Question Time: Howard Schuman, television playwright
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Your support makes all the difference.Howard Schuman came to London in the late Sixties, intending to stay a year. He never left. He decided to escape from Vietnam, Nixon and New York - 'in that order' - and went on to write the cult television musical 'Rock Follies.' Currently the presenter of BBC2's 'Moving Pictures', Howard's new play, 'Young Jung', will be shown on BBC2 in October.
Which part of London would you most like to live in, and why?
I've lived in Pimlico for 26 years and here's where I'll stay. It's a true neighbourhood with a street market, cheap cafes and restaurants. An exhilarating mix of ethnic and financial diversity with the most beautiful council housing in London in Phase One of Lillington Gardens. But we need a proper cinema here.
Is there anywhere that you have never visited in London and keep meaning to?
Dozens of places - even after 26 years - remain unvisited, but my top venues are the hundreds of artists' studios in Hackney and Whitechapel.
What is your worst transport story?
The No 73 bus taking an hour to traverse Oxford Street.
What is your closest brush with crime in London?
My partner had his car stolen - it wound up in the basement car park of a council estate in Stockwell, found as the result of a telephone tip-off by a man who had been walking his dog - in that basement]
Nominate your most romantic spot
St James's Park, at 11pm, with the floodlights illuminating the bird sanctuary.
What was the last film you saw, and where?
Highway Patrolman, at the Metro.
Where did you last eat out, who with and why?
Lou Pescadou in Earl's Court, with my longtime companion and two of our best male friends after a spectacular performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony at the Proms.
Have you ever been banned from anywhere?
The Biograph Cinema, when it existed for the pleasure of gay men, on the Wilton Road. It had been turned into a maximum security prison by Henry Cooper's twin brother and I was ejected for wilful hanky-panky.
Have you ever seen anyone famous on the streets?
Constantly - but I'm far too cool to tell you who they've been.
What would you change about London?
Well, most urgently, a central elected governing unit and a rational transport policy. And more cinemas like the Clapham Picture House, the Lumiere, the Curzon Mayfair and venues bringing back the spirit of the Scala - the Cinema Fumee is a great start. But London is the most diverse city in the world, with an amazing balance between its public and private worlds. Its my home and I'm crazy about it.
(Photograph omitted)
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