There is no surer way to forget your own troubles than to listen to those of others.
On Saturday, I sat and listened to the stories pour out of individuals who
Continue reading →There is no surer way to forget your own troubles than to listen to those of others.
On Saturday, I sat and listened to the stories pour out of individuals who
Continue reading →It’s a measure of how much affection Charles Kennedy was held in by his fellow parliamentarians that many of the tributes from his peers since his death was announced this morning have actually come across as genuine rather
Continue reading →Parental neglect at its most extreme is rightly recognised as a hideous dereliction of duty, something that appears to go against the grain of what is supposed to be an instinctive gut reaction to care and nurture
Continue reading →When the BBC’s 1953 production of ‘Quatermass’ was scaring the hell out of the nascent television nation, it prompted the debut of the announcer’s warning to be issued for the benefit of unprepared viewers: ‘In our opinion,
Continue reading →Even in the US, the land of the American dream, it can be hard to make your mark on the world when you come from humble beginnings.
Palliasse was of just such humble origins, from the
Continue reading →In another life, I wanted to be in the FBI. This was sort of inspired by watching ‘Twin Peaks’, and finding that I had a deep and personal empathy for agent Cooper, whose mysterious ways seemed odd, nay,
Continue reading →The 1997 comeback of celebrated 80s Indie artisans Echo and the Bunnymen, one that benefitted from the brief vogue for sweeping majestic rock ala The Verve, more or less began and ended with an unintentionally prophetic hit called
Continue reading →You’ve probably, hopefully, never had cause to visualise yourself asking a Doctor the proverbial ‘How long have I got’? question.
Chances are, if you had imagined the scenario, you got it
Continue reading →Anyone whose nostalgia gene is tickled by the prospect of seeing a band of bedroom pin-ups in the flesh forty years after the torn pages of ‘Look-in’ disappeared from their once-prized position is afflicted with despair
Continue reading →Okay, I’m not going to talk about the EU or feminists or immigration or the NHS or Tony Blair or all the other subjects that get the Raccoon regulars hot under the collar – bar one. I’m
Continue reading →BBC4’s new imported historical epic ‘1864’ reminds me a little of Tony Richardson’s criminally-underrated 1968 movie, ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’. Although in ‘1864’ the nation under the spotlight is Denmark, the parallels are potent. A country encouraged to believe its
Continue reading →Until I was ten, portrayals of school in fiction seemed stuck in the 1950s or even further back. ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ serialised on Sunday teatimes on BBC1 or ‘Just William’
Cliff Richard dressed as Austin Powers, a ‘legal’ Dana looking about twelve, Agnetha’s sequinned tea-cosy hat, Clodagh Rodgers’ hot-pants, the Bucks Fizz girls having their skirts ripped-off, Russian lipstick lesbians Tatu drowned in boos, Jemini’s nul points, transsexuals
Continue reading →In Waco, Texas, a widely advertised gathering of hundreds of armed Hell’s Angel style bikers to celebrate Memorial Day erupted into armed warfare as the choicest ‘Turf’ was fought over, and was policed by a handful of men.
Continue reading →If the contentious Joint Enterprise law applied to politics, the Liberal Democrats would be the luckless juvenile looking at a decade behind bars because he happened to be a member of a gang present when somebody
Continue reading →And like everything from US Marines, to Global financial meltdown – for sure it will arrive on our shores eventually. I find it a horrifying prospect.
I went in search of further information on a snippet
Continue reading →One of the first moves of a regime averse to criticism is to imprison or ‘liquidate’ its critics; traditionally, these tend to be political opponents, a tradition Mr Putin is proudly upholding in Russia at the moment.
Continue reading →To the eyes of any visiting alien, the Heygate Estate in London’s Elephant and Castle could be mistaken for an ancient ruin on a par with Pompeii – a crumbling monument to a deceased civilisation. In
Continue reading →The death of Blues guitarist BB King at the age of 89 yesterday didn’t just mark the end of a life or even a career of impressive longevity;
Did you ever fight your way to the front of the lucky dip stall, bag your prize, and then realise you had beaten off all contenders – to the booby prize?
The Guardian must be feeling the same
Continue reading →It’s certainly easier to take criticism and absorb advice if it comes from someone who knows what they’re talking about, someone whose knowledge of the subject under discussion inspires respect for their opinion. On the odd unfortunate
Continue reading →Apologies for the tired alliteration by way of post title, I couldn’t think of anything else.
I wanted to write about Farage’s ‘Dammit Thanet’ moment; just why did he lose? Or rather, what did his opponent
Continue reading →Back in the pre-deregulated broadcasting era, British TV was awash with home-grown beauty contests, not just the Miss United Kingdom finale, but the qualifying tournament as well, which was spread over all the old regional ITV companies.
Continue reading →Nelson may have said that England expects every man to do his duty, but whereas an act of self-sacrifice for the good of one’s country may be a noble gesture at a time of war, when it
Continue reading →There is a scene in the TV ‘Game of Thrones’ which is referred to simply as “the Red Wedding”. All addicts of the show will instantly know of this famous, or indeed, infamous scene. Without giving too much
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Ed Miliband is a Bill Wyman solo album. William’s dubious personal peccadilloes aside, in terms of doing his job, he was the kind of guy you’d
In which Shakespeare proves more accurate at predicting voting than MORI, ComRes, Populus, Ashcroft or any of the other professional pundits.
Was it really
Continue reading →The first General Election I remember was the February 1974 one; I quickly warmed to the concept when I realised I got a day off school, even if
Opinions on the man differ; opinions on the merits of his notoriety even more so; but the death of Ronnie Biggs in 2013 undoubtedly ended a chapter in British crime history. Whereas the consensus today is to
Continue reading →The agonising intrusion of Royal labour pains echo around a London bedchamber as a crowd gathers; eventually, an heir is born and the continuation of the dynasty is seemingly guaranteed. It’s not May 2015, though; it’s June
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