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The Lancaster Bomber

Last week there was a fascinating documentary on the Lancaster bomber on Sky. The Lancaster was the elite aircraft of Bomber Command which under Air Marshal ‘Bomber’ Harris raised German cities to rubble. This is a remarkably prescient topic given the Israeli Air Force bombing of Gaza. In [...]

November 13, 2023 // 0 Comments

Leicester Tigers 25 Harlequins 29

Quins sit atop of the Premiership but there are cracks. Marcus Smith only converted 2 of the 5 tries and, defensively improved, they still look vulnerable. Joe Marler, Jack Walker, Marcus Smith, André Esterhuizen and Danny Care are all back from the World Cup whilst Will Porter, Nick David, Lennox [...]

November 12, 2023 // 0 Comments

Venice: City of Pictures (Martin Gayford)

As one might expect from such an eminent art historian Martin Gayford’s latest work on Venetian art and architecture is a thorough, well-researched study with beautiful images. He covers the ‘Big Four’ of Venetian art – Titian, Tintoretto (the only artist born in and of Venice) [...]

November 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

Ajax 0 Brighton 2 (Europa League)

27 years ago Brighton faced Mansfield in the old Division Four in a relegation fight before a crowd less than 2,000 in the Withdean Stadium. At the same team Ajax had a leading European team comprising Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar, Edgar Davids , Clarence Seejdorf, Danny Blund, Patrick [...]

November 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Voyage Round My Father: Chichester Festival Theatre (review 08.11.2023)

This piece by barrister/writer John Mortimer (1923 – 2009), perhaps best known of all for his creation Rumpole Of The Bailey starring Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, had an interesting gestation. It began in the form of three sketches he wrote for BBC Radio in 1963, then developed into a [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

The battle of the Vercors Plâteau

I have always had the greatest interest in the lesser known theatres of battle of World War Two but until I saw National Geographic’s excellent documentary on the Vercors Plâteau I had never heard of this engagement in July and August 1945. To the rallying call of Charles de Gaulle the FFI [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard: Mediterra, Portslade

You need a good excuse to go Portslade, a light industrial place adjacent to Hove, a place of car dealerships and secondary shopping. The reason I took the Number “1” bus from Whitehawk to Portslade was to check out this Turkish restaurant of which I had heard good reports. The lunch [...]

November 8, 2023 // 0 Comments

Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Having watched a bio-documentary of Elizabeth Taylor in which the critic Derek Malcolm argued that the above film, based on the Edward Albee play, proved she could act, I duly ordered the DVD. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, the daughter of the President of the Faculty, and her husband George [...]

November 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia (Channel 4)

I’m not a great one for a Channel 4/5 conspiracy documentary which tends to be more speculation to grab the headlines but not bolstered by hard evidence. However this one made a plausible case. This was that Jack Kennedy befriended Frank Sinatra, who arranged glamorous Hollywood film stars for [...]

November 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

Harlequins 40 Newcastle Falcons 12 ( Premiership Cup)

I streamed this from the Premiership website for £5.99. I’m such a Luddite that I could not work out how to watch it on my big screen TV, but rather my iPad which had rather a minuscule image. Quins ran out easy winners with top boys Joe Marler and Marcus Smith on the bench.  The finest moment [...]

November 5, 2023 // 0 Comments

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