Our kind of scheduling

Time for a bit of classic cinema, methinks.

I haven't checked the TV schedules over the Festering Season, as I fear I will be sorely disappointed - with the combined resources of the BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and 5, Sky and more cable channels than you can shake a stick at, what's the betting that whenever we switch the telly on, there'll be a murder, wedding, shocking revelation or tragic accident in all the soaps, repeats of Only Fools and Horses, makeover shows, festive parties with non-entities from The Only Way is Essex, or a Christmas special of Freaky Eaters - and I very much doubt there'll be much room for "our kind of movie"...

So let's allow the effervescent Steve Hayes, the "Tired Old Queen at the Movies", to show us a little of what we'll be missing - as he features Holiday with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Lew Ayres!

Tired Old Queen at the Movies - Holiday

Nostalgic, moi?

Totty of the day

...not bad for 110.

And what a sweet couple he and Randolph Scott made!









Cary Grant (born Archibald Alexander Leach, 18th January 1904 – 29th November 1986)

My new fitness regime

My thoughts turn to Cary Grant (in trunks) on what would have been his birthday today.

[Previous thoughts on Mr Grant.]

Everybody would like to be Cary Grant

On this day in 1986, the world lost one of its greatest stars, Cary Grant.

Born Archie Leach in Bristol, he began his showbiz career in an acrobatic Music Hall troupe before being selected for a screen test by a Hollywood agent. But, remarkably it was the diva Mae West who was responsible for the real launch of his career. Ignoring his lack of film experience she famously said, "If he can talk, I'll take him."

Effortlessly stylish, beautiful to behold and fiercely independent, Cary Grant refused to be owned by any one studio - an unprecedented move for a budding actor in the mogul-dominated movie business of the 1930s, and one that led him to pick and choose the films he wanted to appear in, working particularly closely with Alfred Hitchcock.

And he certainly wasn't short of offers - he famously turned down roles in blockbusters such as A Star is Born, Roman Holiday and even James Bond. The offers weren't confined to films either. He was apparently one of Howard Hughes' sexual conquests, and he was rumoured to have been in a relationship with Randolph Scott.



He was famously obsessed with Sophia Loren, but their liaison was doomed before it began, largely due to her loyalty to Carlo Ponti. He ended up marrying five times, once to the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton.

He left showbiz once the romantic lead roles began to dry up, yet remained one of the world's best loved actors until his death. Once told by an interviewer: "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." A true star!

Cary Grant - "I just went gay all of a sudden"

Cary Grant - Arsenic and Old Lace

Cary Grant - North by North West

Cary Grant on IMDB