2017

What a year!  2017 has been a specially fabulous year for me.  As you may have read, in 2016 I was asked to do my one-woman show at the Kings Head theatre, and it went so well I have done it 9 times since then.  This year at the Kings Head, the Pheasantry, in Leeds and at the Central Synagogue.  Each time I felt nervous beforehand, but the reception was so enthusiastic, it was worth all the nerves.
 

I had the great good fortune to be cast in a new TV series for ITV.  It is a Sitcom called BAD MOVE, was produced, written by and starred Jack Dee and I had a lovely part of a scheming, manipulative old lady called Alice.  We filmed for a month on location in Yorshire and then for 2 weeks in London, and it was broadcast September/October.  To my great joy the ITV have commissioned a second series, which will be filming May/June 2018.  When I will be 93.

Also at the Kings Head theatre, I did a reading of the play based on the life of Golda Meir, which Peter and I adapted and performed over a period of 8 years, until 1988.  I was so lucky to find a terrific actor to do it with me, Allan Corduner, and not only was it sold out, the reaction at the end of was overwhelming.  The Artistic Director wants to do a full production of it to run for 3 weeks.

Add to all that, trips to Lapland, Puglia in Italy and Israel, and you can see what an incredible year this has been.  In March we went by train all the way from Oslo to the very North of Norway and Sweden.  I went on a dog sleigh and was told I was the oldest person ever to have done it.  Not in a comfortable sledge, but astride a beam with 12 dogs racing along hell for leather!  Also saw the Ice Hotel and the indigenous Sami people with their reindeer.  I was in Puglia for a family wedding, and in Israel to see my nephews and my step-daughter, thanks to her I have 10 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren...never having had a baby!!!

In February I was honoured with an Award given by the Oldie Magazine as an OLDIE OF THE YEAR, along with such distinguished people as Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, David Cameron's mother, Bernie Sanders, Lord Dobbs and Peter Blake.  The chairman was Gyles Brandreth, who was wonderfully funny.  I had it filmed and you can find the film on this Website.  Be sure to push the red line back so you can watch it from the start.  Also in October I was honoured to be invited to the WOMEN OF THE YEAR lunch.

A terrific highlight of my year was when my best friend Helen Cotterill and I got tickets for the Men's Final at Wimbledon. A friend who works there organised for us to be collected in an official car and we had lunch and tea in the Members' Enclosure. Added to which, my beloved Federer won!

Yes, WHAT A YEAR!!!