Matt Smith has claimed that Doctor Who's fiftieth special is 'about celebrating' the show's past. Smith told SFX that Steven Moffat's script will 'pay homage' to the 'wonderful actors' who preceded him in the role of The Doctor. 'It's about looking back and forward at the same time, a bit like the Doctor does,' Smudger explained. 'It's about celebrating everyone that's been involved with it, all the wonderful actors that have taken part before me, and it's also about looking forward.' Matt went on to praise his Doctor Who predecessors, including David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston. 'I feel in a very privileged position, having had people like David and Chris, Tom [Baker], Patrick [Troughton], Jon [Pertwee], William Hartnell. Great, great actors behind me,' he said.
The BBC have released a new forty second clip from the forthcoming Doctor Who episode The Bells of Saint John, featuring The Doctor in the new TARDIS console room (first introduced in last year's Christmas episode, The Snowmen).
Former Doctor Who guest star Sophia Myles was on Twitter this week posting a series of most cryptic messages concerning The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat (Thou Shalt Worship No Other Gods Before He).
The thirty three-year-old actress, who played Madame de Pompadour in the 2006 episode The Girl in the Fireplace - writer by The Moffinator and a particular favourite of yer actual Keith Telly Topping as it happens - claimed that she kept 'missing calls' from the Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner. Myles subsequently added that she had left the executive producer a voicemail message, before later claiming that she had spoken to Moffat and 'figured everything out.' Which is nice. Yer actual Keith Telly Topping does enjoy a happy ending to a story. Even if he hasn't got the faintest buggering clue what the story is all about.
Martin Freeman's missus Amanda Abbington appears to have joined the cast of Sherlock for its third series. Fans have taken photos and filmed Abbington shooting scenes on location in Bristol alongside yer actual Benedict Cumberbatch. The actress was spotted taking part in a scene apparently from new episode The Empty Hearse on Monday, which involved her character running to a bonfire with Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes. Amanda's TV credits include ITV's Mr Selfridge, Doc Martin and Being Human.
'Lens down or I will kick you all in the balls!' Pauline Quirke hiding in dark corners and threatening journalists with dire retribution if they dig too deeply into her past. Arthur Darvill watching the comings and goings deep into the night. David Bradley burning incriminating photos as a consequence of past - alleged - bad naughtiness. David Tennant taking a sudden funny turn. Vicky McClure, like a snake in the grass, coiling herself further and further into the unwanted part of many people's lives. Gosh, but episode four of Chris Chibnel's Broadchurch - Monday night on ITV - was the most revealing, darkest and labyrinthine so far, gently pushing the viewer further into the web of lies and deceit at the heart of the seaside town. Broadchurch continued to intrigue a massive audience, pulling in 6.88m overnight viewers at 9pm. A further three hundred and eight thousand punters watched the episode later on ITV+1. Meanwhile the, much-anticipated, Boris Johnson documentary The Irresistible Rise generated a big audience for BBC2 on Monday. An audience of 2.39 million tuned in at 9pm to learn more about the Mayor of London and his various past doings. Paul Hollywood's new cookery show Bread continued to draw in quietly impressive figures with 2.25m at 8.30pm. If it was a very good night for BBc2 it was a jolly bad one for BBC1 with a, frankly, rotten line-up of Rip Off Britain (2.38m at 8.30pm), followed by Motorway Cops (2.67m). Channel Four's Embarrassing Bodies had 1.71m at 9pm, while Channel Five entertained eight hundred and sixty eight thousand punters at the same time with Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge. ITV2's Ancient Rome-based sitcom Plebs started with a healthy audience of eight hundred and forty thousand at 10pm. Although, having watched it, how many of those will still be there for episode two remains to be seen. Certainly this blogger thought it was about as funny as a dose of diarrhoea.
BBC1 has commissioned a seventh series of Would I Lie To You? Host Rob Brydon and team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell will all return for the new run of the panel show, which is due to be broadcast in a primetime Friday-night slot later in the spring. Peter Holmes, executive producer for programme-makers Zeppotron says: 'I would be lying if I said I wasn't delighted to be making a seventh series of Would I Lie To You? I would be telling the truth if I said that I gave this quote wearing only my underpants.' The series will be recorded at Pinewood Studios from next month.
Yer actual Juliet Stevenson is taking her first major role in a Saturday teatime family drama, the BBC fantasy series Atlantis. The broadcaster will be hoping to repeat the success of Doctor Who and Merlin in luring families to BBC1 as the nights draw in on Saturday evenings this autumn with the thirteen-part drama, which draws on Greek myths about the island which, according to legend sank into the Atlantic. Stevenson has been cast in a line-up which also includes Mark Addy, recently seen in very different roles in the thoroughly wretched supermarket comedy Trollied and the dark and visceral TV adaptation of Game of Thrones and Sarah Parish, whose credits include Cutting It, Mistresses, Doctor Who and Monroe. Stevenson will also be seen on BBC1 this year in Peter Moffat's ambitious drama The Village, which aims to portray the fictional lives of the residents of a small Peak District settlement over several decades from 1911. Stevenson rose to prominence in the early 1990s in the late Anthony Minghella's bittersweet romantic comedy Truly Madly Deeply and as the wronged woman who turns the tables on Trevor Eve's philandering husband in Paula Milne's Channel Four drama The Politician's Wife. 
Stevenson admitted this was her first experience of fantasy drama. 'This genre is new to me, so I am looking forward to a great adventure.' The BBC's take on Atlantis is of a mysterious, ancient place with vast palaces said to be built by giants, snake-haired goddesses and other mythical creatures. The drama's main protagonist, Jason, is a young man who arrives on Atlantis and begins a series of adventures. Sets depicting the mythical city and island are under construction in Wales and Morocco, with filming due to begin next month. Atlantis has been written by Howard Overman, creator of E4's drama Misfits. His other writing credits include Merlin and the BBC4 adaptation of Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently (which started well but got very poor very quickly). Producers will hope they can tap into the current taste for fantasy, SF and horror, with Atlantis following the BBC's successful reinvention of Doctor Who, Merlin, the very popular reworking of the Arthurian legends which ran for five series until last autumn and ITV's time-travel-meets-dinosaurs drama Primeval. Darker and more adult US excursions into the fantasy genre include Game of Thrones, with its graphic sex and nudity combined with complex storylines in a fictional medieval world, while The Hobbit has returned Tolkien's Middle Earth to cinemas. There are also many new examples of the horror genre, including vampire series True Blood and zombie series The Walking Dead, starring British actors Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey.
