Saturday 11 March 2023

telegraph.co.uk

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No 52,199

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BRITAIN ’S BE ST Q UALIT Y NEWSPAPER

BBC faces revolt over Lineker
record, a Labour source said: “The
BBC’s cowardly decision to take Lineker
off air is an assault on free speech in the
face of political pressure.
“Tories lobbying to get people sacked
for disagreeing with policies should be
laughed at, not pandered to. The BBC
should rethink their decision.”
Alastair Campbell, the former Labour
spin doctor who hosts a podcast produced by Lineker’s media company,
said: “What has happened today is the
consequence of creeping Right-wing
authoritarianism in this country.”
Rather than BBC presenters stepping
down, C ampb ell said, it should
be “Richard Sharp, the chairman – the
Tory donor, the friend of [Rishi] Sunak,
the man who arranges loans for
Boris Johnson.”
However, the BBC’s decision was
welcomed by a number of Tory MPs.
John Whittingdale, the former culture
secretary, told Radio 4’s PM programme:
“I think it was inevitable. The problem is
that Gary has made it clear that he wants
to go on tweeting his views, and he is of
course entitled to hold his views.
“The problem is that he is the highest-paid person working for the BBC
and is closely associated with the BBC,
and those things are not compatible.
“A lot of other BBC journalists have
made clear that they don’t like the fact
that Gary has been regularly flouting
the rules in this way.”
Lineker let it be known that he was
being removed from Match of the Day
against his wishes.
He had tried to call the corporation’s
bluff on Thursday by tweeting that the
issue had been resolved and he looked
forward to hosting tonight’s show.
But the broadcaster released a statement yesterday evening that read: “The
BBC has been in extensive discussions
with Gary and his team in recent days.
“We have said that we consider his
recent social media activity to be a
breach of our guidelines. The BBC has
decided that he will step back from
presenting Match of the Day until we’ve
Continued on Page 2

Presenter’s colleagues
boycott Match of the Day
after corporation orders
him off air for ‘Nazi’ tweet

THE BBC is facing a backlash after forcing Gary Lineker to step down from
Match of the Day, prompting his colleagues to boycott the programme
in solidarity.
The corporation took action after
Lineker refused to apologise for posting
an inflammatory tweet drawing parallels between the Government’s policy
on illegal migrants and the language of
Nazi Germany.
He also refused to give assurances
that he would refrain from voicing his
political opinions in future.
However, the decision to take the
BBC’s highest-paid presenter off air
plunged the broadcaster into its latest
crisis, with critics asking why it had
made an example of Lineker while
Richard Sharp, the chairman, remains
in his post despite revelations about his
involvement in an £800,000 loan
arrangement to Boris Johnson.
Pundits and presenters who appear
on Match of the Day also swiftly
announced their support for Lineker.
Ian Wright was the first to take a
stand and declare he would not appear
on tonight’s show, followed by fellow
pundits Alan Shearer, Micah Richards
and Jermaine Jenas as well as Alex Scott.
Mark Chapman, who it is understood
was not due to appear owing to other
BBC commitments, was also said by
sources to be unhappy.
For what is thought to be the first
time in the programme’s 59-year history, the BBC will broadcast the show
with no presenter or pundits, simply
showing highlights with commentary.
The Labour Party joined in the backlash, and accused the corporation of an
“assault on free speech”. Although the
party declined to comment on the

THOMAS BROOM FOR THE TELEGRAPH

By Anita Singh
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
and Dominic Penna

Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, Lineker’s regular studio guests, said they would not appear on tonight’s Match of the Day, after the BBC told him to step down

Charles Moore: Page 20

Hunt: we can learn from Swedish lockdown Militant doctors ‘trying to shut hospitals’
By Lockdown Files Team
JEREMY HUNT has said Britain has “a
lot to learn” from Sweden’s decision not
to impose a mandatory Covid lockdown.
The Chancellor acknowledged that
the Scandinavian country had achieved
a similar outcome to the UK without
having to resort to draconian rules.
Throughout the pandemic Stockholm stuck to a voluntary approach to
restrictions, relying on people to exercise personal responsibility.
He made the remarks as The Daily

INSIDE
News Focus
Obituaries
Business
Weather
ISSN-0307-1235

;0Y+Y;?>) 4 MPNC

Telegraph reveals how Boris Johnson
was warned by Britain’s top civil servant over the impact of lockdowns.
Just days before the then prime minister shut down the country for a second time, Simon Case, the Cabinet
Secretary, told him doing so would be
“terrible for other outcomes”.
Mr Hunt was asked in an interview
with GB News whether Sweden’s
approach had proved right compared
with the Covid strategy pursued by
some countries.
He said: “I don’t think it was quite so
black and white as that. We used the

law, Sweden used a voluntary approach,
but we had broadly, fairly similar levels
of compliance with the lockdown.
“So in that respect, I think there’s a lot
to learn from what Sweden did. But I
don’t think there was such a huge difference.”
The Chancellor said the UK was “the
very best in the world” at rolling out the
vaccine, but admitte d the early
response to the virus was flawed.
He admitted that contingency plans
for an outbreak, put in place while he
was health secretary, were designed for
Continued on Page 5

NEWS

King makes Edward
22 Duke of Edinburgh
King has conferred the title of
31 The
Duke of Edinburgh on his younger
brother,
Prince Edward, to mark his
33 59th birthday.
It was Prince Philip’s
that the Earl of Wessex should
36 wish
inherit his title and the King chose to
coincide the recreation of the
dukedom with Edward’s visit to
Edinburgh yesterday. His wife, the
Countess of Wessex, also known as
Sophie, 58, becomes the Duchess of
Edinburgh. The Scottish title will be
returned to the Crown upon his death.
Page 3

and seen by The Daily Telegraph,
instructs members not to inform hospitals if they intend to join the industrial
action. As a result, hospitals are having
to prepare for the worst and some have
postponed all planned operations.
NHS chiefs warned yesterday that the
union’s refusal to consider protecting
services from the action could result in
“much more severe” disruption than
previous walkouts, which would have a
“huge” impact on waiting lists.
Urging the public only to go to A&E in
life-threatening situations, Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director,

said: “We have no option but to prioritise emergency and critical care as a
matter of patient safety.”
The walkouts in England are likely
to affect every hospital as the 61,000
junior doctors involved make up half
the medical workforce.
Separate union documents set out
hardline tactics with activists instructed
to draw up secret files on colleagues’
attitudes and to score strikers for loyalty
in order to change their minds.
A Conservative Party source said:
“This sinister guide is a handbook for
Continued on Page 2

WORLD

BUSINESS

SPORT

China brokers Saudi
accord with Iran

Silicon Valley bank
Conte in meltdown at
failure rattles markets ‘impatient’ Spurs fans

China has brokered a deal for Iran and
Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic
relations, in a triumph for Beijing that
appeared to leave the kingdom’s US
ally out in the cold. The agreement to
restore ties, including embassies and
missions, “within two months” was
reached after four days of meetings in
the Chinese capital, the two countries
said in a joint communiqué with China.
It marked China’s emergence as a key
player in Middle Eastern politics as the
US and the West pivot from the region.
Page 17

The biggest US banking failure since
the financial crisis triggered a sell-off
in global markets amid fears about
contagion. US regulators last night
stepped in after a run on California’s
Silicon Valley Bank forced it to put
itself up for sale. The intervention
triggered panic in global markets, with
the FTSE 100 closing down 1.67pc in
London. The Bank of England is
understood to be monitoring the
situation, although it believes that the
largest lenders are resilient.
Page 33

By Laura Donnelly HEALTH EDITOR
THE British Medical Association has
been accused of trying to shut down
hospitals during strikes next week by
using militant tactics to prevent the
NHS from preparing.
Thre e - day walkouts by junior
doctors expected to begin on Monday
morning could mean up to half a million
appointments and operations are cancelled as efforts are made to protect
A&E and critical care services.
Guidance from the British Medical
Association, issued to all junior doctors

‘Your son is falling behind
in Sex Education. He could
only name 47 of the 100
different genders.’

Antonio Conte has hit out at the
Tottenham Hotspur fans and said he
will not “kill himself ” because of their
lack of “patience”. The Tottenham head
coach also claimed he was the victim of
his own success, with an expectation
that the club would win trophies just
because he has been a serial winner. In
an impassioned press conference,
Conte, 53, dropped more hints he
would leave at the end of the season
and claimed he signed a “strange
contract” when he joined in 2021.
Sport: Page 1

2

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

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Lineker failed to heed the warnings
ration’s rules on impartiality, and on Friday night Lineker discovered just how
far Mr Davie’s patience can be tested.
Having refused to do as he was told,
Lineker was told he would be “stepping
back” from Match of the Day. Whether
he will return is open to question.
He had already riled Tory MPs with
his views on migrants in 2016, when he
responded to a suggestion by a Conservative backbencher that dental
checks should be used to verify the age
of those claiming to be children.
“The treatment by some towards
these young refugees is hideously racist
and utterly heartless,” he tweeted.
“What’s happening to our country?”
Calls for his sacking were rebuffed by
the BBC, and last year he kept his job
despite a ruling that he had breached
impartiality guidelines with a tweet
about Conservative donors.
So when Lineker decided to stick the
boot into Conservative migration policy
once again this week, he undoubtedly
thought he would get away with it yet
again. “Good heavens, this is beyond
awful,” he commented on Tuesday,
above a video of Suella Braverman, the
Home Secretary, explaining her plans to
stop small boats crossing the Channel.
Warming to his theme, he wrote in

The football presenter
may agitate over party
politics but seems to have
no concept of office politics
By Gordon Rayner ASSOCIATE EDITOR
AS THE BBC’s highest-earning star, Gary
Lineker appeared to have come to the
conclusion that he was untouchable.
For years, he has seemed to derive as
much pleasure from thumbing his nose
at his bosses as he once got from poking
another tap-in over the goal line. By
defiantly doubling down on his tweet
comparing the language of the Government’s policy on illegal migration to
that used in Nazi Germany, he was
effectively daring the BBC to sack him.
“I have never known such love and
support in my life,” he tweeted from the
eye of the storm on Wednesday, notching up 239,000 “likes” as evidence, he
thought, that his critics had lost the
argument. As Jeremy Clarkson knows to
his cost, however, no one is bigger than
the BBC, even those who helm their biggest and most profitable programmes.
Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, has
made it his mission to enforce the corpo-

Gary Lineker
@GaryLineker

@a_webb @secrettory12
There is no huge influx. We
take far fewer refugees than
other major European
countries. This is just an
immeasurably cruel policy
directed at the most
vulnerable people in language
that is not dissimilar to that
used by Germany in the 30s,
and I’m out of order?
another tweet: “There is no huge influx.
We take far fewer refugees than other
major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel
policy directed at the most vulnerable
people in language that is not dissimilar
to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”
Ms Braverman, whose husband is
Jewish, said his comments were “offensive” because “my children are directly
descended from people who were murdered in gas chambers during the Holocaust”. Lineker may, at this point, have

decided to wind his neck in, but instead
he treated the row as something of a joke.
“Morning all. Anything going on?” he
tweeted on Wednesday morning. He
followed up by saying: “Great to see the
freedom of speech champions out in
force this morning demanding silence
from those with whom they disagree.”
Later, he tweeted his “love and support” message, promising he would
“continue to try and speak up for those
poor souls that have no voice”.
But Downing Street branded his
rhetoric unacceptable and “disappointing” and Grant Shapps said that as a
Jewish Cabinet minister he needed “no
lessons about 1930s Germany” from
Lineker. Unlike Lineker, Mr Davie was
taking the matter deadly seriously. He
spoke to the presenter, who refused to
give any undertaking about his future
political comments, and as far as
Lineker was concerned that was that.
On Thursday he told reporters outside his home that he had no regrets
about what he had said, and that he was
not worried about losing his job.
Rather than letting the story “abate”,
however, Lineker went back on the
attack, accusing Leader of the House
Penny Mordaunt of making a “clumsy
analogy” between him and Labour, add-

ing: “I’m just happy to have been better
in the six-yard box than you are at the
dispatch box. Best wishes.”
For good measure, allies of Lineker
briefed newspapers that he would be
back on Match of the Day this weekend,
in what seemed to be an attempt to present a fait accompli to BBC bosses.
Lineker may be a follower of party
politics, but he appears to have little
concept of office politics. Mr Davie had
warned staff about their use of social
media when he started his job in 2020
and has since tightened the corporation’s guidelines on the use of Twitter.
More importantly, he is engaged in a
battle for the future of the licence fee,
and is constantly trying to find ways to
cut costs after the Government froze BBC
funding. Lineker, who is paid more than
£1.3 million, has long been a lightning
rod for criticism of BBC profligacy by politicians, and getting him off the payroll
would solve two problems in one.
Yesterday, Lineker’s Twitter feed
went uncharacteristically silent. Then
came the news that he would “step back”
from Match of the Day until he and the
BBC could reach an “agreed and clear
position” on his social media use. Mr
Davie may well be hoping that Lineker
picks up his ball and walks away.

Pro-Gary
Ian Wright, former England
striker Everybody knows what
Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve
told the BBC I won’t be doing it
tomorrow. Solidarity.

Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour
leader Well done Gary Lineker for
standing up for refugees. Well done Ian
Wright for showing the meaning of
solidarity. Now, let’s mobilise against a
politics of cruelty, and defeat this
inhumane, illegal and immoral
legislation.
Lucy Powell, shadow culture
secretary This feels like an over
reaction brought on by a Right-wing
media frenzy obsessed with
undermining the BBC.

SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG

Tim Davie, BBC director-general, warned staff about their use of social media when he took up the role in late 2020. He said taking Lineker off air was ‘proportionate action’

Match of the Day in ‘meltdown’
as pundits side with host
Continued from Page 1
got an agreed and clear position on his
use of social media.
“When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second
to none. We have never said that Gary …
can’t have a view on issues that matter
to him, but we have said that he should
keep well away from taking sides on
political controversies.”
Wright was the first MOTD pundit to
respond to the action, tweeting: “Every-

body knows what Match of the Day
means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I
won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.”
He was followed by Shearer, who
said: “I have informed the BBC that I
won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow
night.” Sources close to Shearer said he
was angry at the treatment of his close
friend. Scott, who had been expected to
step in as host, tweeted: “Nah. Not me.”
The programme was said to be in
“meltdown”, with production staff and

BBC Sport executives furious about
Lineker’s removal.
Football commentators for the show
also offered their support. Steve Wilson
tweeted: “So sad that this has become
the story rather than the tragedy of
human beings struggling to find sanctuary. Having taken in refugees himself,
Gary has surely earned the right to
express his opinion.”
BBC director-general Tim Davie said:
“BBC Sport have to look at the programme they’re going to produce for
the weekend as normal.”
He was also asked: “If Gary Lineker
breached the guidelines, why didn’t
you sack him?”
Mr Davie replied: “Well I think we

always look to take proportionate action
and that’s what we’ve done.”
He added that there had been “very
constructive discussions”.
Lineker, 62, remained uncharacteristically silent on social media. However,
he allowed his former colleague, Dan
Walker, to relay his thoughts. Walker,
who hosts Channel 5’s evening news,
said on air: “I’m texting the man himself
at the moment. I’ve asked Gary Lineker
whether he is stepping back or whether
the BBC has told him to step back.
“There’s a word in there I can’t use,
but he said, ‘No, they’ve told me I have
to step back.’ Gary Lineker wants to
continue to present Match of the Day
and is not apologising for what he said.”

Doctors accused of drafting ‘sinister guide’ for divisive militancy
Continued from Page 1
divisive militancy. The Government is
clear that instead of playing politics
it wants to focus on fixing the NHS to
ensure better care for patients.
“Whilst the BMA are pushing hardline campaign tactics, we’re working
to reduce waiting lists, improve A&E
performance and make it easier to
see a GP.”
Last night, Steve Barclay, the Health
Secretary, said he had written to the

Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT
could spell the end of coursework for
GCSEs and A-levels, England’s chief
exam regulator has said.
Dr Jo Saxton, head of Ofqual, said
ChatGPT makes invigilated exams
“more important than ever”. She said
that after the emergence of ChatGPT,
she “wouldn’t be asking for the pieces
of coursework or the essays that
contribute to the grade to be done at
home or in school holidays.”
Ofqual has a team of people working
on technology in assessment. But Dr
Saxton said: “We’re not seeing the end
of pens and paper any time soon.”

Teenagers are taking part in TikTok
protests because they find school
routines “oppressive” post-pandemic,
a teaching union boss has said.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of
the Association of School and College
Leaders, addressed the recent spate of
“highly disruptive copycat protests in
schools” at the headteachers’ annual
conference in Birmingham yesterday.
He said: “I do think there is a sense
that a lot of the old rhythms and
routines, which are essential to
running a school, suddenly feel more
oppressive after having had a period of
working from home in lockdown.”

Nadine Dorries, former culture
secretary Public service
broadcasters have to be impartial. Gary
Lineker is not impartial. They’ve done
the right thing. They need to look at this.
It’s too serious.

Sir John Whittingdale, former
culture secretary Gary Lineker is
perfectly entitled to hold views and he
can express them. But if he wishes to
continue to work with the BBC, that
carries with it obligations – and he
cannot do both, in my view.

AI means more need for
exams, says watchdog

TikTok school protests
‘is a result of lockdown’

Anti-Gary

Emily Thornberry, shadow attorney
general I just think that there is a special
place in hell for the Nazis. I don’t think
you should be making those
comparisons. So I wouldn’t have said
that. I think that he went too far.

A Labour council has been accused of
“greed” after giving its cabinet a 45 per
cent pay rise.
Westminster city council’s six
cabinet members will see their yearly
allowance rise from £11,733 to £17,008:
an increase of 44.96 per cent – 10 times
the hike that the council’s employees
will receive.
The boost comes 10 months after the
council switched from Tory to Labour
control for the first time in 58 years.
It has been described as “appalling”
at a time when the London council is
running a “fairer Westminster”
campaign to “reduce inequalities” in
the area.

An 82-year-old worshipper was left
with severe burns after being doused
in petrol and set alight outside a
mosque.
The suspect, who had also attended
a service, simply “walked away” from
the scene as his victim burned.
The man was taken to hospital with
severe burns to the back of his neck,
back, ears and hand following the
attack outside the West London
Islamic Centre in Ealing, London.
Congregants said the perpetrator was
not a regular attendee.
A spokesman for the mosque said:
“We don’t know his motive.”
Police are searching for the suspect.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First
Minister The decision to take Gary
Lineker off air is indefensible. It is
undermining free speech in the face of
political pressure and it does always seem
to be rightwing pressure it caves to.

Tom Hunt, Tory MP for Ipswich
What we need at the very least in
addition to all of this is a clear apology
from him. His social media use needs to
be dramatically changed, how he uses it,
and how he uses his platform.

Labour council awards
cabinet 45pc pay rise

Muslim worshipper, 82,
set alight at mosque

Alan Shearer, former England
captain I have informed the BBC that I
won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow
night.

Craig Mackinlay, Tory MP for South
Thanet He caused outrage amongst many
people across the country, not least those
in the Jewish community, because he
likened a well-supported government
initiative on refugees to the most heinous
event in human history founded on pure
evil.

NEWS BULLETIN

BMA inviting them for formal pay talks,
if they call off the strikes.
The 72-hour action, starting at 7am
on Monday, is the longest industrial
action taken by any health union, with
junior doctors withdrawing from A&E
departments, as well as planned care.
Estimates suggest that as many as
50 0,0 0 0 0 pro ce dure s could b e
affected, with up to 100,000 cancelled
on each day of the walkouts, and a
severe knock-on effect on following

days, as consultants drafted in to cover
for junior doctors take their leave.
So far, repeated strikes by nurses,
ambulance workers, and other health
staff have resulted in 142,000 appointments and operations being postponed.
Other health unions have spent
this week in pay negotiations with the
Government and talks are expected to
continue next week.
NHS chiefs last night said thousands
of patients would be affected by cancel-

lations and urged the public to use 999
and A&E only in life-threatening situations and otherwise to turn to the 111
helpline, pharmacists and GPs.
Prof Powis said: “The NHS has been
working incredibly hard to mitigate the
impact of this strike. While we are
doing what we can to avoid having to
reschedule appointments, there’s no
doubt that disruption will be much
more severe than before and patients
who have been waiting for some time

will face postponements across many
treatment areas.”
Internal BMA documents reveal the
extent of the militant tactics being used
as the strikes approach.
One, entitled “Pay Restoration Now –
an activist’s guide to winning the campaign”, directs activists to compile files
on their colleagues to “build up knowledge of every junior doctor who works
at your NHS Trust”, but not to discuss
them with outsiders.

Winner pie proves meat
is still the filling to beat
When a vegan, gluten-free pie
triumphed at last year’s British Pie
Awards, traditionalist eyebrows were
raised. But for many, order has been
restored after a steak, ale and Stilton
pie was crowned 2023’s top variety.
Ian Jalland, owner of Brockleby’s
Pies, the recipient of this year’s UK
Supreme Champion accolade, said he
was “really chuffed” and that his
victory was a “backlash against vegan
pies”. “People want real meat pies and
this win supports that,” he said. Moo &
Blue beat more than 900 rivals in
Melton Mowbray, Leics.
Editorial Comment: Page 19

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The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

**

3

News

Dukedom of
Edinburgh
is Edward’s
birthday gift
By Camilla Tominey
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
and Victoria Ward ROYAL EDITOR
The King has conferred the title of Duke
of Edinburgh on his younger brother,
Prince Edward, who said he was
“slightly overwhelmed”.
It was Prince Philip’s wish that the
Earl of Wessex should inherit his title
and the King chose to coincide the recreation of the dukedom with Edward’s
59th birthday.
He becomes the Duke of Edinburgh
while his wife the Countess of Wessex,
also known as Sophie, 58, becomes the
Duchess of Edinburgh.
The couple visited the Scottish capital yesterday, making it their first
engagement with their new titles.
The Scottish title has been conferred
on the Duke for the duration of his lifetime and will be returned to the Crown
upon his death.
The Duke’s 19-year-old daughter,
Lady Louise Windsor, will not see her
title change but his son James, Viscount
Severn, 15, will become the new Earl
of Wessex. Upon his father’s death he
will become the Earl of Wessex and
Forfar, enabling him to use the title
when he is in Scotland.
A royal insider said the move was in
recognition of the Duke and Duchess of
Edinburgh’s decades of service.
The couple’s first engagement was at
the Scottish capital’s City Chambers.
Edward said the day had been “very
overwhelming” for him and his wife.
Speaking at a reception recognising
the city’s support for Ukrainian refugees, some of whom attended, the duke
told guests: “Thank you for welcoming
us to Edinburgh today on, indeed, a
very special and very overwhelming
day for now my wife and duchess,” he
joked, while looking at Sophie.
When the couple married in 1999,
Buckingham Palace issued a statement
making clear that Charles agreed with
his parents’ plans for Edward to inherit
the title.
It said: “The Queen, the Duke of
Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales have

also agreed that the Prince Edward
should be given the Dukedom of Edinburgh in due course when the present
title held now by Prince Philip eventually reverts to the Crown.”
In what was widely seen as preparation for the role, Edward took over the
reins at the Duke of Edinburgh Award
scheme that his father founded in 1956.
Since 2015, he has been chairman of
the trustees of the Duke of Edinburgh’s
International Award Foundation.
The couple discussed inheriting the
title during an interview with The Telegraph Magazine in 2021. The Duchess
recalled the time when, two days after
their engagement in 1999, Prince Philip
asked his youngest son if he would be
willing to become the next Duke of
Edinburgh. “We sat there slightly
stunned,” she said. “He literally came
straight in and said: ‘Right. I’d like it
very much if you would consider that.’ ”
Acknowledging that it was “a bitter-

‘My father was keen that
the title should continue,
but he didn’t move quickly
enough with Andrew’
sweet role to take as the only way the
title can come to me is after both my
parents have passed away”, Edward
admitted that “theoretically” the title
should have gone to the Duke of York.
“My father was very keen that the
title should continue, but he didn’t
quite move quickly enough with
Andrew, so it was us who he eventually
had the conversation with,” he said. “It
was a lovely idea; a lovely thought.”
There had been reports that the King,
74, was reluctant to confer the title on
Edward for fear that it would then pass
too far down the pecking order to retain
its significance. It has been suggested
that it may pass to Princess Charlotte or
Prince Louis when the Prince of Wales
becomes king, ensuring it retains seniority within the House of Windsor.
Named after the Scottish capital, the
title has only been created three times,
starting in 1726 when it was given to
King George II’s eldest son, Prince
Frederick. Queen Victoria re-created
the title in 1866 for her second son
Prince Alfred and in 1947, King George
VI bestowed it on Philip Mountbatten
when he married Princess Elizabeth.

JANE BARLOW/PA

Earl of Wessex inherits role
on visit to Scottish capital,
fulfilling the wishes of late
Queen and Prince Philip

The new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh attend a ceremony at the City Chambers in Edinburgh, to mark one year since the city’s formal response to the invasion of Ukraine

Title tally The previous Dukes of Edinburgh
Prince
Frederick The

Prince William

Prince Alfred

In 1764, George III
created a variation
of the title for his
younger brother,
Prince William,
making him Duke
of Gloucester and
Edinburgh. On his
death in 1805, his
son, also William,
took the title but
died with no heir.

title was created
by George I in
1726 for his
grandson, Prince
Frederick. When
he died in 1751, the
title was inherited
by his son Prince
George, who
acceded to the
throne in 1760.

The title had
become extinct
but was revived by
Queen Victoria for
her second son,
Prince Alfred, in
1866. When Alfred
died in 1900, the
title again became
extinct, his only
son having died
the previous year.

Prince Philip

It was created
again by Elizabeth
II’s father, George
VI, ahead of her
1947 marriage to
Philip. When the
Duke died in 2021,
eldest son Charles
inherited the title.
When he became
King, it merged
with the crown.

King’s canny move honours his father’s wishes but keeps options open
Analysis
By Camilla Tominey
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

J

ust days before Prince Edward was
due to marry Sophie Rhys-Jones at
Windsor Castle in 1999, his father,
Prince Philip, unexpectedly popped in
for a cup of tea.
As the soon-to-be newlyweds later
recalled, they were taken aback when
he suggested to his youngest son that it
was his express wish that he should
become the next Duke of Edinburgh.
Queen Elizabeth II would later
confer on Edward and Sophie the title
of Earl and Countess of Wessex, but
as the monarch’s only son without a
dukedom, it was with the promise
that he would be elevated up the
House of Windsor hierarchy when
the time came.
As Buckingham Palace announced
in a statement on their wedding day on
June 19, 1999: “The Queen, the Duke
of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales
have also agreed that the Prince
Edward should be given the Dukedom
of Edinburgh in due course, when the

present title held now by Prince Philip
eventually reverts to the Crown.”
Edward was touched by the gesture
because “technically” the title should
have passed to his older brother, the
Duke of York, upon their father’s death
as the more senior royal.
As the then Earl of Wessex told
me in an interview for the Telegraph
magazine in June 2021, two months
after his father died: “It was a lovely
idea; a lovely thought.”
Yet then came a degree of
unexpected consternation over
whether the King would actually
confer on Edward the prestigious
Scottish title, which had only been
created three times since 1726.
A month after our interview at the
Edinburghs’ Berkshire home, Bagshot
Park, reports emerged that Charles,
then Prince of Wales, was not set on
the idea of granting his father’s wishes.
A source was quoted in The Sunday
Times saying: “The prince is the Duke
of Edinburgh as it stands, and it is up to
him what happens to the title. It will
not go to Edward.” Another source
close to the prince added: “Edinburgh
won’t go to them [the Wessexes] as
far as the prince is concerned.”
Edward never thought inheriting
the title was a done deal, telling the
BBC in an interview to mark what

With the
union
hanging in
the balance,
would it be
right to
give the
Edinburgh
dukedom
to someone
sliding fast
down the
royal
rankings?

would have been Philip’s 100th
birthday in June 2021 that the idea was
“a pipe dream of my father’s”.
He added: “Of course it will depend
on whether or not the Prince of Wales,
when he becomes king, whether he’ll
do that, so we’ll wait and see. So, yes, it
will be quite a challenge taking that on.”
But Charles’s sudden change of
heart did raise eyebrows – not least
after the Edinburghs had taken on a
more prominent role in the Royal
family since Prince Andrew stepped
back from public life in 2019, and the
Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit royal
duties in 2020. Edward had taken on
several of his father’s patronages and
along with his wife, has carried on the
mantle of the Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award Scheme.
The couple and their children, Lady
Louise Windsor, 19, and James,
Viscount Severn, who now becomes
the Earl of Wessex, had also always
been incredibly close to “Granny and
Grandpa” regularly popping in to see
the couple at weekends.
Their outdoor visits were a mainstay
during coronavirus. As the Duchess
told me in our interview: “We used to
see them stand on the balcony, which
was about 20 feet up in the air. We’d
see them waving. We’d shout at them
and they’d shout back at us. It always

seemed to be windy, so we could
barely hear each other.
“Proximity certainly helped.
Windsor is 15 minutes down the road.
We were very lucky that the children
did have so much contact.”
Nevertheless, Clarence House did
not push back on the suggestion that
Charles was in two minds, with a
spokesman telling reporters: “No final
decisions have been made.”
Behind the scenes, royal aides were
grappling with a dilemma. When
Philip offered his title to Edward 24
years ago, his son was seventh in line
to the throne.
But following the births of William
and Kate’s children, Prince George,
Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis,
Harry and Meghan’s children Prince
Archie and Princess Lilibet, Princess
Beatrice’s daughter Sienna and
Princess Eugenie’s son August, Edward
had been nudged to 14th in the
pecking order – arguably too far down
the line of succession to hold a title of
such constitutional significance.
Another thing had also happened:
the rise of the Scottish National Party.
With the union hanging in the
balance, would it be right to give the
Edinburgh dukedom to someone
sliding fast down the royal rankings?
Why not confer the title on the

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Princess Royal, a trusted royal trooper
whose love of Scotland is well known?
Last November, it emerged that the
palace powers-that-be were thinking of
saving the title for Princess Charlotte
“to honour the line of succession”.
As a source told the Mail on Sunday:
“Charlotte is the first female Royal
whose place in the line of succession
will not be surpassed by her younger
brother. So it is constitutionally
significant that Charlotte should be
given such a corresponding title,
because it is not beyond the realms
of possibility that she will accede the
throne if, for example, Prince George
does not have children.”
The King’s decision, therefore, to
confer the title on Edward for his
lifetime only is canny. Not only can he
fulfil his father’s wishes and reward
the Wessexes for their hard work, but
it also gives the Prince of Wales the
option of conferring it on one of his
own children when the time comes.
It should not go unnoticed that this
announcement comes just weeks after
Nicola Sturgeon announced her
resignation as Scotland’s First Minister.
With the prospect of Scottish
independence now looking less likely,
there is far less risk in making the
trusty couple the Duke and Duchess
of Edinburgh for now, if not for ever.

What does it say about royalty if dukedoms are not hereditary?
Commentary
By Christopher Howse

CHARLOTTE GRAHAM FOR THE TELEGRAPH

I

Glad rags Charlotte Lloyd Webber arranges ceremonial
robes of coronations past worn by the Dukes of Rutland in
an exhibition at Belvoir Castle, Leics, starting tomorrow.

t seems a pity that the boy we called
Viscount Severn until yesterday
(now the Earl of Wessex) will not
inherit the title Duke of Edinburgh
created for his father, Prince Edward.
The United Kingdom is down to its last
30 dukes. The rank is becoming
endangered.
Queen Victoria had created the title
anew by making Alfred, her second
son, Duke of Edinburgh. Ordinarily a
second son might expect to be Duke of
York, but that title had been sullied by
her wicked uncle Frederick.
When at last Victoria’s grandson,
later George V, was made Duke of York
aged 26, he was delighted. “I am glad
you like the title Duke of York,” she
wrote to him. “I am afraid I do not &

wish you had remained as you are.”
The trouble was that the previous
Duke of York had to resign as Commander-in-Chief of the Army because
his mistress was selling commissions.
Even so, he was commemorated by the
137ft column in the Mall, though the
Complete Peerage noted that he is
“chiefly remembered in the public
mind as a man who marched his army
up and down a hill”.
For Prince Alfred, being made Duke
of Edinburgh in 1866 was a consolation
prize for not being allowed to become
King of Greece in 1863. The Greeks
were allowed to vote for a replacement
for their deposed King Otto. More than
95 per cent voted for Alfred.
But the choice was held to contravene the Protocol of London signed by
Britain, France and Russia. In any case
Victoria was having none of it. Prince
Alfred continued to be Duke of
Edinburgh even after succeeding to
the sovereign Dukedom of SaxeCoburg and Gotha. The title Duke of
Edinburgh almost became extinct in

1868 when Alfred was shot in the back
by a Fenian in Sydney. But he survived
and lived until 1900, a year after his
only son and heir, also Alfred, had shot
himself after attempting marriage to a
commoner, contrary to the Royal
Marriages Act.
George VI created the dukedom for
the third time in 1947 on the morning
of his daughter Princess Elizabeth’s

‘The title Duke of
Edinburgh almost became
extinct in 1868 when
Alfred was shot in the back‘
marriage to Prince Philip. Most people
might not have noticed that the
present King, when Prince of Wales,
inherited the title of Duke of Edinburgh on his father’s death. It merged
with the Crown when he became King.
Perhaps more remember that in
1999, when Prince Edward was made
Earl of Wessex, Buckingham Palace

announced that he “should be given
the Dukedom of Edinburgh in due
course”. An argument for his dukedom
not being hereditary is that it would
end up too far from succession to the
throne; Prince Edward is already 13th
in line and the odds are lengthening.
One day it could go to Prince Louis
of Wales, now fourth in line, or even to
Princess Charlotte, third, though she
might be honoured as Princess Royal.
Whatever happens, it is to be hoped
that the next holder possesses the
dukedom as a hereditary peerage.
There had been peers for life before
workaday life peers were invented in
1958. As recently as 1377 Guichard
d’Angle was created Earl of Huntingdon for life by Richard II, and none of
those Law Lords between 1876 and
2009 could pass down their peerages.
Royal dukedoms are like any other
dukedoms; it is their holders who are
royal. But if dukedoms are not to be
inherited, what does that say about the
hereditary nature of the monarchy
itself?

4

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

***

News

Budget tax cuts off the table, say Hunt
priority for the country. Meanwhile, Mr
Hunt, the Chancellor, said on GB News
that tax cuts could not be funded by
borrowing, arguing “you need responsible public finances” before such a
move could be contemplated.
Boris Johnson is among Tory MPs
and business leaders who have called
for next month’s planned rise in Corporation Tax – from 19 per cent to 25 per
cent – to be ditched, but their demands
are being rebuffed by the Treasury.
Instead, in a new push for economic
growth, dozens of measures aimed at
getting people back into work will be
placed at the heart of Wednesday’s
budget announcements.
Mr Sunak said: “Over time I’ve been
very clear my ambition is to cut people’s

Helping people to return
to workforce after Covid
is the priority for Prime
Minister and Chancellor
By Ben Riley-Smith, Charles Hymas
in Paris and Nick Gutteridge
RISHI SUNAK and Jeremy Hunt have
argued the time is not right for tax cuts,
indicating that pleas for them from Tory
backbenchers will be rejected in next
week’s Budget.
The Prime Minister told reporters
accompanying him on a trip to Paris
yesterday that his target to halve inflation this year was the biggest economic

‘Our priority
is to halve
inflation,
reduce debt
and grow
the
economy.
I am
confident
the Budget
will deliver
on that’

taxes. I’ve said that multiple times. I
think people recognise that Covid and
now a war in Ukraine, and the impact
that’s had, has had a major damaging
impact, not just on the economy but on
our public finances. I think everyone
understands that.
“The economic priorities are to halve
inflation, reduce debt and grow the
economy. Those are the right priorities
and I’m confident that the Chancellor’s
budget will deliver on all of those. That
is the focus of our policy and that’s the
thing that people want to see.”
Mr Hunt said: “Liz Truss was right to
say that the central question is how we
deliver growth; where I think the mini
Budget was wrong was to say you can
borrow to cut taxes, because that’s not

sustainable. That’s not money that
you’ve actually got, that’s money you’re
borrowing and so if we’re going to cut
taxes permanently, then it needs to be a
tax cut that we earn, through higher
growth and the first step is stability. And
for stability, you need responsible public finances.”
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that
an expansion of so-called “midlife
MOTs” will be unveiled in the budget,
with millions of older workers encouraged to take part. The MOTs are financial health checks that enable people in
their 40s, 50s and 60s to look at the real
cost of retirement, which Treasury
insiders think is often underestimated.
The Government thinks an increased
take up of the MOTs could convince

fewer people to retire early – a phenomenon that increased during the Covid-19
pandemic, leaving gaps in the workforce. Other measures will include additional childcare support to help parents
return to the workforce. Changes to the
benefits system to make work pay have
also been considered.
The Treasury has announced plans to
invest £20 billion over the next 20 years
to support schemes that capture carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial
processes. Its officials said the money
will drive forward projects that aim to
store 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 a year
by 2030, equivalent to the emissions of
10-15 million cars. It will help the UK hit
the Conservative Government’s target
of reducing the UK to a “net zero” car-

‘Liz Truss
was right to
say that the
central
question is
how we
deliver
growth, but
it was wrong
to say you
can borrow
to cut taxes’

UK will fund
new migrant
detention
centre in
France

the first funded by the UK and will have
capacity for about 140 migrants.
There are 25 such Centres de rétention
administratives (CRA) in France,
including one near the Eurotunnel in
Coquelles. They are similar to UK immigration removal centres where illegal
migrants with no right to remain are
detained while awaiting deportation.
They can be held for 90 days which can
be extended by a judge.
British officials believe it will help
deter migrants, many of whom are
freed to make further crossing attempts
because police fail to arrest them. It is
not an offence in France to attempt to
cross the Channel.
Britain and France hope to have half
the extra 500 officers in place by the
end of the year. They will be backed by

Emmanuel Macron
and Rishi Sunak at
the Élysée Palace in
Paris yesterday.
The upcoming
Six Nations match
was a topic during
their hour long
one-to-one
without officials
SIMON WALKER/NO10 DOWNING STREET

A NEW detention centre to stop Channel migrants leaving France is to be
funded by Britain as part of a £500 million three-year Anglo-French deal
announced by Rishi Sunak.
Migrants detained in the centre can
be held for up to 90 days before being
sent back to their home country if safe
to do so, or to the last country through
which they travelled if not.
The Prime Minister said the new deal
would take Anglo-French cooperation
in combating the surge in migrants to
“an unprecedented level” with the
number of officers patrolling the
beaches also more than doubled to 800
and the creation of a new joint command centre.
The agreement – backed by £478 million from Britain over three years –
came at the end of a one-day bilateral
summit between Mr Sunak and French
president Emmanuel Macron in which
they declared an “entente renewed”.
What Mr Sunak described as a “new
chapter” in Anglo-French relations was
sealed in a one-to-one meeting without
officials lasting more than an hour at the
Élysée Palace, an impromptu decision
taken just hours before they met.
The French will be spending five
times the UK’s funds, bringing the total
to £3 billion over three years, but Mr
Macron said he still remained opposed
to a bilateral deal to take back Channel
migrants who arrive illegally in the UK
from France, arguing instead that it
would have to be negotiated with the
EU as a whole.
The Prime Minister also indicated
that yesterday’s announcement was not
the “end of the story”, but was an extension of last November’s £63 million deal
which increased officers by 40 per cent
to 300 and allowed British Border Force
officers to join beach patrols and work
in French control rooms.
“The more that I’ve spent looking at
this problem, the more time and energy
I’ve devoted to it, the more convinced I
am that we can grip the problem and
I’m going to throw absolutely everything we can at doing so,” he said.
“The new [illegal immigration bill]
this week was a big part of that but I’ve
always said that increasing cooperation
with our French allies is a part of it as
well. And it won’t finish today either.
“November was a start, hopefully we
can go and build on that today and I’m
sure that won’t be the end either. This
will be a continued partnership.”
It comes amid fears that as many as
80,000 migrants could cross the Channel following the record 45,500 last
year. More than 3,000 have already
reached the UK this year on small boats,
although the French have prevented
3,000 leaving the beaches.
The French border force, gendarmes
and police are currently stopping more
than half, but officials believe it needs to
be increased to 80 to 90 per cent if the
business model of the people smuggling gangs is to be broken.
The new de tention centre in
Dunkirk, costing Britain €30 million
(£27 million) over three years, will be

KIN CHEUNG/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
CREDIT

By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
and Henry Samuel in Paris

a new permanent French mobile policing unit dedicated to tackling small
boats. The extra funding will also pay
for more drones, aircraft and other surveillance technology.
The French efforts will be overseen
by a new 24/7 “zonal coordination centre”, which will have permanent UK liaison officers enabling intelligence to be
shared between the two countries in
real time.
Britain has given France more than
£250 million in successive deals since
2015, but Mr Sunak said: “We don’t need
to manage this problem, we need to
break it. And today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to
this disgusting trade in human life.”
Mr Sunak said the £478 million was a
“sensible investment” that would not

have been made “unless we thought it
was going to go on things that will make
a difference.”
“Everyone knows that we are spending £5.5 million a day plus on hotels. We
would rather not do that, and the best
way to stop that is to stop people coming in the first place,” he said.
He warned, however, there was “no
one silver bullet to solve” the problem,
citing the new Bill that will give the
Government powers to detain migrants,
remove them to a safe country and ban
them for life from returning, and the
need for returns agreements with other
countries.
Britain has been pressing president
Macron to help the UK secure a new EUwide deal to replace the previous preBrexit Dublin agreement so that

Don’t be seduced by Manu’s Gallic charm, Rishi PM rebukes Johnson for
Sketch
By Tim Stanley

T

he president and the PM met in
Paris, beneath soft light
streaming through coloured
glass. A waiter in tails poured tumblers
of water, and though he did not smooth
out a tablecloth, nor light a candle, the
assembled press began to wonder if
they were intruding. This was not a
press conference, it was a seduction.
“One thing you can’t control is who
you get as an international
counterpart,” said Rishi. “I am very
excited to be in office alongside you,
and incredibly excited about the future
we can build together.”
Macron smiled. The PM blushed.
The waiter took out his accordion. As

Emmanuel reeled off areas of bilateral
co-operation that sounded
suspiciously sexy – “strengthen our
capabilities”, “mastery of our sea bed”
– Rishi gave way to l’amour.
He thought: “My gosh, he’s goodlooking. And my height, too. This is the
first foreign leader I’ve negotiated with
without getting a crick in my neck.”
It’s not just these raw physical
details that draw Rishi and Manu
together, but also Sunak’s knack of not
being Boris Johnson. It’s only now that
BoJo is out of office that one realises
how much of Britain’s isolation was his
fault, either because the Europeans
hated him or his eccentricity got in the
way of ordinary business.
Finally, a press conference at which
the British journalists don’t confuse
their hosts by asking their prime
minister to confirm or deny reports
that he stole an ice cream van and
drove it around Piccadilly singing
Knees Up Mother Brown.

As Rishi took his turn to speak,
Emmanuel watched him, thinking,
“My gosh, I am good-looking. And this
Englishman might be on the short side,
but at least he’s not that idiot Johnson.”
Rishi won’t recite racist poetry.
Rishi won’t accidentally declare war
on Denmark. So dramatic is the change

I wouldn’t be surprised if
within 10 years we haven’t
joined Erasmus, then the
EU, then the Euro
in British language towards Europe –
“An entente renewed!” – that it’s
starting to sound less like 2020, when
we left, and more like 1973, when we
were excited to join. Ukraine has
brought us so close to the continent
now, I wouldn’t be surprised if within
10 years we haven’t joined Erasmus,
then the EU, then the Euro – a

transition smoothed by the Gallic
charms of Mr Macron.
As the conference ended, Sunak was
so overwhelmed by the smell of Dior
aftershave and garlic, that he went in
for a handshake that turned into a hug,
and nearly into a kiss – but Macron
gently pushed him away. Money first.
Fun later.
See, Macron might be getting the
restaurant bill for this trip – a classic
con man’s opening gambit – but the
PM has also agreed to hand over
£500 million to help the French police
to do their job and stop the boats.
Exploitation starts with these small
gifts, but next thing you’re buying the
French president suits, platform shoes,
even a car – until one day you realise
you’re not the first international
counterpart he’s played footsie with,
and you won’t be the last. I’m told
Macron was spotted on holiday in
Tenerife with Justin Trudeau. Please,
Rishi, do not be a victim.

‘unwise’ idea to knight father
By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR in Paris
RISHI SUNAK has issued a veiled
rebuke of Boris Johnson’s plan to knight
his father.
Asked if prime ministers should honour members of their family, Mr Sunak
replied: “For me, a big success is
remembering to get my dad a card on
Father’s Day, so that is probably about
my limit of it.”
Pressed if that should be read as
a “no,” he said: “Yes, as I said, if I am
doing a card, I’m doing well. Love my
dad as I do.”
His comments came hours after Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, a
close political ally of the Prime Minister,
said it would not be “wise” for Mr Johnson to nominate his father, Stanley, a
former MEP, in his resignation honours.
Mr Jenrick told BBC’s Question Time

that prime ministers should “absolutely
not” hand honours to family members.
He said: “Is it, as a principle, wise for
a prime minister to nominate a member
of their own family for an honour? No,
absolutely not.”
There have been calls for Mr Sunak to
block Stanley Johnson from being given
a knighthood if his name is put forward.
Labour has called on him to block any
such nomination.
Speaking on a visit to Paris, Mr Sunak
said: “There is always comment and
speculation about honours lists beforehand. I’m not going to comment on
speculation. I don’t see these things
until I see them so it is hard for me to say
any more than that.” Pressed again on
the principle, the Prime Minister
replied: “My dad’s going to get a card on
Father’s Day and that is about that.”
Boris Johnson has been asked
for comment.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

***

and Sunak
bon emitter by 2050. Meanwhile, Baroness Altmann, the Tory peer and
former pensions minister, called for a
new version of the Beveridge Report to
be produced to address social challenges facing modern Britain.
That government report was produced in 1942, during the Second World
War, and paved the way for the modern
welfare state.
Baroness Altmann told BBC Radio
Four’s The Week in Westminster: “We
have, I think, a general crisis in care, not
just healthcare but [in] childcare and
adult social care.
“There is perhaps a reset of the welfare state that we need to consider, a
kind of new Beveridge, with an ageing
population and more young women

who are willing and able and want to
work, to try to make society supportive
enough to ensure that can happen.”
Mr Hunt will make his Budget
announcements in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
In his GB News interview, Mr Hunt
also rejected calls for the Corporation
Tax rise to be abandoned.
He said: “I would say we do want to
bring down our effective Corporation
Tax, the total amount people pay as a
proportion of their profits.
“We do want to bring [that] down.
“But, as I said before, it’s not something we’re going to be able to do all in
one go.”
Editorial Comment: Page 19

Rishi
Sunak
I believe
today’s
meeting does
mark a new
beginning
– our entente
renewed.
We’re looking
to the future.
I feel very
fortunate to
be serving
alongside
you and
incredibly
excited about
the future we
can build
together.
Merci, mon
ami.
Emmanuel
Macron
My wish,
definitely,
because it
makes sense
with our
history, our
geography,
our DNA, I
would say, is
to have the
best possible
relations
and the
closest
alliance.

Channel migrants can be returned to
the EU. Since Brexit, just 21 migrants
have been returned to EU countries and
none to France.
However, Mr Macron said: “First we
need to focus on what we have to do in
the short term – to prevent illegal
migration, to try to dismantle all boat
networks. I think the level of ambition
of the new plan is exactly what we need.
“Second, [returns] is not an agreement between the UK and France but
an agreement between the UK and EU,
because the Dublin agreements are no
longer in a situation to be implemented,
so this is something that now needs to
be negotiated.”
The “entente renewed” also saw an
agreement to combat the threat to
energy supplies from Vladimir Putin’s

invasion of Ukraine, which will include
France examining the development of
energy interconnecters to share electricity when one or other country’s supply comes under threat during winter.
There will also be a new deal on civil
nuclear co - operation to prevent
dependency on fossil fuels from countries like Russia.
The two leaders also committed to
easing post-Brexit barriers for school
trips between Britain and France. A
simple ID form will be developed so
children can go to each country if they
do not have passports.
On their hour long one-to-one meeting, the PM’s spokesman said: “It was a
warm and productive meeting. They
discussed the upcoming Six Nations
match.”

Blocking small boats Bill is a
trap, Blunkett tells Labour
By Ben Riley-Smith POLITICAL EDITOR
LORD BLUN KET T has called on
Labour not to block the new small boats
legislation in the House of Lords,
despite his party leadership’s fierce criticism of the measures.
The Labour peer was home secretary
during Tony Blair’s government and is
one of the party’s most prominent figures in the debate about immigration
policy.
Sir Keir Starmer’s team has made
clear that Labour MPs will be whipped
to vote against the Illegal Migration Bill
when it comes up for votes in the House
of Commons.
But speaking on BBC Radio Four’s
The Week in Westminster, Lord Blunkett
urged his party not to try to block the
measures in the House of Lords.
Lord Blunkett said: “We’re undoubtedly moving towards elephant traps.

Whichever way the Labour Party jumps
on this one, the Government are going
to exploit it.
“I’ve already suggested that, in the
House of Lords, we should actually take
the committee stage, we should move
the practical amendments but we
shouldn’t push them.
“We should allow this Bill to go
through and the Government have got
18 months to show whether they really
can make it work – I don’t think they
can, but let’s see.”
Told his stance seemed to clash with
Sir Keir’s stance for Labour MPs to vote
against the Bill in the Commons, Lord
Blunkett waved away the concerns.
He said: “Yeah, I’m talking about the
House of Lords. I’m talking about
ensuring we’re not part of the agenda in
the next 18 months of finding someone
else – in truly Donald Trumpian fashion
– to blame for failure.”

5

Negotiated end to war is decision
for Ukraine to make, says PM
Rishi Sunak reaffirms
UK’s support for Kyiv
during meeting with
French president in Paris
By Charles Hymas in Paris, Ben
Riley-Smith and Amy Gibbons
THE Ukraine conflict will end “at the
negotiation table”, Rishi Sunak has said,
despite insisting the focus was on
defeating Russia on the battlefield.
Speaking to reporters on the way to a
summit with Emmanuel Macron, the
French president, in Paris, the Prime
Minister said: “Of course, this will end
as all conflicts do at negotiating table,
but that is a decision for Ukraine to
make.”
However, during a press conference
yesterday Mr Sunak appeared to harden
his stance, saying he wanted to be “unequivocal” about the UK’s desire for
Ukraine to “win this war”.
The remarks come amid questions
over the unity of the West more than a

year on from Russia’s full scale invasion
of Ukraine. Leaders in London, Washington, Paris and Berlin have often
emphasised how the West has stood
firm behind Ukraine by providing military equipment and economic sanctions against Russia.
Yet differences on how and when
negotiations to end the conflict could
possibly be held have spilled over into
the public at various points, with
French leaders seen as more open to
talks.
Asked about Mr Macron’s comments
at Munich last month, where he said
Europe must defeat but not crush Russia, Mr Sunak said: “What he said at
Munich was now is not the time for
negotiations.
“I think everyone at the moment is
united, as I was saying, in providing
Ukraine with the additional support
that they need in order to have a decisive battlefield advantage. That’s what
we’re aiming for.
“Of course, this will end as all conflicts do at the negotiating table, but
that is a decision for Ukraine to make.

And what we need to do is put them in
the best possible place to have those
talks at an appropriate moment that
makes sense for them.
“But at the moment, the priority has
got to be giving them the resources the
training and the support they need to
push forward and create advantage on
the battlefield.”
Hours later, the Prime Minister was
asked again about the issue at his press

‘Let me be unequivocal
about this: we want
Ukraine to win this war,
and we’re united in that’
conference with Mr Macron and
appeared to put less of an emphasis on
the prospect of negotiations.
Mr Sunak said: “I think I agree with
Emmanuel, so let me just be unequivocal about this: we want Ukraine to win
this war, and we’re absolutely united in
that. And right now that means providing them with the support and the capa-

bilities and the training in order to
mount a counter-offensive and have
decisive advantage on the battlefield.
“And that’s what you’ve seen from the
UK, from France, from other allies,
whether it’s through the provision of
main battle tanks, longer range weapons, as we’ve announced today, training
of Marines – these are all things that will
help Ukraine win this war, gain that
advantage on the battlefield, mount a
successful counter-offensive.
The first Anglo-French summit since
2018 also saw a plan unveiled for
increased allied activity in the IndoPacific. Number 10 said it would include
establishing France and the UK as the
“backbone” to a permanent European
maritime presence there.
The approach will include co-ordinating regular deployment of France’s
Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and
the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth and
HMS Prince of Wales carriers.
It comes ahead of an update to the
review on foreign and security policy,
which Mr Sunak will announce on Monday during a visit to the US.

WhatsApps reveal non-Covid concerns for lockdown
Continued from Page 1
a flu pandemic so were blindsided by
the Covid outbreak.
He said: “We all have to be humble
about the events of the pandemic,
because I don’t think we did as well as
we could have done as a country.
“Looking back on it, the approach
that I advocated when I was chairing
the health select committee was really
to follow what they were doing in Korea
and Taiwan where they avoided
national lockdowns by having a much

more effective test and trace system.” It
comes as WhatsApp messages obtained
by The Telegraph reveal how senior civil
servants expressed early concerns
about the potential impact of the second lockdown in November 2020.
In a message sent on Oct 29, 2020,
two days before the curbs were
announced, Mr Case wrote: “I think we
have to be brutally honest with people.
Full lockdowns optimise our society/
economy for tackling the Covid R rate –
but they are terrible for other outcomes

(non-Covid health, jobs, education,
social cohesion, mental health etc).”
His message was circulated in a
WhatsApp group that included Matt
Hancock, the then health secretary,
Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical
Officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief
Scientific Adviser, and Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser.
The messages also show ministers
were worried non-Covid excess deaths
would be fuelled by the public not
being checked for “minor ailments”

that could “turn into acute” problems
later on. The files also disclose that in
May 2021 a “rapid review” was undertaken into an alarming rise in the “sad
deaths of children” in mental health inpatient units across England.
NHS England said yesterday it had no
record of the rapid review that took
place.
ONS figures in December showed
that Sweden had one of the lowest
excess mortality rates in Europe, well
below that of the UK.

6

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

***

News
BELFA ST

Children take advantage
of the snow in Castle
Gardens, Lisburn,

PEAK DISTRIC T

Northern Ireland, above;
cars stuck in the Peak
District, as mountain

rescue teams aid stranded
drivers, right; a snowcovered Keswick, below

WILLIAM CHERRY/PRESSEYE; TOM MADDICK/SWNS; MARK MCNEILL/BAV MEDIA

LAKE DISTRIC T

Police blame drivers as
heavy snow and ice cause
‘absolute carnage’ on M62
Snow and ice
warning for Sat
3pm–Sun 6am

Motorists say officials were
‘ill-prepared’ for weather
but they are accused of
making ‘unnecessary’ trips

Aberdeen
Dundee

By Ewan Somerville
POLICE and highways officials blamed
motorists for becoming stranded for up
to 10 hours on a motorway after Storm
Larisa brought Arctic blizzards to northern England.
Drivers had to be aided by mountain
rescue teams near the trans-Pennine
M62 after it was blanketed in snow and
cars came to a standstill.
But a row broke out over who was to
blame for the travel chaos.
Those caught up in the M62 gridlock,
which stretched back eight miles when
lanes were closed amid heavy snow on
Thursday at 1am, criticised “absolute
carnage” with the eastbound stretch of
the M62 near Rochdale still “like a car
park” yesterday lunchtime.
Motorists claimed they had received
few updates from authorities and questioned if snow ploughs were “ill-prepared” for the blizzards and gales,
which have been named Storm Larisa
by Météo-France.
But Greater Manchester Police’s traffic team tweeted yesterday: “Doing our
best, but ploughing/gritting have been
severely delayed due to the hard shoulder and red X lanes being blocked by

Edinburgh
Glasgow
Newcastle
Belfast
7-hour
delay
M62 Leeds
Dublin
100 miles
SOURCE: MET OFFICE

Manchester
Birmingham
Cambridge
Oxford

some drivers illegally using them.”
Snow and 50mph gales brought widespread delays to A roads, railways and
airports across Scotland, Wales and
northern England yesterday and hundreds of schools were shut.
More is yet to come, with the Met
Office issuing yellow warnings for more
snow and ice from the Midlands
upwards this weekend and a second
spell of snow showers in southern England next week.
Commenting on the M62 gridlock,
Andrew Page-Dove, from National
Highways, insisted the Government

body responsible for motorways tried
to keep two lanes of the motorway open
overnight but problems were “exacerbated” by some drivers using closed
lanes and becoming stuck in snow.
Asked if too many drivers ignored the
weather warnings of travel disruption
and heavy snow, Mr Page-Dove replied:
“I think the volume of the traffic speaks
for itself, particularly this morning. The
M62 was queued back to Manchester.
“Personally I probably wouldn’t have
set out on a journey knowing that those
conditions were there.
“Were all those journeys essential? I
don’t know. I don’t think [the warning]
was necessarily as well-heeded as we
would have liked it to have been.”
It put the authorities at loggerheads
with drivers caught up in the chaos,
who expressed their anger. National
Highways North West Twitter account
had directed motorists to the M62 only
hours earlier.
Kelly-Marie Prentice, who was stuck
on the M62 along with “hundreds and
hundreds” of others for six hours with
her 15-year-old son amid deep snow,
said told Sky that “we haven’t heard a
great deal” in the way of updates and
only received an update from police
three hours into being stuck.
The wintry weather is forecast
to continue, with further Met Office yellow warnings for snow and ice in
force across the Midlands, northern
England, North Wales and Scotland
this weekend.

Teachers warned they may ‘lose out’ on pay deal
By Louisa Clarence-Smith
EDUCATION EDITOR
TEACHERS in England could “lose out”
to nurses if they fail to get around the
negotiating table, Whitehall sources
have warned.
The National Education Union and
the Department for Education have
been stuck in a deadlock for the past
three weeks as the teaching union
refuses to suspend strikes in exchange
for progressing to formal talks on pay
and workload.
In contrast, the Royal College of
Nursing union called off strikes at more
than 120 trusts last month for “inten-

sive” negotiations with the Department
of Health and Social Care over pay.
The Government is “not a magic
money tree” with endless funds to go
around which means teachers face “losing out” to nurses, a source told The
Daily Telegraph.
A Department for Education insider
said: “Only teachers and nurses were
offered these talks three weeks ago. We
fought hard to ensure teachers were
given the same priority in negotiations
as nurses, but the NEU just won’t pause
their strikes so that we can talk.
“As well as being frustrating for us, it
means nurses have been in the room
negotiating hard for their members,

which could result in them getting a
better deal than teachers. The NEU
think what they’re doing is in the interests of their members, but there’s a big
risk that backfires on them. I’m not sure
they know what they’re doing.”
Schools will close when teachers plan
to take industrial action across England
on Wednesday and Thursday.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has proposed a 3.5 per cent salary
increase next year.
The NEU said the offer failed to come
close to its demand for pay rises to “at
least match price increases, and for any
pay rises to be fully funded in school
budgets”.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

***

7

News

Tributes to Swedish
director of property
company and ‘loving and
caring’ boys aged 7 and 9
By Helena Lambert
A MOTHER and her two young sons
were found dead in their south London
home, police said yesterday as they
launched an investigation into their
deaths.
Nadja De Jager, 47, Alexander, 9, and
Maximus, 7, were discovered at their
home on Mayfield Road in Belvedere, in
the borough of Bexley, shortly before
midday on Thursday.
Detectives have said they are not
actively seeking anyone else in connection with the investigation.
Nadja is Swedish and was the managing director of a property company,
having previously been a chief investment risk officer for the investment
management company CBRE Global
Investors, according to her Linkedin
profile.
Her sons have been described as
“loving and caring boys” by their primary school.
Officers forced entry to the property
after being called about concerns for
welfare at 11.50am on Thursday.
Nadja, Alexander and Maximus were

Nadja De Jager, a
Swedish managing
director of a
property company,
and, right, her sons
Alexander and
Maximus

found inside. All were pronounced dead
at the scene by paramedics.
A cordon remained outside the house
yesterday, where forensic teams were
seen searching the house and examining a grey Mitsubishi pick-up truck
parked on the driveway.
Flowers had been laid on the pavement outside the terraced property, as
neighbours spoke of their shock following the tragic incident.
Belvedere Infant and Junior School
paid tribute to the boys, describing
them as “truly wonderful members of
our school community”.
“They were loving and caring boys
who had a real hunger to learn.
“Both were model pupils and it was
clear that they were each other’s best
friend. They will be hugely missed by
pupils and staff alike, and forever be
part of our hearts at Belvedere.
“The death of any child is a terrible
tragedy, but our school community will
come together to grieve and to be there
for each other. Belvedere is a warm and
loving place and we will come through
this together.”
Det Insp Ollie Stride, of the Met
Police, investigating the incident, said:
“This is a deeply sad case and we are
continuing to establish the circumstances that led to this tragic incident. I
would like to thank the local community for their cooperation while our
officers go about their enquiries. Our

MET POLICE HANDOUT

Mother and her
two young sons
found dead at
London home

thoughts today are very much with the
family as they struggle to come to terms
with their loss and we ask that their privacy be respected at this extremely difficult time.”
Marion Beazer, who lives opposite
the family, said as far as she could tell
they were a “normal family”.
The pensioner, who has lived in the
street 40 years, added: “They never
caused any issues in the street. As far as
I’m aware they were just a normal family. The neighbours here really watch

out for each other. Seeing the kids’ toys
out the front tugs on the heart strings.
It’s just dreadful.”
Marion said she had two police officers in her house going through her
CCTV to check for anything unusual.
Another neighbour, Christopher
Babutulde, 68, who lives two doors
down from the family, said he used to
see the mum walking her two young
sons to and from school.
He added: “It’s really shocking. We’re
such a close knit community who really

care for each other. There’s been a big
police presence since yesterday. I’ve
had officers knocking on my door.”
One neighbour, who asked not to be
named, said the 47-year-old woman had
previously had a partner living at the
property, but that neighbours had not
seen him around for a while.
The Met’s Specialist Crime Command
is leading the investigation and postmortem examinations are due to be carried out to establish the cause of death
for the three victims.

‘They were
loving and
caring boys
who had a
real hunger
to learn’

Raab rejects wife killer’s jail switch request Gun laws dangerously outdated, says coroner
By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
DOMINIC RAAB has refused a prison
transfer request by wife killer Robert
Brown that would have prevented her
family from blocking his early release.
The Justice Secretary rejected a
request by Brown to move to a Scottish
prison which would have made it

impossible for him to intervene and
block his automatic release in November, as it would have put the convicted
killer outside his jurisdiction.
Mr Raab said: “Public protection is
my number one priority and I will not
permit any arrangement that could
compromise our ability to manage a
dangerous offender.”
The family and friends of his

e strange d wife Joanna Simps on
launched a campaign, backed by Carrie
Johnson, the wife of Boris Johnson, for
the Government to keep him in prison.
Brown, a former British Airways
pilot, admitted manslaughter by reason
of diminished responsibility.
He was jailed in May 2011 for 26 years
but he is due for release in November
having served half his sentence.

By Jack Hardy
CRIME CORRESPONDENT
GUN laws should be overhauled so
police take the default position that firearms licences should not be granted,
the coroner who investigated the Plymouth mass shooting has said.
In a report to the Home Secretary and
policing minister, senior coroner Ian

Arrow said gun laws were dangerously
outdated. He called for reform of firearms legislation after five people were
shot dead in August 2021 by Jake Davison, 22, with a legally-owned shotgun.
Mr Arrow warned there had been a
“serious failure at a national level” to
learn the lessons of the Dunblane
massacre in 1996, and poor standards in
police firearms vetting units meant

weapons may “remain in the hands of
individuals who pose a risk”.
Last month, the inquests into the
deaths of the victims concluded there
had been “catastrophic” failures at
Devon and Cornwall Police which
allowed Davison, 22, to hold a firearms
certificate despite mental health issues.
A Home Office spokesman said the
department would consider the findings.

8

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

***

News

Lockdown curbs
made children
collateral damage
Messages expose the
way physical and
mental health of
young was sacrificed
by school closures
and squeeze on NHS

the then health secretary Matt
Hancock on May 14.
[Civil servant 1]
Matt, I’ve just sent you a note updating
you on an NHSEI [NHS England & NHS
Improvement] Rapid Review into the sad
deaths of children in Tier 4 Mental Health
units. The number of deaths for 2021/22 is
already at 4, where the annual total figure for
2020/21 was 6. Nadine [Dorries, health
minister] will meet NHSEI leads first thing
next week to grip further – Emma [Dean,
special adviser] and Damon [Poole, special
adviser] have seen. Thanks
[14/05/2021, 18:50:04]
Matt Hancock
Ok. Nadine lead
[14/05/2021, 18:50:24]
[Civil servant 1]
Noted
[14/05/2021, 18:50:50]

By Lockdown Files Team
AS the third anniversary of the first
national lockdown approaches, the
true human and financial cost of the
policy is still emerging.
Missed operations, economic
scarring, compromised schooling and
ruined mental health were just some of
the problems stored up for the future
by shuttering the country three times
in 2020 and 2021.
The ministers and officials behind
lockdowns were well aware of the
possibility, and then the reality, of
collateral damage being caused to
millions of lives as they pushed ahead
with the controversial policy despite
warnings that the cure would be worse
than the disease.
WhatsApp conversations contained
in The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files
show that those running the country
privately acknowledged the “terrible”
price of lockdowns and twice reimposed the national shutdowns even
as they discussed the damage they
were causing. For many people, the
worst knock-on effects of lockdowns
were on children, whose physical and
mental health and future prospects
were all damaged by the closure of
schools and the squeeze on the NHS.
By May 2021, when the last of the
lockdowns were over, ministers were
increasingly seeing the extent to which
children had become collateral
damage. One topic of conversation was
child deaths in mental health units,
raised by a civil servant in a message to

Three days later Ms Dorries raised the
issue of deaths among children being
seen by the Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
Nadine Dorries MP
I’ve sent to Emma too as I know you are
concerned re the 4 deaths in CAHMS [sic] Re
Tier4 CAHMS – we’ve had far more CYPs
[children and young persons] in T4 than
before pandemic. Pressure on paediatric
beds has been huge due to MH EOs [mental
health education officers] which is consistent
with the two main groups we know were
affected. The number of deaths is at 4,
compared to the previous year of 2 – I’ve
asked for the tier 4 data, but I’m not alarmed
given the pressure we know T4 has been
under. Meetibg with [redacted] this week for
more information on the two recent cases and
to run a rapid inquiry
17/05/2021, 07:49:38]
Matt Hancock
Great. Very important
[17/05/2021, 09:15:57]

Late that night, a civil servant in Mr
Hancock’s private office sent him a
WhatsApp message, alerting him to a
child respiratory virus that was
expected to surge in the summer
months as a result of the virus being
suppressed during lockdown (known
in Whitehall as an NPI, or nonpharmaceutical intervention).
[Civil servant 1]
Matt, just sent through an urgent submission
on PHE modelling relating to a upcoming
epidemic in child respiratory syncytial virus
(RSV) given winter suppression of infection
due to COVID NPIs. This is urgent this
evening as NHSE intend to write to paediatric
critical providers tomorrow (Annex A) and
there are Comms handling considerations

(Annex B). Emma has commented and
Damon is sighted and reviewing Comms
approach. Thanks
[17/05/2021, 22:04:12]

The concerns proved to be well
founded. The virus, which usually
causes symptoms similar to a common
cold, causes an average of 29,000
hospitalisations and 83 deaths per year
in the UK, mainly in infants.
Because so few children were
exposed to RSV during lockdown,
there was an “unprecedented”
surge in cases in 2021, according to
a paper published by The Lancet
Infectious Diseases.
In the summer of 2021 there were
more than 12,000 cases of RSV,
compared with the average of fewer
than 900 in a typical summer.
Back in April 2020, a month into the
first lockdown, Mr Hancock was
already coming under pressure over
cancelled NHS operations, and became
personally involved in an individual
case, described as “tragic”.
It involved a 17-year-old girl who had
had part of her skull removed in
January 2020, after a brain
haemorrhage and needed surgery to
reconstruct it after developing
life-threatening complications. The
case was gaining national media
attention and the local MP, Steve
Baker, asked Mr Hancock to step in. He
forwarded Mr Baker’s message to a
colleague – also called Steve – and
urged them to “get right on this”.
Matt Hancock
Steve – this tragic local case of a 17 year old
not getting urgently-needed surgery for a
brain injury is becoming a national cause
celebre. I have multiple Labour MPs in touch
because the family are well-connected there.
[LINK REDACTED]
[LINK REDACTED]
I doubt the family mean to be politically
aggressive, but Labour are certainly seizing
upon the case.
Can you please therefore *ensure the
Department answers my two named-day
WPQs in a politically astute way?*
[The message then includes links to two
Parliamentary questions from Steve Baker,
one of which asks Mr Hancock “when the
NHS plans to resume urgent surgery” and the
other asking “if he will take steps to resume
urgent elective surgery in the NHS as soon as
possible”]
*In particular*, if the civil service says what the
Table Office first said – that elective surgery is
by definition not urgent – then I will quickly
find myself tabling a UQ [urgent question]
with Labour weighing in behind me and I do

Simon Case,
Cabinet Secretary
I think we have to be
brutally honest with
people. Full lockdowns
optimise our society/
economy for tackling
the Covid R rate - but
they are terrible for other
outcomes (non-Covid
health, jobs, education,
social cohesion, mental
health etc).
[29/10/2020, 08:22:18]

[Civil servant]
Matt, I’ve just sent you a
note updating you on an
NHSEI [NHS England &
NHS Improvement]
Rapid Review into the
sad deaths of children in
Tier 4 Mental Health
units. The number of
deaths for 2021/22 is
already at 4, where the
annual total figure for
2020/21 was 6.
[14/05/2021, 18:50:04]

not want that.
My goal is to help the individual but
unfortunately casework and national policy
have intersected.
Thank you and Godspeed,
Steve
[29/04/2020, 12:18:44]
Matt Hancock
Can u get right on this pls?
[29/04/2020, 12:18:54]
Matt Hancock
From Steve Baker
[29/04/2020, 12:19:04]
Allan Nixon [special adviser]
Yes. On this
[29/04/2020, 14:09:18]

In December of that year, shortly after
the month-long “circuit breaker”
lockdown and with the four nations of
the UK adopting a “tiers” system of
graded localised restrictions, Mr
Hancock was again becoming involved
in a case where Covid rules were
causing a personal tragedy.
Jacob Young, the Redcar &
Cleveland MP, had raised the issue of a
boy with a brain tumour, who had
been given no more than two years to
live, being blocked from holidaying at
Center Parcs with his family.
Mr Hancock forwarded Mr Young’s
message to his special adviser,
Allan Nixon.
Matt Hancock
Hi Matt. I’ve raised this with Allan but need a
resolution ASAP.
I have a sad case of a family with a child who
has a brain tumour, and they’d planned a
holiday to Centre Parcs near Dorset for his
birthday – his prognosis is only a year/two.
Can we get them an exemption for travel/
overnight stay? The stay is for 4 nights from
the 14th-18th.
J
[09/12/2020, 16:05:24]
Matt Hancock
Any luck for Jacob Young?
[09/12/2020, 16:05:24]
Allan Nixon
Yeah I went back to him days ago. Maybe he
didn’t like my answer: I couldn’t find a legal
loophole for him, but suggested he speak to
Home Office spads [special advisers] to see if
they can get the local PCC [Police and Crime
Commissioner] to say they won’t prosecute or
such like.
[09/12/2020, 16:10:26]
Matt Hancock
Are you sure we can’t offer them a
compassionate exemption?
[09/12/2020, 16:50:44]
Matt Hancock
I could write a letter
[09/12/2020, 16:50:50]
Allan Nixon
Can do if you’re up for it, but surely that
doesn’t change the law? Hence why I
suggested the PCC “no enforcement”
approach
[09/12/2020, 16:52:08]
Matt Hancock
Is there a reasonable excuse exemption?
[09/12/2020, 17:25:42]

Aside from the health problems being
stored up for children, there were also
discussions that month about
university entrants “taking the hit”
from the exams fiasco.

applicants take the hit from the screw-up over
A-levels last year – which will be completely
toxic. Surely that is not what you intend
[20/05/2021, 10:33:08]
[Civil servant 2]
Have you had a chance to send this? ^ If so,
has CST responded?
[20/05/2021, 11:10:51]

Ofsted has since warned that nearly all
children fell behind in the pandemic,
and that loneliness, boredom and
misery became “endemic” among
children, whose physical and mental
health declined as a result.
Even before the lockdown curbs had
been reimposed, following an easing of
the rules over the summer of 2020,
Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, was
discussing the “terrible” cost of
lockdowns in a WhatsApp group that
included Boris Johnson, Mr Hancock,
the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief
Scientific Adviser.
Simon Case
I think we have to be brutally honest with
people. Full lockdowns optimise our society/
economy for tackling the Covid R rate – but
they are terrible for other outcomes
(non-Covid health, jobs, education, social
cohesion, mental health etc). That’s why, even
if we have to do something tougher now in the
short-term, the only way we get through this in
the long-term is through a balanced
approach, which needs everyone to play their
part in keeping people safe (hands, face,
space, isolate etc). Mass testing or a vaccine
might significantly alter the calculus in our
favour, but if they don’t work/we fail to deliver
them properly, we can only rely on the
behaviour of everyone to get us through.
Even with mass testing, we can build the most
amazing distribution system on earth, but if
people don’t isolate or take other precautions
if they get a positive test, it is all for nought.
Lockdowns also contributed to an NHS
backlog that the British Medical Association
has said will take years to clear. By December
2022 there were 7.2 million people on NHS
waiting lists, compared with 4.43 million in
February 2020, on the eve of the pandemic.
Meanwhile excess deaths – the number of
deaths over and above a long-term average
– were greater in October 2022 than during
the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
29/10/2020, 08:22:18]

James Bethell, a health minister,
warned about this in September 2020,
but only made what he called a
“gentle” challenge to a policy of
cancelling an information campaign
urging people to seek medical help
even for minor symptoms of illness.
James Bethell
A gentle challenge. Are you sure about killing
the ads urging people to check minor
symptoms? It will lead to long term capacity
pressures as minor ailments turn into acute
and more expensive problems. Our net
“excess deaths” numbers might nudge
upwards even if we have more capacity for

The Lockdown Files
Scan this QR code to explore The
Lockdown Files investigation in full.
Read all the latest stories and leaked
WhatsApp messages shared between
ministers and officials at the height of the
pandemic over the coming days.

winter flu/Covid management.
[02/09/2020, 11:14:44]

Lord Bethell, Mr Hancock, Ms Dorries,
Helen Whately, social care minister, Jo
Churchill, junior health minister, and
special adviser Emma Dean discussed
the problems being stored up for the
NHS in a WhatsApp chat in May 2021.
Their conversation ranged from online
GP appointments to NHS backlogs to
receptionists triaging patients despite
having no medical training.
James Bethell
On the GP open-for-business issue that’s
raging amongst MPs, thought I’d flag that I
have a debate next week in HOL [House of
Lords] on this. Several peers including a
couple of the clinical experts are on the
warpath on this. Has the potential to become
a “thing”.
[05/05/2021, 15:29:52]
Matt Hancock
Do we have a clear answer?
[05/05/2021, 15:32:19]
Jo Churchill
Look at this. Needs a standing ovation
[05/05/2021, 15:41:27]
[She sends a link to a local GP surgery
website]
Jo Churchill
This was sent me by a GP friend not their
practice. Simple answers there are not but it
refers back to me saying we need to educate
patients despite doing much on line people
won’t fill on econsult forms (they are winding
it down) demand has doubled (hence putting
the same phone in and taking demand out and
being able to analyse data better) people
contact without selfhelp first and don’t refer
to best place etc – there is too much variation
and NHSE poor at monitoring etc....
Nikki K and I are on it but they are seeing more
people – some are using CV-19 but many are
working harder than ever I agree has the
potential to become a thing but the
profession doesn’t need kicking but
monitoring we have also promised to 3rd vac
the 50+ this autumn – the WA is 4 MPs with
no specifics every practice in Worthing,
Winchester, Kensington doubtful – the
patient has to be educated to use the
resource.
[05/05/2021, 15:48:56]
Matt Hancock
We need a plan to handle this pressure before
it blows up
[05/05/2021, 15:51:17]
Emma Dean
Am picking up
[05/05/2021, 15:51:32]
Jo Churchill
Sorry campaigning! Actually it’s a lot broader
because we have all those people waiting for
their electives so you have more people living
with problems that they are waiting for
attention we also have backlog issues that we
are trying to pick up particularly in cancer
screening/ diagnostics and you have new
requirements under QOF – Also NHSC are
monitoring and West Suffolk for example is
hitting a third face-to-face while and national
is 56% so we have some quite a long way
ahead and put some quite a long way behind
so it is really difficult to state where we are
without ticking them off
[05/05/2021, 17:42:24]
Helen Whately
I just wonder if now is the moment to move on
from unqualified receptionists performing
triage?!
[05/05/2021, 19:57:43]
Nadine Dorries MP
One of my daughters told me today how
efficient it was now that you rang for an
appointment and instead of having to schlep
to a surgery, the GP called you back. My 85 yo
mother on the other hand, is demanding to

[Civil servant 2]
Proposed response from [Civil servant 3] to
CST: Your condition means that this year’s

Boy, 13, took own life after seeing online posts
By Daily Telegraph Reporter
A “VERY ABLE” 13-year-old boy killed
himself after viewing and posting material about suicide online during lockdown, an inquest has heard.
Zaheid Ali jumped from Tower
Bridge after getting off a bus early on
the way to school on April 20 2021.
His body was pulled from the Thames
near a pub in Wapping, east London,
eight days later.
Inner South London Coroner’s Court
heard that his suicide note contained
lyrics from a Japanese song which tells
the story of a 14-year-old girl who kills

herself. He had also followed someone
in the US who had taken their own life,
posted a “countdown” to his suicide on
YouTube, and written on Twitter about
his desire to kill himself.
A WhatsApp exchange with friends
from March 2021, was found after he
died. Zaheid, of Southwark, south London, wrote “I hate life at the moment
and kind of want to give up”, among
other similar messages.
Mumen Ali, his father, told the hearing he was “baffled” by what had happened to his son, who suffered from a
digestive disorder. Mr Ali said his son
had become “glued to his phone” and

“stuck in his bedroom” in the Easter
holidays, but his parents did not think
his behaviour was unusual.
He added: “We put it down to his hormones changing from being a boy to
being a man.”
Una Sookun, vice-principal of the
Ark Globe Academy in Elephant and
Castle, south London, where Zaheid
was a Year 8 pupil, told the court he was
“academically very able” but “quiet”
with a “very small friendship group”.
Recording a conclusion of suicide,
assistant coroner Dr Julian Morris
offered his “very sincere” and “deepest”
condolences to the family.

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Commission (CQC). Ms Whately had
hoped the issue had been avoided
through emergency arrangements, but
Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult
social care, did not share her optimism.

James Bethell,
Health Minister
A gentle challenge.
Are you sure about
killing the ads urging
people to check
minor symptoms? It
will lead to long term
capacity pressures
as minor ailments
turn into acute and
more expensive
problems. Our net
“excess deaths”
numbers might
nudge upwards even
if we have more
capacity for winter
flu/Covid
management.

Helen Whately
So you’re aware – CQC have at last shared
with me info about what their inspectors did
March-June. They have been in touch with
many care homes & raised concerns with Las
[Local Authorities]. However, they did NOT
share their concerns with me (despite me
requesting more info in regular meetings).
There is also a material risk – now they are
restarting inspections – that they will uncover
cases of neglect. The processes put in place
in March were meant to prevent that, but Kate
Terroni is not confident. I have asked her to
keep me updated so we are forewarned rather
than seeing things in the media first.
[01/07/2020, 12:45:04]
Matt Hancock
Ok thanks
[01/07/2020, 12:48:20]
Helen Whately
Sorry it’s more – potentially – bad news. But
thought better you should be in the picture. I
really pushed CQC to have a system in place
that would pick up and stop neglect / poor
care.
It’s frustrating that Kate could not assure me
on this in my meeting with her today.
[01/07/2020, 12:53:54]
Matt Hancock
Better to know and better to get it sorted
There were also knock-on effects from a legal
point of view. In April 2021 Mr Hancock’s
special adviser, Allan Nixon, was worried
about the Government being sued by the
families of those who had died because of the
backlog on cancer care and elective
treatments.
[01/07/2020, 12:52:42]
Allan Nixon
Just a thought: Have you seen anything on
risks of us/NHS receiving a torrent of law suits
from GLP and others on people dying due to
us not tackling the cancer & electives backlog
etc?
[29/04/2021, 14:20:28]

[02/09/2020, 11:14:44]

Allan Nixon
Worth us commissioning properly bottomed–
out thinking on what could come down the
tracks in the coming months/years?
[29/04/2021, 14:21:44]
know what her GP has done with his year off.
[05/05/2021, 20:01:47]
Matt Hancock
100% this
[05/05/2021, 20:08:11]
Jo Churchill
Love your mum Nad! that’s the point of
educating the patient half love it half of them
hate it (often to do with their condition) and in
your mid 80s they treat it as an outing! and
Helen yes but 111 for example has now
stopped triaging dental patients we don’t
have the control we need to triage everyone
say via 111 or us overseeing a uniform phone
system to each practice and then we have
some quality control and better data capture
over appt numbers, time spent with patient &
doctor numbers – let’s just say data pretty
suboptimal – we have to take the profession
with us and we’re going to have to pay for it or
lease it to them or it is likely to exacerbate
retention – also 3rd vaccine, certification,
diagnostics, rehab, MH – if primary care GP,
pharmacy, community is to be the glue 82% of
the care but not of the cash we have to think

differently – build back better is a good slogan
for primary care that saves the system cash
– open door so no focus on need if not triaged
correctly and no control over the customer!
They are up for changing but their customer
will have to be helped...
[05/05/2021, 21:19:14]

Ms Dorries, whose brief as a health
minister covered mental health and
suicide prevention, was also
concerned that as the authorities
became increasingly stretched by the
demands of the pandemic, the number
of suicides was being underestimated
– something the Government was
reluctant to admit.
Nadine Dorries MP
This is the provisional data for 2020 –
Provisional data show there were 10.3 suicide
deaths registered per 100,000 people in
Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020 in England,
equivalent to 1,262 registered deaths and the
same as the rate observed in Quarter 1 2019.
In Quarter 2 (April-June) 2020 there were

6.9 suicide deaths registered per 100,000
people, equivalent to 845 deaths.
[01/09/2020, 13:31:41]
Nadine Dorries MP
Policy leads don’t want us to announce bcse
[because] they think it’s due to suicides not
being recorded due to Covid – apparently
[01/09/2020, 13:38:46]
Matt Hancock
If it’s published data it’s published data
[01/09/2020, 14:05:44]
Nadine Dorries MP
Yep – I will state it if a MH [mental health]
topical comes up
[01/09/2020, 14:08:24]

As early as July 2020, with the first
lockdown still in place, Ms Whately
was worried that one of the knock-on
effects of lockdown was that care
home residents would have been
neglected following the suspension of
inspections by the Care Quality

Matt Hancock
ok
[29/04/2021, 14:22:28]

The inquiry into the pandemic
response, which will begin hearing
from witnesses later this year, will
consider, among other things, the
effect of the pandemic on the mental
health and wellbeing of the nation,
and its impact on children and
their education. Its terms of reference
do not, however, specify that the
inquiry will examine the knock-on
effects of lockdowns or whether using
lockdowns was the right policy at all.

T H E L O C K D OW N FI L E S
REPORTING TEAM
Katherine Rushton, Gordon Rayner,
Claire Newell, Sophie Barnes, Robert
Mendick, Jack Leather, Janet Eastham

9

Biden under
pressure to
release Covid
origin papers
Both US House and Senate
unanimously vote to
declassify intelligence on
the genesis of the virus
By Jamie Johnson
and Sarah Knapton
JOE BIDEN is under pressure to declassify all US intelligence about the origins
of Covid-19, after the House and Senate
voted unanimously for the information
to be released.
Yesterday’s 419-0 House vote was
final approval of the bill, sending it to
his desk to be signed into law. The Senate had earlier also voted unanimously
in favour. The move could expose
details about funding, research or other
activities at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology and whether or not any staff
became ill.
The renewed push on Capitol Hill to
declassify the intelligence came shortly
after it was reported that the Energy
Department had determined, with “low
confidence”, that coronavirus most
likely came from a laboratory in China.
The president must now decide
whether to sign the bill into law as
requested, or veto it and risk the wrath
of his own party and the American public. The White House has not yet indicated what he will do.
Speaking for many lawmakers,
Michael Turner, chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, said: “The
American public deserves answers to
every aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
That includes, he said, “how this virus
was created and, specifically, whether it
was a natural occurrence or was the
result of a lab-related event”.
“Transparency is a cornerstone of
our democracy,” said Jim Himes, the top
Democrat on the committee.
US intelligence agencies are still
divided over whether a lab leak or a
spillover from animals is the likely
source of the deadly virus.

The bill passed by the House yesterday would specifically direct Avril
Haines, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), to “declassify any and all
information relating to potential links
between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin” of Covid-19.
That includes “activities performed
by the Wuhan Institute of Virology
with, or on behalf of ,the People’s Liberation Army” and “coronavirus research
or other related activities performed at
the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to
the outbreak of Covid-19”.
Additionally, the measure would
require that the DNI declassify information on the researchers working at the
institute who became sick in autumn
2019. All that information would then
be submitted to Congress in an unclassified report, with the DNI making any
redactions necessary.
The vote comes as an Oxford University academic claimed that scientists
dismissed the lab leak theory because
they wanted to continue doing dangerous experiments to make viruses more
deadly.
Anton van der Merwe, Professor of
Molecular Immunology, said scientists
involved in similar work as the Wuhan
Institute of Virology were worried that
a ban would be re-imposed on such testing. Wuhan researchers were importing
bat coronaviruses and had applied for
grants to increase their infectiousness –
known as “gain-of-function” research.
Prof Van der Merwe believes that scientists had used articles in The Lancet
and Nature Medicine to create a “false
impression” that a natural spillover origin was scientific consensus.
Writing in the letters page of the
Financial Times, he said: “The conflict
arises from the fact the researchers perform, and want to continue to perform,
precisely the sorts of experiments that
make a lab leak much more likely. These
include gain-of-function experiments,
where they investigate whether they
can enable, by genetic modification, an
animal virus to infect human cells.”

10

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

News

Deal to keep
Reynolds
masterwork in
UK step nearer
By Patrick Sawer
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
THE Joshua Reynolds painting Portrait
of Omai could be saved for the nation
after a last-minute deal between the
National Portrait Gallery and the Getty
Museum, it has been reported.
Omai, a nobleman, arrived in London
from his home in Polynesia in July 1774,
aboard HMS Adventure, which had
sailed as part of Captain James Cook’s
second voyage and was painted in 1776
by Reynolds, after becoming somewhat
of a celebrity feted by London society.
Directors from the galleries are
believed to be trying to broker a deal to
jointly purchase the £50 million painting to prevent it being taken out of the
country by a private buyer. The unusual
arrangement could involve the Getty
Museum in California displaying the
work for periods, before returning it.
National Portrait Gallery (NPG) conservators are thought to have examined
the painting and cleared it to be flown
periodically to Los Angeles.
News of the talks emerged as the
deadline for the painting to be purchased for the nation approached.
The NPG, Art Fund and National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) will make
a joint announcement “about the campaign to save the painting for public
view in the UK” on Monday.

The Government had placed a temporary export ban on the work to give a
UK gallery or institution time to acquire
it. It is owned by a company controlled
by John Magnier, the Irish billionaire,
who hung it in the NPG, which has been
trying to keep it since it was put up for
sale last year.
The Government-funded NHMF
pledged £10million to help save the
work, with the Art Fund promising to
contribute an exceptional grant of
£2.5 million – the largest in its history.
Donations from trusts, foundations
and individuals took the total to almost
half the £50 million needed to buy it,
leaving the NPG to negotiate a deal with
another gallery for the remainder.
A source told The Art Newspaper and
The Independent that the Getty Museum
had entered into talks to stop the painting going overseas, with Nicholas Cullinan, director of the NPG, determined to
keep it in Britain. It is understood the
National Heritage Memorial Fund would
give its backing an arrangement with the
Getty Museum.
A spokesman for the NHMF said:
“Given the exceptional significance of
the Portrait of Omai, we wish to be as
flexible as we can [to] enable the UK
public to access the painting and provide public benefit to the UK. Applications must demonstrate how our
support will allow the UK public to
access … the heritage it saves.”
The painting was bought in 2001 by
Mr Magnier, a stud owner and a former
stakeholder of Manchester United, for
around £10 million. The Tate galleries
offered to buy it from him for £12.5million in 2003 but he refused to sell it.

By Sarah Knapton SCIENCE EDITOR

MATTHEW FEARN/PA ARCHIVE

National Portrait Gallery
and Getty Museum
agree joint ownership of
£50 m oil painting

Primitive stone
tools may
just be monkey
business

Joshua Reynolds’ ‘Portrait of Omai’ will be displayed in London and California after a deal prevented it going abroad permanently

STONE shards which were thought to
be early tools made by our human
ancestors can be created accidentally by
monkeys, scientists have discovered.
Sharp flakes, dating back 3.3 million
years, have been found near the
remains of ancient hominids, leading
experts to believe they had been intentionally created by our forebears.
But a study of long-tailed macaques
in the Phang Nga National Park in Thailand has showed that when they use
rocks to crack open nuts, pieces of
stone can shear off, leaving shards identical to those seen at hominid sites.
It raises the question of whether
early hominids were making the tools
consciously, or if they were a byproduct
of activities such as nut cracking.
Some ancient stone tool finds, which
are not directly linked to hominid [ape]
remains, may even have been made by
monkeys, the research suggests.
“The ability to intentionally make
sharp stone flakes is seen as a crucial
point in the evolution of hominins,
[humans and bipedal ancestors],” said
lead author Tomos Proffitt, a researcher
at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI EVA).
“Our study shows that stone tool production is not unique to humans and
our ancestors.”
Lydia Luncz, senior author of the
study and head of the technological primates research group at the MPI EVA,
said: “Cracking nuts using stone hammers and anvils, similar to what some
primates do today is a possible precursor to intentional stone tool production.”
“This study opens the door to being
able to identify such an archaeological
signature in the future and shows how
living primates can help researchers
investigate the origin and evolution of
tool use in our own lineage”
The research was published in the
journal Science Advances.

Money or nothing … chamber orchestra in £1m survival appeal after Arts Council cut
By Patrick Sawer
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
THE only professional orchestra in the
east of England has been forced to
launch a £1 million appeal for its survival after the Arts Council withdrew its
funding.

The Britten Sinfonia described the
decision as “baffling”, leaving it facing
collapse if it is unable to raise the
amount it needs to carry on its work.
This includes not only public performances, but work in more than 80
schools and community and health
facilities across the region.

Its appeal has won the backing of
Judith Weir, the Royal Household’s
Master of the King’s Music, who
described the Britten Sinfonia as
“widely considered to be the UK’s finest
chamber orchestra”.
The sinfonia, which is based in Cambridge and has residencies in Norwich

and Essex, but also works across Suffolk
and Lincolnshire, has built up an international reputation.
The Arts Council decision to withdraw funding in order to concentrate
on what it said was a more equal distribution of money around the country
has left it with a shortfall of £1 million.

Nicholas Daniel, one of the sinfonia’s
founding members, said this was “not
the way to level up” arts funding.
“It is so easy to lose something in this
current climate; it’s so easy to just throw
it away and we have to fight,” he said.
“We agree that more people should
have access to quality live music in the

community, but this is not the way to do
it – to cut the only [professional] orchestra [in the area] out of the national portfolio. We are utterly baffled.”
The Arts Council said: “We had to
make difficult decisions ...We are talking to them about their future plans and
alternative funding opportunities.”

**

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

11

News

Raducanu: I had to take social media off my phone
winning the US Open in 2021 as an
unseeded qualifier, but she has had a difficult journey since with a string of injuries and growing criticism over how she
juggles her commercial commitments.
Raducanu has 2.5 million followers
on Instagram as well as sponsorship
partners including Nike, HSBC, Porsche, Vodafone, British Airways, and
Dior. She is the fifth most followed
tennis player on Instagram, behind
Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nick
Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka. Her £15 million off-court earnings last year dwarfed

Tennis star ‘living under
a rock’ as she hits out at
online negativity and
posts that hurt her career
By Alex Shaw
EMMA RADUCANU has deleted Instagram and WhatsApp from her phone
after admitting negativity around social
media has affected her tennis career.
The 20-year-old shot to fame after

her prize money on court by a factor of
25 to one.
Max Eisenbud, Raducanu’s agent and
the IMG supremo who guided the
career of Maria Sharapova, has repeatedly said his client has seen unprecedented interest from the corporate
world.
Raducanu’s Instagram account is still
active, but after she deleted the app
from her phone, it will not be run by
her.
“After the Australian Open I deleted
WhatsApp and Instagram off my phone,

and after that, I’ve been living under my
own little rock,” the British women’s
No 1 said after she eased into the second
round at Indian Wells with a 6-2 6-3 win
over Danka Kovinic on Thursday.
“I felt like sometimes you go through
patches where you just want to zone in
on yourself, and I was very content with
my life without it.
“I think that [negativity] is a part of
social media. I feel that it affects you,
but I’ve just learnt regardless of what
you do – if you do good, if you do bad –
people are going to come at you regard-

less. Now it doesn’t really bother me so
much and I don’t really let it affect me.”
Raducanu defended her commitment to tennis last year in the wake of
online criticism over her commercial
activities after her US Open defeat to
Katerina Siniakova in the second round.
She said: “Maybe you just see, on the
news or on social media, me signing
this or that deal and I feel like it’s quite
misleading because I’m doing five, six
hours a day [of training], I’m at the club
for 12 hours a day.
“But I throw out one post in the car

on the way to practice and all of a sudden it’s ‘I don’t focus on tennis’.
“I think that it is unfair but it’s something I have learnt to deal with and
become a bit more insensitive to the
outside noise.
“I feel like my days [with sponsors]
are pretty limited. I’m not doing crazy
days. I’m doing three, four days every
quarter, so it’s really not that much.”
Raducanu is due to take on Magda
Linette, the Polish world No 21, later
today in the second round of the US
event often called the “fifth grand slam”.

The companies she keeps
Star’s off-court earnings

£3m

Vodafone: 2022 deal to be grassroots
tennis ambassador for the comms giant

£2m

Tiffany & Co: the first brand to partner
wth Raducanu after her US Open win

£2m

Dior: appointed a brand ambassador
for the French fashion house in 2021

£1m

£150,000

Evian: 2021 deal sees her serve as a
global ambassador for the drinks brand

£100,000

Nike: the sports label sponsors her
clothing and shoes on and off court

JULIAN FINNEY/GETTY IMAGES

British Airways: the airline flies
Raducanu to all major tournaments

Emma Raducanu takes a selfie with fans after a practice session at Indian Wells. The 20-year-old insisted she was focused on tennis and said she had ‘learnt to become a bit more insensitive to outside noise’

Dim lights before sleep if you are pregnant Mobile liver cancer scan trucks to offer tests
By Sarah Knapton SCIENCE EDITOR
PREGNANT women should dim lights
and turn off screens three hours before
b e d ti me to p reve n t ge s t atio na l
diabetes, scientists have advised.
Their warning follows a study of
more than 700 pregnant women by
Northwestern University in Illinois,
that found women who developed the

condition had greater light exposure in
the hours before sleeping.
Gestational diabetes occurs when the
body cannot produce sufficient insulin
to control higher levels of blood sugar
during pregnancy and can lead to premature births or stillbirth, pre-eclampsia or the need for a caesarean section.
“Exposure before bedtime may be an
under-recognised, yet easily modifiable

risk factor of gestational diabetes,” said
lead study author Dr Minjee Kim. “Gestational diabetes is known to increase
obstetric complications and the mother’s risk of diabetes, heart disease and
dementia. Offspring also are more likely
to have obesity and hypertension.”
The study was published in the
American Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynecology Maternal Fetal Medicine.

By Lizzie Roberts
HEALTH CORRESPONDENT
MOBILE trucks will deliver on-the-spot
scans for 22,000 people at risk of liver
cancer to catch the disease early, NHS
England has said.
A pilot programme carried out more
than 7,000 scans between June and January, and identified and referred 830

people with cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis, the leading cause of liver cancer.
About 6,100 people are diagnosed
with liver cancer every year but cases
have doubled over the past decade.
By this summer, more than 22,000
scans are expected to be completed as
the vehicles visit more locations.
The mobile scanning trucks will give
those in high-risk communities the

scans at GP practices, addiction recovery services, food banks, diabetes clinics, sexual health clinics and homeless
shelters, NHS England said.
Dame Cally Palmer, national cancer
director for the NHS England, said:
“The on-the-spot scans have already
found that one in 10 people in communities visited have advanced liver damage that needs further treatment.”

12

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

News

Phone mast amid centuries-old skyline is wrong call
‘Outrage’ among residents
of village where landscape
has been largely preserved
for hundreds of years
By Steve Bird
FOR hundreds of years, the skyline of
Great Bardfield has been dominated by
its church spire, the sails of an 18th-century windmill and its thatched roofs.
But a structure of a very modern kind
could “desecrate” views across this
Essex village if Three UK, a telecoms
company, is allowed to erect a 50ft 5G
mast within its conservation area, cam-

paigners have warned. Plans for the galvanised steel structure have “enraged”
villagers, who have launched a campaign to prevent the march of technology affecting a skyline and landscape
that have barely changed over the centuries.
Nearly 200 residents have written to
Braintree district council claiming the
“bulky tower” would be “wholly alien”
and “dominate” the village, which was
home in the 1950s to Edward Bawden,
John Aldridge and Eric Ravilous – the
Bardfield Artists.
Carolynne Ruffle, the chairman of
the parish council, said a “sense of outrage” had gripped the village. “People
are very cross, particularly because

there has been no consultation with the
parish council or primary school from
Three UK. It is unbelievable they want
a mast in our conservation area.” The
village, which has slightly more than
1,000 residents, features 73 listed buildings, including half-timbered blackand-white Tudor houses and
characterful gabled cottages.
In its application to the district council, Three UK insisted the ‘street pole’
would not have “any material impact on
the local historic character of the area”,
adding it will bring “significant [digital]
connectivity” to the “dense urban setting” for its customers.
It also points out that the grey mast
will “achieve least contrast when

‘It is very difficult to get
planning consent here, so
it seems bizarre we have to
accept this 15-metre mast’
viewed against the predominantly grey
English sky”.
In her letter of objection, Dr Janet
Dyson, chairman of the Great Bardfield
Historical Society, wrote that the “environmentally and historically precious”
village in the river Pant valley would be
forever “desecrated”.
She said little has changed for centures in a village mentioned in the
Domesday Book that is famous across

East Anglia for holding the county’s
largest horse fair from the 13th century
until 1914. Others are angry that the
mast would be very close to a primary
school, despite the debate about possible health implications caused by the
electromagnetic fields they create.
Jane Tillotson, chairman of governors at Great Bardfield Primary School,
said: “The mast would be very ugly and
intrusive – it would be slap bang in the
middle of the village.
“It’s very difficult to get planning
consent here at the best of times, so it
seems bizarre we have to accept this
15-metre mast. Do we just take Three
UK’s and the Government’s word that it
is safe?” Some people would be less

likely to oppose it if it were built on the
edge of the village, she added.
A Three UK spokesman said consultation letters had been sent out and 5G
was “vital” for the village, adding
“extensive searches” had been carried
out to “evaluate a wide range of options”
before planning applications were submitted.
A Braintree district council spokesman said it would consider whether
Three UK’s application met “allowed
development” criteria under the Government’s approved “telecommunications infrastructure”.
If councillors decide that it does not,
formal planning permission would have
to be sought.

Solar panels at
York Minster
defy the voices
of gloom

By Emma Gatten
ENVIRONMENT EDITOR

By Gabriella Swerling
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR

A STRETCH of a Suffolk river that has
been found with unsafe levels of E. coli
is set to become a designated bathing
spot under government plans.
The section of the Deben at Waldringfield in Suffolk would become only the
third river to be accorded the right,
meaning the Environment Agency must
monitor it for safety.
The river has previously been found
to have levels of E. coli “way above” government guidelines, with anecdotal
reports of some swimmers becoming ill
after entering the water.
Campaigners who have pushed for
the designation say they hope it will
encourage water firms to invest in infrastructure to help clean up the river.
Data from 2021 show water firms
released treated and untreated sewage
into the river for dozens of hours.
The Environment Agency (EA) says
E. coli pollution can come from a number of sources, including wild animals
and agricultural run-off.
Several other bids for river bathing water status were rejected, including one at Woodbridge, also on the
River Deben.
Campaigners from the group Save
the Deben said that their application
had been rejected because the number
of visitors was deemed too low.
“If the numbers were too low, surely
it’s because swimmers are scared off by
the seven sewage outlet points draining
into the river in the Woodbridge
stretch,” Ruth Leach, a local councillor,
told the East Anglian Times.
If the sites are designated, the EA will
take samples during the bathing season
between May 15 and Sept 30.

YORK Minister’s roof is set to be fitted
with hundreds of solar panels despite a
backlash from local residents.
The 800-year-old Grade I-listed
cathedral is one of the largest of its kind
in northern Europe and is renowned for
its Gothic architecture.
The move to install 199 panels, which
would be fitted to the roof of the South
Quire Aisle in an effort to generate
75,000 kilowatt-hours of power annually, comes following the Church of
England’s 2020 vote to achieve carbon
neutrality by 2030.
Following the approval of plans by
the City of York yesterday, the Very Rev
Dominic Barrington, Dean of York, said
he was “proud” the historic Minster was
contributing to the Church’s pledge.
Some local residents, however, have
described the panels as “absurd”.
Taking to social media to voice their
anger that the Gothic-style building,
which is also the seat of the Archbishop
of York, would be changed, one wrote:
“Fitting panels to a historic building
seems absurd and gets granted permission.”
Another added: “That seems wrong
on a historic building. I’m pro solar panels, but I don’t think they’re appropriate
everywhere.”
A further said: “Wow, and I had to
battle with the council to get a few panels on my house.”
However, others praised the move,
with one local saying: “It’s wonderful
seeing York Minster’s commitment to
the environment.”
Mr Barrington encouraged other religious sites to “follow suit” with ecofriendly schemes.

DITCHBALLARD/BNPS

E. coli ridden
river could
get status as
bathing spot

Flat out A British angler has caught a 9ft-long, 222lb catfish after the “biggest battle of my fishing career”. Ditch Ballard, 37,
was trying his luck on the Ebro river in Spain before his catch dragged his boat for a mile in an hour-long struggle.

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

13

News

Bare with me –
nudity is not in
vain, says Norton
Happy Valley star asks for
audiences to sit tight as he
strips off for role in new
play billed as ‘trauma porn’
By Patrick Sawer
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
JAMES NORTON has said the public is
scared of male nudity as he prepares to
appear on stage naked in his next role.
The Happy Valley star has urged audiences not to walk out of A Little Life, a
stage adaptation of a novel described by
some critics as “trauma porn”.
Originally written by Hanya Yanagihara, the story of four male friends
includes nudity, violence, sexual and
emotional abuse and self-harm.
But Norton has urged theatre-goers
to stay until the end, reassuring them
that none of what they will see in Ivo
van Hove’s production of the play is gratuitous.
He said: “There’s still a block when it
comes to male nudity, about the penis,
and what it looks like, and its size and its
shape – and all these things of which we
as a culture are still very wary.
“We’re scared of the penis. Men, I
think, we’re far more obsessed with it. I
mean, women I’ve asked are like, ‘I
don’t care, you know, it’s just a penis,
whatever’.”
The actor confessed to feeling “massively exposed” preparing for the role,
saying he had only ever appeared naked
on stage before “very briefly”.
“What makes it harder right now is
that we’re rehearsing, so you’re in a
very light room – it’s like being in your
workplace and just getting naked,
which is very weird,” he said.
“In the theatre, even though there’s
going to be a hundred times more peo-

ple, it will be much easier, with the
lights [down] and the atmosphere, it
will just make sense.”
Norton, who played Tommy Lee
Royce in Happy Valley, stars in A Little
Life alongside Luke Thompson, from
Bridgerton; Omari Douglas, from It’s a
Sin; and Zach Wyatt, from Netflix miniseries The Witcher: Blood Origin. The
play opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre
in the West End later this month.
Norton said the nudity, along with
the play’s distressing scenes, served to
illustrate the story of his character,
Jude.
“In general, it’s just like the violence
in this piece and the self harm: none of
it is gratuitous – the nudity is so justified
and so necessary in order to find the
ultimate shame this man is put
through,” he said.
“And I feel it. We did one of the
scenes recently and, my god, it’s shaming, you know, I lie on the floor naked
being kicked and spat on – and it doesn’t
get much more degrading than that.
“I’m there, there’s no journey I have
to go on. It’s really embarrassing
and horrible.”
The graphic content has drawn criticism in New York, with as much as a
third of the audience not returning to
the auditorium after the interval. But
Norton urged audience members to
consider the play as a whole.
“In New York, I did hear stories of
people buying tickets and publicly
walking out before any of the darkness
happened, just as an act of protest
because they find the book so objectionable,” he said.
He added that New York “is a more
divided, opinionated city, but to protest
against a piece of art which you don’t
like at the expense of other people’s
enjoyment and the performers? Don’t
do that”.

Eye-catching How the West
End stripped for action
OH CALCUTTA!
1970-1980

Avant-garde revue with scenes of male
and female nudity. Experts sent to the
Roundhouse in north London by the
courts judged it not to be obscene and
it transferred to the West End.
NICOLE KIDMAN
The Blue Room, 1998

Kidman’s buttocks were seen on
stage, prompting Telegraph theatre
critic Charles Spencer to call the show
“theatrical Viagra” that would “haunt
my fantasies for months”.
DANIEL RADCLIFFE
Equus, 2007

James Norton stars as Jude. He said the nudity was necessary and justified to illustrate the shame the character is put through

Daniel Radcliffe made headlines
when, at the height of his fame as the
on-screen Harry Potter, he played a
stable-hand who had an erotic
fixation for horses and appeared on
stage totally naked.

Fury as Oscars goodie bags give away indigenous Australians’ land
By Andrea Hamblin in Melbourne
WHEN Cate Blanchett and Colin Farrell, among others, dip into their Oscars
goodie bags tomorrow they will become
proud owners of a parcel of Australian
land and with it a “spiritual connection”
to the outback.
The Aussie Mate Conservation Packs
contain “ownership papers” to a 10 sq ft
plot in Queensland, to offer the 26 acting and directing nominees “a perspec-

tive from the Indigenous Australians”.
But the scheme appears to have backfired after indigenous groups said they
had not been consulted about the gifts
of territory.
One group that is referenced in the
handbook said they have “no connection whatsoever” to the company
selling the packs and would now be
seeking legal advice.
Pieces of Australia, which supplies
certificates to the territory, said the

Oscars gift was supposed to be a
“symbolic” gesture inspired by last
year’s Oscars goodie bags that gave
plots of Scottish land from highland
titles. Niels Chaneliere, the owner of the
company, told The Daily Telegraph: “I
want to continue to deepen that relationship because the tone deaf approach
is not at all what I am going for.”
Celebrities with a goodie bag will be
given a “licence” certificate and a
“membership” book containing educa-

tion from “a perspective from the Indigenous Australians” including land
management practices, “spiritual connections” and “teachings”.
The handbook supplied at the Oscars
mentions the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network (ICIN), an “indigenousowned” conservation group. “We also
contribute and partner with Indigenous
organisations to promote the practice of
traditional land management,” it adds.
However,The Telegraph has con-

firmed no First Nations organisations
were partnering with the business. But
the group told this newspaper: “The
ICIN has not been approached in any
way in regards to the Academy Awards.
ICIN is seeking legal advice regarding
this matter.”
It added that the Oscars scheme did
not have permission to use its pictures.
Some 26 celebrities will receive gift
bags that will contain a “certificate of
licence” to the land in Queensland, as

well as about £106,000 worth of free
trips, products and services, but the
actors will not be invited to visit the
Australian land.
Mr Chaneliere, 29, said the certificates were a symbolic gesture to enable
recipients to responsibly engage with
the Australian bush. He is considering
installing cameras and sound equipment on the remote property so people
can tune in to the sounds of Australian
birds from anywhere in the world.

