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Television / Radio

The parlous state of world sport

Increasingly – it occurs to me – the modern world’s obsession with “wokedom” generally (encompassing gender equality, the whole range of transgender issues, politics in sport including the “cancellation” of non-PC speakers and alleged “rooting out” of any historical figure who [...]

February 9, 2022 // 0 Comments

Casting to type – an interesting aspect of modern sensitivities

In these modern times of saturation-coverage of fashionable issues such as  “levelling up”, diversity, equality, transgender rights versus those who argue these affect “women born as women” (if I’m even allowed to use that phrase) – just “wokedom” [...]

February 5, 2022 // 0 Comments

My art week

I cannot really add to Derek Williams’ appreciation of the Tudor Portraits at the Holburne gallery in Bath. I’m not a huge fan of royal portraiture as it constrains a great court painter like Velazquez, but thankfully not Gustav Klimt who left the court of the Habsburgs in the secessionist [...]

February 4, 2022 // 0 Comments

Those were the Krays, my friend

Last night I watched the second part of an ITV documentary Secrets of the Krays on the Kray twins. My immediate reaction was that this all happened so long ago – their hey day was the late 1960s – and most of those on the programme were necessarily quite old now. The point was made that [...]

February 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

Dame Stephanie Shirley/Private Passions – Radio 3

The above – known by her family nickname Steve – was the guest on Private Passions hosted by Michael Berkeley. She led a remarkable life. Separated from her parents aged 5, she was put on a train as one of the Kindertransport. These children were sent to western countries and some [...]

January 18, 2022 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on the Ashes

I’m sure readers would not appreciate another depressing piece on the Ashes debacle down under. I will merely quote that model of concision after a Cabinet reshuffle Clement Attlee: “Not good enough” I will highlight the coverage. Normally I follow TMS during the night but yesterday, as I [...]

January 17, 2022 // 0 Comments

A media/sporting oddity

With my apologies in advance for stepping gingerly into our esteemed sports editor’s domain, this morning I wanted to bring to Rusters’ notice an example of media coverage that – for those who might wish to consider such things – highlights some of the difficult and [...]

January 13, 2022 // 0 Comments

Venice

Monty Don has a new programme on Gardens of the Adriatic and a Venetian friend of mine – G – whom I met first in Tunisia nearly 40 years ago has written a walking guide to the city. So in this extraordinary time, where travel is so difficult, I was able to enjoy two different takes on [...]

January 10, 2022 // 0 Comments

Lunch at home/University Challenge

In the week I gave lunch to our art teacher J and her husband R. At various points in the morning as I was preparing lunch I asked myself the question “Would it not be easier to take them to the local and cheapo Italian?” One such moment was after I left M & S, which has excellent food [...]

January 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

Vienna Blood

In my normal way I’m reviewing Vienna Blood after seeing all three episodes of the second series. It is a psychological thriller set in Vienna around 1900 and is based on the Frank Tallis novels. The two central characters are police officer Oscar Rheinhardt (Jurgen Maurer) and a pupil of [...]

December 31, 2021 // 0 Comments

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