The government has moved to exclude small-scale bloggers from the threat of media regulation, and will hold a miniconsultation with the newspaper industry on how best to 'construct a workable definition' of the bloggers that need to be protected. Not that this particular blogger has any concerns since this blog always seeks to stay within the law. That's usually a good way of not getting oneself into trouble, I've always found. Ministers concede that the definitions offered so far 'may have loopholes', and will attempt to put in place 'a clear watertight amendment' after Easter when the crown and courts bill returns to the Commons. Lord McNally, the justice minister, said that the government's aim was to bring under the ambit of the regulator only 'the main elements of the press' as well as what he defined as 'press-like activity online.' He said: 'I have seen over the past week some concerns voiced regarding the extent to which bloggers and tweeters may be caught. Clearly, the online version of the national press or their regional counterparts, or indeed an online press-like news site, carry with them very different public expectations when compared with a small-scale blog or for that matter a tweet. Our definition of "relevant publisher" seeks to make that differentiation and it does so by employing an interlocking series of tests, all of which must be met before the threshold of the definition is reached. This is first whether the publication publishes news-related material, second whether the publication is written by different authors, third whether it is to any extent subject to editorial control and fourth whether it is published in the course of a business.' He said that Lord Justice Leveson had sought to distinguish between the grassroots small-scale activities of bloggers, and those activities which have developed over time into 'more sophisticated, multi-authored and news-related businesses.' He said that the regulator was 'not intended to capture the news aggregation services' of operations such as Yahoo or MSN. Nor is it intended to include social networking sites, or sites which merely moderate the comments of others. He added that the lack of culture secretary, the vile and odious rascal Miller, would ask her officials to engage with those interested on how the definition should operate. The latest move came as the Torygraph executive director, Captain Black, used the debate on the crown and courts bill to 'lambast' (that's broadsheet-speak for 'criticise' only with more syllables than the word tabloids usually use for stories like this, 'blast') plans for exemplary damages against newspapers as a 'massive blow against investigatory journalism.' Captain Black (and his Mysterons masters) urged the government to 'pause and think again' - which they're not going to do since they'd face a humiliating Commons defeat if they even considered doing so - describing proposals to allow courts to impose exemplary damages on newspapers who have lost libel cases as 'shotgun legislation' which will create 'a constitutional nightmare.' Good. I'm glad. I hope a few nasty fekkers at boardroom level in Fleet Street are sweating pints over this. 
I hope they're bastard well scared. I hope they're shitting in their own keks in abject terror at what's in store for them. Captain Black claimed it could 'not be right' that the proposals, agreed 'at breakneck speed', had been tacked on to the crime and courts bill without 'any proper scrutiny. They were cobbled together late at night over pizza with no thought for the legal and constitutional issues involved,' he said. Or course, if much less aggressive set of proposals had been arrived at using exactly the same process one rather doubts that Captain Black and the Mysterons would be quite so eager to whinge about it. It's not the process itself which is at stake, here, it's the outcome. Here endeth the lesson. Captain Black said that the exemplary damages clauses would 'almost certainly' be contrary to European law - and, yes, you heard it here first, dear blog reader, a Tory-supporting newspaper owner who is, suddenly, very keen on the Human Rights Act. That's got to be a first - and criticised 'an unrepresentative lobby group of celebrities', a reference to the pressure group Hacked Off, which was involved in the talks between the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems that led to the controversial press deal last Monday morning. Note here, the particularly sneering use of the term 'celebrities'. Presumably this description excludes the Dowler family and the McCann's who are as much a part of Hacked Off's public profile as any celebrity. Because, of course, criticising the parents of a murdered schoolgirl who had her phone hacked by shitescum doesn't go down as well with Torygraph readers as, say, criticising Hugh Grant. 'These amendments are wrong in principle and fundamentally flawed,' whinged Captain Black. 'They are almost certainly illegal and so will not endure. They deal with problems of an analogue past and are – in the words of the Guardian – "illiterate about the Internet." They will either collapse or be struck down in Europe. They are a constitutional nightmare.' So, if they're 'almost certainly' (love that phrase, it's got just enough wiggle room in it for all manner of shenanigans and malarkey) illegal, your Captain Blackship, then what - exactly - is the problem? Just wait until a court strikes it down and then crow 'I told you so' from the nearest handy plinth. A second clause was 'also contrary to the principles of law', where costs are generally awarded against the loser, Captain Black alleged, claiming that publishers 'faced the prospect of having to bear the entire costs of a case even if they won.' His plea to the Lords to reconsider the amendments echoes the arguments expressed in a lengthy piece by the Gruniad Morning Star's editor-in-chief, the specky little Communist toerag Alan Runtbudgie in which he warned that exemplary damages for those who don't join the new regulator would be 'a seriously bad idea that will create martyrs.' Very poor martyrs, though - that's a significant argument in favour, frankly. Lord McNally urged Captain Black and the Mysterons 'genuinely to pause, and say rather than to try to wreck this, could we not see whether we can make it work.' He added that it was 'regrettable' that Captain Black in his entire speech made 'no apology for the phone-hacking on an industrial scale, or offer any recognition of the deep disgust of the general public which is reflected in the opinion polls we have seen.' Good point, matey. Nor, indeed, did captain Black apologise for the lives which have been wrecked by newspaper intrusion of privacy over the years. In the very week when the Daily Scum Mail stands accused of engaging in a campaign of harassment against a transgender teacher which may - or may not - have contributed to that poor individual's tragic suicide, one would have thought we'd hear an effing damn sight less about the rights of the press and a damn sight more about the rights of the people to be protected from the press. Tragically, the likes of Captain Black and the Mysterons don't appear to give a frigging stuff about The Little People. McNally denied that the proposals on exemplary damages were in breach of the European Convention, but acknowledged that 'we are taking a trip into the unknown.' Peers agreed without votes the first tranche of Leveson amendments introduced last week in the Commons.
Scotland Yard has defended its treatment of journalists arrested over alleged illegal payments to public officials in a letter to the newspaper industry's trade body. Although quite why they should have to defend the arrest of alleged criminals in any way they see fit is quite another matter entirely and one which, probably, should be debated at length. Will they be needing to defend the decision to drag an, alleged, armed blagger from his stinking pit in the wee small hours next, one wonders? The letter to the Society of Editors from the senior Metropolitan police officer responsible for the investigation into alleged bribery of allegedly corrupt public officials by alleged journalists follows widespread criticism - by the newspaper industry, if not anybody that actually matters - of the force's use of tactics including early morning raids. Cressida Dick, the Met's assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said that she wanted to 'reassure' editors on a number of points 'in the light of some recent reporting and commentary about Operation Elveden.' Again, one wonders if a similar letter has required to be sent to the Bank Robber's Weekly. Dick added, in a letter to Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell, that there were 'sound operational reasons' for journalists being arrested on suspicion of inappropriate payments to police and other public office in dawn raids. And that, if they didn't want to get hauled from their beds and put in the black maria then it might be an idea for them not to break the bloody law. Allegedly. 'Although this has been criticised, we consider it would be wrong to compromise potential opportunities because those being detained are journalists, police officers or other public officials,' she wrote.
