It has been, dear blog reader, a black and Hellish few weeks with a number of musicians whom this blogger greatly admired dropping like flies. Nik Turner, Keith Levene, Wilko Johnson, Chrissy McVie, Jet Black and Angelo Badalamenti to name but half-a-dozen. This week, on the same day (Tuesday) we lost two more; Primal Scream and The Charlatans' excellent keyboard player Martin Duffy and, the one out of all of these which really affected this blogger the most, the great Terry Hall.
Neville Staple, Terry's bandmate in The Specials and Fun Boy Three, said that he was 'deeply saddened' by the news. 'We knew Terry had been unwell but didn't realise how serious [it was] until recently,' he wrote. 'We had only just confirmed some 2023 joint music agreements together. This has hit me hard and must be extremely difficult for Terry's wife and family.' In a statement, Jerry Dammers, the founder of The Specials, described the news of Hall's death as 'very shocking, horrible and tragic. Terry was so young and I feel very sad. Contrary to some of what has been reported since, Terry and I got on well in the original Specials,' he added. 'Beyond our punky start on-stage, it was in the studio with Elvis Costello producing, where Terry was able to sing quietly, that I think his hidden strength came out, a delivery which brought out the melancholy in some of The Specials' songs and which I think a lot of people could relate to. All my condolences and sympathies go out to his wife and family.'
Terence Edward Hall was born in March 1959 and raised in Coventry, where most of his family worked in the city's then-booming car industry. In an interview with Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre podcast in 2019 Terry - showing what a brilliant deadpan comedian he could've been in an alternate universe - recalled his annoyance growing up that he shared a name with the popular television ventriloquist and creator of Lenny The Lion! He was an academically gifted child and also a noted footballer who was invited to try out for West Bromwich Albion - an opportunity his parents declined based on the inconvenience of regularly travelling across the Midlands. After he sailed through the eleven-plus exam, Terry's parents also declined his place at a nearby grammar school. 'All of a sudden they were expected to buy books and a school uniform,' he told Fantastic Man. 'I'd just been walking to school dressed in my football kit. So there's always been a bit of that kicking around in the back of my mind. Not being educated. Wondering what would have happened if I'd gone.' Terry also told Richard Herring that, aged twelve, he was abducted by a paedophile ring in France, an incident he had previously touched upon in the dark, moody 1983 Fun Boy Three song 'Well Fancy That!', which blamed a teacher for the ordeal: 'You took me to France/On the promise of teaching me French,' he sang. 'I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,' he told The Spectator in 2019. 'And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.' Terry 'kept it hidden' and didn't tell his parents all of the details. 'They both worked in factories. They got paid in cash. My dad was a heavy drinker. They had their own lives [to deal with].' He said that the incident left him with lifelong depression and caused him to drop out of education at the age of fourteen, after becoming addicted to the valium he had been prescribed. 'I didn't go to school, I didn't do anything. I just sat on my bed rocking for eight months.'
Music was to be his solace. His political awakening came in his teenage years 'when I discovered that working men's clubs had a colour bar on their doors. You could only get in if you were white. That really shook me.' After working as an apprentice hairdresser and then a bricklayer, among other jobs, inspired by seeing The Sex Pistols and The Clash he joined his first band, the punk outfit The Squad. His older sister and guiding influence, Teresa, introduced him to the ska and reggae of Trojan Records, while it was David Bowie's 1975 LP Young Americans that pushed Terry towards becoming a singer, he told the Gruniad Morning Star in 2009. 'I come from a gypsy-spirited family and everyone used to sing in pubs whether you liked it or not. I didn't want to be that sort of singer. Then when I was sixteen this album gave me a look, a sound and a way of holding yourself. Apparently all [Bowie's] clothes were from WalMart at this time. He put a blond streak in his hair and we would do the same.' Terry received his first writing credit on The Squad's debut single 'Red Alert'. He was spotted by Jerry Dammers, who recruited him as a frontman for his band, at the time still called The Coventry Automatics, by deploying a terrible pun. 'He worked in a stamp shop' Jerry told Mojo magazine. 'I told him, "Philately will get you nowhere!"' After gaining a fearsome live reputation in their home city and a tour supporting The Clash, the band - now renamed The Special AKA (usually simplified as The Specials) - rose to national prominence after Radio 1's John Peel gave them a session on his show and raved over their extraordinary self-released debut single, 'Gangsters'. The song - both a tribute to Prince Buster's 'Al Capone' and a pointed barb at The Clash's notorious manager Bernie Rhodes and his dictatorial treatment of The Specials during the tour ('don't interrupt while I'm talking/Or they'll confiscate all your guitars!') - established the band and their label, 2-Tone, as a major force in British music.
