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Gloucester Rugby 14 Harlequins 0 (Rugby Premiership)

This was one of the most inept performances I have seen from Quins. Their big players – Marcus Smith, Fin Baxter, Chandler Cunningham South and Caden Murkey – failed to perform. In the first half they were comprehensively overwhelmed by the physicality of  the Cherry Reds. We expected [...]

December 21, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fall/John Preston

This is the story of Robert Maxwell and what a life story it is. Born as Jan Ludvik Hoch in 1923 into an impoverished Czechoslovakian Jewish family who were largely exterminated in the Holocaust, he joined up with the British army liberating Europe, reinvented himself as Captain Robert Maxwell and [...]

December 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

What’s going wrong at Brighton?

Some might argue “Nothing at all” as the Seagulls, at the time of writing, are 9th. Yet they are winless in 4 games and have lost the last two London derbies 3-1 to Fulham and Crystal Palace – the latter, on Sunday, being hard to take as it was against our great rivals. We have [...]

December 18, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Liverpool 2 Fulham 2

Where do you start praising Fulham for coming away from Anfield with a point? Not by reading the press reports who uniformly wrote of a “10 man come back” from “never say die” Liverpool. Never mind that Liverpool are arguably the best team in the world right now. Of course, [...]

December 15, 2024 // 0 Comments

Alan Bennett looking back aged 90

He would not like the phrase – and nor do I – but Alan Bennett is a ‘national treasure’.  Last night, aged 90 and in a wheelchair, he looked back on his life and body of work.  It brought back many memories. Forty Years On with John Gielgud would be up there with Shadowlands as [...]

December 14, 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

Conclave (2024)

Conclave is the film of the Robert Harris story of a papal election. It’s not the normal stuff of films as it has no action sequences, nor special effects, nor glamorous young stars and the tension lies in the supervision of the election by Cardinal Lawrence (played by Ralph Fiennes). There are 5 [...]

December 12, 2024 // 0 Comments

Two art books: Rogues and Scholars/Don’t Tell Sybil

Rogues and Scholars, penned by the ex-chairman of Sothebys – James Stourton – is a fairly comprehensive and balanced assessment of the London art market from 1945 to 2000. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the author centres on the two main players – the auction houses Christie’s and [...]

December 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Fulham 1 Arsenal 1

In a spirited performance Fulham held a superior Arsenal side though from the commentary and coverage on Sky you would not have thought so. After braving the elements, traffic and transport problems last Thursday it was a case of staying in the warm and watching this match on Sky. Their panel of [...]

December 9, 2024 // 0 Comments

England win Test series 2-0.

It may have passed your notice as sporting events and achievements outside the UK are sparsely covered but New Zealand, without Kane Williamson, won their series in India this year 3-0. The odds on this were 2000-1. England lost theirs in Pakistan 1-2. After winning the first Test, Pakistan [...]

December 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

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