| Like many writers and artists who
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| | at the Coach also inspired his friend,
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| frequented Soho's The Groucho Club and
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| | Keith Waterhouse, to write the play
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| The Coach and Horses, Afshin Rattansi
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| | Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, based on a
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| first met Jeffrey Bernard in the 1980s. A
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| | real incident when Bernard found himself
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| revival of the Keith Waterhouse play
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| | locked in the pub overnight. Bernard was
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| starring Tom Conti in which Bernard is
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| | later portrayed in the play by Peter
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| the lead character, talking about life at
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| | O'Toole, another Coach regular. But the
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| the Coach has just opened in London's
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| | pub is best known for its fort nightly
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| West End, coinciding with the
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| | Private Eye lunches at which the great
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| announcement that Rattansi's novel "The
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| | and good are plied with cheap food and
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| Dream of the Decade" will be on sale at
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| | even cheaper wine in the hope they will
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| the bar.The play is named after the line
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| | be indiscreet. One of the more recent
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| that often appeared in the UK's Spectator
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| | scalps was John Hemming, a new UK Liberal
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| magazine where Bernard's column, "Low
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| | Democrat MP who confessed to getting his
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| Life" would have appeared had Bernard not
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| | mistress pregnant last week after an Eye
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| imbibed too much to complete his piece.
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| | lunch.Peter O'Toole was a perfect Bernard
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| Rattansi recalls Bernard explaining to
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| | when he appeared in the 1989 premiere. He
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| him that he only drank to stay the pain
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| | had been warned so many times of his own
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| of diabetes. "But on a particularly sunny
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| | demise. And he responded by perfecting
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| Saturday morning in Groucho's, I asked
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| | the look and manner of a very polite, but
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| why he wanted a Vodka Tonic as there was
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| | very insolent, ghost. As the New York
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| sugar in the Tonic. He told me that sugar
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| | Times has it, "he is theater through and
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| in tonic was okay. He then proceeded to
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| | through, as witness his apprentice years
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| drink himself into a kind of coma."The
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| | at the Bristol Old Vic when he did one of
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| Dream of the Decade includes vignettes of
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| | the great Hamlets, along with Chekhov,
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| characters that frequented Soho in the
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| | Beckett and John Osborne's Jimmy Porter,
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| 1980s and is a quartet in one volume. It
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| | plus the dame in the theater's annual
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| was Norman Balon the famous owner of the
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| | pantomime. And then, after he had yielded
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| Coach and Horses up until a few weeks
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| | a goodly part of his interior to surgery,
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| before the revival of the play who said
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| | he came back on the London stage in 1989
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| the novel should be sold from behind the
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| | in the play "Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell,"
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| bar of the infamous tavern. The new
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| | a one-man show and a bow to being
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| owners of the rapidly changing pub say
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| | self-destructive, alcoholic but
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| they will carry on the tradition. "The
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| | undefeated."Bernard's life, as
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| Dream of the Decade - The London Novels",
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| | reconstructed in the play at least, is
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| which is officially to launch in the UK
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| | hardly inspiring or even particularly
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| in the winter, is thus available at a
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| | eventful. Dedicated to the pursuit of
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| special price in the most famous public
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| | drink, gambling and sex, he stumbles from
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| house in London.The play, often
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| | one minor crisis to another, each
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| remembered as a one-man show but in fact
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| | entirely of his own making. The
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| packed with characters performed by a
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| | highlights are incidents of child-like
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| versatile suporting cast of four, was a
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| | silliness, such as his involvement with a
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| highly successful vehicle for its
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| | friend who runs a book on cat-races that
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| original star Peter O'Toole, who appeared
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| | he holds in the hall of his Battersea
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| in the original run at the Apollo Theatre
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| | flat.The script is littered with the type
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| and in a later revival at the Old Vic.
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| | of anecdotes which would fall flat if
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| 'For the next three months, I'm going to
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| | told by lesser voices. A less successful
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| be playing a smoker, a drinker, a
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| | raconteur would find himself mumbling,
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| womaniser and a gambler - all the good
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| | "It's funny if you're drunk,"
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| things in life,' says Tom Conti, who at
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| | apologetically. The Waterhouse-O'Toole
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| 64 is a year younger than Bernard was
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| | magic is to make them funny when you are
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| when he died. But Conti looks in far
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| | stone cold sober.Waterhouse's Bernard is
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| ruder health. He has often hinted in the
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| | a feckless, irresponsible and
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| past that he and his wife of 38 years,
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| | self-indulgent drunk, who lurches from
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| actress Kara Wilson, have enjoyed an open
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| | one pointless bohemian distraction to
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| marriage. There only daughter Nina,
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| | another without a care in the world. He
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| herself an actress, has said that both
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| | is also charming, loyal to his friends,
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| her father and mother had enjoyed 'a
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| | generous of spirit, enormously witty,
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| string of affairs' during their
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| | without malice or shallow media cynicism.
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| marriage.'It is a gift of a role. Jeffrey
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| | The play is a hymn to a beautiful loser,
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| was a one-off - great fun and a very
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| | a free spirit, enslaved by the spirits
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| likeable man. The last time I saw him was
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| | you pay for.In the "Dream of the Decade"
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| in Wheeler's restaurant in Soho and he
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| | characters are the same even if
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| looked as if he wasn't going to last the
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| | thematically there are deeper historical
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| day. He was completely unrecognisable
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| | resonances with changing British and U.S.
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| from the man I had met years previously.
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| | culture and of how the media scene has
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| It was really quite scary.'Another
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| | changedas the newspaper barons of old
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| character in the novel, the owner of the
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| | gave way to big corporations. Rattansi
|
| Coach and Horses, Norman Balon, has just
| |
| | began his career writing for the London
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| retired. Mr Balon, whose memoirs are
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| | Guardian newspaper, which informs the
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| titled You're Barred! You Bastards,
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| | last novel in the volume, "Good Morning,
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| worked at the Coach & Horses since 1943.
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| | Britain." The London of "Dream" is far
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| The pub, which occupies a prime location
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| | more inclusive that Waterhouse's
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| at the corner of Greek Street and Romilly
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| | Bernard's London. And the bar in the
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| Street, provided inspiration for
| |
| | second novel, "Reproach" is starker and
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| Bernard's Lowlife column in the Spectator
| |
| | colder than the Coach, famous for its
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| until his death in 1997.Bernard's antics
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| | literray, artistic and theatrical crowd.
|
