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MICHELE A’COURT TURNS HER POSITIVE LENS ON A DISASTROUS YEAR

Back at the start of this ridiculous year, I wrotea new show and debuted it at a festival in February in the glorious Hamilton Gardens. “2020 Vision” I called it – as a nod to the year and also because it contained my predictions of the big issues.

It was a preposterously grandiose title meant mostly as a joke. But there was a lot in the show about new beginnings (personal and universal) and hope for global action on climate change, with a couple of amusing lines about the threat of a new pandemic that would probably turn out to be nothing very much at all.

The sun shone. Allan, the stage manager, could not have been kinder or more welcoming. People arranged themselves on white plastic chairs and someone told me later that, throughout the hour, tuÌ„iÌ„ – my favourite of all my favourite birds – sat still and quiet in the trees behind the stage, almost as though they’d bought tickets.

Afterwards, I explored the gardens with friends who had come along, and we shared a drink and some stories on the lawn. What a terrific year this was going to be if this was any indication.