175, INDEX 3 - Posts 152 to 174

Akers, Rev. Graham: 161 Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin: 155, 166, 171, 173 Arbuckle, Roscoe ‘Fatty’: 167 Amstell, Simon: 155 Anderson, Pamela: 153 Armstrong, Alun: 156,158,159 A.S.P. 163 Assange, Julian: 159 Atwell, Hayley: 158 Aubre, Juliet: 152 Ax, Emanuel: 170 Bach, Johann Sebastian: 152 Baker, Hylda: 159 Baker, Matt: 159 Baker, Simon: 174 Banks, DCI: 171 Banks, Leslie: 164 Banksy: 170 Barnden, Dennis: 154,160 Barnden,Lilian:160 Barnden,Maureen:154,155,157,158,160
Barnden,Neil:158,160,161,172 Barnden, Pauline: 161,172 Barnden, Rosalind: 160 Barnden, William: 160,165 Barr, Genevieve: 153 Barry, John: 167 Bartholomew, George: 161 Bassey, Shirley: 167 Bean, Sean: 167 Beaton, M.C: 152,155,156,157,169 Beckham, David: 159 Beeny, Sarah and Graham: 173 Beesley, Max: 164 Bennett, Jan: 161 Bennett-Rice, Ava Rose: 161 Bennett-Rice, Theo 161 Biggles: 163 Bin Laden, Osama: 166 Blake, Sexton: 163 Blanc, Ernest: 152 Blethyn, Brenda: 166 Bocelli, Andrea: 152 Boe, Alfie: 161, 167 Boggess, Sierra: 154 Bolam, James: 156 Bonneville, Hugh: 153,156, 166 Bourne, Jason: 174 Bowker, Peter: 161 Boyd, William: 162 Bradley, David: 152 Brady, Nicholas: 163 Brahms: 170 Brand, Jo: 153 Brand, Russell: 173 Brandon, John G. 163 Britton, Fern: 173 Broadbent, Jim: 166 Brooks, Edwy Searles: 163 Brown, Gordon: 159 Brown, June: 170 Brown, Mrs: 164 Brown, William: 163 Bryson, Bill: 172,174 Buchan, Andrew: 158, 159 Buchan, John: 163 Burke, Matt: 162 Burrows, Edgar Rice: 163 Busby, Matt: 166 Butchard, Stephen: 152 Caine, Horatio: 171 Callaghan, Slim: 163 Cameron, David: 159 Capello, Fabio: 154 Cardby, Mick: 163 Caroline, 161 Carter, Jim: 156 Casey, Anna Jane: 154 Cassandra: 166 Castle: 168 Caution, Lemmy: 163 Chaplin, Ben: 164 Charpentier, Marc-Antoine: 152 Charteris, Leslie: 163 Chesney, Marion: 169 Cheyney, Peter: 163 Christie, Agatha: 161 Clarke, Roy: 154 Clarkson, Jeremy: 173 Coe. Sebastian 164 Cole, George: 154 Cole, Lily: 166 Cole, Martina: 167 Collins, Kevan: 152 Colman, Olivia: 152,166 Columbo, Lt. 168 Conquest, Norman: 163 Coward, Noel: 153 Crawford, Michael: 168 Creasey, John: 163,167 Criswell, Kim: 154 Crompton, Richmal: 163 Cruise, Tom: 165 Cryer, Barry: 166 Cryer, Sgt. Bob: 154 Cumberbatch, Benedict: 152,174 Cumming, Alan: 167 Damon, Matt: 165 David, Ziva: 168 Davies, Russell T. 171 Davis, Geena: 165 Davis, Warwick: 173 Dee, Simon:: 173 Dench, Judi: 162 Dick, Brian: 161 Dickens, Charles: 174 Dillow. Ian: 157,159,173,174 Dimbleby, David: 171 Divo, Il: 167 Dobby: 169 Doctor Who: 166,171 Dooley, Shaun: 166 Doyle, Conan: 152,174 Driver, Minnie: 154 Drummond, Bulldog: 163 Du Beke, Anton: 159 Duff, Blythe: 162 Durr, Jason: 161 East, John: 157 Eden, Anthony: 162 Eisenhower, General: 162 Elliott, Harold: 160 Elliott, Brian: 160 Ellis. Grandson (Little Boo): 158,159,160,161,165,172 Enfield, Harry: 156 EVE: 168 Eve, Trevor: 165 Ewing, Bobby: 162 Falk, Peter: 168 Faraday, DI Joe: 153, 155,162, 166 Farrar, David: 158 Faulks, Sebastian: 163 Fellowes, Julian: 156, 172 Felton, Tom: 169 Firth, Colin: 163 Firth, Peter: 163 Fishburne, Lawrence: 167 Follett, Ken: 158 