It’s done. Everything is now in place for our Brief Encounter with Noel Coward. All there is between us and the opening night is the technical and dress rehearsal early next week and then on Thursday 26th it’s on with the show.

Details for anyone wishing to purchase tickets for this evening of sophistication and humour can be found in earlier blogs. I have enjoyed rehearsing Still Life (the one act play to feature in the aforesaid evening’s entertainment). The film Brief Encounter has been one of my favourite films for years, so to be in the play the film was taken from is a bit of a thrill I can tell you.

The evening is broken down into two halves. The first half consists of poetry and prose written by the Master and it’s a pleasure to see old Chuffer belting out his renditions of various Coward pieces. God Bless the old fella.

Hopefully I will slip in another blog before the play opens to give full details of the last minute tears, nerves and scuffles usually prevailing at the final rehearsals, oh yes.

To other things now. My bride and I were all set to see the latest Michael Caine film Harry Brown. It seemed to have received a couple of good reviews and I like Mr Caine so I was looking forward to watching the epic. However we received phone calls from no less than three people who had gone to see the film saying how vile the movie was. Bad language from start to finish and horrendous violence is not the way I wish to spend my cinema time and yes it is getting more difficult to find a film to enjoy by people with at least half a brain. So no Harry Brown I am afraid.

However it’s obvious to me I am in the minority. Am I the only person on God’s Earth that finds the X Factor excruciating? Can’t stand Strictly Come Dancing or any programme with ‘Celebrity ‘ in the title? Finds reality shows a pain in the ass and doesn’t watch any soap. Is it me? Yes it probably is.

The following statistics although a little out of date are nevertheless are well worth considering.

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington , DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.

That means you are about 25 per cent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US , than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: "The US should pull out of Washington, DC ."