend - how about another of those genius "Rock-vs-Disco" mashups from the marvellous Bill McLintock? That'll shake us all up a bit!

Thank Disco It's Friday!


Have a good one, dear reader...

Thursday 16 April 2020

Dusty going nowhere



Dusty Springfield would have been 81 today. In recognition, here's her splendid version of a most appropriate Martha And The Vandellas song for the current "self-isolation society"...


Dusty Springfield OBE (born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, 16th April 1939 – 2nd March 1999).

We still miss you.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

What else to do when stuck at home...



...than go catalogue shopping?!!









Place your orders now!

I'm on commission.

Tuesday 14 April 2020

Peter and the hep-cats



Groan. Back to working-from-home time is upon us.

To ease our weary carcasses into this delightful situation, I think a little "classical" music is in order.

How about a little Prokofiev..?


...or a bit of Mozart?


Ah, that's better...

Monday 13 April 2020

Friends of Dorothy



It may be a Bank Holiday [and my last day of a marvellous ten-day break, unfortunately, before I return to working from home], but we still need to start a week with a bit of sparkle, dear reader...

...and who better to provide it on this Tacky Music Monday than Miss Dorothy Lamour, with this early attempt at a "Gay National Anthem"?!


Amen, sister!

Have as good a week as is possible in the circumstances, folks.

Sunday 12 April 2020

Goody goody yum yum no more





Lordy. This is turning out to be a bit of a year for mourning the loss of beloved stalwarts of British light entertainment: Terry Jones, Derek Fowlds, Nicholas Parsons, Roy Hudd - and now Tim Brooke-Taylor!

Like so many witty and creative future "national treasures" - such as John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Sandi Toksvig, Griff Rhys Jones, David Frost, Olivia Colman, Douglas Adams, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Julian Fellowes, Clive Anderson, Clive James, Miriam Margolyes, Jonathan Miller, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Peter Cook - Tim cut his comedy teeth at the Cambridge Footlights Club. He soon became a radio star, courtesy of one of the "precursors" to Monty Python - the fab revue show called I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again - then he made the transfer to telly with another, At Last The 1948 Show, on which he (with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman) premiered the classic Python "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch. He was also a panellist on Radio 4's parody panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for more than forty years.

It was however, of course, for his appearance as part the utterly anarchic trio The Goodies - a BBC staple from 1970 until 1982 - that we treasure him the most. So let's take a little trip down memory lane...



Thank you, Mr Brooke-Taylor, for so many happy childhood memories.

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17th July 1940 - 12th April 2020)

Saturday 11 April 2020

Everybody's getting frustrated


So small, so blue, in grassy places
My flowers raise
Their tiny faces.
By streams my bigger sisters grow,
And smile in gardens,
In a row.
I’ve never seen a garden plot;
But though I’m small
Forget me not!


My other half Madam Arcati is basking in a moment in the "blog spotlight", it seems, courtesy of the ever-reliable fellow gin-fanatic, Mistress Maddie, who took particular joy at seeing the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers in its Spring glory. We have been working damned hard this week [as we do all year round, truth be told] - making the most of the unseasonably warm weather - to tweak the hell out of the winter-neglected perennials and make the garden into something even more special in preparation for summer. The Madam meticulously charts our progress every month in his own blog, and heavens, it is a useful almanac to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have such a faboo outside space...

Over here, we were obviously somewhat diverted from our usual "Thank Disco It's Friday" moment yesterday by the pressing need to feature [as every year] fluffy Easter bunnies and reverent hymnals [ahem!]. Let's make up for that fact with a bit of a bop, shall we?

Sharing a birthday as she does with the likes of the lovely Cerys Matthews, Joel Grey, the much-missed Shirley Stelfox, AIDS pioneer Michael Callen, Big Country lead singer the late Stuart Adamson, Jill Gascoine, broadcaster Dan Maskell and fashion maven Oleg Cassini, we wish many happy returns to "the girl from Rochdale" Miss Lisa Stansfield today - so, with a song that's eminently suitable for our current lockdown, here she is!


Everybody's looking for a meaning
Everybody's doing their own thing
And nobody's solving the problem
Ain't nobody helping each other

Some people give into fear
Some people give into hunger
Some of us live for the future
And some of us wonder

Give a little light, give a little love
Maybe there's enough for everyone
Give a little hope, and a little trust
Maybe there's enough for everyone

People hold on
Don't do yourself wrong
People hold on
We've got to be strong
People hold on

Everybody's getting frustrated
Why should we live with this hatred
We've all dancin' on a thin line
They're makin' out we're having a good time
So who's gonna give us the answer
Sister and brother

Givin' into life, givin' into love
Maybe there's enough for everyone

People hold on
Don't do yourself wrong
People hold on
We've got to be strong
People hold on

People hold on, people hold on to it
You know you gotta do it

Give a little light, give a little love
Maybe there's enough for everyone
Give a little hope, and a little trust
Maybe there's enough for everyone

People hold on
Don't do yourself wrong
People hold on
We've got to be strong
People hold on


Indeed.

Friday 10 April 2020

Bangin'



It's traditional...


...Happy Easter.

Thursday 9 April 2020

Old Masters, soft tempo and the Boy From Ipanema


No, not a Dutch Old Master - our glorious tulips!

With the ongoing lockdown combined with me being on leave and this glorious sunshine, we have inevitably spent days on end getting our extensive gardens into some semblance of order in readiness for the summer. The most congested pots have been split up and repotted, we've recycled old soil as well as managing to get hold of some new (thank you, Wilko!), and rescued some precious specimens that last year were overshadowed under more vigorous growers. It's going to be a lovely show again this season, to cheer us up in these dark times, of that I'm certain...

