'I made out, I made a mess of my life - but I never made jam.' Back to Riverside Studios on Saturday to see Elizabeth McGovern - Downton's Lady Cora - as Ava Gardner at the end of her life in a play - written by McGovern herself - based on these conversations with a journalist. She was rather good (though she's no voluptuous sweater girl, I was sitting near the front and she's skin and bone!). But the play could do with a bit of tweaking and I can't see it running until April; despite advertising all over the Tube, ticket sales seem to be dire and the prices rather steep for the painfully uncomfortable seats at the Riverside. But when we were there last weekend, we noticed a £6.50 offer for cinema seats - aaarrggh, the cinema seats are even more uncomfortable than the studio theatre and heaven help the six-footers because I was suffering badly from cramp! Luckily the film was riveting - you do have to suspend disbelief but Almodovar is so skilled a director that one simply does! And the colours ... I'd like to see it again, just to concentrate on each detail, an earring, an apron, what an eye he has. And then, of course, we emerged wondering what it must be like to be as beautiful as Penelope Cruz ...

The only other film I've seen recently was Cyrano - which was very forgettable and why on earth do it as a musical when you don't have any decent songs? It looked very sumptuous but it's all a bit one pace and I'm afraid I dozed off.