Tonys for Tom (and an Arthur Smith anecdote)

Brilliant news regarding the wonderful Coast of Utopia trilogy which has just swept 7 Tony awards. A pity it wasn't as successfully received here in its original production but there's plenty to take a vicarious thrill from in it winning in the USA.

Talking of Stoppard, who provided one of my most oft-used expressions of frustration: "for the love of Hegel", we had a very fun time seeing Mr Arthur Smith at the Nottingham Playhouse last night. Besides reading out Cloud's "I'm grumpy because..." line (of which I will let him write up the story), Smith recounted how on one of the few occasions he has gone up to praise a famous person for their work it was Tom Stoppard whom he saw in the National Theatre bookshop.

I said "Hi, I'm Arthur Smith and I just want to say how much I admire your work" - and he just walked off! The bastard!

Years later I was at an opening night party for a play starring Tom Stoppard's son.

And it was at this point I realised that Tom Stoppard is a tall man.

For years I had been bearing a grudge against a short man who just looked a bit like Tom Stoppard...

Brilliant. A very enjoyable evening in the company of Mr Smith.