A ‘perk-buster’ enjoying the perks, a Law and Order spokesman with a conviction for assault who steals the identity of a dead infant to falsely obtain a passport, a party spokesperson who keeps an 82-page dossier vilifying the party leader, but kisses and makes up anyway,  a political fossil whom no-one takes seriously anymore…  In... Read More

On 15 March 1994 Melvyn Bragg interviewed the playwright and  television dramatist Dennis Potter. The interview was broadcast on the BBC’s Channel Four on April 5. Potter died of cancer two months later on June 7. Potter smokes throughout the interview, holding the cigarette and lighter between the bunched fingers of his clawed right hand.... Read More

Though she was an Ulster woman through and through, my mother was in the habit of using that lovely Yorkshire expression of surprised disapproval, ‘There’s nowt so queer as folk.’ I was reminded of this yesterday during the Auckland City Mission’s Christmas Lunch. In order not to take the gilt off the gingerbread, I should... Read More