Quartet - a brilliant film

          Yesterday we went to see Quartet, the new film about the inmates of an old folks home. Except this is no ordinary old folks home, it is one for old musicians and the cast is superb. The quartet itself is Billy Connelly,  Maggie Smith, Tom Courtney and Pauline Collins who are bullied into performance by another inmate,  Michael Gambon. The film is directed by Dustin Hoffman and most of the other members of the home are real, retired, amazing musicians.
          It makes you laugh a lot and it makes you want to cry a little and it is beautiful and uplifting.
          For me, the best was Pauline Collins. I so admire her because she has always been prepared to show herself as she is. Us oldies remember her as the gorgeous, sexy maid in Upstairs Downstairs. She made the program compulsive viewing for most men that I knew. Then in midlife, she was with Tom Conti in the wonderful film Shirley Valentine. Now in old age, she allows herself to be seen as she is, 'warts and all' so to speak. For a woman that is just so wonderful and brave. She plays Cissie, an old lady, beginning to dement,  but the most loved by all.
        Years ago, I read her book about letters she wrote to a child she was forced to give up for adoption called
                 "Letters to to Louise".
         It is one of the best books I have ever read. She is a truly remarkable lady