SATURDAY

£3 £2.30 to subscribers

2G

October 29 2022 | thetimes.co.uk | No 7
73927

Jamie
Oliver

(based on 7 Day Print Pack)

Toyboy
Nation

How to make
perfect pasta
(like I do)

We only
date
younger
men

WEEKEND

MAGAZINE

Sunak will
deny King
his trip to
Cop talks

LEIGH KEILY FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

Caitlin Moran
I don’t feel safe
outside on dark
winter nights
WEEKEND

Charles ‘champing at bit’ to be at conference
Valentine Low
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor

Rishi Sunak is upholding Liz Truss’s
decision to stop the King attending the
Cop 27 climate conference, even though
he is “champing at the bit” to go.
The prime minister faces criticism
over his own decision to skip the event
and has been under pressure to allow
the King to attend instead.
Charles is believed to be disappointed by the advice from No 10
that he should miss the event, which
starts in Egypt next weekend, with
allies suggesting that Sunak should let
him go to prove Britain’s environmental
commitment. However, the King will
not force the issue after Downing Street
made clear yesterday that Sunak would
not reopen any debate about it.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment
secretary, said that it was up to Charles
whether or not he attended the conference, raising hopes that Sunak might go
back on the advice issued by Truss.
One person who knows the King well
said he would be disappointed not to go.
“He will be champing at the bit but
knows it would need government blessing. The PM has reversed the fracking
decision so this could be another smart
environmentally focused move.”
However, Palace sources denied that

the King was disappointed, and No 10
also insisted there was no row about the
refusal to reopen the decision. Truss
advised the King to stay away because
she wanted to use his first foreign trip as
monarch as a diplomatic tool, Canada
being a possible destination.
But with President Biden and President Macron expected to attend, Sunak
was accused of a “failure of leadership”
for staying at home. The prime minister
insisted yesterday that he was “personally committed” to tackling climate
change, and allies suggested that he
would have gone were it not for the
looming fiscal statement next month.
Sunak will spend the weekend working on the statement. His allies said that
making the “tough economic decisions
to be taken ahead of the 17th” was his
“No 1 priority”.
He is also expected to make decisions
on where else to focus his time, with the
NHS, schools and crime said to be likely
areas, but is holding off from detailed
policy decisions until he has spoken to
cabinet colleagues. Downing Street
sources insisted that he did not have
time to go to the climate conference,
arguing that it was less important than
last year’s in Glasgow, where countries
agreed commitments. “That was a
big political Cop where targets are
Continued on page 2

30 best UK
mini-breaks
for foodies
MAGAZINE

Maurice
Saatchi
I talk to my dead
wife every day

Bite back James Corden dismissed claims that he was rude in a New York restaurant,
saying he had been protecting his wife. Page 11 & Caitlin Moran interview, Magazine

y(7HB7E2*OTSRQT( |||+[!@

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

2

News

Today’s highlights
12.35pm The Human League and Heaven 17 founder
Martyn Ware talks about his life and music
2.20pm The presenter of Countryfile and Lambing Live,
Adam Henson, right, on his new book
4.50pm Ayesha Hazarika chats to the co-author of the
new biography of Liz Truss, James Heale
5.15pm Times columnist Sathnam Sanghera and
former Tory adviser Salma Shah on the
country’s first British-Asian prime minister
8pm
My Cultural Week: Libby Purves reviews
the cultural week on Times Radio

DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP

T O D AY ’ S E D I T I O N
William may go National Trust
to Qatar after all in home row

Avian flu threat
to wild birds

The Prince of Wales
may attend the
World Cup finals in
Qatar if England reach
the later stages. He
currently has no plans
to attend because of
a busy diary. Page 5

The family of a baron
accused the National
Trust of turning his
home into a “theme
park” after it was fitted
with a mirror ball and
speech bubbles on
paintings. Page 11

Some threatened wild
bird species could be
facing extinction if
avian flu becomes
endemic and this year’s
catastrophic death
rates are repeated,
experts said. Page 23

Russians ‘spoke
of nuking Berlin’

US tech giants
down $250bn

Washout woe
for England

Russian naval officers
discussed nuclear
strikes on Berlin
during an exercise in a
possible attempt to
deter Germany from
supporting Ukraine, it
was claimed. Page 40

The biggest US tech
businesses have lost
$250 billion from their
market values after
poor results. Meta, the
parent of Facebook,
bore the brunt, with
profits halving. Page 45

England’s T20 World
Cup match against
Australia was washed
out and Jos Buttler’s
side must win their last
two games to progress,
though even that may
not be enough. Pullout

COMMENT P25
LETTERS P28

LEADING ARTICLES P29
WORLD NEWS P40

MONEY P55
OBITUARIES P74

FOLLOW US

thetimes

WEEKEND

timesandsundaytimes

SATURDAY REVIEW

thetimes

SPORT

Mortgage rates falling at their
fastest since the mini-budget
George Nixon Money Reporter

The tide appears to be turning on
mortgage rates which are falling at the
fastest rate since last month’s
mini-budget.
Some of Britain’s biggest lenders
including Barclays, HSBC, Santander,
TSB, and Coventry, Skipton and Yorkshire building societies have been cutting the cost of some fixed mortgage
deals by more than half a percentage
point this week.
The average rate on a two-year fix
has fallen to 6.48 per cent, the lowest
since October 17 and down from 6.65
per cent last Thursday, according to the
data provider Moneyfacts.
Major banks are now bringing the
cost of their cheapest fixed deals closer
to 5 per cent than 6 per cent, shaving
hundreds of pounds a year off the cost
of mortgages.
Skipton Building Society cut the
rates of its two-year fix yesterday by
0.59 percentage points, while on
Wednesday Barclays cut its cheapest
two-year fix from 6.2 per cent to 5.62
per cent. This would save £74 a month
on a £200,000 mortgage.
Brokers have urged borrowers to sit
on their hands for a little longer as rates
could fall further. The average twoyear fixed rate, which was going up
before Liz Truss’s tax cuts, is still way
above the 4.74 per cent it stood at on the
morning of September 23.
Simon Gammon, from the mortgage
broker Knight Frank Finance, said: “We
had a conversation yesterday about
what point does a fixed rate look
attractive again? We feel like a good
rate is anything starting with a 4.
“As long as stability in the market
remains, you would like to think we will
see lenders re-price. It doesn’t feel
unreasonable to me, I think we will see

BAKED OWL?
A chronicle of high
and low life in
Tudor England

RUGBY UNION
‘Ribeye’ and Lamb:
18st lock and his
unlikely mentor

JOE SWIFT P16

BOOKS P12

ALEX LOWE P18

THE WEATHER
12

26
10

17

13
16

18
22
19

24

Unsettled in the north and west.
Largely dry and warm in the
southeast. Full forecast, page 73
If a section of your Times is missing, please call 020-7711 1525 or e-mail
help@timesplus.co.uk and we will send it to you, subject to availability.

© TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2022.
Published in print and all other derivative
formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1
London Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF,
telephone 020 7782 5000. Printed by:
Newsprinters (Broxbourne) Ltd,
Great Cambridge Rd, Waltham Cross,
EN8 8DY; Newsprinters (Knowsley) Ltd,
Kitling Rd, Prescot, Merseyside, L34 9HN;
Newsprinters (Eurocentral) Ltd,
Byramsmuir Road, Holytown, Motherwell,
ML1 1NP; Associated Printing (Carn) Ltd,
Morton 2 Esky Drive, Carn Industial Estate,
Portadown, BT63 5YY; KP Services, La Rue
Martel, La Rue des Pres Trading Estate, St
Saviour, Jersey, JE2 7QR. For permission to
copy articles or headlines for internal
information purposes contact Newspaper
Licensing Agency at PO Box 101, Tunbridge
Wells, TN1 1WX, tel 01892 525274, e-mail
copy@nla.co.uk. For all other reproduction
and licensing inquiries contact Licensing
Department, 1 London Bridge St, London,
SE1 9GF, telephone 020 7711 7888,
e-mail enquiries@newslicensing.co.uk

M

ortgage rates at
their highest levels
in years, monthly
repayments up
hundreds of pounds,
and concerns the reduced
spending power of squeezed
borrowers will tip the economy
into recession (George Nixon
writes). Sounds like Britain,
right? Wrong.
This was the latest update from
the American Mortgage Bankers
Association this week, warning
that the average US mortgage
rate was 7.16 per cent in
September, the highest since
2001. The average monthly
payment on a 30-year mortgage
is up 40.4 per cent since January.
Across the developed world,
central banks facing double-digit
levels of inflation are rapidly
increasing interest rates, taking
the cost of mortgages with them.
In Europe, mortgage rates hit a
seven-year high in August of 2.26
per cent in the 19 countries that
have the euro, according to the
latest from the European Central
Bank, almost 1 percentage point
higher than the start of this year.

rates starting in the mid-4 per cent
range at some point.”
Jane King, mortgage adviser at Ash
Ridge Private Finance, said: “I have had
a few clients come to me since rates
started falling asking about taking a
new fix, but I am advising them to wait
a bit longer. Variable rates ( linked more
to the Bank of England base rate) are
still considerably cheaper.”

Submarine sexism inquiry
after female officer’s claims
George Grylls

OUTSIDE
Help the winter
wildlife in your
garden

Behind the story

The Royal Navy has launched an investigation into claims that women
serving on Britain’s nuclear submarines
were hit with clipboards and ranked
according to a “rape list”.
Admiral Sir Ben Key, the First Sea
Lord, said he was “deeply disturbed” by
the reports of misogynistic culture in
the Submarine Service.
It came after whistleblowers serving
mainly on vanguard-class submarines,
which carry Britain’s nuclear warheads,
described their experience.
Sophie Brook, 30, was the first female
warfare officer to serve in the Submarine Service, which has admitted
women only since 2011. The former
lieutenant, together with two anonymous whistleblowers, described her
experiences of sexism aboard the submarine fleet as part of an investigation
by The Mail+.
Brook said that a senior officer had
licked her ear, punched her in the kidney and inserted a part of his anatomy
in her pocket. Another man left pornographic images in her cabin along with
50p coins to suggest he should be rewarded with sexual favours, she added.
Brook said that she had been assaulted while sleeping in her bunk by a
higher-ranking man and that her bras
had been stolen from the laundry by engineers who sniffed women’s clothes.
The scenes of abuse and everyday
sexism were also documented by two

other anonymous whistleblowers. Men
allegedly ranked women by who they
would attack first if the submarine had
a catastrophic accident. They circulated a “crush depth rape list” — a reference to the depth below the sea where
the pressure would cause the submarine to implode.
Female submariners were called
“c***s” and hit with clipboards and
pens. “It wasn’t just me, all of the
women — and I mean all of them —
had incidents they had to endure,”
Brook said. “I am not out to destroy the
Submarine Service or the navy.”
“Most serving officers are brave,
professional and make huge personal
sacrifices. My issue is only with the few
rotten apples bringing the service into
disrepute. It is time for change.”
Brook was dismissed from the navy
in June after she was court-martialled
for sharing classified information about
her submarine’s position with her married lover, Lieutenant Commander
Nicholas Stone.
The navy is now carrying out an investigation into the “abhorrent” culture
exposed by Brook. Key said: “I want to
reassure our people, and anyone who is
reading this, that any activity which
falls short of the highest of standards
the Royal Navy sets itself is totally unacceptable and not a true reflection of
what service life should be.
He continued: “These allegations are
abhorrent. Sexual assault and harassment has no place in the Royal Navy.”

The cuts in mortgage rates come as
the new prime minister Rishi Sunak has
been greeted with lower government
borrowing costs, which also affect fixed
mortgage rates.
The Bank of England is expected to
have to raise interest rates by less after
the reversal of Truss’s multi-billion
pound tax cuts, and some mortgage
brokers have said they think fixed rates
have now peaked.
The two-year swap rate, an estimate
of the Bank of England base rate in the
future used to determine the price of
fixed deals, is now 4.36 per cent, the
lowest since the mini-Budget.
Ian Biggs from Coventry Building
Society said: “We’re cautiously optimistic that things may have started to stabilise. This view appears to be shared by
other lenders who have also made the
decision to price down.”
Banks are now feeling more comfortable setting rates on their loans after
more than 1,700 deals disappeared in
the aftermath of the mini-Budget.
“We suspect a few other banks will
follow, albeit very very slowly,” said
Chris Sykes from the mortgage broker
Private Finance. “Rate decreases by
lenders are always a gradual thing, and
lenders will always be more responsive
in increasing their rates rather than
reducing them. Many lenders will be
waiting to see what the Bank of England will do with the base rate at its
next meeting on November 3.”
Although the cost of offering these
deals is falling as the Bank is expected
to raise interest rates by less, equally as
important is banks’ capacity to service
mortgage applications. If banks don’t
need the business, they won’t cut their
rates.
Sykes said: “Many lenders will have
already lent more that they have budgeted for or needed to budget for.

continued from page 1
Charles climate conference row
set. That’s not what this Cop is,” said
one. Downing Street confirmed for the
first time yesterday that the King had
been advised by Truss’s government
not to attend the talks. “As is standard
practice, government advice was
sought and provided under a previous
PM, and it was unanimously agreed it
would not be the right occasion for the
King to visit,” a spokeswoman said.
Even if the government were to
change its mind now, Charles would be
unlikely to attend in person because of
difficulties in making travel arrangements at short notice. If he did go, the
easiest solution would be to charter a
private jet, contrary to the spirit of the
conference. However, the King does
have plans to engage with Cop27 remotely, possibly with a video message.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment
secretary, acknowledged that “King
Charles has always taken a very deep
interest in the environment and climate
change”, telling Sky News: “It would be
up to him to decide how he chooses
where to put his priorities in his reign.”
However, while formally the prime
minister cannot tell the King what to
do, it would be highly unusual for him
to ignore advice from Downing Street.
Nadine Dorries, the former culture
secretary, led criticism of Sunak’s decision to skip the conference, saying it
was wrong given the scale of the threat.
Sir Keir Starmer accused Sunak of “a
failure of leadership”. He said: “Many
people would be expecting a prime
minister of the UK not just to attend but
to use it as an opportunity to pull world
leaders together to deal with climate.”
Climate commitment, page 6
Green priorities, letters, page 28

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

3

2GM

News

Musk revels in becoming Chief Twit
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent
Alistair Dawber Washington

Even in the final days, some inside
Twitter doubted whether Elon Musk
would actually follow through with his
$44 billion takeover.
After all, over the course of six
months the world’s richest man agreed
not to buy the social network, then
tabled a bid, before attempting to backtrack, only to offer to proceed.
Lingering scepticism was dispelled in
the lobby of the company’s San Francisco headquarters this week, when
Musk strolled into the building carrying a sink. “Let that sink in!” he tweeted,
alongside a video of his arrival.
Before its top executives had the
chance, the billionaire tycoon got to
work. He promptly declared victory as
the extraordinary saga over Twitter’s
future drew to a close, and sent its
former bosses on their way.
Parag Agrawal, its chief executive,
and Ned Segal, its chief financial officer,
were among the senior managers who
departed on Thursday. Some executives were said to have been escorted
out. “The bird is freed,” tweeted Musk,
in a nod to the social media site’s logo.
Confirmation of the sale came
through yesterday morning, when a
regulatory filing stated that Musk had
paid $54.20 per share — an apparent
reference to the “420” subculture of
cannabis enthusiasts. The company’s
stock was suspended from the market.
Twitter is now owned by one of its
most prominent and prolific 238 million estimated daily users. The network
is used by celebrities, politicians and
other public figures, but has struggled
as a business in the shadow of larger
rivals, such as Facebook.
Musk, who duly dubbed himself
Chief Twit on his Twitter page, has
more than 110 million followers on the
site. He is expected to serve as chief
executive as he begins an overhaul. His
early decisions are likely to attract great
scrutiny.
The mercurial entrepreneur already
runs Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, and SpaceX, the rocket and satellites
business. Most of his fortune, estimated
by Forbes to be $220 billion, is derived
from stakes in the two companies.
“Let the good times roll,” Musk wrote
yesterday. While he moved to reassure
advertisers this week that he recognised Twitter “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape”, he has
repeatedly criticised outright bans of
certain users and signalled in May
that he was minded to reverse the
most famous example, President

Elon Musk had indicated he would lift Donald Trump’s Twitter ban. The former US president said he was “very happy” that the site was now in “sane hands”

The deleted profiles
Donald Trump The
former US president
was banned from
Twitter to prevent
the “risk of further
incitement of violence”.
Alex Jones The US
conspiracy theorist was
banned in 2018 for
falling foul of the site’s
abusive behaviour
policy. He wrote that
Barack Obama was the
“head of al-Qaeda”.
Tommy Robinson The
ex-leader of the English
Defence League was
banned in 2018 after

writing “Islam promotes
killing people”.
David Duke The former
grand wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan was banned
in 2020 after repeatedly
violating rules on
hateful content. His
final tweet promoted
an interview with a
Holocaust denier.
Martin Shkreli The
former pharmaceuticals
executive was banned
in 2017 after he was
accused of harassing
Lauren Duca, a writer
for Teen Vogue.

Katie Hopkins The
former LBC presenter
was banned for
violating the site’s
“hateful conduct”
policy in 2020. She
regularly posted antiimmigration messages.
Politics for All The
news aggregator
amassed nearly half a
million followers by
tweeting headlines of
breaking news before
publishing a link to the
relevant story. It was
banned this year for
“artificially amplifying”
its audience.

Toxic book has a binding to dye for
Charlie Moloney

A rare book given to a child despite
being laced with a deadly poison has
been discovered at a library in Leeds.
Leeds Central Library’s copy of My
Own Garden: The Young Gardener’s
Yearbook was published in 1855, the
year it was given to a young girl.
Experts believe the toxic text owes
its vivid emerald green colour to a dye
containing arsenic, which can be lethal
when ingested.
Rhian Isaac, the librarian who found
the book, said: “Heavy metals were
once quite commonly used in the production of books as a way to achieve
what was considered a very aesthetically pleasing shade of green. Whilst
people at the time were certainly aware
substances like arsenic were harmful,
they probably didn’t understand the

many different ways they could be
accidentally ingested.”
Isaac was cross-referencing the
library’s collection against a global
database of dangerous books as part of
the Poison Book Project.
Before the global project was
launched in Delaware in 2019, poisonous books often went unnoticed on
shelves and in collections.
These toxic books, most of which
were produced in the 19th century, are
bound in vivid cloth coloured with a
notorious pigment, known as emerald
green, that is laced with arsenic.
People who handle them frequently,
such as librarians or researchers, may
accidentally inhale or ingest particles
that contain arsenic, which could make
them feel lethargic and light-headed.
Against the skin, arsenic can cause
irritations and lesions. Serious cases of

arsenic poisoning can lead to heart failure, lung disease, neurological dysfunction and death.
An inscription in the book discovered in Leeds, which contains tips for
budding young gardeners, shows that it
was given to Caroline Gott as a gift from
her father in 1855.
Both were descendants of the wool
merchant Benjamin Gott, who once
owned Armley Mills and whose family
remained prominent local industrialists for several generations.
Isaac said: “The fact that this particular book also once belonged to the
Gott family means its story is also a part
of Leeds’s history and, with some careful handling and storage, can continue
to be part of our collection for many
years to come.”
The library said the book was hidden
from visitors.

Trump’s removal after last year’s US
Capitol riot. Last night, though, he said
he would be leaving any such decisions
to a new “content moderation council”.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “Twitter
will be forming a content moderation
council with widely diverse viewpoints.
“No major content decisions or
account reinstatements will happen
before that council convenes.”
Trump had greeted Musk’s takeover
by writing on his Truth Social platform:
“I am very happy that Twitter is now in
sane hands.” He added that the company should focus on removing fake
accounts, as Musk had pledged. “It will
be much smaller, but better.”
Sacked executives are in line for vast
payouts. Agrawal, appointed to the top
job last November, has a so-called golden parachute worth as much as
$57.4 million.
For Musk, the hard work begins now.
Experts warned that he faced an

“Everest-like uphill battle” to revitalise
Twitter as a business while fixing the
problems he has cited with the platform.
Musk has spoken of incorporating it
into X, an “everything app” akin to
China’s WeChat, enabling users to
communicate and pay for services. He
is also expected to reduce its workforce.
Daniel Ives, a technology analyst at
the consultancy Wedbush Securities,
said the takeover “will go down as one
of the most overpaid tech acquisitions”
in history. He estimated that Twitter’s
“fair value” would be about $25 billion
— almost half what Musk spent.
The deal was always a “major headscratcher”, according to Ives.
“Now major questions will remain
around changes to the platform, monetisation efforts, the level of headcount
cuts on the horizon, and the long-term
strategy around the X app.”
$250bn fall for US tech giants, page 45

Healing mushroom is so
rare that it must be caged
Will Humphries

A volunteer at a historic garden has discovered a fungus so rare it has to be kept
in a cage to protect it from collectors,
who claim it can help fight dementia
and cancer.
The Bearded Tooth fungus (Hericium
erinaceus) was spotted at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey,
Cornwall. The volunteer then discovered another example of the fungus in
the estate’s “bug hotel”.
Staff received advice from local and
national experts on the football-sized
fungus and have caged it to protect it
from people who believe it has healing
powers. The fungus also plays an important role in the woodland ecosystem

by breaking down dead wood. Toby
Davies, the wildlife co-ordinator at the
gardens, said: “Usually this mushroom
is found in dense woodland where
members of the public wouldn’t see it.
It’s protected under Schedule 8 of the
Wildlife and Countryside Act, making
it illegal to intentionally pick, uproot or
destroy it.
“Most of the time, when there’s these
fungi around, there’s only 15 reports
across the whole country — here we’ve
got two within the same vicinity.”
When the fungus was spotted a week
ago the volunteer didn’t know how significant it was. Also known as the Lion’s
Mane mushroom, it is one of only four
species of fungi under the highest level
of legal protection in the UK.

4

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

News
SKULLY/ALAMY

Quintagram® No 1459
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only
1 Silence or near silence (5)

-----

2 Tree also known as an osier (6)

-----3 Set of scales (7)

------4 Deliberately ignored (7)

------5 County town north of Luton (7)

------A

A

A

B

B

B

C

D

D

D

E

E

E

E

F

I

I

K

L

L

L

L

N

N

O

O

Q

R

T

U

W

W

Solutions MindGames page 79
Cryptic clues Review page 53

Man died in coast fall

Fright night Ghostly drummers joined creepy crawlies, a fire-breathing dragon and caped crusaders stalking the streets of Paisley in Scotland for its Halloween festival

From cocktails to vegan pub grub,
the ‘research’ that costs us £469m
times investigation

Tax credit scheme has
become target for a
series of suspect claims,
George Greenwood and
James Hurley report
The taxman has lost an estimated
£469 million to apparently frivolous
claims and fraud under a multibillionpound scheme at the heart of Britain’s
industrial policy.
Tax advisers have boasted that officials “almost never” check applications
under a programme encouraging hightech research and development (R&D),
and said they represent “free money”.
Claimants include a launderette that
offered to lower its washing machines’
temperatures and a firm that recouped
money for staff performance reviews.
Under the £7.4 billion-a-year tax
credit scheme, companies claim back
money they invest in R&D. However,
questionable cases are being approved.
His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
(HMRC) said that since bringing in
stricter checks this year 80 per cent of
claimants it had asked for more information over compliance concerns later
had their claims rejected.
One industry expert said a successful
claim was made for a call centre manager recording conversations between a
customer and agent, and reviewing
their performance. Brian Cookson,
president and managing director at
RDP Associates, a tax credit consultancy, has written that stories circulated in

the industry of a high-street bakery
which allegedly filed a claim for developing a blueberry-flavoured croissant.
Business leaders say the tax credits
have led to significant innovation, but
fears about dubious claims have
prompted speculation that the scheme
may be shrunk by Jeremy Hunt, the
chancellor tasked with finding tens of
billions to balance the public finances.
Rufus Meakin, an associate at MSC
R&D, a consultancy that specialises in
complex tax credit claims, said: “The
problem is that many advisers and
accountants promote R&D tax credits
as ‘free money’ that is available to
practically every company, including in
sectors not normally associated with
R&D, such as care homes, dental
surgeries, local pubs and restaurants,
childcare and personal trainers.
“They know HMRC only checks a
small fraction of claims and that most
lower-value claims will be paid automatically with no questions asked.”
HMRC has also acknowledged that
criminal gangs have targeted the programme. Three men were recently jailed for a total of 21 years after faking
bank statements for a fraudulent
£29.5 million tax relief claim.
The taxman estimates that last year
alone it lost £469 million to fraud and
claims approved in error under the
scheme. Experts believe that the true
annual cost could run into the billions.
The level of fraud and error has been
so high that HMRC auditors have
refused to sign off its latest accounts for
the third year in a row.
Introduced for smaller businesses in
2000 and extended to large ones in
2002, the R&D scheme is meant to
encourage investment in innovation.

To qualify, claimants must prove they
are trying to overcome scientific or
technological uncertainty and seeking
progress that could not easily be
reached by a professional in the field.
Paul Cheetham-Karcz, managing
partner of the financial consultancy
Sedulo, said in a YouTube video that
bars and restaurants were “categorically” eligible for the schemes because of
the “uniqueness” of their offerings.
“That might be cocktails . . . it might be
a twist on something, but that twist is
the development of your menu,” Cheetham-Karcz said in the video about tax
breaks, published in January last year.
“R&D grants are available in the leisure industry, and that’s a fact because
we’ve got them. So make sure that
you’re looking at them because that is
free cash from HMRC back into your
bank account.”
Cheetham-Karcz said of the video:
“To be clear, we don’t consider that
R&D relief is applicable purely for
amending a cocktail menu, nor have we
ever submitted a claim for this activity.

A pub claimed £28,035 for adding
vegan and gluten-free menu options

My comments were made during an interview intended to be watched by the
restaurant industry, during the height
of the Covid pandemic. We were making the important point that companies
within the industry could make claims
if their respective activity qualified. We
have submitted successful R&D claims
on behalf of businesses in this industry,
for example for the development and
mass production of new cocktail products and . . . new foodstuffs.”
According to Radish, an accountancy
and tax credit advisory firm, a pub in
Chester called The Coach House Inn
claimed £28,035 across two R&D tax
credit claims for adding vegan and
gluten-free options to its menus.
The pub declined to give details of its
claims for the menus. A spokesman said
it disagreed that the claim was
questionable and would be happy to
answer any questions from HMRC. A
spokeswoman for Diagnostax, owner
of Radish, said: “All our R&D work is
squarely within legislative limits. We do
not accept there has been any abuse of
rules with any of the claims we submit.”
There is no suggestion that The
Coach House Inn, Radish or Sedulo
defrauded the R&D scheme or knowingly mislead tax officials.
A spokesman for HMRC said: “We
have prevented significant organised
criminal attacks and fraudulent abuse
of the R&D tax reliefs and are continuing to step up our monitoring of claims
for fraud. Claims are checked for suspected fraud and since April 2022 more
than 1,600 claimants have been asked
for more information to validate their
claim. More than 80 per cent of
these claims have not been paid out as
a result of checks.”

A father of two fell to his death in
front of his family after climbing
a rock arch on the Dorset coast,
an inquest was told. Azhar Baig
was on a family day trip to
Lulworth Cove and had twice
dived off the 100ft Stair Hole into
the sea. On the third attempt he
slipped, hitting his head on rocks
after a fall of about 20ft. Baig,
who owned a chip shop in Luton,
died from head injuries at the
scene in July last year. A verdict
of accidental death was recorded.

Barker’s SW19 highlight
Sue Barker has said Sir Andy
Murray winning Wimbledon for
the first time was “my absolute
career highlight”. In her new
autobiography Calling the Shots,
Barker, who hosted the BBC’s
coverage at SW19 for almost
30 years, writes of her pride at
interviewing Murray in 2013 after
he became the first British man to
win the final in 77 years.

Not a bean for bishop
Philip Egan, the Catholic Bishop
of Portsmouth, has complained
that weekly donations from
parishioners are just £2.35 — “less
than the price of a cappuccino”
— in a four-page pastoral letter.
“How can we encourage real
stewardship, responsibility and
tithing?” asked Egan. Parts of
Portsmouth are among the most
deprived places in the UK.

Olivia police hold man
Police have made another arrest
in connection with the murder of
Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, who
was shot dead at her home in
Liverpool on August 22. They said
that a man was being held under
suspicion of assisting an offender.
Thomas Cashman, 34, of
Liverpool, has already been
charged with Olivia’s murder and
will appear in court next year.

Arrest after hunt clash
A 59-year-old woman has been
arrested on suspicion of
attempted wounding with intent
after a hunt saboteur was struck
by a Mercedes in Knossington,
Leicestershire. Police said the
protester was “treated for injuries
that were not life-threatening or
life-changing” after the incident
at the opening meet of the
Cottesmore Hunt on Tuesday.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

5

News

Prince will try to find time for Qatar trip — if England excel
Valentine Low, Charlie Moloney

The Prince of Wales may go to the football World Cup in Qatar if England
reach the later stages, The Times
understands.
Kensington Palace has said Prince
William, who is president of the Football Association, has no plans to attend
because he is too busy. His decision has
been interpreted as an implicit criticism
of the host nation, which has been condemned for its human rights record.
However, if England do well it is

understood that the prince would try to
rearrange his diary. A source said: “If
they make the final, it’s likely we would
explore going.”
A Kensington Palace spokesman said
the prince had no plans to attend at
present because of his “busy winter
schedule”. The Prince and Princess of
Wales are due to be in Boston in the
United States on December 2, just
before the round of 16 matches in
Qatar, for the awards ceremony for his
£50 million Earthshot Prize.
William’s diary is normally arranged

months in advance. The dates of the
World Cup have also been known for
months. The prince attended the 2010
World Cup in South Africa, but did not
go to Brazil in 2014 or Russia in 2018.
The homosexuality ban in Qatar has
prompted widespread criticism of Fifa’s
decision to allow the tournament to be
held in the Gulf state.
LGBT rights activists, who interpreted the prince’s decision to stay away
from Qatar as being a matter of principle, welcomed his absence. Robbie de
Santos, of Stonewall, told The Sun: “We

welcome leadership from the His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales in standing up to discrimination against
LGBTQ+ people across the globe.”
Last month it was announced that
Harry Kane would wear a rainbowcoloured captain’s armband to send a
message against discrimination.
This week James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, was accused by Labour
of being “shockingly tone-deaf” after
asking gay fans to be “respectful” while
visiting the host nation.
Trade unions and humanitarian

Surprise as the King takes
top Marines role for himself

groups have highlighted the plight of
migrant workers in Qatar. The England
squad and the FA are in talks with their
counterparts from other nations about
making a public statement at the tournament in support of human rights.
The US Soccer Federation has joined
six other contestants, including England and Wales, and four tournament
sponsors in publicly backing the call for
Fifa and the host to provide $440 million in compensation to the families of
thousands of foreign workers who have
been killed or injured in Qatar.

Crown star
hits back
after Dench’s
‘cruel’ claims

MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES

Roya Nikkhah, Mario Ledwith

A senior figure within the Royal
Marines has expressed surprise after
Buckingham Palace announced that
the King would become the force’s new
captain general instead of the
Princess Royal.
Charles succeeds his son the Duke of
Sussex, who relinquished the role on
stepping back from royal duties.
The King’s appointment to the ceremonial role comes after months of
uncertainty about who would take over
from Prince Harry, who was known to
be attached to the role and was deeply
unhappy about his removal.
Princess Anne was widely expected
to succeed Harry, and was regarded by
senior sources within the Royal Marines as “nailed on” for the role.
A senior Royal Marines source said
of the King’s appointment: “No idea
why Anne was manoeuvred out, but
what an honour for the Royal Marines.”
The source said last year: “Princess
Anne has already done a lot with us
over the years, she’s really well connected to the navy and, as a consequence, has a soft spot for the
Royal Marines. We are very
comfortable with her, especially
given her outstanding sporting
background. A good fit.”
The position was previously
held by the Duke of Edinburgh, who held the role
for 64 years until 2017,
when he retired from
public duties. He was
said to be keen for his
daughter to take over
from Harry.
The King, who
served in the Royal
Navy between 1971 and
1976, said that the appointment was “the greatest possible pleasure”. He added that
he was “exceptionally proud”
to follow in the footsteps of
family members who had
previously held the title.
Harry served in the role for
just over three years, but was
obliged to stand down after the
Queen insisted that he should
lose his royal patronages and
honorary military positions as
part of his decision to step back
from royal duties.
Announcing the appointment
on Friday, Buckingham Palace
said the position had historically
been held by the monarch, including the King’s grandfather
and great-grandfather.
The appointment was timed to
coincide with the 358th anniversary of the founding of the Corps of
Royal Marines. In a statement,

The King will be
captain general
of the Royal
Marines,
succeeding his
son Prince Harry,
below left. Below,
Charles during
his naval career

John Reynolds

One of the stars of The Crown has
said he is “bitterly disappointed” by his
“fellow artistes” for criticising the
Netflix show.
Sir Jonathan Pryce, 75, who plays the
Duke of Edinburgh, was referring to
damning criticism by Dame Judi
Dench, who accused the show’s producers of “crude sensationalism” and
called the storylines “cruelly unjust”.
In a strongly worded letter to The
Times last week, Dench, 87, called on
Netflix to insert a disclaimer at the start
of the programme to say it is a “fictionalised drama”. She said it would not
only be a mark of respect, but would
help preserve Netflix’s reputation.
The intervention came after a series
of damaging headlines about the show’s
fifth series. Responding to the criticism,
Pryce said that he was “bitterly disappointed”. He argued that “the vast
majority of people know it’s a drama”.
Pryce, who was nominated for an
Oscar in 2019 for his role in The Two
Popes, said the backlash came about
because of an “enhanced sensitivity

Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce
will play the Queen and Prince Philip

the King said: “It is the
greatest possible pleasure
to assume the role of your
captain general. I am
exceptionally proud to
follow in the footsteps of
so many members of
my family over the last
three and a half centuries,
all of whom held the role
with a deep sense of
admiration.
“The Royal Marines have
a distinguished and unparalleled history, both on land
and at sea. I draw immense
inspiration from your courage,
determination, self-discipline
and a remarkable capacity to
endure in the most extreme
environments.
“I feel greatly honoured to
become part of the corps
family and very much look forward
to meeting many of you in the near

future. In the meantime, this comes
with my heartfelt and special wishes for
a very happy 358th birthday.”
He signed off his statement with the
words Per Mare, Per Terram, or “by sea,
by land”, the motto of the Royal Marines. It had been used by Harry when he
paid tribute to his grandfather following his death in April last year, hinting

at his own sadness at having stepped
down from the position.
The King’s decision comes only a day
after Harry announced details of his
long-awaited memoir, which has left
the royal family in a state of nervous
anticipation.
The King, as the Prince of Wales, flew
himself to Royal Air Force Cranwell in
Lincolnshire, to begin training as a jet
pilot in March 1971. Later that year he
embarked on a naval career, following
the path trodden by his father, grandfather and both his great-grandfathers.
A six-week course at the Royal Naval
College, Dartmouth, was followed by
service on HMS Norfolk, two frigates
and HMS Bronington, a coastal minehunter. He qualified as a helicopter
pilot in 1974 then joined 845 Naval Air
Squadron and completed military exercises in the western Atlantic and the
West Indies.
Andrew and Harry should not deputise
for the King, leading article, page 29

because of the passing of the Queen”.
His co-stars Imelda Staunton and Lesley Manville, who play Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, also
noted that the public outbursts “came
about because of an enhanced sensitivity because of the passing of the Queen”.
However, Pryce said he understood
Sir John Major’s scathing comments
over a scene where Prince Charles is
said to have asked for the prime minister’s support in the Queen’s abdication.
Major called the series a “damaging
and malicious fiction”, adding it was “a
barrel-load of nonsense peddled for no
other reason than to provide maximum
— and entirely false — dramatic impact”. Major’s spokesman said: “There
was never any discussion between Sir
John and the then Prince of Wales
about any possible abdication of the
late Queen Elizabeth II.”
The former prime minister issued the
statement before the airing of the fifth
season of The Crown on November 9.

6

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

News
News Politics

Truss allies criticise Sunak for
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
Geraldine Scott Political Reporter

Rishi Sunak insisted yesterday that he
was “personally committed” to fighting
climate change as he was criticised for
skipping the Cop27 conference next
month.
The prime minister said he was too
busy with the autumn statement to go
to Egypt. He insisted that Britain had
shown “unmatched” leadership on the
climate as he faced attacks from allies of
Liz Truss, who had been planning to
attend the talks.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment
secretary, dismissed the event yesterday as “just a gathering of people in
Egypt”, describing it as largely a technical meeting.
She told LBC: “The politically big
significant things happen every five
years. The government has postponed
the medium-term fiscal plan until November 17. I know that the prime minister is very keen to work with the chancellor closely on this important element and so he’s prioritising that. While
at the same time, of course, the UK continues to show global leadership.”
In a sign of Conservative divisions,
Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, tweeted: “The prime minister is
wrong not to go. Global warming is the
biggest crisis facing our planet and net
zero create many 100s of jobs which is
good for the economy.”
Dorries said the Cop26 conference
last year in Glasgow was “the most
successful ever” as she chided her colleague Jacob Rees-Mogg for supporting
Sunak’s decision.
Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said: “The cost of living crisis
won’t be solved in Sharm al-Sheikh,
where each hotel room for the conference is £2,000 a night.”
Supporters of Truss, who was planning to attend the meeting before she
was forced from office, turned on
Sunak, casting doubt on his commitment to the environment.
A close ally said: “Liz was going to
Cop27 personally because she felt it was
important so, for all those activists who
decided to invent a faux ‘attack on
nature’ as part of their plan to bring Liz
down — and the MPs who bought it —
the Aesop’s fable holds true: be careful
what you wish for.”
Sunak insisted, however, that climate
change was “really important” to him.
“It’s important to me that as prime minister we leave behind an environment
that is better for our children and

Charles faces
a royal trap
Geraldine Scott Political Reporter

As a passionate environmental
campaigner for most of his life, for
the King the Cop27 conference
would in one sense be a natural
stage. So when it emerged that Liz
Truss had advised him not to
attend, some thought she was
scared he might commit Britain
further than the government
wanted to go.
In fact the decision was taken
more with an eye on maximising
the diplomatic leverage that
comes with granting the prize of
the King’s first overseas visit as
monarch. Truss told him to stay
away because ministers wanted his
first trip overseas to align with the
government’s diplomatic priorities.
When The Sunday Times broke
the story this month that he would
not be attending, a senior royal
source said the decision was made
“entirely in the spirit of being evermindful as King that he acts on
government advice”. By
convention, all overseas official
visits by members of the royal
family are undertaken in
accordance with advice from the
government.
A Downing Street source had
said there might be “more suitable
options” for the King’s first
overseas visit. While the prospect
of a visit to France had been
mooted to signal a new diplomatic
era after the rows of the Brexit
years, it is understood that the
King has made clear that his
preference would be for his first
foreign visit to be to a
Commonwealth country. A source
told The Times this month that
Canada was at the top of the list.
But President Biden will travel
to Egypt for the conference and
John Kerry, the US special climate
envoy, has said it would be “very
powerful” if the King could attend.
The Queen addressed Cop26 in
Glasgow last year and Charles
gave the opening speech at Cop21
in Paris in 2015. He also spoke at
Cop26.

grandchildren,” he said. “I’m very passionate about that, I’m very personally
committed to it.”
The prime minister said during a visit
to Croydon University Hospital, in
south London, that he was “really
proud . . . about our record on tackling
climate change”. He claimed that the
Glasgow talks “set the targets . . . for the
world to follow if we’re going to meet
our climate ambitions”.
He insisted he was committed to netzero goals. “The leadership we have
shown on the climate is unmatched
almost along the world,” he said. “If you
look at what we’ve done, we’re an
example for others to follow. I just think
at the moment, it’s right that I’m also
focusing on the pressing domestic challenges we have with the economy.”
His allies said he would have gone to
the talks under other circumstances
but was spending much of his time
going through details of the autumn
statement. One said: “Time is infinitely
precious in the next few weeks.”
A No 10 official said James Cleverly,
the foreign secretary, Grant Shapps, the
business secretary, and Coffey would
go to Cop27. Other world leaders including President Biden are expected
to attend.
Coffey, who was demoted from deputy prime minister this week, told Sky
News: “The big push happened last year
in Glasgow. I am not aware of, say,
President Biden or President Macron,
or any of those other people will be
there [in Egypt]. It is quite standard
practice that every five years is the big
political gathering.”
Alok Sharma, Cop president since
the conference last year, was fired from
the cabinet by Sunak. Graham Stuart,
the climate minister, was also demoted.
Sharma used his freedom from collective responsibility to say last night
that windfall taxes on oil and gas companies should be expanded.
He told The Guardian that the fuel
companies were making “excessive
profits”. He added: “There really is an
incentive for these companies to do
more in terms of oil and gas. What we
want them to do, if we are to meet our
target of 100 per cent clean energy by
2035, is to accelerate the renewables
rollout. We ought to be going further
and seeing what more can be done in
terms of raising additional finance
[from the profits].”
He defended Sunak, however, saying
he had “made a pretty good start on
these issues” by reinstating the ban on
fracking.

Patient urges PM
to pay nurses more

A

s Rishi
Sunak’s
first week
in No 10
drew to a
close, the verdict,
according to one
patient at Croydon

Hospital, was
simple: “Must try
harder” (Geraldine
Scott writes).
On his first public
visit as prime minister
Sunak was told in no
uncertain terms that

he must pay nurses
more. Catherine
Poole, who was asked
by the prime minister
how she was being
looked after by nurses,
said: “It’s a pity you
don’t pay them more.”
When Sunak told
Poole, 77, who is
recovering after
surgery, that he
was trying, she said:
“You are not trying,

Call with Macron heralds a new era No 10 drops £10 fines for
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor

Rishi Sunak told President Macron of
France that they need to make the
Channel migrant route “completely unviable” as the pair spoke for the first time
since Sunak became prime minister.
Downing Street said after the call
that the two leaders were committed to
deepening their partnership to stop
migrants crossing the Channel in small
boats. It is a further sign that Sunak
wants to strike a major new deal with
France to tackle the crisis.
It follows revelations in The Times
yesterday that Sunak wants a more ambitious agreement with France than
previous governments have struck. He
wants it to include mutually agreed targets for how many boats are intercepted before they reach the UK.
Home Office officials believe that if
the interception rate can reach 75 per
cent, it will destroy the business model
of people smugglers and make attempts
to cross the Channel not worthwhile.

The French interception rate has
dropped from 50 per cent last year to
42 per cent this year. The French
authorities have stopped 28,000 migrants in 1,072 boats so far this year, but
38,405 have reached the UK in 1,056
boats.
Sunak’s ambitious aim to end the
small boats crisis echoes pledges made
by Boris Johnson’s government when
he entered No 10 in 2019. Since then,
the annual tally of migrant crossings
has risen almost fivefold, with a series of
measures and new legislation failing to
reduce the numbers.
A new deal on boosting co-operation
on Channel crossings was close to being
finalised in the summer but was torpedoed after Truss caused a diplomatic
spat with the Élysée Palace when she
said the jury was out on whether
Macron was a “friend or foe”.
A government source told The Times
the new regime in Westminster was
keen to “leverage the opportunity afforded by Rishi’s arrival to improve rela-

tions with France”. Sunak and Macron
also agreed on a “huge range of areas”
on which it is “vital” the countries work
together, including Ukraine, climate,
defence and the economy, No 10 said.
The spokeswoman added: “President
Macron congratulated him [Sunak] on
his appointment and the prime minister stressed the importance he places
on the UK’s relationship with France.
“The prime minister and President
Macron discussed a range of global
issues, including Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. They agreed on the importance of continuing to work in support
of Ukraine. As people across Europe
face a difficult winter, with rising
energy costs resulting from Putin’s
invasion, the leaders resolved to work
together to secure a more stable energy
future. This includes increasing co-operation on nuclear energy.
“The prime minister and President
Macron looked forward to meeting
soon and to holding a UK-France summit next year.”

missing GP appointments
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor

Rishi Sunak has abandoned his plan to
charge patients for missing GP appointments after accepting it would
cause needless headaches for the NHS.
The prime minister said he had “listened” to concerns about the policy
from family doctors who feared an administrative nightmare that would put
off the poorest from seeking help.
In the summer leadership election,
Sunak promised that his government
would impose £10 fines on patients who
failed to attend GP appointments without giving notice. “The NHS is meant to
be free at the point of use, not free at the
point of misuse,” he said at the time.
He pointed to figures showing that
15 million appointments, about one in
20, are wasted due to no-shows. However the NHS sees the £10 fee as unworkable and divisive.

Yesterday No 10 said: “The sentiment
remains that people should not be missing their appointments and taking up
NHS time. But we have listened to GPs
and health leaders and we acknowledge that now’s not the right time to
take this policy forward.”
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, welcomed the decision, saying: “Charging
patients for missed appointments . . .
would simply have been tinkering at the
edges given the scale of the crisis facing
GPs”. He pointed out that GP numbers
were still falling despite the manifesto
promise of 6,000 more.
Demand for GPs is rising as the population gets older, but numbers are falling as doctors tire of a treadmill of 10minute appointments. Medical leaders
want ministers to come up with a plan
to stop GPs quitting, as well as cutting
bureaucracy.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

7

2GM

News
News

skipping environment talks
LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Rishi Sunak told
Catherine Poole, a
patient, that the NHS
was important. She
replied: “Yes, and
look after it”

you need to try
harder.”
Thousands of nurses
are being balloted on
whether to strike over
pay. About 32,000
nurses leave the NHS
each year.
In an interview
Sunak, who faces a
budget deficit of up to
£50 billion, was asked
about nurses’ pay but
dodged the question.

He said: “It is
brilliant to be here at
Croydon Hospital, to
see the great work of
the doctors and
nurses here. One of
the priorities for my
government is going
to be tackling the
Covid backlogs and
supporting the NHS.
“We face lots of
challenges as a
country, but I am

confident that we can
fix the economy and
deliver on the promise
of the 2019 manifesto,
including having a
stronger NHS.”
Sunak told Poole
that the NHS was
important, to which
she said: “Yes, and
look after it.”
Her warning came
as Sunak and Jeremy
Hunt, the chancellor,
look for ways to save
money. Hunt has said
no department is safe
from savings.
Research done for
the Royal College of
Nursing suggested
that a pay rise for
nurses could save the
NHS money because it
would stem the need
to hire internationally,
which is more costly.
The study found that
nurses work the
equivalent of one day
a week without pay.
Other patients on
Sunak’s visit were
more welcoming.
Sreeja Gopalan, 46,
took a selfie with the
prime minister.
“I am waiting to see
you,” she said, adding:
“II am proud of you.”
But Downing Street
su
suffered
an
em
embarrassing
slip
wh one photograph
when
of the visit, uploaded
on
online,
revealed a
pa
patient’s
confidential
m
medical
information.
An image uploaded
to a photo-sharing
we
website
by No 10
sh
showed
a patient’s
na
name,
address, date of
bi
birth
and information
ab
about
their health. It
wa swiftly removed.
was

Braverman’s decisions
led to diphtheria and
scabies at migrant hub
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor

Decisions made by Suella Braverman
led directly to overcrowding and outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria at a
migrant processing centre in Kent, The
Times has been told.
Multiple government sources who
work on asylum accommodation said
she had blocked the transfer of thousands of migrants detained at a processing centre at Manston airport to hotels
during her first, six-week spell as home
secretary.
Home Office officials warned her
that she risked breaking the law by detaining people — including an Afghan
family — for periods of up to 32 days at
the centre. There has been at least one
report of sexual assault against a
member of staff at the Manston site.
Government sources said Braverman had only approved migrants moving from the facility if there was space in
other detention centres, dispersal accommodation provided by local
authorities or spare beds provided by
the Home Office’s private contractors.
The move was aimed at reducing the
soaring cost of housing migrants in
hotels, which costs taxpayers £6.8 million per day. However, it led to overcrowding at the Manston site because
migrants were not leaving quickly
enough to accommodate new arrivals.
At one point this month more than
3,000 migrants were being held there,
three times its original capacity. The
Home Office has used temporary marquees to increase its capacity to 1,600.
A government source said: “She was
refusing to allow anyone to leave Manston, even though the numbers were
well above its capacity.”
Braverman had ordered the use of
tags to track of migrants’ movements
but was told there were none available.
She was also warned that even if there
were, individuals would remove them
because unlike criminals, they had no
incentive to keep the devices on.
On Monday, three hotels were

opened to accommodate the overflow
at Manston, taking the total number of
hotels in use to over 70. They were only
authorised after Grant Shapps, who replaced Braverman as home secretary
for six days, was informed about the
overcrowding at Manston.
Procuring hotels would normally
take about two months but ministers
can get some hotels ready within 48
hours if there is an emergency, which
Manston qualified as. MPs were told
this week that there is a shortage of hotels to house migrants.
The Manston centre, set up in January to replace the Kent Intake Unit in
Dover, was only designed to accommodate people for up to 24 hours during
security and medical checks. However,
David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration,
said he had spoken to an Afghan family
who had been living in one of the marquees at the site for 32 days. Migrants
were forced to sleep on blankets and
doormats on the floor.
Of Braverman, a source said: “Besides the fact that we are letting people
in our care live in inhumane conditions,
it’s also against the law, but she turned
a blind eye.”
The Home Office has confirmed a
small outbreak of diphtheria, a highly
contagious infection that is rare in the
UK but can prove fatal if untreated.
Migrant accounts have also revealed
that there is an outbreak of scabies, a
skin infection that causes intense
itchiness.
The Home Office insisted it was providing for the basic needs of people
being processed at Manston, which includes hot food, fresh clothing, toilet
facilities, sanitary packs and medical
care but admitted that the soaring
numbers of Channel crossings was putting “unprecedented” strain on the asylum system. The department said:
“Manston is resourced and equipped to
process migrants securely and we will
provide alternative accommodation as
soon as possible.”

Tories bring back Johnson’s poll guru Leader suggests minister
Henry Zeffman
Associate Political Editor
Steven Swinford Political Editor

The Conservatives have asked Boris
Johnson’s elections guru to start working for the party again, just weeks after
Liz Truss ended the relationship.
Isaac Levido and his company,
Fleetwood Strategy, had been paid
a monthly retainer by Conservative
Headquarters (CCHQ) to provide
advice and research. Levido had
run Johnson’s victorious 2019 general
election campaign.
This month Truss, then in No 10,
decided to do away with Fleetwood’s
services. It was speculated that she
wanted Mark Fullbrook, her chief of
staff and a veteran Conservative campaigns strategist, to lead the party’s
campaign at the next election instead.
Nadhim Zahawi, in one of his first
acts as party chairman, asked Levido
this week if he would be willing to come
back on board. Zahawi, who founded

the pollster YouGov before he entered
politics, is said to believe that Levido
would help the party turn around Labour’s vast polling leads.
Zahawi and Levido met at CCHQ on
Thursday, though no deal has yet been
agreed.
Levido was a protégé of Sir Lynton
Crosby, a fellow Australian, who
worked on campaigns for David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson.
Truss's decision not to use Levido
was criticised by veterans of the 2019
campaign. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief adviser, said the
move showed that Truss was a “human
hand grenade”. He wrote on Twitter:
“On the way to No 10 24/7/19 I met with
Isaac to plan him coming to CCHQ. We
worked very closely together. He is very
able. He also really helped the country
in covid meltdown. This news confirms
the Human Handgrenade Team cannot escape its own burst radius #CarthageScenario.”
Lee Cain, who was Johnson’s director

of communications, said: “Isaac Levido
and Michael Brooks spearheaded the
best election campaign in decades. This
is a monumental error.”
In an interview with The Times in
2020, Levido said that there had been
only a “narrow, steep path to victory” as
the Tories attempted to unite voters on
both sides of the party in 2019.
The “get Brexit done” slogan, which
was coined by the pollster Michael
Brooks following input from focus
groups, was critical, Levido believed.
“It spoke to that great frustration
that a lot of voters have that they
just wanted this resolved, whether
they voted for this or not,” he said.
“Leave or Remain, they wanted to
get it done.”
Levido was then suddenly called in
by the government in March 2020 to
help to craft the government’s messaging as it urged people to stay home during the pandemic.
After Truss, Sunak must make the case
for low taxes, leading article, page 29

did not own up to breach
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor

Rishi Sunak appeared to acknowledge
yesterday that Suella Braverman had
not owned up to her breach of security
herself, contrary to what she had said.
The prime minister again dodged
questions over whether officials had
warned him not to reappoint her as
home secretary. He insisted that Braverman had “learnt from her mistake”.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,
turned up his attack on Sunak, calling
on him to sack Braverman amid growing questions over whether she is trusted by the security services. She was
brought back as home secretary six
days after she shared a marketsensitive government policy from her
personal email address with a backbench MP and accidentally sent it to a
stranger.
In her resignation letter, Braverman

said she had reported the breach of
security herself. At prime minister’s
questions on Wednesday, Sunak appeared to repeat this claim when asked
by Starmer if she was right to resign.
Hours later, however, Sir Jake Berry,
who served alongside Braverman in the
cabinet, told TalkTV that to his knowledge she had not owned up to her
mistake.
A government source who was close
to Braverman’s sacking has told The
Times that Berry is correct, saying:
“She was questioned about it on
Wednesday before she alerted anyone.”
Yesterday Sunak appeared to change
tack, suggesting that he was referring to
a conversation he had with Braverman
while considering whether to reappoint
her. Speaking to broadcasters during a
visit to Croydon University Hospital, he
said Braverman had “raised” the issue
while he discussed her reappointment.

8

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

News
News Politics

Restoring calm to
Westminster took
a frantic scramble
After weeks of tumult
for Tory MPs (and the
rest of us) many dare
to dream of dullness,
report Steven Swinford
and Henry Zeffman
Rishi Sunak’s appointment as prime
minister five days after Liz Truss’s
government collapsed capped one of
the most dizzying and frantic periods in
political history. But his defining
mission now that he is in power is to
make politics boring again.
Sunak wants to replace Truss’s
untrammelled ideology and rapid
U-turns with sober, managerial professionalism, an approach he believes can
finally end the relentless cycle of political violence which has dominated
Conservative politics for so many years.
The first test of whether this will
actually work in a Conservative Party
addicted to drama was Sunak’s unity
reshuffle, with big jobs given to backers
of both Truss and Boris Johnson and a
premium placed on experience.
Sunak’s pitch to the Johnsonites he
kept on was simple. “You gave Boris
your 100 per cent loyalty,” he told one in
his Commons office. “I’d like to build
that loyalty with me.”
He was courteous and apologetic to
the 12 cabinet ministers he sacked,
offering several of them more junior
roles to stay in government but insisting that he needed their jobs for others.
But even though Sunak delivered the
bad news respectfully, there is lingering
bitterness among some who received it.
“It looks quite transactional,” one
cabinet casualty said. “And those things
never hold. I can see what he’s trying to
do: he’s trying to do the ‘pissing out, not
pissing in’ thing. But I’m always nervous about highly transactional arrangements . . . it becomes tricky.”
Sunak’s political expediency came to
the fore on Sunday night as soon as
Johnson publicly accepted that his attempt to secure a second stint at No 10
would not work. Sunak knew he could
not afford for Johnson’s supporters to
defect to Penny Mordaunt.
Nadhim Zahawi was on the phone to
the former prime minister discussing
his decision to withdraw from the contest when Sunak called. When he had
got off the line, Sunak pressed him for a
rapid endorsement. Zahawi provided
it, less than half an hour after an article
he had written backing “Boris Johnson
2.0” went live on the Telegraph website,
and was rewarded with the role of Conservative Party chairman.
Sunak’s focus on healing wounds has
left him with a mostly older and male
team. The average age of the cabinet is
now 52, up from 49 under Truss, and
only a fifth of those attending cabinet
are women. “He has a massive, massive
woman problem,” one minister fumed.
“What was he thinking? It’s all white
grey men. You’d expect it from a bloke
of 60 but he’s 42. It makes no sense.”
Amid the changing of the guard there
was some confusion. Sunak appeared

to appoint two science ministers: Nus
Ghani, who was reappointed to the role
after serving in Truss’s government,
and George Freeman, a prominent supporter of Mordaunt who turned against
her in the final moments of the contest.
“Nobody knows what’s going on or
who they should be briefing,” one
Whitehall source said.
Freeman won the tussle, but the confusion over the portfolios reflected the
simple reality that Sunak entered No 10
without a developed plan.
The prime minister has told his cabinet to focus on delivering the 2019
manifesto, in contrast to Truss’s disastrous attempt to forge her own agenda.
Preparations for office waned over
the summer when it became evident
that Truss was going to win. Those
working for Sunak acknowledge the
prime minister was “caught off guard”
by taking power and key policies
“haven’t been written yet”.
Still, ministers who worked under
Johnson or Truss were this week marvelling at the “calm” after the chaos of
recent months. “The febrile psychodrama is over”, said one. That calmness
has spread, with MPs across various
factions impressed by the return to
junior roles of “heavyweight sensibles”
— such as Nick Gibb, now schools minister under his fourth prime minister.
One decision widely seen as neither
heavyweight nor sensible is the extraordinary return to the Home Office of
Suella Braverman.
It is an appointment nakedly motivated by political interests. Braverman’s
endorsement on Sunday was critical as
Sunak tried to use the Tory right to
block Johnson’s return. “She had high
demands,” one senior Tory involved in
the successful wooing said. “She knew
her value politically. If she crashes and
burns it will ultimately be on her.”
Still, Braverman’s colleagues are incredulous at Sunak’s decision. “It’s not
sustainable,” one cabinet minister said.
“There are fundamental issues of competence here — is she the right person
for that job? When you overlay it with
the fact she’s driving a purist, ideological view it’s destined to fail.” Another
said: “Unless he gets rid of Suella it will
all blow up. She kept f***ing up, there
was a catalogue of errors.” Whitehall
luminaries feel the same. “She’ll be
gone by Christmas, if not before. It’s
only a matter of how long she stays,”
one Home Office official said.
There are back-ups ready. The summer plan for a Sunak government was
for Dominic Raab to be home secretary
and Robert Jenrick, a longstanding ally,
to be justice secretary. As an immigration minister attending cabinet, Jenrick
is now a plausible substitute for Braverman, as is Grant Shapps, the business
secretary, who had a six-day stint as
home secretary before her return.
The Braverman affair dominated
Sunak’s first go at prime minister’s
questions, but some in government see
the upside. “Suella was an issue under
Truss but she was a fifth-order issue
because there was so much going on,”
one source said. “Now she’s the only
major crisis he’s facing.”
There is, though, the small matter of
what Sunak himself described as a

“profound economic crisis” as he entered No 10. The new prime minister
knows he will be judged by how he defuses the bomb handed to him by Truss.
Sunak is spending most of his time in
Downing Street working on a programme of spending cuts and tax rises,
and will stay at his desk most of this
weekend. His team say his decision not
to go to the Cop27 environment conference has to be seen in this light. “He’s
just so keen to be across all the detail of
what’s going to be in the autumn statement and time is infinitely precious in
the next few weeks,” one source said.
One of Sunak’s first acts was to delay
the statement by a fortnight, to November 17. The main reason was so the
Office for Budget Responsibility would
use a snapshot of government borrowing costs taken while Sunak was in
office, rather than one at the height of
market turmoil provoked by Truss. This
“dullness dividend” is estimated to
shave £10 billion off the cuts needed.
But despite this, the state of the public
finances is said to be “bleak”.
Borrowing costs are higher than
when Sunak left the Treasury and the
economic outlook is far weaker. Sunak
and Jeremy Hunt believe they have to
outline up to £50 billion of fiscal tightening to convince markets that the
books will be balanced.
Easy ways of raising revenue such as
extending the windfall tax on energy
companies, prolonging the freeze on income tax thresholds and continuing
the cut to foreign aid are all highly
likely. But even those politically sensitive moves will not be enough.
Sunak will at least confront the grisly
menu of options in the knowledge that
for now Johnson, his great rival, is at
bay. The former prime minister has invited the supporters of his fleeting campaign to a drinks reception in Westminster on Monday. Some may feel too
bruised to attend. One loyalist sent
Johnson a furious text after he withdrew, telling him: “You’ve led me up the
hill, you’ve let me down.”
There is lingering acrimony from the
call Johnson held with his supporters
on Sunday night notifying them he was
out. Just before 9pm, as Twitter lit up
with the news, MPs began accusing colleagues on the call of leaking the conversation. The “leaker” was Johnson,
who had issued a press statement.
His remaining friends are consistent
on one point: the last week has been
good for business. “He can say he’s
never been defeated, that he could have
done it but decided not to,” one said.
“He will make an absolute killing
in the US. He will be selling out . . . there
is a lot of love for Boris post-Ukraine,
especially in Republican circles.”
Many of his old team are back in
government and confronting the
same old problems. It’s almost as if the
tumult of the short-lived Truss era
never happened.
“The lift and the loos are still as
broken as they were on September 6,”
one Conservative returning to their old
office remarked. Sunak must do a better
job of fixing the economy or it will be Sir
Keir Starmer’s problem before long.
Additional reporting by Chris Smyth
and Matt Dathan

Will slick
video clip
be the first
of many?

R

ishi Sunak has promised
to work “day in, day out”
in a characteristically
polished video
documenting his first
few days as prime minister
(Geraldine Scott writes).
The footage begins with a view
of newspapers’ front pages from
Wednesday — the day after Sunak
became prime minister —
carrying photographs of him
meeting the King.
The clip shows Sunak walking
along Downing Street and
delivering his speech outside
No 10, before being greeted by
staff inside. He is also shown
meeting with new ministers.
The percussive soundtrack
immediately drew comparisons to

the drum loop from the paedophile
pop star Gary Glitter’s Rock ’n’ Roll
Part 2. A Downing Street
spokeswoman said: “I’ve been
reliably informed it is stock music
— it is certainly not Gary Glitter.”
In the video Sunak tells his team:
“Let’s get back, back to it.” He is
also recorded having a phone
conversation with President Biden,
who had struggled to pronounce
Sunak’s name at a White House
event marking Diwali. He appears to
have practised, as the video features
him remarking: “Oh Rishi, how are

Election looms as power
sharing fails at Stormont
Geraldine Scott

Talks aimed at forming a government
in Belfast will continue before a date is
set for a fresh election, in a situation
described by the Northern Ireland
secretary as “really serious”.
The deadline by which power sharing
should have been restored at Stormont
passed without a solution yesterday,
but Westminster refused to put a date
on when voters would be asked to go to
the polls. Chris Heaton-Harris, the
Northern Ireland secretary, insisted he
would call an election since a devolved
government could not be formed, but
would not say when.
Speaking in Belfast, Heaton-Harris
said: “This is a really serious situation.
As of a minute past midnight last night,
there are no longer ministers in office in
the Northern Ireland Executive.
“I will take limited but necessary
steps to ensure public services do continue and to protect the public finances.
But there is a limit to what the secretary
of state can do in these circumstances.”
With no ministerial executive in
place, the responsibility for running
devolved departments will now pass to
senior civil servants, although their

powers are limited. Heaton-Harris said:
“I hear it when parties say that they
really do not want an election at all but
nearly all of them are parties who
signed up to the law that means I need
to call an election.”
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of
the DUP, blamed the UK government
for the impasse at Stormont. Speaking
after Heaton-Harris’s announcement,
he said: “The chaos continues and we
do not yet know whether we are going
to have an election in Northern Ireland.
“The Northern Ireland Office has
been talking up for some time the
prospect of an election but evidently no
decision has yet been taken.”
The DUP’s boycott of the Stormont
institution is part of a campaign of
opposition to the Northern Ireland
protocol. The party says it will not
return to power sharing until decisive
action is taken to remove economic
barriers on trade between Great Britain
and Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill said it
was “bizarre” not to announce an election date. “There is not even a caretaker
minister in place and we have a situation tonight where people just don’t
know what is going to happen next.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

9

2GM

News
News

Aggressive takeovers
prepared Sunak for
his time in politics
Prime minister was a
member of the hedge
fund some blame for
the 2008 banking crisis,
reports Ben Ellery

The video shows Sunak greeting his
ministers, including his chancellor
Jeremy Hunt, and delivering a speech

you? Congratulations.” His previous
attempt appeared to refer to
someone called “Rashi Sannuk”.
The video goes on to show the
new Tory leader signing
official papers and making his
first appearance as premier
at prime minister’s questions in
the Commons.
Slick videos, photography and
graphics were a hallmark of Sunak’s

time as chancellor, with social
media announcements of major
policies at the height of the
coronavirus pandemic typically
bearing his signature.
During his failed run for the Tory
party leadership over the summer,
Sunak’s staff put together a
campaign video within 48 hours. It
was so professionally done that it
prompted speculation he had been
planning his run for the top job for
much longer — something his team
insisted was not the case.
The approach drew criticism both

from opposition parties and some
within the Tories, who felt Sunak
was too focused on “Brand Rishi”.
Cass Horowitz has long been
seen as the man behind that brand
and the associated web-friendly
videos. He was pictured greeting
Sunak as he arrived in No 10 on
Tuesday.
Sunak has previously said that
he wanted to get government
messaging across to as many
people as possible and if that
means people “poke fun at me in
the process” then “so be it”.

City boy is at home in the country
Tom Ball Northern Correspondent

The City of London feels like a long way
away from the foggy moors and rolling
dales of Richmond, Rishi Sunak’s north
Yorkshire constituency.
It was the capital’s financial centre
where the prime minister first held
sway in the world, working first for
Goldman Sachs and later for various
hedge funds.
But it is rural Yorkshire to which he
owes his career in politics, having been
elected to the seat in 2015, succeeding
William Hague.
Since then, Sunak has thrown himself into country life with genuine
enthusiasm, local people say, reinventing himself from a city slicker to a man
of the outdoors — at least between
Thursday and Sunday, the days on
which MPs usually return to their constituencies from Westminster.
The family live in a grade II listed
Georgian manor house in the hamlet of
Kirby Sigston, which they bought for
£1.5 million at about the time Sunak was
first elected to parliament.
Edgar Chapman, a dairy farmer
whose land abuts Sunak’s, said that he
and the MP discussed farming matters
regularly.
“Before he came here, I don’t think he
knew that much about farming,” Chap-

Rishi Sunak is said to have embraced
rural life in his Yorkshire constituency

man said. “But he’s a quick learner. And
he’s been here, there and everywhere in
the area, meeting a lot of farmers. Some
of our cattle graze his land so we are often in discussion about that, and he has
been over to the farm a few times to see
how things are going.
“I know he likes to see our cows in the
field and he makes a point about how
much he likes to see them.”
Sunak, who in the early days of his
parliamentary career sat on the environment, food and rural affairs select
committee, has also been known to try
his hand at milking cows at local farms.
The constituency, popular with hikers, retains its strong agricultural heritage. As a measure of the number of in-

dividual businesses, farming is the biggest sector of the local economy.
Despite being a practising Hindu,
Sunak attends the Sunday services at St
Lawrence’s, a Norman church at the
edge of the family’s garden, Chapman
said. Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, 42, attend events at the Kirby Sigston village hall. Only a week before he
became prime minister, Sunak had attended a fundraising evening for Macmillan Cancer Support. The couple had
been due to attend a monthly cheese
and wine social event yesterday.
Sunak is often seen jogging along the
narrow country lanes, accompanied by
his dog, Nova, a labrador retriever, and
a minder. His animal-loving daughters,
Krishna, 11, and Anoushka, 9, ride ponies in the fields next to their home.
When a neighbour’s dog had puppies
during the summer, the sisters spent the
afternoon cuddling and playing with
them while their mother and the neighbour talked about local issues.
One neighbour said Sunak does not
usually discuss Westminster while in
North Yorkshire. “I said to him the
other day, ‘You’re better off not being
PM, it’s a poisoned chalice’, and he just
gave a me a wry smile, the sort he used
to do when I told him what a terrible job
I thought Boris was doing,” said the
neighbour, who asked not to be named.

Rishi Sunak was part of a small hedge
fund that raked in almost £900 million
in the two years leading up to the 2008
financial crisis.
Sunak and his team at The Children’s
Investment (TCI) fund performed controversial corporate raid deals, making
him a multimillionaire in his midtwenties.
Analysis of TCI accounts, which is
incorporated in the Cayman Islands,
showed that in 2007-08 Sunak was one
of 20 members when it made £555 million in profit. The majority, £484 million, went to a philanthropic fund and
£44.3 million was distributed to
members.
The previous year, Sunak was one of
17 members when the fund made
£321 million in profit. Of that,
£48.8 million was given to members.
On average, members for the twoyear period received £5 million. The
firm is renowned in the City for its
aggressive takeovers of companies,
known as activist investing.
Sir Chris Hohn, the founder, has a
reputation for building stakes in
companies he believes are undervalued
and pushing them to change strategy to
boost returns for shareholders.
As of 2014, he had given $4.5 billion to
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a charity that tackles poverty.
During Sunak’s time at the company,
which now runs a fund valued at
$35 billion, an email he wrote was cited
in a court case after a controversial
takeover of CSX, an American railroad
company.
The company claimed that TCI had
broken rules by not declaring once its
ownership stake had reached 5 per
cent. In court it emerged that Sunak,
an analyst at the firm, emailed
CSX to inform them his fund had
amassed “$100m of stock” in the
company. This was cited by CSX
as evidence that the fund had broken rules by not declaring such a
large stake. In defence, TCI said
that Sunak had only recently
graduated from business
school and had unintentionally misrepresented
the position of the fund. It
stated: “He did not
understand the true nature of TCI’s investment.”
The firm said their
“stock”
was
actually
“swaps”, which “do not
confer beneficial ownership”. A US judge ruled that
TCI had breached the country’s
securities
rules,
although it successfully
appealed against the judgment.
Sunak was also part of the
team when it launched an
activist action against ABN
Amro, the Dutch bank, which
some have attributed to causing
the 2008 banking crisis.
The fund built up a stake in the
The young Rishi Sunak grew
up to run a hedge fund that
gave to children’s charities

bank and then agitated for it to be broken up into smaller parts. One of those
parts was sold to the Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS), saddling it with debt
that ultimately resulted in it being
bailed out by taxpayers for £45.5 billion.
Angus Milne, risk and compliance
director at TCI, disputed in an interview with The Times that their intervention led to the crisis.
“We felt it was a badly run business
and it would be more valuable if it split
up,” he said. “The bank rather dismissed
our thoughts but suddenly found that a
large part of the shareholder body
agreed with us.
“That ended with the break-up of the
bank but slightly bizarrely everyone
wanted to pay silly prices for the bits so
that then led to RBS rather destroying
their business model. The value they
perceived they bought was destroyed
by the banking crisis. Had there not
been a financial crisis it might have
been a good buy.”
Milne added that Sunak had been “a
nice guy, bright, friendly, chatty, good
humoured”.
After leaving TCI in 2009, Sunak cofounded another hedge fund, Theleme
Partners, with some of his colleagues.
A senior member of staff who knew
Sunak well and asked not to be named,
said: “He was considered an absolute
star. I could tell early on he was truly a
generational talent and I’ve never said
that about anyone else. He is brilliant
but also has a big heart, which is a rare
combination anywhere, much less in
finance. He is also amongst the highest
integrity people I’ve ever known. When
faced with an ethical dilemma my
instinctive fallback is thinking about
what Rishi would do in the situation.”
Sunak’s profile on the government
website claims: “He co-founded an
investment firm working with companies in multiple geographies. He then
used that experience to help small and
entrepreneurial British companies
grow.”
In an interview in 2019, Sunak
described working at a hedge fund
during the financial crash. “Living
it was stressful,” he said. “You are
responsible for people’s savings
and when that’s all kind of evaporating in front of your eyes,
that’s quite a stressful thing to live
through.”
Milne added: “Most
people in that team had
never experienced a
crash like it. I wasn’t on
the floor that day but I
imagine the investment floor would have
been quite a tense
place to be.”
From 2013 to 2015
Sunak was also a director of the investment firm
Catamaran
Ventures,
owned by NR Narayana
Murthy, his father-in-law,
where his wife still works.
The Indian billionaire businessman is also the founder
of Infosys, the information
technology company.
In 2019, when Sunak
became a minister, he put the
investments from his years of
working in finance into a
“blind trust”. The agreement is
intended to avoid conflicts of
interest by handing control of
assets to a third party.
A triumph for British Indians,
Trevor Phillips, pages 32-33

10

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

News
News Politics
ANDREW PARSONS

The inside story
How mini-budget
turned into a
major disaster

Y

ou can trace a direct line
from Liz Truss’s kitchen
table in Greenwich on a
scorching afternoon in July
to the red-hot trading
terminals in the City as last month’s
disastrous mini-budget was rejected.
Sleep-deprived and panicked the
foreign secretary, as she then was,
made a political calculation that
would set in train her humiliating
downfall as Britain’s shortest-serving
prime minister, the answer to future
pub quiz questions.
On Saturday, July 9, special advisers
and MPs were crammed into every
spare inch of the family home in
southeast London, drumming up
support for her campaign, while
policy wonks huddled around laptops
in her daughter’s bedroom.
That fatal error — and one that
involves a question of honesty — was
made in the very first hours of her
campaign to become prime minister.
“Liz said very early that day, ‘Let’s
not go ballistic on the tax stuff, there
is no need’ ,” a campaign source
explained. “It was clear that Rishi
would have his hands tied on tax so
we could own that ground without
over-promising. It wasn’t a tactical
decision to abandon the NICs rise,
that’s just what Liz had been arguing
for months and the policy was never
in doubt.”
So when Truss went on to
unexpectedly cut income tax for all
— but mostly for the super-rich —
and slash stamp duty in September,
investors were caught off guard.
Later that day, Truss made another
decision that would come to define
her short premiership. Sitting in
Kwasi Kwarteng’s garden two streets
away, the pair made an informal pact
that would shape her fate. Kwarteng
told Truss: “Look, I’m not going to do
that grubby thing of asking for a job.
But you know where I am.”
Kwarteng himself recalls: “She
came around to my house and asked,
‘Are you going to back me?’ And I
said, ‘Yes’. I didn’t ask for anything. I
actually said to her expressly don’t do
any deals with me because you need
flexibility to do deals with others.”
Referring to Tony Blair and Gordon
Brown’s infamous alliance, said to be
forged in an Islington restaurant,
another friend said: “It wasn’t exactly
Granita, but neither of them left with
anything other than the impression
he would be her chancellor.”
In the grim days of Covid during
long lockdown walks in Greenwich
Park, Truss had grown close to

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were political soulmates who tested their
radical economic agenda on Britain’s sluggish economy. An extract from
the biography of the former PM by Harry Cole and James Heale explains
how haste, misjudgment and events brought the project crashing down
Kwarteng, who by January of last year
was in the cabinet as business
secretary.
He recalls: “We talked about the
government, how the government
could be better. We had been talking
about the government as you would
expect as friends, mostly since I
became a secretary of state. And we
could see that there was no economic
strategy. We were raising taxes like it
was getting out of fashion, there was
no real growth plan and we didn’t
think we were pro-business enough.
Really, we were talking about
government, growth, and making a
pro-business culture for ages.”
Allies say it was in those lockdown
days that “a tacit deal” was done. If
Truss was going all the way, Kwarteng
would be her No 2 and biggest
advocate.
Boris Johnson’s resignation on July
7 gave Truss and her supporters their
chance. Finally, after years of plotting
and debate, the free marketeers had
their champion. Her trifecta of tax
cuts, tackling inflation and supplyside reforms inspired the shorthand
“Trussonomics” — an attempt to
shock the economy out of persistently
low growth.
Most mainstream economists
expressed their doubts: even
ideological allies urged caution. But
Truss and Kwarteng went to work on
their plans in lockstep and at times in
secret.
From mid-August Truss, Kwarteng
and a few key aides were holed up in
the palatial splendour of Chevening,
the foreign secretary’s country
residence, in Kent. With victory in
the leadership race looking assured, a
cabinet of loyalists was picked and
work began on transition planning.
Matt Sinclair, a fervent freemarketeer formerly of the Taxpayers’
Alliance, was brought in as chief
economic adviser and tasked with
running No 10’s economic unit.
At this stage, Truss regarded any
changes to the 45p top rate of tax as
too politically toxic. She, Kwarteng
and Sinclair convened a Chevening
meeting with free-market economists,
at which the trio were warned about
the need to keep the financial markets

onside. Such warnings appear to have
been disregarded.
That Chevening period is regarded
by some Truss aides as where the
project began to go wrong. She was
soon surrounded by a coterie of civil
servants in the isolation of the grade I
listed residence. Long-term advisers
were squeezed out by “The Machine”,
keen to please a new PM. Changing
her mobile number for a third time in
as many weeks left her isolated and
cut off from external advice and MPs.
Some at No 10 say that her
reaction, as the new prime minister,
to the Queen’s death had a significant
impact on Truss too. The period of
official mourning, upheaval of funeral
planning lying in state and trips
around the country meant many key
advisers did not learn the full content
of the planned fiscal statement until
days before it was announced.
One reflects: “The whole thing just
gave her this kind of sense of
imperialism. She had come in and the
energy price cap announcement had
gone really well. The campaign,
despite being chaotic, had ultimately
gone well. And in the first few days
there were just a load of ‘yes’ people
around her. Her Majesty had died so
there was a complete pausing in
politics. I think they just felt invincible.
And to be fair, Kwasi was saying, ‘You
have got to slow it all down, slow it all
down.’ And nothing slowed down. And
they went full ahead into this thing.”
Allies of Kwarteng say Truss told

him: “I’ve only got two years — I’ve
only got two years” whenever he
urged caution and a slowing down
of the pace of the plans.
The fiscal statement — now
rebranded as a mini-budget — proved
to be the moment that Truss’s
theories collided with reality.
It was a political misjudgment of
monumental proportions, and to
spring it on a country reeling in shock
from the death of the Queen seemed
tin-eared at best.
Communication aides were
shocked to discover the scale of the
plans, remarking to each other: “Why
the f*** are we doing this bankers’
bonus thing before Christmas?”
But one admits: “No one challenged
her, she was like full-on primeministerial at that point.” At least one
senior adviser at No 10 only found
out about the cut in the top rate of
tax while watching live on television.
“Gobsmacked” was the reaction of
another aide, who recalls seeing an
“elated” Treasury team returning
from the Commons. ‘There were two
camps — the ones trying to be
realistic and the ones that were
ideological . . . none of us [in the
former camp] were kept in the loop
on it.”
Some within No 10 felt excluded
by the economic unit being run by
Sinclair. “There were not enough
checks and balances,” complains one
Truss aide.
They contrasted Kwarteng’s closest

Greenwich Park, where Truss and Kwarteng formed their ideas during lockdown

advisers with their more experienced
counterparts who had served
previous Tory chancellors. “Usually,
the chancellor’s team are economists
who are trying to do politics. This
team were political aides trying to do
economics. They were very good at
splashing the Telegraph but they had
no credibility in the City.”
But is it really fair to blame
Kwarteng for Truss’s plan?
Asked shortly before taking up his
appointment about how he saw the
relationship between a chancellor and
the prime minister, Kwarteng insisted
that it should be one of subservience.
Reflecting on his predecessors, he
said: “Hammond at least had the
maturity, I would say, in the sense
that the prime minister was in charge.
He had the width and the experience
to know that he was there, but the
prime minister was the person who
won the leadership, she was head of
the government. And even though he
had some frustrations, as we all know,
he deferred to her. And realised that
the Treasury was constitutionally
subordinate.”
Taking aim at the department
when it was run by Sunak, he added:
“In the meetings I was in, they were
very much superior, the Treasury,
they were the numbers people, they
were the details people, and they
indulged, they humoured the prime
minister. I don’t know whether they
ran rings around him; they were very
rude and the special advisers were
very rude and they didn’t give him
any deference or respect.”
While relations between the longterm allies, friends and neighbours
were as close as they had been
between a chancellor and PM since
the days of Osborne and Cameron,
the 45p climbdown row obviously
put a huge strain on the pair.
One former cabinet minister said
that Truss was thinking “a bit like a
surgeon who has seen a patient with
various remedies that haven’t really
worked, so she thinks “let’s get the
biggest hypo possible, pack it full of
adrenaline and pump it into the
heart”. Now either the patient will
revive, Pulp Fiction-style, or it won’t.
But that’s the gamble.” Unfortunately
for Truss, the adrenaline hit proved to
be a fatal overdose.
Out of the Blue: the Inside Story
of the Unexpected Rise And Rapid Fall
of Liz Truss, by Harry Cole and James
Heale (HarperCollins, £9.99, ebook,
November 1, and £20, hardback,
November 24)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

11

2GM

News

I wasn’t nasty to waiters — I was protecting my wife, says Corden
Jack Blackburn

The actor James Corden has defended
himself over claims that he was abusive
to waiters at a New York restaurant,
telling The Times that he took issue
with the staff only to protect his wife
from a dangerous allergen.
Corden, 44, was banned from Balthazar restaurant in Manhattan after the
proprietor, Keith McNally, alleged that
he had been “nasty” to his staff. The
host of The Late Late Show, the US talk
show, has repeatedly played down the
nature of his behaviour and has done so
again in an interview with The Times

Magazine. However, on his show
this week, Corden admitted he
made a “rude comment” and promised to apologise in person.
He had already apologised
to McNally, who appeared
to lift the ban.
Corden was alleged to
have been unpleasant
and demanded free
drinks after discovering a
hair in his food and, in a
separate incident, to have
Corden was barred from
Balthazar over the row

Historic hall
turned into
‘theme park’
for children
James Beal Social Affairs Editor

The family of a baron have accused the
National Trust of transforming his historic property into a “theme park”.
The grade I listed Sudbury Hall, in
Derbyshire, has been made into a children’s attraction with photo-booth,
mirror ball and speech bubbles placed
next to portraits.
The 17th-century country house was
donated to the National Trust in 1967
after the death of the 9th Baron Vernon.
It reopened last weekend, after being
closed for more than two and a half
years, as The Children’s Country
House, marketed as a first-of-its-kind
heritage experience.
The trust has turned the groundfloor saloon into a room in which

Sudbury Hall now caters for children,
with speech bubbles next to portraits

youngsters can dress up and dance. It
has a mirror ball and a neon sign with
the words “Party like it’s 1699”. There is
also an escape room experience.
The National Trust worked with 100
“ambassadors”, aged up to 12, on the design. Sudbury Hall was already home to
the trust’s Museum of Childhood.
Joanna Fitzalan Howard, the daughter of the 10th Lord Vernon, accused the
trust of turning the hall into a theme
park in a “major exercise of dumbing
down”.
After being given a private tour of the
alterations, she said: “The changes at
Sudbury Hall have taken place without
consultation in the locality or with the
donor family. The donor, my father, understood the house would be cared for
as a historic property, and it deserves to
be, given the extraordinary quality of

its interiors, but it has now been turned
into a child-centred theme park.
“This is inappropriate and sad. Children are already excellently provided for
at Sudbury by the Museum of Childhood housed in the Victorian wing.”
The house is now split into three
zones. The escape room area has challenges and riddles inspired by the hall’s
use as an evacuation centre for children
during the Second World War.
The National Trust said: “In offering
new ways for children to learn about
the history of Sudbury Hall, we have
taken into full account views from
many different people, including the
property’s historic family. The Children’s Country House experience is designed to tell the story of the Vernon
family in depth.
“An insinuation that the National
Trust is dumbing down is simply wrong.
Items such as the speech bubbles contextualise the sitters, while children can
learn about the hidden symbolism in
historic portraits and create their own.”
In recent years the trust has made
changes that critics have called “woke”,
including adding Winston Churchill’s
home to a list of buildings linked to slavery and colonialism.
A pressure group called Restore
Trust was established to remind the
charity of its original purpose of protecting the nation’s heritage. The
National Trust is preparing to face its
critics at its annual meeting in the Bath
Assembly Rooms next Saturday. Restore Trust has put forward a proposal
on whether the charity’s chairman
should be allowed to cast proxy votes.
Under the rules, members who
choose not to attend the AGM can give
their discretionary vote to the chairman to use as they “think fit”. Last year
149,086 such votes were cast. In previous years these have been used against
member resolutions that the trust
opposes, including two of the proposals
by Restore Trust last year.
The Restore Trust wants the system
to be abolished, saying that if members
do not feel they can vote, they should
simply abstain. The trustees have
recommended that members vote
against the proposal.

“yelled like crazy” at a waiter when
a “bit of egg white mixed with the
egg yolk” in an omelette.
He appeared to suggest that
the incident was overblown,
writing in a text message sent
to the interviewer Caitlin
Moran in the days after the
story broke: “The reason I
had to send the omelette
back is because Jules [his
wife] is allergic to egg white.
That’s why we’d ordered an
egg-yolk omelette. Her actual
words were, ‘But don’t worry if
you can’t manage it’.” When

apologising this week, Corden said that
he hadn’t thought he had done anything wrong because he didn’t “shout or
scream . . . get out of [his] seat, didn’t call
anybody names or use derogatory
language”.
He has maintained this line and, in
the interview, described the story as
“odd” and questioned why McNally’s
account had been accepted. “Now it’s
fact, and that’s that,” he said. “When
that person who posted the story wasn’t
even there. Just so odd.” He also
highlighted how the story had led to
unwanted press attention at his home.
Corden has spent seven years as the

host of The Late Late Show, on the CBS
network, earning a reported £7 million
a year, but has announced that next
year’s run of the show will be his last. He
returns to acting next month with a
new Prime Video drama called Mammals, written by Jez Butterworth, who
brought Jerusalem to the stage. Despite
his global success, he is a divisive figure,
with 6.5 million Google hits for the
phrase “James Corden hate”.
“I’ve just stopped reading it,” Corden
said. “I don’t google myself, I don’t read
anything about myself.”
‘No one tells you how to deal with fame’,
James Corden interview, Magazine

JAMES GOURLEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Killer guilty
as victim
dies 21 years
after attack
Will Humphries
Southwest Correspondent

Get me in there The former rugby player Mike Tindall, who is married to the
King’s niece Zara, arriving at Brisbane airport on his way to join the ITV show I’m
A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! The latest series, which begins a week
tomorrow, will also feature Boy George and the England footballer Jill Scott

A sadistic fan of the film Reservoir Dogs
who doused his lover in petrol and set
her alight has been found guilty of her
murder 21 years later.
Steven Craig, 58, is facing life in prison for killing Jacqueline Kirk after a
jury found she died in 2019 as a consequence of the injuries he inflicted on
her in 1998.
Bristol crown court heard that Craig
soaked Kirk in petrol and set a lighter to
her in a car park in Weston-superMare, north Somerset, after being inspired by a torture scene in Quentin
Tarantino’s 1992 movie. Kirk survived
but suffered 35 per cent burns, underwent 14 operations and spent nearly
nine months in hospital.
Craig was originally convicted of
grievous bodily harm with intent after a
trial in 2000, and jailed.
Richard Smith KC, for the prosecution, told the jury that injuries inflicted
during the attack were a “significant”
cause of Kirk’s death in August 2019,
after she suffered a “swelling of her intestines”. The court heard that her
burns and scarring meant that when
her intestines swelled her body could
not adequately expand.
Kirk died from a ruptured diaphragm
at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.
She was 61. During the three-week trial,
Smith argued that doctors would have
operated on her to repair the rupture if
it were not for the scarring and burns
she suffered as a result of the attack.
Ben Samples, the senior district
crown prosecutor with the CPS South
West complex casework unit, said that
permission had to be sought from the
attorney-general for the charge.
He said that the charge was only
possible after the “year and a day rule”
was abolished in 1996. This allowed
prosecutors to pursue a homicide offence where a death occurred more
than a year and a day after the act.
Samples said: “It is an unusual situation; we are looking to prosecute somebody twice for the same unlawful act.”
He continued: “I’m not aware of any
case in this country where a prosecution has taken place for murder or a
homicide offence so many years after
the unlawful act.”
Speaking after the case, Kirk’s
daughter, Sonna, who declined to give
her surname, paid tribute to her
mother’s bravery in living with the injuries she sustained.
“She survived and she wasn’t meant
to survive . . . she kept on going and she
was determined to be herself again.”
Craig will be sentenced at a later date.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

13

News

Radio station booms with
platinum-haired DJ royalty
Patrick Kidd

A radio station for the baby-boomer
generation that began during the
pandemic with grey-haired presenters
playing music from their sheds and
bedrooms has become the nation’s fastest growing broadcaster.
Boom Radio, which largely plays
music from the 1960s and 1970s, saw its
listenership more than double in the
past 12 months to 443,000 a week, the
only independent station to enjoy such
growth. Fuelled by nostalgia and
familiar names such as David Hamilton, Kid Jensen and Judi Spiers, the station is gradually drawing
listeners of a certain age
away from Radio 2 in
search of the favourites of
their youth.
Phil Riley, who cofounded the station with
David Lloyd, said he was
“feeling chipper” after the
latest Rajar figures confirmed the station’s growth.
They launched Boom on
Valentine’s Day last year
with £500,000 of investment, promising
their presenters that
while they couldn’t
pay a huge fee they
could at least ensure that they did
not have to travel to
broadcast.
“We couldn’t afford to rent
studios but we were happy to
let presenters do it from
their homes, sacrificing a bit
of the sound quality if necessary,” Riley said. “They
were just happy not to
have to schlep into
London.”
Roger Day, who made
his name on Radio
Caroline in the 1960s,
Queen’s Bohemian
Rhapsody is one of
the most-played hits

broadcasts his evening show from his
house in Spain.
A laptop and a stable internet connection allow the likes of Hamilton, 84,
to still spin discs, metaphorically, 60
years after he joined the BBC Light Programme as presenter of The Beat Show.
The shows can be heard on DAB and
through smart speakers.
“I started broadcasting from my
shed,” said Hamilton, who does two
hours every lunchtime during the week
and presents a Saturday show. “It was
good in the summer but pretty cold
going out there in the rain and snow, so
I now broadcast from my attic room. I
live on a farm in Sussex and enjoy being
able to do my show while looking out
over cows and sheep.”
While Radio 2 is shedding older presenters, with Steve Wright, 68, losing
his weekday afternoon slot recently
and Paul O’Grady, 67, leaving in
August, Boom is bringing familiar
names out of retirement. Next
month Simon Bates and Mike
Read, both 75, will present a
weekend to celebrate 70 years of
the charts, in which they will
play the whole of the first
Top 12, as it then was,
topped by Al Martino’s
Here in My Heart.
Last week Hamilton
visited the Wimbledon
home of Pete Murray,
one of the pioneers of
pop broadcasting, to
record a two-hour show
for Christmas Day. Murray, 97, presented the
rock’n’roll programme SixFive Special in the 1950s.
With a combined age of
181 they are set to be the oldest presenting duo in radio
history. “We just talked for
hours and the music
came from there,” Hamilton said.
“I really enjoyed doing it,” Murray said.
“I fluffed a bit but
that’s age, I guess.”

BBC gave Garvey £40k rise
after gender pay gap rant
Ali Mitib

Jane Garvey told how she was given an
“overnight” pay rise of £40,000 after
she criticised the gender pay gap on
Radio 4.
Garvey, who presented Woman’s
Hour from 2007 until 2020, was
appalled at the disparity between BBC
Jane Garvey was
appalled at the
disparity in pay

presenters’ pay when figures were
released in 2017. She took to the
airwaves to “create a fuss”, confident
that she would not be sacked for talking
about equal pay.
The figures detailed the pay of the
corporation’s top earners. Only a third
of the 96 staff listed were women. The
top seven earners were all men, with
Chris Evans, then-presenter of The
Radio 2 Breakfast Show, given £2.2 mil-

lion a year — almost five times that of
Claudia Winkleman, the best paid
female presenter, on £450,000.
Garvey, who hosts an afternoon
show on Times Radio with Fi Glover,
was earning £81,000 a year for a threeday week before the rise, less than male
presenters of less successful shows.
She said that by speaking about the
gender pay gap on air she could “take
advantage” of the BBC’s platform to
raise awareness about the issue.
The presenter, 58, told the White
Wine Podcast: “I honestly thought . . .
they cannot sack the presenter of
Woman’s Hour for making it clear that
she thought women and men should be
paid equally”.
The following day she received a
letter saying she would be receiving a
pay rise. “All of a sudden I was worth 40
grand a year more, and I got a letter saying, ‘We have decided to give you a pay
revision’. I thought: ‘A pay revision?
Right OK’”. She said she was then
earning “brilliant money” for a threeday week but it was not exceptional in
an industry where men were earning
“half a million, a million”.

He said his tastes were broad but his favourite record was probably I’m Not In
Love, the 1975 single by 10cc.
Riley said that unlike some nostalgia
stations, Boom had a large playlist of
8,000 songs. The most frequently played
in the past two years is A Whiter Shade of
Pale, Procol Harum’s 1967 hit. Bohemian
Rhapsody by Queen is at No 2 while the
top ten includes In My Life by the Beatles
and God Only Knows by the Beach Boys.

EMILIE SANDY/BOOM RADIO

Pete Murray, 97, and David Hamilton, 84, made a Christmas show for Boom Radio

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

14

News
News Manchester Arena

Lessons from 7/7 should have
The response to the 2017 Manchester
bombing was woeful despite experience
of earlier attacks, writes Fiona Hamilton
As the bomb’s bang subsided and the
shrapnel and debris settled, there was a
split second of silence in the Manchester Arena. Then the screaming began
and it was immediately obvious to anyone near the City Room foyer that an
atrocity had occurred.
It only became clear later that the suicide bombing, in which Salman Abedi,
an Islamic State fanatic, murdered 22
people as they left an Ariana Grande
pop concert, was the UK’s worst terror
atrocity since July 7, 2005.
It marked a dozen years since the
co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on
London’s transport network and six
years since a coroner criticised the confused tactical response, the lack of communications between emergency personnel and the health and safety protocols that stymied them. The public was
assured that lessons had been learnt
and the emergency services had repeated drills so those lessons would
sink in.
Yet on May 22, 2017, history repeated
itself. Greater Manchester Police
(GMP) did not declare a major incident
at the arena for two-and-a-half hours.
It took paramedics 43 minutes to reach
the venue and even then only three of
them entered the bomb site. The fire
service mustered three miles away, and
senior officers spent most of the first
two hours pontificating how to respond, meaning that officers did not arrive until after the final seriously
wounded victim had been carried away.
There was a lack of communication, inadequate organisation and in some
cases poor leadership.
History will repeat itself again on
Thursday with another critical report,
inevitably followed by more promises
to learn lessons. The publication of the
findings of Part Two of the Manchester
Arena inquiry was delayed to give
agencies more time to respond to criticism by the chairman Sir John Saunders. At its heart will be the crucial
question of whether Saffie-Rose Roussos, at eight the youngest victim, and
28-year-old John Atkinson, a care
worker, might have survived had they
been taken to hospital more quickly.
7.30pm-9.30pm
missed opportunities
Saunders’s Part One conclusions, published last year, highlighted some of the
missed opportunities to stop Abedi, 22,
before he detonated his device packed
with TATP, the explosive nicknamed
“Mother of Satan” because it is so deadly. A third report in the new year will examine intelligence failings in the
months before the attack. The bomber,
who had carried out three reconnaissance trips, was overdressed for the
warm evening and was weighed down
by his backpack. This did not initially
register with staff for Showsec, the arena’s security company, who Saunders
said were insufficiently trained. Officers from British Transport Police were
supposed to be on patrols in the venue
but took breaks “substantially and unjustifiably” in excess of the one hour
they were permitted — in the case of
PC Jessica Bullough and Mark Renshaw, a police community support officer, for two hours and nine minutes.
The pair drove half an hour to Longsight to get a kebab, before going to a
Northern Rail office to eat it. Giving
evidence to the inquiry Bullough, who
won a bravery award for later rushing
onto the bomb scene and giving first
aid, said her break was “unacceptable”.
She agreed that had Abedi walked past

her with his heavy rucksack she probably would have asked him what was in
it.
9.30pm-10.30pm “fobbed off”
By 9.33pm, having primed his device in
a lavatory, Abedi was in the City Room
in a CCTV blind spot. Jordan Beak, a
Showsec supervisor, carried out a
security patrol but looked only briefly
at the mezzanine area, did not go up
there and so did not see Abedi. At
10.14pm, Chris Wild, who was waiting
with his partner for their 14-year-old
daughter, approached Abedi and spoke
to him. Wild raised concerns with
another Showsec employee, Mohammed Agha, but said he felt “fobbed off”.
At 10.23pm, eight minutes before the
blast, Agha approached his colleague
Kyle Lawler about Abedi. Lawler said
he was conflicted about what to do and
was “fearful of being branded a racist”.
He tried to alert the security control
room but left the foyer when he could
not get through. Saunders said his efforts were inadequate.
There were no British Transport
Police officers in the City Room
between 10pm and 10.31pm, although
there should have been at least one.
Saunders noted that the presence of
police officers might have deterred
Abedi.
10.30pm-11.30pm
“we need paramedics, like
f**king yesterday”
Abedi detonated his device at 10.31pm,
causing fatal injuries to 22 people and
seriously wounding dozens more.
Within seconds the first 999 call was
made to GMP. Officers who heard the
explosion rushed in, led by Bullough,
and began giving first aid. They were
joined 23 minutes later by Patrick Ennis, a paramedic who “self deployed” to
the bomb scene and declared a major
incident on the radio. He did not treat
any patients because he believed his
role was to triage. It would take 43 minutes from the moment of the blast for
any ambulance colleagues to join Ennis. The normal response time to a lifethreatening emergency is seven minutes. As people lay dying on the floor,
one PC was heard on his radio screaming to a colleague: “We need paramedics like f**king yesterday.”
By about 11pm ambulances were
gathering at Victoria Station next to the
arena but paramedics were told not to
enter the City Room because Dan
Smith, the ambulance commander, believed it was too dangerous. The northwest’s specialist Hazardous Area Response Team, established to treat
patients after a terrorist attack, arrived
at 11.10pm and two of its paramedics entered the City Room four minutes later.
The rest of their team stayed behind.
Like Ennis, the pair triaged and ranked
victims in order of urgency rather than
treating them all immediately, and no
more paramedics entered the City
Room that night. There were no
stretchers even though many wounded
could not walk. Instead the police took
them down to ambulances on advertising hoardings and crowd barriers.
There was a shortage of dressing and
tourniquets. When a police officer tried
to place a defibrillator on a dying
woman, it could not be used because it
was missing pads after a previous incident. CPR was carried out by police,
members of the public and first aiders
who worked at the arena.
North West Ambulance Service
(NWAS) had held back because of a

Officers walk past
Salman Abedi,
who has the bomb
in his rucksack
Eve Senior, then
14, was led from
the scene by
police after being
struck by more
than a dozen
pieces of
shrapnel. CCTV
recorded Abedi
strolling to the
arena with the
device in his
rucksack before
carrying out a
suicide attack
that killed 22
others. The
inquiry has
detailed the
missed chances
to stop him —
and help victims

Car
park

Manchester
Arena

Station
platforms

Cathedral car
park Rejected
muster point
for fire service

5

6
4 8
CITY ROOM
2

Walkway
7
VICTORIA
STATION

Wigan

Lift
Ticket booth

Stoller
Hall

Oxford Road
station

3

Toilets
MANCHESTER
ARENA

Senior fire officer
leaves home in
Wigan for Philips
Thompson
Park. The 22-mile
Street
journey takes over
Ambulance
an hour due to
muster point
roadwork delays

A6
A34

M A N C H E ST E R

Quarter-mile

1 6.35pm Abedi talks to security staff at
top of arena steps
2 7.27pm Police officers leave complex
for lengthy break
3 8.36pm Abedi heads to toilets in
nearby station, probably to prime
explosive after getting off tram

5 miles

A57(M)

1

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

M6

Deansgate
station

Manchester
Royal Infirmary
Royal Manchester
Children’s Hospital

4 8.51pm Abedi enters foyer. Security
notice him but do not deem him
suspicious
5 9.10pm Abedi leaves after 19
minutes and returns to Metro
tram platform
6 9.33pm Returns to foyer and waits
in CCTV blindspot
9.59pm Two police officers leave foyer

Philips Park
fire station
Decided
muster point

Bolton
M60
M61
AO Arena

M62
©
O

Two British Transport Police
officers drove half an hour
to Longsight to get a kebab.
The pair were permitted a
one-hour break but were
gone for over two hours
LONGSIGHT

10.14pm Member of public alerts
security to Abedi
10.23pm Security staff attempt to
notify control room but fail to get
through and leave foyer
7 10.29pm All four BTP officers move
to war memorial exit to station
8 10.31pm Abedi detonates bomb,
killing himself and 22 others

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

15

News
News

stopped history being repeated
JOEL GOODMAN/LNP

PCSOs Lewis Brown and
Jon Morrey enter toilets
at Victoria, missing
Abedi by 59 seconds

‘It kills me’: mother whose
girl asked if she would die
Duncan Gardham, Tom Ball
Fiona Hamilton

Firefighters finally
enter the arena —
having been held back
by bosses for two hours

fear of secondary devices, although
armed police had secured the site within 13 minutes and believed the bomber
had acted alone. Poor communication
meant colleagues in the ambulance and
fire service were not told.
Although his armed colleagues had
concluded there was no further risk, Inspector Dale Sexton, the force duty officer for GMP, declared Operation Plato, a marauding terrorist event. The
communication breakdown was so bad
he did not inform the ambulance and
fire service of this, but the latter
wrongly assumed it anyway because of
reports of a shooting and because their
training had been so focused on a multi-gun attack. When Sexton later came
to the conclusion there was only one
terrorist, he failed to communicate it to
emergency responders. Sexton’s colleague Superintendent Arif Nawaz, the
night duty “silver command”, went to
GMP headquarters rather than head to
the scene, contrary to guidance, and did
not speak to the bronze commander for
more than an hour.
Even today, the inquiry was told, the
public should expect delays of up to half
an hour in the wake of an attack while
ambulance staff make risk assessments.
NWAS has since banned paramedics
from self-deploying to a major incident.
Keith Prior, director of the National
Ambulance Resilience Unit, said there

were “unacceptable delays” in deploying the Hazardous Area Response
Team in Manchester partly due to the
“reluctance of commanders to put
trained and appropriate ambulance resources forwards into the incident itself”. That creates a “care gap”, into
which untrained members of the public
and other responders must step.
There was no shortage of “care gap”
heroes on the night of the Manchester
bomb. The walking wounded treated
and comforted those with catastrophic
injuries and police officers rushed in
without thoughts for their own safety.
Sergeant Kam Hare went to the arena with colleagues. He was warned
about the prospect of a secondary device but “my thought process was to get
up there as quickly as possible to see if
there was anything we could do to help
people”. PC Michael Buckley, an offduty police officer, had rushed into the
City Room to try to find his daughter
but went to the help of the injured instead. Despite their efforts, the calls for
paramedics became more urgent. Firefighters and their equipment were also
needed but at 12.31am, two hours after
the blast, there was still no sign of them.
11.30pm-12.30am
“lost in the countryside”
At 11.40pm Andy Berry, the senior fire
officer responding to the attack, arrived

at Philips Park fire station, three miles
from the bomb site. It was the muster
point he had chosen because of fears of
a marauder at large. Roadworks meant
it took Berry nearly an hour to get there
from his home 22 miles away, and he
got lost on country roads.
Berry’s arrival at Philips Park coincided with the removal from the City
Room of the last seriously injured casualty. The fire brigade could have responded to the arena within four minutes, the inquiry was told, but it took
two hours and six minutes.
An hour earlier, at 10.40pm, Berry
had rejected a police request to deploy
officers to the car park of the city’s cathedral, where they would have been able
to directly communicate with other responders. Junior officers were so frustrated that they were yelling at commanders, who would later admit that
their “system as a whole did fail”.
Fire crews finally entered the arena
at 12.43am without the permission of
senior officers, who were arguing about
protective clothing, but by then only a
handful of injured people remained on
the concourse. Firefighters were in
tears at a debrief later that evening,
feeling they had let the public down.
12.30am-2.30am
more lives hang in the balance
Some injured concertgoers who were

Lisa Roussos was holding her eightyear-old daughter’s hand when a
bomb went off outside the doors to
Manchester Arena, leaving them
lying close to each other and badly
injured. Neither knew the other was
there as they drifted in and out of
consciousness.
For three years, Lisa believed that
Saffie-Rose had died instantly. It
was only through evidence to the
inquiry that she learnt Saffie had
been talking and had asked if she
would die, and that some experts
believe she could have been saved
with quicker medical treatment.
She still feared lessons would not
be learnt, recalling her 69-minute
wait to be carried out of the bomb
scene: “I can remember lying on the
floor thinking ‘for God’s sake, why is
no one coming?’”
In the absence of paramedics,
Saffie was helped by Paul Reid, a
poster seller, who rushed into the
arena and tried to reassure her as
she asked for her mum. “It kills me,”
Lisa told The Times. “She was my
shadow, I couldn’t go anywhere
without her.”
Families of victims and survivors
are demanding answers over
delays in the response and the
lack of communication.
Alice O’Connor, a
survivor who was 23 when
she attended the concert,
lost 50 per cent of her
hearing. She said that
mistakes made by the
emergency services
were “unforgiveable”.
After she and friends
rushed out of the
arena, the only
people to approach
her were journalists:
“so many easy
in a stable condition started to deteriorate, having been left on the cold concrete of the Victoria railway concourse.
Lucy Jarvis, then 17, was struggling to
stay conscious. She was left there for
nearly two hours. After she began vomiting she was immediately taken to hospital with paramedics concerned she
might go into cardiac arrest. She spent
eight weeks in hospital after suffering
multiple shrapnel injuries. It took more
than four hours to get Bradley Hurley,
then 21, and whose sister, Megan, had
died in the attack, to hospital. His injuries included broken legs and second
degree burns to his face.
It was not until 2.46am that all the injured had been taken from the scene.
NWAS told the inquiry its response was
“quick, effective and adequate”.
learning from the past
Years earlier, the inquests in the July 7
bombings were told of communications failures resulting in chaos. While
the coroner’s recommendations were
met with promises to learn lessons,
similar failings took place on the night
of the Manchester bomb.
Counterterrorism experts were highly critical of the police response including the “significant omission” in failing
to declare a major incident for so long.
The force also failed to learn lessons
identified a year earlier from Operation

Lisa Roussos thought Saffie-Rose
had died instantly; Alice O’Connor
called the mistakes ‘unforgiveable’

mistakes” were made — “that’s the
unforgivable side”.
Learning that Saffie had survived
for more than an hour, but died
soon after arriving at hospital, came
as a shock to Lisa and her husband
Andrew, son Xander and daughter,
Ashlee. For three years, the thought
her child had died quickly, without
pain, was some consolation.“It just
makes it even worse.”
Andrew Roussos said: “The
emergency services, they do a
fantastic job. But when it came to
the 22nd of May 2017, it just did not
work. Whether that’s one person’s
responsibility, or whether that’s
the whole system’s
responsibility – that’s what
needs to be addressed.”
Lisa has set up Saffie’s room
in their new home in Dorset,
where they moved to
escape the memories. “I’ll
never say goodbye to
Saffie, she’s with me
every day, I want her
with me. You grieve
forever. You grieve for
missing the 16th,
missing the prom,
marriage. Everything. It
stays forever with you.”
Winchester Accord, a scenario of a marauding terrorist firearms attack.
Ian Hopkins, the former chief constable, apologised to the inquiry after
admitting that his letter, to an earlier
review, wrongly claimed there were no
operational problems that night.
Saunders will have to decide whether
any of the failings contributed to the
death of Saffie. Nearly an hour after the
explosion she arrived at the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital, where she
died. Similarly Atkinson was able to
talk as a member of the public used a
belt as a tourniquet. He was not
assessed or assisted by any ambulance
official in the 47 minutes before he was
carried from the City Room foyer. He
went into cardiac arrest and was taken
to hospital where he died. His family
said they could not accept the apology
by the ambulance service, adding: “Actions speak louder than words, and we
wait to see what actions are taken to ensure this never happens again.”
Those sentiments have been echoed
by many other families. Pete Weatherby KC, barrister for Saffie’s family, told
the inquiry: “They also want change for
the future, recommendations that cannot be ignored and will make future
emergency responses to catastrophic
events much, much better.”
Additional reporting by
Duncan Gardham

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

16

News

‘Tripledemic’ threat as NHS
braces for winter infections
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent

The NHS is braced for a “tripledemic”
this winter as Covid and flu are joined
by a third respiratory infection that can
be dangerous to young children.
Testing suggests that cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have risen
in England in recent weeks, with rates
highest among the under-5s.
RSV is a leading cause of pneumonia
in babies and the elderly, usually causing about 14,000 hospitalisations and
8,000 deaths in the UK every year.
Flu, which usually peaks later in the
year than RSV, has also increased. The
proportion of swabs tested for influenza
coming back positive from hospital labs
stood at 5.2 per cent for the week ending
October 23, up from 4.1 per cent a week
earlier. The levels are higher than
normal for the time of year but it is too

early to say how severe the flu season
will be, said Dr John McCauley of the
Worldwide Influenza Centre at the
Crick Institute. One factor will be how
good a match this year’s vaccine is for
the strains that circulate.
Meanwhile, new survey data from
the Office for National Statistics gave a
mixed picture for Covid. About 2 million people were estimated to be infected in the week that ended on 17 October, broadly in line with the previous
week. Wales was the only part of the
UK to see a clear fall in cases, with
about 1 in 35 people thought to have the
virus. The same infection rate was seen
in Northern Ireland and Scotland, but
cases had risen. In England 1 in 30 were
estimated to be infected.
Kara Steel, ONS senior statistician
for the Covid-19 infection survey, said:
”It remains too early to say from the

data whether we are seeing a turning
point in the level of infections, which
remain high across the countries.”
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia said: “It would be
really bad for the health service if a
peak of Covid coincided with a peak of
influenza and they coincided with
snowy, icy weather that was associated
with a lot of falls and fractures.”
The proportion of tests coming back
positive for RSV has increased to 6.5
per cent, according to the latest data
from UK Health Security Agency,
compared with 5.7 per cent a week
earlier. The highest positivity was in
children under 5, at 23.4 per cent.
Dr Conall Watson, a consultant epidemiologist for the UK Health Security
Agency, said: “For children under two,
RSV can be severe, particularly for
babies and those born prematurely.”

Tiny microscope detects cancer earlier
Nilima Marshall

A tiny microscope that can be manoeuvred inside the body during surgery
could speed up breast cancer treatment
and help cut NHS waiting lists, the
scientists who created it say.
The endo-microscope is less than
1mm in diameter and is able to produce

images from inside the body with unprecedented speed. The hope is that the
microscope, developed by Dr Khushi
Vyas and colleagues at Imperial College London, will help surgeons to
identify minute cancerous cells much
faster than traditional methods.
The researchers said the device
would help surgeons to identify suspi-

cious tissue around tumours quickly
and accurately. Its development is supported by the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, part of UK
Research and Innovation.
Dr Vyas said: “Our aim is to proceed
to clinical trials with a view to the
system becoming available for deployment in around five years.”

Many hands . . . Mark Taylor, a master horologist, turns back time on one of hundreds

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

17

News
MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS

Killer who beheaded friend
gets life in TV sentencing
David Woode

of clocks in his Bournemouth shop before British Summer Time ends at 2am tomorrow

An “extremely devious” woman who
murdered and decapitated a vulnerable
friend before disposing of her body yesterday became the first murderer and
the first woman to be sentenced on television in England and Wales. Jemma
Mitchell was jailed for life and will serve
a minimum term of 34 years.
On
Thursday
Australian-born
Mitchell, 38,was found guilty by a jury
of murdering Mee Keun Chong, 67,
from Wembley, northwest London,
between June 11 and 27 last year.
The prosecution claimed that Mitchell had concocted a plan to murder the
mentally ill widow after befriending her
through a church group in 2020. When
Chong changed her mind about giving
Mitchell £200,000 for renovations to
her home in Brondesbury Park, northwest London, Mitchell killed her and
forged a will to inherit the bulk of her
£700,000 estate.
The court was told that the victim,
known to family and friends as Deborah, was hit with a blunt weapon before
Mitchell, who had a first-class degree in
human sciences, used her dissection
skills to remove the head.
Mitchell used a hire car to transport
the body parts to Salcombe, Devon,
where a walker found the body on June
27. The head was discovered days later
in undergrowth.
At the sentencing hearing at the Old

Judge Richard Marks KC said Jemma
Mitchell’s killing of Mee Kuen Chong,
left, was profoundly shocking given
that the two had been good friends

Bailey, only the second to be televised,
Mitchell smiled at her mother, Hilary
Collard, who blew kisses, mouthed “I
love you” and tapped her heart from the
public gallery. Members of Chong’s
family followed the proceedings via
video link.
Mitchell’s mother was adamant that
her daughter “did not kill” or decapitate
Chong and has vowed to clear her
name. Collard suggested Chong had

“tripped over” or may have taken her
own life. She also raised concerns about
the absence of Mitchell’s DNA on the
victim’s body.
“How could [Mitchell] squash a rigor
mortis body into a suitcase, drag it out
and lay it out on the ground without her
DNA being on it? How is that possible?”
Pathologists were unable to give a
cause of death because the body was
badly decomposed. But the prosecution
said a fracture above the right eye socket suggested Chong had been hit with a
blunt object shortly before death.
The prosecution said a bloodstained
tea towel had been found in a suitcase
on the roof of Mitchell’s neighbour’s
shed. DNA from at least two people was
recovered and a forensic scientist concluded the DNA was a billion times
more likely to have originated from the
deceased and another unknown person
than from two unknown people.
Mitchell was emotionless when
Judge Richard Marks said she had
shown “absolutely no remorse”. He
said: “The enormity of your crime is
profoundly shocking, even more so
given your apparent religious devotion
as well as the fact that Deborah Chong
was a good friend.”
The court heard an impact statement
from Amy Chong, the victim’s sister,
who said it had left a “huge bottomless
hole” in her life. “We still do not understand how she died. Did she suffer? This
mystery will haunt me for ever.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

19

2GM

News

How to curb your moggy’s murderous instincts
Sophie Freeman

The next time your moggy comes
home with a rodent or small bird do not
despair. The killer cat is simply being an
extrovert and such behaviour can be
curbed, a study suggests.
Researchers at Exeter University
have found that house cats that prey on
wildlife have distinctive personalities.
Owners can use techniques to prevent
the violence while keeping the pet
happy. A survey found that certain
traits in cats were linked to their hunting behaviour.
Researchers discovered that cats
described as extrovert or less neurotic
were more likely to prey on wildlife.
The findings could help pet owners to
reduce their cat’s hunting desire.
“Hunting cats that showed higher
scores for extraversion or lower scores
for neuroticism are most likely to benefit from being stimulated and encouraged in physical activity and by opportunities to reproduce natural feline
behaviour in the home environment,”
the team said.
These activities could include play-

ing with toys that mimic prey or feeding
games such as hiding titbits in puzzle
feeders, which release treats after a device is manipulated in the correct way.
“Management approaches to reduce
predation that are focused on feline
personality might bring benefits to cat
welfare, reduce hunting motivation
and find greater support among cat
owners, who express interest in effective ‘cat-friendly’ measures to reduce
predation upon wildlife,” the team
wrote in the journal Applied Animal
Behaviour Science.
In the study 162 cat owners completed a 48-item questionnaire. They
were asked to measure five traits of
their cat’s neuroticism, extroversion,
dominance, impulsiveness and agreeableness. Neuroticism involved displays of insecurity, suspicion and shyness. Dominance was observed by
aggressive behaviour towards other
cats.
Impulsive cats were regarded as
erratic and reckless. Agreeableness included being affectionate and friendly
to people. Extroversion was observed
when cats were curious, inventive and

TMS

diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary

Sleepy royal
seal of approval
The King has long supported Sir
Ranulph Fiennes’s adventures but
when the explorer first tried to
interest a young Prince Charles in
a polar expedition it did not go
well. Fiennes had secured a royal
audience in 1977 to discuss his
idea of circumnavigating the globe
through both poles but his host
fell asleep while he was talking.
“He woke when I finished,”
Fiennes recalled on Colin
Murray’s Midnight Meets. Charles
had a reasonable excuse, having
just flown in from America, where
he’d been dining with Farrah
Fawcett and Sophia Loren. He
agreed to be patron of the
expedition, but must have been
dozy on the details for it was only
when Fiennes sought his support
for a third trek that Charles asked
which charity they were doing it
for. “Nobody, sir,” a surprised
Fiennes replied. “The thing is to
beat the Norwegians.”
Sir Tim Rice has done well out of
rhyming pyjamas with farmers and
so on. Interviewed by The Stage this
week, he was asked what he would
have been if not a lyricist. “Less well
off,” he said. Not that his career
couldn’t have been bettered. Asked
what he wishes someone had said to
him when he was starting out, Rice
went for: “You’re a great rock
singer. Sign here.”

temperate talks at no 10
A Downing Street briefing said
that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy
Hunt had a “sober meeting”
on Thursday to discuss the
economy. I suppose it makes
a change from the behaviour
of some in the pandemic.
But perhaps there is a
balance to be struck.
Herodotus wrote
that the Persians
would always debate
big questions twice:

once drunk and once sober. Only if
they reached the same conclusion
each time would they enact it.

a writer’s dream reader
At the launch party for his novel
Molly & the Captain, the author
Anthony Quinn paid tribute to
Carmen Callil, publisher of the
Virago list of women writers, who
died this month. “Frost in May by
Antonia White [the first of Virago’s
Modern Classics series] was one of
the first adult novels I read,” said
Quinn, who added that Callil was
even encouraging to those with the
misfortune to be male. “Carmen
was the reader all writers secretly
want,” he said. “One who tells you
she loves everything you write.”
Yesterday’s mention of the soldier
who described a fighter plane as an
FFJ — “effing fast jet” — led Mark
Mason to tell me that sound
engineers would often have a button
on their mixing desk labelled DFA
that changed nothing but could be
tweaked whenever a rock star
complained. The D stood for “Does”.

prickly topic for the bbc
When Rowan Williams went on
Desert Island Discs in 2002, the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s
choices were suitably serious —
some Bach, Mozart, Monteverdi —
with the exception of his third
record, The Hedgehog’s Song. This
was a new one on staff at Lambeth
Palace, who googled it and had an
almighty shock. Hugh Warwick, an
ecologist who is promoting
hedgehog highways, says Williams
told him the internet had directed
them to a drinking song in a Terry
Pratchett book, a lengthy and
creative ode about bestiality that
has each verse ending “but the
hedgehog can never be buggered
at all”. Thankfully this was not
what the archbishop had chosen
for Radio 4 but a marginally
less implausible offering
by the psychedelic folk
group the Incredible
String Band.
patrick kidd

active. The pets were classed as hunters
if they brought back at least one item of
prey to their home during the study.
A report last year by the Cats Protection charity said there were 10.8 million
cats in the UK.
Research by Reading University and
Royal Holloway, University of London,
published earlier this year suggested
that cats in suburbs bordering natural
areas killed an average of 34 animals
each a year. Those in suburbs surrounded by other houses and further
from natural habitats killed an average
of 15.
A study published last year by Exeter
University found that feeding cats

meaty food reduced the number of prey
animals they brought home by 36 per
cent while playing with them for five
to ten minutes a day cut their kills by
25 per cent. Play in the study involved
owners simulating hunting by moving
a feather toy on a string and wand so
cats could stalk, chase and pounce.
Owners also gave cats a toy mouse
to play with after each “hunt”.
While it’s not clear which elements of the meaty food led to
the reduction in hunting,
Inner-city cats are
thought to kill about
15 animals a year

Martina Cecchetti, an Exeter researcher, said in the study: “Some cat foods
contain protein from plant
sources such as soy. It is possible that despite forming a
‘complete diet’ these foods
leave some cats deficient in
one or more micronutrients
— prompting them to hunt.
“However, meat production raises clear climate and
environmental issues, so
one of our next steps is to
find out whether specific
micronutrients could be
added to cat foods to reduce
hunting.”

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

20

News
SHIFT ROBOTICS

These boots
were made
for walking
. . . very fast

R

obotics
engineers
have
unveiled
what they
claim are the “world’s
fastest shoes” with a
top speed of 7mph
(Ali Mitib writes).
Most people walk at
about 2.5 to 4mph.
Powered by a
rechargeable battery
that drives a 300-watt
electric motor, the
strap-on eightwheel shoes
have a range of
just over six

miles. The
Moonwalkers,
developed by Shift
Robotics, based in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, also
have an algorithm
that analyses the
walker’s gait and
adapts its
performance. A lock
mode allows users to
climb stairs without
being pitched
forward.
Xunjie Zhang, a jet
propulsion engineer
and the founder of

Shift Robotics, said he
had made it his
mission to enhance
walking rather than
replace it. “We
believe in a future
where everything can
be within walking
distance,” he said.
“Our first step is to
help people walk
effortlessly at a run
speed.”
Shift Robotics
launched a
crowdfunding
campaign. The
company estimates
that the shoes, which
are available for an
early-bird price of
about £690, could be
with customers by
March. The
full price is
expected to be
about £1,210.

China warns Britain
after consulate clash
Ben Ellery

China has warned the UK that protecting Hong Kong protesters will “bring
disaster”.
The intervention from Beijing’s embassy in Britain came after clashes in
Manchester this month, where a prodemocracy protester was dragged into
the grounds of the Chinese consulate
by the consul-general and beaten up.
Campaigners have urged ministers to
declare those responsible as “persona
non grata”, removing their diplomatic
immunity and leaving them open to
being expelled.
In a video released online, an embassy spokesman pointed to the countries’
trade relationship and highlighted an
Aesop fable about a farmer bitten by a
snake. “Hong Kong independence is an
activity aimed at splitting China and
condemned by the 1.4 billion Chinese
people,” the spokesman said.
He accused protesters of violence in
Manchester and London and said that
sheltering the “Hong Kong independent element” will “in the end bring disaster to Britain”.
“I remind you of the story of the
farmer and the snake . . . where the
farmer showed sympathy to the snake
but finally was bitten by the snake.” He
added of the incident at the Manchester
consulate: “We have made solemn representations to the British side. We urge
the British side to solve this issue ac-

cording to the merits of this issue and
not to make wrong decisions under political pressure from a few people.”
He said that Chinese investment to
Britain “has contributed £63billion to
British GDP and supports almost
80,000 British jobs”.
He added: “British exports to China
also increased sharply so we see their
relationship to be win-win and mutually beneficial.
“China attaches great importance
with its relations with the UK and we
are willing to develop further co-operation with the UK on the basis of mutual
respect, equality and mutual benefit
. . . Meanwhile a few people, out of
their selfish motivations, are trying to
provoke confrontation between China
and the UK.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative MP, has criticised the government’s “inadequate” response to the incident in Manchester after the foreign
secretary sent an official in his place to
meet with China’s deputy ambassador.
Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the
foreign affairs committee, said the
threats were not surprising. “The lack
of contrition from [the Chinese Communist Party] over what was a shocking
assault is concerning. It is sadly consistent with Beijing’s aggressive foreign
policy under [President] Xi and why we
have seen diplomatic relations with
China become increasingly strained
across the world.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

21

2GM

News

‘Anti-woke’ chief
lifts force out of
special measures
after 18 months
Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor

An anti-woke chief constable who
promoted a “back to basics” strategy
has lifted Greater Manchester Police
(GMP) out of special measures in less
than 18 months.
Under Stephen Watson’s leadership
999 call answer times have been cut
from an average of one minute 22 seconds to seven seconds, response times
have been reduced and arrests have increased by 60 per cent. He has also ordered officers to improve their public
image by ironing uniforms, polishing
boots, shaving and tying up long hair.
Watson took over the force in May
last year after Ian Hopkins, his predecessor, quit when GMP was put into
special measures over shortcomings,
including its failure to record 80,000
crimes. In contrast Watson has halved
the number of open investigations, improved crime-solving by nearly 20 per
cent and banned screening out — the
practice of ignoring lower-level crimes.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
announced that the force had made
“sufficient improvements in performance”. It said it could move out of the
special measures regime which involves enhanced scrutiny and coming
up with a remedial plan.
Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of
constabulary, said there was more to do
but he was satisfied that the force would
continue to improve.
Watson said: “Our route into special
measures has been thoroughly analysed and much discussed. The
fundamental failing was simply that
we stopped doing the basics well, we
stopped being the police and we

stopped doing many of the things that
our public have every right to expect.”
He said there was much still to improve but the progress in the past 18
months spoke to the “determination,
enthusiasm and hard work of our staff”.
When he was appointed, Watson set
out his stall as the “anti-woke” chief
constable. Asked if he would take the
knee at protests like other policing
leaders, he replied no, adding: “I would
probably kneel before the Queen, God
and Mrs Watson, that’s it.”
He has railed against “virtue-signalling” police officers who put rainbows
on their epaulettes and said the public
would rather they locked up burglars.
Watson has said that when he arrived
he found officers so demoralised they
were failing to investigate offences such
as shoplifting, petrol station forecourt
drive-offs, vehicle crime and burglary.
Officers had been too “reactive”
rather than out on the beat trying to
prevent crime, he added.
This approach had been enshrined
by the force in a citizens’ charter.
Watson said the charter made the
public believe the police were “far too
busy to be able to do the things that you
want us to do and you really do need to
resign yourself to a diminished future”.
He said: “That’s why I describe the
document as patronising tosh. I tore it
up pretty much in week one.”
Watson added that crime had been
viewed like Voldemort, the Harry Potter villain, “a big amorphous thing that
everyone is scared of”.
He said that he had overhauled the
force, the country’s third largest, by
taking it back to the basics of recording,
fighting and preventing crime and
caring for victims.

Life in jail for burglar who
left elderly woman to die
Neil Johnston

A “savage” burglar has been jailed for
life for the murder of an 86-year-old
woman in her home.
Vasile Culea, 34, tortured Freda
Walker in front of her husband Ken, 88,
in a brutal and merciless attack, the
court was told. They were beaten before
being “hog-tied, gagged and left to their
fate” at their home in Langwith Junction, Derbyshire.
Culea, a gambling addict who is originally from Romania, bound the couple’s
hands and feet on January 14 while
searching for £30,000 in cash, which he
had heard they had. He was convicted
on Tuesday after a two-week trial. Culea admitted the manslaughter of Freda
Walker but was cleared of the attempted murder of her husband, having
admitted causing grievous bodily harm.
Ken Walker, whose neck was broken
in the attack, had survived but died of
natural causes in hospital seven
months later. The jury was told that the
former district council chairman was
found by paramedics who were called
after a neighbour discovered his wife’s
body in the kitchen. Culea was arrested
at his home in Church Warsop, Not-

tinghamshire, five days later after his
DNA was found at the scene. He was
looking for cash the Walkers had withdrawn to pay for home improvements.
Culea, a warehouse worker, left with
£300 from a handbag. The jury was told
that Ken Walker had forgotten where
he stored the money. Police later found
£27,000 hidden around the house.
On the day of the killing Culea, a
Vasile Culea, a
gambling addict,
searched for cash

gambling addict who was £11,000 in
debt, had lost £280 in betting shops.
At Derby crown court yesterday Mr
Justice Henshaw gave him a life sentence with a minimum of 34 years for
the murder and 14 years for the attack
on Ken Walker, to run concurrently.
The judge said: “Very sadly, Freda
Walker died within an hour or so of this
savage attack . . . I am sure [she] would
have suffered both mental and physical
suffering before she died.”

DAVID CLARKE/SOLENT NEWS

Christmas crop Molaina Drodge admires one of 185,000 poinsettias grown at Pinetops Nurseries in Lymington, Hampshire

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

23

News

Avian flu puts rare seabirds on brink
ALAMY

Some species may
never recover from
unprecedented death
rates this year, reports
Will Humphries
Some of Britain’s threatened wild bird
species could be on a “trajectory
to extinction” if avian flu becomes
endemic in the country and this year’s
catastrophic death rates are repeated,
experts have warned.
Up to 85 per cent of birds died this
year in Britain’s globally important seabird colonies as the H5N1 virus spread
through their densely packed cliffside
breeding sites, while overwintering
migratory birds and protected raptors
also saw their number scythed.
Conservationists fear that species
restoration efforts could be knocked
back decades by the unprecedented
death rates. This year was the first time
bird flu was maintained in British populations during the summer months,
which also led to a rise in poultry
farm infections. Normally bird flu
arrives in the autumn with overwintering migratory birds.
Most affected were great skuas and
northern gannets. Scotland has 46 per
cent of the world’s breeding population
of gannets, and at the Bass Rock off the
east coast, the biggest colony in the
world where 150,000 birds nest, breeding failure was higher than 90 per cent.
Scotland also has 60 per cent of the
world’s breeding population of great
skuas, known as the pirates of the sea,
and in some colonies more than 80 per
cent of birds died this year.
Katie-Jo Luxton, director of global
conservation at the RSPB, said: “That
could put great skuas on a trajectory of
extinction in the UK if they are hit as
badly again this year.
“Outbreaks on this scale do set us
back. It’s different for different species
which is why the seabirds are worrying
us so much because they are long-lived,
take longer to reach maturity and often
have only one chick a year, so being hit
by a major setback will take them
decades to recover, if ever they can
because of all the other pressures they
are facing. This could be the final straw
for some of these species.”
Between October 2021 and September 2022 there were 410 locations in

Farms fold as
Christmas
turkeys lost
Will Humphries
Countryside Correspondent

Sea eagles, the UK’s largest bird of prey, are among the species hit hardest by the H5N1 virus in Britain this year

Death toll passes 4m
Birds culled and dying from disease
due to avian flu outbreaks in the UK
2.3m
Culled

Dying from
disease
1.3m

2.5m
2
1.5
1

445.3k
14k
Jan-Jun
2021

Jul-Dec
2021

Jan-Jun July to
2022
present

0.5
0

Source: World Organisation for Animal Health

Britain where wild birds tested positive
for bird flu, including 60 wild bird species. The total number of wild birds testing positive was 1,898 as of October 14,
a tiny fraction of the total number of infected and dead birds because the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Defra) only records a
small sample of birds tested to confirm
an outbreak and doesn’t record total
deaths in wild birds.
Last winter on the Solway Firth the
disease killed more than a third

(16,000) of the Svalbard breeding population of barnacle geese.
The geese, which migrate en masse
from their Arctic home, numbered only
a few hundred in the 1940s.
This winter a small number of the
25,000 survivors are showing signs of
bird flu, weeks earlier than the outbreak began last year.
Calum Murray, assistant warden at
RSPB Mersehead, on the Scottish side
of the Solway coast, said there were
“harrowing” days last year when they
had to dress in full PPE to collect 350
dead birds from a breeding site. There
were 700 dead birds on another day.
“It was pretty devastating across the
whole of the Solway,” he said. He said
they are advising the public not to
touch a sick or dead bird and to keep
dogs on a short lead.
Six species of raptor, some of which
have taken conservationists decades to
re-establish in the UK, have tested positive for bird flu in the past year, with the
first osprey case recorded last week. Sea
eagles, the UK’s largest bird of prey,
were hit hard on the west coast of Scotland, with about a quarter of chicks (27)

and two adults dying from confirmed or
suspected bird flu this year. They became extinct in the UK in 1918 due to
persecution but thanks to determined
reintroduction efforts since 1975 there
are now 150 pairs in Scotland.
Efforts to reintroduce sea eagles to
the south coast of England were suspended because of bird flu outbreaks
this year because they rely on moving
about 12 chicks a year from Scotland to
the Isle of Wight.
Luxton accused the government of
being “really only focused on poultry
management” and lacking clear leadership on the protection of wild birds.
She said the UK government should
create a wild bird task force to produce
better research into the disease in wild
birds, closer monitoring of outbreaks
and better public information.
Defra said it was funding new research to understand how bird flu
spreads and had set up a seabird reporting system to “inform future species recovery plans to support population
growth”. The department said it would
continue to work with charities including RSPB to consider further action.

Farmers have lost about a million
Christmas turkeys and geese to bird flu
this year and are calling for a vaccine for
the “Covid of the poultry industry”.
Decades-old poultry farms have
folded after their entire Christmas
flocks were culled following a positive
test on their farm. Paul Kelly, the managing director of KellyBronze Turkeys
in Essex, met government officials this
week to urge them to fast-track a poultry vaccine and offer better compensation for farmers, otherwise he said the
seasonal industry could be wiped out.
“Defra told me it can take up to two
years to get the vaccine but this is Covid
for the poultry industry,” Kelly said. “If
we don’t get the vaccine there won’t be
an industry. We also need a compensation scheme fit for purpose.”
The government yesterday announced that it will improve its bird flu
compensation scheme to “better reflect
the impact of outbreaks on farmers”.
It has also agreed to allow farmers in
England to slaughter turkeys, geese
and ducks early and freeze them, before
they are defrosted and sold as “fresh”
between November 28 and December
31. Fresh turkeys fetch higher prices.
Gressingham Foods, which is based
in Suffolk and is the main duck and
goose producer in the UK, lost its entire
flock of more than 100,000 free-range
geese to bird flu this month.
Richard Griffiths, the chief executive
of the British Poultry Council, said turkeys, ducks and geese had been hit
hardest by the virus over the last year.
He said shoppers may see less choice
of turkey products this Christmas but
“we are doing our best to ensure everybody has a Christmas bird”. He said that
a tenth of the 10 million birds intended
for Christmas had already been lost.
Defra said it would continue to invest
in avian influenza research and monitor the situation globally, as well as the
effectiveness of any disease control, including vaccine development.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

25

Rishi Sunak’s rise is a quiet
triumph for British Indians
Weekend essay
Pages 32-33

Comment

Fat shaming is only way to beat obesity crisis
Deaths from smoking fell dramatically after it was stigmatised but disapproval of the overweight is still thought cruel
PA

Matthew
Parris

T

here was a day in 2014
when one dismal statistic
overtook another in the
most macabre competition
of all: the race to murder
more of the British population than
any rival killer. On that unknown
day, obesity snatched the crown from
tobacco. Its hold on the title has only
strengthened since then.
Glasgow University’s journal,
University News, headlined its
researchers’ report carefully last
year: “Obesity and excess body fat
may have contributed to more
deaths in England and Scotland than
smoking since 2014”. Using health
surveys of the decease of nearly
200,000 adults, researchers found
that between 2003 and 2017, deaths
from smoking dropped from 23.1 per
cent to 19.4 per cent.
That was the good news. A decline
that started about half a century ago
and still continues, much assisted by
a range of state interventions, is a
grisly but positive example of what
Theresa May called “the good that
government can do”. Thousands of
lives are being saved and millions
more improved every year as a
nation turns away from smoking.
The bad news was (and is) this:
deaths attributed to excess body
fat increased from 17.9 per cent to
23.1 per cent, with the overtake
probably occurring in 2014. The
figure today could be around a
quarter of all deaths.
One of the authors of the report, Jill
Pell, commented that “the increase in
estimated deaths due to obesity and
excess body fat is likely to be due to

their contributions to cancer and
cardiovascular disease”. She could also
have mentioned diabetes and a range
of other conditions either caused or
(more often) aggravated by obesity;
but a big challenge in framing
research into what being fat does to
your life chances is that its
relationship to death and misery,
though potent, is much looser than
is the case with smoking.
With smoking, a single product
can be pinpointed as a dominant
cause of a particular deadly disease,
lung cancer. But with body weight
the linkage with death and ill-health
is, though cumulatively strong,
individually more hazy.
“Being overweight” is not a useful
statement on a coroner’s report, yet
in millions of citizen years of healthy
life lost through obesity, in our
NHS’s increasingly desperate
attempt to keep up with demand and
in the levelling off of a centurieslong climb in longevity, Britain’s

Smoking is seen as
dirty, anti-social, a
failure of self-discipline
losing battle with fat — shared
across the western world — is
becoming a huge drag on health, the
taxpayer and our quality of life. In
2014-15 a government report found
it spent more than £6 billion on
obesity-related diseases.
There was “a long gap”, Professor
Pell said, between society learning
that tobacco killed and this being
taken seriously enough to tackle
smoking effectively; and we couldn’t
afford to leave the same gap with
obesity. She was right. The situation
is alarming. But to the reasons for
alarm that Pell mentioned, I believe
we should add another. We approve

of tobacco-shaming. We don’t
approve of fat-shaming.
As society has borne relentlessly
down on smoking, there has been —
among the many state interventions
that have helped — another
powerful weapon: stigma.
Smoking is seen as dirty,
anti-social, a failure of self-discipline.
Smokers are addicts and that’s not a
nice word. Society does not approve.
Smoking is not cool. Weighed in the
scales of public opinion the balance
of approval has tipped decisively
against the habit and its victims.
Make no mistake: reproach hurts
feelings. Smokers face offensive
language and attitudes. Some are
defiant; others plead that they
cannot help it; but the world around
them has decided that stigmatising
this minority is for their own good
and the good of the majority.
So smokers are shamed.
The same has happened more
intensely with drink-driving, not
least because its victims are so
visible. In both cases the argument
for personal freedom is lost because
these habits involve tremendous
costs for others. Sober driving saves
lives; smoking costs the NHS
billions. Society is unafraid to say
it disapproves. A decisive cultural
shift has occurred.
This is not happening with obesity.
Disapproval is thought rude and
insensitive. “Fat-shaming” would be
considered cruel in a way that
tobacco-shaming or drink-drive
shaming is not. It’s worth asking why.
First, there’s the problem that so
many people are now fat that it would
be hard for the thinner minority to
swing public opinion against a larger
group’s condition. Londoners are
thinner (surveys all show) because
they must walk; but in rural England
we drive everywhere and a pocketnotepad survey I did in a Derbyshire

corresponding reluctance among
the better-off and better-educated
to seem to sneer.
So we take avoiding action. We
say public education is the key, as
though the overweight are unaware
they have a problem. We blame
“processed” foods, as though that
term had any meaning or “whole”
foods such as potatoes, pineapples
and honey would help you slim. We
advocate cookery instruction, as

Most people do know
that obesity threatens
health and shortens life

An appeal to vanity must be part of
any push to reverse the situation

car park the other day suggested that
about three quarters of older men
are seriously overweight, while really
fat children, once quite unusual, are
now everywhere.
I reckon about half my friends
are fat, and they look lovely to me
because they’re my friends, but I
wish they were thinner because
I wish them a longer life. But how
do you say these things? Well, we
finally did to smokers.
Second, there’s the issue of poverty
and ethnicity. Black people are on
average the most overweight, closely
followed by white people. Brown
people tend to do better. The
differences are striking, but an
ethnicity-targeted campaign would
meet with objection. And because it’s
so evident that obesity is a problem
especially of poorer and less
educated citizens, there’s a

though poorer people buy a
hamburger because they don’t
know how to boil a cabbage.
And we just keep avoiding the
truth. Everybody knows what makes
you fat: eating too much. Everybody
knows how to get thinner: eat less.
Most people do know that obesity
threatens health and shortens life,
though by all means ram that
message home through public
education. But what’s really missing
is not knowledge but motivation.
Eating can be addictive, so you have
to want very much to kick the habit.
The very opposite incentive is offered
by “body positivity” — helping
people feel comfortable about being
overweight. They shouldn’t. We
have to feel able to say so.
As a huge sector of our economy
testifies, people care very much how
they look and what they can wear.
Vanity, then, must be part of any
successful effort to reverse what no
western nation in this century has
succeeded in reversing: a steadily
advancing tsunami of obesity. We
speak of a climate “emergency”.
We have an obesity emergency.
I fear it’s almost too late.

Carol Midgley Notebook

Burning art’s
bad but I do
have a selfish
exception

D

id you see Channel 4’s
moronic, attentionseeking Jimmy Carr
Destroys Art, which
debated whether works by
morally despicable artists should be
destroyed, but was the television
equivalent of a toddler pulling down
his pants and saying “Woo, look at
me!”? If so, you’ll know that the
audience voted to save Rolf Harris.
Asked to decide whether to
blowtorch one of his paintings or
some pervy sketches by Eric Gill,
who sexually abused his daughters

and the family dog, the latter
was sentenced to burn.
I have mixed feelings about
this, mostly selfish. You see,
we have two Rolf Harris
landscape paintings (OK,
signed limited-edition
prints), which friends
bought my husband long
before we knew he was
Rolf the Nonce. After
his conviction for
sexually abusing teenage
girls, I wrote a piece
wondering whether to take
them down (we put them
upstairs — the coward’s
compromise).
Should I be glad that a
TV audience thought Harris
was slightly less offensive
than Gill? Because if
they’d torched his
painting, there would be
one less of them in the world.
Which might make ours
worth fractionally more.

Gruesome twosome

W

H Smith is
bringing
Toys “R” Us
back to the high street
and I think this might
be the worst retail
idea ever. Britain’s
most annoying shop
teaming up with what
was about the fifth
most annoying? Beavis
— meet Butt-Head. I’m
happy for any business
bouncing back in hard
times but remember
that WH Smith excels
in trolling its customers.
It knows people hate the
hard upsell of a giant
Galaxy bar yet it even
does it at self-serve tills,
which is possibly why
Which? named it Britain’s “worst
high street store” in 2019.
“Do you want to buy any of our

promotion items?” the screen
demanded of me this week (hand
sanitiser, FYI). Worse, it sometimes
asks you to rate the “product range”
when you pay. Though this does show
a sense of humour. Product range? In
stores that look like a hand grenade
has been lobbed into a jumble sale ?
And whose “special offer” for
chocolate buttons was once famously
£1 for one bag — or £2 for two.
How can a shop charge so much,
when people swap photos on Twitter
of its messy shops and skanky carpets?
Toys “R” Us was never this annoying,
though that backwards R grated and
its stores had all the glamour of a
1970s pallet warehouse. Once, in the
aisles amid screaming children, my
husband said he’d prefer to be kicked
in the groin than be there. Still,
marriages from hell can and do work.

Doing the dirty

A

s a child, whenever I dropped a
piece of toast, an adult would
say: “You’ll eat a peck of dirt

before you die”. Meaning “Don’t be a
wimp, eat it”. Alan Titchmarsh once
told me that when a woman asked
for advice about her son eating soil
in the garden, he replied: “Make sure
he gets enough!”
Maybe our grandparents were right.
The “dirtiest man in the world” who
didn’t wash for 50 years because he
thought it would make him ill has just
died. Aged 94. He collapsed soon after
taking his first shower in decades.
Amou Haji from Iran preferred
eating roadkill to fresh food, would
smoke five cigarettes simultaneously
and also smoked dung.
Readers, I’m not saying you should
start making similar roll-ups today but
it’s food for thought in our antiseptic
world that when doctors examined
him earlier this year they found
him “in good health”. WH Smith
definitely wouldn’t have managed
to sell Amou the hand sanitiser.
@carolmidgley

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

26

Comment

Politics needs some positive discrimination
It is not just unrepresentative for rich people’s kids to be running the country: as we’ve seen, it’s also woefully inefficient
Robert
Crampton

T

he Sutton Trust, a leading
social mobility pressure
group, told us this week
that of the 29 full members
of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet,
around two thirds had attended feepaying schools. The proportion was
pretty similar both among Liz Truss’s
outgoing squad of elite performers
and Boris Johnson’s initial selection
of dazzling administrators in 2019.
It is strikingly different, however,
to Theresa May’s consiglieres, just
30 per cent of whom were educated
privately. May went to a state school.
Which goes to show that, in so far as
she wanted to hang out with anyone,
Theresa preferred people from a
similar background. Most of us do.
Therein lies the problem, given
that over the past quarter of a
century, four of the seven prime
ministers, including Sunak, attended
private school, choosing the cabinet
for 19 of those 25 years.
I was surprised how many belowthe-line comments on our story on
Thursday do not regard the massive
over-representation of private school
alumni in the upper echelons of the
British state as a problem. “I don’t
care,” to paraphrase many readers.
“Just so long as they can do the job.”
That view, purporting to prioritise
efficiency, actually tacitly endorses
incompetence. If you believe talent is
distributed equally across class, race,
gender and region, but opportunity is

not (and these days most people do
believe that) then drawing your
leadership elite from a tiny cohort
is a dreadful waste of talent on the
one hand, and a potentially
disastrous over-promotion of nontalent on the other. Actually there’s
nothing “potential” about it: anyone
fancy giving Old Etonian Kwasi
Kwarteng another crack at running
the economy?
All four great offices of state are
held by people whose form of
secondary education is shared by
7 per cent of the population. It is not
certain, but it is highly likely, surely,
that someone, or several people,
maybe many people, belonging to
the other 93 per cent could do one
or two or all four of those jobs better.
Many, not all, private schools provide
a superb education. But so do many
state schools.
The differential isn’t so marked
or so uniform that superior
scholarship 30 years previously can
explain the monopoly. It must be

Flip the presumption in
favour of the individual
who’s had to struggle
down to confidence, connections,
cultural expectations, the usual
suspects. Whatever, it’s not just
unrepresentative and unfair for rich
people’s kids to run the country, it’s
also woefully inefficient.
I wouldn’t have a formal quota to
redress the balance. What I’d
recommend instead is following the
informal guide I fall back on when
trying to evaluate how talented any
given person might be: how many

All four great offices of state are held
by people who went to private school

obstacles have they had to overcome
to get to where they are?
If they grew up poor and went to a
so-so school, yet they’re in the frame
for a top job against a rival from a
well-off family and a famous alma
mater, the first person is probably the
more able candidate. As a general rule
of thumb, I think that assumption
makes sense. Just as a high-flying
woman in, say, the City or the law is
probably more impressive than a man
at the same (or often, higher) level.
Although Liz Truss hasn’t done that
argument any favours, obviously.
In other words, rather than a
presumption in favour of the public
schoolboy (“good chap”, “safe pair of
hands”, “one of us”, “house-trained”,
etc), you flip the presumption in
favour of the individual who’s had to

struggle. Appointing total amateurs
to run huge departments and
mega-budgets is always going to
involve a risk. A track record of
overcoming adversity removes a
little of the guesswork. This kind of
positive discrimination happens a
lot already in the private sector. I
don’t see it happening in politics.
The analysis also shows that 45 per
cent of the new cabinet went to
Oxford or Cambridge. Where I part
company with the Sutton Trust,
admirable organisation though it is,
is the way it always lumps what it
(and I) see as the private school
problem with what it (but not me)
sees as the Oxbridge problem.
About 0.6 per cent of the UK
population attended Oxbridge, so the
over-representation of those two
universities is even more pronounced
than that of private schools. And yet
they are fundamentally different
institutions, the one selected by
wealth, the other (not entirely, but
these days, largely) selected by ability.
It shouldn’t be axiomatic that
Oxbridge dominance signifies
sclerosis and stuffiness at the top in
the way private school dominance
does. You could argue, indeed, that
government efficiency is best served
by a higher proportion of Oxbridge
graduates in charge, not a lower one.
I wouldn’t advocate this, I hasten
to add, because of the danger of
groupthink, not to mention
overweening arrogance, never mind
the absolute tide of added bullshit all
those extra PPE-ists (I speak as a
recipient of that degree) would
unleash across the cabinet table. But
almost half the cabinet being Oxbridge
grads is nothing like as baleful as two
thirds of it going to posh schools.

Women’s record

D

iscussing — all right, ridiculing
— the Liz Truss experiment
with my daughter, she went
serious for a moment and said “it’s
just such a shame she’s a woman”. I
said, Rachel, don’t worry about it.
Nobody is saying Liz Truss cocked it
up because she’s a woman. She
cocked it up because she’s Liz Truss.
And besides, of three female prime
ministers, a record of one epochal, one
not as bad as she seemed at the time
(especially given what came after) and,
fair play, one absolutely risible, isn’t
too bad. At least on a par with the
blokes, possibly even slightly better,
I’d have said. Although admittedly,
Maggie Thatcher is doing most of
the heavy lifting to bring the average
performance up.

Good for nothing

S

ome study or other says listening
to birdsong can cheer you up. As
the crows, pigeons and, on
occasion, the odd feral parakeet start
up their racket outside my bedroom
window at 5am, I beg to differ. OK,
so they’re not exactly singing, but
they are creatures of an avian
persuasion, and they are making a
noise, and it is anything but fun.
There’s a category of things which
are supposed to be good for you, and
quite possibly are, and we’re sort of
glad they exist — yet most of us have
no desire to engage with them. Off
the top of my head I’d include the
Financial Times, kale, the Today
programme, reading 19th-century
novels and cold water swimming.
Other suggestions welcome.
Giles Coren is away

John Lewis-Stempel Nature Notebook

Flashes of
fluorescent
orange along
the estuary

I

t is a truism of nature that the
more lovely the berry, the fiercer
are the guarding thorns. Thus, the
tantalising bright orange berries
of sea buckthorn (Hippophae
rhamnoides) are protected by spikes
that seem to be
borrowed from a
medieval mace.
Nonetheless the birds of
coastal areas persist in
picking the fruit of this
deciduous shrub, native to
the British Isles since the
Ice Age, and it is often the
first food of ravenous
fieldfares and redwings
arriving here in the
autumn migration.
Sensible birds. Sea
buckthorn berries are crammed with
vitamins A, K, E, B1 and B2, fatty
acids, amino acid, lipids, organic
acids, carbohydrates, folic acid and
flavonoids. Sea buckthorn can

contain up to 15 times as much
vitamin C per 100g as an orange. The
berries are eminently edible by
humans, if you can get past the
vicious thorns, and their taste alone
when raw acts as a pick-me-up: it
bursts with a tart vitality due to its
high concentration of malic acid, the
stuff they put in sour “extreme
candy” for kids. Foragers tend to use
berries cooked for jellies and sauces,
although my own personal favourite
is sea buckthorn sorbet. The leaves
also have high nutritional values: the
curious Hippophae in the scientific
name comes from the Ancient Greek
“hippo”, meaning horse, and “phaos”,
to shine. Horses grazing sea
buckthorn, which grows to between
two and four metres in height, glitter
with health. It was sea buckthorn,
legendarily, that enabled
Pegasus to fly.
Sea buckthorn is deciduous
and dioecious (two sexed), and
the berries, which appear
only on the female of the
species, are ripe from August
until late October. Densely clustered
around the stem, the berries bring a
dash of almost tropical exotic colour
to even the most depressing of
locations; last weekend a single sea
buckthorn brightened a rubbishstrewn stretch of the Thames estuary
beside Tilbury docks, in a manner
similar to JMW Turner’s red buoy

energising the seascape Helvoetsluys.
Even when berryless, sea buckthorn
possesses beauty; the lanceolate,
silvery leaves are similar to those of
willow. The bastions of sea
buckthorn are east and south
England, and the East Lothian coast
of Scotland, where it was planted
extensively in the 1960s to stabilise
the dunes. You may also spot it from
your car; it is beloved of highway
authorities for its salt tolerance.

Fine feathers

S

ea buckthorn was not the only
beauty on the tidal Thames at
Tilbury; in a secluded inlet
bordered by the sewage works, a
little egret stood pensively, a pearl
on the sludge. These elegant white
egrets, left, have become familiar
in Britain since the first pair bred
here in 1996; according to the
British Trust for Ornithology there
are now about 1,000 pairs nesting in
colonies every year in dense
waterside trees, mostly in southern
England and Wales. The numbers of
native Egretta garzetta are swollen by
some 11,000 winter visitors, which
reach as far as the Western Isles.
This member of the heron family
was once widely hunted for its
plumes, which accessorised caps and
headpieces. By the 19th century, little
egret feathers were worth more than
gold and the bird’s survival in Europe

Sea buckthorn is rich in vitamins and
legendarily gave Pegasus his powers

was threatened. To protest against
the international plumage trade, the
Society for the Protection of Birds
was formed in Manchester in 1889.
Five years later, the organisation was
granted a royal charter and became
the RSPB.
Principally a fish and amphibianeater, the little egret stalks its prey
through shallow waters, though
sometimes it splashes about to flush
out small fry. In either case, it hides
gloriously yellow footwear.

Fire walking

I

took the dog for a late-night
perambulation yesterday, and part
of our path was alongside the

marshy end of a field, where a
haunting mist had gathered, and
the rotten stink of fen could be
tasted on the tongue. Sometimes in
nature-watching you do get what
you want; I hoped to see the lights of
nature, ignis fatuus or “will-o’-thewisp”, and obligingly a puff of blue
flame, like lit brandy on a Christmas
pudding, rose from the bog. In old
Britain, ignis fatuus was also “elf-fire”,
in the belief it was the work of little
folk. Travellers in watery places
entranced by the faery lights
departed the safe path and drowned.
As Milton put it in Paradise Lost,
the delusive ignis fatuus “Misleads
th’ amaz’d Night-wanderer from
his way/ To Boggs and Mires, and
oft through Pond or Poole/ There
swallow’d up and lost, from
succour farr.”
Prosaically, ignis fatuus is a
chemical process by which
self-combusting diphosphane ignites
belches of marsh methane. Nearing
the eve of Halloween, however, a
blue vapour hovering over a remote
bog in the dark west of England is
indisputably spooky.
John Lewis-Stempel’s most recent
book is Nightwalking: Four Journeys
Into Britain After Dark

@jlewisstempel

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

27

Comment

Buy prints or signed copies of Times cartoons from our Print Gallery at timescartoons.co.uk or call 020 7711 7826

There’s more to womanhood than high heels
The idea that Eddie Izzard can flick between ‘boy mode’ and ‘girl mode’ whenever he feels like it is a self-serving travesty
Janice
Turner

@victoriapeckham

I

s womanhood a costume male
people can pop on at whim, for
reasons emotional, erotic or
politically strategic, then remove
again when it suits them better to
be a man? This is the crux of why
Eddie Izzard enrages women and, in
seeking selection as Labour
candidate for Sheffield Central, has
become yet another gender
conundrum for Sir Keir Starmer to
fudge on phone-ins.
First, the pronouns. This week
Izzard self-defined as “gender fluid”,
saying that while “she/her” is
preferable, “he/him” is fine. So, since
gender is indeed ephemeral,
superficial and based on regressive
stereotypes, but sex is immutable,
I’m going with “he/him”. I realise this
means I’ve failed what has become a
quasi-religious test. Unlike TV
presenter Lorraine Kelly I won’t
squeal “You go, girl!” at a 60-year-old
man, as I don’t believe he’s a woman
— but then I don’t think Eddie
does either.
Because in his Guardian interview,
Izzard said he was “not sure” trans

women should take places on
all-women shortlists and wouldn’t
himself. That alone contradicts both
the “trans women are women”
mantra and Labour Party policy, thus
making him as evil as Labour MP
Rosie Duffield and JK Rowling.
The sad thing is women,
particularly feminists, once adored
Izzard. Not only the greatest 1990s
stand-up, he was truly brave. On
stage and off, in lipstick, leather
skirts and sparkly eye-shadow, he
subverted rigid ideas about what
men could be. “These aren’t women’s
clothes,” he’d say. “They’re my
clothes.” He called himself a
“transvestite”: a heterosexual guy
who sometimes wore frocks. And
while some men abused him in the
street, women thought he was cool.
Then “transvestite” became an
unfashionable term and the concept
of “gender identity” took hold.
Whether you’re a man or woman
was defined not by your sexed body
but your inner, soul-like essence. So
Izzard started talking about having
“boy genetics and girl genetics”. Now
his cross-dressing wasn’t a peccadillo,
it was part of his DNA.
He spoke of oscillating between
“girl mode” and “boy mode”. His
position changed from “I’m a guy
who likes pretty nails” to “because I
like pretty nails I’m a girl”. In 2019,
the US podcaster Joe Rogan asked
how he moved from girl to boy

mode, and Izzard replied: “I take off
my heels.” Women, many with
unadorned fingers and flat shoes,
boiled at the arrogance of a man
defining the female condition by the
sexist crap they’ve long abhorred.
Moreover, Izzard seems cynical
and opportunist. He told Rogan he
appears in “dramatic films in boy
mode”. Although his IMDB entry is
headed “actress” he’s only ever
played men, from a Nazi general
in Valkyrie to a master thief in
Ocean’s Twelve, and at premieres
walks the red carpet in sharp suits.

Could it be he pops
into boy mode to
secure lucrative roles?
Although now he’s “living in girl
mode” he’ll appear next year as
Vincent in the TV series Culprits.
Could it be he pops into boy mode
to secure lucrative male Hollywood
roles?
Perhaps Iranian protesters
defying compulsory hijabs, girls
in Afghanistan fighting for an
education or mothers experiencing
terrible maternity care in British
hospitals should all just switch into
“boy mode” when reality gets too
much. I’m sure the Taliban would
understand.
Nor is Izzard the only self-serving

cross-dresser. A Credit Suisse
bank director, Philip Bunce, who
sometimes wears frocks and
make-up to work, calling himself
Pips, took a place on a prestigious
FT women business leaders list.
(“Transgender has become totally
meaningless,” trans woman India
Willoughby noted at the time.)
Jamie Wallis, a Tory MP, bent his
Mercedes E-class around a lamppost
while wearing a black leather
mini-skirt and stilettos, and when
arrested for fleeing the scene — so
he couldn’t be breathalysed —
quickly came out as trans. Instead of
condemning a crime which led to a
£2,500 fine and six-month driving
ban, MPs applauded his “bravery”.
Oddly, since then Wallis has worn
only suits and used male pronouns.
To be clear, men should have the
same latitude as women to dress as
they please, while a minority of
male-born people truly need to
transition to feel whole. But
occasional cross-dressing does not a
woman make. And, for the safety,
dignity and legal protection of
women, this matters.
This week the Scottish parliament
passed its first reading of a bill which
would allow a man to become legally
female without any safeguarding or
diagnosis of gender dysphoria. All he
would need to do is “live in the
acquired gender” for three months.
The Scottish government will neither

define what this means nor state
what sanctions, if any, men who act
in bad faith might face.
On LBC Starmer spoke of
“modernising” this process without
clarifying whether Labour too
would allow the number of men who
might acquire female birth
certificates to increase infinitely,
thereby undermining women’s
single-sex spaces.
Izzard told Rogan he campaigns in
“girl mode”. Well, of course: trans
identity overwrites his privilege as a
rich, white, male celebrity. He listed
his considerable achievements:
performing stand-up in four
languages, running 70 marathons,
adding that next year “I’m going
into politics”.
It is hard not to feel that Izzard
cares less about improving the lives
of people in Sheffield Central than
completing another Eddie challenge.
But he will be a better MP than a
“supercharged local councillor”
candidate, he says, because their
activism is local and “mine has been
national and international”. Perhaps
ex-steel workers and single parents
relying on food banks will prefer
global grandstanding to diligent
case work.
But if he doesn’t win the selection,
never mind: Izzard is already
working on a “one-woman Hamlet”
— and there’s always “boy mode”, if
he just changes his shoes.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

28

V2

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

How to prepare young people for adulthood

Truss’s legacy
Sir, Janice Turner (Notebook, Oct 27)
argues that Liz Truss got to No 10
“propelled by gargantuan self-belief
alone” and that she, like some male
politicians, was winging it on the basis
of “shameless, narcissistic, talent-free
entitlement”.
I believe this is an unfair depiction
of Truss, who surely should be
compared to Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn,
like Truss, was motivated by an
inflexible ideology. Like Truss, he was
obviously sincere, (even if misguided)
and he and his shadow chancellor,
John McDonnell, would undoubtedly
have had as little respect for the
Office for Budget Responsibility as
did Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.
Corbyn proved to be unelectable, as
the 2019 election demonstrated, and
so would Truss had she ever called an
election.
The lesson is not that she has
opened up a door for “future
generations of rubbish but ruthless
women” but that female politicians
are not necessarily pragmatists who
avoid conflict and disruption, as many
claim, but are just as capable of
succumbing to the dangerous lure of
a simplistic ideology as some male
politicians. Perhaps that is the true
glass ceiling that Truss broke.
Jeremy White
Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire
Sir, Credit where credit is due — let
us not forget that, when Liz Truss was
appointed foreign secretary her first
achievement was to secure the safe
release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
something previous foreign
secretaries, and even the prime
minister — who managed to extend
her sentence — had failed to do.
Pam Morgan
Winchester, Hants

Political animals
Sir, Alice Thomson’s scathing critique
of how our country is being governed
is right (Oct 26). We may well have
the mother of parliaments but what is
certain is that the children inside
need to grow up. Exchanges at
PMQs seem to consist of puerile
name-calling and needless
point-scoring to a background
cacophony of mindless noise. No one
seems focused on governance. No
corporate board would survive if it
managed affairs in such an infantile
way. Our parliamentarians need to
become professional in their level of
debate and behaviour instead of
acting like toddlers at a party.
Peter Moore
Ketton, Rutland

Corrections and
clarifications
The Times takes
complaints
about editorial
content seriously. We are committed to
abiding by the Independent Press
Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules
and regulations and the Editors’ Code of
Practice that IPSO enforces.
Requests for corrections or
clarifications should be sent by email to
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF

Sir, Rishi Sunak’s endorsement of
many of the reforms proposed by The
Times Education Commission (News,
Oct 27) is to be welcomed. As a
retired professor I have been alarmed
at the way in which universities have
prioritised quantity over quality.
Maybe 200,000 to 300,000 students
are doing courses that they will not
use in their careers.
If they were to transfer to do
apprenticeships shared with courses
that would have three advantages.
First, it would release a lot of badly
needed workers into the economy.
Second, the young people would not
be burdened with student debt but
would be earning. Third, most of
these young people would remain at
home thus releasing a large number
of student residences to the general
housing market. The country only
needs universities for high-level
professions.
Andrew Gilg
Exeter, Devon
Sir, Once again, the notion of
replacing the narrow limitations of
A-levels with a broader 16+
baccalaureate curriculum returns to

Green priorities
Sir, Rishi Sunak has decided that
domestic policy and the economic
crisis at home are more demanding of
his attention than the global climate
crisis (“Sunak ‘too busy’ to attend
Cop27 climate talks”, Oct 27). He
prefers to hoover the carpets when
the house is on fire. This failure of
judgment and leadership shows that
he cannot see the proverbial wood for
the trees, and will give the world the
impression that the UK is not truly
committed to net zero.
Susan Gore-Langton
Bristol
Sir, Rishi Sunak has been criticised
for not flying to Egypt to attend the
Cop27 talks. Boris Johnson hosted
Cop26, which was good for his ego
but made no difference to his
environment policy. Indeed, only days
later, the go-ahead was given for the
expansion of Bristol airport.
We should judge the new prime
minister on what he does, not what
he says. It takes more than attending
conferences to combat climate
change. Actions speak louder than
hot air.
Sarah Milward
Bristol

TRIUMPH
OF THE
FASCISTI
from the times october 29, 1922
The “coup” of the Fascisti seems to
have been generally successful, and
the King has invited their leader,
Signor Mussolini to form a Cabinet.
The movement was evidently wellplanned, and so far it has been
carried out with very little
bloodshed.
The first rumours that the Fascisti
had begun their insurrection
operations spread about midnight on
Friday. The Milanese newspapers
were able to receive fragmentary
information about what was
happening from the rest of Italy up
till 8am on Saturday, and then all

the news. However, it seems
somewhat contrary — and insular —
to decide that a British baccalaureate
is needed when the International
Baccalaureate (IB) has been in action
around the globe for over 50 years.
Would it not just be easier, quicker
and cheaper for those responsible,
from the prime minister downwards,
to take a few trips to some IB schools
in the UK, both state and
independent, to see an existing wheel
that goes round very nicely.
John Claughton, former chief master,
King Edward’s School, Birmingham
Sir, Once again the mantra that all
pupils should study mathematics and
English until the age of 18 has been
wheeled forth but as usual there is no
definition of mathematics or English.
By mathematics do we mean pure
maths including calculus,
determinants and matrices, group
theory, set theory etc, or do we mean
a more basic approach of arithmetic,
simple geometry, understanding
percentages, understanding graphs,
understanding risk and probability
and understanding simple and
compound interest? By English do we

mean English language or English
literature? What is really needed is an
ability to express oneself clearly and
concisely and to understand the
basics of English grammar. It is not
necessary for young people to be
befuddled by the minutiae of
linguistics. English literature is a
separate entity. It is not essential to be
able to analyse the great works of the
literary canon to communicate well.
These questions must be resolved if
our education system is able to
produce a population that is both
numerate and literate.
Roberta Nichols
Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxon
Sir, The headmaster of Brighton
College (letter, Oct 28) appears to
expect the new prime minister to
reform education. But he, and other
heads of independent schools, need
not wait that long — they can exploit
their independence by modernising
their own syllabuses without delay.
They did it in the 1960s: their
opportunity has come again. Will
they grasp it?
Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites
Fishbourne, W Sussex

Sir, Sir Keir Starmer is greatly
concerned about climate change.
Could the country break with
tradition and invite him to represent
the UK as a major figure at the
forthcoming Cop27 conference in
Egypt? A greater spirit of cross-party
co-operation would be welcomed.
Gillian Roberts
Reading, Berks

dislike the principle of culling, but is
this not a reasonable case in point?
Songbirds are up against it on all
fronts and their existence should be
nurtured, if only for the joy their
songs bring to us.
Monica Collantine
Stockport

Save our songbirds

Sir, Calls by Lord Green of
Deddington, president of Migration
Watch, to reinstate the requirement
for migrants to have a degree and a
salary of £30,000 (letter, Oct 28) are
flawed. As a provider of care services
to the NHS, social services and selffunded service users, I can confirm
that without a route via Tier 3 for
overseas staff to be deployed into care
services our ability to care for our
vulnerable and to get people out of
hospital will get significantly worse.
We suffer a shortage of UK
applicants prepared to do this work
and we invest significant sums in
trying to recruit UK staff, to little
avail. We employ every UK applicant
who applies and can provide
references and a clear DBS.
Gordon Ward
Chief executive, Beaumont
Healthcare, Cambridgeshire

Sir, Your article (“Birdsong study
shows the lark’s ascending effect on
mental health”, Oct 28) will come as
no surprise to most of us, especially
those of us fortunate enough to be
able to go to places where the
skylark’s song can be heard. It lifts the
spirit like nothing else.
Sadly in the urban environment the
sound of birdsong is becoming rarer,
what with the proliferation of the
domestic cat — fine companion as
that is, but the known predator of
songbirds — and also the increase of
parakeets.
Last year there was a pair of them,
now a flock of 12 or more. These
non-native birds take their share of
the limited food that songbirds rely
on, and being large birds, will slowly
but surely replace our native birds. I
telegraphic and telephonic
communication was interrupted. In
these circumstances it is difficult to
reconstruct the march of events. It
seems, however, that the Fascisti
carried out their plan in the
following way: everywhere they
mobilised and requested the local
prefects to transfer their powers to
Fascisti. The railway stations, post
and telegraph offices, and other
public buildings were occupied,
particularly in the towns in Central
Italy, so that the communications
with Rome could be cut, and the
capital thus isolated. From many
centres in Tuscany parties of Fascisti
immediately left for Rome and it is
rumoured that several thousand of
them were within a short distance of
the gates of the capital on Saturday.
So far as the information available
goes, it appears that there were
practically no conflicts and that the
revolutionary movement was carried
out without bloodshed. Only at

Migrant carers

Cremona were four Fascisti killed by
troops. At Florence the post and
telegraph offices and the railway
station were occupied. At Sienna the
Fascisti invaded the fort of Santa
Barbara and commandeered rifles
and ammunition. At Piacenza the
police station was seized. In a few
hours the Fascisti were masters of
the situation in Mantua, Southern
Liguria, Pavia, A!essandria, Mortara,
Padua, Vicenza, Parma, and Perugia,
where General del Bono, who was
on the retired list, took command of
the local military garrison, which
obeyed his orders.
Almost everywhere, it seems, the
officers of the Army, whose
sympathy with the Fascisti
movement is well known, have
treated the Fascisti with friendliness
and avoided the use of force, which
explains the success of the coup.
thetimes.co.uk/archive

Gay fans in Qatar
Sir, David Aaronovitch’s column on
the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar
(Oct 27) with regard to its acquisition
and implementation is absolutely
right. His criticism of James Cleverly’s
advice to fans, however, is totally
unjustified. Would he rather the
foreign secretary advise fans of all
sexual predilections to openly flaunt
them and throw in a bit of public
drunkenness for good measure? The
truth is that the World Cup is taking
place in a country with a constitution
and regime totally different from our
own. This was the case in 2010 and is
now. Travelling fans would do well to
follow Mr Cleverly’s advice and, if
they don’t, hope that the Foreign
Office is able to minimise the
consequences of their failure to do so.
John Hawkins
Epsom, Surrey

Tickets go electric
Sir, Ann Treneman suggests leaving
your mobile phone at home when
attending Bob Dylan’s latest concert
(Comment, Oct 28). I’m going to see
him at the Manchester Apollo on
Wednesday, and unfortunately my
eticket for the concert is stored on my
phone along with my train ticket.
Ray Steinberg
Blaydon, Tyne and Wear

Night shift
Sir, Three weeks ago (letter, Oct 8) I
suggested that the hours of street
lighting be reduced as an energysaving measure and gave an example
of my residential estate where the
only beneficiaries of lighting until
2am were cats and the occasional
hedgehog. Tonight I looked out of my
window just after midnight to find all
was in darkness. Such is the awesome
power of the Times letters page.
Brian Parker
Dartmouth, Devon

What’s in a name?
Sir, I agree with Ben Slight (letter,
Oct 28), that calling students by their
surname is disrespectful. However, in
more than 30 years of teaching in
East London, it would have also been
disruptive. In one class I had nine
students with the surname Begum,
four Haques and three Patels. This
was not uncommon.
Tim Kerin
London E7
Sir, In nearly two decades of teaching,
in both the state and private sector, I
have often referred to students by
their surname, prefixing it usually
with Mr or Miss. I have never had a
complaint. It helps to differentiate
between students of the same name.
Furthermore, it ensures you do not
call them by their sibling’s name — a
definite no-no. Respect has nothing to
do with what name a student is called;
it is all in the way in which it is done.
Ben Wolfin
London NW7
Sir, Respect involves rather more
than not using pupils’ surnames. The
present fashion demands casualness
and familiarity but one senses that
civility may well have suffered
somewhat as a result.
I am reminded of a much respected
and admired academy sergeant major
at Sandhurst who, when addressing
new officer cadets for the first time,
said: “I call you Sir and you call me
Sir, but we all know who means it.”
Dr Brian Austin
West Kirby, Wirral

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

29

2GM

Leading articles
Daily Universal Register
UK: Pregnant Then Screwed protest in
London against the rising cost of childcare.
Belgium: Nato holds a nuclear deterrence
exercise involving 14 alliance countries.

Birthdays today
Rufus Sewell, pictured,
actor, The Man in the
High Castle (2015-19), 55;
Lee Child (James Grant),
author, the Jack Reacher
series, 68; Daisy Cooper,
Liberal Democrat MP
for St Albans, deputy
leader of the Liberal Democrats, 41; George
Davies, fashion retailer, 81; Angela Douglas,
actress, the Carry On . . . film series, 82;
Richard Dreyfuss, actor, Jaws (1975), 75;
Baroness (Joyce) Gould of Potternewton,
deputy speaker in the House of Lords (200212), 90; Matthew Hayden, cricketer,
Australia (1994-2009), 51; Kate Jackson,
actress, Charlie’s Angels (1976-81), 74;
Michael Jayston, actor, Zulu Dawn (1979), 87;
Alex Mahon, chief executive, Channel 4, 49;
Dmitry Muratov, journalist, co-recipient of
the Nobel peace prize (2021), 62; Roger
O’Donnell, keyboard player, the Cure, 67;
Emma Parry, co-founder (2007), Help for
Heroes, 63; Matthew Pennycook, Labour
MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, shadow
housing minister, 40; David Remnick,
editor, The New Yorker, 64; Winona Ryder,
actress, Edward Scissorhands (1990), 51;
Frank Sedgman, tennis player, Wimbledon
men’s singles champion (1952), 95; Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia (200618; the first elected female head of state in
Africa), 84; Michael Vaughan, cricketer,
England (1999-2008), captain of the 2005
Ashes-winning team, 48.

Birthdays tomorrow
Courtney Walsh,
pictured, cricketer, West
Indies (1984-2001), 60;
Sir Richard Alston,
choreographer, artistic
director, Richard Alston
Dance Company (199420), 74; Harry Hamlin,
actor, Clash of the Titans (1981), 71; Eddie
Holland, singer-songwriter and record
producer, 83; Jessica Hynes, actress, W1A
(2014), and screenwriter, 50; Claude
Lelouch, film director, Les Uns et les Autres
(1981), 85; Sir Ian McGeechan, rugby union
player, Scotland (1972-79), and coach, 76;
Shlomo Mintz, violinist, 65; Clémence
Poésy, actress, Tenet (2020), 40; Dr Daniel
Poulter, Conservative MP for Central
Suffolk and North Ipswich, 44; Gavin
Rossdale, rock musician, Bush, 57; Mario
Testino, fashion and portrait photographer,
68; Lord (David) Triesman, chairman,
Football Association (2008-10), 79; Timothy
B Schmit, musician, bassist and vocalist for
Poco and Eagles, 75; Matt Skelhon, sport
shooter, Paralympics gold medallist (2008),
38; Juliet Stevenson, actress, Truly, Madly,
Deeply (1990), 66; Irene Tracey,
neuroscientist, 56; Jeppe TranholmMikkelsen, secretary-general, Council of the
European Union (2015-May 2022), 60;
Ivanka Trump, businesswoman, daughter of
and adviser to US president Donald Trump
(2017-21), 41; Bob Wilson, goalkeeper (196374, with Arsenal) and TV presenter (19742003), 81; Henry Winkler, actor, Happy Days
(1974-84), 77.

On this day
In 2003 Iain Duncan Smith resigned as
Conservative Party leader after losing a vote
of confidence by fellow MPs.

The last word
“History is the unfolding of miscalculations.”
Barbara Tuchman, historian, Stilwell and the
American Experience in China (1971)

Duty Calls
Liz Truss’s failure has needlessly tarnished the cause of market liberalism. Rishi
Sunak should unapologetically expound the economic and moral case for low taxes
Tax cuts improve efficiency by removing
economic distortions. If well-designed, they can
help attract entrepreneurs, skilled labour and
good companies and thereby boost national
income. And they serve liberty by allowing households to make more choices with the money they
earn. A conservative approach to public policy
ought to be making these arguments. Unfortunately, the implosion of Liz Truss’s experiment has
put their advocates on the defensive.
Rishi Sunak should even so be expounding the
case for a small state. Official projections are that
the tax burden will by the end of this parliament be
higher than at any time since the Attlee government in the 1940s. Come the next election, there
will be little point in both main parties advocating
big tax-and-spend policies. There is room for only
one, and voters will believe it is Labour.
Ms Truss experimented with big tax cuts with a
ratio of public debt to GDP of around 100 per cent,
however. It is no part of Conservative thinking
that tax cuts, without any reductions in spending
or alternative sources of revenue, will stimulate
growth so much that they will automatically
improve the budget balance. Mr Sunak was
proved right in warning against such naivety.
Even so, Ms Truss was on to something. In her

valedictory speech, she said Britain “cannot afford
to be a low-growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national
wealth”. Mr Sunak should take up this argument,
because it is true. His freedom of manoeuvre is
limited, as unfunded tax cuts would almost certainly damage the public finances and generate inflationary pressures. Markets reacted badly to
Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget because they
feared that outcome. But it is crucial that Mr Sunak break free of the social democratic consensus
that taxing and redistributing is the way to wealth.
Governments levy taxes to provide public
goods, like transport infrastructure, which individuals cannot provide on their own. Beyond this
vital capital spending, however, the presumption
should be that private enterprise is likely to deliver
the goods better and more efficiently than state
bureaucracy. This matters because a government
with an ambitious spending programme competes
with the private sector for scarce capital. As interest rates rise, the risk is that investment will go into
gilts, to pay for state spending, rather than into
businesses that can use it to generate profits and
then pay taxes on those profits.
Labour has shifted since the days of Jeremy Corbyn but it still envisages that taxes on the corpo-

rate sector, not least windfall taxes on energy
giants, and on the wealthy will generate recovery.
Not so, because the state will tend to crowd out the
private sector this way. The better route is to first
secure the public finances and then ease the tax
burden on both individuals and companies
Tax cuts on their own will not stimulate sustainable growth, but allying them with measures to
enhance business investment and productivity
may. Mr Sunak has advanced good ideas along
these lines, especially with his policy of “super
deduction”, allowing companies relief on the
acquisition of plant and machinery. And this is the
way to use the tax system to incentivise investment at the corporate level and, with investment
zones, through regional development too.
Mr Sunak has a precedent to call on. The
Thatcher government in the 1980s had first to
urgently reform a sclerotic economy. It put up
taxes in the middle of a recession, which seemed
counterintuitive but was crucial to cutting public
borrowing and restraining inflation. Then it
embarked on radical tax cuts. It is no surprise that
Lord Lawson, who as chancellor was the author of
those cuts, backed Mr Sunak for the leadership.
The new prime minister should leave voters in no
doubt that this is the approach he favours.

China and the Pope
The Vatican renewal of an agreement with Beijing sends the wrong message
The renewal of a secret deal between China and
the Vatican could not have come at a less opportune moment. It comes days after the Chinese
communist party congress confirmed the grip
President Xi Jinping now has over the party and
country; at a time also when the persecution of the
Uighur Muslims in western China has drawn global condemnation; and days before the reopening
of the trial of a former Roman Catholic Bishop of
Hong Kong for helping to fund the legal costs of
pro-democracy activists in the territory. To many,
this smacks of appeasement by the Vatican.
The original provisional agreement, signed in
2018, was intended to unify China’s 12 million
Catholics. For some years they have been split
between those in the underground church, who
have refused to recognise any role for the Chinese
state in the appointment of bishops, and the “patriotic church”, founded in 1957 under communist
party auspices, which appoints bishops without
reference to Rome who are clearly seen as more
amenable to the state’s control of religion.
In recent years the persecution of the underground church has intensified. Priests have been

forced to work in factories or as farmers. Many of
the bishops are under house arrest or in prison.
Only four new bishops have been appointed, leaving 40 vacancies to fill. And Catholics who refuse
to register with the official church suffer daily petty persecution, such as the denial of a phone app
needed to pay for many transactions.
Pope Francis has attempted to start a dialogue
with the Chinese authorities in the hope that this
would relieve the pressure on the defiant Catholics. Vatican officials point to the comparison with
the talks with the rulers of eastern Europe in the
early days of communism, when the Vatican
turned a blind eye to the militantly atheist propaganda and programmes affecting all churches.
There seems to be the naive hope that any dialogue with China is better than none, although the
fruits of the provisional accord have been meagre.
There has been no let up in persecution, and no
more than four bishops have been appointed,
nominally under the Vatican’s authority.
The Vatican seems to have overlooked two fundamental principles of Chinese communism: that
no outside body should have more power over the

lives of Chinese citizens than the communist state;
and that China will always seek to dictate terms of
any international agreement in its favour.
Another factor has also come into play: the growing confrontation between China and the West.
The Vatican’s support for the Uighurs, though
hardly vocal, has infuriated Beijing. And its attempt to distance itself from US policy has been
dismissed in China as window-dressing while appearing feeble elsewhere. The Pope’s comment in
June that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” appeared to blame the
victims rather than the perpetrators of aggression.
The trial of Cardinal Zen, now 90, is a deliberate
attempt to intimidate the Church and a signal that
any support for Hong Kong’s struggling democrats will be punished. To renew a one-sided
agreement between the Vatican and Beijing at this
juncture sends the worst possible message to
Christians everywhere struggling to assert human
dignity and freedom, two key pillars of Roman
Catholic theology. The Pope may think he is making a necessary compromise to help Christians.
Instead, he is becoming party to a grubby deal.

Unwise Counsel
The Dukes of York and Sussex should not be able to deputise for the King
The Regency Act of 1937 allows for five people to
stand in for the monarch. They are the monarch’s
spouse and the four heirs in line of succession who
are aged over 21. In his or her majesty’s absence
through illness or travel, these counsellors of state
can sign documents, receive ambassadors, attend
meetings of the Privy Council and perform other
official duties. His status as a counsellor was what
enabled Charles, then the Prince of Wales, to open
the present session of parliament in his mother’s
absence in May.
Since the accession of King Charles III in
September, the five counsellors are: Queen

Camilla, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Sussex,
the Duke of York and his daughter, Princess
Beatrice. The unsatisfactory nature of this list is
obvious. As was pointed out in the House of
Lords last week, three of the five are not working
royals. Moreover, one of those three lives abroad
and is about to publish a memoir likely to
be highly disobliging towards his father, while a
second exists in a state of enduring disgrace and is
one of the least respected public figures in the
kingdom.
Officials say there are no circumstances in
which either Prince Harry or his uncle might be

called upon to deputise for King Charles. Yet with
the prospect of overseas tours for both the King
and his heir next year, it is conceivable that the
public presence or signature of one or other duke
becomes necessary.
Such an outcome would not, to put it mildly, be
desirable. The pool of eligible counsellors must be
expanded to include as many substitutes as
deemed sufficient to avoid calling up the troublesome twosome. At a minimum, provision should
be made for the Princess Royal and the Earl of
Wessex to be able to step in. The act must be
amended, and soon.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

30

Write to Feedback by emailing
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

Comment

Think twice
before mixing
your metaphors
Rose
Wild
Feedback
@timesfeedback

‘H

ow infinite,” wrote
Winston Churchill, “is
the debt owed to
metaphors by politicians
who want to speak
strongly but are not sure what they
are going to say.”
We’ve been finding out just how
infinite that debt is in recent weeks,
and it is not only politicians who are
in the frame. After the squillionth
reference in our pages to the
“black hole in the public finances” —
£40 billion, £70 billion, take your
pick — Damian Boddy of Bradford
has had enough. “The use of
metaphors can enrich language and
aid understanding, but not when

used ad nauseam. The chancellor of
the exchequer is not a physicist: his
problem is not a putative black hole,
but simply a deficit.”
Fair point. The style guide warns
us that metaphors should not be
horribly mixed, or absurdly
elaborate, or so familiar that they
have become clichés. The black hole
may have been a compelling image
at the start of this debacle but
perhaps it has done its work and we
should return to cold facts.
The same criticism might be held
against “defenestration”. Stephen
Penny wrote to say that “Times
writers seem addicted to this dubious
buzzword”, and it is true that Boris
Johnson’s departure from office is
routinely portrayed as a sharp
ejection through an upstairs window.
Perhaps it’s time to let him walk
away again, however unwillingly.
Some recent metaphors have been
more apposite than others. Teddy
Chabo wrote to Feedback while our
erstwhile prime minister was still

clinging on: “There’s been a flurry of
headlines and quotes talking about
the ‘wagons circling’ for Liz Truss,
which apparently was a quote from a
‘source close to’ Kwasi Kwarteng,
after his demise — ‘His view is that
the wagons are still going to circle’.”
Surely, says Mr Chabo, if enemies
are getting ready for the kill, it is
sharks or vultures that circle, not
wagons. “Wagons circling are just a
cowboy’s version of what the Boers
called laagering up, and what the
British do in the film Zulu. Circling
the wagons is a defensive activity to
protect one’s camp.” I doubt Liz
Truss had enough wagons in her
camp to form a circle.
More a simile than a metaphor, the
depiction in Wednesday’s political
sketch of Michael Gove popping up
“like an anchorite returning from the
wilderness” prompted a protest from
Brian Hodgkinson of Nottingham.
Anchorites, he says, didn’t live in
the wilderness. “They were
symbolically walled up inside
churches or monasteries — at the
centre of the community. It was the
hermits who lived solitary lives,
originally in the deserts of Egypt.”
I’m sure he’s right, but somehow
the image of Gove as a hermit just
doesn’t ring true.

interest,” he writes, “I find myself
questioning the information
provided alongside the names and
ages of the musicians of my youth.
Why are some simply listed as
‘musician’ or guitarist, vocalist,
drummer, while others have an
example of their art attached?”
The variation may be explained
either by the available space or, in
some cases, the musician having had
a complicated career, moving from
one band to another without any
outstandingly obvious hit to focus
on. Old fans love to get into disputes
about what constitutes the summit of
their idol’s career.
I’ve long held that getting into
arguments with the birthdays
column is a sign of age, rather like
checking the deceased’s age at the
end of obituaries. Mr Sproson gave a
clue to his vintage with a lengthy
critique of our entry for Manfred
Mann. “And what about Micky
Dolenz, listed as the lead singer of
the Monkees. What would Davy
Jones have made of that?”
Sadly he’s not around to tell us.
Perhaps we should have said “the
only surviving member” of the band,
but that might have cast rather a
damper on what, after all, is meant to
be a celebratory part of the paper.

For the ages

Cut it out

B

ob Sproson writes from
Cambridge to say that he is
fascinated by the birthdays
column. This is good news — up to a
point. As always, there is a caveat.
“Given my age and personal

T

wo annoying words this week,
the first from John Birkhead, of
Weedon, Northamptonshire. “In
your report on cancelled operations,
‘surgeries’ and ‘operations’ were used
interchangeably, and ‘procedures’

thrown in for good measure. Apart
from the use of three words where
one would suffice, the word
‘operation’ in the context of medicine
in this country is sufficient to mean a
procedure carried out by a surgeon.
‘Surgeries’ in this context is a
redundant transatlantic infelicity.”
Not to mention a classic example
of inelegant variation. Mark
Chambers found a euphemism to be
irritated by. “I’ve noticed several
times that short breaks in internet
or electricity supplies are referred to
as ‘outages’. Please stop this at once.
What’s wrong with ‘power cuts’?”
I won’t answer that.

Mea culpa

A

reader pointed out last week
that I was wrong to say that
the hangman Albert
Pierrepoint was involved with
executions after the Nuremberg
trials. “He did, however, hang a large
number of Nazi war criminals,
including those responsible for
atrocities at Belsen.”
A faulty memory, for which I
apologise. I also had an email from
an old publishing colleague, Bill
Bucknall, who remembered the sales
conference where Pierrepoint
presented his autobiography to the
reps. The hushed silence that greeted
Pierrepoint’s speech was, Bill says,
not so much caused by the solemnity
of his subject matter, as I’d assumed,
but by a warning from management
that any attempted levity in the
audience would result in the instant
dismissal of the rep concerned.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

31

Comment

A

h, Leaky S . . . sorry, home
secretary. Welcome to
MI5. Again.
Congratulations on your
appointment. Again.
Thanks for coming in at such short
notice. Again. All routine, you
understand. Nothing to do with that
little local difficulty last week. No, no.
So we emailed you an agenda for
this seminar on handling sensitive
information ahead of time. I trust
you picked it up. Mmm? Yes. We did.
To your work email. Not
sue_ella_4_lyf@hotmail.com, but the
one you’re supposed to use for work.
Fine. Well, we’ve printed you a
copy here. It’s full of advice on how
to avoid a repeat of your, ahem,
inadvertent breach of our protocols.
Multiple choice. Shouldn’t be too
tricky. No, you really can’t take a
picture of that. I don’t care if you’ve
already promised the ERG

WhatsApp group a copy. Phone away.
And that one. Just a pen will do.
1. Your officials have sent you a
policy document on immigration
marked OFFICIAL SENSITIVE. Its
contents could move the markets
ahead of next month’s fiscal
statement. Do you:
a) Read the document before your
next cabinet meeting before ensuring
it is filed appropriately. You respect the
security classification and decide not
to discuss it outside the department.
b) Instruct your special adviser to
call the home affairs editor of The
Times with a description of its
contents.
c) Immediately forward the email
to yourself, several colleagues, their
wives, children, pets and neighbours.
You can’t remember their names but
that doesn’t necessarily matter. It’ll
reach them eventually.
2. During a meeting with your

MI5 has set a
special secrecy
test. No, home
secretary, you
can’t use
a phone
Patrick
Maguire

French counterpart, you are drawn
into a testy exchange about the cost
of policing the English Channel.
They suggest the Home Office
should pay another £50 million
towards the costs incurred. Do you:
a) Respectfully end the discussion
and tell the French delegation that
you will seek advice from the
Treasury before committing to a
solution. You write to the chancellor
to seek a financial settlement.
b) Respectfully end the discussion
and tell the French delegation that
you will seek advice from the
Treasury before committing to a
solution. You then instruct your
special adviser to call the Daily Mail
and relay that the meeting ended in
a shouting match, that the French
minister was eating tofu and that
the Treasury is refusing to pay up.
c) Pass a recording of the
meeting to Andrew Bridgen.

