First half only

Last night I went to the National Theatre to see Really Old, Like Forty-Five, which is a play about the massive problems Britain is facing with an ageing population - nearly 10m citizens are over the age of 65. But the figure that shook me most was in the show's programme notes which stated there are now 3,000 people in Britain over the age of 100. That really outstanding Secretary of State, Peter Lilley, was the first to spot this trend some 20 years ago, and there have been several plays dabbling at it recently, whereas he was years ahead of his time. He warned Margaret Thatcher that people no longer conveniently retired at 65, got a gold watch and died at 67, which suited the insurance companies and governments alike; in this morning's Times, there are obituaries of people aged 93, 91 and 85, As I was getting neither entertainment nor any real new information from this play, I left during the interval.