'We genuinely try to carry out these arrests in a low key manner and as swiftly as possible.' Dick said that suspected 'criminal wrongdoing' could not be ignored, even when it does not involve payment. She added that her officers follow court of appeal guidance that for criminal sanctions to be appropriate, the suspected misconduct would normally have to mean that a public official's behaviour had fallen 'so far below the standards accepted as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder.' Dick also addressed other criticism of police tactics - again, from the newspaper industry if not from anyone that anybody else, actually, gives a shit about - including the length of time some arrestees have been on bail, which in the case of a number of Sun journalists is now more than a year. She said that the slow progress was 'regrettable', adding that the delays in deciding whether or not to charge those arrested were down to the complex nature of the Elveden investigation. 'There have been millions of e-mails, documentation, complex communications data and trails of financial transactions that require painstaking analysis as evidence has gradually emerged,' Dick said. In relation to the criticism that journalists have been 'put under surveillance' by officers working on Operation Elveden, she said that 'discreet checks' in the run-up to an arrest at a particular time and place were 'necessary police procedure. I believe it is important to remember that we are not investigating victimless crimes, nor has the remit of Operation Elveden been extended to any police officer who has simply spoken to a journalist, as has been suggested,' Dick added. 'It is important not to lose sight of the fact that this investigation is about alleged corruption in public bodies.' She concluded the letter by saying that an unintended and, she hoped, short-term consequence 'may be a negative effect on relations between police and journalists. This is unfortunate but in no way undermines the value the [Met] puts on the role of a free and investigative press in a democratic society – indeed this investigation is the result of such journalism. We want open, professional and trusting relationships between our officers and journalists.'
More than a dozen current and former Sun journalists turned out on Tuesday morning to give 'moral support' to the paper's deputy editor, Geoff Webster, who was appearing in court to face charges in connection with allegations of authorising payments to two public officials. In a show of solidarity, Sun staff in attendance at Westminster magistrates' court in Central London included the paper's former managing editor Graham Dudman, now director of editorial development at publisher News International, crime editor Mike Sullivan, news editor Chris Pharo, royal editor Duncan Larcombe, crime reporter Anthony France and deputy defence editor Dave Willetts. Webster was appearing on charges relating to allegations of authorising payments totalling eight grand to two public officials for information for stories. The first offence involves allegations that between 4 July 2010 and 1 August 2011, he authorised payments totalling six thousand five hundred smackers to a public official in return for information supplied to a Sun journalist which resulted in seven stories.
The second offence relates to an allegation that in November 2010, Webster authorised a payment of fifteen hundred quid for information provided by an unknown public official. The fifty three-year-old, from Cranbrook in Kent, has been charged with 'conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.' The charges came as a result of Operation Elveden. Counsel for Webster, Geoffrey Cox, told the court that he found the charges against his client concerning. 'To be quite frank, I found the charges profoundly disturbing at this late stage ... Webster was engaged in nothing more than doing his job. There is nothing to explain the reason why he has been charged. The only wrong that he has said to have done is to approve a number of payments in one case to an unknown public official,' said Cox. He told the court that the prosecution had 'not said what the payments were in relation to' and the stories that allegedly resulted were nothing more than 'tittle tattle' - although, quite why this is unique in the case of the Sun, he didn't add - and did not include 'confidential material.' Chief magistrate Howard Riddle ordered Webster, who is on unconditional bail, to appear at a further hearing on 12 April at Southwark crown court. Webster was charged last week and News International immediately issued an e-mail telling staff it would support him. At an earlier hearing in the Westminster magistrates' court on Tuesday, James Bowes, a former Sussex police sergeant, appeared in relation to charges of misconduct in public office between 9 April and 20 July 2010.
As we all shiver on our way to work (or, you know, the benefit office) in the morning, spare a thought for the producers of TV soaps. The Sun reports that filming of Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders has been affected by the snow that's currently hitting the country. As the programmes are filmed approximately six weeks in advance, the storylines are now set in the spring and the casts aren't exactly dressed for the freezing conditions.
Yer actual Eddie Izzard has revealed plans to run for London Mayor in the future. Eddie stated that comedy is needed in politics to make it more 'palatable' to the masses, and feels he could do a good job to help improve the country. 'I'm going to chuck in comedy in six years to go into politics,' he told the Sun. 'I've proved I can be determined and do things in a different way. And you need comedy in politics. There are lots of decisions to be made and people get bored talking about things that are only slightly different.
It's very dry so you need comedy to make it palatable.' He continued: 'You can get people's attention by doing huge tours and I'd rather do that than throw a TV out of a window. You do that and you're a rebel. But then you have no telly and a hole in your window. And if you play gigs you earn money, which is good for someone who wants to run for Mayor.' Ed also outlined plans to run twenty seven marathons in just twenty seven days next March, as a tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela's twenty seven years in captivity. His first attempts to complete the challenge will be featured in a new Sky documentary in the autumn. He was recently forced to stop the challenge after he began urinating blood. He said: 'I guarantee I will do it. I will drag myself round. I did think, "What if I fail a second time?" But Mandela tried and failed, tried and failed. Then he had a bit of success and failed. I will do the same thing - I'll go again until I do it. Mandela is a big hero of mine.'
A former BBC producer who was accused of indecently assaulting a girl says that the inquiry linked to the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal 'has gone too far.' Wilfred De'Ath, from Cambridgeshire, spoke after being told that he will not face any charges over the allegation, which dates back to the 1960s. He said that the Metropolitan Police were being 'overzealous and arresting people on spurious claims' because they had 'failed miserably' in relation to Savile himself. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, De'Ath, who is in his seventies, said that his 'pretty horrifying' arrest four-and-a-half months ago had involved seven police officers. 'I do realise they were only doing their job, but it seems to me they were overzealous,' he said. 'They failed miserably in the case of Jimmy Savile. They failed to get him when they could have got him. And it seems to me they've gone too far the other way now and are arresting people on rather spurious allegations.' The Metropolitan Police's Operation Yewtree is looking into allegations that have arisen against Savile since he died in 2011. It has three strands - one is looking specifically at the actions of Savile and the second strand concerning allegations against 'Savile and others.' The third strand relates to alleged complaints against other people unconnected to the Savile investigations. Although he once produced a Savile radio show, De'Ath's arrest was under this third strand. Eleven people have been arrested under Operation Yewtree and De'Ath is the first suspect that the Crown Prosecution Service has made a decision on. The Crown Prosecution Service said on Monday that there was 'not enough evidence' to charge De'Ath after the single complainant against him had withdrawn her statement. 