3. You receive an email on your
personal account. The estate of a
distant relative in Monaco is offering
you £150 million in Bitcoin and an
iPad mini if you reply within 24 hours
to verify your bank details. Do you:
a) Delete the email immediately
and alert the security services.
b) Wait until you reach the Home
Office so that you can read the email
on your big monitor. In the meantime
you WhatsApp a screenshot to
colleagues and brief The Daily
Telegraph with news of your windfall.
c) Despite already owning an iPad
mini, you reply immediately with
your bank details so as not to miss
this exciting opportunity.
If you answered mostly C, well done.
Rishi Sunak is pleased to confirm your
appointment as secretary of state for
the home department.
Matt Chorley is away

Exploding the myth of wartime stiff upper lip
Trauma of fighting in the Second World War remains a peculiar taboo because its heroism is so woven into our identity
RORY MULVEY/KUDOS/BBC; ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

Ben
Macintyre

@benmacintyre1

‘T

he boy Stirling is mad.
Quite mad,” Field
Marshal Montgomery
observed of the young
officer who founded the
SAS in 1941. “However, in war there
is often a place for mad people.”
Rogue Heroes, the BBC adaptation
of my book about the wartime SAS,
amply reflects that martial madness,
with scenes of reckless courage that
seem close to insanity, while being
firmly based on reality. As the series
creator Steven Knight observed at
the premiere this week, some of the
fighting in the north African desert
in the early days of the SAS was
simply too outlandish to be depicted
on screen: “They would go and do
these mad things . . . and I thought,
no one will believe that.”
Some of the first SAS soldiers,
notably Lieutenant Blair “Paddy”
Mayne, were recruited precisely
because they were unstable, unruly
and prone to extreme violence.
Mayne’s behaviour was sometimes
close to psychotic. Several of the early
SAS recruits exhibited increasing
irrationality and symptoms of mental
illness, as the strain of a particularly
brutal form of warfare took a toll.
And many were permanently
damaged by the experience. War
may have found a place for them, in
Monty’s words, but peace did not.
Some, including Stirling and Mayne,
took refuge in alcohol after the war.
Few were able to hold down steady
jobs and lasting relationships. Bill
Fraser, one of the bravest of the
“originals”, became homeless and
disappeared. Mayne died in 1955,
after drunkenly driving his car into
a farm vehicle.
After the book came out, I received
numerous letters from family
members of former SAS soldiers,
describing the hell of living with men
deeply traumatised by their service in
the special forces. “I now understand
why Dad was the way he was,” wrote

Rogue Heroes tells the story of the SAS’s first recruits, many of whom were
damaged by the experience; right, POWs after the Dieppe raid, August 1942

one woman. “I can now forgive him.”
This is the other side of warfare, too
often hidden behind the mythology: it
produces heroes, but at a
psychological cost. Soldiers are just as
vulnerable to mental illness as
civilians, but exposed in war to levels
of emotional stress far beyond what
the rest of us will ever experience.
In 1915, a young doctor called
Charles Myers noted a pattern of
trauma among returning soldiers
which he called “shell shock”.
Hitherto, such symptoms had largely
been dismissed as “predisposing
weakness” or “a want of manly
spirit”. Freud noted that treatment
of shocked soldiers was not intended
to improve their mental health but
simply to turn them back into
fighting men. Many battlefield
injuries were invisible: of the
estimated 300,000 men injured at
the Somme, up to 40 per cent
exhibited symptoms of shell shock.
There is now a growing awareness
of the mental damage linked to
active military service. A recent

study by Psychiatric Times found
that almost a third of the two
million troops deployed to wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered
from some clinically significant
mental condition, notably
post-traumatic stress disorder, with
complications of suicide, addiction
and domestic or other violence.

Soldiers returned
unable to talk about
their mental scars
Veterans are more than twice as likely
to commit suicide as their peers in the
civilian population. According to the
Ministry of Justice, former soldiers
represent between 4 per cent and 5
per cent of the UK prison population.
The NHS offers “Op Courage”, a
specialist mental health service for
veterans, serving personnel,
reservists and their families.
Yet the psychological impact of
fighting in the Second World War

remains
i a peculiar
liar taboo
taboo. Perhaps
because that conflict is so closely
wound into our national identity, it is
assumed that upper lips were
somehow stiffer during that war than
either the first war or subsequent
conflicts. The statistic that fewer
people were admitted to psychiatric
hospitals in 1940 than 1939 is
frequently cited as evidence that
Britain survived the Blitz mentally
unscathed, keeping calm and
carrying on.
That war saw a revival of the idea
that only the weak suffered mental
strain during conflict. “We are not
anything like as tough as we were in
the last war,” complained Field
Marshal Alan Brooke, chief of the
general staff and Churchill’s foremost
military adviser. “There has been far
too much luxury.”
In 1940 the psychologist Edward
Glover published The Psychology of
Fear and Courage, a Penguin

paperback arguing that a firm pat on
the shoulder and a nice packet of
biscuits would conquer mental
distress: “We can deal with Fifth
Columnists in our own minds, with
the uncertainties and timidities that
are ready to pounce on firmness of
purpose and destroy it.”
Traumatised soldiers returning
from battle were described as
“exhausted” rather than “shell
shocked”, a term considered too
medical, suggesting infirmity rather
than a temporary state of fatigue.
Psychological or psychiatric
treatment at the front was minimal: at
most a sedative to aid sleep and a few
words of reassurance.
More than 170,000 British prisoners
were captured by German and Italian
forces but the emotional impact of
imprisonment was usually ignored.
PoWs returning from the Far East
were given help to find work
but no treatment for the
b
psychological trauma they had
p
eendured. Colditz, the most
famous PoW camp of all, saw
fa
widespread mental health
w
problems, including several
p
ssuicides and an attempted
sself-castration. These accounts
were excluded from postwar
w
aaccounts of life inside the castle.
Mental illness was still
unmentionable
and many
u
British wartime veterans therefore
did not mention it, let alone treat it.
A generation of soldiers returned
unable and unwilling to talk about
the mental scars they carried, with
profound long-term consequences
for them and those around them.
There is a telling moment in the
opening episode of Rogue Heroes
where Jock Lewes, one of the
regiment’s founders played by Alfie
Allen, sends his men into vicious
hand-to-hand combat with the
words: “Remember this . . . your
mother is not watching.”
That was true. But mothers were
watching, powerless, along with wives,
girlfriends, children and others, when
such men returned home with deep
psychological wounds, condemned to
fight a very different sort of battle
inside their own minds.
SAS Rogue Heroes begins on BBC One
tomorrow at 9pm

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

32

Comment
weekend essay

Rishi Sunak’s
rise is a quiet
triumph for
British Indians
For many of those who share his ethnic background, the
ascendancy of a practising Hindu to prime minister is their
victory too — the culmination of waves of migration that
have helped shape modern Britain, writes Trevor Phillips

L

ast week a remarkable new entry appeared in
Wikipedia. Headed “List of ethnic minority
prime ministers of the United Kingdom in the
House of Commons”, it consists of just one
name: the Conservative MP for Richmond,
Yorkshire, Rishi Sunak. It identifies his ethnicity as
“British Indian”. Perhaps the elderly lady in sari and
shawl who greeted me boisterously in the local Pret
A Manger on Tuesday had read it. In any event she
was determined not to be ignored.
“Have you congratulated our new prime minister,
Trevor?” she called out. Turning to her companions at
the corner table, she said: “He’ll have to have Rishi on
his programme now.” I smiled weakly. There seemed
little point in admitting that 24 hours earlier his team
had turned down the invitation to appear on our
weekly audience debate programme. “Still waiting for
him to drop by, auntie-ji,” I said.
But her emphasis left no doubt that “our” carried a
double meaning. Yes, Sunak would be Britain’s third
leader this year, but long before he became the whole
nation’s property he had been claimed by Indianheritage Britons. For those who share his ethnic
background, the ascendancy of a practising Hindu is
their triumph. The odd sourpuss grumbling that a
multimillionaire Tory former public schoolboy should
hardly be counted as truly Asian has largely been
drowned out by the cheers. But for the rest of us, what
does the background of the new occupant of No 10 tell
us about what is to come for the UK as a whole?
One thing is already clear. Britons to whom nonChristian festivals seem as marginal as Morris dancing
will need to mark some additions to their calendars.
This week the Diwali diya tealights were lit at No 10,
the colourful rangoli patterns drawn on the pavement.
The feeling that at last the tables were being turned
on the old masters has spread across the Indian
diaspora. But open triumphalism is not the
Hindu way. There are only two countries outside
the Indian Ocean where people of Indian origin
represent the largest ethnic group: Guyana, and
neighbouring Trinidad; 40 and 35 per cent of
the population respectively. My own relatives
in both countries report a sense of quiet pride
about Sunak among communities whose habit
is to be modest and reserved.
Elsewhere in the diaspora, there will be
more intense feelings, with good reason. This
year marks the 50th anniversary of the
expulsion of Asians from Idi Amin’s Uganda,
after an exodus from Kenya that began in the late
1960s. I imagine in Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es
Salaam the feelings of communal achievement are
even more pronounced. There, both African

persecution and British prejudice are baked into Asian
dinner-table conversation. This version of the
expulsion from Eden fuels insecurity in a community
that still feels it might be rejected wherever it turns.
The rise of this generation in Britain at last holds out
hope that perhaps there is a place that they might,
with confidence, once again call home.
Joy at Sunak’s elevation is no mindless racial
attachment. Hinduism is probably the world’s most
heterodox major religion, with no prescriptive texts, and
hundreds of prophets and deities to choose from. Yet its
followers take pride in the boy from Southampton’s
embodiment of the virtues they most admire: a stable
family life, personal studiousness and self-discipline.
They approve of his choice of a steady profession —
banking — his first-rate education, and point out to
their children that he can read a spreadsheet while
pedalling his Peloton.
It won’t matter to them that he’s rich. Most would be
puzzled by the focus on his public-school background
— head boy at Winchester — or marriage into the
Indian plutocracy. On the contrary, writing in The
Spectator, the cultural critic Samir Shah points out that
among Hindus’ four ruling tenets are artha (wealth)
and dharma (duty). Acquisitiveness is admired as long
as it’s accompanied by the instinct to share your good
fortune with others. Anyone puzzled by Sunak’s entry
into the pointless bearpit of politics will see it as a way
of balancing the burden of his family’s great wealth.
Of course, not all people of Indian heritage are

Rishi Sunak and his wife
Akshata Murty; top right,
Jayaben Desai, leader of
the strikers in the 1976
Grunwick dispute. Below:
Goodness Gracious Me
playfully explored BritishIndian stereotypes. Right:
Tory MP Mancherjee
Bhownaggree and the
cricketer KS Ranjitsinhji

rejoicing. The subcontinent is a big place with the
world’s second largest population and its diversity is
legendary. Kolkata’s genteel Bengali intellectuals and
Bangalore’s brisk Tamil digital entrepreneurs see their
world very differently; and they both have little in
common with Mumbai’s hustling Gujarati merchant
class. Though Sunak seems an unlikely bedfellow
for the extremists who stand behind the nationalist
prime minister Narendra Modi, Britain’s million
and a half Pakistani and Bangladeshi-heritage
Muslims will be wary.
Even the phrase “British Indian” encompasses a
multitude. There are at least three separate stories that
can be told of this community’s presence in Britain.
Until the 19th century most of Britain, if it thought of
Indians at all, would have regarded them as shadowy,
exotic figures below stairs in wealthy households.
Occasionally a sinister character would cross the
pages of a novel. In Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë is
obscure about Heathcliff’s origins; the closest we get is
that the child is picked up in the streets of Liverpool,
probably the offspring of some “Lascar” — Asian —
sailor, an impression reinforced by Nelly’s later
speculation about his dark complexion: “Who knows
but that . . . your mother was an Indian queen?”
Three non-white MPs sat in parliament before the
Great War, one for each of the Conservative, Labour and
Liberal parties. All of them hailed from Mumbai’s Parsi
community. The longest serving, Sir Mancherjee
Bhownaggree, was a distant relative of my first wife’s
family; he represented Bethnal Green as a Conservative
for ten years from 1895. A supporter of British rule, he
was inevitably lampooned as Sir “Bow-and-Agree”.
But it was an Indian cricketer who probably most
powerfully shaped the image of Indians in Britain a

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

33

Comment
N10 DOWNING STREET HANDOUT; GETTY IMAGES

century ago. Colonel HH Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji
II graduated from Cambridge and played cricket for
England from 1896 to 1902; the writer Neville Cardus
called his batting “the midsummer night’s dream”. A
generation of schoolboys, reading the Billy Bunter
stories, would have met a fictionalised version of
Ranjitsinhji in Hurree Jamset Ram Singh, the Nabob of
Bhanipur. On the one hand, Singh spoke the comedy
English “as taught by my learned and preposterous
native tutors in Bhanipur”; on the other, he showed a
tidy pair of fists to a bully who called him “n*****”.
Few would have encountered these exotic creatures
in the flesh, but their stereotype dominated the image
of British Indians until the postwar arrival of workers
from Punjab, Gujarat and Bengal. Many came from the
enormous Indian rail network with the skills to expand
Britain’s ageing infrastructure. Others filled gaps in
manufacturing and textiles. West London saw an influx
of workers at the burgeoning airport at Heathrow. The
Indian Workers’ Association, born largely at the
instigation of transplants from the powerful trade union
movement in India, presented a very different prospect
to the maharajah class of the previous century.
By the 1970s, Southall in west London, Leicester and
much of the northwest had become strongholds for
both wings of the labour movement, industrial and
political. The industrial confrontation at the Grunwick
film processing factory in north London pitted the old
against the new in a battle for union recognition. Eighty
per cent of the workers were Asian women, led by a
Gujarati firebrand, Jayaben Desai, and supported by
Labour politicians, including cabinet ministers. The
owner, George Ward, himself the son of a New Delhi
accountant, was backed by the Conservative opposition
and the National Association for Freedom.

“

The rise of this
generation in
Britain at last
holds out hope
that perhaps
there is a
place that they
might, with
confidence,
once again
call home

As a student activist, I
spent
several months
s
during
the two-year
d
dispute
on the picket
d
line
l myself; the local
union
leader, Jack
u
Dromey,
later a
D
Birmingham
MP, used
B
to
t joke that if I brought
the
t students he’d
provide
the megaphone.
p
In
I the end, the strikers
were compelled back to
w
work;
the moral victory
w
they
won in the court
t
of
o public opinion
hardly
compensated for
h
the defeat. Desai blamed the unions and the party for a
lack of resolve; many of the workers suspected that had
they not been Asian, they would have had greater
support. It was the start of a flagging of enthusiasm for
left-wing politics among Hindu Asians.
There was another factor in the change of sentiment
among British Indians: the arrival of a huge cohort of
Indian heritage families fleeing persecution in east
Africa. This is the start of the real back story of the
third wave of British Indians, of whom Sunak is only
the most prominent. The new prime minister’s parents
came to England from Kenya and Tanzania; Priti
Patel’s family hailed from Uganda; Suella
Braverman’s from Kenya and Mauritius.
The historical origins of these families are
re
integral to their political destination. For
much of the past two centuries, the
British Empire functioned as a great
labour market machine, with London
deliberately transferring bodies and skills
across the globe to fuel the growth of our
economy. For example, after the
abolition of slavery, tens of thousands of
indentured labourers were shipped to the
Caribbean to cut cane and grow rice, givingg
rise to more than half a million descendants,
ts,
principally in Guyana and Trinidad.
Though I was born in London, I spent most of
my childhood living in a village on the edgee of
Georgetown, Guyana, side by side with Hindu
d IIndians.
di
Across the road, the Persaud boys, Albert, Eddie and
Ivan, would herd their cows to and fro every morning.
The Ganges next door entertained the street with their
neverending rows about money. And several times a
week, we struggled through the crowds of women,
down from the countryside to sell their fruit and fish,
laid out in glistening rows in the local market.
Like many across the empire, the school I attended,
though free, was modelled on English public schools.
Admission was highly sought after; boys would
compete from across the country for places at
Queen’s College. It was a given that Indian boys
would shine, particularly in the sciences. Even
now the top student in the Caribbean equivalent
of the A-level exams frequently hails from QC —
but these days she is more likely than not to be
an Indian heritage girl.
The experience of living away from home
in countries where they were no longer in
the majority changed these sons and
daughters of India. In the subcontinent,
some had acted as what Marxists like to
call a comprador class — in essence the
local agents of the imperial power. In east
Africa they put their ability to manage
trading relationships to work, becoming
successful shopkeepers and merchants.
Yet unlike in the Caribbean, the
Indians in Africa were never going
to be numerous enough to
wield political power,
so they also learnt to
keep themselves to
themselves, largely to
stay out of politics
and to make their
growing wealth inconspicuous. For many decades
the strategy worked; but in the long term
invisibility became untenable. Accusations of
landlordism and wealth hoarding flew as nationalists
gained ground. Raw African political muscle —
sometimes, as in Uganda, expressed brutally — led to
seizure of the assets and expulsion.
The third wave of Indian migrants turned up in
Britain with virtually no possessions. But they
brought a bucketload of what the social scientists
might call social capital. In English this translates
into a readiness to (in Sunak’s famous phrase) do

whatever it takes to succeed, eschewing short-term
rewards for longer-term gains. And they have
prospered, not only in politics but in business.
It is now commonplace to observe that the success of
several British Indian business empires was founded on
a willingness to work in ways that others would not.
For example, before the Indians came, supermarkets
would close early and never open on Sundays. It was
competition from corner shops willing to open all
hours that eventually forced the 1994 change in the
law, rescuing some of our big chains from extinction.
This is not a specifically British phenomenon. In the
US, Indians have flourished mightily. Starbucks has just
appointed a new Indian-heritage boss, to join his
co-ethnic corporate bosses at Google, Microsoft,
Adobe, IBM, FedEx, Barclays and Chanel, among
others. There is a political scenario in which the 2024
presidential election sees a contest between
Vice-President Kamala Harris and former Trump-era
ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, respectively
descendants of Tamil and Punjabi immigrants. Most
would say that they owe much to their families’
willingness to sacrifice everything else — holidays,
bigger homes, new cars — in order to provide a
first-rate education in the notoriously expensive
American university system.
What may be unique about the British Indians is
that paradoxically their prosperity owes much to their
African experience. The American author Amy
Hymn of the Tiger Mother) in her
Chua (Battle
(Ba
book The
T Triple Package argues that
successful
immigrant groups are imbued
succe
with a combination of three traits: a
profound
belief in their own cultural
pro
uniqueness,
strong impulse control and
un
crucially
an abiding sense of insecurity.
cr
There is little doubt that Indians all
over
ov the world share the first two
qualities.
In building wealth through
qu
self-denial
and saving, delaying
sel
gratification
counts. The contrast between
gra
the cautious Sunak and the swashbuckling
Kwarteng
may not in itself be proof of
Kwar
anything;
anythi but they tell a story that may one
day
backed up by evidence.
day be ba
But the third
thir element of the triple package — a
well-founded
ll f
d d sense of insecurity — is probably
peculiar to British Hindus. Critics of Sunak, Patel
and Braverman carp that they do not understand
racism and care little for the vulnerable. Actually, if
you have grown up hearing the stories of severed
heads in a dictator’s fridge, with the threat that your
grandparents’ might join them, you have a pretty good
idea of what existential fear feels like. British Indians
know what it is like to be menaced and dispossessed,
only to find yourself in a hostile land where nobody
much wants you. If you’ve survived Idi Amin, being
called the “P-word” by a spotty teenager doesn’t
seem so threatening. Most crucially, Africa taught
the Indians a lesson that turned them into
instinctive Thatcherite Tories: that you simply
cannot rely on the state to protect and support
you if you are in a minority.
In Sunak, Britain has found an almost
perfect avatar for the Indian third wave’s
long path to security. His leadership will
complete the migration of Britain’s million
and a half Indians towards the
Conservatives. Their votes are distributed
widely enough to influence results in
marginal constituencies.
Sunak may also surprise us with the
stances he takes on some issues. For
example, the disproportionate impact of
Covid among south Asian households
showed that many Indian heritage
families, whatever their wealth, preferred to
keep their elderly or infirm relatives close to
home. I can certainly see our new prime
minister appealing to Britons to think more
about what families can do for themselves.
More immediately, the absence of concern
about his ethnicity in the country at large
reveals something completely unexpected.
Electorates tend to be comfortable with
politicians whose characters they recognise.
Nicola Sturgeon is redoubtable and sharptongued. People tolerated Boris Johnson
because we imagined him to be the type of
Englishman who hides his intellect and steel
behind a clown’s mask.
I think that in Rishi Sunak we see a
completely new archetype — the clever Asian
boy
b who’s decent, earnest and good with numbers.
And this model is ours, completely made in Britain.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

34

News
ws
UESLEI MARCELINO/REUTERS

UK-funded project will
pump carbon dioxide at
trees to help forecast
the rainforest’s future,
reports Adam Vaughan
Perched 40 metres above Manaus all
the eye can see is a mosaic of verdant
rainforest beneath plumes of water
vapour streaking skyward.
But 12 miles from the ZF-2 weather
tower two futuristic structures are
rising out of the canopy. Their purpose:
to determine if this lush Amazon landscape is facing an existential crisis.
Many observers see tomorrow’s
Brazilian general election as a fork in
the road for a rainforest in which deforestation has soared to a 15-year high
under President Bolsonaro.
If he beats his left-wing rival Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva it would probably
speed the rate at which the forest nears
a threshold that scientists have warned
could lead to a runaway collapse of the
Amazon. Such a loss would be disastrous for international efforts to rein-in
rapidly rising global temperatures.
For three decades researchers have
been modelling how the forest could
end up in a vicious circle that transforms it into savannah because clearances and rising temperatures unravel
how the ecosystem creates the wet
weather that sustains it. Efforts are now
intensifying on the ground to see if a
threshold is nearing.
“We are likely to be close to the tipping point, independent of whether
someone goes there with a chainsaw or
not,” Carlos Alberto Quesada, at
Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), said. According to
his modelling, rising levels of CO2 in the
atmosphere will cause the Amazon to
lock away a growing amount of carbon
in the future, because the CO2 will
boost photosynthesis. But observations
show the opposite, with the amount of
carbon being locked away declining.
One possible reason is trees suffering
from heat stress and drought.
Funded by the UK, the two birdcagelike rings under construction are an
attempt to explain this puzzle. Once
ready for testing by February, 16 towers

in each ring surrounding about 70 trees
will pump CO2 towards them to simulate the effects of climate change.
Eventually, Quesada’s AmazonFace
project will have six rings: half with elevated CO2, and half as a control. In a
decade’s time, data on how the trees
respond will make better models. The
results will offer an unprecedented prediction of the rainforest’s future, and
how rapidly the world will heat up. “It’s
of global significance,” Quesada said.
The hypothesis of an Amazon tipping point began with Carlos Nobre, of
Sao Paulo University, in 1991. In 2000 a
UK team showed that climate change
could combine with deforestation to
increase the likelihood.
This year observations from satellite
data showed that large tracts of the forest are now bouncing back more slowly
from disturbances, such as logging.
That was interpreted as an early sign
the Amazon is edging closer to a
potentially fatal threshold. The forest
around Manaus in the state of Amazo-

My night
in the thick
of nature
Adam Vaughan
Environment Editor
Camp 41, Amazonas

I

t started with being
handed shin guards
to protect against
snakes. But as the
Brazilian ecologists
marched into the thick of
the Amazon rainforest by
night, they added to my
list of fears. Venomous
spiders. Poisonous plants.
Oh, and they had found a
scorpion.
Camp 41, the renowned
research base north of
the city of Manaus in
Amazonas state, is named
for the number of
kilometres it lies from a

Indigenous people in a deforested area of Amazonas state. Some parts in southern regions are now net carbon emitters

Deforestation in the Amazon
Lula as president

000s

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
15 2020

Bolsanaro

Area in square
kilometres
1990 95

00

Rio Negro
ZF-2
tower

05

Camp 41

Manaus
50 miles

10

Source: PRODES via TerraBrasilis

British bid to
predict how
long Amazon
can survive

BRAZIL

Amazon River

nas is not showing the level of dryingout seen in what is known as the “arc of
deforestation”, where parts of the
southern states Pará and Mato Grosso
have already become net emitters of
carbon rather than net sponges. How-

paved road to the west.
By night the soundscape
is a reminder that
Earth’s largest
rainforest holds a
dizzyingly rich array
of life. A lake of frogs
supplies a bubbling
chorus, howler
monkeys boom in the
distance and crickets,
d,
some as long as my hand,
provide a constant
backdrop.
There is still much to
discover. “This fungus is
probably new,” says
Professor Thiago Kloss,
of the Federal University
of Viçosa, as he shows me
a yellow mess emerging
from a spider underneath
a leaf — a “zombie
spider”: infected,
controlled and finally
killed by the fungus that
ordered it here to spread.
It is taken away for study.
The researchers
measure trees for hours.
Finally, we trudge back to

ever, Quesada has noticed a longer dry
season in places, and more extremes
from year to year, with unusually heavy
rainfall one year and drought in
another. “Things are changing, we can
feel things changing,” he said.
A longer dry season also aids cattle
ranchers and others illegally deforesting the Amazon. They typically use
chains between tractors to pull trees
over, and leave them until they are dry
enough to burn. This can only happen
in the dry season.
Vanda Witoto,33, a nurse in an impoverished neighbourhood on the edge
of Manaus, recently campaigned to be a
candidate in Brazil’s election. She failed, but while canvassing she saw much
deforestation in southern Amazonas,
which she believes was driven by farms
and mines. “All in all, we fight this,” she
said.
Fifty miles to the north of Manaus,
Quesada’s colleague Rita Mesquita has
been monitoring how weather is
changing the forest. Near a research

the camp that makes this
research possible, despite
President Bolsonaro
cutting federal university
budgets by 90 per cent.
Even deep in the
rainforest, politics loom
large. “Science would be
dead,” Thairine Pereira,
at the Federal University
of Minas Gerais, said of
the prospect of Bolsonaro
winning another term
tomorrow.
Camp 41 was founded
in 1979 by Thomas

Lov
Lovejoy,
the US
con
conservationist
whose
infl
influence
is still being felt
tod almost a year
today,
af his death. In
after
D
December
nearly 140
c
countries
will meet for
a UN summit in
C
Canada
to hash out a
ne global deal to arrest
new
nat
nature’s
decline by 2030.
In Amazonas, Lovejoy’s
lega is a base with
legacy
bet amenities than
better
ma British campsites
many
i has flushing
— it
lavatories and a
generator. Yes, there are
dangerous snakes and
bullet ants nearby. But it’s
mostly a surprisingly
benign environment for
people. The acidity of the
water and the nutrientpoor soil here means it
feels like there are fewer
mosquitoes than midges
in a Scottish summer.
The Times’s travel was
made possible by the
UN Foundation

station called Camp 41, something in
the local microclimate has shifted so
that greater numbers of vines are enveloping trees. The result is that more
trees are being pulled down when one is
knocked over in a storm, she said.
Indigenous people have reported
shifts in weather too. “We see differences pretty much every day,” said Roberto Brito de Mendonça, a former logger
who lives in Tumbira on the banks of
the Rio Negro, a showcase village for
more sustainable development. “For
our grandparents, they used to know
the seasons: when it would be sunny,
when it would be raining. Now it’s
impossible to forecast.”
He said major droughts were increasingly frequent, and temperatures
reached new highs. The changes are
bad news for Tumbira’s reliance on eco
tourism, as access by boat is harder
when the river level falls.
It is not only from the ground that
people are trying to measure the Amazon’s progress. A project on the International Space Station, known as Gedi
(pronounced “jedi”), is using a laser
version of radar to measure the canopies of tropical forests and the ground
below. It is gradually building up a complete high resolution map of the Amazon.
Tim Lenton, at Exeter University,
who published a study on tipping points
in several of the Earth’s systems, hopes
the data can help us to understand the
rainforest’s future. “You’d think looking
at the Amazon from space it’d be pretty
uniform, but it’s quite a variable canopy,” he said. “We believe we can use that
to monitor resilience.”
Putting a timeline on an Amazon tipping point remains a challenge. Nobre
estimated it could come when deforestation hits 20 to 25 per cent of the rainforest. In Brazil it is already about
20 per cent.
Lenton’s recent study suggested that
looking at climate change alone, a tipping point would require 2C of global
warming, a big jump from the 1.1C so far
but much less than the 2.4C for which
the world is on track. Lenton conceded
no one has a “very solid estimate” on
when such a tipping point will occur.
However, he is sure about what a
second term of Bolsonaro would mean
for the Amazon: “It would be a tragedy.”
Brazil’s voters braced for result, page 40

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

35

News
CHRISTIAN VIERIG, STREETSTYLESHOOTERS/GETTY IMAGES

John Lewis
chief tops list
of influencers
James Beal Social Affairs Editor

Dame Sharon White, the chairwoman
of John Lewis Partnership, has been
named the most influential black
Briton.
White, 55, topped the Powerlist,
which identifies leaders of African,
African Caribbean and African American heritage. She was born in east
London to parents who had emigrated
from Jamaica in the 1950s.
Dame Sharon
White said the
award was a
great honour

The top ten
1 Dame Sharon White, chairwoman,
John Lewis Partnership
2 Dean Forbes, chief executive,
Forterro
3 Anne Mensah, vice-president of
Content UK, Netflix
4 Tunde Olanrewaju, senior partner,
McKinsey & Company
5 Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur and
Dragons’ Den Dragon
6 David Olusoga, historian, joint
creative director of Uplands
Television Ltd
7 Lord Simon Woolley, political and
equalities activist
8 Paulette Simpson CBE, executive,
corporate affairs and public policy,
Jamaica National Bank; executive
Director, The Voice
9 Richard Iferenta, partner,
vice-chairman, KPMG
10 Dr Sandie Okoro, group general
counsel, Standard Chartered Bank

The list this year includes the actors
Sir Lenny Henry, 64, and Idris Elba, 50,
as well as the rapper Stormzy, 29,
Professor Simon Hepburn, chief executive at UK Cyber Security Council, and
Marcus Rashford, the Manchester
United footballer.
White made history in 2020 when
she became the first woman to head the
department store chain. She was previously the first woman — and the first
black person — to lead the media regulator Ofcom. She was also second permanent secretary at the Treasury.
White said yesterday that it was “an
incredible honour” to receive the
award, “particularly given the outstanding contributions of the other
nominees”.
She added: “My hope is that we can
take the serendipity out of social mobility. Everyone should have the chance to
be who they want to be in life, with their
background as a source of pride, not a
disadvantage.”
The Powerlist is selected by an independent panel of judges led by Dame
Linda Dobbs, a judicial commissioner
and former High Court judge. The
award was launched in 2007 “to showcase black role models to young
people”.
Many of those on the new list, such as
Alex Scott, the former professional
footballer and television sports presenter, and Daniel Kaluuya, the actor,
have featured in previous years. The list
also includes Raheem Sterling, the England and Chelsea footballer, Edward
Enninful, the British Vogue editor-inchief and David Lammy, the shadow
foreign secretary.
Michael Eboda, chief executive of
Powerful Media, who published the list,
said: “Dame Sharon White totally deserves to be recognised as the UK’s
most powerful black Briton on the
Powerlist 2023. She is an example of
true excellence . . . and has been able to
have a huge impact in one of the top
retail companies in the UK which is
truly remarkable.”

Model Vera Van Erp teamed
Gazelles with white socks
this summer. Influencer
Gitta Banko opted for
Burberry trousers with
Birkenstock’s Boston clogs

Footwear
classics help
A-listers earn
their stripes

F

orget designer
heels or
expensive leather
boots, the most
fashionable feet
are in shoes you can buy
on the high street for less

than £100 (Hannah
Rogers writes).
The style set is divided
into two camps: either
Birkenstock’s £90 Boston
clogs or Adidas’s £75
three-stripe Gazelles. The
first is a felt and
cork-soled slip-on from
the German orthopaedic
footwear brand. The
other was designed
in the 1960s for
indoor sports. Both
have been a hit with
influencers at

fashion weeks this
season. From Paris to
Copenhagen, Boston
clogs and Gazelle trainers
were worn with shorts,
jeans and smart tailoring.
The model Kendall
Jenner, 26, wears both
styles, as does the actress
Kristen Stewart, 32.

Sales of Birkenstock
clogs are up 278 per cent
compared with last year
at John Lewis. The
global fashion search
platform Lyst
reports that the Boston
is the second most
in-demand item in
the world, based on
social media
mentions, searches,
page views, interactions
and sales in its app.
At the footwear
retailer Schuh, the
Gazelle is a bestseller. In
June the pop star Harry
Styles caused Google
searches of the striped
suede lace-up trainer to
rise by 203 per cent when
he wore a red pair on his
world tour.
Luxury designers have
taken note. Haute labels
have flocked to
collaborate with the
functional and sporty
brands. When Carrie
Bradshaw’s favourite
shoemaker, Manolo
Blahnik, created his
version of the Boston
clog earlier this year, it
came in jewel-toned
velvet with a crystal
buckle and cost £510.
Gucci’s bright takes on
Gazelles cost £575.
Comfortable shoes
made for walking have
been overtaking killer
stilettos in fashion circles
for the past decade. But
what the style set’s flats of
choice lack in heels, they
usually make up for with
painful price tags. Prada’s
coveted heavy lug-soled
loafers cost £890 this
season; Miu Miu’s
sold-out satin ballerinas
with an elastic strap and
paper-thin sole are £690.
Gazelles and Bostons are
a snip in comparison —
and they won’t lead to a
hefty podiatry bill,
either.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

36

News

Former ‘Windmill girl’ in court battle over will
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor

A former dancer at one of Soho’s most
notorious cabarets has been accused by
her son of forging her husband’s will.
Jobyna Watts was a “Windmill girl” in
the years following the end of the Second
World War. The Windmill Theatre originally featured tableaux vivants — models
posing nude and remaining still — but
later moved into dancing acts.
Watts, who is now 92, inherited the estate of her husband, Eustace Watts, who
was known as the “Calypso king”, after he
died in 2008. The father’s will was said to
have left the couple’s son, Carlton, 64, with
no inheritance — leading him to sue his

mother in the High Court in a challenge to
his father’s will, which was drafted in 2000.
Carlton Watts told the court that his
mother has “defrauded my father’s estate”,
which he claims is worth about £8 million. His mother disputes the figure.
The former exotic dancer has
insisted that her son’s claims are
motivated by “animosity and
spite”, and that the legal action
was having a deleterious effect
on her. A barrister representing
the mother told the judge: “This
Jobyna Watts, pictured far
right in her heyday, says her
son is motivated by spite

isn’t how she should be spending her
golden years.”
The court heard that in her youth, the
mother became an established figure at
the Windmill, acclaimed for an energetic
style that involved tambourine and tap.
She later formed a double act with her
future husband, who used the stage name
Peter Ricardo. The couple were married in
1955 and lived in Hounslow, west London.
Eustace Watts had been orphaned as a
child in Grenada, but he was adopted by an
English judge and taught to read music
and play piano and guitar. He went on to
launch a calypso band and began
writing his own music,
releasing an album, Hi-fi
Calypso, in 1957.
Eventually, he moved
away from music and
into business, amassing
a portfolio of residential
and commercial properties
in west London. He died
after suffering in his
latter years from cancer
and dementia.
Carlton Watts told
the court that his
father’s previous will
from 1994 — which
split everything equally between himself, his

mother and his brother, Fraser Watts —
was the last true reflection of his wishes.
Carlton Watts has questioned the authenticity of witnesses’ signatures and the
appearance of the writing on the subsequent will. Justin Holmes, a barrister
appearing for the son, told the court that a
forensic expert had raised concerns that
the “pen pressure” of the signatures of the
solicitor and witness were surprisingly
similar. Holmes also claimed the “angle of
letter formation” on Eustace Watts’s signature was markedly similar to his wife’s.
Lawyers for the former dancer said that
allegations of forgery were completely groundless.
They told the
court that Carlton
Watts’s parents had
provided well for him,
and that he had lived
with them as an adult until
he was “gifted” his own
home by his father. The widow
said in evidence that the 2000
document was her husband’s “last true
will” and that she was unaware of an
earlier document. She has demanded
that her son prove that it existed.
The judge, Master Julia Clark,
adjourned the case to a later date for further evidence.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

37

News

Climate fears ground huge airshow
RAOUL DIXON/NNP

Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent

Europe’s biggest free airshow has
been cancelled by the local council
because it produces too much carbon.
The Sunderland International Airshow attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the city’s seafront
each year. It has been axed after more
than 30 years because of the “global
climate emergency”.
The two-day event was regarded as
a massive economic boost for the
local economy. Graeme Miller, the
Labour council leader, said the city
was “refreshing” its programme and
would host other events, including
the World Triathlon Championship
event next year, instead.
Miller said people in the city
wanted “to see new and different
events” which the council believed
would “inspire more people to
become physically active”.
Highlights at previous airshows have included displays
by the Red Arrows; the RAF
Falcons, a military parachute
display team; the Blades, a
Northamptonshire aerobatics
team; and the Royal Navy Black
Cats, which perform helicopter
stunts.
The event’s cancellation has
sparked a row, with a petition to
reverse the decision attracting
more than 1,400 signatures.
Sam Johnston, the Sunderland Conservatives deputy
leader who lives in Roker, where
the event was held, said: “[The]
international airshow is a beloved local event which is of massive importance to the city.
“The long-running event, established in 1988, provides a
massive economicc boost
h as
to businesses such
nts
hotels, restaurants
and bars along thee
seafront
and
gives local residents a unique
spectacle that
puts their city
on the map.
“We call on
Sunderland’s
Labour council to
eciU-turn on their decision to cancel the
ogise to
event and to apologise

T
The Red Arrows fly at Sunderland in 2016, and scenes from airshows in 1979 and 1980

resi
residents
for making this awful deci
cision
without
p
proper
consulta
tation.”
South Tynesi
side council was
fo
forced
this week
to deny rumours
that the show
could move up the
coast to South Shields.
T
racey
Tracey
Dixon,
the

ccouncil’s leader, said the area was
fo
focusing on hosting its summer
cconcert series.
A senior aviation source said Sund
derland council might have been
p
put off by the cost. “Putting on airsshows is not cheap,” the insider said.
““There are regulation costs to pay,
in
inspections, safety and crowd manaagement issues. Of course there are
eenvironmental concerns but the
ccost of running it will have soared
in recent years. Still, it will be a real
s
shame
for the hundreds of thous
sands
of people who flocked to see
th displays each year.”
the
Airshows are heavily regulated,
with rules tightened after the crash at
Shoreham Airshow in 2015, which
killed 11 people and injured 16 others.
Sunderland council plans to be
carbon neutral by 2030 and the city
to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Miller said: “No one who has witnessed the extreme weather events of
recent years, from wildfires and
droughts across Europe to the storms
and heatwaves we’ve experienced
here this last year, can be in any doubt
about the devastating impact climate
change is having on our planet.”

Teen tells of run-in with gimp suit man
Neil Johnston

A teenager has told of his “freaky”
late-night encounter with a man
wearing a gimp suit who is causing
alarm in rural Somerset villages.
Residents in Cleeve, north Somerset, were disturbed by the return of a
man in a full latex suit this week. The
man is believed to have appeared
previously in neighbouring villages.
In 2019, a man in a full latex suit
began charging towards lone individuals in Yatton and Claverham late at
night. He has been spotted on at least
14 separate occasions during the past
four years, approaching both men
and women in a range of disguises
while grunting and breathing heavily.
Avon and Somerset police arrested
a man in his 30s on suspicion of causing a public nuisance this week. He
was released on bail.
A 19-year-old was approached by
the man shortly after midnight on
Tuesday. He said that the man was
“unpredictable, flopping to the floor,

writhing and grunting”. The teenager
told the BBC: “I don’t want this guy to
be seen as a bogeyman . . . but this
kind of thing, this invisible threat that
he could be anywhere . . . it’s indirectly
causing fear.”
The teenager said he initially
thought the man might have been
drunk because of the way he was
moving. As the man approached the
teenager and his friend, he “took a
step up on the pavement, arched his
body and flopped to the ground, without putting his hands out to catch
himself”. He added the man was
wearing blue latex gloves and a dark
bodysuit and was covered in mud.
“He smelt really earthy. After he
had gone . . . you could still smell it.”
He said he felt worried for his
safety and the pair were in shock but
they began to laugh at the absurdity
of the situation. He added that some
people could be “psychologically
damaged” if they saw the same thing.
Yesterday, other local residents
said that they were worried about

going out alone. One said: “I stopped
going out for a jog after the gimp man
was about a while ago. I started going
out again, and now he’s back.
“It did put me off. It’s quite a shock
to hear it’s been happening again.”
A police spokesman said the force
responded quickly because of similarities with previous incidents which
had “caused significant alarm”.
Acting Inspector Lee Kerslake, of
the Avon and Somerset neighbourhood policing team, said: “No one has
been physically harmed during any
of these incidents but we know they
have caused concern to the local
community and we are determined
to identify the individual or individuals responsible and stop them.
“We continue to keep an open
mind about the intentions of the man
and whether the incident is linked to
any others.”
Conditions of the man’s bail include that he must remain home
between 9pm and 6am, and present
himself to a police officer on request.

The council said the environment
was the major concern among residents, making it hard to justify the
event. The airshow has been cancelled for the past three years because
of the pandemic.
The event this year was cancelled
in January because of “continuing
uncertainty” about the pandemic
and the threat of restrictions. It said
contracts had to be in place months
before the event which typically happened in July.
Miller said the council had spent
more than £10 million to transform
the city’s seafront into a year-round
destination.
A council spokeswoman said: “In
light of the new approach to events
and the council’s ambitions to be
carbon neutral by 2030 and the city’s
to be carbon neutral by 2040, the
council has confirmed it has no plans
to run the Sunderland airshow in the
future.”
The inquest into the Shoreham
crash is due to open on November 28
at County Hall North in Horsham.
The first two sitting days have been
set aside to hear family reflections on
the 11 men who died.

38

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

World
Ukrainians come home to
a village crushed by war
The military withdrawal
has left a tide of misery
and destruction in its
erine
wake, as Catherine
Philp finds in
newly liberatedd
Arkhanhelske
When commandos came to the riverbank, the boatmen were ready and
waiting for them.
“We had three boats and we helped
them cross towards Arkhanhelske,”
one of the men, Anatoly, said.
The commandos’ mission was to
blow up a Russian military base inside
the Russian-occupied village on the
road towards Kherson. Days later the
Russians abandoned Arkhanhelske,
leaving behind looted cars, destroyed
tanks and an almost empty village in
near ruins.
President Zelensky singled out
Arkhanhelske in one of his nightly
addresses this month, celebrating the
bravery of the soldiers who recaptured
it and the civilians who helped them as
an example of how Ukrainians could
work together to push back the Russians. Now, as Ukrainian troops press
on southwards towards the looming
battle for Kherson, villagers who fled
are trickling back to be reunited with
those who stayed and to sift through
the debris of occupation.
Only 100 of Arkhanhelske’s residents
stayed throughout the occupation,
which stretched from March until the
beginning of this month, marked by
arbitrary cruelty, theft and deprivation.
Iryna, 56, had lived in Arkhanhelske
her whole life, next door to her best
friend, Larysa, who married another
classmate, Valentyn, and never wanted
to leave. “They were a wonderful
family,” Iryna said. “Valentyn was from
a poor family and he did everything for
himself. He organised all the village
feasts, he brought everyone together.”
Their village’s life was turned upside
down when the Russians arrived in

New threat in Black Sea
Michael Evans

The Russian Black Sea fleet is back
in business with 12 warships and
submarines lined up to fire cruise
missiles at power stations and other
critical infrastructure in Ukraine.
Since April when the cruiser
Moskva was sunk by Ukraine’s
Neptune anti-ship missiles, the fleet
has taken a back seat because of
Moscow’s fear of further spectacular
strikes. However, under General
Sergei Surovikin, the new Russian
supreme commander, the fleet is
involved on a much larger scale.
Surovikin, 56, an air force general,
showed his enthusiasm for targeting
civilian infrastructure with strikes
against anti-regime forces in Syria
in 2019. Now he appears to have
brought all of Russia’s military
assets to focus on the destruction of
Ukraine’s power facilities.
The Black Sea fleet now has two
March. “At first we kept to ourselves,
then they started to come into our
houses, to steal and to loot,” Iryna said.
“They became more and more cruel to
us.” The soldiers took a liking to Larysa,
she recalled, and one night when they
had been drinking, they stumbled along
the street to Larysa and Valentyn’s
house, a sprawling complex with a large
garden. “They tried to rape Larysa and
Valentyn tried to stop them,” she said.
Both were shot dead.
Heartbroken, Iryna left Arkhanhelske soon after the killings, smuggled
by boat across the Inhulets River,
where the village’s liberators would
eventually cross. Soon after, another
couple she was at school with, Tanya
and Kolya, were shot dead on their balcony.
It was last month, under cover of
night, when Anatoly and his friends
met the commandos at the river and
ferried them across for their secret mission. For months they had been phon-

Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates
and four Buyan-M-class corvettes,
all armed with long-range
Kalibr cruise missiles, operating
off Ukraine.
There are also six Kilo-class
diesel-electric submarines with
upgraded Kalibr cruise missiles,
which have a range of up to
1,500 miles.
The re-emergence of the fleet is a
sign of new efforts to terrorise the
population as winter approaches.
The warships were used almost
daily in the early stages of the war.
On March 24, for instance, shiplaunched cruise missiles destroyed a
military fuel storage site near Kyiv.
During its operation in Syria, the
Russian navy fired nearly 100 Kalibr
missiles at anti-regime targets.
However, the sinking of the
Moskva and Spasatel Vasily Bekh, a
salvage ship, were seen as
humiliating blows for the Russians.
ing in the co-ordinates of Russian artillery positions to Ukrainian forces gearing up for an offensive towards
Kherson.
As the offensive got under way,
Arkhanhelske found itself on the front
line, amid fierce artillery battles. Few of
its remaining homes still have an intact
roof and many have been destroyed.
Ukrainian and Russian shelling led to
the destruction, though few blame their
own side for the damage.
“Our soldiers were trying to free us,”
said Heiko, 63, a former policeman,
standing outside the ruined school.
“The Russians just destroy things on
purpose. They stole our cars, our furniture, anything they could lay their
hands on.”
As he spoke, the sound of artillery
boomed in the distance from the front
line, edging closer to Kherson.
Ukrainians officials have warned
that the battle for Kherson could be far
bloodier and destructive than anything

seen along this front to date. An order
by the Russian-installed administration for civilians and officials to evacuate raised hopes that Russia was preparing to withdraw. Now, however,
Kyiv believes Russian forces are digging
in, with residents in Kherson reporting
newly mobilised reservists flooding
into the city in recent days.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence
minister, told President Putin yesterday that Russia had mobilised 300,000
reservists in a month. Shoigu was
shown on state television informing
Putin that 82,000 reservists were now
deployed in the conflict zone and
another 218,000 had entered training.
Last night in his video address Zelensky said Russia’s soldiers “are so poorly
prepared and equipped, so ruthlessly
used by the command” that the Kremlin “may soon need a new wave” of
mobilisation. He also accused Moscow
of trying to turn the Kherson region
“into a zone without civilisation” by dismantling critical infrastructure there.
Moscow has vowed to turn Kherson
into a “fortress” while also making wild
claims that Kyiv is to detonate a dirty
bomb or inundate the city by bombing
a hydroelectric dam upriver. Ukraine’s
military claimed the Russian command
in Kherson was trying to distract attention from losses on the battlefield.
The looming showdown in Kherson
has nerves jangling all the way back to
Arkhanhelske. Iryna has not heard
from her son in the city since Russians
cut off the internet and mobile phone
connections last week, in an apparent
attempt to stop informants reporting
their movements to the Ukrainians.
Yesterday Russian officials claimed
they had completed evacuating civilians from Kherson, a move Kyiv has
denounced as Soviet-style deportation.
But Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of
Ukraine’s regional military administration, told residents not to heed the evacuation order, warning that the Russians
would use them as human shields.
“My son vowed that he will not go
with them,” Iryna said. He told her that
the family and their neighbours had
agreed to stay hidden in their basements “until the Ukrainian soldiers
arrive to free them”.

Officers chatted about ‘nuking Berlin’ to spook Germany
Germany
Oliver Moody Berlin

Russian naval officers discussed nuclear strikes on Berlin and two German
military bases during a training exercise a year ago in a possible attempt to
deter Germany from supporting
Ukraine, it was reported yesterday.
The messages are said to have been
intercepted by western intelligence
while Russian warships were conducting manoeuvres in the Baltic at the end
of last year as President Putin sharpened his forces for the invasion.
Since the start of the conflict Olaf
Scholz, the German chancellor, has repeatedly warned of the risk that a decisive intervention in Ukraine’s favour

could lead to nuclear war, prompting
speculation that he had received
a specific threat of a potential attack
on Germany.
Der Spiegel magazine claimed it had
learnt from several sources in the German security services that the Russian
officers had mentioned three possible
targets on German soil: Berlin, the
Ramstein airbase — an important hub
for US armed forces logistics — and the
Büchel airbase, where about 20 US nuclear warheads are stored.
While such chatter is common during military exercises and by no means
implies an explicit Russian plan for a
nuclear assault on Germany, there is
conjecture that it might have been intended to intimidate Berlin and the

wider West. Germany is acutely sensitive to the danger of nuclear war
because of its history as one of the main
faultlines in the Cold War, when large
arsenals of atomic weapons were stationed on each side of the border that
used to divide the country.
A poll published by Der Spiegel
found that 51 per cent of Germans were
worried that the war in Ukraine could
lead to nuclear war. Fifty-seven per
cent were anxious that Russia could use
nuclear weapons against Ukraine and
37 per cent feared they could be turned
on Germany.
Demand for the construction of private bunkers capable of protecting their
occupants against nuclear fallout is said
to have quadrupled since February.

The city of Berlin is looking at buying
back public bunkers, which were sold
after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The German government plans to
overhaul its anti-air and anti-missile
defences as part of a €100 billion programme to re-equip its armed forces, as
well as replacing the fleet of Tornado
combat jets that would theoretically
carry the US nuclear bombs from
Büchel in the event of an atomic war.
Among the options under consideration is a city-scale missile shield based
on Israel’s Iron Dome, although it is unclear how much of Germany’s territory
this could protect. Scholz also used
a speech in Prague in August to
announce an ambition to create a
Europe-wide air defence network.

Snap it up Christie’s is to auction Shen,

Pact with
Italy
Philip Willan Rome

The renewal of a secret deal between
the Vatican and China on the joint appointment of bishops has come at an
embarrassing moment for the Pope,
fanning international criticism of what
has been characterised as moral appeasement on the part of the Holy See.
The announcement came on the day
that President Xi consolidated his dictatorial powers at the climax of the 20th
Chinese Communist Party congress
and four days before the reopening of
the trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen for
helping to fund the legal costs of prodemocracy activists in Hong Kong.
The agreement, signed in September
2018, was intended to unify China’s 12
million Catholics and enable members
of an underground church loyal to
Rome to practise their religion freely.
Critics said that it had merely increased
the influence of the state-controlled
“patriotic church”, which was founded
in 1957 and appointed bishops without
reference to Rome.
Bernardo Cervellera, a missionary

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

39

2GM

Pelosi’s husband in
terrifying hammer
attack at home
Page 41

How science tracked
a tiny bird’s mammoth
flight
Page 42

EDGAR SU/REUTERS

Steinbeck
‘warned of
Trumpian
threat to US’
United States
Will Pavia New York

An article by John Steinbeck predicting
that American democracy would be repeatedly threatened by fascist or populist attempts to overturn the rule of law
has been unearthed and published for
the first time in the United States.
It was written in 1954 but only appeared, translated into French, in one
of a series of columns the author wrote
while living in Paris.
Andrew Gulli, editor of The Strand
Magazine, said he had obtained the
original English version of the essay
from among the author’s papers at a
library in Texas. He said it offered a prescient vision of future challenges to
American democracy and analysis that
is pertinent nearly 70 years later.
Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes
of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, began
writing for Le Figaro while living in a
flat near the Champs-Élysées, intending his weekly columns to be a light,
cultural commentary on the pleasures
of being an American in Paris. But in his
third instalment he felt moved to write
about political upheavals in his homeland. “The question most asked of an
American in Paris is, ‘How about
John Steinbeck
wrote of the
dangers of
populism as far
back as 1954

a 1.4 tonne T. rex found in Montana in 2020, who shows bite marks and suffered from osteoarthritis. His arrival at Victoria Theatre in central Singapore drew crowds

China is ‘act of submission’ for Pope
priest in Taiwan, said: “It takes a lot of
optimism to find something positive in
this accord. It has resulted in the appointment of just four bishops in the
last four years. The Vatican insists there
were six, but two were appointed before
the agreement came into effect.”
The priest, who directed the Vatican’s
Asia News agency for 18 years, said the
church was more divided than ever and
the Communist Party was using the
secret terms of the deal to convince the
faithful that the Vatican had fully endorsed China’s position.
“The underground church is under
great pressure. Priests have been leaving to work in factories or as farmers
because they don’t want to sign an act of
submission to the regime,” Cervellera
said. “Many of the bishops of the clandestine church are under house arrest,
under 24-hour surveillance or in prison. There have been just four new
bishops and the country needs 40. The
problem is that the members of the underground church have to declare their
support for socialism, the Communist
Party and Xi.”
Catholics who refuse to register with

the official church face reprisals such as
being cut off from phone apps used for
most daily purchases in China.
The Pope has been criticised for his
failure to defend human rights in China
or speak up for his own cardinal, who
this week saw the charges against him
reduced from working for foreign
agents to failing to register a
charitable organisation.
Asked about the case last
month, the Pope said that he
could not characterise
China’s behaviour as
anti-democratic. He
said Zen, 90, “said what
he felt, and you can see
that there are limitations
over there”.
Cervellera said Zen’s
treatment followed
a standard Chinese
formula: accusations in a newspaper,
then
The Pope has
not defended
Joseph Zen

arrest. “In this case they didn’t realise
what a hornets’ nest they were stirring
up. The whole world has criticised
them,” he said.
The Vatican was one of the
few organisations that failed
to react, said Sandro Magister, the Vatican correspondent for L’Espresso. The struggle
between Rome and
Beijing involved
two unlikely and
unequal monarchies, he said,
while Francis had
an
authoritarian
approach to diplomacy and had dispensed with experts
on China.
“The Pope has
called a synod
[church assembly]
to transform the
church into a kind of
permanent synod.
I one of the contraIt’s
dictions of this pontifi-

cate,” Magister added. “Xi and Francis
represent two absolutisms.”
Cervellera said that the Pope was
sticking to the deal because it had established communication with the Chinese Communist Party for the first time
in 70 years. Tensions between the US
and China may also have contributed.
“I think the Pope doesn’t want to be
crushed between these two powers or
for the church to be seen as western,
which it is not,” Cervellera said.
Compromising with oppressive powers is nothing new for the church. Humiliating pacts were the order of the
day in the Cold War, when the church
came to terms with communist regimes
in eastern Europe.
Michael Sheridan, the author of a
history of Hong Kong, said Francis was
making the best of a weak hand. “The
Pope has a dilemma because China
practises hostage diplomacy and the
Vatican has little bargaining power,” he
said. “The church thinks long term and
has to keep all its Chinese flock in mind.
Sometimes silence is its only weapon.”
The Vatican’s deal with China sends the
wrong message, leading article, page 29

McCarthyism?’ ” he wrote. Senator
Joseph McCarthy’s investigations into
alleged communist infiltration of branches of the US government whipped up
a climate of fear. Steinbeck defined
McCarthyism as “the attempt to substitute government by men for government by law”. It was “simply a new
name for something that has existed
from the moment when popular government emerged”.
He added: “We are thought to be a
wild, precipitate people, full of experiment, volatile and unpredictable. Actually, the opposite is true. Our changes
come very slowly [but] when they are
fixed, they are never reversed.”
McCarthyism was merely the latest
in a series of movements involving “the
taking of power by a self-interested
group at the expense of the whole”, he
wrote. “Call it fascism or whatever you
will. It changes its name every few
years. It always uses the bait of improvement or safety. And it has never
succeeded. The hard core of the people
and the constitution has always resisted
it and won.” He contended that the
struggle against these movements
made American democracy stronger.
William Souder, author of the recent
Steinbeck biography Mad At The World,
said Steinbeck did not anticipate the
extent to which some of the institutions
of American democracy could be eroded, and that he would have been surprised at Donald Trump’s domination
of the Republican Party. “He would
have thought — this is my own view —
that Trump is a criminal, charlatan
egomaniac,” he said.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

40

World
ALEXANDER ROPERTZ/MEDIA DRUM IMAGES

Covid rules
trigger rare
Tibet protest

Spy chief says
Khan tried to
lobby army

Tibet

Pakistan

Foreign Staff

Haroon Janjua Islamabad

Officials in the Tibetan capital begged
residents to return home during a
rare public protest against the Chinese
region’s prolonged Covid-19 restrictions, in which crowds took to the
streets in defiance of the lockdown.
Demonstrations have broken out in
at least two locations in Lhasa since
Wednesday, Radio Free Asia reported,
and videos circulating on social media
appeared to show angry residents
ignoring orders to stay indoors.
The city’s lockdown is approaching
its third month and is the longest under
China’s “zero tolerance” policy since
Shanghai’s two-month one this spring.
Reports suggested that many
protesters were migrant workers who
were demanding to leave the region
and return to their hometowns. Many
claimed to have had no income since
they were trapped in Lhasa.
Some videos showed large-scale tussles. “Please return to your homes,” one
official is heard saying over megaphone
in one clip. “If you infect each other, you
couldn’t go back even if you wanted to.”
China restricts access to the Tibet
Autonomous Region for foreign journalists and information emerging from
the area is limited. The demonstrations
are the first known large-scale protests
in the city since the Tibetan uprising in
2008, when street protests were met
with force and hundreds died or went
missing.
Lhasa’s lockdown began in August as
infections rose across China, but daily
cases have since dwindled.

Pakistan’s spy chief has accused Imran
Khan, the country’s former prime minister, of lobbying its powerful military
to support his failing government.
In a rare intervention into politics,
Lieutenant-General Nadeem Anjum,
head of the Inter-Services Intelligence,
accused Khan of trying to persuade the
army to prop up his government before
he was forced from office in April. “The
military and its chief refused to do illegal and unconstitutional things to save
his government during the vote of no
confidence,” Anjum told reporters.
Khan, 70, has staged rallies across the
country since he was forced out, stirring opposition against a government
that is struggling to bring the economy
out of a crisis that critics say he caused.
Yesterday he gathered hundreds of
supporters in Lahore to join a caravan
of cars and trucks heading for the capital, Islamabad, to pressure the government into calling a snap election. By the
time he gets there, Khan expects to
have hundreds of thousands of people
with him and has asked officials to
allow a protest sit-in.
The federal government indicated
that any deviation from approved protest plans would be met with force from
the city’s police. Khan’s party is in government in two of Islamabad’s neighbouring provinces, and the provincial
police forces are expected to be providing security to the marchers. With
security enhanced in the capital and
augmented by paramilitary forces,
there is a fear the forces could clash.

Prince of the swingers A lively baby chimp called Lisoko is the centre of attention at a zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Bolsonaro voters ready to take
to the streets if Lula wins power
The right-wing leader’s
fanatical supporters are
fired-up before a vote
that could divide Brazil,
writes Stephen Gibbs
The crack of high-velocity gunfire
echoed from the firing range in the
basement of the Isa de
Tiros shooting club on
the outskirts of Sao
Paulo. In the packed
shop above, customers
ogled the extensive selection of weaponry on display.
A tattooed man waited for the
cashier, holding a box containing an assault rifle.
The club is one of hundreds that have been established across Brazil
since the rightwing President Bolsonaro, 67,
streamlined the laws on
firearms purchases after
he took office in 2019.
His measures have led
to a boom in gun sales,
and helped to ensure that
alongside
evangelicals
and farmers, shooting
enthusiasts remain the

former military officer’s core, diehard
backers.
“Yes, there is 110 per cent support
here” Charles Blagitz, the club’s manager, said. The previous week a man had
walked in wearing a cap showing he
intended to vote for Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, the left-wing rival to the president. “We asked him to leave,” he said.
A visit to the gun club provides a
glimpse of one side of the polarisation
Brazil faces on the eve of its momentous right versus left vote tomorrow.
According to
the latest opinion
polls, which underestimated Bolsonaro’s
support in the first round,
the rivals remain
about six points
apart, with Lula
ahead. Most analysts regard the
race as too close
to call.
In a bar
alongside the
club, a serving
police
officer,
who requested
if Jair Bolsonaro
loses, his backers
could stage riots

Voting intentions
In the second round of Brazilian
presidential elections
Lula
52.0%
Bolsonaro
46.2%
Survey conducted on 4,500 people between
October 18-22. Source: Atlas Intel

anonymity in return for speaking candidly, outlined how he saw the days
ahead panning out.
Before he spoke to the Times, he
placed his loaded pistol and police
badge on the table.
If Lula won, there would be “a popular uprising”, he predicted. A mass of
Bolsonaro supporters would take to the
streets, perhaps in their millions.
The officer said that were he ordered
to restrain such huge demonstrations,
his personal loyalty to Bolsonaro
meant he would deliberately do “as
little as possible”. His instinct, he said,
would be “to let it happen”. He said all
the police officers he knew would take
the same approach.
Fears that Bolsonaro — sometimes
nickamed the “Trump of the Tropics”
— is planning, like the former US president, to dispute the result if he loses,
and whip up his fanatical supporters

with unpredictable consequences, have
grown in recent days.
This week the senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the President’s son and key adviser,
claimed, without providing evidence,
that his father was facing “the greatest
electoral fraud ever seen”.
The Bolsonaro government has also
alleged a conspiracy in which hundreds
of its political advertisements have
been pulled from radio stations in Lula
strongholds in the northeast of Brazil.
Lula’s election team has portrayed
such claims as those of a side that
knows it is heading for defeat. It has also
ridiculed the idea that the president has
the means to overturn a fair vote.
“Bolsonaro has the same chance of
carrying out a successful coup as my
mother,” André Janones, a federal congressman and Lula’s digital media strategist told the Times.
“Our democracy is not at risk —
unless Bolsonaro wins,” he added.
He argued that a second-term
Bolsonaro presidency was the real
danger for the country, as it could result
in an empowered leader, who had increased his support in congress following the first-round vote, seeking to control all the country’s institutions that
currently restrain him, including the
supreme court.
But the Bolsonaristas take the opposite view. They caricature Lula, who in
2018-19 served 580 days in prison for

corruption — his convictions were
later annulled — as the real threat to
Brazilian democracy: a godless communist determined to impose a Venezuelan or Cuban-style dictatorship.
On Wednesday a group of Bolsonaro
supporters gathered in the centre of
Sao Paulo, beneath the museum of
modern art, an icon of brutalist architecture completed at the height of the
country’s military rule from 1964 to
1985.
The demonstrators, a few hundred
people, heard speeches lambasting
recent electoral court moves to censor
fake news on social media and messenger apps. In recent months a wave of
claims, including that Lula intends to
close churches and that Bolsonaro is a
cannibal, have gone viral across the
country.
“We are here for freedom. It is obvious to everyone that Lula is a thief, corrupt, ex-convict, and yet we cannot say
that,” said Hal Aquino, 46, one of the
demonstrators. He was wearing a cap
with the sinister skull and two pistols
insignia of Rio de Janeiro’s’ notorious
elite police tactical force, the BOPE,
sometimes known as the state’s “death
squad”.
“If Bolsonaro loses, the people will
take to the streets,” he promised,
He began to reminisce fondly about
the country’s military rule. “I pray to
God that it happens again.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

41

2GM

World
OLIVIA WILDE/GETTY IMAGES; ERIC RISBERG/AP

Pelosi attack
was ‘attempt
to assassinate
House Speaker’
Alistair Dawber
Washington

A man is in police custody in San Francisco after an apparent assassination
attempt against the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, the third
most senior person in the US.
Nancy Pelosi, 82, was not at home
when the suspect, named as David
Depape, who is believed to hold
extremist political views, attacked her
husband with a hammer.
Paul Pelosi, also 82, suffered blunt
trauma injuries to his head and body
and was taken to hospital. He had surgery to his head yesterday after being
hit multiple times with the hammer. He
is expected to make a full recovery.
Depape, 42, is reported to have
shouted, “Where is Nancy, where is
Nancy,” before attempting to tie up and
attack her husband.
Police arrived at the house at 2.27am
on Friday and found the two men grappling over the hammer. Depape is
understood to have told police he was
“waiting for Nancy”.
Paul Pelosi is believed to have called

the police himself and left the line open
as he tried to reason with the intruder.
He was attacked only after officers
arrived at the house.
The FBI has begun an investigation
into the incident, but Bill Scott, the San

N
Nancy
Pelosi’s
husband, Paul,
h
82, is expected
8
tto recover. Their
h
home, top and
le
left, was targeted
b
by vandals
la
last year

David Depape is
said to have asked
where Nancy
Pelosi was

Francisco police chief, said Depape
would be charged with attempted
homicide, elder abuse, assault with a
deadly weapon and burglary. Other
charges may follow.
“When the officers arrived on scene,
they encountered an adult male and
Pelosi’s husband, Paul,” Scott said.
“Our officers observed Paul Pelosi
and the suspect both holding a hammer. The suspect pulled the hammer
away from Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him,

t custody,
t d requested backtook him iinto
up and rendered medical aid.”
Both men were taken to hospital.
Nancy Pelosi has a security detail,
but it travels with her and would not
have been guarding the house at the
time of the incident.
Trawls of what are believed to be
Depape’s social media activity suggest
he has right-wing sympathies. Among
his posts are videos by Mike Lindell, a
businessman and prominent conspiracy theorist, denials about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and

suggestions that coronairus vaccines
are deadly. Police have refused to comment on the suspect’s motives, but his
Facebook posts in particular are likely
to be of interest to investigators. Meta,
Facebook’s parent company, has removed his page from public view.
Depape is believed to have described
the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former
Minneapolis police officer convicted of
murdering George Floyd, as “a modern
lynching”. Some of his posts were
homophobic and transphobic.
Pelosi, a Democrat, has become a

hated figure for many on the right. She
has clashed repeatedly with Donald
Trump and is frequently attacked by
Republicans, especially those from the
former president’s wing of the party.
The attack comes just over a week
before the midterm elections on November 8, with polls suggesting that the
Republicans will regain control of the
House and Pelosi will be replaced.
Trump has been touring the country
holding rallies in support of candidates
he has endorsed. Pelosi is frequently
referenced angrily in his speeches.
Last weekend she said Trump was
“not man enough” to testify before the
committee investigating the riots.
It is not the first time the Pelosis’ San
Francisco home has been targeted. In
January last year the house was vandalised, with the words “cancel rent” and
“we want everything” daubed on one
side, and a pig’s head left outside.
Politicians from both sides were
quick to condemn the attack yesterday.
Trump, who uses Truth Social to post
updates, did not mention the attack on
Paul Pelosi yesterday.

Midterm rivals live in fear of the game-changing ‘October Surprise’
David
Charter
washington

F

rom George W Bush’s
drink-driving record to the
FBI investigation into
Hillary Clinton’s emails,
last-minute revelations with
the potential to transform an
election have their own category in
US politics: the October Surprise.
These game-changers can be
spontaneous or engineered, but the
key point is that they occur so late
in the campaign that there is little
time for a candidate to recover.
Although many memorable
October Surprises are associated
with presidential races, they are also
a feature of midterm elections, as
shown by the recent emergence of
two women claiming they were

pressured into abortions by
Herschel Walker, Georgia’s
Republican pro-life Senate
candidate. He has dismissed both
claims as fabrications.
“Both parties try to conjure up an
October Surprise, both nationally
and in individual campaigns . . . they
are always looking for something
that can change the dynamics of the
race,” said Larry Sabato, director of
the University of Virginia Centre for
Politics.
In his view, the October Surprise
which most impacted a midterm
election came 60 years ago. “It was
purely accidental that the discovery
of the Russian nuclear missiles in
Cuba happened in mid-October. The
crisis played out over 13 days and
ended in what was perceived as an
American victory,” he said.
“The result? Democrats were
lifted up just days before the early
November voting. Democrats got a
wash in Congress instead of the
usual midterm losses.”
An October Surprise with the
political impact of the Cuban missile

Two women
have accused
Herschel Walker,
the Georgia
Republican

Senate nominee,
of pressing them
into an abortion.
He has denied
their allegations

crisis is hard to manufacture but
that has not stopped the parties —
and the media — from trying.
The term became established
during the 1980 election when used
by William Casey, Ronald Reagan’s
campaign manager, to brief the
media about the potential release of
American hostages held in Iran to
boost President Carter’s campaign
for re-election. The aim was to
reduce the impact of any surprise if
it came. But when the hostages were
released instead shortly after
Reagan’s inauguration, the phrase
was taken as the title of a book by
Gary Sick, a member of Carter’s
national security council, that
alleged the Reagan campaign
worked to keep the hostages in Iran.
Two congressional inquiries found
no evidence for this but it helped to
fix the October Surprise in political
folklore. Bush complained of “dirty
last-minute politics” when his
drink-driving conviction was made
public by a Democratic lawyer five
days before the 2000 election,
although he survived its impact.

Some elections have been buffeted
by more than one October Surprise.
The “Access Hollywood” tape of a
2005 conversation in which Donald
Trump bragged in lewd terms about
seducing women was published by
The Washington Post one month
before the 2016 election and almost
derailed his campaign. However, the
pendulum swung the other way
when James Comey, the FBI
director, revealed a new
investigation into Clinton’s emails 11
days before polling day. Clinton has
blamed this for her defeat, along
with the release of Democratic
emails obtained by Russian hackers.
Tensions are running high with
just over a week to go before this
year’s midterms but some believe
the biggest surprise happened
months ago. The narrative of the
president’s party getting a kicking
from voters was upended when the
Supreme Court overturned its 1973
Roe v Wade ruling in June to end
guaranteed access to abortion. It
boosted Democratic candidates but
the impact has been wearing off.

42

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

World

Mission improbable: cyclist
gears up to cross Antarctic

Beaver too
used to lap
of luxury
Latvia
Oliver Moody

OMAR DI FELICE

Italy
Keiran Southern

An Italian endurance cyclist is attempting to become the first person to cycle
across Antarctica; a feat that even he
admits may not be humanly possible.
Over 60 days and using a purposebuilt steel bicycle, Omar Di Felice
intends to pedal more than 1,100 miles
in temperatures that will fall as low as
minus 38C.
His planned route will take him from
coast to coast, starting near the slopes
of the 4,892m (16,049ft) Vinson Massif,
crossing the continent through the
South Pole and ending at the Leverett
Glacier.
He will drag his supplies behind him,
including dehydrated food, and fuel to
melt ice for water, while sleeping in a
tent and sharing updates on a live tracker through a satellite phone.
Di Felice, 41, who has extensive
1,000
0 miles

Weddell
Sea

Route
ANTARCTICA

Hercules Inlet

South Pole

Start
End

Vinson
Massif
Leverett
Glacier

all-weather cycling experience and
whose previous journeys include crossings of America, Canada and the Gobi
desert, fears that even he may not be up
to the challenge.
“Everything I’ve done since I was a
professional cyclist is focused on maybe
being the first man to cross Antarctica,”
he said. “I don’t know if it will be possible, but I will try.
“It’s my biggest dream. When you
love something, maybe you can try to
do the best. And you have to have the
mindset for the winter because it’s more
mental than physical. It’s a big exploration of my limits and I want to understand if I will be able to do this or if it’s
just a crazy thing that is impossible.”
Di Felice, from Rome, has been fascinated with Antarctica since childhood,
when he was captivated by the stories of
explorers such as Reinhold Messner,

Omar Di Felice faces temperatures as low as minus 38C on his Antarctic challenge despite the constant summer sunshine

the Italian mountaineer who was the
first to cross Antarctica and Greenland
with neither snowmobiles nor dog
sleds.
He is aiming to set off from Hercules
Inlet near the Union Glacier base on or
about November 20 and will initially
cycle 750 miles to a checkpoint at
the South Pole, a trip he expects to take 35 to 40 days.
The second leg of the journey is another 400 miles or
so, which should be completed within 20 days.
Di Felice’s only link to the
rest of the world will be a satellite phone and he admits
to being “a little bit
scared”.
“It’s maybe the
remotest place
in the world,”

he said. “And if something happened in
Antarctica, you just call the emergency
number with your sat-phone and you
have to cross your fingers for the rescue.”
Di Felice will wear a specially made
jacket similar to what Alpine climbers
use, and a pair of trousers that have
been altered to allow him to
move freely while still keeping
him
warm against the extreme conditions he is expected to
encounter, even though he is
timing the trip to coincide with
the height of the summer
months, when the sun doesn’t
set at all.
The steel bike has been
built specifically for
the challenge: Di Felice said that typi-

cal carbon frames would be too fragile
for the freezing conditions. The tyres
will be far bigger than those found on
road-going bikes to make it easier to
progress through the snow, though at
times he suspects he may have to walk.
“The cold and cycling is not a good
mix,” he said. “Cycling with the cold is
very difficult because when you ski, you
move all your body, you move your
arms and you move everything. But
when you are cycling, you just move
your legs and all the other parts of your
body should freeze. So it’s important to
have the right clothes and the right apparel to do cycling in winter.”
Di Felice hopes his adventure can
raise awareness of the threat to the
planet posed by climate change. He is
supporting the 1point5 Project, which
aims to curb the global temperature rise
to 1.5C by 2050.

Like many of his generation, Bobby
craves human contact, enjoys having
sandwiches brought to him and regards
cold running water with the utmost suspicion.
The trouble is that Bobby is a beaver.
Adopted by a Latvian hunter while still
a baby and lovingly reared with a sofa
bed and a diet of white bread, he is now
so thoroughly domesticated that conservationists are struggling to return
him to the great outdoors.
The beaver has become the face of a
national campaign urging Latvians not
to take young wild animals into their
homes.
Bobby had a rough start in life. Shortly after he was born in March he and his
two siblings were orphaned and found
in a lodge by a hunting party.
“We started to check the burrows and
there weren’t any adults,” Jazep Korsak,
a hunter and private doctor in the small
town of Rezekne, told LSM, the Latvian
public broadcaster.
“In one of the chambers the dog
crawled in, started barking and brought
out a small beaver. We took it from him
and then he went back into the chamber and brought out another, then a
third.”
Two of the kits were taken in by Riga
zoo but Bobby settled in the Korsak
family home, eating porridge, cream
and bread. He was trained to urinate in
a potty and slept on a sofa next to Korsak’s grandmother, Anya.
When the family tried to release him
into the wild, however, it became clear
that he was unable to cope. They appealed for help from the Ligatne Nature
Trails, a wooded conservation zone 40
miles northeast of Riga, the capital.
The adjustment has not been
straightforward. “To get him moving,
sometimes we pick him up and take
him to the water for a swim,” Valters
Kinna, of the Latvian Nature Protection Board, said. “We are trying to make
him understand that he needs to move
around actively. Right now we have to
poke him all the time just to get him to
eat and move.”
Bobby is also being trained to gnaw
tree bark instead of waiting for his usual
delivery of human food.
“In this case I can understand that
Bobby was orphaned,” Inta Lange,
manager of the Ligatne nature trails,
said. “But people have a responsibility
not to touch them, to leave quickly,
because right at the moment we take
them away we steal them from nature.”

How tiniest tracker charted bird’s mammoth 8,400-mile flight
New Zealand
Bernard Lagan

It was a spectacular leave-taking of its
parents: a solo, record-breaking, nonstop flight from Alaska to Tasmania. Yet
no one would have known about the
remarkable journey of the juvenile
bar-tailed godwit — satellite number
234684 — if it were not for the latest
ultralight tracking technology.
The equipment recorded the
moment that the five-month-old bird
landed near a fishing village in Tasmania’s wild northeast, just before
midnight on Tuesday. It revealed that
the godwit had smashed the world
record for a non-stop flight by a bird: it
covered 8,425 miles in 11 days and one
hour, never stopping on the punishing
haul across the Pacific. Early trackers

were limited to large birds but the latest
solar-powered devices weigh 5g, about
the same as a sheet of paper.
Scientists observe a rule that the
trackers, which send a signal every 90
seconds to satellites that log the bird’s
position, should not exceed 1 per cent of
body weight.
“Twenty or thirty years ago we were
putting 300g and 400g
s. In
packages on albatrosses.
othose days, solar technology wasn’t there. Theyy
had to have batteries
and everything else,”
Dr Eric Woehler, one
of Australia’s leading
ecologists, said. “Now
we track birds that are
400 or 300g.”
he
However, although the

Depart: Oct 13
YK Delta, Alaska
Pacific
Ocean

US

Godwit’s
flight route
8,425 miles
11 days

AUSTRALIA
Arrive: Oct 24
Ansons Bay, Tasmania

fea of migratory birds
feats
ar thrilling, the tracking
are
te
technology
has uncove
ered
ominous changes
in the godwits’ world.
Jesse Conklin, a
Du
Dutch
ecologist who
cau
caught
and tagged bird
2346 before it left Alaska,
234684

believes that human reclamation of
mudflats in the Yellow Sea — an important feeding zone between China and
the Korean peninsula — is sapping the
birds’ food sources.
This is delaying their long-distance
flights and possibly shrinking their
breeding season in Alaska, which is
already affected by climate change. The
reduced number of godwits that are
reaching Australia and New Zealand
may be the result.
Although the birds make the journey
south non-stop, when they return in
March they drop into the Yellow Sea
mudflats to feed on insects, molluscs
and crustaceans. “Although we can’t
prove it decisively yet, our working
hypothesis is a familiar one: humans
are probably screwing it up for the
godwits,” Conklin said.

Bar-tailed godwit No 234684 is
believed to have stayed on the Tasmanian coast, recovering from his epic
journey.
Woehler, meanwhile, has been run
off his feet fielding international
inquiries while waiting for rain to clear
so he can find the “inspiring” bird that
flew into the international spotlight.
One admirer said the previous
record, held by an adult male of the
same species, had been “blown out of
the water by this young upstart”.
Woehler hopes the tracker will soon
lead him to it. “This bird has travelled
from the northern hemisphere, almost
as far north as you can go, to as far south
as you can go in Australia. It is an amazing effort,” he said. “He wasn’t following
mum and dad, he just took off and
headed south.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

43

World

Elite force on mission to stop gold diggers
Ivory Coast
Tom Collins Abidjan

On any given week Lieutenant Mahi
Landry is planning up to three topsecret missions with his elite com
mando unit from his cluttered desk in
Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast.
However, rather than fighting jihadists or drug dealers, the special unit has
one specific purpose: to save the west
African country’s depleting rainforests.
Ten specially trained and heavily
armed agents are permanently on call
to stage meticulously planned night
raids against illegal goldminers, loggers
and cacao farmers.
“We leave Abidjan in unmarked cars,
make a hit and then we move back,”
Landry told The Times. “We have

secured 75-80 per cent of the classified
forest, but there is still work to do.”
The Service de Contrôle Forestier
was created in the aftermath of Ivory
Coast’s 2011 election crisis, which led to
thousands of deaths and millions of
people fleeing into vast woodlands for
protection. The team was given the task
of regaining control of the forests and
stamping out a proliferation of illegal
activity that has cleared thousands of
hectares of trees.
Landry spends much of his time verifying information from a “vast network” of paid informants who provide
tip-offs about parts of the forest being
hacked down. Many of the spies are
former goldminers and loggers who
have been co-opted by the authorities
to snitch on their old partners.

“Information is everything,” Landry
said.
If the tip-off is deemed bona fide the
team will travel hundreds of miles to
scope out a forest using drones, 48
hours before they intend to strike. After
cleaning and checking their weapons,
the elite unit moves silently into the
dense rainforest in the dead of night.
“The goldminers work from about
2am to 5am, which is when we ambush
them,” Landry said. Last year the team
arrested hundreds of people, who face
between six months and five years in
prison for illegally cutting down trees.
Clashes are not uncommon and the
raids can sometimes lead to fatalities
on both sides.
Illegal goldmining is fast becoming
the unit’s main concern as poor

villagers tap in to complex smuggling
networks from west Africa across the
Sahara Desert to Dubai.
The rapid expansion of jihadist activity in the neighbouring countries of
Burkina Faso and Mali has also led to
Islamic State fighters taking control of
goldmines in Ivory Coast’s extreme
north, putting the lieutenant’s small
team at even greater risk.
The unit has recently been asked to
conduct a “huge investigation” into
gold-smuggling networks. Officials
hope to arrest the criminal gangs that
buy the precious metal, thereby reducing the incentive for villagers to cut
down trees. “The big boss will be arrested soon — it will be on the news,”
Landry said.
The unit forms part of Ivory Coast’s

wider efforts to reforest large parts of
destroyed rainforest, overseen by the
Society for the Development of Forests
(Sodefor), which looks after 234 classified forests spanning more than 4.2 million hectares, about a seventh of the
Francophone country’s land mass.
It has reforested more than 235,000
hectares of rainforest through a variety
of techniques, including growing and
planting trees in recovered areas.
At a plant nursery in the heart of the
Téné forest in central Ivory Coast, a
project manager explained that
Sodefor planted 28.5 million trees last
year.
“Planting trees is like giving life,”
Lieutenant Henri Sambi Michel said.
“We can save the forests if we each do
our bit.”
ALAMY; BEN STANSALL/GETTY IMAGES

Mondrian is upset in
topsy-turvy art world

A

painting by
Piet
Mondrian,
the Dutch art
theoretician,
has probably hung
upside down in a
German state art gallery
for at least four decades
(Oliver Moody writes).
New York City 1, an
abstract composition of
paint and lines of tape
from 1941, is said to
mark a turning point in
the artist’s career as he
shifted towards
interlocking
lattices of
colour in the
last years of
his life. The
work seems
to have gone
through an
accidental
turning point
of its own.
The
German
curators
believe that
it was
inadvertently
exhibited the
wrong way up
in 1945. The
error stuck.
The mistake

was noticed during
preparations for a
Mondrian exhibition at
the North RhineWestphalia state art
collection in Düsseldorf,
which charts the
evolution of his style on
the 150th anniversary of
his birth.
Susanne Meyer-Büser,
the curator, said the
main giveaway had been
the tape. In a
photograph of
Mondrian’s studio taken

Mondrian’s New York City 1
has joined Rothko’s Black
on Maroon and a portrait
of Felipe V in a row over
orientation

shortly after his death in
1944, the painting is
displayed on one of his
easels, with the denser
parts of the tape lines
at the top. The artist
also seems to have
applied the tape in
d
downwards
motions,

tearing it off roughly
once he reached the
bottom of the picture.
Another painting from
the same series has been
shown in what may be
the correct orientation
at the Centre Pompidou
in Paris. Mishaps of this

sort are not uncommon.
In 1961 the Museum of
Modern Art in New
York displayed Le
Bateau, a 1953 paper-cut
by Henri Matisse, upside
down for 47 days. An
observant stockbroker
pointed out the mistake.

The matter is not always
so simple, however.
In 2008 the Tate
Modern bristled at
suggestions that it had
incorrectly hung two
works from Mark
Rothko’s Black on
Maroon series in a
vertical rather than
horizontal orientation.
History can also
distort views of art.
Officials at the Almodi

gallery near Valencia
had a painting of
Felipe V hung upside
down because the king
ordered the town to be
set on fire in 1707 during
the War of Spanish
Succession.
But the Düsseldorf
Mondrian won’t be
easily overturned.
Meyer-Büser said the
upside-down hanging
had been accepted for so
long that correcting it
would be an act of
interference in its own
right. She said: “If I turn
the artwork over, I run
the risk of destroying it.”

Sports stars allowed to fly Basque flag Model to divorce NFL star
Spain
Isambard Wilkinson Madrid

The Spanish government’s decision to
allow the Basque region to compete in
international sports competitions for
surfing and pelota has enraged conservatives, who say it presents a threat
to national unity.
The concession was added to the
draft of a new sports law before parliament. The Socialist-led minority government of Pedro Sánchez agreed to it
in return for parliamentary backing
from the Basque region’s ruling party,
the Basque National Party (PNV).
The agreement permits surfing and
pelota, a court ball game, to be played
under the Basque flag because they
have “historical and social roots” in the
region.
Critics condemned the law as under-

mining Spain’s fragile unity and fear
that it will open the way for the Basque
region to enter international competitions for other sports such as football
and basketball.
“What the PNV calls a ‘historic milestone’ is a historic mistake based on a
shameful surrender by its ally Sánchez,
who is selling Spain to separatists,” said
Carlos Iturgaiz, the head of the main
opposition conservative People’s Party
(PP) in the Basque region.
Cuca Gamarra, the PP’s parliamentary spokeswoman, claimed that the
move had furthered the government’s
policy of building “a Spain in which the
principle of equality is broken between
Spaniards”.
The Basque terrorist group Eta formally disbanded in 2018 but with proseparatist nationalist parties dominating the region’s politics and a failed

Catalan declaration of independence in
2017, there are heightened sensitivities
about Spanish unity.
Patxi López, the Socialist party’s parliamentary spokesman, dismissed the
concerns but drew derision when he
said that “nothing had been broken
because Spain had no pelota team”. The
national team was at the time competing in the sport’s world cup in
Biarritz.
Others asked whether pelota players
from the neighbouring region of
Navarre, which has a tradition of playing the Basque game, would play for
Spain or the Basque Country. In a
column for El Debate newspaper,
Ramón Pérez-Maura questioned whether surfing, whose origins are usually
ascribed to Polynesia, could be accurately described as a historic Basque
sport.

Brady after 13-year marriage
United States
Keiran Southern Los Angeles

Gisele Bündchen has filed for divorce
from Tom Brady, confirming months of
rumours that their marriage was over.
The Brazilian fashion model married
the American NFL star in 2009 but
their relationship was apparently
strained by his decision to return to the
sport. According to the US showbiz
website TMZ, Bündchen, 42, filed for
divorce in Florida yesterday and Brady,
45, will not contest the separation. They
have two children and their lawyers
have spent much of this month settling
access and claims on property.
Brady, regarded as the greatest quarterback in the NFL, is a seven-time

Tom Brady and
Gisele Bündchen
married in 2009

Super Bowl champion. He announced
retirement from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February only to change his
mind weeks later — the move is said to
have dealt a fatal blow to his marriage.
In an interview with Elle magazine
last month, Bündchen admitted “concerns” about his return to the game.
“This is a very violent sport, and I have
my children and I would like him to be
more present,” she said.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

45

K1

Business
world markets

Sep 30 Oct 7

14

commodities

(Change on the day)

FTSE 100
7,047.67 (-26.02)

21

currencies

Gold
$1,641.12 (-18.22)

Dow Jones
32,861.80 (+828.52)

Brent crude (6pm)
$95.24 (-1.45)

$

$

£/$
$1.1581 (+0.0007)

£/€
€1.1653 (+0.0052)

$

¤

8,000

35,000

2,000

120

1.300

1.300

7,500

32,500

1,800

100

1.200

1.200

7,000

30,000

1,600

80

1.100

1.100

6,500

27,500

1,400
28

60

1.000

28

Sep 30 Oct 7

14

21

28

Sep 30 Oct 7

14

21

Sunset

Sep 30 Oct 7

70.7%

14

21

28

Sep 30 Oct 7

14

21

33.6%

$400

$150
140

300

130
120

200

110

100

He

100

0
Jan
2022

Apr

Jul

Oct

39.3%

Jan Mar May Jul
2022

$180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
Sep Nov

28

Jan Mar May Jul
2022

Nasdaq

90
Sep Nov

29.9%

$17,000
16,000
15,000
14,000
13,000
12,000
11,000
10,000

Jan
2022

Apr

Jul

Percentage fall year-to-date

Oct
Source: Refinitiv

$250bn wiped off value
of US technology giants
Nightmare on Wall Street for Silicon Valley
Emma Powell

America’s biggest technology names
had a combined $250 billion wiped off
their market value this week after disappointing third-quarter results.
Meta, the parent of Facebook and
Instagram, bore the brunt of the sell-off
in American technology stocks after it
reported that third-quarter profits had
more than halved, the first time in
almost a decade that its profits have
fallen for four consecutive quarters.
Meta and Alphabet, Google’s owner,
spooked investors by warning of a
slowdown in spending by advertisers
over the three months to the end of
September, which they said was likely
to worsen during the fourth quarter.
Meta’s heavy investment in the
metaverse has raised concerns among
analysts and investors. The company’s
Reality Labs division lost $10.2 billion
last year and Dave Wehner, Meta’s chief

financial officer, warned that the unit’s
operating losses would “grow significantly” in 2023. Shares in Meta have
fallen by 22.1 per cent, or $28.06, to
$99.20 since the start of this week and
are at a near-six-year low.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder
and chief executive, said while the company faced “near-term challenges on
revenue, the fundamentals are there for
a return to stronger revenue growth”.
Alphabet, the first of the Big Tech
players to report third-quarter figures,
set the tone for weaker earnings from
the former stock market darlings. Revenue growth slowed to only 6 per cent,
which, save for a brief contraction at the
start of the pandemic, was its lowest
growth in almost a decade. The group,
which owns the world’s leading search
engine, the Android smartphone operating system and YouTube, the video
platform, generates more than 80 per
cent of its revenue from online adver-

tising. Its shares fell 5.4 per cent, or
$5.51, to $96.29 this week.
Fourteen per cent was wiped off
Amazon’s shares, which fell $16.79 to
$103.41, after it warned that its operating profits could be all but wiped out in
the fourth quarter as it grappled with
the highest inflation in a generation
and intense competition. Profits for the
world’s biggest retailer fell 9 per cent to
$2.87 billion over the third quarter.
However, shares in Apple proved
more resilient, closing the week 5.7 per
cent, or $8.42, higher at $155.74. The
most valuable American public company reported revenue and profit that
were ahead of analysts’ forecasts
despite sales of the iPhone proving
weaker than expected. Profits edged
marginally ahead by $170 million to
$20.7 billion.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said
that “in a horror show week for Big
Tech earnings, Apple was the one

bright spot”. Some investors have
sought to capitalise on the sell-off.
Equity funds recorded their largest
weekly inflows since March over the
seven days to Wednesday at $22.9 billion, according to Bank of America,
with technology stocks accounting for
the largest share, at $2.3 billion.
A strengthening dollar has provided
another headache for American tech
companies, whose cost bases are mostly located in the United States but who
make a chunk of their sales overseas.
For Alphabet, the rally in the dollar
wiped five percentage points off the
group’s revenue growth rate during the
third quarter, an impact that Ruth
Porat, the company’s finance chief, said
would worsen during the final three
months of this year. Meta said foreign
exchange movements would knock
fourth-quarter revenue growth by
seven percentage points.
Zuckerberg tests market, pages 46-47

1.000
Sep 30 Oct 7

14

21

28

We really had
it Made but
bosses blew it,
says founder
Helen Cahill

A co-founder of the troubled
Made.com has criticised the retailer’s
management team for investing in high
stock levels just as customer demand
started to decline.
In a letter addressed to investors and
former colleagues on LinkedIn, the
social network, Brent Hoberman
attacked the company’s executives for
shifting away from its previous business
model, which prioritised “minimal
stock and wastage”.
Made.com was listed on the London
stock exchange for £775 million in June
last year after it benefited from a sales
uplift in the pandemic. But the trends
that boosted the company during
lockdown unwound as restrictions
eased. The ecommerce business is now
expected to enter administration.
Hoberman said in his letter that he
had stepped down from the board the
month before the float to avoid the
“rollercoaster” of public markets.
He said: “Made got caught with
massive inventory at just the wrong
time. The model had previously been
about minimal stock and wastage.
What was a differentiated model
morphed into being more similar to
other retailers.
“There are many questions about
how the capital raised in the IPO was
spent and who was worrying about the
potential risks, and how the company
had drifted from its initial business
model. Cash is always king.
“When on the board of Made I had
advocated a strategic sale. In the end
the IPO obviously proceeded, and
consumer demand fell dramatically for
furniture, and global supply chains
were broken, and container costs skyrocketed.”
Hoberman sold shares worth about
£5 million through his By Design
vehicle in Made.com’s listing and the
proceeds were shared among the
vehicle’s investors. Documents seen by
The Times reveal that many of By
Design’s investors wanted to reclaim
their portion of the vehicle’s 21 million
Made.com shares shortly after the
initial public offering. The investors
had seen the company’s falling share
price and wanted the opportunity to
sell their stock.
Hoberman’s co-investors were
unable to sell their shares for six
months after the IPO. But they received
a distribution of Made.com’s shares
worth £13.8 million on February 15.
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, who
joined with Hoberman to establish the
website Lastminute.com, was one of the
investors who received shares.
Made.com declined to comment.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

46

Business

Need to know

1

Mortgage rates are falling at the
fastest rate since last month’s
mini-budget. Some of Britain’s
biggest lenders, including Barclays,
HSBC and Santander, have cut the
cost of some fixed mortgage deals
by more than half a percentage
point this week. Page 2

2

Even in the final days, some
inside Twitter doubted
whether Elon Musk would
follow-through with his $44 billion
takeover after his attempts to
backtrack on his bid. But on
Thursday the world’s richest man
declared victory in the saga over
the social media operator’s future
and sent its former bosses on their
way. Page 3

3

The taxman has lost an
estimated £469 million to
fraud and error under the
£7.4 billion-a-year tax credit
scheme at the heart of Britain’s
industrial policy, which allows
companies to claim back money
they invest in high-tech research
and development. Page 4

4

Rishi Sunak was a member of
a small hedge fund while it
raked in almost £900 million
in profits in the two years leading
up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Sunak and his team at The
Children’s Investment fund carried
out controversial corporate raid
deals, making the prime minister a
multimillionaire in his mid-20s.

Page 9

5

America’s biggest technology
company’s had a combined
$250 billion wiped off their
market value this week after
disappointing third-quarter results,
amid tightening advertising
budgets. Meta, the parent
company of Facebook and
Instagram, bore the brunt of the
sell-off in such stocks. Page 45

6

Brent Hoberman, a cofounder of the troubled
Made.com, has criticised the
online retailer’s management team
for investing in high stock levels
just as customer demand started to
decline. Page 45

7

Airbus, the European aircraft
maker that directly employs
more than 10,000 people in
Britain, has claimed it is on a
flightpath to recovery. Airbus,
which is based in Toulouse but has
facilities in north Wales and near
Bristol, said it was on track to
finish more than 700 jets this year.

8

Alison Rose, chief executive of
NatWest, the taxpayer-backed
lender, has warned of a
worsening outlook for the
economy after the bank set aside
an extra £247 million for potential
loan losses and said that house
prices were likely to fall. Page 48

9

Glencore, rhe FTSE 100
mining and commodities
trading group, reported
weaker production than expected
in the third quarter after its
operations were affected by strikes,
bad weather and disruption from
the war in Ukraine. Page 49

10

Centrica, the owner of
British Gas, has re-opened
the largest gas storage
facility in Britain to take advantage
of a drop in prices to refill the site
with gas that it can sell at higher
cost when supplies are scarce.

Page 50-51

Zuckerberg learns patience
Investors want some
answers amid plans to
pivot to the metaverse,
report Callum Jones
and Katie Prescott
“I appreciate the patience,” Mark
Zuckerberg told shareholders as Meta
Platforms wrapped its earnings call on
Wednesday, “and I think that those
who are patient and invest with us will
end up being rewarded.”
As he spoke, however, the world’s
biggest social media group found
patience in short supply on Wall Street.
Its stock dropped like a stone this week
as attempts by the Facebook founder
and his executives to reassure the
market again fell on deaf ears.
A sharpening slowdown in sales
triggered the latest sell-off in Meta’s
shares, knocking them to their lowest
level since 2016 and stripping the ailing
technology group, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of its status as one
of America’s twenty largest companies.
Its 71 per cent spiral on the market
this year has been driven by concerns
on three fronts: slowing revenue from
digital advertising; the rapid rise of its
rivals; and Zuckerberg’s dogged determination to pivot the entire business.
Shareholders and market analysts
are alarmed. Before the company’s
results this week, Altimeter Capital, a
long-time investor with a stake of
0.1 per cent said to be worth about
$396 million, published an open letter
urging Meta to pare back its “terrifying”
investment into the metaverse — a
virtual world it maintains will be the
future of the internet — and regain its
“mojo” by cutting costs and jobs.
Michael Burry, the hedge fund
manager who shot to fame during the
financial crisis after betting against the
housing bubble, suggested Meta had a
“New Coke problem” in a post on
Twitter this month, an apparent reference to Coca-Cola’s ill-fated recipe
change in the 1980s. Burry’s Scion
Asset Management sold out of a stake
in Meta this year.
Brent Thill, an analyst at Jefferies,
voiced disappointment that the company was not concentrating more on its
core business and cutting back further
on costs as the economic outlook darkens. “It has an incredible amount of
bloat,” he said. “It should stick to its core
and what it is good at and stay under the
bus shelter while it is raining.”
Sales at Meta are in decline for the
first time since it went public in 2012.
The company is focused on constructing the next frontier of the internet,
but in the present iteration it still relies
on its social networks for 99 per cent of
its business. Dan Ives, a technology

analyst at Wedbush Capital, described
the group’s third quarter as an “absolute
train wreck” that served only to
underline the “pervasive digital advertising doldrums ahead”.
Two external factors are piling pressure on social media companies and
apps that built their businesses around
ads. Apple’s introduction of sweeping
privacy changes to the iPhone last year
made it harder for such platforms to
track users across other websites and
target adverts. Meanwhile, mounting
concern this year over the spectre of
recession, as Russia invaded Ukraine
and as interest rates rise to combat
inflation, has prompted companies to
cut back their advertising budgets.
Investors might be less concerned by
such challenges today were Meta not
facing big questions over its dominance
tomorrow. While Facebook and
Instagram have been the leading social
networks worldwide for the past
decade, TikTok, the Chinese-owned
short-form video app with more than a
billion monthly active users, has
emerged as a serious competitor.
One meme doing the rounds this
week used a scene from Star Wars — of
which Zuckerberg is an impassioned
fan — to mock Meta’s travails. Han Solo
and Princess Leia are stuck in a space
station’s trash compactor as the walls
close in. Zuckerberg’s face was superimposed on to each of the characters;
Apple’s logo was to their left, creeping
closer, and TikTok’s to their right. “One
thing’s for sure,” says Solo, “we’re all
going to be a lot thinner.”
Meta has acknowledged it has been
hit by an unfortunate combination of
“challenging dynamics” this year and it
sought to reassure investors this week
that it was responding to growing competition and advertising headwinds.
Zuckerberg said that activity on
Meta’s apps, which have 3.71 billion
users each month, had been bolstered
by new features. Reels, short-form
videos on Instagram and Facebook
akin to TikTok posts, were played more
than 140 billion times a day, he
reported. That is up 50 per cent in just
six months.
The company conceded, too, that the
economic climate had changed the
game. Its 87,000-strong workforce,
which has grown by 54 per cent in two
years, is expected to finish 2023 at
roughly the same size as it shrinks some
teams, freezes others and expands only
those that align with its “highest
priorities”.
Yet it is Meta’s priorities that have
raised eyebrows highest in recent
months. At a time when belts are being
tightened, workers laid off and projects
ditched, across the technology sector
and well beyond, it has embarked upon
an increasingly expensive expedition
into the metaverse.
Neil Campling, head of TMT

Mark Zuckerbeg’s latest avatar is another example of his commitment to the so-

research at Mirabaud Equity Research,
said: “There’s a danger Meta could
become the next AOL. It has to spend
substantial amounts on trying to stay
relevant, without proof that that’s going
to be successful.”
Zuckerberg, 38, is not budging. A year
after changing his company’s name to
reflect its new priority, costs are rising
and Meta is warning they will increase
“significantly” in 2023. In the first three
quarters of this year, its Reality Labs
metaverse unit has racked up losses of
$9.4 billion as it develops hardware,
such as the Quest Pro virtual reality
headset unveiled this month, and software. “I think the teams are making

very good progress,” Zuckerberg said
this week, “and I think that this will be
fundamentally important for the
future. Nothing that we’re seeing
suggests that’s not going to be the case.
“We are pacing a bunch of the
investments given the kind of macroeconomic environment and the rest of
the business performance, but ultimately, I mean, look, I get that a lot of
people might disagree with this investment. But from what I can tell, I think
that this is going to be a very important
thing and I think it would be a mistake
for us to not focus on any of these areas
. . . So we’re going to try to do this in a
way that is responsible and matches the

Airbus expects deliveries to take off as rovers return
Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Airbus, the European aircraft maker
that directly employs more than 10,000
people in Britain, claimed yesterday
that it was on a flightpath to recovery.
After delivering 437 aircraft in the
first nine months of the year, the
company, which is based in Toulouse
but has facilities at Broughton in north
Wales and at Filton near Bristol,
insisted that it was on track to finish
more than 700 new jets for the year as
whole.
Broughton is assembling wings at a
rate of 50 a month for Airbus’s workhorse short-haul aircraft in its A320

family, of which the company has delivered 430 in the year to date.
Airbus confirmed that it would
increase its monthly rate of producing
the A320 to 65 by early 2024 and to 75
by 2025.
It competes with Boeing, its American arch-rival, and is increasing its
plans for the larger A321, a competitor
for the Boeing 737 Max.
Airbus said: “The groundwork
continues throughout all sites to
secure [a] rate [of] 75 and adapt to the
higher proportion of A321s.”
The company also reported that it
had delivered 42 of its long-haul, widebody, twin-aisled A350s, the aircraft

that runs exclusively on engines built
by Rolls-Royce and that competes with
the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
In good news for Rolls, Airbus said:
“On wide-body aircraft, the company is
exploring, together with its supply
chain, the feasibility of further rate
increases to meet growing market
demand as international air travel
recovers.”
While Guillaume Faury, chief executive, tried to be upbeat on Airbus’s
prospects, he warned that it was in a
“complex operating environment”.
Faury, 54, added: “The supply chain
remains fragile, resulting from the
cumulative impact of Covid, the war in

Ukraine, energy supply issues and
constrained labour markets.”
The company’s financial performance was helped by the strength of the
dollar in which the airline industry
deals, against the euro, the currency in
which Airbus reports. For the first nine
months of the year, group revenues
rose to €38 billion from €35 billion. Its
underlying earnings before interest and
tax rose only marginally to €3.4 billion
but are on track to hit €5.5 billion for the
year.
Stronger than expected cashflow of
€2.9 billion has led to the company
revising up its expectations for the year
to €4.5 billion from €3.5 billion.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

47

Business

is not a virtue in the stock market
Quarterly earnings report to Sept 30, 2022.
Numbers are year-on-year

Big Tech’s rapid growth hit by
advertising revenue slowdown

Revenue growth

Analysis

-4%
for the quarter, to $27.7bn, from $29bn

Metaverse losses

-$36bn
The company expects losses in its Reality
Labs division “will grow significantly” in
2023 but hope, in the long run, it will grow
the company’s overall income

Employees

+28%
increase to 87,314 people. It expects this
number to stay flat next year

Average price per ad

-18%
even while ad impressions rose by 17%

Facebook’s monthly active users

2.96bn
an increase of 2%

Total app users

3.7bn
people used at least one of WhatsApp,
Facebook, Instagram or Messenger, an
increase of 4%
called metaverse, but the market is uneasy with such a determined focus on the future and relatively little on the present

way that the rest of the business is
growing over time.”
Meta is not the only huge technology
group under pressure. One after
another, Alphabet, Microsoft and
Amazon have rattled the stock market
in a dismal week for all Silicon Valley’s
heavyweights bar Apple. But none has
suffered as much as Meta this year.
Zuckerberg might yet prove to be the
mad genius who knows what the future
looks like, Campling said. Then again,
“it’s also equally possible he is completely devoid from reality and isn’t listening to the importance of shareholder returns or shareholder messaging”.
Founders of technology companies

are not immune to external pressure.
Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple after
a power struggle with the board in 1985;
Travis Kalanick left Uber amid concern
over the company’s culture in 2017; and
Jack Dorsey exited Twitter not once,
but twice, after disagreements with the
social media group’s board.
Yet Zuckerberg remains in full control. While his confidence in Meta’s
prospects is not universally shared
among its investors, the grip he has
retained on the business since its initial
public offering means there is little they
can do to force a change in course. He
owns most of the company’s class B
shares, granting him veto power over

other shareholders as they afford him
ten votes per share. All in, he has about
54 per cent of the voting rights at Meta.
Questions over Zuckerberg’s influence at Meta have surfaced before. A
sell-off in 2018 prompted calls for the
appointment of an independent chairman. It was “not effective to have one
person as king of the company”, Chris
Ailman, chief investment officer of the
California State Teachers’ Retirement
System, told Bloomberg that year.
More than four years later, Zuckerberg remains chairman and chief executive of his empire. The king, urging his
subjects to be patient, is not in any
hurry to move along.

A

s one by one the giants
of the technology sector
published their
financial results this
week, a central focus
was the state of the advertising
market (Katie Prescott and Callum
Jones write).
The money chasing our eyeballs
has long been the driving force
behind the platforms’
extraordinary growth. As the
economy takes a turn for the
worse and businesses tighten their
belts, typically marketing spending
is the first thing to go. The big
questions are how long will this
last and just how bad is it?
Alphabet, the world’s largest
advertising platform by market
share, reported a “pull back in
spend by some advertisers”, with
advertising revenue at Google
Search of $39.5 billion for the
quarter, up 4 per cent. YouTube
advertising revenues of $7.1 billion
were down by 2 per cent. Its
advertising revenue from gaming
also fell as people spent less time
at home.
The picture at Meta, Facebook’s
parent company, was bleak. Ad
sales shrank by 4 per cent in the
quarter to $27.7 billion, while
profits halved. “Revenue growth
from large advertisers remains
challenged,” Dave Wehner, the
chief financial officer, reported,
because of the “uncertain and
volatile macroeconomic
landscape”.
This is a global trend. Figures
from the UK’s advertising industry
this week showed revenue in the
sector growing by 9 per cent this
year, but forecast a mere 3 per cent
in 2023. Most sectors are pulling
back, but the automotive industry
stands out as a weak spot and is
predicted to cut marketing
spending by more than 12 per cent
because of supply issues.
Alex Brownsell, head of media at
WARC, a marketing intelligence
company, put it down to “a serious
deceleration in the growth in
advertising spend from a pretty
crazy 2021. Juggernauts like
Alphabet and Meta that have been
growing at a ridiculous speed over
the last few years are seeing that
reality bite. Whereas digital
platforms have weathered previous

downturns quite comfortably, this
time the economic situation seems
to be impacting all media.”
There are structural changes,
too. Last year, Apple introduced a
new app tracking transparency
policy, which meant that iPhone
users could approve whether they
were willing for that app to track
their behaviour. In the past, if
someone saw an advert for a pair
of Nike trainers on Snapchat and
then bought them two days later,
Snap could have followed that
purchase and attributed it to the
marketing spend. Now that it is
harder to prove the effectiveness of
advertising on their platforms,
WARC believes Apple’s change
will cost social media companies
$40 billion in 2022-23.
Advertising sales are also
shifting. Amazon, which has taken
market share from a myriad of
industries over the years, is on the
rise. Its advertising services
business surged by 30 per cent,
albeit on a constant currency
basis, in the three months to
September, generating revenue of
$9.5 billion. Microsoft’s search and
news advertising revenue
increased by 16 per cent.
Meanwhile, TikTok, Facebook’s
arch-rival, is “going gangbusters”,
according to Brownsell, with
predicted growth in advertising
revenue of 41 per cent in 2023,
rising to a third of the size of
YouTube.
“Facebook’s audience profile,
particularly in affluent western
markets, is ageing. Advertisers are
constantly searching for where the
under-25s are spending their time
and TikTok is hugely successful
with that audience,” he said.
WPP was bullish when the
London-listed advertising
conglomerate reported a 100 per
cent rise in revenue this week. It
said: “The downturn is more
something that people are
anticipating than has happened yet
to consumer spending.”
Yet competition is stiff. Setting
out his vision for ownership of
Twitter this week, Elon Musk
spoke to the industry. “Advertising
when done right can delight,
entertain and inform you,” he said.
He also said “Twitter aspires to be
the most respected advertising
platform in the world”. No mean
feat for anyone in this climate.

Soaring ticket prices lift British Airways group back into profit
Robert Lea

Rising ticket prices, with fares 22 per
cent above pre-pandemic levels, have
helped the British Airways group
strongly back into profits.
As it begins to claw back the €11 billion of losses suffered during the
pandemic, International Consolidated
Airlines Group yesterday reported
operating profits of €1.2 billion in the
crucial summer trading quarter, up
from a €452 million loss in the same
three-month period last year.
With its aircraft now flying 87 per
cent full, the business reversed the
losses in the first half of the year that

were hit first by Covid-19 travel
restrictions and then by the chaotic
staff shortages of the industry’s postlockdowns’ restart that led to furious
headlines and even angrier customers
during the summer.
IAG, comprising BA, Aer Lingus and
the Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling,
reported operating profits of €770 million for the first nine months of the year.
Things are now going so well that it
expects to book another €330 million
in the Christmas quarter for full-year
operating profits of €1.1 billion.
BA and its sister airlines have the
willingness of its 29.5 million customers
during the summer to pay over the odds

for their air tickets to thank for that.
Between July and September the group
flew nearly a fifth fewer seats than it did
in the same three months in the prepandemic quarter of 2019, not helped
by the constraints put on it by Heathrow, its main hub, because of continuing staff shortages there.
IAG achieved passenger revenues of
€7.32 million, marginally higher than
in the summer of 2019. That was
achieved by passenger unit revenue —
a proxy measure for the fares that
people pay — being up by 21.9 per cent
on 2019. The passenger yield, or the
profit it makes per flying passenger,
rose by 22.9 per cent from 2019 levels.

At the same time its fuel bill during the
quarter was helped by a sharp reversal
in the prices it paid for kerosene, down
on average by more than a fifth from
the equivalent of €123 a barrel to €96 a
barrel.
Luis Gallego, 53, the IAG chief
executive, said: “All our airlines were
significantly profitable and we are
continuing to see strong passenger
demand while capacity and load factors
recover. Leisure demand is particularly
healthy and leisure revenue has recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Business
travel continues to recover steadily.
While demand remains strong, we are
conscious of the uncertainties in the

economic outlook and the pressures on
households.”
The group flew at 81 per cent of its
pre-pandemic capacity in the third
quarter and that will rise to 87 per cent
this quarter. It says its flying schedule
would be at 95 per cent of normal in the
first quarter of 2023.
The legacy of the pandemic is €11 billion of net debt. Although €600 million
lower than three months ago, it is forecast to rise again as IAG begins to take
delivery of 87 new short-haul aircraft to
augment the group’s 550-strong fleet.
Shares in IAG have halved over the
past 18 months and fell a further 4½p, or
3.7 per cent, to 115¼p yesterday.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

48

Business
HOLLIE ADAMS/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

NatWest braces for pain
from faltering economy
Ben Martin Banking Editor

Alison Rose says people on lower incomes are changing their spending habits

The boss of NatWest warned of a worsening outlook for the economy after
the bank set aside an extra £247 million
for potential loan losses and said that
house prices were likely to fall.
Alison Rose, chief executive of the
taxpayer-backed lender, said that the
environment had become “more challenging” in recent months, although

the FTSE 100 group had yet to notice
signs of “heightened financial stress”
among its customers.
“We are, however, very conscious of
the growing concerns of our customers
and we are closely monitoring any
changes in their financial behaviour,”
Rose, 52, said.
The lender is also bracing for a
housing market downturn, with the
weighted average of its different economic scenarios now suggesting a fall
of just over 7 per cent next year. It
comes after Lloyds Banking Group, a
high street rival and Britain’s biggest
mortgage lender, revealed on Thursday
that its base case was for a fall of almost
8 per cent in 2023.
Banks are being watched closely
amid the inflation-fuelled cost of living
crisis for signs that consumers and
businesses are coming under pressure.
Rose said NatWest’s credit and debit
card spending data showed customers
were still spending on travel and hospitality, but she added: “We have seen
people on lower-decile incomes balancing where they spend their money, so
maybe changing which supermarkets
they spend in, managing their subscriptions in a different way.”
She was speaking as the bank said
that its pre-tax operating profits had
climbed by 11 per cent to almost £1.1 billion in the third quarter after it received
a lift from rising interest rates. However, this was short of the £1.2 billion
that had been expected by City analysts
because of NatWest’s bigger than anticipated provision for possible bad loans,
which are expected to rise as the economy slides towards recession. It also
signalled that inflation was likely to
push up its costs next year, but did not
give a specific forecast. This spooked
investors, who sent its shares tumbling
by 9.2 per cent, or 22¾p, to 224¾p.
NatWest is one of Britain’s biggest

high street banks and has been led by
Rose for three years. The government is
its biggest shareholder, with a stake of
just under 47 per cent, a legacy of the
lender’s £45.5 billion bailout in the 2008
financial crisis.
It is the last of Britain’s big listed
lenders to report third-quarter results
and all of them have received a boost
from moves by central banks to lift
interest rates to combat inflation.
Higher rates benefit commercial banks’

£1.1bn

Quarterly profit at NatWest in the three
months to the end of September
Source: NatWest

net interest margins, which is the
difference between what they pay to
depositors and what they charge for
loans. While rate rises are passed on in
full to borrowers, they are only partially
passed on to depositors.
NatWest’s net interest margin
climbed to 2.99 per cent in the third
quarter, up from from 2.28 per cent a
year earlier. It said the increase was
“driven by the impact of base rate rises”.
Given that the bank is backed by
taxpayers, it is likely to face heightened
scrutiny of its margins and the interest
it pays to its depositors. Katie Murray,
NatWest’s finance chief, said it had
passed 40 per cent of the last Bank base
rate increase on to savers.
Higher margins at banks are also
fuelling calls for the government to
impose a windfall tax on the industry.
Rose said this was a decision for
ministers, but noted: “Banks based in
the UK already pay a considerable
amount of tax, more than any other
sector and more than any of our peers
in other locations around the world.”

Business failures leap as
pandemic support ends
James Hurley

Corporate insolvencies rose by 40 per
cent between July and September compared with a year ago, amid economic
strife and the phasing out of pandemic
support.
There were 5,595 company failures,
including 4,800 creditors’ voluntary
liquidations, close to the highest quarterly level since comparable records
began in 1960. There were 492 compulsory liquidations, involving intervention from the courts, the highest
quarterly number since the onset of
Covid-19 but below pre-pandemic
levels.
Voluntary liquidations represented
86 per cent of corporate insolvencies in
the quarter. The government’s Insolvency Service noted that the increase
in this process, where directors can
choose to place a company into liquidation after a shareholder vote, coincided
with the phasing out of measures to
support firms during the pandemic.
Jeremy Whiteson, restructuring and
insolvency partner at Fladgate, a law
firm, said voluntary liquidations were
“generally used by companies with no
ongoing business, to dispose of remaining assets or just shut the corporate
entity. That may show that many
businesses were exhausted by the long
restrictions on business during the

pandemic and subsequent business
challenges, leaving no business to save.”
Overall corporate insolvencies
edged down 1 per cent compared with
the previous quarter, when creditors’
voluntary liquidations were also near
record highs.
Christina Fitzgerald, president of R3,
the insolvency and restructuring trade
body, said: “Two years of economic
turbulence are translating into a rise in
corporate insolvencies. Now support
has ended, we’re starting to see numbers exceed pre-pandemic ones.”
She said there was a “perfect storm of
directors running out of road and creditors being able to pursue unpaid debts”
after emergency legislation that prevented this ended in the summer, and
that “it seems inevitable numbers will
increase in the coming months”.
Nicola Banham, insolvency director
at Azets, the accounting firm, noted
there were 16,105 corporate insolvencies in the first three quarters of 2022,
compared with 9,433 during the same
period in 2021, a 71 per cent rise. “This
pressure will continue to build as
companies face increasing costs at a
time of prolonged economic uncertainty,” she said.
There were 27,927 individual insolvencies, 2 per cent higher than in the
same period last year but 5 per cent
lower than the previous three months.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

49

Business

Dominic O’Connell

Strikes, rain
and war put
Glencore
on back foot

This vague greenwashing language
is simply not sustainable any longer

‘‘

The past few years
have yielded a
bumper crop of
grating phrases that
mean the exact
opposite of what was intended.
“Strong and stable”, Theresa May’s
boast about her administration,
became a shorthand for Conservative
leadership mayhem. Western central
banks repeatedly described the
present wave of inflation as
“transitory”. Elon Musk’s “funding
secured” now applies to any
impetuous vain victory shout.
One that particularly annoys me,
probably through its endless
repetition, is “sustainable”. Every
business is now sustainable, even if its
main source of revenue is skinning
snow leopards. Examples come thick
and fast. This week I received emails
from two fund managers both of
which promised, in the exact same
words, that “sustainability was at our
core”. If you look at the website of
Thungela Resources, which has been
the best-performing FTSE 100 share
this year (if you bought it in January,
you would have tripled your money)
there is a whole section devoted to
sustainability. It is a coalminer.
If everyone claims to be sustainable,
the term means nothing. This is a big
problem for ordinary investors, many
of whom would like to put their
savings into funds that work for the
greater good. How can they tell which
funds are actually doing what they say
and which are merely greenwashing,
interested in sustainability only as a
marketing tool?
Sustainable means different things
to different fund managers and there
is no independent auditing of what
effect their investments have had. In
some cases there is a strong suspicion
that terms such as “sustainable” and
“ESG” (environmental, social and
governance, the holy trinity of
responsible investing) are being used
simply to justify higher fees. It is a
handy excuse, as traditional fund
management fees have been under
crippling attack from low-cost passive
investment firms.
There is the added complication
that investors also have no uniform
idea of what a green investment looks
like. Should an oil company such as
Shell be in a sustainable fund? Some
investors would run a mile; others
would be happy, arguing that oil and
gas are needed in the transition to
other forms of energy and it is right

excluded from that gusher of client
money looking for a reputable home.
If you found that description of the
labels confusing, you are not alone.
The labels are based on terms that
the watchdog itself says have become
discredited through years of
indiscriminate use. Giving them back
some rigour and re-establishing
consumer trust may take just as long.
Another weakness is that the
system, at least at first, will be selfregulating. There will be no
independent auditing of what
individual funds are doing, although
managers will be expected to provide
data to support their claims and the
FCA will do some sampling. That may
change over time; a whole structure
of environmental auditing systems is
gradually cranking into operation to
keep up with other rules that require
companies to keep track of their
carbon emissions. That eventually
may provide a route to provide proper
assessment of funds’ impact.
It is a rickety system with enough
leeway to give clever fund managers
room to wriggle, but it is a big
improvement on today’s free-for-all
and the FCA should be encouraged to
make it tighter over time.

to support a company such as Shell
that is at least doing some planning
on how to get there.
Regulators around the world have
been puzzling for some time about
how to bring some order to this
morass of uncertainty. This week the
Financial Conduct Authority took its
first steps. It is going to introduce
three different labels for “green”
funds, will make fund managers
provide evidence to show that they
have done what they said they would
and will introduce a general
“anti-greenwashing” duty that will
apply to everyone in the industry.
This kind of investing is far from a
minority sport. The FCA’s market
research suggests that four out of five
adults want their savings to do good
as well as provide a return. Last year,
according to the Investment
Association, the trade body for fund
managers, the market for sustainable,
UK-domiciled investment funds grew
by 69 per cent to £79 billion. The
wider market grew by 11 per cent. The
watchdog also found plenty of
evidence of greenwashing, with no
system of standardised reporting and

firms using buzzword environmental
terms interchangeably to describe
what they did. The terms themselves
were often confusing. “The acronym
ESG has no natural language
meaning when taken out of context
and some consumers may be unaware
of what it stands for,” the FCA said.
The three labels, which come into
force in two years, will separate funds
into three broad types based on the
managers’ investment intentions. The
first, sustainable focus, will be for
funds that “meet a credible standard
of environmental and/or social
sustainability”. The second,
sustainable improvers, will be for
funds with an “objective to deliver
measurable improvements in the
sustainability profile of assets over
time”. The third, sustainable impact, is
for investments with “an explicit
objective to achieve a positive,
measurable contribution to
sustainable outcomes”.
In each case, fund managers will be
expected to provide evidence of how
their investments have met their
objectives or they will not be allowed
to use the labels. They will be

PS
There are all kinds of conundrums for
the responsible investor. This week
BASF, German corporate royalty and
the world’s biggest chemicals
company, said it would cut back
manufacturing in Europe because
energy prices were too high. It has
been opening plants in China.
What should concerned BASF
shareholders do? If the plants move to
China, BASF will benefit from cheaper
energy, but a lot of it will come from
coal-fired power stations and, anyway,
aren’t high energy prices a good thing
if we are going to save the planet? If
you pressure bosses not to move,
BASF chemicals will be uncompetitive
and it will go out of business, leaving
the field to rivals who probably care
less about the environment.
I asked a leading green fund
manager about this and he said BASF
should try to be more efficient and
should look at the
“circular economy.” I
don’t think that will
quite cut the
mustard.

’’

Dominic O’Connell is business
presenter for Times Radio

Emily Gosden

Glencore has reported weaker production than expected in the third quarter
after its operations were affected by
strikes, bad weather and disruption
from the war in Ukraine.
The FTSE 100 mining and commodities trading group cut its guidance
for zinc, nickel and coal output this year
as a result of the issues, which also have
affected many of its peers.
Glencore reduced its zinc guidance
by 6 per cent because of what Gary
Nagle, its chief executive, described as
“the emergence of significant supply
chain issues in Kazakhstan stemming
from the Russia-Ukraine war”. Its
nickel guidance was cut by 7 per cent
because of a fifteen-week strike at its
Raglan mine in Canada and a ten-day
strike at Nikkelverk in Norway.
Glencore cut its coal output guidance
by 9 per cent citing “extreme weather in
Australia”, where severe flooding in
New South Wales and higher rainfall
than average in Queensland has disrupted mining operations. The group
said there had also been delays in
restoring mining and logistics infrastructure and that “the La Niña weather pattern exhibits a high probability
of causing further disruption” in the
fourth quarter.
Despite the lower output, Glencore is
on track for a bumper year thanks to
high prices for many of its commodities, especially coal, and a strong
performance by its trading division.
The Switzerland-based company
reported record net income of $12.1 billion in the first half of the year, nine
times higher than a year earlier.
Earnings before interest, tax and other
charges for its mining division more
than doubled to $15 billion, driven by
record coal prices.
Its commodities traders made
adjusted earnings before interest and
taxation of $3.7 billion in the first half
— more than they had been expected
to make in the entire year.
Glencore said yesterday that after
the “exceptionally strong marketing
performance in the first half of the
year” it expected a “significantly reduced, but still above-average secondhalf contribution, likely exceeding
$1.6 billion”.
Analysts at Jefferies said: “Thermal
coal prices are high now as a result of
the war and weather and risk to prices
this winter is to the upside”, which
would be a driver of cashflow.
Glencore’s shares closed down 4¼p,
or 0.9 per cent, at 496¾p.

550

2GM

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Business

Emily Gosden Energy Editor

The largest gas storage facility in
Britain has reopened as its owner takes
advantage of a drop in prices to refill the
site with gas that it can sell at higher
cost when supplies are scarce.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas,
said the partial reopening of Rough, 18
miles off the coast of Yorkshire, had
boosted Britain’s gas storage capacity

by 50 per cent, or 30 billion cubic feet.
That is equivalent to about three days of
average UK winter gas demand, taking
Britain’s storage capacity to nine days.
Centrica conceded, however, that the
site was “not a silver bullet for energy
security” and that withdrawals from it
would supply only about 1 per cent of
UK demand on a very cold winter’s day.
The company shut Rough as a storage site in 2017 after concluding that it

could “no longer safely inject gas into
the reservoir and build up the pressure
in the wells” and that market conditions
made the site uneconomic to repair.
The gas crisis caused by Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine has upended
markets, however, increasing calls for
more storage to bolster energy security.
Centrica had been in talks with the
government over the potential for
regulated, consumer-funded guaran-

tees over minimum revenues for Rough
to reopen.
A significant drop in gas prices in
recent weeks amid unseasonably warm
weather means there is a chance for
Centrica to refill the site now when gas
is cheap — day-ahead prices were less
than 40p per therm at points this week
— and to sell it again in winter when
forecasts suggest prices will be much
higher. Gas for December delivery is
trading at more than 300p per therm.
As a result Centrica made the
undisclosed investment necessary to
reopen the site at 20 per cent of its
original 150 billion cubic feet capacity
without any government guarantees.
Chris O’Shea, chief executive, said
the company had “enough visibility of
gas prices over this winter to be able to
run it with no need for any regulatory
support model”. He said Centrica was
doing this to keep consumer prices
down, but analysts estimate it will be
highly lucrative for the company.
Rough has about 20 billion cubic feet
of gas at present. Martin Young, at
Investec, calculated that Centrica
could make about £5 million for each
day it injectsed gas into the site if prices
stayed depressed in the near term and
rose as expected early next year.
Centrica can only withdraw gas from
Rough at a slower rate than from most
other existing facilities and National
Grid has indicated that it expects the
volumes to be delivered on any day to
be negligible. O’Shea said the site could
supply enough to the grid to supply
about 3 per cent of households’ winter
gas demand. “You’re talking about
being able to heat a million homes for a
hundred days,” he said. Centrica says it
can supply gas at a rate of 160 million
cubic feet per day.
National Grid estimates that on very
cold days Britain may need 15.5 billion
cubic feet of gas and that other storage
facilities could supply 3.3 billion cubic
feet of gas per day in a crisis.
Britain has far less storage than its
European neighbours: Germany has 89
days of demand, France 103 days and
the Netherlands 123 days, according to
Centrica. The company is lobbying for
consumer-funded guarantees that
would enable it to invest to increase
Rough’s capacity much further. It says it
would need to invest about £150 million
to double the capacity to 60 billion cubic feet, or about £2 billion for its longterm plan to turn it into a hydrogen
storage site that could store as much as
200 billion cubic feet.
Shares in Centrica rose by 5.1 per
cent, or 3½p, to 73¼p.

Smooth operator
Rough capacity

30bn cubic feet this winter
= 9 LNG tankers (approx)
= 3 days’ average UK winter demand
Current
gas levels

Previous peak
capacity

20bn cft

150bn cft

Gas storage by country
UK
9 days (6 days before today;
3 days extra from Rough)

Germany
France
Netherlands
20 miles

89
103
123
North Sea

Hull
Grimsby

Rough,
Britain’s
largest gas
storage
facility

Cromer

Sources: National Grid, Centrica

Centrica reopens Rough storage
site to ‘exploit volatile gas prices’

Ministers were
not worried by
supply security
Behind the story

T

he government shrugged
off fears about low levels
of gas storage, despite
warnings that it could
leave the country facing
shortages (Emily Gosden writes).
In 2013, Michael Fallon, energy
minister at the time, rejected calls
to subsidise new gas storage sites,
arguing that it was “increasingly
easy to import additional
supplies”. He said the government
did not “need to waste billpayers’
money on extra subsidies for

Record quarterly profits
Emily Gosden

ExxonMobil has reported its highest
quarterly profit on record of almost
$20 billion after cashing in on high oil
and gas prices.
The American oil major’s thirdquarter net profit of $19.66 billion was
almost three times as high as the
$6.75 billion made in the same period of
2021 and significantly exceeded Wall
Street expectations, sending its shares
up 2.9 per cent, or $3.15, to close at
$110.70 in New York last night.
The profit was almost as much as the
$20.7 billion reported by Apple, the
world’s biggest listed company by value
— a title Exxon held as recently as 2013.
Chevron, Exxon’s smaller rival, also
smashed expectations with its third-

quarter net profit of $11.2 billion, almost
double the same period a year ago and
its second highest result to date.
Chevron’s shares rose 1.2 per cent, or
$2.08, to $179.98.
The bumper results are likely to refocus political attention on oil industry
profits after President Biden criticised
the sector for high fuel prices and urged
companies to increase production. In
June, Biden said Exxon had “made
more money than God last year”.
The results come after Shell, Europe’s
biggest oil company, reported its
second highest quarterly profit ever of
$9.5 billion, reigniting calls for the UK
government to impose a tougher windfall tax after revealing it had received a
tax rebate for its North Sea operations
so far this year. BP is due to report next

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

51

2GM

Business
Cold day forecast gas supply and demand totals for this winter
DEMAND
(cubic feet per day)

SUPPLY (cubic feet per day)
Total: 17.1bn
Pipelines from
Belgium and
The Netherlands 2.6bn

Rough
160m

Storage
excluding Rough
3.3bn

Total: 15.5bn
Exports to Ireland 1bn
Gas-fired
power plants 2.8bn
Heavy industry and
big businesses 1.1bn

Liquefied
natural gas
3.7bn

Pipelines
from Norway
3.9bn
UK
North Sea
3.4bn

investment that the market can
deliver”.
Centrica closed Rough in 2017.
The government’s gas security of
supply assessment published that
year concluded that even without
the site “levels of supply and
storage infrastructure are
sufficient to meet all customer
demand in all but the most
extreme cases”.
The scenario of Russia cutting
pipeline supplies to Europe was
considered highly unlikely. “Russia
is heavily dependent on gas
exports for budgetary revenues,
and kept up sales, remaining a
reliable supplier throughout the
Cold War,” it noted.
Many experts believed Britain
was complacent about Rough’s
closure: Wood Mackenzie, the
energy consultancy, warned in
2018 that the country’s gas supply
position was “precarious” and that

Households and
small and
mid-sized
businesses
10.6bn

winter shortfalls could jeopardise
fuel supplies for power stations,
leading to blackouts.
Yet even as gas prices began
soaring a year ago, Kwasi
Kwarteng, who was business
secretary, said Rough’s closure was
a “red herring”, that it would not
have eased prices and that Britain
had no gas security issues.
Only after Russia invaded
Ukraine did the government’s
attitude shift. Kwarteng opened
talks with Centrica this year about
potential support to reopen Rough.
In the event, markets have moved
such that the economic case stacks
up for Centrica partly to reopen it.
Grant Shapps, the new business
secretary, must decide whether
further reviving Rough is
necessarily the best option. Some
experts believe that onshore salt
cavern storage could be a cheaper,
and more useful, alternative.

raise pressure on Exxon
week and analysts believe that it is on
track for underlying profits of $6.1 billion, one of its best results in recent
history.
Brent crude, the global benchmark
oil price, has fallen from its highs in the
summer amid fears of a global economic slowdown but it still averaged
about $100 a barrel in the third quarter,
up from less than $74 a year ago.
Gas prices in America and Europe
remained about twice as high as they
were a year earlier, after Russia curtailed pipeline flows to Europe, leading
to a global scramble for cargoes of
liquefied natural gas.
Exxon has doubled down on fossil
fuels, raising oil production as its
European counterparts increase their
focus on renewables. “Our investments

over the past five years, including
through the lows of the pandemic, are
really driving our results today,”
Kathryn Mikells, 57, its chief financial
officer, said.
She said the company had increased
spending on new oil and gas projects to
$5.73 billion in the last quarter, which is
an increase of 24 per cent from a year
ago.
Exxon said it was pumping record
amounts of oil and gas from the Permian basin in America, although its exit
from Russia meant its total production
this year would be about 3.7 million barrels per day, less than the 3.8 million
that had been its aim. It said that it also
had achieved its best- refining throughput in the United States and its highest
globally since 2008.

Business
briefing
With inflation hitting
fresh highs, central
banks raising rates at a
rapid pace and the cost
of oil and gas yo-yoing,
markets are going

through a volatile phase latest news and market
as British firms scramble reaction by 8am, and
to cope with the effects of analysis at 12.30pm,
soaring costs. With the
direct by email from the
situation
Business Editor,
changing by
Richard Fletcher, and
the hour,
the Business
keeping
News Editor,
up to
Martyn Strydom.
date is
Sign up at
essential.
home.thetimes.
Get the
co.uk/myNews

552

V2

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Business

Blazing a trail in a technology world
The boss of Suse, the
software systems
provider, heads a
truly global business,
reports Katie Prescott

I

t is one thing to take on your first
chief executive job during a
pandemic; it’s quite another to
take that company public while
the world is locked down. As the

celebration for the Frankfurt listing
of the software company Suse was
going on, Melissa Di Donato could
only sit back and watch it on
television from her home outside
London — and she “will never list a
company virtually again. No chance.
The roadshow was mad, we went
from seven in the morning to eight
o’clock at night with barely a break
in between.”
While Suse is not a household
name, Linux, its operating systems
technology, underpins swathes of the
global economy, inside everything

from air traffic control centres to
security cameras. Or, in Di Donato’s
words, “if you’ve been to Chick-fil-A
in the US or Home Depot, the odds
are the cash registers or
telecommunications powering 5G are
using Suse as its core technology”.
With 2,000 employees globally, it is
the biggest open source software
business in the world and its
customers represent 60 per cent of
the Fortune 500. Its full-year results
showed a profit of $212 million, up
22 per cent from the year before.
In the event, it was the most

successful technology initial public
offering in Germany last year, but
that success was short-lived. While
the shares started trading at just over
€30, they are now worth about €18,
caught up in investors’ fright over the
future value of technology businesses.
Part of Di Donato’s frustration at
leading it remotely was the inability
to build proper relationships with
potential investors, which now makes
her life harder when she is trying to
build confidence in the business.
“The same people that invested in
the IPO are the ones that are now
looking at the share price and they’re
freaking out because tech is not
strong at the moment. And I don’t
have that personal relationship with
them that I can fall back on and
explain the business and my outlook
and why I’m bullish, why I’m
optimistic and where the company is
going. So for now they’re building on
an interview that was done online. I
think I would have been in a much
better position had they met me and
developed a relationship and know
when I tell them something it is
actually true.”
While she describes the low share
price as “depressing”, she is confident
that technology stocks are “pretty
close to the bottom. I’ve got a very
cash-generative, profitable, highgrowth business. This is a slice of a
moment and it will get better.”
Another issue, which made the
virtual beauty pageant harder, is that
she stands out. “Not a lot of CEOs
look like me. I’m in the minority, I
don’t fit in, so not being able to meet
in person was an extra hardship.” It is
a fair point. Not many technology
bosses do look like her.
The dearth of women in the
industry is well documented. A recent
Deloitte survey showed that in global
technology firms, only a third of the
workforce was made up of women. At
leadership level, the number shrinks
to about one in four.
She attributes her drive and focus
to the death of her first husband while
her daughter was only 18 months old,
a “pivotal” moment in her life that
ultimately drove her to the position
she now holds. “Would I be a CEO
now if he were alive? I don’t think I
would have been. It’s not that I
wouldn’t have been capable of it. I just
would not have moved as fast, I
would not have delivered and driven
myself with such a level of urgency to
survive. I needed to think about how
I’m going to make this life the best
version I possibly can for myself and
for my daughter.”
Technology was not her original
plan. With a degree in Russian, she

Melissa di Donato, pictured with her

had envisaged a career in the
diplomatic services, but the low
starting salary would not make a dent
in her enormous student loan. “The
dean of the business school said, ‘You
ought to research this SAP thing. It’s
catching on.’ And I said, ‘SAP, OK.
What’s SAP?’ He says, ‘It’s this very
large-scale software application that

Porsche and parts delays
Tom Saunders

Third-quarter profits at Volkswagen
are still below pre-pandemic levels, but
the German carmaker expects growth
next year as supply chain issues start to
ease.
Volkswagen yesterday cut its expectations for deliveries this year, saying
that they would be on par with 2021,
down from a previously forecast rise of
5 per cent to 10 per cent, but it kept its
earnings outlook of hitting the upper
end of a 7 per cent to 8.5 per cent margin
by cutting costs.
Earnings in the third quarter to
the end of September were below preCovid levels at €4.3 billion, hit by the
cost burden of listing Porsche last
month, the suspension of business in

Russia, the write-off of a self-driving
start-up and issues securing parts.
A hoped-for boost in Volkswagen’s
stock market valuation after listing
Porsche has not materialised, with the
carmaker’s shares down more than
30 per cent this year and the sports car
brand’s valuation overtaking its former
parent. Shares in Volkswagen fell a
further €2.46, or 1.9 per cent, to €128.24
in Frankfurt yesterday.
A lack of semiconductors and other
parts meant that the company has
150,000 unfinished vehicles on is
books.
“Challenges to our supply chain will
become the rule, not the exception,”
Oliver Blume, 54, chief executive, said.
Earnings of 6 per cent across the
group were boosted by a 19.4 per cent

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

53

V2

Business

‘where not many CEOs look like me’
PETER TARRY FOR THE TIMES

CV

Age: 49
Education (includes):
Russian language and
literature and political
science degree,
Manhattanville College,
New York; MBA,
Russian language and
literature, American
University
(Washington); MBA,
international business,
Kogod School of
business, American
University
Career (includes):

2003-06: senior
sales, Oracle;
2005-08: senior
consultant, manager,
PwC; July 2007August 2008:
associate partner, IBM;
January 2008-August
2010: managing
director, Uccelli;
August 2010November 2015: area
vice-president for
EMEA and APAC,
Salesforce (including
creating and building
the Appexchange
Platform and ISV/OEM
businesses for
international markets);
November 2015-

October 2016: area
vice-president for wave
analytics cloud,
Salesforce; November
2016-May 2019: chief
revenue officer for
ERP cloud, SAP; July
2018-May 2019: global
chief operating officer
for the digital core,
SAP; July 2019–
present: chief
executive, Suse
(including becoming the
first woman to take a
multibillion-euro
company public on the
Deutsche Börse)
Family: Lives in Surrey
with husband, daughter
and two sons

it is a good answer, but I
admire a lot of people!
Too many colleagues,
ex-colleagues and other

bu
business leaders to
me
mention. Also, family
me
members, especially my
ch
children
W
What
is your favourite
te
television
p
programme?
Ye
Yellowstone,
left
W
What
does leadership
me to you? Giving
mean
ba more than you
back
tak In the words of
take.
Sim Sinek,
Simon
“Le
“Leadership
is not about
being in charge. It’s
about being in service”
How do you relax?
Running, horse riding

Q&A

Who, or what, is your
mentor? Guy Dubois,
who I value immensely.
He is a great leader and
fount of knowledge
Does money motivate
you? No. Winning does
What was the most
important event in
your working life? My
move to the UK
Which person do you
most admire? Not sure

dog Tilly, is breaking the mould by being a British-American woman in charge of an established German software company

seems to be changing the world and if
you can spell SAP you can get a job. I
said, ‘I could really use a job.’ That bit
of advice changed my entire life.”
Her first company sent her to
coding school. “I went from being a
developer to building, running then
selling the software and then running
businesses. I love technology. I love

the pace, the change, the innovation,
that constant breaking and rebuilding
of things that I’ve got to do constantly
for the last 25 years.”
As a business listed in Germany,
with more employees in the United
States than there, with a British-based
management team and most of its
operations in Luxembourg, Suse is, as

hold back Volkswagen
Oliver Blume,
Volkswagen’s chief
executive, said
supply issues were
here to stay

margin in the sports and luxury brands,
which are more able to pass on rising
costs by increasing prices than volume
brands, buyers of which are squeezed
by inflation.
The carmaker took a €1.9 billion noncash impairment charge resulting from
the writedown of its investment in Argo
AI, a self-driving start-up it jointly
owned with Ford, which will now shut
down. Blume said Volkswagen remained committed to autonomous

driving and would decide shortly whether to progress with a new partner.
Plans to bring its Cariad software
unit, which has been plagued by overspending and long delays, back on track
were under way, with an internal meeting taking place and decisions expected
in shortly, Blume said. A planning
round set for November was postponed
amid changing “economic realities”.
In its first results since listing,
Porsche reported a 40.6 per cent rise in
third-quarter operating profit to €5 billion on revenue up 15.7 per cent. Porsche shares edged down by 62 cents, or
1.1 per cent, to €56.92.
As part of the luxury carmaker’s float
Volkswagen plans to award shareholders a special dividend of €19.06 a share,
expected in January.

Di Donato says, “all over the world”.
She was born in America but became
a British citizen ten years ago and is a
dual-national.
When she got the call to lead Suse,
she thought they were ringing
because she was the engineer and
part of the engineering team that
built the first versions of code of SAP

to sit on Suse. Actually, they wanted
to offer her a job. “I still carry my first
business card that says CEO on it
because I just couldn’t believe that
they gave me the role.”
It has come with challenges. “One
of the first executives I met when I
had been announced as CEO of Suse
looked me square in the face — and
this was in 2019, by the way — and
said, “How are you going to talk to
engineers? You are way too
glamorous for this?’ I said, ‘Well,
actually I am an engineer.’ ” But I felt
I had to justify my role to an
executive. And I still get a lot of these
kinds of things.” That man is no
longer with the business.
“The sheer fact that Suse put an
American British woman, not even
living in Germany or speaking
German, in charge of a German
software company that’s been around
for nearly 30 years was pretty
astonishing. I sometimes still pinch
myself that my name is on the door

and, holy moly, you know, I’m an
actual CEO.”
Her openness to discuss the
balance of family and work life is
refreshing. She describes a scenario
that many working parents will relate
to when having conversations about
their dual lives with their children.
When her eight-year-old daughter
asked her to come home early from a
work trip recently, Di Donato told
her: “I can’t come home today, I come
home tomorrow.’ ‘But why not today,
Mommy?’ I said, ‘Well, you have a
choice. I can either change the world
or I can come home today.’ ‘You
change the world Mom.’ I said, ‘OK.’
And she said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ”
For Di Donato, changing the world
means that young women need to see
other women in high-profile roles,
because you cannot be what you
cannot see. And, as Tim Cook, Apple’s
chief executive, said recently, “there
are still not enough women at the
table” at the world’s tech firms.

Computacenter still hit by supply woes
Emma Taggart

Supply problems continue to affect
business at Computacenter, which
yesterday forecast only a small rise in
profits this year.
The provider of laptops and cloud
computing services said its stock levels
remained much higher than in 2021
and that this would not begin to be
solved until well into next year. The
company had said previously that it
had been stockpiling inventory to sidestep problems in its supply chain and
component shortages.
In a third-quarter update it said profit
growth this year would be modest in
comparison with the preceding two
“exceptional” years. Any growth would
be due largely to currency movements

and a limited contribution from its
in-year acquisitions.
During the pandemic Computacenter was boosted by customers
increasing investment in hardware and
services as they prepared staff to work
from home, but its profits have fallen
short of forecasts recently as it adjusted
to the post-Covid landscape.
Computacenter’s services businesses
were “more challenged” during the
quarter as a result of continuing cost
and inflationary pressures and postlockdown effects. It said, however, that
several recent contract wins had provided renewed confidence for its future
performance.
Another year of profit growth is
expected next year. The technology
sourcing division recorded what it

called a strong performance and an
American acquisition earlier in the
quarter had performed well.
Computacenter was founded in 1981
by Sir Peter Ogden and Sir Philip
Hulme. It is one of Britain’s largest
independent suppliers of computers
and IT services, as well as of cloud and
cybersecurity services. It is based in
Hertfordshire, was listed in 1998 and is
a constituent of the FTSE 250.
Analysts at Jefferies said the update
was a reminder of post-pandemic headwinds and investment in the business
and added that, in common with others
in the sector, this had had “a dampening
effect on short-term profitability”.
Computacenter’s shares fell back by
4.1 per cent, or 79p, to close at £18.29
last night.

554

K1

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Business Markets

Investors can breathe easy after
regulator backs GSK’s vaccine
Jessica Newman Market report

N

ews that a marketing
authorisation application
for two of its drugs had
been accepted by the
European Medicines

Agency sent shares in GSK to a twomonth high.
The FTSE 100 group said the
agency had validated the application
for its respiratory syncytial virus

vaccine, as well as its injectable
medicine to prevent HIV, a drug
made by ViiV Healthcare, a joint
venture majority-owned by GSK and
also backed by Pfizer and Shionogi, of
Japan.
The approvals come months after
the former GlaxoSmithKline reported
that the adult trial for respiratory
syncytial virus showed 94.1 per cent
reduction in severe RSV disease, a

leading cause of pneumonia in
toddlers and the elderly, and overall
vaccine efficacy of 82.6 per cent. GSK
reckons a European regulatory
decision will come in the third
quarter of next year.
The green light lifted the shares
29½p, or 2.1 per cent, to £14.16½.
There were few better
performances on the wider market as
investors assessed grim earnings
across the Atlantic, while fresh
coronavirus curbs in China dented
the outlook for the world’s second
largest economy. The FTSE 100
retreated 26.02 points, or 0.4 per cent,
to 7,047.67, though it still made a
weekly gain of 77.94 points, or 1.1 per
cent. The FTSE 250 fell 165.25 points,
or 0.9 per cent, to 17,916.67, but was up
710.12, or 4.1 per cent, for the week.
Britain’s big banks were the main
drag on the Footsie after a mixed bag
of results this week. Lloyds fell
another 1½p, or 3.5 per cent, to 41¼p,
while Barclays gave up 3¾p, or 2.5 per
cent, to 146½p. NatWest was the least
desirable of them all, falling 23¾p, or
9.2 per cent, to 224¾p after the lender
reported third-quarter profits that
were below analysts’ expectations
after provisions for bad loans.
The big-name miners also had a
hand in dragging London lower as
they tracked a slide in commodities
prices. Rio Tinto fell 178p, or 3.8 per
cent, to £44.86; Anglo American slid

Wall Street report
Indices had a positive session as
gains in Apple shares after upbeat
results offset gloom about Amazon’s
trading outlook. The Dow Jones
industrial average rose 828.52
points, or 2.6 per cent, to 32,861.80,
a gain of 5.7 per cent on the week.
91p, or 3.4 per cent, to £26.25; and
Antofagasta lost 33p, or 2.7 per cent,
to £11.85½.
Standard Chartered, the Asiafocused bank, was down 16¼p, or
3 per cent, at 519½p and Burberry,
which counts China as its largest
market, closed down 53½p, or 2.9 per
cent, at £18.17.
Elsewhere, Centrica’s shares perked
up after it announced that it had
reopened its Rough gas storage site at
about 20 per cent of its previous
capacity after engineering works. The
shares finished 3½p, or 5.1 per cent,
higher at 73¼p. Also among the risers
was Airtel Africa, which recovered
6½p, or 5.8 per cent, to 114¼p in the
wake of heavy falls in the previous
session.
Grafton’s shares retreated 23½p, or
3.3 per cent, to 692½p as the builder’s
merchant named Eric Born, 52, as its
new chief executive. The FTSE 250
group’s shares suffered their biggest
one-day drop in almost two years
when it announced Gavin Slark, 57,
who has been the boss for the past 11
years, would be stepping down.

Elliott gains decisive
Swedish Match shares
Elliott Management has raised its
stake in Swedish Match to above
10 per cent, increasing its
influence over Philip Morris
International’s $16 billion
takeover bid for the Swedish
company. The activist investor‘s
move comes a week before a
November 4 deadline, when
shareholders must decide
whether to tender their shares in
the company, which controls
about half the world’s market for
snus, a Scandinavian oral tobacco
product. It is also the global
industry leader for nicotine
pouches. Under Swedish law,
Philip Morris needs 90 per cent
of shareholders to agree to the
deal, aimed at gaining a share of
the fast-growing smoke-free
market, in order to get full
control over the company. By
increasing its stake to 10.5 per
cent, worth about
SwKr18.2 billion (£1.4 billion) at
yesterday’s market prices, from
7.25 per cent previously, Elliott
could scupper the deal.

Payment fears for
rents and mortgages
Half of people who have a
mortgage have said they are
worried about rising interest
rates, according to a survey by
the Office for National Statistics.
New data from the national
statistician found that about a
third of people paying rent or
mortgages have seen their
payments go up in the past six
months. The survey showed that
48 per cent of mortgage-holders
reported being worried about
changes in interest rates on their
home loans. This figure rises to
70 per cent of people with a
variable-rate mortgage, meaning
their interest payments can move
in accordance with a lender’s own
rate or with the Bank of
England’s base rate. Just over
50 per cent of borrowers with a
fixed-rate mortgage reported
feeling worried about rising rates.
The average two and five-year
fixed-rate mortgages have
surpassed 6 per cent.

Mexicans get taste for
Hollywood’s bread
A Manchester-based group that
makes Paul Hollywood-branded
bread has been acquired by one
of the world’s largest bakery and
snacking companies in a deal
worth more than £300 million.
The Mexico-based Bimbo group
has acquired St Pierre, which was
founded in 1986 by Paul Baker
and Jeremy Gilboy and supplies
products to the bakery industry
under the St Pierre, Baker Street
and Paul Hollywood brands.
Bimbo has a presence in more
than 33 countries, annual sales of
about $15 billion and close to 200
bakery plants. BGF, the former
Business Growth Fund, the bankowned investor in private
companies, said that it had made
a more than nine times return on
the £8 million it invested in
St Pierre in 2018.

The day’s biggest movers
Company
Airtel Africa Recovers some losses after Thursday’s heavy fall
Centrica Reopens gas storage site
Helios Towers Extends gains
GSK European agency gives nod to two drug candidates
TI Fluid Systems Follow-through buying
Computacenter Investors disappointed with trading update
Urban Logistics Higher bond yields
NatWest Third-quarter profits miss expectations
Asos Runs out of steam after four-day rally
Likewise Profit warning

Change
5.8%
5.1%
2.3%
2.1%
1.9%
-4.1%
-5.4%
-9.2%
-11.3%
-16.6%

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

55

How to plan
for when
you’re gone
Page 58

Money

Buy-to-let:
is it time to
sell up and
move on?
Spiralling mortgage rates and stricter rules
mean landlords are struggling to make a profit.
Many are selling up, writes Holly Thomas

A

mar Riaz is preparing to put now more like 50 per cent, according
up rents for some of his ten- to Strutt.
ants who are mid-contract
“Many landlords will get stuck when
for the first in almost 20 it comes to getting a mortgage, whether
years.
it’s for a purchase, to refinance or to
Riaz, 52, who owns rentals in remortgage. It’s a lottery depending on
London, Cambridge, Birmingham and who the existing lender is as to what criManchester, has no other way to com- teria you’re up against,” Strutt said. He
bat the steep rise in his mortgage costs. added that many clients were reverting
He has just remortgaged a one- to variable mortgages for now, in the
bedroom flat in Birmingham and re- hope that fixed rates fall in time.
payments on the £102,000 loan are
Most buy-to-let landlords take out
going from £288 to £506 a month on his mortgages on an interest-only basis.
new three-year rate at 5.85 per cent.
This brings the monthly mortgage payMonthly payments on a flat he owns ments down, meaning there’s more
in Chelsea are likely to increase from profit each month.
£458 to £1,275 at the end of the year.
The idea behind a property invest“This is the first time I have had to in- ment is to hold it for the long term – perform active tenants that their rent is in- haps ten years plus – and enjoy the increasing. It’s a very difficult conversa- come. When the time comes to sell, the
tion. It’s a difficult thing to have to do, hope is that there will be healthy profit
but I would be in a bit of a pinch if I if house prices have risen.
didn’t put the rent up.”
Before 2017, it made sense from a
Extra red tape, rising morttax point of view too, because
gage rates and the pressure
landlords could deduct
on tenants’ incomes from
mortgage interest from
the cost of living crisis
their profits. This is no
are making it harder
longer the case.
than ever to make
Mark Harris, the
money from property
chief executive of the
investment.
mortgage broker SPF
to upgrade a
Aaron Strutt from
Private Clients, said:
property’s energy
the mortgage broker
“Any landlord with a
rating from E to C —
Trinity Financial said:
capital
repayment
required
from
2025
“Landlords have taken a
mortgage will quickly
real hammering and the
want to switch to interestsoaring cost of borrowing is
only with rates rising fast.”
the last straw for many.”
0 Eviction woes
Possession claims, where a landlord
0 The mortgage pinch
Soaring buy-to-let mortgage rates cou- requests to take back control of their
pled with stricter lending criteria rental property, surged 160 per cent
threaten to shrink profits for landlords. between April and June compared with
Banks are making more deals avail- the same period last year.
able after many were pulled following
The number of repossessions grantthe former chancellor Kwasi Kwar- ed rose 210 per cent from 1,582 to 4,900,
teng’s now obsolete mini-budget, but according to the Ministry of Justice
rates are far higher than they were.
(MoJ), in part because “no-fault” evic“A matter of weeks ago a five-year tions were banned between August
fixed rate loan started with a three — 2020 and May last year because of
they now start with a five,” Strutt said. the pandemic.
It’s not just mortgage costs causing
However, getting rid of a badly beproblems. Landlords are now subject to haved tenant is no easy task and it can
stricter limits on how much they can take time. MoJ figures show the median
borrow and lenders often demand time a landlord repossession claim
higher deposits.
takes is 23.4 weeks.
And it’s about to get harder too.
Lenders have typically asked for
25 per cent as a deposit or equity – it’s When a landlord wants to evict a tenant

£6k

‘I don’t want to put
up my tenants’ rent’
they have two options: a Section 8 or a
Section 21 notice.
A Section 8 can be used where a tenant has rent arrears, has damaged the
property or has given cause for neighbours to complain about anti-social
behaviour.
Section 21 is for no-fault evictions,
where landlords do not have to give a
reason and can give tenants two
months’ notice to leave once their
fixed-term contract has come to an end.
Under current plans Section 21 evictions will be banned from next year.
As the cost of living crisis pushes
more renters into arrears, it could leave
many landlords severely out of pocket
at a time when they are facing their own
cost pressures if they lose the option of
using Section 21 to move tenants out.
0 Red tape
From 2025, all newly rented properties
are required to have an energy-efficient
EPC rating of C or above. Existing tenancies will have until 2028 to comply.
For many landlords this change will
mean investing in additional insulation, lighting, double glazing, A-rated
energy efficient boilers and smart meters to reach the new minimum energy
efficiency standards. The mortgage
broker Habito estimates that it will cost
an average of £6,000 to bring a property from an E to a C rating.
Older period properties will cost far
more to upgrade to meet the new
requirements than newer properties,

A

lan Myson, 71, has
three buy-to-let
properties with
interest-only mortgages
but is now considering
clearing some of his debt

Amar Riaz’s repayments have soared

putting more of a dent in profits – or
wiping them out altogether for a time.
0 Limited company limitations
Many landlords have moved properties
from personal ownership into a limited
company so they can claim mortgage
interest as a tax-deductible expense.
The total number of companies set
up to hold buy-to-let property has
doubled since 2017 to more than
300,000.
However, while setting up a limited
company is straightforward there are a
number of costs involved, particularly
with the transfer of property.
The business would need to pay
stamp duty on a property you owned in
your own name based on a valuation
today — not when you bought it. Investors will also need to pay the 3 per cent
additional rate for second homes.

to avoid higher mortgage
rates (Ali Hussain writes).
Myson, from Deeping
St James in Lincolnshire,
has a property in March,
Cambridgeshire, on a
variable-rate deal. The
cost of the £71,000
mortgage has increased
from £95 a month in
August last year, when he
was paying 1.6 per cent, to
£284 today with a rate of
6.3 per cent.
He still makes a profit
of about £220 a month,
even though he has not
increased the rent for his
tenants who have been
living at the two-bedroom
flat for about a year. “I am
reluctant to increase rents
because of the dire straits
my tenants are already in
due to the rising cost of
living,” he said.
His other properties
are on cheaper fixed-rate
deals. One is a onebedroom flat, also in
March, with a £62,000
mortgage fixed at 1.24 per
cent until November 2023.
It provides an income of
about £294 a month.
The other is a fourbedroom property in
Peterborough with a
£120,600 mortgage at
2.79 per cent until April
2024. It makes him £554
profit a month.
The semi-retired
businessman will have
some spare money when
an investment matures
next month. “I could pay
off the debt on a property
but I’m not sure if I should
take advantage of higher
saving rates instead.”

Nimesh Shah, the chief executive of
the accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg, said: “You must factor in capital
gains tax on selling a property — to
then be repurchased by the company
— of up to 28 per cent, based on its current valuation. There are also running
costs to factor in such as accountancy
fees to file accounts. In general there
will be much more paperwork.”
Property investors using a limited
company could soon pay higher taxes.
Corporation tax must be paid on profits
in a limited company, currently at
19 per cent, but rising to 25 per cent
from April.
Shah added: “This means that the
effective tax could be higher than what
you’d pay for owning property in your
own name.
Limited companies don’t have such a
large range of buy-to-let mortgages
open to them. This could mean having
to settle for a more expensive deal.
0 What’s next for investors?
Faced with so much uncertainty, many
landlords are now eager to sell up.
Harris suggested this could trigger a
buying opportunity for landlords with
large portfolios: “There will be properties available at a good price for those
with plenty of cash to spare.”
Other landlords are concerned about
rent arrears — nearly 39 per cent of
tenants reported difficulty paying their
rent, according to new figures from the
Office for National Statistics.

Follow us on twitter @timesmoney | @jimconey | @holly_mead_ | @davidbyers26 | @AlihussainST | @katjdenham | @davidbrenchley | @imogent_ | @George_Nixon97 | @sashanugara | @lilycsrj

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

556

Money

Childcare is
rigged against
women. Time
to start again
Holly Mead

M

y friend Emma recently
gave birth to twins.
They are happy and
healthy — and they
even sleep sometimes.
I was bursting with excitement
when she found out she was having
two. She was less so: “I’m in shock. I
always assumed I would go back to
work after maternity leave — but
there’s no way I’ll be able to now. I
don’t know how we’ll afford it.”
The average cost of a full-time
nursery place for a child under two is
about £14,000 a year, according to the
National Childbirth Trust charity.
There are no buy-one-get-one-free

Karren Brady took only two days’ leave

deals at nurseries. This means parents
of twins would need a pre-tax salary
of £36,000 just to cover the fees.
That’s before the mortgage, groceries
and nappy costs — not to mention
the £3,000 a year Emma spends on
commuting.
My friend spent more than 15 years
building a career in the City; now she
cannot afford to go back to work.
The system is utterly broken.
A set-up that forces mothers out of
work because it is not economically
viable for them to keep their job is not
fit for purpose. There should be no
situation where going to work leaves
you out of pocket.
Parents are reducing their
working hours or leaving their
jobs because of nursery costs.
Some are relying on nanny
sharing or the goodwill of
friends and family. Others may
try to parent while working from
home — and if you’ve seen one of
those news interviews conducted
from home that feature a baby in a
bouncer gone rogue you know
how that turns out.
I’m lucky; the only daycare I need
to worry about is Daphne the dog’s —
although even that takes a surprising

amount of diary-juggling. But I am
Auntie Holly 20 times over —
everyone I know is having a baby,
and they are all being forced into
big compromises.
You may say that it has ever been
thus, but I like to think we are in a
more pragmatic and thoughtful age
where women (yes, it is still mainly
women) don’t have to be forced out
of the workforce because they want
to have a family.
In the UK there is no free childcare
help available until a child reaches the
age of three. Parents of three and
four-year-olds in England can claim
15 hours a week of free care for 38
weeks of the year. (Some are eligible
to claim 30 hours a week.) That still
leaves 14 weeks of the year and 25
hours of the standard working week
unaccounted for.
Tax-free childcare can get you up
to £2,000 a year extra from the
government per child — working
parents can pay £8 into an account
and get this topped up to £10 to put
towards childcare costs. But only
about 300,000 of an estimated 1.3
million who are eligible are claiming
the cash. Most do not know the help
exists, others assume it is too
complicated to bother.
There are many more
problems — nurseries
closing, lack of staff
and the nonsensical
child benefit
system. The
government has
promised to look
at the issues.
Liz Truss
spoke about
scrapping

the staff-to-child ratio in nurseries to
lower costs. A friend (a mother of
one) summed this up as “cutting costs
by making nurseries less safe”.
Another government idea is to
encourage more married parents who
aren’t working to transfer their taxfree personal allowance to their
spouse. This will just nudge women
further out of the workplace or to
lower-paid jobs.
Shared parental leave is marvellous,
but only about 4 per cent of families
use it — way below the government’s
target of 25 per cent.
The system is rigged against
women, who are at a financial
disadvantage from the moment
they decide to have a family. While
they are on maternity leave they
typically receive no pension
contributions from their
employer. They are then likely
t remain out of full-time work
to
ffor three years, until some free
childcare is available. Then they
o
often
take low-paid and part-time
w
work
to fit around family life.
I many cases they will not earn
In
enough to qualify for autoenrolment, meaning the pension
ggender gap widens to a chasm.
The obvious solution is to provide
a level of free childcare from
whatever time a woman chooses to
go back to work — whether that is
after two days (like Karren Brady) or
two years. Gaining an extra taxpayer
would easily offset the cost.
Employers should be obliged to
continue their share of workplace
pension contributions while workers
are on maternity or paternity leave.
This isn’t an extra outlay for a
company to find — they pay it before
you go on leave — and would keep
people’s retirement savings on track.
Workers with more than one parttime job should be able to combine
their wages so that they can qualify
for auto-enrolment through the
government-backed Nest scheme.
Women should not feel forced back
to work, but those who do want to
work should not have to base that
decision on nursery fees. I am fed
up of watching my friends sacrifice
careers or running themselves ragged
trying to do it all.
The childcare system needs ripping
up entirely and restarting from
scratch. Tinkering only makes a bad
system even more incomprehensible.

Women are at a
financial disadvantage
from the moment they
decide to have a family

The big question
Should the pension triple lock be scrapped?
Yes
Tom Selby, head
of retirement
policy at the
wealth manager
AJ Bell
The triple lock is
a guarantee to increase the state
pension each year by either the rate
of inflation, average wages growth
or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher.
It’s a clunky policy without a clear
aim. The fact it exists suggests the
government thinks the state
pension is too low. However, it only
increases in real terms in relation
to earnings and inflation when both
are below 2.5 per cent — and we’re
a million miles from that right now.
It is hardly providing stability to
pensioners. Last year the triple lock
was abandoned when earnings
were deemed too high, and this
year it has been under threat amid
spiking inflation. Hardly a copperbottomed manifesto promise.
If the government wants to
increase the real value of the state

pension, it would make more sense
to set out what it should be worth
and then chart a long-term course
to get there. Instead we have a
random ratchet mechanism that
has been brutally exposed during
periods of economic instability.
There is also the question of
intergenerational fairness. Bigger
increases in state pensions today
should, in theory, mean bigger
pensions for future generations.
However, it is more likely that
future governments will be forced
to reduce pension spending, and it
will be those who have yet to reach
state pension age who lose out.
We need a clearer policy around
what they are meant to achieve. Is
it increasing the value of the state
pension, protecting its value, or
something else? At the very least
the Treasury needs to decide what
level of annual increase it can
stomach — once decided, it could
cap the maximum increase.
Alternatively it could look into a
smoothed figure for earnings and
inflation to protect against annual
spikes. But we can’t go on like this.

No
Steve Webb,
partner at the
pension consultant
LCP and pensions
minister from
2010-15
The triple lock was introduced in
2010 for a very specific reason.
Thirty years earlier, Margaret
Thatcher had famously broken the
“earnings link” with the state
pension. There followed three
decades in which the basic state
pension was generally linked only
to prices — including the notorious
75p increase in 2000.
As a result, by 2010 the relative
value of the state pension had fallen
substantially and more than one in
five pensioners needed a meanstested top-up from pension credit.
The triple lock delivers an
upwards ratchet so that the state
pension gradually recovers its value
relative to wages. As the whole
point of a pension is to provide a
replacement income when wages

cease, there needs to be a link with
average earnings.
But you can’t undo 30 years of
damage in a decade, which is why
the triple lock should continue. It
was vital to me as pensions minister
because it meant I did not need to
have an annual row with the
Treasury about how much the
pension increase should be.
This provided some certainty
about the direction of travel of the
state pension (if not its exact value),
which you don’t get with annual ad
hoc uprating decisions.
Some would argue that generous
state pension increases are unfair
to younger generations. But future
generations will, if anything, be
more dependent on the state
pension than those retiring today.
Today’s retirees are probably the
last with generous private sector
defined benefit pensions, whereas
tomorrow’s are likely to have much
smaller private pension pots. For
their sakes as well as for today’s
retirees, a secure state pension
foundation, guaranteed by the
triple lock, is the best strategy.

IN THE
SUNDAY TIMES
TOMORROW

fame and fortune

Baga Chipz’s
£250k wardrobe
plus

The one money rule you
can’t afford to ignore

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

57

Money

Grab your credit card, stoozing is back
Higher savings rates
mean you can use
interest-free deals to
make some extra cash,
writes Josh Kirby

S

avers with a stellar credit record
can leverage debt to boost their
income — but you must follow
the rules carefully.
“Stoozing” is when you borrow money at zero interest and put it in
a savings account. When your interestfree period is ending, you withdraw the
cash to repay the debt and keep the
interest you have earned.
The process involves taking on debt,
so you need to be careful. It should
never be done lightly or if your finances
are not robust. It can be very fiddly too,
so be sure you have the time to keep
track before you start or you risk getting it wrong — that could mean racking up interest charges or even damaging your credit score.
Stoozing is said to be named after an
online personal finance forum user
named Stooz, an early advocate and
explainer of the process.
It used to be fairly common practice,
but more than a decade of low interest
rates has meant that there has been
little point in recent years.
Now savings rates are soaring and
stoozing is back.
The most successful stoozers have an
excellent credit history (meaning they
can borrow enough to earn a decent
amount of interest) and are very disciplined about debt.

How to start stoozing
The easiest way to stooze would be to
borrow money at 0 per cent interest
and put it straight in a savings account,
but you can’t do this for free.
This is called a money transfer, and
the best cards around charge a fee of
about 4 per cent to do this.
Since top rates on one-year bonds are
less than 5 per cent, the transfer charge
would wipe out the lion’s share of what
you could earn through stoozing.
For fee-free stoozing, take out a 0 per
cent credit card — the longest interestfree period is from Barclaycard, which
offers up to 25 months (though you
might not get that long depending on
your credit rating). You can’t use it to
get a lump sum, but you can put all your
regular spending on the card then
move what you would have spent into a
top easy-access savings account. The
best rate is rate is 2.81 per cent from Al
Rayan Bank, though it has a minimum
deposit of £5,000.
If you do not qualify for a long interest-free period, it is probably not worth

‘I made £150. More
people should do it’
John Junior made £150
from stoozing in two
years, and now savings
rates are soaring he plans
to earn even more.
Junior, 34, first heard
of the concept from a

friend in 2019. Initially
he thought the idea of
using borrowed money
to earn interest sounded
too risky.
“My friend said he had
got a big return from

stoozing as you will not have enough
time to accumulate a worthwhile
amount of interest.
It is important that you make the
minimum repayments on the credit
card each month or you could lose your
0 per cent deal.
Let the money you save accumulate
in the easy-access account until you
reach the zero-interest credit limit on
the card, then move it to a top one-year
fixed-rate savings account paying a
higher rate of interest. The best rate on

doing it — I thought
there must be some kind
of catch, but there wasn’t.
Obviously you need a
good credit score though
[to be approved for a
credit card and get a
long interest-free
period]” said Junior,
a film director from
Wilmslow, Cheshire.
“I was absolutely
buzzing when I found out

a one-year fix is currently 4.6 per cent,
available from RCI bank.
Make sure the fixed deal matures
before the credit card interest-free
period ends so you can access the
money to pay off the card and cancel it.
If you don’t pay it off before then the
credit card’s interest could wipe out
your stoozing gains. Barclaycard charges 22.9 per cent APR.
If you don’t have at least a year left at
0 per cent, keep the funds in the easyaccess account.

it was possible,” he said.
After doing some
research on how exactly
stoozing works, Junior
felt confident enough to
try it. He took out a credit
card with M&S Bank,
which was interest-free
for two years, and had a
credit limit of £5,000.
He opened a savings
account with Sainsbury’s
Bank paying 3.05 per
cent, deposited the
£5,000 and let the
interest rack up.
Junior cleared the
balance of the M&S Bank
card last year and made
£152.50 profit over two
years. He is now looking
to start again.
“A lot of my friends do
it, we talk about it down
the pub, we enjoy it – it’s
the excitement. More
people should do it, it’s
something everyone
should know about,” said
Junior.
He has applied for a
Sainsbury’s Bank credit
card with a 24-month
interest-free term and a
£3,500 credit limit, and
plans to lock the money
into an 18-month bond at
4.6 per cent. He expects
to make £161 in interest
from the bond, plus £30
cashback for opening it
through comparison site
The Savings Guru.
After that, Junior plans
to take out a balance
transfer credit card and
move his credit card debt
onto that, so he can make
more gains.
“I have got Post-it
notes all over my office to
remind myself,” he said.
“If you’re organised and
have a structure, you’re
fine. The first time I
thought it’s a bit risky
but it was so easy.”

Show me the money
Here is an example of how much stoozing could make you at current rates.
Say you used a credit card with a 25month interest-free period for £500 of
your regular spending each month. If
you moved that sum into a top easy-access savings account paying 2.81 per
cent for ten months, you would have
£5,064 in your easy-access account.
You then move that sum into a top
one-year fixed savings account paying

4.6 per cent, with 15 months left of
the interest-free period on your credit
card. After the year-long term, you will
have £5,297.
Return the cash to an easy-access
account for the remaining three
months until you need to clear your
credit card balance. This will boost your
balance to £5,334.
Repay the remaining credit card balance and you are left with £334 profit.

Is there another way?
If you have access to a large 0 per cent
overdraft, you can save the entire
amount in a savings account and start
earning a higher rate of interest immediately.
If you had a £3,000 overdraft and put
the entire sum into the top two-year
fixed-rate savings account from Tesco
Bank, which pays 4.77 per cent, you
would have £3,143 after two years.
Remember you will not be able to access money in a fixed-term savings ac-

4.5%

The top rate on a one-year fixed-rate
bond, up from 1.36 per cent in January

count until the end of the term without
forfeiting the interest.
So if you think you may need to use
your overdraft, it may not be wise to
max it out and tie the money up.
If stoozing doesn’t appeal, consider
switching banks instead.
Nationwide will pay you £200 if you
switch to its FlexDirect account. First
Direct, Natwest, Lloyds and TSB also
offer switching bonuses.
You will usually need to fulfil certain
criteria to qualify for the cash — paying
in a certain amount each month or setting up direct debits, for example. You
will typically not be eligible if you have
been a customer of the bank before.

What are the risks?
It is important to keep in mind that
stoozing involves getting into debt. If
you don’t trust yourself with a credit
card, have a shaky history when it
comes to repaying debt or don’t have a
strong credit rating, it is not worth doing. Stoozing can impact your credit
score, as it involves utilising a large
amount of credit.
Using more than 50 per cent of the
credit available to you can lower your
credit score, making it harder for you to
borrow in the future.
Make sure you keep track of and
make the minimum repayments required on the credit card every month
You can set up a direct debit when
you apply for the credit card to ensure
this happens automatically.

NS&I raises its rates (a bit)

Time to book that Christmas train

M

F

ore than 2.7 million people will
enjoy a boost in their savings,
as National Savings and Investments increases its rates.
The government-backed bank has
raised the interest rates it pays on its direct saver and income bonds products
to 1.8 per cent, up from 1.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, the rate on its Isa has
risen to 1.75 per cent, its highest since
February 2014, up from 0.9 per cent.
The bank’s Junior Isa rate has risen to
2.7 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent, and its
investment account now pays 0.4 per
cent, up from 0.01 per cent.
For existing savers, its one-year guaranteed growth bond now pays 3.6 per

cent, up from 1.85 per cent. For two
years, the rate has increased to 3.65 per
cent from 2.25 per cent, and its threeyear bond is now 3.7 per cent, up from
2.55 per cent.
NS&I said the changes would ensure
its products are priced “appropriately
when compared to the rest of the savings market”.
NS&I is rarely a top-payer because
the Treasury limits how much it can
raise to stop it competing with commercial rivals. The best easy-access rate is
2.81 per cent from Al Rayan Bank, and
the best three-year fixed rate is 4.9 per
cent from Raisin.
David Byers

eeling festive yet? Booking your
train back home for Christmas
now could slash the cost of your
journey by as much as £138.
According to the website Money
SavingExpert, about 12 weeks in
advance is the best time to bag a cheap
seat, and most train operators have
now released their Christmas and New
Year timetables.
Brits saved an average of £88 for
every advance booking made in the run
up to Christmas last year, according to
the ticketing platform Trainline. The
biggest savings — of £138 — were on
journeys between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston, and Leeds

and London Kings Cross.
With some networks you do not need
to book so far in advance. Greater Anglia offers advance fares if you buy up to
ten minutes before you travel, for example. Make sure you leave enough
time to pick the tickets up and board the
train, though.
If you can’t book a direct train to your
destination, check if it’s cheaper to book
tickets for each leg of travel individually
— this is known as splitting. If you’re
going from London to Hull and need to
change at Doncaster, for instance, it
might be cheaper to book one ticket
from London to Doncaster and one
from Doncaster to Hull – rather than

one from London to Hull.
Also, sometimes booking two single
tickets can be cheaper than one return.
And check if you’re eligible for a railcard, as this can significantly reduce
your fare. A Two Together railcard
costs £30 but can get you a third off your
ticket price when two named people
travel together.
If you’re buying tickets online, go directly through the train operator’s website as they do not charge a booking fee,
unlike Trainline, for example. London
North Eastern Railway’s website is a
good port of call as it sells tickets for all
routes in the UK.
David Brenchley

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

558

Money

The ten-step
guide to having
a good death
It’s the conversation
that no one wants
to have, but it’s vital to
have a plan in place
for when you’re gone,
writes Imogen Tew

T

he Robb family were driving
down a narrow, winding road
on holiday in Bali when they
first discussed what would
happen to their finances
when they died.
“The roads were scary and the topic
just came up — if we were all to die in
this van, who would inherit from us?”
said Abbey Robb, 43, from London. “It
sounds morbid, but we ended up having
an important conversation about what
my parents wanted, not just for their
death, but for their life too.”
In the unexpected discussion, Abbey,
who runs a therapy business called
Abbey Robb Therapies, revealed that
she wants her assets to go to her brother
Malcolm’s children.
Their mother, Diana, who is in her
seventies, asked Abbey and Malcolm
which items they might want after her
death, and explained that if their father
Geoff, also in his seventies, died before
her, she would want to use some of the
family’s money philanthropically.
They also spoke about their remains:
Abbey wants some of her ashes scattered at a special location in Portugal,
while Diana wants hers to be kept in an
urn. They have since made lasting powers of attorney for Diana and Geoff, and
Abbey is in the process of sorting out
her own will.
“It opened us up for those chats about
where our wealth would go,” said Abbey.
“It’s given my brother a chance to prepare because he knows at some point his
children will inherit my assets. I also
have a better idea of what my parents
want, so there will be no surprises.”
As a nation, we are not good at talking about death and as a result we are
under-prepared.
More than half of UK adults do not
have a will, including more than a third
of those aged over 55, according to the
insurer Canada Life; three quarters haven’t told their pension company where
to send their assets when they die.
But getting your affairs in order can
help your family deal with your finances smoothly and quickly. And with the
amount of inheritance tax taken paid to
HMRC at a record high (£3.5 billion
between April and September), it can
also limit your tax bill.
Here’s your ten-point plan for a
good death.
1 Have the conversation
Talk about your death and your
wishes
with
your
family.
This helps limit any surprises
and ensures they feel prepared to
act in line with what you would
have wanted.
Check that you are not the
only person who knows their

way around the family’s finances. If you
are, explain at least the bare bones to
your partner or one of your children.
“If there is no discussion, the surviving spouse can feel out of their depth,”
said Edward Grant from the wealth
manager St James’s Place. “If you have
a financial adviser, introduce them to
your spouse or children so they know
who to turn to and it is not a stranger.”

account for a child.
Most defined contribution pensions
are not included as part of your estate,
so would be free from inheritance tax.
4 Get life insurance
(and look at trusts)
Life insurance policies pay out a taxfree lump sum to your estate when you
die. The size of the payout is up to you
— the amount you need depends on
your debts and your dependants. Ensure your debts are covered, then think
about how much you want to leave to
those who rely on you.
While the payout is tax-free, the
money becomes part of your estate,
so will be liable for inheritance tax.
To solve this, you could opt to put
your life insurance policy into a trust,
a legal arrangement that lets you
leave assets to beneficiaries outside of
your estate and is therefore free from
inheritance tax. Ask a solicitor to
set it up.

2 Choose your executors — wisely
Your executors will be responsible for
carrying out the instructions left in
your will. You can appoint up to four,
and should have at least two so they can
share the workload or in case one of
them dies before you.
“Think carefully about your choice,”
said Hayden Bailey from the family
law firm Boodle Hatfield. “Those who
will benefit can be your executors, but
you should think about whether they
have the time to devote, and can
work together and make decisions.”
Check that they are
happy with the workload and responsibility
involved. If you do not
want to name a family
in inheritance tax
member or friend,
collected by HMRC
you can choose a solicitor or an accountant
between April and
instead.
September — a

£3.5bn

5 Apply for LPAs
While not strictly a
plan for death, arranging a lasting
power of attorney
(LPA) should be on
your list. An LPA is a
legal document that
allows you to appoint
people to make decirecord high
sions on your behalf
3 Think about tax
should you no longer be able
Assets left to your spouse or to
to do so.
charity are free from inheritance
There are two types: health and welltax, but bequests to anyone else above
the £325,000 threshold (you get an being, which cover issues such as mediextra £175,000 if your home is passed to cal care and moving into a care home,
your direct descendants) are taxed at and financial and property, which covers your financial affairs.
40 per cent.
You cannot make an LPA once you
Look to legitimately reduce your
inheritance tax bill. Any gifts you make have lost the capacity to do so, so it is
at least seven years before you die are important to set it up as soon as posstax-free, and you get a £3,000 tax-free ible. You can apply for an LPA on the
government website.
gift allowance a year.
You can also make gifts above this
amount that do not attract inheritance 6 Write a list . . .
tax, as long as they are regular, come Make a list of all of your assets, debts
from income and do not compromise and the estimated value. This may
your own standard of living — for ex- change, but you should try to keep it up
ample regularly paying into a savings to date.
“Your loved ones will have to make
this list when sorting out your estate,”
said Tim Snaith from the law
firm Winckworth Sherwood. “To make
this easier, you should prepare

Abbey Robb, left and above with
her mother, Diana, on a family
holiday in Bali

‘I’m a
planner
but he
isn’t’
When Adrienne
Treeby was 15, she was
invited to a meeting
with her parents and
two elder brothers to
discuss what would
happen after their
parents’ deaths. The
gathering would
become an annual
event at which the
family would discuss
how their assets would
be divided (Imogen
Tew writes).
Now 39, Treeby is
clear about what she
will and won’t inherit
from her parents, who
live in Canada and are
in their seventies.
“We’re basically a
bunch of money and
planning nerds,” said
Treeby, who now lives
in London and runs
a meat curing
company called
Crown & Queue.
“Every four or five
years my parents
rewrite their wills and
we are included in the
process,” she said.
“They are trying to
prevent us from
having any surprises,
because that’s what
people fight about.”
The biggest asset in
the family is its
business, a food
manufacturing
company. This will
go to Treeby’s eldest
brother, who has
worked in the
company for 20 years.

He will also get the
family home in
Montreal, as he is the
only child who still
lives in the country.
While this hugely
outweighs the parts of
the estates that will be
left to Treeby and her
other brother, who
will inherit other
properties, the family
considers it fair.
Treeby said: “It
would make no sense

this document yourself and keep
it under review.”
7 . . . and a letter
Write a letter to those managing your
estate that explains how you would like
your assets to be dealt with. Unlike a
will, it’s not legally binding, but it can be
helpful for those in charge of distributing your assets.
You could include the age at which
you wish beneficiaries to receive their
inheritance, what you would like this to
be spent on (although this won’t be
binding) and whether your children’s
partners should have claim to inheritance if they separate, for instance.
8 Sort your will
One of the worst things you
ccould do is to die without a will,
aaccording to Bailey.
Known as dying intestate, the
ffixed rules of inheritance will
aapply, meaning the amount your
sspouse receives may be limited
aand more of your estate could be
ssubject to tax.
You should only write your
o
own will or opt for a DIY kit if
yyour wishes are very simple,
ssuch as leaving everything to a
sspouse. If you have anything
m
more complex, it’s worth paying
ffor a solicitor or a will-writing
sservice to sort it for you.
9 Plan for the short term
In the immediate aftermath of your
death, it’s likely that your assets will be
frozen. To prepare for this, make sure

for me to have the
house or shares in a
business that I don’t
know how to run and
would be a burden to.”
But Treeby’s
conversations with her
husband, Jamin, 46,
are very different. He
doesn’t like talking
about death and has
not updated his will
since before the birth
of their daughter,
Abigail, now six.

the family members that rely on you
have some way of accessing cash.
Snaith said: “Generally speaking, it
could take as long as nine months for
loved ones to get access to your funds.
The solution could be as simple as adding a spouse to a joint bank account or
buying a small life insurance policy for
this purpose.”
10 Create a file
Finally, there’s no point doing all the
prep work if your family members do
not know where to find the information. Pull together a folder including

It could take up to nine
months for loved ones to
get access to your funds
your will, LPA, letter of wishes and list
of assets, and make sure your family
and executors know where it is kept.
“You could also include a list of
regular payments and commitments,
like subscriptions or utility bills, and
in today’s world, passwords and online
accounts should be listed securely,”
said Andy Gillett from BRI Wealth
Management.
“This will make sure they get all the
information and save your executors
time, money and stress, as well as ensuring your wishes are carried out.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

59

Money
KYLE PETROZZA

The bitcoin bubble has burst.
Time to buy the dip or get out?
The cryptocurrency’s
price has more than
halved in 2022. It’s had
blips before but could
this be the end asks
Lily Russell-Jones

Bitcoin’s ups and downs
$70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000

B

itcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has shed
about 56 per cent of its value
since the start of the year.
This week it was trading at
about $20,200 — less than a third of its
November 2021 peak of almost $69,000.
As inflation soars and governments
across the world raise interest rates, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have
not proved to be the safe-haven asset
many hoped they would be. Instead,
cryptocurrencies have fallen just like
other assets that boomed over the past
decade such as growth and tech stocks.
Does this point to the death of bitcoin, or is it just a blip?

“I need to keep
bringing it up. It
doesn’t end well
a lot of the time, but
eventually we get
to a place where we
have agreed on a few
things,” she said. “I
want to make sure
that his wishes are
represented on paper,
and I need us both
to know that whatever
he expects to happen,
will happen.”

The issue has come
to the fore as the
couple prepare to buy
a property together —
Treeby’s name will not
be on the deeds as her
joint Canadian-US
citizenship may cause
tax complications. If
Jamin does not create
a proper will, the
property could end
up going to their
daughter or his wider
family, despite the fact

that Treeby has
contributed to the
purchase.
“I am a planner, so
it’s frustrating that he
isn’t one. But I think
his plan is that I will
do the planning. He
joked the other day:
‘Who is really the
better planner? The
person who plans, or
the person who
marries a planner?’”
said Treeby.

Equity release hits a record high
among ‘property rich’ over-55s

E

quity release lending has reached monthly interest, but if you choose not
a record high, with pensioners to the debt rolls up and compounds.
tapping into property wealth to
Andrew Morris, an equity release adcombat the cost-of-living crisis.
viser at Age Partnership, said: “GrowSome £1.71 billion was borrowed ing numbers of older homeowners are
between July and September, accord- finding themselves in a ‘property rich,
ing to the trade body the Equity Release cash poor’ situation. Others are looking
Council, with an all-time high of 13,452 to cover income shortfalls caused by
new loans taken out by homeowners the increases in cost of living, as well as
aged 55 and above.
raising funds to insulate their properMany pensioners with defined
ties, like windows and boilers, in a
contribution pensions have
bid to reduce heating costs.”
seen the value of their savThe recent political unings fall as the stock
certainty led to many eqmarket tumbled this
uity release deals being
year. There is also unpulled. The number
certainty over retireavailable fell from 717 to
ment income amid
527 between May and
average rate on an
fears that the triple
October, according to
lock on the state penthe data provider Monequity release loan,
sion could be scrapped.
eyfacts, and the average
up from 4.81 per
Faced with those presrate on a loan has incent in May
sures, more over-55s are uscreased from 4.81 per cent to
ing the wealth accumulated by
7.54 per cent. At this rate, any
their properties to top up their indebt would double in just nine-andcome. The Lang Cat financial consult- a-half years.
ancy estimates that there is £5.46 trilGary Smith, a financial planner at the
lion tied up in UK property, second only wealth manager Evelyn Partners, said
to the £6.45 trillion in pensions.
older borrowers could be better off usEquity release allows borrowers over ing their pension savings to purchase
55 to take out a loan against their prop- an annuity, which have increased in
erty, which is cleared when it is sold, value over the last few months, for a
usually when the homeowner dies or guaranteed income in retirement.
moves into care. You can service the George Nixon

7.54%

0 Sell: it’s going to zero
Some financial analysts are sceptical
that bitcoin will ever recover from its
recent price spiral. Wild price swings
have led to bitcoin being declared dead
multiple times in its 13-year history.
The billionaire investor Warren Buffett
has been saying bitcoin is a bubble since
2017, while in May the president of the
European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said that cryptocurrencies were
“worth nothing”.
“I would not be surprised to see bitcoin back in the $3,000 to $5,000
range,” said Phillip Streible of Blue Line
Futures, a US brokerage firm. “I think
crypto is a fad that has hung around a
little bit longer than it should have.”
For years financial regulators have
predicted that a price crash could be
coming. The Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA), the City watchdog,
has warned that investors should be
prepared to lose all the money they invest in crypto assets.
The main accusation against cryptocurrencies is that they are difficult to
price because they are unbacked assets
with no intrinsic value. Fluctuations in
price — which can be incredibly volatile — are driven by sentiment.
The counter to this is that bitcoin is a
store of value, comparable to gold.
There will only ever be a fixed number
of bitcoins in existence because only a
limited number can ever be “mined”,
which should mean it has scarcity
value. Sceptics would argue that it is
still worth nothing in the real world —
few places will accept it as a currency
you can spend.
“It’s a speculative asset, not a currency,” said Steve Hanke, an economics
professor at Johns Hopkins University.
“It does not have any of the characteristics of a currency and it is very rarely
used in any kind of transaction, except
for illegal activities.
“I think bitcoin’s fundamental value
is probably close to zero. The only way
you can take its price to the moon is if
demand keeps increasing. My view is
that demand will eventually evaporate.
There will be superior cryptocurrency
that wipes bitcoin off the map.”
0 Buy the dip
Not everyone agrees that bitcoin’s
future value is so precarious. Backers
say its scarcity gives it an inherent
value, which will only increase. Only
21 million bitcoins will ever exist and
every four years the supply of new coins
is halved, adding to its scarcity.