Forlani, ClaireL 174 Forsyth, Bruce: 172 Fox, Uffa: 167 Fradgley, Keoth: 171 Fradgley, Tim: 171 Fraser, Hugh: 162 Fraser, Stuart: 162 Freeman, Martin: 152,174 Freeman, Morgan: 165 Frost, DI Jack: 166 Gadaffi, Colonel: 163, 170 Gatiss, Mark: 152,174 Gedda, Nicolai: 152 Gervais, Ricky: 173 Gibbs, Philip: 158 Gilbert, Rhod: 156 Giles, Edward: 156 Gilfry, Rod: 154 Gillen, Aidan: 153 Glenister, Philip: 164,172 Gok Wan: 162 Goldberg, Whoopi: 153 Goose, Claire: 166 Gordon, Ruth: 168 Grabol, Sofie: 174 Grant, Russell: 172 Graves, Rupert: 158,168 Gray, Berkeley: 163 Green, Robson: 155 Greenstreet, Sydney: 158 Greig, Tamsin: 162 Griffith, D.W: 167 Griffiths, Richard: 162 Grint, Rupert: 169 Gull, DCS Stewart: 152 Gunn, Victor: 163 Hackman, Gene: 165 Hague, William: 155 Haitink, Bernard: 170 Hall, Richard: 152 Hancock, Sheila: 169 Hannay, Richard: 163 Hari, Johann: 159 Harkness, Capt. Jack: 169 Hart, Ian: 152 Hart, Miranda: 159,161 Hastings, Capt. 162 Hawes, Keeley: 153 Head, Anthony: 155 Heath, Edward: 163 Heather, friend: 155 Helliwell, Arthur: 173 Henshall, Douglas: 153, 163 Henshaw, John: 163 Henson, Gavin: 159 Herdman, Josh: 169 Herman, Jerry: 168 Herriot, James: 174 Hickson, Joan: 161 Hill, Melanie: 155 Hinds. Ciaran: 161 Hollander, Tom: 152 Holmes, Sherlock: 152, 163,174 Hume, David: 163 Hunt, Linda: 174 Hurley, Graham: 153.154,155,157,158,161,162,166,169,170,171 Hurt, John: 155 Hutchings, Geoffrey: 155 Imrie, Celia: 153, 174 Jac, daughter: 156,160,171 Jackson, Michael: 161 Jackson, Philip: 162 Jacobi, Derek: 155 Jalil, M.M.A: 170 James, Bradley: 155 Jameson, Susan: 156 Jane, Patrick: 174 Japp, Inspector: 162 Jason, David: 166 Jenkins, Jim: 156 Jenkins, Kathleen: 173 Jess, granddaughter: 153,157,160,168 John, friend: 157 Johns, W.E. 163 Jolie, Angelina: 165 Jones, Alex: 153 Jones, Suranne: 168 Jordan, James: 159 Jupp, Miles: 152 Kate, Duchess of Cambridge: 166 Keith, Penelope: 173 Kernick, Simon: 172 King Robbo: 170 King, Simon: 157 Kingston, Alex: 166 Kirwan, Dervla: 153 Klass, Myleene: 167 Kunz, Charlie: 165 Kyle, Jeremy: 166 Lancashire, Sarah: 152 Langlais, Jean: 152 Langton, DCS James: 161 La Plante, Lynda: 161 Laurie, Hugh: 153 Lawless, Eamonn: 157,158 Lawless, Libby: 158 Lawrence of Arabia: 166 Lebedev, Evgeny: 157 LeBlanc, Matt: 162 Lee-Potts, Andrew: 161 Lemon, Miss: 162 Lewis, Matthew: 169 Li’l Abner: 169 Lincoln, Andrew: 165 Little, Mark: 166 Littlewood, Dominic: 155 Lockhart, Gilderoy: 162 London, Bishop of: 166 Lowthorpe, Philippa: 152 Lucas, Matt: 161 Lumley, Joanna: 172 Lund, Sarah: 164, 166, 174 Luther, DI John: 168 Lynch, Evanna: 169 Macfadyen, Matthew: 158 Mackenzie, Baz: 166 McAvoy, James: 165 McBurney, Simon: 152 McCallum, David: 164 McCarthy, Joe: 164 McCarthy, DI Patrick Aloysius: 163 McCredie, Colin: 162 McDonald, Trevor: 161 McGrath, Katie: 155 McIntyre, Michael: 161,162 Mack, Lee: 161 McKee. Gina: 153 McKenzie, Julia: 161 McKinnon, Gary: 159 McNeile, H.C. 163 McShane, Ian: 158 Madison, Rex: 163 Magnus, Dr. Walter 164 Mallard, Dr. Ducky: 164 Malone. Gareth: 173 Mandelson, Peter: 164 Manford, Jason: 153 Mangan, Stephen: 162 Marchant, Tony: 158 Marple, Miss Jane: 161 