He never complains when the car disappears or when she breaks down while they are eating the Christmas goose.At the start of 1981, Ultravox were laying their claim to be one of the defining acts of the ‘80s following the global success of hit Vienna. On one occasion when the television had put her to sleep, Nigel had brought a duvet and put it over her then he brought another duvet so that he could lie on the floor beside her. When she can no longer sleep through the night, she falls asleep at dinner and on the underground and on the sofa. The diary's only consistently nice character seems to be Mary Allen's husband, Nigel. (When I asked about this - in a round-about way - she replied robustly that he was not sexy enough. One of the many occasions on which Allen bursts into tears is at rumour that she only got the job in the first place because she and Chadlington were lovers. Lord Chadlington, Allen's first chairman, was hopelessly out of his depth.
Had he not clung to the absurd idea of a temporary opera house on the south side of Tower Bridge, but taken a lease on the Lyceum instead, a great artistic depression might have been avoided. Isaacs should be hurting a lot more than he is.
Jeremy Isaacs, who was Director when many of the decisions that led to disaster were taken, appears briefly to complain that he is deeply hurt by criticism of his regime. Sympathetic characters are thin on the ground in the diary.
Within months Southgate had announced the appointment of an artistic administrator to run the mess. (It was too confrontational too like his own, perhaps.) He announced that he wanted the opera house to be run by an artist, not an arts administrator like Allen. A little over two months later, Southgate had decided he did not like Allen's style.
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