Of ballet, Trekkies, Old Masters, Morph, Freddie, a boa and a TV legend departs

RIP, choreographer Sir Richard Alston - his boys always could get their legs up higher, and wider, than anyone else!

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• To boldly go news: Happy birthday, Star Trek - which celebrated its 60th anniversary yesterday, with a series of events worldwide. Remarkably, our very own "super-fan" on Blogger Mr DeVice didn't even emerge from the wilderness in which he's been languishing since August to celebrate it!

• I still reckon that's Murray Melvin! news: In a groundbreaking new exhibition at the National Gallery, all nine portraits by the Northern Renaissance master Jan Van Eyck will be on display together for the very first time, including his famous "Arnolfini portrait" (above [click to embiggen]). Van Eyck: The Portraits runs at the National Gallery from 21st November 2026 to 11th April 2027.
• Your very own Gromit news: Action figures and original models of some of the world's favourite stop-motion on-screen characters from the creative geniuses at Aardman Animations, such as "Morph", "Wallace and Gromit" and "Sean the Sheep", will be going under the hammer in an online auction to mark the studio's 50th anniversary, ending on 24 September 2026. Get your bid in quick for "Feathers McGraw"..!
• Ready, Freddie! news: Eight of Freddie Mercury’s most memorable stage costumes are going on display at the V&A this autumn to mark his 80th anniversary year, including the “Mercury Wing” catsuit he wore in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, and the crown and cloak he wore on tour with Queen in the 80s. The Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things trail will include displays across the whole museum, and opens on 24th October 2026.
• Hissing Sid Siegfried? news: There was an major audition held at the New York Metropolitan Opera last weekend - for the role of a snake! A boa constrictor named Princess won. Not John Hamm...

And the weather? Erratic. Yesterday, it lashed it down all day, then brightened up early evening. Today, it's been lovely (on and off) again - but much cooler than it was on the weekend.

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• And finally: We here at Dolores Delargo Towers are distraught at the announcement that Monty Don is leaving Gardeners World at the end of the current series - after being at the helm [with a hiatus for ill-health] since 2003!

  No matter who takes over when he retires, things will never be the same again...

Monty Don reveals the five plants ANYONE can propagate

So soothing. So brilliant. So irreplaceable.

Of totty, Marianne, turkey, cash in the attic, mummy's boy, eruptions, word games and the wrong trousers

"I think to be the devil you have to be angel. Only an angel can play the devil because the devil was a fallen angel."
RIP Udo Kier, pioneering gay actor. And gorgeous as a youth.[click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Much-missed icon news: A collection of Marianne Faithfull's personal items, including her diaries, personal photos, various fashion pieces, items of furniture and works of art - and a trunk owned by Carrie Fisher and given by her to Marianne as a gift - are on display at Bonhams Knightsbridge, prior to coming to auction next week. The evening of the day: The Estate of Marianne Faithfull is part of Bonhams' Sound & Cinema auction, running from 25th November to 3rd December.
• Colonial news: Apparently some people "over there" are giving thanks for something-or-other today. Happy Thanksgiving to our chums in the colonies!
• Geek news: The most expensive comic book ever sold - Superman #1 from 1939 - found in their mother's attic by three of her sons went for over $9 million (£6.8 million)!
• Ghoul news: An Italian man is under investigation for benefit fraud and hiding a body after allegedly dressing up as his dead mother – including mimicking her hairstyle with a wig and wearing makeup and jewellery – in order to claim her pension. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Rita Webb, to my eyes.
• The earth hiccuped news: A long-dormant volcano in Ethiopia has erupted for the first time in around 12,000 years.
• We interrupt this broadcast to give you a new word game: I recently stumbled across a piece on the radio about contranyms, which are words that are their own opposites. Here are a few examples, but you can quite easily go down a rabbit-hole trying to think of more:
  • Bolt: To secure, or to flee
  • Cleave: To adhere, or to separate
  • Custom: A common practice, or a special treatment
  • Dust: To add fine particles, or to remove them
  • Fast: Quick, or stuck
  • Left: Remained, or departed
  • Oversight: A careless error, or supervision
  • Sanction: To approve, or to boycott
  • Screen: To present (as in a film), or to conceal
  • Splice: To join, or to separate
  • Weather: To withstand, or to wear away

• And, finally: A new exhibition will explore the world of Aardman animations – from Wallace & Gromit to Morph, Chicken Run, and Shaun The Sheep - is coming to the Young V&A (formerly The Museum of Childhood) next year! With more than 150 objects on display – including never-before-seen models, sets and storyboards from Aardman’s archives – it will open in February to coincide with the studio’s 50th anniversary year. Cracking news, Gromit!