14

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

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The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

15

World news

Police, above,
secure the building
in Hamburg, right,
and escort
members of the
congregation to
safety, left. Of the
50 people at the
service only 20
escaped
unharmed. The city
gun authority was
tipped off in
January that Fusz,
far right, was
mentally unstable
and hated the
religious group

Gunman was
full of hatred
for Jehovah’s
Witnesses
Hamburg assailant who left
six dead quit the religious
group 18 months earlier
after dispute with members
By Jörg Luyken in Berlin
AN EMBITTERED former Jehovah’s
Witness has been confirmed as the
gunman behind the shooting at a
Hamburg church on Thursday night
that left six people dead and many more
injured.
German authorities identified the
man who stormed a Kingdom’s Hall
belonging to the religious group only as
35-year-old “Phillip F”. They say that he
left the congregation 18 months

previously, after a falling out with other
members.
The Daily Telegraph has identified the
man as Phillip Fusz, about whom the
police had been warned in January,
after an anonymous tip-off suggested
he held a particular hatred towards
Jehovah’s Witnesses and may be mentally unwell. The source suggested Fuzs
“could be suffering from a mental
illness, without... this being medically
diagnosed since Philip F. would not
seek medical treatment,” Ralf Meyer,
the head of the Hamburg police, said.
“[He] supposedly harbours a particular anger towards religious followers,
especially towards Jehovah’s Witnesses
and his former employer.”
Police visited Fusz’s home in February but found nothing suspicious and

ended up chatting about how his home
was furnished. They established that he
kept his gun in a safe, according to
regulations, and that he showed no
other signs of being unstable. He was let
off with a verbal warning.
Fusz grew up in a strictly religious
household in the Alps before studying
business in Munich. On his LinkedIn
profile he also claims to have studied for
a BA in business management at the
University of Central Lancashire
between 2011 and 2012.
He later penned a book called The
Truth about God, Jesus Christ and Satan
in which he described his personal
“three year journey to hell” and in
which he presented an archaic world
view in which women should be
subservient to men.
German authorities have ruled out a
terrorist attack or political motive and
confirmed that Fusz used a handgun
that he had owned legally since December, through his membership in a local
shooting club.
Dozens of people were shot at the
Kingdom’s Hall belonging to Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Of the 50 people at the
service only 20 escaped unharmed.
Condolences for the victims were
being paid last night.
Michael Tsifidaris, a spokesman for
the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said: “Almost
every single member of the congregation has been affected in some way by
this awful crime.
“Many of them are traumatised and
are now receiving the best possible
therapy and support,” he added.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor,
and a native of the city, said: “My
thoughts are with the victims and their
families. And with the security forces
who have endured a difficult mission.”

Using a wheelchair DeSantis tells
is humiliating,
friends he will
admits Pope Francis run for president

German visitors
beat those from
UK, says Lanzarote

By Nick Squires in Rome

By Nick Allen in Washington

By James Badcock in Madrid

THE Pope says he feels humiliated and
“old” because he is now forced to use
a wheelchair as a result of acute pain
in his knee.
In comments that will fuel speculation about whether he might step
down, Pope Francis, 86, said he has
“less physical strength” than he did
when he succeeded Pope Benedict XVI
a decade ago.
If he began to feel too much “tiredness” or a lack of mental acuity, then he
could follow the example of Benedict
and resign from the papacy, he said.
The Pope made the remarks in an
interview with Swiss state radio and television to be broadcast on Sunday, the
day before he marks the 10th anniversary of his election to the papacy.
Extracts were published yesterday by
three Italian newspapers.
Pope Benedict, who died on December 31 aged 95, became the first pontiff
to resign in about 600 years when he
stepped down in 2013.
Asked what would lead him to make
the same decision, Francis said: “A
tiredness that doesn’t make you see
things clearly. A lack of clarity, of knowing how to evaluate situations.”
He said he felt a little “ashamed” to
have to use a wheelchair on trips abroad
and public appearances in St Peter’s
Square. “I am old. I have less physical
resistance,” he said. “The knee [problem] was a physical humiliation, even if
the recovery is going well now.”

RON DESANTIS yesterday sparked
anticipation that he was on the cusp of
announcing his 2024 presidency bid,
after reportedly privately telling friends
he planned to run and an outside committee was set up to raise money for any
campaign.
It came as he visited the key state of
Iowa and told a crowd he would “never
surrender to the woke mob”.
Iowa will be the first state to vote in
the race for the Republican presidential
nomination and Mr DeSantis visited
ahead of Donald Trump, who will go
there on Monday.
At the Rhythm City Casino Resort, in
the city of Davenport, Mr DeSantis held
a public discussion with Iowa governor
Kim Reynolds. He was also expected to
appear in the capital Des Moines.
Mr DeSantis told an audience of
Iowans that in Florida “we get things
done and in the process, we beat the left
day after day, week after week, month
after month”.
A Des Moines Register poll showed
74 per cent of Iowa Republicans have a
favourable view of Mr DeSantis. It
showed 80 per cent have a favourable
view of Mr Trump, down from 91 per
cent in September 2021.
Mr DeSantis has been talking to those
close to him about running, without
making suggestions that he is still
deciding, the Washington Post reported.
He is expected to announce his candidacy in late spring or early summer.

LANZAROTE must reduce its dependence on low-spending British visitors
and move towards a “higher quality”
tourism market model, the island’s
president has said.
María Dolores Corujo, the Lanzarote
government leader, singled out German
holidaymakers as the ideal visitor to
attract in order for the Canary Island
package holiday hotspot to diversify its
tourism sector.
“It’s essential to work on the diversification of the sector and the growth of
markets like the German market, which
adapt to our intentions of aiming at
higher-quality tourism and holidaymakers who spend more when they’re
here and move us away from mass tourism,” Ms Corujo said at this week’s ITB
Berlin travel industry fair.
While British tourists are drawn to
all-year sunshine and low-cost beach
holidays in the Spanish Atlantic outpost, Ms Corujo said the island’s tourism strategy needed to be “sustainability
and excellence”.
It comes a month after she said Lanzarote needed to “reduce our dependence on the British market”.
But some industry figures are not
happy. Daniel Trigg of the Lanzarote
Business and Residents Association
said he was concerned by the idea of
a backlash against traditional holidaymakers and the impression that “Lanzarote does not want British and
Irish tourists”.

Hamburg authorities have said that
only luck and the quick reactions of
police prevented a much greater
tragedy. A newly-formed Swat team
trained to deal with gun attackers just
happened to be in the vicinity at the
time and was able to reach the scene
within minutes.
After they entered the building, the
attacker fled upstairs, where he shot
himself. Police found him lifeless with a
handgun lying on the floor.
Police have described a night of
unimaginable horror in which the
attacker first shot wildly at a car outside
the church before unloading magazines

Hamburg
airport

Kingdom Hall of
Jehovah’s Witnesses

Stadtpark

H A M B U RG
Outer
Alster Lake

1 mile

through the window of the building.
Once inside he continued to shoot
down his victims, repeatedly pausing to
reload his gun.
Officers found nine used magazines
at the scene as well as 20 more in a rucksack. In the initial confusion, police suspected that two gunmen were at work
and that one had fled the scene.
Citizens of Hamburg received warnings via an app on their phones to stay
indoors while police were deployed to
other Jehovah’s Witnesses buildings to
make sure that they were secure.
The crime is likely to stoke an ongoing debate around Germany’s gun

possession laws. At the beginning of
this year the government announced
plans to tighten laws around semi-automatic weapons after prosecutors
uncovered a far-fetched plot by a group
of monarchists to storm the German
parliament.
As unlikely as the plot was to have
succeeded, it was supported by former
army officers and a gun trader.
The deadliest shooting spree in
modern German history was carried
out in 2020 by a far-Right extremist
who killed eleven people at shisha bars
on the outskirts of Frankfurt with
legally-held handguns.

16

**

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

S

World news
‘Da Vinci’ hero
of Ukraine is
laid to rest after
death in battle
HUNDREDS of mourners including
Ukraine’s army chief and foreign dignitaries gathered on Kyiv’s Independence
Square yesterday to pay their respects
to Ukraine’s youngest battalion commander, known as Da Vinci.
Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, 27, was killed in
the battle for Bakhmut on Mar 7.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who
presented Kotsyubaylo with the Hero of
Ukraine medal in 2021, called him a
“human symbol” of courage.
“He was one of the youngest heroes
of Ukraine; one of those whose personal
history, character and courage forever
became the history, character and courage of Ukraine. He was killed in a battle
near Bakhmut – a battle for Ukraine,” he
said in an address announcing the death.
Mourners including Sanna Marin,
Finnish prime minister, bowed their
heads or knelt as a bugler played the
Last Post and a military guard of honour
carried his coffin.
A day of mourning was also declared
in his home region, where mourners
bearing black flags knelt by road sides.
Kotsyubaylo joined Right Sektor, the
most prominent of several radical
nationalist groups to emerge from the
revolution, in 2014 he joined the
Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, the group’s
paramilitary battalion.
Adopting the call sign Da Vinci he
was quickly recognised as a talented
soldier. After being wounded near
Donetsk airport he was promoted to
company commander and in 2017 put in
charge of a new company called the
Wolves of Da Vinci. The unit later
expanded to become the battalion he
led until he died.

ROMAN PILIPEY/GETTY IMAGES

By Roland Oliphant
SENIOR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Volodymyr Zelensky with the coffin of Dmytro Kotsiybailo, Ukraine’s youngest battalion commander, who was known as ‘Da Vinci’. Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin is visible to the president’s right

Russian soldiers rebel against ‘certain death’
By Nataliya Vasilyeva
RUSSIA CORRESPONDENT in Istanbul
RUSSIANS on the front lines are mutinying, fighting among themselves and
getting lost in the chaos of a faltering
offensive, videos and messages from
inside Vladimir Putin’s army show.
Recently mobilised soldiers are refusing orders to face “certain death” by

joining “human wave” attacks that they
say are destroying entire units at a time.
Some are appealing directly to Mr
Putin in desperate videos, while others
are standing up to Kremlin officials sent
to quell the rebellion.
Reports are emerging of fighters
being locked in basements for declining
to become targets.
Meanwhile, the Russian army has
created a new unit to round up all the
“lost” soldiers deserting, fleeing or
struggling to find their teams.
Soldiers from at least 16 different
regions have recorded video messages
since early February to blame commanders for trying to use them in

“human wave” attacks, according to the
Russian media outlet Verstka.
The tactic of sending “human waves”
of poorly trained and poorly armed
fighters into the line of fire to overwhelm the opposition has become
increasingly common, according to military observers.
Ukrainian forces are reporting staggering Russian losses – between 600 to
1,000 men a day. Russia’s long-awaited
offensive is largely considered to have
stalled amid a gruelling battle to take
the small city of Bakhmut.
One of the most striking recent calls
for help from soldiers came from a
group of men who were called up from

eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk region. The
man said he and his comrades were sent
to the occupied Donetsk region, ostensibly to be a patrol force only to find out
they were to join a now notorious
human wave attack outside Avdiivka.
“We’re just sent in for slaughter. The
commanders are telling us in the face
we’re disposable soldiers and our only
chance to go back home is to get injured
in fighting,” the soldier said.
“The commanders don’t care about
our lives. We’re asking for help. We
have no one else to turn to.”
Ruslan Leviev, head of the investigative Conflict Intelligence Team that has
been tracing Russian troops since 2014,
said: “We don’t know how much of this
discontent is left unpublicised but
those videos most likely speak to the
use of ‘human wave attacks’ widely
reported by the Ukrainian army.”
Soldiers often hide their faces behind
balaclavas and rarely speak to reporters, fearing that publicity would backfire against them or their families.
In another widely shared video,
filmed in darkness, a Russian says:
“Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], this is a
plea from men mobilised from the
Irkutsk region. We’re asking you to look
into the illegal and criminal orders of our
commanders and take action,” the man
says, asking Mr Putin to stop sending
former civilians like him to their deaths.”
He says the unit of his predecessors
who made a similar appeal was “almost

completely wiped out”. After four pleas
from the 1,439th regiment, the men’s
female relatives recorded a desperate
video last week asking Putin, “our only
hope”, to “save our men”.
“The commanders have abandoned
them and told them not to leave their
positions. Our men have been without
food or water for a few days but surviving under constant shelling,” the
women said.
In response, Russia’s defence ministry released a video of a masked soldier
who said he was from Irkutsk and that
he was willing to serve.

‘Why should I fight
there? They’re sending
us to a sure death. Go jail
us. At least I’ll get to live’
People of Baikal, an Irkutsk media
outlet in exile, was able to trace the
men’s relatives after they posted desperate pleas on local social media
groups that were subsequently deleted.
The wife of one of the men who
recorded the appeal called him a
“patriot who respected Putin and
thought he was doing everything right
in Ukraine”.
The woman’s husband, who was
called up in September and ended up in
Donetsk in November, described to her
the grim reality in eastern Ukraine.

Soldiers have
pleaded with Putin,
the Russian
president, to look
into ‘the illegal and
criminal orders of
our commanders
and take action’
MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV, SPUTNIK, KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP

Troops mutinous over
‘human wave’ tactic of
sending them into line of
fire to overwhelm enemy

China bribing us over
Taiwan, says US ally
By Nicola Smith
ASIA CORRESPONDENT
THE president of Micronesia,
a longstanding US ally in the
Pacific, has accused China of
bribing island officials to
switch allegiances with envelopes of cash, free flights and
alcohol in a bombshell letter
to the national parliament.
David Panuelo, the leader
of the Federated States of
Micronesia (FSM), said China
is pressuring the strategic
island chain to align itself
with Beijing rather than
Washington if it launches an
invasion of Taiwan.
“The FSM has a key role to
play in either the prevention
of such a conflict, or participation in allowing it to occur,”

Mr Panuelo explains in the
letter, which was revealed on
The Diplomat website.
The nation of just 100,000
people is closely linked to the
US through a treaty known as
the Compact of Free Association, which grants the Pentagon virtually unrestricted
military access in exchange
for a security guarantee and
benefits for citizens.
US military strategists
view the island chain as a
critical line of defence
against Chinese advances
across the Pacific.
“One of the reasons why
China’s political warfare is
successful in so many arenas
is that we are bribed to be
complicit, and bribed to be
silent,” Mr Panuelo writes.`

“(The commander) was sending them
for slaughter: People were shot and
killed like at a shooting range. The guys
were alone in a minefield, without any
air support or any reinforcements,” the
wife said.
Reports about an utter disarray in the
Russian ranks have also come from proKremlin sources.
Rybar, one of Russia’s most popular
pro-war Telegram channels, this week
admitted that the country’s army faces
the problem of soldiers who “got lost”.
Russian convicts who were recruited
to fight have also begun to rebel.
Media outlet Ostorozhno Novosti this
week published a video allegedly showing convicts thrown in a basement outside Donetsk as punishment for
refusing to follow orders.
The men said only 11 people from
their unit of 71 people survived.
In arguably the most desperate
appeal to date, mobilised men from
1,004th regiment were seen confronting a commander who was dispatched
from their native Kaliningrad to
respond to a brewing mutiny.
The men shouted at the commander
that they have been used as “meat” and
they refuse to go into attack.
“Why should I fight there? What for?
Who for? They’re sending us to a sure
death,” one man yelled. “Go jail us! How
much is it? 5, 7, 10? I don’t give a damn.
At least I’ll get to live.”
The soldiers’ appeals also shed light
on apparent friction between Russian
troops and local militants in Donetsk
who have been fighting against Ukrainian government troops since 2014.
The Kaliningrad recruits like the men
from Irkutsk claimed that separatist
commanders from Donetsk have been
refusing to “waste” ammunition artillery to support them as one man said
they were not given proper equipment
or weapons.
“We get out there [to the front line]
while [the Donetsk men] just sit around
shamelessly, with all the equipment,
night vision and stuff,” he said.
So far, however desperate the pleas
are, Russia has yet to see a genuine
wave of defection that would have an
impact on its defence capabilities.
Mr Leviev of the Conflict Intelligence
Team said: “The frequency and volume of those complaints are still not
enough to get the Russian commanders to give up the tactic of human
wave attacks.”

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

17

World news
UN calls for
donors to save
sinking tanker

By Jamie Johnson US CORRESPONDENT

By Campbell MacDiarmid
MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

IT may not be civil; it may not be polite
and it may not be gentlemanly, but giving someone the middle finger is not a
crime, a judge in Canada has ruled, adding that it is a right “that belongs to
every red-blooded Canadian”.
In a bizarre case in Montreal, a
teacher was accused of harassing his
neighbour in a long-running dispute
over children playing in the road.
Teacher and father-of-two Neall
Epstein claimed that his neighbour
Michael Naccache held up a drill and
said: “You f------ crazy neighbour; you
dips--t,” adding: “You’re f------ dead.”
In response, Mr Epstein told him to “f--off ” and stuck up his middle finger.
When Mr Epstein returned home
from a long walk, the police were at his
door and proceeded to arrest him on
suspicion of criminal harassment and
uttering death threats.
Judge Dennis Galiatsatos was incredulous that the case had reached court.
In a remarkable 26-page decision, he
said the grievances were “nothing more
than mundane, petty neighbourhood
trivialities” and said it was “deplorable”
that Mr Naccache had “weaponised
the criminal justice system in an
attempt to exert revenge for some perceived slights that are, at best, trivial
peeves”.
He added: “To be abundantly clear, it
is not a crime to give someone the
finger.
“Offending someone is not a crime. It
is an integral component of one’s freedom of expression.”

HARVEST HOME

Judge says it is
public’s right to
give the finger

Home help The Duchess of Sussex marks International Women’s Day with a visit to Harvest Home. The Los Angeles-based
charity provides housing and emotional support for pregnant women who have faced domestic violence and homelessness.

China turns peacemaker
for Iran and Saudi accord
US left out in the cold as
deal between rival states
places Beijing as a key
player in Mid East politics
By Campbell MacDiarmid
and Josie Ensor
CHINA has brokered a deal for Iran and
Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations, in a major diplomatic coup for

Beijing that appeared to leave the kingdom’s US ally out in the cold.
The agreement to restore ties, including embassies and missions, “within
two months” was reached after four
days of meetings in the Chinese capital
between delegates from the long-time
foes, the two countries said in a joint
communiqué with China.
“The agreement includes their affirmation of the respect for the sovereignty of states and the non-interference
in internal affairs,” the statement added.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, later hinted at further
news to come, saying all three nations
were in support of “more regional
steps”.
The breakthrough marked China’s
emergence as a key player in Middle
Eastern politics as the United States and
the West pivot away from the region.
“This is a big deal,” said Michael Stephens, an associate fellow at RUSI. “Not
because Saudi and Iran have patched
things up ... but because the US was

nowhere near it. Shifts are happening
very, very fast.”
The US last night attempted to downplay the significance of the changing
global power dynamics. President Joe
Biden told reporters yesterday: “The
better relations between Israel and its
Arab neighbours, the better for everybody.”
The Biden administration has called
China’s rise the single greatest geopolitical threat to the US of the 21st century,
though John Kirby, a spokesman for the
National Security Council, declined
yesterday to criticise its role in brokering the rapprochement.
Mr Kirby rejected the notion that Beijing was filling a void in the Middle East
left by the US. “I would stridently push
back on this idea that we are stepping
back in the Middle East,” he said, adding
that Riyadh kept Washington informed
of the talks with Iran. “We support any
effort there to de-escalate tensions.”

It came as diplomats are exerting
efforts to end the civil war in Yemen
where Iran supports the Houthi rebels
and Saudi Arabia supports the exiled
government in Aden.
Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in 2016
after protesters attacked its diplomatic
posts in Iran following Saudi Arabia’s

‘This is a big deal, not
because they have patched
things up... but because the
US was nowhere near it’
execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric,
Nimr al-Nimr.
After the US unilaterally withdrew
from Iran’s nuclear deal with world
powers in 2018, Tehran embarked on an
increased programme of uranium
enrichment, increasing tensions across
the region as Israel and Saudi Arabia

THE United Nations has bought an oil
tanker to avert a Red Sea environmental
catastrophe but has called on individual
donors to contribute more money to a
$129 million (£106 million) rescue plan.
The Yemeni supertanker the FSO
Safer has been abandoned without
maintenance since 2015 amid a civil war
between Houthi rebels and the Saudibacked Yemeni government.
Experts warn the rusting vessel is at
risk of spilling over one million barrels
of crude oil into the Red Sea, which
could be one of the worst environmental disasters in recent history.
“ Whole communities would be
exposed to life-threatening toxins,”
according to the UN Development Programme. “Highly polluted air would
affect millions,” it added.
The Houthis have demanded a
replacement vessel in return for allowing the salvage of the tanker, which is
moored near the Houthi-controlled
port city of Hodeidah.
The risk of catastrophe is so great
that the UN agreed in 2021 to purchase
an oil storage vessel but spiralling costs
have delayed the salvage operations
which are expected to start in May.
The UN is reactivating a rare public
crowdfunding campaign launched in
2021 that saw thousands of individuals
donate after states failed to contribute
sufficient funds.
So far the UN has raised a total of
$95 million, of which $75 million has
been received.
warned of the threat of a nuclear armed
Islamic republic. Tensions have since
remained high between the rivals –
Riyadh representing the most powerful
Sunni state in the region and Tehran the
biggest Shia power.
“This is a victory for dialogue, a victory for peace, offering good news at a
time of much turbulence in the world,”
said Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat.
China has also sought to establish
itself as a mediator in the Ukraine war,
offering a peace plan that has so far
gained little traction. Mr Wang said Beijing will continue to play a constructive
role in handling hotspot issues in the
world and demonstrate its responsibility as a major nation.
As Mr Biden seeks to pivot to confront a resurgent China, Beijing leading
diplomatic efforts in the Middle East
indicated a big change, said Mr
Stephens.“The US burned its leverage
through inconsistency,” he added.

18

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

World news

Cartel turns in killers over ‘lack of discipline’
decided to turn over those who were
directly involved and responsible in the
events, who at all times acted under
their own decision-making and lack of
discipline,” the letter said.
The individuals had gone against the
cartel’s rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent”, it added.
The letter was released alongside a
photograph showing a group of men
tied up in front of a pick-up truck allegedly used in the attack.
Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown,
Latavia McGee and Eric James Williams
were targeted after arriving in the town
last Friday.
Ms McGee, a mother of six, was due
to undergo tummy tuck cosmetic surgery, which is far cheaper in Mexico. It

Capture and killing of
tummy-tuck tourists went
against rule of ‘respecting
the life of the innocent’
By Jamie Johnson US CORRESPONDENT
A MEXICAN cartel accused of abducting and killing American tourists has
handed over five of its own members
along with a letter of apology, saying
they had shown a “lack of discipline”.
The Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologised to the four Americans
and their families, residents of the border town of Matamoros where the
attack happened, and a Mexican woman
who died in the shoot-out. “We have

Cartel members were dumped by a truck
and bosses wrote a letter of apology

is thought that the group became lost
while driving around in a van, trying to
find the clinic. Officials believe that the
cartel mistook them for a gang of Hai-

tian drug smugglers and they were
dragged into a truck and taken away.
Mr Woodard and Mr Brown were
found dead on Monday in a cabin southeast of the city. Ms McGee and Mr Williams have returned home to the US.
Jerry Wallace, a cousin of Mr
Williams, said his family does not accept
the cartel’s apology.
“It ain’t gonna change nothing about
the suffering that we went through,” he
told the Associated Press.
The incident has caused a diplomatic
rupture between the US and Mexico,
with Republican lawmakers advocating
military action against drug cartels.
Dan Crenshaw, a representative from
Texas, urged the Biden administration
to initiate military action against
cartels, while Senator Lindsey Graham

from South Carolina demanded that US
forces “destroy drug labs”, though he
added that the military should not forcibly enter Mexico.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the
Mexican president, issued a furious
response, saying: “We are not going to
allow any foreign government to intervene and much less foreign armed
forces to intervene in our territory.
“Mexico is not a protectorate or a
colony of the United States”.
The war of words continued yesterday, as Mr Graham responded: “What
offends me is for him not to take decisive action against a common problem.
He has lost control of a large part of
Mexico to narco terrorists.
“People in Mexico are living in fear.
My country is being poisoned. I don’t

New TV rage of
slap fighting ‘is
not a sport ... it’s
brain damage’

care if he’s offended or not. I want him
to up his game.”
There is also unrest within Mexico
about how Americans taken by the
cartel are treate d differently to
Mexicans who have gone missing.
The Americans’ abductions brought
National Guard troops and an army
special forces outfit to the area – with
the apparent perpetrators flushed out
within a week.
But in Mexico, more than 112,000
people remain missing – about a tenth
of them in Tamaulipas – the state where
the Americans were taken.
Guadalupe Correa- Cabrera, an
associate professor at George Mason
University, said “If these people had
been Mexicans, they might still be
disappeared.”
‘Striker’ Ryan
Phillips delivers the
blow to Rob Perez
as he recoils at a
match in Las Vegas

By Nick Allen in Washington

‘When you
are in a bar
and having a
few drinks
and this
thing comes
on, nobody
is not
watching it’

CHRIS UNGER/ZUFFA LLC

“THANK God it wasn’t me that got
slapped!” said Arnold Schwarzenegger
as he sat on stage watching two young
women whack each other in the face as
hard as they could.
The former Mr Universe was observing slap fighting, a new and controversial televised combat sport in which
fighters use an open hand to deliver single blows to the face.
Slap fighting has been going on
unregulated for years around the world,
but was propelled to a new level in January when the Nevada Athletic Commission sanctioned the Las Vegas-based
Power Slap League.
For its proponents, the sport is a natural evolution from boxing and mixed
martial arts. Its detractors say it is “not
sport” and “just brain damage”.
A columnist of The New York Times
wrote: “What are we becoming? What’s
next, who can survive being run over by
a tank? Knife fights on national television?”
Stephen Cloobeck, the former chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, has distanced himself from the
decision to sanction it. “I made a mistake. I’m not happy about it,” he said
Power Slap is promoted by Dana
White, president of UFC, involving
more than 30 competitors, known as
“st ri k e r s” i n c lud i n g Ve r n “ T he
Mechanic” Cathey and Mike “Slap
Jesus” Smith.
Fights are typically three to five
rounds, and the person being struck
stands with their hands behind their
back bracing for impact. When the blow

is delivered some fighters barely move,
while others stumble and fall. A few are
knocked out. Ultra-slow motion video is
then shown of their face rippling and
distorting, as onlookers whoop.
A fighter has up to 60 seconds to
recover and respond after receiving a
blow. The match ends in a decision by
judges, knockout, technical knockout
or disqualification for an illegal slap.

Nearby are a supervising doctor,
three paramedics and three ambulances. The slapping craze appears to
have proliferated with online videos of
unregulated bouts emanating from
eastern Europe starting in 2017.
One shows a competitor winning
despite his mushy face having swollen
to grotesque proportions. Mr White has
defended the league, saying it is well

regulated with medical testing and doctors on hand. “There’s no denying, or no
secret, in the fact that getting punched
in the head is bad for you. It’s not good,”
Mr White said recently. “But you can
take a lot of risk out of it when you
spend the money and do the proper
medical testing.”
He said participants were only receiving a small number of blows compared

to the 400 they might receive in a boxing match. He added: “When you’re in a
bar and having a few drinks and this
thing comes on, let me tell you what,
nobody’s not watching it, OK?”
However, the Brain Injury Association of America has asked the Nevada
Athletic Commission to consider suspending Power Slap. In a letter it said:
“There is no sport here.” Two congress-

men have written to Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TBS, the network
the league is broadcast on. They said it
“glorifies dangerous and aggressive
behaviour at the expense of its participants’ long-term health”.
But Cathey, a striker, defended the
craze. “I know what’s coming. I’m tensing up,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff I
can do to protect myself.”

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

19

Comment

ESTABLISHED 1855

Raising corporation tax is an avoidable error

LETTERS
to the
EDITOR

The Government must
stop throwing good
money after bad – and
put the brakes on HS2
SIR – The Government should
remember the first rule of economics:
never throw good money after bad.
Delaying HS2 (report, March 10) is
simply prolonging the agony. It needs
to be put out of its misery at once.
Death by a thousand cuts will just
waste more billions on a project that
was never anything more than a
monument to politicians’ vanity.
The money saved could then be
spent on some real levelling-up: a
high-speed rail link across the North
from Hull to Liverpool, for instance.
Francis Bown
London E3
SIR – First the cost was £37 billion.
Then it was £70 billion, then
£100 billion. And now less is being
built, over a longer period.
When is someone going to have the
courage to stop pouring money into
this bottomless pit?
John Stewart
Terrick, Buckinghamshire
SIR – HS2 has turned from comedy into
tragedy, and ruined Britain’s
reputation for engineering. Rather
than saving 20 minutes on the journey
from Birmingham to London, trains
are running years behind schedule.
If it is considered too late to abandon
the project, the sensible way to save
money is to scrap the “high speed”
aspect. Lay conventional track and run
existing trains.
John Snook
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
SIR – Every day I read reports of
executive and administrative failure –
on everything from the collapsing NHS
to HS2.
This situation has developed over
years, and now appears to be
considered the norm in our public
services. One thing characterises all of
the failings: the fact that nobody is ever
held to account. Instead, we just see
rewards for incompetence.
Howard M Tolman
Sudbury, Suffolk

Impact of migration
SIR – Like most people of a caring
nature, I have much sympathy for
those desperately seeking a better life
in this country. At the same time, I
have sympathy for the less well-off in
our society.
The likes of Gary Lineker (Letters,
March 10) – and indeed me – probably
benefit from immigration. It is the less
fortunate who are told: “Move up –
there are more people coming.” This is
why control is needed.
Pamela Meek
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
SIR – The refugee crisis in Calais is on
French soil, so the French should be
paying to address it.
Yet Rishi Sunak has now agreed to
give them £500 million to help solve
the problem. Madness.
Paul Strong
Claxby, Lincolnshire
SIR – You report (March 10) that there
may be a Civil Service “backlash”
against the Government’s immigration
plans.
The Civil Service’s primary purpose
is to put government policies into
practice. Its code states: “You must not
… frustrate the implementation of
policies once decisions are taken.”
If some employees are threatening
to quit, their resignations should be
accepted. Those who express
politicised personal opinions should
be sacked.
This might start to correct the
disastrous swing of the Civil Service
from impartiality to Left-wing bias.
Ian Brent-Smith
Stratton Audley, Oxfordshire

Junior doctors’ strikes
SIR – We have seen encouraging signs
of engagement from the Government
and unions to resolve differences and
avert further industrial action in the
NHS (report, March 8). The strikes
have already affected tens of thousands
of patients and damaged staff morale.
Unfortunately, we are not seeing a
similar dialogue with doctors and face
an escalation of strike action next
week, which will take disruption to the
next level. Local NHS leaders are doing
all they can to mitigate the impact, but
are worried this will pose a risk to the
safety of some patients and set back
progress on key strategic priorities,
including backlog recovery.
As the representative bodies of NHS
organisations encompassing trusts and
the wider healthcare system, we
understand doctors’ frustrations over
the way their pay has lagged behind
inflation in recent years, while their
workloads have increased.
It’s not too late for all sides to realise
the harm a strike will do, and redouble

he was chancellor, stoutly defending it as both fair and
necessary to balance the books. A few months later it was
easily abandoned.
This shows the downside of the Prime Minister’s earnest,
diligent approach. Nimbly changing course, painting the big
picture of what he wants the country to look like, and
signalling that loud and clear to international investors, is not
always his way. But he must now shift gear, setting out how
he intends to capitalise on the emancipation of Brexit to
establish an attractive low-tax, low-regulation regime.
He will be able to see the merits of that for himself next
week, when he travels to America on Monday for a summit.
There, as states compete between themselves, low-tax states
like Texas and Florida are thriving. It is a lesson he must pass
on to his Chancellor in time for Wednesday’s Budget.

like the NHS drug levy, which pharmaceutical manufacturers
complain is “vastly in excess of anything … anywhere else in
the world”.
Then there is corporation tax, due to increase next month
from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. Faced with what it called such
a “discouraging” tax regime, AstraZeneca last month chose to
build a new £320 million factory in Ireland rather than the
north of England. Nothing could reveal more starkly that a
government which once talked about levelling up is pursuing
a fiscal policy that drives away jobs, opportunity and
investment for areas that sorely need it.
It gets worse. The Bank of England predicts business
investment will crumple by more than 5 per cent, both this
year and next. Research suggests the corporation tax hike
alone may reduce GDP by more than 1 per cent. Together, the
corporation tax rise, combined with the scrapping of
investment allowances by successive Tory chancellors, will
see businesses face a tax take that experts say is the highest it
has ever been. To pursue this course is to pursue stagnation
and despair.
Whatever happens at next week’s Budget, it is essential that
Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, revives and reinforces this
nation’s reputation as a welcoming environment for business
investment. It is through such investment that productivity
improves and economic growth is stimulated, so that
individuals get richer and sufficient revenues are delivered to
fund good public services.
The single most important indicator of such an
environment is corporation tax. To raise it so significantly
would be to kill off Britain’s image as a good place to do
business. Naturally, the Government says reversing such a
long-planned hike is impossible. But Mr Sunak said similar
about the proposed National Insurance hike last year when

efforts to enter negotiations and avoid
industrial action. Patients deserve
nothing less.
Sir Julian Hartley
Chief executive, NHS Providers
Matthew Taylor
Chief executive, NHS Confederation
Will Warburton
Managing director, Shelford Group

Treated as a fraud
SIR – My mother died in October 2022
and, having funded herself in a care
home for two years, left an estate
worth less than £50,000.
Probate (Letters, March 7) was
granted within a few weeks, and the
funds distributed to the beneficiaries.
Then the Department for Work and
Pensions contacted me, saying it had
reason to suspect that my mother had
been paid too much pension credit at
some stage in her life. I have now been
given eight weeks to provide fully
annotated, itemised bank statements
going back over three years, and a
statement of assets going back to 2005.
It’s a pity other benefit fraudsters
don’t seem to be chased so diligently.
Keith Appleyard
West Wickham, Kent

Sir Galahad disaster
SIR – There has been a public inquiry
into the Hillsborough disaster. There is
also a powerful case for a public
inquiry into the Sir Galahad disaster
– discussed in Simon Heffer’s review
(March 4) of Crispin Black’s Too Thin
for a Shroud – with access to all data,
drawing upon witnesses, war diaries
and full Ministry of Defence records.
One of us was captain of HMS
Fearless in the Falklands conflict,
intimately concerned with the events
leading up to the Sir Galahad disaster;
the other was commander of 3
Commando Brigade, leading most of
the major land-force battles. We view
Lt Col Black’s book with renewed
sadness for the Welsh Guards, and are
dismayed by the account he provides.
The foundation cause of the tragedy
was that the battalion was sent south at
all, as an element of the reinforcement
5 Infantry Brigade. It was ill-prepared,
as countless contemporaneous
accounts attest, and its shortcomings
were a burden to other units. Destined
to garrison the San Carlos bridgehead
and release the battle-ready 40
Commando to move forward, it was
nevertheless thrust into the front line.
The reason is buried in unreleased
documents defended by the MoD
against Freedom of Information
requests (here Lt Col Black has a point).
Major General Jeremy Moore, who was
nowhere near Bluff Cove, is totally
innocent of the book’s attempts to
malign him. He did his utmost to assist
5 Infantry Brigade, complicated by its

Usurping cows
Steak pie or fake meat? There is a choice. It is reminiscent of
the closet scene in Hamlet where the Prince shows to his
mother miniatures of the murdered king and his usurping
brother, one with the front of Jove, the other like a mildew’d
ear. Today we report that green campaigners are urging the
Government to make fake meat artificially as cheap as the
real thing. But we also report that, unlike last year’s vegan
winner, this year’s supreme champion at the British Pie
Awards is a steak, ale and stilton item, beating 900 others in
the pieman’s paradise of Melton Mowbray. Fake meat price
fixers mean well: to stop cattle producing methane. But just
as fake meat’s down side may only slowly become apparent,
so may the benefits of real cows. Our green and pleasant acres
seem peculiarly well adapted to share with them.

brigadier’s unauthorised move
forward before support and
communications were in place.
The immediate events of the disaster
are misrepresented. The trigger was
that the guardsmen remained on board
Sir Galahad over a period of hours
before the fatal attack, despite urgent
advice – indeed direct orders – to
disembark (for which there were
ample means), given the evident risk.
This basic fact cannot be altered.
The criticisms of Admiral Sir John
Fieldhouse are unfounded; the
command and control of the landing
craft were indeed irregular, because
of their extemporised appropriation by
5 Infantry Brigade.
Major General Julian Thompson
Romsey, Hampshire
Rear Admiral Jeremy Larken
Boughton, Cheshire

Canine comedy

ALAMY

T

he past few weeks have highlighted Rishi Sunak’s
strengths as a politician: his diligence and attention to
detail, and his admirable determination to direct those
qualities at difficult issues. Yet next week, at the Budget, he
faces an uphill challenge to maintain this good run.
First, the fruits of his methodical manner should be
applauded. He appears to have made progress on the
Northern Ireland Protocol, with both Brexiteers and
Remainers believing his negotiations mark an improvement
on the present condition. And now we are seeing the same
focus on small boat crossings. Yesterday in Paris, he was with
President Emmanuel Macron announcing a “new era” in
cross-Channel relations and a joint determination to deepen
co-operation on stemming the tide of small boats. We must
wait to see if results live up to these positive words, but
patience and persistence already look to be delivering
progress on a subject of enormous importance.
The question is, what happens next? For now Mr Sunak
must turn his attention not to solving tricky problems he has
inherited, but to outlining a vision of his own. And there is no
greater opportunity for doing so than on the matter of
Britain’s post-Brexit economic arrangements.
There is much to address. The pandemic has habituated
Britons to vast state intervention, to the tentacles of
government reaching into every aspect of their private lives.
It has normalised overbearing regulation of business and,
above all, it has upended Conservative economic policy in
favour of high taxes and high spending. The overall tax
burden is now heading above 37 per cent of GDP, a post-war
high. Even the Labour governments of Harold Wilson in the
1960s and 1970s did not manage that.
The results are clear for all to see. Business leaders warn
they are being driven from these shores by statist cash grabs,

The good fight: a volunteer clears rubbish from the beach in Aberystwyth, Wales

SIR – The only accidents I have seen
caused by extendable dog leads
(Letters, March 10) have involved a dog
doubling back around me quickly.
The nylon lead has created perfectly
symmetrical burn marks on my legs (I
tend to wear shorts while dog
walking), which have lasted several
weeks.
My wife – in charge of the lead and
the dog – reminds me (between bursts
of laughter) to be more careful and
move a bit quicker to avoid injury.
Paul Thornton
Horsham, West Sussex
SIR – Extended leads should be used in
green spaces to allow poorly behaved
dogs to exercise without running off.
However, even dogs on extended
leads don’t stray on to roads, where
cyclists should be (Letters, March 9).
Cyclists usually meet dogs when they
are on pavements or public footpaths
– which is becoming the norm, sadly.
Dave Alsop
Gloucester
SIR – Perhaps an enterprising
broadcaster could show a repeat of
Barbara Woodhouse’s excellent series
on dog handling. It could be
accompanied, for nostalgia’s sake, by a
series on Mary Whitehouse. What a
combination.
Dr Chris Topping
Pilling, Lancashire

Back to black
SIR – While the exterior colour of cars
has attracted much debate (Features,
March 8), attention must be drawn to
the almost universal trend of offering
only black as an interior colour for
seats, trim and headlining.
The effect is oppressive.
Len Hough
Swanage, Dorset

A lesson on litter that Britain has failed to learn
SIR – Studies show that, where litter
already exists, people find it more
acceptable to drop it.
Britain has not heeded this. In
January 2009, you printed a letter
from me saying that the Highways
Agency had advised me that roads in
Kent were cleared of litter to the
Department for the Environment’s
“B standard”. Even then, B standard
was not enough, and littering is now
worse than ever.
I agree with Judith Carter (Letters,
March 7) that open-top vehicles
should be forced to cover their
detritus to stop it blowing about.
Last weekend, on the A249 in Kent, a
long piece of bubble wrap tangled
around our car wheel. Litter is not
just an eyesore; it can be dangerous.
Linda Scannell
Boughton Monchelsea, Kent
SIR – Like most main roads, the A41
between the M1 and Tring is strewn
with rubbish. The overgrown verges
are being cut back and cleared by
heavy machinery, so the inside lane
is coned off. Yet the litter remains,
plus that from previous years, now
revealed. Could it not be cleared
away in one go?
The council says it costs more than
£20,000 to cone off the lane; now
this has been done, could not those
sentenced to community service be
drafted in to clear away this rubbish?
Stephen Lally
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
SIR – The Government doesn’t need
to pass a law requiring open-top
lorries to tie waste down (Letters,
March 7) as there already is one.
Regulation 100(2) of the Road
Vehicles (Construction and Use)

Regulations 1986 says: “The load
carried by a motor vehicle or trailer
shall at all times be so secured, if
necessary by physical restraint other
than its own weight, and be in such a
position, that neither danger nor
nuisance is likely to be caused to any
person or property by reason of the
load or any part thereof falling or
being blown from the vehicle.”
All we need is for it to be enforced.
Richard Light
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
SIR – When I was a child, we
collected the cigarette packets and
matchboxes discarded by adults.
A guard on the train home from
Morpeth to Annitsford also collected
such ephemera. Coming down from
Edinburgh in the afternoons, he
would go through the train picking
up what he found. Anything he did
not want he gave to us. In those days,
cigarette packets were works of art.
Robert Ward
Loughborough, Leicestershire
SIR – In 1986 Margaret Thatcher
appointed Richard Branson as “litter
tsar”. Maybe this role should return.
Peter Alexander
Fleet, Hampshire

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20

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Comment
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CHARLES MOORE

Gary Lineker isn’t brave – he’s an arrogant
player who thinks he can defy the ref
W
Social media
has tricked
people into
believing
free speech
trumps their
duties to
friends,
colleagues,
neighbours
– and most
especially to
employers

READ MORE at
telegraph.co.uk/
opinion

e journalists pride ourselves
on “speaking truth to power”.
This is a defence the BBC
frequently mounts when criticised for
bias against the Government. I dislike
the sanctimonious phrase myself. We
are not always, as a trade,
irreproachably brilliant at speaking
truth to anyone. We make mistakes,
exaggerate, skew, suppress truths
inconvenient to our own interests and
occasionally lie outright.
However, it is the right aspiration.
The media should identify the truth
and speak it. When we do so, it is often
the powerful who will find it least
welcome. Their anger should not deter
us.
So has the BBC finally decided to
speak truth to the power that is Gary
Lineker? Yesterday, it announced he
was “stepping back” until the rules
about his tweeting are settled. It has
been suggested he was unwillingly
taken off air. Anyway, we shan’t see
him on Match of the Day tonight. It is
too early to predict the final score.
The issue before the BBC’s directorgeneral, Tim Davie, is not whether
Lineker was right to describe the
Government’s latest small boats policy
as “immeasurably cruel” and “directed
at the most vulnerable people in
language not dissimilar to that used by
Germany in the 30s”. Most people,
including many who dislike the
Government’s policy, see his
comparison with the Nazis as
offensive, tasteless and factually
wrong. Even the shadow attorneygeneral, Emily Thornberry, says
Lineker “went too far”.
The issue is whether, given his
employment by the BBC, Lineker

should be allowed to say such partial,
political things publicly, or whether he
is bound by the impartiality which is
foundational for the BBC. Mr Davie’s
main campaign since he arrived in the
job two and a half years ago has been to
restore impartiality to its historic
dominance.
The Lineker defence has two
aspects. The first is legalistic,
frequently deployed by rich people
who, often for tax reasons, are not on
the staff of the organisations who pay
them. He is only on a freelance
contract, he says, and is not tweeting
on a BBC account; so he is outside the
normal rules. Perhaps BBC fears that, if
the matter came to court, Lineker’s
expensive lawyers might be able to
convince a judge that he is therefore
excused.
Morally and reputationally,
however, the BBC cannot accept this
argument. Gary Lineker does not
appear on the BBC as an honoured
guest or irregular contributor. He is its
voice of football and is paid
accordingly (£1.35 million a year, and
previously, until there were sustained
protests, much more). His pay tops the
corporation’s “star salaries list” by
about half a million. The word “salary”
usually denotes full-time employment.
True, Lineker was a great footballer
and was therefore famous before he
joined the BBC, but he owes his
present eminence – and therefore a
large percentage of his 8.7 million
Twitter followers – to his BBC work
which began nearly 30 years ago. His
BBC role boosts him as an oracle,
though he could probably earn more
money elsewhere. His political tweets
are not genuinely separable from his

BBC label. The BBC knows this and has
rebuked Lineker on several occasions.
By persisting in expressing his political
views, he has in effect insulted his
boss, calculating that Mr Davie will
quail.
Lineker is the most famous exemplar
of the power of the BBC’s “talent” to
trash its impartiality, but there are
others. One is Chris Packham.
Arguably, his biased tweets are even
worse, because they usually concern
wildlife and the countryside, the
subjects on which he broadcasts,
whereas Lineker on football is more
separable from Lineker on politics
(though not completely so, as was clear
in Qatar). Packham has survived on the
BBC despite, for example, calling those
farmers who took part in the
government-sponsored badger cull as
“brutalist thugs, liars and frauds”.
Yesterday, Packham tweeted noisily in
support of Lineker. A victory for
Lineker in all this will mark a more
general capitulation to Packham and
other ideologues.
Then arises the other aspect of the
Lineker defence, which is freedom of
speech. He has a right, apparently,
possibly even a duty, to display his
noble conscience in public whenever
he feels like it.
Here we come to a feature of our
time which goes much wider than
Gary Lineker. Within living memory,
the only way most people could
express their views was in
conversation, by telephoning or by
writing a letter. Some could become
local councillors or MPs, and/or
appear on the tiny variety of television
or radio channels. Determinedly
talkative individuals could stand on a

Way of the World Michael Deacon
W
hen I am finally appointed
Secretary of State for
Education, the first thing
I will do is launch a radical overhaul
of the way we teach history. Above
all, I will ensure that the curriculum
becomes far more varied – for one
very simple reason.
We desperately need to provide the
progressives of the future with some
new insults.
For decades now, our history
curriculum has been dominated by the
Second World War. There are, of
course, good reasons for that. It’s an
extremely important period. But this
constant focus on it has had one
downside. Which is that, whenever
progressives want to smear their
political opponents by likening them to
monsters from the past, the only ones
they can ever think of are the Nazis.
They liken US Republicans to the
Nazis. They liken gender-critical
feminists to the Nazis. And right
now they’re likening Rishi Sunak’s
government to the Nazis. Practically

everyone who dares disagree with them
reminds them of the Nazis.
Or so they claim. Personally, though,
I’m not convinced they believe it.
I think the reason they always call their
opponents Nazis is that it’s the only
historical reference point they have got.
It’s all they can remember learning at
school. Nazis, Nazis, Nazis.
Calling your opponents Nazis all
the time, however, isn’t just crass.
It’s also stupendously lazy. So
predictable. So boring.
Therefore, I urge the
Government to start teaching
our children about other great
monsters from history. If only
to ensure that, when they
grow up, they can smear their
political opponents in a more
imaginative way.
Take the current target of
the Left’s righteous ire, Suella
Braverman. Wouldn’t it at
least make a nice change
if they likened the Home
Secretary to, say, the

brutal Tang dynasty empress Wu
Zetian, or the murderous 16th-century
Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth
Báthory? Alternatively, perhaps Isabella
I of Castile, who established the Spanish
Inquisition, or Irene of Athens, who
declared herself empress of the
Byzantine Empire after having the
previous emperor – her own son –
imprisoned and blinded.
Obviously, Mrs Braverman has no
more in common with any of these
women than she has with the Nazis.
But then, to her progressive foes,
accuracy is beside the point. All they
want is a good strong insult. And
likening her to the tyrants above
would be much more original.
Denouncing Mrs Braverman’s
approach to illegal immigration,
Gary Lineker claimed that her
language was “not dissimilar to
that used by
Germany in
the 30s”.
But imagine
if, instead,

He is the
most famous
exemplar of
the power of
the BBC’s
‘talent’ to
trash the
corporation’s
impartiality

he’d said that her language was
“not dissimilar” to that used by the
Mongol Empire in the 1220s, or the
Neo-Assyrians in the 8th century BC.
If he’d done that, we’d actually
have been impressed. We’d have said:
“The man may be an idiot. But at least
he’s a well-educated idiot.”

T

he Booker Prize, said Roald Dahl,
was designed to celebrate novels
that are “beautifully boring”. The
same is true of the Oscars. Whichever
film wins the prize for Best Picture
tomorrow night, you can guarantee
it will be beautifully boring.
That’s just how it is these days.
Best Picture hardly ever goes to a film
that’s fun. A comedy. A crowd-pleaser.
Instead it almost always goes to some
aching yawnfest about disability,
discrimination or deprivation.
The reason, I suspect, is that the
judges all subscribe to what I call the
“cod liver oil” school of art. In other
words: they’re not interested in
pleasure. Mere fun is beneath their

soap-box at Speaker’s Corner. Their
views were usually unpublished
except, perhaps, in an occasional letter
in a newspaper.
Their situation was bad in that,
compared with modern conditions, it
muffled freedom of speech, but it had
one merit. It meant that people grew
up understanding that words have
consequences for others. You knew
that if you spoke your mind it might
upset a family member, colleague,
friend or neighbour. Most people
could see why, out of respect for
others, you might sometimes have to
bite your tongue.
The coming of social media was
therefore an emancipation, but it also
created a false sense that you could say
whatever you wanted without damage.
This grew into something even more
mistaken – the notion that your right to
express an opinion in public
automatically trumps other duties.
Although most who believe in this
heresy come from the Left, I have
experienced it on the Right as well. At
Eton, in 2020, a master called Will
Knowland put online a video of his
school lecture on masculinity, defying
the headmaster’s orders. He was
consequently sacked.
Many conservative-minded people
complained that this was a “woke”
assault on free speech, but to me it
seemed obvious that the head was
entitled to tell a member of his
teaching staff not to publish a lecture
he did not like. Publication inevitably
involved the reputation of the school.
The head, not Mr Knowland, was the
person in charge of reputation. Mr
Knowland was sacked for
disobedience, not for ideology. He had

behaved selfishly, not bravely.
Increasingly, staff and contracted
employees claim an almost absolute
free-speech right to say what they
think on social media, sometimes
including their workplace social media
accounts. Their justification tends to
be expressed in phrases like “lived
experience” or “bringing the self to
work”. It is also disclosed in various
other signs, like preferred pronouns
on their emails, tags for Black Lives
Matter (BLM), wearing rainbow
lanyards or messages about saving the
planet. Sometimes it is visible in
ostentatiously religious clothing. It
fails to consider the common good of
colleagues and customers.
Attempts to forbid such expressions
are often condemned as discriminatory,
even “-phobic”. But in most cases, they
are simply efforts to maintain deliberate
neutrality. Companies and public
bodies owe their first duties to the
people they serve. Although they must
treat their employees well, they must
not let them set up unprofessional
barriers to serving everyone equally.
Take the case of BLM. Since part of its
stated doctrine is to attack “whiteness”,
a white person might feel doubtful of
being served fairly by anyone wearing
BLM, tweeting or emailing BLM
insignia.
Gary Lineker’s obsession with
asserting his beliefs publicly displays
these social media vices writ large. He
expresses not the voice of the
concerned citizen, but the arrogance
of a man of power. He is the big player
who thinks he can defy the ref. The
reputation of the entire BBC and its
director-general depends on telling
him he cannot.

dignity. Art, in their view, should be
serious, high-minded, and in some way
“improving”. So, like a 1950s nanny
trying to force a spoonful of cod liver
oil down a child’s gullet, they think you
should stop moaning about how foul
it tastes, because it’ll “do you good”.
Let’s hope this year will be different.
May the least worthy film win.

whether you’re sufficiently hideous?
And if they reject your application,
should you feel hurt, or flattered?
In any case, say Mrs Badenoch did
accede to their wishes, and made
ugliness a “protected characteristic”.
You know what would happen next.
Employers would introduce quotas
for ugly people. FTSE 100 firms
would promise to ensure that at least 40
per cent of their board members
are physically grotesque. The Labour
party would impose all-ugly shortlists.
(An important move, to balance out the
legions of dazzling dreamboats who
traditionally dominate the Commons.)
The trouble is, though, no one wants
to benefit from positive discrimination
for ugly people. Because that would
officially confirm that they’re ugly.
Imagine going to a job interview.
“Just to let you know, sir, that at this
organisation we believe in equality,
diversity and inclusion. So please be
assured that your beer gut, buck teeth
and revolting nasal hair will not be
held against you.”

N

o doubt about the week’s
strangest story. Kemi Badenoch,
the equalities minister, has
rejected calls to expand the list of
vulnerable groups protected under the
Equality Act. And among the groups
who campaigned to be added were
single people, left-handed people,
people with tattoos – and ugly people.
All these suggestions are bizarre,
but especially the last. For one thing,
who was campaigning on ugly people’s
behalf? Is there a union of ugly people?
A Royal Society for the Protection of
Ugly People? And if so, how do you
become a member? Do you have to
send them a photo, so they can judge

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

21

CAMILLA TOMINEY

Shambolic HS2 is the physical
embodiment of Can’t-Do Britain
It isn’t just a
bad idea.
We look like
a country
that can’t get
the job done
– a nation of
dither and
delay at a
time when
every penny
counts

iving on the HertfordshireBuckinghamshire border means
I am all too familiar with the joys
of HS2. I know people who have had
their homes compulsorily purchased
because of the high-speed rail line –
and those whose properties will be
blighted by it. Whenever anyone from
my neck of the woods travels on the
M25, we are confronted by a giant,
ugly “compound”, built near junction
18 at Chorleywood to construct one of
the tunnels under the Chilterns.
Only the other day, one of the
school mums was telling me how
residents in the nearby hamlet of
Loudwater are being blinded at night
by the compound lights, which
resemble a ghastly motorway version
of the Blackpool illuminations.
Since the building work gained
planning permission under the High
Speed Rail (London-West Midlands)
Act 2017, residents have had little
sway over the vast construction
works. As is so often the case with
planning consultations, the public
were invited to share concerns, only
for them to be largely ignored thanks
to the fait accompli nature of the
development.
But perhaps all of this
inconvenience would be easier to
swallow if HS2 was being delivered on
time and on budget. The sacrifices,
you would then be able to say, were
for the country; for economic growth
and modern transportation. Yet HS2
delivers none of that: it has instead
become a national embarrassment,
the mother of all white elephants. We
now learn that as well as costing more
than £70 billion (rather than the
£33 billion taxpayers were originally
promised), the trains won’t run into
central London until some time after
2035, if we’re lucky.
The Department for Transport has
confirmed that the line will stop short
of Euston and instead finish at Old
Oak Common near North Acton –
completely defeating the original
purpose of the project. Meanwhile
Phase 2a linking the West Midlands to
Crewe has been delayed by two years
and will not be running until 2032 at
the earliest. Phase 2b from Crewe to
Manchester remains in abeyance until
2035-41. And even that timetable is
uncertain, as the latest written
statement on the project has failed to
give a precise date. There is also no
itinerary for the second leg to East
Midlands Parkway, previously mooted
as the early to mid 2040s.
Naturally, anti-HS2 campaigners
are up in arms, not least as 200-yearold trees have just been felled to make
way for a ticket hall in Euston that will
not actually be operational for at least

another decade. HS2 says seven
million trees are being planted along
Phase 1 of the route. But that totally
misses the point.
For what on earth is the purpose of
a high-speed rail line designed to
make business travel across the UK
quicker and more convenient if it
doesn’t actually link the Midlands and
the North to the capital? The London
to Birmingham line, which was
originally meant to open three years
from now, in 2026, might well have
had a reasonable economic
justification. But what was once an
ambitious Brunelesque project, with
talk of both a Heathrow and Eurostar
link – as well as a spur to Scotland –
has now become a costly drag on
economic development in this
country. Don’t forget the vast
amounts of concrete it is taking up.
In a laughable press release
headlined: “Record investment plans
for transport network”, Transport
Secretary Mark Harper sought to
blame the costly delays on the fact
that “Putin’s war in Ukraine has hiked
up inflation, sending supply chain
costs rocketing”.
He added for good measure: “The
responsible decisions I’ve outlined
today will ensure we balance the
budget at the same time as investing
record sums in our transport network
to help halve inflation, grow the
economy and reduce debt.”
Yet the truth of the matter is that
the costs for HS2 were rising well out
of control before Putin’s troops had
set foot in Crimea in 2014, let alone
the rest of Ukraine.
The government could have axed
HS2 before it was too late – but now
we are saddled with an albatross that
has had its wings clipped. The
pandemic has significantly weakened
the case for a project which successive
ministers have always argued is about
improving “capacity” as well as speed.
The work-from-home revolution,
combined with rail fares rocketing
beyond passengers’ control, means
fewer and fewer people are travelling
by train.
So the case for HS2 has significantly
diminished. You might think the
Government would be minded to
make the best of a bad situation.
Instead, they have sent the country
down a never-ending tunnel of
compromise, which, rather than
“revolutionising” travel, has turned us
into an international laughing stock.
George Osborne thought it was an
“embarrassment” that the UK was the
only nation in Europe without a
high-speed rail network. Well, just
look at us now.
In presiding over an infrastructure

Blot on the
landscape: the
entrance to the
Chiltern Tunnel
at the HS2
south portal in
Rickmansworth,
Hertfordshire

Manchester, has also been scaled
back.
Moreover, there continue to be
months of delays and cancellations on
existing northern services after
TransPennine Express, which runs
services between Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds, York and
Newcastle, scrapped a quarter of its
timetabled journeys in a one monthn
period early this year.
This is the antithesis of good
politics at a time when the
Conservatives are trailing Labour by a
good 20 points in the polls. But even
more damaging for the Government is
what all this ineptitude says about
Britain.
If it were not humiliating enough
that some of the project’s most ardent
proponents didn’t seem to foresee the
cost of building tunnels through
England’s hilly countryside, we now
look like a nation that can’t get a job
done. A nation that dithers, and not
just on high speed rail. We see it
across the entire planning system, in
our business and tax policies, and in
political projects such as Brexit. We
have become Europe’s “can’t do”
nation.
Now, to be fair to HS2, there may
still be a case for building it. We have
already spent huge sums of money
that probably can’t be returned. And
perhaps if post-pandemic demand
picks up we will need the extra
capacity after all. But for heaven’s
sake, if you’re going to build
something – just get on with it.

Being
superficially
famous only
gets you so far
before people
start asking:
what is the
point of you?

illustrated to such devastating effect,
global audiences have a knack for
quickly seeing through any attempts
by Harry and Meghan to enjoy all the
privileges of royal life without taking
the responsibilities that come along
with it.
What has been most striking since
their move to the US is how inwardlooking they have been in a land that
values the promotion of hope and
opportunity.
They spoke in their Megxit
statement about carving out “a
progressive new role” that was
intended to put them on a par with the
likes of the Gateses and the Obamas
– and yet much of what we have heard
from the couple so far has been
self-serving rather than in the service
of others.
They could therefore do worse than
attending the Coronation, if only to
show Tinseltown that they still have a
part to play in British history rather
than acting out in a way that has
become as predictable as a script for
The Crown.

STEVE PARSONS/PA

L

project that looks unlikely to ever get
finished, the Government has only
succeeded in uniting both the Red
Wall and Tory shires in mutual
condemnation.
What we now have is the distant
promise of a rail line that the South
doesn’t seem to want or need – at the

expense of much needed
improvements to the network in the
North.
And far from “levelling up” our
transport links, the eastern leg, which
would have terminated in Leeds, has
been scrapped, while HS3, linking
Liverpool to Leeds via Bradford and

Harry and Meghan are
learning that Hollywood
only respects real royalty

T

he Duke and Duchess of Sussex
appear to be learning the hard
way that Hollywood only defers
to real institutions.
There has always been a grudging
respect in California for the royals.
Not just, as Harry and Meghan might
have thought, because they have
fancy titles and wear tiaras, but
because they have a formal,
constitutional role that transcends
mere celebrity.
The Americans may not have a class
system as such, but in Los Angeles, as
with the rest of the United States,
there is a hierarchy of fame and

fortune. Those at the top of the tree
tend to be the ones who walk the walk
and talk the talk. Being superficially
famous only gets you so far before
people start asking: what is the point
of you?
So, within days of being roasted by
South Park as a “dumb prince and his
stupid wife”, the Sussexes announced
that their daughter “Princess Lilibet”
had been christened in LA last week
– in the process reaffirming their
royalness, despite spending recent
months trashing the institution to
which their titles belong.
Yet as the satirical cartoon

ANNA EKSTRÖM

Swedish schools stayed open
because we followed science

We made
a clear
assessment:
children
were at little
risk from
Covid but
faced a very
serious
threat from
missing out
on critical
education

This embodied our approach. Instead
of strict legal rules we made
recommendations on how people could
best manage individual risk. I never
worried that people wouldn’t listen to
us. We explained the pros and cons,
why recommendations were made, and
people listened.
When the decision was taken to close
upper secondary schools while lower
secondary remained open, we
explained why: upper secondary
students often commute in crowded
transport and were old enough to be at
greater risk from the disease, but also to
take responsibility for their studies.
Matt Hancock’s plan to “frighten the
pants off everyone” was almost exactly
the opposite of what we did. We gave
people the information they needed to
make decisions for themselves.
Other countries acted differently. I
remember working with my colleagues
across Europe, including in Britain, and
talked from time to time with Nick
Gibb, a British education minister. We
had a good working relationship
discussing the pros and cons of
different policies. While we didn’t have
the same experts, I relayed what our
experts were saying.
I believe we were right to keep
schools open. Last spring I met my
counterparts from across the EU, who
now feel that schools should be the last
to close and the first to open. But I have
no feeling of vindication, only a heavy
stomach at the difficult decisions we
faced. The pandemic was a very serious
period and in Sweden we were more
transparent, clear and outspoken.
Of course, we didn’t get everything
right. Our Covid inquiry reported a year
ago and said in the next pandemic we
should be even clearer with the public.
My advice is to be ruthlessly
transparent. In Sweden, the rule is
simple: we do what we say, and we say
what we do. So, no parties here,
although they were not forbidden.
Anna Ekström was Sweden’s minister
for education from 2019 to 2022

Boris’s trial run
The political trial of Boris Johnson,
below, over what he knew about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing St
starts in just over 10 days’ time.
Johnson is said by allies to be taking
the prospect of being grilled in public at
the House of Commons Privileges Committee hearing “very seriously”.
I am told he has had at least one practice run with friends taking the roles of
“prosecuting” MPs, including Harriet
Harman and Sir Bernard Jenkin. Johnson has been told MPs will try to needle
him and get a reaction, aware of how
that might damage
him in the eyes of the
public.
The ally tells me:
“The MPs’ job will be
to wind him up. They
are going to try to
drive him mad. He has
to rise above it.”
Johnson’s team deny formal practice
sessions have started. A source tells me
Johnson “is of course preparing assiduously for giving oral evidence”.
Don’t let them get to you, Boris!
Anyone for padel?
Newspaper boss Rebekah Brooks,
right, has had a trendy padel court
installed at her Oxfordshire home.
Padel is described as a “hot racketsport mashup”, combining elements of tennis and squash.
There are forecasts it will
become the UK’s next big participation sport. Brooks’s wellheeled pals, including Boris
Johnson, George Osborne
and Elisabeth Murdoch,
have been around to play.
Can I join in?
What Gary says next
Gary Lineker has no plans
to go into politics, now he
has more time on his hands.

The ex-footballer was suspended as a
Match of the Day presenter yesterday by
the BBC after he likened the illegal
migration crackdown to Nazi Germany
on his Twitter feed.
“The thought of going up to people
everywhere you go and making small
talk and shaking hands and holding
babies and photo opportunities. No, I’d
be bored rigid,” he told his BBC colleague Gabby Logan on the The Mid
Point podcast, recorded before his infamous tweet.
Lineker said then that speaking out on
the subject of migration was one of his
“missions”, adding: “Climate change is
another thing I speak out on.” That
might be about to change.

“food banks”, “taking the knee” and
“death penalty” daubed on his flanks.
Anderson, below, is now selling framed
copies of the cartoon – signed by him, of
course – to raise money for good causes.
The Guardian is not happy. Its licensing team has been in touch asking
whether he had secured a licence from
“the copyright holder before making

Hague’s flight companions
Former foreign secretary William Hague
is just back from Washington and New
York where he caught up with old pals
including the ex-secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Mike Pompeo. He told
a party thrown by the Conservative
Friends of America at Mayfair’s Dukes
hotel this week that Pompeo “is probably about to join the scramble to be the
Republican nominee for president”.
Hague reminisced about a trip he took
as Tory leader to the USA in the late
1990s to meet with George W Bush “to
get to know the man who might be the
next president”.
He travelled on a tiny plane with a
handful of passengers including his
speechwriter George Osborne,
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove,
then reporters for The Telegraph
and The Times respectively. “If
that plane had crashed, years
of backstabbing would have
been avoided,” he said.
Lee vs The Guardian
Tory vice-chairman Lee
Anderson has got his own
back on The Guardian for
depicting him as an enormous
pig in a butcher’s window with

PA

A

s Sweden’s minister for
education, I faced an incredibly
difficult question in March 2020:
should we keep our schools open or
close them? I followed the advice of our
scientists and experts. We kept our
primary, lower secondary and preschools open throughout almost the
whole pandemic.
This was not the case elsewhere. It
was very strange to see country after
country closing their schools at such
speed, and I found myself constantly
asking if I was making the right
decision. We knew there was no
risk-free option. Covid was a potential
danger for children. But the early data
showed they were at much lower risk of
serious illness; the real threat was faced
by the elderly.
We tried throughout the pandemic to
take a holistic view of each potential
measure. We tried to take into account
the costs – not just in monetary terms,
but also health and social losses – of
each intervention, and weigh them
against what could be gained. I
remember sitting down with a blank
sheet of paper and putting a plus and
minus column for closing the schools.
The downsides were simply too great.
Keeping children learning was vital.
We were concerned about those living
in small apartments without space to
learn or exercise, and about those who
might go without food. We were
concerned about children’s happiness.
Spending time with friends in school is
an important part of young people’s
lives. For young girls and boys of
particular religious backgrounds,
forced into marriages or forbidden from
mingling with those of other faiths,
school is a safe haven. We could not
deny them that, not least given we did
not know how long it would last.
Throughout the pandemic, we
followed the science. Our experts were
very clear: there was no evidence to
support a lockdown. Similarly, we
never recommended masks for
students. They could wear them if they
chose, but there was no requirement.

PETERBOROUGH

prints of the cartoon available for auction”. Anderson has raised £800 for a
charity that renovates ambulances in
Gambia, and to pay for a friend, whose
son took his own life, to travel to Parliament for meetings.
“Every socialist cloud has a silver lining,” says Anderson.
Not now, Armando!
It’s the Oscars ceremony tomorrow
night. Satirist Armando Iannucci has
been remembering when his film In the
Loop was nominated for an Academy
Award in 2009.
“I was having lunch with friends in
London when the call came through
‘You’ve been nominated for an Oscar’,”
he tells the Chatabix podcast. “So I did
that thing you hope one day you may do
– I rang my mum up and said, ‘Mum, I’ve
been nominated for an Oscar’.
“And she said, ‘Can you call back in 10
minutes, there’s a man fixing the boiler’.”
Edited by Christopher Hope
peterborough@telegraph.co.uk

22

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

News Focus

Hancock was
never a policy
maker. He was
a fanatic
The narcissistic former health secretary ignored
lessons from history when he chose to shut down
society, says Jonathan Sumption

The 19th-century sage William Hazlitt
once observed that those who love
liberty love their fellow men, while
those who love power love only
themselves. Matt Hancock says that he
has been betrayed by the leaking of his
WhatsApp messages. But few people
will have any sympathy for him. He
glutted on power and too obviously
loved himself.
Some things can be said in his
favour. The Lockdown Files are not a
complete record. No doubt there were
also phone calls, Zoom meetings, civil
service memos and the like, in which
the thoughts of ministers and officials
may have been more fully laid out. Not
all the accusations levelled against him
are fair. Care homes, for example, were
probably an insoluble problem, given
the absence of other places for many
elderly patients to go, and the scarcity
of testing materials in the early stages
of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, Hancock’s WhatsApp
messages offer an ugly insight into the
workings of government at a time
when it aspired to micromanage every
aspect of our lives. They reveal the
chaos and incoherence at the heart of
government, as decisions were made
on the hoof. They expose the fallacy
that ministers were better able to judge
our vulnerabilities than we were
ourselves. They throw a harsh light on
those involved: their narcissism, their
superficiality, their hypocrisies great
and small. Above all, they show in
embarrassing detail how completely
power corrupts those who have it.
The case against lockdowns was
only partly a moral one. Like Hazlitt, I
believe in liberty. But I have never
regarded that as a conclusive
argument. Even the most ardent
lockdown sceptics accept that in
extreme cases drastic measures may be
required. But Covid-19 was not an

extreme case. Human beings have
lived with epidemic disease from the
beginning of time. Covid-19 is a
relatively serious epidemic, but
historically it is well within the range
of health risks which are inseparable
from ordinary existence. In Europe,
bubonic plague, smallpox, cholera and
tuberculosis were all worse in their
time. Worldwide, the list of
comparable or worse epidemics is
much longer, even if they did not
happen to strike Europe or
North America. In future they are
likely to be more frequent and more
widespread.
No government, anywhere, had
previously sought to deal with
epidemic disease by closing down
much of society. No society has ever
improved public health by making
itself poorer.
Spanish flu, between 1918 and 1921,
was distinctly worse than Covid-19
– about 200,000 are thought to have
died in the UK alone at a time when
its population was about two thirds
what it is now – but governments did
not lock down healthy people or
destroy their livelihoods. Asiatic flu
in 1957 and Hong Kong flu in 1968
also killed millions; the US and the
UK made a deliberate decision not to
disrupt the life of the nation. No one
criticised them on either occasion.
Something has changed, but the
change is in ourselves, not in the
nature or scale of the risks. We are
more easily frightened and have
unrealistic expectations of the state.
There always were three major
problems about lockdowns as a
response to this particular pathogen,
all of which are thrown into sharp
relief by The Lockdown Files.
The first was the catastrophic social
and economic cost. Messrs Whitty and
Vallance accepted in their evidence to
a parliamentary committee that this
was a serious issue but added that it
was not their job to think about it. It
turned out to be no one’s job. There
never was a proper cost-benefit
analysis. The Government went into
the lockdowns blind.
The second problem was that
lockdowns were indiscriminate

***

ANDREW PARSONS/10 DOWNING STREET; REUTERS

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Hancock was the
chief peddler of
the idea that
everyone was
equally at risk
from Covid-19

Matt Hancock, Rishi Sunak
and Boris Johnson in a candid
photograph taken at the start
of the pandemic, top; Jessica
Allen and Eliza Moore, below
right, were fined on a socially
distanced walk with hot drinks
in 2021; below, the Spanish
Flu takes hold during the First
World War

whereas the virus was selective. This is
the critical point in the view of many
reputable epidemiologists. The groups
at significant risk of serious illness or
death were the old and those suffering
from certain underlying health
problems. For the overwhelming
majority of the population, including
almost all of those who were
economically active, the symptoms
could be relatively mild. It did not
matter much whether healthy under65s were infected, provided that they
did not infect others in the more
vulnerable categories.
Protecting the truly vulnerable
would have been challenging, but not
as challenging as keeping most of the
population locked up. Only about 8 per
cent of people under 65 live in the same
household as someone over that age.
Humans have a developed sense of
self-preservation. They had already
begun to limit their social interaction
before the first lockdown was
announced. What they needed was
balanced and trustworthy advice, not
coercion or propaganda.
The scientists always understood

this. In March 2020, a fortnight before
the first lockdown, Sage advised that
social distancing measures, including
confinement, should apply to those
over 70 and younger people with
known vulnerabilities. They proposed
that “citizens should be treated as
rational actors, capable of taking
decisions for themselves and
managing personal risk”. Policies
designed to limit human interaction
among those at risk are often said to
require mass coercion as if this went
without saying. But it was not obvious
to the scientists at the time. The
policies originally proposed by Sage
were actually followed by Sweden with
results that were notably better than
ours.
The third problem was that even the
minimum of human interaction
necessary to keep basic services like
food distribution and healthcare
running was more than enough to keep
the virus circulating. All that lockdowns
could ever achieve in those
circumstances was to defer some
infections until after they were lifted, to
prevent people from acquiring a

measure of personal immunity, and to
prolong the crisis.
The fateful moment came when the
government chose to go for coercion.
This ruled out any distinction between
the vulnerable and the invulnerable,
because it would have been too
difficult to police. It also meant that
ministers began to manipulate public
opinion, exaggerating the risks in
order to justify their decision and scare
people into compliance. So we had the
theatrical announcement of the latest
death toll at daily press conferences
from Downing Street. Shocking
posters appeared on our streets (“Look
him in the eyes”, etc). Matt Hancock
announced that “if you go out, people
will die”.
The scare campaign created a perfect
storm, for it made it more difficult to lift
the lockdown. The original idea was
“three weeks to squash the sombrero”.
The peak of hospital admissions came
after slightly less than three weeks on
April 11 2020, when Covid cases filled
less than half of NHS beds. But the
lockdown continued until July and was
then reimposed in October.

The Lockdown Files show this
process at work in awful detail. “We
frighten the pants off everyone with the
new strain,” Hancock proudly declared.
He wanted news of the Alpha variant
timed to create maximum fear. Simon
Case, the Cabinet Secretary, cheered
from the sidelines. “The fear/guilt
factor vital,” he assured Hancock. When
the second lockdown was being
plotted, the hapless health minister
called for a projection of the “do
nothing” death toll. The result was the
notorious graph projecting 4,000
deaths a day, a claim that was manifestly
false and swiftly exploded.
Hancock was the chief peddler of the
idea that everyone was equally at risk
from Covid-19. This proposition was
patently untrue, but it was useful
because it frightened people. “It’s not
unhelpful having people think they
could be next,” wrote his special
adviser, who knew his master’s mind
well. Other countries did not behave
like this. In Sweden state
epidemiologist Anders Tegnell was able
to reassure his public that a lockdown
was neither necessary nor helpful.
Events have proved him right.
Ministers imprisoned by their own
rhetoric found themselves forced to
follow public opinion rather than lead
it. But it was a public opinion of their
own creation. Scientific evidence had
very little to do with it. The Downing
Street media advisers Lee Cain and
James Slack, ex-journalists with no
scientific background, appear to have
been mainly responsible for
persuading the prime minister to
prolong the first lockdown. Relaxing it
would be “too far ahead of public
opinion”, they argued. Matt Hancock
insisted on schoolchildren wearing
masks in class in spite of scientific
advice that it made little difference,
because it was necessary to keep up
with Nicola Sturgeon. When Rishi
Sunak had the temerity to suggest that
once the vaccine rollout started the
lockdown should be relaxed, Hancock
resisted. “This is not a Sage call,” he
said, “it’s a political call.”
Once ministers had started on this
course, there was no turning back. It is
hard to admit that you have inflicted
untold damage on a whole society by
mistake. Hancock resisted shortening
the 14-day quarantine period in spite of
scientific advice that five days was
enough, because he did not want to
admit that the original policy had been
wrong. Relevant evidence was simply
shut out. His response to the success of
Sweden’s policies was not to learn from
it but to dismiss it as the “f---ing
Swedish argument”. Having no
grounds for rejecting the Swedish
argument, he had to ask his advisers to
find him some. “Supply three or four
bullet [points] of why Sweden is
wrong,” he barked.
The adrenalin of power is corrosive.
It was largely responsible for the sheer
nastiness of the Government’s
response to criticism. Hancock lashed
out at the least signs of resistance or
dissent. He wanted internal critics
sacked or moved. He suggested the
cancellation of a learning disability
hub in the constituency of an MP who
intended to vote against the tier
system. Ministers “got heavy” with the
police to make them tougher on the
public. The police responded with
oppressive gestures like fining people
going for a walk with a takeaway
coffee. The prime minister thought it
“superb” that two travellers had been
fined £10,000 for evading the equally
pointless quarantine regulations.
Hancock gloated over the discomfort
of returning travellers, forced by the
chopping and changing of the rules to
quarantine in basic hotels at their own
expense. “Hilarious,” chipped in Simon
Case.
There is no sign that Hancock either
thought or cared about the wider
consequences of his measures. He
seems to have believed that there was
no limit to the amount of human
misery and economic destruction that
was worth enduring in order to keep
the Covid numbers down. Sunak is on
record as saying that any discussion of
the wider problems was ruled out in
advance, and this is fully borne out by
the WhatsApp messages. Any hint from
Sunak or business secretary Alok
Sharma that the cure might be worse
than the disease provoked an explosion
of bile but no actual answers.
Hancock fought tooth and nail to
close schools and keep them closed.
Deprived of many months of
education, cooped up indoors and
terrified by government warnings that
they would kill their grandparents by
hugging them, children suffered a
sharp rise in mental illness and
self-harm although they were
themselves at no risk from Covid-19.
Cancer patients were left undiagnosed
and untreated. Old people, deprived of
stimulation, succumbed to dementia

23

There is no sign
that he either
thought or cared
about the wider
consequences of
his measures
in large numbers. Small businesses
were destroyed which had taken a
lifetime to build up. A joyless
puritanism infected government
policy. No travel. No wedding parties
or funeral wakes. No hugs. Anyone
who spoke up for a measure of
decency or moderation in this surreal
world was promptly slapped down as a
“w---er”.
Real policy-making is never black
and white like this. It is always a matter
of judgment, of weighing up pros and
cons. In that sense, Matt Hancock was
never a policy-maker. He was a fanatic.
Why did hitherto decent people
behave like this? In Hancock’s case, at
least part of the answer is vanity. The
crisis was good for his profile. He saw
himself as the man of action, the
Churchill of public health, the saviour
of his people, earning the plaudits of a
grateful nation. As early as January
2020, he was sharing a message from a
sycophantic “wise friend” assuring him
that a “well-handled crisis of this scale
could propel you into the next league”.
He fussed over his tweets. He pushed
his way in front of every press camera.
He tried to divert the credit for the
vaccines from Kate Bingham to
himself. “I think I look great” is one of
his more memorable messages.
And what of the prime minister who
presided indulgently over this
shambles? The Lockdown Files show
that Boris Johnson always recognised
the totalitarian implications of his
administration’s measures. Sometimes
he recoiled from the unfolding social
and economic catastrophe.
Occasionally he even saw through the
manipulative statistics presented to
him. He toyed with the idea of leaving
the over-65s to make their own risk
assessments. He would clearly have
preferred to end the first lockdown
sooner.
But Johnson never had the courage
of his convictions. He picked up
fag-ends of information from
newspapers but lacked the application
to get to the bottom of the scientific
evidence. He was constantly
manipulated by those around him
whose agenda was based on little more
than public relations. In the end he was
always pushed back into the shape that
they wanted. He remained the “wonky
shopping trolley” derided by Dominic
Cummings in his explosive evidence to
a House of Commons committee. As
Simon Case admitted in one of his more
indiscreet messages, by 2021 public
distrust of Johnson was too strong for
his words to carry any weight.
This was a classic failure of
government. Britain has faced many
crises over the past century: wars,
pandemics, strikes, economic failure.
All government and most crises involve
conflicting priorities. Departmental
ministers fight their corner. The role of
the prime minister is critical. He is the
only person in a position to decide
between the rival claims of public
health, education, social policy,
economic survival and financial
solvency. For that he needs a clear idea
of what he is trying to achieve and a
strategy for achieving it. He needs
strength of personality and the public
stature to persuade the public rather
than just appease them. He must have
command of the detail, and the respect
of his subordinates. Boris Johnson had
none of these things.
Lack of sense of direction at the top
is always fatal, however talented the
subordinates. Johnson’s subordinates
were not talented. The team in
Downing Street was dominated by a
failed autocrat in Dominic Cummings
and an inexperienced Cabinet
Secretary in Simon Case. Both of them
grew to despise him, usually with good
reason. Apart from Sunak and Gove, his
Cabinet was probably the most
mediocre band of British ministers for
nearly a century. Collectively, they
proved unable to look at the whole
problem in the round. Their eyes were
never on the ball. They were not even
on the field. These are the lessons of
this sorry business.
Lord Sumption was a Supreme Court
justice in the United Kingdom
between 2012 and 2018

24

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

25

Features

How the Left-wing elite has politicised
Britain’s museums and galleries
From ‘racist’ plants at
Kew Gardens to ‘sexist’
medical exhibits,
venues are reshaping
our view of history,
says Tim Stanley

L

The impetus for these
changes comes from a
white graduate class,
by and large under 30
At University College London, one
of the compulsory modules in the
Museum Studies MA investigates the
museum’s part in “nation building”, its
“social roles and responsibilities, from
wellbeing to climate change”, and
“confronts the legacies of colonialism”.
The course provokes students to ask
“what a museum is and does, and what
it can be”.
These are good questions. The story
of how the Western museum evolved,
and how Left-wing ideas reacted to and
then reshaped it, helps explain why
woke won.
The museum as most of us
understand it is a product of the
Enlightenment, of the desire to collect
and display for the betterment of the
public. In 1753, for example, the
physician Sir Hans Sloane bequeathed
his vast collection of “rarities”,
manuscripts, coins and medals to the
nation. The new British Museum was
open to “all studious and curious
persons”, a fine, egalitarian ideal.

But Sloane’s income partly derived
from slave labour on plantations, and he
exploited the growing reach of the
British Empire to expand his collection.
Some of the Museum’s current objects
were dug up, purchased or stolen. It
houses some of the controversial Benin
Bronzes, looted by British soldiers
when they invaded Benin City in 1897
– a “brutal, violent colonial episode”, as
the Museum admits.
With the collapse of the European
empires in the 20th century, and the
flourishing of civil rights campaigns,
critics argued that the great museums
– relics of Victorian patronage and
splendour – sustained a false narrative
of Western superiority. As young
people flooded into the expanding
university sector to study art history or
curation, they were exposed to ideas
that suggested the Enlightenment
museum was a fraud. The French
historian Michel Foucault (1926-84), for
example, argued that public institutions
are never neutral; they are places where
the elite reinforces its order of society
through acts of “show and tell”.
Foucault’s fans applied this critique
to the museum, noting that rich donors
decide what’s in it, curators choose
what goes on show and how it is
labelled, and the visitor is expected to
soak up information that is little more
than elite propaganda. There was a
need, said the new theorists, to debunk
objectivity, to shift power away from
the institution and towards the visitor
and the wider community.
Still, there was room for fudge. In
2014, discussing the eternal call to
repatriate the Elgin Marbles to Greece,
Neil MacGregor, then-director at the
British Museum, said that when the
marbles were in Athens they had been
“architectural decoration”; once
unveiled in London they were visible as
“great sculptures”. The meaning of
objects, said the art establishment, can
change over place and time.
But this liberal consensus – that
objects and art belong to the world, and
the museum, for all its faults, is the
world’s showcase – could not hold. In
2020, George Floyd was killed by police
officers in America. That same year,
Dan Hicks, curator at the Pitt Rivers
Museum, who teaches at the Oxford

School of Archaeology, released an
explosive book called The Brutish
Museums, calling out the MacGregor
argument as preposterous and setting
himself the task of exposing the
anthropological museum as “a weapon,
a method and a device for the ideology
of white supremacy to legitimise,
extend and naturalise new extremes of
violence within corporate capitalism”.
The only way to rescue museums,
argued Hicks, is to “dismantle,
repurpose, restitute [and] recognise”

ALAMY; PA; GETTY

ast November, the Wellcome
Collection, in central London,
announced that it was closing its
Medicine Man gallery after 15 years.
The display, said the museum on
Twitter, perpetuated “a version of
medical history that [was] based on
racist, sexist and ableist theories and
language”. A month later, Cambridge
University declared that it would be
returning more than 100 Benin bronzes
to Nigeria as they were “illegitimately
acquired artefacts”. Two years prior,
Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum removed
its shrunken heads from display
following an “ethical review”.
Today, discussion abounds over
whether it is still acceptable to use the
word “mummy” to describe an
embalmed corpse; the term, say some,
is colonial and dehumanising.
Meanwhile, Kew Gardens has pledged
to acknowledge the exploitative or
racist legacies of some of its specimens.
Progress has been made towards
“queering” Manchester Museum
(making the venue more welcoming to
members of the LGBTQ+ community).
And the assistant director of
Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology fears
that calling Australian marsupials
“weird” risks “othering” them – “this
language … is essentially an element of
the colonial framework”.
What on Earth is going on?
You might have thought that the
museum was a “neutral” space, where
beauty and knowledge are collected
from around the world and put on
display for visitors to interpret as they
wish. But many of the people who run
our museums see them as political
theatres, even “weapons” that can –
and must – be used to transform
society. They are not just curators,
they are activists. Their mission is to
shape the future by challenging the
way we think about the past.
Sir Trevor Phillips – the former
chairman of the Equality and Human
Rights Commission who now exposes
wokery in the arts via the think tank
Policy Exchange – told me that the
impetus for these cultural edits comes
from “a white graduate class … by and
large under 30”. The older curators and
directors are effectively held hostage
by this cohort, he said, because they
are terrified that if they don’t play
along, they’ll be called racist and put
into storage, too.
The word “graduate” is important.
Take a look at the online prospectuses
for Museum Studies courses and you’ll
find language that is strikingly familiar,
suggesting a clear link between
classroom and exhibit.
The MA in Art History and Museum
Curating at the University of Sussex
offers the opportunity to “evaluate
diverse interpretive-approaches” to the
subject, including “feminism,
iconology, agency, gift giving, and post
colonialism” – and to tackle issues such
as “disability and access”, “Black Lives
Matter”, “queer heritage and erotic art”.

Looted: the controversial Benin Bronzes,
on display at the British Museum

their status as “sites of conscience”.
Some curating staff, radicalised by
Trump and Brexit, and bored rigid by
lockdown, saw Floyd’s killing as a
chance to force a reckoning within their
workplace. “Many of our collections
were founded on inequality,” declared
the Cambridge Museum of Zoology. We
want to stand “with those who are
actively anti-racist”, said the
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum,
in Glasgow. “We have a responsibility to
our black and minority employees … to
better amplify and showcase their
perspective,” said the V&A.
In Bristol, protesters dumped a
statue of a slave trader into the harbour,
symbolising a new era of impatient,
hands-on activism. Sir Trevor says that
if you counted the heads of the people
who did the deed, about “80 per cent
were white”.
This movement, he argues, “is a

phenomenon driven by clever, affluent,
white young people” – and for at least
two decades, they’ve been pushing at
doors with well-oiled hinges.
Charles Saumarez Smith - who has
run the National Portrait Gallery, the
National Gallery and the Royal
Academy – recalls that during the
1980s, the older art-gallery
establishment was “very conservative”
because they “tended to be experts in a
particular field of study, such as
furniture or textiles”; beyond that “they
weren’t really interested in how things
were displayed or interpreted”. This
began to change thanks to growing
intellectual interest in the “cultural
context and the history of how things
have been interpreted”; the rise of
“communication” experts who saw a
more social role for the museum; and
the Blair government’s insistence “that
collections should encourage visits
from a much broader range of people”.
Interactivity, plain language, even
hyperbole, became popular. Those that,
like Saumarez Smith, think one should
“put things on display, provide the
information and allow the public to
make an interpretation according to the
interests that they bring to the
collection” were increasingly regarded
as old-fashioned.
Meanwhile, private companies – ie
the donors – started to be subject to an
Environmental, Social and Governance
score. Alexander Adams, a writer and
artist who agitates for the abolition of
Arts Council England, explains that this
rating system gives high marks for
companies that can show “they have
diverse workers or engage in
environmentalism or [donate] to certain
charities and so forth … That means that
their stock [value] is improved, they’re
more investment worthy.” In other
words, there is now a financial
motivation for companies to invest in
“progressive art” or museums.
In short, state and private sector have
fostered an environment within which
youthful and politicised staff can make
the leap from a museum that curates a
culture to a museum that seeks to
deconstruct that culture. This is what
Robert R Janes and Richard Sandell
argue for in their 2019 influential
collection of essays Museum Activism:

in the context of poverty, ecological
collapse and Right-wing populism,
inaction has become immoral.
If you wondered why a Cornish
pepper pot museum might feel obliged
to address climate change, herein lies
the answer: “To persist with the status
quo of unlimited [economic] growth is
to perpetuate the privileged position of
the elitist museums.”
One organisation trying to overcome
our society’s “white fragility” is the
Museums Association, which represents
hundreds of institutions, including the
British Museum and the V&A. Among
its campaigns advertised online are
“anti-racism” and “climate justice”.
The association is aware of potential
consumer resistance. One document,
entitled Understanding Audiences,
divides likely public responses into
“Engaged/Passive Allies”, “Curious
Neutral/Passive Critics”, “Engaged

Critics”, and “Malicious Critics”, whom
one must not “engage or amplify”.
Within the document online is a link to
a text called “Divide and Rule” by the
New Economy Organisers Network
(Neon) that seeks to “help social justice
movements win”. The so-called culture
war, says Neon, is “the result of a toxic
combination of a purposeful campaign
from the reactionary Right and a media
environment that is bent towards
dangerous sensationalism and bigotry”.
Labour, it laments, is almost as populist
as the Tories. In the hands of such
people, the past becomes a terrain upon
which to pitch contemporary battles.
But history resists playing out as good
vs evil.
The record of empire is morally
mixed; it eliminated cultures but it also
studied and preserved them. Historian
Zareer Masani argues that before the
British arrived in India, “there was no
indigenous tradition of exploring or
conserving antiquity. The rediscovery
of a classical past and the romantic

appeal of its ruined remnants was a
European sensibility.”
It is paradoxical, the American
conservative David Frum has observed,
that Westerners have spent decades
promoting African art in our museums
– insisting it is a serious contribution to
global culture – only to decide it must
now be repatriated, potentially to
countries that are too poor, corrupt or
violent to guarantee its protection.
Museums, he argues, flourish in “stable
states” that provide “unmatched
security for fragile and valuable
treasures”.
But if that’s true, it’s tempting to ask
if modern Britain really is more stable
than, say, Nigeria? This is now a
country that topples statues and
removes complicated art from
galleries. The Tate closed its Rex
Whistler restaurant because it
contained a mural featuring slaves.
It is when beauty has been clumsily
politicised that we’ve seen some of the
stronger critical backlash. Tate
Britain’s William Hogarth show was
spoiled by an obsessive attempt to find
something to be upset about: a label
for a self-portrait of the artist sitting on
a chair said that “the chair is made
from timbers shipped from colonies
via routes that also shipped enslaved
people”. Was it possible that this
humble piece of furniture stood for all
those “unnamed black and brown
people” who made such creativity
possible?
Such attempts to reframe almost
everything through the lens of activism
commits the cardinal sin of being
boring – monotonous, uncommercial.
Pushed too far, might it leave the
museums empty of visitors?
If the complaint about the
Enlightenment museum was that it told
people what to think, then things have
gone full circle. A genuinely inclusive
sector would find space for
conservative or religious voices.
Instead, the professional curator class is
locking millions out by speaking a
language it requires a graduate degree
to understand, implementing a political
agenda that has never been tested at the
ballot box, and enforcing new standards
for what we can see and how we’re
supposed to interpret it.

2000

2020

Those that want visitors
to be free to interpret
artefacts as they see fit
are now ‘old-fashioned’

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRITISH MUSEUMS AND THEIR COLLECTIONS

1683

The University of
Oxford, in creating
the Ashmolean
Museum, was the
first corporate
body to make a
private collection
publicly accessible.

1753

The British
Museum was
born when Sir
Hans Sloane gave
his collection of
manuscripts,
coins and medals
to the nation.

1816

The Elgin
Marbles are sold
to the British
government by
Lord Elgin, who
took them from
the Acropolis in
Athens.

1897

British troops
attacked and
destroyed Benin
City, now in
Nigeria, and
returned with the
artefacts known as
the Benin bronzes.

1850-1900

Museums proliferated in
Europe during the second
half of the 19th century.
In London, the Science
Museum, Victoria and
Albert museum and
Natural History museum
opened.

The Tate Modern
opened to fanfare
in a refurbished
power station on
London’s South
Bank.

2014

Neil MacGregor,
then director of
the British
Museum, resisted
calls to return the
Elgin Marbles to
Greece.

Dan Hicks, curator
of Oxford’s Pitt
Rivers Museum,
released The
Brutish Museums
and urged Western
venues to return
looted items.

2022

The Wellcome
Collection
announced the
closure of its
Medicine Man
gallery, saying it
was “racist, sexist
and ableist”.

26

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

27

The Saturday Interview
I

Dick’s understanding of “cultural
issues” affecting crime, and her
inability to deal with them. “The short
answer is we had a series of incidents,
some of them high profile, where it
didn’t appear to me the former
commissioner really understood the
reasons why they were happening.”
He cites the cases of the four men in
the gay community murdered by the
serial killer Stephen Port, and the
15-year-old named only as “Child Q”
who was stopped and strip-searched
by police without another adult
present after she was wrongly accused
of possessing cannabis. And there was
the horrific abduction and murder of
Everard. “I told the commissioner
what needed to happen was a
comprehensive plan to address what I
thought were systemic cultural issues
in the police service, and secondly a
comprehensive plan to win back the
trust and confidence of Londoners.
“And I was quite clear to Cressida
Dick that because of her inability to
address these issues she had lost my
confidence.”
Khan prevailed in Dick’s departure
in the face of Boris Johnson, Priti Patel
and the policing minister Kit
Malthouse, who wanted her to stay on.
“It was a difficult few days,” he says
now, “incredibly stressful. When
you’re in the position I’ve got, you
don’t do something to be popular.
You’ve got to do it because you believe
that it’s the right thing to do. If you
can’t stand the heat you shouldn’t be
the mayor.”
Has he spoken to Dick since? “No.”
Does he expect to? “No.”
He enjoys much better relations
with, and has more confidence in, Sir
Mark Rowley, who took up the job as
Met Commissioner in September.
‘‘We get on. We’re not besties; we
don’t go to each other’s homes and
stuff. But I’ve got a huge amount of
respect for Sir Mark. My job is to
support him but also to challenge him.
Londoners don’t want their mayor to
be unconditionally supportive.”
In a bid to restore public confidence,
Rowley has pledged to change the
culture in the Met, addressing
complaints about the treatment of
crime and purging the force of corrupt
and violent officers in the wake of the
murder of Everard and the conviction
of the serial rapist David Carrick.

‘I’m a working-class boy
and a middle-class man.
You don’t forget your
working-class roots’

‘I stay up at night until
my daughters are home.
I’ll probably still do that
when they’re 45’

were decent people, including Tory
members, who’ve got legitimate
objections, and I’m not sure these
decent people realised that standing
with them were conspiracy theorists
and people holding swastikas.”
Khan’s office in the new City Hall –
the greenest city hall in the world, he
says – opened a year ago and overlooks
the old Victoria dock, new
developments lining the banks. “I call
it Tenerife on the Thames,” he says.
“Come back in August, there’s open
water swimming in the summer.”
The old city hall at Tower Bridge
was “gorgeous”, he says. But the
Greater London Authority were paying
£12 million in rent. “We own this
building, so we can save £6 million
within five years.”
And he’s off… Khan, a former
lawyer, talks quickly and with an
impressive recall of statistics, figures
and numbers, fired at a machine-gun
pace. His tone is relentlessly upbeat,
positive and quick to cite his
achievements – but also to
acknowledge his mistakes, careful to
avoid the appearance of arrogance. “In
all humility” is a recurring phrase.
If his predecessor Boris Johnson
invariably looked shambolic – wildhaired and baggy-suited – Khan, who is
52, always polishes up nicely. His hair
is neatly trimmed, his suit sharp. “I
think it’s important to look smart when
you’re the mayor. You should respect
the job.” But he only wears a tie, he
says, “when I’m meeting the King, it’s a
formal occasion or something bad’s
happened”.
How many times does he have to
meet the King? Quite often, as it
happens. He was with him last week at
a foodbank, and three weeks ago,
visiting a pop-up support centre for
Syrians affected by the recent
earthquake in that country. Khan
readily describes himself as a
workaholic, “but the King is amazing,
he really is”.
Khan’s father Amanullah and
mother Sehrun arrived in London from
Pakistan in 1968. Khan was the fifth of
eight children, seven of whom were
boys, who grew up in a three-bedroom
council flat. Amanullah worked as a
bus driver and Sehrun as a seamstress.
“The way I describe myself, I’m a
working-class boy and a middle-class
man. And you don’t forget your
working-class roots.”
After working as a lawyer
specialising in human rights, he
became London’s first Muslim MP
when he was elected for his local
constituency of Tooting in 2005,
before going on to serve in the cabinet
under Gordon Brown as minister of
state for transport and under secretary
of state for communities and local
government.
More affable in person than he can
sometimes appear in media interviews,
where he often seems brittle and on
the defensive, he is a man – to put it
politely – who tends to divide opinion.
When I asked my taxi driver what he
thought of the mayor, he replied, “I’d
rather not tell you.” But he did anyway,
at some length – and in any
conversation, the same subjects come
up time and again. Crime, and most
recently, and controversially, Ulez.
The Ulez currently covers the area

Yesterday, following a report by his
office that one in three victims of crime
in London was unsatisfied with the
Met’s level of service, Khan announced
a £3 million annual fund to boost the
number of staff responsible for caring
for victims of crime. Crime, said Khan,
“blights lives” and it was “imperative”
that victims were “treated with the
utmost compassion, sensitivity and
respect. Successful prosecution of
cases often rely on victim’s
testimonies, so we need to do much
more to inspire victims’ confidence”.
Rowley’s determination to cleanse
the Augean stables of the Met is “a
brave thing to do”, Khan says. “He
understands he can’t be popular all the
time. Sometimes it’s tough. Sir Mark is
willing to be that. I don’t think the
former commissioner was.”
Women, he says, were “appalled
when days after Sarah Everard was
abducted, the Met Police Service,
approved by Cressida Dick, gave
women the advice that if a police
officer approaches you in those
circumstances, just wave down a bus”,
he rolls his eyes.
What advice would he give his two
daughters, Anisah, 23, and Ammarah,
21, in the event of them being
approached at night by a plain clothes
policeman? “Ring up the police, 999 or
111 to check it is the police. There are
bad people who impersonate police
officers, and you’ve got to challenge
what somebody tells you.”
Having finished university, both his
daughters are working and back at
home. “I’m a parent. I still stay up at
night until they’re both home. I’ll
probably still do that when they’re 45.
It’s just one of those things.”
He and his wife, Saadiya, a lawyer
and lecturer, were teenage
sweethearts, attending neighbouring
schools in Earlsfield – “I went to an
all-boys school, Ernest Bevin, and she
went to Graveney School, which was
mixed. I remember, the head of her
school, Mrs Stapleton, would patrol
Welham Road stopping the Ernest
Bevin boys getting to Graveney
because of our reputation.” They have
been married for 29 years.
“I’m really lucky with my family.
There are no delusions in my home. In
the morning I’ll fight with my
daughters about using the bathroom.
“I may be at an event in the evening
– and I say this not in an arrogant way
– but the most important person in the
room. And I’ll get home and it’s, ‘Don’t
forget to put the bin out.’ And that’s a
really important thing.”
As he looks ahead, Khan says he’s
“excited about the prospect of working
with a government led by Keir Starmer
that is pro-London. This Government
has been anti-London for a long time”.
That rather assumes Starmer will
lead the next government. “There’s no
complacency about that at all. Neither
am I complacent about me winning.
But I’m somebody who loves London.
I’m the child of immigrants and this
city has given me everything. And I’m
seeking to give something back.”
He thinks about this. “I don’t sleep
well. I’m a bit of an insomniac. Lying in
bed at night, I look back on the day,
what I got right, what I got wrong,
what I can improve on, and I’ve never
had, so far, a day that’s been perfect.”

ANDREW CROWLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH

t is 12.7 miles from Sadiq Khan’s
home in Earlsfield, south-west
London to the new City Hall in
Docklands. Before meeting Khan, I’d
imagined him traversing London in his
mayoral car, meditating on the city’s
many splendours while navigating
London’s clogged traffic before finally
arriving at his office.
In fact, none of that is true. Unless
instructed by the police to be driven in
an unmarked official vehicle, Khan
travels to the office by tube and the
Docklands Light Railway.
People tend to ignore him, or
politely pretend to. “It’s that very
British thing, people just get on with
reading their newspaper or their
phone. Sometimes someone will ask
for a selfie or there’s a thumbs up, or
‘keep it going’.”
Somewhat surprisingly, no-one has
had anything to say about the ultra low
emission zone (Ulez) – the Labour
Mayor of London’s proposal to extend
the clean air charge to the boundaries
of Greater London, and one of the
city’s most divisive topics. “No, I can’t
think of an occasion when that’s
happened.”
London’s first Muslim mayor, Khan
has been in office since 2016. In that
time, he has worked with five
Conservative prime ministers and
faced multiple challenges – including
battles with TfL about funding, the
murder of Sarah Everard, concerns
over knife crime and the sacking of
Cressida Dick as the Metropolitan
Police commissioner. But as he seeks a
historic third term as mayor in May
next year, it could be Ulez that stands
in his way.
The issue has become increasingly
heated. At a public meeting last week
in Ealing town hall, Khan was greeted
by protestors, including some
depicting him with a swastika and a
hammer and sickle, and citing
conspiracy theories about “15-minute
cities” being a way to control the
population. “Some of those outside are
part of the far-Right,” he said at the
meeting. “Some are Covid deniers.
Some are vaccine-deniers. And some
are Tories.” His comments sparked
anger in the crowd, with members of
the public reportedly shouting back:
“We are not far-Right – normal people
are not far-Right.”
He sighs. “My point was that there

Sadiq Khan

‘Ulez was Boris Johnson’s
policy – I stole it from him’
The Mayor of London talks to Interviewer of the Year Mick Brown about his divisive
clean air plan, why Cressida Dick had to go and his struggles with insomnia
inside the North and South Circular
Roads, but Khan intends to expand the
zone to cover all of Greater London
– effectively taking it up to most roads
inside the M25 motorway. Under the
scheme, planned to be introduced in
August, drivers of non-compliant
vehicles (e.g. a pre-2016 diesel car or
pre-2006 petrol car) within the
extended zone must pay a daily charge
of £12.50. This includes residents of
the Ulez.
The plan has come up against
opposition from councils in outer
London and the home counties, who
mainly argue that the zone’s expansion
will do little to improve air quality –
and that it is being introduced at the
worst possible time, because of the
cost of living crisis.
An independent poll commissioned
earlier this year suggested that 60 per
cent of Londoners oppose the scheme.
But Khan disputes its findings. “It was
a loaded poll and it’s been dismissed by
a lot of polling experts. The poll that’s
been done with a straight question
shows that twice as many Londoners
support the scheme as are opposed to
it – 51 per cent are in favour of
expansion, 27 per cent are against it.”
London has historically faced major
public health challenges, and “brave
politicians in the past have not ducked
in taking them on”, he says. The Great

Stink of 1858, when hot weather
exacerbated the stench of raw sewage
dumped in the Thames, led to the
introduction of a functioning sewage
system. The choking smog of the 1950s
led to “a really brave Conservative
government”, moving power stations
from the centre of the city in the face of
fierce trade union opposition,
protesting about loss of jobs.
“And, by the way, this isn’t my
policy. I’ve stolen Boris Johnson’s,” he
says. “In 2013, Johnson announced he
would be doing a Ulez. But he did that
classic thing that politicians do; he
announced something that he left for
other politicians to do. I’m going to see
it through.”
Since its introduction in 2019, the
Ulez has reduced harmful pollution
levels in central London by almost half.
Over the past 12 months alone, Ulez has
reduced nitrogen dioxide levels in
central London by 46 per cent. Five
million more Londoners will breathe
cleaner air if the Ulez expands to cover
the whole city.
According to a study by Imperial
College, every year 4,000 people die
prematurely because of poor air
quality. “It’s an invisible killer. And
when you look at those 4,000 deaths,
the largest number are in outer
London, where you have a greater
number of old people for whom bad air

quality makes them more susceptible
to heart disease and other factors. In
London, 500,000 people suffer from
asthma and respiratory issues.”
The scheme, he goes on, will save
the NHS £10.5 billion, because it will
not be treating people with asthma and
respiratory issues. “The CBI says it will
save businesses £1.6 billion a year
because staff won’t be off sick with
respiratory issues.”
Talking of money, analysis by The
Daily Telegraph suggests Ulez is on
track to be a penalty bonanza for the
mayor. Fines for failing to pay the
charge will increase from £160 to
£180, and those collected during the
first 11 months of 2022 totalled
£56,995,835. The scheme is not
allowed to be “revenue generating”
and Khan has pledged to plough all the
money made from the new charge into
better public transport and active
travel. Ulez, he insists, is not about
raising revenue: “It’s about reducing
the number of non-compliant vehicles,
which means you pay zero, and to
make the air quality better.”
Looking to the future, as more cars
go electric, he says he wants to see an
electric charging point “on every
street in London”. There are 11,000
electric charging points in the capital
– a third of the UK total. What about
those who can’t afford to replace their

car, let alone with an electric one?
Khan has a plan, and says he has found
£110 million to support people make
the transition “without a penny of
support from the Government”.
We talk about the other big issue on
his desk – crime. Contrary to popular
perception, crime rates in London
have actually gone down in recent
years. Compared with the 12 months
pre-pandemic burglary is down by 33
per cent; homicide by 27 per cent;
knife-enabled crime by 19 per cent;
gun crime by 30 per cent and robbery
by 30 per cent.
But “that’s not good enough”, Khan
says. And it remains a fact that many
Londoners, particularly women, do
not feel safe. “I can’t wish that away.
I’ve got to take action.”
He pauses. “One of the things I have
the humility to accept is that a woman’s
experience of being in London is
different to mine. I’ve got no
experience of being touched up on the
tube or bus. Nobody’s ever looked at
me in a lecherous way. I can use the
tube and not worry about people
treating me inappropriately. That’s not
the experience of women and girls.”
We talk about the departure of
Cressida Dick as commissioner. She
resigned in controversial
circumstances in February last year.
Khan talks of “a loss of confidence” in

28

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Features

£416m

Jeff Bezos’s 417ft Koru will
be the largest sailing
yacht in the world

The new superyachts
are all about sails –
just ask Jeff Bezos
The tide is turning as oceangoing billionaires turn to more
eco-friendly extravagant vessels, says Caroline White
A super-sized sailing yacht is the rarest
of the rare. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder
and third-richest man in the world, has
bought one such unicorn. Koru, his
latest purchase, is a three-masted,
417ft schooner built at Dutch shipyard
Oceanco.
When delivered next February, it

will be the biggest sailing yacht in the
world, and while few details of the
super-secret project have been
confirmed, the price tag is rumoured
to be a hefty $500 million
(£416 million).
The choice makes him an outlier for
superyachting. Sailing yachts

represent just 5.12 per cent of
superyachts above 60 metres,
according to BoatPro, a market
intelligence source. They require more
crew – and highly trained ones – than
motor yachts and are technically
complex, so there’s more to go wrong
during your holiday (which you don’t

Shipping forecast: Jeff Bezos, above, has
bought a mega-yacht called Koru, main

want to spend in a Bahamian shipyard).
There are also far fewer builders to
choose from. So why did he do it – and
might others follow suit?
The obvious appeal of having sails is
feeling the wind in your hair (or the
hair of your meaty-handed and
frighteningly expensive “rockstar”
crew).
If you can sail a big boat rather than
rely on your engines, there is an
obvious beneficiary – the
environment. Boat designer Ken
Freivokh has designed two superyachts, the Maltese Falcon and the
Black Pearl, which are able to sail the
Atlantic without even turning the
engine on. “Their green credentials are
quite real,” he says.
This is increasingly relevant to
owners. “Clients are getting younger,”
says Jonathan Beckett, chief executive
of Burgess, a leading superyacht
brokerage firm. “They used to be
between 60 and 70 years old, most of
them. Today, we have a few clients in
their 30s, but certainly 40s and 50s.
People who are not looking for a ‘villa’
in France or in Greece, they’re looking
more for adventure. They’ve got young
children. They’re concerned about the
environment.”
This feeds into a wider trend in
superyachting – explorer yachts. The
newly minted billionaires of Silicon
Valley are not interested in sipping
champagne in St Tropez. They want to
dive in submarines, swim with sharks,
see the ice caps. This has led to a
booming demand for tough expedition

yachts for remote destinations, often
with a utilitarian aesthetic – think Land
Rover, not Rolls Royce. But big sailing
yachts tap into the same mindset too.
Henry Craven-Smith, senior partner
and sailing yacht specialist at Burgess,
has sold some of the biggest in
existence – including Maltese Falcon.
Many such clients he wouldn’t class as
“out-and-out sailors”, but people who
have “a real sense of adventure”. “I
think that’s the nature of the buyer or
an owner of a big sailing boat,” he says.
“We have the charter central agency of
the 81-metre Sea Eagle. I’ve sailed on
her in the South Pacific and within 10
minutes we were up and moving at 17
knots.
“Not only is it exhilarating, but in
destinations where you might have
long distances between islands, these
boats reduce the amount of time you’re
at sea.”
A fast motor yacht, burning gallons
of traditional fuel, is an unappealing
alternative to this breed of owner.
A sailing boat is also likely to have a
more positive impact on your image
than a motor yacht. But it’s about more
than what appears when someone
Googles your name. “It goes back to a
pride in the philosophy of their
ownership. Whether it is the
sustainability or the aesthetic beauty
of the boat,” says Craven-Smith. “It’s
also often much more of a family feel
on these [big sailing] boats.
“If you anchor off a remote island in
the Tuamotus, young kids might come
out and paddle alongside. You have fun
with them, maybe give them a T-shirt
and a baseball cap. That’s the fun side
of sailing superyacht ownership.”
Technical advances – specifically the
DynaRig, a clever, efficient form of
rigging – have certainly made the act of
sailing at this size safer and more
practical than it used to be. The masts
are free-standing, without the mess of
wires and rigging, so the owner can
have a go at pressing buttons to deploy
the sails. While Koru does not have a
DynaRig, it does have three masts,
which in themselves break up the sail
area, making the beast easier to control
– and more likely to actually sail.
There is also, of course, the appeal of
owning a rare treasure. But with
genuine eco-credentials and
adventurous allure, out-sized sailing
boats might not be quite so rare in the
future.
Caroline White is deputy editor of BOAT
International, the world’s leading
superyacht magazine

LAP OF LUXURY: BOATS
OF THE SUPER-RICH

£493m

David Geffen, the founder of
DreamWorks Pictures, has hosted
the likes of Sir Paul McCartney on
his superyacht, which holds a
basketball court and wine cellar

£430m

Solaris, ranked the 15th-largest
superyacht in the world, is not even
the biggest in Russian oligarch
Roman Abramovich’s fleet

£16.7m

Force Blue was bought by Bernie
Ecclestone, the former boss of
Formula One. It boasts an outdoor
jacuzzi, gym, sauna and spa

TikTok is in a race against
The Chinese-owned app
is facing criticism for not
taking its responsibilities
seriously, says Ian Burrell

J

udging by the TikTok usage of
certain MPs, you would never
imagine that the Chinese-owned
app is at the centre of a geopolitical
battle, regarded as a growing danger to
national security by intelligence
agencies and policymakers across the
Western world. The Business and
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps posts
videos direct from the National Grid
Control Centre; Jeremy Corbyn uploads
his Commons speeches and Luke
Evans, Conservative MP for Bosworth,
has taken his 41,000 followers on a
guided tour of Downing Street.
These politicians know that TikTok
gets their message out to a wide
audience – the app has more than
1 billion users worldwide, hooked on
seemingly innocuous bite-sized videos
of anything from celebrities and dance
routines to animals and cooking. Yet,
as the company itself acknowledged
this week in a statement, “with such
scale comes significant responsibility”
– and questions are being raised as to
whether TikTok, which is owned by
the Chinese company ByteDance, is
fulfilling that. And if not, whether its
future is at stake.

