...of the divine Jill Swinburne in the Beiderbecke trilogy.

Be still, my beating heart...

He taught me all I need to know about Jazz, that there are just 3 types;
1] Hot
2] Cool
3] When does the effin tune start.

...very sad to have read his obits today. Didn't know he was ill. Whimsical, gentle humour, slight surreality but always a fairly profound, humanitarian point to it, always beautifully put.

'Beiderbecke' was brilliant, his adaptations of 'Barchester Chronicles' likewise. His other own-pen '80s series 'Oliver's Travels' was brilliantly written and let down only by hammy Alan Bates' casting as the lead male (interesting to see, from one obit today, that Plater himself thought so too). More recently, his episodes of 'Lewis' were always the best of each series - the writing making the most of what humour and dramatic possibilities were left in the thing given, if we're honest, the rather sell-by-date-past aspect of the series itself.

I've read his novel 'Misterioso' - also terrific, like his novelisations of the Beiderbecke trilogy - but alas never saw the TV play version. Like so much of his TV output, its tragically not available on DVD. Even 'Olivers Travels' is only available on DVD in Holland.

Perhaps now there'll be some effort to make more of his work available, or to rebroadcast some of his TV plays/series.

If anyone from BBC4's listening...

...and it seems they were!

Alan's 'Last Of The Blond Bombshells' plus the 'Hearing The Music' Timeshift doc are on this Thursday night. Hurrah! :-)