Chapter I - Joshua Dane
If you saw him on the Heath, you might be curious
Did he come down the hill from an enclave like Keats Grove or up from the flats.
For the uninitiated an enclave in Hampstead is very high end.
The flats in question belong to the council
This man teetered on the edge of both.
He was 44.
Some people still looked.
He'd lost hair, but still had a mouthful of sparklers.
If they were of a certain age and stayed in and watched BBC telly Sunday night, just after the God slot more than 20 years ago, this man's face may have spiked a media neuron buried in the psyche.
The old and infirm seem to remember him best.
If not, you saw Lionel Angel for what he was.
Which could have been anything?
A scrubbed up painter and decorator. A banker retired early, Adman taking a well earned day off for a walk in the woods with his 12 year old son perhaps; he coulda played the bass for the Boom Town Rats, an anti terrorism expert chewing the cud
A man of many faces.
But none of these.
Now he kept house
General factotum to his wife's readies
Lionel hadn't always been dependent on her money
Once he was the son of Barrie Angel, Jewish Antique dealer and part time theatrical agent who had a penchant for young chorus girls and was married to Lionel's mother Genevieve.
Once Lionel had been the only fat kid in the school
The boy that could conjure laughter from the sick, neglected and psychotic relatives that peppered his childhood.
Not his mother or her twin sister though.
He wasn't that good
From the age of 17 to his mid 20s he'd been Joshua Dane actor, bon vivant and minor celebrity.
Joshua Dane ring any bells?
Eating out, clubbing, driving a convertible, living the luscious and within his means.
Sleeping in Bowies old bed in Manchester Street. W1
An actor who had a few quid.
At 23, Joshua Dane was in his third year of this epic on the BBC.
It had filled this slot on a Sunday night for the last 17 years.
Joshua Dane was bringing new blood, another generation
Might go on for ever
Look at Corrie
It didn't
Not for him anyway
A woman was responsible for that – not her fault
This cascade into madness started with a family meal with the girlfriend of 3 months and her family
She was 17, could stop traffic and was the wanton ambling nymph that dreams are made of
It was a Saturday, the studio day for that week's episode
YOU ARE READING
The Vent
RomanceSemi auto biographical novel set in the 1970s to early 2000s. From : Dagenham to Brighton a rags to riches story told in a modern and engaging style. Hopefully I'm not being presumptuous by saying it is how 'HELLO magazine' would have been if it wa...
