It's Always More Complicated

ironed_orchid has asked me for 'top five actors (stage or screen)'. I am taking the term as gender neutral, whether or not that was the intention, and confining myself to thesps whom I have seen in the flesh as well as on the screen. Not numbering because this isn't an absolute ranking:
Sir Ian McKellen
Glenda Jackson
Imelda Staunton
Simon Russell Beale
and then I am havering between Penelope Wilton and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
I did think about whether to include Peter O'Toole, on the grounds that when I was young I would have gone to see a movie of him reading the telephone directory. But when I did finally see him onstage (as Henry Higgins in Pygmalion) I was not terribly impressed.

***

Tagged by daegaer: To play, start by listing 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. When this is done, choose 10 people to be tagged and write their names at the bottom of your list. No tag backs! Those who get tagged then write their own 10-item list in their own journals. Be sure to include this set of rules. And anyone who cares to may consider themselves tagged.

I like Madame Rochas and Femme perfume, and there was a time when I was travelling abroad often enough that I ended up with a stash of duty-frees of rather silly proportions

Twice I have been all ready to go as a co-supervisor for a PhD thesis and twice life events have caused the prospective candidate to drop out. I am beginning to feel like an albatross. Or the Black Spot.

The music on my iPod includes Mandy Miller singing 'Nellie the Elephant'

I have a lot of little ritual habits of the order I do things in and get a bit freaked if something interrupts them.

I find it really annoying when I discover that someone has linked to my website from a site that you have to register for or be a member of.

There was a time when I hadn't come to the realisation that I need to take plenty of books with me while travelling. I can't imagine why this took so long to dawn.

I now have a habit of saving up books 'for when I go away' (even if this isn't going to happen in the particularly near future)

I have a collection of designer jewellery (presents from partner)

The British Library once asked me if, for the purposes of cataloguing, I could differentiate myself from [other person with same name]: I replied that although subjects of works in question were entirely different, it was nonetheless the same me (I am large, I contain multitudes).

At university, the Careers Service arranged for several of us to take the IBM test for fitness to become a computer programmer (it involved maths, logic, and 'computational skills' as I recall), and I scored an A. The person who had been particularly keen to do it (as opposed to 'might as well give it a try') got a C. I think remembering this is pretty peculiar.