De'Ath, who has always maintained his innocence, said he had been questioned about an allegation that he had indecently assaulted a fourteen-year-old girl in the mid-1960s after inviting her to go to a press showing of a film. He said that he had met the girl, briefly, at a party, but had never gone to the cinema with her or assaulted her. De'Ath was asked on Today about a previous claim that Savile had spent the night in a hotel with a girl who was probably ten-years-old. De'Ath said it had 'never occurred' to him to go to the police. 'I did say to [Savile] "I think you're living dangerously,"' he claimed. 'I was pretty shocked and disgusted. Also, I was physically frightened of Savile. He had been a boxer and a wrestler and he was in with some very rough people. I would never have dreamed of grassing him up.' De'Ath said he 'slightly regrets' not doing anything at the time but in the corridors of the BBC it was 'common talk that he liked young girls.' It was a different culture in the 1950s and 1960s, he claimed, and 'sexual matters were taken much more lightly. We were all womanisers in those days. But as far as I know womanising is not a criminal offence,' he added. 'We were not paedophiles. You propositioned one hundred women on the chance that two or three would say "yes."' De'Ath said he was 'full of self-loathing' because he had not act over Savile but 'you have to live with yourself.'
A young television actor has been cleared of raping a fourteen-year-old boy. Blackfriars Crown Court heard claims that the actor - who cannot be identified because of his age - 'bullied' his alleged victim and used him 'for a sexual game.' The prosecution said he attacked the boy to prove to his girlfriend that he was bisexual. However, the defendant claimed their sexual activity was consensual. After almost five hours of deliberation, the jury cleared him of the charges he faced, which were three counts of sexual assault and one of oral rape. The court heard claims the actor twice attacked the teenager at a theatre, once while his girlfriend was present. It was also alleged he held the complainant's hands together with just one hand while they were in a toilet at school and performed a sex act on him. The complainant, who was fourteen at the time of the alleged incidents, collapsed in the witness box as he gave evidence last Monday. Prosecutor Timothy Forster, in his closing speech, asked the jury to consider why the alleged victim would make up the sexual assaults, considering the visible strain he went through while giving evidence. Defence counsel Judith Khan QC said in her speech: 'There is a natural reaction of sympathy to someone who reacts to giving evidence in that way. But it is important to bear in mind that that reaction is not an indicator of truthfulness. A witness who may be lying or dishonest may react in the same way.' She said the actor had told the truth in denying the charges. 'He volunteered the detail, it must have been excruciatingly embarrassing for him to give the detail, but give it he did,' she said.
Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove is being 'urged' to launch an inquiry into an 'extraordinary attack' on the former Tory education minister Tim Loughton on a Twitter feed which, according to the Gruniad Morning Star is 'widely believed' to be run by close allies of the education secretary. Labour called on rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove to act after Tory Education, which tweets news about the lack of education secretary, accused Loughton of 'telling lies' about child protection. In its tweet Tory Education wrote: 'Tim Loughton. Your lies on this subject are by far the worst of anything you've done in politics and we hope nobody believes a word you say.' Loughton has been in conflict with rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove and his allies since he was sacked as children's minister in the government reshuffle last September. The former minister told the Commons education select committee in January that children's issues were a 'declining priority within the department.' Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's allies hit back the following day by briefing the Spectator that Loughton was a 'lazy incompetent narcissist obsessed only with self-promotion.' The row erupted again on Tuesday after Loughton reacted to a government announcement on child abuse in Doncaster by saying that tougher action could have been taken two years ago. In a tweet, after the education department issued a response to a report by Lord Carlile into the Edlington case in Doncaster, Loughton wrote: 'Tougher intervention in Doncaster children services should have happened in 2011 when I wanted to publish SCR in full.' Loughton hit back at the accusation that he had 'lied' by claiming that he had originally been in favour of publishing the Edlington serious case review. He tweeted: 'Tory Education time for a senior DfE source to come out from cloak of anonymity and face scrutiny rather than rewriting history shamelessly?' Loughton then added in another tweet: 'Ttory Education, now we know there were only five people in room privy to me being blocked from publishing SCR so shall I name them?' This tweet, the Gruniad state, is 'understood to be highly significant.' Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's allies are maintaining that Loughton was keen to prevent the publication of serious case reviews because he wanted, in the words of an alleged education department 'source' to the Spectator in January, to 'maintain a culture of secrecy.'
It is believed, however, that Loughton sent a personal memo to rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove a year ago while he was still a minister expressing 'unease' over the delay in publishing the Edlington serious case review. It is understood that Loughton thought that the serious case review in one other area should not be published for 'highly sensitive reasons.' The existence of a personal memo from Loughton to rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove could, the Gruniad allege, 'prove problematic for the authors of the Tory Education twitter feed and the education department sources.' It appears to contradict directly the key allegations made by the author or authors of the Twitter postings. Dominic Cummings and Henry de Zoete, rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's two special advisers, have denied any involvement with Tory Education. De Zoete told the Observer: 'Don't know who it is.' Cummings told the newspaper: 'Of course I'm not this Twitter account and never have been. I focus on project-managing priorities. I don't waste my time on Twitter and you should tell your staff to do the same.' Ian Mearns, a Labour member of the Commons education select committee, said: 'This extraordinary attack [on Tim Loughton] is another example of derogatory language by the Tory Education twitter feed. Michael Gove needs to investigate if this feed is run by his advisers – if so that would be very serious. There is no place for these kind of personal attacks in public life. The education secretary needs to take action.'
Meanwhile, in a real scandal, this year's X Factor judges reportedly all want seven-figure salaries. Show 'bosses' are alleged to be 'concerned' that the - alleged - talent's pay demands could exceed the planned thirty three million smackers budget for the series, according to claims in the Sun.
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have had their acquittals for killing Meredith Kercher in 2007 overturned and face a re-run of their appeal, Italy's top court has ruled. The pair spent four years in pokey but were freed on appeal in 2011 largely on the grounds that DNA evidence used at the original trial was flawed. Knox said the news was 'painful' but Kercher's sister said she was 'happy' with the decision. Italian law cannot compel Knox to return for the review of her appeal. She currently lives in Seattle but, if convicted in absentia, Italy could seek her extradition from America. In a statement, Knox said: 'It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution's theory of my involvement in Meredith's murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair.' She added: 'No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity.' A lawyer for Sollecito, Giulia Buongiorno, said: 'We are hopeful. We know Raffaele Sollecito is absolutely innocent.' Freelance journalist Andrea Vogt told the BBC that she had spoken to a lawyer for the Kercher family, who said the decision was 'a victory for the family and a victory for the Italian judicial system.' Kercher's older sister, Stephanie, welcomed the decision as a step forward. 'Whilst we are not happy about going back to court, and it will not bring her back, we have to make sure we have done all we can for her,' she said. Knox, now twenty five, and Sollecito, twenty nine, were originally sentenced to twenty six and twenty five years in the slammer for killing and sexually assaulting Meredith. Rudy Guede was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to sixteen years. The Côte d'Ivoire national was found guilty of sexually assaulting and stabbing Kercher. He admitted to being at the house on the night of the killing, but denies murder. Meredith, from Coulsdon in South London, had been on a year abroad from Leeds University when she was found semi-naked in her bedroom and with her throat cut in the cottage she shared with Knox in November 2007.
