The Times - 28 November 2023

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 51 Register Penn aged 17, and with Princess Margaret, right, at the Savoy in 1975. Below, with her friend Benjamin Britten and a model of his concert hall Snape Maltings, 1970 the 16th century. It was this that prompted Aubyn to adopt the name Stewart, and the family surname became Stewart-Wilson in 1937. The Australian connection remained strong and, as a small child, Prue and her brothers were taken out there on a ship carrying steel girders for the newly commissioned Sydney Harbour Bridge. Her father died unexpectedly, in Australia, in his forties, leaving her mother to bring up three children on her own. Johnnie then remarried, this time to Greville Stevens, who had a son, Jocelyn, from a previous marriage. Prue thus found herself with a stepbrother, Jocelyn Stevens, who would go on to become publisher of Queen magazine and a senior executive on the Daily Express. (Johnnie adopted the surname, to become Stewart-Stevens.) She never had a formal education and was brought up mainly by governesses in establishments for young ladies. One of them, however — Woodleys, in Oxfordshire — she regarded as a small university, at which she learnt many skills, including typing and secretarial work. She continued her education in Scotland when war broke out and was recruited at the age of 18 to work at the Foreign Office. As a secretary and typist she learnt to be good at keeping secrets. Among the most closely guarded, she later recalled, was Operation Mincemeat, which involved dropping into the Mediterranean the body of a dead man, disguised as a naval officer carrying documents designed to mislead the Germans about the invasion of Sicily. To bolster his identity, Penn’s friend Jean Leslie at the Foreign Office was chosen as the “officer’s” girlfriend and her photograph was placed in his wallet. Life in wartime London meant many evenings spent at the 400 Club, the smartest in town, but was also filled with sadness when some of the young officers with whom she danced never came back from the war. She met her future husband at a dance given by Leslie’s father, where, because of rationing, her dress was made out of curtain material. “When I was married, in January 1947,” she later recalled, “I made a lot of my own [clothes], cutting out pieces of material from paper patterns and stitching them up on a sewing machine. My wedding dress was made out of old family lace.” The Penns had three children: David, who worked in the City and later in theatre and television; Christopher, who worked in real estate and the art world; and Fiona, an interior designer. They survive her. Eric Penn, who was in the Grenadier Guards, had had a distinguished war, winning the Military Cross in the Italian campaign. Later he was posted to Tripoli, then Berlin, where the Grenadiers were responsible for guarding Rudolf Hess at Spandau prison, before returning to London where he helped to oversee ceremonial duties in the capital. Injured in a skiing accident, he was unable to pursue a military career, and instead was asked to join the royal household, like his uncle. Among his many duties was organising Winston Churchill’s funeral, and it was he who proposed the famous moment when all She had a bond with the young Charles that lasted throughout life Obituaries Soul singer known for her 1971 hit Mr Big Stuff Jean Knight Page 52 Lady Penn Lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother and friend of Princess Margaret who learnt the art of discretion after working with Kim Philby the cranes along the River Thames dipped as the funeral barge sailed by. He was knighted in 1972 and retired as comptroller in 1981. Sir Eric died at the age of 77 in 1993. His wife would always cherish the number plate he had given her — PRU 365, reflecting his love for her every day of the year. When, in 1994, a year after his death, she was invited to be lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, she asked her, as a young widow: “Does it get better?” To which the reply came: “No, it never gets better. But you get better at it.” She served the Queen Mother until her death in 2002. The relationship between them was based not only on protocol but deep friendship, and she remained her close companion in her latter years. Both had been brought up in the Scottish Highlands, shared a love of the countryside and enjoyed a good party. They spent many weekends together at Birkhall, near Balmoral, as well as the Castle of Mey, the Queen Mother’s Scottish home in Caithness, and at Royal Lodge, her home in Windsor Great Park. In the mid-1960s the Penns had inherited Eric’s uncle Arthur’s house in Suffolk, near Snape. Lady Penn became great friends of both Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, and was a trustee of the Aldeburgh Festival. The Queen Mother often came to stay to attend concerts at Britten’s concert hall, Snape Maltings, which was opened by the Queen in 1967. On one occasion, lunch was brought in from the kitchen only to be dropped on the floor. With nothing left to eat, the Queen Mother suggested, with delight: “Let’s just pretend it’s the war.” When fire destroyed the hall in 1969, Penn’s friend Lady Harewood turned to her and said: “I think we’ve got to do it all over again.” Her musical life remained important to her. She came to know the composer William Walton, staying with him often at his house in Ischia. She introduced the jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman to Walton, who composed a tune for him. As a reward Goodman presented Penn with a fine crocodile skin handbag. Penn’s charm and generosity meant she was particularly good at befriending young people. As an enthusiastic adopter of email she liked to refer to herself as “techno-granny”. Although always discreet about royal life, she liked the mischievous side of Queen Elizabeth II and after her death she recounted one memorable episode. When the Penns gave a dinner party for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, she discovered at the last moment she had lost her seating plan. The Queen offered to take over, seated everyone immaculately and then turned to Penn, saying with a grin: “Just as well it’s not a really important dinner party.” Lady Penn LVO, former lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, was born on January 12, 1926. She died on November 20, 2023, aged 97 When, at the age of 18, Prudence Stewart-Wilson found wartime employment in a typing pool at the Foreign Office, she had little idea of who she was working for. Long hours of dictation and transcription were alleviated by weekends at the Foreign Office’s “safe house” on the outskirts of London where she and her colleagues would go for bicycle rides. Among those who joined them was one official whom Prudence found “most attractive,” and they made a home movie together. She had no reason to question the credentials of the young Kim Philby, and it was not until many years later she learnt where his true loyalties had been. Since she had signed the Official Secrets Act, she did not speak about him until she was nearly 70. That discretion was to stand her in good stead when, in 1960, her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Penn, joined the royal household as assistant comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, later rising to be comptroller. She herself would become lady-inwaiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. While Eric Penn (later Sir) was the epitome of correctness and was punctilious about tradition, his wife lent a sparkle to the royal household; always relaxed with members of the royal family, she was respectful but never overawed, which, to them, was a great relief. Her closest friend was Princess Margaret, whose occasionally wayward behaviour she warmed to, though there were times when she felt the need to drop a word of caution in her ear. The Penns stayed often with the princess and her husband Lord Snowdon, both in Mustique and Wales, and Lady Penn became godmother to their daughter, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones. Her friendship with Margaret’s sister, Elizabeth, went back to the 1940s. Eric’s uncle, Arthur, had been a member of the royal household during the reign of George VI and then private secretary and treasurer to the Queen Mother. Penn came to know Princess Elizabeth both as a young woman and later as wife to Prince Philip (whom Penn described as a “heaven-sent consort”). She once told Philip she thought there were great similarities between him and his predecessor Prince Albert, the prince consort, and though Philip took exception to the comparison, she would later say, “I think I was right.” There were also many parallels between Penn’s own life and that of Queen Elizabeth. Both were born in the same year, were married and became parents at the same time, and both had nine grandchildren. Because Penn had known Prince Charles since he was a boy, and because he adored his grandmother, the Queen Mother, there was a close bond between him and Penn that carried on throughout her life, and continued after his coronation as King. To her mind he had “grown in stature overnight” on acceding to the throne. Her close friend Bishop James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, recalled: “Towards the end of her life she was deeply touched by the King’s care and concern for her. She had a sincere Christian faith … she said once that the secret of a long life was making friends with younger people.” Born Prudence Hilary Wilson in Edinburgh in 1926, she was brought up with her two brothers, Ralph and Blair, in Scotland and Australia. Both her brothers would have distinguished military careers; Blair also became deputy master of the household to the Queen. Their father, Aubyn Wilson, who had two daughters from a previous marriage, was a sheep farmer whose family owned sheep stations in Australia and a cattle ranch in America. Their mother, Muriel Stewart, always known as Johnnie, lived at Balnakeilly, near Pitlochry in Perthshire, and could trace her ancestry back to

52 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Register Tarnoff at work during the Clinton era; a scene from Argo, right, starring John Goodman, Alan Arkin and Ben Affleck Peter Tarnoff was the consummate discreet, behind-the-scenes, problemsolving diplomat, and would probably have remained just that had the Hollywood actor Ben Affleck not produced the film Argo in 2012. The film told the story of six Americans who escaped when Iranian revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took more than 50 US diplomats and civilians hostage. The six hid in the residence of the Canadian ambassador while the CIA concocted an extraordinary plan to extract them: it would disguise them as Canadian film-makers scouting locations for a science fiction film in Iran, and smuggle in false passports with forged entry stamps so they could fly out on a normal commercial flight. Amazingly, the plan worked and Tarnoff was identified as a key player in what was dubbed the “Canadian Caper”. It was he who liaised between the CIA and the Canadian authorities on behalf of Cyrus Vance, then the US secretary of state, and effectively isolated himself from the rest of the State Department during several fraught weeks of planning lest news of the operation leaked. A modest, self-effacing man, he never watched the film and never publicly acknowledged his role in the rescue, but the six did: they presented him with one of the maple leaf lapel badges that they wore during their escape. Tarnoff’s other exploits as a senior US diplomat — such as his role in negotiating an end to the Vietnam War and his cigar-smoking meetings with Fidel Castro of Cuba — he was rather more successful at keeping secret. Peter Tarnoff was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1937, the oldest child of Norman Tarnoff, an executive at Macy’s department store, and Henrietta, a housewife. His parents divorced while he was still young. When he was 12 his mother married a Canadian and moved with her children to Montreal where he attended Strathcona Academy before returning to the US to study philosophy at Colgate University in upstate New York. His goal was to become an academic, but he spent the third year of his course in France and it changed his life — 1956 was the year of the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Uprising. “Being close to the place where momentous events were taking place propelled me in the direction of trying to participate instead of being a professor of philosophy,” he said. He did go on to study for a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago, but joined the Foreign Cuba stopped further crossings to Florida. Tarnoff then held further clandestine, cigar-smoking meetings with Castro in Havana to secure the Cuban dictator’s agreement. His wife, Mathea Falco, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “he was flown down in FBI planes and left on beaches, where the Cubans would collect him”. Tarnoff met Falco while they were both working for the Carter administration, she as assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. They married in 1982 and had a son, Benjamin, who, together with Falco, survives Tarnoff. Through a previous marriage to Danielle Oudinot, which ended in divorce, he had two other sons, Alexander, who also survives him, and Nicholas, who died in 1991. Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in 1980 and Alexander Haig, the new secretary of state, sidelined Tarnoff, Among other exploits, he had secret cigar-smoking meetings with Castro Email: [email protected] Peter Tarnoff Self-effacing diplomat who helped to smuggle six Americans out of Iran as part of the famous ruse recounted in the film Argo Service in 1962. The Cold War was raging. In his inauguration speech the previous year, President Kennedy had pledged that “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty”. There was, said Tarnoff, “a feeling of mission, of purpose, of knowing what America’s role in the world was”. He was posted first to Lagos, Nigeria, and then to Saigon where he served as a political assistant to Henry Cabot Lodge, the US ambassador to South Vietnam, in the midst of the war against communist North Vietnam. In 1965 he suffered serious head injuries when a car bomb exploded outside the embassy, killing about 20 people including two embassy employees. Tarnoff recovered and was at Lodge’s side in 1969 when he led the US delegation to the Paris peace talks, which eventually ended the Vietnam War four years later. During the 1970s Tarnoff was posted to Germany, France and Luxembourg before returning to Washington to serve in President Carter’s administration as Vance’s special assistant. It was in that role that he helped to rescue the six Americans from revolutionary Iran, but he also helped to negotiate a deal to end the mass emigration of thousands of Cuban asylum seekers to the US known as the Mariel boatlift. He courted Ricardo Alarcon, a senior Cuban diplomat and Castro confidant, as they smoked cigars in New York bars near the United Nations headquarters. He proposed a deal whereby the US would accept 20,000 anti-Castro Cubans who had sought refuge at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay if perhaps because he was seen as tainted by his relations with Castro. He moved to San Francisco, which became his primary home for the rest of his life. There he became a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and served as executive director of the World Affairs Council of Northern California until he was appointed president of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in New York in 1986. He did much to raise the CFR’s profile, opening its events to television cameras and expanding its membership. In 1993 President Clinton appointed Warren Christopher as secretary of state, and Christopher brought Tarnoff back into government as undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third most senior job at the State Department. In that capacity he helped to shape US policy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and acted once again as a secret intermediary with Castro and the Cuban government, negotiating a deal to end America’s policy of accepting any Cuban asylum seeker who managed to reach US soil. Tarnoff finally retired from the Foreign Service and returned to San Francisco in 1997. Shortly afterwards he was given the Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s highest honour, by Christopher’s successor, Madeleine Albright (obituary, March 23, 2022), and would happily have disappeared entirely from public life had it not been for the film Argo. Peter Tarnoff, US diplomat, was born on April 19, 1937. He died of complications from Parkinson’s disease on November 1, 2023, aged 86 Jean Knight Soul and funk singer whose hit Mr Big Stuff propelled her from obscurity in 1971 and earned her a Grammy nomination When Jean Knight recorded Mr Big Stuff she was a churchgoing New Orleans housewife who worked in the cafeteria of a Dominican all-girls college, where her cakes and pies made her highly popular with students. She had spent some time singing in the clubs of New Orleans in the mid1960s and recorded a few unsuccessful singles. However, with her career going nowhere, she had settled into a life of contented domesticity until out of the blue, in 1970, a local composer named Ralph Williams asked her to demo some of his songs. Among them was Mr Big Stuff and in May that year she went into the studio with Wardell Quezergue, a New Orleans producer and family friend known on the local music scene as “the Creole Beethoven” (obituary, September 10, 2011). She nailed the song on only the second take and over the next year Mr Big Stuff was hawked around various big-name producers at national record labels. There were no takers and the song seemed destined for obscurity until King Floyd’s Groove Me, another song produced by Quezergue at the same session with the same backing musicians, became a hit. When the record label asked if there was any more where Groove Me came from, Knight’s track was resurrected and released as a single on the Stax label in May 1971. With its sassy syncopation and “who do you think you are” refrain, Mr Big Stuff went to No 2 in the American charts, kept from the top spot only by the Bee Gees’How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. Knight’s indignant put-down of an arrogant suitor who thinks his expensive cars and flashy clothes mean he can have any woman he wants turned the song into an instant feminist anthem. “I’ve met a lot of guys like Mr Big Stuff,” Knight told Jet magazine. “The song’s lyrics really turn me on. They are something that a lot of ladies would like to say.” The song, she added, was for all women “who feel they have been messed over by some dude who thinks he can rip off any chick he fancies and then go on his merry way”. Yet ironically, Knight’s views on gender were distinctly old-fashioned. “I feel men were put here to lead in some ways, like men go into the armed forces,” she said shortly after the record’s release. “Perhaps women’s lib is jeopardising some of the rights that have been made to protect women.” Mr Big Stuff earned her a Grammy nomination for best female R&B vocal performance and she followed with the similar You Think You’re Hot Stuff. It failed to chart and she never cracked the Top 40 again, leaving Mr Big Stuff a clear run to earn Knight a prominent entry in The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders. Yet the power of her solitary hit endured, used in films and frequently sampled, often by male acts including the Beastie Boys and John Legend. In 1990 Mr Big Stuff was covered by the American all-female band Precious Metal, whose management hired Donald Trump to appear in the titular role in the video accompanying their version of the song. An appearance fee of $10,000 was agreed but after shooting his scenes Trump announced that he was increasing his fee to $250,000 and the video was shelved. Although there were no further hits, the enduring popularity of Mr Big Stuff kept Knight in royalties for the rest of her life and she reported in 2002 that the song was earning her more money than it had done when it first charted. “All I have to do is sit at home and wait for the mailman,” she said. Jean Caliste was born in 1943 in New Orleans, one of eight children to Florence Edwards and Louis Caliste, who were a popular vaudeville song and dance act in the city’s bars and nightclubs. After graduating from Joseph S Clark high school she began singing at Laura’s Place, a bar owned by a cousin, and made her recording debut at the age of 21. The closest she came to another hit after Mr Big Stuff was in 1985, when her cover of the zydeco song My Toot Toot made No 50 in the US charts. A teenage marriage to Thomas Commedore ended in divorce and in 1965 she married Earl Harris, a longshoreman who gave up his job to become her tour manager. She is survived by a son, Emile Commedore, a musician who produced several of her later records. She lived in the city of her birth all her life until her home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2006 and she was forced to take refuge in a Florida trailer park. Yet New Orleans was in her blood. From celebrating Mardi Gras to her love of Creole cooking, she embraced every aspect of the city’s unique culture and as soon as the floodwaters had receded she returned and began rebuilding her home and her life. Jean Knight, singer, was born on January 26, 1943. She died of undisclosed causes on November 22, 2023, aged 80 Knight in the 1970s and the record that took her to No 2 in the charts ‘The song’s lyrics are something a lot of ladies would like to say’

