The Day I Shot Caine & Hoskins

Today, with the help of regular Pilates, the 77-year-old Richard Young still goes to work. The evening before meeting Boisdale Life, he had been covering the premier of the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black, and was due to attend The Olivier Awards. In 2006, The Times named him as “one of the most important photographers of the 20th century” and today he runs the Richard Young Gallery in Kensington with his wife, Susan. For this Boisdale Life 10th-anniversary, Best of British-themed issue, Richard has given us permission to publish one of his favourite images, one that he feels is eminently suitable to appear in a magazine celebrating national icons. “The late 1970s were a glorious era for London. It was a period of intense style and one which in Mayfair was defined by Langan’s [which opened in 1976], the restaurant that epitomised celebrity dining at the time, and of which Michael Caine was a partner. He would host dinners for his showbiz mates in the upstairs party room, in particular during Wimbledon, a time of year Michael enjoyed immensely. “He was kind to me, allowing me access to his parties at Langan’s, which almost became my office. It was a magnet for celebrities, who would come to have their photographs taken. I knew all the VIP tables! It was the golden age for celebrity and showbusiness, especially the photography. “There was a magical mix of Hollywood — Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson — and top British talent. At one of Michael’s parties, Bob Hoskins had been invited. They were wearing similar glasses — the iconic thick, black-rimmed ones. They hugged and Hoskins’s glasses fell off mid-embrace. I was the only photographer in the room to catch it and I got this wonderful picture.

“What’s so good about it? Well, Michael Caine is the ultimate Cockney-boy film star from the 1960s. Yes, there was Terence Stamp and Tom Courtney and the rest, but Michael has lasted longer than all of them put together. “Michael is looked upon as the face of London and British cinema and even after he’s gone, and I hope that’s not for a long time, his body of work — Alfie, The Ipcress File, Get Carter, I could go on — will endure. Not only is he a great British actor, the great British actor, but he is also a great British style icon, one who ruled the 1960s but who, with every passing decade, has matured like a grand cru to adapt to every age of his long life. And he’s still going strong, still working, and with his beautiful wife, Shakira, whom he takes out for dinner to London restaurants. He’s enjoying himself.”