Consumer Affairs

Foreign detective writing

We tend to assume that only English-speaking writers can write detective novels. In Britain the genre is dominated by women – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Marjoriec Allingham and recently Val McDiamid. In fact some interesting detective novels have been written by French writers and [...]

January 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

Surprising actors in a 1980 TV series

On Monday I watched Bergerac, now shown at 3.00pm on the UK Drama channel. It featured – as Belle Young, an eccentric boatowner and smuggler – the 1970s actress Judy Cornwall. Yesterday’s episode about a computer convention in Jersey also featured a computer nerd and mogul Jordan [...]

January 8, 2025 // 0 Comments

My Sporting Weekend

The Border-Gavaskar trophy between Australia and India has done much to enhance and elevate the status of Test cricket. India won the First Test in Perth – Australia levelled the series in Adelaide – and the Third Test in Brisbane was a washout draw. Australia won the Fourth Test in [...]

January 5, 2025 // 0 Comments

Chewton Glen Hotel

I had a traditional, typical Xmas – i.e. a ghastly one. Our son Tarquin, now married, stayed with his wife Hyacinth and their two young children. Our other son – Humphrey – arrived with his new girlfriend Bracken. Bracken, a moody, pouting girl, made it quite clear that she did [...]

January 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

(Big Game 16): Harlequins 34 Leicester Tigers 34

It was business as usual for the Big Game before 82,000 at a sold-out Twickenham Alliance. Marcus Smith was back to his jinking running game and Caden Murley’s pace and power created 2 tries. However, with Quins leading by 7 points, in the dying embers Dan Cole went over for Leicester and [...]

December 29, 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

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

The Day of the Jackal (Sky Atlantic)

This mega-production by Sky starring Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Logan and Charles Dance inevitably invites comparison with the Frederick Forsyth best-selling novel and the 1973 Fred Zinnermann film with Edward Fox. Frederick Forsyth admitted that he was paid vast amounts of money to do nothing or [...]

December 13, 2024 // 0 Comments

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El Cid/The book and the film

January 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

I was recently given a new biography of El Cid, the Spanish 11th Century knight, by Nora Berend, a Cambridge University historian. Her thesis is that Rodrigo de Viva – [...]
The Tanner Report: Fulham 4 Watford 1

January 10, 2025 // 0 Comments

Reporting on this victory is secondary to commenting on the decline of the FA Cup in my lifetime. The year of my birth (1954) witnessed what many consider the greatest game [...]
Foreign detective writing

January 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

We tend to assume that only English-speaking writers can write detective novels. In Britain the genre is dominated by women – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Marjoriec [...]
Surprising actors in a 1980 TV series

January 8, 2025 // 0 Comments

On Monday I watched Bergerac, now shown at 3.00pm on the UK Drama channel. It featured – as Belle Young, an eccentric boatowner and smuggler – the 1970s actress [...]
The Tanner Report: Fulham 2 Ipswich 2

January 6, 2025 // 0 Comments

Against Wolves, Southampton – and now Ipswich – Fulham have earned just 2 points, but 5 against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. We do better against the big boys. [...]