The Week UK - 04.04.2020

12 NEWS People

THEWEEK4April 2020

ThandieNewtonon#MeToo

ThandieNewtonbeganher

filmcareerinthe1 990 s,ata

timewhensexualpredators

likeHarveyWeinstein“reigned

supreme”intheindustry,says

KirstyLanginTheSunday

Times.WhenNewtonwas

18 ,forinstance,shewascalled

foranauditionwithamale

director.“[He]askedmetosit

withmylegsapart;thecamera

waspositionedwhereitcould

see upmyskirt,”sherecalls.

“Heaskedmetoputmyleg

overthearmofthechairand

thinkaboutthecharacterI

wassupposedtobehavingthe

dialoguewithandhowitfeltto

bemadelovetobythisperson.

Iwasstillveryyoungand

thoughtitmustbenormal.”

Later,shelearntthathehad

keptthetape,anduseditto

titillatehisfriendsafterpoker

gamesathishouse.It’soneof

thereasonswhynow,at47,

she isaleading voice in the

#MeToo movement, and

devotes muchofhertimeto

campaigningforsocialchange.

“Thisbusiness preysonyoung

people.It’stherapeculture,

the climateofsilencing,that

iswhatoncedestroyed me

and what now firesmeup.”

Archerand hisVIP friends

JeffreyArcher ismanythings:

novelist, formerdeputychair

oftheToryparty,one-time

Londonmayoralcandidate,

perjurer–and almighty

name-dropper.Before the

coronavirusshutBritaindown,

he wasbusyplanningaparty

tocelebratehis80thbirthday.

“We’rehavingadinnerfor

friends,” hetoldGuy Kellyin

TheDailyTelegraph.“Twoor

threehundred,atBanqueting

House.”Willanyfamousfaces

beinattendance?“Youare

sovulgar,”hebarks.“Idon’t

know–it’sveryeclectic.John

Majorwillbeonatable;the

womanImostadmire,[film

producer]KathyKennedy,

onanother.SajidJavid,Priti

Patel,TobiasEllwood,Kwasi

Kwarteng,NadhimZahawi...

theywillbethere.Asmall

gatheringofmisfitswho’ve

madeit.”

AngelaRippon’sendurance

AngelaRipponhasgracedour

screensfor 53 years–whichis

25 yearslongerthanherbosses

bargainedfor.In 199 5,the

BBC’sthen-directorgeneral,

JohnBirt,tookthejournalist

andnewsreaderasideata

Corporationparty.“I’djust

turned 50 andhesaidtome:

‘Angela,you’llhavetoaccept

thatyouneedtomakewayfor

the youngergeneration.’I

thought: I’ll decide when Istop,

thankyouverymuch!Well,

I’m stillworking.”The double

standardsatworkwerealltoo

obvioustoher.“I remember

thinking,‘Haveyouhadthis

conversationwithTerry

Wogan,withMichael

Parkinson?’ Clearly hehadn’t.”

Today,she toldJimWhitein

TheMailon Sunday, thingsare

mercifully different. “Imagine

the directorgeneraltelling

someone likeKatyaAdler [the

BBC’sEuropeeditor], ‘Darling,

it’stime tostop.’Notgoingto

happen.Itcomes downtothe

individual.Ifyoustandyour

ground and say‘I’m hereto

stay’,then youwill.”

When David Attenborough turned eight, his father gave him his

first pet: notadog, orahamster, butafire salamander. “They’re

absolutely magical things,” he told Nick Rufford in The Sunday

Times. The gift of this amphibian creature ignited in him the

passion for nature that has been the bedrock of his career. And

it worries him how few children today have the kind of formative

experiences he enjoyed–cycling 15mile stoaquarry and spending

the day “looking for dragonflies, grass snakes and newts”. We’re

losing touch with nature. It is important to have contact with the

natural world, “for people’s sanity”, he says. “Anybody will

recognise that in moments of both exultation and deep sorrow that

that’s where you go.” But he is acutely conscious of how much of

the natural world that he took for granted has been destroyed in his

own lifetime: rainforests in Borneo where he made his early films

have been bulldozed to make way for plantations; some of the reefs

he dived from are dead. And then there is climate change. It’s why,

at 93, he is still working–and is more outspoken and political than

he was asayounger man. “I belong to the generation that really

created all this stuff. We had no concept that we were ruining the

world, none.Isuppose you can say, ‘Well, you were very insensitive

–you should have realised,’ butIdon’t think many people did.”

Viewpoint:

Spring at last

“Imagineit waswinter.That’s what I

thought asIqueued aroundSain sbury’s

carpark for30minutesjust to buy

milk,asIpassedapadlockedchil dren’s

playground, shuttered cafés and

discardedlatexgloves.Imagineitwas

November andwewere headingdown

adarktunnel into grimmer, cold er days.

But it’sspring–thankGod!The days

are chill andblue,the leaves are their

palest, sweetestgreen and youcan

smell the earthawaken.We’re bathedin

lemonyvernallight –with awhole extra

hour ofit in the evenings. They canban

birthday parties,schoolproms,beach

holidays,hotdatesand lunchwith old

friends. But, as the artistDavid

Hockney said,theycan’t cancelspring.”

Janice Turner in The Times

Farewell

Bob Andy,reggae singer

(of Boband Marcia

duo), died27 March,

aged75.

JenniferBate,organist,

died 25 March, aged 75.

MarkBlum,actor best-

known forDesperately

Seeking Susan,died

26 March, aged 69.

Lucia Bosè,Italian

actress, died 23 March,

aged89.

LordGarel-Jones,Tory

whipunderThatcher,

died 24 March, aged 79.

Krzysztof Penderecki,

avant-gardecomposer,

died 29 March, aged 86.

Book:In Search of the Miraculousby Pyotr Ouspenskii

Luxury:averygoodsewing kit *Choice if allowed only one record

Castaway of the week

This week’s edition of Radio 4’sDesert Island Discsfeatured the

actor and director Brian Cox

1*Bridge OverTroubled Waterby Paul Simon, performedby

Johnny Cash

2 Saturday Night At The Moviesby Barry Mann andCynthia Weil,

performed by TheDrifters

3 The Air ThatIBreatheby AlbertHammondand MikeHazlewood,

performed by k.d. lang

4 Get Backby John Lennon and Paul McCartney,performed by

The Beatles

5 La quêteby JoeDarion, Mitch Leigh andJacques Brel,

performed by Jacques Brel

6 Both Sides Now,written and performedby JoniMitchell

7*GodOnly Knowsby BrianWilsonand Tony Asher, performed

by TheBeach Boys

8 Don’tGet MeWrongby Chrissie Hynde, performedby

The Pretenders