They were a multi-racial group, documenting the turbulent Thatcher years by playing songs directly indebted to Jamaican ska - the pre-reggae style that remained popular in Britain's West Indian communities - and lyrics that spoke to the nation's disenchanted youth on a one-to-one level. Their eponymous debut LP, produced by Elvis Costello and containing such confrontational dancefloor classics as 'Do The Dog', 'Nite Klub', 'Concrete Jungle', the downright nasty 'Little Bitch', 'Monkey Man' 'Stupid Marriage' and 'Blank Expression' was a critical and commercial sensation in late 1979 and, for a certain age group of young Britons, our Sgt. Pepper's. Further hit singles followed, starting with a superb cover of Dandy Livingstone's ska classic 'A Message To You Rudy'. The Specials began 1980 vying with The Jam as the biggest band in Britain, their five-song EP The Special AKA Live, recorded in London and Coventry and headed by a one-hundred-miles-per-hour version of 'Too Much Too Young' (Dammers' song about teenage pregnancy) hit the top of the UK singles chart in February. The frantic three-song medley on the b-side, 'The Skinhead Symphony', gives listeners an idea what a stunning experience a Specials gig of this period was like. As does a quite remarkable concert recorded by the BBC at Colchester for their Rock Goes To The College strand. Which ended, as did many of their shows, with a mass stage invasion of moonstomping rude-boys.
The band's second LP, More Specials, was darker and more experimental, not as commercially successful as the debut (and, as a consequence, somewhat under-rated until being reassessed in later years). It was recorded at a time when, according to Terry, schisms had developed in the band. Although it still included three bona fide classic hit singles, 'Rat Race', 'Stereotype' and 'Do Nothing' along with two versions of the 1940s standard 'Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)' which quickly became a fan favourite. The slow version of the latter song featured backing vocals by Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's who had supported The Specials and Madness on a summer UK tour (this blogger caught the show in Sunderland. It was ruddy immense. See below). Jane and Terry began a relationship during this period, co-writing The Go-Go's breakthrough US hit 'Our Lips Are Sealed'.
In early 1981, The Specials took a break from recording and touring and then released 'Ghost Town' in June, their second number one single. An hypnotic, menacing song and a major piece of important social commentary with a memorable video it seemed to predict and then soundtrack that summer's race riots on the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham - a response to the police's crass use of stop-and-search tactics. The fact that it was the UK's number one in the week of the Royal Wedding was noted by many commentators. However, their Top Of The Pops performance of the song was made with tensions barely suppressed as Terry, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding had announced backstage that they would be leaving. Golding later said: 'We didn't talk to the rest of the guys. We couldn't even stay in the same dressing room. We couldn't even look at each other. We stopped communicating. You only realise what a genius Jerry was years later. At the time, we were on a different planet.' 'When we picked up a gold disc for 'Ghost Town', I felt really bad about it,' Terry recalled. 'You are being told to celebrate this number one record that is about what is happening, the mess that we are in and I felt very uncomfortable.' After one final Specials gig - the Northern Carnival Against Racism in Leeds in July - the trio left to form Fun Boy Three.
Abandoning ska and dub for a more experimental, skeletal pop sound, Fun Boy Three's debut single 'The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)' picked up where 'Ghost Town' left off. They enjoyed considerable chart success between 1981 and 1984, collaborating twice with Bananarama, on 'It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)' and 'Really Saying Something'. Their second LP, 1983's Waiting, produced by David Byrne, was the perfect meshing of the band's pop sensibilities with harsh political and personal lyrics. It began with one of the oddest choices for a cover version imaginable, Ron Goodwin's 1964 film theme 'Murder She Said' leading straight into 'The More I See (The Less I Believe', an anguished, jaundiced look at the chaos caused by The Troubles in Northern Ireland ending with the memorable line 'Does anybody know any jokes?' Released as a single, it was immediately banned by pretty much everyone. Nevertheless, the LP was a huge success and contained two further top ten singles, 'Tunnel Of Love' and the band's own version 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. Using a six piece female backing group (including June Miles-Kingston who duetted with Terry on 'Our Lips Are Sealed'), Fun Boy Three toured extensively, usually ending their shows with a spirited version of The Doors' 'The End' including the burning of an American flag. However, they split after a US tour in 1984 for reasons never fully explained.
