Complacent Britain

Snow is a great leveller, a sanitiser of people's frantic everyday lives, especially in this globally technological 21st century.

Unfortunately, with the infrastructure that this country has, with most transport and communication services deregulated since the 1980's to allow for greater profit and ease of use, essential services are no longer a requisite, private car-based transport has become the norm, and we have become spoilt by mild winters. It seems that there are still certain things in this world where we are still at the mercy of the elements - yet there are those who feel this should not be so.

In previous wintry times it was difficult but we coped. I well remember once travelling on the school bus as the only passenger - but the schools stayed open. The braced, bruised, and I confess rather boring British have revealed themselves to be more Scrooge-like than they realised, if snow is meant to be a symbol of Christmas spirit. "Nice to look at, not nice to be in" is a phrase often rendered; another way of putting that is things are fine in principle but not in practice.

The only true downside to the snow is the hurt, the damage and sometimes death caused, particularly to the sick and the elderly, for which sorrow and sympathy are required. For the rest it's really just a case of putting up with it.

Happy White Christmas.

Liberal Democracy - the double-edged sword

The current coalition government is hardly a proper coalition. It is really, to most intents and purposes, a Conservative government by the back door, with extra Liberal Democrat flavouring thrown in. Those Lib Dem ministers who supported the fee rises have their cross to bear, but the rest are pretty much helpless. Unfortunately, the Lib Dems with their previously trenchant views on education, are taking the rap for what is basically a Conservative policy.

It is in many ways, the best of times and the worst of times for the Liberal Democrats.

Wikileaks - the truth kills?

In the 1960's the cause of the Vietnam War was undermined considerably by the on-the-spot television coverage of the devastation by American forces (and only scant mention of the Viet Cong reprisals).

Now the modern variation has emerged from the Internet. Many of the leaks are from past exchanges, but ones that still very much affect the present international climate, and the slightest indiscretion could tip the balance dangerously and wreak havoc with diplomacy

I'm all for getting (some of) this information out, but there are things that people say and things that people do. Spilling the beans like this may lead the one inexorably to result in the Other.

Mandelson and the Media

Hannah Rothchild's much-trumpted drama documentary Mandelson - the Real PM? (the double meaning of the title was lost on me until the first few minutes) was a rather mundane affair and actually rather poignant - if seen very much from Mandelson's enclosed perspective, with certain supporting characters in the drama rather underused, particularly Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, and there is next to no mention of the key player in the 2010 election, Nick Clegg.

What does come through is the visible terror of some of Mandelson's fellow advisors (and George Osborne), and a very deep antipathy with Alistair Campbell - which he, not Mandelson, openly expresses.

In truth, Mandelson manipulates Rothschild as much as everyone else in the Media. The final moment in the documentary when he asks her if she has any more questions, when clearly "the Mandelson fizz" has gone, is another way of manipulating the focus of interviews round to the interviewer rather than the interviewee.

By way of not complete contrast, I switched over to BBC1 later that evening and saw Alan Yentob's Imagine documentary featuring the shameless but rather endearing paparazzi Ron Galella. Shameless, and rather chauvinist in his pursuit of certain glamorous figures in the limelight, especially his obsession with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which escalated to illegal stalking.

In spite of his ceaseless lack of discretion, by sheer rule of numbers some of the photos are great moments, particularly the candid shot of Jackie walking in the street with her hair coming across her face (right). Unfortunately (for Jackie) no matter how many times Gallela snaps her, in whatever level of irritation or harassment, she always looks fabulous.

His argument (and that of other paparazzi) is that as far back as Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians were fascinated by the appearance of their Pharoah, and the public's fascination with stars is a continuation of that. It is this attitude that has led to the obsession with celebrity that the Media - not the public - retains to this day.

A revealing moment is when Galella mutters he would rather photograph Angelina Jolie (which he has, since her childhood) than the more prestigious but less photogenic Robert Redford, emphasising that looks, not status, are really at the heart of his shallow profession.

