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Stella Street lives on

You may well remember the ingenious late 90s comedy Stella Street, in which John Sessions and Phil Cornwell created an imaginary suburban road that was populated solely by stars of stage and screen. If memory serves me correct, it was in Surbiton - also the setting for 70s eco-com The Good Life.

Anyway, thoughts of Stella Street came to mind when I heard about a demo to protest against the downgrading of a hospital in Chichester. Among the protesters was none other than Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who banged his head falling out of a tree in Fiji last year. I guess his attendance was the thing that made the protest newsworthy, but it was the detail of the story that actually made it funny. The aged rocker was joined by none other than Christopher Timothy, who famously starred as James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small. And according to the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/27/arts/EU-A-E-CEL-Britain-Rolling-Stones.php), even Patricia Routledge put in an appearance. I can picture it now. "The Bucket residence. Lady of the house defending the NHS..."

As fans of Stella Street will testify, all we needed was Jimmy Hill to turn up with a placard. And Jack Nicholson to nip down to the local Tesco and pick up some refreshments for the angry crowd.

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