Victor Hugo Has His Author Photo Taken

And a celebration of the glorious Anthony Head.

John Finnemore

Jun 12, 2026

"Oh, yes, Victor, very nice! Very intense. Like it. Great. Ok, shall we try another pose?"

"...Yep. Yep, that's good too. Ok, I think we've got some terrific options for that look. Tell you what, let's go crazy here and try one without your hand on your face. How about that?"

"......Ok. Yep, ok, that was my fault. I left you a loophole there, didn't I Vic? Fair enough. So! Now let's try one without your hand on your head AT ALL."

“...I’m not an idiot, Victor. YES, that counts as ‘on’! Of course it does, the back of your head is still your head! ... Look. We’re both tired. Let’s take a break, shall we, for a few days. Or years, or... decades, even, and then come at it fresh.”

Anthony Head

I hope he wouldn’t mind this being sandwiched between some daft jokes about Victor Hugo (and for what it’s worth I don’t think he would at all), but I wanted to say how shocked and sad I am to hear of the death of Anthony Head. He was a fantastic, funny actor and a lovely man; and I was so lucky to have him on Cabin Pressure.

I gave him, looking back at it, a really difficult job: to come into the core cast of a little show like ours after two series, as an adversary to one and a love interest to another, without either unbalancing it or feeling like an unnecessary add-on. Anthony did neither, he slotted right in as if he’d always been there, and his Beatrice and Benedick relationship with Stephanie Cole’s Carolyn provided some of my favourite scenes of the show - along with his superb 'voice-off’ against Roger Allam.

My favourite memory of Anthony from the show was when - as happened to all of us at one time or another - one little phrase suddenly became impossible to say. I think his was ‘soft shoe shuffle’. We all started playing up to the idea of ‘helping’ him get the line out, which of course made it far harder for him, and by the end, my memory is that I had taken his script and was crouched in front of him holding it up; and Ben and Roger were either side of him, arms round him, Roger crooning ‘you can do it, Tony’… as he tried to get the line out through tears of laughter.

And then when (of course) he finally delivered it immaculately, his exultant post-goal style celebrations took him across the whole stage.

I always assumed we’d work together again, and am so sorry that we will not. My sympathy and condolences to all his family and friends.

Back in Montmartre

We now return you - or at least those of you in Spendy Squadron- to Victor Hugo’s fifty year long photo shoot. Or, if you prefer, we bid you adieu with

Love,

The Airport.