In the USA the app might be banned
over concerns about sensitive
information getting into the hands of
the Chinese government. The White
House told federal agencies on Monday
that they had to delete TikTok from
government devices and a White House
committee voted to advance legislation
that would allow President Biden to ban
it from all devices nationwide. The head
of the FBI, Christopher Wray, says it
“screams” of security concerns. Over
here, Parliament has closed its TikTok
account, although Michelle Donelan,
the minister for Science, Innovation
and Technology, has said she would not
back a ban.
The stakes could not be higher for
TikTok – and it has been quick to be
seen to be taking action over concerns
about personal information getting
into the wrong hands. This week, it
announced Project Clover, a security
regime costing €1.2 billion (£1 billion) a
year that will ensure the data of UK and
other European customers is held on
servers in Ireland and Norway, with
any data transfers being monitored by
an independent European
cybersecurity firm. TikTok said it
wants to “build trust by ensuring the
safety, privacy and security of our
community and their data is critical”.
“If they don’t do the right things this
could be existential for them,” says
Jamie MacEwan, senior media analyst
at Enders Analysis. “TikTok is a service

you can ban without too much
disruption in the real economy. It’s not
like banning WhatsApp or an app with
a lot of functionality. In the US, the
biggest misgivings [over banning
TikTok] are seen as losing the young
vote and freedom of speech.”
He notes that while TikTok was
successful in facing down a previous
attempt to close it down led by Donald
Trump, its current crisis “feels a bit
more bi-partisan in the US” and is far
more serious.
There is a battle for supremacy in
artificial intelligence going on between
America and China and TikTok is
embroiled in that. “We are a private
company that is bending over
backwards to try and separate
ourselves from the broader and serious
and genuinely right concerns that
Western countries have around
China,” says one TikTok source. “You
can’t make up trust in an instant, some
of this we just have to earn over time.”
Despite these concerns, it is still the
fastest-growing social media network
in the UK. Its turnover in the UK and
Europe grew by 477 per cent in 2021 to
$990million, thanks to monetisation
tools that connected advertisers to a
rising European user base of
150 million people. The UK operation,
once run from a communal workspace,
has expanded to around 2,000 people.
So where does it need to take action
and will it survive?

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

29

Features

The art of the red carpet re-wear

Hot dogs and
not dogs: the
breeds turning
heads this year

This old thing?
Bethan Holt, Fashion
elebrates
Editor, celebrates
en ‘opting
the women
ve’ on
for archive’
this year’ss glitzy
rcuit
events circuit

At Crufts, 24,000 dogs
from 48 countries are
competing. Ed Cumming
reveals the canines that
are in vogue and those
that are out of fashion

T

BEST IN SHOW
SHIBA INU
The distinctive,
fox-like Japanese
breed is the
internet’s favourite
dog, adorning untold
millions of memes,
leading to a surge in
real-world interest.
While its popularity
is less fevered than
at its peak in 2021,
it continues to be
well-liked.

2018

2019
2023

2023

Familiar look: Cate Blanchett at Cannes
and at the Tár premiere; the Princess of
Wales at the Baftas four years apart

‘The idea of wearing
something once seems
so outdated and
unnecessary’
Clare Richardson, a fashion editor who
made her name styling celebrities for
magazine covers and has now founded
Reluxe Fashion, a second-hand
e-tailer. “It’s beautiful to see people
thinking slightly differently, often
looking more like themselves and
wearing their opinions with integrity
and style.”
While the monetary side of red
carpet dressing is largely shrouded in
mystery, Blanchett admitted in an
interview with the Business of Fashion
website this week that “you can’t deny
that there is an economy of sorts on the
red carpet … And beyond even the
‘fashion industry’ there are a lot of
attendant industries that are reliant
upon that exchange and that exposure.”

Sh has found a way to make both her
She
contractual obligations and her
re-wearing mission work in tandem. As
part of her role as an ambassador for
Louis Vuitton high jewellery, the
actress has been showcasing the label’s
creations on the red carpet, re-wearing
a pearl and tourmaline necklace first
seen at the Baftas at the Time Women of
the Year gala this week.
That Baftas look included a re-wear
of her 2015 Oscars gown, but Blanchett
wasn’t the only woman who flew the
flag for recycling old clothes (or “opting
for archive” if you’d like the upscale
description) that night.
The Princess of Wales evoked a social
media frenzy when fans spotted she’d
worn the flowing white Alexander
McQueen dress she debuted at the 2019
Baftas altered, replacing a floral corsage
detail with a flowing chiffon scarf. With
the addition of statement Zara earrings
and long black velvet gloves, Catherine
proved the same item can look entirely
different with clever tweaks.
Well-known women of all ages are
uniting in their “this old thing”
approach, even if it’s not something
they’ve personally worn before. Gen Z
heroine Zendaya, 26, could have her

pick of new couture creations yet often
opts for vintage. Most recently, she
attended the NAACP awards wearing a
strapless black and lime Versace gown
from the label’s 2002 Couture
collection, later changing into a white
Prada crop top and skirt re-worked
from the spring/summer 1993
collection. Meanwhile, 60-year-old
Michelle Yeoh – Blanchett’s rival for the
Best Actress award – wore a gold
Christian Dior suit from the Fall 2018
Couture show at the Baftas, and Rooney
Mara, 37, was one of the chicest women
on the SAG Awards red carpet in a
McQueen dress from 2016.
On Thursday evening, Jerry Hall, 66,
and her daughter Georgia May Jagger,
31, proved wearing something old
elevates you from cookie cutter celeb to
genuinely interesting woman. At the
Green Carpet Awards in Los Angeles
they wore coordinating vintage
Vivienne Westwood dresses. Hall is a
long-time fan of the label, and chose a
pale blue design for her 2016 wedding
to Rupert Murdoch.
It’s this idea of longevity and
personal style which makes the concept
of re-wearing one that should be
glamorised, says the stylist and “queen

of thrift” Bay Garnett. “The vanity that
something has to be new to be a new
look has always baffled me,” she says. “If
you only ever wear things once, there’s
no sense of what your personal style is,
it comes across as you having no style,
like an influencer who throws a dress
out after being photographed in it once.
It’s now much cooler to go against that
disposable culture.”
Blanchett echoed that thought; “I
think that there’s a lot of people like me
who are tired of the churn,” she told
BoF. But no matter how bored we are of
red carpets being a sea of new, catwalkfresh looks, is all this celebrity rewearing genuinely game changing, or
ultimately little more than tiresome
virtue signalling?
“Kinda defeats the whole point of a
re-wear if you’re basically having a new
outfit made,” the fashion bloggers Tom
and Lorenzo complained after one of
Blanchett’s upcycling experiments.
Then again, the duo also noticed an
unexpected upside to the strategy, even
if it wouldn’t work for all of us; “We’re
starting to think Cate’s been re-wearing
so many of her old dresses just so
people can comment on the fact that
she’s decided not to age,” they wrote.

time to show it can be trusted with users’ data
Yet other social networks have been
demonised before. YouTube was once a
home for terrorist videos. Instagram
was linked to teenage suicides. TikTok,
which plans an Initial Public Offering, is
the first outsider to challenge Silicon
Valley’s hegemony in social media.

Spying and data
“The Chinese are not remotely
interested in a teenager posting a video
of themselves dancing on TikTok, but
they are interested if the user’s parent is
a government official because any
information you can garner is a means
to target individuals,” says Peter
Warren, chairman of the Cyber Security
Research Institute.
The app has been unable to shake off
suspicion that it must comply with the

BAVARIAN
MOUNTAIN HOUND
Popular in Germany
since the early 20th
century when it was
bred to track down
wounded game, and
recognised by the
Kennel Club in
1990, the breed
is competing at
Crufts in its
own class for
the first time.

WIREIMAGE; FILMMAGIC; GETTY

o you or I, throwing on a dress
we’ve had hanging in our
wardrobe for a few years
might seem like a totally normal
solution to a what-to-wear-to-a-party
at-to-wear-to-a-party
dilemma. But when
hen you’re one of the
world’s most in-demand
demand actresses,
who could secure
re a six-figure sum
(or more) simply to wear a new dress
at an awards ceremony
emony for a couple
of hours, it must be incredibly
tempting to simply
ply take the money
and, well, pose away.
way.
But there’s a growing
rowing refusal of
the accepted awards
ards season norm.
Once, it involved
d a gown appearing
on the catwalks of Milan or Paris,
and within weeks
ks being worn by the
latest Oscar-nominated
minated actress
doing her publicity
city rounds, often
following many tense negotiations
between her “people”
eople” and the
fashion house’s “people”. Instead,
stars are redefining
ing what it means to
throw on “this old
ld thing”.
The woman leading
eading the way is Cate
Blanchett, a favourite
ourite to win Best
Actress at the Oscars
cars on Sunday night.
While she is no stranger
tranger to revisiting
old outfits, the Australian
ustralian star of Tárr
has made it her mission in recent
months to appear
ar at every glitzy
awards, dinner or photo call, giving
an older outfit a new outing.
Unlike those of us peering into
our wardrobes and
nd despairing that
we have nothing
g to wear,
Blanchett could never make that
complaint: hers must be more
of a warehouse than
han a
two-door number
er from
Ikea. Nevertheless,
ess, she
and her stylist
Elizabeth Stewart
rt
(one of an
exclusive group
of uber-powerful
ul
image curators
working in
Hollywood today)
y)
have masterminded
ded a
plan which has meant each
outfit looks as fresh and modern as the
first time it was worn.
At Tár’s premiere in Berlin last
month, Blanchett re-wore the
colourful tiered Givenchy gown she
debuted at the 2018 Cannes film
festival. A wide leather belt made it
look moodier and edgier. “Not only is
this extraordinary Givenchy gown too
fabulous to wear only once, re-wearing
it illustrates an important point,”
Stewart wrote on Instagram. “In a
world where tons of clothes end up in
landfills every year, we can choose to
be aware of our impact on the planet
and make mindful choices.”
Stewart is right that many of
Blanchett’s outfits are simply too
spectacular to never see the light of day
again. An Alexander McQueen suit with
exquisite statement blue silk sleeves
crafted to look like giant rosebuds was
first worn in 2019 but got another
outing at the London Critics’ Circle
Awards in February, while a split-sleeve
Loewe suit originally seen in 2018 was
revived for the Independent Spirit
Awards last weekend.
You may eye roll at it being
revolutionary to wear something
twice, but in this high stakes VIP
world, it genuinely is. “The idea of
wearing something once seems so
outdated and unnecessary to me,” says

2017 Chinese National Intelligence Law,
which dictates that “any organisation or
citizen shall support, assist and
cooperate with the state intelligence
work in accordance with the law”. This
means that “if TikTok is required by the
Chinese government to turn over data,
it will turn it over”, claims Warren.
TikTok argues that this never
happens and that, despite having a
Chinese parent, it is a global company
with most of its ownership in the hands

of US venture capital firms, such as
General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital.
“What TikTok has to do is prove …
that it can stand on its own two feet and
that is difficult because it is owned by
ByteDance, which is headquartered in
Beijing,” says MacEwan. “We know
managers from Beijing fly back and
forth and meet with TikTok managers
because TikTok is ByteDance’s global
business and ByteDance wants to be a
global tech giant.”

Disinformation
Ofcom reported last year that TikTok
was the UK’s fastest-growing source for
news. But the news that users find there
may be unreliable.
A study by NewsGuard, which rates
the credibility of news websites, found
that new TikTok users would receive
false information about the war in
Ukraine within 40 minutes of joining
the app. In regions where TikTok is
heavily used for news, such as southeast Asia, the platform is fertile ground
for Beijing’s propaganda and Kremlin
war narratives.
The app provoked disgust when
ghoulish “TikTok sleuths” descended
on St Michael’s on Wyre to post theories
on the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.
Lancashire Police publicly accused
“TikTokers” of circulating “false
information, accusations and rumours”.
Traditional news outlets are trying to
combat this, through their own, more
reliable TikTok videos. 81 per cent of
traditional UK news publishers were
using the app. “Despite concerns about
data security they are there, because
they recognise the risk of not being

there in terms of combatting
disinformation … and also of losing
future audiences,” says the Reuters
Institute’s Nic Newman.
Influence on children
Attitudes to TikTok vary across
generations. That divide is embodied in
school “TikTok protests” that have
seen pupils across the country taking
on head teachers by filming their mass
objections to rules on uniforms and
toilet access. Scores of students have
been suspended. TikTok’s industryleading filming tools are also coming
under fire for their impact on young
behaviour: its new “Bold Glamour”
filter is so effective in improving facial
appearances that beauty influencers
complain it risks destroying a user’s
confidence in how they look in real life.
In its efforts to appear more
responsible, Tik Tok has introduced a
60-minute daily time limit to safeguard
young users (although it can be
bypassed if you enter a password).
MacEwan is unconvinced that
TikTok can change its colours. “I think
they have been found wanting,” he says
of TikTok’s data security reforms and its
attempts to demonstrate its
independence. “Byte Dance bankrolls
them and ByteDance managers still
oversee TikTok teams. There is a fight
to prove they can be properly
independent in the way they run their
business and protect their users.”

ST BERNARD
RNARD
The door
oor has
alwayss been open
for St Bernards.
Who could not be
won over
ver by a dog
that is not only
big enough
ough to
drag you
ou out of a
snowdrift,
drift, but has
a cute little tot of
whisky
y
around
d its
neck?
CORGI
The late Queen’s
favourites saw a rise
in popularity during
Covid, with a 65 per
cent increase in
registrations. They
continued to attract
attention last year,
because of the
Platinum Jubilee and
later Queen
Elizabeth II’s
death.

IN THE DOGHOUSE
WEST HIGHLAND
TERRIER
The apparent
demise of this
terrier is
worrying. In 1990
it was Britain’s
third-most
popular dog, but
last year entrants
fell to their lowest
level since 1957 and
this year there are
just 51 entrants.
COCKAPOO
For too long, Britain
has been in thrall to
poodle crosses. Each
variety has its
weaknesses, but I am
told by cockapoo
owners that they are
the worst. “The
brain of a poodle
trapped inside the
madness of a
spaniel,” says one
correspondent.
SMOOTH FOX
TERRIERS
Kennel Club figures
ures
show just 80 of the
he
breed were registered
tered
last year – a 97 per
er
cent decline since
ce
1926. Nipper, the
e dog
on the HMV logo,
o, was
thought to be one
e
such terrier. The shop
went into
administration: now
the dogs could follow.
ollow.
ENGLISH BULLDOG
Despite their
squashed faces and
sex-pest heavy
breathing, this is
the most expensive
breed in the UK,
costing an average
of £3000. Their
high cost is due to
breeding
difficulties: they
don’t naturally
mate well.

30

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Court & Social

Announcements
Telephone: 0800 072 32 32 or +44 1634 88 7587 Fax: 020 7931 3370
Email: announcements.ads@telegraph.co.uk Book online: announcements.telegraph.co.uk

Court
Circular

BUCKINGHAM PALACE
March 10th
His Excellency Dr Mohammed
Al-Issa (Secretary General,
Muslim World League) was
received by The King this
afternoon.
His Majesty this evening
attended the Mountbatten Festival
of Music at the Royal Albert Hall,
London SW7, and was received by
His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of
Greater London (Sir Kenneth
Olisa).
KENSINGTON PALACE
March 10th
The Prince of Wales, President,
the Earthshot Prize, this
morning received Ms Hannah
Jones (Chief Executive) at
Windsor Castle.
ST JAMES’S PALACE
March 10th
Today is the Anniversary of the
Birthday of The Duke of
Edinburgh.
The Duke and Duchess of
Edinburgh this afternoon attended
a Reception at Edinburgh City
Chambers, 253 High Street,
Edinburgh, in support of members
of the Ukrainian community and
were received by His Majesty’s
Lord-Lieutenant of the City of
Edinburgh (Councillor Robert
Aldridge, the Rt Hon the Lord
Provost).

ST JAMES’S PALACE
March 10th
The Princess Royal this afternoon
visited Special Quality Alloys
Limited, Bessemer Road, Sheffield.
Her Royal Highness afterwards
visited ITM Power plc, 2 Bessemer
Park, Sheffield.
The Princess Royal, Patron, the
Vine Trust, this evening held a
Dinner at the Palace of
Holyroodhouse and was received by
the Reverend Neil Gardner (Deputy
Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh).
KENSINGTON PALACE
March 10th
The Duke of Gloucester, Grand
Prior, the Most Venerable Order
of the Hospital of St John of
Jerusalem, this morning invested
Mr Stuart Shilson as Prior of the
Priory of England and the Islands
at the Priory Church, St John’s
Square, London EC1, and was
received by His Majesty’s
Lord-Lieutenant of Greater
London (Sir Kenneth Olisa).
His Royal Highness, Royal
Patron, Temple Bar Trust, this
afternoon attended the Ceremony
of the Official Opening of the Gates
of Temple Bar in Paternoster
Square, London EC4.
The Duchess of Gloucester,
Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Bermuda
Regiment, was present at the
Memorial Service to commemorate
the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
assassination of Lieutenant
Colonel Sir Richard Sharples
(formerly Governor of Bermuda)
and his Aide-de-Camp, Captain
Hugh Sayers, which was held in
the Guards Chapel, Wellington
Barracks, London SW1, today.
For more details about the Royal
family, visit the Royal website at
www.royal.uk

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Today: Mr David Gentleman,
artist and designer, is 93; Sir
Peter Walters, Chairman,
SmithKline Beecham, 1994-2000,
92; Mr Rupert Murdoch,
publisher; Executive Chairman,
News Corp US, 92; Lord Lawson
of Blaby, former Conservative
Cabinet Minister, 91; Sir Malcolm
Pill, a former Lord Justice of
Appeal, 85; Mr Jonathan
Gestetner, Joint Chairman,
Gestetner Holdings, 1972-87, 83;
Mr David Challen, Chairman,
EMEA Governance Committee,
Citigroup, 2010-14, 80; Mr Alan
Yentob, Creative Director, BBC,
2004-15, 76; Lord Pentland, a
Senator of the College of Justice in
Scotland; Chairman, Scottish Law
Commission, 2014-18, 66; Mr
Jeremy Penn, Chief Executive,
The Baltic Exchange, 2004-16, 64;
Mr Richard Harman, Chief
Executive, AGBIS; Headmaster,
Uppingham School, 2006-16, 64;
Earl Bathurst 62; Mr Robert
Thomson, Chief Executive, News
Corp; Editor, The Times, 2002-07,
62; Mr John Barrowman, actor
and singer, 56; Mr Tom James,
former rower; two times Olympic
gold medallist, 39; and Mr Alex
Gregory, rower; two-time
Olympic gold medallist, five-time
World Champion; arctic explorer,
39.
Tomorrow: Sir Rudolph Agnew,
Chairman, LASMO, 1994-2000,
will be 89; Mr David Mlinaric,
interior decorator and designer,
84; Prof Lord Wallace of
Saltaire, academic, writer and
politician, 82; Sir Nicholas
Montagu, Chairman, Financial
Ombudsman Service, 2012-19, 79;

Miss Liza Minnelli, actress and
singer, 77; Baroness Bottomley
of Nettlestone, former
Conservative Cabinet Minister,
75; Maj Gen A.A.J.R. Cumming,
Controller, SSAFA - Forces Help,
2004-12, 75; Prof Anthony
Legge, international opera coach
and conductor; Sir Arthur
Sullivan Visiting Professor of
Opera, Royal Academy of Music,
75; Mr David Mellor, KC,
journalist and broadcaster;
former Conservative Cabinet
Minister, 74; Prof Sir Martin
Sweeting, Chairman, Surrey
Space Centre, University of
Surrey, 72; Mr Charles Gray,
former diplomat; Marshal of the
Diplomatic Corps, 2008-14, 70;
Lord Rotherwick 69; Baroness
Buscombe, former Conservative
Government Minister; Chairman,
Press Complaints Commission,
2009-11, 69; Sir Anish Kapoor,
artist and sculptor, 69; Dame
Shan Morgan, former senior civil
servant, 68; Mr John Rankin,
diplomat; Governor, British
Virgin Islands, 66; Mr Richard
Meddings, Chairman, NHS
England, 65; Mr Graham Stuart,
MP, Minister for Energy Secutity
and Net Zero, 61; Mrs Karen
Bradley, MP, 53; Ms Amanda
Milling, MP, 48; Mr Neil Fachie,
cyclist; Paralympic gold
medallist, men’s individual B 1km
time trial, London 2012 and
Tokyo 2020, 39; Mr Ed Clancy,
track and road cyclist; three times
Olympic champion and six times
World champion, team pursuit,
38; and Ms Katie Archibald,
racing cyclist: Olympic gold
medallist, women’s team pursuit,
Rio 2016 and silver medallist,
Tokyo 2020, and gold
medallist, women’s madison,
Tokyo 2020, 29.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Forthcoming
marriages
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Weekend birthdays

LONDON, MARCH 1923

QUEEN AND THE
POOR.
The Queen, who has never lost interest in the district of her birth and early childhood, spent the
whole of Saturday afternoon upon a round of visits of inspection to various efforts, municipal and
private, for the welfare of the people in Kensington. In general detail it recalled a similar successful tour made by her Majesty just a year ago in
Shoreditch, and illustrated how keenly she follows all that is being done for the improvement of
working-class housing and the amenities of humble home life. Fine weather prevailed, though the

wind was keen, and vast crowds assembled along
the route, while in the poorer streets a display of
flags and gay devices testified to the heartiness of
the welcome.
Her Majesty, with the Dowager Countess of
Airlie and Mr. Harry Verney in attendance,
arrived shortly after a quarter past three at
the Kensington Town Hall. Here in waiting to
receive the Queen was the Mayor of Kensington (Councillor Richard Allen), with the
Mayoress and a reception committee, among
whom were General Gavaye, the Vicar of
Kensington, Mrs. Burton, the Town Clerk
(Mr. W. Chambers Leete), and many more representative both of the Borough Council and
the residents.

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Service dinner

Bridge news

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The Scottish Men’s National Pairs,
Scottish Women’s National Pairs,
the Scottish Men’s National Teams
and Scottish Women’s National
Teams have all taken place on
Bridge Base Online, writes Julian
Pottage, Bridge Correspondent.
Winners are as follows:
Women’s Pairs
1st: N. Traynor and T. Hewitt,
60.47%; 2nd: B. Campbell and S.
Lang, 55.50%; 3rd=: M. McDonagh
and H. McCormac, 55.09%; 3rd=:
Y. Piper and L. McGowan, 55.09%.
Women’s Teams
1st: L. Barrett and V. Guy, Y. Piper
and L. Middleton, 83 VPs; 2nd:
L. McGowan and F. McQuaker, A.

Milne and S. Adamson, 80 VPs;
3rd=: J. Benson and C. Ferguson,
C. Gerrard and I. MacGregor, 73
VPs; 3rd=: J. Palmer and F.
Greenwood, M. Curran and J.
Armstrong, 73 VPs.
Men’s Pairs
1st: R. Valentine and G. Freimanis,
57.17%; 2nd: J. Dick and K.
Strathern, 55.64%; 3rd: D.
Diamond and M. Diamond,
55.15%.
Men’s Teams
1st: D. Wiseman and M. McGinley,
D. Diamond and M. Diamond, 79
VPs; 2nd: P. Maiolani and J.
Hamilton, T. Penman and M.
Menzies, 76 VPs; 3rd: G. Falconer
and A. Adamson, M. Ash and R.
Ferrari, 74 VPs.

CHELMSFORD: 8 HC, Rev Julia Lacey;
10.30 Eucharist, Very Rev Paul
Kennington, Interim Dean; 3.30
Evening Prayer, Canon Ivor Moody.
Streaming details: chelmsfordcathedral.
org.uk
CHESTER: 8.30 HC; 10.30 Cathedral
Eucharist, Rev Dr Stefan Collier; 3
Choral Evensong; 6 Sung Compline.
Streaming via: chestercathedral.com
CHICHESTER: 8 HC; 9.15 Children,
Families and Caregivers Service; 10.15
Choral Mattins; 11.15 Sung Eucharist,
Precentor; 3 Choral Evensong with
Commissioning of Tim Morris as Head
Verger. Streaming details:
chichestercathedral.org.uk
COVENTRY: 10.30 Cathedral
Eucharist; 12 Litany of Reconciliation;
4 Choral Evensong; 5 Lenten Organ
Meditation. Streaming details:
coventrycathedral.org.uk
DERBY: 8.30 HC, Rev Dr Alan
Flintham; 10.45 Cathedral Eucharist,
Rev Nicky Fenton; 5.15 Evensong.
Streaming details: derbycathedral.org
DURHAM: 8 HC; 10 Mattins, Canon
Michael Hampel; 11.15 Sung Eucharist,
Canon Michael Everitt; 3.30 Evensong.
Streaming details: durhamcathedral.
co.uk
ELY: 8.15 HC; 10.30 Sung Eucharist,
Dean; 4 Evensong, Canon James
Garrard. Streaming details:
elycathedral.org
EXETER: 8 HC; 9 Morning Prayer; 10
Choral Eucharist; 4 Choral Evensong;
6.30 Holy Ground. Streaming details:
exeter-cathedral.org.uk
GLASGOW, ST MUNGO’s (C-o-S): 11
Morning Service. Streaming:
glasgowcathedral.org
GLOUCESTER: 10.15 Eucharist, Roger
Latham; 3 Evensong. Streaming details:
gloucestercathedral.org.uk
GUILDFORD: 7.45 Morning Prayer; 8
HC; 9.45 Cathedral Eucharist, Ven
Stuart Beake; 6 Choral Evensong.
Streaming details: guildford-cathedral.
org
HEREFORD: 8 HC; 10 Cathedral
Eucharist with the Installation of the
Bishop’s Chaplain as a Minor Canon,
Archdeacon; 11.30 Mattins; 3.30
Evensong; 7 City Praise. Streaming
details: herefordcathedral.org
INVERNESS: 8.30 Holy Eucharist; 11
Sung Eucharist, Rev M. Massey.
Streaming details: invernesscathedral.
org
ISLE OF MAN: 8.30 BCP Communion;
10.30 Choral Eucharist, Rev Ruth
Walker; 3.30 Choral Evensong.
Streaming: cathedral.im
LEICESTER: Closed for refurbishment,
services will be held in St Martin’s
House. 10.30 Eucharist. Streaming:
leicestercathedral.org
LICHFIELD: 8 HC; 10.30 Choral
Eucharist; 3.30 Choral Evensong.
Streaming via: lichfield-cathedral.org
LINCOLN: 7.45 Litany; 8 HC; 9.15
Mattins; 10 Sung Eucharist, Canon Dr
Hugh Jones; 12.30 HC; 3.45 Choral
Evensong, Rev Richard Crossland.
LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN
CATHEDRAL: Masses 9, 10, 11 (Solemn)
and 7; 3 Choral Evening Prayer. Mass at
11 streamed: liverpoolmetrocathedral.
org.uk
LLANDAFF: 8 Holy Eucharist; 9 All Age
Eucharist; 11 Choral Eucharist; 4
Choral Evensong. Streaming details:
llandaffcathedral.org.uk
MANCHESTER: 8.45 Mattins followed
by HC; 10.30 Sung Eucharist; 5.30
Choral Evensong. Streaming details:
manchestercathedral.org
NEWCASTLE: 8 Eucharist; 10 Sung
Eucharist, Very Rev Jane Hedges,

Interim Dean; 4 Choral Evensong.
Streaming details: newcastlecathedral.
org.uk
NORWICH: 7.30 Morning Prayer; 8
HC; 10.30 Sung Eucharist, Canon Peter
Doll; 3.30 Evensong with the
Admission of Choristers, Precentor; 6
Stations of the Cross.
OXFORD: 7.30 Said Mattins; 8 HC
(BCP); 9 College Communion; 11 Choral
Eucharist, Canon Sally Welch; 6 Choral
Evensong.
PETERBOROUGH: 8 HC; 9.15 Mattins;
10.30 Cathedral Eucharist, Precentor;
3.30 Choral Evensong in Thanksgiving
for the County of Rutland, Bishop of
Brixworth. Streaming details:
peterborough-cathedral.org.uk
PORTSMOUTH: 8 HC; 9.30 Pompey
Sundays; 11 Sung Eucharist; 5.45 Choral
Evensong. Streaming details:
portsmouthcathedral.org.uk
RIPON: 8 HC, Sarah Tipley; 9.30
Mattins; 10.30 Sung Eucharist, Bishop
of Kirkstall; 12.30 HC; 3.30 Evensong;
5.30 Eucharist with laying on of hands
and prayers for healing, Rev Richard
Barber.
ROCHESTER: 8 HC; 9.30 Choral
Mattins; 10.30 Cathedral Eucharist,
Chancellor; 3.15 Choral Evensong.
ST ALBANS: 8 Eucharist; 9.30 Parish
Eucharist, Canon Will Gibbs; 11.15
Choral Eucharist, Dean; 6 Evensong,
Chancellor; 8.30 Compline led by
20-30s group. Streaming details:
stalbanscathedral.org
ST ASAPH: 11 Cathedral Eucharist,
Canon Michael Balkwill; 3.30 Choral
Evensong.
ST DAVIDS: 8 Holy Eucharist; 9.30
Parish Communion, Rev Richard
Davies; 11.15 Choral Eucharist, Canon
in Residence; 4 Choral Evensong,
Precentor.
ST EDMUNDSBURY and IPSWICH: 8
HC; 9 All Age Eucharist; 10.30 Sung
Eucharist, Rev Alison Miller; 3.30
Choral Evensong. Streaming details:
stedscathedral.org
SALISBURY: 8 HC; 9.15 Choral Mattins;
10.30 Eucharist, Dean; 4.30 Choral
Evensong with Rule of Law. Bishop.
Streaming details: salisburycathedral.
org.uk
SHEFFIELD: 10.30 Cathedral
Eucharist, Theologian; 4 Choral
Evensong, Precentor.
SOUTHWELL: 7.40 Litany; 8 HC, Rev
Erika Kirk; 10 Cathedral Eucharist, Rev
David McCoulough; 11.15 Sung
Eucharist, Theologian; 3.30 Evensong,
Missioner. Streaming details:
southwellminster.org
TRURO: 7.30 Morning Prayer; 8 HC; 10
Solemn Eucharist, Archdeacon of
Cornwall; 4 Evensong, Dean.
Streaming details: trurocathedral.org.
uk
WAKEFIELD: 8 HC; 9.15 Eucharist; 11
Sung Eucharist; 3.30 Choral Evensong.
WELLS: 8.30 HC; 10.30 Cathedral
Eucharist, Ven Anne Gell, Acting Dean;
3 Choral Evensong in celebration of
the formation of Somerset Council,
Bishop of Taunton.
WINCHESTER: 7.40 Said Mattins; 8
HC; 11 Sung Eucharist, Rev Angi Nutt;
3.30 Evensong, Canon Andy Trenier.
Streaming details: winchestercathedral.org.uk
WORCESTER: 7.30 Morning Prayer; 8
HC; 10.30 Sung Eucharist, Dean; 4
Evensong; 6.30 Organ Devotion,
Nicholas Freestone. Streaming details:
worcestercathedral.co.uk
YORK: 8 HC; 10 Mattins; 11 Sung
Eucharist, Precentor; 4 Evensong,
Canon Peter Collier. Streaming details:
yorkminster.org

Church services tomorrow
Third Sunday of Lent
ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL: 8 HC; 10
Mattins; 11.15 Sung Eucharist,
Succentor; 3 Evensong, Precentor;
5.30 Eucharist.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY: 8 HC; 10
Mattins; 11.15 Sung Eucharist, Rev Dr
James Hawkey; 3 Evensong, Rt Rev
Anthony Ball; 5 Organ Recital,
Matthew Jorysz; 6 HC with hymns,
Rev Dr James Hawkey.
SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL: 8.30
Morning Prayer; 9 Eucharist,
Chancellor; 11 Choral Eucharist,
Chancellor; 3 Choral Evensong,
Missioner; 6 Compline, online only,
Chancellor. Streaming details:
cathedral.southwark.anglican.org
ALL HALLOWS BY THE TOWER: 11
Parish Sung Eucharist, Martin Carr.
Streaming: ahbtt.org.uk
ALL SAINTS, Margaret St: 11 High
Mass, Rev Dr Barry Orford; 6 Evensong
and Benediction. Streaming: asms.uk
ALL SOULS, Langham Place: Worship
at 9.30 and 11.30 Charlie Skrine, 5.30
Ollie Lansdowne.
GROSVENOR CHAPEL, South Audley
Street: 11 Sung Eucharist, Fr Alan
McCormack.
HTB Brompton Rd: Informal Service
9.30, 11.30 and 5 Nikki Marfleet. 11.30
Service streamed: htb.org
HTB Onslow Square: Informal Service
10.30, 4.30 and 6.30 Nakita Ainsworth.
11.30 Service streamed: htb.org
HOLY TRINITY, Sloane Square: 11 Sung
Eucharist, Rev Yaroslav Sky Walker.
ST BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT,
Cloth Fair: 9 Said Eucharist, Rector; 10
Family Eucharist, Fr Evan McWilliams;
11 Choral Eucharist, Rector; 5 Choral
Evensong, Fr Martin Freeman.
Streaming details: greatstbarts.com
ST BRIDE’S, Fleet St: 11 Choral
Eucharist, Rector; 5.30 Choral
Evensong with Sermon in Music.
Streaming details: stbrides.com
ST GEORGE’S, Windsor: 8.30 HC; 10.45
Sung Mattins, Rev Jonathan Coore; 12
Sung Eucharist; 5.15 Evensong.
ST GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS: 11 Sung HC,
Rev Tom Sander; 6.30 Evensong, Wil
James.
ST JAMES GARLICKHYTHE, Garlick
Hill: 10.30 Sung Eucharist. Streaming:
stjamesgarlickhythe.org
ST JAMES’S, Piccadilly: 11 Eucharist,
Rev Dr Ivan Khovacs; 3 Choral
Evensong. Streaming via: sjp.org.uk
ST JAMES’S, Sussex Gardens: 10.30
High Mass; 6 Evensong and
Benediction. Streaming via:
stjamespaddington.org.uk
ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS: 10
Eucharist, Rev Sally Hitchiner, also via
stmartins.digital; 1.30 Eucharist in
Cantonese; 5 Choral Evensong.
ST MARYLEBONE, Marylebone Rd:
8.30 HC, Rev Stephen Hearn; 11 Choral
Eucharist, Rev Stephen Hearn.
Streaming details: marylebone.org
ST PAUL’S, Covent Gdn: 11 Eucharist; 4
Choral Evensong. Streaming:
actorschurch.org
ST PAUL’S, Knightsbridge: 9.30
Morning Prayer; 11 Solemn Eucharist,
Fr Victor Stock. Streaming: spkb.org
TEMPLE CHURCH: 8.30 HC; 11.15
Choral Communion, Master of the
Temple. Streaming via: templechurch.
com
KING’S CHAPEL, Savoy Hill: 11 Chapel
Eucharist, Canon Thomas Woodhouse.
CHAPEL ROYAL, Hampton Court
Palace: 8.30 HC; 11 Choral Mattins,
Chaplain; 3.30 Choral Evensong.
CHAPEL ROYAL, St James’s Palace:
11.15 HC, Rev Hugh Bearn.

CHAPEL ROYAL of St Peter ad Vincula,
Tower: 9.15 HC and 11 Choral Mattins,
Canon Roger Hall.
GUARDS CHAPEL, Wellington
Barracks: 11 Mattins; Band of the Royal
Yeomanry, Rev Martin Wainwright; 12
HC (said). Service details:
householddivision.org.uk/guardschapel
OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE
CHAPEL: 11 Choral Eucharist, Rev
Faith Wakeling.
CROWN COURT (C-o-S), Covent
Garden: 11.15 Morning Worship, Rev
Chris Kellock; 3 Gaelic Service,
Duncan Sneddon. Recorded service:
crowncourtchurch.org.uk
ST COLUMBA’S (C-o-S), Pont Street: 11
Morning Service, Rev William
McLaren. Streaming: stcolumbas.org.
uk
WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL: Masses:
8, 10 (Sung), 12 (Sung Solemn), 5.30
(Sung) and 7; 9.30 Sung Morning
Prayer; 4 Solemn Vespers and
Benediction. Mass at 12 streamed:
westminstercathedral.org.uk
THE ORATORY, Brompton Rd: Masses:
8, 9, 10 (Family), 11 (Solemn Latin),
12.30, 4.30, 7; 3.30 Sung Vespers and
Benediction.
GREEK ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL,
Moscow Rd: 9.30 Mattins and Divine
Liturgy.
SALVATION ARMY, Oxford St: 11
Morning Worship, Major Geoff Chape.
Streaming: salvationarmy.org.uk/
regent-hall
WESLEY’S CHAPEL, City Rd: 9.45 HC,
Rev Steven Cooper; 11 Morning
Service, Rev Steven Cooper. Streaming
details: wesleyschapel.org.uk
WESTMINSTER CHAPEL,
Buckingham Gate: 11 Morning Service.
Streaming: westminsterchapel.org.uk
WESTMINSTER METHODIST
CENTRAL HALL: 9.30 Church online;
11 Morning Worship; 6 Evening
Worship. Register and stream: mchw.
live
ARMAGH: 10 HC; 11 Choral Mattins,
Dean; 3.15 Choral Evensong.
BATH ABBEY: 8 HC; 9.30 Family
Communion; 11.30 Sung Eucharist;
3.30 Choral Evensong; 6.30 Informal
Service. Streaming details: bathabbey.
org
BIRMINGHAM: 9 HC; 11 Choral
Eucharist, Rev Colleen Shekerie; 3.30
Choral Evensong. Streaming details:
birminghamcathedral.com
BLACKBURN: 9 Parish Eucharist;
10.30 Cathedral Eucharist; 4 Choral
Evensong. Streaming details:
blackburncathedral.com
BRADFORD: 8 Common Prayer (BCP),
Canon Ned Lunn; 10.30 Eucharist,
Canon Ned Lunn; 3.30 Choral
Evensong, Rev Colin Penfold.
Streaming details: bradfordcathedral.
org
BRISTOL: 7.40 Morning Prayer; 8 HC,
Canon Nicola Stanley; 10 Cathedral
Eucharist, Rev Dr Minty Hull; 3.30
Choral Evensong, Canon Jonnie
Parkin.
CAMBRIDGE: 8.30 Student
Communion; 10.30 Sung Eucharist,
Chaplain; 6 Organ Recital, Andreana
Chan; 6.30 Evensong, Prof Helen
Wilcox.
CANTERBURY: 8 HC; 9.15 Mattins; 11
Sung Eucharist, Vice Dean; 5.30 Choral
Evensong. Streaming via: canterburycathedral.org
CARLISLE: 7.40 Morning Prayer; 8 HC;
10.30 Sung Eucharist with Admission
of Boy Choristers, Rev Dr B. Stanley; 3
Choral Evensong. Streaming details:
carlislecathedral.org.uk

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The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

31

Obituaries

Lynn Seymour

Sacred Mysteries

L

POPPERFOTO/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

YNN SEYMOUR, the ballerina who has
died on the eve of her 84th birthday,
was alongside Margot Fonteyn the
Royal Ballet’s most idolised and influential
dancer: she unleashed an unconstrained
emotional daring and a sense of modernity
on to an English ballet style which Fonteyn
had stamped with graceful decorum.
The Royal Ballet founder Ninette de
Valois rated Lynn Seymour the greatest
dramatic dancer in half a century, and she
inspired the creation of masterpieces that
changed audience expectations of ballet,
bringing to life excitingly flawed characters
and their often challenging behaviour. Her
instinct to find realistic human touches in
the idealised women of 19th-century
classics had a marked influence on the
performers of today.
In particular, her creative partnership
and intimate understanding with the
choreographer Kenneth MacMillan
generated much of the core British ballet
repertoire of the time, from adventurous
one-act works exploring the psychology of
imprisonment or sexual urges, to his
ambitious full-evening dramatic ballets
Romeo and Juliet, Anastasia and Mayerling.
Notoriously, for commercial reasons the
young Lynn Seymour, despite being
MacMillan’s Juliet in the studio, was denied
the 1965 first night of Romeo and Juliet,
which was given to the celebrated
partnership of Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev,
and had to appear instead in a later cast.
Newly married and pregnant, Lynn
Seymour had decided to have an abortion so
as to be available, but found herself instead
teaching her role to senior ballerinas
including Fonteyn. “I know Margot didn’t
want to hurt me,” she said later. “I didn’t
blame her.”
Yet without Lynn Seymour’s injection of
impetuous contemporary directness,
British ballet’s impact on the world scene
might not have long outlasted the FonteynNureyev era.
Nureyev became a close friend. Just
watching her excited him, he said, and
“heaven descends into your lap.” Mikhail
Baryshnikov, another Russian superstar
who danced with her, described Lynn
Seymour as “all woman, one of the most
fascinating artists on the stage”. Critics
wrote of her unusualness, her “Cleopatra
arms” and “Anna Magnani-sized passions”.
She herself always felt an outsider, a
Canadian prairie girl spotted by Sadler’s
Wells Ballet on tour and brought to London
aged 15. Comparing herself to her wellschooled classmates, she wrote in her diary:
“I’m an earth-bound worm.” Even as a rising
star, she was no less self-critical, saying in
an interview: “You should have steel wire
somewhere inside you. I have sponge
rubber.”
Her penchant for huge hats, earrings,
sunglasses and cheroots had an air of
armour, and she once likened the artistic life
to a bullfight: “Everyone is waiting for a
bucket of blood. I think you ought to let
every vein.”
She was born Bertha Lynn Springbett in
Alberta on March 8 1939, an open-air child.
Her mother Marjorie, née McIvor, had gone
to school by horseback. Lynn was the
second child of Marjorie’s marriage to Ed
Springbett, a dentist. Her brother, Bruce,
would represent Canada in the 220 yards at
the 1954 Commonwealth Games.
Young Lynn studied ballet in Vancouver
with Jean Jepson, whose tap-dancing
lessons she credited with igniting her own
latent musicality. At 15 she auditioned for
Frederick Ashton when the Sadler’s Wells
Ballet toured to Vancouver, and she won a
scholarship to train in London.
Joining the Sadler’s Wells company two
years later, she was immediately cast by
MacMillan as the lead in an early work, The
Burrow, and from then on had the close
attention of both the leading
choreographers, as well as de Valois, who
considered her “special”.
Promoted to the top rank aged only 20,
she inspired MacMillan’s devastating

Lynn Seymour in 1961: Rudolf Nureyev said that when watching her, ‘heaven descends into your lap’

child-abuse drama The Invitation (1960) on
the one hand, and Ashton’s witty The Two
Pigeons (1961) on the other. The young Lynn
Seymour carried off both with utter
conviction. She was also able to bamboozle
audiences with her gentle beauty even in
demanding classical feats – debuting in
Swan Lake, with its infamous 32 fouettés,
she could only manage eight, but her
partner Donald MacLeary manfully
improvised multiple leaps to fill for her, and
the audience remained spellbound.
As MacMillan prepared his harrowing The
Invitation, she suggested a classmate from
school, Christopher Gable, as her partner,
and, soon after, Ashton capitalised on the
success of their pairing with The Two
Pigeons. Gable and Lynn Seymour became
the iconic new couple representing modern
youth, and MacMillan’s choice in 1964 as the
lovers in his new Romeo and Juliet. He also
homed in on them for his sensuous triangle
ballet, Images of Love, inspired by
Shakespeare’s sonnet, “Two loves I have of
comfort and despair”, in which she was the
dark angel and Gable the light, with
Nureyev torn erotically between the two.
It was the start of a lifelong friendship
between Lynn Seymour and Nureyev which
was not touched by the Romeo and Juliet
debacle the following year.
The scandal did, however, sever
MacMillan and Lynn Seymour’s relations
with the Royal Ballet, and in 1966 Lynn
Seymour went with MacMillan when he
quit to head the Berlin Opera Ballet. She
scoffed at rumours that she and MacMillan
were lovers, admitting only the intimacy of
creative activity: “We just all lived in each
other’s pockets, that’s all.”
In Berlin she premiered MacMillan’s
beautiful abstract ballet set to music by
Shostakovich, Concerto – her fluidity of
movement inspired its second movement –
and his first version of Anastasia, an
innovative, expressionist work about the
mental patient who claimed she was the last
Romanov princess. A relationship with a

dancer, Eike Walcz, produced twin boys in
1968, but Lynn Seymour’s work ethic did
not flag. She took up multiple guest
invitations, especially to Canada, where she
danced what Nureyev thought one of her
best roles, the delicate, mischievous early
19th century La Sylphide. She left a lasting
impact on Canada’s developing ballet.
When MacMillan was appointed the
Royal Ballet’s new director in 1970, she
returned again with him, and premiered
four of her greatest roles. Two were
MacMillan’s, as Anastasia again in a new
full-length version (she was hailed as
“funny, tragic, miraculous”); and, though
nearing 40, as the shockingly clingy and
obsessed teenager Mary Vetsera in the 1978
drama about Crown Prince Rudolf,
Mayerling – now an international classic.
In total contrast, Ashton created for her a
poignant bored-housewife role in A Month
in the Country, using a Turgenev short story,
in which she falls for her children’s tutor;
and a luscious barefoot solo set to Brahms
waltzes, in which he explored Lynn
Seymour’s evocativeness of his memories of

Lynn Seymour as Ophelia and Nureyev as
Hamlet in Robert Helpmann’s ballet Hamlet

Isadora Duncan, the daringly unfettered
modern dance pioneer.
Meanwhile, she showed her classical
lyricism and deep musicality in The Sleeping
Beauty; Ashton’s Cinderella; and some
plotless ballets by Jerome Robbins and
MacMillan. From time to time, however, the
rebel emerged: as Terpsichore in
Balanchine’s Apollo, she wore her short
curly hair instead of the conventional bun,
and she once showed her disdain for a tarty
role MacMillan had created for her in The
Seven Deadly Sins by turning her backside to
the audience at curtain call.
Often struggling with her weight and
with depression, with three sons but
sometimes no husband, Lynn Seymour had
a rocky life despite her world renown, and
in 1980 she left the Royal Ballet for the
second time. She took up a more selective
world schedule as a guest star, often
alongside Nureyev, and explored
choreography, and film and television
acting.
Yet nearly a decade later – at nearly 50
– she returned to the stage in unforgettable
performances as Tatiana in John Cranko’s
Pushkin ballet, Onegin, for London Festival
Ballet, and as Anastasia on the Royal Ballet’s
New York tour. More recently she
performed character roles with Second
Stride; at Christopher Gable’s Northern
Ballet Theatre; and in Matthew Bourne’s
Swan Lake (as the Queen) and Cinderella (as
the original Stepmother).
She choreographed several works
between 1973 and 1988 for the Royal Ballet
and Sadler’s Wells companies, Ballet
Rambert and the London Contemporary
Dance Theatre.
Lynn Seymour had two short spells as
artistic director in Munich and Athens. In
1978-79 she headed the Bavarian Opera
Ballet of Munich, where she brought
Nureyev and Natalia Makarova as star
guests and showcased the young William
Forsythe (now a celebrated name in
choreography). She also filmed Giselle with
Nureyev, a rare record of her work, though
unofficial glimpses remain on YouTube. In
2006-07 she co-directed the Greek National
Ballet with Irek Mukhamedov.
As an actress she played alongside Gert
(Goldfinger) Fröbe and Michael Gough in the
Canadian children’s series The Little
Vampire, appeared in Herbert Ross’s 1987
film Dancers, starring Baryshnikov, and
portrayed the colourful Ballets Russes
ballerina Lydia Lopokova in Derek Jarman’s
Wittgenstein (1993).
Karin Altman’s documentary, Lynn
Seymour: In a Class of Her Own, appeared in
1979, and a biography by Richard Austin in
1980. She published an autobiography,
Lynn, in 1984.
Lynn Seymour was outspoken and
sometimes provocative about the art to
which she was devoted. In the late 1960s she
declared ballet “the most boring, decadent
art form that exists. It’s essentially a dead
form with a dead hierarchy.” But this belied
her intelligent obsession with
expressiveness in movement, and she was a
remarkable coach to younger performers.
She decried what she considered the
neglect by the Royal Ballet of the vanishing
oeuvres, calling for a national ballet trust to
establish a central training core and stylistic
heritage of key British dance works.
Lynn Seymour was appointed CBE in
1976. Portraits of her by the photographer
Bill Brandt and sculptor Andrew Logan
hang in the National Portrait Gallery. The
Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance
was established in 2000 at the Royal Ballet
School.
In addition to her relationship and
children with Eike Walcz, she was married
and divorced three times: to the
photographer and dancer Colin Jones, the
photographer Philip Pace, producing her
third son, and to Vanya Hackel. Her children
survive her.
Lynn Seymour, born March 8 1939, died
March 7 2023

Graham Newbould
Royal chef in the 1980s who made the Queen ‘penny’ sandwiches and boiled rabbit for the corgis

JONTY WILDE/TELEVISION STILLS

G

RAHAM NEWBOULD, who has died
suddenly aged 66, was a gifted chef
who spent two years (1980-82)
working for the Queen at Buckingham
Palace and aboard the Royal Yacht and
another four and a half as personal chef to
the then Prince and Princess of Wales.
Asked by a journalist in 1987 what it was
like working for the Royal family, he
replied: “I’ve signed the Official Secrets Act,
and anything to do with the Royal family is
taboo.’’ But when asked if he had a hand in
helping the Princess of Wales keep her slim
figure, he joked: “I’m the one who keeps her
on the front pages.’’
He resigned in 1987 to become the chef at
the upmarket Inverlochy Castle hotel, near
Fort William in Scotland, where he gained a
Michelin star, and in 2002 presented Secrets
of the Royal Kitchen, a light-hearted
documentary made for Channel 5 in 2002.
The royals, he revealed, “like simple but
elegant food, not too spicy, not too big or
too small portions.” The Queen and Duke of
Edinburgh would begin the day at 8.00am
with a cooked breakfast. Lunch was at
1:15pm, high tea at 5pm, dinner at 8:15pm.
“Everything had to be well-presented and
elegant. But they weren’t too mad about
decoration, so you might just serve flaked
salmon on a plate with mayonnaise,”
Newbould recalled. Garlic was banned. The
Queen particularly enjoyed “minute”
Haddock St Germain, her own version of
fish and chips, consisting of small pieces of
pan-fried haddock in bread crumbs, with
chips and Béarnaise sauce.
If the Queen had one quirk it was her
fondness for “penny” sandwiches at high
tea – the corners trimmed, according to
Newbould, “because tradition has it that

Newbould: at breakfast the then Prince of Wales
liked granary toast with six types of honey

anyone presenting … pointed-edged food is
trying to overthrow the throne of England”.
Newbould’s duties also extended to
cooking for the royal pets, but while the
corgis were treated to chopped-up boiled
lamb’s liver or rabbit with rice and cabbage,
the gundogs had to make do with tripe.
Christmas at Sandringham offered
Newbould a rare chance to spread his
culinary wings. The family were not keen
on mince pies or Christmas pudding, “so I
could be quite bold with, say, a piña colada
mousse with a raspberry coulis”.
In 1981 he was one of the cooks who
helped to prepare the wedding breakfast
(actually a lunch) for the Prince and Princess
of Wales, consisting of quenelles of brill with
lobster sauce, lamb-mousse stuffed chicken
breast, and strawberries and cream. When

the couple returned from their honeymoon,
they asked Newbould if he would become
one of their two personal chefs.
This meant no more cooked breakfasts:
“The Prince would have a glass of freshly
squeezed orange or apple juice and a small
bowl of fresh fruit salad. Then he would
have muesli with six different types of dried
fruit, apricots, peaches, figs, plums, apples
and pears, served with milk from the Royal
Dairy at Windsor. He would then have
granary toast with six different types of
honey. He would cut his toast up and try a
little bit of honey on each.”
The Princess drank instant coffee and
would also have cereal, usually muesli or
bran flakes, and sprinkle wheatgerm on top.
She would then have toast with marmalade
and a fruit yoghurt.
The royal couple, Newbould recalled,
usually had a light lunch and did not usually
have high tea unless they were at Highgrove
and the Prince had been hunting or playing
polo. In that case he would have a soft boiled
egg with Vegemite (the Australian version of
Marmite) soldiers.
Newbould revealed that whenever the
Prince went travelling, he took a “breakfast
box” with him, containing his honey
collection, various special mueslis, his dried
fruit “and anything that’s a bit special that
he is a bit fussy about”.
The only tensions Newbould detected in
the royal marriage related to jacket
potatoes. On the Princess’s instructions he
would make her sons baked potatoes with
lightly poached eggs on top, drizzled with
cheese sauce and sprinkled with parmesan:
“She was a great fan of that type of food.
Less so the Prince.”
A convivial figure who nevertheless

approached his work with total seriousness,
Newbould described his life in the royal
household as excellent fun, though he
recalled once having to discipline a young
Prince William for pelting him with golf
balls.
Newbould left the royal employ in 1987,
“young and ambitious, and keen to get my
own Michelin star”.
He was born on August 1 1956 in
Wakefield, Yorkshire, the older of two sons
of Bryan and Marion Newbould. After
school he attended catering college before
training under Michel Bourdin at the
Connaught in London, where he rose to be
chef poissonnier before going on to work for
the Royal family.
After gaining his star at Inverlochy Castle,
he moved to Barbados as chef at the
Treasure Beach hotel; from there he went to
Grenada to be head chef at the Calabash.
Returning to England, he set up a restaurant
at The George, on the road from Ripon to
Harrogate, its walls covered with
memorabilia from his time in royal service.
His last job was as chef to the Duke of
Bedford at Woburn Abbey.
Graham Newbould was an honorary
member of the Académie culinaire de
France and an officer of the Club des Chef
des Chefs, a gastronomic association limited
to chefs serving emperors, kings, queens,
princes, princesses and presidents.
Newbould was twice married. His first
marriage, to Joy, ended in divorce. He is
survived by his second wife Heather along
with their son and a daughter and son from
the first marriage.
Graham Newbould, born August 1 1956,
died March 2 2023

CHRISTOPHER HOWSE

I

n the middle of a tutorial
that Dr Malcolm Vale was
giving, the phone rang
and the college clerk of
works said that some sort of
tapestry had been found in
the loft of the President’s
Lodgings. Did he want to
take a look before it was
thrown out? He did, and the
tutorial was postponed.
The object turned out to
be a rare treasure from the
16th century, a liturgical
banner depicting St John the
Baptist. The emblem the
saint held, of the Lamb and
Flag, is familiar from the pub
owned by St John’s College,
Oxford.
The rest of the
incomparable college
collection of medieval
vestments, embroidered and
painted in gold, was scarcely
known when Dr Vale was
first shown it in 1978 by Sir
Howard Colvin, the
architectural historian. “Had
I been a conservator,” Dr
Vale recalled this week, “I
would have had a nightmare.
They were rolled or folded,
so that the threads had
broken off at the fold.”
How the vestments had
survived at all has since
been pieced together. The
story was told this week in a
two-day conference at St
John’s. Medieval
embroidery, in which
England excelled, has
become popular among
academics in the past decade
or so, and reflects the past
religious life of Oxford, the
country and of Europe.
St John’s was founded by
Sir Thomas White, a London
alderman, in 1555 during the
reign of Queen Mary. White
supported her idea of
returning England to the
Catholic faith. Mary
inconveniently died, and,
though the college went
through a period of Catholic
tendencies (with Fellows
such as Edmund Campion
leaving to be ordained
abroad), it fell back into
Calvinist conformity during
the late 16th century.
After the founder’s death,
the vestments were
returned to the college by
his niece, Amy Leech (who,
it happens, was the greatgreat-great-grandmother of
Jane Austen). She lived in
the manor house at Fyfield, a
large estate bought by White
as part of his college
endowment. There, perhaps
waiting for better days, she
had kept the vestments that
had been part of her uncle’s

gift to set up the chapel for a
traditional liturgy. (The
chapel had been adapted
from the one left at the
dissolution of the
monasteries by the
Cistercians evicted from
their College of St Bernard.)
Thomas White’s plans
were elucidated further in
2003 by the discovery of the
college coat of arms on a
triptych owned by
Southampton City Art
Gallery. The painting, by
Goossen van der Weyden
showed the debate in which
St Catherine of Alexandria
trounced 50 philosophers. It
would have served, with
suitable irony at academic
pretensions, as an altarpiece
in the college chapel.
As for the vestments, they
survived by neglect and
luck. A 1602 inventory
called them “old
superstitiouse church
ornaments”. They include
gold-embroidered copes.
Copes were allowed in the

CHRIS ANDREWS

Ballerina who shone in the classics and embodied the rebellious and flawed heroines of 1960s dance

Treasures of gold thread
preserved by neglect

The Five Wounds of Christ on
St John’s 16th-century banner

Church of England, but not
orphreys (panels) depicting
saints, or dalmatics for
deacons at Mass, least of all a
large red liturgical banner
showing the Virgin Mary
assumed into heaven above
a border with the emblem of
the Five Wounds of Christ
(taken up in 1536 by the
anti-Reformation rebellion
of the Pilgrimage of Grace).
This was the gift of one
Thomas Campion, perhaps a
relation of Edmund’s.
Later the vestments were
casually referred to as
“Laudian”, though they long
predated the college
presidency of William Laud,
the Archbishop of
Canterbury committed to
the “beauty of holiness” and
executed in 1645.
Today they are kept in an
exhibition room, open to the
public, in obscure Oxford
style, each term on the
Saturday of seventh week.

32

**

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Markets

Recruiter has record
year as companies
race to hire workers
reported a record pre-tax
profit of £55.6m in 2022, a
jump of more than a 10th on
the previous year. Revenues
also climbed 13pc to break
the £1bn mark.
Recruiting firms enjoyed a
lucrative boom last year as
employers rushed to fill
vacancies caused by pandemic-induced lockdowns.
Robert Walters specialises
in the recruitment of staff in
the legal, accountancy and
tech sectors, which experienced a significant hiring
boom last year.
Mr Walters said: “The
Ukraine conflict, a high inflation and high interest rate
environment, significant
cutbacks across the global
te chnolog y marke t and
Covid-enforced lockdowns
in mainland China all had a
cumulative effect on market
confidence.”
However, Mr Walters
warned that growing economic uncertainty has
caused the market to cool in
recent months.
He added that it was “too
early to tell whether this is a
short-lived correction or a
more prolonged economic
slowdown”.
Shares rose 4pc to 513p in
late trade, valuing the company at £385m.

By Simon Foy
RECRUITER Robert Walters
posted a record year after a
tight labour market left
companies scrambling to
hire staff.
The London-listed company also announced that
its eponymous founder will
be stepping down after
nearly four decades leading
the business.
Robert Walters will resign
from the board at the end of
April and will be replaced by
Toby Fowlston, an executive
who has worked at the company for 23 years.
Leslie Van de Walle, the
company’s chairman, said of
Mr Walters: “During his tenure, he has helped the group
successfully navigate the
dotcom bust, the global
financial crisis and a global
pandemic and he will leave
the group next month in
great shape to continue its
growth story. I know I speak
on behalf of the board and all
of the group’s employees in
thanking Rob for all his years
of leadership.”
Last month, bigger London-listed rival Hays also
said it was looking for a successor to long-serving chief
executive Alistair Cox. It
came as Robert Walters

Berkeley ‘cautious’ as
property sales slump
who have both said they
would reduce the number of
homes they build.
J e n n i e D a l y, T a y l o r
Wimpey chief executive, said
she hoped Jeremy Hunt, the
Chancellor, would act to end
economic uncertainty in his
Budget on Wednesday.
“The first thing we would
be hoping for is stability,” she
said. “And I hope we’re not
going to experience the same
sort of uncertainty we did at
the end of September.
“The Chancellor has to
strike the right balance of
supporting the economy,
sorting out housing and getting inflation under control.”
This drop in sales demand
came as lender Nationwide
said that house prices fell at
their fastest rate in more than
a decade in February.
On a monthly basis, house
prices fell for the sixth time
in a row and declined by
0.5pc to £257,406 between
January and February.
Buyer demand has been
dampened by double-digit
inflation, higher borrowing
costs and the worst cost of
living crisis in a generation.

By Riya Makwana
ONE of Britain’s biggest
housebuilders has warned it
will take a “cautious
approach” to putting new
homes on the market as its
sales slump.
The housebuilder said it
would focus on controlling
costs, while adding that
building cost inflation was
“showing early signs of moderating”. Berkeley Homes
said in a trading statement
yesterday: “Whilst the prevailing volatility in the market persists, Berkeley will
continue to match supply to
demand, adopting a cautious
approach to releasing new
phases to the market.”
Berkeley Homes also said
that its sales levels have
remained stagnant since
December last year, which
was around 25pc lower than
before Liz Truss’s disastrous
mini-Budget shook the housing market in September.
This slowdown in the
property market has been
reported by several housebuilders including Taylor
Wimpey and Persimmon,

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

Winners and losers (pc)
© Electricity

-166.20

-2.21pc

ª Brazil

Bovespa

103618.20

-1452.99

-1.38pc

ª China

Shanghai Composite

3230.08

-46.02

-1.40pc

CAC General

7220.67

-95.21

-1.30pc

ª Germany
ª India

DAX

15427.97

-205.24

-1.31pc

Hang Seng

19319.92

-605.82

-3.04pc

BSE S&P SENSEX

59135.13

-671.15

-1.12pc

ª Japan

Nikkei

28143.97

-479.18

-1.67pc

Straits Times

3177.43

-37.08

-1.15pc

ª Spain

Madrid SE

923.53

-14.12

-1.51pc

ª Switzerland

SMI Index

10765.26

-183.59

-1.68pc

ª USA

Dow Jones

31909.64

-345.22

-1.07pc

ª USA

Nasdaq

11138.89

-199.47

-1.76pc

ª Singapore

Commodities summary

0.12

© Gold

per troy oz

© Silver

per troy oz

© Krugerrand
© New Sovereign
© Maples
ª Palladium
ª Tin†

ª Aluminium†

Price(£) +/- Yld

P/E

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

95 BlackRockEnrgy&Res 130

-7¼ 3.4

139

536⅝

434 Scot American ●

499*

-8 2.8

518

35

678¼ -23¼ 0.5

17 Hammerson ●

25

-⅞ 1.6

—

Price(£) +/- Yld

P/E

596

332¼ CML Micro

575 -12½ 1.7

77.2
21.3

144½

116½ BlckRock FroInv

138½ -½ 4.1

147

1081⅞ 668⅜ Scot Mortgage

830

454¾

292¼ Helical

326½ -5½ 3.5

4.5

574⅝

384 Cohort

480 -21½ 2.6

-3 4.8

17.6

568

396 BlckRck Grt Euro

512

-10 1.3

559

242

209 Sec Tst of Scot

-5 2.9

218

1423

744½ Safestore ●

934½* -9 3.2

—

1⅜

¾ Deltex Medical

1⅛

—

—

-6.8

ª Information technology

-1.40

82⅜

50¼ Coats Group ●

78¼

-¾ 2.6 -96.7

206

164 BlckRck Inc&Grth

191½* -1½ 3.8

213

178¼

92⅞ Shaftesbury Capital ●123¼* -5 2.8

36.3

1252

750 Savills ●

952½ -13 3.7

9.1

107½

62 Eleco

75

-½ 0.8

22.7

1300

620 Cropper J

667½ -17½ 1.4

47.0

457

330 BlackRock Latin

356

-11 6.0

419

1666

1120 Smithson Inv Tst ●

1351

-31 —

1508

1408

669¼ Segro

770⅝ -8⅝ 3.4

—

107

65 Finsbury Food

102

-1½ 2.5

12.1

ª Pharmaceuticals

-1.44
3980

2350 Goodwin

3565

-5 3.0

21.1

215

183¼ BlckRckSustAmInc 196½

-5 4.1

207

487½

263 TR Property ●

296

-7 5.0

337

182⅜

123½ Town Centre

150½

-1 3.3

—

58

24⅛ Futura Medical

52

-¼ —

-28.4

21.0

1708

1162 BlackRock Small ●

1336 -22 2.7

1570

166

128⅝ Tmpletn Em Mt ●

148¼ -3¼ 3.2

173

251⅜

120⅛ Tritax Big Box ●

137¼* -¼ 5.1

190

37

25

+1

—

28.1

767

478 BlkRk Throg Tst ●

585*

-7 1.9

633

78

64⅜ Troy Inc & Gr

68¾ -1⅜ 2.9

72

178

98⅜ Warehouse REIT ●

100¾* -1¼ 6.5

151

258½

192

— 4.0

19.8

335¼ Workspace Gp ●

459¾ -14 5.0

—

1339 -26 0.2

-9.1

ª Construction

-1.49

1641

1069 IMI ●

1541 -46 1.7

ª Aerospace & defence

-1.82

169¼

94⅞ Melrose Ind

162½* -2½ 1.4 -22.3

ª Engineering / Industrial

1334½ -29½ 4.6

-1.88

ª General financial

-1.95

ª Retailers

-2.01

ª Media

-2.02

ª Transport

211

6.2

805

524 BlackRock Wld M ● 668* -10 6.0

671

126¼

115 UIL Fin ZDP 2024

123½

—

—

128

735⅝

+1⅛ 5.2

12.2

1115

888 Brunner

1060* -17½ 2.0 1203

117⅝

104 UIL Fin ZDP 2026

114

—

—

127

Retailers -2.01%

1352½ Smiths Gp

1734½ -16 2.3

6.5

4065

3015 Caledonia ●

3495 -75 1.9

4991

227½

196 Utilico Emerg

214*

— 3.9

252

-4 2.6

252

1719

1326 Mondi

75½

46⅝ Severfield

1807

62

369⅛

238⅛ Smith (DS)

322⅝ -4¼ 5.0

15.8

432

366½ City of Lon ●

417½

-8 4.8

416

237½

199¾ Witan ●

225*

3798⅝

2415 Smurfit Kappa

3058 -90 4.0

9.5

232⅛

147½ CQS Nat Res G & I

180½ -7½ 3.1

221

3500

2820 Worldw HealthTr ●

3085 -70 0.9 3434

13140

9008 Spirax

11120 -150 1.4

36.4

270

214 CT Glbl Mgd G

235

—

—

237

Net Asset Values © 2023 Morningstar Estimated at previous
day's close see www.Morningstar.co.uk.

1556

884⅞ Videndum ●

900

-9 4.4

12.6

140

112 CT Glbl Mgd I

124

-½ 5.4

124

Media -2.02%

2072

1312 Weir

1881 -53½ 1.7

18.9

520

375½ CT Priv Eq Ord

484

-2 5.1

709

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

101

62⅝ CT Property Trust

62⅝

-1 6.4

96

23 Hornby
165½ James Halstead

1394½ 637⅜ Jet2
103¼

65 LifeScienceREIT

69

-1¼ 5.8

104

550

210 Mpac Group

305

-15 —

18.7

550

-10 1.7

17.8

216½ -1½ 6.2

17.5

44

18¾ Brown N

32¼

-½ —

12.2

746⅝

239¼ MS Intl

104¼

52⅝ Currys ●

75¼ -1½ 4.2

12.0

298¼

170 Numis

1292

659½ Dunelm ●

1242 -33 6.5

14.7

156

84¾ Premier Miton

114

— 8.8

17.4

767½ -17 —

-46.5

55

23⅝ SRT Marine Sys

38¼ -1¼ —

-10.8

-2.11

ª Chemicals

-2.23

ª Investment trusts

-2.32

ª Electricals

-2.45

Food producers -1.24%
2076

1223 Ass Brit Fds

2017 -50 2.2

1001¾ 573⅝ Frasers Group

Price (p) +/- Yld

2820

1650 Greggs ●

2660 -52 2.2

22.4

96

37 Tribal Gp

50

-½ 2.6

14.7

272½

123⅞ Halfords

190⅜ -4½ 4.7

5.0

53¾

20 Union Jack Oil

25¾

-¼ —

-31.0

—

P/E

326

256 CT UK Cap & Inc

297*

-6 4.0

315

684⅜

479¾ Auto Trader

575⅝ -13¾ 1.4

22.5

832¼

472¼ Howden Joinery ●

691⅝ -21¼ 3.0

10.5

7

1½ Xtract Resources

1½

—

-3.9

22.8

91⅜

71 CT UKHighIncTst

85½

-¾ 6.4

93

492½

340 Bloomsbury

430½

20.8

213⅛

88⅜ JD Sports Fash

173⅝ -5½ 0.3

24.2

1490

863 Young & Co – A

1068

— 1.9

18.2

535 Young & Co – N/V

790

+20 2.6

20.1

— 2.5

ª Support services

-2.85

2194

1496 Coca–Cola HBC

2146 -29 2.9

21.4

580

452¾ Dunedin Ent

542½

— 8.9

633

707⅝

498¾ Informa

690¼ -6¾ 1.4

6.2

298⅜

198⅝ Kingfisher

287⅜ -2⅜ 4.3

7.1

830

ª Insurance

-3.56

3768

2548 Cranswick ●

2974 -52 2.6

16.9

690

537 Edinburgh Inv Tr ●

670

-8 3.8

738

96⅝

54 ITV ●

85⅛ -2⅜ 5.9

8.0

101⅝

59¾ Lookers

86½ -1¾ 4.0

5.5

ª Banks

1257

495⅜ Hilton Food ●

719

-5 4.0

168¾

91½ Marks & Spen ●

158 -2⅜ —

10.1

The Alternative Investment Market is for young and growing
companies. Shares may carry higher risks than those with a
full quotation, and may be difficult to sell.

-4.32
208

96 REA Hldgs

115

+2

© 2023 Tradeweb Markets LLC. All rights reserved. The
Tradeweb FTSE Gilt Closing Prices information contained
herein is proprietary to Tradeweb; may not be copied or
re-distributed; is not warranted to be accurate, complete
or timely; and does not constitute investment advice.
Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that
might result from the use of this information.

4868⅝ 3306 Unilever

230½

154⅜ Edin Worldwide ●

155¼ -7¼ —

196

1006¼ 643¼ Pearson

852¾ -14⅝ 2.5

40.4

—

-40.9

118

74⅝ European Assets

92¼ -2½ 6.3

103

203½

64⅜ Reach

81½ -1⅜ 9.0

4.8

4069* -43 3.6

15.4

992

769 F&C Inv Trust

934

-26 1.4

964

2580

2056 RELX

2524 -51 2.2

29.6

7082

536

406¼ Fidelity Asian V

500

-4 2.8

530

679⅝

437¾ Rightmove

540¾ -15⅝ 1.6

25.4

1316½ 380¼ Ocado

277

1095½

713 WPP

984⅝ -26⅞ 4.0

15.8

29

17½ Pendragon

18¼

-¼ —

4.2

98⅛

33½ Alcoa $

46⅝ -1¼ 0.9

1.4

269⅝

71⅛ Saga

155⅜ -5⅜ —

-2.3

194⅜

130⅝ Amer Express $

166⅞ -5¼ 1.2

4.7
3.6

5.4

6968 -82 2.8

31.2

451⅛ -31½ —

-7.7

Americans -0.15%
52 week

367

189½

143 Fidelity Japan Tst

172

-6

—

197

272¼

168¾ Sainsbury J

260⅛ -2½ 5.3

8.7

44⅝

29¼ BankAmerica $

30⅜

-6 3.8 -78.6

298

232 Fidelity Sp V ●

279

-6 2.8

309

4292½ 2487½ Anglo Amer

2812

-1 5.8

9.1

1728⅞

1110 Smith WH ●

1543½ -59 0.6 -24.7

221⅜

113 Boeing $

200¼ -⅞ —

—

1031½ -5 4.3 -124.3

900

731¾ Finsbury Gwth ●

863

-20 2.1

926

1837½

971¼ Antofagasta

1541 -18½ 3.2

12.0

307¼

194⅜ Tesco

259⅝ -3¼ 4.4

266

160⅝ Caterpillar $

231⅝ -9¼ 2.1

2.6

Support services -2.85%

161¼ +¾ 3.7

3.0

735 Pennon Gp ●

860* +½ 4.6

—

3228

2167⅜ Severn Trent

2766

Mining -0.73%

163

122 Glbl Small Co Trust ● 147¼ -4⅝ 1.3

171

3040

1998⅝ BHP Group

2531½* -30 8.7

5.0

78¾

56¼ Hend Div Inc Tst

69*

-⅞ 6.4

71

127⅝

74⅛ Centamin ●

101⅞ +2⅞ 4.1

14.0

18.7

181

137¼ Hend High Inc

172

-2¼ 5.9

176

99¾

71 Evraz #

222¼ -19¼ 3.4

13.9

185

153 Hend Intl Inc

173½ -5¼ 4.3

186

996¾

788¼* -47 5.1

12.6

1020

674⅜ Hend Smaller Co ●

-20 2.9

961

797 -11½ 5.6

6.7

1290

942½ Hend Opp

1107½ -10 3.1

1297

1306½ -90 6.3

7.0

1966

1540 Herald Inv ●

1794 -74 —

2157

533

499⅛ -16¼ 5.5

9.6

457½

310 HgCapital ●

337

-8 2.2

451

185

138⅞ HICL Infrastructure ●160⅝* +1⅜ 5.1

165

General financial -1.95%
250⅝* -7⅜ 6.7

113.52 109.23 Treas 6% 28

112.67 +1.03 5.33 3.54

378¾

166¼ Bridgepoint Grp ●

126.38 97.02 Treas 4¼% 32

105.93 +1.43 4.01 3.49

1081½ 735⅝ Hargreaves L

132.72 124.42 Treas 4¼% 36

105.23 +1.87 4.04 3.74

851

144.78 96.52 Treas 4¾% 38

110.30 +1.98 4.31 3.87

1867

937 IntermediateCp ●

Price +/- GrsYd Cvr

-6 2.2

1124

646¾ IG Group ●

Low Stock

334

177¾ Ashmore ●

556¼

336¼ Investec ●

390.60 357.55 Treas 2½% IL 24 373.83 +1.05 0.67 0.35

97½

51¾ IP Group ●

55⅝ -1⅜ 2.3

-1.7

395.70 299.91 Treas 4⅛% IL 30 344.05 +3.48 1.20 0.08

1348

692 Liontrust ●

1098 -58 6.6

11.2

311.04 205.34 Treas 2% IL 35

39⅝

32¼ Lon. Fin. & Inv.

8612

6710 Lon Stock Ex

7362 -24 1.5

31.5

230

159¼ M&G

214⅝ -2⅜ 9.1

293¾

194⅜ Man Group ●

282½ -3¼ 4.6

Bunds

-⅛ —

178¼ Fidlty Chna Sp Sits ● 244½ -5½ 2.2

-8.0

286⅜

Yield%

4306 Next

8⅝

258½ Fidelity Euro Tst ●

106½ +¼ 2.8

102.29 +0.36 4.89 3.79

Spread vs Spread vs

Mothercare

351

65¾ Centrica

104.69 101.36 Treas 5% 25

247.22 +3.97 0.81 0.21

6

303½
107⅞

Flat Rdm
Price (£) +/- Yield Yield

10-year Government Bonds

13

High

52 week
High Low (£) Stock

Index Linked Securities

16.0

Gas & Water -0.16%

1186⅞ 813¼ Utd Utilities

Government securities

37

821

13.4

-⅛ 2.9

189⅝

132½ Chevron $

57⅝

41¾ Coca–Cola Euro $

54

… 3.1

1.1

+⅛ —

0.5

6012

3269 Ashtead Gp

5532 -204 1.3

35.5

83¾

67⅞ Colgate Palm $

71¼

… 2.7

1.1

637¼ Fresnillo

722¼ +9⅝ 1.9

23.7

3249

2542 Bunzl

2930 -21 2.1

20.7

79

49½ DuPontDeNemrs $

70½

-¼ 2.0

1.4

584½

395⅜ Glencore

473

-⅜ 7.7

4.3

44⅞

20 Capita

38¾

-¼ —

8.7

126½

76¼ Exxon Mobil $

109⅝ +½ 3.3

3.6

148½

50⅜ Hochschild Mng

65

+½ 5.5

5.6

20¾

12½ Carillion #

14¼

—

—

0.5

47¼

23⅞ Foot Locker $

43⅜

2.8

367⅛ Kenmare Res

486½

— 6.2

5.0

6508

3986 DCC

4459 -198 4.0

14.1

96¼

59⅞ Gen Electric $

93¼ +1⅝ 0.3

1.7

409¾

116⅜ Polymetal

220

+3 16.9

1.4

118¾

60 De La Rue

63¾

—

5.8

347¼

264½ Home Depot $

287¼ -¾ 2.9

2.0

6406

4424½ Rio Tinto

5634* -56 7.2

8.9

81

—

-⅝ 3.7

336

168⅝ Essentra ●

218

-6 2.9

24.5

221

166⅝ Honeywell $

194½ +1⅝ 2.1

1.8

3160

2242 Experian

2730 -85 1.6

25.9

41½

24⅛ HP $

27½

-⅜ 3.8

2.5

12460

8602 Ferguson

11325 -360 2.2

20.3

153¼

115½ IBM $

126⅜ +¼ 5.2

0.3

5368

3485 Intertek Group

4130 -72 2.6

23.0

52½

24⅝ Intel $

27¼

+¾ 1.8

3.9

-3.3

283⅝

111¼ IWG ●

184¼ -4⅝ —

-16.4

50¼

30¾ Intl Paper $

35¾

-½ 5.2

2.6

7.2

126¼

69 Johnson Serv

120¾ -⅝ 2.0

18.6

144⅜

101¼ JP Morgan Ch $

132⅝ +2⅜ 3.0

3.0
1.5

-2⅝ 3.1 -26.4

T-Bonds

France

3.00

+0.53

-0.73

177⅝

-3 5.0

7.3

87¾

47¼ MITIE Gp ●

78⅞ -1½ 2.7

21.9

186¾

150¾ Johnson&John $

151⅞ +⅝ 3.0

Germany

2.47

-

-1.26

2245

1553¼ Rathbones Grp ●

1980 -20 4.2

14.8

565⅜

441¼ Rentokil

519

-13 1.3

36.7

41¼

33⅜ Keurig Dr Pep $

34¼

-¼ 2.3

1.3

Japan

0.39

-2.08

-3.34

2520

1900 S & U

2320*

— 5.6

7.4

596

325 Ricardo Gp

564*

-9 1.9

40.9

101½

64 Manpower $

81⅜ -1⅛ 3.3

2.6

Great Britain

3.53

+1.06

-0.20

544⅝

348 Schroders

460⅛ -19 4.6

12.3

750

418⅛ Robt Walters

560 +68 4.2

10.0

33⅜

19⅜ Marathon Oil $

24½

15.1

United States

3.73

+1.26

-

333⅜

130 Vanquis Banking Gp 236⅜ -7⅜ 7.2

-7.2

44⅞

39

—

30.0

302

217⅝ McDonalds $

264½ +2¾ 2.3

1.4

158⅜ -⅜ 1.8

12.2

115½

77¼ Merck $

108

+⅜ 2.7

2.0

964⅜ -21 4.0

10.6

316

213⅜ Microsoft $

250⅜ -2 1.1

3.3

56⅜

39¼ Pfizer $

39½

… 4.1

3.4

164⅞

122⅛ Procter & Gamble $ 136⅞ +⅜ 2.7

1.6

The share prices, price-earnings ratios and dividend yields
below are supplied by Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. The
yields are calculated using historic dividend payments
divided by the closing share price multiplied by 100.

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

82 Quilter ●

Price (p) +/- Yld

P/E

89½

199

Healthcare -1.30%

27 SIG
128¼ Serco Group ●

1370½ 707¾ Travis P ●
514

326 Mediclinic Int ●

1338½ 959¼ Smith & Nep

Aerospace & defence -1.82%

497

-1

—

24.2

1198 -20½ 2.6

56.9

262¼ Babcock Intl ●

331 +7⅜ —

10.2

2606

1473½ Burberry

2435 -38 2.1

24.8

941¾

683⅝ BAE Systems

929¾ -5⅜ 2.9

18.2

49⅞

15¼ McBride

26⅛

-⅞ —

-1.9

396¼

289⅝ QinetiQ ●

328⅝ -5 2.3

20.9

223

176⅜ PZ Cussons ●

181*

+1 3.5

15.6

160

64½ Rolls–Royce

150⅛ -8

—

-9.9

6824

5400 Reckitt Benck

5750 -62 3.2

34.6

178

111 Senior ●

165⅜ -3⅝ 0.8

34.0

Information technology -1.40%

-1

Telecommunications +0.12%

Household goods -1.13%

371⅜

196⅝

110½ BT Group

148⅜

+1 5.2

11.5

108⅞

80¼ Raytheon Tech $

2530

1378 Telecom Plus ●

1914

-12 3.3

42.4

309⅜

132¼

83¼ Vodafone

98½

-⅛ 7.9

15.5

Tobaccos -0.65%

+⅛ 2.3

1.6

190⅛ Rockwell $

292¾ -6¼ 1.6

2.0

196¼

120⅝ Trane Tech $

187½ -1½ 1.6

2.5

160¾

117¼ Wal Mart Strs $

137

1.4

144½

84⅛ Walt Disney $

94¼ -1⅞ —

—

11¾ Xerox Hldgs $

15¾

-⅜ 6.4

2.1

3645

2893 Brit Am Tob

3113½ -19 7.4

10.6

21

2185

1511 Imp Brands

1979* -15½ 7.1

11.9

Europeans -1.13%

96

-⅛ 1.4

-⅛ 1.7

Transport -2.11%
-14 1.5

41.2

198⅞

132 Barclays

157⅜* -6 4.6

5.1

823

587¼ Sage Gp

761⅜ -8¾ 2.4

29.9

1259

872 Close Bros ●

1077

-3 6.1

9.8

294

175½ Spirent ●

177⅝ -5⅛ 3.5

13.1

653¾

434¾ HSBC

592⅝* -28½ 4.5

9.6

Insurance -3.56%

271 Aptitude Sftwre

371

54⅜

38½ Lloyds Bk Gp

49¾ -1¾ 4.8

6.8

313⅛

210⅞ NatWest Group

286 -7¼ 4.7

8.5

237

131 abrdn

219¾ -5¾ 6.6

$1867.19

+36.35

£16.95

+0.13

+0.78pc

+5.87

+0.38pc

+1.99pc

£354.52

+1.03

+0.29pc

£1548.50

+3.70

+0.24pc

85⅛

55 AkzoNobel €

70⅜ -1¼ 2.8

2.3

379¼

173⅝ Int'l Dist Service ●

228¾ -4⅝ 8.7

3.7

103¾

68½ BMW €

98⅜ -1¼ 5.9

3.2

442½

276½ Redde Northgate ●

391

-14 5.8

9.5

21⅜

13⅞ Carrefour €

18⅜

+¼ 2.8

2.4

426½

198¼ Wincanton

219

+3 5.7

5.7

79¼

44¼ Continental AG €

74½ -2⅝ 2.0

0.2

107

356½

185⅜ Hunting ●

167⅝ -7⅜ 4.5

6.8

528⅞

408½ JPM Japanese ●

469

-13 1.3

509

161¼

62¾ Petrofac

1126½ -10 2.6

—

384

301 JPM Jpn SmCp G&I 321

-10 4.5

362

2613½ 1871¼ Shell

-23 3.2

1087

255

—

812¾

459¼ Land Secs

629¾* -6⅝ 6.3

501 Phoenix

99 Lowland Inv

special high grade

£2403.93

-94.39

-3.78pc

high grade

£1906.04

-41.90

-2.15pc

2983

£18742.25

-737.18

-3.78pc

4505

2099 -38 6.7
4039* +3 2.2

516

-4 2.3

44.5

11⅛

5¼ Lufthansa €

10⅝

-⅛ —

—

173⅝

90½ IAG Intl Cons Air

148¼ -5⅛ —

19.3

5¼

4⅛ Nokia OYJ €

4½

-⅛ 1.8

9.4

28⅞

Pharmaceuticals -1.44%

5796

4174 Intercont Hotels

5510 -158 2.1

32.2

30⅝

-½ 4.3

2.2

9052 AstraZeneca

10698* -168 2.2

61.1

248⅝

99¾ Mitchells&But ●

161¾ -3½ —

73.5

204⅜

166⅝ Pernod Ricard €

200⅛ -1¼ 2.1

1.5

904⅝ St. James's Place 1201 -37½ 4.4

16.1

358

272⅛ Mtn Currie Port

322

-12 1.3

336

4310

2487½ Dechra Pharma ●

2574* -46 1.8

47.9

274⅜

119 National Ex ●

138⅞ +4¼ 3.6

-3.5

29¼

12⅛ Philips (Kon) €

15¾

-¼ —

—

232½

158⅜ Mercantile InvTr ●

203½

-2 3.4

242

3364

2186 Genus ●

2938* -168 1.1

47.0

638

360¾ Playtech ●

569 -7½ —

2.8

152¼

93⅝ Siemens €

147½ -3⅝ 2.9

1.1
1.0

52 week

1572 Bellway ●

410¼ Fullers 'A'

11886

High Low (p) Stock

3120 Berkeley Grp

660

142

Investment trusts -2.32%

8.7

-13.1

251

1520

438⅛ -5½ 8.2

2.2

102 Wood Grp (John) ● 222¼ -2¾ —

-2½ 4.0

19.7

313 Barratt Dev

-1 4.3

214

1724 -60 3.5

576⅝

2.3

57⅞

126½ -3¾ 4.8

1522 Victrex ●

-2.29pc

802⅝ -2⅝ 1.5

39¼ LafargeHolcim SFr

7340 Flutter Entrtmt

156¾ Majedie

1972

-40.00

535 LVMH €

59½

89½ FirstGroup ●

14265

220¼

1381½ 782⅜ Prudential

£1708.95

830¾

145⅝

136½

690⅜

19.5

16.2

1.8
-82.5

-1.7
11.9

-7.2

13.6

2080 -42 3.7

346 -3⅜ 2.7

72

-19.1

6318 -138 1.7

1755 Johnson Mat

232⅝ Balfour Beatty ●

108 +1⅞ 2.5
14090 +15 —

-½ —

2544½* -28½ 3.4

617¾ -17 8.0

5862 Croda Intl

2536

377⅜

2.7

17.7

1228½ -51 1.2

8082

Construction -1.49%

-¼ 1.8

1310 -19 1.3

92⅝* -2¾ 4.3

6.6

98⅝

994⅝ Entain

73⅜ JPM Eur G&I

252 -11¼ 7.7

78¼ Heineken €

1725

97¾

201⅜ Legal & General

99⅜

-2.3

27.6

311⅛

1.2

—

266½ -1½ 2.8

581½* -20½ 2.3

922

2.4

… 3.3

503⅝ -8⅝ —

385⅜ Beazley

735 JPM Mid Cap

-⅝ 4.5

21½

744⅜ -29⅝ —

276⅞ easyJet ●

735⅞

1130

40⅞

15⅝ Deutsche Tele €

1460½ 482⅞ Carnival ●
604¼

18 EnQuest

573 -16½ 2.2 -693.4

29⅝ Deutsche Post €

1.7
-0.6

37⅜

360⅜ Lancashire Hldg ●

47⅜
21⅝

—

736

670

-1.7
-22.5

-3

263¼

684* -13 4.8

162 DirectLineIns ●

0.7

-⅞ —

508

624 JPM Claverh'se

282⅝

4.1

… 3.6

18⅜

373½ InvesPerpUK Sm Co 435* -14 5.2

1152½ 789¼ Hiscox

-¾ 7.0

55

246⅝

546
748

25.0

74

46¾ Danone €

185¾ Capricorn Ener ●

5.6

3500½* -38 2.2

50¼ Daimler €

549¼* -7¾ 3.6

6.8

3285 Diageo

75⅞
58⅛

Travel & Leisure -1.39%
344⅝ BP

449¾ -12¾ 6.9

Beverages -1.08%

P/E

570⅝

1881½ -101 8.3

-4.30pc

+1.46pc

380

341⅞ Aviva

-841.80

+3.26pc

345 -12½ 4.3

1691½ Admiral

£18721.59

+0.95pc

1854

279 Invesco Asia Trust

606⅝

-2.19pc

+1.19

928 ICG Enterprise Tst ● 1104 -12 2.7

2711

-0.31pc

+2.00

1226
376

Price(£) +/- Yld

Oil & Gas -1.26%

18.1

-2.29pc

+45.00

268

10.4

-2.45

$82.78

—

319¾ -18¾ 2.6

-26.67

1424.00

216 Highbridge Tactical 239

739¾* -35¼ 2.0

-162.50

£212.00

270

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

193⅜ Santander

£792.08

per tonne

—

NAV

465¾ Standard Ch

£7253.12

May settlement

Price (£) +/- Yld

799⅜

Change

£1553.69

8.2

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

343½

£1139.58

high grade

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

344

per oz

© Baltic Dry Index*
© Brent Crude

NAV

270 Castings

per oz

ª Nickel†
© Wheat

Price (£) +/- Yld

380

grade A

ª Lead†
ª Zinc†

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

-1.39

Chemicals -2.23%
Price

ª Copper†

NAV

ª Travel & Leisure

4067

ª Platinum

Price (p) +/- Yld

Change

7348.20

ª Hong Kong

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

151

Engineering / Industrial -1.88%

© Telecommunications

431⅛
Index
All Ordinaries

ª France

P/E

Banks -4.32%

World market indices
ª Australia

Price(£) +/- Yld

0.89

Price (p) +/- Yld

22 Michelin €

606

480 Merchants Tst ●

585*

-9 4.7

591

3408⅛ 1280⅞ GSK

1398⅝* -13⅝ 4.0

3.8

159

52⅜ Rank Group

77⅝

-¾ —

31.0

28⅜

19 Societe Gen €

25½ -1¼ 6.7

183

145 MomentumM-A V

162*

-1 4.4

165

2137

1174½ Hikma ●

1762 -27 2.6

25.4

79

25 Restaurant Gp

38½

-⅞ —

-4.3

17¾

11⅛ Stellantis €

16⅞

-¼ —

—

875 Monks ●

959½ -36 0.2

1103

2020

1320⅜ Indivior ●

1478 -22 —

-47.1

2536

1014½ TUI AG ●

1545 -33½ —

-10.3

135½

107½ Thales €

132¼ +¾ 2.2

2.2

928

Property -1.27%

853½

388⅜ Wetherspoon ●

579½ -9

—

38.1

60⅞

44 Total €

58

-½ 4.8

2.8

2990 -76 2.0

—

20⅞

13⅞ UBS AG SFr

19⅛

-⅞ 2.6

3.6

NAV

1685

1042 3i

1581½ -52½ 3.2

1626

1138

10.7

368½

281½ 3i Infrastructure ●

307½ +3½ 3.5

320

903½

715 Murray Income ●

849* -12 4.3

9.7

103

83¼ Aberdeen Diversified 84*

-1⅞ 6.8

116

1376

1128 Murray Intl ●

1322 -22 4.2 1350

-14 0.2

665

63

52 Northern 2 VCT

54½ +2½ 6.6

59

20⅛

12¼ Alina Hldgs

13¼

-½ —

26

973* -35 2.5 1055

98

82 Northern 3 VCT

84½

— 5.9

92

72⅜

47⅜ Assura ●

48¼* -½ 6.5

—

68

55 Nthn Venture

57½

— 7.0

62

1572

938½ Big Yellow Gp ●

1154 -16 3.8

—

34

349

225 Boot H

230

-5 2.7

10.8

614

502 Aberdeen New India 528

49⅜

32⅛ Costain

45

-1½ —

-21.4

1054

876 Alliance Trust ●

10.1

287

199⅜ Allianz Tech Trust ● 214½ -10 —

255

3651⅞ 2245½ Whitbread

AIM -1.24%

30¼

18⅞ Veolia Environ €

27½

-⅝ 4.1

0.6

240

144⅜ Volkswagen €

174¾ -3¾ 4.3

3.9

Price (p) +/- Yld

P/E

*Copyright Baltic Exchange Information Services Ltd. †Data provided by the London Metal Exchange

Exchange rates
£ > € Rate 1.1322 Change +0.53¢ £ > $ Rate 1.2101 Change +1.91¢
Tourist £1= Sterling £1=

1 Euro =

1 Dollar =

Australia

Aus $

1.7166

1.8251

1.6119

1.5082

Canada

Can $

1.5763

1.6672

1.4725

1.3778

Denmark

Krone

7.9962

8.4281

7.4436

6.9647

Euro

€

1.0776

1.1322

…

0.9357

HK $

8.9016

9.4984

8.3888

7.8492

India

Rupee

86.3700

99.2857

87.6882

82.0475

Israel

Shekels

3.8813

4.3399

3.8330

3.5864

Japan

Yen

155.1500

162.5588

143.5705

134.3350

Dinar

…

0.3713

0.3279

0.3069

Hong Kong

Kuwait
New Zealand

NZ $

1.8209

1.9607

1.7316

1.6202

Norway

Krone

12.1900

12.7905

11.2965

10.5699

Pakistan

Rupee

314.5500

339.5844

299.9180

280.6250

Riyal

4.1934

4.5430

4.0123

3.7542

$

1.5097

1.6314

1.4408

1.3481

Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa

Rand

20.7700

22.0405

19.4659

18.2138

Sweden

Krona

12.2600

12.8506

11.3495

10.6194

Switzerland

Franc

1.0599

1.1125

0.9826

0.9194
35.0600

Thailand

4412

2736½ CRH

4235 -82½ 2.5

1057

621⅞ Grafton Gp ●

876¾ -16⅝ 3.8

9.8

461

345 Asia Dragon Trust

400

-15 1.6

464

384

295¾ Pacific Assets

356

-9 0.5

391

546¾

317¾ Brit Land

409¾ -9½ 5.7

—

1050

2561¾

1330 Morgan Sindall ●

1740 -42 5.8

13.1

348

204½ Baillie Giff China

257

-7¾ 2.8

294

325

229¼ Pantheon ●

242½ -6½ —

460

231

130¼ CLS Hldgs ●

137⅜ -1¾ 5.8

-6.8

2660

2332

1113½ Persimmon

1238 -18½ 13.7

5.0

111¼

73½ Baillie Giff Euro Gwth 93¾ -2⅜ 0.7

112

202

138½* +1 5.1

175

67

42¾ Cap&Regional

57

-1½ 9.2

—

½

—

11.1

1¼

¾ Celsius Resc

—

-4.7

590

367⅜ Redrow ●

470⅝* -12¼ 6.8

8.2

124¼

68½ Balanced Comm Prp ● 85⅛ -1¾ 5.6

119

2691¾ 1875½ RIT Cap Ptnrs ●

1890 -48 2.0 2440

3325

1783 Derwent Ldn ●

2438

+2 3.2

—

299

202½ Central Asia Met

265½

-1 8.3

6.7

329½

275 Dar Global

305¾ -4⅞ —

—

146⅝

80⅝ Taylor Wimpey

115¾ -2¾ 8.1

6.4

110¾

90⅞ Bankers Invstmt Tst ● 100⅜

-3 2.4

112

329

283 Ruffer Inv Pref ●

304* +½ 0.9

299

739

388⅛ Gt Portland Est ●

527

-2½ 2.4

—

843¼

296 Ceres Power

416¼ -9⅛ —

-36.1

19

17 Fulcrum Metals

18⅛

—

1048

722⅜ Biotech Growth

-44 —

962

470

366½ Schroder Asian TR

423½ -11½ 2.0

452

315

202¾ Grainger ●

239⅜ -5⅜ 2.5

7.7

1600

1020 Churchill China

1225

32.4

Electricals -2.45%

Results Roundup
385
927
2598

200 Dialight
586 discoverIE Grp ●
1855¼ Halma

4482¾ 3238 Renishaw ●
3935

1402 XP Power

205 +2½ —
780

-17 1.4

28.8

2080 -64 0.9

32.2

4154* -52 1.8

25.1

2190 -45 4.3 -21.5

Electricity +0.89%

Baht

37.4600

42.4261

37.4704

4.1174

4.4443

3.9251

3.6726

845⅞

467¼ Drax Group ●

650½ +17½ 3.2

30.5

UK

£

…

…

0.8832

0.8264

1271½

844¼ Nat Grid

1050 +6½ 4.9

16.1

USA

$

1.1409

1.2101

1.0688

…
1731½* +5½ 5.2

6.0

Tourist rates for indication use only. www.travelex.co.uk

1935½ 1405 SSE

25¼

-⅜ —

-13.3

Recent issues

910

-15 4.3

20.1

52 week
High Low (p) Stock

1885* +10 3.9

12.7

625 Arbuthnot
1720⅞ BrooksMacdonald
¼ Cambria Africa #

¼

—

— 2.3

⅞

—

—

—

Previously Published * (5)

—

Dirham

UAE

860

134 PremierMitonGlb

22¼ Afentra

Company
Aviva*
Castillo Copper A$
Cenkos Securities
Entain*
F.B.D.Holdings €
Informa*
Legal & General Group*
Robert Walters
Spirax-Sarco Engineering*
Wheaton Precious Metals $

Turnover(£)

Pre - tax(£)

EPS(p)

DIV(p)

Pay Day

XD

Fin -21.2bn (33.2bn)
Int 3k (0.3k)
Fin 20.3m (37.2m)
Fin 4.3bn (3.8bn)
Fin 406.4m (386.7m)
Fin 2.3bn (1.6bn)
Fin 13.7bn (10.4bn)
Fin 1.1bn (970.7m)
Fin 1.6bn (1.3bn)
Fin 1.1bn (1.2bn)

-2.4bn (801.0m)
-626k (-782k)
-2.7m (4.0m)
102.9m (393.2m)
73.7m (110.4m)
168.8m (78.4m)
2.7bn (2.6bn)
55.6m (50.2m)
308.1m (314.5m)
669.6m (754.6m)

-38.200 (50.100)
-0.050 (-0.060)
-4.900 (7.100)
4.100 (42.600)
181.000 (274.000)
112.000 (5.200)
38.330 (34.190)
56.200 (46.300)
305.100 (318.300)
148.200 (167.700)

20.700 (14.700)
n/a (n/a)
0.500 (3.000)
8.500 (0.000)
100.000 (100.000)
6.800 (0.000)
13.930 (13.270)
17.000 (15.000)
109.500 (97.500)
15.000 (15.000)

May 18
tba
Apr 27
May 16
Jul 14
Jun 05
May 26
May 19
Apr 07

Mar 30
tba
tba
Apr 20
Jun 01
tba
Apr 27
Apr 20
Mar 23

Bold FTSE100 Stocks
* Ex-dividend
§ Ex-rights

●

† Ex-scrip
# Suspended

FTSE250 Stocks
‡ Ex-all

Cover relates to the previous year’s dividend.
Yields are net of basic rate tax.
Data is provided for information purposes only and
is not intended for trading purposes. Speak with a
financial advisor before using any data to make
transactions.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Online
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MARKETS

CURRENCIES

FTSE 100

FTSE 250

DOW JONES

7900
Previous close
7850

BIGGEST
RISER
Endeavour Mg

1650p

7800

j

32600

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33

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Page 32

Europe’s decline
Brussels is losing its global
clout – and it’s hard to see
how it can win it back
Matthew Lynn
Page 34

Energy warning
Fears that ministers’ plans
to invite bids for power
projects could imperil
Rolls-Royce’s plans to roll
out mini-nuke factories
Page 34

Silicon Valley crash rattles markets
Regulator’s intervention
over tech-focused lender’s
losses triggers crisis of
confidence for investors
By James Titcomb, Simon Foy
and Eir Nolsøe
THE biggest US banking failure since
the financial crisis has triggered a selloff in global markets amid fears about
contagion.
US regulators last night took control
of California’s Silicon Valley Bank after
a run on the bank forced it to put itself
up for sale.
The intervention triggered panic in
global markets, with the FTSE 100 closing down 1.67pc in London. Billions
were wiped off the value of Barclays and
HSBC as investors scrambled to figure
out how widespread the problems that
hit Silicon Valley Bank could be.
The tech-focused lender was worth
$44bn (£37bn) at its peak but was forced
into the arms of regulators after suffering losses on its investments, which
triggered a crisis of confidence.
Silicon Valley Bank told staff to work
from home until further notice as customers pulled funds from their accounts
under pressure from investors.
Officials last night took control of the
bank in a move that threatens to wipe
out billions in deposits, hours after
shares were suspended.
The Bank of England is understood to
be monitoring the situation and making
contact with UK-headquartered banks,
although it believes that the largest
lenders are resilient. Silicon Valley
Bank’s British subsidiary works with
tech companies and other growth businesses, offering business accounts,
loans and advisor services.
Hundreds of British businesses are
understood to have been blocked from
withdrawing their funds after Silicon
Valley Bank UK refused to waive a
30-day notice period on withdrawals
that affects up to half of its customers.
Executives have been seeking to
reassure customers that it is immune to
its US parent’s problems. Silicon Valley
Bank’s UK entity, which is owned by the
US parent but whose assets are ringfenced, said it was a “standalone independent banking institution that is
regulated and governed by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)”.
Many start-ups were seeking to take
out their cash imminently, fearing contagion. Venture capital firm Hoxton
Ventures said it had advised companies
to take out several months of operating
costs in case funds are frozen.
Silicon Valley Bank UK and the PRA
did not comment last night on its future
after the US lender’s collapse.
California’s Department of Financial
Protection and Innovation said it had
“taken possession of Silicon Valley
Bank, citing inadequate liquidity and
insolvency”. The takeover means that
customers’ deposits are only protected

$1.8bn
Silicon Valley
Bank’s losses on
Wednesday on the
sale of $21bn worth
of bonds and
mortgage-backed
securities

up to $250,000 if the bank cannot find a
suitable buyer. It is the second-largest
banking collapse in US history by assets
after Washington Mutual, which failed
in 2008.
Confidence in the bank had collapsed
after it revealed on Wednesday that it
had lost $1.8bn on the sale of $21bn
worth of bonds and mortgage-backed
securities. The lender said it planned to
raise billions to cover the losses.
Regulators moved in after Silicon
Valley Bank suspended Wall Street
trading following a collapse in the com-

pany’s share price that forced it to abandon those plans and sell itself. Shares
had fallen by 60pc on Thursday as technology businesses rushed to withdraw
their funds under pressure from influential venture capital investors.
The bank’s loss-making investments
were made during the pandemic, when
interest rates hit historic lows. Their
value has dropped as a result of rising
rates in recent months.
The revelation sent tremors through
the financial system amid concerns that
other banks could be vulnerable to sim-

After a decade of easy money, the
chickens are coming home to roost
W
BEN MARLOW

I

n the same way the once-provincial
building society Northern Rock was
the unexpected canary in the coal
mine of the global financial crash,
could a little-known California bank
trigger the next big meltdown? On the

face of it, it seems just as unlikely yet
that was the fear that gripped investors
in a hair-raising end to the week for
financial markets.
Silicon Valley Bank was a prolific
financier of start-ups, accounting for
nearly half the technology and
healthcare companies that listed on
stock markets last year.
After launching an emergency
$2.3bn (£1.9bn) share sale to bolster its
balance sheet barely 24 hours earlier,
the bank has been shut down and
taken into receivership by US

regulators in a jaw-dropping turn of
events. The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation was forced to step in after
SVB’s scramble for rescue funds
triggered panic. A 60pc plunge in the
shares of parent company SVB
Financial Group was the catalyst for a
massive rout in banking stocks, first on
Wall Street then across Europe.
A plea from SVB’s boss to “stay calm
and don’t panic” fell on deaf ears, and
investors scrambled for safety instead.
Analysts at AJ Bell compared it to a
Silicon Valley “earthquake” with the

ilar discounting. US employment numbers released on Friday suggested that
the Federal Reserve may have to continue raising interest rates to combat
inflation.
Some 311,000 jobs were created in
February, which was well above the
consensus of 205,000. However, the
figure marks a slowdown from an unusually sharp rise of 504,000 in January.
In London, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Barclays were among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100, falling by
between 3pc and 6pc.

aftershock centred in the US and
tremors felt across the Atlantic. It’s
early days but even that may prove to
be an understatement.
The real concern is that what
unfolded with lightning speed at SVB
is the first crack in the financial system
triggered by an unexpectedly
prolonged rise in global interest rates.
The bank was forced into a rescue
fundraising to shore up its financial
position after suffering steep losses on
a fire sale of its vast bond portfolio. It
took a $1.8bn hit after offloading $21bn
of government securities, a move that
was prompted by a flurry of customer
demands for their deposits back.
This in itself, though shocking as it
is to see a bank so easily toppled,
shouldn’t be enough to shake the
foundations of global finance. Indeed,
banking experts say that SVB was
somewhat unique in financial circles

In Europe, Deutsche Bank and
Société Générale fell 6pc and 5pc
respectively, while Credit Suisse
dropped 4.7pc to a new record low.
Bank of America, whose shares slumped
on Thursday as the crisis around Silicon
Valley Bank grew, fell a further 5pc at
the open before paring back the losses.
Goldman Sachs fell by 2.5pc.
There are concerns that customers
may start to withdraw funds across the
banking system, forcing some lenders
to either offload bonds at a loss or pay
higher interest rates to keep customers.

