Brian Williams

Sex scenes in cars! Marital misery! Faking orgasms! Making audiences faint! Ahead of her steamy new ITV drama #Adultery, I spoke to the brilliant Romola Garai for today's Guardian theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…

The Archbishop of Canterbury in 'The Medusa Touch' praying as Westminster Abbey falls in around him. Gets taken out by a piece of masonry (that bounces)
Oh and the bell ringers standing perplexed as the bells fall down on them.

“This morning, the United States of America carried out the severest sentence for the gravest of crimes. The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance, but justice. And one young man met the fate he chose for himself six years ago.

For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead, the pain goes on. Final punishment of the guilty cannot alone bring peace to the innocent. It cannot recover the loss or balance the scales, and it is not meant to do so. Today, every living person who was hurt by the evil done in Oklahoma City can rest in the knowledge that there has been a reckoning. At every point, from the morning of April 19, 1995 to this hour, we have seen the good that overcomes evil.

We saw it in the rescuers who saved and suffered with the victims. We have seen it in a community that has grieved and held close the memory of the lost. We have seen it in the work of detectives, marshal, and police. And we've seen it in the courts. Due process ruled. The case was proved. The verdict was calmly reached. And the rights of the accused were protected and observed to the full and to the end.

Under the laws of our country, the matter is concluded. Life and history bring tragedies, and often they cannot be explained. But they can be redeemed. They are redeemed by dispensing justice, though eternal justice is not ours to deliver. By remembering those who grieve, including Timothy McVeigh's mother, father and sisters, and by trusting in purposes greater than our own, may God in his mercy grant peace to all; to the lives that were taken six years ago, to the lives that go on, and to the life that ended today.”

Errol Flynn did the swashbuckling. He had the looks, the athleticism, and the debonair grin, which is why the screen loved him. Basil Rathbone was the actual fencer, and the better swordsman by a wide margin.

Rathbone had trained properly and practised all the time, so he was widely seen as Hollywood's best with a blade. Flynn was athletic and picked things up fast under fencing master Fred Cavens, but Rathbone later said he could have run him through whenever he wanted because Flynn didn't really know how to guard himself. The fights were carefully staged so Flynn still looked the hero and nobody got hurt.

What still stands out is the control. That's part of what makes the castle duel so good: the broadswords, the spiral stairs, the flying candelabras, and both men throwing themselves into it. Flynn supplies the dash and Rathbone supplies the blade. Nearly ninety years on, every rewatch still feels alive. Great fun!

"Did I upset your plans?"
"You have come to Nottingham once too often!"
"When this is over my friend there will be no need to come again!"

Brian Blessed story. He was waiting to be picked up outside Waterloo Station. There is a queue of people and each one got a "Gordon's alive!"
I was standing nearby. He turned towards me, winked and boomed "GORDON'S ALIVE!"

Loyalty in politics? Get a dog.

Love this story.

A Suffolk Constabulary officer has been given a five-year final written warning for using excessive force during the arrest of a man.

Following an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into the actions of PC Samuel Robinson, a disciplinary panel, appointed by the force, found he had committed gross misconduct.

Our investigation examined PC Robinson’s actions during a call to a domestic dispute in Lowestoft in June 2021. A report was made that a man was taking property from a storage unit that and had threatened two people with a metal pole, which he had allegedly picked up and waved at them.

Two officers arrived at the scene and were later joined by PC Robinson. The man punched an officer and a struggle between them followed.

As they all attempted to detain the man, PC Robinson unsuccessfully deployed Taser and one of the officers used PAVA spray as the man resisted arrest.

The man was on the ground when PC Robinson struck him on the head three times with the butt of his Taser.

The misconduct panel found that PC Robinson used unnecessary, unreasonable and disproportionate force during the arrest.

This included kicking the suspect while he was on the ground and repeatedly striking him on the head with the butt of his Taser, which the officer described as "improvised hammer blows".

The man sustained a cut to his head which was treated in hospital after officers had administered first aid at the scene.

The panel also found that his use of the Taser in this way was contrary to force training and guidance and that PC Robinson used offensive language to the man while restraining him.

The panel concluded that the officer had breached the police standards of professional behaviour relating to use of force and authority, respect and courtesy.

It determined that his actions amounted to gross misconduct and that he should be given a final written warning which would stay on his employment record for five years.

IOPC director of engagement Emily Barry said: “Police officers are entrusted with significant powers, and it is vital that those powers are exercised lawfully, proportionately and with restraint.”

“Any use of force must always be necessary, reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances. The panel found that PC Robinson's force was unnecessary and disproportionate and his actions clearly fell far below the standards expected of police officers.”

The IOPC investigation reviewed body-worn video footage, officer and non-police officer accounts, relevant force policies and use of force guidance. PC Robinson was interviewed and provided a full account.

We concluded that he should face gross misconduct proceedings.
Our investigation began following a conduct matter referral from Suffolk Constabulary in June 2021 and concluded in April 2022.

We also sent a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service which charged PC Robinson with actual bodily harm. He was acquitted following a trial at Southwark Crown Court in December 2024.

Link: policeconduct.gov.uk/news/gross-mis…

An in-depth interview of me by Claire Allfree in The Telegraph today, in the week of the publication of my 'Napoleon & His Marshals': telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fict… #Napoleon #History #Historians

Makes you despair of the species

It's so heartening to see young French people reject the July Revolution and the Orléans usurpers.

Meet the eccentric Britons gearing up for the Super Bowl of battle re-enactments

telegraph.co.uk/gift/a0df5e275…

Being a great cultural institution the Imperial War Museum gets its share of brickbats - here's what I learned in eight years on the board markurban.substack.com/p/secrets-of-t…