After Fun Boy Three, Terry formed numerous other bands, including The Colourfield (producing another great hit single, the jazzy 'Thinking Of You'); Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas, a collaboration with The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. He also wrote songs with Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds. Terry launched a solo career in 1994 with the critically acclaimed Home, by which time he was being cited as a key influence by artists as diverse as Massive Attack, Sleaford Mods and Damon Albarn (who appeared on Terry's song 'Chasing A Rainbow'). For new fans, he offered some amusingly self-deprecating listening advice: 'The Specials and Fun Boy Three should be played loud with gay abandon and my solo/personal records need to be listened to with a healthy dose of melancholy and self-pity!' He went on to record with trip-hop artist Tricky and Albarn's side project Gorillaz, before reuniting with The Specials for a thirtieth anniversary tour in 2009 and performing at the 2012 Olympics closing concert. The Specials 2009 tour was a triumph on every level, albeit without Jerry Dammers, who claimed that he had been forced out. 'The Specials was this big hole which took up four years of my life,' Terry told the Torygraph. 'More than anything, I really wanted to see these people again.' Again, this blogger saw the band (twice) on that tour. It was magical. Grown men were weeping it was so brilliant.
The reformed Specials survived the departure of Roddy Radiation, the death of John Bradbury and the retirement of Neville Staple. In 2017, the band invited twenty-year-old Birmingham student Saffiyah Khan to a show after a photo of her confronting an 'English Defence League goon' in a Specials t-shirt at a counter-demonstration went viral. Two years later, Khan co-wrote and recorded 'Ten Commandments' and toured North America with the band. In 2019, The Specials released a new LP, Encore, which gave them their first UK number one CD and spawned gigs up and down the UK, before Covid brought their comeback to a halt. 'The arrival of the pandemic affected me enormously,' Terry later told The Quietus. 'I spent around three months trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn't write a single word. I spent the time trying to figure out how not to die.' The solution, he later decided, was for The Specials (now, effectively, a trio of Terry, Lynval and Sir Horace Gentleman) to record a CD of covers, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Released in October 2021, it featured versions of Bob Marley's 'Get Up, Stand Up' and The Staples Singers' 'Freedom Highway' among others. Simply called Protest Songs, it charted at number two and was a fitting bookend to a legacy of powerful, meaningful music that defined an era of outspokenly political British pop. Terry is survived by his wife, the director Lindy Heymann. They had one son, while Terry has two older sons with his ex-wife, Jeanette.
This blogger has told this story before on From The North, dear blog readers, but it bears repeating here. The first time Keith Telly Topping saw The Specials live was, as mentioned, on their summer tour of 1980, co-headlining with Madness and supported by The Go-Go's. It was at a club in Sunderland (which is now a branch of Tescos. This is progress, apparently) and a few of us went down on the train because, as they weren't playing Newcastle, that was as close as the tour got to us. It was one of the great gigs, but, Christ, it was violent. The audience was split in half, Mods (this blogger's lot) left side of the stage, Skins to the right with a two foot wide corridor of precisely nobody down the middle delineating a necessary cultural divide. Ironically, of course, everyone loved both of the headliners but the two tribes hated each other. So, Madness came on, played a blistering set ending with an encore of 'Night Boat To Cairo' and, the second they vacated the stage, a mass brawl erupted in the middle with kids getting sparked an aal sorts. Hell, it was 1980, that was the way of the world. Those of us who didn't fancy getting our heads kicked in, stayed with our backs pressed against the wall, watching the barney with a mixture of curiosity and terror and reflecting how we didn't want to, in the words of 'Concrete Jungle', go 'home in a fucking ambulance'. Then, The Specials came on and launched into 'Do The Dog' ('all you Punks and all you Teds/National Front and Natty Dreads/Mods, Rockers, Hippies and Skinheads/Keep on fighting till your dead!') and the scrap instantly stopped as everyone rushed the stage. Pop music, dear blog reader, is there anything it can't achieve? The main memory of the night, however, was The Go-Gos, then virtually unknown outside of LA (their debut single had only just been released on Stiff) playing brilliantly but getting total indifference from all sides of the audience because five girls from California in that environment was about as out of place as a kangaroo with a wrist watch. After about three songs (which were really good), to a polite smattering of applause from the four people actually watching them amid generally being ignored by everyone else, some Skin numbskull down the front shouted 'get yer tits out!' (which constitutes the height of wit on Wearside, apparently). 'We don't do that' said Belinda Carlisle with brilliant comic timing, fluttering her eyelashes as she added 'we're nice girls!' 'Yeah' added little Jane Wiedlin. 'So go fuck yerself!' A virtual riot erupted. God, it was brilliant. That's what's missing in rock and/or roll music these days, danger.
