She may be three months short of her 84th birthday, but the old girl has still got it.
Honor Blackman, who played Cathy Gale in the Avengers before starring as iconic Bond girl Pussy Galore, brought an injection of glamour to a rain-soaked Glasgow yesterday. Joanna Lumley may have hogged last week’s headlines, but her fellow Avenger proved a huge draw for the annual Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice’s Ladies’ Lunch at the city’s Hilton Hotel yesterday. Outside, the weather oscillated between radiant sunshine and dramatic downpours as around 600 pairs of stilettoed feet stepped out of cars before dancing through torrents of rainwater to the hotel. Ann Barnett, 61, has been attending the lunch for several years. She said: “We’re very excited about seeing Honor Blackman. I wonder how she’ll appear – if she’ll be wearing her leathers” Right on cue, the brass lift opened to reveal the lady herself. Sartorially, Ms Blackman did not disappoint. She was dressed not in leathers but a tight-fitting black skirt and scooped-neck jacket studded with an eye-catching silver brooch, and was wearing pearl earrings. Perfect scarlet nails and swept-back hair completed her look. With a final smoothing down of her skirt, she stepped quietly from the lift and made her way, with her trademark poise, into the banqueting hall, creating a ripple of turning heads. Volunteer Margaret Lamb, 66, said: “I’m hoping to get a photograph of Honor Blackman. I remember watching her in black-and-white films and I watched The Avengers all the time.”
After a welcome drink, guests moved into the banqueting hall, festooned with pink ribbons and pink flowers. Hospice chief executive Rhona Baillie gave an address before TV presenter Kaye Adams interviewed Ms Blackman, who recounted her experience of working with Sir Sean Connery in 1964’s Goldfinger.