The happiest university event I've ever attended took place at Durham last Tuesday, when the baritone Sir Thomas Allen was installed as Chancellor of Durham University. Sir Thomas is much more than a favourite son - he embodies all that is best in the North-East, and the University was celebrating the whole of its society as much as it was honouring him.
Another great North-Easterner, Sir Bobby Charlton, used to say that "a footballer is as good as his last match". Sir Tom's last before the installation was a brilliant Knight and Dame concert with Dame Felicity Lott and wonderful pianist Eugene Asti at the Wigmore Hall. Highlights were a stunning September Song, Dame Felicity's Bewitched, and a hilarious I remember it well. A couple of years ago, Sir Tom forgot one of his lines in this, and got a laugh by reading from the pianist's score. He and Flotte played the idea for all it was worth this time, beginning with a fluff on the first line and a schoolmistressly "Let's start again," and continuing with subtle variations that had everyone in stitches, including a Spanish flourish from Dame Felicity in which she managed to look as if she were falling apart. Sir Tom maintained to the end that it wasn't deliberate.