Pinewood Studios holds a wine reception tribute to Peter Rogers; a touching tribute to the Carry On producer who would have been 96 this week. British film was all the more sadder when it was announced that Lionel Jeffries had died at the age of 83. As a writer and director he made his mark with ‘The Railway Children’ and ‘The Water Babies’ but he had already chalked up dozens of unforgettable acting credits in such films as ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’, ‘Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s’, ‘Murder Ahoy!’, ‘Stage Fright’, ‘Jumping for Joy’, ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein’, ‘Doctor At Large’, ‘Two Way Stretch’, ‘The Wrong Arm of the Law’, ‘Rocket to the Moon’ and ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’. His reading of the lolloping bear and singing of ‘P.O.S.H.’ will always bring a smile to the lips of admirers of this finest of character actors.

London fun with David Barry, Paul Cole, George Innes and the boys.

A trip to the National Film Theatre to attend a screening of ‘The Professionals’ and ‘The New Professionals’; screened in tribute to its star, Edward Woodward.

Tributes to that class act, actor Ian Carmichael, who starred in a handful of Robert’s favourite films of the 1950s and 1960s: ‘I’m Alright, Jack’, ‘Double Bunk’, Private’s Progress’, ‘Light Up the Sky!’ and ‘Heavens Above!’. Later he was the definitive Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey, and chalked up notable film appearances in ‘From Beyond the Grave’ and Hammer’s remake of ‘The Lady Vanishes’. He died at the age of 89.

A hectic month of research is happily halted with a fun and boozy lunch with good pals Alan Coles and Henry Holland and new friend George Innes. Life would be intolerable without London-based show-biz lunches, Amelia 😉