30,000
20,000
10,000
0
2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Source: Refinitiv

Hugo Biolchini buys crypto regularly

In the 18 months after bitcoin underwent a halving event in 2016, its price
rocketed from $663 to $19,428. A year
later it had fallen below $3,500. A similar rise and fall occurred in the months
after its latest halving in May 2020. The
next bitcoin halving is expected to take
place in 2024.
If you believe that bitcoin moves in
this four-year cycle, the current price
dip is a buying opportunity.
Financial influencer Hugo Biolchini,
24, has put between $2,000 and $5,000
a month into stocks and cryptocurrencies since the start of the year.
Biolchini, who has more than 15,000
followers on the trading platform
eToro, is taking advantage of “dollar
cost averaging” whereby you invest the
same amount regularly, meaning you
buy more of an asset when it is cheap
and less when it is expensive. “I continue to buy cryptocurrencies every
two weeks or every month and make it
a habit,” he said.
Biolchini has invested about $45,000
into cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ethereum and cronos over the

56%

fall in the price of bitcoin in 2022

past three years. He first bought bitcoin
when it was $3,400 in February 2019
after spotting that it was 83 per cent below its 2017 peak. “I saw that as an opportunity,” he said. “I decided to buy so
I could reap the benefits when the next
bull market came.”
By November 2021 he had invested
$10,000 into bitcoin and his stake
had grown in value to $65,000. Now
he is hoping to repeat his success after
the next bitcoin halving event: “The
halving is one thing that will drive
cryptoasset prices higher in the
future. If I stay patient I can make a
lot of money without really doing a lot
of work.”

0 Spread your bets
While bitcoin gets much of the attention, there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies to choose from.
“The market is more diversified than
ever before and bitcoin makes up the
minority of the market today,” said Ben
Dean of the investment firm Wisdomtree. “Historically, crypto markets
worked on a cyclical basis, mostly
because it was driven by bitcoin, but the
market looks very different now.”
There are somewhere between
13,500 and 21,500 cryptocurrencies, according to industry estimates — bitcoin
accounts for about 40 per cent of the
market’s overall value. Dean thinks the
current market rout, dubbed the

I think bitcoin’s
fundamental value is
probably close to zero
Crypto Winter, will be a period of consolidation for the industry when weaker crypto outfits will collapse and
stronger competitors will strengthen
their position.
The cryptocurrency market as a
whole is worth $979 billion. Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged
to the value of real-world currencies
such as the dollar, now account for
about 15 per cent of that total. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency,
has a market share of over 17 per cent,
according to CoinMarketCap data.
“The argument that ‘bitcoin is dead’
has been made many times before,” said
Dean. “But it is no longer possible to
talk about the market as a whole just by
looking at bitcoin’s price. I see very few
signs that the whole ecosystem is going
to disappear. It’s really a question of
which spaces might thrive and why.”
Diversifying out of coins into
other crypto assets is another option
and investors have shown interest in
new uses for blockchain technology.
Last year NFTs — digital tokens that
record the ownership of assets such as
digital images, music and videos on a
blockchain — became a $40 billion
market, according to the research firm
Chainalysis.
However, scams and joke currencies
such as dogecoin remain prevalent.
Anyone considering buying cryptocurrency should do thorough research and
be aware that crypto assets are not regulated by the FCA. This means investors are unlikely to receive any compensation if their money is lost
or stolen.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

60

Money

Cash has a place, just not
in an investment fund
Get rich
h slowly
David
Brenchley

A

pparently we are on our
way to becoming a
cashless society — I
personally don’t remember
the last time I paid for
something with cash and I only have
a single ten pound note in my wallet.
But some fund managers do not seem
to have got the memo.
Cash is at least starting to pay its

way again. Savers can now earn more
on money in the bank — RCI Bank
pays 4.6 per cent on its one-year
fixed-rate bond, and the top easyaccess account, from Al Rayan, pays
2.81 per cent.
Cash held in an investment
portfolio is a different matter. It is
always worth keeping some powder
dry, ready to deploy in case an

opportunity arises. Certainly those
occasions have appeared this year: the
S&P 500 is down 20 per cent since
the start of 2022, while its tech-heavy
counterpart, the Nasdaq, has plunged
31 per cent.
However, cash should be held
sparingly, because it does not earn
interest while sitting idle in a stocks
and shares Isa. Investment platforms
are some of the worst offenders when
it comes to paying little interest on
cash holdings.
What about fund managers, then?
If you’re running a fund that invests
in the shares of US businesses, having
money to hand this year would have
been fruitful — you could now buy
shares in Meta, Facebook’s owner, for
two thirds less than you could at the
start of this year, for example. Shares
in the sportswear firm Nike are cheap
at almost half the price.
The key question is: how much
cash should an investment fund have?
We want fund managers to have the
ability to be opportunistic, but, on the
other hand, any of our cash that they
leave uninvested is subject to the
same annual charges yet is unable
to generate any gains.
Personally I do not want any equity
fund that I hold to have more than
5 per cent of its assets in cash. Ideally
it will be 3 per cent or less.
Almost all of the funds that I own
hit this criteria. Some of the funds
with higher cash weightings include
JOHCM Global Opportunities at
about 5 per cent (down from a huge
20 per cent at the end of 2019),
Temple Bar Investment Trust at
4.3 per cent, and Smithson
Investment Trust at 3.7 per cent.
The rest are all below 2.6 per cent,
which strikes me as acceptable.
The problem with funds having too
much cash is that when share prices
rise your returns will be lower than if
all the cash were invested. Of course,
when share prices are falling the
opposite is true.
Yet an investor putting money into
a fund is taking an active decision
to put their money to work. If they
wanted their cash left idle, they could
put it in the bank — where it would,
in fact, not be idle but potentially
earning 4 per cent or more. That
compares with the paltry 0.3 per cent
interest I earn on cash from AJ Bell,
my investment platform.
If the cash is held inside an
investment fund, not only do we not
receive interest on it, we also have to
pay a fee to the fund management
firm on it. If you had invested £10,000
into the Fidelity American Special
Situations fund, about £1,000 of that
would be in cash, yet the fund’s
0.86 per cent continuing charge
would still apply to your whole
investment. That should not be the
case. Money held in cash should sit
outside of the fund’s annual fee.
Property funds have shown that it
is possible to not charge investors on

Funds holding lots of cash
Name

Fund size

Cash
position

LO Funds Climate
Transition

£535.7m

12.9%

VT Gravis Clean
Energy Income

£534.4m

11.1%

Capital Group
Global Equity

£670.1m

10.6%

Fidelity Global
Thematic
Opportunities

£1.5bn

10.3%

Fidelity American
Special Situations

£848.5m

9.9%

Polar Capital Global
Technology

£3.8bn

9.5%

Carmignac
Investissement

£2.6bn

9.3%

HSBC GIF
Chinese Equity

£516.6m

9.2%

Pictet-Security

£5.4bn

9.2%

Carmignac
Emergents

£652.9m

9.2%

Source: Morningstar Direct

cash. When M&G suspended its
property fund, for example, it said
that there would be no charge on any
cash holding that exceeded 20 per
cent of the portfolio. This is not
perfect, but it is a start.
Property funds have high cash
weightings because the assets that
they own (office buildings, for
example) take a long time to sell,
so raising money to meet investor
redemptions is difficult. There is
a separate argument here about
whether any fund with daily dealing
should be investing in assets that are
so difficult to sell that it is necessary
to hold such high cash levels, but that
is a question for another day.
Aside from funds investing in the
smallest companies in a stock market,
though, most equity funds don’t have
this problem. That makes it even
more important that they should be
fully invested or that they should find
a way to ensure investors are not
charged for cash holdings.
I do have some funds that break
my rules on cash. These are Ruffer
Investment Company and Mobius
Investment Trust, which both have
more than 10 per cent. They are
getting the benefit of the doubt —
for now.
For individual savers, cash is a key
part of an overall portfolio. Fund
managers would be better off tending
towards the cashless society trend —
remember, investors are paying you
to put their money to work.

Online

Follow David Brenchley’s
investments as he
makes his changes
thetimes.co.uk/getrichslowly

All change at Russia trust

A

n investment trust focused on
Russian companies is asking its
shareholders to approve a
change of investment objective to allow
it to invest elsewhere.
The board of JPMorgan Russian Securities has proposed that the trust
should be allowed to invest in companies in central, eastern and southern
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The trust would change its name to
JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle
East & Africa Securities.
The board said that JP Morgan Asset
Management would continue to manage the trust if proposals were approved. It would also enable JP Morgan
to resume charging its management fee
of 0.9 per cent, which the firm has
waived since February 28 after Russia’s

invasion of Ukraine.
The trust invests in 27 Russian companies, which represent 10.4 per cent of
the portfolio and have a combined
market capitalisation of less than
£2 million in total. The rest of the portfolio, worth about £19 million, is in the
JPM GBP Liquidity fund, which is essentially cash.
Stocks on the Moscow exchange can
only be traded by Russian citizens and
“friendly” foreign investors (those from
countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia). As a result, shares in
JPMorgan Russian Securities have fallen 89 per cent in 2022.
A shareholder vote on the change
will take place at its general meeting on
November 23.
David Brenchley

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

61

Money

Our share profits got lost in the post
carefully consider which delivery product is best when sending high-value
items.”
You said in future you might have to
drive all the way to Computershare’s
head office in Bristol to hand-deliver
the share certificates so that you don’t
end up going through all this again.

Times Money
Mentor
Troubleshooter
Katherine
Denham

I

n early April, my husband and I
sold some shares through the
Computershare investment platform. We were set to get about
£17,000 from the proceeds.
After calling Computershare to confirm that the sale had taken place, we
sent the two share certificates in the
same envelope by recorded delivery.
Eight days later, on April 15, we
both received emails from Computershare confirming that the shares had
been sold.
Fast forward two weeks and we were
concerned that the money from
the share proceeds had not yet
appeared in our bank accounts. We
logged into our Computershare accounts to find a message saying that our
shares had been bought back on our
behalf on April 14.
It transpires that Computershare
hadn’t received the share certificates
that we had sent in the post. Rather
than inform us of this, it bought back
the shares.
By this point the share price had gone
up, so Computershare paid an extra
£450 to repurchase the same number of
shares. It also wants to charge us about
£1,400 in fees, including commission
for selling and buying back the shares,
stamp duty and the cost of replacing the
share certificates. This means we have
incurred a considerable loss.
I don’t understand why it didn’t contact us to discuss the situation, or why it
emailed to say the shares had been sold
a day after they had actually been
bought back.
Why would Computershare buy
back shares that its clients wanted to
sell? It doesn’t seem like it has measures
in place to protect customers.
Computershare also told me over the
phone that it cannot issue electronic
share certificates, which feels archaic.
Gillian, Norwich
Troubleshooter says
When you buy shares, the company
provides a certificate that serves as a
proof of ownership. Paper certificates
are rare these days and have largely
been replaced by digital versions, but
some companies do still use them.
You had sold shares in Henderson
International Income Trust, an investment company. If a company has
shares that are listed and traded on the
London Stock Exchange, as Henderson
does, anyone who buys these shares in
their own name is given a physical
share certificate.
By comparison, all shares that are
bought through a stockbroker or trading platform can be held electronically.
The digital version of the certificate is
held on behalf of the investor by the
broker through the Crest system. It’s
not possible for an individual to set up a
personal Crest account.
When an investor instructs Computershare to sell their shares, it needs to
receive the certificates within seven
working days to complete the trade. It
said it always emphasises the importance of sending certificates in this
window of time.
Once a buyer has agreed to purchase

If you have a consumer problem,
write to Troubleshooter, Times
Money, 1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF or
troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk.
Please include a phone number

Money Mentor
Online
Find the top-rated
investment platforms
thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor

the shares, Computershare has a legal
obligation to transfer the stock. But
even though the buyer had bought
your shares, the trade wasn’t complete without the certificates. This is
because the missing certificates were
still valid so you were still technically
the owner. This meant Computershare
was obligated to buy back the shares,
which incurred fees. Computershare
eventually received your certificates on
May 11 but it was too late to complete
the trade.
Your case highlights all the problems
with old-fashioned paper certificates.
While it wasn’t Computershare’s
fault that your certificates had got lost
in the post, why hadn’t it told you that
your certificates had not arrived?
A spokesperson for Computershare

This shows the problem
with old-fashioned
paper certificates
said: “We process many thousands of
trades every year and are unfortunately
not in a position to communicate individually with every shareholder at each
stage of the process.”
There was also confusion around
why the company had emailed you on
April 15 to confirm that the shares had
been sold when the stock had actually
been bought back.
It argued that this email was to inform you that the contract notes relating to the buybacks were available to
view online. Yet this email gave no indication that the shares had been repurchased and actually implied that the
shares had been sold.
The company offered you £25 as a
goodwill gesture and offered to waive
any postage fees for returning the new
share certificates next time you wanted
to sell. You weren’t impressed with this
but I wasn’t able to convince Computershare to offer you any more.
What about compensation from the
Royal Mail? You had used signed-for
delivery which has a compensation
limit of £50. Royal Mail does have other
special delivery options that offer up to
£2,500. As it took more than a month
for your post to be delivered I have
urged you to go through Royal Mail’s
formal complaints process as you might
be offered more than £50.
Royal Mail said: “The vast majority
of mail is delivered safely and on
time. We are very sorry for any distress that our customers have experienced. We remind our customers to

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

62

Money Unit trust
Unit trust and open-ended investment company prices
Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

ALLIANZ GLOBAL INVESTORS
Inv Serv: 020 7065 1400 Helpline: 0800 317 573

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL
Private Clnts 0800 414161 Broker Dlgs 0800 414181

Gilt Yield A ‡@
Strategic Bond Fund ‡@
UK Corp Bond C ‡@
UK Eqty C ‡@
UK Eqty Inc A ‡@
UK Gwth A ‡@
UK Index A Inc ‡@
UK Mid Cap A ‡@

Amer Spec Sits ‡@
American ‡@
Euro Opps ‡@
European ‡@
Extra Income ‡@
Glob Spec Sits ‡@
Global Focus ‡@
International ‡@
Japan ‡@
Moneybldr Bal ‡@
Moneybldr Glob
Moneybldr Gwth ‡@
Moneybldr Inc ‡@
Moneybldr UK Ind ‡@
Special Sits ‡@
Wealthbuilder

206.01
154.20
104.79
6317.26
297.45
7387.88
1423.81
4654.61

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

-0.62
+4.77
-0.77
+49.77
+10.74
+299.29
-10.08
-172.31

…
2.59
3.87
3.28
5.21
…
…
0.07

ARTEMIS FUND MGRS LTD
0800 092 2051
Authorised Inv Funds
Capital R Acc ‡@
2012.57
Euro Opps R Acc ‡@
91.26
Euro Opps R Inc ‡@
85.36
European Growth R Acc ‡@ 351.40
Global Energy R Acc ‡@ 45.55
Global Growth R Acc ‡@ 333.63
Global Income R Acc ‡@ 156.54
Global Income R Inc ‡@ 99.62
Global Select R Acc ‡@ 144.16
High Income R Inc ‡@
59.98
Income R Acc ‡@
470.65
Income R Inc ‡@
210.35
Monthly Dist R Inc ‡@
64.41
Strategic Assets R Acc ‡ 80.74
Strategic Bond R M Acc ‡@91.72
Strategic Bond R M Inc ‡@ 48.64
Strategic Bond R Q Acc ‡@ 91.56
Strategic Bond R Q Inc ‡@ 48.74
UK Growth R Acc ‡@
598.68
UK Smaller Cos R Acc ‡@ 1706.34
UK Special Sits R Acc ‡@ 606.71

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+49.96
+1.71
+1.59
+2.92
+1.32
-1.55
+0.99
+0.63
+0.66
+1.40
+18.13
+8.11
+0.87
-1.69
+2.14
+1.14
+2.14
+1.14
+21.98
+43.69
+21.82

3.34
1.29
1.30
2.41
1.25
1.84
4.31
4.47
…
5.99
4.41
4.54
4.91
…
2.72
2.76
3.00
3.04
1.40
0.96
1.25

AXA FRAMLINGTON UNIT MGMT LTD
Dling: 0845 602 1952 Priv Clients: 0845 777 5511
Equity Inc ‡@
572.40
Gilt Acc @
201.30
Gilt Inc @
74.35
Health Acc ‡@
2961.00
Jap Smlr Co Ac @
62.56
Managed Inc ‡@
138.30
Monthly Inc Inc ‡@
228.10
UK Growth Inc ‡@
201.20
UK Select Opps Inc ‡@ 1794.00
UK Sml Cos Inc ‡@
254.20

…
211.80
78.24
…
66.09
…
…
…
…
…

-2.10
-1.50
-1.00
+27.00
-0.93
-0.70
+4.80
+6.80
+54.00
+5.60

…
1.08
1.09
…
0.30
…
4.81
0.71
1.15
…

AXA FUND MANAGERS LTD
Admin & Enq 0117 989 0808
AXA Trusts
Gen Acc ‡@
Gen Inc ‡@

2101.00
1079.00

234.70
86.74
288.10
162.30
479.80

-53.00
-32.00

2.64
2.70

…
…
…
…
…

+0.10
-1.81
+1.20
+0.90
-18.60

1.18
…
…
1.51
2.30

186.50
711.50
575.80
197.50

…
…
…
…

+4.10
+22.60
+23.40
+8.00

0.83
1.12
2.25
5.48

+0.45

0.01

CLOSE FUND MANAGEMENT LTD
0870 606 6402
Beacon Inv ‡

84.88

…

Dealing: 020 7426 6232
Winchester ‡

3442.77

…

+38.53

0.37

EDENTREE INV MGMT LTD
0800 358 3010
Resp & Sust Sterling Bond ‡ 84.03
Resp & Sust Eurp Eq ‡ 282.70
Resp & Sust Glbl Eq ‡
301.70
Resp & Sust Mgd Income ‡ 113.00
Resp & Sust UK Eq ‡
202.20
Resp & Sust UK Equity Opps ‡ 249.70

…
…
…
0.36
5.35
…
…
0.08
0.53
3.89
0.21
…
4.60
3.19
1.40
0.44

HALIFAX INVESTMENT FUND MGRS LTD
01296 386 386
Authorised Inv Funds
Share Class `C
Corporate Bond ‡@
Ethical ‡@
European ‡@
Far Eastern ‡
Fund of Inv Tst ‡@
Intl Gwth ‡
Japanese ‡
North Amer ‡
Smaller Cos ‡@
Special Sits ‡@
UK Equity Inc ‡@
UK FTSE 100 IT ‡@
UK FTSE All-S IT ‡@
UK Growth ‡@

31.00
106.30
97.48
101.00
128.80
120.30
62.07
146.40
98.84
43.20
81.62
63.46
71.74
73.55

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+1.19
+0.20
+2.02
-5.40
+1.90
-0.60
-0.29
-0.60
+3.27
+1.31
+2.24
+1.31
+1.30
+1.70

3.16
0.01
2.13
1.84
0.28
1.14
1.46
0.28
0.91
1.67
4.70
2.95
2.80
3.58

HSBC GLOBAL ASSET MGMT (UK) LTD
Enq: 0845 745 6123 Dlg: 0845 745 6126 Mon-Fri 8-6
HSBC Index Tracker Investment Funds (OEIC)
Amer Ind Acc ‡@
Amer Ind Inc ‡@
Euro Ind Acc ‡@
Euro Ind Inc ‡@
FTSE 100 Ind Acc ‡@
FTSE 100 Ind Inc ‡@
FTSE 250 Ind Acc ‡@
FTSE 250 Ind Inc ‡@
FTSE All-S Acc ‡@
FTSE All-S Inc ‡@
Jap Ind Acc ‡@
Jap Ind Inc ‡@
Pac Ind Acc ‡@
Pac Ind Inc ‡@

906.21
728.62
1037.05
662.58
252.85
116.76
263.66
162.93
647.79
332.96
129.41
100.86
447.21
281.45

Balanced Acc ‡@
233.43
Balanced Inc ‡@
151.95
Corp Bd Acc ‡@
253.17
Corp Bd Inc ‡@
99.01
Gilt & Fd Int Acc ‡@
497.78
Gilt & Fd Int Inc ‡@
74.17
Income Acc ‡@
643.81
Income Inc ‡@
269.25
Monthly Inc Acc ‡@
313.41
Monthly Inc Inc ‡@
120.57
UK Grth & Inc Ret B Acc ‡@ 131.72
UK Grth & Inc Ret B Inc ‡@59.27
UK Gth & Inc Acc ‡@
131.72
UK Gth & Inc Inc ‡@
59.27

…
…
…
…
…
…

+2.22
+8.10
+0.20
+2.20
+7.50
+7.60

4.00
2.00
0.08
5.29
1.07
0.97

American Index Retail Acc ‡@ 906.21
American Index Retail Inc ‡@ 728.62
Asian Gth Acc ‡@
147.77
Asian Gth Inc ‡@
130.99
Chinese Eq Acc ‡@
513.81
Chinese Eq Inc ‡@
434.76
Euro Gth Acc ‡@
973.97
Euro Gth Inc ‡@
817.05

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+2.26
+1.82
+22.52
+14.39
+4.22
+1.95
+11.65
+7.20
+19.92
+10.24
-0.13
-0.10
-9.40
-5.91

1.01
1.02
2.63
2.72
3.46
3.53
2.59
2.58
3.41
3.49
2.05
2.39
2.79
2.87

Yld
%

UK Growth Acc ‡@
791.11
UK Sml Cos Eqty Acc ‡@ 1279.00
UK Sml Cos Gwth ‡@
82.54

…
…
…

+25.59
+39.75
-1.65

…
0.36
…

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

UK Alpha Fund A Acc ‡@ 125.10
UK Irsh Sm Co Fd A Acc ‡@ 742.50
UK Property A Acc @
264.95
UK Property A Inc @
105.80
US Growth Fund A Acc ‡@ 1610.00

…
…
278.15
111.07
…

+4.80
+6.60
+0.38
+0.15
+2.00

1.29
…
…
…
…

INVESTEC FUND MGRS

Charifund Inc ‡

Broker Support and Dealing: 020 7597 1900

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+1.52
+3.09
+8.81
+3.45
+7.06
+1.05
+14.79
+6.19
-1.33
+3.25
+3.39
+1.53
+3.39
+1.53

F & C FUND MANAGEMENT LTD (OEICS)
Enqs: 0870 601 6183 Dealing: 0870 601 6083
Share Class 1 - Retail
…
…
…
…
…
…
11.71
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+1.64
-8.20
+26.00
+0.57
+10.10
+4.70
+0.08
+0.57
+0.79
+0.45
+1.30
-30.10
+1.30
+109.00
+2.90
+1.00
+27.00

1.70
…
…
1.87
3.27
…
5.78
2.92
3.18
3.37
…
0.04
1.56
…
…
…
0.21

+2.26
+1.82
-0.67
-0.59
-13.85
-11.72
-10.00
-8.39

1.01
1.02
…
…
0.40
0.34
0.41
0.44

American Gth Inc @
Balanced Growth @
Balanced Growth Acc @
Corporate Bond ‡@
European Growth @
European Growth Acc @
Glob Gwth @
Higher Yield @
Higher Yield Acc @
Japan @
Managed @
Managed Trust @
Mngd Pfolio Inc @
Pacific Grth @
Smaller Comp @
Smaller Cos @

322.55
262.17
393.13
99.69
403.88
475.71
331.53
83.98
275.04
49.06
130.89
71.96
95.54
498.71
756.24
628.94

340.42
276.69
414.92
…
426.26
502.07
349.90
88.64
290.28
51.78
138.15
76.96
100.84
526.34
798.14
663.79

+1.71
-1.59
-2.40
-1.17
-1.19
-1.47
+2.16
+0.86
+2.83
-2.35
+0.95
+1.59
+0.63
-0.26
-8.40
-6.93

…
…
…
4.77
2.18
2.24
0.12
4.43
4.32
0.94
0.66
…
0.58
1.34
…
0.21

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

-11.21
-36.15
+8.50
+5.89
+3.71
+1.61
+1.70
+3.61
+0.78
+0.51
+0.06
+0.30
-8.86
-2.89
-1.16
-1.26
-4.54
+5.98
+4.52
+46.14
+6.88
-4.81
-0.41
+0.64
-3.66
+4.95
+2.97
+2.30
-0.66
+2.02
+0.42
+0.46
+0.50

…
…
…
2.09
2.12
0.64
…
2.49
4.01
4.46
…
6.47
0.93
4.42
4.68
5.42
…
0.82
0.82
1.25
0.47
…
0.44
…
…
0.58
…
…
…
3.54
5.01
…
1.96

…
…

+0.24
-0.32

…
…

INVESCO FUND MGRS LTD
Dling: 0800 085 8571 Inv Serv: 0800 085 8677
Brkr Serv: 0800 028 2121
INVESCO Funds
UK Str Inc N/Trl ‡@

323.57

…

-2.78

…

INVESCO PERPETUAL Funds
Childrens Acc ‡@
403.68
Corp Bond Acc ‡@
188.42
High Income Inc ‡@
293.33
Income & Grth Inc ‡@
382.59
Income Inc ‡@
1142.54
Money Acc ‡@
91.35
Monthly Inc Plus Inc ‡@ 89.28
UK Aggressive Inc ‡@
154.28

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+14.71
+6.97
+10.36
+13.92
+41.29
+0.12
+1.81
+0.90

…
2.70
3.19
1.84
3.41
0.24
4.99
…

152.40
795.50
313.40

…
…
…

+3.80
+1.60
+5.00

3.24
0.71
0.60

1392.59

…

+16.57

Asia A Acc ‡@
259.00
Emerging Mkts ‡@
261.50
Eur Dyn (ex-UK) A Acc ‡@ 270.30
Euro Smllr Cos ‡@
864.00
Europe A Acc ‡@
1734.00
Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Acc ‡@ 117.30
Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Inc ‡@
30.89
Gl ex-UK Bd A Acc ‡@ 257.40
Gl ex-UK Bd A Inc ‡@
196.80
Glb Fins A Acc ‡@
1077.00
Global A Acc ‡@
2049.00
Japan A Acc ‡@
516.80
Multi-Man Tst A Acc ‡@ 1268.00
Multi-Man Tst A Inc ‡@ 1127.00
Nat Resources ‡@
951.20
New Europe A ‡@
155.70
Portfolio ‡@
295.60
Stg Corp Bd A Acc ‡@
85.59
Stg Corp Bd A Inc ‡@
48.30
UK Act 350 A Acc ‡@
199.00
UK Dynamic Acc ‡@
206.70
UK Dynamic Inc ‡@
148.20
UK Equity A Acc ‡@
401.90
UK Equity A Inc ‡@
46.44
UK Eqy & Bd Inc Acc ‡@ 167.10
UK Eqy & Bd Inc Inc ‡@ 90.29
UK Higher Inc A Acc ‡@ 1132.00
UK Higher Inc A Inc ‡
531.30
UK Sm Cos A Acc ‡@
563.30
UK Str Eq Inc A Acc ‡@ 197.90
UK Str Eq Inc A Inc ‡@ 100.50
US A Acc ‡@
1036.00

Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 119.47
Target Return A Acc ‡@ 102.03
Target Return A Inc ‡@ 87.63
UK Alpha A Acc ‡@
2393.92
UK Blue Chip A Acc ‡@ 770.11
UK Smaller Companies A Acc ‡@ 4426.88
UK Smaller Companies A Inc ‡@ 3970.64
UK Special Situations A Acc ‡@ 1160.04
UK Special Situations A Inc ‡@ 415.84

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+0.23
+0.39
-0.07
+68.33
+5.67
+119.94
+107.59
+34.52
+12.37

3.32
0.82
0.87
1.35
…
…
…
0.40
0.40

Investors Serv: 0800 832 832 Dlng: 0845 946 4646
All Stks Credit A Inc ‡@ 112.10
Asian Div Inc U Trst Inc ‡@76.05
Cautious Man Fd A Acc ‡@ 265.50
Cautious Man Fd A Inc ‡@ 132.80
China Opp Fund A Acc ‡@ 959.90
Emg Mkts Opps Fd A Acc ‡@ 179.80
Erpn Grth Fund A Acc ‡@ 264.40
Erpn Sel Opps Fd A Acc ‡@ 1996.00
Fix Int Mnthly Inc Fd Acc ‡@ 27.16
Global Equity Fund Acc ‡@ 4162.00
Global Equity Income A Inc ‡@ 62.64
Global Tech A Acc ‡@ 2617.00
Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc ‡@ 104.34
M-Asset Abs Ret A Acc ‡@ 159.20
M-Man Active Fd A Acc ‡@ 243.00
M-Man Inc Grth A Inc ‡@ 141.60
M-Man Inc Grth Fd A Acc ‡@ 179.50
Sterling Bond U Trst Acc ‡@ 199.20
Sterling Bond U Trst Inc ‡@ 54.67
Strategic Bond A Inc ‡@ 101.60
UK Abs Ret Fd A Acc ‡@ 162.10

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+3.70
-1.47
+9.20
+4.60
-133.10
-9.30
+4.00
+40.00
+0.78
+56.00
+0.52
-33.00
+2.13
+2.80
+1.40
+2.00
+2.50
+6.80
+1.85
+3.07
+1.30

1.82
6.43
3.25
3.31
…
…
1.37
1.40
5.26
…
3.55
…
3.21
0.68
…
2.46
2.43
1.46
1.47
3.59
…

US Sm Cos A Acc ‡@

976.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

-1.80
+1.30
+8.30
+24.20
+62.00
+1.40
+0.38
-0.60
-0.40
+12.00
+25.00
+4.20
+20.00
+18.00
+27.20
-73.10
+0.60
-0.61
-0.35
-1.30
+6.80
+4.90
-4.70
-0.54
+2.30
+0.88
+12.00
+4.30
+18.80
+5.70
+2.87
+14.00

…
…
…
…
…
5.30
5.45
…
…
1.03
…
…
0.57
0.58
…
2.11
0.98
1.14
1.14
…
2.07
2.03
…
…
3.41
3.50
…
…
0.34
…
…
…

…

+26.90

…

JUPITER UT MGRS LTD
020 7581 3020
Absolute Return ‡@
32.65
Distribution and Growth ‡@ 91.04
Emg Euro Opps ‡@
145.34
Euro Special Sits ‡@
399.48
European ‡@
2549.45
Financial Opps ‡@
689.33
Income Trust ‡@
470.09
Merlin Bal (Acc) ‡@
220.28
Merlin Gwth (Acc) ‡
509.54
Merlin Inc (Acc) ‡@
325.03
Merlin Wwide (Inc) ‡
359.56
UK Growth ‡@
234.12
UK Special Sits (Inc) ‡@ 186.43

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

-0.37
-1.11
-72.04
+9.30
+64.68
+11.27
+8.16
+1.22
+2.55
+3.34
-2.43
+3.73
+3.51

…
2.24
…
…
…
0.68
4.52
2.17
…
2.58
…
0.74
1.84

LEGAL & GENERAL (UT MGRS) LTD
Enquiries: 0870 050 0955 Dealing: 0870 050 0956
2616.00
893.80
458.00
300.10
125.90
59.52
243.90
109.80
80.19
106.00
116.80
63.33
179.60
180.90
249.90
316.30

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

152.00
280.20
266.60

…
…
…

+0.30
-0.70
-0.50

…
…
…

-11.00

0.55

Overseas Growth Investment Funds
Eur Sel Gth A Acc ‡@

UK Trkr A Acc ‡@
UK Trkr A Inc ‡@

Sterling Class A Investment Funds 1
Euro Smlr Cos Acc ‡
Euro Smlr Cos Inc ‡

525.29
462.50

…
…

+6.31
+5.55

…
0.69

Sterling Class A Investment Funds 2
Extra Income Inc ‡
660.21
Gilt & Fxd Int Inc ‡
77.93
Gl Hi Yd Bd Inc ‡
37.96
Index Linked Bd Inc ‡
118.04
Index Trckr Inc ‡
71.25
Short Dated Corp Bd Inc ‡ 24.55
UK Select A Inc ‡
2532.07

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+14.51
+3.49
+0.62
+6.67
+2.30
+0.19
+44.35

5.50
1.53
5.94
…
3.98
1.63
2.53

+1.23
+1.25
+1.34
+6.24

3.27
6.18
3.39
2.31

+1.53

2.53

+0.78
+2.20
+3.60
+1.80
+1.60
+3.20
+17.90
+10.50

4.69
4.59
3.39
3.48
3.47
1.50
1.06
1.07

Sterling Class A Investment Funds 3
Corp Bd A Inc ‡
Dividend Inc ‡
Recovery A Inc ‡
Sml Cos Inc ‡

32.52
50.22
98.74
317.11

…
…
…
…

3066.00

…

Episode Allocation A Inc ‡@ 129.48

…

MARKS & SPENCER UNIT TRUST LTD
0808 005 5555
82.85
226.90
410.70
203.50
305.30
621.80
899.70
529.20

82.85
226.90
410.70
203.50
305.30
621.80
899.70
529.20

Dev Opp Fund F Acc ‡@ 668.14
Dev Opp Fund I Acc ‡@ 665.14
Glob Bal Inc F F Acc ‡@ 889.06
Glob Bal Inc F F Inc ‡@ 831.67
Glob Bal Inc F I Acc ‡@ 888.09
Glob Bal Inc F I Inc ‡@ 830.61
Glob Bal Sust F F Acc ‡@ 900.81
Glob Bal Sust F F Inc ‡@ 887.43
Glob Bal Sust F I Acc ‡@ 899.81
Glob Bal Sust F I Inc ‡@ 887.30
Glob Br Eq Inc Fund F Inc ‡@ 1248.99
Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Acc ‡@ 1712.58
Glob Br Eq Inc Fund I Inc ‡@ 1338.12
Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1414.74
Glob Br Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 12826.13
Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@ 3524.44
Glob Br Fund I Inc (PH) ‡@ 1354.66
Glob Ins Fund F Acc ‡@ 532.34
Glob Ins Fund F Inc ‡@ 532.34
Glob Ins Fund I Acc ‡@ 530.37
Glob Ins Fund I Inc ‡@ 530.37
Glob Sust Fund F Acc (PH) ‡@ 1037.19
Glob Sust Fund F Inc ‡@ 1167.66
Glob Sust Fund I Acc ‡@ 1182.18
Glob Sust Fund I Acc (PH) ‡@ 1037.01
Glob Sustain Fund F Acc ‡@ 1187.89
Stg Corp Bond F F Acc ‡@ 114.17
Stg Corp Bond F F Inc ‡@ 91.20
Stg Corp Bond F I Acc ‡@ 2429.19
Stg Corp Bond F I Inc ‡@1288.63
Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Acc ‡@ 895.67
Sust Fixed Inc Opps F F Inc ‡@ 865.82
Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Acc ‡@ 892.30
Sust Fixed Inc Opps F I Inc ‡@ 865.65
US Adv F F Acc ‡@
1482.02
US Adv F F Acc (PH) ‡@ 793.94
US Adv F I Acc ‡@
1578.26
US Adv F I Acc (PH) ‡@ 832.87

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

2639.00
902.00
…
…
…
…
243.90
…
…
106.50
…
…
…
180.90
252.90
…

+17.00
+5.60
+9.30
+6.10
+4.70
+2.20
+0.60
+1.90
-2.75
-2.10
+1.70
-0.07
-3.70
+7.60
+1.80
+7.90

2.12
2.15
2.60
2.67
2.08
2.11
1.15
0.68
0.09
…
5.70
1.49
3.19
…
…
3.18

349.10
175.10

…
…

+6.10
+3.10

3.14
3.22

+8.80
+3.30
+8.30
+3.60
+1.09
+9.40
+2.90
-0.14
+6.70
+3.00
+4.00
+41.00

2.16
2.18
1.48
5.27
5.41
4.35
4.46
…
3.20
3.25
3.65
2.72

UK and Income Investment Funds
Corp Bond A Acc ‡@
270.30
Corp Bond A Inc ‡@
101.10
Envir Invtr A Acc ‡@
353.70
Hi Inc Bond A Ac ‡@
220.70
Hi Inc Bond A Inc ‡@
66.75
Hi Res A Acc ‡@
348.90
Hi Res A Inc ‡@
109.70
Safety Plus A Acc ‡@
40.49
Strat Inc A Acc ‡@
178.90
Strat Inc A Inc ‡@
79.66
UK Gwth A Acc ‡@
175.90
UK Sel Gwth A Acc ‡@ 2018.00

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

OEIC B Class
Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds
UK Trkr B Acc ‡@
UK Trkr B Inc ‡@

385.30
174.00

…
…

+6.70
+3.00

3.33
3.41

+0.40
+0.10
-0.60
+8.00

…
…
1.79
…

+2.70
+8.00

4.30
…

UK and Income Investment Funds

Sterling Class A Investment Funds 4

-40.99
-40.84
+1.77
+1.65
+1.75
+1.64
+3.51
+3.46
+3.49
+3.44
-3.10
-4.33
-3.38
+38.78
-15.71
-4.31
+37.10
-2.26
-2.26
-2.27
-2.27
+24.92
-5.63
-5.74
+24.70
-5.73
+4.46
+3.56
+94.75
+50.26
+6.82
+6.59
+6.76
+6.55
-10.00
+21.44
-10.74
+22.46

…
…
5.46
5.64
5.48
5.66
1.13
1.14
1.05
1.05
4.15
4.12
4.23
1.12
0.96
0.97
1.13
…
…
…
…
1.06
0.92
0.72
0.84
0.92
3.22
3.27
3.69
3.78
2.06
2.08
1.84
1.86
…
…
…
…

Corp Bond B Acc ‡@
370.70
Corp Bond B Inc ‡@
136.30
UK Gwth B Acc ‡@
205.60
UK Sel Gwth B Acc ‡@ 2481.00

…
…
…
…

OEIC C Class
UK and Income Investment Funds
UK Gth C Inc ‡@
117.00
UK Sel Gwth C Acc ‡@ 2598.00

…
…

STANDARD LIFE INVESTMENTS
0845 279 3003
Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Shares
AAA Inc CAT Acc ‡@
AAA Inc CAT Inc ‡@
AAA Income Acc ‡@
Amer Eq Gth Acc ‡@
Corp Bond Acc ‡@
Corp Bond Inc ‡@
Euro Eq Gth Acc ‡@
Glb Advtg CAT Acc ‡@
Glob Advtg Acc ‡@
Glob Eq Uncstrd Acc ‡@
Higher Inc Acc ‡@
Higher Inc Inc ‡@
Japan Eq Gth Acc ‡@
Managed Acc ‡@
Select Inc Acc ‡@
Select Inc Inc ‡@
UK Eq Gth Acc ‡@
UK Eq Hi Alpha ‡@
UK Eq Hi Inc Acc ‡@
UK Eq Hi Inc Inc ‡@
UK Ethical Acc ‡@
UK Opps Acc ‡@
UK Opps Inc ‡@
UK Smlr Cos Acc ‡@

87.71
49.51
95.38
210.60
147.40
49.81
222.50
141.70
187.10
145.30
133.60
42.14
127.40
347.90
91.51
51.26
333.40
205.40
254.50
70.01
176.00
214.30
193.50
740.50

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+1.88
+1.06
+2.05
-2.20
+5.10
+1.75
+3.20
+1.40
+1.80
+1.40
+2.10
+0.66
-0.30
+3.80
-0.06
-0.29
+8.90
+5.40
+6.90
+1.89
+6.30
+9.00
+8.10
+26.60

1.30
1.31
1.75
…
3.36
3.42
0.31
1.01
0.98
…
4.67
4.78
…
0.43
2.21
2.21
2.07
3.43
4.62
4.78
1.62
0.72
0.73
…

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+1.75
+1.57
+1.26
+1.10
+4.28
+3.87
+4.19
+2.91
+1.39
+0.54

0.79
0.79
1.30
1.31
0.50
0.49
0.70
1.29
…
…

SVS BROWN SHIPLEY FUNDS
Enquiries: 0141 222 1151
Balanced A Acc ‡@
Balanced A Inc ‡@
Cautious A Acc ‡@
Cautious A Inc ‡@
Dynamic A Acc ‡@
Dynamic A Inc ‡@
Growth A Acc ‡@
Income A Acc ‡@
Sterling Bond Acc ‡@
Sterling Bond Inc ‡@

127.45
114.26
106.38
92.56
310.19
280.20
320.12
234.38
242.37
97.00

THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS
Client Serv: 0800 0683000
Intermediary Serv: 0800 0684000
Institutional Shares (Class 2) (500000 GBP)
Threadneedle UK Eq Opps Ins Inc ‡@ 111.60

…

+2.98

1.74

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+0.63
+2.82
+1.97
+1.96
+2.27
+0.77
+3.63
+3.21
+4.41
+1.73
+2.90
+10.70

4.31
3.65
2.30
1.90
1.40
3.02
3.87
3.00
2.02
4.37
1.67
…

818.00
219.40

+14.70
+3.90

0.69
…

SANTANDER UNIT TST MGRS
08457 413002
Bal Pfolio Inc ‡@
Bal Port Gwth Acc ‡@
Equity Inc Inc ‡@
N&P UK Gwth Inc ‡@
Stkmkt 100 Tkr @
UK Growth Acc ‡@
UK Growth Inc ‡@

110.50
218.30
181.10
182.80
239.90
408.20
218.00

…
…
…
…
239.90
…
…

…
+1.80
+5.50
+6.00
+4.60
+12.50
+6.60

…
1.13
6.12
…
1.56
3.66
3.74

+12.14
+3.79
-0.13
+0.57
-73.67
-43.02
+19.24
+31.39
+29.21
+12.61

0.78
1.42
0.75
0.56
1.11
0.63
0.24
3.11
…
3.49

SCOTTISH MUTUAL INV MNGRS LTD
0141 248 6100

Equity Acc @
Equity Dist @
Euro Ind Acc ‡@
Euro Ind Inc ‡@
Fixed Int Acc ‡@
Fixed Int Dist ‡@
Glob Gwth Acc @
Glob Health Acc ‡@
Glob Tech Acc ‡@
Gwth Tst Acc @
High Inc Acc ‡@
Japan Ind Acc ‡@
Pacific Ind Acc ‡@
UK 100 Ind Acc @
UK Active Opps Acc @
UK Index Acc ‡@

Caut Port A Inc ‡@
Opps Port A Acc ‡@
Prog Port A Acc ‡@

Sell

5.76

MORGAN STANLEY INVESTMENT MGMT LTD
Enquires: 0800 0961 962
The Morgan Stanley Funds (UK)
Class A Shares
Equity

JANUS HENDERSON INVESTORS

96.05
93.79

Yld
%

Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds

High Income
High Income Acc
UK 100 Comp Acc @
UK 100 Cos @
UK Select Pflo @
UK Selection Port Acc @
Worldwide Mgd Acc @
Wwide Mgd @

For ISIS Asset Mgmt see F&C Fd Mgmt Ltd (OEICS)

INSIGHT INVESTMENT FDS MANAGEMENT LTD
Client Servs: 0207 163 4000
Insight Investment Multi-Manager Funds

Weekly
+/-

OEIC

0.61
…
3.37
3.43
1.19
1.58
4.69
4.85
3.21
4.24
4.56
4.71
4.56
4.71

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Buy

JP MORGAN ASSET MGMT

OEIC Series i,ii,iii, & iv
American A Acc ‡@
615.80
Asia ex Japan A Acc ‡@ 635.31
Capital Accumulator A Acc ‡@ 231.48
Cautious Managed A Acc ‡@ 357.47
Cautious Managed A Inc ‡@ 225.76
Diversified Growth A Acc ‡@ 121.03
Diversified Growth A Inc ‡@ 128.16
Diversified Income A Acc ‡@ 305.03
Diversified Income A Inc ‡@ 65.90
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc ‡@ 105.94
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc Gross ‡@ 125.82
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Inc ‡@ 62.66
Emerging Mkts Equity A Acc ‡@ 136.53
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Acc ‡@ 174.24
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Inc ‡@ 69.88
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt Gross I Acc ‡@ 220.49
Enhanced Natural Resources A Acc ‡@ 134.24
Global Bond A Acc ‡@
139.30
Global Bond A Inc ‡@
109.33
Global Bond I Gross Inc ‡@ 1167.00
Global Dynamic A Acc ‡@ 193.61
Global Energy A Acc ‡@ 170.97
Global Equity A Acc ‡@ 224.16
Global Franchise A Acc ‡@ 291.54
Global Free Enterprise A Acc ‡@ 1127.54
Global Gold A Acc ‡@
162.52
Global Special Situations A Acc ‡@ 292.26
Global Special Situations A Inc ‡@ 226.07
Managed Growth A Acc ‡@ 259.37
Monthly High Income A Acc ‡@ 243.45
Monthly High Income A Inc ‡@ 63.17
Multi-Asset Protector A Acc ‡@ 163.54
Strategic Bond A Acc ‡@ 244.54

UK Index Dist ‡@
US Ind Acc ‡@
Worldwide Acc ‡@

Sell

M & G SECURITIES
Enq: 0800 390 390 Dealing Line: 0800 328 3196
Authorised Inv Funds

IGNIS ASSET MGMT
Dlg: 0141 222 8282

Well Bldr Bal Acc ‡@
Well Bldr Gwth Acc ‡@

Corporate Bd ‡@
48.58
Emerging Mkts ‡@
116.50
Euro Gwth & Inc 1 ‡@ 1064.00
Extra Inc Bond ‡@
42.25
FTSE All-Shr Track ‡@ 397.30
Global Gwth SC1 ‡@
294.60
High Inc Trst @
11.10
Max Inc Bond ‡@
42.04
Multi Man Caut ‡@
70.41
Multi Man Distr ‡@
60.44
North Amer ‡@
830.10
Pacific Gwth ‡@
435.70
Strategic Bd ‡@
191.90
UK Equity ‡@
3151.00
UK Gwth & Inc Acc 1 ‡@ 658.50
UK Gwth & Inc Dist ‡@ 234.70
UK Smaller Cos ‡@
940.20

+14.00
-148.00
+9.80
+60.00
+0.56
-23.00
+8.00
+1.10
-2.40
+1.26
-1.90
+0.20
+1.00
+2.96
+125.00
-0.11

Weekly
+/-

HSBC Specialist Investment Funds (OEIC)

CIS UNIT MANAGERS LTD
08457 46 46 46
European Gwth ‡@
Sus Leaders ‡@
UK Growth ‡@
UK Income ‡@

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
327.60
…
…
…
…
72.18

Buy

HSBC Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Share Class
…
…

UK/Global Investment Companies
Euro Acc A ‡@
Extra Inc Inc B ‡@
Global Gwth Acc R ‡@
Japan Acc A ‡@
Pac Gwth Acc A ‡@

2360.00
4885.00
501.20
3031.00
22.10
5220.00
2788.00
149.50
501.80
42.36
327.60
76.12
28.80
117.83
4188.00
69.75

Sell

European Inc
Far Eastern Inc
Intl Growth Inc
Japanese Inc
Mutual European
Mutual Far Eastern
Mutual North Am
Mutual UK Eq
Nth American Inc
UK Equity Inc

1777.00
584.69
380.56
41.85
2762.93
828.59
1983.00
1301.25
1227.65
512.62

1873.48
617.09
400.59
41.85
2908.99
874.50
2092.88
1373.35
1295.67
541.02

SCOTTISH WIDOWS UNIT TRUST MGRS
0845 300 2244
Authorised Inv Funds (OEICs)
OEIC A Class
Managed Investment Funds
Bal Port A Acc ‡@
Caut Port A Acc ‡@

237.60
207.10

…
…

-0.10
+0.30

0.01
…

Retail Shares (Class 1)
Threadneedle HY Bd Rtl Inc ‡@ 34.89
Threadneedle Mthly Etr Inc Rtl Inc ‡@ 74.59
Threadneedle SterlingCorpBd Ins Inc ‡@ 51.85
Threadneedle SterlingCorpBd Rtl Inc ‡@ 51.76
Threadneedle Stg Bd Ret Inc ‡@ 45.63
Threadneedle Strat Bd Ret ‡@ 39.25
Threadneedle UK Eq Inc Rtl Inc ‡@ 91.18
Threadneedle UK Growth & Inc Rtl Inc ‡@ 84.64
Threadneedle UK Insti Rtl ‡@ 165.29
Threadneedle UK Mthly Inc Rtl Inc ‡@ 63.65
Threadneedle UK Rtl Inc ‡@ 117.98
Threadneedle UK Smaller Coms Rtl Inc ‡@ 321.55

For Resolution see Ignis
TU FUND MANAGERS LIMITED
British
European

818.00
210.70

This list contains unit trusts and Oeics widely held
by private investors. The weekly price change is
based on a Friday-to-Thursday trading period.*
Yield expressed as CAR (Compound Annual
Return); † Ex dividend; ‡ Middle price; . . . No significant data. # Periodic charge deducted from capital; @ Exit charge

Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
Morningstar or this publication

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

63

Money

Best buys

Data supplied by
Data supplied by

Mortgages

Savings

First-time buyer mortgages

Easy access (without introductory bonus)
Provider

Contact

Account

Min

HSBC

via website

Online Bonus Saver

£1 3.00%

Al Rayan Bank A

via website

Everyday Saver (3)

£5,000 2.81%

Gatehouse Bank A

via website

Easy Access

Sainsbury's Bank

via website

Defined Access - 33

£1,000 2.75%

AER

Yorkshire Building Society

via website

Online Rainy Day 2

£1 2.50%

£1 2.80%

Provider

Account

Gatehouse Bank A

via website

Woodland Saver (5 yr)

Provider

Contact

first direct

0800 482448

Initial
Rate
6.24%F

Fee

for 2 years

Max
LTV
95%

-

Redmptn
Charge
Until
1st 2 yrs

Period

Personal loans
Fixed monthly repayment on £10,000 for 5 years
Provider

Contact

APR

month

repaid

Halifax

via website

4.4%

£185.58

£11,135.05

MBNA Limited

via website

4.8%

£187.33

£11,239.78

RateSetter

via website

4.9%

£187.76

£11,265.60

via website

4.9%

£187.76

£11,265.60

Barclays Mortgage

0333 202 7580

6.40%F

to 31.1.25

95%

-

To 31.1.25

first direct

0800 482448

5.99%F

for 5 years

95%

-

1st 5 yrs

HSBC

0808 256 6876

5.99%F

to 31.3.28

95%

-

To 31.3.28

HSBC

Coventry BS

0800 121 8899

5.99%F

to 30.4.28

95%

-

To 30.4.28

Borrowing rates and availability of products are subject to individual credit ratings.

Provider

Contact

Period

£10,000 5.05% F

0800 482448

for 2 years

Max Fee
LTV
60% £490

Charge
Until
1st 2 yrs

Introductory rate for balance transfers

first direct

Initial
Rate
5.64% F

Long-term fixed rates
Contact

Personal loans

Min

AER

£1,000 5.10% F
£1,000 5.05% F

Remortgages
Credit cards

Gatehouse Bank A

via website

Woodland Saver (4 yr)

Close Brothers Savings

via website

Fixed Bond (5 yr)

Dudley BS

via website

Bond Online 2 (5 yr)

£1,000 5.00% F

first direct

0800 482448

5.69% F

for 2 years

75% £490

1st 2 yrs

Provider

United Trust Bank

via website

UTB Bond (5 yr)

£5,000 5.00% F

first direct

0800 482448

5.34% F

for 5 years

60% £490

1st 5 yrs

Sainsbury's Bank

08085 40 50 60 Balance Transfer CC MC 0% 1st 34 mths

2.88%

first direct

0800 482448

5.39% F

for 5 years

75% £490

1st 5 yrs

MBNA Limited

0345 606 2062 Long 0% BT CC MC

0% 1st 34 mths

2.99%

21.9%

first direct

0800 482448

4.19% V

for term

75% £490

None

Santander

0800 912 3123 Everyday Long Term BT MC 0% 1st 33 mths

2.65%

21.9%

M&S Bank

0800 997 996

0% 1st 32 mths

1.99%

21.9%

Sainsbury's Bank

08085 40 50 60 Balance Transfer CC MC 0% 1st 31 mths

1.98%

21.9%

Easy access cash Isas
Provider

Contact

Account

Virgin Money

via website

Isa Exclusive 2

Min

£1 2.25%

AER

Coventry BS

via website

Ltd Isa (Online) (3)

£1 2.25%

Cynergy Bank

via website

Online Isa (26)

£1 2.15%

Principality BS

via website

Online Isa

Tesco Bank

via website

Cash Isa

Contact

Account

Provider

Contact

£1 2.15% B

West Brom BS

£1 2.15% B

Coventry BS

via website

Virgin Money

via website

Fixed E-Isa 530 (24.10.25)

Paragon Bank

via website

Fixed Isa (5 yr)

Period

Max Fee
LTV
75% £999

to 28.2.25

West Brom BS

0800 298 0008

5.74%

to 28.2.25

75%

Charge
Until
To 28.2.25

Introductory rate for purchases

-

To 28.2.25

Provider

for 2 years

80% £490

1st 2 yrs

Sainsbury's Bank

08085 40 50 60 Dual Offer CC MC

0% 1st 24 mths

21.9%

5.79%

for 2 years

85% £490

1st 2 yrs

M&S Bank

0800 997 996

Shopping Plus Offer MC

0% 1st 24 mths

21.9%

£1 4.40% F

first direct

0800 482448

5.89%

for 2 years

90% £490

1st 2 yrs

Barclaycard

0800 151 0900 Platinum All-Rounder V

0% 1st 24 mths

22.9%

£1 4.35% F

Long-term fixed-rate mortgages

HSBC

0345 7404 404 Purchase Plus CC V

0% 1st 20 mths

23.9%

Lloyds

0345 602 1997 Platinum Purch & BT MC

0% 1st 18 mths

21.9%

£500 4.27% F

Fixed Isa (3 yr)

£500 4.26% F

Fixed Isa (3 yr)

£2,000 4.25% F

Lifetime cash Isas

Provider

Contact
0800 482448

Initial
Rate
5.39%

first direct
Nationwide BS

0800 302010

5.39%

for 5 years

Max Fee
LTV
75% £490

Redmptn
Charge
Until
1st 5 yrs

for 5 years

75% £999

1st 5 yrs

Period

first direct

0800 482448

5.54%

for 5 years

90% £490

1st 5 yrs

£1 2.00% B

Nationwide BS

0800 302010

5.09%

for 10 years

75% £999

1st 10 yrs

Homebuyer Lifetime Isa

£1 1.70%

Nationwide BS

0800 302010

5.49%

for 10 years

90% £999

1st 10 yrs

Retirement Lifetime Isa

£1 1.70%

Variable-rate mortgages

via website

Cash Lifetime Isa - 3

£1 1.60%

via website

Cash Lifetime Isa (3)

£1 1.20%

Account
Cash Lifetime Isa

Beehive Money

via website

Beehive Money

via website

Paragon Bank
Newcastle BS

Min

AER

Regular savings accounts
Provider

Contact

Account

NatWest

via website

Digital Regular Saver

Purch
APR

5.74%

via website

Contact

Introductory
Term

0800 482448

via website

via website

Product name

21.9%

0800 482448

UBL UK

Moneybox

Contact

Bal trans Purch
fee APR

first direct

Paragon Bank

Provider

Transfer Plus Offer

Transfer

first direct
Min

Fixed Isa (199) (30.11.25)

0800 298 0008

Initial
Rate
5.49%

Product name

AER

Fixed cash Isas
Provider

Short-term fixed-rate mortgages

Contact

Min AER
Mntly
£0 5.12% V

Royal Bank of Scotland

via website

Digital Regular Saver

Lloyds Bank

via website

Monthly Saver

£25 4.50% F

£0 5.12% V

Halifax

via website

Regular Saver

£25 4.50% F

Bank of Scotland

via website

Monthly Saver

£25 4.50% F

Provider

Contact

Period

0800 482448

Initial
Rate
4.19%

first direct
first direct

0800 482448

4.34%

term

75%

-

None

first direct

0800 482448

4.64%

term

80% £490

None

first direct

0800 482448

4.79%

term

80%

-

None

first direct

0800 482448

5.29%

term

90% £490

None

Max Fee
LTV
70% £100

Redmptn
charge
until
1st 2 yrs

Single life

Charge
Until
None

Contact

Stafford Railway BS

01785 223212

Initial
Rate
3.60% D

Leek BS

0808 169 6680

4.00% D

Purchase
APR
Cashback
32.0% 0.75% - 1.25% standard
Intro 5%/3mth (max £125)
Plat Cashback Everyday
26.6% 0.50% - 1.00% standard
Intro 5%/3mth (max £100)
Cashback CC MC
19.9% Standard 0.25% - 0.50% on
spend over £1 per year
Cashback CC MC
19.9% Standard 0.25% - 0.50% on
spend over £1 per year
Rewards Visa
23.9%
Standard 0.25% on
spend over £1 per year

Provider
American Express

Contact
Product name
0800 917 8047 Platinum Cashback

American Express

0800 917 8047

Halifax

0345 944 4555

Lloyds Bank

0345 602 1997

Barclaycard

0800 151 0900

Borrowing rates and products are subject credit ratings. Terms apply to all cashback

Current accounts
Credit interest

Help-to-buy mortgage guarantee
Provider

Pension annuities

term

Max Fee
LTV
75% £490

Cashback credit card

Period
for 2 years
for 2 years

75%

-

1st 2 yrs

Provider

Contact

Account name

Halifax

0345 720 3040

Reward Current Account

Account
Fee

AER

None

£5 pm C

Nationwide BS

0800 30 20 10

FlexDirect

None

5% B

TSB

0345 975 8758

Spend & Save

None

£5 pm B

Provider

Contact

Barclays Mortgage

0800 197 1081

5.54% F

to 31.1.25

75% £1,295

To 31.1.25

Virgin Money

0800 678 3654

M Plus Account

None

2.02%

Legal & General

0345 765 4465

£3,216.36 £3,522.60 £3,950.76

HSBC

0808 256 6876

5.44% F

to 31.3.28

60% £1,999

To 31.3.28

Santander

0800 912 3123

123 Current Account

£4pm

1.50%

Canada Life

0345 300 3199

£3,192.00 £3,516.00 £3,941.40

Barclays Mortgage

0800 197 1081

5.50% F

to 31.1.28

75% £1,295

To 31.1.28

The selections above are based on a combination of initial rate, fee and incentive available.

Age 60

Age 65

Age 70

Aviva

0800 015 5064

£2,957.49 £3,292.27 £3,765.82

Just

0345 302 2287

£2,791.92 £3,176.88 £3,613.08

National Savings & investments
Notice or
Term

Joint life
Provider

Contact

Canada Life

0345 300 3199

Male: Age 60
Age 65 Age 70
Female: Age 55
Age 60 Age 65
£2,880.36 £3,068.76 £3,361.56

Legal & General

0345 765 4465

£2,619.12 £2,894.76 £3,137.28

Aviva

0800 015 5064

£2,562.80 £2,771.47 £3,039.38

Just

0345 302 2287

£2,425.44 £2,655.48 £2,851.44

Based on a pension pot of £50,000

Min

AER

Interest
Paid

Accounts and bonds
Green Bonds 3

3 Yr Bnd

£100

3.00%

Yearly

Income Bonds

None

Direct Saver

None

£500

1.81%

Monthly

£1

1.80%

Yearly

Junior Isa
Direct Isa

Age 18

£1

2.70%

Yearly

None

£1

1.75%

Yearly

Tax-free products

Arranged overdrafts
Account
Fee

0% OD
EAR Limit

Provider

Contact

Account name

Starling Bank

via website

Current Account

first direct

0345 600 2424 1st Account

Virgin Money

0800 678 3654 M Plus Account

None

19.9%

£0

Lloyds Bank

0800 015 4000 Club Lloyds

£3pm

27.5%

£50

TSB

0345 975 8758 Spend & Save Plus

£3pm

39.9%

£100

None

15.0%

£0

None

39.9%

£250

Current account interest rates paid up to a specified level, terms may apply to qualify for
rates shown. A = Provider operates under Islamic finance principles, rate shown is expected
profit rate. B =Introductory rate. C = Paid net of income tax. F = Fixed rate. D = Discounted
variable rate. V = Variable rate. All savings rates AER variable unless stated. Methods of
opening and operating accounts vary. All rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
No liability accepted for loss arising from use of, or reliance upon, this information. Readers
who are not financial professionals should seek expert advice. Visit moneyfacts.co.uk for details

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

64

Money Equity prices
Dividend yields Please note dividend yields are
supplied by Morningstar. The yield is the sum of a
company’s trailing 12-month dividend payments
divided by the last month’s ending share price
12 month high and low Please note the 12 month high
and low figures for shares supplied by Morningstar are
based on intra-day figures, not closing prices.

12 month
High Low Company

8582

6370 Lond Stk Ex Gp 7586

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

1

Automobiles & parts
710

103V Aston Martin Lag

103V –

2O

12 month
High Low Company

168 M&G

173W –

274Y

178O Man

214K –

14
4K

199W

… -0.6

Banking & finance
O 9.4
19
7.5
…
3.1
12O 2.1
78K 0.6
W 3.5
…
1.8
…
…
2V 8.2
12V 5.8
3K 5.1
V 2.7
10
…
3O 2.0
…
…
2
0.8
…
…
1
2.8
11V …
…
8.0
K 8.3
…
…
6K 8.7
19K 6.0
2K 12.5
1Y …
2K …
W 11.0
…
4.3

3.3
10.1
8.3
30.5
59.6
12.1
19.0
5.5
6.9
10.8
54.3
5.5
6.6
3.5
3.2
8.3
0.2
28.1
13.0
8.8
14.8
-2.5
8.8
7.3
7.4
36.4
9.8
8.3
7.7

W Drumzv
94Y EFG-Hermes Hldg

Y
94Y +

…

… -7.9

8X

…

6.1

386

126K EPE Special Oppsv

126K

…

…

7.0

951W

670Y FBD

847K

…

…

3.7

77K

67K Fiskev

70

…

… 12.4

83K

63 Frenkel Toppingv

63K

…

2.1 36.9

725
263Y 135V abrdn
154O –
3266 1729 Admiral
1998 –
47K
88K 47K ADVFNv
426O 246V AJ Bell
325W –
24434N +
30233W 22520N Aon Corpn
32O 21K Appreciate Groupv
28 +
862K
1030
752K Arbuthnot Bkgv
12
20
12 Argo Groupv
355V 192 Ashmore Gp
204O –
1676X 1231Y Aus New Z
1393K +
602Y 382N Aviva
413N –
290Y 193W Banco Santander
232V +
2205
986 Bank of Georgia
2135 –
217
140K Barclays
146W –
… Blue Star Capitalv
V
K
359
277 BP Marsh&Ptnrsv
304 –
7Y
42
7Y Braveheart Invv
517
266 Brewin Dolphin
515 +
565
194K Bridgepoint
209 –
43K
83K 40 Cenkos Secsv‡
325
256K Chesnara
266K –
37K
76
31 City of Lon Gpv
550
377K City Lon Inv Gp‡
377K –
1557
913 Close Bros‡
985K –
317
214K CMC Markets
245 –
815V 496O Commerzbk
710X –
1280
679V Deutsche Bk
843W –
312N 177X Direct Line Ins
201K –
59K 57 Downing ONE VCT
57

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

1005
474
55
1598

458K Georgia Capital

628

730 Gresham Housev

730

260 H&T Groupv

440

+

+

33K Hansard Global‡

37K +

7K Manx Finv
1O Marechale Capv

442V –

7Y 3.6

9.6

847K

648 IG Group

794K –

2

8.1

5.4

19

1.5 21.7

37K 5.3

6.0

80

–

1K 2.7

173O

142K Intl Public Pntshp‡

153

+

2O 4.8 19.6

536O

305N Investec

439W –

3

2.9 11.0

320

280 Investment Co

280

…

0.3 10.0

94 Jarvis Securitiesv

162

265

91W Jupiter Fund Mgmt

103O –

95W

57O Just Group

59O –
–

57O –

K 1.6

4.4

2.2

5Y 16.4
1

3.8

…

…

346K Lancashire Hdgs

484

+

1O 2.3

…

307O

220N Legal & Gen

230K –

1W 7.7

7.0

54086

502X Liberty Group

502X –

2X

2325

756 Liontrust

847

16

…

…

5.5 10.5

62

39K Livermore Invsv

39K –

1W 8.9

2.5

55V

41 Lloyds Bkg Gp

41N –

1K 6.2

5.7

36K

29N LMS Capital

31

2

+

334W Br Land

364Y –

3O 4.1 49.9

105K

38X SigmaRocv

47K –

1

…

…

296

110 Caledonian Tstv

160

…

144

67K Sirius Real Estate

70W –

1

4.6

5.4

1850

…

…

1.1

179N

…

V

… -0.5

99K Cap & Count Prop

… 31.9

106Y –

65

46 Cap & Regnl

46

2550

1875 Cardiff Prop

2550

–

V 0.4 31.4
1N

… -0.4

…

0.7 27.7

19N

…

… -2.2

121K +

3

161K
46

38K

19N Carecapitalv

178

1635
182

112 Clarke T

3.6

5K 2.7 17.5

234

136O CLS Hldgs

144W –

1

5.2

4.9

283W

207X NWG

224Y –

22O 4.6

8.8

505K

204 Countryside Prop

211W –

3

… 15.4

359

181W Numisv

181W +

7O 6.6

3.6

44W

9W Craven Housev

9W

…

… -0.2

15V 4.8
6

1X +

V

5.3

4002

2756K CRH

3114

+

63K 2.7 12.9

5.6 17.9

3528

1876 Derwent London

2162

+

14

… -0.7

4N

3 Dolphin Capitalv

3Y

3.4

…

9.6

… -2.6

118
421
1207
1225

1477
368K
104K
1542
1084Y
536
248
1118
420K
165O
1062
252
246
150K
5232
1270X
151
140
732
206
457
214
2140
998O
804Y
26Y
340
124V
175V
520
101
98
98
391O
1535
1135
4075
192
427
123K
550
653K
339K
313N
147
891
945K
499
345
384N
261
311
925
120V
868K
55
168K
222
222W
2860
168O
185K
1254
2600
457K
184Y
286
1300
584K

1042 3I Group
1166
248O 3i Infrastructure
316
83V Abrdn Div I&G
89Y
1066 Aberforth Smlr
1166
867O Alliance
950
352 Asia Dragon Tr
355
183K Athelney Trust
195
169 AVI Global Trust
181O
207 Baillie Gifford Ch Gr 209
73K Baillie Gifford Eu Gr
81
657 Baillie Gifford Jpn Tr 761
131N Baillie Gifford SN
148W
139W Baillie Gifford UK Gr 149K
90Y Bankers
96K
3527Y BH Macro
4710
722N Biotech Growth
929
93O BlckRck Com Inc
126N
114 BlckRck Fro Inv
125
396 BlckRck Grt Euro
442K
164 BlckRck Inc & Gwth 171
310 BlckRck Latin Am
389
183N BlckRck Sustain American Inc196
1162 BlckRck Smlr
1280
477Y BlckRck Throgmorton 560
524 BlckRck Wld Min
602
9 Blue Plan Int Fn#
11K
256 BMO Cap&Inc
272
68K BMO Comm Prop
86W
122 BMO Glbl Smaller
136O
375K BMO Priv Eq Ord
404K
67W BMO Real Estate
71W
73 BMO UK HIT
76K
79 BMO UK HIT B
80
294 BMO UK HIT UNIT
305
1072K Brown Advsr US Smlr1240
888 Brunner
953
3015 Caledonia Inv
3305
141 Invesco BondInc
157
363N City of Lon IT
385K
96O Crystal Amber Fd
99
452O Dunedin Entp
535
537 Edinburgh IT
587
154K Edin Wwide
168V
268 EP Global Opp
297K
74K European Assets
84K
608 European Opp Tr
670
767V F&C Investment Tr884
406V Fidlty Asian Val
424K
181Y Fidelity China Sp
182K
256K Fidlty Euro Val
283
143 Fidlty Jap Tru
160
232 Fidlty Spec Val
262K
731O Fins Gwth & Inc
807
85X GCP Infrastructure
98
552X Gen Emer Mkts
560
28K Gldn Prosp Prc Mtl
30
130W Greencoat UK Wind 148K
166 Hansa Investment
178
170 Hansa Inv Co 'A'
181
1986 Hbrvest Glbl Pt Eq 2170
120K Hend Euro Foc
131O
137N Hend High Inc
153K
674N Hend Smlr
750
1540 Herald
1728
310 HgCapital Trust
358K
138Y HICL Infra
166W
216 Highbridge Tactical 233
928 ICG Ent Tr
1030
370Y Impax Env Mkts
410

–
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
+
–
+
–
+
–
–
–
–
+
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
–

+
–
+
–
+
–
–
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
+
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
+
–
–

9K
6
…
2
6
7
…
1V
10O
1V
1
…
1
N
55
2
2
3
1K
2
6
1O
32
13
23
…
1K
2V
W
…
O
…
…
…
…
2
15
2K
3
…
10
3
3K
1
…
2
2
2K
7
3K
N
2
…
1O
10
…
2N
6
4
60
N
K
8
2
8K
2W
…
20
4

3.3
3.5
4.8
2.9
2.4
1.4
4.9
1.6
2.5
0.4
0.7
…
2.3
2.1
…
…
3.5
3.8
1.4
3.9
4.8
3.9
2.6
1.9
7.5
…
4.2
3.1
1.2
3.3
3.3
6.7
…
4.1
…
2.0
4.7
7.1
5.4
14.9
5.3
4.2
…
1.4
9.7
0.2
1.4
1.7
2.1
2.4
…
2.7
3.2
5.8
2.0
…
5.6
1.0
1.0
…
2.4
6.8
2.9
…
1.7
5.0
…
1.2
0.7

-16.3
4.0
-22.8
-14.1
-3.9
-13.9
-8.6
-10.4
-11.7
-13.6
-2.5
-9.7
-13.6
-7.4
13.7
-8.7
-4.5
-9.6
-5.9
-9.5
-13.9
-7.1
-12.2
-0.7
-0.1
3.2
-4.2
-40.3
-13.8
-37.9
-45.7
-9.6
-5.4
-9.9
-12.5
-12.5
-34.1
-1.1
2.8
-28.1
-9.1
-8.0
-11.4
-16.2
-5.9
-14.9
-4.4
-10.5
-10.4
-9.1
-9.9
-5.7
-3.7
-11.9
-14.6
-13.3
-3.0
-40.6
-40.9
-47.1
-15.6
-2.4
-11.1
-16.1
-17.1
-0.5
-12.5
-43.5
-1.1

701W

533V Phoenix Gp

538V –

5O 8.9 -6.2

36K

23O First Propv

23O

…

1.8

…

381K

160K Provident

160K –

1K

52K

36K Fletcher Kingv‡

45K

…

…

…

797K Prudential

797K –

50

30O Foxtons Group

30O

…

0.5

…

3O
185

1W

1W Quantum Blockchainv
94V Quilter

3.0

19W 1.4 12.9
…

97W +

…

… -7.8

1N 5.4 69.6

206V

152 Galliford Try

168

+

700

263 Genuit Group

263

–

–
+
–
–
–
–
+
–
–
–

+
–
–
–
–
–
–
–

–
+
–
–
–
–
–
+
–
–
–
–
+
+

–
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
+
–
–
+
–
–
+
–
–
–
–
+
–

+
–
–

2.0

4.3

373

–

K 9.7

8.9

1792Y

94Y –

39

1N 8.7

6.2

–

1K 2.3

5.9

738 Travis Perkins‡

828O –

13K 1.4

8.0

125X Tritax Big Box Reit‡

141

120 Town Centre

151

60O Tritax Eurobox

–

60O –

3
1X

4.6

2.5

…

…

1K 4.0

7.8

193 Tyman

198

+

818 UNITE GRP‡

900

–

12

602K Vistry Group‡

602K –

5

6.6

5.2

106W Warehouse REIT

120

2W 5.1

2.8

2.1 10.5

887

–

401O Workspace Grp

415W –

2.9 13.4

755

73 Randall & Quilterv

73

+

K 5.3

…

820

373 Gleeson (MJ)‡

373

–

3.3 15.9

6O

3

4.0

1518 Rathbone Grp

1936

X RiverFort Global Oppsv

–
X

646N Grafton Gp Uts

692K –

1.8

319V

226W Grainger

231V –

741

409V Gr Portland

509

20

3.8 14.9

…

3.2

1381

1820

1370 Rockwood Strategic 1405

2940

1905 S & U

3
60O
748K
2555

2110

1X Sancus Lending Grpv
41 Schroder REIT
394K Schroders

…

1.9

2.0

20

4.2

9.9

18K Hammerson‡

–

19K

191

108 Harworth Gp

108

V 5.6

4.7

630

480 Heath (Samuel)v

520

394K –

4W 29.4

1.8

474

300K Helical PLC

333

9.9

1065

…

2165

–

45

–

8

411K Stand Chart

39Y

–

1X
45

1731K 1044 St James Place 1066
638K

464 Schroders N/V

–

519K –

… -0.8

23W 5.1

5.3

5.7 20.3

16V 1.7 11.6

3K 2.4 -6.3
2.0 -2.1

2

1.7

…

1.3 10.7

+

2

3.0

8.0

3.7

+

15

5.2

4.3

875 Highcroft Invs

990

208V

154 Ibstock

156O –

3X 2.6 20.3

314

190 James Halsteadv

190

2K 4.0 20.2

+

6
2K
13K
…
1
2
2K
9
7
7K
9
…
…
2
1N
4
1O
3
2
1
…
18K
…
…
2K
2
10
1
1
5
…
2V
2
1K
14K
O
7
8
K
…
…
40
1K
12
…
K
10
1
12K
10K
…
K
12
Y
K
10
20
2
1Y
2
3V
…
8
K
5K
…
…
6
1
30

4.3
7.1
…
3.0
0.9
4.0
1.8
0.9
4.8
6.8
4.9
0.2
1.9
5.1
1.1
1.6
3.9
4.0
…
5.0
1.1
3.4
4.5
53.1
2.0
1.8
4.4
5.4
5.2
1.4
5.4
3.5
5.6
1.5
0.2
0.7
4.4
4.5
6.5
0.4
…
0.9
1.5
…
3.8
5.1
…
…
2.1
1.8
4.7
1.9
3.0
…
2.8
3.7
0.4
2.6
6.7
4.1
2.4
…
4.7
2.1
3.1
3.3
…
…
2.5
0.7

-14.0
-1.1
-20.1
-9.9
-7.7
-14.4
-15.5
-2.6
-10.4
-12.0
0.2
-1.1
-3.3
-3.6
-12.4
-12.1
-12.6
-1.2
-20.8
-8.3
-7.8
-11.6
-3.7
68.5
-13.4
-15.7
2.6
-10.7
-29.0
…
-39.9
-13.7
0.3
-0.8
-5.7
-13.3
-8.6
-4.5
-6.2
-11.0
-49.4
-35.8
1.1
-7.4
-14.7
-2.0
-6.9
-44.6
-4.6
-10.9
-2.2
-11.6
-10.3
-48.9
-3.3
-1.9
-11.8
-1.3
-7.0
-5.1
-12.9
87.5
-3.2
-2.3
-30.3
-16.4
-1.3
-16.6
-7.7
-8.8

…

3.2

2131
134
588
5X
170
3628
949K
2063
264O

4 Agriterrav
25 Aireav
606 Anglo-Eastern
222K Animalcarev‡
1277 AB Foods
79 Bakkavor Group
440 Barr (AG)‡
1X Bidstack Groupv
30 Brand Architektsv

3.3 16.8

1004

–

1866
125
3N

723 Britvic
1482 Burberry Grp
147K C&C Grp
4W Capital Metalsv
93 Carr's Grp

10
1912
23N
27
1415

3X Tavistock Invv
901 TBC Bank Group
7V Ternv
16N Time Financev
900 Volverev

53

30 WH Irelandv

33K

27V Walker Crips Grp

7
1894

–

38X 3.6

9.3

…

0.7

1.1

1.8

5.5

…

…

5.4

25

16N

…

…

9.9

285V

…

1020

…

…

30

…

… 16.8

…

2.7 78.5

27K

5352N 3392 Wells Fargo

3979V +

40Y 1.4 10.8

1539N 1126V Westpac

1326

12V 3.6 17.9

31X

+

22K Worsley Investors Ltd 24K

42587N 35021N Zurich Fincl

…

36684X +

… 76.5

25Y 4.4 14.3

Construction &
property
242K
21N
74
2W
340W
760
3405

133 Alumascv‡
11V Aseana Props
49O Assura Grp
1W Aukett Swankev
215K Balfour Beatty‡
360N Barratt Devs‡
1654K Bellway

105

12

7V

…

11V

…

55X +
2

378V –
–

7.6

… -5.5

V 5.2 11.1
…

296W –

6.3

… -3.0

1V 1.5 14.0
2

7.7

5.9

23

6.2

5.6

4903

3243 Berkeley

3519

–

62

0.2

9.1

1724

1000 Big Yellow Group

1137

–

25

2.9

7.4

4405

+

575

–

73N Life Science Reitv‡

73N –

12 Lon & Assoc

18K

162X London Metric Prop
37 Macau Prop Op
252V Marshalls‡

138

80K Michelmershv

2540

1480 Morgan Sindall

188

4

5.6

46Y

80K –
1546

–

14750

11450 Mountview

11450

68K NewRiver REIT
220 Palace Capital

220

315

255 Panther Securitiesv

310

8
175
156
40K

1208 Persimmon
2Y Pires Investmentsv
65 Plaza Cent
110V Primary Hlth‡
31K Real Estate Invsv‡

1312

–

–

2Y

31K

1418

807K Safestore

918K –

1450

790K Savills

831

7K

5O Secure Propertyv

5O

–

+ 180

75

…

81

57K LPAv

798O

732O Meggitt

…

…

0.8 35.7

99O Melrose

798O +

…

V
…

116K

…

2665

1760 Oxford Inst

2005

–

5
35

0.4 22.0

91

–

2

9.4

36K

–

2

… 15.6

101K

…

… -2.2

5235

…

… -1.3

34

2X
30

728K +
1817

–

7.3

K 6.3 11.5
5

3.3 16.5

53K 2.3 15.6

160X +

V

… -9.6

5V +

V

… -1.3

… 12.7

595 Colefaxv

3699X 1074W Philips El nv

440

…

722K

2742 Cranswick
169W Devro

2958

–

178K +

6

…

…

…

1.3

…

O Distilv

9.2

7.5

4

3.4

…

2.7 10.6

10560

1722 Games Workshop‡

6485

– 150

3.9 17.8

859V Glanbia
67W Greencore

+

… 18.7

986X +

240 Headlam‡

240

–

1250

548 Hilton Food

602

–

25K Hornbyv

6.3

147V
3N

15K McBride
200 Mulberry Groupv‡

15

0.8 27.3

29N 6.6 19.1

12N PipeHawkv

14K

…

… 30.8

27V Pressure Techv

32K +

1K

… -2.7

3444 Renishaw

3606

+

16

1.8 20.5

20 Renoldv

21O +

V

…

66X Rolls-Royce

76Y +

X

… 52.3

1V Ross Gp

7.7

1N

…

… -3.2

373W

229K Rotork

263V –

2

3.2 28.6

217

137K SDI Groupv

160

4

172V

113V Senior‡

129K –

–

75O

51 Severfield

51

16N

11K Six Hundredv

12K +

1870W 1171K SKF B
240

175 Slingsby (HC)v
1355K Smiths‡

… 26.4
V

…

1279V +

N

… 22.6
5.6

9.1

… 73.1

13O 4.4

9.4

240

+

15

3.9

1542

–

4

1125

–

50

1.4 27.1

…

4.2

8.4

1

2.2

9.9

…

2.4 24.5

946O Solid Statev
360 Somero Enterv

382K

K

… 13.4

3

3.2 10.3

6

3.7 12.5

3921

2458 Spectris‡

17135

9130 Spirax-Sarco‡

66
3V
495
5N
122K

1K Tanfieldv
345 Thorpe FWv‡

10900

– 155

43

…

…

…

… -8.9

…

1.4 28.5

3V
410

O TP Groupv
48K Transense Techv

O +
89

1.1 34.3

V
…

…

… -1.1
… 65.4

3500

+

6

1.6 37.4

491

284K Vesuvius

340

–

4

6.0

14

6.5

7.0

1530

1060 Videndum‡

1312

–

8

1.1 24.0

…

…

7.9

475

7839V + 155N 0.9 21.7

1897

1328K Weir‡

1544

–

5

5540

1720 XP Power

1720

+

20

195

111N Zytronicv

135

1N

24V +

K

210

–

5
55

1055 Nicholsv

1080

–

341

180 Norcros

182

+

387V

292 Origin Entsv

313N
55K

… -4.3
…

8.7

1.7

…

K 4.5

5.7

…

2.9

9.9

…

0.9 26.1

1750

7K 4.2 13.0

341

2824 Ultra Electrncs

–

…

+

3500

37 Surface Trsfmsv

3032

…

1540

50 Pittardsv

1074W –

1.0 46.4

…

28K

1486 Imperial Brands 2118
1 J Lewis Hfordv

6W 2.3 24.3

67W –

500

6.9

307K Portmeirionv

1

X Provexisv

225K

182O PZ Cussons‡

4O
591V
4798

58N REA

307K –
X

…

198O

…

3.0 22.9

225 Volexv

247K –

9.0

6K 1.3 13.5
0.7 26.0
5.3

…

9.1

… 45.0

Health
1049 Abcamv

0.3

4.3 -2.4

3

5.0 10.5

…

3.8

1354

+

12

268

+

2

…

…

375

…

11440

8191 AstraZeneca

10124

+ 173

235 Tandemv‡

250

…

3.5

3.5

46

29 Circassia Groupv

34

…

507 Treatt

646

21

0.9 25.9

–

2 Ukrproduct Gpv

3N +

9O Unbound Groupv

9O

4010 Unilever (NV)

K
…

… -2.2
…

…

4566

+

85

3.1 23.4

3918

+

53

3.7 20.1

317 Victoriav

536

–

18

…

…

Engineering
… Ass Br Eng#

15

739 Avon Rubber

1030

4.1

18

2.2

5.2

5

2.7

8.3

… 15.2

…
–

30

… -3.5
2.8

…

371O

274V Babcock

274V –

3W

838W

528O BAE Sys‡

814W +

8V 2.9 14.8

2400

1600 Braime A N/Vv

2050

2600

1480 Braime Groupv

1750

602K
6K
380
8N

O
4N

0.1

…

5.2

+

…

2074

11.9

51

… -8.9

5.3

4O 5.8

16V –

51 Anglev

3

… -6.3

W 5.5 11.5

16V Allergy Therapv

0.6 42.1

…

2.8

… -0.2

37O
156

244 AdvancedMedicalv

1

1 Real Gd Fdv

113K +

…

3.7 14.2

…

…

…

O

89

1315

9K 17.9

…

1

2.0 27.3

812

… -6.0

4.5

32

66K Finsbury Foodv

660

1K 4.5 12.8
16

+

3554

784 Evans (M.P.)v‡

4.0

1W 3.5

2K 2.6 10.5
…

9.7

102

3N

2V 4.6

–

2.3 15.6

3W 5.1

1085

200K

…

421K –

1.8 17.0

6090 Judges Scientificv‡ 7080

1.8

222K –
1333K –

…

…

112O –

407W Redrow‡

8
…

–

…

…

…

709

–

…

325

2.9 14.8

… -2.5

N

…

65

1249

210 MS Intlv

12

…

…

69X

297

… Inspirit Energyv

335

30

1210
100

1071 IMI

7.3

+

3V 5.9

…

252V –

5.4

7.3

27W 0.7 17.3

…
–

…

…

+

–

4078K 3328 Unilever

2883

150

1873

59K
751V

485N Land Sec

…

12

806

1852

72

813V

5.0

Y

Y Image Scanv

250

1225

710
9470W 4288N Kingspan Group

0.9

242K

1070 Churchill Chinav

370

3673K +

2.9 23.6

…

230 Mpacv

1460K Coca Cola HBC

75W

4877N 3611Y Sun Life Can

28

82K

223K Morgan Advanced‡

1850

1Y

+

82K Holders Techv

600

2687

10603N 7839V Kerry Gp‡

634

916 Hill & Smith

379K

6.7

2118

634 Keller

…

0.8 30.9

9.4

2.3

57

1000

…

0.9 35.3

48

…

…

141V

… -1.3

1
7

– 140

… -0.6

380

1338N

4.9 10.9

…
8.1

–

…

380 Character Grpv

2

…

…

51K 6.0

3040

…

2512K Brit Amer Tob‡ 3414K +

4103K 3343 Diageo

…

–

…

2138

598

8

97K –
477

5

…

1.2 12.7

1876K Halma

1400V

28K

–

5

4.7 12.9

228K

7N Starvestv

285

1075N +

25K

4

3820

22K STM Groupv‡

W Feedbackv
477 Gooch Hsegov

…
…

2400 Goodwin

1629

35

937Y Electrolux 'B'

265
1105

3216

174

104K +

880

17K

232Y Dialight

… -2.2

3K 2.3 42.0

4.6

8.0

O 2.3 14.3

…
+

158K Crestchic Plcv‡
1020W Dewhurstv

…
+

5.8
420

1W

645

18
473

11O 4.2 -6.1

Consumer goods

952
2210

645 Wynnstay Propsv

18 Checkitv
449K Cohortv

3780

8740

30K
188W

97K
1280

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

3K 2.8 37.3
13

Price
Yld Dis(-)
(p) +/- % or Pm

280 Invesco Asia Tr
279K
141 Invesco BondInc
157
120K IPST Bal
115K
200 IPST Gbl Eq
208
93 IPST Managed
98
141 IPST UK Eq
144O
373K IP UKSmallerCos
401
650 JPM American
732
294K JPM Asia
299K
247V JPM Chinese
252
610N JPM Claverhs
654
99 JPM Elect Mg C
102
886N JPM Elect Mg G
930
88 JPM Elect Mg I
92N
91 JPM Em Mkts
92V
339 JPM Euro disc
386
108 JPM GEMI
109
386 JPM GG&I
423K
691N JPM Indian
818
301 JPM Jap Sml Co
316
408K JPM Japan#
442
735 JPM Mid Cap
809K
85N JPM Multi-Ass Grw & Inc90K
55V JPM Russian
78Y
230 JPM Smllr Co
258K
174 Keystone IT
197
649 Law Debenture
740
99 Lowland
106O
157 Majedie
160O
272V M Currie Port
287
97 Marwyn Val In
101
158N Mercantile IT
181V
480 Merchants
525
639O Mid Wynd
669K
875 Monks Inv Tst
957
104V Montanaro Eur Sml 116
715 Murray Income Trust 759
1086W Murray Int
1210
72X Nb Global Floating
75V
286N Pacific Assets
335
229V Pantheon Int
249
2295 Pershing Sq
2775
465K Personal Assets
475
1764 Polar Cap Tech
1898
143V Prem Glb & Inf
152
112K Renewables Inf
131W
1928 RIT Cap Ptnr
2265
454O Riverstone
622
366K Schroder TotRt
366K
446 Schrd Asia Pac
446
254K Schrod Inc Gwth
270K
185Y Schrod Jap Gwth
198K
454 Schrod UKMid
512
15N Schroder UK PP Tr
15N
434 Scot American
474K
725 Scot IT
895
670K Scot Mtge
722
207 Secs Tst Scot
222
75K Sequoia Eco
84
195V Temple Bar
211
130 Tplton Emg Mkt
130K
V Tiger Royal and Investv V
263 TR Property
310
64W Troy Inc&Gth
67O
160 Utilico Ord
163K
196K Utilico Emerging Mkt 202
139X UtilFin RdZDP 2022 145
512 Vietnam Ent Inv
546
199O Witan
217
2820 Ww Health
3230

88Y Taylor Wimpey‡

160K

…

640

374
192
176
250
103W
199Y
624
800
467V
589
778
105
1115N
111
138
588
150V
475
898
532
710
1375
109
894
408
350
829
143N
250
437
125
280
591
870
1458
226Y
929
1326
98X
370N
342K
3125
511X
2760Y
203
148K
2787
750
528
616
319K
226V
718
34X
546
933
1568K
242
112K
255O
189O
W
526
83
263W
227K
147
783
257K
3871W

26 Steppe Cementv

1838
176O

160

12 month
High Low Company

128K Smart (J)

8.7
249

1509

55K
630

556W

Investment companies
Price
Yld Dis(-)
(p) +/- % or Pm

…

160

12K

12 month
High Low Company

2.3

8.6

4K 8.3 11.6

569K

–

…

7.1

71Y –

1X PCF Groupv

…

1.2

70O Metro Bank

–

16K 2.8

31X

2N 3.9

133

1768Y +

791K –

29K SIG

12 month
High Low Company

…

178K

1971O 1521 Nat Aust Bk

694 Segro

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

K 11.8 12.9

384V HSBC

58K IP Group

52O

…

14

567V

302K

1436K

5.2

1.9 14.1

…

140

1.9 17.4
2.2 12.9

…

1

1.9

73 IPF

…
…

3.5

572

5.0 13.4

143

215
242

V

400W –

…

–

181K Billington Hldgsv
242 Boot (Henry)

…

522 PayPoint

11

659

282

13K +

400W Onesavings Bank

156K

1047K –

590

12 month
High Low Company

345

13K Metal Tigerv

741

1.7

756K –

500 Impaxv

590 Mattioli Woodsv‡

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

1.0 77.5

8

25

599

…

756K Hargreaves L

1006 Intermed Cap

2N

12 month
High Low Company

6W 10.5 54.1

13818N + 426K 1.4 28.7

0.8 29.3

6

143K Helios Underv

2379

892K

14

…

195

1482

+

227N

16194X 13080O Marsh McLn

12 month
High Low Company

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

500 Caffyns
3N Cap XX Ldv
280 Castings
4N Chamberlinv

+

525
3N
318
4W

–

… -1.6

710

245O
114
5365

375 Anpariov

166O Convatec

216V +

35 Creighton

35K +

2620 Dechra Pharma‡ 2644

–

…

…

… -6.9
2.2 19.7
2.0

…

… 34.0

V 1.9 50.4
K 3.2
30

6.8

1.5 39.4

1K

Y Deltex Medicalv

…

… -5.2

48W

15W e-Therapeuticsv

17

…

…

89K Eco Animal Hlthv

100

…

1.0 12.1
2.3 12.3

325

Y

83W

30 EKF Diagnosticsv

43K

…

46O

24X Futura Medicalv

39K –

1N

5625

2234 Genus

1828K 1296 GSK
1V
316K

…

0.5 23.1

2474

50

0.6 19.7

2652

1416K +

W Gunsyndv
246V Haleon
1199K Hikma Pharms

1233

–
–

542

144 Hutchmed Chinav

144

7.6

…

… Immunodiag Sysv

378

…

… -7.1

8

2O ImmuPharmav

8

4.8 15.3

1624

…

… -0.3

76 Inspiration Healthv

…
X

2
2

…

4.1

…

…

3.1

9.2

… -7.8

…

3O +
1624

…

1.2 47.1

29K 5.6 16.3

269N –

…

212 Indivior

44

…

W

…

146K

–

…

V

0.5

…

… -1.1

+

36

… 92.9

83K +

1

0.7 12.9

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

65

Equity prices Money
12 month
High Low Company

84K
501K
8K
88.42
52N
22K
1592

30 IXICOv
286W Mediclinic Int

12 month
High Low Company

30
493

–

2O

1K N4 Pharmav
72.84 Novartis

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

CHF80.08

2K Omega Diagsv
7K Ovoca Biov
317 Oxford Biomedica

…

…

9.6

453K

319 Bloomsbury Pub

453K +

2V

… 30.8

11W

3O Bonhill Groupv

3O

…

… -3.3

96

+ 1.45

2K

…

7K –
317

–

3.5

8.8

… -1.0

N

… -2.1

6K

… 14.2

O
1146
195
71K

7

2N Physiomicsv

2N

…

… -8.8

5X

3N Proteome Sciesv

4K

…

…

6808

5391 Reckitt Benck

164K

31W RUA Life Sciencesv

348

117K Sareum Hldgsv

1369

1004K Smith & Neph

254K
212K
X
47K
605
55N

206 Spire Hcare
18W Synairgenv

39

86
…

145

–

1015K +
216

+

2K

…

… -3.7
…

…

1466
3830
1475
117X
490

2

624

N
…

K

3.0

…

3K 2.6 23.0

19N +

N Tissue Regenixv
30O Totallyv

+

5678

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

31K –

…

…

… -0.8

125O

… -6.5

12K

N 1.5 50.0

292 Tristelv

302K

…

10K ValiRxv

14K

…

2.1 62.3
…

…

12N
…

44K Catalyst Mediav

96

V Catenaev

+
V

269 Daily Mail‡

270

–

100 DCD Mediav#

100

–

45K Ebiquityv
829 Euromoney In Inv
1211 Future
930 GlobalDatav
46O Hyve Group
46K IG Design Grpv
464W Informa
57O ITV‡
7N Jaywingv
2K Live Company Gpv
… Mediazestv

45K
1450
1211

–

1125

2K 1.9 18.7

555V –
66O –
7W

…

0.7

…

27

0.1 20.8

…

1.5 55.6
N

6

… -9.8
11.2 11.3

3V

…

…

2O

…

7.1

…

…

…

V
…

… -0.5

11O
2100

34 Merit Grpv

41

…

…

74

32K Miradav

32K

…

… -1.4

1510 Endeavour Mining1515

36K
30
3K

44K

66 Accsys Techv

68

–

1

…

…
7.6

6079X 3480K BASF

3888N –

60Y 7.1

5994X 3916Y Bayer DM50

4523W +

53V 3.7 52.8

432

47 Biome Techv

49

–

K

… -1.6

5W

1Y Byotrolv

1Y

…

…

7N

6 Camb Gbl Timberv

6O

…

… -9.0

81W
10410
1575

54W Coats Grp‡
5908 Croda

40V
2763

…

5.2

… -2.9

75 Robinsonv

80

20

…

3.5 24.6

25K 3.4 11.3
…

257 Smith (DS)‡

288W –

692

469N Swire Pacific

577K –

28

12O Symph Environv

515

113K Synthomer‡

2535O 1888W Takeda Pharm
13K
2486

4V Velocysv
1590 Victrex

12O
113K –
2242O +
4X
1675

651

487K Wynnstay Groupv‡

611

448

245 Zotefoams

290

–

+

940

544 Accesso Techv

740
1741W

6.8

94N –
610

370 Best of the Bestv

435
662

465V

1Y Cineworld
226K Domino's Pizza

2171

1075K Entain

14820

7614 Flutter Ent

40

22 Gaming Realmsv

5K 2.7

…

…

…

4W 15.2

2.3

16W 5.1 12.5

2N
2449
800W
155

467

…

2.4 14.0

15

2.1 17.4

–

10O

…

1.1

4.8

109
2N
230K –
1248K –

… 10.7

…

…

…

3O 5.2 11.7
… 27.9

– 310

11245

24K +

N

…

…

…

…

290 Heavitreev

290

…

… 17.4

200

170 Heavitree Av

185

…

… 11.1

145

105 Hermes Pacificv

145

5338

4193 Intercont Htls

4687

+

41K
8V

29W –

37

15N Getechv

15N

10N

14

5N Goldstone Resv

5X

21X

7W Greatld Gldv

8

120K

78 Griffin Miningv

492V Rightmove‡
87K SpaceandPeoplev
249 STV Group‡
215 System1 Groupv

… Vela Techv

+

492V –
87K

…

… 12.5

211Y

17

2.0 30.8

21X

5V 0.9 27.8
…

262K –
215

…

123K

760

62K Zinc Mediav

…

…

1K 3.7

6.4

…

… 10.2

40

1.4 13.5

+

…

5N

… Advance Energyv#

2.1 18.0

3

3.4 14.4

…

… -5.4

19X +

…

… Afentra PLC

…

… -0.1
N

1V

…

74X –

3Y

X Amur Mins Corpv

1K

…

…

…

34O 6.9

5.0

1268976V 6996N Anglo Amer Plat

6996N –

4170K 2526 Ang Am

2625

129K

68 Anglo Asian Mngv‡

–

91

6.7

5.2

78K +

7

7.3

6.8

4O

2K Ariana Resv

3

4.0

… -9.7

Y
5W

…

…

…

… -1.5

1X Armadale Capv

1X

…

…

…

Y Asiamet Rsrcsv

Y

…

…

…

…

… -3.8

6Y
52V

14X Bougainville

4O

2K BowLevenv

…

3

4.4 12.2

W

W Arkle Resourcesv

5

7.5

5.0

3N

… -1.3

…

…

7V

… -4.1

…

445

–

2568

–

15

…

…

914

–

6

…

…

V
17K
V

…

…

Media

3019

…

… -2.5

1

… 19.3

22K

…

…

82K +

1

N

35K

20K Altitude Groupv

148K

72 Arcontech Grpv

–

448O

193 Ascential

193

–

741O

499K Auto Trader

520W –

… -6.2

317

V Independ Resv

V
260

214 Indus Gasv

…

+

1

… 26.9

…

… -4.0

N Ironveldv

N

79Y ITM Powerv

79Y –

3O

…

…

11W Jubilee Metalsv

11W

…

…

9.5

3O

2N

…

… -9.1

1N

K

…

… -2.5

417K –

7

1O Karel Diamd Resv
K KEFI Gold and Copperv
386 Kenmare Res

X
25K

5O Lamprell#
12Y Landore Resv

8Y

14 Leeds Groupv
1Y Lexington Goldv
4X MC Miningv

2.6

…

12Y –

W Lansdowne O&Gv

188 Atalaya Minev

277

… Baron Oilv

–
V

1X

… -0.7

N
…

K

4.8

… -2.9
…

…

14

…

… -2.2

5

…

…

8

10.5

3.4

…

…

…

3Y Beowulf Miningv

4V

…

…

… Bezant Resv

…

…

… -1.8

…

269Y

12N

…

… -2.5

1835V BHP Group
K Border & Sthn Petv

2052

– 106

…

8.9

…

…

…

…

…

3V

472Y
30W
3K
1250

109O

317X BP
9 Cadence Minv

X

1X Cadogan Petrol

9

900

179O Capricorn Energy

248

74W Centamin

N
…

…

0.9

… 23.6

…
–

2N

…

…

… -1.5

V

…

… -3.7

W

V Oriole Resourcesv

V

…

… -1.2

K Ormonde Miningv

X

…

… -3.0

17V
24

7N Orosur Miningv

11K

V

3.7

8.7

…

1.9

…

… 67.6

5W 0.1 60.3

…

…

…

365

6K 2.5 12.7

490

331K Ricardo

435

1V

…

…

7.1

862

448 Robert Walters

520

… Sunrise Resourcesv

V

…

…

…

20

…

…

1.9

… Tertiary Mineralsv

V

…

… -5.7

238

92 RPS Group

219

–

1

0.1

…

…

… -2.9

1255

812 RS Group

972

–

15

18 RTC Groupv

18

1 Sound Energyv

… UK Oil & Gasv

V 4.8

5.5

7O

3 Xtract Resourcesv
4 Zephyr Energyv

4045
555

53K
148
290
3163

2240 4imprint Grp
457 Andrews Sykesv‡
3359 Ashtead
5N Asimilar Groupv
59 AssetCov
36 Avisenv
100 Begbies Traynorv‡
155 Blancco Techv
2397 Bunzl

50Y

20V Capita

51K

39K CEPSv

130

89 Christie Groupv‡

1969K 1440 Compass
434
93K
6486

100K CPPGroupv
62 Croma Securityv
4588 DCC

184

73 De La Rue

3460
1116
68K

2158 Diploma
597 Discoverie
23K Driver Groupv

772
10

216
5O
610

210 FIH Groupv‡
53K Gattacav
4V Grafeniav
362K Hargeaves Servv‡

1190
617K
60K
5782

608K Homeserve
396 Impellam Grpv
4W Ince Gv
3711 Intertek

310

123Y IWG

385

3K Phoenix Globalv

6K +

N

… -1.6
… -0.5
…

0.9 20.8

232 LSL Prop Services
90K Macfarlane

3N

…

… 29.0

2N

…

… -8.7

42K

3K Rambler Met&Minv#

5W +

0.1

N

…

… -4.7

W

…

… -2.2

–

4

5.7 13.9

218

–

2

7.4

6.3

…

…

…

7502O 4894O Rio Tinto Ltd

4894O – 223O 10.2

5.1

…

…

6225

4486

11.2

4.6

11N

3K China Nonferr Goldv

3K

…

…

…

41V

34 San Leon Energyv

7V 0.9 25.6

X

… Clontarf Energyv

…

…

… -1.6

1V

V Scirocco Energyv

37

+
V

670K Dunelm

864

–

562K Frasers Group

645K –

949K
3416

1774 Greggs

2018

–

+

…

…

92

52 Netcallv

84K

…

0.4

…

69K

47K Northamberv

47K

…

2.1

…

62

11V Online Blockchainv

14K –

1

… -7.6

76K Oxford Metricsv

82

…

2.2 35.6

126K
9

6N Parityv
28K Pennant Intlv

235

23O RM

12

5N Seeing Machinesv

143K

256Y
19X

2510

–

22

1.6 44.9

749

772

–

18

1.3 63.2

8426

…

5.3 13.3

1897K
28O

102N Marks Spencer
6 Mothercarev
81K Naked Winesv
4935 Next

104N –
7Y
107

–

470V –

17K Pendragon

27V –

278 Pets at Home

284V –

…

10

…

5.4

1147 Softcat

6.3

11K 4.0 11.6

23O +
731K –
6Y

38
1147

92K
1077K

70 Touchstarv
825 Tracsisv

…

17
120

222K Wandiscov

436K +
635

145 Xaar

166W +

96W Zoo Digitalv

1

…

5.0

4X

… 80.1

…

… -4.9

3K

…

…

…

9.4

…

…

…

8.5

13O 2.8 11.6

…
+

560 Water Intelv

161K

5.4

…
8.8

…

14K Trakm8v
105 Triad Grp

3O

4O 5.6

…

6X 3.7

…

3O Yourgenev

4X 0.3 11.7

K 1.7 24.9
1

…

15

… -6.2

… -3.9
1.8 22.4

…

0.7 17.6

1.8 24.9

…
13

…

32

…

…

… 59.1

…

273

…

…

K

…

27

492

4.7

75

165

1280

V 19.7

1W 2.3 28.0

860

… 28.6

W

–

…

3W 3.1 28.0

…

95K +

15

25

–

…

0.3 52.9

– 145

4935

470V Ocado Gp

74 Shearwater Grpv
37K Smartspace S'warev

–

5

1.6 13.1

1

… -8.0

20

… 34.9

7Y

…

…

… -2.6

…

161K +

5K

…

…

112K

…

…

…

Telecoms
285

112K AdEPT Technologyv

170Y
200Y

78W –

…

6.3

739

56W Lookers‡

…

…

647 Inchcape

101

…

33K

…

928

8.9

…

483N +

… 50.0

2V

595K Sage Gp

K 3.7 16.3
1K

7O

483N Tele. Ericsson

… -8.9

3.2

28

37

943K

1K

… 12.0

17 Nanoco Gp

7.4

…

1K

52W

5.3

9.8

…

91O –

–

35O +

5.7

3.3 16.0

49

267W +

1O 6.3

O 3.4 -5.5

46 MTI Wirelessv

24O SRT Marinev

4O 2.5

1O IQ-AI

519V –

3.2

82K

215W Spirent Comms

3W 2.9

7N

… -2.1

48K

521

–

…

…

293O

171N –

225

…

…

…

70

…

2.1

…

5O +
364

–

617K

…

5

–

3758

+

133V –
+

111

N
1

+

3.8

3V

156

…

303W

… -5.0

1X

… 58.1

…

… 24.8
…

22K 1.9

68K

210 Maintel Hldgsv

232

1.8 25.3

+ 150

3.0 14.3

–

3

…

6.4

V 2.8 11.1

210

…

…

…

…

… -1.0

224

179K Mears Group‡

190

…

1.3 16.5

608

255 Menzies (John)

607

1

… 48.0

79O

46W Mitie Gp

15K

5K MobilityOnev

47K

25 Newmark Secv

–

71K –

1

13O +

6.4

… 35.7
Y

4 Norm Broadbentv
45K Northern Bearv

140

93N Airtel Africa
125K BT Group
58 Currys plc

1854

1026 Gamma Commsv

183O
6055
X
3
2250
139K

114

+

126X +
65

–

1054

–

6N 2.8 10.1
V
1O
16

… 12.3
…

3.0

1.1 19.0

110 Helios Towers

114V +

2K

1148K Just Eat T'away

1439V –

62W

…

… -3.1

…

… -2.5

V Mobile Streamsv

V

…

X Mobile Tornadov

X

…

… -4.2

70

2.6 54.3

1214 Telecom Plus
99O Vodafone Gp

2120

+

99O +

1V 7.7

…

… 10.2

73

51 PCI-PALv

56

–

K

…

8O

…

… 15.9

18K

…

5.4 33.6

1K

…

… -2.8

W 3.1 20.2

… 13.8

440K

295K Redde Northgate

332K +

1

4.6

…

…

872

594 Renew Hldgsv

617

7

2.1 15.2

+

…

…

…

212X

…

38O

…

4.3 10.8
…

7.0

8.3

5K

14W
139K
861
188
…

…

…

137 Alfa Financial

…

0.6 23.7

424

… -0.7

5214

682
721
3735
208
90
34
35K
1Y
2978
96
14K

27O
386
1V
24
1K
1280
16O
2450

8N Allied Minds
290 Aptitude Software
465 Avast
1924 Aveva Gp
126K Bangov
26N BATM Adv Coms
8O Berkeley Res
14O Blackbirdv
Y CloudCoCo Groupv
1829 Computacenter‡
65K Concurrent Techv
8Y Corerov
1340 Cranewarev
1O Crimson Tidev
11K CyanConn Hldgsv
221 D4t4 Solutionsv

152
8N –
357K –
716K –

N

3K 1.6 28.5

–

12

184

–

2

31

+

1

2.3 13.0

…

… -6.3

14O –

N

1V –
1829

–

76

+

V
79

+

1.2

…

…

…

…

…

V

…

…

87K 1.5 83.4

13N

…

…

…

7K 1.1 29.3

… DeepMatter Gpv

…

…

… -0.3

13 Dillistone Groupv

13

…

… -3.7

…

… -3.3

1

6.6 22.3

639 FDM Group

644

9 Filtronicv

12

…

… 32.4

1298

…

…

1298 First Derivtsv

+

90Y

… 24.6

262K –

2K

… -4.7

99X Intl Cons Air

115N –

4W

… -2.5

… Int Distrib Serv

193O –

7O 5.1

349K –

2O

262N Irish Cont Uts

843V –

166 Natl Express

169

–

820 Ocean Wilson

880

+

68W Stagecoach
19K Sutton Harbourv

1611 Wizz Air Hldgs

15

…

2.2
…

… -4.5
…

…

7K 9.1

4.4

N

104X

…

… 14.7

22

…

…

…

3.2

8.7

323

–

3

1611

–

79

… -3.6

…

56X Centrica‡

73V +

3K

7.3

254

831K

481O Drax Group

512

627K

485 Jersey Electricity

485

…

3.4

884K Natl Grid

948V +

8

5.1 22.1

6O

…

843K –

2

1245K

X

5O OPG Powerv
788 Pennon
W Rurelecv

…

…

178 ContourGlobal

15

… 13.0

N

… -0.2

1Y

258

1237

…

N EQTECv

9.8

Utilities

… -2.6

1Y

247K +

1.6

…

292K Wincanton

3.0 11.3
K 3.3 18.0

9O +
1830

26K

1

2K 1.5 40.1

3129

15

106V

–

103W –

… Jet2v

284V
…

4K Esken Limited
87V FirstGroup
260K Fisher (James)

213

3

73K +

109O

… -2.0

3.4 15.7

…

K 1.1 11.5

61 Record

2.4

14N

3

2.6

+

85

…

328K –

…

2640

426

1N PowerHouse Egyv

… -1.6

2K

296

297 easyJet

87K +

4.8

277

5Y

…
–

201 Braemar Ship

727W

93

…

371 PageGroup

8K Petardsv

1K
115

340

93 Access Intellv

1

192 NWF Grpv

17K PHSCv

…

87K Aferian plcv

… -7.5

277

13

…

…

155

… -7.8

680K

26K

…

…

164

…

…

38 Topps Tiles

23K

18O

Transport

1050

…

…

211K Tesco‡

1160K –

Technology

4
–

69K Ted Baker

… -9.1

2O 5.5 16.0

402K

31K

47

1N Stanley Gbbnsv
103 Studio Retail#

4K

6.0

20

95O –

15N Sosandarv

85Y –
190W –

6.0

1Y

…

34Y

… 33.7
2.8

85Y Saga
182N Sainsbury J

1748K 1160K Smith WH

265

3V

K

306K

…

2.1

2.8 21.1

61X –
1102K +

… -4.2

31K 1.9
…

1186

93

N

… -2.1

1 Quadrise Fuels Intlv

…

1434

11

17N

V

…

496K Howden Join‡

…

1O Providence Resv

– 178

–

N

…

1207O –

…

124X Halfords

… Malvern Intlv

V

1.6

4

4375K Rio Tinto

–

119

24

…

16N +

1889

117K DFS Furn

62K

2600

… -2.2

6N Chariot Oil & Gasv

1549 CVS Groupv

289

96O –

2350 Lon Securityv

V

23Y

2495

215V –

3850

…

10Y

47V –

96O JD Sports

… -8.6

O

N Red Rock Resv

21X

215V Kingfisher‡

835

…

…

21X Brown (N)v

…

… -2.1

359K +

… -2.3

N
…

243 QinetiQ

…

962

63

256N Micro Focus Intl

41W +

… 18.9

W 5.3 14.6

123K

394V

…

…

3

356

–

522

V Location Sciencesv

K 1.3 66.3
…

522

370

…

K

55
133K –

390O Playtech

1.9

X

2555X 1207O LG Electronics

113K –

770

3.5 17.2

1O

28V IQEv
123K K3 Business Tchv

–

… -8.0

18

321O –

234

730 Lok'n Storev

4

X

1.9 21.4

308K B&M European

45W –

40W Card Factory

353W

1V –

… Reabold Resourcesv

6

37Y AO World

50N

1.9 13.9

66K

W

… 62.3

50W
179

50

40

K 1.8 20.7
3K

38 Intercedev
133K Iomartv

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

…

…
Y

216

117

…

1060 Latham (J)v

N

…

63K Ingentav‡

2094

29.8

1400

…

1Y

65

36

Y Petropavlovsk#

8K Proton Motor Power Sv 11K

…

644

+

8
25K

1 Westminsterv

…

1085

…

…
Y 2.3

113K

853O
700 Vp

12K 0.7 44.9

4842

+

… 28.4

–

100K

1846

3.7

O

–

9464

K Petroneft Resv

+

700

1042K

8680 Ferguson‡

140

10

–

13305

466

2N Prospex Energyv

39K

0.3
0.3

…

24Y –

… -4.7

9

53

499W

… -9.8

–

…

117K +

…
…

N

+

+

…

…

66K –

1.2 35.7

… -2.9

542

1.0 21.8

45

2829

3.4 13.0

105

49 Vianetv

2

1

499 Porvair

5.0 14.8

29

1

…

46.2

0.3 59.6

5O –

6

2

…
–

174

3.4

77

1K 2.1 12.0

66K Tribalv

+

…

–

10

63K –

130

37

Y 1.4

6.7

Retailing

–

465
4495

K 1.3

373K +

115

2784

114Y +

211

3535

…

V

… -7.4

90 Synecticsv

–

106

2285 Experian

61X Kier Gp

2W –

…

37 Staffline Gpv
317K SThree

1.0 17.5

35K –

22

3667

122O

92 Polymetal Intl

5O

… -5.4

27K Smiths News

2603 Smurfit Kappa‡ 2859

17N Thruvision Groupv

1K 2.3 25.2

… -4.4

2 Plexus Holdingsv

…

34K

–

3

N

… -5.7
… 11.1

137K

225

–

4W

3

4O
…

72W
598

175O Essentra‡

51

2

…

357

34W Parkmead Grpv

2 Petro Matadv

…

217W

79

99O Petrofac

…

Professional &
support services

77 Johnson Srvcev‡

4O

N

39Y
4168

5

99 Journeov

1X +

7.1

… -0.6

162

163O

…

…

137K

1W Petrel Resourcesv

…

2O

…

4

163O +

2O Westmount Engyv

…

–

121V Serco Gp

… -0.3

1W

K

188N

220

42Y Ilikav

…

2O 2.9 28.8

… -1.8

7

…

…

… -2.1

–

2.6 24.6

…

380

…

2Y

13

314V –

…

140

47K

10 Roebuck Food Grpv

314V RWS Hldgsv

…

2Y Woodboisv

3.1 11.9

350 Science Groupv

…

122V Wood Grp (J)

20

193K

92K
+

654

2X

8

1.5 38.8

475

4.0

3O

251X

…

…

2O Victoria Oil&Gasv#

15N

–

… -4.2

2V W Resourcesv#

–

112

W

5K

–

W Pathfinder Minsv

…

V

8V

98

60K Petra Diamonds

85O 4.8 10.7

39Y –

N Vast Resv

17

X

W
4704V +

V Tower Resourcesv
39X Tullow Oil

15V Pan African Resv

134

2418K –

W Thor Miningv

67N Pantheon Resv

90

Y

365 Restorev

149K

9W Chaarat Goldv#

…

…

V Oilexv#

24

3.3 11.4

…

N

200K Cent Asia Metalsv

…

V

1.4

… -3.7

8Y 3.3 17.1

–

1X

825 Caledonia Miningv‡

2N Caspian Sunrisev

…

472Y –

…

218Y –

14
14X –
3

O

218Y Oil Search

1

504

12 month
High Low Company

…

O Metals Explornv

284

4X

…

… -0.2

7K

5N

70

5.2

…

X

25

248

V 7digital Gpv

5V 5.7

… -1.5

1516K

38K Aeorema Commsv

0.4

…

2N –

… -7.3

…

K

…

…

2 Nostrum O&G

…

…

80

… 43.6
V

5K

9K

2.3

3

20

88K

1Y 6.2 15.5

1N

… -3.9

+

5K Hummingbird Resv

N

K Aminex

…

593

88K Horizonte Minrlsv

N Nostra Terrav

1N

1X

593 Young & Co - N/Vv

54N –

X

73Y Alumina

…

890

54V Hochschild

…

134Y

448

914 Young & Co - Av

4K 4.0 13.0

2N

37K

…

…

1660

8.7

+

…

…

… -6.0

2377 Whitbread

…

1

30

…

W

…

3426

…

12O IGas Energyv

5

W Alien Metalsv

1

429V Wetherspoon JD

…

…

106K

…

… -2.7

…

1069

…

K

7K 2.2 -6.5

…

…

–

1X

…

+

…

V

34K

125O –

7.7

258

30O

V Alba Mineral Resv

32

1X Webis Holdingsv

…

5Y +

5Y Harland & Wolff Gpv

6.3

135 URU Metalsv

250

21K Rotalav

4O

…

144W Hunting PLC‡

44N

…

…

V

17Y AFC Energyv

31 Restaurant Gp

+

10V 3.6 10.9

8.0

…

…

K

64K

106W

3O

… -4.8

27V 1.5 12.7
…

86

K ADM Energyv

–

215

… -3.6

356K

526

–

123N TUI

Y
2340

284

56

294V

173W

725O WPP‡

1200

3O Tastyv

…

205 Wilmington‡

56 Rank Grp

47K Tintrav

–

2V 7.6

91V –

Y REACT Grpv
2071 Relx

176O

7V

374

…

… -5.3

305

79K +

298K Harbour Energy

29K

…

O

17N

3.0

4N 1.7 18.1

–

530

4.1

33

102V –

203K –

… -4.8

V 6.2

…

W
709N –

6.4

3V

101K On The Beach

17N Sportechv

N Global Petrolv

6X Goldplatv

…

1185K –

393K

201O SSP Group

496O –

709N Gold Fields

…

2N Arc Mineralsv

… -9.7

40

350X Glencore

W 1.0

… -5.6
N

…

10K

…

991K Antofagasta

… -7.2

303V

…

29W Gem Diamonds

…

… -2.6

5O –

72Y

…

5N

2Y

35K

33

3N GCM Resourcesv

–

1781K

K

21 Galantas Goldv

209

…

…

K
62V

7

3.3

K
39

20V 3.3 17.1
…

168V Gulf Keystone

… 43.9

40

28

310

…

112W –

1200 PPHE Hotels

1

… G3 Exploration#

… 18.6

…

112W Mitch & Butlers

1600

…

28

266O

Y Minoan Gpv

0.8

… -1.0

…

24

13.8

…

6N

17Y
295

… 16.0

… 11.1

460
…

521
…

1224

10

…

…

–

…

5259V 3494O Total Eng SE

V

2N

3643V 2319N 21st Cent Fox Inc B 2319N +

… -5.7

–

…

1V

723O –

1N

3.5 19.9

6.9

4X

1 Europa Oil&Gasv

622W Fresnillo

115K

3987K 2470N 21st Cent Fox Inc A 2470N +

…

2N 11.6

4W Eurasia Miningv

4

Y

1.7

42K

23

290

1N

0.8

Natural resources

619K Carnival
95 Celticv

78Y

2

…

…

…

177K

N
140

5

+

3.1 22.5

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

1.1

1556V Shell

6450

2N
94N 888 Hldgs

107

2N Primorus Invv

+

N

1

986O

3O 4.2 16.3

Leisure
430

3O 2.0 45.5

56N Photo-Me

377K
412Y

952O +

70N Reach

…

–

876

571O Pearson

353K

15K

1485

107

779 Next 15 Commsv‡

96K Quarto

15K Hardidev

–

4O 1.0 23.9

4V

…

1954

4O 1.0 23.6

952O

N

W 6.4 18.4

1448Y +

175K

… 30.3

–

1466V +

1458

… -8.1

7.5

2215O 1383O News Corp B

1.3 29.9

2W

181

2Y

…

2208K 1354O News Corp A

X 2.2 14.1

…

1950K 1309 Mondi

995

167 Moneysupermarket

52

93X –

1721 Johnson Math

99

–

89K Elementis

835 Cropper (James)v

149

63V –
6866

…

225K

… -6.7

27W –

103N –

…

… -0.8

50

103N Ferrexpo

127857K
181

17 EnQuest

…

…

…

Y 8.4

–

327V

Y
44K Mission Groupv

1V

0.5

1

…

…

… -6.7

57K

74

Y Empyrean Energyv

…

2K 0.6 43.4

2440

…

…

13K 1.6 29.9

142K

–

1

5.0

392W +

136 GreshamTech

10

13

…

386V GB Groupv

183

6O Shanta Goldv‡

X ECR Mineralsv

…

925

5K 1.3 38.6

14

10N Edenville Energyv

…

… 11.2

544W +

5.2

1Y

30

531

444K Rentokil Itl

–

25K

44O –

531 Renewi

636V

297

2K 8.9 10.3

44O DRD Gold

851

183V Serica Energyv‡

… -0.3

8136K

24K +

77

…

24N Serabi Goldv

12 month
High Low Company

450

…

…

N

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

…

N

…

N Corcelv

12 month
High Low Company

… -0.3

23K +

2

2

541K

Industrials

21N Condor Gldv

… -8.5

2K –
…

40K

Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E

…

55N +
77K –

12 month
High Low Company

+

16V 3.4 37.9

…

K

5.0 28.6

…

9.2

4.4

3.8 61.1
… -0.4

3211

2324 Severn Trent

2518

+

18

4.0

…

1920

1525 SSE

1547

+

19

5.2

6.0

942V +

1

1176K

888O Utd Utilities

4.5 86.4

uAIM company; # Price at suspension;
† Ex dividend; ‡ Ex scrip; s Ex rights issue;
t Ex all; § Ex capital distribution; * figures
or report awaited; . . . No significant data.
Companies in bold are constituents of the
FTSE 100 Index. Investment Cos sector Nav
Dis or Prm supplied by Morningstar.
Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
Morningstar or this publication

66

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

2GM

Money Markets
Wall Street
Oct 28
close

Major indices
wkly
+/-

3M
126.60 +9.79
Abbott Labs
99.49 +4.43
AbbVie
147.61 +0.55
Accenture
287.78 +18.21
Activision Blizzard 72.85 +0.14
Adobe Sys
325.68 +19.31
Aflac
64.79 +3.82
Agilent Tech
138.77 +8.89
Air Prods & Chm 254.44 +13.15
Albemarle Corp
280.16 +10.15
Alexion Pharmas 182.50
Allergan
193.02
Allstate
126.39 +6.31
Altria
46.31 +1.83
Amazon
103.41 -15.91
Amer Elec Pwr
89.40 +3.77
Amer Express
150.44 +10.40
Amer Tower
204.71 +17.15
Ameren Corp
82.33 +4.75
American Int
56.80 +3.55
American Wtr W 145.94 +13.18
Ameriprise
312.17 +45.16
AmerisrceBerg
159.31 +11.58
Ametek
129.28 +10.10
Amgen
273.81 +21.87
Amphenol
76.43 +4.88
Anadarko Petrlm 72.77
Analog Devices
144.88 -1.71
Aon Corp
289.20 +9.08
Apple
155.74 +8.47
Applied Mats
89.72 +7.30
Archer Daniels
94.88 +5.19
Arthur J. Gallagher188.58 +13.21
AT&T
18.48 +1.38
Auto Data Proc
242.64 +9.90
Autodesk
216.39 +15.00
Autozone
2543.50 +242.47
AvalonBay
175.60 +0.71
Baker Hughes
57.68
Ball Corp
69.49 -11.15
Bank NY Mellon
42.32 +2.09
Bank of America
36.18 +1.23
Bard (CR)
331.24
Baxter Intl
55.00 -1.43
BB&T
54.24 -0.48
Becton Dickinsn 235.26 +11.66
Berkshire Hath
299.63 +17.12
Biogen Idec
284.29 +16.68
Blackrock
663.75 +66.49
Boeing
143.84 +2.52
Boston Sci
43.16 +2.59
Bristol-Myrs Sq
76.83 +4.62
Broadcom Ord
472.90 +23.17
Brown-Forman- B 68.17 +4.27
Capital One Fin
107.10 +10.85
Cardinal Health
77.14 +4.11
Caterpillar
219.34 +29.12
Celgene
108.24
Centene
85.80 +11.95
CenterPoint Egy
28.81 +1.80
Cerner
94.92 +0.07
CF Industries
105.68 -1.69
Chevron
179.98 +6.79
Chipotle Mex Grill1505.00 -44.82
Church & Dwight
76.37 +3.18
Cigna Corp
324.76 +23.42
Cintas
427.64 +27.70
Cisco Systems
45.64 +2.84
Citigroup
46.13 +1.87
Citizens Financial 40.98 +3.04
Clorox Co
148.14 +11.89
CME
174.75 +4.76
Coca-Cola
60.76 +4.80
Cognizant Tech
63.02 +2.74
Colgate-Palm
74.64 +3.17
Comcast
31.95 +1.47
ConocoPhillips
127.17 +2.68
Consd Edison
88.45 +3.58
Constellation Brs 247.09 +21.94
Corning
32.49 +0.30
Costco Whole
510.87 +32.69
Crown Castle Int 132.50 +8.91
CSX
29.22 +1.68
Cummins
244.78 +11.99
CVS Caremark
94.19 +1.47
Danaher
251.80 +7.21
Deere&Co
396.85 +13.79
Delta Air Lines
34.67 +2.09
Devon Energy
76.01 +1.72
Digital Realty Tr. 101.39 +4.53
Discover Financial 105.64 +10.96
Dollar General
260.44 +21.07
Dollar Tree
158.55 +14.94
Dominion Res
69.41 +3.88
Dover
131.89 +7.04
Dow Chemical
47.48 +0.61
D.R. Horton
77.98 +8.23
Dr Pepper Snap
123.66 -0.02
DTE Energy
113.64 +6.19
Duke Energy
94.00 +5.54

Eaton
eBay
Ecolab
Edison Intl
Edwards Life
Electronic Arts
Eli Lilly
Emerson Elec
Entergy
EOG Res
Equifax
Equinix
Equity Res
Estee Lauder
Evrsurce Engy
Exelon
Express Scripts
Extra Space Stor
Exxon Mobil
Facebook
Fastenal
Fedex
Fifth Third
FirstEnergy
FIS
Fiserv
Ford Motor
Freeport-Mcm
Gen Dynamics
Gen Electric
General Mills
General Mtrs
Genuine Parts
Gilead Sciences
Global Payments
Goldman Sachs
Google Class A
Google Class C CS
Grainger (WW)
Halliburton
Harris
Hartford Financial
HCA Hldngs
Hershey
Hess
Home Depot
Honeywell Intl
Hormel Foods
HP Ent
HP Inc
Humana
Huntington
IBM
ICE Group
IFF
Illinois Tool
Illumina
Ingersoll-Rand
Intel
Intuit
Intuitive Surg
Johnsn & Johnsn
Johnson Controls
JP Morgan Chase
Kansas City
Kellogg
Kimberly-Clark
Kinder Morgan
KLA-Tencor
Kroger
Lab Corp Amer
Lam Research
Lennar
Level 3 Coms
Lockheed Martin
Lowes Cos
LyondellBasell
Marathon Oil
Marathon Petrol
Marriott Intl
Marsh & McLenn
MartinMarietta
MasterCard
McCormick
McDonald's
McKesson
Medtronic
Merck & Co
Metlife
Microchip
Micron
Microsoft
Mondelez
Monster Bvrge
Moodys
Morgan Stanley
Mosaic
Motorola Sols
M&T Bank Corp
Nasdaq OMX

Oct 28
close

wkly
+/-

Oct 28
close

wkly
+/-

150.28
40.32
157.77
60.23
70.87
128.24
359.90
87.40
107.73
133.69
170.89
568.05
63.13
206.44
76.77
38.76
92.33
178.71
110.70
196.64
48.69
160.37
35.98
38.08
84.90
102.60
13.26
32.20
250.72
78.33
81.57
38.85
178.86
79.27
125.31
341.82
96.29
96.58
575.88
35.95
189.13
72.16
223.66
239.96
140.47
298.65
204.93
46.96
14.39
28.05
554.83
15.11
138.51
96.68
96.81
214.05
233.00
50.45
29.07
431.79
244.16
174.87
58.70
126.08
293.59
76.79
124.28
17.77
321.50
46.77
224.29
405.59
82.04
53.63
484.87
198.73
77.99
30.16
113.57
159.65
163.74
338.16
329.47
79.20
274.52
394.72
86.82
100.77
73.14
63.00
54.04
235.87
61.70
93.54
269.09
82.22
53.14
250.12
168.18
62.28

+10.95
+1.91
+11.86
+4.59
-13.94
+3.25
+19.13
+4.24
+5.44
-1.31
+18.87
+33.45
-1.08
+4.64
+4.18
+2.04

Netflix
295.72
Newmont Mining 42.86
NextEra Energy
79.03
Nike
93.83
Norfolk Sthn
229.14
Northrop Grum
548.11
Nucor
134.00
Nvidia
138.34
Occidental Petr
71.84
ONEOK
59.72
Oracle
77.36
O'Reilly
836.30
Paccar
96.30
Parker-Hannifin 291.65
Paychex
119.79
Paypal Hldngs
86.25
PepsiCo
182.23
Pfizer
47.43
PG&E
15.25
Philip Morris Intl 92.53
Phillips66
104.20
Pioneer Ntrl Rscs 257.31
PNC Finl
162.87
PPG Inds
114.16
PPL
26.51
Price T Rowe
108.64
Priceline.com
1905.64
Principal Fin
88.01
Procter & Gmbl
135.22
Progressive Cp
129.70
Prologis
112.98
Prudential Finl
105.27
Public Serv Ent
57.43
Public Storage
311.54
Qualcomm
119.21
Quanta Services 141.18
Realty Income
62.31
Regeneron Pharm 750.76
Regions Financial 21.85
Republic Serv
133.18
Rockwell Auto
257.08
Rockwell Collins 141.04
Roper Inds
413.71
Ross Stores
95.35
Salesforce.com
163.02
Schlumberger
50.45
Schwab (Charles) 80.19
Sempra Energy
152.39
Sherwin-Williams 226.23
Simon Prop
108.96
Southern Co
66.34
S&P Global
326.93
Spectra Engy
49.54
Starbucks
87.10
State Street
74.78
Sthwest Airlines
36.23
Stryker
229.23
SunTrust Banks
70.13
Sysco
85.98
Target
167.52
TE Connectivity 122.65
Texas Insts
161.36
TheKraftHeinz
38.94
Thermo Fisher
503.84
TJX
72.50
Tractor Supply Co 223.14
Transdigm Group 581.55
Travelers
181.96
TSYS
133.27
Tyson Foods
68.64
Ulta Salon
416.14
Union Pacific
198.65
Untd Rentls
309.59
UPS
167.17
US Bancorp
42.86
Utd Health
551.24
Utd Tech
86.01
Valero Energy
125.98
VeriSign
203.37
Verisk Analyt CS 181.12
Verizon Comm
37.67
Vertex Pharma
313.89
Visa
209.34
Vulcan Mats
165.69
Walgreens Boots 36.58
Wal-Mart
142.51
Walt Disney
105.95
Waste Mgt
157.91
Waters
302.68
WEC Engy
91.60
Wells Fargo
46.35
Welltower
52.22
Weyerhaeuser
31.10
Williams Cos
32.67
Xcel Energy
65.37
Xilinx
194.92
Xylem
102.52
Yum Brands
117.88
Zimmer
113.47
Zoetis
153.28

+6.15
+0.49
+7.38
+5.33
+21.10
+25.45
-1.56
+13.68
+0.58
+3.12
+4.66
+92.23
+6.13
+22.26
+7.63
+2.31
+9.17
+2.48
+0.75
+6.02
+3.76
-7.04
+6.50
+1.57
+0.82
+6.12
+20.64
+9.17
+6.64
+7.25
+9.90
+6.98
+3.13
+18.86
+3.47
+7.77
+4.68
+36.85
+2.33
-0.36
+25.21

+12.75
+4.84
+8.00
+2.60
+7.14
+2.96
+1.67
+7.07
+5.86
+1.07
+0.17
+8.12
+5.51
+4.53
+3.85
+16.51
+11.48
+11.06
+16.72
-4.84
-4.90
+56.20
+2.07
-8.09
+4.97
+27.00
+11.74
+4.89
+23.12
+22.12
+1.99
+0.92
+1.26
+44.29
+0.66
+8.61
+3.63
+2.74
+18.43
+12.99
+3.66
+2.10
+14.61
+25.67
+6.16
+5.66
+3.85
+4.55
+10.32
+0.25
+30.87
+3.14
+12.58
+36.30
+8.61
+0.43
+30.26
+16.36
-4.17
+1.01
+2.19
+6.16
+8.81
+22.85
+27.10
+5.36
+19.97
+24.08
+3.56
+5.10
+5.08
+1.15
-2.01
-6.25
+4.35
+5.95
+27.06
+3.00
+0.04
+23.74
+6.41
+4.54

+42.98
+10.28
+2.85
+0.04
+9.87
+10.11
+18.41
+7.92
+1.84
+30.99
+3.36
-1.51
+5.66
+3.13
+10.92
+5.93
+8.33
+7.76
+1.64
+3.73
+7.10
+4.89
+25.77
+43.67
+5.73
+3.52
+33.33
+8.12
+24.91
+1.62
+2.35
+17.51
-18.63
-1.76
+24.22
+14.13
+2.32
+13.89
+18.97
+10.26
+2.28
+5.71
+3.91
-1.92
+20.56
+4.95
+1.52
-2.58
+1.14
+1.15
+4.47
+8.66
+6.85
+6.08
+6.07

Long Gilt
3-Mth Sterling

3-Mth Euribor

3-Mth Euroswiss

FTSE100
FTSEurofirst 80

Period
Dec 22
Mar 23
Dec 22
Mar 23
Jun 23
Sep 23
Dec 23
Dec 22
Mar 23
Jun 23
Sep 23
Dec 23
Dec 22
Mar 23
Jun 23
Sep 23
Dec 22
Mar 23
Dec 22
Mar 23

Open
103.55
100.69
98.820
98.785

High
103.73
100.69
98.825
98.795

32861.80 (+828.52)
11102.45 (+309.78)
3901.06 (+93.76)

Tokyo
Nikkei 225

27105.20 (-240.04)

Hong Kong
Hang Seng

14863.06 (-564.88)

Amsterdam
AEX Index

7039.5
7058.0

97.855
97.510
97.355
97.295
97.320
100.62

7075.0
7058.0

6973.50 (-68.80)

Frankfurt
DAX

13243.33 (+32.10)

Singapore
Straits

3059.19 (+43.95)

Brussels
BEL20

3553.63 (+26.37)

Paris
CAC-40

6273.05 (+29.02)

Zurich
SMI Index
DJ Euro Stoxx 50

10772.37 (+65.75)
3613.02 (+8.51)

London
FTSE 100
7047.67 (-26.02)
FTSE 250
17916.67 (-165.25)
FTSE 350
3893.43 (-17.52)
FTSE Eurotop 100
3194.81 (+9.39)
FTSE All-Shares
3855.75 (-17.52)
FTSE Non Financials
4761.41 (-6.83)
techMARK 100
6022.68 (-4.45)
Bargains
n/a
US$
1.1596 (+0.0032)
Euro
1.1659 (+0.0058)
£:SDR
0.98 (+0.00)
Exchange Index
78.19 (+0.11)
Bank of England official close (4pm)
CPI
123.76 Sep (2015 = 100)
RPI
347.60 Sep (Jan 1987 = 100)
RPIX
290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100)
Morningstar Long Commodity
677.16 (+5.72)
Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75)

Commodities
ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm)
Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB)
Brent Physical
BFOE(Jan)
BFOE(Dec)
WTI(Dec)
WTI(Jan)

94.55
93.91
95.85
86.61
87.90

Low
102.57
100.69
98.790
98.755

Sett
103.31
101.04
98.806
98.771

Vol
153853
1
7310
8310

Open Int
453462
3
347378
229855

97.735
97.245
97.010
96.930
96.940
100.59

6993.5
7058.0

97.765
97.295
97.095
97.030
97.055
100.62

7044.0
7074.5
4934.0
4952.5

227772
305926
239877
187935
204572
488

84424
2

711397
704997
549994
420670
403604
22748

562072
89

© 2022 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.

-0.37
-1.27
-1.18
-1.22
-1.18

Products ($/MT)
Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery)
Premium Unld
Gasoil EEC
3.5 Fuel Oil
Naphtha

898.00
1050.50
350.00
674.00

901.00
1052.50
354.00
676.00

-19.00
+23.00
-9.00
-27.00

ICE Futures
Gas Oil
Nov 1129.50-1128.25
Dec
1038.00-1037.25
Jan
1005.25-1004.75

Feb
Mar

977.00-969.00
949.50-945.00
Volume: 586852

Brent (9.00pm)
Dec
95.58-95.54
Jan
93.63-93.62
Feb
91.75-91.74

Mar
Apr

90.24-90.15
88.80-88.74
Volume: 1711118

Mar
May
Jul

1784-1765
1783-1764
1827-1715

LIFFE
Cocoa
Dec
Mar
May
Jul
Sep
Dec

1891-1890
1856-1854
1841-1820
1884-1803
1850-1800
1798-1790

Volume: 77382

RobustaCoffee
Nov
2160-1910
Jan
1861-1860
Mar
1850-1845
May
1900-1817

Dec
Mar
May

Jul
Sep

1957-1816
1833-1816
Volume: 23632

Aug
Oct
Dec
Mar

516.70-516.10
485.50-484.60
477.40-475.40

467.10-466.00
459.10-458.00
458.20-456.30
456.90-454.00
Volume: 65063

London Grain Futures

266.50
280.00

Jan
Jul

287.25
unq

Mar
273.00
Volume: 703

RWE AG
Swatch Group AG
AP Moller-Maersk A Dn Kr
AP Moller-Maersk B Dn Kr
ABB Ltd S SF
Air Liquide Fr ¤
Airbus Fr ¤
Allianz G ¤
Anglo American UK p
Anheuser-Busch InBev B ¤
Arcelor Mittal
ASML Holding Nl ¤
AstraZeneca UK p
Atlas Copco A Sw Kr
Atlas Copco B Sw Kr
AXA Fr ¤
Banco Santander Es ¤
BBVA Es ¤
Barclays UK p
BASF G ¤
Bayer G ¤
BHP Group UK p
BMW G ¤
BNP Paribas Fr ¤
BP UK p
British Am Tob UK p
BT Group UK p
Centrica UK p
Christian Dior Fr ¤
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain
CS Group S SF
Mercedes-Benz Group AG
Danone Fr ¤
Deutsche Bank G ¤
Deutsche Telekom G ¤
Diageo UK p
EON G ¤
EDF Fr ¤
Enel It ¤
Engie (FR)
ENI It ¤
Fresenius Medical Care Ag & Co
GlaxoSmKline UK p
Glencre Xstrata
Heineken NV Nl ¤
Henkel KGaA G ¤
Henkel KGaA Pref G ¤
Hermes Intl SCA Fr ¤
HSBC UK p
Iberdrola Es ¤
Imperial Tobacco UK p
Inditex Es ¤
ING Nl ¤
Intesa Sanpaolo It ¤
Linde G ¤
Lloyds Bkg Gp UK p
L'Oreal Fr ¤
LVMH Fr ¤
Munich Re G ¤
Natl Grid UK p
Nestle S SF
Novartis S SF
Orange
Pernod Ricard NV Fr ¤
Philips Elect Nl ¤
Prudential UK p
Reckitt Benckiser UK p
Richemont S SF
Rio Tinto UK p
Roche Hldgs S SF
Rolls-Royce UK p
Royal Bank Scot UK p
Shell
Sanofi-Aventis Fr ¤
SAP G ¤
Schneider Electric Fr ¤
Siemens G ¤
Standard Chartered UK p
Swatch Gp BR S SF
Swiss Re AG S SF
Telefonica Es ¤
Tenaris SA It ¤
Tesco UK p
TotalEnergies
UBS AG S SF
Unilever NV Nl ¤
Vinci Fr ¤
Vivendi Fr ¤
Vodafone Group UK p
Volkswagen G ¤
Volvo B Sw Kr
Zurich Fin S SF

+/-

12mthhigh

12mthlow

Yield

P/E

39.05
224.70
14620.00
15225.00
27.72
133.42
110.00
181.40
2655.08
50.20
22.40
480.40
10100.00
118.62
107.42
24.94
2.66
5.25
146.14
45.30
52.70
2053.00
79.56
47.29
472.95
3414.50
126.25
73.24
627.50
40.62
3.93
58.20
49.81
9.83
19.30
3501.31
8.27
11.93
4.47
13.10
13.14
73.67
1418.40
496.00
84.14
59.50
63.46
1320.00
441.60
10.24
2118.00
23.47
9.93
1.91
299.65
41.36
314.25
649.30
270.00
945.60
107.98
80.08
9.55
175.85
12.52
796.80
6498.00
97.78
4485.50
402.20
76.98
120.90
2450.34
86.20
97.74
130.22
111.44
518.20
224.70
75.42
3.41
15.31
212.60
39.69
15.96
45.66
93.28
8.17
99.35
169.05
181.00
423.70

+0.45
-2.70
-310.00
-430.00
-0.03
+1.72
+3.88
+1.38
-60.92
+0.20
-0.64
-2.95
+149.00
+0.82
+1.18
-0.05
+0.03
-0.01
-4.12
-0.71
+0.62
-105.00
-0.01
-0.12
-8.95
+0.50
-0.20
+3.62
-11.00
-0.45
+0.05
-0.61
+1.41
-0.03
+0.63
-20.69
-0.10
-0.03
-0.05
+0.07
+0.22
-0.85
+31.40
-5.00
+0.86
+1.00
+0.66
-24.00
-8.55
+0.06
+14.00
-0.27

43.98
303.60
23160.00
24070.00
33.86
153.40
120.36
232.50
4292.50
58.72
31.31
777.50
11540.00
157.75
133.60
29.09
3.48
6.29
209.45
69.15
67.99
3040.00
97.60
68.07
483.30
3645.00
201.40
93.88
733.50
64.82
10.18
77.90
58.41
14.64
19.61
4364.10
12.54
12.61
7.37
14.61
14.85
83.15
2753.96
548.30
100.95
75.05
81.20
1678.00
567.20
11.49
2127.00
32.41
14.00
2.92
315.35
4824.50
433.65
741.60
282.25
1271.45
128.94
88.42
11.94
214.50
42.01
1516.50
8020.00
146.10
6343.00
439.20
161.91
265.00
2459.23
106.08
129.74
173.78
156.98
641.00
303.60
102.20
5.06
16.36
304.10
42.19
19.90
48.81
103.74
12.16
141.60
301.40
218.65
461.70

31.66
215.70
12870.00
13185.00
23.84
114.48
86.52
156.22
2487.50
45.56
19.40
376.10
8090.32
25.13
22.08
20.34
2.32
3.97
132.06
37.90
43.91
1846.60
67.58
40.67
310.53
2508.00
117.05
59.44
513.00
35.18
3.52
50.19
46.48
7.46
14.47
3282.50
7.28
6.64
3.96
9.79
10.43
63.51
1280.92
346.40
77.50
56.55
56.56
957.60
409.85
8.47
1434.23
18.55
7.90
1.58
244.00
38.10
300.45
535.00
205.15
844.29
103.60
73.01
8.93
166.60
12.40
782.40
5782.00
90.28
4354.00
341.00
64.44
100.34
1534.20
76.45
81.35
110.02
93.67
406.20
215.70
68.18
3.24
8.64
194.35
24.51
13.10
39.36
80.74
7.59
97.40
158.80
148.24
376.00

2.13
1.46
2.28
2.19
2.81
2.02

37.31
16.26
2.43
2.53
13.50
25.17
20.61
11.71
5.20
25.60
1.93
37.91
1714.19
7.71
6.98
8.58
5.44
7.30
3.55
7.67
52.82
8.97
4.33
6.96

+5.50
-1.42
-1.50
-6.10
+0.70
+5.40
-0.12
+1.45
+0.12
+0.25
-0.34
-20.20
+6.00
-3.72
-178.50
+5.20
+0.64
-0.45
+25.34
+2.71
-0.22
+2.18
-0.76
-17.60
-2.70
-1.82
+0.11
-0.50
-0.20
+0.87
+0.85
+0.99
-0.17
+0.68
-2.95
+1.42
+0.30

5.18
6.79
1.04
1.12
0.69
2.05
6.38
7.04
5.61
2.81
6.92
2.05
7.13
3.71
2.34
5.54
6.31

1.09
3.21
2.38
2.27
3.81
3.04
2.04
5.56
4.00
8.02
3.96
5.02
1.94
5.65
1.78
1.14
3.01
2.82
0.34
3.65
4.03
6.52
0.92
5.91
1.88
1.22
6.23
1.25
1.05
3.55
5.18
3.53
6.15
1.74
6.64
1.48
2.69
1.87
11.20
2.05
8.68
2.50
3.63
1.85
1.95
3.07
1.71
1.46
7.34
9.92
1.55
4.30
6.63
2.03
3.14
2.82
7.18
7.75
2.78
3.72
4.43

11.55
12.30
7.39
23.41
10.12
5.95
17.32
9.88
22.68
27.34
4.70
9.38
21.27
9.43
5.65
20.87
16.36
18.18
14.91
16.18
17.25
57.92
9.66
17.96
7.08
25.30
8.25
60.37
47.59
5.73
39.13
27.79
13.19
22.10
8.83
3238.62
27.14
19.10
12.95
23.68
4.69
27.36
52.37
4.76
12.75
17.81
22.40
23.48
17.13
11.65
16.26
18.50
2.55
13.69
10.83
7.83
8.35
23.44
21.14

5.84
11.47
14.34

Base Rates

3mth

ECB Refi 2.00 (from 2/11/22)

Dec 22

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
7663.0-7663.5
7605.0-7610.0

7530.0-7540.0

Lead ($/tonne)
1940.0-1942.0

1929.0-1930.0

1918.0-1923.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
2912.0-2914.0
2876.0-2877.0

2675.0-2680.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)
2225.5-2226.0
2235.5-2236.0

2315.0-2320.0

Interbank Rates
Eurodollar Deps

1 mth
2.8146
3.80-4.05

2 mth
0.0000
4.00-4.07

3 mth
3.3194
4.53-4.78

6 mth
4.0407
5.03-5.10

12 mth
0.0000
5.48-5.55

Sterling spot and forward rates

Nickel ($/tonne)
22250.0-22255.0 22350.0-22400.0

22975.0-23025.0

Tin ($/tonne)
18250.0-18300.0

15mth
17895.0-17945.0

18250.0-18300.0

Mkt Rates for
Copenhagen
Euro
Montreal
New York
Oslo
Stockholm
Tokyo
Zurich

(000s)

Intercont Htls
1,055
Intermed Cap
696
Intl Cons Air
16,210
Intertek
241
JD Sports
4,705
Kingfisher
3,295
Land Sec
1,312
Legal & Gen
10,061
Lloyds Bkg Gp 152,624
Lond Stk Ex Gp
517
M&G
5,005
Melrose
15,050
Mondi
758
Natl Grid
4,587
NatWest Gr
33,328
Next
426
Ocado Gp
1,683
Pearson
1,582
Pershing Sq
241
Persimmon
1,022
Phoenix Gp
1,775
Prudential
3,754
Reckitt Benck
1,209
Relx
1,876
Rentokil Itl
7,843
Rightmove
1,583
Rio Tinto
2,495
Rolls-Royce
17,808
Sage Gp
942
Sainsbury J
4,938
Schroders
1,520
Scot Mtge
1,981
Segro
2,455
Severn Trent
554
Shell PLC
10,729
Smith & Neph
1,547
Smith (DS)
2,708
Smiths
462
Smurfit Kappa
192
Spirax-Sarco
106
SSE
2,175
St James Place
867
Stand Chart
4,793
Taylor Wimpey 18,506
Tesco
11,731
Unilever
2,218
Utd Utilities
1,302
Vodafone Gp
44,081
Whitbread
385
WPP
2,631

European money
deposits %
Currency
1mth
Dollar
0.13
Sterling
2.81
Euro
0.10

3mth

6mth

12mth

0.20

0.29

0.55

3.32

4.04

0.81

0.15

0.20

0.50

Gold/precious
metals
Because of a technical issue, the gold fix
prices are from Thursday.
Bullion: Open $1662.02
Close $1641.05-1641.19 High $1666.90
Low $1638.21
AM $1853.60 PM $1852.70
Krugerrand $1624.00-2711.00 (£1403.14-2342.32)
Platinum $947.00 (£818.21)
Silver $19.15 (£16.54)
Palladium $1917.93 (£1657.10)

Dollar rates
Australia
Canada
Denmark
Euro
Hong Kong
Japan
Malaysia
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Switzerland

1.5614-1.5616
1.3625-1.3626
7.4945-7.4950
1.0067-1.0068
7.8495-7.8497
147.73-147.73
4.7130-4.7170
10.361-10.367
1.4126-1.4128
10.985-10.988
0.9971-0.9972

Other Sterling
Argentina peso

180.60-180.61

Australia dollar

1.8070-1.8072

Bahrain dinar

0.4329-0.4399

Brazil real

6.1879-6.1914

Euro

1.1651-1.1652

Hong Kong dollar

9.0843-9.0853

India rupee

95.284-95.320

Indonesia rupiah

18015-18028

Kuwait dinar KD

0.3573-0.3597

Malaysia ringgit

5.4621-5.4667

New Zealand dollar

1.9958-1.9963

Singapore dollar

1.6349-1.6352

S Africa rand

21.006-21.016

U A E dirham

4.2585-4.2587

US Fed Fd 3.00-3.25

Halifax Mortgage Rate 5.74

(Official)

3i
796
Admiral
284
Airtel Africa PLC 6,501
Ang Am
2,163
Antofagasta
1,150
Ashtead
528
AB Foods
844
AstraZeneca
936
Auto Trader
1,339
Aveva Gp
162
Aviva
2,959
B&M European
1,661
BAE Sys
5,847
Barclays
22,273
Barratt Devs
3,217
Berkeley
217
BP
30,829
Brit Amer Tob
1,282
Br Land
1,444
BT Group
11,660
Bunzl
373
Burberry Grp
1,231
Centrica
24,339
Coca Cola HBC
571
Compass
1,271
Convatec
1,564
CRH
635
Croda
258
DCC
142
Dechra Pharma
220
Diageo
1,395
Endeavour Mining PLC
204
Entain
587
Experian
651
F&C Investment Tr 269
Flutter Ent
262
Frasers Group
372
Fresnillo
637
Glencore
28,450
GlaxoSmKline
4,038
Haleon
20,532
Halma
659
Harbour Energy
2,887
Hargreaves L
844
Homeserve
496
HSBC
17,725
Imperial Brands
3,691
Informa
2,590

Exchange rates

Clearing Banks 2.25

Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 1.880; 3 mth 2.588. Sell: 1 mth 1.700; 3 mth 2.500

London Metal Exchange

Cash

FTSE volumes
Close

Money rates %

LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Nov
May

97.835
97.480
97.330
97.280
97.300
100.61

667.52 (-1.88)

Sydney
AO

White Sugar (FOB)
Reuters

London Financial Futures

Eurotop 100

New York
Dow Jones
Nasdaq Composite
S&P 500

Range
8.6023-8.6803
1.1662-1.1561
1.5654-1.5799
1.1505-1.1599
11.851-12.008
12.641-12.724
168.90-171.05
1.1436-1.1557

Close
8.6734-8.6747
1.1652-1.1651
1.5768-1.5770
1.1573-1.1574
11.992-11.996
12.714-12.717
170.96-170.99
1.1539-1.1541

1 month
130ds
12pr
10pr
9pr
28ds
245ds
44ds
29ds
Premium = pr

3 month
431ds
41pr
21pr
34pr
29ds
941ds
162ds
100ds
Discount = ds

Australia $
Canada $
Denmark Kr
Euro ¤
Hong Kong $
Hungary
Indonesia
Israel Shk
Japan Yen
New Zealand $
Norway Kr
Poland
Russia
S Africa Rd
Sweden Kr
Switzerland Fr
Turkey Lira
USA $

Bid
1.809
1.578
8.673
1.165
9.099
480.577
18026.545
4.096
170.986
1.995
11.985
5.494
71.462
21.002
12.711
1.155
21.569
1.159

Change
+0.02
+0.01
+0.05
+0.01
+0.01
+5.52
-2.25
+0.03
+1.89
+0.01
+0.12
+0.02
-0.17
+0.26
+0.07
+0.01
+0.02

Rates supplied by Morningstar

Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
Morningstar or this publication

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

67

Money
Unit-linked insurance investments
Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

ABBEY LIFE
01202 292373
80 Holdenhurst Road,, Bournemouth
BH8 8AL
American Ser 4
3734.40 3931.00
Custodian S4
553.80
583.00
Equity Ser 4
733.70
772.40
Ethical S4
387.50
407.90
European S4
856.30
901.40
Fixed Int Ser 4
799.00
841.00
High Inc Ser 4
2442.50 2571.00
International S4
759.50
799.50
Japan Ser 4
493.30
519.20
Man Ser 4
2188.00 2303.10
Money Ser 4
527.30
555.00
Prop Fd Ser 4
1037.00 1091.60
Protected Gth S4
213.80
225.00

Yld
%

+52.40
+6.00
+12.50
+8.40
+14.10
+8.20
+53.60
+5.90
+1.50
+23.70
+0.20
+1.60
…

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Fomerly Hill Samuel Life Assurance Ltd
Equity Fund
2741.90 2901.50
+27.80
European Fund
4476.70 4737.30
+73.80
Fixed Intl
887.50
939.20
+9.10
Income Fund
2964.20 3136.70
+51.90
International
2050.20 2169.50
+16.10
Managed Series A
2054.20 2173.70
+19.80
Managed Units
3743.50 3940.50
+36.30
Money Series A
478.50
506.40
+0.10
Money Units
674.80
710.30
+0.30
Property Series A
1429.10 1512.20
+2.20
Property Units
2635.90 2774.60
+4.30
Smaller Cos
2671.20 2826.70
+65.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly Target Life Assurance Co Ltd
Deposit
355.60
374.30
+0.10
Financial Ser 1
234.60
247.00
+0.10
Fixed Interest
592.70
623.90
+6.00
Managed
2025.00 2131.50
+17.40
Mngd Growth
750.30
789.80
+3.20
Property
844.80
889.20
+1.30
TSB Intl
1453.20 1529.70
+11.30
AEGON SCOTTISH EQUITABLE
Q
08456 100010
Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE
American
2082.96 2192.59
Cash
276.67
291.23
Distribution
91.78
96.61
Ethical
601.35
633.00
European
1182.80 1245.06
Fixed Interest
461.83
486.14
Global
358.33
377.19
International
1081.63 1138.55
Japan
405.10
426.43
Mixed
909.78
957.66
Pacific
1476.29 1553.99
Technology
4437.43 4670.98
UK Equity
859.19
904.41

+3.73
+0.09
+1.59
+20.85
+19.38
+9.03
+2.29
+5.89
+0.67
+9.76
-29.98
+21.64
+21.32

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

ALBA LIFE
50 Bothwell St,, Glasgow
g
G2 6HR
0141 248 2000
Formerly
y Britannia
Life
European
1445.40 1521.40
Far East
587.80
618.70
Fixed Interest
773.80
814.50
International
1324.30 1394.00
Japan
646.60
680.60
Managed Fund
1414.80 1489.30
Money Market
400.40
421.50
North America
1392.20 1465.50
Property
1052.00 1107.30
UK Equity
2425.30 2553.00

+30.90
-8.80
+15.10
+2.20
-2.50
+15.80
+0.10
+7.00
+1.30
+55.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Pensions
Equity
European
Far Eastern
Fixed Interest
International
Japan
Managed
Money Market
North America
Property

+39.10
+43.10
-8.70
+20.10
+2.40
-1.30
+12.90
+0.20
+12.20
+1.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

1700.60
1794.20
469.50
784.00
1131.90
315.50
990.40
473.00
2052.50
955.30

1790.10
1888.60
494.20
825.30
1191.40
332.10
1042.50
497.90
2160.50
1005.60

AXA SUN LIFE
PO Box 1810,, Bristol BS99 5SN
AXA Assurance - 02476 235500
Sun Life - 0117 989 3000
AXA Equity
q y & Law - 02476 235400
Life Assnce - AXA Equity & Law Series 6. 1% AMC
Balced Ser 6
2489.70 2620.80
+18.10
…
Distribution Ser 6
90.70
95.50
+1.30
…
Europe Ser 6
1860.30 1958.30
+40.30
…
Higher Inc Ser 6
4516.00 4753.70 +113.20
…
Property Ser 6
1854.20 1951.80
+0.60
…
UK Equities Ser 6
3721.90 3917.80
+69.20
…
Life Funds - Sun Life (inc Birmingham Midshires)& AXA Assurance 1% AMC
Cash Acc
469.70
494.50
-0.10
…
Deffrd Dist
667.70
702.80
+9.60
…
Distribution Fund
338.00
355.80
+4.90
…
Equity Acc
5443.00 5729.50 +101.10
…
European
878.60
924.80
+19.10
…
Far Eastern Acc
2062.30 2170.80
-57.20
…
Fixed Int Acc
916.50
964.80
+18.10
…
Global Eqty Acc
2468.90 2598.80
+27.60
…
Japan Acc
345.60
363.80
+0.10
…
Managed Acc
3051.80 3212.40
+22.30
…
North Amer Acc
3085.40 3247.80
+43.70
…
Pacific Acc
1536.30 1617.10
-64.40
…
Property Acc
1415.20 1489.70
+0.40
…
BARCLAYS LIFE ASSURANCE CO LTD
0845 603 5000
Level 12, 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP
500 Accum
1357.55 1429.00
+28.48
America Acc
2756.69 2901.78
+14.01
Comb Inc Acc
2581.01 2716.85
+17.19
Equity Acc
3629.24 3820.25
+77.63
Far East Gwth
1159.02 1220.02
-25.48
Gilt 2 Init
215.07
226.39
+4.47
Gilt Edged Acc
858.52
903.70
+18.39
Inter 2 Init
457.97
482.07
+2.82
International Acc
1826.91 1923.06
+12.47
Japan Acc
416.34
438.26
+0.05
Managed 2 Init
536.24
564.46
+3.21
Managed Acc
2131.92 2244.12
+14.20
Managed Alpha
1551.96 1633.64
+32.56
Money Acc
430.04
452.67
-0.03
Prop 2 Init
269.51
283.70
-0.05
Property Acc
1069.19 1125.46
+0.52
UK Growth Acc
1146.04 1206.36
+24.42
Univ Tech Acc
797.46
839.43
+5.44

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

& AXA Assurance 1% AM
Equity 2 Init
907.29

…

955.05

+18.81

CANADA LIFE
01707 651122
2-6 High Street, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 5BA
Cash
320.20
337.00
-0.10
CLife Euro Mgd
1684.00 1772.00
-44.00
CLife Intl Fd
1662.00 1749.00
-16.00
Deposit Fund
516.50
543.60
+0.20
Equity
1174.00 1235.00
-17.00
Equity Fund
2769.00 2914.00
+71.00
European
1651.00 1737.00
+39.00
Fixed Interest
971.90 1023.00
+18.10
Gilt & Fxd Int
631.20
664.40
+5.30
Gilt Edged Fd
1190.00 1252.00
+22.00
International
2484.00 2614.00
+24.00
Intl Mgd
3344.00 3520.00
+31.00
Investment Fd
1466.00 1539.00
-25.00
Japanese
347.70
366.00
-0.30
Managed
1291.00 1358.00
-9.00
Managed Fund
2583.00 2718.00
+29.00
ML Intl Fxd Int
697.00
733.60
-0.30
Money
530.40
558.30
+0.30
Multiple Inv
3271.00 3443.00
+34.00
North Amer
2280.00 2400.00
+20.00
Property
1020.00 1073.00
+2.00
Property Fund
2110.00 2221.00
+1.00
UK Equity
4212.00 4433.00 +108.00
UK Property
1510.00 1589.00
+1.00

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

CLERICAL MEDICAL INVESTMENT GROUP
Narrow Plain,, Bristol BS2 0JH 0117 9290566
Life Funds
Cash
295.24
310.78
+0.04
Dist Acc S2
197.37
197.37
+4.24
Fidelity Bal
1118.44 1177.31
+11.11
Gilt & Fixed Int
478.72
503.92
+9.53
Non Eqty
391.64
412.25
+4.86
Nth American
2949.43 3104.66
+7.45
Property
750.88
790.40
+3.00
UK Gwth
1180.00 1242.10
+32.86
With Prof Bd S2
122.10
122.10
+0.10
With Profits Flex
128.00
128.00
…
With Profits Reg
399.70
420.80
+0.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Pension Funds
Cash
European
Gilt & Fixed Int
Halifax
Nth American
PP Bal Pens
PP Caut Pens
PP UK Gth Pens
PP UK Prop Pens
With Profits Reg
With Profits Spec

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

335.26
1819.70
534.60
142.88
4500.14
1111.46
361.63
1029.42
809.44
721.40
714.60

352.91
1915.47
562.74
150.40
4736.99
1169.95
380.66
1083.60
852.04
759.40
752.30

+0.08
+38.01
+13.61
…
+8.07
+12.37
+7.13
+28.67
+3.38
+0.60
+0.50

COUNTRYWIDE ASSURED
Harbour House,, Portway,
y, Preston,, Lancs
PR2 2PR
CA Funds 0800 262536
Deposit Life
219.80
231.30
…
Deposit Pen
307.40
323.50
+0.10
Intl Life
946.90
996.70
+4.80
Intl Pen
1298.30 1366.60
+7.70
Mgd Life
757.50
797.30
+8.90
Mgd Pen
1117.70 1176.50
+16.50
UK Eqty Life
772.70
813.30
+13.00
UK Eqty Pen
993.80 1046.10
+20.10

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

CWA Series Funds 0870 600 0014
Equity Fd
1642.70 1729.20
Glob Cash
363.10
382.20
Glob Eqty
3325.70 3500.70
Glob Fxd Int
1266.90 1333.60
Glob Mgd
2266.40 2385.70
Glob Prop
908.10
955.90
Managed Fd
2832.20 2981.30
Property Fd
746.60
785.90

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

+23.20
…
+22.80
+28.60
+22.90
-0.10
+28.70
…

FRIENDS PROVIDENT
01722 413366
Castle Street, Salisbury, Wilts SP1 3SH
Cash
322.20
339.20
+0.20
European
1411.30 1485.60
+24.40
Fixed Inter Life
653.50
687.90
+16.50
Index Linked
581.50
612.10
+21.80
Managed
1104.00 1162.10
+6.90
North American
1217.70 1281.80
+14.30
Overseas Equity
1708.80 1798.80
+19.60
Pacific Basin
527.90
555.70
-14.50
Property
746.90
786.20
+2.00
Stewardship
1560.30 1642.40
+27.20
UK Equity
1626.30 1711.90
+19.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly London & Manchester Assurance
Equity Ex Cap ‡
…
…
+3.50
Equity Life ‡
…
…
+20.30
Fixed Interest ‡
…
…
+17.30
Fxd Int Ex Cap ‡
…
…
+3.20
Gtd Dep Ex Cap ‡
…
…
…
Guaranteed Deposit ‡
…
…
+0.30
Inter Life ‡
…
…
+19.00
Intl Ex Cap ‡
…
…
+3.40
Prop Ex Cap ‡
…
…
+0.20
Prop Life ‡
…
…
+1.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

FP Life Assurance ex NM
American
3272.50
Deposit
539.90
European
3441.30
Fixed Interest
1365.10
Income Acc
3706.90
Income Dist
657.20
International
1694.70
Managed
2469.60
Mixed
1776.00
Property
2105.00
Singapore & Mal
1157.50
Tokyo Fund
1066.90
UK Equity
2250.90

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

3444.80
568.30
3622.40
1437.00
3902.00
691.80
1783.90
2599.60
1869.50
2215.80
1218.50
1123.00
2369.40

+38.20
+0.30
+59.00
+34.20
+103.90
+18.90
+19.40
+15.30
-17.90
+5.50
-47.40
-0.20
+26.90

Friends Prov (London & Manchester) Ass Ltd Fd
Capital Gth Acc ‡
…
…
+10.90
…
Flexible Acc ‡
…
…
+9.70
…
Flexible Cap ‡
…
…
+1.60
…
Inv Trust Acc ‡
…
… +122.20
…
Inv Trust Cap ‡
…
…
+21.50
…
Moneymaker Acc ‡
…
…
+3.00
…
GUARDIAN
01253 733151
Ballam Rd, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire FY8 4JZ
Deposit
434.80
457.70
+0.10
…
Equity Life
4323.40 4550.90
+87.30
…
European
661.70
696.60
+8.20
…
Fixed Interest
1623.30 1708.70
+20.40
…
Index Linked
613.30
645.50
+7.70
…
Inter Life
2644.40 2783.60
+32.80
…
Managed Life
2601.50 2738.40
+24.20
…
North American
1358.80 1430.30
+16.80
…
Pacific
820.40
863.50
+10.20
…
Prop Life
988.40 1040.40
+9.20
…
HALIFAX LIFE LTD
PO Box 285,, York YO1 1YB 01904 611110
Life Funds
Balanced
95.60
100.64
+0.59
Deposit
36.08
37.98
…
Foundation
99.22
104.44
+0.65
Opportunity
113.10
119.05
+0.90

…
…
…
…

Pension Funds
Balanced S2
Deposit S2
Foundation S2
Opportunity S2

…
…
…
…

96.98
41.68
98.16
111.80

102.08
43.87
103.33
117.68

+0.70
…
+0.76
+0.96

INVESCO FUNDS MGMT LTD
Alban Gate,, 14th Flr,, 125 London Wall,, Lond
EC2Y 5AS 020 7710 4567
Formerly GT Global Fund Mgmt Ltd
Plan Far East
554.30
583.40
…
Plan Wwide
924.50
973.20
-0.10

…
…

LEGAL & GENERAL INVESTMENT MGMT
0203 1243000
One Coleman Street, EC2R 5AA
B Soc Lnkd Init
136.20
143.40
…
Brit Opps Int
221.20
232.80
-3.70
British Opp
734.10
772.80
+13.30
Building Soc Linked
283.40
298.30
…
Cash
438.30
461.30
+0.10
Cash Initial
119.10
125.40
-0.30
Equity
4449.60 4683.80
+98.80
Equity Initial
1073.10 1129.60
-14.50
Fixed Initial
463.80
488.20
+3.70
Fixed Interest
1359.40 1430.90
+16.70
Index Linked Gilt
650.30
684.50
+17.40
Index Lkd
270.30
284.50
+0.60
International
2312.70 2434.40
+7.50
Intl Initial
537.00
565.30
-6.40
Life Property
1542.60 1623.70
+0.60
Managed
2928.30 3082.50
+42.10
Managed Initial
770.70
811.30
-3.70
Property Initial
349.80
368.20
-0.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
Barnett Way,
y, Barnwood,, Gloucester GL4 3RZ
01452 371371 For further p
prices 0800 7315139
Life
Aggressive Mgd 4
719.00
756.80
-2.20
Balanced Mgd 3
1590.10 1673.70
+15.20
Cautious Mgd 2
490.90
516.70
-1.90
European
747.90
787.20
+2.50
Far Eastern
1618.80 1704.00
-21.30
Framlington
215.60
227.00
+0.40
Green
612.40
644.60
+4.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

592.80
284.40
4052.80
468.00
1479.10
147.80
1540.30
2130.40
505.50

624.00
299.30
4266.10
492.60
1556.90
155.60
1621.30
2242.50
532.10

+0.70
+0.50
+18.90
-1.30
+14.40
-0.30
-39.50
+45.10
+15.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

1003.20 1055.90
3582.00 3770.50
815.90
858.80
1143.80 1203.90
2526.80 2659.70
258.10
271.70
976.90 1028.30
863.80
909.20
352.70
371.20
11621.70 12233.30
566.20
595.90
2846.70 2996.50
158.90
167.30
3750.00 3947.30
2512.60 2644.80
1079.50 1136.30

-3.70
+40.60
-3.90
+4.90
-40.70
+0.80
+8.50
+1.90
+0.70
+68.80
-1.90
+33.90
-0.30
+98.10
-64.20
+32.90

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

LLOYDS TSB LIFE LTD
01634 834000
Mountbatten Hse,, Chatham,, Kent
Life Funds
Equity
1577.70 1660.80
Managed
3516.40 3516.40
Income
3017.70 3176.60
Managed Inv
1828.80 1925.10

+12.10
+23.30
+75.10
+11.90

…
…
…
…

Life Funds-Series Two-Current Series
American
3237.00 3407.40
+7.50
Balanced
2259.40 2378.30
+59.50
Cash
412.40
434.20
…
European Gth
795.70
837.60
+16.40
Fixed Interest
740.00
779.00
+13.30
German Growth
1443.40 1519.30
+35.00
Income
2790.00 2936.80
+69.30
Japan Growth
293.40
308.80
+0.40
Managed Inv
1987.70 2092.30
+13.10
Pacific Basin
1267.90 1334.70
-36.30
Property
1744.40 1836.20
+6.50
Smllr Cos Recov
4565.00 4805.20 +114.40
Worldwide Gth
1957.60 2060.60
+8.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Pension Funds
American Pens
Cash Pen
European Pen
Far East Pen
Fixed Int Pen
FTSE 100
Managed Pen
Property Pen
UK Equity Pen

+1.30
+0.10
+36.10
-17.20
+12.10
+8.50
+9.20
+4.40
+18.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

LONDON LIFE
0117 984 7777
Spectrum, Bond Street, Bristol, BS1 3AL
Deposit
508.00
508.00
+0.20
Deposit A
291.40
306.80
+0.10
Deposit P
653.00
653.00
+0.30
Equity
3802.50 3802.50
+77.40
Equity A
846.00
890.60
+17.20
Equity P
3283.70 3283.70
+84.20
Fixed Int A
475.20
500.30
+8.30
Fixed Int P
1710.00 1710.00
+40.00
Fixed Interest
1117.00 1117.00
+19.70
Index Stock A
550.70
579.70
+11.30
Index Stock P
947.00
947.00
+27.40
Indexed Stock
733.30
733.30
+15.00
International
1379.50 1379.50
+9.30
International A
826.50
870.00
+5.50
International P
1806.60 1806.60
+15.40
Mixed
2254.20 2254.20
+14.60
Mixed A
710.40
747.80
+4.50
Mixed P
2239.40 2239.40
+12.70
Property
777.00
777.00
+0.30
Property A
333.50
351.10
+0.10
Property P
599.60
599.60
+0.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

MERCHANT INVESTORS ASSURANCE CO LTD
St Bartholomews House,, Lewins Mead
Bristol BS1 2NH
Far East
670.70
706.00
-22.40
Gilt Edged
1338.20 1408.60
+59.30
Interest Fund
560.40
589.90
…
Intl Equity
2006.10 2111.70
+12.30
Managed Fd
1221.10 1285.40
+2.90
North American
797.40
839.40
+2.30
Property
1438.40 1514.10
-3.30
UK Equity
1048.80 1104.00
+27.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

International
Japan
North Amer
Perpetual
Schroders
Select Mgd
UK Eqty Inc
UK Equity Gwth
UK Fxd Int
Pension
Aggressive Mgd 4
Balanced Mgd 3
Cautious Mgd 2
European
Far Eastern
Framlington
Green
International
Japan
North Amer
Perpetual
Schroders
Select Mgd
UK Eqty Gwth
UK Eqty Inc
UK Fxd Int

1967.30
310.50
1456.50
534.50
521.60
359.80
958.20
1073.20
704.30

2070.80
326.80
1533.10
562.60
549.10
378.80
1008.70
1129.70
741.30

MGM ASSURANCE
MGM House,, Heene Road,, Worthing
g
BN11 2DY 01903 836000
Deposit
114.48
120.50
-0.08
Deposit Acc
370.33
389.82
+0.10
Fixed Interest
387.54
407.93
-3.32
Fixed Interest Acc
1089.83 1147.19
+15.53
Managed
483.36
508.80
-9.19
Managed Acc
1502.43 1581.51
+17.69
Property
250.17
263.34
-0.42
Property Acc
920.93
969.40
+3.07

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

NAT WEST LIFE ASSCE LTD
PO Box 886, Trinity Quay, Bristol BS99 5LJ
Growth Mgd Pens
540.72
569.18
+4.60

…

NORWICH UNION LIFE INSURANCE
SOCIETY - Ex NUAM Funds
PO Box 140,, Norwich NR3 1PP
01603 622200
Deposit Fund
606.34
638.25
+0.17
Eqity Fund
14807.09 15586.41 +250.78
Fixed Int Fd
1620.58 1705.87
+33.81
Higher Inc Plus
208.99
219.99
+2.72
Intl Fund
1239.39 1304.62
+9.18
Managed Fund
6097.91 6418.85
+42.85
Property Fd
2641.28 2780.29
+0.91

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly Commercial Union
Cash
307.70
323.90
Fxd Int
513.90
540.90
Index-Lnkd
558.30
587.70
Int Equity
1365.70 1437.60
Managed
1393.70 1467.00
Property
898.90
946.20
UK Equity
1797.70 1892.30
Var Ann (5) ‡
…
…
Var Ann Acc (5) ‡
…
…

…
+10.70
+20.50
+10.00
+9.70
+0.20
+30.30
+2.30
+55.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly General Accident
American
1456.20 1532.80
Cash Deposit
260.80
274.50
Conv Life
431.60
454.20
European
1026.30 1080.30
Fixed Int
431.60
454.30
Index-Linked
542.10
570.60
International
853.10
898.00
Japan
381.80
401.90
Japan Smllr Cos
390.60
411.10
Managed
704.30
741.40
Pacific Fund
910.10
958.00
Property
652.60
687.00
UK Equity
1029.20 1083.30
Unitised Profit
406.20
427.60

+9.40
+0.10
…
+18.00
+9.00
+19.90
+4.00
-1.10
-1.00
+4.80
-19.70
+0.10
+17.40
+0.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly Provident Mutual
Deposit Initial
87.60
Deposit Ord
321.00
Equity Init
721.90
Equity Ord
2685.20
Fixed Int Init
178.20
Fixed Int Ord
651.10
I-Linked Gilt Init
203.00
I-Linked Gilt Ord
681.60
Managed Initial
451.00
Managed Ord
1659.80
Oseas Equity Init
457.20

…
…
+11.70
+45.30
+3.60
+13.50
+7.30
+25.10
+2.80
+11.50
+3.10

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

92.20
337.90
759.90
2826.50
187.50
685.40
213.70
717.50
474.80
1747.20
481.20

Oseas Equity Ord
Property Init
Property Ord

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

1780.50
286.70
1046.00

1874.20
301.80
1101.10

+13.00
-0.10
+0.30

…
…
…

NPI
020 7477 5567
55 Moorgate, London EC2
Americas
2518.20
Deposit
359.30
Far East
1531.90
Fixed Interest
914.50
Indexed Gilt
704.50
Managed
1610.00
Overseas Equity
2227.80
UK Equity
2292.20

2650.80
378.30
1612.60
962.70
741.60
1694.80
2345.10
2412.90

+12.20
+0.20
-13.40
+16.10
+14.60
+8.00
+17.10
+47.00

PEARL
The Pearl Centre,, Lynch
y
Wood,, Peterborough
g
PE2 6FY 01733 470 470
Inv Equity
5422.90 5708.40
+98.00
Inv Managed
3665.40 3858.40
+18.00
Inv Prop Ac Grs
857.30
902.50
+0.40
Inv Prop Dist
271.30
285.60
+0.20
Ret Managed
4301.50 4527.90
+30.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

…
…
…
…
…

PHOENIX LIFE LTD
Edward Pavilion,, Liverpool
p
L3 4SL 0151 239 3000
For further fund prices
p
please
p
ring:
g 0800 731 2031
For further fund p
prices p
please ring
g 0800 731 2031
Broker Life Funds
Moneyhill Grth
510.43
537.29
+2.58
…
Lifestyle Bond Funds (Post 29/1/01)
Cautious Mgd
242.20
242.20
+2.40
Deposit
151.10
151.10
…
Equity
249.00
249.00
+4.90
Equity Inc
276.30
276.30
+6.80
European
318.00
318.00
+2.90
Eurotech
90.10
90.10
-0.20
Far East
386.60
386.60
-9.80
Fixed Int
196.50
196.50
+2.20
FTSE All Share Tkr
270.50
270.50
+6.20
Income Dist I
107.70
107.70
+2.30
Income Dist II
106.00
106.00
+2.30
International
291.40
291.40
…
Japan Grth
188.30
188.30
+0.60
Managed
264.30
264.30
+2.50
North America
464.40
464.40
+7.20
Pacific Grth
606.20
606.20
-23.70
Property
394.00
394.00
+0.30
UK Leader
260.30
260.30
+4.20
UK Smlr Cos
272.90
272.90
+9.40
With Profits
154.49
154.49
+0.10

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Other Life & Pension Funds
Pens Unit W Prof
242.53
255.30
With Profits Bd
188.98
188.98

+0.20
+0.13

…
…

Pensions Solution Funds (Post 6/4/2001)
Balanced Grth
269.10
269.10
+3.30
Cash Deposit
160.60
160.60
+0.10
Equity
252.80
252.80
+5.40
Equity Inc
282.90
282.90
+8.00
European
368.60
368.60
+3.60
Eurotech
173.80
173.80
+4.40
Far East
460.70
460.70
-14.30
Fixed Int
220.10
220.10
+3.30
FTSE All Share Tkr
301.00
301.00
+7.00
Index Linked
284.40
284.40
+8.70
International
348.30
348.30
-0.40
Managed Grth
288.30
288.30
+3.50
Pens Protector
222.40
222.40
+5.30
Property
520.50
520.50
+0.50
UK Leader
278.70
278.70
+5.60
Unitised W Prof
204.46
204.46
+0.19

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

PRUDENTIAL INDIVIDUAL LIFE FUNDS
0345 601601
55 King's Road, Reading, RG1 3AH
Euro Fund ‡
…
…
+23.70
N American Fd ‡
…
…
+14.20
Strategic Fund
644.30
678.20
-11.00

…
…
…

Scottish Amicable Life Fds (First Series)
Cash Fund ‡
…
…
+0.10
Equity Fund ‡
…
… +155.20
Fixed Interest ‡
…
…
+16.10
Intl Fund ‡
…
…
+3.00
Managed Fund ‡
…
…
+12.00
Property Fund ‡
…
…
+6.80

…
…
…
…
…
…

PRUDENTIAL LIFE FUNDS
01786 448844
PO Box 14962,, Craigforth,
g
, Stirling,
g, FK9 4ZD
Others
BonusBond
235.70
248.10
+7.10
Cap Gteed Bd
390.40
410.90
+1.20
Prud Inher Bd (Cap) ‡
…
…
+2.10
Prud Inher Bd (Inc) ‡
…
…
+0.20

…
…
…
…

Scottish Amicable Life Fds (First Series)
Cash
371.40
391.00
…
Equity
2267.80 2387.10
+60.60
Fixed Interest
879.10
925.30
+11.90
Index-Linked
588.20
619.10
+15.60
International
1824.30 1920.30
+2.20
Managed
1889.50 1989.00
+7.30
Property
1196.20 1259.20
+6.70

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

The M & G Series
Amer Bond Acc
Deposit Bond Acc ‡
Equity Bond Acc
Euro Smlr Cos
European Bd Acc
Extra Yld Bd Acc
Gbl Basics Bd Acc
Gilt Bond Acc ‡
High Yield Bond
Index-Lnkd Gt Bd
International Bd
Japan Bond Acc
Japan Sm Cos Acc
Managed Bond Acc
Prop Bond Acc
Rec Bond Acc ‡
S East Asia Bd Acc

1351.10
…
4651.30
209.30
1860.40
4165.00
1161.30
…
439.70
375.60
5376.20
439.20
235.80
3431.60
1677.30
…
1300.20

1418.80
…
4884.00
219.90
1953.50
4373.40
1219.40
…
461.80
394.40
5645.10
461.30
247.70
3603.30
1761.20
…
1365.30

-21.40
…
+125.20
-21.90
+35.40
+76.50
+16.90
+12.80
+9.00
-6.10
-43.10
…
-3.80
+13.40
+9.30
+64.80
-20.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

PRUDENTIAL PENSION FUNDS
Scottish Amicable Non Series A
100% Safeguard
155.80
164.00
95% Safeguard
171.90
180.90

…
+1.80

…
…

SAVE & PROSPER INSURANCE AND PENSIONS
St James's House,, 27-43 Eastern Rd,, Romford
RM1 3NH
Customer Helpline: 0845 3000144
Bal Inv Fund
337.70
355.50
+3.90
…
Deposit Fund (2)
640.70
674.40
+0.20
…
Gilt Fund
1375.90 1448.30
+19.80
…
Global Equity Fd
1563.40 1645.70
+7.10
…
Property Fund (46)
328.80
346.10
…
…
SCOTTISH LIFE INVESTMENTS
0131 225 2211
19 St Andrews Square, Edinburgh EH2 1YE
American
1754.90 1847.30
+8.80
Deposit
310.90
327.30
+0.20
European
2561.40 2696.30
+40.90
Fixed Interest
665.50
700.60
+9.30
Global Mgd
1380.50 1453.20
+11.10
Index Linked
710.80
748.30
+13.00
Managed
1300.30 1368.80
+4.40
Pacific
1058.00 1113.70
-7.70
Pen Worldwide
487.60
513.30
+3.60
Property
1041.40 1096.30
-5.50
UK Equity
1569.40 1652.10
+33.30
Worldwide
425.80
448.30
+2.60
SCOTTISH MUTUAL ASSURANCE
0141 248 6321
301 St Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5HN
Cash Fund
283.20
298.10
+0.10
European Fund
1925.30 2026.60
+41.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

…
…

Sell

Buy

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

515.70
813.60
1185.60
2217.80
802.40
605.30
891.50

542.80
856.40
1248.00
2334.50
844.70
637.10
938.40

+10.20
+5.10
+1.90
+11.70
+3.80
+3.70
+19.90

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION
0131 556 9181
6 St Andrews Square, Edinburgh EH2 2YA
Cash
300.20
316.00
+0.10
Equity
825.00
868.40
+20.30
Fixed Interest
659.30
694.00
+12.70
Index Linked
518.40
545.70
+14.50
International
991.40 1043.60
+1.70
Managed
838.40
882.50
+5.10
Property
628.00
661.10
+0.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly Prolific
Adventurous Mg
Bal Gwth Mngd
Cash Fund
Cautious Mngd
Equity Fund
Equity Inc Dist
European
Extra Income Fd
Far East
Fxd Interest Fund
High Income
International
Managed Dist
North American
Property Fund
Technology
UK Mid Cap

Gilts & Fxd Int
Growth Fund
International Fd
North American
Opportunity Fd
Safety Fund
UK Equity

815.50
2545.10
543.70
376.00
3469.50
147.00
744.50
1334.60
2002.20
1115.70
2844.30
1188.40
129.70
3672.30
950.70
6120.20
3138.90

858.50
2679.10
572.40
395.80
3652.20
154.80
783.70
1404.90
2107.60
1174.50
2994.00
1251.00
136.60
3865.60
1000.80
6442.40
3304.20

+4.10
+15.60
+0.10
+2.30
+6.60
+4.00
+16.00
+30.00
-34.20
+22.10
+79.90
+2.40
+1.30
+19.10
+0.50
+2.50
+129.80

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Henderson Investment Bonds
Deposit Fund
369.40
388.90
European Fund
1221.30 1285.60
Far East Fund
1967.40 2071.00
Fixed Interest
54.20
57.10
Global Managed
1466.60 1543.80
North America
1638.60 1724.90
UK Equity Fd
893.00
940.00

+0.20
+26.20
-33.60
+1.10
+9.00
+8.60
+17.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…

SCOTTISH WIDOWS GROUP
PO Box 902, Edinburgh EH16 5BU
Cash Fund
360.60
379.60
Equity Fund
2165.90 2279.90
Fixed Interest Fd
909.20
957.00
Indexed Stock Fd
658.00
692.60
International Fd
2309.90 2431.40
Inv Cash
548.10
577.00
Inv Pol 1
4949.60 4949.60
Inv Pol 2
4195.20 4416.00
Inv Pol 3
3467.20 3649.70
Mixed Fund
1871.70 1970.20
Property Fund
1041.70 1096.60

+0.10
+57.20
+16.50
+22.70
+1.30
+0.10
+59.40
+50.10
+41.10
+11.70
+4.20

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

SKANDIA LIFE ASSURANCE CO LTD
01703 334411
Skandia House,, Portland Terrace
Southampton SO9 7BX
Balanced Acc
947.70
997.50
+4.90
Equity Acc
1936.50 2038.50
+58.40
Global Acc
812.50
855.20
-1.20
Property
580.30
610.80
+0.40

…
…
…
…

STANDARD LIFE ASSURANCE CO
Standard Life House,, 30 Lothian Road,,
Edinburgh EH1 2DH 0131 225 2552
Cash ‡
435.70
…
+0.10
Equity ‡
4226.70
…
+35.90
European ‡
907.20
…
+14.00
Far East ‡
490.80
…
-15.30
Fixed Interest ‡
963.70
…
+26.70
Index Linked ‡
625.10
…
+38.10
International ‡
2716.90
…
+2.80
Managed ‡
2916.80
…
-3.50
Nth American ‡
1071.60
…
+4.30
Property ‡
920.70
…
+0.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Pensions (Series 4)
Cash ‡
Equity ‡
European ‡
Far East ‡
Fixed Interest ‡
Index Linked ‡
International ‡
Managed ‡
Nth American ‡
Property ‡
Stock Exchange ‡

+0.10
+0.10
+6.30
-8.60
+6.10
+16.40
+2.60
+1.10
+1.80
+0.10
+1.00

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

SUN LIFE OF CANADA
Basingview,
g
, Basingstoke,
g
, Hants RG21 2DZ
Dealing: 01256 841414
Equity Account
7141.40 7141.40 +154.00
Equity Fund Acc
2697.50 2839.40
+57.90
Equity II
6285.30 6616.10 +133.80
Fixed Int Fd Acc
748.10
787.40
+22.90
Growth Acc
8476.90 8476.90 +182.80
Indx-Lnkd Scs Acc
585.10
615.80
+41.50
Managed Account ‡
…
…
+40.80
Managed IV
3770.40 3968.80
+36.20
Mngd Fund Acc
1645.10 1731.60
+16.00
Money Fund Acc
337.90
355.60
…
Pens Equity
1754.30 1846.60
+46.50
Pens Fixed Int
961.60 1012.20
+29.30
Pens Guarantee
1483.80 1561.80
+1.40
Pens Indx-Lnkd
744.50
783.60
+52.80
Pens Intl
1227.70 1292.30
-4.10
Pens Mngd Acct
4261.90 4486.20
+50.40
Pens Money
432.30
455.00
+0.10
Pens Property
1992.10 2096.90
-29.60
Pers Pens Acct ‡
…
… +108.70
Prop Fund Acc
1557.90 1639.80
-23.30

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

TESCO PERSONAL FINANCIAL LIFE LTD
0845 845 5555
PO Box 23042, Edinburgh EH3 8YG
Balanced Growth
275.80
275.80
+2.40
Intl Growth
420.30
420.30
+2.20
UK Growth
258.90
258.90
+5.90

…
…
…

WINDSOR LIFE ASSUR CO LTD
01952 292929
Windsor House,, Telford,, Shropshire
p
Formerly
y AEtna
1982 Series
Cash Deposit
328.00
345.20
Far East Equity
1544.90 1626.20
Fixed
663.50
698.40
Index-Linked Fd
632.70
666.00
Managed
1424.90 1499.90
N Amer Equity
2304.30 2425.60
Property
591.10
622.20
Special Opp
1888.20 1987.60
UK Equity
1511.70 1591.20

+0.20
-13.00
+7.40
+16.20
+13.20
+32.80
+0.30
+47.50
+28.60

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly AEGON Life
Balanced
1987.00
Fixed Interest
615.30
International
2288.50
Money
395.50
Property
1488.90
UK Equity
2501.20

2102.60
651.10
2421.70
418.50
1575.60
2646.70

+18.40
+6.90
+24.50
+0.20
+0.70
+47.30

…
…
…
…
…
…

Formerly Crown
Life Equity Acc
Life Fxd Int Acc
Life High Inc Acc
Life Intl Acc
Life Inv Tst Acc
Life Managed Acc
Life Money Acc
Life Property Acc

3807.70
776.40
3128.50
2774.40
3482.90
2519.20
472.60
873.90

4008.10
817.20
3293.10
2920.40
3666.20
2651.80
497.50
919.90

+72.20
+8.70
+46.10
+29.80
+32.20
+23.20
+0.20
+0.40

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

61.87
72.67
21.78
36.60
85.69

65.13
76.50
22.92
38.53
90.20

+0.80
+0.66
+0.01
+0.40
+1.64

…
…
…
…
…

Life Funds
Bear
Bull
Deposit
Gilt Edged
Owl

133.70
229.70
271.00
254.00
211.70
236.20
338.80
268.30
408.90
293.70
340.10

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Weekly
+/-

Yld
%

Squirrel
28.63
30.14
+0.01
Stag
85.88
90.40
+2.15
Pensions
Bear
104.20
109.70
+1.70
Bull
112.80
118.80
+1.20
Deposit
34.69
36.52
+0.02
Gilt Edged
58.07
61.12
+0.80
Owl
129.00
135.80
+2.80
Squirrel
46.37
48.81
+0.03
Stag
140.00
147.30
+3.60
Pre 1982 Series
3-Way Fund
2882.50 2882.50
+26.80
Gresham
American & Genrl
4593.70 4835.50
+65.70
Capital Fund
2366.10 2490.60
+44.80
Equity Fund
2695.40 2837.30
+51.00
Fixed Interest
623.70
656.50
+7.00
Income
927.80
976.70
+17.50
International Gth
3691.50 3885.80
+39.50
Japan & General
563.80
593.40
+4.60
Managed Bond
3187.20 3355.00
+29.50
Money Fund
525.40
553.00
…
Property Fund
1387.30 1460.30
+0.70
Recovery Fund
2487.60 2618.50
+62.70
WINTERTHUR LIFE UK LIMITED
01256 470707
Winterthur Way,
y, Basingstoke
g
RG21 6SZ
Formerly Colonial
Cash ‡
285.70
…
…
Cash Inv Pens ‡
532.70
…
-0.10
Cash Pens ‡
146.40
…
-0.10
Equity ‡
1403.90
…
-0.30
Equity Inv Pens
8307.80 8745.10
+73.40
Equity Pens Cap
2134.10 2246.40
+17.50
Fxd Int ‡
1003.90
…
-7.20
Fxd Int Inv Pens ‡
2451.20
…
-12.30
Fxd Int Pens Cap ‡
677.60
…
-3.30
Idx Lk Inv Pens ‡
1479.60
…
…
Idx Lk Pens Cap ‡
408.40
…
-0.40
Key ‡
…
…
+3.40
Managed
1261.70 1328.10
+9.60
Mngd Inv Pens
3408.70 3588.10
+21.90
Mngd Pens Cap
876.50
922.60
+5.00
Pacemaker ‡
…
…
+6.70
ZURICH ASSURANCE LTD
0845 300 2332
UK Life Centre,, Swindon SN1 1EL
Life Funds
Equity
10170.80 10706.10
+62.20
Managed (1)
1054.90 1110.40
+7.10
Managed (2)
801.50
843.70
+5.30
Managed (3) ‡
622.60
…
+4.30
Mangd Gen 4
150.80
158.70
+1.00
Property
2040.00 2147.40
+0.80
Property (1)
428.50
451.10
+0.10
Property (2) ‡
464.30
…
+0.30
Pension
Managed (1)
1491.40 1569.90
+13.60
Equity Acc
28241.40 29727.70 +225.10
Managed Acc
16078.30 16924.50 +135.60
Property (1)
805.10
847.50
+0.40
Property (2) ‡
851.60
…
+0.50
Property Acc
9586.40 10091.00
+5.30
With Profs (5) ‡
237.70
…
+0.10
With Profs (6) ‡
208.80
…
+0.10
Share Class 1 - Retail
Managed (2) ‡
775.30
…
+7.20

…
…

Sell

Buy

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

British funds
Stock
Price
Outstanding(£)
Stock
(£)
Index-linked
108.20 100.46 Tr IL 1Y% 22
389.95 359.04 Tr IL 2K% 24 *
111.98 100.58 Tr IL 0V% 24
120.56
96.90 Tr IL 0V% 26
135.63
99.85 Tr IL 1N% 27
130.64
93.33 Tr IL 0V% 28
132.52
92.36 Tr IL 0V% 29
141.65
90.61 Tr IL 0V% 31
402.06 301.39 Tr IL 4V% 30 *
161.90
99.08 Tr IL 1N% 32
160.29
92.56 Tr IL 0O% 34
324.74 206.76 Tr IL 2% 35 *
161.43
82.01 Tr IL 0V% 36
186.89
94.08 Tr IL 1V% 37
169.23
78.25 Tr IL 0V% 39
186.19
84.60 Tr IL 0X% 40
180.53
75.20 Tr IL 0V% 41
199.86
82.66 Tr IL 0X% 42
188.86
72.26 Tr IL 0V% 44
196.96
70.25 Tr IL 0V% 46
229.64
80.78 Tr IL 0O% 47
209.00
66.79 Tr IL 0V% 48
232.71
72.64 Tr IL 0K% 50
231.36
65.69 Tr IL 0N% 52
306.14
88.77 Tr IL 1N% 55
248.27
60.50 Tr IL 0V% 56
256.47
60.14 Tr IL 0V% 58
297.03
64.93 Tr IL 0W% 62
309.47
55.87 Tr IL 0V% 65
335.00
54.65 Tr IL 0V% 68
395.45
55.40 Tr IL 0V% 73
Longs (Over 15 years)
145.94
94.91 Tr 4N% 36
112.70
67.54 Tr 1O% 37
162.05
98.36 Tr 4O% 38
103.53
58.05 Tr 1V% 39
155.95
92.08 Tr 4N% 39
159.16
91.30 Tr 4N% 40
106.42
54.72 Tr 1N% 41
147.71
76.78 Tr 3N% 44
169.96
93.79 Tr 4K% 42
154.93
79.61 Tr 3K% 45
175.82
89.35 Tr 4N% 46
99.79
43.93 Tr 0Y% 46
114.76
51.06 Tr 1K% 47
122.26
53.78 Tr 1O% 49
185.65
89.75 Tr 4N% 49
95.59
35.82 Tr 0X% 50
220.50
63.35 Tr 0V% 51
111.21
44.40 Tr 1N% 51
180.27
82.51 Tr 3O% 52
120.44
46.78 Tr 1K% 53
124.61
48.25 Tr 1X% 54
205.69
90.79 Tr 4N% 55
132.79
49.39 Tr 1O% 57
213.01
87.32 Tr 4% 60
96.16
26.21 Tr 0K% 61
173.16
60.88 Tr 2K% 65
219.03
79.01 Tr 3K% 68
149.85
42.99 Tr 1X% 71
Mediums (5-15 years)
100.82
97.34 Tr 0O% 23
103.50
98.04 Tr 2N% 23
99.44
94.34 Tr 0V% 24
101.61
94.79 Tr 1% 24
106.62
96.82 Tr 2O% 24
115.18 100.77 Tr 5% 25
100.93
90.15 Tr 0X% 25
105.99
93.15 Tr 2% 25
98.77
86.33 Tr 0V% 26
104.87
89.28 Tr 1K% 26
104.30
85.65 Tr 1N% 27
121.98
98.23 Tr 4N% 27
97.74
79.15 Tr 0V% 28
107.51
84.72 Tr 1X% 28
137.51 107.13 Tr 6% 28
99.47
77.61 Tr 0K% 29
102.36
78.21 Tr 0Y% 29
97.81
72.39 Tr 0W% 30
136.04 101.89 Tr 4O% 30
95.84
69.25 Tr 0N% 31
102.46
73.06 Tr 1% 32
135.62
98.13 Tr 4N% 32
101.40
68.57 Tr 0Y% 33
144.81
98.89 Tr 4K% 34
96.74
61.24 Tr 0X% 35
Shorts (under 5 years)
117.13 108.58 Tr 3O% 21
142.92 135.65 Tr 8% 21
…
… Tr 0K% 22
104.18
93.01 Tr 1O% 22
99.93
98.87 Tr 0V% 23
99.37
90.04 Tr 0N% 25
99.30
84.28 Tr 0W% 26

Wkly
+/–

Int Yld
%

Grs rd
yld

100.46
378.14
104.81
104.00
108.92
102.96
102.76
104.17
338.89
115.07
109.90
245.38
101.89
116.38
100.71
108.99
100.32
110.33
99.33
99.38
114.14
98.73
109.27
104.19
138.20
102.31
101.68
113.44
109.20
111.37
127.29

– .05
+ .04
– .03
+ .03
+ .05
+ .10
+ .06
+ .15
+ .44
+ .13
– .01
+ .27
+ .14
+ .09
+ .13
+ .11
+ .20
+ .16
+ .38
+ .53
+ .55
+ .49
+ .59
+ .80
+ .94
+1.04
+ .89
+ .95
+ .70
– .04
+ .60

1.92
1.43
…
…
1.25
…
…
…
1.91
1.09
…
0.99
…
1.02
…
…
…
0.57
…
…
0.67
…
…
…
1.00
…
…
…
…
…
…

–5.67
–2.06
–3.22
–1.03
–0.49
–0.38
–0.30
–0.34
–0.23
–0.23
–0.11
–0.01
–0.01
0.03
0.08
0.10
0.11
0.10
0.16
0.15
0.17
0.18
0.15
0.11
0.08
0.06
0.08
0.03
–0.08
–0.12
–0.37

105.80
77.19
111.71
68.01
105.54
105.97
66.39
92.92
110.62
96.62
108.60
56.66
65.46
69.14
110.82
48.96
99.20
59.11
103.87
62.55
64.76
115.55
67.37
113.54
40.62
82.42
105.23
63.13

+ .50
+ .47
+ .62
+ .46
+ .62
+ .65
+ .52
+1.03
+ .81
+1.11
+1.20
+ .82
+ .95
+1.04
+1.41
+ .92
+ .59
+1.06
+1.47
+1.16
+1.22
+1.88
+1.70
+2.47
+1.27
+1.96
+2.22
+1.51

4.02
…
4.25
…
4.03
…
…
…
4.07
…
3.91
…
…
…
3.84
…
…
…
…
…
…
3.68
…
…
…
…
…
…

3.70
3.77
3.77
3.78
3.80
3.79
3.74
3.74
3.74
3.72
3.71
3.66
3.63
3.57
3.62
3.50
0.15
3.52
3.54
3.50
3.45
3.46
3.35
3.36
3.16
3.27
3.28
3.09

98.46
99.28
96.33
96.91
99.15
103.73
93.50
96.78
90.18
93.48
90.16
102.96
83.74
89.95
113.00
82.87
83.90
78.63
109.33
75.78
80.19
106.58
75.98
109.01
69.43

+
+
–
–
–
–
–
–
+
+
+
–
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

…
…
…
…
…
4.82
…
…
…
…
…
4.13
…
…
5.31
…
…
…
4.34
…
…
3.99
…
4.13
…

2.90
3.13
3.15
3.16
3.22
3.33
3.25
3.19
3.34
3.38
3.53
3.61
3.55
3.50
3.61
3.58
3.50
3.46
3.42
3.48
3.53
3.44
3.59
3.56
3.64

115.83
141.44
…
102.71
99.41
93.16
88.57

– .08
…
– .10 5.66
…
– .11
…
+ .02
…
– .01
…
+ .03
…

1.24
1.19
…
1.37
2.48
3.43
3.48

.01
…
.02
.03
.08
.07
.04
.05
.02
.01
.01
.01
.10
.11
.09
.20
.19
.28
.30
.33
.39
.43
.36
.44
.36

* maturities having an eight-month indexation lag.

Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No
offer is made by Morningstar or this publication

Book your advertisement
or announcement now at:
thetimes.co.uk/advertise

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

73

Weather
Weather Eye
Paul Simons

Today Unsettled in the north and west, largely dry and warm in the southeast. Max 22C (72F), min 6C (43F)
Around Britain

Five days ahead

Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain,
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder
*=previous day **=data not available

Remaining unsettled with
further spells of rain and
showers, most frequent
in the west

Temp C

Rain mm Sun hr*

midday yesterday

24 hrs to 5pm yesterday

Aberdeen
Aberporth
Anglesey
Aviemore
Barnstaple
Bedford
Belfast
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Bridlington
Bristol
Camborne
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Eskdalemuir
Glasgow
Hereford
Herstmonceux
Ipswich
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
Jersey
Keswick
Kinloss
Leeds
Lerwick
Leuchars
Lincoln
Liverpool
London
Lyneham
Manchester
Margate
Milford Haven
Newcastle
Nottingham
Orkney
Oxford
Plymouth
Portland
Scilly, St Mary’s
Shoreham
Shrewsbury
Snowdonia
Southend
South Uist
Stornoway
Tiree
Whitehaven
Wick
Yeovilton

14
13
15
12
16
17
13
16
17
18
16
16
16
12
11
11
16
17
18
14
17
16
14
17
13
11
13
17
15
17
15
16
19
16
14
16
13
17
16
16
16
17
16
13
19
11
15
12
12
13
16

R
PC
PC
R
PC
PC
S
S
PC
C
C
PC
S
PC
PC
C
S
C
PC
PC
C
C
S
PC
PC
FG
PC
PC
S
C
PC
PC
C
PC
S
PC
R
PC
PC
PC
S
B
B
C
PC
C
C
PC
C
C
S

2.0
8.4
1.6
0.6
6.8
0.2
3.4
0.8
1.2
0.4
1.2
6.0
1.6
0.4
9.6
2.4
2.4
0.0
0.0
2.8
0.0
0.0
10.4
0.2
1.6
2.8
1.2
0.2
2.2
0.2
1.4
0.6
**
4.0
3.0
0.6
1.0
0.2
2.0
1.6
4.2
0.0
2.4
8.6
0.0
44.0
9.4
20.6
11.6
2.6
1.4

0.0
0.1
0.8
0.0
**
**
0.5
**
0.0
**
1.4
0.6
1.3
1.2
0.0
0.0
**
1.0
3.7
0.0
**
2.7
**
0.7
**
0.9
0.0
0.7
**
2.0
1.9
0.9
**
**
**
0.6
1.9
**
**
**
**
3.7
1.2
**
2.3
**
0.2
1.5
0.0
**
**

Tomorrow
Patchy rain in eastern areas will clear
leaving a dry rest of the day with
lengthy sunny spells. Western areas
will have sunny periods and scattered
heavy showers.
Max 17C, min 6C

13

PC
S
S
S
PC
SH
PC
B
S
B
B
DU
S
S
**
S
S
S
S
PC
FG
S
S
S
M
R
S
S
S
PC
S
S
PC
PC
B
SH
C
S
S
S
B
R
S
B
S
S
S

10

Slight

Temperature

Shetland
Sh

13

5

Moderate
Rough

28 (degrees C)

12

12

7

13

At 17:00 on Friday there were no flood
alerts or warnings in England, Wales
or Scotland.
For further information and updates
in England visit flood-warninginformation.service.gov.uk, for Wales
naturalresources.wales/flooding and
for Scotland SEPA.org.uk

12
17

Aberdeen

NORTH
SEA

27

17

Edinburgh

Glasgow

18

10
16

Londonderry

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

Monday
A largely cloudy day in western areas
with spells of rain pushing in from the
Atlantic during the afternoon. Largely
dry with sunny spells in eastern areas.
Max 17C, min 5C

14

17

Cork

Channel Islands

An unsettled day with spells of heavy
rain spreading northeastwards. Sunny
periods and scattered heavy showers
in western areas later.
Max 16C, min 4C

14

Swansea

2
22

Bristol

General situation: Outbreaks of rain
will spread northwards through the
morning. Sunny spells in the afternoon
for the east but cloudy in the west as
another spell of rain pushes in.
London, Cen S Eng, SE Eng, Channel Is:
A largely dry day with lengthy spells of
sunshine, which may be hazy at times.
Light to moderate southerly winds.
Maximum 22C (72F), minimum
13C (55F).
E Mids, E Anglia, E Eng: Outbreaks
of rain will clear northwards leaving

Thursday

9

9
12

13

The Times weather
page is provided
by Weatherquest

23

-10

14

-15

5

Noon today LOW

Ht
04:19 4.3
10:24 12.7
01:55 3.6
10:07 12.0
08:58 5.4
01:40 6.8
02:19 4.1
08:19 5.1
03:21 3.7
02:37 4.0
01:07 5.6
09:24 7.4
05:40 5.6
01:53 9.3
04:49 6.8
--:--09:19 6.9
02:03 9.3
01:55 6.7
08:11 6.9
08:38 3.8
07:43 5.5
02:14 4.7
01:59 6.3
01:50 4.7
09:25 9.2
06:38 5.5
09:36 2.1

Ht
16:38 4.2
22:45 12.5
14:09 3.5
22:28 11.7
21:19 5.2
14:03 6.7
14:41 4.0
20:42 4.8
15:40 3.6
14:53 4.1
13:30 5.6
21:41 7.2
17:59 5.4
14:17 9.1
17:09 7.1
12:38 2.6
21:41 6.7
14:28 9.2
14:13 6.6
20:33 6.7
20:56 3.7
20:03 5.3
14:35 4.7
14:18 6.2
13:52 4.6
21:46 8.9
19:02 5.3
22:01 1.9

London

Southampton

Exeterr

Brighton

CHANNEL

a dry rest of the day with spells of
hazy sunshine. Light to moderate
southeasterly winds. Maximum
21C (70F), minimum 11C (52F).
W Mids, NW Eng, Cen N Eng, NE Eng,
Lake District, SW Scotland, Borders,
Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee,
Argyll, Cen Highland, NW Scotland,
Aberdeen: A mostly cloudy day with
outbreaks of rain and drizzle. Light to
moderate east or southeasterly winds.
Maximum 19C (66F), minimum
6C (43F).

Tidal predictions.
Heights in metres

Outbreaks of rain will spread
eastwards through the morning.
During the afternoon there will be
sunny intervals and scattered heavy
showers.
Max 13C, min 3C

32

18

Plymouth

Tides

13

0
-5

21

Cardiff

CELTIC
SEA
6
16

Today
Aberdeen
Avonmouth
Belfast
Cardiff
Devonport
Dover
Dublin
Falmouth
Greenock
Harwich
Holyhead
Hull
Leith
Liverpool
London Bridge
Lowestoft
Milford Haven
Morecambe
Newhaven
Newquay
Oban
Penzance
Portsmouth
Shoreham
Southampton
Swansea
Tees
Weymouth

41

Cambridge

Oxford

23

14

50

5

21

Birmingham

19

11

59

10

i h
Norwich
15

18

9

68

15

Nottingham

Shrewsbury
28

Wednesday

77

20

Sheffield

17

LLlandudno

16

14

A largely dry day in eastern areas with
lengthy spells of sunshine. Overcast in
the west with spells of heavy rain.
Max 14C, min 4C

25

Hull

17

ooo
Liverpool

IRISH
SEA

Dublin

14

86

Yorkk

30

12

30

13

14

Manchester

Tuesday

F
95

Carlisle

Belfast
14

13

17

C
35

Newcastle

Galway

16

22
Madeira
22
Madrid
24
Malaga
28
Mallorca
25
Malta
11
Melbourne
Mexico City 25
30
Miami
21
Milan
29
Mombasa
9
Montreal
6
Moscow
34
Mumbai
20
Munich
**
Nairobi
26
Naples
New Orleans 21
19
New York
22
Nice
29
Nicosia
12
Oslo
22
Paris
24
Perth
17
Prague
5
Reykjavik
12
Riga
Rio de Janeiro 33
32
Riyadh
24
Rome
San Francisco 21
25
Santiago
31
São Paulo
17
Seoul
28
Seychelles
32
Singapore
St Petersburg 12
13
Stockholm
24
Sydney
28
Tel Aviv
26
Tenerife
16
Tokyo
12
Vancouver
21
Venice
11
Vienna
17
Warsaw
Washington 17
18
Zurich

Orkney
ney

Calm

11

All readings local midday yesterday

S
S
PC
**
PC
PC
PC
PC
S
S
S
S
B
S
S
S
M
S
PC
S
B
S
B
S
PC
S
S
PC
S
S
S
S
B
B
PC
**
PC
S
PC
PC
**
PC
S
DU
PC
S
S

Sea state

(mph)

14

12

24
20
21
**
33
31
31
21
13
26
19
21
26
23
21
18
12
25
26
30
14
28
12
16
26
29
32
16
23
24
21
18
20
12
28
**
20
28
24
31
**
27
29
15
22
23
30

34

Flood alerts and warnings

The world
Alicante
Amsterdam
Athens
Auckland
Bahrain
Bangkok
Barbados
Barcelona
Beijing
Beirut
Belgrade
Berlin
Bermuda
Bordeaux
Brussels
Bucharest
Budapest
Buenos Aires
Cairo
Calcutta
Canberra
Cape Town
Chicago
Copenhagen
Corfu
Delhi
Dubai
Dublin
Faro
Florence
Frankfurt
Geneva
Gibraltar
Helsinki
Hong Kong
Honolulu
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Johannesburg
Kuala Lumpur
Kyiv
Lanzarote
Las Palmas
Lima
Lisbon
Los Angeles
Luxor

Wind speed

LOW
984

NE Scotland, N Isles: Dry with spells
of sunshine, turning hazy through the
afternoon. Light to moderate south or
southwesterly winds. Maximum
13C (55F), minimum 9C (48F).
N Ireland, Republic of Ireland, IoM,
Wales, SW Eng: Outbreaks of rain
will spread northwards through the
morning. During the afternoon there
will be sunny intervals and scattered
showers. Moderate to strong south or
southeasterly winds. Maximum
18C (64F), minimum 9C (48F).
LOW

984

16

992

1000
992
1024
HIGH

1008

1016
LOW

1016
1000

1016

HIGH
1024

Cold front
Warm front
Occluded front
Trough

LOW

Synoptic situation
A warm front associated with
a low-pressure system to
the west of Ireland will push
northwards over northern areas
of the British Isles bringing
a spell of rain. A cold front
associated with the same area
of low pressure will move into
western areas in the afternoon
bringing thick cloud and
showery rain. Other areas will
be largely dry with sunny spells.

Highs and lows

Hours of darkness

24hrs to 5pm yesterday

Aberdeen
Belfast
Birmingham
Cardiff
Exeter
Glasgow
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Norwich
Penzance
Sheffield

Warmest: Charsfield,
Suffolk, 19.6C
Coldest: Tain Range, 5.8C
Wettest: South Uist,
Western Isles, 44.0mm
Sunniest: Wattisham, 3.7hrs*

Sun and moon
For Greenwich
Sun rises: 07.48
Sun sets: 17.39
Moon rises: 13.08
Moon sets: 19.59
First Quarter: November 1

18:01-06:45
18:24-06:52
18:14-06:30
18:21-06:32
18:24-06:32
18:14-06:49
18:16-06:37
18:09-06:20
18:12-06:34
18:06-06:36
18:00-06:17
18:34-06:38
18:09-06:31

T

he leaves on the trees are
changing colour, the hours
of daylight are shrinking
and so the UK has arrived
at the time of year when
British Summer Time comes to an
end. Tomorrow at 2am the clocks go
back one hour and the UK reverts to
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT),
which means by Monday we wake
up in lighter early mornings but the
evenings turn darker earlier. It is a
trade-off in daylight that raises
strong opinions, and so the long
debate continues why do we need to
change the clocks twice a year?
Benjamin Franklin in 1784 first
suggested rather tongue-in-cheek
that if people got up with the sun
and went to bed earlier it would save
on the cost of candles, but his
proposal fell on deaf ears. But in the
First World War, the argument for
clock changes became more urgent
when Germany changed its clock
times to conserve energy supplies,
and the UK quickly followed suit.
Now the arguments have become
urgent again as the costs of energy
soar and there is the risk of
powercuts this winter. Aoife Foley at
Queen’s University Belfast has
argued that there are real energy
and financial savings if clocks didn’t
go back. This would, she said, “save
energy because it is brighter in the
evenings during winter, so we
reduce commercial and residential
electrical demand as people leave
work earlier, and go home earlier,
meaning less lighting and heating is
needed. This would help to flatten
the evening peak curves on energy
demand by up to 10 per cent if
commercial demand is included.
During the winter, evening energy
demand peaks between 5pm and
7pm and the National Grid may
struggle with this.”
Foley calculated this change in the
clocks could save £1.20 a day and
more than £400 a year on household
electricity bills, on average.
“There is no doubt that by
foregoing the daylight savings in
winter we would save a lot of energy,
reduce our bills and carbon
emissions during this energy war,
and especially during a cost of living
crisis,” she added.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

74

Register
Obituaries

Jerry Lee Lewis
Notorious ‘wild man of rock’ whose hit Great Balls of Fire was a landmark
Jerry Lee Lewis never wanted to record
the song that became his signature
tune. Raised in a devout Christian
family and educated at a Bible school,
halfway through recording Great Balls
of Fire at the Sun studio in Memphis in
1957, he decided that the song was “sinful” and the Lord did not want him to
sing its suggestive lyrics.
With the tape still rolling, Lewis’s
moment of moral crisis was captured
for posterity as he argued with the Sun
Records owner Sam Phillips.
“You can save souls!” Phillips told
Lewis. “No, no, no, no! How can the
Devil save souls?” he replied in anguished tones. “I got the Devil in me.”
Lewis lost the battle with Phillips and
with his conscience and his recording of
Great Balls of Fire went on to become a
million-seller and a rock’n’roll landmark. The moment defined Lewis’s
career in more ways than simply cementing his commercial success. He
feared hellfire and damnation, yet he
could not resist the lure of the “Devil’s
music” and once famously asked Elvis
Presley if he believed a rock’n’roller
could go to Heaven.
The conflict between singing gospel
hymns to his God and celebrating carnality in his rock’n’roll hits was a leitmotif that was to run through his work
and his life.
Lewis was rock’s first wild man and
original hell-raiser. Known as “the
Killer”, on stage he performed like a
man possessed. His rabble-rousing
singing ranged from a rebel yell to a
bull-like roar. His boogie-woogie piano
playing was crude but effective and
consisted mostly of flashy glissandos
and pounding the instrument as hard as
he could, with his hands, elbows and
feet, sometimes all at the same time.
Early records were credited to “Jerry
Lee Lewis And His Pumping Piano”. In
his prime the climax of a show found
him climbing on top of the piano in an
outlandish display of feral energy that
made Elton John, even at his most flamboyant, seem tame in comparison.
Nobody topped Jerry Lee Lewis, and
those who tried usually came off worse.
On one occasion when Chuck Berry
was due to close a show they were playing together, at the end of his final number Lewis set fire to the piano and left
the stage with the parting shot, “I’d like
to see any sonofabitch follow that!”
His personal life was every bit as tempestuous as his stage performances.
There were addictions to alcohol and
pills and a string of stormy and often
violent relationships. A bigamist before
he was out of his teens, he was eventually married seven times.
His first marriage in 1952 to the
14-year-old Dorothy Barton, the
daughter of a travelling preacher,
lasted a year and a half. Before
the divorce was finalised he
had married again, to
the 17-year-old Jane
Mitchum. She threw a
claw-hammer through
his car windscreen, but he
admitted that he had “deserved it”.
By the time their volatile union
was annulled in 1957 he had already
married Myra Gale Brown, a premature jumping of the broomstick that

forced a second ceremony. However,
bigamy was the least controversial
aspect of their union. Brown was 13
years old at the time and was also
Lewis’s first cousin.
When he arrived in Britain for a sellout tour in 1958, a reporter noticed his
young female companion and asked
how old she was. Moral outrage followed. The word paedophile was not in
widespread use at the time but Lewis
was demonised in lurid headlines as a
“cradle snatcher”.
After initially lying that Myra was 15,
the scandal escalated further when her
real age emerged. Lewis’s attempts to
explain that it wasn’t unusual for girls of
13 to marry in Mississippi only provoked further disgust.
The police interviewed the couple
(Myra was reportedly watching children’s TV in their hotel room when they
arrived) and the Home Office minister
Iain Macleod was called upon to
answer questions in the House of
Commons.
Hotels refused to accommodate Lewis and Myra, and jeers, catcalls and
boycotts greeted his concerts. After

Lewis’s career never
recovered after he
married a 13-year-old

completing just three of 37 scheduled
shows, the tour was cancelled and
Lewis and his child bride were put on a
plane back to America, where nine
months later she gave birth to a son.
The following year Elvis Presley took
up with the 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. Mindful of Lewis’s experience,
Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, worked overtime to keep the relationship secret.
For Lewis, though, it was too late and
his career never fully recovered. His
booking fees fell from $10,000 a night to
$100 a night. Disc jockeys around the
world refused to play his music and
record sales plunged.
Myra divorced him in 1970 after 12
years of marriage. Still only 25, she became an estate agent and wrote an
autobiography, Great Balls of Fire!,
which was filmed in 1989 with Dennis
Quaid as Jerry Lee and Winona Ryder
as Myra.
The hits may have dried up for Lewis,
but the wives kept on coming. In 1971 he
married Jaren Pate, who was found at
the bottom of a swimming pool in 1982
as a divorce settlement was about to be
finalised.
Lewis’s fifth wife, Shawn Stevens,
died of a drug overdose in 1983, after 77
days of marriage. Her body was bruised
and battered and Lewis admitted they
had been fighting that night, as they did
most nights, but a jury cleared him of
culpability. His marriage to Kerrie

He was demonised as a
‘cradle snatcher’ and the
UK tour was cancelled
McCarver in 1984 fared better and
lasted 21 years. He married for a seventh time in 2012 to Judith Brown. Yet
nothing was ever simple in Lewis’s relationships: she had previously been married to the brother of his under-age
bride Myra.
His multiple marriages produced six
children, two of whom predeceased
him. Jerry Lee Lewis Jr, his first son,
died in a car crash at the age of 19 in
1973. Steve Allen Lewis, to whom Myra
gave birth in 1959, drowned in a swimming pool accident at the age of three.
He is survived by Ronnie Guy Lewis
from his second marriage, by Phoebe
Allen Lewis from his third marriage, by
Lori Lee Lewis from his fourth and
from his sixth by Jerry Lee Lewis III,
who works at a club owned by his
father.
The conflict between his wild side
and his God-fearing faith was a source
of constant torment. His uncle,
Lee Calhoun, after whom Lewis
took his middle name, was an influential member of the
Assembly of God, a
strict Pentecostal sect,
of which Lewis remained a member all
his life. The TV evangelist Jimmy Lee Swaggart, another conflicted
soul who was defrocked
f consorting with prostifor
tutes, was a cousin who as a boy had
learnt to play on the Lewis family piano.

Lewis was rock’s
original
hell-raiser and
worked with the
likes of Tom
Jones, above in
1970, and Elvis
Presley, Johnny
Cash and Carl
Perkins, left, in
1956. He was
inducted into the
Country Music
Hall of Fame this
year, above left

As a teenager, Lewis studied at the
Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, before he was thrown
out for playing a boogie-woogie version
of My God Is Real at a church assembly.
He served as a youthful lay preacher,
forbade swearing in his presence and
throughout his life made his backing
musicians pray before going on stage.
As if to assuage for playing “the Devil’s
music” his discography included al-

bums of gospel songs alongside the
rock’n’roll records.
“I was a good preacher and I know
my Bible,” he insisted. But he admitted
that he found himself “falling short of
the glory of God” and was convinced
that damnation awaited him.
“I was always worried whether I was
going to Heaven or Hell,” he said in an
interview to mark his 80th birthday. “I
still do. It’s a very serious situation.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

75

Lawyers indulge their
taste for la dolce vita
Marriages & engagements
Page 76

REX FEATURES

Bernard Atha
A
Actor
best remembered as the austere careers
oofficer who crushes Billy’s dreams in the film Kes

When you breathe your last breath,
where are you going to go?”
Jerry Lee Lewis was born in 1935 in
Ferriday, a small Louisiana town near
the Mississippi river. He was the second
child of Elmo Lewis, a sharecropping
farmer, carpenter and convicted bootlegger, and Mary (née Herron), known
as Mamie. His older brother, Elmo Jr,
died after being hit by a car. Lewis was
three at the time.
When he was seven his father mortgaged the family home for $250 to buy
his surviving son a piano. It was an investment as much as an act of generosity, for Elmo recovered the outlay by
loading the piano on to the back of a
wagon and travelling from town to
town to show off his prodigiously talented son for money.
In Ferriday, a predominantly black
town, Lewis would sneak into the local
juke joint, the only white youngster in
the building, hiding under tables to listen to the blues musicians of the day.
He earned the nickname “Killer” at
school when he tried to strangle a
teacher by his tie. “I was swinging on it

and he was weakening and losing his
breath,” he recalled.
After being expelled from seminary
school, he became a sewing machine
salesman, working a scam in which he
told his customers they had won the
machines and all they needed to pay
was $10 in tax.
At 20, he pitched up at Sun Records in
Memphis, and refused to leave until
Sam Phillips, who already had Elvis
Presley on his books, granted him an
audition. Lewis’s debut single, Crazy
Arms, sold 300,000 on its release in
1956. At about the same time, Phillips
recorded a jam session in the Sun studio
with Lewis, Presley, Johnny Cash and
Carl Perkins, later released under the
title The Million Dollar Quartet.
Within a year he had become an
international star with Whole Lotta
Shakin’ Goin’ On and Great Balls of Fire.
Both records were banned by conservative radio stations, but the greater the
condemnation, the more records Lewis
sold. Teenage rebellion had arrived as a
lucrative marketing strategy. More hits
followed with Breathless and High

l
School Confidential and, with P
Presley
away serving with the US army in Germany, Lewis was in pole position. Then
came the child bride furore.
Disgraced and made to sound outdated by the advent of the Beatles, the
1960s were a lean period. By the end of
the decade he had changed tack to find
some success on the country charts.
Plagued by drink and drug problems,
the old volatility remained and he became notorious for his violent outbursts. In 1976 he shot his bass player
Butch Owens twice in the chest with a
revolver. Miraculously, Owens survived and although Lewis was arrested,
he escaped a prison sentence by claiming he did not know the gun was loaded.
A few weeks later, high on drink and
drugs, he was arrested again outside the
gates of Elvis Presley’s Graceland residence, brandishing a gun and demanding an audience. Presley, who was reportedly watching on CCTV, told his
security guards not to let him in and to
call the police.
He found a more sympathetic reception when John Lennon turned up at
one of his concerts. The former Beatle,
who in his early days had covered many
of Lewis’s songs, knelt down and kissed
his feet. The Killer was unimpressed. “I
never did care for the Beatles all that
much, to tell the truth,” he remarked.
There were spells in rehab for his addictions and in hospital for a burst
stomach ulcer that almost cost him his
life. At one point he declared himself
bankrupt and during the 1990s he left
America to live in Dublin, on the run
from a tax investigation.
Despite such tribulations, he kept
enough of his cash to enjoy an opulent
lifestyle, returning to America to live on
a large ranch near Memphis with a
piano-shaped swimming pool, a white,
chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and a
Harley-Davidson motorcycle which he
reportedly insisted on parking in the
living room.
Bouts of religious panic aside, he
retained a self-belief that rivalled that
of Muhammad Ali. “You can look at
Elvis Presley, you can look at the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but
when it comes down to it, it’s Jerry
Lee Lewis,” he said. “I could
never find anybody that was
better than me.”
Jerry Lee Lewis, rock’n’roll star, was born
on September 29, 1935. He died of
undisclosed causes on October 28, 2022,
aged 87

In one of the closing scenes of Ken
Loach’s gritty drama Kes, in which an
impoverished 15-year-old boy befriends a kestrel, Billy Casper faces an
austere youth careers officer.
Sitting behind a wooden desk in a
stiff suit, the sharp-featured, wellgroomed officer surveys the boy with
callous indifference. “Well then, Casper,” he says, “what kind of job do you
have in mind?” Billy murmurs that he’d
like an office job where he can read and
write, and as the officer rattles off more
realistic options — an electrician, a
bricklayer, a miner — Billy’s pinched
expression grows ever-more dejected
and his eyes flicker absently towards
the window. “I’ve met some lads in my
time,” he mutters as Billy leaves, “but
I’ve never met one like you, Casper.”
Loach cast Bernard Atha, a civil servant from the north, because he
brought verisimilitude to the part. As a
teacher, Atha had worked in student
counselling and vocational guidance.
“It’s a very important role in the film,
because he’s the character who throws
Billy on the scrap heap,” Atha recalled.
The irony (or, indeed, the rub) was
that Atha was in reality a mild-mannered Labour councillor who championed the working class. So it was somewhat disheartening to be criticised by
the Youth Employment Services for
casting them in such an unflattering
light. “I’d been a teacher,” he said, “So I
could reply that that was exactly what
happened in poorer areas, that they did
give up on people.” In the West Yorkshire town of Shipley he recalled girls
being told, “You’re very clever, you can
be a burler and mender”, and the less
bright being herded into weaving sheds
and mills, where they spun looms to the
detriment of their physical health.
In The Spongers (1978), in which a
single mother struggles to secure benefits for her child with Down’s syndrome
against the backdrop of the Silver Jubilee celebrations, Atha played a hardhearted councillor who approves of
cutting public funds for people with
special needs. He was prepared to play
unpleasant characters if it helped to tell
the stories of those who struggled not to
sink during the economic quagmire of
the 1970s.
Bernard Peter Atha was born in 1928
in Leeds, the third child of five to
Horace and Mary (née Quinlan). A
younger brother, David, died as a boy
and the tragedy affected them deeply.
The city was black with soot and their
four-bedroomed house was surrounded by slums. “Had I been at birth a sentiBernard
Atha after
receiving
his CBE in
2007

ent creature,” he observed, “I might
have had second thoughts about entering this pestilential place and life.”
His grandfather, a miner and bricklayer, shared tales of injustice with the
child. Atha would help his parents canvass for the Labour Party.
Money was tight but Atha felt lucky
compared to his neighbours, many of
whom were evicted for rent arrears.
Children who had never seen the sea
played in a sand pit his father created in
their front garden. At the age of five, he
was sent to a convent school where he
learnt to read and write with chalk on a
slate. During the Blitz he hunted for
shrapnel, which he exchanged for cigarette cards.
Atha was bright but at Leeds Modern
School, a grammar (now Lawnswood
School), he “loved to act the fool” both
in the science lab, where he made amateur explosives, and on stage.
He studied law at Leeds University
and after National Service with the RAF
he was elected to Leeds city council in
1957, later becoming the city’s longestserving councillor. In 2000 he became
lord mayor, hosting Nelson Mandela’s
visit to the city in 2001. As a key player
in the creation of the Northern Ballet
Theatre and Leeds Playhouse, he was
often credited with helping culture
blossom in the north.
Until his mid-20s he was a dancer and
club entertainer and was on the books

As a civil servant from
the north, he brought
verisimilitude to the part
of the Joseph Brothers, a theatrical
booking agency with links to Ken
Loach. Atha acted in more than 200
films and TV shows over a 30-year
period, including episodes of Coronation Street and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but it was always Kes
which he was best known for. “The appeal of the film is that it reaches so many
levels,” he said. “People who just want to
have a good laugh, have a good laugh.
People who want to have a good cry can
cry . . . people who want to see a serious
political message in it, can see it.”
In 2000 he won renewed fame when
he was singled out as Leeds’ chief “rugster” when the comic Viz asked readers
to send in photographs of their hometown’s most legendary wig wearers.
Leeds scored twice as many as any
other part of the country.
“I’m afraid they seem to have mistaken one of my many unruly hair days for
a ‘rug’,” said the jovial, tousle-haired
mayor. “Unfortunately my hair often
looks like a bad wig but I assure everyone that it is entirely natural and comes
from very good stock. I expect it to be
with me for some time to come.”
Bernard Atha CBE, actor in Ken Loach
films and local
politician, was born
on August 27, 1928.
He died after a short
iill
illness
on October 22,
2022, aged 94

Email: obituaries@thetimes.co.uk

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

76

Readers’ Lives
Marriages and engagements

New readers

Lawyers with a taste for la dolce vita
DAVID CHRISTOPHER PHOTOGRAPHY

Iria Gruda, 29, a trainee solicitor at
Fragomen LLP, and John Kiely, 36, a
senior associate at Fragomen LLP,
were married on August 12, 2022, at
Villa Arvedi, near Verona, in Italy
John was cautious about starting a
relationship at work. “My career is
super-important to me,” he says. “It
could be complicated.”
He had spent four years at
Fragomen, specialising in
immigration law, when Iria joined in
2016. They don’t work directly
together but met on a work outing to
go ten-pin bowling. “I think I gave her
a tutorial,” he says sheepishly.
He remembers her being small —
she is 5ft 1in and he is 6ft 3in — and
pretty. They got on well and started
to meet for lunch, then drinks after
work, and, before long, at weekends.
Born in Albania, Iria came to
England at the age of two. She
studied law at the University of
Westminster and initially wanted to
be a barrister before moving into the
corporate side of immigration law.
John grew up in Dartford, Kent,
and studied history and politics at the
University of Brighton before
becoming a lawyer. He is an Arsenal
fan, runs triathlons, and competes in
Iron Man challenges. “My ideal night
is probably slightly more low-key,” he
says. He likes an old-fashioned pub;
she prefers a buzzy restaurant.
“Our morals are the same, while we
have quite different tastes,” she says.
“He is my best friend. We just really
enjoy spending time together. He
makes me laugh and has an infectious
personality.”
In 2019, they bought a flat in
Greenwich. “It felt like we lived
together anyway,” she says. “I just had
a sense that it was going be all right.
It made sense to dive into the deep
end.” They worked from home during
lockdown, went for runs and played
tennis. She is a self-confessed “neat
freak” and he is more laid-back. “We
can be hot-headed,” he says. “We
could both be a little calmer in
disagreements.”
Covid meant that they had to
cancel a trip to New York, where John
had planned to propose. Instead, he
asked Iria’s parents for their blessing
and waited until a trip to the Cyclades
islands in September 2020. They went
to Mykonos with another couple for a
week and then travelled to Santorini,
just the two of them.
He would not recommend carrying
the ring for that long. “It’s not good
for your nerves,” he says. The
proposal eventually took place in
their hotel room. They had been out

Iria had dreamt of marrying in Italy. Below, the couple cut their wedding cake

If you would like to feature a
wedding or engagement or the
birth of a child on these pages,
email: readerslives@thetimes.co.uk
thetimes.co.uk/static/terms-and-conditions

The perfect gift
for new parents
Celebrate the arrival of
a newborn in Readers’
Lives, a service in
contracted tributes

Call 020 7782 5583 or email
readerslives@thetimes.co.uk

for dinner and John forgot what he
had planned to say as he went down
on one knee. Iria started crying, and
he followed suit.
Iria had long imagined a fairytale
wedding and knew what she wanted.
Italy is her favourite place and John
wanted to be legally married on the
same day that they celebrated with
family and friends. With the help of a
wedding planner, they booked Villa
Arvedi, near Verona. They made trips
to see it and invited 115 guests.
Her mother went with her to choose
her dress, which had a long train and
an even longer veil. They managed to
keep it a surprise from everyone,
including Iria’s three bridesmaids. John
had two best men. The couple flew out
a few days before their wedding in
August and relaxed at a nearby estate
with family and friends.
They decided to stay together the
night before to help keep nerves at
bay. “We don’t like doing things just
for tradition’s sake,” she says. Rain was
predicted on the day, but held off
until after the 4pm ceremony, which
took place outside.
Iria walked into the ceremony on
the arm of her father to her younger
brother playing Ludovico Einaudi’s
Rolling Like a Ball on the piano. Iria’s
mother and John’s father gave
readings. The ceremony was
conducted in Italian by the local
mayor. The couple, who wrote their
own vows, had planned to learn some
Italian, but needed the help of a
translator instead.
After aperitifs, the wedding
breakfast was held in a large hall
decorated with ornate murals. Iria
made the first speech. The newlyweds
went outside to cut the cake and for
their first dance to Bob Dylan’s Make
You Feel My Love. The following day,
they hosted a pool party and BBQ
where they were staying.
Iria and John recently travelled to
Albania for her friend’s wedding. It
was his first time. He had not
expected to feel different being
married, but has a new sense of
responsibility. “I see the bigger
picture,” he says. “I trust Iria with
everything. I think she has got my best
interests at heart, even if we come at
things from a different angle.
“She is the most beautiful woman in
the world. I feel our lives will be better
together.”

Lily Grace Rodwell was born on
March 21, 2022, at the Chelsea and
Westminster Hospital, southwest
London, to Loredana, 35, and
Thomas Rodwell, 35
With an Italian
mother and a
British father,
Lily has enjoyed
some travels in
her first six
months. The
family have
already been to
Italy a few times
to visit Loredana’s parents, as well as
to France, Turkey and Greece, and
they are gearing up for Lily’s first
long-haul flight to Cape Town in
December. They are confident the
prior training will serve her well,
together with her already very
sociable and easy-going personality.
Loredana has also enjoyed
socialising through the birth of her
first child. The NCT classes allowed
her to meet other mums and through
a WhatsApp group they have shared
tips and thoughts, and continue to
meet up for coffee as friends. “I don’t
know what I would have done
without them,” she says.
Leo Page Vance-Daniel was born
on August 26, 2022, at the Princess of
Wales Hospital in Bridgend, south
Wales, to Sophie, 33, and Matthew
Vance-Daniel, 32
Matt is a huge
fan of The Lion
King — at his
and Sophie’s
wedding their
first dance was to
Elton John’s Can
You Feel the Love
Tonight from the
film, so it was a
no-brainer when choosing the name
for their first child. Leo is certainly a
strong character. “We had quite a
tough start,” says Sophie.
Sophie found out that she was
pregnant on New Year’s Eve in the
Maldives (“It was a nice surprise but it
meant I couldn’t drink”, she laments)
and travelling is “in their blood”. They
are excited to take Leo all over the
world, starting with Egypt over the
new year and followed by a cruise for
Sophie’s father’s 80th birthday in
March. For now, though, Leo’s main
pastime is staring at the lights and
chandeliers, which he seems
fascinated by.

‘She has her father’s eyes
and face shape but her
mother’s lips and nose’
PIPPA SUZANNE DRACOTT WAS BORN ON MAY 28, 2020,
AT BROOMFIELD HOSPITAL IN CHELMSFORD, ESSEX,
TO CLAIRE, 30, AND GARY DRACOTT, 30

50%
discount for
subscribers

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

77

Register
Remembering loved ones

Vivacious and
indefatigable
councillor and
charities head
Jo Benson, 92
A visit in the late 1940s to the more
neglected areas of the medieval
cathedral city of Salisbury in the
company of an NSPCC inspector had
a profound effect upon the young
schoolteacher Jo Bundy. Not only was
she taken aback by the living
conditions in the caravans but she
was witness for the first time to the
distressing sight of a dead infant. Jo
was barely out of her teens but the
visit marked a turning point in the
direction of her life.
Applying the formula that she
would pursue throughout her
professional life — to sit, listen, learn
and respond — Jo’s reaction to the
deprivation in her home town was to
do something about it: at the core of
her character lay a profound faith.
Her first response was to hand in
her notice as a teacher and stand as
the Conservative candidate for St
Paul’s ward in the northwest of the
city. In 1955 she was elected to
Salisbury city council. Aged only 26,
she was one of the youngest city
councillors in the country.
For Jo the city council work of the
1950s marked the start of operating
within the context of administrative
bodies. It was a way of working that
would occupy much of the rest of her
life as she took on a breathtaking
number of committees, campaigns,
charities and councils, both at the
regional and national level.
On the council she immersed
herself in the committees that
touched the lives of people, ensuring
her voice was heard on decisions that

ranged from public health, road
safety, town planning and finance to
traffic regulation.
As a woman she was in a minority,
but she brushed her gender aside,
er 60 years
claiming that in her
of working — she carried
ghties
on into her late eighties
— it rarely got in the
way. Behind
piercing blue eyes
there lay a deep
compassion and
her lifelong
objective
embraced the
needs of the
disadvantaged, thee
disabled, the
unwanted and the
elderly. She spoke out
nder her
firmly for those under
int quickly,
care, got to the point
was specific about what needed to be
changed and, in the face of
opposition, learnt to stand her corner.
A warmth lay in her ready smile, even
when she was making a serious point,
and she almost always won the
support and respect of her peers
because of a positive, committed and
breezy outlook.
For almost two decades Jo applied
herself to the welfare of Salisbury
through the city council, but then
grew concerned that the county
council, based 30 miles further north
in Trowbridge, could well overlook
the southeastern corner of the county
where Salisbury stood. The city, she
thought, could become a forgotten
neighbour. Prompted to do something
about it, she stood for, and was
elected to, Wiltshire county council

Jo Benson as mayor of Salisbury in 1969-70, above and left.
Am
Among
other roles she was a deputy lieutenant for Wiltshire

where she was
w
wh
soon
so chairwoman
of
of tthe social
serv
services
panel and a
mem
member
of the
educat
education
committee.
Despit these
Despite
wi
widespread
commitments
Jo d
Jo
id not negle
did
neglect the charity
work that occupied h
her throughout
her life. From her early twenties she
supported Cancer Research UK,
eventually becoming president of the
Salisbury branch, as well as local
president of the Multiple Sclerosis
Society and vice-chairwoman of the
Almshouse and Welfare Charities.
At a national level she was for
many years chairwoman of the
National Appeals Committed British
Empire Cancer Campaign and of the
National Association of Almshouses.
In the latter capacity she prided
herself on visiting almost every
property in the country.
In 1970, when elected mayor of
Salisbury, Jo’s mayoral appeal was to
found the Jo Benson Day Centre for
physically disabled adults, for which
she fundraised and played a central

organisational role for more than
45 years. During this period, and for
29 years, she was also a magistrate. In
1974 she was appointed OBE and
was later made a deputy lieutenant
for Wiltshire.
A Salisbury girl, Jo was born in 1929
in a house that she would return to
on her marriage and live in for the
rest of her life. She was christened
Margaret Josephine, but known as Jo,
and was an only child. Her father,
Ernest Bundy, was a builder who in
the 1920s bought the late Victorian
property near Old Sarum that
became the family home, with land,
some of which he built on. Ernest
died when Jo was nine, and she and
her mother, Doris (née Densham),
moved to a smaller property at the
bottom of the drive.
Jo went to the city’s Godolphin
School, a middle-class establishment
whose pupils could take unkindly to
those viewed as “trade”. She left at 16
to teach at Holmwood School, an
independent prep school, in the Close.
She was a familiar figure around
town, elegantly and brightly dressed
and industrious in her pursuit of

contributions to her charities, as well
as being governor of five local
schools. In 1957 at the annual
Salisbury Fair she was introduced to
Christopher Benson, an agricultural
auctioneer and valuer who was
staying with friends, but they barely
exchanged words before she rushed
off “to the boxing booth [to collect
donations]” she declared. Christopher
was struck by her effervescence and
three years later they were married at
the cathedral. In 1988 Christopher,
who became high sheriff of Wiltshire,
was knighted.
Sir Christopher and Lady Benson
had two sons, Julian and Charles,
who both became barristers. During
the boys’ childhood Jo supported
Christopher in his public roles,
but she always gravitated back
to Salisbury.
For six days a week Jo applied
herself indefatigably to her regional
and national roles, ranging from
committee member, trustee, director,
founder, governor, churchwarden,
president and chairwoman, with
commitments across a wide
range of interests: the Salisbury
Playhouse, the cathedral (in
particular the Spire Appeal), the
museum, the 900th anniversary of
the diocese, Haig Homes and the Girl
Guides Association.
On Sundays she worshipped at St
Francis Church, where her mother
had donated a stained-glass window
above the altar. She was supported in
the garden by the ever-present Sid,
who worked until he was 94.
In the summer the family stayed in
a house they had bought in Corfu and
over 30 years they built enduring
friendships with local families,
supporting many causes, such as
funding the local band’s instruments,
and welcoming their Greek friends to
Salisbury. In return her Corfiot
friends delivered a stream of victuals
during a period of illness, revealing
the esteem and affection in which she
was held.
As the Right Rev June Osborne,
Bishop of Llandaff and the former
Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, said of
Jo in her funeral address, her clothing
and demeanour were “symbols of her
energy and her vivid presence.
“There was a vivacity about Jo, and
whatever else she had been doing that
day, she was wholly present, offering
attention and opinions along with
a seriousness of scrutiny and
pragmatic solutions. She was a strong
woman. Where would the world be
without them?”

readerslives@thetimes.co.uk

Effervescent chief executive in medical research who liked dancing
Aisling Burnand, 57
When Aisling Burnand arrived as
chief executive of the Association of
Medical Research Charities (AMRC)
in 2014, she was not a familiar name
to many of its 150 members, among
them Alzheimer’s Research UK, the
British Heart Foundation and Great
Ormond Street Hospital. Yet, a
warm-hearted figure who was never
short of words and opinions, Aisling
soon found her way on to the top
table of discussions. It was not just
her own voice that was heard. Key to
her workings was her lobbying of the
government on behalf of patients and
their needs, as well as the medical
research organisations that she
represented.
For Aisling, who had not gone to
university, the progression to the top
had been a quiet and conscientious
climb. Prior to the AMRC, she was at

the BioIndustry Association, joining
in 1998 as its first director of public
affairs and becoming chief executive
in 2003. At the association she
championed British biosciences,
including regenerative medicine and
the rights of medical researchers in
animal research, and gained
momentum in her powers of
ity was
persuasion. Inclusivity
es and
important: colleagues
patients were alwayss listened
nd she
to and consulted, and
trusted them to try out their
own ideas.
d Cancer
In 2009 she joined
Research UK as
executive director off
policy and public
affairs. During her
tenure the charity
secured the
implementation of
legislation
preventing children

from viewing cigarettes in shops, and
protecting those under the age of 18
from using a sunbed. In the Covid
pandemic she was at the forefront of
warnings that medical research could
suffer for years due to the drop in
revenue from donations and
fundraising. In 2007 Aisling was
appointed MBE for services to
a this year CBE for
science, and
services to the charitable
sector in the Queen’s
Platin
Platinum
Jubilee birthday
hono
honours.
Ais
Aisling
was born in 1964
J
in St John’s
Wood, northwest
Lond
London,
the first child of
P
Paul,
a vet, and
Maureen, a housewife.
She was followed by
two brothers, Gavin
and Jonathan, who
b
became
lawyers. Raised
in Welwyn Garden City,
H
Hertfordshire,
Aisling

went to Stanborough School, a local
secondary. An academic path at
university was not presumed but she
spent two years getting a diploma
from the College for Distributive
Trades, a technical training college in
Leicester Square, and then went to
Paris to work in communications for
Rhône-Poulenc, the pharmaceutical
company. She arrived without
speaking a word of French and left
after five years fluent in the language.
It was in Paris where Aisling met a
friend of her brother’s, William
Burnand, a solicitor who visited her
on his way back from skiing in the
Alps. A marriage that lasted 25 years
did not have the most favourable
start. On their first date at a London
ball William accidentally threw her
on to the floor during a dance and in
1995, when he proposed marriage, she
could not take him seriously, not least
because, by his own admittance, he
was the worse the wear for drink and

did not have a ring. They finally
married in 1997 and raised two boys,
Max and Gabriel.
Aisling’s energy was not limited to
the office: she liked to dance,
attending Ceroc classes in earlier days
with her husband; she was also a
governor of the local primary school,
a member of its parents’ association, a
St Vincent de Paul volunteer at a food
bank and a life coach. After a lifetime
in charity, it was hard for her to
ignore the needs of others. When she
stood down as chief executive to
receive treatment for bowel cancer,
she remained a trustee of LifeArc, a
life science medical research charity
that is proposing to set up a
scholarship in her name, and a trustee
at Bowel Cancer UK while also
offering her knowledge as someone
affected by cancer to several
organisations. Earlier this year she
was delighted to share her London
home with a Ukrainian family of five.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

78

Register
Births, Marriages and Deaths
ALL Scripture is God-breathed and is

useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness, so that the
servant of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3.16-17 (NIV)
Bible verses are provided by the
Bible Society

Births
BECKETT on 10th October 2022 to Lucy
(née Wheeler) and Michael, a son, Peter
Michael John.
CARY on 26th August 2022 to Iona (née

Edgar) and Oliver, a son, Remus Edgar Guy.

CLARK on 5th October 2022 to Irene

newsukadvertising.co.uk 6 020 7782 7553

MR D. GORBACHEV
AND MISS P. BAKER

The engagement is announced between
Dmitry, son of Mr Vladimir Gorbachev and
Mrs Ella Gorbacheva of Leatherhead,
Surrey, and Pollyanna, daughter of Mr and
Mrs Richard Baker of Easton on the Hill,
Northamptonshire.

MR H. C. K. FREWER
AND MISS H. K. LAWRENCE

The engagement is announced between
Henry, son of Mr and Mrs Martin Frewer of
Hannington, Hampshire, and Harriet, elder
daughter of Mr and Mrs David Lawrence of
Battersea, London.

MR G. M. C. WILLIAMS
AND MISS C. E. MACPHERSON

(née Weindl) and Fabian, a son, Finn Elias,
great-grandson to Mrs S Clark, grandson
to Professor IAF Clark, nephew to
Mr MFJ Clark.

The engagement is announced between
George Maxwell Curnow, elder son of
Christopher and Elaine Williams of
Hurworth-on-Tees, Co Durham, and Claire
Elizabeth, elder daughter of Robin and
Sarah Macpherson of Edinburgh.

MILLER on 26th September 2022 to

MR M. P. BOWEN
AND MISS C. E. V. ROTTENBURG

Rebecca (née Jones) and Gary, a son,
Miles Alexander.

WOLFE on 7th October 2022 to Harriet
and Alexander, a daughter, Antonia Mary
Ward, sister to Jessica.

Forthcoming Marriages
MR H. C. F. KNIGHT
AND MISS F. O. C. BAILEY
The engagement is announced
between Hugo, son of Mr and Mrs
Simon Knight of Upperton, West
Sussex, and Florence, daughter of Mr
Mark Bailey of Great Massingham,
Norfolk, and Mrs Jane Nesham of
Cowlinge, Suffolk.

LEGAL, PUBLIC, COMPANY &
PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES
To place notices for these
sections please call
020 7481 4000
Notices are subject to
confirmation and should be
received by 11.30am three
days prior to insertion

The engagement is announced between
Matthew, son of Mr Ian Bowen of Bishop’s
Stortford, Hertfordshire and Mrs Susan
Bowen of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire,
and Charlotte, daughter of Mr and Mrs
Alexander Rottenburg of Kingston, Dorset.

JAMES S. GRIFFIN
AND ROSIE E. SCOTT

The engagement is announced between
James, son of Mr Trevor Griffin of
Chézy-sur-Marne and Mrs Susan Griffin of
Walsall, and Rosie, daughter of Mr David
Scott of Arundel and Dr Helen Scott of
East Dean.

Deaths
BRADLEY Dr John FRCP, FRCPsych,
medico legal expert, on 15th October 2022,
aged 92, at the Royal Free Hospital,
London. Civil partner of David GrahamYoung. Funeral on Monday 7th November
at 1pm at Golders Green Crematorium, 62
Hoop Lane, London NW11 7NL. For further
details contact Leverton & Sons Funeral
Directors 020 8444 5753.
COMPTON Diana Fordyce (née Slocock),

died peacefully at home on 18th October
2022, aged 100. Much-loved wife of the late
John, and beloved mother of Paul,
Jonathan and Tim, seven grandchildren
and four great-grandchildren. Funeral at
Mortlake Crematorium on Friday 4th
November at 3.20pm.

EDDIS Margaret Elise (née Oakes) died

peacefully on 21st October 2022, aged 91.
Widow of Richard; mother to Jonathan,
Charles, Hugo, Nicola and Harry; and
grandmother to Lucy, Susie, Algy, Claudia,
Louis, Joshua, Ned, Alec, Orla and Willa. A
funeral service for family and friends will
be held on Friday 11th November at
2.30pm, at Little Horkesley Church, Little
Horkesley, CO6 4DB.

HAMILTON Thomas Gordon. Died

Legal Notices

peacefully on 12th October 2022. Tom’s
funeral service will take place at Redditch
Crematorium on 10th November at 11.45am.
No flowers please, but the family welcome
donations in Tom’s memory to British Red
Cross, RSPB or The Heart of England
Forest. Tom will be sadly missed by all who
knew him.

JOLLIFFE
The Belwa Pension and Life
Assurance Scheme
Notice to Creditors and
Beneficiaries
Under Section 27 of the Trustee Act
1925

Notice is hereby given pursuant to
Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 that
the trustee of The Belwa Pension and
Life Assurance Scheme (“the Scheme”)
is winding up the Scheme. The wind up
of the Scheme commenced on
27/10/2022.
Any creditor, member or beneficiary of
the Scheme or any other person who
believes they have a claim against or
interest in the Scheme is requested to
write to the trustee at the address
below by 30/12/2022 to make a claim.
This may include employees or former
employees of Massilia Holdings Limited
and/or CFAO Nigeria Plc who believe
they were members of the Scheme.
The Trustee of The Belwa Pension and
Life Assurance Scheme C/o Hannah
Watson, DLA Piper UK LLP, Princes
Exchange, Princes Square, Leeds, LS1
4BY.
Claimants’ particulars should include
their full name, address, date of birth
and details of their period of
employment to which their claim
applies.
After this date, the trustee will
proceed to wind-up the Scheme and
secure benefits for any remaining
beneficiaries, having regard only to the
claims and interests of which the
trustee has prior notice. The trustee
shall not be liable to any person of
whose claims and demands it has
not had notice.
Any person who has been contacted by
the trustee at their current address or
has already made a claim and received
a response need not re-apply to the
trustee.
Issued on behalf of the trustee of The
Belwa Pension and Life Assurance
Scheme
Dated 29/10/2022

Andrew Thomas Peter born 29th June
1969, died 24th October 2022 in Nepal.
Husband of Diana (née Teare). Father
of Isabel, Julia, Elodie, Marina and
Suza. Son of Lord and Lady Hylton.
R.I.P.
Inquiries to Curtis Ilott, Funeral
Director, Baywell House, Ellworthy
Park, Frome, Somerset BA11 5LS. 01373
452116. info@curtisilottfunerals.co.uk

LACEY Sarah May (née Rees) died
peacefully on 20th October 2022, aged 91,
in the care of wonderful staff at Salisbury
Hospice. Beloved wife of the late John
Lacey, lovingly remembered by children
Louise, Sean, Heather and Clare,
stepdaughters Orla and Aileen, sisters
Elizabeth and Susan, sons and daughtersin-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,
nieces and nephews. Service will be held at
Salisbury Crematorium on Wednesday 9th
November at 1pm. Family flowers only,
donations in lieu to Salisbury Hospice
Charity c/o I N Newman, Griffin House, 55
Winchester Street, Salisbury, Wilts, SP1 1HL,
Tel 01722 413136.

MARTIN Marjorie Lilian (née GlynneJones), passed away peacefully at home in
Weybourne, Norfolk, on 9th October 2022,
aged 86. Beloved wife of Frank (deceased)
and sister of Meriel Price (deceased). The
funeral service will take place at All Saints
Church, Weybourne, on Tuesday 1st
November at 2.30pm, followed by
interment in Weybourne Cemetery. Family
flowers only but donations, if desired, to
Help Musicians may be made at the
service, or online at
www.helpmusicians.org.uk. All inquiries to
Holt Funeralcare on +44 1263 711992.
MARTIN Joan Winifred (née Rand) of
Rickmansworth died peacefully on Friday
14th October, aged 90. A Thanksgiving
Service will take place at 2pm on Saturday
5th November at Hinde Street Methodist
Church W1U 2QJ.
MOSTYN Annette Christian (née Garrick)

died peacefully on 20th October 2022,
aged 77. Mother to Suki, Melissa and Chloe,
and grandmother of eight.

PARRY Hugh died on 12th October 2022,

aged 74. Sadly missed by his wife, Heather,
and his extended family. Funeral at St Peter
and St Paul, Exton, Hampshire, on 4th
November at 2pm.

RAYNER John Manser Lt Col RE (Retd) on
20th October 2022. Adored husband of
Margaret. Private funeral. No flowers
please.

RUCKLIDGE
Margaret Adeline
“Adeline”
Daughter of the late Brigadier James
M Rawcliffe OBE and Margaret
(Capron) Rawcliffe.
Passed away at home on Thursday
20th October 2022, aged 85.
Sister to Thomas and the late James
and Roger. Dearly loved mother of
Alastair, William, Andrew and Julia
and cherished grandmother of seven.
She will be sadly missed by all her
family and friends.
Funeral service to be held at St Peter’s
Church, Winchcombe, on Thursday
3rd November 2022 at 2pm.
All welcome, family flowers only
please. Donations, if desired, in
memory of Adeline for North
Cotswold Food Bank may be placed in
the retiring collection or sent c/o
Alexander Burn Funeral Directors, 11
North Street, Winchcombe, GL54 5LH.
Tel: 01242 604888.

TAZAKI
Marie (née Clohissey) died peacefully
on 12th October 2022, aged 83, with
her family by her side. Dearly beloved
wife of the late Kazuaki (Kaye),
adored mother of Michiko, Mariko,
Reiko and Yoshio. Wonderful Babi to
her ten grandchildren and one
great-granddaughter and much-loved
mother-in-law, treasured sister, auntie
and irreplaceable friend to many. Will
be forever missed beyond words. RIP
Sayonara…
Family flowers only. Donations may
be made in memory of Marie at
https://www.justgiving.com/
fundraising/marie-tazaki
All inquiries to P Loftus & Son
Tel: 0161 861 9336.

WILSON Ethel (Ettie), on Sunday 16th

October 2022. Wife of the late Tom,
much-loved mother of Willie, Sarah
and Susie, grandmother and
great-grandmother. Requiem Mass at
Sacred Heart Church, 19 Needingworth
Road, St Ives, Cambs PE27 5JT on Thursday
10th November at noon. Inquiries to Dennis
Easton Funeral Services, 1 Broad Leas,
St Ives PE27 5PU. 01480 463019.

Memorial Services

U

nderstandably,
great play has been
made of the fact
that Rishi Sunak is
our first prime
minister of Asian heritage.
Surprisingly little has been
said of the fact that he is also
our first prime minister who
is not even nominally
Christian.
Sunak is not the first
unbaptised prime minister.
The Unitarian Neville
Chamberlain was not
baptised. Nor does Henry
Asquith appear to have been,
although raised a
Congregationalist. A century
ago the prime ministers were
largely sceptics or distinctly
odd. Feeling Christianity
lacked intellectual credibility,
they turned to spiritualism.
There were séances in
Downing Street. Winston
Churchill quoted his
astrologer’s predictions at
cabinet meetings.
From the mid-1950s,
however, as the population as
a whole became more
secular, the prime ministers
became more orthodoxly
religious. In the later 20th
century, with the exception of
James Callaghan, all claimed
to be believing Christians.
There was substance to the
claim. Harold Macmillan said
that without Christ we have
nothing. He came within a
hair’s breadth of conversion
to Catholicism. Alec DouglasHome spoke movingly of his
Christian faith. As an Oxford
undergraduate, Margaret
Thatcher was a Methodist lay
preacher. Religion interested
Tony Blair more than politics.
He prayed and read the Bible
daily.
Does faith in our political
leaders make a difference? Of
course, non-believers can be
people of integrity. Believers

Lady Ogden welcomes all to attend
the service. After the service there
will be a retiring collection
in support of
The Sir Robert Ogden Charitable
Foundation

MANN John Trevor (Jack) died on 17th

The simple way to place your
announcement in The Times.
Available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
newsukadvertising.co.uk

can fail to live out their beliefs.
Yet, as the 20th-century prime
ministers demonstrate, inner
convictions and values are
reflected in external actions.
Stanley Baldwin believed God
had led him to high office to
bring healing to public life. He
declared that he would resign
immediately if he was not
advancing the kingdom of
God. He sought to purify the
corruption of Lloyd George.
The Welshman, raised a
Baptist, lost his faith as a
child. He was accused of
insider dealing and profited
from the sale of political
honours. It is claimed that
he forced his mistress to
have abortions and enter a
suicide pact.
Those with faith know that,
although politicians may
occasionally fool parliament,
the press and the public,
there is ultimate
accountability. Political
leaders are fully aware of
human foibles and failings. It
helps to know that there
exists divine justice and
mercy when equity can seem
so lacking in this world.
The Christian doctrine of
the Resurrection provides the
virtue of hope. This makes a
difference. Bonar Law,
Ramsay MacDonald and
Churchill all suffered
profoundly from depression
occasioned partially by their
incapacity to believe in
personal survival beyond
death. At certain points this
had an impact on their
exercise of office.
It makes a difference to
know that there is more than
political pragmatism, that
there is objective right and
wrong. It makes a difference
to know that we are created
fundamentally equal, created
in love and to love. It makes a
difference to know that we
have contact with God and
receive His help in this life,
that He offers Himself as the
example of sacrificial love.
Faith continued to feature
for the 21st-century prime
ministers at least until 2019.
Boris Johnson claimed to be a
“very, very bad Christian”. He

thought Christianity “a superb
ethical system”. Many seek
evidence of its application.
So, what of Sunak? NonChristian does not mean nonbeliever. Hinduism is for him
more than cultural identity.
He has stated that his faith
gives him strength and
purpose; it is part of who he
is. He took his parliamentary
oath on the sacred Hindu
writings, the Bhagavad Gita.
He was elected Conservative
Party leader on Diwali, the
Hindu festival of light. Two
years earlier he had lit
candles on the doorstep of No
11 Downing Street to mark
the feast.
There may be a few
wrinkles to be ironed out in
relation to the Anglican
establishment, but No 10 has
already abandoned any
substantive role in the
appointment of Church of
England bishops. It remains
to be seen whether a Hindu
prime minister will read from
the Bible at King Charles’s
coronation.
Sunak, who was again seen
celebrating Diwali at
Downing Street this week,
will be familiar with Christian
teaching and practice. At
school at Winchester
there was compulsory chapel
every Sunday, and during
weekdays too in his earlier
years. Every evening he
attended preces (“prayers”) in
his boarding house with
reflections and sermons
delivered by the housemaster
or perhaps a chaplain or
prefect. It is impossible that
he left Winchester without a
good understanding of
Christianity.
Seva, the concept of selfless
service, is central to
Hinduism. Christians, and
others, will be praying that
this is reflected in the
integrity and service of our
new prime minister.

Laurence, this morning visited
Safe Way Right Way Driver
Training Centre, Plot 493,
Block 198, Kigombya, Mukono
District, Uganda.
Her Royal Highness, Patron,
Sense International,
accompanied by Admiral
Laurence, later visited the
Sense International Uganda
Head Office, Plot 27, Kimera
Road, Ntinda, Kampala.

The Princess Royal, Patron,
Save the Children UK,
accompanied by Vice-Admiral
Sir Tim Laurence, this
afternoon attended a Luncheon
at Sheraton Kampala Hotel,
Ternan Avenue, Kampala.
Her Royal Highness,
accompanied by Admiral
Laurence, later departed from
Entebbe International Airport
for the United Kingdom.

Fr Mark Vickers is a parish priest in
west London. His book God in
Number 10: The Personal Faith of
the Prime Ministers from Balfour to
Blair (SPCK: £25) was published last
week

Court Circular

OGDEN

Donations can also be made online
if desired
https://www.thesirrobertogden
charitablefoundation.org
(Registered Charity No. 1180422)

October 2022, aged 84, surrounded by his
family of whom he was so proud. Ex-Daily
Express, trade unionist and avid bowler.
Darling husband to Lynette and a
wonderful dad and father-in-law to Robert,
Pat, Paula, Gary, Erica and Andy. Special
grandad to Rachel, Ella, Evie, Freya, Finlay
and Cecily. In our hearts forever. Funeral at
New Forest Crematorium on 9th November
at 10.45am.

Credo
Mark
Vickers

Sir Robert CBE Hon LLD
at York Minster on
3rd November 2022 at 1pm.

LOVE Peter Victor. Flight Lieutenant PV

Love (Retired) passed away peacefully on
11th October 2022 at his home in Spain
surrounded by his wife and children. He
will be greatly missed by his family and
friends. He is now free to wander the
ranges of Bisley.

Sunak will draw on the
Hindu concept of service

St James’s Palace
28th October, 2022
The Princess Royal, Patron,
Transaid, accompanied by
Vice-Admiral Sir Tim

Join us for breakfast
Listen to Aasmah Mir
and Stig Abell on
Times Radio, Monday
to Thursday at 6am

Politics with
no boring bits
Listen to Matt Chorley
on Times Radio, Monday
to Friday at 10am

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

79

Register

The Times Saturday Quiz Olav Bjortomt
1

2
3
4

1

2

3

4

7

Which island is Australia’s least
populated state?

13

16

14

17

20

23

Debuting in 2015, the TV show
The Great Pottery Throw Down is
filmed in which Staffordshire city?

18

21

Aguas Calientes is the service
town for which Inca city, declared
a Peruvian historic sanctuary in 1981?

The GT86 and BRZ are sports
cars jointly developed by Toyota
and which other Japanese carmaker?

14

Belgrade’s House of Flowers is the
final resting place of Jovanka Broz
and which president of Yugoslavia?
Mick Jones of the Clash is a
cousin of which MP, whose
brother, Andre, played with Big Audio
Dynamite during the 1990s?

10

Which English actor and theatre
manager was the father of the
film director Carol Reed?

15

Kol in London is the UK’s first
restaurant of what type to win
a Michelin star?

16
17
18

won the 1997-98 Yugoslavian league
title?

20

Which Somerset cathedral is
pictured?

Answers below right
Last week’s O Tempora! solution

The Nangbeto Dam is on which
250 mile river that rises near
Togo’s border with Benin?

In 1983, a theatre in Birkenhead
was renamed after which double
Oscar-winning actress?

11
12
13

What links the racecourses
Wolverhampton, Newcastle,
Kempton Park, Chelmsford City and
Southwell?

Who plays Paul Worsley, a
father with anger issues, in the
TV comedy Breeders?
White Slave aka Devil in the
Kitchen is which Leeds-born
chef’s autobiography?

19

Taken over by Arkan in 1996,
which Belgrade football club

7 Atrides minor, Agamemnonis
frater (8)
8 Back in the day, once upon a time:
quondam (4)
9 Literally, those above or better, so
metaphorically, the gods (6)
10 Outside, beyond, prep. with acc. (5)
11 Quare? Warum? Pourquoi? (3)
12 Celsae culmina delicata ____:
charming roofs of a high house,
Mart. 4.64.10 (6)
14 To go round (circumire), surround
(cingere), solicit favour (petere) (6)
16 Girl who doesn’t know: ignorans (6)
18 Agricola in agro ____ laborat: a
farmer works in the blooming field
(6)
19 Dutiful epithet eg, Penelope in
Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.3.35 (3)
20 I trust, believe (alicui) (5)
21 Female crow: avis garrula, vide
Ovid Met. 2.547-8 (6)
23 ____ et Orbi: a Papal blessing to
everybody everywhere (4)

Times Crossword No 28,434
5

6

Across

7

8
9
10

11

13

14

15

16
17

18
19

20

21

22

23

24

25

24 Lengthy in space or time, far off,
tedious (m. and n., gen. pl) (8)

Down

1 Paulum tibi accessit ____: a little bit
of dosh came your way (8)
2 Adv., really and truly (4)
3 By a root (3rd decl. f. abl. sing.) (6)
4 Rough or harsh, such as Juno, Aen.
1.279 (6)
5 I’m going to encourage (dep.):
citabo (8)
6 Ut litus in mari est, sic ____ flumine
(4)
13 Uxor pudicissima Collatini, Livy
AUC 1.57ff (8)
15 Liber ____: a book given back having
been translated (8)
17 Deus et nomen curruum ad lunam
(6)
18 They’re empty and unoccupied,
ergo they’re idle or holidaying (6)
20 ____ ut valeas: look after yourself!
Cicero’s sign-off (4)
22 I think, suppose: ____, reri, ratus
sum (dep.) (4)

Suko No 3633

Times Crossword No 28,434
4

22

24

Across

8
9

12

15

19

Saving All My Love for You (1985)
was which American singer’s first
UK No 1 single?

3

Clues, which may
be straight or
mildly cryptic,
always lead to
answers in Latin

10

12

The French dish canard à l’orange
is made with which bird?

2

6

11

The 18th-century Scottish printer
William Smellie edited the first
edition of which encyclopaedia?

1

5
8

9

Which rank in the Royal Navy
is equivalent to a general in the
British Army?

5
6
7

A weekly crossword for the classically minded

ALAMY

20

Harold Macmillan was the last
prime minister to be born in
which century?

O Tempora! Crossword CCCLXIX by Auctor

26

A £20 Waterstones gift voucher will be awarded to the senders of the first five correct solutions
opened on Thursday. Enter by post to: Times Crossword No 28,434, PO Box 2164, Colchester, Essex
CO2 8LJ, or by email to: prize@thetimes.co.uk, with “Crossword 28434” in the subject line. Open
to 18+, UK & ROI residents only. Winners and solutions will appear on Monday week.
Name/Address ...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................

1 Shady group of men stealing
pounds (5)
4 Case after case of Soave having a
soothing effect (8)
8 Controlling business, what good
person’s doing for Scot? (7,7)
10 I’m amused about state doubling
use of phone (5,4)
11 One might make quack medic
rankle periodically (5)
12 Land splits at that tropical island
(6)
14 Great solvers are doing this (8)
17 Conservatism of troops before
battle (8)
18 Queen touring old wing of palace,
perhaps (6)
20 Some miner I’d antagonised
around the pits (5)
22 Rogue put on concert introduced
by this person’s composition (9)

24 The one preparing to imprison
dissolute chancer (6,8)
25 After cutting back, champion
swallows a liqueur (8)
26 Poet’s always including the
writer’s title (5)

Down
1 Adding padding to English operas,
following leading composer (12)
2 Lakes surrounding isle with cooler
shade (5)
3 Trouble with learner breaking
wrecked car part (4,5)
4 Lashing out, striking husband
making gesture (6)
5 Comedy turn by European?
Catching it is boring (8)
6 Was a lush plant raised by
newsroom chief ? (5)
7 Trash from museum is filling
luggage on vacation (9)
9 Struggle to suppress urge about
food served up — it may be in a
bun (6,6)
13 Leader of batsmen with runs
smashed (9)
15 Crowd of one hundred playing
golf, maybe (9)
16 See painter framing pleasant
flowering plant (8)
19 Effect of smoking: positive
experiences at first (6)
21 How rave begins, playing party
music (5)
23 Old poem found under page
eleven or thirteen? (5)

Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so
that the number in each circle is equal to
the sum of the four surrounding spaces,
and each colour total is correct.
Solution MindGames in Saturday Review

Quiz answers 1 19th century — in 1894.
2 Tasmania. 3 Admiral. 4 Encyclopaedia
Britannica. 5 Duck. 6 Whitney
Houston. 7 Stoke-on-Trent. 8 Machu
Picchu. 9 Tito aka Josip Broz Tito. 10
Grant Shapps. 11 Glenda Jackson. 12
Martin Freeman. 13 Marco Pierre
White. 14 Subaru. 15 Herbert
Beerbohm Tree. Tree’s mistress was
Reed’s mother. 16 Mexican restaurant.
17 Mono River. 18 They are all-weather
tracks. 19 FK Obilic. 20 Wells
Cathedral.
Concise Quintagram answers
1 Quiet 2 Willow 3 Balance 4 Blanked
5 Bedford.

Sport

Meet the footballer
whose sister dreams
of government

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29 2022

INTERVIEW
PAGES 6-7

POTTER
BARES
HIS SOUL

ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

Chelsea manager opens up about loss of his
parents and pressures of management as he
prepares to return to Brighton, page 2

Washout leaves England’s
World Cup in the balance
Simon Wilde
Melbourne

England’s T20 World Cup hopes are on
a knife edge after their crucial match
against Australia was washed out.
After a shock rain-affected loss to
Ireland on Wednesday, Jos Buttler’s
side went into yesterday’s game knowing that defeat could be terminal for
their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
Heavy rain in Melbourne prevented
a single ball being bowled — as it had in
the preceding match between Afghanistan and Ireland — and England were
forced to share the points with the
hosts. They must now beat New
Zealand and Sri Lanka and may still
need a superior net run rate to progress.

There have been three washouts at
the Melbourne Cricket Ground in this
tournament, raising questions about
the decision to stage such important
matches in the Victorian capital in
October — typically its rainiest month.
Buttler, the England captain, said his
team were still confident of qualifying
but admitted that so many abandonments could threaten the integrity of
the tournament. “If you have multiple
games affected by the weather, it
doesn’t give you a true reflection of how
you’d hope the tournament turns out,”
he said. “To a certain degree, we have
our destiny in our own hands. This is
what World Cup cricket and knockout
cricket is about — these huge games
and being able to perform in them.”
Full story, pages 14-15

Horner hits out at
‘draconian’ penalty
Christian Horner has called the
penalty imposed on Red Bull for
breaching last year’s budget cap
“draconian” and said that it could
affect their ability to fight for
world championships (Rebecca
Clancy writes).
The FIA, Formula One’s governing
body, announced yesterday
morning that Red Bull had
overspent the budget cap — which
last season was $145 million
(£114 million) — by £1.864 million.
However, the FIA noted that had
a tax credit, which amounted to
£1.4 million, been correctly applied
by Red Bull the overspend would
stand at £432,652.
The team must pay a fine of
$7 million (£6.07 million) within 30
days. They have also been given a
Continued on page 17

Conte: I could do better job
at home than VAR officials
Gary Jacob
Antonio Conte has launched a fresh
attack on VAR by suggesting that
officials lack consistency and he could
do a better job while watching football
at home.
The Tottenham Hotspur head coach
has been angered that the technology
helped to rule out a stoppage-time
winner for Harry Kane in confusing
circumstances against Sporting Lisbon
on Wednesday, which would have
clinched top spot in Champions League
group D.
Kane was judged by VAR to have
been offside after Emerson Royal’s
header diverted into his path off
Sporting’s Flávio Nazinho. Conte said

because it took several minutes to make
the decision, the officials could not have
been certain and therefore the goal
should have stood.
“What happened in the last game
was incredible, incredible,” Conte said.
“You score, you are already qualified
for the next round, you are celebrating
and then you have to stay for five minutes to look at the situation with VAR
and you take the decision and you don’t
know if it’s right or wrong.
“This is not football in this way also
because you cut the emotion, the
emotion of everybody and especially
the players because you don’t know.
“When I stay at home and I see the
image, then for me it is easy to make the
best decision. Instead then you see for
Continued on page 5

2

1GS

WEEKEND
BRIEFING
Ones to watch
The Women’s Rugby
World Cup quarterfinals are here. Early risers
today can watch Wales face
New Zealand, the host nation,
while England play Australia in
the small hours of tomorrow.
7.30am and tomorrow, 1.30am
(BST), ITV

The Premier League
table suggests Leicester
City against Manchester City
is a no-contest, but Brendan
Rodgers’s side are showing
signs of resurgence. The two
sides have had several
memorable recent meetings.
12.30pm, BT Sport 1

Guess the star
This golfer is a US Open
winner and former world
No 1. He also put in a valiant
effort at last year’s Ryder Cup
and has so far resisted the
attention of LIV Golf.
Answer on page 22

All eyes on Kohli
One week on from his heroics
against Pakistan and also
coming off a half-century
against the Netherlands, Virat
Kohli and his India teammates face South Africa’s
scintillating pace attack.
Tomorrow, 11am, Sky Sports

Guess the season
6 Leeds lose in finals of FA
Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup
6 Final season of only two
top-flight relegation spots
6 Bobby Charlton plays last
campaign at Manchester Utd
Answer on page 13

On the box
TODAY
2.30pm England v Greece,
Rugby League World Cup
BBC1

5.30pm Scotland v Australia,
autumn internationals
Amazon Prime

7.45pm Liverpool v Leeds
United, Premier League
Sky Sports Main Event

TOMORROW
2pm Everton v Man United,
Women’s Super League
BBC1

3pm Saracens v Sale Sharks,
Gallagher Premiership
BT Sport 1

4.15pm Man United v West
Ham United, Premier League
Sky Sports Main Event

8pm Mexican Grand Prix,
Formula One
Sky Sports Main Event

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

‘Mum and Dad are with
Emotional Potter set for
poignant return
to former club
Brighton, says
Tom Roddy
y
Graham Potter always feels their presence but it was in Milan a fortnight ago,
arriving at one of football’s most
historic stadiums as head coach of
Chelsea in the Champions League, that
his parents came to mind most vividly.
His mother, Val, and father, Steve —
a factory engineer with a passion for
football, snooker and his two sons —
both died three years ago, within six
months of each other and during Potter’s first season as a Premier League
manager, at Brighton & Hove Albion,
where he returns today for the first time
since leaving in September.
“My mum was suffering from
dementia — she was still alive but she
wouldn’t have known [I was in the Premier League],” Potter says. “So in the
end it was nice for her not to suffer that.
My dad definitely [knew] — he came to
the first game, to Watford. He just had
a very short battle with cancer and six
weeks later he wasn’t here.
“[It is] a lesson and a reminder to us
all that life is precious and short and
anything can happen. It puts things in
perspective. Of course I always think
back to them now and they are with me
all the time, and whenever you stand at
the San Siro and you think, ‘Wow’ —
you know what I mean? They would
just love to be there. They wouldn’t be
able to contain themselves. Excuse me,
I’m getting a little bit . . . ”
Potter breaks off, emotional at revisiting such a painful period, but part of
that is pride in his success. Despite
some doubters, it continues apace at
Chelsea. If Potter avoids defeat on his
return to the Amex Stadium today he
will be the club’s first English manager
since William Lewis in 1907 to go
unbeaten in his first ten games.
Potter is in reflective mood on the eve
of his return to Brighton, speaking
openly about a range of subjects including the sacrifices and pressures of being
a Premier League manager, the impact
on mental health and the methods he
employs to escape and unwind.
“Spend[ing] time with my family is
the first place I would look,” he says.
“My kids — I have seven-year-old
twins — they are fun. They give you
perspective. You have got these problems and then you speak to a sevenyear-old and everything becomes a
little bit simpler. And [I have] a 12-yearold, so a young family: they give me
energy, they give me perspective. I like
to go for a walk, occasional bit of exercise, though looking at me you wouldn’t
think that. A little bit of reading now
and again but not too much. Podcast
here and there, and sometimes a brain
dump watching a Netflix series or
something.”
His last watch? “Vikings: Valhalla,”
Potter says. “My missus would go mad
because it was just blood and guts.”
Rachel is a significant part of Potter’s
success. She gave up her business in
2011 when they moved to Sweden, with
an 11-month-old baby, after Potter was
appointed the manager of Ostersunds.
A multitude of sacrifices but one that
worked, with the club making the steep
and swift climb from the fourth tier of
Swedish football to Europa League.
“I suppose when you move to Sweden in the northern part of the country

and it’s minus 20 outside in the winter,
and your wife has left everything that
she knew, she is there with an 11month-old kid, crying because she
misses her family and her job, then you
sort of think, ‘I have got to make this
work’,” he says.
“You have to work hard. I think I have
done that. But I think there is a balance.
I don’t want to go down the route of 24/7
because that is not helpful at all to anybody. You have to have a balance.
People think, ‘Ah, you are the manager,
you should be first in, last out,’ that type
of thinking. I know where that is coming from. But I think balance is key. You
have got to try to have friends, have
family, have something else outside of
football. Otherwise it is too intense: you
can’t see the wood from the trees.”
Pressure may be felt by Potter’s successor at Brighton. Roberto De Zerbi
has not managed to pick up a victory
since being appointed to the role, and
Potter raises the issue of mental health
in managers.
“It is difficult in the world that we are
living in to feel sorry for a Premier
League manager — get me right — but
mental health doesn’t really discriminate with your status or how much
money you earn either,” Potter says.
“We are part of a sport where we
create pressure. Somebody has to be
under pressure, whatever it is and it will
be one after the other, after the other,
after the other. Then one’s gone and it is
on to the next. It was Steven Gerrard
[sacked by Aston Villa] a few weeks ago
and then it will be somebody else and
then somebody else.”
Potter was booed by sections of the
Brighton fanbase last season when the
team were eighth in the Premier
League. He had inherited a team that
had narrowly escaped relegation two
years earlier and left them fourth in the
top tier.
“Before I went to Brighton I had no
experience as a Premier League manager so I learnt that I could do that,” he
says. “I learnt that — well, I knew this
anyway but it made it more clear — that
the path isn’t just a straight one. Sometimes you have to suffer and you have to
experience pain along the way and
obviously the higher you are in the Premier League the more noise there is.
“The more exposure there is there
are more experts — ‘experts’ — out
there that will try to send you a different way and you have to learn that is
part of the process, part of the job, part
of the challenge,” he says. “You learn
that you can deal with it and still keep
moving the football club and the team
forward which ultimately is what you’re
responsible to do.
“Last season when we finished ninth
we lost six on the bounce so it doesn’t
feel like you are making progress
because people find it hard to zoom out
and see the big picture. My job is to
zoom out and you have to see things for
what they are and make sure you are on
the path and you don’t get knocked off
by inevitable emotional turbulence.”
It all seems a long time ago now but
the memories remain from a period
that proved so raw. There is a saying
that comes to his mind when Potter
recalls those opening months getting to
grips with that exposure, pressure and
the loss of his beloved parents.
“ ‘You’re fixing the plane while it’s up
in the air’ — that’s a great quote,” he
says. “You have to come through it and
thankfully I was at a really good club
that gave me support and help and we
managed to stay on the path.”
“I’m no genius. You just go through
these experiences and you have the
tough times, you have the good times,
you have whatever life throws at you.”

POTTER’S LONG
AND WINDING
ROAD TO CHELSEA

PLAYING CAREER
1992-2005
on,
Played for 11 clubs including Stoke City, Southampton,
ged
above, and West Bromwich Albion before retiring aged
30 to move into higher education

OSTERSUNDS
2011-2018
Made his name in northern Sweden, taking the club
from the fourth tier to the Europa League, where
they pulled off a shock 2-1 win away to Arsenal

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

3

1GS

Football Sport

me – I always think of them’
MARK THOMPSON GETTY IMAGES; DAVE SHOPLAND/SHUTTERSTOCK; PETER POWELL/EPA

CHELSEA
2022Chelsea paid a record
£22 million in compensation
to appoint him after the
sacking of Thomas Tuchel

Difficulty of stepping
into loved man’s shoes
Tom Allnutt

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
BRIG
2019-20
2019-2022
Achieve
Achieved club’s highest top-flight finish by guiding them to ninth last season
and in A
August became the first Brighton manager to win at Old Trafford

SWANSEA
CITY
2018-2019
Finished tenth in
p
the Championship
and reached the
FA Cup quarterfinals, where they
almost upset
Manchester City —
taking a 2-0 lead
before losing 3-2

Roberto De Zerbi describes it as like
“living under water”, which is perhaps
an imperfect translation from his
native Italian, but explains the problem
almost perfectly.
After succeeding the likeable, admirable and successful Graham Potter as
head coach of Brighton & Hove Albion,
De Zerbi finds himself in a quandary.
He admits that he is caught between
changing nothing and changing too
much, between implementing his own
methods immediately and retaining
what worked before. He can see what’s
in front of him but, for now at least, feels
restricted.
It has certainly been an unforgiving
start for De Zerbi, the manager Brighton hired after Potter left for Chelsea in
early September on the back of his work
with Sassuolo in Italy and then, briefly,
Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. As much
as his results, it was De Zerbi’s style and
approach that appealed to Brighton.
Here was a young and ambitious coach,
very much in the Potter mould, with a
clear vision, a commitment to pressing
and playing out from the back, and a
record for improving upwardly mobile
players and clubs.
Potter remains unbeaten after nine
games in charge at Chelsea, albeit after
a fairly generous start, while De Zerbi is
yet to register a victory at Brighton,
despite opening his reign with an encouraging 3-3 draw away to Liverpool.
In the four games since, Brighton have
scored only once. They have lost to
Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford and
Manchester City and, in between,
drawn 0-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. A win today would be transformative and not only because it is Potter’s
Chelsea on the opposite side.
Some Brighton fans booed at the end
of the game against Forest, after
watching the team have 19 shots at goal
without success. But there is little sense
yet of rebellion. Italian flags fluttered in
the crowd at the Amex Stadium for De
Zerbi’s opening match there against
Tottenham and it is still early days. The
fixtures, Forest aside, have been either
awkward or tough and performances
have been good. Brighton under De
Zerbi have dominated games and
created chances. They have just failed
to turn either of those qualities into
results.
De Zerbi’s situation is also rare in the
Premier League. Generally new
managers coming into clubs further
down the league are there to effect
change, not continuity. In contrast, De
Zerbi has taken over a team that were
already exceeding expectations. The
task is more about preservation than
upheaval.
It is no surprise then that De Zerbi
has so far been cautious. He is yet to
start a single player in his five league
games in charge this season that Potter
didn’t start in his opening six and while
the Italian has traditionally been an
advocate of four at the back, so far he
has only once deviated from Potter’s
central three. That trio of Joël Veltman,
Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster — as
well as Robert Sánchez, Solly March,
Pascal Gross, Alexis Mac Allister, Moisés Caicedo and Leandro Trossard —
have started every game under De

How they compare
So far under Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton
average fewer goals and concede more
per game compared to Graham Potter’s
first six games this season
Roberto De Zerbi

Graham Potter

General
Games played
5

6
Games won
0
Games drawn
2
1
Games lost
3
1

4

Per game
Goals
0.8
1.8
Expected goals
1.24
1.8
Goals conceded
0.8
1.8
Expected goals against
1.1
1.1
Total shots
13.6

13.7
Shots on target
5.2

5.3
Source: Opta

Zerbi, having done so under Potter too.
Both have used Trossard, Brighton’s
star player, out wide and further
forward. Both have found goals at
Brighton hard to come by.
The biggest change has been a tweak,
a shift of emphasis, more than an alteration. Like Potter, De Zerbi is a puritan of
possession but while Potter looked to
counter quickly De Zerbi prefers to
hold the ball from deep, draw opponents out and capitalise on the spaces.
Tariq Lamptey, who is back after nine
months out with a hamstring injury,
could prove key on the right while
Adam Lallana has also returned and is
being used as a connector in midfield.
“He wants us to take our time when
we’ve got the ball, wait for the pressure
to come,” Webster said — which has
resulted in some nervy passages of
passing at the back. At one point against
Tottenham, Dunk gestured as if asking
for calm as he turned to the gasping
fans behind him.
The result has been more prolonged
spells with the ball but less penetration
as opponents have had longer to get set.
Under De Zerbi, Brighton had 59 per
cent possession at home to Tottenham,
which is impressive, and 52 per cent
away to City, which is almost unheard
of, but lost to both teams. Under Potter,
they had 37 per cent possession against
Manchester United but won.
For now, the priority is a more
fundamental one. De Zerbi needs to
earn both the trust of his players and
the time he needs to drip-feed in his
ideas. The break afforded by the World
Cup will help and his already strong
grasp of English is improving. He has a
sympathetic board and supportive fans,
but there is no shortcut. The quickest
way to banish the memory of Potter is
not to emulate him but to get the points
and wins that Potter did. Beat Chelsea
today and De Zerbi may finally have his
head above water.

4

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Football

Pep: United are back . . .
KIERAN MCMANUS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Ian Whittell
Pep Guardiola believes that Manchester United are coming back into the
Premier League title race, less than a
month after his City side destroyed
them in a 6-3 derby win.
United’s recent improvements, seen
in last week’s draw away to Chelsea and
Thursday’s Europa League win over
Sheriff Tiraspol, caught the attention of
the City manager, who takes his title
hopefuls to Leicester City today
Guardiola believes that, alongside
the usual names, Newcastle United and
Tottenham Hotspur can be considered
genuine title contenders but is now
bracketing United in the same group.
“I have a feeling that United is
coming. Finally, United is coming,”
Guardiola said. “I saw yesterday and
Chelsea the first half. I thought, ‘I like it,’
what I see from United just now. There
will be a lot of teams.
“In the first ten games you don’t win
the Premier League but you can be a
little bit behind. Newcastle are already
there. I saw them against Tottenham
and the physicality from both sides.”
Guardiola is attempting to win what
would be his fifth Premier League title
in six seasons and paid tribute to his
players for their efforts so far. In 201920, City’s attempts to win a third consecutive title failed as Liverpool coasted
to success, but this season’s bid to
become the first team to complete that
hat-trick — a feat not accomplished
since United did it in 2008-09 — has

Haaland faces a late fitness test after being taken off against Borussia Dortmund

been far more impressive, with City
having won 26 points from 11 games.
“Last time, a few key players dropped
a little bit, training sessions were not as
high,” Guardiola said. “When we were
in the US in pre-season, I like what I see.
There are many details; you can see
how focused they are — arriving on
time, how focused they are when you
are talking, looking at you, not looking
at the grass. Many details.
“That’s why I said, ‘You are geniuses,
guys, you are really good, because you
are still there.’ You could be [thinking],
‘I’m OK, we won back-to-back [titles],
just focus on the Champions League,

because now I’ve already won four
Premier Leagues, why do I have to play
more?’ It’s completely the opposite.
That is why we are still there.”
The City manager confirmed that
the injured England pair, Kyle Walker
and Kalvin Phillips, had no chance of
playing for City before Gareth
Southgate names his World Cup squad
on November 10.
Guardiola, who will give a late fitness
test to Erling Haaland after his midweek illness, said he was relaxed despite
claiming no contract talks are imminent with City as he enters the final few
months of his deal, which ends in June.

. . . but they need more goals
Paul Hirst
Erik ten Hag says it will take some time
before he can get Manchester United
scoring as many goals as the best teams
in the Premier League.
While there has been a clear improvement in United’s overall game
since Ten Hag took charge this summer, they are still behind the likes of
Manchester City and Arsenal in the
goalscoring department.
cored 16 goals in 11
United have scored
Premier League games, which is
20 fewer than Cityy and nine shy of
ey have failed to
Arsenal’s tally. They
n once in six of
score more than
those matches, but Ten
Hag insists the goals
velwill come. “To develkes
op the team takes
time. You can’t go
from zero to 100,””
d.
Ten Hag said.
“You need devel-opment
beforee
you go to the top,,
to the roof.
y, it
“Unfortunately,
takes time and I don’t have
time, I’m really the most
n], but I have
impatient [person],
to [be patient]. We’re getnding
ting better defending
with 11 and our
build-up play is
Ronaldo
improving. Now,
scored 24
o
we need to do
goals for
p
more to develop
United last
our
attackingg
season
he
game but that’s the

most difficult part [of the game], so it
takes even more time. You can’t
increase the tempo of that process.”
Cristiano Ronaldo will play a key part
in that process after settling his differences with Ten Hag, who dropped him
for the Chelsea game after he refused to
come off the bench in the 2-0 win over
Tottenham Hotspur last week.
Ronaldo, 37, made a goalscoring
return to the starting XI for Thursday’s
3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol in the
Europa League, and Ten Hag challenged the five-times Ballon d’Or
winner to match his 24-goal tally
from last se
season. “It’s up to him but I
think it’s p
possible,” the United manager said. ““When you collect all the
chances he creates and the team
create
creates for him, you see he’s still
capab
capable of getting in the right
posi
positions and he’s still capable
of ffinishing them.”
T
Ten Hag also feels that
Do
Donny van de Beek could
chip in with more than the odd
goal. The Dutch midfielder, who
made his comeback from a
two-month injury layoff against
Sheriff, scor
scored 27 times during his two
full seasons under Ten Hag at Ajax,
but his tally at United stands at only
two goals in 54 matches.
“When you analyse the season so
far, then if he was available, he’d get
his chance [to play],” Ten Hag said of
the 25-year-old.
25-yea
“We need goals and
I know Do
Donny is really good in that
position. H
He was out for a long time,
so I was happy to give him some
minutes because you need that to
get in the right form.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

5

1GS

Sport

‘Someone died in
front of me – I’m
lucky to be alive’
Pablo Marí said he felt lucky to be alive
after the Arsenal defender was a victim
of a supermarket stabbing in Italy.
The 29-year-old Spaniard, who is on
a season-long loan with Monza, is likely
to be out for at least two months after
successful surgery to reconstruct two
damaged back muscles.
Marí was one of six victims of a knife
attack in a Carrefour supermarket in
Assago near Milan on Thursday evening. It has been reported in Italy that
one person, said to be an employee of
the shop, has died of their injuries.
The Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello
Sport quoted Mari as saying: “Today I
was lucky, because I saw a person die in
front of me.” Marí was said to have been
shopping with his wife and son, who was
in a trolley, when he felt a pain in his back
before seeing the attacker stab another
person in the throat. The attacker has
been identified as a 46-year-old man
who was arrested by police.
Marí yesterday posted a picture with
his wife from his hospital bed on Instagram. He wrote: “Both my family and I
want to communicate that fortunately
we are all fine despite the circumstances, and we want to thank all the messa-

ges of support and affection that we are
receiving. In addition, we want to send
our condolences and all our strength to
the family and friends of the deceased
person.”
Monza published a statement yesterday, which read: “General surgery and
trauma team specialists of the
Niguarda hospital in Milan this morning carried out surgery to reconstruct
two injured muscles on Pablo Marí’s
back.
“The surgery went well and a hospital stay of two or three days is expected.
After being discharged the player will
be able to start a rehabilitation process.
This type of muscle injury usually
requires two months of rest before you
can resume physical activities.”
The Monza president, Adriano Galliani, who visited Marí with his head
coach, Raffaele Palladino, after hearing
about the attack on Thursday evening,
has asked Serie A if Monday’s scheduled match against Bologna can be
postponed, with the Monza players “in
shock”.
He told Gazzetta: “I’m happy with the
outcome of the surgery, but we asked to
postpone the next league game. Last

Conte hopes
touchline ban
will be his last
CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Marí and wife Veronica give a thumbs up from hospital where he had surgery

night our players were crying. The boys
are in shock. We do not know if our
request will be accepted or not.”
Galliani, the former AC Milan chief
executive, had said during his first hospital visit: “Pablo is an amazing guy. He
had the strength to joke and tell me that
he will be back on the pitch on Monday.”
Another Italian newspaper Corriere
della Sera said the former Napoli and
Inter Milan player Massimo Tarantino
was among those who disarmed the
attacker, with the 51-year-old quoted as

saying: “I’m not a hero. I didn’t do anything special.”
Marí joined Arsenal from the Brazilian side Flamengo in January 2020 and
played 19 times before heading to Italy
on loan in August. In a statement issued
shortly after their 2-0 Europa League
defeat away to PSV Eindhoven on
Thursday night, the club said: “We are
all shocked to hear the dreadful news
about the stabbing in Italy. Our
thoughts are with Pablo and the other
victims of this dreadful incident.”

example they [VAR officials] take the
opposite decision. “I don’t know who
the VAR is, but they must be seeing
another image, because they are giving
a different interpretation [to how I saw
it].”
“Did someone [invent] or discover a
foul one minute before to disallow this?
It happened. But it only happened
when they want [it] to happen. It’s
impossible to make mistakes with VAR
because you have a screen, you have
time.”
Conte will receive an automatic
touchline ban and will have to sit in the
stand in Marseille on Tuesday where
Tottenham need at least a draw to
progress. Cristian Stellini, his assistant,
will take charge. After Conte gets off
the bus, he will not be allowed to have
direct contact with the players.
He said that he hated a similar experience when in charge of Inter Milan
against Fiorentina in February 2021. “I
was in the crowd with my brother to
watch the game, for sure I don’t like this
type of experience and I hope it will be
the last one,” he said.
Tottenham have been fined £20,000
by the FA after admitting they failed to
ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during the
defeat by Newcastle United on Sunday.

6

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Football

I knock on
doors and all
I get is: ‘Your
brother plays
for Fulham’

Marsha fields plenty
of questions from
voters – not least
about brother Bobby

ALYSON RUDD
THE BIG INTERVIEW
Bobby Decordova-Reid is starring
in the Premier League while his
sister Marsha, a Labour MP, plans
for a future in government

I

s Bobby Decordova-Reid a
ploy that started in the game away to
feminist? That may seem an odd
West Ham United three weeks ago.
question to ask of a Premier
Was Marsha surprised that her
League footballer, but the
brother was used in defence?
Fulham forward’s sister is with
Bobby interrupts to say that she
him at the club’s training ground.
might not be aware of his position.
Marsha de Cordova is the Labour MP
“You’re an attacker!” she replies,
for Battersea and the former shadow
which is what most Fulham fans
secretary of state for women and
initially said when he was played at
equalities.
full back at the London Stadium.
Her brother started life as Bobby
“I’ve never shirked away from my
Reid but added his mother’s name to
defensive duties, hence why the
the back of his shirt four years ago.
manager has probably put me there,”
“Absolutely you are a feminist,
he says. “I can attack so he’s probably
aren’t you?” Marsha, 46, says. “We’ve
thinking: ‘I’ve got two in one there’
got an amazing mum who he has
and he trusts me to do it. I enjoy
chosen to honour in that way, and he
being on the pitch first and foremost
is surrounded by strong women in our and if it means I have to sacrifice my
family. He believes in what I do and
attacking to do the job then I do it
what many other women are doing.”
happily. When you do that then you
Does Bobby think he is a feminist?
get your rewards and I got a goal [in
“What Marsha has said has hit the
the 3-2 win against Leeds United] at
nail on the head,” the 29-year-old
the weekend.”
says, smiling and bowing his head.
Marsha says: “I love watching
“Growing up and coming to
games live. I do get excited.
London in the holidays and
The game here when you
staying with all my
guys lifted the trophy for
aunties, I was
promotion [Fulham
surrounded by women
won the Sky Bet
Politics is not
and they raised us.”
Championship last
Today is National
season] was mental.”
my forte, but I
Campaign Day for the
She uses a
always
support
Labour Party, which
monocular to follow
her, whatever
means that Marsha will
the action because she
be knocking on doors in
is registered blind. She
she’s doing
her constituency —
was born with nystagmus,
which is not far from Craven
which causes severe shortCottage — before dashing to
sightedness and requires her
the stadium where her brother will be
parliamentary reading to comprise
in action for Fulham against Everton
just a few large words on each page of
at 5.30pm. As she predicts a 2-1 win
A4 paper. If you were watching from
for the home team we bump into
a window as she wandered around the
Marco Silva, the Fulham head coach,
Motspur Park training ground, you
who beams the sort of deep wide
would have only really noticed her
smile we never see when he is in the
sight was impaired when Bobby took
dugout as he is introduced to the MP.
her hand to guide her up the steps of
Then, as he bids farewell, he wraps his the old wooden stand.
arm around Bobby’s shoulders and
They laugh about how he has to
says thank you. I take this as a sign
find an extra seat for Marsha when
that he will once again ask Bobby to
she is available and how he has family
play out of position at right back, a
members in more regular attendance

at the Cottage: his mum Una, his
partner, his son and a cousin, “so I
joke to Marsha that their seats are
reserved”.
With a hearty, self-deprecating
laugh she reminds him that she often
has to work at weekends. She was
destined for a life in politics. Marsha
studied law and European policy
before working for several charities
and established South East London
Vision in 2014, the same year she was
elected to Lambeth council.
en her brother
Marsha was 16 when
was born. They grew up in Easton, in
rived area at the
central Bristol, a deprived
nt household
time, in a single-parent
obby to training.
with no car to take Bobby
t, he is the baby
“He is the youngest,
brother,” she says. “I was there when
n St Michael’s
he was born. It was in
hospital in Bristol. I definitely feel like
.”
a sister, not an auntie.”
nties as well,”
“I’ve got lots of aunties
Bobby says.
She does not recall being
made to babysit. “It was
ite a
not a chore, it was quite
joy to push my little
brother around,” she says, at which
ghter. “I’ve not
Bobby roars with laughter.
e,” he says.
heard that one before,”
rite sibling?
Is Bobby her favourite
s.
“Be careful,” he says.
ers,” she says,
“I’ve got four brothers,”
qually.”
“and I love them all equally.”
tician, I suggest,
She’s a natural politician,
e.
and they both chuckle.
ovely that
“But I will say it’s lovely
ndon,”
Bobby is living in London,”
Marsha says. “Havingg a sibling in
London is quite nice. We are

obviously busy but it’s nice to spend
time together.”
Bobby says they meet up in their
spare time. “I feel like it’s more of a
chill vibe, because we are both so
busy,” he says. “It’s nice to just relax.”
Marsha agrees. “I value that,
because the job I’ve got means you’re
constantly on the go and so just to
hang out and have dinner is nice,” she
says. “It’s more about quality time. If
we get to travel that’s always good
y
fun.” Theyy have bigg familyy holidays,
usually to Jamaica, where
their mother was born,
which, she says, are built
around her brother’s
demanding schedule.
“I make that my
thing,” he

says. “To try to bring everyone
together.”
Marsha turns to her brother:
“Everyone thinks I’m the bossy one
but I’m not sure I am, am I?” she asks.
“I’ll say she is,” Bobby replies, “but I
do it in a different way. I want to go
on a safari but I’m waiting for my son
to grow up a little bit more so he can
understand; 19 months is too young.”
Bobby was in Jamaica when his
sister was elected to represent
Battersea at the 2017 election.
“It was a bit surreal, but I was
de
definitely proud,” he says.
“Winning the seat was incredible
an
and it was a huge honour,” Marsha
sa
says. “Throughout the campaign you
co
could see things changing so you
be
begin to think, maybe we can reduce

Marsha w
was elected to parliament in 2017,
three year
years before Bobby joined Fulham

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

7

1GS

PHOTO BY
IAN TUTTLE
the Conservative majority here. To
actually win the seat and make it a
Labour gain was incredible.
“It was a great achievement, I
thought I was going back to my job
[at a disability charity]. To be the MP,
and still the MP, is special.”
Marsha served first as shadow
minister for disabled people and then
as the shadow women and equalities
secretary, a position from which she
resigned in September last year to
devote more time to her constituency.
But would she say yes to a cabinet
post if Labour win the next election?
“Of course, I want to see a Labour
government elected and Keir
[Starmer] elected as PM, and if asked
to serve I absolutely will serve the
party, my constituents and most
importantly the country,” she says.
“It would be an honour. I have had
two shadow positions and it was a
really difficult decision to stand down,
but my constituents come first.
“I have a marginal seat and for me
that’s the priority. It was the right
decision at the right time.”
To be in the cabinet would open
her up to more scrutiny and there are
parallels with the way in which elite
footballers are pilloried if they are
deemed to say the wrong thing. So
what would be Bobby’s advice?
“You’ve just got to be yourself,” he
says. “In our industry it is tough and I
feel like I try to be honest in what I
say. No matter what you do, people
have something to say about it,
whether it’s positive or negative. But if
you stay true to yourself, you’ll have
no regrets.”

Marsha holds regular surgeries and
is constantly out and about, but do
her constituents know she has a
famous brother?
“I’m not the MP for Battersea, I’m
Bobby Decordova-Reid’s sister,” she
says. “I knock on doors and people
say: ‘Oh hello, your brother plays for
Fulham.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, well,
anyway . . .’ ”
Bobby says it is when he meets fans
that their jobs feel most similar.
“We’re very respectful and we
listen, and we understand that we are
potentially role models,” he says. “We
have a duty to try to affect people and
make them feel better. Asking a fan
how they are is nice for them to hear.”
After games, Marsha says,
supporters hand her their phone and
ask her to take a photo of them with
Bobby, “which I find so bizarre”.
“Politics is not my forte,” Bobby
says. “But I always support her,
whatever she’s doing.”
All the same, maybe politics has
rubbed off on him. He recently took
part in a panel discussion for Black
History Month, organised by Fulham,
recounting how he would be waiting
for a bus when he was young to get to
training and see cars carrying his
team-mates speed past him.
“I don’t think we see ourselves as
role models, but we do our best to
make people feel better,” he says.
“I can’t tell somebody not to look
up to me because when I was growing
up my cousin, Anthony McNamee,
was a footballer. Naturally I looked up
to him, so I understand how people
see me. I try to make people see we

are all the same. I don’t put myself on
a pedestal.”
“He’s been playing football for as
long as I’ve known him, it’s in his
blood,” Marsha says. “I remember he
always wanted certain boots but
maybe it was when he signed for
Bristol City [in 2011] I could see the
trajectory. My desire for him was that
I hope he makes it. I’m so proud that
he has and he’s doing really well.”
Bobby spent seven years with
Bristol City, including loan spells with
Cheltenham Town, Oldham Athletic
and Plymouth Argyle, before signing
for Cardiff City in 2018. The Jamaica
international initially joined Fulham
on loan and the move was made
permanent in January 2020
“I think it’s difficult for you to know
when I would make it because I didn’t
know,” Bobby tells his sister. “In
football you can’t assume. When I
was 17 thought I had a great
opportunity to do something but you
can never be sure of your path.”
Most pundits were pretty sure that
Fulham would struggle back in the
Premier League but the team are
defying those expectations, lying
seventh after 12 games.
“I don’t think I can put my finger
on why [they are doing well],” he says.
“We’re all on one page. The last time
we were in the Premier League we
may have had loan players who felt
they are here for a year then move
on, so they look after themselves.
Now we are pulling together.
“We’re very humble, we never get
too high or too low.”
I point out how a notable number
of goals are celebrated by players
running to hug Silva in the dugout.
“I don’t think it’s intentional, it’s
spontaneous,” he says. “It’s about the
way we train on the pitch, the family
atmosphere — not just the manager.
We’re all together at the moment and
all enjoy each other’s company.”
If life is not quite what we expected
for Fulham, it has been utterly
astonishing in the world of politics.
“It’s been quite surreal, we are now
on our second unelected prime
minister in the space of six weeks,”
Marsha says. “I do not believe the
government have an answer or even a
plan to help the people of the country.
What’s happening has been
outrageous, actually. We have seen
decisions that have wreaked havoc on
our economy, trashing the pound but
also our standing globally.
“We don’t want people seeing us as
a laughing stock as a nation. We need
an election so that whoever is leading
our nation has the will of the people
and the mandate to do that.”
Her brother is considering dropping
the Reid from his name altogether but
he does not want to meddle with any
passport paperwork just yet.
“I need a period where I know I’m
not travelling,” he says, which might
not happen all that soon should
Fulham qualify for Europe.
There is no huge rift with his father,
however. “I have no memory of him
being around when I was young so
there isn’t a connection but as you get
older and have a family it is
interesting to know what is on the
other side of the family,” he says.
“I’ve got brothers and sisters from
my dad’s side that I speak to.
“Last year I was in Jamaica and me
and my brother went to see him. You
can’t shy away from the fact you have
two parents. We wanted to know
what his upbringing was like. It was
enjoyable and interesting.
“You grow up. I’m a father now and
I want to be in my son’s life. You don’t
want to have any regrets. If you can
relieve someone of their regret — if
I’ve got the power to do something
like that, then why not.”
And with that he and Marsha walk
out into the autumn sunshine, with
him taking her arm for a selfie as they
giggle about family life.

SPORT
NOTEBOOK
Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
SPORTS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

FA checks out treatment of
workers at World Cup hotel
The FA has sent staff to Qatar to
ensure that there will be no
awkward revelations about
migrant workers at
p
England’s World Cup
team hotel.
The officials
conducted checks
to make sure
that everything
connected to the
five-star Souq
al-Wakra hotel and
its direct suppliers
an
complied with human
d
rights obligations and
luded
labour laws. This included
looking at workers’ pay
pay, safety
safety,
accommodation and recruitment
policies in response to concerns
raised by human rights groups
about the treatment of migrant
workers in Qatar.
In 2019 Liverpool decided

against staying at the Marsa
Malaz Kempinski hotel in Doha
after an investigation found that
w
migrant workers
employed
by the hotel were
earn
earning
salaries
bel the minimum
below
wa and that the
wage
fiv
five-star
facility
w in breach of
was
la
labour
laws, with
se
security
guards
wo
working 12-hour
shif
shifts in 45C heat
ffor
or lit
little more than
£8 a da
£8
day.
Meanwh team chefs
Meanwhile,
have been warne
warned not to try to
import pork into Qatar. The UK
government’s travel advice states
that importing pork products into
the country is illegal — as is
the importation of pornography
and vapes.

Kremlev concern Albion’s payback?
The Olympic news website
Inside The Games has opened an
investigation into two of its
directors amid allegations that
they are associates of Umar
Kremlev, the Russian president
of the International Boxing
Association (IBA).
USA Boxing made the claims
in a letter to Inside The Games.
Several federations, including GB
Boxing, fear that the sport is in
danger of losing its Olympic
status under Kremlev’s leadership.
The letter alleged that Zhanna
Abdulian and Maksim Kotkov,
who became directors of Britishregistered Dunsar — the firm that
publishes Inside The Games —
after 51 per cent of its shares were
sold to a Hungarian firm last year,
have connections to Kremlev.
Abdulian is referred to as the
former head of international
relations at the Russian Boxing
Federation, while Kotkov is said
to be the head of a regional
boxing federation in Russia.
A statement from Dunsar’s
lawyers read: “Dunsar has opened
an investigation into the past and
current connections of these
directors with Umar Kremlev and
the Russian Boxing Federation.
It had limited disclosure as to the
previous connections of its new
directors prior to their
appointment and cannot
comment on undisclosed conflicts
of interest, if any, as yet.
“For 17 years Dunsar has
maintained a strict division
between editorial and advertising
and prides itself on its balanced
coverage of the sport.”
Last month Inside The Games
reported allegations by USA
Boxing that Abdulian assisted the
IBA’s head of external affairs,
Valeria Trabucchi, in drafting a
document “designed to slur and
undermine” Boris van der Vorst,
Kremlev’s presidential rival.
Abdulian, Kremlev and the IBA
did not respond when contacted
by The Times.

The West Bromwich Albion chief
executive Ron Gourlay has
expressed confidence that a
£4.95 million loan will be repaid
by the club’s owner Guochuan Lai
by the end of the year.
Albion shareholders raised
concerns over Lai’s Hong Kongregistered company Wisdom
Smart Corporation taking the
loan from the club after being
affected by Covid-19. Gourlay said
this week: “I have made it clear
I believe that will happen.”

La Liga legal rift
The Qatari broadcaster beIN
Sport is one of the biggest
overseas broadcasters for Spain’s
La Liga but that £130 million-ayear partnership is under threat.
BeIN has opened legal
proceedings against Javier Tebas,
La Liga’s president, after he said
that he was taking out a court
order freezing the Qatari
broadcaster’s assets in Spain.
Tebas has long had an issue
with Nasser al-Khelaifi, the
president of Paris Saint-Germain
and head of beIN Sport, but his
timing is far from ideal, with talks
over renewing the broadcast deals
in 35 countries scheduled to start
in the new year.

Token deal done
The Premier League clubs
have agreed in principle to a
£30 million-a-year deal with the
French firm Sorare to provide
unique virtual assets known as
NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
That is way below the
£400 million four-year agreement
it had hoped to secure with the
firm ConsenSys — this column
reported last month that the
cryptocurrency crash led to that
deal collapsing.

8

2GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Football
JANEK SKARZYNSKI/GETTY IMAGES

Toughest test
yet for Emery,
champion of
the underdog
Ian Hawkey
When Unai Emery sits down to watch
Newcastle United against Aston Villa
this afternoon, notepad open, umpteen
devices set on record, a little voice in his
head is bound to whisper: “All this, you
know, could have been yours.” The topfour spot in the Premier League, with its
tease of Champions League football to
come. The big budget for future recruitment. The plaudits for transforming
Miguel Almirón from butt-of-jokes
enigma to great entertainer.
Twelve months ago, almost to the
day, Newcastle’s new owners believed
that they had convinced Emery to
shepherd them towards their future as a
superclub. They explained to him the
resources available, the relevance of his
pedigree in European competitions to a
Newcastle where midweek nights
would sooner rather than later be spent
in that sort of company.
The team were in the relegation
zone, but a new head coach and
corrective measures in the January
transfer window would solve that.
Emery listened, spoke to his employers
at Villarreal and, for various reasons,
said no to a vacancy promptly filled by
Eddie Howe.
Emery’s thinking was not influenced
by anxiety about managing again in
England, where he spent 18 draining
months at Arsenal. His decision, this
week, to take over at Villa proves that.
More compelling were the arguments
put to him by his associates at Villarreal. Last October there was unfinished
business and achievable targets there.
Meeting them, Emery was persuaded,
would only burnish his reputation and
put other tempting job offers his way.
So it did. Time will tell if Emery
backed the right horse, or scheduled his

return to the Premier League wisely. He
knows that judgments will be made
quickly, and the progress — or otherwise — of his Villa side regularly
tracked in comparison with Howe’s
Newcastle and gauged next to how far
Mikel Arteta’s table-topping Arsenal
have advanced from the club Emery
left nearly three years ago.
His first week in charge will also be
filled by flashbacks to the night Emery
emphatically stated that the trophyless
period at Arsenal was atypical, out of
keeping with the pattern of his career.
His first two matches in charge of Villa
are against Manchester United — away
in the league, at home in the Carabao
Cup. They are a club who his Villarreal
beat in the 2021 Europa League final,
David defeating Goliath over 22 slingshots in an extended penalty shoot-out.
Evidence of why he is a coach
expertly equipped to maximise the
potential of an underperforming group
of Premier League players, as Villa’s
have been, might be drawn directly
from that night in Gdansk. Emery’s
line-up included Juan Foyth — with 11
league starts in three seasons at Tottenham Hotspur — playing at right back, a
position Foyth had been carefully
coaxed into learning. Dani Parejo — 14
Sky Bet Championship appearances for
Queens Park Rangers — organised the
midfield and finished with the best
passing statistics in the competition.
Étienne Capoue — one relegation and
four bottom-half finishes in five Premier League seasons at Watford — was
named the final’s man of the match.
Twelve months later, as Champions
League semi-finalists, that trio were
expressing their gratitude that their rigorous, relentlessly analytical coach had
said no to Newcastle and chosen instead to stick with Villarreal, building a
fortress there. “We’re not here to be told

Emery lifted the Europa League trophy with Villarreal last year but will he regret his decision to spurn Newcastle’s advances?

we’re nice, or that we come from a small
village,” he said to them, in between
long hours of meticulous planning.
Emery’s meticulousness is legendary.
“His tactical briefings are so long, I
wanted to bring along a tub of popcorn,”
the winger Joaquín used to joke of Emery’s period as head coach of Valencia;
he later appreciated that part of the reason he is still a top division footballer,
aged 41, is that all the detailed study
showed him ways to adapt so he had
plenty still to give when acceleration
was no longer a chief asset.
The World Cup winners Juan Mata
and David Villa would likewise credit
Emery for broadening their games
during his breakthrough four years at
Valencia. So would those who shared in
the three Europa League triumphs
while Emery coached Sevilla.
Last May, in the same week Howe’s
Newcastle lost to Liverpool and Manchester City, Emery’s Villarreal came

within half an hour of taking Liverpool
to extra-time or penalties for a place in
a Champions League final. In a whirlwind reversal of their besieged Anfield
leg, Villarreal went 2-0 up thanks to a
pair of Capoue crosses, the second
headed in by Francis Coquelin (ten
years an Arsenal employee; never on an
Arsenal scoresheet). Seldom has
Emery looked more of a great managerial alchemist than at half-time of that
second leg, with Liverpool being held
2-2 on aggregate, or when Bayern Munich were beaten in a backs-to-the-wall
quarter-final, or Juventus ousted
thanks to a smash-and-grab 3-0 victory
in Turin.
But at that point, Emery had a clear
sight of Villarreal’s ceiling. Three Liverpool goals in the last half-hour against
the fatigued underdogs imposed the
natural hierarchy. Villarreal went on to
finish seventh in La Liga, the same as
the previous season. Emery was thank-

ful for small mercies: a berth in this
season’s Europa Conference League, a
sort of continuity for a coach who,
wherever he has been employed for the
past 14 seasons, has been involved in a
European competition.
If that record is to be spoilt in 202324, Emery, who has signed a five-year
deal with Villa, will regard it as a temporary exchange of one elite tier for
another. The Premier League has
rarely seemed so financially powerful
in comparison with its equivalents, or
so strong a magnet for coaches who
want to be regarded as the very best.
Emery wants to be in that bracket.
His 18 months at Arsenal did not put
him there. Nor did his two years at Paris
Saint-Germain, because it featured a
modern rarity: a season without the
Ligue 1 title. The decision to say no to
Newcastle showed he is choosy. It may
only age well if his yes to Villa works out
very successfully indeed.

Ruddy the hero as high-flying QPR slip up Lampard hails Iwobi revival
Birmingham City
Trusty 4, Longelo 29

Queens Park Rangers

2
0

Sky Bet Championship
Tim Nash

Queens Park Rangers missed the
chance to return to the top of the Sky
Bet Championship as they were deservedly beaten by Birmingham City at
St Andrew’s.
Auston Trusty and Emmanuel Longelo, defenders on loan from Arsenal
and West Ham United respectively,
gave Birmingham the perfect platform
with first-half goals.
John Ruddy, Birmingham’s goalkeeper, completed Rangers’ misery when he
saved Lyndon Dykes’s 79th-minute
penalty. It made it a wretched return to

the West Midlands for Michael Beale,
the QPR head coach who was assistant
to Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa and
who recently turned down the vacant
manager’s job at Wolverhampton
Wanderers.
QPR also lost Jake Clarke-Salter, the
former Birmingham loan defender, and
Tyler Roberts, the forward, to injuries
before half-time.
A freakish goal gave Birmingham the
perfect start on four minutes. Trusty’s
hopeful overhead flick looped over
Seny Dieng after Krystian Bielik returned Hannibal Mejbri’s corner to the
danger area after it had been punched
clear by the helpless goalkeeper.
Undeterred, QPR attacked the home
goal and Ilias Chair’s curling free kick
was tipped over by Ruddy.
Roberts was just as close with a sidefooted effort from the edge of the box
that deflected up off Harlee Dean and
on to the roof of the net. Then Dykes

produced a snap-shot that was well
held by Ruddy.
Injuries to QPR’s Clarke-Salter and
Roberts occurred in the space of six
minutes before the visitors conceded a
second goal in the 29th minute.
Longelo, the left wingback, teased
Ethan Laird before cutting inside to the
corner of the penalty area and rolling a
daisycutter shot that crept inside the far
bottom corner of the net.
Rangers tried to hit back before
half-time and a curling free kick from
their captain, Stefan Johansen, was
inches away.
Sinclair Armstrong, the QPR substitute, missed two chances and Dykes
sent a low drive skidding just wide in the
second half.
Ruddy was Birmingham’s hero after
saving Dykes’s 79th-minute penalty to
his right after Longelo was judged to
have raised his foot dangerously on
Laird as they battled for a cross.

Paul Joyce
Northern Football Correspondent

There is a temptation to cast Alex Iwobi
as a player reborn, given that only
Kevin De Bruyne has conjured more
assists than the Everton midfielder this
season. A more accurate description
would be to say he is remodelled.
A rich vein of form in which Iwobi
has created five goals has brought
acclaim where not too long ago he was
viewed more with disdain. The 26year-old was perceived as further
evidence of Everton’s transfer excesses
after his £34 million arrival from
Arsenal on deadline day in August 2019.
Marco Silva had brought him to
Goodison Park after a summer-long
courtship of Wilfried Zaha, the Crystal
Palace forward, failed and Iwobi will
today face the Portuguese manager,
who is now rebuilding his reputation

with Fulham, having been sacked by
Everton in December 2019.
Yet while Silva worked only briefly
with the Nigeria international at Everton, it has taken Frank Lampard to succeed where his predecessors failed in
extracting the best from the player.
“The best way to unlock a player or
get progress is to show them your confidence, but they have to earn that,” the
Everton head coach said. “Alex did that
very early in my stint at the club
because of how he trained and applied
himself. He has a good nature and work
ethic in training. He gained confidence.
“The other thing is to build the structure of a team to get the best out of him.
That is a process. He is versatile so can
be used in different areas when needed.
“There are still things he can do to
improve. Seeing him play slightly
higher up in the last couple of games,
the end product is something he
can improve.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

9

1GS

Sport

Eze maturing from tricky
winger to midfield maestro
Palace crowd-pleaser
tipped for World Cup
call after starring in
central role this season,
writes Molly Hudson

B

efore England’s most recent
major tournament, Eberechi
Eze suffered the most
difficult period of his career.
During a light training
session with Crystal Palace, he heard
the familiar “pop” that accompanies
an achilles tendon injury, and thought
he had been kicked, but instead went
down despite there being no contact.
Returning to the changing room, he
discovered a message from England
to say that he was part of the
provisional squad for the European
Championship, starting the following
month. But thanks to the achilles
rupture he had just suffered, he would
not play again for six months.
Nearly 18 months on, it is thought
that Eze has made the 55-player
provisional squad for the Qatar World
Cup chosen by Gareth Southgate.
This time, though, he is a very
different player, having transformed
his position and matured under the
influence of Patrick Vieira, his
manager, and Wilfried Zaha, his
Palace team-mate.
Eze, 24, arrived at Palace as a
forward who had sparkled for Queens
Park Rangers in the Sky Bet
Championship. A childhood spent
rushing home from school to watch
videos of Ronaldinho, the Brazil
creator, before spending hours
playing cage football, had fashioned a
player who received the ball and
immediately had fans on their feet.
Under the former Palace manager
Roy Hodgson, Eze learnt that no
luxuries are afforded in the Premier
League and that even attacking
players are required to track back and
defend for the team.
Vieira’s arrival meant a more
attacking brand of football at Selhurst
Park and he has transformed a
stodgy, defensively minded midfield
into a more fluid, aesthetically
pleasing one, in which Eze has
become the star. He has started all 11
Premier League matches this season
and provides the attacking flair to
balance his more combative midfield
partner, Cheick Doucouré.
“He used to play a little bit on the
left-hand side to the inside, and at the

Among the best
Eberechi Eze ranks in the top 10 for
chances created per 90 minutes in the
Premier League this season
K De Bruyne (Man City)

3.8

I Gundogan (Man City)

2.7

B Fernandes (Man Utd)

2.6

A Pereira (Fulham)

2.4

B Aaronson (Leeds)

2.1

E Buendia (A Villa)

2.1

J Moutinho (Wolves)

2.1

M Odegaard (Arsenal)

2

E Eze (Palace)

2

M Jensen (Brentford)

1.9
Source: Opta

moment is playing more
centrally,” Vieira said.
“He just needs to find the
right position to be a little
bit higher on the field,
because he has the ability
to score goals and to
create chances.”
This season, when
Eze has managed to
get on the
scoresheet or
provide assists,
Palace have
won games.
He has
scored in
two of
their
three
Premier
League
d even in the
victories and
matches in which his side
have struggled, he has stood
out, his new role giving him
more influence and showcasing
an ability to effortlessly glide
across the pitch.
While Vieira has continually
highlighted Eze’s potential and
desire to improve, his present
form is impressive too. This
season he ranks ninth for
chances created by central
attacking Premier League
midfielders, averaging two per
game alongside Martin
Odegaard, the Arsenal
captain. “It’s the position that
is new for him, but he has the
quality to perform well and
Eze is adding more goals
and assists to his game

when you look at the first game he
played there and the games that he’s
playing at the moment, I feel he is
more confident and understanding
the role in that position,” Vieira said.
“It’s just about giving him time as
well. What I would want from him is
to be more decisive in the last third
because I think he has the quality to
score goals, to impact the game more,
and he will get there.”
After Eze scored in the 2-1 win at
home to Wolverhampton Wanderers,
Vieira admitted that the player “has
got that talent that can make him
dream of going to the World Cup” but
has privately been integral in keeping
the youngster’s feet on the ground.
Vieira has encouraged senior
members of the squad, such as Zaha,
to impart knowledge to Eze and his
fellow young talents, and has been
particularly clear in highlighting
the need to be a team player in
order to showcase his skills and
stressing how to cope with
external pressure.
“It is about managing that kind
of expectation from people
outside, who see the talent,
and then you try
sometimes to overplay
because you want to
show how good you are,”
Vieira said. “The
messages from Wilfried
or from myself are
about playing and
trying to do the
right things for the
team and trying
to do what the
game requires.
Sometimes
it sounds
easy, but this
is the most
difficult thing to
do in the game.
“But I believe
he has a group
of players
around him
who can make
him understand
that his talent has
to go through the
collective of the
team.” In a position
of such riches for
Southgate, it remains
unlikely that Eze will
make the final 26-man
England party for the
tournament, but his form
shows he is more than
capable of performing in
that environment.

Vieira: Diversity targets ‘unambitious’
Henry Winter, Molly Hudson
Targets for greater diversity are not
ambitious enough, according to Patrick
Vieira, after an FA report revealed that
clubs fell short of a pledge to hire more
female and ethnic minority candidates.
The FA published its annual report
on the Football Leadership Diversity
Code for the 2021-22 season and the
uptake from English clubs has been disappointing in hiring diverse candidates
to senior management positions and
coaching roles in the men’s game.
In terms of senior leadership, the
clubs pledged that “15 per cent of our
new hires will be black, Asian or of

mixed heritage” but averaged only
10.3 per cent. The FA, Premier League
and EFL exceeded their pledges, reaching 15.4 per cent. Of the promise that
30 per cent of new senior leadership
hires would be female, clubs managed
17.2 per cent and the FA, Premier
League and EFL 38.5 per cent.
Vieira — the former Arsenal
midfielder and the only black manager
in the Premier League — said this week
that doors are “not being opened” and
criticised the lack of opportunities.
“I saw the FA communication and
what they are trying to do and what
their targets are,” the Crystal Palace
manager, 46, said yesterday. “I would
like them to be a little bit more

ambitious because I don’t think that the
numbers they wanted to achieve are
high enough.”
The clubs also pledged that “10 per
cent of our new senior coaching hires
will be black, Asian or of mixed heritage” and exceeded that with 21.2 per
cent, but the overall appointment of
coaching staff fell below the 25 per cent
target of new hires being of black, Asian
or mixed heritage (15.6 per cent).
Women’s clubs failed to meet targets;
clubs pledged that “50 per cent of our
new hires will be female” but only
reached 33.3 per cent. Women’s clubs
did reach their coaching target that
“15 per cent of our new hires will be
black, Asian or of mixed heritage”.

THEBRIEFING
All the Premier League news and quotes
Moyes’s warning for showboating Antony
David Moyes
says Antony
needs to “be careful”
if he decides to
showboat against
West Ham United
tomorrow (Jon West
writes). Manchester
United’s Brazil winger
came in for criticism
after performing a
720-degree double
spin against Sheriff
Tiraspol in the
Europa League on
Thursday night.
The 22-year-old
was guilty of giving
the ball away straight
after, leading to the
United legend Paul
Scholes labelling him
a “clown”.
Whether Antony
will try it again when
Moyes’s West Ham
come to Old Trafford
remains to be seen,
although the player
has already doubled
down on the deluge
of disapproval.
“We are known for
our art and I won’t
stop doing what got
me to where I am!” he

posted in Portuguese
on Instagram.
“I don’t think I’d
have gotten close
enough to him, that’s
the problem,” Moyes
joked when asked
how he might have
reacted should
anyone have tried it
when he was a lower
league defender in his
playing days.
“We all know when
we think it’s a little
over the top. We’ve
had one or two
moments, so I
wouldn’t throw stones
in glass houses. It’s
not for me, really, to

discuss, but if you’re
asking me I’d be
saying, ‘Hey, careful
what you’re doing.’ ”
The United
manager, Erik ten
Hag, has promised
that he will “correct”
his player if he thinks
the £82 million
September signing
from Ajax is just
showing off. The
Dutchman disciplined
Cristiano Ronaldo by
leaving him out of
last week’s squad for
the 1-1 draw away to
Chelsea for refusing
to come off the bench
in the previous game.

‘We haven’t bought success’ Frank relies
on 24-hour
Eddie Howe
takeover. Newcastle,
has defended
who host Aston Villa
Newcastle United
today, sit fourth in the medicine
from claims that they
are buying their way
to success (Jason
Mellor writes).
The Tyneside club
have spent more than
£200 million on
players this year,
including a clubrecord £63 million on
Alexander Isak, the
Sweden forward, to
emerge as top-four
candidates after
fighting last season to
avoid relegation.
Jürgen Klopp, the
Liverpool manager,
recently insisted that
Newcastle have
joined a small set of
elite clubs with “no
ceiling” because of
their financial clout
since last year’s
Saudi-backed

Premier League table
after losing only once
in their opening 12
games. Howe said:
“Money doesn’t buy
success or guarantee
success. It helps, but
you can recruit very
badly and these days
that would cost you a
huge sum of money.
It’s about a mixture
of things.”
Six of the starters
in the 2-1 victory
away to Tottenham
Hotspur on Sunday
were at the club when
Howe arrived just
under 12 months ago,
and he added: “It’s
disappointing when
the talk is just purely
about money, it takes
away the credit for
the players.”

The Brentford
head coach,
Thomas Frank, says
the club’s “24-hour
rule” has helped him
to get over Sunday’s
4-0 defeat away to
Aston Villa.
Brentford, who
were 3-0 down inside
12 minutes at Villa
Park, will bid to
recover at home to
Wolverhampton
Wanderers today.
Frank imposes a
rule that, win or lose,
the previous match is
always forgotten by
the next day. “This
group of players are a
remarkable bunch
mentally,” he said.
“They are committed
to bouncing back
against Wolves.”

Klopp: My face looked angrier than I was
Jürgen Klopp
insists his angry
demeanour, rather
than what he said to
a referee’s assistant,
landed him in trouble
with the FA (Richard
Tanner writes).
Eyebrows have
been raised that the
Liverpool manager
escaped a touchline
ban for his rant
during the win over
Manchester City at
Anfield that led to the
referee, Anthony
Taylor, showing him
the red card.
Klopp has been hit
with a £30,000 fine
but believes that had
he said the same

thing but kept his
distance from Gary
Beswick he would not
have been punished.
Jesse Marsch, who
brings Leeds United
to Anfield tonight,
was given a one-game
touchline ban for an
outburst at a fourth

official at Brentford in
September, but Klopp
does not believe his
words insulted or
disrespected Beswick
after he lost his
temper, inset, when a
“foul” on Mohamed
Salah by Bernardo
Silva went
unpunished.
“I know what I said
and I know that
saying it from a
further distance and
with a different ‘face’,
it would have been
completely fine,” he
said. “All I said was,
‘How can you not
[give a free kick]?
How? How?’ but I
know how I looked.”

10

2GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Football

Meet US coach out
to topple Southgate’s
‘billion-dollar team’
in his commitment to developing a
young team with such talents as
Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah
and in the squad’s “Be The Change”
mantra about taking responsibility for
highlighting issues in Qatar. He has a
team full of strong characters. “We
want them to be brave, we want them
“I started playing at five years old
to be relentless,” he says. Berhalter
and it became a passion. Growing up
has referred to England as “a billionin the New Jersey area, we had a lot
dollar team” yet his team has Pulisic
of Italian soccer, so there was a lot of
and Musah, Sergiño Dest and Gio
watching Inter Milan and Juventus,
Reyna, Weston McKennie, Brenden
and [Juventus defender] Antonio
Aaronson and Tyler Adams, Timothy
Cabrini. I got to enjoy the tactics of
Weah and Antonee Robinson, Matt
the Italian game at a young age.
Turner and Zack Steffen.
“My parents really embraced it,
“I’d never deny that we have talent
taking me all over the world. When I
but I’d also never deny that England
was 13, I was travelling to South
should be the favourites in our group,”
America. Soccer was not a
Berhalter says. “When you’re
passion for my father at all.
talking about the breadth
He couldn’t control a
of the squad England has,
soccer ball at all but
any manager would
he’d go, ‘Look, you
love to be able to select
have to do ten times
from that amount of
more juggles than I
players. England have
Days until the World
do’. And then he’d get
quality players.”
Cup’s opening match
the ball and try to
He’s dismissive of
between Qatar and
juggle five times, then
the suggestion that
Ecuador on Sunday,
I’d have to do ten times
England’s defence is
November 20
more than that, then 15
their Achilles’ heel. “It’s
times more than him.”
hard for me to accept that
That “100 per cent effort”
John Stones is their Achilles’
approach drove a playing career of
heel or Trent Alexander-Arnold or
15 years in Europe, including a season
Harry Maguire. These are players
at Crystal Palace under four
that would start for 30 other national
managers: “Alan Smith, then Steve
teams in the world. We have talented
Kember came in charge as interim.
players, it’s just a smaller nucleus.”
Then Steve Bruce came in and then
Pulisic takes a kicking, doesn’t play
left and went to Birmingham and
as much as he wants to, can get
Trevor Francis came the other way.”
played out of position at wingback at
At the end of that 2001-02 season,
Chelsea, and deals with the pressure
Berhalter turned out for the US in a
of being “Captain America”. “He’s
World Cup quarter-final before
dealt with that for the last six years,”
playing in Germany, then for LA
Berhalter says. “I’ve seen his
Galaxy, and moving into coaching.
transformation as a person and as a
That “100 per cent effort” is evident player and it’s been really fun to

Gregg Berhalter tells Henry Winter
about his season at Crystal Palace and
why England have no weak links

E

very morning at 5am, before
setting off for his advertising
job in Manhattan, Gregg
Berhalter’s father used to go
for a five-mile run around
Englewood, New Jersey. One day, he
suggested to the 12-year-old Gregg
that he should join him. If he wanted
to achieve things in life, Berhalter had
to push himself. So he did, and does.
The man whose team could make
life difficult for England at the Al
Bayt Stadium at the World Cup on
November 25 has always had this
drive. “My parents taught me about
hard work, 100 per cent effort,” the
US men’s national team head coach
says on Friday afternoon, speaking
via zoom from Houston where he is
working with the home-based players
not involved in MLS play-offs.
“In some cases, hard work can
overcome talent. We’d see my dad up
at 5am running, then going off to
work in Manhattan, then [he’d] take
the bus home, the last mile was a
walk and we’d see him coming down
the street with his suit on. But one
thing that always stuck with me when
I was young and started playing was
he’d always ask me, ‘What are you
doing more? You can get up and run
with me.’ ”
So Berhalter did. “We’d run five
miles. I’d be dying behind him. I’d
never forget being so angry seeing his
heels and having no oxygen in my
lungs at 5am. Oh my god. I’ll never
forget it.

22

Foreign workers are made
homeless in Qatari capital
Andrew Mills
Qatar has emptied apartment blocks
housing thousands of foreign workers
in the same areas of Doha, the capital,
where visiting football fans will stay
during the World Cup.
According to Reuters, workers said
that more than a dozen buildings had
been evacuated and shut down by
authorities, forcing the mainly Asian
and African workers to seek what shelter they could — including bedding
down on the pavements outside one of
their former homes.
The move comes less than four
weeks before the start of the tournament on November 20, which has
placed Qatar’s treatment of foreign
workers and its restrictive social laws
under intense international scrutiny.
At one building which housed 1,200
people in Doha’s Al Mansoura district,
authorities told residents at about 8pm

on Wednesday that they had only two
hours to leave.
Municipal officials returned at about
10.30pm, forced everyone out and
locked the doors, the residents said.
Some men had not been able to return
in time to collect their belongings.
“We don’t have anywhere to go,” one
man told the news agency, as he prepared to sleep outside for a second night
with about ten other men. He and most
of the other workers who spoke to
Reuters declined to give their names or
personal details for fear of reprisals
from the authorities or their employers.
A Qatari government official said the
evictions were unrelated to the World
Cup and were designed “in line with
ongoing comprehensive and long-term
plans to reorganise areas of Doha”, adding that “all have been rehoused in safe
and appropriate accommodation”.
Fifa did not respond to a request for
comment and World Cup organisers
directed inquiries to the government.

watch. It’s difficult when you’re at a
club like Chelsea and in any given
summer they can bring in hundreds
of millions of dollars worth of players
and he keeps fighting to get his place.
“What I see is every manager
eventually trusts that he’s going to
give 100 per cent effort in training
and he’s going to be there for the
team when they need him. I’ve got a
lot of respect for Christian and I think
he’s done a fantastic job. He’s not a
wingback but, listen, every manager
likes to try things and sometimes go,
‘OK this is how it can bring out the

best in the player’ and sometimes
they’re absolutely right — you take a
player like that and he’s a
transformation at that position.
Graham Potter is well within his
rights to be doing stuff like this now,
why not? Give it a try. Since he
[Potter] has been there, they’ve been
doing a good job.”
He has other strong characters such
as Adams and Aaronson, who are not
hiding amid Leeds United’s travails.
“Tyler’s a warrior, the guy that goes
on the field and battles. That’s a huge
quality he has and he’s not afraid of

How Davis got chance of a lifetime
Gregor Robertson
“Good things happen to good people,”
the former Nantwich Town captain
Phil Parkinson says of his old manager,
Steve Davis. “To be managing in the
Premier League, I don’t think he’d ever
have believed that would happen. But
he’s a good person. I think people can
see that, they’ll work hard for him. And
he knows his football.”
Parkinson, now manager of
Altrincham in the National League,
was part of the ninth-tier Nantwich
side that Davis, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ temporary manager, led to FA
Vase glory as player-manager in 2006.
Parkinson is right, too. “I probably
didn’t believe [I would ever be here] if
I’m honest,” Davis, who has also managed Crewe Alexandra and Leyton
Orient, says. “When you finish your
career as a footballer — and I finished
as a player-manager at Nantwich when
I was 41 — you’re focusing on what you
want to do next. My coaching career
started in grassroots. I worked in

schools, with kids, six or seven-yearolds. I played as long as I could, got my
badges, my qualifications. But I never
ever dreamt I would be in this position.”
In one sense, then, it is heartwarming to see the 57-year-old, whose
father, Peter, first took him to Molineux
in 1971, given the chance to lead his boyhood club in the Premier League. “I’ve
supported this club since I was six and
I can’t describe how it feels,” Davis says.
So who is the man steering the ship
for at least another six games?
A decade ago, Davis was a rising star
of the lower leagues. He led Crewe to
promotion from League Two only six
months after taking up his first EFL
management role. His success back
then piqued the interest of, among
others, Wolves, then in League One.
Twenty-four games as a player for
Barnsley, when they finished runnersup in Division One in 1996-97, is as close
as Davis came to top-flight football. He
played more than 100 games in defence
for Crewe, Burnley and at Oakwell.
Stints with York City, Oxford United
and Macclesfield Town paved the way

for a brief role as player-manager of
non-League Northwich Victoria.
Nantwich is where Davis cut his
teeth as a coach. “As a man-manager, he
was one of the best I experienced,” Parkinson says. “He treated people with
respect, made you feel valued, wanted.”
Davis joined Crewe in 2009, first as
assistant to the former Stoke City manager Gudjon Thordarson, then Dario
Gradi, whom he succeeded as manager
in November 2011. Crewe were 18th in
League Two. Six months later, Davis
led the team out at Wembley in a playoff final, where Crewe beat Cheltenham Town 2-0. But Davis was sacked in
January 2017. His only subsequent
managerial role came at Leyton Orient
six months later.
So Davis joined Wolves in 2018 to
coach players cast aside by Nuno Espírito Santo. A position in the academy
followed. Davis’s days in management
appeared over. And yet here he is with
the opportunity of a lifetime. “I’ve been
thrust into this position, but I’m enjoying the challenge,” Davis says. “I’m very
proud to lead this team.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

11

2GS

Sport
KYLE RIVAS/GETTY IMAGES

Berhalter holds
his “Captain
America” Pulisic
in particularly
high esteem

pressure,” Berhalter says. “Brenden’s
relentless. He’s a guy that almost
doesn’t realise the magnitude of stuff
because he’s so relentless, he just goes
out there and does it. It’s amazing to
see his impact so far at Leeds.”
Berhalter expresses support for
their coach and compatriot, Jesse
Marsch. “Jesse’s a resilient guy,” he
says. “You don’t get in his position if
you’re not resilient. It’s not ‘an
American manager’ who’s under
pressure, it’s ‘a football manager’
under pressure. There’s been a
number of them throughout the

Premier League already this season, a
number in the Championship, a
number in the Bundesliga. That’s just
our profession.”
Our conversation turns back to his
squad, and whether he has an
established goalkeeper. “We’re
working on the No 1s but Matt
[Turner] just picked up a little [groin]
injury yesterday that’s still being
evaluated but it’s great to see Matt
crack into the [Arsenal] Europa
League line-up and do a good job. We
have a good relationship with their
staff there, they speak very highly of

Matt — again another guy with an A“The circumstances were that we
plus work ethic and he’s really
were missing a bunch of players, there
improved so far since he’s been there.
was a tonne of other obligations
Ethan Horvath’s at Luton and they’ve
during that camp, it was a messed-up
been doing really well. Zack’s in a
camp, it was bad and we have to
[relegation] fight at Middlesbrough.”
accept that and we move on,” he says.
The US do have an issue at No 9.
Their first game will be against
“Everybody has an issue with No 9,
Wales and Berhalter is very respectful
right?” Except for England. “Exactly!
of the threat posed by Gareth Bale
Listen, we’re looking for a guy who
and company. “Listen, when you guys
can consistently put the ball in the
[England] are setting up for your
back of the net at the highest
game against Wales you know it’s
international level and we
going to be a tough game,”
don’t have that right now,
Berhalter says. “The
but that doesn’t mean it
American public hasn’t
can’t come. The reality
appreciated that yet
is any No 9 that’s going
about Wales. It’s going
My wife played
to line up in the World
to be a tough game.
Cup [for the US] will
All their players are
with Sarina
not have been a
Premier League or
Wiegman — the Championship [and
proven No 9 in
Lionesses
international soccer
they are] a very
and that’s just how it’s
physical team, an
inspire me
going to go for us.”
experienced team; it’s
Ricardo Pepi, a possible
going to be a difficult game
No 9 born in Texas with
and the group is the most
Mexican ancestry, is one of a number
physically strong group.”
of players of dual nationality brought
Is it possible to treat Iran as just a
in by the US. “We have a limited
football match given the history?
amount of players so we do scour the
“These players don’t even know anyy
globe for possibilities,” he adds. “More
of the historyy behind it. I’m
importantly, we gauge the connection
not sure the Iranians are
ocused on the
to the flag because that’s really
going to be focused
d it,” he says.
important to us. We don’t want
history behind
ck deep in
mercenaries, we want players that
“If you go back
are connected to what we’re doing, to
history Iran and the United
our country.”
States had a great
Similar to England, Berhalter’s men
relationship. It’s going to be a
h.”
take inspiration from the success of
football match.”
their women’s side. “Of course,” he
The settingg stirs far more
he US team will
says. “Any time a country can win,
debate, and the
oint about
can raise a world trophy, it’s a huge
make their point
event and our women have done that
human rightss in Qatar. “In my
mportant thing
four times, which has been incredible.
opinion, the important
d is we didn’t put
It was inspiring even for me to see the to understand
up there; players
England team this past Euros. Sarina
the World Cup
[Wiegman] played soccer with my
and coaches didn’t vote where
up was going to
wife [Rosalind] in college [University
the World Cup
rhalter says. “For
of North Carolina] so it was nice to
be, right?” Berhalter
see her and just nice to see how the
a lot of us thiss is our dream to
nation got behind the team.”
take part in a World Cup and
ving the
Berhalter’s contract concludes after
now we’re having
this World Cup yet with the squad’s
opportunity. But what you
p
average age being only 24, surely the
see is still the responsibility
hat is] great
target should be winning the World
and this is [what
tball world.
Cup on his own soil in 2026? “Yes, but about the football
I wouldn’t want to hear that if I’m a
“We could have just
d said, ‘You
fan,” he says. “Would you? The
ignored it and
criticism that comes when the
know what, no one’s going
national team loses is completely
to talk about any of that
st going to let it
normal. All people want to do is see
stuff, we’re just
go.’ But it shows
ows how
the national team win games. We
conscious thee football world is
want medals because that’s what’s in
the fabric of our DNA.”
Berhalter is driven
riven by a work
It is why there was plenty of
ethic inspired by 5am runs in
criticism when Berhalter’s side lost to
h his father
New York with
Japan and drew with Saudi Arabia in
ldhood
during his childhood
last month’s final preparation games.

when people are doing all sorts of
things to bring awareness to the
issues there. They have to play soccer
but what they are doing is calling
attention to some of the human rights
issues. That’s a great thing; instead of
ignoring it, we’re saying, ‘OK, listen,
here’s what’s happening in Qatar, we
are participating because hopefully
we can make some change there’ and
that’s a beautiful thing.” There will be
100 per cent effort behind the squad’s
“Be The Change” mantra.
Berhalter’s players are sent a
weekly update on news relating to
human rights in Qatar and US Soccer
has hired a compliance officer to
meet workers at the squad’s hotel in
Qatar and visit their accommodation.
Migrant workers will also receive
coaching from Berhalter and his staff
and rainbow flags and messages of
inclusion will be prominently
displayed.
His players have not been to a
World Cup before. They don’t know
the expectations. He does. “It’s one of
these situations where I can tell them
all day, until I’m as blue as this shirt,
y listen, this is what it’s going to
‘Guys,
be like.’ But until tthat whistle blows
against Wales they
they’re not going to
know and then my hope is that there’s
a reallyy q
quick learn
learning curve because
we’re going to have
hav to [have one] if we
want to be suc
successful.”
He knows the fine margins
rue the referee’s
and still rues
failure to p
punish a handball of
his shot in the quarter-final
the US los
lost 1-0 in 2002 by
Germany’ Torsten Frings.
Germany’s
ta away from that
“What I take
game the most is we felt we
com
could compete,”
he says.
didn feel like we didn’t
“We didn’t
belong on
o that field. We
pushed Germany to the
absolut edge. The
absolute
confide
confidence
that we had
through
throughout
the
tournam
tournament
was that we
can beat anyone in the
world on any given day. You
hav to be the best
don’t have
th world to win the
team in the
Cup
p You just had to be
World Cup.
better than the [other] teams
day That’s where
on that day.
we’re com
coming from now. We
think we have a talented
[tha we can be a
team, [that]
dangerou team but we
dangerous
obviously don’t think we’re
favourites to win the World
Cup.” Bu
But, reflecting
Berhalter 100 per cent effort
Berhalter,
guaran
is guaranteed.

12

1GS

2

BILL EDGAR’S GUIDE TO THE
PREMIER LEAGUE WEEKEND
Bournemouth v Tottenham Hotspur
Today, 3pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm.

0

Goalkeeper subs this
season, both West Ham
games: Bournemouth’s
Neto, Fabianski v City

2

Wolves goals in last
half-hour in all
competitions this
season

Nottingham Forest
goals conceded in
past four league
games

Brighton & Hove Albion v Chelsea
Today, 3pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm. Radio: BBC Five Live.

Crystal Palace v Southampton
Today, 3pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm.

Newcastle United v Aston Villa
Today, 3pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm. Radio: talkSPORT 2.

Brentford (3-5-2)
D Raya — K Ajer, M Jorgensen,
E Pinnock — M Roerslev, F Onyeka,
V Janelt, M Jensen, R Henry —
B Mbeumo, I Toney. Injured P Jansson, A
Hickey, T Strakosha. Doubt C Norgaard.

Brighton (3-4-2-1)
R Sánchez — A Webster, L Dunk,
P Estupinan — S March, M Caicedo,
A Mac Allister, L Trossard — P Gross,
A Lallana — D Welbeck. Injured J Moder.
Doubt J Veltman, T Lamptey. Cannot
face parent club L Colwill.

Crystal Palace (4-3-3)
V Guaita — J Ward, J Andersen, M Guehi,
T Mitchell — J Ayew, C Doucouré, E Eze
— M Olise, O Edouard, W Zaha.
Injured N Clyne, J McArthur,
N Ferguson, C Richards, J Butland.

Wolves (4-2-3-1)
J Sá — Jonny, N Collins, M Kilman,
H Bueno — R Neves, J Moutinho —
A Traoré, M Nunes, D Podence —
D Costa. Injured Toti, R Jiménez,
Chiquinho, S Kalajdzic, P Neto.
Doubt D Costa.

Chelsea (3-4-3)
K Arrizabalaga — T Chalobah, T Silva,
M Cucurella — C Azpilicueta, Jorginho,
R Loftus-Cheek, B Chilwell — M Mount,
P-E Aubameyang, R Sterling. Injured
K Koulibaly, R James, W Fofana,
N Kanté.

Southampton (3-4-3)
G Bazunu — D Caleta-Car, Lyanco,
M Salisu — M Elyounoussi, J WardProwse, A Maitland-Niles, R Perraud —
S Armstrong, A Armstrong, J Aribo.
Injured K Walker-Peters, A BellaKotchap, T Livramento.
Doubt R Lavia.

Newcastle (4-3-3)
N Pope — K Trippier, F Schär, S Botman,
D Burn — S Longstaff, B Guimarães,
J Willock — M Almirón, C Wilson,
Joelinton.
Injured A Isak, M Ritchie, E Krafth,
P Dummett, K Darlow.
Doubt A Saint-Maximin.

Referee A Taylor (matches officiated 10)
0 5 0 35

Referee R Madley (0) 0 0 0 0

Referee A Madley (7) 0 0 0 21

Referee M Salisbury (5) 0 0 0 24

Referee P Tierney (9) 0 2 0 39

Son Heung-Min’s three goals for Spurs
against Leicester are his only goals in 12
league games this season; others have also
known famine and feast
Longest runs of top-flight games since
2021 when only goals were a hat-trick
R Firmino (Liverpool)
14 (Aug 2021-Feb 22)
12 (Aug-Oct 2022)
S Heung-min (Tottenham)
R Sterling (Man City)
11 (Jan-May 2022)
M Mount (Chelsea)
10 (Aug-Nov 2021)
J Harrison (Leeds)
10 (Jan-Mar 2022)

Ivan Toney has scored in the league
against 42 clubs in the past three years, the
most victims of any player
Most clubs scored against in league since
start of 2019-20
42
I Toney (Peterborough, Brentford)
37
J Clarke-Harris (Bristol Rovers, Peterborough)
33
J Yates (Swindon, Rotherham, Blackpool)
32
T Pukki (Norwich)
30
C Stockton (Morecambe)
30
A Mitrovic (Fulham)

Jorginho’s past 17 league goals for
Chelsea have all come from penalties
Most consecutive top-flight goals when all
were penalties
T Clay (Tottenham)
21 (1914-25)
R Stewart (West Ham)
20 (1981-83)
A McCluggage (Burnley)
20 (1925-31)
R Goodall (Huddersfield)
19 (1926-33)
Jorginho (Chelsea)
17 (2020-22)
F Hudspeth (Newcastle)
17 (1916-26)
J Lindsay (Bury)
17 (1902-05)

Southampton’s Gavin Bazunu is among
a trio of young Ireland international
goalkeepers in the Premier League
Youngest goalkeepers with Premier League
start since beginning start of last season
G Bazunu, Southampton (Ireland)
20y, 5m

Newcastle have excelled against non-big
six rivals
Premier League table without matches
featuring big-six teams, since early
October last year*
*Teams who have played
both seasons
Newcastle P28 58pt
48 Brentford P30
West Ham P28
40
Leicester P28
47 Leeds P30
38
45 Brighton P27
Aston Villa P31
36
43 Southampton P29 35
Wolves P30
Crystal Palace P29 42 Everton P28
26

Bournemouth (probable; 4-2-3-1)
M Travers — R Fredericks, C Mepham,
M Senesi, A Smith — L Cook, J Lerma —
R Christie, P Billing, M Tavernier —
D Solanke.
Injured Neto, L Kelly, D Brooks.
Doubt D Solanke.
Tottenham (probable; 3-5-2)
H Lloris — D Sánchez, E Dier, C Lenglet
E Royal, P-E Hojbjerg, Y Bissouma,
R Bentancur, R Sessegnon — H Kane,
Son Heung-min.
Injured D Kulusevski, Richarlison.

Brentford v Wolverhampton
Wanderers
Today, 3pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

I Meslier, Leeds (France Under-21)

21y, 5m

C Kelleher, Liverpool (Ireland)

22y, 0m

M Travers, Bournemouth (Ireland)

23y, 2m

GROUNDS FROM THE PAST Highfield Road

FANS OF THE DAY

Highfield Road was Coventry
City’s home from its opening in
1899 until 2005. The stadium’s
highest attendance was 51,455
for the second-tier match
against Wolverhampton
Wanderers in April 1967, shortly
after Coventry had clinched
their first promotion to the top
flight. Highfield Road hosted

A group of Wales supporters
that includes the former
Cardiff City defender Scott
Young are travelling 5,000
miles to the World Cup in an
electric MG4 car.
They departed from the
FA of Wales headquarters
in the Vale of Glamorgan
yesterday and aim to arrive in

Fulham v Everton
Today, 5.30pm. TV: Sky Sports Main
Event. Radio: BBC Five Live.
Fulham (4-2-3-1)
Leno — B Decordova-Reid, I Diop,
T Ream, A Robinson — H Reed,
J Palhinha — H Wilson, A Pereira,
Willian — A Mitrovic.

the only FA Cup semi-final third
replay, in which Arsenal beat
Liverpool 1-0 in 1980. A year
later it became England’s first
all-seater ground, but the club
soon reintroduced terracing.
Coventry beat Derby County
6-2 in April 2005 in their final
game at the venue before
moving to the Ricoh Arena.
Liverpool v Leeds United
Today, 7.45pm. TV: Sky Sports Main
Event. Radio: talkSPORT.

Arsenal v Nottingham Forest
Tomorrow, 2pm. TV: Highlights, BBC1,
10.30pm. Radio: BBC Five Live.

Manchester United v West Ham United
Tomorrow, 4.15pm. TV: Sky Sports
Main Event. Radio: BBC Five Live.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
A Ramsdale — B White, W Saliba,
Gabriel, T Tomiyasu — T Partey, G Xhaka
— B Saka, M Odegaard, G Martinelli —
G Jesus, Injured E Smith Rowe,
M Elneny. Doubt O Zinchenko, Gabriel,
Marquinhos.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1)
D de Gea — D Dalot, V Lindelof,
L Martinez, L Shaw — Casemiro,
C Eriksen — Antony, B Fernandes,
J Sancho — M Rashford. Injured
R Varane, B Williams, A Tuanzebe.
Doubt A Martial, A Wan-Bissaka.

Injured B Godfrey, Y Mina, A Townsend.

Leeds (4-2-3-1)
I Meslier — L Ayling, R Koch, L Cooper,
P Struijk — S Greenwood, M Roca —
L Sinisterra, B Aaronson, J Harrison —
Rodrigo. Injured S Dallas, A Forshaw.
Doubt T Adams, L Sinisterra, Rodrigo,
L Cooper, J Gelhardt.

Nottingham Forest (4-3-3)
D Henderson — S Aurier, S Cook,
S McKenna, N Williams — R Yates,
R Freuler, C Kouyaté — M Gibbs-White,
B Johnson, J Lingard. Injured
M Niakhaté, O Richards, J Colback,
H Toffolo. Doubt L O’Brien.

West Ham 4-2-3-1)
Fabianski — B Johnson, K Zouma,
T Kehrer, A Cresswell — D Rice,
T Soucek — J Bowen, S Benrahma,
F Downes — G Scamacca. Injured
L Paqueta, C Dawson, M Cornet.
Doubt J Bowen.

Referee J Brooks (5) 0 0 0 21

Referee M Oliver (10) 0 1 0 31

Referee S Hooper (8) 0 0 0 25

Referee C Kavanagh (3) 0 0 0 12

Shane Duffy is being used sparingly
Four top-flight appearances in row from
89th minute or later (last two cases)
Shane Duffy, Fulham Jordon Mutch, Cardiff
(Aug-Oct 2022)
(Aug-Sept 2013)
89th min v Liverpool 96th min v West Ham

Most former junior players change to a
lower shirt number upon becoming a
regular – but not Trent Alexander-Arnold
Premier League goalscorers this season
with highest shirt number
66 T Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) 1 goal
47 P Foden (Man City)
6
45 R Lavia (Southampton)
1
41 D Rice (West Ham)
1
41 J Ramsey (Aston Villa)
1
39 B Guimarães (Newcastle)
2

Arsenal top the table (although they
could be second by kick off) and Forest are
bottom – teams in 20th have recorded more
four-goal wins than those in first place
Pre-match league position of teams who
have won Premier League games by 4+
*Position at start of day
goals this season*
2nd
2 occasions 9th
1
3rd
16th
1
1
4th
17th
1
1
20th
7th
1
2

West Ham will be the first Premier League
team for 11 seasons to have played 20 times
by the end of October
Top-flight clubs playing 20 games before
November (last two cases)
West Ham, 2022-23
20 (13 league, 7 Europa

Everton (4-3-3)
J Pickford — S Coleman, C Coady,
J Tarkowski, V Mykolenko — A Iwobi,
I Gueye, A Onana — A Gordon,
D Calvert-Lewin, D Gray.

89th min v Brentford 90th min v Man City
89th min v West Ham 89th min v Everton
89th min v Leed

90th min v Hull

cars can bring for people and
the planet.”

Qatar on November 18,
three days before Wales’s
first World Cup finals game in
64 years.
Nick Smith, one of the fans
embarking on the “Electric
Car To Qatar” odyssey, said:
“We’re driven by both a love
for football and a passion for
the positive change electric

Liverpool (4-4-2)
Alisson — T Alexander-Arnold, J Gomez,
V van Dijk, A Robertson — H Elliott,
Fabinho, Thiago, F Carvalho — M Salah,
R Firmino. Injured L Diaz, D Jota,
J Matip, N Keita, Arthur. Doubt
J Henderson.

Injured L Kurzawa, M Solomon.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1)
E Martínez — M Cash, E Konsa,
T Mings, L Digne — D Luiz,
L Dendoncker — O Watkins, E Buendía,
L Bailey — D Ings. Injured B Kamara,
D Carlos, L Augustinsson.

Conference League)

Fulham, 2011-12
22 (10 league, 11 Europa

League, 1 League Cup)

HOW THEY S
STAND
TAND
TA
ND
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Arsenal
Man City
Tottenham
Newcastle
Chelsea
Man Utd
Fulham
Liverpool
Brighton
West Ham
Brentford
Everton
Crystal Palace
Bournemouth
Aston Villa
Southampton
Leicester
Leeds
Wolves
Nottm Forest

P
11
11
12
12
11
11
12
11
11
12
12
12
11
12
12
12
12
11
12
12

W
9
8
7
5
6
6
5
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2

D
1
2
2
6
3
2
3
4
3
2
5
4
4
4
3
3
2
3
3
3

L
1
1
3
1
2
3
4
3
4
6
4
5
4
5
6
6
7
6
7
7

GD
14
25
9
10
5
0
0
9
1
-1
-3
-1
-4
-15
-5
-8
-3
-5
-13
-15

Pts
28
26
23
21
21
20
18
16
15
14
14
13
13
13
12
12
11
9
9
9

TOP SCORERS
Haaland (Manchester City)
Kane (Tottenham)
Mitrovic (Fulham)
Toney (Brentford)

17
10
9
8

TOP ASSISTS
De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Silva (Manchester City)
Iwobi (Everton)
Pereira (Fulham)

9
5
5
4

Their only major trophy was the 1947 FA Cup: they
beat Burnley 1-0 in the final, a year after losing 4-1
to Derby County in their only other major final
appearance. Jimmy Seed, manager from 1933 to
1956, oversaw their greatest period.

A brief history of
Charlton Athletic

7-6

Formed in 1905, Charlton joined the league
in 1921. In five years before the war they rose
from third tier to top flight and had three
top-four finishes, runners-up in 1936-37.

Charlton’s 7-6 victory at home to
Huddersfield Town in 1957 is the only
league case of a team conceding six and
winning; injury reduced Charlton to ten
men from the opening moments and they
trailed 5-1 with 28 minutes left.

Goalkeeper Sam Bartram,
right, made a club-high 626
appearances from 1934 to
1956. The record goal tally
is 168 by Derek Hales, who
was sent off with teammate Mike Flanagan for
fighting during an FA Cup
match against Maidstone
United in 1979.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

13

1GS

WHEN I FELL
IN LOVE WITH
RUGBY UNION

MATCH IN FOCUS

Leicester City v Manchester City
Kick-off: Today, 12.30pm
TV: Live, BT Sport 1
Radio: talkSPORT
Referee: R Jones

Leicester City (4-3-3)
D Ward

T Castagne

J Justin
D Amartey W Faes

Y Tielemans B Soumaré K Dewsbury-Hall
J Maddison

P Daka

H Barnes

P Foden

E Haaland

R Mahrez

B Silva

Rodri

K De Bruyne

J Cancelo

End to end

Manchester City’s next four matches after
this, across three competitions, are all at
home so this is their last away game until
late December. Victory here would move
them top of the Premier League above
Arsenal, for one day at least, but they will
be concerned at having failed to score in
their past three matches on the road – two
goalless Champions League games and a
1-0 defeat to Liverpool. They will hope
Erling Haaland recovers from a minor foot
injury to face Leicester, who have
suddenly found form, shrugging off the
memory of six consecutive defeats by
gaining ten points from their subsequent
five league outings

The game should feature the meeting of
two strikers who have thrived at opposite
ends of a footballer’s age range. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has already run up
a century of top-division goals across
various countries but is still five years
younger than Jamie Vardy was when the
latter played top-flight football for the first
time at 27 after Leicester’s promotion.
Vardy’s goal against Wolves last week was
his 134th in the Premier League
Goals scored in top divisions
Erling Haaland (Norway, Austria, Germany,
England)

110
goals,
all when age
16-22

M Akanji
A Laporte

Jamie Vardy (England)

R Dias

Ederson

134

Manchester City (4-3-3)

goals,
all when age
27-35

Leicester City
Injured: R Pereira, R Bertrand
Doubt: J Evans, W Ndidi
Manchester City
Injured: K Walker, K Phillips
Doubt: E Haaland

Mahrez’s multiple misses
Riyad Mahrez’s failure from the spot for
Manchester City against Borussia
Dortmund was especially galling because
it would have been the game’s only goal
had it been converted. In fact it was his
fourth penalty miss in a 0-0 draw in the top
flight or Champions League since 2015, yet
only one other Premier League player –
Neal Maupay – has suffered that fate even
twice in that period
Premier League/Champions League
penalty misses for English clubs in
0-0 draws since summer 2015
Riyad Mahrez (for Leicester at home to
Bournemouth; for Man City away to
Liverpool, away to Copenhagen and away
to Borussia Dortmund)

James II on target
Englishmen named James have
dominated the free kick scoring charts in
recent years. Leicester’s James Maddison
has converted eight such attempts in the
past four years, with only James
Ward-Prowse ahead of him
Most Premier League goals direct from
free kicks since summer 2018
James Ward-Prowse, Southampton
12

77 attempts

James Maddison, Leicester
8

Neal Maupay (for Brighton away to
Leicester and at home to Norwich)
2

12 attempts

Classic meeting

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool
4

February 19, 1968
FA Cup fourth round replay: Leicester 4, Man City 3

49 attempts

David Silva, Man City
3

9 attempts

Granit Xhaka, Arsenal
3

16 attempts

Rúben Neves, Wolves
3

I’m from Ulster, but one of the
three counties, County
Monaghan, that’s not in
Northern Ireland. It was
Gaelic Football all the way
growing up — rugby was
definitely not a big part of
where I’m from.
There was only one player
from my county before me
who played rugby for Ireland:
James Cecil Parke. He also
won a Wimbledon mixed
doubles medal, represented
Ireland in cricket and won an
Olympic gold medal as well in
the early 1900s. I had a little
bit of catching up to do.
My dad was big into rugby
and so I grew up going down
to matches at the old
Lansdowne Road. The Irish
internationals were the big
ones he used to take me to. I
remember seeing Ireland
against Australia; it was Simon
Geoghegan against David
Campese.
If my dad could get me a
ticket to see them play it was
the best day of my life, as they
were two of my heroes along
with Christian Cullen, the All
Blacks’ full back.
I used to try to sneak into
the team hotel after matches
in Dublin and one time I

4

61 attempts

Kieran Trippier, Newcastle
4

Former Ireland wing
Tommy Bowe on
his Gaelic football
grounding and
getting a cap
from David
Campese

James
Maddison

40 attempts

Leicester

Manchester City had knocked Leicester out of the FA Cup in the
previous two years and would beat them in the final the
following season – they had even eliminated them from this
season’s League Cup – but the Foxes enjoyed the upper hand
here despite falling 2-0 behind. The teams had drawn 0-0 in the
first match at Maine Road two days earlier but there were goals
aplenty in the replay. Francis Lee was developing a reputation for
winning and converting penalties and he did both here, firing
home the opener after John Sjoberg fouled him. A mix-up
between Peter Shilton and Bobby Roberts allowed Mike
Summerbee to score the visitors’ second, but Leicester struck
back by sending a barrage of long balls to the heads of their
strikers Frank Large and Mike Stringfellow. Large struck twice,
and Rodney Fern and David Nish once each, to make it 4-2 before
Colin Bell replied. Manchester City were out – but three months
later they were league champions
Guess the season: Answer: 1972-73
972-73

1920

Alan
Curbishley,
right, guided
them to the top
flight in 1998
and 2000 but
since 2007
they have
spent seven
seasons in the
Championship
and nine in
League One.

They have played at The Valley since
ince
rd
1920, aside from stints at Catford
(1923-24), Selhurst Park
(1985-91) and Upton Park
(1991-92).

Charlton signed 11 South African players between
1945 and 1960, while two others from that nation,
Shaun Bartlett and Mark Fish, right, helped them to
top-ten Premier League finishes in 2001 and 2004.

actually got a cap from
Campese. This was 1996, and I
was 12, so it was the coolest
thing. He gave it to me and
signed it. I think I’ve lost it
since, but I have all my old
programmes.
Back then I spent the
summer playing Gaelic
football and winter playing
rugby. I spent my childhood
doing everything from Gaelic
football, rugby, horse riding,
golf, tennis . . . you name it.
I played Gaelic for Emyvale
then County Monaghan until
under-17s, before I had to
make a decision on which
sport to follow. At under-18s it
goes into “minor football” — a
big all-Ireland competition.
The minor team wanted me to
train in the rugby season so
that’s when I had to choose.
I picked rugby, got myself
into the Ulster academy and it
all happened from there.
6 Sage is the official insights
partner of Six Nations Rugby
and will be powering the
smart ball for the autumn
internationals.
Interview by Will Kelleher

14

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport T20 World Cup

Buttler: Washouts
distorting outcome
of the tournament
Simon Wilde
Melbourne

Jos Buttler said that the integrity of the
T20 World Cup had potentially been
brought into question after England’s
match with Australia became the third
group one game in three days at the
MCG to be washed out, but said that
despite missing an opportunity to steal
a march on their arch-rivals his team’s
destiny remained in their hands.
England must now beat New Zealand
in Brisbane on Tuesday and Sri Lanka a
week today to have a realistic chance of
reaching the semi-finals, but even then
the likelihood is that teams may need
separating on net run rate as it is not
hard to see Australia and New Zealand
also joining them on seven points. As
the Sri Lanka game in Sydney is the last
in the group to be played, England
could have the advantage of knowing
exactly what they need to do to finesse
their net run rate accordingly.
“The way the weather is, it is going to
be like playing a cup final every game,”
Ben Stokes said. “That is what these
competitions are about. You are always
under pressure to perform. We’ll be
looking forward to the next two games.
It is obviously a shame for the people
who turned out tonight.”
England last met New Zealand in a
white-ball match at last year’s T20
World Cup semi-final when their
death-bowling fell apart on a fraught
night in Abu Dhabi.
Asked if he thought the integrity of
the competition had been brought into
question by bad weather producing
four “no results” in 14 Super 12 matches
so far, Buttler said: “It’s tough. Afghanistan have had two games washed out in
a tournament where you potentially
only play five matches. It’s naturally

frustrating for all of us. Is it something
you can look at? Would you have to
elongate the tournament too much? I
don’t know.
“It’s quite a ruthless format. We all
know that and accept it. But if you have
multiple games affected by the weather
it doesn’t give you a true reflection of
how you’d hope the tournament turns
out.”
With rain falling for most of the day,
there was little prospect of play in either
the afternoon game between Afghanistan and Ireland, or the England game,
but a crowd of 37,565 still came through
the gate.
The rain briefly abated enough for a
mopping up operation to begin and
raise hopes of a short contest, but in
truth conditions remained hopelessly
damp and the second game was called
off at 8.50pm. “It’s as wet as I’ve ever
seen,” Australia captain Aaron Finch, a
Victorian who knows Melbourne’s
weather better than most, said.
While a “no result” could be considered an opportunity missed for both
teams, equally it gave them a chance to
fight another day. Defeat for either side
would have been near-terminal.
The schedule for this tournament —
which was originally slated for 2020
before Covid-19 led to a two-year postponement — was arranged by the ICC
in conjunction with Cricket Australia as
long ago as 2014. Reasonable questions
can be asked of Cricket Australia as to
why they chose to play in what is effectively the country’s spring, and why the
wettest areas such as Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart feature so prominently.
These venues host 17 of the 33 games.
Before this year, Australia had never
previously staged an international
match at the MCG in October. The few
games that have been played in the city
at this time of year were at the Dock-

lands Stadium, which is used for the Big
Bash (BBL) and has a roof.
Andrew McDonald, Australia’s head
coach, said that allocating games to
Docklands over the MCG would be
controversial.
“Everyone likes to play at the MCG,”
he said. “You can’t predict the weather
but what you do know is Melbourne
fans generally turn out and when it’s
England-Australia, there’s probably no
better place you want to be playing.
“Whether we should play at stadiums
with a roof, that would be up to those
doing the scheduling. It is not a purpose-built cricket venue [though] it’s
done all right for the BBL games.”
Buttler said: “I’m no weather expert
on Australia at this time of year but we
all want to play full games of cricket.
Naturally we play a sport which is open
air and the elements are a huge part of
our game. They affect the surfaces, they
affect conditions and it’s an intriguing
part of what makes our sport unique.
Unfortunately it can be affected by
weather. You don’t want to be involved
in those games but it can happen.
“We know, to a certain degree, we
have our destiny in our own hands.
There is still a lot of confidence in the
group. We have some great players who
are determined to right some wrongs
from the other night [in the loss to
Ireland]. This is what World Cup cricket
and knockout cricket is about — these
huge games and being able to perform
in them.”
Buttler also thinks England playing
the last match in their group offers
some help. “It could be a small advantage but to make use of that we need to
win the game against New Zealand,” he
said. “We’ll travel up to Brisbane and
get everyone rested and ready to go.
There’s a lot of frustration because we
wanted to right the last performance.”

Young fans get
a selfie with
Glenn Maxwell
during the rain
delays at MCG

Not ideal for cricket . . .
Rainfall in Melbourne (mm) - October is typically the wettest month
This year
Average

200
180
160
140

142mm

120
100
80
60
40
Source: bom.gov.au

Jan

Mar

May

Jul

Sep

20
0

Nov

‘Saudi switch hasn’t hurt Rory friendship but I can’t see
Graeme McDowell tells
Tom Kershaw about
getting death threats
after his LIV switch and
his hopes for his legacy

W

hen Graeme
McDowell fielded
questions before LIV
Golf’s inaugural
event in St Albans,
the result amounted to a desecration
of his own reputation as he parroted
party lines about “growing the sport”.
A month later, the 43-year-old was
still getting online death threats but
did little to conjure any sympathy
after describing the link between LIV
and Saudi Arabia’s dismal human
rights record as “tenuous”.
It explains why McDowell has been
reluctant to give interviews, initially

refusing before LIV’s season-ending
event here in Miami, but a rare
window has opened up at Doral for
him to reflect on the most tumultuous
period of his career. The 2010 US
Open champion was among the first
raft of defectors, who bore the most
risk and criticism but who were
handsomely rewarded — in
McDowell’s case at a time when his
golf seemed to be in terminal decline.
“You know hindsight is 20:20. If I
could go back to London all over
again, I would have said a lot less
than I did,” he says. “We were the first
guys in and I was representing [LIV]
who were believing in me to say the
right things. Looking back, I tried to
answer questions that were
unanswerable — the Saudi stuff. It
didn’t matter what I said or what logic
I tried to apply, I realise now that no
one cared, they were so focused on
the negativity. All I was doing was
shining a spotlight very brightly on
myself when there was no point.
“It took me a couple of months to

McDowell seals Europe’s 2010 Ryder Cup win; right, with Greg Norman of LIV

deal with what happened. There’s no
doubt it was very, very hard to be in
the moment, to be present, and that’s
just my personality. I haven’t played
the way I wanted because I haven’t
dealt well with the noise.”
McDowell still tries to speak
honestly and “from the heart” and,
while most LIV players are tightlipped, it has perhaps been to his own

detriment, but he has no hesitation in
admitting that certain aspects of LIV’s
format felt “contrived” from the
outset. “I’m like, ‘Ah, teams, you
know, cool,’ ” he says with a healthy
dose of sarcasm. “I think in the
beginning, I thought we may have to
be patient for 18 months and if we
build it, they will come. As one of the
early adopters, there was always going

to be that little niggling doubt at the
back of the mind, but it’s hard not to
say it’s been successful despite all the
noise, the negativity. It’s got better as
the weeks have gone on and guys are
really buying into it. I’m happy with
what the future holds.”
That allegiance inevitably came at
the expense of McDowell’s
relationship with the DP World Tour,
which was fractured after he reneged
on a commitment to play at the Irish
Open, owing to its clash with LIV’s
second event at Pumpkin Ridge.
When the 2027 Ryder Cup was
awarded to Adare Manor, it was
considered almost inevitable that
McDowell, who still treasures his
winning putt in 2010 as “the greatest
experience of my life”, would be
named Europe’s captain. It’s now a
remote possibility and, although he
insists “a lot of things can happen”, he
does concede it is “very difficult [to
see if there’s a way back]”.
“I can only speak for me personally;
it hasn’t hurt me or any of my

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

15

1GS

Sport
DANIEL POCKETT/ICC/GETTY IMAGES

Strauss blueprint for game
in tatters after county revolt
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER

Elizabeth Ammon

Group 1 as it stands
G
N
New
Zealand
E
England
Ir
Ireland
A
Australia
S Lanka
Sri
A
Afghanistan

P W L N/R RR
2 1 0 1 4.45
3 1 1 1 0.24
3 1 1 1 -1.12
3 1 1 1 -1.56
2 1 1 0 0.45
3 0 1 2 -0.62

Pts
3
3
3
3
2
2

R
Remaining
fixtures: Today New Zealand v
S
Sri Lanka (Sydney, 9am) Monday Australia v
IIreland (Brisbane, 8am) Tuesday Afghanistan
v Sri Lanka (Brisbane, 4am), England v New
Z
Zealand (Brisbane, 8am) Friday Ireland v
N
New Zealand (Adelaide, 4am), Afghanistan v
A
Australia (Adelaide, 8am) Saturday England
v Sri Lanka (Sydney, 8am) All times BST

a Ryder Cup reunion’
relationships with people that I call
friends as players,” he says.
“Specifically Rory [McIlroy] and
Shane [Lowry]. We don’t have any
personal animosity, they’re rowing
their own canoe and they’re great
players and I respect them both.
Obviously, they’re integral to the
Ryder Cup team, but why I picked
them out is because they’re both my
very good friends.
“How do we all get back in a room
and play as a 12? Does that ever
happen again? I really don’t know. It’s
unfortunate that it’s got so out of
control. There’s a lot of very muddy
water under the bridge and there’s a
lot to do to create a cohesive global
golf environment again. I want all this
to work. I’ve maybe only got two or
three years left competitively, so it
may not happen in my golfing
lifetime, but I certainly hope it does
because I love golf and all the
opportunities I’ve had in this sport.”
That sentiment feels genuine, even
if others might consider it as having

one’s cake and eating it too. After
joining LIV, McDowell admitted that
a 20-year legacy encompassing 16
professional wins, including his
famous triumph at Pebble Beach,
along with an outstanding Ryder Cup
record, had been “tarnished”, but he is
hopeful that the damage to his
reputation will not overshadow all
he’s achieved.
“I believe in my heart that ‘legacy’
is not what a bunch of keyboard
warriors on social media think about
me,” he says. “The people in golf will
hopefully always respect me and this
is short-term noise, this will not
continue for ever. ‘Legacy’ is one of
those words that’s like, what does it
mean? The people that know me,
know I haven’t changed as a person.
Just because I’ve chosen a different
path doesn’t change who I am or
what I’ve done, right? It’s a weird
word. Legacies are for people way
more important than me. I’ve won a
few tournaments around the world,
made a few putts at the right time.”

Sir Andrew Strauss’s radical proposals
to reduce the amount of county cricket
and create a top division of only six
teams are set to be rejected with more
than two thirds of the counties indicating that they would block any moves to
cut the number of matches.
However, the ECB is understood to
be considering the idea of condensing
the Hundred, its flagship franchise
tournament, into a shorter time span, to
allow more County Championship
cricket to be played in August.
Strauss’s high-performance review
panel, which included Rob Key, the
ECB’s managing director of men’s
cricket, Dave Brailsford, the former
Team Sky performance director, and
Dan Ashworth, Newcastle United’s
performance director, published 17 proposals in September designed to help
England become the top-ranked team
in all formats within five years. The two
most controversial proposals related to
reforms to county cricket.
The report recommended a six-team
County Championship top tier with
two conferences each of six teams
below vying for one promotion place. It
also suggested a reduction in Championship matches from 14 to 10 per summer, with the changes to take effect
from 2024.
Other recommendations were to cut
the number of T20 Blast matches, also
from 14 to 10, and that two first-class
“festival” games should be played in
August alongside the Hundred, with
the one-day cup, presently in August,
moved to April.
Counties were given six weeks to
consult their members, with a vote on
the proposals scheduled for the end of
this month. Changes to any of the three
domestic competitions would require
12 of the 18 counties to vote in favour,
but it became clear almost immediately
that the proposals would not get anywhere near 12 votes. It seems certain
now that there will be no need for a vote
after most counties indicated they
would reject the recommendations in
their entirety. The only changes for
2024 onwards are likely to involve some
tinkering with the schedule, which happens in most years anyway.
One area where there could be a
small but significant change is the
Hundred. There is a view among many
counties that it should be shortened by
a week — at present it is played over
more than five weeks to coincide with
the school summer holidays — to free
up an extra slot at the height of summer
to play a championship match. This
means there could be one or two
rounds of championship games in July
and another in August.
Previously, a proposed change to the
Hundred would not have been
entertained but this could now be up for
discussion. A reduction in the time
span of the competition could be
achieved without cutting the number of
matches by having more than one
double header at different venues on
some days,
While the original proposals were
endorsed by the ECB, the governing
body always knew that opposition was
likely, and they are comfortable for the
counties to come up with other
solutions. Under the new administration, headed by the former Surrey
chairman Richard Thompson, there is
a much more collaborative approach
with the counties than in recent years.
The issue is identifying the solution.