‘Analysts compared it to a
Silicon Valley quake with
aftershock in the US and
transatlantic tremors’
because few other banks have as much
of their assets locked up in fixed-rate
securities. Nor do most other banks
have such a high proportion of
business customers, which means its
funding costs climb more quickly than
those where deposits are dominated by
retail customers. This made it more
vulnerable to the recent spike in
interest rates, and the corresponding
fall in bond yields.
SVB’s other problem was its acute
over-exposure to a struggling
technology market – as growth has
slowed, funding for start-ups from
venture capital and the public markets

60pc
Fall in value of
shares on Thursday
as tech businesses
rushed to withdraw
their funds

has begun to dry up, which squeezes
the deposit base in both directions.
Nevertheless, SVB’s fate has
prompted a collapse of confidence in
the wider banking sector as investors
question whether what went wrong is
symptomatic of a much bigger
problem. There seems to be almost
universal agreement among analysts
that this is not the case, or at least that
systemically important banks are not
nearly as vulnerable to rate shocks.
The coming days will be decisive. As
anyone with even a vague recollection
of the financial crash will know, there
is always the risk of contagion if
investors have already made up their
minds.
After a decade of easy money, the
chickens are coming home to roost as
the fragility of the financial system in
the face of rising interest rates is
brutally exposed.

Musk plans to build town for his Texas workforce BP writes down German refinery value by £1.2bn
By James Warrington
and Gareth Corfield
ELON MUSK is planning to build a
town on thousands of acres of farmland
in Texas to create a community where
his employees can live and work.
Over the past three years, entities
linked to Mr Musk have purchased at
least 3,500 acres of land near Austin,
where there are production facilities
for Tesla, SpaceX and tunnelling
firm the Boring Company.
Among the people whom the Tesla
chief executive has consulted to help

him design the town are his ex-girlfriend, the Canadian singer Grimes, and
Kanye West.
Local sources told The Wall Street
Journal that the world’s richest person
owns or controls up to 6,000 acres in
the area.
Mr Musk is said to have discussed
incorporating the new town of Snailbrook – an apparent reference to the
Boring Company’s mascot – in Bastrop
County, south east of Austin.
This would allow him to set some
of his own regulations and offer
more than 100 new homes to his

employees in the area at “ belowmarket” rents.
The planned town is next to existing
Boring Co and SpaceX facilities currently under construction, and the site
features a pool, outdoor sports complex
and a gym.
The proposals also include a huge
private residential compound for Mr
Musk, according to the report.
Some local residents have raised concerns about the plans, including how
testing of the Boring Co’s tunnelling
technology could affect groundwater
and wells in the area.

By Rachel Millard
BP HAS written down the value of one
of its refineries by $1.4bn (£1.2bn) as it
blamed a global shift to green energy
that has driven a surge in demand for
electric cars.
The company has taken a hit on its
Gelsenkirchen refinery in north-west
Germany, which it said was because of
“changes to economic assumptions”.
Those include an assumed cost for
emissions of about €70 (£62) per ton of
carbon dioxide equivalent, as well as
expected lower refining margins. In

BP ’s annual report, its auditors,
Deloitte, warned over the threat to the
value of refineries from the shift away
from petrol cars.
The shift towards electric vehicles is
one of the reasons refining margins
could fall. Margins have been high this
year amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
BP last month scaled back plans to
cut its oil and gas output, citing concerns about energy security. It had
planned to cut production by 40pc by
2030 but will now only do so by 25pc.
Yesterday, BP disclosed it was handing Bernard Looney, its chief executive,

a £10m pay packet for 2022, more than
double the previous year, sparking criticism from campaigners. BP made
record profits in 2022 of $28bn.
Separately, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is to pledge up to £20bn over the
next 20 years for plans to capture carbon dioxide emitted by industrial plants
and stash it under the North Sea.
Projects are expected to be backed by
contracts with the government guaranteeing their revenues, funded by a levy
on consumer bills, similar to the contracts that have helped get offshore
wind off the ground.

34

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Business

By Howard Mustoe
and Szu Ping Chan
THE UK is preparing to invite international bids for next generation nuclear
power projects, in a move that could
imperil Rolls-Royce’s plans to roll out
mini-nuke factories across the country.
Insiders fear efforts to run a competitive tender mean Rolls-Royce could
lose out on a government contract,
despite the fact that £210m of taxpayer
money has already been invested into
the company’s efforts to stand-up small
modular reactors (SMRs).
The engineering giant is advancing
plans to churn out cheaper, mass-produced, standardised nuclear reactors
that would generate carbon-free
electricity.
It is now understood that the
Government is preparing to host a
beauty parade of next generation
nuclear proposals from around the
world that could ultimately see contracts handed to other companies.
Rolls-Royce insiders fear the process
could derail its SMR efforts. Executives
are concerned that losing the UK Government as a customer could threaten
foreign orders, since many could interpret the move as a lack of confidence in
the programme.
Rolls-Royce SMR has already frozen
hiring as it waits for a contract, The
Daily Telegraph revealed last month.
Days before the freeze, new RollsRoyce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic
warned that the UK was risking its head
start on this technology by dragging
its feet.
He said: “We need to come to the
table and work very seriously and sign
an agreement for the deployment of the

first project. First mover advantage will
be important.”
As talks with Westminster drag
on, Rolls-Royce has been holding
discussions with the Czech Republic
about a deal.
Rolls-Royce’s SMR project won the
backing of Boris Johnson’s government
in November 2021. Mr Johnson, a vocal
supporter of nuclear technology as a
way to decarbonise the UK’s grid, outlined ambitious plans to build a nuclear
plant per year and provided state backing for Rolls-Royce.
However, Rishi Sunak has been
less enthusiastic. Mr Johnson wrote
to him last month, joining 56 other
MPs in demanding faster progress on
new plants.
Of the £210m committed by taxpayers, almost half has already been
handed to the engineer, it is understood. Rolls-Royce is among dozens of
companies around the world with
designs for small, factory-produced
reactors. The theory behind massproducing them is that development
costs can be spread over many units to
lower costs.
Tom Samson, chief executive of
Rolls-Royce SMR, said: “We have over
600 members of staff in the UK, dedicated to bringing our technology to
market at pace – a British solution to a
global energy crisis.
“Rolls-Royce SMR has called for
rapid progress from the Government
and we welcome the adoption of that
principle in this process.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with government and Great
British Nuclear to realise their ambitions as quickly as possible.”
A government spokesman said:
“Small modular reactors could play a
vital role in our nuclear programme as
we work to increase our energy independence and security, reducing our
reliance on fossil fuels and exposure to
volatile global gas prices.
“The Government is investing in
these new technologies through the
£385m Advanced Nuclear Fund including £210m towards the Rolls-Royce
SMR programme. We will announce
plans for the set-up of Great British
Nuclear soon, and we are committed to
backing it with appropriate funding to
support projects and investment.”

Britain will avoid recession, say
City analysts as growth returns
By Szu Ping Chan
THE UK will avoid a recession this year,
according to a string of City analysts
who changed their gloomy predictions
after the economy returned to growth
in January.
As Jeremy Hunt prepares to deliver
his maiden Budget next week, the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) said
the economy expanded 0.3pc in
January after shrinking by 0.5pc in a
December marred by strikes.
The data prompted Goldman Sachs,
Deutsche Bank and Citi all to uprate

their forecasts. While output in January
was also hit by walkouts, statisticians
said the rebound was helped by children returning to school after “unusually high absences” in the run-up to
Christmas and the Premier League
returning to its normal schedule after
December’s World Cup in Qatar.
The ONS said the end of postal strikes
also helped output. January’s rebound
was driven by a dominant services sector, set to continue to outperform in
February. Yet most economists expect
the economy to remain smaller than its
pre-pandemic size until at least 2024.

European Union is fast losing
its status as a trade superpower
MATTHEW LYNN

I

t sets the standards for the world. Its
fearsome negotiating power means
it can get the best trade deals. And its
single market is so huge that no one
can afford to ignore it. The European
Union, and its most enthusiastic
advocates, have long argued that its
power as the world’s largest trade bloc
means it is impossible to ignore.
Anyone who attempted to stand up
to it could simply be swatted aside and
countries might as well sign up to its
rules because they would have to
follow them anyway. Even worse, any
country that left, such as the UK,
would find itself an irrelevance on the
world stage.
For much of the last 30 years, there
has been a lot of truth in those
arguments. But right now the EU’s
influence is dramatically fading. It is
campaigning against Joe Biden’s
nakedly protectionist green subsidies,
but Washington responds with polite
indifference. It has spent years
threatening the American tech giants,
but without any impact. And it is too
hooked on Chinese exports to curb its
growing industrial power.
The EU is not an economic
superpower any more – and its
attempts to strut on the world stage are
increasingly being ignored.
Consider Ursula von der Leyen’s visit
this week to Washington to try to
hammer out a deal on green energy
subsidies with the US president. The
red carpets were rolled out, there were
plenty of warm and welcoming
speeches. Ever since Biden launched
his $300bn-plus (£250bn) subsidies
blitz, the EU has been furiously
complaining that America is stealing its
jobs and undercutting its companies.
In fairness, it has a point.
Volkswagen has already announced it
is putting plans for a European battery
factory on hold and looking to build
one in the US instead. Tesla has said it
is cutting investments in Germany and
shifting to the American factories.
Plenty more companies will follow
those leads. Von der Leyen will no
doubt haggle, lament and threaten
retaliation. But there is absolutely no
sign that anyone in Washington is in
the least bit interested, or willing at
this point to make any concessions.
It doesn’t stop there. For the last five
years, every self-important
commissioner in Brussels has been
lecturing anyone who will listen on
how it is planning to curb the power of

LARS HAGBERG/REUTERS

Rolls-Royce
reactors at
risk as rivals
courted by
ministers

Ursula von der Leyen has been in the US to broker a deal on green energy subsidies, but Biden is not willing to make concessions

the American tech giants and finally
bring them under regulatory control. A
massive new piece of legislation – the
Digital Services Act – has been imposed
on the whole bloc. And its impact?
Imperceptible. The EU imposes some
hefty fines on the likes of Apple and
Alphabet, the owner of Google. Most
are eventually overturned by its own
courts and the companies simply pay
no attention.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the
Federal Trade Commission is
overhauling the way it does business,
setting rules, for example, on the way
they control their app stores.
On China, it is the same story. The
US is standing up to its major economic
rival. It has banned the export of
semiconductors to the country and is
on the brink of an outright ban on
TikTok, the phenomenally successful
social media app that also collects huge

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by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
and Jeremy Warner
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amounts of data. And the EU? A few
grandiose proclamations aside, it has
done precisely nothing, allowing China
to buy whatever it wants on the
Continent (such as Hamburg port)
and embed its telecoms equipment
into the infrastructure.
The US and China are the two
genuine economic superpowers. The
EU, by contrast, cuts a diminished
figure and one that is rapidly shrinking
on the global stage. It is not hard to
understand why. First, the growth of
developing economies in Asia and

‘Europe has been so poor
at creating new companies,
or reinventing old ones, it
is no longer relevant’
Africa means it represents a far smaller
share of the global economy than it
used to.
Its share of global GDP has halved in
the past four decades, from around
30pc of global GDP in 1980 to just 15pc
today. Over the same period, America’s
share has fallen from 25pc of global
output to 24pc. As Asia and Africa grew
richer, so too did the US, but the EU
stagnated. Forty years ago, the EU was
the largest economic bloc in the world,
but now it is in third place behind the
US and China, and getting smaller all
the time. And it is a relative industrial

failure, too. You can’t hope to regulate
technology, for example, when none of
the major companies are European.
Likewise, while Volkswagen and
Renault are trying to compete in
electric vehicles, they are nowhere
close to Tesla, Ford, or the emerging
Chinese competitors such as BYD.
Most of Europe has been so poor at
creating new companies, or
reinventing old ones, that it is no
longer relevant in most major
industries.
Add it all up and there can only be
one conclusion. The EU has allowed its
position as an economic superpower to
slip. As a result, while a country like the
UK clearly doesn’t gain any influence
by leaving, it doesn’t lose any, either.
There is simply nothing to lose. The EU
keeps trying to strut on the world
stage, demanding concessions from its
major rivals and threatening reprisals if
others fail to listen.
But it is making itself increasingly
ridiculous. Biden is courteous
whenever he meets the president of
the European Commission. But that
shouldn’t fool us into believing that
Washington is taking a great interest in
what she has to say. And we are kidding
ourselves if we think that the Biden
administration will back down on
poaching VW’s battery factories, or any
other European assets.
The EU’s clout is gone – and it is
difficult to see how it will claw it back.

***

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

35

Business

Panic in the
Valley as tech
start-ups’ bank
collapses
Crisis has spread to Britain
despite assurances the UK
branch is ring-fenced,
reports James Titcomb

W

hen on the brink of a crisis, it
is rarely good advice to plead
with people not to panic. But
that is precisely what Greg Becker did.
“My ask is to stay calm because
that’s what is important,” the chief
executive of Silicon Valley Bank told
tech industry bosses in a private phone
call on Thursday. “We have been
long-term supporters of you – the last
thing we need you to do is panic.”
The plea did not have the intended
effect. Silicon Valley Bank, the lender
to the artificial intelligence start-ups
and fintech giants of the San Francisco
Bay Area, fell victim to a very analogue
phenomenon: the bank run.
Yesterday, US regulators seized
control of the California lender in the
biggest banking collapse since the
2008 crisis. Shares had already been
suspended, a day after falling 60pc as
venture capitalists told start-ups to pull
their deposits.
Contagion fears cascaded around
the world over the following 24 hours.
Shares in Wall Street giants JP Morgan,
Citigroup and Bank of America
slumped, and fears spread to European
lenders, with HSBC, Barclays and
Standard Chartered falling yesterday
morning.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Bank
executives abandoned plans to raise
funds in a desperate attempt to patch
up its balance sheet and instead began
talks on a fire sale.
Start-up founders and investors
were frantically assessing their
exposure to the bank. Venture capital
firm Hustle Fund, in an email titled
“Urgent announcement for SVB
clients”, said that they “do not want to
create panic”, but advised companies
which other banks they could switch
to, offering to provide introductions.
Techies are used to boom and bust,
but their favourite bank has been
defined by its reliability. Silicon Valley
Bank was founded in 1982 when Wells
Fargo bankers Roger Smith and Bill

Biggerstaff, along with Stanford
professor Bob Medearis, saw an
opportunity to serve the growing crop
of technology companies in Northern
California, many of which felt
misunderstood by traditional bankers.
Medearis convinced his poker buddies
to provide some of the initial
investment in the bank, and early
customers such as Cisco gave it a
toehold in the market.
Unlike many other Californian
finance businesses, Silicon Valley Bank
was not in the business of investing.
While venture capitalists and start-ups
made and lost billions in the tech
bubble and crash, the bank was in the
more sober business of holding
deposits and making loans. It
expanded gradually and carefully,
opening a London branch in 2004 and
spreading across Europe and Asia in
addition to its US base. The company
bills itself as the “only bank dedicated
to the innovation sector around the
world”. Becker, its chief executive, has
also been a constant, joining the bank
in 1993 and becoming chief executive
in 2011. “They’ve been a champion to
start-ups,” says Haakon Overli, an
investor at Dawn Capital.
The bank’s crisis began from a
position of strength. In 2020, as
working from home and lockdowns
made businesses and households more
reliant than ever on tech, investors
poured money into start-ups, which in
turn put the money with the bank.
Deposits grew from $62bn in 2019 to
$173bn at the end of last year.
The bank was unable to lend out
these funds at the same frantic pace
with which they came in. Instead, the
company invested in long-term debt
securities related to government
bonds and US mortgages. It was a
smart move in an era of rock-bottom
returns, but as central banks began to
raise interest rates, the value of the
bank’s investments slumped. On
Wednesday, it announced that it had
taken a hefty loss on the sale of the
bonds this year and planned to sell
$2.25bn in shares to cover the deficit.
That might have been it. But the
timing could not have been worse. On
Thursday the US bank Silvergate, a
specialist cryptocurrency lender,

‘It was a
smart move
in an era of
rock-bottom
returns but
as central
banks raised
rates the
value of
investments
slumped’

collapsed after failing to recover from
its exposure to the bust crypto
platform FTX. That raised nerves
about bank exposure to the tech
industry.
Becker’s appeals for calm fell on
deaf ears. Founders Fund, the venture
capital investor founded by influential
investor Peter Thiel, advised
companies to pull their deposits,
saying there was no downside. Others,
such as Union Square Ventures and
Bessemer Venture Partners, did the
same. “It’s a prisoner’s dilemma,” said
one investor, saying that while there
was a collective trust in the bank, no
company wanted to be the only one
not to take their money out and left
bearing losses. One venture capitalist
said that the close-knit nature of the
Silicon Valley community meant there
was a greater risk of companies
withdrawing money in sync.
“Clearly Silicon Valley Bank is not

Wandisco hires accountants
to investigate suspected fraud
By Gareth Corfield
TROUBLED tech company Wandisco
has hired forensic accountants to
investigate a suspected $15m (£12.6m)
fraud at its business.
The Sheffield-based company has
appointed FR P Adv isor y to lead
a n independent invest igat ion
into accounting issues uncovered
this week.
Wandisco told investors on Thursday that it faces “significant going conc e r n i s s ue s ” a f t e r d i s c ove r i n g
irregularities in its accounts.
The company said it believed that a
senior sales employee had generated
suspicious “purchase orders” that
vastly inflated its revenues last year.
The company’s shares were suspended from trading on London’s junior AIM market while it investigated
the issue.
Plans to seek a dual UK-US stock
market listing, announced just days
earlier, have been thrown into doubt.
FRP Advisory works with companies in

“complex and difficult situations” and
offers services including forensic
accounting and restructuring advice.
Wandisco has asked two non-executive directors, Peter Lees and Karl
Monaghan, to support FRP’s investigation. Mr Lees is a managing director of
investment banking company Stifel
who was appointed to Wandisco’s

$24m
Revenue announced by Wandisco in
January – up 230pc on the previous year.
The true figure could be as low as $9m

board last year. Mr Monaghan founded
Ashling Capital and has served as a
non-executive director since 2016.
Before uncovering the suspected
fraud, Wandisco was a fast-growing
software company worth almost £1bn.
Its business involves helping companies move very large quantities of busi-

Lidl ends rationing of fresh
produce as food crisis eases
By Daniel Woolfson
LIDL has become the latest supermarket to drop restrictions on sales of fruit
and vegetables after weeks of shortages.
The discounter will cease rationing
of all fruits and vegetables on Monday
as supplies of everyday essentials begin
to return to normal across Britain.
Lidl introduced buying limits on peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers on
Feb 27, citing an increase in demand.
Supermarket shelves have been
stripped of items such as tomatoes,
cucumber and peppers over recent
weeks, with retailers blaming bad
weather in Morocco and Spain, where
producers were hit by flooding and cold
temperatures that squeezed supplies.
About three in 10 adults (27pc) were
affected by shortages between Feb 22
and March 5, according to data from the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) – an
increase of 18pc compared with the previous two weeks and up 11pc compared
to a similar period a year ago.
It marked the largest rise in people
reporting shortages since the ONS
started asking questions about food
supply in 2021. Farmers have argued

that supermarkets’ price wars have contributed to shortages as well as bad
weather abroad. They claim continued
pressure from supermarkets to lower
prices has hurt the agricultural sector
and made it vulnerable to shortages.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU)
has called for greater fairness in the way
retailers deal with farmers and urged
Minette Batters, the
chief executive of
the National
Farmers’ Union,
called for greater
support for the
sector in the Budget

the Chancellor to prioritise homegrown food production in the upcoming Budget.
Minette Batters, chief executive of
the NFU, said: “If the Government is to
halt food price inflation and help prevent further food shortages, greater
support and confidence is needed for
the thousands of farm businesses
which are trying, but struggling, to feed
our nation.”

ness data into the cloud, a process that
is normally fraught with risks.
In January, the company said that
revenues had grown 230pc to $24m
last year. However, on Thursday it
warned that the true figure could be as
low as $9m.
BDO, Wandisco’s auditors, declined
to comment but said the company’s
annual accounts have yet to be filed.
Edison Group, the investment analysis firm, yesterday withdrew its coverage of Wandisco, saying: “Due to the
nature of the ongoing investigations,
we have not been able to speak to the
company since the announcement.”
Alex DeGroote, research director at
Arden Partners, said an elevenfold
growth in Wandisco’s trade receivables
within 12 months, which was disclosed
in a September update, was a “possible
red flag”.
He said that receivables were usually
linked to revenue “since the relationship between the two should be easy to
explain”, but that revenue had only
doubled over the same period.

G4S fraud trial into
electronic tagging
contract collapses
By Chris Price
THREE former G4S employees have
been acquitted after a case brought by
the Serious Fraud Office collapsed after
a 10-year investigation.
The white-collar crime agency yesterday dropped its criminal prosecution
against the three men, who had been
accused of defrauding the Government
over an electronic tagging contract.
Richard Morris, one of the accused,
said outside the Old Bailey that it was a
“scandal” that it had taken 10 years for
the SFO to drop the case. The three exemployees had been charged with
seven counts of fraud by false representation between 2009 and 2012.
They had been employed by G4S
Care and Justice Services, which was
accused of misleading the Ministry of
Justice over profit on a tagging contract.
In July 2020, the firm accepted
responsibility for three counts of fraud
and agreed to pay £38.5m and the SFO’s
costs. However, the case remained
against Mr Morris, 47, Mark Preston, 51,
ex-commercial director, and James
Jardine, 41, former finance manager, all
of whom denied all the charges.

diversified; their customers are very
concentrated, they have the same
business models and communication
channels, and share the same VCs
invested in each other. It helps on the
way up but the effect can also reverse.”
The crisis spread to Britain
yesterday, despite assurances from UK
executives that the British branch was
ring-fenced and a separately
capitalised entity, with its own assets
and management. “Silicon Valley Bank
UK is a standalone entity with its own
balance sheet and governance
structure,” said Erin Platts, the chief
executive of Silicon Valley Bank UK.
“We have been so humbled with the
consistent drum of support coming
from our UK investor and founder
community. We appreciate this is a
concerning time for our clients so we
are working tirelessly to support them
and give more context.” Dawn Capital’s
Overli says that on the whole “people

‘The USA
funds are
arguably
acting
rationally.
But some
UK funds
are being
hysterical
and creating
contagion’

are actually being really calm,” but
adds: “If you have a lot of money with
one bank, you should think about how
to optimise that.”
Another investor says: “The USA
funds are arguably acting rationally.
But some UK funds are being stupid
and hysterical and creating contagion.”
Yesterday afternoon, entrepreneurs
were pushing major investors to
publicly come out in support of the UK
entity. “We need VCs to band together
but everyone’s looking out for
themselves,” says one.
Most UK depositors are unable to
take out cash due to a 30-day
withdrawal window, which gives the
UK entity time to fend off a bank run.
The US parent is not so lucky. If the
bank, now controlled by government
officials, cannot find a buyer, deposit
holders face losing billions.
Despite Becker’s pleas for calm,
panic is in the air.

36

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Weather & Crosswords
Weather watch

People sledging at Bradgate Park, Leics

Despite a pause for
snow, spring will
resume next week
By Joe Shute
THE plummeting temperatures have
reminded me of the childhood game,
grandma’s footsteps. Although actually
it may have been cancelled on grounds
of ageism and rebranded as statues.
The rules are the same. Players creep
up on the unsuspecting grandma/
statue who at any moment can spin
around stopping them in their tracks.
Well, we are in the grip of the iciest
of stares. Spring, it seems, has been
cancelled as well.
The bird nests, the burst buds, the
spring blooms and my neighbour’s
forsythia, all now mummified in snow.
In my neck of the woods in Yorkshire,
temperatures were forecast as plunging
to -7C last night. In the Highlands
overnight temperatures of -15.4C are
the coldest in March for a decade.
Today a fresh band of snow moves
from the South West to the North East
(the same direction spring is travelling).
But fear not. Snow in March is
actually, statistically, marginally more
likely than snow in December. Despite
the longer days the weather is often
more variable. That means our nature
is well adapted to cope.
Trees that have been slowly
unfurling their buds can halt the sap
rising through their branches until the
weather warms. Later in the season this
becomes increasingly difficult as flower
buds are far less tolerant than leaves.
It is the same with spring bulbs
which are remarkably cold tolerant.
Indeed snow can actually function as
an insulating layer preventing frost
from nipping at the base of plants.
Studies have shown that an extreme
drop in temperatures later in the
season can impact songbird breeding.
But March is still early enough for most
birds to adjust accordingly and delay
things by a few days.
The melting snow (forecast from
tomorrow) will help to refresh ground
water which remains perilously low.
So enjoy it while it lasts. By Monday,
temperatures will be back in double
digits and we will once more be
creeping towards spring.*

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

YOUR
USUAL BRILLIANT
MONEY SECTION
INSIDE

telegraph.co.uk/money

***

X1

X2

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Saturday 11 March 2023

telegraph.co.uk/money

PLUS
EXTRA
PROPERTY
INSIDE

ULEZ

P OSTCODE LOTTE RY

P R E T F L AT I O N

MONEY BURNER

‘How I took on Sadiq
Khan’s controversial
charges and won’

Where house prices have
defied the national
downturn

How our favourite coffee
chains snuck in inflationbusting price rises

‘My almighty air-source
heat pump ordeal cost
me £15,000’

P. 3

P. 5

P. 7

P.4

What’s in the box for Budget day?
Charlotte Gifford and Harry Brennan examine some of the Chancellor’s options and how they will affect your finances

T

he countdown has begun to Jeremy Hunt’s first Budget as Chancellor on Wednesday. It follows
the announcement of a slew of stealth
taxes designed to shore up the nation’s
finances in a belt-tightening Autumn
Statement in November.
Mr Hunt is now under pressure to
change tack, as less pessimistic economic forecasts have given him more fiscal headroom.
Here we have compiled a list of
everything slated to be included so far
and how likely they are to appear.
Extended energy bills support
Chances of it happening: 9/10
A cap on energy bills is expected to
remain in place following a fall in wholesale gas prices, which means the Energy
Price Guarantee costs taxpayers less.
The guarantee had been due to rise
from £2,500 to £3,000 a year from April.
However, this newspaper understands it
will now stay at the lower level for
another three months, avoiding higher
bills for millions.

Change pensions rules for over-55s
Chances of happening: 7/10
The Treasury is considering an increase
in the amount savers can put into a pension each year, as it attempts to reboot
the economy by enticing older workers
out of early retirement.
The annual allowance is set at a maximum of £40,000, but this falls to £4,000
for those who have already taken money
from their pots. Anyone over 55 can
access their pensions, but experts have
said current rules are preventing people
who have stopped working from returning to the labour market.
Campaigners have called for the lower
£4,000 limit, known as the “money
purchase annual llowance”, to be raised
to £10,000 – its original level.
Rise in pension lifetime allowance
Chances of happening: 6/10
Ministers are also mulling raising how
much workers can save into pensions
over their lifetime, for the same reason.
Pensions escaped tax changes in the

Autumn Statement, so this could be an
area where the Government is willing to
be more flexible.
The lifetime allowance has been frozen at £1.073m since 2020-21, having
been cut in half over the past decade.
Any savings over the limit are taxed at
55pc if the money is taken out as a lump
sum, or at 25pc plus the person’s income
tax rate if taken out gradually.
Untouched pension pots that exceed
the lifetime allowance are taxed at 25pc
above the threshold once a saver is 75.
Expanding free childcare
Chances of it happening: 7/10
Plans to expand free care to one and twoyear-olds in a bid to take financial pressure off families are also understood to
be on the table.
Earlier this year, Rishi Sunak, the
Prime Minister, said he was “totally committed” to affordable childcare, but this
would not be the first time the Government had failed to deliver on the issue.
Calls to tackle the chronic shortage of
affordable childcare in the UK have

grown louder amid warnings that extortionate fees are locking parents, and
mostly mothers, out of the workforce.
Reform child benefit tax
Chances of happening: 3/10
The Government has been heavily criticised for its controversial charge on parents claiming child benefit. Once a
parent earns more than £50,000 they
have to pay some of the benefit back
before losing it completely when they
earn over £60,000.
The tax was originally designed to
catch “high earners” but the threshold
for paying the tax has remained at
£50,000 for the last 10 years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts an extra
700,000 parents will be dragged into the
net by 2028 as incomes rise while thresholds remain frozen.
Lobbies such as the Low Incomes Tax
Reform Group have called on the Government to reconsider the £50,000
threshold. Had the threshold been
increased in line with inflation it would
stand at £64,300 today.

About-turn on tax rises
Chances of happening: 2/10
Boris Johnson is among those to have
called for a planned rise in corporation
tax to be scrapped. Under current plans
the 19pc rate is to rise to 25pc.
Despite growing pressure from business leaders and members of his party,
the Chancellor has insisted there is no
room for tax cuts. The national tax burden has soared to the highest level since
the Second World War.
From April 6, the threshold for paying
the additional rate of income tax will be
lowered from £150,000 to £125,140. The
Government estimates this will raise
£420m in 2023-24 alone. The band will
then remain frozen until 2028 along
with other tax thresholds.
At the same time the dividend tax
allowance will be slashed from £2,000
to £1,000 and then to £500 next year,
hitting income investors, the self-employed and entrepreneurs. There will
also be a major reduction to the capital
gains tax allowance from £12,300 to
£6,000 in April and £3,000 in 2024.

2

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Money

Sam Brodbeck
Personal Account

1

Have you got a story?
Email money@telegraph.co.uk
or write to Telegraph Money,
111 Buckingham Palace Road,
London SW1W 0DT

Please include your phone number

Chancellor has one last chance to save the Tories from electoral oblivion by easing the tax burden, tackling pension rules and reforming childcare
Britain is standing at a
financial crossroads. On
Wednesday Jeremy Hunt
can choose to continue
along the road of ever rising taxes, which leads only to political
oblivion at the general election in two
years, or he can make bold, tactical
moves that remove many tax perversities holding the country back.
The Chancellor is cautious by
nature. Bond markets’ reaction to
Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget –
barely six months ago – will have only
convinced him that his instincts are
right. But Hunt should be bold. The

Government has some “fiscal headroom”, as economists say. Britain narrowly avoided falling into recession at
the end of last year and the Energy Price
Guarantee, the Government’s intervention in energy markets, has cost billions
of pounds less than expected.
What should the priorities be? It
seems almost certain that energy bills
will be capped longer than originally
planned, that is the right call.
But workers are being squeezed from
all sides by inflation, and taxes should
not add to the burden. Hunt should
commit to increasing the starting rate of
income tax and the higher-rate, 40pc,

threshold, rather than persisting with
the freeze until April 2028 as planned.
Many people who do not have an intimate understanding of the tax system
may not have realised why, but they will
be feeling poorer as a result. It’s hardly
an inspiring vision of Conservative values, or the rocket boosters needed to
jump-start the economy into growth.
I’m not hopeful Hunt shares my
views, but if he still wants to have a job
in 2025 he needs at the very least to signal that the taxman isn’t going to take
ever-bigger bites from our pay packets.
What is more likely is a reversal of a
truly pointless policy that is actively

keeping experienced older workers out
of the labour market. So-called “recycling” rules mean that once someone
takes cash out of their pension they are
severely limited in how much they can
put back into a pension in the future.
There is little evidence that anyone
has ever pulled money out of a pension
and then immediately stuck it back in to

‘No one should be
discouraged from
saving for their
retirement’

claim tax relief again. The only thing the
neatly named “money purchase annual
allowance” has done is give the over-50s
a reason not to carry on working.
At the moment someone who has
accessed their pension, which is possible from their 55th birthday, is limited
to annual contributions of just £4,000.
Whether or not this is contributing to
Britain’s productivity problem is irrelevant – no one should be discouraged
from saving for their retirement.
There are also whispers of reforms to
childcare funding, although a minister
recently downplayed expectations. At
the moment parents have to battle

through a mess of schemes: the taxfree childcare programme (which has
abominably low take-up) and the 15
and 30 “free hours” regimes.
For starters, the hours aren’t actually free and the funding only kicks in
after a child’s third birthday. More
money should be targeted at the first
birthday when mothers generally
have to decide whether or not to go
back to work.
Many readers will argue that taxpayers should not fund other people’s
children. The obvious retort is that
without children there will be no one
to fund your state pension in 20 years.

HOME INSURERS

BANKING

IN A FL AP OVER

No smartphone?
Sorry, you can’t have
the top savings rate

CAT ACCESS

Savers who do not have smartphones Buckinghamshire Building Society,
are missing out on the best interest which has a rate of 3.05pc and can be
rates because they can only be opened by post.
accessed via an app.
A saver with £50,000 in Tandem’s
The two highest rates on the market account would receive £1,700 a year in
are offered by app-only banks, accord- interest. They would earn £100 less if
ing to the analyst Moneyfacts.
they had to choose an option that did
Savers are losing out on as much as not require a smartphone.
£250 a year if they want to retain
If they had to use a telephone to open
access to a branch, according to the an account, it would effectively cost
Savings Champion, another analyst.
them £165 a year.
Many people, particularly older age
For those who want to be able to open
groups, do not have computers and are and manage their savings account at a
therefore unable to take advantage of branch, the best widely available option
these higher savings rates.
will be from Yorkshire
Chip’s Instant Access
Building Society, accordAccount pays 3.4pc and
ing to the analyst Savings
Zopa’s Smart Saver offers a
Champion.
rate of 3.21pc.
The bank’s Rainy Day
Interest that
Savers who have internet
Account pays 3.35pc on the
savers could be
access but not a smartphone
first £5,000 deposited,
missing out on
can access a rate of 3.2pc
then 2.85pc on any amount
by using a
from the Family Building
over this. On savings of
branch rather
Society, which is the third
£50,0 0 0, the intere st
than an app
highest on the market.
would amount to £1,450 a
However, those who canyear – a rate of 2.9pc.
not bank online can only earn a maxiThe cost of using a branch instead of
mum of 3.07pc in interest, with the top an app would amount to £250 a year.
account from Sainsbury’s Bank. The
Anna Bowes, of Savings Champion,
account can be managed online and by said: “There are savers that are simply
telephone but must be opened online. not comfortable with opening and manThose who want to open a savings aging savings accounts via their phone.”
account by any other means can try Alexa Phillips

Installing a cat flap could
invalidate your home
insurance policy, experts
have warned. While a pet
door for a furry friend
may seem innocuous,
Greg Wilson, of the price
comparison website
Quotezone, said that some
insurers view them as
security risks. “Providing
correct and up to date
information to insurers
could be the difference
between receiving the
proper protection or
rendering the policy
invalid,” he said. Other
common mistakes include
taking a long holiday, or
posting images on social
media while away.
Lauren Almeida

NILS JACOBI / ALAMY

£250

Pensioners risk £20,000 shortfall if
they fail to shop around for annuities
Pensioners face being £20,000 worse
off in retirement if they fail to shop
around for the best rates or do not
reveal personal information about
their health.
This is because of a large gap between
the best and worst annuity rates.
An annuity pays you a guaranteed
income for life in exchange for some or
all of your pension pot.
But not all are made equal, with a
stark difference costing savers potentially thousands of pounds in missed
income, analysis from broker Hargreaves Lansdown has revealed.
Today, a healthy 65-year-old with a
£100,000 pension pot can receive an
income of £6,741 per year from the
top-paying annuity.
This is over £800 per year more than
the lowest-paying product – a difference of £20,000 across a typical 25-year
retirement.
Adding medical history can also
make a huge difference, its research
found. Someone who had a stroke could
get £1,500 more than the best rate on
the market and around £2,500 more
than the lowest.
Helen Morrissey, of Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It may feel counter-intuitive to get a higher income for having
health concerns but in the case of annuities where your longevity is a key fac-

tor then it is vital to include as much
information as possible. Over the course
of your retirement, you could be tens of
thousands of pounds better off so it is
vital that you shop around and include
as much information as possible about
your health.”
William Burrows, of the Annuity Project, a comparison site, said: “People
can lose out if they do not shop around
for the best annuity. The difference
between well-known annuity providers
is as much as 10pc.”
He added that spouses may want to
purchase a “joint life annuity” so that, if
one partner dies, the other continues to
receive the regular income.

Annuities have started looking
more attractive in recent months
because of a significant improvement
in pay rates, which are linked to the
yields on government bonds.
T h e s e h i t re c o rd h i gh s l a s t
autumn, following a period of market
v o l a t i l i t y t r i g g e r e d b y Kw a s i
Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.
Although rates have fallen since
then, today a 65-year-old and a
60-year-old with a £100,000 pension
pot could expect an annual payout of
£6,000 from a joint life annuity,
compared with just under £4,000 two
years ago.
Charlotte Gifford

Annuity rates have soared since the mini-Budget
Average rate for a joint life £100,000 annuity, ages 65 and 60
£7,000
£6,000
£5,000

‘In the case
of annuities
having
health
concerns is
a key factor’

£4,000
£3,000
2014

2016

2018

2020

2022

SOURCE: WILLIAM BURROWS

Skyrocketing costs leave landlords
facing losses of up to £7,500 per home
BU Y-TO -LET
Landlords are facing losses as high as
£7,500 this year as increased mortgage
costs and taxes threaten the buy-to-let
business model.
Property investors are being hit
hardest in Three Rivers, Hertfordshire;
Cambridge; and Ryedale, North Yorkshire, as rental income fails to cover
their expenses.
Experts warned that skyrocketing
costs were pushing landlords to sell up
in some areas or inflict huge rent rises
on their tenants. A landlord renting out
a detached house in Three Rivers, with
a mortgage worth 75pc of the purchase
price, would lose £7,542 a year on average after the costs of income tax, mortgage repayments and maintenance are
factored in, according to Hamptons
estate agents.

worse off. For a terrace and flat losses and the East, the research found.
were £2,896 and £777 respectively.
Robert Jones, of Property InvestLandlords in Cambridge will also ments UK, a buy-to-let specialist, said
struggle to make the numbers stack up properties were more expensive in
with a 25pc deposit, the report said. The these areas. Although rents were risaverage loss on a detached home would ing, they were not keeping pace with
amount to £5,982. On a semi-detached the growing cost of mortgages.
home losses were £3,499, while a terThe average two-year buy-to-let
race would be £2,965 in the red. Flat mortgage rate has risen from 2.77pc to
owners fared only marginally
5.81pc in the past year, accordbetter, with losses of £504.
ing to analyst Moneyfacts.
Hamptons found 75
Chris Norris, of the
areas where landlords
National Re sidential
were at risk of losses. In
Landlords Association, a
In the red
many places, flats were
trade body, said landAreas Hamptons
the only property type
lords were increasingly
found where
that would yield any
selling their properties
landlords were at
profit at all. This included
because they were no
risk of losses
Sevenoaks in Kent, South
longer able to cover their
Hams in Devon and St
costs, which was contribAlbans in Hertfordshire.
uting to a shortage of rental
Even with a flat, their profits
homes. Mr Norris called on the
would be less than £100 a year. Land- Government to review the way land-

75

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

3

Money

GRAHAM AMOS
Trying to top up
Mr Amos lives in
Cornwall and has phoned
the Future Pension
Centre 19 times since
February without getting
through to staff

JEFF GILBERT FOR THE TELEGRAPH, JAY WILLIAMS

‘The concern is
you will not get
the money due,
and it is not a
trivial amount’

State pension opportunity extended
Deadline to boost retirement income has been relaxed but savers should not delay, finds Lauren Almeida

A

rare opportunity to boost state
pension payments by up to
£55,000 has been extended,
after Telegraph Money revealed that
chaos on government phone lines
risked thousands missing out.
People without a full National
Insurance record do not receive the
full state pension, but can pay voluntary contributions to rectify this.
Normally workers can only fill
gaps in their NI history dating back
six years, but a change to the state
pension in 2016 created a longer
concession, which allows workers to
make catch-up payments for the tax
years from 2006-07 to 2015-16. This

window was meant to close at the end
of the tax year on April 5.
The Government directs people who
think they might benefit from topping
up to first check whether it will be
worth it. However, this can only be
done on the phone, not online.
The deadline has now been extended
by 16 weeks to July 31 – but with the
phone lines still under severe strain,
the Government is warning callers not
to leave it until the last minute.
Graham Amos, a 65-year-old Daily
Telegraph reader from Cornwall, has
called the Future Pension Centre 19
times since February and has failed to
get through to staff each time. His

‘I am
constantly
tied to the
phone,
feeling very
frustrated’
Elisabeth
Callaghan, 65,
from West Sussex

‘How I took on Sadiq Khan’s
Ulez charges and won’
CAUGHT OUT

£240
What the £80 initial fine for
non-payment of the £12.50 daily
charge will rise to if it is not paid
within 28 days

Mr Pritchard, 76, said he wrote to TfL
six times over the course of seven
months to explain that he had set up an
autopay account and did not receive the
initial penalty notice.
However, his pleas fell on deaf ears
and TfL insisted the £240 fine was
still due.
He said: “I can’t imagine I am the only
driver in this position and TfL will be
making a lot of money from flinging
penalty charge notices out like confetti.
“I have been repeatedly and totally
ignored. It’s an outrageous way to
treat people.”
When the case was escalated to the

‘I have been repeatedly
and totally ignored, it’s
an outrageous way to
treat people’

RTIN BOND / ALAMY

When John Pritchard first set up an
autopay account for the Ultra Low
Emission Zone (Ulez) in September
2021, he did not imagine that Sadiq
Khan’s controversial traffic scheme
would take him to court more than a
year later.
Mr Pritchard said he input his payment details and the registration
number of his Ford Galaxy, which
was liable for the £12.50 daily charge
when driven into London’s eco zone,
into the Ulez website. He drove into
the zone to visit friends in south London eight months later in May 2022.
It was not until he received a penalty charge for £240 in July 2022 did
he realise there was a problem.
Mr Pritchard said: “I immediately
phoned Transport for London (TfL)
where a representative found my
autopay details, but could not understand why I had not been debited. I
was told to phone another number,
which I did, but was then told to write
in with my concerns.”
A seven-month battle ensued,
which culminated in TfL threatening
to sell Mr Pritchard’s possessions to
pay the charge and the case was escalated to county court.
The fine for entering the Ulez without paying the £12.50 charge is £80,
but this can rise to £240 if not paid
within 28 days. Mr Pritchard swore
under oath that the original penalty
charge notice – from which date the
28-day period to appeal or pay the fine
begins – did not arrive at his address.

county court in January of this year, TfL
revoked the £240 fine, but the original
£80 penalty charge for non-payment of
the Ulez charge remained in place. It
was not until The Telegraph intervened
to challenge the fine did TfL cancel it in
its entirety.
A spokesman for TfL claimed that
although Mr Pritchard had set up an
autopay account for Ulez payments, he
had not completed the second step of
“enabling it”. He added that TfL had
cancelled the fine as a “gesture of goodwill”, not because it was incorrectly
issued.
TfL said: “ We’re sorry that Mr
Pritchard made an honest mistake
when attempting to pay the Ulez
charge, and we’ve cancelled the charge.
“We would encourage anyone who
wants to set up autopay to make sure
that it is enabled once a general London
road user charging account has already
been set up to avoid incurring accidental charges.”
Scott Dixon, consumer and motoring
disputes expert at the Complaints
Resolver, warned the process of registering for Ulez payments and challenging any fines was “overly complicated”.
“It’s a war of attrition to appeal any
charges,” he said.
“There were also repeated Post Office
and Royal Mail strikes last year which
would have disrupted the delivery of
fines, but the onus is on TfL to ensure
the keeper of the vehicle has received
the initial fine.”
Tfl said: “Our website is designed to
make it as easy as possible for drivers to
pay any required charges or to challenge them, which can be done online
or in writing.”
The Ulez will be expanded to cover
the whole of the capital from Aug 29 in
a bid to boost air quality, although campaigners have warned it will hit alreadystretched households during the worst
cost of living crisis in a generation.
Last month it emerged that motorists
were at risk of being wrongly fined even
though their cars were exempt under
the Ulez rules, because TfL’s system for
checking compliance only refreshed
every month.
It means drivers are being issued
with hundreds of pounds worth of
charges if their registration details
change during that window. TfL said at
the time it was working with the DVLA
to improve the frequency of its system

current state pension forecast is £142 a
week, but the official website says that
he could boost this to £179.
Over the course of 20 years, this
would add up to missed income of
almost £40,000, without taking
into account any increase in payments in line with inflation, earnings
or 2.5pc, as the Government’s triple
lock policy dictates.
Someone who topped up all the gaps
from 2006-07 to 2015-16 would gain an
extra £52.90 a week or £2,750 a year,
or around £55,000 extra in total, over
a 20-year retirement.
Mr Amos said: “The real concern is
that you will not get the money that

you are due, and for me it is not a
trivial amount that is at risk.”
The helplines are meant to be
open from 8am to 6pm each weekday. However, when Mr Amos
c a l l e d a t 8 a m s h a r p, th e l i n e
remained engaged.
When Telegraph Money called the
Future Pension Centre in the days
after the extension was announced,
the line was repeatedly engaged and
then cut off.
Mr Amos added: “It is complete
incompetence. The Government is
meant to serve us and it cannot even
get basic things like this right.”
Elisabeth Callaghan, a 65-year-old
from West Sussex, said that she had
spent hours waiting on hold to the
Future Pension Centre. “The helpline just endlessly rings off and then
you get an engaged signal,” she said.
“It just made me lose the will
to live. I have never got through to
anyone.”
“I have written letters and emails,
so I hope that if I cannot get through
then someone will have a record that
I have really tried. But this whole
process is not good for my blood
pressure. I am constantly tied to the
phone, feeling very frustrated.”
Deborah Dickson, a 65-year-old
from Lancashire, has also had no luck
reaching the Future Pension Centre.
“I have followed all the rules,
doing everything I could online,” she
said. “My state pension forecast says
that I have a 40-year record of NICs,
but I still have gaps.
“I just do not understand and I
cannot figure it out until I speak to
someone. I am happy to pay in, I just
need to know how much and where.”
Ms Dickson’s official state pension
forecast suggests that she will
receive £168 per week, but she
believes that by paying voluntary
contributions she will be able to
bump this up to the full amount of
£185 a week.
Anyone who thinks that they have
gaps in their National Insurance
record should first check their
state pension forecast online at
gov.uk/check-state-pension.
If there are any missing
years of NICs, then government
advice is to call the Future Pension
Centre to make sure that it would
be advantageous to make voluntary
contributions.
Once you have confirmed that
extra contributions are appropriate,
you will be referred to HMRC in
order to obtain the unique 18-digit
code necessary to make a payment.
The standard cost to make up a
year of missing NI contributions is
£824.20, although the self-employed
pay just £163.80. All voluntary NIC
payments will be accepted at the
existing 2022-23 rates until the new
July deadline.
A spokesman for the Department
for Work and Pensions said: “The
quickest and easiest way for customers to see information about their
state pension and National Insurance
record is online. If customers need to
contact us, we will ensure calls are
answered as quickly as possible.”

4

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Property

My almighty
battle trying
to install a
heat pump

ABIGAIL BUTCHER
Energy efficient
Ms Butcher has been
renovating her Grade II
listed cottage in Hampshire

‘Yes, it’s green –
but a heat pump
is quite frankly
a luxury I can ill
afford and I wish I
had another option’

Abigail Butcher thought she was doing the
‘right thing’ in switching to an air-source system
but says it has been a costly and wasteful battle

PRICE PAIN

£15k
Abigail Butcher’s outlay for the
heat pump and installation, not
including the £5,000 grant from
the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

shot up, as had demand. Fortunately I
had an installer accredited by the
microgeneration certification scheme
(the standards body for small-scale
energy generation) lined up on the recommendation of a friend, as well as an
electrician well-versed in heat pumps.
I spent weeks searching for a plumber
who would install a heat pump. All those
personally recommended to me were
booked but I eventually found one with
the necessary skills and experience who
was free to do the work. However, he
knew he had the upper hand in a difficult
market for consumers.
Project managing the house development myself, as a single female, was difficult at the best of times but this man
turned out to be rude, arrogant and
unnecessarily obstructive.
The problem is that there is a serious
shortage of skilled tradesmen within the
renewables industry. My plumber was a
50-something male – like two-thirds of
Britain’s plumbing workforce, according
to a report released in January by the
Department for Business, Energy and
Industry Strategy. That skills shortage is
across the whole building industry,

RUSSELL SACH FOR THE TELEGRAPH

L

ast year, I installed an air-source
heat pump in a Grade II listed, offgrid cottage I’ve been renovating
in a small village in Hampshire.
The process was an almighty ordeal
– and one that cost me more than
£15,000, despite benefiting from a
£5,000 grant. Then a national shortage
of plumbers willing to take on the
challenge of installing a heat pump
forced me to turn to a tradesman who
made my life hell.
I paid £9,000 for the heat pump and
system design (not including the grant
from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme). On
top of that, because the heating had to
be installed from scratch – there was no
pre-existing system – at least half of my
overall plumbing bill of £13,000 went
on installation, pipework, radiators and
underfloor heating.
I have to say, the pump is working
well in terms of warming the house. It
really is very efficient.
But in hindsight, I don’t think I’d
make the same decision. Yes, it’s green
– but a heat pump is quite frankly a
luxury I can ill afford and I wish I had
another option.
Like many rural properties, my cottage is off the mains grid and my desire
to create a sustainable home initially
seemed to dovetail nicely into the
Government’s drive to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
So I plumped for an air-source heat
pump foolishly believing I was doing
the right thing but what an expensive,
wasteful fight it has been.
I missed the first round of grants, to
the tune of £10,000, in 2021 thanks to
my council obstructing planning and
initially refusing to allow me to site the
pump beside the house (a fight I eventually won). When I finally received the
green light to begin work, prices had

but especially renewables. Will Smith
established his heating and plumbing
firm in Dorking, Surrey, 17 years ago
and says retaining good, reliable,
multi-skilled plumbers for any length of
time is almost impossible.
“I’ve had the same guys for most of the
time I’ve been operating – so many go off

on their own as soon as I’ve trained them
in renewables, it’s really hard to build a
strong team with decent skills who can
fit a boiler as well as fix one,” says Smith,
who employs 10 plumbers.
Skilled plumbers are not the only bottleneck in the renewable energy infrastructure – the industry is desperately

lacking qualified engineers, designers
and even sales people, says Paul Yeatman, managing director of Dorset
renewable installation specialists Power
Naturally, who installed my heat pump.
Consumers must use an accredited
MCS installer to benefit from the grants
and when it was launched in May 2022,

Power Naturally closed their books to
new inquiries.
“We couldn’t cope – a situation not
helped by Covid and global demand,”
sayS Yeatman.
“Late last year one of the major heat
pump manufacturers closed their
order books for four months so we
had a lack of supply – things are
moving again now so a lot of the headaches are going to clear but we have a
long way to go.”
While it’s too late for me, things
should improve. Two years ago there
wasn’t even a specific training course
for heat pump engineers but an NVQ
has now been developed and manufacturers are boosting training capacity, so
there are 40,000 places annually for
heat pump engineers. The Government has also recently added £5m of
funding to train an additional 10,000
installers to help meet its target of
installing 600,000 heat pumps a year
by 2028 and to phase out gas boilers
altogether by 2035.
A spokesman for the Heat Pump
Association told me: “The capacity is
now there, people just need to come
forward to do the courses.”
More direct help for consumers
was announced too: £9.7m of state
funding to help cut the costs of lowcarbon technologies and reduce
disruption to customers.
Seeing is believing, though, and
renewables are still in a muddle.
Until the Government stops making
policies they believe makes them look
good without thinking through the
consequences, it is consumers who will
continue to bear the brunt. Don’t get
me started on the farcical wrangling I
had trying to insulate the cottage. But
after my heat pump ordeal, nothing
surprises me any more.

Why £500k homes face hardest falls
Homes worth more than £500,000 are
bearing the brunt of the house price
crunch as buyers demand discounts,
surveyors have warned.
More than two thirds (70pc) of surveyors said homes over £500,000 were
selling for below the asking price,
according to a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).
Just 60pc of respondents said homes
worth under £500,000 were being
purchased for less than the asking price.
Discounts agreed were around 5pc
on average. Tarrant Parsons, senior
economist at Rics, said he expected the
housing market would remain “subdued” over the coming months.
He said: “The housing market continues to adjust to the tighter lending clim a t e , w i th s t re t c h e d m o r t g a ge
affordability still weighing heavily on
activity. Given the ongoing weakness in
demand, house prices remain on a

downward trajectory and are expected pessimistic about the prospects for the
to see further falls through the first half market. The outlook for prices in a
year is also negative.
of the year at least.”
Bruce Collinson, a surveyor at Adair
The time it takes for properties to sell
has e dge d upwards and i s now Paxton in Otley, West Yorkshire,
approaching 19 weeks, the survey warned: “Prices are falling faster than
found. The number of homes on the is widely acknowledged.”
Colin Townsend, of surveyors John
market remains close to historic lows.
Sales are expected to keep falling. Goodwin in Malvern, Worcs, said:
The net balance – the difference “Prices are under pressure and have
between respondents answering posi- fallen a little but sales are being negotively or negatively – for near-term tiated at a reasonable level.
sales expectations came in at
“Provided vendors follow
minus 47pc.
advice and accept that asking prices must reflect
Prices are declining most
recent falls, deals will conin England and Wales, with
Wiggle room
tinue to be done.”
Northern Ireland and ScotTop-end
land showing a greater
Meanwhile, the number
homes are
degree of resilience, experts
of new rental properties
more likely to
said. The outlook for house
coming on to the market is
have prices
prices improved marginally
slumping as landlords sell
reduced
between January and Februup, the Rics report said.
ary, but surveyors are still
Alexa Phillips

£500K

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

5

Property

Where house prices are still rising
The housing market is flat-lining but there has been strong growth in areas including
the north of England, Wales and regional towns with a good supply of jobs, reports Tom Knowles

T

£319,200
Exeter
The city saw an
increase of 6.7pc
in average house
prices over the
12 months to the
end of January

£425,900

£311,400

Tunbridge Wells
The Kent town
was the only area
with average
prices over
£400,000 to see
rises above 5pc

Torquay
Devon town saw
the biggest rise,
7pc, for places
where homes cost
more than
£300,000
ANDREW FOX / ALAMY; GETTY; ALAMY

he UK’s housing market looks in
a precarious position. House
prices are falling at their sharpest rate since 2012, mortgage approvals are at their lowest since 2009, and
housebuilders are drastically cutting
the number of homes they are selling.
Yet, amid the gloom, there are a
number of regions across the UK
where house prices have still been
growing rapidly, according to Zoopla.
The property portal has analysed
house prices in all 124 postcodes and
found there is still strong annual
growth in a number of markets, especially the North of England and Wales.
Richard Donnell, executive director
of research at Zoopla, said: “Some of
the strongest performing housing
markets have been in great value-formoney suburbs, or in second tier
towns and cities that have got a strong
labour market, where jobs are growing, and a 2pc mortgage rate rise
doesn’t fully feed into house prices
like they do in places like London.
“These areas have also got the headroom to grow in terms of prices.”
Oldham and Wolverhampton have
the fastest growing house prices over
the past 12 months. In Oldham they
have risen 8.9pc to the end of January
to reach an average of £166,500, while
prices in Wolverhampton jumped
8.8pc to an average of £195,900.
Dudley saw the third highest
growth: 8.5pc to £218,700, followed by
Worcester with an annual increase of
8.2pc to £291,600.
For homes over £300,000, reflecting the UK’s average house price of
£294,000, Torquay has seen the
sharpest rise, with prices increasing
7pc in the Devonian town to £311,400.
This was followed by Exeter where
prices grew 6.7pc to £319,200, and
Gloucester which has seen growth of
6.3pc to £320,500.
“As a local agent it’s positive, it’s not
all doom and gloom,” Neil Bartlett,
managing director at John Lake estate
agents in Torquay, said. “I’m not finding a problem with stock coming on,
our diaries are busy, we’re out doing a
lot of valuations and there are a lot of
instructions coming on.”
Bartlett added that alongside retirees, young families are moving into
the town, lured by its three grammar
schools, as well as the natural beauty
and strong transport links.
“Vendors that were looking at their
property almost as a cash card, with it
automatically increasing by Xpc every
year, have realised that prices can’t be
too optimistic. But if it’s priced sensibly and it’s a well presented property,
we are getting some serious interest in
offers in the first four to six weeks.”
Agents admit, however, that the
market has calmed significantly from
the post-lockdown buying frenzy
when there was pent up demand.
“Towards the end of 2020 and
through all of 2021, it was crazy,” Sam
Huskisson, sales manager at Belvoir in
Wolverhampton, said. “We had sale
times cut in half. You could put a house
on the market, and as long as it wasn’t
overvalued by more than 20pc or so,
you’d have 20 to 25 viewings, 10 offers,

and with every home you’d be taking
best offers within the first week or two.
“It’s now dampened a little with
mortgage rates increasing, but it’s still
fairly strong. As long as it’s fairly priced,
there’s never a worry about where the
interest is going to come from.”
Jodie Williamson, sales negotiator at
Alistair Stevens in Oldham, said the area
had seen an influx of new bars and boutique shops over the past year that was
helping bring people to the town. “It’s
definitely still going, I took four offers

yesterday that were all accepted at asking price, if not over.” But she added:
“People are a bit more hesitant now and
asking more questions about the property. Vendors have had to be more realistic about pricing.”
Zoopla data show that price growth
has been slowest in more expensive
areas, where the recent rises in mortgage rates has more of an effect on a
household’s budget. The average rate
on a two-year fixed mortgage rate
jumped to a 14-year high of 6.65pc in

‘Flats in inner London
have fallen by 28pc in real
terms since 2016. London’s
just gone sideways’

September following panic on the gilt
markets after Kwasi Kwarteng’s miniBudget. It has now dropped to 5.33pc
according to data provider Moneyfacts.
“Higher mortgage rates have a much
more binding impact in London and the
South East which are expensive markets anyway and you need more equity
to play with”, Donnell said. “If mortgage
rates go from 2pc to 6pc, in London that
can be a payment jump of £600 to £800
a month, whereas in somewhere like
Wolverhampton it’s going to be more

like £200, so it’s not the same pressures.” Tunbridge Wells is the only
area where the average home costs
more than £400,000 and prices are
rising above 5pc, according to Zoopla.
Prices in the Kentish town have
risen 5.5pc over the past 12 months to
£425,900. Cambridge follows closely,
rising by 4.7pc to £407,000. Every
area where the average house price is
above £450,000 is rising by less than
4pc, except Hemel Hempstead where
prices rose by 4pc to £453,700.
This is in contrast to London,
where 11 out of 12 of the slowest growing postcodes are, alongside Aberdeen where the market has long
suffered from a North Sea oil jobs
slowdown. West central London,
which covers parts of Westminster,
Camden and Islington, saw the only
annual fall of any area, with prices
down 1.4pc. However, prices remain
very high, at an average of £755,400.
“London had its heyday of transactions and house price growth in 2014,”
Donnell said. “Then we had a succession of tax changes, the Brexit vote,
3pc stamp duty on second homes, and
lots of taxes on overseas owners. The
market started to bounce back in
2020 and the pandemic happened,
which hasn’t been great for global cities. Flats in inner London have fallen
by 28pc in real terms since 2016. London’s just gone sideways.”
However, Cardiff has also been
enjoying a buoyant property market,
alongside Swansea and Newport,
with all three seeing some of the
sharpest house price growth in the
UK, rising by 7.5pc, 7pc and 6.7pc
respectively.
“Wales has been red hot”, Donnell
said. “It’s been considered great value
for money. Southern Wales is all
about strong employment, while
Newport is getting the overspill from
Bristol in terms of housing demand.
“In mid Wales it’s been more about
tourism, while in North Wales there
are people benefiting from working
from home much of the week and
being able to sort of commute that bit
further to areas like Manchester or
Chester when they need to.”
Zoopla data shows that on a quarterly basis, prices across the UK are
either flat or falling, with very little
growth between November and January compared to the previous three
months. However, estate agents in
areas with strong annual price growth
said they had been seeing a pick up in
demand since January as better
priced mortgage products come back
on the market.
Michael Jones, senior valuer at
Naomi Jones estate agents in Exeter,
said: “It’s been very resilient since
January. People have realised there
are still some really good mortgage
rates available, and people still want
to move house. We’ve had first time
buyers out in force as Exeter has
always been seen as a kind of good
place to invest in and move in.
“I think prices will certainly hold
their own. There’s certainly no evidence on the horizon that there’s any
drastic cliff edge coming.”

6

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

7

Money

Pretflation: how
coffee became a
luxury item

Egg sandwich
Old price
£1.89
New price
£2.99

Food and beverage retailers such as Pret a
Manger and Costa have raised the cost of their
products by up to 50pc, reports Sam Meadows

RII SCHROER FOR THE TELEGRAPH, DENIS MICHALIOV/ALAMY

T

he pandemic may have put an
end to the days of commuting
five days a week for many, but
that does not mean spending any less
on coffee.
The b everage has b e come a
national obsession, with the number
of coffee shops in Britain more than
doubling between 2009 and 2020,
from 13,000 to 29,000. But chains
popular among office workers such
as Pret a Manger and Costa Coffee
have raised their prices on hot drinks
and sandwiches by as much as 50pc
in the wake of the home-working
revolution, it has emerged.
Pret a Manger, a favourite of
L o n d o n e r s i n p a r t i c u l a r, h a s
increased the price of a latte and a
cappuccino to £3.30. Once well
known for its value 99p filter coffee,
it now charges £1.60 at its branches
located at railway stations and transport hubs – an increase of more than
60pc. The price in other Pret shops in
the capital is £1.50.
Costa Coffee, the nation’s favourite
brand, according to a report by consumer analysts Mintel, increased the
price of its small lattes and cappuccinos to £3.20 in the capital and £3.05
outside, an increase of 25p.
Starbucks has also raised the cost
of a latte to £3.55.
Prices have climbed so far that the
average cost of a cup of coffee
breached £3 at the end of last year,
according to market researchers
World Coffee Portal.
The average price of a latte
increased by 33p to £3.25, while
the price of a cappuccino rose by
11.7pc, it says.
A combination of staff shortages,
energy bill inflation and problems
sourcing ingredients are to blame for
the higher prices, according to industry experts.
Paul Rooke, executive director of
the British Coffee Association, a trade
body, says coffee shops and produc-

Chocolate croissant
Old price
£1.75
New price
£2.40

Food inflation rises for 16 consecutive months

And it is not just coffee that people
are having to fork out more for.
The cost of baguettes, sandwiches
and pastries sold in coffee chains has
also shot up.
A chocolate croissant from Pret
was priced at £1.75 in November
2020 and would now set you back
£ 2 .4 0. A n e g g s a n d w i c h h a s
increased in price by more than £1,
from £1.89 to £2.99, while the chain’s
popular cheese and pickle and Italian pros ciutto bag ue tte s b oth
increased in price by £1, to £4.85 and
£4.99 respectively.
Jim Winship, director of the British Sandwich Association, a trade
body, highlighted problems producers face. He says: “The latest issue is
the problems with tomatoes. Energy
costs went up so lots of farms saw it
as too much of a risk to plant last
year, and then we had weather issues
in Morocco and elsewhere.”
However, he says the cost of living crisis had not put people off
heading to their local sandwich shop
for lunch.
“Whenever we hit difficult times
people trade down from other areas,”

HOT DEMAND

Annual inflation rates
CPIH
Food and non-alcoholic beverages

£3.25

20
%
15

Average price of a latte,
according to World Coffee Portal,
up 33p on a year earlier, as staff
shortages and energy bills bite

10
5
0
-5
2013

2015

2017

2019

2021
SOURCE: ONS

‘Coffee is a
big energy
user in
terms of
roasting,
usually
using gas, so
energy bill
increases
have an
impact’

ers were facing the same challenges as
a lot of other small businesses.
“Coffee is a big energy user in terms
of roasting, usually using gas, so
energy bill increases have an impact,”
he says.
“Availability of labour has been a
challenge. Often people come from
other countries and work as a barista
for a few years before going home, but
that hasn’t happened as much because
of Covid and Brexit.
“Wages have had to go up to encourage people into the industry,” he adds.
Jeffrey Young, of the World Coffee
Portal, says the pandemic and subsequent drop in commuting had hit businesses. “A lot of those branded coffee
chains are in very high footfall areas
and, especially in large cities, levels are
still not back to normal,” he says.
“Places that are reliant on workplaces have not had as much joy as they
would have done before Covid.”
Paul Davies, an analyst at Mintel,
says that, despite rising costs, coffee
shops were likely to hit a ceiling on
pricing. He says: “Operators are
acutely aware that there is a limit to
how much of these extra costs they
can pass on given the current economic climate and the intense competition in the coffee shop market.”

Filter coffee
Old price
New price

99p
£1.50

Prosciutto baguette
Old price
£3.99
New price
£4.99

he says. “So people who were perhaps going out to a restaurant at
lunchtime are coming in for a sandwich instead.”
A spokesman for Pret said it had
introduced a new Made Simple range
to give customers a cheaper option
and also pointed to its coffee subscription model, which offers a discount to frequent customers. He said
that the company has been hit by the
rising cost of energy and ingredients.
He added: “We’ve tried to absorb
as many of these costs as we can, but
at times we have had to increase
prices.”
Starbucks said it evaluates pricing on a “product-by-product basis”
and that many factors play into
price rises. A spokesman added:
“The prices of some beverages have
seen slight adjustments as a result of
increased input costs experienced by
the wider industry over the past year.
“We continue to be committed to
offering great value and an enhanced
customer experience.”
Costa said it “absorbed costs where
it could”, but did increase prices in
June last year. It offers loyalty
schemes to help customers save.
A spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring a range of entry
price points across our core coffee
menu.”

8

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Money
7 YEARS

Time you would have to
survive after making a
potentially exempt
transfer for it to be no
longer considered part of
your estate

mortgages, insurance, household
bills, travel costs, holidays and care
home fees. The executor will then be
asked to work out “net income minus
total expenditure” to prove your gift
fits the rules. So keep bank statements,
bills and so on to make things easier
for your executor.
To really help them, you could write
out your own calculations, although
you might decide that’s too morbid.

WHAT IF THE SUMS
ARE CHALLENGED?
If one calculates they can give
away £5,000 a month out of surplus income and upon death the calculations show that say only £4000 is
really eligible, what would happen?
Would the whole amount of £5,000 be
excluded from qualifying or would
just the excess £1,000 be disqualified?

Q

If HMRC decides that, after making the gifts, your remaining
income was not sufficient to maintain
your standard of living, then it will disqualify the excess.
Mr Rycroft said: “HMRC will scrutinise the calculations submitted and if
they exclude £1,000 from a total gift of
£5,000, that £1,000 will become a
potentially exempt transfer (PET) and
will therefore become subject to the
usual rules.”
A PET is a gift that becomes exempt
from IHT and is no longer considered
part of your estate if you survive seven
years after making it. If you die within
the seven years, tax may be due but it
will be charged on a sliding scale (at
40pc in the first three years, then at
32pc between years three and four,
and so on).
So just the £1,000 a month excess
would have an IHT liability, but
whether tax is actually due would
depend on when you gave the gift.

A

How you can use the ‘unlimited’
inheritance tax gifting loophole

DOES INCOME FROM
AN ISA QUALIFY?
Can income received from an Isa
that is not spent also be gifted in
addition to surplus income from dividends from investments held in a personal account?

Q

Charlotte Gifford answers your questions on tax exempt gifts ‘out of income’

O

ne of the best ways to avoid
inheritance tax is to give away
wealth during your lifetime.
Many people don’t realise there is a
way to unlock unlimited gifting,
thanks to a valuable IHT loophole.
Under Section 21 of the Inheritance
Tax Act 1984, individuals can slash
their IHT bill by making regular gifts
out of income.
The gifts must meet three conditions in order to be deemed exempt
from IHT. They must count as normal
– i.e. “regular” – expenditure (so a oneoff gift to help your child refurbish
their kitchen would not qualify). They
must be paid out of surplus income,
what’s left after you have paid all your
outgoings, and they must not negatively impact your standard of living.
As long as they meet all three of these
conditions, then no IHT will be due on
the payments – potentially saving your
loved ones from huge IHT bills.
Thi s s ounds straightfor ward
enough. But each individual’s circumstance is different, so it can be tricky to
work out whether your plans fall
within the rules.
When Telegraph Money’s Ask a Lawyer columnist Gary Rycroft, of Joseph
A Jones & Co Solicitors, wrote about
unlimited gifting, we received a flurry

of emails from people who wanted to
know if their gifts would be eligible for
the tax saving.
Here, we answer your questions on
how to make regular gifts out of surplus
income to slash IHT.

CAN POWER OF
ATTORNEY BE USED?
I am currently arranging Lasting
Power of Attorney (LPA) for my
family to use in the event of me being
unable to deal with such matters.
You stated that such an arrangement
could not be made by those holding the
power of attorney. However my question is if such an arrangement is already
in existence, can those with power of
attorney continue to make such payments? Would they also be able to
amend the payments paid up or down?

Q

There are strict rules around gifting
for LPAs, and with good reason –
this is to prevent rogue attorneys from
abusing the system and paying themselves out of the donor’s estate.
But what if you want to keep giving
gifts even after you’ve lost capacity?
Luckily, there are exceptions to the

A

rules that will let you keep up the payments. Under Section 12 of the Mental
Capacity Act 2005, an LPA may be
allowed to make a gift to themselves, a
family or friend, or “any charity to whom
the donor made or might have been
expected to make gifts” provided it’s
given as part of a “customary occasion”.
An obvious example would be someone’s birthday or a wedding. But you
could argue it’s a customary occasion if
you’ve already established a pattern of
gifting.
Kate Aitchison of tax firm RSM said
that writing a “deed of gift” is one way
you can provide evidence of your intention to regularly give money to a relative or friend. “The key is to establish a
habitual pattern. It is better to gift
smaller amounts at specific times rather
than more variable sums at random
points throughout the year.”
Section 12 also states that the value of
the attorney’s gift must be reasonable
“having regard to all the circumstances
and, in particular, the size of the donor’s
estate”. Ms Aitchison said that by the
time a person loses capacity, they could
also be paying care fees – potentially
reducing the amount they can afford to
give away. So the LPA could reduce the
payments and stay within the rules, but
increasing them could be risky.

GARY RYCROFT
Telegraph Money’s
Ask a Lawyer
columnist

‘HMRC will
scrutinise the
calculations
submitted’

If an attorney wants to make a gift
that falls outside these restrictions, they
must apply to the Court of Protection
for approval. But this is costly and
time-consuming.

WHAT DOCUMENTS
ARE NEEDED?
My retirement income is sufficient
to transfer £1,000 a month into my
deposit account without impacting our
standard of living. I have two daughters
and I usually move money from my
deposit account to my current account
so I can gift them £1,000 or more each
for birthday and Christmas.
What documentation is needed? Do I
need an accountant to record it or do I
need to tell HMRC or is a simple letter
included with the gift stating the money
is out of income all that is necessary?

Q

Your executor will be asked to fill in
Form IHT403 and provide evidence
of your income and expenditure for
each of the tax years in which you gave
gifts out of surplus income.
This means you need to keep records
of everything from your salary, pensions, investments, savings income,

A

Income from an Isa can be included
as part of your available income for
giving gifts under Section 21.
It is gifts of capital assets that don’t
qualify, including jewellery or shares.
There are some sources of income that
HMRC actually regards as capital –
such as withdrawals from life insurance bonds. With these investments,
part will be considered income, and
the rest capital. But rents, interest and
dividends all count as income. So just
as long as including the income from
your Isa in your calculations does not
affect your standard of living, your
gifts should be in the clear.
The other thing to think about is
whether you have a record of the
income from the Isa. Because Isas are
tax-free they aren’t included on tax
returns. Ms Aitchison said this could
create problems for executors when
providing evidence that the income
was surplus – another reason to keep
detailed records.
Mr Rycroft said you may want to
consider giving the whole Isa to maximise your gift.
“If you really do not need the
income from the Isa to fund your
expenditure, why not give away all or
part of the capital as well? It will be a
PET, but as a PET any future capital
growth and income will still be outside
your estate.”

A

The new prize draws rivalling Premium Bonds
The next draws are due to take place in
August 2023 and February 2024.
Halifax is also offering a monthly
prize draw for customers with qualifying savings accounts. Savers with at
least £5,000 in an eligible account will
be entered to win prizes each month:
three prizes worth £100,000, 100
worth £1,000 and 1,500 worth £100.
Halifax Everyday Saver, one of the
qualifying accounts, pays just 0.7pc on

‘You should not pick an
account to win the prize
draw because meaningful
interest is more important’
balances of £1 to £9,999. Meanwhile,
the highest easy-access rate on the
market is 3.15pc, from Chip. On a
deposit of £5,000, which is the minimum to qualify for the monthly prize
draw, the difference in interest between
3.15pc and 0.7pc is £122.50 a year.
Halifax says all its savings accounts

better option for those who want to take
part in the draw would be to take out a
Halifax Fixed Saver account, which pays
4pc in annual interest, which is competitive compared with the top rate on the
market – currently 4.31pc from Atom.
The difference in interest paid by the
two accounts is only £15 a year.
The prize fund rate of National Savings & Investments’ flagship savings
draw is currently 3.3pc, reflecting the
average prize payout. Savers have the
chance of winning prizes from £25, up
to a jackpot of £1m.
The odds of each £1 bond winning
is 24,000 to one. The more you have in
the account, the greater the chances of
winning. However, as with all draws,
there is no guarantee savers will win
anything.
Anna Bowes, of Savings Champion,
a comparison site, said such prize
accounts were not suitable for those
looking for guaranteed interest income.
“A prize draw is the cherry on the
top. It’s not the be-all and end-all.
You should not pick an account to win

g More than

22 million people
enter the Premium
Bond draw
each month

ADARCHIVES / ALAMY

Premium Bonds are the nation’s
favourite way to save, with more than
22 million people entering into the
prize draw every month.
But rival banks are now trying to
woo savers towards their own lottery
accounts.
Britain’s biggest building society
Nationwide, for example, offers the
chance of winning £250 in its prize
draw. The prize fund for the first draw
was £229,250, with savers given a
one-in-34 chance of winning. Out of
31,713 eligible savers, 917 won in the
latest draw in February.
The prize draw applies to its Start to
Save regular savings account, which
pays interest of up to 5pc. However,
the amount savers can pay into the
account is limited to between £25 and
£50 a month for 24 months.
This is a competitive rate but is
below the top rate of 7pc on a regular
savings account, which is offered by
First Direct.
The prize draw is currently in its
second issue and has two prize draws

“You might lose out by picking a poor
account for the chance to be in a prize
draw, which you may well not win.”
The bank offering the prize draw that
is most similar to Premium Bonds is the
Chip Prize Savings Account, which is
advertised as “a more premium” Premium Bond.
Like Premium Bonds, it does not
pay interest but is easy access. There
are 1,301 prizes worth £35,000 each
month, including a grand prize of
£10,000 a month. There are 50 prizes
worth £100, 500 worth £25, and 750
worth £10.
Each £10 saved in the account
amounts to one entry into the draw.
Savers need to have at least £100
saved in the account to qualify for the
following month’s competition. The
odds of winning are one in 6,056 for
each £10 entry.
Savings of up to £85,000 per
person are protected by the Financial
Services Compensation Scheme, a
lifeboat fund, while state-backed
NS&I’s Premium Bonds are 100pc guar-

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

9

Advice

Money Makeover
‘I’m 80, how should I invest £400 a month?’
J

ohn Osborne is enjoying his retirement, but he wants to make sure
his partner is provided for.
He receives £2,000 a month from
his state and private pensions and is
left with between £250 and £400 a
month after his expenses are paid.
Mr Osborne wants to grow this
amount, probably by investing in the
stock market, during the next few
years to cover the costs of his funeral
and leave the rest to his partner.
“I’m 80, so I can’t go in for anything
long-term. But on a short-term basis,
how can we make our money work for
us better?” he asked.
Mr Osborne, from Frankby on the
Wirral, is looking for an investment
that will generate returns every year.
He rates his appetite for risk as a six or
seven out of 10 and is willing to take
some chances to grow his wealth.
He is not currently using his
£20,000-a-year Isa allowance and
wants to know how he can best invest
the extra cash to maximise his returns
while being as tax-efficient as possible.
He is enjoying his retirement by
making matchstick models of historic
buildings like the House of Parliament
during the winter, and house-sitting
for other people during the summer
so he can travel around the country
cheaply and see some of his favourite
places such as the Lake District. He
takes his electric tricycle with him.
He and his partner, a historian who
is also 80, enjoy going out to events
such as art lectures.

jJohn Osborne

enjoys house-sitting
which allows him to
visit places such as
the Lake District,
right

Abby Ivison
Financial adviser, The Private Office
Although Mr Osborne has confirmed
he is happy to take some chances to
grow his funds and sets his risk appetite at a six or a seven out of 10, in general if you believe that you will want to
draw on the capital within the next
couple of years, it may be more
appropriate to keep your money
in a savings account rather than
put it into investments. Stock
markets can be volatile and you
may end up with less than you
put in over the short term if
you are forced to sell
should markets fall.
In Mr Osborne’s case,
for shorter term
money, the good news
is that interest rates
on regular saver
accounts are attrac-

tive. The best rate of 7pc is with First
Direct, but he’d also need to have or
open a current account with them – if
that is appropriate he can deposit up to
£300 a month. After 12 months, if he
deposited the maximum as soon as possible each month, he’d expect to earn
£136.50 in interest over a year.
Halifax’s Regular Saver Account
offers 4.5pc on deposits of up to £250 a
month, but you don’t have to have a
current account. Both of these accounts
have a fixed term of 12 months and there
is no access before maturity.
If Mr Osborne is happy that he might
not need access in the shorter term – at
least three to five years – he could consider an investment strategy that is
appropriate for the level of risk he is
happy to take. If he is not confident in
selecting the investments himself,
there are ready-made portfolios on the
market that contain a diversified mix of
assets, so will likely contain equities,
fixed income, and possibly alternative
assets such as commodities.
Investing globally can be sensible so
that you are not dependent on the performance of assets in just one country.
This will likely be through investing in
managed or tracker funds.
Mr Osborne is not currently utilising
his Isa allowance, therefore he has the
opportunity to add up to £20,000 per
tax year to a stocks and shares Isa. Isas
are tax efficient as any investment gain
or income that is generated is tax-free
and you are able to make tax-free withdrawals as needed.
Making a regular monthly contribution from your surplus income into a
stocks and shares Isa may mean that
you benefit from what is known as
“pound cost averaging”. Because you
are investing small amounts regularly,
this can help mitigate the risk of investing a larger sum on a single day at a single price.
Isas can continue to be very tax
efficient on death, as a spouse or
civil partner can inherit the Isa as
an “additional permitted subscription” and maintain the taxfree status of the value of the Isa
at death. With stocks and shares
Isas, a spouse or civil partner
could inherit the funds “in specie”,
that is, maintaining the investments rather than having to
cash them in before transferring, provided that they have
their own stocks and shares
Isa with the same provider.

PETER UNGER/GETTY/ASADOUR GUZELIAN

Our reader wants to build up a nest egg for his partner, but
should he save, invest or buy insurance? By Alexa Phillips

1

Money
newsletter
Get the best of
Telegraph Money,
straight to your
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telegraph.co.uk/
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Angela Davy-Makwana
Financial adviser, Quilter
From the sounds of it, Mr Osborne is living a lovely retirement and it is commendable that he wants to ensure that
his partner has enough to pay for his
funeral and have some left over. Assuming he is in reasonable health instead of
investing all of his spare cash, it might
be worth considering a “whole of life”
insurance plan. Such a plan will pay out
on death whenever that occurs. For
£250 per month, he could get cover of
about £44,000, however this might
shift once it is underwritten and could
change on application.
The plan could then be put in trust
for his partner who would pay the
funeral out of the proceeds and can
keep the remaining funds. The proceeds would also be paid out tax-free.
Opting for a whole of life plan in this
way is like having £44,000 in the bank
already for Mr Osborne’s partner that
can be accessed once he dies. Assuming
Mr Osborne is accepted on standard
rates, if he wanted to save up this sum it
would take him 14 years six months to

Would you like a
Money Makeover?

achieve £44,000 in cash at a saving
amount of £250 per month.
He could then invest the remaining
£150 per month using an Isa, as he has
an appetite for risk, he could use a
well-diversified collective investment.
Any funds built up in that account
would also be payable to his partner at
the time of his death. He should ensure
this is mentioned in his will.
If Mr Osborne were married to his
partner or in a civil partnership, then
they would probably be able to inherit
these Isa savings through an inherited
Isa allowance (as described previously).
However, since they are not married,
they will not be entitled to any inheritance tax exemptions or allowances
that would be available to a spouse.
It’s important to note that it is not possible to transfer ownership of an Isa to
someone else. If he wants to transfer his
Isa savings to his partner, he will need to
withdraw the funds and then give them
to his partner. However, be aware that
doing so may result in you losing the taxfree status of an Isa and will use up the
partner’s annual allowances.

If you’d like to be
considered, please email
money@telegraph.co.uk
with the subject line “Give
me a Money Makeover”
and provide the following
information:
hYour name, age and
telephone number (we will
not share this with anyone)
hYour main financial goals
(in as much detail as
possible please), details of
any debts (including
mortgages) and how you
would describe your
attitude to investment risk
hCurrent investments,
including cash, property
and pensions.
hYou must be willing to be
photographed for the
article.

BEST BUYS
MORTGAGE RATES

Lender

Initial Rate

Scheme Details

Revert Rate APRC Max LTV Fee

Notes

SAVINGS RATES

Provider

Contact

Account

Chip A

getchip.uk

Chip Instant Access Account

Instant

£1

3.40%

Zopa A

zopa.com

Smart Saver

None

£1

3.21%

Tandem A

tandem.co.uk

Instant Access Saver

None

£0

3.20%

The Family BS

familybuildingsociety.co.uk

Online Saver (5)

None

£100

3.20%

None

£1

3.10%

Barclays

4.18%

Fixed to 30/06/25

7.49

7.0

60%

£999

Free valuation. Free legal work for remortgages.

Skipton

5.62%

Fixed to 30/06/25

6.29

6.2

95%

£0

Purchase only. Free valuation.

First Direct

3.99%

Fixed for 5 years

6.99

5.9

60%

£490

Free valuation. Free legal work for remortgages.

Yorkshire BS

4.78%

Fixed to 31/05/28

6.99

6.3

95%

£995

Purchase only. Free valuation and £250 cash back.

Coventry BS

coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk Limited Access Saver (Online) (8)

Virgin Money

3.99%

Fixed to 01/06/33

8.24

5.5

75%

£995

Free valuation and legal work for remortgage. £1000 cash back for purchase.

Nationwide

4.34%

Notice/Term Deposit AER

Online Branch Post

Fixed for 10 years

7.49

5.5

85%

£999

Purchase only. Free valuation.

VARIABLE RATES

3
3

NOTICE ACCOUNTS
Investec

savings.investec.com

90-Day Notice Saver

90 Day

£5,000

3.55%

Secure Trust Bank

securetrustbank.com

120 Day Notice Account (09.Mar.23)

120 Day

£1,000

3.50%

180 Day

3
3
3

Allica Bank

allica.bank

180-day Notice Savings Account (Issue 1)

Yorkshire BS

4.19%

Base +0.19% to 31/05/25

6.99

6.6

75%

£995

Free valution. Free legal work for remortgages.

Moneybox A

moneyboxapp.com

120 Day Notice Savings Account (provided by Charter SB) 120 Day

£1

3.46%

Nationwide

6.04%

Base +2.04% for 2 years

7.49

6.9

95%

£0

No ERC. Purchase only. Free valuation.

BLME B

blme.com

90 Day Notice Account (Issue 5)

£1,000

3.44%

3

Barclays

4.60%

Base +0.60% for 5 years

7.49

6.5

60%

£999

No ERC. Free valuation. Free legal work for remortgages.

First Direct

5.94%

Base +1.94% for Term

5.94

5.9

75%

£490

No ERC. Free valuation. Free legal work for remortgages.

First Direct

6.79%

Base +2.79% for Term

6.79

6.8

90%

£490

No ERC. Free valuation. Free legal work for remortgages.

4.99%

Fixed to 30/06/25

6.74

6.5

60%

£995

Remortgage only. Free valuation and legal work.

3
3
3
3
3

BUY TO LET
NatWest

Tel

EASY ACCESS

FIXED RATES

TSB

5.44%

Fixed to 31/07/25

8.34

7.8

75%

£0

Free valution. Free legal work for remortgages.

NatWest

4.49%

Fixed to 30/06/28

6.74

5.9

60%

£1,495

Remortgage only. Free valuation and legal work.

Barclays

4.90%

Fixed to 30/06/28

8.49

7.0

75%

£0

Remortgage only. Free valuation and legal work.

Source, L&C Mortgages, correct as of 08/03/2023. Representative example A mortgage of £193,796 payable over 23 years, initially on a fixed rate until 31/03/28 at 4.39% and then on a variable
rate of 6.49% for the the remaining 18 years would require 62 payments of £1,133.77 followed by 214 payments of £1,327.42. The total amount payable would be £355,660 made up of the loan
amount plus interest (£160,566) and fees (£1,298). The overall cost for comparison is 5.7% APRC representative.

90 Day

£10,000 3.50%

REGULAR SAVER
First Direct*

firstdirect.com

Regular Saver Account

1 Year

£25-£300 7.00%

Lloyds Bank*

lloydsbank.com

Club Lloyds Monthly Saver

1 Year

£25-£400 6.25%

NatWest *

natwest.com

Digital Regular Saver

Instant

£1-£150 6.17%

Royal Bank of Scotland* rbs.co.uk

Digital Regular Saver

Instant

£1-£150 6.17%

Halifax

Regular Saver

1 Year

£25-£250 4.50%

halifax.co.uk

3


3

3

3

SHORT TERM FIXED RATE BONDS
Al Rayan Bank B

alrayanbank.co.uk

24 Month Fixed Term Deposit

2 Year

£5,000

SmartSave

smartsavebank.co.uk

2 Year Fixed Rate Saver

2 Year

£10,000 4.46%

2 Year

£50

4.47%

Atom Bank A

atombank.co.uk

2 Year Fixed Saver

Allica Bank

allica.bank

24 Month Fixed-Term Personal Savings Account (Issue 29) 2 Year

£10,000 4.40%

Al Rayan Bank B

alrayanbank.co.uk

18 Month Fixed Term Deposit

£5,000

4.37%

4.57%

18 Month

3
3

3

4.45%

3
3

3

LONG TERM FIXED RATE BONDS
Al Rayan Bank B

alrayanbank.co.uk

36 Month Fixed Term Deposit

3 Year

£5,000

SmartSave

smartsavebank.co.uk

5 Year Fixed Rate Saver

5 Year

£10,000 4.51%

Raisin UK

raisin.co.uk

5 Year Fixed Term Deposit (provided by Işbank)

5 Year

£1,000

SmartSave

smartsavebank.co.uk

3 Year Fixed Rate Saver

3 Year

£10,000 4.46%

SmartSave

smartsavebank.co.uk

4 Year Fixed Rate Saver

4 Year

£10,000 4.45%

4.50%

3
3
3
3
3

3

CASH ISAS – VARIABLE RATES (ACCEPTS TRANSFERS IN?)

Have you lost track
of your pensions?
Find and combine your pensions into a
personalised pension plan, with support
from a pension adviser at every step.

Furness BS (Yes)

furnessbs.co.uk

45 Day Notice Cash ISA

45 Day

£1,000

3.30%

Mansfield BS (Yes)

mansfieldbs.co.uk

180 Day Notice Cash ISA (2nd issue)

180 Day

£1

3.25%

Paragon (Yes)

paragonbank.co.uk

Triple Access Cash ISA – Issue 12

None

£1

3.10%

Cynergy Bank (Yes)

cynergybank.co.uk

Online ISA (Issue 31)

None

£1

3.05%

Shawbrook (Yes)

shawbrook.co.uk

Easy Access Cash ISA Account Issue 23

None

£1,000

3.01%

4.25%

Virgin Money (Yes)*

uk.virginmoney.com

1 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 4

1 Year

£1

Close Brothers (Yes)

closesavings.co.uk

3 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA

3 Year

£10,000 4.20%

Gatehouse Bank B (Yes) gatehousebank.com

5 Year Fixed Term Woodland Cash ISA

3 Year

£1,000

Close Brothers (Yes)

closesavings.co.uk

2 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA

2 Year

£10,000 4.15%

Shawbrook (Yes)

shawbrook.co.uk

1 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA Bond Issue 68

1 Year

£1,000

4.06%

4.20%

3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3

3

CHILDREN’S ACCOUNTS
Saffron BS

saffronbs.co.uk

Children’s Regular Saver

1 Year

£5

5.05%

Go online below to find out more.

Halifax

halifax.co.uk

Kids’ Monthly Saver

1 Year

£10

5.00%

HSBC

hsbc.co.uk

MySavings

None

£1

4.00%

Saffron BS

saffronbs.co.uk

2 Year Children’s Bond

2 Year

£500

4.00%

Leeds BS

leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk

Ronnie The Rhino Youngsaver

None

£10

3.90%

Telegraph Media Group Ltd is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Profile Pensions, a trading name of Profile Financial Solutions Ltd, which is

3
3

FIXED TERM CASH ISAS (ACCEPTS TRANSFERS IN?)

Capital at risk.

telegraph.co.uk/fs/profile-pensions

3
3

3

3
3
3
3
3

3

3
3

All savings rates are shown as AER variable unless otherwise stated. Ticks indicate how the account is opened. A = Account can be opened via app only. B = This provider operates under Islamic
finance principles, rate shown is expected profit rate. C = Introductory rate for a limited period. F = Fixed rate. * = Must hold current account with provider.Regular Saver Accounts show minimum
monthly deposit. All borrowing rates and availability of products are subject to individual credit ratings. All rates and terms subject to change without notice and should be checked before finalising

10

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

11

Money

QUESTOR
THIS
WEEK

The early retirement crisis is a myth
Targeting long-term sickness, rather than recent retirees, will kick-start our economy, writes Sir Steve Webb

T U E S D AY

COMMENT

Mid
Init chge

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

AXA Investment Managers UK
Limited
7 Newgate Street, London, EC1A 7NX
www.axaframlington.com Cust Svs: 0845 777 5511
Amer Gwth Acc

–

1176

+1.64

Biotech Acc

–

254.0

-1.21

i The long-term sick are far more willing to return to work than the recently retired and the economic benefits are greater
being diagnosed and in being treated.
Some of those with health problems
that might otherwise have been picked
up and resolved are instead struggling
for longer with poorer health. There is
also an uncertain impact of long Covid,
which could have an impact on people’s fitness for work.
There are several reasons why it
makes sense for the Government to
focus on tackling long-term sickness
rather than coming up with wheezes to
stem the flow into early retirement.

OUT OF ACTION

630k
Rise in the number of
‘economically inactive’ people
since the start of 2020

Mid
Name

Init chge

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

Mid
Name

First, the long-term sick are far more
willing to return to work than the
recently retired; well over half a
million of the total number of longterm sick say they want to work compared with less than 50,000 of the
recently retired.
Second, the long-term sick are
generally younger than the (working
age) retired, getting them back to
work will be of more lasting benefit than getting an extra year or two
out of a 64-year-old recent retiree.

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

Mid
Name

Init chge

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

Mid
Name

Init chge

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

-1.66

Jupiter Japan Inc L Inc

–

+4.68

UK Selection Port

–

725.2

725.2

+0.40

Aviva Life & Pensions UK Ltd

-0.33

Jupiter Merlin Bal Prtfo L Acc –

238.49

+1.43

UK 100 Co's Fund Inc

–

*232.6

232.6

+0.39

formerly National Westminster Life Assurance Ltd
Wellington Row, York, YO90 1WR. 01904 628982

UK Income

0%

74.6

-0.55

Guinness Global Investors

JPM UK Equity Core E Inc

–

*65.7

-0.33

Jupiter Merlin Bal Prtfo L Inc –

149.96

+1.43

UK 100 Co's Fund Acc

–

*473.5

473.5

+0.40

18 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HZ
www.guinnessgi.com
+44(0)20 7222 5703

UK Opportunities

0%

322.88

-0.06

US Opportunities
B Shares

0%

338.66

+1.88

Global Income

0%

212.9

+1.20

Glob Abs Ret

0%

+0.26

Jupiter Merlin Con Port L Acc –

*62.38

+0.39

W'wide Man Inc

–

560.3

+0.99

JPM US Eq Inc C Net Dis

–

*448.6

+0.27

Jupiter Merlin Con Port L Inc –

*47.58

+0.38

W'wide Man Acc

–

957.9

+1.00

–

26.0297

+3.40

JPM US Select C Net Acc

26.9827

+3.48

Global Equity Inc†

78.09

*424.6

–

†Available as an ISA

0%

–

Global Innovators Acc†

+0.37

Equity Inc Booster

JPM US Eq Inc C Net

Sustainable Energy Acc†

+0.37

–

18.9005

–

*789.5

+1.84

JPM US Sm Cos Gwth C Net Ac–

971.4

+0.61

+1.56

109.3

+0.37

2097

+1.70

Glob Multi-Strat

0%

115.05

+0.62

Janus Henderson Investors

2956

+0.27

Inflation-Linked Corp Bd

0%

108.16

-0.09

PO Box 9023 Chelmsford, CM99 2WB
Enquiries: 0800 832 832
Website: www.janushenderson.com

–

608.8

+4.37

Long-Term Global Equity

0%

311.67

+2.02

Managed Balanced Acc

–

473.1

+0.94

Asian Income

0%

131.64

+0.23

+1.33

Jupiter Merlin Grth Prtfo L Inc –

*542.63

+1.33

Jupiter Merlin Inc Prtfo L Acc –

*346.91

+0.39

*138.51

+0.38

M&G Securities Ltd

+1.69

PO Box 9039, Chelmsford, CM99 2XG
Enq: 0800 390 390. UT Deal: 0800 328 3196

Asia Pac Cap Gwth A Acc

5.00

1185

The Zig Zag Building, 70 Victoria Street, London,
SW1E 6SQ
020 3817 1000

+0.51

Jupiter Abslt Rtn L Acc

–

32.36

-0.15

Jupiter Asian Fd L Inc

–

962.41

+0.50

Jupiter Asian Inc L Acc

–

193.12

394.97

+0.54

394.95

+1.69

Jupiter Monthly Alt Inc L Acc –

*127.56

-1.30

Charibond Chrties Fxd Int Acc –

3892.7

…

Jupiter Monthly Alt Inc L Inc –

*26.87

-1.29

Charibond Chrties Fxd Int Dis –

108.36

…

Jupiter Multi Asst Inc L Acc –

*99.35

+0.43

Charity Multi Asset Acc

–

11054.29

+0.46

Jupiter Multi Asst Inc L Inc

*50.67

+0.46

Charity Multi Asset Dis

–

91.71

+0.47

–

Managed Income Acc

–

181.2

+0.44

Continental European

0%

223.16

+0.54

Asian Dividend Income Inc

5.00

81.31

-0.10

Eqty Inv Chrties GBP Inc

–

1540.58

-0.17

Managed Income Incf

–

94.88

+0.40

Global Dynamic Bd

0%

84.49

+0.13

Cautious Managed A Acc

5.00

288.3

+0.14

Eqty Inv Chrties GBP Acc

–

30605.75

-0.17

Monthly Inc Inc

–

233.5

-3.75

Global High Yield Bd

0%

75.12

+0.32

Cautious Managed A Inc

5.00

142.2

+0.14

†CAR - Net Income reinvested.

Monthly Inc Acc

–

717.4

-0.77

Global Opportunities

0%

275.34

+1.94

China Opps A Acc

5.00

1224

-2.78

UK Growth Acc

–

335.4

-0.65

International Bd

0%

103.61

+0.73

Emerg Mkts Opps A Acc

5.00

201.6

+0.30
+0.56

Jupiter Multi Asst I & G L Inc –

99.5

+0.78

UK Select Opps R Inc

–

1943

-0.66

Multi-Asset Bal

0%

162.5

+0.99

5.25

307

UK Select Opps R Acc

–

3725

-0.64

Mult-Asset Div Return

0%

137.74

+0.31

European Sel Opps A Acc

5.00

2356

+0.94

Global Bond Fund Inc

–

83.50

+0.23

UK Smllr Cos Acc
–
277.6
AXA IM Funds www.axa-im.co.uk

-1.07

Mult-Asset Growth

0%

240.32

+0.82

Fixed Int Mthly Inc A Inc

4.25

17.18

+0.29

Mangd Eqty Grwth Fnd Acc

–

125.51

+1.23

Oriental

0%

191.38

-0.47

Global Care Growth A Inc

4.50

489.2

+1.92

Mangd Grwth Fund Inc

–

114.18

+1.06

Real Return A

0%

105.05

-0.18

Global Equity Inc A Inc†

5.25

67.32

+0.78

Mangd Grwth Fund Acc

–

119.28

+1.06

UK Equity Fund

0%

147.81

-0.21

Global Growth Acc

4.25

4410

+0.68

UK Eqty Fund Acc

–

123.30

+0.50

UK Income

0%

148.58

-0.53

Global Strategic Cap Acc†

5.00

317.1

+1.05

UK Eqty Fund Inc

–

107.99

+0.49

BNY Mellon Fund Managers
Investors: 0800 614330 Brokers: 08085 660000
www.bnymellonim.co.uk,
clientservices@bnymellon.com
BNY Mellon Investment Funds (ICVC)
Sterling Income Shares

0%

161.32

-0.05

Global Technology A Acc

5.00

US Opportunities

0%

310.05

+1.90

Inst UK IDX Opp Tr

–

Emerging Income

0%

101.87

+0.80

Multi-Mgr Abs Ret A Acc

2961

+2.67

Yealand Fund Services Limited

118.697

-0.73

5.00

164.5

+0.55

Admin: Stuart House, St John's St,
Peterborough PE1 5DD
Dealing & Enquiries: 0345 850 0255

Global Dynamic Bd Inc

0%

0.8797

+0.22

Multi-Mgr Active A Acc†

5.00

259.6

+0.50

Generation Fd

5.00

885.6

+0.43

Global Emerging Mkts

0%

207.55

+0.43

Multi-Mgr Distbn A Inc

5.25

126.4

+0.32

FENIX Balanced Inc

5.00

*181.5

+1.45

Global Equity Fund

0%

270.72

+1.89

Multi-Mgr Divrsfd A Acc

–

87.02

+0.24

Multi Asset Inc

0%

123.71

+0.35

Multi-Mgr Inc&Gwth A Acc

5.00

189.5

+0.32
+0.34

Consistent Unit Trust
Management Co Ltd
Admin: Stuart House, St John's St,
Peterborough PE1 5DD
Dealing & Client Services 0345 850 8818

Multi-Mgr Inc&Gwth A Inc

5.25

147.4

Multi-Mgr Mangd A Acc†

5.00

317.5

+0.47

Multi-Mgr Mangd A Inc†

5.00

306.6

+0.49

Sterling Bond Acc†

4.25

203.1

+0.25

Mid
Name

Init chge

Sell

Buy

Weekly
% chg

Mid
Name

Init chge

Sell

Buy

0%

262.05

+1.19

Corporate Bond

0%

80.23

+0.36

Opportunities Unit Tst Inc

0%

62.98

-1.38

Sterling Bond Inc†

4.25

55.48

+0.27

Jupiter Asian Inc L Inc

–

147.71

+0.54

Jupiter N.American Inc L Acc –

*209.3

+1.32

Equity Inc

0%

158

+0.36

Opportunities Unit Tst Acc

0%

171.1

-1.38

Strategic Bond A Inc

4.00

101.1

+0.40

Jupiter China L Acc

–

*102.44

-2.59

Jupiter N.American Inc L Inc –

*158.94

+1.32

Equity Inc Booster

0%

99.34

+0.37

Practical Invest Inc

5.00

248.6

248.6

-0.52

UK Absolute Return A Acc

5.00

168.4

…

Jupiter China L Inc

–

*95.34

-2.60

Jupiter Responsible Inc L Acc –

129.21

+0.32

Glob Abs Ret

0%

108.78

+0.36

Practical Invest Acc

5.00

1557

1557

-0.51

UK Alpha A Acc†

5.25

143.9

-0.96

Jupiter Corp Bond L Inc

–

*50.98

+0.37

Jupiter Responsible Inc L Inc –

69.27

+0.32
+0.59

UK Smaller Cos A ACC

5.00

831.5

-1.59

Jupiter Eco L Inc

–

575.32

+1.74

Jupiter Strategic Bond L Acc –

*95.19

UK Equity Income A Inc

5.00

542.4

-0.09

Jupiter European L Inc

–

2962.4

+0.82

Jupiter Strategic Bond L Inc –

*54.05

+0.58

UK Index Opps Tst A Acc

–

117.9898

-0.73

Jupiter Euro Inc L Acc

–

85.016292

…

Jupiter UK Growth L Inc

254.68

+0.06

+0.21

US Growth A Acc

5.00

1741

+2.29

Jupiter Euro Inc L Inc

–

49.786986

…

Jupiter UK Smaller Cos Eq L Acc–

*347.85

-2.10

+0.52

†Available as an ISA

Jupiter Euro Special Sits L Acc –

*465.98

+1.16

Jupiter UK Special Sits L Inc –

223.17

+0.50

0%

114.39

+0.61

Inflation-Linked Corp Bd

0%

108.04

-0.10

Long-Term Global Equity

0%

411.58

+2.01

Asian Income

0%

214.15

European Opps

0%

337.21

Discretionary Unit Fund
No 1, Poultry, London EC2R 8JR. 020 7415 4130
Maitland Discretionary Inc

3.00

1693

-1.63

–

Global Dynamic Bd

0%

87.63

+0.13

–

755.45

+0.72

Jupiter US Sm&Md Inst I Acc –

80.99

…

0%

47.32

+0.34

PO Box 10846, Chelmsford, Essex, CM99 2BW.
0330 123 1815
www.fundsmith.co.uk enquiries@fundsmith.co.uk

Jupiter Fin Opp L Inc

Global High Yield Bd

Jupiter Fund Of Inv Tsts L Inc –

298.81

-0.67

Jupiter US Sm&Md Cap Ret Acc–

74.46

…

Global Opportunities

0%

418.84

+1.92

Fundsmith Equity T Acc

–

609.98

+2.22

Jupiter Global Emg Mkts L Acc –

65.27

-0.67

International Bd

0%

225.81

+0.72

Fundsmith Equity T Inc

–

555.92

+2.22

J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Jupiter Global Finl Innov L Acc –

102.27

+0.67

Marks & Spencer Unit Trust
Management Ltd

Multi-Asset Bal

0%

246.4

+0.98

60 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0JP
Clients:0800 204020.Brokerline 0800 727770

Jupiter Growth & Inc L Inc

–

98.88

-0.13

Mult-Asset Div Return

0%

177.85

+0.29

Jupiter Income Trust L Inc

–

540.75

+0.38

High Income Inc

–

*86.14

86.14

-0.30

Mult-Asset Growth

0%

1199.5

+0.80

Jupiter India L Acc

–

*147.25

+3.83

High Income Acc

–

*240.9

240.9

-0.29

–

*168.7

+0.30

+0.76

Deposit & Tres 3 S5 Acc

168.82

177.71

+0.04

Fixed Interest

234.66

247.01

+0.55

Index-Linked

334.92

352.54

+0.94

Distribution

77.24

81.31

-0.16

368.36

387.74

+0.25

Pension Funds

Gwth Managed

434.94

457.83

+0.70

Mxd Inv 20 60% 1 S12 Pens Ac

477.99

503.15

+0.29

Flexible Inv 1 S5 Acc

492.61

518.54

+0.81

Gwth Man Ser A

578.98

609.46

+0.80

Global Managed

518.85

546.16

+1.36

Flex Inv 1 S12 Pens Acc

638.47

672.07

+0.96

507.01

533.69

+0.30

Global Man Ser A

726.36

764.59

American Equity

914.08

962.19

+2.38

UK Equity Ser A

663.38

698.29

+0.35

Japanese Equity

202.73

213.40

+3.03

Dep & Treas 1 S12 Pens Ac

194.98

205.24

+0.06

European Equity

864.85

910.37

+0.55

Fixed Interest Ser A

305.28

SE Asia Equity

561.79

591.36

+0.76

Mxd Inv 20 60% 2 S12 Pens Ac 451.51

475.27

+0.29

Cash

161.84

170.36

+0.04

Gwth Man Ser B

546.80

575.58

+0.80

Fixed Interest

235.06

247.44

+0.53

Flex Inv 2 S12 Pens Ac

603.05

634.79

+0.95

Index-Linked

320.32

337.18

+0.94

Glob Man 2 S12 Pens Ac

686.36

722.48

Distribution

81.15

85.43

-0.15

UK 2 S12 Pens Ac

626.39

659.36

+0.35

Dep & Treas 2 S12 Pens Ac

187.35

197.21

+0.05

Fixed Interest Ser B

Series 2 Life Funds

321.34

+1.59

+0.69

+1.59

296.54

312.15

Mixed Inv 0-35% 2 S5 Acc

296.90

312.50

+0.34

Mxd Inv 20 60% 3 S12 Pens Ac 452.13

452.13

+0.29

Growth Man

367.30

386.60

+0.63

Gwth Man Ser C

547.75

547.75

+0.80

Flex Inv 3 S12 Pens Ac

604.62

604.62

+0.95

Glob Man 3 S12 Pens Ac

688.92

688.92

Series 3 Life Funds

+0.68

+1.59

Mixed Inv 20 60% 3 S5 Acc

344.63

362.77

+0.24

UK 3 S12 Pens Ac

627.95

627.95

+0.35

Growth Man

407.34

428.78

+0.70

Deposit & Tres 3 S12 Pens Ac

187.29

187.29

+0.05

+0.81

Fixed Interest Ser C

297.58

297.58

+0.68

Flex Inv 3 S5 Acc

463.42

487.81

Global Managed

495.69

521.77

+1.35

UK 3 S5 Acc

486.11

511.69

+0.30

872.66

918.59

Japanese Equity

190.08

200.08

+3.02

European Equity

828.89

872.51

+0.55

+2.37

Payment
Tuesday
GCP Infrastructure Investments
Invesco Perpetual UK Small Cos Inv Trst
Wednesday
BlackRock Income &Growth Inv Trust
Canadian General Investments
Merchants Trust
Tharisa
Virgin Money UK
Thursday
Murray Income Trust
Treatt
Friday
abrdn China Investment Company
Aquila European Renewables (GBP)
Aquila European Renewables (EUR)
JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust
Knights Group Holdings
NCC Group
Pershing Square Holdings (USD)
Pershing Square Holdings (GBP)
Ruffer Investment Company
Van Elle Holdings
Witan Investment Trust

Reg closed

Ex-Div

1.75p (1.75)
3.75p (3.75)

Feb 10
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Feb 09
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4.7p (4.60)
CAD0.24 (0.23)
6.9p (6.85)
3.25944p (3.748130)
7.5p (1)

Feb 10
Feb 28
Feb 03
Mar 03
Feb 10

Feb 09
Feb 27
Feb 02
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Feb 09

8.25p (8.25)
5.35p (5.50)

Feb 17
Feb 03

Feb 16
Feb 02

3.2p (0)
€0.013125 (0.0125)
€0.013125 (0.0125)
10.5p (9.50)
1.53p (1.46)
1.5p (1.50)
$0.1307 (0.10)
$0.1307 (0.10)
1.35p (1.50)
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Feb 24
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Ben Wilkinson
Head of Personal Finance
@ben_wilkinson_
Sam Brodbeck
Personal Finance Editor
@sambrodbeck
Contact us
111 Buckingham Palace
Road, London SW1W 0DT
money@telegraph.co.uk
INITIAL CHARGE: This charge in percentage terms is
included in the purchase price of the units. It is levied
by the unit trust manager to cover administrative costs
and commissions.

