Just in

Television / Radio

Symbolism in art

Recently I watched a programme called Decoding Turner in which a mechanical engineer and his wife advanced a theory that in Turner’s famous The Fighting Temeraire, on the prow of the vessel was concealed a picture of Napoleon. The art historian Andrew Graham Dixon peered at the picture and [...]

September 13, 2023 // 0 Comments

Wales 32 Fiji 26

Wales’s victory over Fiji was the best World Cup game so far. I had watched South Africa beat Scotland but I find the Boks to be a boring bunch of behemoths. Scotland play attractively but are over-reliant on the mercurial Finn Russell and frankly it was a pea-shooter against a Panzer tank. [...]

September 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on a great England victory

In the Great Debate of Farrell v Smith George Ford was marginalised. He was not yesterday: with some glorious kicking he personally amassed 27 points.  The drop kick is an effective but underused weapon. I was there in the Stade de France when the South African fly half Jamie de Beer  destroyed [...]

September 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

World on Fire/BBC 1

In best Rust traditions we review a series after – not before – the final episode. The drama is set in 1941 and there are several independent plot lines. (1) Robina (Lesley Manville) is a snobbish, bossy Englishwoman of a certain type who has billeted with her Kasia, the Polish lover [...]

August 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Rugby union: England go from bad to worse

As England’s women’s team prepares to play Spain in the Women’s Football World Cup Final in Sydney, Australia later this morning UK time, one is reminded of just how big a moment this is. England – no, let’s make that UK – sports teams don’t often make World Cup Finals (or indeed, any [...]

August 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/foodie travelogues

Cooking and television have a productive relationship. Before Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette made his name and the start of his fame and fortune with Ready Steady Chef. This launched the celebrity chefs like Pierre Marco White , Jamie Oliver and Keith Floyd. The phase has now moved onto travelogues [...]

August 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

Saturday TV-watch: football and rugby union

Yesterday, largely by chance, I watched passages of both the England Lionesses playing their quarter-final clash in the Women’s World Cup being held in Australia and also the men’s England rugby union team playing their second Rugby World Cup warm-up game against Wales in seven days, this time [...]

August 13, 2023 // 0 Comments

Combating the Lockdown/Poirot

I am no admirer of Boris Johnson but I will concede that – in having to deal with three seemingly contradictory Covid issues, namely the risk to physical health, its economic consequences and the mental consequences of locking the population up – he was on new ground for a Prime [...]

August 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Open

Much of the build up to the 151st Open at Hoylake focussed on Rory McIlroy who has now gone 13 years without winning a Major. His defenders – of whom there are many – argue that he consistently hits the top ten and wins other tourneys and loads of moolah. Others argue that he has been [...]

July 22, 2023 // 0 Comments

University Challenge’s New Quizmaster

In its 70 year history University Challenge has only had 3 quizmasters: Bamber Gascoigne, Jeremy Paxman and now the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan. He made his debut last night in a contest between Trinity College and the University of Manchester which ended in a tie with 175 points respectively. [...]

July 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

1 2 3 … 60

Copyright © 2023 The National Rust | Design by Premonition