Surrey won the County Championship, under the two-division system, this year

There is general agreement among
the ECB, county executives, players,
coaches and many supporters that the
2022 schedule did not work. There was
too much cricket packed into the start
and end of the season with those counties who did not host Hundred matches
left with only four days of action at their
grounds for the whole of August.
The T20 Blast started in mid-May
before the end of the football season,
which affected ticket sales. Most counties began the season with six or seven
back-to-back championship matches
which, medical staff have said, had a
negative impact on the fitness of seam
bowlers.
Despite this, more than two thirds of
the counties do not want to see any
reduction in either the championship
or the T20 Blast, do not want any championship matches played alongside the
Hundred in July and August and want
to keep the one-day cup in August.
Their argument is that with so many
players unavailable because of the
Hundred, the integrity of the County
Championship would be compromised,
with most teams having to field
under-strength line-ups.
Strauss’s report identified that not
enough red-ball cricket was being
played at the height of summer, which
was particularly affecting the ability to
develop quality spinners, so the
suggestion was that, to avoid compro-

£3.5m boost for women
The ECB has announced a
£3.5 million increase in funding for
the women’s regional game to run
until the end of 2024.
From November 1, the number of
professional players funded by the
ECB will go up from six to seven
per region, rising again to ten on
February 1. In 2023 there will be 80
ECB-funded professional women’s
domestic cricketers — double the
40 initially contracted in 2020 — in
addition to the England Women’s
centrally contracted players. The
salary pot for each team will rise to
£250,000 from February, meaning
the average salary for a women’s
regional cricketer will be £25,000.

mising the championship and still
provide members with some first-class
cricket, two red-ball matches would be
played against a local rival at a “festival”.
This did not meet with much approval.
The Sussex chairman, Jon Filby, said
that his members would not accept a
reduction in the championship in
return for two “meaningless friendlies”.
Almost all counties were against any
reduction in the T20 Blast which would
have a significant impact on their
revenues and, they argue, their ability
to attract new audiences.
Most counties also rejected the idea
of a top division of only six teams, arguing that it would be too difficult to get
promoted out of one of the two conferences, as it would be based on the result
of a play-off match at the end of the
season. The present two-division
system, with promotion and relegation,
is what most counties prefer and is what
will stay for the foreseeable future.
With no reduction in the number of
matches and the basic structure of the
summer likely to remain the same, the
only room for manoeuvre is to tinker
with the schedule so the Blast starts a
bit later in the season and, perhaps, an
extra championship match is squeezed
into August.
This will concern the Professional
Cricketers’ Association, which said a
reduction in the amount of cricket was
one of its “key fundamentals” to protect
player welfare. It is a view shared by
many directors of cricket, head coaches
and physios. It is not shared, however,
by most members, and at some counties
there is a disconnect between what the
playing staff and executives believe is
the right way forward and what the
chairmen and bean-counters want.
County members’ opposition to a
reduction in the number of matches
was so strong that a national campaign
was started, and a number of special
general meetings were invoked at
counties to try to ensure that their club
voted against any proposal. Fifteen of
the 18 counties are member-owned.
Conversations will continue. No
decisions need to be taken imminently
— it had already been decided that
there would be no changes for 2023.
However, there is a desire to agree what
the 2024 season might look like by next
summer. What is clear is that Strauss’s
proposals will not come to fruition.

16

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Formula One

Succession drama grips Red Bull land
FRANCK ROBICHON/EPA; BALAZS GARDI/AFP; RED BULL CONTENT

MAX VERSTAPPEN

Rick
Broadbent
In Fuschl am See

Sweep down the lake road towards the
tiny Austrian village and you can easily
miss it. Eyes lured left by the music-box
chalets and flatliner calm, you are
drawn away from the space-age yurts
on the right. There is no company
branding or lettering on the glass walls.
The only thing that gives it away is Die
Bullen von Fuschl, forged by a former
goldsmith and once billed as the largest
bronze sculpture in Europe. No
bullshit, red or otherwise.
Fuschl has a population of only 1,500
and Red Bull has a workforce of 13,610
in 172 countries. Yet this place, with a
few shops, a leisure centre and hotels
catering to walking tours, is the unlikely
HQ of a global business. It is where
Dietrich Mateschitz, who died last Saturday aged 78, chose to base the energy
drinks company and dream up sporting
milestones. The 51st richest man in the
world had his first office in Fuschl and
so wanted to continue the link. The
s, comsculpted bulls and new offices,
pleted in 2015, include an
dly
eagle’s-perch office supposedly
accessed only via a fingerprint. Itt
has the look of a Bond villain’s
lair: Carbonated Goldfinger,
Blofeld on a sugar rush.
Mateschitz, though, was a
good guy if you listen to the
hordes of sporting figures
around the world or the people
in Fuschl. Most of those by thee
ve
lake rarely, if ever, seem to have
seen Austria’s richest man, but it is
not hard to find accounts of hiss good
lleyball
deeds. A man on a path by the volleyball
nvested
court tells me how Mateschitz invested
€70 million (about £60 million) in Salzburg’s ailing hospital.
His partner adds that Mateschitz had
supported her friend, a local artist. Marc
Janko, a former player with Red Bull
Salzburg, once got a call from an unknown number promising unconditional support when he thought an
injury might prevent him from walking
pain-free again. “I was a no-name and
therefore surprised that the worldfamous, successful company boss
would take care of a little fish like me.”
But what now? Christian Horner, the
principal of Red Bull’s Formula One
team, said Mateschitz had been involved in planning the future “up until
last week”. That, he added, ensured Red
Bull Racing was “in a very strong position for many, many years to come”.
Yet Mateschitz’s intense love of privacy, whether living here or on his Fijian
island, means speculation is rife about
how the Red Bull succession will pan
out, and with a fortune estimated at
£23 billion, that is unsurprising.

TOM PIDCOCK

FELIX
BAUMGARTNER

Speculation is rife about whether the death of Mateschitz, inset, will affect Red Bull’s sport empire and its sponsorship of elite athletes
Sp

He leaves
partn Mara partner,
Feich
ion Feichtner,
39,
as well as a so
son, Mark,
29 from a two-year relationship
relations
29,
with
Anita Gerhardter, a former skier. She is
now the chief executive of Wings for
Life, co-founded by Mateschitz with an
aim to find a cure for traumatic spinalcord injury. That was borne of a friendship with a motocross champion whose
son was left tetraplegic after an
accident. Mark is on the executive
board of Wings of Life and has run a
brewery for his father, albeit not as part
of the Red Bull empire.
Valentin Snobe, a journalist with
Austria’s largest newspaper, Krone, in
nearby Salzburg, said: “Some people are
worried about what will happen, but
nobody knows for sure.”
The history of Red Bull has been well
told this week — it sold 9.8 billion cans
last year — but the fact is Mateschitz
owned 49 per cent of Red Bull GmbH,
with the family of the late Thai cofounder, Chaleo Yoovidhya, having
51 per cent. According to German
media, the death of Mateschitz, who
had the final say on sporting matters,
means the Thais are now in charge.

The bronze bulls at Red Bull HQ in Fuschl sum up Mateschitz’s maverick approach

Chalerm Yoovidhya, 72, succeeded
his father, but one of his own heirs remains at the centre of an international
scandal. Ten years ago last month Vorayuth Yoovidhya was allegedly driving
his Ferrari at more than 100mph when
it struck and killed a policeman, Wichian Klanprasert, who was on a motorbike. Yoovidhya faced charges including reckless driving causing death.
The case sparked waves of protest in
Thailand as Yoovidhya avoided court
hearings and was spotted in Red Bull
VIP seats at grands prix. Two years ago
the police said all charges were being
dropped, prompting allegations about a
corrupt system that protected the rich.
Calls to boycott Red Bull products
followed. And then a new arrest warrant was issued after a case review. He
remains wanted in Thailand.
That all seems a millions miles away
from Fuschl. This peaceful alpine oasis
is not the centre of the world. It is 22
kilometres from the centre of Salzburg.
For decades the region has been known
for Mozart and Julie Andrews taking on
Nazi Germany via the medium of closeharmony singing in The Sound of Music.
Now it has Red Bull — and Mateschitz’s
imprint is everywhere.
A short drive away are Hangars 7 and
8. These house Mateschitz’s collection
of F1 cars, Michelin-star restaurants
and aircraft, including a Douglas DC-6
that belonged to the Yugoslav dictator
Josip Broz Tito. Mateschitz paid a million dollars for the 1958 relic and it was
put back together piece by piece.
A short hop over the airfield is the
Red Bull Arena. It is the 30,000-seat
home of RB Salzburg. In 2005 Mateschitz bought the club, who dated back
to 1933, and they have generally been
Austria’s dominant side ever since.
Mateschitz incurred the wrath of fans,
however, by stating this was a new club
with no history. He changed the name
and colours, saying: “The red bull can’t
be violet.” Criticism was dismissed as
“kindergarten stuff”. Outside Bulls

Household names
There are hundreds of Red Bullsponsored athletes — here are ten
you may have heard of:
Ben Stokes (age 31) England Test
cricket captain
Max Verstappen (25) Reigning
Formula One world champion
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis (22)
Pole vault Olympic champion and
world-record holder
Maddie Hinch (34) England hockey
goalkeeper and 2016 Olympic hero
Tom Pidcock (23) Olympic crosscountry cycling champion
Helen Housby (27) England netball
star and Commonwealth champion
Siya Kolisi (31) South Africa’s World
Cup-winning rugby captain
Trent Alexander-Arnold (24)
Premier League and Champions
League-winning footballer with
Liverpool
Karsten Warholm (26) European,
world and Olympic 400m hurdles
champion from Norway
Felix Baumgartner (53) Austrian
skydiver who fell from space in 2012

GERMANY
Linz

AUSTRIA
Fuschl
Salzburg

20 miles

Corner, a stadium café, I spoke to a few
fans. “Look, a lot of old supporters did
not like it and left, but he has been great
for us,” one said. “He had big ideas.”
What about 2018 when there were
protests after Uefa allowed RB Salzburg to play RB Leipzig in the Europa
League? Bayern Munich fans sneaked
in and unveiled a mocking banner: “RB
Fuschl-am-See (S) v RB Fuschl-am-See
(LE) — with the cordial permission of a
double licence from Uefa.” At another
match they displayed another banner:
“Mateschitz wins, the sport loses.” One
of the fans put down his beer and smiled
at the memory: “Yeah, but we won.”
From hangar to hang-out, Mateschitz generally did too. A few hours
away in his native Styria is the Red Bull
Ring, the F1 track he liked so much that
he bought it. Nearby is the Hofwirt, a
baroque hotel that he also bought and
where he entertained GP guests clad in
his best lederhosen.
He had not been seen in public for
more than a year and shunned interviews. Maybe it was because one of the
ones he did led to him being criticised
for his views on refugees; he was also
accused of giving the far right a platform on his TV channel.
He did not want a big fuss this week,
either. At around midday a procession
of hip professionals make their way
across the lake road into Fuschl. This is
the Red Bull workforce. An email has
been sent to all staff asking them to respect “his wish to express your grief in
silence and restraint”. A request to chat
to Horner gets the same response.
There are no tributes here, but the
bronze bulls sum up Mateschitz’s
maverick approach. Jos Pirkner, the
artist behind them, tells me Mateschitz
was unhappy with how construction
was going and asked him to come up
with something better. Then he left him
to it. “I was given total freedom as to the
design and finances,” he says. Like most
things a unique sporting billionaire did,
it ended up catching the attention.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

17

1GS

Sport
HENRY ROMERO/REUTERS

Thrill of the
chase inspires
Hamilton to
race into 40s
Rebecca Clancy
Motor Racing Correspondent, Mexico City

As recently as last year, Lewis Hamilton
— who turns 38 in January — was
adamant that he would not race into his
forties. Perhaps it was the intensity of
the battle with Max Verstappen that
made him think it would not be possible
to continue. Few, if any, could sustain
that sort of pressure for a long period of
time and emerge intact.
But Hamilton’s job has changed this
year. No longer in the title fight, he has
become the driver in charge of leading
Mercedes back to the front of the pack
after an underwhelming year, by their
standards, after they got it wrong with
the design of their new W13 car.
He started the year playing guinea
pig as the team threw everything into
trying to fix the problems. His new
team-mate, George Russell, ploughed
on with the car and had a consistent
start to the season, while the seven-times world champion struggled. Yet, since
declaring in Canada in June that this
approach was not working and that the
team were going to try a different route,
Hamilton has been the more competitive of the two drivers.
Each time Mercedes have got close to
a win, notably in Zandvoort and Austin,
it has been Hamilton behind the wheel.
He is enjoying this new, unfamiliar role
within the team. After eight years of
Mercedes dominance, he has a new
challenge and is reinvigorated.
So, with his contract due to expire at
the end of next season, Hamilton
confirmed on Thursday in Mexico,
before this weekend’s race, that he
wanted a new multi-year deal with
Mercedes, one that would take him into
his forties.
“There has been this lingering narrative of winding down towards the end,
but I am just in a happy place in my life,”
Hamilton said. “Each year you have to
ask yourself if you are willing to give as
much, if not more, than you did when

you first started. Are you willing to give
up all your time to prepare and train
and work with the team and deliver?
“If there is ever a moment when I am
just arriving, and coasting along, then
that is when I don’t belong here and I
don’t deserve a position here and that is
when I should stop.
“But we have a championship we
need to get back. I love the mission and
that challenge with my team.”
Even the most elite of athletes are not
able to stop the process of ageing. Formula One is a sport measured in thousandths of seconds, not least when it
comes to reaction times, but Hamilton
was adamant that was not an issue.
“It is really about a state of mind,” he
said. “If you look in the mirror every
day and tell yourself you look old, that
is probably where you are going to be.
But I feel young and I feel that through
my training. If you look at my starts, I
have had the best starts of everyone
here. My concentration level has not
been a problem and there are also
things you can work on in the background to keep those sharp.
“There are things I constantly work
on. Naturally, I am sure they will start to
fade, but I am not seeing that yet. When
I do, then it is time to panic.”
It helps that Hamilton is one of the
most gifted drivers to ever set foot on
the grid. He also has, as he points out, a
naturally “athletic build”. But as time
ticks on, Hamilton says he has become
aware that he does have to “take it to the
next level” with his training. He has
spoken previously about yoga and
pilates being a part of his routine but
revealed he has tried reformer pilates
recently, which uses a bed and springs
to make the workout even tougher.
“It’s about adding different things
that you wouldn’t normally do, being
more specific with your daily routine,
way more than when I was 22,” Hamilton said. “I wasn’t doing the things I’m
doing today. So it’s definitely been a
conscious decision [to step up the
physical training].”

Red Bull did
not act in bad
faith, says FIA
CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Hamilton poses with a fan in Mexico, where he laid out his plan to continue in F1

Race 18 Mexico,
Autodrome Hermanos
Rodriguez
Tomorrow
TV Live on Sky Sports F1 from 7.55pm
Race starts 8pm
Highlights Channel 4, 1.05am, Monday
>>>

DRS
zone

Laps 71
Circuit length
4.304km
Race distance
305.354km

Team

M Verstappen
C Leclerc
S Pérez
G Russell
C Sainz
L Hamilton
L Norris
E Ocon
F Alonso
V Bottas

Red Bull
Ferrari
Red Bull
Mercedes
Ferrari
Mercedes
McLaren
Alpine
Alpine
Alfa Romeo

1
2
3
4
5
6

Red Bull
Ferrari
Mercedes
Alpine
McLaren
Alfa Romeo

Constructors

Next two races

Lap record 1min
17.744sec, Valtteri
Bottas (2021)

Drivers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Brazil (José Carlos
Pace), Nov 13
Abu Dhabi (Yas
Marina) Nov 20

Hamilton has myriad interests outside the sport. He recently set up his
own production company and is working on an F1 film with the actor Brad
Pitt and the producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hamilton also has his own fashion
business, he featured on a song alongside Christina Aguilera, and he recently
set up Mission 44, a foundation that
aims to improve the lives of people from
under-represented groups.

Points
391
267
265
218
202
198
109
79
65
46

Points
656
469
416
144
138
52

F1, however, remains his main focus.
“I know when I am being distracted,
and I will never let it get to that point,”
he said. “I say ‘no’ to so many things
every day. I am able to push back if I
know something is going to affect my
preparation or training.
“That translates to friends and relationships, too. This [F1] is what I am
focused on. I am not in a relationship. I
don’t have any kids. My car is my baby.”

sporting penalty, in the form of a 10 per
cent reduction in aerodynamic research, which will apply to either their
wind tunnel use or the computer software they use to help with developing
aerodynamics.
As the team have been found to be in
a “minor” breach of the budget cap —
an overspend of less than 5 per cent —
there was never any real risk that Red
Bull’s Max Verstappen would be docked
points or have his maiden championship taken from him.
In a press conference before the
Mexico Grand Prix Horner said that
the penalties were “significant” and
would hamper their ability to compete
on track. The reduction in aerodynamic research comes into effect immediately and will be in place for 12 months.
Therefore it will affect the development
of next year’s car, in-season development throughout 2023, and have an
impact on their 2024 car.
“We’ve been provided a significant
penalty, both financially and sportingly,
from the $7 million — which is an enormous amount of money that is payable
within a 30-day period — and obviously the more draconian part is the sporting penalty, which is a 10 per cent reduction in our ability to utilise our wind
tunnel and aerodynamic tools,” Horner, 48, said.
“And I’ve heard people reporting
today [that it] is an insignificant amount
— let me tell you now, that is an
enormous amount. That represents
anywhere between a quarter and half a
second’s worth of laptime.”
Red Bull submitted accounts totalling £114,293,000, but the FIA said there
had been errors made which had “inaccurately excluded and/or adjusted costs
amounting to a total of £5,607,000” in
2021. However, after adjusting relevant
costs, the FIA found the overspend to
be £1.864 million.
The overspend, the FIA said, related
to catering, social security, apprenticeships, inventory (unused parts) and
non-F1 activities.
In its verdict the governing body said
“there is no accusation or evidence that
Red Bull Racing has sought at any time
to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in a
fraudulent manner.”
While Red Bull will have no problem
paying the fine, the reduction in aerodynamic research could be significant.
The team entered into an “accepted
breach agreement” with the FIA, which
means the penalty is final and cannot
be appealed against.

Raducanu’s season ends as she withdraws from Glasgow finals
Tennis
Stuart Fraser
Tennis Correspondent

Emma Raducanu’s season has come to
a deeply disappointing end after the
2021 US Open winner announced her
withdrawal from the Billie Jean King
Cup finals in Glasgow next month.
Despite a three-week period of daily
rehabilitation on a troubling right wrist
injury, the 19-year-old had to concede
defeat in her race to recover in time for
the international team competition on
November 8. She will now continue her
training block with Andy Murray’s
former fitness trainer, Jez Green, before
an exhibition in Dubai on December 16.

This is a huge blow for the Great Britain team captain, Anne Keothavong.
She now has only one top-100 player to
count upon in Harriet Dart, ranked
No 87, for challenging group-stage ties
against Spain and Kazakhstan. LTA
chiefs will also be saddened after spending millions of pounds on a successful
bid to host the event, which was seen as
a great opportunity to capitalise on the
interest surrounding Raducanu.
“It’s disappointing to get the news
from the doctors that I won’t be ready in
time, particularly with it being on home
soil,” Raducanu said. “I tried to do
everything possible. Since my last tournament I’ve been working every day on
physical training and rehab. I’ve got
confidence in my team-mates and look

forward to playing next year.”
From a career-high ranking of
No 10 in July, Raducanu has
dropped to No 76 in the world
after 17 wins in 36 matches this
season. Only once did she claim
three consecutive victories, en
route to the semi-finals of the
Korea Open last month.
After losing in the first round
of the Ostrava Open on
October 4, Raducanu opted to
withdraw from her
final two events
of
the
tour
Raducanu has
struggled with the
pain in her right wrist

season, in Cluj and Guadalajara,
because of pain in the wrist of her racket-holding right arm. She committed
to the initial British squad announcement on October 10 but, despite
some progress in her recovery, it
became clear that she was not
going to be fit enough for competitive play in ten days’ time.
Nonetheless, the fitness
sessions with Green in recent
weeks are said by a source close
to Raducanu to have been
“really positive” with next season
in mind. After a series of physical
issues, it is imperative that her
strength and conditioning improves to the level required for
the weekly rigours of the tour.

Raducanu’s search for a fifth coach in
16 months continues. Her latest mentor, Dmitry Tursunov, chose not to extend their trial partnership after two
months and revealed this week that
negotiations with her team had raised
“red flags that just couldn’t be ignored”.
He did not specify what he was referring to, but was very complimentary
about Raducanu’s ability and attitude.
The chances of Britain progressing to
the semi-finals in Glasgow are now
slim. Spain boast the world No 12, Paula
Badosa, and Kazakhstan the Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina. Along
with Dart, Britain have Heather Watson, the world No 134. Katie Boulter
(No 135) is also in the squad and Katie
Swan (No 121) is set to receive a call-up.

18

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Rugby union

‘Ribeye’ and Lamb: 18st lock and
Cricketer helped South
African-born David
Ribbans change
allegiance, writes
Alex Lowe

D

avid Ribbans was
encouraged to pursue an
international career with
England by a man who
had made the same
sporting journey, relocating from
Cape Town to Northampton before
carving out a reputation as one of the
great batsmen of his generation.
The circumstances had been very
different for Allan Lamb, now 68, who
left apartheid South Africa in 1978,
but his advice was invaluable in
helping Ribbans cast aside any doubts
about switching his international
allegiance.
Lamb, who played 79 Tests and
captained England on three
occasions, has become a great friend
and a father-figure to Ribbans since
he joined Northampton Saints in
2017; a relationship forged over a
braai and great hunks of red meat. It
was Lamb who adorned Ribbans with
his nickname “Ribeye”, which could
not be more apposite for a forward
who stands at nearly 6ft 8in and
weighs more than 18st.
Ribbans first became aware of
England’s interest in 2020 and he was
called into camp for the Six Nations
the following year. A potential Test
debut that summer against the United
States or Canada was put on hold
because of suspension but the 27year-old is back in contention again.
Having spent this past week in
Jersey, Ribbans is competing with
Hugh Tizard and Alex Coles for a
place in the England squad to play
Argentina a week tomorrow in the
first of four autumn Tests. Japan, New
Zealand and then South Africa, of all
teams, head to Twickenham over
consecutive weekends.
“Allan will be one of the first people
after my parents to know about it if I
get selected,” Ribbans said. “I had a
conversation with him when I first
got a call from an England selector a
couple of years ago.
“I told him they were having a look
at me, that I was in the mix and that
it was something I really wanted to

England’s fixtures
All at Twickenham Stadium
Sunday, Nov 6 Argentina
(2.15pm)
Saturday, Nov 12 Japan
(3.15pm)
Saturday, Nov 19 New Zealand
(5.30pm)
Saturday, Nov 26 South Africa
(5.30pm)
All live on Amazon Prime Video

do. I asked him how he had found it,
playing for a country you weren’t
born in.
“It was different circumstances, a
different time in the world, shall we
say. It was fantastic to chat to him and
his wife about the move and the
transition because it is not easy when
you pack up and leave your family.
He gave me the confidence to go for
it. I had a little bit of doubt at first. I
kept mentioning that I wanted to play
international rugby but I was
apprehensive about it.
“He gave me some kind words and
said, ‘If that is what you want to do
and play at the highest level, you have
to follow your passion.’ ”
Ribbans first met Lamb through
Calum Clark, the former
Northampton flanker. “Calum was
friends with Allan’s daughter. He had
been invited to a big braai at Allan’s
house and said, ‘We have signed this
new young Saffer [South African], can
I bring him along?’
“I remember phoning my dad and
saying I had been invited to a braai at
Allan Lamb’s house. My dad went
quiet on the phone and said, ‘My boy,
do you know who that is?’ I had to go
and do my research and realise what
a legend he was.
“I went over there and connected
with their family. They have been
fantastic to me. Allan has been my
father on this side of the world.
“I have spent Christmases and
birthdays with them. My dad has now
stayed with them. I think he might
have been a bit starstruck after
growing up watching him play cricket.
I am godfather to their daughter’s
second child. They are just a huge
influence in my life over here.”
Working with Eddie Jones takes
Ribbans back to the fortnight in late
2015 when the England coach was in

charge of the Stormers — before Ian
Ritchie, the then RFU chief executive,
flew into Cape Town with an open
cheque book to recruit him as
successor to Stuart Lancaster.
The Stormers were packed with
stars: Cheslin Kolbe was playing full
back, Siya Kolisi and Duane
Vermeulen were in the back row, with
Ribbans a fresh-faced understudy to
Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du
Toit in the second row.
“It was hugely exciting that he
signed for the Stormers at the time.
There was a big buzz around Cape
Town. I remember some of his
meetings, explaining how we were
going to become the best team in the
world and how we were going to
achieve that,” Ribbans said.
Ribbans is now hearing the same
messages but in an England squad as
the national team begin their 12month build-up to the World Cup. “It
is on a far greater scale,” Ribbans said.
“It is about literally being the best in
the world. His messages haven’t
changed. He believes the players can
be the best in the world — and that is
the biggest thing: he believes it.
“Eddie made a comment when I
first came into camp about meeting
me in 2015. He constantly ridicules
me for being a Cape Town boy and
gives me stick about it. He talks about
how much he loves the place.”
The first time Ribbans left South
Africa was to visit Northampton and
watch a game at Franklin’s Gardens,
which preceded him joining the club
in 2017 and walking straight into a
storm. “I had never been overseas
before so I didn’t know what to
expect. There was turmoil because
Jim Mallinder signed me and then he
got sacked in my first year,” Ribbans
said. “The club was going through a
massive transition period. I was a 21year-old and couldn’t wait to get
started and I was thrown a bit in the
deep end, with the politics of rugby.
“When Chris Boyd arrived [as
director of rugby] everything changed
at the club and for me personally
because of the amount of freedom he
gave us to play attacking rugby.
“He was a fantastic mentor and I
have played my best rugby over the
last three years.
“Now I have got to put my best foot
forward at every opportunity with
England. I have done so much
growing up in England that this is
home now for me. I will be incredibly
proud to run out at Twickenham with
the England jersey on.”

Ribbans throws
his huge frame
into England’s
autumn series
training camp

Odogwu puts England on hold with dream move to
Will Kelleher
Deputy Rugby Correspondent

Paolo Odogwu has gone from signing
redundancy papers to a deal with one of
the most glamorous clubs in the world
in two weeks — and he does not quite
know what to make of it.
The former Wasps back, 25, lost his
job as one of 167 made redundant after
the club entered administration this
month but has quickly found a deal in
France. He will go to Paris next week to
join Stade Français as a “medical joker”
for six months, a temporary replacement for the Fijian Sefa Naivalu, who
has broken his leg. He is one of the lucky
ones to find work.
Now he is having to make arrangements for someone to look after his car,
is serving notice on his rented flat in

Birmingham while sorting out a work
visa, and no longer needs to train on his
old school pitches to stay active.
Only days ago he was applying for
benefits. “The first time it properly hit I
was filling in the redundancy form,” he
says. “How am I applying for government pay when I’m a professional athlete? Mad.
“It’s like the off-season. Then you
turn on the TV and see games going on,
and it’s so weird. We’re there going to
the gym, going running, trying to keep
going, but it doesn’t feel like we’re in the
middle of a season.”
Uncapped Odogwu, who was picked
in a summer England squad this year
and before the 2021 Six Nations, could
have stayed at home. He had an offer of
a season-long deal in the Premiership,
and a two-year contract elsewhere, but
then Stade came calling.

They had been in contact at the start
of the season, when Odogwu could
not leave his Wasps contract.
Now he is a free agent, he could
not turn them down.
“This opportunity is never
going to happen again,
especially in these circumstances,” he says.
“Even if I get to March,
April, he [Naivalu]
comes back, they
don’t need me any
more and they say,
‘Thanks for all
you’ve done,’ I’ve
still had six
months living in
Odogwu has set his
sights on breaking
into the Stade team

Paris, playing in the Top 14, and I feel
like that’s experience a lot of English
players don’t get. We have to be stuck in
England.
“You can get lost in the shuffle in the
Premiership. It gets boring to an
extent, playing the same people
every week, doing the same stuff,
in the same routine.
“Being pulled out of that, into
a totally different league, a different way of playing, it’s an
experience a lot of guys don’t
get. I’ve always wanted to play
in the Top 14 — I feel the
league would suit me a lot.
I’d much rather do it now
than in my thirties. I could
have played it safe and
stayed. I’d rather at 25 get this
life experience, playing at a top
team in a top league, against

some of the best players in the world
every week, and then wherever I end up
after that I end up.”
While a stint in Paris may do wonders
for him, at the very least inspiring more
designs for his fashion label — Composure Club — which he runs with his old
team-mate Jacob Umaga, it pushes him
further from England selection.
Odogwu is fine with that. He qualifies for Italy, via his half-Italian father,
but will not commit either way for now,
keen to keep his options open for the
2023 World Cup.
He could play for England, if picked,
while in France as the RFU would grant
him permission under the “exceptional
circumstances” clause for those playing
abroad, but will not look for them to invoke that. “Especially as I’m going in as
a medical joker I’m not going to be able
to go away for either England or Italy,”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

19

1GS

THETAILENDER

his unlikely mentor
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES

Braai buddies
Allan Lamb (centre right), the South African-born
former England batsman, has clearly spent time
nurturing friendships with other South Africans in
England. Here, he has a ‘braai’ — a barbecue — with
Schalk Brits (left) and Schalk Burger (centre left), the
Springboks then playing for Saracens in north London

Patrick Kidd

Lillee’s Wimbush ambush
Many an England batsman in the
1970s was left reeling after an
encounter with Dennis Lillee, but
his victims went beyond the
wicket. The Australia fast bowler
once even knocked out Wendy
Wimbush, the BBC’s scorer,
during a Test at Lord’s.
“Wimbers”, now 82, tells the
Oborne and Heller on Cricket
podcast that she was hurrying
back to the commentary box after
lunch and happened to pass Lillee
as he was swinging his arms to
warm up. “Whoosh! The arm
came down and I’m lying on the
ground,” she recalled.
Momentarily stunned, she came
round to hear Rod Marsh, the
wicketkeeper, squawking: “You’ve
killed her!” All this was forgiven
some years later when Wimbush
scored for the Australia cricket
team, where discretion was
essential. “Do you know why we
like you?” Marsh told her. “You
know where the bodies are buried
and you’ve never said a word.”
Wimbush was a bit of a cult
figure in her day, earning a
mention in the song Christian
Rock Concert by the 1980s rock

band Half Man Half Biscuit
(“Wendy Wimbush on a
spacehopper was drunk in the
tented village”). She is one of two
cricketing figures referenced by
the band, who also wrote the song
F***in’ ’Ell It’s Fred Titmus.
As well as being a super scorer,
Wimbush worked as an assistant
to EW Swanton and Ted Dexter,
whom she describes in the
podcast as “the most remarkable
man you are ever likely to meet”.
The former England captain used
to fly her to cricket matches in his
private plane, calmly explaining
that if anything happened to him
in flight someone on the ground
would tell her how to land.
Even the greats have anxiety.
Wimbush reveals that Dexter had
a recurring nightmare about
batting in the Nursery Ground
nets at Lord’s and having to dash
round the ground to make his
entrance at the fall of a wicket. It
wasn’t pushing through the
crowds that made him wake in a
cold sweat, she said, more
reaching the pavilion and being
told that he couldn’t come in
because he wasn’t wearing a tie.

PIC OF THE WEEK
Zimbabwe’s players
celebrate their win
over Pakistan at the
T20 World Cup.
“Next time send the
real Mr Bean,”
tweeted Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the
Zimbabwe
president, in a nod
to a Pakistani
comedian’s bad
impersonation of
Rowan Atkinson at
an event in Harare.

‘Ribeye Ribbans’
Ribbans, 27, has also been taken under Lamb’s wing.
Lamb, 68, tweeted this picture, joking that he didn’t
think Northampton Saints “fed their players very well —
Ribeye Ribbans just having a snack before his main”

France
Odogwu says. “Coming in as injury
cover they’re not going to want me to go
away for two months and play in the Six
Nations — they want me to play for
them. The focus is getting into the Stade
team. I’ve got to play myself into a contract, so that’s the main focus, and if I
get to the end of the year, have done all
this stuff, and go into the World Cup on
good form, hopefully I’ve got options.
“The way rugby works, you could end
up anywhere, could play well in a
couple of games and get a phone call.
I’m not going to close that off, but I’m
not going to let it decide for me what I
want to do.”
Odogwu dreams of a day when
Wasps are back. “When there was an
option of going to the Championship a
lot of people said they would do it,” he
says. “It’s like a band breaking up — you
want that reunion tour.”

We’ll go after you, Slipper
warns former team-mate

England follow Scots
with names on shirts
Scotland will become the first side
since Wales in the mid-2000s to put
names on the back of their shirts
when they face Australia today. As
first reported by The Times, England
— including Marcus Smith and Ellis
Genge, above — will do the same
against Argentina next week. Ireland
and Wales will not follow suit, but
will consider it for the Six Nations.

James Slipper, the Australia captain,
has warned that Jack Dempsey can
expect a rough welcome from some of
his old team-mates when he makes
his Scotland debut at Murrayfield
today (Alasdair Reid writes).
Dempsey, 28, made 14 appearances
for Australia between 2017 and 2019,
but became eligible for Scotland this
month after being out of international
rugby for three years. The Glasgow
Warriors No 8, who will start on the
bench, qualifies by way of a
grandfather from Glasgow.
“It’s good to see the big fella back
in the international arena,” Slipper
said. “It’s actually quite odd to see him
playing for Scotland, but I’m sure he’s
excited to play against his old team.
“It’s interesting and I guess it adds
a bit of spice to the game. There’s
actually quite a few of his Sydney
mates in the team who will be going
after him.”

Why Hick is my Plenty more
Passion Wagon Villas for Unai
A survey has found that 54 per
cent of people give their car a
name. Many of them are dreadful.
The most popular name for a car
is apparently “Baby”, followed by
“The Passion Wagon” — named, I
suspect, more in desperation than
experience. My car has a much
more sensible name. Having
previously owned a “Felicity” and
a “Jennifer”, I then bought an
estate with a number plate that
began GM and ended HCK. I
called it “Graeme Hick”.
It seems to live up to
the name. Like the
cricketer, inset, the car
drives beautifully in flat
conditions, especially
on new roads, but can
struggle badly with pace
when things get bumpy. It
has run up some good
scores overseas, though
not consistently, and is
reliable when you
want a little spin. And
it would be unfair to
blame Hick for all its
flaws: who knows
what it could do with
better management?

It was inevitable that Unai Emery
would end up as manager of
Aston Villa. After all, the Spaniard
had previously managed Sevilla
and Villarreal. If things don’t work
out in Birmingham, he could
always offer his services to Villa
Dálmine, who came 31st in
Argentina’s whopping 38-team
Primera Nacional this year, or
perhaps he could go to
Bweyogerere and coach SC Villa
who are, you don’t need me to tell
you, the most successful club in
the Ugandan Premier League.
There are Villa options in
Britain, too, other than the
team named for the Villa
Cross Wesleyan Chapel in
Aston. New Brighton Villa are
in the North East Wales
Premier Division, while he’ll
find Euxton Villa and Wyre
Villa in the West Lancashire
leagues. This obsession
Emery has with the Spanish
word for “home” may explain
why he almost signed for a
different club last year: he
must have heard the saying
that an Englishman’s villa is his
(New)castle.

20

2GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Gallagher Premiership
SIMON KING/PROSPORTS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Gloucester at
last look like
title hopefuls
Gloucester
Exeter Chiefs

38
22

Will Kelleher
Deputy Rugby Correspondent

It says it all about this Gallagher
Premiership season that Gloucester
started yesterday third in the table,
dropped to sixth and went back to third
having beaten Exeter Chiefs with a
bonus point.
That is because in the mad world of
Premiership Rugby, Gloucester, before
they had even played, moved down
after Wasps had been formally suspended from the whole league season
having entered administration, their
results expunged.
Gloucester had beaten them on the
opening day, so lost their four points
from that win.
It did mean that Exeter moved up to
fifth, without a ball being kicked, as
they had not played Wasps when others
had — although they ended the night
sixth, leap-frogged by Gloucester.
Scorers: Gloucester: Tries L Rees-Zammit (4min), S
Carreras (26), S Socino (33), C Chapman (43), R
Ackermann (57), L Ludlow (78). Cons A Hastings 4.
Exeter: Tries J Maunder (9), R van Heerden (31), J
Hodge (65). Cons H Skinner 2. Pen H Skinner.

GLOUCESTER
L Evans; L Rees-Zammit, C Harris, G Kveseladze (J
Reeves 66), S Carreras; A Hastings, C Chapman (B
Meehan 66); H Elrington, S Socino, F Balmain (K
Gotovtsev 64), F Clarke, C Jordan (M Alemanno
59), R Ackermann, L Ludlow, B Morgan (A Tuisue
59, sin-bin 64-74).
EXETER
S Hogg; J Hodge, R O’Loughlin, I Whitten (sin-bin
69-79), O Woodburn (D John 44); H Skinner (J
Simmonds 35), J Maunder (S Maunder 58); S Sio (A
Hepburn 58), J Yeandle (J Innard 58), H Williams (J
Iosefa-Scott 78), R van Heerden (J Dunne 66), J
Gray, D Ewers (C Tshiunza 78), L Pearson, J
Vermeulen.
Referee A Leal.
Attendance 16,115.

George Skivington’s side have now
won five out of six matches in the
league — even if the Wasps one no
longer counts — losing only to the top
side, Saracens, 41-39.
This was a high-class victory in
which they scored six tries. It has been
a long old time since Gloucester properly challenged for honours, but they
look primed for a real assault this year.
Louis Rees-Zammit was their star,
scoring one and setting up another
before he headed off to the Wales training camp, with the All Blacks in his
sights next Saturday.
His assist came right at the end. He
glided through a gap around the 22 and
flicked an audacious out-the-back offload to Lewis Ludlow, the captain, who
was so excited he waggled his finger at
the exultant Shed before scoring with a
celebratory full-length dive.
Rees-Zammit was so good that
Austin Healey told BT Sport viewers he
could be as prolific as the Australia
legend David Campese.
“Zam’s magical moments are great,”
Skivington said. “But the hard work he’s
putting into defence, kick-chase, all the
stuff that makes him a world-class wing
is really impressive. The nearer the ball
he is the more happens.
“He getting a lot of attention but is a
good, humble kid, and is getting things
thrown at him that are in most of our
wildest dreams — all sorts of deals and
whatnot — but he is very focused on
what he is doing. He loves being here
and being part of the team.”
As Gloucester’s forwards sucked up
plenty of Exeter pressure, ReesZammit helped them to pounce when
they had little openings.
In the first half there were five tries —
three for Gloucester and two for Exeter
— the longest gap without one a 17minute period that, frankly, we all
needed in order to catch up.
Gloucester started it off, after Harvey

Ludlow rounds off a dazzling night for Gloucester with their sixth try and then makes his point, inset, to the exultant Shed

Skinner’s early penalty. Santiago Socino charged down a Skinner chip, Charlie Chapman deftly grubber-kicked the
ball on and in a flash Rees-Zammit was
on to it, scoring in the corner.
Jack Maunder replied, sniping after a
big maul had moved Exeter into position, before Gloucester came back
again. It came against the run of play —
Exeter had so much of the ball that after
19 minutes Gloucester had made 57
tackles, the Chiefs only five.
An Adam Hastings chip wide to
Rees-Zammit sent him racing away,
stopped only — incredibly well — by
Olly Woodburn right on the goalline.
Gloucester recycled and soon Santi

Carreras scored on the left. Next Exeter
carried right through the middle, Scott
Sio, the Wallaby on debut, whacked on,
and the lock Ruben van Heerden
finished it off by smashing through the
centre Giorgi Kveseladze.
Two minutes later, though, Socino
went over from a huge Gloucester
maul. Hastings kicked a second conversion for a two-point lead at half-time.
Exeter had possession of the ball for
28 minutes of the first half, but were
being cut to ribbons by clinical Gloucester. Straight after the break the home
side scored again.
They went wide to the Argentina
wing Carreras, who sped down the left

and found Chapman, who had tracked
the break perfectly and found his pass
to score. Hastings converted that
bonus-point-securing try.
Next Ruan Ackermann bashed over
from close range and, although Hastings missed that conversion, Gloucester now led by 14 points with the final
quarter still to play.
Exeter had hope when Albert Tuisue
dragged down their maul and was sinbinned. Josh Hodge then scored in the
right corner. But that ended their
comeback attempt, with Rees-Zammit’s final flourish capping a fine win for
Gloucester that moved them back into
the play-off places.

‘She may have the most England caps but she’s still an awful dancer’
Those who know Sarah
Hunter best, including
her mum, reflect on her
137 appearances so far,
with Elgan Alderman

I

t is not in Sarah Hunter’s nature
to keep track of her place among
England’s most-capped rugby
players, but everyone else
mentions it so often that she
cannot ignore it. She started the
World Cup with 135 caps and with
England expected to have six
matches, Rocky Clark’s record of 137
was ready to go. Every question about
the landmark has been met with a
flicker of embarrassment, and the
answer: England’s No 8 is here to do
her best as captain.
“It’s true,” Janet Hunter, Sarah’s
mum, says. “Her focus is on the team
and the World Cup. I’ve said to her in
the past, ‘How many caps have you

got now?’ ‘Mum, I’ve no idea.’ It’s not
“She gets on with things and she’ll do
something that matters to her. It
anything that she asked you to do,”
matters to her that she’s playing.”
Clark says.
Having seen Hunter “hate” the
The only negative comes when
attention of her 100th cap on a
discussing off-field matters. “She is
Tuesday night in 2017 at Twickenham the most awful dancer and cackStoop, Katy Daley-McLean, a former
handed person,” Clark says. “But she’s
team-mate, knows she will want all
always game for a laugh.”
the focus to be on the team
Hunter was nine when
when she wins cap No 138
rugby league sessions were
against Australia
offered at Goathland
England
v
tomorrow. But there
Primary School in
may soon come a time
Longbenton, North
Australia
when Hunter can
Tyneside. Sheelagh
rejoice in playing more
Tickell, the head
World Cup quarter-final
rugby matches for her
teacher, insisted girls
Waitakere Stadium,
country than anyone
take part. Hunter
Auckland
else. At 37, retirement is
joined Gateshead
Tomorrow, 1.30am (BST)
in sight.
Panthers and played at
TV: ITV
Those closest to her
Wembley before the 1995
speak of her dedication,
World Cup match between
work rate and high standards —
Australia and England, but her
“professional before the professional
league career stopped when coera” in the words of Janette Evans, the educational games ended and there
secretary of Novocastrians RFC and
were not enough girls to continue.
former England Women’s team
Hunter turned to union and joined
manager. Daley-McLean knows a
Novocastrians’ only women’s team as
kind, softly spoken friend who turns
a 16-year-old. She was a hard-running
into a fierce back-row forward, a rock.
centre, playing outside Daley-

McLean, who would go on to win 116
caps for England as a fly half. They
had first played league together at
Gateshead. “Pretty much Sarah has
been the same since she was about 14
years old, maybe with a few more
greys now,” Daley-McLean says.
Tamara Taylor (115 caps at lock)
was at Novos too — quite the trio.
After trials with England Under19, Hunter was advised to switch
from centre to flanker, to work on
her left-handed passing and her
understanding of the
breakdown. “She came
with a sheet of areas for
improvement and said,
‘Can we work on
these?’ ” Graeme
Cooper, a police
officer and coach at
Novos, says. “I was
only too willing to help.”
Hunter would train
several days a week,
even with the men’s side.
Hunter is playing in
her fourth World Cup

“We’ve got a pit heap quite close to
us called the Rising Sun,” Janet says.
“They used to run up carrying
another player on their backs and
[Cooper] took Sarah along, he made
her do that with the lads.”
Hunter went to Loughborough
University to read sports
s
science,
her mum convincing
h to add mathematics
her
be
because
there was no career as
a women’s rugby player. She
made her England debut in
2
2007
and is at her fourth
W
World
Cup. The despair of
th final defeats in 2010
the
a 2017, both by New
and
Z
Zealand,
is why Hunter’s
f
focus
is on World Cup
s
success.
Daley-McLean does not
do
doubt
what her friend
rreep
represents.
“When people
t
talk
about what it means to
p for England, you just
play
need to look at Sarah,” she
says. “She epitomises
everything that’s good in
a Red Rose.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

21

1GS K1

ALAMY

Pearce offers
up half-time
entertainment
during a
Wolves game

England
v Greece
Bramall Lane
Today, 2.30pm
TV: BBC1. Radio: BBC 5
Live Sports Extra

THEDEBATE
Dmitry Tursunov, the latest name on the list of Emma Raducanu’s
former coaches, has hinted that there are problems with her team
behind the scenes. Stuart Fraser weighs in on the situation.
She’s very talented. I think it’s more than
a coincidence that she won the US Open
when her parents couldn’t travel to see
her in New York due to Covid.
grimdownsouth

She’s not talented.
Simon Jaquiss

5
Raducanu is
searching for a
fifth coach in
16 months

Even if we completely disregard the fact
that she won ten consecutive matches in
straight sets to win a grand-slam title at
the age of 18, having a world ranking of
76 still requires some talent.
Stuart Fraser

There’s definitely some sort of problem
when a player goes through this many
coaches.
DianaZ

‘Rugby league side can lift
nation like us at Euro 96’
Stuart Pearce explains
to Ross Heppenstall
why he left home at
3.45am to give Shaun
Wane’s stars rallying cry

A

relentless will to win
and a ferocious pride
in the badge came to
characterise Stuart
Pearce’s England football
career; this week he transmitted that
same desire to the nation’s rugby
league team.
Shaun Wane’s side are going for
glory in the World Cup on home soil
and this week the England head coach
tapped into Pearce’s experiences of
playing in major tournaments.
The uncompromising former
Nottingham Forest defender, who
earned 78 international caps and the
nickname “Psycho” during his playing
days, is a keen admirer of the 13-aside rugby code.
About a decade ago Pearce was in
the audience when the former
England, Warrington Wolves and
present Hull FC coach Tony Smith
was making a presentation during a
Uefa Pro Licence coaching seminar.
The pair hit it off and Pearce
becamee a Warrington fan and
te of rugby league
advocate
lly, so when Wane, a
generally,
d spirit, invited him to
kindred
he day within the
spend the
d camp, he accepted.
England
“I’ve seen Shaun at
various Super League
games and
d to
chatted
ut
him, but
then hee
ted I
suggested
n to speak
come in
Pearce brought passion to
his England left-back role

How they stand
Pool A
England
Samoa
France
Greece

P W
2 2
2 1
2 1
2 0

D
0
0
0
0

L F A Pts
0 102 24 4
1 78 64 2
1 52 54 2
2 16 106 0

Pool B
Australia
Fiji
Italy
Scotland

P W
2 2
2 1
2 1
2 0

D
0
0
0
0

L F
A Pts
0 126 8 4
1 68 46 2
1 32 64 2
2
4 112 0

Pool C
New Zealand (Q)
Lebanon
Ireland
Jamaica

P W
3 3
2 1
3 1
2 0

D
0
0
0
0

L F A Pts
0 150 28 6
1 44 48 2
2 72 82 2
2
8 116 0

Pool D
Tonga
PNG
Cook Islands
Wales

P W
2 2
2 1
2 1
2 0

D
0
0
0
0

L F A Pts
0 56 24 4
1 50 40 2
1 34 44 2
2 18 50 0

to the England squad,” Pearce, 60,
told The Times. “I said, ‘I’d love to,’
and I jumped in my car at quarter to
four in the morning to drive up from
London to Wigan for the start of
training at seven o’clock.
“Shaun asked me for my thoughts
on the England set-up and what
struck me was the overall feel and
mood of the group. They are clearly
enjoying being with each other and
can have a laugh, but were also
serious when they needed to be,
which are two great commod
commodities
for any squad aiming to w
win
a tournament.
“Shaun’s created an
Englan
environment with England
play to
which challenges the players
be as good as they poss
possibly
can be, both
individually and
collectiv
collectively.”
Pea
Pearce
emph
emphasised
to Wa
Wane’s
player
players the
importan
importance of
leadership from every
e
member of Engla
England’s
24-man squad.

After comfortable opening wins
against Samoa and France, Wane has
made further changes for today’s final
group game, against the World Cup
debutants Greece at Bramall Lane,
which is expected to result in an
England rout.
But the week after comes a quarterfinal against far tougher opposition,
possibly Papua New Guinea, and
Pearce said: “I spoke about the
leadership which needs to come from
everyone, even Dom Young, who at
21 is a fresh face and in the England
set-up for the first time.”
Pearce recalls the fervour that
swept the nation during Italia ’90 and
Euro ’96, where penalty shoot-out
defeats at the semi-final stage ended
England’s hopes each time.
Yet Pearce said: “I saw what
happened after England’s
performances at Italia ’90 and Euro
’96 — players take that feel-good
factor back to their clubs and it’s just
a massive boost for the whole game.
“I told Shaun’s players, ‘Listen,
this is big, not just what you’re doing
for the England rugby league team.
This is bigger than that because the
implications, for the game in this
country, if you win the World Cup
will be massive.’
“I see myself as a supporter, with no
axe to grind. I go to the games hoping
to see rugby league enhance itself and
touch more people if possible.”
England reached the previous
World Cup final in 2017 but lost to
Australia in Brisbane and, four years
earlier, they were knocked out by
Sonny Bill Williams’s New Zealand
side in the semi-final at Wembley.
“I was at Wembley in 2013 when
the Kiwis scored to win it right at the
death,” Pearce remembers. “I felt
soulless walking away from the game
because we had the team to go all the
way then. I certainly think that’s the
case now, although there are one or
two teams standing in our way who
will think they can win it too. But I
believe England are good enough to
do it and I certainly hope they do.”

I agree. Stability around a young player is
particularly important in the early days
on tour. It would have helped her to settle
had she kept Andrew Richardson on for
at least a couple of months after her US
Open success.
Stuart Fraser

I’ll say it now — she’ll never win another
grand-slam event and the US Open
victory will turn out to be an aberration.
Your Comment Has Been Approved

A bold prediction for a player who has not
yet turned 20. Something to bear in mind:
it took Serena Williams another two years
and nine months to win a second grandslam singles title.
Stuart Fraser

This attention-seeking person should
pipe down and not criticise one of the
UK’s greatest female tennis players.
Barnsey

To be fair to Tursunov, he has actually
been very complimentary about
Raducanu’s ability and attitude on the
court. But clearly, there are concerns
about the set-up and influences
around her.
Stuart Fraser

A coach’s
experience is
very valuable
at certain
times, but the
majority of
the time I feel
that I already
know the
answer to
the question
I am asking
Raducanu after her
split with Torben
Beltz in April

We didn’t
agree on the
terms and
there were
some red
flags that
just couldn’t
be ignored
Dmitry Tursunov to
the Tennis Majors
website this week

What next?
Raducanu will miss
next month’s Billie
Jean King Cup finals
after failing to recover
from a wrist injury, so
has plenty of time to
find another
coach
before
the new
season

22

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

Sport Racing

Who hit 62 for Ireland as

have Manchester City not
converted under Pep
Guardiola?
Which Top 14 team did
5 Finn Russell score 18
points against last weekend?
Who did Katie Taylor,
6 right, defeat in her most
recent fight?
Who hit the first century
7 of this year’s T20 World
Cup?

1 they upset England at the
T20 World Cup?
With which club did Unai
2 Emery win the Europa
League three times?
Who is England’s
3 leading tryscorer at
the 2022 Rugby League
World Cup?
How many penalties
4 (excluding shoot-outs)

J Tudor v158
4 0223-6 KITTY'S LIGHT 21 (D) Christian Williams 6-11-8
146
R Patrick
5 P2110- RAPPER 228 H Daly 8-11-7
152
Jamie Moore
6 00120- FULL BACK 228 (D) G L Moore 7-11-5
-A Wedge
7 31P31- ANNSAM 211 (CD) E Williams 7-11-5
143
R McLernon
8 30040- REGAL ENCORE 204 (T,CD) A Honeyball 14-11-2
138
C Deutsch
9 1F135- OUR POWER 228 (P) S Thomas 7-11-2
135
L Williams
10 4151-2 DANNY KIRWAN 180 (P,BF,C) P Nicholls 9-10-13
143
T Cannon
11 /1123- MAJOR DUNDEE 210 (D) A King 7-10-12
134
J M Davies
12 3P31-2 UP THE STRAIGHT 29 R Rowe 8-10-12
133
13 2124-3 POPPA POUTINE 38 (BF) N Twiston-Davies 6-10-11 S Twiston-Davies
4-1 Major Dundee, 11-2 Our Power, 6-1 Tea Clipper, 8-1 Annsam, Full Back, 10-1 Danny Kirwan,
Mister Malarky, Kitty's Light.

Ascot
Thunderer
1.30 Goshen
2.05 Anyharminasking
2.40 Gumball
3.15 Our Power (nb)
Going: good to soft

1.30

3.50 Leave Of Absence
4.25 Alto Alto
5.03 Fire Flyer
Sky Sports Racing

Ascot Underwriting Novices' Limited ITV
Handicap Chase (£9,258: 2m 3f) (4 runners)

Jamie Moore
1 40311- GOSHEN F20 G L Moore 6-11-10
L Williams
2 01P01- SAMARRIVE 189 P Nicholls 5-10-13
3 1320-2 GOWEL ROAD 37 (BF) N Twiston-Davies 6-10-13 S Twiston-Davies
J Quinlan
4 21120- COBBLERS DREAM 204 (H,T,BF) B Case 6-10-13
6-5 Goshen, 11-4 Samarrive, 4-1 Cobblers Dream, 5-1 Gowel Road.

--v112
--

Thunderer’s choice: Our Power has not being seen to best advantage when
fifth at the Cheltenham Festival. He’s 2lb lower here.Danger: Major Dundee.

3.50

2.05

Bateaux London Handicap Hurdle

ITV

(£32,676: 2m) (10)
A Cheleda (5) v140
1 64131- HACKER DES PLACES 204 (D) P Nicholls 5-12-0
140
2 42211- ANYHARMINASKING 272 (D) Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-13 Jonjo O'Neill Jr
139
G Sheehan
3 512P-2 HIGHWAY ONE O TWO 28 (BF,D) C Gordon 7-11-11
131
J Bowen
4 006-33 BROOMFIELD BURG 21 (BF,D) N Henderson 6-11-6
130
T Cannon
5 12113- CALL OF THE WILD 199 (D) A King 5-11-6
130
6 P3113- GALORE DESASSENCES 245 (P,D) N Hawke 6-11-6 K E Buckley (3)
131
F Gregory
7 23313- WASHINGTON 204 (D) O Murphy 6-11-4
1/653115
TANGANYIKA
252
(D)
V
Williams
4-10-9
C
Deutsch
8
121
L Williams
9 14556- MAGISTRATO 216 (W,H,T,D) P Nicholls 4-10-8
119
Jamie Moore
10 51150- KOTMASK 216 (D) G L Moore 4-10-7
3-1 Anyharminasking, 5-1 Call Of The Wild, 11-2 Hacker Des Places, 6-1 Broomfield Burg, 7-1
Washington, 10-1 Highway One O Two, Galore Desassences, 12-1 Magistrato.

4.25

Byrne Group Premier Handicap
Chase (£42,712: 2m 1f) (10)

ITV

145
A Wedge
1 440F-0 DALY TIGER 94 (D) L Morgan 9-12-0
150
S Twiston-Davies
2 11426- BEFORE MIDNIGHT 205 (CD) S Thomas 9-11-11
146
Jamie Moore
3 11221- NASSALAM 244 (C) G L Moore 5-11-9
0525-2
144
DIEGO DU CHARMIL 180 (P,T,CD) P Nicholls 10-11-8
Doubtful
4
Bridget Andrews v153
5 64304- AMOOLA GOLD 199 (P,CD) D Skelton 9-11-7
146
C Deutsch
6 31230- FRERO BANBOU 205 (D) V Williams 7-11-6
146
L Williams
7 2U12F- THYME WHITE 205 P Nicholls 6-11-6
-P Brennan
8 /402P- GUMBALL F29 F O'Brien 8-11-1
147
C Gethings
9 0P21-4 MONSIEUR LECOQ 22 (B,T) Mrs J Williams 8-10-8
133
T Cannon
10 14-142 JOKE DANCER 17 (P,D) Sue Smith 9-10-6
4-1 Before Midnight, 9-2 Amoola Gold, 5-1 Monsieur Lecoq, Frero Banbou, 6-1 Nassalam, 7-1 Thyme
White, 8-1 Gumball, 20-1 Joke Dancer, Daly Tiger.

5.03

1
2
3

Bateaux London Gold Cup Premier ITV
Handicap Chase (£56,950: 3m) (13)

1210P- GOOD BOY BOBBY 203 (D) N Twiston-Davies 9-12-0
05022- MISTER MALARKY 199 (P,CD) R Bandey 9-11-13
2444-2 TEA CLIPPER 21 (P,BF) T Lacey 7-11-11

D Jacob
D Bass
S Sheppard

1.58

Ayr

1.23

134
150
151

Handicap Chase

3.43 Ginger Mail
4.18 If Not For Dylan
4.53 Monochromix
Racing TV

EBF NH Novices' Hurdle
(£4,629: 2m) (6)

S Bowen
1 -2B13 NONBINDING 22 (D) G Elliott (Ire) 5-11-6
40- CHAPEL GREEN 215 L Russell 5-11-0
S Mulqueen
2
06- COWBOY COOPER 233 D Whillans 6-11-0
H Brooke
3
P/1- GLORY BRIDGE 228 D McCain 6-11-0
B Hughes
4
4- HIGH ROLLER 253 N Alexander 5-11-0
C O'Farrell
5
43- PATS DREAM 265 R Dobbin 5-11-0
Craig Nichol
6
10-11 Nonbinding, 2-1 Glory Bridge, 8-1 Pats Dream, 14-1 High Roller, 20-1
Chapel Green, 25-1 Cowboy Cooper.

1 -P1P3 DON'T TELL ALLEN 101 Ewan Whillans 7-12-2 E Austin (5)
2 2122- SON OF THE SOMME 217 (BF) B Ellison 7-12-2 H Brooke
B Hughes
3 4241- DEDANSER 203 D McCain 6-12-1
A Doyle (5)
4 53233 SWORD OF FATE 17 (D) L Kerr 9-11-12
S Bowen
5 0-0UP EXCELCIOR 38 (B) G Elliott (Ire) 8-11-10
D Johnston (7)
6 3063- KALAHARRY 231 Ewan Whillans 10-11-9
2F11DESTINY
IS
ALL
200
(CD)
L
Russell
8-11-7
S
Mulqueen
7
Craig Nichol
8 055P- CASTLEGRANGE 200 (P,D) K Scott 8-11-6
B Lynn (5)
9 25-13 SPUTNIK 165 (BF,D) Mrs J Stephen 7-10-5
3-1 Dedanser, 7-2 Son Of The Somme, 4-1 Destiny Is All, 8-1 Sputnik, Excelcior,
10-1 Sword Of Fate, Kalaharry, 12-1 Don't Tell Allen, 33-1 Castlegrange.

2.33
1
2
3

Thunderer
1.50 Macavity
4.10 Mongol Emperor
2.25 Martello Sky
4.45 Geryville
3.00 Martello Sky
5.20 Findthetime
3.35 Ahoy Senor (nap)
Going: good to soft-good in places
Racing TV

1.50

bet365 Novices' Hurdle

Handicap Hurdle (£7,842: 3m) (8)

-2162 DALLAS DES PICTONS 16 (P,D) D Sayer 9-12-0 H Brooke
1123- WAKOOL 217 (P,CD) N Alexander 6-11-7
C O'Farrell
44250 WESTERN RUN 93 (P,T) S Crawford (Ire) 7-11-2
C Rabbitt (7)

Thunderer’s choice: Ahoy Senor has the potential to go to the top as a staying
chaser, he can gallop his rivals into submission. Danger: Bravemansgame.

ITV

4.10

-Bryony Frost
1 53/53- HURRICANE BAY 217 L Wadham 6-11-0
F- JOE DADANCER 244 B Pauling 5-11-0
-K Woods
2
432- LEARNTALOT 221 (BF) O Murphy 6-11-0
A Coleman v112
3
303- MOORE ON TOUR 343 (W,H) N Kent 6-11-0
-C Hammond
4
48
Sean Quinlan
5 1310-3 PRAIRIE WOLF 15 Sue Smith 5-11-0
0/ WILLIAM OF YORK 609 D Skelton 6-11-0
-H Skelton
6
31
C Bewley
7 3F11-1 AUTUMN RETURN 35 Ruth Jefferson 5-10-13
5- HALL LANE 224 A King 4-10-12
-T Bellamy
8
311-1 MACAVITY 169 J O'Keeffe 4-10-12
-A P Heskin
9
0- TELEGRAM BOB 201 T Easterby 4-10-12
-N Moscrop
10
-Paul O'Brien
11 P4-36 TOMMY CULLEN 23 (BF) C Longsdon 4-10-12
3-1 Prairie Wolf, 7-2 Joe Dadancer, 4-1 Learntalot, 5-1 Autumn Return, 10-1 Macavity, 14-1 Hall
Lane, 16-1 Hurricane Bay, William Of York, Tommy Cullen.

Thunderer’s choice: Macavity is interesting on his hurdling bow after landing
a bumper at Aintree in May.
Dangers: Autumn Return, Prairie Wolf.

2.25

bet365 Mares' Hurdle (Listed)

ITV

(£12,529: 2m) (5)
H Skelton v145
1 151P0- MOLLY OLLYS WISHES 203 (T,CD) D Skelton 8-11-6
144
Bryony Frost
2 14110- MARTELLO SKY 228 (D) L Wadham 6-11-4
126
C Bewley
3 -21543 ISLAND MAHEE 29 S Crawford (Ire) 8-11-0
135
T Bellamy
4 2302-2 NINA THE TERRIER 22 (D) A King 6-11-0
1-0413
132
SEE THE SEA 13 (T,D) D McCain 8-11-0
P J Kavanagh
5
11-8 Molly Ollys Wishes, 7-4 Martello Sky, 4-1 Nina The Terrier, 12-1 See The Sea, 25-1 Island
Mahee.

Thunderer’s choice: Martello Sky has won eight of her 13 races, including
first time out in each of her three campaigns.Danger: Molly Ollys Wishes.

3.00

bet365 Hurdle (registered The West ITV
Yorkshire Hurdle) (Grade 2: £28,475: 3m) (6)

129
A Coleman
1 414P4- THOMAS DARBY 203 (W,T,D) O Murphy 9-11-8
T J O'Brien v158
2 P/141- SPORTING JOHN 287 (D) P Hobbs 7-11-6
-B J Powell
3 3453P- OSCAR ELITE 203 (W,T,D) Joe Tizzard 7-11-2
148
H Skelton
4 52F-30 PROSCHEMA 21 (C) D Skelton 7-11-2
-A P Heskin
5 11116- THREEUNDERTHRUFIVE 227 (D) P Nicholls 7-11-2
145
R Dingle
6 623F2- INDEFATIGABLE F12 (CD) P Webber 9-11-1
15-8 Sporting John, 3-1 Indefatigable, 7-2 Proschema, 6-1 Threeunderthrufive, 8-1 Thomas Darby,
20-1 Oscar Elite.

Thunderer’s choice: Indefatigable had Proschema and Thomas Darby
behind when landing this prize last year.
Danger: Sporting John.

3.35

bet365 Charlie Hall Chase

32130- ELDORADO ALLEN 205 (T) Joe Tizzard 8-11-8
4414-3 PAINT THE DREAM 21 (T) F O'Brien 8-11-6

PF-4P EVERYBREATHYOUTAKE 54 (B) G Elliott (Ire) 8-11-1
S Bowen
22/62 JACK DEVINE 38 (V,D) R Dobbin 10-10-9
Craig Nichol
01603 SNOOKERED 17 (V) B Ellison 8-10-9
Emma Smith-Chaston (5)
B Hughes
7 1122- SILVER FLYER 230 (BF) D McCain 6-10-8
5323ETERNALLY
YOURS
201
D
Whillans
9-10-5 D Johnston (7)
8
3-1 Dallas Des Pictons, 4-1 Silver Flyer, 9-2 Wakool, 6-1 Jack Devine, 8-1
Everybreathyoutake, Western Run, 10-1 Snookered, 12-1 Eternally Yours.

Handicap Chase
(£7,624: 2m 4f 110yd) (6)

B Lynn (5)
1 2244- ELVIS MAIL 211 (T,C) N Alexander 8-12-2
B Hughes
2 /P43- MAROWN 190 (CD) N Richards 8-11-7
3 -1214 GETAWAY GOLDIE 61 (BF) G Elliott (Ire) 6-11-6 S Bowen
4 5420- THE FERRY MASTER 210 (P,T) A M Thomson 9-11-6 R Mania
5 321F- BUSTER VALENTINE 203 (BF,D) M Walford 9-11-6 J Hamilton
6 412P- READYSTEADYBEAU 252 (T) L Russell 6-10-6 S Mulqueen
9-4 Getaway Goldie, 4-1 Elvis Mail, Buster Valentine, 11-2 Marown, 6-1
Readysteadybeau, 7-1 The Ferry Master.

3.43

-T Scudamore
1 1/424- MONGOL EMPEROR 199 (H) N Mulholland 7-12-0
127
N Moscrop
2 /2041- DALYOTIN 237 (D) R Menzies 6-12-0
114
T Bellamy
3 55F36- DEYRANN DE CARJAC 196 A King 9-11-12
A P Heskin v130
4 P0-232 RESTANDBETHANKFUL 70 (T) O Murphy 6-11-12
118
Lilly Pinchin (3)
5 54-231 SOMEKINDOFSTAR 30 (P,T,D) C Longsdon 9-11-8
122
R Chapman
6 34233- THE PADDY PIE 237 (BF) Sue Smith 9-11-4
116
T Willmott (3)
7 5212P- DA VINCI HAND 216 (T) J E Foster 7-11-3
114
Sean Quinlan
8 15-245 LADRONNE 15 (T,CD) T Collier 8-10-13
105
C Bewley
9 22120- RELKADAM 216 (W,P,T,C,D) T Easterby 8-10-5
100-30 Somekindofstar, 4-1 Dalyotin, 9-2 Restandbethankful, 7-1 The Paddy Pie, Deyrann de Carjac,
8-1 Ladronne, 10-1 Mongol Emperor, 14-1 Da Vinci Hand, 16-1 Relkadam.

4.45

5.20

B J Powell
C Brace

166
154

Blinkered first time: Ayr 2.33 Everybreathyoutake.
Wolverhampton 4.58 Manuha. 6.00 Ummsuquaim. 8.30 Samurai
Sneddz.

Handicap Hurdle
(£4,901: 2m) (7)

Handicap Chase
(£7,624: 2m 110yd) (8)

1
2
3
4
5

bet365 Handicap Hurdle
(£5,664: 2m 4f) (10)

129
N Moscrop
1 /1214- RAFFERTY'S RETURN 224 (BF,CD) R Menzies 7-12-0
H Cobden v131
2 041-P0 ASHINGTON F14 (D) M Walford 7-11-12
-A Coleman
3 43/0P- COLLOONEY 303 (T) O Murphy 8-11-9
126
Sean Quinlan
4 32111- FINDTHETIME 255 (CD) N Richards 6-11-9
122
C Hammond
5 3R21-1 VINTAGE FIZZ 175 (D) J O'Keeffe 5-11-9
100
T Scudamore
6 /F1P4- COUSU MAIN 224 N Mulholland 6-11-4
125
T Midgley (5)
7 F1P5-6 SHERIFF GARRETT 175 (T,D) T Easterby 8-11-1
260- ROCKY MAN 306 (W) D Skelton 4-11-0
-H Skelton
8
55
T Dowson
9 /06P-5 RED FORCE ONE 52 (P) P Kirby 7-10-13
117
B J Powell
10 55125- ROYLE STEEL 190 M Hammond 4-10-6
4-1 Findthetime, 9-2 Rafferty's Return, 5-1 Vintage Fizz, Rocky Man, 8-1 Cousu Main, 10-1
Collooney, Red Force One, 12-1 Royle Steel.

B Hughes
1 426-1 COLLINGHAM 17 (D) D McCain 4-12-0
D McMenamin
2 05U1- GINGER MAIL 248 N Alexander 6-11-10
C O'Farrell
3 F0/6- CAN'T STOP NOW F28 (H,D) I Jardine 5-11-9
A Doyle (5)
4 33P-2 TRAPRAIN LAW 27 (T,BF) L Russell 4-11-7
5 2-444 FATHERS ADVICE 133 R M Smith 5-10-11 W Shanahan (7)
Craig Nichol
6 000B- POPPY ROSE 212 S Crawford (Ire) 5-10-7
S Bowen
7 U435 SHETLAND TONY 18 G Elliott (Ire) 3-10-7
9-4 Collingham, 3-1 Ginger Mail, 4-1 Traprain Law, 5-1 Shetland Tony, 10-1
Can't Stop Now, 14-1 Fathers Advice, 16-1 Poppy Rose.

4.18

Bet Boost At bet365 Handicap Chase
(£3,867: 3m) (10)

123
Beau Morgan (7)
1 2B621- ASHFIELD PADDY 218 M Scudamore 8-12-2
123
R T Dunne
2 211/2- INDIAN BRAVE 236 (T) N Mulholland 11-12-0
T Midgley (5) v128
3 22205- CASH TO ASH 208 (D) M Walford 9-12-0
124
Sean Quinlan
4 P2212- GERYVILLE 190 (C) M Hammond 6-11-13
109
K Woods
5 /216U- BANGERS AND CASH 190 B Pauling 6-11-12
56
R Chapman
6 01U-20 WYE AYE 16 (H,D) P Kirby 7-11-6
119
T Scudamore
7 5/642- TANGO BOY 283 (P) N Mulholland 9-11-6
103
C Bewley
8 6005P- CHOUNGAYA 208 (W,T) M Sowersby 9-11-4
105
B J Powell
9 2/254- AKI BOMAYE 282 (W,T) Joe Tizzard 7-11-4
113
C Hammond
10 53PP2- WHO'S IN THE BOX 199 (P) N Kent 8-10-13
4-1 Ashfield Paddy, 9-2 Tango Boy, 5-1 Bangers And Cash, 6-1 Aki Bomaye, 7-1 Indian Brave,
Geryville, 8-1 Cash To Ash, 12-1 Who's In The Box.

ITV

(Grade 2: £56,950: 3m) (7)
1
2

bet365 Handicap Chase
(£6,045: 2m 3f) (9)

(£5,446: 2m 4f) (11)

5
6

3.08

A Coleman v176
3 032P1- SAM BROWN 203 (T,D) A Honeyball 10-11-6
162
D R Fox
4 12121- AHOY SENOR 204 (CD) L Russell 7-11-5
166
H Cobden
5 11114- BRAVEMANSGAME 204 (W,BF,D) P Nicholls 7-11-5
-Doubtful
6 02101/ SECRET INVESTOR 615 (T,D) P Nicholls 10-11-2
160
Doubtful
7 P111F- WIN MY WINGS 189 (P,D) Christian Williams 9-10-13
5-4 Bravemansgame, 2-1 Ahoy Senor, 9-2 Eldorado Allen, 10-1 Secret Investor, 20-1 Sam Brown,
33-1 Paint The Dream.

Wetherby

4

(£4,684: 2m 4f 110yd) (9)

Thunderer
1.23 Glory Bridge
1.58 Destiny Is All
2.33 Wakool
3.08 Elvis Mail
Going: good to soft

Molton Brown Standard Open
NH Flat Race (£2,723: 2m) (13)

1- ODIN'S QUEST 288 (H,D) G L Moore 4-11-5
Doubtful v122
1
2- BILLY BOI BLUE 194 F O'Brien 5-11-2
120
P Brennan
2
F31- WAY OUT 230 Syd Hosie 5-11-2
-Mr G Harney (7)
3
2- BANNOW BAY BOY 265 T Lacey 4-11-1
-S Sheppard
4
-BAR THYME Seamus Mullins 4-11-1
M G Nolan
5
F2- BREAKING COVER 203 A Honeyball 4-11-1
-R McLernon
6
-CLARAS SOLDIER F O'Brien 4-11-1
Jack Hogan (7)
7
-FIRE FLYER P Nicholls 4-11-1
L Williams
8
-LEDDERS N Gifford 4-11-1
N F Houlihan (3)
9
-SAMAZUL B Pauling 4-11-1
Luca Morgan (3)
10
F3 SCRUM DIDDLY 167 O Sherwood 4-11-1
-J J Burke
11
-SOLDIEROFTHESTORM Jonjo O'Neill 4-11-1
Jonjo O'Neill Jr
12
-TIGGER F O'Brien 4-11-1
L Harrison (3)
13
9-4 Billy Boi Blue, 4-1 Fire Flyer, 9-2 Breaking Cover, 8-1 Bannow Bay Boy, 10-1 Soldierofthestorm,
12-1 Samazul, 14-1 Tigger, 16-1 Scrum Diddly.

Thunderer’s choice: Gumball ran a good race on the Flat here last month
and is loitering on a favourable mark over fences.Danger: Before Midnight.

3.15

Grundon Waste M’gement Conditional
Novices' Handicap Hurdle (£6,753: 2m 3f) (8)

111 SOPHOSC 15 I Williams 6-12-1
110
Mr Daire McConville (8)
1
114
J R Wildman (10)
2 2223-1 DREAM IN THE PARK 26 (D) E Lavelle 5-11-6
113
Luca Morgan (3)
3 5211-0 HARDY BOY 2 (BF) B Pauling 5-11-4
F Gillard v115
4 5U313- ALTO ALTO 189 C Gordon 5-11-4
222 HARRY D'ALENE 30 D J Jeffreys 5-10-11
71
A Bellamy (6)
5
107
P Armson
6 -13S44 RARE CLOUDS 23 S Earle 8-10-10
24-42 CAMULUS 10 Christian Williams 5-10-9
83
E Collier (8)
7
102
Charlie Price
8 0325-P UNIVERSAL SECRET 33 Mrs H Nelmes 5-10-4
9-4 Sophosc, 3-1 Dream In The Park, 9-2 Alto Alto, 6-1 Hardy Boy, 8-1 Camulus, 12-1 Harry D'alene,
14-1 Rare Clouds, 33-1 Universal Secret.

Thunderer’s choice: Anyharminasking, “the only horse to have beaten
Constitution Hill” is exciting in his own right. Danger: Call Of The Wild.

2.40

GL Events Novices' Hurdle (£7,080: 2m) (10)

461- INVINCIBLE NAO 198 (H) G L Moore 4-11-9
-Jamie Moore
1
v56
M Kendrick
2 466/4- GOGUENARD 248 D J Jeffreys 6-11-0
PP52- HECTOR JAGUEN 251 G L Moore 5-11-0
-N F Houlihan (3)
3
052- HOLETOWN HERO 205 (W,T) P Nicholls 5-11-0
-L Williams
4
3113- LEAVE OF ABSENCE 203 (D) C Gordon 5-11-0
-T Cannon
5
43- MISTER MOSE 223 P Henderson 7-11-0
-Sean Houlihan
6
-F Gregory
7 42321- RAMBO T 214 O Murphy 5-11-0
224- BLOW YOUR WAD 203 T Lacey 4-10-13
-S Sheppard
8
03 DANCE AT NIGHT 23 (H) N Twiston-Davies 4-10-13
25
J Neild (7)
9
-Bridget Andrews
10 1/100- FANCY STUFF 205 (T,D) D Skelton 5-10-7
7-4 Leave Of Absence, 7-2 Invincible Nao, 4-1 Holetown Hero, 5-1 Blow Your Wad, 8-1 Rambo T,
20-1 Fancy Stuff, 33-1 Hector Jaguen, Dance At Night.

Thunderer’s choice: Goshen is an exciting recruit to chasing, his three rivals
are all obliged to race from out of the handicap. Danger: Cobblers Dream.

Vllaznia 8-0 on Wednesday?
Which car manufacturer
14 will enter Formula One
in 2026?
Name the England front15 row forward using the
following emojis:

last weekend’s US Grand
Prix after a first-lap collision?
In which year did Simona
9 Halep win Wimbledon?
Name the iconic cricket
10 ground using the following
anagram: sanded green
In which city is England’s
11 Women’s Rugby World Cup
quarter-final against Australia
being played tomorrow?
Who did Rory McIlroy
12 replace as world No 1 after
winning the CJ Cup?
Who registered four assists
13 as Chelsea Women beat

ANSWERS
1. Andrew Balbirnie 2. Sevilla 3. Dom
Young 4. 25 5. Montpellier 6. Amanda
Serrano 7. Rilee Rossouw 8. Carlos Sainz
9. 2019 10. Eden Gardens 11. Auckland 12.
Scottie Scheffler 13. Guro Reiten 14. Audi
15. Bevan Rodd.
Guess the star Jon Rahm

WEEKENDQUIZ

STEPHEN MCCARTHY/SPORTSFILE

8 Which driver retired from

1224- PAY THE PIPER 253 (BF,D) A Hamilton 7-12-0 D McMenamin
111P- MACKENBERG 204 (D) D McCain 7-11-12
B Hughes
1116- HASANKEY 227 (CD) L Morgan 6-11-11
L Dobb (7)
3U11- DUBAI DAYS 211 (H,CD) N Alexander 8-11-3
B Lynn (5)
2215- SLANELOUGH 196 (CD) R Dobbin 10-11-1
Craig Nichol

150-2 CEDAR HILL 178 (D) A M Thomson 8-10-13
C O'Farrell
1F1-5 DOUGLAS TALKING 178 (T,BF,CD) L Russell 6-10-9
S Mulqueen
8 U-132 IF NOT FOR DYLAN 16 (H,C) A B Hamilton 7-10-7 A Doyle (5)
4-1 Dubai Days, 5-1 Mackenberg, Douglas Talking, 6-1 Pay The Piper,
Hasankey, 13-2 If Not For Dylan, 7-1 Cedar Hill, 10-1 Slanelough.
6
7

4.53

Newcomers NH Flat Race
(£2,995: 2m) (9)

BOWLER JACK A M Thomson 4-11-1
Craig Nichol
1
DUNNET HEAD I Jardine 4-11-1
C O'Farrell
2
HEART ABOVE D Sayer 4-11-1
H Brooke
3
LARGY RAY S Crawford (Ire) 4-11-1
B Hughes
4
LUCKY SOLDIER N Alexander 4-11-1
B Lynn (5)
5
MONOCHROMIX L Russell 4-11-1
Conner McCann (7)
6
BLUE BALOO A M Thomson 4-10-8
D McMenamin
7
BONNIE DAY I Duncan 4-10-8
S Mulqueen
8
TOROSAY
(W)
L
Russell
4-10-8
P
W
Wadge (10)
9
9-4 Largy Ray, 4-1 Dunnet Head, 6-1 Heart Above, 8-1 Lucky Soldier, Bowler
Jack, 10-1 Monochromix, Torosay, Blue Baloo, 25-1 Bonnie Day.

YESTERDAY’S RACING RESULTS
Newmarket
Going: good to soft (soft (in places)
1.00 (6f) 1, Ehraz (Jim Crowley, 2-11 fav);
2, Tiriac (20-1); 3, Spirit Of Breeze (9-2). 6Kl, Kl.
R Hannon.
1.30 (7f) 1, Physique (Mohammed Tabti, 7-4
fav); 2, Majestic Pride (7-2); 3, Alpha Crucis
(300-1). 13 ran. NR: Mukeedd. 1Ol, 6l. P O Cole.
2.05 (7f) 1, Bodorgan (R L Moore, 6-5 fav);
2, Milteye (22-1); 3, Ben Dikduk (15-2). 13 ran.
4Nl, 1Nl. C Hills.
2.40 (6f) 1, Matilda Picotte (D P McDonogh,
100-30 fav); 2, Queen Olly (12-1); 3, Believing
(4-1). 10 ran. 1Kl, ns. K P Cotter.
3.15 (1m 2f) 1, Turntable (Kaiya Fraser, 9-2);
2, Bad Company (6-1); 3, Dual Identity (13-8
fav). 8 ran. 1Ol, 4Nl. C F Wall.
3.50 (2m) 1, Malakahna (Callum Hutchinson,
6-1); 2, Novel Legend (2-1 fav); 3, Zikany (13-2).
11 ran. Nk, nk. Ian Williams.

4.25 (1m 4f) 1, Torcello (Rossa Ryan, 6-1);
2, Haarar (17-2); 3, Two Brothers (7-1). 11 ran.
Nk, 5Kl. S Lycett.
5.00 (1m) 1, Canoodled (Saffie Osborne, 6-1);
2, Atlantis Blue (8-1); 3, Give It Some Teddy
(11-1); 4, Alternative Fact (7-2). 16 ran. NR: They
Don’t Know. 4Kl, 2l. E Walker.
Placepot: £9.50.
Quadpot: £7.60.

Uttoxeter
Going: good
1.20 (1m 7f 168yd hdle) 1, Magical Maggie
(Jay Tidball, 3-1); 2, I Am Gonna Be (7-2);
3, Lady Alex (25-1). 12 ran. NR: Royale Dance.
6Kl, 2l. A Ralph.
1.55 (2m 3f 207yd hdle) 1, Park This One (Sam
Twiston-Davies, 11-2); 2, Awaythelad (15-2);
3, King’s Threshold (14-1). 11 ran. NR: Hourvari,
Santos Blue. Kl, 3l. Jamie Snowden.
2.30 (2m 4f ch) 1, Conceal (James Bowen,
50-1); 2, Unit Sixtyfour (5-1); 3, Lindisfarne

(7-1). 12 ran. NR: Bitasweetsymphony. Nk, 2l.
Billy Aprahamian.
3.05 (1m 7f 168yd hdle) 1, Grandee (Sam
Twiston-Davies, 7-4 fav); 2, Luna Dora (7-2);
3, Andapa (9-2). 10 ran. NR: She’s A Rocca.
1Nl, Kl. J S Best.
3.40 (1m 7f 214yd ch) 1, Thunder Rock (Adrian
Heskin, 9-2); 2, Brief Times (7-2); 3, Barrichello
(11-2). 7 ran. NR: Zacony Rebel. 4Kl, nk.
O Murphy.
4.15 (2m 3f 207yd hdle) 1, Pardon Me (Sam
Twiston-Davies, 18-1); 2, Lough Carra (4-1
fav); 3, Belvedere Blast (40-1). 13 ran.
NR: Couldbeaweapon. 2Nl, 2Nl. M D Easterby.
4.45 (1m 7f 168yd Flat) 1, Go To War (P J
Brennan, 11-4); 2, Fingle Bridge (5-2 fav); 3,
Major Fortune (18-5). 11 ran. 2Nl, 5l. F O’Brien.
Jackpot: Not won. Pool of £1,781.54 carried
forward to Ascot today.
Placepot: £738.90.
Quadpot: £27.30.

Wetherby
Going: good to soft (good (in places)
1.10 (2m 5f 56yd hdle) 1, Miss Milano
(C Rabbitt, 5-1); 2, Sister Michael (17-2);
3, Limerick Leader (12-1). 11 ran. NR: Ange
Endormi, Poetria. Nk, 8l. N G Richards.
1.45 (3m 45yd ch) 1, Gelino Bello (H Cobden,
1-4 fav); 2, Loughderg Rocco (16-1). 3 ran.
Kl, P F Nicholls.
2.20 (2m hdle) 1, Parisencore (Danny
McMenamin, 6-4 fav); 2, Albert’s Back (6-1); 3,
Osprey Call (6-1). 7 ran. Nk, 6l. N G Richards.
2.55 (2m hdle) 1, Medyaf (Harry Skelton, 3-1);
2, Tuddenham Green (11-8 fav); 3, Vintage
Valley (13-2). 4 ran. 3l, 53l. D Skelton.
3.30 (2m 3f 85yd ch) 1, Into Overdrive
(Jamie Hamilton, 9-2); 2, Dublin Four (12-1);
3, Coconut Splash (9-4 fav). 7 ran. 3Kl, Kl.
M Walford.

4.05 (2m hdle) 1, Obsessedwithyou (G
Sheehan, 100-30); 2, Jar Du Desert (13-2); 3,
Ygritte (18-1). 6 ran. 9Kl, 17l. Jamie Snowden.
4.35 (2m hdle) 1, Ukantango (Aidan Coleman,
6-5 fav); 2, Royal Mogul (5-1); 3, Don Hollow
(9-4). 11 ran. NR: Burrows Hall. 1Nl, nk.
O Murphy.
Placepot: £661.80.
Quadpot: £108.00.

Southwell
Going: standard
4.40 (2m 102yd) 1, Easy Equation (Aidan
Keeley, 9-4); 2, Copperplate (6-4 fav);
3, Wadacre Tir (6-1). 8 ran. NR: Storm Arcadio.
2Nl, 2Ol. J S Moore.
5.15 (6f 16yd) 1, Less Is More (G Lee, 25-1);
2, Cool Lightning (Evens fav); 3, Autumn
Angel (11-2). 6 ran. NR: Justathimble,
La Equinata. Sh hd, 3l. Miss J A Camacho.
5.45 (6f 16yd) 1, Dark Shot (K T O’Neill, 22-1);

2, Another Investment (100-30 fav); 3, Belle
Fourche (12-1). 10 ran. NR: Bellagio Man,
Spartan Fighter. Nk, sh hd. S Dixon.
6.15 (1m 13yd) 1, Hamaamm (Harry Burns, 1011 fav); 2, Sunninghill (7-2); 3, Far Horizon (112). 8 ran. NR: Southwold. 3l, 5l. S & E Crisford.
6.45 (1m 13yd) 1, Estidama (R Kingscote,
11-8 fav); 2, One For The Frog (2-1); 3, Pure
Motion (6-1). 9 ran. 2Nl, 2Nl. W J Haggas.
7.15 (1m 13yd) 1, Billyb (S Gray, 6-1); 2, Chichester
(100-30); 3, Chasing Aphrodite (12-1). 9 ran.
NR: Perseverants. Kl, hd. Mrs A Duffield.
7.45 (1m 3f 23yd) 1, Fearless Bay (P J
McDonald, 18-1); 2, Nolton Cross (11-2); 3,
Capital Theory (8-1). 11 ran. NR: Zuraig,
Zambezi Magic. Kl, Ol. E A L Dunlop.
8.15 (1m 4f 14yd) 1, International Law (Cam
Hardie, 18-1); 2, Victory March (100-30);
3, Sicario (5-1). 14 ran. 2l, Kl. A Brittain.
Placepot: £8.80.
Quadpot: £6.80.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

23

1GS K1

Sport
THUNDERER’S WEEKEND GUIDE
Big-race trends

Repeat performance

bet365 Charlie Hall Chase
(3.35 Wetherby)
Two of the five runners today are tenyear-olds — Secret Investor and Sam
Brown — but the last horse older than
nine to land this feature was Grey
Abbey in 2004. No favourite has
obliged since Cue Card, in 2015.

Amoola Gold
(2.40 Ascot)
The Dan Skelton-trained nine-year-old
has a soft spot for Ascot, seeking to
win this contest for the third
successive time. He’s able to race off
a mark 3lb lower than 12 months ago.
Partnered again by Bridget Andrews.

Banker or bust?

What’s in a name

Goshen
(1.30 Ascot)
His career over hurdles was a mix of
dizzy highs and crushing lows, and
the next chapter begins now as he
switches to fences. The zestful sixyear-old ran well on the Flat last
month and looks the type to take to
chasing. Banker.

Warren Hill
(1.38 Newmarket)
There are an estimated 3,000 horses
trained in Newmarket, the majority of
them go through their paces on the
all-weather gallops at Warren Hill.
Horses have been in action here
since the reign of Charles II. The
equine version makes his debut today.

Red-hot trainer

£

Nicky Richards
He hit the target with both his
runners at Wetherby yesterday and
has struck with nine of his 18 runners
in the past month. Richards runs
Marown (3.08 Ayr) and Findthetime
(5.20 Wetherby) today.

Bet of the day

Ahoy Senor
(3.35 Wetherby)
He leads Bravemansgame 2-1 in their
private battles, and should get his
own way at the head of affairs. While
there is still room for some
improvement in his jumping, it looks
like he could gallop all day.

Wolverhampton
Thunderer
4.58 Beautiful Star
7.00 Belisa De Vega
5.30 Desert Dream
7.30 Irv
6.00 Peachy Carnehan 8.00 Wild Tiger
6.30 Mythical World
8.30 All About Alice
Going: standard
Sky Sports Racing
Draw: 5f-7f, low numbers best

4.58

Nursery (2-Y-O: £4,536: 7f) (12)

P Mulrennan
1 (3) 530 DAKOTA ELEGANCE 23 B Meehan 9-11
T Eaves
2 (2) 5050 WADI BANI 19 (T) S Durack 9-9
D Keenan
3 (9) 344 BUTTERFLY EFFECT 37 (BF) G Scott 9-9
R Coakley
4 (8) 200 SPIDER MURPHY 19 P Evans 9-9
H Turner
5 (4) 04604 BEAUTIFUL STAR 17 R Hannon 9-6
L Morris
6 (7) 02040 STARMAS 17 D Loughnane 9-5
J Mitchell
7 (6) 03305 SO CHIC 17 C Hills 9-5
K Stott
8 (12) 53326 MANUHA 17 (B,BF) G Boughey 9-5
P J McDonald
9 (1) 46535 DRAFTED 35 (P) James Horton 9-5
Doubtful
10(11) 0346 NO NEWS 30 (P,BF) R Hughes 9-4
C Lee
11 (5) 0554 DEE SEE ARE 15 (T) K R Burke 9-0
J Hart
12(10) 650 DOWNTOWN DUBAI 32 C & M Johnston 8-9
9-2 Drafted, 5-1 Manuha, 6-1 Dee See Are, 7-1 Beautiful Star, Butterfly Effect,
8-1 Dakota Elegance, 10-1 So Chic, Wadi Bani.

5.30

Handicap (Div I: £3,726: 7f) (12)

L Morris
(5) 2-000 BOMBASTIC 14 (CD) R Brisland 7-9-9
D Swift
(7) 52513 DESERT DREAM 31 (T,CD) S Spencer 8-9-8
(6) 65210 RAINBOW SIGN 24 (T,D) M Pattinson 4-9-5 A Keeley (5)
K O'Neill
(11) 006-0 FAST FLO 16 C Dunnett 3-9-4
W Carson
(12) 24052 MAAHI VE 12 (V) M Attwater 4-9-4
(8) 20650 TWENTYSHARESOFGREY 24 (CD) K P De Foy 4-9-3
J Mitchell
K Stott
7 (4) 03053 LADY ZIANA 15 (T) D Brown 4-9-3
C Bishop
8 (3) 20265 FACT OR FABLE 17 (P,CD) J S Moore 5-9-1
G Lee
9 (2) 00500 AMAZING MOLLIE 23 J Mackie 3-9-0
H Crouch
10 (9) 00000 GUITAR 2 (CD) Martin Smith 3-9-0
F Norton
11 (1) 06436 CAILIN SAOIRSE 48 Alexandra Dunn 3-8-13
C Hardie
12(10) 43000 THE CHARMER 14 (T,V) D Shaw 3-8-13
3-1 Desert Dream, 4-1 Maahi Ve, 6-1 Lady Ziana, 7-1 Twentysharesofgrey, 8-1
Rainbow Sign, Fact Or Fable, 14-1 Cailin Saoirse, 16-1 Guitar, Bombastic.
1
2
3
4
5
6

6.00

Handicap (Div II: £3,726: 7f) (12)

1 (4) 40602 SAY GRACE 12 (CD) G Harris 3-9-9

1.38

Newmarket
Thunderer
1.03 Britannica
1.38 Glowing Sky
2.13 Speriamo
2.48 Dawn Vega

3.23 Lawful Command
3.58 Conservationist
4.33 Migration
5.08 Hodler

Going: good to soft-soft in places
Draw: no advantage

1.03

Racing TV

Novice Stakes
(Div I: 2-Y-O: £4,320: 7f) (13)

BRITANNICA A Balding 9-2
D Probert
1 (6)
CROWNING J Ferguson 9-2
C Fallon
2 (13)
FERENSBY R Hannon 9-2
D Tudhope
3 (5)
00 KAMANIKA 10 Joseph Parr 9-2
T Hammer Hansen
4 (4)
KARSAVINA C Cox 9-2
Rossa Ryan
5 (8)
LUDMILLA J & T Gosden 9-2
R L Moore
6 (10)
00 MARGARET BEAUFORT 7 G Scott 9-2
D Muscutt
7 (9)
MARMARA SEA J Chapple-Hyam 9-2
P Cosgrave
8 (11)
0 NOORAH 31 C Allen 9-2
N Callan
9 (7)
SAFETY CATCH W Haggas 9-2
A Farragher (3)
10 (1)
0 TIME'S EYE 30 R Beckett 9-2
R Hornby
11 (2)
WANTOPLANTATREE R Varian 9-2
David Egan
12(12)
ZANAGOR J Feilden 9-2
D E Hogan
13 (3)
11-4 Ludmilla, 9-2 Wantoplantatree, 5-1 Safety Catch, 6-1 Ferensby, 7-1
Karsavina, 10-1 Time's Eye, Crowning, 12-1 Britannica, Marmara Sea.

Novice Stakes

2.48

(Div II: 2-Y-O: £4,320: 7f) (13)

1 (8) 42322 SIR LAURENCE GRAFF 10 (BF) J & T Gosden 9-9
R L Moore
2 (10) 06121 FORCEFUL SPEED 26 (D) G Boughey 9-7 James Doyle
42542
SHAHBAZ
24
(P)
C
Fellowes
9-6
C
Shepherd
3 (9)
P Cosgrave
4 (7) 61344 THERE'S THE DOOR 52 P Evans 9-3
P-L Jamin (3)
5 (3) 25200 GIFTED ANGEL 35 T Dascombe 9-2
S M Levey
6 (6) 534 DARTMAN 38 B Meehan 9-1
D Probert
7 (1) 540 TWO PAST EIGHT 62 A King 9-0
N Callan
8 (2) 05031 ORCHESTRA 12 E Dunlop 8-13
Rossa Ryan
9 (11) 004 DAWN VEGA 30 A King 8-13
A Atzeni
10 (4) 604 AL HARGAH 26 R Hannon 8-12
11 (5) 636 ROLL IT IN GLITTER 81 M & D Easterby 8-10 C Beasley
7-2 Sir Laurence Graff, 5-1 Orchestra, 6-1 Forceful Speed, 8-1 Shahbaz, Dawn
Vega, Al Hargah, 10-1 Dartman, 12-1 Two Past Eight, There's The Door.

0 ANGEL TIME 9 R Brisland 9-2
C Shepherd
1 (10)
DANCING R Hannon 9-2
S M Levey
2 (1)
ENBORNE (H) A Balding 9-2
D Probert
3 (8)
0 FOOLS AND HORSES 35 C Cox 9-2
Rossa Ryan
4 (5)
GLOWING SKY J & T Gosden 9-2
R Havlin
5 (11)
55 GREYSFUL STORM 20 Darryll Holland 9-2 Liam Wright (7)
6 (12)
2 LIBERALIST 84 M Bell 9-2
R L Moore
7 (13)
LUCIDITY E Dunlop 9-2
R Clutterbuck
8 (9)
MEDICI CHAPEL J & T Gosden 9-2
M Harley
9 (7)
0 MISS LIGHTFANDANGO 43 C Hills 9-2
J Crowley
10 (3)
ORCHID BLOOM W Haggas 9-2
C Fallon
11 (2)
RECONSIDER ME R Beckett 9-2
R Hornby
12 (6)
WARREN
HILL
R
Varian
9-2
A
Atzeni
13 (4)
3-1 Glowing Sky, 9-2 Warren Hill, 5-1 Orchid Bloom, 7-1 Reconsider Me, 8-1
Medici Chapel, 10-1 Dancing, Liberalist, 12-1 Enborne.

2.13

L Morris

Nursery (2-Y-O: £6,696: 7f) (7)

1 (1) 2216 IN THESE SHOES 21 (D) C & M Johnston 9-9 R L Moore
R Clutterbuck
2 (6) 66011 QUEEN'S EYOT 7 (V,D) E Dunlop 9-8
A Farragher (3)
3 (3) 12001 SPERIAMO 10 (CD) P McBride 9-8
Rossa Ryan
4 (5) 324 QUANTUM LIGHT 58 R Beckett 9-7
D Costello
5 (4) 35122 SPIORADALTA 21 (D) M Walford 9-4
P Cosgrave
6 (7) 14154 ON THE PULSE 10 (D) P Evans 9-1
S Osborne (3)
7 (2) 065 MONOPOLISE 19 E Walker 8-10
5-2 Queen's Eyot, 4-1 In These Shoes, 5-1 Speriamo, 6-1 Spioradalta, Quantum
Light, 8-1 On The Pulse, 10-1 Monopolise.

3.23

Nursery (2-Y-O: £6,696: 1m 1f) (11)

Handicap (£8,100: 1m) (13)

(5) -1646 REBEL TERRITORY 31 (CD) A Perrett 4-10-0 J Crowley
T Fisher (7)
(1) 23003 REVICH 42 (V,BF,D) R Spencer 6-10-0
D Tudhope
(11) 12/21 GHALY 99 (D) S bin Suroor 6-9-13
(4) 36063 NOTRE BELLE BETE 31 (D) A Balding 4-9-13
C Hutchinson (5)
5 (9) 22035 ROPEY GUEST 56 (V,D) G Margarson 5-9-11 T P Queally
6 (6) 11545 LAWFUL COMMAND 92 (C,D) B Meehan 3-9-7 S M Levey
7 (13) -0000 DASHING ROGER 22 (D) W Stone 5-9-7 Collen Storey
8 (2) 13-26 KING OF CONQUEST 267 (BF) C Appleby 3-9-4
James Doyle
9 (8) 34003 REPERTOIRE 37 (D) D M Simcock 6-9-3 Olivia Haines (7)
0-434
SUNRISE
VALLEY
37
(C,D)
Sir
M
Stoute
4-9-2
R L Moore
10 (7)
1
2
3
4

2 (3) 32142 PEACHEY CARNEHAN 11 (V,CD) M Mullineaux 8-9-8
P Dennis
D Keenan
3 (1) -0000 TRUGANINI 131 R Eddery 3-9-5
J Mitchell
4 (12) 04035 LOCKDOWN LASS 32 G Hanmer 4-9-5
T Whelan
5 (5) 34201 CHIFA 19 (CD) E De Giles 5-9-5
H Turner
6 (10) 24-55 BAWAADER 19 (D) A Sadik 7-9-4
7 (7) 06000 UMMSUQUAIM 38 (B) J-R Auvray 3-9-3 Georgia Dobie (3)
02205
SLATE
CRACKER
23
(B)
D
Carroll
3-9-2
H Shaw
8 (11)
9 (8) 00055 FURNITURE FACTORS 15 Ronald Thompson 4-9-1 T Eaves
10 (2) 12330 STONEY LANE 15 (P,D) Simon Whitaker 7-9-1 L Edmunds
K O'Neill
11 (9) 06560 BRAZEN ARROW 11 (V,C) C Dunnett 4-9-0
Elisha Whittington (5)
12 (6) 00000 JASTAR 26 R Potter 3-8-13
7-2 Peachey Carnehan, 4-1 Chifa, Say Grace, 6-1 Slate Cracker, 7-1 Stoney
Lane, 10-1 Lockdown Lass, 14-1 Bawaader, 16-1 Furniture Factors.

6.30

Novice Stakes
(2-Y-O: £3,672: 1m 1f) (9)

7.30

Handicap (£3,726: 1m 1f 104yd) (11)

D Nolan
(4) 00046 HECTOR'S HERE 98 (B,CD) I Furtado 6-10-1
(3) 2-356 MEADRAM 146 (BF,CD) M Tregoning 4-10-0 A Keeley (5)
F Larson (3)
(11) -0304 MAFIA POWER 119 M Appleby 5-10-0
P Mulrennan
(10) 10604 UNPLUGGED 22 M & D Easterby 6-9-13
D Keenan
(9) -0065 HAKU 21 M Loughnane 3-9-10
(6) 20510 KENILWORTH KING 19 (CD) W Jarvis 3-9-10
P J McDonald
A Brookes (5)
7 (8) 23132 IRV 63 (BF) M Hammond 6-9-8
8 (7) 40662 DIAMOND JILL 28 (B,CD) Sarah Hollinshead 5-9-6
T Greatrex
P Dennis
9 (1) 00003 POP FAVORITE 14 S Dixon 4-9-3
J Bryan
10 (2) 03526 SNOOZE LANE 59 Sarah Hollinshead 3-9-3
L Morris
11 (5) 41040 SUSANBEQUICK 12 Joe Ponting 3-8-12
7-2 Meadram, 5-1 Kenilworth King, 6-1 Diamond Jill, 7-1 Mafia Power, Irv, 8-1
Unplugged, Pop Favorite, 10-1 Hector's Here.
1
2
3
4
5
6

8.00

Novice Stakes (£4,320: 5f) (8)

K Stott
1 (6) 02212 SHE'S HOT 23 (T,BF) P & O Cole 9-9
KEEPONBELIEVING Liam Bailey 9-2
P Mulrennan
2 (8)
3 LADY OF ARABIA 19 E J-Houghton 9-2
C Bishop
3 (5)
40 MELLOW MOOD 31 S Kirk 9-2
K O'Neill
4 (2)
MOVIE NIGHT C & M Johnston 9-2
J Hart
5 (3)
43 MYTHICAL WORLD 39 J O'Keeffe 9-2
G Lee
6 (7)
5 SEXY REXY 23 M Botti 9-2
L Morris
7 (9)
6 SISTER OF THOR 31 J Portman 9-2
H Crouch
8 (1)
SPECIALIST VIEW C Dwyer 9-2
G Bass (3)
9 (4)
2-1 She's Hot, 100-30 Lady Of Arabia, 9-2 Mythical World, 5-1 Movie Night,
7-1 Sexy Rexy, 25-1 others.

ESPIRITU MORENO C Dwyer 3-9-7
G Bass (3)
1 (1)
F Norton
2 (6) 45342 FAIR AND SQUARE 30 (B) R Harris 3-9-7
HIT MAC G Boughey 3-9-7
K Stott
3 (5)
0 ROMANOVICH 148 J G O'Shea 3-9-7
D Keenan
4 (4)
WILD TIGER S bin Suroor 3-9-7
L Steward
5 (8)
24 FANCIFUL 26 W Haggas 3-9-2
S Donohoe
6 (7)
P J McDonald
7 (2) 44242 ISCHIA 32 J Fanshawe 3-9-2
22 SHADES OF SUMMER 26 (BF) J Tate 3-9-2 J Mitchell
8 (3)
9-4 Shades Of Summer, 3-1 Wild Tiger, 9-2 Ischia, 7-1 Fanciful, Hit Mac, 8-1
Fair And Square, 25-1 Espiritu Moreno, 33-1 Romanovich.

7.00

8.30

Handicap (£3,726: 1m 1f) (12)

Handicap (£3,726: 1m 4f) (12)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

K O'Neill
(1) 00531 VISIBILITY 9 (CD) S Dixon 5-10-3
A Rawlinson
(9) 43230 THRAVE 4 (B) M Appleby 7-9-13
F Norton
(12) 25363 EYE OF THE WATER 12 (C) R Harris 6-9-10
P Mulrennan
(7) -5001 MIN TILL 44 M & D Easterby 3-9-9
H Crouch
(5) 50211 BELISA DE VEGA 59 (CD) J Portman 3-9-7
G Wood
(6) 36445 KINGWELL 62 (B,T) Mrs I G-Leveque 3-9-7
(8) 01234 CITY ESCAPE 107 (B,E,CD) M Loughnane 5-9-7
Billy Loughnane (7)
8 (4) 33550 HOT DAY 46 (P,CD) J S Moore 4-9-6 Georgia Dobie (3)
S Donohoe
9 (3) 24231 CLOCH NUA 11 Mrs Stella Barclay 3-9-5
10 (2) 04500 INDEPENDENT BEAUTY 15 (H) L Williamson 4-8-10
Paula Muir (3)
11(11) 04600 WESTERN MELODY 12 M Hammond 5-8-9 A Brookes (5)
12(10) 00003 CAPTAIN SEDGWICK 33 J Spearing 8-8-9 A Keeley (5)
4-1 Belisa De Vega, 9-2 Cloch Nua, Visibility, 6-1 Min Till, 8-1 City Escape, Eye
Of The Water, 12-1 Thrave, 14-1 Hot Day.

1 (3) -3466 ORDER OF ST JOHN 14 (P) D J Jeffreys 5-9-9
C Howarth (5)
H Shaw
2 (12) 43461 JACKAMUNDO 11 (B) D Carroll 6-9-9
K O'Neill
3 (9) 0-005 BAD ATTITUDE 20 (P,CD) C Dunnett 5-9-6
23560
ARMY
OF
ONE
J23
(T)
Mitchell
Hunt
5-9-4
G
Rooke
4 (6)
D Keenan
5 (1) 50-06 HAPPY COMPANY 16 J G O'Shea 8-9-4
6 (7) 03415 ALL ABOUT ALICE 25 (P,BF,CD) Martin Smith 3-9-2
H Crouch
T Whelan
7 (8) 43542 ROCHEBRUNE 26 G Baker 3-9-1
J Mitchell
8 (10) 00000 PERSIAN WOLF 36 (P) P McEntee 4-9-1
F Norton
9 (2) 500 GENTLE FIRE 176 S Drinkwater 6-9-1
K Stott
10 (5) 000 QUEEN OF IPANEMA 38 (T) G Boughey 3-9-0
P Dennis
11 (4) 63400 SAMURAI SNEDDZ 18 (B) K Scott 3-8-13
C Lee
12(11) 42326 THREE DONS 26 (BF) A Carroll 3-8-11
7-2 Jackamundo, 4-1 All About Alice, 11-2 Rochebrune, 13-2 Three Dons,
Queen Of Ipanema, 10-1 Order Of St John, 16-1 others.

11(10) 15232 STATELY HOME 20 (BF,D) S Lycett 5-8-11
Josephine Gordon
T Heard (3)
12 (3) -3500 SEATTLE KING 17 P McEntee 3-8-10
13(12) -5000 STAR FROM AFARHH 20 (H) E Walker 3-8-9
S Osborne (3)
9-2 Ghaly, 6-1 King Of Conquest, 7-1 Lawful Command, Revich, 8-1 Stately
Home, Sunrise Valley, Rebel Territory, Ropey Guest.

D Probert
7 (6) 36215 SAVVY VICTORY 35 (D) S P C Woods 3-9-2
D Muscutt
8 (2) 54020 PRETTY SWEET 28 (P) G Boughey 4-9-1
11-4 Ottoman Fleet, 4-1 Algiers, 9-2 Royal Fleet, 5-1 Migration, 7-1 Jack
Darcy, Nobel, 12-1 Savvy Victory, 50-1 Pretty Sweet.

3.58

Fillies' Stakes (2-Y-O: £22,968: 1m) (10)

C Beasley
1 (10) 32213 CAERNARFON 12 M Channon 9-2
A Atzeni
2 (7) 612 CHELSEA GREEN 42 H Palmer 9-2
21 CONSERVATIONIST 35 (D) C Cox 9-2
R L Moore
3 (6)
1 DREAM OF LOVE 22 (C) C Appleby 9-2
James Doyle
4 (8)
R Hornby
5 (3) 33341 ENOLA GREY 37 (D) J Portman 9-2
D Muscutt
6 (2) 4154 FARIBA 34 (H,BF,D) K P De Foy 9-2
C D Hayes
7 (9) 4313 KEEP IN TOUCH 34 D K Weld (Ire) 9-2
1 QUEEN FLEUR 70 J & T Gosden 9-2
R Havlin
8 (4)
S Osborne
9 (1) 02134 ROSE PRICK 35 (BF) E Walker 9-2
41 SISYPHUS STRENGTH 31 (D) A Balding 9-2
N Callan
10 (5)
9-4 Dream Of Love, 7-2 Keep In Touch, 5-1 Conservationist, 7-1 Queen Fleur,
8-1 Caernarfon, 10-1 Chelsea Green, 12-1 Sisyphus Strength, 25-1 others.

4.33
1
2
3
4
5
6

Stakes (£29,489: 1m 2f) (8)

James Doyle
(7) 22113 ROYAL FLEET 21 (H,D) C Appleby 4-9-9
A Atzeni
(8) -2101 ALGIERS 21 (D) S & E Crisford 5-9-6
David Egan
(1) 10-20 MIGRATION 14 (C,D) D Menuisier 6-9-6
R L Moore
(4) 21422 OTTOMAN FLEET 21 (CD) C Appleby 3-9-5
N Callan
(3) 1-142 JACK DARCY 76 (D) P & O Cole 3-9-2
C Fallon
(5) 1-1 NOBEL 34 (D) A Balding 3-9-2

5.08

Handicap (£8,316: 7f) (18)

1 (11) 43435 BERNARDO O'REILLY 8 (D) R Spencer 8-9-13 T Fisher (7)
P Cosgrave
2 (7) 03335 ALABLAQ 20 (T,D) P Evans 4-9-10
N Callan
3 (18) 15004 ATASER 8 (D) T Kent 4-9-10
Ryan Sexton (5)
4 (5) 61312 HODLER 34 (BF,D) J Boyle 3-9-10
A Atzeni
5 (9) 15300 LOVE DE VEGA 17 (D) C & M Johnston 3-9-8
D Tudhope
6 (14) 65304 RIOT 32 (P,D) D O'Meara 5-9-8
7 (8) 06300 POCKET THE PROFIT 14 (H,D) G Boughey 3-9-8 R L Moore
Kaiya Fraser (7)
8 (12) 00500 KINGMANIA 21 (D) C Wall 4-9-7
S W Kelly
9 (2) 30112 ASTRAL BEAU 22 (CD) Mrs P Sly 3-9-6
10(10) -5132 DANCING TO WIN 28 (H,D) J Chapple-Hyam 4-9-6
David Egan
11 (3) 32640 LORD RAPSCALLION 7 (T,V,D) S C Williams 6-9-5
S M Levey
J Crowley
12 (1) -5100 SWATCH 38 (P) R Brisland 3-9-3
13 (4) 02136 THE MOUSE KING 42 (D) J Feilden 3-9-3 S Feilden (7)
14(17) 11111 PRISCILLA'S WISH 19 (D) P McBride 4-9-2 A Farragher (3)
15 (6) -1246 DREAMS OF THUNDER 22 (P) Miss A Murphy 3-9-1
D Muscutt
D Costello
16(15) 26064 JUSTCALLMEPETE 20 H Evans 3-8-12
Rossa Ryan
17(13) 6000 TOOPHAN 7 P & O Cole 3-8-11
J Haynes
18(16) 41264 CUBANISTA 25 (BF,D) Mrs P Sly 3-8-8
11-2 Hodler, 6-1 Astral Beau, 13-2 Priscilla's Wish, Dancing To Win, 10-1
Ataser, Pocket The Profit, Alablaq, 12-1 Bernardo O'Reilly.

RESULTS
Football
Sky Bet Championship
Birmingham (2) 2

QPR

(0) 0

Trusty 4
Longelo 29
Vanarama National League Barnet 1
Scunthorpe 1.
Cinch Scottish Championship Morton 4
Inverness CT 0; Queen’s Park 2 Dundee 2.

Cricket
T20 World Cup: Super 12s: Group one
Melbourne
(abandoned,
1pt
each):
Afghanistan v Ireland; England v Australia.

New Zealand
England
Ireland
Australia
Sri Lanka
Afghanistan

P W L
2 1 0
3 1 1
3 1 1
3 1 1
2 1 1
3 0 1

D NR Pts RR
0
1 3 4.45
0
1 3 0.24
0
1 3 1.17
0
1 3 -1.56
0 0 2 -0.45
0
2 2 -0.62

Darts
Cazoo European Championship
Westfalenhallen, Dortmund: First round
(England unless stated): D Chisnall bt S Bunting
6-0; D van den Bergh (Bel) bt D Gurney (N Ire)
6-2; R Smith bt J Cullen 6-4; J de Sousa (Por) bt
M Schindler (Ger) 6-1; P Wright (Scot) bt R Meikle
6-2; R Rodriguez (Austria) bt G Price (Wales) 6-4;
C Dobey bt M van Gerwen (Neth) 6-5.

Golf
DP World Tour Portugal Masters
Vilamoura: Leaders after two rounds (Great
Britain and Ireland unless stated): 129 J Smith
62, 67; G Green (Malaysia) 64, 65. 130 T
Pulkkanen (Fin) 66, 64; B Hebert (Fr) 66, 64.
131 R Karlberg (Swe) 66, 65; N von
Dellingshausen (Ger) 65, 66; S Heisele (Ger)
67, 64; E Pepperell 67, 64. 132 J Luiten (Neth)
63, 69; H Long (Ger) 65, 67; R Roussel (Fr) 64,
68; J Stalter (Fr) 65, 67. 133 M Kinhult (Swe)
66, 67; J Winther (Den) 63, 70; A Rozner (Fr)
67, 66; J Scrivener (Aus) 66, 67; R Fisher 66,
67; F Lacroix (Fr) 67, 66; A Wilson 68, 65; A
Cockerill (Can) 68, 65; D Hillier (NZ) 65, 68.

US PGA Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Port Royal GC: Leading first-round scores
(United States unless stated): 62 H Endycott
(Aus), A Smotherman. 63 S Brown, D McCarthy,
A Schenk, R Shelton, A Atwal (India). 64 T Detry
(Bel), H Higgs, J Lower, B Martin, S O’Hair, G
Sigg, D Wu, Yu Chun-an (Taiwan). 65 An
Byeong-hun (S Kor), A Baddeley (Aus), M J
Daffue (SA), Dou Zecheng (China), B Griffin, S
Gutschewski, N Hardy, M McGreevy, S Power
(Ire), P Rodgers, A Smalley, B Stuard, T Werbylo.

Rugby league
World Cup: Pool C New Zealand 48 Ireland 10
(at Emerald Headingley).
6 Table on page 21

Rugby union

United Rugby Championship Glasgow 37
Benetton 0; Scarlets 5 Leinster 35.

Gallagher Premiership Gloucester 38 Exeter
Chiefs 22.
P W D L F A B Pts
Saracens
6 6 0 0 215 149 5 29
Sale
6 5 0 1 170 121 4 24
Gloucester
5 4 0 1 151 129 4 20
Harlequins
6 3 0 3 192 173 5 17
Leicester
6 3 0 3 158 162 4 16
Exeter
6 3 0 3 179 164 3 15
Northampton 6 2 0 4 156 185 5 13
Bristol
5 2 0 3 128 176 4 12
Bath
6 1 0 5 162 187 5 9
Newcastle
5 1 0 4 127 157 4 8
London Irish 5 1 0 4 140 175 4 8
National League One Darlington Mowden
Park 29 Leeds Tykes 20.

Tennis

Gallagher Premiership Harlequins v
London Irish; Northampton Saints v Bristol
Bears.
RFU Championship Caldy v Coventry;
Cornish Pirates v London Scottish (2.30);
Doncaster v Ampthill (2.30); Ealing
Trailfinders v Nottingham; Hartpury v Jersey
Reds (1.30); Richmond v Bedford.
United Rugby Championship Dragons v
Zebre (5.15); Lions v Stormers; Munster v
Ulster (5.15); Ospreys v Connacht (7.35).
Women’s World Cup: Quarter-finals (in
Whangarei): France v Italy (4.30am); New
Zealand v Wales (7.30am).

Cinch Scottish Premiership Livingston v
Celtic (midday); Ross County v Heart of
Midlothian (3.0).

ATP Erste Bank Open
Vienna: Quarter-finals G Dimitrov (Bul) bt M
Giron (US) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; D Medvedev (Russ) bt
J Sinner (It) 6-4, 6-2; B Coric (Cro) bt H
Hurkacz (Pol) 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5); D
Shapovalov (Can) bt D Evans (GB) 6-3, 6-3.
ATP Swiss Indoors
Basel: Quarter-finals F Auger-Aliassime (Can)
bt A Bublik (Kaz) 6-2, 6-3; C Alcaraz (Sp) bt P
Carreño Busta (Sp) 6-3, 6-4; R Bautista Agut
(Sp) bt S Wawrinka (Switz) 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); H Rune
(Den) bt A Rinderknech (Fr) 7-6 (7-0), 6-2.

FIXTURES
Today
Football
Kick-off 3.0 unless stated
Premier League Bournemouth v Tottenham;
Brentford v Wolverhampton; Brighton v
Chelsea; Crystal Palace v Southampton;
Fulham v Everton (5.30); Leicester v
Manchester City (12.30); Liverpool v Leeds
(7.45); Newcastle v Aston Villa.
Sky Bet Championship Bristol City v
Swansea (midday); Burnley v Reading;
Cardiff v Rotherham; Coventry v Blackpool;
Huddersfield v Millwall; Hull v Blackburn;
Luton v Sunderland; Norwich v Stoke;
Preston v Middlesbrough; West Bromwich v
Sheffield Utd (12.30); Wigan v Watford.
P
Burnley.................17
QPR........................17
Blackburn............17
Swansea..............16
Sheff Utd.............16
Millwall.................16
Norwich ............... 17
Reading ............... 16
Luton....................16
Watford................16
Birmingham........17
Rotherham.........16
Preston.................17
Bristol City .......... 17

W
8
9
10
8
7
8
7
8
6
6
6
5
5
6

D
8
3
0
3
5
2
4
1
6
5
5
7
7
3

L
1
5
7
5
4
6
6
7
4
5
6
4
5
8

F
30
25
22
22
26
22
23
19
20
23
18
20
11
25

A
15
19
18
22
16
19
19
23
18
20
15
19
14
26

GD Pts
15 32
6 30
4 30
0 27
10 26
3 26
4 25
-4 25
2 24
3 23
3 23
1 22
-3 22
-1 21

Sunderland.........16 5 5 6 21 20 1 20
Hull........................16 6 2 8 20 31 -11 20
Stoke.....................16 5 4 7 17 20 -3 19
Blackpool............16 5 4 7 21 25 -4 19
Wigan...................16 5 4 7 17 24 -7 19
Cardiff..................16 5 3 8 12 19 -7 18
Middlesbrough.16 4 5 7 19 21 -2 17
Coventry..............14 4 5 5 14 16 -2 17
West Bromwich 16 2 8 6 20 22 -2 14
Huddersfield
15 3 3 9 16 22 -6 12
League One Barnsley v Forest Green; Bolton
v Oxford Utd; Charlton v Ipswich;
Cheltenham v Milton Keynes Dons; Derby v
Bristol Rovers; Fleetwood Town v Accrington
Stanley; Peterborough v Cambridge Utd;
Port Vale v Lincoln City; Portsmouth v
Shrewsbury; Sheffield Wednesday v Burton
Albion; Wycombe v Morecambe. League
Two AFC Wimbledon v Harrogate Town;
Barrow v Crewe; Bradford City v Crawley
Town; Colchester v Stevenage; Doncaster v
Gillingham; Hartlepool v Grimsby; Leyton
Orient v Salford; Mansfield v Swindon;
Northampton v Newport County (2.0);
Stockport County v Sutton Utd; Tranmere v
Carlisle; Walsall v Rochdale.
Vanarama National League Chesterfield v
Boreham Wood; Dagenham & Redbridge v
Wealdstone; Dorking Wanderers v Aldershot;
Halifax v Oldham (5.20); Gateshead v Solihull
Moors; Maidenhead Utd v Bromley;
Maidstone Utd v Yeovil; Notts County v
Torquay; Woking v Eastleigh; Wrexham v
Altrincham; York v Southend. North AFC
Fylde v Peterborough Sports; AFC Telford v

Alfreton Town; Banbury Utd v Kidderminster;
Boston Utd v Chester; Bradford Park Avenue
v Brackley; Chorley v Farsley Celtic; Curzon
Ashton v Hereford; Darlington v Leamington;
Gloucester v King’s Lynn Town; Kettering v
Blyth Spartans; Scarborough Athletic v
Spennymoor Town; Southport v Buxton.
South Bath City v Dover; Chelmsford v
Eastbourne Borough; Cheshunt v Havant &
Waterlooville;
Concord
Rangers
v
Chippenham; Dartford v Weymouth;
Farnborough v Oxford City; Hampton &
Richmond v Braintree Town; Hemel
Hempstead v Ebbsfleet United; St Albans v
Dulwich; Taunton Town v Tonbridge Angels;
Welling v Hungerford; Worthing v Slough.
FA Trophy: First round AFC Dunstable v
Hanwell Town; Basford Utd v Marine;
Beaconsfield Town v Truro City; Bracknell
Town v North Leigh; Carshalton Athletic v
Kings Langley; Chasetown v Marske Utd;
Chesham Utd v Lewes; Colne v Warrington
Rylands; Dunston v Coalville Town;
Folkestone Invicta v Horsham; Grays Athletic
v Stowmarket Town; Haringey Borough v
Billericay; Harlow Town v Bishop’s Stortford;
Harrow Borough v Hayes & Yeading Utd;
Hastings Utd v Burgess Hill Town;
Hednesford Town v Stourbridge; Lancaster
City v Gainsborough Trinity; Leek v Worksop
Town; Leiston v Wroxham; Liversedge v
Tamworth; Macclesfield v Guiseley; Matlock
Town v Stafford Rangers; Nuneaton Borough
v Alvechurch; Plymouth Parkway v Bristol
Manor Farm; Redditch Utd v AFC Totton;

Royston Town v Heybridge Swifts; Runcorn
Linnets v Belper Town; Tavistock v Binfield;
Uxbridge v Wingate & Finchley; Warrington
Town v South Shields; Weston-super-Mare v
Bognor Regis Town; Winchester City v
Swindon Supermarine.
Cinch Scottish Premiership Dundee Utd v
Motherwell; Hibernian v St Mirren; Rangers v
Aberdeen; St Johnstone v Kilmarnock.
Cinch Championship Arbroath v Ayr;
Hamilton v Cove; Raith v Partick. League One
Airdrieonians v Montrose; Alloa v Clyde;
Dunfermline v Kelty Hearts; Peterhead v FC
Edinburgh; Queen of South v Falkirk. League
Two Albion v Stenhousemuir; Annan v
Dumbarton; East Fife v Elgin; Stirling v
Bonnyrigg Rose; Stranraer v Forfar.

Other sport

Cricket

Gymnastics: M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
World Championships.

T20 World Cup: Super 2’s: Group one:
Sydney New Zealand v Sri Lanka (9am).

Tomorrow

Rugby league

Football

World Cup: Pool A England v Greece (2.30, at
Bramall Lane, Sheffield). Pool B Fiji v Scotland
(5.0, at Kingston Park, Newcastle); Australia v
Italy (7.30, at Totally Wicked Stadium, St
Helens).

Kick-off 2.0 unless stated
Premier League Arsenal v Nottingham
Forest; Manchester Utd v West Ham (4.15).
FA Trophy: First round Bracknell Town v
North Leigh.
Women’s Super League Arsenal v West Ham
(6.45); Brighton v Tottenham; Chelsea v
Aston Villa; Everton v Manchester Utd;
Manchester City v Liverpool; Reading v
Leicester.

Rugby union
Kick-off 3.0 unless stated
Men’s international Scotland v Australia
(5.30, at BT Murrayfield Stadium).

Cricket
T20 World Cup: Super 12’s: Group two
Brisbane Bangladesh v Zimbabwe (3am).
Perth Netherlands v Pakistan (7am); India v
South Africa (11am).

Rugby league
World Cup: Pool A Samoa v France (5.0, at
Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington). Group
C Lebanon v Jamaica (midday, at Leigh
Sports Village). Group D Tonga v Cook
Islands (2.30, at Riverside Stadium,
Middlesbrough).

Rugby union
Kick-off 2.0 unless stated
Gallagher Premiership Saracens v Sale
Sharks; Wasps v Newcastle Falcons.
United Rugby Championship Bulls v Sharks
(1.0); Cardiff v Edinburgh.
Women’s World Cup: Quarter-finals (in
Waitakere): England v Australia (1.30am);
Canada v United States (2.30am).

Other sport
American football: NFL Denver v
Jacksonville (1.30, at Wembley Stadium).
Gymnastics: M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
World Championships.

24

1GS

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

FROM THE ARCHIVES
A look back at some of the greatest moments in sporting history

CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES

2008 WHEN NEW
ZEALAND SHOCKED
THE 13-MAN WORLD
Kit Shepard
The idea that New Zealand is rugby’s
mythical, incomparable nation is
among the most accepted notions in
sport. Yet it is also terribly
misleading. The All Blacks may
be revered in rugby union but, in
rugby league, their trans-Tasman
neighbour is king.
Australia are clear favourites to
win this year’s Rugby League World
Cup and their suspected dominance
is familiar. In 2008, the competition
was staged in Australia and they had
lifted the trophy on every occasion
since 1972. As The Times wrote, it
seemed they “could go through the
tournament without a reasonably
competitive match to disturb
collecting a seventh consecutive
world title, without an upset of
seismic proportions”.
The seismic happened in the final,
as much-maligned New Zealand won
an extraordinary contest 34-20 to
leave the Brisbane crowd stunned.
An hour into the game, New
Zealand had come back from 10-0
down to lead 18-16 and a nervejangling conclusion appeared
imminent. But Australia inexplicably
collapsed.
The first blunder came from Billy
Slater, Australia’s full back who was
named player of the tournament.
He effortlessly caught a kick with
one hand near his team’s right
corner but, rather than head
back infield, he ran towards the
touchline. As the panicking Slater
realised that he was about to gift
prime field position, he compounded
a bad mistake with a catastrophic
one, blindly hurling the ball back
infield. Benji Marshall, New Zealand’s
magician-like stand-off, scooped up
and touched down to put the
underdogs six points ahead.
After Greg Inglis’s try had cut the
deficit back to two points, Joel
Monaghan’s failure to deal with
Nathan Fien’s grubber provoked him
into taking out Lance Hohaia
without the ball on Australia’s tryline.
The English video referee, Steve

Hohaia scores the Kiwis’ third try early in the second half to give his side the lead that they never relinquished against the hosts, and clear favourites, Australia

Ganson, awarded a penalty try that
made it 28-20 with ten minutes left.
Adam Blair’s subsequent score,
coming from Australia’s comical
attempts to field a Marshall crosskick, put the result beyond doubt.
The Australian implosion was
made all the more satisfying by their
media’s bravado. After dismantling
New Zealand 30-6 in the group stage,
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph wrote: “If
the Kangaroos comfortably beat
England, the only other competitive
side in the series [which they did, 524], the engraver can start writing
Australia 2008 on the giant silver
World Cup.” One Australian
commentator called the tournament:
“The biggest no-contest since the
Christians versus the lions.”

In fairness to our colleagues down
under, their arrogance was justified
going into the final, as Australia had
racked up 180 points in four matches
and conceded only 16.
Though New Zealand beat
England in the semi-finals, toppling
the hosts felt unfathomable. Australia
had beaten them eight times in
succession and after the teams’ group
game, The Times wrote: “New
Zealand gave an abject display in a
match that was as entertaining as
watching fish being shot in a barrel.
There was nothing remotely positive
that they could extract.”
The final was initially more of the
same. Australia surged ahead
through early tries from Darren
Lockyer and David Williams.

Lockyer, the legendary captain, then
spurned the grounding of Cameron
Smith’s deft kick on the sixth
tackle, in what appeared an
inconsequential vagary.
But this uncharacteristic error
proved very costly. New Zealand got
on the board through Jeremy Smith’s
try, and Jerome Ropati put them
ahead after Marshall was adjudged to
have had the ball ripped from his
grasp rather than knocking on.
Lockyer scored again just before
half-time and Hohaia crossed shortly
after, setting up a final quarter where
Australia fell apart.
There were unsavoury scenes the
day after the final, as the Australia
coach Ricky Stuart verbally abused
the referee, Ashley Klein, for which

Stuart apologised. Nevertheless, this
was an occasion to savour for a sport
perennially battling a lack of
international competition.
For the Kiwis, it was a moment of
euphoria and irony, as this team’s first
world title meant that they had done
what the All Blacks had not since
1987. If any country knows that world
cups can veer disastrously off-script,
it is New Zealand.
Normal service has resumed since,
with Australia taking the crown in
2013 and 2017, and their opening
matches of the 2022 edition have
been processional.
But, as shown by the miracle of
Brisbane, the unexpected is never
impossible, even in a sport with as
unchallenged doctrines as rugby.

COOPER NEILL/GETTY IMAGES

THE NEXT
BIG THING

8

Micah Parsons
6 Born in Pennsylvania,
May 26, 1999
6 Opted out of his final
year in college because
of Covid-19 pandemic
6 Picked in first round of
2021 NFL Draft by Dallas
Cowboys, 12th overall

6 Plays at linebacker
and defensive end
6 Set Cowboys rookie
record for quarterback
sacks last year, with 13
6 Named NFL Defensive
Rookie of the Year and
selected for Pro Bowl

Matt Tench
After only 1½ seasons in the NFL,
Micah Parsons, the Dallas Cowboys
linebacker, is already in the
conversation as one of the league’s
best defensive players. His speed,
power and explosiveness are
unmatched.

errific first
After a terrific
season in which he
ith the thirdfinished with
most sackss in history by
his year the
a rookie, this
d has the
23-year-old
ost sacks (eight)
second-most
urth-most
and the fourth-most
ck hits (14)
quarterback
even games.
through seven

he has the physical
attributes to drop back
into coverage. He is
able to combine his
superior athleticism
with an excellent
Parsons has eight sacks
ability to read the
in seven games this
game from deep.
season — only New
The challenge for
England’s Matt Judon
Parsons was backing up
has more in the NFL
an unforgettable rookie
season. He set the bar
incredibly high but so far he is
more than matching his output from
a year ago.
After seven regular season games,
he has more sacks and quarterback
hits than at the same stage last
season. He is already showing
improvement and it is increasingly
common for opposing offensive
difference-maker.” His fellow pundit
coordinators to scheme double teams
Cris Collingsworth, not one prone to
to nullify his impact. Certainly Todd
hyperbole, offered the view that such
Bowles, the head coach of the Tampa
was the range and extent of Parsons’s Bay Buccaneers who faced the
skills that he could imagine him
Cowboys earlier in the season, is
playing anywhere in defence, even
impressed. “He’s a true gamein the secondary. It was an
wrecker,” Bowles said.
extraordinary claim but you can see
Parsons himself has a clear aim. “I
why it was made. Not only is Parsons want to be the best,” he said. “I want
getting after quarterbacks with ease,
to be feared.”

At 6ft 3in and 17st, Parsons quickly
became a match-up nightmare for
opposin offensive lines.
opposing
Speak
Speaking
about Parsons on NBC,
G
Jason Garrett,
the former Dallas
Cowboy head coach, said: “You do
Cowboys
hav to know anything about
not have
football and this guy leaps off the
H has been a transformative
tape. He
player ffor this franchise and he is a

Saturday October 29 2022*

Saturday October 29 2022

Jamie Oliver’s pasta masterclass
Plus Matthew Syed on raising confident kids

Weekend

Travel
Starts on
page 37
Autumn
mini-breaks
30 foodie escapes
in the UK

Culture
weekends
The top trips to
book in Europe

Have you got
HFA?*
*high-functioning anxiety

the times Saturday October 29 2022

2 Weekend

Escape to the country! 30 top
Spend a weekend at one of these
restaurants with rooms, from a chic bistro
to a Michelin-starred spot. By Andy Lynes
Angela’s Margate, Kent
There’s something romantic about an
English seaside town out of season. Take
a peaceful stroll on Margate’s golden
sands then enjoy some of the best
seafood in the country at this charming
and intimate restaurant just off the
seafront. A two-night stay in one of
the restaurant’s three sea-view rooms
(from £380, room only) guarantees a
reservation in the restaurant and at
Dory’s, the sister small plates restaurant
just around the corner.
Details 01843 520391,
angelasofmargate.com

Osip Bruton, Somerset

There are no menus at this small,
minimalist, Michelin-starred restaurant
that’s set in the charming town of
Bruton. Instead, the chef Merlin
Labron-Johnson changes his menu
daily, creating six or nine-course meals
based around the fruit and vegetables he
grows on nearby plots. Dishes might
include deer with autumn vegetables and
leaves and preserved elderberry sauce.
Rooms at the next-door No 1 Bruton,
which is made up of a Georgian
townhouse, medieval forge and row of
cottages, cost from £150 including
breakfast at Osip.
Details 01749 813322,
osiprestaurant.com

Green Cow Kitchens
Crumplebury, Herefordshire
This place is a pigsty. Well, it used to be,
until it was converted into the Green
Cow Kitchen restaurant with linencovered tables, dark blue walls and
exposed beams with dishes such as
confit belly of Crumplebury lamb with
carrot, swede and elderberry on the
menu. On November 11, you can dine in
the restaurant, watch a performance by
the English Symphony Orchestra in the
venue’s Grand Hall, then stay overnight
for £335 for two people including
breakfast. Otherwise, the glamorous,
contemporary rooms start from £185
including breakfast or £250 including
dinner, bed and breakfast.
Details 01886 821632,
crumplebury.co.uk

Outlaw’s New Road
Port Isaac, Cornwall
The tiny Cornish fishing village of Port
Isaac (famous as the setting for the TV
series Doc Martin) gets extremely busy
in the summer months. Better to visit
now and enjoy an out-of-season foodie
retreat, staying at the Michelin-starred
chef Nathan Outlaw’s smartly appointed
Victorian guesthouse. Dine in the
flagship Outlaw’s New Road opposite,
where you can indulge in a 12-course
feast of Cornish seafood with views of
the coast. One-night stays including
dinner, bed and breakfast from £405.
Details 01208 880896, outlaws.co.uk

The Waterside Inn, Berkshire

Pentonbridge Inn
Penton, Carlisle, Cumbria
Close to the Scottish border, the location
of this rural restaurant is particularly
stunning in autumn, across fields to
auburn woodland and mountains. The
pub is dog-friendly — there is even a
secure field off the back of the outdoor
pub garden for dogs to run around in.
The eight-course tasting menu is based
around seasonal ingredients from the
restored walled garden of its nearby
sister business, Netherby Hall (which
also has accommodation) and might
include Orkney scallops with pickled
carrot, white port and ginger sauce.
The rooms — decorated with hints of
tweed and tartan — cost from £100
including breakfast.
Details 01228 586636,
pentonbridgeinn.co.uk

Bistro Lotte
Frome, Somerset
This French-style bistro with rooms is
the perfect base from which to explore
the historic market town of Frome with
its thriving arts scene, including galleries
such as the Black Swan (free entry). The
dining room is a casual and inviting
space with bentwood chairs and wooden
tables where you can dine on classics
including French onion soup, escargot
and bouillabaisse. The spacious rooms
cost from £110 including breakfast.
Details 01373 300646,
bistrolottefrome.co.uk

designed rooms cost from £360
including dinner and breakfast hamper.
Details 01580 291341,
thewesthouserestaurant.co.uk

Raby Hunt
Darlington, Co Durham

The Angel at Hetton
Skipton, North Yorkshire

Explore the nearby Raby estate with its
castle and deer park (entry fee applies)
in all its glory, then head to this
elegantly modernised grade II listed
Victorian inn in the tiny village of
Summerhouse near Darlington. The
chef James Close and his wife, Maria,
have made it an exciting spot where
you can enjoy a luxurious 15-course
menu of globally inspired dishes that
may include the signature razor clams
with shrimps, almonds, celeriac and
girolle mushrooms. The recently and
stylishly refurbished rooms cost from
£225 including breakfast.
Details 01325 374237;
rabyhuntrestaurant.co.uk

The chef Michael Wignall’s sleek
modern restaurant is housed in a
15th-century inn that’s surrounded by
the beautiful Yorkshire Dales — perfect
for bracing autumnal walks. The menu
changes daily, and could include dishes
such as Cornish cod with celeriac, clam
and lobster cassoulet and lovage
re also serving a
gnocchi. They are
special Taste of Autumn lunch
75 per person)
tasting menu (£75
tunningly
which includes stunningly
presented dishess such as jacket
sh and braised
potato with radish
ooms cost
ox. The stylish rooms
ding dinner,
from £430 including
st.
bed and breakfast.
30263,
Details 01756 730263,
uk
angelhetton.co.uk

The West House
Biddenden, Kent
Graham and Jackie Garrett’s converted
16th-century weaver’s cottage — all low
beams and exposed brick — in the pretty
Kent village of Biddenden makes the
perfect base to explore the High Weald
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or
the nearby Sissinghurst Castle Garden,
which is that’s particularly beautiful in
the autumn. You can expect dishes such
as venison, with cavolo nero and sweet
potato mousse. The individually

Moor Halll
Aughton,
Lancashire
Enjoy the
grounds of
this two
Michelinnt
starred restaurant
with rooms with a tour
tifully
around the beautifully
hen
maintained kitchen

Nathan Outlaw,
left, and Matt Gillan

gardens and take in views of Moor Hall’s
lake from your table in the understated,
modern dining room. The eight-course
tasting menu makes the most of local
ingredients in dishes such as Moorfields
Jersey beef with barbecued celeriac,
mustard and shallot. The opulent rooms
with lake and garden views cost from
£700 including dinner, bed and breakfast.
Details 01695 572511; moorhall.com

The Waterside Inn
Berkshire
Bray, Berk
The Roux family
fami celebrate 50 years of
their renowned three Michelin-starred
restaurant on the
t Thames this year. The
menu is a celebration
celeb
of autumn
produce prepar
prepared in a classic French
style with dish
dishes such as grilled loin of
venison flavou
flavoured with timut pepper
with beetroot, blackberries and red wine
sauce. Some of the rooms, neutral apart
from the odd splash of brightly
coloured wallpaper or a velvet
throw, have river views. From
£310 in
including breakfast.
Deta
Details 01628 620691,
wate
waterside-inn.co.uk

W
Winteringham
Fields
F
Winteringham,
W
Lincolnshire
Hidden away in a village
H
on the south bank of the
Hum
Humber estuary, this Michelinstar
starred fine-dining restaurant

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Weekend 3

foodie mini-breaks for autumn
JAMIE LAU; GRANT ANDERSON; SIMON BROWN; EMMA LEWIS; BBC; ALAMY

North Sea cod at Haar, Fife

The dining room at The
Bower House, Warwickshire

brightly painted walls and varied
collection of art, is a cosy space in which
to enjoy the menu of seasonal treats,
including charcoal grilled guinea fowl
with spiced fruit boudin, spinach and
bone sauce. There is also a set lunch
menu from Wednesday to Friday that
includes two courses (rump of lamb with
celeriac, wild mushrooms) and a glass of
wine, for £24.50. The individually
designed, quirky rooms cost from £115
including breakfast.
Details 01608 663333, bower.house

The Neptune
Old Hunstanton, Norfolk
Explore the north Norfolk coast and
countryside in the peaceful off season
with this Michelin-starred restaurant
with rooms as your base. Old
Hunstanton beach is a 15-minute walk
from the converted 18th-century
coaching inn where the chef Kevin
Mangeolles and wife Jacki serve a
menu of local produce in dishes such as
wild sea bass, Brancaster mussels,
cauliflower puree, cep and salty fingers.
The tastefully decorated, comfortable
rooms cost from £370 including dinner
and breakfast.
Details 01485 532122, theneptune.co.uk

The Corner House
Canterbury, Kent

with rooms set in a converted
16th-century farmhouse makes for
an idyllic autumn retreat. Combining
a traditional dining room (white
tablecloths, an open fire, plush fabrics
and linen covered tables) with cuttingedge cooking, dishes on the eight-course
tasting menu might include roast
loin of Yorkshire lamb with barbecued
lamb belly, black garlic, goat’s curds
and tenderstem broccoli. Spacious
and comfortable rooms, some with
original oak beams, cost from £180
including breakfast.
Details 01724 733096,
winteringhamfields.co.uk

The Hare
Scawton, North Yorkshire
Explore the open landscape of the North
York Moors National Park from this
carefully renovated 12th-century inn.
The menu at this award-winning
restaurant with rooms showcases
seasonal produce in dishes such as
monkfish with apple dashi. The
characterful rooms feature exposed
beams and stone walls and start from
£475 including dinner, bed and breakfast.
Details 01845 597769, thehare-inn.com

Heritage
Slaugham, West Sussex
This smart, contemporary rural
restaurant with rooms set in a tiny West
Sussex village is close to the South
Downs National Park, which is
spectacular during the autumn months.

Sample the best local and organic
produce, simply prepared at this smartly
renovated 16th-century former coach
house that overlooks the city walls. The
menu might include smoked mackerel
pâté with cider apple jelly and the
popular signature sharing board of slowcooked lamb shoulder with dauphinoise
potatoes. It’s the ideal base for taking
advantage of events in the city including
the Canterbury Festival, which runs until
November 5 (canterburyfestival.co.uk).
The spacious and characterful rooms
with exposed beams and iron fireplaces
start from £90 including breakfast.
Details 01227 780793,
cornerhouserestaurants.co.uk

Equally stunning is the celebrity chef
Matt Gillan’s menu with regularly
changing dishes such as salt-baked pork
loin with pressed belly and cantaloupe
melon. Dinner, bed and breakfast in the
simply decorated rooms cost from £290.
Details 01444 401102,
heritage.restaurant

scallop with kosho (Japanese chilli
paste), king oyster mushrooms, Thai red
curry and squid ink. The recently
refurbished chic rooms, some with
views of the Old Course and the coast,
start from £200.
Details 01334 479281,
haarrestaurant.com

Haar St Andrews, Fife

The Whitebrook near
near Deal, Kent
Monmouth, Monmouthshire Updown
Combine the countryside and the coast

The chef Dean Banks’s smart modern
restaurant is decked out in the rugged
natural textures of exposed stone, flint,
wood and granite, perfect for autumn
and redolent of its Scottish coastal
location. There’s plenty of Scottish
produce on the menu too, but it’s given a
global twist in dishes such as Orkney

A bedroom at No1
Bruton, Somerset

This is the perfect time to indulge in a
foodie mini-break at this stylish
Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms
that you’ll find in a peaceful, remote spot
in the Wye Valley, an area of
outstanding natural beauty. The foraged
foods collected by the chef Chris Harrod
for his tasting menu appear in dishes
such as piccolo parsnip and penny bun
mushrooms grilled with Douglas fir,
brassica and Monmouthshire autumn
black truffle, all served in a dining room
with a stone fireplace. Rooms with views
of the valley or gardens cost from £390
for dinner, bed and breakfast.
Details 01600 860254,
thewhitebrook.co.uk

The Bower House
Shipston-on-Stour,
Warwickshire
This restaurant with rooms set on the
high street of the charming village of
Shipston-on-Stour makes the perfect
base for enjoying the autumn colours of
the Cotswolds. The dining room, with its
exposed brick, wood-burning stove,

with a visit to this beautifully renovated
17th-century farmhouse five miles from
the seaside town of Deal. The local
ingredient-led menu of simple, robust
dishes, served in the conservatory dining
room, might include minestrone or
roast pork loin with pumpkin, endives
and walnuts. The cosy, brightly
decorated rooms cost from £250
including breakfast.
Details 07842 244192,
updownfarmhouse.com

Edinbane Lodge
Edinbane, Isle of Skye
Autumn is the ideal time to visit the Isle
of Skye to avoid the summer crowds and
appreciate the beautiful sunlight on a
crisp day. It’s also the perfect time to
enjoy the local produce used in the four,
six and ten-course tasting menus at this
renovated 16th-century hunting lodge
set among stunning Skye scenery. Dishes
might include Isle of Rona scallops with

More places next page

the times Saturday October 29 2022

4 Weekend

‘Eat supper in
this hideaway
in an English
walled garden’
W oyster beignets and Edinbane
scurvygrass, and local Torvaig beef
with pickled carrots and chanterelles.
The simple yet stylish rooms cost from
£249, including breakfast.
Details 01470 582217,
edinbanelodge.com

KELSIE SCULLY

“brocamole”, all served with a carefully
curated selection of wines. The bright,
seaside chic rooms — floaty white
curtains, blue and green tones, and
plenty of chic stripes — start at £200 for
bed, breakfast and evening wine tasting
before dinner.
Details No phone; email ashley@
theterraceventnor.co.uk for information

The conservatory dining
room at Updown, Kent

Interlude
Lower Beeding, West Sussex The Peat Inn Cupar, Fife
Take a stroll around some of the 240
acres of beautifully restored woodland
at Leonardslee Gardens, ablaze with
autumn foliage, then head to the
jaw-droppingly opulent dining room in
the grade II listed 19th-century Italianate
Leonardslee House complete with
crystal chandeliers and antique
furnishings. There are views out over the
grounds where the chef Jean Delport
gathers ingredients for his 20-course
tasting menu that might include venison
from the Leonardslee estate with South
African-style skilpadjies (liver balls) and
juniper. The rooms with views over the
gardens cost from £262.50.
Details 0871 873 3363,
restaurant-interlude.co.uk

The Walnut Tree
Llanddewi Skirrid,
Monmouthshire
The pioneering chef Shaun Hill is one
of the best game cooks in the country,
so there’s no better time to visit his
restaurant set in the Welsh countryside
a few miles outside Abergavenny. Take
a seat in the dining room hung with a
carefully curated selection of eclectic
artworks from their sister business, The
ArtShop in Abergavenny, for mallard
with morel sauce and celeriac. Stay in
one of three chic yet cosy two-bedroom
cottages adjacent to the restaurant
from £379 a night.
Details 01873 852797,
thewalnuttreeinn.com

The Terrace
Ventnor, Isle of Wight
Take a bracing stroll along Ventnor’s
coastline — blustery yet peaceful at this
time of year — then head to this newly
opened and renovated restaurant with
rooms overlooking the esplanade for a
12-course feast. The finest produce from
the isle and further afield is used in a
wide-ranging array of dishes served to
just 14 people a night (November to
March) that includes everything from
crab with potato tuile, apple and
curry sauce to kid goat served with

If you’re after the finest autumn Scottish
produce cooked with care and creativity,
look no further than this smart,
contemporary rural restaurant, which
has held a Michelin star since 2010. The
chef Geoffrey Smeddle presents
luxurious dishes such as cannelloni of
crab and Arbroath smokie with lobster
bisque and caviar cream. Until
November 30, the inn’s midweek autumn
offer means you can stay in a luxury
suite and enjoy a three-course dinner for
two for £400, breakfast included.
Details 01334 840206, thepeatinn.co.uk

Clenaghans
Craigavon, Co Armagh

A sea-view bedroom at
The Terrace, Isle of Wight

For a true taste of Northern Ireland,
head to this atmospheric and charming
restaurant set among verdant fields, half
an hour from Belfast city centre. The
rustic 18th-century stone building has
been sensitively refurbished, retainingg
all its character but adding plentyy of
modern comfort. Dishes could
include oak smoked salmon,
potato bread, smoked apple
tartare, pine emulsion and
caviar. The equally characterful
and comfortable rooms start
from £70, including a
breakfast pack.
Details 002892 650224,
clenaghansrestaurant.com

Paul Ainsworth
at No 6
Padstow, Cornwall
Enjoy north Cornwall’s famous fishing
port off season then head to Paul
ul
Ainsworth’s Michelin-starred flagship
gship
fine-dining restaurant for a feastt of the
best Cornish produce. Located in a grade
II listed Georgian townhouse in the
centre of Padstow, settle in for the
Autumn Collection tasting menu of
highly sophisticated and technically
dazzling dishes which might include
scallops in an acorn-fed ham brood with
kohlrabi tartare. Spacious and
individually themed rooms at Paul
Ainsworth’s Padstow Townhouse a few

Leonardslee House,
West Sussex

minutes’ walk away start from £360 per
night, breakfast included.
Details 01841 532093,
paul-ainsworth.co.uk

Grace and Savour
Hampto
Hampton-in-Arden, West
Midla
Midlands

A pudding at The Walnut
Tree, Monmouthshire

Indu
Indulge in a stylish yet cosy foodie
hid
hideaway,
staying and eating in
an English walled kitchen
ga
garden.
Keep an eye on the
c
chefs
preparing your
15
15-course
meal from the
lu
luxury
of your garden suite
lo
lounge
that overlooks the
co
courtyard
and the open
kit
kitchen,
then take the short
wal
walk to dinner where dishes such
gr
as grass-fed
beef brisket smoked
over pi
pine served with herbs from the
garden feature
fe
the restaurant’s own
St overnight in a garden suite
produce. Stay
from £360 per person including chefgard tour, dinner, bed
guided garden
and breakfast.
Details 01675 446080,
hamptonmanor.com

Restaurant Sat Bains
Nottingham,
Nottinghamshire
There’s never been a better time to visit
the chef Sat Bains’s two Michelin-starred

restaurant on the outskirts of
Nottingham. Throughout November,
“the RSB Triptych” offer includes an
overnight stay in one of the restaurant’s
modern, chic and luxurious rooms, a
ten-course tasting menu for two, and
breakfast from £520. Dishes served in
the intimate 28-cover dining room might
include grouse with red cabbage,
elderberry, chicory and watercress.
Details 0115 986 6566,
restaurantsatbains.com

The Checkers
Montgomery, Powys
There’s plenty to do on a mini-break at
this charmingly converted 17th-century
coaching inn, complete with oak beams
and wood-burning stove. Discover the
nearby Montgomery Castle (free entry)
or take a stroll along Offa’s Dyke path.
The serious culinary pedigree of the
chefs and owners Andrew and Rachel
Birch is reflected in their three-course
lunch menu — you might start with leek
and potato velouté, followed by smoked
salmon and laverbread risotto. The
evening tasting menu might include
roast rump and braised cheek of
Montgomeryshire wagyu beef with
mushroom, celeriac and onion. The
cosy rooms cost from £290 including
dinner, bed and breakfast.
Details 01686 639548,
checkerswales.co.uk

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Body + Soul 5

Free speech for kids! How to teach
your children to speak their minds
JOHN ANGERSON FOR THE TIMES

Learning to argue
builds confidence,
says Matthew Syed
in a new book
written with his
wife Kathy Weeks

6 ways to get
them to express
their views
Practise debating at
home — or in the car
Build confidence in speaking up by
practising in a familiar environment.
At home or in the car, pick a topic
and ask them what they think about
it. Would they like to live for ever?
Should children have to wear school
uniforms? Should kids have unlimited
screen time? Ask them to think first
and consider their view, then chat to
you about it for 30 seconds.

P

erhaps every generation says
this, but I’d be pretty apprehensive about growing up as
a young person today. For us
parents, social media is a newish technology that we are still
getting our heads around; for
them, it’s the only reality they have known.
They have to deal with the social
pressure to obtain likes, friends and other
metrics on platforms such as TikTok and
Instagram. They have to deal with the
possibility of getting sucked into echo
chambers or being subjected to cancellation for offering a viewpoint that violates
the latest fad. They have to anticipate the
possibility that in ten years’ time, when
they go for their first job interview, a
computer programme will trawl through
every digital trace they have left to see if
they are “sound”.
It can’t be easy. The evidence shows that
many young people are afraid of these
trends, and a little confused about how to
deal with them. Many youngsters selfcensor their viewpoints out of fear they
might get on the wrong side of a pile-on.
Others worry about associating with those
who have an eclectic point of view in case
they are contaminated by association. It all
raises a question that I have been pondering, along with my wife, Kathy. How can
we help our children to navigate this minefield and, perhaps in time, turn it into a
more progressive, tolerant, rational place?
It perhaps goes without saying that
deleting all apps and withdrawing from the
internet altogether isn’t an option. Any
parent will tell you that it is almost impossible to succeed in life today without some
minimal engagement with the array of
technologies through which people
connect and communicate. It is certainly
healthy for youngsters to put their iPads
down rather more often so that they can
go out and live life, but as they move
further into their teens it is unrealistic and
probably damaging to shut them off from
the internet entirely.
How then to help them to make these
technologies work for them, rather than
being intimidated and even tyrannised
by them? Perhaps the most important
corrective is to help young people to understand how these technologies actually
work. These are platforms whose commercial imperative is to induce us to look
at what they dish up as much as possible so
that they can serve us adverts and harvest
our data. If young people are informed of
these realities they are more able to see
these platforms as commercial entities
with their own interests and biases.

Get kids to argue the
opposite point of view
from the one they hold

For example, newsfeeds of various kinds
are not objective depictions of the world
but a curated set of stories designed to
reinforce our world view so that we keep
coming back. Merely grasping this fact has
been shown to encourage youngsters to
escape the echo chambers that can so
easily materialise around them and to look
at alternative points of view. In other
words, it can help young people to become
more intelligent and wise.
Twitter too has algorithmic biases that
amplify the emotive and sensational. In
particular, posts that engage in ad hominem attacks are retweeted more often
than those that offer balance and perspective. Again, understanding these dynamics
helps them to resist the temptation to join
a pile-on or attack another user merely for
the purpose of gaining fleeting attention.
Fake news is another trap that can be
avoided. There are techniques to distinguish between false stories planted by bots
and those from well-established sources
with good methods of fact-checking.
Journalists use these all the time — why
not help young people to use them too?
But this isn’t just about the internet.
Young people need help with how to
engage with ideas at school and at home.
Over the past decade or so there has been
a trend towards safe spaces and trigger
warnings. For doubtless well-intended
motives, educationalists believed that if
youngsters are shielded from challenging
viewpoints they will feel more secure. The
evidence shows that this has been a tragic
failure. When children are protected they
do not become more confident but more
fragile. Young people need to hear difficult
opinions so they can develop the capacity
to listen, engage and evaluate.
In many ways, this harks back to the selfesteem movement of the Seventies and
Eighties, which continues to exert linger-

Matthew Syed with
his wife, Kathy Weeks,
their daughter, Evie,
and son, Teddy,
photographed in 2020

Young people
have to deal
with getting
cancelled for
offering a
viewpoint that
violates the
current fad

ing effects. Its primary focus was equipping young people with self-confidence.
And the way to do this, it was thought, was
to prevent them from experiencing distress. This is why they were given easy tests
that they could pass with flying colours,
helping them to cultivate self-esteem and
“self-actualise”. This approach taught
young people to expect success to come
easily — and worse, to fall apart the moment they were given assignments that
challenged them. It conferred self-esteem
so fragile that it wasn’t worth having and
required ever more coddling to protect.
The true route to self-confidence, then,
is not through protection, but liberation.
When we give young people the precious
chance to strive and occasionally fail,
when we give them the opportunity to
debate and discuss rather than edit and
censor, they start to build resilience.
Like muscles that become stronger when
tested, the same is true of character.
The toolkit I have written along with my
wife is therefore partly a manifesto for the
internet age. It has tips and techniques
about how to engage healthily with technology. It offers guides on understanding
how the brain works, how to manage “fast
and slow thinking” and how to evaluate
new ideas. It offers tips on how to engage
with the different opinions of friends and
family and debate them thoroughly while
retaining harmonious relationships.
Above all, though, it is about helping
youngsters to develop the true confidence
they need to flourish, rather than the false
promise of fragile self-esteem. Life is a
wonderful privilege and it should be lived
to the full, with courage and without
trepidation. And perhaps that is the most
important message of all.
What Do You Think? How to Agree to
Disagree and Still Be Friends by Matthew
Syed is published by Wren & Rook, £7.99

Ask them to put themselves in the
mindset of someone who might
disagree with them. This helps them
to understand that there are other
points of view, and to see the
weaknesses in their own argument.

Help them to identify
what influences them
There are so many things that
influence the way we think without
us even realising it, from our
background to what we see on the
internet. Take the time to explain to
your child why we can come to the
conclusions that we do — and why
sometimes they might not always
represent what we truly feel.

It’s not about winning
If the debate gets a bit heated, take a
break and come back to it later.
Encourage your children to see that
discussing an issue is different from
winning an argument. In a good
discussion everybody can learn
something and nobody is the loser.

It is OK to change
your mind
Encourage kids to think like a
scientist does. Discoveries happen
because scientists change what they
think if they are faced with new and
better evidence. Changing your mind
is something to be proud of because it
means you’ve learnt something new.

It shouldn’t get personal
We need to tell our children that just
because someone disagrees with you,
that doesn’t mean it is OK for them
to make you feel bad about yourself.
Nor is it OK for our kids to make
negative comments themselves.
By Kathy Weeks

the times Saturday October 29 2022

6 Body + Soul

High-functioning
anxiety: you’re calm
on the outside but
secretly stressed
Your friends think you’re serene. But you rarely sleep well and
you can’t stop making lists. Daisy Goodwin knows the feeling

I

shuddered when I was asked: “Do
you have HFA? High-functioning
anxiety — calm and competent on
the outside, custard inside?” The
only answer was: “Of course,
doesn’t everybody?”
I can’t be the only person swimming through life serenely swanlike — or,
rather, ducklike — on the surface and furiously paddling through a lagoon of insecurity, anxiety and dread below. I ask my
most high-achieving friend, the one who is
on every board and who everybody has on
speed dial when they need a favour. She is
famous for her positivity and her ability to
conjure the sunlit uplands out of thin air.
At first glance you would think: here is a
woman who is utterly sorted. But she confesses to knowing that she hasn’t slept a
full night for years, and that her diary is so
full because the only way she can keep the
anxiety at bay is to “keep busy”. It is much
easier to keep climbing the hill than it is to
look down.
HFA is not a recognised psychological
disorder, because by definition the people
who have it are “functioning”. It is nothing
like depression, which I have suffered from
in the past, and which makes getting out of
bed a superhuman effort. HFA is like
having a fire alarm that keeps going off in
your head. Sometimes it goes off for a
reason, sometimes it’s just the batteries
running down — but you can’t be quite
sure which it is.
On the outside I probably don’t look
like I have HFA. I cycle around London, I
have no fear of public speaking and I will
happily chat to strangers at a party. My

In the small hours
the thoughts
become even more
stark: will I work
again? Have I been
a good mother?

children think that I am such a lax mother
they are lucky to be alive. My husband
thinks I am ludicrously optimistic. My
(younger) siblings are always surprised
when I start a sentence with “I am so
worried about . . . ”, because they assume
that I always have everything under control. But underneath I am fermenting
with anxiety, some of it specific — did I
remember to renew the insurance/complete the Ocado order/send the thank you
email? But mostly it is more free form
and existential.
Here is a snapshot of the alarms that
have been ringing in my head this morning: is the book/script/play I am writing
any good? Are my children happy? Do I
have any friends? Do they really like me?
Am I a good person? Do I spend enough
time talking to my family? Are my
thoughts inherently racist? Do the typos I
keep making mean I am going to get
dementia? In the small hours the thoughts
become even more stark: will I ever
work again? Have I done anything worthwhile with my life? Have I been a good
mother? And so on, and on.
Weirdly I don’t worry about things I
have actually experienced, like will my
cancer come back or will my house burn
down again? When I was sick I was quite
happy to listen to my doctors and did not
spend every waking hour on Google. My
big anxiety was whether I should tell
people that I had breast cancer — my case
was mild and didn’t involve chemotherapy,
so it felt attention-seeking when I know so
many women who have been through so
much worse. My default mode was to keep
calm and carry on.
Every time I have a party I fret that no
one will want to come, and if they do come
that they won’t have fun, and that I haven’t
done enough to make sure that everybody
meets somebody they might like. Not that
it shows — people always say to me: “You
seem very relaxed for someone having a
big party.” If only they knew.
There are moments when the alarms
stop ringing, when I get so involved in
something I am writing that I forget to
judge and I am just immersed in the world
that I am creating — I believe it’s called
“flow”. I like boxing, and cooking and

gardening for the same reason. But sadly
there aren’t enough of those moments,
and you can’t produce them to order.
Sometimes, though, the alarms are
worth listening to. I doubt that Liz Truss
has HFA, for example. A key component
of HFA-dom is predicting the worst possible outcomes of your actions, and that
does involve an uncomfortable amount of
self-awareness. I am not saying for a nanosecond that I am capable of taking on that
kind of responsibility, but I know that if
I did I would be paralysed by the thought
that if I pressed the wrong fiscal button
and the economy went pear-shaped,
it would all be my fault.
I once talked to a journalist who interviewed high achievers, and he said that he
could always predict the first biographical
paragraph before he met them, because it
always contained some kind of trauma/
bereavement/illness. People with happy,
carefree childhoods do not spend their
lives imagining the worst. I am hoping that
there are lots of people out there who take
unadulterated pleasure in their lives and
who look into the future with insouciance.
I wish I was one of them, but sadly no
amount of alcohol, infrared saunas, mindfulness apps or hot stone massages will do
it for me. Therapy is helpful, as are anxietyrelieving antidepressants, but as I get older
I have come to realise that the alarms can
only be managed, not switched off. I have
tried saying to myself I am enough, but I
just don’t believe it.
There is a poem by Fleur Adcock that
I have learnt by heart because it is so
spot on.
There are worse things than having
behaved foolishly in public.
There are worse things than these
miniature betrayals,
committed or endured or suspected;
there are worse things
than not being able to sleep for thinking
about them.
It is 5am. All the worse things come
stalking in
I am now worried that by writing this
article I have overshared big time. But if
there are any others with HFA reading
this, you have my respect and sympathy.
I know just how you feel.

Daisy Goodwin

Do you have HFA?
What the therapist says
By Jean Claude Chalmet

H

igh-functioning anxiety is
not an official diagnosis
but it will be familiar to
millions. I see it in many
of my clients — people
who are not necessarily
debilitatingly anxious but
would lead happier lives without the
nagging critical voice in their head.
They’re often very successful, and for
good reason — they’re organised, efficient
and disciplined. Others look to them for
wisdom, guidance and leadership. Little
do they know that their minds are a
constant whir of worry. If you feel this
might be you, here are the signs to watch
out for — and what you can do about it.

You can’t relax and are
obsessed with to-do lists
You’re a high achiever, you’re excellent

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Body + Soul 7

COVER: GETTY IMAGES. BELOW: KATIE WILSON FOR THE TIMES; WESTEND61/GETTY IMAGES

Beat anxiety:
Five things
that will help
Get good ‘sleep hygiene’
Irregular sleep patterns play havoc
with the body’s circadian rhythms
and its production of melatonin, so
having a good routine at night —
going to bed at the same time and
staying away from screens before bed
— does help you sleep better. A study
at the University of Exeter showed
frequently defying the need for an
early night can leave people feeling
more anxious, reporting depression
and generally having lower wellbeing.

Get out in the garden,
paint or play a musical
instrument

to yourself and to challenge your
thoughts in a compassionate way.
Risk tiny shifts in habit: wait till the
morning to send that email, for
example. Have a relaxing swim instead
of going for a pounding run. It will
improve your mental and your
physical health.

You are prone to
sleepless nights
You suffer from insomnia because
your mind is like a hamster running on
a wheel. You expend enormous energy
unconsciously trying to escape anxiety.
For example, you may overexercise —
usually in the form of cardio. You might
think you’re being healthy, but this
behaviour usually contains an element
of self-punishment and denial. In
moderation the exercise would be
an antidote to stress, but because it’s
extreme it actually stresses your
system further.

at your job —some would say you’re
a gift to your employer — and quite
rightly you get a sense of validation
from that. In my experience, though,
people like this often present as alphas
but beneath lies the feeling of not
being quite good enough, often instilled
in childhood. It’s why there’s a sense
they constantly need to prove
themselves. They have a harsh inner
critic whispering in their ear that they
might fail. It compounds their anxiety
and heightens their need to be on top
of everything. But mostly they keep
on smiling.
Living like this can be tough. It’s
difficult to let yourself forget or make
mistakes, hence the love of to-do lists,
Post-its and flurries of texts. You’re tired
but you can’t relax because you are full
of nervous energy and compulsively
potter around rather than allow yourself
to go to bed.
Usually people exhibiting this type of
anxious behaviour tell themselves it’s
just who they are, but the truth is this is
learnt behaviour that can be unlearnt.
You can face your fear — which is
that your world would fall apart if you
exerted less control or relaxed your
routine. The first step is to speak kindly

You’re not keen on
plans being disrupted

Focus on breathwork;
try meditation and yoga

The battle between keeping control and
suppressing your worries creates tension.
While you may appear to be serenely
gliding along, the madly paddling
anxiety is just below the surface.
Maintaining order is a way of convincing
yourself you’re in control. Creating
routines to control the various aspects of
your life is how you try, subconsciously,
to keep negative thoughts at bay. In
fact it just fuels anxiety.

Breathing exercises can change
the stress system and slow the
heartbeat, so the production of stress
hormones diminishes. According to
Steven Laureys, a neurologist and
neuroscientist, breathing deeply and
slowly for just a few minutes a day
stimulates the vagus nerve, which
carries signals to and from the brain
and regulates the body when it’s in
a calm and relaxed state. And that
has a stress-relieving effect on the
body and mind.

You think HFA might
be the secret of your
success

People with HFA are convinced that
they owe their success to their endless
worrying and overthinking. I hear it all
the time in my practice, the fear that if
they loosen up and find a little more
balance and lightness in life their success
will disintegrate. I always tell them, “I
think that you will be better.” This is a
learnt behaviour that sucks up their time
and energy and leaves them exhausted.
Not only will you feel healthier, brighter
and closer to those you love, I tell them,
“you’ll have more bandwidth to expand
on what you’re already so brilliant at”.

You often suffer from
aches and pains
In a constant state of alert, you may
feel restless and tense, or suffer from
a headache or other aches and pains.
Anxiety can be soothed by learning to
calm the body and mind. You might
try playing an instrument, exercise (but
without half-killing yourself), practise
deep, slow breathing, singing or
meditating. Or you could try a massage
or reflexology session, or simply socialise
and laugh with friends. Any of these
activities redirect your thoughts
to the present and make ruminating
almost impossible.
If my clients feel overwhelmed I
advise that they take two ice packs and
press one to their face or forehead and
one on the back of their neck. It jolts the
system out of the fight-or-flight
response, and by forcing them to focus
on the sensation it distracts them from
their thoughts. The tension we feel when
anxious isn’t just psychological. People
with HFA very often have lower-back
issues, headaches, jaw tension, digestive
problems or sciatica because their
nervous system is buzzing. When we
distract ourselves from our negative
thoughts by replacing them with
enjoyable activities (swimming in a lake

in winter is a more dramatic,
i some
say thrilling, version of applying ice
packs), we learn to stop our anxiety
from escalating.

Taking time to do things that are
totally absorbing and keep you in the
present moment benefits emotional
wellbeing. Researchers from the
University of Essex show that just
half an hour a week tending to plants
can instantly reduce feelings of
tension and fatigue, leaving you less
prone to anger and depression.

As told to
Anna Maxted
Swimming in cold water
can decrease stress

A plunge in
cold water has
great benefits
for stress relief,
whether it’s a
swim or a
short blast in
the shower

Cut back the caffeine
and alcohol
Alcohol and caffeine both contain
stimulants that trigger the release of
the stress hormone cortisol. Alcohol
is also a depressant and affects your
much-needed sleep. More than six
units, or two large glasses of wine,
in an evening can make us spend
less time than usual in the rapid eye
movement (REM) stage of sleep, an
important restorative stage, leaving
you feeling groggy and unproductive
the next day.

Tryy cold-water
swimmi
swimming
A plunge
plung in cold water has great
benef
benefits for stress relief,
whe
whether it’s a swim or a 30 to
60
60-second
cold blast in the
sh
shower
every morning.
R
Researchers
in Bangalore,
In
India,
showed that brief
e
exposure
to cold water
tr
triggers
the sympathetic
n
nervous
system and raises
lev
levels of feelgood chemicals
and beneficial hormones
such as dopamine — positive
feelin can rise by up to
feelings
250 per cent. At the same time,
250
levels of th
levels
the stress hormone
cortisol decrease.
decr

the times Saturday October 29 2022

8 Body + Soul

Sexy back: tone your rhomboids
DAVEE J HOGAN/GETTY IMAGES

For a fit, healthy
back, follow my
rules, says the
trainer Dalton Wong

You must do weight
an strength
and
tr
training
in midlife

If you don’t train the muscles that
ssupport your spine they become
w
weaker, and that’s when you get
th
the aches and niggles that so many
thi
think are unavoidable in later life —
the
they are not. As you get older you lose
lean m
muscle mass, so if you’re not doing
weight aand strength training you will end
up in pain,
paa with poor posture and loss of
mobil
li But these exercises are impormobility.
tant at any age.

Strengthen your lower
back with the YWT
technique
This simple bodyweight exercise is good
for posture and toning. Lie flat on the floor
on your tummy and lift your arms into the
shape of the letter Y, then into a W, then
into a T. Repeat this for 30 seconds to start
off with, and increase as you get stronger.
When you are comfortable doing these,
start doing a cobra move, which is where
you lift your arms, head and neck up too.

R
Runners
and
ccyclists should add
b
back
exercises

When running or cycling your
W
bo
body leans slightly forward, and
this can cause excess flexing of the
thi
spin
spine, which can give you a rounded
back and shoulders. Strengthening
your ba
b
a by doing extension exercises
back
will coun
n
counteract
this by pulling your body
back in
n position. Cardio is essential for
into
gener
r health, but it shouldn’t be all
general
you do. Do two cardio and three
str
strength sessions a week.

How to get a stronger
back — quickly
There are cheats and shortcuts that I use
with my clients who, for example, need to
look amazing in a backless dress at short
notice. Do the Y, W and T exercises (see
above) every day. Do rowing exercises that
target your upper, middle and lower back,
whether that’s with a resistance band, TRX
system or cable machine at the gym. Then
do some soft tissue work — get a massage
or see a physio or osteopath who can work
on your middle back and chest muscles to
increase mobility and pull your shoulders
and chest back. It improves posture and
makes your back look better quickly.

Typically women want
to tone their backs, men
want to build muscle

Yes, it’s a generalisation, but my female
clients will often say, “I need to look good
in a strapless dress,” or, “I want to improve
posture.” And my male clients will often
say, “I want to get the tapered V look on my
back, or have a strong back so that I can do
chin-ups/pull-ups.” The same exercises
will achieve both. The difference lies in the
size of the weights you use. If you want big
muscles, use heavy weights (the maximum
you can manage for 6-8 reps). If you want
to work on posture and endurance without
building big muscles, you need a weight
you can withstand for 15-20 reps. Beginners should start with as little as 1kg.

To have a strong back,
you need a strong core
Most of the time pain or discomfort in the
lower back is caused by weakness elsewhere, often in your glutes or in your core.
Weak muscles there can cause postural
issues, injury and pain as your lower back
takes the brunt of the load. Try Pilates to
strengthen your core, and exercises such
as bridges, deadlifts and hamstring curls
on a Swiss ball, which work the glutes,
hamstrings and lower back together.

Flexibility matters —
stretch your back in
the mornings

Flexibility decreases with age. If your back
hurts when you get up from the sofa or you

get in shape,
sha
build muscle in your back,
bottom aand hamstrings.

Y
Yoga
is great for
tthe lower back,
but you need to
b
d
do squats too
Jennifer Lawrence is
one of the trainer
Dalton Wong’s clients

often have a dull ache in your spine, you
probably need to work on your flexibility.
I give a short cat-cow routine to my clients
to do every morning, and it makes the
world of difference. Do ten cat-cow
stretches (see panel below). Then lift your
right arm and left leg at the same time in a
Superman pose, fully extending if possible.
Repeat ten times, then switch to the other
side. Doing integrated movements such as
this is much better than a targeted stretch
to release discomfort in a particular area.
When you exercise all of your spine, it
learns to move a lot better as a whole.

Sorry, you cannot target
love handles
Love handles or rolls of back fat are the
result of excess sugar in your diet and too
much fat on your body. You cannot get rid
of them with specific back exercises. What
you can do is reduce your overall body fat,
increase lean muscle mass and therefore
shrink these problem areas. One of the
best ways to do this is by working out the
whole of the back — it is made up of so
many muscles (just like the legs and
glutes) that it is a fat-burning machine. To

Top: Queen Letizia of
Spain this week at the
opera in Madrid. Middle:
the actress Zoe Saldana;
bottom: David Beckham

Dalton Wong: three great back exercises

Glute bridge
Lie on your back with your feet on
the floor and knees raised. Squeeze
your glutes to raise your hips so
that your body forms a straight
line from knees to shoulders. Hold
it here for a few seconds, then
release back down. Repeat for
30 seconds in a controlled way.

Cat-cow
Get on all fours with your back in
a neutral position. Move into the
“cat” by rounding your spine up,
tucking in your tailbone, and
looking to the floor. Then move
into the “cow” — lift your sit bones
upwards and allow your belly to
sink. Look up. Repeat 20 times.

Plank
Start with a high plank, where the
palms of your hands and balls of
your feet are on the floor. Make
sure that your arms are extended
and you are looking straight down.
Hold for at least 30 seconds. You
can also do a forearm plank, which
works the core harder.

Yoga gives you great mobility and a
strong core, but it will not give you total
back strength.
Sometimes people who do a
stre
lot of yoga
yo but little else have sore backs
because they are too mobile, and do so
much
h ttwisting they work their spine in too
many angles. Balance yoga with weights
for the upper and mid-back, and deadlifts
and squats for your glutes. Together they
make a complete spinal workout. Your
back is a whole muscle group that should
work in sync. If you neglect your upper
back the muscles between your scapula
(the rhomboids) become weak.

Move as much as you
can, in as many different
ways as possible

Moving around is great for the spine, but
doing anything too much has a negative
effect. During the working day use a standing desk for a bit, then sit down for a while,
then sit on a Swiss ball, wriggle around and
change position regularly, then go for a
walk. You can’t do any of these things for
too long because they will demand too
much from the small muscles of your lower
back, but in short bursts they give your
back the variety it needs.

Don’t want to do
weights? Go swimming
Swimming is not load-bearing, so it’s great
for people who have injuries or who are
nervous of weights. Swimmers have strong
backs because all strokes — breaststroke,
backstroke, crawl — work out the middle
back (latissimus dorsi).
Dalton Wong is the founder of TwentyTwo Training; twentytwotraining.com.
As told to Harriet Addison

the times Saturday October 29 2022

KATIE WILSON FOR THE TIMES

Juliet Stevenson
talks to Julia
Llewellyn Smith
about her latest role
and taking more
risks with age

Juliet Stevenson’s
perfect weekend
Birkenstocks or Louboutins?
Birkenstocks
Big breakfast or intermittent fasting?
Big breakfast
What’s your signature dish?
I hate cooking
Who or what is your screensaver?
My two biological kids and my husband
on holiday in Madrid
How many unread emails in your inbox?
550 — I’m surprised it’s not more
I couldn’t get through the weekend
without . . .
The outdoors

T

he actress Juliet Stevenson,
66 tomorrow, quit Twitter
three years ago after a series
of increasingly impassioned
spats. “My mental health
was definitely deteriorating.
I’d get in a terrible state,” she
says. “I’m really bad at boundaries, so
I can’t shut things out. I’d go to sleep
obsessing about [others’ tweets] and would
wake up in the night writing furious replies
in my head. My son was coming home
from school saying people were asking
him, ‘What’s your mother doing?’ ”
In the end her daughter Rosalind, 28, a
mature medical student at University
College London, persuaded her to close
her account. “Because she knows what I’m
like. And the minute I shut it down my
mental health was transformed.”
Initially, Stevenson, known for her illustrious stage career as well as the films
Truly, Madly, Deeply and Bend it like Beckham, and now playing a raved-about role
as the eponymous Professor Ruth Wolff in
the West End hit The Doctor, won’t say
what the fighting was about. Eventually —
without prodding — she admits it was Palestine. “That’s one of those subjects you literally can’t mention for fear of being pilloried at best, or at worst cancelled. If you
criticise the Israeli government policies in
the occupied territories, you get called
an antisemite, which is insane. It’s like criticising Robert Mugabe — does that make
you a racist?”
It’s all reflective of the themes of The
Doctor, Robert Icke’s loose adaptation of
Arthur Schnitzler’s obscure 1912 play
Professor Bernhardi, about the online
storm that follows Dr Wolff, who’s Jewish,
preventing a black Catholic priest from
administering the last rites to a teenager
dying from a self-administered abortion.
In the play, medics and the public divide
along lines of race, religion and gender
as to whether Wolff was being professional
or propelled by unconscious biases. Such
arguments are ultra-pertinent to our
times — even more so
now than when
hen the play
premiered at the Almeida Theatre
atre in 2019.
Covid delayed its
West End transfer
ears.
for three years.
“Now it feels
ve a
like we have
sion
new
version
w, a
of the show,
eper
much deeper
orld
one. The world
ious
felt precarious
in 2019; it feels
incredibly prenow.
carious
hings
Lots of things
ened in
have happened
d, signifithat period,
cantly Black
ck Lives
Matter.
George
Floyd was
as alive
when this show first
h Everard
ran. Sarah
red in the
was murdered
interim. The transawareness wave has

Body + Soul 9

I turned off Twitter
and my mental
health transformed
Juliet Stevenson,
Stevens
above,
and, left, with her
husband, Hugh
Brody

heightened; cancel culture has deepened.
The audiences were already very hungry
for its debate but the hunger
coming off them today has doubled. You
really feel, ‘We need help out here to make
sense of these times we’re living in’.”
Sitting in her dressing room at the Duke
of York’s Theatre, Stevenson is brighteyed, warm, undeniably earnest, but with a
wry self-knowledge about how off-putting
this quality can be. She rants about climate
change and our “shambolic corrupt, mendacious government”, only occasionally
pausing to apologise for “overtalking”.
“I won’t like this when I see it written
down,” she sighs. Yet, then she continues:
“I could talk to you about the fluff of my life
but I think people have a responsibility to
use their platforms.”
The daughter of an army officer, Stevenson has always walked the walk politically.
In 2016 she bought a double-decker bus on
eBay and drove it to a Calais refugee camp
to be used as a children’s centre. She is now

hosting a Ukrainian woman and her sixyear-old daughter in her Hampstead
home. “Seeing someone scrolling their
phone to see if their family has survived an
overnight bombing — it’s really salutary.”
Her daughter and son Gabriel, 21, who’s
studying English at Edinburgh University,
have been gracious about giving up their
rooms when they return for holidays.
“I say to the family, ‘Guys, we think we
have problems. We have no problems.’ ”
In fact, Stevenson has had her own
recent share of tragedy. In 2020, Tomo, the
37-year-old son of her partner of 29 years,
the anthropologist Hugh Brody, died
suddenly. Stevenson called him her son.
“Never stepson, I hate any label that separates us,” she says in another unintentional
nod to the play. Shortly afterwards, her 97year-old mother, who suffered with dementia, died. In the aftermath of the twin
bereavements, she and Brody decided to
marry in December, in a registry office
in Suffolk where they have a second home,

in front of two friends, her brother and his
family, their two children and Brody’s
other son Jonah. “Hugh and I were giggling, a bit embarrassed, but we turned
around and the kids were absolutely . . .”
she makes a weeping face. “It meant such
a lot to them.”
A wedding had never previously appealed, but her mother’s death made her
rethink. “Dad was an alcoholic and deeply
unhappy and so was Mum for long, long
periods. But I watched them come through
a marriage that was not made in heaven
and by the end they adored each other. It
was so moving to see. Maybe some of that
rubbed off.”
There was also the fact “I still can’t believe I’ve met somebody as wonderful as
[Brody]. We’ve been through a huge
amount of deaths, losses, differences, and I
love him more than ever. He doesn’t seem
to mind all the things about me that I really
thought would put him off. When we met
and I realised it was getting a bit serious,
we went on a two-day hike in the Peak District. I went without any make-up and
really old clothes and spent the entire time
telling him all the worst things about myself, thinking, ‘If you can survive this, we
can get through anything’.” She laughs.
“Isn’t that weird?”
“Weird” is a word Stevenson applies to
herself frequently, a hangover from a
youth imbued with self-loathing (her
father’s peripatetic job meant she was sent
to boarding school aged nine). “Nobody
took much notice of me growing up. I was
OK at school but otherwise hopelessly
lacking in confidence. I’ve only ever seen
myself as quite outside most groups. I
struggled with self-image. My mum didn’t
help by saying, ‘Don’t worry darling, you
have a very interesting face’. I was hopelessly stupid about food; I had a lot of eating disorders in my twenties and thirties.”
Relationships sound dysfunctional too;
the attraction of Brody was “he didn’t play
awful games. He just told the truth and it
was such a relief not to have to decode
things any more.”
She found motherhood “heavenly” and
adores being a grandmother to Jonah’s
four-year-old son — “his innocence — it’s
like a launderette for the soul!” But middle
age brought another dip in self-worth. “I
had a shitty menopause when I absolutely
crashed into self-doubt. I was so angry,
crying — my poor kids, my poor husband!
I got diabolical stage fright and thought I’d
never be able to go out there any more.”
She was helped by hormone replacement therapy and — to her amazement —
as things settled down discovered she had
more confidence than ever before. “It’s incredible. I don’t care any more. I’m more
hungry to take risks with age. I say things
and think, ‘You hate what I say? I don’t
mind. I’m still going to say it.’ I know my
energy is finite, so I feel I’m in a precious
decade. I have to savour that liberation.”
The Doctor is on stage now, atgtickets.com

the times Saturday October 29 2022

10 Body + Soul

Our bedroom is
a battleground
Suzi Godson
Sex counsel

Q

My partner and I are
struggling to sleep
in the same bed. The
ways in which our habits
differ are increasing: he gets
up much earlier than me,
I have a bad back and try
to stay in the same position,
while he’s always thrashing
around. I’m always hot, he
is always cold. Our bedroom
is no longer a sexy place, it’s
a battleground

A

You are absolutely right to
address this issue because sleep is
hugely important and it sounds
as if neither of you are getting
enough of it. It might sound extreme, but if
you have a spare room (and of course not
everybody has one) I think you would both
benefit from sleeping apart for a while.
Being able to separate your sexual relationship from your bedtime differences
will be better for you both.
Although the benefits of sleeping
together are myriad, research also shows
that when one partner sleeps badly it leads
to higher levels of conflict in the relationship. Researchers at the University of
California tracked the sleep quality of
couples and found that poor sleep made
them more negative and less empathic
towards each other. We’ve all been there.
In contrast, conflict resolution occurred as
soon as both partners had had a good
night’s sleep.
If you can separate your sexual relationship from your need for good quality sleep,
you will both feel a lot better. Time apart
will help you to appreciate each other
a bit more, and better sleep quality will

improve your relationship and help you
both to feel less tetchy.
You can obviously still have sex in your
own bedroom, but to separate it from what
have become troublesome sleep patterns,
why not experiment with having sex at
different times of day? Alternatively, try
other locations. They are not always as
comfortable, and they do usually require
you to separate the act of sex from the
physical intimacy that is integral to the
experience when you are snuggled up
under a duvet together, but that is not
always a bad thing. It’s worth noting that a
hard surface may be helpful for a bad back.
In contrast, the sofa in the sitting room can
be almost too soft for sex — a little support
is good. The floor, with duvets and pillows,
is a better option, particularly if you have a
carpet. The stairs are worth considering,
depending on your agility.
Many couples find that the bathroom
has a lot to offer in terms of sexual activity.
As long as you have a nonslip mat, having
sex in the shower is a great way to end the
day. As I’m sure you know, sex and orgasm
trigger the release of endorphins, which

Men’s Health
Train with Harry Jameson
The strength workout
runners must do
Join our trainer in
a workout video
thetimes.co.uk/mensfitness

You need to
separate your
sexual
relationship
from your
bedtime
differences
play a big role in inducing
sleep, and oxytocin, which reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol. You may not,
however, be aware that showering at night is extremely beneficial for restless sleepers like your
husband. It interferes with your
circadian rhythm by artificially
raising your body temperature.
The rapid cooling that then
occurs when you get out of
the shower and dry off fools
your body into thinking that it
is time for bed, and you can find
yourself falling asleep more
quickly and having a deeper,
more restful night.
Send your questions to
weekendsex@thetimes.co.uk
or write to Suzi at The Times,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Body + Soul 11

CLAUDIA TOTIR/GETTY IMAGES

Eat fish to fight
inf lammation

Arthritis: six
simple ways
to protect
yourself
Diagnoses are
increasing, but there
are lifestyle changes
that can help, says
John Naish

I

n the 1980s, as a keen
twentysomething journalist,
I made an ill-considered trip
into Afghanistan with mujahidin
tribesmen fighting Russian
invaders. I returned to Britain
with several types of dysentery, a
dose of PTSD and raging inflammatory
arthritis in my hips, knees and fingers.
I wouldn’t wish the searingly disabling
joint swelling of arthritis on anyone.
But headlines this week suggest that
the symptoms are running rampant
in Britain. The proportion of adults in
England diagnosed with inflammatory
arthritis increased by at least 40 per cent
between 2004 and 2020, says research
by Keele University in The Lancet
Regional Health journal.
Inflammatory arthritis is an umbrella
term for numerous conditions where our
immune system goes rogue and attacks
us, typically causing pain, swelling
and stiffness in one or more joints. Its
three main types are rheumatoid
arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and axial
spondyloarthritis. My version, reactive
arthritis, is relatively rare, although
experts say it is probably underdiagnosed.
In fact, improved NHS diagnosis of all
forms of inflammatory arthritis seems
a strong reason for the leap in cases.
As Dr Ian Scott, the consultant
rheumatologist who led the Keele
research, points out that in 2013,
when diagnoses rose significantly, the
government had begun giving GPs
financial rewards for spotting the
condition. Actual cases may be rising
too, although there’s no explanation,
says Professor Philip Conaghan, director
of arthritis research at the University of
Leeds and spokesman for the charity
Versus Arthritis. “The Keele figures are
most likely the result of a mix of better
diagnosis and recording, along with
some increase in people developing
the condition.”
Decades ago all that GPs could offer
me was ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory
that would burn through my guts if I
took it for years. Rather than swallowing

meds I guessed that lifestyle changes
may help. I turned myself into a
clean-eating, meat-shunning yogi and
after long months the symptoms
mercifully abated, and nowadays return
only if I overdo play and work.
Meanwhile, scientific research remains
sparse on the benefits of healthy habits
for preventing and salving inflammatory
arthritis, although they are heartily
recommended by Dr Wendy Holden, a
medical adviser for Arthritis Action and
honorary consultant rheumatologist at
Basingstoke and North Hampshire
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
“We see that people who live healthier
lives and keep a healthy weight are less
likely to get inflammatory arthritis. If
they do get it they respond better to
treatment,” she says. “Healthy lifestyle
may foster a better immune system.”
Two things we can’t change: our
genes have a strong effect, and
being female brings twice the risk
of developing the condition. But
emerging research shows there are
indeed life-affirming things we can
do that may help significantly.

arthritis or were in the early stages
of the condition. It showed that
their bodies were reacting to toxic gut
bacteria, in particular the types
ruminococcaceae, lachnospiraceae
and subdoligranulum.
Proliferation of these three types is
associated with junk-food diets high in
chips, meat, savoury snacks, mayonnaise
and soft drinks, according to a report
by Dutch gastroenterologists from the
University of Groningen last year in
the BMJ journal Gut.

