Too darn'd hot!

So it's been a busy busy week. Book launch, start of filming, trip to Yorkshire, and all of course in the most oppressive heat imaginable.

I find dressing for the heat is a real problem. In fashion terms, I'm at my best in winter. I love jackets, cardigans, scarves and cosy dressing. On the fashion front I long for the crisp cool days of Autumn that cry out for a touch of wool, and a firm cord and brogue!

I suppose the truth is that my "fuller figure" is not suited to a lighter style of dressing. It requires a chunky knit, or a well tailored wool suit to look good. I have lots of linen for the summer months, but within minutes of putting it on, it looks crumpled and careworn. I lunched with a female colleague from the Actors Centre board the other week and she turned up looking fabulous in a fuchsia shift dress. A simple shift dress. What's the equivalent for us chaps then?  Hanging in my wardrobe, and frequently used in the flat on hot nights, both Richard and I have a dish dash,  the simple white cotton Arab garment that is a blessing during this heat. It  would take quite a bit of chutzpah  to turn up in it for the eight thirty-one to London Bridge. And yet how much more sensible it would be that any form of trousers and shirt.

Fabulously cool water bottles we've all been given
 on the set of Him and Her"

A "Linen plus"  suit from good old Marks and Sparks saw me through my book launch on Monday night, a gorgeous affair full of warmth (in the people sense) and followed by a delicious treat of a supper at the Ivy with friends courtesy of Richard. The suit might have been "Linen plus", but it  was still "couture minus" by the end of the very hot evening.

Mercifully most of my work this week has been filming, which means I can leave the house at some ungodly hour in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and not have to worry about how I look. Then, on set, it is someone else's responsibility to provide clean and  ironed clothes and to keep me cool. This week it was a sensible pair of blue Marks & Spencer slacks, and a polo shirt. In the forthcoming week it will be a very nice three-piece suit, hotter, but hopefully manageable.

Mum cools down in Yorkshire in the
best way possible

I was reading in the paper this morning that this heat wave isn't a patch on the big heat wave we had way back in 1976 in temperature terms. But then, way back in 1976, I don't think I was a patch on where I am now in dress terms. The summer of 1976 saw me as a member of the National youth Theatre rehearsing in a school in Chalk farm. I remember the fashion of the time, as led by Tim McInerney, was big grandad shirts, worn with charity shop purchased waistcoats, and scarves. We were all too cool to wear shorts, and yet the heat seemed to have very little effect on us.

 Now I am reaching for shorts, linen trousers, or long white Arab garments the minute the mercury starts to soar. I need to feel cool or I can't concentrate.  Spending my day on a sun lounger in just a pair of trunks and a T-shirt is quite simply the only way I can contemplate coping with this heat. And of course, in that "wouldn't you just know it" sort of way, this has been my busiest summer work wise for many years. Given that we are filming until 17 August, I think we are guaranteed a reasonably continuous spell of sun drenched warm days.

It's great, but it's too darned hot.