Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on a theatrical knight, that 50p coin again and the perils of asylum in unsafe Britain

A national treasure.

Published
Frank - Sir Ian McKellen

SIR Ian McKellen has announced a one-man theatre tour to mark his 80th birthday. And good luck with that. Interviewing actors is one of the trickiest jobs. You never quite know how precious or awkward they are going to be. I met McKellen twice and each time he was a delight to interview, giving a real insight into the making of films and stage craft. He was stunningly frank about his gay lifestyle and his deliberate decision, 30 years ago at the peak of the plague, not to have an HIV test.

WAY back in 1988, shortly after coming out as gay, he told me: "Looking back, knowing my lifestyle as I do, I think I am okay. I have not been promiscuous.'' Since then, he has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for Aids research and entertained millions of us with characters from Richard III to Gandalf. A national treasure.

LATER in that 1988 interview, McKellen touched on the ticklish question of whether Shakespeare might have been gay. He didn't think so but admitted: "I am attracted enormously to some women. I just don't sleep with them - so what does that make me?'' Thirty years on, we're no wiser but we do have an awful lot of initials (LGBTQIAPK, etc etc) to choose from which, presumably, is progress.

THE only possible reason for keeping Asia Bibi in Pakistan is to give the mob some hope that it may yet get a chance to murder her. She is the Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after being convicted under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. The conviction was crushed by the Supreme Court but still she is in custody, for her own protection. While other countries offered her asylum, Britain held back. No surprises there. At best, bringing Asia Bibi to Britain would result in UK diplomatic buildings in Pakistan being destroyed and their staff put in peril. At worst, she would come to "asylum" in Britain only to be murdered by one of our home-grown religious lunatics. Britain a safe country? If only.

A SURVEY has found that 65 per cent of Britons don’t like the idea of the proposed Brexit 50p coin. Then here's the ideal way to show your disdain. Refuse to accept it. If you get one in your change, just leave it on the counter. Or is your love of the EU and your allegedly visceral hatred of Brexit actually not worth 50p a time?

MEANWHILE, before the UK has even left the room, France and Germany are talking about creating a "real, true" EU Army. The traditional European way of maintaining large armies is by conscription. So how many fervent British remainers, who claim to be acting in the best interests of younger people, would be prepared to see their grandchildren drafted into Der Europanzerkorps? It couldn't possibly happen? That's what they told us about the European superstate.

ON his 70th birthday the Prince of Wales declares his fondness for groussaka - moussaka, but made with grouse, not lamb. The people's prince. Not exactly.