Marshall, Lyndsey: 158 Martin, Anna Maxwell: 163 Martin, George R.R: 167 Martin, Paul: 173 Maslen, Scott: 159 Matekoni, Mr. J.L.B.:168 Melling, Harry: 169 Merchant, Stephen: 173 Merlin: 155, 171 Merton, Paul: 167 Michie, John: 162 Miller, Ben: 161 Mitchell, Hugh: 169 Mo, friend: 174 Moffatt, Steven: 152 Moir, Jim: 161 Moran, Pauline: 162 Morecambe, Eric: 161 Morgan, Colin: 155 Morgan, Piers: 166 Morrissey, David: 163 Morton, Anthony: 163 Mountstuart, Logan: 162 Mouskouri, Nana: 172 Mubarak, Hosni: 162,163 Mugabe, Robert: 162 Murphy, Jimmy: 166 Murray, Devon: 169 Myers, David: 157 Nasser, Colonel: 162 Neeson, Liam: 165 Nesbitt, James: 153, 154 Newhart, Bob: 164 Newsome, Joel: 152 Nilsson, Harry: 152 Nixon, Richard: 166 Norton, Alex: 162 Oakes, Harry: 162 Obama, Barack: 166 O’Carroll, Brendan: 164 Ogden, John: 170 Orwell, George: 164 Ovenden, Julian: 154 Parkes, Shaun: 153 Parry, Bruce: 162 Paterson, Jennifer: 157 Patten, Chris: 164 Peake, Maxine: 164 Pearson, Richard: 154 Pennington, Rt. Hon. Arthur Stukely: 163 Penry-Jones, Rupert: 164 Pepperdine, Vicki: 153: Petersen, William: 167 Phelps. James; 169 Phelps, Oliver: 169 Plater, Alan: 155 Pope, William Arthur & Edith: 160 The Pope 155 Potter, Beatrix: 167 Potter, Harry: 152,158,159,165 ,168,169 Prince Philip: 155, 167 Prince William: 159,166 Pullman, Sandra: 169 Purcell, Henry: 152 Queen Elizabeth II: 155,171 Radcliffe, Daniel: 169 Raisin, Agatha: 152,153,155, 156, Ratner, Gerald: 164 Redman, Amanda: 156 Redmayne, Eddie: 158 Reeves, Vic: 161 Reid, Jackie: 162 Reilly, Kelly: 161 Richard, Eric: 154 Richardson, Ralph: 163 Rickman, Alan: 169 Rigby, Daniel: 161 Robinson, Anne: 163 Rodgers and Hammerstein: 154 Rogan, Rockfist: 163 Ross, Carlton: 163 Ross, Jonathan: 173 Ross, Robbie: 162 Rowling, J.K. 158,159,169,170 Roz, daughter: 161,168 Rush, Geoffrey: 163 Russell, Christine: 165 Russell, Christopher: 165 Russell, Jane: 163 Rutherford, Margaret: 156 Salmond, Alex: 172 Sam, fishing buddy: 153, 154 Sanders, George: 158 Sandon, Henry: 170 Sapper: 163 Scanlan, Joanna: 153 Sergeant, John: 153 Sell, Colin: 166 Severs, George: 171 Sewell, Rufus: 161 Sharp, Lesley: 168 Sheila, friend: 157 Shute, Nevil: 158 Simm, John: 164, 166 Simovic, Marija: 152 Smallbone, Adam: 152 Smith, Alexander McCall: 167,168 Smith, Dame Maggie: 156,169 Smith, Matt: 152 Snape, Prof. Severus, 169 Soward, Maureen: 166 Soward, Pat: 166 Spall, Timothy: 171 Spall, Shane: 171 Sparrow, Jack: 172 Spearritt, Hannah: 161 Spooks, 155 Stacher, Helmut: 161 Stanhope, DCI Vera: 166 Stanton, Andrew: 168 Steele, Tommy: 153 Stephenson, Pamela: 159 Stuke, Neil: 164, 166 Sutcliffe, Tom: 172, 173 Symons, Julian: 163 Taggart: 162, 166 Tara: 171 Tarzan: 163 Templar, Simon: 163 Tennant, David: 166 Terfel, Bryn: 152 The Baron: 163 The Saint: 163 The Toff: 163 Thompson, Emma: 153, 154 Tinker: 163 Titchmarsh, Alan: 167 Tointon, Kara: 159 Tompkinson, Stephen: 171 Travis, DI: 161 True-May, Brian: 164 Turner, Andrew: 156 Turner, J.V. 163 Vaughan, Malcolm: 156 Visnjic, Goran: 154 WALL-E: 168 Walliams, David: 161 Walters, Julie: 162 Warren, Marc: 164 Waterman, Dennis: 156 Watson, Emma: 169 Watson, Dr, John: 152,174 Waylett, Jamie: 169 Webb, Jack: 171 West, Timothy: 166 Whately, Kevin: 155. 