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Cracking Toast

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Train Chase

And the weather? Murk.

One o'clock news

RIP, Nicholas Ball aka Hazell. A long-distant "secret crush" when I was a teenager...

Another "snippets post" today, dear reader:

• Society news: Anyone who was anyone was at the wedding yesterday of one of Britain's wealthiest men the Duke of Westminster to Olivia Henson. Except Harry and Meghan. My invitation obviously got lost in the post.

• Soap opera matriarch news: Helen Worth aka "Gail Platt" is set to leave Coronation Street after fifty years! I remember her and Suzy Burchill as Elsie Tanner's lodgers...
• Clink, clink, sweeties: Happy World Gin Day!
• Avian news: A Chilean Blue Eagle called Guido patrols The Shard to scare off seagulls or any other winged creatures who try to make the skyscraper a nest site.
• "Flatter now!" A statue of Victoria Wood in her hometown of Bury was unceremoniously knocked over by a taxi.
• Musical icon news: Happy 90th birthday to the lovely Millicent Martin - star of Side By Side By Sondheim [see more here and here] and That Was The Week That Was!

• And finally: Britain cheers at the news that the "claymation" national treasures Wallace and Gromit are returning to our screens this Xmas!

And now, the weather: Flaming June?! My arse.

That all went rather well, Gromit

As milestones go, especially when they involve a "national treasure" here in the UK, one might have expected at least a sniff of interest from what laughingly passes for "the media" in the fact that yesterday was the centenary of the birth of Peter Sallis. Nope. Shameful, really.

Not only was Mr Sallis a predominant feature of our telly screens for thirty-seven years - as the lugubrious-yet-patient "Cleggy", forever rasing his eyebrow at the hare-brained antics of his compatriots in the world's longest-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine; the only character to appear in all 295 episodes - he also lent his lovely dulcet tones to the madcap inventor "Wallace" in the classic Wallace and Gromit animations.

By way of a tribute to the man, it is to that series of films I turn...

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Cracking Toast

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Train Chase

Wallace and Gromit - Wallace favourite moments - A tribute to Peter Sallis

Peter John Sallis OBE (1st February 1921 – 2nd June 2017)

Night, Night, Gromit

Oh dearie me - hot on the heels of dear old Johnny Noakes, two more stalwarts of classic British TV have gone to that great goggle-box in the sky....

Roy Barraclough (who died last week) was a veteran of old-school repertory theatre (in those halcyon days when people had to slog for years before fame beckoned; unlike today when it appears all one needs to do is appear on a reality telly programme). Once he did make the jump to television, he made his name primarily in comic roles - and his spirit of self-deprecating humour made him perfect for the part of Alec Gilroy in Coronation Street, perpetually sparring with his wife Bet (née Lynch) and Rovers Return patrons alike. But it was for his long comedy partnership with "national treasure" Les Dawson for which he is most loved by us aficionados of camp innuendo - not least for his recurring part as "Cissie" to Les's "Ada":

Cissie & Ada - The Art Gallery

Far more gentle was the comedy of Peter Sallis, whose death was announced today. Having trained at RADA just after the War, he had a lengthy stage career and numerous character roles on telly before (finally) in 1973 he became a household name playing "Clegg" in the BBC's longest-ever running comedy series Last of the Summer Wine. He was the only actor to appear in every single episode, until the series finally ended in 2010. To international audiences, however, he was far better known as the voice of "Wallace" in Wallace and Gromit, from which this is a classic scene:

Wallace and Gromit - Breakfast

RIP, both.

Roy Barraclough MBE (12th July 1935 – 1st June 2017)

Peter Sallis OBE (1st February 1921 – 2nd June 2017)

Glitches

I wondered why my Thursday blog had disappeared! Well, it is Friday 13th...

An update from the boffins at Blogger:

What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behaviour. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.

Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers. We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again.

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager, Blogger

Luckily we have a spy-cam on the back-of-house operations at Blogger. This serves to illustrate the complexity of their operating system...

Wallace and Gromit - Wrong Trousers - Cracking Toast!

No wonder it went down...