Great Uncle Bulgaria

Not necessarily, but when someone's sole accuser is found to be a complete fantasist who is sent to prison for years for making up a whole string of libellous accusations that caused untold hurt to his accused and their families, careers and reputations, not to mention a massive waste of public funds, I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Not sure Lord Bramall, Leon brittan, Harvey Proctor or Cliff Richard would go along with that.

Think you are reading too much into his absence from the Cenotaph. This involves laying a wreath, listening to some speeches and then watching a march past of 10,000 veterans. In other words it's extremely boring and no one in their right mind would go to it if they didn't have to (assuming they aren't a veteran, boy scout or someone else with skin in the game). Wait until someone organises carriage racing (or page 3 girl nude mud-wrestling) in the mall. If he still doesn't put in an appearance then I'll believe he's dead (or about to be). Otherwise I'll continue to believe he just found something more interesting to do this morning than lay a wreath and watch a march past.

That's a turn up, a white middle-aged male getting a new gig on the BBC. No doubt Misses Chakrabati, Munchetti and both the Mabuse sisters will be in support to maintain balance.

Roberta McCain (windy) - joker J-L Trintignant (Hares) Beverly Cleary (ABC) Stirling Moss (Windy) Thanks GUB

Ironically his 114th birthday story is on the BBC news website ('Newsround' section) where he is described as the world's oldest man...

I watched some of it for research purposes and concur with all the above. You wonder why they still do it given their age and health. They can't need the money and as for the programme it's hardly fascinating stuff that will be remembered for pushing the boundaries of dramatic art. Can't imagine it appeals to many people beyond a few oldies and the odd deadpooler either While clearly struggling mentally she doesn't look too bad physically and don't think she is going anywhere imminently. As for him, might have been 40 -odd years ago but he'll still be remembered primarily for seducing the young and comely Francesca Annis, which is not a bad thing to have as your epitaph.

So do I! Thanks Biblio...

Thanks for the tip off, I had her in ABC, hadn't noticed yet....

Of all the Friends-inspired US sitcoms on our screens that seems the most obviously derivative, it has a lead who looks like Ross and another character who looks like Chandler (but acts like Joey). And (IMO) isn't funny. Nor are most of the other ones that clog up E4, with the exception of Big Bang Theory and maybe Goldbergs (apart from the mawkish happy endings that ruin the last few minutes of every episode), Hayley Orrantia being rather easy on the eye doesn't do any harm, although there is too much of her singing. Young Sheldon by contrast isn't funny at all, and as for the PC laugh-free zone that is Speechless - Minnie Driver proves 20 years after her brief period of fame that she is still attractive but still can't act, while the presence of the disabled and obviously token black characters may win the show awards but don't make it funny.

Sarah Brightman. According to wiki she has collected over 200 gold and platinum records in 38 different countries and has sold 6.5m albums in US alone. She began her career with 2-3 years in "sexy dance troupe" Hot Gossip, followed by a couple of years floating around the choruses of some west end shows before landing the role of Kate in the Pirates of `Penzance (who for the uninitiated has all of 4 solo lines to sing). At that point she met Andrew Lloyd Webber who, having experienced her playing the sweetest of melodies upon his blue veined flute, suddenly realised she was in fact an incredibly talented musician, singer and actress and cast her as the lead in the Phantom of the opera and then the principal soprano in his (alleged) Classical masterpiece, the Requiem. And the world fell for it. And has continued to do so. Similarly, Elaine Paige is revered as a legend of the west end stage and has her own show on radio 2 these days. However she got many of her lead roles in Tim Rice musicals (Cats, Chess etc) during a 10 year period in which she was shagging er...Tim Rice. this fact was less well -known than LW-Brightman coupling at the time, not least as Rice was married to someone else. Until his wife found out about Miss Paige.

It's a fair cop guv, guilty as charged. In my defence, neither viewing was my idea (the things we do for love, as 10cc would have it). The first one has its moments and I have had worse cinematic experiences at Great Aunt Bulgaria's instigation (Book Club being a relatively recent example) but in the second one her character crosses the line from tolerable to downright irritating and I have steadfastly refused to watch reruns of it since. There, do I get a reduced sentence for mitigating circumstances and subsequent good behaviour?

Reese Witherspoon. One Sunday afternoon she'll be watching herself in Legally Blonde 2 on the telly, realise what an embarrassingly dreadful cash-in it was and top herself in shame. To answer your question, sorry, no.

Moss

Oops, thanks for pointing that out, this is what comes of getting your Haiders and Hofers - who is too young anyway - mixed up and not doing some elementary checking. Subject to Sean being happy with it, I'll sub in another of my adolescent heart-throbs (to go with Sally Geeson, Liza Goddard, Sally James etc), namely Agnetha Faltskog. She is definitely alive and looking very good for 69 (the last bit being not too dissimilar to something I might have said about her in the 70s)