Kings Meadow, Chester, CH99 9UT
0870 333 1835

Dividends payable next week

PERSONAL FINANCE TEAM

Fundsmith LLP

JPM Ems C Net Dis

Buy
566.45

www.ice.com/data

Weekly
% chg

Global Income

Glob Multi-Strat

Weekly
% chg

Sell
538.13

(RBS Collective Investment Funds Ltd)
PO Box 249, York YO90 1ZY
0117 940 3848

European Growth A Acc†

UK Opportunities

SE Asia Equity

Mixed Inv 20 60% 1 S5 Acc

American Equity

Natwest Investment Funds

Mid
Name

Series 1 Life Funds

UK 1 S5 Acc

Jupiter Merlin Inc Prtfo L Inc –

Jupiter Merlin WW Prtfo L Acc –

Jupiter Unit Trust Managers Ltd

Health Acc
Japan R GBP Acc

Jupiter Merlin Grth Prtfo L Acc–

*558.34

Jupiter Merlin WW Prtfo L Inc –

+0.39

Global Thematics R GBP Acc –

+2.14

Weekly
% chg

*454.4

97.2

170.96

Buy

–

118.13

–

Sell

JPM Natural Res C Net ACC –

0%

Blue Whale Growth R Acc

Mid
Name

JPM UK Equity Core E Acc

0%

0345 307 3439
www.bluewhale.co.uk

htelegraph.co.uk/questor

-0.19

Equity Inc

Blue Whale Capital

Read The Telegraph’s
Questor share-tipping
column five days a week at

-0.22

Corporate Bond

–

Questor online

Sir Steve Webb is a partner at pension
consultant LCP and a former pensions
minister. LCP’s recent paper, “The Great
Retirement or the Great Sickness”, can
be found at lcp.uk.com

873.97

-0.29

+2.80

Init chge

1

Life and pension prices
Mid

Name

Young’s
Hold at 770p
Turning crisis into
opportunity

118.06

+0.83

209.3

Weekly
% chg

F R I D AY
QUESTOR IHT PORTFOLIO

0%

1095

–

Buy

Buy at 710p
This trust offers attractive
valuation at a 16pc discount
to net asset value

0%

273.0

Global Tech

Sell

Scottish Mortgage

UK Equity Fund

–

+1.07

Init chge

T H U R S D AY
INVESTMENT TRUST BARGAIN

Real Return A

–

810.8

Redrow
Hold at 489.6p
Housebuilders have
suffered but there is still
national demand for good
quality homes

*103.91

Emerg Mkts Acc

–

SHARE TIP

*1067

Clean Economy R Acc

FinTech R Acc

W E D N E S D AY

support their eventual retirement.
The Chancellor needs to understand which groups are flowing into
long-term sickness and how to stem
that flow.
Recent research by the Trades
Union Congress showed that inflow
rates into long-term sickness have
been highest among those from working-class backgrounds and this may in
part reflect regional differences in the
strains on the NHS.
Much more can also be done to help
p e o pl e re t r a i n f ro m phy s i c a l ly
demanding jobs into alternative
careers.
Although the picture of comfortably-off early retirees spending their
days playing golf is an eye-catching
one, it does not really reflect what has
been happening in the labour market
in the last three years.
Only if the Chancellor diagnoses the
right illness will he be able to come up
with the right medicine.

Unit trusts & open-ended investment companies prices
Name

Grafton
Hold at 926p
Also covered:
Derwent London (hold)

The fiscal payback when
someone on sickness
benefits returns to work
is substantial

GETTY

If the Chancellor’s forthcoming Budget includes
measures to get early
re t i re e s o f f t h e g o l f
course, as he has suggested, he will have completely failed
to understand what is driving the rise
in economic inactivity in Britain.
Back in the autumn, the Chancellor
expressed his concern about a rise
in the number of people of working age who were not employed,
self-employed or looking for a job.
The number of “economically inactive” people had risen by 630,000
since the start of 2020. Some have
ascribed this to a “great retirement”,
where the shock of lockdowns and
the pandemic led people to give up
paid work and retire early.
While those who have already
retired may be reluctant to return, the
Budget is expected to include measures to discourage those who are
about to retire from doing so.
One idea has been to lift the various limits on pension tax relief to
allow those who stay in work to build
up bigger pensions. Another has been
to offer people a “mid-life MOT” to
help savers to realise that their pensions might run out if they were to
retire early.
But this is missing the point.
The latest figures show that there
are now just over half a million more
economically inactive people of
working age than at the start of the
pandemic. But the number who are
retired is actually slightly lower than
at the beginning.
By contrast, a third of a million
more people of working age are not in
work because of long-term sickness.
One hypothesis is that pressures on
the NHS over the last three years
means people have faced delays in

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Third, the fi s cal payback when
someone on sickness benefits returns
to work is substantial.
If someone is on sickness benefits
they may also receive help with things
like rent or council tax – if they can be
supported to move back into work,
there are big savings on the benefits
bill and instead they start paying into
the system.
This also boosts their prospects of
building up a decent pension pot to

* Denotes Ex-dividend

‡ Denotes Suspended

Your information
Any physical documents you
send cannot be returned and
will be securely destroyed
so only send copies.
Please take independent
advice before making
financial decisions.

accepted.
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12

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Katie Morley Investigates
Your consumer champion

Advice

Where to get help
for a gambling
addiction

LETTER OF THE WEEK

William Hill gave my
boyfriend a gambling
addiction and I’m skint
from bailing him out
My boyfriend has a gambling
problem and recently lost his
entire monthly salary on payday. We
had an argument and afterwards he
went online at William Hill and spun
away everything he had in his bank
account.
Now he owes me and other members of his family significant sums of
money because he’s lost all of his, and
cannot pay for bills or food. I myself
am disabled and claiming disability
benefits, so I really need him to repay
me. Obviously the cost of living crisis
isn’t helping the situation either, with
everything going up in price.
My boyfriend used to work at the
betting shop William Hill, which is
where he developed his gambling
problem. As an employee at William
Hill it is part of your job to regularly
play the “crack machines” in order to
familiarise yourself with the games
and also improve your product knowledge. This is how he first became
transfixed by these disgusting games
which he now plays on the “casino
in his pocket”, sitting there spinning
away his money and prospects. It is
just so depressing.
I also used to work at William Hill
and am familiar with the mechanisms
which have been cleverly adapted to
keep people playing.
“Near misses” on games are now
optimised with industrial precision
to encourage users to carry on trying.
It seems to reinforce their gambling
habits because the near misses stimulate the same part of the brain which
is responsible for the reward system.
I believe this is why my boyfriend
became so hopelessly addicted.
It breaks my heart that this money is
now in the clutches of William Hill. We
emailed them explaining that we now
have nothing to live on but my disability benefit and the safer gambling team
said that the correct department would
be in touch to discuss the potentiality
of returning the money.
But they have only been in touch to
tell him his account is blocked, with no
mention of the lost funds. I feel like I’m
banging my head against a brick wall
here. Please help.
– Anon

If gambling is causing
problems for you or your
loved ones, there is support
available.
GamCare
GamCare provides free
information and counselling
and runs the National
Gambling Helpline (0808
8020 133). You could also
choose to speak with an
adviser online or via
Whatsapp.

Q

This is by no means the first time
your boyfriend has gambled recklessly like this with William Hill, and
you say he’s had his account restricted
twice before. However, for some reason the betting shop has not been able
to explain, he started receiving promotional material again, leading to
him gambling away £650 in one sitting. This was his entire salary for the
month.
It appears that your boyfriend is

A

National Problem
Gambling Clinic
The National Problem
Gambling Clinic offers
psychological support in the
form of cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT),
as well as access to support
groups.
Gamblers Anonymous
Gamblers Anonymous runs
local support groups and
uses a 12-step approach to
recovery, like Alcoholics
Anonymous.

LUKE BROOKES

National Debtline
You can get free advice on
how to deal with gambling
debts from National
Debtline (0808 808 4000),a
debt advice service run by
the Money Advice Trust, or
debt charities such as
StepChange.

1

Send your questions
Email Katie Morley at:
kminvestigates@telegraph.co.uk
You can also write to Katie at:
Telegraph Money
The Daily Telegraph
111 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 0DT
Do not send original documents.
Please include an address, phone
number and separate notes addressed
to all organisations authorising them
to talk to Katie.
For full terms visit:
telegraph.co.uk/go/
consumerchampion

trapped in a vicious and self destructive
cycle of gambling. You have arguments
(as most couples do sometimes); but
then, unlike most people, this leads
to him gambling. You say that following these episodes he sometimes even
threatens to kill himself. which must be
very distressing for both of you.
You were recently diagnosed as autistic and as a result you are now receiving
disability benefits. However, as a result
of your boyfriend’s gambling, you find
yourself bailing him out, leaving you
struggling to afford the basics.
You say it breaks your heart that this
money has ended up in the clutches of
William Hill and I’m sure I speak on
behalf of most taxpayers in this country when I say the final destination of
your money here was a complete and
utter travesty.
The support you receive should be
spent on you only. Obviously I recognise this is an easy thing for me to sit
here and say from a distance and with no

emotional connection to the situation.
But you feel you have no other choice
and I also sympathise with this.
When I asked William Hill to investigate it said his account was blocked from
any further deposits within 12 hours,
and within 24 hours the account was
handled by its “safer gambling team” in
line with its standard procedure.
As your boyfriend experienced no
overall loss on his account (and was
actually in profit so must have previously won more than £650 over the
lifetime of the account), William Hill was
not prepared to refund a penny.
I know this might be hard to hear, but
I think your boyfriend needs to learn he
can’t have his cake and eat it. While I’d
fight tooth and nail against William Hill
profiting from his gambling addiction
which he feels it helped foster, he can’t
expect his losses returned on bad days
while pocketing the winnings on good
days. That is simply not how life works.
That said, I felt your boyfriend did

deserve some help, so I proposed an
alternative resolution to William Hill: I
said I’d like to see it put the money your
boyfriend lost on this occasion towards
some therapy to help him beat his gambling addiction for good.
But I’m afraid William Hill refused
and instead started crowing about
its generous donations to gambling
addiction support charities. It added
that while employees were “asked” to
test gambling machines for “technical functionality” and were advised to
familiarise themselves with gaming
products it was “not a requirement”.
Now your boyfriend’s account has
been permanently closed and the
company wants nothing more to do
with him.
Every time I delve into the dark world
of gambling I am left feeling deeply
uncomfortable and your case is no
exception. You probably wish you and
your boyfriend had never got involved
with William Hill in the first place.

However, we will never know what
might have transpired in an alternate
universe where you were both on different paths. Some people have an
innate propensity for addiction, so I’m
afraid your boyfriend may have found
himself in trouble some other way.
I’m sorry I didn’t win you the refund
you so desperately wanted, but I hope
this process might provide you with a
fresh perspective on this situation.
I think it’s clear something needs
to change. I can tell you’ve been an
incredibly loyal support to your boyfriend, but you bailing him out like
this is not a sustainable solution to this
problem. You’re in touch with a charity
called Bet No More, which you say has
been very helpful indeed.
But here’s the thing: you wanting to
fix this problem will never be enough.
He also needs to be as determined as
you are to get a handle on it. And until
he does, nothing will change. I wish
you both the very best of luck.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

***

X3

X4

***

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph*

Saturday 11 March 2023

PERFECT PERENNIALS TO PLANT NOW P.20

F A M I LY L I F E

S O P H I A M O N E Y- C O U T T S

H E A LT H

CARS

I loved being a single
mum – until the kids
hit their teens

The upper-class
guide to
sex education

We’re a nation of
junk-food addicts,
and it’s killing us

The Ferrari Purosangue:
it’s not an SUV, it’s a
£300k family car

P.4

P. 9

P. 1 2

P. 2 2

New fridge
rules that
will save
you money

ANDREW CROWLEY

Xanthe Clay explains why
everything you thought you knew
about food storage is wrong

A friend of mine, who holidays with the
same family every year, recently
revealed that their favourite cross-generational after-dinner game is the
self-titled (and somewhat tedioussounding) “In the fridge/Out of the
fridge”. While one family member
shouts out “Ketchup”, for example, the
rest of the group have to simultaneously
yell either “In the fridge” or “Out of the
fridge” then argue (very unscientifically) their case. “Trust me,” she says, “it
can get very heated!”
I don’t think I’ll be swapping charades any time soon, but the rules of filling your fridge can get confusing. Just
this month the Food Standards Agency
changed its advice on storing potatoes.
For many years it had advised people to
keep potatoes out of the fridge because
of the health risks. Lab tests had found
that chilling potatoes led to the formation of additional sugars, which can
then convert into potentially carcinogenic acrylamide when the potatoes are
fried, roasted or baked. But a recent
study suggests acrylamide formation
isn’t a problem after all, so, says the FSA,
you can keep them in the fridge after all.
One thing’s for sure, it’s not a magic
cabinet. To start with, different foods
will have different ideal temperatures.
For lots of ingredients, like cucumbers
for instance, larder temperature,
around 10-12C, is much more appropriate, but few of us have the luxury of an
old-fashioned larder these days.
It helps to know where the coolest
and warmest areas of your fridge are.
Which?, the consumer association, recommends using a fridge thermometer,
but who’s got one of those? You should
find that the warmest spots in the fridge
are in the door, followed by the top
shelf, while the coldest place is at the
bottom in the “salad drawer”.
While we’re on the subject of salad
drawers, they may not be the ideal place
to store salad as the temperature can dip
below zero – effectively reducing your
lettuce to frozen gloop. So despite the
not-so-helpful manufacturer’s labelling, it’s best to keep in a (slightly)
warmer spot higher up in the fridge.
Sometimes it pays not to follow
the instructions.

Storing lemons
in a jar of water
will stop them
going hard

Fruit will last
longer kept
in separate
containers
or bowls

The bottom of
the fridge is
coldest, so is the
best place to keep
meat and fish

Some foods and
condiments taste
better, and last just
as long, at room
temperature

The other issue with fridges is that
they are dry. Most fruit and veg is best
stored at 90-95 per cent relative humidity, but in home fridges it’s much lower
– as little as 35 per cent in some cases.
No wonder spinach wilts and cheese

goes hard and cracks. Vegetable drawers are often equipped with a little
vent with a sliding cover – keep these
closed if you want the humidity higher;
great for veg but generally not so good
for fruit.

Also worth noting: ignore the Bake
Off contestants who stick their hot
bakes in the fridge or freezer to cool.
This is a terrible idea, and not just
because hot food cools much faster in a
draught by an open window or an elec-

tric fan. Anything above room temperature that’s put in the fridge (or freezer)
sends the internal temperature spiralling up. Bad for your food and your bills.
Continued overleaf

2

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Cover story

HOW TO FLIP YOUR FRIDGE
Care for your
condiments
Mustard loses its heat at
room temperature, so if
you value that delectable
punch, stick it in the fridge.
Ketchup and brown sauce is
fine kept in the cupboard, as
long as you’re planning to
use it within a couple of
months, and who wants
chilled sauce on their
sausages? Mayonnaise is
another matter though,
as the lower sugar content
and added egg make
it vulnerable
to bacteria,
so keep it in
the fridge.
Tahini,
the hummus
lover’s staple,
can stay in a
cupboard if you

are getting through a jar in
less than a month, but any
longer and it may go rancid,
so keep it in the fridge: it’ll
go hard, so you may need
to warm the jar in a bowl
of hot water before
spooning it out.
Some of the smart jars of
harissa, pesto and tapenade
do need to stay in the fridge
once the jars have been
opened, breaking the
vacuum seal. After you’ve
used a bit, flatten the
surface with
the back of
a teaspoon,
then top
with a little
oil to form an
airtight seal and
they’ll last longer.

Dairy dos and don’ts
Milk, which most of us get
through fairly quickly, is
fine in the door, but cream
is better off in the main
compartment of
the fridge, as
is yoghurt
and cream
cheese such as
mascarpone.
Cheese likes
the warmer
spot at the
top of the
door, which
is often
handily
equipped
with a lid to
keep the
moisture in.
It won’t really
work though,

so keep it wrapped in waxed
paper or beeswax wrap, not
clingfilm. The exception is
parmesan, a very dry
cheese, which is best
wrapped in foil to stop
it turning into a rock.
Alternatively, keep the
wrapped cheese in a box in
the body of the fridge, but
leave the lid slightly open.

Ditch the fruit bowl
The home fruit bowl is a bit
of a curse. Sure, it looks nice,
but it makes no sense as
fruits have different
respiration rates, meaning
they ripen at different
speeds, giving off ethanol as
they do, which may speed
the ripening of other fruit.
We all know not to put
bananas in the fruit bowl for
this reason, but the same is
true of other fruits too. Chris

White of fruit and veg
producers’ journal Fruitnet
recommends keeping
different types of fruits in
different bowls – citrus in
one, apples and pears in
another, for example. Store
most fruit, except bananas,
in the fridge (the drawer is
perfect, or on the shelf
above) and take out just
what you need every
couple of days.

Protect your
potatoes
Potatoes may be plentiful
now, but this could change.
According to industry
insiders, delays in
supermarket contracts
and low prices meant
many farmers didn’t plant
potatoes last year, preferring
higher value wheat instead.
It means that in six to eight
weeks we could be seeing
shortages not just of
potatoes but other veg such

as cauliflowers, cabbages
and leeks. Storing them
in the fridge is now
recommended, and farm
refrigeration experts point
out that the potatoes sold in
supermarkets are stored
at around 2C to keep them
looking perfect – even
though this means they
don’t make the best chips,
because of additional sugar
formed by chilling.

Flip your meat
and fish
I keep my meat in the
bottom drawer of the
fridge – yes, the one marked
“salad”. It’s the coldest
part of the fridge, and meat
needs lower temperatures
than salad. Being right at
the bottom – not to mention
in a box – there’s no risk of
any “juices” dripping on to
other foods either. Anything
wrapped in plastic needs
unwrapping: I rewrap in

greaseproof paper, and close
the vent on the drawer if I’m
worried about it drying out,
although most meat browns
better if it is drier anyway.
Fish goes in the bottom
drawer too, which takes
a bit of juggling to avoid
fishy flavour crosscontamination. I’ll put it
in a plastic box with the lid
slightly ajar: it’s never there
for more than a day anyway.

If your family are always arguing about what should go in the fridge
and what shouldn’t, this ultimate guide will settle it once and for all

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

3

It helps to know where your fridge is coolest and warmest, says Xanthe
j

Oils are
trickier
than you
think

Soak your lemons
Lemons go hard quickly
in the fridge or the fruit
bowl, but if you keep them
submerged in a jar of water
in the fridge they stay juicy
for a month. Limes work too,

although they lose their
green colour after a couple
of weeks. Change the water
every few days. According
to White, the same method
works with carrots too.

Keep cucumbers
wrapped
A recent article by Which?
says that cucumber goes
mushy if kept in the fridge.
I’ve never noticed this, and
it goes against waste charity
WRAP’s advice to store
cucumbers in the fridge. But
it directed me to advice from
the College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences

Most cooking oil is fine kept
out of the fridge; olive oil
solidifies in the fridge so it’s
best stored in a cupboard.
Nut oils are a very different
story: these tend to be used
in small amounts, a
teaspoonful of toasted
sesame oil here,
a tablespoonful of
walnut oil there.
In a warm kitchen
they can go rancid
in a month, but
stored in the door
of the fridge they’ll
last indefinitely.
My fridge clinks
satisfyingly as
I open it, and
I’ve got some
recherché oils
that I bought
years ago (tomato
seed, anyone?),
which are still
completely fine.

which said that “when
cucumbers are stored
for over three days at
temperatures below 10C,
they’ll get cold injury:
wateriness, pitting and
faster decay”. Mind you,
cucumbers go off pretty
fast out of the fridge too,
so your best bet is to pop
the cucumber in an upper
drawer or shelf still wrapped
in its plastic, if it came like
that, or in a plastic bag, as
that’ll help stop it drying out.

Keep tomatoes tasty

Eggs can work both ways

Tomatoes lose flavour if
kept in the fridge too long,
and they can go mealy too.
J Kenji Lopéz-Alt, food guru
and author of The Food Lab,
recommends taking off
their stems (and that
beautiful vine you paid extra
for) and laying them stemside down on a plate to stop
them drying out and going
wrinkly. Then just allow

Ignore that dinky egg
holder that came
with the fridge.
Eggs are robust
little packages
which keep
well out at room
temperature until
their sell-by date.
This is stamped on
all British Lion eggs
(most of the eggs sold
in shops), and it’s four
weeks after they were
laid. Sure, they will last
an extra month in the
fridge, but cold eggs crack
if you try to boil them and
curdle cake mixtures,
which makes for leaden
bakes – and who has the
forethought to take eggs
out of the fridge to come
to room temperature hours
ahead of using them?

them to ripen at room
temperature. If you don’t
manage to eat them all when
they reach the perfect deep
red, then put them in the
fridge – better a chilled
tomato than a mouldy one.
Giving them a couple of
hours to come back to room
temperature before eating
will do much to repair the
damage anyway.

Ditch the veg drawer
The bottom drawer is
probably too cold for veg:
try the shelf or drawer
above, and always store
delicate leaves in a sealed

plastic bag. I like the
reusable green Stayfresh
Longer bags from Lakeland
(£7.49 for 20), but any plastic
bag will do.

Chill onions for
tear-free chopping
Which? recommends
keeping onions out of the
fridge, as do WRAP who
say they tend to sprout if
kept chilled too long. As for
me, I’m sticking with the

fridge for onion storage, and
making sure I use them
quickly. The reason? Cold
onions are less likely to
make you cry when you
chop them.

Avoid the
mouldy jam lid
Back in the day, jam and
marmalade never used to
live in the fridge, as the
sugar level was high enough
to preserve it. Then again,
my mother thought nothing
of scraping off a bit of mould
and plonking the
jar back on the
table. The reality
is, unless you’re
scrupulous
about using
a dedicated
jam spoon,
tiny crumbs
and traces of
butter find
their way into
jams and they’ll
go mouldy.
Factor in that

modern jams may be made
with less sugar, making
them a friendlier place for
mould spores, and the fridge
is probably the best place.
Honey, however, tends to
crystallise if it’s kept in the
fridge and it has
antibacterial
properties
anyway, so it’s
fine in the
cupboard.
Maple syrup
has a lower
sugar content
so it may
ferment if kept
too long in the
cupboard – it’s
expensive, so pop
it in the fridge door.

I’ve seen advice to stick
herbs in a vase of water and
stand them in the fridge
door – pretty, but it won’t
help them last. Instead wrap
washed herbs and leaves in
a sheet of kitchen roll to
soak up any water that
might make them go
slimy, before popping
them in the plastic bag
and sealing it.

GETTY IMAGES

Lose the pretty herbs

The exception, of course,
is if you use eggs only
occasionally and can’t get
through half a dozen before
their sell-by date is up. Be

Good egg: decide
i
where you want
to store them and
stick to it

aware, though, that it’s best
not to keep eggs in
the fridge and then
change your mind
and put them back
on the worktop.
Eggs have a clever
protective barrier or
“cuticle” on the
surface of the shell
that is dissolved by
water. As soon as
chilled eggs come
out of the fridge,
condensation starts to
form on the eggshell; the
cuticle is destroyed, so the
shell becomes porous and
bacteria can get in. So
wherever you keep them,
in the fridge or out, commit.
Fun fact: in the US, eggs
are washed before sale,
meaning they have to be
kept in the fridge.

4

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Family life
The dynamic
g

JOHN LAWRENCE

triangle: Sarah
Thompson with her
teenage children
Stanley, 16, and
Betty, 14

‘Being a single mum was easy… until
my children became teenagers’
Without the conflict of an unhappy marriage, Sarah Thompson thought parenting teens would be a breeze. She was wrong

I

have always loved being a single
mum. When I told friends and family nine years ago that I was leaving
my marriage, they all clasped their
faces in horror. I brushed their worries aside and wore my new status as a
badge of honour.

Sure, I found aspects of single motherhood challenging – don’t get me
started on the Child Maintenance Service and its stupid online calculator –
but I enjoyed the freedom of raising my
children my own way; I liked how our
little family became a dynamic triangle

instead of a dumpy square. In fact, I
loved being a single mother so much
that I even wrote a book about it called
Happy Single Mother.
And then my kids became teenagers.
I know, it’s not exactly news that
teenagers are hard work. I was a walk-

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me leaned over to say what I assumed
would be a supportive platitude along
the lines of “You’re doing a great job”.
Instead, she said “Teenagers are worse”
and returned sullenly to her drink.
So I felt I was at least partially prepared for the terrible teens. I thought
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unhappy marriage to deal with at home,
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they wouldn’t need to rebel, right?
Wrong! As I now wade through the
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For starters, the new wireless teenagers I find myself living with are quite
unlike the ones I thought I’d have. They
have some features I recognise: they’re
moody and spiky, so that when I open
their doors in the morning I don’t know
if I will be greeted by my own child or
Linda Blair from The Exorcist hurling
poison at me. They’re messy and forgetful – empty milk cartons put back in the
fridge, wet laundry pulled out of the
washing machine and left on the floor –
so that I often feel I am living in a student house again, but without any of the
fun or parties. They fling their arms
around like Harry Enfield’s Kevin the
Teenager and threaten to phone Childline if they’re asked to do basic chores.
But they also have all these new extra
features, like sophisticated technology
that allows them to watch who-knowswhat at all hours and to order whatever
their hearts desire. Luckily, we live too
far out in the sticks for Deliveroo, but I
get regular notifications from Amazon
to tell me about a horror film or set of
make-up sponges someone’s just
ordered at 2am. Their technology also
means they can spend whole evenings
having great fun with their friends,
without ever leaving the house – a skill
they honed in lockdown, but I now feel
deeply cheated by. Why don’t they go
out and roam the streets like real teenagers and stop eating all the food at
home? Recently I described to them
how at their age I had to go to the telephone box if I wanted to make a private
call. They both looked at me trying
briefly to work out who I was and what
I was saying, then returned to their
screens. Screens that, by the way, also
give them access to information at lightning speed, allowing them to believe
they are exceptionally clever, and especially more clever than me, at all times.
It’s like trying to parent a panel of University Challenge finalists, all dressed in
Urban Outfitters’ most offensive garb.
Take their phones off them! You’re too
soft! Ground them! These are the cries of
well-meaning friends, often those who
are older or married or both. It sounds so
simple. But I’m already good cop, bad
cop, judge and jury; I don’t think I’ve got
it in me to be their jailer and a loving parent in visiting hours as well. Besides, the
last thing I want is everyone to be at
home even more.
I didn’t anticipate feeling so alone in

I told them how at their
age I had to go to the
telephone box if I wanted
to make a private call
this, either. I’ve always felt lucky to
have a wonderful network of family and
friends whom my kids and I can rely on.
My own mum reminds me regularly
that I’m not really a single mother,
because I’ve got so much support, especially from her, and she’s right. But with
teenagers, when the going is tough, you
really are on your own with them. Sure,
you can call your friends to cry about it
all, but no one can come over and take
the kids out to the park, or meet you at
soft play with their own grumpy teens.
As funny as that would be.
The notching down of affection has
been an unwelcome surprise, too.
When the children were small, even
though they were exhausting, they still
wanted to hold my hand when they
crossed the road, or to cuddle up with
me on the sofa to watch a film. While I
do get the odd hug or a mumbled “love
you” from them these days, mostly they
just ignore me. And while the rational
adult person in me knows that this is
entirely normal teen behaviour and
exactly as it should be – how weird
would it be if your teenager wanted to
hold your hand when you crossed the

Parenting books
We’ve always been taught
to put teens’ erratic nature
down to hormones, but it
turns out that their brains
are literally being taken
apart and rewired until
their early 20s, with the
important stuff like
organisation, concentration
and good judgment being
rewired last of all. There are
some great books out there
that will help you. Try: You
Don’t Understand Me by Dr
Tara Porter and Blame My
Brain: the Amazing Teenage
Brain Revealed by Nicola
Morgan for starters

road – the weepy, peri-menopausal,
really-very-tired middle-aged woman
in me can’t help feeling a bit emotional about it all. Where have my
babies gone?
It’s enough to have me occasionally
wonder what life would be like with
another adult about the place. Not
even a husband – I’ve got enough
unhappily married friends to know
that is not automatically the answer.
But just someone to make me a cup of
tea or fold the laundry once in a while,
or do anything helpful, without it
involving a lengthy debate about
who is the biggest slave in this house.
You know, just someone who doesn’t
find me to be simultaneously the most
irritating human being ever – this
morning I was told I laugh “like an
otter” – while also relying on me for
food and shelter.
But as Tony Wolf and Suzanne
Franks explain in their life-saving
book, Get Out of My Life, teenagers
need to be able to test you, to make
sure you’re still there, holding the ladder, as they take their first tentative
steps up into the adult world. The hostility is actually a sort of affection, in a
weird teenage way. It’s some consolation for the otter thing, I guess.
I try to remember this when I am
wondering where it all went wrong,
and to remind myself that I am not the
only single mum experiencing this.
Single parents everywhere are finding
their post-pandemic teens tough, and
understandably so.
Victoria Benson is the CEO of Gingerbread, the single parents’ charity,
and a single mum herself of six – four of
whom are teens. She says the teenage
years are typically very difficult for single parents and the charity’s forums
and helplines are always busy supporting single parents who are struggling to
cope with their teenagers.
She says: “Everyone knows these
years are challenging, but the difference for single parents is that they are
dealing with it alone. You can’t tag
team, or ask someone else to take over
if you are feeling overwhelmed.”
Teenage problems are also often
quite complex, says Victoria, and
related to mental health. It’s not news
that eating disorders, anxiety and
other mental-health issues are on the
increase in teenagers, especially since
the pandemic. “It’s not like dealing
with a toddler who won’t wear their
wellies,” she says. “There is no quick fix
and single parents don’t have someone
else at home with whom they can talk it
through. The worry is enormous and
single parents are exhausted.”
The upside for us single mums, says
Victoria, is that there is no other parent undermining you or correcting
your approach. “Despite our struggles, I know my teenage children and
I share a really strong bond, especially
after the pandemic,” she says, “and I
am consoled by the fact that my older
teens now choose to live with me
rather than spend time between
two households.”
Something else I remind myself of:
the sleek, dynamic triangle I envisioned years ago might be going
through some changes, the angles
becoming smaller and the sides
longer, but our ability to shapeshift
can work in our favour. While writing
my book, my research confirmed what
I had always felt to be true: that conflict in the home (ie parents arguing) is
more damaging for children’s outcomes than being raised by a single
parent, and that the children of single
parents often score highly when it
comes to life skills like resilience,
emotional intelligence and resourcefulness. So while you might be the
only one steering the ship through the
storm, your final destination will be all
the balmier for your efforts.
And being a teenager is an inconsistent and temporary affliction. As
much as I complain about my teens, I
do sometimes catch glimpses of the
real them. The brilliant, funny, lovely
young people I know are there, underneath all that bravado and sullenness.
I see it when they are with their
friends, or when they are making each
other laugh. And I am told by their
teachers and employers (because
when you’re the kid of a single mum,
you have to get a job if you want all
that stuff from Urban Outfitters) that I
have two self-aware, kind, hard-working and generally great kids.
The child you are really raising isn’t
the one who scowls at you over dinner
or says you laugh like an otter, it’s the
one other people see. So hang in there,
single mums, and one day they might
even make you that cup of tea.

‘Where have my babies gone?’: Stanley and Betty, when they were 10 and eight
i

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

5

Shane Watson
People-watching
For the casual
bystander, a good feud
is great to watch, with
or without fisticuffs
So, it’s roughly a year since
The Slap. In case you need
reminding, on Oscar night
2022, the presenter, Chris
Rock, was slapped hard
across the face by Will Smith, seconds
after making a joke about his wife
Jada’s baldness. The two have not
spoken in the months since, but on the
evidence of remarks Rock made in a
recent stand-up routine (Rock blames
Smith’s open marriage for his anger
issues), it’s pretty safe to say the feud is
still very much on.
The Smith/Rock feud is unusual, as
public feuds go, because we have all
the information we need. Regardless
of the provocation, Smith did something wild and violent in front of an
audience of millions and it’s pretty
clear why these two are on non speaks
and who is the worse offender. With

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA; GC IMAGES; SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE; FILM MAGIC

Regardless of provocation,
Smith did something wild
and violent in front of an
audience of millions
most feuds we, the feud-followers,
are largely in the dark and forced to
speculate, fill in the gaps, interpret
side glances and cold shoulders: in
fact, the whole reason we love a
feud is because we enjoy sifting
through the precious crumbs of
evidence for clues as to who
started it and who’s got the
upper hand.
A feud like the Smith/Rock
one i s le ss intere sting
because there’s a lot less to
guess about and there’s
only one side to take.
Meanwhile, there are
pl e n t y o f o n go i n g
feuds that are keeping
us busy:

Clash of the titans:
h
top row from left,
Chris Rock and Will
Smith; middle row,
Rebel Wilson,
Meghan and Kate;
bottom row,
William, Harry,
Florence Pugh and
Olivia Wilde

Famous feuds that are just bubbling under
and those that will run and run
Wills and Harry
What more is there to say
about this one? (Only joking!
Three books and a
miniseries, minimum.)
Anyway, at this point there’s
no doubt in anyone’s mind
that this is a feud with legs,
and that even if there is a
temporary patch-up for the
sake of Dad’s Coronation, it
will be just that – a truce,
after which indiscriminate
shelling with collateral
damage will resume.
Category: Run and Run
Noel and Liam Gallagher
The other brothers’ feud,
which probably started
because Liam was lairy and
drunk and Noel became a
middle-class sellout, in
Liam’s opinion, “eating tofu
while having a f------ face
peel”. This time last year, we
would have said this was a
Run and Run, but Noel’s
marriage ended recently
and Liam needs a double
hip replacement, and it’s
these kinds of landmarks
that remind ageing
rockers they could be
having Rolling Stonesstyle fun with cash, if
they would only just
stop calling each
other tools.
Category: Possible
Rapprochement
Meghan and
Kate
Not much
doubt about
this one
(those
Westminster
Abbey
pictures are
evidence of
an unfixable
schism), and
we’re now
way beyond
who made
who cry
over the
bridesmaid’s

dress. Since then, we’ve had
Kate not wanting to share
her lip gloss with Meghan,
Kate dressing stiffly and not
being huggy at their first
meeting, and Kate and Wills
being the sort of parents
who are happy to condemn
their children to emotional
Siberia. (That one was
Harry’s opinion, but Kate
was close to Harry before
Meghan and so we’re
assuming she entirely
blames Meghan for her
being cast as a waxwork
Stepford Wife. We would.)
Category: Run and Run
Nicola Peltz Beckham and
Victoria Beckham
Admittedly, these two have
recently appeared side by
side for Brooklyn’s birthday
and Victoria’s catwalk show,
but rumours of a feud are
still rumbling, and we’re
pretty confident that if
they’re on a break, it won’t
be for long. It all started
with NPB’s wedding dress –
she let it be known that VB’s
atelier failed to follow
through, forcing her to look
elsewhere, thereby making
her future mother-in-law
look bad and unprofessional.
We can only assume VB
wanted to make the dress, so
this is a feud of NPB’s
making, and in light of the
“white flowers need to be
whiter” sort of demands
leaked from the wedding, it
looks like she would have
found a way to fall out with
Victoria sooner or later.
Category: Bubbling Under
Hailey Bieber and
Selena Gomez
This one could be a socialmedia fabrication brewed
up by mean girls who can’t
imagine what it would be
like to have dated Justin
Bieber for eight years (as
Gomez did), then get
dumped and replaced by a
leggy model, whom he

marries two months
later (Hailey Baldwin, that
was). The whole feud is
based on messages that
may or may not contain
digs (“throw shade”) and,
on balance, it seems like
there’s a bit less going on
than people would like
there to be.
Category: Not Much to See
Here/Bubbling Under
Meghan and
Rebel Wilson
Rebel Wilson described
Meghan’s statements on
Oprah as “fantasies”, and
since then the two have not
been all over each other in
rooms, allegedly.
Category: Not Much to
See Here
David Gilmour and
Roger Waters
Another famous band
fallout that’s received
recent impetus in the form
of Gilmour’s wife, Polly
Samson, calling out what
she perceives to be Waters’s
anti-Semitism. When the
wives get involved, there is
– in our experience of
feuds – no turning back.
Category: Run and Run
Florence Pugh and
Olivia Wilde
This one is in the hotly
rumoured category, largely
based on Pugh keeping her
distance at some publicity
events for Don’t Worry
Darling, the film she
starred in that Wilde
directed. Since this was the
movie where Wilde and
Harry Styles got together,
we’re inclined to think that
Pugh – our favourite
actress – was suffering
from unprofessionalconduct irritation (we get
that), and Wilde did call her
“Miss Flo” on a video call,
which suggests they’ve
had their moments.
Category: Bubbling Under

6

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Interiors

Tried and tested
ways to turn your
hallway into a
showstopper

AFTER

Is your entrance less than inspiring? Olivia Lidbury discovers
hacks to create a stylish space that your neighbours will envy

H

ow welcoming is your hallway? Does it
envelop you in a comforting cocoon as
soon as you cross the threshold, its decor
as considered as everywhere else in the home, its
storage as hard-working as your wardrobes?
Or is it merely a transitional space to trudge
through, deposit shoes and sodden umbrellas in
until you next leave the house?
If yours sounds like the latter, then perhaps it’s
time to show your hallway some love. “Often
hallways can be overlooked, especially in awkward and small Victorian properties, because
we want to get through them as quickly as possible into the bigger rooms,” says Adele Lonergan
co-founder of interior design practice Covet
Noir (covetnoir.com). “But they’re also such an

important moment when you greet guests, and
it’s what you see every day when you come home
from work.”
There are easy, inexpensive wins for making a
hallway feel more considered: a styling trick used
by designer Beth Dadswell of Imperfect Interiors
(imperfectinteriors.co.uk) is to hang art in glass
frames with a mirror opposite, to bounce light
around the space (now that you know this hack,
you’ll start noticing it everywhere). If your stairs
need a refresh, painting the staircase a bold colour
will give you a lift every time you open the front
door. But if you have a little more budget and time
to throw at making your home’s entrance both
more inspiring and more practical, read on for
tried-and-tested ways to make this space shine.

PARTITION
A WALL
Anna Burles, co-founder of interior
design practice Run for The Hills
(runforthehills.com), had two
motivations for creating a glass
partition between the front sitting
room and the slim hallway of her
Victorian home. “As much as opening
the space, it was about seeing
through to the really cool living area
we’d put so much effort into,” she
explains. “We didn’t want to have to
walk halfway up the hall before
reaching the room.”
During her renovation of the
house, which involved converting
two tired flats into a single family
home, her solution was to install a set
of steel-framed glass panels to act as
an internal window. It’s a highly
effective way to connect two spaces
that are often segregated, although
rookies keen to emulate the look
should take note of two crucial
elements: the “sight lines” from each
space; and the building regulations

Glass panels are an
effective way to connect
two spaces that are
often segregated
involved. Burles notes that the
hallway’s decor needed to “talk” to
the sitting room, as it is so exposed to
it. This includes the choice of sofa,
both in terms of its upholstery and its
height, which she didn’t want to
protrude above the level of the glass.
When it came to the window
design, she settled on three tall, clear
panels (“anything too ‘griddy’ would
have made the space feel even
smaller”) and used the hallway’s new
dado rail as the point from which to
divide the glass from the steel below.
She sourced the panels from a
specialist called Perla (perlawindows.
com) as the specifications of the

BEFORE

GET SMART
WITH
STORAGE

BEFORE

When fashion designer Alice Byrom
(founder of knitwear brand Blake
LDN), moved just five roads away
to her new house in Acton, west
London, she was determined that
her entryway would feel more
“grown-up” this time around. “Our
old house had zero storage and so the
hallway was a dumping ground for
the buggy and wellies, and looked a
complete mess,” she explains. With
her third child on the way, her
solution for the new house was to
maximise the space under the stairs.
Lucky then, that her husband
Jamie stumbled upon Clever Closet
(clevercloset.co.uk). During an
on-site visit, the company measured
out the area and took time to
understand exactly what the couple
needed. To Byrom, it was less about
the ironing board and the vacuum
cleaner, and more about being able
to stash the detritus of day-to-day life
as a family of five. The result is a
high-performing trio of drawers:
one designed to store the children’s
shoes, one for Jamie and Alice’s
shoes, and another for spaceinvading hats, scarves and gloves.
The push-door has a high rail for

Guatemala wallpaper by MissPrint
ih
covers the walls above wood panels painted
in Sherwood Green by Earthborn

materials it uses met the safety
requirements. “Because a hallway is a
fire route, you can’t put just any glass
there,” she warns.
Around the walls, matchboard
panelling painted in a low-sheen
eggshell protects the hallway from the
comings and goings of her young
family. She enjoys being able to see
who is in the sitting room at a glance.
Her cunning hack is now the envy of
the neighbours – who remark on how
narrower their identical hallways feel.

Byrom maximised space with solutions
h

from Clever Closet. The hallway walls are
painted in Sudbury Yellow by Farrow & Ball

adult coats, and low-level coat hooks
for the children’s. The result is a
clutter-free entrance which brings
Byrom a lot of joy. “Honestly, it’s one
of the best things we’ve done to the
house,” she enthuses.
After a fruitless hunt for a very slim
console table to live above the radiator,
Byrom commissioned a bespoke piece
by Devon-based company WoodEdit
(woodedit.co.uk), which made the
perfect solution from ash. “I’ve put two
lamps on it and it looks tidy 90 per cent
of the time,” says Byrom.

AFTER

EMBRACE
THE DARK
South London-based interior designer
Laura Stephens (laurastephens.co.uk)
argues the toss for celebrating the
sombre orientation of narrow,
light-starved hallways, rather than
trying to fight them. “Unless you
have a south-facing door with a fan
light and lots of glass panels, it’s
almost always going to feel dark,”
she reasons.
In this home, which belongs to
a couple with a new baby, she chose
Farrow & Ball’s Terre d’Egypte paint
for its warmth, and as a punchy
prelude to the colourful rooms ahead.
The colour drenches the ceiling, to
highlight the property’s original
cornicing, and Stephens applied it
to the inside of the door, too: “White
doors get so dirty, a dark colour is
much more practical – and it really
finishes off the space as you look
down the hall,” she says.
A wallpaper with abstract stripes
from Warner House (warner-house.
com) makes for a dramatic match. The
existing radiator cover was removed.
“It looked clunky and narrowed the
footprint even more,” says Stephens,
who designed a shelf with a cutout
trim to replace it, which she had made
out of MDF by a local carpenter. This
allows more width for the incoming
buggy, and with a glass top for

BEFORE

h Stephens matched Samarkand Spice

wallpaper by Warner House with Terre
d’Egypte paint from Farrow & Ball

protection, it also provides
somewhere to pop keys. One area this
Victorian property isn’t lacking in is
height, so Stephens drew attention
to the scale by adding two tall table
lamps from Pooky (pooky.com), and
a double wall lamp above, as wiring
a pendant in would have damaged
the cornicing. Two separate lighting
sources are a must if possible, she
says, to create an atmospheric glow.
A long mirror completes the scheme:
“Embrace the moodiness and make
a statement,” she advises.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

7

ACCESSORISE YOUR HALL

Red mirror, £260,
Pooky

Console, £395,
Oliver Bonas

Shoe rack, £115,
Dunelm

Side table, £139,
Urban Outfitters

Ceiling lantern, £125,
John Lewis

pooky.com

oliverbonas.com

dunelm.com

urbanoutfitters.com

johnlewis.com

Carla Llanos Oranges
print, £48, Glassette

Wireworks oak shelf,
£139, Heal’s

Cardboard stool, £65,
Nimi Projects

Wiggle lamp, £150,
Bias Editions

Hay coat stand, £415,
Kin

glassette.com

heals.com

nimiltd.com

biaseditions.com

kinhome.co

The bookcase was removed
for an internal window
to be installed

A mirror in the hallway
reflects light down the
darkened staircase
Zana’s builder
used frames
from bi-fold
doors to create
the window

BEFORE

Glass allows light to flow
through from the kitchen
into the landing

An internal window in the
spare room provides
light to the stairwell

AFTER

PHILIP DURRANT

SMALL
TWEAKMENTS,
BIG
DIFFERENCE

AFTER

Light works: Lea Zana
g

Access to Lea Zana’s north London
maisonette is via a rabbit warren of
stairs and half-landings in order to
reach the upper floors of a 1930s
building. When she moved in, it was so
dark that Zana, the founder of Vaisselle
(vaisselleboutique.com), an artisan
pottery brand stocked at Liberty,
didn’t bother hanging anything up on
the walls – you simply couldn’t see it. It
was on renovating the south-facing
kitchen that she realised that opening
up a wall housing bookshelves could
be the answer. But it felt risky and,
while she desired a steel window,
her budget was more in the realm of
1970s-style glass bricks. Lucky, then,

GO GRAND
FOR IMPACT
When Adele Lonergan got her hands
on this property in Notting Hill, it had
been stripped of so many of its original
features, the hallway was completely
unremarkable. Cue some sleuthing
around neighbours’ properties both
in person and online, and with the
expertise of a plaster specialist, she
set about reinstating the ornate
plaster corbels. “We went with
something quite small, but in situ it
feels quite grand,” she says of the
decorative touches. It took a day’s
worth of light building work to
reinstate the arch between the corbels,
which has softened the feel of the
home immeasurably. “It draws the eye
through and gives the entry its own
little moment before it opens up to
the rest of the house,” says Lonergan.
Wall mouldings are also enjoying
a moment once more, and here,
Lonergan chose a simple dado rail to
break up the wall: “In a hallway this
narrow, anything more would have
actually closed in the space,” she points
out. She had the door to the double
sitting room blocked off, in favour of a
single pocket door behind the recess,
and two subtle yet clever details were
employed to improve the confined
area’s flow. The first was rounding the
wall edge to create a sense of softness,
and the second was finishing the

BEFORE

i The hallway had been stripped of its
original features and was completely
unremarkable, says Lonergan

handrail and the balustrade one step
shy of the bottom, which gives a little
more visual breathing space. “Before
that, the corner felt very angular and
harsh because it’s so close to the
bottom stair,” says Lonergan. Wall
lights anchor the space, and underfloor
heating negates the need for a radiator.
Lonergan wanted the area to feel cosy
so a lantern finishes it off: “Lanterns
are always a good choice,” she says.
“Because of their transparency, you
can go bigger in scale than with
something more opaque.”

with Vaisselle pottery in
her north London home

that her builder came up with a novel
solution. Using aluminium frames
from bi-fold doors, he crafted a
double-glazed window with the
industrial feel that Zana desired, for a
fraction of the price – she estimates
that the work has cost around £800.
“Now the light floods everywhere,” she
says. “It has totally changed the feel of
the flat.”
Other impactful remedies she made
include creating a small internal
window from the spare room on to the

AFTER

stairwell, which brings further light
into the interior, and laying colourful
concrete tiles in the hallway instead
of trying to salvage the damaged
wooden floors. “These tiles bounce
light around the space and remind
me of Spain,” says Zana, whose
ceramics are made there.
One game-changing idea cost
literally nothing: when clearing
mirrored panels out of the dated
bathrooms, Zana stuck one on the
staircase wall opposite the door out
to the flat’s roof terrace, so that light
is reflected down the stairs. Now,
artworks take pride of place
alongside the well-lit staircase.

Lonergan
g

painted the walls
and dado rail in
Holland Park
Marble Matt
Emulsion by
Mylands (mylands.
com)

8

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

9

Sophia Money-Coutts
I’m like many posh children: my introduction
to sex education took place on a stud farm
France. “Didn’t your dad send you to
see a hooker?” one asked. “He tried.
Your move,” replied the other.
For one who was educated in the
country, watching horses do it, this
seemed mind-boggling. So, like a good
cub reporter, I repeated the conversation when I returned to the Tatler
office and subsequently interviewed
various men whose fathers had
offered the same. Or in some cases,
older brothers. In the late 1960s, Nicholas Soames, the upstanding former
MP and now Baron Soames of Fletching, tipped off his younger brother
about a woman called Denise who
coached inexperienced public-school
boys from a room on Maddox Street.
Jeremy Soames duly slipped out of
Eton one night with his friend Charlie
Mortimer, author of Dear Lupin. “She
had hairy armpits, that’s what I
remember,” Charlie told me. Denise
charged “£3 a go”, he added, but

You can avoid all those
awkward conversations
just by watching the
family dogs and horses

T

She asked what their dog
was doing with a visiting
dog in the garden. ‘Getting
married,’ came the reply
ANDREW CROWLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH; DRESS: SUZANNAH LONDON

here was a brouhaha regarding
sex and MPs last week. Forget
Matt Hancock’s text messages. A
different Tory MP presented the prime
minister with a dossier regarding sex
education in schools. Miriam Cates,
mother of three and, rather magnificently, the MP for Penistone, is among
a gaggle of MPs calling for an “urgent
inquiry” into the matter: they’re worried that children are being taught
radical and graphic ideas about gender, sex and certain sexual practices
when they’re too young. We don’t
need to go into details. Suffice to say, it
makes you blind. (You see? I paid
attention in my PSHE lessons.)
And yet, damaging though some of
these teachers’ ideas might be, can
they be any more alarming than the
manner in which posh kids are often
taught about the birds and the bees?
It’s usually not done by a human being,
but by watching a spaniel or whichever animal is closest. Much easier to
point your children at a cockerel hopping on a chicken and hope for the
best, rather than have a conversation.
When I was about eight, my mother
carted my brother and me off to a
Sussex stud farm to watch a stallion
“cover” a mare. He clambered on her
back (the stallion, not my brother), and
grunted for a few moments before
sliding off. It did not look especially
pleasurable and, after a long silence in
the car on the way home, my brother
braved a question. “But will we have
to?” he checked. Another brother,
inexplicably, was taught about contraception via a lesson about geldings
being castrated with bricks. He had to
have a little lie-down after that, apparently; but, happily, he has since married and is soon to welcome his first
child. Thank heavens.
One friend developed an early phobia of marriage after asking what their
dog was doing with a visiting dog in the
garden. “Getting married,” came her
mother’s swift reply. Another had a
traumatic early introduction to the act
while watching lions go at it during a
safari holiday in Kenya. “Getting married” takes less than a minute for lions,

Sex and the single toff: all it took was one
i

visit to a Sussex stud farm to educate Sophia

apparently, but they do it every 15 minutes for four or five days – a detail they
appear to have omitted from The Lion
King. Still, perhaps my friend’s husband
should be grateful that it was only mating lions that she witnessed on that trip,
and not a female praying mantis who’d
just had a tumble and felt a bit peckish.

Certain forms of culture have also
been deployed by toffs trying to educate their offspring, although the word
culture is used quite loosely here. One
Tatler colleague’s father used to leave
copies of Playboy strewn around the
house, as if it were an instruction manual; another parent used to leave “entertaining” videos in the VHS player and
simply hope that his children would
study them and learn that way. More

highbrow was the mother who taught
her daughter about sex by reciting John
Donne’s “The Flea”, in which the
speaker tries to seduce his lover by asking her to observe a flea that has bitten
them both: “It sucked me first, and now
sucks thee,/ And in this flea our two
bloods mingled be.” At the mention of
the word “maidenhead”, the mother
told her daughter: “This part is referring to the breaking of the hymen,

which you can do riding a bicycle. I
didn’t, of course.” My friend isn’t much
of a poetry fan these days.
More eyebrow-raising still was the
habit of sending young sons to visit a
prostitute. This may horrify in today’s
more prudish age, but not so far back, in
2014, I wrote an article on the topic,
having overheard two posh 20-something friends discuss it while playing
chess beside the pool on holiday in

having arrived there, the boys realised
they hadn’t brought any cash, and
Denise shrewdly refused to accept a
Coutts cheque. Back they went to
Eton, where, more unfortunately still,
they learnt there’d been a fire drill,
and their empty beds discovered. Both
boys were flogged with a cane and
Jeremy’s godfather, Field Marshal
Montgomery, subsequently wrote a
thundering letter, declaring him a disgrace to his family, his school and even
his country.
What would be more confusing for
an impressionable youth – this
escapade with Denise, or sitting in a
classroom today and being taught that
there are 100 genders, as one mother
reported in Miriam Cates’s recent
dossier on sex education? On balance,
I’d probably still take my lesson that
day at the stud farm. Startling, yes, but
less coy and certainly less misleading
than being taught by a teacher with
funny ideas. Prince Harry, I was
recently relieved to discover, clearly
learnt via watching stallions, too,
since he talked of “mounting” in his
recent book, and it doesn’t seem to
have done him any lasting harm...
does it?

10

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Entertaining

The French have found the secret to
socialising – getting people to leave
We are not a great nation of leavers, says Debora Robertson, but there’s a lot we can learn from our cross-Channel neighbours

S

ince I moved to a village in southwest France in late 2021, one of the
aspects of my life here I love the
most is the apéro hour. This moment at
the end of the work day when you get
together with a few friends for a couple
of drinks, perhaps an olive or two, to
chat, laugh and decompress is, in a
country that can be very formal, a distinctly informal tradition. Of course,
you might plan it a little ahead, but
more often than not, the apéro hour
happens spontaneously. You bump into
a neighbour in the street, a friend emails
to say they might be nearby, the meeting with a favourite colleague happens
to be at the end of the day, and before
you know it, someone is suggesting an
apéro. You almost can’t say it without
breathing out and smiling. It is very
much like yoga in that respect.
Of course, you could argue that this is
very much like the English tradition of
heading to the pub together at the end
of the day and you would be right,
except in one respect. It is very much an
hour, possibly two, and then everyone
goes about their lives. No one is missing
the last train as they blearily try to order
a burger in McDonald’s, all intentions of
“just coming for one” having flown out
of the window hours ago.
It strikes me that in these times when
many of us are attempting to tighten
our belts while still trying to cling on to
whatever vestiges of civilised life that
remain to us, the cocktail hour could be

Debora Robertson: ‘One of the things I
i
love about living in France is apéro hour’

The cocktail hour is
not second best to
dinner, it’s its own
thing entirely

just right for a comeback. It allows you
to see friends, relax and have some fun,
without spending a small fortune on
providing three whole courses or, these
days, carving out the hours required to
cater for everyone’s dietary requirements. For where two or more are gathered together, one at least is certain to
be nightshade intolerant…
The cocktail hour is not second-best
to dinner, it’s its own thing entirely. Of
course if you’re inclined to go to town,
then do. Pull out the silverware, polish
your best glasses, press some linen napkins. But no one really expects it. Essentially, you can pick up everything you
need in a five-minute dash around the
corner shop. You may already have an
apéro hour in your kitchen cupboards,
just waiting to be unleashed.
The other delightful thing about this
low-stress pause in the day is that it is
the easiest possible way to weave
together friendships, to deepen old
ones and establish new ones. Everyone
can spare an hour or so to clink glasses
(NB not if you’re posh, it’s seen as quite
bad form in case you chip the fine glassware, but you and I don’t need to worry
about that) and share a bowl of pistachios. It’s like speed dating for friends.
If someone isn’t quite your cup of tea,
well, you’ve found that out without
spending the gas bill on a leg of lamb
and wasting a face of make-up. Tant pis!
Move on to the next ones.
When I share with my friends back in
England my new evangelism for the
early evening drink, they sound enthusiastic. (I mean, who doesn’t like crisps?)
That is, they sound enthusiastic for a
whole minute before doubt creeps in,
and the doubt is always the same.
Delightful in theory, but how the hell do
you get people to leave?
We are not a great nation of leavers
(see below). Show us a good time and we
would like more of it, thank you very
much: make mine a double. Just before
Christmas, we went to a friend’s party in
a beautiful apartment in Béziers.
Everything was just so: trays of wellmade drinks; beautiful hot and cold
canapés at your elbow exactly when
you wanted them to be; a cheerful buzz
in the room and people talking animat-

HOW TO GET GUESTS TO DEPART
There is an art to
ensuring short remains
sweet. It’s all very well
inviting people for 6pm,
expecting to have your
lives and your glassware
back by 8pm, but
sometimes people
just don’t get the
message. Invariably,
these are the people
you would most like
to get the message.

about timing, without
appearing rude. If you’re
issuing the invitation in
person, make sure you
finish the sentence
“Would you like to drop
in for a drink…” with “…
for an hour”. Or two
hours, just not half
your natural life.

As the magical hour
draws to an end, stop
replenishing snacks and
Make it very clear when refilling drinks. You’re
you issue your invitation not exactly calling time,
what time you would
while flicking the
like your friends to
overhead light on and
arrive, and most
off, but most guests
importantly, to leave.
will take the hint.
Emails, texts and
WhatsApps make it very Do discuss when you
simple to be explicit
might see each other

should go to dinner in a
few weeks’ time?” Only
say this if you really
mean it, though.
Otherwise, a cheerful
“What are you doing
with the rest of your
evening?” will usually
do the trick.

Make it clear in advance when
i
you would like friends to leave

again. Use the past
tense. “It has been so
lovely to see you, we
must get together again
soon. Perhaps we

Don’t clear up too
aggressively, unless
you feel there is no
other alternative. Bin
bags, rubber gloves
and getting the
hoover out are the
nuclear options
of weeding
out overstaying
guests. Use with
caution, but
do use if you must.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

11

GETTY IMAGES

It allows
you to see
friends,
relax and
have some
fun, without
spending
a small
fortune

The power of
i

happy hour: meeting
friends after work
is fun, but doesn’t
have to result in
a hangover

edly to strangers, which is always the
sign of a good party in my opinion.
The invitation said 6-8.30pm; we left
at about 8pm. When I saw the host a
few weeks later, I asked her what
time the last guests had left: “Oh, about
midnight! Mind, that was all the Brits,
quite p-----.”
In the 17 or so months since we got
here, I don’t think I’ve seen a French
person at a party look worse for wear,
drunk, ivre, imbibé, beurré. It is terrible
form to drink more than your capacity
to hold it, to function. Here, to be visibly
drunk just isn’t on, it’s a sign you have a
problem; whereas in England, while
that may also be true, being tipsy
together is seen as a bonding ritual, a
rite of passage in our friendships. And
certainly, a glass or two too far can blunt
your party exit skills as well as your conversation. We are a nation for which the
phrase “You just had to take it too far,
didn’t you?” was coined.
But it is possible not to take it too far,
honestly it is. First, in cocktails as in life,
it helps if you set low expectations.
This is really a local drink for local
people. It is unrealistic – and quite rude
– to ask people to come far for a social
event intended to last only an hour or
two, unless you are all going on together
somewhere else afterwards. Don’t ask
people to get in their car for an age to
briefly enjoy your company and a glass
of wine, however sparkling the company, however sparkling the wine. This
is an event for neighbours, ideally for
those who live close enough to walk to
your door.
There is an exception to this rule, and
that is the apéro dînatoire, the small but
perfectly formed child of cocktails and
dinner – it’s got its father’s way with a
drinks tray and its mother’s way with a
buffet table. An apéro dînatoire is a
good, informal way to invite quite a few
people and clear up a lot of social obligations at once, without putting yourself through the stress or expense of a
proper dinner. The canapés are more
substantial, can be hot as well as cold,
and may require plates and cutlery, but
the mood is still informal. So informal in
fact, that it’s one of the few French
social occasions on which you might be
invited to bring a dish.
Sometimes, among good friends, or if
the wine is just right, or Mercury is not

WHAT TO MAKE AND SERVE
Don’t serve too much
food. Provide small-ish
snacks – crisps, olives,
nuts and cheese straws
are fine. You don’t want
to ruin your guests’
appetite for dinner,
later, in their
own house.
If you’re a health nut,
vegetables are
acceptable. Radishes
with softened butter and
sea salt and crudités
with dips look pretty
and taste good. In the
words of the American
cook and lifestyle icon
Ina Garten, “storebought is fine”, but do
decant dips out of plastic
packaging into bowls.
We’re not students.
Cheese and charcuterie
boards with some

pickles, crackers and
bread are good, but
keep it fairly simple
and don’t go the full
Instagram (never go the
full Instagram). It’s too
much food and it feels a
little intimidating and
unrelaxing to break
into its perfection with
anything so imperfect
as your hands.
Ideally, unless you’re
hosting an apéro
dînatoire, serve food
that doesn’t require
plates. Paper cocktail
napkins are fine. Don’t
forget to put out
cocktail sticks if needed,
and small bowls for
olive stones or any
other detritus.
If you’re hosting an
apéro dînatoire, the

offerings can be more
substantial and some of
them should probably
be hot. Ideally, don’t
lay it all out on the table
at once – stagger it
Keep it small: snacks such as
j
cheese straws won’t ruin your
guests’ appetite for dinner

if you can so that
everything looks fresh
and is at its best. Think
about little toasts
(bruschetti) with roasted
vegetables, ham, good
anchovies and cheese,
pâté with great bread,
croquettes, savoury
tarts, gougères,
meatballs, and whole,
baked cheeses with
cornichons, ham and
small potatoes to
dip in them.
Keep the drinks
choices simple.
Red wine, white
wine, beer, perhaps
an easy cocktail or
two (nothing that
requires too much
effort and nothing
so strong it might
get messy) and some
grown-up soft drinks.

retrograde, an apéro can slouch comfortably into an apéro dînatoire. I’ve
done it myself. We’re having such a
lovely time and no one wants it to
end, so suddenly I’m boiling pasta or
beating eggs and grating cheese
for omelettes. More white wine goes
into the freezer to chill quickly, red is
opened to breathe. All rules are
made to be broken, but this one particularly can only be broken by the
host. Eyeing up the fridge and asking
“Is it OK if I make myself a sandwich?”
does not make it an apéro dînatoire.
Never has the phrase “Always leave
them wanting more” been more
appropriate. The guests who leave
while you’re still enjoying their company are the ones you’re most likely to
ask back.
My grandmother, when she had
had enough of a par ty, would
announce: “I have enjoyed myself

The guests who leave
while you’re still enjoying
their company are the
ones you’ll ask back
enough”, before slipping away. I
always admired this, but could never
emulate it as I was deeply afraid I
might miss something. It has taken me
more than 50 years to learn the art of
leaving, but this is possibly now
because what I am truly afraid of missing is extra time in my beautiful bed
with its fine linen sheets and expensive pillows. In London, my friend Fi
would say (with unconcealed glee)
“Let’s go for an American dinner!”
which certainly didn’t mean burgers
or pizza. It meant dinner at 6.30pm, so
we could all have feasted, talked and
laughed, but still be home, face
washed and in bed by 10pm.
And this is the great charm of the
apéro hour. With its speedy, contained
conviviality it injects pleasure into the
day without intruding – by way of
hangover or exhaustion – into the
next. It won’t break the bank and
hopefully you will be invited back; in
a very real sense I see it as an investment. Everything in the future is rosé.
And possibly vol au vents, if you’re
really lucky.

12

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Health

Our love of ultra-processed food is driving a mental health
epidemic – but there is a simple fix. By Abigail Buchanan

W

hat if, instead of starting with
your stress levels, work and
relationships, a therapist
asked you what you had for lunch?
Nutrition is a “central yet overlooked and ignored underlying factor
in our rising rates of mental illness”,
says Kimberley Wilson, a clinical psychologist with a degree in nutrition, in
her new book, Unprocessed. There are
other factors at play, but what we eat is
a crucial ingredient. “The brain is a
physical organ… nutrition isn’t the be
all or end all, but it’s going to be a contributing factor to how well your brain
is functioning,” she says.
The idea that your diet affects your
brain is not ground-breaking. But Wilson argues that what we eat not only
has an impact on our mood, but affects
our brain function at every stage of
life: from before life begins, in pregnancy, to reducing the impact of cognitive decline in old age.
“The nutrients you ingest influence
the structure of your brain, the production of brain chemicals that create
your mood, and the speed at which
your brain ages,” she writes. “Yet if
you go to your doctor for help with a
mental-health issue, you’re more
likely to be asked about your relationship with your mother than what you
had for breakfast.”
Her book includes examples of how
this affects brain health throughout
life: “If a mother doesn’t eat enough of
the right fats during pregnancy, her
baby’s brain is smaller and less well
connected.” In adulthood: “Just a few
days on a diet of high-sugar, high-fat,
ultra-processed foods leads to measurable impairment in learning, memory
and appetite control.”

Ultra-processed food
(UPF) is to blame
Rates of mental illness in the UK have
been rising steadily for 30 years. One
in six children aged five-16 now have a
probable mental-health disorder. Wilson at least partly pins the blame for
this on ultra-processed food (UPF).
“So much of our diet is ultra-processed, but we just consider them normal foods: I think very few people
would recognise baby formula or baby
rusks as UPF, but by definition, they
are,” says Wilson.

In Britain, we buy more UPFs than
anywhere else in Europe: 50.7 per cent
of our daily intake comes from
ultra-processed food. For one in five
young people, this figure is 78 per cent.
UPFs are foods that are highly processed and industrially altered with
additives and ingredients you wouldn’t
find in your own kitchen, like colouring
or emulsifiers. They are linked to rising
obesity rates, type 2 diabetes and several
types of cancer. Research from Imperial
College London found that the more
UPFs a child eats, the greater their risk of
becoming obese and, in adults, UPF consumption is linked with an increased
risk of cancer overall, but particularly
ovarian and brain cancers.
Crisps, cakes and fizzy
drinks are UPFs, but
so are supermarket
loaves of bread, breakfast cereals and flavoured yoghurts.
What impact does
this have? UPFs contain
less brain-healthy nutrients than whole foods and
fewer antioxidants. A diet
high in UPFs also displaces key nutrients for
brain health. UPFs limit
variety: 75 per cent of
the processed foods
that make up the
majority of the
average diet in the
UK are based on
just five animals
and 12 products.
“ The convenience of these foods
means that they
increasingly displace more
nutritious but more labour-intensive
foods from our diets,” Wilson writes.

Diet and dementia risk
There is clear evidence that a poor diet
is linked to an elevated risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. In
her book, Wilson cites the MIND diet
(the Mediterranean-Dash Intervention
for Neurodegenerative Delay).
It was formulated to slow brain ageing: rich in wholegrains, leafy green
vegetables, fish, olive oil and fruit, combined with limited consumption of
fried or fast food, confectionery, butter
and red meat. In a study of 923 older

50.7%

of our daily
intake comes
from ultraprocessed food

adults, the closer they followed
the diet, the lower their risk of
developing Alzheimer’s.
Another study found a direct relationship between diet quality and hippocampal size (the brain’s memory
centre, which is damaged in Alzheimer’s disease).
UPFs are typically low in fibre. “It’s
really concerning that no one in the UK
is meeting fibre recommendations [of
30g a day]” she says. This, in turn, has
an impact on brain health.
“When your gut microbes ferment fibre, they produce
short-chain fatty acids.
And one of the key functions [of these] is to sup-

Good mood food
There is also a direct link between diet
and depression. A paper published in
the journal PLOS One in 2019 found
that a reduction in processed food
intake and an increase in fruit,
vegetables, fish and olive oil consumption reduced depression in
young adults.
The high-profile SMILEs
trial (“supporting the modification of lifestyle in lowered
emotional states”) published in 2017 found
that, among a
group of 67 peo-

ple with depression and a poor diet,
those who switched to a Mediterranean-style diet were four times more
likely to recover and also experienced
reduced anxiety symptoms.
“Previous research suggests that
improved nutrition could reduce
nutritional deficiencies, improve neurotransmitter synthesis and provide [a
base] for the gut microbiome, all of
which can support brain function,”
says Wilson in her book.
“ Inflammation” has re cently
become a buzzword for conditions as
varied as heart disease, cancer and
type 2 diabetes, but it is also thought
to play a role in depression. And can
be exacerbated by a poor diet.
“The emerging consensus is that the
higher the inflammatory potential of a
person’s diet, the worse their brain
function will tend to be,” she writes. “A
large prospective study, which followed over 26,000 people for an average of five years, found that those with
a more pro-inflammatory diet had a
greater risk of developing depression.”

Eat yourself happy
Think Mediterranean: lots of vegetables (especially of the leafy green variety) and fruit, protein, fibre, healthy
fats from oily fish and olive oil, plus
plenty of nuts and seeds. Limit processed foods, added sugar and alcohol
(which Wilson says is a “neurotoxin”
that kills and damages brain cells).
A brain-healthy diet doesn’t have to
be complicated. Wilson’s go-to is porridge for breakfast: “I use a few different grains in it and top it with raisins
and cranberries or chopped apple.”
Oats are rich in fibre and nutrient-dense. As recent research suggests, you should be aiming for 30
plants per week – fruit, nuts and seeds
all count towards that target.
Eggs are another good breakfast
choice: as well as being protein-rich,
egg yolks are a good source of choline,
the nutrient the body uses to produce
neurotransmitters that help regulate
memory and mood.
Lunch could be a sandwich
made with organic bread
(unprocessed), or soup and
a roll. Wholegrain varieties
are better than white bread
or refined products (like
bagels), as they’re more
nutrient-dense.
If you’re on the go, Wilson
suggests opting for something that is as close to what
you could make at home.
For dinner, try to incorporate
more vegetables and a portion
of oily fish: Wilson recommends aiming for two to
three portions per week.
One of her favourites is
pasta with a homemade
sauce, a tin of sardines (an
excellent source of protein
and polyunsaturated fats) and a green
salad. Your weekly intake of meat
products and red meat shouldn’t
exceed 500g, she says.
‘Unprocessed’ by Kimberley Wilson is
published by W H Allen (RRP £22)

ILLUSTRATION: JULIA MORELL-GAGNUM

Britain is the junk food
capital of Europe

port the integrity of your blood brain
barrier, which is a very selective barrier
that prevents neurotoxic compounds
from the bloodstream from crossing
into the brain,” says Wilson.
“At least theoretically, if you’re not
getting enough fibre, then what you’ve
got is the dysfunction in your blood
brain barrier… one of the precursors
and perhaps a driver of dementia.”
Sugar is another factor. Too much
glucose – for example, from sugars in
fizzy drinks and sweet treats – can
predispose someone to high blood
sugar and insulin insensitivity.
“One of the big dietary risk factors for
dementia is diabetes or prediabetes –
we know that increases your risk twoor threefold,” says Wilson. “That’s why
concerns about children’s rates of obesity are key – the longer you live with
hyperglycemia, the worse your risk of
dementia later on.”

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

W E LC O M E TO T H E STA RT O F A N OT H E R G R E AT PUZ ZL I N G W E E K E N D

13

14

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Puzzles

Each week, we
focus on five areas
that will help train
your brain and
improve your
sharpness.

With practice,
you should find
the puzzles easier
over time.
Solutions on the
last page of puzzles.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

15

16

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Puzzles

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The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

17

Interview

Back to school...
‘I showed no
interest in the
academic side’

David Gower
g

followed in his
father’s footsteps by
attending King’s as a
boy, pictured in 1973
(back row, second
from right)

demic ability in there, and I found
myself in various pubs most evenings.
There’s the best part of a hundred
pubs in Canterbury so escaping detection wasn’t hard.
I acquired another girlfriend who
was at school in Ashford. One day I
took the train to see her there and we
went to a Bond movie, and I missed
the 6.30pm roll call. “ Where is
Gower…?” I was obviously absent: big
cross against my name. Meanwhile the
Ashford School people had found us
walking very happily hand in hand;
they dragged her back and sent me
packing. I got on a train, but when it
got to Canterbury I was fast asleep,
and woke up on an entirely empty
train in Ramsgate, literally at the end
of the line. I walked out of the station,
spotted a signpost to Canterbury and
started walking. At 3am I climbed over
the school gates and went to bed.
As I sat down to breakfast the
next morning, casually pretending

David Gower, 65
For the former England cricket captain, school
was all about playing sport, and hiding in one of
Canterbury’s many pubs. By Danny Danziger

M

King’s is enclosed by walls
and by the time I got to
18 I wanted to be on the
other side of those walls

picked for the 1st team at the end of my
first year, which is rare, this tiny little
blond-haired kid, but it happens every
now and then that there’s a prodigy
coming through. Contemporaries of
mine, like Christopher Cowdrey at Tonbridge and Chris Tavaré at Sevenoaks,
also did much the same thing.
King’s was a school that valued sport
as much as everything else: there was so
much support and encouragement. The
most important coach was a fellow
called Colin Fairservice, a calm, avuncular figure, a smile on his face, the pipe
always on the go. He had played cricket
for Kent, but was now of an age where
coaching was more his pace. He recognised my talent and I look back on my
time with him with huge gratitude. He
was brilliant because he would steer
but not control. He was man of gentle
words and huge encouragement, so no
Alex Ferguson hairdryer bollocking,
just guiding – the coaching becomes
about minor technicalities, so positions
of arms and hands. That top hand needs
to be in control; what they say in cricket
is you need a high elbow, so if your
elbow leads high, and that top hand is in
the right place, all shall be well.
I played a few games in the summer
with the Second X1 at Leicestershire,

ANDREW CROWLEY

y father had been to King’s,
Canterbury, and done very
well there and he thought
King’s would be good for me too. But
then he got a job in Loughborough,
so I sat the exams for Repton, which
was the alternative school nearer
home. I had got an academic scholarship to go to King’s but then failed to
get one at Repton, which would have
pushed my parents into fees that
would have made them cough and
splutter, so we accepted the King’s
offer. And off I went, following in my
father’s footsteps.
You’ll have heard this a hundred
times before, but you go from being a
big fish at prep school, a major figure
at 13, and only two months later you
come into the big school as this little
oik where the 18-year-olds seem like
grown men and rule the place, and
they’re either understanding and
helpful or mean and nasty.
As a 13-year-old whose voice hadn’t
broken, I automatically got put into a
choir because they were always looking for trebles. I did have a lot of long
blond hair so could easily have passed
as a Botticelli choirboy – but not for
long – and as soon as my voice broke I
left the choir.
I was shy – I’ve always been shy and
reserved – but being good at sport is a
great antidote to all that and helps
with your self-confidence. And I was
good at sports: I was athletic, I was
quick, with fast reactions and good
hand-eye coordination. I was particularly good at cricket: whichever neural synapse deals with cricket worked
best. (In later life I’ve learnt there’s a
missing synapse associated with golf
that prevents me from being good at
that sport or even enjoy it.)
I was good enough at cricket to be

and having had this literally cloistered
existence I was then introduced to this
other world of professional cricket
where your teammates come from all
sorts of different backgrounds and the
world becomes a bigger place.
King’s became co-ed in the sixth
form, which further opened up my
social horizons, and I ended up with a
girlfriend, which was all very new and

unexpected, and absolutely intoxicating, one of those early relationships
where you just fall head over heels.
Fiona Robinson she was called: her
nickname was Pixie. It all fell apart terribly though. During the Christmas holidays I’d gone on a professional cricket
tour to South Africa for four weeks and
by the time I came back it was over –
Pixie had dumped me. I was heartbro-

ken, but it was all very good practise for
life, I guess.
King’s is physically enclosed by walls,
and by the time you are 18 you are ready
to fledge, at least I was: I wanted to get
on the other side of the walls and be
gone. That Easter term I had showed no
interest in the academic side of life,
although getting a scholarship proved
there was or had been some sort of aca-

nothing had happened, there was a
tap on the shoulder. It was the guy
who taught me economic history, Jeremy Hattee. “So where were you last
night, Gower?”
“In bed, sir.” “And what time was
that?” “Well, bedtime sir, of course.”
(Titters all round the dining hall.)
On the back of that I was sent to see
the headmaster, Canon Newell. “My
heart’s not in being here,” I confessed.
“If I leave now I can go and play some
cricket.” (Also, I had got a place at UCL
to read law.) He looked at me and said
with hardly a pause, “Yes, I think
I agree.” “Really? I replied. “Really,
Headmaster?” I was expecting more of
a comeback.
Anyway, that was that. In the
greater scheme of things it all worked
out, although I regret that it upset
my mother because she hoped for better: the orthodoxy for her was that you
see your time through school and
come out with five or six A-levels covered in glory.
During the four and a half years I
was at King’s I was aware of its size and
history – it’s all around you at a place
like King’s where the school chapel is
in The Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, and you’re in that chapel all the
time – it is amazing. But the full import
of the place only dawns on you just as
you’re about to leave, and you think,
this is a place of huge historical importance, cultural, ecclesiastical, it is
rather glorious: better try and drink it
in before it’s too all late.

18

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Throwaway culture

The Chinese fast-fashion label that
could be harming your health
Low prices and
aggressive marketing
have made Shein
billions – but at what
cost? By Melissa Twigg

I

t’s like getting a coffee or a packet
of crisps; it’s a spur-of-the-moment thing you don’t have to feel
guilty about.” Anyone older than 40
will be surprised to hear that Jessica,
21, is talking about fashion – specifically the 10 to 20 pieces of clothing she
buys a month from Shein.
Her haul includes tulle mini skirts,
strappy tops, neon hot pants, cut-out
dresses and metallic trousers. The
items are colourful, head-turning and
often shoddily made, and while the
quantity sounds excessive, absurd
even, it isn’t. At least not financially.
In December, Chinese brand Shein
overtook Zara to become the world’s
most searched-for fashion company
online. Its shopping model is based on
buying in bulk and prices so low that
choosing between a cappuccino and a
£4 top is perfectly logical. As a brand,
it has been phenomenally successful –
a funding round last year put its value
at $100 billion (£76 billion), making it
the biggest and richest fashion firm on
Earth. By comparison, the Spanish
multinational Inditex, which owns
Zara, has a market cap of $68 billion.
And yet because it largely monopolises one section of the market, you
might not have heard of it. But Shein’s
meteoric rise means that practically
every young person in this country –
whether they shop there or not – will
know exactly what it is.
Shein (pronounced “she-in”) was
launched in 2008 as a small online
wedding dress company in Nanjing
and today is still run out of China.
There is very little information on
owner Chris Xu: he is said to be a dual
national of China and America and
allegedly now lives in Hong Kong, but
that’s about it. We do know that the
immense success of Shein means he
must be a billionaire, although unlike
the tech bros of Silicon Valley, he isn’t
on social media, and has never spoken
publicly about his company.
“The great irony of Shein is that it’s
incredibly aggressive and will market
you to the point of relentlessness,”
says Iman Amrani, who last October
released an investigative documentary with Channel 4 called Inside the

REDUX/EYEVINE; CAN NGUYEN/SHUTTERSTOCK

‘

Greenpeace gathered
evidence that 15 per cent
of its fabrics contained
high levels of phthalates
Shein Machine. “Adverts for Shein are
all over my Instagram and I still get
spammed daily by bots in my messages
telling me to shop there. And yet if you
want to know anything about Shein –
their labour practices or even who runs
it – it’s almost impossible.”

Amrani did her best to break this wall
of silence by sending an undercover
journalist posing as a migrant garment
worker to one of Shein’s affiliated factories in Guangdong. The journalist, Mei,
smuggled hidden cameras inside for the
first time.
It makes for difficult viewing. When
clothing is this cheap, workers are
under pressure to produce hundreds of
items a day. Employees work long
hours. If mistakes are made, wages are
reportedly withheld or docked. According to Mei, workers are allowed just one

day off per month (“There’s no such
thing as Sundays here,” said one of the
managers in the documentary).
If true, these practices would break
both Chinese labour laws and Shein’s
own code of conduct. After the documentary was aired, the brand released a
statement saying that it was extremely
concerned about the allegations it contained. A month later, it said it would
invest $15 million (£12.2 million) in
improving standards at its supplier factories; a spokesman told me that Shein
wages are 40 per cent above the Chinese
average for garment work, that the documentary had exaggerated the long
hours worked and that workers take at
least (a hardly sybaritic) two to three
days off a month.
But when a dress costs £10, profit
margins are so narrow that workers cannot logically be paid much more than
their paltry base salary (plus a commission based on the volume of work done)
if the business is going to work.
A new report by Greenpeace suggests
that buying Shein’s clothes might even
be bad for your health. At the end of last
year, Greenpeace Germany spoke out
against the brand, publishing evidence
it had gathered that 15 per cent of its fabrics contained high levels of phthalates
and formaldehyde, which, according to
the organisation, shows “a careless attitude towards environmental and
human health risks associated with the
use of hazardous chemicals, in pursuit
of profit”. While the science is new, various studies have suggested that high
exposure to phthalates can cause allergies and fertility problems in both men
and women, and even increase your
likelihood of developing cancer.
The outlet’s relentless marketing, of
course, mentions none of this. Aside
from promotional deals with reality TV
stars such as Khloé Kardashian and
Georgia Toffolo (who cut short her contract in November following the documentary), the brand largely promotes
its wares through micro-influencers
with fewer than 10,000 followers.
Instead of paying them, Shein will send
bags of free clothes to the mostly very
young women who will then film themselves trying on their #sheinhaul for
TikTok or Instagram alongside a link to
a discount code that their followers can
use. The code lets the brand monitor
how much money each influencer
is making, then decide who to keep
working with.
“At every p oint of the chain,
it ’s women being targeted,” says
Amrani. “It’s women who work in the
factories, female influencers who
are b eing ex ploite d and largely
female customers being bombarded by
their adverts. And even if you’re not on
TikTok, if you search for any type of
clothing on Google, it’s always Shein
that comes up first. It can feel like
they’re everywhere.”
Shein’s approach to Google
is highly unusual in the fashion world. According to Claire
Jarrett, who coaches businesses on how to advertise
online, Shein is spending
around £1 million a month in
the UK alone to be at the top of
Google searches. “It’s a
huge amount,” she says,
“and they have tons of
vague keywords
like ‘jumper’, ‘lingerie’,
‘dress’ and even ‘clothes’,
whereas most brands
Georgia Toffolo cut short
h

her contract with the brand

‘There’s no such thing as Sundays here’: a
i
worker inside a factory that supplies Shein
in Panyu District, Guangzhou

will be as specific as possible.”
This scattergun approach suggests
that rather than trying to find loyal clients, Shein wants that first sale – and
therefore a customer’s details – at any
cost. Jarrett says: “They are clearly
being funded by investors with very
deep pockets: this is such an inefficient
way to spend money.”
Unlike brands such as Zara, which
tend to take inspiration from the catwalk, Shein has a highly localised
approach to design. Small independent
brands have claimed it has plagiarised
their clothing. One allegedly popular
tactic of the brand is to copy designs
worn by local influencers then sell
them in that particular area. This means
someone in Liverpool can be shown
very different clothes to someone in
Louisiana or Lisbon.
New clothes are also released daily
and then relentlessly marketed to existing customers, leading to a culture of
constant consumption where women

‘It’s hard to get someone to
spend £60 on something
if they’ve been trained to
think they can get it for £6’
like Jessica are shopping every other
day. Financially this is affordable –
dresses cost as little as £10 and tops can
be as cheap as £3 – but the environmental cost is huge and it’s clearly a blip in
our increasingly woke world, where
Greta Thunberg is a figure of admiration for some of gen Z, but where fast
fashion is a forgotten black hole for
another large swathe of the market.
“Two-thirds of all clothes are made of
polyester or other petroleum-based
synthetics, which is essentially plastic, and therefore super cheap,
but when we wash the garments, microfibres are released,
and they, and never biodegrade,” says the fashion journalist
Dana
Thomas,
author of Fashionopolis: The
Price of Fast Fashion and the
Future of Clothes.
“None of this is exclusive to Shein, but Shein is
a major part of the problem. It joined the game
late, when all of these
issues were already
well documented. So
the company’s founding executives knew
b e t t e r. B u t t h e y

chose to put the promise of mega-profits ahead of predictable and avoidable damage.”
Somehow, Shein still claims that its
business model is sustainable, mostly
because the brand tests new products
in small batches and only mass produces after a positive response from
customers. And yes, the result is a
wasted inventory in the single digits
(high street brands often don’t sell up
to 20 per cent of the clothes they
make). “But this is entirely negated by
the fact they push overconsumption,”
says Thomas. “Then they place the
environmental impact blame on consumers, which is outrageous.”
Amrani adds: “Their clothes are also
so cheap that when you try to return
them they usually don’t want them
back, leaving you to dispose of them.
Officially, therefore, nothing has
gone to waste – even though of course
it has.”
The landfill costs associated with
fast-fashion have become a talking
point, and Shein recently donated
$15 million to a charity helping with
Ghana’s growing garment waste problem. Thomas likens the move to the
philanthropy of the Sackler family,
owners of Purdue Pharma, which has
faced US lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical
drugs. “It’s like the Sacklers underwriting opiate rehab centres: here, get
hooked on our drugs, make us wildly
rich, but we’ll help fight the addiction
problem by giving a sliver of our profits to a rehab centre to help you get
clean. Talk about greenwashing.”
The bigger question now is how we
educate a generation addicted to
cheap clothes. “The problem is it
devalues fashion,” says Tamara Cincik,
founder of think tank Fashion Roundtable. “In the same way Amazon has
become an everyday convenience, this
fast-fashion model has become the
new way of dressing. It’s not going to
be easy to persuade people to spend
£60 on something when they’ve been
trained to think they can get it for £6.”
Although their profits are still huge,
Shein has seen sales decline in six of
the past seven months. And more and
more people are now lobbying governments to start properly regulating
the industry – although that comes
with its own complex set of issues.
When it comes to changing people’s
shopping habits, Cincik warns against
a hand-wringing, middle-class focus.
“We need to be able to cut through to
the people who are buying fast fashion: there needs to be a massive educational push about the human and
environmental consequences. And it
needs to happen soon.”

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

19

Relationships

Date nights
saved our
marriage

We’re two
CEOs under
one roof –
nights out
are a must!
Charlotte Leigh, 41, CEO of Lottie
Leigh fine jewellery, lives in
London with her husband of 13
years, Jamie, also 41, owner of
howardpropertyservices.com.
They have two young children

Three couples tell Louise Burke how setting
aside time away from work and chores keeps
their relationships fresh and exciting

ast month, a post by Netflix
co-founder Marc Randolph went
viral on LinkedIn. It wasn’t
about a new hybrid working practice
nor was it a profit brag. It was celebrating a different kind of success.
Randolph revealed: “I have Tuesday
date nights with my wife. For over 30
years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays. Rain or shine, I left at exactly
5pm and spent the evening with my
best friend.”
The Silicon Valley millionaire, 64,
said “no meeting, no conference call,
no last-minute request” would get in
the way. As well as quality time with
his wife, date night provides him
with perspective.
“The thing I’m most proud of in
my life is not the companies I started,
it’s the fact that I was able to start
them while staying married to
the same woman; having my kids
grow up knowing me and (best as I can

Weekly date
nights have
kept the
romance alive
for 38 years!
Actor Andrea has been married to
Anthony Coombs, 70, a Tory MPturned-company director, for 38 years.
They have a grown-up son and have
just co-authored a children’s book
Andrea says
Anthony is very charming. I met him
and married him within nine months.
He convinced me that when your
train comes you have to catch it.
We’ve had date nights out from the
very beginning. Things changed a
little when he was an MP for Wyre
Forest and worked long days in
London – we used to meet for a lunch
date in the middle in Oxford instead.
We still split our time between two
homes – London and Warwickshire.
It makes it even more important to
set a dinner date to catch up.
There’s always an element of
romance, especially if we haven’t
caught up properly for days. It can
feel exciting. It’s not like we declare
our undying love or he spoils me
with gifts, but we are together. He’ll
make me laugh and he still thinks
I’m hysterical!
Like Randolph suggests, after 38
years, we’ve got a lot of friends who

Daytime dates
fixed our
relationship
problems
post-baby
Zoe Ayre, 36, a children’s book
author (@therespectfulmum) from
Yorkshire has been with Andrew, 37,
a sales manager, for 12 years and
married for seven. They have one
child, Hattie, now 18 months
Zoe says
I think people really underestimate
what having a baby can do to a
relationship. In October last year,
I could see our relationship was
starting to falter. We were snapping at
each other and not seeing eye to eye.
We sat down and had a serious talk.
I’d been very hands-on since
having our baby a year earlier, so my
husband and I had probably only
been out once together. It was my
choice to exclusively breastfeed – I
still do it now – so it was hard to get
away for an evening. Andy was
always sympathetic to my choice
but after a year, I could tell it was
beginning to annoy him. Our
relationship had become
transactional – “Here, take the
bottle”, “I’ll make dinner, you do
bath” or “You sleep while I take her
for a walk”. Sex was also on the
backburner. To be honest, I felt
touched out.
It was upsetting to have such an

tell) liking me, and being able to
spend time pursuing the other passions
in my life.”
Such honesty is refreshing, but
maybe also a little guilt-inducing. Many
of us find ourselves putting more effort
into our careers and domestic life than
our romantic relationships.
“We never get far in life alone, and
when you have a relationship built
on trust, respect and love, you have
a solid foundation, with the importance
o f c o m m u n i c a ti o n a t i t s c o re ,”
says life coach Simon Alexander Ong,
author of Energize: Make the Most of
Every Moment.
“A 7 5 - y e a r s t u d y c o n d u c t e d
by researchers at Harvard University
proved that relationships are the strongest factor in a life of happiness and
good health.”
These three couples couldn’t agree
more. For them, date night is a gift that
keeps on giving…

have fallen by the wayside. Some
couples are splitting up after marriages
of up to 47 years, which I find shocking.
We manufacture busyness in
modern life and forget about quality
time. Life is full of interruptions and
finding undistracted time enables
you to understand each other.
Anthony says
The secret to a happy marriage is
that there isn’t one. What works for
one couple is different for the next.
I think you need a huge amount of
luck. But most of all, you need
affection and persistence.
Everyone assumes that the lines
of communication are open after such
a long relationship, but sometimes
they’re not. Andrea will always say,
“Anthony doesn’t talk to me as much
as he should do.” She’s totally justified.
We don’t tend to spend time doing
the same things. We will eat out instead,
but it doesn’t need to be elaborate.
After a long period of time, your
partner needs to know they’re still
valued and I believe putting that time
aside to spend with your partner,
one-to-one, really helps.
Bobby and Bubba’s Small Adventures,
by Anthony Coombs, is out now

honest conversation with Andy, but
we could see the solution was to
make time for each other.
We work around Hattie, so we do
“daytime dates” while she’s at nursery.
Long lunches, country walks or
afternoon teas in hotels. I’d love for it
to be more often because on a date
we’re “us”, not “Mummy and Daddy”.
Andrew says
When Hattie turned one, I felt like Zoe
and I had neglected our relationship for
the benefit of keeping the baby happy.
For example, I’d been sleeping in the
spare room during the working week,
while Zoe co-slept with Hattie. For a
couple of months, that’s fine, but when
you’re a year down the line and you
realise you’ve only had a few cuddles,
then it’s going to have an impact.
The strength of mine and Zoe’s
relationship did mean we could be open
during our chat. When you become
a parent, everyone talks about sleep
deprivation, but nobody talks about
how your relationship changes. I think
it’s one of the biggest shifts in your life.
The daytime dates really help us
but it would be good to have more
frequency, and for longer. I make
an effort to compliment Zoe and
appreciate what she does for our
daughter, but what I need more
of is physical affection.

ANDREW CROWLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH

L

Charlotte says
I am a firm believer in date nights.
Although in reality we do it twice a
month rather than weekly. Making
each other laugh is imperative for our
marriage. Our work lives are very
stressful as we run two businesses.
It’s hard for us to switch off at 6pm
– my brain keeps ticking and Jamie’s
work can be 24/7. We also have the
kids to deal with. During the day
I wear my work hat, then after school
I pop on my Mummy hat, but there’s
not much time for me to be a wife.
I push for the date nights more than
Jamie because I come from a divorced
family (unlike him). I like to recapture
the early days of our relationship – we
switch off our phones, dress up and
go out for drinks.
I wouldn’t say date nights are like
relationship homework, because
that’s boring! For me it’s about giving
your marriage a service, making sure
you’re both connected. Otherwise
you just become housemates.
It’s a time to connect physically as
well. We’ll hold hands, hug and kiss
and do all the things that we usually
forget to do. And it definitely gives
me a spring in my step the next day!

For Charlotte Leigh and her husband Jamie, date nights give their 11-year marriage a ‘service’ and allow them to reconnect
i

Date night
dos and don’ts
Pick your time carefully
It does not work if one
partner has to sacrifice
something important in
order to make it happen. If
you have children, arrange
a babysitter for an hour or
two extra if possible, so that
you are not pressed to return
home to a deadline.
Think about your
appearance
Date nights should be a
low-pressure activity
because otherwise what’s
the point? Some couples like
to dress up as a reminder of
why they fell in love in the
first place. But the point is
that you should feel good.
What to talk about
A date night is a great time to
express why you appreciate
your partner and what you
love about them. For busy
couples, this is a great time
to slow down and catch up
on everything that has been
going on. Think about future
plans and fun times ahead.
What not to talk about
This time is to connect, have
a laugh, enjoy the freedom of
getting out alone and
sparking up the romance. If
there is something around
work, in-laws or a moan you
want to get off your chest,
sort it out at the beginning
quickly and move on to
happier things.
Show some affection
Go with the flow. Kissing,
holding hands and
affectionate body language
is a great way to show love
on a date night. If things
progress from there, go for it
– but don’t feel pressured to
make anything happen
artificially.
Sami Wunder is a leading
international dating and
relationship coach,
samiwunder.com

Jamie says
Charlotte and I have been together
for 22 years and married for 11 of
those, so we’ve really grown up
together. It’s been important to stay
close and date nights help do that.
We’re fairly traditional in the sense
that we’ll make an effort to look nice
and go somewhere special. I’ll book
the restaurant in advance, but I don’t
turn up with flowers or pick up the
bill. We have a joint account for that.
I love spending time just the two of
us. We won’t talk about work, but we
do share stories and Charlotte is a
great support for me and vice versa.
If we didn’t make an effort with date
night, we’d never have time alone.
I love seeing Charlotte sat across
the table from me. She always looks
nice – and I make a point of telling
her that, even though she doesn’t
always believe me! It’s a reminder of
what a good thing I’ve got. Time
passes quickly, and it’s easy to miss
each other. I wouldn’t ever give up
our date nights.

20

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Gardening

The best perennials to fill
your vases all year round
Growing annuals is labour-intensive and, if things don’t go to plan, disappointing – try shrubs, trees
and perennials, instead, for flowers and foliage that will always look their best, advises Clare Coulson

A

t this time of year, as the days
lengthen and the temperatures
start (please God) to creep up, the
lure of planting thousands of annuals
from seed is strong. With irresistible
sweet shop-style catalogues and endless social-media posts of carts tumbling over with bucketloads of summer
blooms, a patch full of breezy annuals
feels like a quick, fast-growing floral fix.
For the novice, though, or the
slightly unfocussed and disorganised
grower, this initial excitement can soon
turn to disappointment, if any one part
of this process – or the weather – does
not go according to plan.
But there’s an easier and more sustainable way to ensure you have material to cut year round: a cutting patch
of perennial plants will reward you
year after year with vasefuls of flowers
and foliage. Perennial plants, shrubs
and trees tend to be tougher, too, withstanding erratic temperatures or rainfall more readily than annuals. And
they require far less maintenance – an
annual mulch and prune is all most of
these plants need to flourish.
One convert is Rachel Siegfried,
author of The Cut Flower Sourcebook:

Exceptional Perennials & Woody Plants
for Cutting (£35, Filbert Press, from
March 23). Not long after she launched
Green & Gorgeous, a four-acre flower
farm and floral design studio in Oxfordshire, in 2008, she started to note
how much more useful, resilient and
hard-working her perennial plants
were. They had a lighter environmental
impact, too; unlike the annuals, they did
not require the huge investment of time
and resources, but crucially they could
often tough out wet or dry conditions.
“By 2018, things had got to the point
where it was getting too difficult to rely
on annuals as much,” says Siegfried,
whose main business from April until
October is growing cut flowers for weddings. She also sells her flowers from
her farm shop. During one particularly
cool and sodden summer she lost entire
crops of annual flowers. “I was finding
that the perennials were always the
ones that were saving the day for me
and I realised that I had to change the
way I do things.”
Siegfried began her career in horticulture, designing therapeutic gardens
at NHS hospitals around Oxfordshire. At
the same time she studied garden

i Floral abundance:

Rachel Siegfried in
her garden amid
delphiniums from
the New Millennium
series, which she
grew from seed

‘Exquisitely
g

beautiful’: a
selection of plants,
including Narcissus
‘Bell Song’ and
nodding Fritillaria
uva-vulpis, picked
from Siegfried’s
garden in mid spring

design at Pershore College in Worcestershire, where Chris Beardshaw was
then a tutor, and he fuelled her passion
for plants. Wanting a more hands-on
role, she then took a job on a private
estate in the Cotswolds, running a beautiful Victorian walled garden for six
years, where part of her job was to take
bucket-loads of flowers and arrange
them for the house.
“I wasn’t a florist, I didn’t have any
training,” says Siegfried, who had free
rein to forage around the estate and
incorporated wild foliage, fruit and
flowers into her arrangements. “I got
quite creative. I absolutely loved it. I
mean, who wouldn’t? And that’s when I
started to see the potential for local and
sustainable flowers.” Back then there
was much talk about the slow food
movement, but nothing comparable in
the flower world. By the time she set
up Green & Gorgeous, the seeds were
already sown for an exuberant, seasonal
and naturalistic style. And the use of
perennial material, that so closely
reflects the seasons, is central to it.
Right now, in early spring, a typical
arrangement could begin with a framework of emerging cherry plum blos-

som, branches of Amelanchier lamarckii
with its pale star-shaped flowers and
delicate coppery leaves, or branches of
pussy willow that is cut and then dried
to preserve its velvety catkins (with its
vigorous growth, it’s also a contender
for a wind-breaking cutting hedge).
She will then add winter hellebores,
which have formed their seed pods
(they won’t flop at this stage of their lifecycle), and the beautiful nodding Fritillaria uva-vulpis (forced in pots for an
earlier harvest), with narcissi and some
flamboyant early tulips as focal flowers.
“It’s my favourite time of year, maybe
because we’ve waited all winter and it’s
just such a relief to have flowers,” says
Siegfried. “You appreciate them more
deeply. There’s not as much range, but
what there is is exquisitely beautiful.”
It’s this sense of seasonality that is at
the heart of Siegfried’s book, which is
an intensely practical guide to what and
how to grow to provide cutting material
year round. The first half of the book
details her philosophy and process,
with arrangements through each season, while the second half is a guide to
her favourite perennial plants, from
bulbs and herbaceous perennials

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

21
1

Gardening newsletter
Sign up now for our new weekly mailout,
full of green-fingered news and ideas
telegraph.co.uk/gardening-nl

TOP 10 TREES AND
SHRUBS FOR CUTTING
Hazel
Corylus avellana
The beautiful
yellow catkins
that form on bare
branches through
winter make this
an indispensable
plant. Use it as
a framework
with forced
paperwhites and
then later with
spring bulbs,
such as narcissi.

Once they unfurl
their huge velvet
pink flowers in
spring, a couple
of magnolia
branches
arranged in a
small bowl using
a Japanese kenzan
(flower frog) need
no embellishment.

Snowy mespilus
Amelanchier
lamarckii

Physocarpus
opulifolius
‘Diabolo’

Can be grown
as a small tree,
shrub or hedge
and flowers early
in spring with
star-shaped white
blooms and the
most beautiful
emerging copper
foliage. Cut when
the flowers are
still in bud.

An invaluable
shrub with
beautiful
emerging bronze
leaves in spring,
followed by pretty
white flowers and
deep burgundy
foliage. The older,
woodier stems
last longer in
a vase.

Flowering
currant
Ribes
sanguineum

Guelder rose
Viburnum opulus

These currant
bushes have
pretty, pendulous
flowers in white
or pink in early
spring, followed
by scented
palmate leaves
and exquisite
golden autumn
leaf colour.

Spirea
thunbergii
A florist’s stalwart
plant with fine
arching stems
covered in
delicate white
flowers in spring,
followed by
feathery foliage in
summer, which
turns into fiery
shades in autumn.

Mock orange
Philadelphus
‘Belle Etoile’ or
‘Enchantment’
Unlike many of
the plants here,
the gloriously
scented mock
orange has just
one moment in
midsummer, but
its delicate flowers
are a perfect
backdrop to
blowsier blooms.

necessary, just outside your own door.
And then composting your own green
waste, once you’ve enjoyed them in
the house.
Many perennial plants and shrubs
do take time to mature, but Siegfried
believes that, as with the slow food
movement, people need to adjust their
mindset. “I think people do need to
learn to be a little bit more patient and
realise that not everything can be
instantaneous,” she says. “When you’re
a gardener, that becomes intrinsic.
Waiting three years to be able to pick a
peony is not really a big deal.”
She’s equally quick to point to all the
perennial plants that will reward you
in their first season, too – rudbeckias,
achilleas, catananche, agastache, echinacea, gaura, the list goes on.
Her advice to anyone starting out is
to get anything that will take time to

‘[Spring] is my favourite
time of year because we’ve
waited all winter and it’s
a relief to have flowers’

EVA NEMETH

though to climbers, grasses, trees and
shrubs. While she writes from a commercial standpoint, all the advice
works just as effectively for domestic
gardeners too.
She started the book in 2020, but
since then, the discussion around
the environmental impacts of the cutflower industry has significantly
increased; the carbon footprint of
imported flowers includes heating,
electricity, packaging, transportation
and refrigeration, but environmentally,
these flowers also come with a heavy
chemical cost too, with fertilisers, pesticides and preservatives often used
through their growing process.
In 2018, Rebecca Swinn, a student at
Lancaster University, carried out postgraduate research on this unseen
impact and found that a commercially
grown British bouquet would have
just 10 per cent of the carbon footprint
of imported flowers. A local outdoor-grown bouquet would halve that
figure again to around 5 per cent. But of
course, there is nothing more local and
sustainable than growing your own
flowers and foliage, with no chemicals

Magnolia
Magnolia x
soulangeana

i A floral arrangement including Rosa ‘Champagne Moment’ and Rosa ‘Golden Celebration’

A useful, fastgrowing shrub or
tree, with flowers
in spring and lush
autumn fruits that
can be picked
from late summer.
‘Roseum’ has
lime-green
pom-pom flowers
which look
wonderful in an
arrangement.

Smoke tree
Cotinus
coggygria
Another vigorous,
large shrub or
tree prized for
its hazy, delicate
flower heads.
‘Grace’ has deep
amber flowers
and foliage, while
‘Flame’ has green
leaves and dusty
pink flowers.

Rubus idaeus
‘All Gold’
This autumnfruiting raspberry
has a long fruiting
season from late
summer to early
autumn and has
wonderful
textural foliage,
as well as
stunning golden
fruits that look
lush in autumn
arrangements.

mature – woody plants, trees, shrubs,
climbers – planted first. If you need to
create any boundaries in your garden,
then creating a cutting hedge will do
double-duty, providing foliage, flowers
and fruits too – hawthorn, viburnum,
euonymus, beech and hornbeam are all
useful for cutting in different stages of
their growth.
Her other key advice is to treat these
plants like a crop and keep them separate from your borders, for ease of
maintenance and cutting, but also
because, even with the very best intentions, you are unlikely to cut material
from a beautiful border.
The other key benefit for Siegfried
of using perennials and woody plants
for cutting is the unique material that
you’d never find commercially. The first
emerging lime-green leaves on spring
branches, the twisted graceful stems of
fruit tree branches from bud to full
flower, the winding growth of vines
and climbers that bring incredible
movement to a vase. All of these are in
complete contrast to the straight
stems that are sold commercially for
ease of shipping.
Having access to these plants in your
own garden also allows you to use a
plant at all stages of its life, not just for
the prized blooms in one moment. Long
before they flower, stalwarts such as
Alchemilla mollis, Anthriscus sylvestris
‘Ravenswing’, Thalictrum ‘Elin’ all produce exquisite foliage.
Similarly, after flowering, many perennials are still prized for their autumn
fruits (Blackthorn’s sloes, crabapple
varieties, Berberis gagnepainii ‘Georgeii’ with its clusters of coral berries),
seedheads (including Baptisia australis, crocosmia or Dierama pulcherrimum), and autumn colour (Euphorbia
schillingii and Amsonia hubrichtii both
have fiery autumn foliage).
What all these plants share is a soulful beauty, and with very little effort or
cost (both financially and environmentally), they will flourish, bulk up and
return each year. Garden gifts that
really do keep on giving.

22

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

THE FACTS

Cars

FERR ARI
PUROSANGUE

because the rear seats are spectacularly uncomfortable, with insufficient
side support. The lower seat back
pokes into your spine like an overfriendly hippo, so if you have a driver
who relishes fast cornering you
quickly find yourself rolling around on
the lumber support as if riding a
£300,000 space hopper.
Another annoyance is that the protruding carbon-fibre sills scrape ice
and salt on your trouser legs as you
climb in.
The Purosangue features Ferrari’s
new Human Machine Interface (HMI),
although actually it’s a derivative of
that introduced on the Roma coupé in
2020. Instead of having an inbuilt satellite navigation unit, it uses whichever app you’ve downloaded to your
smartphone.
This is all well and good, and pretty
much what we’ve been suggesting to
car makers for the past decade,
because phone makers are much better at doing this sort of thing. The
trouble is, though, making the phone
app talk to the car is not without
issues. Of course, with familiarity you
might get used to some of the system’s
foibles and Byzantine routes to functions, but it would always be frustrating and long-winded.
While it was a real-life glimpse of
the likely gilded lives of Purosangue
owners, driving around the mountain
roads of the Italian Dolomites wasn’t
the greatest test of this large car. On
bizarrely treaded Michelin Alpin winter tyres, there was a fair bit of
high-frequency vibration reaching
the interior; the widely spaced tread
blocks slightly blunted the turn-in to
corners and, when cold, the tyres gave
a weird nothingness to the steering
feel, as though the heavy front was
drifting wide on some unseen frost.
With the tyres a bit warmer, things
improved, and the Ferrari felt well bal-

BODY STYLE

five-door luxury SUV
HOW MUCH?

from £313,120
ON SALE

now, first deliveries late
summer
HOW FAST?

193mph, 0-62mph in
3.3sec, 0-124mph in
10.6sec
HOW ECONOMICAL?