Moving on to less apocalyptically awful news, dear blog reader, the costumes for Nctui Gatwa and Millie Gibson for the next series of Doctor Whom have been revealed publicly. And, rather tasty they are too. This blogger particularly likes Millie rocking the Doc Martens look.
Of course, a few of The Usual Suspects have been out in force finding something to whinge about; in this case, the suggestion that Millie's character, Ruby Sunday, is 'Rose Mark II' (presumably meant as an insult). Quite what these idiots are basing that assessment on, given that Ncuti and Millie's first appearance won't be for another year (almost to the day) and that Billie Piper never wore anything even remotely like the gear created for Millie, is unknown. Presumably it's the fact that she's got blonde hair too. Preconceived hatred amongst The Special People has been founded on far less, dear blog readers. Take, for instance, a particular knobend who used to regularly post his 'hatred' for Matt Lucas on this blogger's Facebook page till this blogger threw him off in disgust. This chap's ire was sparked for the 'simple' reason that he didn't have much hair and had been bullied over that as a child and, therefore, felt it was unfair that Matt Lucas didn't receive a similar level of public empathy. True story. As previously noted, dear blog reader, there are some good people in the world, some bad people, most of us are somewhere in the middle just trying to get a quiet life. And then, there are some people who are just scum.
As for Ncuti's costume - written about extensively in this less-than-exhaustively-researched piece in the Gruniad Morning Star - this blogger rather likes that, too. Tasteful. Although, inevitably, some smear of no importance at the Independent trawled the Interweb and found a couple of (nameless) people having a right good whinge about it on Twitter. And once again, dear blog reader, let us simply stand up and salute the absolute shite that some people chose to care about.
Although, that said, the orange sweater does take a bit of getting used to.
There have been precedents, of course.
A couple of precedents as it happens. They say that cat The Doctor is a bad motha ...
Anyway, Nctui, welcome to the almost-but-not-quite-complete family gallery.
Which bring us with the inevitability of the inevitable to Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Thirty Five: The Runaway Bride. More or a single entendre on reflection.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Thirty Six: The Day Of The Doctor.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Thirty Seven: The Mind Of Evil.
A particular favourite of The Lord Thy God Stephen Moffat (OBE) that last line. 'I so remember hearing that for the first time,' he recalled. 'I thought it was the coolest line ever. I'm not sure I've changed my mind. How perfectly Doctor!' To which this blogger added 'Especially as The Brigadier is dressed as Bicycle Repair Man at the time.'
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Thirty Eight: Destiny Of The Daleks.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Thirty Nine: Let's Kill Hitler.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Forty: Deep Breath.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Forty One: The Underwater Menace.
Followed, of course, by a thoroughly deserved encore lap for Memorably Daft Lines from Blockbuster War, Espionage & Crime Movies of the 1960s and 70s: Number Ninety Nine: Bryan Mosley: 'Listen, I don't like it when some tough nut comes pushin' his way in and out of my house in the middle of the night! Bloody well tell me who sent you!' Michael Caine: 'You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself!' Get Carter.
If you should happen to want to make yourself a Goddamn legend on Tyneside, try hoying Alf Roberts off the top of a car park in Gatesheed. It worked for Michael.
Memorably Daft Lines from Blockbuster War & Espionage Movies of the 1960s and 70s: Number One Hundred: Geoffrey Keen: 'My God, what's Bond doing?' Desmond Llewellyn: 'I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.' Moonraker.
And, Memorably Daft Lines from Blockbuster War, Espionage & Crime Movies of the 1960s and 70s: Number One Hundred & One: Tony Beckley: 'Maybe the Professor's not bent, Mister Bridger?' Noël Coward: 'Camp Freddie, everybody in the world is bent!' The Italian Job.
Now, here's a funny thing, dear blog reader. When this blogger first started off this semi-regular From The North feature about two months ago and listed the movies he intended to cover, Keith Telly Topping never imagined for a single second that when he posted the one hundred and first (and last) to his Facebook page, the movie in question was being show on Channel Four on that very evening. 'Oh, I shouldn't let them do that, dear. That gives them ideas!'