Prosecutors believed she was killed as part of a brutal sex game that went wrong. Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in October 2011 by an appeals court that criticised the prosecution case and noted that the murder weapon had never been found, that DNA tests were faulty and that no murder motive was provided. Prosecutors appealed against that ruling and argued at the Court of Cassation on Monday that the acquittals were 'contradictory and illogical.' Addressing the court, prosecutors urged the judges to 'make sure the final curtain does not drop on this shocking and dire crime.' The court examined whether there had been 'procedural irregularities', rather than looking at the details of the case, and it will announce the reasons for its ruling within ninety days. Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito looked grim-faced on Tuesday as they tried to get the details of the ruling from the court. Knox lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said the decision was 'shocking' and wanted to know the 'motivations' for the ruling. 'She thought the nightmare was over,' he said, adding that it was unlikely the new hearing would be held before early 2014. The new hearing will take place in Florence.
The father of ex-England footballers Gary and Phil Neville has been arrested on suspicion of an indecent assault.
The BBC News website says it 'understands' Neville Neville (no, really, that's his name), who is his sons' agent, was arrested by Greater Manchester Police. A police statement said that officers were 'investigating a sexual assault in the early hours of Saturday, in Bury.' A sixty three-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and bailed until May 'pending further inquiries.' Neville is the former commercial director and commercial manager of Bury Football Club. He was involved in the fans' group Save Our Shakers which was formed when the club faced bankruptcy in 2002.
Linda Robson reportedly vomitted on stage during a performance of the Birds of a Feather tour, but managed to continue with the production. Yeah, it was always a sitcom that made this particular viewer violently sick to the pit of his stomach too, I sympathise. The actress, who played Tracey in the thoroughly wretched though bafflingly popular BBC sitcom, was performing at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne when she took ill part way through the show. Robson thanked the staff at the theatre for 'clearing up after [her]' and praised the audience for their patience.
Motown songwriter-producer Deke Richards, who was behind songs including The Jackson Five's first three number one hits, has died aged sixty eight. Deke, who had oesophageal cancer, died in a Washington state hospice, Universal Music said. The musician, whose real name was Dennis Lussier, was the leader of the Motown songwriting, arranging and producing team The Corporation. Their hits include The Jackson Five's chart-topping 'I Want You Back', 'ABC' and 'The Love You Save'. Deke also co-wrote the 1968 masterpiece 'Love Child' (with R Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson and Pam Sawyer) for Diana Ross & The Supremes, as well as Ross's first solo worldwide hit 'I'm Still Waiting'. Deke was born in Los Angeles, his father was the screenwriter Dane Lussier. Deke began his career as a musician and actor, portraying one of the band members in the legendarily bad teens-versus-cavemen b-movie Eegah in 1962.
While playing in a band which backed the singer Debbie Dean, Deke wrote several songs for her and, subsequently, met Berry Gordy when The Supremes played at the Hollywood Palace in 1966. Gordy signed Richards to a contract with the Motown organisation as record producer and songwriter. As well as working with The Jackson Five and The Supremes, Deke also wrote and produced for Bobby Darin, Martha & The Vandellas, The Blackberries and Stacie Johnson, among others. The Corporation - which comprised of Richards, Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell and Freddie Perren - was assembled in 1969 to create hit records for the label's new act, The Jackson Five. They also wrote, produced and arranged the band's singles 'Maybe Tomorrow' and 'Mama's Pearl'. The Hollywood Reporter said Deke's 'love of music' kept him involved with a variety of projects, including last year's production of The Jackson Five's archive CD Come and Get It: The Rare Pearls, featuring several previously unreleased songs. Deke's final work was the mixing of eight unreleased cuts by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas for the band's fiftieth anniversary box set, which is due to be released on 5 April. He is survived by his wife, Joan Lussier, a brother and two nephews.
So, for today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day, where else to go but Deke's back catalogue? Here's Di, Mary and Cindy.
Former Doctor Who guest star Sophia Myles was on Twitter this week posting a series of most cryptic messages concerning The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat (Thou Shalt Worship No Other Gods Before He).
The thirty three-year-old actress, who played Madame de Pompadour in the 2006 episode The Girl in the Fireplace - writer by The Moffinator and a particular favourite of yer actual Keith Telly Topping as it happens - claimed that she kept 'missing calls' from the Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner. Myles subsequently added that she had left the executive producer a voicemail message, before later claiming that she had spoken to Moffat and 'figured everything out.' Which is nice. Yer actual Keith Telly Topping does enjoy a happy ending to a story. Even if he hasn't got the faintest buggering clue what the story is all about. Martin Freeman's missus Amanda Abbington appears to have joined the cast of Sherlock for its third series. Fans have taken photos and filmed Abbington shooting scenes on location in Bristol alongside yer actual Benedict Cumberbatch. The actress was spotted taking part in a scene apparently from new episode The Empty Hearse on Monday, which involved her character running to a bonfire with Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes. Amanda's TV credits include ITV's Mr Selfridge, Doc Martin and Being Human.
Stevenson admitted this was her first experience of fantasy drama. 'This genre is new to me, so I am looking forward to a great adventure.' The BBC's take on Atlantis is of a mysterious, ancient place with vast palaces said to be built by giants, snake-haired goddesses and other mythical creatures. The drama's main protagonist, Jason, is a young man who arrives on Atlantis and begins a series of adventures. Sets depicting the mythical city and island are under construction in Wales and Morocco, with filming due to begin next month. Atlantis has been written by Howard Overman, creator of E4's drama Misfits. His other writing credits include Merlin and the BBC4 adaptation of Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently (which started well but got very poor very quickly). Producers will hope they can tap into the current taste for fantasy, SF and horror, with Atlantis following the BBC's successful reinvention of Doctor Who, Merlin, the very popular reworking of the Arthurian legends which ran for five series until last autumn and ITV's time-travel-meets-dinosaurs drama Primeval. Darker and more adult US excursions into the fantasy genre include Game of Thrones, with its graphic sex and nudity combined with complex storylines in a fictional medieval world, while The Hobbit has returned Tolkien's Middle Earth to cinemas. There are also many new examples of the horror genre, including vampire series True Blood and zombie series The Walking Dead, starring British actors Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey. 
