PAGE 86 C M Y K Daily Mail Weekend

‘People think I’m posh, but I’m working-class. My parents were in service and brought home how to speak nicely’

venue where the great Scottish singer Annie Ross is performing. I’d have veal with spaghetti, a tomato and definite onion salad, and some Bordeaux. We’d end the day chatting to the work­ ers at an Arctic weather station over a glass of Jameson whiskey. The happiest moment you will cherish article forever... Receiving a letter from John We ask a celebrity a set of devilishly Osborne praising my performance in his play The Entertainer in 1986. To please probing questions – and only accept the author is the biggest accolade. The saddest time that shook your THE definitive answer. This week world... My father Herbert suddenly dying from a heart attack on Christmas it’s the turn of actor Peter Bowles Eve in 1981. He was a wonderful man and I was very disturbed by his death. The prized possession you value above The person who has influ- all others... A signet ring my wife Sue enced you most... Theatre The unfulfilled ambition that contin- gave me after accepting my proposal – director Sir Peter Hall. He ues to haunt you... To finish my novel. we’ve been happily married for 54 years. convinced me I could be far It’s all in my head, so it’s just a matter

better than I’d imagined. of sitting down and writing it. But it’s The biggest regret you wish you could The way you would spend your fanta- been in my head for a while now! amend... Not having lunch with Marlon The figure from history for sy 24 hours, with no travel restric- Brando in London in 1984. I was invited whom you’d most like to buy The philosophy that underpins your tions... I’d wake up alone in a small To thine own self be true. It’s but never got the message. Long after­ a pie and a pint... Lord life... B&B in Dumfriesshire. I’d have tattie also important to be honest and to wards I was told I was his favourite actor. Lucan. I think he escaped, [potato] scones, black pudding and stand up for yourself. The temptation you wish you could so I’d like to know how. two fried eggs with a large mug of tea resist... Smothering a bowl of lovely, The piece of wisdom you for breakfast, then go for a long walk The order of service at your funeral... It’s not something I think about, so I’ll healthy fresh fruit with Jersey cream! would pass on to a child... You are The crime you would commit knowing in the Cairngorms. Sue and I have you could get away with it... I’d steal leave it to my family. But at some point The book that holds an everlasting reso- unique, and your opinion matters. three children [Guy, 52, Adam, 50, Cecil Collins’s painting The Sleeping and Sasha, 48] and six grandchildren I’d like there to be some rock’n’roll. nance... The Story Of My Heart, Victor­ The unlikely interest that engages your Fool from Tate Britain. It’s beautiful and [aged seven to 23], but we see them The way you want to be remembered... ian nature writer Richard Jefferies’ curiosity... True crime. I have hundreds moving; the essence of tranquillity. all the time. So, as this is a fantasy As a loving husband, father and grand­ autobiography. It woke me up to the fact of books about infamous crimes. The day, we’d simply go alone for lunch at father. That’s all that matters. I was part of the bigger world. fact they really happened makes them The misapprehension about yourself That I’m the Beverly Hills Hotel. I’d have cod all the more compelling. you wish you could erase... The Plug... Peter Bowles’s autobiogra­ The priority activity if you were the roe on toast. At some point I’d go to posh. I’m working-class and from Not­ phy, Ask Me If I’m Happy, is published Invisible Man for a day... I’d see how The treasured item you lost and wish the gents and in the next cubicle tingham. My mother and father were in by Simon & Schuster, priced £8.99. n P good Vladimir Putin is at judo. I got to you could have again... An unbroken would be a major film director, who hoto service and brought home good man­ As told to Rob McGibbon brown belt [one before black]. night’s sleep. I discovered rock’n’roll on would ask me to star in his

ners and how to speak nicely. g all-night radio in the US when I was 19, next film. This happened to d raphs: The pet hate that makes your hackles The event that altered the course of rise... Adults cycling on pavements. and it shattered my sleep pattern. me once, but I declined. your life and character... Winning a a v

This time I would accept! In i The unending quest that drives you scholarship to RADA when I was 16. I d ros The film you can watch time and the afternoon I’d go to New

Nashville (1975). The on... To keep acting. I’m nearly 79 was with Peter O’Toole, Albert Finney, e time again... York and walk from Broad­ /t

and still busy. e directing, the acting and the Alan Bates and Richard Briers, and met l way to Greenwich Village, eg

beautiful girls. It was extraordinary! ge raph, music are all great. The poem that touches your where I’d meet Quentin soul... I’m not into poetry, The song that means most to you... A Tarantino for tea. He

Right: Vladimir Putin i tty doing judo. Above but I like the Garry Essend­ Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol would then tell me he’s m right: The Sleeping ine character’s comment Harum. David Hemmings played it in bought the film rights to a ge

Fool. Far right: in Noël Coward’s his Cadillac when we were making my unfinished novel. Sue ala s, Dumfriesshire Present Laughter, ‘Rise The Charge Of The Light Brigade in and I would have cock­ m above the whole situation America in 1967, so those memories tails at the St Regis Hotel, y, tat

and do the best you can.’ come flooding back when I hear it. then go for dinner at any e Next week PS... l Judge Ellie Harrison says it’s Salma Hayek stars in rom-com Lessons In Love – in cinemas not too late to enter our fabulous from Friday. A new solo album from Eagle Don Henley, Cass wildlife photography contest l Thomasina Miers’ Mexican County, is out the same day. And Liza Minnelli plays the first cookery masterclass l Monty Don’s star plant of the season of her two UK shows tomorrow night at the London Palladium l PLUS Britain’s best TV guide

86 weekend Daily Mail WEEKEND is published by Associated Newspapers Ltd. Printed by The Polestar Group. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. © Associated Newspapers Limited 2015.

National 19 September