16.3mpg
ENGINE AND GEARBOX

6,496cc V12 petrol,
eight-speed dual clutch
transaxle gearbox,
four-wheel drive
MAXIMUM POWER/
TORQUE

715bhp @ 7,750rpm/
528lb ft @ 6,250rpm
CO2 EMISSIONS

393g/km
VED

£2,365 first year, £520
next five years, then £165
WARRANTY

4 years/ unlimited miles
TELEGRAPH RATING

ÌÌÌÌÌ

‘What is wonderfully
old-fashioned is the
big, brawny, naturally
aspirated engine’

Would you pay £313,000 for a
family car? Even a thoroughbred?
Ferrari insists that its four-door, four-seater Purosangue is not an SUV, more all-weather transport
for parents and offspring alike. Andrew English reports on the ultimate luxury for the school run

naturally-aspirated V12 engine and a
rear-mounted, eight-speed twin-clutch
transaxle. This is capable of firing this
2 . 2- t o n n e s c h o ol - r u n b u s f ro m
0-62mph in 3.3sec, 0-124mph in 10.6sec
and a saucy top speed of 193mph should
your little darlings be late for the first
bell. If you have to ask, you can’t afford
it, but fuel consumption is 16.3mpg, CO2
emissions are 393g/km and Vehicle
Excise Duty is £2,365 in the first year.
This dry-sump engine is pretty much
that of the 812 Superfast coupé, but with
its torque output maximised at low revs
to suit those hill farmers limping up to
the icy high peaks to rescue their
stranded flocks. And Purosangue owners can laugh like pirates at those losers
spinning their wheels en route to an
exclusive ski resort.
Snow made an
i

‘There’s even four-wheel
drive thanks to a bizarrely
complicated power takeoff from the V12 engine’
There’s even four-wheel drive thanks
to a power take-off drive at the front of
the engine, a bizarrely complicated
blacksmith’s solution to turning the
front wheels in a longitudinal frontengined car.
There’s also a slightly over-the-top
choice of five driving modes (Ice, Wet,
Comfort, Sport and ESC almost off ) with
a choice of up to three strengths of
damper force for each one.
Then there are the extraordinary
powered coil-over-damper suspension
units. These are a Ferrari/Multimatic
system, built in England and costing a
king’s ransom; one engineer didn’t
demur at our suggestion of more than
£10,000 per corner. They weigh 25kg
each and consist of a threaded rod
through the centre of the damper/
spring unit, moving the suspension up
and down via twin high-speed motordriven gears. They dance to the tune of
a wealth of sensors for pitch, roll, vertical, lateral acceleration and so on.

accurate evaluation
difficult, but faster
roads are great fun

Rear-hinged
g

‘suicide’ doors open
on to uncomfortable
back seats

The Purosangue
j
is aimed at buyers
who insist on
year-round usage

LORENZO MARCINNO

While most of the rest of
the motor industry is seriously looking down the
barrel of peak SUV and
studies are showing that
these high-riding behemoths are disproportionately burning up the
atmosphere, luxury car makers are
carrying on like inhabitants of Pompeii when Vesuvius was sneezing
rocks and pyroclastic flows.
Why do you need an SUV which is
disproportionately heavier, less agile,
thirstier and hungrier of resources
than the equivalent estate/multi-purpose vehicle? Because it’s war on the
streets (or so their owners seem to
think) and their response is: aggressive outside, secure inside, with allweather, all-road capability.
Of course, Ferrari is adopting a lofty
stance on all thi s for its new
Purosangue, which means, literally,
“pure blood”, or “thoroughbred”, and
is pronounced “Poor-oh-san-gway”.
Ferrari declares that it is categorically
not an SUV – but, if it walks like an
SUV and quacks like an SUV…
Either way, the famed factory at
Maranello wants to put a couple of furlongs of green sward between it and
the not-so-common herd: the Aston
Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus,
plus sundry others such as the
Mercedes-Maybach GLS600, Range
Rover SVR, Bentley Bentayga, RollsRoyce Cullinan and Porsche Cayenne.
The price does the same thing.
Against the Aston’s £190,000 and the
Rolls-Royce’s £264,000, just to take
two rivals, the Purosangue costs
£313,120 – that sound you hear is the
ante being pushed into the lower
stratosphere, where its only companions are suspicious Chinese balloons.
So Ferrari’s first four-seat, fourdoor model (there was a four-door
concept in the 1980s but it was
rejected) might feature the latest take
on reactive suspension and
human-machine interfaces, but under
the bonnet is a very old-school
715bhp/528lb ft, 6.5-litre, 65-degree,

Reactive not active, as Ferrari would
have us believe; these are in fact no
more or less than a set of speedily
adjusting spring platforms. They work,
but seem to have all the complication of
a Tim Hunkin/Professor Branestawm
machine in which endless gears,
mechanical birds, rolling marbles and a
model railway deliver a boiled egg and a
slice of toast to your table.
The suspension calibration work
must have been complex and longwinded. Raffaele de Simone, Ferrari’s
chief test driver, explained that the Multimatic units mean there is no need for
conventional anti-roll bars as you can
simply jack up the suspension on the
outside of the car as much as you want.
There’s no “kneeling” function to lower
the car for entry, but there is an option
to raise it manually by about 30mm,
although that costs extra.
Buttery-soft Napa leather is what one
normally associates with Ferrari interiors, so it comes as some surprise to find
this one mostly covered in recycled fizzy
drinks bottles courtesy of Italian fabric
firm Alcantara. It’s exactly what Ferrari
has always used for its man-made suede
finishes, just with a higher proportion
of recycling. Leather makes a farewell
tour on the seats and upper panels, but
it’s inappropriately covering the rear
centre armrest which pokes above the
flat load bed, vulnerable to damage from
skis being slid in. Emanuele Carando,
Ferrari’s marketing director, gallantly
laid his coat on top of it as we packed the
1.6-metre load space, which was a bit of
a Sir Walter Raleigh moment.
The Ferrari’s rear-hinged back doors
(traditionally known as “suicide” doors)
might be a solution to a question that no
one has yet posed but they are rather
impressive. Thanks to the legislative
efforts of BMW/Rolls-Royce on its first
Phantom of 2003, you can open either
door independently of the other without interlocks, although clearly you
need to have a care when climbing out
of the back.
But they are the nicest thing about
sitting in the back of the Purosangue,

anced and fast. The steering moves off
the centre position nicely and there’s a
good impression of where the car is on
the road, which is just as well since you
can’t see the front edge of the bonnet.
These aren’t the sort of roads on
which you can throw a car around (salt,
snow, ice, skiers and hungry-looking
barriers) but, for a 2.2-tonne machine,
you can power it pretty accurately
between the corner apexes.
On the faster roads on top of Monte
Bondone near Trento, the Purosangue
felt a real treat as it howled through the
long, fast, open corners, yet there are
plenty of cars in this class that feel just
as much of a treat through such curves
and cost less than a quarter of the price
of the Purosangue.
The ride is good and supple,
although it’s far too difficult to dial in
the softer damper settings, while the
difference between them really isn’t
enough to warrant up to three settings
each. Yet even with the firmest setting
selected, the front end dives too much
into corners and the brake pedal is too
abrupt at the top of its travel. To be fair
it was frigid; carbon-ceramic brakes
such as these have a tendency to be
grabby when not sufficiently hot.
What is splendid and wonderfully
old-fashioned is the big, brawny, naturally-aspirated engine, which pulls
like a locomotive all the way to
8,250rpm. It makes the close-stacked
ratios at the bottom of the gearbox feel
far too close and the intoxicating wave
of torque in third and fourth feels as
though you’d never need to change
gear again.
Test driver de Simone had said
beforehand that in such winntry conditions we’d only be able to sample a
bit of what the Purosangue had to offer
and he was right. The muscly V12
engine, the extraordinarily ducted
body, the terrific high-speed stability,
all these were clearly evident.
Yet this is a strange mix of cars, both
old-fashioned Ferrari gran turismo yet
with bizarrely overthought suspension and dashboard control. You can
comprehend what Ferrari was trying
to do, but also how it has fallen short in
a number of areas, which simply
doesn’t cut it when you are charging
almost a third of a million pounds.
Buying a new Ferrari is a longwinded and weird process these days
as the Italian company looks at potential buyers’ long-term commitment to
the marque as well as the requisite
acumen, but I’m not convinced that
history will judge this not-an-SUV that
kindly…
1

Cars
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THE RIVALS
Aston Martin DBX 707
from £190,000
You could never call it a pure
blood (or would want to), but
with a Mercedes-sourced
697bhp, 4.0-litre, twin-turbo
V8 the 707 version of the
DBX certainly has some go
(193mph top speed and 0-62
in 3.3sec). That’s only part of
the story, though, with a
fine ride and superlative
handling, but it’s a pity the
driver interface is so
obviously previousgeneration Mercedes

Lamborghini Urus
Performante
from £159,925
The higher-performance
version of the SUV that
saved the firm; with a wider
track and greater downforce
this is a sledgehammer to
the Ferrari’s suavity. The
4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 has
been pumped up to 657bhp
and 627lb ft, giving a top
speed of 190mph and
0-62mph in 3.3sec. Noisy,
fast and ostentatious – very
Lamborghini, then

Porsche Cayenne
Turbo GT
from £143,910
Porsche started all this
nonsense with the first
Cayenne in 2002; this is its
attempt to keep up in the
SUV arms race. A 4.0-litre,
twin turbo V8 now delivers
631bhp and 627lb ft, giving
186mph and 0-62mph in
3.3sec. Seriously tweaked
suspension means excellent
ride and handling, although
its styling is perhaps too
discreet in this company

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

23

ALE X ROBBINS

Alex Robbins
Ask the expert

SAYS...
There’s not very much
that you need to be aware
of when you’re buying
your first hybrid – it will
drive very much like a
conventional automatic
car. You’ll find that it will
also be cheap to run

The best consumer advice to save you money and make your driving life easier

HOW FUELEFFICIENT IS A
SKODA KODIAQ
– AND SHOULD
I BUY ONE?
I wish to downsize my 2009,
140,000-mile Land Rover Discovery TDV6, but I’m reluctant to give up
the space and the seven seats. I like the
Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TDI 150 DSG, but do
you have a reliable figure for its combined fuel consumption? I’m thinking
of the two-wheel-drive version, but
four-wheel-drive would be useful – is
there a big penalty in efficiency? My
budget is up to £20,000 plus the
part-exchange value of the Discovery.
What else should I consider?
– LW

WHAT IS CAUSING MY
AUDI’S BATTERY
TO DRAIN?

Q

The Kodiaq is a good choice of a
seven-seat SUV, although there
isn’t as much room in the rearmost
row of seats as there is in a Discovery.
The official economy is 52.5mpg and
47.8mpg for the two- and four-wheel
drive cars respectively, which translate to real-world figures of about
40-45 and 35-40mpg; over 10,000
miles, at today’s average diesel prices,
the all-wheel drive version will cost
about £270 more to run. This applies
even when it runs in two-wheel drive

A

My 2011 Audi Q5 developed an intermittent fault with the battery
going flat overnight. The garage that
fitted the battery checked it and said it
was fine, but suggested one of the car’s
computers was not switching off. A
month later it happened again; an independent Audi garage had the car for
three weeks but no cause was found. It
was suggested the problem might become more frequent with time and
then be easier to diagnose. I didn’t have
any issues for another three months,
but then the problem recurred three
times in quick succession. Would it be
worth calling an auto electrician? Do
you have any other suggestions?
– AA

Q

mode, because a large part of the difference is due to the weight of the extra
transfer box, propshaft and driveshafts.
Regarding alternatives, you have up
to £6,000 in part-exchange value in the
Discovery – a conservative valuation
would give you a budget of £25,000.
For that, I found a 2018 Kodiaq 2.0
TDI 150 SE L DSG with 35,000 miles,
seven seats and two-wheel drive, which
seems a good option.
Alternatively, look at the Seat Tarraco. It’s the same under the skin, but
because it isn’t as well known, buyers
don’t tend to seek it as frequently, so

values are lower and you get more for
your money on the used market.
For the same price as the Kodiaq, I
found a 2019 Tarraco 2.0 TDI Xcellence
– one rung down from the top of the
range – with four-wheel drive and
26,000 miles. And unlike the Kodiaq, all
Tarracos have seven seats as standard.
The 2019 Kia Sorento KX-2 I found
for the same money is even better value.
It only had 19,000 miles, and as long as
it’s been correctly serviced it will have
three years of its seven-year warranty
left – the Kodiaqs and Tarracos, by contrast, will have run out a few years ago.

For space and fuel-efficiency,
i
a Kodiaq is a good alternative
to a Land Rover Discovery

An auto electrician is worth a try –
such issues are usually easier to
solve if they’re demonstrated. But I
suspect once the battery has been completely drained, whatever is causing
the drain will long since have shut
down, so it probably won’t help much.
These sorts of intermittent battery
drains can be a nightmare to sort and
seem to crop up on Audis of this era
with some regularity. I’m inclined to
agree with your garage: they’re often

A
Write to us
For consumer and used car
advice, or car faults, email:
hCarsAdvice@telegraph.co.
uk and include your
subscriber number

caused by one of the car’s electronic
control units not shutting down. The
trouble is knowing which one.
However, it could also be the entertainment system. In some cars, this goes
faulty and doesn’t fully shut down, even
though the screen is off. It might therefore help to turn it off manually each
time you switch off the car and see if the
problem goes away – though if the problem is intermittent, you won’t know for
sure that you’ve cured it unless the car
remains fault-free for several months.
In the old days, this sort of thing
would usually be traced to a faulty door
switch causing the interior lights, boot
light or glovebox light to stay on. That
could still be the case here – however,
I’d hope the garages you’ve visited
would have checked those first.
You could pay for a diagnostic test at
an Audi dealer, which will have equipment that will be able to fully interface
with your car; you might find the car
has stored some fault codes that point
you in the direction of the fault.
If you don’t want to pay expensive
main dealer rates, you can always give
the fault codes to the independent specialist in the hope that points them in
the right direction.

IT’S MY FIRST HYBRID – IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD WORRY ABOUT?
My Audi Q2 is coming to the end of
its three-year personal contract
purchase (PCP) finance plan. My local
garage suggested a Toyota C-HR as a
suitable replacement because I feel I
am paying too much each month for
the Audi, despite its premium status.
But is the C-HR as good a car? If so, is
there anything I should be aware of as
this would be my first hybrid?
– DL

Q

Yes, the C-HR is very good – it’s getting a little long in the tooth now,
but it’s generally a good all-rounder.
The one thing I’m not a fan of is that the
rear seats are a bit cramped, and it can
feel a bit dark in the back because the
rear windows are quite small.
If you’re going to be carrying rear
passengers regularly, then, an alternative such as a Seat Ateca or a Nissan
Qashqai might be a better bet. Other-

A

wise the C-HR is pretty highly recommended. It’s comfortable, well built,
well equipped and extremely dependable. And, being a hybrid, it’s also very
cheap to run. I’d take one in preference
to the Q2, especially with Toyota’s brilliant warranty offer.
There’s not much you need to be
aware of as a first-time hybrid owner.
The C-HR drives very much like any
other automatic vehicle. The only major

High-class hybrid: Toyota C-HRs are great
i
all-rounders – just watch the 12-volt battery

difference is that, as well as “D” for
Drive, there’s a “B” mode on the
automatic gearbox; you use this to
i n c re a s e e n g i n e b r a k i n g wh e n
descending long inclines in hilly areas,
or on slippery slopes, in lieu of selecting specific lower gears on a normal
automatic gearbox.
One more thing: if left for long periods, Toyota hybrids are particularly
susceptible to draining their 12-volt

batteries (not the traction battery,
which provides power to the wheels,
but the standard engine battery).
Toyota recommends that you start
the car and leave it in “Ready” mode
for an hour a week if you aren’t using it,
which allows the traction battery to
charge the battery. If that sounds like a
bit of a faff, you can use a solar or
trickle charger to keep the battery
topped up instead.

24

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

25

26

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

27

28

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Andrew Baker
The Saturday quiz

Like a conversation
around the table, the
Family Quiz follows
a thread and everyone
can join in. Some
questions suit younger
quizzers, but really
it’s a free-for-all.
Don’t all shout at once!

?

Good question for
younger quizzers

7

15

5

1

On this day in 1702, England’s first
national daily newspaper was first
published. What was it called?
(a) The Daily Courant
(b) The Daily Telegraph
(c) The Morning Post

2

What is the name of Postman Pat’s
black and white cat, which often
accompanies him on his rounds?
(a) Bess
(b) Jess
(c) Tess

3

Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a major
work by which English novelist?
(a) Thomas Hardy
(b) George Eliot
(c) Charles Dickens

4
5

What was George Eliot’s real name?
(a) Ann Brontë
(b) Mary Eliot
(c) Mary Ann Evans
In the nursery rhyme, contrary
Mary’s garden contains silver bells,
and cockleshells – and what, all
in a row?
(a) Lavender
(b) Pretty maids
(c) Golden toys*

14

11

6

What does a scallop do that
a cockle doesn’t?
(a) Swim
(b) Eat fish
(c) Grow a new shell every year

7
?

8

10

12

Who is the current
Duke of Cornwall?
(a) The King
(b) The Prince of Wales
(c) Prince George of Wales

In The Birth of Venus, a masterpiece
on display in the Uffizi gallery in
Florence, the artist depicts the
goddess emerging from the sea
aboard a giant scallop shell.
Who was the artist?
(a) Leonardo da Vinci
(b) Sandro Botticelli
(c) Michelangelo Buonarroti

13
14

What kind of animal is a whale shark?
(a) Whale
(b) Shark
(c) Dolphin

A little girl called Florence and a
shaggy dog called Dougal feature in
which classic children’s programme?
(a) Blue Peter
(b) Tom and Jerry
(c) The Magic Roundabout

15

What makes a “proper”
pink gin pink?
(a) Angostura bitters
(b) Grenadine
(c) Crushed raspberries

2

?

9

As well as a children’s programme, the
blue peter is a maritime signalling flag.
What does it signify when flown?
(a) Ship is sinking
(b) Ship is ready to leave port
(c) Ship belongs to pirates

10

Who wrote the music for the light
opera The Pirates of Penzance?
(a) Arthur Sullivan
(b) W S Gilbert
(c) Benjamin Britten

11

Which island is linked to the mainland
by a scheduled helicopter service
from Penzance?
(a) Isle of Wight
(b) Isle of Man
(c) St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly

Whereabouts does the pink dolphin
or boto live?
(a) Yangtze river
(b) Indian Ocean
(c) Amazon river

ANSWERS

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO/ROOM RF; ADAM EASTLAND; ALAMY

6

1, a; 2, b; 3, a; 4, c; 5, b; 6, a; 7, b; 8, c; 9, b; 10, a; 11, c; 12, b;
13, b; 14, c; 15, a

4

Saturday 11 March 2023
telegraph.co.uk/culture

The Daily Telegraph
INSIDE
Ali SMITH
SMITH:: What it means to be a spitfire p.6
‘I lie on the floor naked, kicked and spat on’:
James NORTON on his dark new role p.10
The untold story of a Falklands scandal p.16
plus
Percival EVERETT
EVERETT: ‘Once you have a reader
laughing, you can mess with them’ p.12

Inspector Morse’s last dash
After 36 years, British TV’s greatest detective embarks on his final endeavour

2

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

3

In this Issue
Reasons to Be Cheerful
Theatre
2.
SIMON HEFFER
P.9

BOOKS
P.12-17

POEM OF
THE WEEK
P.13

TV & RADIO
P.19-39

VICTORIA
COREN
MITCHELL
IS AWAY

GUYS AND DOLLS
Nicholas Hytner follows
his acclaimed promenade
stagings of Shakespeare
with an immersive take on
Frank Loesser’s “musical
fable” with classic numbers
and a romcom heart. Daniel
Mays stars as inveterate
gambler Nathan Detroit
while Marisha Wallace, left,
is his fiancée Miss Adelaide.
Bridge Theatre, London
SE1 (bridgetheatre.co.uk),
Tues–Sept 2

3.
1.
ON THE COVER
Shaun Evans and Roger Allam
in television drama Endeavour
(ITV/Shutterstock)

Art

THE UGLY DUCHESS
For regular visitors to the
National Gallery in London,
this 16th-century painting
by Belgian artist Quinten
Massys is one of the most
recognisable faces in the
collection. The work’s
misogyny is plain – but its
spirit of irreverence is less
readily understood today.

For only the second time in
its history, An Old Woman, as
the painting is now known,
will be reunited with its
male counterpart, An Old
Man (c 1513), on loan from a
private collection in New
York, in this free exhibition.
The National Gallery,
London WC2 (nationalgallery
.org.uk), Thurs–June 11

Dance
THE RITE OF SPRING
Dancers and choreographers
just can’t help being drawn
to Igor Stravinsky’s gamechanging 1913 score – and
who can blame them? The
latest is Seeta Patel, who
will open this London
premiere with a solo of
bharatanatyam – the
south-Indian storytelling

style of classical dance.
The fusion of two rich,
geographically distant
classical traditions is
tantalising, especially when
accompanied live by the
venerable Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra.
Sadler’s Wells, London
EC1 (sadlerswells.com),
Mon-Tues

4

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

INSPECTOR MORSE (1987-2000)

LEWIS (2006-2015)

Case closed, Inspector Morse
How did a glacially paced detective drama about a ‘boring old fart who can’t relate to women’ become a global TV phenomenon?

I

t was all Miss Marple’s fault.
When, in 1984, Ted Childs, head
of drama at Central television,
heard that the BBC was working on
a new Joan Hickson-fronted series
based on Agatha Christie’s novels,
he determined to find a rival adaptation – “something a bit posh” – to
pitch to ITV.
A colleague suggested Inspector
Morse, a melancholy Oxford detective who’d already appeared in six
novels by Colin Dexter and would
go on to feature in a further seven.
Childs – who was confident that he
could convince John Thaw to play
Morse, having produced the actor’s
1970s police show The Sweeney –
passed on the idea to Central’s head
of programmes, Andy Allan, and
slipped a tatty Morse novel into his
hand. Allan was not impressed.
“He said, ‘So you’ve got this boring old fart who can’t relate to
women and gets pissed all the time.
And it’s got to be shot very expensively in Oxford. Have I left anything out?’,” Childs, now 88, tells
me. He had. Childs wanted each
episode to last a feature-length two
hours, unheard of on TV at the time.
Despite his reservations, Allan
pitched the idea to ITV then, Childs
recalls, “came back from the
smoke-filled room and said, ‘I persuaded them to take three episodes.

If it’s a total f----up, I’m going to
blame you.’”
Allan needn’t have worried.
Inspector Morse debuted in 1987 and
ran for 33 episodes until 2000. It
drew in 18 million viewers at its
peak and has been broadcast in 200
countries. A spin-off series, Lewis,
centred on Morse’s eponymous
long-suffering sidekick, played by
Kevin Whately (now with his own
sidekick, Laurence Fox’s James
Hathaway), also ran for 33 episodes
from 2006 to 2015. And Endeavour,
a prequel series starring Shaun
Evans as a young Endeavour Morse
and Roger Allam as his boss Fred
Thursday, has been pulling in vast
audiences since it began in 2012.
That golden run ends this weekend: after more than 100 combined
Inspector Morse-Lewis-Endeavour
episodes, the dots and the dashes
will fall silent tomorrow night.
Evans is philosophical about the
curtain falling on one of the most
successful British TV franchises of
all time. “Endings are a part of life,”
says the actor, who has also directed
four episodes of Endeavour. Asked
to pinpoint why Morse’s world has
struck such a chord with viewers,
Whately says: “I think Oxford has a
lot to do with it. Wherever you
point a camera looks good.”
Yet, if the series’ backdrop is

picture-perfect, its characters are
anything but: Morse is perennially
unlucky in love, struggles with
alcohol and is constantly grouchy
(mainly in the direction of poor
“Lew-is”). He left the University of
Oxford before he completed his
degree, making him both an insider
and outsider among the city’s
Dreaming Spires – “a social failure
to some extent”, per Childs. “Morse
was a deeply flawed character,” says
Whately, “and they gave Lewis a
few more flaws when I took over.”
And yet, with his passion for
opera and pubs, his dry sense of
humour, his quiet intellect and his
moral exactitude, Morse is also an
attractively complex figure. Academics have compared him to the
Greek hero Odysseus, battling
against obstacles to return home
after a war. John Thaw’s daughter
Abigail, who plays the Oxford Mail
editor Dorothea Frazil in Endeavour, says Morse is full of “a wistfulness at what could have been”.
Russell Lewis, writer and showrunner of Endeavour, suggests that
the character’s downbeat nature
“speaks to the melancholy” in all of
us. “It’s about love, it seems to me,”
he says. “Love unfulfilled and love
unrequited. That sadness is what
shines out of the character.”
It was John Thaw who set down

ITV/SHUTTERSTOCK; ITV STUDIOS

By James HALL

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

5

ENDEAVOUR (2012-2023)

OXFORD GRADS
7 star alumni

ELIZABETH HURLEY
Inspector Morse, 1988

SEAN BEAN
Inspector Morse, 1992

so much of this blueprint on screen.
Abigail explains that initially her
father, who died in 2002, “felt very
unsure of who Morse was, because
on paper there wasn’t much character. He gradually moulded Morse
around parts of himself.”
Whately says his abiding memory
of his decades on the programmes
remains the “baptism of fire” of his
first day on set with Thaw, who
“could change from one take to the
next and go off into a different gear.
Exhilarating. You could feel the
whole set go ‘Whooosh!’”
It’s easy to forget now that, as
Morse – a role for which he would
go on to win two Baftas – Thaw had
been cast firmly against type: in
The Sweeney he’d played Jack
Regan, a northern hardman.
Morse is unique because it constantly subverts its surface cosiness. Oxford’s spires and Morse’s
beautiful Jaguar Mark 2 lull you in.
But, as Whately points out, academics can be a “weird” bunch and
the shows are as much about
“town” as “gown”. Storylines have
included the cover-up of abuse in a
boys’ home and crystal meth smuggling. Listen closely and the city’s
bells have a decidedly discordant
ring. A personal favourite Morse of
mine is 1992’s “Cherubim and
Seraphim” – its story centres on the
warehouse rave scene and a tragedy-struck Morse. There’s nothing
remotely cosy about it.
Morse’s cultural tropes – his love
of Wagner, the Methodist Hymnal,
classic cars and poetry – are always
a salve to a gritty narrative rather
than the driving force behind it.
They’re our relief as well as his.
It’s why we love him. Over in the
US, Crockett and Tubbs were highfiving each other on Miami Vice.
Morse, meanwhile, was staring at a
pint of real ale and telling Lewis
that he had some “serious thinking
to do”. I know which one I prefer.

For Endeavour, Evans had to
create a younger version of the
character with the gravitas to carry
a primetime show. His Morse is
idealistic, questing and fragile. But
despite playing the character for 11
years, Evans still hasn’t watched a
single episode of the original Morse
series, in case he found himself
inadvertently “doing an impression” of Thaw. Instead, he relied on
Dexter’s books for inspiration.
Russell Lewis took care to forge
explicit links between the worlds of
Endeavour (1965-72) and Inspector
Morse (the 1980s-90s). For example,
Thaw would walk with a slight limp

Despite playing the
character for 11 years,
Shaun Evans has never
seen Inspector Morse
when he was tired. So in the first
series of Endeavour, the script has
young Morse shot in the leg, giving
the limp its own origin story.
Likewise, when Evans’s Morse
first visits the Oxford Mail offices,
Frazil asks if they have met before.
He demurs. “Another life, then,” she
replies – a touching meta-reference
to the fact she is acting opposite a
character immortalised by her
father. Then things get decidedly
mind-bending in a later episode of
Endeavour when – brace yourself –
Abigail’s real-life daughter Molly
plays a young version of her own
grandmother, early feminist campaigner Sally Alexander, who was
Thaw’s first wife. Endeavour is
packed with such Easter eggs.
For Roger Allam, the richness of
the characters is the key to Morse’s
enduring appeal: his DI Thursday
goes through family upheavals, has
brushes with the underworld and at

i
Enigma variations: l-r, John Thaw
and Kevin Whately; Laurence Fox with
Whately; Roger Allam and Shaun Evans

one point even coughs up a bullet.
“Russell and I love Westerns. As an
English actor of my age who can’t
ride a horse, it’s very unlikely I’ll
ever be in an actual Western,” he
says, grinning broadly. “So, what
can I say? Coughing up the bullet
was my Clint Eastwood moment.”
For Anton Lesser, who plays the
exacting Chief Superintendent
Bright in Endeavour, the historical
accuracy is paramount – from onthe-money pop cultural references
to a faithful depiction of how the
police force was structured in the
1960s. “It’s lovely because you feel
safe that the writer knows what he’s
talking about,” he says.
Despite their shared DNA, there
are nevertheless fundamental differences between Inspector Morse
and Endeavour. Each episode of
Morse is a self-contained story, so
they can be watched in any order.
Endeavour, meanwhile, has narrative threads that run throughout
each season. It also has more ad
breaks: each 120-minute instalment
of Inspector Morse contained 102
minutes of drama; each episode of
Endeavour, taking up an identical
two hours of air time, contains just
89 minutes of drama. “I look back a
lot at the original series, and in
some of my favourite episodes the
pacing is kind of glacial,” says Russell Lewis. “You’ll spend the best
part of a minute watching a car
come up a drive. A lot of Morse’s
charm was in the pace; it had to be
slow.” Progress eh, Lewis?
Three and a half decades after
Inspector Morse first appeared on
our screens, it is curious to note how
few predicted that the character
would endure. Whately only signed
up for one series of Lewis initially,
while even Endeavour was intended
as a one-off special to mark the 25th
anniversary of Inspector Morse.

Allam admits that, when Endeavour
did get commissioned as a series, he
was “very resistant” to signing up
for three years. But the public
lapped it up – and Morse’s place in
history, as a somewhat accidental
TV franchise hero, is secure.
Throughout the years, an astonishing list of cast and crew have
passed through Morse’s universe
on their way to greater fame: Danny
Boyle, John Madden and Anthony
Minghella – the trio of Oscar-winning directors behind Slumdog Millionaire, Shakespeare in Love and
The English Patient respectively –
all cut their teeth on Morse. Madden
directed four episodes and Boyle
two – including the fantastic “Cherubim and Seraphim” which preceded Trainspotting by four years.
Madden was behind “Dead on
Time”, in which Morse discovers
that a dead man’s widow is his former fiancée. Thaw’s face, captured
in close-up, when his ex-lover says
that dumping him wasn’t an easy
decision is a masterclass in suppressed emotion. His two words –
“Thank you” – contain the world.
Minghella, meanwhile, wrote the
first ever episode, “The Dead of Jericho”. Then there are the actors:
John Gielgud, Rachel Weisz, Anya
Taylor-Joy, Jessie Buckley and Jim
Broadbent have all appeared.
Evans himself looks set for
greater things: he has even been
linked to the vacant big-screen role
of a certain agent 007, although –
having experienced directing on
Endeavour – he tells me he “might
be a bit more interested” in sitting
behind the camera on a Bond film.
So is this really the end for
Endeavour Mors e ? Ever yone
involved confirms it is, although
that doesn’t stop them joking about
potential further spin-offs. “Morse
on Ice?” suggests Lesser. “Hathaway: the Musical?” says Whately.
‘Endeavour’ concludes tomorrow
night on ITV1 at 8pm

RACHEL WEISZ
Inspector Morse, 1993

JOHN GIELGUD
Inspector Morse, 1993

DANIEL KALUUYA
Lewis, 2009

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY
Endeavour, 2014

JESSIE BUCKLEY
Endeavour, 2014

6

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Fiction

‘Spitfire’: a new short story by Ali Smith
Childhood memories of a day when everything changed – and an unsolved Second World War mystery

W

hat does the word mean?
Here’s a day in the early 1970s, I don’t
remember exactly when, but it’s a day like
no other, historic. This is because a man called Chiefy
and his wife, who are something to do with our
mother before she was our mother, are due to visit
our house. That’s our house, that one there on the
end of the block of six, postwar build, middle of this
long curved street on the edge of the council estate
below the banks of the old canal. The canal banks are
our backdrop through all the windows at the back of
the house; the canal’s actually a piece of history itself,
scooped through the north of Scotland for industry
in the 1820s then also proving useful a few decades
after that for shipping large numbers of soldiers
south from the Highlands for the Crimean War.
But this is a different history I’m talking about
now. There’s my mother, look, she’s smoking in the
kitchen and telling me never to. All the girls smoked.
We all did it. We didn’t know it was addictive. I can’t
stop now. She finishes the cigarette, stubs it out,
empties what’s in the ashtray into the bin in the cupboard, cleans the ashtray out with kitchen paper,
dries it, shakes two Tic Tacs into her palm, puts them
in her mouth.
A minute later she lights another cigarette.
(I’ve made that up. I don’t know whether she did
do those things waiting for the visitors, I was there,
but I don’t remember. I can see her in my head doing
these things, she did them all the time. So it’s likely.
Then again, that day my mother was being a little
less like her usual self.)
The person she calls Chiefy, and Mrs Healy, his
wife, have come up from somewhere in England and
they’ll be here any minute.
All I truly remember about that day, 50 years ago
now – I mean way out here in the future, centuries
past the original meaning of the word spitfire, whose
first recorded usage seems to be in the 1650s when it
meant a person given to outbursts of emotion, spiteful
temper and anger, especially a woman or girl, and half
a century before it’d also mean, via the 2020s online
urban dictionary, a sexually explicit thing probably
related to the urban dictionary meaning of spitroast,
which is a meaning that would’ve made both my
parents blanche and frown, my mother affronted, icy
above the dinner plates, my father drawing himself
up like a volcano trying not to spill, if any of us had
come home one lunchtime or suppertime back then,
say, and over the day’s meal told them what spitfire
would one day, in one of its given versions, “mean” –
all I remember is that this was the first time my
mother’d seen the curiously named man and his wife
since she was in the WAAF.
I’ll be nine, maybe 10, and I’ll know that the WAAF
is something from back in the war, to do with aeroplanes, something for women, and that my mother
was a telephonist in it. I know Chiefy is called Chiefy
because he was in charge of something at the place
in England where my mother was in the WAAF.
There are some black and white photographs of our
mother, well, of a beautiful girl who looks quite like
her, in a uniform. There are photographs of a boy in
a uniform too who was once our father, though thinner and sharper then.
Anyway I’m mesmerised by the excitement with
which my mother is, yes, brimming. It’s coming off
her in what feels like sheets of light, like bedsheets
washed bright in a TV commercial for soap powder.
This is noticeably unlike my usually very proper
mother, always so careful not to enthuse much about
anything, as if enthusiasm wouldn’t be acceptable

behaviour for a woman as authoritative as she is.
Though, true, I’ve also known her be mischievous
and wayward and hilariously funny, but only ever on
her terms and in her own time, rare as a sighting of a
pine marten, a wildcat. But those moments of revelation of a high pure wildness in her, even a 10-yearold can sense, are the closest thing to what words
like rare, invaluable, incalculably valuable, or priceless or rich or dear – all those words for value that
never manage to sum up what value really is – mean.
That day, the house will have been pristine, gleaming. It always was.
That day, my father and mother will have been
being exceptionally welcoming. They always were,
with something that strikes me now as an ethic of
hospitality, something near heroic, so warm and
welcoming they were, always, to whoever my brothers and sisters and I would happen over the decades
to bring home, or to whoever chanced to arrive
knocking on our front door, neighbours, friends,
complete strangers, ragged or smart.
But the only thing I really remember about this
day is my mother looking forward with an energy
beyond the ordinary to these visitors who’d something to do with a time about which she almost never
spoke. Almost. Once when I was a child, she told me
about a boy she’d known in the war who’d wait outside a window in a building he knew she was in and
whistle a bit of a tune they both liked to let her know
he was there. When I asked her about it again she
shook her head, like I was talking nonsense, I’d
made it up, she’d never said it. More often she’d hum
or sing a bit of a song that was something to do with
a friend she’d had in the WAAF who’d emigrated
to Australia, a place we knew about and could imagine because of the Skippy the Bush Kangaroo episodes on TV. There was an annual Christmas card
too with a photo in the envelope of Maggie and her
Australian family, and this, along with the song
When You and I Were Young, Maggie, was pretty
much all we knew, for most of my life, when it came
to our mother’s war.
What we knew about our father’s war was he’d
been in the Navy and that now he had regular nightmares, the mornings after which our mother
made sure we all kept well out of his way, and that
his medals, which had been in a box under the bed,
had been lost somewhere out on the cinders the
street’s garages were built on when one of my older
sisters found them and took them outside to play
with them way before I was born.
Do they draw up at the front gate in a taxi, the
visitors? It’s unlikely; my parents would never
have let that happen. It’s much more likely that my
mother sent my father to pick them up in the car
wherever they were, the railway station maybe,
and bring them to the house. There are two
photographs from the visit, one a black
and white Polaroid, one a colour snap.
In both, Chiefy and my mother are
smoking, cigarettes symmetrical
between their first and second fingers as everyone crowds round an
armchair, Mrs Healy in the chair, my
mother and Chiefy on either arm
and my father leaning over the back of
the chair.
In both pictures my father looks most
unlike himself, flustered, bewildered, uneasy. I
sense now this will be because it’s the only time
since the war that he’s spent time with a man –
and in his own house – whose rank will have

The only thing
I have left now
of the clothes
she wore in her
life is a button
off her uniform

meant someone who could tell my father what to do.
In both, my mother, in her best 1971 dress, looks
straight into the camera. She looks unlike herself too,
or perhaps very like herself. In all the other photos
in the album from this time she looks speculative,
looks wry, looks away. In these two pictures she
looks radiantly happy.
They were there, Chiefy and his wife, and then
they were gone. They never visited again, just that
once. Out of, then into, the blue.
What I remember is the thrown open front door,
my mother with what felt like light shining straight
out of her, as two old grey people, much older than
even my parents, get out of a car, open our front gate
and walk up the path towards us.
The only thing I have left of any of the clothes my
mother wore in her life now, three decades after her
death, is a button.
The button’s off the uniform she had in the mid
1940s. At least I assume it is. For all I know people
swapped their buttons when they got demobbed. I
mean I’ll never know anything for sure now. Anyway it’s made of brass, it’s still shiny, a bit corroded.
It has a crown embossed on its front and a bird with
open wings beneath the crown, an eagle? It has a
hooked beak. It’s an airborne creature.
On the back of the button in a circle round the
metal loop that’ll have attached it to whatever jacket
or coat, it’s got the words Buttons Ltd B’ham trade
and mark and the image of a pair of crossed swords.
Not that she had an unusual death or that the
house burnt down with everything she’d worn in it
or anything unlikely happened round her going. No,
it’s just that all of it’s gone, God knows where. She
did die relatively young. She was the age I am now.
(That’ll be why I think it’s still a young age to die at.)
Along with the button I also have a couple of the
books she had when she was a girl at school in the
north of Ireland. She was 13. She’d won a scholarship.
She was clever. Her father died. She had to give up
her scholarship and cross the sea, to Scotland, where
there were family members sending home money
and there was more chance of getting work if you
were a Catholic than in the north of Ireland in the
1930s. She got a job as a bus conductress on the bus
route along the Moray Firth coast road. They called
her Paddy because she was Irish. The town’s bus
conductresses in Inverness were still letting me and
my brothers off our fares when we used the buses in
the town in the 1960s and 1970s, because they’d
worked with our mother, even though she only did
this till she was old enough to join the WAAF,
towards the end of the war.
These two schoolbooks I’ve got were the only
things she’d taken with her when she left Ireland
that she kept well into her later life. One is a copy of
Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories by Washington
Irving. One is an English Grammar primer. The
pencil marks and underlinings in the English
Grammar primer stop about a third of the way
through the book. That’ll be where she left school.
Both books have her name written carefully inside
them in ink, and the name of the school, Loreto
Convent. Inside the back of one of them
she’s drawn an inky outline round what
will have been her own left hand. On its
third finger she’s added a wedding ring. She
used to keep these books under her shoes
at the bottom of the wardrobe in her and
my father’s bedroom, all the coats and

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

blouses and jumpers above, immaculate, like new.
A couple of years ago I dropped the English Grammar primer down some stairs. It slipped out of my
hands in a pile of books I was carrying. Its cloth and
card spine, which had until then been fine and sound
for more than 80 years, split down its middle.
I keep the button on my desk.
I check on it every so often to make sure I haven’t
done something stupid and lost it.
Because both my parents are dead now, because
there’s so much I’ve just no idea about when it comes
to their lives, and because my older siblings tend to
come up as blank and shrugging as I am when I ask
them anything about our mother’s time in the WAAF,
I sat down this summer with a pile of paperbacks I
bought on Abe and eBay, written by women about
their time in the WAAF.
A WAAF in Bomber Command. Sand in My Shoes.
Tales of a Bomber Command WAAF (& her horse). More
Tales of a Bomber Command WAAF (& her horse). We
All Wore Blue.
See, I didn’t even know they all wore blue; all the
photos I’ve ever seen are black and white. Anyway
the writers of these books, memoirs written later in

7

i
Radio silence: above, a
WAAF telephonist during
the Second World War;
left, author Ali Smith

their lives, were middle- or upper-middle-class
young English women (& her horse), and had lived
nothing like my mother’s life, really, a not English
childhood and one of relative poverty. But all these
books have in common things in which my mother’s
time and life will have been steeped.
In one of these books, a very fine writer called Pip
Beck let me know that a squadron’s Flight Sergeant
was typically referred to by everyone as Chiefy. She
summed up what it felt like, in those years, to be
young, a woman, and in bomber command, “a time
in my life when everything was new and exciting; a
time I could never forget. A new world opened up.”
The first sighting, after enrolling in the WAAF, of
the huge aircraft parked and waiting like behemoths, like strange winged giants, in the operational
bomber stations. The smell and the sound of those
machines with their spread wings, the thrum of the
ground under them. The long green stretch of the
airfields early in the morning, late in the evening,
winter to spring, summer to autumn, fog, sun, rain,
snow. The metal bedsteads, the straw mattresses
they all called biscuits, the drill sheets and the dark
blankets so useless in the cold that the & her horse
writer actually records that they weren’t fit for
horses. The “rising bell”. The bras made of “thick

coarse cotton, with straps the width of a man’s belt,
and hooks and eyes so sturdy they could have been
used to fasten the linen union covers of a three piece
suite”, as the writer of We All Wore Blue puts it. Something called fatigues. Something called jankers. Kit
inspection, respirators for tear gas, the phonetic
alphabet the R/T or Radio Telephone Operators
learned (is that what my mother was? an R/T operator?). Plane identification. Daily pay rate (1s 4d unless
you were on “special duties” when it rose to 2s 3d).
Sending money home; whatever their class, they all
did it. The food. Fishcakes and chips, 10d. The NAAFI
shop, where you could buy hairnets, biscuits, coffee,
tea, Rinso, Liver Salts. The camaraderie. The friendships. The charming boys and men arriving with
laughter and jokes and flowers, sweeping the offduty WAAFs off to the pictures to see the latest. The
air raid sirens, the plaster falling off the ceilings and
walls when bombs came down close to the Waafery
or the Mess. Words like Waafery and Mess. Nissen.
Ops Met and Signals. Flying Control. Sally. Joan. Pip.
Sylvia. Muriel. Maureen. Di. Audrey.
Above all what’s really in common between all
these books is the numbness, the terribleness, of the
Continued on page 8

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY; BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

8

Continued from page 7

number of young men they went out with, danced
all night with, went to the pictures with, fell in love
with, were about to marry, all the Normans, Johns,
Bills, Gerrys, Tonys, Jocks, Cecils, Franks, Peters,
who went up one night in the Spitfires or Ansons or
Lancasters or Hampdens or Wellingtons and next
morning didn’t come back. Shot down in raids over
Kiel, Augsburg, Düsseldorf, Hamburg. The “strange
hollow intimacy,” Pip Beck says, of realising that the
last voice the five young men in a just hit and gone
plane would have heard was her own voice. “In RAF
statistics this was a commonplace little tragedy.”
And when someone hears that their person hasn’t
come back, or the ardent or friendly/chatty letters
from someone just stop? Anxiety. Foreboding. Silent
tears. “We accepted it, shrugged, and said, ‘That’s
that.’ But underneath, we each had a nagging ache
of sorrow.” Though there was also this: “state of
almost total collapse . . . nothing we could do for her
. . . sick bay . . . sedated . . . her grief touched us all.
What became of her we never learned.”
What they had in common, what they learned to
withstand, was endless loss.
I knew almost nothing about Spitfires before writing
this piece you’re reading. I knew a little from a wartime propaganda film called The First of the Few, in
which Leslie Howard and David Niven design, build
and test fly them. In this film, which he also directed,
Leslie Howard plays RJ Mitchell, the man who first
designed the Supermarine Spitfire, a plane modelled
on seabirds, one with an integral wingset, a wingspan as part of its chassis rather than wings added as
afterthought. Plus firepower, plus aeronautic lightness, speed, versatility.
Howard himself, a subtle, handsome and thoughtful film director and actor, was killed shortly before
the film was released, when the Luftwaffe shot down
the passenger plane he was travelling in between

Portugal and England. I know that the film is said to
be a bit historically inaccurate, that Howard looked
nothing like Mitchell; they were men of very different social class. I know the film is scattered with real
RAF Fighter Command pilots in uncredited walk-on
parts and that several of them, too, had been killed in
real war raids by the time the film came out.
I knew that the great comedienne, film star and
music hall singer, Gracie Fields, a huge star in the
1930s, who had been vilified by the British public for
“running away” in the Second World War to live in
Capri with her Italian film director husband, was
responsible for raising millions of dollars and
pounds either side of the Atlantic which she channelled direct into Royal Navy funds and Spitfire
manufacture.
That’s actually all I knew before I agreed to take
on one of the words usually used over the centuries
as synonyms for troublingly strong or supposedly
outspoken women, this word SPITFIRE, which in
its 20th-century flying incarnation had a very direct
link to the life of my own calm, decorous, private,
privately mischievous, very refined mother.
I see her now in my head, some time in the 1960s
or 1970s, that hey-so-liberating-for-women time, sitting at a formica table in our kitchen with a friend
who’s called round, they’re both in their 40s, and the
friend is laughing because my mother has said something funny and my mother is laughing too but
downwards into her own hands, and even as a small
child I know she’s doing this, monitoring the
strength of her own spirit, partly so she won’t seem
too outlandish either to her husband and children
elsewhere in the house or to her own friend sitting
opposite, a friend who’ll be every bit as up to policing a woman as any other woman or man or family
when it comes to how women/mothers are meant to
act in public or even in private in the comfort of their
own homes.
I also know it’s in her nature, it’s every bit as much
an ethic to her as her sense of hospitality, to act at
almost all times with the kind of care that keeps

What they had
in common,
what they
learned to
withstand, was
endless loss

threat at bay, whatever the threat may be, with a
politeness that has a taproot into a source of pure
power, and with a modicum of restraint that deep at
its core both proves and preserves everything fierce
and wild and deep of feeling in us.
I ask my father. What’s the fallout?
What’s what? he says.
I am seven and am collecting Snoopy books. I
show him the page in one where the character called
Linus, the philosophical one, is walking along, looks
up, sees lots of little dots round him, then runs like
crazy, finds the character called Charlie Brown,
shakes him by the collar and says IT’S HAPPENING,
CHARLIE BROWN! IT’S HAPPENING JUST LIKE
THEY SAID IT WOULD!! Charlie Brown tells him it’s
just winter, it’s just snowing. Good grief, Linus says.
I thought it was the fallout.
What’s the fallout? I say.
My parents exchange looks. My father explains to
me about nuclear explosions.
They had to do it, my mother says. They had to
stop the war.
Years later, when I’m a teenager and I sit reading
the book by John Hersey called Hiroshima in the
living room, my father and mother exchange looks
again.
When I bring home leaflets about nuclear war
and start wearing a badge that says GAY WHALES
AGAINST THE BOMB, my father tells me, quite
right, girl. My mother tells me, with great seriousness, that if a person were to spend too much time
thinking about these things they’d go mad.
Which in particular of these things? I say.
She frowns.
All of them, she says.
Up until very recently I’d thought my father’s version of the story of how my parents first met was the
only version. This is how his version went. He joined

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

9

Fiction

Simon Heffer
Hinterland

g
A plane
modelled on
seabirds: Runway
Perspective (1942)
by Eric Ravilious

A masterful history maps the moment that French
music’s big cheeses stole a march on the Germans

the Navy as soon as he was of age in 1942. The
Navy gave him a training as an electrician. In the
war’s dying days he happened to be back in England
convalescing and he was sent with a mate to wire
up the locker room of a barracks in a local WAAF station. He and his mate decided that for fun they’d
have a look through all the lockers, at the things
belonging to the women.
They opened door after door and out spilled all
the underwear, all the secret things of girls. But
when my father opened one particular locker and
saw how perfectly folded everything in there was,
how clean, how pristinely neat and arranged, he said
to his mate: This one. I’m going to find this girl, I’m
going to marry her. So he looked up who the locker
belonged to, he asked her out, and that night in the
pub he pulled out his mother’s engagement ring, he
had it in a box in his pocket, he’d been carrying it
around with him since his mother died, and he
showed it to my mother, and everyone around them
shouted they’re getting engaged! They’re getting
engaged! Which, some years later, they did.
For a long time I thought that this story, though
romantic, held a kernel of innate generational sexism at its heart, an attraction to the good housekeeper and housewife in the woman you long to etc.
More recently, as if I’m seeing inside my head a
bombed building with the ruined stuff of its insides
strewn everywhere, I’ve understood it differently.
My father joined the Navy to escape the brick factory
he was working in as a boy. One day a wing of the
brick factory was hit by a bomb and he was in a
workshop a short distance along from the hit. He saw
the bricks in the wall of the room he was in suddenly
bend like they were made of elastic, then everything
in that room, the worktops, the chairs and himself,
flung in slow motion up into the air before his whole
self hit the wall on the far side of the room.
Then, in the Navy, one of the ships he sailed on
was torpedoed. He was down below. He got himself
out just in time and picked up by a lifeboat. A lot of
his friends didn’t.
Not long after this, his arms and legs stopped
working, just refused to act like they were meant to,
so the Navy sent him on another ship to Canada to
recuperate. He recovered. He came home to Nottingham on leave and the thing he brought home
with him, as a present for his mother, was a 56-piece
dinner service. It arrived against the odds unbroken,
and so, more or less, did he.
He didn’t talk about any of this until very late
in his life when everything on TV was suddenly endlessly about the war, the various anniversaries of it,
40 years, 45 years, 50 years since. Then, and only
then, he began to.
One of my sisters, who’s still got what little’s left of
that dinner service in her crockery cupboard, told
me not long ago our mother’s version of their first
meeting.
I’d been in the shower block, I’d shampooed my hair,
and I came out of there, I had a towel wrapped round
my head. And this boy came up to me and wolf whistled
and then had the cheek to ask me out. Well! I wasn’t
impressed. I thought he was rude and I told him exactly
where to go, and that if he wanted anything to do with
me he’d have to change his way of going about it.
First time I’d heard it. It made me laugh out loud.
It also made me remember a moment I’d forgotten. One day when I was older, home from college,
the holidays, I was in my 20s, deep in a couple of
secret loves, or at least loves I told nobody in my family about, certainly couldn’t have told my mother,

and she was older, thinned by years of misdiagnosed
heart disease, far too fragile and only in her 50s, she
drove me down town so we could do something or
other. We set off and my fragile mother put her foot
down hard on the accelerator and I realised, sitting
in the passenger seat, with that sudden acute revelation of someone’s inner character that you only get
when you’re a passenger and they’re driving, something else unsayable out loud so as not to disempower the knowing – that my mother wasn’t just a
great driver, she was a fearless person in the world,
a woman fazed by nothing.
My mother died in 1990. The day after she did, on an
instinct I can’t explain, I went into my mother and
father’s bedroom. I took her glasses off the dressing
table, the things she’d seen the world through. I
opened her brushes and combs drawer in the middle
of the dressing table and took out her favourite
brush. As I was shutting the drawer my hand grazed
some papers tucked down between the drawer’s
liner and the wooden front of it. I took them out.
They were four small old rectangular photographs, size of the palm of a hand. I’d never seen any
of them before.
I put them in my pocket. I knew to keep them to
myself.
The glasses and the brush are long gone; when my
father moved house some years after she died he and
my brother cleared out what had been my room and
threw most of it away, and the glasses and brush I’d
kept on my own bedside table? God knows.
I still have the photographs. Here they are.
All the people in three of them, female and male,
are in shirtsleeves and wearing ties. One is of two
young women standing under a tree. God knows
who they are. Neither of them is my mother or her
friend Maggie. But Maggie’s there in all the others,
I recognise her, and so’s my mother, and so is a very
handsome and smiling young man who is nothing
like my father and who has his arm always round my
mother.
In one, my mother has her own arm round this
man, her other arm round her friend.
In another photo, of a lineup of eight young people in full dark WAAF and RAF uniforms, my mother
is standing between two young men. In each of her
hands she’s holding one of their hands.
Only once, that’s all, she talked about what it was
like. It was one afternoon after lunch a couple of
summers before she died, I was about to catch a train
south back to university, I was sitting in the kitchen
at the table, she was finishing off some ironing. I
don’t know why she started to talk about it, it’s the
only time she ever did, and it was for a moment only,
she didn’t lift her head, even, from the thing she was
ironing. Getting up in the morning, going in to breakfast, and seeing the chalk lines through the planes,
through the names of the ones who hadn’t made it back.
Then she stopped speaking. She gave me a glance,
looked back down, shook her head.
The iron will have steamed its steam, the smell of
clean clothes in air.
Then I got into the car, waved goodbye, and my
dad drove me down to the station.
© Ali Smith, 2023. Taken from ‘Furies: Stories of the
wicked, wild and untamed’ (Virago Press, £16.99). To
order call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

R

oger Nichols is probably this
country’s leading authority
on French music. In happier
times he was a regular broadcaster
on the subject on Radio 3: his
most celebrated work is a highly
authoritative biography of
Maurice Ravel, first published in
1977 and radically revised in 2010.
He has also published studies of
Poulenc, Messiaen, Debussy and
Saint-Saëns – and a wonderful
book on music in Paris in the
1920s, The Harlequin Years. One
only has to read a few paragraphs
to realise that his expertise is not
limited to music: in addition to
an exhaustive knowledge of the
subject, he also has an instinctive
understanding of its place in
French life and in the wider
context of classical music.
For years he has been a regular
contributor to music magazines,
learned journals and symposia:
and his latest book, From Berlioz
to Boulez (Kahn and Averill) is
an invaluable collection of these
writings, covering almost two
centuries of French musical
life. All the grands fromages are
here, starting with Berlioz, of
whose Symphonie fantastique
the author gives a lively account,
raising the possibility that the
composer was on opium when
he wrote it.
Although Germany maintained
its dominance of the classical
canon throughout the 19th
century, Berlioz led a remarkable
procession of composers who,
by the start of the 20th, had put
France at the forefront of the art.
Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Debussy,
the last discussed in some detail
in the book, are among the great
names of the period, although the
three composers represent only
one aspect of the trajectory that
music in France took in that era.
Unsurprisingly, a significant
part of this collection is devoted
to Nichols’s other writings on
Ravel, on whom active scholarship
and research are still under
way, not least because of the
publication in France in 2017 of
a complete edition of his letters.
One of the highlights of this book
is a detailed account of all the
new insights that Nichols, as a
distinguished biographer of the
composer, managed to glean from
a reading of those letters: such as
the recollection by one of Ravel’s
students, an American, that
“teaching bores him, but one has
to live!”; and that Ravel believed
that Stravinsky, with whom he had
once been good friends, was “less
of a musician than I am”.

Nichols’s range is impressive: he
shares knowledge of and insights
into other such formidable 19thcentury masters as Gounod (to
whom there is much more than his
famous Faust), Chabrier, Delibes,
Satie, Lalo and Massenet. But his
expertise is if anything even more
profound when it comes to the
20th century. As Ravel’s career
was nearing its premature end, the
group of composers known as Les
Six were emerging in Paris. There
are writings on the context in
which Ibert, Milhaud, Honegger
and the others worked, of a depth
to be expected from the author
of The Harlequin Years: Nichols
speaks of the influence of Cocteau,
the Ballets Russes, Picasso and,
again, Stravinsky. There is also
an interesting snippet on how
Les Six nearly became Les Sept –
Milhaud’s wife thought that Alexis
Roland-Manuel ought to join as
his approach to composition was
much like theirs.
Nichols says that the young
composers of the early 1920s

Is it possible that
Berlioz wrote his
Symphonie fantastique
while high on opium?
were “questioning… the old
assumptions of what it was to be
French”. We learn that Milhaud’s
ballet Le Boeuf sur le toît, which
most people who know it think
was named after the cabaret bar
in Paris, was in fact named after a
Brazilian song the composer had
collected while in South America;
the bar, now in an art deco palace
in the 8th arrondissement, was in
fact named after the tune.
As the chronology moves on
to Pierre Boulez (who Nichols
knew), it passes through the man
whom history will probably come
to regard as the most significant
French composer since Ravel,
Olivier Messiaen. The author
interviewed him in 1975, and the
composer, noted for his complex
and intensely serious works,
corrected him when he asserted
that Messiaen might consider the
music of Les Six “frivolous”: he
did not. For anyone interested
in French music, this book is the
perfect companion. For those
acquiring the interest, it is a
comprehensive primer, written
by an absolute master.

10

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Theatre

‘It’s reflecting the darkest corners of humanity’
As a new version of ‘trauma porn’ novel A Little Life hits the stage, its cast – led by Happy Valley’s James Norton – prepare to bare all

I

f ever a play called for trigger
warnings, it’s the adaptation of
Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life.
Nudity, violence, sexual and emotional abuse, self-harm... you name
it, it’s there between the covers of
the American author’s 720-page
Booker-shortlisted novel. Ever
since it was published in 2015, the
book has been dividing readers
between those who consider it a
masterpiece and those who believe
it takes the suffering of its central
character to the level of “trauma
porn”. Now, the great Belgian stage
director Ivo van Hove has reinvented it as theatre – originally
in Dutch, now for the first time in
English – and London audiences
are about to feel its full force.
A Little Life is the story of four
male friends who share an intense

closeness that is centred around the
quiet, beautiful Jude. He is suffering
from excruciating pain in his legs
that he does not explain. As Jude,
van Hove has cast James Norton,
the 37-year-old star of Grantchester,
McMafia and War & Peace, who
arrives trailing clouds of glory from
the recent fiery finale of Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley on BBC One.
Norton is ready for whatever van
Hove’s production throws at him,
including its naked sex scenes – but
are we?
“There’s still a block when it
comes to male nudity, about the
penis, and what it looks like, and its
size and its shape – and all these
things of which we as a culture are
still very wary,” says Norton. “We’re
scared of the penis. Men, I think,
we’re far more obsessed with it.

‘As a
culture,
we’re still
very
scared of
the penis’

I mean, women I’ve asked are like,
‘I don’t care, you know, it’s just a
penis, whatever’.”
Around Norton, van Hove has
assembled a cast of experienced
stage actors who have also been in
some of the biggest shows on television. Luke Thompson, 34, is best
known as Benedict, the artistic
spare-to-the-heir in the hit Regency
romance Bridgerton. Omari Douglas, 28, delivered one of the all-timegreat exit lines in Russell T Davies’s
Aids drama It’s a Sin, as his character escaped his family’s plans to
pack him off to Nigeria to “cure”
him of his homosexuality – “And if
you need to forward any mail, I’ll
be staying at 23 P--- Off Avenue,
London W F---.” Zach Wyatt, 25,
plays the warrior mage Syndril in
the prequel to Netflix’s fantasy
drama The Witcher: Blood Origin.
On the day I catch up with the
actors, Norton is the last to appear.
I bump into Douglas walking up to
the rehearsal studio; Wyatt has just
woken up – he came into the studio’s kitchen to meditate then fell
asleep on the sofa; Thompson
arrives and starts washing up dirty
mugs. All three happily squash
themselves onto the sofa together
before Norton emerges from
rehearsals and plonks himself in an
armchair beside them.
The actors are fully aware that
van Hove’s willingness to confront the most extreme parts of
Yanagihara’s book may provoke
strong reactions. A review of the
Dutch-language staging in New
York noted that a third of the
audience did not return after the
interval. How would the London
cast feel if they began to notice
empty seats during a performance?
“It’s gonna happen,” says Douglas.
“I think we’d be naive to be
annoyed by something like that.
If you make that personal choice
to come and sit with this material, you also have the right to
get up and go… It’s reflecting
the darke st corners of
humanity.”
Norton would only ask
that if people do leave early,
they relinquish their
right to judge the play
as a whole. In New York,
he says, “I did hear stories
of people buying tickets
and publicly walking out
before any of the darkness happened, just as an
act of protest because
they find the book so
objectionable.” New York,
he notes, is “a more divided,
opinionated city, but to protest
against a piece of art which you

h
Four play: the
cast of A Little
Life includes,
from left, Zach
Wyatt, James
Norton, Omari
Douglas and
Luke Thompson
j
‘None of it is
gratuitous’:
below, Norton in
rehearsal as Jude

don’t like at the expense of other
people’s enjoyment and the performers? Don’t do that.”
Are the actors concerned that
playing such demanding material
for nearly four hours every night
over a long run will take its toll on
them, too? Thompson – who plays
Willem, Jude’s closest friend and
protector – insists that “even when
you’re doing the most dark or difficult play, you can always find lightness and joy in it”.
“Our rehearsal room is a really
light, fun place,” adds Norton.
“Horror-movie sets are often the
most fun because you’re trying to
offset the dark. Sometimes in our
industry there’s a sort of sacred
thing attributed to the Method: that
Daniel Day-Lewis thing where
people assume that in order to do
a good performance you need to
carry [the darkness home] with
you. I sense that the four of us are
from the school of: let’s draw a line.
Do good work, but at the point at
which it infringes upon your life,
and your friendships and relationships – so that you can’t go home
and you can’t sleep and you can’t
function in society – stop.”
Although Norton has appeared
naked “very briefly” on stage
before, he says the level of nudity in
A Little Life is “new for me, and
massively exposing”. What makes it
harder right now “is that we’re
rehearsing, so you’re in a very light
room – it’s like being in your workplace and just getting naked, which
is very weird. In the theatre, even
though there’s going to be a hundred
times more people, it will be much
easier, with the lights [down] and
the atmosphere, it will just make
sense. Whereas now, because
you’re stopping and starting, it feels
more exposing.
“But in general, it’s a bit like the
violence in this piece and the selfharm: none of it is gratuitous –
the nudity is so justified and so
necessary in order to find the
ultimate shame this man is
put through. Without it, the
story and the piece would
suffer; none of it is gratuitous. And I feel it. We did one
of the scenes recently and,
my god, it’s shaming, you
know, I lie on the floor naked
being kicked and spat on – and
it doesn’t get much more
degrading than that. I’m there,
there’s no journey I have to
go on. It’s really embarrassing and horrible.”
Thompson, who also
has experience of stage
nudity – “But nothing
like this!” – insists that sex

CHARLIE GRAY

By Chris HARVEY

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

scenes “can be really rich, condensed
moments... a lot of the juice of a
relationship is in those moments”.
He identifies one of the more
graphic sex scenes in A Little Life,
between Jude and Willem, as “a
synthesis of their relationship and
the whole crux, the whole problem
with it. That’s why it’s so important
to see it. And I think it would be a
bit polite, a bit awkward and maybe
quite British to say, ‘Oh, we don’t
have to see that, we get the idea’.
But I think part of the journey of the
book is like, ‘No, we’re going to sit
with this. And not apologise for it’.”
We talk about Yanagihara’s recent
insistence, in a discussion about
whether a woman is entitled to
write about specifically male experiences, including those of gay
men, that “I have the right to write
about whatever I want”. Does that
hold true for all writers? “Well,
inherently they can,” says Douglas,
who plays the painter J B, the only
openly queer man in the group.
“I don’t think that should be taken
away from anyone in any sense...
In terms of the bigger conversation about who has ownership
over what kinds of stories, it’s so
nuanced. I don’t think it’s a matter
of people not being allowed to write
their stories. I think the problem is
that very often you don’t get to see
those stories being told by the people who go through that experience. It’s just an imbalance.”
In the case of A Little Life, Norton
adds, “as a man, I feel f------ seen”.

Douglas agrees: “It’s about men
grappling with the full spectrum of
their emotions, their masculinity,
their affections.” The men in the
play, says Wyatt, “are allowed to be
emotional and delicate and fragile.
All of those things that I think you
brush over with this stereotype of
what a man is supposed to be.”
Wyatt – who plays Malcolm, the
architect son of a wealthy banker –
was born in Hertfordshire but has
American and Canadian roots, with
an accent to match. That, say the
others, makes him a useful resource
in correcting them if their own
accents slip. This leads into a discussion of the recent row about Emma
Corrin’s more-than-two-year-old
remark about wanting to leave
behind the role of Princess Diana in
The Crown to appear in something
gritty with “an outrageous accent”.
In the aftermath of that row, Norton
found himself named in a list of
posh actors who had taken roles
outside their “lived experience” for
his portrayal of murderer Tommy
Lee Royce in Happy Valley. “I grew
up in Yorkshire, and I had a Yorkshire accent. I just happened to lose
it when I was 13,” he protests. “But
this country is obsessed with class.”
Norton, by the way, would like to
put to bed one misconception
about that Happy Valley finale. The
filmmakers did not shoot multiple
endings, as some people have suggested. “It’s nonsense,” he says.
“Everyone’s assuming that the BBC
is pumping millions of pounds into
filming alternative endings just to
keep it secret and to procrastinate,

11

which would be absurd, considering we’re always up against the
clock, we’re always up against
budget. No one has time to do that.
Sally wrote one ending. It changed
over the course of development.
One thing which is true is that for a
long time only Sarah [Lancashire]
and I had that ending, we were
the only ones given the script. And I
know that a lot of the other cast
never actually knew how it ended.”
As for who should be allowed to
play which roles, Norton admits
that there is a conversation among

‘I lie on the floor
naked, being kicked
and spat on. It’s
really embarrassing’
actors about it, in which one common viewpoint is that “You go, ‘I
want to transform, I don’t want to
play versions of myself over and
over again’. If we are talking about
[putting on] an accent as a line
which we need to draw, then it does
start to feel constrictive. But it’s a
very complicated conversation.”
Wyatt suggests that “the awareness is growing of what heritage
might mean to someone or what a
real life experience might mean to
someone in that situation, and an
awareness of perhaps the years
in which it hasn’t been the case,

minstrelling and all these things...
that maybe there’s a person that
knows a little bit more about it than
I do, or can at least offer a different
perspective”.
“This is an industry that has been
‘gate-kept’ by a type of person with a
specific point of view,” says Douglas,
who by playing a gay man in It’s a
Sin was fulfilling Russell T Davies’s
stated intention to cast only queer
actors in the main roles. “This ‘awareness’ has come from minorities,
whether that be [related to] heritage,
ethnicity, sexuality, disability. When
those people see their own stories,
they absolutely have the right to
say: ‘I believe in authenticity.’ ”
Norton compares it to when
women first began to take on
female theatre roles in the 17th century. “It’s like the guy at the Globe
who’s saying, ‘Wait, I was always
playing the female part. And now
women are playing it’. And getting
upset by that, as opposed to thinking ‘I get to play opposite a woman.
And that’s great’.”
But does the boundary line keep
expanding ever outwards? “I think
it is moving and expanding,” says
Norton, noting the RSC’s decision
to cast a disabled actor, Arthur
Hughes, in the title role of Richard
III last year, after which the outgoing artistic director Gregory
Doran suggested that only disabled
actors should take the role in future,
comparing it to how white actors
would no longer think of Othello as
a part for them.
“Maybe the line will never
stop shifting,” says Thompson,

“ because, historically, there’s
always been anxiety and question
and debate about what can and
should be represented. The whole
point of theatre has always been a
little bit like: there’s a provocation,
what do we think about it? Since
the Greeks, it’s been: what do we
think about this thing? What do we
think about a guy sacrificing a child
to win a war?”
A Little Life is sure to be seen by
some as a provocation. But the
closeness it has already forged
among its cast is tangible. “As far as
our relationships go,” Norton says,
“I said this to my partner [the actress
Imogen Poots] because we met on a
play, five years ago, and now we’re
engaged. And we often remember
that first moment because it was a
two-hander, and I said to her on the
first day, I think over coffee, ‘We’re
gonna go deep’, as a straight metaphor, ‘we’re going to have to go
somewhere together’. And then we
end up getting married!
“But I said that to you guys, as
well,” he says, turning to the others.
“The amount of trust… you just go
through something.” Will the bonds
they’ve forged last as long as the
friendships in the book? “We’ll see
each other in our 70s,” Norton
begins, “and we will look each
other in the eye and go…” They look
at each other and laugh.
‘A Little Life’ runs at Richmond
Theatre, London TW9, Tues-Mar 18,
then at the Harold Pinter Theatre,
London SW1, Mar 25-Jun 18. Tickets:
020 7206 1174; atgtickets.com

12

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Books

I

notebook, the better; it reminds
me: they’re just books. There are
more important things going on in
the world” – and relaxes by repairing guitars and mandolins.
One thing that does unite all his
disparate novels is the sardonic
humour, which is equally apparent
in his conversation. “I’m pathologically ironic, so it happens naturally.
But it’s also true that once you have
a reader laughing, then you can
f--- with them – they’re disarmed.
And you can make people laugh
about things and feel bad about
laughing, which is great.” He is
unrepentant about the deliberately
stereotyped white redneck characters in The Trees, a response to the

‘I get asked what my
novels have to do with
black people. Updike
was never asked that’

THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

think my career has been a war
of attrition,” Percival Everett
says with a grin. When The
Trees, his 22nd novel, was shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize,
it was a belated vindication for a
ludicrously underrated author who
has spent 40 years writing books
that people told him he shouldn’t
be writing.
He has had to fight against the
notion that an African-American
author should always be writing
about African-American characters. When he retold the myth of
Dionysus in his novel Frenzy
(1997), one editor at his publisher’s
asked: “What does this have to do
with black people?”
“Why was that question asked of
me but not John Updike? Although
maybe it would have been good to
ask John Updike ‘What does this
have to do with black people?’
sometimes,” Everett adds with what
is a near-constant chuckle.
He has also defied the publishers
and agents who warned him that he
wouldn’t build up a readership if he
kept making each novel completely
different from its predecessor. His
books range from a picaresque pastiching of the plots of a succession
of Sidney Poitier movies (I Am Not
Sidney Poitier), to a novel narrated
by a super-intelligent baby (Glyph),
to a straight, no-tricks, modern-day
Western (Wounded).
Does he find it stimulating to
strike out into new territory every
time without knowing whether he
can do it? “It must be, because
without good reason I keep doing
it. Writing the same kind of book
over and over – it’s like playing
improvisational jazz, knowing all
the notes. But – for lack of a better
term – it’s become a part of my
shtick: what will the next one be?
To say all my books are different is
in fact a way of pigeonholing me
after all.”
Those of us who have long
known that whatever an Everett
novel may be about, it is likely to
blow our socks off, have been
delighted by the recognition
afforded The Trees – a manic murder mystery in which a serial killer
seeks vengeance for the real-life
lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-yearold African-American boy, in 1955.
Everett’s new novel, Dr No, is,
naturally, something different: a
more lighthearted romp filled with
nods to the Bond books – there’s a
death ray, a submarine, and a billionaire plotting to break into Fort
Knox, with the aid of a brilliant
mathematician (soon revealed to be
the baby from Glyph, grown up).
It’s a delicious book with the nar-

‘

‘Authenticity? The
whole idea is bull’
Booker-nominated novelist Percival Everett on
genre-hopping, race and his Bond-less ‘Dr No’
By Jake KERRIDGE

rative drive of a crime caper, but
also laced with abstruse mathematical and philosophical jokes and
speculations. “For me, writing novels is just an excuse to study stuff. I
read a lot of things I didn’t understand, which is how I like it.” He
brings out the poetry of maths, I say.
“I think math is beautiful. Bertrand
Russell and Alfred North Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica is so
beautiful to me that I have often
wanted to teach it as a literary text.”
Everett, 66, has a day job as Distinguished Professor of English at
the University of Southern California. He is talking to me from the studio at the back of his house in Los
Angeles, where he writes his novels
in glittery, unicorn-bedecked children’s notebooks – “the sillier the

serial stereotyping of black characters by white writers. “I love that it
makes some people uncomfortable.
Good – how does it feel?”
There is a disturbingly funny
sequence in the new book in which
the black narrator unwittingly gets
the better of a racist cop who pulls
him over while driving. Aged 19,
Everett once spent a day in jail for
refusing to give his name to a cop
on the lookout for a bank robber
who resembled him in no aspect
except skin colour. “I was very
lucky that he didn’t shoot me,
because I was obviously a threat,”
he deadpans.
However, racism is far from
central to Dr No, which has baffled
some reviewers: “I wish that Dr No
zeroed in on America’s racial environment with the same comic
intensity [as The Trees],” complained the Washington Post’s critic.
“There are people who don’t recognise their own racism,” Everett
responds. “This is not something
that this reviewer would have said
about a white writer: ‘They missed
the suburbs this time, they didn’t
hit the suburbs the way they did in
their last novel!’ But – someone
read the book, that’s a nice thing.”
The movement towards fiction
becoming the province of “authentic voices” irritates him: “The whole
idea of authenticity is such bulls---.
Who will be the authenticity
police?” He would not be bothered,
in principle, by a white author
writing a novel about, say, Emmett

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

13
To order any of these
books from the
Telegraph, visit
books.telegraph.co.uk
or call 0844 871 1514

g Licence to
thrill: Percival
Everett’s new
novel Dr No riffs
on the 1962
James Bond film

‘Dr No’ (Influx,
£9.99) is out on
Thurs
Till – “everything’s in the execution
and, not even in the intention, but
[in] what the work does in the world”.
The straitjacketing of writers is
nothing new: it’s been more than
20 years since Everett’s novel
Erasure (2001) – probably his masterpiece – explored the travails of
an African-American novelist who
is repeatedly told his work “isn’t
black enough”.
It drew on frustrations Everett
has experienced since he was a
book-hungry teenager. “All the
books by black people – they were
all in the ‘black fiction’ section –
were either about the antebellum
South and slavery, or a very specific
sliver of the inner city, and I as a

middle-class black kid – my grandfather was a doctor, my father, my
uncles were doctors – where was
my story in all of this? I didn’t exist.”
Even his name wrong-foots people. One of his future colleagues at
USC, on being told that a Percival
Everett was joining the faculty,
grumbled: “The last thing we need
is another 50-year-old Brit.” A colleague who knew Everett replied:
“I’ll have you know he’s a black
cowboy!” Everett did indeed once
own a ranch on the edge of the
Moreno Valley desert, but he gave it
up after he and his wife, the
novelist Danzy Senna, started a
family: “Instead of training horses,
I’ve been trained by children.”

Now his life has changed again
following the Booker boost to his
profile, but he praises the approach
of his small-scale publishers in the
UK and US. “They appreciate that
any talk about marketing [makes]
my eyes glaze over, and there’s a
real respect for the fact that I generally don’t want to do any touring.”
Why not? “I have better things to
do. Someone’s gotta walk my dogs.”
Does he regret being under the
Booker spotlight? “No, I’m very
good at saying no to things. And it’s
great to have the readers. The truth
is there are 75 or 100 books that
could have been on that list in any
given week and I feel very lucky to
be included in that group.”

POEM OF THE WEEK
Gaius Valerius Catullus, translated by Isobel Williams

Charming and catty, sophisticated
and crude, a cynic and a hopeless
romantic, Catullus (c84-54BC) is
every poet’s favourite Latin lover.
His untitled poems are referred
to by numbers; the one beginning
“Let us live and love” (“vivamus…
atque amemus”) ranks alongside
Chanel and Mambo as one of the
all-time great erotic No 5s. It
exists in thousands of English
versions. So why would anyone
bother to write a new one?
To my mind, it’s like jazz.
For centuries, translators have
approached Catullus’s hits the
way jazz musicians approach the
standards, breaking the tune to
remake it, not merely playing it
but playing around with it; the
artistry is in the deviations.
And few versions are as deviant
as Isobel Williams’s Shibari
Carmina (2021); its metaphors use
everything from food banks to the
BDSM practice of tying people up
with ropes as parallels for Ancient
Rome’s often strange ideas of
romantic bonds.
In “Song of Snogs”, her version
of “Catullus 5”, love meets
accountancy – just as it does in
the original. A paraphrase of
Catullus’s opening lines: “Let’s
live and love, my Lesbia [probably
a pseudonym for the poet’s lover
Clodia], and rate stern old men’s
gossip at a penny.” Later, the poet
cries: “Give me a thousand kisses,

then a hundred, then another
thousand...” and so on, so that
those old men can never tally up
these signs of love. Williams’s
“swell the/ Abacus with kisses”
captures the sentiment perfectly.
In a witty response to the
original’s nonsense-arithmetic,
here random strings of Roman
numerals turn into the kisses
themselves (“xxx”) or even
onomatopoeia (“MMM”, indeed!).
Tristram Fane Saunders

SONG OF SNOGS
Open out to life and love with me,
Clodia, and we’ll set the regulators’
Hisses at the lowest rate of interest
Suns go down and dawns will come
But once our pinprick light is out
The night will never be for more
than sleeping
I love doing this, let’s
Take a long position, swell the
Abacus with kisses
M Cxxx
MM CxCx Cxxx
MMM CxCx Cxxx CxCx
And when we’ve made a killing kissing
Shake the totals to lose count,
Take them beyond the kiss
inspector’s reach

From ‘Catullus: Shibari Carmina’
(Carcanet, £12.99)

14

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Books

BRIDGEMAN

g An expression
of liberty: View
from the Cascade
Terrace, Chiswick
(c1742) by George
Lambert and
William Hogarth

‘Enough to tempt one to be buried alive’
From lavish mausoleums to giant stone pineapples: the mad architectural brilliance of British gardens
By Iona McL AREN

GEORGIAN ARCADIA
by Roger White
352pp, Yale, T £35 (0844 871 1514),
RRP £40
ÌÌÌÌÌ
“Nothing is so displeasing to the eye as
temples, pagodas,
columns, pyramids,
Gothic banque ting
houses and modern
ruins, jumbled into a few acres,
with that confusion and want of
taste, which overloaded opulence
often disgorges round a modern
villa.” So, Canute-like, in 1778, the
antiquary William Hutchinson
tried to hold back the tide of English gardening’s most successful
export: informal parkland, artfully
dotted with structures.
Europe was still bristling with
rigid parterres when, around 1760,
rumour spread of England’s “novel
concept of the garden as a circuit
around which people progressed,
punctuated at intervals by buildings, places to rest and admire the
view, to socialise, to read, to contemplate, occasionally to think
higher thoughts,” as Roger White
puts it in his delightful new book,
Georgian Arcadia. Eighteenthcentury English writers drew a tart
parallel between the overbearing

formality of French gardening and
political absolutism; English gardens, went the boast, were an
expression of liberty. And whereas
Ancien Regime gardens were
gilded playgrounds, walled off from
the real world, English ones looked
outward, blurring at the edges into
a well-managed estate. As Horace
Walpole said of William Kent, the
informal movement’s Prometheus:
“He leaped the fence, and saw that
all nature was a garden. He felt the
delicious contrast of hill and valley
changing imperceptibly into each
other.” Eventually, even the French
grudgingly adopted the English
fashion, although in revenge they
devised the ingenious wind-up of
calling it “Le Goût Anglo-Chinois”,
ascribing the ancient discovery of
informal gardening to the Chinese. “Choosing to be fundamentally obliged to more remote rivals,
they deny us half the merit,”
huffed Walpole.
Georgian Arcadia is an architectural history of the weird and wild
buildings designed for these gardens, everything from pyramidal
pigsties and an “Islamic-style deerpen” (with three lofty minarets) to
grottoes for hermits and dairies for
duchesses. If there is another book
that can make the gigantic stone
pineapple at Dunmore Park in Stirlingshire seem workaday, I have yet

to read it.
White, now 72, may know more
about these buildings than anyone
alive, having specialised, while Secretary of the Georgian Group from
1984 to 1991, in trying to stop them
falling down. This book thus represents the life’s work of a doyen, and
it shows. White convinces utterly in
his thesis that garden buildings,
while being the first to go to wrack
and ruin when economy bites, are
often “finer and more architecturally perfect” than the great houses
to which they are satellite. Take
Kent’s Worcester Lodge at Badminton, which inspires White to semierotic paroxysms over its “long
curving arms [that] reach out from
the lodge as if to embrace the visitor”. One gets the impression that
White is unsure whether he wants
to have sex with these perfect
lodges, or eat them (Rushton Hall’s
are made of “ginger-coloured ironstone with pale creamy trimmings”); possibly both.
He is never too reverential, however, to notice the ridiculous: Brizlee Tower looks like a “Gothick
rocket ship” but is, on closer
inspection, just “a very fancy carapace for a spiral staircase”; Keppel’s
Column at Wentworth Woodhouse, being unusually fat for the
Tuscan order, “looks rather like a
giant factory chimney”; an orna-

mental bridge for livestock over a
rivulet at Kew is essentially a
“bovine overpass”.
The section on the difficulty of
getting a reliable hermit for your
grotto is worth the price of the book
alone. “Owners advertised for them
in newspapers, sometimes offering
enticing amounts of money, but the
conditions of service were rarely
very congenial, since they might for
example include not cutting nails
or hair for months or indeed years,
and the successful applicants could
be unreliable, often sloping off to
the local pub.” At Badminton, the
solution was to send a footman to
pose in rags, contemplatively fondling a skull, when guests were
shown around the hermitage. A
more radical solution was the
automaton hermit at Hawkstone,
Shropshire, which uttered words
courtesy of a hidden gardener. The
first known paid hermit, in the
employ of Queen Caroline, was a
poet called, wonderfully, Stephen
Duck.
It is axiomatic that the only thing
architects hate more than budgets
is people. The dream commission is
a building paid for by a plutocrat, in
which no one (or no one thought to
matter) will live. White’s subject is
therefore ingenious: this entire

book is composed entirely of such
no-expense-spared, so-what-if-itleaks fantasies.
The best commission of all was
the mausoleum. “As its occupants
were inevitably dead, their requirements were very straightforward,
and therefore the architect had
the kind of freedom to design
‘ideal’ structures that appealed
especially to classicists.” Vanbrugh,
an anti-clericalist who wished to
turn the clock back to the days
before “priestcraft got poor Carcasses into their keeping”, persuaded the owners of Castle
Howard to be buried not in church,
but in their park. Their mausoleum
(eventually designed by Hawksmoor) is, says White, “pure architecture” – or, as Horace Walpole
put it, “enough to tempt one to be
buried alive”. Through avant-garde
leaps like this, garden architecture
became the unnoticed intellectual
laboratory for so many things: the
Greek Revival, canals, glass-andiron frame conservatories, even
central heating.
White is at pains to stress that
this is not just a book about “follies”,
a term that has “come to be used
very promiscuously”. As far as he is
concerned, a building only qualifies
as a folly if it is “eccentric for the
sake of it”, such as the giant stone
obelisk with a hole in it at Wentworth Woodhouse, built to win an
after-dinner bet that a coach could
indeed be driven through “the eye
of a needle”. England’s most prolific
builder of follies was “Mad” Jack
Fuller, who insisted on being
interred in his pyramidal mausoleum, sitting at a table holding a
bottle of claret, awaiting the Second
Coming. Ireland’s largest folly is in
Co Westmeath, where the irascible
Earl of Belvedere built a 60ft “Jealous Wall” simply to block his view
of his despised brother’s house.
Sometimes there was a political
message. The 11th Duke of Norfolk,
a known eccentric with a horror
of baths, filled Cumbria with eyecatchers named after battles in
America’s War of Independence,
which he supported; at Stowe, the
satirical Temple of Modern Virtue
is a faux ruin, housing a headless
statue, said to represent the
famously greedy prime minister
Sir Robert Walpole. But White is
cheerfully robust about the usual
motive for garden buildings: “Keeping up with the Joneses”. A more
insecure writer would have obfuscated with academese, but White is
of the old school: opinionated, confident, amusing. He can really write
– and for those who can’t read,
there are plenty of pictures.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

15

A new variant of Covid lit
This inventive novel begins like a memoir of lockdown, before
swerving into sci-fi – but is it still too soon for pandemic fiction?
By Lucy SCHOLES

TO BATTERSEA PARK
by Philip Hensher
304pp, Fourth Estate, T £14.99 (0844
871 1514), RRP £16.99, ebook £9.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
“The State gave an order.
We obeyed the order.
Everyone obeyed the
order. And the world
changed.” This declaration opens Philip Hensher’s To Battersea Park, one of the
more interesting and innovative
works of fiction to emerge from the
pandemic thus far.
It is March 2020, during the UK’s
first lockdown, and the narrator is a
writer who lives with his husband
on a leafy residential road in
south London. This first of the
book’s four sections is an act of
extended scene-setting, full of the
kind of wonderfully pre ci s e
descriptions that always give Hensher’s writing its rich texture.
Streets so eerily quiet, for example,
that “you could almost reach out
and squeeze the silence in the air,
like a saturated sponge”.
It also reads more like memoir
than fiction. The narrator bears a
striking resemblance to Hensher
himself. Struggling to write, he
reads Ivy Compton-Burnett novels
instead – “starting a new one as
soon as I had finished the last, like
lighting each cigarette from the
butt of the one before” (such a brilliant image) – bakes elaborate
cakes, seethes with an irrational
hatred of the joggers who clog the
footpaths of local parks (remember
those days?), and watches the comings and goings of his neighbours
on the street. Each household is its
own little crucible of drama, both
real and imaginary.
The book’s second part then
marks a shift in perspective, as the
focus splinters to encompass a
wider cast of characters. These
include a builder and his wife and
children, the narrator’s elderly parents, and a journalist who travels to
interview a famous writer too old to
master Zoom.
The narrative begins to build
towards its climax – a masterful interlacing of multiple storylines, fever dreams and
flights of fantasy – but first
comes what might b e a
prophecy. In part one, the narrator starts to play around with
ideas: “What would happen if
the shortages and sickness and
silences grew worse, what a day
in that world would be like [...]
the idea had come to me, the
dream of a journey.” Part three

To order any of
these books
from the
Telegraph, visit
books.
telegraph.
co.uk or call
0844 871 1514

j ‘What would
happen if the
shortages and
sickness and
silences grew
worse?’: Philip
Hensher

tells this story. It’s a self-contained
fictional piece set on the Kent coast
in the aftermath of a fifth wave – of
a variant so deadly, it’s resulted in
widespread societal breakdown –
as a man attempts to walk from
Whitstable to Ramsgate, where he
hopes to be reunited with his lover.
This foray into the postapocalyptic is a departure for Hensher,
until now best known for playing
with the structures and conceits of
big, baggy 19th-century novels. His
Booker longlisted The Mulberry
Empire (2002) was an impressive
work of pastiche and parody – and,
indeed, the title of the third part of
To Battersea Park, “ The Hero
Undertakes a Journey Away From
His Environment”, cheekily evokes
a rambling picaresque of old.
He’s in great command here,
though; a sense of unease permeates the text, and one can almost
smell fear in the air. What with the
coastal scenery and the threat of
marauding mobs mysteriously
referred to as “the life-to-come
boys”, I couldn’t help but be
reminded of Kay Dick’s recently
republished 1977 dystopia They.
Hensher’s subject matter is relatively heavy throughout – and some
readers might feel, with the government’s handling of lockdown
still in the headlines, that it’s too
soon to read a novel which throws
them back into that time with such
claustrophobic realism – but he
manipulates his material in spry
and unexpected ways. As the
famous author being interviewed
in part one points out, to focus on
a novel’s subject and/or the life
of the author is myopic. “Causes”
and “consequences” are what he’s
interested in; the machinery
behind the scenes that drives any
narrative forward.
This is what Hensher lays bare
here. He’s upfront about the various literary devices he uses, and
titles the book’s four parts accordingly: “The Iterative Mood” sets the
scene, “Free Indirect Style” sees
those all-important “chains of causality ” click into action, and
“Entrelacement” ties everything
together.
This is more than just stylistic showmanship, though. To
Battersea Park is a different
kind of state-of-the-nation
novel; an exercise in
imagination and empathy born out of a
moment of collective crisis during
which we all
needed those
things more than
ever before.

16

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Books

How was this
allowed to happen?

g Narrow escape:
survivors of the
1982 Sir Galahad
attack come
ashore in life
rafts, while the
vessel burns in
the distance

A veteran exposes the idiotic generals who left our
troops in the Falklands at the mercy of the enemy

TOO THIN FOR A SHROUD
by Crispin Black
224pp, Gibson Square, T £16.99 (0844
871 1514), RRP £20, ebook £12.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
The bloodiest event of
the Falklands War for
the Briti sh was the
bombing of the Royal
Fleet Auxiliary ship Sir
Galahad on June 8 1982,
while crowded with soldiers from
the Welsh Guards. The men were
awaiting orders to land, the operation to be carried out under cover of
darkness. Contrary to what the
officers had expected, Sir Galahad
went into Port Pleasant, by Fitzroy,
and no order to disembark was
given. Crispin Black, then a lieutenant in the Guards who later retired
in the rank of colonel, writes in Too
Thin for a Shroud that the ship’s
exact position was not obvious until
dawn broke. On a crystal-clear day,
he could see hills around Port Stanley filled with enemy soldiers. And,
he says, “if we could see them, we
were sure they could see us”.
Black subtitles his book “the last
untold story of the Falklands War”:
the tale is of the series of apparently
idiotic decisions taken by senior
commanders that led to the Welsh
Guards on Sir Galahad and its sister
ship Tristram, moored next to it,
becoming sitting ducks. The ships
were engulfed by a fireball that

killed 56 men and injured another
150: the best-known survivor was
Simon Weston, burnt beyond recognition. Black, who served in the
Ministry of Defence later in his
career, has found documents in
archives that suggest a trail of culpability for the losses. Some are to
remain closed for another 40 years,
which only raises further suspicions of a cover-up: some former
soldiers are angry that Black should
write such a book, preferring, it
seems, uncomfortable truths to
remain buried.
The author quotes Admiral
Sandy Woodward, a senior officer
in the Task Force sent to liberate
the islands, saying of the disaster
that “I could have stopped it.
Should have stopped it. Didn’t stop
it.” For Black, blame lies with General Jeremy Moore, who was “a few
hundred yards away”, and should
have seen the vulnerability of so
many men exposed in this way, and
intervened. He also castigates
Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, the
commander of the Fleet, who was,

‘I could have stopped
it,’ says one admiral.
‘Should have stopped
it. Didn’t stop it.’

ALAMY

By Simon HEFFER

however, issuing orders from
London and not from the South
Atlantic. At first, no order was given
to leave the ship, and then, when it
was finally given, the landing ramp
malfunctioned and the men had to
scramble down nets to get out,
which delayed matters by another
hour. It was then, without the airraid warning that ought to have
been given, that the ships were
attacked, after Argentinian soldiers
had tipped off their commanders
about the target.
Black describes in explicit detail
how he experienced the attack,
and how three times in 45 minutes
he was convinced he would die.

Once he and his comrades were
taken to safety, the process began –
of which this book is the culmination – of working out what actually
happened, and why. In trying to discover the truth, Black and his fellow
Welsh Guardsmen have encountered hostility from other branches
of the service – notably, he says, the
Royal Marines – who have preferred to blame the regiment for the
disaster that befell it. One accusation – which the narrative proves is
absurd – is that the Welsh Guards
turned up seven hours late at Fitzroy, and thus were the authors of
their own misfortune.
In the archives at Kew, Black

found an account by the captain of
Galahad that substantiates his own:
delays in loading the ship caused
352 Welsh Guardsmen to be cooped
up for seven hours before it even
sailed. Yet the official report of what
happened, stemming from an
inquiry held later in 1982 that was
dominated by the Navy, remains
heavily redacted. Black calls it “a
Whitehall fig leaf ” and says there
should, instead, have been a courtmartial: something he says should
still be convened, even at this
remove, because of the suffering of
the men and their families, and the
need to know the truth. He does
not mince his words: a “recently
released trove of documents of the
Board of Inquiry raise a mountain
of questions about the probity of
Admiral Fieldhouse and General
Moore”. The main problem appears
to have been that no single officer
was in charge, and he claims that
Moore, having been given the job,
was “out of his depth”.
Black’s book is a repository of
damning facts, based not mainly on
recollections but on documents.
He has been let down badly by his
publisher, whose editing appears to
have been nonexistent. But he
raises some painful questions that
ought to be given an answer, whoever’s posthumous reputation is
soiled. Our Armed Forces have
enough problems as it is without
being forbidden to learn from their
own mistakes.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

17
To order any of these
books from the
Telegraph, visit
books.telegraph.co.uk
or call 0844 871 1514

PAPERBACKS
READ THIS WEEK

Mary Whitehouse’s worst nightmare
This outrageously entertaining 1960s romp is awash with orgies, drugs, violence – and written in Polari
By Jake KERRIDGE
THE RESTLESS REPUBLIC
by Anna Keay
482pp, William Collins, £9.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
What was it like living during
Britain’s brief flirtation with
republicanism? Keay’s history
summons the topsy-turvy world
of the 1650s Interregnum in
matchless style and detail.
MAN-EATING TYPEWRITER
by Richard Milward

WIKTOR SZYMANOWICZ/FUTURE PUBLISHING VIA GETTY IMAGES

542pp, White Rabbit, T £19.99 (0844
871 1514), RRP£25, ebook £14.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
In the unlikely event
that Mary Whitehouse
has been condemned to
a place of eternal punishment, the Devil could do
worse to torment her
than give her a personal library that
contains only copies of this novel.
Richard Milward’s Man-Eating
Typewriter is a disgusting and
depraved book, awash with orgies,
drug abuse, bestiality (one scene
gives appalling new meaning to the
expression “he’s sleeping with the
fishes”), casual violence, crossdressing, castration, comically
unconventional sexual assaults,
and lovingly described abnormal
bowel movements. I thoroughly
enjoyed it.
It is purportedly the autobiography, written in the dying months
of the 1960s, of Raymond Novak,
a fashion designer and would-be
“anarcho-supercommunist” guru.
The framing device has Raymond
sending the book to his publisher in
instalments over the course of 276
days, at the end of which it will be
released to capitalise on some spectacular but unspecified crime that
he is planning: “a fantabulosa crime
that will revolt the mond... My nom

will be on the oyster-levers of every
daffy jittery civvy as news breaks of
this dazzling atrocity.”
As that passage indicates, Raymond narrates his story in Polari,
the underground slang once used
by gay men to keep their conversations secret from prying ears,
and later brought into the mainstream by the 1960s radio comedy
Round the Horne (and what a shame
the shining star of that show, Kenneth Williams, is not still with us to
read the audiobook). I prescribe
readers unfamiliar with Polari a
course of Round the Horne before
they broach the novel: no glossary
is included.
Raymond is the son of a French
prostitute (or “perverse tartlet”, as
he puts it), known professionally as
Madame Ovary; he chooses to
believe that his unidentified father
is the surrealist André Breton. During the Second World War, his
mother flees with him to London;
she continues to practise her profession, and Raymond remains an
only child, as his mother is a prolific
auto-abortionist (an amusing mixup with one of her discarded
foetuses will mark the point where
less robust readers lay this book
permanently aside, I suspect).
As Raymond grows up, he
embraces his ambiguous sexuality
(“I... considered myself beebee, gender-slippery, AC/DC, multipolysexual”), gets adopted by a homophobic
aristocrat, and eventually joins the

i ‘A fantabulosa crime’: Milward
spoofs A Clockwork Orange

Merchant Navy, where he fits right
in (“the first rating I ogled was
joshed-up to the nobbas in lippy, a
drogle and bolshy-red stilettos”).
The book is a burlesque bildungsroman with exaggeratedly dram a t i c re v e r s a l s o f f o r t u n e ;
highlights include a pastiche of
Chaucer and a parody of the Pavlovian conditioning scenes in A Clockwork Orange. Belly laughs abound,
not least from the numerous footnotes appended by the baffled publisher as he tries to make sense both
of the author’s state of mind and of
his exotic prose.
To describe the novel as Myra
Breckenridge meets The Ginger
Man with set-pieces orchestrated
by Tom Sharpe might give you
some sense of it. As for the prose,

the Polari certainly makes the sentences snap and sparkle, and I suspect Milward has devised a lot of
the vocabulary himself. “Fascist
dicktittler” and “spermatazoomer”
sound less like authentic slang than
like the offspring of Finnegans
Wake.
It all seems a long way from Milward’s debut novel, Apples (2007),
written when he was 19; although
that had its offbeat moments (a section narrated by a butterfly, and so
on), it was hailed primarily as a grittily realistic portrait of teenagers
having sex and taking drugs in
Middlesbrough, and became a
bestseller. Since then, his novels
have become increasingly surreal
and correspondingly less popular:
this one, his first in a decade, deserves to be boosted by a prize or
two. As with all episodic novels,
some episodes are more absorbing
than others, and Milward’s determination to be outlandish is subject to
the law of diminishing returns: you
become inured to the scatology and
squalor. But it proves impossible to
tear yourself away from Raymond’s
company.
He may have been driven to
sociopathy by a brutal world, but
Raymond retains a bizarre, and
appealing, innocence and buoyancy. How could you not be
entranced by a character
whose motto is: “We’re all in the
gutter but some of us are ogling the
sparkles”?

BACK IN THE DAY
by Melvyn Bragg
416pp, Sceptre, £10.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Affectingly tracing his ascent from
working-class Wigton to
Hampstead intelligentsia, Bragg’s
first memoir is a homage to his
boyhood Cumbria – and to the
golden era of social mobility which
gave him a leg up.

RUN, ROSE, RUN
by Dolly Parton
448pp, Penguin, £8.99
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Parton adds to her 11 Grammys and
branded theme park with this
romantic thriller, written with
James Patterson in shades of
deepest purple. Great literature?
Naw, but it’s a root’n toot’n romp.

18

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Sport
p.21

Films
p.22

Radio
p.38

19

TV& Radio
PICK OF
THE
WEEK

Wild Isles
Sunday, BBC One
In what may be his
final on-location
appearance, David
Attenborough brings us
his first landmark series
on the British Isles.
p.27

Paula
Monday, Channel 4
As famous for her love
affairs as her bed-based
interviews on The Big
Breakfast, Paula Yates
was impossible
to ignore. This
documentary recounts
her story, 23 years after
her tragic death.
p.28

Ted Lasso
Wednesday, Apple TV+
We’re heading back to
AFC Richmond for
television’s most
heartwarming sitcom.
It may have 11 Emmys
in its trophy cabinet,
but this third series will
be Ted Lasso’s last.
p.32

A Town Called
Malice
Thursday, Sky Max
Look out for the Paul
Weller cameo in this
swaggering 1980s-set
drama about a crime
family trying to
recapture former glory.
p.35

Comic Relief 2023

YOUR
COMPLETE
SEVEN-DAY
LISTINGS

Friday, BBC One
David Tennant
presents a buffet of
comedy treats in
exchange for charitable
donations. Blackadder
fans would be wise not
to miss this.
p.36

20

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television

‘We shouldn’t stop
making cop shows’
Actress (and policeman’s daughter) Sian Brooke on
why her tough new drama is more than ‘copaganda’
By Chris BENNION

her strength, especially when it
comes to ancient sectarian grudges.
“Sometimes you can know too
much, you can dissect it too much,
and that can stop any action. People
get cynical. But Grace is on a mission to fix people.” Needless to say,
she has mixed results in her first
few weeks on the beat.
Heroic coppers, however, are not
exactly de rigueur. Despite Yvette
Cooper stating that the country
needs a Sgt Catherine Cawood – the
no-nonsense heroine of Happy Valley – in every town, public faith in
the real-life police force has never
been lower. Years of scandal, compounded by the heinous crimes of
officers Wayne Couzens and David

Carrick (not to mention the many
serving officers currently under
investigation) has left British policing in disarray. Certain TV dramas,
including the hugely popular
Happy Valley, have been accused of
“copaganda” – polishing the police’s
reputation at a time when they least
deserve it. In the US, the makers of
the award-winning Brooklyn 99, a
knockabout sitcom set in the NYPD,
shelved several episodes after the
murder of George Floyd, and stated
that the show would start to address
police brutality.
As the daughter of a principled
police officer, Brooke says the current situation makes her “sad”, but
that it shouldn’t put viewers off

ANDREW CROWLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH AT THE GOODENOUGH HOTEL

I

saw a lot of my dad in her – his
goodness, his strong moral
compass.” Sian Brooke isn’t
the first actress in recent months
to play a tough female copper
in a prime-time BBC drama, but
she’s likely the first who can base
the character on her own father.
Brooke’s dad, from New Quay in
west Wales, was a police officer
in Lichfield, Staffordshire, where
Brooke grew up. “His job was part
of the fabric of my life,” she says,
“the uniform, the calls in the middle of the night, the responsibility.”
Brooke Sr will likely see a lot that
he recognises in his daughter’s latest drama, Blue Lights. Written by
Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson –
the former Panorama journalists
who wrote The Salisbury Poisonings
and The Undeclared War – it is a
strenuously researched, stomachchurning immersion into frontline
policing in Belfast, as we follow a
gaggle of green recruits cutting
their teeth in a city still infused
with sectarianism and, seemingly, a
distrust of the police. Brooke’s PC
Grace Ellis stands out – she’s a
40-year-old former social worker
from England, learning the ropes
alongside fresh-faced 20-year-olds.
Brooke, 43, has seen her TV
career blossom since her eye-catching, shape-shifting 2017 performance as the malevolent Eurus
Holmes in Sherlock. Since then she
has starred in a string of high-profile dramas, including Doctor Foster, Guilt and The Moorside.
Previously she had been better
known for a series of acclaimed
stage performances, from Shakespeare (Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia) to
working with Mike Leigh, David
Hare and Neil LaBute. Her highest
profile job to date was a brief but
spectacular appearance in HBO’s
Game of Thrones spin-off House of
the Dragon. Her Queen Aemma
Arryn died in episode one, horrifically, thanks to a “medieval” caesarean section, causing some viewers
to suggest the show, as with Game
of Thrones, had a “problem” with
women. “It showed the brutality of
that world,” says Brooke, “you can’t
say that sort of thing didn’t exist.
Women in those societies were
baby-making machines.”
The world of Blue Lights is also
brutal, as the trainee coppers get
spat at, punched and bottled,
receive death threats, and come up
hard against criminals who know
the law far better than they do.
Grace’s armour against all this is
her idealism, a belief that she can
heal fractured lives and, ambitiously, a fractured city. Brooke
believes that Grace’s “naivety” is

‘

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

21

SPORT ON TV

g ‘It doesn’t

glorify anything’:
Brooke stars in
Blue Lights as PC
Grace Ellis, left

j ‘Women were

baby-making
machines’: as
Queen Aemma
Arryn, with
Paddy Considine
in House of the
Dragon, below

from watching cop shows. “Declan
a n d A d a m h ave re s e a rc h e d
Blue Lights to the hilt and I think
it’s important to reflect reality, to
hold a mirror up to where we are –
good or bad. With the recent negative events in the police force, I
don’t think people should stop
making police dramas because of
them. Because then that’s some
form of censorship, isn’t it? Blue
Lights doesn’t glorify anything.
“I was also in the Stephen Lawrence drama,” she adds, referring to
the 2021 ITV series Stephen, “and
that reflected the whole investigation. There have always been police
dramas that show the negatives.”
In Stephen, Brooke played perhaps the most demonised police
officer in recent history – the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, one of
several real-life roles she has taken.
While she never met Dick – “I was
intrigued about what she might
think” – she did work closely with
her real-life counterparts when
portraying NHS whistleblower
Julie Bailey in The Cure and Karen
Matthews’s neighbour Natalie
Brown in The Moorside. Bailey,
also from Staffordshire, went on to
become a friend. All three of those
dramas showed Brooke’s unerring
ability to sink into a role.
Steven Moffat, who worked with
Brooke on Sherlock, calls her a
“chameleon”. For Eurus Holmes
she had to play several “characters”
without the audience twigging
that all of them were the same person. “Sian can be more or less anyone,” Moffat says. “She’s very
pretty, but she’s got a face that can
become any face – with no disguise,
no prosthetics. It’s an immense
technical challenge and not every
brilliant actor can do it.” Sherlock’s
casting agent, Kate Rhodes James,
called Brooke an “undiscovered
powerhouse”.
Although Brooke is often
cast as steely, uncompromising characters, in person she has a distinctly
laid-back demeanour,
chatting on a hotel
sofa, her dachshund
Ziggy curled up at her
fe et . Bro oke, who
lives in the capital
w i t h h e r t h e a t re
director husband, Bill
Buckhurst, and their
two young boys,
laughs at the idea that
people might see her
as tough: “I’m such a
soppy, sensitive sort,”

‘We need
to hold a
mirror up
to where
we are
– good
or bad’

she says. “Maybe people think I’m a
cow…”
Shortly before I spoke to Brooke,
the actress Jessica Barden had
upbraided The Crown’s Emma Corrin for saying that she wanted to
star in a “gritty” Scottish film with
“an outrageous accent”. Barden
called this out as “working-class
tourism” by a “posh actor”. Does
Brooke, from a working-class background herself, believe that certain
actors should shy away from certain roles? “My honest opinion is
that we’re actors,” she says. “I’m a
pretender. That’s my job. Why
should people be limited by where
they’re from? Whether I should
play someone who is really posh or
vice versa?”
Brooke highlights the fact that
access to the industry is increasingly difficult thanks to rising costs
and a lack of opportunity. “If it was
more equal in terms of allowing
people from less well-off backgrounds to get into the art, it would
be less of an issue. And then everybody could play whatever blooming part they want. No, there’s no
Us versus Them. I just wish there
was a level playing field.”
Brooke’s own career, she points
out, might not have happened
today. The local arts centre where
she watched a friend perform, and
first decided she wanted to become
an actress, has been knocked down
and turned into flats. “The centre
was a hub of activity, local bands,
everything. I did every blimming
show I could – youth theatre, musicals, Shakespeare in the Park. And
they bulldozed it.”
Brooke wanted to attend Rada,
but didn’t believe she’d get in: “It’s
the Royal Academy.” It was watching Maxine Peake, then an aspiring
working-class actress, in a 1996 episode of The South Bank Show which
followed her as she auditioned for a
place at Rada, that gave Brooke the
confidence that she should apply.
“ Every thing has got more
expensive now and I don’t
think the arts is as appreciated as it should be. It needs
to be funded, it needs to be
cherished.”
It ’s a p ersuasive
argument from an acting powerhouse
whose stature grows
with every performance. The copper’s
daughter from Lichfield is doing her old
man proud.
‘Blue Lights’ begins on
BBC One and iPlayer
later this month

i Le Crunch: Owen Farrell and England take on France at Twickenham Sat, ITV1, 4.15pm

RUGBY UNION

GOLF

HORSE RACING

England v France
Sat, ITV1, 4.15pm

Players Championship
Sat, Sky Golf, 2pm

Cheltenham Festival
Tue, ITV1, 1pm

The Six Nations is finely
poised ahead of the
penultimate round, with
four teams in the mix for
the title. The highlight:
England and France at
Twickenham for the
annual grudge match,
aka Le Crunch (kick-off
4.45pm). Steve
Borthwick’s side have
steadied the ship since
they lost on the opening
weekend, while France
responded to their defeat
to Ireland with a solid win
over the Scots. As for
Scotland, they will rue
missing the opportunity
for a first Six Nations
Grand Slam, but, should
they overcome Ireland on
Sunday at Murrayfield,
they’ll be favourites for
the championship (BBC
One, 2.15pm). Easier said
than done, perhaps.
Unbeaten Ireland have
secured their status as the
best team in the world
and will be desperate for
a first clean sweep since
2018. Earlier on Saturday,
Italy take on Wales in
Rome in – effectively –
the Wooden Spoon match
(ITV1, 1.25pm). Despite
their results, Italy have
been excellent. Wales
not so much.