I hope they're bastard well scared. I hope they're shitting in their own keks in abject terror at what's in store for them. Captain Black claimed it could 'not be right' that the proposals, agreed 'at breakneck speed', had been tacked on to the crime and courts bill without 'any proper scrutiny. They were cobbled together late at night over pizza with no thought for the legal and constitutional issues involved,' he said. Or course, if much less aggressive set of proposals had been arrived at using exactly the same process one rather doubts that Captain Black and the Mysterons would be quite so eager to whinge about it. It's not the process itself which is at stake, here, it's the outcome. Here endeth the lesson. Captain Black said that the exemplary damages clauses would 'almost certainly' be contrary to European law - and, yes, you heard it here first, dear blog reader, a Tory-supporting newspaper owner who is, suddenly, very keen on the Human Rights Act. That's got to be a first - and criticised 'an unrepresentative lobby group of celebrities', a reference to the pressure group Hacked Off, which was involved in the talks between the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems that led to the controversial press deal last Monday morning. Note here, the particularly sneering use of the term 'celebrities'. Presumably this description excludes the Dowler family and the McCann's who are as much a part of Hacked Off's public profile as any celebrity. Because, of course, criticising the parents of a murdered schoolgirl who had her phone hacked by shitescum doesn't go down as well with Torygraph readers as, say, criticising Hugh Grant. 'These amendments are wrong in principle and fundamentally flawed,' whinged Captain Black. 'They are almost certainly illegal and so will not endure. They deal with problems of an analogue past and are – in the words of the Guardian – "illiterate about the Internet." They will either collapse or be struck down in Europe. They are a constitutional nightmare.' So, if they're 'almost certainly' (love that phrase, it's got just enough wiggle room in it for all manner of shenanigans and malarkey) illegal, your Captain Blackship, then what - exactly - is the problem? Just wait until a court strikes it down and then crow 'I told you so' from the nearest handy plinth. A second clause was 'also contrary to the principles of law', where costs are generally awarded against the loser, Captain Black alleged, claiming that publishers 'faced the prospect of having to bear the entire costs of a case even if they won.' His plea to the Lords to reconsider the amendments echoes the arguments expressed in a lengthy piece by the Gruniad Morning Star's editor-in-chief, the specky little Communist toerag Alan Runtbudgie in which he warned that exemplary damages for those who don't join the new regulator would be 'a seriously bad idea that will create martyrs.' Very poor martyrs, though - that's a significant argument in favour, frankly. Lord McNally urged Captain Black and the Mysterons 'genuinely to pause, and say rather than to try to wreck this, could we not see whether we can make it work.' He added that it was 'regrettable' that Captain Black in his entire speech made 'no apology for the phone-hacking on an industrial scale, or offer any recognition of the deep disgust of the general public which is reflected in the opinion polls we have seen.' Good point, matey. Nor, indeed, did captain Black apologise for the lives which have been wrecked by newspaper intrusion of privacy over the years. In the very week when the Daily Scum Mail stands accused of engaging in a campaign of harassment against a transgender teacher which may - or may not - have contributed to that poor individual's tragic suicide, one would have thought we'd hear an effing damn sight less about the rights of the press and a damn sight more about the rights of the people to be protected from the press. Tragically, the likes of Captain Black and the Mysterons don't appear to give a frigging stuff about The Little People. McNally denied that the proposals on exemplary damages were in breach of the European Convention, but acknowledged that 'we are taking a trip into the unknown.' Peers agreed without votes the first tranche of Leveson amendments introduced last week in the Commons.Scotland Yard has defended its treatment of journalists arrested over alleged illegal payments to public officials in a letter to the newspaper industry's trade body. Although quite why they should have to defend the arrest of alleged criminals in any way they see fit is quite another matter entirely and one which, probably, should be debated at length. Will they be needing to defend the decision to drag an, alleged, armed blagger from his stinking pit in the wee small hours next, one wonders? The letter to the Society of Editors from the senior Metropolitan police officer responsible for the investigation into alleged bribery of allegedly corrupt public officials by alleged journalists follows widespread criticism - by the newspaper industry, if not anybody that actually matters - of the force's use of tactics including early morning raids. Cressida Dick, the Met's assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said that she wanted to 'reassure' editors on a number of points 'in the light of some recent reporting and commentary about Operation Elveden.' Again, one wonders if a similar letter has required to be sent to the Bank Robber's Weekly. Dick added, in a letter to Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell, that there were 'sound operational reasons' for journalists being arrested on suspicion of inappropriate payments to police and other public office in dawn raids. And that, if they didn't want to get hauled from their beds and put in the black maria then it might be an idea for them not to break the bloody law. Allegedly. 'Although this has been criticised, we consider it would be wrong to compromise potential opportunities because those being detained are journalists, police officers or other public officials,' she wrote.
'We genuinely try to carry out these arrests in a low key manner and as swiftly as possible.' Dick said that suspected 'criminal wrongdoing' could not be ignored, even when it does not involve payment. She added that her officers follow court of appeal guidance that for criminal sanctions to be appropriate, the suspected misconduct would normally have to mean that a public official's behaviour had fallen 'so far below the standards accepted as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder.' Dick also addressed other criticism of police tactics - again, from the newspaper industry if not from anyone that anybody else, actually, gives a shit about - including the length of time some arrestees have been on bail, which in the case of a number of Sun journalists is now more than a year. She said that the slow progress was 'regrettable', adding that the delays in deciding whether or not to charge those arrested were down to the complex nature of the Elveden investigation. 'There have been millions of e-mails, documentation, complex communications data and trails of financial transactions that require painstaking analysis as evidence has gradually emerged,' Dick said. In relation to the criticism that journalists have been 'put under surveillance' by officers working on Operation Elveden, she said that 'discreet checks' in the run-up to an arrest at a particular time and place were 'necessary police procedure. I believe it is important to remember that we are not investigating victimless crimes, nor has the remit of Operation Elveden been extended to any police officer who has simply spoken to a journalist, as has been suggested,' Dick added. 'It is important not to lose sight of the fact that this investigation is about alleged corruption in public bodies.' She concluded the letter by saying that an unintended and, she hoped, short-term consequence 'may be a negative effect on relations between police and journalists. This is unfortunate but in no way undermines the value the [Met] puts on the role of a free and investigative press in a democratic society – indeed this investigation is the result of such journalism. We want open, professional and trusting relationships between our officers and journalists.'More than a dozen current and former Sun journalists turned out on Tuesday morning to give 'moral support' to the paper's deputy editor, Geoff Webster, who was appearing in court to face charges in connection with allegations of authorising payments to two public officials. In a show of solidarity, Sun staff in attendance at Westminster magistrates' court in Central London included the paper's former managing editor Graham Dudman, now director of editorial development at publisher News International, crime editor Mike Sullivan, news editor Chris Pharo, royal editor Duncan Larcombe, crime reporter Anthony France and deputy defence editor Dave Willetts. Webster was appearing on charges relating to allegations of authorising payments totalling eight grand to two public officials for information for stories. The first offence involves allegations that between 4 July 2010 and 1 August 2011, he authorised payments totalling six thousand five hundred smackers to a public official in return for information supplied to a Sun journalist which resulted in seven stories.