There's a splendid interview with Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Vivienne Acheampong of From The North favourite The Sandman on the Collider website which you can read here. Also, a fiery, no-holds-barred interview with Mason Alexander Park at CBR.com, here which includes some JK Rowling kicking which this blogger thoroughly approves of.
Almost twenty million Britons watched the World Cup final on Sunday afternoon, with the BBC once again creaming ITV's ass in the overnight ratings. A peak audience of just under fifteen million viewers tuned in to see Gary Lineker and Wor Geet Canny Alan Shearer front BBC1's coverage, with four million viewers watching ITV for the combination of Gary Neville's excellent beginning of his political career and Roy Keane's outrageous facial hair (and, outrageous scowl). Although England's exit in the quarter-finals (you knew about that, right?) meant this year's World Cup did not reach record-breaking audience levels, the contest between France and Argentina shows there is still an enormous live television audience for free-to-air football. The promise of a showdown between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé - and cold weather keeping many inside - meant the British audience was substantially up on the 2018 World Cup final between France and Croatia. The overnight television audience figures, produced by data provider Digital-i, do not include the millions of punters likely to have watched the match on streaming services such as iPlayer and ITVX, or in communal places such as pubs. While the BBC was praised for its coverage - including a stunning closing montage set to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'The Power Of Love' - ITV is likely to have been pleased with relatively strong ratings for the one match it shared with its rival broadcaster. Among those watching ITV's coverage were staff at the Daily Scum Mail, who led Monday's newspaper with a criticism of Neville's comments comparing the treatment of Qatari migrant workers to the UK government's demonising of striking staff in the UK. The newspaper used its front page to claim that Neville had 'sparked fury' (amongst a handful of rent-a-quote Tory MPs if no one that actually matters) with his comments, where he said the world should detest low pay, poor accommodation and poor working conditions regardless of where they occur. This blogger is aware that Gary Neville probably doesn't need any advice from here but, for what it's worth, this blogger would take the criticism as a compliment. If the Daily Scum Mail are frothing at the mouth and have wax exploding in their ears over something you'd said, you're probably doing something right.
Sharing passwords for online streaming services such as Netflix is against The Law, according to a government agency. The Intellectual Property Office said on Tuesday that the practice broke copyright law. It is common in the UK for people who do not live together to share their streaming service passwords, despite this typically being against terms of service agreements. Netflix has never indicated it would take any legal action in such cases. At least the government can be assured that this blogger's Netflix password ("Password") is totally secure and no one else can use it.
Bob Dylan has been offered a cameo on Coronation Street after revealing he is a fan of the ITV soap. The singer discussed his affection for the long-running ITV drama in a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal. Dylan claimed that watching the programme makes him feel 'at home.' Whether this is one of Bob's typically cryptic jokes like the time he was asked by an over-serious journalist who was the greatest poet of the Twentieth Century and he replied 'Smokey Robinson' is not know. Mind you, it wouldn't be the greatest stretch of the imagination to guess that 'Girl From The North Country' was written about Elsie Tanner. In response, Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod - who sounds like a right chancer - told the Daily Torygraph that Dylan could sing karaoke with characters Ken Barlow and Rita Sullivan. MacLeod suggested the scene could be part of an open mic night at the Rovers Return pub if Dylan agreed to appear. The man's got a Nobel Prize for Literature, matey, you can surely come up with something a bit more tempting than that. 'To hear that Bob Dylan is a Coronation Street viewer blows my mind,' MacLeod said. Thank what it'll do to that bloke who shouted 'Judas' at Bob in 1966 when was within a couple of miles of the Granada studios. 'I would absolutely love the idea of him turning up in the Rovers Return one night. Maybe we could write in an open mic night and a mysterious singer could roll in out of the Manchester rain and do a turn.' Bob released his self-titled debut LP in 1962, eighteen months after the first episode of Coronation Street was broadcast. The two events were, probably, unconnected. MacLeod added: 'Both he and Coronation Street established their reputations in the 1960s, both have championed working class voices and causes, both tell stories with a particular sensibility and sense of humour.' Which, actually, yeah - that's a fair comment. In his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dylan was asked what he had recently binge watched. He replied: 'Coronation Street, Father Brown and some early Twilight Zones. I know they're old-fashioned shows but they make me feel at home. I'm no fan of packaged programmes or news shows. I never watch anything foul-smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting, nothing dog ass.' So, no I'm A Z-List Former Celebrity Desperate To Get My Boat-Race Back On TV ... Please Vote For Me To Stay Here As Long As Possible (I'll Even Eat Worms If You Want), then?
