While the rest of the world was watching the Princess of Wales talking to Martin Bashir on BBC television in 1995, I was waiting at the accident and emergency department of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after coming off second best in a tussle with a dentist who seemed to have taken a dislike to me. Much better now, thank you for asking.
So I did not see, fresh from the rushes, the Princess, with panda-eye make-up, confessing: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”, and confiding, “I’d like to be a queen of people’s hearts”. It precipitated a divorce settlement.
At that time I was utterly ignorant of Martin Bashir, having never willingly watched Songs of Praise, which he often used to present. (February 1992: “Though hard hit by the recession, Kilmarnock is bouncing back. Martin Bashir joins local residents in celebrating the town’s 400th anniversary.”) I never heard him on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme, either, another programme I can’t abide. I’m sorry. So it is no criticism of him that I was unaware he was a committed Christian.
10 November 2016, The Tablet
It was not that the cardinal was wearing thick black eye make-up that distracted me
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