Telly Talk: Rolf Harris Paints His Dream

Telly Talk: Ten years ago I interviewed Rolf Harris when he was in Shropshire to headline the Harper Adams University College student ball. Therefore it was especially sad watching last night's Arena documentary on the great man to see how the intervening years have taken their toll.

There's the persistant back ache, the constant feeling of tiredness and the memory which is becoming less reliable by the day.

Still, that's enough about me. Can you believe Rolf Harris is 80?

There he was, still performing, although he's moved on from small Shropshire colleges to the Pyramid stage at the massive Glastonbury Festival, and still painting with the energy and enthusiasm of student.

Last night's documentary showed him at work on scenes inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with models Lizzie Jagger, Lily Cole, Dervla Kerwan and Emer Kenny. Not a bad gig in anyone's book.

At one point Rolf showed Lily a book of his paintings. It's a funny thing to say about a man who is probably the most famous artist in Britain (ask anyone to name a painter and I'm willing to bet Rolf's name is one of the first to come up) but he's a bit good, isn't he? I didn't realise. Growing up he was always jolly Rolf off the telly who painted those massive pictures with decorators' paint brushes, but seeing what he can do with the smaller ones was a real eye-opener. As indeed were the prices his work sells for.

Unfortunately (and there's always and unfortunately) I didn't think we got to see enough of these works. Even the paintings of the models - the whole point of the show - were not shown enough. God knows I could spend days looking at Dervla Kerwan wearing very little clothing (her wearing very little clothing, not me), but I wanted to see more of Rolf's paintings. We saw them, but we weren't given enough time to really see them (if that's not too pretentious for you).

Still, we were left with the impression of a happy, decent man doing what he loves, doing it well, and without a malicious or cruel bone in his body. Somewhere in England Rolf is at work in his studio and all is right with the world. That's a comforting thought to carry into 2011.

Meanwhile, by complete contrast, Frankie Boyle and Morgana have both come to the end of their sketch shows on Channel Four. That's an even more comforting thought.

By Andrew Owen