Author Archives: Paul

Simply because he’s calls himself “Andy”. Some abbreviations are fine for politicians – Tony, Bill, Chris, Tom. Others are not. Which is why we didn’t have Dave Cameron, Johnny Major or Jamie Callaghan. The British electorate are a fickle bunch and, while they may well have voted for Andrew Burnham, they won’t be voting for […]

They can’t resist a pun for a name and the more excruciating, the more I like them: British Hairways, Sherlock Combs, Curl Up & Dye and Barber Streisand are just a few of my favourites. The chip shops aren’t far behind. Chip & Fin, The Codfather, The Frying Squad and Oh My Cod! immediately spring […]

Stephen Lewis died yesterday, aged 88. In the 1970s, he was a household name. Or rather his character from On The Buses was. Lewis played Blakey, the hapless inspector whose famous catchphrase made him a gift for impressionists. On The Buses was one of most popular sitcoms ever seen on British television. Especially in our […]

Brian Matthew presents Sounds of the 60s on Radio 2 because that decade was his heyday as a radio presenter. For the same reason, Johnnie Walker presents Sounds of the 70s. But Sounds of the 80s is presented by Sara Cox. Why? She didn’t join Radio 1 until 2000 and has no connection with the […]

…were three Indian boys who worked at the cinema where I had a part time job. These weren’t their real names and I was reminded of this when listening to a documentary on Radio 4 about Asian immigrants who came to this country in the 60s and 70s. One interviewee talked about how he and […]

It started as a bit of a jape. The Labour leadership candidates were all so dull that veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn was persuaded to stand too. Nobody expected him to win, but now it looks very much as though he might. An unlikely coalition of left-wing activists and right-wing Tories have joined the Labour Party […]

The posthumous allegations surrounding Ted Heath have again raised the eyebrows of suspicion at older men who have chosen not to marry. This is all very different from the way they were once regarded. Bachelors were viewed as more masculine than married men, not less so. Bachelors had rooms, landladies and lives filled with glamour […]

This week saw the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. But anyone who grew up over the ensuing four decades feared that it would happen again. Though Ronald Reagan had other ideas. History is already being kinder to Reagan. When he was President, he was widely dismissed as either […]

The veteran actor died this morning aged 90, taking with him Arthur Daley, one of British television’s greatest creations. This role in Minder made him hugely famous in the autumn of his career. The word “minder” is now commonplace but when Minder came out, very few people knew what it meant. And what’s often forgotten […]

Both were born of white mothers and African fathers but no one ever refers to Dame Shirley as black. But of course, it would be naive to suggest that they’re not very different cases. Given America’s history of segregation and the ongoing struggle for civil rights, the election of its first non-white president was hugely […]