Even relatively
Moderate drinking sma
small weight gains
lp
can increase risk
he
y
ma

Eat oily fish and nuts

“Healthy eating is liable to boost
your immune system’s regulation,”
Holden says. This is supported by
Swedish research published last year
in The Journal of Nutrition, which
t”
found that an “anti-inflammatory diet”
(basically the Mediterranean diet)
reduced signs of pain and swelling
in a study of 50 people with
rheumatoid arthritis.
Researchers at the University of
Gothenburg compared a ten-week
diet of foods thought to reduce
systemic inflammation — oily fish,
whole grains, fruits, nuts, berries and
vegetables — with a typical western
nd
diet high in refined grains, red meat and
chicken, and low in fruit and veg. Theyy
he
established that those who followed the
tly
anti-inflammatory diet had significantly
lower scores in tests of body-wide
inflammation. But the researchers
found it was vital that volunteers stuck
to the diet: backsliders didn’t benefit.

Cut out junk food

A study this month shows why healthy
food may be so crucial. It seems that
poor diets foster the growth of toxic gut
bacteria that provoke the autoimmune
response in rheumatoid arthritis.
The University of Colorado study
in the Science Translational Medicine
journal examined blood from people
who had a risk of developing rheumatoid

Go for walks
to stay strong

Kee
Keeping
a healthy weight may help
to protect against arthritic pains.
W
Women
who have a higher BMI in
m
middle age have a greater risk of
rrheumatoid arthritis, warns a 2020
aanalysis of data covering more than
47
474,000 people by Imperial College
Lo
London in the journal Nature
Scie
Scientific Reports.
Me
Meanwhile, a study this month found
th
that those
who put on just under a stone
in weight
we
in midlife are significantly
mor likely to develop knee
more
ost
osteoarthritis,
one of the most
co
common
causes of knee pain, and
re
require
a knee replacement. It
d
doesn’t take much extra bulk to
p
put excessive strain on this joint,
re
reveals the report, presented
by investigators from Monash
Un
University, Australia, at the
Inter
International Congress on Obesity
in Me
Melbourne.
Con
Conaghan says: “[Being] overweight
is also associated with increased risk in
people with psoriasis for developing
inflammatory psoriatic arthritis. This
may be due to elevated levels of lipid
fats in the blood.”

Drinking: moderation
is good

Some positive news: moderate drinking
(14 units a week maximum for men and
women) may reduce the risk of arthritic
pain. The benefit was found last year
by rheumatologists at Saint Vincent’s
University Hospital, Dublin.
They analysed data from 14 studies
that covered more than 16,000 patients

and found that those who drank
moderately had less pain and evidence
of disease than non-drinkers and heavy
drinkers, according to a report in the
journal Nature Scientific Reports.
Smoking, on the other hand, is a
definite no-no. “It’s a firmly established
trigger,” Conaghan says. “We are starting
to understand how smoking causes
chronic inflammation in the gums and
the lungs. This in turn triggers the
immune system to attack the body.”

Regular walking
can reduce pain by
40 per cent

“Many believe that exercise can damage
your joints. But sedentariness is the real
enemy,” Holden says. “We encourage
people to stay strong and give their joints
muscular support. If your joints are
inflamed it’s tempting to rest, but that’s
the worst thing you can do.”
A report this month in the journal
Arthritis & Rheumatology concluded
that simple regular walking exercise
reduces knee pain caused by arthritis
in adults over 50. The study of more
than 1,000 people by Baylor College
of Medicine, Texas, found that regular
walkers had 40 per cent less frequent
arthritic pain than sedentary types.

Early treatment is key

Experts agree that getting diagnosed and
treated early can prevent inflammatory
arthritic pains, thanks to new-generation
therapies. Alan Silman, a professor of
musculoskeletal health at the University
of Oxford, says: “In the past 20 years
the development of new drugs has
transformed arthritis treatment by
damping down the immune system so
it doesn’t attack the body. Given early
enough, through prompt diagnosis, these
can keep the disease completely at bay.”
Conaghan stresses: “Don’t just soldier
on with pains that might be arthritic —
see your doctor. This is particularly true
for morning joint stiffness that can
last for a couple of hours in places such
as your lower back and your fingers.”
Holden adds: “Early diagnosis means
early treatment with disease-modifying
drugs such as methotrexate. That
works so well that you don’t have to go
on to expensive biologic drugs, although
these are also highly effective.”

the times Saturday October 29 2022

12 Food + Drink

Jamie Oliver
How to make
my perfect pasta
The chef shares his secrets for preparing delicious pasta
(and sauces) every time. By Hannah Evans

P

asta has always been the last
frontier of takeaways. Indian,
Thai, sushi and pizza don’t
suffer too much from home
delivery. But ordering a bowl
of pasta alla puttanesca on a
delivery app is a bit like getting a new prime minister. You have no
idea what kind of mess you’ll end up with.
Enter Jamie Oliver. The chef has just
launched Pasta Dreams, a delivery-only
pasta restaurant, and says this is about to
change. “Historically, pasta hasn’t travelled well,” he says. “Until now.” Unlike
many other restaurants on the delivery
it rather
apps that send their pasta as a kit
than the finished dish, Pasta Dreams
ady to
offers food that comes hot and ready
er, a
eat. The dishes are made by Taster,
UK-wide network of kitchens
ns
specialising in takeaway food. Alll
you need to do is sprinkle on the
parmesan and tuck in.
The road to Pasta Dreams
has been long. In the year it
took to create, hundreds of pasta shapes were tried and blends
of flours tested along with fillings and thickness. Everything
was made, then put on the back of
a bike and “shaken around for 30
minutes”, Oliver explains. “It’s nott deold
signed to be cooked at home or sold
d
in the supermarket — it’s designed
to be delivered.” He won’t reveal
any details about how he’s
managed this. “I’ve got secret
suppliers that are doing my
ravioli,” he admits. “When you
taste the rav, you’ll realise why.”
The only real test is to order
it, which I do. On the menu are
six types of pasta starting from
m
£8.90 per portion, antipasti from
£3.90, toppings, garlic focaccia for
tions
£5.50 and pudding. The instructions
suggest you might need to heat it up in
ckly that
the oven, but mine arrives so quickly
I eat it almost immediately. It’s good.
i k and
d
The antipasti, a box of breadsticks
meats, can be skipped — I’m really only
interested in the pasta. I start with the
beef and chianti agnolotti, huge pieces of
stuffed pasta, fat with braised beef. Then
it’s onto the garlic focaccia, which is oily
and springy, followed by a gnocchi bake
topped with pangrattato (literally grated
bread, but actually breadcrumbs that
have been fried in olive oil until crispy) and
oozing with melted cheese.
Oliver’s favourite, cacio x carbonara
casarecce, is a mash-up of carbonara and

Use pangrattato
instead of
parmesan

cacio e pepe, two of the oldest dishes in Italy
that are arguably both more Roman than
the Colosseum. It’s heaven. Silky, creamy,
very peppery, and a little salty from the
chunks of guanciale. My feast is rounded
off by a teeny helping of tiramisu in a little
glass pot — all I can manage.
Oliver says he has almost perfected
gluten-free pasta, along with more vegan
and veggie dishes. He’s still working on
making the perfect vegan lasagne.
Jamie’s Italian restaurant empire
collapsed in 2019 and he’s philosophical
about this latest commercial venture. “I’ve
had massive successes and I’ve had my
failures. I will
w open restaurants again and
Pasta Drea
Dreams is a part of that.”
You ca
can already order Pasta Dreams
in London
Lon
on Deliveroo, Just Eat and
Uber Eats, and in November it will
lau
launch in Bristol, followed by
Br
Brighton, Manchester and Birm
mingham in the new year. In the
m
meantime, follow Oliver’s tips
fo
for making the perfect pot.

T cooking
The
water needs to be
w
ve
very salty
Not as
a salty as seawater but you need
to be ab
able to taste it. If you don’t season
wa you have to do a lot of work
the water
later on. In a normal-sized pan
tha filled with boiling water I put
that’s
h
a heaped
teaspoon of salt in. And
be
before
you worry if that’s
u
unhealthy,
95 per cent of that is
g
going
down the drain.

Get the water on
G
a rolling boil before
ad
adding
pasta

Make pasta
frittata with
leftovers

Normally the timings on a packet are
Norm
pretty bang
b
on. You want to have a rolliing
ng boil when
wh you put the pasta in, give it
a stir and tthen I always put a lid on with a
spoon just under so it’s slightly ajar. This
means you have good recovery but it
doesn’t boil over. Then you start timing.

Make your pasta al dente

You want pasta to be al dente, which means
“to the tooth”. You basically want it to be a
pleasure to eat, so it has to have structure.

Save the pasta water

Draining the pasta while you carry on
cooking would never happen in an Italian
kitchen. They would save that starchy
water to feed the pasta and the sauce.

Jamie Oliver

Using that water gives the dish that loose,
shiny, luxurious texture. The pasta is
always absorbing the sauce, so save more
than you think.

There is nothing wrong

Add pasta to sauce or
with using cheddar
sauce to pasta — it doesn’t instead of parmesan
matter
In a restaurant kitchen you’d add cooked
pasta to the sauce, because you take the
basket cooking the pasta out of the boiling
water, shake it out and then add it to the
pan. I don’t think it matters. So much so
that in my new book, I cut up fresh lasagne
sheets and cook them all in one pan with
the sauce, which is breaking all the rules.

Don’t just top your
pasta with parmesan —
try halloumi or goat’s
cheese instead
There are so many joyful alternatives to
parmesan I have come across when travelling around the Mediterranean. I’ve tried
orzo with tomatoes, lemon, basil and
halloumi, which is Cypriot inspired. It’s
legit delicious. In Tunisia they grate all
kinds of goat’s cheeses and in Turkey they
have pasta with herbs and yoghurt.
In some parts of Italy they use salted
ricotta, which is hard to find in supermarkets here so I often use feta. The ricotta you
can get is often unseasoned so it is more of
a carrier. If you’re being really quaint and
British, though, there is nothing wrong
with using cheddar.

Pangrattato adds amazing
texture
A good pangrattato — flavoured crispy
breadcrumbs — has the ability to add not
only flavour but also incredible texture to

a meal. Put olive oil in a large frying pan
on a medium heat and add a handful of
coarse breadcrumbs and chilli flakes. Fry
for five minutes until crisp and golden,
stirring. Sprinkle over pasta and serve.

Cheap pasta is fine

If you’re wondering why some pasta is
more expensive it’s generally because it’s
better made, has better texture and is
made with better ingredients, and you’ll
have a more delicious product at the end.
If you’re a student you won’t care, though
— but if you’re on a hot date and you’re
going to have pasta with some prawns,
tomato sauce, a swig of white wine and a
bit of Sade on the radio, then probably yes.
You always get what you pay for with pasta.

Wash your onions
before you sweat them for
the sauce
This is a tip I learnt from my time cooking
with nonnas in Italy. Washing onions after
slicing them makes them milder and that
moisture also helps to add extra sweetness
as they cook.

Make a pasta frittata with
your leftovers
My best mate and mentor, Gennaro [Contaldo], taught me the basic recipe a few years
back. Whisk up eggs with a little parmesan
and seasoning, add in your leftover pasta

the times Saturday October 29 2022
PAUL STUART/CAMERA PRESS; GETTY IMAGES

Food + Drink 13

Add pale ale to a
bolognese instead
of red wine

Yes, you can drink well on
a budget Jane MacQuitty

W

ant to drink well
for less? Given
grocery price
inflation has hit
its highest point
in 14 years, most
of us are already
hunting around for bargains. You can
scour the supermarket shelves for deals
— Morrisons showed a dozen sub-£6
Value Wines at its latest tasting, Tesco
has lots of new bottles for a fiver, and
Waitrose is bringing back its ten for a
tenner fine wine offer next month — but
there is much more you can do besides.
One of the best ways to get more wine
bang for your buck is to seek out less
well-known appellations that lie just
outside the big names. With Bordeaux,
the right-bank spots of Castillon Côtes
de Bordeaux and Fronsac are always
going to be better value than Pomerol
and St Emilion. In Burgundy, Beaujolais
to the south is the bargain hotspot.
Similarly, you can get some of the
flavour of a famous and much more
expensive name by looking for lesser
wines made from the same grape but
from a wider area, such as Langhe
nebbiolo, with echoes of barolo and

Seek out less
well-known
appellations
that lie just
outside the
big names

barbaresco, or Touraine sauvignon blanc
with notes of sancerre.
Crémant, especially from the
Burgundy region, is the next best thing
to champagne, but of late you might find
a chardonnay-dominant cava sparkler
from Spain, produced by the same
method. Step forward the ripe, lemony
citrus fruit of Anna de Codorniu’s
non-vintage brut, which makes a happy
budget substitute for the real thing
(Waitrose, down from £11.99 to £8.99).
Hunting for a similarly styled wine
in another country is more difficult.
Canny drinkers who love burgundy
have had to work harder than most to
find tasty alternatives. Romania and
Chile do a good line in pinot noir, with
the former responsible for the superb
Incanta Pinot Noir, below. If it’s white
burgundy you want, the Antipodes has
ridden to the rescue, with rafts of Kiwi
chardonnay with the sort of svelte, steely
style that is reminiscent of chablis. If you
are hankering after that expensive beast,
a high-end St Émilion, you might find
the 2016 Viña Pomal Rioja Reserva
(Majestic, £12.99), with its soft, spicy,
mocha-edged tempranillo fruit, is just
what these straitened times need.

Top-value
bottles
and cook in a frying pan with a little oil
over a medium heat, then finish under the
grill. It’s great with pasta that’s already
coated in sauce, but I also love using plain
pasta and mixing it up by adding a few favourite ingredients like peas and pancetta.

Never let pasta sit in
the colander — serve it
immediately
It’s important to serve it straight away so it
doesn’t overcook in the sauce. Once it’s
cooked, save a mug of the starchy cooking
water and strain the pasta immediately,
then return it to the pan with your sauce.
Add a few swigs of the starchy water and
toss through over a gentle heat until you
have a lovely elegant sauce that coats the
pasta. Never let pasta sit in the colander
steaming away – that only leads to heavy
pasta that will stick together.

Add leftover parmesan
rind to bolognese for
extra flavour
Spaghetti bolognese is so comforting and
brilliantly easy. Some people like to put
milk in the sauce, which splits and gives a
nice creamy flavour. Sometimes I’ll chuck
a piece of leftover parmesan rind in my
sauce while it’s cooking, which has a similar result and gives it a nice depth of
flavour. But it’s not essential; what’s really
important is a good glug of red wine. I also
love to add a jar of sundried tomatoes
blitzed into a paste, along with the classic
tin of tomatoes.

The secret to a perfect
carbonara
Getting the best-quality ingredients you
can afford is a great place to start. I like to
use a really smoky pancetta or guanciale

and pecorino romano cheese. The starchy
cooking water is the true secret ingredient,
though; it’s what you need to make a
perfectly silky sauce without scrambling
the eggs. Save and pour a little of the
cooled pasta water — it must be set aside to
cool for two minutes first — into the
egg mixture before adding to the pasta.
Keep adding splashes of cooking water
and stirring to achieve that smooth
texture. Heaven.

Use pale ale instead
of red wine in a ‘British’
bolognese
In my very British bolognese I use a pale
ale instead of red wine in the sauce and
top it with cheddar instead of parmesan,
which is a fun and easy twist for us Brits.

2020 Incanta Pinot
Noir, Romania
12.5 per cent, Majestic,
£7.99
A terrific, bright,
clove-scented pinot noir
from Romania, packed
with red-berry fruit.

2021 Irresistible
Marsanne du
Languedoc, France
13 per cent, Co-op, £8
Love white rhône but
hate the price? Scoop
up this bold, smoky,
fruity marsanne instead.

2021 The Society’s
Exhibition Margaret River
Chardonnay, Australia
11.5 per cent, thewine
society.com, £14.95
Dazzling white burgundy
taste-alike with lashings
of toasted hazelnut fruit.

2021 Calmel & Joseph
Organic Pinot Noir,
France 13 per cent,
Waitrose, £10.99
With Côte d’Or-aping, fat,
juicy, gamey charm, this
Languedoc red is easily
worth a tenner. Buy it.

This week’s best supermarket buys

My favourite quick
pasta sauce
An easy tomato sauce with garlic and olive
oil will cook in about the same time it takes
to prepare dried pasta in boiling salted
water. You can make it your own with
many different herbs, fresh or dried chillis,
olives, capers, anchovies or mascarpone.
This recipe serves two, so use about 75g of
dried pasta per person: first, peel and finely
slice two garlic cloves, then place in a nonstick frying pan on a medium heat with a
tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for two minutes, stirring regularly, until lightly golden.
Pour in a tin of quality plum tomatoes,
scrunching them through your hands or
breaking them up with a wooden spoon.
Let them simmer on a low heat until your
pasta is cooked. Use tongs to drag the pasta
straight into the sauce, letting a little
starchy cooking water go with it. Toss well
over the heat, then serve. I like to finish
with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

2021 Chapel Down
Bacchus, England
11.5 per cent, Booths,
£14 (down from £19)
Unlike champagne, you
can enjoy this zesty,
elderflower and lemon
twist of a carbonated fizz
at 5C without fretting.

d Vine
2020 Old
Garnacha, Campo
de Borja, Spain
14 per cent, Co-op, £5.75
Ridiculously good
value, spice box and
damson plum-packed,
vegan-friendly red,
with a dab of syrah.

2021 Marques de los
Zancos Rioja Blanco,
Spain
12.5 per cent, Tesco, £5
A tasty, vegan-approved,
light, fruity, vanillascented rioja that should
be in every budget
drinker’s basket.

2021 Beaujolais Quincie,
Louis Jadot, France
12.5 per cent, Waitrose,
£9.99 (down from £13.99)
Go on, tuck into this
deliciously plump,
plummy beaujolais from
a respected merchant.
It’s a cut above the rest.

the times Saturday October 29 2022

16

Outside
Help the winter
wildlife in your
garden: my tips
Creating a biodiverse habitat for birds
and insects is possible even in the
smallest of patches, says Joe Swift

Water features are a
magnet for wildlife

the times Saturday October 29 2022

17

HOWARD RICE, FIONA LEA - GARDEN: RHS BRIDGEWATER DESIGNER: TOM STUART SMITH/GAP PHOTOS; ALAMY

Page
19

‘A pair of red kites hunting the
valley planed with easy grace
across the ploughed fields’
Christopher Somerville’s good walk

bringing up their young and sourcing
food for themselves. If you feed only at
certain times, go for winter and spring.
There are a lot of feeds out there to choose
from and they vary in quality (some are
bulked up with grain etc), so here are the
main ones:
Seed mixes
Look for mixes that contain high
proportions of crushed peanuts, maize
and sunflower seeds and hearts
Sunflowers seeds
Choose black seed over striped where
possible, because the oil content of the
former is higher. Sunflower hearts are
even better as no energy is lost removing
the husk
Niger seed
These are tiny black seeds that are high in
oils and proteins — good for birds’ energy
during the winter (though you will need a
special feeder)

Minimise manicured areas

T

here are an estimated
16 million gardens in the
UK, covering about 1.8 million acres — more than the
combined area of all the
country’s nature reserves.
Domestic outdoor spaces of
all styles and sizes — even if only a balcony
or a small front garden — can contain a
diverse and rich range of plants, providing
interest across the seasons. With a little
thought they can also hugely benefit wildlife, and the non-native plants that make
up most of our gardens’ palettes have been
found to be just as valuable as the
native varieties — a relief because if we
relied solely on the latter our gardens
would be very limited aesthetically.
Easy-to-create habitats are important
too, offering homes for invertebrates,
mammals and birds — and the more biodiverse a garden, the healthier it tends to be,
with a rich ecosystem attracting predators
such as hoverflies and birds to feed on
ladybirds, aphids and caterpillars, making it
less prone to pest infestations and diseases.
Then there are our gardening habits and
processes, which can be worth reviewing.
Some gardeners may feel stuck in their
“old school” ways of maintaining superneat sterile spaces containing plants
that are fed on chemicals, but I urge all to
embrace a new way of gardening. The
term “rewilding” is a misnomer in relation
to a domestic garden — I prefer

A rich ecosystem
attracts predators
such as hoverflies
and birds to feed on
ladybirds, aphids and
caterpillars, making it
less prone to diseases

“wildlife friendly”. Here are my top five
considerations when gardening with
wildlife in mind.

What to plant

Planting provides cover,, food
r, pollen,
(in the form of nectar,
berries, homes for insects
sects
etc), nesting materials
als
(leaves, twigs, fluffyy
seed heads) and
somewhere
for
wildlife to perch.
When
deciding
Feed birds all
what to plant,
year round
choose a wide
range of flora with
these qualities in
n
mind. Planting in
xilayers will install maximum vegetation into
ees
a space, with trees
forming the upperr
canopy, shrubs and
tall
perennials
the middle, and
shorter perennials, An insect
ground cover, an- hotel for
nuals and bulbs the bugs
lower layer. This
way you can cram
them in, covering ass
ssmuch bare soil as possible and aiming to have
something in flower for pollinators from early in the year
(crocus, primrose, mahonia) to
the later months (asters, Japanese anemones, salvias).
Boundaries are ideal for climbers, many
of which will flower, berry and provide
cover (ivy, honeysuckle, golden clematis
etc). We’re now approaching a fine time to
plant just about everything — from
spring-flowering bulbs to trees, shrubs
and perennials — so bear these points in
mind when buying.

Consider a tiny pond

Water is a magical element and a magnet
for all manner of wildlife, including frogs,

damselflies, newts, water beetles, pondskaters and birds. It could be a pond —
ideally dug in at ground level for
access, with rocks placed to provide nooks
and crannies for critters to hide — but
even a regularly
topped-up
g
birdbath or
o a mini pond
comprising
a sunken
compris
washing-up
bowl with
washi
a couple
of suitable
co
plants
in it (include
pla
some
oxygenators
so
to keep the water
fresh)
will bring
fr
in wildlife. Never
introduce
wildlife
in
— it should come
naturally.
And be
na
aware
awa that frogs and
their spawn can carry
disease Fish are best left
disease.
o wildlife ponds
out of
too, as they will eat
l of the native
a lot
iin
invertebrates.

T best
The
h
habitats
Even within a
Ev
small garden you
sm
can create a wide
range of wildlife habiLog and leaf piles,
ttats.
ats. Lo
b
ug hote
bug
hotels and compost
h
eaps provide cover for insects,
heaps
b
eetles and worms, which are at the
beetles
bottom of the food chain and will attract
the species of wildlife that feed on them.
These habitats can be easily made and are
best sited in planting areas, so that they
have cover, or places that are less exposed.
Boxes for birds (north facing) and bats
(south facing) can be put up too.

What to feed the birds

The tendency used to be to feed
birds mainly in the winter, when food is
most scarce, but year-round feeding is now
seen as a good idea because it gives
them added energy when breeding,

Peanuts
High in energy. Use in feeders only (to
prevent squirrels taking them). Poorquality peanuts can carry the aflatoxin
fungus, which kills birds if they eat it, so
buy only aflatoxin-free varieties from a
reputable supplier
Suet/fat
For winter feeding. You can buy fat balls or
make your own with equal quantities of
beef fat (not regular cooking fat) and
mixed seeds, pressed together in a tuna
tin then placed in a fridge until it forms a
solid shape
Mealworms
A fine source of protein and calories
during the breeding season in spring.
Can be bought live or dried (which can
be rehydrated)
Potatoes
Baked, roast and mashed potatoes (with or
without real fat) are fine for birds

Don’t over-manicure
your garden
Neat gardeners will often cut back plants
immediately after they have flowered
(deadheading to encourage more blooms
is a different matter), reducing cover and
food for insects, birds and mammals. It’s
fine to cut back those that go soggy (such
as hostas) or will fall over in autumn, but
leave the majority in situ before cutting
back in spring. Your garden will look so
much better too — many perennials and
grasses look gorgeous when frosted in
winter, and it means that there’s
something to look at other than bare
earth, so embrace plants in decay and the
cycle of the seasons.
I leave most deciduous leaves on
borders because they form a natural
mulch, and worms reduce them over
winter, so it’s far less work too. Regular
mulching with organic matter improves
soil and sustains plenty of worms, which in
turn bring in birds.
Where possible let grass grow to encourage daisies and dandelions for pollinators,
looking to minimise manicured areas — in
larger gardens perhaps just mowing some
paths through the lawn. Over time this will
encourage wildflowers to grow too.

Weeder’s
digest
If rose bushes have made
long shoots extending
beyond their profile,
shorten them back to
the general canopy to
prevent winter winds
rocking the plant. When
a garden’s herbaceous
plants are all down,
free-standing and
luxuriantly grown shrubs
are highly exposed and
susceptible to wind-rock.
And if you prune roses
before spring, you
promote new shoots
that might be damaged
by late-winter cold.
Did you prune your
rampant 5-6m rambler
roses after flowering?
Sometimes it’s easier
to do it now, after the
leaves drop, when at
least you can see what
you are doing, even if
the stems have stiffened.
Get out the thick gloves
and the loppers.
Whether they are
varieties intended for
fruit or ornament, now
is a good time to plant
grapevines. Do it on a day
you are feeling pleased
with the world and give
them a superb planting
hole, dug deep and
enriched with lashings
of good garden compost
or well-rotted manure.
Are all your seriously
tender plants that
have been summering
outdoors inside now?
Even if they are tucked
away from frost in a
sunny nook, cold and
damp will not do them
any good. Better the
drier air of indoors for
tender ferns, azaleas,
succulent aeoniums,
crassulas, aloes,
echeverias etc.
When moving away patio
pots for the winter, there
will always be a bald
algae-free ring where
each one stood. It’s no
big deal, but you don’t
want to look at it for ever.
A quick brush over the
area ensures organisms
are spread around, and
the marks disappear soon
enough without resorting
to pressure washers. SA

the times Saturday October 29 2022

18 Outside

HOWARD RICE/GAP PHOTOS; ALAMY

Vitis coignetiae

10 top plants
for dazzling
autumn reds
Make your garden
shine with coppers
and crimsons, says
Stephen Anderton

W

hen it comes to
autumn colour,
everyone has their
favourite hues.
The following
trees should give
you proper red
every year. Be prepared to be very dazzled.

Euonymus europaeus
‘Red Cascade’
Our native spindle berry, a spreading
shrub laden with dangling scarlet fruits
from which hang orange seeds. The berry
has foliage that turns a fiery scarlet in
autumn behind remarkable fruits that
weigh down the branches. Try training it
into a small weeping tree. Grows to 2.5m

Quercus dentata
The Japanese daimyo oak is a favourite
of mine. Huge felted leaves arise on fat,
stiff stems and a smallish tree. In autumn
they turn to orange and then a dark burnt
brick, dramatic without being flashy. The
leaves hang on through winter, rattling in
the wind. Grows to 10m

Question
time
Q My husband bought
me a fig tree in 2021.
Over winter I made a
chicken wire cage for it,
filled it with straw then
covered with fleece. It
hasn’t taken off as I
would have expected,
and slugs decimated the
early shoots. What to
do? J Wilson

Sorbus commixta
‘Embley’

Liquidambar
styraciflua
‘Lane Roberts’
Liquidambar trees are
s,
often mistaken for maples,
though the leaf’s middlee
“finger” is longer. They
are slow-growing trees,
although in the very
long term they can get
quite large, and enjoy a
moist soil. Their autumn
colour is the main reason
for growing them and in
n
the variety ‘Lane Roberts’ it’s
a thrillingly dark black-red.
ck-red.
Grows to 5m

Acer ‘Osakazuki’

Acer ‘Osakazuki’
‘Osakazuki’ may be green in summer, but
still it’s an elegant, slow-growing Japanese
maple, and enjoys the usual good light and
shelter of that tribe. You can grow it in a pot
for many a year until it gets too large and
then will do better in the ground. In
autumn, every year without fail, it turns a
fiery scarlet, top to bottom. Grows to 3m

Aronia x prunifolia
‘Brilliant’
Imagine a sort of towering 4m blueberry
and you get the gist of this American
chokeberry, so named because its fine
black berries are so astringent that you
would never eat another. Still, it’s lovely for
a wild garden and when the birds have

strip
stripped
it, those leaves
turn a glowing bright red.
Do
Does best in moist soil.
G
Grows to 4m

P
Prunus
sargentian
s
New coppery foliage,
Ne
with single flowers on a
spread crown, matures to
spreading
an the autumn shade is
green, and
mas of red and orange.
a raging mass
o wildflower meadow.
Good on a lawn or
Grows to 7m

Sorbus commixta ‘Embley’

This rowan from the Far East is a small
narrow tree, spreading as it gets older. Its
long sticky buds and glossy foliage are
unusual for a rowan and give it a particular
attraction, even if its clusters of orange-red
berries are typically rowan. Its autumn
colour is dark, but in the variety ‘Embley’
it’s properly, reliably red. Grows to 4m

Rhus typhina
Stag’s horn sumach. A large, rounded
shrub, suckering if cut back too hard or
its roots are damaged, with long leaves
shaped like cartoon feathers. As in many a
tree, the hottest autumn colours appear at
the ends of the branches, fiery reds at the

tips, shading back through oranges and
yellows sometimes to pale cream at the
centre of the plant. Grows to 4m

Parthenocissus quinquefolia
The climber Virginia creeper will run up a
big tree if you let it, just like wisteria, or
through a rough hedge. I love to see the
way the first bunches of leaves colour,
like scarlet flowers high in the branches,
before larger trails of red hang down like
candlewax. Grows to 8m

Vitis coignetiae
Crimson glory vine. Think of a more
muscular kiwi fruit vine: big, coarse heartshaped leaves on long, heavy stems — just
the job for covering a garage or a dying
tree. Easy to prune, so no problem to keep
in hand. In autumn the leaves pass
through orange, then red, and finally a
beguiling bronze-purple. Grows to 6m

Acer x freemanii
‘Autumn Blaze’
Many people covet the red of an American
sugar maple, but it doesn’t perform in
the UK. Step up ‘Autumn Blaze’, a hybrid
of the sugar maple and silver maple —
which is good in the UK. This is a big tree
with truly amazing red autumn colour.
Grows to 10-15m

A Figs are a lot tougher
than we think. And the
“old books” with all their
straw-packing relate to
colder times. I’d dispense
with all that and let the
sun and air in, which will
toughen growth and
thereby deter pests, and
only lay fleece over it
against severe cold.
Q Until last year, all our
tall leylandii were fully
green and healthy. Then
one turned brown and
died. This year, several
of the rest are dying. The
browning seems to be
radiating out from the
area where the first one
died. Can you help?
D Sanderson
A This will almost
certainly turn out to be
honey fungus, a disease
transmitted through
the roots of plants that
often moves in straight
lines through a garden
— a bit of a giveaway,
as the roots of the
fungus spread outwards.
Send your questions to
stephen.anderton@
thetimes.co.uk

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Outside 19

A good walk Great Shefford
and Chaddleworth, Berkshire
ALAMY

St Andrew’s

To Wantage
Oxford
Swindon

Village hall

London

B E R K S H I R E

Club
house

A338

West
Berkshire
Golf Club

GREAT
SHEFFORD

start
The Great
Shefford

Lambourn
Valley
Barns Way

East
St Thomas’s
Shefford
Farm

How hard is it?
8½ miles; easy;
field paths

A

Chaddleworth

cold morning of cloud
rolling low above the
wintry landscape of
the Berkshire Downs.
Glints of blue hinted at
a less gloomy afternoon
as we set off from Great
Shefford along the shallow valley of
the River Lambourn.
At East Shefford Farm the Dutch
barn was stuffed with hay for the winter.
A pair of red kites hunting the valley
planed with easy grace across the
ploughed fields. We climbed gently on
an old farm lane between fields of pale
flinty soil under the reedy twittering of
skylarks. When we looked round at the

Elton Lane

500 metres

crest, the houses of Great Shefford had
vanished, sucked down into a fold of
ground by perspective.
Along a golf course hedge, through
a stand of cherry trees that had carpeted
the ground with their red and gold
spearblade leaves, and down to
Chaddleworth across paddocks where
horses in padded winter coats blew jets
of steam from their nostrils.
A Mass dial was incised in the
door jamb of St Andrew’s Church, the
doorway decorated with Norman
dogtooth carving. Under the tower arch
some sly stone-carver had inserted a
pagan face with a knowing grin. Superb
needlework on the pulpit cloth showed
a skylark rising as ecstatically as those
over the fields outside, the song
represented as gold flames flickering
out of its wide-open beak.
In the parkland around Chaddleworth
House we passed shaggy cattle with
enormous horns, munching peacefully
and scratching their necks on lowhanging branches. Out on the downs

again the wind roared, seething
in the beech trees and sending gold
leaf showers whirling across the
winter wheat.
Back in the Lambourn valley we
turned along a disused railway line thick
with sloes and bearded lichens to find
the diminutive Church of St Thomas
beside the river opposite East Shefford
Farm. Decorative tiles floored the
building, the walls were painted with
faded texts, and a medieval nativity
fresco was surmounted protectively by
a spiky sun and a crescent moon with
a calm expression of absolute serenity.
Start Great Shefford PH, Great
Shefford, Hungerford RG17 7DW
(OS ref SU 384752)
Getting there: Bus 4 (Newbury). Road:
Great Shefford signposted at M4, Jct 14
Walk (OS Explorer 158) Follow A338
(“Wantage”). In 350m, right (386753,
“Lambourn Valley Way”/LVW). In
500m, left past barns (390749), up track.
In ½ mile, right (395757, Finger Post/FP,
yellow arrows) across field, then golf
course to cross road (407764). On
along hedge; in 900m, half-left across
fields (412772) to road (411778) and
Chaddleworth church. Back to road; left;
in 100m, left (412778, gate, FP) across
parkland. Cross road (415777) by village
hall. On across field; dogleg right/left
across road (414774, FP, “Waylands”).
In 500m at three-finger post (412771),
half-left across field to road (413767).
Right to road (412762); right; left past
golf clubhouse (411761). On beside golf
course, then Elton Lane south for
1½ miles. Right at Elton Farm (398741);
left (397743) on railway path (LVW) to
Great Shefford.
Lunch Great Shefford pub (01488
648462, thegreatshefford.com)
Accommodation Queen’s Arms,
East Garston RG17 7ET (01488 648757,
queensarmseastgarston.co.uk)
More information Hungerford TIC
(01488 682419)
Twitter @somerville_c
Christopher Somerville

The village of Great Shefford

Kites patrol the
Lambourn Valley

AMAZING
LIGHT.
AMAZING
PRICE.
Quote code 7865,
while stocks last.

SPECIAL OFFER
SAVE £150
Floor £399.99 now

Are you struggling to read or to see detail and colours clearly?

£249.99

Even healthy eyes need extra light as we age. Eye conditions make it
worse still. Many of us are suffering needlessly.
The right light will make a life-changing difference. Ever since we built our
first light for our Founder’s mum, our all-consuming passion and sole focus
has been building performance light tools that help you see and feel so
much better.
With the advent of LEDs, it is time for halogen technology to step aside.
However, the halogen Daylight Wavelength Technology™ in our Legacy
Edition High Definition Lights was 35 years in development and we have a
few left. You get 10x more light on your page. The natural light match is as
good as is technically possible. It is no accident it has been our most popular
light for over a decade.

Table £349.99 now

£199.99
Daylight Wavelength
Technology™
10x more light on
your page than a
60W filament bulb.

Plus FREE Delivery
worth £12.95

Get all the light you need, exactly where you need it
Enjoy crystal clear clarity & colours
Receive a light fully hand-built here in Great Britain
Recommended by over 500 independent opticians
30 day risk-free trial and a 5 year guarantee
Models shown:
High Definition
Legacy Edition
Heavyweight
Floor &
Lightweight
Table

Comparison with Daylight
Normalised Output

5
4
3
2
1

An enormous
improvement in
my ability to read
without strain.
Mr Lane-Jones | Wiltshire

0
380

430

480

430

580

630

680

730

780

Wavelength
The colour illustrates the make-up of natural light. The white line
shows how close our Legacy Edition High Definition Light gets to it.

For Advice. For a Brochure. To Order:

0800 085 1088
seriousreaders.com/7865

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Travel

37

Page
53

‘Our steps are scented by
the mint and verbena crushed
under our boots’
Joanna Booth takes an autumnal walk in Portugal
GETTY IMAGES

Pompeii, Italy

Europe’s great cultural breaks
From Naples to
Sarajevo, Sean
Newsom picks the
escapes you might
have overlooked

T

here’s nothing quite like
the first morning of a
city break. New food,
unfamiliar architecture,
the smell of good coffee,
the promise of cocktails
later on — hell, even bus
stops are exciting in that first head-rush
of possibilities.
If, like me, you’re a bit of a culture
vulture, that first giddy moment will
have an extra edge. Because if you’ve
picked your city carefully, and timed
your arrival well, your trip will be littered
not just with refreshing sights but mindexpanding ideas too. They might come
from a well-curated exhibition, or a
concert, or a dramatic period of history
that’s set in stone in the buildings around

you. Whatever the source, they’ll fire
your imagination for months to come.
It’s not just the A-list destinations
that can have this effect. Europe is
peppered with second-tier cities
with exceptional strengths, and if
you match them to your own
interests you’ll have a ball.
You’ll save considerable
amounts of money too
— especially if you go in
November or early December.
Once half-term is out of the
way, the prices for flights, trains
and hotel rooms will be at or near
their lowest ebb. At the time of
writing, return flights to Girona in
Spain with Ryanair, including a 10kg
cabin bag, could be had for £60.

The Grote Markt,
Antwerp, Belgium

Meanwhile, rooms at the elegant and
comfortable Hotel Piazza Bellini, on the
edge of Naples’ Centro Storico, were
£100 a night. Bunk down there and
you’ll be just six minutes’ walk
from one of the world’s greatest
collections of Roman art and
artefacts, the city’s National
Museum of Archaeology.
Tickets for the pre-Christmas
shows at the exceptional
Nederlands Dans Theater,
based in the Hague, were still
available last week. So too were
tickets for what’s billed as the
world’s largest chocolate show, in

More breaks next page

the times Saturday October 29 2022

38 Travel
W Lyons, France. And yes, food does also
count as culture.
Here are eight underrated destinations
to get your antennae twitching.

Vesuvius looms
over Naples, Italy

Innsbruck, Austria
Best for nature on the doorstep
If you fancy a little snow with your city
break, Innsbruck is a dead cert. This
erstwhile hub of the Habsburgs’ empire
is ringed with mountains — and the
tallest are already dusted white. Soon,
you’ll be able to ride the
Nordkettenbahnen railway right up to
the snowline, and sip coffee at the
Seegrube (nordkette.com). From up
there, the pocket-sized Tyrolean capital
4,400ft below looks like a 3D map.
The railway itself deepens the sense of
wonder. Its smooth, space-age stations
were designed by Zaha Hadid (who did
the aquatic centre for the London
Olympics) and the lowest is next door to
the giant Hofburg palace. So you can
kick the snow off your boots and swap
the Nordkette’s soaring crags for
fanciful flights of baroque architecture
(£8; burghauptmannschaft.at). The
Hofkirche next door is even more
ornate. Lined with 28 bronze sculptures
of kings and princes, it’s centred on the
16th-century cenotaph of the Emperor
Maximilian I. In the 1490s Innsbruck
was effectively his capital.
There are several more treats to snack
on as you weekend your way through
Innsbruck’s spacious, historic core. The
tastiest is the art collection of the
Ferdinandeum Museum, which
includes work by Rembrandt, Klimt
and local hero Albin Egger-Lienz (£10;
tiroler-landesmuseen.at). Meanwhile,
Das Schindler restaurant nearby
showcases local Tyrolean ingredients,
from lamb to sweet chestnuts (mains
from £17; dasschindler.com). Both are
within ten minutes’ walk of Innsbruck’s
most enjoyable hotel, the Adlers. The
view up to the Nordkette, from its
13th-storey rooftop bar, is almost as good
as the one looking down — especially
when you can toast it with one of its
signature rum sour cocktails.
Details Room-only doubles from £103
(adlers-innsbruck.com). Fly to Innsbruck

Sarajevo, Bosnia
Best for a budget break
Sarajevo’s Ottoman roots are plain to

see. You’ll find them in the low-rise
district of Bascarsija, where narrow
bazaars jostle for space with cafés,
drapers and baklava shops, and every
other twentysomething — whether
tourist or local — seems to be puffing on
a hookah. This is where Greek-born
bigwig Gazi Husrev Beg built a mosque,
library and school in the 1530s, and
launched Sarajevo as a major settlement.
It’s a place you’ll want to return to
again and again.
It’s not just the commerce and colour
that are irresistible. Nor the taste of the
sesame and hazelnut Rahat Lokum
(aka Turkish Delight) at Butik Badem
at 12 Abadziluk. The sense of sanctuary

in the mosque’s outer courtyard is
delicious too. No one minds visitors
standing respectfully at the back, as
they pop in for prayers. It’s the perfect
place to catch your breath amid the
hubbub outside, and commune with
the city’s ghosts.
The prices are pretty attractive too.
Main courses at snug little Dveri, which
brings together food and wine from
across the former Yugoslavia, start at
£3.50 (dveri.co.ba). Meanwhile, across
the Miljacka River, the restored Isa
Begov Hotel has an under-used
hammam. Here, soapy Turkish
massages start from a relaxing £30
(isabegovhotel.com). Back across the

river, the neat, contemporary rooms at
the Old Town Hotel are refreshingly
inexpensive too.
That this bustling vitality was all but
obliterated by the Bosnian War of the
1990s will add wonder to your
wanderings. To get a sense of how far
the city has come since its horrific
1,425-day siege ended in 1996, head to
the War Childhood Museum
(£4.50; warchildhood.org). Here,
children’s toys are the window into that
world. The stories that accompany them
will very nearly break your heart.
Details B&B doubles from £59
(booking.com/hotel/ba/old-town).
Fly to Sarajevo

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Travel 39
GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY; JÝRÝME GALLAND

The Musée des BeauxArts, Lyons, France

of interest. So go dodging the scooters
along the Via Benedetto Croce, and seek
out treasures such as the cloisters at
Santa Chiara — where faded frescoes
mix with glazed majolica tiles to utterly
incongruous effect. Then, if you’re not
heading to the Teatro Don Carlo for
some opera, finish on the seafront with
a sourdough pizza at Sorbillo (pizzas
from £7; sorbillo.it). The view is straight
across the water to Capri.
November in Naples also means
low-season hotel prices. At the edge of
the Centro Storico, the Hotel Piazza
Bellini offers crisp, unfussy rooms and a
sheltered courtyard for less than £100 a
night. It’s the perfect spot for holidaying
Romanists. Six minutes’ walk away
stands the palatial National Museum of
Archaeology — where many of the
greatest treasures of Pompeii,
Herculaneum and Stabiae are kept. This
year, it’s been excavating its own
archives to supplement its world-class
collection (£16; mann-napoli.it). Expect
exquisite bronzes, delicate paintings and
impregnable strong-boxes. They’re all
dazzling reminders — if any more were
needed — of how vigorous life can get in
the shadow of a volcano.
Details B&B doubles from £96
(hotelpiazzabellini.com). Fly to Naples

Antwerp, Belgium

A double room at Voco,
The Hague, Netherlands

Naples, Italy
Best for history and romance
In November, average temperatures in
Naples bobble around the 18C mark,
which makes a tour of Pompeii’s
archaeological park — 40 minutes away
by suburban train — a far less gruelling
prospect than it is in summer. Top of
many hit lists will be the town’s
thermopolium, an all-but-complete
fast-food restaurant with frescoed
depictions of its ingredients, unearthed
in 2020. Nearby, the park’s museum is
showing eye-popping frescos of another
kind: part of an exhibition of 70 erotic
Roman artworks (until January 15,
£14; pompeiisites.org).
Meanwhile, back at base, one of Italy’s
most bewitching cities awaits: scuffed
and noisy for sure, but also feisty and full

Best for fashion fans
Antwerp is having a moment. It may not
quite match the 16th century, when this
riverside port ballooned into Europe’s
richest trading hub. But with the
relaunch of two fine museums, and a
growing menu of delicious restaurants,
its historic, well-mannered streets are
buzzing again. The first reopening, after
an 11-year, £88 million refit, was the
KMSKA — the city’s fine art museum.
Its reputation rests on a stellar collection
of 17th-century art; and no wonder, given
the towering masterpieces on show,
painted by local hero Rubens (£18;
kmska.be). Then came fashion museum
Momu, which celebrates the city’s rise as
a design capital (£11; momu.be). For a
taste of the city’s fashion talent, which
includes Dries van Noten, join one of
Momu’s £13 guided walks. Or simply turn
right at its front door and follow the
window displays along tree-lined
Nationalstraat. This season, beside the
rattling trams, they’re a riot of colour.
There are all kinds of delicious places
to refuel as you go. Boker Tov near the
KMSKA is the place for divine hummus
and fluffy pitta breads (£8; bokertov.be).

Meanwhile, newly opened Bar Bulot by
the Botanic Garden offers smooth
service and rich, elegant French food,
with mains from £23 (barbulot.be). But
don’t get too distracted by the eating
opportunities. The city centre is
eminently walkable, and peppered with
mementos of its golden age. Here, the
cathedral is a must, to see one of Rubens’
greatest works, The Descent from the
Cross. It still hangs in the place he
intended for it, and shows Christ’s
followers lowering his lifeless body in a
moment of almost infinite care and
tenderness. Then, a few steps north, you
can finally rest your weary feet: at the
uncluttered and inexpensive Hotel
Rubens Grote Markt.
Details B&B doubles from £149
(ihg.com). Take the train to Antwerp
via Brussels

It’s only a ten-minute stroll from the
sharp, contemporary Okko Lyons hotel.
Details Room-only doubles from £121
(okkohotels.com). Fly to Lyons, or take
the train

The Hague, Netherlands

Best for art and dance
Fancy Holland without the usual tourist
hordes? Then head to the Hague. The
Netherlands’ third city may be its royal
and administrative hub, but it remains
steadfastly off most visitors’ radar,
despite a historic core of palaces and
mansions and two exceptional art
collections. Remember Scarlett
Johansson with a silk turban around her
head in the 2003 film Girl with a Pearl
Earring? The painting on which it was
based — a mesmerising study of
apprehension and ambiguity by
Vermeer — is here, hanging in the
small, jewel-like Mauritshuis museum
(£15; mauritishuis.nl).
Best for affordable restaurants
Meanwhile in the smart, 20th-century
Next month Lyons hosts what’s claimed
suburbs near the coast you’ll find the
to be the world’s biggest chocolate
festival. Over three days, from November world’s biggest collection of work by
Dutch pioneering abstract painter Piet
11-13, Le Salon du Chocolat fills Lyons’
Mondrian. It’s held by the Kunstmuseum
trade show centre with chocolatiers,
Den Haag alongside powerful early
pastry chefs, cocoa beans and cakes
modernist works by Picasso, Schiele
(£10.50; lyon.salon-du-chocolat.com).
and Kandinsky (£14; kunstmuseum.nl).
And if that surprises you, you don’t
Both museums are easily reached
know France’s third biggest city.
from the new h
hotel Voco,
Fed by two rivers, and pulling
housed in a former art
roduce
in plump French produce
deco ba
bank in the city
from all directions, it’s
Cologne, Germany
centre So too is
centre.
considered by manyy
Garu the most
Garuda,
as the country’s
hig
highly
rated of the
gastronomic
cit many
city’s
capital. Sip the
In
Indonesian
odd glass of
re
restaurants
— so
beaujolais
c
close
it’s actually
(from the north)
n
next
door (mains
or Côte-Rotie
fr
from
£13; garuda(from the south),
de
denhaag.nl).
and sample its
B don’t book
But
famous affordable
your room without
restaurant scene,
consul
consulting
this
and you might
season’s programme of
well agree.
the Ned
Nederlands Dans
he
But it’s not just the
Theat first. One of
Theater
city’s foodie culturee
Eur
E
Europe’s
most
that will catch yourr
exc
exciting
modern
eye. Nurtured by
da
dance
groups, it’s
a booming silk
b
based
in the city,
industry, Lyons
a both of its
and
blossomed in the
c
companies
have
15th and 16th
p
pre-Christmas
centuries and
sh
shows
planned
the district of
(fr
(from £15; ndt.nl).
Croix Rousse —
Firs up, in midFirst
between the rivers
Nove
November,
the
ic
— is an atmospheric
The Okko,
princip
principal
company
will
ic
warren of late gothic
Lyons, France
perform tthree of the
and Renaissance
finest works by its former
while, civic
architecture. Meanwhile,
choreographer Jir
Jiri Kylian. Then
nt years has
pride in more recent
from December 15-17 NDT2 puts on its
equipped the city with a suite of fine
latest triple bill. Originally the Theater’s
museums. At the Musée des Beaux-Arts,
cadet branch, NDT2 was hailed for its
old Masters and early modernists
“utter and transfixing confidence” during
prevail, from Perugino to Picasso
its summer tour of the UK and Ireland.
(£7; mba-lyon.fr). Meanwhile, at the
Watching its young dancers perform in
Musée d’Art Contemporain (£17; mactheir home town will be a very special
lyon.com) the Lyons Biennale is riffing
Christmas treat.
on a theme we can all relate to in these
Details Room-only doubles from £103
turbulent times: fragility.
(ihg.com/voco). Take the train to The
Other must-sees include Confluences
Hague via Rotterdam
— a giant silver cloud of a building,
devoted to life, the universe and pretty
much everything. But whatever your
itinerary, make sure it includes several
Best for beer and music
sit-down meals. Try pork cheek sausages
Cologne is fun and fascinating at any
at the Café des Fédérations for a taste of
time of year. Straddling the Rhine,
the city’s blue-collar bouchon scene
Germany’s fourth city is home to
(mains from £14; restaurant150,000 students, as well as its own
cafedesfederations-lyon.fr). Then let
golden Kölsch beer, and has roots that
Michelin’s Bib Gourmand award for
stretch right back to 39BC. You can
reasonably priced gastronomy be your
feast on more than 400 years of
guide. Le Jean Moulin has one, and
serves fresh ever-changing three-course
menus for £32 (lejeanmoulin-lyon.com).

Lyons, France

Cologne, Germany

Sarajevo, Bosnia

More breaks next page

the times Saturday October 29 2022

Travel 41
GETTY IMAGES

W Roman history, courtesy of the
Römisch-Germanisches museum (£5;
roemisch-germanisches-museum.de),
soak up the extensive pop art and
Picasso collections at the Museum
Ludwig (£9.50; museum-ludwig.de), and
finish with the Saturday night party
scene on the Brüsseler Platz. The Platz is
part of the low-rise, 19th-century
Belgisches Viertel (Belgian Quarter),
where shops such as La Seda and
Tom + Hatty are a fashionista’s dream,
and the flammkuchen flatbreads at the
Belgischer Hof restaurant cost only
£8.50 (belgischer-hof.de). Nearby, the
Käthe Kollwitz Museum is a must, for
the artist’s stark and powerful woodcuts
and lithographs. Workers, mothers and
widows were her principal subjects
(£5; kollwitz.de).
November is, however, full of extra
treats. Next weekend, for example, you
can be part of the city’s extraordinary
Museum Night, when 46 institutions
open their doors from 7pm until 1am or
2am. The programme includes not just
screenings, art installations and guided
tours, but over 40 concerts and DJ sets
(£19; museumsnacht-koeln.de). Or save
your visit until after November 17 and
take in some of the city’s Christmas
markets. The most dramatic by far is the
Weihnachtsmarkt am Dom, beneath
Cologne’s soaring gothic cathedral. Here
a rich mix of choirs, jazz trios, Irish folk
bands and Alphorn players provide live
music, while the air is heavy with the
scent of gluhwein and honey-roasted
hazelnuts. Stay at the playful, eclectic
and circular 25hours Hotel on

Girona, Spain

Klapperhof to be close to the museums,
markets and nightlife.
Details Room-only doubles from £87
(25hours-hotels.com). Fly to Cologne or
take the train via Brussels

Girona, Spain
Best for medieval architecture
If you have a sense of history, Girona’s
old town will make you giddy. Fifty miles
northeast of Barcelona and not far from

the Costa Brava, this hilltop city has
been an important site since before the
Romans. In the off-season, as you
squeeze along its empty alleyways, it’s
not hard to feel as if you’re rubbing
shoulders with its ghosts.
MAC Girona, the city’s archaeology
museum, is set in a former Benedictine
monastery and will give you a basic
chronology (£5; macgirona.cat). But the
real fun comes from following your feet.
So drop your bags at the smart Hotel

Nord 1901 close by and get wandering.
The juxtaposition of the cathedral’s
monumental gothic nave and pretty
Romanesque cloister provides the
biggest architectural thrill, while a visit
to the Jewish Quarter makes for a
poignant moment — before the
expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492,
the area was effectively a prison.
Don’t stop at the Middle Ages.
Catalonia’s late-19th-century renaissance
— the region was made famous by
Gaudí — left Girona with a collection of
sinuous and colourful buildings,
especially along the Onyar River. This
season you can travel deeper into the
Modernisme mindset thanks to a fine
display of posters and artefacts at the
Caixa Forum (free; caixaforum.org/
girona): there’s a portrait of the singer
May Belfort by Toulouse-Lautrec and a
promotional poster for Monaco by
Mucha alongside ads for early bicycles,
drinks and fashion, all evoking the era’s
new consumerism. At nearby Plaça del
Vi 7 you can do a little 21st-century
consumption of your own with a
menu of sharing plates that may
include fig salad with pomegranates and
chestnuts (mains from £14; pdelvi7.cat),
then cross the river to Casa Cacao,
where the family behind the restaurant
El Celler de Can Roca have opened
a chocolate workshop and café
(casacacaogirona.com). Expect great
things: after all, El Celler de Can
Roca was twice voted the world’s
best restaurant.
Details Room-only doubles from £86
(nord1901.com)

the times Saturday October 29 2022

42 Travel
Fynbos Family House

Revamped rooms, a
new spa and, of
course, great wine
and food — Susan
d’Arcy checks into
Babylonstoren

T

he Newt in Somerset has
been the UK’s hottest
holiday destination since it
opened in 2019, thanks to
an imaginative approach to
hospitality centred around
its extraordinary gardens
and working farm. That’s impressive, but
not quite a match for its mothership,
Babylonstoren in the Cape Winelands,
which has been South Africa’s number one
hideaway for more than 12 years.
Babylonstoren has been on my wish
list ever since I discovered it was the
blueprint for the Newt’s two hotels — the
17th-century manor house Hadspen,
which was The Sunday Times’ Newcomer
of the Year in 2019, and the more
contemporary Farmyard, which opened in
2021 and is another of my favourites. The
news that the owners, the telecoms billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife, Karen Roos,
a former editor of the South African
imprint of Elle Decoration, have recently
unveiled a raft of post-lockdown improvements provided yet more incentive to
visit, especially combined with favourable
exchange rates (the rand is one of the few
currencies sterling is bossing right now)
and some interesting intel gleaned from a
former employee.
My source said he was constantly
amazed while working at Babylonstoren
that cost was never a consideration,
because the South African couple’s only
concern was quality. That doesn’t mean
conspicuous consumption but stealth
wealth, where it’s the little things that
really count. So, for example, at the
Newt I’m almost ashamed to admit I
found myself ridiculously excited by the
bathroom taps, of all things. Don’t judge
me until you’ve wrapped your fingers
around a fitting from Samuel Heath and
appreciated how the ordinary can be
elevated to the exceptional.
The duo’s limitless funds and uncompromising attitude had already ensured
the 500-acre Babylonstoren estate — the
conversion of an 18th-century Cape Dutch
farm ten minutes from Franschhoek —
had an award-winning vineyard and farm
supplying Babel, its equally garlanded
restaurant. Plus bedrooms so stylish they
are worthy of a centre spread in the design
bible Roos used to edit.
For good measure, Babylonstoren is
also home to the Versailles of vegetable
gardens, even featuring an apple tree
cultivated from the very one Isaac Newton
was sitting under when he formulated
these two, this is how university life
his gravitational law. What could they
Babylonstoren
would be if you turned up for your
have found to improve?
first day to find Margot Robbie and
The answer is not the
Idris Elba were your lecturers.
ironmongery. I can confirm
SOUTH
Franschhoek
The showpiece of this sexy
Babylonstoren’s taps were always
AFRICA
Cape
Town
study time is the new Story of
as swooningly good as the
Newt’s. Instead, Roos and
Wine museum. Its scale is mindBekker have introduced some
blowing. I imagine Tristram
heavy-duty “edutainment”. The
Hunt would give Jeremy CorFalse Bay
concept of merging education
byn’s eye teeth to have such inand entertainment has been
vestment at his disposal at the
flagged by pollsters as a huge trend
V&A. I enter through a striking
for a growing cohort who seek somesculpture-cum-passageway made
thing more meaningful than a suntan
from twisted vines. The idea is to make
10 miles
from their travels. That sounds horribly
visitors “feel like one of the organisms
worthy, but fear not — in the hands of
within the soil, weaving its way through

Luxury South Africa

Cape Town’s
coolest vineyard
hotel reimagined
the soil”. I had come straight from tasting
ten of Babylonstoren’s wines, so I imagine
I had the weaving bit down pat.
Displays are engrossing and surprisingly
family-friendly. I watch children play
with string curtains threaded with wine
corks, and am reminded that size matters
when peering into a cabinet of glasses
from flutes to bowls where it’s explained
which best enhances the properties of
particular wines.
I spot a dusty bottle of Klein Constantia
dessert wine dating from 1821, the year of
Napoleon Bonaparte’s death. It was the
general’s preferred tipple during his exile
on St Helena. He apparently knocked back

a bottle a day, the recent vintages of which
cost about £70 today, if you’re wondering
what to get the enlightened despot in your
family for Christmas. Another highlight is
the “cinematic vat”, a screening room
that’s like stepping into a wine barrel to
listen to “wine-glass music”. I say music; it’s
more sounds created by the resonance of
water and glass.
By the magic of virtual reality, I whizz
through the production process at the
state-of-the-art winery, although it’s nowhere near as memorable as the “real”
tour of Babylonstoren’s vineyard with the
knowledgeable and super-cool Bronwin
Zimba, whose family opened the country’s
first 100 per cent black-owned winery,
Klein Goederust in Franschhoek, in 2019.
The 90-minute tour costs £16 for day
visitors. Cape Town is a 45-minute drive
and Babylonstoren’s eight acres of gorgeous fruit and vegetable gardens are
one of the city’s most popular days out.
However, the tour, like all activities, from
botanical sketching workshops to breadmaking sessions, is complimentary for
hotel guests. I also have out-of-hours
access to those magical gardens.
My tour concludes with a tasting that
involves a generous slosh of the estate’s
ten wines, each paired with local food
(often from the estate) including moreish
cheeses to accompany the tangy mineral
tones of its chardonnay, and chocolate
truffles to help reveal the red-fruit flavours
of the Nebukadnesar. I compare notes
with fellow Brits, French and American
honeymooners and a Swedish couple celebrating their silver wedding anniversary
around a communal table.
I spot that UK visitors can buy cases and
have them delivered to their home address
free of charge from the Newt’s warehouse.
Full disclosure: at this point, I indulge in
some KamiKwasi-style economics. I spot
the quaffable chenin blanc is only £12.50 a

the times Saturday October 29 2022

BABYLONSTOREN

Travel 43

Fynbos Cottages

A cottage bedroom

Three other
new Cape
winelands
hotels
Seven Koppies Guesthouse,
Franschhoek
James Jayasundera, the owner of one
of the UK’s most respected tour
operators, Ampersand Travel, has
furnished his five “farm-chic” rooms
and one cottage with treasures and
trinkets from his travels. They are
fronted by an inviting 25m swimming
pool with incredible sunset views
over Simonsberg mountain.
Details B&B doubles from £180
(7koppies.co.za)

The Garden Spa

Sterrekopje Farm, Franschhoek
Four-poster beds, hand-painted
murals and vintage textiles —
this 125-acre holistic retreat and
regenerative farm has 11 maximalist
and rustic suites. Complimentary
activities include bread-baking,
pottery-painting and biking
up Sterrekopje mountain. There’s
a saltwater pool and a bath house
for hammams and massages.
Details All-inclusive doubles from
£1,170, including one spa treatment
per day; minimum stay three nights
(sterrekopje.com)

bottle. Without even a back-of-a-fagpacket calculation, I declare that with
duties and so on it will be twice as much in
the UK, and so I encourage my fellow Brits
to stock up. I buy 18 bottles. Only later do
I think to check the actual savings via the
Newt’s website. Two quid a bottle.
I’m on safer ground dining. At the Cellar
Door café, even Liz Truss couldn’t manage
financial ruin. A bottle of the chenin blanc
is £6.50, which feels like legalised theft and
goes down all the easier for that, especially
in tandem with a heavily loaded sharing
platter of smoked salmon roulade, smoked
snoek fish pâté, cheese truffles and avocado salad (£15 for two). The food at Babel,
the flagship restaurant in the old cow shed,
is another exchange-rate triumph. My
chilled strawberry and pea soup (£5) and
white fish with slow-roasted carrots and
globe artichokes (£16) are packed with
fresh flavours and again thrillingly good

value. Since lockdown, the Bakery has
been transformed at night into a charming
pizzeria for informal dinners of estateproduced antipasti, all-you-can-eat pizza
served on wooden slabs and super-sweet
puddings for £20pp.
It’s bargain time at the spa too. I walk
through a lush passageway of bamboo to a
cutting-edge glass and wood complex
where the lap pool has been more than
doubled in length, so that it now swishes
from indoors to outdoors and back inside.
Here it is full-stopped by a new integral
whirlpool, and thermal suite with steam, a
salt-therapy chamber and sauna, all with
stress-busting vine views. An excellent
60-minute therapeutic massage costs £60.
The couple have also increased the
number of suites from 22 to 32. Their design reminds me of rooms at the Farmyard
at the Newt: virginal white and minimalist,
with spacious bedrooms and glamorous

The Pool Room

tiled bathrooms. Here, they come with the
added bonus of glass-box kitchens, generously stocked with estate goodies and
glossy enough for Nigella’s next cookery
show. I can pick more produce from the
gardens if I choose.
The original Garden Cottages are close
to the public areas and I see two day
visitors having a look through the window
of one. Could be awkward, so I’m glad
d
n,
I am in the new Fynbos accommodation,
which is a buggy ride through heavenlyy
m
scented orange groves and well away from
nosey strangers.
The Fynbos Cottages and the fivebedroom Fynbos Family House have
terraces with Insta-exploding eyefuls of
the vineyard, its lake and the snarly
crags of Simonsberg and the
Franschhoek mountains. They share a
kidney-shaped pool and pool house and
bar with complimentary estate wines
p
and nibbles. These rooms are wrapped up
in fragrant flower borders worthy of thee
Chelsea Flower Show and reinforcee
the couple’s intention that guests becomee
grounded in nature. I’d happily takee
root here.

Need to
know
Susan d’Arcy was a
guest of Babylonstoren
(babylonstoren.com) and
Mavros Safaris, which
has four nights’ B&B at
Babylonstoren from £3,224pp
including flights from
London, transfers and farm
activities (mavrossafaris.com)

Curiocity Green Point, Cape Town
This hotel-hostel modernist
hybrid is close to Green Point Park
Biodiversity Showcase Garden
and within easy reach of the city’s
lively V&A Waterfront arts and
entertainment options. Rooms are
decorated with pieces by South
African artists and artisans, with a
café, a splash pool and working space
with a casual neighbourhood feel.
Details B&B doubles from £60
(curiocity.africa)
Seven Koppies

Sterrekopje Farm

the times Saturday October 29 2022

46 Travel

Is this the ultimate
party pad? My
weekend in a
Scottish castle
The interior designer who refurbished Highgrove is also behind
the lavish makeover of Killochan Castle in South Ayrshire.
Susan d’Arcy books in and lives like a queen

Dine like a monarch

the times Saturday October 29 2022
PAUL ROGERS

Travel 47

Killochan Castle was built in 1467

O

n his accession, our new
King Charles inherited
several castles, extensive
lands and an undisclosed
chunk of his mother’s
£370 million fortune. We
have no useful advice on
how to acquire such a financial cushion
but if you’re content to settle down amid
some royally endorsed soft furnishings we
know just the place: Killochan Castle in
South Ayrshire.
The castle has recently emerged from a
£1 million makeover by royal warrant
holder Mikhail Pietranek, the interior
designer who led the refurbishment of
Highgrove, the monarch’s Gloucestershire
home. At Killochan, Pietranek had carte
blanche to create a mood board not just fit
for a king but also for us commoners. For
the first time in its 555-year history, the
ten-bedroom castle is available for hire on
The majestic grand hall

One of the ten bedrooms

basis However,
Howeve when
h my iin panels in Florence and shipped them
an exclusive-use basis.
husband and I arrive in inky darkness, it is over to be assembled on site. I think Leonnot Pietranek’s sustainable silks and ardo might call that cheating.
We squeeze in between plump
tartans that provide the favourable first
impressions but the sturdy handiwork of Pietranek-designed cushions on a Pietranek-designed sofa and warm our
his 15th-century predecessors.
hands by the wood-burner
Evening, when every
under an impressive
curve and corbel is
5 miles
16th-century fireplace.
caressed by spotlight,
Despite the granis the ideal time
Isle of
Firth of
deur, the room
to appreciate the
Ayr
Arran
Clyde
feels cosy. Wood
artistry of a castle
tells
us
the
built in 1467 as
Cathcart family
a wedding gift
owned the castle
for King James
until 1954. It
II’s daughter,
then
passed
Princess Mary.
Turnberry
through a series
In 1586 the
Killochan
of owners includbuilding, which is
Castle
ing
a
former
an hour from
Manchester United
Glasgow and close
Girvan
director and a Gerto the seaside village
emod
prin
man princess,
before a
of Girvan, was remodto
Cathcart took
possession
elled by John Cathcart,
again in a story that
adding a wing and
eys
even a rom-com
raising it two storeys
scrip
scriptwriter
would
so it now soars to a
blu to pitch.
blush
topknot of turrets..
Rip Cathcart
James Wood,
gr
grew
up
in
estate manager,
h
humble
circumand Clinton
s
stances
in VirAdams,
the
g
ginia
in the US,
head of operaw
with
a sketch
tions, usher us
of the ancestral
up an echoey
ho
home
on his bedstone
staircase
d
room wall and a
and into the grand
ep
dream to one day
hall. It is a 40ft sweep
Four-poster decadence
d sareturn to Scotland to
of wood-panelled
wagged
buy back Killochan. He
buy
lon with huge swagged
isscross of
became a succ
became
successful property
windows and a crisscross
developer, and wa
developer,
was finally able to
sofas in rich reds,, peacock blues
lds as vibrant as a court make good on that childhood
childho ambition in
and burnished golds
jester’s jacket. The drama ramps up courte- October 2021. Over the past 12 months, he
sy of a two-metre chandelier hanging from has lavished love on the old place and now
a ceiling that depicts a scene from the Bat- he’s willing to share the results.
We wander the corridors discovering
tle of Flodden in 1513 during which Robert
Cathcart was fatally wounded. Like the historical details: the priest’s hole, a privy
gilt-framed portraits that line the walls, chamber (thankfully decommissioned).
the mural is a 21st-century addition, com- We pull back panelling to marvel at the
missioned from an artist who painted it three-metre thickness of the outer wall.

Children, including the 6ft 4in one I
brought with me, will love the “murder
hole” through which boiling oil was
poured onto marauders. We access our
bedroom through a secret door in a
bookcase. Centre stage is a striking
canopied four-poster, Pietranek’s fancypants version of an Ikea flatpack and one
of four beds constructed in situ. I am
disappointed there’s only a shower en
suite. I’m not after Cleopatra’s freshly
drawn donkey’s milk bath but a soak in the
yummy Noble Isle Scots Pine products
would be appropriately decadent.
Some of the pretty bedrooms do have en
suite bath tubs but with only six bathrooms
to go around — blame the castle’s grade A
llisted status — some guests must share.
There’s always one sink-hog spoiling the
T
party, isn’t there? Still, it wasn’t an issue for
p
tthe group before us. They totted up two
proposals and a surprise wedding in a
week. We pick our way up a skinny spiral
staircase to the newly christened rooftop
Happy Hour Deck, the scene of one
engagement, where we can admire the
country the Cathcarts were so keen to
defend — sheep-dotted pastures and hills
that roll across to the Firth of Clyde.
The estate’s 143 acres include a
peaceful three-mile stretch of the River
Girvan, brimming with brown trout and
salmon, that got the thumbs-up from
another recent guest, Sebastian Coe. We
pass on the fishing, falconry and archery,
eschew the e-bikes and definitely don’t
want to play a round at Trump Turnberry,
whose proximity, along with Royal Troon’s
golf courses, will be a draw for many. Instead, we walk the glades, spooking deer
and building up an appetite. Essential,
given the talented Killochan chefs appear
to have declared war on our waistbands.
Callum Dow, ex-Gleneagles, and Alan
Ferguson, ex-Turnberry, serve up hearty
fare such as haggis croquettes, chicken
with rumbledethumps (similar to bubble
and squeak) and wicked cakes including a
millionaire’s shortbread so rich it’s more
billionaire’s biscuit. It’s also addictive so
before we leave I ask for a pen to note down
the recipe. The pen doesn’t leak, which
surely makes this castle one up on the
monarch’s gaff.

Need to
know
Susan d’Arcy was a guest
of Killochan Castle, which
offers one night’s B&B
from £2,600 for 18
adults and six children
(killochancastle.com)

More castles next page

the times Saturday October 29 2022

48 Travel

12 more UK castle hotels to stay in
Leeds Castle, Kent
Henry VIII spent time at this
900-year-old stronghold that sprawls
over two islands in the River Len and is
surrounded by 500 acres of parkland
near Maidstone. Now it’s a thoroughly
family-friendly place for revels; you’ll
find a Go Ape, a maze and falconry for
kids and a nine-hole golf course for
parents. There is the Stable Courtyard
B&B and the 16th-century Maiden’s
Tower B&B — the latter is accessed by
drawbridge and surrounded by the moat
— as well as holiday cottages across the
estate or Battel Hall, a manor house
with arrow-slit windows that sleeps 14.
Details B&B doubles from £125
(leeds-castle.com)

Amberley Castle

Amberley Castle, West Sussex
As well as a favourite of the bona fide
crown-wearing variety, this 900-year-old
castle has a special place in TV royalty
history; the presenter Holly Willoughby
got married here in 2007. Go through
Amberley’s portcullis and you’ll find
suits of armour, a restaurant in the
12th-century Queen’s Room and drawing
rooms with log fires and decanters. The
19 expansive bedrooms blend beamed
ceilings and mullioned stone windows
with high thread counts and
contemporary bathrooms.
Details B&B doubles from £260
(amberleycastle.co.uk)
The Penn, Dorset
This 18th-century castle on the Isle
of Portland does a nice line in regal
grandeur, from its gothic revival
exteriors to interiors that run to a
chandelier-bedecked kitchen. There are
breathtaking views of the Jurassic
ic Coast
and bracing dips in Church Ope Cove.
The nine bedrooms include one in the
turret, but your group — the Penn
nn
sleeps up to 20 — will probably
gravitate to the Orangery, which
h
has a show-stopping heated
indoor pool from August
to May (when it becomes
a dancefloor).
Details Three nights’
self-catering from £7,868
(thepennestate.co.uk)
Peckforton Castle, Cheshire
This grade I listed beauty in
Tarporley looks like a medieval
castle, complete with rusty red
battlements, arrow slits and stonee
spiral staircases, but was actuallyy
built in 1842. Crowning a hillside,
ee,
interiors are also rooted in
the past, with suits of armour,
antique French wall tapestries
and four-poster beds in some
of the 48 rooms. Outdoorsy
activities include Land
Rover off-road safaris in the
castle’s woodland.
Details B&B doubles from £150
(peckfortoncastle.co.uk)
ire
Manorbier Castle, Pembrokeshire
You might recognise these 11thd on
century fairytale turrets, perched
andy
cliffs not far from the glorious sandy
beaches of Tenby, from the 2003
romantic drama I Capture the Castle.
Owned by the same family for over 900
years, Manorbier mixes ruins and
holiday accommodation. Castle House is
built into its walls, with four bedrooms in

the main building and two more in the
lodge, and sleeps up to 12 in eccentric
Victorian charm with a special bonus:
once day visitors have been shooed out,
guests are treated to a right royal lock-in.
Details One night’s self-catering from
(manorbiercastle.co.uk)
£600 (man

A bedroom at
Peckforton Castle

The pool at the Penn

Bambu
Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
Your base is the medieval clock
tow of one of the UK’s
tower
oldest
old and most staggeringly
si
situated castles; the kings of
N
Northumbria first created
a fortress on these rocks
in the 6th century. The
p
principal bedroom of this
th
three-bedroom
apartment has
an en suite shower in a 13thcen
century turret. Extra bragging
right are supplied by the corner
rights
of the battlements, which are your
private te
terrace, with sweeping views
over the w
white-sand beach of
Bambu
Bamburgh and Holy Island.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering
Deta
from £3,394 (crabtreeand
crabtree.com)
cra
Astley
Castle, Warwickshire
A
Grade II* listed? Tick. Moat?
G
T
Tick.
Thick curtain walls?
T
Tick?
Modern plumbing?
N just a big tick but also
Not
an award-winning one. This
13th
13th-century
castle outside
Nune
Nuneaton
was gutted by a
disastr
disastrous fire in 1978, and was
recently resuscitated by the architects
Witherford Watson Mann with a Riba
award-winn
award-winning
design that inserted
int
modern interiors
— including floor-toceiling windows in some of the four
bedrooms and a sleek kitchen dining
room within its Saxon shell.
Details Four nights’ self-catering from
£1,339 (landmarktrust.org.uk)

Cardigan Castle, Ceredigion
Overlooking the River Teifi, this castle
notched up nearly a thousand years of
sieges, surrenders and dereliction before
becoming a community-owned property
in 2015. The site of the first Eisteddfod
in Wales, it still holds events here, but
there are also B&B rooms and four
self-catering cottages, including one that
has been adapted for people who have
mobility issues, with a walk-in shower.
Don’t feel like cooking? The 1176
restaurant serves breakfast and lunch
seven days a week and you’re a
short walk from Cardigan’s quayside
eateries and bars.
Details B&B doubles from £135
(cardigancastle.com)
Glenapp Castle, South Ayrshire
With turrets, towers and battlements
dating from 1870, Glenapp allows for a
thorough immersion into Scottish
baronial architecture. One early owner,
Sir James Mackay — then the chairman
of P&O — would come to watch his
ships sail past; you can see Ireland on
a good day or go sailing in Glenapp’s
33ft boat. On a blustery one hunker
down in one of the castle’s 17 suites or
have a massage in the spa. Meals are
served in the very grand dining room as
well as the Azalea, housed in Glenapp’s
original conservatory, complete with
peach and fig trees.
Details B&B doubles from £293
(glenappcastle.com)
Kilmartin Castle, Argyll & Bute
Bringing a hipster perspective to
modern-day castle ownership, Stef
Burgon and Simo Hunt took over
Kilmartin in 2018. Their renovations
have brought wit, whimsy and a sense of
sustainability to this 16th-century pile
near Lochgilphead. The five bedrooms
have rain showers, the kettles have

variable temperature controls for coffee
enthusiasts and the tea is loose leaf.
There’s also a natural swimming pool
and organic vegetable garden. You can
stay at Kilmartin on a B&B basis until
July, then it becomes a holiday let only.
Details B&B doubles from £220
(kilmartincastle.com)
Langley Castle, Northumberland
With 14th-century foundations and
recharging points for 21st-century cars,
Langley has both serious history and
plans for the future. Two previous
owners were executed in the Tower of
London; the present one — Dr Stuart
Madnick — is a professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) who has also founded several
high-tech firms while presumably trying
not to meet a similar fate. Try to snag
one of the castle’s feature rooms with a
four-poster bed, open fire and satin
drapes. On clear nights the Starry
Knights package takes guests to nearby
Kielder Observatory and then back
again for a warming snifter by the fire,
with a three-course lunch included.
Details B&B doubles from £330
(langleycastle.co.uk)
Doyden Castle, Cornwall
Britain’s most bijou castle is on the South
West Coast Path. The bon viveur Samuel
Symonds built it in the 19th century;
modern-day guests can stash their drinks
in the wine bins he considered an
essential part of the furnishing. It sleeps
only two people, and the present owners
— the National Trust — have added
showers, a proper kitchen and, upstairs, a
riotously decorated gothic bedroom to
match the arched windows that look out
onto the Atlantic swells below.
Details Three nights’ self-catering from
£1,299 (nationaltrust.org.uk)
Additional reporting by Sarah Turner

the times Saturday October 29 2022
ALAMY

Santuario da Senhora
da Graca, above
Mondim de Basto

Water boatmen fight against the stream’s
flow, which is achieved via a carefully engineered slope gentle enough to make the
walk feel almost flat. Our footfalls dulled
by a springy carpet of pine needles and oak
leaves, we startle a clutch of skittish
Maronesa cattle that dart away, cowbells
ringing, with an unexpectedly sprightly
turn of speed. Perhaps they sense what I’m
planning to order at dinner that evening.
That night, we eat at Casa da Cainha, a
cosy family-run restaurant with stone
walls and wooden tables in the heart of
Mondim de Basto’s quiet town centre, just
steps from the rather elegant 17th-century
town hall. As it happens, my steak is lightly
marbled and succulent — perfect to pair
with a red wine. We’re in the Vinho Verde
region, but surely those lightly sparkling,
easy-drinking white wines I’d tried before
wouldn’t suit beef? When an intense,
almost inky red tinto appears, I’m surprised — I had no idea such a thing existed.
Traditionally served in white ceramic
cups, this red wine was once the most
common in the region, matching well with
the hearty, meaty cuisine of the north.
It’s a little acidic for my palate — I prefer
the velvety reds from the Douro — but I do
fall hard for the Vinho Verde whites and
rosés that have come to dominate the
market in the past 20 years. I find my
favourite at Quinta das Escomoeiras, a
small organic vineyard set high above the
Tamega River, with stellar views and a
sense of total seclusion. Bought in ruins by
retired economist Fernando Fernandes, it
took 14 years to create the idyll it is today,
rebuilding the stone houses and replanting
the steep terraced fields. When an oenologist came to see the original site, he found
16 different grape varieties growing in the
ancient style, up pollarded maple trees,
plus another 18 more he couldn’t identify,
which turned out to be accidental hybrids.
hum is the sound of bees, not traffic.
Now Fernandes focuses on the classics —
Passers-by are few and far between, and
azal, arinto, padeiro, borracal and vinhao
tourists a rarity. Though we’re just an hour
— and produces just 8,000 bottles a year.
north of the vine-laced slopes of the
After a long lunch on the terrace, I decide
Douro Valley, Portugal’s most famous
there’s room in my suitcase for one bottle
wine region, the coaches of cruise passenof the bright, citrussy branco.
gers have melted away, and we barely see
This trip has a dual focus: the perfect
a glimpse of another hiker out on the trails.
pairing of walking and wine. As well as
Everything here, from agriculture to
taking a deep dive into Vinho Verde, we
tourism, is small scale, and the region
also head for the sun-drenched terraces
S PAIN
isn’t heavily marketed abroad. The
of the Douro Valley. In October it’s still
other guests at the hilltop Agua
nearly 30C but the harvest is in, and
Assureira
Hotels Mondim de Basto are
here and there among the green of
Tamega
River
either moving on — a Lycra-clad
the vines we spot leaves turning
party cycling Portugal from top
crimson and gold. At the end of
Vinho Verde
Tras-os-Montes
Mondim
to bottom — or staying still,
our walks we try both Douro tade Basto
with a handful of Porto dwellble wines and many a glass of
ers who’ve escaped the city to
port, learning how different proDouro Valley
Porto
snooze by the infinity pool. As a
duction processes create fruity
20 miles
result, we’re regarded with
ruby ports, spicy tawnies and
benign interest by the occasional
even white and rosé ports, which
farmer we encounter.
can be paired with tonic
Leisurely, tranquil walks are the
(delicious). We’re based near Peso
P ORTUGAL
backbone of our trip with adventure
da Regua, a tourist honeypot, but Cartour operator Exodus. Our guides, Carla and Fernando still manage to take us
la and her husband, Fernando Portilho,
where the crowds are not, rambling along
are the perfect hosts. They quit Porto to
the narrow, lofty route of the former Corgo
return to their rural roots, and are passionrailway line and among the vines of the
ate about introducing visitors to Mondim
Quinta do Tedo winery, where we sit down
de Basto, a little-visited area sitting where
to another long, boozy lunch.
northern Portugal’s two traditional landWe’re a sociable band of 13 travellers —
scapes meet. We walk in both; one day
a group small enough to fit in a couple of
meandering through the fertile farmland
minivans and eat in local restaurants,
Need to
of the Minho, our steps scented by the
allowing us to avoid the Douro’s most
mint and verbena crushed under our
commercial and crowded spots. Some, like
know
boots, our mouths stained red by grapes
me, had visited Portugal before, but none
snaffled from the tall vines that are tradiof us knew the Vinho Verde region. Viewtionally trained over high iron trellises.
ing it through Carla and Fernando’s eyes
Carla forages chestnuts, showing us how Joanna Booth was a
has given us a kind of x-ray vision — seeing
to crack open the shells, and Fernando guest of Exodus,
beyond the beautiful landscapes to the
scrambles up a bank, returning with a which offers seven
time-honoured agricultural practices that
nights’ room-only on its
ripe persimmon.
moulded them. I’ve returned home with
The next day we hike among the wilder Portugal: Walking & Wine
new wine knowledge, new friends and a
forests and granite peaks of the Tras-os- Premium Adventure from
new love affair with northern Portugal. If
Montes region, tracing the banks of a £2,399pp, including
only I’d listened a little harder to the lady
levada — one of the ancient irrigation flights, guiding and some
in Assureira, I might have picked up a few
channels built as early as the 12th century. meals (exodus.co.uk)
new phrases too.

The crowd-free Portuguese
wine region the locals love
The quiet countryside northeast of Porto
has beautiful walking trails — and a
thriving wine scene, finds Joanna Booth

T

he woman sits on the steps
of the old stone house, her
eyes on the road. As we approach, her weather-beaten
face cracks into a smile and
she calls out a few words.
Despite my best efforts to
pick up a bit of Portuguese from Duolingo,
I can’t make out the meaning. I wonder
idly if we should stop and try to chat. She’s
one of just eight inhabitants in Assureira, a
tiny isolated village in Portugal’s rural
north, and might welcome the novelty of a
few new faces.
Our guide, Carla Costa, looks momentarily flustered. “I do not always stop

The River Tedo,
a tributary of
the River Douro

because this lady, she uses . . . very bad
words,” she says. Duo the owl is forgiven;
his basic Portuguese course doesn’t cover
the vocabulary needed to understand the
cheerful but highly colourful commentary
on the behaviour and sanitary habits of the
woman’s pigs. We smile, wave and walk on.
The landscape is bucolic, with gently
sloping pastures dotted with indigenous
Maronesa cattle, prized for their beef and
gentle tempers — a blessing considering
their long, curving horns. Steeper banks
are a patchwork of yellow gorse, purple
heather and bracken turning autumnal
terracotta. A hawk flaps lazily into the
branches of a cork oak, and that distant

Travel 53

the times Saturday October 29 2022

56 Travel

GREGOIRE GARDETTE

The Times
hotel guide
Relais
Cooden
Beach
East Sussex
Food {{{{{
Location {{{{{
Rooms {{{{{
What’s the story?
Locals claim that Winston Churchill, the
Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson
were once fans of the Cooden Beach
Hotel, no doubt drawn here by the
panoramic views across Pevensey Bay
towards Beachy Head on East Sussex’s
coast. Today, the hotel hopes to lure a
new generation of holidaymakers.
Having been taken over in 2021 by the
hotelier Grace Leo’s Relais Retreats
group, the 45 rooms and public spaces
have been strikingly refurbished.
What we love
From the outside, the late-1920s mockTudor building has an air of London’s

The Rally Bar and Grill

Liberty department-store-by-the-sea
about it. Only the palm trees hint at the
reworked interiors by the French designer
Pascal Allaman: inside is a mash-up of
Palm Springs mid-century modern and
classic British seaside guesthouse.
It is bold: bedrooms are themed in
either orange or blue with wide zig-zag
striped carpets. The wood-panelled
headboard over the kingsize bed, blond
wood side tables and bathrooms with
black fittings and white tiles prevent it
from tipping over-the-top.
The hotel’s showpiece is the the Rally
Bar and Grill, which feels like a Miami
beach club thanks to floor-to-ceiling
windows, upholstered chairs and

A family room

benches, blue glassware and — of course
— orange-trimmed napkins. Food is
bistro-style big plates with a seafood
focus and ingredients are caught locally
where possible. While my prawn, clam
and mussel-stacked risotto was hearty,
it was the Romney Marsh lamb chops —
hunks of perfectly soft, pink meat —
that impressed most.
Service is slick but not intrusive.
There is an accessible suite with a wet
bathroom; dog-friendly ground-floor
rooms; and children of all ages can stay
— plus the hotel is two minutes’ walk
from Cooden Beach train station.
However, it is still a work in progress:
the finish on some paintwork and light

Laura Jackson was a
guest of Relais Cooden
Beach. B&B doubles from
£194; mains from £16
(therelaisretreats.com/
coodenbeach)

fittings needs finessing, while a gym and
new spa won’t open until early 2023.
What’s nearby?
Turn left along the pebbly beach and it’s
an hour’s amble to the town of Bexhill.
The hotel has a partnership with
Rathfinny Estate — the vineyard
provides the restaurant’s sparkling wines
— and its 600 acres of sweeping
countryside, a 30-minute drive west, are
open for tours year-round (£27.50pp;
rathfinnyestate.com). Or simply borrow
the hotel’s bikes and head inland to
Pevensey Marshes Nature Reserve
(sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk).
Laura Jackson

the times Saturday October 29 2022

58 Travel

Travel doctor Solving your holiday dilemmas

Julia Brookes
Consumer expert

Q

ALAMY; GETTY IMAGES

I shall be 80 next summer
and want to take the family
away to France for a week
from August 19. There will
be 12 of us (including two
children) and I’d like a dining table
big enough for us to have breakfast
together, a pool and a barbecue. I’m
hoping to find somewhere with
varied entertainment to suit the age
groups within comfortable distances,
and we would prefer a drive of no
longer than five hours from Calais.
What do you suggest?
Helen Doling

A

The creeper-clad Manoir
du Bourg in the village of St
Helen in northern Brittany,
a five-hour drive from Calais
(and half an hour from the
ferry port at St Malo), would sleep you
all in fine style. It has six comfortable
bedrooms, a heated outdoor pool, a
barbecue and a tennis court, plus a
fishing lake a few minutes’ walk away,
so there’s plenty to keep everyone busy.
Dinan, with its medieval ramparts,
half-timbered houses and cobbled
streets, is about eight miles away. A week
in August is £6,250 (gites.co.uk). Also
about five hours from Calais, and very
near the beaches of St Malo, is a manor
house in Pleudihen-sur-Rance with
enough space for you all to sprawl. It has
11 bedrooms and ticks your boxes with
a pool, hot tub, games room and space,
both indoors and out, for leisurely family
breakfasts. A week in August costs
£5,423 (property 6314079, vrbo.com).
Q I’ve just qualified as a lawyer and I
get a month off to travel in January.
I’m a female travelling solo and am
considering spending ten days in
either Borneo or Papua New
Guinea. Should I be doing an
organised tour? Would you
recommend one over the other?
Ilana Granditer
A If you can only travel in January,
neither Borneo nor Papua New Guinea
is a great choice: it’s peak wet season in

The medieval centre of
Dinan, France, and, below,
an orangutan in Borneo

both. But if you have your heart set on
one of the two, then Borneo would be
both more budget and solo femalefriendly (it’s hard to find group tours
that month). Given the long flight and
domestic travel required, I’d suggest
spending more than ten days there if at
all possible; this would give you time
to take in must-see spots such as
the Danum Valley, Kinabatangan
River and the famous Sepilok
Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
Regent Holidays has a 13-night
Borneo Orangutan Experience
private tour that starts at £4,562
for a single traveller, including all
flights and transport, most meals and
guiding. If the wet weather does put
you off, Regent suggests Vietnam or
Cambodia instead, where January
conditions are much more reliable and
there are group tours year-round. A
ten-day Classic Highlights of Vietnam
tour taking in Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi
An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
on January 4 starts at £2,015 for a single
traveller, including flights, transport,
some meals, guiding and entrance fees
(regent-holidays.co.uk).
Q In 2019 we booked a holiday in India
that got moved and moved again until

Don’t put
up with this
No running water
but no refund
I made two consecutive bookings
with Booking.com to stay at Palazzo
Presta in Gallipoli, Italy, in September.
They cost about £3,300 and my plan
was that if I didn’t like it, I would have
time to cancel the second booking.
On the train from Rome the hotel
messaged me to say there was no

the departure date was set for
November 30, 2022. In 2019 we
checked what visa was required; it
was an e-visa that was only valid for
a month so we thought there was no
need to get one until nearer the time.
We’ve now been told by our travel
agent we need a paper visa (and that
we should have checked this) but when
we tried to get an appointment there
were none available for the rest of the
year. We asked Imagine Cruising if we
could move the holiday but were told
this would be very expensive. Would
we be covered on our insurance if we
have to cancel because we can’t get a
visa (but not for want of trying)? We
are set to lose £5,000 each.
Sandra Sheldon
A India’s suspension of e-visas for
UK travellers has caused havoc and
unfortunately insurance policies
won’t cover cancellations in these
circumstances. The good news is that
Imagine is now offering options for any
customers who aren’t able to get a visa
in time for November and December
itineraries that include land stays in
India. “I can confirm that any customer
impacted by this situation will be able to
move their India holiday to dates in 2023
running water and I’d have to stay in
a different hotel for a night. When
I finally checked in, my room had
a strong scent, even though I had
warned them I was highly allergic to
room scents. I asked to be moved but
they refused and I had an asthma
attack overnight. The next day I was
moved to a different hotel, with no
phone in the room, no wi-fi and no
reception. I had no way of contacting
a doctor. I was told this was the only
option available. After further
problems with the hot water and the
wi-fi I told Palazzo Presta I wanted to
leave and I needed a refund. But it
refused to refund both bookings and

or be issued with a full refund. We are in
the process of contacting all customers
individually to discuss which option suits
their needs,” a spokeswoman said.
Q My wife and I would like to go to
the New Forest for the weekend in
January with our dog but we’d need an
accessible room and I’m struggling to
find somewhere suitable that’s not too
expensive — our budget is no more
than £175 a night. Any suggestions?
Paul Sampson
A Try Woodlands Lodge, a former royal
hunting lodge in three acres of gardens
near Lyndhurst on the edge of the
New Forest, where a ground-floor, petfriendly, accessible junior suite would
cost £300 for two nights over a January
weekend (woodlands-lodge.co.uk). It’s
listed on new website RightRooms.co,
which lets travellers search UK hotels in
granular detail, whether they want
accessible rooms, baby-friendly facilities
or locally sourced food.

Contact us
If you have a gripe, suggestion or question
relating to your holidays, please email
traveldoctor@thetimes.co.uk

Booking.com said there’s nothing it
can do. Can you help?
Pippa Bell
The hotel apologised for the
inconvenience but insists it did its best
to help you, including cleaning your
room with fragrance-free products
and offering a partial refund for the
plumbing problem as well as to pay for
your mobile data; it still sees no reason
to offer a refund. But Booking.com has
come to the rescue. It said that while
it had advocated to get your money
back, it could see there were missed
opportunities to “suitably support” you
and has issued a full refund.

Saturday October 29 2022
Satu

7-DAY
T & RADIO
TV
GUIDE
page 23
Bez

Drugs, dancing and
the night I was held
hostage at gunpoint

Sun, sex
and
Sicily

The return of
The White Lotus,
TV’s most
glamorous
whodunnit

art books theatre film music television what’s on puzzles

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 3

showing this week
What the critics are watching

Contents
Cover story 4-5

The cast of The White
Lotus talk about the sex,
infidelity and murder on
the menu for series two

My culture fix 6
The comedian Richard
Ayoade lets us into his
cultural life

Woody Harrelson not on his best behaviour in Triangle of Sadness

Film

Triangle of Sadness
The Swedish firebrand film-maker Ruben
Ostlund is back with his most ambitious
project yet — a movie that attempts to
illustrate the dehumanising essence of
free market capitalism but via one-liners,
Woody Harrelson, and the kind of grossout gags that send sensitive Cannes
critics fleeing from the auditorium. The
film is a consistently entertaining fable
about the lifestyles of the mega-rich, often
on a mega-yacht. It rightfully went on to
snag Ostlund a rare second Palme d’Or.
In cinemas now
Kevin Maher

Television
Louis Theroux Interviews . . .
Louis Theroux has been on less combative
form than usual in this new interview
series, and seems slightly ill at ease with its
mainly sit-down interview format, which
he appears keen to disrupt. Still, an audience with the great Judi Dench requires a
certain reverence, and he gets a few Paddington hard stares when he broaches
subjects such as losing her husband, her
Quakerism or if she believes in an afterlife.
This works best as a game of fun sparring,
and she is sporting about her acting turkeys
(her family rib her for her turn opposite
Vin Diesel in the 2004 film The Chronicles
of Riddick, we’re told) and lockdown turn
as a TikTok superstar. BBC2, Tue
Ben Dowell

Theatre
A Single Man
Simon Reade’s adaptation of Christopher
Isherwood’s novel — previously turned
into a film by Tom Ford — makes an
outwardly uneventful tale seem rich in
half-suppressed emotions. In Philip Wilson’s sure-footed production, we follow
the expat academic George, astutely
played by Theo Fraser Steele, through
another day in his life in 1960s California,
his thoughts tinged with memories of his
lover, killed in a road accident a year earlier.
Miles Molan makes a superb professional
debut as the thoughtful student, Kenny,
who drifts into George’s orbit. A haunting,
often witty chamber piece. Park Theatre,
London N4 (parktheatre.co.uk), to Nov 26
Clive Davis

Visual art
Turner prize 2022
No lazy lines about JMW Turner turning
in his grave until you’ve seen this explosively dystopian show. The four shortlisted

artists for the 2022 Turner prize are
Heather Phillipson (her Mr Whippy swirl
was on the fourth plinth), who immerses
visitors in a messy multimedia shack that
shakes you up; Veronica Ryan, whose
subtle sculptures cast from natural forms
allude to the slave trade; Ingrid Pollard,
who gives us kinetic sculptures; and Sin
Wai Kin, who uses dress-up and disguises
to play with expectations of gender. Place
your bets. Winner announced in December. Tate Liverpool (tate.org.uk), to Mar 19
Laura Freeman

Classical
The Yeomen of the Guard
The most serious of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, shot through with black
humour and graced by one of Sullivan’s
most stirring scores, Yeomen gets a new
English National Opera production from
Jo Davies. The distinguished actor Richard McCabe plays the tragicomic role of
the jester Jack Point. Coliseum, London
WC2 (eno.org), Thu-Dec 2
Richard Morrison

Pop
Michael Rother and friends
In the “bands who sold next to nothing and
went on to be massively influential” category, Düsseldorf’s Neu! are second only to
the Velvet Underground. Formed by Klaus
Dinger and Michael Rother in 1971 after
they got fed up with being in Kraftwerk,
Neu! invented the motorik sound: a steady,
driving groove combined with hypnotic
guitar effects. Everyone from David Bowie
to the Sex Pistols were in thrall to Neu!, but
Dinger and Rother came to hate each
other and split in 1974. Rother has kept the
flame alive and this 50-year celebration of
one of the most original, influential and
oddly joyful bands of all time will be a fitting tribute. Paul Weller is making a special
appearance. Clapham Grand, London SW11
(claphamgrand.com), Thu
Will Hodgkinson

Dance
Made in Leeds
Leeds-based Northern Ballet brings a
mixed bill of three new dance works to
London for a run in the downstairs theatre
at the Royal Opera House. Mthuthuzeli
November gives us Wailers, billed as “a
prayer for guidance”; Stina Quagebeur
opts for Nostalgia — the title says it all; and
Dickson Mbi presents Ma Vie, his piece
about Casanova’s legendary thirst for love.
Linbury, Royal Opera House, London WC2
(roh.org.uk), Tue-Thu
Debra Craine

Ben Dowell 7

“It still wields enormous
cultural power”: How the
BBC Began reviewed

Pop
8-9

Happy
Mondays’
Bez on
his new
memoir

Interview
10-11

The author
Michael
Connelly
C
ttalks to
mpto
t n
Robert Crampton

Books 12-21
B

T unhappy private life
The
o
of Paul Newman, and
Bono in his own words

TV & radio 23-51
S Rogue Heroes, based
SAS
on Ben Macintyre’s book,
begins on BBC1

Puzzles 52-55

Puzzles, sudoku,
Scrabble and your
favourite brain teasers
Cover photograph
Fabio Lovino/HBO

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

4 saturday review

television

The White Lotus returns:
‘There’s this feeling that
things are going to erupt’
The television satire about wealthy holidaymakers has moved to Sicily. And this time
sex, infidelity and multiple deaths are on the menu. Ben Dowell talks to the cast

I

n the opening episode of the new
series of The White Lotus the Di
Grasso family are having dinner
at the hotel — a typically fraught
affair. Albie (Adam DiMarco), a
Stanford graduate who says all
the right things about sex and
gender, has just expressed his disgust that
his randy, farting grandfather Bert (F Murray Abraham) still talks about bedding
young women. He has told him that he
shouldn’t be flirting so outrageously with
the hotel staff — or really having any sex
life at all. Bert feels he is being age-shamed
and says that even young people’s sexual
organs aren’t that pretty. As he puts it: “I
mean, it’s a penis, it’s not a sunset.” Later
Bert tells his grandson: “We used to respect the old; now we’re just reminders of
an offensive past.”
The one thing you can definitely say of
The White Lotus’s writer and director,
Mike White, is that he sees both sides of
an argument, be it spousal bickering or a
culture war clash between two ends of a
family. Should old people be discouraged
from flirting? Is it ever innocent? And is a
marriage doomed by infidelity? After all,
Bert’s son (and Albie’s dad) Dom (Michael
Imperioli of The Sopranos fame) is a sex
addict whose peccadillos have ripped his
family apart.
White’s latest visit to the world of
wealthy holidaymakers may have moved
from Hawaii to Sicily, but it remains just as
alive with moral questions, vinegary language and outrageous moments as well as
much sultry and sinister sexual misadventure, dysfunction and betrayal. It is not
short on penises or sunsets either.
There’s also a return for one first-series
favourite, Jennifer Coolidge’s slightly deranged heiress Tanya, who is now married
to her series one beau, Greg (Jon Gries).
But, like so many of the love stories in
White Lotus world, it appears to have gone
sour and she suspects him of infidelity. In
fact you will do well to spot a man in this
new show who is entirely faithful or honest
or hugely respectful of the opposite sex.
And there is trouble ahead — in the
form of much sexual questing, oneupmanship and worse — for the third set
of Americans abroad. They are two couples holidaying together: the smug financier Cameron (Theo James) and his pretty,
pampered wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahy),
who have travelled with his old roommate, the tech entrepreneur Ethan (Will
Sharpe) and Ethan’s serious-minded
lawyer wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza), whose
loathing of her husband’s friends is deliciously undisguised.

Clockwise from right:
Tom Hollander; Sabrina
Impacciatore as the
hotel manager; Jon Gries
and Jennifer Coolidge;
Aubrey Plaza, Will
Sharpe, Theo James
and Meghann Fahy

Harper asks,
‘Is that what
happens if you
are rich for
too long? Your
brain just
atrophies?’

And little wonder. Cameron constantly
belittles Ethan (at one point calling him an
“incel”), they don’t watch the news and
Daphne cannot remember if she even
voted. Harper suspects that she and Ethan
are now only acceptable in their eyes
because her husband has just made a
fortune. Does being rich mean she has to
hang out with these awful people, Harper
wonders, later asking her husband: “Is that
what happens if you are rich for too long?
Your brain just atrophies?”
Playing these characters must be an
unnerving experience, I suspect, even if
they all got to stay on set in the five-star
San Domenico Palace hotel in Taormina
during the shoot. White, the impresario of
The White Lotus universe and who also
wrote the movie School of Rock, is said to
be a man of few words, preferring to allow
his actors to find the character partly
themselves. Yet his casting is as skilled and
judicious as his satirical swipes can be
lethal. Do the actors ever wonder, why me?
Apparently so.
“Mike casts a quality of person in his
shows,” Fahy tells me over Zoom from her
home in Los Angeles. “So if you’re a person
in his show, there’s something that you
have that the character innately also
shares with you. And that can be a really
vulnerable experience if you’re aware of it.
Because you’re, like, ‘What’s my thing?’”
James, the Oxford-born actor who plays

Cameron, also seems obviously nicer than
his character, although he does have the
muscles, good looks and abs. And ghastly
as his character seems at first, there are
other sides. James partly played Cameron
as an “animal”, a grasping opportunistic
creature who devours life’s pleasures, and
it’s an approach that also gives him, for all
his obvious faults, what James calls a “fun,
buoyant, positive energy”.
Cameron clearly loves his wife too and is
tender and solicitous at times. White’s
writing may be unsparing, but he’s not
unfair. Or, as James puts it: “He never lets
you settle on the idea of a character. You
know that you have empathy for one and
then you detest them the next episode. You
think, one is repugnant, and then the next
episode you kind of understand them and
see a piece of yourself.”
While the story structure — death, followed by flash-forward — is similar to
series one, the new White Lotus is thematically and tonally different. In the first series White’s focus was on racial politics and
postcolonial exploitation and the action
hinged on the efforts of the mixed-race
student Paula to remedy historic injustice
for her Hawaiian boyfriend, a plan that
went awry when she encouraged him to
steal from the (white) family she was
staying with. Now the abiding theme is
sexual politics: passion, desire, betrayal
and lies. The spooky music, volcanic

Sicilian setting and frequent cutaway to
moody seas and caves only darken the
atmosphere further. Apparently White
originally envisaged a Bilderberg conference set-up of high-rolling, more politically powerful guests, but reimagined the
show when he sampled Sicily for himself.
“Mike’s very informed by the environment that he’s writing in,” Plaza says. “And
there’s a kind of intense energy to Sicily,
this volcanic island — there’s a volcano in
the backdrop of all the scenes. So there’s
this feeling that things are going to erupt at
any moment.”
The eruption of old-world passion is
also seen midway through the series when
Tanya goes to watch Madama Butterfly,
Puccini’s tale of passion and betrayal, with
her new best friend, Tom Hollander’s sybaritic gay Englishman, Quentin. Alongside
all the closely observed interactions
between lovers and family members, there
is an operatic quality to the storytelling
here too.
The new setting (and the real hotel) is a
spooky converted 14th-century convent.
Dotted around the place are painted ceramic vases, reminders of the local legend
of the Testa di Moro, about a woman who
killed her Moorish lover when she found
out he was married. The otherworldly
menace was felt by the cast off screen too.
According to Fahy, the place felt haunted
and she says that two of her colleagues

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 5

FABIO LOVINO/HBO

‘There’s something
quite romantic about
this series, even
though it is dark’

(DiMarco and Gries) “had a very similar
dream of a man standing at the foot of their
bed”. He looked like a prisoner of some
sort, or perhaps a sailor, she adds. Yikes.
Alongside the spookiness are lines that
land us back in the gritty reality of family
life. Sons bicker with fathers, spouses
blame each other and compete as a unit.
Rows flare up (“When do I ever make
things awkward?”), people find each other
irritating. Just like any other holiday,
really, where, however far you travel, you
bring your problems with you. It was clearly important for White to ground his
world, with Harper presenting — at least
at first — a focal point of normality and
someone we can identify with.
When White offered Plaza (one of the
standout stars of the cult comedy Parks
and Recreation) the role, he described her
as a “normie”, prompting the actress to
play her scenes straight. Her reaction
shots to the excesses of Daphne and Cameron are one of the most amusing things
about the early scenes. As Harper’s story
develops, though, she has to ask hard questions about her own marriage. At least
Daphne and Cameron have sex (she and
Ethan overhear a lot of it as they sit up in
bed at night, reading on their designated
sides). And Daphne seems content with
her lot, deploying sly strategies to combat
Cameron’s excesses. Harper is the one
we’re drawn to, but there’s also something
snobbish about her, I suggest.
“That’s what I love about everything
Mike does. The answers are never simple,”
Plaza replies. “And he’s always in that grey
area. That’s a perfect way to describe it.
Mike’s not interested in the black and
white; he’s interested in the moral ambiguity. Nobody’s right. And everyone’s wrong.
Some things aren’t that bad. And some
things aren’t that good. And that’s what it’s
all about.”
It’s probably no exaggeration to say we
need this sort of nuance and subtlety in a
world of fast-tweeting partisan politics
where people are labelled goodies or baddies. In White Lotus world everyone is just
complicated and flawed when examined.
It’s something Will Sharpe feels strongly
about. He is a writer as well as an actor —
he created the Channel 4 comedy Flowers,
a beguiling show about a mental breakdown starring Julian Barratt and Olivia
Colman. London-born to a Japanese
mother, brought up in Tokyo and educated at Winchester College, he tells me
about his first trip to the cinema after lockdown, when he was seized with a sense of
the importance of film and TV storytelling.
“We all spend time in front of these boxes of light that teach us things in theory. So
I feel like there is a responsibility — or
there needs to be a place — for shows,
films, books, whatever it is, that do reflect
the complexity of the world, even if there
is equally space for things that are purely
there for you to switch off to.”
What he loved about the show was how
White dives “deep into the mess of human
relationships” without losing heart. Of all
the cast members I spoke to, he has the
most optimistic take on the story.
“There is space for it to feel honestly
romantic too, even if there is darkness in a
way. Mike’s humour can be very acerbic
and sort of mischievous. But I do feel like
he does also have a kind of tenderness to
him, that he disguises very well, but it does
come through. And there’s something
quite romantic about this series, even
though it is dark. Confronting all the
gnarliest aspects of love, that maybe gives
it space to ultimately have some
romance about it. Even if it’s quite a sort of
dark, f***ed-up journey along the way.”
The White Lotus is on Sky Atlantic and
available on Now from Monday

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

6 saturday review

my culture fix
The comedian lets us into his cultural life

Richard
Ayoade

The book I’m reading
It depends how tired I am. I would always
love to be reading fiction, but I can’t if
I’m paragliding or sleepy. Then I switch
to non-fiction. So in short, if I want to
suspend my disbelief, I need to be wide
awake and earthbound. I like to have
something funny to read — like PG
Wodehouse, David Sedaris, Jack Handey
or Jules Feiffer. I’m also reading various
books on and by François Truffaut and
other critics turned film-makers of that
era, like Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc
Godard and Éric Rohmer.

makes a splash Juliet Binoche in Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown

My favourite film
M
IIt changes, but here is a list
o
of a few that I like a great
d
deal:
Persona, Zazie dans le
M
Métro, Days of Heaven,
T Hitch-Hiker — the Ida
The
L
Lupino
version — The Spirit
o the Beehive, the Three Colours
of
t
trilogy,
Code Unknown and
T Be or Not to Be. I also
To
v
very
much like the films of
C
Catherine Breillat and
B
Barbara Albert.

My favourite author or book
George Saunders is the best short story
writer since JD Salinger. I just read the
Bech books by John Updike and am
now reading the Rabbit tetralogy —
the Everyman edition is satisfyingly
huge; you get to feel very smug while
carrying it around. Also, because of my
wife, Lydia [Fox, the actress], who is
ludicrously well read while graciously
refusing to admit it, I get a constant
stream of things that she is reading, and
I try to sort of keep up but she’s too
quick for me. She’s doing something
like her eighth canter through Dante —
it’s quite humiliating as I often nod off
while reading the liner notes of a DVD.
But she reads things to me, which
I love. She has put me on to Rowan
Williams — I am reading his book on
St Benedict — and I greatly enjoy his
writing in general.

The book I wish I had written
The Catcher in the Rye or Franny and
Zooey, though I would settle for any
Salinger story. I don’t know anyone
who has made speech come alive as
well as he has. It’s natural but
compressed. Funny without ever feeling
it’s pushing for laughs.

The book I couldn’t finish
I used to listen to I Am Not Spock by
Leonard Nimoy at night because it was
impossible to stay awake through it, no
matter how hard I tried. But I loved it
for as long as I was awake. There was
something about his cadence that was
very calming.

The book I’m ashamed I
haven’t read
Often they are books recommended by
Lydia — the last one was Laurus by
Eugene Vodolazkin — because she tends
to read them early and they always end
up receiving universal acclaim. I have an
innate fear of a book being difficult. It’s
ridiculous. One of the ones she
recommended that I did read was The
Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A hint?
I lack focus and most of the time I just
stare at the hubristically high stacks of
books I have trying to calculate the
literal impossibility of reading them all.

My favourite piece of music
I do like the Louis Armstrong version of
Star Dust.

The box set I’m hooked on
T
Pinter at the BBC and Kenneth
P
C
Clark’s Civilisation.

The last song that made
me cry
Tracy Chapman singing Stand by
Me on The Late Show with David
Letterman. But it was also the start
of hay fever season.

The lyric I wish I’d written
“Well I stand up next to a mountain/
And I chop it down with the edge of
my hand” from Voodoo Child (Slight
Return) by Jimi Hendrix. Even though
I would never do that to a mountain —
I respect them too much. Also, I always
xt to
thought it was “I’m standing next
a mountain” until I just googled it.
I think my version of it is maybe a little
more relaxed.

The song that saved me
I mean, “saved” is a little strong, but
the song Water by Dinosaur Jr iss very
otling
good. I listen to things while pootling
about. PG Wodehouse if read byy
the peerless Jonathan Cecil,
CS Lewis — his essay collection
read by Ralph Cosham is very
good — and also Clive James,
possessor of the best narrating
voice of all. In particular, James’ss
Cultural Amnesia — every bit of
it is a joy, like a collection of
brilliant songs. I listen to it like
it’s an album.

The instrument I played

by choice The Return
of the Prodigal Son by
Rembrandt. Right: Tracy
Chapman. Below: the
Seventies BBC television
sci-fi Blake’s 7

The instrument I wish I’d learnt
The piano because I kid myself that if
I could play the piano I would be
composing film scores, even though
I definitely would not be able to do that.
So maybe the drums. Though I fear I
would always try to do too many fills
and be late back to the hi-hat.

The music that cheers me up
Candy and the Kisses, The Scepter
Sessions. And the band They Might
Be Giants.

My ffavourite
av
TV series
Dekalog, though I’ve recently become
very fond of Blake’s 7.

If I could own one painting
it would be . . .
I love The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Rembrandt, but it might be too
emotional to look at. I’m presuming
that I’m not just putting it in a
temperature-controlled vault and
letting it increase in value. Also,
you’ve got to consider contents
insurance. Perhaps a fresco because
I also love walls.

The place I feel happiest
T
A
Anywhere
with my wife and our
ch
children. Also — to an admittedly lesser
ex
extent — the excellently air-conditioned
B
BFI, screen 3 in particular, on an aisle
ne
near the front.

My guiltiest cultural pleasure
M
Yo
YouTube
tutorials on playing the guitar
so
solo in Marquee Moon by Television.

The concert (and film) that
I’m looking forward to
T next time Dinosaur Jr play in
The
Lo
London. The new Michael Haneke film
if he makes one.

I wasted an evening watching . . .
. . . the wheels go by.

Guitar. I am always surprised at
how bad the sound I make is. I just
ust
don’t have the touch. I would likee to
sound like J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr,
but I think the emotion I expresss
via the instrument is a kind of
self-regarding panic.

Th Book That No One Wanted to
The
Read by Richard Ayoade, illustrated
R
by Tor Freeman, is published by
Walker at £10.99
W

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 7

Ben Dowell on TV

A doe-eyed celebration awash
with ‘iconic’ BBC moments
BRADLEY ADAMS/BBC

How the BBC Began
BBC2
The Love Box in Your
Living Room
BBC2
Doctor Who: The
Power of the Doctor
BBC1

W

hat would the
BBC be like if it
were a person?
After
dealing
with the organisation for more
than 25 years as a
reporter and critic, I am pretty sure they
(surely Auntie’s preferred pronoun) would
be a complicated and capricious soul. Incredibly stupid, smug and paranoid at
times, sometimes incredibly clever, kind
and well meaning, often self-flagellating,
always self-regarding, and one of those
people who use the word “iconic” a lot
(honestly, read the press releases). And
they would be rather old: this week the
BBC celebrated its 100th birthday, and a
marathon of anniversary programmes
started with John Bridcut’s two-part series
How the BBC Began.
This was the corporation wearing its
Sunday best, quite literally in the opening
sequence, as the prime minister Ted Heath
addressed BBC bigwigs at a 1972 50th
birthday dinner engulfed in tobacco
smoke, amid the kind of banqueting splendour more generous hospitality budgets
used to cater for. We were invited to think
that Heath’s joshing showed happier,
mellower times before Hutton, Sachsgate
and sniping about liberal left bias, but
really the establishment self-importance
hasn’t gone away. This series was testament to it.
Still, the BBC tells stories, it’s in its DNA,
and the programme couldn’t help noting
that its founding father Lord Reith at first
“hated” television, according to the BBC’s
first director of television, called (I am
happy to say) Gerald Cock. It cocked up
(sorry, Gerald) its live reporting of the
Kennedy assassination, and cut coverage
of the Apollo 8 mission (the appetiser
before Neil Armstrong’s giant leap) to
show Jackanory. Fortunately the Queen
Mother’s equerry called to ask, “What the
[bleep] are you doing?” (or so said James
Burke) and it went back to Nasa’s circumnavigation of the moon.
An archive parade of Davids Dimbleby
and Attenborough and Richard Baker,
gathering like old friends at a chum’s
birthday, was classic, reassuring BBC. We
admit our mistakes, we can laugh at ourselves, but really we’re jolly good eggs. Attenborough used to play tennis with the
prime minister Sir Anthony Eden, we
learnt, but instead of thinking “them
were the days”, I rather think they are still
the days.

spoof history Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield and Simon Greenall in The Love Box in Your Living Room.
Below: Jodie Whittaker in the centenary special Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor

the gag about John Major and John Birt
looking like Sid Little, and the spectacle of
posh people saying “nepkin” is never
not funny.
All the way through, though, you could
imagine the deadening whisper of the
commissioning editor in their ears: don’t
be too nasty, guys, we have a birthday to
celebrate. And sure enough, there wasn’t a
Martin Bashir or Jimmy Savile reference
in sight. This was comedy that ultimately
pulled its punches — especially in the
final cheery montage that celebrated everything the corporation did
well, from Only Fools and Horses to
(cough) Michael McIntyre and
even people such as Judi Dench
and Michael Caine, who aren’t
exclusively BBC stars at all. The
moment the Mastermind spotlight fell on Enfield’s Captain
Mainwaring, who was asked about
the weekly reach of BBC News in
March this year (438 million, by the
way), all pretence suddenly disappeared.
I told you the BBC thinks highly of itself.

The corporation likes to think of itself as
victim, often of the press, but it wields
enormous cultural power. It may have got
things wrong when it came to promoting
women (rejecting a job application from
the brilliant Claire Tomalin, for instance),
but it ’fesses up, this told us, and it gave us
Woman’s Hour. We even had Joan Bakewell on to tell us that the BBC was “God’s
word”, while just about managing to keep a
straight face. Love or hate the BBC, the
people who work for it are doe-eyed
about it.
Bakewell was (shamefully) described as “the thinking man’s
crumpet” in less enlightened
times, and I was half expecting
The Love Box in Your Living Room
to be an antediluvian reference to
that unseemly moniker. But, while
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s spoof history contained
lots of jabs at Auntie Beeb, it fortunately wasn’t sexist. What it was was
an extended Adam Curtis-style skit
weaving a surreal narrative from Doctor
Who, sticky-back plastic, Muffin the
Mule and everything else, a follow-up,
essentially, to the pair’s spoof Simon
Schama history of BBC2, Story of the
Twos (geddit?).
There were brilliantly silly moments,
deploying archive footage of macaroni
being made when they spoke of the inventor of the radio and talking of John Yogi
Bear. A Play for Today spoof called A Cup
of Tea was spot-on, and the idea that Reith
wanted to get working-class people to
hear “words spoken by their betters”
was deliciously close to the knuckle. The
most daring moment came with the
joke that Adolf Hitler killed himself
because he heard The Archers. I enjoyed

This was the
corporation
wearing its
Sunday best

I went to the press screening of Jodie
Whittaker’s last Doctor Who outing, and
the showrunner Chris Chibnall (who is
also leaving) said it was “the most BBC
show there is”, so what better way to take
Auntie’s creative temperature than this?
“This is the day you are erased from
existence for ever,” hissed Sacha Dhawan’s
fabulously psychotic Master, who was living in Tsar Nicholas II’s court as Rasputin
for reasons that didn’t make immediate
sense. The Master may be many things but
he is clearly not a reader of BBC press
releases, which in May trumpeted the
news that Ncuti Gatwa was taking over as
the Doctor (Gatwa deploying the dreaded
i-word — the incoming showrunner

Russell T Davies “is almost as iconic as the
Doctor himself”, he said).
“There’s always a way, things always
work out,” Whittaker’s Doctor said midcrisis, a line that speaks to one of the show’s
problems. Whaddya know, baddies threaten universe, Doctor saves universe. And
repeat. We’ve been here before, haven’t
we? Even the big secret that wasn’t shown
at the screening — that Whittaker regenerated into David Tennant and that Gatwa’s coronation will have to wait — was
common knowledge among the nerdier
hacks there. Social media and smartphones have put paid to script secrets.
There are other ways too that the show
has struggled to keep up with the times.
For most of us Doctor Who is a kids’
programme that evokes fond childhood
memories. Tea, crumpets, darkening
evenings and (for me) Tom Baker. It’s the
same for its creators, and for his swansong
Chibnall exercised every nostalgic muscle
in his body. We had Daleks, Cybermen and
the Master in tandem. He brought back
(alongside David Bradley’s William Hartnell) the quartet of Peter Davison, Colin
Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul
McGann, plus the Thatcher-era companions Janet Fielding’s Tegan and Sophie
Aldred’s Ace.
Fielding and Aldred’s wide-eyed performances served to show up how different the acting styles were in the Eighties
studio-set heyday compared with today’s
more naturalistic approaches. Whittaker’s
Doctor talks about “me sonic”, has a
queer-identifying companion and much
better special effects. Over her five-year
stint Whittaker threw her all at the role
with a joyous and energetic performance
that perhaps lacked mystery. The Doctor
is, after all, an alien; she played it like a
best mate.
The BBC has been right to give all its
showrunners freedom. Moffat was the
tricksy one, Davies sexed up the Tardis,
but Chibnall has always been the nerdy
fan, and is probably a little too fond of his
Who from the Eighties, when the show
veered all too close to pantomime.
This messy episode underlined a generational fault line at the heart of the Doctor
Who universe. There are many old fart
nerdy fans still watching, often critically.
Children grow up, and Doctor Who has
always faced the tricky task of being, like
the BBC, all things to all viewers. Sometimes it tries too hard.
There was a moment when the Cybermen were on the rampage when Ace
wielded her baseball bat and said: “Beyoncé copied all my moves.” But they had
to keep the old farts in mind. “I never forget
any of you, I remember everything,” Davison’s Doctor told Tegan, who later
assembled at the end in some kind of AA
meeting for surviving companions, while
we were left with the knowledge the old
Doctors were languishing in a symbolic
netherworld on a cliff edge at the end of
time. It was strangely apt. The Doctor can
be a woman, and will soon be a person of
colour, but those old geezers are not going
to go away, are they? Some of them still
make the stuff.
Hugo Rifkind is away

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

8 saturday review

CHRIS MCANDREW FOR THE TIMES; SHUTTERSTOCK; HAYLEY MADDEN/REDFERNS

pop

Cream teas,
juicing and
beekeeping —
the new Bez
Just married, the Happy Mondays’ party
starter and maraca-waver tells Ed Potton
that his wild days are (mostly) behind him

B

ez got married in the summer to Firouzeh Razavi,
an Iranian-British musician 23 years his junior,
and it may not surprise
you to hear that the wedding got rather out of
hand. “The father lost control of his church
at one point. It got a bit rowdy in there,”
Bez says with a grin. There must have
been plenty of mad-fer-it guests, I say.
“Yeah, and myself of course. Leading
everyone on.”
As chief freaky dancer, maracabotherer, party starter and drug dealer for
the Happy Mondays and then Black
Grape, Bez has been leading everyone on
for more than 30 years. Shaun Ryder, the
singer for both bands, with whom Bez has
been in a “sexless marriage” since their
youth, was lined up as best man but he had
to return to the jungle to take part in I’m
a Celebrity All Stars. That was “probably a
lucky escape”, Bez, 58, admits. Never
before in matrimonial history has one best
man had so much dirt on one groom.
If you want a flavour of what Ryder’s
speech might have contained, an excellent
place to start is Bez’s new autobiography,
Buzzin’: The Nine Lives of a Happy Monday.
It’s not over-burdened with self-reflection
but as an account of the deeds of the most
wayward member of one of our most wayward bands it does not disappoint. The
Salford-born Bez, real name Mark Berry,
recalls being chatted up by Julia Roberts in
Hollywood (“the fish that got away story”)
and his unlikely friendships with Johnny
Depp, Kate Moss and Joe Strummer of the
Clash. After his painful exit from Black
Grape, “Joe came along, just at the right
time, picked me up, dusted me down and
pointed me in the right direction”, he says.
Then there was the night he joined the
Mondays when they were supporting New
Order at the Haçienda. Ryder, even by his
standards, was in a bit of a state after indulging in “a batch of lively black microdots” and told Bez: “You’ve got to come up
on stage with me.” Bez was similarly far
gone, but he grabbed a pair of maracas and
gave it everything. The next day somebody said to Ryder: “Oh, that was really

nice of you, letting that kid with special
needs come on stage with you.” A legend
was born.
Yet there are signs that Bez may be slowing down. The venue for this interview, for
example, is Polly’s No 10, a pretty little tea
room full of flowers and wicker lanterns in
Hereford, a few miles from his home. The
Haçienda it ain’t. Then there’s the man
himself. Compared with Ryder, who has
wrestled with a raft of health problems including an overactive thyroid, ballooning
weight and crack-addled teeth, Bez looks
annoyingly unscathed. Dressed in jeans
and sweatshirt, he is lean, with all his own
hair and a bafflingly youthful complexion.
“People always say to me that I look
well,” he says in his chewy Manchester
drawl. Are they surprised? “Yeah!” he says
with a chuckle. “Really surprised.” He has,
he explains, “discovered the secrets of longevity. I’ve been juicing every day for the
last ten years. I’ve distilled my water.” He
lives in a 17th-century cottage on the
grounds of a manor house owned by a

‘I sometimes felt like
a fraud, taking
the glory without
having much talent’
friend, where he keeps bees and brews
beer, and his youngest son goes to boarding school. Who are you and what have
you done with Bez?
He has even eased off on what he calls
“Persians”. Persian rugs — drugs. He
doesn’t smoke marijuana any more, he
says. “If I did have a problem, it was with
weed. Everyone says it chills you out but it
makes you angry. Everything else is on a
social level at weekends — not a problem.
I’ve never been an addict in any way. The
weed was the nearest to an addiction, and
getting that monkey off my back was possibly the best thing I’ve ever done.”
He orders a cream tea, which he proceeds to demolish. On the floor next to him
is a motorbike helmet. One of his favourite
things, he says, is “getting on the motorbike, riding over to Hay [-on-Wye] and

going through the bookshops”. He rides a
bit more safely after the accident, described in vivid detail in the book, where he
smashed his pelvis in five places, broke all
of his ribs and punctured a lung. Recovering in hospital he caught an MRSA superbug, went into a month-long coma, had
multiple organ failures, was read the last
rites and had hallucinations of Billy Connolly and Terry Venables.
Yet he pulled through, partly because he
is a “a jammy bastard”. As Ryder says in the
book: “You could literally throw him out of
a helicopter at 60,000 feet and he would
land in somebody’s extra-deep swimming
pool, get out and they would cook him
Sunday dinner — and let him stay the
night!” Charm helps too. When Bez was
kidnapped in the Nineties and found himself “on my knees in the front room of a
derelict house while a kid in a balaclava
holds a gun at my head” (see extract, right),
he says they let him go “because I made
’em laugh”.
Bez’s name has become shorthand for
band members who aren’t perceived to do
very much. “I sometimes felt like a bit of a
fraud, taking the glory without having

mr maracas Bez shows
his classic moves. Right,
from top: with his thenfiancée Firouzeh Razavi
in 2015; with Shaun
Ryder in 1987; and on
stage in 1995

much talent,” he writes in the book. Yet
what he thinks endeared him to people is
that they saw him and thought: “I could do
that.” His kind of role really occurs only in
British music, where attitude and vibes
have often been prized as much as technical ability. Ryder has compared Bez to Sid
Vicious, who was nobody’s idea of a great
bassist but radiated punk energy.
Although Bez lacks Sid’s sense of danger,
he is no innocent. His father was a policeman; it’s not hard to work out where his
sense of rebellion came from. I hadn’t realised how much time he’d spent in prisons
and detention centres for crimes including
theft in his youth and assaulting a former
girlfriend in 2010. Or how serious a dealer
he was, moving hundreds of Ecstasy tablets and kilos of weed. That was prompted
by the fact that the band were useless at
the business side of music. As he puts it in
the book: “Every c*** robbed from us and
that’s why none of us became millionaires.” There were points, he writes, when
he was “paying for the band out of the
money I was getting from selling drugs”.
The book must have been a nightmare
to get past the lawyers — was he not wor-

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 9

‘
‘Getting
kidnapped by those scumbags was
tthe best thing that ever happened to me’
Bez remembers the terrifying night his drug-dealing
caught up with him in an extract from his new memoir

A
ried about being so frank? “I’ve not actually owned up to anything in particular,” he
says. “It’s all in the past now. I pay my taxes
and I live an honest life. I don’t do anything
wild any more. Apart from taking some
Persians at the weekend.”
He says he has lost count of the number
of people who have told him he gave them
their first E, but hopes none of them had
any serious problems as a result. How
about his three sons from previous relationships: Arlo, 31, Jack, 29, and Leo, 14?
Did he give them “the talk”? “All you can
do is give advice and hope that they’re
sensible enough to make their own decisions.” There have been bumps in the road.
Leo was “falling into the wrong thing so
I’ve had to take him out of Manchester and
put him in a private boarding school near
me,” Bez says. “He’s not keen but he’ll
thank me for it in later life. Otherwise he’ll
end up like me as a young offender in jail.”
Ryder contributes several passages to
Bez’s book, which is a canny move because
he is hilarious and also because there is,
shall we say, the odd gap in Bez’s memory.
“When it comes to 1989 to 1993, my mind’s
a blank,” he admits at one point. The
height of their debauchery came in the
Nineties at the notorious Manumission
club in Ibiza. Years later Ryder was shown
a photograph from that time of a man
in chains being pulled along by three
other men “and in the background there’s
this sex-party thing going on”. It slowly
dawned on Ryder that he was the man
in chains.
Of his friendship with Bez, Ryder says in
the book: “He probably wants more out of
it. I don’t.” It’s true that Ryder has yet to
visit him in Herefordshire and Bez travels
to Ryder’s place in Manchester to film
Gogglebox. Bez is a reality TV veteran now,
having competed in Dancing on Ice, where
he was such a bad skater he became the
first and only contestant to be allowed to
wear a helmet, and Celebrity Big Brother,

which he won despite spending the first
day or two high as a kite. “I got called
into the Diary Room with the full production team there,” he says. “They asked if
I had taken drugs in with me. I said, ‘Have
I f***!’ I did a big ball of whizz just before I
went in.”
So many of his interests — music, drugs,
motorbikes, snowboarding, beekeeping —
involve an element of peril. It’s only reading that doesn’t, although even that has its
risks. Bez is into fairly provocative stuff,
from dodgy conspiracy theories about the
Rothschilds and “royal breeding rights”, to
ancient Mexican Toltec teaching about
gender roles. “The male’s job is to make
a woman feel like a woman, and the
woman’s job is to make their male partner
feel all male,” he writes in the book. His
wife apparently agrees with the
teachings, although he admits that
feminists
“would
hate them”.
Should
we be surprised? Bez
may
have
mellowed but
he was hardly
going to buy
slippers
and
start watching
Coronation Street.
As Chris Frantz and
Tina Weymouth of
Talking Heads, who
produced one of the
Happy Mondays’ albums, said: “We’ve met a
lot of bands who lived
on the edge, but that
lot didn’t know where
the edge was.” The
same could be said
of their most wayward member.

nyone looking to
script Bez: The
Movie might
consider starting
here: I’m on my
knees in the front
room of a derelict
house while a kid in a balaclava
holds a gun at my head. I’ve
chosen this derelict cottage on the
outskirts of central Manchester as
a quiet location for a weed deal
that is now going horribly wrong.
Aside from the lad pointing the
revolver’s barrel at my temple,
there’s another guy nearby waving
a machete about and way too
many more behind them for me
to consider any kind of heroic,
two-fisted escape.
It’s about 1997/98, and as I kneel
there trying not to think about
how this precarious situation will
unfold, it dawns on me that my
career choices in adult life are
finally catching up with me.
Because of the lifestyle we all led
before our so-called music career
took off, I had plenty of
connections in the drugs trade in
Manchester, so as the Mondays fell
apart and Black Grape failed to
bring in the requisite finances that
Shaun and I deserved, it was the
easiest and most obvious move to
go back into what I was doing
before — that whole high-tension,
easy-money lifestyle of shifting
around substances.
To be clear, my thing was always
about acting as a middleman,
passing things on between people,
shifting around large amounts of
hash and grass to different people,
all over the country, but not
actually buying and selling and
dealing it myself.
It would be about two and a half
grand per kilo, and I was making
£50 per kilo. That was my price
for moving it on — I would just
put 50 quid on to each kilo, as
my competitive middleman’s
wages for shouldering that
part of the risk.
I had no way of knowing,
but this particular deal
was a set-up. My
contact was this kid
I knew really well: we
were good friends as
he used to knock
about quite a bit
around the
Mondays. It
turned out he
had been
threatened
by certain
people, and
they coerced
him into
setting me up
for this deal.
They told him they wanted
20 kilos off me, so I fixed up
the handover at this house

I was using as the location. They’d
actually asked if I could get more
than 20 — one of the usual things
they put you through in that
situation where they’re going to
stiff you, because obviously they
know they’re not going to be
paying you, so they might as well
hit you for as much as possible —
but unfortunately, I hadn’t twigged
that at the time. On the plus side,
I couldn’t lay my hands on any
more than 20.
Driving over there, I could see
that one car was following us,
which I assumed was them —
because I’d driven erratically to
make sure I wasn’t being followed
by anyone else. I didn’t see the
rest of the cars they had backing
them up, but as me and my mate
piled out of our car, there were
loads of them, and they all pulled
out weapons and forced us into
the house.
They got me and the other guy
down on the ground, started
pistol-whipping us and threatened
to cut us with machetes. As I say,

There was one kid
with a machete
and one waving a
.45 in my face
the house was outside the city
centre and remote enough that
nobody could hear you scream . . .
or the gunfire.
There was this one kid with the
big machete, and the one with a .45
in my face, and I know for a fact
that they’d been ordered to put
one in me because the kid who
ordered the kidnap hated me. I
never worked out exactly why, but
it’s a reasonable assumption that
he didn’t like the way I rolled at
the time. I’d been on Top of the
Pops and loads of other TV shows,
and it was never exactly a secret
that my job as a maraca shaker and
dancer was intertwined with a
more nefarious line of business.
Everyone in the trade knew that
from touring with the band I had
more connections than your
average “man”. I was more than
useful to the majority of Mr Bigtype people, but I was also an
obvious target for people with a
grudge or a chip on their shoulder.
So there I am, held hostage in
this house, looking at this c***
with the gun in my face, thinking,
“I could f***ing knock you out!”
and I’m considering doing it. I’m
trying to show no fear, just staring
him down, and I’m starting to
think I could deck him in one
move if I hit him right. The only
thing stopping me is the other kid
with the machete. He’d cut me
down in half a second.
We’re in there for the best part

of a day — 12 hours, probably
more — and relentlessly I’m
getting pistol-whipped, and
knocked about, and threatened
with getting my hands cut off,
while the other kid shivers
nervously in the corner. This
“mate” and I aren’t ever tied up,
just surrounded by heavy armoury,
getting harangued for more weed
and more money, while I take the
punishment in heavy blows and
every threat you can think of.
The worst thing about it? The
humiliation, the lowest of the low,
a terrible feeling I would never
want to revisit and a sickening
dread that my end may be nigh.
Here’s what saves my life: the kid
who set me up starts screaming in
the corner — proper squealing like
a stuck pig because he’s scared out
of his wits, even though it’s
actually me who’s getting pistolwhipped, punched, kicked and
threatened with being chopped up.
In the middle of my battery,
still at gun and knifepoint, I decide
that it is this kid’s turn to get a
smacking, and without thinking of
the consequences I run over and
boot him in the head. Cue more
squealing and snivelling.
My luck must be in tonight
because the tension in the room
eases fractionally as the balaclava
kids all fall about laughing, roaring
away at the sight and sound of this
kid being pathetic.
There must be something about
the way I’m hoofing his head in
that gets me off the hook, because
while my so-called “mate” is
bawling away on the floor, the
kidnappers suddenly just tell me
to get the f*** out of there.
I bolt for the door, get to my
motor, spark up the engine
and screech away from that
sorry scene.
Looking back on it today, it
doesn’t make much sense: those
people definitely wanted to
finish me off. For obvious reasons,
I can’t say too much more about
them, because as far as I know
they’re still active as full-time
career criminals.
The hardest thing was the
humiliation. In the long run,
however, there was an upside to
the whole incident. It was a lifechanging moment for me. It made
me reassess my whole life, and
think, “There’s got to be another
way to earn myself a crust without
selling drugs.”
People may call me crazy for
saying this, but getting kidnapped
and done over by those scumbags
was the best thing that ever
happened to me.
Buzzin’: The Nine Lives of a
Happy Monday by Bez is
published by White Rabbit at
£20 in hardback, also available
in ebook and audiobook

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

10 saturday review

interview

Michael Connelly: ‘I’m beyond just
The bestselling crime novelist talks to
Robert Crampton about the cop who made
him a writer, gun control and literary snobs

M

ichael Connelly is
one of those former
journalists turned
bestselling novelists
whom current journalists can’t help
but envy. One they
admire and respect but also, basically,
whose career they want to steal. Robert
Harris is another. So is Bill Bryson. And
Michael Frayn. And David Simon, who
co-wrote The Wire after a stint on The Baltimore Sun. We’re not jealous of Stieg
Larsson, ex-hack that he was before he
wrote the Millennium trilogy, because he
died tragically young. Nor Charles Dickens, because any comparison would be
presumptuous. But Connelly, who quit life
as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles
Times in 1994, aged 38, and has published
37 books (some of them filmed for cinema
and television, some of which he has executive produced), he has lived the dream.
“I enjoyed being a journalist,” he says. “It
was fun and my press pass got me into
police departments, which was invaluable
as a crime writer. But my plan was always
to write novels.”
He’s pals with Stephen King and Carl
Hiaasen. He gets to hang out with Matthew McConaughey (who starred in the
film adaptation of Connelly’s The Lincoln
Lawyer) and Titus Welliver (who plays
Connelly’s hero Harry Bosch in the eponymous long-running Amazon series). In the
police/private-eye crime fiction pantheon,
Bosch probably ranks below Raymond
Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell
Hammett’s Sam Spade, but in modern
times he’s on a par with Lee Child’s Jack
Reacher, Ian Rankin’s John Rebus and
Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther. Moreover,

‘Are there racists in
the LAPD? Of course,
but they’re not the
ones I’m inspired by’
Connelly is respected yet not so famous as
to get hassled in the street. Perfect. He is
also, I discover, having spent an hour and
a half with him on the balcony of his room
at the Covent Garden Hotel in London, a
thoroughly likeable man.
What’s more, Connelly’s series, most of
them featuring Bosch and his more recent
heroine Renée Ballard, are not mere
entertainments (not that there’s anything
wrong with entertainment); they also pass
comment on contemporary events in the
US. Having started with the post-Rodney
King LA riots in 1992, in his last book, The
Dark Hours, Connelly comments on the
aftermath of George Floyd’s death at
police hands in the summer of 2021.
“I’m way beyond just writing a good
tight plot puzzle whodunnit,” he says.
“You’ve got to have something that makes
you feel like there’s a higher game to it. It
almost feels like a duty, with this amazing
life I’ve been given, not to mail it in.”
Unlike some other thriller veterans, the
standard of Connelly’s work remains laudably high. The prose is unflashy and decep-

tively engaging. You’re reading about
some obscure detail of forensic work and
thinking: “This shouldn’t be as interesting
as it is.”
“It’s more craft than art,” Connelly says.
“And there’s a pride in that. People say I’m
prolific but compared to what I did in
newspapers, this is a breeze. Publishers
even let you blow off deadlines, even
though you only have one a year.”
Connelly’s politics are “pretty liberal,
I’m a Democrat, not that there is much
choice these days”, yet his prose suggests a
degree of sympathy towards the police,
even after the Black Lives Matter movement. “I did a talk at Blackwell’s in Oxford
last night,” he says, “and was asked if I
found it difficult writing about someone
serving in a ‘racist bureaucracy’. I’m bothered by blanket statements like that
because I know so many good people in
the LAPD. These people are beyond just
being sources, they’re my friends. Are
there racists in the LAPD? Of course there
are, but they’re not the ones I’m looking to
be inspired by.”
Does he know detectives like Ballard
and Bosch? “There are people that had his
dedication, that feel like outsiders even
though they represent the state and carry
badges and guns. There were people like
that. I don’t know if there’s any now. Most
of the detectives that helped me with the
Bosch books, that had those qualities, are
ageing out. Right now, the detective Mitzi
Roberts, the detective I based Ballard on,
she’s still fighting the good fight. She’s a
lot younger.”
Roberts heads the LAPD cold-case unit,
just as Ballard does in Connelly’s recent
books. “Mitzi caught the guy considered
the most prolific serial killer in US history,
Sam Little. He died in prison in 2020. He
killed people no one cared about, that’s
how he stayed under the radar for four
decades. She connected cases and ran
them down.” Does she get hassled for her
connection to him? “Internally, there’s
probably jealousies,” he says carefully.
“She’s indicated that to me. She gets in the
paper all the time because she’s solving
cases, not because I based Renée Ballard
on her.”
The cold-case archive for the LAPD
jurisdiction alone runs to 6,000 unsolved
homicides dating back to the 1960s, with
the annual murder rate running at about
400 a year. I tell Connelly there were just
shy of 600 murders in the UK last year,
compared with about 20,000 in the US.
That’s 33 times as many murders among
a population five times higher. I ask: where
are you on gun control?
“Where you’d expect,” he says, sighing.
“I don’t know why we have all these guns.”
Has he got one? “No. I’ve never owned
a gun. When I started writing these novels,
I did shoot a gun to see what it was like.
The range had this aluminium roof,
my gun ejected a shell, it hit the roof,
bounced back and lodged between my
eyelid and my glasses and it was burning
hot. That was the last time I fired a gun.
I live in a city that some people perceive
as dangerous but I’ve never wanted to
have a gun.”

Having grown up in Fort Lauderdale,
and attended the University of Florida in
Gainesville, Connelly still owns a home in
the Sunshine State, yet has lived mainly in
Los Angeles for many years. “My wife and
I have one child — she’s 25 and in LA, and
where she is, we want to be there.” We swap
stories of conspiring to keep daughters
close by. “My sneaky plan was when she
was getting an apartment, I noticed there
was no laundry, but didn’t mention it. So,
she has to come home every Sunday.”
He became a parent relatively late, at 41,
and he reckons it revived his Bosch series.
“I was a few years into the Bosch books. He
wanted to be bulletproof, to carry on his

bish bash bosch
Michael Connelly.
Above: Clint Eastwood
and Anjelica Huston in
Blood Work (2002),
based on the Connelly
novel. Top right: Matthew
McConaughey in The
Lincoln Lawyer, another
Connelly adaptation

mission against evil. That can only go so
far, I knew I had to change things up. So,
when my daughter was five, Bosch finds
out he has a five-year-old daughter he
didn’t know about. It changed his vulnerability completely. I think it saved the series,
once he could be gotten to.”
Connelly’s unselfconscious mention of a
“mission against evil” points to another
aspect of his universe that appeals certainly to me and I suspect to many readers of
American, as opposed to European, crime
fiction: he believes there are fundamentally “bad people walking around”, and the
important point is to take them out of circulation. I put it to him that even secularised Americans (only 11 per cent identify as
atheists or agnostics) are comfortable with
notions of good and evil, whereas British
writers, living in a post-religious society
(52 per cent of the British public now say
they have no religious belief), shy away
from invoking such faith-based notions.
And yet readers on both sides of the
Atlantic still vicariously enjoy tales of sin,
redemption and righteous vengeance.
Connelly chuckles in the way creative
people do when their work is being overanalysed by fans. “Hey, I just write. Obviously, I’m a product of my influences. For
the most part I went to Catholic schools.
I’m not religious any more and I don’t
know if I ever was. So, I’m post-religious
as well.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 11

writing a good plot puzzle whodunnit’
AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA CONTOUR RA BY GETTY IMAGES; KOBA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY

Top 10 American
detectives

As with other left-of-centre artists
whose output is beloved in the heartlands
— Bruce Springsteen comes to mind —
Connelly has fallen foul of online abuse
when some Trumpist readers twig to his
personal politics. “I get that ‘now that I
know your politics, I’m not reading your
books any more’. I just think, ‘I’m glad
you’re out of here.’ They think they’re
making a bold statement, I think, ‘Fine, I
didn’t set out to get you as reader.’ I’m 66.
If someone deserts me because of something I said, my publisher won’t like it but
I’m fine with that.”
With 37 books in 30 years, Connelly is
prolific. He gets up at 5am so he can write
for four or five hours before “other stuff
starts happening. Luckily Hollywood
doesn’t get going until 10 or 11.”
He’ll finish a story in six to eight months,
then, instead of redrafting, he’ll send it
to his family and friends for comments,
giving them a month to respond. “I send a
rough first draft to my cop friends. My
wife’s a good editor because she doesn’t
read crime novels, she takes a very
literary view.” The couple met at university. Linda used to work in insurance,
now she “handles business so I can just
write. She’s got a good business mind.
I came from the newspaper business, so I
have a thick skin. I tell everybody, ‘Let me
have it, I don’t care, you cannot hurt
my feelings.’ ”

Desert Star by Michael
Connelly is published
by Orion on November 8
at £22

Many genre writers, I suggest, resent the
literary snobbery that consigns them to
“popular” as opposed to “serious” status.
How does he feel? “I always quote Kurt
Vonnegut. He said in the early part of his
career he was dismissed as a sci-fi writer
and that critics tend to put genre books,
including sci-fi, in the bottom drawer of
their desk. And it’s also the drawer they
most often mistake as a urinal. It’s true. I
get The New York Times every Sunday. In
37 novels, I’ve never had a standalone review. I’m always in the crime round-up.
But I don’t really mind because on the back
pages in the bestseller lists, I’m very well
represented. I’ve had editors and publicists
say, ‘Sorry about The New York Times’ but
I’ve gotta be honest: I don’t care.”
I’m sure that’s true, I say, and great
compensation, but equally most creative
people want acknowledgment that they’re
good at what they do. “Yeah, but I have
that. Not only because people buy it but
because the crime novel is just a framework to tell any kind of story you want to
tell and the reason you’re on the bestseller
list is the readers know that. There’s always
the thing about, ‘When will the next Great
American Novel be published?’ Well, there
won’t be a next Great American Novel that
does not have a crime in it.”
We discuss how Shakespeare and Dickens were popular writers in their day,
churning it out on a deadline for an audience, for money. And how John le Carré,
once dismissed as a genre spy writer, is
now spoken of as the greatest British novelist since the war. Not that Connelly or
anyone else is saying he is in that class,
just that low sales don’t always, or indeed
hardly ever, equal high standards.
The other great victims of literary snobbery are, of course, comic novelists. “Yeah,
I went to school with Carl Hiaasen,” he
agrees, citing the brilliant satirist of Florida’s politics and social mores. “To do what
he does, that’s gotta be tough. He’s so incisive. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale too.
My mother was a bank teller in the bank
owned by his father’s law firm. I knew his
brother, Rob, better. He was in my class
at journalism school. It was a tough class,
very competitive. Woodward and Bernstein meant everyone wanted to take down
a president.” Rob Hiaasen, a columnist on
The Capital newspaper in Annapolis,
Maryland, was shot and killed in a mass
shooting at his office in 2018.
Connelly’s other Fort Lauderdale
literary connection is with John D MacDonald, the 1960s-1980s thriller writer
described by Kingsley Amis as “better
than Saul Bellow”. MacDonald’s hero,
Travis McGee, lived on a houseboat, the

Busted Flush, moored at the Bahia Mar
marina, where as a kid Connelly worked as
a dishwasher in the hotel. “They never
rented the slip, F-18, where the Busted
Flush was docked. That’s how I discovered
MacDonald, aged 14.”
While his mother was a bank teller, Connelly’s dad was a builder. Family fortunes
fluctuated. His interest in crime fiction
came about partly from his mother’s love
of the genre. “She loved British detectives,
PD James. I read that stuff and enjoyed it,
but it wasn’t hard-boiled enough for me.”
He got into true crime books. Then an
interest in crime reporting was sparked by
an incident driving home from his dishwashing stint when he was 16.
He saw a man stash what turned out to
be a gun in a bush, told the police, tailed
him to a biker bar and then spent a night at
the station trying and failing to identify the
culprit from a series of identity parades of
burly men with big beards. “I was assigned
to this tough-guy detective. He thought I
was afraid. To make the ID. It became a
thing and it didn’t end well, but it got me
interested in detectives and crime. I read in
the paper the suspect had shot a guy.”
Seven years later, by now a crime reporter, he met the detective again. “He remembered me as the kid who wouldn’t step up.
Typical police tunnel vision: they thought
they had their man and I wasn’t going to be
talked into it. The case was never solved. I
covered that department for three years.
I think I got his respect. I heard later he
read my books. I don’t write for cops, so it
becomes the highest compliment when
they read my stuff.”
Connelly mentions that that morning,
he’d seen Joel Coen and Frances McDormand in his hotel having breakfast. It
prompts me to ask him if he has many
celebrity friends. He says he sees Stephen
King “every now and then. I love his stuff
and he’s been extremely kind to me. We
have places in Florida 20 minutes apart. If
we’re both there, we meet up. We mostly
talk about baseball.” He has no desire for
fame. “I’ve spent time with Titus Welliver
and he cannot go anywhere without being
recognised and stopped. It’s usually ‘I love
what you’re doing’ but it’s very intrusive.
That doesn’t appeal to me at all.
“I’ve sat next to people on planes reading my books and I learnt early on not to
say anything. I once said to this lady, ‘How
do you like that book?’ and she said, ‘It’s
just something to pass the time.’ Now I
keep my mouth shut.”
But you must get a thrill seeing this, I say,
holding up the page proof listing his back
catalogue. “Yeah,” he shrugs, “it’s a decent
body of work.”

1 Sam Spade Dashiell Hammett, 1930
The original, and still the best, with a
great deal of help, admittedly, from
Humphrey Bogart, whose portrayals
immortalised Spade in a medium even
more accessible than popular fiction.
Spade set the parameters for every
subsequent protagonist. If you don’t
combine cynicism about the system
with idealism about the individual,
support for the underdog and some
peculiar personal eccentricity, this
genre is not for you.
2 Philip Marlowe Raymond Chandler,
1939-58
He chain-smokes. He drinks hard
liquor, lots of it, and strong coffee on
stake-outs. He plays chess against
himself. He knows how to handle
himself. What’s not to like?
3 Harry Bosch/Renée Ballard
Michael Connelly, 1992-now
Bosch fought the good fight from
within the system, in his case the LAPD.
Everyone’s dream idea of what a tough
fair cop should be. Now in a double act,
the superb Ballard running the show.
4 Lew Archer Ross Macdonald, 1949-76
Heir to Marlowe as hard man with a
heart, and Archer’s crime-busting is
described by such a masterly stylist
even literary critics managed to notice.
5 Travis McGee John D MacDonald,
1964-85
Handsome, likeable, laid-back boat
bum who hangs out in Florida fishing
and shagging until his funds run low,
whereupon he takes up a noble cause
for a share of the spoils.
6 VI Warshawski Sara Paretsky,
1982-now
Ass-kicking, Republican-hating leftie
from Chicago, “Vic” pretty much wrote
the book on the modern female PI.
7 Mike Hammer Mickey Spillane,
1947-96
Original take-no-prisoners hard man.
Some of Hammer’s cultural stances
may not withstand modern scrutiny.
8 Kinsey Millhone Sue Grafton,
1982-2017
Refreshingly normal Californian
ex-cop gone private. A feminist icon,
and for good reason.
9 Jack Reacher Lee Child, 1997-now
Not strictly a cop (although he used
to be, in the army) or a private
investigator, Big Jack is more an
avenging angel riding into town and
taking down the bad guys.
10 Amos Decker David Baldacci,
2015-now
A former NFL pro, Decker is
unorthodox — on occasion downright
weird — but, blimey, he gets results.
Robert Crampton

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

12 saturday review

books

Anyone for
baked owl?
Welcome to
Tudor England
Book of the week
This colourful
chronicle of life, high
and low, during the
Tudor years is a
classic in the making,
says Dan Jones

Tudor England
T
A History
bby Lucy Wooding
Yale, 708pp; £30
Y

O

ne day in the spring of 1486 a
monk at Crowland in Lincolnshire sat down to take stock of
current affairs, which he was
recording in the abbey’s chronicle. He had a lot to get his head around.
For one thing, there had been a big
change of government. The previous
August an exiled Welsh nobleman called
Henry Tudor had invaded the realm,
marched an army to the Midlands and
cut down the reigning king Richard III in

We learn it was
illegal to beat one’s
wife after 9pm —
because of the noise
battle. As Henry VII, he was England’s
fourth monarch in less than three years.
Shortly after this, the abbot of Crowland
had died, carried off by the sweating sickness — a cruel and capricious disease that
could kill a person on the same day they
first showed symptoms. And in the meantime, the abbey was entangled in a bitter
legal dispute with neighbouring landowners. This had turned nasty, and village
officials from nearby Deeping had stolen a
portion of the monks’ harvest, then killed
a dog set to guard the abbey’s cellar.
It was a lot. Yet at the same time, it was
business as usual. A dead king, a dead abbot, a dead dog — and who knows what to
follow? “Let those who come hereafter be
upon their guard,” the chronicler wrote,

“And know that o’er a populace they rule,
Fickle and fond of novelty.”
When we think of 16th-century
England we traditionally start at the top.
That is natural. Between 1485 and 1603 the
Tudors produced two hall-of-fame monarchs — Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. They
gave us many juddering great historical
events — the Battle of Bosworth, the
Break with Rome, the Spanish Armada.
They nurtured canonical writers and artists — Thomas More, Hans Holbein the
Younger, William Shakespeare. Not for
nothing have the Tudors been a mainstay
of British history teaching and Hollywood
costume drama for generations.
Yet if we look at the Tudor years only
through the political struggles and personal psychodramas of the monarchs (Henry
VII and VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I), there is a lot we do not see. Or so
thinks Lucy Wooding, a fellow of Lincoln
College, Oxford, whose previous books
include a biography of Henry VIII.
Much like the Crowland abbey
chronicler before her, Wooding tries
to describe the Tudor world from the
bottom up and the top down. And in
doing so she may just have produced
a classic — or, at least, a book that
can serve as the standard introduction to the Tudor world for many
years to come.
It is a monstrous task. But Wooding
is up to it, because she writes clear,
elegant, purposeful narrative and has
a keen eye for weird stuff. In a little
more than 700 pages she covers five
complicated reigns, several wars, a religious revolution, a renaissance in
arts and letters, high and low political
culture, medicine, philosophy, food,
geography, trade and economics. Yet
somehow the text is never lightweight;
nor does it drift.
In her chapters narrating the monarchs’ reigns Wooding is both pithy and
punchy. Her Henry VII is no crabby,
penny-pinching cipher, but rather magnificent: an “intelligent and resourceful
ruler, besieged on all sides, doggedly
pursuing stability and the resumption of
order and deference in political life”.
Henry VIII is “an object lesson in just
how far kingship could be extended, and
at what cost”. Elizabeth “was nothing if
not responsible as a monarch” but her
refusal to name a successor until her
deathbed was an “almost criminal act of
irresponsibility, which potentially endangered her entire realm”.
Where this book really excels, however,
is in the thematic chapters that surround

old queen Elizabeth
Elizab th I by
b
an unknown artist, c 1610

Wooding’s biographical essays. Here,
anecdote and oddity leap off every page,
often slyly juxtaposed. So we hear that
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland,
maintained a household with 166 domestic servants; 17 carriages were required to
move the earl’s household effects between
his properties. Henry VIII once received a

g of 100 parmesan cheeses from the
gift
P
Pope. Yet in the same realm, some of the
p
population
were so poor that they ground
u
up acorns to make their bread.
In wokier academic hands, these conttrasting facts might be used to denounce
T
Tudor
England for its lamentable ineequality. But Wooding is better than that
— and she shows that the fate of the poor
w
was a constant challenge to the personal
aand professional consciences of those in
p
power in the 16th century. Even if, like
e
every
other political society in human
h
history, the Tudors did not “solve”
p
poverty, their elites wondered how they
m
might, and sometimes tried hard to do it.
Wooding treads such sensible lines
tthroughout. Tudor society offered
w
women a worse deal than it did men. We
m
meet a woman from Barking who was
d
dragged to court for having partied in a
ttavern after her “churching” ceremony
tto welcome her back into polite society
aafter childbirth. We learn that it was
iillegal to beat one’s wife in London after
9
9pm — but only because of the noise.
Y
Yet Wooding points out that Tudor
ssociety also cut men a rough deal at
ti
times too, and that in the view of at least
one foreign visitor, the freedom women
were afforded in England far outstripped
standards elsewhere in Europe.
Alongside all that sit the simple quirks of
Tudor life, high and low. The monarch’s
touch was believed to cure scrofula; a
potion made by baking an owl was used
to relieve gout. We discover a brothel

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 13
ALAMY

Bono: less annoying than you think
FRANS SCHELLEKENS/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

When he isn’t saving
the world, the U2
singer is surprisingly
self-aware, says
Will Hodgkinson
Surrender
40 Songs, One Story
by Bono
Hutchinson
Heinemann,
566pp; £25

I

city living
Festival at Bermondsey
by Marcus Gheeraerts
the Elder, c 1569.
Below: Hans Holbein
the Younger’s portrait
of Edward VI, c 1538

running inside the Palace of Westminster,
and encounter the public school headmaster hauled up for buggering the boys.
There’s a get-rich-quick scheme to sell
knitted sailors’ hats to the Chinese and a
trip to the funeral of the last anchorite who
lived in the London Wall.
Above everything else, there’s humanity
— often arrestingly familiar across the
ages. The Lollards come across not as
some abstruse proto-Protestant sect but as
the late medieval equivalent of Joe Roganstyle “free thinkers”. Wooding quotes
a pompous Elizabethan
m
minister railing like a pof
faced
rolling news pundit
aabout the dismal state of
cchild-rearing, which will
aassuredly produce “jolly
yyonkers [ie youngsters] and
llusty brutes” unfit to be
“
“citizens
. . . in matters of the
ccommonwealth”.
And most memorably,
p
perhaps, she shows us John
F
Fisher, the cardinal-bishop
eexecuted by order of Henry
V
VIII, who in life ate his dinner
w
with a human skull on the table
tto remind him of his mortality.
““Unsurprisingly,”
Wooding
w
writes, “he ate very little.”
Dozens of volumes about
tthe Tudors roll on to the shelves
e
every
year. Very few are this
sserious, this readable and this
f of fun.
full

n 2014 Bono attempted the most Bonolike act of all time. He talked Apple’s
Tim Cook into putting U2’s new album
Songs of Innocence on to the devices of
500 million iTunes customers whether
they liked it or not. It wasn’t long before
outraged non-U2 fans the world over were
demanding that Bono turn up with a
screwdriver and prise it out.
“We didn’t just put our bottle of milk at
the door but in every fridge in every house
in town,” writes Bono — born Paul Hewson in 1960, but nicknamed after a Dublin
hearing aid shop called Bonavox — in his
memoir Surrender. “In some cases we
poured it onto the good people’s Cornflakes. And some people like to pour their
own milk.”
They certainly do, just as people in the
developing world might like to speak for
themselves, rather than have an international rock star speak for them. “Quite
quickly we realised we’d bumped into a
serious discussion about the concern
people have about the access of Big Tech to
our lives,” he continues. “The part of me
that will always be punk rock [Which part?
His haircut?] thought this was exactly
what the Clash would do. Subversive. But
subversive is hard to claim when you’re
working with a company that’s about to be
the biggest on Earth.”
Although Bono’s memoir frequently
descends into humourless grandiosity
— and although it is overreliant on the
use of single-word sentences to make.
Platitudinous. Statements. Appear. More.
Profound. Than. They. Really. Are —
it displays more self-awareness and
humility than you might expect from
this world-saving type.
Within a narrative that uses U2’s songs
as his guide he even acknowledges being
guilty of “white saviour syndrome”, quoting the Senegalese proverb, “If you want to
cut a man’s hair, make sure he is in the
room.” Most revealingly, he goes to the
heart of where his vaulting ambitions and
messianic tendencies came from.
Bono is clear about the defining tragedy
of his life: the death of his mother, Iris. “I’m
fourteen and strangely calm,” he writes,
in the aftermath of Iris collapsing at the
funeral of her father. What at first seems
like fainting turned out to be a deadly
stroke. “I tell my mother’s sisters and
brothers that everything is going to be
okay. But everything won’t be okay.”
Going on to reflect that “abandonment
is probably the root of paranoia”, Bono
points out that Paul McCartney, Bob
Geldof, John Lydon and John Lennon
also lost their mothers at an early age,
suggesting it instilled in them a drive to get

‘small man, big songs’ Bono is at his best when he punctures his self-importance

from the world the love that was denied
to them by the death of a parent. This is
Bono at his best: thoughtful, reflective,
revealing a wisdom that his rock-star persona covers up.
Then there is his opera-loving father,
Bob. As Bono’s inexhaustibly patient wife,
Ali, points out, he has subconsciously
blamed Bob for the death of his mother
and the anger inside him is a product of
that, as well as Bob seemingly having little
time for his second son. “There are only a
few routes to making a grandstanding stadium singer out of a small child,” he posits.
“You can tell them they’re amazing, that
the world needs to hear their voice. Or you
can just plain ignore them. That might be
more effective.”
What drove him to front the biggest rock
band of the Eighties? “Patricide. The stuff
of the great operas. U2’s music was never
really rock’n’roll. Under its contemporary
skin it is opera — a big music, big emotions
unlocked in the pop music of the day.” As
for his part in U2, he describes it thus: “A
small man singing big songs.”
The shock in Surrender is how dangerous being a small man singing big songs
turns out to be. You would think Sunday
Bloody Sunday, a heartfelt protest at the
tragedy of January 30, 1972, when 26 un-

What drove him to
front the biggest
rock band of the
Eighties? ‘Patricide’
armed people on a civil rights march in
Derry were shot by British soldiers, 14 fatally, would find favour with Irish republicans. But Bono shouting “this song is not a
rebel song” on a live version for the 1983
concert LP Under a Blood Red Sky led to
death threats. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein
leader, said that Bono “stinks”.
A decade later a gangland leader
hatched a plan to kidnap Bono and Ali’s
daughters for ransom. Bono was warned
before a concert in Phoenix, Arizona that
if he included a verse about Martin Luther
King’s assassination in Pride (In the Name
of Love) he wouldn’t make it to the end of
the song. He sang it anyway, kneeling
down with his eyes closed. “I might have
missed the messiah complex at work in my
own anxiety,” he admits, “but it was only

when I opened my eyes that I realised I
couldn’t see the crowd. [U2’s bassist] Adam
Clayton was blocking the view, standing
right in front of me. He stood in front of me
for the length of the verse.”
Bono is at his best at moments like this:
puncturing his own self-importance while
revealing the moral drive that comes in
part from a deep-rooted Christian faith.
He accepts that U2’s late-Nineties Pop
tour, when they abandoned the earnest
Americana for postmodern artifice, was a
mistake; “playing to half-filled stadiums,
which wasn’t particularly pop-ulist of us”.
There’s a great scene where he ends up
at Frank Sinatra’s house at Palm Springs.
Intimidated by Sinatra’s tough-guy act, he
tries to keep up with his host’s hard drinking ways and ends up thinking he has wet
himself. He sits motionless, frozen in
horror and shame, for 20 minutes, thinking, “I am a jerk, I am a tourist, I am back
in my cot at four years of age.” Then he realises he just spilt his drink on his trousers.
Harder to take are the moments when
Bono loses all perspective and becomes,
for want of a better term, excessively
Bono-like. “The cerebral nature of our enquiries, mine specifically, may sometimes
appear pretentious,” he writes, imploring
the reader to reply: “Pretentious, vous?”
“When you invite the Muse to come in, she
may bring her sisters,” he muses, on the
arrival of Christy Turlington, Helena
Christensen and Naomi Campbell to 1991’s
Zoo TV tour; a deadly combination of
poetic whimsy and supermodel namedropping. “It was part reverie and part revelry, part rosary and part rosé,” he says of
falling asleep in a French chapel. That is a
sentence nobody needs to write — or read.
Nonetheless, Bono has led a remarkable
life, U2 set the template for big-scale concert drama from the Eighties onwards, and
he is a rare example of a one-woman
family-man rock star. At the root of it all
you don’t doubt his decency or integrity,
which gives Surrender, despite its descents
into pretentiousness and pomposity, its
charm. “A certain emotional candour, the
uncool stuff,” he writes, of the things he
can do that more credible frontmen cannot. “Brian Eno above all else believed that
U2 should never surrender to cool.” In that
they succeeded, with Bono, never cool,
sometimes ridiculous, undoubtedly passionate, pushing them along the whole
way through.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

14 saturday review

MARTIN PARR/MAGNUM PHOTOS; KETTLE’S YARD/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; ALAMY

books

Landlubbers!
This book will
give you sea fever
From Alfred Wallis to Tracey Emin’s Margate
beach hut, this is an elegant guide to a
century of seaside art, says Laura Freeman

‘I

must go down to the seas again, to
the lonely sea and the sky . . .” And
you must take this book with you.
Lily Le Brun’s Looking to Sea is a
book for the wave-watchers, the
beachcombers, the sunbathers and all who
like to be beside the seaside with a sketchbook and their paints. I took an early proof
to Whitstable in July and read the first
chapters over fish and chips.
Read again in October in my Paddington flat, it was just as transporting. Le Brun
is an art critic who lives between London
and Paris. She’s a landlubber, a day tripper,
a critic who makes for the coast whenever
she can. I liked this. There are too many
wild-swimming memoirs that make you

As a child, Vanessa
Bell wondered if
St Ives was another
world with its own sky
feel you can never truly know the sea
unless you are up to the gills every day.
Le Brun’s is an elegant scheme: ten
works of art, one for each decade of the
20th century. The sea is never the same.
“Art,” she writes, “reveals a different relationship with the shoreline, one that is as
shifting and slippery as water itself. It
shows us how there is a sea for war and a
sea for play; a sea that provides a livelihood
and a sea that rests and soothes. It tells us
of seas that are loved and seas that are
feared; seas that can carry you away and
seas that will not let you leave.”
We start at Studland Beach, Dorset, in
1910, with the Bloomsbury painter Vanessa

Bell. She paints the backs of her toddler
son Julian and his nursemaid in straw
boaters, and a cluster of children around
a white bathing tent. The scene is
Edwardian, the painting defiantly modern.
Bell and her sister Virginia Stephen, later
Woolf, spent their childhood summers on
the beach.
In 1881 their father, Sir Leslie Stephen,
writer, critic and cliff-walker, wrote to a
friend: “Did I tell you I have bought a little
house at St Ives, down at the very toenail of
England?” Here, Virginia remembered,
her sister, Vanessa, “was a happy creature!
Beginning to feel within her the spring of
unsuspected gifts, that the sea was beautiful and might be painted some day.” Finding Cornwall so different from London,
Vanessa asked her father whether St Ives
was another world with its own sky.
When Virginia joined her sister at
Studland nearly 30 years later, she wrote
of their days by the waves. “Julian rushes
straight into the sea, and falls flat on his
face. Nessa tucks her skirts up, and wades
about with him.” Virginia, meanwhile,
hired a bathing dress “and swam far out,
until the seagulls played over my head mistaking me for a drifting sea anemone”.
From summertime peace to the wastes
of war. In September 1914 Paul Nash joined
the Artists Rifles as an infantryman. From
the Passchendaele front line on November
13, 1917, he wrote to his wife, Margaret, of
what three months of rain had done.
“I have seen the most frightful nightmare of a country ever conceived by Dante
or Poe — unspeakable, utterly indescribable. The rain drives on; the stinking mud
becomes more evilly yellow, the shell holes
fill up with green white water, the roads &

a shore thing New Brighton by Martin Parr, from The Last Resort, 1983-85

Looking to Sea
Britain Through the
Eyes of Its Artists
by Lily Le Brun
Sceptre, 320pp; £25

sea view Two Ships and a Steamer Sailing Past a Port, 1931, by Alfred Wallis

water works
Shipbuilding on the
Clyde: Burners, 1940, by
Stanley Spencer

tracks are covered in inches of slime, the
black dying trees ooze & sweat and the
shells never cease.”
Lieutenant JW Naylor of the Royal
Artillery wrote of fields becoming “a sea of
mud. Literally a sea. You can drown in it.”
Troops joked bleakly about calling in the
navy. Le Brun cannot help but see the dark,
scored waves of Nash’s Winter Sea, painted
at Dymchurch, Kent, in 1925, as like the
lines of trenches.
To understand what it is to be at sea we
turn to Alfred Wallis, the ancient mariner
of St Ives, the “primitive” artist who took
up painting in his dotage. His little pictures
are like seas seen through portholes.
The perspective is upset, upturned, made
near vertical by waves. Cornwall, wrote
Wallis with remarkable insight for a supposed art-world outsider, was “all Right to
make But not to sell . . . inlan Towns is the
Best for sellin ships”.
During the Second World War the painter Stanley Spencer was sent to Lithgows
shipyard on the River Clyde at Port Glasgow. One welder remembered the artist as
“quiet, no brash, no push”. There was so
much to see that Spencer ran out of sketchbook and could be spotted trailing rolls of
lavatory paper on which he rapidly drew.
The series he painted, Shipbuilding on the
Clyde (1940), hangs in the Imperial War
Museum. The central section is slightly taller than the rest, giving it the shape of a submarine, conning tower and all.
Bridget Riley gave us black and white
waves and optical tides. Le Brun describes

the artist’s horror, arriving in New York in
1965, to find Madison Avenue mannequins
and shop windows covered in rip-offs of
her ripples. At the opening of her exhibition Riley tried to avoid “the people who
were most completely dressed in ‘me’ ”.
In the 1980s the photographer Martin
Parr snapped the holidaymakers of New
Brighton, not far from Liverpool, for a
series he called The Last Resort. Critics
complained that his beach scenes had
made the working classes “appear fat,
simple, style-less, tediously conformist”.
New Brighton was “a clammy, claustrophobic nightmare world where people lie
knee-deep in chip papers, swim in polluted
black pools, and stare at a bleak horizon
of urban dereliction”. Le Brun takes this
as a diving-off point for a history of the
decline and fall of the seaside town.
Decline, fall and, in the case of Margate,
coastal renaissance. In the 1990s we find
Tracey Emin kneeling naked on the floor
of the Whitstable beach hut she bought
with her fellow YBA Sarah Lucas and
which was subsequently burnt in the 2004
Momart fire. “Mad Tracey from Margate”
was how she styled herself. After a youth
wanting to escape, Emin is back in Margate, where she, no longer a jeune fille terrible but a grande dame of British art, has
built a home, studio and foundation to
support young artists.
This book will give you sea fever.
Pack your sou’wester, fill your Thermos,
take a train to the coast. Read this sitting
on the pier and see what you can see.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 15

Paul Newman: my mother, the monster
GETTY IMAGES; MARK KAUFFMAN/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK

The Hollywood
heart-throb’s memoir
reveals his darker,
damaged side. Review
by Melanie Reid

Paul Newman.
Right: with his
wife Joanne
Woodward

P

sychotherapists seeking a case
study of a man with a mummy
problem need look no further
than this faintly hair-raising posthumous memoir by Paul Newman. The blue-eyed screen legend had, it
turns out, a monster for a mother. Tress
Newman oppressed and abused her son,
one moment preening over his beauty, the
next attacking him for no reason. She did,
he makes apparent, screw him up for life.
The book comes from a project Newman started in the 1980s when he was in
his sixties. He wanted to set the record
straight: to reveal the truth behind the
tabloid fairytale of his life. He and Stuart
Stern, a friend and screenwriter, met over
a five-year period and taped confessional
conversations. Newman died aged 83 in
2008; only recently did his children uncover the 14,000 pages of transcripts, locked
away, forgotten. They decided to publish.
Beneath his desire for privacy, Newman
hid a visceral dislike for the woman who
made him her puppet and “orphaned” him
from his emotions for 50 years. Tress was
a Slovakian-born theatre ticket girl in
Cleveland, Ohio, who had divorced her
first, abusive husband. She met Arthur
Newman, a prosperous Jewish businessman, and became pregnant. He married
her under duress. His family regarded her
as a gold-digging hussy; she became isolated and emotionally unstable.
Paul, their second son, was born in 1925
— a beautiful child whom she dressed like
a doll. If he looked pretty, she sobbed with
joy, wildly overdramatic. But it wasn’t
about me, Newman said, it was all about
her own flood of ecstasy. He was “decoration”, just like her house: manicured,
perfect, shoes off at the door, sheets covering the furniture.
Inside her lurked rage. Newman never
knew where he stood. One moment his
mother cooed over him, the next, for
absolutely no reason, she attacked him
with a hairbrush, then smothered him in
love again. He lived permanently on eggshells. So bad was it that he and his brother
took to banging their heads against a wall
upstairs, politely taking turns to leave big
dents as an expression of their distress.
“This was not some tippy-toe banging: this
was serious whacking that took down the
plaster behind the wall covering. We must
have knocked our f***ing brains out. It was
our own Wailing Wall.”
Outwardly respectable, their parents’
marriage was disastrous. The boys lay in
bed in a house that “contained the sounds
of constant warfare”. Sometimes quiet —
“like commandos moving silently through
the night” — sometimes noisy, when their
mother erupted and they’d hear fighting,
shouting, things smashing.
Newman’s aunt described his parents as
sick. Trapped by Tress’s temper and irrationality, Arthur felt unable to divorce.
Understandably, he retreated into reading
the Encyclopaedia Britannica end to end
several times, and became a secret
alcoholic, dying at 56.

The
Extraordinary
Life of an
Ordinary Man
A Memoir
by Paul Newman
Century, 297pp; £25

At 12, Newman remembered going for a
walk with his father and not a single
thought passed between them. “If you’re a
non-talker and your kids never ask, what
then?” He gave his sons nothing. Newman
said as a boy he had no mentor, no rock, no
one to point him in the right direction. “I
got no emotional support from anyone.”
Instead, his father was dismissive and sarcastic. Playing outside one day, the boy
broke his ankle, and met his father on the
way home from work. He asked for help.
“Are you kidding?” Arthur said, walking on.
Small wonder Newman, when he
escaped to college, went wild: drinking
hard and fast, studying little. He felt anaesthetised, blacked out from emotions. A
contemporary from college remembered
him as lascivious and dangerous — “probably the best-known guy on campus . . . he
drank and screwed more, he was tough
and cold, which turned on the girls”. He
recalled Newman running around stark
naked, drunk out of his mind.
After serving on torpedo bombers during the Second World War, Newman went
into provincial theatre, where he met and
within months married a fellow actor,
Jackie Witte, “the first woman I could talk

to”. Not about contraceptives, plainly; she
was swiftly pregnant. Newman’s mother
hated Jackie, a daughter of a lowly butcher,
who’d taken her son.
Their son Scott was the beginning, Newman said, of his great failure as a husband,
lover, father, actor. Already casually unfaithful to Jackie, he was on Broadway in
1953, the year his second child was born,

‘The only peace Paul
ever found was in
being dead drunk,’
his wife once said
when he fell for Joanne Woodward. They
began a passionate affair. Woodward, he
said, created him as a sex symbol. “Orphans do have big appetites, and Joanne
and I seemed like a couple of orphans.” But
he couldn’t bring himself to leave his wife
for four years, during which time they had
a third child.
Eventually he divorced, and married
Woodward, confessing that he didn’t comfort or explain anything to the three children he left. He said he didn’t really get it, that

d a gift
ift for
f fathering.
f thering After Scott’s
he lacked
death from drug addiction in 1978, for
which Newman blamed himself, it took him
three days to go to be with his son. “I would
not want to have been one of my children.”
Meanwhile, the sexiness Woodward released in Newman was creating screen
gold. “A total sexual animal,” said Martin
Ritt, director of The Long Hot Summer. At
home, Newman and Woodward turned a
room off the master bedroom into what
they called the F*** Hut, where they’d go
several nights a week — something the
three little girls they had together grew up
accepting.
Oedipus ever lurked, of course. At the
height of Newman’s fame, when he was
chauffeuring the elderly Tress, she announced triumphantly that Woodward
hated her because Tress knew she was
having an affair with Gore Vidal (who was
gay). Newman slammed on the brakes,
threw her out of the car and drove off. For
insulting his wife, he didn’t speak to Tress
for 15 years. “It was such a relief to use that
as an excuse to escape from her. She represented all my leaden baggage, the parts of
myself I didn’t like. That sense of subservience, uncertainty, not knowing where the
next attack was coming from.”
His brother organised the eventual reunion, where his mother went straight for
the jugular, attacking the film industry for
violence, profanity and sex. They saw little
of each other again. She died in 1982, after
which he recorded the tapes and declared:
“Until recently, I could feel very little.”
All his life Newman self-medicated with
alcohol. In the book friends testify that he
drank through the night, weeping about his
mother’s baiting. Often he drank until he
passed out. “Many nights he would get
exceedingly ugly and bad, curse everything, the business, his work, his failures as
a husband and father, until he was just
making slurred animal noises.” At the
beginning of their marriage Woodward
would sit up with him. Later, she didn’t, and
their 50-year marriage was not without its
troubles. In 1971, after he nearly killed himself in a fall, Newman gave up spirits, admirably limiting himself to a case of beer a day.
Release came through the 1969 film
Winning, which led him into motor racing
and a different way to exist on the edge
between catastrophe and control. Woodward, who is not much quoted (she has Alzheimer’s), once said: “I used to think the
only peace Paul ever found . . . was in being
dead drunk. Now he finds it in racing cars.”
Newman’s daughter Clea says in the
book that he evolved immensely in the last
quarter of his life, freed by his mother’s
death. In many ways this memoir is incomplete, but it’s never not psychologically fascinating — a compelling insight into how
profoundly right Philip Larkin was about
the power of bad parents.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

16 saturday review

POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES

Scenes from England’s
first international
fixture against Scotland
in 1872

books

England’s
agony — 1966
and all that
Robert Crampton on 150 years of
hurt and counting — and ‘one golden
summer afternoon’ at Wembley

I

n the 150 years since the first international football fixture — England v
Scotland in Glasgow on November 30
1872 — England have played just 1,036
matches. Thanks at first to not having

many prospective opponents, then wars,
then failing to attend (or qualify for)
several tournaments, England games have
a scarcity value. Maybe that’s why I keep
coming back. Maybe, as when the brain
blots out the pain of childbirth to ensure
further pregnancies, evolution has developed selective amnesia for viewers of
England football matches. Maybe, just
after you’ve spent two hours of your life
shouting at England on the telly, Tommy
Lee Jones and Will Smith turn up and ask
you to look into a neuralyzer.
I’m 58 years old, born in 1964. The first
England game I remember was in the
spring of 1972. I kid myself that I remember
the 1970 World Cup, the Brazilian kit lighting up colour telly, but it’s a false memory,
the product of endless replays over five
decades. England against West Germany,
however, in the quarter final of the European Championships, I remember that
evening. Lying on the sofa thinking this is
a bit rubbish. My dad and my brother being
disappointed, so me being disappointed
too. The Germans being better than us.
The England team that night, Paul Hayward notes, had five of the fabled “Boys of
’66” in the starting line-up. I now know
you can’t pick almost half a team on the
basis of what they did six years earlier.
Spain tried it in Brazil in 2014: five of the
sublime eleven who’d won the 2008 Euros
turned out against an average Netherlands and lost 5-1. It’s not just the English
who insist on dining out on former glories.
That 1972 game was match 459. So in
the 50 years since, there have been 577
England games. Since that 1970 World
Cup, England have reached the finals of 18
major competitions, about one every three
years. There must be hundreds of thousands of Englishmen my age with a similar
track record, slogging through the qualifiers and many of the friendlies, alone in the
front room on a winter’s night, doing your
patriotic duty, enjoyment rarely involved.
Then every few years getting excited for
the actual tournaments with a much wider
audience, wife and kids piling on the bandwagon, flags on cars, daft song in the
charts, possibly utter humiliation, possibly
a brief surge of hope, either way crushing
despair in the end. Then
back to the grindstone for
Poland away, Katowice in
the rain in September. Never
has Nick Hornby’s insight
that football fandom is essentially masochistic applied
more accurately than to
those who follow the
national team.
Some of the most awful
people in England go to
watch England at Wembley.
Angry, bitter, resentful, abusive drunks. But I sometimes
wonder if I’m much better.
My children hate watching
England games with me. I’m
too invested. Too loud. Too
unhinged in celebration, too
miserable and morose in defeat. I could never have done
what Paul Hayward, and my colleagues on
the sports desk at The Times, do so well,
keeping their heads and their distance in
the face of the anxiety, and occasionally
agony, sometimes tedium, every so often
blind unadulterated joy, of watching
England play football.
Hayward is just five months younger
than me. For 30-plus years he has been an
increasingly admired football writer with
the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail
and Observer. He must have watched close
to a maximum of those same almost 600
fixtures, a majority of them in the flesh.
Respect to him for that. And respect to him

England
Football
The Biography
1872-2022
by Paul Hayward
Simon & Schuster,
613pp; £25

England’s record
Played

1036

Won

592

Drawn

249

Lost

195

Goals for

2270

Goals against 1000

too for producing this comprehensive,
readable history of what isn’t, one realises,
actually 56 years of hurt and counting, but
150 years of bungling, insularity, prejudice,
shame and arrogance punctuated by “one
golden summer afternoon . . . in the honeyed light of Wembley,” July 30 1966.
There’s good stuff on the courage of
black British footballers, both the initial
picks in the 1980s and the lads who even
now suffer racist abuse when turning out
for their country. The difference now is at
least the FA comes to their defence. It
didn’t used to, not very vigorously anyway.
There are interesting pen portraits of char-

acters from way back, Victorian heroes
and polymaths such as the first captain,
Cuthbert Ottoway, old Etonian, Oxford
blue in multiple sports, FA Cup winner,
Middlesex cricketer, barrister — and dead
from pneumonia at 27. As the decades roll
by, Hayward seems to lose his confidence,
recoiling from anecdote and opinion, assuming the role of lofty chronicler.
I suppose I was hoping, with all his insider info and expert know-how, he would do
two things besides faithfully retell the
story. I thought I’d get gossip I hadn’t
heard before. I reckon Hayward could
have been a teensy bit more indiscreet.
Also, I hoped he might offer a fresh analysis of why England have underachieved
so miserably in big tournaments, despite a
dominant domestic league and a fine
record in European club competitions.
Germany have got to eight World Cup
finals, winning four. England are stuck
on one. Fair enough, we won it, but we
still needed a happy combination of
four world-class players peaking around the same time,
h
home
advantage and a welld
disposed
Azeri linesman to do
s No wonder Gareth Southso.
g
gate
calls 1966 “an outlier”.
B it shouldn’t be. Hayward
But
ccasts no new light on the con
nundrum, beyond the usual
ttale of xenophobia, incompettence, over-promoted manageers, antiquated formations,
aamateurish preparation and
b
being crap at penalties.
Plus fear of failure, of course:
E
England turned up at Euro
11988 in West Germany with a
fforward line of John Barnes,
Peter Beardsley,
Beard
Gary Lineker and Chris
Waddle, plus Bryan Robson and Glenn
Hoddle, for goodness sake! Absolutely topclass players, every one. They promptly
lost all three group games and were back
home in less than a week.
Maybe there’s nothing new to say. And
anyway, St Gareth seems to have got
things in order now. Or he did have until
this summer, when we went rubbish again,
despite the best-ever crop of young talent.
We shall see how they fare in Qatar next
month. It’s a weird time of year for a World
Cup, and a disgraceful venue, but even so,
we’ll be glued to it, going through the
familiar agonies, hoping desperately to
finally find another oasis in the desert.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 17

‘A petty, vulgar harlot’: Italy’s fascist princess
ARCHIVIO GBB/ALAMY

was “the girl in every port”; rumours circulated that she had slept with 40,000 men.
While that was surely impossible, she
was undoubtedly enjoying her war, still
strutting, still gambling, still sleeping
around. A friend described her as “tartly
intelligent, capricious as a wild mare and
endowed with a thoroughbred ugliness”.
Impressively myopic, she refused to
acknowledge the hopelessness of her
situation.
The end came quickly and brutally.
With Allied armies advancing across
southern Italy, most Italians accepted the
inevitability of defeat. In July 1943 the
Gran Consiglio — what passed for a cabinet — voted for Mussolini’s removal.
Ciano, who could have abstained, instead
voted in favour. The Duce was arrested,
only to be rescued by the Germans, who
installed him as head of a puppet state in
the area they still occupied. Captured and
tried for treason by Mussolini’s ersatz government, Ciano was executed on January
11, 1944. On her last visit to her father, a
furious row ended with Edda calling him

The Duce’s odious, self-indulgent
daughter is given more sympathy than
she deserves, says Gerard DeGroot

T

he daughter of the Duce had no
redeeming features. Edda Mussolini was supposedly intelligent, but seldom used her brains
for good purpose. Her handsome appearance was ruined by a permanent scowl — a resting bitch face. She
adored clothes, gambling, alcohol and
men, but always found reason to be unhappy. Edda was a fascist when it was
convenient and apolitical when it was not.
She was, in short, thoroughly odious.
In this biography, Edda is given more
importance than she merits and more
sympathy than she deserves. Caroline
Moorehead takes on a tough brief; she usually writes about people easy to admire,
such as Bertrand Russell or Martha Gellhorn. Edda Mussolini instead brings to
mind Ivanka Trump; she possessed little
significance beyond that provided by her
father. When his star was ascendant, so
was hers; when he fell, so did she.
Critics at the time portrayed her as an
arch manipulator of the Duce, yet that
seems like plain misogyny; a woman arbitrarily blamed for catastrophe. “Much is
said about Edda’s influence on me,” Mussolini protested. “I listen to her . . . but I take
my decisions on my own.”
One writer called her the “most dangerous woman in Europe”. That’s also ludicrous since few women in the first half
of the 20th century possessed the agency
to be dangerous. That descriptor was
unfortunately chosen as the book’s subtitle, although Moorehead herself casts
doubt on Edda’s real danger. “Her power
was never of a concrete kind, not least
because she was a woman, and because she
was quickly bored with the minutiae of
daily decisions.”
Born in 1910, Edda was her father’s
favourite. He called her “la figlia della povertà” — the daughter of poverty. “I was
barefoot, wild and hungry,” she recalled, “a
miserable child.” He moulded her to be like
him — strong, fearless, stubborn. A Mussolini, he insisted, must never cry. Discovering that she was afraid of frogs, he forced
her to hold one. When family fortunes
improved and she begged for ballet lessons, he refused, telling her that ballet was
the first step to a brothel.
As a teenager, she had a fondness for bad
boys, although her father
usually scared them off.
After he became prime
minister in 1922, Edda
was, Moorehead writes,
“supposed to stand for
everything that was best
about Fascist womanhood”.
The press, tightly controlled, co-operated in the
creation of an ideal fascist
princess, ignoring her
unappealing nature. She
hated the attention, but
also craved it. Edda didn’t
care about being loved, but
she did want to be seen.
At the age of 19, she married Galeazzo Ciano, a diplomat and
dandy. The Mussolini connection brought
him a plush posting to Shanghai. Edda

Edda Mussolini
The Most Dangerous
Woman in Europe
by Caroline Moorehead
Chatto & Windus,
405pp; £20

She had a fondness
for bad boys, though
her father usually
scared them off

proximity to power
Edda Mussolini at age 19.
Below: Benito Mussolini
with his wife, Rachele,
and their five children
c 1930

loved it there; the chaotic decadence was
a relief from the suffocating asceticism
of home. She discovered gambling
and infidelity, embracing both with gusto.
Her losses at the table invariably
provoked histrionic selfp
pity, as if she had been
ccheated. When she discoveered her husband’s pencchant for promiscuity, she
cchose to match him tit
fo
for tat.
The “golden young
ccouple of the new Fascist
aaristocracy” returned to
R
Rome in 1932. Three
yyears later she went to
G
Germany to court Hitler
aand his cronies, forming
w
what she thought was a
fr
friendship with Joseph
aand Magda Goebbels.
S
She fell hopelessly in
lo
love with the dynamic
il off Nazism and its capacity for action.
evil
She judged her visit a huge success, which,
Moorehead argues, “said something about
the ease with which she could be seduced”.

