It was the night I rescued Dame Joan Collins’ silk evening glove.
The star of TV’s Dynasty and countless film roles was the star A-list celeb at a dinner to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Margaret Thatcher.
“I adored her, I thought she was a wonderful, wonderful inspirational person,” she told me as she arrived at the VIP entrance at the Guildhall in the City of London.
“I wish we had somebody like that today to look up to and I think it was very sad that she left us so soon – and I’m freezing!”
With husband Percy Gibson, 32 years younger than Joanie, on her arm, the 92-year-old national treasure was due to make a speech at the glitzy dinner.
But as she and Percy went inside to escape the chill of the evening, she somehow dropped one of her gloves, which matched her bright red evening dress, beside her car.
Eager to come to the aid of a 92-year-old TV and movie star, after spotting it lying in the road, I picked it up and handed it to the Guildhall’s friendly head of security, Richard Gentry.
Boris Johnson arriving at Margaret Thatcher’s birthday bash.
Joan Collins speaking to Sky’s Jon Craig outside the late Margaret Thatcher’s 100th birthday bash.
Within minutes, Dame Joan’s driver had returned in her large black Mercedes and Richard handed the glove to him. My good deed for the evening was complete.
Of course, the evening was all about dynasty, the Thatcher dynasty. The principal speaker at the dinner was Sir Mark Thatcher, tall, stylish and elegant in his DJ at the age of 72.
“I think my mother would be really impressed and warmed that there’s such an important occasion and surrounded by her friends,” he told me just before Joan and Percy arrived.
I then asked Sir Mark if there were lessons for Kemi Badenoch to learn from the tough time his mother had in her early years as Opposition leader in the 1970s.
“It’s certainly true that in my mother’s early years, by my recollection, it wasn’t perhaps as easy as it became later on,” he said. “I think there’s similarity between the first two years of my mother’s leadership and Kemi’s leadership of the party.
“Both of them have become leaders in the face of a bitter election defeat. So there are some similarities.”
Last of the arrivals at the VIP entrance – no surprise! – was a typically jaunty Boris Johnson, who told me: “The world needs to recover the clarity and logic of Margaret Thatcher.”
And asked what lessons Kemi Badenoch should learn from Margaret Thatcher, he said: “I think Kemi Badenoch is amply endowed with Thatcherian characteristics of bounce and zap. She’s got it, don’t worry!”
And with that, he gave me a playful punch in the chest and dashed inside: the box office politician – still, according to his supporters – off to join a box office star of the screen.
