Arts

The Rugby weekend

Harlequins have always operated a productive academy and one of the greatest supporter’s joys in any sport is the emergence of youth talent. Thus on Friday night I watched with utmost interest the game on the Premiership Cup – yet another competition – between Quins and Ealing [...]

November 10, 2024 // 0 Comments

FAWLTY TOWERS (THEATRE) – 3 stars out of 5

If under pressure and asked to list a selection of the Top Ten all-time greatest British sit-coms I should imagine that – in no order of excellence – I’d probably be scouting in the territory containing the likes of Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Only Fools And Horses, Till Death Us Do [...]

November 1, 2024 // 0 Comments

The charts 1969

It is often said that our generation was lucky to grow up with the music we did – and it’s true. The other day I happened to have my radio pre-tuned to Boom. When I switched it on, the Australian DJ was playing the charts of late 1969 and I was amazed what good music it was. There were four [...]

October 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

One Hell of a Life/biography of Brian Close by Stephen Chalke

Personally, whilst I respected Brian Close, not least for his often reckless courage, he was never a favourite of mine – there was too much of the curmudgeonly Yorkshireman for me. Stephen Chalke is more sympathetic of “Closey”. Close had the longest first class career of any [...]

October 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Auction houses v Art dealers

Yesterday I spent the whole of my afternoon following the Christie’s auction of Modern British and Irish Art. The famous auction house has adapted to the digital age by holding auctions online. It attracts a more global audience but I felt some of the bidding tension one experiences in the room [...]

October 18, 2024 // 0 Comments

Taste/Stanley Tucci: My Life Through Food (2021)

Stanley Tucci is a successful film actor who has made a second career of out his great interest in – and love of – food. I first became aware of this through his TV programmes travelling to different cities and reporting on their cuisine. He develops this in his book starting with [...]

October 17, 2024 // 0 Comments

3 art views

I’m sometimes asked whether I have visited any of the big art exhibitions in London right now – the Van Gogh at the National Gallery, the Francis Bacon at the National Portrait Gallery and the Claude Monet at the Courtauld. The answer is an emphatic “No” as these block buster [...]

October 16, 2024 // 0 Comments

Harlequins 17 Saracens 10

It’s been 1700 minutes since Quins won theLondon bragging rights. On a weekend of no Premiership or Championship football the schedulers showed commendable planning by making this a rugby union Premiership derby weekend. We Quins fans view our north London neighbours as playing fast and loose [...]

October 14, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Art of Cinema/Sky Arts

Last week’s programme presented by Ian Nathan focussed on script supervisors, once called ‘continuity girls’. These provide an essential input by creating the illusion of reality in a film and avoiding ‘bloopers’. Clive James once presented a programme on Saturday mornings [...]

October 12, 2024 // 0 Comments

Two seismic documentaries

This week BBC and Channel 4 have commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Brighton Grand Hotel bombing and the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Southern Israel with documentaries. Of the two documentaries I found Brighton Bombing – The Plot To Kill Mrs Thatcher the more riveting. Its [...]

October 10, 2024 // 0 Comments

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ITV COVERAGE OF CHELTENHAM

March 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

I am in the camp of watching on tv rather than attending for the 3 Cs: cost , convenience and comfort. With the cost of travelling and attending Cheltenham and last [...]
Max Schmelling/ The Good German

March 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the unlikely event that I would be asked to nominate a Great Life on Matthew Parris ‘ show my choice would be the Black Uhlan Max Schmelling. In the 1930s thee [...]
The Tanner Report : Fulham 2 spurs 1

March 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

Prior to Fulham ‘s comfortable win over Spurs (2-1) I watched the big match Revisited featuring Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2 i guess in the early 70s It would be foolish to [...]
The Six Nations

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

The Six Nations continues to throw up surprises. England could not bounce back against Ireland , a resurgent Wales gave Scotland à close game with the Millennium Stadium [...]
Brentford 0 Brighton 2

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

The heat is off Fabian Hürzeler with Brighton ‘s 1st win in 13 games. Club owner Tony Bloom was not at the G Tech stadium due to a long planned family engagement but had [...]