HIGNFY - Sheila Hancock

Straight after graduating when my sin was a junior at a London law firm he took on a case got Sheila Hancock. She kindly took the trouble to contact one of the partners to praise my son for his work. There was no need for her to do that but it made a huge difference to his confidence when starting out so I’ve has a soft spot for her since then.

son not sin - should have previewed!

That's nice to hear about your son Autumncolours but absolutely enraging to hear about her saying a tank should be driven through that beautiful poppy installation.

Rosie51 that's disgusting! My mum couldn't stand her. Sounds like she steamrollers other people's opinions. I used to like her, until I read something about how nasty she was to one of the actresses she was appearing with in some production or other. I've definitely gone off her.

I really enjoyed the programme and thought Dame Shiela made a great contribution. Loved her books too

It was good. I shall never forget her taking part in a tv discussion just before Brexit. I thought she had swung it, sadly not. She is a very bright, articulate, interesting person. Overused phrase, but a National Treasure.

Aveline

That's nice to hear about your son Autumncolours but absolutely enraging to hear about her saying a tank should be driven through that beautiful poppy installation.

She wasn't commenting on the art but said at the end of the exhibition, to reflect the real brutality and destruction of war, "a tank should roll through the display, leaving the ceramic flowers "shattered and broken"."

An attractive lady and a good actress ,but she can be unpleasant.
I've met her .
I don't think that Keely Hawes is a fan either .

Franbern, dont be so naive,

This is Gransnet. Two threads about women in their 90s who have active lives and something to say.

Why can't we just salute them for what they have both contributed in different ways, but to the same industry, all these years?

I'm starting to think this site should be re-named BitchNet!

Fartooold

I thought she was brilliant, such good light relief after such a depressing day!

Hear hear. I thought she was great.

Luckygirl3

It is interesting how people interpret what they see and hear so differently.

Far from patronising Sheila, I was impressed that they were so sparky with her and did not patronise her.

She has compassion and a sense of community. If that makes her a lefty then that is fine. These are qualities that it would be good to see in people of any political persuasion but sadly every man/woman for him/her self seems to be the order if the day.

She has seen the misery that populist brings ... we need to heed her warning.

👏

Rosie51

I went right off her when in an interview when the Tower of London 'poppies' were installed she thought they should drive a tank over them and destroy them rather than dismantle and take some around the country. It was pointed out that a portion of them had been pre-sold to ordinary people who would receive them when the display was dismantled. Her response was 'so what, just drive the tank over them?'
I was one of those who had paid to receive a touching beautiful tribute to a fallen soldier, mine in respect of a family member who fell on the first day at The Battle of the Somme, leaving a widow with three young children. I found her attitude extremely dismissive. Shame as previously I'd paid to see Sister Act when she was playing Mother Superior because I liked her.

Does she not realise those poppies each represent a life of someone who had died, sacrificing their lives to fight the very populism she professes to so detest?

She says she was evacuated in WW2 and wrote about it last year in an article in The Guardian:
Eighty-five years ago, in 1940, a silently weeping seven-year-old lay on a cracked leatherette sofa in urine-soaked pyjamas, looking through an alien window, praying that that same moon would protect my mum and dad from the killer bombs falling in London.

Her father was a publican in Bexley Heath and an air raid warden.

She said:
"Please God, don’t let us betray them. We must not forget and we must never let it happen again."

She said last year we must thank veterans by “making sure that we make a better world” ahead of the Victory in Europe (VE) Day 80 concert.

The poppies were there for that very reason, Sheila.
Lest we forget.

Some muddled thinking going on there, methinks.

What do you mean by that?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Same here easybee
I saw Sheila Hancock being interviewed by Jenni Murray years ago in a Manchester theatre. She was very entertaining but of a very leftish persuasion and so I can completely understand why her views would chime with some on here!

?

Estrellita

What do you mean by that?

Who? Moi?

My post is perfectly plain.

Keeping quiet I agree with you

Colls

Aveline

That's nice to hear about your son Autumncolours but absolutely enraging to hear about her saying a tank should be driven through that beautiful poppy installation.

She wasn't commenting on the art but said at the end of the exhibition, to reflect the real brutality and destruction of war, "a tank should roll through the display, leaving the ceramic flowers "shattered and broken"."

Exactly, I don’t think she meant to diminish the sacrifice made by our troops. She didn’t mean it literally. It was just to force us to remember what happened to those lives.
We really enjoyed her on HIGNFY in this household…three generations!

keepingquiet

This is Gransnet. Two threads about women in their 90s who have active lives and something to say.

Why can't we just salute them for what they have both contributed in different ways, but to the same industry, all these years?

I'm starting to think this site should be re-named BitchNet!

We are discussing her views, which is quite different from criticising her for her looks and how well she has aged or otherwise which would not be kind.

She has always expressed strong political views and we are allowed to agree or disagree with those as we see fit.

I didn't think she was diminishing the art or the sacrifice made by the forces, but she was diminishing the people who had paid to receive one of the poppies, especially those who had done so to commemorate a lost relative.

As for renaming the site BitchNet, should Sheila Hancock be immune from criticism of her stated opinions just because she's an actress who has been fortunate enough to live a long time? A pretty random metric by anyone's standards.

What exactly are Leftist views apart from caring about others? That’s literally all there is to it. Why people think it’s a bad thing baffles me.

Hobbycat OMG really??!!!

Esmay Attractive lady? really?

Sheila Hancock is a Quaker. I was a member of the same Quaker Meeting as she was for a number of years. I didn't see the programme but I would say that any views Sheila expressed are likely to have been rooted in her religious faith and practice
.

Never saw it. The presenter is even more irritating than any of the guests. Sheila Hancock, well, shee's got more strident with age.

'Democratic Socialism' is good - much of Europe performs better than we do with such Govts -- but the sort of hard-left nonsense espoused by Corbyn (& Hancock) and any Momentum fans still lurking in Labour offices isn't acceptable to the British public.