The second offence relates to an allegation that in November 2010, Webster authorised a payment of fifteen hundred quid for information provided by an unknown public official. The fifty three-year-old, from Cranbrook in Kent, has been charged with 'conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.' The charges came as a result of Operation Elveden. Counsel for Webster, Geoffrey Cox, told the court that he found the charges against his client concerning. 'To be quite frank, I found the charges profoundly disturbing at this late stage ... Webster was engaged in nothing more than doing his job. There is nothing to explain the reason why he has been charged. The only wrong that he has said to have done is to approve a number of payments in one case to an unknown public official,' said Cox. He told the court that the prosecution had 'not said what the payments were in relation to' and the stories that allegedly resulted were nothing more than 'tittle tattle' - although, quite why this is unique in the case of the Sun, he didn't add - and did not include 'confidential material.' Chief magistrate Howard Riddle ordered Webster, who is on unconditional bail, to appear at a further hearing on 12 April at Southwark crown court. Webster was charged last week and News International immediately issued an e-mail telling staff it would support him. At an earlier hearing in the Westminster magistrates' court on Tuesday, James Bowes, a former Sussex police sergeant, appeared in relation to charges of misconduct in public office between 9 April and 20 July 2010.As we all shiver on our way to work (or, you know, the benefit office) in the morning, spare a thought for the producers of TV soaps. The Sun reports that filming of Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders has been affected by the snow that's currently hitting the country. As the programmes are filmed approximately six weeks in advance, the storylines are now set in the spring and the casts aren't exactly dressed for the freezing conditions.
Yer actual Eddie Izzard has revealed plans to run for London Mayor in the future. Eddie stated that comedy is needed in politics to make it more 'palatable' to the masses, and feels he could do a good job to help improve the country. 'I'm going to chuck in comedy in six years to go into politics,' he told the Sun. 'I've proved I can be determined and do things in a different way. And you need comedy in politics. There are lots of decisions to be made and people get bored talking about things that are only slightly different.
It's very dry so you need comedy to make it palatable.' He continued: 'You can get people's attention by doing huge tours and I'd rather do that than throw a TV out of a window. You do that and you're a rebel. But then you have no telly and a hole in your window. And if you play gigs you earn money, which is good for someone who wants to run for Mayor.' Ed also outlined plans to run twenty seven marathons in just twenty seven days next March, as a tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela's twenty seven years in captivity. His first attempts to complete the challenge will be featured in a new Sky documentary in the autumn. He was recently forced to stop the challenge after he began urinating blood. He said: 'I guarantee I will do it. I will drag myself round. I did think, "What if I fail a second time?" But Mandela tried and failed, tried and failed. Then he had a bit of success and failed. I will do the same thing - I'll go again until I do it. Mandela is a big hero of mine.'
De'Ath, who has always maintained his innocence, said he had been questioned about an allegation that he had indecently assaulted a fourteen-year-old girl in the mid-1960s after inviting her to go to a press showing of a film. He said that he had met the girl, briefly, at a party, but had never gone to the cinema with her or assaulted her. De'Ath was asked on Today about a previous claim that Savile had spent the night in a hotel with a girl who was probably ten-years-old. De'Ath said it had 'never occurred' to him to go to the police. 'I did say to [Savile] "I think you're living dangerously,"' he claimed. 'I was pretty shocked and disgusted. Also, I was physically frightened of Savile. He had been a boxer and a wrestler and he was in with some very rough people. I would never have dreamed of grassing him up.' De'Ath said he 'slightly regrets' not doing anything at the time but in the corridors of the BBC it was 'common talk that he liked young girls.' It was a different culture in the 1950s and 1960s, he claimed, and 'sexual matters were taken much more lightly. We were all womanisers in those days. But as far as I know womanising is not a criminal offence,' he added. 'We were not paedophiles. You propositioned one hundred women on the chance that two or three would say "yes."' De'Ath said he was 'full of self-loathing' because he had not act over Savile but 'you have to live with yourself.'A young television actor has been cleared of raping a fourteen-year-old boy. Blackfriars Crown Court heard claims that the actor - who cannot be identified because of his age - 'bullied' his alleged victim and used him 'for a sexual game.' The prosecution said he attacked the boy to prove to his girlfriend that he was bisexual. However, the defendant claimed their sexual activity was consensual. After almost five hours of deliberation, the jury cleared him of the charges he faced, which were three counts of sexual assault and one of oral rape. The court heard claims the actor twice attacked the teenager at a theatre, once while his girlfriend was present. It was also alleged he held the complainant's hands together with just one hand while they were in a toilet at school and performed a sex act on him. The complainant, who was fourteen at the time of the alleged incidents, collapsed in the witness box as he gave evidence last Monday. Prosecutor Timothy Forster, in his closing speech, asked the jury to consider why the alleged victim would make up the sexual assaults, considering the visible strain he went through while giving evidence. Defence counsel Judith Khan QC said in her speech: 'There is a natural reaction of sympathy to someone who reacts to giving evidence in that way. But it is important to bear in mind that that reaction is not an indicator of truthfulness. A witness who may be lying or dishonest may react in the same way.' She said the actor had told the truth in denying the charges. 'He volunteered the detail, it must have been excruciatingly embarrassing for him to give the detail, but give it he did,' she said.
Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove is being 'urged' to launch an inquiry into an 'extraordinary attack' on the former Tory education minister Tim Loughton on a Twitter feed which, according to the Gruniad Morning Star is 'widely believed' to be run by close allies of the education secretary. Labour called on rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove to act after Tory Education, which tweets news about the lack of education secretary, accused Loughton of 'telling lies' about child protection. In its tweet Tory Education wrote: 'Tim Loughton. Your lies on this subject are by far the worst of anything you've done in politics and we hope nobody believes a word you say.' Loughton has been in conflict with rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove and his allies since he was sacked as children's minister in the government reshuffle last September. The former minister told the Commons education select committee in January that children's issues were a 'declining priority within the department.' Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's allies hit back the following day by briefing the Spectator that Loughton was a 'lazy incompetent narcissist obsessed only with self-promotion.' The row erupted again on Tuesday after Loughton reacted to a government announcement on child abuse in Doncaster by saying that tougher action could have been taken two years ago. In a tweet, after the education department issued a response to a report by Lord Carlile into the Edlington case in Doncaster, Loughton wrote: 'Tougher intervention in Doncaster children services should have happened in 2011 when I wanted to publish SCR in full.' Loughton hit back at the accusation that he had 'lied' by claiming that he had originally been in favour of publishing the Edlington serious case review. He tweeted: 'Tory Education time for a senior DfE source to come out from cloak of anonymity and face scrutiny rather than rewriting history shamelessly?' Loughton then added in another tweet: 'Ttory Education, now we know there were only five people in room privy to me being blocked from publishing SCR so shall I name them?' This tweet, the Gruniad state, is 'understood to be highly significant.' Rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's allies are maintaining that Loughton was keen to prevent the publication of serious case reviews because he wanted, in the words of an alleged education department 'source' to the Spectator in January, to 'maintain a culture of secrecy.'