The Grapes of Wrath

Mercury Theatre. Act I 95m. Act II 75m.

A Oklahoma dust bowl family escapes to California to find work, but once there things are even worse.
Long but engrossing production with many innovative and epic moments, a powerful story put across with some powerful performances. Not as brilliant as John Ford's searing black-and-white film masterpiece from 1940, but pretty good in its own right.

w: Frank Galati, from the novel by John Steinbeck
d: Timothy Casement
s: Gary Shelford, Nicky Goldie, Roger Delves-Broughton, Tim Treslove, Adrian Stokes, Ignatius Anthony, Gillian Cally, Keith Dunphy, Emily Woodward, Ian Harris, Jim Kitson, Christopher Staines, Holly Knowles
lighting: Ben Payne

The Hurricane and the poodle

Watching the fascinating and entertaining tribute documentary Alex Higgins: The People's Champion just reminded me how much of a force of nature he was. The nickname "Hurricane" was well chosen - arrogant, erratic, brilliant, self-destructively alcoholic - it's all there.

I was at an Alex Higgins snooker match at the Wembley Conference Centre in 1987, where he came from behind to beat Terry Griffiths 5-4 in true determined Higgins fashion, but the end of the match was marred by an overbearing fan who leapt onto the stage to congratulate his hero.

That sort of entourage often dogged and characterised Higgins: if he was the People's Champion then I would liked him to have behaved more like one of them than the self-destructive rebel without a cause he often seemed. Nonetheless, he comes across as a very genuine human being, unlike Tony Blair, whose much anticipated biography was accompanied by a BBC1 interview with Andrew Marr yesterday. I found it a depressing example of how the transition from leader of the opposition to Prime Minister can become sadly coercive to establishment views and dangerously subversive to political bias across the Atlantic in America.

On the television today I noticed was also an old classic 1950's political drama on BBC2, All the King's Men starring Broderick Crawford as an ambitious politician who works his way up to Governor but gradually betrays all his principles to get there. The same could well apply to Tony Blair.

"They've been cheating us for years..."

So said Tom Graveney during the controversial England tour of Pakistan in 1987 when Mike Gatting had angry words with umpire Shakoor Rana.

Now the old trouble has returned again with Pakistan players accepting bribes for betting purposes (the phrase "allegedly" doesn't really enter the equation.)

So this all comes as no surprise.

I can't understand nowadays why anyone should paint such a rose-tinted view of cricket being a gentlemen's game anymore, when corruption and commercialism in sport are so rife at every level. Pakistan is going through a torrid time at the moment: the country is devastated by the worst flooding since the 2004 tsunami, the Taliban is a menace to every level of its society, and many Pakistanis are fighting for their survival: you can understand a few of them thinking it was every man for himself, to try and make what they could out of it.

But lessons are going to have to be learned. Heads will roll. I wish they would throw out sports betting and instigate laws to prosecute undercover journalism from creating scandal rather than reporting it.

UK Film Council - the legacy

These are just some of the good films that would never have been made had it not been for the participation of the UK Film Council, so disgracefully axed by the Government this week:

The Parole Officer (2001)

Bright Young Things (2003)

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Touching the Void (2003)

Ladies in Lavender (2004)

Creep (2004)

My Summer of Love (2004)

Enduring Love (2004)

Bride and Prejudice (2004)

The Magic Roundabout (2005)

The Proposition (2005)

Shooting Dogs (2005)

Festival (2005)

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Venus (2006)

Deep Water (2006)

This is England (2006)

The History Boys (2006)

Miss Potter (2006)

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Becoming Jane (2007)

Sunshine (2007)

And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)

Brick Lane (2007)

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008)

Creation (2009)

Nowhere Boy (2009)


with thanks to the Internet Movie Database

Angel's Advocate - Jonathan Ross

So it came to pass, for better and not for worse, that Jonathan Ross ceased his lucrative BBC chat show. His Radio 2 slot (a station from which he has gained most notoriety) also finishes this morning. I've mentioned before in this blog about his crassness, paid at such outrageously lucrative sums, but on the other hand such talent shouldn't be suffocated altogether.

