Just in

Britain

Towards Zero and White Lotus

These TV dramatisations on BBC and Sky Atlantic reflect the great divide between the two broadcasters. Time was when the BBC drama department produced such cutting edge plays as Cathy Come Home and TV playwrights like Dennis Potter, but Towards Zero was sterile. Having read every Agatha Christie [...]

March 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

Endgame/BBC 2

After a few years it was good to see chess back on our screens. The format of Endgame was a series of lightning chess matches (known as blitzes) between contestants. One of them – known as the Swashbuckler – had discovered chess in prison and was a better talker than player. David [...]

March 11, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Brighton 2 Fulham 1

I was Ivan Conway’s guest for this match.  In 9 games Brighton have never beaten Fulham in the Premiership and did so yesterday with virtually the last kick of the match. The traffic was bad and the car parks full so we arrived late-ish. Necessarily I had to be ‘deep cover’, sitting amongst [...]

March 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

Eubank v McKenna

Last night was something of a rarity: live boxing on free-to -air television. The Noble Art has suffered from satellite coverage and pay-to-view and I cannot be the only disillusioned fan. There was not much sport to watch so I switched on at 9.00pm for the undercard of Belfast Boy Michael Conlon v [...]

March 8, 2025 // 0 Comments

You could not make this up!

We should have a new topic category on THE RUST called “YOU COULD NOT MAKE THIS UP“. I spoke to a colleague who mistakenly believed that organising the redirection of mail from his partner’s old address to her new one might be a simple matter. It was so badly mishandled by Royal Mail [...]

March 7, 2025 // 0 Comments

Bergerac – classic & new

On Thursday – as is my wont – I watched first classic Bergerac on US Drama and later the new version with Damien Molony playing the Jersey detective. Gone is Charlie Hungerford, necessarily so as Terence Alexander passed in 2009. The relationship between the detective and his [...]

March 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

Manchester Utd 1-1 Fulham (3 – 4 on penalties): FA Cup 6th Round

This was not a classic encounter in the great traditions of Manchester Utd v Fulham games but gosh it was exciting. The game went first to extra time, then penalties and Fulham emerged winners. Although Manchester Utd and their decline was the story, I thought Fulham deserved their win as they had [...]

March 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

On podcasts & history

Podcasts are all the rage now and seem to conform with the addiction to mobile phones. A friend of mine likened them to being caught by bores in the pub. The format is generally a duet who either agree with one another sycophantically or indeed disagree from different viewpoints. The dominant [...]

February 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Wolves 1 Fulham 2

Head cosch Marco Silva made wholesale changes after the Crystal Palace win last Saturday. Out went Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi, Raul Jimenez and Antonee Robinson – all relegated to the bench – whilst Issa Diop and Jorge Cuenca came into a back five and Rodrigo Muniz started up front. In [...]

February 26, 2025 // 0 Comments

1 5 6 7 8 9 251