This is not ‘Nothing in Particular’, but couldn’t find a thread to post in.
Anyone who was a fan of Diana Rigg in The Avengers back whenever it was, can read The Sunday Times article by her daughter about her mother’s last days. You get to know what sort of person her mother really was - outrageous!
Drinkies at 4pm! The stylish last days of my mum, Diana Rigg
Behind paywall. Again.
I subscribe and this was supposed to be a shared link.
What I see on this page is ‘thetimes.com’ and ‘Verifying Device’.
A few paragraphs then.
‘My mother was always honest, sometimes eye-bleedingly so. She was the first great love of my life, and as her only child I was lucky enough to be the greatest love of hers.”
“Friends visited, drinkies were clinked and after a month of the new normal, Ma insisted Guy and I have a night away in a swanky hotel, where we had stayed after our wedding, for which she would pay. When we returned the next day, Ma insisted on buying us a Chinese takeaway so I didn’t have to cook dinner. She then fell asleep and by the time she woke it was late and we had eaten and, in a genuine error, Guy had scoffed the spring rolls that Ma had specifically ordered. She was furious, vulnerable, she felt left out and taken advantage of. She gave Guy both barrels, her amphitheatre-filling voice as booming as ever it was, “You’re so f***ing greedy.”
The next morning Ma felt a bit guilty, I could tell. In apparent concern for my husband’s health, she broached the subject of his belly. She offered to pay to send him to a health farm, then she said: “Tell me honestly, Guy, when was the last time you saw your cock?”
Pause.
“Well, Diana,” Guy said, “for reasons it would be unseemly to share with my mother-in-law, I have no problems seeing my cock.”
Peace and harmony were thus restored.”
“My father called to say goodbye. I passed her the telephone. I could tell my father was trying not to cry on the other end of the line. He must have said something along the lines of, “I hope I’ll see you on the other side,” to which my mother laughed and said, “Oh, darling, of course you’ll be there. So I can tell you what a shit you were as I enter through the Pearly Gates, smiling.””
I was a big fan of Diana Rigg, but it won’t let me read until I pay them some money, I don’t like holdups and can prove it by getting The Oldie free every month and, despite my efforts to do so,. they won’t let me pay. I think it is run by very oldies. My tribe. 
Thank you for the translation. I couldn’t have thought better of Diana Rigg. Link me another couple and if they are worth it I’ll pay their bloody quid and pretend it’s The Oldie.
I found the article in a web archive and hope this link works.
Stuart and I went for a Chinese Buffet Meal last week and there was a guy there with a lovely long white beard. When he had selected his food, he sat down at the table and tucked his beard into his shirt - I guess so it wouldn’t fall into his food! And then when he had finished he pulled his beard out of his shirt and combed it into place. I think it was the best (long) beard I have ever seen. I asked Stuart if he would grow his beard (normally kept at No. 5 on the tondeuse) so he could tuck his in when it was long enough. I’ve yet to receive a proper answer 
How disappointing, I thought you were going to say that he took out his beard and mopped his plate with it, 
Lucky Stuart, I have been expressly told I must not grow my beard long!
Is that Billy Gibbons in civvies? 
Don’t know. I just looked for ‘long white beard’ on the internet and chose that one because it was the closest to the one we saw last week. 
I had a crush on Diana Rigg and so did a load of teenagers at that time - I was in my early 20s.
This article is an excerpt from her daughter’s book.
“No sooner had my mother found out that she had cancer than all the theatres in the country went dark. It was March 2020 and Covid-19 was on the loose. Not long after she learnt about her tumour, Ma came to the opening night of the play I was in, Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett at the Lyric Hammersmith. She shared her diagnosis with my husband, Guy, the lead singer of the band Elbow, before the show but was determined to tell me herself.
With the pandemic spreading, the audience knew it might be their last hurrah for a while and celebrated at the afterparty with a wartime determination. I was merrily in my cups after a good show, thrilled Ma had loved it and blissfully unaware anything was wrong.
Guy told me the next morning. He couldn’t keep it from me a moment longer. I immediately rang Ma, who was beyond livid. “Guy is a typical f***ing northerner! Can’t wait to be the bearer of bad tidings!” she screamed down the phone. “It’s not his f***ing news to tell.” But I was glad I knew, and in truth so was she.”
Kindle - £14.99.
Nope - didn’t work for me…
What I rather enjoy is how she swore like a trooper. The contrast between her lady face and a who-cares-what-anyone-thinks navvy mouth is fascinating.
I have mentioned before my life with an Apple Watch, but this thing gets cheekier every day.. Not enough that it vibrates away and tells me it is time for bed at 11.15pm, but yesterday I was sitting by the pond enjoying the cooling power of the water on my skin after a few lengths in it following on from a hard couple of hours at the shedface, when it suddenly starts its vibrating again. For goodness sake, I cried, it isn’t bedtime yet !
But no, it wasn’t telling me to go to bed it was saying how important sleep was to health and that I didn’t sleep last night very well at all. 
How does it know? I don’t wear it at night and it is switched off and on charge. I have a sneaky feeling that the blessed iPhone has been telling tales out of school, I know they talk to each other when they think I am not listening.
AI does not stand for Artificial Intelligence, in this house it means Artificial Interference. 
I don’t know but I suspect she swore like a trouper amongst family and friends, and maybe acquaintances. I suspect she’d be more diplomatic with others. When she found out that the cameraman filming her in the Avengers was earning more than she was she was indeed diplomatic, but outspoken, and as a result her pay was doubled.
Claude AI says
She was known as blunt, “feisty,” and direct — colleagues describe her as someone who spoke her mind bluntly and didn’t suffer fools.
Her daughter Rachael Stirling and others have described her as earthy and irreverent in person, contrasting with her elegant screen image.
She smoked heavily, drank, and cultivated a “grande dame” persona that was more raffish than prim.
The second paragraph there ties in with her being lady-faced and navvy-mouthed! Wonder what the book will reveal…!
It’s a bad month for people coming back to the UK when a lot of the population would probably like them to stay away.
In addition to Harry and Megham Milo Yiannopoulis has been picked up by ICE and deported by his ex-friend Trump. Milo himself advocated deporting millions of people but obviously thought it didn’t apply to him. I also saw a headline that Sarah Ferguson is heading back, maybe other people’s money is running out.