Reading an article in the Radio Times heralding the event, two TV critics argued the case for his impact on British television, and although I sided more with the anti than the pro view, I still couldn't share the opinion that his humour was juvenile and way below his actual age, when this is undoubtedly Jonathan's secret, and the reason he has been able to tap into the youff culture so much.

I could count the number of times Ross has made me laugh on the fingers of one hand, but he's a comedy survivor, a Court Jester for the 21st century. And let's face it, court jesters were never that funny, and always had their work cut out trying to entertain their hardened audience.

Colder Than Here

Colchester Theatre Group. 90m.

A dying mother tries to organise her funeral with her dysfunctional family.
On the surface a rather morbid 90 minutes, but done in a very commendably understated manner, where the naturalism slightly goes too far and undermines intonation among the younger actors, but there are plenty of laughs to be had, and the inevitable grimness is omnipresent but never overbearing. I've rarely seen a piece of theatre that captures a genuine household atmosphere so successfully.

d: Lorraine Dunt
s: Helen Bridge, Chloe Spencer-Campbell, Rhiannon Arnold, Gary Huggins

England expects.....too much

The sad demise of England's football team to Germany was ill-fated but hardly surprising. Germany played their game in their usual industrious, no-nonsense manner, whilst England and the English still cling to their delusions of nostalgia for 1966 and their pretensions to be the chosen World Cup winners.

Such a mania has to lessen, but has become so endemic within the culture and now even the economy of this country, that I fear it will be a long time before the English get off their high horses (and let's try not to forget the Scots, the Welsh and especially the Irish who failed to qualify) especially if the 2018 World Cup bid is successful.

When they all realise that it is a sport - no more, no less - then England will have a far better chance of winning if we start behaving like true Brits with a little more humility and sporting spirit, rather than so much bulldog patriotism.

Such nationalistic zeal is, to put it frankly, not very British.

This article sums it up pretty well too.

1985, Jason Ellis, and all that

25 years ago, on the 22nd of June 1985, one warm Midsummer weekend at home in West Mersea, Jason Ellis of St. Benedict's School in Colchester decided to try and find out what it would be like to be suspended from a noose in his bedroom, with rather fatal consequences.

Accounts varied the following Monday at school from a freak accident on the television with some wire, or that he had killed himself in a self-imposed sadistic little game - which he was prone to doing. The latter rumour was sadly proved correct, and the previously carefree and self-assured 3rd Year at St. Benedict's were suddenly plunged into grief for one of their own taken from them.

I never liked Jason Ellis, I must honestly admit. He was, as the above incident suggests, deliberately mischievous, an "anarchist" in his own words. But it was a phase he was going through, that so many kids of his age have done, and I was shy and awkward at school then; ironically his oddball but secretly rather shy mischief was something I gravitated towards, because I too felt as different to others as he was. Had he lived beyond the age of 15, I am sure he would have grown into the mature and sensitive adult that many of his contemporaries have since become.

It was, I guess, a rite of passage in the process of growing up, a watershed moment in a year that had many of them: also in May 1985 I remember standing at a football match at Leyton Orient and casually hearing on the radio about a terrible fire at Bradford City FC - and then a few weeks later there was the Heysel tragedy at the European Cup Final.

The latter incident, and also an ugly riot at the Luton-Millwall FA Cup tie in February (which Jason rejoiced at), was perhaps the epitome of the ugliness of the 1980's for me, and how I am well reminded never to want to revisit that decade again. To be fair there were individual happier moments, and I have a certain nostalgia for the era from time to time, but it is now firmly in the past, and I wish it to stay there.

But such events are worth remembering too, for future generations' sake.

