Just in

What’s Hot

In Our Time

Although the BBC has come in for a fair bit of stick on The Rust and elsewhere, I’m here to praise another radio programme – In Our Time on Radio 4. This is presented by Melvyn Bragg and each week a subject is examined by him and three academics. Yesterday’s subject was the French [...]

February 7, 2020 // 0 Comments

Pay your TV licence … or else

Yesterday I received the renewal demand for my BBC licence costing £154. Under “what else do you need to know” is: “The licence fee must be paid”. I am from that class of person – white middle class, heterosexual – that the BBC no longer want but that does not stop them [...]

February 6, 2020 // 1 Comment

A funeral of a friend

Yesterday I attended the funeral of the father of a fellow Ruster. On the train journey along the South Coast I reflected on why we go to funerals: is it duty, paying your last respects, support, obligation? In my case it was to pay my last respects.  I was flattered to be considered close enough [...]

February 5, 2020 // 0 Comments

BBC & the Arts

Andrew Marr’s reputation is for the Sunday programme in which he engages the big issues of the day with an important political figure. Personally I find the show too Marr-driven. Often the sound bites are repeated in the subsequent news bulletins. However, there is more to Andrew Marr than the [...]

February 4, 2020 // 0 Comments

Djokovic wins at Melbourne

Of the four Majors my favourite is at the Rod Laver Arena arena at Melbourne, Australia’s premier sporting city. I don’t like the flummery of Wimbledon with cameras going to see which celeb is in the Royal Box; Roland-Garros is elegant but Rafa Nadal always rules on clay; and the American [...]

February 3, 2020 // 0 Comments

TheTanner Report: Fulham 3 Huddersfield 2

Fulham scored three wonderful goals in the first thirty minutes, then conceded two and in the end had keeper Marek Rodak to thank for a series of fine saves. Bobby Decordova-Reid controlled a long cross-field pass on his chest then set off on a run that reminded me of the famous Archie Gemmill goal [...]

February 2, 2020 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Milos and Sartoria

One new, one tried and tested, this week – or to be exact last Monday when I visited both. Milos is an upmarket Greek restaurant in St James, the bottom end of Regent St near St James Park. A friend Petros  suggested it and I was impressed. Unlike many an expensive eaterie it serves a 3 [...]

February 1, 2020 // 0 Comments

Trial of Christine Keeler/The Profumo Affaire

I did not watch the final episode of the trial of Christine Keeler though old-fashionedly I recorded it (I’m the over 50 generation the BBC no longer want) but I did see Tom Mangold’s documentary Keeler, Profumo, Ward and me. This was more about him – as its title suggests – than [...]

January 31, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Personal Story of David Copperfield

The controversy over this film is the degree of diversity in the casting where virtually every family seems to be of mixed parentage. My own view is to quote Oscar Wilde: “There is no such thing as a pornographic book: it’s either good or bad.” In my view this was a good film, well paced, [...]

January 30, 2020 // 0 Comments

Aston Villa 2 Leicester City 1/Caribou Cup Semi final

In the absence of anything else I watched the second leg of Aston Villa v Leicester last night and was rewarded by a pulsating Midlands derby which Villa won in the dying embers. Of interest to the neutral was the comparison between two of England’s brightest midfield prospects – James [...]

January 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

1 … 187 188 189 190 191 … 398

Copyright © 2026 The National Rust | Design by Premonition