As usual, dear blog reader, Keith telly Topping got all of but one answer correct on the latest episode of Only Connect. Atypically, it wasn't the music round, rather it was the one about US Presidential impeachments. Dunno quite what that says about this blogger.
Mike Hodges, the director of Flash Gordon and Get Garter, has died aged ninety. His death was confirmed to the Gruniad Morning Star and Variety by Mike Kaplan, a producer and longtime friend of Hodges. The director reportedly died at his home in Dorset on Saturday. No cause of death has yet been announced. Hodges' film credits include Croupier, The Terminal Man and 2003's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, his final feature film. Brian Blessed, who starred in Flash Gordon, paid tribute, praising Hodges for his 'powerful personality' and 'brilliant imagination.' Speaking to Radio 4's World At One, Blessed said of Hodges Flash Gordon was 'the only film, apart from Henry V with Kenneth Branagh, that I raced to the studio to start filming. Hodges [had a] brilliant imagination, but his direction - mind-blowing. Great manner, great perception. The film was a breath of fresh air.' Crap title song, mind. Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet said: 'A true master. A furious restless talent. An unassailable body of work. Loved the films. Loved the man.' 'I loved this man so much' added Front Row presenter Samira Ahmed. 'The metaphysical poet of British cinema and a generous, brilliant, kind and politically engaged man.' Born in Bristol in 1932, Mike worked as a chartered accountant and spent two years serving on a Royal Navy minesweeper around fishing ports in the North of England. His first job in the entertainment industry was working as a teleprompter operator for ABC on shows like Armchair Theatre, which led him to producing and directing news and documentary series (including episodes of World In Action) and an acclaimed six-part 1968 adaptation of The Tyrant King. He wrote, directed and produced two filmed thrillers, Suspect (1969) and Rumour (1970) for Thames Television. These formed the basis for the creation of Euston Films, the influential television production company that continued into the 1980s. His first major feature film, released in cinemas in 1971, was an adaptation of Ted Lewis's novel Jack's Return Home. Get Carter starred Sir Michael Caine as a London gangster who seeks his own form of justice after his brother is killed in Newcastle. It was a huge success and prompted Hodges and Caine to reunite the following year for another film, Pulp. The camp-as-a-row-of-tents space opera Flash Gordon, followed in 1980. The movie saw warring factions of the planet Mongo unite against the oppression of Ming the Merciless. It starred Sam J Jones and Melody Anderson alongside Blessed, Timothy Dalton and Peter Wyngarde. His other credits include the 1987 Mickey Rourke thriller A Prayer For The Dying, 1989's Black Rainbow, starring Rosanna Arquette and the excellent TV movie Squaring The Circle (scripted by Tom Stoppard). Hodges' 1998 film Croupier, starring Clive Owen as a dealer in a gambling den who then gets pressured into robbing it, failed to capture the UK box office when it was first released. At that point, Hodges reportedly decided to retire, assuming his career was over. But the film was then released in the US to rave reviews and its success there prompted a second release in the UK. Hodges concluded his career as a feature film director the same way he began it, with a gangster film. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, released in 2003, saw him reunite with Owen, who played a criminal hungry for revenge after the rape of his younger brother. His theatre plays included Soft Shoe Shuffle (1985) and Shooting Stars & Other Heavenly Pursuits (2000), which was also adapted for BBC radio. Mike is survived by his wife, Carol Laws and his sons Ben and Jake.
