Further to my piece last Thursday about the late Jimmy Nicholson, and the obituary by Duncan Campbell, I feel I must put the record straight about how he got his nickname: the Prince of Darkness.
Both Duncan and I had a stab at how it came about, and it appears we were nearly right... but not quite.
Now comes the definitive version courtesy of John Edwards, who emailed to say that since he and Keith Graves were the only people involved in creating Nicholson’s nickname he wanted to provide half of the only available eye witness account.
It dates back to the 1975 Spaghetti House siege in London’s Knightsbridge. Most of the reporting pack were gathered in the Hyde Park Hotel suite rented by the Daily Mirror’s John Penrose.
The day after the siege began, the generous Penrose (well, his unknowing generous employer) had invited in a lot of people - not all of them journalists - and allowed them to call room service to order champagne, brandies and sandwiches.
That sets the scene, says Edwards, who takes up the tale:
“It was about 3am on Sunday morning. Jimmy was alone, leaning against the wall of the balcony, drink in hand. Graves and I were talking in the open glass doorway leading on to the balcony.
Jimmy had his back to us, the lights of Knightbridge turning him into a silhoutte. He seemed to raise his glass in a toast towards the sky and, in so doing, it raised the cape he always wore off his shoulders. Now he was an even more familiar silhouette.
‘Fuck me,’ said Graves, ‘it’s Dracula.’ Then I added: ‘The Prince of Darkness.’
Soon after, a young salesgirl from Harvey Nicks who was sampling one of Penrose’s cocktails got talking to Jimmy. And Graves said to her: ‘Be careful. He’s the Prince of Darkness.’
Although in those pre-digital days no such phrase was used, the remark “went viral.”
The name also got nationwide attention later when Bill Grundy interviewed Jimmy in a creepy Fleet Street alleyway for the nightly show he fronted on Thames TV.”
So there it is, folks. It was a double act: Edwards and Graves together. Of course, we have yet to hear from Graves, evidently last sighted in Cyprus or Spain.