TPC Sawgrass in Florida
hosts the final two rounds
of the “fifth Major”. Look
out for the Island Green
on the 17th hole, which
provides one of the most
dramatic vistas in golf.
LIV rebel Cameron Smith
is the first defending
champion not injured to
miss the tournament.

The jewel of the
British racing calendar
commences on Tuesday
with the Supreme
Novices’ Hurdle Race
(1.30pm). Four days of
racing are headlined
by the usual clutch of
Grade I races, including
the Champion Hurdle and
Queen Mother Champion
Chase, before the action
climaxes on Friday with
the Gold Cup (3.30pm).
Trail-blazing jockey
Rachael Blackmore
returns to defend her
Gold Cup crown after
a blistering 2022.

FOOTBALL
i Man Utd goalkeeper Mary
Earps Sun, BBC Two, 12.15pm

CRICKET
Bangladesh v England
Sun, Sky Cricket, 8.30am
The second T20 of this
three-match series
between Bangladesh and
England takes place at
Sher-e-Bangla National
Cricket Stadium in
Mirpur. The third and
final match is on Tuesday,
also in Mirpur (8.30am).

i Rachael Blackmore (c) returns to Cheltenham Tue, ITV1, 1pm

Real Madrid v Liverpool
Weds, BT Sport 1, 7pm
Liverpool take a threegoal deficit to the
Bernabéu for the second
leg of this Champions
League last-16 tie with
Real Madrid (kick-off
8pm). In the first leg,
they scored twice in the
opening 15 minutes, but
capitulated disastrously.
On Tuesday, Manchester
City host RB Leipzig at
the Etihad after a
disappointing 1-1 draw in
the first leg (BT Sport 1,
7pm). Manchester United
and Arsenal are in Europa
League action on
Thursday; they face Real
Betis (BT Sport 1, 5pm)
and Sporting Lisbon
(BT Sport 2, 7.15pm)
respectively in their
last-16 second-leg games.
West Ham United host
AEK Larnaca in the
Europa Conference
League (BT Sport 3,
7.30pm). In the Women’s
Super League, Chelsea
face leaders Manchester
United on Sunday in a
crucial title clash (BBC
Two, 12.15pm). Jack Taylor

22

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Films on TV
Saturday

THE IPCRESS FILE
1965
BBC Two, 1.30pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ

This adaptation of Len
Deighton’s novel is one of
the best spy movies of the
era, not just because of
Michael Caine’s fine turn
as counter-espionage agent

Sunday

Harry Palmer, but because
it has more brains than any
Bond film. Advertised as
“The Thinking Man’s
Goldfinger”, it captures the
moral ambivalence of
espionage, asking whether
national security can ever
be worth a life. Stay tuned
for the sequel, Funeral in
Berlin, at 4.05pm.

THE THIRD MAN
1949, b/w
BBC Two, 2.40pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Carol Reed confirmed his
position as one of Britain’s
greatest directors with
this film noir, written by
Graham Greene, which
oozes atmosphere and

Monday

BANDITS
2001
Film4, 9pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Join Bruce Willis and Billy
Bob Thornton’s pair of
fugitives on an American
cross-country race from the
law in this witty comedydrama; the duo rob banks

Tuesday

SPEED
1994
ITV4, 9pm
Director Jan de Bont has
never topped this explosive
cult classic, which became
a runaway box-office smash.
It sees an extortionist
bomber (played perfectly

THE LUSTY MEN
1952, b/w
5Action, 1.55pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Nicholas Ray’s strikingly
shot Western (largely
helped along by
cinematographer Lee
Garmes) is a fizzing tale
of wounded pride set amid

Thursday

HAMPSTEAD
2017
Film4, 6.55pm
From director Joel Hopkins
comes this twee British
romcom, inspired by the
true story of Harry
Hallowes, a homeless man
awarded the deed to a plot

BOSTON STRANGLER
2023
Disney+
In the mid-1960s, the US
was gripped by the case of
the Boston Strangler:
a serial killer who murdered
13 women throughout the
city. This dramatisation
stars Keira Knightley as

A gender role-reversal
aside, this sequel to the 1978
classic covers much the
same ground – but with less
style. This time it’s a
clean-cut guy (Maxwell

crackles with suspense.
American writer Holly
Martin (Joseph Cotten) is
offered a new job in Vienna
by his friend Harry (Orson
Welles). But upon his
arrival, Holly is told that
Harry is dead. Refusing to
accept this, he begins his
own investigation. An
all-time British classic.

Loretta McLaughlin,
the reporter who first
connected the murders
and broke the story in the
Boston Record American.
Along with fellow journalist
Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), she
pushed back against sexism
to give due diligence to the
story – eventually leading to
Albert DeSalvo’s arrest.

MR POPPER’S
PENGUINS
2011
ITV1, 3.10pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Jim Carrey baffles as much
as he amuses in this surreal
comedy, based on the
classic book, about a
property shark forced to act

AN IRISH GOODBYE
2022
BBC One, 10.40pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
On a farm in rural Ireland,
estranged brothers
Turlough (Seamus O’Hara)
and Lorcan (James Martin)
are forced to reunite
following the death of their

by Dennis Hopper) rig
a packed school bus to
explode if it drops below
50 miles per hour. It is left
to Los Angeles Swat agent
Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves)
to board the runaway
vehicle and attempt to save
the day, with the particular
help of one plucky
passenger (Sandra Bullock).

the overtly macho world
of US rodeos. Jeff McCloud
(Robert Mitchum) quits
the sport after an injury
and gets a job on a ranch;
but after striking up
a friendship with
Wes (Arthur Kennedy),
who then heads into the
ring, McCloud is lured
back to compete.

ÌÌÌÌÌ

Friday

ÌÌÌÌÌ

to fund their dreams of
future legitimacy.
Unfortunately, things get
more complicated when
they meet Kate Wheeler
(Cate Blanchett). Blanchett,
who is widely tipped to win
the Best Actress at Sunday
night’s Oscars for Tár, also
stars in Charlotte Gray
before and Elizabeth after.

ÌÌÌÌÌ

Wednesday

GREASE 2
1982
Channel 5, 2.35pm

RED
2010
Sky Showcase, 9pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
After surviving an assault
from a squad of hit men,
retired CIA agent Frank
Moses (Bruce Willis)
reassembles his old team
to get his own back. They’re

TRADING PLACES
1983
Film4, 11.20pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Eddie Murphy and Dan
Aykroyd star in this
uproariously funny
morality tale in which the
lives of Aykroyd’s upperclass commodities broker

of land on the fringe of
Hampstead Heath in 2007
after he’d squatted there for
20 years. Brendan Gleeson
is Hallowes and Diane
Keaton is Emily, a (fictional)
widow and north London
resident who – implausibly,
as is often the romcom way
– falls for him and fights the
powers who want him gone.

THE MAN WITH THE
GOLDEN GUN
1974
ITV4, 9pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Christopher Lee steals the
show as Scaramanga in this
classic Bond film, director
Guy Hamilton’s last. Roger
Moore’s 007 must pursue

THE MAGICIAN’S
ELEPHANT
2023
Netflix
This animated adventure
from director Wendy
Rogers is sure to delight the
whole family. When young
orphan Peter (voiced by
Noah Jupe) is told by

Caulfield) trying to prove
his “bad boy” credentials to
impress the leader of the
Pink Ladies (Michelle
Pfeiffer). The over-the-top
musical numbers, including
Cool Rider, Reproduction
and Score Tonight, will stick
like glue. Judy Garland’s
daughter Lorna Luft plays
Pink Lady Paulette.

as a surrogate parent to
some penguins, that are
a sort-of inheritance from
his father. Providing you
don’t expect serious
sophistication, this is an
enjoyable family friendly
film sustained by occasional
glimpses of brilliance from
Carrey. The late, great
Angela Lansbury co-stars.

mother. But repairing their
relationship soon takes an
unlikely course when they
discover an unfulfilled
bucket list she left behind.
Wonderfully moving yet
darkly funny, in much the
same vein as the delightful
The Banshees of Inisherin.
Directed by Tom Berkeley
and Ross White.

made up of Joe (Morgan
Freeman), Marvin (John
Malkovich) and Victoria
(Helen Mirren). Can they
uncover a conspiracy that
threatens their lives? Robert
Schwentke’s action-packed
yarn did big numbers at
the box office, but despite
its great cast there are very
few laughs here.

and Murphy’s penniless
bum unexpectedly
intertwine. Pulling the
strings are the Dukes (Ralph
Bellamy and Don Ameche),
corrupt millionaires whose
social experiment blows up
in their faces in satisfying
style. Jamie Lee Curtis and
Denholm Elliott provide
spirited support.

him with the help of
sidekick Mary Goodnight
(Britt Ekland); they head off
to the villain’s island to
prevent him harnessing the
power of the Sun. Moore
and Lee’s duels are
crackling; this certainly isn’t
the pinnacle of Bond, but
it’s entertaining, and Lulu’s
theme song is great.

a fortune teller that a magic
elephant will help him to
find his lost sister, he sets
out on a mission to track
them both down. But first,
he must complete a series
of challenges intended to
prove his moral compass.
A fantastical tale of
believing in the impossible,
stunningly designed.

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

CALENDAR GIRLS
2003
Channel 5, 4.55pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
This gentle, eye-moistening
comedy, which has been
turned into a successful
West End play, is based on
the true story of a group of
Women’s Institute members

in Yorkshire who raised
money for Leukaemia
Research by posing naked
for a calendar. Helen
Mirren, Julie Walters
and Celia Imrie are among
the women stripping off
(well, more or less: certain
body parts are always
obscured by tea-cups,
cream buns, plant pots, etc).

THE TOWERING
INFERNO
1974
ITV4, 3.45pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
When this booming disaster
flick, led by Paul Newman,
Steve McQueen and Faye
Dunaway, opened in
cinemas, its simple plot –

DON’T LOOK NOW
1973
BBC Two, 11.15pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Nicolas Roeg’s thrilling
adaptation of Daphne du
Maurier’s 1971 short story
follows a married couple
(Julie Christie and Donald
Sutherland, both

ÌÌÌÌÌ
This superb drama is Clint
Eastwood’s 35th film as
director. It suits him
and Tom Hanks
(who delivers one

ÌÌÌÌÌ
David Lynch’s tear-jerker
stars John Hurt as the
deformed 19th-century
Londoner Joseph Merrick,
who was exhibited in a freak
show as “The Elephant

ÌÌÌÌÌ
Oliver Stone’s biographical
depiction of the classic
1960s rock band was
controversial among
both fans and critics, who
felt it sanitised the difficult

ÌÌÌÌÌ
Based on John Banville’s
2014 novel The Black-Eyed
Blonde (penned under the
pseudonym Benjamin
Black), this brooding
neo-noir thriller stars Liam

ÌÌÌÌÌ
This inspired film, about
an overnight London-toGlasgow postal train, was
made by the General Post
Office Film Unit during the

about the consumption
by fire of a San Francisco
skyscraper – thrilled
audiences. Subsequent
real-world events, however,
such as the destruction of
the World Trade Center in
New York and Grenfell
Tower in London, make its
tense plot more chilling and
proleptic than thrilling.

Neeson as private detective
Philip Marlowe – a fictional
character originally created
by peerless crime writer
Raymond Chandler in The
Big Sleep – who, in 1939 Los
Angeles, is hired to find the
ex-lover of a glamorous
heiress (played by Diane
Kruger). Jessica Lange and
Alan Cumming also star.

British documentary film
movement (1926-46) and
represented a creative peak
for the genre. Its most
celebrated sequence
features music by Benjamin
Britten and the narration of
WH Auden’s poem Night
Mail over shots of racing
train wheels. An intelligent
dose of nostalgia.

MR JONES
2019
BBC Two, 10pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
If you’re still battling Happy
Valley withdrawals, catch
James Norton in this
fascinating biographical
thriller from Agnieszka
Holland. It tells the story of

Gareth Jones, a Welsh
journalist who travelled to
the Soviet Union in 1933 and
uncovered the devastating
scale of the Holodomor,
the Ukrainian famine
which killed millions.
It’s even more resonant
today considering the
horrors being endured by
the nation and its people.

FILM OF THE WEEK
of his best performances
in recent years) down to
the ground. It tells the story
of Chesley Sullenberger,
the all-American hero
airline pilot who brought
down a malfunctioning
passenger jet on the
Hudson River in 2009
with, somehow, no loss
of life. An inspiring tale.

Man” for the public to
marvel at – and mock.
After being rescued by Dr
Frederick Treves (Anthony
Hopkins), Merrick reveals
an intelligent mind, hidden
by his exploiters. Lynch’s
peculiar vision of the
world and an unsentimental
script make for a timelessly
moving drama.

THE DOORS
1991
AMC, 9pm

MARLOWE
2023
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm

NIGHT MAIL
1936, b/w
Talking Pictures TV,
8.35pm

characteristically
mesmerising) as they travel
to Venice following the
death of their daughter.
Once in Italy, they meet
a pair of mysterious sisters
who claim to possess
a sixth sense – before the
couple start experiencing
sightings themselves. It’s
still as spooky today.

SULLY: MIRACLE ON
THE HUDSON
2016
BBC One, 10.40pm

ELEPHANT MAN
1980, b/w
BBC Two, 12.05am

23

i Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison star in the timeless, Oscar-winning musical

MY FAIR LADY
1964
Sunday, Channel 5, 1pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ

personal life (which was
filled with alcohol and
substance abuse) of
frontman Jim Morrison,
and was historically
inaccurate. Val Kilmer plays
Morrison, while Meg Ryan
is his girlfriend Pamela
and Kyle MacLachlan the
band’s keyboardist, Ray.
Billy Idol also stars.

This opulent musical
version of George
Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion delighted
audiences with sparkly
numbers such as On the
Street Where You Live and
I Could Have Danced All
Night. It swept the Oscars,
winning eight awards
including Best Picture,
Best Director and Best
Actor for Rex Harrison,
but there was an outcry
when its star, and cinema
darling, Audrey Hepburn
wasn’t also nominated.

THE 40 YEAR-OLD
VIRGIN
2005
ITV1, 10.45pm
ÌÌÌÌÌ
Nerdy Andy Stitzer (Steve
Carell) is a virgin at 40 in
this buddy comedy from
Judd Apatow. Egged on
by his workmates, Andy

It added to the bubbling
controversy between
Hepburn and Julie
Andrews, who played
Eliza Doolittle on stage
but was passed over for
the film, then went on to
win that year’s Oscar for
Mary Poppins. A photo of
Andrews clutching her
trophy beside Hepburn
became a symbol of their
alleged feud. Whether
any of this year’s
contenders, including
Everything Everywhere All
At Once or All Quiet on the

endures drunken
encounters and painful
chest waxes – which make
it seem better to be chaste
than chased. That is until
he meets Trish (Catherine
Keener). Enjoyable, even if
the film’s one-joke premise
starts to grow tired by the
end. Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen
and Elizabeth Banks co-star.

Western Front, will win
Sunday night’s top prize
in quite a frenzied fashion
remains to be seen. Here,
Harrison is charming as
professor Henry Higgins,
who teaches Hepburn’s
equally delightful
Cockney flower-seller
Eliza how to become
a “lady”, making them
one of cinema’s greatest
couples. For more
Hepburn, Charade – the
classic Parisian caper –
is on Talking Pictures TV
on Monday at 3.10pm.

24

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Saturday 11 March
WHAT TO
WATCH

BBC One
Gogglebox becoming the
UK’s most reliable bout of
jolly TV. The Siddiqui
family from Derby
spearhead this charming
tribute to 10 years of the
Bafta-winning show,
while much-missed posh
tipplers Steph and Dom
make a welcome return.

HUGHIE GREEN:
THE RISE & FALL
OF MR SATURDAY
NIGHT
Channel 5, 9pm

i A four-hour tribute to the soul and pop singer

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD NIGHT
BBC Two, from 8.45pm

A deserved night of
celebration for one of
Britain’s greatest singers.
Dusty Springfield became
the Brits’ voice of the
1960s and 1970s with hits
such as Son of a Preacher
Man and You Don’t Have
to Say You Love Me, her
sensual, bluesy vocals
placing her comfortably
among contemporaries
such as Aretha Franklin
and Dionne Warwick.
She was also one of the
first British artists to
successfully crack the
American market.
First up, in Dusty at
the BBC, we’re treated
to a selection of her
mesmerising live
performances from over
the years, as well as
archive footage from
interviews and music

videos. This is followed
by Definitely Dusty, a
late 1990s documentary
looking at her life and
work with contributions
from the late composer
Burt Bacharach, who she
collaborated with on
songs including A House
is Not a Home, and Elton
John. Then, there’s more
live performance from
the Royal Albert Hall in
1979, where Princess
Margaret was in
attendance. Nicknamed
“The White Queen
of Soul”, Springfield,
who died in 1999, was
considered an all-time
great on both sides of the
Atlantic; this thoughtful
anthology of tributes is
a reminder of just how
many brilliant songs she
had. Poppie Platt

ANT & DEC’S
SATURDAY NIGHT
TAKEAWAY
ITV1, 7pm

The Geordie duo
welcome This Country’s
Daisy May Cooper and
presenter Claudia
Winkleman – fresh from
delighting viewers with
The Piano on Channel 4
– to the studio for gags
and games aplenty.

HARRY WILD
INVESTIGATES
Channel 5, 8pm

There’s yet more death
and digging for retired
professor-turneddetective Harry (Jane
Seymour) when a body
is pulled out of the river
near her local pub. To
crack the case, she goes
undercover with Fergus
(Rohan Nedd) and

i Jenny and Lee celebrate
10 years of Gogglebox

teenage granddaughter
Lola (Rose O’Neill).

GOGGLEBOX:
10 YEAR
ANNIVERSARY
SPECIAL
Channel 4, 9pm

The past decade has seen
Britain divided by Brexit,
Putin’s Russia invade
Ukraine and the Covid-19
pandemic – on a happier
note, it’s also witnessed

Hosting Opportunity
Knocks made Hughie
Green a household name,
but it was his personal
life that ensured he was
never long out of the
tabloids. At his funeral in
1997, his friend Noel
Botham stood up and
announced that Green
had secretly fathered a
child – the late Channel 4
presenter Paula Yates.
This juicy documentary
tracks his world of sneaky

6.00 am Breakfast (S)
10.00 Saturday Kitchen Live
(S)
11.30 Nadiya’s Everyday
Baking (AD) (R) (S)
12.00 Football Focus (S)
1.00 pm News; Weather (S)
1.15 Six Nations Sin Bin (S)
1.45 Bargain Hunt (AD) (R)
(S)
2.30 Money for Nothing (R)
(S)
3.30 Escape to the Country
(AD) (S)
4.30 Final Score (S)
5.20 News (S)
5.35 BBC Regional News;
Weather (S)
5.38 Weather (S)
5.40 Celebrity Mastermind
(S)
6.10 Celebrity Bridge of Lies
(S)
6.55 Michael McIntyre’s The
Wheel (S)

Brochu stars as Marguerite

deals, secrets and dodgy
opinions that eventually
led to his downfall.

7.55 Pointless Celebrities
Comedians play the
general knowledge quiz
(S)

9.30 Not Going Out Toby
organises a sponsored
parachute jump to raise
money for a children’s
ward in his hospital (R)

7.55
8.25
8.55
9.00
9.30
10.00
11.00
12.00
12.30
1.30

5.45
6.45
7.45

8.45 Dusty at the BBC:
Volume 2 A selection of
archive performances by
Dusty Springfield See
What to watch (S)

9.45 Definitely Dusty
An insight into Dusty
Springfield’s personal life
See What to watch (R)
(S)

10.45 Dusty Springfield at
the Royal Albert Hall
A 1979 concert by the
pop singer See What to
watch(S)

11.40 FILM At Any Price
(2012) Drama starring
Dennis Quaid and Zac
Efron (S) 1.25 - 6.00am
News (S)

Variations

Sky Documentaries, 9pm
“In the 1980s, drugs
changed the fabric of the
city,” states an ex-heroin
addict. Dublin’s lucrative
drug trade devastated the
Irish capital, creating
thousands of addicts,
anti-social behaviour and
high unemployment. But
before heroin, there was
ecstasy – this episode
tracks how, as the rave
scene grew, the infamous
party drug gripped
Dublin. PP

7.25

am Hey Duggee (R) (S)
Hey Duggee (R) (S)
Supertato (AD) (R) (S)
Shaun the Sheep (R)
Dennis & Gnasher
Unleashed! (R) (S)
Boy Girl Dog Cat
Mouse Cheese (R) (S)
The Football Academy
(AD) (R) (S)
The Dengineers (R) (S)
Operation Ouch! (R) (S)
Newsround (S)
Blue Peter (R) (S)
Deadly Pole to Pole
(AD) (R) (S)
Life in the Air (AD) (R)
Sort Your Life Out with
Stacey Solomon (R) (S)
Rick Stein’s Cornwall
(AD) (R) (S)
pm Celebrity Best
Home Cook (AD) (R) (S)
FILM The Ipcress File
(1965) ● See Films on
TV, p22 (AD) (S)
Michael Caine: Talking
Pictures (R) (S)
FILM Funeral in Berlin
(1966) ● See Films on
TV, p22 (S)
Flog It! (R) (S)
Celebrity Antiques
Road Trip (R) (S)
Universe Professor Brian
Cox explores a
supermassive black hole
(AD) (R) (S)

10.00 News; Weather (S)
10.20 Match of the Day (S)

BBC Four, 9pm & 9.55pm

DUBLIN NARCOS

7.15

4.05

PARIS POLICE 1905
The stylish French period
crime-caper continues
apace. After Inspector
Jouin (Jérémie Laheurte)
identifies the body found
in the Bois de Boulogne
to be that of a man linked
to an unsolved murder,
Cochefert (Alexandre
Trocki) assigns him to the
case; elsewhere, Fiersi
(Thibaut Evrard), now
a free agent, does some
snooping of his own.

6.30
6.35
6.45
6.55
7.00

3.15

8.45 Casualty Robyn stands
up to Jacob (AD) (S)

i Paris Police 1905: Évelyne

BBC Two

N IRELAND
BBC One: 5.35 - 5.40pm BBC
Newsline; Weather
BBC Two: 6.45pm Food Fest Northern
Ireland 7.15 - 7.45pm B&B by the Sea
UTV: No variations

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 5.35 - 5.40pm Reporting
Scotland; Weather 11.40 Sportscene:
Scottish Cup Highlights 12.25am
Breaking 100 Years of the News 1.10
FILM: At Any Price (2012) 2.55 6.00am BBC News
BBC Scotland: 7.00pm The Seven 7.15
The Edit 7.30 Sportscene: Scottish Cup
Highlights 8.15 Rewind 2000s 8.30 City
Lights 9.00 Ooh the Banter 10.00 The

11.40 Dusty at the BBC See
What to watch (R) (S)
12.40am Becoming
Frida Kahlo (AD) (R) (S)
1.45 Dave (AD) (R) (S)
2.05 FILM A White,
White Day (2019)
Thriller starring Ingvar
Sigurdsson 3.50 6.35am This Is BBC
Two (S)
Stanley Baxter Show 10.30 Best of Only
an Excuse? 11.00 Best of Chewin’ the
Fat 11.30 Burnistoun Tunes In midnight
Close
STV: 3.00 - 4.15am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 11.30am - noon Six Nations
Sin Bin 1.15pm Food Fest Wales 1.45
Truckers: Life on the Road 2.15 Bargain
Hunt 3.00 Escape to the Country 4.00 4.30 Question of Sport 5.35 - 5.40pm
BBC Wales Today; Weather
BBC Two: 6.45 - 7.45pm How to Fix a
Railway
ITV1 Wales: No variations

ITV1
6.00 am CITV
9.25 News (S)
9.30 James Martin’s
Saturday Morning (S)
11.45 Ainsley’s Fantastic
Flavours (S)
12.45 pm James Martin’s
French Adventure (AD)
(R) (S)
1.10 News (S)
1.25 Six Nations Live Italy v
Wales (kick-off 2.15pm).
Jill Douglas presents
coverage of both teams’
fourth match of the
championship, held at
Stadio Olimpico (S)
4.15 Six Nations Live
England v France (kickoff 4.45pm). Mark
Pougatch presents all the
action from the match in
the fourth and
penultimate round of
fixtures, held at
Twickenham (S)
7.00 Ant & Dec’s Saturday
Night Takeaway Daisy
May Cooper is the guest
announcer, Claudia
Winkleman stars in the
first I’m a Celebrity Get
Out of Me Ear of the
series and there is
another episode of
Murder at Bigwig Manor
See What to watch (S)
8.30 Starstruck Olly Murs
hosts as four more teams
of superfans are
transformed into their
music idols before
stepping on to the stage
to sing one of their
biggest hits (S)
9.40 The Jonathan Ross
Show With Maya Jama,
Prue Leith, James
Acaster and Niall Horan
(S)
10.40 News (S)
10.55 Bradley & Barney
Walsh: Breaking Dad
The pair continue their
European adventure in
Poland (AD) (R) (S)

11.25 English Football League
Highlights (S) 1.25am
Shop: Ideal World 3.00
Unwind with ITV (S)
4.15 - 6.00am Love
Your Weekend with Alan
Titchmarsh (R) (S) (SL)

11.00 Cwpwrdd Epic Chris 11.30 Cefn
Gwlad 12.30pm Stori’r Iaith: Sean
Fletcher 1.30 Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol
4.45 Bois y Pizza: Chwe’ Gwlad 5.15
Bwrdd i Dri 5.45 Teulu’r Castell 6.45
Pen/Campwyr 7.15 Newyddion 7.30 Am
Dro! 8.30 Noson Lawen 9.30 Jonathan
10.30 Yn Y Lwp 11.00 - 11.35pm Hyd y
Pwrs

ITV1 REGIONS
No variations

S4C
6.00am Cyw 8.00 Stwnsh Sadwrn
8.00 Siwrne Ni 8.30 Y Brodyr Adrenalini
9.10 Seligo 9.25 Byd Rwtsh Dai Potsh
9.35 Hei Hanes! 10.00 Ty am Ddim

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Channel 4
6.10 am 3rd Rock from the
Sun (AD) (R) (S)
7.00 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
7.50 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
11.20 Four in a Bed (R) (S)
1.55 pm The Supervet:
Puppy Special (AD) (R)
(S)
3.00 Crufts 2023 (S)
6.00 The Dog House (AD) (R)
(S)
6.45 News (S)

7.00 Crufts 2023 Clare
Balding presents
coverage of the Terrier
and Hound groups, plus
the International
Freestyle Heelwork to
Music competition and
Crossbreeds competing
in Scruffts (S)

Channel 5

BBC Four

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

6.00 am Milkshake!
10.00 The Smurfs (S)
10.10 SpongeBob
SquarePants (R) (S)
10.25 Entertainment News
on 5 (S)
10.35 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
11.00 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
11.25 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
11.55 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
12.25 pm FILM Olivia
Newton-John:
Hopelessly Devoted to
You (2018, TVM)
Freeview Premiere.
Biopic starring Delta
Goodrem (S)
2.35 FILM Grease 2 (1982)
Musical starring Michelle
Pfeiffer ● See Films on
TV, p22 (S)
4.55 FILM Calendar Girls
(2003) Comedy drama
starring Helen Mirren
● See Films of on TV,
p22 (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

7.00 pm Brazil with Michael
Palin Michael visits a
“love hotel” in Rio de
Janeiro (S)
8.00 Brazil with Michael
Palin Michael finds a rich
diversity of people in the
Brazilian south (S)
9.00 Paris Police 1905 Jouin
finally identifies the body
found in the park. In
French See What to
watch
9.55 Paris Police 1905
Louise Lépine tries to
persuade her father to
postpone his retirement.
In French See What to
watch
10.50 A Bit of Fry and Laurie
A 94-year-old man
realises what he has been
missing out on his whole
life. Last in the series (S)
11.20 As Time Goes By (S)
11.50 Louis Theroux
Interviews: Dame Judi
Dench Louis meets the
Oscar-winning actress
12.35 am The Capture (S)
1.30 The Capture (S)
2.30 - 3.30am The Capture
(S)

12.00 noon Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
12.30 pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
1.00 Classic Albums (S)
2.00 Best of Landscape
Artist of the Year 2023
(AD) (S)
3.00 I Am Johnny Cash (AD)
(S)
4.45 Genesis: The Last
Domino? (S)
6.00 Guy Garvey: From the
Vaults (S)
7.00 The Hollies: Look
Through Any Window
Profile of the band,
including an interview
with members Graham
Nash, Allan Clarke,
Tony Hicks and
Bobby Elliott and
archive television
performances by the
group from 1963 to 1975
(AD) (S)
9.30 Freddie Mercury: The
Tribute Concert The
1992 concert at
Wembley Stadium
11.20 - 1.05am Queen &
Adam Lambert: The
Show Must Go On

11.00 am How to Train
Your Dragon (2010)
Animated fantasy with
the voice of Jay Baruchel
(AD) (S)
12.55 pm Masters of the
Universe (1987) Fantasy
adventure starring Dolph
Lundgren (S)
3.00 Puss in Boots (2011)
Animated comedy spinoff with the voice of
Antonio Banderas (AD)
(S)
4.45 The Choice (2016)
Romantic drama starring
Benjamin Walker and
Teresa Palmer (S)
6.55 Maid in Manhattan
(2002) Romantic
comedy with Jennifer
Lopez and Ralph Fiennes
(S)
9.00 Saving Private Ryan
(1998) Steven
Spielberg’s Second
World War drama starring
Tom Hanks (S)
12.20 - 2.05am Zombieland
(2009) Comedy horror
starring Woody Harrelson
and Jesse Eisenberg
(AD) (S)

12.00 noon FILM Invisible
Invaders (1959) Sci-fi
adventure starring Philip
Tonge (S)
1.20 pm The Outer Limits
(S)
2.20 Look at Life
2.35 FILM The Weapon
(1956, b/w) Thriller
starring Steve Cochran
(S)
4.15 FILM Ghost Ship (1952,
b/w) Horror starring Hazel
Court (S)
5.45 Look at Life
5.55 FILM Khartoum (1966)
Fact-based historical
adventure starring
Charlton Heston (S)
8.35 FILM Night Mail (1936,
b/w) Documentary by
Harry Watt and Basil
Wright ● See Films on
TV, p22 (S)
9.00 The Four Just Men (S)
9.30 Waking the Dead
Feature-length pilot of
the detective drama
starring Trevor Eve (S)
11.35 - 1.50am FILM Sudden
Fear (1952, b/w) Thriller
starring Joan Crawford
(S)

7.05 News (S)
7.10 Katharine: The
Compassionate
Duchess A look at the life
of the Duchess of Kent
(R) (S)

8.00 Harry Wild Investigates
A body is pulled out of the
river near Harry’s local
pub See What to watch
(S)

9.00 Gogglebox: 10 Year
Anniversary Special
Highlights from the first
10 years of the show,
looking back at how a
nation survived
lockdowns, a revolving
door of prime ministers,
and Ed Balls dancing
Gangnam Style on
Strictly See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.30 FILM Four Weddings
and a Funeral (1994)
Romantic comedy with
Hugh Grant and Andie
MacDowell (AD) (S)
12.45 am FILM Saturday Night
Fever (1977) Drama
starring John Travolta
(S) 2.45 Hollyoaks
Omnibus (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 4.50 Location,
Location, Location (AD)
(R) (S) 5.45 - 6.10am
Jamie: Keep Cooking
and Carry On (AD) (R)
(S) (SL)

9.00 Hughie Green: The Rise
& Fall of Mr Saturday
Night The story of one
the UK’s most
controversial, successful
and ruthless television
personalities, from his
early days as a child star,
to his hosting of talent
show Opportunity
Knocks See What to
watch (S)
10.30 Shocking Truth About
Talent Shows Nicki
Chapman looks at the
most incredible moments
from talent shows (R) (S)

More digital,
satellite
& cable

Kavos Weekender 11.05 Family Guy
12.00 - 1.00am American Dad!

ITV2
FV 6 SKY 118

11.20am Australian Ninja Warrior
12.55pm FILM Smurfs: The Lost Village
(2017) 2.05 FYI Daily 2.10 FILM Smurfs:
The Lost Village (2017) 2.40 FILM Step
Up 2: The Streets (2008) 3.40 FYI Daily
3.45 FILM Step Up 2: The Streets
(2008) 4.45 FILM Ice Age 2: The
Meltdown (2006) 5.45 FYI Daily 5.50
FILM Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
6.30 FILM Shazam! (2019) Comedy
adventure, starring Zachary Levi 7.35
FYI Daily 7.40 FILM Shazam! (2019)
9.00 Love Island: Unseen Bits 10.05

25

1.15 am Entertainment News
on 5 (S) 1.25 The
LeoVegas Live Casino
Show (S) 3.25 World’s
Cutest Ever Baby
Animals (R) (S) 4.55
Paddington Station 24/7
(R) (S) 5.35 - 6.00am
Nick’s Quest (R) (S)
(SL)

More4

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

8.55 am Food Unwrapped
(S)
9.20 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.10 A Place in the Sun (S)
11.10 A Place in the Sun (S)
12.15 pm Location, Location,
Location (S)
1.20 Come Dine with Me (S)
1.55 Come Dine with Me (S)
2.25 Come Dine with Me (S)
2.55 Come Dine with Me (S)
3.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
4.00 Four in a Bed (S)
4.30 Four in a Bed (S)
6.35 Home Greek Home
(AD) (S)
7.40 Japan’s Tsunami:
Caught on Camera (S)
9.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
10.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
11.05 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown (S)
12.10 am 8 Out of 10 Cats
Does Countdown (S)
1.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
2.20 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
3.25 - 3.50am A Place in the
Sun (S)

10.50 am Midsomer Murders
(AD) (S)
12.55 pm Midsomer Murders
(AD) (S)
2.55 Midsomer Murders
(AD) (S)
5.00 Midsomer Murders A
stately home is turned
into a theme park
celebrating the work of
local horror writer Ellis
Bell, but the opening
ceremony is marred by a
murder (AD) (S)
7.00 Midsomer Murders The
bodies of a glamorous
senior citizen and a
distinguished doctor are
found beside a river – but
then the prime suspect is
also discovered dead
(AD) (S)
9.00 Midsomer Murders A
series of mutilated
corpses turn up in the
middle of crop circles,
leading DCI Barnaby to
question his customary
down-to-earth approach.
Murder mystery starring
John Nettles (AD) (S)
11.05 - 1.05am Lewis (AD) (S)

11.35 am Junk and
Disorderly (S)
12.35 pm Made in Britain (AD)
(S)
1.10 ITV Racing: Live from
Sandown Coverage from
Sandown Park (S)
4.00 Extreme E Live The
Desert X-Prix (S)
6.00 Made in Britain (AD) (S)
6.25 Made in Britain (AD) (S)
7.00 Cycling: Paris-Nice
Highlights Action from
stage seven, a 142.9km
route from Nice to Col de
la Couillole (S)
8.00 The Grand Fishing
Adventure Ali and
Bobby attempt to catch a
monster shark over
400lbs (AD) (S)
9.00 English Football
League Highlights
Action from the latest
fixtures (S)
11.00 - 1.35am FILM Lone
Survivor (2013) Factbased Afghanistan war
drama starring Mark
Wahlberg and Taylor
Kitsch. Includes FYI Daily
(AD) (S)

11.10 am The Sopranos (AD)
(R) (S)
12.15 pm The Sopranos (AD)
(R) (S)
1.20 The Affair (AD) (R) (S)
2.25 Ray Donovan (AD) (R)
(S)
3.25 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.45 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
7.55 Succession Kendall
begins to plot a vote of no
confidence against
Logan. Tom questions his
prenup and recruits Greg
for a clandestine task
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Game of Thrones,
Daenerys makes a
difficult decision in
Mereen, Brienne
searches for Sansa, and
Theon remains under
Ramsay’s control (AD)
(R) (S)
10.05 Game of Thrones (AD)
(R) (S)
11.10 Game of Thrones (AD)
(R) (S)
12.15 - 1.25am Game of
Thrones (AD) (R) (S)

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

Young Victoria 9.25 Bruce Springsteen:
In His Own Words 10.55 Trouble in
Amish Paradise 12.00 - 1.05am Young
Victoria

DRAMA

Cricket noon Live EFL 2.30pm The
Players Championship Live 5.00 Live:
SNF. Crystal Palace v Manchester City
(Kick-off 5.30pm) 8.00 The Players
Championship Live 11.30 Sky Sports
News 12.00 Sky Sports News 1.30am
Live NBA Basketball 4.00 - 6.00am Live
Golf

SKY 121

DAVE
FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

noon Storage Hunters UK 1.00pm
World’s Most Dangerous Roads 2.00 Red
Dwarf 3.20 Gavin & Stacey 4.40 Not
Going Out 6.00 Would I Lie to You? 8.00
Not Going Out 9.20 Mock the Week
10.00 Not Going Out Live 10.40 QI XL
11.40 Have I Got a Bit More News for You
12.40 - 2.00am Comedians Giving
Lectures

DISCOVERY
SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

noon Gold Divers 6.00pm Bitchin’ Rides
7.00 Gold Divers 9.00 Gold Rush 10.00
Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch 11.00
Aircrash Confidential 12.00 - 4.00am
The Alaska Triangle

11.00am FILM The Go-Go’s (2020)
1.00pm FILM The Biggest Little Farm
(2018) 2.45 Rise of the Superheroes
5.00 Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest
Documentary 6.50 FILM The Beatles:
Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years
(2016) 9.00 Dublin Narcos See What
to watch 10.00 FILM Fatboy Slim:
Right Here, Right Now. Documentary
about the Big Beach Boutique II free
event in 2002 11.50 - 1.40am FILM The
Amazing Johnathan Documentary
(2019)

SKY NATURE
SKY 124

noon Brazil Untamed 5.00pm David
Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants 8.00
Battle of the Alphas 9.00 Age of the Big
Cats 10.00 Nature’s Mass Attacks
12.00 - 1.00am Battle of the Alphas

SKY MAX
SKY 113

PBS AMERICA
FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

11.55am World After Stonehenge
1.00pm Beautiful Serengeti 1.40 Young
Victoria 2.50 Trouble in Amish Paradise
3.55 World After Stonehenge 8.20

noon Fringe 2.00pm Hawaii Five-0 5.00
Agatha Raisin 7.00 A League of Their
Own Road Trip: Southeast Asia 8.00 The
Oscars 2023: Who Will Win? 9.00 Freddie
Fries Again 10.00 Banshee 11.00 Fantasy
Football League 11.35 Funny Woman
12.35 - 1.00am Road Wars

FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

11.00am The Brokenwood Mysteries
1.00pm Pie in the Sky 4.00 Inspector
George Gently 6.00 The Brokenwood
Mysteries 8.00 Father Brown 9.00 Mrs
Wilson 10.20 Inspector George Gently
12.20 - 4.00am Dancing on the Edge

YESTERDAY
FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon Bangers and Cash 1.00pm
Abandoned Engineering 4.00 Bangers
and Cash 10.00 ’Allo ’Allo! 12.00 1.00am Bangers and Cash

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT
SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

6.00am Sky Sports News 7.00 Good
Morning Sports Fans 7.30 Live Test

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

6.30am ESPN FC 7.00 Serie A 8.00
Scottish Football Extra 8.30 WWE Friday
Night SmackDown 10.00 Live: Early
Kick-Off 10.30 The Football’s On 11.30
Live Premier League 3.00pm BT Sport
Score 5.00 Live Vanarama National
League 7.30 Live: Serie A 9.45 WWE
Friday Night SmackDown 11.15 Serie A
12.15am Ligue 1 1.15 Uefa Champions
League Magazine 1.45 30 for 30 Shorts
2.00 Live World Baseball Classic 5.30 6.00am 30 for 30 Shorts

26

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Sunday 12 March
BBC One

BBC Two

6.00 am Breakfast (S)
7.35 Match of the Day (R) (S)
9.00 Sunday with Laura
Kuenssberg (S)
10.00 Politics England (S)
10.30 Sunday Morning Live
(S)
11.30 Homes Under the
Hammer (R) (S)
12.15 pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
1.00 News; Weather (S)
1.15 Songs of Praise (S)
1.50 The Bidding Room (R)
(S)
2.15 Live Six Nations Rugby
Union Scotland v Ireland
(kick-off 3.00pm). Gabby
Logan presents all the
action from the final
match in the fourth and
penultimate round of
fixtures (S)
5.25 News (S)
5.40 BBC Regional News (S)
5.50 Countryfile (S)

6.35 am Sunday Morning
Stories (R) (S)
7.05 Gardeners’ World (R)
8.05 Countryfile (R) (S)
9.00 Life in a Cottage
Garden with Carol
Klein (AD) (R) (S)
9.30 Saturday Kitchen Best
Bites (S)
11.00 Rick Stein’s Cornwall
(AD) (R) (S)
11.30 The A to Z of TV
Cooking (R) (S)
12.15 pm MOTD Live
Women’s Super League
2.40 FILM The Third Man
(1949, b/w) Thriller
starring Joseph Cotten
● See Films on TV,
p22 (AD) (S)
4.20 Interior Design Masters
with Alan Carr (AD) (R)
(S)
5.20 Flog It! (R) (S)
6.00 Six Nations Highlights
(S)

7.00 Wild Isles New series.
David Attenborough
explores British wildlife
habitats See What to
watch (AD) (S)

7.00 Amazing Hotels: Life
Beyond the Lobby Giles
Coren and Monica Galetti
work at Swinton Estate in
North Yorkshire (AD) (R)
(S)

8.00 Antiques Roadshow
Fiona Bruce presents the
show from the grounds of
Belmont House in Kent
(S)

8.00 Paul Whitehouse: Our
Troubled Rivers How
fertiliser run-off from
farming is affecting the
River Wye See What to
watch (AD) (S)

9.00 The Gold Boyce goes to
Switzerland to learn who
controls an account
laundering Brink’s-Mat
proceeds (AD) (S)

9.00 We Need to Talk About
Cosby How actor and
comedian Bill Cosby’s
reputation evolved in the
1970s (S)

10.00 News (S)
10.25 BBC Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.30 Match of the Day 2 (S)

11.45 The Women’s Football
Show (S) 12.30am Bill
Bailey: Larks in Transit
(R) (S) 1.30 Question of
Sport (R) (S) 2.00 6.00am News (S)

Variations
N IRELAND
BBC One: 10.00 - 10.30am Sunday
Politics Northern Ireland 5.40 - 5.50pm
BBC Newsline; Weather 10.25 BBC
Newsline; Weather 10.30 FILM: An Irish
Goodbye (2022) 10.55 Match of the Day
2 12.10am The Women’s Football Show
12.55 - 1.30am Have I Got News for You
BBC Two: 11.50pm Sunday Politics
Northern Ireland 12.20 - 12.35am The
Chronicles of Mourne UTV: 6.15 6.30pm UTV Live; Weather

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 10.00 - 10.30am The Sunday
Show 5.40 - 5.50pm Reporting
Scotland 10.25 - 10.30 Reporting
Scotland 11.45 Sportscene: Scottish

10.00 FILM Mr Jones (2019)
Freeview Premiere.
Fact-based drama
starring James Norton
● See Films on TV, p22
(S)

11.50 Murder in the Pacific
(AD) (R) (S) 12.35am
Our Flag Means Death
(AD) (R) (S) 1.15 Dave
(AD) (R) (S) 1.40 Sign
Zone (R) (S) (SL) 3.40 6.15am This Is BBC Two
(S)
Cup Highlights 12.30am The Women’s
Football Show 1.15 Bill Bailey: Larks in
Transit 2.15 Question of Sport 2.45 6.00am BBC News BBC Scotland:
7.00pm The Seven 7.15 Sportscene:
Scottish Cup Highlights 8.00 The
Adventure Show 8.30 City Lights 9.00
Tuned In: 100 Years of Scottish
Broadcasting 10.00 Still Game 10.30
Two Doors Down 11.00 Seven Days
midnight Close STV: 6.15 - 6.30pm
STV News 3.50 - 5.05am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 10.00 - 10.30am Politics
Wales 11.30 The Repair Shop 12.30 1.00pm Legends of Welsh Sport: Tanni
Grey-Thompson 5.40 - 5.50 BBC Wales
Today 10.25 - 10.30pm BBC Wales
Today BBC Two: 6.00pm Scrum V Six
Nations Special 7.00 - 8.00pm Back in
Time for Birmingham ITV1 Wales: 6.15 6.30pm ITV News Cymru Wales

ITV1
6.00 am CITV
9.25 News (S)
9.30 Love Your Weekend
with Alan Titchmarsh
(S)
11.25 James Martin’s
Saturday Morning (R)
(S)
1.35 pm News (S)
1.40 The Masked Singer US
(AD) (R) (S)
2.40 You’ve Been Framed!
(R) (S)
3.10 FILM Mr Popper’s
Penguins (2011) Family
comedy starring Jim
Carrey ● See Films on
TV, p22 (AD) (S)
5.00 Celebrity Lingo (R) (S)
6.00 News (S)
6.15 Regional News (S)
6.30 Dancing on Ice See
What to watch (S)

Channel 4
6.10 am FILM Snoopy and
Charlie Brown: The
Peanuts Movie (2015)
Animated comedy with
the voice of Noah
Schnapp (AD) (S)
7.40 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
9.30 Sunday Brunch (S)
12.30 pm The Simpsons (AD)
(R) (S)
1.20 The Dog House (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Crufts 2023 (S)
6.00 News (S)
6.15 The Andrew Neil Show
(S)

7.00 Crufts 2023: Best in
Show Clare Balding
presents live coverage of
the Best in Show final at
the NEC in Birmingham,
plus the judging of the
Utility and Toy Groups.
Last in the series See
What to watch (S)
8.00 Endeavour In the final
episode of the crime
drama a series of death
notices in the Oxford
Mail, each with a cryptic
message, provides clues
to an investigation. Last in
the series See What to
watch (AD) (S)

10.00 News (S)
10.20 Morse and the Last
Endeavour Marking the
end of the line for the
Oxford detective See
What to watch (AD) (S)

11.10 Gallagher Premiership
Rugby Union Highlights
(S) 12.05am Shop: Ideal
World 3.00 The Widow
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 3.50
Unwind with ITV (S)
5.05 - 6.00am Jeremy
Pang’s Asian Kitchen
(AD) (R) (S) (SL)

S4C
6.00am Cyw 8.50 Penblwyddi Cyw
9.00 Iolo: Deifio yn y Barrier Reef 10.00
Y Cosmos 11.00 Dechrau Canu Dechrau
Canmol 12.00 Yr Wythnos 12.30pm
Bwrdd i Dri 1.00 Stori’r Iaith: Lisa Jên
2.00 Sain Ffagan 2.30 Gwesty Aduniad
3.25 Cefn Gwlad 4.25 Clwb Rygbi
Rhyngwladol 6.10 Pobol y Cwm Omnibws
7.15 Newyddion 7.30 Dechrau Canu
Dechrau Canmol 8.00 Ysgoloriaeth Bryn
Terfel Urdd Gobaith Cymru 2023 9.30
Cymry ar Gynfas 10.00 Teulu, Dad a Fi
11.00 - 11.35pm Darn Bach o Hanes

ITV1 REGIONS
No variations
FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

9.00 The Great Pottery
Throw Down: The Final
Siobhán McSweeney
hosts the grand final with
the three remaining
contestants challenged
to create a stacking,
pyramid vase centrepiece
and a sgraffito globe. Last
in the series See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.15 Gogglebox The armchair
critics are back to watch
the best of the week’s
television (AD) (R) (S)

11.15 First Dates (AD) (R) (S)
12.15am Walter
Presents: Inspector
Ricciardi 2.15 Ramsay’s
Kitchen Nightmares
USA (R) (S) (SL) 4.50
Come Dine with Me
(AD) (R) (S) 5.15 6.10am Location,
Location, Location (R)
(S)

More digital,
satellite
& cable
ITV2
FV 6 SKY 118

11.30am Catchphrase 12.15pm Family
Fortunes: Gino’s Best Bits 12.50 In for a
Penny 1.15 FILM Yogi Bear (2010) 2.15
FYI Daily 2.20 FILM Yogi Bear (2010)
2.55 FILM The Lego Batman Movie
(2017) 3.55 FYI Daily 4.00 FILM The
Lego Batman Movie (2017) 5.00 FILM
Matilda (1996) 6.10 FYI Daily 6.15 FILM
Matilda (1996) 6.55 FILM Yes Man
(2008) 7.55 FYI Daily 8.00 FILM Yes
Man (2008) 9.00 Love Island 10.00
Love Island: Aftersun 11.05 Family Guy
12.05 - 1.00am American Dad!

Channel 5

BBC Four

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.45 The Smurfs (S)
10.00 SpongeBob
SquarePants (R) (S)
10.05 Entertainment News
on 5 (S)
10.10 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
10.35 Friends (AD) (R) (S)
11.05 FILM All Creatures
Great and Small (1975)
Veterinary drama starring
Simon Ward (S)
1.00 FILM My Fair Lady
(1964) Oscar-winning
musical starring Audrey
Hepburn and Rex
Harrison ● See Film of
the Week, p22 (S)
4.35 Ant & Dec’s 30
Greatest Moments (S)
6.25 News (S)
6.30 When Holidays Go
Horribly Wrong (R) (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

8.00 22 Kids & Counting
Noel decides to discover
more about his birth
parents. Last in the series
(S)

9.00 Britpop: The Music
That Changed Britain
New series.
Documentary charting
the birth, rise and fall of
the music culture
movement that put the
focus on Britishness,
looking at the fortunes
and rivalries of its bands
See What to watch (S)
10.30 Oasis: Live See What to
watch (R) (S)

11.50 Britain’s Favourite 90s
Hits (R) (S) 1.40am The
LeoVegas Live Casino
Show (S) 4.25 The
Gypsies Next Door (R)
(S) 5.15 - 6.00am
World’s Busiest Train
Stations (R) (S) (SL)

DAVE
FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

4.00pm Room 101 6.00 The Force:
Behind the Line 7.00 Special Ops: Crime
Squad UK 8.00 World’s Most Dangerous
Roads 9.00 Have I Got a Bit More News
for You 10.00 Live at the Apollo 11.00 QI
XL 12.00 - 1.55am Red Dwarf

DISCOVERY
SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

noon Alaska: Homestead Rescue 6.00pm
Dive Wars Australia 7.00 Alaska:
Homestead Rescue 9.00 Dirty Jobs
10.00 Diesel Brothers 11.00 Bitchin’
Rides 12.00 - 4.00am Naked and Afraid

7.00 pm Come Dancing The
North East competes
against the North West in
Glasgow (S)
7.40 BBC Proms Encores (S)
7.55 Nature: The Classical
Collection A collection
of classical pieces
inspired by nature
and the living planet,
including works
by Vivaldi, Reiner,
Vaughan Williams and
Debussy (S)
9.00 Tartuffe Molière’s
comedy Tartuffe, staged
by the Birmingham Rep,
about a wealthy
merchant who makes the
mistake of extending the
hand of hospitality toward
a swindler and hypocrite
(S)
11.10 Clive James: Postcard
from Miami (S)
12.00 am Scandalous! The
Tabloid that Changed
America: Storyville (S)
1.35 Africa with Ade
Adepitan (S)
2.35 - 3.35am Chris
Packham’s Animal
Einsteins (S) (SL)

More4
FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

8.55 am George Clarke’s
Amazing Spaces (AD)
(S)
9.55 Ugly House to Lovely
House with George
Clarke (AD) (S)
11.00 George Clarke’s Old
House, New Home (AD)
(S)
12.00 noon Come Dine with
Me (S)
12.35 pm Come Dine with Me
(S)
1.05 Come Dine with Me (S)
2.40 Four in a Bed (S)
5.20 Come Dine with Me (S)
8.00 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
9.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
10.00 24 Hour Baby Hospital
(AD) (S)
11.05 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.10 am 24 Hours in A&E
(AD) (S)
1.15 24 Hour Baby Hospital
(AD) (S)
2.20 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
3.25 - 3.50am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)
Jackie O (2020) 6.50 Sergio Leone: The
Italian Who Invented America 9.00 FILM
Who Killed the KLF? (2021) 10.50 Dublin
Narcos 11.50 - 1.20am FILM Midnight
Family (2019)

PBS AMERICA
FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

1.55pm Castles: Britain’s Fortified
History 5.15 The Last Day of World War
One 6.20 WWI: The Final Hours 7.20
Pandemic: The Flu That Killed 50 Million
8.40 Betrayed: Surviving an American
Concentration Camp 9.55 The Last Day
of World War One 10.55 WWI: The Final
Hours 12.00 - 1.15am Pandemic: The
Flu That Killed 50 Million

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

SKY NATURE

SKY 121

SKY 124

1.00pm FILM The Real Charlie Chaplin
(2021) 3.10 Quant 5.00 FILM I Am

noon Uptown Otters 1.00pm David
Attenborough’s Galapagos 2.00 Battle

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

27

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

12.00 noon Best of
Landscape Artist of the
Year 2023 (AD) (S)
1.00 pm Andre Rieu:
Welcome to My World
(S)
2.00 Andrea Bocelli: The
Journey (S)
4.00 The Directors The life
and work of David Fincher
(S)
5.00 The Directors A look at
the life and career of
American film-maker
Nancy Meyers (S)
6.00 Cirque du Soleil: Volta
A production based on
extreme sports (S)
8.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
8.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
9.00 Dolly Parton: Song by
Song (AD) (S)
9.25 Dolly Parton: Song by
Song (AD) (S)
9.50 Women Who Rock A
look at the 1990s (S)
11.00 Guy Garvey: From the
Vaults (S)
12.00 - 3.00am Oscars 2023:
The 95th Annual
Academy Awards

11.00 am It Came from
Beneath the Sea (1954,
b/w) Monster adventure
with Kenneth Tobey (S)
12.40 pm Kung Fu Panda 2
(2011) Animated comedy
sequel with the voice of
Jack Black (AD) (S)
2.25 Madagascar: Escape 2
Africa (2008) Animated
comedy with the voice of
Ben Stiller (AD) (S)
4.10 Little Women (2019)
The story of the March
sisters – four young
women, each determined
to live life on her own
terms. Historical drama
starring Saoirse Ronan,
Emma Watson and
Florence Pugh (AD) (S)
6.50 Bend It Like Beckham
(2002) Comedy starring
Parminder Nagra and
Keira Knightley (AD) (S)
9.00 Terminator: Dark Fate
(2019) Sci-fi adventure
starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger (AD) (S)
11.35 - 1.30am Vivarium
(2019) Sci-fi thriller
starring Jesse Eisenberg
and Imogen Poots (S)

11.20 am FILM The Magnetic
Monster (1953, b/w) Scifi horror starring Richard
Carlson (S)
12.55 pm Pollyanna (S)
3.00 FILM The Halfway
House (1943, b/w)
Thriller starring Mervyn
Johns and Glynis Johns
(S)
5.00 The Footage
Detectives The history
of Vernon’s Pools (S)
6.00 The Saint Simon
pursues a co man who
abandoned his girlfriend
and their baby (S)
7.00 FILM The 39 Steps
(1959) Spy thriller based
on John Buchan’s novel,
starring Kenneth More
and James Hayter (S)
8.50 Look at Life
9.00 The Onedin Line James
is fearful of Fogarty’s
expansion (S)
10.00 FILM Hammerhead
(1968) Thriller starring
Vince Edwards (S)
12.00 - 1.35am FILM The
Gamma People (1956,
b/w) Sci-fi drama starring
Paul Douglas

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

11.30 am Downton Abbey
(AD) (S)
12.30 pm Downton Abbey
(AD) (S)
2.00 Downton Abbey (AD)
(S)
3.35 Downton Abbey Carson
suffers a panic attack in
front of the family (AD)
(S)
4.45 Downton Abbey The
wounded officers arrive at
Downton (AD) (S)
6.00 Rosemary & Thyme
The duo find an
abandoned baby (S)
7.00 Rosemary & Thyme A
tennis player is
discovered dead in Spain
(AD) (S)
8.00 Long Lost Family
Missing relatives found
much closer than the
searchers could ever
have imagined (AD) (S)
9.00 Joanna Lumley’s Home
Sweet Home: Travels in
My Own Land (AD) (S)
10.00 Larry Grayson: Shut
That Door! (S)
12.05 - 1.05am Upstairs,
Downstairs (S)

12.00 noon Extreme E Live
The Desert X-Prix (S)
2.00 pm Nine Dart Finishes
(S)
2.05 Made in Britain (AD) (S)
2.35 Minder (AD) (S)
3.45 FILM The Towering
Inferno (1974) Disaster
movie starring Paul
Newman and Steve
McQueen ● See Films
on TV, p22 (S)
7.00 Cycling: Paris-Nice
Highlights (S)
8.00 Gallagher Premiership
Rugby Union Highlights
(S)
9.00 FILM High Plains
Drifter (1973) A
mysterious stranger rids a
town of outlaws, but has a
dark plan in store for its
inhabitants. Western
directed by and starring
Clint Eastwood. With
Verna Bloom and
Marianna Hill (S)
11.15 - 2.50am FILM The
Good, the Bad and the
Ugly (1966) Spaghetti
Western starring Clint
Eastwood (AD) (S)

11.10 am The Affair (AD) (R)
(S)
12.15 pm The Affair (AD) (R)
(S)
1.20 The Affair (AD) (R) (S)
2.25 Ray Donovan (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.45 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
7.50 Succession In the
final episode, Logan
and his team find
themselves in defence
mode as word of the
Waystar takeover bid
spreads (AD) (R) (S)
9.00 The Last of Us Ellie
crosses paths with a
vengeful group of
survivors and draws the
attention of the leader,
while a weakened Joel
faces a new threat (R) (S)
10.05 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
11.10 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
12.15 am In Treatment (R) (S)
12.45 - 2.00am Watchmen
(AD) (R) (S)

of the Alphas 3.00 Africa’s Wild
Roommates: How Animals Share Bed
and Board 4.00 Secret Life of the Koala
6.00 David Attenborough’s Rise of
Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates
8.00 Arctic from Above 9.00 Dehesa:
Forest of the Iberian Lynx 11.00 A Bee’s
Diary 12.00 - 1.00am Arctic from Above

Catherine Cookson’s The Wingless Bird
5.35 Miss Marple 7.55 Inspector Alleyn
Mysteries 10.00 McMafia 11.15 Luther
12.35 - 1.50am Happy Valley

Players Championship Live 10.30 Live
NBA Basketball 12.30 - 6.00am Sky
Sports News

SKY MAX
SKY 113

noon NCIS: New Orleans 4.00pm The
Oscars’ Most Iconic Moments 5.00
Fringe 8.00 SEAL Team 9.00 S.W.A.T
10.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 11.00 A
League of Their Own Road Trip:
Southeast Asia 12.00 - 1.00am The
Force: Manchester

DRAMA
FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

11.40am Call the Midwife 2.20pm

YESTERDAY
FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon Great British Railway Journeys
4.00pm Bangers and Cash 8.00 ’Allo
’Allo! 10.05 Hornby: A Model World
11.05 - 1.05am Bangers and Cash

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT
SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

6.00am Sky Sports News 7.00 Goals on
Sunday 8.00 Goals on Sunday 8.30 Live
International T20 Cricket 1.00pm Live
EFL. Norwich City v Sunderland (Kick-off
12.00pm) 2.00 Live Super Sunday.
Fulham v Arsenal (Kick-off 2.00pm)
4.00 Live Super Sunday 7.00 The

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

8.00am Champions League Magazine
8.30 ESPN FC 9.00 WWE Raw
Highlights 10.00 WWE SmackDown
Highlights 11.00 Uefa Champions
League Magazine 11.30 Rugby Stories
12.30pm Live Premiership Rugby Union
3.15 Deaf Away Days 3.30 WWE Friday
Night SmackDown 5.00 Live: Serie A
7.00 Golazzo Live 7.45 Live: Serie A
10.00 Europa League & Conference
League Magazine 11.00 Live CBB:
Selection Sunday 12.00 Live CBB:
Women’s Selection Show 1.00am Live
NCAA Basketball Tournament 2.00 Live
College Basketball 2.30 Europa League
Goals Reload 2.45 Test Cricket
Highlights 3.45 - noon Live Test Cricket

WHAT TO
WATCH
presents, with Frank
Kane, Alison Mitchell
and Laura Crombie on
commentary.

PAUL
WHITEHOUSE:
OUR TROUBLED
RIVERS
BBC Two, 8pm

The face of British
angling turns on
agricultural policy in his
excellent if dismaying
survey of British
waterways, learning how
algae from fertiliser
run-off is devastating the
River Wye and the
damage being wrought
on Whitstable oysters.

i Shaun Evans signs off in his final turn as Endeavour Morse

ENDEAVOUR
ITV1, 8pm

Wry, elegiac humour
abounds from the first
frame of this final episode
of Endeavour and, in all
likelihood, the final
Morse mystery. Entitled
Exeunt, this opens with
a funeral and ends with
a neat closing of the circle
after two hours of
discreet nods to both past
and future adventures
of the Oxford copper,
created by Colin Dexter
and developed by Russell
Lewis. The case in
question revolves around
coded messages hidden
in the Oxford Mail’s
death notices. It is an
agreeably scholarly last
investigation, but one
inevitably overshadowed
by recent gruesome
discoveries at Blenheim
Vale. Can Morse (Shaun

Evans) and Fred
Thursday (Roger Allam)
face down threats from
vested interests to ensure
justice is done?
With Morse seemingly
poised to have his heart
broken on Joan’s (Sara
Vickers) wedding day,
Thursday weighing up
a transfer and CS Bright
(Anton Lesser) heading
for retirement, it is a
sombre and poignant
swansong, leavened
somewhat by Morse and
the Last Endeavour, the
affectionate, lightweight
behind-the-scenes
documentary that follows
after the news at
10.20pm; Kevin “Lewis”
Whateley is a welcome
contributor; Russell
Lewis an unfortunate
absentee. Gabriel Tate

DANCING ON ICE/
THE GREAT
POTTERY THROW
DOWN

WILD ISLES
BBC One, 7pm

If this really is it for David
Attenborough on camera,
Wild Isles is a noble and
striking farewell,
championing the fauna
of the British Isles across
five episodes. Tonight

Channel 5, 9pm

Following a definitive
take on Stock, Aitken and
Waterman, Channel 5
continues its reinvention

i Oscars 2023: Can Colin
Farrell scoop Best Actor?

as an unlikely successor
to BBC Four’s popcultural sideline, with
this series talking to some
of those at the heart of
the mid-1990s Britpop
boom: expect Suede,
Elastica, Blur and Oasis to
spearhead the Proustian
rush. A post-peak Oasis
concert from 2001
follows at 10.30pm.

THE 95TH ANNUAL
ACADEMY AWARDS

ITV1, 6.30pm/
Channel 4, 9pm

Two big finals tonight:
first, Joey Essex, Nile
Wilson and The Vivienne
will essay the Boléro in
a bid to impress its
pioneers one last time.
Then on Channel 4, the
three remaining potters
must attempt a stacking
pyramid vase centrepiece
and a sgraffito globe.

BRITPOP: THE
MUSIC THAT
CHANGED BRITAIN

Sky Showcase/Sky Cinema
Oscars, from 11pm

i The Music That Changed
Britain: Liam Gallagher

there are orcas tracking
seals, bumblebees
coaxing pollen and
dormice hiding from
tawny owls, each
majestically shot and
expertly analysed.

CRUFTS 2023:
BEST IN SHOW
Channel 4, 7pm

The last day of Crufts
means the Best in Show
final. Clare Balding

While we are unlikely to
see unscripted drama on
the scale of last year’s
Will Smith slap, there
should be plenty to hold
the attention in tonight’s
ceremony which will, for
the third time, be hosted
by Jimmy Kimmel. Can
All Quiet on the Western
Front build on its
surprising Bafta triumphs
and scoop Best Picture?
Elsewhere, the campaign
for Best Actor is surely
a three-horse race: Colin
Farrell (The Banshees of
Inisherin), Austin Butler
(Elvis) and Brendan
Fraser (The Whale). Who
will lift the trophy? GT

28

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Monday 13 March
WHAT TO
WATCH
contestants answer their
last batch of brainmangling questions,
presented to them by the
ever affable Victoria
Coren Mitchell.

BETTER

BBC One, 9pm
It’s the final part of a
crime thriller that has
grown stronger with each
episode, following bent
copper Lou Slack (Leila
Farzad) and her drugs
boss friend Col McHugh
(Andrew Buchan). As
retired corrupt cop
Vernon (Anton Lesser) is
taken into custody, things
start to unravel for Slack
– but there’s a massive
twist in store.

i Michael Hutchence and Paula Yates in 1994

PAULA

Channel 4, 9pm
Paula Yates, described
here as “the original wild
child”, “a maverick” and
“self-invented”, died from
an accidental heroin
overdose in 2000, aged
41. She was a talented
broadcaster, one of
Channel 4’s biggest stars
on The Tube and then
The Big Breakfast, whose
breezy, irreverent style
led some to dismiss her
as lightweight, and
someone whose fame
came through her
associations with two
rock stars – ex-husband
Bob Geldof and partner
Michael Hutchence, lead
singer of Australian band
INXS. But there was
much more to her, as this
two-part documentary
shows (the second part
follows tomorrow).

It’s based around a
series of never previously
broadcast interviews that
Yates gave to Martin
Townsend (former editor
of OK! magazine) after
the death by suicide of
Hutchence in 1997,
a time, she said, when she
felt “relentlessly under
siege” from life in the
tabloid spotlight, not
least after a drugs raid at
the home she shared with
Hutchence and a bruising
court battle with Geldof
over the custody of their
three children. This first
part focuses on Yates’s
rise to fame, with lots of
archive and contributions
from Robbie Williams,
Vanessa Feltz, Terence
Trent D’Arby and her
friend Belinda Brewin.
Veronica Lee

THE LAST OF US

Sky Atlantic, 2am & 9pm
This superlative postapocalyptic drama
concludes and, as fans
of the video game will
know, it has a stirring
ending as Ellie (Bella
Ramsay) and Joel (Pedro
Pascal) finally reach the
Fireflies’ facility. It’s
not a spoiler to say that
things do not go to plan.
A second series has
been confirmed.

COAST TO COAST
FOOD FESTIVAL
BBC Two, 6.30pm

Edith Bowman and Colin
Murray host this new
show celebrating UK
produce. They start at
the Stranraer Oyster
Festival, then report on
cheese matured in slate
caverns underneath

UNFORGOTTEN
ITV1, 9pm

Sinéad Keenan is proving
a marvellous addition to
the police drama, and
her DCI Jessica James’s

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

6.00
9.15
10.00
10.45
11.15

6.15 am Sunday Morning
Stories (R) (S)
6.45 Coastal Defenders (AD)
(R) (S)
7.15 Antiques Road Trip (R)
(S)
8.00 Sign Zone
9.00 News (S)
10.00 News (S)
12.15 pm Politics Live (S)
1.00 Impossible (R) (S)
1.45 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.15 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.45 Hairy Bikers’ Best of
British (R) (S)
3.30 Wild West: America’s
Great Frontier (AD) (R)
(S)
4.30 Priceless Antiques
Roadshow (R) (S)
5.00 Flog It! (S)
6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games (R) (S)
6.30 Coast to Coast Food
Festival New series
See What to watch (S)

6.00 am Good Morning
Britain (S)
9.00 Lorraine (S)
10.00 This Morning (S)
12.30 pm Loose Women (S)
1.30 ITV Lunchtime News
(S)
1.55 Regional News (S)
2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal
(AD) (R) (S)
3.00 Lingo (R) (S)
4.00 Tipping Point (R) (S)
5.00 The Chase (R) (S)
6.00 Regional News
Programme (S)
6.30 ITV Evening News (S)

12.15
1.00
1.30
1.45
2.15

3.45
4.30
5.15
6.00
6.30

am Breakfast (S)
Morning Live (S)
Crimewatch Live (S)
Critical Incident (S)
Homes Under the
Hammer (AD) (R) (S)
pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(S)
News (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)
Doctors (AD) (S)
A Service of
Celebration for
Commonwealth Day
(S)
Antiques Road Trip (S)
Bridge of Lies (R) (S)
Pointless (R) (S)
BBC News at Six;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)

7.00 The One Show Alex
Jones and Gethin Jones
present the first visit of
the week (S)
7.30 EastEnders Denise
considers breaking into
Jack’s laptop (AD) (S)

7.00 Between the Covers
With Angela Scanlon, DJ
Spoony, Rob Rinder and
Cerys Matthews (S)
7.30 Mastermind The first of
the semi-finals (S)

8.00 Panorama: Cops, Cash
and Fraudsters
Reporters follow Kent
Police as their detectives
try to catch fraudsters (S)
8.30 Scarlett’s Driving
School (S)

8.00 Only Connect The final
of the quiz. Last in the
series See What to
watch (S)
8.30 University Challenge
The third of the quarterfinals (S)

8.00 Coronation Street
Daisy receives a warning
from Justin’s sister (AD)
(S)

9.00 Better Lou attempts to
live a normal life within
the law. Last in the series
See What to watch (AD)
(S)

9.00 Parole A hearing for an
inmate serving a
sentence for biting a
man’s ear off (AD) (S)

9.00 Unforgotten The victim’s
turbulent past comes to
light See What to watch
(AD) (S)

10.00 BBC News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.40 FILM An Irish Goodbye
(2022) Comedy drama
starring James Martin
and Seamus O’Hara
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S)

10.00 Detectorists Andy
suddenly finds himself
with a job interview (AD)
(R) (S)
10.30 Newsnight (S)

7.30 Emmerdale Callum
attacks Suzy (AD) (S)

i Is it the end of the line for
Leila Farzad’s Lou in Better?

sparky relationship with
Sanjeev Bhaskar’s DI
Sunny Khan is shaping
up nicely. The cold case
continues as victim
Precious’s turbulent
past comes to light –
necessitating an
unexpected trip to Paris
for Sunny to interview
a lead; he’s possibly the
only person whose
response would be:
“Can’t we just Zoom?”

JONATHAN ROSS’
MYTHS AND
LEGENDS

11.05 Go Hard or Go Home
(R) (S) 12.05am Go
Hard or Go Home (R)
(S) 1.05 The Graham
Norton Show (R) (S)
2.00 - 6.00am News
(S)

11.15 FILM Don’t Look Now
(1973) Supernatural
thriller with Donald
Sutherland and Julie
Christie ● See Films on
TV, p22 (S) 1.00am
Dave (AD) (R) (S) 1.30
Sign Zone (R) (S) (SL)
4.10 - 6.00am This Is
BBC Two (S)

10.00 ITV News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News (S)
10.45 Cold Case Detectives
A specialist team of
detectives revisit
unsolved criminal
investigations (AD) (R)
(S)

11.40 English Football League
Highlights (R) (S)
1.20am Shop: Ideal
World 3.00 All Elite
Wrestling: Dynamite (S)
4.40 Unwind with ITV
(S) 5.35 - 6.00am
James Martin’s French
Adventure (AD) (R) (S)
(SL)

More4, 9pm

i Jonathan Ross presents a
magical new UK travelogue

Harlech Castle and how
one woman’s interest
in cooking healthy
homemade ready-meals
grew into a thriving
business in Armagh.

ONLY CONNECT
BBC Two, 8pm

Are you Team
Strigiformes or Team
Crustaceans? We reach
the final of television’s
best quiz show as the

Jonathan Ross is perhaps
the last person that you
might expect to present
a travelogue, but TV just
can’t get enough of these
types of shows. Here he is
with a new series about
the UK’s “fabulous
fairytales and magical
mysteries”. He starts in
Whitby and discovers
what inspired the
creation of Dracula –
and meets a strikingly
dressed Bram Stoker fan
– then goes to Runswick
Bay to learn about
mythical cave-dwelling
creatures the Hobs. VL

Variations
N IRELAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Newsline;
Weather 6.30 - 7.00 BBC Newsline; Weather
10.30 BBC Newsline; Weather 10.40 Ireland’s
Rugby Number 10 11.40 FILM: An Irish Goodbye
(2022) 12.05 - 1.05am Go Hard or Go Home
BBC Two: 10.00 - 10.30pm Ar Scáth an Cheoil
UTV: 1.55 - 2.00pm UTV Live; Weather 6.00 6.30 UTV Live; Weather 10.30 UTV Live;
Weather 10.45 - 11.40pm View from Stormont

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm Reporting Scotland;
Weather 6.30 - 7.00 Reporting Scotland;
Weather 8.00 Disclosure: Out on the Pitch 8.30
- 9.00 Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers 10.30 10.40 Reporting Scotland; Weather 11.05
Panorama: Cops, Cash and Fraudsters 11.35

Sportscene: SWPL Highlights 12.20am Go Hard
or Go Home 1.20 Go Hard or Go Home 2.20 The
Graham Norton Show 3.15 - 6.00am BBC News
BBC Scotland: 7.00pm The Seven 7.30
Sportscene: Scottish Cup Live 10.00 The
Agency: Unfiltered 10.30 Dubai Hustle 11.00
Loop 11.30 The Fast and the Farmer-ish
midnight Close STV: 1.55 - 2.00pm STV News
6.00 - 6.30 STV News at Six 10.30 STV News;
Weather 10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 English
Football League Highlights 12.45 - 3.00am
Shop: Ideal World 4.40 - 5.35am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Wales Today
6.30 - 7.00 BBC Wales Today 8.00 X-Ray 8.30
- 9.00 Food Fest Wales 10.30 BBC Wales Today
10.40 Panorama: Cops, Cash and Fraudsters
11.10 FILM: An Irish Goodbye (2022) 11.35 Go
Hard or Go Home 12.35am Go Hard or Go Home
1.35 - 6.00am BBC News BBC Two: No
variations ITV1 Wales: 1.55 - 2.00pm ITV News
Cymru Wales; Weather 6.00 - 6.30 ITV News

Wales at Six; Weather 10.30 ITV News Cymru
Wales; Weather 10.45 - 11.40pm Sharp End

S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 Newyddion 12.05pm
Cymry ar Gynfas 12.30 Dan Do 1.00 Nyrsys
1.30 Cegin Bryn: Y Dosbarth Meistr 2.00
Newyddion 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion
3.05 Am Dro! 4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00 Stwnsh 6.00
Pobl a’u Gerddi 6.30 Rownd a Rownd 6.57
Newyddion 7.00 Heno 7.30 Newyddion 8.00 Y
Byd ar Bedwar 8.25 Bois y Pizza: Chwe’ Gwlad
8.55 Newyddion 9.00 Ffermio 9.30 Sgorio
10.00 Codi Hwyl 10.30 - 11.35pm Gwesty
Aduniad

ITV1 REGIONS
No variations

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

29

Channel 4

Channel 5

BBC Four

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

6.10 am Countdown (R) (S)
6.50 3rd Rock from the Sun
(AD) (R) (S)
7.40 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Frasier (AD) (R) (S)
10.30 Undercover Boss USA
(R) (S)
11.25 News (S)
11.30 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.30 pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch (S)
2.10 Countdown (S)
3.00 Tool Club New series.
DIY show hosted by
Kevin Duala (S)
4.00 A New Life in the Sun
(R) (S)
5.00 Four in a Bed (S)
5.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
6.00 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
6.30 Hollyoaks (AD) (R) (S)

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
12.45 pm GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (AD) (R) (S)
1.40 News (S)
1.45 Home and Away (AD)
(R) (S)
2.15 FILM Hidden Family
Secrets (2021, TVM)
Thriller starring Alex
Paxton-Beesley (S)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun (R) (S)
5.00 News (S)
6.00 Big Road Rescue:
Emergency Call Out (R)
(S)
6.55 News (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

7.00 pm Great British
Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo visits
Lossiemouth and
Inverness (S)
7.30 Villages by the Sea Ben
Robinson visits
Charlestown in Cornwall
8.00 Archaeology: A Secret
History How discoveries
in the 18th and 19th
centuries overturned
previous beliefs (S)
9.00 Art of France Andrew
Graham-Dixon examines
the development of
Impressionism (S)
10.00 The Rise of the Murdoch
Dynasty Documentary
about the media mogul’s
influence on international
politics (S)
11.00 Donald Campbell:
Speed King (S)
12.00 Archaeology: A Secret
History (S)
1.00 am Great British
Railway Journeys (S)
1.30 Villages by the Sea (S)
2.00 The Rise of the
Murdoch Dynasty (S)
3.00 - 4.00am Art of France
(S) (SL)

12.00 noon Sky Arts Book
Club (S)
1.00 pm Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
1.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
2.00 Leonardo: The Works
(AD) (S)
3.00 Landscape Artist of the
Year 2019 (S)
4.00 Discovering: Christian
Bale (S)
5.00 Tales of the
Unexpected A lonely
alcoholic bumps into an
old friend (AD) (S)
5.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
6.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
7.00 Andre Rieu: Welcome
to My World (S)
8.00 Oscars 2023:
Highlights The best
moments from the 95th
Academy Awards
ceremony
10.00 Andre Rieu: Romantic
Paradise (S)
11.45 - 1.05am Voices of
Ireland (S)

11.00 am The Duel at Silver
Creek (1952) Western
starring Audie Murphy (S)
12.35 pm To Hell and Back
(1955) Second World
War biopic starring Audie
Murphy (AD) (S)
2.45 40 Guns to Apache
Pass (1967) Western
starring Audie Murphy (S)
4.40 Winchester ’73 (1950,
b/w) Western starring
James Stewart (AD) (S)
6.30 Charlotte Gray (2001)
Drama with Cate
Blanchett and Billy
Crudup ● See Films on
TV, p22 (AD) (S)
9.00 Bandits (2001) A bored
housewife joins two
escaped convicts on a
bank-robbing spree,
disrupting their
partnership. Crime
comedy starring Bruce
Willis and Cate Blanchett
● See Films on TV, p22
(S)
11.25 - 1.50am Elizabeth
(1998) Historical drama
starring Cate Blanchett
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S)

11.10 am FILM Gorgo (1961)
Monster adventure
starring Bill Travers (S)
12.45 pm FILM Texas (1941,
b/w) Western starring
William Holden (S)
2.30 Crown Court (S)
3.00 Look at Life
3.10 FILM Charade (1963)
Thriller with Audrey
Hepburn See Film of the
Week, p22 (S)
5.30 Holiday All The Way
Travelogue of coach tours
around the UK
6.00 The Footage
Detectives Footage of
the premiere of Lawrence
of Arabia (S)
7.00 The Champions
A nation breaks an
international treaty (S)
8.00 The Main Chance David
matches wits with a
devious teenager
9.00 FILM The Informers
(1963, b/w) Police thriller
starring Nigel Patrick and
Margaret Whiting (S)
11.05 Secret Army (S)
12.10 am Crown Court (S)
12.40 - 1.10am Crown Court
(S)

7.00 News Including sport and
weather (S)
7.55 The Political Slot The
Liberal Democrat view on
issues faced in rural
communities (S)
8.00 Jamie’s £1 Wonders
Jamie shares clever ways
to make meat stretch
further (AD) (S)

9.00 Paula Part one of a twopart profile of Paula Yates
See What to watch (AD)
(S)
10.00 Sex Actually with Alice
Levine (AD) (S)
11.05 Send Nudes: Body SOS
(R) (S) 12.05am Untold:
From Rap to Riches
(AD) (S) (SL) 12.35
Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA (R) (S)
(SL) 1.25 The Simpsons
(AD) (R) (S) 1.50
Couples Come Dine
with Me (R) (S) 2.40
Grand Designs (AD) (R)
(S) (SL) 3.35 George
Clarke’s Old House,
New Home (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 4.30 Location,
Location, Location (AD)
(R) (S) 5.25 Jamie:
Keep Cooking and Carry
On (AD) (R) (S) (SL)
5.50 - 6.10am Kirstie’s
Fill Your House for Free
(R) (S)

7.00 Motorway Cops:
Catching Britain’s
Speeders Following
officers as they crack
down on the nation’s
worst drivers (R) (S)
7.55 News (S)
8.00 Traffic Cops A day trip to
Scarborough turn into a
high-speed pursuit (S)

9.00 Casualty 24/7: Every
Second Counts A flood
of patients with Covid-19
puts staff under pressure
(S)

10.00 999: Emergency Call
Out (R) (S)

11.05 999: Critical Condition
(R) (S) 12.05am Police
Interceptors (R) (S)
1.00 The LeoVegas Live
Casino Show (S) 3.50
World’s Busiest Train
Stations (R) (S) 4.40
World’s Cutest Ever
Baby Animals (R) (S)
(SL) 5.25 Nick’s Quest
(R) (S) (SL) 5.55 6.00am Peppa Pig (R)
(S) (SL)

More digital,
satellite
& cable

Travel Man: 48 Hours in New York 6.00
Taskmaster 7.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games 7.40 Room 101 8.20
Would I Lie to You? 9.00 QI XL 10.00
Have I Got a Bit More News for You
11.00 Taskmaster 12.05am Mock the
Week 12.45 - 1.25am QI XL

ITV2

DISCOVERY

FV 6 SKY 118

SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

2.00pm Supermarket Sweep 3.05
Chuck 4.00 One Tree Hill 5.00 The O.C
6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase 7.00 The
Masked Singer US 8.00 Superstore
9.00 Love Island: The Live Final 10.35
Family Guy 11.35 American Dad! 12.30 1.30am Superstore

1.00pm Gold Rush 3.00 Building Off the
Grid 4.00 Alaska: Homestead Rescue
5.00 Wheeler Dealers 6.00 British
Treasure, American Gold 7.00 Kindig
Customs 8.00 Dive Wars Australia 9.00
Bitchin’ Rides 10.00 Diesel Brothers
11.00 - 1.00am Naked and Afraid

More4

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

8.55 am Kirstie’s House of
Craft (S)
9.15 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.05 A New Life in the Sun
(S)
11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
1.10 pm Heir Hunters (S)
2.10 Four in a Bed (S)
4.50 Location, Location,
Location (S)
5.55 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It (AD) (S)
6.55 Escape to the Chateau
(AD) (S)
7.55 Grand Designs (AD) (S)
9.00 Jonathan Ross’ Myths
and Legends See What
to watch (AD) (S)
10.00 Chernobyl: The New
Evidence (AD) (S)
11.05 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
12.10 am Jonathan Ross’
Myths and Legends
(AD) (S)
1.15 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown (S)
2.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
3.20 - 3.50am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)

11.10 am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (AD) (S)
12.20 pm Heartbeat (AD) (S)
1.25 Classic Emmerdale (S)
1.55 Classic Emmerdale (S)
3.00 Classic Coronation
Street Maxine invites her
dad round to have a
heart-to-heart with
Doreen, (AD) (S)
3.35 Midsomer Murders
Human skeletons are
unearthed (AD) (S)
5.35 Downton Abbey Ethel’s
flirting with Major Bryant
lands her in trouble (AD)
(S)
6.55 Heartbeat A lay
preacher is wounded
(AD) (S)
8.00 Grace Crime drama with
John Simm (AD) (S)
10.00 Grantchester Will and
Geordie investigate the
death of a company boss
(AD) (S)
11.00 Grantchester A vagrant
is found dead in the
doorway of Leonard’s
café (AD) (S)
12.05 - 1.10am Where the
Heart Is (AD) (S)

11.20 am Dempsey and
Makepeace (AD) (S)
12.25 pm Robin of Sherwood
(S)
1.35 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
2.30 Magnum, PI (S)
3.40 The Sweeney Regan
and Carter trail stolen
goods (S)
4.45 Minder Arthur plans to rig
a quiz night (AD) (S)
5.55 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
6.50 The Chase Celebrity
Special With Julia
Goulding, Oz Clarke,
Laura Hamilton and Mr
Motivator (S)
7.55 The Grand Fishing
Adventure Ali and
Bobby head to
Nottinghamshire to fish
the River Trent (AD) (S)
9.00 FILM In the Line of Fire
(1993) Thriller starring
Clint Eastwood (AD) (S)
11.35 - 2.00am FILM The
Krays (1990) Gangster
biopic starring Gary and
Martin Kemp. Includes
FYI Daily (AD) (S)

11.05 am Ray Donovan (AD)
(R) (S)
12.10 pm Game of Thrones
(AD) (R) (S)
1.10 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
2.15 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Gomorrah (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.45 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
7.50 Game of Thrones
Cersei finds herself
seeking forgiveness in
King’s Landing. Jon is
challenged at the Wall,
while across the Narrow
Sea, Daenerys is
surrounded by strangers
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 The Last of Us Postapocalyptic drama
starring Pedro Pascal and
Bella Ramsey. Last in the
series See What to
watch
10.00 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
11.15 Big Little Lies (AD) (R)
12.20 - 1.30am The Gilded
Age (AD) (R) (S)

Directors 5.00 Discovering: William
Holden 6.00 The Eighties 7.00 Escobar
by Escobar 8.00 The Vow 9.00 FILM
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison
of Belief (2015) 11.30 - 1.00am FILM
The Super Bob Einstein Movie (2021)

Extreme Africa 5.00 Africa’s Wild
Horizons 6.00 New Kids in the Wild 7.00
Monkey Life 8.00 A Bee’s Diary 9.00
Wildest New Zealand 10.00 Africa’s Wild
Horizons 11.00 New Kids in the Wild
12.00 - 1.00am Predators

EastEnders 2.00 Howards’ Way 3.10
Lovejoy 4.20 Peak Practice 5.20 The
Brittas Empire 6.00 Keeping Up
Appearances 6.40 Last of the Summer
Wine 8.00 The Inspector Lynley
Mysteries. Feature-length episode. A
doorkeeper at the House of Lords is
murdered 10.00 New Tricks 11.20
Cutting It 12.40 - 2.20am Bad Girls

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT

PBS AMERICA

SKY MAX

FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

SKY 113

1.00pm Beautiful Serengeti 1.30 My Life
in Hitler’s Germany 2.40 PQ17: An Arctic
Convoy Disaster 3.50 Dunkirk 5.00
Inside Japan’s War 6.10 My Life in Hitler’s
Germany 7.20 PQ17: An Arctic Convoy
Disaster 8.30 Dunkirk 9.40 Inside
Japan’s War 10.50 PQ17: An Arctic
Convoy Disaster 12.00 - 1.15am Dunkirk

noon NCIS: New Orleans 1.00pm Hawaii
Five-0 2.00 S.W.A.T 3.00 Quantum
Leap 4.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
5.00 Supergirl 6.00 Stargate SG-1 8.00
Oscars 2023: Highlights 10.00 Sport’s
Funniest Moments 11.00 A League of
Their Own Road Trip: Southeast Asia
12.00 Fantasy Football League 12.35 1.30am Funny Woman

DAVE

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

SKY NATURE

FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

SKY 121

SKY 124

1.00pm Cop Car Workshop 2.00 Top
Gear 4.00 Australian Ninja Warrior 5.30

2.00pm FILM I Am Jackie O (2020)
3.50 My Icon: Natasha Jonas 4.00 The

1.00pm Monkey Life 2.00 Wild Tales
from the Farm 3.00 Shark Squad 4.00

DRAMA
FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

11.40am The Bill 12.40pm Classic

YESTERDAY
FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon Great British Railway Journeys
2.00pm Bangers and Cash 4.00
Narrow Escapes of World War II
5.00 The World at War 6.00 Great
British Railway Journeys 7.00 Secrets of
the London Underground 8.00
Hornby: A Model World 9.00 The
Architecture the Railways Built 10.00
Bangers and Cash 11.00 Abandoned
Engineering 12.00 - 1.00am Great
British Railway Journeys

SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

1.00pm Sky Sports News 2.00 Live WPL
6.00 Sky Sports News 7.00 Sky Sports
News 8.00 Sky Sports News 9.00 Sky
Sports News 10.00 Sky Sports News
11.00 Sky Sports News 12.00 - 6.00am
Sky Sports News

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

12.30pm Premier League Review 1.00
Test Cricket Highlights 2.00 Live:
Legends League Cricket T20. Asia Lions
v World Giants. Coverage of the
Twenty20 match in Doha, Qatar 6.30
Test Cricket Highlights 7.30 Live: Serie
A 9.45 Uefa Europa League Goals Reload
10.00 WWE Raw Highlights 11.00 WWE
SmackDown Highlights 12.00 - 3.15am
Live: WWE Monday Night Raw

30

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Tuesday 14 March
BBC One
6.00
9.15
10.00
10.45
11.15
12.15
1.00
1.30
1.45
2.15
3.00
3.45
4.30
5.15
6.00
6.30

am Breakfast (S)
Morning Live (S)
Crimewatch Live (S)
Critical Incident (S)
Homes Under the
Hammer (AD) (R) (S)
pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
BBC News at One;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)
Doctors (AD) (S)
Jay Blades’ Home Fix
(R) (S)
Escape to the Country
(AD) (S)
Antiques Road Trip (S)
Bridge of Lies (R) (S)
Pointless (R) (S)
BBC News at Six;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)

7.00 The One Show Live chat
and topical reports (S)
7.30 EastEnders Callum
questions Stacey on
suspicion of stealing the
money (AD) (S)
8.00 Interior Design Masters
with Alan Carr The
teams make over three
classrooms of a children’s
nursery in Oxfordshire
(AD) (S)

9.00 Emma, Oti & Rylan’s
Big Red Nose Day
Challenge Emma Willis,
Oti Mabuse and Rylan
attempt to climb the
Cairn Gorm See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.00 BBC News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.40 FILM Sully: Miracle on
the Hudson (2016)
Fact-based drama
starring Tom Hanks
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S)

12.10 am The Apprentice (R)
(S) 1.10 Michael
McIntyre’s The Wheel
(R) (S) 2.15 - 6.00am
News (S)

Variations
N IRELAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Newsline 6.30 7.00 BBC Newsline 10.30 BBC Newsline 10.40
Spotlight 11.10 - 12.10am Go Hard or Go
Home BBC Two: No variations UTV: 12.50 1.00pm UTV Live 6.00 - 6.30 UTV Live 10.40
- 10.55 UTV Live 12.00 Cold Case Detectives
12.55 - 1.05am Football League Legends

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm Reporting Scotland
6.30 - 7.00 Reporting Scotland 8.00 - 9.00
Debate Night Leadership Special 10.30 10.40 Reporting Scotland 12.10am The Edit
12.25 The Apprentice 1.25 Michael McIntyre’s
The Wheel 2.30 - 6.00am BBC News BBC
Scotland: 7.00pm Sportscene: SWPL
Highlights 7.45 Rewind 1980s 8.00 Watching

BBC Two
6.00 am A Believer’s Guide
To (R) (S)
6.45 Coastal Defenders (AD)
(R) (S)
7.15 Antiques Road Trip (R)
(S)
8.00 Sign Zone
9.00 News (S)
10.00 News (S)
12.15 pm Politics Live (S)
1.00 The Super League
Show (R) (S)
1.50 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.20 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.50 Hairy Bikers’ Best of
British (R) (S)
3.30 Wild West: America’s
Great Frontier (AD) (R)
(S)
4.30 Priceless Antiques
Roadshow (R) (S)
5.00 Flog It! (R) (S)
6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games (R) (S)
6.30 Coast to Coast Food
Festival (S)

ITV1
6.00 am Good Morning
Britain (S)
9.00 Lorraine (S)
10.00 This Morning (S)
12.30 pm ITV Lunchtime
News (S)
12.50 Regional News (S)
1.00 ITV Racing:
Cheltenham Festival
Live Ed Chamberlin
presents coverage of day
one of the prestigious
festival, including the
3.30 Champion Hurdle,
plus races at 1.30, 2.10,
2.50 and 4.10 (S)
4.30 Tipping Point: Best
Ever Finals New series.
Compilation of some of
the show’s most dramatic
endgames (S)
5.00 The Chase (R) (S)
6.00 Regional News
Programme (S)
6.30 ITV Evening News (S)

Channel 4
6.10 am Countdown (R) (S)
6.50 3rd Rock from the Sun
(AD) (R) (S)
7.40 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Frasier (AD) (R) (S)
10.30 Undercover Boss USA
(R) (S)
11.25 News (S)
11.30 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.30 pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch (S)
2.10 Countdown (S)
3.00 Tool Club (S)
4.00 A New Life in the Sun
(R) (S)
5.00 Four in a Bed (S)
5.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
6.00 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
6.30 Hollyoaks (AD) (R) (S)

7.00 News Including sport and
weather (S)

Channel 5

BBC Four

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
12.45 pm GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (R) (S)
1.40 News (S)
1.45 Home and Away (AD)
(R) (S)
2.15 FILM Deadly Daughter
(2020, TVM) Thriller
starring Sarah Butler (S)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun (R) (S)
5.00 News (S)
6.00 Big Road Rescue:
Emergency Call Out (R)
(S)
6.55 News (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

7.00 GPs: Behind Closed
Doors A patient passes
out after Dr Chris
Ferdinand administers a
steroid injection into his
knee (S)
7.55 News (S)

7.00 Saving Lives at Sea The
crew is involved in a race
against time to rescue
two young men (AD) (R)
(S)

7.30 Emmerdale Leyla acts
on some advice (AD) (S)

7.55 The Political Slot
Political comment from
the Green Party (S)

8.00 Great British Menu
Chefs from Northern
Ireland serve up their
starters and fish dishes
(S)

8.00 The Martin Lewis
Money Show: Live The
cash expert continues to
answer viewer’s pressing
financial questions (S)

8.00 Food Unwrapped’s
Lunch Box Kate Quilton
finds out if there is any
difference between soft
and crusty bread rolls
(AD) (S)

8.00 Dogs Behaving (Very)
Badly Graeme Hall
meets an excitable
English Bulldog (S)

9.00 DNA Journey Anarchic
comedian Johnny Vegas
and broadcaster Alex
Brooker embark on a road
trip to explore their family
histories See What to
watch (AD) (S)

9.00 Paula A look at Paula
Yates’ career as a writer
(AD) (S)

9.00 Ben Fogle: New Lives in
the Wild Ben spends a
week in Dorset with
former paratrooper Chris.
Last in the series (S)

9.00 The Holy Land and Us:
Our Untold Stories
Two-part documentary in
which Rob Rinder and
Sarah Agha explore the
founding of the state of
Israel in 1948 and how it
affected those of a
Jewish and Palestinian
heritage See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.15 QI XS A selection of
highlights from the
comedy panel game (S)
10.30 Newsnight (S)

11.15 Parole (AD) (R) (S)
12.15am Dave (AD) (R)
(S) 12.45 Dave (AD) (R)
(S) 1.15 Sign Zone (R)
(S) (SL) 3.15 - 6.45am
This Is BBC Two (S)
Ourselves: 60 Years of TV in Scotland 8.30
Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of TV in Scotland
9.00 The Nine 10.00 Pictures from Ukraine
11.00 Debate Night Leadership Special
midnight Close STV: 12.50pm STV News;
Weather 1.00 - 4.30 STV Racing: Cheltenham
Festival Live 6.00 - 6.30 STV News at Six
10.40 STV News 10.50 Scotland Tonight 11.15
The Jonathan Ross Show 12.20 - 3.00am
Shop: Ideal World 3.50 - 5.05am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Wales Today
6.30 - 7.00 BBC Wales Today 10.30 BBC
Wales Today 10.40 Dark Land: Hunting the
Killers 11.20 Jerk 11.45 FILM: Sully: Miracle on
the Hudson (2016) 1.15 - 2.15am The
Apprentice BBC Two: 1.50pm First Minister’s
Questions 2.40 Eggheads 3.10 Eggheads 3.40
Hairy Bikers’ Best of British 4.20 Wild West:
America’s Great Frontier 5.20 Priceless
Antiques Roadshow 5.50 - 6.00pm Nigel
Slater’s Simple Cooking ITV1 Wales: 12.50 -

10.10 News (S)
10.40 Regional News (S)
10.55 The Jonathan Ross
Show (R) (S)

12.00 Starstruck (R) (S)
1.05am Shop: Ideal
World 3.00 The Bay
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 3.50
Unwind with ITV (S)
5.05 - 6.00am Family
Fortunes (R) (S) (SL)
1.00pm ITV News Cymru Wales; Weather 6.00
- 6.30 ITV News Wales at Six; Weather 10.40 10.55pm ITV News Cymru Wales; Weather

S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 Newyddion 12.05pm Codi
Hwyl America 12.30 Heno 1.00 Her yr
Hinsawdd 1.30 Ffermio 2.00 Newyddion 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion 3.05 Noson
Lawen 4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00 Stwnsh 6.00 Pen/
Campwyr 6.30 Sgorio 6.57 Newyddion 7.00
Heno 7.30 Newyddion 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25
Rownd a Rownd 8.55 Newyddion 9.00 Teulu,
Dad a Fi 10.00 Diflaniad 10.50 Richard Holt:
Yr Academi Felys 11.25 - 11.40pm Iawn Met

ITV1 REGIONS

10.00 Katie Price’s Mucky
Mansion (AD) (S)

11.05 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(R) (S) 12.05am Kathy
Burke: Growing Up (AD)
(R) (S) (SL) 1.05 999:
On the Front Line (R)
(S) 2.00 Couples Come
Dine with Me (R) (S)
2.55 The Last Leg (R)
(S) (SL) 3.50 The Great
Pottery Throw Down:
The Final (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 4.55 Location,
Location, Location (R)
(S) 5.50 - 6.10am
Kirstie’s House of Craft
(R) (S)

More digital,
satellite
& cable
ITV2

10.00 Who Killed Billie-Jo?
Examining the unsolved
case of 13-year-old BillieJo Jenkins, who was
murdered on the patio of
her seaside home in 1997
(R) (S)

12.05 am Born to Kill: Peter
Moore (R) (S) 1.00 The
LeoVegas Live Casino
Show (S) 3.00 Hijacked
(R) (S) 3.50 The Blitz:
Britain on Fire (R) (S)
4.40 Railways That Built
Britain (R) (S) 5.30
Nick’s Quest (R) (S)
(SL) 5.55 - 6.00am
Peppa Pig (R) (S)
Line 1.00 Cop Car Workshop 2.00
Top Gear 4.00 Australian Ninja
Warrior 5.30 Travel Man: 48 Hours in
Helsinki 6.00 Taskmaster 7.00 Richard
Osman’s House of Games 7.40 Room 101
8.20 Would I Lie to You? 9.00 QI XL
10.00 Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
11.00 World’s Most Dangerous Roads
12.05am Mock the Week 12.45 1.25am QI XL

FV 6 SKY 118

noon Love Bites 1.00pm Dress to
Impress 2.00 Supermarket Sweep 3.05
Chuck 4.00 One Tree Hill 5.00 The O.C
6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase 7.00 The
Masked Singer US 8.00 Superstore
9.00 Loaded in Paradise 10.00 Family
Guy 12.05 - 1.00am American Dad!

No variations

DAVE

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

11.30am Rick Stein’s Far Eastern
Odyssey 12.30pm The Force: Behind the

DISCOVERY
SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

noon British Treasure, American
Gold 1.00pm Gold Rush 3.00
Building Off the Grid 4.00 Alaska:
Homestead Rescue 5.00 Wheeler
Dealers 6.00 British Treasure, American
Gold 7.00 Kindig Customs 8.00 Dive
Wars Australia 9.00 Gold Rush 10.00
Gold Rush: The Dirt 11.00 Naked and
Afraid 12.00 - 1.00am Expedition
Bigfoot

7.00 pm Great British
Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo explores
the West Country
between the wars (S)
7.30 The Yorkshire Dales
Paul Rose explores the
region, beginning in
Wensleydale (S)
8.00 As Time Goes By Jean
makes a play for Alistair
(S)
8.30 The Mistress Luke finds
himself in the unusual
position of being home
alone (S)
9.00 A History of Britain by
Simon Schama (S)
10.00 Bent Coppers:
Crossing the Line of
Duty (S)
11.00 Antarctica Ice Station
Rescue: Horizon (S)
12.00 The PM, the Playboy
and the Wolf of Wall
Street: Storyville (S)
1.25 am Africa with Ade
Adepitan (S)
2.25 Great British Railway
Journeys (S)
2.55 - 3.55am A History of
Britain by Simon
Schama (S) (SL)

More4
FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

8.55 am Kirstie’s House of
Craft (S)
9.15 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.05 A New Life in the Sun
(S)
11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
12.05 pm Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
1.10 Heir Hunters (S)
2.10 Four in a Bed (S)
2.40 Four in a Bed (S)
4.50 Location, Location,
Location (S)
5.55 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It (AD) (S)
6.55 Escape to the Chateau:
DIY (AD) (R) (S)
7.55 Grand Designs (AD) (S)
9.00 Home Greek Home
(AD) (S)
10.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
11.05 Swingers (AD) (S)
12.05 am Home Greek Home
(AD) (S)
1.10 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown (S)
2.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
3.20 - 3.50am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)

SKY DOCUMENTARIES
SKY 121

noon FILM Hawking: Can You Hear Me?
(2021) 1.50pm How to Survive a
Pandemic 4.00 The Directors 5.00
Discovering: Barbara Stanwyck 6.00
The Nineties 7.00 Escobar by Escobar
8.00 The Vow 9.00 Dublin Narcos
10.00 FILM Inmate 1: The Rise of Danny
Trejo (2019) 12.10 - 2.00am FILM
Fatboy Slim: Right Here, Right Now

PBS AMERICA
FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

1.00pm Beautiful Serengeti 1.30 My
Life in Hitler’s Germany 2.40 Missing in
Action 3.45 Dunkirk 4.55 Beautiful
Serengeti 5.25 Inside Japan’s War 6.30
My Life in Hitler’s Germany 7.35 Missing
in Action 8.40 Dunkirk 9.55 Inside
Japan’s War 11.00 Missing in Action
12.00 - 1.15am Dunkirk

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

31

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

12.00 noon Best of
Landscape Artist of the
Year 2023 (AD) (S)
1.00 pm Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
1.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
2.00 The Art of Architecture
(S)
3.00 Landscape Artist of the
Year 2019 (S)
4.00 Discovering: Brad Pitt
(S)
5.00 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
7.00 The Art of the Garden
(S)
8.00 Skinner & Mina’s
Literary Road Trip:
Pope & Swift New series
See What to watch (S)
9.00 Jack B Yeats: The Man
Who Painted Ireland
See What to watch (S)
10.15 Rudyard Kipling: A
Secret Life (AD) (S)
11.15 Thomas Hardy: Fate,
Exclusion and Tragedy
(AD) (S)
12.15 - 2.05am FILM My
Rembrandt (2020) (S)

11.00 am At Gunpoint (1955)
Western starring Fred
MacMurray (S)
12.40 pm Santa Fe Passage
(1955) Western
adventure starring John
Payne (AD) (S)
2.30 Apache Uprising (1965)
Western starring Rory
Calhoun (S)
4.20 Picnic (1955) A drifter
visits an old friend, hoping
to borrow money – but
instead steals his fiancée.
Drama based on William
Inge’s play starring
William Holden (S)
6.45 GI Joe: The Rise of
Cobra (2009) Action
adventure starring
Channing Tatum (AD) (S)
9.00 The Equalizer (2014) An
ex-secret agent fights to
bring down a crime
syndicate after coming to
the aid of an abused
prostitute. Action thriller
with Denzel Washington
(AD) (S)
11.40 - 2.20am Call Me by
Your Name (2017)
Romantic drama starring
Armie Hammer (AD) (S)

10.00 am FILM Mother Wore
Tights (1947) Musical
starring Betty Grable (S)
12.10 pm Biscuit Time
12.25 FILM Every Day’s a
Holiday (1965) Musical
starring John Leyton (S)
2.15 FILM Treasure Hunt
(1952, b/w) Comedy
starring Martita Hunt (S)
3.50 FILM Gold Is Where
You Find It (1968)
4.20 FILM The Trollenberg
Terror (1958, b/w) Sci-fi
with Forrest Tucker (S)
6.00 Scotland Yard
6.35 A Day of One’s Own
1956
6.55 FILM Confession (1955,
b/w) Crime drama with
Sydney Chaplin (S)
8.45 Look at Life
9.00 Maigret
10.50 Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro (S)
10.55 FILM The Haunted
Palace (1963) Horror
starring Vincent Price (S)
12.40 am Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro (S)
12.45 - 2.35am FILM Dark
Tower (1989) Horror
with Michael Moriarty (S)

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

11.10 am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (AD) (S)
12.20 pm Heartbeat (AD) (S)
1.25 Classic Emmerdale (S)
2.00 Classic Emmerdale (S)
2.30 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
3.00 Classic Coronation
Street Gail is thrilled to
have Nick home for the
wedding (AD) (S)
3.35 Midsomer Murders A
Spanish-themed evening
ends in murder (AD) (S)
5.35 Downton Abbey The
entire household is
shaken by bad news from
the front (AD) (S)
6.55 Heartbeat Greengrass
poaches from Ashfordly
Hall (AD) (S)
8.00 Grace The detective
believes a serial killer
might be on the loose
(AD) (S)
10.00 Grantchester A member
of Will’s congregation is
found murdered before a
fundraising event (AD)
11.00 Grantchester (AD) (S)
12.05 - 1.10am Where the
Heart Is (AD) (S)

11.25 am Dempsey and
Makepeace (AD) (S)
12.25 pm Robin of Sherwood
(S)
1.35 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
2.35 Magnum, PI (S)
3.35 The Sweeney A member
of a group of convicts
slips off the roof and dies
during a robbery,
prompting the gang’s
leader to harbour
apparent doubts about
his life (S)
4.45 Minder Arthur tries
to get into advertising
(AD) (S)
5.55 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
6.55 The Chase Celebrity
Special (S)
7.55 Junk and Disorderly (S)
9.00 FILM Speed (1994)
Action thriller starring
Keanu Reeves. Includes
FYI Daily ● See Films on
TV, p22 (AD) (S)
11.20 All Elite Wrestling:
Rampage (S)
12.35 - 2.30am Hornblower
(AD) (S)

11.10 am Gomorrah (R) (S)
12.15 pm Game of Thrones
(AD) (R) (S)
1.20 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
2.30 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
3.35 Gomorrah (R) (S)
4.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.45 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.50 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
7.55 Game of Thrones
The fate of Jon Snow
is revealed, Ramsay
sends his dogs after
Theon and Sansa, while
Ellaria and the Sand
Snakes make their move
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 The Last of Us Postapocalyptic drama
starring Pedro Pascal and
Bella Ramsey. Last in the
series (R)
10.00 City on a Hill (AD) (R)
(S)
11.05 Lovecraft Country (AD)
(R) (S)
12.15 am In Treatment (R) (S)
12.45 - 2.00am Game of
Thrones (AD) (R) (S)

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT

SKY NATURE

DRAMA

SKY 124

FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

1.00pm Monkey Life 2.00 Wild Tales
from the Farm 3.00 Gangs of Lemur
Island 4.00 Extreme Africa 5.00 The
Wadden Sea 6.00 New Kids in the Wild
7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Predators 9.00
Arctic from Above 10.00 The Wadden
Sea 11.00 New Kids in the Wild 12.00 1.00am Patagonia

11.40am The Bill 12.40pm Classic
EastEnders 2.00 Howards’ Way 3.10
Lovejoy 4.20 Peak Practice 5.20 The
Brittas Empire 6.00 Keeping Up
Appearances 6.40 Last of the Summer
Wine 8.00 Dalziel & Pascoe 10.00 New
Tricks 11.20 Cutting It 12.40 - 2.10am
Bad Girls

SKY MAX

YESTERDAY

SKY 113

FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon NCIS: New Orleans 1.00pm Hawaii
Five-0 2.00 S.W.A.T 3.00 Quantum
Leap 4.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
5.00 Supergirl 6.00 Stargate SG-1 8.00
A League of Their Own Road Trip:
Southeast Asia 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles
10.00 Freddie Down Under 11.00
S.W.A.T 12.00 Fantasy Football League
12.35 - 2.00am Road Wars

noon Great British Railway Journeys
2.00pm Bangers and Cash 4.00 War
Factories 5.00 The World at War 6.00
Great British Railway Journeys 7.00
Secrets of the London Underground
8.00 The Architecture the Railways
Built 9.00 Bangers and Cash 11.00
Abandoned Engineering 12.00 - 1.00am
Great British Railway Journeys

SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

8.30am Live International T20 Cricket
1.00pm Sky Sports News 2.00 Live WPL
6.00 Sky Sports News 7.00 Gillette Labs
Soccer Special 7.30 Live EFL 10.30 Back
Pages Tonight 11.00 Sky Sports News
12.00 - 6.00am Sky Sports News

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

11.00am Isuzu UTE A-League 1.00 Live
UEFA Youth League 3.00 ESPN FC 3.30
Deaf Away Days 3.45 Premier League –
The Big Interview 4.15 Premier League
Review 5.15 BT Sport Goals Reload 5.30
ESPN FC 6.00 The High Performance
Podcast 7.00 Live Uefa Champions
League 10.45 The Football’s On 11.45
Uefa Europa League Goals Reload 12.00
- 2.15am Live: WWE NXT

WHAT TO
WATCH
ancestors in the worlds of
justice and journalism on
a road trip to discover
more about their family
histories. A “David and
Goliath” story of taking
on the establishment and
a story that went viral
Victorian-style are among
the highlights.