165 Whicker, Alan: 161 Whitehouse, Paul: 156 Widdecombe, Ann: 159 Wilde, Oscar: 159 Wilkening, Anne: 152 Wilkening, Peter: 152 Willetts, Greg: 171 Williams, Olivia: 166 Wilson: 163 Wilson, John: 154 Wilson, Richard: 155 Wilton, Penelope: 156, 163 Windsor, Duke & Duchess : 162 Winstone, Jaime: 152 Winters, DC: 162 Wise, Ernie: 161 Wogan, Terry: 156 Wood, Victoria: 161 Woodvine, John: 155 Wright, Bonny: 169 Wright, Matthew: 166 Zailer, Charlie: 166 Zen, Aurelio: 161

174. When Wiki went AWOL

HOME.
Searching for the net.
We’ve had a bundle of trouble contacting the internet over the past few weeks. Don’t know what we did to upset it but neither I, on my antiquated designer Dell, nor my Leader, on her trendy pale green laptop, was able to garner so much as a ‘hallo,’ ‘goodbye,’ or ‘kiss my connection’ for days at a time. I muttered imprecations and spent even more time watching television and tackling the concise crossword.
My Leader rang talktalk and talked talk about it. They finally concluded that it might be the filter. I wondered what the hell the filter was.
My Leader’s friend Mo, a good pal who knows about such things, said the filter plugs into the phone line and she had recently updated hers. My Leader then procured a modified replacement. It gave us three hours on the internet before zilch! I got a fit of the sighs and a slight twitch under the left eye. My Leader got in touch with the talktalk trouble hunters again. At the conclusion of a considerable confab they concluded it could be the router. I wondered what the hell the router was.
My Leader and her friend Mo both knew what the router was. It sits on my desk next to the 19” Hanns.G LCD monitor and it is fronted by a little line of lights which I have always blissfully ignored. One of them - the one labelled internet - was not working. Talktalk said they would send another router. The following day the failed light lit up. It’s fine right now. Won’t cancel the substitute, though; that might just be wholly reliable.*
And we’ve done quite enough searching for the net, thank you.
*New router arrived a couple of days later (much sooner than expected, bless ‘em)) and so far is working wonderfully well. Thanks, talk talk.
TELEVISION.
The Killing ll. (BBC4)

Sofie Gråbøl.
Back in our good old tuppence-a-book library days my father oft remarked that the writers of thrillers and cowboy yarns had but one original story in them; thereafter they just produced the same thing with a different title. That was 70 years ago. Nothing changes.
If you saw The Killing (Post 164 refers), The Killing 2 was decidedly déjà vu. In The Killing there was one decent local politician in Copenhagen trying to do the right thing and being constantly undermined by the treachery of those about him. A girl was killed. All hell broke loose. Enter Detective Inspector Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). In 2 there was one decent national politician in the whole of Denmark trying to do the right thing and being constantly undermined by the treachery of those about him.
