Author Archives: Paul

Yesterday was a glorious day so I went up to visit my daughter in Cambridge. Pedalling through the cobbled streets, pretending that I too was an undergraduate, I fondly imagined what might have been. But my education was destroyed when my old grammar school went comprehensive in our final year. Half way through our A […]

I’m all set. I’ve got this track lined up. I’ve got the face paint, the flowing robe and flaming crown. So I’m confident that any annoying kids who come to the door tonight tricking or treating will be beating a fairly hasty retreat.

I’m not a fan of Nigel Farage and I certainly don’t share his views, but only a fool would deny that he is an extraordinary politician. Without even being an MP, he has altered the course of British politics forever. A charismatic speaker (aren’t they all?), he employed astonishing levels of hard graft and immense […]

The term “rock legend” is an over-used epithet, but how else to describe Rick Parfitt? For almost 50 years, he’s been rocking all over the world, ingesting industrial quantities of drink and drugs. But my friend Brian Jones tells me that he’s finally calling it a day. Parfitt and Francis Rossi are now bona fide […]

The great Jimmy Perry died this week, aged 93. He co-wrote some of Britain’s favourite sitcoms including Hi-de-Hi, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Dad’s Army. It was It Ain’t Half Hot Mum that caused him a little consternation. Immensely popular in the mid-70s, it then fell out of favour because Michael Bates had “browned […]

My school and the Sacred Heart Girls’ school across the road had enormous catchment areas. Pupils came from as far apart as Maida Vale in the south and Kings Langley in the north. The net also stretched right out to Heathrow to the west, and it was from this area that Coral Giddings journeyed on […]

….is Louis Theroux’s new film about Scientology. After seeing it, you’ll find it very hard to look at Tom Cruise again. The film doesn’t tell you much that you didn’t suspect already. Just more evidence that the primary purpose this “church” is to take vast sums of money from crazy, gullible fools. And boy are […]

Former pirate, Radio 1 and Capital Radio DJ. This natural and quite sublime broadcaster died suddenly yesterday. A few years ago, when plugging a book, I was put into a booth at Broadcasting House to record an interview for BBC Radio Kent. The producer just said, “The bloke interviewing you is called Dave…” And a […]

When my friend Danny Kelly was about sixteen, his school was ruled by a terrifying, hard-as-nails fifth-former called Chet. And because Chet came from a family of vicious thugs, there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. One day a kid called Reginald arrived from Nigeria. He was big like Chet but a gentle giant. […]

We’ve watched rock stars like Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney continuing to record and perform well into their seventies. And we’ve watched with a combination of admiration and despair. How long can these “youth” icons carry on? Whatever next? Chuck Berry announcing on his 90th birthday that he’s releasing a new album? But […]