Two nice stories from the Spectator this week, both about Reagan. The first, Frank Johnson on meetiong him on the campaign trail in 1980:

We found the governor walking down the main street. It was all but deserted. He heard us talking behind him. In lieu of anyone else to talk to, he turned around: ‘Am I right in thinking that you guys are from England?’
‘Yes, Governor Reagan,’ I replied. (Though no longer a governor, American political etiquette dictates that he still be thus addressed.)
He put his hand on my shoulder, and sighed, ‘My films were never really big in England. Something about that innate English good taste.’
Me: ‘No, no, Governor. I saw one only last evening on late-night New Hampshire television.’
He sighed again, and in that husky voice confided, ‘I know. I know. My opponents will stop at nothing.’ Then he nudged me with his elbow and inquired, ‘D’you think I should demand from the television company the right to reply?’
As he himself said of the soldiers who stormed Omaha beach, ‘Where do we find such men?’

The other from a scriptwriter who got him, while in office, to add a little to a show on James Bond:

The actual joke? Well, picture the scene. We’re in the White House rose garden. Ronnie, looking his craggy if slightly orange best, twinkles at the camera and then says, with a hint of that delightful, homely chuckle in his voice, the following line:
‘Some people say that James Bond is just an actor in the movies. But I say, everyone’s got to start somewhere.’
Ron, wherever you are today …thanks.

Just a thought, but can you imagine Waffles doing either?