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 53 Register Gray’s Inn The following have been called to the Bar this Michaelmas term: David James Edward Stevens, Helene Lucie Charlotte Cohen Seifert, Muktadir Mohsin, Charlotte Thoms Branfield, Mark Andrew Anthony Erridge, Sophie Souflas, Emma Jayne Anderson, Idris Sacha Ashe, Fatima Galal Mohamed Ismail, Muhammad Mohi-Ud-Din, Peter Mitchell, Muhammad Nabeel Malik, James Brian Nottage, Rachel Alexandra Rodney, Indira Maria Varma, Christopher James Grabowski, Zanisha Begum Herbert, Caitlin Megan Hall, Lillian Garnier, Antonia Georgia Adie, Roshan Singh Dhaliwal, Sophie Louise Clifford, Dominic Lorenzo Davidson, Mahfuza Chowdhury, Eric Arvyndra Anthony, Muhammad Ehtsaam Ali, David Cornelius Ion, Michelle Emefa Zormelo, Jack Christopher Brett, Suzanne Alice McKinstry, Aditi Ajay Khandkar, Breshna Rani, Harvey Lucas Appleby, Luke Daniel Hard, Sahil Ali Iqbal, Shuwern Lim, Jiea Tan, Jack Owen Reece Dove, Jarret Jinghao Huang, Tsz Yau Hui, Federico Sam Brogna, Taranidivya Seran, Yusif Alhani, Thomas Hutton-Clarke, Allison Mary Hochhalter, Ying Thong Pang, Tabitha Isabella Boyton, Favour Bassey, Neil Murphy, Matthew Patrick James Hunt. Lincoln’s Inn The following have been called to the Bar this Michaelmas term: Monshi Zakir Hossan, Kazi Mohammed Fozlay Rabby, Md. Mahbub Hasan, Abdullah Al Mamun, Mohammad Bulbul Ahmad, Pathan Md Abed Bin Shafiq, Rekayathry Pillai Balakrishnan, Haq Nawaz, Asma Khawar Khawaja, Arafatun Nahar Mou, Pretom Sengupta, Mohamed Lamin Wurie, Khawaja Muhammad Shahbaz Baig, Robert Oldham, Tarik Aziz, Md. Shahiduzzaman Siddique, Kuri Siddique, Rimsha Ahmed Siddiqui, Shafqat Aziz, Jerin Tasnim, Md Kamruzaman Khan, Yoko Critchley Nagai, Nirupama Akter Chowdhury Nipa, Abeeda Asfa Promee, Syed Mustafa Abbas Naqvi, Sheza Tariq Chaudhry, Zain-UlAbidin Mallah, Md Khalid Alam Anabil, Usama Ali, Kaleem Ullah Safdar, Lim Yek Man, Syeda Sakina Afzaal Shah, Shanai Aqsa-Noor Kucuk, Clara Antonia Hilger, Radha Mohanraj, Silva-Maria Sedem Awushie Adadevoh, Arman Munshi, Md Nazmul Hasan, Shahir Ahmed, Tanvir Hasan, Pooarasan Balachander, Sohail Khan Nasar, Siew Kim Ng, Rena Begum, Syed Ali Asghar, Muhammad Khan, Larsen Varadarajen Vuddamalay, Sashmettha Krisma Krishna Raj, Peroshnah T Dev, Akib Akbar Khan Chowdhury, Abdullah Ali Khan, Muhammad Salal Khan, Agha Muhammad Furqan, Sean Alec Crocker, Adam Wen Li Ang, Olivia Beatrice Louise Kirk, Alicia Dorothie Day Lawson, Roshan Singh Panesar, Cindy Asokan, Syed Talha Shah Hasany, Rossen Momtchilov Roussanov, Guya Pernilla Serena Jolanda Santomauro, Ella Edge, Fahim Shahariar Alam, Zhang Cheng, Mahinur Abdullah, Nadia Mehrin, Danial Khalid Khan, Christian Theodor Zabilowicz, Benjamin Mark William Smith, Robert Benjamin Ulph, Abu Tayueb Tushar, Ratul Sinha, Kanny Saha, Daniel Ibukunoluwa Olaniyi, Bakhtiar Ali Khan, Saifur Rahman, MD Mohadul Morshed, Azelia Rebecca Pennerman, Suleman Naseem Sheikh, Kazi Zareen Saiyarah Archi, Sana Maryam Khurshid, Noor Parveen Joura, Jharna Aktar Poly, Hamail Khattak, Atikul Haque, Junaid Saleem, Beth Ann Marron, Pia Ali, Hisham Yousaf Sindhu, Lucy Jane Crabtree, Ciara Mary Pamela Coleman, Piarra Avtar William Singh, Oliver Bahrisch, Roshan Rafiq Malik, Abdullah Saleemm, Inuriyah Binti Ab Azmar, Nur Aliah Binti Kamarul, Muhammad Asyraaf Bin Mushthaq Ahmad, Nirakar Hawoldar, Mohnish Abhimanyu Luchoomun, Huzaif Kamal, Yim Jun Yang, Sanjana Luxmi Ramlugun, Saad Aziz, Anosh Ayesha, Gwyneth Louis Everson, Yanesh Hoolass, Ahmad Hassan Baig, Mir Hamdan Akbar, Angus Archie Herbert Groom, Kyle Jeffrey Bonnell, Shavitta Devi Raja Mohan, James Nicholas Cox, Chloe Wilkes, Jessica Grace Curtis Ockenden, Jack William Brady, Louise Rebecca Jane Howard, Shamrez Syed, Mohamed Hazazi Khalaff Bin Abdul Hamid, Ayatullah A Bhanbhro, John Mark Lowry Le Moignan, Tasmia Nuzhat Khan, Umar Iqbal, Hatim Ibrahim Husaimee Ahmad, Ali Aun Awan, Ewan Thomas Lynn-Noble, Louis Stall, Ronan Anand Pandit, Reazul Hossain Talukder, Jeremiah Anand Lawrence, Syed Muhammad Asad Haider Rizvi, Miza Farisya Binti Mohd Fadzli, Jashen Umanee, Usama Arshad, Ng Zhongde, Liren The, Malaika Asif Sukhera, Tate Mae Turner, Abdullah Asad Bhalli, Hamza Ayub, Nur Fatin Hamimah binti Haji Suhaimi, Michael John Dominic Higton, Musaab Ahmed, Kan Seng Law, Theophilus Shingayi Mukamuri, Esther AsafoBoakye, Syed Erfan Siddique, Nehreen Ahmed, Yong Hei Mun, Felicity Anne Wood, Marika Cash, Blaise Ernest Morris, Lydia Charlotte Reed, Mishaal Sajid, Firdaus Mohandas, Michelle Chew Shar Yee, Vandana Chenishka Koonjal, Zoe Aindow, Alessia Carlotta Gwyneth Davi, Lorelle Shania Nathan, Jeremiah Susaiyan, Noman Bin Waheed, Muhammed Nazhrin Bin Faisal Sabri, Thomas Christopher William Ames, Draupadi Seethadevi Senanayake, Tang Yi Lin, Jasmine Soraya Jefri, Raj Daniel Singh Arjan Singh, Arthur Sutton, Katie Rose Attenborough, Joseph Lavery, Venkat Ram Dasaratharaj, Dilawar Khan, Carenjit Kaur Jitsweer Singh, Xu Yin Tan, Jahra Khathun Kadir, Kharthiegeayan Subramaniam, Low Wei Kang, Lim Yin Wei, Xian Jie Lee, Pengiran Nur ’Azeezah, Maimoona Zeb, Lim Luo Jing, Hamza Sadaqtum, Lee Xin Yi, Diana-Andreea Stoean, Amanda Rose Dombroski, Hafiz Muhammad Asad Muneer, William Tomlinson, Charles Emery, Lubna Mariam Ramjaun, Zarina Sophia Miah, Sajjad Ahmed, Muhammad Ali Binyameen, Blessing Onyinyechi Alozie, Farzana Rahman Shampa, Zoha Savadhouhifar, Mohammad Mazharul Islam, Robert Schultz, Nikila Kaushik, Muhammad Usman Binyameen, John-Patrick Michael Douglas Asimakis, Lauren Camille Lucie Lederle, Sultan Malik, Jonathan Benedict Aldridge Turnbull, Ahtisham ul Haq Dar. Inner Temple The following have been called to the Bar this Michaelmas term: Ekaterini Kyriacou, Robina Khan, Amy Jessica Adams, Imogen Victoria Smalley, Mirdza Fahim Bin Mohd Fadzli, Syed Haider Ali Shah, Rushnay Sikander, Alexa Thompson, Jack William Michael Collins, Joyinola and was received later upon arrival at El Dorado International Airport, Bogota, by His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Colombia (His Excellency Mr George Hodgson). Mr Alexander Stonor and Mrs Angus Galletley are in attendance. Kensington Palace 27th November, 2023 The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester this evening officially opened the Red Cross Christmas Market at Guildhall, London EC2. IS ANY among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5.13-14 (AV) Bible verses are provided by the Bible Society Births, Marriages and Deaths Births BURTON On 21st November 2023 to Emma Jayne (née Richardson) and Thomas Edward Kenneth, a daughter, Matilda Wendy, sister to Zachary. QUINN on 20th November 2023 to Isobel Quinn (née Eames) and Jonathan Quinn, a daughter, Charlotte Lily Quinn. Born at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital weighing 7.4lbs. Deaths COPELAND John died peacefully on 8th November 2023, aged 86. John was greatly loved and will be much missed by children Charles, Victoria, James and Dominique and grandchildren Emily, Rebecca, Louise, Emma, Fiona, Heidi, Theo and Huxley. Funeral 4th December 1.15pm at Surrey & Sussex Crematorium, RH10 3NQ. HONNOR Josephine (Jo), aged 92, died peacefully on 20th November 2023. Widow of Edward Roy Hawtin (Roy) and beloved mother of Tim. Former athlete (shot putter) in the 1958 Commonwealth Games. Funeral at 10.30am on Wednesday 6th December at St Philip’s Church, Earls Court Road, London, W8 6QH, followed by a reception at The Holland, 25 Earls Court Road, London, W8 6EB (near Waitrose). The burial will take place at Gunnersbury Cemetery at 2pm. All welcome. To join the funeral service by Zoom, follow instructions at specr.org. KAMAL Adel died peacefully on 15th November 2023, aged 94, after a brief illness. Distinguished editor and loyal friend to many. Survived by his daughter, granddaughter, nieces and nephews. Donations to Medical Aid for Palestinians bit.ly/AdelKamal MACKAY-JAMES Susanah died peacefully on 20th November 2023, aged 81. Funeral at West London Crematorium on Friday 1st December at 10.30am. No flowers please. All donations to maggies.org. Peace, love and unity. xx MACKENZIE Kathleen W (née Porteous) died peacefully on 30th October 2023. Much-loved wife of Sandy (deceased), mother of Janet and Alistair and friend of many. For details of the funeral, livestream and donations please contact Alistair on [email protected]. Donations will be for the Children’s Society. MORRISS Marie died on 23rd November 2023, aged 80, at her home in Barton Mills, after a long illness bravely borne. Loving wife to Hugo. All inquiries c/o Southgate of Newmarket Funeral Directors 01638 662480. PARAVICINI Dennis Stewart on 12th November 2023, aged 93, died peacefully at home. Much-loved husband of Sallie and loving father of Georgina and James. Grandfather of Nicholas, Edward, Tom, Max and Rose. Service of thanksgiving at St Martin’s Church, Ellisfield, Hampshire RG25 2QR on Tuesday 16th January 2024 at 11.30am. Donations if desired to Hampshire Medical Fund and St Michael’s Hospice. PULFORD Brenda Mary (née Bivand), passed away peacefully on 19th November 2023, aged 94. Beloved wife of the late Roy William Pulford. Much loved and greatly missed by daughters Sally and Julie, son-inlaw Geoffrey, grandchildren, wives and partners, Caroline, Luke, Tom, William, Sarah, Kate, Laura, Rosie and James, and great-grandchildren Beau and Isla. Funeral at Beckenham Crematorium, Friday 15th December at 2pm. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to Christian Aid, c/o W Uden & Sons, 186 Main Road, Biggin Hill, Westerham, Kent TN16 3BB. SIMONDS Peggy (née Mann) on 23rd November 2023, aged 98, born 1924, died peacefully at home at Syde. Much-loved mother of Susan, Anne, Peter, Nicola and Catherine, and beloved grandmother. Funeral service at St Peter’s Church, Duntisbourne Abbots at noon on 20th December 2023. Inquiries to A Slade and Son, 01285 656336. Family flowers only. STEEDMAN Walter. “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”. Of Merchiston, Edinburgh. Formerly of Troon. Beloved father to Walter, Elizabeth, Carol, Alan and Thomas. Adored grandfather of Ollie and Evan. Fondly missed. STEWART Virginia Jean passed away on 15th November 2023, aged 72, after a long illness, bravely borne. Dearly beloved sister of Jacqueline, Callum and Lindsay. The funeral will be held on Friday 1st December 2023 at the Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard, Arundel at 2pm. All welcome. Any donations please to the Friends of Arundel Cathedral. TAYLOR-YOUNG Christopher William died peacefully at home on 21st November 2023, aged 89, surrounded by his family. Beloved husband of Rosemary and much loved father and grandfather. Funeral service 2pm on 14th December at St John the Baptist Church, Widford, Hertfordshire. WARREN Marion Isabella Enid (née Mackenzie) on 18th November 2023, peacefully at home. Beloved wife of the late John, mother of Peter, grandmother of Claudia and Phoebe. Funeral at Liphook Methodist Church, GU30 7AN on Wednesday 6th December at 2.30pm. Family flowers only. 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Kensington Palace 27th November, 2023 The Prince of Wales, Patron, Tusk Trust, this evening attended the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Savoy, the Strand, London WC2. St James’s Palace 27th November, 2023 The Duchess of Edinburgh this morning departed Heathrow Airport, London, for Colombia (Queen Elizabeths’ Own), this morning received Lieutenant Colonel William Richmond upon relinquishing his appointment as Commanding Officer and Lieutenant Colonel Robin Davies upon assuming the appointment. Her Majesty, Colonel-inChief, this afternoon planted a commemorative oak in Sandringham Estate in celebration of The late Queen Elizabeth II’s Seventy Five Years as Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own). The Prince of Wales, on Buckingham Palace 27th November, 2023 The King held a Reception at Buckingham Palace this evening to mark the Global Investment Summit. The Queen, Colonel-inChief, The Royal Lancers

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 55 Weather The Times weather page is provided by Channel Islands NORTH SEA CHANNEL IRISH SEA ATLANTIC OCEAN Aberdeen Glasgow Edinburgh Carlisle Newcastle York Manchester Liverpool Hull Llandudno Shrewsbury Nottingham Sheffield Norwich Cambridge Oxford Bristol Swansea Cardiff Plymouth Exeter Southampton Brighton London Londonderry Belfast Galway Dublin Cork Birmingham CELTIC SEA Orkney Shetland 8 Friday 5 1 3 3 Aberdeen Aberporth Anglesey Aviemore Barnstaple Bedford Belfast Birmingham Bournemouth Bridlington Bristol Camborne Cardiff Edinburgh Eskdalemuir Glasgow Hereford Herstmonceux Ipswich Isle of Man Isle of Wight Jersey Keswick Kinloss Leeds Lerwick Leuchars Lincoln Liverpool London Lyneham Manchester Margate Milford Haven Newcastle Nottingham Orkney Oxford Plymouth Portland Scilly, St Mary’s Shoreham Shrewsbury Snowdonia Southend South Uist Stornoway Tiree Whitehaven Wick Yeovilton Around Britain Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder *=previous day **=data not available Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday Noon today 7 C 6.2 0.4 9 R 3.2 0.4 9 B 6.2 0.0 4 R 8.2 0.6 11 R 8.4 ** 5 R 6.2 ** 7 S 1.8 0.0 4 R 6.2 ** 11 R 7.8 0.0 7 C 9.0 ** 11 C 5.0 0.0 11 C 2.6 0.0 11 R 4.8 0.0 6 C 2.2 0.0 5 C 4.4 0.0 7 S 1.6 0.0 9 R 1.6 ** 10 D 13.6 0.0 5 R 12.0 0.0 7 PC 10.6 0.0 11 PC 9.8 ** 11 C 12.6 0.1 5 C 7.6 ** 7 R 5.8 3.3 3 C 16.8 ** 6 R 9.4 0.0 7 R 1.2 0.0 4 R 14.2 0.0 5 R 9.8 ** 10 R 8.0 0.0 10 C 4.8 0.0 4 R 14.2 0.0 10 C 12.2 0.0 10 D 3.6 ** 5 R 7.0 ** 4 R 18.4 0.0 8 C 2.8 0.6 10 R 3.6 ** 11 R 1.2 ** 11 PC 6.2 ** 12 C 1.2 ** 10 C 11.0 0.0 5 R 9.6 0.0 5 D 16.8 ** 9 R 17.0 0.0 6 S 0.6 ** 8 PC 1.8 1.2 8 S 0.6 ** 4 R 5.8 0.0 7 C 5.4 ** 11 PC 4.0 0.0 The world All readings local midday yesterday Alicante Amsterdam Athens Auckland Bahrain Bangkok Barbados Barcelona Beijing Beirut Belgrade Berlin Bermuda Bordeaux Brussels Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Calcutta Canberra Cape Town Chicago Copenhagen Corfu Delhi Dubai Dublin Faro Florence Frankfurt Geneva Gibraltar Helsinki Hong Kong Honolulu Istanbul Jerusalem Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Kyiv Lanzarote Las Palmas Lima Lisbon Los Angeles Luxor Madeira Madrid Malaga Mallorca Malta Melbourne Mexico City Miami Milan Mombasa Montreal Moscow Mumbai Munich Nairobi Naples New Orleans New York Nice Nicosia Oslo Paris Perth Prague Reykjavik Riga Rio de Janeiro Riyadh Rome San Francisco Santiago São Paulo Seoul Seychelles Singapore St Petersburg Stockholm Sydney Tel Aviv Tenerife Tokyo Vancouver Venice Vienna Warsaw Washington Zurich 22 S 5 D 13 PC 18 DU 27 S 31 PC 30 PC 14 PC 8 S 19 B 8 S 2 C 22 B 12 B 6 R 3 S 2 R 29 S 20 PC 28 ** 26 B 25 S 0 SN -3 DU 14 PC 22 ** 29 PC 7 PC 17 PC 8 B 2 SN 5 SH 18 PC -13 S 26 S 28 B 7 PC 19 B 31 PC 32 PC ** ** 21 PC 22 B 19 S 16 B 21 B 24 S 22 PC 7 DU 20 S 19 PC 19 PC 16 B 24 B 28 C 7 B ** ** 4 B 2 D 30 ** 5 S 25 B 12 D 18 C 10 B 12 S 20 PC -4 SN 6 R 24 B 3 B 7 B -5 SN 25 B 32 S 14 PC 16 B 26 S 21 B 9 B 31 PC 30 B -4 C -7 PC 24 B 19 B 22 B 13 PC 5 M 8 PC 6 PC -1 SN 8 C 5 PC Five days ahead Chilly with overnight frosts and wintry showers spreading southwards at times Today Feeling chilly with plenty of sunshine but showers in places, wintry further north. Max 9C (48F), min -7C (19F) Tides Tidal predictions. Heights in metres Today Ht Ht Aberdeen Avonmouth Belfast Cardiff Devonport Dover Dublin Falmouth Greenock Harwich Holyhead Hull Leith Liverpool London Bridge Lowestoft Milford Haven Morecambe Newhaven Newquay Oban Penzance Portsmouth Shoreham Southampton Swansea Tees Weymouth 01:18 4.4 13:40 4.3 07:24 13.2 19:48 13.1 11:26 3.6 23:49 3.5 07:13 12.2 19:38 12.1 05:57 5.5 18:18 5.4 11:22 6.7 23:44 6.6 --:-- -- 12:18 4.2 05:24 5.1 17:45 5.0 00:28 3.6 12:38 3.6 11:54 4.1 --:-- -- 10:34 5.7 22:55 5.6 06:19 7.7 18:42 7.4 02:34 5.6 14:58 5.5 11:21 9.2 23:41 9.2 01:51 6.9 14:05 7.2 09:32 2.6 22:00 2.5 06:24 7.0 18:46 6.9 11:31 9.3 23:51 9.2 11:20 6.7 23:46 6.6 05:15 7.0 17:36 6.9 05:42 4.0 18:07 4.0 04:49 5.5 17:09 5.4 11:38 4.8 --:-- -- 11:31 6.3 23:58 6.2 11:19 4.6 23:45 4.4 06:31 9.4 18:55 9.3 03:39 5.5 16:05 5.5 06:53 2.2 19:22 2.1 Synoptic situation A ridge of high pressure will bring mainly dry and sunny conditions across England, Wales and Ireland, but the risk of a few showers around coastal areas. A small area of low pressure near northeast Scotland will push a cold front southwards bringing wintry showers or perhaps a longer period of rain or snow to northern and eastern Scotland. Highs and lows 24hrs to 5pm yesterday Warmest: Southampton, Hampshire, 12.2C Coldest: Cairngorm, -5.5C Wettest: Cranwell, Lincolnshire, 24.0mm Sunniest: Altnaharra, 4.4hrs* Sun and moon For Greenwich Sun rises: Sun sets: Moon rises: Moon sets: Third quarter: December 5 Hours of darkness Aberdeen Belfast Birmingham Cardiff Exeter Glasgow Liverpool London Manchester Newcastle Norwich Penzance Sheffi eld 16:05-07:48 16:35-07:49 16:30-07:22 16:39-07:22 16:44-07:20 16:22-07:49 16:30-07:31 16:27-07:10 16:26-07:28 16:16-07:33 16:16-07:10 16:54-07:26 16:24-07:24 General situation: Mostly dry and chilly with sunny spells but the risk of a few showers in northern Britain and near coastal areas. SW Eng, SE Eng, Cen S Eng, W Mids, London, Cen N Eng, NW Eng, NE Eng, IoM, Lake District: Any frost and fog around at fi rst will clear to bring a dry day with sunny spells. Light north or northwesterly wind. Maximum 9C (48F), minimum -2C (28F). E Anglia, E Mids, E Eng, Channel Is: The risk of a few showers from thicker cloud in the morning, then turning dry during the afternoon with increasing amounts of sunshine. Light north or northwesterly wind. Maximum 8C (46F), minimum -1C (30F). Wales: Mist and fog patches around at fi rst with the risk of a light shower, then dry with sunny spells for a time before cloud thickens to bring the risk of a shower from the west later. Light and variable winds. Maximum 7C (45F), minimum -2C (28F). Republic of Ireland, N Ireland: Any frost and fog patches clearing to bring a mostly dry day with sunny spells. The risk of a few showers in the north and east. Light and variable winds. Maximum 9C (48F), minimum -2C (28F). Scotland: A frosty start leading to a chilly day with sunny spells and a scattering of wintry showers slowly spreading southwards. Mainly light northerly winds but fresh or strong over the Northern Isles. Maximum 5C (41F), minimum -7C (19F). Tomorrow 4 2 4 7 Thursday 4 2 5 6 Saturday 3 1 3 5 Sunday 4 1 6 6 3 cloud in the morning, then turning dry 6 17 Hull 14 Liverpoo 5 Edinburgh Newcastle 23 7 3 14 Orkney Shetland 19 17 5 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 4 2 5 5 6 7 4 5 7 7 3 8 eter Norwich SEA Llandudno rk Hull F 95 86 77 68 59 50 41 32 23 14 5 C 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 Wind speed (mph) Temperature 28 (degrees C) 34 Sea state Calm Slight Moderate Rough Flood alerts and warnings At 17:00 on Monday there were 29 fl ood alerts and one warning in England and no fl ood alerts or warnings in Wales or Scotland. For further information and updates in England visit fl ood-warninginformation.service.gov.uk, for Wales naturalresources.wales/fl ooding and for Scotland SEPA.org.uk Cold front Warm front Occluded front Trough LOW HIGH LOW LOW HIGH HIGH LOW LOW LOW 1040 1048 1032 1032 1024 1024 1024 1016 1016 1016 1016 1008 1008 1008 1008 1000 1000 1000 992 Frosty at fi rst leading to a chilly day with some wintry showers in Wales, eastern Britain, northern Scotland and the north of Ireland. Dry with sunny spells elsewhere. Max 8C, min -7C The risk of a few wintry showers in Scotland, northern and western England, Wales and the north of Ireland, otherwise it will be a dry and sunny day over Britain and Ireland. Max 9C, min -4C A frosty start in most places leading to a dry day with sunny spells in Wales, northwestern England and western Ireland. The risk of a few wintry showers elsewhere. Max 8C, min -7C A dry day with sunny spells over northern and eastern England, southern Scotland and eastern Ireland but the risk of wintry showers elsewhere. Max 8C, min -8C Any showers clearing southern and eastern England in the morning to bring a dry day over England, Wales and Ireland. Sunny spells and wintry showers in Scotland. Max 9C, min -6C 07.38 15.57 16.12 10.24 Wed 6 T he moon conjured up a magical sight on Saturday night when it was surrounded by a halo of heavenly white light, seen across many parts of the UK and also in France (photograph in News, November 27). This was a lunar halo, when bright moonlight from a full moon passed through delicate veils of ice crystals floating in cirrostratus clouds high in the atmosphere. The ice crystals acted like tiny glass prisms, refracting and reflecting the moonlight before beaming out into a wide circle of luminous white light. Haloes around the moon have long been seen in folklore as warning signs of rain, sleet or snow: “If the moon shows like a silver shield,/ You need not be afraid to reap your field/ But if she rises haloed round,/ Soon we’ll tread on deluged ground.” There is good science to this because haloes appear in cirrostratus clouds that can lie on the edge of an approaching weather front before thicker clouds sweep in and eventually bring rain. Folklore also predicts that the fewer stars seen inside the halo, the closer the approaching bad weather, which makes sense as the clouds grow thicker. However, not all haloes are linked to weather fronts, so they are not foolproof weather forecasts. Haloes are more common and more easily seen around the sun because sunlight is stronger. Haloes generated by moonlight are fainter because even a full moon is some 400,000 times fainter than the sun. Lunar haloes have had great religious significance, especially in rare cases where the halo has formed a cross around the moon. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle recorded the sign of a cross in the year 806: “On 4 June, the 14th day of the Moon, the sign of the cross in a remarkable fashion, appeared at the Moon on Thursday at the first dawn.” A study traced this sighting to a monastery near Sens in France, before the report was later transcribed in England where the phenomenon was commemorated on coins showing a cross. Speak directly to one of our forecasters on 09065 777675 8am to 5pm daily (calls are charged at £1.55 plus network extras) weatherquest.co.uk Weather Eye Paul Simons

