National Theatre

Synopsis:

Richard Attenborough and Diana Hawkins have been friends and colleagues for nearly 50 years. They have now teamed up to write this frank and funny account of their unlikely partnership and his extraordinary life.

Attenborough is the octogenarian celebrity peer, happily married since 1945, describing a lifetime of ceaseless activity as film star, director, producer, company chairman and indefatigable campaigner.

Hawkins, 70, a twice divorced author and single parent who lived for a time on benefits, went on to become Attenborough's publicist, business partner and, ultimately, his co-producer. He is staunch Labour, she is a committed Conservative.His glass is always half full, hers obstinately half empty.

Together, laughing and squabbling, they have traveled the world, meeting people and making films. Among the eclectic cast of characters who appear in this two-handed memoir are Steve McQueen, Mother Teresa, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mugabe, Edward G Robinson, Shirley MacLaine, Ronald Reagan, David Lean, Margaret Thatcher, John Mills, Steven Spielberg, Noel Coward, Tommy Lawton, Indira Gandhi, George Brown and Nelson Mandela.