not so much, look you see. it's just that i was going through a few files recently, as opposed to some date in the future yet to dawn, and found quite a gem.
if for some reason you think that this means i am going to post an image of a signed picture sent to me by legendary, and sadly no longer with us, hard man actor John Hallam, you are most prescient. a good idea for you might be to buy one of them lottery ticket things with the numbers you see being drawn, but that is up to you. normally yes, those blessed with the latent talent of being prescient take a solemn vow not to use such power for financial gain.
anyway, yes, the picture.
i got it off him when i wrote to him, via the BBC (which was easy to do in the 80s as they only had that one address in that London), congratulating him on his triumph in the complex, demanding and important role of Barnsey, the cellmate of "Dirty" Den Watts, in EastEnders.
we - for more than i is this true - were mesmerised by his performance. it is estimated that the casting of Hallam is what effectively "saved" EastEnders, as the strong, brooding silent performance he gave drew some two to three million extra viewers every week. or twice a week, or however often it was shown then.
for several episodes he remained a mesmerising, haunting and decidedly silent presence in the show. then, the spell was somewhat broken when he finally spoke in the one episode, asking "Dirty" Den "everything alright"? it was, arguably except no one can disagree, the one true Olivier moment the show has ever had.
did i ever write to Peter Dean, who played "Horny" Pete Beale in the show? no. i mean, he was ok, but no Barnsey. also, a good friend at school assured me that Peter Dean only ever responded to fan letters off of Lambeth, or other such demarcated cockney areas. the 14p i would have spent on a 2nd class stamp in 1988 would, then, have been wasted.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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