Chariots of fire and adverts come to Wells

The Olympic Torch came to Wells, Somerset, today and attracted quite a crowd, including all these people waiting expectantly on Cathedral Green. I hadn't intended to go (honest) but the glorious weather proved too much for me - and here are some pictures and a video taken by mistake on an iPhone with a screen that's more or less invisible on a sunny day.


I suppose someone has to pay for it all, but I hadn't expected to see specially designed chariots advertising Coca Cola and Samsung coming into Sadler Street a few minutes before the torch itself:


Then, when the moment everyone had been waiting for finally arrived, I hadn't expected the torch bearer still to be wearing his pyjamas. Nor had I expected the honour of carrying the torch to be given to someone who looked about as keen on running as I am...






Laughs from Liberal Lords



Regular readers will know that I take a very dim view of the way successive governments have avoided doing anything about how seats in the House of Lords are allocated (e.g. HERE).

So, although I find myself much closer to Lord Ashdown's position on House of Lords reform than that of Lord Phillips of Sudbury, I spent quite a lot of time yesterday trying to find a clip of the above that could be embedded here - for purely entertainment purposes, you understand.

It's a reminder to those of us who bemoan the passing of the Jimmy Young Show on BBC Radio 2 of one of the regular features that made it so worth listening to. In his former life, Lord Phillips was better known as the solicitor Andrew Phillips, who appeared with Jimmy Young as the 'legal eagle' giving legal advice to listeners from 1976-2002.

Loss of the good natured banter between him and Jimmy Young is but one of the many reasons why I've hardly ever listened to the programme since it became the Jeremy Vine Show.

Another is that I thought that David Aaronovich, one of the occasional stand-ins for Sir Jimmy, made a far better job of it than Mr Vine has ever done - but, for reasons best known to the BBC, didn't get the job when they decreed that the time had come for Jimmy Young to retire.


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More reign on its way from Prince Charles



Our thanks today for the widely tweeted news that BBC Scotland has employed a promising new TV weather forecaster, who's not afraid to insert one or two of his own ad-libs.

Knowing that Prince Charles was an avid fan of the late Spike Milligan, I was mildly disappointed that he resisted the temptation to emulate one of his hero's sketches, in which he too had stood in front of a weather chart.

As Milligan got towards the end of his 'forecast',  he said "and now for a look at tonight's weather...", raised the chart (which turned out to be in front of a window), looked through it and announced "looks pretty nice outside tonight, folks..."

More reign on its way from Prince Charles



Our thanks today for the widely tweeted news that BBC Scotland has employed a promising new TV weather forecaster, who's not afraid to insert one or two of his own ad-libs.

Knowing that Prince Charles was an avid fan of the late Spike Milligan, I was mildly disappointed that he resisted the temptation to emulate one of his hero's sketches, in which he too had stood in front of a weather chart.

As Milligan got towards the end of his 'forecast',  he said "and now for a look at tonight's weather...", raised the chart (which turned out to be in front of a window), looked through it and announced "looks pretty nice outside tonight, folks..."