Saxy!

Our Lilium speciosum var. rubrum is looking lovelier than ever this year!

And so, farewell then, the implausibly-named Plas Johnson, who I just discovered has died, a week short of his 95th birthday.

Who?! I hear you ask, dear reader!

OK, he was a saxophonist and session musician who played on records by myriad artists such as B.B. King, Peggy Lee, Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra, Duane Eddy, Ricky Nelson and Bobby Vee...

...but it was for this that he is most well-known [well his playing is, if not his name]!

Theme from The Pink Panther [Henry Mancini]

What a legacy!

That is not my dog

Sigh. Here we go again.

After another all-too brief weekend, enjoying some much-needed warmer weather, it's time to work out if - or more likely (as I hate working from home) how - I'm going to get to the office during yet another strike by those greedy bastards in the Tube drivers' union!

Meanwhile, a celebration...

The Goon Show, The Ladykillers, I'm Alright Jack, The Millionairess, "Balham - Gateway to the South", Two-Way Stretch, Dr. Strangelove, After the Fox, What’s New Pussycat, Being There, Murder by Death... Many and varied were the roles played (in some of my all-time favourite films and productions) by one of this country's funniest ever actors, Mr Peter Sellers, whose centenary is is today.

However, it's for one classic role for which he is undoubtely best known - "Inspector Clouseau" in the Pink Panther films, from the best of which came these two brilliant scenes:

Does your dog bite? [The Pink Panther Strikes Again]

The Pavlova of the Parallels [The Pink Panther Strikes Again]

Yes, he was completely mad. Yes, he made life difficult for a number of people he worked with (and lived with). However, anyone who can make me laugh until the tears run down my face and my ribs hurt is OK in my book!

I haven't forgotten it's a Tacky Music Monday, either, dear reader - what more appropriate number could fit that slot today but this?

Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren - Goodness Gracious Me

Boom boody-boom boody-boom boody-boom,
Well, goodness gracious me!

Indeed

All hail, Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers, 8th September 1925 – 24th July 1980)

[NB Remarkably, he shared his birthday with fellow "Goon" Harry Secombe, as well as another odd assortment of "names" including Asha Bhosle, Antonín Dvořák, Patsy Cline, Siegfried Sassoon, Martin Freeman, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sid Caesar, Pink, Judith Hann, Bernie Sanders, Lady Margaret Hodge, Avicii and Richard the Lionheart!]

Have a good week, folks.

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker

One of my favourite comedy routines - The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

Darlings! We have a centenary to celebrate...

Sharing a birthday (as he did) with another random selection of notables such as Spike Milligan, Sir Charlie Chaplin, Sir Peter Ustinov, Dusty Springfield [as featured yesterday], Georgian-era academic and collector Sir Hans Sloane, Dame Joan Bakewell, Kingsley Amis, Guy Burgess, Gerry Rafferty, Claire Foy (who's 40), Robert Stigwood, Bobby Vinton, Anya Taylor-Joy and (erm) Jimmy Osmond, Mr Henry Mancini was born one hundred years ago today!

A true musical genius, he wrote the music for numerous classic films and TV series such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Charade, Arabesque, Two for the Road, The Thorn Birds, 10, Victor Victoria...

...and these!

Henry Mancini - Pink Panther/Baby Elephant Walk/Peter Gunn Theme [Parkinson, 14th December 1974]

And here's possibly his most enduring standard, from the aforementioned Breakfast at Tiffany's:

Andy Williams - Moon River

A remarkable man!

Henry Mancini (born Enrico Nicola Mancini, 16th April 1924 – 14th June 1994)

"Beauty is how you feel inside"

Had she lived, the extraordinary beauty that was Capucine would have been 82 years old today.

Born Germaine Lefebvre, she was discovered by a photographer while riding a carriage through Paris, and was soon modelling for top fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior. After a brief career in French movies, she decided to move to America - apparently because "she felt bored". In fact her charming good looks and her lifelong friendship with Audrey Hepburn had drawn her to Hollywood, where she learned English and had some success in such films as Song Without End (the story of Franz Liszt, alongside Dirk Bogarde) and the star-studded melodrama Walk On The Wild Side.

It was when she had moved back to Europe (bored again?), however, that she made the films for which we remember her most - The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat?, both with Peter Sellers (who famously "collected" beautiful women, although there is no evidence they did have an affair - Capucine was famously the "other woman" in William Holden's life at the time).

Despite her apparently effortless glamour, beauty, sense of humour and exoticism (she was rumoured to be bisexual, and her name has been linked with Barbara Stanwyck), Capucine in fact suffered with manic depression throughout her life and attempted suicide several times (apparently Audrey Hepburn managed to talk her down more than once). In 1990 she tragically succeeded, and killed herself in Lausanne, Switzerland by jumping from her 8th-floor apartment window. Some say her only known survivors were her three cats. A tragic end to a beautiful life...

Capucine - Il trionfo di Michele Strogoff

The Pink Panther - Scène Capucine - Costumes Yves Saint Laurent

Capucine's film career on IMDB