Each week in The Times an actor, author, artist or musician is invited to name and explain their favourite book, film, lyric, box set, piece of music, and so on.
There is also a question about their guiltiest cultural pleasure so, for what it’s worth, here are my guilty pleasures plus a dirty little secret:
Television
Double First (BBC1)
A sitcom by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, who also wrote The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles, Double First featured the late Michael Williams and a young Holly Aird who later appeared in Soldier, Soldier (ITV) and Waking The Dead (BBC1). Williams had enjoyed great success playing opposite his wife, Judi Dench, in A Fine Romance (written by Larbey) but Double First lasted for just seven episodes and to the best of my knowledge it has never been repeated anywhere. It wasn’t laugh out loud funny but it was rather charming. It's a genuine mystery to me why it’s been airbrushed out of television history.
Radio
Elaine Paige (Radio 2)
Touchline Tales (Radio 4)
This category had me stumped because I couldn’t think of a single radio programme that might be called a ‘guilty' pleasure. Does Elaine Paige on Sunday count? Probably not but she makes me laugh and it’s a good excuse to post this:
The only other programme that might be called a guilty pleasure was Touchline Tales which was co-hosted by Des Lynam. It ran for three series from 2011 to 2013 but I missed it first time round, only catching up with it when it was repeated on 4 Extra a few years ago. Lynam was a huge loss to the BBC when he moved to ITV Sport in 1999 but his conversational style was never going to be suited to ITV’s pacier style, rushing from one ad break to the next. In contrast Touchline Tales was the perfect vehicle for his laconic wit but his return to the BBC was low key and short-lived. He had a fantastic broadcasting career but it still feels like it ended too soon.
DJ
Tony Blackburn
I’ve always liked Tony Blackburn and when I met him before recording the pilot for a TV programme starring Marcus Brigstocke (it was a chat show and we were both guests), he appeared genuinely modest, self-effacing, and interested in having a conversation with people other than his fellow 'stars'. (If you've ever sat in a green room with a 'celebrity' you'll know how rare that is.) His life has been a series of ups and downs, personally and professionally, but I love the fact that he is still working and has never taken himself too seriously. I became even more of a fan when he interviewed me on BBC Radio Berkshire and conducted the interview with impeccable impartiality, playing Devil’s advocate when necessary but never imposing his own views on listeners. He could and perhaps should have had an opportunity to have his own show on a national talk radio station but in many people’s minds – including broadcasting execs – he will always be ‘that 60s DJ’ playing ‘Flowers In The Rain’ with the assistance of Arnold the barking dog. Woof, woof!
TV presenter
Keith Chegwin
The late Keith Chegwin, aka Cheggers, was a modern day Tigger who always brought a smile to my face even though, after Swap Shop in the Seventies, I rarely saw him on TV. I was too old for Cheggers Plays Pop and far too prim for Naked Jungle which he cheerfully called "the worst career move of my life". Occasionally I saw him on breakfast TV knocking on doors or waking up some unsuspecting celebrity, and despite his well documented problems with alcohol he maintained a wonderfully upbeat persona. Before his death in 2016 he apparently upset some current comedians for allegedly plagiarising their jokes by posting them on social media without crediting them, but I believe his intentions were sincere – he just wanted to make people laugh and brighten their day.
Pop music
Buck’s Fizz
Apart from a compilation album released long after the original group split up, I haven’t bought a single Buck’s Fizz record. Nevertheless ‘Making Your Mind Up’, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981, is a cheery reminder that that there’s nothing wrong with simple, unpretentious pop songs. Several subsequent singles were just as good, if not better. You’ll be familiar with some but others, like ‘Heart of Stone’ (a hit for Cher) and ‘I Hear Talk’ have been largely forgotten, except by me. Pity. They were well-crafted pop songs that deserved greater recognition.
Children’s author
Enid Blyton
Does Enid Blyton qualify as a guilty pleasure? She shouldn’t because she is one of the greatest children’s authors of all time, but attitudes change and Blyton is now dismissed by some as a relic of Britain’s imperial age. The books are dated, for sure, but that’s part of their charm. As I explained when I took part in a Bookshop Barnie Balloon Debate at Foyle’s Bookshop a few years ago, my debt to Blyton lies in the fact that I was apparently slow to read when I was five or six. It was only when I was introduced to Blyton at the age of seven that my reading took off - and for that I shall always be grateful.
Fiction
Agatha Christie
It’s several decades since I read an Agatha Christie novel, possibly because I read almost every one in my teens and once you know the ending there seems little point in reading them again. For several years however I read little else. Today I would be hard pressed to remember most of the plots so perhaps I should go back to them. That said, I still remember how shocked I was at the revelation of the killer in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. If you haven’t read it I won’t spoil it for you, but I didn’t see that coming!
Non-fiction
Flash Gordon: The Official Story of the Film
This is a relatively recent guilty pleasure because John Walsh's beautifully produced book was only published in November 2020. The first and only time I saw the film on the big screen was at the Odeon Marble Arch on Christmas Eve 1980. I remember it well because I delayed my National Express coach journey to my parents in Derbyshire so I could watch the 11.00am screening. The book doesn't ignore the film's faults but it's a loving celebration of a cult classic that famously features a soundtrack by Queen, some magnificent lines (“Flash! Flash, I love you! But we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!!”), and Brian (“Gordon’s alive?!”) Blessed. According to Blessed, Flash Gordon was the Queen’s favourite film, but I’d take that with a pinch of salt. The book, however, is a fine addition to any bookshelf and has pride of place in my office.
Film
Tory Boy: The Movie
Directed by and featuring the same John Walsh who wrote ‘Flash Gordon: The Official Story of the Film’, Tory Boy is a genuinely funny film that raised some serious issues about politics in Britain. It follows Walsh in his unsuccessful bid to unseat the sitting Labour MP in Middlesbrough in 2010. As his Flash Gordon book might suggest, there is something a bit nerdy about Walsh but everything is done with a smile and a knowing nod, and whatever your politics it’s hard not to root for him. In hindsight Tory Boy might have predicted the fall of the ‘Red Wall’ in 2019 because it marks the first stirring of discontent with a Labour party that took for granted the idea that its traditional seats in the North East were rock solid. Best of all, Walsh used humour to target an opponent who was an infrequent visitor to his constituency but was eventually tracked down in Paris where he appeared to be living. Apart from a few press screenings I’m not sure if it ever got a cinema release but writing this inspired me to dig out the DVD and watch it again and although more than a decade has passed, and the political landscape has changed multiple times, Tory Boy is still funny and shocking in equal measure.
And finally this is not so much a guilty pleasure as a dirty little secret ...
In concert
The Nolans
After graduating in 1980 I moved to London from Aberdeen. Dougie Kerr, a friend from university, had got a job at the Foreign Office and one Sunday evening (with nothing better to do) we went to Wembley Arena to watch The Nolans (aka The Nolan Sisters). I don’t remember much about it apart from clapping along to ‘I’m In The Mood For Dancing’. It would have been rude not to but the shame has never left me and I have never told anyone else, until now.