News about Donald Sinden

BRIAN VINER: If I compiled my list again today, I still wouldn't have space for The Italian Job, Forrest Gump, The Great Escape, or Titanic, which all of which encouraged readers to write in. By the way, that doesn't mean I don't like or even love those photos (although not Titanic), which makes me wish the iceberg would strike a bit sooner). Here is a list of the Top 20 movies you should have included in my Top 100 list, as well as your reasons for... The Shawshank Redemption (left), Mary Poppins (right), and Saving Private Ryan (inset).

My wife Mary and I will dine our last champagne and shepherd's pie party at our London penthouse overlooking the Thames this year. I'm sad, of course, but this Christmas season is winding down because the visitors, a majority of whom are senior fogeys like me, are finding it difficult to stand for two-and-a-half hours. After hosting 200 or so guests a night, I'm 83 and I'm really tired. In mid-December, we always have two parties on consecutive evenings, and I'll be on my feet for the duration of the evening, while the guests' glasses are topped, from actors to politicians, academics, scientists, and singers.

SHEILA HANCOCK; I confess that I am getting anxious about expressing opinion now. (Not often! (I hear you yell at me.) 'Cancelled' is a threat. That word doesn't seem threatening. Ancestral from childhood, Erased from life. My grandchildren are always reminding me, "You can't say that Nana" or "You can't use that word." It seems that I say the right words rather than that I say what I feel.