The Independent

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'No power on earth can crush the spirit of the Sir Cliff lookalike, Mike Read'

11 February 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew Mike Read plans to revive his musical play about Oscar Wilde, which on its October 2004 outing was closed after just one night? And who can know why? Except that Read, former stalwart of Wonderful Radio 1 is nothing if not the triumph of hope over experience in human form. No power on earth can crush the spirit of the Cliff Richard lookalike. Not the bankruptcy that forced him to sell his home and record collection, not the critical reaction to his 'choc-art' renditions of LS Lowry's works, not the failure of his other musical that was themed on the life of his friend and muse Sir Cliff, not being the first voted off I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, not even another famously short-lived run as prospective Tory candidate for London mayor. Read quickly withdrew and selflessly blogged in support of Boris Johnson, whom he tutored in high politics by expressing his belief that rapists, murderers and paedophiles had no place on the streets of London and never would.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Anna Ford and Sandi Toksvig are simply two gals wanting to learn woodwork'

04 February 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew that Anna Ford and Sandi Toksvig take woodwork classes together? Who knew that woodwork, come to that, is the new knitting? But it apparently is, and in that capacity it has cemented one of the unlikelier celebrity friendships since Bette Midler palled up with 50 Cent.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Chandler Bing thought his third nipple opened a gateway to Narnia'

28 January 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew that Clive Dunn, better known as Corporal Jones from Dad's Army, was born with a third nipple? Don't panic, don't panic! Far more people have them than you might think. The 'supernumerary' nipple is diagnosed in as many as one in 18 males, though for hormonal reasons (it is thought to be a sign of virility) it is far less common in females, with about one in 50 completing the hat-trick.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'JD Salinger’s fondness for Tim Henman was hardly his only eccentricity'

21 January 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew that JD Salinger, who died two years ago this week, was a big fan of Tim Henman and his parents? And who, quite frankly wanted to know? Re-reading The Catcher in the Rye becomes difficult, if not impossible once you do know it. Did the creator of Holden Caulfield – literature's most celebrated icon of teenage angst and, in Henman tennis context, the American novel's answer to the young John McEnroe – admire that archetype of overgrown Boy Scout goody-goodiness who once told an interviewer that his big ambition in life was to start his own wine cellar... and did he also admire his parental archetypes of rigid home counties, middle-class reserve?

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Meryl Sheep received rave reviews for her role in ‘The Taming of the Ewe’

14 January 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew that there is a character in Sesame Street by the name of Meryl Sheep? This ovine has appeared sporadically as the US children's show resident acting coach since 1987, once memorably teaching the Meryl Sheep Method to an eager Susan Sarandon.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'It is easy to picture Nick Clegg sobbing at his desk, listening to a requiem'

07 January 2012 12:00 AM

Who knew that no gift Nick Clegg could receive today for his 44th birthday could delight him as much as the one Charles Kennedy gave him five years ago? On Clegg's 39th birthday, Kennedy quit as Liberal Democrat leader after receiving a letter demanding his resignation signed by 25 of his colleagues, a certain future Deputy Prime Minister among them. Then, Sir Menzies Campbell having been quickly tidied away a year and bit later, Clegg took over himself.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Jules Holland has morphed into an emblem of respectability'

31 December 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that the first thing Jools Holland, who will present his 19th New Year's Eve Hootenanny on BBC2 tonight, does when he wakes up each morning is play the piano? Even before he has a tinkle he is tinkling the ivories – a revelation that so horrified Elton John that his reflex response on hearing it from Chris Evans on live radio was to speak for the nation by spluttering "Oh, fucking hell".

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Sir Bruce's marriage has survived his jokes'

24 December 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that when Bruce Forsyth (31 years before he was awarded his knighthood) interviewed some beauties at a Miss World Gala he asked Miss Turkey, "And what do you eat for Christmas?"?

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'At least Billie Piper never threw a cat in a wheelie bin'

17 December 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that, before she became a child pop sensation at 15, Billie Piper's guilty pleasure was throwing animals? For a while in the early 1990s, it was literally raining cats and dogs in Swindon. "I used to pick up animals on the street," she confessed in a questionnaire, "and launch them as far as I could."

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Fred Dinenage occasionally wore a Hiawatha headdress while presenting How'

10 December 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that Fred Dinenage, the heavily-bespectacled TV presenter best remembered for his part in the long-running children's show, How, has a daughter in the House of Commons? Caroline Dinenage is the Tory MP for Gosport. And who knew, other than the Dinenage family and their friends, that I am spelling Dinenage correctly? You can make good money betting people that there is a silent second 'n' in Fred's surname.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Margaret Rutherford cared about the ishoos'

03 December 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that Tony Benn is a first cousin of the late lamented Margaret Rutherford? Admittedly their cousinhood was once removed, but this seems strangely fitting because some used to believe that Benn was once removed from reality. According to Kelvin McKenzie's Sun, he was the barmiest man in England. It was a title that, tragically, could have been applied to Rutherford's father, who bludgeoned his own father to death with a chamber pot – Agatha Christie would have certainly approved of the method. And Rutherford was quite an eccentric herself, of course. She built her film career playing up the battiness, happily without murdering anybody.

Rebecca Tyrrel: Who can be sure that Freddie Starr wouldn’t have gone on to supplant John, Paul or Georgein the Beatles?

26 November 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that Liverpool's most legendary musical son might have been neither Lennon nor McCartney,but Freddie Starr?

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Few people can surely know that Sharon Stone owns an Aga'

19 November 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that if Sharon Stone's house were to catch fire, the first thing she would save would be her Aga? Who, indeed, knew that Sharon Stone had an Aga? Unlike a pair of knickers, which she sometimes doesn't have, depending on her most basic instinct on any given day, few people can surely know that she owns a vast, cast iron four-wheel drive of a cooking machine, which comes in all sorts of colours from heather through aubergine to duck-egg blue.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'I like to imagine Amazon’s ‘chief fulfiller’ in saffron robes, working quietly in the style of a monk tutor'

12 November 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that at Amazon, a warehouse is not a warehouse but a 'fulfilment centre'? How big a part this mildly Orwellian euphemism has played in Amazon's rise to become the world's premier retailer is unknowable. But it is hard to believe that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would be routinely hailed as 'the new Steve Jobs' if he presided over anything as prosaic as warehouses.

Rebecca Tyrrel: 'In The X Factor's land of musical mediocrity, Louis Walsh’s weirdness is the only oasis of intrigue'

05 November 2011 12:00 AM

Who knew that Louis Walsh says, "The best thing about The X Factor is it's real... nothing is staged"? Blessings upon him, for of course the best thing about The X Factor in its present manifestation – and who knew such words would ever appear in print? – is Louis Walsh.