Consumer Affairs

Haunting in Venice

John Malkovich has done it once unsatisfactorily, Peter Ustinov twice and now Kenneth Branagh three times. Albert Finney, Orson Welles and Alfred Molina had one go. None of them get as near to Hercule Poirot as David Suchet on ITV. He is Poirot. Yesterday I saw Haunting in Venice in which producer, [...]

September 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

England win O.D.I.

England won by 100 runs over New Zealand at Lords but it was a sterile, dull match. Various reasons were discussed but the accepted one was the 12-30 start. This meant the match went onto until 7-30 pm and began at lunchtime. My neighbour in the Upper Mound stand and his wider were my guests for a [...]

September 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

Music Review: Hackney Diamonds (the Rolling Stones)

The Rolling Stones have now been together for sixty years – of the “originals” (Brian Jones) died aged 27 in 1969 and another (Charlie Watts) died in 2021 aged 80. On 26th July Mick Jagger turned 80, a milestone that Keith Richard will also pass in December if he makes it that far; the other [...]

September 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

Review: The Sound Of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Last weekend – somewhat out of the blue – I received an invitation to attend the penultimate evening performance of the Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s musical The Sound of Music and was only too happy to accept. There can scarcely be a Ruster unaware [...]

September 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Day at the Races

Yesterday I was invited to the afternoon meeting at Brighton Races. Brighton as a sporting city punches above its weight with a Premiership football team and a cricket side that produced the likes of Ted Dexter, Jim Parks, John Snow and more recently Mushtaq Ahmed, Murray Goodwin, Matt Prior, [...]

September 5, 2023 // 0 Comments

Classic Cinema/The Third Man /Sky Arts

This was a tribute to the recently passed film critic Derek Malcolm – a keen admirer of Carol Reed’s 1949 classic. For most cinema buffs this would be high on the list of their favourite films, justifying the praise that – however many times you have seen it – you start watching [...]

September 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Reform club

Recently Bob Tickler held a dinner at the Reform Club for me, his p/a Polly and her best friend Grania. Bob is most excited about joining the Reform Club. Although he was once a member of the adjoining RAC, he does not regard himself as a conventional St James club man. The Reform with its [...]

August 25, 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

Barbie: a sort of a movie review

In keeping with the traditions of this great organ – one of which is that any contributor can write upon any subject – I feel it incumbent upon me to begin today’s offering with the twin admissions that personally I am neither the Rust’s film correspondent, a title which rightly [...]

August 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

Seven Days in North Africa

About a month ago – after a frenetic period of activity and incoming commitments, several of them originally unplanned and/or ‘imposed’ at very short notice by third parties both family and otherwise – She Who Must Be Obeyed and your author decided that we were desirous of “stepping [...]

July 31, 2023 // 0 Comments

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Ireland 13 South Africa 8

September 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

This epic match more than matched the billing and hype and I share my colleague Derek Williams’ viewpoint that the Boks should be beaten. Their bomb squad of 7 forwards [...]
An expedition to two National Trust properties

September 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Earlier this year the Boss and I joined the National Trust on a “family ticket”. For many years she had been a member of the organisation and occasional visitor to a [...]
Gloucester Rugby 25 Harlequins 17

September 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

I was initially excited by last night’s visit to the atmospheric Kingsholm until I realised how many Quins players would be absent on World Cup duty: Joe Marler, Jack [...]
Brighton HAFC 2 AEKAthens 3

September 22, 2023 // 0 Comments

Brighton’s first-ever European game in the Europa League last night was in every sense a damp squib as they lost and the heavens opened. Surprisingly Roberto de Zerbi [...]
Haunting in Venice

September 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

John Malkovich has done it once unsatisfactorily, Peter Ustinov twice and now Kenneth Branagh three times. Albert Finney, Orson Welles and Alfred Molina had one go. None of [...]