Sir Patronize

Back in October 2008, Andrew Sachs was urbane and dignified when he reacted to the crassness of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio. The uncomfortable spat between James Corden and Sir Patrick Stewart at the Glamour Awards on Tuesday was a slight case of The Other Way Round.

Clearly James Corden was of irritation to him, and Patrick Stewart is a fine actor, but he should know the theatrical virtue of supporting the host on stage, and not denigrating him.

Witches and Women of the Night

Witches and their travails seemed to have become flavour of the month once again, certainly in this neck of the woods where Witchfinder received its first tentative re-showing in its new truncated 49-minute version. The other day I also watched The Witches of Eastwick on DVD, and witchery was also the theme of The Lady's Not for Burning, Dedham Players 40th anniversary production and one harking back to 1972 when they first performed it, so it's something of an old favourite for them.

The story concerns a disillusioned warrior, Thomas Mendip (Les Chisnall) - who happens to also be the Devil - who wishes to be hung for committing murder, but the far bigger finger of suspicion of the townsfolk falls upon Jennet Jourdemayne (Charlotte Still), who displays all the supposed signs of witchery, such as talking to animals. The Dedham Assembly Rooms are used to innovative and atmospheric effect with a two-sided stage erected in the middle of the Hewitt Hall, and a fine cast of capable Dedham stalwarts and some bright new faces catch the eye, although the themes of this semi-poetic and allegorical play (written by Christopher Fry 3 years after the end of World War II) seemed hard to translate through to the audience.

Then again, there have been the similarly unfortunate female victims of the Suffolk murderer, recently serialised on BBC Television. The prescience of the Suffolk Murders prevented Kerry King from staging Ron Pember and Dennis de Marney's version of Jack the Ripper at the Manifest Theatre in Manningtree in 2007, so instead it was atmospherically re-staged at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester last week, a combination of caustic music hall revue (reminiscent of Oh! What a Lovely War) and dramatic depiction of the East End background to the Ripper murders - an area riddled with poverty and deprivation on almost every corner, so that it was an ideal hunting ground for the Ripper's infamous crimes. The play cleverly sidetracks from naming the Ripper in person (as he was never actually found, of course), although it strongly implies that over-zealous evangelist Montague Druitt (Will Parrick) fits the bill, who is looking to clean up Whitechapel either one way, or the other.

In the case of both Jack the Ripper and The Lady's Not for Burning, it is less a case of who the actual criminal is, but what the impoverished and sometimes misguided society perceives him to be. (Indeed, the name "Jack the ripper" was coined by one of the many hoax letter writers.)

As the Suffolk Murders have sadly demonstrated, the women are still the victims, even in these enlightened days of equality, particularly in the more impoverished areas, then as now.

Where Have I Seen These Two Before?

Or should they be called "Want" and "Greed" (in reverse order).

The game's up, Gordon

With all the kerfuffle about a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition raging at the moment, what's being swiftly forgotten is Gordon Brown's moving, dignified and honourable farewell speech to the nation. I was touched by his tribute (not featured in most news articles) to those killed in the front line overseas. Few prime ministers, such as Margaret Thatcher and John Major, or even Winston Churchill, would have made such an open declaration of pity and regret.

His subsequent acts (some would say manoeuvrings) of the last few days of a hung Parliament, (not unlike Richard Nixon's farewell speech) have been among his noblest acts of his entire political career, enabling ironically, a Conservative and Liberal coalition to come into being.

The last dignified politician has left town - what takes his place will be interesting to see.

Let's be blunt

In a classic episode of the increasingly prescient Yes, Prime Minister, Jim Hacker warns against the dangers of the journalist's microphone - that it's always "alive". It slipped Gordon Brown's memory yesterday, to his cost.

Sadly, both opposition parties have superficial leaders who clearly are concealing their true motives, and the only approachably decent one among them has now shot himself in the foot. How do people want their politicians: honest, or tactless?

