It was lovely to read that one of the tunes played at George Cole’s funeral was the theme from “Minder”, the show in which he starred as the legendary Arthur Daley. Not many actors create such a stellar character, who even changes the English language, but that’s exactly what Cole did. And when Dennis Waterman sang “I could be so good for you”, he certainly was so good for the British public.
Like most people, I am not a fan of funerals. I have been to too, too many over the years and despite the idea that a funeral should be a celebration of someone’s life, it rarely is. I guess Cole’s funeral, given that he was 90, could be more of a celebration than a funeral of someone who was far younger.
I like the idea of something appropriate like the “Minder” theme being played because the music is synonymous with the man himself and the real minder himself, Waterman, because I imagine it might have helped people smile, just a little bit.
A few years ago, I went to a funeral of a much loved man who was little more than 50 when he died. His widow chose the music, which was Nilsson’s “Without You” – “I can’t live, if living is without you” – and it was utterly heartbreaking. To say that there wasn’t a dry in the house would be a gross understatement. Most people were openly blubbing. I know I was. I have usually left funerals very sad, but time has enabled me to think of the better times, the laughs and jokes, But with this man, a larger than life character, all I can think about is that funeral service and Harry Nilsson. I am hoping that my passing, which is hopefully not imminent, will not be greeted exactly by by laughter and amusement – well, not by everyone – but I’d hate it even more if my funeral service, which let’s face it, I won’t know much about, left people feeling even worse than when they came in.
Funerals are very personal, aren’t they? Not for the deceased, of course, but for the family who arrange it. The two I have arranged for my mother and stepfather, though sparsely attended, were planned in some detail, something unheard of with me. My stepfather had some music played on the Blackpool Tower Organ – he adored the playing of Phil Kelsall – and my mother had two songs which she would in all probability never have heard of by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (“Someday Soon”) and the Beach Boys (“Til I Die” which is all about how humble and small we are “I’m a cork on the ocean”, that sort of thing). That was very self-indulgent of me, but what the hell. And the services were relatively upbeat, in the sense that both had been in poor health before they did and when they died, it wasn’t quite a relief, but something close to that. Do you know what I mean?
It seems that the great George Cole, for whom the world really was his lobster, got the send off he deserved in exactly the right way. I think we could all learn a little from that.