JACK B YEATS:
THE MAN WHO
PAINTED IRELAND
Sky Arts, 9pm

i Robert Rinder presents this documentary from Israel

THE HOLY LAND AND US:
OUR UNTOLD STORIES
BBC Two, 9pm

“Israel offered sanctuary
to Jews from across the
world but, you know,
that undoubtedly came
at a price,” says Robert
Rinder at the start of this
powerful two-part
documentary, which
even-handedly explores
one of the most
“contentious” political
issues of the past 75 years
– the founding of the
state of Israel. “What
Palestinian families like
mine lost were their
homes along with a sense
of place and belonging,”
says his co-presenter
Sarah Agha, whose father
and wider family were
among hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians
displaced by the civil war
that erupted almost

immediately after British
rule came to an end
in 1948.
The film sees British
people of Jewish and
Palestinian heritage
travel, separately, to the
Holy Land to explore the
impact of the conflict on
their families’ lives. As
with all wars, there are
stories of heroism and
horror, pride and pain –
and lots of tears – on both
side of the divide. Few
would disagree with
Rinder’s feeling that “the
key to understanding
where we are today is to
hear the stories from that
time from both sides.”
Reconciliation, however,
still tragically seems to be
a very distant prospect.
Gerard O’Donovan

SKINNER & MINA’S
LITERARY ROAD
TRIP: POPE &
SWIFT
Sky Arts, 8pm

Frank Skinner and Denise
Mina embark on another
enjoyable tour through
the lives of literary giants.
The most celebrated
satirists of the 18th
century, Alexander Pope
and Jonathan Swift,
were fast friends and
mutual admirers.
Skinner and Mina, with
a suitably light touch,
trace their decades-long
correspondence and the
impact each had on the
other’s life and legacy.

BIG RED NOSE DAY
CHALLENGE

i Frank Skinner and Denise
Mina celebrate Pope & Swift

for charity? Ahead of
Friday’s Comic Relief,
TV presenters Emma
Willis, Oti Mabuse and
Rylan Clark climb
Britain’s sixth-highest
mountain, Cairn Gorm
in the Highlands.

DNA JOURNEY
ITV1, 9pm

BBC One, 9pm

Who doesn’t love to
watch a celebrity suffer

Comedians Johnny Vegas
and Alex Brooker unearth
some trailblazing

Widely regarded as
the greatest Irish artist
of the early 20th
century, Yeats’s vivid,
expressionistic canvases
(as in paintings The Two
Travellers and The Liffey
Swim) are as central to
Ireland’s sense of cultural
self as his brother WB
Yeats’s poetry. Novelist
Colm Tóibín explores the
artist’s key themes and
distinctive visual style,
while Pierce Brosnan
provides the voiceover.

j Tim Renkow is back in

a new series of sitcom Jerk

FRED’S LAST
RESORT
E4, 9pm

Gallic charmer Fred
Sirieix hosts this
Apprentice-style series
in which 12 young Britons
are challenged to run
a high-end hotel – the
magnificently located
Hôtel Les Roches
Blanches – in the resort
town of Cassis in the
chi-chi south of France.
With a potentially
career-making job at
an international hotel
group at stake, they’ll be
on best behaviour, non?
Pas extactement.

JERK

BBC Three,
10pm & 10.30pm
Tim Renkow is back
with another series of his
brilliant, knuckle-biting
comedy about a man
whose cerebral palsy is
the best excuse ever for
behaving badly. Tonight’s
episodes see him bring
a PR-conscious film
studio to its knees and
trying out as a drugs
mule. Happy Valley’s
James Norton guests. GO

32

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Wednesday 15 March
WHAT TO
WATCH
Thomason) and Chris
(Barry Sloane) continue
to struggle with making
their blended family
work, and evidence
emerges that Dean
(Joe Armstrong) may not
be the upstanding father
that he first appeared.

THE PIANO:
THE FINAL
Channel 4, 9pm

i Nick Mohammed, Anthony Head and Jason Sudeikis

TED LASSO
Apple TV+

While the adventures
of Ryan Reynolds and
Rob McElhenney in
Wrexham have ensured
that Hollywood has
finally discovered British
football, the rampant
success of the gentle,
daft and unexpectedly
Emmy-swiping Ted Lasso
laid the foundations. As
the third season kicks
off, we join Ted (Jason
Sudeikis) looking
uncharacteristically
downbeat as his son flies
back to Kansas and
pundits predict
humiliation for AFC
Richmond. As they
prepare for their first
season back in the top
flight, pessimism is
infecting the squad;
can Ted and Roy (Brett
Goldstein) turn the tide?

Over at West Ham,
the dastardly Rupert
(Anthony Head) gives
new hire, and former
Richmond coach, Nathan
(Nick Mohammed) a few
pointers in malice just
as he appears to be
acknowledging how
out of his depth he has
drifted. An intriguing
soundtrack, layered
performances and
arresting camerawork
demonstrate that Ted
Lasso is smarter than it
sometimes allows itself
to be, with a ludicrous
climax at a press
conference the acme of
its mission to warm the
heart. While it remains
an admirable goal in hard
times, might there be
more thrilling methods
to score it? Gabriel Tate

MONEY SHOT: THE
PORNHUB STORY
Netflix

Pitting the need to clamp
down on sex-trafficking
and illegal material
against the importance
of allowing consenting
sex workers to make
a living online, Suzanne
Hillinger (whose previous
documentary was the
excellent Trump/
pandemic exposé Totally
Under Control) examines
how Pornhub became the
internet’s dominant
pornographic platform.

CHRISTINE
MCGUINNESS:
UNMASKING MY
AUTISM
BBC One, 9pm

Almost two years after
receiving her autism
diagnosis, Christine

i Netflix’s documentary
charts the rise of Pornhub
McGuinness meets
other women with the
condition and uncovers
examples of gender bias
in the worlds of medicine
and science; her
discoveries are both
startling and concerning.

THE BAY
ITV1, 9pm

Problems materialise on
several home fronts this
evening, as Jenn (Marsha

Lang Lang and Mika
coach and advise the
last four amateur pianists
as they prepare to
perform at London’s
Royal Festival Hall –
while there is a faintly
spurious judgment over
who does best, everyone
is a winner at this stage,
so the competitive
element is thankfully
diluted. The Concert
follows on More4 at
10.15pm, with the judges
joining the pianists in a
performance guaranteed
to leave lumps in throats.

j Betty Boothroyd became
Commons speaker in 1992

TYRANT: THE RISE
OF ADOLF HITLER
Channel 5, 9pm

Aside from the curious
decision to subtitle
a three-part series
beginning in 1938 as
“the rise of Adolf Hitler”,
this is an erudite, efficient
day-by-day breakdown of
the six months between
the Anschluss and the
Nazi invasion of Poland,
examining the Führer’s
manipulation of Europe’s
fearful, credulous leaders
and his mastery of public
image.

BETTY
BOOTHROYD:
CALL ME MADAM

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

6.00
9.15
10.00
10.45
11.15

6.45 am Coastal Defenders
(AD) (R) (S)
7.15 Antiques Road Trip (R)
(S)
8.00 Sign Zone
9.00 News (S)
10.00 News (S)
11.15 Politics Live (S)
12.30 pm Politics Live: The
Budget (S)
3.00 Hairy Bikers’ Best of
British (R) (S)
3.30 Wild West: America’s
Great Frontier (AD) (R)
(S)
4.30 Priceless Antiques
Roadshow (R) (S)
5.00 Flog It! (R) (S)
6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games (R) (S)
6.30 Coast to Coast Food
Festival (S)

6.00 am Good Morning
Britain (S)
9.00 Lorraine (S)
10.00 This Morning (S)
12.15 pm ITV News Special:
The Chancellor’s
Budget 2023 (S)
1.50 Regional News (S)
2.00 ITV Racing:
Cheltenham Festival
Live Ed Chamberlin
presents coverage of day
two, which is Ladies’ Day
at the prestigious festival.
Including the 3.30
Champion Chase, plus
races at 2.10, 2.50 and
4.10 (S)
4.30 Tipping Point: Best
Ever Finals (S)
5.00 The Chase (R) (S)
6.00 Regional News
Programme (S)
6.30 ITV Evening News (S)

12.15
1.00
1.30
1.45
2.15
3.00
3.45
4.30
5.15
6.00
6.30

am Breakfast (S)
Morning Live (S)
Crimewatch Live (S)
Critical Incident (S)
Homes Under the
Hammer (AD) (R) (S)
pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
BBC News at One;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)
Doctors (AD) (S)
Jay Blades’ Home Fix
(R) (S)
Escape to the Country
(AD) (R) (S)
Antiques Road Trip (S)
Bridge of Lies (R) (S)
Pointless (R) (S)
BBC News at Six;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)

7.00 The One Show
Magazine show with
stories of interest (S)
7.30 EastEnders Jay and
Emma clash over their
different approaches to
Lola’s situation (AD) (S)

7.00 Saving Lives at Sea
A man suffers a seizure
out at sea (AD) (R) (S)

8.00 The Repair Shop Jay
Blades and the team of
experts restore a jazz
guitar and a veneered
card table (AD) (R) (S)

8.00 Great British Menu The
Northern Ireland chefs
serve up their main
dishes and desserts (S)

8.00 Coronation Street
Stephen spikes Carla’s
drink during an important
client meeting (AD) (S)

9.00 Christine McGuinness:
Unmasking My Autism
Christine McGuinness
explores how many
autistic women have
gone undiagnosed See
What to watch (AD) (S)

9.00 Saving Lives in Leeds
Neurosurgeon Ryan
Mathew rebuilds a man’s
missing skull (AD) (S)

9.00 The Bay Jenn finds
evidence that all was not
well in the Metcalfs’ home
See What to watch (AD)
(S)

10.00 Live at the Apollo Guz
Khan introduces sets by
Kiri Pritchard-McLean
and Rhys James (R) (S)
10.30 Newsnight (S)

10.00 ITV News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News (S)
10.45 Peston Political
magazine show, hosted
by Robert Peston (S)
11.40 Heathrow: Britain’s
Busiest Airport (AD) (R)
(S) 12.10am English
Football League
Highlights (R) (S) 1.30
Shop: Ideal World 3.00
High Stakes? Britain’s
Betting Boom: Tonight
(R) (S) (SL) 3.25 Save
Money: Lose Weight
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 3.50
Unwind with ITV (S)
5.05 - 6.00am The
Secret Life of Our Pets
(AD) (R) (S) (SL)

10.00 BBC News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.40 Jerk Tim’s acting career
is short-lived when he
causes chaos on the set
of a period biopic (AD)
(R) (S)

11.05 Jerk (AD) (R) (S) 11.30
Live NBA Cleveland
Cavaliers v Philadelphia
76ers (tip-off 11.30pm)
(S) 2.05 - 6.00am
News (S)

Variations

BBC Two, 11.15pm; NI, Thu

N IRELAND

The connoisseur’s
choice of well-connected
political documentarian,
Michael Cockerell’s
work-rate has slowed
in recent years; here is
a reminder of what he
did best, in this 2000
profile of the late
political trailblazer
Betty Boothroyd, who
became the first female
speaker of the House of
Commons in 1992. GT

BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Newsline;
Weather 6.30 - 7.00 BBC Newsline; Weather
10.30 BBC Newsline; Weather 10.40 Nolan
Live 11.40 - 2.00am Live NBA BBC Two:
10.00 - 10.30pm The Irish League Show 11.15
Spotlight 11.45 - 12.05am Barra on the Foyle
UTV: 1.50 - 2.00pm UTV Live; Weather 6.00 6.30 UTV Live; Weather 10.30 - 10.45pm UTV
Live; Weather

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm Reporting Scotland;
Weather 2.15 - 3.00 Politics Scotland 6.30 7.00 Reporting Scotland; Weather 8.00 - 9.00
Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr 10.30 10.40pm Reporting Scotland; Weather BBC
Scotland: 7.00pm Getting Hitched Asian

7.30 Emmerdale Leyla is
bound and gagged (AD)
(S)

11.15 Betty Boothroyd: Call
Me Madam See What
to watch (R) (S)
12.05am FILM The
Elephant Man (1980,
b/w) Fact-based drama
starring John Hurt
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S) 2.05 Sign Zone
(R) (S) (SL) 4.05 6.30am This Is BBC
Two (S)
Style 7.30 Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of TV
in Scotland 8.00 The Agency: Unfiltered 8.30
The Disasters That Shocked Scotland 9.00 The
Nine 10.00 Scotland’s Greatest Escape 10.30
Tuned In: 100 Years of Scottish Broadcasting
11.30 Rab C Nesbitt midnight Close STV:
1.50pm STV News; Weather 2.00 - 4.30 STV
Racing: Cheltenham Festival Live 6.00 - 6.30
STV News at Six 10.30 STV News; Weather
10.40 Scotland Tonight; Weather 11.05 12.10am Peston 3.50 - 5.05am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 10.45 - 11.15am X-Ray 1.30 1.45pm BBC Wales Today; Weather 6.30 7.00 BBC Wales Today; Weather 8.00 Legends
of Welsh Sport 8.30 - 9.00 Scarlett’s Driving
School 10.30 BBC Wales Today; Weather
10.35 - 11.05pm BBC Wales Live BBC Two:
No variations ITV1 Wales: 1.50 - 2.00pm ITV
News Cymru Wales; Weather 6.00 - 6.30 ITV
News Wales at Six; Weather 10.30 - 10.45pm
ITV News Cymru Wales; Weather

S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 Newyddion 12.05pm
Anrhegion Melys Richard Holt 12.30 Heno
1.00 Adre 1.30 Bois y Pizza: Chwe’ Gwlad 2.00
Newyddion 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion
3.05 Y Stiwdio Grefftau 4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00
Stwnsh 6.00 Cegin Bryn: Y Dosbarth Meistr
6.30 Rownd a Rownd 6.57 Newyddion 7.00
Heno 7.30 Newyddion 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25
Pen/Campwyr 8.55 Newyddion 9.00 Y Gem
Gyda 9.35 Y Byd ar Bedwar 10.05 Noson
Lawen 11.05 - 11.30pm Cenedl Pêl-Droed
Annibynnol

ITV1 REGIONS
No variations

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

33

Channel 4

Channel 5

BBC Four

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

6.10 am Countdown (R) (S)
6.50 3rd Rock from the Sun
(AD) (R) (S)
7.40 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Frasier (AD) (R) (S)
10.30 Undercover Boss USA
(R) (S)
11.25 News (S)
11.30 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.30 pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch (S)
2.10 Countdown (S)
3.00 Tool Club (S)
4.00 A New Life in the Sun
(R) (S)
5.00 Four in a Bed (S)
5.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
6.00 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
6.30 Hollyoaks (AD) (R) (S)

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
12.45 pm GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (R) (S)
1.40 News (S)
1.45 Home and Away (AD)
(R) (S)
2.15 Martha’s Vineyard
Mystery: Poisoned in
Paradise (S)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun (R) (S)
5.00 News (S)
6.00 Big Road Rescue:
Emergency Call Out (R)
(S)
6.55 News (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

7.00 pm Great British
Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo visits
Cornwall’s county town,
Truro (S)
7.30 The Yorkshire
Dales (S)
8.00 Chris Packham’s
Animal Einsteins The
presenter introduces a
look at animals with
impressive
communication skills,
using everything from
song and sign language to
parts of the light
spectrum humans cannot
see (S)
9.00 Six Wives with Lucy
Worsley The rise and fall
of Anne Boleyn in Henry
VIII’s affections (S)
10.00 The Six Wives of Henry
VIII (S)
11.30 The Six Wives of Henry
VIII (S)
1.00 am Great British
Railway Journeys (S)
1.30 The Yorkshire Dales (S)
2.00 Africa with Ade
Adepitan (S)
3.00 - 4.00am Six Wives
with Lucy Worsley (S)

12.00 noon Skinner & Minaís
Literary Road Trip:
Pope & Swift (S)
1.00 pm Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
1.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
2.00 Wonderland: From JM
Barrie to JRR Tolkien
(S)
3.00 Landscape Artist of the
Year 2019 (S)
4.00 Discovering: Matt
Damon (S)
5.00 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
5.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
6.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
7.00 Portrait Artist of the
Year 2017 (S)
8.00 Best of Portrait Artist
of the Year 2022 (AD)
(S)
9.00 Blitzed: The 80s Blitz
Kids’ Story (S)
11.00 Guy Garvey: From the
Vaults (S)
12.00 - 1.15am Women Who
Rock (S)

11.00 am Ice Cold in Alex
(1958, b/w) Second
World War drama starring
John Mills (AD) (S)
1.40 pm We’re No Angels
(1955) Comedy starring
Humphrey Bogart (AD)
(S)
3.50 The Caine Mutiny
(1954) US Navy officers
rebel against their erratic
captain during a violent
storm at sea, resulting in a
court martial. Second
World War drama with
Humphrey Bogart and
Jose Ferrer (AD) (S)
6.20 X-Men: Apocalypse
(2016) Superhero
adventure sequel with
James McAvoy and
Michael Fassbender (AD)
(S)
9.00 The Equalizer 2 (2018)
Action thriller starring
Denzel Washington (AD)
(S)
11.20 - 1.40am Trading
Places (1983) Comedy
starring Dan Aykroyd and
Eddie Murphy ● See
Films on TV, p22 (AD)
(S)

11.00 am FILM Sailor
Beware! (1956, b/w)
Comedy starring Peggy
Mount (S)
12.40 pm FILM Jackpot
(1960, b/w) Crime drama
starring William Hartnell
(S)
2.00 Upstairs, Downstairs
3.00 Saddle Up (S)
3.05 FILM Rage at Dawn
(1955) Western starring
Randolph Scott (S)
4.50 Saddle Up (S)
4.55 FILM The Outlaws Is
Coming (1965, b/w)
Comedy Western starring
the Three Stooges (S)
6.40 Saddle Up (S)
6.45 The Westerner (S)
7.15 Law of the Plainsman
(S)
7.45 Look at Life
8.00 Gideon’s Way A gang of
thieves rob a plane
carrying gold bullion (S)
9.00 FILM Brannigan (1975)
Detective thriller starring
John Wayne (S)
11.15 - 1.05am FILM Thieves’
Highway (1949, b/w)
Thriller starring Richard
Conte (S)

7.00 News Including sport and
weather (S)
7.55 The Political Slot
Political comment from
the Labour Party (S)

7.00 The Gadget Show:
Shop Smart, Save
Money Ortis and Georgie
check out some of the
latest DJ equipment and
speakers (S)
7.55 News (S)

8.00 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It: Brilliant
Builds Kirstie and Phil
look back at a tale of two
unfinished projects (AD)
(S)

8.00 Secret Life of the
Forest The young beaver
kits bond with the rest of
the family (S)

9.00 The Piano: The Final
A concert at The Royal
Festival Hall sets the
stage for the final of the
competition See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.15 Gogglebox: 10 Year
Anniversary Special
(AD) (R) (S)
11.50 Kathy Burke: Growing
Up (AD) (R) (S) (SL)
12.45am Ramsay’s
Kitchen Nightmares
USA (R) (S) (SL) 1.35
Undercover Ambulance:
NHS in Chaos:
Dispatches (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 2.30 Couples
Come Dine with Me (R)
(S) 3.25 Extraordinary
Escapes with Sandi
Toksvig (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 4.20 George
Clarke’s Remarkable
Renovations (AD) (R)
(S) (SL) 5.15 - 6.10am
Location, Location,
Location (R) (S)

9.00 Tyrant: The Rise of
Adolf Hitler New series.
A radical re-telling of the
events that lead to the
Second World War See
What to watch (S)

10.00 Casualty 24/7: Every
Second Counts (R) (S)

11.05 Motorway Cops:
Catching Britain’s
Speeders (R) (S)
12.05am Police: Elite
Raid Squad (R) (S) 1.00
The LeoVegas Live
Casino Show (S) 3.00
Hijacked (R) (S) 4.35
The Blitz: Britain on Fire
(R) (S) 5.25 Nick’s
Quest (R) (S) (SL) 5.55
- 6.00am Peppa Pig (R)
(S) (SL)

More digital,
satellite
& cable

Travel Man: 48 Hours in Lisbon 6.00
Taskmaster 7.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games 7.40 Room 101 8.20
Would I Lie to You? 9.00 QI XL 10.00
World’s Most Dangerous Roads 11.00
Taskmaster 12.00 Mock the Week 12.40
- 1.20am QI XL

ITV2

DISCOVERY

FV 6 SKY 118

SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

1.00pm Dress to Impress 2.00
Supermarket Sweep 3.05 Chuck 4.00
One Tree Hill 5.00 The O.C 6.00 Celebrity
Catchphrase 7.00 The Masked Singer US
8.00 Superstore 9.00 Loaded in Paradise
10.00 Family Guy 11.35 American Dad!
12.35 - 1.30am Superstore

3.00pm Building Off the Grid 4.00
Alaska: Homestead Rescue 5.00
Wheeler Dealers 6.00 British Treasure,
American Gold 7.00 Kindig Customs
8.00 Dive Wars Australia 9.00 Gold
Divers 11.00 Moonshiners 12.00 1.00am Expedition Bigfoot

More4

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

8.55 am Kirstie’s Handmade
Treasures (S)
9.15 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.05 A New Life in the Sun
(S)
11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
12.05 pm Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
1.10 Heir Hunters (S)
2.10 Four in a Bed (S)
4.50 Location, Location,
Location (S)
5.55 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It (AD) (S)
6.55 Escape to the Chateau:
DIY (AD) (S)
7.55 Grand Designs (AD) (S)
9.00 999: On the Front Line
(R) (S)
10.15 The Piano: The Concert
See What to watch (AD)
(S)
11.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
12.20 am 999: On the Front
Line (S)
1.30 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown (S)
2.30 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
3.30 - 4.00am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)

11.15 am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (AD) (S)
12.20 pm Heartbeat (AD) (S)
1.25 Classic Emmerdale (S)
2.00 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
2.30 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
3.35 Midsomer Murders A
womaniser is murdered
with an ancient spear
(AD) (S)
5.40 Downton Abbey A
Canadian officer is
brought to Downton for
recuperation (AD) (S)
6.55 Heartbeat A fur factory
is raided (AD) (S)
8.00 Grace Branson and
Grace investigate the
murder of a socialite (AD)
(S)
10.00 Grantchester Geordie
and Will realise they may
have sent the wrong
person to prison (AD) (S)
11.00 Agatha Christie’s
Poirot An aircraft
manufacturer tries to trap
a spy (AD) (S)
12.10 - 1.10am Where the
Heart Is (AD) (S)

11.50 am Robin of Sherwood
1.00 pm ITV Racing Live:
Cheltenham Festival
The 1.30 Ballymore
Novices’ Hurdle (S)
2.05 Nine Dart Finishes (S)
2.10 River Monsters (AD) (S)
2.40 Magnum, PI (S)
3.45 The Sweeney A lorry
containing cigars is
hijacked (S)
4.55 Minder Arthur launches a
despatch rider agency
(AD) (S)
6.00 Extreme Salvage
Squad Removing a
10-metre steel-hulled
yacht from Cockburn
Beach in Western
Australia (S)
6.55 The Chase Celebrity
Special (S)
8.00 FILM Live and Let Die
(1973) James Bond spy
adventure starring Roger
Moore (AD) (S)
10.30 English Football
League Highlights
Action from the latest
fixtures (S)
12.00 - 1.05am The Sweeney
(S)

11.10 am Gomorrah (R) (S)
12.15 pm Game of Thrones
(AD) (R) (S)
1.20 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
2.25 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Gomorrah (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.50 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
7.55 Game of Thrones Bran
trains with the ThreeEyed Raven, while at
Castle Black, the Night’s
Watch stands behind
Alliser Thorne. Fantasy
drama starring Isaac
Hempstead-Wright (AD)
(R) (S)
9.00 Django John and Django
try to trick Elizabeth by
organising two
expeditions, one with the
oil barrels they intend to
sell and the second with
just water (S)
10.05 Django (S)
11.10 The Last of Us (R)
12.10 - 1.20am Perry Mason
(AD) (R) (S)

and Magic 4.00 The Directors 5.00
Discovering: Gregory Peck 6.00 The
Nineties 7.00 Escobar by Escobar 8.00
The Vow 9.00 FILM Man on Wire (2008)
11.00 - 1.30am FILM Cobain: Montage
of Heck (2015)

Zealand 3.00 Gangs of Lemur Island
4.00 Extreme Africa 5.00 The Wadden
Sea 6.00 New Kids in the Wild 7.00
Monkey Life 8.00 Patagonia 9.00 Tales
from Zambia 10.00 The Wadden Sea
11.00 New Kids in the Wild 12.00 1.00am Mysteries of the Mekong

EastEnders 2.00 Howards’ Way 3.10
Lovejoy 4.20 Peak Practice 5.20 The
Brittas Empire 6.00 Keeping Up
Appearances 6.40 Last of the Summer
Wine 8.00 Sister Boniface Mysteries
9.00 Strike: Lethal White 10.20 New
Tricks 11.20 Cutting It 12.40 - 1.45am
Bad Girls

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT

PBS AMERICA
FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

1.00pm Beautiful Serengeti 1.30 Living
in Germany at War 2.40 World War II
Unearthed 3.55 Dunkirk 5.00 Inside
Japan’s War 6.05 Living in Germany at
War 7.15 World War II Unearthed 8.30
Dunkirk 9.40 Inside Japan’s War 10.45
World War II Unearthed 12.00 - 1.15am
Dunkirk

DAVE

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

SKY NATURE

FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

SKY 121

SKY 124

1.00pm Cop Car Workshop 2.00 Top
Gear 4.00 Australian Ninja Warrior 5.30

noon FILM Siempre, Luis (2020)
2.00pm Laurel and Hardy: Their Lives

noon New Kids in the Wild 1.00pm
Monkey Life 2.00 Wildlife Rescue New

SKY MAX
SKY 113

2.00pm S.W.A.T 3.00 Quantum Leap
4.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 5.00
Supergirl 6.00 Stargate SG-1 8.00
S.W.A.T 9.00 SEAL Team 10.00 A
League of Their Own Road Trip:
Southeast Asia 11.00 Fantasy Football
League 11.35 Funny Woman 12.35 1.35am Strike Back: Vengeance

DRAMA
FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

11.40am The Bill 12.40pm Classic

YESTERDAY

SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

noon Sky Sports News 2.00pm Live
Pakistan Super League 6.00 Sky Sports
News 7.00 Gillette Labs Soccer Special
7.30 Live EFL. Sunderland v Sheffield
United (Kick-off 8.00pm) 10.30 Back
Pages Tonight 11.00 Sky Sports News
12.00 - 5.00am Sky Sports News

FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon Great British Railway Journeys
1.30pm Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 2.00 Bangers and Cash
4.00 War Factories 5.00 The World at
War 6.00 Great British Railway Journeys
6.30 Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 7.00 Secrets of the
London Underground 8.00 Bangers and
Cash 9.00 Joanna Lumley’s Japan
10.00 Bangers and Cash 11.00
Abandoned Engineering 12.00 - 1.00am
Great British Railway Journeys

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

10.00am Live World Baseball Classic
1.30pm The Football’s On 2.30 WSL
Presents 3.30 Premier League Stories
4.00 Serie A – Full Impact 4.30 Premier
League 6.00 The Football’s On 7.00 Live
Uefa Champions League 10.30 Uefa
Champions League Tonight 11.30 The
Football’s On 12.30 - 1.00am Serie A _
Full Impact

34

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Thursday 16 March
BBC One
6.00
9.15
10.00
10.45
11.15
12.15
1.00
1.30
1.45
2.15
3.00
3.45
4.30
5.15
6.00
6.30

am Breakfast (S)
Morning Live (S)
Crimewatch Live (S)
Critical Incident (S)
Homes Under the
Hammer (AD) (R) (S)
pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
BBC News at One;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)
Doctors (AD) (S)
Jay Blades’ Home Fix
(R) (S)
Escape to the Country
(AD) (R) (S)
Antiques Road Trip (S)
Bridge of Lies (R) (S)
Pointless (R) (S)
BBC News at Six;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)

BBC Two
6.30 am Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
7.15 Antiques Road Trip (R)
(S)
8.00 Sign Zone
9.00 News (S)
10.00 News (S)
12.15 pm Politics Live (S)
1.00 Impossible (R) (S)
1.45 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.15 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.45 Hairy Bikers’ Best of
British (R) (S)
3.30 Land of the Lost
Wolves (AD) (R) (S)
4.30 Priceless Antiques
Roadshow (R) (S)
5.00 Flog It! (R) (S)
6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games (R) (S)
6.30 Coast to Coast Food
Festival (S)

7.00 The One Show Live chat
and topical reports with
Jermaine Jenas and
Rylan (S)
7.30 EastEnders Jay cannot
believe Lola thinks he
would cheat (AD) (S)

7.00 Saving Lives at Sea
A cargo ship loses all
power and is drifting
towards rocks (AD) (R)
(S)

8.00 Dragons’ Den An
Olympic athlete hopes for
a podium finish for her
figure skating clothing
brand (AD) (S)

8.00 Great British Menu The
two highest scoring chefs
from Northern Ireland
cook their six-course
menus again (S)

9.00 The Apprentice Familiar
faces return to interrogate
the final five candidates
on their business plans
See What to watch (S)

9.00 Murder in the Pacific
The bomber reveals how
he planted bombs on the
Greenpeace ship,
Rainbow Warrior. Last in
the series (AD) (S)

10.00 BBC News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.40 Question Time (S)

11.40 Newscast (S) 12.10am
Have I Got News for You
(R) (S) 12.40 Celebrity
Mastermind (R) (S) 1.10
Bill Bailey: Larks in
Transit (R) (S) 2.15 6.00am News (S)

Variations
N IRELAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Newsline
6.30 - 7.00 BBC Newsline 10.30 BBC
Newsline 10.40 The View 11.20 Question
Time 12.20am Newscast 12.55 - 1.10am
The Chronicles of Erne BBC Two: 11.15pm
Betty Boothroyd: Call Me Madam 12.05am
Slammed: The Seventies 1.05 - 1.15am Suzie
Lee: Home Cook Hero UTV: 12.50 - 1.00pm
UTV Live 6.00 - 6.30 UTV Live 10.30 UTV
Live 10.45 - 11.10pm Lough Foyle

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 11.15am Bargain Hunt 12.00 1.00pm First Minister’s Questions 1.30 1.45 Reporting Scotland 6.30 - 7.00
Reporting Scotland 10.30 - 10.40pm
Reporting Scotland BBC Scotland:

10.00 The Apprentice: You’re
Fired Tom Allen talks to
the latest candidate to
leave the competition (S)
10.30 Newsnight (S)

11.15 Slammed: The
Seventies (AD) (R) (S)
12.15am Saving Lives in
Leeds (AD) (R) (S) 1.15
Sign Zone (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 3.30 - 6.30am
This Is BBC Two (S)
7.00pm Iain Robertson Rambles 7.30
Scotland’s Greatest Escape 8.00 Long Live
Livi 8.30 Food Fest Scotland 9.00 The Nine
10.00 Scot Squad 10.30 Selling Scotland
11.30 Loop midnight Close STV: 12.50pm
STV News 1.00 - 4.30 STV Racing:
Cheltenham Festival Live 6.00 - 6.30 STV
News 8.30 - 9.00 Scotland Tonight 10.30
STV News 10.45 - 11.10 The Martin Lewis
Money Show: Live 12.10 - 3.00am Shop:
Ideal World 3.50 - 5.05am Night Vision

WALES
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Wales Today
6.30 BBC Wales Today 7.00 - 7.30 Six
Nations Sin Bin 10.30 - 10.40 BBC Wales
Today 12.10am Dark Land: Hunting the
Killers 12.50 Have I Got News for You 1.20
Celebrity Mastermind 1.50 - 6.00am BBC
News BBC Two: 7.00pm The One Show
7.30 - 8.00pm Nadiya’s Everyday Baking
ITV1 Wales: 12.50 - 1.00pm ITV News
Cymru Wales 6.00 - 6.30 ITV News Wales

ITV1
6.00 am Good Morning
Britain (S)
9.00 Lorraine (S)
10.00 This Morning (S)
12.30 pm ITV Lunchtime
News (S)
12.50 Regional News (S)
1.00 ITV Racing:
Cheltenham Festival
Live Ed Chamberlin
presents coverage of day
three of the prestigious
festival, including the
2.50 Ryanair Chase and
3.30 Stayers Hurdle, plus
races at 1.30, 2.10 and
4.10 (S)
4.30 Tipping Point: Best
Ever Finals (S)
5.00 The Chase (R) (S)
6.00 Regional News
Programme (S)
6.30 ITV Evening News (S)

Channel 4
6.10 am Countdown (R) (S)
6.50 3rd Rock from the Sun
(AD) (R) (S)
7.40 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Frasier (AD) (R) (S)
10.30 Undercover Boss USA
(R) (S)
11.25 News (S)
11.30 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.30 pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch (S)
2.10 Countdown (S)
3.00 Tool Club (S)
4.00 A New Life in the Sun
(R) (S)
5.00 Four in a Bed (S)
5.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
6.00 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
6.30 Hollyoaks (AD) (R) (S)

7.00 News Including sport and
weather (S)

7.30 Emmerdale Marshall
seems confused (AD) (S)

8.30 The Martin Lewis
Money Show: Live How
the spring budget is likely
to affect personal
finances See What to
watch (S)
9.00 Cold Case Detectives
Detectives investigate a
60-year-old murder See
What to watch (AD) (S)

10.00 ITV News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News (S)
10.45 Regional Debate (S)

11.10 Morse and the Last
Endeavour (AD) (R) (S)
12.10am All Elite
Wrestling: Rampage (R)
(S) 1.10 Shop: Ideal
World 3.00 Unforgotten
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 3.50
Unwind with ITV (S)
5.05 - 6.00am Bling (R)
(S) (SL)
10.30 ITV News Cymru Wales; Weather
10.45 - 11.10pm Coast & Country

S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 Newyddion 12.05pm
Sain Ffagan 12.30 Heno 1.00 Pen/Campwyr
1.30 Y Byd ar Bedwar 2.00 Newyddion 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion 3.05 Corau
Rhys Meirion 4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00 Stwnsh
6.00 Cheer am Byth 6.30 Bois y Pizza:
Chwe’ Gwlad 6.57 Newyddion 7.00 Heno
7.30 Newyddion 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25
Rownd a Rownd 8.55 Newyddion 9.00
Jonathan 10.00 Curadur 10.30 Am Dro!
11.30 - 12.05am Galw Nain Nain Nain

ITV1 REGIONS

7.55 The Political Slot The
Conservative Party’s
vision for Scotland’s new
freeports (S)
8.00 The Dog House Two
very different puppies are
offered to a couple and
their two little girls (AD)
(R) (S)

Channel 5

BBC Four

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
12.45 pm GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (AD) (R) (S)
1.40 News (S)
1.45 Home and Away (AD)
(R) (S)
2.15 FILM The House on the
Hill (2019, TVM) Thriller
starring Samaire
Armstrong (S)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun (AD) (R) (S)
5.00 News (S)
6.00 Big Road Rescue:
Emergency Call Out
(AD) (R) (S)
6.55 News (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

7.00 World’s Most Scenic
River Journeys A
journey down Italy’s River
Po (R) (S)

7.55 News (S)
8.00 Isle of Wight: Jewel of
the South The island’s
High Sheriff attends the
annual steam fair (S)

9.00 A Country Life for Half
the Price with Kate
Humble Part one of two.
The presenter joins
families moving to
pastures new See What
to watch (S)

9.00 Nazanin Documentary
about Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe, who was
detained in Iran and
accused of spying. Her
husband Richard
launched a concerted
campaign to have her
released See What to
watch (AD) (S)
10.30 Gogglebox (AD) (R) (S)
11.35 Gogglebox (AD) (R) (S)
12.35am Sex Actually
with Alice Levine (AD)
(R) (S) 1.25 Ramsay’s
Kitchen Nightmares
USA (R) (S) (SL) 2.15
FILM The Keeping
Room (2014) (S) (SL)
3.50 Couples Come
Dine with Me (R) (S)
4.40 Jamie: Keep
Cooking and Carry On
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 5.05
Kirstie’s House of Craft
(R) (S) 5.15 - 6.10am
Location, Location,
Location (R) (S)

10.00 Killer at the Crime
Scene Forensic teams
investigate a murder
made to look like suicide
(R) (S)
11.00 The Philpott Fire: What
Happened Next (R) (S)
12.30am 999:
Criminals Caught on
Camera (R) (S) 1.20 The
LeoVegas Live Casino
Show (S) 3.20
Entertainment News on
5 (S) 4.15 World’s
Busiest Train Stations
(R) (S) 5.05 Railways
That Built Britain (AD)
(R) (S) (SL) 5.55 6.00am Peppa Pig (R)
(S) (SL)

More digital,
satellite
& cable

4.00 Australian Ninja Warrior 5.30 Travel
Man: 48 Hours in Naples 6.00
Taskmaster 7.00 Richard Osman’s House
of Games 7.40 Room 101 8.20 Would I Lie
to You? 9.00 QI XL 10.00 Late Night
Mash 11.00 Taskmaster 12.00 Mock the
Week 12.40 - 1.20am QI XL

ITV2

DISCOVERY

FV 6 SKY 118

SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

2.00pm Supermarket Sweep 3.05
Chuck 4.00 One Tree Hill 5.00 The O.C
6.00 Catchphrase Celebrity Special
7.00 The Masked Singer US 8.00
Superstore 9.00 Loaded in Paradise
10.00 Family Guy 11.30 American Dad!
12.30 - 1.30am Superstore

1.00pm Gold Rush 3.00 Building Off
the Grid 4.00 Alaska: Homestead
Rescue 5.00 Wheeler Dealers 6.00
British Treasure, American Gold 7.00
Kindig Customs 8.00 Dive Wars
Australia 9.00 Naked and Afraid 12.00 1.00am Expedition Bigfoot

7.00 pm Great British
Railway Journeys (S)
7.30 The Yorkshire Dales (S)
8.00 Michael Caine: Acting
in Film The Oscar-winner
teaches a workshop on
the art of movie acting (S)
9.00 FILM The Ipcress File
(1965) A spy investigating
the kidnap and
brainwashing of Britain’s
leading scientists
uncovers evidence of
high-powered doubledealing. Thriller with
Michael Caine and
Gordon Jackson (S)
10.45 FILM Funeral in Berlin
(1966) A disreputable
spy engineers the
defection of a Russian
officer guarding Soviet
military secrets. Cold War
thriller, with Michael
Caine (S)
12.25 am Great British
Railway Journeys (S)
12.55 The Yorkshire Dales (S)
1.25 Michael Caine: Acting
in Film (S)
2.25 - 3.25am Chris
Packham’s Animal
Einsteins (S) (SL)

More4
FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

8.55 am Kirstie’s Vintage
Gems (S)
9.15 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.05 A New Life in the Sun
(S)
11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
12.05 pm Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
1.10 Heir Hunters (S)
2.10 Four in a Bed (S)
4.50 Location, Location,
Location (S)
5.55 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It (AD) (S)
6.55 Escape to the Chateau:
DIY (AD) (S)
7.55 Grand Designs (AD) (S)
9.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
10.00 999: What’s Your
Emergency? (AD) (S)
11.05 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
12.05 am 999: On the Front
Line (S)
1.10 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown (S)
2.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
3.20 - 3.50am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)
5.00 Discovering: Claudia Cardinale
6.00 The Nineties 7.00 Escobar by
Escobar 8.00 The Vow 9.00 I Am Patrick
Swayze 10.50 - 1.00am Sergio Leone:
The Italian Who Invented America

PBS AMERICA
FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

1.40pm Living in Germany at War 2.55
The Harlem Hellfighters’ Great War 4.00
Putin and the Presidents 5.15 Inside
Japan’s War 6.20 Living in Germany at
War 7.30 The Harlem Hellfighters’ Great
War 8.35 Putin and the Presidents 9.50
Inside Japan’s War 10.55 The Harlem
Hellfighters’ Great War 12.00 - 1.15am
Putin and the Presidents

No variations

DAVE

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

SKY NATURE

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

SKY 121

SKY 124

12.30pm The Force: Behind the Line
1.00 Cop Car Workshop 2.00 Top Gear

2.00pm FILM Won’t You Be My
Neighbor? (2018) 4.00 The Directors

1.00pm Monkey Life 2.00 Wildlife
Rescue New Zealand 3.00 Gangs of

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

35

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

12.00 noon Tate Britain’s
Great Art Walks (S)
1.00 pm Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
1.30 Tales of the
Unexpected
(AD) (S)
2.00 Van Gogh: An Exclusive
View: From Tate Britain
(S)
3.00 Landscape Artist of the
Year 2019 (S)
4.00 Discovering: Frances
McDormand (S)
5.00 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
5.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
6.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
7.00 The Story of British
Cinema: The Pioneer
Years (S)
8.30 The Cavern Club: The
Beat Goes On (AD) (S)
10.00 The Movies (S)
11.00 - 1.30am FILM Jane
Fonda In Five Acts
(2018) An intimate look
at the life and work of
Jane Fonda (S)

11.00 am All the King’s Men
(1949, b/w) Political
drama starring Broderick
Crawford (S)
1.15 pm Winchester ’73
(1950, b/w) Western
starring James Stewart
(AD) (S)
3.05 Ten Wanted Men (1955)
Western starring
Randolph Scott (AD) (S)
4.45 O.S.S (1946, b/w) A spy
is parachuted into France
shortly before D-Day to
complete a perilous topsecret mission. Second
World War adventure
starring Alan Ladd and
Geraldine Fitzgerald (S)
6.55 Hampstead (2017)
Comedy starring Brendan
Gleeson ● See Films on
TV, p22 (AD) (S)
9.00 Hitman (2007) Action
thriller starring Timothy
Olyphant (AD) (S)
10.50 The Mustang (2019)
Drama starring Matthias
Schoenaerts (S)
12.45 - 3.15am A Most
Wanted Man (2014)
Thriller starring Philip
Seymour Hoffman (S)

12.00 noon The History of the
Record Industry: It’s in
the Groove!
12.20 pm FILM The Hunters
(1958) Korean War
adventure starring Robert
Mitchum (S)
2.30 Crown Court (S)
3.00 Melvyn’s Talking
Pictures (S)
3.10 FILM The Ware Case
(1938, b/w) Mystery
starring Clive Brook (S)
4.40 Melvyn’s Talking
Pictures (S)
4.50 FILM The Magnet
(1950) Comedy starring
Stephen Murray (S)
6.25 FILM The Hi-jackers
(1963, b/w) Crime drama
starring Anthony Booth
(S)
7.45 Look at Life
8.00 The Saint (S)
9.00 Justice
10.00 FILM The Spaniard’s
Curse (1958, b/w)
Thriller starring Tony
Wright (S)
11.30 - 1.20am FILM The
Wayward Bus (1957,
b/w) Drama starring Joan
Collins (S)

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

11.15 am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (AD) (S)
12.20 pm Heartbeat (AD) (S)
1.25 Classic Emmerdale (S)
2.00 Classic Emmerdale (S)
3.00 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
3.35 Midsomer Murders
Barnaby and Scott
uncover corruption,
sexual scandal
and financial
mismanagement
among Midsomer St
Michael’s literary
community as they
investigate the murder of
an author (AD) (S)
5.40 Downton Abbey A new
development stuns the
family (AD) (S)
6.55 Heartbeat A schoolgirl
holds the key to a
shooting incident (AD)
(S)
8.00 Grace Skeletal remains
are found in a Brighton
storm drain (AD) (S)
10.00 DI Ray (AD) (S)
11.00 DI Ray (AD) (S)
12.05 - 1.10am Where the
Heart Is (AD) (S) (SL)

11.05 am Dempsey and
Makepeace (AD) (S)
12.05 pm Robin of Sherwood
(S)
1.15 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
2.15 Magnum, PI (S)
3.15 The Sweeney A pools
winner is blackmailed (S)
4.25 Minder (AD) (S)
5.30 English Football
League Highlights
Action from the latest
fixtures (S)
7.00 The Chase Celebrity
Special (S)
8.00 Junk and Disorderly
Henry Cole and his team
buy a vintage Massey
Ferguson tractor (S)
9.00 FILM The Man with the
Golden Gun (1974)
James Bond adventure
starring Roger Moore and
Christopher Lee
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S)
11.35 - 1.50am FILM High
Plains Drifter (1973)
Western directed by and
starring Clint Eastwood.
Includes FYI Daily (S)

11.10 am Gomorrah (R) (S)
12.15 pm Game of Thrones
(AD) (R) (S)
1.20 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
2.25 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Gomorrah (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.50 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
7.55 Game of Thrones While
Daenerys meets her
future, Bran meets the
past. Elsewhere,
Tommen confronts the
High Sparrow, and Arya
continues her training.
Starring Emilia Clarke
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Billions A lawyer and a
hedge fund king try to
outmanoeuvre each other
in the world of New York
City high finance. Drama
starring Paul Giamatti and
Damian Lewis (AD) (R)
(S)
10.15 The Last of Us (R)
11.15 Django (R) (S)
12.20 - 1.25am Django (R) (S)

Lemur Island 4.00 Extreme Africa 5.00
The Wadden Sea 6.00 New Kids in the
Wild 7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Mysteries of
the Mekong 9.00 America’s Wild
Seasons 10.00 The Wadden Sea 11.00
New Kids in the Wild 12.00 - 1.00am
Battle of the Alphas

EastEnders 2.00 Howards’ Way 3.10
Lovejoy 4.20 Peak Practice 5.20 The
Brittas Empire 6.00 Keeping Up
Appearances 6.40 Last of the Summer
Wine 8.00 PD James: The Murder Room.
Conclusion of the two-part drama,
starring Martin Shaw 10.00 New Tricks
11.20 Cutting It 12.40 - 1.40am Bad
Girls

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT

SKY MAX
SKY 113

1.00pm Hawaii Five-0 2.00 S.W.A.T
3.00 Quantum Leap 4.00 DC’s Legends
of Tomorrow 5.00 Supergirl 6.00
Stargate SG-1 8.00 The 80s: Cinema’s
Greatest Decade 9.00 A Town Called
Malice See What to watch 10.10
Funny Woman 11.10 Brassic 12.10 1.10am NCIS: Los Angeles

DRAMA
FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

11.40am The Bill 12.40pm Classic

YESTERDAY
FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

noon Great British Railway Journeys
1.00pm Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 2.00 Bangers and Cash
4.00 War Factories 5.00 The World at
War 6.00 Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 7.00 Secrets of the
London Underground 8.00 Bangers and
Cash 9.00 Hornby: A Model World 10.00
Bangers and Cash 11.00 Abandoned
Engineering 12.00 - 1.00am Bangers
and Cash

SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

10.30am Live One-Day International
Cricket 1.50pm Live Pakistan Super
League 6.00 Live PGA Tour Golf 7.30
Live Betfred Super League 10.15 Sky
Sports News 10.30 Back Pages Tonight
11.00 Sky Sports News 12.00 - 5.00am
Sky Sports News

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

noon WWE Friday Night SmackDown
1.30pm Deaf Away Days 1.45 The WRC
Magazine 2.15 ESPN FC 2.45 Premier
League _ The Big Interview 3.15 The
Football’s On 4.15 ESPN FC Presents:
Gab & Juls 4.45 Deaf Away Days
5.00 Live Uefa Europa League 8.15 Live
Uefa Europa League 10.00 - 6.00am
Live Test Cricket

WHAT TO
WATCH
Littner, who returns after
a period of illness to tear
apart the candidates’
careers, business plans
and general personalities.
Advisor Karren Brady
also makes a return to the
interviewing chair.

COLD CASE
DETECTIVES
ITV1, 9pm

In this second week,
detectives interview
a key witness in the case
of Carol Ann Stephens,
a six year-old girl was
murdered in Cardiff
60 years ago. He could
help to identify the killer,
but it’s a tough ask for
a man who was himself
a child at the time.

i Jack Rowan, Lex Shrapnel and Jason Flemyng star

A TOWN CALLED MALICE
Sky Max, 9pm

Few dramas feel so
immediately alive,
so crackling with
personality and style,
as A Town Called Malice.
Set in the early 1980s,
it follows the Lords,
a family of struggling
south London gangsters.
They are led by tough
patriarch Albert, played
by Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels’ Jason
Flemyng. This first
episode, however, is
more concerned with his
son, Gene (Jack Rowan),
whose whirlwind
romance with barmaid
Cindy (Tahirah Sharif)
leads to them fleeing to
the Costa del Sol in Spain,
where they take refuge
from the law under the
guidance of Albert’s
gaudy brother, Tony

(Dougray Scott, having
a suntanned ball).
It is created by Nick
Love, whose past credits
are awash with stylised
cockney crime movies
such as The Business and
2012 remake The Sweeney.
The tone here is similar,
but far more polished –
a six-part gangster story
that feels more like it was
ripped from the pages of
a comic book. The
dialogue flows with
a fast, sparky wit; while
visually, scenes are
elevated by a marriage
of nimble direction and
a striking neon-soaked
colour palette. Not to
mention the selection of
surgically deployed 1980s
pop classics, and a cameo
from Paul Weller.
Stephen Kelly

BALI 2002
ITVX

The 2002 terrorist attack
on the Indonesian island
killed 202 people, many
of whom were tourists
dancing in a targeted
nightclub. This four-part
Australian drama retells
the events from multiple
perspectives, although its
mediocre script doesn’t
quite match up to the
magnitude of its subject
matter.

THE MARTIN
LEWIS MONEY
SHOW: LIVE
ITV1, 8.30pm;
STV, 10.45pm

The money-saving
crusader hosts a special
show breaking down
yesterday’s spring budget
and exploring what it
means for our personal

NAZANIN

Channel 4, 9pm
In 2016, British-Iranian
charity worker Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was
arrested at Tehran airport
and imprisoned by the
Iranian state. This

i A Country Life for Half
the Price: Kate Humble

extraordinary
documentary tells the
story of her husband
Richard’s tireless efforts
to get her home (she was
finally released last year).
Some moments are
heartbreaking, others
fascinating – such as
Richard’s angry reaction
to then-foreign secretary
Boris Johnson’s claim that
Nazanin was in Iran to
train journalists.

A COUNTRY LIFE
FOR HALF THE
PRICE
Channel 5, 9pm

i ITVX’s drama is set during
the 2002 Bali terrorist attack

finances. High on Lewis’s
agenda will no doubt be
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s
plans for energy bill
support, as households
continue to feel the
pinch of rising costs.

THE APPRENTICE
BBC One, 9pm

Brace yourself – it’s
the interview episode.
The star, as ever, is
antagonistic Claude

Natural history presenter
Kate Humble lives and
breathes country life. In
this returning two-part
series, she follows couples
such as aspiring farmers
Pete and Sharon, who
have given up city life in
Bristol to move 700 miles
away to the remote
Scottish isles of Orkney.
They are more adept
than you might expect.
Although that doesn’t
mean that island life, with
its predatory seals and
75mph winds, is easy. SK

36

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Television Friday 17 March
WHAT TO
WATCH
inviting US chat show
supremo David
Letterman to Dublin for
a tour of their hometown
and a nostalgic dive into
the wellspring of their
musical inspirations.
Plus, they (sort of) play
the hits in a special
one-off concert of
stripped-back U2 classics.

GARDENERS’
WORLD
BBC Two, 8pm

i David Tennant presents this year’s charity event

COMIC RELIEF 2023
BBC One & Two, from 7pm

The biennial comedy
behemoth returns for
another night of
sketches, skits, surprises
and starry performances
to raise money for
charitable good causes
at home and around the
planet. Leading the
celebrity presenter
line-up this year is actor
David Tennant, who’s
joined over the course
of the evening by a string
of other famous faces
including Zoe Ball, Joel
Dommett, AJ Odudu and
Paddy McGuinness.
Ghosts, Love Island,
Doctor Who and The
Traitors are among the
top TV shows happily
subjecting themselves to
merciless parody, though
this year’s most hotly
anticipated sketch, by

some distance, will be
Tony Robinson’s return
to the role of Baldrick (for
the first time in almost
a quarter of a century)
reading a “Blackadder
bedtime story” written
by Richard Curtis. Watch
out, also, for When
Comic Relief Did Big
Brother on BBC Two,
at 10pm, looking back
to 2001 when celebrities
including Jack Dee,
Vanessa Feltz and Claire
Sweeney endured eight
eventful days in the Big
Brother house for Comic
Relief; and Comic Relief:
The Best of the Best Bits,
on BBC One at 10.40pm,
which looks back at
a multitude of highlights
from the past 35 years of
joyous extravaganzas.
Gerard O’Donovan

SWARM

Amazon Prime Video
This unsettling
(especially for Beyoncé
fans) seven-part drama
walks a thin line between
slick comedy-horror
and weird psycho-killer
gorefest. Co-created by
Janine Nabers and
Atlanta’s Donald Glover, it
stars Dominique Fishback
as Dre, a young woman
whose obsession with a
popstar takes her to some
very, very dark places.

EXTRAPOLATIONS
Apple TV+

There’s a rather too
hectoring tone to much
of Apple’s star-strewn
(Meryl Streep, Sienna
Miller, Edward Norton,
et al) futuristic anthology
focused on the likely
horrors of climate change

i Bono & the Edge meet

David Letterman on Disney+

and what awaits if we
don’t stop capitalism
killing the planet. The
first three of eight
episodes arrive today.

BONO & THE
EDGE: A SORT OF
HOMECOMING
WITH DAVE
LETTERMAN
Disney+

A St Patrick’s Day special,
with the U2 superstars

Monty Don and the
team make a welcome
return to Friday nights.
They have a busy start
with essential rose
maintenance, planting
clematis and rocket,
cutting back grasses and
getting on with sowing
the annuals. Elsewhere,
Carol Klein visits
Colesbourne Gardens
in Gloucestershire and
Adam Frost has a look
around RHS Hyde Hall
in Essex.

j Marion Cotillard is among

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

6.00
9.15
10.00
10.45
11.15

6.30 am Escape to the
Country (AD) (R) (S)
7.15 Antiques Road Trip (R)
(S)
8.00 Sign Zone
9.00 News (S)
10.00 News (S)
12.15 pm Politics UK (S)
1.00 Impossible (R) (S)
1.45 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.15 Eggheads (R) (S)
2.45 Hairy Bikers’ Best of
British (R) (S)
3.30 Land of the Lost
Wolves (AD) (R) (S)
4.30 Priceless Antiques
Roadshow (R) (S)
5.00 Flog It! (R) (S)
6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games (R) (S)
6.30 Coast to Coast Food
Festival (S)

6.00 am Good Morning
Britain (S)
9.00 Lorraine (S)
10.00 This Morning (S)
12.30 pm ITV Lunchtime
News (S)
12.50 Regional News (S)
1.00 ITV Racing:
Cheltenham Festival
Live Ed Chamberlin
presents coverage of day
four of the prestigious
festival, including feature
race the 3.30 Gold Cup,
plus races at 1.30, 2.10,
2.50 and 4.10 (S)
4.30 Tipping Point: Best
Ever Finals (S)
5.00 The Chase (R) (S)
6.00 Regional News
Programme (S)
6.30 ITV Evening News (S)

12.15
1.00
1.30
1.45
2.30
3.00
3.45
4.30
5.15
6.00
6.30

am Breakfast (S)
Morning Live (S)
Crimewatch Live (S)
Critical Incident (S)
Homes Under the
Hammer (AD) (R) (S)
pm Bargain Hunt (AD)
(R) (S)
BBC News at One;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)
Hope Street (AD) (R) (S)
The Repair Shop (S)
Escape to the Country
(AD) (R) (S)
Antiques Road Trip (S)
Bridge of Lies (R) (S)
Pointless (R) (S)
BBC News at Six;
Weather (S)
Regional News;
Weather (S)

7.00 Comic Relief 2023
David Tennant, Zoe Ball,
Paddy McGuinness, Joel
Dommett and AJ Odudu
host a night jam-packed
full with celebrity guests,
hilarious sketches and
live musical
performances See What
to watch (S)

the cast of Extrapolations

REDEMPTION
ITV1, 9pm

Liverpool detective
DI Cunningham
(Paula Malcomson) is
summoned across the
Irish Sea by a tragedy
involving her estranged
daughter and decides to
stay on in Dublin to assist
the Garda investigation.
The way she goes about
it rather ignores the
realities of policing across
national boundaries, but
don’t let that put you off
this otherwise decent
thriller.

AMAZING
RAILWAY
ADVENTURES
WITH NICK
KNOWLES
Channel 5, 9pm

All aboard for an
entertaining ride as Nick
Knowles undertakes
an epic journey through
Norway. Enjoying the
spectacular trackside
scenery, he also learns
how to channel his inner
Viking, dip fried reindeer
in coffee, fish for salmon,
and wild swim inside the
Arctic Circle. GO

10.00 BBC News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News;
Weather (S)
10.40 Comic Relief: The Best
of the Best Bits
Highlights from 35 years
of Red Nose Day See
What to watch (S)

11.40 FILM The Peanut
Butter Falcon (2019)
Light-hearted adventure
starring Shia LaBeouf
(AD) (S) 1.10am Six
Nations Sin Bin (S) 1.45
- 6.00am News (S)

Variations
N IRELAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Newsline 6.30 7.00 BBC Newsline; Weather 10.30 - 10.40
BBC Newsline; Weather 11.40 Jerk 12.05am
Jerk 12.30 Have I Got News for You 1.05 1.10am Suzie Lee: Home Cook Hero BBC Two:
9.00 - 10.00pm Ceiliúradh Na Féile Pádraig
11.10 Becoming Frida Kahlo 12.10am MOTDx
12.40 - 1.05am Couples Therapy UTV: 12.50
- 1.00pm UTV Live; Weather 6.00 - 6.30 UTV
Live; Weather 7.00 - 7.30 UTV Life 10.30 UTV
Live; Weather 10.45 St Patrick’s Day 11.10
Starstruck 12.20am Rare Breed: A Farming
Year 12.50 - 1.00am The Best of the 80s

SCOTLAND
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm Reporting Scotland;
Weather 6.30 - 7.00 Reporting Scotland;

7.00 Saving Lives at Sea The
Tobermory lifeboat crew
save a 40-foot fishing
boat that’s lost all power
(AD) (R) (S)

7.30 Emmerdale Cathy’s
behaviour puts her life in
danger (AD) (S)

8.00 Gardeners’ World New
series. Monty Don and
the team are back with a
celebration of spring See
What to watch (S)

8.00 Coronation Street
Stephen lets himself into
Carla’s flat while she is
asleep (AD) (S)

9.00 Becoming Frida Kahlo
Frida and Diego travel to
San Francisco where he
has an important
commission (AD) (S)

9.00 Redemption New series.
Crime drama starring
Paula Malcomson See
What to watch (AD) (S)

10.00 When Comic Relief Did
Big Brother Celebrity
housemates look back at
their 2001 tenure in the
Big Brother house See
What to watch (S)
10.35 Newsnight (S)

10.00 ITV News at Ten (S)
10.30 Regional News (S)
10.45 FILM The 40 Year-Old
Virgin (2005) Comedy
starring Steve Carell
● See Films on TV, p22
(AD) (S)

11.10 MOTDx (R) (S) 11.40
Couples Therapy (S)
12.05am Dave (AD) (R)
(S) 12.35 Dave (AD) (R)
(S) 1.05 Sign Zone (R)
(S) (SL) 4.00 - 6.15am
This Is BBC Two (S)

1.00 am Shop: Ideal World
3.00 The Jonathan
Ross Show (R) (S) (SL)
3.55 Unwind with ITV
(S) 5.05 - 6.00am
Ainsley’s Fantastic
Flavours (R) (S) (SL)

Weather 10.30 - 10.40 Reporting Scotland;
Weather 11.40 A View from the Terrace
12.40am FILM: The Peanut Butter Falcon
(2019) 2.10 Six Nations Sin Bin 2.45 - 6.00am
BBC News BBC Scotland: 7.00pm The Seven
7.30 Sportscene: Championship Live 10.00
Still Game 10.30 A View from the Terrace
11.30 Growing Up Scottish midnight Close
STV: 12.50pm STV News; Weather 1.00 4.30 STV Racing: Cheltenham Festival Live
6.00 - 6.30 STV News at Six; Weather 7.00 7.30 What’s on Scotland 10.30 - 10.45 STV
News; Weather 3.55 - 5.05am Night Vision

Weather 7.00 - 7.30 Coast & Country 10.30 10.45pm ITV News Cymru Wales; Weather

WALES
BBC One: 1.30 - 1.45pm BBC Wales Today;
Weather 6.30 - 7.00 BBC Wales Today;
Weather 10.30 - 10.40 BBC Wales Today;
Weather 11.40 Six Nations Sin Bin 12.10 1.40am FILM: The Peanut Butter Falcon
(2019) BBC Two: No variations ITV1 Wales:
12.50 - 1.00pm ITV News Cymru Wales;
Weather 6.00 - 6.30 ITV News Wales at Six;

S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 Newyddion 12.05pm Caru
Siopa 12.30 Heno 1.00 Richard Holt: Yr
Academi Felys 1.30 Pobl a’u Gerddi 2.00
Newyddion 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion
3.05 Gareth Jones: Nofio Adre 4.00 Awr Fawr
5.00 Stwnsh 6.00 Nyrsys 6.30 Adre 6.57
Newyddion 7.00 Heno 7.30 Newyddion 8.00
Chris a’r Afal Mawr 8.55 Newyddion 9.00
Sgwrs Dan y Lloer 10.00 Y Stiwdio Grefftau
11.00 - 11.35pm Gwely a Brecwast Maggi
Noggi

ITV1 REGIONS
No variations

FV Freeview FS Freesat
(AD) Audio description (R) Repeat
(S) Subtitles (SL) In-vision signing

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

Channel 4
6.10 am Countdown (R) (S)
6.50 3rd Rock from the Sun
(AD) (R) (S)
7.40 The King of Queens
(AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Frasier (AD) (R) (S)
10.30 Undercover Boss USA
(R) (S)
11.25 News (S)
11.30 Emergency Helicopter
Medics (AD) (S)
12.30 pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch (S)
2.10 Countdown (S)
3.00 Tool Club (S)
4.00 A New Life in the Sun
(R) (S)
5.00 Four in a Bed (S)
5.30 Come Dine with Me (S)
6.00 The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S)
6.30 Hollyoaks (AD) (R) (S)

37

Channel 5

BBC Four

Sky Arts

Film4

Talking Pictures

6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
12.45 pm GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (AD) (R) (S)
1.40 News (S)
1.45 Home and Away (AD)
(R) (S)
2.15 FILM Fatal Mother’s
Retreat (2021, TVM)
Thriller starring Lara
Amersey (S)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun (R) (S)
5.00 News (S)
6.00 Big Road Rescue:
Emergency Call Out
(AD) (R) (S)
6.55 News (S)

FV 9 FS 173 SKY 116 VIRGIN 107

FV 11 FS 147 SKY 122 VIRGIN 122

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

7.00 pm Top of the Pops Iggy
Pop, Michael Bolton, East
17 and Stiltskin from May
1994 (S)
7.30 Top of the Pops Music
by Alice Cooper, Bad
Boys Inc, Wet Wet Wet,
Seal and Julia Fordham
from May 1994 (S)
8.00 Top of the Pops Music
by Leo Sayer, Gary
Numan, Japan, ABC,
Imagination and Visage
8.30 Top of the Pops (S)
9.00 Phil Lynott: Songs for
While I’m Away The life
and music of the Thin
Lizzy frontman (S)
10.30 Sight & Sound in
Concert: Thin Lizzy
Vintage performance by
the rockers (S)
11.05 Irish Rock at the BBC A
compilation of
performances from the
archive (S)
12.00 Top of the Pops (S)
12.30 am Top of the Pops (S)
1.00 Top of the Pops (S)
1.30 Top of the Pops (S)
2.00 - 3.30am Phil Lynott:
Songs for While I’m
Away (S)

12.00 noon Thomas Hardy:
Fate, Exclusion and
Tragedy (AD) (S)
1.00 pm Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
1.30 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
2.00 My Greatest Shot:
Street (S)
2.30 My Greatest Shot:
Animals (S)
3.00 Landscape Artist of the
Year 2019 (S)
4.00 Discovering: Meg Ryan
(S)
5.00 Tales of the
Unexpected (AD) (S)
5.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents (S)
6.30 The Chieftains: Water
from the Well: Live
Over Ireland Members
of the band discuss their
inspirations (S)
7.50 Fleetwood Mac: Live in
Boston (S)
9.00 Women Who Rock (S)
10.15 Guy Garvey: From the
Vaults (S)
11.15 - 1.00am Gary Numan
Resurrection (S)

11.00 am To Hell and Back
(1955) Second World
War biopic starring Audie
Murphy (AD) (S)
1.10 pm The Court-Martial
of Billy Mitchell (1955)
Courtroom drama
starring Gary Cooper (S)
3.15 Elephant Walk (1954)
Melodrama starring
Elizabeth Taylor (S)
5.20 It Came from Beneath
the Sea (1954, b/w)
Monster adventure
starring Kenneth Tobey
(S)
6.55 Maid in Manhattan
(2002) Romantic
comedy with Jennifer
Lopez (S)
9.00 Terminator: Dark Fate
(2019) Sarah Connor
must stop an advanced
liquid Terminator from
hunting down a young girl,
whose fate is critical to
the human race. Sci-fi
starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger (AD) (S)
11.35 - 1.40am Four Lions
(2010) Satirical comedy
starring Riz Ahmed (AD)
(S)

10.50 am FILM Thunder in
the City (1937, b/w)
Crime comedy (S)
12.30 pm FILM Daisy Kenyon
(1947, b/w) Drama (S)
2.30 Crown Court (S)
3.00 FILM Androcles and
the Lion (1952, b/w)
Satirical fable (S)
4.55 Crazy Motoring
5.05 FILM Dry Rot (1956,
b/w) Comedy (S)
6.50 FILM Passport to
Pimlico (1949, b/w)
Ealing comedy starring
Stanley Holloway (S)
8.30 Dial 999 (S)
9.00 Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro (S)
9.05 FILM The Curse of
Frankenstein (1957)
Hammer horror starring
Peter Cushing (S)
10.45 Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro (S)
10.50 FILM A Bucket of Blood
(1959, b/w) Comedy
starring Dick Miller (S)
12.10 am Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro (S)
12.15 - 2.00am FILM The
Knack and How to Get
It (1965, b/w) (S)

7.00 News Including sport and
weather (S)

7.00 Motorway Cops:
Catching Britain’s
Speeders David Reed
races to deliver life-saving
equipment to a motorist
(R) (S)
7.55 News (S)

8.00 Highclere: Behind the
Scenes Documentary
following life at the reallife Downton Abbey (AD)
(R) (S)

8.00 Motorway: Hell on the
Highway One motorist
goes airborne following
an encounter with a
roundabout (S)

9.00 Gogglebox The armchair
critics are back to watch
the best of the week’s
television (S)

9.00 Amazing Railway
Adventures with Nick
Knowles Travelling north
from Trondheim, Nick
stays for a night on the
River Namsen See What
to watch (S)

More4

ITV3

ITV4

Sky Atlantic

FV 18 FS 124 SKY 136 VIRGIN 147

FV 10 FS 115 SKY 119 VIRGIN 117

FV 26 FS 117 SKY 120 VIRGIN 118

SKY 108

11.10 am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (AD) (S)
12.20 pm Heartbeat (AD) (S)
1.25 Classic Emmerdale (S)
1.55 Classic Emmerdale (S)
2.25 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
2.55 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) (S)
3.30 Midsomer Murders A
barman from the Maid in
Splendour is shot as he
walks near a ruined
cottage – and Barnaby’s
investigation reveals a
clash between the
landlord and his son.
John Nettles stars (AD)
(S)
5.30 Downton Abbey
Excitement is in the air as
the wedding approaches
(AD) (S)
7.00 Heartbeat Nick and Jo's
big day arrives (AD) (S)
8.00 Grace A body is dredged
up from the English
Channel (AD) (S)
10.00 DI Ray (AD) (S)
11.00 DI Ray (AD) (S)
12.05 - 1.10am Where the
Heart Is (AD) (S)

11.25 am Dempsey and
Makepeace (AD) (S)
12.25 pm Robin of Sherwood
(S)
1.35 The Protectors (S)
2.10 The Protectors (S)
2.40 Magnum, PI (S)
3.45 The Sweeney A road
accident victim proves to
be a villain (S)
4.50 Minder Arthur buys a
slot-machine full of stolen
money (AD) (S)
5.55 Extreme Salvage
Squad (S)
6.55 The Chase Celebrity
Special (S)
8.00 The Chase Celebrity
Special (S)
9.00 All Elite Wrestling:
Dynamite Hard-hitting
action from the world of
All Elite Wrestling (S)
11.05 - 1.50am FILM
Terminator 2:
Judgment Day (1991)
Sci-fi action adventure
sequel starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Linda Hamilton.
Includes FYI Daily (AD)
(S)

11.00 am Gomorrah (R) (S)
12.05 pm Game of Thrones
(AD) (R) (S)
1.10 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
2.15 The Leftovers (AD) (R)
(S)
3.30 Gomorrah (R) (S)
4.35 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
5.40 Succession (AD) (R) (S)
6.50 Yellowjackets (AD) (R)
(S)
7.55 Game of Thrones Jorah
and Daario undertake a
difficult task (AD) (R) (S)
9.00 Succession Shiv,
Kendall and Roman join
forces to confront their
father, and pushed to the
brink, Tom makes a lifechanging decision. Brian
Cox, Jeremy Strong and
Sarah Snook star (AD)
(R) (S)
10.15 Christian Matthew
meets Father Klaus, a
priest who may have
important information (R)
(S)
11.20 The Wire (R) (S)
12.30 - 1.40am The Wire (R)
(S)

Extreme Africa 5.00 The Wadden Sea
6.00 New Kids in the Wild 7.00 Monkey
Life 8.00 Battle of the Alphas 9.00 Wild
Pacific Rescue 10.00 The Wadden Sea
11.00 New Kids in the Wild 12.00 1.00am Age of the Big Cats

Practice 5.20 The Brittas Empire 6.00
Keeping Up Appearances 6.40 Last of
the Summer Wine 8.00 Father Brown
10.00 New Tricks 11.20 Cutting It
12.40 - 1.40am Bad Girls

Live Formula 1 3.00 Live Pakistan Super
League 4.45 Live Formula 1 6.30 Sky
Sports News 7.00 Live FNF. Nottingham
Forest v Newcastle United (Kick-off
8.00pm) 10.45 Back Pages Tonight
11.00 Sky Sports News 12.00 - 2.30am
Sky Sports News

11.40 The Inbetweeners (AD)
(R) (S) (SL) 12.40am
Friday Night Dinner
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 1.35
Derry Girls (AD) (R) (S)
(SL) 2.30 GameFace
(AD) (R) (S) (SL) 2.55
The Simpsons (AD) (R)
(S) 5.10 Come Dine with
Me (AD) (R) (S) 5.35 6.00am Jamie: Keep
Cooking and Carry On
(AD) (R) (S) (SL)

11.00 FILM The Fifth Element
(1997) Sci-fi adventure
starring Bruce Willis (S)
1.25 The LeoVegas Live
Casino Show (S) 4.15
Tutankhamun with Dan
Snow (R) (S) 5.05 The
Railways That Built
Britain with Chris
Tarrant (AD) (R) (S) (SL)
5.55 - 6.00am Peppa
Pig (R) (S) (SL)

8.55 am Kirstie’s Handmade
Treasures (S)
9.15 A Place in the Sun (S)
10.05 A New Life in the Sun
(S)
11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
12.05 pm Find It, Fix It, Flog It
(AD) (S)
1.10 Heir Hunters (S)
2.10 Four in a Bed (S)
4.50 Location, Location,
Location (S)
5.55 Kirstie and Phil’s Love
It or List It (AD) (S)
6.55 A Place in the Sun (S)
7.45 The Great Pottery
Throw Down: The Final
(AD) (S)
9.00 The Wall: Cover Your
Tracks
10.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
11.00 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
12.05 am 8 Out of 10 Cats
Does Countdown (S)
1.05 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
(S)
2.10 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
3.20 - 3.50am Food
Unwrapped (AD) (S)

More digital,
satellite
& cable

4.00 Australian Ninja Warrior 5.30
Travel Man: 48 Hours in Budapest 6.00
Taskmaster 7.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games 7.40 Room 101 8.20
Would I Lie to You? 9.00 QI 11.00
Taskmaster 12.00 Mock the Week 12.40
- 1.20am QI XL

2.00 FILM Man on Wire (2008) 4.00
The Directors 5.00 Discovering: Walter
Matthau 6.00 The Nineties 7.00 The
Vow 8.50 My Icon: Pam Cookey 9.00
Dublin Narcos 10.00 FILM Fatboy Slim:
Right Here, Right Now 11.50 - 1.40am
Brazil 2002

10.00 The Last Leg (S)

10.00 Draining the Thames:
Secrets Revealed
Exploring London’s
history through relics
found under the Thames
(R) (S)

ITV2

DISCOVERY

PBS AMERICA

FV 6 SKY 118

SKY 125 VIRGIN 250

FS 155 SKY 174 VIRGIN 273

2.00pm Supermarket Sweep 3.05
Chuck 4.00 One Tree Hill 5.00 The O.C
6.00 Catchphrase Celebrity Special
7.00 The Masked Singer US 8.00
Superstore 9.00 Loaded in Paradise
10.00 Family Guy 11.30 American Dad!
12.30 - 1.30am Superstore

1.00pm Gold Rush 3.00 Building Off
the Grid 4.00 Alaska: Homestead
Rescue 5.00 Wheeler Dealers 6.00
Plane Reclaimers 7.00 Kindig Customs
8.00 Gold Rush 9.00 Mystery at Blind
Frog Ranch 10.00 Aircrash Confidential
11.00 - 1.00am Naked and Afraid

1.00pm Beautiful Serengeti 1.30
Hemingway 2.40 Crypto Decoded 3.50
Plague at the Golden Gate 6.15
Hemingway 7.20 Crypto Decoded 8.30
Plague at the Golden Gate 10.55 Crypto
Decoded 12.00 - 1.15am The People vs
Agent Orange

SKY MAX
SKY 113

3.00pm Quantum Leap 4.00 DC’s
Legends of Tomorrow 5.00 Supergirl
6.00 Stargate SG-1 8.00 Strike Back:
Shadow Warfare 9.00 A League of Their
Own Road Trip: Southeast Asia 10.00
Fantasy Football League 10.35 SEAL
Team 11.35 Banshee 12.35 - 1.30am
The Force: North East

DAVE

SKY DOCUMENTARIES

SKY NATURE

DRAMA

FV 19 FS 157 SKY 111

SKY 121

SKY 124

FV 20 FS 158 SKY 143

12.30pm The Force: Behind the Line
1.00 Cop Car Workshop 2.00 Top Gear

noon FILM The Biggest Little Farm
(2018) 1.50pm My Icon: Leon Pryce

2.00pm Wildlife Rescue New Zealand
3.00 Gangs of Lemur Island 4.00

12.40pm Classic EastEnders 2.00
Howards’ Way 3.10 Lovejoy 4.10 Peak

YESTERDAY
FV 27 FS 159 SKY 155

1.00pm Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 2.00 Bangers and Cash
4.00 War Factories 5.00 The World at
War 6.00 Great British Railway Journeys
Goes to Ireland 7.00 Secrets of the
London Underground 8.00 Train
Truckers 10.00 Bangers and Cash 11.00
Abandoned Engineering 12.00 - 1.00am
Great British Railway Journeys

SKY SPORTS
MAIN EVENT
SKY 401 VIRGIN 511

11.30am Live PGA Tour Golf 1.00pm

BT SPORT 1
SKY 413 VIRGIN 527

noon Live Uefa Europa League
12.30pm Uefa Europa League
1.00 Live Uefa Europa Conference
League 1.30 Uefa Europa Conference
League 2.00 Uefa Europa League 3.00
Uefa Europa Conference League 3.30
Uefa Europa League Highlights Show
4.30 ESPN FC 5.00 Inside Serie A 5.30
Live: Serie A 7.30 Live: Serie A 9.45 BT
Sport Reload 10.00 WWE NXT UK
Classics 11.00 WWE NXT Highlights
12.00 - 2.00am Live: WWE Friday Night
SmackDown

38

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph

Radio
Saturday
Radio 1
FM 97.6-99.8MHz
6.00am Radio 1 Happy 7.00 Adele
Roberts 10.00 Radio 1 Anthems 10.30
Newsbeat 10.32 Radio 1 Anthems
11.02 Katie Thistleton 1.00pm Matt
and Jamie 4.00 Radio 1’s Dance
Anthems 5.00 Radio 1’s Dance
Anthems 6.00 Radio 1’s Dance
Anthems 7.00 Radio 1’s Soundsystem
Party with Jeremiah Asiamah 9.00
1Xtra’s Rap Show 11.00 Radio 1’s Drum
& Bass Show 12.00 Radio 1’s Drum &
Bass Mix 12.30am Radio 1’s Drum &
Bass Mix 1.00 Radio 1’s Classic
Essential Mix 3.00 Future Dance Mix
with Sarah Story 3.30 Pete Tong’s Hot
Mix 4.00 Radio 1’s Dance Anthems
5.00 - 6.00am Radio 1 Relax

Radio 2
FM 88-90.2MHz
6.00am Sounds of the 60s with Tony
Blackburn 8.00 Dermot O’Leary 10.00
Claudia Winkleman 1.00pm Pick of the
Pops 2.00 Pick of the Pops 3.00 C2C
Live 6.00 Liza Tarbuck 8.00 Sounds of
the 80s with Gary Davies 10.00 Sounds
of the 90s with Fearne Cotton 11.00
Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton
12.00 Quincy Jones: Forty Thousand
Years of Funk 1.00am Dance Sounds of
the 90s with Vernon Kay 2.00 Radio 2
Piano Room 3.00 Things You Didn’t
Know About Pop 4.00 Radio 2 in
Concert: Paolo Nutini 5.00 - 6.00am
Tracks of My Years

versus the Experts 9.00 Ray’s a Laugh
9.30 Whack-O! 10.00 Mastertapes:
Access All Areas 11.00 Moths 12.30pm
The Wind in My Hair Omnibus 1.45
Ernest Fontwell versus the Experts
2.00 Ray’s a Laugh 2.30 Whack-O!
3.00 Mastertapes: Access All Areas
4.00 Doctor Who: The War Doctor
5.00 Moths 6.30 The Wind in My Hair
Omnibus 7.45 Ernest Fontwell versus
the Experts 8.00 Ray’s a Laugh 8.30
Whack-O! 9.00 Mastertapes: Access
All Areas 10.00 Two Episodes of Mash
10.30 Armstrong & Miller 10.45 The In
Crowd 11.00 Party 11.30 Will Smith’s
Midlife Crisis Management 12.00
Nightcap 12.45am The Terror by Night
1.00 Moths 2.30 The Wind in My Hair
Omnibus 3.45 Ernest Fontwell versus
the Experts 4.00 Ray’s a Laugh 4.30
Whack-O! 5.00 - 6.00am Mastertapes:
Access All Areas

Radio 5 Live
MW 693 & 909kHz
6.00am Saturday Breakfast 9.00
Patrick Kielty 11.00 Fighting Talk
12.00 5 Live Sport 3.00pm 5 Live
Sport. Leeds United v Brighton & Hove
Albion (Kick-off 3.00pm) 4.45 Rugby
Union. England v France (Kick-off
4.45pm) 7.00 5 Live Sport. Crystal
Palace v Manchester City (Kick-off
5.30pm) 7.30 6-0-6 9.00 Stephen
Nolan 12.00 Newscast 1.00am Salma
El-Wardany 5.00 - 6.00am Sports Desk

Radio 3
FM 90.2-92.4MHz
7.00am Breakfast 9.00 Record Review
11.45 Music Matters 12.30pm This
Classical Life 1.00 Inside Music 3.00
Sound of Cinema 4.00 Music Planet
5.00 J to Z 6.30 Opera on 3 10.00
New Music Show See Charlotte
Runcie 12.00 Freeness 1.00 - 7.00am
Through the Night

Radio 4

i New Music Show:

6.00am News and Papers 6.07
Ramblings 6.30 Farming Today This
Week 6.57 Weather 7.00 Today 8.30
LW: Yesterday in Parliament 9.00
Saturday Live 10.30 Rewinder 11.00
The Week in Westminster 11.30 From
Our Own Correspondent 12.00 News
12.01pm LW: Shipping Forecast 12.04
Money Box 12.30 The News Quiz 12.57
Weather 1.00 News 1.10 Any
Questions? 2.00 Any Answers? 2.45
Opening Lines 3.00 Drama: Bess Loves
Porgy 4.00 Weekend Woman’s Hour
5.00 Saturday PM 5.30 Political
Thinking with Nick Robinson 5.54
Shipping Forecast 5.57 Weather 6.00
Six O’Clock News 6.15 Loose Ends 7.00
Profile 7.15 The Infinite Monkey Cage
8.00 Archive on 4: The Wheeler
Century 9.00 Stone 9.45 The Skewer
10.00 News 10.15 The Moral Maze
11.00 Counterpoint 11.30 The Poet
Laureate Has Gone to His Shed 12.00
Midnight News 12.15am Understand:
The Economy 12.30 Bottle Man 12.48
Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World
Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast 5.30
News Briefing 5.43 Bells on Sunday
5.45 - 6.00am Profile

Classic FM

6.00am Moths 7.30 The Wind in My
Hair Omnibus 8.45 Ernest Fontwell

FM 97.6-99.8MHz
6.00am Radio 1’s Chillout Anthems
7.00 Adele Roberts 10.00 Radio 1
Anthems 10.30 Newsbeat 10.32 Radio
1 Anthems 11.02 Radio 1 00s with Nat
O’Leary 1.00pm Matt and Jamie 4.00
Radio 1’s Life Hacks 6.00 The Official
Chart: First Look on Radio 1 7.00 Radio
1’s Chillest Show 9.00 Radio 1’s Indie
Show with Alyx Holcombe 11.00 BBC
Introducing on Radio 1 12.00 Radio 1’s
Future Soul 1.30am Radio 1’s UK R&B
Mix 2.00 Radio 1’s Decompression
Session 3.00 Radio 1’s Chill Mix 3.30
-4.00am Radio 1’s Chill Mix

Radio 2
FM 88-90.2MHz
6.00am Good Morning Sunday 9.00
Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs
11.00 The Michael Ball Show 1.00pm
Elaine Paige on Sunday 3.00 Sounds of
the 70s 5.00 Rob Beckett 7.00 Tony
Blackburn’s Golden Hour 8.00 C2C Live
10.00 Radio 2 Unwinds 11.00 Radio 2
Unwinds 12.00 Phil Williams 3.00 4.00am Alternative Sounds of the 90s
with Dermot O’Leary

Radio 3
FM 90.2-92.4MHz
7.00am Breakfast 9.00 Sunday
Morning 12.00 Private Passions
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
2.00 The Early Music Show 3.00 Choral
Evensong 4.00 Jazz Record Requests
5.00 The Listening Service 5.30 Words
and Music 6.45 Sunday Feature:
Heinrich Heine: The First Modern
European 7.30 Drama on 3: Peking Noir
9.30 Record Review Extra 11.00 The
Silent Musician 12.00 Classical Fix
12.30 - 6.30am Through the Night

Discs: Long-play 11.00 Poetry Extra
11.30 Golden Child Omnibus: Part One
12.40pm Inheritance Tracks 12.50
Northanger Abbey 2.00 Harry Worth in
Things Could Be Worse 2.30 Something
to Shout About 3.00 Desert Island
Discs: Long-play 4.00 Nightcap 4.45
The Terror by Night 5.00 Poetry Extra
5.30 Golden Child Omnibus: Part One
6.40 Inheritance Tracks 6.50
Northanger Abbey 8.00 Harry Worth in
Things Could Be Worse 8.30
Something to Shout About 9.00 Desert
Island Discs: Long-play 10.00 Alice’s
Wunderland 10.30 Isy Suttie’s Love
Letters 10.55 The Comedy Club
Interview 11.00 Life with Lederer 11.15
The Kneebone Bonanza 11.30 Rigor
Mortis 12.00 Poetry Extra 12.30am
Golden Child Omnibus: Part One 1.50
Northanger Abbey 3.00 Harry Worth in
Things Could Be Worse 3.30 Something
to Shout About 4.00 - 5.00am Desert
Island Discs: Long-play

Radio 5 Live
MW 693 & 909kHz
6.00am 5 Live Science 7.00 Sunday
Breakfast 10.00 Helen Skelton 12.00 5
Live Sport 2.00pm 5 Live Sport 4.00 5
Live Sport 4.30 5 Live Sport 6.30
6-0-6 8.00 Rugby Union 9.00 Stephen
Nolan 12.00 Obscene: The Dublin
Scandal 12.30am Obscene: The Dublin
Scandal 1.00 Qasa Alom 5.00 6.00am Wake Up to Money

FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

Chornobyldorf Radio 3, 10pm

Digital only

Radio 1

Radio 4

FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

Radio 4 Extra

Sunday

FM 99.9-101.9MHz
7.00am Alan Titchmarsh 10.00 Aled
Jones 1.00pm Alexander Armstrong
4.00 Moira Stuart 7.00 Saturday Night
at the Movies 9.00 David Mellor 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Katie
Breathwick 4.00 - 7.00am Sam Pittis

World Service
Digital only
6.00am Weekend 8.30 The
Conversation 9.06 Top of the Pops
10.00 News 10.06 Sports Hour 11.00
The Newsroom 11.30 The Climate
Question 12.00 News 12.06pm The
Documentary 1.00 Newshour 2.00
News 2.06 Sportsworld 6.00 The
Newsroom 6.30 Dear Daughter 6.50
Sporting Witness 7.00 News 7.06 World
Questions 8.00 News 8.06 The Arts
Hour 9.00 Newshour 10.00 The
Newsroom 10.20 Sports News 10.30
The Cultural Frontline 11.00 News
11.06 Music Life 12.00 News 12.06am
BBC OS Conversations 12.30 Dear
Daughter 12.50 More or Less 1.00 News
1.06 The Science Hour 2.00 The
Newsroom 2.30 Healthcheck 3.00 News
3.06 The Documentary 4.00 News 4.06
From Our Own Correspondent 4.30 The
Cultural Frontline 5.00 The Newsroom
5.30 - 6.00am The Documentary

6.00am News 6.05 Something
Understood 6.35 Natural Histories
7.00 News 7.00 Sunday Papers 7.10
Sunday 7.54 Radio 4 Appeal 8.00 News
8.00 Sunday Papers 8.10 Sunday
Worship 8.48 A Point of View 8.58
Tweet of the Day 9.00 Broadcasting
House 10.00 The Archers 11.15 Desert
Island Discs. With guest Amanda Blanc
12.00 News 12.01pm LW: Shipping
Forecast 12.04 The Museum of
Curiosity 12.30 The Food Programme
1.00 The World This Weekend 1.30
Playing with Fire 2.00 Gardeners’
Question Time 2.45 Opening Lines
3.00 Drama 4.00 Open Book 4.30 The
Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed
See Charlotte Runcie 5.00 File on 4
5.40 Profile 5.54 Shipping Forecast
6.00 News 6.15 Pick of the Week 7.00
The Archers 7.15 The Ultimate Choice
7.45 The Circus 8.00 Feedback 8.30
Last Word 9.00 Money Box 9.25 Radio
4 Appeal 9.30 Analysis 10.00 The
Westminster Hour 11.00 Loose Ends
11.30 Something Understood 12.00
News 12.15am Sideways 12.45 Bells
on Sunday 12.48 - 1.00am Shipping
Forecast

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only
6.00am Poetry Extra 6.30 Golden
Child Omnibus: Part One 7.40
Inheritance Tracks 7.50 Northanger
Abbey 9.00 Harry Worth in Things
Could Be Worse 9.30 Something to
Shout About 10.00 Desert Island

i The Poet Laureate Has Gone
to His Shed Radio 4, 4.30pm

Classic FM
FM 99.9-101.9MHz
7.00am Aled Jones 10.00 Andrew Marr
1.00pm Catherine Bott 4.00 John
Humphrys 7.00 Smooth Classics 9.00
The Kanneh-Mason Family Takeover
10.00 Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill
Overton 4.00 - 6.00am Early Breakfast

World Service
Digital only
6.00am Weekend 8.30 Pick of the
World 8.50 Over to You 9.00 News
9.06 From Our Own Correspondent
9.30 Outlook 10.00 News 10.06
People Fixing the World 10.30 Heart
and Soul 11.00 The Newsroom 11.30
This is Africa 12.00 News 12.06pm
World Questions 1.00 Newshour 2.00
News 2.06 The Forum 2.50 Over to You
3.00 News 3.06 Sportsworld 7.00 The
Newsroom 7.30 Heart and Soul 8.00
News 8.06 The History Hour 9.00
Newshour 10.00 The Newsroom 10.20
Sports News 10.30 Outlook 11.00
News 11.06 Tech Tent 11.30 Pick of
the World 11.50 Over to You 12.00
News 12.06am From Our Own
Correspondent 12.30 Heart and Soul
1.00 The Newsroom 1.30 Discovery
2.00 The Newsroom 2.30 The Climate
Question 3.00 News 3.06 Tech Tent
3.30 - 3.50am Pick of the World

Monday

Tuesday

Radio 3

Radio 3

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week:
Purcell 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert 2.00 Afternoon Concert 4.30
New Generation Artists 5.00 In Tune
7.00 Classical Mixtape 7.30 Radio 3 in
Concert 9.30 Compline 10.00 Music
Matters 10.45 The Essay: Lundy,
Fastnet, Irish Sea: Wales and Its
Coastal Waters See Charlotte
Runcie 11.00 Night Tracks 12.30 6.30am Through the Night

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week:
Purcell 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert 2.00 Afternoon Concert 5.00
In Tune 7.00 Classical Mixtape 7.30
Radio 3 in Concert 10.00 Free Thinking
10.45 The Essay: Lundy, Fastnet,
Irish Sea: Wales and Its Coastal
Waters See Charlotte Runcie 11.00
Night Tracks 12.30 - 6.30am Through
the Night

Radio 4
FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

Radio 4
FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

6.00am Today 9.00 Start the Week
9.45 LW: Daily Service 9.45 FM:
Breaking Mississippi 10.00 Woman’s
Hour 11.00 My Name Is Hayley 11.30
The Bottom Line 12.00 News 12.01pm
LW: Shipping Forecast 12.04 You and
Yours 12.57 Weather 1.00 The World at
One 1.45 Shock and War: Iraq 20
Years On See Charlotte Runcie 2.00
The Archers 2.15 Drama: Hindsight
3.00 Counterpoint 3.30 The Food
Programme 4.00 Rewriting Aeschylus
4.30 The Digital Human 5.00 PM 5.54
LW: Shipping Forecast 5.57 Weather
6.00 Six O’Clock News 6.30 The
Museum of Curiosity 7.00 The Archers
7.15 Front Row 8.00 Night Watch 8.30
Analysis 9.00 Troubled Water 9.30
Start the Week 9.59 Weather 10.00
The World Tonight 10.45 Book at
Bedtime: Old God’s Time 11.00
Homesick Planet 11.30 Today in
Parliament 12.00 News; Weather
12.30am Breaking Mississippi 12.48
Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World
Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast 5.30
News Briefing 5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today 5.58 - 6.00am
Tweet of the Day

6.00am Today 8.31 LW: Yesterday in
Parliament 9.00 The Life Scientific
9.30 One to One 9.45 LW: Daily
Service 9.45 FM: Breaking Mississippi
10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00 The Spark
11.30 Rethinking Music 12.00 News
12.01pm LW: Shipping Forecast 12.04
Call You and Yours 12.57 Weather 1.00
The World at One 1.45 Shock and
War: Iraq 20 Years On See Charlotte
Runcie 2.00 The Archers 2.15 Drama:
Tinsel Girl and the Problem Parent 3.00
Short Cuts 3.30 Costing the Earth
4.00 Law in Action 4.30 A Good Read
5.00 PM 5.54 LW: Shipping Forecast
5.57 Weather 6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Mark Watson Talks a Bit About
Life 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row
8.00 File on 4 8.40 In Touch 9.00
Inside Health 9.30 The Life Scientific
9.59 Weather 10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 FM: Book at Bedtime: Old God’s
Time 11.00 Alex Edelman’s Peer Group
11.30 Today in Parliament 12.00 News;
Weather 12.30am Breaking Mississippi
12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC
World Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast
5.30 News Briefing 5.43 Prayer for the
Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 6.00am Tweet of the Day

Classic FM

Classic FM

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning
7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 - 6.00am Early Breakfast

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning
7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 - 6.00am Early Breakfast

World Service

World Service

Digital only

Digital only

8.00am News 8.06 HARDtalk 8.30
Business Daily 8.50 Witness History
9.00 The Newsroom 9.30 The Climate
Question 10.00 News 10.06 The
Cultural Frontline 10.30 Dear Daughter
10.50 More or Less 11.00 The
Newsroom 11.30 The Conversation
12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook 12.50
Witness History 1.00 The Newsroom
1.30 CrowdScience 2.00 Newshour
3.00 News 3.06 HARDtalk 3.30 World
Business Report 4.00 BBC OS 6.00
News 6.06 Outlook 6.50 Witness
History 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 Sport
Today 8.06 The Climate Question 8.30
Discovery: The Life Scientific: Clifford
Johnson 9.00 Newshour 10.00 The
Newsroom 10.20 Sports News 10.30
World Business Report 11.00 News
11.06 HARDtalk 11.30 The
Conversation 12.00 News 12.06am
The History Hour 1.00 News 1.06
Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom
2.30 The Documentary: Somebody Is
Watching Me 3.00 News 3.06 Outlook
3.50 Witness History 4.00 The
Newsroom 4.30 In the Studio 5.00 8.00am Newsday

8.00am News 8.06 People Fixing the
World 8.30 Business Daily 8.50
Witness History 9.00 The Newsroom
9.30 The Documentary: Somebody Is
Watching Me 10.00 News 10.06 The
Arts Hour 11.00 The Newsroom 11.30
In the Studio 12.00 News 12.06pm
Outlook 12.50 Witness History 1.00
The Newsroom 1.30 Discovery: The Life
Scientific: Clifford Johnson 2.00
Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 People
Fixing the World 3.30 World Business
Report 4.00 BBC OS 6.00 News 6.06
Outlook 6.50 Witness History 7.00 The
Newsroom 7.30 Sport Today 8.00 News
8.06 The Documentary: Somebody Is
Watching Me 8.30 Digital Planet 9.00
Newshour 10.00 The Newsroom 10.20
Sports News 10.30 World Business
Report 11.06 People Fixing the World
11.30 In the Studio 12.00 News
12.06am The Arts Hour 1.00 News
1.06 Business Matters 2.00 The
Newsroom 2.30 The Documentary: The
Boat Smugglers 3.06 Outlook 3.50
Witness History 4.00 The Newsroom
4.30 Love, Janessa 5.00 - 8.00am
Newsday

The Daily Telegraph Saturday 11 March 2023

39

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Radio 3

Radio 3

Radio 3

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week:
Purcell 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert 2.00 Afternoon Concert 4.00
Choral Evensong 5.00 In Tune 7.00
Classical Mixtape 7.30 Radio 3 in
Concert 10.00 Free Thinking 10.45
The Essay: Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea:
Wales and Its Coastal Waters See
Charlotte Runcie 11.00 Night Tracks
12.30 - 6.30am Through the Night

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week:
Purcell 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert 2.00 Afternoon Concert 5.00
In Tune 7.00 Classical Mixtape 7.30
Radio 3 in Concert 10.00 Free Thinking
10.45 The Essay: Lundy, Fastnet,
Irish Sea: Wales and Its Coastal
Waters See Charlotte Runcie 11.00
The Night Tracks Mix 11.30
Unclassified 12.30 - 6.30am Through
the Night

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week:
Purcell 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert 2.00 Afternoon Concert 4.30
The Listening Service 5.00 In Tune
7.00 Classical Mixtape 7.30 Radio 3 in
Concert 10.00 The Verb 10.45 The
Essay: Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea:
Wales and Its Coastal Waters See
Charlotte Runcie 11.00 Late Junction
1.00am Composed with Devonté Hynes
2.00 Piano Flow with Tokio Myers 3.00
- 7.00am Through the Night

Radio 4
FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

Radio 4
FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz

Radio 4

6.00am Today 8.31 LW: Yesterday in
Parliament 9.00 The Patch 9.30 Just
One Thing with Michael Mosley 9.45
LW: Daily Service 9.45 FM: Breaking
Mississippi 10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00
The Shamima Begum Story 11.30 Lucy
Porter’s Lucky Dip See Charlotte
Runcie 12.00 News 12.01pm LW:
Shipping Forecast 12.04 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One 1.45 LW: Shock
and War: Iraq 20 Years On 1.45 FM:
Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On See
Charlotte Runcie 2.00 The Archers
2.15 Drama: Passenger List 3.00 Money
Box Live 3.30 Inside Health 4.00
Sideways 4.30 The Media Show 5.00
PM 5.54 LW: Shipping Forecast 6.00
News 6.30 Conversations from a Long
Marriage 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front
Row 8.00 The Moral Maze 8.45 LW:
Lent Talks 8.45 FM: Lent Talks 9.00
Costing the Earth 9.30 The Media Show
10.00 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at
Bedtime: Old God’s Time 11.00 Where
to, Mate? 11.15 The Skewer 11.30
Today in Parliament 12.00 News
12.30am Breaking Mississippi 12.48
Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World
Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast 5.30
News Briefing 5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today 5.58 - 6.00am
Tweet of the Day

6.00am Today 8.31 LW: Yesterday in
Parliament 9.00 In Our Time 9.45 LW:
Daily Service 9.45 FM: Breaking
Mississippi 10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00
From Our Own Correspondent 11.30
Talking of Michelangelo: The Poet
See Charlotte Runcie 12.00 News
12.01pm LW: Shipping Forecast 12.04
You and Yours 12.30 Sliced Bread
12.57 Weather 1.00 The World at One
1.45 Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years
On See Charlotte Runcie 2.00 The
Archers 2.15 Drama: Passenger List
3.00 Ramblings 3.27 Radio 4 Appeal
3.30 Open Book 4.00 The Infinite
Monkey Cage 4.30 BBC Inside Science
5.00 PM 5.54 LW: Shipping Forecast
6.00 News 6.30 Meet David Sedaris
7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.00
Law in Action 8.30 Taiwan: Hyper
Democracy 9.00 BBC Inside Science
9.30 In Our Time 9.59 Weather 10.00
The World Tonight 10.45 Book at
Bedtime: Old God’s Time 11.00
Absolutely 11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News 12.30am Breaking
Mississippi 12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service 5.20
Shipping Forecast 5.30 News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming
Today 5.58 - 6.00am Tweet of the Day

Classic FM

Classic FM

Classic FM

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning
7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 - 6.00am Early Breakfast

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning
7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 - 6.00am Early Breakfast

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning
7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Katie
Breathwick 4.00 - 7.00am Sam Pittis

World Service

World Service

World Service

Digital only

Digital only

Digital only

8.00am News 8.06 HARDtalk 8.30
Business Daily 8.50 Witness History
9.00 The Newsroom 9.30 The
Documentary: The Boat Smugglers
10.00 News 10.06 The Documentary
11.00 The Newsroom 11.30 Love,
Janessa 12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook
12.50 Witness History 1.00 The
Newsroom 1.30 Digital Planet 2.00
Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 HARDtalk
3.30 World Business Report 4.00 BBC
OS 6.00 News 6.06 Outlook 6.50
Witness History 7.00 The Newsroom
7.30 Sport Today 8.00 News 8.06 The
Documentary: The Boat Smugglers
8.30 Healthcheck 9.00 Newshour
10.00 The Newsroom 10.20 Sports
News 10.30 World Business Report
11.00 News 11.06 HARDtalk 11.30
Love, Janessa 12.00 News 12.06am
The Documentary 1.00 News 1.06
Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom
2.30 Assignment 3.00 News 3.06
Outlook 3.50 Witness History 4.00 The
Newsroom 4.30 The Food Chain 5.00 8.00am Newsday

8.00am News 8.06 The Inquiry 8.30
Business Daily 8.50 Witness History
9.00 The Newsroom 9.30 Assignment
10.00 News 10.06 The Forum 10.50
Sporting Witness 11.00 The Newsroom
11.30 The Food Chain 12.00 News
12.06pm Outlook 12.50 Witness
History 1.00 The Newsroom 1.30
Healthcheck 2.00 Newshour 3.00
News 3.06 The Inquiry 3.30 World
Business Report 4.00 BBC OS 6.00
News 6.06 Outlook 6.50 Witness
History 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 Sport
Today 8.00 News 8.06 Assignment
8.30 Science in Action 9.00 Newshour
10.00 The Newsroom 10.20 Sports
News 10.30 World Business Report
11.00 News 11.06 The Inquiry 11.30
The Food Chain 12.00 News 12.06am
The Forum 12.50 Sporting Witness
1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00
The Newsroom 2.30 World Football
3.00 News 3.06 Outlook 3.50 Witness
History 4.00 The Newsroom 4.30
Heart and Soul 5.00 - 8.00am
Newsday

8.00am News 8.06 HARDtalk 8.30
Business Daily 8.50 Witness History
9.00 The Newsroom 9.30 Tech Tent
10.00 News 10.06 The Real Story
11.00 The Newsroom 11.30 World
Football 12.00 News 12.06pm The
Fifth Floor 12.50 Witness History 1.00
The Newsroom 1.30 Science in Action
2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06
HARDtalk 3.30 World Business Report
4.00 BBC OS 6.00 News 6.06 The
Fifth Floor 6.50 Witness History 7.00
The Newsroom 7.30 Sport Today 8.00
News 8.06 Tech Tent 8.30
CrowdScience 9.00 Newshour 10.00
The Newsroom 10.20 Sports News
10.30 World Business Report 11.00
News 11.06 HARDtalk 11.30 World
Football 12.00 News 12.06am The
Real Story 1.00 News 1.06 Business
Matters 2.00 The Newsroom 2.30
Digital Planet 3.00 News 3.06 The
Fifth Floor 3.50 Witness History 4.00
News 4.06 The Real Story 5.00 The
Newsroom 5.30 Dear Daughter 5.50 6.00am More or Less

FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198kHz
6.00am Today 8.31 LW: Yesterday in
Parliament 9.00 Desert Island Discs
9.45 LW: Daily Service 9.45 FM:
Breaking Mississippi 10.00 Woman’s
Hour 11.00 The Battle for Liberal
Democracy See Charlotte Runcie
11.30 Lemn Sissay Is the One and Only
12.00 News 12.01pm LW: Shipping
Forecast 12.04 AntiSocial 1.00 The
World at One 1.45 Shock and War:
Iraq 20 Years On See Charlotte
Runcie 2.00 The Archers 2.15 Drama:
Boswell’s Lives 2.45 Understand: The
Economy 3.00 Gardeners’ Question
Time 3.45 Sunil Patel: An Idiot’s Guide
to Cryptocurrency 4.00 Last Word
4.30 Feedback 5.00 PM 5.54 LW:
Shipping Forecast 6.00 News 6.30 The
Now Show 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Add
to Playlist 8.00 Any Questions? 8.50 A
Point of View 9.00 Frankenstein Lives!
9.59 Weather 10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime: Old God’s Time
11.00 Americast 11.30 Today in
Parliament 12.00 News; Weather
12.30am Breaking Mississippi 12.48
Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World
Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast 5.30
News Briefing 5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 - 6.00am Lent Talks

Charlotte Runcie
On My Wavelength
I

nternational constitutional
politics and conflicts form a
major theme across radio this
week. New Music Show presents
the UK premiere of Chornobyldorf,
an “archaeological opera” from
Opera Aperta, Ukraine (tonight,
Radio 3, 10pm). It’s a searing work
about the impact of nuclear power
on our world, combining folk
music and classical singing, by
composers and librettists Roman
Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko.
In The Poet Laureate Has Gone
to His Shed (Sunday, Radio 4,
4.30pm), Simon Armitage’s guest
is a fellow Poet Laureate: his
Jamaican counterpart, Olive
Senior. She discusses her literary
career and her upbringing,
her love-hate relationship with
Charles Dickens, and the
constitutional future of
Commonwealth countries
following the death of Elizabeth II.
Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years
On (Monday to Friday, Radio 4FM,
1.45pm) is a major series marking
two decades since a US-led
coalition invaded Iraq to
overthrow Saddam Hussein, for
reasons that remain controversial
today. Over 10 episodes, the BBC’s
Security Correspondent, Gordon
Corera, explores why and how the
war happened, and why the
then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
committed the UK to join the
fighting. Corera speaks to key
players including Blair himself,
former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove
and the CIA’s head of the Iraqi
Operations Group, as well as
Washington insiders and Iraqis
who lived through it all.
All this week on The Essay:
Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea
(Monday to Friday, Radio 3,
10.45pm) the writer Jon Gower
explores the coastline that
surrounds Wales on three sides,

i Shock and

War: Iraq 20
Years On:
Tony Blair
Monday-Friday,
Radio 4FM,
1.45pm

j Talking of

Michelangelo:
The Poet
Thursday,
Radio 4, 11.30am

delving into its history as a trade
route, a missionary passage for
early Christians and a fishing
source.
Is Lucy Porter’s Lucky Dip
(Wednesday, Radio 4, 11.30am) a
comedy programme or a “midlife
crisis management seminar”?
A bit of both, really, with
references aplenty to midlife
touchstones from Ken Bruce
to Bank Holiday bin collections.
Apparently, human happiness
soars at 18, dips drastically
between 49 and 54, then gradually
improves again, so that, by 65,
you’re as happy as you ever were.
Porter aims to bring solace to
those who find themselves in that
bewildering happiness dip; more
specifically, she says, this show is
for you if you own any clothing
purchased in a garden centre.
In Talking of Michelangelo:
The Poet (Thursday, Radio 4,
11.30am), the poet Andrew
McMillan investigates the
poems of Michelangelo, which are
largely overshadowed by his art.
McMillan explores Michelango’s
sequence of love sonnets that
were addressed to 23-year-old
Tommaso dei Cavalieri. When
his grand-nephew published his
poems for the first time in 1623,
he changed the pronouns to the
feminine. What can these poems
tell us about the literary history
of homosexual love?
And The Battle for Liberal
Democracy (Friday, Radio 4, 11am)
is a three-part series from Tom
Fletcher, a former diplomat and
political adviser, exploring
the current state of democracy.
In this first episode, the topic
is security, and which type of
government is best at ensuring
the security of its citizens, both
internally and externally. Fletcher
considers the compromises that
citizens are asked to make in
exchange for greater security,
and assesses the current
international security situation
in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

40

Saturday 11 March 2023 The Daily Telegraph*