Good Things: 21

Sounds of the Sixties
(BBC Radio 2, Saturday mornings)

Staggering to think that this formative decade began 50 years ago. Brian Matthew's mellifluous introductions to the music are as much worth listening to as the music itself.

The Idealism of Naivete

Respect is long overdue for the much downtrodden Liberal Democrats, and the last six decades of almost permanently being shoved into the also-rans in the British General Election race. Nick Clegg's acclaimed showing in the first ever presidential-style debate between the three main leaders may not win him the ticket to No. 10 - although it could well be of benefit to David Cameron if the Labour vote is squeezed.

In past years many of the Liberal Democrats' policies have been plagiarised by other parties; many of their ideas are fine in principle, without the hard-edged cynicism and compromise of ever having to get them made law once in Government. Nick Clegg himself struck me as rather fresh-faced and superficial - and his final 90-second summing up sounded more Party Political Broadcast than future leader of the nation - but much of what he said cried out to the audience as sound common sense.

I can't help but think of scores of his predecessors such as David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and especially Charles Kennedy, who were never allowed the opportunity to impress themselves on national TV in such a way.

Good Things: 20

Dictionaries

Such incredibly informative and surprisingly entertaining things to read. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with, I look up its meaning in a dictionary - a great tool for increasing vocabulary and understanding of the language, for young or old.

When Pictures First Moved

Watched Paul Merton's rather touching tribute to the cinema pioneers of 1895 onwards on BBC Four this evening; poignant in particular for the likes of Georges Melies and Max Linder - Melies spending his later years running a solitary toy shop in Paris after his style had gone out of fashion, and Max Linder (whom Merton clearly feels a comedic affinity for) had a life that was demoralised tragically by the First World War. These two men were cinematic giants, and still are, for those who keep their reputation alive.

Paul also makes such a simple but devastatingly truthful observation: without these slightly eccentric figures of the late 19th century, we would not have the medium of television, movies and video that we have today. It's so ingrained in our psyche, that we simply cannot imagine life not being re-created magically on a screen - something which the first audiences of 1895 were so startled by.


BBC website link

The land across the Mersey

Just finished a successful run of Willy Russell's play Blood Brothers at Manningtree (left), which was a well acted and poignant story of two twin brothers separated at birth, whose different social upbringing has an unbearable effect on their lives: one rich, the other poor. By a coincidence, the story of the Jamie Bulger killers has once again come to the fore, set in those same Liverpool streets where the boys grew up.

Recently I also received an emotive request to join an on-line petition calling for the end of the anonymity accorded the Bulger killers - especially now that Jon Venables has apparently re-offended as the tabloid media were quick to inform the nation.

Impassioned though many people's feelings are on the subject, I can't see the good that will come of this. The awfulness of the crime will never be forgotten, but at the same time what Jon Venables has recently perpetrated is to be judged as the adult he now is (27), and not the previous, far worse crime that he committed as a child.

Whatever his ills - and clearly they are no better than before - Jon Venables is still a human being, with all the frailties as well as the monstrosities that humans are capable of - like all the other kids of that tough environment.

98 Years Young

My last acquaintance with George Young was in the spring of 2007, when at the Priory Players AGM I suggested that I would like to see the group do more of Shakespeare's history plays. "Ah", came the reaction. "That would make a change, George can't stand the Histories."

He was entitled to his preferences perhaps, for in a sense he was a part of history itself: as a veteran of both Dunkirk and D-Day (see Colchester Gazette article), his was of an "enlightened" generation that had experienced the war, and were able to enrich their lives and that of others by pursuing the things that most mattered, such as drama and the theatre, in his case.

As president of the Priory Players in Colchester, he was a staunch figure of amiable near-legendary status, especially into his tenth decade, but always very amenable. I remember him in the Priory's production of The Merchant of Venice where he was playing "Old Gobbo" - for the second time, well into his 80's, with his first and original son Launcelot Gobbo into his mid-50s! And there was no-one better suited to playing the old Soothsayer in Julius Caesar - "Beware the Ides of March!"