Bring on the female corpse; bring back Sarah Lund and step up the treachery. Same meat, slightly different gravy. You know that Sarah will win and you know she will get no thanks.
Still dark. Still subtitled. Still loved it.
Young James Herriot (BBC1)
Now this was different. Forget tight-fisted Yorkshire farmers and dry-stone walls. This was a naïve but determined young man at a veterinary college in Glasgow in the early thirties. Frankly, it was pretty grim stuff. It was a short series. Don’t know if there will be another. Not sure that I care.
The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff.(BBC2)

A send-up of Dickens who can stand sending up. It was showbiz celebrities doing silly turns in a pantomime way. Celia Imrie (above) was good, but when isn’t she?
The Mentalist. (C5)

So Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) bumps off Red John, is put on trial for murder, talks the jury into finding him not guilty, realises he has not killed the real Red John and off we go again. At least he didn’t come out of the shower having dreamt it all. And he, together with the rest of the team, are still as gloriously unbelievable as ever.
Sherlock. (BBC1)

Another short, mostly enjoyable, series starring an actor with a name that sounds like something off a drug assembly line, Benedict Cumberbatch, and an actor with a name that sounds like a 20th century shoe manufacturer, Martin Freeman. They are perfectly cast as 21st century versions of Holmes and Watson and I imagine the episode entitled Reichenbach Fall has no more brought an end to writer Mark Gatiss’s modern version of the Baker Street sleuth than The Falls did to a disenchanted Conan Doyle’s original.
Series 3 is waiting in the wings.
NCIS (FX)
Series 9 started with a convoluted episode involving yet another sinister fringe agency within an agency so beloved of our more paranoid American cousins. Enough to say that Tony was shot - not dead - just enough to fall on his head and suffer the cliché loss of memory a hero routinely suffers whenever writers want to indulge in flashback storytelling. I think a sinister fringe agency may have been employed to bugger about with the storylines. Don’t know who they are but I wish they’d go away.
NCIS: Los Angeles, (Sky1)
Even with those fine actresses Linda Hunt and Claire Forlani on board, this doesn’t appeal to me. Never has. Oh, it might be Los Angeles but it ain’t NCIS, not now, not ever. Pity, because I’d like to like it.
The Bourne Identity - The True Story. (C5)
This documentary alleged that the CIA, as sinister an agency as any in the world, had brainwashed people into becoming Bourne-type assassins. If that is true - and it certainly came across that way - we have already sunk into Orwellian nightmare and need look no further than America to explain why. Mark you, we must have a fair number of former public schoolboys quite capable of dishing out similar treatment to any aggravating dissident or pleb in this country. We don’t extradite them all, do we?
FILM.
Race to Witch Mountain. (2009)
Why are kids films often better than those produced for adults? In this Disney film a tough cabbie becomes the unexpected protector of two stranded alien children who are trying to reach their rescue spacecraft before they are caught and taken for experimentation by evil American scientists.
It is daft, action-packed, and an easy way to spend 98 minutes of weekend viewing time.
READING.
Bill Bryson.
As mentioned in my last post, I have done no book reading of late, so it was with considerable pleasure that I started on The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Bill Bryson has long been one of the writers my family rely on as a safe gift to buy me for birthdays or at Christmas. His Dictionary of Troublesome Words (Penguin Reference, 1984) has been a guest on my desk for many years, but I had forgotten just how funny he can be. The Thunderbolt Kid has had me laughing aloud and I am seldom a mirthful reader. More if he ever grows up and I ever recover my composure.
Ian Dillow.
No, the former PRO of Wessex Regional Health Authority and editor of Link magazine has not, to my knowledge, written a book; though he could and should. Last month, however, in response to my name-dropping his name, (not my description, I thought you could only name-drop the famous) he emailed me his editorial judgment on my fleeting, long past, venture into journalism. It was a funny and extremely kind little note and it gave this old bloke a warm glow that had nothing to do with the Christmas cognac and lasted throughout the entire festive season. Thanks, famous person.
LAST WORD.
When Wiki went AWOL.
Bit late again this month, but at least this will give you, kindly reader, something to read on the day that Wikipedia went absent without leave. AWOL is a court martial offence, Wiki, but we miss you and understand your reasons.
So come back tomorrow and we’ll say no more about it, eh?