Her “need for admiration . . . dulled her
political intuition”.
In 1936 Ciano was appointed foreign
secretary. He wanted desperately to keep
Italy out of war, preferring neutrality
similar to Franco’s Spain. Edda, however,
was attracted to war’s drama, urging her
father to be a loyal ally to Hitler. She
convinced herself that “when we make war
on England”, the Americans would side
with Italy. As Moorehead writes: “She
craved action, movement, certainty; but
she thought little about where they led”.
Meanwhile, the sybaritic lifestyle continued. “We must deprive ourselves of
nothing,” she confessed, “because we
know that the guillotine awaits.”
Partly due to Ciano’s influence, Italy
delayed declaring war until June 1940.
Both Edda and her father thought the conflict would be over quickly and that the
spoils of victory would be considerable.
Instead, the war went badly from the
beginning, causing Italians to turn against
Mussolini and his family. Edda, once the
golden fascist princess, became a convenient focus of hatred. Gossip spread about
her appetite for luxury. Her new nickname

Pontius Pilate. She later confessed that she
hated him so fiercely because she had once
loved him so deeply.
Now a pariah, Edda discovered she’d
never really had friends. To Goebbels, she
was just a “petty and vulgar harlot”. After
escaping to Germany, she sought asylum
in Switzerland. She was given refuge in a
convent, where her prodigious drinking
and clandestine affairs quickly annoyed
her hosts. While at the convent, she learnt
of her father’s execution on April 28, 1945.
He was, she later reflected, “the only man
I ever really loved”.
In September, Edda returned to Italy to
stand trial. Among the charges against her
was one for behaving “in an immoral Fascist way”. That seems fair. She was sentenced to two years’ detention on the island of Lipari; effectively, incarceration in
a resort.
If Edda had been important, she would
have been executed like her father and husband. Instead, she lived until 1995, years
that must have been torturous, given the
lack of attention she received. Moorehead
is often overly sympathetic; a more critical
approach toward Edda would have been
appropriate. She’s a competent historian
and a good writer, but refrains from the
analysis of character that might have been
illuminating. In truth, I struggled to understand why we need a biography of Edda, an
inconsequential woman notable only for
her ability to attract attention. An evil
woman like Lucrezia Borgia makes an excellent subject for biography, but Edda was
too lazy to be wicked. She was famous for
her proximity to power — a type who pollutes our lives all too often nowadays.
Perhaps, however, this book serves a
useful purpose, especially at a time when
Italy is again flirting with the far right.
Edda reminds us what fascists are really
like — odious extortionists who attract
a cult following and are then destroyed
by their own self-indulgence. They’re like
Dementors, sucking happiness from
society and leaving behind misery, darkness and despair.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

18 saturday review

FREDRIK SANDBERG/TT/SHUTTERSTOCK

books

What’s that noise upstairs?
These stories flicker
with weirdness but
prove disappointingly
tasteful. Review by
Jessa Crispin

T

here’s something strange about
that house. Weird houses,
haunted houses, houses that
simply won’t function as a safe
shelter have tremendous literary
potential, due to all of the emotional
content that resides in our homes. Feelings
of comfort, safety, possession and belonging. So if the house in a story misbehaves,
the reader is ready to encounter the uncanny and feel the fear as the thing that is
supposed to protect you puts you in
danger.
That is the foundation of Samanta
Schweblin’s collection of short stories,
Seven Empty Houses. Houses here drive
people a little mad. There’s a low-key surreality to these stories, which use dream
imagery and unconventional structure to
keep things weird.
There’s a woman who breaks into other
people’s houses to make their beds in what

Seven Empty
Houses
by Samanta Schweblin,
trans. Megan McDowell
Oneworld, 208pp; £12.99

she considers the right way or to run baths
with all their most expensive products.
People are ripping their clothes off to run
naked in the yard, people are flinging their
belongings into the gardens of their neighbours, teenage girls are drinking bleach.
The most successful of the stories is the
centrepiece, Breath from the Depths, about
an ailing woman who makes a plan to die.
There’s something strange about Lola’s
breathing; she “exhaled with a rough, deep
sound, so strange that she could never
quite comprehend that it came from her . . .
the sound was like an ancient being
breathing on her neck.” She wants to get it
over with and die, but she keeps waking up
every morning. She decides to “attenuate
her own life, reduce its space until she
eliminated it completely”.
As she begins to pack up her belongings
and discard everything that is superfluous,
she becomes increasingly paranoid about
the changing neighbourhood. It’s as if the
outside world fills the space she has
cleared. She swears people have been in
her garden and are hiding in the tree.
The new neighbours become an ominous threat. She longs for death, but it will
not come, and new life insists on forcing its
way in. The story is eerie and disturbing, as
Lola loses control of her body, the city
around her and her grip on reality.

weirded out In Samanta Schweblin’s stories, houses drive people a little mad

The other stories struggle to match the
intensity of Breath. They are mostly quite
short, flitting in and out without making
much of an impression. Schweblin sets a
scene and then ends it abruptly without
resolution. It’s a bit like catching a glimpse
of something unsettling in the window of
a house as you are driving by, what looks
like a woman putting a noose around her
neck but is probably just a necklace. It’s
compelling in the moment, but forgettable
once you correct your misperception.
Schweblin’s strength is in the longform,
like her much better novel Little Eyes,
about a craze for a Furby-like robotic toy
that allow strangers to peer into other
people’s houses through the toys’ eyes.
There she is still working with the same

ideas, the strangeness of other people’s
lives and the thinning line between public
and private. But in her novels she has
been able to expand and ground her vision
in something that feels weighty and
compelling.
In her stories, Schweblin relies heavily
on the quirky and off-centre image, like a
woman burying a sugar bowl in the backyard or a man volunteering to be murdered
by his wife, but they aren’t strong enough
to survive the turning of the page.
Worse still, excise Breath and the book is
that most dreaded of descriptors: tasteful,
something that would fit right in on a shelf
whose books are arranged by colour. Give
us the weird, Schweblin. We know you
have it in you.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 19
MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AP

Vladimir Putin
watching a
military exercise
with Valery
Gerasimov, his
chief of general
staff

War without
heroes —
the Putin way
of fighting
The failed invasion of Ukraine shows
that Russia learnt the wrong lessons
from past wars, says Roger Boyes

U

nder the dark stewardship of
Vladimir Putin, Russia has
gone to war several times. The
Second Chechen War and the
2015 intervention in Syria were
slaughterhouses. The assault on Georgia
in 2008 was short, bungled and nasty.
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has been
mismanaged from the start, its goals constantly adjusted, its portrayal by Putin — as
an all-out defensive war against the western puppets in Kyiv — ever more distorted.
For more than eight months there have
been almost daily Russian atrocities. It is a
war with no Russian heroes. Not even
Putin pretends otherwise.
The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly
the right book at the right time. It poses
clever questions: is the Russian army an
unreformable hulk, unfit for purpose, or
does it learn?
Putin’s Wars looks at how the need for
change dawned on the top brass, how the
generals began to recognise that the clank
of heavy armour has to be supplemented
by special forces operations, by electronic
warfare, by a propaganda machine, by disinformation and diversion. And how ultimately Russia learnt the wrong lessons
from the wrong wars and lost its way.
Galeotti’s book takes a brisk canter
through from the end of the Soviet Union
— and the humiliating withdrawal from
the boarded-up barracks in eastern
Europe — through the two Chechen wars
and on to Ukraine 2022. There is some
interesting reporting. In one of his
encounters he discusses the Afghan conflict with a former naval infantry soldier
who sheds light on the internal rivalries
with other elite units. “Paratroopers?” he
blurts out, “Those f***ing gloryhounds!”
Galeotti is particularly good at producing pen portraits of Russia’s top brass,
figures who for western observers seem to
be so interchangeable they might as well
have been wearing stocking masks.
Anatoly Serdyukov, formerly head of a
St Petersburg furniture company, was
brought in as defence minister in 2007, and
given the brief of stamping out corruption
and overspending in the armed forces. He
was accordingly hated, as a podgy civilian
overlord and as someone liable to expose
some of the secrets of Russian military culture. Before he could expand his purges,
he was stitched up. A dawn raid on the
13-room Moscow apartment of the head of
the military property department discovered a million pounds’ worth of cash, an-

Putin’s Wars
From Chechnya
to Ukraine
by Mark Galeotti
Osprey, 384pp; £25

tiques and jewellery. The investigators also found the minister in his dressing gown,
since the property chief was his lover.
Both Chechen wars, the first in 1994-96,
the second under Putin’s command
between 1999 and 2006, became bywords
for torture. Grozny, the capital, was taken
by the Russians, retaken by the rebels
and then flattened by mass air and
artillery bombardments. It was the
fiercest of urban warfare. Russian units
raked rooftops with anti-aircraft guns to
eliminate snipers.
The general in charge of the North Caucasus command, General Anatoly Kvashnin, made plain that the utter destruction
of Grozny was a war aim. “Let western
observers come to Grozny and see what we
have done to our own city, so that they
shall know what might happen to their
towns if they get rough with Russia.”
About 35,000 civilians were killed. Since
Chechnya, the tone of Russian talk about
war anywhere has grown coarser and
more vengeful.
Since then two of Putin’s wars could
be deemed a success. The first came in
2014, when “little green men”, soldiers
without identifying flashes, seized and
annexed Crimea. It was a dress rehearsal
for the Russian version of “hybrid warfare”.
Cyberattacks closed down Ukrainian
communications, rumours were spread,
equipment sabotaged. A Crimean “armed
self-defence force” was announced; a combination of units including the crack naval
infantry, the newly formed Special Operations Command and secretive Spetsnaz
commandos.
The FSB secret service brokered a temporary peace between two rival crime
gangs, the Salem and Bashmaki, and got
them to work with pro-Russian partisans.
As the days of occupation stretched into
months, various nationalists moved in,
clearly encouraged by Moscow: Cossacks,
Night Wolves bikers who worshipped
Putin, Afghan war vets.
This new style of invasion — spreading
chaos and blowing a smokescreen around
events — gave cover for a landgrab that
gravely violated international law.
The annexation took the West by surprise. It shouldn’t have done. Galeotti was
one of the first to have spotted a 2013 article in a stodgy Russian military journal
about a new way of war. It was written by
Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of
staff, and claimed that western govern-

ment fomented trouble in once-thriving
states to justify their intervention. This art
of undeclared war, Gerasimov argues, was
being road-tested under the guise of the
Arab Spring and the coloured revolutions
in former Soviet states. It was coming
Russia’s way and the armed forces had to
be ready for it, had to mirror what the sinister westerners were up to. Galeotti dubbed
the argument the Gerasimov Doctrine,
and the name, although it was intended to
be tongue-in-cheek, stuck.
Crimea was annexed without Russian
loss of life, and suggested that Moscow had
taken Gerasimov’s advice and was creating a nimble style of combat for a newly
confident army.
Putin perhaps thought something similar could be attempted in 2022, a Kyiv
snatch, the speedy toppling of the Zelensky government. And so it was that Putin’s
first big mistake in the 2022 war was the

Russia as a fighting
nation is no match
for a smoothly led
Nato operation
trust he placed on the intelligence services
who, cowed by fear of the arrogant Putin
inner circle, passed on only analyses that
the boss wanted to hear.
There were no joyously liberated
Ukrainians garlanding the invaders.
Zelensky did not flee. Ukrainian society
did not collapse. The trains kept running.
In 2014 the Ukrainian army was underfunded and unprepared. In the intervening years training programmes had been
set up for Ukrainian commanders. Nato
instructors had discovered a key fact: that
young Ukrainians could master the use of
sophisticated western kit in double time.
The Russians hadn’t noticed, and have
been paying for it in spilt blood.
The second Putin war to be regarded as
a successful model of Russian combat
was the campaign to break the back of
opposition to Moscow’s client dictator in
Syria, Bashar al-Assad. That war was
taught as a triumph of Russian generalship
in military academies by senior officers
just back from the front.
It was chiefly a bombing war against civilians in cities such as Aleppo. In Idlib
province, the Russians understood that air
power was not enough. While Syrian heli-

copters rolled out barrel bombs and Russian jets hit hospitals, generously paid Russian mercenaries took on some of the dirty
work on the ground that even Russian special forces did not want to touch.
The GRU, Russian military intelligence,
helped to keep the Assads safe. Military
advisers helped to co-ordinate with the
Assad loyalists. Putin packaged the Syrian
intervention as Russia’s contribution
to the war against terror — legitimising
the use of rockets against civilian apartment blocks by branding them as terrorist
nests. This had none of the subtlety of
Ukraine 2014, but it did give Putin the
confidence to assert himself.
Syrian veterans now run the battlefield
in Ukraine. The top soldier there was
Aleksandr Dvornikov, who was dubbed
the Butcher of Aleppo. This month he was
replaced by the equally thuggish Sergei
Surovikin, who served as an infantry commander in the Chechen wars, then as head
of the air force. In Syria he fought in Idlib
province. If he does well he is tipped to
become Putin’s overall chief of Russian
defence staff.
Even supposedly successful Russian
campaigns cannot prevent Putin’s soldiers
from shooting themselves in the foot. The
2022 Ukrainian campaign highlights the
problems that have been evident ever
since Putin took to the warpath. There is
the failure to master complex logistics in a
fast-moving war. There is the absence of
an effective class of non-commissioned
officers. Both have contributed to the low
morale of an exhausted Russian army.
Add to that the poor training and physical resilience of reservists and the gaping
holes in military culture, barrack-room
bullying and huge alcohol consumption
and it is clear that Russia as a fighting
nation is no match for a smoothly led Nato
operation.
Putin’s only chance of comprehensive
victory over Ukraine is to divide the western alliance and to undermine the morale
of Ukrainian soldiers by targeting their
families in vulnerable cities. What kind of
victory would that be? Not even Putin
seems to know any more.
Galeotti’s book, a distillation of his vast
knowledge about Russia’s spluttering military machine, makes one wonder whether
Putin’s failure to deliver a knockout
against Ukraine will be his undoing, not
just his last war but also the end of his
deluded regime.

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

20 saturday review

HAYWOOD MAGEE/PICTURE POST/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; CHRIS MCANDREW FOR THE TIMES

books

A romp through
seven decades
of British life
This warm-hearted
novel follows one
family from VE Day
to the pandemic, says
Melissa Katsoulis

A

usterity, the disintegration of
empire, ricochets from Russia,
Prince Charles gearing up for
his big investiture, the nation
gathering around television
sets for a glimpse of the Queen on her journey to Westminster, while a Dimbleby’s
comforting voice narrates. Football, the
latest Bond film and straight white people
quietly ignoring the troubles of their gay
and black countrymen.
These things are found in the Fifties to
Sixties section of Jonathan Coe’s Bournville,
which spans 70 years of British life, but the
eerie sense of history looping around to
meet us in the present is what this book is
all about. It’s also about chocolate, as the
title suggests, in particular the classic purple-wrapped bars from Cadbury’s that
were produced in the Midlands where Coe
grew up and where many of his novels are
set. Fans of The Rotters Club and What a
Carve Up! will be looking out for Trotters
and Foleys and they will find them, albeit
on the periphery of the central family, Doll
and Samuel and their descendants.
Doll is a postwar, lower-middle-class
housewife, handy with a broom but also a

Bournville
by Jonathan Coe
Viking, 368pp; £20

on the line More than 4,000 women were employed at Bournville, near Birmingham, in 1954. Below: Jonathan Coe

piano score, and grateful for the quiet
safety of Bournville, the model village
built to house workers at the local chocolate factory. Church and the pub and
listening to the wireless are what Samuel
does when he’s not at work.
Their daughter, Mary, is hungry for something more, but
not too much more, and
goes off to a London college where she must
choose between a safe
man and a fascinating
one. Mary becomes the
matriarch of the Lamb
family, whose children
and grandchildren are
free to choose careers in
music and writing and not
think too much about
Russia, racism or what will
become of the royal family.

As the decades roll by on this fast-paced
yet soothing romp through recent British
history, Doll’s descendants see the industries of their home county — chocolate
and cars — respond to the great upheavals
in Europe. Dairy Milk becomes an icon
of Englishness and snippy scenes in
Brussels show how the EEC and then the
EU’s niggling over whether British chocolate was indeed chocolate became an
overly emotional issue that led to where
we are now.
Coe’s stock-in-trade is to give us big
ideas wrapped in a pretty tissue of nostalgic detail and funny domestic scenes, and
Bournville is a classic example of this technique, albeit sometimes at the expense of
the depth and wit of his best-loved works.
While he commits to making us feel the
pain of a black woman being diminished
by her racist in-laws in the Eighties, or an
old man of German extraction being

beaten up by thugs at the end of the war, he
is also happy to reveal that just around the
corner there is always the joy of babies and
birthdays and falling in love.
The only unmitigated tragedy comes
at the end as Covid is beginning to take
hold. Coe shows the horrific impact of
lockdown on the elderly and dying in
scenes that are made doubly painful by his
note in the afterword that they are taken
from the life of his late mother.
Although occasionally Bournville’s characters appear more like ciphers for political
viewpoints rather than fully rounded
people, this charming read is as warming,
rich and comforting as a mug of hot chocolate. And just like a concoction of cocoa
powder, milk and sugar, it contains invisible
links to faraway lands, the green grass of
home and the history of global trade that
led this country to be what it is now. Whatever that may be.

Rereading Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
The cult writer’s first
novel, out of print for
three decades, is a
timely satire for our
AI age, says John Self

‘L

ife! Who can understand even
one little minute of it?” asked
Kurt Vonnegut, who was born
100 years ago. To mark his
centenary on November 11, we
have a reissue of his debut novel, Player
Piano, first published in 1952 and out of
print in Britain for three decades.
Player Piano is set in the near future when
there has been a second industrial revolution. “The first industrial revolution devalued muscle work, and the second devalued
routine mental work.” Machines have
taken over run-of-the-mill jobs. Hardly
anyone now has skills that society values:
for some, good riddance (“The lawyers!
It’s a pretty good thing what happened to
them”), although “barbering has held up
better than all the rest”.
As a result, the world — or the fictional
town of Ilium, New York, which stands in

for the world — is divided in three. In the
first part live the managers and engineers;
in the second are the machines that do the
work; and last is where they put people
who are no longer of any use, the plebs and
proles — most of us, in other words. It is, in
short, “a hell of a time to be alive” with “this
goddamn messy business of having to get
used to new ideas” — a feeling that each
generation discovers as its own novelty.
The plot follows Paul Proteus, a
manager and therefore one of the idle
rich (his only exercise is going up steps
two at a time). Through a process
including industrial espionage and
infiltration of a rebel group, Paul transforms himself from a cog in the machine
to a man who will stand up and fight.
In parallel, providing comic relief, we
meet the Shah of Bratpuhr, “spiritual
leader of six million people somewhere
else”, who is visiting Ilium “to see what he
could learn in the most powerful nation
on earth”. He doesn’t learn much: he can’t
distinguish between American soldiers and
slaves in his own country. “If these not
slaves, how you get them to do what
they do?”
Like the authorities who, with the best
intentions, allowed machines to take over

man v machine
Kurt Vonnegut

jobs, the Shah cannot see the value of
work in itself. One man is told he shouldn’t
complain because, materially, he has
everything he needs — but he has no sense
of purpose. When Paul Proteus plans to
buy a farm, hoping to be truly productive,
a man working there worries he’ll be
sacked: “This is what I do.”
In its light way, the book pushes huge
questions, such as the value of meritocracy: if you contend that people at the
top of society deserve to be there, it
must also be true for those at the
bottom. As one character puts it:
“ ‘The criterion of brains is better than
the one of money, but’ — he held his
thumb and forefinger about a sixteenth
of an inch apart — ‘about that much
better’.” It is “about as rigid a hierarchy as
you can get”.
In books like this, it’s fun to see what
came true — Vonnegut predicts video
doorbells and microwave-style cooking
(“supper will be ready in 28 seconds”) —
but more interesting is what stays the
same. As the AI revolution approaches, it’s
relevant still to ask what role society will
have for those of us who are not unnaturally bright or talented or beautiful. People
still need a sense of purpose.

Player Piano is not Vonnegut’s best novel
but the seeds of his trademarks are here: a
satirical eye on the world and a deep love
for humanity. In later books he would be
more daring in style and structure, more
directly funny and, increasingly, unafraid
to be sentimental. As well as his bestknown novel Slaughterhouse-Five, in the
1950s and 1960s he wrote a string of masterpieces: The Sirens of Titan, Mother
Night, Cat’s Cradle.

Vonnegut predicted
video doorbells and
microwave-style
cooking in 1952
Ah, life! Who can understand even one
little minute of it? In fact Vonnegut did
know what was important. “We are here
to help each other get through this thing,
whatever it is,” he said in his final interview, shortly before his death in 2007. It
was a vision he had never relinquished —
in his 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr Rosewater he put it this way: “There’s only one
rule I know of — God damn it, you’ve got
to be kind.”

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 21

bestsellers
audiobook
of the
week

Paperback Fiction

Hardback Fiction

Paperback Non-fiction

Hardback Non-fiction

1 (1)

1
It Starts With Us
(new) Colleen Hoover
Simon & Schuster £14.99

1 (1)

1 (1)

You Don’t Know What
War Is by Yeva Skalietska,
read by Keira Knightley,
Bloomsbury, 2hr 40min
Yeva Skalietska’s diary
entry for her 12th
birthday is full of joy at
the prospect of a bowling
party with her friends. A
week later she and her
granny are cowering in
the basement of their
Kharkiv apartment block
listening to Russian
missiles crash into homes,
schools and playgrounds.
This diary of a young
Ukrainian refugee covers
12 life-changing days at
the start of the war. The
agony she and her granny
feel at quitting their
home, first for rural
Ukraine, then for the
frontier and eventually for
Dublin, is thoughtfully
introduced by Michael
Morpurgo and narrated
by Keira Knightley.
I wanted to know more
about Ukraine, and am
now immersed in Ralph
Lister’s spirited reading
of Serhii Plokhy’s history,
The Gates of Europe
(Basic, 15hr 21min). The
legendary home of the
Scythians and Amazons,
Ukraine was overrun
by Greeks, Romans,
Cossacks, Vikings and
the Rus. Devastated by
Stalin, achieving
independence in 1991,
and now cruelly assailed
by Putin, it deserves all
the support we can give
it. Donations made to
the UN Refugee Agency
via Bloomsbury will be
matched by the publisher.
Christina Hardyment

2 (2) It Ends With Us
Colleen Hoover
Simon & Schuster £8.99

2 (1) A Heart Full of Headstones
Ian Rankin Orion £22

2 (2) Taste Stanley Tucci
Fig Tree £9.99

3 (2) The Bullet That Missed
Richard Osman Viking £20

3 (3) A Village in the Third Reich
Julia Boyd and Angelika Patel
Elliott & Thompson £10.99

The Christie Affair
Nina de Gramont
Pan £8.99

3 (3) Bewilderment
Richard Powers
Vintage £9.99
4 (4) The Man Who Died Twice
Richard Osman Penguin £8.99
5 (7) Oh William! Elizabeth Strout
Penguin £8.99
6 (6) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn
Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid
Simon & Schuster £8.99
7 (5) How to Kill Your Family
Bella Mackie Borough £8.99
8 (8) The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
Penguin £8.99
9
Treacle Walker
(new) Alan Garner
4th Estate £8.99
10 (—) The Island of Missing Trees
Elif Shafak Penguin £8.99

4
The Seven Moons of Maali
(new) Almeida Shehan Karunatilaka
Sort of Books £16.99

The Ruin of All Witches: Life
and Death in the New World
Malcolm Gaskill Penguin £9.99

One: Simple One-Pan Wonders
Jamie Oliver Michael Joseph £28

2 (—) Terry Pratchett: A Life with
Footnotes Rob Wilkins
Doubleday £25
3 (4) Guinness World Records 2023
Guinness World Records £22

4 (5) And Away . . . Bob Mortimer
Simon & Schuster £8.99

4
TommyInnit Says . . . The Quote
(new) Book Tom Simons and Will Gold
Quercus £14.99

5
The Boys from Biloxi
(new) John Grisham
Hodder & Stoughton £22

5 (4) The Devil You Know
Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne
Faber £8.99

5 (6) Diddly Squat: ’Til The Cows
Come Home Jeremy Clarkson
Michael Joseph £20

6 (8) Stone Blind Natalie Haynes
Mantle £18.99

6 (8) Helgoland
Carlo Rovelli
Penguin £10.99

6
I’m Glad My Mom Died
(new) Jennette McCurdy
Simon & Schuster £20

7 (6) This Much Is True
Miriam Margolyes
John Murray £9.99

7
The Lives of Brian
(new) Brian Johnson
Michael Joseph £25

8 (7) The Anglo-Saxons
Marc Morris Penguin £10.99

8 (2) Madly, Deeply: The Alan
Rickman Diaries Canongate £25

9 (9) Atomic Habits James Clear
Random House £16.99

9 (5) What Just Happened?!
Marina Hyde
Guardian Faber £20

7 (6) She and Her Cat
Makoto Shinkai and Naruki
Nagakawa Doubleday £10
8
If We Were Villains
(new) ML Rio Titan £18.99
9 (5) Lucy by the Sea
Elizabeth Strout
Viking £14.99
10 (—) Kingdom of the Feared
Kerri Maniscalco
Hodder & Stoughton £16.99

10 (10) Windswept & Interesting: My
Autobiography Billy Connolly
Two Roads £9.99

10 (3) Beyond the Wand
Tom Felton Ebury £20

THE NUMBER IN PARENTHESES REPRESENTS CHART POSITIONS LAST WEEK. DATA SUPPLIED BY WATERSTONES FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 22

children’s book
of the week
Alex O’Connell laps
up this tale of a little
witch who bakes
Leila the Perfect
Witch (2+) by
Flavia Z Drago,
Walker, 32pp;
£12.99
You know a social
issue is endemic
when it becomes
the narrative

driver in a picture book for tinies. If
you loved Elizabeth Day’s self-help bible
and podcast How to Fail,
especially aimed at helping
those girls paralysed
by perfectionism, well,
this is its pre-school
fictional equivalent,
with added magic spells
and pointy hats.
Leila Wayward is a
brilliant little witch who
seems good at everything:
she flies fast, she conjures
with skill, she shapeshifts
effortlessly. She is the
counter to Jill Murphy’s
clumsy if charismatic Worst Witch and
the ever accident-prone Meg in Helen
Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski’s Meg and

Mog classics. But what this A* student
wants more than anything is to bake
(
(she’s
from a family of
g
gourmands)
and, we sigh,
w The Magnificently
win
W
Witchy
Cake Off.
In fact, the witch tries so
h
hard
in the kitchen that she
h little time for the usual
has
H
Halloween fun. Plus Leila
is no Pru or Paul, and her
ccake recipe ends in disaster.
““Oh Basil, my family will be
sso disappointed in me! I’ll
n
never be a true Wayward,”
sshe confides to her frog pal.
Enter Leila’s sisters, who
teach her ho
how to sift flour, whip cream
and decorate. Thanks to this team effort
she gets to the last round (best not to

overthink the lesson here), but, more
importantly, enjoys herself and copes
with the final result.
The writer and illustrator Flavia Z
Drago (Gustavo, the Shy Ghost) was
born and brought up in Mexico, and the
country provides the colourful setting
for the story, which is told through
punchy words and vibrant artwork, the
latter bringing a distinctly Seventies
aesthetic to a most contemporary tale.
More news for witch fanciers: a lovely
35th anniversary edition of Winnie the
Witch, the first in the very funny series
by Valerie Thomas, illustrated by
Korky Paul, has been published (Oxford
Children’s Books). Revisit the story of
Winnie’s desperate mission to change
her cat Wilbur’s colour, or lap it up for
the first time. Happy Halloween.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 23

tv & radio Full seven-day listings & previews
Critic’s choice
SAS Rogue
Heroes

Radio choice
Moving Pictures
Tue, Radio 4, 11.30am

Sun, BBC1, 9pm
May 1941. The Egyptian desert.
High-risk derring-do is afoot,
conducted by renegade British
commandos with a fine line in
wit as they stand against Nazi
Germany and fascist Italy.
Yes, this new six-parter is a
good old-fashioned desert war
drama in so many ways. What
isn’t very John Mills, though,
is AC/DC on the soundtrack,
some fruity swearing and a
wham-bam style — for this
has been created by Steven
Knight, based on Ben
Macintyre’s book, and it’s
every bit as stylistically
exhilarating as Knight’s Peaky
Blinders and Taboo.
The enemy is on the push to
take the Suez Canal — if Suez
is lost, then Africa, the war, is
lost. But . . . the enemy hasn’t
reckoned on hard-drinking
maverick David Stirling
(Connor Swindells), Irish
hothead Paddy Mayne (Jack
O’Connell) and the others. It’s
the sort of thing in which our
heroes are as likely to say, “Get
me a whisky, old boy” as they
are, “Let’s go and win this
f***ing war” — out-ripping
most other wartime yarns.

Alfie Allen, Connor
Swindells and Jack
O’Connell in SAS
Rogue Heroes

James Jackson

Best of the rest
The White Lotus
Mon, Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
A word-of-mouth sensation
last year that won Emmys
galore, The White Lotus is
back with a new story and a
(mostly) new ensemble cast
for another smart
skewering of the
wealthy as they find
trouble in paradise.
This time we are
introduced to the
guests at a deluxe
hotel in Sicily, among
them Jennifer Coolidge’s
blowsy Tanya and Aubrey
Plaza as a frustrated wife. It’s
a viper’s nest of sexual
politics. See feature, page 4

Louis Theroux Interviews . . .
Dame Judi Dench
Tue, BBC2, 9.15pm
Theroux’s chat with Dame
Judi has a likeably off-the-cuff
feel and is full of laughter as
the pair, below, talk about
theatre, critics and life
generally, finding time
to do a bit of dancing
for TikTok too. That
Dench refuses to
take herself too
seriously makes this
all the more delightful.
First Contact: An Alien
Encounter
Wed, BBC2, 9pm
Technology has transformed

the search for life in our
galaxy, and many scientists
believe we’re on the brink of
detecting alien life. This
fictional documentary
imagines the scenario if we
suddenly made first contact.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet
of Curiosities
Netflix
Just out for Halloween is an
anthology series curated by
the gothic film-maker del
Toro. Each of the eight
episodes presents an ordinary
world given a monstrous
twist, whether from a demon,
a haunted painting or giant
rats. Diabolical fun. JJ

The best films

The Unbearable Weight of
Massive Talent (15)
Amazon
Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas
Cage in this madcap
self-satire in which his
life starts to imitate his
action-packed art.
Singin’ in the Rain (U)
Today, BBC2, 2.50pm
One of the most
sheerly entertaining
musicals of all.
Donald O’Connor’s
Make ’Em Laugh
is still a thing
of joy.

Films for Halloween
Take your pick of the classics:
tonight there’s The Exorcist
(BBC2, 11.55pm), The Curse of
the Cat People (BBC2, 1.55am)
and Halloween (Channel 4,
11.35pm). Or try a more recent
gem: The Babadook, about
a monster in the wardrobe
(Sun, BBC3, 10.25pm), the
superb British anthology
Ghost Stories (Mon, BBC2,
11.15pm), or for a more
arthouse option, A
Ghost Story, left,
with Casey
Affleck as a
dead husband
under a sheet
(ITV Hub). JJ

Édouard Manet’s masterpiece
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
has been described as the
Mona Lisa of the 19th century,
such is the beguiling
ambiguity of the expression
of the fashionably attired
barmaid who looks out at
us, beautifully still amid the
busyness of what is going on
around her.
It is a very human picture,
the art historian Barnaby
Wright tells us in the first
episode of the latest series of
Moving Pictures, presented
by Cathy FitzGerald, because
it captures that moment
when we tune out of the world
but are perhaps more in tune
with ourselves.
The painting reminds her
fellow art historian Leah
Kharibian of someone we
might recognise working in
the service industry today.
“We see them but we don’t see
them, often we see through
them.” Manet, Kharibian says,
has “seen her”.
Painted in 1882, when Manet
was almost immobilised by
illness, his final masterpiece is
a moving attempt to capture
the vibrancy of Parisian life
just as it was slipping away
from him.
Helping us to further
understand the work,
Moving Pictures invites us
to study the sweep of each
brushstroke, and listeners
can view each picture as a
high-resolution image on
Google Arts & Culture. Dive in.
It’s marvellous.

Ben Dowell

Podcast choice
British Scandal
For those who can bear to
hear more about our former
prime minister, a rollicking
and gleefully silly new series
of British Scandal hosted
by Matt Forde and Alice
Levine follows the career
of Boris Johnson from rise
to downfall.
James Marriott

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

24 saturday review

Saturday 29 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Charles: Our New King
Channel 4, 8pm
Since his accession (and with
the next series of the Netflix
drama The Crown looming like
a hideous black cloud on the
horizon), attention couldn’t be
more intensely focused on our
new monarch. Still, there is
always the good oldfashioned cut-and-paste
documentary profile to sort
the truth from the lies, and
this is one of the better ones.
Its producer, ITN, has a lot of
material to draw on and while
there isn’t much about our
new King that even the least
interested Republicans won’t
know about, a clean and
ordered story is certainly
worth telling, especially now.
There is excellent archive
footage, beginning with
glimpses of baby Charles and
taking us in this first episode
to the moment of Diana’s
death. This two-part series
presents itself as a
psychological study, although
some of the talking heads

push back against the familiar
claim that he had an entirely
lonely and unhappy
childhood. Yes he was
sensitive, and his harsh
boarding school experiences
at Gordonstoun weren’t easy,
but he is surprisingly fun and
funny, something he managed
to express at the Footlights in
his Cambridge days. There are
astute observations — the best
being that his early life
instilled in him a dual
expectation of being deferred
to, but also disliked — but
sometimes the voiceover feels
clunky. “This was going to be
a rocky relationship like no
other,” we’re told when
Camilla enters the story. One
or two of the talking heads
could also win an award for
stating the bleeding obvious,
but at least they are evenhanded and, unlike Peter
Morgan’s fiction, have the
advantage of not making
stuff up. Ben Dowell

Strictly Come
Dancing

How the
BBC Began

Wisting

The Green Man

BBC4, 9pm/9.45pm

BBC4, 10.30pm

BBC1, 6.50pm

BBC2, 7pm

The spirit of Victoria Wood was
not enough to save Jayde
Adams and her dance partner
Karen Hauer last week. Their
Charleston to The Ballad of
Barry and Freda (Let’s Do It) saw
them in the dance off, with all
four judges preferring their
rivals Molly and Carlos’s routine
to the Grange Hill theme tune (it
was a BBC 100th themed night
in case you missed it). Tonight
it’s more of the same albeit with
a Halloween theme, which
means costumes for the judges
and the distinct possibility that
the fab-u-lous Craig Revel
Horwood will seem even more
frightening than usual. BD

The second half of John
Bridcut’s tale of the birth of the
BBC opens on a wet June day
in 1953 with preparations for
the coverage of the Queen’s
Coronation. In keeping with the
gentle and affectionate way
this story is told, Sylvia Peters —
who introduced the day’s
coverage — reads again from
her script from the day, the
footage cutting between her
then and now. The programme
doesn’t stick to strict
chronology, but Bridcut has
assembled an impressive array
of talking heads. Many are no
longer with us, but Auntie still
rules the airwaves. BD

A woman cycles down a hill in
Larviktown centre, bidding a
friendly hello to a man called
Peder. Then suddenly, out of
the mist, something horrible
looms: a decapitated head on a
spike. The hunt for the victim —
a girl aged between 12 and 14,
probably of Middle Eastern
origin — presents quite an
emotional challenge for our
upright widower hero William
Wisting (Sven Nordin) in this
classy Norwegian procedural,
especially because the police
aren’t at first sure if her head
was removed post mortem. Is it
the work of an international
smuggling gang? This fourparter concludes with another
double bill next week. BD

Adapted from Kingsley Amis’s
novel, this 1990 drama serial
follows the occupants of the
country restaurant the Green
Man who are haunted,
menaced and threatened by
some form of vengeful, pagan
ghostliness that early in the
story literally scares someone
to death. The pacing and some
of the sexual politics may feel a
little old-fashioned to modern
eyes, but the storytelling has
an addictive, chilling quality
helped by the excellence of
Albert Finney as the Green
Man’s boozy and priapic owner
Maurice Allington. There’s also
a nice turn from another great
actor, Michael Hordern, as
Allington’s eccentric father. BD

Catch
up
Born to Kill
Britbox
First shown on Channel 4
in 2017, this unsettling
drama takes you into the
mind of a deeply
disturbed teenager. At
the outset Sam
(Jack Rowan,
right), while
definitely an
outsider, is a
handsome,
charismatic
and
seemingly
well-adjusted
16-year-old
boy. Sam is not

all he seems, however. You
can tell by the way his mum,
Jenny (Romola Garai ), looks at
him with a mixture of pride,
love and, occasionally, dread.
Enter Chrissy (Lara Peake), the
new girl in school, a sarcastic
pyromaniac. Her dad
(Daniel Mays) has
returned to his home town
to care for his sick mother,
dragging a reluctant
Chrissy with him. Sam
is soon infatuated
with the
disruptive new
arrival. You
know that
something
terrible is
going to
happen, but
you’re just
not sure when —
or what. Joe Clay

Films of the day
Halloween (18, 1978)/The Exorcist (18, 1973)
Channel 4, 11.35pm/BBC2, 11.55pm

It’s the easiest movie programming time of the year bar Christmas.
Halloween approaches and the TV schedulers’ thoughts turn to
horror — the spookier, the better. John Carpenter’s psycho slasher
picture Halloween introduced the murderous nutjob Michael
Myers to an unsuspecting audience and features Jamie Lee Curtis,
below, on screaming duties. Meanwhile, the mythology that
surrounds The Exorcist is almost as powerful as the movie: on its
UK release, councils tried to ban it, which meant fans had to take
Exorcist bus trips to screenings. Ellen Burstyn stars as the mother
of Linda Blair’s 12-year-old victim of demonic possession. Jason
Miller and Max von Sydow play the two men of God who must
confront the Devil within. (91min/122min) Wendy Ide

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

11.30am-12.00pm Hot Cakes. Gareth is
caught off guard when a customer orders
a cake to celebrate a part of their body (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 1.15pm
Gene Kelly: Talking Pictures (r) 1.50 FILM
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Musical comedy
starring Gene Kelly 3.30-4.30 Gardeners’
World. Monty Don reflects on the
gardening year. Last in the series (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
4.30pm-5.30 Sportscene Results 12.00
Sportscene: Premiership Highlights (r)
1.00am FILM David Brent: Life on the
Road (2016) More than a decade on from
his appearance in The Office, a film crew
is once again following David Brent, who
now dreams of a music career. Comedy
starring Ricky Gervais 1.35 (GMT)
Weather 1.40-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 1.00-4.00pm Live
STV Racing: From Wetherby. Oli Bell
presents coverage including feature race
the Charlie Hall Chase 3.55-5.00am
(GMT) Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 4.00-4.30pm Gino’s
Italy: Like Mamma Used to Make. Gino
D’Acampo returns to his home town of
Torre del Greco. Last in the series (r)
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.15
The Edit 7.30 Premiership Highlights

8.30 The Forest. How a fleet of truckers
transport the timber of the Galloway
Forest Park (r) 9.00 Still Game (r) 9.30
Scot Squad. The detectives smash a
smuggling operation (r) 10.00 FILM
The Omen (1976) A series of unusual
deaths alerts an American diplomat to
the possibility that the child he secretly
adopted is the son of the Devil. Horror
starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick
11.45-Midnight Chris McQueer’s Hings (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Blociau Rhif (r) 6.05
Nico Nôg (r) 6.15 Fferm Fach (r) 6.30 Blero
yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 6.45 Halibalw (r) 6.55
Bach a Mawr (r) 7.10 Pablo (r) 7.20
Cacamwnci (r) 7.35 Octonots (r) 7.45
Deian a Loli (r) 8.00 Siwrne Ni (r) 8.30 Y
Brodyr Adrenalini (r) 9.10 Bernard (r) 9.25
Boom! (r) 9.40 Ar Goll yn Oz (r) 10.00 Am
Dro! (r) 11.00 Adre (r) 11.30 Garddio a
Mwy (r) 12.00 Ffermio (r) 12.30pm Codi
Pac (r) 1.00 Symud i Gymru (r) 2.00
Gwesty Aduniad (r) 3.00 Dim Byd i’w
Wisgo (r) 3.30 Wrecsam: Clwb Ni! (r) 4.30
Pobol y Môr (r) 5.00 Live Clwb Rygbi:
Dragons v Zebre (Kick-off 5.15) 7.20 News
7.30 Live Clwb Rygbi: Ospreys v Connacht
(Kick-off 7.35) 9.45 Calan Gaeaf Carys
Eleri (r) 10.50 Gareth! (r) 11.25-12.00
Elis James: Cic Lan Yr Archif (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

David Brent: Life on the Road (15, 2016)
BBC1, midnight

The world’s worst mid-level manager, David Brent, returned for his
first fully fledged screen adventure since the end of The Office in
2003. As performed, written and directed by Ricky Gervais, our
hero is still office-based and clinging to dreams of international
stardom. To justify the film’s “mockumentary” premise, Life on the
Road launches Brent on a hopeless month-long rock music tour
with his disgruntled session band, Foregone Conclusion. Yet what
makes this Brent so compelling, and what justifies the movie’s
existence, are the changes, specifically the darker shifts. In
something of a masterstroke, Brent is recovering from clinical
depression. He has been on Prozac. Gervais plays it beautifully and
the gag-a-minute ratio is off the charts. (94min) Kevin Maher

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 25

Saturday 29

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 10.00 Saturday
Kitchen Live. Matt Tebbutt hosts a
special edition celebrating 100 years
of the BBC 11.30 Strawbridge Over the
Drawbridge (r) 12.00 Football Focus
1.00pm BBC News; Weather 1.15
Bargain Hunt (r) 1.45 Live Men’s
Rugby League World Cup: England v
Greece (Kick-off 2.30). Mark Chapman
presents all the action from both
teams’ third and final Group A match,
held at Bramall Lane 4.30 Final Score.
A round-up of this afternoon’s football
results 5.30 BBC News 5.40 BBC
Regional News; Weather 5.50 Michael
McIntyre’s The Wheel. The comedian
hosts the game show, joined by Alison
Hammond, James Martin, Dianne
Buswell, Steve Redgrave, Rachel
Parris, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
and Bash the Entertainer

6.40am Love Monster (r) 6.45 Go
Jetters (r) 7.00 Go Jetters (r) 7.10 Hey
Duggee (r) 7.20 Hey Duggee (r) 7.25
Shaun the Sheep (r) 7.35 Dennis &
Gnasher Unleashed! (r) 7.50 Ninja
Express (r) 8.00 The Deep (r) 8.25
Odd Squad (r) 8.35 One Zoo Three (r)
9.00 Newsround 9.05 Nova Jones (r)
9.30 Blue Peter (r) 10.00 Britain’s
Secret Seas (r) 11.00 Trawlermen:
Hunting the Catch (r) 12.00 Top of the
Shop with Tom Kerridge (r) 1.00pm
Nigel Slater’s Dish of the Day (r) 1.15
Saving Lives at Sea (r) 2.15 Gene Kelly:
Talking Pictures (r) 2.50 FILM Singin’
in the Rain (U, 1952) Musical comedy
starring Gene Kelly 4.30 Live Men’s
Rugby League World Cup: Fiji v
Scotland (Kick-off 5.00). All the action
from both teams’ concluding Group B
encounter, held at Kingston Park

6.00am CITV 7.15 Live Women’s World
Cup Rugby Union. Coverage of the
second quarter-final (Kick-off 7.30),
which comes from Northland Events
Centre in Whangarei, New Zealand
10.00 James Martin’s Saturday
Morning. With Dave Gorman 12.15pm
James Martin’s Great British
Adventure (r) 12.45 ITV News;
Weather 1.00 Live ITV Racing: From
Wetherby. Oli Bell presents coverage
of racing from Wetherby, including
feature race the Charlie Hall Chase.
Plus, competitive handicaps from
Ascot 4.00 Tipping Point: Best Ever
Finals (r) 4.30 Family Fortunes (r) 5.25
Ninja Warrior UK: Race for Glory. Ben
Shephard, Rochelle Humes and Chris
Kamara present the Grand Final. Last
in the series 6.30 ITV News; Weather
6.45 Regional News; Weather

6.20am The King of Queens (r) 6.45
The King of Queens (r) 7.10 The
Simpsons (r) 7.35 The Simpsons (r)
8.00 The Simpsons (r) 8.25 The
Simpsons (r) 8.55 The Simpsons (r)
9.25 The Simpsons (r) 10.00 Junior
Bake Off (r) 11.30 Four in a Bed (r)
12.00 Four in a Bed (r) 12.30pm Four
in a Bed (r) 1.05 Four in a Bed (r)
1.35 Four in a Bed (r) 2.10 FILM
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
(PG, 2018) Student Miles Morales
becomes a version of Spider-Man, and
crosses paths with counterparts from
other dimensions. Animated
adventure with the voice of Shameik
Moore 4.25 George Clarke’s Amazing
Spaces. A man plans to make a barn
out of driftwood (r) (SL) 5.30 Grand
Designs. A master carpenter facies a
big challenge (r) 6.30 Channel 4 News

6.00am Milkshake! 10.00 The Smurfs
(r) 10.15 SpongeBob SquarePants
10.25 Entertainment News on 5 10.30
Friends (r) 11.00 Friends (r) 11.30
Friends (r) 12.00 Friends (r) 12.30pm
Friends (r) 1.00 FILM Mrs Miracle 2:
Miracle in Manhattan (PG, TVM,
2010) The kindly Mrs Merkle helps a
struggling department-store manager
save the business and find love.
Family drama sequel starring Doris
Roberts 2.55 FILM Christmas in
Dollywood (PG, TVM, 2019) An event
planner travels home for the holidays
and ends up working on the 30th
anniversary Christmas event at
Dollywood. Romantic drama starring
Danica McKellar 4.45 Dolly Parton:
The Queen of Country. Charting the
country music superstar’s journey (r)
6.45 5 News Weekend

Ricky Gervais stars (midnight)

Singin’ in the Rain (2.50pm)

The Chase Celebrity Special (7pm)

Into the Spider-Verse (2.10pm)

Thriller The Sixth Sense (10.05pm)

6.50 Strictly Come Dancing Tess
Daly and Claudia Winkleman
present a Hallowe’en special.
The leaderboard has
undergone a lot of changes in
the past five weeks, meaning
nobody is safe from elimination
as the remaining couples dance
live for viewers’ votes under
the watchful eye of the judges.
See Viewing Guide

7.00 How the BBC Began More
tales from the first 50 years of
the BBC, with the corporation’s
first female newsreader Nan
Winton telling the story of
how she was sacked. See
Viewing Guide (2/2)

7.00 The Chase Celebrity Special
Chizzy Akudolu, Andrew Pierce,
Sonja McLaughlan and Jack
Carroll answer general
knowledge questions and work
as a team to take on a Chasers
and secure a charity prize

7.00 Tutankhamun: Secrets of the
Tomb Paleo-anthropologist Ella
Al-Shamahi unravels the
scientific truth behind the
legend of the Pharaoh’s Curse,
and the press sensation that
surrounded it (1/2) (r)

8.35 Blankety Blank With Stacey
Dooley, Dion Dublin, Ed Gamble,
Josh Widdicombe, Trisha
Goddard and Chunkz (6/10)

8.35 Ed Sheeran at the BBC A look
back at the best of the singersongwriter’s appearances on
the BBC, featuring
performances from a huge
range of shows and concerts

8.00 The Voice UK Final Emma Willis
presents the climax of the
spinning-chair singing contest,
in which the last four acts
compete for the chance to
win a recording contract (9/9)

8.00 Charles: Our New King
Documentary that shines a light
on the new British monarch,
told with an extensive collection
of rare royal archive and
revelatory interviews.
See Viewing Guide (1/2)

6.50 The Vanishing of Flight MH370
The disappearance of the
Malaysia Airlines flight in
March 2014. Drawing on
evidence and insight from the
official inquiry, alongside
accounts from experts and
unofficial investigators. The
first edition looks at the
disappearance of the flight (r)

9.10 I Can See Your Voice Paddy
McGuinness hosts the mystery
singing game show in which a
married couple from Edinburgh
must spot good singers without
hearing them. With guest
panellist Becky Hill (3/8)
10.10 BBC News; Weather

9.35 Later… with Jools Holland
Taking to the stage to perform
at London’s Alexandra Palace
Theatre are Simple Minds,
Wu-Lu, Flo, Christine and
the Queens Presents Redcar,
and Rita Wilson with
Jackson Browne (5/6)

10.30 Match of the Day Gary Lineker
presents highlights of the latest
Premier League matches,
including Brighton & Hove
Albion v Chelsea and Leicester
City v Manchester City. Plus,
Bournemouth v Tottenham
Hotspur, Brentford v
Wolverhampton Wanderers,
Crystal Palace v Southampton,
Newcastle Untied v Aston
Villa, Fulham v Everton and
Liverpool v Leeds United

10.25 Ed Sheeran at Glastonbury
2017 Another chance to see the
singer-songwriter’s headlining
performance on the Pyramid
Stage, featuring hits Shape of
You, Castle on the Hill and
Thinking Out Loud (r)

12.00 FILM David Brent: Life on the
Road (15, 2016) More than a decade
on from his appearance in The Office,
a film crew is following David Brent.
Comedy starring Ricky Gervais. See
Film Choice 1.35am Weather for
the Week Ahead 1.40 BBC News

9.50 The Jonathan Ross Show
Jonathan is joined by the diver
Tom Daley, the comedian Rob
Beckett and the actresses Lena
Dunham and Georgina
Campbell. Plus, the singer
Dermot Kennedy performs

9.00 FILM Kingsman: The Secret
Service (15, 2015) A streetwise
teenager is taken under the
wing of his dead father’s old
colleague, an agent working for
a super-secret spy organisation.
Action comedy based on a
comic book, starring Colin Firth,
Taron Egerton, Samuel L
Jackson and Mark Strong

10.45 ITV News

11.55 FILM The Exorcist (18, 1973)
Horror starring Linda Blair and
Jason Miller. See Film Choice

11.05 Live English Football League
Highlights Action from the
latest fixtures, including
Norwich City v Stoke City at
Carrow Road, West Bromwich
Albion v Sheffield United at
The Hawthorns and Burnley v
Reading at Turf Moor

11.35 FILM Hallowe’en (18, 1978)
A homicidal madman escapes
from an asylum and goes on a
killing spree. Horror with Jamie
Lee Curtis. See Film Choice

1.55am (BST)-2.45 (GMT) FILM The
Curse of the Cat People (U, 1944)
A girl struggles to form friendships
with other children, but finds a loyal
protector in the ghost of her father’s
first wife. Fantasy sequel starring
Ann Carter and Simone Simon (b/w)

1.00am (BST) Teleshopping
3.00 (GMT) America: The War Within.
Robert Moore examines fears for the
future of the US political system (r)
3.55 Unwind with ITV 5.00 Ainsley’s
Mediterranean Cookbook. Ainsley
continues his tour of Sardinia (r) (SL)

1.10am (BST) FILM The Ritual (15,
2017) A group of college friends
reunite. Horror starring Rafe Spall 1.45
(GMT) Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
USA (r) 2.35 The Simpsons (r) 3.00
The Simpsons (r) 3.25 The Simpsons
(r) 3.55 Hollyoaks Omnibus (r) (SL)

8.35 Leonard Rossiter: Comedy
Great A celebration of the
actor’s life and career, featuring
contributions from friends,
co-stars and fans including Don
Warrington, Sue Nicholls and
Mark Lester. The programme
also includes a never-beforeseen interview with Rossiter
himself, and brings new
perspectives on one of
Britain’s best-loved actors
10.05 FILM The Sixth Sense (15,
1999) A child psychologist,
disheartened after the suicide
of a former patient, takes on
the case of a terrified boy
haunted by ghostly
apparitions, and tries to help
him discover what the spirits
want from him. M Night
Shyamalan’s supernatural
thriller starring Bruce Willis,
Haley Joel Osment, Toni
Collette and Olivia Williams

12.15am Funniest Ever TV Cock Ups
(r) 1.15 Entertainment News
1.20 (BST) Live Casino Show 3.20
(GMT) Entertainment News 3.30 Plus
Size Porn: Adults Only! (r) 4.20 Get
Your Tatts Out: Kavos Ink (r) (SL) 5.10
House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.35 Milkshake!

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

26 saturday review

Bill Skarsgard

Saturday 29 | Primetime digital guide

The actor takes on the role
of Pennywise the Clown in
the 2017 remake of It
ITV2, 9pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am Cristo Wake up to the
news that matters to you
7.00 David Bull The biggest
stories of the day
10.00 Peter Cardwell The host
scours the latest news
1.00pm Trisha Goddard The host
takes a look through the
week’s leading stories
and gives her two cents
on the biggest social
dilemmas making the
news this week
4.00 Claudia Liza The host
bringing you the biggest
stories of the day
that matter to you
7.00 Saturday Night Talkaway
with Kevin O’Sullivan The
host serves up three hours
of fun featuring his unique
take on the week’s top
stories and celebrity guests
10.00-1.00am The James Whale
Show Bold opinions
and commentary from the
outspoken presenter

7.00pm EastEnders Panic strikes
when Lexi’s dress rips as
Lola is helping her get ready.
7.30 EastEnders Jay and Ben
find Lola on the floor and
call an ambulance
8.00 EastEnders Stacey tells Eve
about her argument with
Kheerat and Nish’s return
8.30 EastEnders Eve leaves Suki
a voicemail but is cut off
when her phone is
accidentally damaged
9.00 Live Bellator Coverage of
the Bellator 287 event from
Allianz Cloud Arena in Milan,
where the lightweight bout
between Adam Piccolotti
and Mansour Barnaoui is
the scheduled main event
11.30 Two Pints of Lager and a
Packet of Crisps Louise
has to live with a secret
from David’s past (4/11)
12.00-12.30am Two Pints of Lager
and a Packet of Crisps Gaz
lands in hospital (5/11)

7.00pm Expedition Volcano
Documentary exploring
volcanoes in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (1/2)
8.00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt
Alastair Sooke looks at art
from one of Ancient Egypt’s
most opulent eras (2/3)
9.00 Wisting Part one of four.
Wisting is called to a chilling
crime scene in Larvik’s
town centre that sets him
on the trail of smugglers.
See Viewing Guide (5/8)
9.45 Wisting Part two of four.
A fisherman makes a
horrifying discovery. See
Viewing Guide (6/8)
10.30 The Green Man
Kingsley Amis adaptation
starring Albert Finney.
See Viewing Guide (1/3)
11.25-12.15am The Green Man
Preceding his own father’s
funeral, Maurice attempts to
exhume Underhill, who is
not finished with him (2/3)

6.55pm Matt Baker: Our Farm in
the Dales Lambing season
continues and this time is
the turn of the Herdwicks
and there are high hopes for
a successful year (4/6)
8.00 Secrets of Egypt’s Valley of
the Kings Documentary
following archaeologists
working in Egypt’s Valley
of the Kings (1/4)
9.00 24 Hours in A&E
A 34-year-old man is airlifted
to St George’s after crashing
into another rider during a
charity bike ride, and a
90-year-old is rushed to A&E
with severe blood poisoning
10.00 24 Hours in A&E
A 63-year-old woman is
rushed to St George’s after
falling from a horse
11.10-12.15am 8 Out of 10 Cats Does
Countdown Lee Mack and
Victoria Coren Mitchell
take on Alan Carr and
Dane Baptiste (2/4)

7.00pm Babylon Berlin Weintraub
investigates the boxing
match betting fraud. Rath
makes a confession to
Charlotte, who asks him to
find out more about Benni’s
death. In German (5/12) (R)
8.00 Babylon Berlin Rath brings
Moritz to the castle, and
Charlotte tells a lawyer of
the deaths among children.
In German (6/12) (R)
9.00 Gangs of London Marian
Wallace is forced out of
hiding and made to confront
her past as Koba launches a
terrifying helicopter attack
on his enemies (3/8) (R)
10.05 Game of Thrones Arya
continues her training at the
House of Black and White,
Jorah and Tyrion run into
slavers and the Sand Snakes
mount an attack (6/10) (R)
11.10-12.15am Game of Thrones
Sansa attempts to talk
to Theon (7/10) (R)

6.50pm FILM Tina (15, 2021) Born
Anna Mae Bullock in 1939,
Tina Turner has sold in
excess of 100 million
records and earned
numerous plaudits
including Grammy awards
and induction into the Rock
And Roll Hall Of Fame with
her first husband, Ike Turner.
She was the first woman to
grace the cover of Rolling
Stone magazine
9.00 FILM Lennox: The Untold
Story (15, 2020) The
incredible story of Lennox
Lewis, who rose from
humble beginnings in
London’s West Ham to
become regarded as one of
the greatest heavyweight
boxers of all time
11.00-1.00am Kings of Coke How
a gang of Irish bank robbers
rose to become one of
North America’s most feared
criminal organisations (R)

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

6.45pm FILM Tomb Raider (12,
2018) A kickboxing heiress risks
her life to save her missing father
when she discovers a clue to his
location. Action adventure based
on the video game starring Alicia
Vikander and Dominic West
9.00 FILM It (15, 2017) A group of
bullied New England kids band
together to destroy a demonic
clown. Horror starring Bill
Skarsgard and Jaeden Lieberher
11.40-12.10am Family Guy The
Griffins go on a rock music cruise

7.00pm Live Darts: European
Championship Jacqui Oatley
presents coverage of day three
from the Westfalenhalle in
Dortmund, Germany, featuring the
conclusion of the second round
11.00 Midsomer Murders A burglar
dubbed “the Creeper” targets the
villages of Midsomer as Barnaby
and Jones investigate the murder
of a dinner party guest. Rik Mayall
and Jenny Agutter guest star
1.05am-1.40 On the Buses Jack
asks Arthur’s sister out on a date

6.50pm FILM Guns of the
Magnificent Seven (PG, 1969)
The gunslingers set out to save a
Mexican revolutionary leader
from a military prison. Western
sequel with George Kennedy
9.00 English Football League
Highlights Hugh Woozencroft
presents action from the
latest fixtures. plus analysis
11.00 The Motorbike Show
Henry Cole rides through
the glorious Peak District
12.00m’t-12.30am River Monsters

7.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Leonard feels anxious about
his lack of accomplishments
7.30 The Big Bang Theory
Penny realises her true feelings
about her friendship with Amy
8.00 Gogglesprogs Young viewers
appraise Come Dine with Me (2/6)
9.00 Celebrity Gogglebox
Famous faces appraise Antiques
Roadshow and My Gay Dog
and Other Animals (1/6)
10.00 Gogglebox
11.05-12.10am Gogglebox

6.50pm Gavin & Stacey The
couple make a surprise
announcement. From 2008
8.10 Not Going Out Lee and Lucy
turn a corner in their friendship
9.10 Not Going Out Hallowe’en
Special Lee and Lucy take the
children out trick or treating
10.00 Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable
With Kerry Godliman
11.00 The Misadventures of
Romesh Ranganathan
12.00-1.00am Live at the
Apollo: Christmas Special

6.00pm The Brokenwood
Mysteries Jane Fergusson is
gold panning in the Brokenwood
River when she’s shot
8.00 Shakespeare & Hathaway:
Private Investigators Frank and
Lu investigate a death threat at
an exclusive tennis club
9.00 Dancing on the Edge Stanley
is made editor of Music Express
10.25 Black on Screen
10.35-12.30am Small Island
Conclusion. Hortense becomes
disillusioned with London

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Great British Railway
Journeys Five episodes
9.30 Mortimer & Whitehouse:
Gone Fishing Paul and Bob
fish for brown trout on the
river Test in Hampshire (4/6)
10.10 Porridge The inmates
face a day of hard labour
10.50 Porridge Fletch is desperate
to get out of making fishing nets
11.25 Porridge Fletcher takes
on the role of agony aunt
12.00-1.00am Bangers and Cash
A triple collection of cars (9/10)

6.15pm The Balkans in Flames (1/3)
7.20 The Balkans in Flames
The collapse of the state after
Yugoslavia’s free elections in 1990
8.30 The Balkans in Flames A look
at how the Srebrenica massacre
was a wake-up call for the
international community (3/3)
9.40 Submarines Charting the
evolution of the submarine (1/2)
10.50 Submarines Submarines’
dangerous reputation (2/2)
12.00-1.05am Iberia’s Woodlands:
Life on the Edge (1/2)

7.00pm Combat Ships The ships
that made mighty empires
8.00 Combat Ships Stories of
espionage at sea, including deadly
U-boat cat-and-mouse games
9.00 Combat Ships The defeat of
the Spanish Armada
10.00 Combat Ships The Second
World War Battle of Leyte Gulf,
which saw three days of strategy
11.00 Combat Ships The evolution
of amphibious assault crafts
12.00m’t-1.00am Combat Ships
Combat-revolutionary ships

6.50pm Paul Simon: Under
African Skies The singersongwriter returns to South Africa
for a reunion concert celebrating
the 25th anniversary of Graceland
9.00 Simon & Garfunkel: The
Harmony Game Paul Simon and
Art Garfunkel talk about the album
Bridge Over Troubled Water,
their final studio record (2/5)
10.35-12.35am Simon & Garfunkel:
Concert in Central Park The duo’s
1981 reunion concert in New York
City including Mrs Robinson

7.00pm Digging for Britain
Archaeological finds across
the East Of Britain (2/3)
8.00 Digging for Britain (3/3)
9.00 Black Patriots: Heroes of the
Revolution Archival material
10.00 Black Patriots: Heroes of the
Civil War Defining and reshaping
the reality of a democracy
11.00 Kings of Pain A tiny fish that
has venom to die for (10/10)
12.00 (BST)-1.00am (GMT)
Missing 411: The Hunted The
haunting true stories of hunters

7.00pm Magnum P.I A journalist
hires Thomas to track down
an anonymous source
8.00 The Ultimate Gangster
Movies With Clara Amfo,
Alex Brooker and Guz Khan
9.00 Never Mind the Buzzcocks
With guests Joel Corry, Joel
Dommett and Lady Leshurr
9.45 Fantasy Football League With
Rachel Riley and Chris McCausland
10.20 The Russell Howard Hour
11.05-12.05am The Lazarus Project
Sci-fi with Paapa Essiedu (1/8)

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Chasing Classic Cars
8.00 Extraordinary Stories Behind
Everyday Things Two episodes
9.00 Gold Rush
10.00 Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch
The team search for access points
to the underground cavern system
11.00 Mountain Monsters
12.00-1.00am The Alaska Triangle

7.00pm Hitler’s Teen Killers
8.00 Area 51: The CIA’s Secret Files
9.00 Airport Security: Rome (4/8)
10.00 Airport Security: Colombia
A man has been duped into drug
trafficking on social media (10/9)
11.00 Airport Security: Peru (4/16)
12.00m’t-1.00am Air Crash
Investigation Engine failure

7.00pm The Office (US)
7.30 The Office (US)
8.00 The Office (US)
8.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Curb Your Enthusiasm (9/10)
9.50 Curb Your Enthusiasm (10/10)
10.50 Curb Your Enthusiasm (1/10)
11.30-12.30am The Tonight
Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

5.40pm FILM National Security
(12, 2003) Action comedy
7.15 FILM Happy Gilmore (12, 1996)
Comedy starring Adam Sandler
9.00 FILM Austin Powers:
International Man of Mystery (12,
1997) Adventure with Mike Myers
11.00-1.15am FILM Dumb and
Dumber To (15, 2014) Comedy

6.40pm Only Fools and Horses
7.20 Only Fools and Horses
8.00 Murder, They Hope Gemma
and Terry go undercover at a
therapy retreat to chase threats
9.00 Murder, They Hope
10.00 Murder, They Hope
11.00 Inside No 9
11.40-12.20am Sandylands

7.00pm My Family
7.40 My Family
8.20 My Family
9.00 The Catherine Tate Show
First episode of the sketch show
9.35 The Catherine Tate Show
10.15 The Catherine Tate Show
10.55-12.15am Louis Theroux:
A Place for Paedophiles

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

6.00am Live Golf From Thailand
9.00 Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: New Zealand v Sri Lanka
The Super 12s Group One
12.00 Live EFL: West Bromwich
Albion v Sheffield United
3.00pm Live DP World Tour Golf
5.00 Live SNF: Fulham v Everton
7.30-10.30 Live SNF (Kick-off 7.45)
11.00 Live NBA Basketball
1.30am (BST) Live Fight Night
International In n New York
4.00 (GMT)-6.00 Live
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

5.00pm Live SNF: Fulham v
Everton (Kick-off 5.30).
Coverage of the Premier League
match at Craven Cottage
7.30 Live SNF: Liverpool v Leeds
United (Kick-off 7.45). The Premier
League match at Anfield
10.30 PL Highlights
Crystal Palace v Southampton
11.00 PL Highlights Brentford v
Wolverhampton Wanderers
11.30 PL Highlights Bournemouth
v Tottenham Hotspur
12.00-12.30am SNF

8.30am-1.00pm Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: New Zealand v
Sri Lanka Coverage of the
Super 12s Group One match
at Sydney Cricket Ground
7.30 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Back-to-back highlights
11.30-12.30am (BST) Best
of ICC WT20 Double bill
2.30 (GMT)-6.00 Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Bangladesh v
Zimbabwe Coverage of the Super
12s Group Two match from
Brisbane Cricket Ground

11.30am-3.00pm Live Premier
League: Leicester City v
Manchester City (Kick-off 12.30)
5.00 Live Vanarama National
League: FC Halifax Town v
Oldham Athletic (Kick-off 5.20)
7.30-9.45 Live Serie A: Inter Milan
v Sampdoria (Kick-off 7.45)
11.15-12.15am (BST) Serie A
1.00 (GMT)-4.00 Live MLB
Game two of the World Series
4.00-7.00 Live V8 Supercars
Championship Race 32 at the 12th
round of the season in Queensland

9.00am-12.30pm Live Badminton
Action from the semi-finals
of the YONEX French Open
2.30pm Live Gallagher
Premiership Rugby Union:
Harlequins v London Irish
5.15-7.00 Live Serie A: Lecce v
Juventus Joining the match
8.00 Live Ligue 1 Strasbourg v
Marseille (Kick-off 8.00)
10.00 Live UFC Preliminary bouts
12.00 (BST)-2.30am (GMT) Live
UFC: Calvin Kattar v Arnold Allen
3.00-5.00 Live AFLW

Fulham’s goal machine
Aleksandar Mitrovic takes on
Everton (Sky Main Event, 5pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 27

Saturday 29
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

11.00am Bee Movie (U, 2007)
Animated comedy with the
voice of Jerry Seinfeld
12.50pm Meet Dave (PG,
2008) Sci-fi comedy
starring Eddie Murphy
2.45 Mother’s Day (12,
2016) Ensemble comedy
starring Julia Roberts
5.00 Monster House
(PG, 2006) Animated
comedy horror with the
voice of Mitchel Musso
6.45 The Banshees of
Inisherin Interview Special
6.55 The Day the Earth Stood
Still (12, 2008) Sci-fi remake
starring Keanu Reeves
9.00-12.15am 2012 (12, 2009)
Disaster movie starring John
Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

6.00am Cactus Kid (PG, 1935)
Western starring Jack Perrin
7.10 The Lost City
9.00 The Adventures
of William Tell
9.30 Runaway Railway (U,
1966) Children’s adventure
starring John Moulder-Brown
10.35 The Green Hornet
Strikes Again!
11.00 Sir Francis Drake
11.30 The Adventures
of Robin Hood
12.00 The Shiralee (PG, 1957)
Drama starring Peter Finch
2.00pm The Calendar (U,
1948) Drama starring Greta
Gynt and John McCallum
3.35 The Bargee (PG, 1964)
Comedy with Harry H Corbett
5.45 She (U, 1965) Fantasy
adventure starring Peter
Cushing and Ursula Andress
7.45 Look at Life
8.00 Maigret
9.05 The Criminal (12, 1960)
Prison drama starring Stanley
Baker and Sam Wanamaker
11.05-1.00am The Day of the
Triffids (15, 1962) Sci-fi thriller
starring Howard Keel

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am Paint By Murder (PG,
2018) Thriller starring Alexxis
Lemire and Mark Krenik
10.40 Stranger in the House
(PG, 2016) Thriller starring
Emmanuelle Vaugier
and Jordana Largy
12.20pm The Midwife’s
Deception (PG, 2018)
Thriller starring Penelope
Mitchell and Katie Savoy
2.10 The Bounty Hunter
(12, 2010) Action comedy
starring Gerard Butler
and Jennifer Aniston
4.15 The Legend of Zorro
(PG, 2005) Swashbuckling
adventure sequel starring
Antonio Banderas
6.50 The Three Musketeers
(12, 2011) Swashbuckling
adventure starring Logan
Lerman and Milla Jovovich

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

The Legend of Zorro
(GREAT! Movies, 4.15pm)

6.00am Chloe Tilley and
Calum Macdonald with Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Hugo
Rifkind 1.00pm Alexis Conran
4.00 Ayesha Hazarika 7.00
My Cultural Week with Libby
Purves 8.00 Stories of Our
Times 8.30 Matt Chorley
9.00 Highlights from Times
Radio 10.00 Darryl Morris
1.00am (BST) Highlights
from Times Radio

Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz

9.00-11.55pm Exodus: Gods
and Kings (12, 2014) Biblical
epic starring Christian Bale

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Hollywood’s
Best Film Directors
7.10 TCM Shorts:
Ben Miller Off Set
7.30 Cheyenne
1.05pm The Karate Killers
(PG, 1967) Man from UNCLE
adventure starring Robert
Vaughn and David McCallum
3.00 The Fighting
Kentuckian (U, 1949) Western
drama starring John Wayne
5.05 The Westerner (PG,
1940) Western starring Gary
Cooper and Walter Brennan
7.10 Gun for a Coward
(PG, 1956) Western drama
starring Fred MacMurray
9.00 USS Indianapolis:
Men of Courage (15, 2016)
Fact-based Second World War
drama starring Nicolas Cage
11.45-1.05am Pat Garrett
and Billy the Kid (15, 1973)
Western starring James
Coburn and Kris Kristofferson

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.05pm Sonic the Hedgehog
2 (PG, 2022) Adventure
comedy sequel with James
Marsden and Jim Carrey
2.05pm The Lost City (12,
2022) Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
4.05 Wolf (15, 2021) Drama
starring George MacKay
5.55 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
(PG, 2022) Dr Robotnik
returns with new ally
Knuckles the Echidna, forcing
Sonic and his new friend Tails
to stand in their way.
Adventure comedy sequel
starring James Marsden
8.00 The Lost City (12, 2022)
A novelist on a book tour with
her cover model gets swept
up in a kidnapping attempt
that lands both in danger.
Comedy starring Sandra
Bullock and Channing Tatum
10.00 Wolf (15, 2021) Drama
starring George MacKay
11.50-1.20am Umma (15,
2022) Horror starring Sandra
Oh and Fivel Stewart

5.00am Radio 2 in Concert (r)
6.00 Sounds of the 60s with
Tony Blackburn 8.00 Vernon
Kay 10.00 Claudia Winkleman
12.30pm Claudia’s Strictly
Playlist 1.00 Pick of the Pops
3.00 Rylan on Saturday 6.00
Liza Tarbuck 8.00 Sounds of
the 80s 10.00 Sounds of the
90s 12.00 Meat Loaf at the
BBC (r) 1.00am (BST) The
Legendary Angela Lansbury (r)
1.00 (GMT) Dance Sounds of
the 90s 2.00 CMA Country
Music Festival 2022 3.00
Friends Will Be Friends
4.00 Radio 2 in Concert (r)

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

7.00am Breakfast
9.00 Record Review Elin
Manahan-Thomas chooses
her favourite recording of
Schumann’s Myrthen
11.45 Music Matters With Netia
Jones and Iestyn Davies
12.30pm This Classical Life
Saxophonist Jess Gillam is
joined by pianist Siwan Rhys
1.00 Inside Music Music
inspired by different countries
3.00 Sound of Cinema
Matthew Sweet examines
music from films featuring
nuns and convents, including
Black Narcissus and Sister Act
4.00 Music Planet Kathryn
Tickell presents roots-based
music from across the world,
and a session by Jaram Lee
5.00 J to Z Kevin Le Genre
presents an edition marking
Black History Month, exploring
jazz, Afrofuturism and beyond
with guest Nicole Mitchell
6.30 Opera on 3 A Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden,
production of Verdi’s dramatic
masterpiece Aida, a political
drama covering big operatic
themes of power struggles,
toxic jealousies and the pain of
forbidden love. See Choice
10.00 New Music Show Kate
Molleson introduces the
premiere of Canadian
composer Chiyoko Szlavnics’s
Whorl Whirling Wings for 6
voices and electronics
12.00 Freeness Beck Hunters
at Newcastle Festival of Jazz
and Improvised Music
1.00am (BST) Through the
Night Performances (r)

Today’s pick

3.30 Rudy’s Rare Records
4.00 Personal Luggage 5.30
Great Lives 6.00 Don’t Look
Now 7.00 Andrew Maxwell’s
Hallowe’en Hoolie 9.50
Happy Hop Tu Naa 10.00
Rob Newman’s Total Eclipse
of Descartes 10.30 Chain
Reaction 11.00 Laura Solon:
Talking and Not Talking 11.30
Old Harry’s Game 12.00
(BST) Don’t Look Now

Opera on 3: Verdi’s Aida
Radio 3, 6.30pm
Robert Carsen’s new Coviddelayed production of Verdi’s
1870 masterpiece, conceived
in 2018, sets the story in an
unnamed totalitarian state
that has possible echoes of
North Korea. Elena Stikhina’s
Aida, right, brings
considerable vocal power to
the role of the Ethiopian
Princess, while the mezzosoprano Agnieszka Rehlis has
been praised for the delicacy
of touch she gives to the role
of the Pharaoh’s daughter

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 One to One (r)
6.00 News and Papers
6.07 Open Country (r)
6.30 Farming Today
This Week Agriculture
7.00 Today
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in
Parliament Political news
9.00 Saturday Live
10.30 The Kitchen Cabinet
11.00 The Week in
Westminster
11.30 From Our Own
Correspondent
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 Money Box
12.30 The Now Show (r)
1.00 News
1.10 Any Questions? (r)
2.00 Any Answers? Phone-in
2.45 39 Ways to Save the
Planet Biochar (10/10) (r)
3.00 Drama: The Tomb
Conclusion of the two-part
drama by Sebastian
Baczkiewicz. Following the
discovery of Tutankhamun’s
tomb, pressure builds for
Carter and Shafiq. Starring
Noof Ousellam (2/2)
4.00 Weekend Woman’s Hour
5.00 Saturday PM
5.30 Political Thinking
with Nick Robinson
5.54 Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.15 Loose Ends Clive
Anderson and Anneka Rice are
joined by Dawn O’Porter, Ian
Moore and Children’s Laureate
of Wales, Connor Allen
7.00 Profile
7.15 This Cultural Life Actor
Florence Pugh talks to John
Wilson about her career
8.00 Archive on 4: Our
Archive Century New series
celebrating the stories and
insights of the BBC archives.
James Naughtie and Helen
Lewis look at what the archive
tells us about breaking news
9.00 No Place but the Water
By Linda Marshall Griffiths.
Drama set in a future ravaged
by climate change (2/3) (r)
9.45 Life at Absolute Zero The
Limit, by Lynne Truss (5/10) (r)

Amneris. Georgia Mann
introduces the recording
from the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, which also
features the house chorus
and orchestra conducted by
Antonio Pappano. Ben Dowell

10.00 News
10.15 Behind the Crime (r)
11.00 Brain of Britain (r)
11.30 Reading the Air (r)
12.00 Midnight News
12.15am Bhopal (r)
12.30 The Poet and the Echo
Dawn, by Mara Menzies (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 (BST) BBC World Service
5.20 (GMT) Shipping

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Boxing 6.00
Breakfast 9.00 Patrick Kielty
12.00 5 Live Sport 3.00pm 5
Live Sport: Brighton & Hove
Albion v Chelsea (Kick-off
3.00) 5.00 Sports Report 5.30
5 Live Sport: Fulham v
Everton (Kick-off 5.30) 7.30
6-0-6 9.00 Stephen Nolan
12.00 Newscast 1.00am
(BST) Laura McGhie

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

6.00am GameDay Breakfast
9.00 GameDay Warm Up
11.00 GameDay Exclusive
2.30pm GameDay Live 5.30
The GameDay Phone-In 7.30
GameDay Exclusive 10.00
Fight Night 1.00am (BST)
Extra Time with Martin Kelner

TalkRadio
Digital only

5.00am Cristo 7.00 David
Bull 10.00 Peter Cardwell
1.00pm Trisha Goddard 4.00
Claudia Liza 7.00 Saturday
Night Talkaway 10.00
The James Whale Show
1.00am (BST) Martin Kelner

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only

BBC World Service
Digital only

9.00am News 9.06 BBC OS
Conversations 9.30 Pick of
the World 9.50 Over to You
10.00 News 10.06 Sports
Hour 11.00 Newsroom 11.30
Unspun World with John
Simpson 12.00 News
12.06pm Documentary 1.00
Newshour 2.00 News 2.06
Sportsworld 6.00 Newsroom
6.30 Explanation 6.50
Sporting Witness 7.00 News
7.06 Truth About Jazz 8.00
News 8.06 Arts Hour 9.00
Newshour 10.00 News 10.06
Music Life 11.00 Newsroom
11.20 Sports News 11.30 The
Cultural Frontline 12.00 News
12.06am Global Questions
1.00 News 1.06 BBC OS
Conversations 1.30
Explanation 1.50 (BST) More
or Less 1.06 (GMT) Science
Hour 2.00 Newsroom 2.30
Healthcheck 3.00 News
3.06 Documentary 4.00
News 4.06 From Our Own
Correspondent 4.30
The Cultural Frontline

6 Music
Digital only

6.00am Amy Lamé 8.00
Stuart Maconie. Music and
chat 10.00 Huey 1.00pm
Jamz Supernova on 6 3.00
Gilles Peterson 6.00 Craig
Charles 9.00 Blessed
Madonna 12.00 Lose Yourself
With 1.00am (BST) Lose
Yourself With 1.00am (GMT)
Russell Crowe’s Slow Sunday
2.00 Late in the Day
4.00 Morning After Mix

Virgin Radio
Digital only

6.00am Jayne Middlemiss
9.30 The Graham Norton
Show 12.30pm Steve Denyer
4.00 Bam 7.00 Ben Jones
10.00 Stu Elmore 1.00am
(BST) Emma Nolan

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

8.00am The Write Stuff 8.30
Ayres on the Air 9.00 Andrew
Maxwell’s Hallowe’en Hoolie
11.50 Happy Hop Tu Naa
12.00 The Jack Benny
Program 12.30pm Love in
Recovery 1.00 First Lady of
Jazz (r) 2.00 Old Harry’s
Game 2.30 Laura Solon:
Talking and Not Talking 3.00
Mark Thomas: The Manifesto

7.00am Alan Titchmarsh
10.00 Aled Jones 1.00pm
Dan Walker 4.00 Moira
Stuart’s Hall of Fame Concert
Mozart’s Don Giovanni 7.00
Saturday Night at the Movies
9.00 David Mellor 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am
(BST) Katie Breathwick
3.00 (GMT) Sam Pittis

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

28 saturday review

Sunday 30 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
SAS Rogue Heroes
BBC1, 9pm
The Times writer Ben
Macintyre’s narrative nonfiction book about the Special
Air Service regiment, telling
the story from its inception in
1941 until 1945, has been
adapted into a rollicking sixpart drama by Steven Knight
of Peaky Blinders. “Those
events depicted, which seem
most unbelievable, are mostly
true,” says the disclaimer at
the start of the first episode,
and anyone who has read
Macintyre’s book (or watched
the accompanying BBC
documentary series, SAS
Rogue Warriors, which is
repeated tonight on BBC4) will
know this to be true. The
against-the-odds origin story
of the SAS, forged during the
darkest days of the Second
World War, is often scarcely
believable, but that is what
makes it the perfect subject
for a TV drama. Connor
Swindells (Sex Education)
leads the cast as the one-

sandwich-short-of-a-picnic
army officer David Stirling,
who is the first to conceive
the idea of an unconventional
squad of commandos causing
mayhem behind enemy lines.
And such innovation is
needed with the Allies on the
brink of losing Tobruk, a
crucial port in North Africa. If
Tobruk falls to the Nazis, Suez
will be lost and so will Africa.
The cast includes Jack
O’Connell, Alfie Allen and
Dominic West, and Knight has
even introduced a woman
(Sofia Boutella’s Eve) and a
love story (“with perfectly
reasonable licence,”
Macintyre noted in a feature
on the drama he wrote for The
Times). Raucous modern rock
music on the soundtrack adds
to the anarchic feel, meaning
that it’s more for fans of
Quentin Tarantino’s
Inglourious Basterds than
lovers of classic war movies.
Joe Clay

Antiques
Roadshow

Top Gear

BBC1, 6.20pm
Wollaton Hall in Nottingham,
which served as Wayne Manor
in the Dark Knight Batman
films, is the location tonight.
Fiona Bruce is asked to guess
the value of some related
items, including Batman’s mask,
utility belt and the Joker suit
worn by Jack Nicholson.
Elsewhere, Rupert Maas
examines a miniature portrait
of a forgotten female romantic
poet lauded by William
Wordsworth; Adam Schoon
analyses personal items
brought to the UK in 1972 by
Ugandan Asians; and Hilary Kay
is excited by some rare intricate
Elizabethan clothing. JC

Catch
up
Somewhere Boy
All4
g
How strange, frightening
even, the outside world
would seem if you
had spent your first 18
years locked up in
a remote house.
That’s the premise
of this
unusual and
compelling
drama told
in eight
brief
episodes.
Teenager
Danny
(Lewis

Connor Swindells
and Sofia Boutella

Tutankhamun’s
Secret’s

Kingdom
of Dreams

Films of the day

More high-speed mayhem as
Freddie Flintoff, Paddy
McGuinness and Chris Harris
return for series 33 of the
motoring magazine. In the
episode’s big set piece, the trio
travel to Thailand to get to
grips with pick-up trucks —
they each choose one to
tackle a journey that takes
them from the beaches of
Bangkok to a remote temple
near the border of Laos. A
positive Covid test lays one of
them low, but the other two
complete the trip, pausing only
to immerse themselves in
Bangkok’s car culture. Also
tonight, Harris reviews the
Rimac Nevera, an electric
supercar from Croatia. JC

BBC2, 9pm

Sky Documentaries/Now, 9pm

Channel 4, 10.15pm

In a special episode of Dr
Janina Ramirez’s Raiders of the
Lost Past, the historian is
unearthing yet more secrets
pertaining to the Boy King
and the man who discovered
his tomb, Howard Carter.
Ramirez discovers that some
of Tutankhamun’s treasures
are missing and turns
detective to find out the name
of the person responsible.
She also reveals how Tut
became the Che Guevara of
the 2011 uprising in Egypt
and discovers the surprising
truth about the brutal
injuries sustained by
the young king. JC

This visually sumptuous new
four-part series explores the
“golden age of fashion”. The
series stitches together the
period from the early-1990s to
the 2010s, and at the heart of
the story are two rival fashion
houses, each led by “ruthless
disruptors” who harnessed the
talent of a quartet of designers
— McQueen, John Galliano,
Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs —
to redefine the world of
fashion. The archives have
been thoroughly trawled to
reveal how the “forces of
ground-breaking creativity and
disruptive business converge
and collide”. JC

Gribben, below) has spent a life
indoors watching vintage films
and listening to old LPs, his
father keeping him safe from
the “monsters outside”. The
dad has clearly had a
breakdown, but then a turn of
events leads to Danny
taking his first steps
outside under the care of
his aunt’s family as he
forms a friendship with
her son. Pete Jackson’s
s
series
has already won an
award at an international
TV festival because
while events lead
to some dark
places, there is
also a humane,
atmospheric
feeling that’s
hard to
pin down.
J
James
Jackson

Regional programmes

BBC1, 8pm

● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

10.00-10.30am Politics Wales 12.0012.45pm Money for Nothing (r) 4.00
Bargain Hunt (r) 4.25-4.55 Full House (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 1.35pm
Flog It! (r) 2.00 This Farming Life 3.00
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip 4.00-4.30
The Hairy Bikers’ Asian Adventure (r)
7.20-8.20 Scrum V Sunday
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.00-10.30am Sunday Politics Northern
Ireland. The latest developments
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
4.00pm-4.30 Paula McIntyre’s Hamely
Hallowe’en (r) 10.00 An Diabhal Inti
10.25 Ulster By the Sea (r) 10.55 Sunday
Politics Northern Ireland (r) 11.25 The
Ranganation 12.10-12.30am BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
10.00-10.30am The Sunday Show
11.30pm Sportscene: Premiership
Highlights (r) 12.30am The Women’s
Football Show (r) 1.15 Question of Sport (r)
1.45 Reported Missing (r) 2.45 Weather
for the Week Ahead 2.50-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 6.45-7.00pm STV
News 3.50-5.05am Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 5.25pm Rare Breed:
Farming Year (r) 6.00-6.30 Mahon’s Way
● BBC Scotland Midnight 7.00pm
The Seven 7.15 Premiership Highlights

8.15 Rewind 1980s. Events from 1989 (r)
8.30 The Mountain. Following the staff at
a Cairngorms ski resort (r) 9.00 The
Hermit of Treig. An elderly hermit
questions whether he can live out his last
years in the wilderness (r) 10.00 The Big
Scottish Book Club 10.45 Growing Up
Scottish (r) 11.00-Midnight Seven Days
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Timpo (r) 6.10 Guto
Gwningen (r) 6.25 Awyr Iach (r) 6.40
Ahoi! (r) 6.55 Caru Canu a Stori (r) 7.05
Patrôl Pawennau (r) 7.20 Jen a Jim Pob
Dim (r) 7.35 Octonots (r) 7.45 Antur Natur
Cyw (r) 8.00 Digbi Draig (r) 8.15 Byd
Tad-Cu (r) 8.25 Gwdihw (r) 8.40 Sion y
Chef (r) 8.50 Penblwyddi Cyw 9.00 Pobl
a’u Gerddi (r) 9.30 Welsh Whisperer:
Ni’n Teithio Nawr! (r) 10.00 Iaith ar Daith
(r) 11.00 Cegin Bryn: Tir a Môr (r) 11.30
Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol (r)
12.00 Yr Wythnos 12.30pm Bwrdd i Dri (r)
1.00 Rygbi Pawb (r) 1.45 Antur y
Gorllewin (r) 2.45 Y Sioe Fwyd (r) 3.15 Y
Sioe Fwyd (r) 3.45 Wrecsam: Clwb Ni! (r)
4.40 Ffermio (r) 5.10 Pobol y Cwm
Omnibws (r) 6.15 News 6.30 Marathon
Eryri 2022 7.30 Dechrau Canu Dechrau
Canmol 8.00 Nôl i’r Gwersyll 9.00 Dal
y Mellt 10.00 Llofruddiaeth Jack
Armstrong (r) 11.00-11.35 Nyrsys (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

Rocks (12, 2019)

The homegrown teenage movie got a much-needed shot of
authenticity with this deftly played heartbreaker about a resilient
schoolgirl who tries to bring up her younger brother when they
are abandoned by their emotionally fragile single mum. The
newcomer Bukky Bakray is the star turn, playing the teenager
Shola, nicknamed “Rocks”, who is forced to take her brother
Emmanuel (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) on a house-hopping odyssey
when social services close in. It’s directed by Sarah Gavron, who
turns traditional film-making upside-down by casting unknowns
from inner-London schools. The movie bristles with giddy energy
and is at its best when Rocks and her school friends are together,
below, sparking and casually combative. (91min) Kevin Maher

His House (15, 2020)
BBC2, 10.45pm

Just as Get Out channelled middle-class racism and A Quiet Place
the demands of parenthood, Remi Weekes’s horror is a soulshrivelling response to the refugee experience. Wunmi Mosaku
(Lovecraft Country) and Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London) play Rial
and Bol, a couple who arrive in the UK from war-torn South Sudan
and are granted a house on a godforsaken estate. They are already
distressed after the death of their child on the voyage across the
Mediterranean. Then the house goes to work. There are holes in
the wall, rolling apples and far more lurid terrors, yet Weekes keeps
the horror rooted in the couple’s grief and guilt. The leads are
excellent, Mosaku full of solemn poise and Dirisu veering between
ebullience and meltdown. (93min) Ed Potton

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 29

Sunday 30

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 7.30 Match of the
Day (r) 9.00 Sunday with Laura
Kuenssberg 10.00 Politics England
10.30 Animal Park (r) 11.00 Homes
Under the Hammer (r) 12.00 Bargain
Hunt (r) 12.45pm Points of View
1.00 BBC News; Weather 1.15 Songs of
Praise 1.50 Live MOTD: Women’s
Super League: Everton v Manchester
United. All the action from the
top-flight encounter at Walton Hall
Park (Kick-off 2.00) 4.00 Blue Planet
Revisited (r) 4.55 BBC News 5.10 BBC
Regional News; Weather 5.20
Countryfile. Matt Baker introduces the
story of Green Space Dark Skies
6.20 Antiques Roadshow. Fiona Bruce
presents the show from Wollaton Hall
in Nottingham, where items brought
in include a portrait of a forgotten
Romantic poet. See Viewing Guide

6.05am Gardeners’ World (r) 7.05
Countryfile (r) 8.00 Landward 8.30
This Farming Life (r) 9.30 Saturday
Kitchen Best Bites 11.00 A Cook
Abroad: Rick Stein’s Australia (r) 12.00
FILM Lucky Jim (U, 1957) A harddrinking junior lecturer frustrated by
his stuffy university tries to impress a
professor. Comedy starring Ian
Carmichael (b/w) 1.35pm Ghost Bear
Family: Natural World (r) 2.35 FILM
ParaNorman (PG, 2012) A boy able to
talk to ghosts must save his town
from a zombie invasion caused by a
witch’s curse. Animated adventure
with the voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee
4.00 Flog It! (r) 4.30 Live Men’s Rugby
League World Cup: Samoa v France.
Coverage of both teams’ concluding
Group A match at Halliwell Jones
Stadium in Warrington (Kick-off 5.00)

6.00am CITV 9.25 ITV News 9.30
Love Your Weekend with Alan
Titchmarsh 11.25 Ainsley’s World Cup
Flavours 12.25pm Gino’s Italy: Like
Mamma Used to Make (r) 12.55 ITV
News; Weather 1.00 Live NFL:
Jacksonville Jaguars v Denver
Broncos. Laura Woods presents all the
action from the clash between the
AFC sides at Wembley Stadium
(Kick-off 1.30). Both teams have
struggled for form in the early stages
of the season, but will be eager to put
on a show in front of what is expected
to be a packed-out Wembley 5.00
Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals.
Compilation of some of the show’s
most dramatic endgames (r) 5.25
Ninja Warrior UK: Race for Glory. The
Grand Final (r) 6.30 ITV News;
Weather 6.45 Regional News; Weather

6.00am (GMT) The King of Queens (r)
6.25 The King of Queens (r) 6.50 The
King of Queens (r) 7.15 Everybody
Loves Raymond (r) 7.40 Everybody
Loves Raymond (r) 8.05 The
Simpsons (r) 8.30 The Simpsons (r)
9.00 The Simpsons (r) 9.30 Sunday
Brunch 12.30pm Formula 1 Mexico
City Grand Prix Qualifying Highlights
1.30 The Great British Bake Off. The
hopefuls serve up a trio of custardbased dishes (r) 2.50 The Simpsons.
The family is stranded in Japan (r)
3.20 The Simpsons (r) 3.55 FILM
Shrek Forever After (U, 2010) A
magical trickster leaves the grumpy
ogre stuck in an alternate world
where no one knows who he is.
Animated comedy, with the voice
of Mike Myers 5.45 Channel 4 News
6.15 The Andrew Neil Show

6.00am Milkshake! 10.00 SpongeBob
SquarePants 10.25 Entertainment
News on 5 10.30 NFL End Zone 11.00
Friends (r) 11.30 Friends (r) 12.00
Friends (r) 12.30pm Friends (r) 1.00
FILM The Goonies (12, 1985) The
discovery of a treasure map plunges
seven kids into the adventure of a
lifetime. Family adventure starring
Sean Astin and Corey Feldman 3.10
FILM The Witches (PG, 1990) A boy
on holiday stumbles on a convention
of witches — but he is turned into a
mouse before he can warn anyone.
Children’s fantasy starring Anjelica
Huston 5.05 FILM Beetlejuice (15,
1988) A recently deceased couple
enlist the help of a veteran ghost to
teach them how to haunt their former
home. Tim Burton’s comedy, with
Michael Keaton 6.55 5 News Weekend

The Top Gear team returns (8pm)

Janina Ramirez on King Tut (9pm)

The Larkins continues (8pm)

Escape to the Chateau (8pm)

Michael Keaton stars (5.05pm)

7.00 Family Fortunes Gino
D’Acampo hosts as the Quinns
from Bournemouth go up
against the Edwards family of
Kent, trying to guess the most
popular responses to surveys
posed to 100 people

7.00 World’s Greatest Train
Journeys from Above This
episode follows the luxury El
Chepe train, which is a wonder
of Mexican engineering that
took 100 years to build and
winds through the world’s
largest canyon region (3/6)

7.00 UK’s Strongest Man Action
from the 2022 semi-finals, with
the 12 remaining athletes
competing in challenges
including the Atlas Stones,
Titanic Compass and Truck Pull
at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes

8.00 The Larkins Ma issues Pop
some tough love while also
playing Cupid between
Primrose and Rev Candy, while
Pop’s old friend Fruity Pears
arrives in the village with his
fairground in tow (3/6)

8.00 Escape to the Château New
series. Dick Strawbridge and
Angel Adoree prepare to open
their home for wedding season
after two years — but there are
still plenty of jobs to do before
the guests arrive

8.00 Happy Campers: The Caravan
Park At Crealy Park in Devon,
new entertainment boss
Graham has big plans to shake
up bingo nights, while a lorry
crashes into the automatic
barriers at Brean Sands in
Somerset (2/6)

9.00 The Handmaid’s Tale June
struggles to redefine her
purpose and identity, facing
consequences for killing
Commander Waterford, while
the widowed Serena Waterford
tries to raise her profile in
Toronto (2/10)

9.00 I’m a Celebrity: All Time
Funniest Moments A
celebration of the survival
challenge, looking at
memorable Bushtucker Trials,
conversations, bust-ups and
moments of underhand
trickery and extreme
cowardice. Featuring the antics
of contestants down the years,
including the screams of Paul
Burrell and Dean Gaffney, the
fainting fakery of Gillian
McKeith, Joey Essex learning
how to tell the time and
Katie Price and Peter Andre
getting together

7.20 Strictly Come Dancing: The
Results Featuring a music
performance from Rina
Sawayama

8.00 Top Gear New series. Freddie
Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy
McGuinness head to Thailand
on a road-trip in old pick-ups.
Back in Britain, Chris tests out
an electric two-seater.
See Viewing Guide

7.20 This Farming Life Emma, Ewan
and even two-year-old Len are
preparing for the Bute
Agricultural Show — the
highlight of the island’s
agricultural calendar (7/12)

8.20 Stanley Tucci: Searching for
Italy Stanley travels through the
region of Calabria, learning
about its history as well
investigating the history of his
own family (5/8)

9.00 SAS Rogue Heroes New series.
Drama exploring the origin of
the special forces unit, created
by British Army rebels who
formulated a plan to parachute
men into the desert during
the Second World War.
See Viewing Guide (1/6)

9.00 Tutankhamun’s Secrets:
Raiders of the Lost Past with
Janina Ramirez How Howard
Carter unearthed the pharaoh’s
tomb in 1922 when everyone
else believed there were no
more great Egyptian finds to be
made. See Viewing Guide

9.00 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Celebrity Special Comedian
and actress Jo Brand and
television presenter Dan Walker
take up the challenge, hoping to
win as much as £1million for
their chosen charities

10.00BBC News; Weather

10.00The Ranganation Romesh
Ranganathan mulls over the
week’s most entertaining news
with guests Lucy Beaumont
and Rylan (5/6)

10.00ITV News

10.45 FILM His House (15, 2020)
A couple escape from South
Sudan, but find evil lurking
beneath the surface in their
new home in England.
Horror thriller starring Sope
Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku.
See Film Choice

10.45 Slam Dunk Documentary
following two basketball players
and their teams as they battle
their way through the Ball Out
3x3 tournament (5/5)
11.30 Gallagher Premiership Rugby
Union Highlights Harlequins v
London Irish, Northampton
Saints v Bristol Bears, and
Saracens v Sale Sharks

10.15 FILM Rocks (12, 2019) Fifteenyear-old Rocks is attuned to the
signs of depression that
regularly consumes her mother
Funke, and is a fierce protector
of her seven-year-old brother.
When Funke disappears,
leaving behind an envelope of
cash and a brief note of
apology, Rocks hides the truth
from social services and her
best friend. Drama, starring
Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali and
Shaneigha-Monik Greyson.
See Film Choice

12.15am FILM Lizard (2020) A girl
gets ejected from her Sunday school
service and follows a lizard into the
bowels of a church. Short drama,
starring Pamilerin Ayodeji 12.30 Sign
Zone: Question Time (r) (SL) 1.30-2.30
Trouble at Topshop (r) (SL)

12.25am Teleshopping 3.00
Motorsport UK. Richard John Neil
presents action from Snetterton,
featuring the Quaife Mini Challenge
and the Ginetta GT4 Supercup (r)
3.50 Unwind with ITV 5.05 Ainsley’s
World Cup Flavours (r)

12.05am Gogglebox (r) 1.05 Formula 1
Mexico City Highlights 2.35 Night
Coppers (r) 3.25 Somewhere Boy (r)
(SL) 4.20 Handmade: Britain’s Best
Woodworker (r) (SL) 5.15 Drawers Off
(r) 5.40 Sunday Brunch Best Bits (r)
5.55 Countdown (r)

10.25 BBC Regional News
10.30 Match of the Day 2 Mark
Chapman reviews the latest
Premier League action,
featuring Arsenal v Nottingham
Forest and Manchester United v
West Ham United
11.30 The Women’s Football Show
Highlights from Chelsea v
Aston Villa, Manchester City v
Liverpool and Arsenal v
West Ham United
12.15am Question of Sport. A World
Cup special with former England
players Paul Parker and Peter Reid
and ex-Wales stars John Hartson and
Ashley Williams (r) 12.45 Reported
Missing (r) 1.45 Weather for the Week
Ahead 1.50 BBC News

10.15 Sorry, I Didn’t Know With Eddie
Kadi, Kae Kurd, Jamelia and
Lateef Lovejoy (5/5)

11.05 1989: Britain’s Favourite Hits
Jackie Brambles narrates this
look back at 1989, the era of
Madonna and Jason Donovan,
with contributions from Paul
Gambaccini and Cheryl
Baker (10/10) (r)
1.00am Live Casino Show 3.00
Building Victorian Britain (r) 3.45
Witches: A Century of Murder (r) (SL)
4.35 Witches: A Century of Murder (r)
(SL) 5.25 Entertainment News on 5
5.35 Peppa Pig (r) (SL) 5.40 Paw
Patrol (r) (SL) 5.50 Pip and Posy (r)

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

30 saturday review

The Babadook

Sunday 30 | Primetime digital guide

Essie Davis and Noah
Wiseman star in Jennifer
Cooper’s 2014 horror
BBC3, 10.25pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am Cristo
7.00 David Bull David Bull brings
you the biggest stories of
the day that matter to you
10.00 Richard Tice The former
MEP examines the state of
the nation and delivers
some much needed sanity
in his Sunday Sermon
1.00pm Trisha Goddard The
broadcaster looks through
the week’s leading stories
and gives her two cents on
the biggest social dilemmas
making the news this week
4.00 Kevin O’Sullivan After a
long career on Fleet Street,
Kevin O’Sullivan tackles the
big stories of the day,
champions free speech and
leads the war against woke
7.00 The Sunday Night Club with
Mark Saggers The host
reflects on the sporting
weekend and more
10.00-12.00m’t The Unexplained
with Howard Hughes

7.00pm FILM Coraline (PG, 2009)
Stop-motion animated
fantasy, with the voice of
Dakota Fanning
8.30 Squad Goals: Dorking ’Til I
Die Dorking take on local
rivals Sutton in a crucial
game for the league (3/6)
9.00 Fort Salem New series. After
being blamed for the death
of Penelope, the witches
leave the army behind and
become fugitives — but
staying out of trouble is
never easy (1/10)
9.45 Fort Salem The runaway
group seeks sanctuary in
the mysterious Cession.
When the unit learns about
the Camarilla’s efforts to
directly target the
Mycelium, they resolve to
strike back (2/10)
10.25 FILM The Babadook (15,
2014) Horror starring Essie
Davis and Noah Wiseman
11.55-12.40am Red Rose (4/8)

7.00pm John Craven’s Newsround
7.10 Morph TV with Tony Hart
Archive episode of the 1997
children’s show
7.25 Blue Peter A vintage
episode from 1974
7.50 Chineke! Plays ColeridgeTaylor and Sowande
Concert by Europe’s first
majority Black and
ethnically diverse orchestra
8.30 Black Classical Music: The
Forgotten History Lenny
Henry and Suzy Klein
celebrate black classical
composers and musicians
10.00 SAS: Rogue Warriors The
history of the British Army
special forces unit (1/3)
11.00 SAS: Rogue Warriors The
story of two SAS members
who outran their German
pursuers (2/3)
12.00-1.00am SAS: Rogue
Warriors Ben Macintyre
concludes his history of the
unit’s early years (3/3)

6.55pm Come Dine with Me
7.30 Come Dine with Me
8.00 Emergency Helicopter
Medics An injured cyclist is
rescued from a
mountainside, a man is in
need of urgent treatment
following a series of heart
attacks, and disaster strikes
at a scooter rally (1/9)
9.00 999: On the Front Line
Paramedics are called to a
woman who has been
involved in a road traffic
collision having only
recently recovered from a
back injury caused by a
previous car accident
10.00 24 Hours in A&E Patients
include a 53-year-old
woman who has suffered a
suspected heart attack
11.05-12.10am Emergency
Helicopter Medics A
mountain biker has a bad
fall in a remote part of a
forest (9/10)

6.40pm House of the Dragon Six
years later, the succession
plans for Driftmark become
critical, and Rhaenyra tries
to strike a bargain with
Rhaenys (8/10) (R)
7.50 House of the Dragon While
Alicent enlists help to track
down Aegon, members of
the Great Houses of
Westeros are asked to affirm
their allegiance (9/10) (R)
9.00 House of the Dragon Game
of Thrones prequel
following the story of House
Targaryen, set 200 years
before the events of the
fantasy saga. Paddy
Considine and Matt Smith
star (10/10) (R)
10.15 This England The
government discusses
contingency plans (5/6) (R)
11.20-12.45am Lovecraft Country
Drama horror series,
starring Jonathan Majors
and Jurnee Smollett (R)

5.45pm FILM Disgraced (15, 2017)
An examination of the 2003
murder of Baylor University
basketball star Patrick
Dennehy by his teammate
Carlton Dotson, and the
accusations against the
university that followed
7.45 FILM In Vogue: The Editor’s
Eye (15, 2012) Documentary
going behind the scenes of
the magazine, featuring
contributions from
editor-in-chief Anna Wintour
and actresses Nicole
Kidman and Anne Hathaway
9.00 Kingdom of Dreams A
chronicle of the fashion
world from the early
1990s to the 2010s. See
Viewing Guide (1/4) (R)
10.00 FILM McQueen (15, 2018)
The life of fashion designer
Alexander McQueen
12.00-2.00am Music Box
The story of Woodstock
1999 (1/6) (R)

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.15pm FILM The Addams Family
(PG, 2019) Animated family
comedy, with the voices of Oscar
Isaac and Charlize Theron
9.00 Gordon, Gino & Fred Go
Greek The boys head to the
Greek capital Athens in a vintage
VW campervan (2/2)
10.15 Family Guy
10.40 Family Guy Quagmire has
to deal with a change in Ida’s
relationship with Brian
11.10 Family Guy
11.40-12.10am American Dad!

6.00pm Lewis A student and a
well-known criminal are murdered
8.00 An Audience with Ronnie
Corbett The comedian entertains
his showbiz peers
9.00 The Savoy The hotel staff are
on high alert for the imminent
arrival of a mystery hotel inspector,
and are anxious to find out if The
Savoy will retain its five-star status
10.00 Vera The detective
investigates a petrol-bomb attack
11.50-12.55am Agatha Christie’s
Poirot An unsolved case resurfaces

6.00pm Darts: European
Championship Live Jacqui Oatley
presents coverage of day four
from the Westfalenhalle in
Dortmund, Germany, featuring
the semi-finals and final
10.00 FILM Crank (18, 2006) An
assassin is poisoned and resorts to
desperate measures to keep
himself alive long enough to exact
a fitting revenge. Action thriller
starring Jason Statham
11.50-12.50am Magnum, PI Robin
bets his estate on a softball game

6.15pm Lego Masters Australia
The teams dress branches
connected to a life-size Lego tree
8.00 FILM Pitch Perfect 3
(12, 2017) Comedy sequel
starring Anna Kendrick
10.00 Gogglebox The Masked
Singer, Dragons’ Den and
Pam & Tommy are appraised
11.00 Gogglebox
12.00-1.05am Naked Attraction
A wrestler and a bi-curious
graphic designer take their pick
of six potential partners

7.00pm Red Dwarf Lister and
Rimmer arrive back on Earth
7.40 Red Dwarf Lister and Rimmer
are marooned on an icy planet
8.20 Red Dwarf
9.00 Have I Got a Bit More News
for You Richard Ayoade hosts,
with Richard Osman and Kiri
Pritchard-McLean
10.00 Late Night Mash
A compilation edition
11.00 QI XL With Jason Manford
11.40-12.40am Have I Got a Bit
More News for You

6.40pm One Foot in the Grave
Victor suffers junk-mail blues
7.20 One Foot in the Grave
Victor and Margaret set off for
a break by the seaside
8.00 Miss Fisher’s Murder
Mysteries The practice partner
of a rising tennis star is fatally
bitten by a spider
9.00 Rebus The moderator-elect
of the Church of Scotland and a
female companion are found
naked in a car with their throats cut
10.35-12.10am The Last Detective

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Bangers and Cash Derek
picks up an impressive five vehicle
haul from a collector (15/15)
8.00 Open All Hours Arkwright
tries to make Nurse Gladys
Emmanuel jealous
8.40 Open All Hours Granville tries
to impress a local beauty
9.20 Open All Hours
10.00 Red Dwarf (4/6)
10.40 Red Dwarf (5/6)
11.20 Red Dwarf (6/6)
12.00-1.00am Bangers and Cash
Three scooters (12/15)

6.00pm Country Music (6/8)
8.20 Bruce Springsteen: In His
Own Words An exclusive insight
into the life of one of the most
respected musicians in the world
9.50 The Ship That Changed the
World Examining a 500-year-old
shipwreck off the Swedish coast
11.00 Trading History Artefacts for
sale at auction are examined to
reveal their historical significance
12.00-1.05am Trading History
Artefacts with connections to
William Shakespeare

7.00pm America in Colour
8.00 The Pacific War in Colour
Under the command of Admiral
Nimitz in 1943, America
advanced towards Japan
9.00 The Pacific War in Colour
Dramatic colour film captures the
invasion of Saipan
10.00 Inside the Factory The team
explores the origins and
production of instant coffee
11.00 The Pacific War in Colour
12.00-1.00am The Pacific War in
Colour The invasion of Saipan

5.15pm Billy Joel Live at the Shea
The singer-songwriter performs
alongside Paul McCartney
and Tony Bennett
8.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
An American bets £1,000 he can
spend the night in a haunted room
8.30 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
A babysitter is the centre of
attention after a murder
9.00 ELO Live at Wembley 1978
The band in concert from 1978
10.20-12.10am Eric Clapton:
Live In San Diego

7.00pm Decoding the Past (1/2)
Documentary exploring the history
and meaning of the Koran
8.00 Decoding the Past
Conclusion of the documentary
exploring the history of the Koran
9.00 FILM An Unknown
Compelling Force (2021)
Documentary determining the
truth of the Dyatlov Pass Incident,
Russia’s greatest unsolved mystery
11.15-12.15am History of Weapons
Experts take a look at the weapons
dominating from the skies (2/10)

7.00pm Freddie Down Under
Andrew Flintoff and Rob Penn set
off on a barbecue adventure (1/6)
8.00 An Idiot Abroad 3 Karl
Pilkington and Warwick Davis
arrive in China
9.00 Peacemaker After
Peacemaker’s hazardous escape,
tension and mistrust build (2/8)
10.00 Never Mind the Buzzcocks
10.45 Brassic The MacDonaghs are
on the warpath (8/8)
11.45-12.55am Banshee Return of
the drama, with Antony Starr (1/10)

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Lone Star Law
8.00 Alaskan Bush People New
series. Gabe and Bam ramp up
their efforts to rebuild the ranch
9.00 Mysteries of the Deep
10.00 Deadliest Catch:
The Viking Returns
11.00 Wheeler Dealers
12.00-1.00am Edge of Alaska

7.00pm Vikings: The Rise and Fall
The siege of Paris in 885 (4/6)
8.00 Lost Treasures of Egypt
9.00 Elizabeth I: The Secret Life
A look at the monarch’s life
10.00 Atlas of Cursed Places
11.00 The Truth Behind (2/5)
12.00-1.00am Air Crash
Investigation

7.00pm The Office (US)
7.30 The Office (US)
8.00 The Office (US)
8.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Saturday Night Live
10.30 Bloods (4/10)
11.00-12.30am Saturday Night
Live Jack Harlow doubles up as
host and musical guest

7.00pm Friends
7.30 Friends
8.00 Friends
8.30 Friends
9.00 FILM Cursed Friends (15,
2022) Comedy horror starring
Jessica Lowe and Will Arnett
11.00-1.00am FILM The Wedding
Ringer (15, 2015) Comedy

5.40pm Only Fools and Horses
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 Murder, They Hope
9.00 The Vicar of Dibley The
villagers set up a radio station
9.40 The Vicar of Dibley
10.20 The Vicar of Dibley
11.00-1.00am French & Saunders:
Funny Women

7.00pm 999 Rescue Squad
8.00 Inside the Operating Theatre
9.00 Rio and Kate: Becoming a
Stepfamily Documentary
10.20 Emma Willis: Delivering
Babies Emma is ready to start
working in the community
11.20-12.40am Louis Theroux:
Extreme Love: Autism

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

11.00am-2.30pm Live SPFL:
Livingston v Celtic (Kick-off 12.00)
3.00pm Live Super Sunday:
Manchester United v West Ham
United (Kick-off 4.15)
7.00 Formula 1
7.55 Live Formula 1 The Mexico
City Grand Prix (Start-time 8.00)
10.00 Live NFL Coverage of a week
eight match (Kick-off TBA)
11.30 NBC’s FNIA
12.10-3.30am Live NFL:
Buffalo Bills v Green Bay
Packers (Kick-off 12.20)

3.00pm Live Super Sunday:
Manchester United v West Ham
United (Kick-off 4.15).
Coverage of the Premier League
match at Old Trafford
7.00 Live WSL: Arsenal v West
Ham (Kick-off 6.45). Coverage of
the Women’s Super League match
at Meadow Park
9.30 SNF Liverpool v Leeds United
10.00 PL Highlights Including
Arsenal v Nottingham Forest
11.00 SNF Fulham v Everton
11.30-12.30am PL Highlights

6.00-6.30am Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: Bangladesh v Winner
Group B The Super 12 Group Two
match at Brisbane Cricket Ground
10.30-3.00pm Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: India v South Africa
Coverage of the Super 12 Group
Two match at Perth Stadium
6.00 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
10.30 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
11.00 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
11.30 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
12.00-4.00am ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Pakistan v Netherlands

11.30-1.30pm Live Serie A: Empoli
v Atalanta (Kick-off 11.30)
2.00-5.15 Live Gallagher
Premiership Rugby Union:
Saracens v Sale Sharks (Kick-off
3.00). From StoneX Stadium
7.00 Golazzo Live
7.45 Live Serie A: Torino v AC
Milan (Kick-off 7.45). Coverage of
the Italian top-flight clash from
Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino
10.00 WWE SmackDown
Highlights
11.00-12.45am WWE NXT

9.45am Live FIM JuniorGP
Championship From Valencia
2.00-4.00pm Live Serie A: Spezia
v Fiorentina (Kick-off 2.00)
5.00 Live Serie A: Lazio v
Salernitana (Kick-off 5.00)
7.00 National League Highlights
7.30 Live Ligue 1: Lyon v Lille
(Kick-off 7.45)
9.45 Europa League Goals Reload
10.00 Gallagher Premiership
Rugby Highlights
11.30-12.00m’t Sailing to
the Games

Casemiro is set to line up for
Manchester United against West
Ham (Sky Main Event, 3pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 31

Sunday 30
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4
FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

Times Radio

11.00am Carry On Cabby (PG,
1963) Comedy starring Sid
James and Hattie Jacques
12.50pm Song of the Sea (PG,
2014) Animated fantasy, with
the voice of Lucy O’Connell
2.40 WarGames (PG, 1983)
Thriller starring Matthew
Broderick and Ally Sheedy
4.55 Kung Fu Panda 2
(PG, 2011) Animated comedy
sequel with the voices of Jack
Black and Gary Oldman
6.45 Daddy’s Home 2 (12,
2017) Comedy starring Will
Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg
8.50 The Banshees of
Inisherin Interview Special
9.00 Mission: Impossible:
Rogue Nation (12, 2015) Spy
thriller sequel starring Tom
Cruise and Jeremy Renner
11.40-1.55am Triple 9
(15, 2016) Crime thriller
starring Chiwetel Ejiofor

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

6.00am Nabonga (PG,
1944) Jungle adventure
starring Buster Crabbe
7.25 Dakota Lil (PG, 1950)
Western drama starring
George Montgomery
9.10 Cat & Mouse (PG, 1958)
Thriller starring Ann Sears
10.40 Top Secret (U, 1952)
Spy comedy starring George
Cole and Oskar Homolka
12.40pm Mr Hobbs Takes a
Vacation (U, 1962) Comedy
starring James Stewart
and Maureen O’Hara
3.00 Vendetta for the Saint
(PG, 1969) Action adventure
starring Roger Moore
5.00 The Footage Detectives
6.00 The Saint
7.00 The Long Arm (U, 1956)
Crime thriller starring Jack
Hawkins and Dorothy Alison
9.00 The Onedin Line
10.00-12.35am North West
Frontier (U, 1959) Action
adventure starring Lauren
Bacall and Kenneth More

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am GREAT! Movie News
9.10 Garage Sale Mystery:
Picture a Murder (PG, 2018)
Mystery starring Lori Loughlin
11.00 GREAT! Movie News
11.10 The Wrong Nanny (PG,
2017) Thriller with Madison
Adams and Nicole Bilderback
1.00pm GREAT! Movie News
1.10 Deadly Honeymoon (15,
2010) Mystery starring Zoe
McLellan and Summer Glau
3.00 Daddy Day Camp
(PG, 2007) Comedy sequel
starring Cuba Gooding Jr
4.45 Big Daddy (12, 1999)
Comedy with Adam Sandler
and Joey Lauren Adams
6.50 Bewitched (PG,
2005) Romantic fantasy
comedy starring Nicole
Kidman and Will Ferrell

Susan Sarandon in The
Calling (GREAT!, 9pm)
9.00 The Calling (15, 2014)
Thriller with Susan Sarandon
and Donald Sutherland
11.10-12.30am Dark Places (15,
2015) Mystery with Charlize
Theron and Nicholas Hoult

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Hollywood’s Best
Film Directors
6.35 TCM Shorts:
Ben Miller Off Set
6.55 Off Set
7.10 Cheyenne
12.45pm Beau Brummell
(U, 1954) Historical drama
starring Stewart Granger
3.00 The Hanging Tree
(PG, 1959) Western with Gary
Cooper and Maria Schell
5.15 Ride Out for Revenge (U,
1957) Western starring Rory
Calhoun and Gloria Grahame
6.55 Churchill (PG, 2017)
Historical drama with Brian
Cox and Miranda Richardson
9.00 Hallowe’en II (18, 1981)
Horror starring Jamie Lee
Curtis and Donald Pleasence
11.00-1.05am Hallowe’en III:
Season of the Witch (15,
1982) Horror starring Tom
Atkins and Stacey Nelkin

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

2.00pm The Lost City (12,
2022) Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
4.05 Umma (15, 2022)
Horror starring Sandra Oh
5.45 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
(PG, 2022) Dr Robotnik
returns with new ally
Knuckles the Echidna, forcing
Sonic and his new friend Tails
to stand in their way.
Adventure comedy sequel
starring James Marsden
8.00 The Lost City (12, 2022)
A novelist on a book tour
with her cover model gets
swept up in a kidnapping
attempt that lands both in
danger. Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
10.00-12.15am Red Rocket
(18, 2021) A former porn star
decides to return to his home
town in Texas, where his
estranged wife and mother-inlaw are living. Comedy
drama starring Simon Rex

6.00am Chloe Tilley and
Calum Macdonald with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00
Sunday Morning with Kate
McCann and Adam Boulton
1.00pm Alexis Conran 4.00
Ayesha Hazarika 7.00 Books
to Live By with Mariella
Frostrup 7.30 A Times Podcast
8.00 Stories of Our Times
8.30 Matt Chorley 9.00
Highlights from Times Radio
10.00 Kait Borsay 1.00am
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz

5.00am Tracks of My Years
6.00 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 with Johnnie Walker
5.00 Rob Beckett 7.00 Tony
Blackburn’s Golden Hour
8.00 Sunday Night Is Music
Night (r) 10.00 Radio 2
Unwinds with Angela Griffin
12.00 OJ Borg 2.30am One Hit
Wonders with OJ Borg 3.00
Alternative Sounds of the 90s
with Dermot O’Leary 4.00
Early Breakfast Show

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

7.00am Breakfast
9.00 Sunday Morning
Sarah Walker chooses three
tracks linking to Radio 3’s
Soundscape of a Century
11.00 Radio 3’s Soundscape of
a Century A celebration of
the centenary of the BBC
with a special eight-hour
continuous soundscape,
tracing the last 100 years of
classical music and gems from
the corporation’s archive
7.00pm Between the Ears:
The Radio of the Future A
poem by Paul Farley marking
the centenary of BBC radio
7.45 Drama on 3: Beowulf
Remixed A radiophonic
adaptation of the major poetic
text using the different BBC
versions broadcast over
the years, from the 1940s
to a new commission by
Patience Agbabi. See Choice
9.05 Record Review Extra
A chance to hear the
recordings discussed in
yesterday’s programme,
including the Building a
Library recommended version
of Schumann’s Myrthen
11.30 Slow Radio:
Underground Wales A poem
by Owen Sheers exploring
the soundworld of the
underground spaces of Wales,
from slate caverns to sea
caves, and from Snowdonia
to the Gower peninsula
12.00 Classical Fix A bespoke
playlist for Kelechi Okafor
12.30am Through the Night (r)

Today’s pick
Drama on 3:
Beowulf Remixed
Radio 3, 7.45pm
Helping to mark the BBC’s
centenary is this radiophonic
adaptation of the epic AngloSaxon masterpiece Beowulf
using the different BBC
versions broadcast over the
years since the 1940s,
showing how this text has
been variously interpreted in
different decades. Seamus
Heaney’s acclaimed 1999
translation is a strong
presence (with Sandy
Grierson, above, as Beowulf)

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Bells on Sunday
5.45 Profile (r)
6.00 News Headlines
6.05 Something Understood
Exploring superstition (r)
6.35 On Your Farm
7.00 News and Papers
7.10 Sunday
7.54 Radio 4 Appeal
8.00 News and Papers
8.10 Live Sunday Worship
8.48 A Point of View (r)
8.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
9.00 Broadcasting House
10.00 The Archers (r)
11.15 Desert Island Discs
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 It’s a Fair Cop (4/6) (r)
12.30 Food and Farming
Awards Visits to the best
food producer finalists
1.00 The World This Weekend
1.30 The Coming Storm (r)
2.00 Gardeners’ Question
Time Listeners’ queries (r)
2.45 What Really Happened
in the Nineties? (r)
3.00 Drama: Working Titles
— Miss Nobody Conclusion of
Mary Cooper’s two-part
musical adaptation of Ethel
Carnie’s 1913 novel (2/2)
4.00 Open Book
4.30 John Burnside:
From the Other Side
5.00 File on 4 (r)
5.40 Profile (r)
5.54 Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.15 Pick of the Week
7.00 The Archers Kirsty needs
to make a quick adjustment
7.15 Now You’re Asking with
Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn
7.45 Voices In The Valley New
series. Short stories by Andrew
Michael Hurley, starting with
The Barrowbeck Survey (1/10)
8.00 Feedback (r)
8.30 Last Word (r)
9.00 Money Box (r)
9.25 Radio 4 Appeal (r)
9.30 Analysis (r)
10.00 The Westminster Hour
11.00 Loose Ends (r)
11.30 Something Understood
12.00 News and Weather
12.15am Thinking Allowed (r)
12.45 Bells on Sunday (r)

alongside a Welsh language
adaptation, a song version
and a new commission by the
poet Patience Agbabi. The
event is introduced by
Laura Ashe. Ben Dowell
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Sports Desk 5.30
Sports Desk 6.00 5 Live
Science 7.00 Sunday
Breakfast 10.00 Helen Skelton
12.00 5 Live Sport 2.00pm
5 Live Sport: Arsenal v
Nottingham Forest (Kick-off
2.00) 4.00 5 Live Sport
4.30 5 Live Sport: Manchester
United v West Ham United
(Kick-off 4.15) 6.30 6-0-6
8.00 5 Live Formula 1:
Mexican Grand Prix 10.00
1Xtra Talks 11.00 Stephen
Nolan 1.00am Edward Adoo

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

6.00am Weekend Sports
Breakfast 9.00 Jonny Owen
and Friends 11.00 The Warm
Up 1.00pm The Sunday
Session 5.00 The Boot Room
8.00 A talkSPORT Special
9.00 Trans Europe Express
12.00 A talkSPORT Special
1.00am Extra Time

TalkRadio
Digital only

5.00am Cristo 7.00 David
Bull 10.00 Richard Tice
1.00pm Trisha Goddard
4.00 Kevin O’Sullivan 7.00
The Sunday Night Club
10.00 The Unexplained 12.00
That Was The Woke That
Was 1.00am Paul Ross

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only

7.20am Subterranean
Homesick Blues Omnibus
8.30 The Enchanting World of
Hinge and Bracket 9.00 The
Inimitable Jeeves 9.30
Coming Alive 10.00 Desert
Island Discs 11.00 Moth Radio
Hour 11.50 Inheritance Tracks
12.00 Poetry Extra 12.30pm
Electric Ink 1.00 Adrian Mole:
The Cappuccino Years 2.10
Inheritance Tracks 2.20
The Second Pan Book of
Horror Stories Omnibus

3.30 The Lake 4.00 Keep the
Aspidistra Flying 5.00 Poetry
Extra 5.30 Electric Ink 6.00
Weird Tales 6.30 Jefferson 37
7.00 The Moth Radio Hour
7.50 Inheritance Tracks 8.00
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
9.00 Desert Island Discs
10.00 Electric Ink 10.30 Can’t
Tell Nathan Caton Nothing
10.45 Elastic Planet 11.00 The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy is 42 11.30 Pantheon
of Heroes 12.00 Weird Tales
12.30am Jefferson 37

BBC World Service
Digital only

9.00am News 9.06 From Our
Own Correspondent 9.30
Outlook 10.00 News 10.06
Global Questions 11.00 The
Newsroom 11.30 Compass
12.00 News 12.06pm The
Truth About Jazz 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
Unspun World 8.00 News
8.06 The History Hour 9.00
Newshour 10.00 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
Newsroom 1.30 Discovery
2.00 The Newsroom 2.30
The Climate Question 3.00
News 3.06 Tech Tent 3.30
Pick of the World 3.50 Over
to You 4.00 The Newsroom

6 Music
Digital only

6.00am Amy Lamé 8.00
Stuart Maconie 10.00 Cerys
Matthews 1.00pm BBC Vaults
2.00 Guy Garvey’s Finest
Hour 4.00 Iggy Pop 6.00
Now Playing 8.00 Stuart
Maconie’s Freak Zone
10.00 Don Letts’ Culture
Clash Radio 12.00 Guy
Garvey’s Finest Hour
2.00am Jukebox 3.00
Rave Forever 4.00 Mixtape

Virgin Radio
Digital only

6.00am Jayne Middlemiss
9.30 The Graham Norton
Show 12.30pm Steve
Denyer 4.00 Bam 7.00
Sunday Special 8.00
Olivia Jones 1.00am Sean
Goldsmith 3.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

7.00am Aled Jones 10.00
John Brunning 1.00pm
Catherine Bott 4.00 John
Humphrys 7.00 Smooth
Classics 9.00 Moira Stuart
Meets 10.00 Smooth
Classics 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 Early Breakfast

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

32 saturday review

Monday 31 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
The White Lotus
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
“You guys are going to have
such an amazing trip,”
Meghann Fahy’s cheery
Daphne tells a new set of
White Lotus guests sitting on
sunloungers. Yet as she takes
her final sea swim, she comes
upon something terrible, then
the action flashes back a week
and we meet the latest intake.
It’s pretty much the same
structure as the first series of
Mike White’s brilliant and
unsparing look at privileged
folk on holiday. And while we
are treated to a return
vacation for Jennifer
Coolidge’s moneyed, spacedout Tanya McQuoid-Hunt,
there is a new cast and a
subtle change of emphasis.
While series one focused
heavily on racial politics as
privileged Americans soaked
up the Hawaiian sun, in Italy
the focus seems to be on sex,
marriage, love and betrayal.
Informing the action are
constant reminders of a local

legend about a woman who
killed her Moorish lover
when she found out he was
married, while at the harbour
watching the guests
disembark are two local
women, one of whom has an
eye on a possible fling. Could
Daphne’s husband, the
buffed-up business whizz
Cameron (Theo James), be a
contender? He is holidaying
with (and constantly
belittling) his old college
room-mate Ethan (Will
Sharpe). Meanwhile, Ethan’s
serious-minded lawyer wife,
Harper (Aubrey Plaza), hates
her unwelcome holiday
companions. Throw in three
generations of the Di Grasso
family (headed by F Murray
Abraham’s flirty, farting
grandpa Bert), who are keen
to explore their Sicilian roots,
and the stage is nicely set for
more unsettling, thoughtprovoking and ultimately
lethal hilarity. Ben Dowell

Jamie’s £1 Wonders Italia 90:
Channel 4, 8pm
When Football
With heating and food prices
Changed Forever
rising through the roof, who
better to help the nation than
the man who campaigned for
nutritious school dinners? Or at
least that is what they clearly
thought in the executive suites
at Channel 4. In this special
one-off programme the pukka
man showcases a range of
“tasty, family-friendly” dishes
each of which can be made for
less than £1 a portion. All
depending, the broadcaster
hastily adds, like one of those
quickly spoken codas at the
end of radio adverts, on “the
cost of the ingredients used
according to prices in
supermarkets at the time of
filming in October 2022”. BD

Catch
up
Hans Zimmer:
Hollywood Rebel
BBC iPlayer
A profile of the prolific and
influential composer
Hans Zimmer, best
known for film scores
such as Rain Man,
The Dark
Knight,
Gladiator and
the Oscarwinning The
Lion King.
Zimmer
shares a
story about
why he
thought

Channel 4, 9pm

Ah, Italia 90: Gazza’s tears,
Nessun Dorma and a
heartbreaking semi-final
penalty shoot-out exit against
the dreaded Germans. Few
pundits gave England’s players
much chance, and more
attention was focused on
whether armed police would
be wielding batons against our
hooligans. This lively look back
begins in Cagliari, Sardinia,
where England were preparing
for their opening game against
the Republic of Ireland. Did the
roots of our fan problem lie in
the Thatcherite 1980s? BD
Disney was going to fire him
from the latter when he first
played the executives the
opening theme and why it ends
on an abrupt drum beat — the
story is funny, self-effacing and
unpretentious. An hour in
Zimmer’s company is a rare
treat, as acclaimed director
a
after
acclaimed director
p
professes
their admiration
for his talent and
pioneering style. Not bad
for someone who only had
two formal weeks of
p
piano
lessons and
was kicked out of
eight schools.
Toby Earle

Aubrey Plaza, Will
Sharpe, Theo James
and Meghann Fahy

Women of Steel
BBC2, 9.30pm
“Smashing people — it’s just
cool, isn’t it?” says a member of
England’s mighty women’s
rugby league squad profiled in
this jolly and eye-opening
series following their build-up
to the World Cup, which starts
tomorrow. The stakes are high
because it is a home
tournament for them, and their
passion, hard work and broken
bones are perhaps even more
admirable because of the lack
of pecuniary rewards. They are
not paid professionals and the
back-row forward Chantelle
Crowl, for example, is up at
5am every day delivering
fridges in an HGV before
heading to training. That’s the
spirt, Chantelle. BD

Imagine:
Malorie Blackman
— What If?
BBC1, 10.40pm
The young Malorie Blackman
was “one step up from sleeping
on park benches” while
growing up and reading was
her “lifeline”. Yet while she
loved books, she didn’t feel that
they loved her back because
she couldn’t “see” herself in
what she was reading. She has
helped to remedy that with her
own writings. In this profile,
aired before the publication of
her autobiography, Alan
Yentob speaks to Blackman as
well as her admirers, including
the writers Michael Rosen and
Jacqueline Wilson. BD

Films of the day
The Hound of the Baskervilles (PG, 1959)
Film4, 4.35pm

There has been no shortage of interpretations of Arthur
Conan Doyle’s great detective, but Peter Cushing’s remains one
of the greatest. This Hammer studios version of one of
Sherlock Holmes’s most famous adventures was Cushing’s first
outing in the role and he’s terrific: patrician, abrasive and curt.
His Holmes is intellectually restless with little time for social
niceties. These he leaves to Dr Watson (André Morell). The
Hammer trademark gothic flourish is in evidence; the ancestral
home of the Baskerville family is a chilly stone edifice full of
shadowy hallways and candles burning in empty rooms. Cushing
didn’t like the taste of Sherlock’s pipe, so he always kept a glass of
milk handy. (85min) Wendy Ide

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

8.00pm
X-Ray 8.30-9.00 Legends of Welsh Sport:
John Toshack 10.40 Disaster Deniers:
Hunting the Trolls — Panorama 11.10 Have
I Got a Bit More News for You (r)
11.55-12.35am Mrs Brown’s Boys Live (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
8.00pm-9.00 Mountain Vets 10.40
Disaster Deniers: Hunting the Trolls —
Panorama 11.10 Imagine: Malorie
Blackman — What If? 12.25am Have
I Got a Bit More News for You (r)
1.10-1.25am Barra on the Foyle (r)
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
9.30pm QI (r) 10.00-10.30 An Focal Scoir
11.15 Women of Steel 12.15-12.45am
Live at the Apollo (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
8.00pm-9.00 Scotland’s Biggest Families
11.50 Sportscene: SWPL Highlights (r)
12.35am Have I Got a Bit More News for
You 1.20 The Graham Norton Show (r)
2.10 Weather 2.15-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm STV News
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 Nazi
Hunters: The Real Walk-In 12.05-3.00am
Teleshopping 3.55-5.10 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 10.45-11.45pm View
from Stormont. The latest updates
● BBC Scotland 2.00pm Sign Zone:
Inside Central Station. Documentary (r)

3.00 Sign Zone: Martin Compston’s
Scottish Fling (r) 3.30-4.00 Sign Zone:
Sarah the Lumberjill: Our Lives (r) 7.00
Sportscene: SWPL Highlights 7.45
Beechgrove Repotted (r) 8.00 This
Farming Life (r) 9.00 The Nine 10.00
River City 10.30 The Witch Hunts: Lucy
Worsley Investigates (r) 11.30-Midnight
The Trials That Shocked Scotland (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 9.25 Deian a Loli (r)
10.00 Timpo (r) 10.10 Jamborî (r) 10.20
Guto Gwningen (r) 10.35 Bach a Mawr (r)
10.50 Byd Tad-Cu (r) 11.00 Sali Mali (r)
11.05 Nico Nôg (r) 11.15 Awyr Iach (r) 11.30
Sion y Chef (r) 11.45 Cacamwnci (r) 12.00
News 12.05pm Bois y Rhondda (r) 12.30
Heno (r) 1.00 Pobol y Penwythnos (r) 1.30
Codi Hwyl: Llydaw (r) 2.00 News 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05 Prosiect
Pum Mil (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Odo (r) 4.10
Sion y Chef (r) 4.20 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd
(r) 4.30 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 4.45 Gwdihw
(r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Y Brodyr Adrenalini (r)
5.05 Dathlu! 5.15 Un Cwestiwn (r) 5.35 Hei
Hanes! (r) 5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00 Gareth! (r)
6.30 Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.57 News S4C
7.00 Heno 7.30 News 8.00 Y Byd ar
Bedwar 8.25 Ffermio 8.55 News 9.00
Cewri Cwpan y Byd 10.30 Sgorio
11.00-12.45am Clwb Rygbi
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

Ghost Stories (15, 2017)
BBC2, 11.15pm

Updating the portmanteau horrors of the 1970s with postmodern
sleight of hand, Ghost Stories was directed and adapted by Jeremy
Dyson and Andy Nyman from their Olivier-nominated play of the
same name. The three interlocking tales feature Paul Whitehouse
as a bitter night watchman, Alex Lawther as a disturbed teenager
and Martin Freeman, above, as a blithe businessman, with Nyman
as the sceptical academic who sets out to disprove their stories.
The performances are on the money, there’s a grotesque
atmosphere throughout, plus some funny gags (“F***ing O2!” one
character snarls, trying to make a phone call during a fraught
encounter), and the denouement has touches of Scooby-Doo and
The Usual Suspects. It’s delightfully creepy. (98min) Ed Potton

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 33

Monday 31

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live
10.00 Critical Incident 10.45 Dirty
Rotten Scammers (r) 11.15 Homes
Under the Hammer (r) 12.15pm
Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News at One;
Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News;
Weather 1.45 Doctors. On Hallowe’en,
Sid volunteers at a homeless shelter
2.15 Money for Nothing. Jacqui
Joseph presents the show from High
Wycombe recycling centre 3.00 I
Escaped to the Country. Briony May
Williams and Sonali Shah catch up
with two couples who relocated to
Somerset 3.45 The Repair Shop 4.30
The Travelling Auctioneers. New
series. Christina Trevanion and Will
Kirk discover treasures in everyday
homes 5.15 Pointless. Quiz 6.00 BBC
News at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC
Regional News; Weather

6.00am Take a Hike (r) 6.30 I Escaped
to the Country (r) 7.15 The Repair
Shop (r) 8.00 Sign Zone: Antiques
Roadshow: 100 Years of the BBC (r)
(SL) 9.00 BBC News 10.00 BBC News
1.00pm Home Is Where the Art Is. A
piece of art for an apartment in a
former cotton mill (r) 1.45 Eggheads.
Quiz show (r) 2.15 Wanted: A Simple
Life. A Belfast showbiz couple spend a
week on the Causeway Coast (r) 3.00
Politics Live Special. The latest stories
from Westminster and beyond 5.00
Coast. How the sea has shaped
Ireland 5.15 Flog It!. From Lulworth
Castle in Dorset (r) 6.00 Richard
Osman’s House of Games. With Sian
Gibson, Jean Johansson, Iain Stirling
and Rav Wilding 6.30 Strictly: It Takes
Two. Rylan chats to the couple who
were eliminated at the weekend

6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30pm
Loose Women. Celebrity interviews
and studio discussion from a female
perspective 1.30 ITV News; Weather
1.55 Regional News; Weather 2.00
Dickinson’s Real Deal. David Dickinson
is joined by experts Alison Chapman,
Tim Hogarth, Jan Keyne and Henry
Nicholls in Preston to assess items
brought in by members of the public
3.00 Riddiculous. Another batch of
contestants take on Riddlemaster
Henry Lewis as they attempt to
answer general knowledge questions
and confusing conundrums 4.00
Tipping Point. Ben Shephard hosts
the arcade-themed quiz 5.00 The
Chase. Quiz show hosted by Bradley
Walsh 6.00 Regional News;
Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.35am Cheers (r) 7.00 Cheers (r) 7.30
Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix
Highlights (r) 8.55 Frasier (r) 9.25
Frasier (r) 9.55 Frasier (r) 10.30
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
11.25 Channel 4 News Summary 11.30
Château DIY (r) 12.30pm Steph’s
Packed Lunch 2.10 Countdown 3.00 A
Place in the Sun. A pair seek a
secluded three-bed house in Portugal
(r) 4.00 Sun, Sea and Selling Houses.
Two new families of estate agents try
to sell properties in Malaga and
Almeria (r) 5.00 Four in a Bed. The
competition kicks off in Portsmouth
at the Seacrest Hotel (r) 5.30 Come
Dine with Me. From in and around
Manchester 6.00 The Simpsons (r)
6.30 Hollyoaks. Felix decides that
enough is enough, as he urges
Warren to stay away from Norma (r)

6.00am Milkshake! 8.30 Paw Patrol. A
mysterious kid is stealing from
trick-or-treaters (r) 8.45 Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine 12.45pm Shoplifters
& Scammers: At War with the Law.
Methods used to thwart criminals
targeting shops (r) 1.40 5 News at
Lunchtime 1.45 Home and Away.
Justin is desperate to salvage Lyrik’s
gigs (r) 2.15 FILM A Christmas Wish
(PG, TVM, 2019) A woman wishes for
her sister to experience true love for
the first time. Romantic comedy
starring Hilarie Burton 4.00 BargainLoving Brits in the Sun. A pair are
enjoying a new life in Spain (r) 5.00
5 News at 5 6.00 Parking Hell.
Following the daily battles across
Britain for parking spaces (r) 6.30
Eggheads. The MK Quizzards take on
the experts 6.55 5 News Update

Malorie Blackman (10.40pm)

Women of Steel (9.30pm)

The Walk-In concludes (9pm)

Horror film Blair Witch (12.05am)

Medical doc Casualty 24/7 (9pm)

7.00 The One Show Lauren Laverne
and Jermaine Jenas present
topical stories and chat

7.00 Live Men’s Rugby League
World Cup: Papua New Guinea
v Wales Coverage of the
concluding Group D fixture,
held at Eco-power Stadium in
Doncaster (Kick-off 7.30). The
Welsh lost all three of their
group matches at the last
World Cup, including a 50-6
defeat at the hands today’s
opponents which they will be
desperate to avoid a repeat of.
However, they will face another
tough test given rugby league
is the national sport of Papua
New Guinea

7.00 Channel 4 News

7.00 Police Interceptors
Documentary following officers
from Nottinghamshire police’s
traffic units, knife crime team
and armed response unit (r)

7.30 EastEnders Lola talks to the
doctor about her tumour
operation
8.00 Disaster Deniers: Hunting the
Trolls: Panorama The disaster
trolls who target survivors of
terror attacks
8.30 We Are England The people
behind a family-run ice
cream van factory
9.00 The Pact Christine pulls out all
the stops to dispute Connor’s
claim, leveraging her social
services access to launch an
investigation and leaning
on an old friend to gather
information (2/6)
10.00BBC News at Ten
10.30 BBC Regional News
10.40 Imagine: Malorie Blackman:
What If? A profile of trailblazing
children’s writer Malorie
Blackman, as she prepares to
publish her long-awaited
autobiography and revisits
key moments in her life.
See Viewing Guide

9.30 Women of Steel Documentary
going behind the scenes with
the England Women’s rugby
league squad in the run-up to
the World Cup, following them
as they battle for selection.
See Viewing Guide
10.30 Newsnight With Kirsty Wark

11.50 Have I Got a Bit More News for
You Steph McGovern hosts an
extended edition of the quiz (r)

11.15 FILM Ghost Stories (15, 2017)
A man famous for debunking
hoaxes is given a dossier of
three unsolvable cases. Horror
anthology starring Andy
Nyman. See Film Choice

12.35am The Graham Norton Show.
With guests Bono, Taylor Swift, Eddie
Redmayne and Alex Scott (r) 1.25
Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel. The
comedian hosts the game show (r)
2.25 Weather for the Week Ahead
2.30 BBC News. The latest headlines

12.45am Sign Zone: Countryfile.
Coverage of this year’s One Man and
His Dog event, with four of the UK’s
top handlers and their sheepdogs
competing at the Bodfari course (r)
(SL) 1.40 Unbreakable (r) (SL)
2.40-3.40 Trouble at Topshop (r) (SL)

7.30 Emmerdale A furious Cain
makes a shocking discovery
and lays a trap

7.55 5 News Update

8.00 Coronation Street Tyrone
shows Fiz the first extract from
the John Stape book in the
Gazette. Todd is shocked by a
picture on Laurence’s phone,
and Tracy gets bogged
down by house repairs

8.00 Jamie’s £1 Wonders Jamie
Oliver demonstrates familyfriendly dishes that can each be
made for less than £1 a portion,
including meatloaf, vegetarian
curry and a half-meat half-veg
Bolognese. See Viewing Guide

8.00 Motorway Cops: Catching
Britain’s Speeders PC Rich
Woodward is part of a
operation to catch a vehicle
being driven with cloned
number plates (6/10);
followed by 5 News Update

9.00 The Walk-In Robbie Mullen
must face his former friends
from National Action in court,
with members of the right-wing
group accused of plotting to
murder an MP (5/5)

9.00 Italia 90: When Football
Changed Forever New series.
A look back at how the 1990
World Cup and how it affected
England’s reputation in
international football.
See Viewing Guide (1/3)

9.00 Casualty 24/7: Every Second
Counts A former miner is
brought in as he is struggling
to breathe, while Sister Jane is
battling a seemingly neverending stream of emergency
patients in the hub

10.00ITV News at Ten; followed by
Weather

10.00Made in the 80s: The Decade
that Shaped Our World The
story of creative forces
challenging the status quo
of the 1980s, examining the
work of Hanif Kureishi and
Holly Johnson, as well as the
birth of Channel 4 (2/3)

10.00999: Critical Condition
Documentary following staff at
Stoke’s Royal University
Hospital. A one-punch attack
leaves a man with a potentially
devastating brain injury (1/8) (r)

11.45 Police, Camera, Murder Police
are on the hunt for a suspected
serial killer in Manchester (r)

11.05 Nine Perfect Strangers Zoe’s
birthday celebration reopens
old wounds, even as the group
begin to grow closer. Drama
based on the bestselling novel
by Liane Moriarty starring
Nicole Kidman (5/8)

11.05 Police: Hour of Duty Real-time
documentary following police
officers on duty between 9pm
and 10pm. The first episode
features a woman being
attacked by her daughter and a
prostitution ring (1/4) (r)

12.35am Teleshopping 3.00 On
Assignment. Assessing tensions
between Taiwan and China (r) (SL)
3.30 James Martin’s Great British
Adventure (r) (SL) 3.55 Unwind with
ITV 5.10 Dickinson’s Real Deal. The
team assess items in Preston (r) (SL)

12.05am FILM Blair Witch (15, 2016)
1.35 Kitchen Nightmares USA (r) 2.25
Nine Perfect Strangers (r) 3.15 I Hate
You (r) 3.40 I Hate You (r) 4.05
Couples Come Dine with Me (r) 4.55
Ugly House to Lovely House (r) 5.50
Sunday Brunch Best Bits (r)

12.00 Live NFL: Monday Night
Football: Cleveland Browns v
Cincinnati Bengals (Kick-off 12.15).
3.30am Entertainment News on 5
3.40 Criminals: Caught on Camera (r)
4.10 House Doctor (r) (SL) 4.35 The
Hotel Inspector (r) 5.25 Milkshake!

10.30 Regional News; followed by
Regional Weather
10.45 Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In
The story of former fascist
Matthew Collins, who has
devoted the last three
decades to bringing down the
far right since leaving the
National Front and BNP

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

34 saturday review

The Exorcist

Monday 31 | Primetime digital guide

William Friedkin’s infamous
1973 supernatural horror
gets an airing on Halloween
BBC3, 10pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am James Max
6.30 The Julia Hartley-Brewer
Breakfast Show
10.00 The Independent Republic
of Mike Graham The host
tears his way through the
morning newspapers
1.00pm Ian Collins Hard-hitting
monologues and debates
4.00 Vanessa Feltz Vanessa
guides you through the
big stories of the day
7.00 Jeremy Kyle Live Taking on
the issues that really matter
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
The host presents his
verdict on the day’s events
9.00 The Talk A panel of
opinionated famous faces
debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about
10.00 First Edition An energetic
look at tomorrow’s news,
tonight, through the lens of
the newspaper first editions
11.00-12.00m’t Piers Morgan
Uncensored Global events

7.00pm FILM ParaNorman (PG,
2012) Animated adventure,
with the voice of Kodi
Smit-McPhee
8.25 The Catch Up
8.30 Angels of the North Shane
steps up as uncle when Jade
needs a babysitter for
Alayah (5/10)
9.00 Bad Education Mr Fraser
organises a guest speaker
for Drugs Awareness Day,
and Alfie tries to persuade
Stephen’s parents not to
remove their son from the
school. Comedy starring
Jack Whitehall (5/7)
9.30 Bad Education Mr Fraser is
tricked into giving away
Abbey Grove’s entire funds
in an investment scam,
plunging the school into
financial ruin (6/7)
10.00 FILM The Exorcist (18, 1973)
Supernatural horror
starring Linda Blair
11.55-12.35am Red Rose (7/8)

7.00pm Great Asian Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo
travels to Java’s Central
Province and the royal city
of Yogyakarta, where he
visits the Sultan’s Palace and
admires the ancient art of
shadow puppetry
8.00 Immortal Egypt with Joann
Fletcher The archaeologist
explores the story of the
ancient civilisation (1/4)
9.00 Sir Bob Geldof in
Conversation with Alan
Yentob A discussion of the
Live Aid Concert at BFI
Southbank, examining the
events surrounding a
defining moment in
BBC history
10.00 Citizens of Boomtown: The
Story of the Boomtown
Rats The story of the band
11.30-12.30am Sight and Sound in
Concert: Boomtown Rats
A classic concert by
Bob Geldof’s band

6.55pm Escape to the Château:
DIY Billy and his father
try to level a patio so
it can pass health and
safety regulations
7.55 Grand Designs Kevin
McCloud is in the Weald
of Kent to catch up with
Richard and Sophie
Hawkes at their arch-shaped
home made of clay tiles,
which was intended to be
energy self-sufficient
9.00 Tony Robinson’s Museum
of Us The team meets the
residents of Portland Street
in Aberystwyth (3/4)
10.00 Britain’s Most Expensive
Home: Building for a
Billionaire The complex
build of an extraordinary
home costing millions in
Mayfair, London
11.05-12.10am 24 Hours in A&E
Staff and patients talk
about the importance of
family support

6.50pm True Blood After saving
Sookie from the Rattrays,
Bill uses his vampire blood
to heal her. In return, the
waitress invites him to her
house to meet Jason, Tara
and Gran (2/12) (R)
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 (R)
9.00 The White Lotus Blackcomedy drama following
the exploits of a group of
demanding vacationers.
See Viewing Guide
10.10 Gangs of London Marian
Wallace is forced out of
hiding and made to confront
his past as Koba launches a
terrifying helicopter attack
on his enemies (3/8) (R)
11.15-12.20am Lovecraft Country
Atticus remains burdened
by a guilty conscience (R)

6.45pm The Last Movie Stars
Documentary chronicling
the lives and careers of
Paul Newman and Joanne
Woodward, examining their
dedication to their art,
philanthropy and each
other (6/6) (R)
8.10 The Sixties Documentary
exploring the changing face
of America throughout the
decade, beginning with a
look at the groundbreaking
television programmes that
shaped the nation (1/10) (R)
9.00 FILM The Armstrong Lie
(15, 2014) Documentary
following cycling champion
Lance Armstrong’s fall from
grace as he was exposed for
using performanceenhancing drugs while
planning his professional
comeback
11.10-1.00am I Am Paul Walker
A profile of the Fast and
Furious star (R)

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.00pm Dress to Impress
8.00 Bob’s Burgers
8.30 Bob’s Burgers
9.00 Family Guy Homages to
Game of Thrones, Succession
and Big Little Lies
9.30 American Dad! Principal
Lewis threatens to cancel science
club. Last in the series
10.00 Family Guy
10.30 Family Guy
11.00 Family Guy
11.30 American Dad!
11.55-12.25am Bob’s Burgers

7.00pm Heartbeat A local boy
struggles to prove his innocence
after a series of arson attacks and
Peggy’s latest money-making
scheme creates an eyesore
8.00 Endeavour The detective
uncovers a potential link between
a series of peculiar accidents
leading him to an all-women
Oxford college determined to
eschew co-education (3/3)
10.00-12.05am Foyle’s War
Andrew Foyle comes under
suspicion (1/4)

6.45pm Snooker: Champion of
Champions Live Jill Douglas
presents coverage of the evening
session on day one from the
University of Bolton Stadium,
featuring a group final, played over
the best of 11 frames
10.15-12.25am FILM A Good Man
(15, 2014) A former soldier trying
to live a quiet life as a handyman
defends a family caught in the
middle of a gang war. Action
thriller starring Steven Seagal
and Victor Webster

7.00pm Hollyoaks A chilling
discovery leaves Sienna in turmoil
7.30 The Big Bang Theory
8.00 Modern Family Manny’s
biological father visits
8.30 Modern Family Mitchell and
Cameron hire a Hispanic gardener
9.00 Made in Chelsea Miles and
Julius tag along on a trip to the
Cotswolds (3/10)
10.00 The Big Blow Out The four
remaining contenders battle it out
in the semi-final (7/8)
11.05-12.10am Gogglebox

7.00pm Richard Osman’s House of
Games With Steve Backshall,
Catherine Bohart, Ranj Singh a
nd Meera Syal
7.40 QI XL With guests Jason
Manford, Sara Pascoe and
Jeremy Clarkson
8.20 Would I Lie to You?
9.00 QI With Joe Lycett, Phil
Wang and Ellie Taylor
10.00 Question Team With Dane
Baptiste. Last in the series
11.00 Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable
12.00-12.40am Mock the Week

6.40pm Last of the Summer Wine
Howard has an unusual gift for
Marina’s garden
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine
Howard has some explaining to do
8.00 The Brokenwood Mysteries
The charred remains of a body are
discovered in a burned out rural
shed. Last in the series
10.00 New Tricks The team tracks
a vicious criminal
11.20-12.40am Spooks The
Nightingale group plans to kill
Pakistan’s president

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection The steeplejack shares
his passion for the railways (1/11)
7.30 Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection The work of the
Stephenson family (2/11)
8.00 Abandoned Engineering
9.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring
Classics Derek encourages the
team to buy a Francis Barnett
Plover at auction (3/6)
10.00 Bangers and Cash (5/15)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (3/7)

6.15pm Edible Insects How eating
insects could benefit people’s
health and that of the planet
7.30 The First World War
Documentary examining all
aspects of the conflict (1/10)
8.35 Hitler’s Slaves: Forced Labour
Under the Nazis Hitler’s army of
slave labourers (1/3)
9.45 The True Story of King Tut’s
Treasure Reconstructing
Tutankhamun’s tomb
10.55 The First World War (1/10)
12.00-1.15am Edible Insects

7.00pm Inside the Factory The
team explores the origins and
production of instant coffee
8.00 Aircrash Alaska How a man’s
plane went down in icy waters just
two miles from its destination
9.00 Aircrash Alaska
10.00 Inside the Factory Exploring
the Manchester factory that
produces 700,000 toilet rolls a day
11.00 Aircrash Alaska How a man’s
plane went down in icy waters just
two miles from its destination
12.00-1.00am Aircrash Alaska

7.00pm Andre Rieu: Welcome to
My World A performance in
Maastricht (10/10)
8.00 Andre Rieu: Magic of
Maastricht A concert by the Dutch
violinist in his home town (2/10)
9.00 Dracula Unearthed Dr Mark
Benecke’s attempts to prove
vampires really existed
10.30 Discovering Film: Horror
Special Authors and film critics
discuss their favourite movies
12.00-1.00am Hallowe’en Comedy
Shorts Chilling comedy shorts (1/2)

7.00pm Forged in Fire (2/2)
8.00 American Pickers The Wolfe
brothers locate the granddaddy of
all pinball machines
9.00 Britain’s Secret Islands A tour
along England’s south coast, diving
with sharks, exploring the
battlements of Drake’s Island,
uncovering the origins of Scouts
and discovering fossils on the
Isle of Wight (4/4)
10.00 Ivan the Terrible
11.15-12.15am Inside the Tower
of London (1/4)

7.00pm Stargate SG-1 (1/2)
8.00 Resident Alien Asta tells
Dan about the shooting (11/16)
9.00 The A to Z of Horror
Movies An alphabetical trip
through the genre
10.00 Brassic Having let their
prisoner slip through their fingers,
the MacDonaghs are on the
warpath (8/8)
11.00 Fantasy Football League
11.35-12.20am The Russell Howard
Hour Russell offers his perspective
on the new prime minister

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Junkyard Empire
8.00 Supertruckers
9.00 Wheeler Dealers
10.00 Chasing Classic Cars
Following the work of car
restorer Wayne Carini
11.00 Edge of Alaska
12.00-1.00am Paranormal
Declassified

7.00pm Air Crash Investigation
8.00 Hitler’s Last Stand
New series. Nazi paratroopers
try to defend Carentan
9.00 History: The Interesting Bits
10.00 Lost Treasures of Egypt
11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00-1.00am Airport Security:
Peru (5/16)

7.00pm Everybody Hates Chris
7.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Last Week Tonight
with John Oliver
9.40 Black Monday
11.00 Last Week Tonight
with John Oliver
11.40-12.55am Real Time
with Bill Maher

7.00pm Friends
9.00 Jason Manford Live at the
Manchester Apollo
10.00 Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes
Stand-up comedy from London’s
Bloomsbury Theatre
11.00-1.00am FILM Cursed Friends
(15, 2022) Comedy horror starring
Jessica Lowe and Will Arnett

6.40pm Dad’s Army
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 Murder, They Hope
9.00 Inside No 9 A special live
episode for Hallowe’en
9.40 Inside No 9
10.20 I’m Alan Partridge
11.00 Peep Show
11.35-12.10am Peep Show

7.00pm Junior MasterChef
Australia The 14 junior contestants
cook their signature dish
8.40 Emma Willis: Delivering
Babies Documentary
9.40 DIY SOS: The Big Build
11.00 The Undateables
12.00-1.00am Million Dollar
Wedding Planner

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

7.30am-12.00noon Live ICC
Men’s T20 World Cup: Australia v
Ireland At Brisbane Cricket Ground
7.00pm Sky Sports News
7.30 Live EFL: Plymouth Argyle v
Exeter City (Kick-off 8.00)
10.30 Hoop Cities: Paris
11.30 Sky Sports News
12.00 Live NFL: Cleveland
Browns v Cincinnati Bengals
(Kick-off 12.15)
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Afghanistan v Sri
Lanka at Brisbane Cricket Ground

7.00pm PL Review
A look back at the weekend’s
action in the top flight
8.00 Gary Neville’s Soccerbox
Gary sits down with Southampton
great Matt Le Tissier
8.30 Gary Neville’s Soccerbox Sol
Campbell relives some of the most
compelling matches that the two
shared during their storied careers
9.00 PL Review A look back at the
weekend’s action in the top flight
10.00 Soccer AM: The Best Bits
10.30-12.30am PL Retro

7.30am-12.00noon Live ICC
Men’s T20 World Cup: Australia v
Ireland Coverage of the Super 12
Group One encounter at
Brisbane Cricket Ground
5.00 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Another chance to see Australia v
Ireland at Brisbane Cricket Ground
9.30-10.00 ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Highlights from
Bangladesh v Zimbabwe
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Afghanistan v Sri
Lanka At Brisbane Cricket Ground

5.30pm Live Serie A: Hellas
Verona v AS Roma (Kick-off 5.30)
7.30 Live Serie A: Monza v
Bologna (Kick-off 7.45)
9.45 Currie Club
10.15 BT Sport Goals Reload
10.45 Premier League:
The Big Interview
11.15 Uefa Champions League
Magazine
11.45 Baseball Today in the UK
12.00-4.00am Live MLB
Coverage of game three of the
World Series (Start-time TBA)

6.45pm Gallagher Premiership
Rugby Highlights Action from the
latest round of fixtures, including
Northampton Saints v Bristol
Bears, Harlequins v London Irish,
and Saracens v Sale Sharks
8.15 Rugby Tonight
9.00 Fishing: On the Bank Action
from this year’s Parkdean Masters
10.00 WWE Raw Highlights
11.00 WWE SmackDown
Highlights
12.00-3.15am Live WWE Monday
Night Raw Wrestling action

Another chance to see the live
2018 Halloween episode of
Inside No 9 (Gold, 9pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 35

Monday 31
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

11.00am Went the Day Well?
(PG, 1942) Second World War
drama starring Leslie Banks
12.50pm The Black Arrow
(U, 1948) Swashbuckling
adventure starring Louis
Hayward and Janet Blair
2.25 Destroyer (U, 1943)
Wartime adventure starring
Edward G Robinson
4.35 The Hound of the
Baskervilles (PG, 1959)
Sherlock Holmes mystery
starring Peter Cushing.
See Film Choice
6.20 Ghostbusters (12, 2016)
Fantasy comedy with Kristen
Wiig and Melissa McCarthy
9.00 Underwater (15, 2020)
Sci-fi thriller starring Kristen
Stewart and Mamoudou Athie
10.50-12.30am The Shallows
(15, 2016) Thriller with Blake
Lively and Oscar Jaenada

7.05 Secret Window (12,
2004) Psychological thriller
starring Johnny Depp
9.00 The Craft (15, 1996)
Horror with Neve Campbell
11.05-12.55am Wind Chill (15,
2007) Thriller starring Emily
Blunt and Ashton Holmes

Talking Pictures TV

TCM Movies

FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Get Some In!
6.30 Bachelor of Hearts (U,
1958) Romantic comedy with
Hardy Kruger and Sylvia Syms
8.20 The Eyes
8.50 Shadow of Fear (U,
1963) Thriller starring Paul
Maxwell and Clare Owen
10.00 Ghosts on the Loose
(U, 1943) Comedy starring
Bela Lugosi and Ava Gardner
11.20 Look at Life
11.30 The Second Woman
(PG, 1951) Thriller with Robert
Young and Betsy Drake
1.20pm The Red House
(PG, 1947) Mystery starring
Edward G Robinson
3.20 Witness In The Dark (U,
1959) Thriller starring Patricia
Dainton and Conrad Phillips
4.35 The Ghost of Greville
Lodge (PG, 2000)
Supernatural family drama
starring George Cole
6.25 An Inspector Calls (PG,
1954) Drama starring Alastair
Sim and Arthur Young
8.00 The Main Chance
9.00 Noble House
10.50 Look at Life
11.00-12.05am Secret Army

6.10am Cheyenne
8.25 North By Northwest
(PG, 1959) Hitchcock thriller
starring Cary Grant
11.15 Cheyenne
1.30pm Churchill (PG, 2017)
Historical drama with Brian
Cox and Miranda Richardson
3.40 The Westerner (PG,
1940) Western starring Gary
Cooper and Walter Brennan
5.50 Ice Station Zebra
(U, 1968) Arctic adventure
starring Rock Hudson
9.00 Hallowe’en 4: The
Return of Michael Myers
(18, 1988) Horror starring
Donald Pleasence
10.50-12.50am Hallowe’en 5:
The Revenge of Michael
Myers (18, 1989) Horror
starring Donald Pleasence

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am Past Sins (12, 2006)
Thriller starring Lauralee
Bell and Rebecca Jenkins
10.50 GREAT! Movie News
11.00 Reflections (15, 2008)
Thriller with Timothy Hutton
and Miguel Angel Silvestre
1.55pm GREAT! Movie News
2.01 Past Obsessions (12,
2011) Thriller starring Josie
Davis and David Millbern
3.55 GREAT! Movie News
4.01 Betrayed By Lies (PG,
2018) Drama starring Amy
Nuttall and Daniel Lapaine
4.45 Gambit (U, 1966) Crime
comedy starring Michael
Caine and Shirley MacLaine
6.55 GREAT! Movie News

Neve Campbell in The Craft
(GREAT! Movies, 9pm)

5.00am Anna Cunningham
with Early Breakfast 6.00
Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00
Matt Chorley 1.00pm Mariella
Frostrup 3.00 Jane Garvey and
Fi Glover 5.00 John Pienaar
with Times Radio Drive 7.00
Pienaar and Friends 8.00
Kait Borsay 10.00 Carole
Walker 1.00am Stories of Our
Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.25pm Wolf (15, 2021)
Drama starring George
MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp
2.20 Umma (15, 2022) Horror
starring Sandra Oh
4.00 Out of the Blue (15,
2022) Romantic thriller
starring Diane Kruger
6.05 The Lost City (12, 2022)
A novelist on a book tour
with her cover model gets
swept up in a kidnapping
attempt that lands both in
danger. Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
8.00 Wolf (15, 2021) A man
who believes he is a wolf is
sent to a clinic, where he is
forced to undergo extreme
forms of curative therapies.
Drama with George MacKay
9.55-12.15am Red Rocket
(18, 2021) A former porn star
decides to return to his home
town of Texas City, Texas,
where his estranged wife and
mother-in-law are living.
Comedy drama starring
Simon Rex and Bree Elrod

FM: 88-90.2 MHz

6.30am Zoe Ball 9.30 Ken
Bruce 12.00 Jeremy Vine
2.00pm Scott Mills 4.00 Sara
Cox 6.30 Sara Cox’s Half
Wower 7.00 Jo Whiley’s Shiny
Happy Playlist 7.30 Jo Whiley
9.00 The Blues Show with
Cerys Matthews 10.00
Trevor Nelson’s Magnificent 7
10.30 Trevor Nelson’s Rhythm
Nation 12.00 OJ Borg 3.00am
Pick of the Pops (r) 4.00
Early Breakfast Show

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

6.30am Breakfast
9.00 Essential Classics
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Coleridge-Taylor Donald
Macleod explores the life of
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
1.00pm Live Radio 3
Lunchtime Concert Martin
Handley presents a recital
from London’s Wigmore Hall.
Caldara (D’improvviso);
Handel (Cantata — Siete rose
rugiadose, HWV162); Scarlatti
(Leandro, anima mia);
Bononcini (Lasciami un sol
momento) and Handel (Dolc’ è
pur d’amor l’affano, HWV109)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Mozart (Fantasy in D minor, K
397); Beethoven (Allegro from
Triple Concerto in C, Op 56);
Dejan Lazic (Istrian Rhapsody,
Op 18b); Bruch (Romance, Op
85); Beethoven (Symphony
No 3 in E flat, Op 55, Eroica)
and Respighi (Pines of Rome)
4.30 New Generation Artists
Ionel Manciu and Dominic
Degavino play a sonata
by Henriette Bosmans
5.00 In Tune With Maya
Youssef and Quatuor Agate
7.00 In Tune Mixtape An
eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
Bruch (Scottish Fantasy, Op
46) and Rimsky-Korsakov
(Scheherazade — Suite, Op 35)
9.00 Ultimate Calm Olafur
Arnalds shares a selection of
seasonal sounds for autumn
10.00 Music Matters (r)
10.45 The Essay: Early Music
at the BBC Nicholas Kenyon
explores the BBC’s role in
the early music revival
11.00 Night Tracks
12.30am Through the Night

Today’s pick
Disaster Trolls
Radio 4, 9.45am

Marianna Spring, right, the
BBC’s disinformation and
social media correspondent,
is one of Auntie’s rising (and
much-needed) stars. In this
eye-opening podcast series
she investigates the dark and
grisly story of how survivors
of attacks and tragedies are
targeted with conspiracy
theories, including those
directly bereaved by the
Sandy Hook massacre. These
“disaster trolls” subject them
to claims that their murdered

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
9.00 Start the Week The
beauty of human cells
9.45 Disaster Trolls New
series. Conspiracy theories
targeting the victims of
tragedies. See Choice
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 The Untold The search
for the pink headed duck, a
bird not seen since the 1940s
11.30 The Bottom Line (r)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Threat to US
Democracy New series
exploring the threats facing
America’s electoral system
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 This Cultural Life (r)
3.00 Brain of Britain
3.30 The Food Programme
4.00 Music to Scream To: The
Hammer Horror Soundtracks
Film soundtracks (r)
4.30 The Digital Human
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 It’s a Fair Cop (5/6)
7.00 The Archers Tracy
is feeling optimistic
7.15 Front Row Arts news
8.00 Uncaged Emily Knight
explores the tangled history
and uncertain future of zoos
8.30 Analysis
9.00 The Treasury Under
Siege Mark Damazer talks to
insiders at the Treasury (r)
9.30 Start the Week Exploring
the beauty of human cells (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
Demon Copperhead Barbara
Kingsolver’s re-imagination of
Dickens’ David Copperfield.
Read by Carl Prekopp (1/15)
11.00 The Witch Farm Dramadocumentary about a family
making a fresh start at an old
farmhouse, who discovers
that the isolated building
holds dark secrets (3/8)

loved ones are still alive and
accuse survivors of being
“crisis actors”. And while it is a
phenomenon that has come
to public attention through US
court battles, it is growing in
this country too. Ben Dowell

5.00 In and Out of the
Kitchen 5.30 It’s a Fair Cop
6.00 Ringing the Changes
6.30 A Good Read 7.00
Round the Horne 7.30
Anything Legal 8.00 Lord
Peter Wimsey: Have His
Carcase 8.30 Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 9.00 TED
Radio Hour 9.50 Inheritance
Tracks 10.00 Comedy Club:
It’s a Fair Cop 10.30 Twenty
Players 10.45 Self Storage
11.00 The Now Show 11.30
Sorry About Last Night

BBC World Service
Digital only

5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast with Laura Woods
10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee
and Jacobs 4.00 Drive 7.00
The PressBox 10.00 Sports
Bar 1.00am Extra Time

9.00am The Newsroom
9.30 The Climate Question
10.00 News 10.06 The
Cultural Frontline 10.30 The
Explanation 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 Business 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 9.00 Newshour
10.00 The Newsroom 10.20
Sports News 10.30 Business
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 3.00
News 3.06 Outlook 3.50
Witness History 4.00 The
Newsroom 4.30 In the Studio

TalkRadio

6 Music

Digital only

Digital only

5.00am James Max 6.30 The
Julia Hartley-Brewer Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Independent
Republic of Mike Graham
1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00
Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Jeremy
Kyle 8.00 Piers Morgan
9.00 The Talk 10.00 Tom
Newton Dunn 11.00 Petrie
Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross

7.30am Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs
1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00
Steve Lamacq 7.00 Marc
Riley. New and classic tracks
9.00 Tom Robinson 12.00 In
Their Own Words: The Cure
1.00am The Cure at the BBC

11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Disaster Trolls (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Wake Up to Money
6.00 5 Live Breakfast 9.00
Gordon Smart 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal
Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live
Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 9.00
Rugby League 9.30 5 Live
Boxing 10.00 Colin Murray
1.00am Edward Adoo

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only

8.00am Round the Horne
8.30 Anything Legal 9.00
Wordaholics 9.30 Double
Income, No Kids Yet 10.00
The Personal History of David
Copperfield 11.00 TED Radio
Hour 11.50 Inheritance Tracks
12.00 Round the Horne
12.30pm Anything Legal 1.00
Lord Peter Wimsey: Have His
Carcase 1.30 Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 2.00 Buzz 2.15
Five Fever Tales 2.30 Scream
Queens 3.00 The Personal
History of David Copperfield
4.00 Wordaholics 4.30
Double Income, No Kids Yet

Virgin Radio
Digital only

5.30am The Chris Evans
Breakfast Show 9.00 Eddy
Temple-Morris 12.00 Jayne
Middlemiss 3.00pm Steve
Denyer 6.00 Bam 9.00 Amy
Voce 1.00am Sean Goldsmith
4.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

6.00am More Music
Breakfast 9.00 Alexander
Armstrong 12.00 Anne-Marie
Minhall 4.00pm John
Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics 10.00 Margherita
Taylor 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 Early Breakfast

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

36 saturday review

Tuesday 1 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Louis Theroux Interviews . . .
BBC2, 9.15pm
Last week it was the rapper
Stormzy and tonight our
bespectacled sleuth is in the
Sussex home of another
popular national figure: Judi
Dench. Appropriately for the
calibre of the company,
Theroux has been on less
combative form than usual
this series, although he still
seems slightly ill at ease with
the new-look sit-down
interview format and he
seems keen to disrupt it. At
one stage the sofa chat is
interrupted when one of the
crew shows Dench a YouTube
clip, while on another
occasion he makes great play
of swatting a fly. Theroux’s
questions about the death of
the actress’s beloved husband,
Michael Williams, prompts
some sad reflections, then
what looks like a Paddington
hard stare as she clearly
finds the subject too difficult.
She won’t really go into
her Quakerism either, or

whether she believes in an
afterlife. She is more open
about her eyesight problems
and whether she can go on
stage again. Most of the time,
though, the two spar nicely,
especially when Theroux
brings up some of her acting
turkeys (her family rib her
for her turn opposite Vin
Diesel in the 2004 film The
Chronicles of Riddick, we’re
told). We also meet Dench’s
actress daughter Finty and
her son Sam, who lived with
his gran for ten months
during lockdown. Finty says
her “ma” hates being alone
and Sam was a godsend (they
made TikTok videos together).
Dench is gentle and lovely,
but not enormously exciting
company. It’s a reminder
that to be an astonishing
vessel for fascinating
character studies, it might
help if you don’t have a
domineering personality.
Ben Dowell

The Great British
Bake Off

Jimmy Akingbola
Handle With Care

Channel 4, 8pm

ITV, 9pm

The star baker Syabira was
smiling last week, but Kevin,
who was asked to leave the
tent, was not. Still, the judges
wait for no baker, especially
when it’s a quarter-final pastry
week. “Any mistake can
eliminate you,” Janusz says.
“There is no room for a bad
bake now.” Unfortunately,
there are some of those this
week as they are asked to
make vol-au-vents and spring
rolls. After that, they have to
create a pie depicting their
favourite childhood story.
There’s a lot of savoury on
show tonight and a few sweet
moments too. BD

Catch
up
All Creatures Great & Small
My5
Unshowily going about its
business, the wonderful
revival of the veterinary
drama has reached its third
series. It begins in the summer
of 1939. James Herriot
(Nicholas Ralph) smiles
admiringly
as an RAF
biplane
soars
overhead
and

We learn in this film that the
number of children in care
in Britain has risen over the
past decade by 28 per cent
to almost half a million, and
of the children awaiting
adoption more than 40 per
cent are black. The actor and
presenter Jimmy Akingbola
(best known to ITV audiences
as the star of the first series
of the sitcom Kate & Koji)
tells his own story of being
born to Nigerian parents
and fostered by a white
British family. He argues
that love should matter
more than ethnicity when
it comes to adoption. BD
posters encouraging men to
sign up for the army are posted
round Darrowby. James has
another reason to smile since
he is set to marry Helen
(Rachel Shenton, below with
Ralph), if he can survive the
stag night organised by Tristan
(Callum Woodhouse). Lastminute nerves and sick animals
add jeopardy, while barbed
remarks from Siegfried
(Samuel West) inject vinegar
into the brew. By the series end,
Britain will stand on
the brink of war, with
all the residents of
Skeldale House
forced to consider
what matters to
them most.
Joe Clay

Alexander
Armstrong in
South Korea

A Story of Bones:
Storyville

Films of the day

BBC4, 9.30pm

BBC2, 12.15am

Channel 5, 9pm

The overseas British territory of
St Helena is a tiny dot in the
South Atlantic ocean, just ten
miles long and about six miles
wide, a very posh archive
voiceover tells us at the start of
this film. It was also where the
exiled Napoleon died. But an
unassuming hillside also
contains a mass burial ground
containing 8,000 enslaved
Africans discovered when work
was being done for the island’s
doomed airport. That project’s
environmental officer, Annina
Van Neel, tells the story of this
injustice and her battle to get
these forgotten victims
properly remembered. BD

“South Korea!” Alexander
Armstrong booms. “Global
powerhouse! Economic
miracle! And yet it’s . . . younger
than David Hasselhoff!” The
Pointless presenter has rather
lucked out with this trip and
enjoys himself enormously. He
takes in the country’s “K Pop, K
drama, K everything” culture,
but also looks beyond the
colour, buzz and vibrancy and
into its history and culture. His
description of Seoul’s high-rise
buildings as a “living bar code”
also shows what a nice turn of
phrase he has. BD

I Got Life! (15, 2017)
For Aurore (Agnès Jaoui), a 50-year-old divorcee, the
menopause doesn’t just entail tears, tantrums and hot flushes.
It also brings a surprise meeting with her first love, her elder
daughter getting pregnant and her younger one leaving home.
Blandine Lenoir’s French comedy has hints of #MeToo
(#MoiAussi?) as Aurore has to contend with abusive leches in
the street and a boss who insists on calling her Samantha.
Generally, though, it’s frothy and fun and held together with
considerable warmth by Jaoui, who treads a neat line between
comedy and believability. Perhaps her most impressive feat is to
flirt with a sonographer while he is scanning her daughter’s womb.
(89min) Ed Potton

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

10.45am
Homes Under the Hammer 11.45-12.15pm
X-Ray. Report on a couple’s battle over
travel insurance for their cruise (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.40pm Ulster By the Sea 11.10 Stuck
11.25 Industry 12.20-1.05am Mood
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
11.15pm Introduction to His House 11.20
FILM His House (2020) 12.45am FILM
Lizard (2020) 1.00-1.40 BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
7.00pm-7.30 River City (r) 9.00-10.00
Who Lives in Scotland? 10.40 Reported
Missing (r) 11.40 Industry 12.35am Mood
(r) 1.20 Mood (r) 2.05 Unbreakable (r)
3.05 Weather 3.10-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 10.45pm
Backstage 11.15-11.45pm Face to Face
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm STV News
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 The Pride of
Britain Awards 2022 (r) 12.50-3.00am
Teleshopping 3.55-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 10.45-11.45pm
Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In (r)
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Inside the Zoo (r)
8.00 Paramedics on Scene (r) 9.00 The
Nine 10.00 David Wilson’s Crime Files.
The use of Public Appeals with cold cases
10.30 Murder Case (r) 11.30pm-Midnight
Darren McGarvey’s Scotland (r)

● S4C 6.00am Cyw

6.40 Anifeiliaid Bach
y Byd (r) 6.50 Twt (r) 7.00 Shwshaswyn
(r) 7.10 Dathlu ’Da Dona (r) 7.25 Olobobs
(r) 7.30 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 7.45
Deian a Loli (r) 8.00 Cymylaubychain (r)
8.10 Abadas (r) 8.25 Jen a Jim Pob Dim (r)
8.40 Halibalw (r) 8.50 Asra (r) 9.05 Y
Crads Bach (r) 9.10 Sam Tân (r) 9.20 Caru
Canu a Stori (r) 9.30 Octonots (r) 9.45
Amser Maith Maith yn Ôl (r) 10.00 Bing (r)
10.10 Dwylo’r Enfys (r) 10.25 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 10.40 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd
(r) 10.50 Twt (r) 11.00 Shwshaswyn (r)
11.10 Dathlu ’Da Dona (r) 11.25 Olobobs (r)
11.30 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 11.45
Deian a Loli (r) 12.00 News 12.05pm
Natur a Ni (r) 12.30 Heno (r) 1.00 Pobol y
Môr (r) 1.30 Ffermio (r) 2.00 News 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05 Nôl i’r
Gwersyll (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Caru Canu a
Stori (r) 4.10 Ein Byd Bach Ni (r) 4.20 Nico
Nôg (r) 4.30 Pablo (r) 4.45 Cacamwnci (r)
5.00 Stwnsh: Mwy o Stwnsh Sadwrn 5.25
Rhyfeddodau Chwilengoch a Cath Ddu
5.50 Bernard (r) 5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00 Nyrsys
(r) 6.30 Sgorio (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00
Heno 7.30 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25
Rownd a Rownd 8.55 News 9.00 Plant y
Sianel 10.00 Ogof Gwddf y Diafol
11.00-11.35 Cymry ar Gynfas (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

Nuns on the Run (15, 1990)
Film4, 11.20pm

Showing as a tribute to Robbie Coltrane, who died this month,
Jonathan Lynn’s crime comedy stars Coltrane and Eric Idle as
men who don habits to escape mobsters in a film that owes a
considerable debt to Some Like It Hot. Brian and Charlie (Idle and
Coltrane, above) work for the notorious gangster “Case” Casey
(Robert Patterson). When he discovers that they want out, he
decides to bump them off, but not before they have helped him
to rob a local triad. The duo get wind of his plan and make off
with the money themselves, but their escape plan goes awry and
they have to seek refuge in a nuns’ teacher training school. It was
a big success in the US where it became the most successful
British comedy since A Fish Called Wanda. (88min) Joe Clay

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 37

Tuesday 1

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live
10.00 Critical Incident 10.45 Dirty
Rotten Scammers (r) 11.15 Homes
Under the Hammer 12.15pm Bargain
Hunt (r) 1.00 BBC News at One;
Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News;
Weather 1.45 Doctors. Daniel finds
himself in a scary situation while
Scarlett struggles financially 2.15
Money for Nothing. Some iron bench
ends, an oak cabinet and three dining
chairs are restored (r) 3.00 I Escaped
to the Country. House-hunters who
wanted to settle in Scotland 3.45
The Repair Shop. A rusty rocking
duck chair and a bashed-up banjo
are restored 4.30 The Travelling
Auctioneers. A Somerset couple get
rid of their clutter 5.15 Pointless. Quiz
show 6.00 BBC News at Six; Weather
6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather

6.00am Take a Hike (r) 6.30 I Escaped
to the Country (r) 7.15 The Repair
Shop (r) 8.00 Sign Zone: The Great
Northern Garden Build (r) (SL) 9.00
BBC News 10.00 BBC News 12.15pm
Politics Live 1.00 Home Is Where the
Art Is (r) 1.45 Live Women’s Rugby
League World Cup. England v Brazil:
Coverage of the opening match of
the tournament, as the Group A sides
meet at Headingley Stadium in Leeds
(Kick-off 2.30) 4.30 Murder, Mystery
and My Family: Case Closed?. A look
at the 1937 murder of a woman in
Bedfordshire (r) 5.15 Flog It! Some of
the best finds from the show’s travels
(r) 6.00 Richard Osman’s House of
Games. With Jean Johansson, Iain
Stirling, Sian Gibson and Rav Wilding
6.30 Strictly: It Takes Two. With the
winners of Sunday night’s dance-off

6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30pm
Loose Women. Topical discussion
from a female perspective 1.30 ITV
News; Weather 1.55 Regional News;
Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal.
David Dickinson and his team of
dealers are in Leeds 3.00 Riddiculous.
Quiz hosted by Ranvir Singh in which
contestants take on Riddlemaster
Henry Lewis as they attempt to
answer general knowledge questions
and confusing conundrums 4.00
Tipping Point. Ben Shephard hosts
the arcade-themed quiz in which
contestants drop tokens down a
choice of four chutes in the hope
of winning a £10,000 jackpot 5.00
The Chase. Quiz show hosted by
Bradley Walsh 6.00 Regional News;
Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.05am Countdown (r) 6.45 Cheers (r)
7.10 Cheers (r) 7.35 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.00 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.25 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.55 Frasier (r) 9.30
Frasier (r) 10.00 Frasier (r) 10.30
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
11.25 Channel 4 News Summary 11.30
Château DIY (r) 12.30pm Steph’s
Packed Lunch 2.10 Countdown 3.00
A Place in the Sun. From the Charente
region of France (r) 4.00 Sun, Sea and
Selling Houses. From the Costa del Sol
(r) 5.00 Four in a Bed. The White
Horse Hotel in Storrington, West
Sussex (r) 5.30 Come Dine with Me.
From Manchester 6.00 The Simpsons.
New series. Christian film producers
offer the Simpsons a movie deal
6.30 Hollyoaks. A chilling discovery
leaves Sienna and Ste in turmoil

6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine
12.45pm Shoplifters & Scammers:
At War with the Law. Documentary
charting methods used to thwart
criminals targeting shops (r) 1.40 5
News at Lunchtime 1.45 Home and
Away. Bree delivers some good news
(r) 2.15 FILM An Unforgettable
Christmas (PG, TVM, 2020) A woman
is in for a surprise when she wakes
up and thinks she is late for her own
wedding. Romantic comedy starring
Ashley Greene and Andrew W Walker
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun.
A look back at some of the best bits
of the series 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00
Parking Hell. Following the daily
battles across Britain for parking
spaces (r) 6.30 Eggheads. Trebles
for Show, Doubles for Dough take on
the Eggheads 6.55 5 News Update

Industry’s Yasmin (10.40pm)

Drama I Got Life! (12.15am)

The actor Jimmy Akingbola (9pm)

The Great British Bake Off (8pm)

Alexander Armstrong (9pm)

7.00 The One Show Lauren Laverne
and Roman Kemp present live
chat and topical reports

7.00 The Bidding Room Items
include a childhood Viewmaster
collection, candle holders
and an apothecary box (r)

7.00 Channel 4 News Including sport
and weather

7.00 Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly
Featuring a 12-stone Great
Dane that insists on sleeping in
its owner’s bed and a French
bulldog that will not let anyone
leave the house (3/10) (r)

7.30 EastEnders The discovery
of Ranveer’s body leads to
desperation for Suki and Nina
8.00 Trawlermen: Hunting the
Catch Adam leaves his home
waters in search of dover sole
in the hope of covering his
ever-growing expenses. Up
in Scotland Stephen breaks
from the fleet towards some
stormy weather (5/6)
9.00 Reported Missing South
Yorkshire Police race against
the clock to find two missing
women, both of whom are at
potential risk of harm from
abusive ex-partners (4/4)

10.00BBC News at Ten

10.30 BBC Regional News
10.40 Industry Harper risks losing
everything in her most daring
attempt yet to retain Bloom
after a group of Redditors
buy Fastaide stock, and Gus
faces a difficult choice (6/8)
11.35 Mood After wannabe singer
Sasha fights with her ex and
gets kicked out by her family,
she has to find her own way,
but a chance meeting reveals
a whole new world (1/6) (r)
12.20am Mood. Sasha is forced to
sofa-surf at her drug dealer Saleem’s
flat (r) 1.05 Unbreakable. With Shirley
Ballas (r) 2.05 Weather for the Week
Ahead 2.10 BBC News. Headlines

7.45 Mastermind Specialist subjects
include Neil Armstrong and
Shakespeare’s comedies
8.15 Only Connect Victoria Coren
Mitchell presents as the
Peacocks take on Strigiformes
8.45 University Challenge Jesus
College, Cambridge takes on
St Catherine’s College, Oxford
9.15 Louis Theroux Interviews:
Dame Judi Dench The
journalist meets the Oscarwinning actress for a candid
and lively conversation about
her long career and life.
See Viewing Guide (2/6)
10.00Frankie Boyle’s New World
Order The comedian tries to
make sense of the world (2/7)
10.30 Newsnight With Kirsty Wark

11.15 Kids’ TV: The Surprising Story
A celebration of children’s TV,
looking at how it entranced
generations of young people
and played a radical role in
shaping modern Britain (r)
12.15am FILM I Got Life! (15, 2017)
An unemployed woman’s life takes an
unexpected turn when she crosses
paths with a former love. Drama
starring Agnes Jaoui. See Film Choice
1.40 Sign Zone: Frozen Planet II (r) (SL)
2.40-3.40 Saving Lives at Sea (r) (SL)

7.30 Emmerdale Kerry and Chloe
make a grim discovery, the
villagers reel at the news, and
Matty and Amy seek answers

7.55 Nnamdi’s Story: Stand Up to
Cancer Short film

7.55 5 News Update

8.00 The Martin Lewis Money Show:
Live With the increasing
economic turmoil and an
ever-changing financial
landscape, the cash expert
shares the latest news on
savings and energy, as well as
answering urgent questions

8.00 The Great British Bake Off
Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas
host as the bakers face pastry
week. Each baker must show
their skills while making
vol-au-vents, a savoury snack
and a final showstopping pie.
See Viewing Guide (8/10)

8.00 The Yorkshire Vet Julian
Norton meets a five-month-old
cockapoo with a badly broken
leg, while Peter Wright gets a
scare when he tries to help a
horse with some worrying
cancerous growths (9/11);
followed by 5 News Update

9.00 Jimmy Akingbola Handle with
Care Actor and presenter
Jimmy Akingbola shares
his own deeply personal
experience of growing up in
the care system in England.
See Viewing Guide

9.15 Make Me Prime Minister
Alastair Campbell and Sayeeda
Warsi assist the final three
competitors in their final
chance to win the title of
Alternative Prime Minister (6/6)

9.00 Alexander Armstrong in South
Korea New series. The singer
journeys across South Korea,
one of the most influential and
successful countries on earth,
known for its manufacturing
strength and cultural exports.
See Viewing Guide (1/3)

10.00ITV News at Ten; followed by
Weather
10.30 Regional News; followed by
Regional Weather
10.45 The Grand Fishing Adventure
Ali and Bobby head off on the
final leg of their British Isles
tour to a lake in Essex, before
the main event at Grenville
in Cambridgeshire (4/4) (r)
11.45 The Pride of Britain Awards
2022 Annual ceremony
honouring the nation’s
unsung and modest heroes (r)
1.30am Teleshopping 3.00 The
Jonathan Ross Show. With Chloe Kelly,
Romesh Ranganathan and Lewis
Capaldi (r) (SL) 3.55 Unwind with ITV
5.05 Dickinson’s Real Deal (r) (SL)

10.20 Gogglebox: Celebrity Special
for SU2C A special celebrity
edition for Stand Up to Cancer,
with some of Britain’s bestloved personalities turning their
hand to being the country’s
most opinionated viewers (r)

10.00Cause of Death A woman
calls police worried there’s
water flowing out from her
neighbour’s front door and,
when they enter the house,
police find a fully clothed
man dead in the bath (2/4) (r)

11.20 Gogglebox The armchair critics
share their opinions on Squid
Game, Strictly Come Dancing,
The Mating Game and Boris
Johnson’s appearance on
The Andrew Marr Show (r)

11.05 FILM A Good Day to Die Hard
(12, 2013) John McClane goes
to Moscow and helps his CIA
agent son stop the Russian
Mob from stealing nuclear
weapons. Action adventure
sequel, with Bruce Willis

12.25am Taskmaster (r) (SL) 1.15 The
Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
(r) 2.10 FILM Regression (15, 2015)
Thriller starring Ethan Hawke (SL)
3.55 Unreported World (r) (SL) 4.20
Couples Come Dine with Me (r) (SL)
5.10 Best of Britain by the Sea (r) (SL)

12.45am Entertainment News on 5
1.00 The LeoVegas Live Casino Show
3.00 Entertainment News on 5 3.05
Diet Secrets & How to Lose Weight (r)
3.55 The Hotel Inspector (r) 4.45
House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.10 House
Doctor (r) 5.30 Milkshake!

