“Film ’81 is my favourite programme!” The writer and broadcaster Andrew Collins was quoting from his teenage diary during a sweet tribute to Barry Norman on Stephen Nolan’s BBC Radio 5 Live show (1 July, 9pm). “Not only for its info,” wrote his 15-year-old self, “but for its natural, witty, honest, reliable presenter . . .”
Much has been made since Norman’s recent death aged 83 of his remaining a “natural and reliable” critic to the end. No small thing. I heard elsewhere that Norman had estimated he had seen around 13,000 movies during his lifetime. Yet, during his career, he was rarely tempted to contextualise the movies within their industry, as did Pauline Kael, who stepped into film production for a while as though in a defeated response to the powerful realisation that it’s all about the money.
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