Chris Boucher, who has died aged seventy nine, was a writer and script editor for many of the most popular TV dramas of the 1970s and 80s and one with a particular aptitude for science-fiction. Having made his mark on Doctor Who in 1977, he was recruited the following year as script editor of Blake's 7. Responsible for commissioning and then polishing Terry Nation's scripts, Chris capitalised on the bristling dynamic between the central characters, highlighted by his gift for caustic dialogue and exploited the programme's moral ambiguity to give it dramatic complexity. Among the scripts he wrote himself was the shocking 1981 finale, Blake, in which he killed off the entire cast, in a manner emblematic of the show's flawed protagonists, dour outlook and uncompromising tone. Chris Boucher was born in Maldon, the only child of Simpson, a director at Calor Gas and his wife, Alexandra, a florist. When he was nine, Chris's best friend died of meningitis and he retreated into himself, becoming something of a loner and a voracious reader of short stories. He was educated at Maldon grammar school and then spent a year away working in Australia. On his return to the UK, his father secured a job for Chris at Calor; the firm eventually paid for Chris to study economics at Essex University. After graduation he rejoined the company to work off his debt but, by now married and with his wife pregnant, he needed to increase his earnings and so he started submitting short stories to magazines and jokes to TV comedies. Braden's Week (1968), Dave Allen At Large (1971) and That's Life (1973) used his material and he secured an agent who pitched him to Doctor Who. He was well versed in science-fiction literature, so his first contribution, The Face Of Evil (1977), had a bold concept: a misprogrammed spaceship computer believes it is God and so embarks on an exercise in eugenics involving its stranded crew. The story (originally entitled The Day God Went Mad) also introduced a new companion for Tom Baker's Doctor, Leela (Louise Jameson) and contains one of Boucher's best lines: 'The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common, they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views.' Boucher was immediately hired to write the next serial, the well-remembered The Robots Of Death. A fusion of Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, it became more than a sum of its parts thanks to Boucher's sardonic exchanges ('You're a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain'), well-drawn characters, world-building through dialogue and hard SF conceits. Augmented by a strong cast, excellent direction and striking art deco design, the story is still regarded by many fans as being among Doctor Who's best stories. Image Of The Fendahl (1977) - a particular favourite of this blogger - was a spooky synthesis of modern technology and ancient horror with some shocking moments and amusing characters and dialogue ('You must think my head zips up at the back'). Chris went on to script-edit the popular Shoestring (1980), Juliet Bravo (1982), Bergerac (1983 to 1987) and The Bill (1987). He then devised the space crime show Star Cops (1987), which did not emerge as he had envisioned and, saddled with a poor time slot, ran for only one series despite much to recommend it. Again, this blogger was a big fan. Chris's radio work included an adaptation of Harry Harrison's The Technicolour Time Machine and a memorable thriller, A Walk In The Dark, both broadcast in 1981. Between 1998 and 2005 he wrote four Doctor Who novels. Chris was an atheist who refused to own a mobile phone. Not especially comfortable in social situations, but a witty correspondent, he remained ambivalent about his own work, cautious about receiving praise for it, even though he was highly regarded by his peers at the time and is now admired as an important figure by TV historians. He married Lynda Macklin in 1966 - she typed up all his scripts, which he wrote in longhand. She survives him, as do their sons, Luke, Nathan and Daniel.
England completed a historic three-nil clean sweep over Pakistan inside forty minutes on the fourth day of the final test in Karachi. Needing but fifty five more runs, England took only eleven overs to reach their target of one hundred and sixty seven. Ben Duckett ended eighty two not out, while Ben Stokes was unbeaten on thirty five, the two left-handers sharing an unbroken partnership of seventy three. England, on their first test tour of Pakistan in seventeen years, become the first visiting team to win three matches in a series in this country. It also caps a year in which England have undergone a remarkable transformation under captain Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum - this is their ninth win in ten matches since the pair took charge. Attention will now turn to next summer, when England will attempt to regain the Ashes from Australia. Stokes' side play two tests against New Zealand in February, then complete their Ashes preparations with a one-off match against Ireland in June. Jos Buttler's white-ball team, meanwhile, has limited-overs tours of South Africa and Bangladesh in the early part of next year. Before this tour, England had managed only two test wins away to Pakistan in thirty attempts across sixty one years (the last being that famous victory for Nasser Hussain's side in the dark at the same venue in late 2000. They have now won three in just three weeks. Not only that, they have secured their first series win over Pakistan outside of the UK for twenty two years and ended a run of three successive away series defeats stretching back to the beginning of 2021. This is also only the fourth time England have taken a clean sweep in an away series of three tests or more. What makes the achievement all the more remarkable - this is one of England's greatest ever away wins - is the turmoil they were in at the beginning of the year. When England were hammered in Hobart at the end of an Ashes