Andrew: The TV movie (starring John Hurt as Quentin) is indeed a gem. So was the earlier TV documentary (starring Quentin as Quentin), though it seems not to have been DVD-ed. QC truly was, as he liked to boast, one of the stately homos of England.

From looking up his name on IMDB, I see that he played Polonius in a TV Hamlet. Good grief!

I especially liked his landlady stories. QC spent most of his life in rented rooms in other people’s houses. One of his landladies was a great “curtain-twitcher” — i.e. she liked to position herself behind the lace curtain at the front window, pulling it aside now and then when anything interesting happened, e.g. a neighbor entering or leaving his house. This particular landlady gave a running commentary to whoever was in the room about the neighbors and their lives, of which she mainly disapproved. One day a smart young woman emerged from a nearby house and walked off down the street. Landlady to QC: “You see that one? She’s the worst of the lot! Let’s face it, any girl will do it for money; but THAT one — she does it just to oblige!”