An evening at the Royal Festival Hall with Leslie Phillips’s Battle of Britain concert. Jessien Buckley charmed the audience with a mixture of spirited Vera Lynn numbers and classical excursions. Chris Marques and Jaclyn Spencer dressed up a storm while the London Concert Orchestra under the direction of Jae Alexander belted out everything from Glenn Miller to Eric Coates. RAF trumpeter Paul Sutton brought extra poignancy to Leslie’s reading of the poem ‘High Flight’ while a smattering of Winston Churchill’s iconic speeches left the audience spell-bound.

Jim Dale will be joining fellow original player Anna Carteret, theatre critic Michael Billington, Young Vic founder Frank Dunlop and the current Artistic Director, David Lan, at a 40th anniversary platform on the National theatre’s Cottesloe’s stage tomorrow from 6pm. The event is a complete sell-out but it would be well worth while waiting for returns. The Bill Paterson platform before hand is highly recommended as well. And there are still tickets available for ‘Leslie Phillips Presents the Battle of Britain’ at the Royal Festival Hall on the 11th September. It will be a stirring celebration of the war years, complete with Glenn Miller music and Winston Churchill speeches.

A joyous lunch with Jenny Hanley in a delightful little ‘find’ in Amersham Old Town. One of life’s pleasures.

David Benson performed his mercurial ‘Think No Evil of Us – My Life with Kenneth Williams’ to a packed auditorium at the New Diorama theatre and was afterwards joined by the Mayor of Camden and Kenneth’s good friend Barbara Waslin-Ashbridge to unveil a blue plaque to the “comedy actor and raconteur”. David will be performing the show again on the 19th September from 3.30pm.

A last minute reminder that The British Comedy Society are paying tribute to Kenneth Williams on Sunday 5th September. The programme includes a walking tour of Kenneth’s Camden Town and a performance of David Benson’s outstanding one-man show ‘Think No Evil of Us – My Life with Kenneth Williams’. A blue plaque will be unveiled in the foyer of the New Diorama theatre, NW1 at 5.30pm.

Back in good old Blighty at the perfectly civilized hour of 9am: with the dual pleasures of Johnny Depp and Gemma Arterton keeping Robert occupied on the flight.

John Potts, diners, Daniel Boone, motels, root beer floats and Ruby Tuesday endless fries. The American experience rolls on…and a diet is calling! While back at home the very, very last of the Summer Wine is enjoyed by over five million viewers – more than a million more than the rest of this final series. Fittingly Peter Sallis, the only actor to appear in every episode, had the final line: “Did I lock the door?”

A ‘perilous’ journey to Paterson, New Jersey to pay homage to legendarily comedian Lou Costello who was born there in 1906 and now has a memorial park and statue in his honour. ‘Lou’s on First’ pays tribute to Abbott and Costello’s best-loved routine and the chubby vaudevillian is depicted in baseball gear complete with bat. Wallow in the newly restored DVD release of the complete two-season collection of ‘The Abbott and Costello Show’ for lots of knowing references to New Jersey. These will now always make Robert smile just that little bit broader.

The shamelessly artery-hardening Carnegie Deli for a rousing Corn Beef Hash: the Woody Allen is just too big! Broadway royalty in the shape of Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch starring in the first revival of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music’. A magical theatrical event. The British end was kept up with Alexander Hanson’s red-blooded performance as Fredrik Egerman and the whirlwind direction of Sir Trevor Nunn.

The glorious New York, New York and one of the world’s most astounding hotels. Fun times with Jim Dale, the most relentlessly delicious Italian meal ever and drinks into the wee small hours in the Oak Room: a classy little establishment that has played host to Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Onassis and the Beatles.