The invitation was captioned "Oh! What A Lovely Party" and it certainly was all of that.

The programme on the table read "Oh! What A Lovely Peer" and it was not a case of dyslexia I can assure you. It was all to do with the 80th birthday party at Sussex University for the Chancellor, Lord Attenborough, at which I was privileged to be a guest.

It was an evening which will live long in my memory for the very tangible warmth which was expressed for this amazing man of so many and varied parts.

It was a mixture of family (and the Attenborough family was out in force), friends from the world of film, members of the University of Sussex from students to deans of schools and a past vice-chancellor, Lord Briggs.

There were familiar faces such as actor Sir Ben Kingsley who made such an impact in the film Gandhi and there were the people from all branches of the film world who had helped to make a reality out of the ideas which for more than 50 years have poured from the fertile brain of the man known to so many as Dickie Attenborough.

He wears his peerage lightly and is obviously enjoying his time as chancellor. It is fair to say that Sussex University is also greatly enjoying having Dickie as chancellor.

The normally rather sombre restaurant floor had been splendidly decorated with a bandstand for the quintet from the Coldstream Guards, who played some of the old wartime songs. Strings of lights helped to bring a party atmosphere to the place.

The menu consisted of dishes ascribed to well-known public figures, such as Field Marshall Haigh's leek and potato soup, Sole Edward VII, game pie from George V's Coronation menu and a sorbet named after Eleanor, whoever she may be.

It was an evening for tributes to be paid to the star and tributes and memories there were in abundance.

Lord Briggs, who had allowed the young film producer to borrow hundreds of students as extras for Oh! What A Lovely War!, spoke of his memories of those days.

Two of Lord Attenborough's children were students at Sussex and one of his sons (who looked amazingly like a younger version of Dickie) spoke of his time here. Brian Forbes who, with his wife Nanette Newman, was the master of ceremonies for the evening, bandied jokes with Dickie as more and more layers of his eventful career were unfolded.

According to the list of credits in the table folder, there are more than 70 films in which Lord Attenborough either acted or produced.

Brighton Rock is often the film with which he is associated but that was made in 1947 by which time he had already been in eight previous films, going back to 1942 when he appeared in In Which We Serve.

But what a life! Not only supremely successful in his chosen career of the theatre but a contributor to society in so many ways. The evening had its moments of emotion but it also had a terrific element of fun.

The finale of the evening was the sensational arrival of his birthday cake.

A trolley was wheeled in with a cake made as an exact replica of the West Pier as it would have been in the days when Brighton Rock was filmed there.

All the delicate tracery of the iron work was faithfully reproduced in white icing - all that was missing was a seagull!

A call for a knife to cut the cake was answered by a guest who had come in costume as an Army officer.

He proffered Dickie his sword and the symbolic slice was cut. It was a dramatic end for a man who has put more back into life than he has taken out and in doing so has had a lot of fun.

The table literature got it right when it said: "Oh! What A Lovely Peer!"