humbling, then beaten in Grenada to tumble to a series defeat by the West Indies, the idea they would win six of seven home tests then win three-nil in Pakistan was beyond fanciful. Yet, under the inspirational leadership of Stokes and McCullum, England are becoming one of the most feared test sides in the world. Their form has come too late to reach next year's World test Championship final, but the clash with Australia is shaping up to be one of the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series for some time. This series will live long in the memory, not only for England's landmark return to Pakistan or the surprise scoreline, but for the thrilling cricket played. England's victory on a flat pitch in Rawalpindi, when they piled up five hundred and six runs on day one then bowled Pakistan out in the final moments of the fifth day, was one of their all-time great wins. It was almost matched for drama by the twenty six-run win in the second test in Multan. This third test was a new challenge - England lost the toss on a pitch more suited to spin bowling, circumstances that have often been their undoing in the past. Still, they pulled off their most emphatic win in a match notable for the emergence of eighteen-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, the youngest man to play a test for England, who took five for forty eight in Pakistan's second innings. Prior to that, England were put in a strong position by Harry Brook's third century of the series - the twenty three-year-old has given the selectors a tough decision to make when Jonny Bairstow returns from a broken leg. Across the tour, Ollie Robinson has confirmed his status as one of the world's premier seam bowlers - this is the first test England have won without either of James Anderson or Stuart Broad since June 2007, fifteen years and one hundred and ninety seven matches ago. It was also a successful return to test cricket for opener Duckett, recalled after six years out of the side. Whereas Duckett led England's frantic charge to complete the chase in fading light on Monday evening, Tuesday morning was more measured, even if his sweeping still had the scoring rate at above five runs an over. Stokes, tied with McCullum on one hundred and seven sixes - the most in test cricket - tried all he could to break the record of the current England coach. It was Duckett who hit the winning runs, meaning Stokes' next opportunity for the record-breaking maximum will come in New Zealand - the country of his birth and McCullum's homeland.
A mere but two days after the fitba World Cup ended in Qatar (Argentina won, you might have noticed. The Argentines certainly did), the domestic season resumed in England. And, it was as good kick-off for this blogger's beloved (and now, thankfully, sold) Mapgies who reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a hard-fought win over Bournemouth at St James' Park. Adam Smith's own goal proved decisive for the hosts, with the defender inadvertently heading past Cherries goalkeeper Mark Travers from Kieran Trippier's superb delivery. It was no more than Eddie Howe's side richly deserved with the home team creating the bulk of the goalscoring chances. Newcastle will find out who they meet next in Thursday evening's draw. Howe included goalkeeper Nick Pope, full-back Trippier and forward Callum Wilson, who were all part of England's World Cup squad in Qatar, in the starting XI against Howe's old club.
Switzerland defender Fabian Schär and Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimarães also began the contest for a home side that appeared close to full strength in a first competitive outing for both clubs since 12 November. In front of a near capacity fifty one thousand five hundred and seventy nine crowd, Newcastle repeatedly pressed forward with Trippier, Schär, Miguel Almirón and Wilson all going close to breaking the deadlock in the first half, with the latter also having an effort ruled out for offside. Gary O'Neil's determined and disciplined Bournemouth side will count themselves a little unfortunate after not making the most of their few clear-cut opportunities. Wales striker Kieffer Moore headed wide when well placed, substitute Jack Stacey forced Pope into a good save and Dominic Solanke also saw a late effort superbly blocked by the Newcastle goalkeeper. However, that ensured a fourth quarter-final appearance since 2015 for Newcastle, beaten finalists in 1976.
Russia says it intends to deploy musicians and singers to the front lines of its war in Ukraine to boost troops' morale. What a jolly good idea. Couldn't we do something similar? This blogger would like to nominate Sting for such a role. That would certainly be a morale booster in the right circumstances.
Meanwhile, dear blog readers, news flash ...
Moving on to the From The North Headline Of The Week award, Nottinghamshire Live's Border Collie Who Crashed Into Car & Wrote It Off Still 'Good Dog', Owner Says takes some beating.
Bliddy Nora, dear blog reader, but that there Morrisons was rammed on Tuesday morning when they blogger found it necessary to get in the weekly Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House shopping. Mostly, seemingly, with people like yer actual Keith Telly Topping who had clearly decided that The Twelve Days Of Shoppingless Crimbo began that very day.
It's always nice to see Christmas magazines giving out a message of good cheer and peace between all men (and some dogs). Love It, indeed.
Mind you, sometimes, there's taking a message that little bit too far.
Wednesday of this week was, of course, the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. So, in celebration of that, here's a picture a place where hippies go at such times. Just, you know, so you can avoid it like The Plague.
And finally, dear blog reader, seasonal felicitations from Keith Telly Topping and everyone else at From The North. Remember, things might be bleak these days but, in times gone by, it was much worse.
