The Diana Dors double bill is out on DVD!  The booklet contains an article by yours truly about Diana’s fashion style and there are lots of pix of her frocks to drool over.  I’ve got a copy to give away to one lucky winner.  Diana is GREAT in both of these films and I love Jack Hulbert as P.C. Feathers.   The recipe of the month here at Silver Screen Suppers is Diana Dors Moussaka so I love the idea of the winner eating the moussaka whilst watching the films!  I’m late with this month’s newsletter but hopefully tonight…

Here’s the competition question – what was Diana Dors’ real name?  Careful of typos now chums!  Enter by leaving a comment below or emailing me at silverscreensuppers – at – yahoo.co.uk   Names of those who get it right will go into a hat and the winner will be drawn at random in a grand ceremony in my bed on 1st January.

A busy week this week as I prepare for two momentous things.  One, my birthday on Saturday (run for cover, my celebration involves GUNS) and two, my presentation to The Guild of Food Writers about the Silver Screen Suppers project.  I am scared and excited in equal measures.

When you are in the same room as Jay Rayner, Mary Berry, Nigella Lawson and Ottolenghi, you know something magical will happen.  So it was tonight.  I went to the Guild of Food Writers Awards and oh my goodness me, something amazing happened.

My Diana Dors obsession has been growing lately.  There has been the recent attempt at her Moussaka, the gift of an “Open Dors” LP, the correspondence with her son about including her recipe in the forthcoming book, and last night, a screening of “The Unforgettable Diana Dors” in the Silver Screen Suppers Towers home cinema.  Add to this the fact that at my fingertips in my day job is the entire TV-am archive. This includes many wonderful appearances of Diana, endearing herself to most of the 1980s female population (and some of the men) by admitting she had a weight problem and pledging to lose weight along with members of the public by following a calorie controlled diet.

I have watched these appearances with great interest.  Taking note of all the foodstuffs she recommends in order to shed pounds and LOVING her honest and down to earth way of engaging with members of the public who were, just like her, trying to lose weight.

Tonight, quite by chance, I met the cookery writer who put together all the recipes for the Diana Dors diet!  And yes, I have her email address!   Whoopee!  Can you believe the serendipity?  I am so excited.  She has even kept one of the special calorie counter devices Diana demonstrated on the show that I have been looking for on ebay for aons.   Will report back when I have more information….

Only the prospect of a man I really fancy coming round with a copy of the Diana Dors LP under his arm would ever make me cook an aubergine.  But it’s happening tomorrow so I have done it.  Mr H has found a copy of “Swingin Dors” and is personally delivering it.   I am so excited I am having palpitations.   I have made DD’s moussaka and I am sure her recipe is good (I have followed it to the letter) but it’s just the thought of eggplant that is freaking me out.  Bah.

I shall wear the gold dress.  It is getting plenty of outings.  First the awards, then Eurovision, then last night as my “drinking champagne at home dress”.  It is DEFINITELY the kind of number Diana would pour herself into.  I am hoping Mr H likes it.  He appears to be the kind of man that would.

PS – Mr H liked the frock AND the Moussaka.  And strangely enough, so did I.  Here’s a not very good pic.

I have a Diana Dors curry in the slow cooker and will be channeling her bombshell energy on Wednesday as I’m off to an awards ceremony in a dress that I think is the kind of va-va-voom item that Diana herself would have worn.  I will feel UPHOLSTERED and whether I win the award I am up for (I have a one in three chance) or not, it doesn’t matter.  I will feel like a million dollars in this piece of glorious architecture that was just waiting in a vintage clothes shop in Muswell Hill for me to walk in and find it.  It is without a doubt the most amazing dress I have ever owned.  And it was £2 short of my maximum frock budget.  The label says, “Carnegie – It’s a Symphony”.  Hell yeah!

I’ve had a pretty amazing weekend although it might not sound like it….  Basically I have really got to grips with “Chav Corner” as Rosalind calls it.  The area under my bedroom window that was full of unpacked boxes and umpteen laundry bags of clothes is now almost empty.  I can walk all the way around my bed – imagine that!  I think the impetus was the sudden realisation last week that there would be room for a writing desk there if I actually tackled all the junk and got rid of some.  And today I did.  Lots of stuff is out of here.  Am really liking the new empty space.  What a luxury.

I have been watching a lot of films by myself this weekend.  I seem to have got over the idea that this is a self indulgent practice.  Why not?  Other people watch a lot of TV on their own so this is more or less the same thing.  I had a Ginger Rogers double bill last night with “I’ll Be Seeing You” (I was very impressed with Shirley Temple in this) and “Monkey Business” (Marilyn was fab as always and the monkey cracked me up)  and tonight the fabulous “Ball of Fire” with Barbara Stanwyck which I really enjoyed.  I wish I could remember some of Sugarpuss O’Shea’s wisecracking lines.  Hold down the clutch?  Pull in the clutch?  I’d love to say that line in the right context but I’ll have to watch the film again to get it exactly on the knuckle.