A legend of Colchester's amateur theatre (and much else besides), who had a bloody good innings and almost reached his century.

Good Things: 19

Internet smileys - once I realised that in order to appreciate them you have to look sideways.

:-)

Events of the "Noughties"

Or what I would prefer to call the "post-90's", a decade which encompassed the all-pervading media and the hectic pace of life in the Western world so much, that the entire ten years seemed to go in the blink of an eye. It began with the portentous celebrations for the Millennium, but began in all honesty from 2001 - September 11th, 2001 to be exact - from which the rest of the decade has been in the shadow of that black day for America and the free world.

Here are some events that I remember from diaries of the last 10 years:

2000

Millennium Dome finally opens after technical hitches.
Dr. Harold Shipman gets 15 life sentences for malpractice.
Concorde crashes in Paris.
HM the Queen Mother's 100th birthday.
Oil price rises lead to lengthy queues at petrol stations.
Slobodan Milosevic is finally ousted in democratic Serbian elections.
Stalemate in US Presidential election: Al Gore is forced to concede to George W. Bush.

Deaths in 2000: Colin Cowdrey, John Gielgud (96), Alec Guinness, Stanley Matthews, Damilola Taylor.

2001

Foot & Mouth disease across Britain.
Westminster statue of Winston Churchill is defaced by demonstrators.
Labour wins second term under Tony Blair.
Planes hijacked and flown into World Trade Centre & Pentagon by terrorist suicide bombers. World Trade Centre collapses.

Other deaths in 2001: Don Bradman (92), George Harrison, Mary Whitehouse.

2002

Headgate Theatre opens in Colchester.
Bethlehem Church of the Nativity besieged.
Train crash at Potters Bar.
World Cup in Japan & Korea. England beaten 2-1 by Brazil, who go on to win the tournament.
Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Flash floods in Britain & Europe.
Terrorist bomb in Bali kills British tourists.
Russian theatre held hostage by Chechen rebels - hundreds are killed in the attempted rescue.
Firemen's strikes in UK.
Baby elephant born in Colchester Zoo.

Deaths in 2002: Myra Hindley, Princess Margaret, Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore, H.M. the Queen Mother (101), Rod Steiger, Kenneth Wolstenholme.

2003

Chancery Lane tube crash.
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
Anti-Iraq war demonstration in Hyde Park.
My birthday - US invades Iraq. Second Gulf War begins.
Controversial Titanic exhibition (of salvaged artefacts) at the Science Museum, London.
President Bush's state visit to UK.
England win Rugby World Cup v. Australia.
Saddam Hussain found in hiding by US forces.
Ian Huntley given life sentence for murders of Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman.


Deaths in 2003: Charles Bronson, Adam Faith, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope (100), Alan Keith, Thora Hird (91), Bob Monkhouse, Gregory Peck, Barry Sheene, Denis Thatcher.

2004

Harold Shipman hangs himself in prison.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins 11 Oscars.
Terrorist bomb in Madrid, just days before General Elections in Spain.
Release of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in cinemas.
World Cup in Portugal: England knocked out on penalties by the hosts, who lose 1-0 to Greece in the Final.
Democratic government installed in Iraq.
National Savings axed to make way for new "Easy Access Savings" account.
England win all four Test Matches at home to West Indies.
Hundreds of children killed in a Russian school by Chechen terrorists.
George W. Bush wins a second term in The White House.
H.M. The Queen visits Colchester.
Sikh riots and demonstrations cancel a new play at a Birmingham theatre.
Earthquake and tsunami in South East Asia, killing thousands.

Other deaths in 2004: Yasser Arafat, Marlon Brando, Brian Clough, Alistair Cooke (95), Caron Keating (of breast cancer), Keith Miller, John Peel, Christopher Reeve, Peter Ustinov.

