As so many people have said, Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, was a comedy giant. And his talent was evident – obvious – when I first saw him 40 years ago. I was then trying to make my way in comedy at Cambridge, and he, then president of the slightly loftier Oxford University Dramatic Society, had agreed to take part, rather to amuse himself, I suspect. He was by a mile the best thing in it. Clever, and very, very funny, as he always was subsequently.
Sunday 24 March 2013
George Osborne's attempts to solve our housing crisis are heading in the same direction as Parliament's attempts to hijack press freedom – destined for the pending tray, criticised on all sides as unhelpful and unworkable.
Monday 28 January 2013
A Bristol couple killed after being knocked off their tandem bicycle in an alleged hit-and-run had been given the go-ahead to start IVF treatment shortly before the crash, it has emerged.
Sunday 01 July 2012
The Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, got angry with London 2012 security operatives on Wednesday. He tried to get into the Games' Media Centre without his security pass and the doormen refused to admit him. Mr Robertson, whose face is more E-list than A, was annoyed, affronted even, not to be recognised. And so he demanded: "Do you know who I am?"
Friday 08 June 2012
Corporate managers are being encouraged to unleash their inner air guitar and learn leadership skills from heavy metal luminaries at a seminar titled the Monsters of Rock'n'Roll Business.
Tuesday 06 March 2012
Russell Brand stole the show as American and British comics vied for laughs in New York
Sunday 19 February 2012
As David Cameron hosts summit to tackle threat to trade on the Indian Ocean, Britain is accused of soft-pedalling the issue
Friday 11 November 2011
Oddly, many of the obituaries for Auberon Waugh claimed that his most significant achievement was the "Diary" he wrote over 13 years for Private Eye. The quote marks are required because it was a pungent combination of fact and fiction. One of his milder musings dates from 1975: "Rather unexpectedly, I found myself in Kathmandu with Prince Charles for the coronation of King Bihendra... the Prince looks particularly fetching in a yashmak with blue paint on his eyelids."
Saturday 20 August 2011
Now a Unesco 'City of Design', this Austrian gem is full of handsome medieval and striking modern architecture. Chris Leadbeater explores
Monday 16 May 2011
World shipping leaders have been urged to co-ordinate the fight against piracy better.
Tuesday 10 May 2011
Friday 25 February 2011
Fancy watching a film about groovy London beatniks eating a tin of cat food? Or one that has Peter Cook playing a policeman who travels around an absurd post-apocalyptic landscape by hot air balloon?
Sunday 16 January 2011
Saturday 02 October 2010
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