Quote for the Day

From the vault, January 22, 2013:

The following anecdote comes from an episode of QI, panelist John Sessions talking about Richard Attenborough and his directing of the film Gandhi, which won 8 Oscars including best pic and best actor:

... he was directing the great Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, which you probably know . . . I think they were maybe a million, possibly even two million extras, er, in . . . during Gandhi's funeral, and the first assistant, the very famous, redoubtable David Tomblin, was told by Sir Dicky Attenborough to instruct the crowd as to how they may react.

And he said to David Tomblin, he said [as Attenborough], "I want you to convey to them, David, that Gandhi's died, and it's an extraordinary event, darling . . . extraordinary event in the whole history of India, darling! That . . . The . . . That Gandhi is gone; their god, their national hero is gone."

So David Tomblin turned to the crowd and he said, "Right, listen up! Gandhi's dead and you're all fucking sad!"