out fast,” Dowson said. “He will make defenders make decisions and as soon as you do that you create opportunity. He’s always been unbelievable at that, and that has been his differential.” What Mitchell added, working with Richard Wigglesworth, England’s attack and kicking coach, at the World Cup was the finer details of box-kicking and game management. “Mitch has worked really hard at his kicking game — the accuracy and the length,” Dowson said. “His ability to kick well in both game plans, although they are fairly similar, has been a big stepping stone for him.” Mitchell has said that his challenge now is to find a happy medium between the kick-heavy England way and the more open style of Northampton. He will study the likes of France’s Dupont to see how he can improve his game. “I always watch a lot of games and how different nines play. Little tips you can take from watching some of the world’s best is something I definitely try to do,” he said. Borthwick and Dowson have asked him to speak up. Often the best scrum halves can dictate terms by the way they communicate, whether it is barking at forwards, having the ear of the referee or liaising tactically with their fly half. While that has not traditionally been Mitchell’s area of strength, he is working on it. “He’s always been quite a quiet fella, so we’re trying to push him to do something that is not quite natural to him, to drive that energy in the group,” Dowson said. “He’s getting better at that and that’s something he has picked up from England.” Mitchell will not just blindly follow orders, though, as he plots a long career dictating terms for England. “You can’t just be piping up and giving it the big one, you’ve got to be true to you — whether that’s little words, or in smaller groups,” he said. “I’m less of a motivational leader, more do-iton-the-pitch and more of a technical leader. You’ve got to do it true to you, and how you see the game.” If Mitchell can find his voice, soon England will have a top-class scrum half to shout about. F Mitchell, who started all the big World Cup games for England, has been challenged to become a vocal presence on the pitch ive months ago Alex Mitchell was discarded by England — a fourth-choice scrum half allowed to leave the World Cup training squad and sent back to his club. Now, he is in pole position to lock down the No 9 shirt for years to come. Ben Youngs and Danny Care have led the way at scrum half for England for 15 years, amassing 223 caps between them, but a changing of the guard is coming for the Six Nations next year. Youngs, at 34, has retired, and although Care has said he never will call time on his England career, at 36 his days are surely numbered. At Northampton Saints, Mitchell’s club, they believe he has the potential to rival the best scrum halves in the world, Antoine Dupont and Faf de Klerk, if he can become a high-class communicator as well as a daring runner. Mitchell has already shown an aptitude to learn quickly. It was in June that the 26-year-old was left out of Steve Borthwick’s training squad for the World Cup as Youngs, Care and Jack van Poortvliet, the 22-year-old Leicester Tigers No 9, were selected. Phil Dowson, the Northampton director of rugby, was surprised at how well Mitchell reacted to that snub. “He came out, shrugged his Mitchell needs to find voice to be world class Mitchell’s England rivals Ben Spencer (31, Bath) Discarded by Eddie Jones, but could add to his two caps if England want a scrum half to bridge the gap between the departing old guard and younger men. Captain of resurgent Bath, tactically astute and a fine kicker and runner. Jack van Poortvliet (22, Leicester) Missed the World Cup through injury, but should be back for the Six Nations. Still young but has time to develop from a decent base, having won 14 caps. More than just a kicking No 9, if allowed to be. Raffi Quirke (22, Sale Sharks) He is an exciting option if he can get fit and stay fit. Has battled with injuries — recently to his hamstring and wrist — and played twice this season before breaking his jaw. He is a fast, dynamic runner, but needs to play with a consistent No 10 to improve his game management. Northampton Saint has become England’s No 9 – but the hard work is still to come, writes Will Kelleher shoulders and said, ‘There’s still four games left [before the World Cup], I’ll get back in,’ ” Dowson said. “He was so confident about it. I just went, ‘Yeah, OK.’ Van Poortvliet suffered an ankle injury in the warm-up match against Wales in August and, as he had predicted, Mitchell had his chance. He took it, starting all the big World Cup games, including the semi-final against South Africa. During that match he produced a superb, tactically astute kicking performance. Mitchell may not have loved losing that game by a point, 16-15, but soaked up the experience. “It was a bit of a rollercoaster,” he said. “But to actually start the big games, be involved and be a big part of it was massive. To get that close against the world champions was frustrating, but coming back it was a massive experience and I really enjoyed the whole journey.” Mitchell has consistently been rated alongside Care as the most creative scrum half in the Gallagher Premiership. He and Care have topped the league’s charts for two years when it comes to try involvements — either scoring or setting up tries. Mitchell scored another on Friday, as Northampton beat Care’s Harlequins 36-33. Dowson believes that few elite scrum halves threaten around the breakdown as effectively as Mitchell. “I spoke to Steve Borthwick last Thursday and he’d say the same as me: that one of the things Alex Mitchell does better than anyone else in the world — apart from a handful like Dupont and De Klerk — is challenge the space around the ruck, and on the short side, and get the ball Sport 56 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 57 Sport Kempton Park Going: good to soft (good in places) 12.20 (2m hdle) 1, Captain Marvellous (C Gethings, 8-11 fav); 2, Great Valley (22-1); 3, Billytherealbigred (16-1). 6 ran. 23l, 2 l. Mrs J Williams. 12.50 (2m hdle) 1, Secret Squirrel (D Bass, 11-4); 2, Dancing In Brazil (100-30); 3, Thank You Ma’am (125-1). 10 ran. 5l, 2 l. H Morrison. 1.25 (2m 2f ch) 1, Bourbali (B Powell, 9-2); 2, First Street (1-7 fav); NR: Harbour Lake. 22l, Joe Tizzard. 2.00 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Destroytheevidence (D Bass, 6-5 fav); 2, Della Casa Lunga (9-1); 3, Baddesley (9-2). 5 ran. 6 l, 4 l. K C Bailey. 2.35 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Coquelicot (R Dingle, 7-2); 2, Kateira (4-7 fav); 3, Martha Brae (40-1). 5 ran. 6l, 2l. A J Honeyball. 3.05 (2m 4f 110yd ch) 1, Our Jet (H Skelton, 11-4); 2, Thelasthighking (6-4 fav); 3, Before Midnight (10-1). 6 ran. 3l, 1l. D Skelton. 3.35 (2m hdle) 1, Brookie (B Godfrey, 11-2); 2, Amelia’s Dance (16-1); 3, Tapley (100-30 fav). 10 ran. l, 6 l. A J Honeyball. Placepot: £35.10. Quadpot: £11.10. Yesterday’s racing results 2.50 (1m 7f 212yd ch) 1, Feel The Pinch (T Wynne, 3-1); 2, Lime Drop (3-1); 3, Stormin Crossgales (5-1). 6 ran. 6l, 6l. R L Llewellyn. 3.20 (2m 5f 55yd hdle) 1, Only Fools (J Tudor, 5-1); 2, Masked Dance (9-1); 3, Minniemum (11-4 fav). 12 ran. l, 2 l. D Pipe. 3.50 (1m 7f 169yd Flat) 1, Metkayina (P T Enright, 13-8 fav); 2, Solid Silver (20-1); 3, Jena D’oudairies (8-1). 16 ran. 2 l, 7 l. S Curling. Placepot: £93.90. Quadpot: £37.80. Ludlow Going: good to soft 12.35 (1m 7f 169yd hdle) 1, Imperial Saint (M G Nolan, 13-2); 2, Gentleman Jacques (5-1); 3, The Famous Five (15-8 fav). 16 ran. 9 l, 2 l. P Hobbs & J White. 1.05 (1m 7f 169yd hdle) 1, Little Pi (S Sheppard, 100-30); 2, Princess T (20-1); 3, Breaking Cover (3-1 fav). 12 ran. Nk, 1 l. M Sheppard. 1.40 (2m 7f 171yd ch) 1, Safe Destination (S Twiston-Davies, 100-30 fav); 2, On The Platform (9-1); 3, Meechlands Magic (18-1). 12 ran. 1 l, 5 l. N A Twiston-Davies. 2.15 (2m 7f 174yd hdle) 1, Le Boulevardier (P T Enright, 9-2); 2, Newtonian (33-1); 3, Samatian (5-1). 10 ran. NR: Fantomas. 4 l, l. S Curling. Drug jockey banned after failed test Racing Rob Wright Racing Editor 1.20 Handicap Hurdle (£4,225: 2m 4f) (7) 1.50 Handicap Chase (£3,406: 2m 1f) (7) 2.20 Handicap Hurdle (£3,406: 2m 1f) (10) Blinkered first time: Southwell 3.40 Fortunate Fred. Sedgefield Rob Wright 12.15 Novices' Hurdle (£4,357: 2m 1f) (8) 12.50 Handicap Chase (£3,406: 3m 3f) (7) Southwell Rob Wright 12.40 Handicap Chase (£4,859: 2m 4f) (7 runners) 1.10 Handicap Chase (£3,406: 3m) (10) 1.40 Open NH Flat Race (£2,614: 2m) (8) 2.10 Handicap Hurdle (£4,225: 3m) (8) 2.40 Maiden Hurdle (£4,357: 2m) (14) 3.10 Handicap Hurdle (£3,406: 2m) (9) Course specialists Sedgefield: Trainers J Wainwright, 3 winners from 8 runners, 37.5%; O Murphy, 5 from 17, 29.4%; A Hamilton, 4 from 17, 23.5%; P Bowen, 5 from 22, 22.7%; R Jefferson, 3 from 14, 21.4%; D McCain, 49 from 232, 21.1%. Jockeys P Brennan, 4 winners from 12 rides, 33.3%; S Bowen, 9 from 34, 26.5%; B Hughes, 83 from 334, 24.9%; T Gillard, 12 from 53, 22.6%; H Brooke, 32 from 158, 20.3%; D McMenamin, 20 from 115, 17.4%. Southwell: Trainers P Nicholls, 10 from 30, 33.3%; N Henderson, 19 from 65, 29.2%; F O'Brien, 29 from 127, 22.8%; Miss V Williams, 3 from 14, 21.4%; D Skelton, 37 from 183, 20.2%; O Murphy, 23 from 117, 19.7%. Jockeys N de Boinville, 18 from 65, 27.7%; H Cobden, 11 from 41, 26.8%; B Godfrey, 4 from 15, 26.7%; R Mania, 3 from 12, 25%; H Skelton, 37 from 150, 24.7%; D Jacob, 10 from 43, 23.3%. 2.50 Handicap Chase (£3,406: 2m 3f) (9) 3.20 Open Maiden NH Flat Race (£2,614: 2m 1f) (7) 3.40 Handicap Hurdle (£4,225: 2m 4f) (8) The Flat jockey Ray Dawson has been banned for six months after admitting to having taken “eight or nine” lines of cocaine while partying the night before riding at Bath on August 18. Dawson, 30, who is based in Newmarket, has ridden 33 winners this year but has a long history of addiction problems, both with drugs and alcohol. He told a disciplinary panel at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) that, having gone five years without drinking, he had suffered a relapse after splitting up with the mother of his child. “It caused all kinds of mental problems that I didn’t deal with at all well,” Dawson said. Harry Stewart-Moore, Dawson’s solicitor, said: “He does not have a cocaine problem, he has an alcohol problem, which leads to the occasional misguided use of cocaine. “In my submission, Mr Dawson has demonstrated that he has taken the necessary steps to mitigate the risk of another relapse. He is again in regular attendance at AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings and in daily contact with his AA sponsor. He has been open and honest regarding the cause of the positive test.” Tim Grey, who chaired the disciplinary panel, said. “Cocaine is extremely dangerous. The risk you pose to your fellow jockeys, to those on the course and to the public at large when you use drugs is both real and serious.” Dawson has not ridden in a race since August 24. His suspension has been backdated to start on September 1. WhatsApp group and role models help Paris 2024 mums go for gold W hen Laura Kenny became pregnant with her first child she wondered aloud if she was about to destroy her career. Now she is heading to a fourth Olympic Games as a mother of two and role model for Team GB’s multitasking supermums. If she makes it she will be part of a team within the team. Where pregnancy once meant lost contracts and premature retirement, Kenny’s resilience is further evidence that we are in the golden age of Olympic mothers. The British team heading to Paris next summer are likely to include mothers in an array of sports, including boxing, judo, rowing and cycling. Laura Gallagher, a trampoline gymnast who became a mother in January after a marathon labour and unplanned caesarean section, said this month she is in a cross-sports WhatsApp group for athlete mothers. That was set up by the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) to provide peer support and professional advice. Dr Kate Hutchings, the UKSI’s clinical lead for female athlete health, says role models are essential for helping mothers get back to the top. Four years after retiring, Helen Glover, 37, became the first mother to row for Team GB at the Olympics in 2021. She is now aiming for a fourth Olympic Games too. She had a son in 2018, twins in 2020 and explained the extra challenges she faced when she broke a rib and blamed an iron deficiency caused by breastfeeding. Charley Davison, 29, is one mother who has already booked her ticket to Paris. The Lowestoft boxer retired in 2012 and devoted herself to Arnell, Amani and Amir. She went back into the gym in 2019 to lose weight and ended up at the Olympics two years later. It was a wrench to fly to Japan and leave the children with her supportive family, but she says they had grown to understand why their mother sometimes had black eyes. She said an Olympic medal could change all their lives and, hence, she cut a distraught figure after going out early. Yesterday, Davison was flying back from Finland after winning gold at the Tammer tournament. Kenny, now 31, explained just what she has been through since the last Olympics on the Team GB and Toyota docuseries, The Journey. In November 2021 she had a miscarriage at nine weeks. A few months later she had an ectopic pregnancy, which meant one of her fallopian tubes had to be removed. Last year she won a gold in the scratch race at the Commonwealth Games, which she originally thought would be her last hurrah, and gave birth to Monty this July. Her personal coach, Len Parker Simpson, made clear what is ahead, saying: “The level Laura is trying to come back to is streets ahead of where it was even a few years ago.” However, he added: “If Laura wants to achieve it, she will. Knowing Laura, there’s only one thing she’s interested in. She’s not there for silvers. She’s not there for taking part. It’s gold or nothing.” Some of the greatest of all time are showing comebacks are possible. Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 100m world title in 2019 as a mother and will be targeting a fourth Olympic gold medal in Paris. Kenny, too, wants to revive old glories and, while she says everyone thinks she is mad for trying it, there are enough reasons, and potential team-mates, to think she can pull it off. Kenny celebrates her gold from Tokyo with husband Jason, while Davison, right, with her three children, has booked a spot in Paris Starting a family is no longer barrier to success for Team GB women heading to next Games, writes Rick Broadbent

58 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Sport Cricket Mousley at Warwickshire batting with Ian Bell at Cardiff for 3½ hours. That is worth more than 500 nets with the best coach in the world. “We are hoping to bring in Dan Hughes from Australia and my hope was he would help Orr, Haines and [Tom] Clark, who, like him, are lefthanded top-order batters, with their game. That’s why we signed Steve Smith last year. That’s why we hope that [Cheteshwar] Pujara comes back this year. We are bringing in people to help our best youngsters, but I want to develop a spine of homegrown, young players. “Ali and I have spoken face to face. We have exchanged messages. It is all very pleasant and cordial. I don’t see an issue [with the spat at Derby]. If every player you have words with as a coach wants to leave, you’d be having players leaving every week. My job is not to be their best friend. My job is to help them improve.” As for the resignations of Gould and Adams, Farbrace says: “I’ve known Gunner for over 30 years and he and I have talked all the way through the summer. He has been a great help and support to me. Chris, I don’t know as well, but he has been nothing but helpful and supportive. “My understanding is that both had said they were going to resign before [Orr’s departure]. I don’t think either enjoyed the way the cricket committee operates. I think they feel they should be involved more in day-to-day decision-making. Neither has spoken to me directly about the situation.” the sort of bloke who likes to feel loved and wanted.’ I said, ‘You know why we haven’t. We want to offer him a new contract, a two-year extension on top of the year he has got left. He is going to open the batting in all forms and he is someone who we want to build the team around.’ “His agent said, ‘If you want to build a team around him, you should pay him more money.’ I said, ‘We’ll try our best, but we can’t get to the level you’re wanting.’ The next time we spoke to him we said if he started the season well, we would increase his money, but we didn’t have the money then. “He then said, ‘If you are not going to increase his salary he should be allowed to speak to other clubs.’ In the end I gave him a ten-day window. In that, he came back and said Hampshire had offered him a contract. “I didn’t want to lose Ali, but I also don’t want to lose our other good young players. I have improved a lot of their contracts in terms of length of time, not necessarily financially, this year. [Henry] Crocombe, [Jack] Carson, [Tom] Haines, [Oli] Carter, [James] Coles and [Dan] Ibrahim — all of these lads have signed extended contracts. They know I am trying to create competition for places. The reason I’ve brought in one or two senior players like [Danny] Lamb and [John] Simpson is that we need some good senior players to help these young players to grow, because players learn from players. “They grow through playing on the field with them. I remember Dan game back. The following game against Gloucestershire, the last of the season, he batted [number] five first innings and that was a mistake — we should never have done that — and in the second innings I moved him to open. He played really well, and I am on record as saying it was the best he had played in my time at the club, not just because he got 60-odd but the way he constructed his innings. We had really good conversations during that game and were in a really good place. “We had a meeting with his agent in October and he said, ‘You’ve not offered him a new contract and he is ‘Orr wanted more money, so he chose Hampshire’ It is fair to say that a lot has been happening at Hove in recent years, with a flurry of players and coaches leaving. There are too many to mention in full but think of Phil Salt, Chris Jordan, Ben Brown, Luke Wells, Delray Rawlins, George Garton, Jason Gillespie and Ian Salisbury. Rob Andrew, the chief executive for a turbulent seven years, is about to leave for the ECB, and since the announcement of Orr’s departure, two former England players and club captains, Ian “Gunner” Gould and Chris Adams, have resigned from their positions on the cricket committee — and in Gould’s case, the main board too. It has also emerged that Sarah Taylor, the former England wicketkeeper, who was blazing a trail as a woman coaching in the men’s game, is leaving her role at the club. It is my understanding that these three resignations are not directly linked to Orr’s departure but, for one so usually bubbly and optimistic, Farbrace, who describes it as “a pretty horrible week”, has clearly been shaken by recent events, coming at the end of his first season in charge at Sussex after three years as the sporting director at Warwickshire and five years as the England men’s assistant coach. “My pride has been dented because a young player doesn’t want to work with me and doesn’t want to stay part of the team that we are trying to build,” Farbrace, 56, says. “Some might say I am emotional, but I’d like to say passionate. I care. I know I have made mistakes in the past, I might have made a mistake in this instance, but I have made it for what I think is the good of Sussex cricket.” Ultimately it was Farbrace’s decision to release Orr, receiving compensation from Hampshire in the process, but he also admits he has “not enjoyed one minute” of the reaction, particularly as a disagreement with the player during a County Championship match in September has been raised as a salient factor. “We started conversations with his agent back in May. Ali got injured in a T20 at the Oval, hurt his knee and missed three months, so I said there was no point pursuing the new contract while the player was not playing because the terms were not going to be as good as if he was playing and scoring lots of runs. “We did have a spat at Derby in the championship game. It was his first Orr has a first-class batting average of 39.93 and is considered a future England opener. Since it was revealed he is leaving, ‘Bloody Steve James!” the late Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell once exclaimed to a group of journalists in exasperation at the latest fusillade of criticism aimed at my former county. From long-suffering supporters to players who have devoted a long career to one county, passions run deep — often unfathomably deep. But people care, and that is why the county game, a veritable sporting cockroach, has managed to survive when so much logic has suggested it should not. So it was no real surprise to see the furore among former players last week at the announcement that the 22-year-old Sussex opening batsman Ali Orr, surely an England Test prospect with a first-class average only a smidgin under 40, was moving to their local rivals, Hampshire, despite a year remaining on his contract at Hove. The likes of Matt Prior, Alan Wells and Chris Nash took to X, formerly Twitter, to voice their dissatisfaction. “Absolute shocker AGAIN from Sussex”, Prior wrote. Wells said: “I have coached and mentored Ali since he was nine years old. I find it very frustrating that a Sussex born-and-bred cricketer would leave a club that he loves.” Nash added that his departure was “not a good look”. To those critics, the Sussex head coach, Paul Farbrace, has a clear message. “If any of those former players want to come and help me to make sure it doesn’t happen again, then I’m all ears,” he says. “Every club has former players that have their views, but I can’t please everyone all the time. “It’s not the first time it has happened to me in my career — at Kent [where he was the coach in 2010- 11] there was one bloke who constantly went on about my lack of playing experience and that it wouldn’t make me a very good coach, but I can’t stop that.” Brook is player of the year Harry Brook has been voted England’s player of the year by cricket writers. The heavy-hitting batsman and the all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt took the two main prizes at the Cricket Writers’ Club awards. Sciver-Brunt won the award for England’s best female player for the second year in a row. The 19-year-old Somerset wicketkeeper James Rew, who scored five hundreds in a breakthrough season, won the award for the best young male cricketer, while Alex Lees was the County Championship player of the year after a summer in which he scored more than 1,300 runs at an average above 70. Lauren Filer was named the women’s rising star. Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace opens up to Steve James on the contentious departure of England prospect Farbrace admits it has been a “pretty horrible week”

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 59 Sport He was turfed out after the British Grand Prix. biggest scare: esteban ocon in the pits As a mostly uneventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix came to an end, it was clear that Ocon still needed to carry out a pitstop, as dictated by the rules, which say every driver must use at least two different tyre compounds, meaning at least one pitstop. So on the final lap when photographers started to fill the pit lane, it was impossible not to scream at whichever screen you could see to demand they be stopped. As Ocon rolled into the pits at speed he very nearly hit a few of the photographers and officials. Rules were changed so that will never happen again. and finally . . . mercedes drop flawed car design What took Mercedes so long to realise that their “no sidepod” design was not worth pursuing may for ever remain a mystery. That said, Mike Elliott, the architect of that design and a leading voice to keep it over the winter and into this season, was removed from his post after only three races this year to take on a different role and has since left the team altogether. Mercedes have now adopted a more traditional design, like the other nine teams, and brought a good upgrade to Austin but then struggled in Brazil. They will no doubt happily consign this car to the bin as they start again for next year. and replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel. Aston Martin had looked decent in testing but no one expected the Spaniard to secure six podium finishes in the first eight races. It brought much delight to fans and the paddock, with the 42-year-old well liked and many backing him to get his first win since 2013. Sadly it wasn’t to be this season, but he has at least one more year to run on his contract and Aston Martin have already started making noises about keeping him past that point. biggest incident: lando norris in vegas Carlos Sainz suffered extensive damage to his Ferrari when he sucked up a drain cover at 200mph and he was lucky not to have suffered serious injury but the biggest incident came when Norris hit a bump in Vegas and became a passenger as his McLaren slammed into one wall and then spun down the track and smashed into another barrier. He was taken to hospital but was released that night and given the all clear but it was a scary moment for the 24-year-old. driver shock: nyck de vries The Dutch driver lasted only ten races at AlphaTauri before being replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. De Vries had impressed when he deputised for Alex Albon last year in the Williams, scoring points on his F1 debut, which convinced the Red Bull stable to give him a shot in their junior team. However, he scored no points and his highest finish was 12th. Alonso bouncing back and a narrow escape for Norris failure of the England 50-over side at the World Cup. Farbrace was involved in the calamitous 2015 tournament but then played a crucial part as the loquacious No 2 to the taciturn head coach Trevor Bayliss, in England’s stunning rebuild. “There are so many similarities to 2015,” he says. “I was surprised how poorly they did because I genuinely thought they picked the right squad. “I just think we made some very simple errors. We weren’t well prepared. Between the World Cup in 2019 and this one we played six ODIs in the subcontinent — we only played 40-odd games altogether. “They went away from what they are good at, which is being very instinctive and just taking the game on and being very positive. They looked like they got too caught up in stats. You win the toss against Afghanistan and you bat. You win the toss against South Africa and you bat them out of the game, you don’t worry about three T20 games that have been played in the IPL at that venue.” So, what to do now? “I think it is a pretty simple process,” he says. “Motty [the England white-ball head coach Matthew Mott] is the right bloke to carry on. Motty now has the opportunity to say, ‘This is how we play and this is my blueprint of how we are going to play 50-over cricket for the next four years.’ He is a very calm person who has a great history of building teams.” Farbrace would not elaborate on Taylor’s resignation, but he describes her as “an excellent coach” whom the likes of Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway can now follow into the men’s game as a result of the success of the Hundred competition. “The women’s game has benefited more than the men’s game from the Hundred,” he says. “But as a whole the Hundred is our money-maker, that is the tournament that is going to keep English cricket alive for the next 20 years. We’ve all got to get used to it and embrace it. It’s done everything that people wanted it to do. It has brought in a new audience, it fills the stadiums and is on live television. It is providing good cricket and also, from an England selectors’ point of view, it’s enabling them to see who can play under pressure in big games with full houses live on television.” Farbrace accepts that the schedule needs to be looked at, however. “It’s not right, is it?” he says. “Everybody accepts it, everybody knows it, but no one has yet come up with a solution.” One issue to which Farbrace is well placed to provide a solution is the there have been two high-profile resignations from Sussex’s cricket committee young player doesn’t My pride has been dented because a “ want to work with me best race: las vegas This choice is based purely on the race itself. The run-up to the event was nothing short of shambolic, with organisational issues, drain covers coming loose that took hours to fix and fans being kicked out before second practice. Thankfully, the weekend was saved from itself by an excellent race, with three drivers battling for the win and 99 overtakes to thrill the fans who were able to watch — which wasn’t many given the terrible timing of the event. worst race: abu dhabi There were so many contenders for this award this season but Abu Dhabi wins it. A week after Vegas and at the end of a long, gruelling season, everyone arrived in the desert exhausted. The usual end-of-term feeling was replaced by the desire to just get through the weekend and get home. The Yas Marina Circuit rarely throws up a classic (even the 2021 race was extremely boring until the last couple of laps) and this was no different. Brilliant facilities but a terrible race. favourite race weekend: austin Austin is one of my favourite cities and the Circuit of the Americas creates good racing and a fun spectacle, with 400,000-plus fans over the three days adding to the atmosphere. The track lies only 30 minutes from the city, so it’s easy to stay downtown and enjoy everything Austin has to offer, from morning runs along the river to wild swimming, live music and great restaurants. It is a firm favourite among most of the paddock, including the drivers, many of whom remain in the city for a few extra days before heading to Mexico City for the next race. biggest surprise: fernando alonso/aston martin Alonso shocked everyone when he announced last year that he was leaving Alpine to join Aston Martin Rebecca Clancy on the storylines, talking points and shocks that defined the 2023 Formula 1 season Despite problems in the build-up, the race in Las Vegas certainly delivered Spoty awards moved so stars attend The BBC has moved the Sports Personality of the Year awards show from its traditional Sunday night slot in order to make it easier for stars to attend. The show was moved to midweek last year because of the men’s football World Cup in Qatar but what was seen as a one-off switch now appears to be permanent. This year’s awards, the 70th since its launch in 1954, will be held on Tuesday, December 19, at the BBC’s headquarters in Media City, Salford. Insiders said the experience of 2022 showed viewing figures remained similar, at about 3.3 million, but there were fewer clashes with live sport which made it easier for nominees and other star names to attend the show. The BBC has also ended the practice of taking the event to different cities — Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter Aberdeen, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham and Liverpool have all hosted it in the past decade — in what is understood to be a cost-cutting measure. This year’s Spoty is considered to be one of the most open for a long time with no obvious outstanding candidate such as in 2021, when Emma Raducanu won the US Open grand-slam tennis tournament as an 18-year-old qualifier. Mary Earps, the Manchester United goalkeeper, is the bookmakers’ odds-on favourite for her part in England reaching the Women’s World Cup final. The 30-year-old saved a penalty in that final in Sydney but England lost 1-0 to Spain. Stuart Broad, who announced his retirement from cricket after a fairytale final Test victory at the Oval to secure a draw in the Ashes, is the second favourite, with the jockey Frankie Dettori and the world champion heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson also in the running. Should Earps or Johnson-Thompson win, it would be the third time in a row that a woman has claimed the main award, after Beth Mead, Earps’s England team-mate, last year and Raducanu. Manchester City are expected to be named the team of the year after last season’s Treble. The show will be hosted by Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott. Earps, the England goalkeeper, is the odds-on favourite for the main award

