Arts

Operation Daybreak

Fred Trueman one made the cutting comment: there haven been many great bowlers from the Kitkstall Lane Emd but Neil Mallender is not one of them” the same or similar comment might be made of director Lewis Gilbert. He directed many niteable films like Alfie, Shirley Valentine , Educating Rita [...]

December 30, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Chelsea 1 Fulham 2

In 1963 – on Boxing Day – Fulham beat Ipswich, who were the champions the previous year, by 10-1. 63 goals were scored in the old First Division that day, one other result being West Ham 2 Blackburn 8. Fast-forward to 1979 when Fulham last beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (2-1). I was at [...]

December 27, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Atlas of Art Crime/Laura Evans

Laura Evans subdivides her engaging review of art crime into three categories: 1) Theft 2) Vandalism 3) Forgery In regard to theft you have to have quite a lot of chutzpah to steal a painting to enter a gallery, church or museum and appropriate a picture. The motivation is normally financial but [...]

December 26, 2024 // 0 Comments

(WW2) Arctic convoys & opening a Second Front.

It did not take Hitler long to repudiate the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact and invade the Soviet Union. It was also not that long after – with Stalin’s ‘not one step back’ and ‘scorched earth’ strategy – that the Wehrmacht was in trouble. Stalin implored the Allies to open a [...]

December 25, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Critic (2023 movie)

I missed out on this film on general release and watched it yesterday on Amazon Prime. It’s based upon the Anthony Quinn novel Curtain Call but fell short of the book. It featured Ian McKellen as the acerbic Daily Chronicle theatre critic Jimmy Erskine modelled on James Agate. Set in the 1930s, [...]

December 24, 2024 // 0 Comments

George Eastham (RIP)

I was truly saddened to hear of the death of George Eastham, chiefly for two reasons. Firstly, he belonged to a genre of player that no longer exists: the inside forward. They were technically very skilful, slight and did not score that many goals. Secondly, aged 18, I was watching from behind [...]

December 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

Two detective dramas from different eras – The Chelsea Detective & Bergerac

Last Friday I watched my recording of The Chelsea Detective. (I prefer to record as I find the advertising breaks – especially this time of year – so tedious and can fast-forward through the ads.) A good detective drama requires location and an eccentric sleuth (Hercule Poirot being [...]

December 22, 2024 // 0 Comments

Gloucester Rugby 14 Harlequins 0 (Rugby Premiership)

This was one of the most inept performances I have seen from Quins. Their big players – Marcus Smith, Fin Baxter, Chandler Cunningham South and Caden Murkey – failed to perform. In the first half they were comprehensively overwhelmed by the physicality of the Cherry Reds. We expected [...]

December 21, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fall/John Preston

This is the story of Robert Maxwell and what a life story it is. Born as Jan Ludvik Hoch in 1923 into an impoverished Czechoslovakian Jewish family who were largely exterminated in the Holocaust, he joined up with the British army liberating Europe, reinvented himself as Captain Robert Maxwell and [...]

December 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Liverpool 2 Fulham 2

Where do you start praising Fulham for coming away from Anfield with a point? Not by reading the press reports who uniformly wrote of a “10 man come back” from “never say die” Liverpool. Never mind that Liverpool are arguably the best team in the world right now. Of course, [...]

December 15, 2024 // 0 Comments

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Inventing Post Impressionism/Charleston

March 27, 2025 // 0 Comments

Yesterday I went to Charleston near Lewes for the exhibition Inventing Post Impressionism. The connection between Charleston and Post Impressionism is the art critic Roger [...]
Recent TV dramas

March 26, 2025 // 0 Comments

I was delighted that Ten Pound Poms – about the British emigration to Australia in the 1950s – is now in its second series. I can claim a connection as my [...]
Weekend TV sport

March 24, 2025 // 0 Comments

With no Premiership or Championship soccer taking place you might have thought some of the internationals between European titans (e.g. Netherlands v Spain or Italy v [...]
Judgment at Tokyo/Gary Bass

March 21, 2025 // 0 Comments

Gary Bass, a Princeton historian, has written a magisterial and definitive work on the tribunal constituted by Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur to try the main forces [...]
Greta Scacchi

March 20, 2025 // 0 Comments

One of the reasons why I enjoy the repeats of Bergerac is the casting of the young actors and actresses who appear on it. In the first series – made in 1981 – [...]