Spectator Life

Football is an emotional sport, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune of being in Glasgow on derby day will attest. When your team wins, or even just scores a goal, that emotion can be hard to contain. Players, on occasion, have been known to celebrate such occurrences; sometimes they even make physical contact with each other. And why not?  The FA has announced that it will take a dim view such behaviour from now on, after criticism from politicians that some players have reprehensibly been breaching social distancing guidelines that the wider public have to follow.

If nothing else, the nation's latest online book club will be its poshest. The Duchess of Cornwall has thrown her feathered fascinator into the ring with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Richard and Judy to found — as she announced on her Instagram feed — an online book club called The Reading Room, in which she’ll be sharing personal recommendations, author interviews and kits of suggested questions for exploring the texts.  There’s every reason to welcome this as a serious project. Camilla has been closely involved with the Booker Prize for many years, is a patron of seven literacy charities, and is known to read widely and intelligently.

Every weekend Spectator Life brings you doses of topical trivia – facts, figures and anecdotes inspired by the current week’s dates in history. January 16  In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became President of Liberia, and Africa’s first female elected head of state. The country got its name because it was founded in the 19th century as somewhere that freed American slaves could start their new lives. This is why Liberia’s flag so closely resembles that of the US.  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became president of Liberia in 2006 (Getty) January 17  In 1998, news broke of Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton.

So Sex and The City is returning under a new name, and there is a new Russell Davies drama about gay experience. When will television dare to address the experience of heterosexual men with even an ounce of sensitivity?   My thoughts were prompted by the American drama A Teacher (currently on BBC iplayer), about an affair between a teenager and his English teacher. On paper, it is sensitive to the male experience, for the conclusion is that he is traumatised by the affair - despite lots of back-slapping from his mates, he is depicted as a victim of abuse. But this conclusion is disingenuous, and so lacks credibility. For he is, from the start, a cool stud, a sexually fluent dude, and the titillating trysts are predictably porny.

There's nothing like the feeling of stumbling upon a book that you love. And that satisfaction is somehow multiplied tenfold if it's a writer others are yet to discover. Lockdown is the perfect time to acquaint yourself with these underrated novels, some of which were celebrated during their own time but have largely been forgotten by today's readers: The Rector’s Daughter by F. M. Mayor The Rector’s Daughter by F. M. Mayor, first published in 1924, explores the life of Mary Jocelyn, a 35-year-old unmarried woman who lives with her father and invalid sister, who sadly dies. Shy and alone, with ‘the weight of the family’ on her, Mary finds brief happiness when she falls in love, but it is not to be.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1347165127036977153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Elon Musk has a habit of sparking fires on Twitter. His latest suggestion to ‘Use Signal’ might have confused a few people – what is it, and why should I 'use' it? Signal is, in short, a messaging app for people who are concerned about privacy: once-upon-a-time a concern of small group of techies, but now something that most people have good grounds to start taking seriously. Signal is one of the first messaging apps that claims to hold absolutely zero data about you Whenever you interact with anything – or anyone – online, some data is being passed round the internet; and some of that data can be personally identifiable to you.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a British actor in possession of a hit series and a face that hasn’t been thrashed by the ugly stick will, at some point, be mooted as the next Bond. So it’s surprising that it took Ladbrokes almost a fortnight after the period drama Bridgerton dropped on Netflix on Christmas Day to slash the odds on its star, Regé-Jean Page, becoming 007. For anyone still uninitiated, Bridgerton is the love child of Jane Austen and Jilly Cooper. It’s a Regency romp for those who feel that Georgette Heyer would be improved by more action on the library ladder.

‘All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.’ Enoch Powell, (Joseph Chamberlain, 1977) As President Donald J Trump witnesses the remaining days of his presidency ebb away, we take a look at the inevitable time when leaders face their ouster. Some face the end with resignation and fortitude, but sadly (for them), many cannot accept that they no longer hold the reins of power. So, as a no doubt disconsolate POTUS tucks into yet another cheeseburger (with two scoops of ice cream to follow), some motion pictures for him to reflect on. ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

At the best of times, January is a depressing month. Everyone is feeling poor and bloated after the Christmas extravaganza, and the days are still short and cold, with the nights drawing in far too early. Nobody has ever said ‘I’m really looking forward to January’. Which is why, with the spectre of illness and infection still stalking the land, the best thing that we can do is to stay at home with some of the most cheering films that we can find, and hope to banish the January blues that way. Of course, everyone enjoys a whacky comedy, or a gripping thriller, and they definitely have their place. But these films represent some of the most uplifting and purely enjoyable examples of cinema that we’ve seen over the past years.

When I was 11, Iraqi scud missiles exploded next to our home, collapsing part of our roof while I huddled together with my younger siblings on my parents’ bed wearing gas masks. This was in 1991, during the Gulf War when Israel was under attacks for the better part of January and February. I lived with my family near Tel Aviv, in an area designated ‘Zone A’ – the most likely to be hit by missiles. This wasn’t the only time I’ve experienced bombings: as an operations sergeant in the IDF, I was stationed on the border with Lebanon at a time of fierce and frequent fighting with Hezbollah; and as a civilian living in Israel during several rounds of fighting with Hamas that involved rocket attacks.

Looking for something new to watch on Amazon Prime this Christmas? Here’s our guide to the best shows and films arriving over the winter season: Tenet, 15 December (to rent or buy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZGcmvrTX9M Christopher Nolan’s time-bending venture - which revolves around the concept of bullets fired backwards in time - may have failed to reverse the decline of the cinema industry when it opened in theatres earlier this year. But now the would-be blockbuster gets a second chance to deliver on the hype when it arrives on Amazon Prime, as a rental offering, just in time for Christmas. Will the head-scratching plot make any more sense after a few helpings of seasonal mulled wine? You never know.Uncle Frank https://www.youtube.com/watch?

With the sad news of John le Carré’s (1931-2020) passing this weekend, a retrospective of some of the finest screen adaptations in the writer’s canon. For many aficionados of the genre, le Carré was the unrivalled king of the spy novel, who maintained a remarkably consistent output – his final novel (the satire Agent Running in the Field) was only published just over a year ago. We’ll be looking primarily at movie adaptations, but I’ll also briefly take in the storied history of Le Carré on the small screen.