60 2GM Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Sport Football for his services. Combined with the terms of Defoe’s four-and-a-half year contract, the financial commitment for Portsmouth amounted to nearly £23 million. However, it is the detail around the agreement Tottenham struck with Stuart Peters that is more interesting, and the primary focus of FA officials now reviewing their handling of the case. The panel heard how Tottenham agreed to pay Peters £1 million for the role he played in moving a player Levy feared may see out the remaining 18 months of his contract and leave White Hart Lane for nothing, in the summer of 2009. But once the panel had received the phone records detailing calls made by As the panel noted in the award document it published in January 2010, Peters was a licensed agent but he did not have much experience of transfers and was not that familiar with Defoe. The panel also noted that Peters had a business relationship arrangement with Thomas, based on their previous work together. By retaining Peters, Tottenham were able to secure access to Defoe, via Thomas. Once instructed to get involved by Levy, Peters sent a letter on Defoe’s behalf — signed by Defoe — to Andrew attempting to terminate a representation contract they had signed in January that year. Andrew replied the following month, in December 2007, explaining he would be in breach of his contract if he did so. Thomas then sent a letter on Defoe’s behalf — again signed by Defoe — claiming he would represent himself in any transfer, which a player is allowed to do. By January 14, Andrew had informed Defoe that it was his understanding that Thomas was acting for him, again suggesting he would be in breach of his contract. What happened on deadline day On January 31, 2008, Defoe moved to Portsmouth. The day began with Redknapp calling Defoe and inviting him to travel down to the south coast. Defoe travelled with his mother, Sandra St Helen, arriving for his medical shortly before 6pm. They were met by Storrie and Redknapp. Crystal Palace have been monitoring the Nottingham Forest head coach, Steve Cooper, as a possible replacement for the under-fire Roy Hodgson. While Hodgson, 76, has been under increasing pressure to deliver results, there have also been renewed questions over Cooper’s position at Forest after a run of one win in nine Premier Palace identify Cooper as possible Hodgson heir League matches. Palace have lost four of their past five league games, conceding 11 times, and are approaching a run of fixtures that includes games against Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion. Palace are six points clear of Luton Town, who are in 17th place and beat them 2-1 on Saturday. Palace’s task has been made harder after the midfielder Cheick Doucouré suffered an achilles injury at Kenilworth Road that could rule him out for up to six months, although Eberechi Eze, who also limped off in the defeat, seems to have only a sore ankle. While the club are not panicking about their position, they are fully aware they will need a younger manager with fresh ideas next season. They were interested in appointing Cooper, 43, when he was at Swansea City in 2021, but they instead hired Patrick Vieira, who was then sacked in March. Cooper took charge of Forest in 2021, guiding them to Premier League promotion in his first season. He signed a new contract until 2025 last year. Fresh doubt was cast over position in April, before he preserved Forest’s top-flight status, but he is facing new questions after the 3-2 home defeat by Brighton on Saturday left them 14th in the table. Gary Jacob Bolasie returns to English football with Swansea Swansea City have signed the former Crystal Palace and Everton winger Yannick Bolasie on a two-month deal. The 34-year-old, who has played 162 times in the Premier League, was a free agent after leaving the Turkish side Caykur Rizespor at the end of last season. He last played in England for Middlesbrough three years ago, having been sent on loan by Everton, who paid £25 million to take him from Selhurst Park in 2016. Inside story of the Defoe transfer deal that’s now under FA scrutiny While Thomas said he only learnt of the deal that night at a dinner, the phone records showed he spoke to Redknapp at around lunchtime and Levy later in the afternoon. The panel said it was “inconceivable” that these calls did not concern Defoe’s transfer. He also spoke to Defoe on a number of occasions, including immediately after Defoe’s 40-minute medical. In fact Defoe accepted, based on further calls that afternoon, that Thomas knew Tottenham had given permission for him to speak to Portsmouth and was on his way to speak to them. The panel therefore concluded that Defoe’s financial terms were discussed with Thomas. Defoe could not explain in a subsequent hearing, once the panel had seen the phone records, why he spoke on so many occasions with Thomas on January 31, beyond him being a close friend. Ultimately, the panel concluded that Thomas played a significant role in the transfer and questioned why Peters was paid so handsomely. He received double the fee Portsmouth paid Angel but, by his own admission, did not broker the deal between the two clubs and did not negotiate Defoe’s terms. Indeed, any element of the deal. Defoe, of course, claimed he did this himself, even though the panel found that not to be the case either. The panel did not believe it credible that Thomas had acted without believing he would be remunerated for his considerable efforts, dismissing any suggestion that he was simply helping a friend. Tottenham agreed to pay Peters £1 million, based on him being instrumental in persuading Defoe to leave. Yet Peters did not claim to have negotiated the terms of Defoe’s contract with Portsmouth, nor did he claim it was difficult to persuade him. At one stage during the hearing one member of the panel, which included Cherie Booth QC, the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, actually suggested to Peters that he had done very little for his money. Peters agreed. Last week The Times spoke to Storrie. While phone records suggest he spoke to Peters, he could not remember him being involved. “It was 15 years ago but when I read the story in The Times it felt like the first time I had ever seen his name,” he said. Redknapp told The Times last week that he recalled Thomas being Defoe’s agent. Portsmouth cited the fact that this transfer occurred prior to the current hierarchy being at the club while Tottenham and Levy have declined to comment. Defoe has not responded to a request for comment and Peters said he had no desire to have a conversation about his involvement in the transfer. Matt Lawton Chief Sports Correspondent The transfer deadline day deal was agreed long after Jim White had left the Sky studio; too late even for Harry Redknapp to deliver one of his customary drive-by interviews, confirming the signing of a new striker. It was after midnight on January 31, 2008, when Jermain Defoe finally completed his move from Tottenham Hotspur to Portsmouth, initially on loan because of the late hour and only confirmed the following morning thanks to the delay caused by the simultaneous transfer of Benjani Mwaruwari from Portsmouth to Manchester City. Portsmouth, reports claimed at the time, would be paying £9 million for Defoe once the transfer was completed a fortnight later, with the forward expressing his hope that a return to regular football would enable him to regain his place in the England squad. Little did anyone realise, however, that 15 years later the FA would begin a review of the transfer that could ultimately lead to disciplinary action against Defoe, Tottenham and Portsmouth for potential regulation breaches that, for other clubs, have led to bans and even points deductions. As The Times disclosed last week, a private arbitration panel found in 2010 that an unlicensed agent, Mitchell Thomas, played a key role in the transfer. Defoe’s actual agent, Sky Andrew, was awarded compensation for the way he was cut out of the deal once Thomas had stepped in. Under FA regulations, clubs and players are not permitted to deal with unlicensed agents. Details of the apparent rule breaches were passed to the FA at the time, but no action was taken. Why it failed to do so is one of the questions the FA is now asking itself. But as the FA embarks on that process, The Times can disclose further details of the transfer, including the fact that the reported £9 million figure included £1.5 million in agent fees. Persuading Defoe to move As Peter Storrie, the then Portsmouth chief executive, told the panel, he found negotiating with Daniel Levy a struggle. So much so that, he explained, he enlisted the services of an agent who enjoyed a good relationship with Tottenham’s chairman and could agree the fee for Defoe on Portsmouth’s behalf. A representation contract between Leon Angel and Portsmouth was dated January 15, with Angel paid £500,000 Thomas, Peters and Defoe, it not only highlighted inconsistencies with the evidence provided during the initial hearing but found that Thomas had performed a key role in the transfer. The panel also concluded it was satisfied that Thomas expected to be paid. While Peters said in that first hearing that the money he received from Tottenham would not in turn be shared with Thomas, the phone records suggested Thomas did far more work on the deal than Peters. The phone records, secured via an application to the High Court by Defoe’s then agent, Andrew, were extensive without being complete. The panel could see all calls made by Defoe to Thomas for the relevant period as well as the multiple calls Thomas made to Defoe, Levy, Portsmouth’s then manager, Redknapp, and Peters. Struggling for game time, Defoe was keen to leave Spurs and the contract he signed in 2004 included a relatively low basic salary. The offer eventually made by Portsmouth amounted to five times his Tottenham wage. Levy was nevertheless worried he might hold out for a free transfer, and retained Peters via a letter in October 2007. While it did not amount to a representation contract required by FA regulation, Levy asked Peters to assist Tottenham in negotiating with Defoe without using Andrew, either persuading him to sign a new contract or agree to a move by January 21. The FA said it would look at the deal after the story in The Times last week

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 2GM 61 Sport Football Premier League Fulham (1) 3 Wolves (1) 2 Iwobi 7 Willian 59, 90+4 (both pens) Cunha 22 Hwang 75 (pen) 24,366 Pitching In Southern League: Premier division: Central Redditch Utd 2 Stratford Town 0; St Ives Town 3 Barwell 1. Italian Serie A Bologna 2 Torino 0; Verona 2 Lecce 2. P W D L F A GDPts Inter Milan...........13 10 2 1 30 7 23 32 Juventus..............13 9 3 1 20 8 12 30 AC Milan..............13 8 2 3 21 14 7 26 Napoli...................13 7 3 3 26 14 12 24 Roma.....................13 6 3 4 25 15 10 21 Bologna................13 5 6 2 15 10 5 21 Atalanta...............13 6 2 5 21 13 8 20 Fiorentina............13 6 2 5 20 17 3 20 Monza...................13 4 6 3 14 12 2 18 Frosinone............13 5 3 5 19 21 -2 18 Lazio......................13 5 2 6 14 15 -1 17 Torino...................13 4 4 5 10 16 -6 16 Lecce.....................13 3 6 4 15 18 -3 15 Sassuolo...............13 4 3 6 20 24 -4 15 Genoa...................13 4 2 7 14 18 -4 14 Udinese................13 1 8 4 9 18 -9 11 Cagliari.................13 2 4 7 13 25 -12 10 Empoli..................13 3 1 9 8 25 -17 10 Verona..................13 2 3 8 9 18 -9 9 Salernitana..........13 1 5 7 10 25 -15 8 Spanish La Liga Girona 1 Athletic Bilbao 1. P W D L F A GDPts Real Madrid........14 11 2 1 31 9 22 35 Girona...................14 11 2 1 32 17 15 35 Atlético Madrid.13 10 1 2 30 12 18 31 Barcelona............14 9 4 1 27 14 13 31 Athletic Bilbao...14 7 4 3 26 18 8 25 Real Sociedad....14 7 4 3 25 17 8 25 Real Betis............14 6 6 2 18 16 2 24 Getafe...................14 4 7 3 17 18 -1 19 Valencia...............14 5 4 5 16 18 -2 19 Rayo Vallecano.14 4 7 3 16 18 -2 19 Las Palmas..........14 5 3 6 11 13 -2 18 Villarreal..............14 4 3 7 21 25 -4 15 Alavés...................14 4 3 7 14 19 -5 15 Osasuna...............14 4 2 8 16 24 -8 14 Sevilla...................13 2 6 5 19 19 0 12 Cádiz.....................13 2 4 7 10 20 -10 10 Mallorca...............13 1 6 6 12 19 -7 9 Celta Vigo...........14 1 5 8 14 24 -10 8 Granada...............14 1 4 9 19 33 -14 7 Almería................14 0 3 11 16 37 -21 3 League Two Accrington v Swindon; Barrow v Walsall; Doncaster v Colchester; Forest Green v Bradford City; Gillingham v AFC Wimbledon; Harrogate v Wrexham; Mansfield v Tranmere; MK Dons v Grimsby; Morecambe v Newport County; Notts County v Crawley; Stockport County v Salford; Sutton Utd v Crewe. Vanarama National North Hereford v Scarborough Athletic; Rushall Olympic v Chester. South Eastbourne Borough v Torquay; Maidstone Utd v Havant & Waterlooville. Cinch Scottish Premiership Ross County v St Mirren. Cinch Championship Dunfermline v Arbroath. League One Annan v Hamilton; Montrose v Falkirk. American football NFL Arizona 14 Los Angeles Rams 37; Denver 29 Cleveland 12; Las Vegas 17 Kansas City 31; Los Angeles Chargers 10 Baltimore 20; Philadelphia 37 Buffalo 34 (OT). Snooker MrQ UK Championship York Barbican: First round (England unless stated): M Selt bt A Carter 6-3; H Vafaei (Iran) bt S Murphy 6-4; J Trump bt Pang Junxu (China) 6-1; B Hawkins bt B Woollaston 6-4; M Selby bt M Joyce 6-0; J Jones (Wales) bt J Lisowski 6-4. Today (from 1.0): R O’Sullivan v A McGill (Scot); J Higgins (Scot) v J O’Connor; (from 7.0): R Milkins v T Un-Nooh (Thai); N Robertson (Aus) v Zhou Yuelong (China). Results Kick-off 7.45 unless stated Champions League (8.0 unless stated): Group E Feyenoord v Atletico Madrid; Lazio v Celtic (5.45). Group F AC Milan v Borussia Dortmund; PSG v Newcastle. Group G Man City v RB Leipzig; Young Boys v Red Star Belgrade. Group H Barcelona v FC Porto; Shakhtar Donetsk v Antwerp (5.45). Sky Bet Championship Cardiff v West Brom; Coventry v Plymouth; Hull v Rotherham; Middlesbrough v Preston; QPR v Stoke; Watford v Norwich (8.0). League One Barnsley v Wycombe; Blackpool v Northampton; Bristol Rovers v Leyton Orient; Burton Albion v Portsmouth; Cambridge Utd v Lincoln; Charlton v Cheltenham; Exeter v Shrewsbury; Oxford Utd v Bolton; Port Vale v Derby; Reading v Carlisle (8.0); Stevenage v Peterborough; Wigan v Fleetwood Town. Football fixtures Max Kilman took the high ground last night. The Wolverhampton Wanderers captain could have stooped to exaggerating the contact when Carlos Vinícius raised his head into Kilman’s face. Kilman was honest; that’s his nature. But Vinícius escaped, the overwhelmed referee Michael Salisbury administered only a booking, VAR did not deem it a headbutt and Wolves were effectively punished for Kilman’s integrity. Gary O’Neil, the Wolves head coach, who had to endure more VAR trauma, wants his players to conduct themselves with honesty, role models to the millions watching. But the sad reality is this is why many professionals cheat, reacting to even minor contact as though struck by a truck, putting on the theatrics to make sure the officials see the offence. The incident occurred after 87 minutes with the score at 2-2 and how might the remaining three minutes have panned out against ten men, and the seven minutes of added time that eventually concluded after 11, during which Fulham scored their winner? This was also a night when it became unclear what “clear and obvious” was, when refereeing standards were again under scrutiny, again to the cost of Wolves. O’Neil believes that poor decisions have cost them seven points this season. For Fulham it was a night of celebration, enjoying the leadership and craftmanship of Tom Cairney in midfield, revelling in Willian’s passing and penalty-taking, and a touch of relief at their first win in the Premier League since October 7. For all the Premier League’s problems, the unrest among fans over governance and ownership, ticket prices and kick-off times, it is mid-table matches like this that help to explain its extraordinary success. There were no superstars on show, no celebrated sides vying for the major honours but there was commitment, entertainment and noise. There was the League of Nations performing, appealing to that lucrative global audience. And VAR. From Sá’s long clearance, Hwang nodded the ball on, racing towards the edge of the area where a panicking Ream leaned into him, sending him over. VAR checked for offside, Hwang was on, and also on penalty duty, which he drove past Bernd Leno. Wolves were surprised Ream did not depart for a second yellow. O’Neil does not want his players surrounding officials, and they didn’t. Other teams would have done The officiating fully took over. Mario Lemina got booked for fouling Cairney and follows Gomes in being out of the Arsenal fixture. Deepened by Vinícius’s escape, Wolves frustration with the officials intensified in added time. Harry Wilson ran across the Wolves area, Gomes challenged for the ball and Wilson went down. Salisbury waved play on, but then VAR intervened. Had he made a clear and obvious error? No. But Attwell insisted he go to the monitor. Fulham’s joy was lifted even more when Willian applied the coup de grâce from the spot. O’Neil looked forlorn and ready for a walk to the officials’ room. Doubtless another apology is on its way from Howard Webb. But O’Neil would rather have the points. Fulham Iwobi 7, Willian 58 (pen), 90+4 (pen) Wolves Cunha 22, Hwang 75 (pen) 3 2 Wolves take high ground despite costly VAR low blows Henry Winter Chief Football Writer Whatever bad publicity the Premier League endures, the show goes on. Fulham’s first was terrific, a slick move begun by Alex Iwobi in the centre. He passed left to Antonee Robinson, who swapped passes with Willian, reached the byline and cut the ball back. It was slightly behind Iwobi, who had continued his run into the area, targeting the near post. Adjusting his run, Iwobi met the ball with his left foot, using its pace to steer his shot through the legs of José Sá. It was Iwobi’s first Premier League goal for Fulham. Wolves responded. O’Neil has them well set up, well motivated. Hee-Chan Hwang raced ahead of Calvin Bassey and struck the bar. Hwang then turned Tim Ream, who was finally the first into Salisbury’s book for pulling the Wolves striker back. Hwang played a part in Wolves’ equaliser after 22 minutes, transferring play quickly right to Semedo. Bellegarde played Robinson like a spinning top, going inside, then out before lifting a cross towards the far post. Cunha met it superbly, heading in powerfully. That was it for goals for the first half but the fare remained highly watchable. Willian’s dribbling and passing continued to concern Wolves, and João Gomes was booked for fouling him, his fifth caution of the season ruling him out of the weekend game with Arsenal. Adding to the drama, if rarely positively, and to the lengthening nature of Premier League games is VAR. It duly crashed the party after Cairney had gone down in the area under a challenge from Semedo. Salisbury was well placed, briefly considered the incident and then pointed to the spot. Cairney was looking up, appealing. Wolves were looking around, disbelieving. For viewers, there was the tension as VAR checked and checked. For those inside Craven Cottage, VAR was vilified in Anglo-Saxon. Semedo made contact with the ball first before touching Cairney, who went down. The VAR, Stuart Attwell, ruled that Salisbury had not made a “clear and obvious error”. Willian took charge of the penalty, accelerating in, then checking his run, committing Sá and placing the ball the other way. It took four minutes from Semedo’s challenge to Willian’s conversion. Too long. And harsh. Fulham’s head coach, Marco Silva, punched the air and screamed: “Come on!” Fulham almost added a third but Sá saved well from Iwobi. Before Wolves enjoyed VAR for a change. Fulham (4-2-3-1): B Leno 6 — T Castagne 7, C Bassey 6, T Ream 5, A Robinson 7 — H Reed 6, T Cairney 7 (S Lukic 90min) — A Iwobi 7, A Pereira 6 (H Wilson 76), Willian 9 (T Adarabioyo 90) — R Jiménez 5 (C Vinícius 76). Booked Ream, Vinícius. Wolves (3-5-2): J Sa 6 — S Bueno 6, M Kilman 7, Toti 6 — N Semedo 6, J Bellegarde 7 (S Kalajdzic 62, 6), M Lemina 7, J Gomes 6, R Ait-Nouri 6 (M Doherty 19, 6) — H-C Hwang 8, M Cunha 7 (T Doyle 83). Booked Gomes, Lemina. Referee M Salisbury. Hwang goes down under Ream’s challenge resulting in one of three penalties given at Craven Cottage last night in a thrilling contest between two mid-table sides How they stand P W D L F A GDPts Arsenal................13 9 3 1 27 10 17 30 Man City.............13 9 2 2 33 13 20 29 Liverpool............13 8 4 1 28 11 17 28 Aston Villa.........13 9 1 3 31 18 13 28 Tottenham.........13 8 2 3 25 17 8 26 Man United........13 8 0 5 16 16 0 24 Newcastle..........13 7 2 4 31 14 17 23 Brighton.............13 6 4 3 28 23 5 22 West Ham..........13 6 2 5 23 23 0 20 Chelsea...............13 4 4 5 22 20 2 16 Brentford...........13 4 4 5 19 18 1 16 Wolves................13 4 3 6 18 23 -5 15 Crystal Palace..13 4 3 6 13 18 -5 15 Fulham................13 4 3 6 13 22 -9 15 Nottm Forest....13 3 4 6 16 21 -5 13 Bournemouth...13 3 3 7 14 28 -14 12 Luton...................13 2 3 8 12 23 -11 9 Sheffield Utd.....13 1 2 10 11 34 -23 5 *Everton.............13 4 2 7 14 20 -6 4 Burnley...............13 1 1 11 10 32 -22 4 * deducted 10pts for breaching financial rules Semedo was adjudged to have clipped Cairney for the first Fulham penalty ‘Soft headbutt? Referee’s crazy’ Ian Winrow Gary O’Neil said that he is losing faith in VAR after revealing match officials admitted to three key mistakes after his Wolverhampton Wanderers side’s 3-2 defeat away to Fulham. O’Neil spoke to Michael Salisbury, the referee, about the two penalties awarded against his side and the decisions not to send off Tim Ream, the Fulham captain, after conceding a penalty and Carlo Vinícius, the home forward, for a headbutt on the Wolves captain Max Kilman. “I’ve been in to see the referee,” he said. “He regrets the fact that he wasn’t sent to the screen to overturn the first penalty. He doesn’t think it is a penalty because he thinks he should have been sent to the screen and he would have overturned it from the images that we watched together in his room. “We then had an interesting discussion around the two possible red cards. They’ve sent somebody out to speak to one of my staff and said by the letter of the law, Tim Ream should receive a second yellow card and be sent off. “We then discussed the headbutt and he said that it was a soft headbutt. Which I just said that that’s crazy. He’s absolutely crazy. We can headbutt people as long as it’s deemed soft or not hard enough?”

