Turn again

Speaking about the Mayor of London who joined the Pride London parade, today it's time to introduce you to the most famous Lord Mayor, Dick Whittington (1350-1423).

It is said that he came to London after hearing the streets are paved with gold. When he saw this was not so, he left the city with his knapsack and cat when he heard the bells of St-Mary-le-Bow ringing out "Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London."

So he stayed, became mayor in fact four times and did many good things.

You can see him and his cat in a stained-glass window in St Michael Paternoster Royal, home to the Mission to Seafarers. The cat, though, might just be a reference to him making a fortune in the coal trade as cat was a common name for a coal barge at the time.

By the way, I saw another celebrity tonight. Emma Thompson sat in the first row of a BBC Radio recording of the National Theatre of Brent, a comedy double-act in the form of a mock two-man theatre troupe. Not just my kind of humour, but the audience loved them a lot.

The topic was fun, though. They performed the making (or better, the not-making) of the bed of artist Tracey Emin.