2005

Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker-Bowles, now Duchess of Cornwall.
Cardinal Josef Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI.
London wins Olympic bid for 2012.
Terrorist bombs attack London Transport the day after successful Olympic bid.
An innocent terrorist suspect is shot at Stockwell Tube station.
A tornado hits Birmingham.
Release of Revenge of the Sith, the last of the Star Wars series.
New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
England win The Ashes in exciting Test Series against Australia.
Fire on Southend Pier.
200th anniversary of The Battle of Trafalgar.
Oil refinery explosion at Hemel Hempstead.

Deaths in 2005: Dave Allen, Ronnie Barker, George Best, Johnny Cash, Arthur Miller, John Mills (on St. George's Day), Pope John Paul II, Prince Rainier, Richard Whiteley.

2006

Charles Kennedy resigns as Liberal Democrat leader.
A whale swims through London along the River Thames.
Egyptian ferry disaster kills over 1,000.
Chelsea overcome Colchester United 3-1 in the FA Cup Fourth Round.
H.M. The Queen's 80th birthday.
Italy win World Cup, beating France on penalties.
Ball tampering row cancels the Fifth Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval.
The Christmas lights fall down in Colchester High Street.
The Suffolk Murders.
Australia regain The Ashes - just 15 months after losing them.

Deaths in 2006: James Brown, Alan Freeman, Saddam Hussain (executed), John Lyall, General Pinochet, Fred Truman.

2007

Australia beat England 5-0 in Ashes Test Series.
Ireland beat Pakistan in Cricket World Cup, on St. Patrick's Day#.
Gerry Adams and Rev. Iain Paisley agree to share power in Northern Ireland.
30 killed at a technical college in Virginia.
First FA Cup Final at new Wembley: Chelsea beat Man United 1-0 in a dull match.
30th anniversary of Star Wars.
Tony Blair steps down as PM, to be replaced by Gordon Brown.
Postal strike.
Terrorist alerts in London, also attempted car bomb at Glasgow Airport.
Last Harry Potter book published.
Minneapolis river bridge collapses during Rush Hour.
Actor Chris Langham convicted of child pornography.
Muttiah Muralitharan becomes leading wicket taker in Test cricket.

Deaths in 2007: Alan Ball, Alan Coren, Ingmar Bergman, Benazir Bhutto (assassinated during General Election in Pakistan), Deborah Kerr, Magnus Magnusson, Bernard Manning, Marcel Marceau, George Melly, Luciano Pavarotti, Paul Tibbetts (pilot of Enola Gay, 92) Bob Woolmer (the day after Pakistan's defeat#), Boris Yeltsin.

2008

Steven Wright convicted of Suffolk Murders.
New Terminal 5 at Heathrow at a standstill.
Boris Johnson(!) elected Mayor of London.
Cyclone in Burma during May Bank Holiday - Burmese authorities refuse outside aid.
China Olympic Torch controversially transported through London.
Michael Vaughan resigns as England captain, replaced by Kevin Pietersen.
Colchester United move to new stadium.

Deaths in 2008: Arthur C. Clarke, Charlton Heston, Edmund Hilary, Heath Ledger (29), Humphrey Lyttelton, Anthony Minghella, Paul Scofield.

2009

Barack Obama becomes first black President of the United States.
Fierce bush fires in Australia.
Sri Lankan cricket team bus attacked by terrorists in Pakistan.
A 100-1 shot (Mon Mome) wins the Grand National.
Outbreak of worldwide swine 'flu reaches UK.
British MP's expenses scandal.
England regain The Ashes from Australia.

Deaths in 2009: Clement Freud, Jade Goody, Tony Hart, Michael Jackson, Maurice Jarre, Edward Kennedy, Danny La Rue, Karl Malden, Wendy Richard, Natasha Richardson, Bobby Robson, Mollie Sugden, Richard Todd.