Lip Reading Cassette

There is a lady bountiful quality in Maureen Lipman, her self-assured, fluctuating posh northern intonation suggestive of being a cut above. Even in occasional quandary--getting lost driving out of Guildford on a wet, dark night--the aura of authority is retained.She proclaims "I seem to spend a great deal of time exchanging witty badinage with people I will never see again or eating suppers I can't taste because afterwards I'm going to have to sing for them", and nostalgically recalls her parents entertaining in Hull. "I know we all have evenings--it's the bit between The Bill and bed... theirs weren't just evenings, they were evenings".Propensities of family and friends are lucidly and amusingly disclosed, as is--save the odd crudity and matters concerning the cat--talk of dinner parties, hazards of hanging baskets, ostensible attachment for life to a microphone and battery pack by plastic cable ties, wedding presents, underwear, wrinkles and cruises. Maureen Lipman has endured surgery and holistic healing for a tumour, danced with dolphins and thoroughly enjoyed her time playing Aunt Ella in the recent production of Oklahoma, yet there is little palpable warmth in this compendium of memoirs. --Lyn Took (2 cassettes 2hrs 45 mins)Read More