The playwright Trevor Griffiths co-wrote the screenplay of Reds with its star, Warren Beatty, and a string of other films. He says on his birthday he will be completing Habuccus Dreams, “a piece I promised to have finished a week and more back”. He adds: “I am also working of a new theatre piece about three men on a couch, called Three Men On A Couch, which will be ready this summer. Otherwise I’ll spend the day quietly among a dwindling bunch of friends counting my blessings.” RGT
Birthdays today
Jonathan Agnew, cricket correspondent, 51; Maya Angelou, writer, singer and actress, 83; Robert Bargery, director, The Georgian Group, 45; David Blaine, illusionist, 38; Johnny Borrell, rock singer, 31; Karren Brady, vice-chair, West Ham United, 42; Robert Downey Jr, actor, 46; Margaret Dupont, tennis champion, 93; Jane Eaglen, operatic soprano, 51; Dave Hill, guitarist and singer, 65; Monty Norman, composer, 83; Graham Norton, television host, 48; Ian St James, novelist, 74; Dave Sexton, football manager, 81; Dame Catherine Tizard, Governor-General of New Zealand, 1990-96, 80; Peter Vaughan, actor, 88; Professor George Wedell, director-general, European Institute for the Media, 1991-93, 84.