62 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Sport Champions League they were just all shouting, jeering and holding these placards saying that we were going to die over there. It was an unusual welcome, let’s put it that way.” The high jinks continued at the hotel. The bellboy was not the only hotel staff member out to unsettle United. “Choccy [Brian McClair] said he heard banging on his ceiling, so him and Jim McGregor, our physio, went upstairs and found a cleaner just sat there banging on the floor,” Pallister, the former centre back, says. “He just looked at them and walked off.” Phelan had a rough night too. “There were a fair few disturbances,” he says. “There were a lot of phone calls being made to the players’ rooms. I picked up my phone a couple of times during the night. It’s crazy to think that this kind of stuff goes on.” The stakes were high for both teams. Galatasaray were looking to qualify for the group stage after a two-year hiatus, while United, remarkably, had not played in Europe’s top club competition for 24 years. English champions for the first time under Ferguson the previous season, United had beaten the Hungarian side Honved in their previous qualifying round, but they had to rely on an 81st-minute equaliser from Eric Cantona to avoid defeat by Galatasaray in the first leg of the play-off. The sight of Peter Schmeichel throwing an away fan to the ground after he had invaded the pitch at Old Trafford made the Galatasaray supporters even more determined to intimidate the United players in Istanbul. Police officers in riot gear accompanied the United squad on their journey to the stadium and they man-marked the players, barking United’s trip to ‘Hell’, three decades later T he sight of the “Welcome to Hell” banners at Istanbul airport was shocking enough, but if Sir Alex Ferguson’s players thought their five-star hotel would provide them with some sanctuary before a Champions League play-off against Galatasaray, they were mistaken. Thirty years have passed, but Gary Pallister vividly remembers the day that he and his team-mates checked into the plush hotel on the banks of the Bosphorus. “I picked my bag up and I was walking by myself through the hotel when I walked past a bellboy. I just went, ‘Afternoon,’ or whatever, to him and he just did that,” Pallister says, before running his index finger across his larynx in a cut-throat gesture. “I just carried on walking. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a bit different.’ ” Erik ten Hag’s players are back in Istanbul for their own crunch match against Galatasaray, where a defeat would end their campaign, and if the experiences of their counterparts from 30 years ago are anything to go by, they will be in for a difficult week. United had flown to Turkey in the first week of November 1993, two weeks after they had drawn the first leg of their Champions League play-off 3-3. Galatasaray were in the driving seat because of the away-goals rule, and it seemed that United’s hosts were keen to engage in psychological warfare before the second leg at the notoriously noisy Ali Sami Yen Stadium. Hundreds of Galatasaray fans had gathered in the arrivals lounge at the airport the night before the match to give the United players a welcome they would never forget. Fans holding placards that read “Welcome to Hell” and “This is the end of the road” chanted “Going out” at the players as they sheepishly walked towards their double-decker bus accompanied by dozens of riot police. “They had allowed everybody into the airport,” Mike Phelan, the 61- year-old former United midfielder, says. “They blocked them off with some Perspex but it was intimidating. There were a lot of police there but Ferguson and Brian Kidd, his assistant, enter the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in 1993 and are greeted by raw hostility, right. Cantona, left, was hit by a policeman orders to them about which parts of the stadium were no-go areas. “There was a threatening attitude from the police,” Ferguson would later recall. The home fans, some of whom had taken their seats six hours before kick-off, lit red flares and raised “Welcome to Hell” banners above their heads during the warm-up. The noise went up a few more decibels when the game kicked off. “I have been in some hostile environments,” says Pallister, who watched from the stands because of injury. “But in terms of just the sheer volume of noise, and so far before the beginning of the game, I’ve never experienced anything like that.” The game, which finished goalless and meant United exited the competition, was not exactly a classic. United became frustrated with Galatasaray’s time-wasting, and Lee Sharpe had a goal disallowed even though his team-mates were convinced he was onside. Cantona caused a mêlée when he told a home player to stop rolling around on the turf after he had been tackled. The Frenchman saw the red mist at full-time too, smashing the ball into the turf with his fist after Kurt Röthlisberger, the Swiss referee, had decided to blow his whistle without adding any stoppage time. He was sent off for that. A policeman and Bryan Robson ushered Cantona towards the pitchside tunnel, but the drama did not end there. “The policeman who was with Eric hit him with a riot shield and then Robbo got hit,” Pallister, 58, says. Robson caught his arm on a hook on the wall and needed eight stitches to his elbow before he boarded the coach to the airport, which was pelted with bricks by home fans on the way out of the stadium. Wanting the players to sense his disappointment, Ferguson stood silent in the dressing room after the match. A few days later he was asked by a TV reporter if he was glad to be out of Turkey. “You bet,” the Scot replied. “I’ll never go back.” As the club prepare to take on Galatasaray tomorrow, former stars tell Paul Hirst of the infamous trip in 1993

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 63 Sport with a hand or arm. As previously reported, there are moves to extend trials of sin-bins for dissent and to adopt rugby’s rule that permits only the captain to approach the referee, as part of a drive to tackle misbehaviour. Since 2019, trials of sin-bins have been taking place in English grassroots and junior football — with players made to leave the pitch for ten minutes if the referee judges their words or Henry Winter Football writer of the year Principled Ten Hag is not perfect, but bold calls show he’s what United need affability, Chelsea’s litany of injuries and also seeing what a good manager is trying to achieve, but Pochettino’s side lie eight points behind the derided Ten Hag’s. United will be so much the stronger mentally, physically and in building from the back when Lisandro Martínez is fully fit after a broken foot. Luke Shaw made a welcome return against Everton. Rasmus Hojlund looks to possess the qualities to prosper at United and hopes to return from a slight hamstring problem shortly. Casemiro, also suffering with a hamstring injury, had not continued last season’s imperious form this term but, fit and on song, he remains a huge presence in United’s midfield. Some of the older players will, inevitably, gradually be phased out. Ten Hag is trying to rebuild United, introducing more youth, while still winning — a difficult juggling act. The three Premier League wins on the spin in November, putting him up for that Manager of the Month award, were hardly against the most exacting of foe, Fulham and Everton away, with Luton Town at home in the middle. But they were still victories. They were still accompanied by positives. “Brave, proactive and dynamic” are descriptions that can be applied to Garnacho and the holding midfield player Kobbie Mainoo. Ten Hag was rewarded for his boldness of selection of Garnacho with that spectacular overhead kick. Ten Hag’s faith in Mainoo, whom he used a lot in pre-season before injury intervened, was also vindicated. Ten Hag deserves credit for giving the 18-year-old his first start (and after only ten previous Premier League minutes). He was not simply backing youth, something United love, but promoting a particular type of confident, controlling midfield player. Ten Hag made a “brave, proactive and dynamic” statement fielding Mainoo instead of an experienced World Cup player like Sofyan Amrabat. And how great it was for United fans to see the conveyor belt of talent from their academy continuing to deliver. If Ten Hag is true to type, he will continue to be bold and field Mainoo, although there is always the issue of consistency with young players. Ten Hag’s judgment in recruiting André Onana, a statement signing, and easing David de Gea out, a statement of his decisiveness, seems increasingly justified. Onana has impressed with his shot-stopping, while the effectiveness of his playing out from the back will be improved when centre backs like Martínez, more confident of taking the ball, are restored. What Ten Hag really needs now is a statement win to bring more substance to the season. In their 19 games, United have only one result that fully takes the breath away, this victory at a seething Goodison. They need better, more fluid and menacing displays against opponents of greater calibre. The next few weeks will be challenging, but given United’s myriad issues, the principled, honest and driven Ten Hag deserves some praise and patience. were sixth you’d be embarrassed, but obviously they seem happy with sixth.” Keane’s obviously correct that the United sides of Sir Alex Ferguson would have been embarrassed about being sixth; they often fumed at being only second. But Keane is wrong to suggest that Ten Hag would be happy with sixth. The manager wants more. He’s driven. Keane did add that “United have a little bit of their swagger back, definitely”. The attackers chosen by Ten Hag, namely Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial all scored. As events at Everton showed on Sunday, the players are playing for him and definitely responded to his half-time instructions. Maybe they appreciate that Ten Hag has had to handle problems that would have broken a man of less determined character. He’s dealt with all manner of episodes relating to Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Antony. He’s operated in a stadium rumbling with fan anger at part of the roof crumbling, a symbol of the Glazer era. He’s had to deal with a club damaged and drained by the wretched Glazers and a fanbase frustrated over the lengthy Sir Jim Ratcliffe takeover. Because United are the most followed and analysed club in the country, and the biggest in the world after Real Madrid and probably Barcelona, Ten Hag has had to deal with the micro-judging of every game. Every rise and fall in their fortunes, however small, gets extrapolated into headlines about his fitness to govern, his future. Staying calm amid these storms is the man respected as “principled, honest and driven”. One of the reasons for the consideration accorded to Ange Postecoglou during Tottenham Hotspur’s current wobble is that fair-minded observers can see the horrendous injury list complicating his selection. The same understanding should be applied to Ten Hag, whose side are two points behind Postecoglou’s. Mauricio Pochettino frequently receives strong support in the media because of his T hree words: “principled”, “honest” and “driven”. These are the very obvious characteristics of Erik ten Hag. And these are exactly the qualities that a dysfunctional club such as Manchester United need. Three more words: “brave”, “proactive” and “dynamic”. These are the adjectives Ten Hag uses to explain to his players how he wants them to perform, terms that chime with United’s history. They played that way in the second half at Everton in a game billed as an ambush. Ten Hag’s side eventually won 3-0. Yet the man in line to receive the Premier League Manager of the Month award for November is third in line to get the sack, according to the bookies. Even when he does well, Ten Hag lives with unstinting pressure and frequently unsympathetic scrutiny. It’s ridiculous. It’s time to put some respect on Ten Hag. He’s not perfect, far from it, and United still need to show these “brave, proactive and dynamic” traits more consistently. But consider the issues. He handles stoically uncertainty in the boardroom, underachievers in the dressingroom and standing room only in the treatment room. It is one thing for Manchester City and Leeds United fans to sing about Ten Hag being a “f***ing clown”, and mainly because it rhymes with “Old Trafford is falling down” and because they hate the club, and quite another thing for some United supporters to question him constantly and suggest parachuting Zinédine Zidane in. What do they want? More instability? United are, of course, not playing that well, certainly far from the free-flowing, confident football their fans crave, and with a challenging series of fixtures incoming: Galatasaray, Newcastle United and Chelsea, followed by what they hope is brief respite against Bournemouth, then back to the assault course of Bayern Munich, Liverpool, West Ham United and Aston Villa. Yet even without fulfilling Ten Hag’s mantra of “brave, proactive and dynamic”, and still needing to find more authority in midfield and not simply rely on counterattacks, United are only six points off top spot in the Premier League. Roy Keane, the embodiment of high standards United players should always aspire to, was half-right when launching into his usual studio polemic on Sky Sports about his old team’s success at Goodison. “Man United are sixth — if you went back a few years and they Sin-bins, former EFL players and AI all part of fast-track plans actions to be dissent — and have generated widespread support. Dealing with misbehaviour by players, coaches and supporters is seen as a priority by Ifab, with fears that referees are being driven out of the game by abuse and assaults. Lukas Brud, the chief executive of Ifab, said: “There is also a lot of interest from different stakeholders for the idea where only the captain can approach the referee in a fair way. Players approaching in an aggressive manner simply cannot be tolerated any longer.” About 12 EFL players have told Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) that they are interested in becoming referees or specialist VARs. The players, either still playing or recently retired, have held talks with Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer of PGMOL, about moving into officiating. PGMOL would not confirm any names but it is understood they include some well-known players from the lower leagues. Webb is looking at ways of speeding up the pathway to becoming an elite referee. PGMOL recently set up a development group for officials under the Elite Development Referee Plan, which now numbers 42 officials. The initial cohort of 28 received more than 250 opportunities to officiate at matches last season and about half of them are now operating at a higher level, including Sam Allison, Rebecca Welch and Akil Howson. Meanwhile, PGMOL is keeping an eye on non-live trials in MLS where extra cameras are positioned along the touchlines to see whether the ball has gone out of play. The Premier League is also experimenting with different systems of semi-automated offside technology that it is expected to bring in next season. The systems use limb-tracking and artificial intelligence to automatically detect when players are offside and send an electronic message to the VAR. continued from back Ten Hag deserves credit for playing the 18-year-old Mainoo in midfield ahead of Amrabat at Goodison Park, a bold selection that paid off

64 2GM Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Sport Champions League There was no need for Eddie Howe to search for too long for the words to describe the scale of what his side face in the Parc de Princes tonight. “It’s a huge moment,” he said. “The motivation and the hunger could not be any bigger for us.” It is all on the line in the capital of France for Newcastle United. Should they lose to Paris Saint-Germain, they will exit the Champions League after only five games of the club’s first campaign in Europe’s elite competition for 20 years. Should they lose and AC Milan beat Borussia Dortmund in the other group F game being played at the same time, then they will exit Europe completely; no Europa League as consolation. It will seem a negative take, but Howe has admitted on numerous occasions that the fear of failure has been one of his key motivational tools, both as player and now as a manager. He is using it again, with a battered and bruised squad missing ten players through injury or suspension for a door-die game that could define Newcastle’s season. “The fear of failure is a motivating factor for me in my career,” Howe said. “The thought of losing doesn’t sit comfortably with me. Of course it applies to this game. “It is a real motivation in the squad to make memories and create an incredible season for ourselves this year, and we can still do that in this competition. It is driving us forward every day. “We want to be in it as long as we can. That makes tomorrow a huge moment in our season. Today we prepare. We try and build our game plan, we try and get ready to execute what we need to do to try and be competitive in the game, and it is over to the players.” That the 17-year-old Lewis Miley will be handed his first start in the Champions League is a further sign of a diminished squad, but it also speaks of just how highly the England Under-18 midfielder — who, like Bryan Robson, is from Chester-le-Street — is thought of. Only an injury to PSG’s Warren Zaïre Emery has denied an intriguing game of what would have been the rare spectacle of two 17-year-old’s facing off against each other. “I think he’s ready,” Howe said of Miley. “The one thing I loved about him after the game against Chelsea [his second Premier League start] was that it was just the same Lewis as if he hadn’t done anything. It was just another game for him and I think that’s how he would need to approach this game. Sometimes the more you build up the worse the performance can be, so he’s got a great temperament for these occasions.” Newcastle’s return to the Champions League has been a rollercoaster, a reminder of why it was labelled the “group of death” when Newcastle were drawn against AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund and PSG. Newcastle were fortunate to leave Milan with a point in their opening game but then blew PSG away 4-1 on a memorable night at St James’ Park. Expectations rose but two defeats by Borussia Dortmund have left them bottom of the group before their return fixture against Luis Enrique’s side. Since that defeat Kylian Mbappé has scored 14 times in 12 games and the midfielder Vitinha spoke of the desire for revenge for that painful night in the North East. “We spoke after that match because Pep Guardiola is resigned to not having Kevin De Bruyne back in his Manchester City squad until the new year. The 32-year-old midfielder has not played since the opening game of the season, against Burnley, when he went off in the 23rd minute with a serious hamstring problem, and is now not expected to play again until 2024, which rules him out of the Fifa Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia next month. De Bruyne attended the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday and said his recovery was going well but that his return to action was not imminent, Hamstring injury to keep De Bruyne out until new year which his manager backed up yesterday afternoon. “If he said January, it will be January,” Guardiola said. “I would have loved to have him all season but now he has had a tough injury and surgery, and he said it would be the end of December or new year, so it will be a happy new year for everyone.” De Bruyne played a pivotal role in City’s Treble last season, scoring ten goals and claiming 31 assists. While City have coped well enough without him — maintaining an unbeaten run in the Champions League and sitting one point behind the Premier League leaders, Arsenal — they will want their star midfielder back for the second half of the season. Guardiola also urged the home fans at the Etihad Stadium to start supporting the team like “animals”, to help them get over the line in tight games. The Catalan was critical of the supporters at Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool and wants to see them driving on his side again, as they did at pivotal moments last season. “The games last season, semi-finals, quarter-finals, important games like against Arsenal when we played for the Premier League, they were there like animals and we need that,” Guardiola said. “In my humble opinion, to be successful we need our fans — all the time.” Tonight’s Champions League match against RB Leipzig, their fifth group-stage fixture, does not quite fall into the big-game category referenced by Guardiola. City are already sure of their place in the round of 16 and need a point to be confirmed as winners of group G with one game left to play. When they hosted their Bundesliga opponents last season in the second leg of their round-of-16 tie, they won 7-0, with Erling Haaland scoring five goals in 57 minutes. It was a night that Josko Gvardiol, a Leipzig player at the time, has tried to erase from his memory. The 21-year-old defender, who joined City for £77 million in August, is preparing to face his former side for the second time, after a 3-1 win in Germany in the reverse fixture in October. “I would like to forget about it,” Gvardiol said with a wry smile. “I remember after the game no one wants to talk with anyone. It is what it is, it is football, we lost to the Champions League winners.” Probable teams: Manchester City (4-2-3-1) Ederson — R Lewis, R Dias, N Aké, J Gvardiol — Rodri, B Silva — J Álvarez, P Foden, J Doku — E Haaland RB Leipzig (4-4-2) J Blaswich — B Henrichs, M Simakan, C Lukeba, D Raum — X Simons, X Schlager, A Haidara, E Forsberg — L Openda, Y Poulsen Tonight, kick-off 8pm. TV TNT Sports 1. Charlotte Duncker Newcastle turn to Miley, 17, to keep Europe hope alive we knew it was not a great result for us,” he said. “That was a very tough game and we know it’s another tough game awaiting us. Maybe we have that little revenge feeling, but that stays inside us. We want to win, that’s the most important thing.” If they do that, they go through to the round of 16. Newcastle need a result to stay alive in the competition after the solitary win. “We’re not in the position we wanted,” Howe said. “We’re certainly not in a strong position but we are where we are. We have to just focus on this game, and I think it’s imperative we try and win this game so we can then worry about Milan afterwards.” Key for Newcastle will be Nick Pope, who has faced 66 shots in the Champions League this season in those four games, conceding four goals. He faced 25 of those shots in the away game against AC Milan, when he was Newcastle’s standout player, keeping a clean sheet; and another 17 came his way in Dortmund, when Newcastle lost 2-0. For Pope, the only England goalkeeper playing in the Champions League, there is the frustration of losing his place in Gareth Southgate’s squad since he had an operation on his left hand. He has not spoken to Southgate, he revealed, but has tasked himself with doing more. Impressing in Paris would be one way and he said: “There are more clean sheets and saves to be had. I want to look inward at that. I need to make it impossible for him [Southgate] to leave me out. “We’re a top team at Newcastle with top team behaviours and attitudes. We’ve got to have the belief that we will win the game in Paris. We have spoken about it in the group, about when we were chasing the Champions League qualification, about what would we have given to be where we are now. We don’t want excuses.” Martin Hardy Paris Tonight’s key Paris match-ups Miley v Vitinha Miley, 17, is set for the biggest test of his fledgling career against Vitinha, who demonstrated his eye for goal with 20-yard strike against Monaco on Friday Lascelles v Ramos Portuguese forward Ramos was comfortably contained by Lascelles in the reverse fixture, but will be out to prove a point tonight Fans attacked in Paris Newcastle United fans were attacked by Paris Saint-Germain supporters in areas of Paris last night (Martin Hardy writes). Social media videos showed tear gas being thrown into bars that were occupied by Newcastle fans, and windows being smashed by masked PSG fans. More than 2,000 Newcastle fans have travelled to Paris. Some were in Cafe Seguin and Corcoran’s Bar when the attacks happened. Newcastle officials have not commented on the incident. It is not the first time violence has flared on the club’s return to Europe. A fan, Eddie McKay, was stabbed in Milan by a group of eight attackers before the club’s first game in the competition this season. He required hospital treatment and was sent home before the game.

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 2GM 65 Sport Bergkamp’s deft touch and pirouette past Dabizas in 2002 was, according to Sir Bobby Robson, “a really clever goal”, and is regarded by some of our writers as the Premier League’s greatest sergio agüero, manchester city v qpr – may 13, 2012 Henry Winter, Chief Football Writer Paolo Di Canio’s extraordinary karate-style volley for West Ham United against Wimbledon in 2000 is probably the best technically. Dennis Bergkamp’s subterfuge around Newcastle United’s Nikos Dabizas for Arsenal in 2002 is probably the most inventive. But there can be only one contender for best Premier League goal and that is Sergio Agüero’s composed finish under huge pressure to win the title for Manchester City against Queens Park Rangers in 2012. It is the most significant goal in Premier League history — a jawdropping, era-shaping moment. The game is about glory and Agüero’s goal brought glory. Martin Hardy Volleys? Pah, too much luck involved. As a rule, the control and grace of a chip should win here — think David Beckham against Wimbledon, Philippe Albert against Manchester United — but the best goal is Agüero’s historic title-winner against QPR. Why? Because of the absolute enormity of the moment, the fact he started the move midway inside the QPR half, the unbearable pressure, the poise he showed, the dummy, the calm amid chaos, the precision of the finish and the fact you’d put money on him to do it again and again and again. dennis bergkamp, arsenal v newcastle – march 2, 2002 Paul Hirst “A really clever goal” — Sir Bobby Robson won the award for the understatement of 2002 after watching Bergkamp score a stunning goal against his Newcastle team. Bergkamp received the ball from Robert Pires with his back to goal and somehow managed to pirouette around Dabizas, using the instep of his left boot before slotting the ball past Shay Given. Gregor Robertson Some goals shock; the very best defy belief. That was certainly the case for me on March 2, 2002 — a chance visit to St James’ Park. The moments after Bergkamp’s pirouette around a bamboozled Dabizas, when the genius of what we had just witnessed finally registered, will live with me for ever. Tom Allnutt Most wonder goals have their replicas — Wayne Rooney and Bergkamp, ‘Agüerooo’ or . . . Charlie Adam? Alejandro Garnacho’s bicycle kicks, Di Canio and Robin van Persie’s scissor kicks, Maynor Figueroa, Luis Suárez and Beckham from the halfway line. But nobody has repeated Bergkamp’s pirouette, when he befuddled Dabizas and the laws of time and space, by spinning the ball one way and swivelling the other. What is forgotten is how important it was too, the opener in a statement win that would send Arsenal on the path to the Double. Genius. charlie adam, stoke city v chelsea – april 4, 2015 Alyson Rudd Charlie Adam’s strike with his always wonderful left foot against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was both stunning and exquisite. He was 66 yards from goal when he spotted Thibaut Courtois, one of the world’s finest goalkeepers, off his line. I was there and I could sense Adam was in the mood to produce something audacious from the first kick of the game. So I felt both smug and privileged to witness it. olivier giroud, arsenal v crystal palace – jan 1, 2017 Gary Jacob Olivier Giroud’s scorpion kick ended a lovely, slick team move and was scored by a forward who had been down the pecking order in the preceding months. Lucas Pérez won possession and passed to Héctor Bellerín — Giroud’s back-heel then made its way to Alex Iwobi, who drove forward and found Alexis Sánchez. Sánchez floated a cross just behind Giroud, who quickly adjusted his feet and body. His left foot went up behind his shoulder, he arched the ball past his head and it went in off the underside of the crossbar and over the Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. thierry henry arsenal v manchester united – oct 1, 2000 Charlotte Duncker For a man that scored so many good goals it is hard to pick out one as the best, let alone the best in the Premier League, but Thierry Henry’s match-winner against Manchester United in 2000 is one of those you could continue to watch on repeat. He had gone a month without scoring and then announced himself that season with that stunning volley. Even with his back to goal as he received the ball, he knew how he was planning to execute it. The composure, technique and skill as he held off Denis Irwin to flick the ball up and lob-volley it over Fabien Barthez was sublime, and it proved to be the winner in a clash between two sides who had a fierce rivalry at the time. After Garnacho’s stunner against Everton, our writers pick their favourite Premier League goals PSG v Newcastle United (4-3-3) probable Newcastle PSG (probable 4-3-3) Champions League group F, Parc des Princes Kick-ofi 8pm TV TNT Sports 2, Radio talkSPORT Ref: S Marciniak (Poland) N Pope G Donnarumma T Livramento K Trippier F Schär J Lascelles A Hakimi N Mukiele M Skriniar L Hernández Joelinton B Guimarães L Miley A Gordon A Isak M Almirón O Dembélé G Ramos K Mbappé F Ruiz M Ugarte Vitinha Pep hails Venables’ revolutionary impact Pep Guardiola has hailed Terry Venables as a visionary leader after the former England manager’s death at the age of 80. Guardiola was a ballboy and a youth player at Barcelona when Venables was in charge of the Spanish side and was famously photographed looking on as Venables celebrated a win in the European Cup in 1986. “As a Barcelona fan, he gave us La Liga after 11 or 12 years,” Guardiola, who went on to captain and manage Barcelona himself, remembered. “His impact was incredible. In that era I was 13 or 14. It was the first time I saw us win La Liga. “For many years it was not possible because of other teams. He introduced something that had never been [done there] before, especially a certain type of pressing and the set pieces. He introduced many, many things. A true gentleman for the people. Unfortunately, he could not win the Champions League in that time. “I was a ballboy so I wasn’t in contact with him, I just gave the ball to his players, but I remember talking to friends of mine who did play with him, and their words for him were not just as a manager but as a person — so funny. Appearing on programmes, singing Frank Sinatra. He was a proper, proper man. I am so sorry for his family.” A young Guardiola looks on, left, as Venables celebrates a victory in 1986 Mbappé v Trippier Trippier leads Newcastle stats for dribblers tackled and made light work of defending Mbappé last time out, but the forward is now in top form

Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter Football’s lawmakers will be asked to consider whether VAR’s powers should be extended to cover free kicks, corners and second yellow cards. A VAR working group established by Fifa has been looking into whether video assistant referees should have greater responsibilities, but there are fears it could lead to even longer delays. The International Football Association Board (Ifab) is holding its business meeting in London today and VAR developments are on the agenda. Sources said this would include a discussion about whether the scope of VAR’s decisions should be extended, although no decision will be taken before Ifab’s annual meeting in March. Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the FA and an Ifab board member, spoke about the potential VAR changes last month, saying: “I know that is something we will discuss in the Ifab [meeting]. We would be really reluctant to have a game that was stopped a lot more than it currently is, but that will be a proper discussion.” Although Fifa oversees VAR protocols, changes have to be signed off by Ifab, which acts as the guardian of the Laws of the Game. It is made up of the four FAs in the UK, which have one vote each, and Fifa, which has four votes. Six votes are needed to carry through any changes. It is understood that the VAR working group wants lawmakers to decide whether video replays should be used in an attempt to improve the accuracy of Times Crossword 28,772 across down Yesterday’s solution 28,771 Check today’s answers by ringing 0905 757 0141 by midnight. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke 0333 202 3390. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 25 26 27 C O S T E R M O N G E R O E G O I X M M N E R V Y N E G O T I A T E C G P O H R T D E D E N T A T A N I M R O D I A O N O L T E N E M E N T U S A N C E T E Y S I O C L A M M Y P E A C E F U L O T O A H I M E A G R E O F F S H O O T B R A S A E N H A X M I N S T E R D H O T I T S D O E A U U B A T T E R I N G R A M 1 Commentator’s dread: champ producing masses of data? (8) 5 Broadway musical, The King and I, by small opera company (6) 9 French are getting behind petition to host one group of stars (8) 10 No great lecturer getting request to repeat something (6) 12 Place for whoopee cushion, perhaps, after replacing a glee cushion (6,6) 15 President implicating his country in exploitation? (5) 16 Accommodating description of race-track at times (4-5) 18 I backed limits on name for tavern — something anti-inflammatory? (9) 19 Be powered by what overlong speakers do? (3,2) 20 Source of power wasted in loading train (8,4) 24 Dry, requiring feed of river? Digger produced (6) 25 Veteran less good without a right hand (8) 26 Time after time bringing in second variable substitute (6) 27 Sound of animal having returned without a saddle (8) 1 Record fifth beer-pump? (4) 2 Bank assistance — pounds I will withdraw (4) 3 Runs out of gap on river in swimsuit? (9) 4 Greeting PM? (3,4,2,3) 6 Adult insect? The writer’s not entirely enthralled (5) 7 Second barbed comment? I fix upset artist (10) 8 Locomotive to fail: no good stopping German one (4,6) 11 Sailor turning up in parsonage unexpectedly someone you want to see (7,5) 13 One-time rat transformed into model character? (10) 14 Disorderly, on the loose, climbing into barrow (10) 17 Various hearings end in trouble for one served legal notice (9) 21 Patent finished before end of night (5) 22 Unspecified number evicted from stadium neighbourhood (4) 23 Put down cards (4) Newspapers support recycling The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2020 was 67% Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times Sport Inside track on the transfer at centre of FA investigation How Defoe deal was done VAR may rule on free kicks and corners decision-making. At present, decisions on free kicks and corners are made entirely by the on-field officials, and there have been examples of a wrong call contributing to a goal being scored, leading to controversy. VARs cannot decide on second yellow cards either, which has led to players who were wrongly cautioned being sent off. Peter Walton, a former Premier League referee, said he would be “vehemently against” widening the scope of VAR powers. During his time in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States, Walton sat on the original VAR working group before its introduction in 2018. “I always go back to the basis of VAR, and in 2018 we wanted it to be minimal interference for maximum benefit — that was David Elleray’s [the Ifab technical director] phrase,” Walton said. “We looked at the TMO [television match official] in rugby and thought it was opening the door too wide. “We wanted to keep it down to clear and obvious errors the match officials didn’t see or had mistaken. Now some people are looking at it to always come to the correct decision, but it was never meant for that, it was meant for things like the ‘Hand of God’ [goal scored by Maradona against England]. I wouldn’t want to see it opened up any more as the game is very, very subjective.” The Ifab meeting will also hear a proposal that involves punishing deliberate handballs in the penalty area with a red card — at present, that applies only to stopping the ball going into the goal Willian joy after penalty dramas VAR was again the talking point at Craven Cottage, with Willian scoring two disputed spot-kicks in Fulham’s 3-2 win over Wolves. The winner came after a review of a challenge by João Gomes on Harry Wilson, inset. Report, page 61 Spurs want Jota loan as injuries bite Gary Jacob Tottenham Hotspur have stepped up their interest in Jota, which would reunite the left winger with Ange Postecoglou, his former manager at Celtic. While Spurs’ priority is to bring in a centre back when the January transfer window opens, they have also been looking for short-term cover on the wing after lengthy injuries to Manor Solomon and Ivan Perisic. Jota, 24, is available on loan as he has been ineligible to play for Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League because of a rule limiting clubs to having eight foreign players. The most recent of his five substitute appearances in the domestic league was in September, although he has been able to play twice in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League in the past two months. Al-Ittihad paid up to £25 million to sign him from Celtic in July, before they brought in Fabinho from Liverpool and Luiz Felipe from Real Betis to join a squad that already included Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kanté. Jota became a fixture in the Celtic team during two seasons working under Postecoglou, scoring 28 goals and setting up another 26. He joined the Glasgow club on loan before they triggered his £6.5 million buyout clause from Benfica at the start of last season. He has played for Portugal Under-21 but is yet to be capped at senior level. Perisic is out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury and Solomon will be absent until the turn of the year after having knee surgery. Tottenham, who have lost three games in a row and fallen from top to fifth in the Premier League table after being hit hard by injuries and suspensions, will attempt to shift fringe players in January, including the midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. They have retained an interest in signing Lloyd Kelly after Bournemouth rejected an offer for the centre back in the summer. Ifab to discuss broader remit despite delay fears ‘I can’t please everyone’ Paul Farbrace on the flak he faced on Sussex losing young Test prospect

November 28 | 2023 Pass the hankies, man flu is real The woman who believes what men have been claiming for years And they said it was all in my head

2 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times times2 endorsed social class, a lot of BoPea sorts are posh and privileged types with a few acres of land and a portfolio of outbuildings to play with. Remember Princess Catherine’s brother James Middleton, of photoprinted marshmallows start-up fame? He has swapped Kensington and Donna Air for bees and country air and now makes honey from Bucklebury Manor in Berkshire. Then there’s Alexandra Moncreiffe, daughter of the Hon Peregrine Moncreiffe, who hosts “nature resets” in the Scottish Highlands where she promotes the use of nature for personal growth. Felix Conran, grandson of the restaurateur and retailer Terence Conran, makes furniture and candles in Devon while his girlfriend turns out batches of meadowsweet and pineapple weed ice cream. There’s a lot of BoPea action in Somerset, with Bruton serving as the bohemian peasants’ forage food capital. The starter for this socio-cultural sourdough was the pandemic, lots of second-home owners bolting from the city to their country houses to WFH and have a go at wild garlic pesto, then making the move permanent. Back in 2017 some 106,000 left London — a 55 per cent increase from five years earlier. The trend of swapping town for country has been rising consistently by 16 per cent each year since. Covid caused another spike: in 2022 more than 80,000 Londoners M y little garden at the back of my wonky old cottage in Oxfordshire is a mess. Uphillsloped it is an unfunny ha-ha of clumpy, overgrown grass, molehills, abandoned furniture, unloved barbecue equipment and some alarmingly tall weeds. If I was a proper, respectable middle-class person I would roll up my sleeves, grab a strimmer and have it looking neatly manicured by the end of the weekend. But I just can’t be bothered. Once upon a time such horticultural laxity — along with my small, old and cold house, my 40-year-old blue smoke-belching Land Rover, my wet wood pile of fallen boughs collected from the side of the road and my thing for DIY dry stone wall repairs — would have caused me shame. Now? According to Tatler all these things are a creative and fashionable positive; a lifestyle, even. My backyard is not an overgrown tip, it is undergoing a “rewilding”. My car is an authentic and practical classic, my hankering for a chicken coop and a couple of Buff Orpingtons, along with my pandemicdriven escape to the country from the big city, all bang on trend. I am not a slob or a skinflint but an aspirant “Bopea”. The Bohemian Peasant, as profiled in the society glossy, is a back-to-theearth child with Sloane Ranger and Shoreditch hipster parents. Having given up on the city — too expensive, too noisy, too much Ulez and bling — and now living full-time in the proper, non-home counties, far-flung countryside, the BoPea has gone full rural. “Making, brewing, fermenting and foraging … enjoying a neomedieval peasant worldview where tactile and communitydriven making practices supersede capitalist or material pursuits.” This means a mostly outdoor life pressing fallen apples for cider, cold swimming all year round and distilling “worm juice”. There are 5am starts, a kitchen full of Kilner jars, pottery, endless conversations about “gut health”. Of course, this being a TatlerPicking on Gen Z can backfire with responses on social media after asking baby boomers which supposed Generation Z traits annoy them the most. The usual moans (many of which, as a boomer myself, albeit from the fag end, I share) flooded in: never answering the phone; obsession with silly dogs; playing TikTok videos in public without headphones etc. But how does that old saying go? “When you point a finger, there’s three pointing back at you”? In which spirit, I’d have to mention: Brexit; the pension triple lock vacuuming up public money to cynically buy the grey vote; and the relentless thwarting of planning consent for new houses. And, oh yeah: poisoning the planet. Let’s not forget that one. A woman called Lauren Ahmed from Ohio has been overwhelmed Robert Crampton I went on the march against antisemitism on Sunday afternoon in London. So did (estimates vary) somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 other people. Let’s split the difference and call it 80,000. The Jewish population of England and Wales at the last census was 271,000. So, given that most of those marching were, unlike me, Jewish, then possibly a quarter of that number were present. Or, assuming (perhaps unfairly) that not many people travelled a long distance to attend, about half the Jews in London came. Which is a remarkable turnout. Obviously I couldn’t check everyone’s ethnicity. Still, I consulted three friends, all Jewish, and they confirmed that, as far as they could tell, they reckoned most marchers belonged to the same faith as them. It was a decent afternoon out. I met several friends, increased my step count and enjoyed some of the quirkier placards: “I Was Told There Would Be Bagels” was a favourite. Also: “More Hummus, Less Hamas”. As a veteran of many demonstrations who always thought chanting was both ludicrous and sinister, and therefore counterproductive, I was delighted by its absence. One dare-Isay caricature Jewish mother, in reference to my recent columns on dieting, came over and told me (accusingly), “You’ve lost too much weight!” The threat of chicken soup hung unspoken in the air. Two things concerned me, however. The context for the first is that last week I attended a screening of the 43-minute film the Israeli authorities have compiled using raw footage shot during the Hamas massacre on October 7. I then described what I saw in an article in this paper. The reaction to that article has taken me aback. I don’t mean the handful of callous, blinkered zealots (some of whom, seriously, need to see a doctor, asap) who cast doubt on either the veracity of the video or the legitimacy of my all-too-human reaction to it. I mean taken aback by the extravagant gratitude I’ve received online from hundreds of people telling me how great I am simply for watching and then writing about that unspeakable racist horror show in southern Israel. Shuffling along the Strand and The El Tel I met was on the ball There are a few people I’ve interviewed twice, with many years between the two encounters. Terry Venables was one such. We met in 1994 and not again until 2016. “I thought it might be you,” he said the second time we sat down. I thought: smart guy! A good memory — an astonishing memory, indeed — is no guarantee of high intelligence. But it certainly points that way. Often, when sporting figures are assessed, their intelligence is overlooked. In some cases, such as Wayne Rooney, their intellect is nastily disparaged — “brains in his boots, that one” etc — even though Rooney has consistently shown he is anything but thick. The tributes to Venables do mention his shrewdness, but not as much as they praise his empathy, loyalty, charm and cheekiness. Yet my abiding memory of Venables is his cleverness. He treated his players as equally bright, which I suspect is why they loved him so much. Whitehall, this gratitude was redoubled in the flesh. I was stopped perhaps a dozen times by strangers to say, effusively, thank you. A couple of marchers offered heartfelt hugs, both in recognition of my article and my attendance. I began to feel embarrassed. Now, don’t get me wrong, this attention was very welcome, flattering, a lovely boost for the notinconsiderable Crampton ego. And yet it made me think: Britain’s Jews must be feeling pretty lonely to be so chuffed that a non-Jew has merely a) reminded a wider audience of the savagery of October 7 and b) turned up to show solidarity with his friends and fellow citizens. Neither of these actions (truthful reporting, opposing antisemitism) do I regard as morally complex, controversial or courageous. They certainly should not be. My second worry was: where was the left? I speak as someone whose relatives not only participated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, but as trade unionists and members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, helped to organise the resistance to Oswald Mosley’s fascists marching through the Jewish East End. Yet on Sunday I didn’t see any union or Labour banners. And while I’m sure some attended, I did not see any prominent shadow cabinet members among the throng of celebrities and Conservative ministers present. The theme of the march was one with which any reasonable person can easily agree. The failure of the left to front up was humiliating, mystifying and spectacularly ill judged. I was on the march against antisemitism — there was one thing missing BoPea v MePea Sloane Rangers and hipsters are out — now you’re either a boho or metro peasant Simon Mills on BoPeas Alexandra Moncreiffe Alizee Thevenet and James Middleton

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 3 times2 purchased an out-of-town house, with 78 per cent of them leaving the city altogether. To do what exactly? The restaurateur Thomas Straker broke the internet with his homemade backyard butter recipes. Simon Spence gave up London to bake bread in Oxfordshire and open his Worton Kitchen Garden restaurant, where everything on the “hyper-local” menu has been grown, foraged or hunted on the surrounding land and the billionaire BoPea Ben Goldsmith embarked on a wildlife regeneration at his Somerset farm. (Not all BoPeas are awash with money — Arthur Parkinson, the author of the memoir Chicken Boy and Cotswold neighbour of Kate Moss, is a poster boy.) The true BoPea isn’t a prissy, product-obsessed Goop shopper. Instead of buying expensive cosmetics, the BoPea makes them at home. And how about a bit of roadkill for dinner? Of course, it’s easy to play peasant when your family owns a huge house, land and has a garage full of tractors to tool around in, but the pursuit of the idyllic, self-sufficient and rewilded Tom and Barbara Good lifestyle does start to make sense when you do the maths. The monthly cost of living for a family of four in London (rent/ mortgage payments not included) now stands at £3,808. Driving a non-Euro 6-compliant diesel car around town will stiff you £4,580.75 a year. The prices of decent honey and artisan chocolate are through the roof. A pint of beer in London can easily cost seven quid. So why not sell up, get the hell out and farm/make/brew your own? Meantime, this part-time BoPea wannabe has some urgent back garden “rewilding” to check on. of a MePea. Marie Antoinette had her bucolic playhouse at Versailles, where she went back to basics in shepherdess garb. Now welcome to my version: the Peckham Trianon, where the cargo bike is electric and the clogs are either Crocs or Birkenstocks. Now that sourdough costs almost £6, I have swapped to our local bakery’s “Slow Rise” instead. I am counting the days until I can start buying the big Lebkuchen from Lidl. We Metropolitan Peasants are descendants not of feudal serfs but of the flannel-shirted, built-my-ownsmokehouse late-Noughties hipster ideal, with larger mortgages and worse salaries. Sure, we don’t have the BoPea’s country estate or the dynastic wealth necessary to spend our forties making yoghurt in Somerset or Suffolk, but nor do we have to pretend we weren’t right about Brexit either. MePeas have the same homesteader, egg-collecting and pickling aspirations as BoPeas, but better internet and jobs to hold down, so we outsource the chickens. To be honest, we outsource the pickling too. I did recently rewild my armpits, though. Of course, no MePea would be caught dead using the word “peasant”: we already feel guilty enough about gentrification. That’s why celebrations were — publicly, at least — muted when the building supplies shop and I took a photo of my children at Vauxhall City Farm last weekend, chickens at their feet and the MI6 building in the background. The brown cashmere bonnet my toddler is wearing makes it look like they are in a gulag and, as I cycled through south London with them in the front of our cargo bike afterwards, a woman on crutches and some kind of prescription called me a twat. I take her point, but I’d prefer to go by the term “MePea”, actually. If Tatler’s newly minted Bohemian Peasants (or BoPeas) are a bunch of country-dwelling back-to-nature poshos who are into fermenting, foraging and “enjoying a neo-medieval worldview” (all too easy when your family tree dates back to William the Conqueror), then the MePea — Metropolitan Peasant — is their city-based counterpart, searching for the simple things in life and finding them in artisanal food, craft beer, natural fibres and only just putting the heating on. We might not have a working chimney, but my God we will compensate for it with scented candles. Dried flowers (cheaper than fresh) in wonky vases, straw baskets at Tesco, clogs and smock dresses deployed through winter with thick socks and hiking boots — these are all markers We have the same aspirations as BoPeas but we outsource our pickling I’m a cargo bike-riding, Crocs-wearing MePea Harriet Walker (above) toilet showroom near our house became a Co-op last year. I actually don’t use it much: my weekly MePea delivery of ugly, surplus but most importantly sustainable vegetables is ordered over the internet and brought during the night by a van driver whose face I have never seen. A friend’s was stolen from outside her home recently then dumped nearby, presumably when the thief realised that at this time of year it is always full of swede. As the person named on the box, she received a court summons for fly-tipping. Ah, village life! What began with the laudable intention of saving money, cutting down on plastic and eating less processed food has reached the point where filling up Kilner jars at my local zero waste shop genuinely makes me feel as though I am bringing the harvest in. I look forward to the warm glow of emptying the contents of our countertop food waste bin — in natty compostable bags, so no mess — into the slightly larger version outside. On WFH days, I have begun to think of the Lakeland heated drying rack as “the brazier”. Being a MePea is refilling the distinctive brown bottle of an old £27 Aesop hand soap with Carex and decanting your Fairy Liquid into a matching apothecary-ish vessel. It’s displaying a pretty but useless wooden scrubbing brush by the sink and hiding the sponges underneath. We are the reason Zara Home sells an £85.99 mid-century modern teak clothes horse (not even I can bring myself to buy this). If you’ve found yourself googling trugs despite not knowing exactly what you’d put in one, then you too are a MePea. Ever watched Gardeners’ World while eating a doner kebab? MePeas love multicultural city living. I’m actually having a rustic and hearty cassoulet for dinner tonight — out of a tin brought back from holiday in the south of France — but I do follow lots of American women on social media who have eight children and make things in “skillets”. I am very keen on a ramshackle cottagey larder cupboard in our kitchen, but the one I wanted cost £12,000. Never mind: I will hand-paint a little frieze in my children’s bedroom instead. I watched the Florence Pugh folk-horror film Midsommar mainly for interiors tips. Tatler pins the rise of the BoPea on the pandemic, which flushed Sloanes out of London and made them Free Rangers instead. Yet the MePea is a different breed, born of the cost of living crisis and interest rate rises. These have forced even the affluent to tighten their belts and discover their inner peasant — one who can still afford to drop £4 on a coffee, mind you. — the new posh peasant tribes Times fashion editor Harriet Walker Arthur Parkinson I watched Midsommar mainly for interiors tips

4 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times health Dr Mark Porter There’s a pharmacy crisis — and GPs like me are partially to blame whole year. Whether they have the time and staff to offer this extra service without impacting their main job — dispensing and advising on your medicines — remains to be seen. Meanwhile, there isn’t a lot you can do if caught between a rock (your overwhelmed GP surgery) and a hard place (a struggling pharmacy), but I have included a few tips below that may help. To be candid, to really improve both access and service we need more GPs and pharmacists, but this will take many years. One quicker solution, at least for those with internet access, is to get your medicines delivered to your home by an online provider (see sidebar). However, while this is an increasingly popular option, I do have reservations. First, online pharmacies work well for regular repeat prescriptions, but they are useless if you need something like antibiotics or painkillers quickly, so they are only a partial solution. Second, if something goes wrong it is much harder to deal with their online or phone customer service teams than pop into your local shop. And, last but not least, they undermine the financial welfare of their competitors on the high street, fuelling the very downward spiral upon which they thrive. I would like to end by stating, for the sake of balance, that despite my preference for small independents, I actually collect my own prescriptions from a branch of a national chain in my local village, and their service is first class. Well, it was until I wrote this ... that keen on Lloyds Pharmacy, or to be accurate the two branches I have had dealings with, and neither were most of my patients. I am sure many of its branches offered excellent service but ours did not, and in general I much prefer a small independent run by a committed local pharmacist. And this is exactly what we have in the town after Lloyds Pharmacy sold up. The change has gone down well with our patients too, a situation I hope will be mirrored in communities right across the UK. The other glimmer is that the Pharmacy First scheme could be a lucrative source of extra income and make pharmacies (at least in England) more viable. Suffice to say that a pharmacist could earn as much for offering three consultations as a GP gets for looking after one patient for a L loyds Pharmacy, the UK’s second largest community pharmacy chain after Boots, has pulled out of the high street and sold all of its shops, a move that follows the closure this year of its 237 branches in Sainsbury’s stores. I don’t claim to understand the pressures faced by large private equity-owned companies like Lloyds, but its decision to sell up reflects a malaise that afflicts many other pharmacies too. And at a time when the NHS is becoming increasingly dependent on them. Just last month NHS England announced its new Pharmacy First programme, which will fund pharmacists to manage and prescribe for common conditions such as urinary tract infections, impetigo, sinusitis and shingles. The programme launches early next year and is designed to make life easier for patients and take pressure off GP surgeries. However, if it’s going to work, the public needs easy access to a community pharmacy. What they don’t want is to end up struggling to see both their GP and the local pharmacist. And there is a real risk, at least in some parts of the country, that they might. Pharmacies, whether large national chains or small independents, have been under the cosh recently thanks to a combination of spiralling costs, underfunding and difficulty recruiting and retaining staff. And they are closing down across the UK. In England alone 110 shut their doors permanently last year, leaving about 11,500 still trading, which sounds a lot but is the lowest number for nearly a decade. And we GPs must shoulder some of the blame. Over the past few years GP surgeries have been encouraged to recruit pharmacists to join their teams, and offered extra funding to do so. We are one such practice (although our pharmacist came from a hospital, rather than the high street) and it has been one of the best moves we have made. Suffice to say we are now better and safer prescribers than we were. Yet, when the pool of pharmacists is as limited as it is in the UK, there is a risk that you end up robbing Peter to pay Paul. And we have. The rapid rise in the number of pharmacists working in GP practices over the past few years has left pharmacies struggling to find staff. GP surgeries in England now employ nearly 2,000 pharmacists (full-time equivalents — not all work full time), while the number working in the community has fallen by 6 per cent in the past year alone. Which may explain why your local one has closed or is dependent on locums so you rarely see the same face twice, or sometimes shuts for half a day without warning. However, while I worry about the pressures on pharmacies, there are some glimmers of hope. I was never 6 If you have real difficulty accessing a pharmacy locally and are on regular repeat medication, ask your surgery about issuing longer prescriptions than the standard NHS one month’s worth at a time. GPs are under pressure not to do this, and pharmacists lose dispensing fees, but it is still an option in exceptional circumstances. 6 Across the UK, 3.5 million people in rural areas are eligible to collect medicines from their GP surgery (if it has a dispensary). You will need to live more than a mile away from a normal pharmacy. 6 Have your medicines delivered to your home via an online provider like pharmacy2u.co.uk (“Manage your NHS prescriptions the easy way”) or lloydsdirect.co.uk (“NHS prescriptions without the hassle”). But see the caveats above. In England alone 110 pharmacies shut their doors last year How to make collecting your prescription easier Is it time we Jenna Hope helps top companies to hone the health of their workforces. Men really suffer more when they’re ill, she tells Maria Lally, and it’s genetic T he Oxford Dictionary definition of man flu is as follows: “A cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.” It’s a description most women would probably agree with. But one woman who has had plenty of experience of the ailing, sniffly male feeling sorry for himself says we should be more sympathetic. Jenna Hope is a nutritionist who has consulted for companies including Google, eBay and Accenture, helping burnt-out or stressed workers (many of them men) to optimise their health. “It pains me to say this but man flu is real. Men really do suffer much more than women when they’re ill,” says Hope, who also gives advice on This Morning, runs nutrition courses and has written a book, How to Stay Healthy. “You’ve probably heard of the term ‘man flu’ and you’ve probably laughed it off,” Hope says. “But when we look at the evidence we find that the female immune system is actually stronger than the male immune system, for two reasons. First, hormones. Higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone can increase the efficiency of our immune cells. The immune system has a number of hormone receptors throughout the body, which respond more favourably to oestrogen and progesterone.” Men and women have all three sex hormones: oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. However, they have different levels, with women having higher levels of the first two and men having higher levels of the third. Which brings us to Hope’s second point: “We also know that testosterone plays a role in the suppression of the immune system. So not only do men have more of the hormone that suppresses immunity, they have less of the ones that support it.” That means that men really do feel that sore throat and pounding headache of a cold more severely than women and are less able to deal with it and shake it off, she says. It’s not the first time a comparison has been made between male and female immunity, and Philip Calder, a professor of nutritional immunology at the University of Southampton, agrees that man flu may be real. He says that not only do men have weaker immune systems, they also feel the effects of flu more strongly. “There is evidence that women have stronger immune responses than men and that some vaccines, including the seasonal flu one, work better in women than men,” he says. “One study that reviewed data over six years found that men were more likely to be hospitalised with flu than women.” Dr Jenna Macciochi, an immunologist and university lecturer on how the immune system works, says the difference between men and women’s response to flu is also down to chromosomes: “There is extensive research showing that there are differences between the male and female immune systems. This is attributed to the effect of sex hormones on immune function, as well as the different distribution of immune system genes on the X and Y chromosomes, which evidence does suggest translates to ‘man flu’.” In 2017 Dr Kyle Sue, a clinical assistant professor from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, investigated whether man flu was real after becoming fed up with being accused of overreacting to illness by his wife. Writing in the British Medical Journal, he said: “Since about half the world’s population is male, deeming male viral respiratory symptoms as ‘exaggerated’ without rigorous scientific evidence could have important implications for men.” Sue pointed to observational studies that showed men have higher rates of fluassociated deaths than women, and respond less well to vaccinations. Although it’s not all good news for women. Hope points out that having a hyper-alert immune system has its downsides as it means women are more likely to suffer from autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, as well as inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s. Hope’s interest in immunity, and how what we eat affects it, was what led her to become a nutritionist in the first place. At 16, an age when most teenagers would exist happily on chips and sweets if they could, she changed her sugary, low-fibre diet for one full of whole foods and plenty of greens, and noticed an immediate change in her energy levels, mental wellbeing and overall health. “What has become increasingly clear is that the food we eat, our sleep and lifestyles can all contribute to our immune system doing its job,” she says. So, given what we know about their weaker immunity, what should men do to make theirs more robust? Well, forget about “bullet-proofing” or “boosting” it. We can’t do either, Hope says, adding that such phrases are simply marketing. “What we want to do is optimise our immune system, and to do that we need to provide it with all the tools it needs. It’s not that men need to work harder than women The female immune system is stronger than the male one