It is believed, however, that Loughton sent a personal memo to rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove a year ago while he was still a minister expressing 'unease' over the delay in publishing the Edlington serious case review. It is understood that Loughton thought that the serious case review in one other area should not be published for 'highly sensitive reasons.' The existence of a personal memo from Loughton to rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove could, the Gruniad allege, 'prove problematic for the authors of the Tory Education twitter feed and the education department sources.' It appears to contradict directly the key allegations made by the author or authors of the Twitter postings. Dominic Cummings and Henry de Zoete, rat-faced loathsome wretched odious nasty slavver-merchant and George Formby lookalike Gove's two special advisers, have denied any involvement with Tory Education. De Zoete told the Observer: 'Don't know who it is.' Cummings told the newspaper: 'Of course I'm not this Twitter account and never have been. I focus on project-managing priorities. I don't waste my time on Twitter and you should tell your staff to do the same.' Ian Mearns, a Labour member of the Commons education select committee, said: 'This extraordinary attack [on Tim Loughton] is another example of derogatory language by the Tory Education twitter feed. Michael Gove needs to investigate if this feed is run by his advisers – if so that would be very serious. There is no place for these kind of personal attacks in public life. The education secretary needs to take action.'Meanwhile, in a real scandal, this year's X Factor judges reportedly all want seven-figure salaries. Show 'bosses' are alleged to be 'concerned' that the - alleged - talent's pay demands could exceed the planned thirty three million smackers budget for the series, according to claims in the Sun.
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have had their acquittals for killing Meredith Kercher in 2007 overturned and face a re-run of their appeal, Italy's top court has ruled. The pair spent four years in pokey but were freed on appeal in 2011 largely on the grounds that DNA evidence used at the original trial was flawed. Knox said the news was 'painful' but Kercher's sister said she was 'happy' with the decision. Italian law cannot compel Knox to return for the review of her appeal. She currently lives in Seattle but, if convicted in absentia, Italy could seek her extradition from America. In a statement, Knox said: 'It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution's theory of my involvement in Meredith's murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair.' She added: 'No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity.' A lawyer for Sollecito, Giulia Buongiorno, said: 'We are hopeful. We know Raffaele Sollecito is absolutely innocent.' Freelance journalist Andrea Vogt told the BBC that she had spoken to a lawyer for the Kercher family, who said the decision was 'a victory for the family and a victory for the Italian judicial system.' Kercher's older sister, Stephanie, welcomed the decision as a step forward. 'Whilst we are not happy about going back to court, and it will not bring her back, we have to make sure we have done all we can for her,' she said. Knox, now twenty five, and Sollecito, twenty nine, were originally sentenced to twenty six and twenty five years in the slammer for killing and sexually assaulting Meredith. Rudy Guede was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to sixteen years. The Côte d'Ivoire national was found guilty of sexually assaulting and stabbing Kercher. He admitted to being at the house on the night of the killing, but denies murder. Meredith, from Coulsdon in South London, had been on a year abroad from Leeds University when she was found semi-naked in her bedroom and with her throat cut in the cottage she shared with Knox in November 2007.
Prosecutors believed she was killed as part of a brutal sex game that went wrong. Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in October 2011 by an appeals court that criticised the prosecution case and noted that the murder weapon had never been found, that DNA tests were faulty and that no murder motive was provided. Prosecutors appealed against that ruling and argued at the Court of Cassation on Monday that the acquittals were 'contradictory and illogical.' Addressing the court, prosecutors urged the judges to 'make sure the final curtain does not drop on this shocking and dire crime.' The court examined whether there had been 'procedural irregularities', rather than looking at the details of the case, and it will announce the reasons for its ruling within ninety days. Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito looked grim-faced on Tuesday as they tried to get the details of the ruling from the court. Knox lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said the decision was 'shocking' and wanted to know the 'motivations' for the ruling. 'She thought the nightmare was over,' he said, adding that it was unlikely the new hearing would be held before early 2014. The new hearing will take place in Florence.The father of ex-England footballers Gary and Phil Neville has been arrested on suspicion of an indecent assault.
The BBC News website says it 'understands' Neville Neville (no, really, that's his name), who is his sons' agent, was arrested by Greater Manchester Police. A police statement said that officers were 'investigating a sexual assault in the early hours of Saturday, in Bury.' A sixty three-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and bailed until May 'pending further inquiries.' Neville is the former commercial director and commercial manager of Bury Football Club. He was involved in the fans' group Save Our Shakers which was formed when the club faced bankruptcy in 2002.Linda Robson reportedly vomitted on stage during a performance of the Birds of a Feather tour, but managed to continue with the production. Yeah, it was always a sitcom that made this particular viewer violently sick to the pit of his stomach too, I sympathise. The actress, who played Tracey in the thoroughly wretched though bafflingly popular BBC sitcom, was performing at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne when she took ill part way through the show. Robson thanked the staff at the theatre for 'clearing up after [her]' and praised the audience for their patience.
Motown songwriter-producer Deke Richards, who was behind songs including The Jackson Five's first three number one hits, has died aged sixty eight. Deke, who had oesophageal cancer, died in a Washington state hospice, Universal Music said. The musician, whose real name was Dennis Lussier, was the leader of the Motown songwriting, arranging and producing team The Corporation. Their hits include The Jackson Five's chart-topping 'I Want You Back', 'ABC' and 'The Love You Save'. Deke also co-wrote the 1968 masterpiece 'Love Child' (with R Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson and Pam Sawyer) for Diana Ross & The Supremes, as well as Ross's first solo worldwide hit 'I'm Still Waiting'. Deke was born in Los Angeles, his father was the screenwriter Dane Lussier. Deke began his career as a musician and actor, portraying one of the band members in the legendarily bad teens-versus-cavemen b-movie Eegah in 1962.
While playing in a band which backed the singer Debbie Dean, Deke wrote several songs for her and, subsequently, met Berry Gordy when The Supremes played at the Hollywood Palace in 1966. Gordy signed Richards to a contract with the Motown organisation as record producer and songwriter. As well as working with The Jackson Five and The Supremes, Deke also wrote and produced for Bobby Darin, Martha & The Vandellas, The Blackberries and Stacie Johnson, among others. The Corporation - which comprised of Richards, Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell and Freddie Perren - was assembled in 1969 to create hit records for the label's new act, The Jackson Five. They also wrote, produced and arranged the band's singles 'Maybe Tomorrow' and 'Mama's Pearl'. The Hollywood Reporter said Deke's 'love of music' kept him involved with a variety of projects, including last year's production of The Jackson Five's archive CD Come and Get It: The Rare Pearls, featuring several previously unreleased songs. Deke's final work was the mixing of eight unreleased cuts by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas for the band's fiftieth anniversary box set, which is due to be released on 5 April. He is survived by his wife, Joan Lussier, a brother and two nephews.So, for today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day, where else to go but Deke's back catalogue? Here's Di, Mary and Cindy.
