The BBC reports the death of Ron Moody, the latest old trouper to go. It quotes Moody as saying: “Oliver! was a moment in one’s life when you find where you really are”. Moody, of course, played Fagin in “Oliver!” Now (aside from the grammar), if I’d been Ron, I’d have wanted a better epitaph than that at the top of the story. Because, if the quote is accurate, I’m not sure what it says about him. And it reminded me of an old Jonathan Miller story: Miller said that when he was making The Merchant of Venice, with Laurence Olivier playing Shylock, Olivier told him, “There is one thing we must avoid at all costs: we must be careful not to offend the Hebrews.” Miller told him, “The best way to avoid offending “the Hebrews” is to make sure that Shylock doesn’t look like something out of Oliver!”

I’m with Jonathan Miller.