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 5 health of young infants as well as the menopause, can mean women are prone to worse sleep patterns than men. Last year a study at the University of Oxford exploring gender differences found that women are 58 per cent more likely to experience insomnia than men. Cholesterol According to Heart UK, men are more likely to have raised cholesterol than women, partly because younger women have naturally higher levels of the good high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. However, women are not immune from cholesterol issues at certain times in their lives. During pregnancy, cholesterol levels can rise significantly and the advice from Heart UK is to wait until at least 6-8 weeks after a baby is born before getting tested. Levels of bad lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol rise during the menopause and up to 10 per cent of this increase is due to shifts in sex hormones. Taking hormone replacement therapy partly prevents menopausal-related cholesterol rises, although a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology last year showed the greatest cardioprotective effects were seen among women who started HRT early in their menopause. Obesity Government statistics published this year show that men in England are more likely than women to be overweight or obese (68.6 per cent of men compared with 59 per cent of women). Studies have suggested that men are also less likely to recognise their weight is an issue. Sight loss Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK. It mostly affects people over 50 and men and women equally, with 1 in every 200 people having AMD at 60. According to the Macular Society, AMD risk increases with age, and with women typically living longer than men, more are diagnosed with it later in life. Statistics from the Royal National Institute of Blind People show that about 60 per cent of people living with sight loss are women. The health gender gap: it’s not always what it seems How men and women differ, by Peta Bee Heart disease It’s often considered to be something that only happens to men, yet while 1 in 8 men will die from it in the UK, so will 1 in 14 women. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) says that more than 800,000 women in this country are living with coronary heart disease — it kills twice as many women as breast cancer every year — but a gender gap exists when it comes to diagnosis and treatment. Fifty per cent more women than men are likely to get a wrong diagnosis when having a heart attack and research has shown that women are half as likely as men to receive recommended treatments. Blood pressure A normal or ideal adult blood pressure is considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHG, and according to the charity Blood Pressure UK, 26 per cent of women in England have hypertension compared with 31 per cent of men. Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine and the chairman of BPUK, says that blood pressure starts to rise from our early teens, continues to increase throughout life in all adults and is exacerbated by poor lifestyle habits including a diet high in salt, inactivity and obesity. In women, pregnancy complications and hormonal changes during the menopause can also affect it. Osteoporosis Brittle bones are often considered a problem specific to women, yet the Royal Osteoporosis Society says that while half of all women over 50 will eventually break a bone because of osteoporosis, so will one fifth of all men in the UK. Bone production for men and women becomes less efficient from our forties, with old cells being broken down faster than new ones can be formed. In women the fragility is accelerated by a decline in bone-protective hormones such as oestrogen around the menopause. A lack of weightbearing activity — such as resistance training and high-impact sports including running and tennis — along with diets low in vitamin D and calcium accelerate poor bone health. Insomnia Kevin Morgan, emeritus professor of psychology at Loughborough University’s Clinical Sleep Research Unit, says that the hormones and neurotransmitters, including melatonin, dopamine and serotonin, that help to keep our bodies and sleep in tune with light/dark cycles deteriorate from midlife onwards and can affect male and female sleep patterns. But what Morgan describes as “unique events” in a woman’s life, including pregnancy and the feeding gave guys a break about man flu? it — we should be looking after it all year round.” While food plays a crucial role, Hope says that nutrition alone won’t cut it. “We also need to think about lifestyle. We know that high levels of stress, or over-exercise, can contribute to lower immunity. Sleep also has numerous immune health benefits and should be as much of a priority as eating well. During sleep the body works to increase the immune response if it’s under attack, which is why we sleep more when we’re ill. But even in good health, sleep is a vital time for the production and activity of the immune cells.” She cites research that found people who sleep fewer than seven hours a night were three times more likely to catch a cold than those who slept for eight or more. Last, while man flu does appear to exist, so does the female mental load, Hope says. “In the lead-up to Christmas, women often carry the lion’s share of responsibility for present buying, caring and chores. So while a woman may have a genetically stronger immune system than her husband, if she puts it to the test by running herself ragged she, along with her immune system, will run out of steam. Whether you’re male or female, if you’re running yourself into the ground, your immune system will feel the consequences. And so will you.” And in particular, men: “The same virus will hit a man harder because his immune system just won’t be able to handle it the way a female one will.” Man flu? It’s not to be sniffed at. to support their immune systems, which are only going to be as good as their male genes and hormones allow, but rather that they need to focus on a healthy diet and lifestyle. And women should too, for that matter. “For this, we need a wide variety of key nutrients, such as vitamin D, vitamin C, selenium and iron, carbs and protein, all of which are important for immunity.” Hope says that while carbohydrates often get bad press, they’re vital for energy and immune function. But we should choose complex carbs such as brown rice, wholegrain pasta and brown bread over white varieties, and eat plenty of starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, which are good sources of carbohydrates. Protein (from chicken, meat and eggs, or meat-free quinoa or buckwheat) supports your immune system, Hope says, along with oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids. Also key are vitamins such as A, B2, B6, B9 and C. “Vitamin C is the most well known in relation to the immune system and it plays a multitude of roles in supporting it, primarily removing and clearing up dead or damaged cells,” Hope says. However, as with the adage about how a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, Hope says the same goes for our immune systems: “Many of us get towards the winter months and start stocking up on lemons, honey and vitamin C supplements. Until we feel that first sniffle, we don’t give our immune system a second thought. But we can’t expect it to kick into play when we need How to Stay Healthy by Jenna Hope (Little, Brown £14.99). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk or call 020 3176 2935. Free UK standard P&P on online orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members Jenna Hope

6 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times health with a head held too high, which will keep the hips high in the water.” You need some rotation of the hips and shoulders to engage muscle groups needed for propulsion through the water. “But rotation of your body should not exceed 45 degrees, so don’t twist and turn too much. And your toes should just break the water surface at the highest part of the kick, rather than make a big splash.” Cycling: push for pedal power Humans didn’t evolve to ride bikes but to walk, run and jump on two legs. Swimming: concentrate on your body position Body position is the foundation for an efficient front crawl swimming technique and should be perfected before you focus on breathing technique, says Richard Blackshaw, Swim England’s talent officer. “You are after neutral body alignment — so everything nicely in line from the head, through the spine and down to the toes,” he says. “Think about having your eyes facing the bottom of the pool when breathing out and a neutral head position, rather than swimming F itness advice can be overwhelming. Try to absorb all of the tips given by instructors and personal trainers about warm-ups and cooldowns, technique and timing, and it’s easy to lose track of your workouts. If there’s one thing you need to remember to become a faster rower, a better cyclist or an expert at Pilates, what would it be? We asked leading experts for the single best piece of advice. Walking: focus on swinging, not step count Joanna Hall, a qualified sport scientist and the founder of the WalkActive programme prescribed by GPs nationally, says trying to increase daily steps can backfire if you have a poor technique. “A lot of people have muscle imbalances they don’t know about, particularly if they spend a lot of time sitting. This means that when they move, their movement pattern and muscle recruitment is suboptimal and that can affect breathing, posture and joint discomfort, and predispose people to injury.” Rather than attempting to increase the quantity of steps or your pace, Hall says it’s the arms, not legs, that create good walking rhythm, so focus on swinging them faster in a smooth, natural motion rather than trying to step faster with your feet. “Try not to overstride or take huge strides as it places a lot of pressure on the knees and hips. And leaning too far forward can lead to lower-back pain.” Think about peeling and lifting your back foot off the ground with each stride as this will achieve good alignment from ankle to knee to hips. “What happens to that rear foot is more important than what happens to the foot in front of the body.” Running: think about your rhythm Your foot cadence is not the same as your running speed. “When we talk about cadence, we are referring to the rhythm of your feet, or your steps per minute,” says Sam Murphy, a running coach and the author of Run Your Best Marathon (Bloomsbury). “Efficient runners tend to have a relatively high cadence, meaning they pick up their feet quickly, which prevents overstriding and enables them to harness more ‘free’ energy — think bounce — from the elastic recoil of the tendons.” Most recreational runners will benefit from increasing their cadence. Some fitness trackers will measure it for you, but a DIY method to find your existing step count is to time yourself running for one minute (on a flat, even surface ideally) while counting the number of times one foot lands. Multiply the figure by two to get your steps per minute. “If your cadence is in the low 160s or slower when you’re cruising at a reasonable pace for you, you may want to consider stepping it up,” Murphy says. “This is not just for efficiency reasons, but because research has found that increasing cadence significantly reduces impact — or force of landing — and vertical loading rates, measures that are associated with running injuries.” An increase in steps per minute of 5 per cent is a sensible aim and downloading a metronome app can help to instil the right rhythm. How to enhance the exercise you If an expert could give you some easy advice to tweak your technique at everything from running to rowing, what would it be? Peta Bee found out Count your steps per minute when you run It’s the arms, not legs, that create good walking rhythm

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 7 health 1 Do rotations at your desk every hour Good rotation of the trunk, the middle region of your body located above your hips and below your neck, is essential for any functional daily movement that involves twisting and bending. “We are very good at avoiding trunk rotation by using cheating mechanisms and easier pathways of movement, but over time these can lead to strains on the body and to injuries,” says the Pilates instructor Jo Tuffrey. To practise rotating the trunk and midsection from above the hips while sitting on a chair, place your hands on your thighs and feet flat on the floor. “Keep your head looking forward and stroke your thighs by sending the right hand forward towards the right knee as the left hand strokes the left thigh towards the hip. Avoid any movement from below your belly button and keep up the alternate strokes for 60-120 seconds at a time every hour,” she says. 2 Try the twisting chair Many yoga postures focus on improving trunk rotation, including the twisting chair. “It rotates and stretches the torso and trunk, squeezing out tension,” says yoga teacher Lexie Williamson, author of Move. From a standing position, join your hands in a prayer position, breathe in and bend your knees as if sitting in a chair. “As you exhale, keep the knees level but turn your upper body to the right. Keep your hands in prayer position and rest your left elbow on the outside of your right knee for a couple of seconds.” Return to the centre and repeat to the left side. Perform as many as feels comfortable. 3 Use a mop as a prop Roger Frampton, a movement coach and author of Stretch, says that at home it is a good idea to do trunk rotation exercises sitting on the floor. “When standing, you can end up with too much rotation through the knees or hips,” he says. “Sitting on the floor with legs comfortably crossed forces rotation through the trunk, which is what you want.” Sitting cross-legged on the floor, hold a mop or broomstick horizontally in front of your shoulders, arms straight. “Holding the body upright, rotate slowly to the left side, keeping hips glued to the floor and following the centre of the stick with your eyes,” he says. “Return to the centre slowly, and pause before repeating on the same side.” Perform 8-10 rotations to the left then change sides. Peta Bee to improve your trunk rotation “On a bike the perfect pedal stroke is one that emphasises our innate bipedal — or two-legged walking — function,” says Phil Cavell, the cofounder of Cyclefit and author of The Midlife Cyclist. “It involves a powerful downstroke or leg extension, and a relaxed upstroke or leg flexion — in other words, the perfect pedal stroke is to push down and don’t pull up at all.” This is often surprising to cyclists who use cleats and clipless-pedal systems that fix specialist cycling shoes onto the pedal. “Their usefulness is not that they enable you to pull up with each stroke, but because they help to control foot placement,” Cavell says. “Cleats also require you to wear proper cycling shoes which are designed to transfer more power and lessen foot fatigue.” A clipless pedal also allows standing up while climbing hills, sprinting and better bike control. Weight training: think about your tempo Tempo refers to the rate at which you perform an exercise and describes how much time you spend in each part of the movement. “Instead of moving through exercises as fast as you can, I encourage clients looking to improve their strength training to incorporate tempo training into their moves,” says Victoria Anderson, a clinical exercise specialist and founder of Longevity Health and Fitness. “By doing this you add more neuromuscular control and that can lead to increase in muscle mass, muscular strength and greater joint stability.” Think about each phase of the move and aim for a 3:1:1 tempo — that is three seconds in the eccentric or lowering phase of the movement, one second in the bottom of the movement as a pause and one second to come up out of the movement in the concentric and director of Body Control Pilates, says finding them and knowing how and when you need to engage them is essential. “When an instructor tells you to engage your inner core, they are talking about lifting the pelvic floor muscles at the base of your inner core which can be tricky to locate,” Robinson says. “To find them, breathe in and then, as you breathe out, gently squeeze your back passage as if trying to prevent yourself from passing wind, then move this control towards your pelvic bone, gently drawing the muscles up inside.” As you are doing this you should feel your abdomen hollow. “Maintain this core connection and breathe normally for five breaths, making sure your ribs are still free to move, keeping your buttock muscles relaxed and your chest, neck and jaw free from tension,” she says. “Once you’ve located these inner core muscles, you can use them to control your movements.” Less is more: don’t squeeze or clench too hard. “We refer to it as a ‘dimmer switch approach’,” Robinson says. “Switch your inner core up too high too soon, or engage it all the time, and it will end up overactive. Inner core engagement should be proportionate to the demands being made on it.” Posture: stand and walk with thumbs forward Next time you are standing still or walking, check which way your palms are facing. “If your palms are facing back when you walk, you will be tighter through the back and internally rotated in the humeral head — the top of the arm in the socket — which makes for rounder shoulders,” says Jo Tuffrey, a Pilates instructor and posture specialist. A simple posture-enhancing tweak is to rotate the hands so that the thumbs are facing forward. Doing this opens up the chest so that we look and feel taller and more upright. “By changing the position of your hands very slightly, you externally rotate the arm socket and improve your posture,” Tuffrey says. “Think about doing this every day.” Breathing: don’t be so shallow Breathing efficiency is important for any form of exercise but is an oft-neglected aspect of fitness preparation, says James Davies, an osteopath and author of Body (HarperCollins). “There is a breathing exercise that I recommend to all of the athletes I work with because it helps to deepen and control their breathing, strengthening the diaphragm, reducing stress and maximising the oxygen coming into the body, which helps with any form of activity,” he says. “Start by placing your hands on your tummy and then taking a deep but relaxed breath in through your nose, allowing your tummy to expand as your lungs fill with air.” Breathe out slowly, but with controlled exhalation. “Try to let out a ‘ha’ sound with each exhalation until you have fully expelled the air in your lungs, tensing your abdominal muscles at the end to make sure every last bit of air is out,” Davies says. “Repeat this several times, controlling your breath carefully.” phase. “In a weighted squat this would involve lowering for three seconds, pausing for one second at the bottom and pushing up for one second,” she says. “By spending more time in the eccentric or lengthening phase of a movement you create a greater stimulus for muscle growth.” Yoga: begin with easier versions of the downward dog The downward-facing dog is an inversion posture that builds strength in the upper body and lengthens the hamstrings and calves. It is one of the most recognised and widely practised postures in yoga, yet many people find it difficult because they aim for the full version of the position, says Lexie Williamson, a yoga instructor and author of Move (Bloomsbury). If you have tight hamstrings from lots of sitting or tight calf muscles from wearing heels or walking long distances, you might struggle. “A stiff back and hips or tight leg muscles can cause the back to round, forcing your body weight forward and placing excess strain on the hands and shoulders,” she says. “To remedy that, bend your knees slightly in the downward dog position and lean back until your spine is straight, gradually aiming to straighten your legs over several weeks or months of practice, but keeping the back straight.” Another option is the “walking dog”, performed by bending one leg and drawing the heel of the opposite foot to the floor. “Move from side to side doing this alternately,” she says. “It eases the pressure on the upper body and is also a great dynamic warm-up exercise before a workout.” Rowing: rely on your legs Arm and shoulder strength are not as important in rowing as you might think. “In fact, 60 per cent of the power in the rowing stroke should come from your legs, with 30 per cent from your hips and back, and just 10 per cent from the arms,” says Paul Stannard, the GB Olympic men’s rowing team head coach. “For anyone who struggles with this I suggest trying a legs-only rowing exercise to get used to the feeling of pushing with the lower body and not pulling with the arms, as poor technique is a risk factor for injury in rowing.” Sit on the rowing machine with your body leaning forwards and arms out straight in front of you. “Glide up the slide and push the legs down really hard while simultaneously bracing the back and core so that the arms feel loose like pieces of rope dangling from the shoulders,” Stannard says. “Imagine a horizontal seated leg press with each drive phase, always thinking ‘legs first, body next, arms last’ as you push.” As you glide back in the recovery phase, the sequence is reversed so arms, body then legs are released in that order. Pilates: try the ‘dimmer switch’ approach Precision control of your inner core muscles underpins Pilates technique, and Lynne Robinson, the founder do, by doing just one thing Only push down on your pedal stroke Keep in line for your front crawl

8 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times arts Here’s why I think Irish writing is booming by Erica Wagner I t’s no secret that the Irish are coming — heavens to Betsy, they’re already here. With four Irish authors on this year’s Booker longlist, the odds were always good that a writer from the Emerald Isle would take the palm, and sure enough, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song came out on top. If there was a close contender for this year’s prize, however, it was widely considered to be Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting — another Paul, another Irishman. But beyond the Booker, the success of Irish writers in Britain is broadly evident: Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor was right at the top of the heap in The Sunday Times’s recent books of the year list; Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These was shortlisted for last year’s Booker and won the 2022 Orwell prize for political fiction. Louise Kennedy took debut of the year for her Trespasses at the British Book Awards in May; Anna Burns won the Booker for Milkman in 2018; Mike McCormack won the Goldsmiths prize with Solar Bones in 2016. I could go on; you get the idea. There has been no shortage of discussion as to why so many books by Irish writers are at the top of everyone’s bedside pile at the moment. Some call it the “Sally Rooney effect”, a race by publishers to emulate the success of the author of Normal People; Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, noted in an interview with the BBC that Ireland has a tradition of supporting its writers: “Ireland believes in its writers and understands the economic challenges they face — a room of one’s own is not easy to come by.” She added that “literature is both familiar and respected in Ireland — it feels like something you can take part in, and something on which the present is built.” I’m all in favour of an economic system that gives artists the freedom to pursue what matters most to them: unfortunately for us artists, we’ll almost always put up with pretty ghastly circumstances to make what we need to make. I’m not saying this is right: but it’s how things are and generally how they always have been. So I’m not sure that the prominence of Irish writing in Britain comes down to Booker — a prize that, alas, overshadows all others in the cultural calendar — pulled the rug out from under the prize’s role in supporting British literature. (Ask yourself: are British writers eligible for US prizes such as the Pulitzer or the National Book Award? No, they’re not.) This is a real and lasting shame. I am not knocking British writers, believe you me; I’m not saying books by British writers go unrecognised. I’m not saying either that the success of the Irish is undeserved. I think, however, it’s worth considering the idea that both literary judging panels and discerning readers are reaching for something outside a culture that can feel both bullying and fragile; the two often go together. Prizes and end-of-year lists are not the only measure, by any means, of literary success; history teaches us that over and over. They can, however, be an indicator of a kind of external cultural temperature. There is a strange kind of solace to be found in celebrating what is “over there” when looking in the mirror is uncomfortable. Irish writers being rich and British writers being poor, to put it most bluntly. I do agree that there is a broader literary culture on the other side of the Irish Sea that seems more welcoming and less class-based. Which gets a little closer to one aspect of the success of Irish writers in Britain that has been less remarked upon. I find myself wondering if there isn’t — perhaps even unconsciously — a kind of postBrexit, post-imperial cultural cringe in the air now when it comes to British, and specifically to English, writing. How do British writers find a place in the world now we’ve kicked ourselves out of Europe, God help us? How can literature reckon in a new way with our plundering past? (I’m going to add a personal aside, for which I hope you’ll forgive me: I say “our”, because although I am by birth an American, I have been deeply embedded in British literary culture my whole writing life.) I’m not being jingoistic — I promise — when I say that the British literary scene has taken some knocks recently, Brexit aside. The dire decision to admit American novelists to the Their literary culture seems more welcoming and less class-based Claire Kilroy Try finding a 25- year-old without an Irish novel in their bag, says Susie Goldsbrough My generation is Ireland-obsessed I f you were to accost an unsuspecting twentysomething on a quiet street today and demand that they empty their (Uniqlo shoulder) bag, what would you find? Squished between AirPods blasting Fred Again and an empty carton of oat milk, I’m sure there would be an Irish novel. Over the past couple of years, my obsession with Irish fiction has reached a frankly unhealthy level. Of the 50-plus new novels I’ve read since January (thank you, yes, I’m very cerebral), my five favourites have all been Irish. And I’m not alone: not only has the Irishman Paul Lynch just nabbed the Booker (from a shortlist that was 30 per cent emerald green) but among ordinary readers, young and old, Irish fiction is undeniably hot right now. Just cast your eyes over the bestseller charts — in a market that usually prizes pulpy escapist fantasies over literary fiction, a single, austere short story by the Booker-shortlisted writer Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day, has been whizzing off the Waterstones tables all autumn long. Why am I (and everyone else) so in thrall to contemporary Irish writing? Well, it all began of course with Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel Normal People, which reinvented the literary romance and sent a generation of pretentious tote-bag lovers swooning after the sexual — oh, sorry, I mean intellectual — magnetism of Trinity College Dublin and its students (perhaps you’ve heard of a certain Paul Mescal). But enough about Rooney. This year, I fell for an entire racing stable of Irish novelists. You can divide them into rough categories: the glamorous youngsters (Megan Nolan, Naoise Dolan), the old guard (Sebastian Barry and John Banville) and my favourites: the Claires (Kilroy and Keegan). Ireland might have a population of just five million, but this is a spectacularly rich and varied platter of work. Still, as I gorged myself on literary Guinness over the past 12 months, connections did bob up and assert themselves: a lilting facility with language (Barry writes of grief that “seemed to drop through him fluidly, like an otter into a stream”), a feeling of being haunted by history (particularly by the cold hand of the Catholic church and its record of systemic child abuse) and linked to that — an undauntedness in the face of deep darkness, rendered just about bearable by a warm and salty humour. The Irish write books that will make you laugh (see Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting). When you’re 25, like me, what’s cool tends to feel fleeting and a bit trivial (no offence to overpriced tinned fish). The Irish novels of 2023 are a riposte to all that. I’m obsessed with them because they’re spectacularly good. Booker winner Paul Lynch Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan (Jonathan Cape, £16.99) An immigrant Irish family in Nineties London become entangled with a wily tabloid reporter after their youngest child is accused of a terrible crime. Soldier, Sailor by Claire Kilroy (Faber, £16.99) A sublime black comedy about a new mother stuck at home with her monster of a toddler, going slowly mad. It’s a remorseless barrage of screaming and near-death experiences — yet also spills over with love. Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (Faber, £18.99) Tom Kettle, a once sharp-nosed Dublin copper, has retired to a wicker chair overlooking the Irish Sea. Until the day two young policemen show up and start asking questions about a nasty old case involving “fecking priests”. How much does Tom remember? The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape, £18.99) This is a tale of three generations of one family: Nell, a sensitive millennial; her loving, infuriating mother, Carmel; and Carmel’s father, a poet who abandoned his family. The Booker winner writes with a kind of softly spreading sympathy, but also bite. The Lock-Up by John Banville (Faber, £16.99) Here’s something a bit different: a crime novel set in 1950s Dublin by the veteran author John Banville, who these days is more interested in dead bodies than boring literary prizes. DI St John Strafford investigates the death of a young Jewish woman found in a Dublin garage. Five brilliant Irish novels to read now Megan Nolan

