Overheard

They always say 'Be yourself]' Baffling injunction. What they mean is imitate yourself.

Alan Bennett on sitting for his

portrait, Portrait or Bust, BBC2

All that judo when I played Cathy Gale in The Avengers put my back out.

Honor Blackman, actress,

Daily Telegraph

Nobody should shrink from constructive criticism, but I found it difficult to take seriously that levelled against us by Tweedledum and Tweedledee, alias the comedy duo of Tim Renton and David Mellor, who called for our abolition.

Lord Palumbo, retiring as chairman of the Arts Council,

Sunday Times

He's already thought of all the suggestions you offer. All you do is provide a reminder service.

Kenneth Branagh on

directing Sir John Gielgud

The world was too busy.

Writer Herbert Steinhouse

on why no one published his

1949 interview with Oskar

Schindler, Sunday Telegraph