Meanwhile, as we face the prospect that we still won't be able to go anywhere except home and the remaining "essential shops" and nothing in-between [we're not exactly the "exercising" types], let's console ourselves with a little venture into the exotic lives of glamorous people from other lands - courtesy of the simply faboo Soft Tempo Lounge.

All this - and house favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers the Kessler Twins, too!


Ah, that's better...

[Music: Someone Like You by Valto Laitinen & Henri Contet; The Boy From Ipanema by Alice and Ellen Kessler]

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Bugger off the lot of you


Old people have requested bored younger people to please fuck off and leave them alone.

Pensioners have asked family to stop Skyping, neighbours to stop knocking every day offering help and kids to stop making them rainbows to put in their windows.

75-year-old Mary Fisher said: “Everyone suddenly can’t get enough of me. Well I didn’t like them before and I don’t like them now.

“First it was my family, all on the phone saying how terrible they feel that they can’t come and help. I had to bite back my ‘Don’t worry I’m used to it, I’ve seen none of you since Christmas.’

“Then it was the bearded millennial with the pierced face who lives in the flats up the road. He knocked on the door, stood back two metres and politely asked if I wanted any shopping. Bloody nerve.

“I get my exercise walking down the middle of the street because there’s no-one to stop me. I buy my groceries at 7am and if anyone comes close I’m allowed to hit them with my stick. I’m fine.

“Bugger off the lot of you before you give me that virus. The next person who disturbs me I’m calling the police.”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Pussy no more









RIP, Miss Honor Blackman. You were our favourite "Bond Girl" by far.

Such style, such elegance - and what a voice! She knew how to make an entrance...



And then, there is this - our favourite moment from her oft-overlooked musical career [as first featured here way back in 2009]...


Honor Blackman (22nd August 1925 – 5th April 2020)

Read my previous tribute to the great lady

Monday 6 April 2020

I am but a fool



Another week in lock-down begins - albeit without the "work" bit for me as I am on leave till after Easter - with the cheerful discovery of a new wannabee-"Diva".

Señorita María Isabel Llaudes Santiago (for it is she), under her stage name Karina, was the darling of the "ye-ye" years in Spain. Indeed, so popular was she that she was asked to represent her country at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest with the song En un mundo nuevo, where she came second.

Her biggest hit, however, was with an American song. Eminently suitable for a Tacky Music Monday is this clip with its mind-blowingly bizarre juxtaposition of dancers on amphetamines with the lady herself seated in what looks remarkably like Jon Pertwee-era Doctor Who's car "Bessie"...

...I very much doubt Mr Neil Sedaka envisioned his teen classic to ever be interpreted like this!


Have a good week, dear reader, as best you can in these peculiar times.

Sunday 5 April 2020

When I wake up in the morning, love, and the sunlight hurts my eyes


Beautiful Anemone blanda brightening up a shady corner in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

Even odder than the experience of being "at work" while actually "at home" is perhaps the concept of taking holiday during the current lockdown, with nowhere to go and practically bugger all to do. Thank heavens we have a garden; I cannot even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be told to stay indoors all day, every day, without one.

It's forecast to hit 19C/66F this afternoon, which is even more of a joy. To be outside pottering might help keep us sane (or as sane as is humanly possible) as well as topping-up the tan...

...and what better to play than, by way of a tribute to one of my personal favourite soul singers who crooned his way off this mortal coil last week, this apposite and enduring classic?


When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind

Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day
... lovely day, lovely day, lovely day ...

When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day...

Perfect "Sunday Music", methinks.

RIP, William Harrison Withers Jr. (4th July 1938 – 30th March 2020)

Saturday 4 April 2020

Motivational



We Brits have the perfect answer to how we deal with this bally virus-thingy!

What do we do...?


Indeed.

[Thanks, Crog, for this one]

Friday 3 April 2020

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing



Oh, dear, Another one.

The loss of the lovely Cristina, darling of early 80s New York's artistic post-punk, post-Studio 54 scene; collaborator with August Darnell (of Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Machine fame), Don Was, Jean Paul Goude, Robert Palmer and even John Cale is a great one - for it has brought fond memories flooding back from when I first encountered the lady; with her sardonic and slightly twisted cover of this Peggy Lee classic:


However, this is also the end of another week working in our living-room during lockdown - and I have greater cause for a celebration that even that fact, for as of 4.30 today I will be officially on leave (albeit in similar environs) until after Easter!

Yay!

Thus, we need to lift our spirits and pretend we have a party to plan. And what better way than with another of the lady's faboo numbers - here with admirable support from (an uncredited) Kevin Kline - and Thank Disco It's Friday!!


RIP, Miss Cristina Monet Zilkha (née Monet-Palaci, 2nd January 1959 – 1st April 2020)

Thursday 2 April 2020

"I heard that!"


Glorious tulips in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers

Sharing a birthday with another mismatched ensemble of notable names such as Marvin Gaye, Serge Gainsbourg, Émile Zola, Camille Paglia, Linford Christie (who is - gulp - 60 years old; as was the gorgeous Michael Praed yesterday!), Ken Tynan, Emmylou Harris, Casanova, Sir Alec Guinness, Paul Gambaccini, Buddy Ebsen, Sue Townsend, Hans Christian Andersen, Michael Fassbender and Keren Woodward of Bananarama, our eternal house favourite Dame Penelope Keith blows out 80 candles on her cake today!



In these troubled times, we need as much uplift as we can possibly get, so let's wallow in just a few clips from the great lady's classic comedy moments - as the indomitable Margo Leadbetter...




Many happy returns, Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, DBE, DL (née Hatfield; born 2nd April 1940).

We love you.