Joe Twyman

A great episode and a great film. Lewis Gilbert's three year run of Reach for the Sky (1956), The Admirable Crichton (1957) and Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) is absolute peak Sunday afternoon viewing. It doesn't get much better than that.

Labour's share of the vote halved in just over 18 months and between them Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives managed only 29.1% in Gorton and Denton.
By-elections are unusual in many ways, but that is a terrible performance from the three parties who have been in government in anyone's lifetime.

++good

Only 3% of British adults believe Andrew is telling the truth when he says he has no recollection of meeting Virginia Giuffre and that he never had sex with her.
A sizeable majority, however, believe King Charles is prioritising Epstein's victims when dealing with Andrew.

There is widespread support among British adults for Andrew to testify in the US about his links to Epsein, for King Charles to direct him to do so and for the UK government to force him to do so.

Has Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor been treated fairly? Before today's announcement, fewer than one in six British adults believed so. Two thirds believed he had been treated too softly, including half of British adults who believe he has been treated far too softly. #RoyalFamily #Epstein

We didn't have a luge team because I am not part of the New Elite.

Rowers (or 'boaties' to use the correct technical term) were always trying to poach swimmers - and the basketball team tried to poach both.
As the saying goes "You can't coach someone to be 6'6"!"

Reminds me of my university sport fair in my first year. If you had to bend down to get under the bar set up at the entrance you were approached to join the basketball team.
An extension of British Rowing's Sport for TAll policy, though far less successful.

And by-elections?

As the saying goes.

You got to admire the Peace Order and Good Government Canadians giving it to a politician - even if he was Jack Bauer's grandad.

The October 1974 election night show had a short section on those who switched from the Liberals to the National Front.

BBC Election Night programmes are particularly good for finding these people and using them as vox pops on screen. 2015 had the voter in who had voted Lib Dem in 2010 but could never support them again because they went into coalition with the Conservatives. In 2015 he voted Conservative.

For now....

I googled "Dutch Girls" and none of the results that came back featured Colin Firth.

I think so. From memory the whole thing has the look of an episode of Coronation Street gone rogue.

Exactly.
Tumbledown is worth it for the youngest possible incarnation of Colin Firth.
You could also throw in An Ungentlemanly Act with peak Bob Peck to complete the month.
You're welcome.

Save it for Falklands War Month (/fortnight?) on @warmovietheatre.bsky.social.

All jokes aside, there WAS a comedy stage show and subsequent TV broadcast about Denis Thatcher based on the Dear Bill column from Private Eye.
John Wells played him.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyone_...

I think he is the only one though.

Norma Major: Lust for Glory

War you say...?

I always assumed that the 1927 version of "Napoleon" would be absolutely perfect for a guest appearance from @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
What, one might reasonably ask, is NOT to love about a 5.5 hour silent French film?

This must be just simple shitposting, right? Right?

What polling on leadership rivals tends to measure is public opinion on who they are NOT rather than who they ARE.
I will be on Times Radio at 2.30pm to discuss this and a roundup of the rest of the polls with @alexisconran.com.

Huge Mac or Biggest Mac surely?

That's the problem with so many games finishing inside three days nowadays.

This me be a hot take, but it feels like a whole lot of attention is paid to what Trump is saying today, all predicated on the assumption that it will, in ANY way, have an impact on what he says and does tomorrow or the day after or at any stage in the future.

I think there is a really interesting (to me at least) thought experiment about how far you would go if you were Reform/Farage when it cames to accepting defectors into the fold.
Truss is apparently out, but what about Johnson? Or May? Or Cameron? Or Cummings? (Endorsements quite separate of course)

Well weapon.