This is a clip from Read On, a BBC schools programme broadcast on 9 February 1981. The presenter Vicki Luke reads a short passage from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, then the artist Michael Heslop talks about how he produced his cover illustration for the book. I have all five books in this series with covers by Heslop. I bought them in the mid Eighties. These days his work concentrates on horse racing and golf. Thanks to Bob Fischer for tweeting about this video. Susan Cooper fans may also be interested in my post on the 1969 Jackanory dramatisation ...
Tue 22nd
21:54
Paddington has a British passport now, but the Browns could have got 14 years for helping him when h...
From the Guardian: He has been one of the UK's favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear - official name Paddington Brown - has been granted a British passport. The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the specimen document to the fictional Peruvian-born character - listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear. Aw, innit cute? Ten years ago, as the first Paddington film was due for release, I quoted Free Movement blog: Paddington stows away and deliberately avoids the immigration authorities on ...
James Graham (the television writer not the former Liberal Democrat blogger) has joined calls for the preservation of the cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which was Britain's last working coal-fired station before it shut down at the end of September. BBC News quotes him as saying: "Some might think they're ugly. I think they're majestic. Concrete cathedrals. "I got to stand inside one, filming Sherwood series two. I've never stood anywhere like it on Earth. "I'd love future generations to stand in them too. But they are inexplicably all going - all of them." There are various online petitions ...
In his parliamentary sketch for The Critic, Robert Hutton catches up with Ric Holden, whom he finds displaying a new-found enthusiasm for pie-and-mash shops: A few months ago, Holden was the chairman of the greatest election-winning machine in history, the British Conservative Party. Now he is just a humble opposition backbencher. Some might say his demotion was deserved. He did after all oversee a campaign that set a number of records, including lowest Conservative share ever and most seats lost by a government ever. But those people miss a very important point: although Holden waved goodbye to 250 colleagues in ...
A long while ago I found myself in a lecture theatre listening to a speaker arguing that lowering drug prices was a foolish policy objective. When it comes to industrial strategy, what companies need are high margins! After all, this is how you get a high quantity of gross value added, and accumulating GVA is the goal. It is little wonder that orthodox economists can express a mixture of fear and bewilderment towards industrial strategy. The UK government has unveiled a Green Paper on its new Industrial Strategy, based initially on eight sectors. Here is my welcoming comment - subject ...
Following the return of the schools yesterday, Fraser's weekly ward surgeries return later today and take place every Tuesday during school term time. They are as follows : Tuesdays at 5pm prompt - Blackness Library Tuesdays at 5.45pm prompt - Ancrum Road Primary School All residents welcome - no appointment necessary.
If anybody was wondering how it is that we have a £22 billion black hole in he UK government finances. then look no further than here. The Independent reports that Keir Starmer has come under pressure to publish the true costs of Brexit after a minister confirmed Britain has spent £24bn alone withdrawing from the EU - with a further £6.4bn still to pay. Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq replied to a parliamentary question to say that Britain has paid the EU £23.8bn as part of its "financial settlement" agreement. Naturally this has created waves, even though I think we all ...
