Frasier and Niles were always guzzling some presumably upmarket tipple in the famous sitcom. But what exactly were they drinking? Henry can reveal the shocking truth... The sherry marketing board should have made more of the Crane brothers’ love of sherry. In every episode of the long-running sitcom Frasier there they ... Read More...
Television
This week Mr Slang writes in praise of Simenon's great detective: "a very French policeman, compounded of French characteristics and set among the most clichéd of French backgrounds"... I am reading Maigret. Tout Maigret, since it is (a) Maigret in his entirety, and (b) in French. I am not showing off, ... Read More...
Brit enjoys the opening episodes of the latest Danish drama import Borgen, but worries that it might have already jumped the shark... Borgen, being on BBC Four (Saturday 9pm), Danish, and set in the world of media and politics, has inevitably got the Twitterati excited but the challenge for the reviewer ... Read More...
Dabblers rejoice! The great Jonathan Meades returns to our screens tonight, with a new series Jonathan Meades on France (BBC Four), in which he "scrutinises the 95 per cent of France that Brits drive through and don't notice en route to the 5 per cent that conforms to their expectation." In ... Read More...
Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable time over Christmas? Mine was somewhat quieter than expected… mainly due to the lack of a television signal. I’m sure there are many advantages of communal living, but sharing a satellite dish doesn’t seem to be one of them. I didn’t ... Read More...
As the world’s population hits 7 billion, Brit finds David Attenborough celebrating Earth’s most anti-human places... There is no major problem facing our planet that would not be easier to solve if there were fewer people and no problem that does not become harder — and ultimately impossible to solve — ... Read More...
Brit watches "an exercise in petty catharsis by an embarrassed left-liberal media establishment" and asks why satire isn't funny any more... The recent 50th birthday of Private Eye, Britain's leading satirical magazine, was marked by an avalanche of glowing media tributes. But for Christopher Booker, its first editor and still an ... Read More...
Brit watches the first episode of series 2 of Downton Abbey (Sunday ITV1 9pm), the smash-hit pile of country house tosh... “What shall we call each other?” asks the visitor. “Well, whay don’t we start with Deem Meggie Smeeeeeeuth?” drawls Jennifer Saunders in the Comic Relief spoof of Downton Abbey – the only funny ... Read More...
The unfortunately named Harry Crook established Kleeneze in 1923. It was the era of door to door sales: the genuine Encyclopedia Britannica vendor, the original man from the Pru. They were all shiny suits and polished briefcases. If you heard them walking up the garden path, there were evasion tactics. ... Read More...
I don't know how he did it, but a few weeks ago Evan Davis managed to smuggle a quite shocking heresy past the the BBC editors. In an episode of Made in Britain he argued, gently but persuasively, that the primary cause of the collapse of heavy British industry in late ... Read More...
