Like quite a few million other viewers I watched with interest the documentary about the £1million fraud case involving an episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire back in 2001.

I am still not clear how the 'coughing conspirator' was intelligent enough to know all those answers in order to help the major, yet daft enough not to realise all those coughs would be spotted and investigated.

I was also surprised that it reportedly cost us taxpayers about £2million for the court case, which simply resulted in sentences similar to those handed out for shoplifting.

By chance, the same day as I watched the programme, a book came my way, written by a self confessed one-time member of London's underworld and link with the American mafia, and in which I was named!

For a moment I feared Oscars Irregulars were to be exposed as a front for organised crime.

The book is entitled Vigilante and is written by Ron Farebrother, and the introduction reveals: "Ron is the terror of every criminal on the streets today... in an earlier incarnation Ron was The Ambassador, the mysterious figure that linked the US mob with their UK counterparts."

I knew Ron when he ran Kings Car Hire at Elstree Studios in the 1980s, and he was a character.

I remember he arranged cars for me to bring the mayors to meet Princess Anne opening the Maxwell Building in 1985, and to take the town mayor, managing director Andrew Mitchell and myself to Westminster Abbey for the memorial service of Dame Anna Neagle.

In his book, Ron recounts how he nearly got away with £1million from NatWest Bank in Borehamwood in a neat little fraud that nearly worked.

Somehow he obtained what is known as a 'town clearance cheque' for over £2million and persuaded the then manager, who oddly enough I knew, to cash it with obviously several days notice.

He intended to draw out just £1million and get out of the country before the bank realised what had happened. The bank manager, attempting to be helpful, notified the police that a customer would be leaving the bank in Shenley Road carrying a million pounds.

Sadly for Ron, the local police knew him well, and so as he left the bank he was escorted to the police station rather than the rail station!

The subsequent court case made headline news in national newspapers, but Ron walked free due to a legal error in the police handling of evidence.

I reckon they should make a film of the story with Vinnie Jones playing Ron and possibly Brad Pitt playing me in a cameo role!

It could be filmed in the actual locations that Ron frequented such as the studios, the Bull & Tiger, the NatWest Bank and the Red Lion in Radlett.

I hasten to add my mention in his book refers to the campaign to save Elstree Studios in 1988 and reads: "Andrew and another guy called Paul Welsh fought hammer and tongs to keep part of the site as studios." And that is not tongs as in Chinese crime gangs!

I was interested to read that the American TV network HBO has paid over £9million for the pay TV rights to the Star Wars movie Attack Of The Clones, although this is somewhat less than the £50million paid by Fox for Phantom Menace some while ago.

This may reflect in diminishing viewing figures in the USA for movies on television.

Still, this is a whole different money league to the days when you could shoot a film such as Village Of The Damned in Borehamwood for about £60,000, albeit 40 years ago.

The original Star Wars, shot at Elstree, heralded a new era in generating income from merchandising, TV sales and video rights.

Finally I was sad to hear from a Hollywood contact that the legendary screen dancer Ann Miller is now confined to a wheelchair and suffering from a body wasting illness. For 20 years, during the 1930s to the 1950s, Ann reigned supreme in a number of Hollywood musicals.

I met her once in a Hollywood nightclub, when I shared a table with her and the multi-millionaire owner of the Los Angeles baseball or netball team! We were watching The Ink Spots, or Ink Spot to be precise, as only one of the group was original.

It is surprising how many dancers and sports persons end up with health problems later in life. Personally I believe in the preservative quality of alcohol, and will be at the Festival half marathon in June. Watching of course!