Thursday 19th October – Leonardo Royal London St Paul’s

This year more than 100 Old Friends and Guests gathered at a venue new to us in the shadow of the iconic St Paul’s Cathedral – a wonderful location in the heart of the city.

With only three days’ notice we had to make some significant changes to rescue the event. The original Guest Speaker, Clive Myrie, was booked many months in advance but at a time when none of us could foresee a war in the Middle East taking place. Clive had the important task of reporting for the BBC live from Israel and had no choice but to cancel.

The situation was rescued as we managed to secure the services of another broadcasting legend – Jeremy Vine. We also managed to organise the table programmes being re-printed within 48 hours.

The venue provided an excellent space for the welcome reception and dinner while the service was absolutely first class.

Jeremy Vine was incredibly entertaining and funny, showing enormous energy and a complete willingness to engage and mix with the audience. Throughout his performance there was a huge amount of laughter and fun.

At the end of proceedings there was a long queue of Members and Guests looking for autographs and selfies for which Jeremy was only too happy to oblige – indeed, he stayed with us until late in the evening.

A really great evening with a tremendous turnout, ambience and a lot of fun.

Here are just a few of the comments received after the evening:

“Just a short note to thank you for an excellent time last night. Jeremy was an excellent substitute speaker. All my guests really enjoyed it.”

“Just a short note to thank you and the committee for a wonderful evening last night. My first OF attendance since COVID, it has reminded me what a wonderful Society it is. So lovely to catch up with so many industry friends. Well done and thank you.”

“Congratulations on a fantastic evening! Good venue, good food, good company, ran like clockwork, the staff could not do enough for you and Jeremy Vine was excellent.

“It would be worthy of congratulations on a normal occasion but given the circumstances it was an outstanding achievement. Please pass on my thanks to all involved.”