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

38 saturday review

The Young Ones

Tuesday 1 | Primetime digital guide

Adrian Edmondson, Nigel
Planer, Christopher Ryan
and Rik Mayall star
BBC4, 9pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am James Max
6.30 The Julia Hartley-Brewer
Breakfast Show
10.00 The Independent Republic
of Mike Graham A look at
the morning newspapers
1.00pm Ian Collins Hard-hitting
monologues and debates
4.00 Vanessa Feltz The
presenter takes a look at
the big stories of the day
7.00 Jeremy Kyle Live The
straight-talking voice of
the people take on the
issues that really matter
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
The host presents his
verdict on the day’s events
9.00 The Talk Sharon Osbourne
and a panel of famous faces
debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about
10.00 First Edition A look at
tomorrow’s news through
the newspaper first editions
11.00-12.00m’t Piers Morgan
Uncensored

7.00pm The Catch Up
7.05 Gymnastics World
Championships Live
coverage of the women’s
team final from the M&S
Bank Arena in Liverpool
9.00 Ruck Stars The Ospreys
face the Dragons, but a
half-time incident causes
concern for the team (3/5)
9.30 Squad Goals: Dorking ’Til I
Die Dorking take on local
rivals Sutton in a crucial
game for the league (3/6)
10.00 BBC New Comedy Awards
2022 The sixth heat comes
from The Box at FarGo
Village in Coventry (6/7)
10.30 It’s What She Would Have
Wanted Short comedy film
10.40 Cuckoo A couple discover
their daughter got married
during her gap year (1/6)
11.10 Cuckoo Ken decides to
lay down some ground
rules for Cuckoo (2/6)
11.40-12.10am Cuckoo (3/6)

7.00pm Great Asian Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo’s
2,500-mile rail tour of southeast Asia reaches Malaysia
8.00 To the Manor Born
Audrey learns the art
of housekeeping (1/6)
8.30 Ever Decreasing Circles
Martin reopens a
public footpath (5/7)
9.00 The Young Ones First
episode of the comedy.
The students try to stop the
council from demolishing
their house (1/6)
9.30 A Story of Bones: Storyville
Documentary about one
person’s fight for a proper
memorial for the remains of
325 African slaves, removed
from the development site
for a new airport on Saint
Helena. See Viewing Guide
11.05-12.05am A Day in the Life of
Earth Hannah Fry reveals
how much the planet
can change in 24 hours

6.55pm Escape to the Château:
DIY Dick and Angel need
to rescue a children’s
trampoline from their moat
7.55 Grand Designs Kevin
McCloud revisits a project
to construct a timber
eco-home with views of
Lake Windermere that was
being jeopardised by the
owners’ financial problems
when he last met them
9.00 24 Hours in A&E A nurse
is called to resus to help a
71-year-old patient who has
had a suspected stroke (3/6)
10.00 24 Hour Baby Hospital
A couple return to the
Rotunda hoping for the safe
arrival of their baby girl (3/6)
11.05-12.10am 24 Hours in A&E
A 40-year-old man injured
in a bike crash may require
emergency surgery and
a 49-year-old is admitted
after his heart rate more
than doubled in an hour

6.50pm True Blood Dawn’s body is
found, and police suspect
Jason is the killer. After Tara
provides him with an alibi,
Sookie visits a vampire bar
to prove her brother’s
innocence (4/12) (R)
7.55 Game of Thrones Bran
trains with the Three-Eyed
Raven, while in the north of
Westeros at Castle Black,
the Night’s Watch stands
behind Alliser Thorne (R)
9.00 This England The
government discusses
contingency plans as Boris’
health deteriorates. Dominic
Cummings is spotted in
Durham (5/6) (R)
10.05 The White Lotus Drama,
following the exploits of
a group of demanding
vacationers at a luxury
resort, this time in Sicily (R)
11.15-12.20am Succession
Kendall tries to make
amends with his dad (R)

7.00pm The Lady and the Dale
Automobile executive Liz
Carmichael’s meteoric rise
comes to a halt in 1974 when
the promotion of her cutting
edge car, The Dale, exposes
her criminal past (1/4) (R)
8.00 The Sixties A look back at
tense political situations
from the decade (2/10) (R)
9.00 The Vow Two NXIVM
members recount their
experiences with Keith
and Nancy’s treatment for
symptoms of Tourette’s
10.10 Kingdom of Dreams
A chronicle of the
fashion world (1/4) (R)
11.10-12.55am FILM Dying to
Divorce (15, 2021)
Documentary filmed over
five years, delving into the
heart of Turkey’s genderbased violence crisis and
the recent political events
that have eroded
democratic freedoms

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.00pm Dress to Impress
A 20-year-old estate agent from
Kent is hoping to find love
8.00 Bob’s Burgers The Belchers
visit a haunted house on Halloween
8.30 Bob’s Burgers The kids’
Halloween celebrations go awry
9.00 Family Guy
9.30 Family Guy
10.00 The Emily Atack Show Emily
gets a glimpse into her future
10.45 Family Guy
11.15 Family Guy
11.45-12.15am American Dad!

7.00pm Heartbeat A judge is the
target of a series of attacks, but
investigations are complicated
when the number one suspect is
found dead on his own doorstep
8.00 Midsomer Murders Barnaby
investigates the murder of a local
councillor. Guest starring Paul Kaye
10.00-12.10am Foyle’s War Foyle
investigates a burglary at the
headquarters of a multinational
company, and a murder leads him
to believe the firm are conducting
covert business with the Nazis (2/4)

6.45pm Snooker: Champion of
Champions Live Coverage of the
evening session on day two from
the University of Bolton Stadium,
featuring a group final, played
over the best of 11 frames
10.15 All Elite Wrestling: Rampage
Hard-hitting, high-flying action
11.25 Auto Mundial With the latest
Ford Mustang Mach-E and the
all-new Ferrari Purosangue
11.50-12.20am Motorsport
Mundial Featuring the NHRA
from Pennsylvania

7.00pm Hollyoaks Norma comes
across Warren’s medical records
and makes him an offer
7.30 The Big Bang Theory Tension
mounts when the pals attend a
weekend science conference
8.00 Modern Family Gloria gives
Manny’s date a makeover
8.30 Modern Family
9.00 Gogglebox The armchair
critics review shows including
Dynasties II and Pieces of Her
10.00 Naked Attraction
11.05-12.10am First Dates

7.00pm Richard Osman’s House of
Games With guests Steve
Backshall, Catherine Bohart, Dr
Ranj Singh and Meera Syal
7.40 QI XL With guests Gyles
Brandreth, Victoria Coren Mitchell
and Jimmy Carr taking part
8.20 Would I Lie to You?
9.00 QI With Matt Lucas, Holly
Walsh and Susan Calman
10.00 Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable
Meera Syal gets revenge
11.00 QI XL Sandi Toksvig hosts
12.00-12.40am Mock the Week

6.40pm Last of the Summer Wine
A solicitor’s letter terrifies Tom
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine
Promotion at the building society
means Barry has to visit a
particularly aggressive family
8.00 Dalziel & Pascoe A chemist
suffocates in a sealed university lab
10.10 New Tricks The team
encounters witchcraft
11.30-12.55am Spooks Lucas
boards a boat heading from
Tangier to Plymouth to track a
Somali terrorist

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection Documentary (3/11)
7.30 Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection Documentary (4/11)
8.00 Billy Connolly’s Great
American Trail The comedian
embarks on a journey across the
US, starting in New York (1/3)
9.00 Bangers and Cash Paul is
picking up a stunning 1961
Vauxhall Cresta (9/15)
10.00 Bangers and Cash (6/15)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (4/7)

6.30pm Nature’s Big Year
Documentary revealing how the
lockdown allowed wildlife to thrive
7.30 The First World War
Documentary examining the early
months in the war (2/10)
8.35 Hitler’s Slaves: Forced Labour
Under the Nazis How the system
of Nazi forced labour became
increasingly radical (2/3)
9.40 Riveted: The History of Jeans
The story of the iconic US garment
10.55 The First World War (2/10)
12.00-1.05am Nature’s Big Year

7.00pm Inside the Factory
Presenter Gregg Wallace explores
a Manchester factory that
produces 700,000 toilet rolls a day
8.00 Air Warriors The Lancaster, a
flying machine of near-perfect
symmetrical beauty
9.00 Air Warriors The Tornado
10.00 Memphis Belle in Colour
The story of one of the most
famous aircraft in history
11.00 Air Warriors The Lancaster
12.00-1.00am Air Warriors
Examining The Tornado

7.00pm Classic Literature &
Cinema The film adaptations of
great literary works (3/3)
8.00 Discovering: Frances
McDormand The life and career
of the Academy Award-winning
actress famed for her
performances in Fargo
9.00 Discovering Dance on Film
Memorable dances from history
10.30 Too Young to Die The
sudden death of Karen Carpenter
11.30-1.30am Poly Styrene: I Am a
Cliché A profile of the frontwoman

7.00pm Forged in Fire
8.00 What on Earth? Investigating
the startling mysteries captured by
satellites orbiting the Earth
9.00 Legends of the Pharaohs
New series. The construction of the
pyramids and the Great Sphinx
10.00 The UnXplained with
William Shatner Examining how
the human species evolved
11.00 Haunted History (3/8)
12.00-1.00am Curse of Skinwalker
Ranch Metal fragments from a
dome-shaped object are recovered

7.00pm Stargate SG-1 A group of
gods threatens to destroy Earth
8.00 The 00s: Cinema’s Greatest
Decade Alex Zane examines the
merits of films from the 2000s
9.00 Peacemaker Economos and
Murn bond on their first official
mission. With Steve Agee (3/8)
10.00 The Lazarus Project Sci-fi
thrilller starring Paapa Essiedu (1/8)
11.00 Resident Alien Asta tells Dan
about the shooting (11/16)
12.00-12.55am Brassic The
MacDonaghs are on the warpath

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Junkyard Empire
8.00 Supertruckers
9.00 Gold Rush The miners of the
Yukon put everything on the line
10.00 Gold Rush: The Dirt The
highs and lows of the season
11.00 Naked and Afraid
12.00-1.00am Paranormal
Declassified Searching for Bigfoot

7.00pm Air Crash Investigation
8.00 Alaska: The Next Generation
Alaskans put their skills to the test
9.00 Banged Up Abroad David
Harte was in his forties when he
was tempted into drug smuggling
10.00 Air Crash Investigation
11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00-1.00am Paranatural (2/10)

7.30pm The Office (US)
8.00 The Office (US)
8.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Mrs Fletcher (4/7)
9.35 Upright (3/8)
10.10 Upright (4/8)
10.45 The Late Late Show with
James Corden Talk show
11.45-12.45am The Tonight Show

7.00pm Friends
7.30 Friends
8.00 Friends
8.30 Friends
9.00 FILM Austin Powers:
International Man of Mystery (12,
1997) Adventure with Mike Myers
11.00 Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes
12.00-12.30am South Park

6.40pm Dad’s Army
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 The Vicar of Dibley
8.40 The Vicar of Dibley
9.20 The Royle Family
10.00 Dad’s Army
10.40 I’m Alan Partridge
11.20 Bottom
12.00-12.35am Peep Show

7.00pm Junior MasterChef
Australia The contestants are
tasked with creating a dish
focused on honey
8.20 DIY SOS: The Big Build
9.40 DIY SOS: The Big Build
11.00 Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over
12.00-1.20am Olly Alexander:
Growing Up Gay

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Afghanistan v Sri Lanka
7.30-12.00noon Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: England v NZ
7.00pm Gillette Labs Soccer
Special Update on today’s games
7.30 Live EFL: Bristol City v
Sheffield United (Kick-off 8.00)
10.30 Soccer Special Post-Match
11.00pm-12.00m’t Sky Sports
News The day’s sport news
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Zimbabwe v
Netherlands From Adelaide Oval

7.00pm Gillette Labs Soccer
Special Jeff Stelling presents
pre-match reports, news of all
the goals as they go in and a
classified results round-up
from all of today’s fixtures
10.15 Soccer Special Post-Match
All the reaction from tonight’s
football fixtures, featuring
interviews with the managers and
players after the full-time whistle
11.00-12.00m’t PL Review
A look back at the weekend’s
action in the top flight

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Afghanistan v Sri Lanka
From Brisbane Cricket Ground
7.30-12.00noon Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: England v
New Zealand Coverage of the
Super 12 Group One encounter
at Brisbane Cricket Ground
6.00pm-12.00m’t ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Highlights and replays
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Zimbabwe v
Netherlands The Super 12 Group
Two encounter from Adelaide Oval

5.30pm Live Uefa Champions
League: FC Porto v Atletico
Madrid Coverage of the Group B
encounter taking place at the
Estadio do Dragao (Kick-off 5.45)
7.45 Live UCL Goals Show All
the goals as they go in from
tonight’s group stage matches
10.15 Premier League Reload
10.30 Around The Block
10.45 WWE NXT Highlights
11.45 Baseball Today in the UK
12.00-4.00am Live MLB Coverage
of game four of the World Series

7.00pm Live Uefa Champions
League: Liverpool v Napoli
Coverage of the matchday
six Group A encounter taking
place at Anfield (Kick-off 8.00)
10.30 Uefa Champions League
Tonight All the key talking points
from tonight’s matches
11.30 BT Sport Goals Reload
The greatest goals from
around the world this week
12.00-2.15am Live: WWE NXT
The next generation of wrestling
superstars showcase their talents

The 1961 musical West Side
Story features in Discovering
Dance on Film (Sky Arts, 9pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 39

Tuesday 1
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

11.00am Apache Drums
(U, 1951) Western drama
starring Stephen McNally
12.35pm The Black Shield
of Falworth (U, 1954)
Swashbuckling adventure
starring Tony Curtis
2.40 Detective Story (12,
1951) Police drama with Kirk
Douglas and Eleanor Parker
4.45 Dead Reckoning
(U, 1947) Murder mystery
starring Humphrey Bogart
6.55 The Greatest Showman
(PG, 2017) Musical drama
starring Hugh Jackman
9.00 Jack Reacher: Never Go
Back (12, 2016) Action thriller
sequel starring Tom Cruise
11.20-1.10am Nuns on the
Run (15, 1990) Comedy
starring Eric Idle and Robbie
Coltrane. See Film Choice

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

6.00am Death Goes to
School (U, 1953) Crime drama
starring Gordon Jackson
7.15 Busy Bodies (U, 1933)
Comedy starring Stan
Laurel and Oliver Hardy
7.40 Demobbed (U, 1944)
Comedy starring Norman
Evans and Nat Jackley
9.30 Interpol Calling
10.00 The Black Rider
(U, 1954) Crime drama
starring Jimmy Hanley
11.20 Three Steps to the
Gallows (PG, 1953) Crime
drama starring Scott Brady
1.00pm The Saint’s Return
(PG, 1953) Mystery with Louis
Hayward and Naomi Chance
2.20 Look at Life
2.30 Sherlock Holmes
3.00 The Uncle (PG, 1966)
Drama starring Rupert Davies
4.50 Circumstantial Evidence
(PG, 1952) Crime drama
starring Rona Anderson
6.00 Scotland Yard
6.35 Out of the Fog (PG, 1962)
Crime drama starring David
Summers and Susan Travers
8.00 Maigret
9.05 Ransom (PG, 1975)
Drama starring Sean Connery
10.55-11.55pm Public Eye

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am The Many Faces of
Alice (PG, 2016) Thriller
starring Anna Lise Phillips,
Kevin Ryan and JR Bourne
10.50 GREAT! Movie News
11.00 Hunt for Truth (PG,
2016) Thriller starring Willa
Ford and Tilky Jones
12.50pm GREAT! Movie News
1.00 April’s Flowers (2019)
Drama starring Jennie Garth
2.50 The Wrong Daughter
(12, 2018) Thriller with Cindy
Busby and Sydney Sweeney
5.40 GREAT! Movie News
5.46 The President’s Mistress
(PG, 1978) Drama with Beau
Bridges and Larry Hagman

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

The Immaculate Room (Sky
Cinema Premiere, 6.10pm)

5.00am Anna Cunningham
with Early Breakfast 6.00
Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00
Matt Chorley 1.00pm Mariella
Frostrup 3.00 Jane Garvey and
Fi Glover 5.00 John Pienaar
with Times Radio Drive 7.00
Pienaar and Friends 8.00
Kait Borsay 10.00 Carole
Walker 1.00am Stories of Our
Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2
6.55 Big Daddy (12, 1999)
Comedy with Adam Sandler
and Joey Lauren Adams
9.00 Black Butterfly (15,
2017) Thriller starring Antonio
Banderas, Jonathan Rhys
Meyers and Piper Perabo
10.55-12.45am Drone (15,
2017) Thriller starring Sean
Bean and Patrick Sabongui

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Hollywood’s
Best Film Directors
6.35 Off Set
6.50 Cheyenne
9.00 The Hanging Tree
(PG, 1959) Western with
Gary Cooper and Maria Schell
11.15 Cheyenne
1.30pm Will Penny (12, 1967)
Western starring Charlton
Heston and Joan Hackett
3.45 The Karate Killers
(PG, 1967) Man from UNCLE
adventure starring Robert
Vaughn and David McCallum
5.40 Battle of the Bulge
(PG, 1965) Second World War
drama starring Robert Shaw
9.00 Magnum Force (18,
1973) Action thriller sequel
starring Clint Eastwood
11.35-2.10am Lethal
Weapon 4 (15, 1998) Action
adventure starring Mel
Gibson and Danny Glover

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.10pm Out of the Blue
(15, 2022) Romantic thriller
starring Diane Kruger
2.10 The Lost City (12,
2022) Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
4.10 The Accursed (15, 2022)
Horror starring Mena Suvari
6.10 The Immaculate Room
(15, 2022) Thriller with Emile
Hirsch and Kate Bosworth
8.00 The Lost City (12, 2022)
A novelist on a book tour
with her cover model gets
swept up in a kidnapping
attempt that lands both in
danger. Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
10.00-12.00am Out of the
Blue (15, 2022) Romantic
thriller starring Diane
Kruger and Ray Nicholson

FM: 88-90.2 MHz

6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast
Show 9.30 Ken Bruce 12.00
Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott
Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara
Cox’s Half Wower 7.00 Jo
Whiley’s Shiny Happy Playlist
7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The Jazz
Show with Jamie Cullum 10.00
Trevor Nelson’s Magnificent 7
10.30 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation 12.00 OJ Borg
3.00am Pick of the Pops (r)
4.00 Early Breakfast Show

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

6.30am Breakfast
9.00 Essential Classics
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Coleridge-Taylor The
composer faces obstacles
getting married while writing
a piece about a wedding
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert The first programme
in a week of specially recorded
chamber music from Maida
Vale studios in London. Paul
Wiancko (American Haiku)
and Dvorak ( Piano Quintet
No. 2 in A major Op. 81)(r)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Beethoven (Piano Sonata no.14
in C sharp minor, Op.27’2
Moonlight); Ravel arr Roderick
Williams (Piano Concerto in G
— 2nd Movement); Brahms
(Rhapsody in B minor, Op.79’1);
Sibelius (Violin Concerto in
D minor, Op.47); Schubert arr
Dejan Lazic (Der Hirt auf dem
Felsen — The Shepherd and
the Rock) and Elga (Symphony
no.1 in A flat major, Op.55)
5.00 In Tune Sean Rafferty
is joined in the studio by
the composer Anna Clyne
7.00 In Tune Mixtape An
eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert Bach,
arr Markevitch (Ricercare a 3
— The Musical Offering); Lowell
Liebermann (Flute Concerto)
and Schmidt (Symphony
No 2 in E flat major)
10.00 Free Thinking
A new exhibition at the British
Library on Alexander the Great
10.45 The Essay: Renewing
the Past — The BBC and Early
Music Appeals for the BBC to
do more for British music
11.00 Night Tracks
12.30am Through the Night (r)

Today’s pick
Moving Pictures
Radio 4, 11.30am
Édouard Manet’s masterpiece
The Bar at the Folies-Bergère,
right, has been described as
the Mona Lisa of the 19th
century such is the beguiling
ambiguity of the expression
of the fashionably attired
barmaid who looks out at us,
her stillness amid the
busyness of the composition
making it one of the most
striking paintings yet
completed. Our barmaid is
also the first subject of this
three-part series presented

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in
Parliament Political news
9.00 Room 5 New series.
Holly talks to Helena Merriman
about being diagnosed
as autistic aged 39
9.30 Flight of the Ospreys The
conservation team chooses
which of the birds to follow
9.45 Disaster Trolls
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 A Walk on the Supply
Side Discussing the origins of
supply-side economics
11.30 Moving Pictures New
series. An appreciation of
Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the
Folies-Bergère. See Choice
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 Call You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Threat to US
Democracy America’s reliance
on electronic voting machines
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: The Owl & the
Nightingale A translation of
the medieval poem
3.00 The Kitchen Cabinet (r)
3.30 Costing the Earth Post
mortems on dolphins,
porpoises and whales
4.00 Law in Action
4.30 A Good Read With Ria
Lina and Otegha Uwagba
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 The Missing Hancocks (r)
7.00 The Archers Ben is
getting the cold shoulder
7.15 Front Row Arts news
8.00 File on 4
8.40 In Touch
9.00 Inside Health (6/6)
9.30 Room 5 (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
Demon Copperhead By
Barbara Kingsolver. Demon is
thrilled that his mother has
embraced sobriety, but he is
finding living in the trailer with
his step-father difficult (2/15)

by Cathy FitzGerald, which
invites you to look closely at
the picture with the help of a
high-resolution image that
helps listeners to study the
sweep of each individual
brush stroke. Ben Dowell

3.00 The Personal History of
David Copperfield 4.00
Genius 4.30 Lucky Heather
5.00 Ayres on the Air 5.30
Cooking in a Bedsitter 6.00
The Day of the Triffids 6.30
Soul Music 7.00 The Goon
Show 7.30 Little Blighty on
the Down 8.00 Lord Peter
Wimsey: Have His Carcase
8.30 Brother Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 9.00 Voice in
the Machine 10.00 Comedy
Club: Cooking in a Bedsitter
10.30 Cabin Pressure
11.00 John Shuttleworth’s
Open Mind 11.30 Alun
Cochrane’s Fun House

BBC World Service
Digital only

11.00 Now You’re Asking with
Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn
Solving listeners’ problems (r)
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Disaster Trolls (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Wake Up to Money
6.00 5 Live Breakfast 9.00
Gordon Smart 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal
Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live
Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 8.00
5 Live Sport 10.00 Colin
Murray 1.00am Edward Adoo

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast with Laura Woods
10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee &
Baker 4.00 Drive with Andy
Goldstein and Darren Bent
7.00 Kick Off 10.00 Sports
Bar 12.00 Extra Time

TalkRadio
Digital only

5.00am James Max 6.30 The
Julia Hartley-Brewer Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Independent
Republic of Mike Graham
1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00
Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Jeremy
Kyle 8.00 Piers Morgan
9.00 The Talk 10.00 Tom
Newton Dunn 11.00 Petrie
Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only

8.00am The Goon Show 8.30
Little Blighty on the Down
9.00 The Now Show 9.30
Lucky Heather 10.00 The
Personal History of David
Copperfield 11.00 Voice in the
Machine 12.00 The Goon
Show 12.30pm Little Blighty
on the Down 1.00 Lord Peter
Wimsey: Have His Carcase
1.30 Brother Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 2.00 Buzz 2.15
Five Fever Tales 2.30 Tom
Ravenscroft’s One Man Band

9.00am The Newsroom 9.30
The Documentary 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
2.00 Newshour 3.00 News
3.06 People Fixing the World
3.30 Business 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 8.30 Digital
Planet 9.00 Newshour 10.00
The Newsroom 10.20 Sports
News 10.30 Business 11.00
News 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 Compass
3.06 Outlook 3.50 Witness
History 4.00 The Newsroom
4.30 The Documentary

6 Music
Digital only

7.30am Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs
1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00
Steve Lamacq 7.00 Marc
Riley 9.00 Tom Robinson
12.00 6 Music Artist in
Residence 1.00am
The First Time with Kelis

Virgin Radio
Digital only

6.30am The Chris Evans
Breakfast Show 10.00 Eddy
Temple-Morris 1.00pm
Jayne Middlemiss 4.00 Steve
Denyer 7.00 Bam 10.00
Amy Voce 1.00am Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

6.00am More Music
Breakfast 9.00 Alexander
Armstrong 12.00 Anne-Marie
Minhall 4.00pm John
Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics 10.00 Margherita
Taylor 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 Early Breakfast

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

40 saturday review

Wednesday 2 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice First Contact:
An Alien Encounter
BBC2, 9pm
The producers of 8 Days: To
the Moon and Back turn their
considerable talents to
imagining how Earth would
deal with its first alien contact.
(If we don’t count the unusual
signals picked up at an Ohio
radio observatory in 1977 or
2017’s oumuamua, a cigarshaped projectile in the sky
over Honolulu that seemed to
be moving faster than gravity
should allow.) Nic Stacey’s film
is a deft blend of dramatic
construction and expert
interviews, charting 12 days
following an imaginary first
contact: otherworldly audio
rumblings picked up by
Jodrell Bank. If you’re hoping
for dry ice and pulsing lights
backed by Holst, stand down.
But in this telling, the
mundane becomes gripping.
Social media responds with
humour: “My dog reacts to the
alien noises” videos abound
alongside people using green
man filters to mime to the

unearthly recordings. Then
comes panic-buying and fear.
So much of the scientific fact
isn’t even slightly visual and
yet Stacey expertly draws out
tension and intrigue,
balancing technical
information with human
interest. “The scientific basis
for extraterrestrial life is so
clear,” says one expert,
underlining the “when not if”
nature of the prospect. Every
star has planets, so much
potential for life just dangling
there. Although this would
have been a doozy for the
BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop,
Alex Menzies’s score is
wonderfully atmospheric and
gives the whole thing the
emotional cogency of a
Hollywood blockbuster. It
ends on the James Webb
telescope sending Clair de
Lune out into the ether.
Fingers crossed the celestial
outlanders dig Debussy.
Julia Raeside

The Final Score

MasterChef:
The Professionals

Charles: Our
New King

How Green
Was My Valley

BBC1, 9pm

ITV, 9pm

BBC4, 10.10pm

Gregg Wallace cheerfully
presides like an exuberant egg,
quite at odds with the highstakes narration and dramatic
music of the new series. All
hail the return of MasterChef:
The Professionals, aka The
Hungry Games, as 32 up-andcomers compete to win the
series title while watched
closely by a ravenous
greengrocer, licking his chops
and banging his cutlery on the
table. The new judge Anna
Haugh balances steely critique
with kind encouragement
and Marcus Wareing continues
his metamorphosis into
foodie Gandalf. JR

A full 70-minute exploration of
the man who has been waiting
70 years to punch his time card
for the top job. Tom Bradby
writes and presents this
thorough truffle through the
archive to discover the man
behind the ermine and asks
what sort of king he might turn
out to be. And he hasn’t even
been crowned yet. Bradby
speaks to the people in his
orbit, friends, workers from
organisations close to his
heart, and those who walk
backwards out of rooms and
bob their heads daily. An
insight into what it’s like to be
the guy on the coins. JR

Preceded by a stroll down
memory lane with the actress
Sian Phillips (10pm), relive the
1975 adaptation of Richard
Llewellyn’s tale set in a Welsh
mining village during the reign
of Queen Victoria. History
proved the author a little less
authentically Welsh than he
claimed. Turns out, far from
basing the book on his
childhood, he was born in
Middlesex and hardly visited
Wales at all. Still, Phillips’s
wonderfully contained
performance shines at a time
when TV drama acting was
often still “big” enough to hit
the back row of the stalls. JR

Netflix
Misquotes from Bill Shankly
aside, football really did
become life or death for
Colombian player Andrés
Escobar in 1994 when he was
murdered after returning home
from the Fifa World Cup. He
scored an own goal during a
group match against the US
which lead to the team’s exit
from the tournament. Pablo
Gonzalez and Camilo Prince’s
drama series delves into the
murky world of the local drugs
trade and its links with proColombian football, revealing
how one of the country’s most
respected players fell victim to
the criminal underworld at a
particularly violent time in the
country’s history. JR

Catch
up
Rob Burrow:
Living with MND
BBC iPlayer
“My dad will
always be in
my heart,” says
Macy Burrow,
the enchanting
young daughter of
the former Leeds
Rhinos rugby league
player Rob, right.
Macy’s father was
diagnosed in 2019 with
motor neurone disease
soon after his retirement
from the game and it has
already ravaged his body so
much that his wife, Lindsey,

talks haltingly in this
programme about the time
when he is not around. This is a
tough watch. The sheer cruelty
of the disease, the stoicism of
Burrow and the kindness
of his family, including
Lindsey, friends and
former team-mates
are gobsmacking
at times. Stories
of people heroically
battling disease are not
unusual on TV these
days, but this one is a
p
particularly
powerful
story not just of
courage but also of
life’s real biggies:
mortality and
what love means.
Ben Dowell

Films of the day
The Personal History of David Copperfield
(PG, 2019)
Film4, 9pm

Dev Patel plays the title character in Armando Iannucci’s
delightfully crackpot Dickens adaptation. As many commentators
pointed out, Patel is not white (his parents are Gujarati Indian), but
Iannucci openly mines Patel’s ethnicity to add a deeper sense of
urgency to our hero’s quest for belonging. Iannucci (The Thick of
It, Veep), who directed and co-wrote the film with his regular
collaborator Simon Blackwell, has said that Patel was, simply, the
“natural” choice. The familiar Iannucci themes are here. It’s a film
that’s obsessed by class and hierarchies and is populated by petty
tyrants and leftfield eccentrics (Tilda Swinton’s donkey-hating aunt,
Betsey Trotwood). (119min) Kevin Maher

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

8.00pm-9.00 Together Stronger 10.40
Live from Barry Island 11.10 Louis Theroux
Interviews: Dame Judi Dench (r)
11.55-1.00am Top Gear (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 3.30pm
Snowdonia: A Year on the Farm (r)
4.00-4.30 Weatherman Walking: The
Welsh Coast. Derek Brockway walks from
Beaumaris to Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.40pm Cliona & Simon: From This
Moment On. Documentary 11.10 Louis
Theroux Interviews: Dame Judi Dench (r)
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (r)
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
11.15pm The Irish League Show 11.45
Unspun World with John Simpson. Global
news stories 12.10-12.40am QI (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 2.15pm3.00 Politics Scotland 8.00 Disclosure
8.30-9.00 Disaster Deniers: Hunting the
Trolls — Panorama 11.25 The Edit (r) 11.40
Debate Night (r) 12.40am Scotland’s
Biggest Families (r) 1.40 Ambulance (r)
2.40 Weather 2.45-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 10.40pm STV News
10.50 Scotland Tonight 11.20 Peston
12.15am English Football League
Highlights 1.30-3.00am Teleshopping
4.05-5.05 Unwind with STV

● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Paramedics

on
Scene (r) 8.00 The Trials That Shocked
Scotland 8.30 Accidental Renovators (r)
9.00 The Nine 10.00 River City 10.30
Debate Night 11.30-Midnight
David Wilson’s Crime Files (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 9.20 Sbarc (r) 9.35
Pablo (r) 9.45 Fferm Fach (r) 10.00 Timpo
(r) 10.10 Oli Wyn (r) 10.20 Guto Gwningen
(r) 10.35 Bach a Mawr (r) 10.50 Ein Byd
Bach Ni (r) 11.00 Dysgu Gyda Cyw: Bing
(r) 11.10 Y Brodyr Coala (r) 11.20 Antur
Natur Cyw (r) 11.35 Guto Gwningen (r)
11.50 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r) 12.00
News 12.05pm Bwyd Bach Shumana a
Catrin (r) 12.30 Heno (r) 1.00 Welsh
Whisperer: Ni’n Teithio Nawr! (r) 1.30 Ar
Werth (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da
3.00 News 3.05 Antur y Gorllewin (r)
4.00 Awr Fawr: Odo (r) 4.10 Byd Tad-Cu
(r) 4.20 Halibalw (r) 4.30 Fferm Fach (r)
4.45 Octonots (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Oi! Osgar
(r) 5.10 Y Llys: Stwnsh (r) 5.25 Arthur a
Chriw y Ford Gron (r) 5.35 Y Dyfnfor (r)
5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00 Pobl a’u Gerddi (r) 6.30
Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00
Heno 7.30 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25
Cegin Bryn: Tir a Môr (r) 8.55 News 9.00
Gogglebocs Cymru 10.00 Nôl i’r Gwersyll
(r) 11.00-11.35 Y Byd ar Bedwar (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

This Is England (18, 2006)
Film4, 11.20pm

Shane Meadows’s most personal film is his best, combining the
director’s impeccably observed comedy with a gathering storm
cloud of ominous ill will. It is set in the summer of 1983 and
Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is a surly misfit on a northern council
estate. His father has returned from the Falklands in a body bag
and Shaun is bullied at school for his second-hand clothes. He is
adopted by a gang of local skinheads, led by the genial Woody
(Joe Gilgun), whose loyalties are subsequently poisoned by a
racist nutter. Stephen Graham’s Combo arrives fresh from prison
with hateful delusions about immigrants and foreigners, and
Shaun laps it up. The violence, when it arrives, is shattering.
(101min) Joe Clay

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 41

Wednesday 2

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live
10.00 Critical Incident 10.45 Dirty
Rotten Scammers (r) 11.15 Homes
Under the Hammer (r) 12.15pm
Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News at One;
Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News;
Weather 1.45 Doctors. A couple
struggle to decide whether to try IVF
2.15 Money for Nothing. Vintage
speakers, a table and a washstand (r)
3.00 I Escaped to the Country. Alistair
Appleton catches up with two couples
who moved to Wales 3.45 The Repair
Shop. A shamrock brooch, a replica
brass kitchen and a desk lamp 4.30
The Travelling Auctioneers. Two
retired teachers in Cumbria are
desperate to downsize 5.15 Pointless.
Quiz, hosted by Alexander Armstrong
6.00 BBC News at Six; Weather
6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather

6.00am Take a Hike (r) 6.30 I Escaped
to the Country (r) 7.15 The Repair
Shop (r) 8.00 Sign Zone: See Hear (SL)
8.30 Villages by the Sea (r) (SL) 9.00
BBC News 10.00 BBC News 11.15
Politics Live 1.00pm Home Is Where
the Art Is (r) 1.45 Eggheads (r) 2.15
Wanted: A Simple Life. A move to
Norfolk (r) 3.00 Gardening Together
with Diarmuid Gavin. A garden to
commemorate a woman’s partner (r)
3.30 Mountain Vets. Following the
work of vets at the ancient Kingdom
of Mourne (r) 4.30 Murder, Mystery
and My Family: Case Closed?.
The poisoning of a man in 1930s
Lincolnshire (r) 5.15 Flog It!. From
Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire (r)
6.00 Richard Osman’s House of
Games 6.30 Strictly: It Takes Two.
The latest backstage newsand gossip

6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30pm
Loose Women. Topical studio debate
from a female perspective, featuring
celebrity interviews 1.30 ITV News;
Weather 1.55 Regional News; Weather
2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal. David
Dickinson and his dealers are in
Wolverhampton 3.00 Riddiculous.
Quiz hosted by Ranvir Singh in which
contestants take on Riddlemaster
Henry Lewis as they try to answer
general knowledge questions and
confusing conundrums 4.00 Tipping
Point. Ben Shephard hosts the arcadethemed quiz in which contestants
drop tokens down a choice of four
chutes in the hope of winning the
jackpot 5.00 The Chase. Quiz hosted
by Bradley Walsh 6.00 Regional News;
Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.05am Countdown (r) 6.45 Cheers (r)
7.10 Cheers (r) 7.35 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.00 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.25 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.55 Frasier (r) 9.30
Frasier (r) 10.00 Frasier (r) 10.30
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
11.25 Channel 4 News Summary 11.30
Château DIY (r) 12.30pm Steph’s
Packed Lunch 2.10 Countdown 3.00
A Place in the Sun. From Mijas Pueblo
on the Costa del Sol (r) 4.00 Sun, Sea
and Selling Houses. From Alicante (r)
5.00 Four in a Bed. The Deri-Down
Guesthouse in Abergavenny (r) 5.30
Come Dine with Me. An Americanathemed evening in Manchester 6.00
The Simpsons. Marge and Homer’s
marriage is tested 6.30 Hollyoaks.
Norma discovers Warren’s medical
records and makes him an offer (r)

6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine
12.45pm Shoplifters & Scammers: At
War with the Law. Methods used to
thwart criminals targeting shops (r)
1.40 5 News at Lunchtime 1.45 Home
and Away. Rose is torn up over giving
a statement against Cash (r) 2.15 FILM
The Christmas Ring (PG, TVM, 2021)
A writer tries to locate the owner of
an antique engagement ring for her
latest human interest story. Festive
drama starring Nazneen Contractor
and David Alpay 4.00 Bargain-Loving
Brits in the Sun. Cameras focus on
Ellie and Jim, who have just got
married 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00
Parking Hell. Documentary following
the daily battles across Britain for
parking spaces (r) 6.30 Eggheads.
Sexual Chocolate from Coventry take
on the Eggheads 6.55 5 News Update

MasterChef: Professionals (9pm)

John Simpson’s presents (11.15pm)

A visit to Coronation Street (8pm)

A Grand Designs revisit (9pm)

Cause of Death (9pm)

7.00 The One Show Alex Jones and
Jermaine Jenas present the
weekday magazine show

7.00 Live Gymnastics World
Championships: 2022 Men’s
Team Final Coverage of the
men’s team final from M&S
Bank Arena in Liverpool.
Team GB will be going for an
unprecedented treble as they
seek a third team gold in 2022,
having triumphed in that event
at both the Commonwealth
Games and European
Championships. However,
competition from traditional
powerhouses like Japan and
China will be fierce as ever

7.00 Channel 4 News Including sport
and weather

7.00 The Gadget Show: Better Tech,
Better Life Ortis and Georgie
share their thoughts on devices
to help deal with high blood
pressure and check out an
eco-friendly turntable (6/12)

7.30 EastEnders Suki heads to
the police station to face
questioning about the murder
8.00 The Repair Shop Jay Blades
and the team of experts restore
a miniature bicycle, a ceramic
mosaic Romanian cross, an
army issued box kite and a
Victorian acrobat toy (r)

9.00 MasterChef: The Professionals
New series. The first four
professional chefs show off
their signature dishes to
compete for a place in the
quarter-final and hopefully be
crowned the 2022 champion.
See Viewing Guide

9.00 First Contact: An Alien
Encounter Docudrama
telling the gripping story
of an encounter with a
mysterious alien object
travelling through the solar
system. See Viewing Guide

7.30 Emmerdale Alex threatens
Dawn and Billy’s future, Dan
offers some advice, and the
villagers struggle with the news
8.00 Coronation Street Summer
meets Mike and Esther at a
private hospital and agrees
to let them adopt her baby,
and Fiz and Tyrone read the
second instalment of the John
Stape book in the Gazette

8.00 Handmade: Britain’s Best
Woodworker The remaining
four woodworkers compete
for their place in next week’s
final. Contestants make an
elaborate desk on a deadline
and a vase from scraps

8.00 Shoplifters: At War with the
Law New series. Documentary
following shopping centre
security teams who are
locked in a cat and mouse
battle to catch criminals;
followed by 5 News Update

9.00 Charles: Our New King
Documentary exploring the life
and times of King Charles III,
from his birth in 1948 and his
childhood before becoming
the heir apparent in 1952, to
his life as the Prince of Wales.
See Viewing Guide

9.00 Grand Designs In 2015 Paul
and Carol set out to build an
eco-friendly timber fortress.
When their schedule was up
the house still was not finished.
Kevin McCloud takes a look at
where they are six years later

9.00 Cause of Death Coroners
investigate the death of
a man who had bought
medicine online to protect
himself from Covid-19 and try
to determine if this contributed
to his untimely death (3/4)

10.00Sue Perkins’ Big American
Road Trip The presenter travels
across California and Colorado
in a campervan, beginning with
a journey along the Pacific
Coast Highway to Yosemite
National Park (1/2) (r)

10.00A&E After Dark A man is
involved in a motorbike
collision with a deer, a young
patient’s ankle is facing the
wrong way, and the team treat
a man who has fallen down the
stairs after a night out (2/10) (r)

11.05 Unapologetic Yinka Bokinni
and Zeze Millz discuss the
age gaps in relationships,
asking why “sugar daddies”
are seen as more acceptable
than “cougars” (3/6)

11.05 Ambulance: Code Red
Dr Ben Taylor and critical care
paramedic Aiden Brown work
with the fire and ambulance
services to rescue an 11-yearold boy trapped in the
wreckage of a car (5/10) (r)

12.10am Embarrassing Bodies (r) 1.05
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
(SL) 1.55 Couples Come Dine with Me
(r) (SL) 2.50 Jimmy Carr Destroys Art
(r) (SL) 3.55 Grand Designs (r) (SL)
4.50 Best of Britain by the Sea (r) (SL)
5.45 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (r)

12.05am Motorway Cops: Britain’s
Speeders (r) 12.55 Entertainment
News 1.00 The LeoVegas Live Casino
Show 3.00 Entertainment News 3.05
Diet Secrets & How to Lose Weight (r)
3.55 The Hotel Inspector (r) 4.40
House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.30 Milkshake!

10.00BBC News at Ten
10.10 ITV News; followed by Weather
10.30 BBC Regional News

10.30 Newsnight Analysis of the day’s
events, with Victoria Derbyshire

10.40 Louis Theroux Interviews:
Dame Judi Dench
The journalist meets
Oscar-winning a actress
Dame Judi Dench (2/6) (r)
11.25 Top Gear Freddie Flintoff,
Chris Harris and Paddy
McGuinness head to Thailand
on a road-trip in old pick-ups.
Back in Britain, Chris tests out
an electric two-seater (r)
12.25am Blankety Blank. With Stacey
Dooley, Dion Dublin, Ed Gamble, Josh
Widdicombe, Trisha Goddard and
Chunkz (r) 1.00 Ambulance. Staff
shortages stretch the service to its
limit (r) 2.00 Weather for the Week
Ahead 2.05 BBC News. Headlines

11.15 Unspun World with John
Simpson The week’s major
global news stories
11.40 The Love Box in Your Living
Room Harry Enfield and Paul
Whitehouse take inspiration
from documentary-maker
Adam Curtis as they celebrate
100 years of the BBC, revealing
details buried for decades (r)
12.40am Sign Zone: See Hear (r) (SL)
1.10 Gardeners’ World (r) (SL)
2.10-2.55 Best Bakes Ever (r) (SL)

7.55 5 News Update

10.45 Regional News; followed by
Regional Weather
10.55 Peston Political magazine
show presented by Robert
Peston, featuring major
interviews with MPs, topical
guests and cultural figures
11.50 English Football League
Highlights Action from the
latest Championship fixtures,
including Norwich City v
Queens Park Rangers and
Burnley v Rotherham United
1.05am Teleshopping 3.00 Inside
Russia: Putin’s War at Home. Russians
who refuse to stay silent (r) (SL) 4.05
Unwind with ITV 5.05 Dickinson’s Real
Deal. From Wolverhampton (r) (SL)

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

42 saturday review

Don’t Look Now

Wednesday 2 | Primetime digital guide

Donald Sutherland stars
in Nicolas Roeg’s 1973
supernatural thriller
BBC3, 11pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am James Max An initial
insight into the day’s news
6.30 The Julia Hartley-Brewer
Breakfast Show All the
stories to start the day
10.00 The Independent Republic
of Mike Graham The
presenter looks through
the morning newspapers
1.00pm Ian Collins Hard-hitting
monologues, debates and
dedicated time for your calls
4.00 Vanessa Feltz The
big stories of the day
7.00 Jeremy Kyle Live The
straight-talking voice of
the people takes on the
issues that really matter
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
The host with his verdict
on the day’s global events
9.00 The Talk Sharon Osbourne
and a panel of famous faces
debate today’s hot topics
10.00 First Edition
11.00-12.00m’t Piers Morgan
Uncensored

7.00pm Top Gear Featuring a
jungle adventure in Borneo
in a pair of old cars (4/5)
8.00 I Can See Your Voice
Paddy McGuinness hosts
the mystery singing
game show, with guest
panellist Becky Hill (3/8)
9.00 The Fades Paul’s powers
manifest themselves and
his friendship with Mac and
relationship with Jay are
pushed to the limit (3/6)
10.00 This Country Kerry and
Kurtan hold the fort while
the vicar is away (5/7)
10.25 This Country The annual
harvest festival brings the
whole village together (6/7)
11.00-12.45am FILM Don’t Look
Now (15, 1973) A father
doubts a psychic’s claim
that his dead child is trying
to make contact, until he
sees a spectral presence.
Supernatural thriller,
with Donald Sutherland

7.00pm Great Asian Railway
Journeys Kuala Lumpur
8.00 Inside Museums: St Fagans
National Museum of
History Cerys Matthews is
given an access-all-areas
pass to the museum (1/4)
8.30 Lucy Worsley’s Fireworks
for a Tudor Queen An
attempt to recreate one of
the earliest firework displays
10.00 Sian Phillips Remembers:
How Green Was My Valley
A look back on the 1975
drama. See Viewing Guide
10.10 How Green Was My Valley
Drama starring Stanley
Baker and Sian Phillips.
See Viewing Guide (1/6)
11.05 How Green Was My Valley
Ianto devotes himself to
working for the union.
See Viewing Guide (2/6)
11.55-12.50am How Green Was My
Valley Huw has a difficult
first day back at school.
See Viewing Guide (3/6)

6.55pm Escape to the Château:
DIY Stephanie’s big singles
night arrives, while Sophie
and James put on a walking
tour. Last in the series
7.55 Grand Designs Kevin
McCloud follows the
progress of a couple who
have moved to Kent to bring
up their two children and
hope to build a house that
blends in with the landscape
9.00 Matt Baker: Our Farm in
the Dales The presenter
makes a feeding station for
the sheep on his mother’s
farm, while she moves the
rapidly growing ducklings
to an outside pen (5/6)
10.00 Matt Baker: Travels with
Mum & Dad The Bakers
enjoy a trip around
Durham Cathedral (3/4)
11.05-12.10am 24 Hours in A&E
Doctors treat a young
woman who has been
thrown from a horse (4/12)

6.50pm True Blood Sookie
struggles with her emotions
when the serial killer strikes
close to home. Jason finds
the urge for vampire blood
hard to bear, and Sam
and Tara find comfort
in each other (6/12) (R)
7.55 Game of Thrones While
Daenerys meets her future,
Bran meets the past,
Tommen confronts the
High Sparrow, and Arya
continues her training (R)
9.00 This England Dominic
Cummings holds a press
conference to address
his breach of lockdown
regulations, and Carrie
gives birth. Last in series
10.30 Gangs of London Marian
Wallace is forced out
of hiding and made to
confront his past (3/8) (R)
11.40-12.50am Domina After the
plague rescinds, Livia’s
boys are in danger (6/8) (R)

7.00pm The Lady and the Dale
Automobile executive Liz
Carmichael’s meteoric rise
comes to a halt in 1974 when
the promotion of her cutting
edge car, The Dale, exposes
her criminal past (2/4) (R)
8.00 The Sixties Examining
the events surrounding
the assassination of US
president John F Kennedy
in November 1963 (3/10) (R)
9.00 Hostages Documentary
about the 1979 Iranian
hostage crisis, featuring
never-before-seen archival
footage and interviews with
the American hostages and
Iranian hostage-takers (R)
10.00 The Janes An underground
network providing safe
abortions in the 1970s (R)
12.00-1.40am Persona: The Dark
Truth Behind Personality
Tests Examining the
unexpected origins of
personality testing (R)

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.00pm Dress to Impress A
fashion student hopes to find love
8.00 Bob’s Burgers Bob plans to
surprise Linda for their anniversary
8.30 Bob’s Burgers Bob and Gene
take up mushroom foraging
9.00 Family Guy
9.30 Family Guy
10.00 Don’t Hate the Playaz
With Munya Chawawa, Aston
Merrygold, Kemah Bob and Bellah
10.45 Family Guy
11.15 American Dad!
11.45-12.10am American Dad!

7.00pm Heartbeat A prize
racehorse is kidnapped and
held to ransom, while a seedy
photographer promises to make a
star of Phil Bellamy’s stepdaughter
8.00 Lewis A housewife found
hanged in her home is believed
to have committed suicide, but a
meeting with a law professor leads
Lewis to suspect something sinister
10.00-12.10am Foyle’s War As the
team search for a missing boy,
their investigation leads them to a
grim discovery in the woods (4/4)

6.45pm Snooker: Champion of
Champions Live Jill Douglas
presents coverage of the evening
session on day three from the
University of Bolton Stadium,
featuring a group final, played
over the best of 11 frames
10.15-11.20pm FILM Force of
Execution (15, 2013) An
assassination attempt gone wrong
results in a gang war between
an honourable crime boss and
his ambitious rival. Gangster
thriller starring Steven Seagal

7.00pm Hollyoaks Peri makes
a tearful admission to Leela
about her feelings for Juliet
7.30 The Big Bang Theory
Sheldon receives acting lessons
8.00 Modern Family
8.30 Modern Family
9.00 Gogglebox Appraisals of
Bridgerton and Dynasties II
10.00 Send Nudes: Body SOS
Hairdresser Alex and young mum
Elle face their ideal post-surgery
selves. Last in the series (10/10)
11.05-12.10am Gogglebox

7.00pm Richard Osman’s House of
Games With Steve Backshall,
Catherine Bohart, Dr Ranj Singh
and Meera Syal taking part
7.40 QI XL With David Mitchell,
Noel Fielding and Holly Walsh
8.20 Would I Lie to You?
9.00 QI XL With Sally Phillips, Ross
Noble and Nish Kumar
10.00 Meet the Richardsons
Jon and Lucy host a game show
10.40 Meet the Richardsons
11.20 Mock the Week
12.00-12.40am Mock the Week

6.40pm Last of the Summer Wine
Truly mischievously spreads the
rumour there is a tiger on the loose
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine
Wesley finishes his off-the-road
motorised scooter
8.00 Sherlock Holmes tries to
outwit his deadliest adversary
10.00 New Tricks A police
informant resurfaces after 17 years
with details about a robbery
11.20-12.40am Spooks
Beth Bailey is tasked with
protecting an influential oil baron

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection Speed records (5/11)
7.30 Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection Documentary (6/11)
8.00 Great Continental Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo traces
the early roots of the Spanish Civil
War from Barcelona to Majorca
9.00 Bangers and Cash Dave finds
a very rare 70s Sunbeam Lotus
that has been rotting away (4/10)
10.00 Bangers and Cash (7/15)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (5/7)

6.20pm Nature’s Fear Factor
An experiment to bring rare
African wild dogs to Gorongosa
National Park in Mozambique
7.30 The First World War (3/10)
8.35 Hitler’s Slaves: Forced Labour
Under the Nazis The escalation of
the forced labour system (3/3)
9.45 Hitler’s Secret Weapons
Manager Exploring the man
behind Hitler’s secret weapons
programme, Hans Kammler
10.55 The First World War (3/10)
12.00-1.10am Nature’s Fear Factor

7.00pm Great Lakes Untamed
As winter descends on the
region, life is forced to adapt
8.00 Great Lakes Untamed Spring
across America’s Great Lakes
9.00 Gorillas of Gabon Following
efforts to save the silverback
gorillas of Gabon’s MoukalabaDoudou National Park
10.00 Madagascar: Africa’s
Galapagos The startling creatures
that inhabit Madagascar
11.00 Great Lakes Untamed
12.00-1.00am Gorillas of Gabon

7.00pm Landscape Artist of the
Year 2017 Cameras follows the
winner of the competition to
Jamaica to paint a view from Noel
Coward’s former home Firefly (9/9)
8.00 Portrait Artist of the Year
2022 With sitters Stella Rimington,
Big Zuu and Alexis Ffrench
9.00 Camille Pissarro:
The Father of Impressionism
10.10 The Music Videos That
Shaped the 80s The effect of
music videos on the industry
11.10-12.10am The Eighties (5/8)

7.00pm Forged in Fire
8.00 The Secret Nazi Expeditions
Himmler’s study of runes — letters
of ancient Germanic writing
9.00 Curse of Skinwalker Ranch
Something alarming appears in the
sky above Skinwalker Ranch
10.00 Secrets in the Jungle
Archaeologists find an ancient
structure built on granite columns
11.00 Secrets in the Ice An
enormous shipwreck (2/10)
12.00-1.00am History of Weapons
Arrows, rockets, and bombs (2/10)

7.00pm Stargate SG-1 Vala
unwittingly puts her life at risk
8.00 Freddie Down Under Andrew
Flintoff and Rob Penn set off on a
barbecue adventure (1/6)
9.00 Never Mind the Buzzcocks
With Johnny Borrell, Michelle De
Swarte and Krept & Konan
9.45 The 00s: Cinema’s Greatest
Decade Alex Zane examines the
merits of films from the 2000s
10.40 Fantasy Football League
11.15 The Russell Howard Hour
12.00-1.10am Warrior (5/10)

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Junkyard Empire
8.00 Supertruckers
9.00 Deadliest Catch: The Viking
Returns The Hansens must
add a new boat to their fleet
10.00 Mysteries of the Deep
11.00 Naked and Afraid
12.00-1.00am Paranormal
Declassified Demonic activity

7.00pm Air Crash Investigation A
plane ends up at the wrong end of
a runway, leading to a fatal collision
8.00 Drain Alcatraz
9.00 Ice Road Rescue One of
Norway’s biggest storms hits
10.00 Air Crash Investigation
11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00-1.00am Paranatural (4/10)

7.00pm Everybody Hates Chris
7.30 The Office (US) Triple bill
9.00 Curb Your Enthusiasm (5/10)
9.40 Vice Principals (8/9)
10.20 Vice Principals The school
year comes to a startling end (9/9)
11.00 The Late Late Show with
James Corden Talks show
12.00-1.15am Sex and the City

7.00pm Friends Four episodes
9.00 Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains
With Shirley Ballas, Toussaint
Douglass, and Geoff Norcott
10.00 Lee Evans: Monsters A 2014
performance in Birmingham
11.00 Romesh Ranganathan:
Irrational Live Stand-up comedy
12.00-12.30am South Park

6.40pm Dad’s Army Mainwaring
tackles a suspected terrorist
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 The Vicar of Dibley
8.40 The Vicar of Dibley
9.20 The Royle Family
10.00 Are You Being Served?
10.40 Live at the Apollo
11.40-12.20am Bottom

7.00pm Junior MasterChef
Australia The first challenge
is a blindfold taste test
8.30 Inside the Ambulance
9.00 The Undateables
10.00 DIY SOS: The Big Build
Ireland Renovating in Limerick
11.10-12.10am Emma Willis:
Delivering Babies

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Zimbabwe v Netherlands
7.30-12.00noon Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: India v
Bangladesh From Adelaide Oval
7.00pm Gillette Labs Soccer
Special Update on today’s games
7.30 Live EFL: Norwich City v
Queens Park Rangers Coverage
of the Championship clash staged
at Carrow Road (Kick-off 7.45)
10.15 Soccer Special Post-Match
Reaction from tonight’s fixtures
11.00-12.00m’t Sky Sports News

7.00pm Gillette Labs Soccer
Special Jeff Stelling presents
pre-match reports, news of all the
goals as they go in and a classified
results round-up of today’s fixtures
10.15 Soccer Special Post-Match
All the reaction from tonight’s
football fixtures, featuring
interviews with the managers and
players after the full-time whistle
11.00 Premier League Stories
Behind the scenes of the top flight
11.30-12.30am PL Review A look
back at the weekend’s action

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Zimbabwe v Netherlands
Coverage of the Super 12 Group
Two encounter from Adelaide Oval
7.30-12.00 Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: India v Bangladesh
Coverage of the Super 12 Group
Two encounter at Adelaide Oval
6.00pm ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Another chance to see the
India v Bangladesh match
10.30-12.30am ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Further highlights of
recent matches in the competition

1.00-3.00pm Live Uefa Youth
League: Manchester City v Sevilla
The Group G match (Kick-off 1.00)
5.30 Live Uefa Champions League:
Shakhtar Donetsk v RB Leipzig
From Poland (Kick-off 5.45)
7.45 Live UCL Goals Show
All the goals as they go in from
tonight’s group stage matches
10.15 The Football’s On
11.15 Serie A: Full Impact
11.45 Baseball Today in the UK
12.00-4.00am Live MLB Coverage
of game five of the World Series

1.00-3.00pm Live Uefa Youth
League: Real Madrid v Celtic
The Group F match at Estadio
Alfredo Di Stefano (Kick-off 1.00)
7.00 Live Uefa Champions League:
Chelsea v Dinamo Zagreb
Coverage of the Group E encounter
at Stamford Bridge (Kick-off 8.00)
10.30 Uefa Champions League
Tonight A look back at all the key
talking points from tonight’s games
11.30-12.30am The Football’s On
A look at the week’s football
stories with Ian Stone and guests

A documentary about Camille
Pissarro: The Father of
Impressionism (Sky Arts, 9pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 43

Wednesday 2
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

11.00am Anne of the
Thousand Days (PG, 1969)
Historical drama with Richard
Burton and Genevieve Bujold
2.05pm The Man Who Would
Be King (PG, 1975) Period
adventure starring Sean
Connery and Michael Caine
4.50 The League of
Gentlemen (PG, 1960) Crime
caper starring Jack Hawkins
7.05 Jingle All the Way (PG,
1996) Comedy starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
9.00 The Personal History of
David Copperfield (PG, 2019)
Adaptation of Charles
Dickens’ novel starring Dev
Patel . See Film Choice
11.20-1.25am This Is England
(18, 2006) Drama set in the
1980s starring Thomas
Turgoose. See Film Choice

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

6.00am Fort Algiers
(PG, 1953) Spy adventure
starring Yvonne De Carlo
7.35 Master Spy (U, 1964)
Cold War drama with Stephen
Murray and June Thorburn
9.00 Dick Powell’s
Zane Grey Theatre
9.30 Turned Out Nice Again
(U, 1941) Comedy with George
Formby and Peggy Bryan
11.10 The Perfect Husband
11.15 Lonnie Donegan:
Putting On the Style
11.45 The Late George Apley
(U, 1947) Satirical comedy
starring Ronald Colman
1.30pm For the Love of Helen
2.00 Upstairs, Downstairs
3.00 The Purple Heart
(PG, 1944) Second World War
drama starring Dana Andrews
4.50 Scales of Justice
5.30 The Shiralee (PG, 1957)
Drama starring Peter Finch
7.30 A Time to Remember
(PG, 2003) Drama with Dana
Delany and Doris Roberts
8.00 The Onedin Line
9.00 The Third Secret (PG,
1964) Mystery with Stephen
Boyd and Jack Hawkins
10.55 Behind The Camera:
Peter Cushing
11.35-12.00am Away for
the Day in 1952

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am Below the Surface
(PG, 2016) Thriller starring
Jenny Wade and Taylor Cole
10.50 GREAT! Movie News
11.00 Girlfriend Killer (PG,
2017) Thriller starring Dina
Meyer and Corin Nemec
12.50pm GREAT! Movie News
1.00 The Wrong Babysitter
(15, 2017) Thriller starring
Daphne Zuniga, Britt Irvin
and Matt Bellefleur
2.50 Killer on the Island (PG,
2018) Thriller starring Jackie
Moore and Jordi Vilasuso
4.35 GREAT! Movie News

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

Dev Patel stars as David
Copperfield (Film4, 9pm)
4.45 Little Women (U, 1994)
Period drama starring Winona
Ryder and Susan Sarandon
8.05 GREAT! Movie News
8.11 Daddy Day Camp (PG,
2007) Comedy sequel
starring Cuba Gooding Jr
9.00 The Forgotten (12,
2004) Psychological thriller
starring Julianne Moore
10.50-1.00am The Calling
(15, 2014) Crime thriller
starring Susan Sarandon

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Off Set
6.15 Cheyenne
8.30 Waterloo (U, 1970)
Drama starring Rod Steiger
and Christopher Plummer
11.15 Cheyenne
1.30pm The Day of the Jackal
(15, 1973) Assassination
thriller starring Edward Fox
4.20 The Helicopter Spies
(PG, 1967) The Man from
UNCLE adventure with Robert
Vaughn and David McCallum
6.15 North By Northwest
(PG, 1959) Hitchcock thriller
starring Cary Grant
9.00 Point Break (12, 2015)
Action thriller remake
starring Edgar Ramirez
11.20-2.05am USS
Indianapolis: Men of Courage
(15, 2016) Fact-based
Second World War drama
starring Nicolas Cage

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.30pm The Lost City (12,
2022) Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
2.35 18 1/2 (15, 2021) Comedy
thriller starring Willa
Fitzgerald and John Magaro
4.20 Umma (15, 2022)
Horror starring Sandra Oh
6.00 Out of the Blue
(15, 2022) Romantic thriller
starring Diane Kruger
8.00 The Lost City (12, 2022)
A novelist on a book tour with
her cover model gets swept
up in a kidnapping attempt
that lands both in danger.
Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
10.00-12.25am Red Rocket
(18, 2021) Comedy drama
starring Simon Rex

5.00am Anna Cunningham
with Early Breakfast 6.00
Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00
Matt Chorley 1.00pm Mariella
Frostrup. A fresh look at the
issues shaping our world 3.00
Jane Garvey and Fi Glover
5.00 John Pienaar with Times
Radio Drive 7.00 Pienaar and
Friends. Informed debate 8.00
Kait Borsay 10.00 Carole
Walker 1.00am Stories of Our
Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz

6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast
Show 9.30 Ken Bruce 12.00
Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott
Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara
Cox’s Half Wower 7.00 Jo
Whiley’s Shiny Happy Playlist
7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The Folk
Show with Mark Radcliffe
10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Magnificent 7 10.30 Trevor
Nelson’s Rhythm Nation 12.00
OJ Borg 3.00am Sounds of the
90s with Fearne Cotton (r)
4.00 Early Breakfast Show

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

6.30am Breakfast
9.00 Essential Classics
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Coleridge-Taylor Donald
Macleod explores ColeridgeTaylor’s place in society
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert Chamber music
from Maida Vale studios in
London. Bartok (String
Quartet No 2 Sz.67) and
Beethoven (String Quartet in
E flat major Op.74 No.10) (r)
2.00 Afternoon Concert Ravel
(Soupir); Mozart (Piano Sonata
no.13 in B flat major, K.333);
Stravinsky (Divertimento, from
Le Baiser de la fée); Handel
(Israel in Egypt, HWV54) and
Escales (symphonic poem).
4.00 Live Choral Evensong
Choral vespers from the
Office for the Dead, live from
Leeds Cathedral, with music
by Duruflé and Guerrero
5.00 In Tune
7.00 In Tune Mixtape An
eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
Chopin (Prelude in C sharp
minor Op. 45; Mazurkas Op. 56
nos. 2 and 3; Polonaise Op. 44;
Piano Concerto no. 2 in
F minor) and Mozart (String
Quintet no 4 in G minor K 516)
10.00 Free Thinking Anne
McElvoy and guests Goethe,
Schiller and the first Romantics
10.45 The Essay: Renewing
the Past — The BBC and Early
Music Exploring the launch
of the BBC’s cultural Third
Programme in 1946
11.00 Night Tracks listening
12.30am Through the Night

Today’s pick
Sideways
Radio 4, 4pm
In November 2015, a woman
called Mel got a phone call
from her son’s school, asking
her to come in. When she
arrived, she found the car
park filled with the blue lights
of the emergency services
and pupils and teachers at
the school feeling dizzy and
sick. In this first episode of
the news series, the Times
and Sunday Times journalist
Matthew Syed, above right,
tells this story and examines
similar phenomena. Are there

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in
Parliament
9.00 Life Changing
9.30 One Dish
9.45 Disaster Trolls
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 Uncaged (r)
11.30 Meet David Sedaris (r)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Threat to US
Democracy A pro-Trump
politician runs for governor
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Talk to Me — Ayn
Rand By Sara Davies and
Abigail Youngman (r)
3.00 Money Box Live
3.30 Inside Health (6/6) (r)
4.00 Sideways New series.
Matthew Syed explores the
ideas that shape individuals’
lives. See Choice (1/6)
4.30 The Media Show
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Rob Newman on Air (2/4)
7.00 The Archers Lynda plays
sleuth and Natasha has a
revealing makeover
7.15 Front Row Arts news
8.00 Life Changing (r)
8.30 Net Zero: A Very British
Problem The implications on
transport if Britain eliminates
carbon emissions by 2050 (r)
9.00 Costing the Earth Anna
Turns investigates post
mortems on dolphins,
porpoises and whales (r)
9.30 The Media Show (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
Demon Copperhead Barbara
Kingsolver’s re-imagination of
Dickens’ David Copperfield
for the modern age (3/15)
11.00 The Skewer: 100 Years
of the BBC Jon Holmes looks
at 100 Years of the BBC
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather

psychological explanations to
these events? Helping Syed
are the psychiatrist and
epidemiologist Professor Sir
Simon Wessely and the artist
and researcher Dr Johanna
Braun. Ben Dowell
12.30am Disaster Trolls (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Wake Up to Money
6.00 5 Live Breakfast 9.00
Nicky Campbell 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal
Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live
Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 8.00
5 Live Sport 10.00 Colin
Murray 1.00am Edward Adoo

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00
talkSPORT Breakfast with
Laura Woods 10.00 Jim White
and Simon Jordan 1.00pm
Hawksbee and Jacobs 4.00
talkSPORT Drive with Andy
Goldstein and Darren Bent
7.00 Kick Off 10.00 Sports
Bar 1.00am Extra Time

TalkRadio
Digital only

5.00 Love in Recovery
5.30 Rob Newman on Air
6.00 The Day of the Triffids
6.30 Pioneers 7.00 The
Missing Hancocks 7.30
England’s Glory 8.00 Lord
Peter Wimsey: Have His
Carcase. By Dorothy L Sayers
8.30 Brother Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom. Mystery, by
Ellis Peters 9.00 The Rudest
Man in Britain 10.00 Rob
Newman on Air 10.30 Rudy’s
Rare Records 11.00 I’ve Never
Seen Star Wars 11.30 Hearing
with Hegley 11.45 Late (r)

BBC World Service
Digital only

9.00am The Newsroom
9.30 The Compass: Stories
from the New Silk Road
10.00 News 10.06 The
Documentary 11.00 The
Newsroom 11.30 The
Documentary 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 Business
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 Compass: Stories from
the New Silk Road 8.30
Healthcheck 9.00 Newshour
10.00 The Newsroom 10.20
Sports News 10.30 Business
11.00 News 11.06 HARDtalk
11.30 The Documentary
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 Food Chain

6 Music
Digital only

5.00am James Max 6.30 The
Julia Hartley-Brewer Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Independent
Republic of Mike Graham
1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00
Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Jeremy
Kyle 8.00 Piers Morgan
9.00 The Talk 10.00 Tom
Newton Dunn 11.00 Petrie
Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross

7.30am Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs
1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00
Steve Lamacq 7.00 Marc
Riley 9.00 Tom Robinson
12.00 Freak Zone Playlist
1.00am The First Time
with James Murphy

Radio 4 Extra

Digital only

Virgin Radio

Digital only

8.00am The Missing
Hancocks 8.30 England’s
Glory 9.00 Booked 9.30
The Attractive Young Rabbi
10.00 The Personal History
of David Copperfield 11.00
The Rudest Man in Britain
12.00 The Missing Hancocks
12.30pm England’s Glory
1.00 Lord Peter Wimsey:
Have His Carcase 1.30 Brother
Cadfael: Dead Man’s Ransom
2.00 Buzz 2.15 Five Fever
Tales 2.30 The Invisible
College 3.00 The Personal
History of David Copperfield
4.00 Booked 4.30 The
Attractive Young Rabbi

6.30am The Chris Evans
Breakfast Show 10.00 Eddy
Temple-Morris 1.00pm Jayne
Middlemiss 4.00 Steve
Denyer 7.00 Bam 10.00
Amy Voce 1.00am Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

6.00am More Music
Breakfast 9.00 Alexander
Armstrong 12.00 Anne-Marie
Minhall 4.00pm John
Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics 10.00 Margherita
Taylor 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 Early Breakfast

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

44 saturday review

Thursday 3 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
The Horne Section TV Show
All4
Taskmaster’s Little Alex Horne
emerges from Greg Davies’s
shadow to star in his own
sitcom. We meet the character
Alex Horne backstage at
Taskmaster as he dreams of
hosting a chat show with his
band (the titular and very
talented Horne Section). Their
pitch is a disaster, but, due to
an administrative error,
Channel 4 accidentally
commissions it anyway. With
something as perfect as
Taskmaster, it’s so hard to
transplant the magic, but
they give it a good go. In
episode one, Davies comes
over with a bag of laundry for
his accommodating
manservant, acting as an
obvious bridge between
shows. But this is the trouble.
Moving Horne’s familiar beta
man to a huge house with
John Oliver on speed dial, it
becomes unclear whether
he’s low status or high status.
Even surreal/oddball

narrative comedy needs
structure. Then Desiree Burch
(also a Taskmaster alumna)
arrives, firing on all cylinders,
to play his wife’s friend,
visiting from LA. She
improbably ends up
producing his TV show. It’s not
clear who anyone is and that
starts to get in the way of the
jokes. The sit in sitcom is as
important as the laughs
because it provides the rules
of the world you’re watching.
Some of the basic comedy
scaffolding is missing, leaving
Horne’s irresistible, intelligent
humour floating in the air,
despite strong support from
Georgia Tennant as a TV
executive, Camille Ucanas as a
workshy researcher and Tim
Mahendran as a hapless
assistant. With these
exemplary ingredients, some
narrative discipline could turn
it into a proper showcase for
Horne’s obvious talents.
Julia Raeside

Blockbuster

Lost Worlds with
Ben Fogle

Warplane
Workshop

Channel 5, 9pm

More4, 9pm

Netflix
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer
Vanessa Ramos reunites with
its star Melissa Fumero in this
sitcom set in America’s last
Blockbuster video store.
Randall Park joins them as bighearted store manager Timmy,
who also has unspoken love for
Fumero’s single mom, Eliza. It
cannot avoid comparisons with
its fast-talking sister show and
it doesn’t even come close to
its wit and sophistication. First
episodes are impossibly hard
but the premise is weak and
the characters aren’t well
established enough for us to
root for them. Also, the
madness of Netflix writing a
love letter to the thing it killed
just seems warped. JR

Catch
up
The Fire Within: Storyville
BBC iPlayer
Just after 3pm on June 3, 1991,
a cloud of superheated gases
and particles fell at terrifying
speeds from the peak of the
volcano at Mount Unzen
in Japan, consuming
everything in its
path. It instantly
killed the French
volcanologists and
film-makers Katia
and Maurice
Krafft, right.
This Storyville
tribute from
the filmmaker

Tonight, the well-spoken
adventurer lands in Cyprus
where he sheds light on the
ongoing conflict between
Turkish and Greek Cypriots on
the island, divided by a vast
buffer zone of abandoned land.
The buildings are now the
ghosts of airports, shops,
restaurants and houses, just a
few short miles from holiday
destinations. Fogle reattaches
his jaw walking through the
dystopian parts of Famagusta,
calling it a “theme park of
despair”. But there is hope in
the young band Island Seeds,
made up of musicians from
both sides of the divide. JR
Werner Herzog (who narrates
in English) is essentially a
requiem for the couple that
pays tribute to them by piecing
together some of their most
memorable images to the
sound of haunting sacred
music. It’s as beautiful and
hypnotic as it is strange and
unsettling. Ben Dowell

Alex Horne,
Desiree Burch and
the Horne Section

This new series is a sort of
aviation Repair Shop.
Enthusiasts restore and rebuild
old aircraft which have literally
been in the wars in the hope of
saving them from rust and
decay. Tonight, pilot Richard
Grace talks about his lifelong
love of the Spitfire and how he
plucked the wreckage of a rare
model from a Belgian
scrapyard. Joined by a team of
helpers, they craft new parts
and piece it all back together
again with all the dedication of
the mice from Bagpuss.
Collective endeavour like this
takes on a new poignancy in
our disposable world. JR

Munya Chawawa:
How to Survive
a Dictator
Channel 4, 10pm
Munya Chawawa goes on an
emotional journey home to
Zimbabwe to explore the
history of Robert Mugabe’s
dictatorship. Only he doesn’t
make it that far because
his visa is mysteriously
cancelled, diverting him to
South Africa. There he speaks
to everyone from Mugabe’s
spiritual adviser to victims of
the regime. It culminates in a
confrontation with a Mugabe
associate who is himself
accused of appalling violence.
Above and beyond for a
stand-up comedian. JR

Films of the day
If Beale Street Could Talk (15, 2018)
BBC4, 9pm

Barry Jenkins’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight is a
wonderful, delicate thunderclap of a film. Faithfully adapting the
James Baldwin novel, Jenkins delivers a seductive tale of love and
devotion in 1970s New York via non-chronological narrative beats,
note-perfect central performances and a wistful yet ultimately
desolate mood. It begins in optimism, with the burgeoning love of
childhood sweethearts turned soulmates Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne)
and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James). Flash-forwards,
however, soon add a bracing dash of reality as Fonny is behind
bars, falsely accused of burglary and rape. The ending is tough.
The compensation resides in the elegant and searing film-making
of Jenkins. (119min) Kevin Maher

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:
12.40-1.10am Imagine: Malorie Blackman
— What If? Profile of the trailblazing
children’s writer Malorie Blackman
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 3.30pm
Snowdonia: A Year on the Farm. It is
lambing season, but Wales is in lockdown
(r) 4.00-4.30 Weatherman Walking:
The Welsh Coast. Derek Brockway walks
from Saundersfoot to Pendine Sands (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.40pm Arena: James Joyce’s Ulysses.
An examination of Joyce’s masterpiece,
100 years after its publication 12.10am
Question Time. Topical debate 1.10
Newscast 1.40-6.00 BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 11.15am
Bargain Hunt 12.00-1.00pm Live First
Minister’s Questions 2.15-3.00 Money for
Nothing (r) 7.00-7.30 River City (r)
12.40am Who Lives in Scotland? (r)
1.40 Weather 1.45-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 8.30pm-9.00
Wales This Week — A Future In Flux 10.45
Fishlock’s Choice 11.10 Mortgage Crisis:
What Does It Mean For You? Tonight.
Adam Shaw investigates rising mortgage
costs 11.40 The Grand Fishing Adventure
(r) 12.35-12.50am World of Sport (r)
● STV As ITV except: 8.30pm-9.00
Scotland Tonight 10.30 STV News

10.45 Mortgage Crisis: What Does It Mean
For You? Tonight 11.15 FILM Spider-Man
(2002) 1.15am-3.00 Teleshopping
3.35-5.05 Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Grand Tours of
Scotland’s Lochs (r) 8.00 Beechgrove
Gardens in Winter 8.30 Landward 9.00
The Nine 10.00 Scot Squad (r) 10.30
Chewin’ the Fat (r) 11.00-Midnight
Scotland the Rave (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 10.50 Twt (r) 11.05
Shwshaswyn (r) 11.10 Dathlu ’Da Dona (r)
11.25 Olobobs (r) 11.30 Blero yn Mynd i
Ocido (r) 11.45 Ahoi! (r) 12.00 News
12.05pm Dau Gi Bach (r) 12.30 Heno (r)
1.00 Cegin Bryn: Tir a Môr (r) 1.30 Y Byd
ar Bedwar (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn
Da 3.00 News 3.05 Marathon Eryri 2022
(r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Bing (r) 4.10 Ein Byd
Bach Ni (r) 4.20 Shwshaswyn (r) 4.30
Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 4.45 Ahoi! (r)
5.00 Stwnsh: Dennis a Dannedd (r) 5.10 Y
Doniolis (r) 5.20 Chwarter Call (r) 5.35
Gwrach y Rhibyn 5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00
Welsh Whisperer: Ni’n Teithio Nawr! (r)
6.30 Bwrdd i Dri (r) 6.57 News 7.00 Heno
7.30 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25 Rownd
a Rownd 8.55 News 9.00 Jonathan 10.00
Rygbi Pawb 10.45 Pobol y Môr (r)
11.15-11.50 Codi Hwyl: Llydaw (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

Woman in Gold (12, 2015)
BBC4, 10.50pm

There is much to recommend Woman in Gold, the true story of
Maria Altmann, who fled the Nazis in Austria and returned 60
years later to try to reclaim the stolen portrait of her aunt, a
Viennese beauty painted by Gustav Klimt. Helen Mirren plays
Altmann with her usual grandeur, and Ryan Reynolds, above with
Mirren, takes the role of her nephew, the lawyer Randy
Schoenberg. The odd couple, reminiscent of Judi Dench and Steve
Coogan in Philomena, provide entertaining and moving material
on the lengthy quest for restitution. Yet the film seems carefully
sanitised, particularly in its sepia-toned wartime flashbacks, in
which Nazi brutality takes second place to the looting of fine art.
(106min) Kate Muir

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 45

Thursday 3

Also available online and on tablet

Digital subscribers can now use our interactive seven-day
guide with comprehensive listings of all TV channels
thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live
10.00 Critical Incident 10.45 Dirty
Rotten Scammers (r) 11.15 Homes
Under the Hammer 12.15pm Bargain
Hunt 1.00 BBC News at One; Weather
1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45
Doctors. Jimmi tries to help a difficult
patient understand a recurring
nightmare 2.15 Money for Nothing.
A reclaimed chest of drawers (r) 3.00
I Escaped to the Country. Jules
Hudson and Steve Brown retrace their
steps on former house-hunting
missions in the Midlands 3.45 The
Repair Shop. Jay Blades and the team
restore a scientist’s meticulous
notebook 4.30 The Travelling
Auctioneers. Will Kirk and Christina
Trevanion head to Northumberland
5.15 Pointless 6.00 BBC News at Six;
Weather 6.30 BBC Regional News

6.00am Take a Hike (r) 6.30 I Escaped
to the Country (r) 7.15 The Repair
Shop (r) 8.00 Sign Zone: Iolo: A Wild
Life (r) (SL) 8.30 Villages by the Sea (r)
(SL) 9.00 BBC News 10.00 BBC News
12.15pm Politics Live 1.00 Glorious
Gardens from Above. Christine
Walkden heads to Aberdeenshire (r)
1.45 Eggheads (r) 2.15 Wanted: A
Simple Life. The Parkers sample life in
Dorset (r) 3.00 Gardening Together
with Diarmuid Gavin. Diarmuid helps
design a garden in Co Kerry for Shane
Auliffe (r) 3.30 Mountain Vets. A
pregnant sheep must undergo an
emergency C-section (r) 4.30 Murder,
Mystery and My Family: Case Closed?.
The case of the last man to be hanged
at Newcastle Prison (r) 5.15 Flog It! (r)
6.00 Richard Osman’s House of
Games 6.30 Strictly: It Takes Two

6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30pm
Loose Women. The women put the
world to rights once more 1.30 ITV
News; Weather 1.55 Regional News;
Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal.
David Dickinson is joined in Swindon
by his dealers Alison Chapman, Fay
Rutter, Simon Schneider and Tracy
Thackray-Howitt 3.00 Riddiculous.
Quiz hosted by Ranvir Singh in which
a group of contestants take on
Riddlemaster Henry Lewis 4.00
Tipping Point. Ben Shephard hosts the
arcade-themed quiz in which
contestants drop tokens down a
choice of four chutes in the hope of
winning a £10,000 jackpot 5.00 The
Chase. Bradley Walsh presents the
quiz show 6.00 Regional News;
Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.05am Countdown (r) 6.45 Cheers (r)
7.10 Cheers (r) 7.35 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.00 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.25 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.55 Frasier (r) 9.30
Frasier (r) 10.00 Frasier (r) 10.30
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
11.25 Channel 4 News Summary 11.30
Château DIY 12.30pm Steph’s Packed
Lunch 2.10 Countdown 3.00 A Place
in the Sun. Jean Johansson helps a
couple from Lincoln to find a home in
Spain’s Alicante Province (r) 4.00 Sun,
Sea and Selling Houses. A Portsmouth
pair seek their perfect property in
Almería (r) 5.00 Four in a Bed. The
guests visit a farmhouse with a
difference in Staffordshire (r) 5.30
Come Dine with Me 6.00 The
Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks. Peri makes
a tearful admission to Leela (r)

6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine
12.45pm Shoplifters & Scammers: At
War with the Law. Methods used to
thwart criminals targeting shops (r)
1.40 5 News at Lunchtime 1.45 Home
and Away. Tane is shocked to discover
Ziggy unconscious (r) 2.15 FILM A
Timeless Christmas (PG, TVM, 2020)
Charles Whitley travels from 1903 to
2020 where he meets Megan Turner
and experiences a 21st-century
Christmas. Romantic drama starring
Erin Cahill 4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits
in the Sun. Hostel owners Sam and
Rich prepare for a coachload of
guests (r) 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00
Parking Hell. Following the daily
battles across Britain for parking
spaces (r) 6.30 Eggheads. Bad
Avengers from Northern Ireland take
on the experts 6.55 5 News Update

Kellie Bright as Linda (7.30pm)

Strictly: It Takes Two (6.30pm)

Maguire and Dunst (10.45pm)

Comic Munya Chawawa (10pm)

Ben Fogle is in Cyprus (9pm)

7.00 The One Show Alex Jones and
Ronan Keating present the live
magazine show

7.00 Live Wheelchair Rugby League
World Cup: England v Australia
All the action from the Group A
match at Copper Box Arena in
London, as two of the favourites
get their campaigns under way
(Kick-off 7.30). This is the fourth
edition of the tournament and
England have reached the final
in all of the previous three, but
their only victory came against
the Aussies back in 2008.
This is the first time the
wheelchair competition is part
of the main Rugby League
World Cup and it is not solely a
disability sport, as non-disabled
people can also compete, and
both men and women can play
in the same team

7.00 Channel 4 News

7.00 The Highland Vet A highland
cow has a huge growth on its
hip that is getting bigger, and
David is delivering a calf when
he finds it is not in the right
position, a potentially fatal
complication (4/12) (r)
7.55 5 News Update

7.30 EastEnders The police
interrogate Ravi

8.00 Unbreakable It’s the semi-final
and Rob Beckett sets some
tricky challenges that push
the couples’ patience to the
limit. The Breaking Point
Challenge sees one couple
sent home (5/6)
9.00 MasterChef: The Professionals
Anna Haugh’s Skills Test
challenges the chefs on
their butchery skills, while
Marcus Wareing asks them to
butterfly sardines, and serve
them with tomato paste
and olive tapenade
10.00BBC News at Ten
10.30 BBC Regional News

7.30 Emmerdale Will and Kim take
matters into their own hands.
Dan worries about Harriet’s
true feelings for him. Laurel
is shocked by Bernice’s
callous attitude

7.55 Deborah James’ Story:
Stand Up to Cancer
8.00 Aldi’s Next Big Thing Aldi’s
head buyer Julie goes on the
hunt for the next healthy and
wholesome product, from
camel’s milk to kombucha, roast
dinner kimchi and proteinpacked fava beans (3/6)

8.00 Inside the Tower of London It
is March 2022 and the Tower
staff are continuing work on
the transformation of the
moat into a huge floral display
to celebrate the Queen’s
Platinum Jubilee; followed
by 5 News Update

9.00 Exposure: Inside Qatar Ahead
of the FIFA World Cup, cameras
focus on the host nation, Qatar

9.30 The Rescue: 54 Hours Under
the Ground Documentary
telling the story of a remarkable
rescue in the Brecon Beacons,
when a freak accident struck
George Linnane in the 900ft
deep Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave (r)

9.00 Taskmaster John Kearns does
some elaborate skipping,
Munya Chawawa does some
elaborate jumping, and Fern
Brady walks too slowly. Amid
the carnage, Little Alex Horne
attempts to offer advice (6/10)

9.00 Lost Worlds with Ben Fogle
Ben heads to Cyprus to spend a
week with the UN’s
Peacekeeping Force, who
patrol the enormous buffer
zone on the island, keeping the
two warring sides in the civil
war apart. See Viewing Guide

10.00ITV News at Ten; followed by
Weather

10.30 Newsnight With Victoria
Derbyshire

10.30 Regional News; followed by
Regional Weather

10.00Munya Chawawa: How to
Survive a Dictator The
comedian documents the life of
Zimbabwean dictator Robert
Mugabe, who died in 2019, to
find out more about one of the
world’s most notorious tyrants.
See Viewing Guide

10.40 Question Time Fiona Bruce
presents the topical debate,
with a panel of politicians and
other guests facing questions
from the audience

11.40 Ros Atkins on the Week A look
at the biggest national and
international stories

11.15 Tutankhamun’s Secrets:
Raiders of the Lost Past with
Janina Ramirez The art
historian heads to Egypt to
reveal how Howard Carter
unearthed the pharaoh’s
tomb in 1922 (r)

12.10am Newscast. A weekly
round-up from Westminster,
delivering the usual mix of serious
analysis and light-hearted gossip
12.40 A1 by Night: Against the Clock:
We Are England (r) 1.10 Weather for
the Week Ahead 1.15 BBC News

12.15am Sign Zone: Sensationalists:
The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art.
How young creatives changed the
face of art in Britain during the 1990s
(r) (SL) 1.15 Strictly Come Dancing (r)
(SL) 3.05-3.45 Strictly Come Dancing:
The Results (r) (SL)

8.30 Mortgage Crisis: What Does It
Mean For You? Tonight Adam
Shaw investigates rising
mortgage costs

10.45 FILM Spider-Man (12, 2002)
A teenage boy bitten by a
genetically engineered spider
develops superhuman gifts
and uses them to fight crime.
Comic-book adventure
starring Tobey Maguire and
Kirsten Dunst

12.50am Teleshopping 3.00 Slam
Dunk. Two basketball players and
their teams battle their way through
the Ball Out 3x3 tournament (r) (SL)
3.35 Unwind with ITV 5.05 Dickinson’s
Real Deal. David Dickinson and the
team are in Swindon (r) (SL)

11.05 My Massive C**k Men with
exceptionally large penises
reveal how this has affected
their lives, and how in some
cases, they are considering
surgical solutions to reduce
the size (r)
12.10am Celebrity I Literally Just Told
You (r) 1.05 Mo Gilligan & Friends (r)
(SL) 2.10 24 Hours in A&E (r) 3.05
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
(SL) 3.55 Couples Come Dine with Me
(r) (SL) 4.50 Best of Britain by the Sea
(r) (SL) 5.45 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (r)

10.30 Inside Holloway: Women
Behind Bars Exploring
Holloway’s more infamous
inmates, from Edwardian
baby-killers to Myra Hindley
and Maxine Carr, and the
treatment of the prisoners
from 1852 right to its
closure in 2016 (r)

12.00 Crimes That Shook Britain (r)
1.00 am LeoVegas Live Casino Show
3.00 Entertainment News on 5 3.05
Diet Secrets & How to Lose Weight (r)
3.55 The Hotel Inspector (r) 4.40
House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.10 House
Doctor (r) (SL) 5.35 Milkshake!

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

46 saturday review

Warplane
Workshop

Thursday 3 | Primetime digital guide

A new series where old
warplanes are restored
More4, 9pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am James Max An initial
insight into the day’s news
6.30 The Julia Hartley-Brewer
Breakfast Show Reports
10.00 The Independent Republic
of Mike Graham The
presenter looks through
the morning newspapers
1.00pm Ian Collins Hard-hitting
monologues, debates and
dedicated time for your calls
4.00 Vanessa Feltz Stories of the
day from politics, current
affairs and showbiz
7.00 Jeremy Kyle Live
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
The host presents his
outspoken verdict on
the day’s global events
9.00 The Talk Sharon Osbourne
and a panel of famous faces
debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about
10.00 First Edition
11.00-12.00m’t Piers Morgan
Uncensored Piers presents
his verdict on the day

7.00pm The Catch Up
7.05 Gymnastics World
Championships Live
coverage of the women’s
individual all-around final
9.00 RuPaul’s Drag Race UK It is
the return of the muchloved makeover challenge
as the queens share the art
of drag with six special
makeover subjects. Boy
George and US Drag Race
star Raven join the fun (7/10)
10.15 Angels of the North
Sammyjo is still looking for
true love, while John opens
up to Shane (6/10)
10.45 Fleabag Claire and Fleabag
mark the anniversary of
their mother’s death (5/6)
11.10 Fleabag Surprises are in
store when Fleabag attends
her godmother’s exhibition
of erotic art (6/6)
11.35-12.50am RuPaul’s Drag Race
UK The return of the
makeover challenge (7/10)

7.00pm Great Asian Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo’s
tour reaches its final stop,
Singapore, where he learns
about the city’s maritime
origins and the Englishman
who put it on the map
8.00 Wild China Meeting tribes of
Chinese reindeer herders
dwelling outside the Great
Wall on the Siberian border,
and exploring the ruined
cities that once marked the
legendary Silk Road (4/6)
9.00 FILM If Beale Street Could
Talk (15, 2018) A couple’s
plans of starting a family are
derailed when the fiancé is
arrested for a crime they did
not commit. Drama starring
KiKi Layne and Stephan
James. See Film Choice
10.50-12.30am FILM Woman in
Gold (12, 2015) Fact-based
drama starring Helen
Mirren and Ryan Reynolds.
See Film Choice

6.55pm Escape to the Château:
DIY Dick Strawbridge joins a
couple looking around an
1850s chateau
7.55 Grand Designs Kevin
McCloud follows the
progress of two architects
who are planning to build an
eco-friendly subterranean
house underneath a ruined
300-year-old barn
9.00 Warplane Workshop New
series. Documentary
following the engineers and
aviators who battle to keep
the UK’s most historic
warplanes in the air. In the
first edition, the team
rebuild a Spitfire MJ772.
See Viewing Guide (1/6)
10.00 Guy Martin’s Spitfire A
project to rebuild a Spitfire
shot down in 1940
11.40-12.50am 24 Hours in A&E
Three young men from
different walks of life are
brought in (1/12)

6.50pm True Blood Bill agrees to
let Eric borrow Sookie to use
her mind-reading powers to
root out a thief (8/12) (R)
7.55 Game of Thrones Tyrion
strikes a deal, while Jorah
and Daario undertake a
difficult task, and back
across the Narrow Sea,
Jaime and Cersei try to
improve their situation (R)
9.00 Gangs of London Luan
faces a desperate race
against time that culminates
in a violent showdown,
and Ed starts to question
if he has backed the right
side (4/8) (R)
10.05 The White Lotus Blackcomedy drama (R)
11.15 The Baby Natasha
frantically searches for the
baby’s mother (2/8) (R)
11.50-12.55am Babylon Berlin
Weintraub investigates
the boxing match
betting fraud (5/12) (R)

7.00pm The Lady and the Dale As
law enforcement begins to
close in on the 20th Century
Motor Car Company, Liz
once again goes on the run
— but she soon faces much
media scrutiny (3/4) (R)
8.00 The Sixties A look at the
complexities that led to
America’s involvement in
the Vietnam War and how it
changed the country in
ways that can still be felt
even today (4/10) (R)
9.00 Kingdom of Dreams A
chronicle of the fashion
world from the early 1990s
to the 2010s (1/4) (R)
10.00 The Vow Two NXIVM
members recount their
experiences with Keith and
Nancy’s treatment for
symptoms of Tourette’s (R)
11.10-12.50am Superswede
Documentary exploring the
life of Swedish racing legend
Ronnie Peterson (R)

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.00pm Dress to Impress Lucy,
Sasha and Jenny choose outfits for
Toby from Cheshire
8.00 Bob’s Burgers Tina and Bob
try to build a boat,
8.30 Bob’s Burgers Tina is
mistaken for a boy’s girlfriend
9.00 Family Guy
9.30 Family Guy
10.00 Family Guy
10.30 Family Guy
11.00 Family Guy
11.30 American Dad!
11.55-12.25am American Dad!

7.00pm Heartbeat A face from
Helen’s past arrives in town
8.00 Vera The detective
investigates the murder of a
popular social worker and an
infamous past case involving the
death of a child appears to hold the
key to solving the mystery
10.00-12.05am Foyle’s War When
a man’s charred remains are found,
Foyle’s investigations lead him into
the world of espionage, where
murder and deception are rife.
Michael Kitchen stars

6.45pm Live Snooker: Champion
of Champions Jill Douglas presents
coverage of the evening session on
day four from the University of
Bolton Stadium, featuring the
concluding group final, played over
the best of 11 frames
10.15 FILM Crank (18, 2006) An
assassin is poisoned and resorts to
desperate measures to keep
himself alive long enough to exact
a fitting revenge. Action thriller
starring Jason Statham
12.00-1.05am The Professionals

7.00pm Hollyoaks
7.30 The Big Bang Theory
8.00 Modern Family Phil meets his
former high-school girlfriend
8.30 Modern Family Mitchell and
Manny enjoy an outing together
9.00 Gogglebox The critics sit
down to Peaky Blinders, Made in
Chelsea and Scam Interceptors
10.00 First Dates Australia
Brittany meets teacher James, and
is instantly smitten with his looks
11.05-12.10am First Dates A linguist
becomes tongue-tied on his date

7.00pm Richard Osman’s House of
Games With Steve Backshall,
Catherine Bohart, Ranj Singh
and Meera Syal
7.40 QI XL
8.20 Would I Lie to You?
9.00 QI XL With Romesh
Ranganathan, Matt Lucas and
Liza Tarbuck
10.00 Have I Got a Bit More News
for You Damian Lewis hosts, with
Katy Balls and Chris McCausland
11.00 Question Team
12.00-12.40am Mock the Week

6.40pm Last of the Summer Wine
Howard’s bicycle starts acting
very strangely
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine
8.00 Judge John Deed An MP is
accused of attempted murder
10.00 New Tricks The squad
investigates a feud between two
family ice-cream businesses —
which resulted in a shooting
10 years earlier
11.20-12.40am Spooks
A lethal nerve agent falls into
the wrong hands

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection (7/11)
7.30 Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection (8/11)
8.00 Bangers and Cash Derek
inspects a brace of old cop cars
including a Rover P6 (10/15)
9.00 Bangers and Cash Derek
heads out to pick up a pair of
beautiful Swedish models — a Saab
96L and a Volvo P1800ES (8/15)
10.00 Bangers and Cash (9/15)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (6/7)

6.25pm Augmented A biophysicist
that is working to create braincontrolled robotic limbs
7.35 The First World War
The Ottoman Empire’s role in
the conflict (4/10)
8.40 Beautiful Serengeti
Documentary exploring the river
environment (12/12)
9.05 Police on Trial Following the
Minneapolis police in the aftermath
of the killing of George Floyd
10.55 The First World War (4/10)
12.00-1.15am Augmented

7.00pm Ice Airport Alaska Snow
causes problems at Ted Stevens
Anchorage International Airport
8.00 Inside the Factory A factory
that produces toilet rolls
9.00 How Did They Build That?
A New York skyscraper that seems
to defy the laws of physics
10.00 How Did They Build That?
11.00 Murderous History
How Berlin’s Nazi Ripper got
away with murder
12.00-1.00am How Did They Build
That? A New York skyscraper

7.00pm Portrait Artist of the Year
With celebrity sitters Stella
Rimington and Alexis Ffrench
8.00 Ennio: The Maestro
Documentary by Giuseppe
Tornatore celebrating the life
and legacy of Italian composer
Ennio Morricone, featuring
Interviews with renowned
directors and musicians
11.00 Discovering: Meg Ryan A
profile of the American actress
12.00-1.20am Berlin Live: Simple
Minds A 2011 performance

7.00pm Forged in Fire A task to
recreate the iconic Karabela sabre
8.00 Pawn Stars Rick’s taste for
football is wetted when a bucket
hat lands at the shop
9.00 History of Weapons The
evolution of short-range
instruments of battle (3/10)
10.00 Guns That Changed the
Game New series. The quest to
create more innovative and
lethal weapons (1/3)
11.00 Deadliest Warrior (1/13)
12.00-1.00am Vikings

7.00pm Stargate SG-1
8.00 Rob & Romesh vs Country
Music The comedians meet
Shania Twain (5/6)
9.00 Jamie and Harry’s World Cup
Challenge: Got, Got, Need New
series. A challenge to meet as
many World Cup stars as possible
10.00 Fantasy Football League
With Jennifer Saunders and
Roman Kemp
10.35 The Russell Howard Hour
11.20-12.20am The 00s: Cinema’s
Greatest Decade

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Junkyard Empire
8.00 Supertruckers
9.00 Alaskan Bush People
10.00 Alaskan Bush People
11.00 Tales from the Explorers
Club Josh Gates explores the club
members’ most daring journeys
12.00-1.00am Paranormal
Declassified

7.00pm Air Crash Investigation
8.00 Ice Road Rescue
9.00 Edge of the Unknown with
Jimmy Chin New series
9.30 Edge of the Unknown
10.00 World of Flavour with
Big Moe Cason
11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00-1.00am Paranatural (8/10)

7.00pm Everybody Hates Chris
7.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Upright (5/8)
9.30 Upright (6/8)
10.00 Sex and the City
10.35 Sex and the City
11.10 Curb Your Enthusiasm (5/10)
11.45-12.45am The Late Late Show
with James Corden

7.00pm Friends
9.00 The Ricky Gervais Show The
meaning of wartime expressions
9.30 The Ricky Gervais Show
10.00 Fugget About It
10.30 Fugget About It
11.00 South Park
11.30 South Park
12.00-12.30am South Park

6.40pm Dad’s Army
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 The Vicar of Dibley
8.40 The Vicar of Dibley Geraldine
conducts a radical Sunday service
9.20 The Royle Family
10.00 Open All Hours
10.40 Live at the Apollo
11.40-12.20am Bottom

7.00pm Junior MasterChef
Australia A mystery box challenge
8.20 Children’s Ward
9.00 Emma Willis: Delivering
Babies Emma learns how to
monitor newborn babies
10.00 Nurses on the Ward
11.00 Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour
12.00-1.00am 999 Rescue Squad

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

7.30am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Pakistan v South Africa
12.00-4.00pm Live Challenge
Tour Golf The Rolex Challenge
Tour Grand Final
7.00pm Live PGA Tour Golf The
World Wide Technology
Championship At Mayakoba
10.00 Sky Sports News
11.00 Live NFL: Houston Texans v
Philadelphia Eagles (Kick-off 12.15)
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: New Zealand v Ireland
Coverage from Adelaide Oval

7.00pm Premier League:
The Big Interview
7.30 Premier League Stories
Behind the scenes of the top flight
8.00 Gary Neville’s Soccerbox
With Jamie Carragher
8.30 Gary Neville’s Soccerbox
With Phil Neville
9.00 Premier League:
The Big Interview
9.30 Premier League Stories
10.00 Premier League Icons A
profile of Ruud Van Nistelrooy
10.30-12.30am PL Retro

7.30am-12.00noon Live ICC Men’s
T20 World Cup: Pakistan v South
Africa Coverage of the Super 12
Group Two encounter at Sydney
Cricket Ground
7.00pm ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Another chance to see Pakistan v
South Africa
11.30-1.30am ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Highlights
3.30-6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: New Zealand v
Ireland Coverage of the
Super 12 Group One fixture

5.15pm Live Uefa Europa League A
matchday six game (Kick-off 5.45)
8.15 The Football’s On
8.30 Fishing: On the Bank
9.15 Premier League Reload
9.30 World Rallycross
Championship Highlights
10.30 Premier League:
The Big Interview
11.00 College Football Countdown
11.30-3.00am Live College
Football: Coastal Carolina
Chanticleers v Appalachian State
Mountaineers (Kick-off 11.30)

6.15pm The Football’s On
A humorous look at the week’s
football stories with Ian Stone
and guests
7.15 Uefa Europa League Goals
Reload The pick of the goals from
the latest round of fixtures
7.30 Live Uefa Europa League:
Arsenal v FC Zurich (Kick-off 8.00).
Coverage of the Group A
encounter at Emirates Stadium
10.30-12.00m’t Uefa Europa
League Highlights Action from
matchday six

Ennio: The Maestro is a film
celebrating the composer Ennio
Morricone (Sky Arts, 8pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 47

Thursday 3
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

11.00am Dragoon Wells
Massacre (PG, 1957) Western
drama starring Barry Sullivan
and Dennis O’Keefe
12.45pm Millions Like Us (U,
1943) Second World War
drama starring Patricia Roc
2.50 Tomahawk (PG, 1951)
Western starring Van Hefting
4.30 Captain Scarlett (U,
1953) Swashbuckling
adventure starring Richard
Greene and Leonora Amar
6.15 Star Trek Into Darkness
(12, 2013) Sci-fi adventure
sequel starring Chris Pine
9.00 Atomic Blonde (15,
2017) Thriller starring Charlize
Theron and James McAvoy
11.15-1.25am Monster (18,
2003) Fact-based drama
starring Charlize Theron

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

Charlize Theron stars in
Monster (Film4, 11.15pm)
9.00 Resident Evil: The Final
Chapter (15, 2016) Action
horror sequel starring Milla
Jovovich and Ali Larter
11.10-1.00am The Recall
(15, 2017) Sci-fi thriller
starring Wesley Snipes

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Melody Club (U,
1949) Musical comedy
starring Terry-Thomas
7.20 Come Back Peter (U,
1952) Comedy starring Patrick
Holt and Peter Hammond
9.00 The Footage Detectives
10.00 Tom Brown’s
Schooldays (U, 1940) Public
school drama starring Cedric
Hardwicke and Jimmy Lydon
11.40 The Crooked Sky (12,
1957) Drama starring Wayne
Morris and Karin Booth
1.10pm The Man from Snowy
River (PG, 1982) Australian
Western starring Kirk Douglas
3.20 The Chain (PG, 1984)
Comedy drama with Warren
Mitchell and Bernard Hill
5.15 Turn of Fate
5.45 Seven Thieves (PG,
1960) Crime drama starring
Edward G Robinson
7.50 Look at Life
8.00 The Saint
9.00 Justice
10.00 The Rivals of
Sherlock Holmes
11.00-12.00am Enemy
at the Door

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am The Rachels
(PG, 2017) Drama starring
Madison Iseman
10.50 GREAT! Movie News
11.00 Ring of Deception
(PG, 2017) Thriller starring
Chandra West and Steve Bacic
12.50pm GREAT! Movie News
1.00 In Bed with a Killer (PG,
2019) Thriller with Jennifer
Taylor and Jade Harlow
2.50 Deadly Hack (PG, 2018)
Thriller starring Rosalie
McIntire and Drew Seeley
4.35 GREAT! Movie News
4.45 Mother Lode (15,
1982) Action adventure
starring Charlton Heston
6.55 Bewitched (PG,
2005) Romantic fantasy
comedy with Nicole
Kidman and Will Ferrell

6.00am Hollywood’s
Best Film Directors
7.10 Cheyenne
9.20 One of Our Spies is
Missing (U, 1966) Man from
UNCLE adventure with David
McCallum and Robert Vaughn
11.15 Cheyenne
1.30pm Funeral in Berlin
(PG, 1966) Cold War thriller
starring Michael Caine
3.40 The Ladykillers (U,
1955) Ealing black comedy
starring Alec Guinness
5.40 Massacre Canyon (PG,
1954) Western starring Philip
Carey and Audrey Totter
7.10 How to Steal the World
(PG, 1968) The Man from
UNCLE adventure with Robert
Vaughn and David McCallum
9.00 Lethal Weapon (15,
1987) Action thriller starring
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
11.15-1.15am Hallowe’en II
(18, 1981) Horror sequel
starring Jamie Lee Curtis

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.30pm The Accursed (15,
2022) Horror starring Mena
Suvari and Sarah Grey
2.30 Out of the Blue (15,
2022) Romantic thriller
starring Diane Kruger
4.30 The Immaculate Room
(15, 2022) Thriller with Emile
Hirsch and Kate Bosworth
6.15 Wickensburg (PG, 2022)
Adventure starring Denise
Richards and Julian Richings
8.00 Wolf (15, 2021) A man
who believes he is a wolf is
sent to a clinic, where he is
forced to undergo
increasingly extreme forms of
‘curative’ therapies. Drama
starring George MacKay
9.55 The Accursed (15, 2022)
Horror starring Mena Suvari,
Sarah Grey and Meg Foster
11.45-1.35am The Lodge (15,
2019) Horror starring Riley
Keough and Jaeden Martell

5.00am Anna Cunningham
with Early Breakfast 6.00
Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with
Times Radio Breakfast 10.00
Matt Chorley 1.00pm Mariella
Frostrup 3.00 Jane Garvey and
Fi Glover 5.00 John Pienaar
with Times Radio Drive.
Conversation with political
guests 7.00 Pienaar and
Friends 8.00 Kait Borsay 10.00
Henry Bonsu 1.00am Stories of
Our Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz

6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast
Show 9.30 Ken Bruce 12.00
Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott
Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara
Cox’s Half Wower 7.00 Jo
Whiley’s Shiny Happy Playlist
7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The
Country Show with Bob
Harris 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Magnificent 7 10.30 Trevor
Nelson’s Rhythm Nation
12.00 OJ Borg 3.00am Sounds
of the 90s (r) 4.00 A Dance
Through the Decades 4.30
Early Breakfast Show

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

6.30am Breakfast
9.00 Essential Classics
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Coleridge-Taylor Donald
Macleod examines the time
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
was living out of a suitcase
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert From Maida Vale
studios in London. Mozart
(Adagio in B minor K540)
and Elgar (Piano Quintet
in A minor Op.84) (r)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Vivaldi (Presto from Summer,
The Four Seasons, Violin
Concerto in G minor, RV315;
Ravel (Rapsodie espagnole);
Piazzolla (Excerpts from Five
Tango Sensations); Respighi
(Fountains of Rome); Handel
(Israel in Egypt, HWV54) and
Stravinsky (The Firebird)
5.00 In Tune
7.00 In Tune Mixtape An
eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert The
BBC Symphony Orchestra in
Tokyo. Dai Fujikura (Glorious
Clouds); Sibelius (Violin
Concerto) and Shostakovich
(Symphony No.5 Op.57)
10.00 Free Thinking Matthew
Sweet and guests assess the
influence of the thinking of
Scottish theologian and
minister John Knox, who
died on 24 November 1572
10.45 The Essay: Early Music
at the BBC How the revival of
early music had a sense of
adventure in the 1950s
11.00 The Night Tracks Mix
11.30 Unclassified
12.30am Through the Night (r)

Today’s pick
In Our Time
Radio 4, 9am
On October 11, 1865, a protest
march against injustice and
poverty led by the preacher
Paul Bogle, right, in Morant
Bay in Jamaica resulted in
extreme violence, scores of
deaths and suppression. The
Morant Bay Rebellion is the
subject of this programme.
Melvyn Bragg’s guests are
Matthew Smith, Professor of
History and Director of the
Centre for the Study of the
Legacies of British Slavery at
University College London,

Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
8.31 (LW) Yesterday
in Parliament
9.00 In Our Time Melvyn
Bragg investigates the
history of ideas. See Choice
9.45 Disaster Trolls
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 From Our Own
Correspondent
11.30 Hold on Tight: The
Women of the Waste Land
Examining TS Eliot’s poem
The Waste Land
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 You and Yours
12.30 Sliced Bread New series.
The scientific evidence behind
a product’s bold claims
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Threat to US
Democracy A data-breach at
an election office leads to
the leak of voting software
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Pilgrim — The
Timbermoor Imp By Sebastian
Baczkiewicz (2/2) (r)
3.00 Open Country Miles
Warde looks for Tolkien Land
3.27 Radio 4 Appeal (r)
3.30 Open Book (r)
4.00 Knives at the School
Gate Documentary (r)
4.30 BBC Inside Science
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary
Sandwich Bar (3/4)
7.00 The Archers Leonard
knows what to do
7.15 Front Row Arts news
8.00 Law in Action (r)
8.30 The Bottom Line
9.00 BBC Inside Science (r)
9.30 In Our Time (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
Demon Copperhead By
Barbara Kingsolver. Demon
struggles to come to terms
with the shocking events (4/15)
11.00 BBC Radio Fjord:
Breaking Britain (r)

the Edinburgh University
historian and Caribbean
specialist Professor Diana
Paton, and Lawrence
Goldman, the former director
of the Institute of Historical
Research. Ben Dowell

4.00 Quote: Unquote 4.30
Coming Alive 5.00 Turf Wars
5.30 Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary
Sandwich Bar 6.00 The Day
of the Triffids 6.30 Great
Lives 7.00 The Burkiss Way
7.30 Girlies 8.00 Lord Peter
Wimsey: Have His Carcase
8.30 Cadfael: Dead Man’s
Ransom 9.00 Desert Island
Discs 9.45 David
Attenborough’s Life Stories
10.00 Comedy Club: Alexei
Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich
Bar 10.30 Great Unanswered
Questions 11.00 Mission
Improbable 11.15 Lazy Susan:
East Coast Listening Post
11.30 The Party Party

BBC World Service
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Disaster Trolls (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909

5.00am Wake Up to Money
6.00 5 Live Breakfast 9.00
Nicky Campbell 11.00
Adrian Chiles 1.00pm Nihal
Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live
Drive 7.00 5 Live Cricket
9.00 The Euro Leagues
Podcast 10.00 Colin Murray
1.00am Edward Adoo

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast with Alan Brazil
10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee &
Baker 4.00 Drive with Andy
Goldstein and Darren Bent
7.00 Kick Off 10.00 Sports
Bar 1.00am Extra Time

TalkRadio
Digital only

Digital only

9.00am 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 Business
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 Business 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

6 Music
Digital only

5.00am James Max 6.30 The
Julia Hartley-Brewer Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Independent
Republic of Mike Graham
1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00
Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Jeremy
Kyle 8.00 Piers Morgan
Uncensored 9.00 The Talk
10.00 Tom Newton Dunn
11.00 The James Whale
Show 1.00am Paul Ross

Radio 4 Extra
Digital only

8.00am The Burkiss Way
8.30 Girlies 9.00 Quote:
Unquote 9.30 Coming Alive
10.00 Personal History of
David Copperfield 11.00
Desert Island Discs 11.45
David Attenborough’s Life
Stories 12.00 The Burkiss Way
12.30pm Girlies 1.00 Lord
Peter Wimsey: Have His
Carcase 1.30 Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 2.00 Buzz 2.15
Five Fever Tales 2.30 The
Botanical Vicar 3.00 Personal
History of David Copperfield

7.30am Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs
1.00pm Craig Charles
4.00 Steve Lamacq 6.00
Roundtable 7.00 Marc
Riley 9.00 Tom Robinson
12.00 New Music Fix
1.00am New Music Fix

Virgin Radio
Digital only

6.30am Chris Evans 10.00
Eddy Temple-Morris 1.00pm
Jayne Middlemiss 4.00 Steve
Denyer 7.00 Bam 10.00
Amy Voce 1.00am Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

6.00am Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00
Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00pm
John Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics 10.00 Margherita
Taylor 1.00am Bill Overton
4.00 Early Breakfast

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

48 saturday review

Friday 4 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
They Were Ten
All4
Walter Presents serves up an
atmospheric, if soapy, French
reimagining of the Agatha
Christie thriller And Then
There Were None, transposed
to the sultry heat of the West
Indies. Christie’s original island
off the Devon coast is
replaced by a remote
Caribbean spot reachable
only by plane. A group of
unlikeable strangers arrives,
all summoned by a
mysterious figure yet to show
himself and greeted by a
housekeeper who is similarly
in the dark. The Green
Paradise Hotel has seen better
days and the skeleton staff
aren’t much inspired to hide it.
The unease spreads like a
tropical disease, guests
loosening collars and
running fingers over dusty
bedsteads. Then the real
horror begins: the wi-fi goes
down. As the characters argue
among themselves, one thinks
they’re being filmed for a

reality show and another
sneaks off to his helicopter
hoping to make a
surreptitious break for it.
Needless to say, all efforts to
escape prove futile as an
unseen evil takes hold. Only
they don’t stay unseen for
long, which does undermine
the tension somewhat, even
if they are cloaked and
faceless. If you know the
story (which, given it’s one of
the bestselling books of all
time, a lot of people do), you
can still have fun guessing
which modern replacement
has been cast in the role
of the crazed killer. The
overall dramatic effect isn’t
dissimilar to an episode of
Death in Paradise, but with
poorer local facilities and a
much higher body count.
When Mathieu Demy shows
up as the grizzled detective
with a puzzle to solve, it gets
more interesting.
Julia Raeside

The Fabulous

Lies, Politics
and Democracy

Netflix
This glossy, escapist new
K-drama is set in the world of
high fashion. A winsome bunch
of radiant youngsters go about
their crazy city lives, fancying
each other, flapping backstage
at catwalk shows and generally
camping it up in nifty outfits.
Choi Min-ho takes time off boy
band duties to star as the
heart-throb photographer and
Chae Soo-bin is the screwy
fashion assistant who can’t
keep away from him. It’s ten
kinds of fun, and special
mention should go to Lee
Sang-woon as the wonderfully
dramatic designer Joseph,
trying to distance himself from
his humble beginnings while
fending off vengeful models. JR

Catch
up
Karen Pirie
ITV Hub/Britbox
DS Karen Pirie (Lauren
Lyle, right), the titular
heroine of Val
McDermid’s crime
novels, emerges on to
the screen fully
formed in Emer
Kenny’s excellent
three-part
adaptation. Pirie
is called in to
investigate a cold
case — the murder
of Rosie Duff,
a 19-year-old
barmaid, in the
university town of St

PBS America, 8.30pm
Here we get chapter and verse
on Donald Trump’s journey
through American democracy,
lighting fires wherever he went.
It begins with a montage of US
election concession speeches
before cutting to Trump’s
matter-of-fact, “Frankly, we did
win this election” after Biden’s
2020 win. It’s the phrase that
went on to spark insurrection.
Not everyone’s blood pressure
will be up to this sustained
reminder of Trump’s Twitter
rage. Most concerning of all is
the Republican Party’s
subsequent courting of him
before the imminent midterm
elections. Truly chilling. JR
Andrews in 1996. Found at the
scene are three drunken
students — a history scholar, an
artist and a trainee doctor.
The three young men are
covered in her blood and
claim to have stumbled
on her on the way back
f
from
a party. Twentyfive years later Rosie’s
murder remains
unsolved, but it
has become the
subject of a
podcast, which
leads to the
investigation
being
reopened. Lyle,
while not the
“wee fat woman”
of McDermid’s
description, is
brilliant in the
title role. Joe Clay

We Are England:
A Home Without
Bills?
BBC1, 7.30pm
The enterprising friends Scott
and Cameron are singlehandedly rehabilitating the
tarnished image of grasping
landlords with their mission to
lower energy costs for their
Birmingham tenants. They plan
to refurbish a row of properties
in the city’s Gravelly Hill area,
installing air-source heat
pumps and ecologically sound
insulation. They visit the Zero
Carbon House in Balsall Heath,
where the owners have
reduced their running costs to
nothing: the house actually
creates energy instead. JR

DNA Journey
ITV, 9pm
The Gavin and Stacey co-stars
Larry Lamb and Alison
Steadman travel to Barry
Island to begin their own Who
Do You Think You (Two) Are?
journey, but it turns out
neither of them has much
Welsh blood in them. Their
genetic mystery tour stops off
in London’s East End, where
Lamb’s ancestors arrived
having fled the Irish potato
famine. But things take a
dramatic turn towards the Isle
of Man when Steadman’s
ancestral tree reveals a
surprise branch. Her story
takes over as a truly dramatic
revelation about her kinsfolk
provokes an understandably
emotional reaction. JR

Films of the day
Booksmart (15, 2019)
BBC3, 9.30pm

Up there with Mean Girls, Superbad, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
and other Hollywood high-school classics, this directorial debut
from the actress Olivia Wilde (her latest film, Don’t Worry Darling,
starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, is in cinemas now) is
witty, raucous, perfectly played and packs an emotional wallop.
Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are Molly and Amy, two goalobsessed bookworms who, on the eve of high-school graduation,
realise that they have no, in the words of Molly, “seminal fun
anecdotes”. Cue one archetypal wild and wacky night (accidental
LSD consumption, car chases, the usual), only the dramatic twist
here is that all the events illuminate the fractures in Amy and
Molly’s relationship as well as the bonds. (102min) Kevin Maher

Regional programmes
● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

7.30pm-8.00 Full House 9.30-10.00 The
Tuckers 11.30 Live from Barry Island (r)
12.00-1.15am RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 3.30pm
Snowdonia: A Year on the Farm (r)
4.00-4.30 Weatherman Walking:
The Welsh Coast. From Abersoch to
Pwllheli on the Llyn Peninsula (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
6.55pm-7.00 Party Political Broadcast.
On behalf of Sinn Fein 7.30-8.00 Paula
McIntyre’s Hamely Kitchen 10.40 The
Blame Game 11.10 The Graham Norton
Show 12.00 RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (r)
1.15am Mood 2.00-6.00 BBC News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
7.30pm Live Friday Night Football: Larne
v Crusaders (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00-10.30
Cliona & Simon: From This Moment
On (r) 11.05-11.35 Mock the Week
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
11.15am-12.15pm Homes Under the
Hammer (r) 7.30-8.00 Landward (r) 11.30
A View from the Terrace (r) 12.30am
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (r) 1.45 Weather
for the Week Ahead 1.50-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except:
7.00-7.30pm Coast & Country. Sean
Fletcher and Ruth Dosworth explore
sustainability in the Brecon Beacons

● STV As ITV except:

7.00pm-7.30
Scotland’s Stories: Let’s Talk About
Trauma 9.00-10.10 STV Children’s Appeal
2022 10.45-10.55 STV News 3.00am-3.15
Unwind with STV 5.45-6.00 Unwind
● UTV As ITV except: 6.25pm-6.30 Party
Political Broadcast 7.00-7.30 UTV Life
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.30
Live Sportscene: Cove Rangers v Queen’s
Park (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 Still Game (r)
10.30 A View from the Terrace
11.30-Midnight Rip It Up Unwrapped (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 10.20 Guto Gwningen
(r) 10.35 Bach a Mawr (r) 10.50 Byd
Tad-Cu (r) 11.00 Sali Mali (r) 11.05 Gwdihw
(r) 11.20 Awyr Iach (r) 11.35 Sion y Chef (r)
11.50 Nos Da Cyw (r) 12.00 News 12.05pm
Cymru, Dad a Fi (r) 12.30 Heno (r) 1.00
Cymry ar Gynfas (r) 1.30 Pobl a’u Gerddi
(r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00
News 3.05 Y Fets (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr:
Cywion Bach (r) 4.05 Ty Mêl (r) 4.15 Deian
a Loli (r) 4.30 Octonots (r) 4.45 Sbarc (r)
5.00 Stwnsh: Kung Fu Panda (r) 5.25
Siwrne Ni (r) 5.30 Bwystfil (r) 5.40 Rygbi
Pawb (r) 5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00 Y Sioe Fwyd
(r) 6.30 Ar Werth (r) 6.57 News 7.00
Noson Gomedi: Dathu 40 7.30 News 8.00
Noson Gomedi: Dathu 40 10.00 Plant y
Sianel (r) 11.00-12.05am Dal y Mellt (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (12, 2008)
BBC2, 11.55pm

A child’s-eye view of the Holocaust, this family film is likely to
trigger big questions from younger viewers. Mark Herman
wrote and directed the adaptation of John Boyne’s novel. Bruno
(Asa Butterfield, now in the Netflix hit Sex Education), the son of a
high-ranking Nazi, has so far been shielded from the realities of
what his father’s job entails. When the family are relocated from
Berlin to a house next to what Bruno assumes is a farm, he eagerly
makes friends with a little boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) on
the other side of a wire fence. It’s a little trite, but the ending is
devastating. David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga play Bruno’s parents;
Rupert Friend is chilling as the Nazi bully Lieutenant Kotler.
(94min) Wendy Ide

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 49

Friday 4

TV newsletter

Sign up to our TV bulletin offering the best TV and film tips, direct to your inbox every
Friday. The newsletter covers the TV Editor’s pick of box sets to stream, along with
tips on the best programmes and films around. To start receiving it, digital subscribers
can go to thetimes.co.uk/bulletins and tick the box next to “Television”.

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live
10.00 Critical Incident 10.45 Dirty
Rotten Scammers (r) 11.15 Homes
Under the Hammer (r) 12.15pm
Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News at One;
Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News;
Weather 1.45 Doctors. Scarlett forgets
Brian’s birthday and Ruhma prepares
to go on her first date 2.15 Money for
Nothing. JJ Chalmers is at Dunbar
recycling centre on Scotland’s east
coast 3.00 I Escaped to the Country.
Sonali Shah heads to the West
Country to visit former house
hunters. Last in the series 3.45 The
Repair Shop. Jay Blades and the team
restore a trusty yet rusty tricycle 4.30
The Travelling Auctioneers 5.15
Pointless. Quiz show (r) 6.00 BBC
News at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC
Regional News; Weather

6.00am Take a Hike (r) 6.30 The
Repair Shop (r) 7.15 I Escaped to the
Country (r) 8.00 Sign Zone: The
Repair Shop: A Royal Visit (r) (SL) 9.00
BBC News 10.00 Politics UK 10.45
Live Wheelchair Rugby League World
Cup: France v Wales. Coverage of the
first of today’s two Group B fixtures
from The English Institute of Sport in
Sheffield (Kick-off 11.00) 1.00pm Live
Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup.
Scotland v USA. All the action from
today’s concluding Group B fixture
from The English Institute of Sport in
Sheffield (Kick-off 1.30) 3.30 Mountain
Vets (r) 4.30 Murder, Mystery and My
Family: Case Closed? (r) 5.15 Flog It! (r)
6.00 Richard Osman’s House of
Games. Sian Gibson, Jean Johansson,
Iain Stirling and Rav Wilding test their
skills 6.30 Strictly: It Takes Two

6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30pm
Loose Women. Celebrity interviews
and topical debate from a female
perspective 1.30 ITV News; Weather
1.55 Regional News; Weather 2.00
Dickinson’s Real Deal. David Dickinson
is in Burton, with his dealers Mark
Stevens, Henry Nicolls, Stuart
Hofgartner and Tim Hogarth 3.00
Riddiculous. Quiz hosted by Ranvir
Singh in which a group of contestants
take on Riddlemaster Henry Lewis
4.00 Tipping Point. Ben Shephard
hosts the arcade-themed quiz in
which contestants drop tokens down
a choice of four chutes in the hope of
winning a £10,000 jackpot 5.00 The
Chase. Quiz show hosted by Bradley
Walsh 6.00 Regional News; Weather
6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.05am Countdown (r) 6.45 Cheers (r)
7.10 Cheers (r) 7.35 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.00 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.25 Everybody Loves
Raymond (r) 8.55 Frasier (r) 9.30
Frasier (r) 10.00 Frasier (r) 10.30
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA (r)
11.25 Channel 4 News Summary 11.30
Château DIY (r) 12.30pm Steph’s
Packed Lunch 2.10 Countdown 3.00 A
Place in the Sun. Danni Menzies helps
a woman find a holiday home in
Puglia, Italy (r) 4.00 Sun, Sea and
Selling Houses. A look at how some
property purchases have worked out
(r) 5.00 Four in a Bed (r) 5.30 Come
Dine with Me. This week’s final host in
and around Manchester is business
developer Nick 6.00 The Simpsons
6.30 Hollyoaks. A furious Leela is set
on confronting Nadira (r)

6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine
12.45pm Shoplifters & Scammers: At
War with the Law. Methods used to
thwart criminals targeting shops (r)
1.40 5 News at Lunchtime 1.45 Home
and Away. Ziggy encourages Tane to
be honest with Felicity (r) 2.15 FILM
Every Christmas Has a Story (PG,
TVM, 2016) A television personality
visits the most festive town in
America to repair her image after
admitting she hates Christmas live onair. Romantic comedy starring Lori
Loughlin 4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits in
the Sun. An ex-army officer hosts a
black-tie function for a Benidorm
charity (r) 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00
Parking Hell. The daily battles across
Britain for parking spaces (r) 6.30
Eggheads. The Dead Parrots take on
the quiz experts 6.55 5 News Update

The Repair Shop (3.45pm)

Portsmouth’s Colby Bishop (7.30pm)

Another DNA Journey (9pm)

I Literally Just Told You (10pm)

The King: Elvis Presley (10pm)

7.00 The One Show Alex Jones and
Ronan Keating present the live
magazine show

7.00 Iolo’s Anglesey Iolo Williams
explores the flora and fauna of
Anglesey (2/4)

7.00 Channel 4 News

7.30 We Are England Property
developers who try to keep the
cost of bills down for their
tenants. See Viewing Guide

7.30 Live Match of the Day: The FA
Cup: Hereford v Portsmouth All
the action from the first-round
tie at Edgar Street (Kick-off
7.55). National League North
side Hereford came through
three qualifying rounds to reach
this stage and will now look to
make home advantage count as
they aim to cause an upset.
However, League One outfit
Portsmouth have considerable
pedigree in this competition,
having twice lifted the trophy,
most recently in 2008, and also
reached the final in 2010

7.00 Aldi: Secrets of the Billion
Dollar Discounter How the
German supermarket has
succeeded in the UK,
overcoming industry hostility
and old-fashioned snobbery to
win the public over (r)
7.55 5 News Update

8.00 MasterChef: The Professionals
The strongest chefs from the
first two heats return for the
opening quarter-final, and the
Invention Test forces them to
think on their feet and create a
stand-out brunch dish
9.00 Have I Got News for You
With Maisie Adam and
Richard Madeley (7/7)
9.30 Peter Kay’s Stand-Up Comedy
Shuffle The stand-up comedian
relives his finest career
moments (2/3) (r)
10.00BBC News at Ten

10.30 BBC Regional News
10.40 The Graham Norton Show
Graham is joined by Paul
Mescal, Michaela Coel, Winston
Duke, Emma Corrin and
Richard Ayoade, and there is
music by Loyle Carner
11.30 RuPaul’s Drag Race UK It is the
return of the makeover
challenge as the queens share
the art of drag with six special
makeover subjects. Boy George
and US Drag Race star Raven
join the fun (7/10) (r)

12.40am Weather for the Week Ahead
12.45 BBC News. The latest headlines

10.00Mock the Week Last ever
episode of the topical comedy
panel show (8/8)
10.30 Newsnight Headline analysis
with Faisal Islam

11.05 Frankie Boyle’s New World
Order The comedian tries to
make sense of the world (r)
11.35 FILM The Boy in the Striped
Pyjamas (12, 2008) Drama,
with David Thewlis and Asa
Butterfield. See Film Choice
1.05am Sign Zone: Disaster Deniers:
Hunting the Trolls: Panorama. The
disaster trolls who target survivors of
terror attacks (r) (SL) 1.35-2.35 Our
Dementia Choir Sings Again with
Vicky McClure. Vicky reunites her
singers for a charity single (r) (SL)

7.30 Emmerdale Dawn is suspicious
and Matty is concerned

7.30 Unreported World Sahar Zand
examines the darker side of
sumo wrestling

8.00 Coronation Street Summer’s
deceit fuels Billy’s fears for her
health, Hope betrays Sam’s
confidence, and Adam attempts
to succeed where Daniel fails

8.00 The Great British Bake Off:
An Extra Slice Joe Wilkinson,
Judi Love and Maisie Adam
discuss Pastry Week, and
Tom Allen judges the bakes
brought along by the brave
studio audience (8/10)

8.00 Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out
The presenter heads to the
dramatic, yet charming coast
of Northern Ireland, beginning
at Glenariff — one of the nine
Glens of Antrim, stretching
over 270 square miles (3/5);
followed by 5 News Update

9.00 DNA Journey Actors Larry
Lamb and Alison Steadman
embark on a road trip to
investigate their respective
family histories using a mix of
DNA and genealogy.
See Viewing Guide (4/4)

9.00 Gogglebox The armchair critics
share their opinions on what
they have been watching
during the week, with cameras
capturing their instant reactions

9.00 Building the Impossible Rob
Bell journeys along the length
of the Panama Canal to learn
how the seemingly
unconquerable isthmus was
bent to the will and skill of
determined engineers

10.00I Literally Just Told You Jimmy
Carr hosts this game show in
which contestants are given
every answer with the
questions written, literally, as
the show is happening

10.00Elvis: The Man That Rocked
the World Documenting Elvis’
rise to global success and the
groundbreaking impact of his
early hit Heartbreak Hotel (r)

10.10 ITV News at Ten; followed by
Weather
10.45 Regional News; followed by
Regional Weather
10.55 The NFL Show Laura Woods is
joined by Osi Umenyiora and
Jason Bell to present action
from the opening match of
week nine between Houston
Texans and Philadelphia Eagles
11.50 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Celebrity Special With Jo Brand
and Dan Walker (r)
12.40am Teleshopping 3.00 Unwind
with ITV. Daily relaxation 3.15 Live
Women’s World Cup Rugby Union.
David Flatman presents coverage of
the opening semi-final (Kick-off 3.30),
which comes from Eden Park in
Auckland 5.45 Unwind with ITV

11.05 Father Ted Bishop Brennan
faces his worst fear (6/10) (r)
11.40 Father Ted Dougal and Ted
write a song for entry in a
singing competition (5/10) (r)
12.10am Father Ted (r) 12.40 Father
Ted (r) 1.10 FILM The Festival (15,
2018) Comedy starring Joe Thomas
2.50 Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
USA (r) 3.35 Come Dine with Me (r)
5.45 Drawers Off: The Big Naked
Painting Challenge (r)

12.05am 70s Greatest Heart-Throbs
(r) 1.00 The LeoVegas Live Casino
Show 3.00 Entertainment News on 5
3.05 Diet Secrets & How to Lose
Weight (r) 3.55 The Hotel Inspector
(r) 4.40 House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.05
House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.35 Milkshake!

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

550 saturday review

Astrid: Murder
in Paris

Friday 4 | Primetime digital guide

Sara Mortensen and
Lola Dewaere star
More4, 9pm

FV Freeview FS Freesat

TalkTV

BBC3

BBC4

More 4

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries

FV 237, FS 217, SKY 526, VIRGIN 606

FV 23, FS 179, SKY 117, VIRGIN 107

FV 9/24, FS 173, SKY 116, VIRGIN 108

FV 18, FS 124, SKY 136, VIRGIN 147

SKY 108

SKY 121, VIRGIN 278

6.00am James Max An initial
insight into the day’s news
from across the globe
6.30 Jeremy Kyle Fiery political
panel debates, and all the
latest from Parliament
10.00 The Independent Republic
of Mike Graham The
presenter looks through
the morning newspapers
1.00pm Ian Collins Hard-hitting
monologues, debates and
dedicated time for your calls
4.00 Vanessa Feltz Stories of the
day from politics, current
affairs and showbiz
7.00 Plank of the Week
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
Best Of The host presents
his verdict on the week’s
global events
9.00 The Talk Sharon Osbourne
and a panel of famous faces
debate the latest hot topics
10.00 First Edition
11.00-12.00m’t Piers Morgan
Uncensored Best Of

7.00pm The Catch Up
7.05 Live Men’s Rugby League
World Cup The opening
quarter-final (Kick-off 7.30).
All the action from John
Smith’s Stadium in
Huddersfield
9.30 FILM Booksmart (15, 2019)
On the eve of their
high-school graduation, two
academic superstars and
best friends realise they
should have worked less
and played more. Comedy
starring Kaitlyn Dever.
See Film Choice
11.05 Angels of the North Shane
steps up as uncle when Jade
needs a babysitter for
Alayah. Bev steps back as
Sammyjo feels ready to be
in control, and Jade gets a
very special tattoo (5/10)
11.35-12.05am Angels of the North
Sammyjo is still looking for
true love, while John opens
up to Shane (6/10)

7.00pm Top of the Pops Featuring
Jean-Michel Jarre, INXS,
Meat Loaf and Chris Rea
7.30 Top of the Pops Featuring
Bryan Adams, Bjork, David
Hasselhoff and David Arnold
8.00 Top of the Pops With ABC,
Donna Summer, Elton John,
Status Quo and Madness
8.30 Top of the Pops Featuring
Bon Jovi, Red Box and
Swing Out Sister
9.00 Don McLean and Friends in
Concert Don McLean
performs in his first
television special from 1979
10.00 Classic Albums: American
Pie: Don McLean
Celebrating the singersongwriter’s 1971 release
11.00 Sounds for Saturday: Don
McLean The singer in a
concert performance from
the classic BBC music series
11.30-12.30am Can You Feel It:
How Dance Music
Conquered the World

6.55pm Escape to the Château:
DIY Tim races to get his
chateau ready for the first
paying guests, battling to
get a fence built for a
marauding flock of 25
sheep, while partner Krys
tries to balance the books
7.55 Grand Designs Kevin
McCloud follows a former
blacksmith who has devised
his own way of building a
house, which should allow
him to assemble his home in
just seven days
9.00 Astrid: Murder in Paris
A palaeontologist described
as an oddball by colleagues
is found dead
10.05 24 Hours in A&E A woman is
airlifted to hospital after
being involved in a road
traffic collision (2/12)
11.15-12.15am 24 Hours in A&E
A 30-year-old sustains a
potentially life-threatening
wound during a game

6.50pm True Blood Sookie
suspects Sam is the serial
killer, but he insists he is not
and shares his secret with
her. Elsewhere, Bill waits for
the Magister to decide how
he should be punished for
killing Longshadow (R)
7.55 Game of Thrones Tyrion
seeks a new, strange ally,
and Brienne goes on a
mission while Arya is given
a chance to prove herself.
Elsewhere, Bran learns a
great deal (R)
9.00 Babylon Berlin Rath takes
part in a risky experiment
and brutal gang war breaks
out in Berlin (7/12) (R)
10.05 Babylon Berlin As Widow
Behnke kicks off her high
stakes rescue plan, Stennes
instigates a hall battle in the
‘Moka Efti’ and Charlotte
makes a secret observation.
In German (8/12) (R)
11.10-12.40am This England

7.00pm The Lady and the Dale
Liz is exposed by a true
crime TV show (4/4) (R)
8.00 The Sixties Martin Luther
King Jr and the civil rights
movement (5/10) (R)
9.00 FILM McQueen (15, 2018)
Documentary charting the
life of fashion designer
Alexander McQueen
through a combination of
footage and interviewees
including Kate Moss, Jodie
Kidd and Tom Ford
11.00-12.45am FILM Foreman (PG,
2017) The career of boxer
George Foreman, initially
most famous for decimating
Joe Frazier in the ring
before being outwitted by
Muhammad Ali in 1974’s
Rumble in the Jungle. Later,
he found christianity before
making a comeback in his
mid-forties while also
becoming a spokesman for
a successful grill company

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

E4

Dave

Drama

FV 6, FS 113, SKY 118, VIRGIN 115

FV 10, FS 115, SKY 119, VIRGIN 117

FV 26, FS 117, SKY 120, VIRGIN 118

FV 13, FS 122, SKY 135, VIRGIN 106

FV 19, FS 157, SKY 111

FV 20, FS 158, SKY 143, VIRGIN 130

7.00pm Dress to Impress
8.00 Bob’s Burgers Bob and
Louise host a screening of a
Hawk & Chick movie
8.30 Bob’s Burgers
9.00 FILM Ride Along 2 (12, 2016)
An excitable beat cop is reluctantly
recruited by his fiancee’s detective
brother to help bring a drug dealer
to justice. Comedy sequel starring
Ice Cube and Kevin Hart
11.05 Family Guy
11.35 Family Guy
12.00-12.30am American Dad!

6.30pm ITV Racing: Breeders’ Cup
Ed Chamberlin presents coverage
of day one at Del Mar Racecourse
in Lexington, Kentucky
10.15-12.25am Foyle’s War Foyle
responds to complaints of
sabotage at an RAF burns hospital
and uncovers adultery and murder
within the medical unit. As the hunt
for the guilty party intensifies, the
detective discovers his son Andrew
could be a suspect and is shocked
when he hears he has been
reported missing from his barracks

6.45pm Live Snooker: Champion
of Champions Jill Douglas presents
coverage of the opening semi-final
on day five from the University of
Bolton Stadium, played over the
best of 11 frames. Eventual
champion Judd Trump’s dominant
form continued at this stage last
year with a 6-0 victory over Kyren
Wilson, meaning he had reached
the final while dropping just one
frame in his three contests
10.15-12.20am All Elite Wrestling:
Dynamite Hard-hitting action

7.00pm Hollyoaks Maxine,
Theresa, Verity and Zoe head to
Liverpool for a night out
7.30 The Big Bang Theory
Howard is torn between
Bernadette and his mother
8.00 Modern Family Claire tries to
find a birthday present for Phil
8.30 Modern Family
9.00 FILM Pitch Perfect 3
(12, 2017) Comedy sequel
starring Anna Kendrick
10.50 Naked Attraction
11.55-1.00am Naked Attraction

7.00pm Richard Osman’s House of
Games With Steve Backshall,
Catherine Bohart and Ranj Singh
7.40 QI XL
8.20 Would I Lie to You? At
Christmas With Henry Blofeld,
Kerry Howard, the Rev Richard
Coles and Clive Myrie
9.00 QI XL With Sara Pascoe, Colin
Lane and Jimmy Carr
10.00 QI XL
10.40 Would I Lie to You?
11.20 Would I Lie to You?
12.00-12.40am Mock the Week

6.35pm Last of the Summer Wine
Clegg keeps a secret for Howard
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine
8.00 Father Brown Efforts are
made to uncover a dark secret at
Helmsley House
9.00 Detectorists
The dark cloud of a solar farm
threatens the tranquillity
9.40 Detectorists Lance is
persuaded to try hypnotherapy
for an awkward affliction
10.20 New Tricks
11.40-1.00am Spooks

Yesterday

PBS America

Smithsonian

Sky Arts

Sky History

Sky Max

FV 27, FS 159, SKY 155, VIRGIN 129

FV 84, FS 155, SKY 174, VIRGIN 273

FV 57, FS 175, SKY 171, VIRGIN 276

FV 11, FS 147, SKY 130, VIRGIN 165

SKY 123, VIRGIN 270

SKY 113, VIRGIN 122

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection A visit to the Ffestiniog
Railway (9/11)
7.30 Fred Dibnah’s Railway
Collection (10/11)
8.00 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean
Escapes Seafood dishes in
Majorca (5/6)
9.00 Bangers and Cash A
collection of Austin Mini Metros
arrive for auction (10/15)
10.00 Bangers and Cash (11/15)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00am Top Gear (7/7)

6.15pm Bat Superpowers
New evidence to suggest bats may
hold the key to a longer and
healthier life in humans
7.20 The First World War The
conflict on the Eastern Front,
where soldiers battled for years in
harsh conditions (5/10)
8.30 Lies, Politics and Democracy
How America’s political leaders
have undermined US democracy.
See Viewing Guide
10.55 The First World War (5/10)
12.00-1.15am Bat Superpowers

7.00pm Tomb Hunters Ancient
Egyptian mummy portraits
8.00 Dinosaur Cold Case One of
the world’s most perfectly
preserved dinosaurs
9.00 Mystery of the Ice Age Giants
Woolly mammoths, from their
origins to their extinction
10.00 Great Lakes Untamed
Spring across America’s Great
Lakes, which creates ice tsunamis
11.00 Dinosaur Cold Case
12.00-1.00am Mystery of the
Ice Age Giants

7.00pm Dolly Parton: Song by
Song The country singer talks
about her songs, beginning with
Coat of Many Colors (1/6)
7.30 Dolly Parton: Song by Song
The singer talks about Jolene, one
of her most famous hits (2/6)
8.00 Video Killed the Radio Star
8.30 Video Killed the Radio Star
9.00 Tina Turner: Live in
Barcelona A 1990 performance
by the singer at the city’s
Olympic Stadium
11.10-12.30am Berlin Live: Editors

7.00pm Forged in Fire
Four bladesmiths are tasked to
forge a Zande spear
8.00 Storage Wars
8.30 Storage Wars
9.00 Vikings Prince Igor receives a
hero’s welcome in Novgorod
10.00 Beyond the Myth: The SS
Unveiled The Waffen-SS, a military
elite intended to attract the best
German soldiers (4/6)
11.00 The UnXplained with
William Shatner
12.00-1.15am Ivan the Terrible

7.00pm Stargate SG-1
8.00 Jamie and Harry’s World Cup
Challenge: Got, Got, Need A
challenge to meet as many World
Cup stars as possible
9.00 Resident Alien Harry
and Asta find out about the
origins of Goliath (12/16)
10.00 Fantasy Football League
With Jennifer Saunders
10.30 Banshee Return of the
drama, with Antony Starr (1/10)
11.30-12.15am Never Mind the
Buzzcocks With Johnny Borrell

Discovery

Nat Geographic

Sky Comedy

Comedy Central

Gold

W

SKY 125, VIRGIN 250

SKY 129, VIRGIN 266, BT 351

SKY 114, VIRGIN 135, BT 346

SKY 112, VIRGIN 181, BT 344

SKY 110, VIRGIN 124

FV 25, FS 156, SKY 132

7.00pm Junkyard Empire
8.00 Gold Rush
9.00 Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch
10.00 Mountain Monsters Buck
realizes that a legendary monster
has migrated to the Tygart Valley
11.00 Naked and Afraid
12.00-1.00am Paranormal
Declassified Documentary

7.00pm Air Crash Investigation
8.00 Ultimate Space Telescope
9.00 Built for Mars: The
Perseverance Rover Documentary
exploring the creation of a robot
designed to explore Mars
10.00 Air Crash Investigation
11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00-1.00am Paranatural (9/10)

7.00pm Everybody Hates Chris
7.30 The Office (US)
9.00 Miracle Workers: Dark Ages
10.00 Late Late Show Best of the
Week Highlights of the talk show
11.00 The Late Late Show with
James Corden
12.00-1.00am The Tonight Show
Starring Jimmy Fallon

7.00pm Friends
7.30 Friends
8.00 Friends
8.30 Friends
9.00 FILM The Wedding Ringer
(15, 2015) Comedy with Josh Gad
11.00 South Park
11.30 South Park
12.00-12.30am South Park

6.40pm Dad’s Army Jones’s
reputation is called into question
7.20 Dad’s Army
8.00 The Vicar of Dibley
8.40 The Vicar of Dibley
9.20 The Royle Family
10.00 Porridge
10.40 Live at the Apollo
11.40-12.20am Bottom

7.00pm Junior MasterChef
Australia The contestants must
cook along with judge Andy
8.00 999 Rescue Squad
9.00 Inside the Ambulance
10.00 The Catherine Tate Show
10.40 The Catherine Tate Show
11.20 The Catherine Tate Show
12.00-1.00am Nurses on the Ward

Sky Main Event

Sky Premier League

Sky Cricket

BT Sport 1

BT Sport 2

SKY 401, VIRGIN 511, BT 440

SKY 402, VIRGIN 512

SKY 404, VIRGIN 514

SKY 413, VIRGIN 527, BT 430

SKY 414, VIRGIN 528, BT 431

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: New Zealand v Ireland
Coverage from Adelaide Oval
7.30 Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Australia v Afghanistan
Coverage of the Super 12 Group
One encounter from Adelaide Oval
12.00-4.00pm Live Challenge
Tour Golf The Rolex Challenge
Tour Grand Final
7.00pm Sky Sports News
7.30 Live EFL: Reading v Preston
North End (Kick-off 8.00)
10.30-12.00m’t Sky Sports News

7.00pm Premier League Preview
7.30 Premier League:
The Big Interview
8.00 Premier League Stories
8.30 Gary Neville’s Soccerbox
The presenter talks to Thierry
Henry about matches they
faced each other in
9.00 Premier League Preview
9.30 Premier League:
The Big Interview
10.00 Premier League Stories
Behind the scenes of the top flight
10.30-12.30am PL Retro

6.00am Live ICC Men’s T20
World Cup: New Zealand v
Ireland Coverage of the
Super 12 Group One fixture,
held at Adelaide Oval
7.30 Live ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup: Australia v Afghanistan
Coverage of the Super 12 Group
One encounter from Adelaide Oval,
as the reigning champions take on
a side that have been steadily
climbing the T20 rankings
6.00pm-12.00m’t ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Highlights

8.45-10.45am Live Isuzu UTE
A-League: Melbourne Victory v
Newcastle Jets (Kick-off 8.45)
1.30-3.30pm Live Hockey: India v
New Zealand (Push-back 1.40)
7.00 Live Gallagher Premiership
Rugby Union: Northampton Saints
v Exeter Chiefs (Kick-off 7.45)
10.00 WWE NXT Highlights
11.00 Joe Cole Cast
11.30 MotoGP: ICYMI
11.45 Baseball Today in the UK
12.00-4.00am Live MLB
Game six of the World Series

8.00-3.00pm Live MotoGP
Coverage of the opening free
practice sessions of the Grand
Prix of Valencia
7.00pm Inside Serie A
7.30 Live Serie A: Udinese v
Lecce (Kick-off 7.45). Coverage
of the Italian top-flight match
from Dacia Arena
9.45 MotoGP: ICYMI
10.00 Live Hockey: Belgium v
Germany (Push-back 10.10)
12.00-2.00am Live WWE Friday
Night SmackDown

Henry Slade of Exeter Chiefs
is set to face Northampton
Saints (BT Sport 1, 7pm)

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 51

Friday 4
Film guide

Radio guide

Film4

Times Radio

FV 14 FS 300 SKY 313 VIRGIN 428

11.00am Dead Reckoning (U,
1947) Murder mystery
starring Humphrey Bogart
1.05pm The Blue Dahlia (PG,
1946) Thriller starring Alan
Ladd and Veronica Lake
3.10 Apache Drums (U, 1951)
Western starring Stephen
McNally and Willard Parker
4.45 Timberjack (U, 1954)
Western starring Sterling
Hayden and David Brian
6.35 Made in America (12,
1993) Romantic comedy
starring Whoopi Goldberg
and Ted Danson
9.00-12.05am Le Mans ’66
(12, 2019) Fact-based drama
starring Matt Damon
and Christian Bale

Talking Pictures TV
FV 82 FS 306 SKY 328 VIRGIN 445

6.00am The Mysterious Mr
Davis (U, 1939) Comedy
starring Henry Kendall
7.10 Recoil (PG, 1953) Crime
drama starring Elizabeth
Sellars and Kieron Moore
8.40 Home and Away (U,
1956) Comedy starring Jack
Warner and Thora Hird
10.20 Old Mother Riley, MP
(U, 1939) Comedy with Arthur
Lucan and Kitty McShane
11.50 Personal Column (PG,
1947) Murder mystery
starring Lucille Ball
1.55pm Gentleman’s
Agreement (U, 1947) Drama
starring Gregory Peck
4.15 Look at Life
4.25 Up the Creek (U, 1958)
Comedy starring Peter Sellers
6.05 Our Miss Fred (PG, 1972)
Second World War comedy
starring Danny La Rue
8.00 The Outer Limits
9.00 Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro
9.05 A Reflection of Fear
(18, 1972) Thriller starring
Robert Shaw and Mary Ure
10.50 Cellar Club with
Caroline Munro
10.55-12.15am Cry of the
Werewolf (PG, 1943)
Horror starring Nina Foch
and Stephen Crance

GREAT! Movies
FV 34 FS 302 SKY 321 VIRGIN 425

9.00am Accidental Switch
(2016) Drama starring Jamie
Luner and Steven Brand
10.50 GREAT! Movie News
11.00 Deadly Vows (2017)
Crime drama starring
Brittany Underwood
12.50pm GREAT! Movie News
1.00 The Perfect Stalker (12,
2016) Thriller with Danielle
Savre and Jefferson Brown
2.50 A Focus to Kill (12, 2018)
Thriller starring Linsey
Godfrey and Tilky Jones
4.35 GREAT! Movie News
4.45 Tomorrow We Live (U,
1943) Second World War
adventure starring John
Clements and Greta Gynt

Digital, web, smart speaker, app

Jared Leto stars in Morbius
(Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm)

5.00am Anna Cunningham
with Early Breakfast 6.00
Chloe Tilley and Calum
Macdonald with Times Radio
Breakfast 10.00 Matt Chorley
1.00pm Ruth Davidson 4.00
Cathy Newman with Times
Radio Drive 7.00 Friday
Evening on Times Radio.
Cultured conversation 10.00
Henry Bonsu 1.00am Stories of
Our Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00
Highlights from Times Radio

Radio 2
6.25 Silverado (PG, 1985)
Western drama with Kevin
Kline and Kevin Costner
9.00 Ned Kelly (15, 2003)
Outlaw adventure with Heath
Ledger and Orlando Bloom
11.10-1.20am Seraphim
Falls (15, 2006) Western
thriller starring Pierce
Brosnan and Liam Neeson

TCM Movies
SKY 315 VIRGIN 415

6.00am Hollywood’s
Best Film Directors
7.10 Off Set
7.25 Cheyenne
9.35 Cattle Drive (U, 1951)
Western starring Joel McCrea
11.15 Cheyenne
1.30pm Three Violent People
(PG, 1956) Western drama
starring Charlton Heston
3.35 Hired Gun (U, 1957)
Western starring Rory
Calhoun and Anne Francis
4.55 Code Name: Emerald
(PG, 1985) Second World War
spy adventure starring Ed
Harris and Max von Sydow
6.55 The Fighting Kentuckian
(U, 1949) Western drama
starring John Wayne
9.00 USS Indianapolis: Men
of Courage (15, 2016)
Fact-based Second World War
drama starring Nicolas Cage
11.45-1.45am Hallowe’en III:
Season of the Witch (15, 1982)
Horror starring Tom Atkins

Sky Cinema Premiere
SKY 301 VIRGIN 401

12.25pm Morbius (15, 2022)
Comic-book adventure
starring Jared Leto
2.25 The Immaculate Room
(15, 2022) Thriller with Emile
Hirsch and Kate Bosworth
4.15 Wolf (15, 2021) Drama
starring George MacKay
6.00 The Lost City (12,
2022) Adventure comedy
starring Sandra Bullock
and Channing Tatum
8.00 Morbius (15, 2022)
Comic-book adventure
starring Jared Leto
10.00 Umma (15, 2022)
Horror starring Sandra
Oh and Fivel Stewart
11.40-1.30am The
Immaculate Room (15,
2022) Thriller starring Emile
Hirsch and Kate Bosworth

FM: 88-90.2 MHz

6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast
Show 9.30 Ken Bruce 12.00
Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott
Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 7.00
Michelle Visage 8.30 Michelle
Visage’s Handbag Hits 9.00
The Good Groove with DJ
Spoony 11.00 The Rock Show
with Johnnie Walker 12.00
Romesh Ranganathan: For the
Love of Hip-Hop 1.00am TBA
3.00 Radio 2 Unwinds with
Angela Griffin (r) 4.00 Sophie
Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco

Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz

6.30am Breakfast
9.00 Essential Classics
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Coleridge-Taylor The story of
the composer’s final moments
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert Chamber music
performed by the Heath
Quartet and pianist Tom Poster
at Maida Vale studios. Haydn
(String Quartet Op 20 no. 4 in
D) and Faure (Piano Quartet
No.1 in C minor Op.15) (r)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Strauss II (Thunder and
Lighting Polka, Op.324);
Debussy (Reflets dans L’eau);
Schumann (3 Romances);
Saint-Saëns (Piano Concerto
No. 2 in G minor, op. 22);
Handel (Israel in Egypt,
HWV54 — Moses’ Song) and
Poulenc (Sinfonietta, FP 141)
4.30 The Listening Service (r)
5.00 In Tune
7.00 In Tune Mixtape An
eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert A
concert from Media City UK
in Salford. Nathaniel Dett
(Magnolia Suite Part Two: No 4
Mammy — World Premiere);
Chevalier de Saint Georges
(Sinfonia concertante in B flat
Op 6 No 2 — UK Premiere);
Julia Perry (Piano Concerto
No 2 — UK Premiere) and
Isaac Hirshow (Shlof mayn
kind — UK Premiere)
10.00 The Verb
10.45 The Essay: Early Music
at the BBC Exploring early
music at the BBC in the 1970s
11.00 Late Junction
1.00am Tearjerker
2.00 Downtime Symphony (r)
3.00 Through the Night

Today’s pick
Why Do We Do That?
Radio 4, 2.45pm
In the first part of her
new podcast series the
anthropologist Ella AlShamahi, right, examines why
we do things that are bad for
us. Rather than blaming
ourselves, or the people who
brought us up, it might be an
idea to look at our ancestors,
she says, noting that use of
cannabis has been detected
in Asia from 8000BC and
opium use in Europe from
5100BC. Also featured are the
psychologist Laurence

Steinberg, who discusses our
drive to take risks during
adolescence, and the DJ
Arielle Free, who considers a
theory that we are drawn to
doing risky things when
others watch us. Ben Dowell

Radio 4

Radio 5 Live

FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW: 198 kHz MW: 720 kHz

MW: 693, 909

5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in
Parliament
9.00 Desert Island Discs (r)
9.45 Disaster Trolls
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 Fallout: Living in the
Shadow of the Bomb The
fallout from Britain’s atomic
testing programme
11.30 Beta Female (3/4)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping
12.04 Archive on 4: Our
Archive Century (r)
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Threat to US
Democracy A national
campaign of threats is directed
at election volunteers
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Harland Thriller,
by Lucy Catherine (2/5)
2.45 Why Do We Do That? Ella
Al-Shamahi investigates why
we so often seem to enjoy
risky behaviour. See Choice
3.00 Gardeners’ Question
Time Listeners’ queries
3.45 Short Works New series
4.00 Last Word
4.30 Feedback
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 The Now Show
7.00 The Archers Freddie
offers a listening ear
7.15 Add to Playlist
8.00 Any Questions? A debate
8.50 A Point of View
9.00 Journey of a Lifetime A
former Mormon returns to Salt
Lake City to face her past
9.30 The Truth About
Tourette’s Insights (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
Demon Copperhead By
Barbara Kingsolver (5/15)
11.00 Americast
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Disaster Trolls (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

5.00am The Big Green Money
Show 5.30 Wake Up to Money
6.00 Breakfast 9.00 Nicky
Campbell 11.00 Chiles on
Friday 1.00pm Proper
Football Podcast 1.30 The
Footballers’ Football Podcast
2.00 Elis James and John
Robins 4.00 5 Live Drive 7.00
Friday Football Social 9.00
5 Live Sport 10.00 Stephen
Nolan 1.00am Hayley Hassall

talkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz

5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast with Alan Brazil
10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee
and Jacobs 4.00 Drive
with Andy Goldstein and
Darren Bent 7.00 GameDay
Countdown 10.00 Sports
Bar 1.00am Extra Time

TalkRadio
Digital only

4.30 Sharing Fatman
5.00 The Quanderhorn
Xperimentations 5.30 Now
You’re Asking with Marian
Keyes and Tara Flynn 6.00
The Day of the Triffids 6.30
Musical Genes 7.00 Share
and Share Alike 7.30 A Very
Private Man 8.00 Lord Peter
Wimsey: Have His Carcase
8.30 Brother Cadfael: Dead
Man’s Ransom 9.00 Podcast
Radio Hour 10.00 Comedy
Club: Now You’re Asking with
Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn
10.30 Knowing Me, Knowing
You 11.00 Mark Thomas: The
Manifesto 11.30 James
Acaster’s Perfect Sounds

BBC World Service
Digital only

9.00am 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 Business 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 Business 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 Stumped 3.00 News
3.06 The Fifth Floor 3.50
Witness History 4.00 News
4.06 The Real Story

6 Music

5.00am James Max 6.30
Jeremy Kyle 10.00 The
Independent Republic of Mike
Graham 1.00pm Ian Collins
4.00 Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Plank
of the Week 8.00 Piers
Morgan 9.00 The Talk
10.00 Tom Newton Dunn
11.00 The James Whale Show
1.00am Martin Kelner

7.30am Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs
1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00
Steve Lamacq 7.00 The
People’s Party 9.00 Tom
Ravenscroft 11.00 The Ravers
Hour 12.00 Indie Forever
1.00am Emo Forever

Radio 4 Extra

Virgin Radio

Digital only

Digital only

8.00am Share and Share
Alike 8.30 A Very Private Man
9.00 The Museum of
Curiosity 9.30 Sharing
Fatman 10.00 The Personal
History of David Copperfield
11.00 Podcast Radio Hour
12.00 Share and Share Alike
12.30pm A Very Private Man
1.00 Lord Peter Wimsey: Have
His Carcase 1.30 Brother
Cadfael: Dead Man’s Ransom
2.00 Buzz 2.15 Five Fever
Tales 2.30 The Business of
Film with Mark Kermode
3.00 The Personal History of
David Copperfield 4.00
The Museum of Curiosity

6.30am The Chris Evans
Breakfast Show 10.00 Eddy
Temple-Morris 1.00pm Jayne
Middlemiss 4.00 Steve
Denyer 7.00 Ben Jones
10.00 Stu Elmore
1.00am Emma Nolan

Digital only

Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz

6.00am More Music
Breakfast 9.00 Alexander
Armstrong 12.00 AnneMarie Minhall 5.00pm Pet
Classics 9.00 Smooth
Classics 1.00am Katie
Breathwick 4.00 Sam Pittis

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

552 saturday review

MindGames
Samurai Sudoku No 843 — Hard

Square Routes®
No 189 — Hard
Ian Simpson & Richard Heald

Sudoku No 13,592 — Fiendish

*
*

*
*

*

*
*

Put one letter in each cell so that each word on
the right can be spelt out by moving from cell
to cell without using diagonal moves. You can
use a cell more than once in a word (including
backtracking into a cell you’ve just used), but
double letters (eg, the LL in ALL) must use two
adjacent cells. The words start in the coloured
cells and the vowels are shown by asterisks.

How to solve Sudoku. Fill the grid so that every column,
every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9

Solution on Monday

Stuck on KenKen, Killer or Sudoku?
Call 0901 293 6263 before midnight to receive four clues
for any of today’s puzzles. Calls cost £1 plus your
telephone company’s network access charge.
SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

Answers

Friday’s solutions
KenKen No 5723

Sudoku No 13,589

Sudoku No 13,590

Sudoku No 13,591

Killer No 8564

Killer No 8565

Train Tracks No 1771

Codeword

Killer No 8566 — Deadly

© PUZZLER MEDIA

Solution to last week’s Samurai Sudoku
Our five-grid Sudoku will
test your powers of logic
and deduction — against
the clock.
Fill each grid so that
every column, every row
and every 3x3 box contains
the digits 1 to 9. Where the
puzzles overlap, the rows
and columns do not go beyond their usual length. The
interlocking nature of the
grid gives you more clues
— and more complexity.
Remember — don’t try to
solve each Sudoku grid in
turn; the puzzle has to be
tackled as a whole.
Stuck? Call 0901 293 6263
to receive four clues for
today’s Samurai Sudoku.
Calls cost £1 plus your
telephone company’s
network access charge.
SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390
(Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm)

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every
3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of cells
joined by dotted lines must add up to the target
number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells
joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated.
For solutions to KenKen, Sudoku & Killer see
Times2 on Monday

KenKen No 5724 — Medium

© 2010 KENKEN PUZZLE & TM NEXTOY. DIST. BY UFS, INC. WWW.KENKEN.COM

Tredoku
No 1757 — Medium
Tredoku is similar to Sudoku:
the digits 1 to 9 must appear once
only in each 3x3 box and in each
line of nine consecutive cells.
However, since the puzzle is
three-dimensional, the lines may
be straight or bent around angles.
Follow each line’s direction in
search of clues.

Sudoku/Killer © Puzzler Media
KenKen™ Puzzles are used with permission
of Gakken Co Ltd and Nextoy, LLC
Puzzle content © 2009 Gakken Co Ltd
Tredoku © Mindome Ltd 2009. TREDOKU®
is the registered trademark of Mindome

All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every row and column.
In each thick-line “block”, the target number in the top
left-hand corner is calculated from the digits in all the cells
in the block, using the operation indicated by the symbol.

The Listener
4732
Remembrance
by Alchemist
Extra wordplay
letters in grid
order spelt “TS
Eliot; The Waste
Land (Part Four),
Death by Water;
Pound”. This part
of the poem begins: “Phlebas the Phoenician, a
fortnight dead / Forgot the cry of gulls, and the
deep sea swell / And the profit and loss.” The
puzzle marked the centenary of the poem’s
publication, in The Criterion magazine’s first
issue, October 1922. More details at
listenercrossword.com. The winners are Dr and
Mrs EG Scovell of Faceby, North Yorkshire;
Colin Rae of London SE22; Nigel Gavin of
Orpington, Kent.

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 53

Solve Cryptic Quintagram every weekday online
Go to thetimes.co.uk
Cryptic Quintagram® Word Watch
Solve all five cryptic clues using
David Parfitt
each letter underneath once only

----

2 Awfully drole, hiding dad: he’ll
always be spotted! (7)

Labefaction
a. A choreography
notation
b. Kissing
c. Overthrow, downfall

-------

3 Railing as soldier dropped poodle?
(7)

-------

4 Concerned with endorsements —
one short (3-1-3)

------A

A

A

D

E

E

E

E

I

I

I

L

L

N

O

P

P

P

P

R

R

R

S

S

T

T

U

V

V

Y

1 7
1
5

4
8

1
2 5

2
8
6

5
5
1

8 1
7

1 8 7

6
7

5
6 7

P R I V A T
I
N
I
T U T O R
C
E
S
H E R B I V
D
C
S N E A K Y
U
P
N
P L A T E L
P
R
S
R O T A S
E
M
S P E C I A
S
N
M
O U T R A G
R
A
G
A L B I N
O
N
D I C T A T
D
O
T
S A C R I F
O
O
V
N E A R E S

5
2

0
1
7

0

0
6 7 5
5
2
3
6 3 2
7
5
0
6
1
7
5
3
3
0
8 1
7
1
7
7

2
5 22
5
2
3
8 7 2 6 7 5
0
1
1
1 7
7
6
7
6 7
5
2 5
6
1
1
6 3
2 8 7
6
1
3
2
5
0
7
6 6

7

1

3
1 7

3 7

5
5
2
5 2 6 6
7
2
6
5
7

6 20
7
2
4 8
6
5 3

0

9

2
8

A S
O
O N
G
W
R
R I
T
N E
R
D
C
P O
N
E S
E
E R
V
A
T
P I
V
L E

T E
C U
X
O
I N N K
S
T
A T E R C
A
N G
L I
R
T
M A T O G
P
T H U M B
I
U
T T E R
E
D
S
R E K
C
R
N A L
A
S
F
P H R O D
C
R
G R A M
O
E
P O R T

Mindset 1. (a) is {HO}, (b) is
{ERS}, (c) is {DNU}. Words
are (a) HO, (b) SEER, (c)
DUN, (a+b) HORSE, (a+c)
HOUND, (b+c)
SURRENDER, (a+b+c)
HORRENDOUS.
2. a) 102. Each number is the
previous number plus the
product of its digits. b) 44.
Each number is the previous
number plus the difference in
its digits.
3. (RG, JA), (PB, LK), (CB,
MP), (MG, CC), (JT, ML),
(RG, DS). These are the
initials of the six main
characters in Friends and the
actors who play them.
Word Watch: Harn-pan (a)
The cranium (Chambers).
Labefaction (c) Overthrow,
downfall (OED). Swellhead
(b) A conceited person
(Collins). Steg (c) A gander
(OED).
Polygon euro, insure, inure,

B
U
E
N
O
S
A
I
R
E
S
S
H
I
P
B
U
I
L
D
E
R

Solution to Cryptic
Jumbo 1580
The winner is
Simon Walsh of
Great Bardfield,
Essex

5
7

1
2 5
5
02 1 2
7
9

0
1
7
2 7

6
3
7 9 2 8
5
3
2 9
5
3
1
1
7
6
1
7 5
7 0

E E R
H
M
O
I
P O L Y G
L
L
H
O R O U S
Y
V
P
R E T I
W
R
R
E T
C I
A
M
T
S T A G E
E
S
D
L I S T
E
I
E O U S N
C
S
S
O
E X T
L
A
O R I A L
G
N
M
I C E
E
S
P
N
T
T I T

:

6
6

5

five-letter words. Each word may
have more than one possibility
but there is only one overall
solution.

MOPE QUIP
PLAN VIES
HIDE MACA
Can you find the word that
may be formed by combining
HAUNTED with each of the
following letters?
+E, +H, +W
What are the anagrams of
the following Halloween-themed
words?

MONSTER
– MONTRES and one other

:

:

1

POTIONS
– POSITON and one other

:

SCARIER

:
:

Did you know that the
word PUMPKIN has two back
hooks? The word can not only
be hooked with an S to form
PUMPKINS but also by the
letter G to form PUMPKING (a
programmer with authority to
change the master code source).
There are two hooks for the word
ENCHANT. One is an S back
hook. What is the other?
Use the letters from the word
WICKED to hook the following
words at either end to form valid

5
2
80 3
6
2
1 7

I C L E
A
A
E P E R
E
N
U R S E
R
I S E
U
E
A P H Y
E
E
C R E W
C
I
T O U T
N
N
N D L E
U
S
A C U S
T
S I A C
V
A
J I N N
T
A
A Y A L

:

terrify

0

Answers below
6 6

:

Steg
a. A flat bony plate
b. A Norse epic poem
c. A gander

Answers below
3 2

:
:

:

------A

AIMPRSV

Swellhead
a. A whale species
b. A conceited person
c. Part of a ship’s bow

5 Recording in wet weather: time to
put on fresh coat (7)
A

Here are a number of Halloweenthemed puzzles to solve.
Your opponent has started
with the bonus word TERRIFY.
Can you find the eight-letter
word available in response?

Chess David Howell

– One word
Can you also find the nineletter word from the following set
of letters?

GRIMNEATH
Finally, using the following
racks, can you find the Halloween
bonuses that are playable on the
board position below and score
the highest number of points
available?

EFLORWW
ADLNORU
DGHIIMN

Collins Official Scrabble Words is the word authority used.
Word positions use the grid reference plus (a)cross or (d)own.
double letter
square (dl)

Solution to times2
Jumbo 1580
The winner is
Fiona Lambert of
North Berwick,
East Lowthian

double word
square (dw)

triple letter
square (tl)

:

:

triple word
square (tw)
:

:

aeiou
lnrst

:
:

:
:

Cell Blocks 4614

Letter
values
L W

:
:

:

L W

dg

treat
r
i
c :
k

:

Suko 3633

issue, issuer, neurosis, nous,
nurse, onus, ours, resinous,
roué, rouse, ruin, ruinous,
rune, ruse, serious, serous,
sinuous, sinus, sorus, sour,
souse, suer, sunrise, sure,
unserious, unsure, urine,
ursine, user,
Scrabble VAMPIRES (B5d)
— 80 points; PENCHANT;
MOPED, EQUIP, PLANK,
IVIES, CHIDE, MACAW;
UNHEATED, HEADHUNT,
UNTHAWED; MENTORS,
OPTIONS, CARRIES;
NIGHTMARE; WEREWOLF
(G6d) — 77 points,
CAULDRON (K4a) — 94
points (CRUNODAL is also
valid), MIDNIGHT (A8d) —
98 points.
Literary quiz 1 Henry James.
2 Susan Hill. 3 Shirley
Jackson. 4 Sarah Waters.
Cryptic Quintagram
1 Yule 2 Leopard 3 Parapet
4 Vis-à-vis 5 Repaint.

0

fhvwy

:

k
jx
qz

:
:

:
:

L W

bcmp
L W

:

1
2

:

:
:

:

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of J. W. Spear & Sons Ltd ©Mattel 2022

Polygon Roger Phillips Cell Blocks 4615

Using the given letters no more than
once, make as many words as possible of
four or more letters, always including
the central letter. Capitalised words,
plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense
etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives
and superlatives are disallowed.
How you rate: 16 words average;
22, good; 32, very good; 43, excellent.
Answers to Friday’s Polygon are to the
left. Today’s answers are printed in
MindGames on Monday

© PUZZLER MEDIA

1 The reader is going to broadcast for
Christmas (4)

Harn-pan
a. The cranium
b. A type of camera shot
c. A wok-like vessel

Scrabble® Paul Gallen

Divide the grid into square
or rectangular blocks, each
containing one digit only. Every
block must contain the number
of cells indicated by the digit
inside it.
Yesterday’s solution, left

Shak attack
Certain players have a knack for
entertaining the fans.
In the penultimate leg of the
$1.6m Meltwater Champions
Chess Tour, Jan-Krzysztof Duda
defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a rollercoaster final. It was
the runner-up, however, who
stole the show with his trademark
attacking chess.
The Azerbaijani grandmaster
Mamedyarov peaked at number
two in the world rankings in 2018.
His style of chess can lead to fluctuating consistency, but when on
form there is hardly a more delightful player to watch.
Mamedyarov described the
following effort as one of the best
games of his career.
White: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Black: Anish Giri
Aimchess Rapid, chess24.com
2022
Jobava London System
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 Bf4 This
opening has soared in popularity
over the past few years. I recommend the books and videos
of the English grandmaster
Simon Williams for further insight into the nuances of the Jobava London System. 3…e6 4 Nb5
A move designed to disrupt the
opponent’s desired mode of development. 4…Na6 5 e3 Be7 6 h4
A sign of things to come. 6…0-0
In hindsight Giri — a world-class
player in his own right — may
have regretted committing his
king so early. 7 Nf3 c6 8 Nc3 Qb6
9 a3 c5 Not 9…Qxb2? 10 Na4 and
the black queen is trapped behind
enemy lines. 10 Bxa6 Qxa6 The
alternative capture 10…bxa6 is
structurally ruinous, but Black
would gain a valuable tempo due
to
Äpressure on b2. 11 h5 h6 Ä

N

NÄp NÈ
NÄ
àÄÈ
NÄN
ÄàÈ
NÄà NÄNRÈ
ÄNÄbÄÛÄNÈ
bÄÚÄbINÄÈ
ÄbRNÄbRNÈ
DÄNÁ$ÄNÂÈ
Ä
Ä
à

Black’s earlier decision to castle kingside was like a red rag to a
bull for Mamedyarov. What happens next is a testament to his
unique creativity. 12 g4 The first
sacrifice of the game. It is far from
the last. 12…Nxg4 Giri takes up
the challenge. 12…Nh7 is another
candidate move, preventing
White from opening the g-file
with 13 g5. 13 Rg1 f5 14 Ne5 cxd4
15 exd4 Bf6? A natural mistake.
Mamedyarov brutally punishes
this slow approach. It was instead
essential to create counterthreats: 15…Qb6! keeps the balance since 16 Nxg4? fxg4 17 Qxg4
is strongly met by 17…Qxd4. 16
Rxg4! Throwing more wood on
the fire. Time and open files are
the currency of the position.
16…fxg4 17 Qxg4 b5 Black is unable to bring his queenside pieces
over to the defence of his king. 18
Bxh6 Qb7 18…b4 allows a recurring trick: 19 Bxg7 Bxg7 20 h6. 19

0-0-0 a5? The final error. Black
needed to eliminate one of the attacking pieces: 19…Bxe5 20 dxe5
Rb8 21 Rg1 Rf7. There remains
hope of survival, even if the defensive task is grim. 20 Nxb5! A
deflection tactic. The black
queen is lured away from the seventh rank. 20…Qxb5 21 Bxg7
Bxg7 22 h6 Ra7 23 Rh1! White’s
only winning move. It takes incredible calmness to play such a
preparatory move when down a
full rook and minor piece! Black is
powerless against the threat of 24
h7+. 41…Rxf2 What else? 41…Rf6
42 hxg7 Rxg7 43 Qh4 is also terminal. 24 h7+ Kf8 25 Qxg7+! The
most elegant and energetic finish.
During the course of one game
Mamedyarov has temporarily
sacrificed a pawn, rook, knight,
bishop, and now queen. 25…Rxg7
26 h8Q+ Rg8 27 Ng6+ White regains all of the material with interest. 27…Ke8 28 Qxg8+ Kd7 29
Ne5+ Kd6 30 Nd3 Black resigns.
Taking the c8-bishop would also
have won, but Mamedyarov retreats and ends all hopes of counterplay. Black has no answer to
the dual threats of 31 Qxc8 and 31
Qg3+.

Winning Move
Black to Play. Rapport-Mamedyarov, chess24.com 2022. In this
game Mamedyarov defeated fellow entertainer Richard Rapport
in just 16 moves. How did he turn
this chaotic position in Black’s favour?
Ä
Ä

ÄNÄpÄNÄpÈ
àÁà N àÄÈ
ÄNÄNÄ ÄNÈ
NÄNÄ ÄàÄÈ
ÄNRp N NÈ
NÄNRNÄbÄÈ
RÛRNÄbGbÈ
NÂNÄNÂ$ÄÈ
Ä
Ä

The first correct entry drawn on
Thursday will receive a copy of
Collins English Dictionary and
Thesaurus. The two runners-up
will receive a book prize. Answers
on a postcard to: The Times Winning Move, PO Box 2164, Colchester, Essex CO2 8LJ, or email
to:
winningmove@thetimes.co.uk. Open to 18+, UK and
ROI residents only. The answer
will be published next Saturday.
Solution to last week’s puzzle:
1…Bb4+! wins: 2 axb4 (2 Nd2
Re8+ 3 Kf1 Bxd2) 2…Re8+ 3 Kf1
Rxd1 mate.

The winner is Hugh Brown of
Penryn, Cornwall

Saturday October 29 2022 | the times

554 saturday review

MindGames
Codeword No 4732

The Times Crossword, Latin Crossword, Saturday Quiz and
Suko are in the back of the main paper

The Listener Crossword No 4735 Spirit Time by Skylark
Senders of the first
three correct entries
drawn will receive
Brewer’s Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable or may
choose from a selection
of other books (see
below). Send your entry
with contact details
completed to: Listener
Crossword 4735,
63 Green Lane, St
Albans, Hertfordshire
AL3 6HE, to arrive by
November 10.
Listener 4732 solution on
page 52

Prize options and more
at listenercrossword.com

Every letter in this crossword-style grid has been substituted for a number from
1 to 26. Each letter of the alphabet appears at least once. Use the letters already
provided to work out further letters. Enter letters in the main grid and the
smaller reference grid. Proper nouns are excluded. Yesterday’s solution on page 52
Stuck on Codeword? To receive four random clues call 0901 293 6262 or text
TIMECODE to 64343. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access
charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. For the full solution call
0905 757 0142. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access
charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm).

times2 Crossword No 9048
1

2

3

8

4

5

6

7

9
10

11
12
14

13

15
16
17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Across

20 First performance (8)

1 Weapons (4)

21 Remedy (4)

3 Occurring at intervals (8)

22 Ballerina (8)

8 Remarkable (4)

23 Make changes to (text) (4)

9 Work, operate (8)
11 Causing great anxiety (4-6)

Down

14 Cream-coloured drink (6)

1 Organised, planned (8)

15 Repudiate, cast off (6)

2 Wedding (8)

17 Punctuation mark (10)

4 Fairness; trade union (6)

Solution to Crossword 9047

B

K
A
U

V
I
C
E
C
H
A
I
R
M
A
N

P
NADM I
P A
CA LM
A
AHA M
E R
NDRED
G C
P ERE
H
I
COMP O
G T

U V
S S I B L E
U R O
RA T T L E
P U
L
E L OD I C
R S P
YOYO
T
P
UNDU L Y
T O A
UNDED
O Y

5 Designed to cause fires (10)
6 Fall in drops (4)
7 Rabbit (4)
10 Capable of soaking up (10)
12 — Fracture; time (8)

More information about
Chambers books can be
found at chambers.co.uk
Name........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Address .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Postcode .............................................................................. Phone/email..........................................................................................................................
Each clue contains a misprint of one letter that must be corrected to enable solving. The
corrections give an instruction that solvers must carry out after filling the grid, involving 39 cells
in five straight lines. The Chambers Dictionary (2016) is the primary reference; 13 is in Collins
English Dictionary.

Across
1 Check blips in formation of a molecule (9)
7 Religious venue receiving money for bard’s
fabulous herb (4)
10 Joke reflected satellite’s meteorological
measures (5)
11 Opens one Parisian brasserie in centre,
hiring cook (6)
13 Begin polo, welcoming rest stops regularly
(8, two words)
14 Vehicle group of drivers clipped (3)
16 Ancient bath contains broken doll (8)
17 American hanger suited (6)
18 Reportedly filed artist’s vertebral sections
(6)
22 African swallow swinging insect (6)
24 Revert highest bend to be resolved (13, three
words)
25 Like Romans in Scotland, Ben splits load (6)
29 Stokes sour about English returning
trousers (6)
31 Reveller seen in Ontario turned (6)
32 During endless period of inactivity, liven
plant (8)
36 Rent romance (3)
37 Boldly talks of risks in drink (8, two words)
38 Most willingly accepting just motorised
sledge (6)
39 Got into tackle, shortening sail (5)
40 Sea birds balking predatory bird (4)
41 Battled chary teen regarding Aphrodite (9)
Down
1 Letter supporting outlaw, top partner on
The Bill (6)

2 Rank eastern cheat without extremes of
trickery (4)
3 Pass time entertaining republican
palaeontologist (6)
4 Man hates rotten debility (8)
5 Misshapen antique stylish glass (6)
6 Excellent, heed the French (5)
7 Makes date correct (4)
8 Faithful, once sincere, taking wine for
rector (4)
9 With cart upset, fears charge for using
garden (7)
12 Bard’s Scottish circle note shell cases (7)
15 Knight filming marble is related on dad’s
side (6)
18 Chef’s cold starter taken off to carve (4)
19 No longer cared about junk wife has left
(6)
20 Accepting pint, briefly nuisance dives for
Ed (7)
21 Drinks in Glasgow, involved peanuts after
departure of unruly pet (4)
23 Second sheet covering fan’s corruption (8)
24 Fellow smirks, grasping director swindles
(7)
26 Tyrant drove on vacation to pick hut (6)
27 Striker’s sound fight enthralling king (6)
28 Elevated design awing ancient decoy (6)
30 Ludicrously busy spells, exchanging grand
for lumber (5)
33 What’ll pig sty circle? What’s in pen? (4)
34 A bite picked up wild mango (4)
35 Appearing in sagas, nervous Anglo-Saxon
slave (4)

Mindset by 700

Literary Quiz

1. a, b and c are sets of letters with no letter in more than
one set. Using ALL of the letters in the sets indicated (possibly
with repetition), and no other letters, words can be made with
the following definitions. Identify all of the words.
(a) Sighted! (b) Visionary (c) Brownish-Grey
(a+b) Airer (a+c) Harry (b+c) Capitulation
(a+b+c) Dreadful

Fright Night
It’s coming up to Halloween,
so who wrote the following
classic ghost stories?

18 Potato (4)

2. a) What is the 44th member of this sequence:
11, 12, 14, 18, 26, 38, 62, 74, …
b) What is the 102nd member of this sequence:
18, 25, 28, 34, 35, 37, 41, …

19 Blood vessel (4)

3. Pair: CB, CC, DS, JA, JT, LK, MG, ML, MP, PB, RG, RG

13 Share in an undertaking (8)
16 Egyptian god (6)

Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the answers.
Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge.
SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

Answers on page 53

The Times Literary Desk

1 The Turn of the Screw
2 The Woman in Black
3 The Haunting of Hill House
4 The Little Stranger

Answers on page 53

Bridge Andrew Robson
My Gold Cup semi-final was
won by the better team on the
day — Bertie Black’s sextet.
When it was right to be
aggressive, they were aggressive; when it was right to hold
back, they held back.
Here’s an example. What
would you bid with ♠A109532,
♥AJ952, ♦-, ♣A8, vulnerable
versus not, after right-hand
opponent deals and opens 5♦?
My teammate Peter Crouch
bid a 6♦ Michaels (as I’d have
done) showing a big major-two
suiter. However, partner had a
4333 pile of drek with ♠Qxx
and the ace of diamonds as his
only values. The ensuing 6♠
dribbled a couple down.
Tom Paske from Team
Black doubled (take-out even
at this high level, though in
practice mostly left in). 5♦
doubled was one down, when
three of the four defensive aces
survived. Paske, with partner
Andrew McIntosh, were brilliant all weekend.
My team did have the odd
success — take the fine
defence of teammates Peter
Crouch and Simon Cope on
this part-score.
Dealer South
N-S Vul

♠9765
♥♦AJ9853
♣652
♠ K 10 4 2
♠A83
N
♥ 10 7 6 5 4 W E ♥ Q J 2
S
♦K762
♦ 10
♣Q7
♣AKJ8
♠QJ
♥AK983
♦Q4
♣ 10 9 4 3
S
1♥
2♣

W
Pass
end

N
1♠

E
Pass

West, Cope, cashed the ace
of clubs (this was a clear
choice as dummy rated to be
1♥-3♣ or similar on the bidding, so cutting down ruffs
looked best). At trick two, he
found the fine switch to a low
spade, East, Crouch, winning
the king, cashing the queen of
clubs, and leading a second
spade.
West won the ace of spades,
cashed the king-jack of clubs
and led his third spade, his
eight covered by dummy’s
nine, won by East’s ten.
Declarer won East’s queen of
hearts exit, ran the queen of
diamonds to East’s king, and
could polish off the rest of the
tricks (with a second diamond
access to dummy’s winners)
but that was three down.
Actually, four down was
possible after the fine start to
the defence. West refrains
from cashing the fourth top
club and instead switches to
his
singleton
diamond.
Declarer ducks (ace no better),
East winning the king and giving West a ruff (severing
declarer from dummy.
West leads his third spade to
East’s ten, declarer ruffing.
Down to his five hearts, declarer
cashes the ace-king but East
drops the jack-queen underneath (fail to unblock and he has
to resuscitate dummy) and now
West must win two of the last
three tricks with ♥1076 against
declarer’s ♥983. Declarer garners only four tricks.
andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

the times | Saturday October 29 2022

saturday review 55

For more crosswords and your favourite
puzzles go to thetimes.co.uk
Jumbo crossword No 1582
Cryptic clues
Across
1 River quietens with injection of
hydrogen (6)
5 Gosh! Pound will get a good picnic
accessory (4,3)
9 Confident males, modest,
relinquishing power (8)
13 Unhappy end darkens this cartoon
film (4,6,3,8)
14 Tracery to move agitatedly after
corrosion (8)
15 Understand, when tucking into
meat, about greens (7)
16 Clubs possibly hosting Frenchmen
for conference (6)
17 Experts favoured our group to
receive first of college course lists
(10)
20 One in disgrace, Mother got on with
kind son (7,5)
23 Patch of land I almost killed off (4)
24 Disparaging after extracting iodine
around ring of bark? (8)
26 Church canon with a new
description of the heavens? (8)
29 Food item to elevate film shot at
Acapulco finally (6,6)
30 A cover gardener finally brought in
to treat flower (6,4)
32 How to get sent fishing equipment?
(6,4)
34 Palace throne resited in part of
Westminster (7,5)
36 Stopped to embrace second
member, being placated (8)
38 Pile of farm produce has way to
keep years (8)
39 Bottle of great importance, lacking
central element (4)
41 Group admitting Danish writer
ignoring one English fantasy
creature (12)
43 One on board often depressed:
restraint vital (7,3)
44 University learners coming in to
secure passage (6)
46 Poison very twisted individual
injected into ailing men (7)
48 Pepper’s appearance rooted in stone,
initially odd (8)
50 Wan desultory ambition stirred,
receiving a comment on extended
construction times (4,3,3,5,2,1,3)
51 Looking ravaged, allowed element
of challenge (8)
52 Caribbean island not supporting
Pacific island? Not entirely (7)
53 Charge excluding a German houseguest (6)

Train
Tracks
No 1772
Lay tracks
to enable
the train to
travel from
village A to
village B.
The numbers
indicate
how many
sections of
rail go in
each row
and column.
There are
only straight
rails and
curved rails.
The track
cannot
cross itself.
Solution
on Monday*

1

Down
2 Price rise beginning to rile rambler
(5)
3 Little risk for speaker in a quick
meal (6,5)
4 Vessel more readily allowing first
couple of children on board (8)
5 Family spook finally producing
sound of chains? (5)
6 Gutted contralto picked up items on
score, but not opening sequences of
notes (7)
7 Country upset about newspaper
trouble — I will probe company
bluster (11)
8 Leave and spot someone expected
to appear? (5)
9 Poor justification to produce
firewood, say, before a lot of cold
weather (9)
10 It’s hard to carry, making you
grumpy (5)
11 Slow-moving vehicle covering each
mile with walker (11)
12 Cancel escape, having cut skin (7)
18 Runs a wildlife tour, retaining time
for religious figure (3,6)
19 Book containing revolutionary plant
item (7)
21 Notice Eire investing in whiskey:
that’s awkward (9)
22 Is nothing in part of Northern
Ireland of little significance? (8)
25 It’s all over a statement of the
obvious about pronoun (5,4)
27 Redevelopment of seacoast
involving one couple (9)
28 River boat’s gone round, displaying
flag (8)
31 Hairstyle? Complain about yokel
getting trimmed (7)
33 African currency acquired by
American banker, a respected figure
(5,3,3)
34 Trace of nudity in naughty bit
broadcast? Certainly not (8,3)
35 Led after stage of game, being very
controlled (5-6)
37 Effort to acquire new Irish plates etc.
(6,3)
40 US state securing border in getting
crook (8)
42 Vocal music around pier curtailed
marine displays (7)
43 On holiday? Feeling glum, missing
love, beside borders of China (7)
45 Drying agent tails off excessively? (5)
47 Shakespearean character going by,
catching start of one line (5)
48 Historic city has taken up recording
revolutionary creative work (5)
49 Fragrant plant no longer for the
solver and setter (5)

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

17

15

18

19

23

16

20

24

21

22

25

26

27

28
29

30

32

33

31

34

36

37

35

38

39
40

41

42

44

43

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

Name......................................................................................................... Prizes
Address.....................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
............................................................ Postcode.....................................
Phone number......................................................................................

The prize for each of the first
correct solutions to the Cryptic
and times2 Jumbo clues to be
opened will be a collection of
Times reference books —
including The Times Universal
Atlas of the World, Collins
English Dictionary & Thesaurus, and Bradford’s
Crossword Solver’s Dictionary published by
HarperCollins. Entries should be marked “Cryptic” or
“times2” and sent to: The Times Jumbo Crossword 1582,
PO Box 2164, Colchester, Essex CO2 8LJ; or emailed to:
jumbo@thetimes.co.uk, with “Cryptic 1582” or “times2
1582” in the subject line, to arrive by November 10. Open
to 18+, UK & ROI residents only. The winners and the
solutions will be published on November 12.

times2 clues
Across
1 Cheerful, optimistic (6)
5 Fur hunter (7)
9 The end of a football match (4,4)
13 Make use of one’s greatest
advantage (4,4,9,4)
14 American songbird (8)
15 Very great; exceptional (7)
16 Mischievous or dishonest person
(6)
17 Restore to a readable state (10)
20 Head of London’s Metropolitan
Police (12)
23 Medical examination (4)
24 Power-producing machines (8)
26 Swiss ski resort (8)
29 Overly concerned with correct
procedure (12)
30 Excessive (10)
32 Elaborately designed feature of
plants and hedges (4,6)
34 Tiny (6-6)
36 Hamlet’s castle (8)
38 Scots family group member (8)
39 Front part of a ship (4)

41
43
44
46
48
50

At full speed (US) (7,5)
Ship for cold seas (10)
Natural aptitude (6)
Bewitch (7)
Treatment of feet (8)
Vehicle system with wheels
mounted separately on the chassis
(11,10)
51 (Of food) more easy to cut or chew
(8)
52 GP’s premises (7)
53 Climatic feature of the eastern
Pacific Ocean (2,4)
Down
2 Trainee barrister (5)
3 Fleeting quality (11)
4 Very hot and humid (8)
5 Rough woollen cloth (5)
6 Lacking comforts or luxuries (7)
7 Relating to fireworks (11)
8 Area over which a plant or animal
is distributed (5)
9 Man’s name (9)
10 At some time in the near future (5)
11 Vehicle carrying cars, etc (11)

12
18
19
21
22
25
27
28
31
33
34
35
37
40
42
43
45
47
48
49

Act as go-between (7)
Active at night (9)
Indistinct (7)
Staleness, mouldiness (9)
Decline in economic activity (8)
Substance obtained from a plant
used as an additive (9)
Projection device allowing images
from live-action films to be traced
to create an animated sequence (9)
Small car used for short journeys
(8)
Error (7)
Dull-witted, stupid (11)
Person officiating at a dinner (11)
Reason or justification for an
action (11)
Eg, a New Yorker (9)
Care and thought for the future (8)
Form a mental image of (7)
Butt in (7)
Tropical hoofed mammal (5)
Salad plant (5)
Young dog (5)
Disagreement, fight (3-2)