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 9 times2 F or keen students of Boris and Carrie Johnson’s home decor, it is a glorious time to be alive. After the wonder of Wallpapergate, when wildly expensive gold wallpaper was allegedly used to redecorate the Downing Street flat, we now have some new and precious insights. First, a trigger warning. For some details it will be necessary to stomach a photograph taken by Carrie this weekend of Boris hugging Nadine Dorries. However, we are made of stern stuff when the pickings are this rich. Is that a signature Alice Palmer large box pleat lampshade in Tangier Mustard right behind them, yours for £195? It is! Could that be a green wall by Paint and Paper Library in a shade called Apple Smiles II? It could, possibly, because if you’re going to pay £84 for a tin of paint, you want it to sound more impressive than “green”, don’t you? (And one of Carrie’s nicknames is Apples.) Above the fireplace is a painting that looks kind of like a melted Mondrian, and should you yearn for the same, google “crap modern art” and there are options galore. It is true that I’m only assuming the room is chez Johnson, not chez Dorries, but bear with because my logic is sound: Dorries wouldn’t know a box pleat lampshade from a wombat, whereas Carrie very much would and she now has a £3.8 million moated manor house in Oxfordshire to put her stamp on. It dates from 1605 and is in need of some traditional country decor but with a modern twist. No home belonging to a modern young woman is complete these days without some Italian splatterware (vase on mantelpiece, check; jug on table, check). Let us pause also to admire the small Alice Palmer lampshades on the wall lights in Tangier Red, only £125 each, and available FYI in Rhubarb, Artichoke and Tangier Iceberg colourways. “Trained in interior design,” I read on Palmer’s website, “Alice quickly noticed that finding interesting lampshades was a constant challenge.” Quite so. The ceramic lamp base looked at first, to my untrained eye, like it could have come from Alice Palmer and left the happy couple very little change from a grand. On second thoughts, that’s too cheap. I’ve therefore decided it’s more likely to be from Soane Britain, home of the gold wallpaper, and co-founded by the Downing Street interior designer Lulu Lytle, who recently protested that it was no such thing. It was in fact yellow, she said, and cost “an industry standard” £120 a roll, which seems positively modest for our new private-sector Boris, who will neither know nor care that the industry standard at Homebase is more like £20. And ask yourself this: do Boris and Carrie look like £20 wallpaper sort of people? The correct answer is no, they are not £20 wallpaper sort of people. Back to the decor, and Soane ceramic lamp bases similar to the one in the picture, which cost £1,250. I confess I snorted when I saw that, but I take it all back because on further reading it turns out they are inspired by Moorish earthenware, thus making them cheap at the price. Gold walls and frilly lamps — it could only be Casa de Carrie! The Johnsons have grand designs for their £3.8 million moated manor in Oxfordshire. By Hilary Rose Another similar lamp is available to view in what we must assume is the marital bedroom, where Carrie posed with her latest newborn, but here with a blue and white “scrunchie”-style lampshade. The lamp, not the baby. Baby Frank’s Moses basket is framed by more of Alice Palmer’s oeuvre, in the form of three Tangier Red Stripe frilly cushions, £84 each, plus £10 for the filling, which by my reckoning is the best part of 300 quid, and clearly hurrah for that. Moving upstairs, the Johnsons have hired Meg Boscawen, a decorative artist, to paint murals on the children’s bedroom walls. Wilfred’s is painted with quotes from Seneca and images of Caesar and Pericles. Just kidding. It features an old-fashioned aeroplane, a horse and carriage and someone on a penny farthing. Another child’s bedroom, perhaps their daughter Romy’s, is painted with trees and foliage. I note in passing that Boscawen is apparently much soughtafter and can also do marbling and tortoiseshell. Should you yearn for the same, google ‘crap modern art’ Carrie and Frankie Johnson Clockwise from above: Carrie and Frankie Johnson; Boris Johnson with Nadine Dorries; the Johnsons’ decor; their Oxfordshire manor; Christmas trees posted by Carrie on Instagram

10 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times times2 Your weekday brain boost More puzzles Pages 14-16 TRAIN TRACKS CODEWORD FUTOSHIKI SUDOKU Yesterday’s solutions SAMURAI KILLER SUKO Solutions in tomorrow’s Times2 Mini Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x2 box contains the digits 1 to 6 Codeword Every letter in the crossword-style grid, right, is represented by a number from 1 to 26. Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded. Suko Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so that the number in each circle is equal to the sum of the four surrounding spaces, and each colour total is correct Fill each grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Where the puzzles overlap, the rows and columns do not go beyond their usual length. Every day, Monday to Thursday, a page of extra puzzles to give your brain an extended workout Samurai medium Sudoku fiendish Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated. Killer tricky Train Tracks Lay tracks to enable the train to travel from village A to village B. The numbers indicate how many sections of track go in each row and column. There are only straight sections and curved sections. The track cannot cross itself. Futoshiki Fill the blank squares so that every row and column contains each of the numbers 1 to 5 once only. The symbols between the squares indicate whether a number is larger (>) or smaller (<) than the number next to it. Solve Times puzzles interactively with same-day solutions at thetimes.co.uk MINI SUDOKU

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 11 television & radio Times Radio Digital, web, smart speaker, app 5.00am Rosie Wright with Early Breakfast 6.00 Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with Times Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt Chorley. A lighter take on Westminster goings-on 1.00pm Mariella Frostrup. Conversation about the issues that matter 3.00 Jane Garvey and Fi Glover. Jane and Fi’s trademark entertaining style plus live discussion on the day’s news 5.00 John Pienaar with Times Radio Drive. In-depth discussion of today’s news 7.00 Pienaar and Friends. Informed debate with leading figures 8.00 The Evening Edition with Kait Borsay. Engaging evening conversation 10.00 Carole Walker. Late night news and tomorrow’s front page 1.00am Stories of Our Times 1.30 Red Box 2.00 Highlights from Times Radio Radio 2 FM: 88-90.2 MHz 6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. With Ariana DeBose 9.30 Vernon Kay. Johnny Marr chooses hi s Tracks of My Years 12.00 Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Scott Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara Cox’s Half Wower 7.00 Jo Whiley’s Shiny Happy Playlist 7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The Jazz Show with Jamie Cullum. The pianist and songwriter plays classic tracks and new music from the world of jazz 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s Magnificent 7. Seven of Rhythm Nation’s biggest hits, uplifting tunes and essential throwbacks 10.30 Trevor Nelson’s Rhythm Nation. A mix of R’n’B and soulful tunes 12.00 OJ Borg 3.00am Pick of the Pops (r) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans Radio 3 FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz 6.30am Breakfast Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3’s classical breakfast show. Including 7.00, 8.00 News. 7.30, 8.30 News headlines 9.00 Essential Classics Georgia Mann plays classical music, new discoveries and musical surprises 12.00 Composer of the Week: Ned Rorem (1923-2022) Donald Macleod follows Rorem’s rise to prominence, including an invitation to the White House from President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Plus, excerpts from an interview recorded in 2003 between Macleod and Rorem. Rorem (For Poulenc; Two Psalms and A Proverb — excerpt); Lions; Love Divine, All Loves Excelling; I will always love you; and Book of Hours) 1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert Sarah Walker presents Dvorák Plus performed by violinist Aleksey Semenenko and pianist Sam Haywood at the Hay Festival, with works by Dvorák, Paradis, Röntgen-Maier and Sarasate. Dvorák (Sonatina in G, Op 100); von Paradis (Sicilenne); Röntgen-Maier (Sonata in B minor); and de Sarasate (Introduction and Tarantella, Op 43) 2.00 Afternoon Concert Including a performance of Beethoven’s Second Symphony from the Ulster Orchestra, plus recordings from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Singers. Beethoven (Symphony no. 1 — Op.21 — in C major, 4th movement; Finale) Buxtehude (Nun lasst uns Gott dem Herren Dank sagen, Bux WV 81); Lyadov (Scherzo in D major Op.16 for orchestra — 6’07); Mozart (Horn Concerto No 4 in E flat major, K 495); Sor (Introduction & Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9); Verdi (Overture to ’La Forza del destino’); Beethoven (Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op.36); Augusta Holmes (Memento Mei Deus); Schubert (Trio — Allegro and andante fragment — in B flat major, D 471); Strauss (Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28); Debussy (Trois Chansons de Bilitis); Ernesto Lecuona (Rapsodia cubana — on Cuban Airs — for piano and orchestra, arr. Thomas Tirino); and Grazyna Bacewicz (Overture for Orchestra) 5.00 In Tune A live session of seasonal tunes from folk supergroup A Winter Union 7.00 Classical Mixtape 7.30 Radio 3 in Concert Sarah Walker presents the Chineke! Orchestra who perform Tchaikovsky and Joan Armatrading. Tchaikovsky arr Ellington (Overture from The Nutcracker Suite); Joan Armatrading (Symphony No 1 — world premiere); and Tchaikovsky (Symphony No 5) 10.00 Free Thinking Rana Mitter looks at the life and writing of Spanish playwright Lorca, focusing on his last play — The House of Bernada Alba, finished two months before his assassination 10.45 Between the Ears: Miniatures Max Syedtollan offers an innovative features based on the five senses — How To Be Cool. The piece is an irreverent take on the self-help genre, Syedtollan narrates a guided hypnosis which promises to make the listener cool, hinting at sinister motives throughout the piece 11.00 Night Tracks A soundtrack for late-night listening 12.30am Through the Night Radio 4 FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz LW: 198kHz MW: 720 kHz 5.30am News Briefing 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day (r) 6.00 Today 8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament 9.00 The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili talks to fellow scientists (5/8) 9.30 One to One Nathan Filer talks to the ethical porn creator Erika Lust (5/8) 9.45 (LW) Daily Service 9.45 Book of the Week: Wasteland By Oliver Franklin-Wallis (2/5) 10.00 Woman’s Hour A female perspective on the world 11.00 Seven Deadly Psychologies Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward delve into the psychology behind greed (2/7) 11.30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics Natalie Haynes and guests discuss the work of Roman poet Martial (1/4) 12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast 12.04 Call You and Yours 1.00 The World at One 1.45 Helen Lewis: Great Wives The royal women who stepped out of the shadows (2/4) (r) 2.00 The Archers (r) 2.15 Drama: London Particular By Nick Perry (2/3) 3.00 The Kitchen Cabinet The team are in Lewisham (2/7) (r) 3.30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley The case of Hannah Mary Tabbs and her lover’s headless torso (8/8) (r) 4.00 The Bright Side of Life Nicholas and Jonathan Dimbleby talk about the moments that keep them going (2/2) 4.30 A Good Read Chantal Joffe and Séamas O’Reilly discuss their favourite books 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast 6.00 Six O’Clock News 6.30 Best Medicine Kiri Pritchard-McLean and guests learn what puppeteers can teach surgeons (9/11) 7.00 The Archers Tom seeks validation and Lynda makes a surprising offer 7.15 Front Row 8.00 File on 4 Exploring the possibility of artificial intelligence being used for crime 8.40 In Touch 9.00 All in the Mind Claudia Hammond explores the limits and potential of the human mind (5/8) 9.30 The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili talks to fellow scientists about their life and work (5/8) (r) 10.00 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: Miss Buncle’s Book By DE Stevenson (2/10) 11.00 Now You’re Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn Marian and Tara answer questions about package holidays and robbing banks (3/10) 11.30 Today in Parliament 12.00 News and Weather 12.30am Book of the Week: Wasteland By Oliver Franklin-Wallis (r) 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World Service Radio 4 Extra Digital only 8.00am The Goon Show 8.30 King Street Junior 9.00 Quote — Unquote 9.30 The Change 10.00 The Voice of Angels 11.00 Sherlock Holmes with Carleton Hobbs 11.30 Pay Any Price 12.00 The Offing 12.15pm The Old Wives’ Tale 12.30 For the Love of Leo 1.00 The Goon Show 1.30 King Street Junior 2.00 Quote — Unquote 2.30 The Change 3.00 The Voice of Angels 4.00 Sherlock Holmes with Carleton Hobbs 4.30 Pay Any Price 5.00 The Offing 5.15 The Old Wives’ Tale 5.30 For the Love of Leo 6.00 The Goon Show 6.30 King Street Junior 7.00 Quote — Unquote. With Esther Rantzen, Steve Pemberton and Konnie Huq 7.30 The Change. Comedy, by Jan Etherington and Gavin Petrie. From 2003. Last in the series 8.00 TED Radio Hour. The rewards and consequences for three female performers 8.50 Inheritance Tracks. Julian Lennon chooses Hey Jude 9.00 Mastertapes. Jimmy Webb responds to audience questions about his song-writing career 9.30 Doctor Who: The War Doctor. The Time Lord rescue force must find a way to overcome insurmountable odds 10.00 Comedy Club: Best Medicine. Kiri Pritchard-McLean and guests discuss Herpes and detective work 10.30 Earls of the Court. By Will Adamsdale and Stewart Wright 10.45 Quando, Quando, Quando. Comedy with Rainer Hersch. First aired in 1999 10.55 Comedy Club: The Comedy Club Interview 11.00 The World of Simon Rich. The US writer performs some of his funny and absurd stories. Last in the series 11.30 Think the Unthinkable Radio 5 Live MW: 693, 909 5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 Breakfast 9.00 Nicky Campbell 11.00 Naga Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal Arthanayake 4.00 Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 8.00 5 Live Sport: Paris Saint Germain v Newcastle United 10.30 Johnny I’Anson 1.00am Dotun Adebayo talkSPORT MW: 1053, 1089 kHz 5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 talkSPORT Breakfast 10.00 Jim White and Simon Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee and Baker 4.00 talkSPORT Drive with Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent 7.00 Kick Off: Paris Saint Germain v Newcastle United (Kick-off 8.00) 10.00 Sports Bar 12.00 Extra Time TalkRadio Digital only 5.00am James Max 6.00 Talk Today with Jeremy Kyle and Nicola Thorp 9.30 Kev and Alex 10.00 Julia Hartley-Brewer 1.00pm Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips 3.00 Ian Collins 4.00 Vanessa Feltz 6.00 The Talk 7.00 Rosanna Lockwood 8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored 9.00 Mike Graham 11.00 Petrie Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross 6 Music Digital only 5.00am Chris Hawkins 7.30 Lauren Laverne 10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs 1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00 Huw Stephens 7.00 New Music Fix Daily 9.00 Artist in Residence: Mitski 10.00 Riley & Coe 12.00 Indie Forever 1.00am The First Time with Paul Weller 2.00 The First Time with Pete Townshend 3.00 Live Hour 4.00 The 6 Music Playlist Virgin Radio Digital only 6.30am The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch 10.00 Eddy Temple-Morris 1.00pm Jayne Middlemiss 4.00 Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam 10.00 Amy Voce 1.00am Sean Goldsmith 4.00 James Merritt Classic FM FM: 100-102 MHz 6.00am Breakfast 9.00 Alexander Armstrong 12.00 Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00pm Margherita Taylor 7.00 Smooth Classics at Seven 10.00 Calm Classics 1.00am Bill Overton 4.00 Early Breakfast Radio choice Ben Dowell In the Studio World Service, 11.30am Danny Boyle, impresario of the spellbinding opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the director of films including Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, returns to his home town of Manchester to direct a hip-hop dance show that will showcase the opening of Aviva Studios, a £240 million arts centre. This goes behind the scenes of the show, Free Your Mind, which gets to grips with recent developments in AI. Because of the scale of the venue — said to be the largest cultural investment in the UK since Tate Modern — the pressure on Boyle and his team is intense. our tv newsletter H ad you played TV cliché bingo while watching The Couple Next Door, I do believe sparks would have been flying from your dabber. I’m almost in awe that so many were crammed in before the first ad break alone. Barely seven minutes in, Becka (Jessica De Gouw) and Danny (Sam Heughan) were pulling their clothes off and having sex at their living room window, in a way that no married couple whose small child has just left the room ever do. Except in TV La-La land. It was a bonus, though, for Alan the Pervert (Hugh Dennis), who has a telescope trained on their house and dark circles under his eyes that suggest he does a lot of squinting while hunched over his computer (and I don’t mean at Wordle). I suppose at least this drama owns its clichés. What am I saying? It revels in them. It opened with the classic taster of horror to come, Eleanor Tomlinson as Evie running in what we shall call TV’s “sexy terrified” way. That is, frightened but looking hot, hot, hot in a short silk nightie as she ran barefoot through a forest. We then flipped back in time to Evie and Pete (Alfred Enoch) happily arriving at their new suburban idyll to start their family, which was a sort of sunny Wisteria Lane and not at all like the Leeds I remember from when I lived there. It told us everything was too smug to be true by having laughing children playing with water guns, lawns being mowed. We know that can’t last. And it didn’t. Evie miscarried her baby by minute 16. I have a terrible feeling the koi carp in the garden are some sort of “swimmers” metaphor. Sometimes the dialogue was so stilted, I wondered if it was a spoof. “You guys will get through this,” Danny said to Pete, who should really have responded by asking if he was a chatbot. It soon transpired that Danny and Becka were swingers (it’s based on a Dutch series called, yes, The Swingers) and they promptly had “that couple we met in Marbella” round for some wife swapping as Pete watched from his window. There’s a dull subplot about Danny being a dodgy copper, which ties in to a dull investigation that journalist Pete wants to look into, but his editor wants him to cover the opening of a new city library. A new library? Pull the other one. The UK has closed about 800 of them in the past decade. At least Evie cheered up when she got Danny’s powerful beast between her legs. Oh, I mean his motorbike, though it’s obvious it won’t be long before the other beast comes into play. I feared we might get to the end of the episode without it committing the top TV cliché on the bingo card, namely spontaneous sex on a kitchen worktop. But, no. Evie and Pete gave us a full house by doing exactly that — and during a storm for added cheesiness. These couples are as wooden as Dutch clogs, but I am enjoying Dennis’s greasy performance as the disgusting stalker. I must warn you that later in the series it’s traumatic to see the man who played the nice dad in Outnumbered masturbating. I must also warn you that episode two contains some of the worst cringey couple dancing you are likely to witness in your lifetime. I think the moral of this silly but entertainingly corny tale is going to be: “Don’t shag the neighbours.” Clichéd, corny drama isn’t king of the swingers Carol Midgley TV review The Couple Next Door Channel 4 {{((( Eleanor Tomlinson as Evie and Alfred Enoch as Pete

12 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times television & radio music, and he clearly really likes his subject here — good thing too, because after the bonhomie this goes to some troubling areas, including her account of a sexual assault. Raye is open, talented and charming, making for an absorbing if occasionally disturbing 45 minutes, capped by a final, comforting flash of her amazing smile. Louis Theroux Interviews ... Raye BBC2, 9pm The London singer opens by her piano singing Summertime with our man watching on. He suggests joining in, but says that it would be like doodling on the Mona Lisa before flashing her a broad grin. Louis Theroux loves his soul safe — an eclair in the signature round, followed by a lardy cake in the technical, concluding with a three-tiered showstopper in which they have to take their very first bake and make something magical. Another dream is realised tonight: the new host Alison Hammond gets to reveal the winner. backstories help to sway the judges? If so, Josh can reveal that his late gran inspired his love of baking and always wanted him to be on the show, Dan’s kids are delightful and Matt is sweet about the fiancée who pushed him towards the tent. The challenges are relatively simple, as befitting a series that has slightly played it makes a mistake; Dan the technical whizz; Matt the late developer who could well be peaking at just the right time. Anyway, it’s the close contest you would expect — all three have been star baker twice and received a Hollywood handshake, so there is barely a sheet of gold-leaf cake decoration between them. Do the emotional upon us. Matt, Josh and Dan have been pretty good so far, though it feels unfair that Tasha (who had a nightmare last week) isn’t there to face the final hurdle. Alongside the familiar meet-the-family sections, the tight focus on the remaining trio allows us to get a real sense of their skills: Josh the precision master who rarely Viewing Guide Ben Dowell The Great British Bake Off: The Final Channel 4, 8pm After a series of battering storms, beavers and the odd disaster in front of the oven, the final week of Bake Off is Top pick 7PM Early 8PM 9PM 10PM 11PM Late BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 Channel 4 Channel 5 7.00 The One Show Lauren Laverne presents another mix of nationwide reports and live studio-based chat 7.30 EastEnders Nish stumbles upon some new information in the Minute Mart’s CCTV and Stacey tries to remain resolute at Theo’s hearing (AD) 8.00 MasterChef: The Professionals Half of the six remaining chefs tackle lunch service in a two Michelin star restaurant before serving a main course and dessert worthy of Finals week (AD) 9.00 The Met Police in Camden, North London investigate a series of sexual assaults and reports of indecent exposure perpetrated by a man in a black tutu. Last in the series (AD) 10.00 BBC News at Ten 10.30 BBC Regional News and Weather 10.40 Kin The robbery goes ahead and with the Kinsella family in serious danger, Amanda takes action by giving Frank advice about Viking, but he refuses to listen (5/8) (AD) 11.30 Kin Michael realises he’s putting Anna in danger by spending time with her and Frank learns he should have listened to Amanda (6/8) (AD) 12.20am Charlotte in Sunderland Emotions are high as Alba Jean starts nursery and the numbers are in from the summer launch (r) 12.50 Charlotte in Sunderland Charlotte and the family go on a trip to Australia, and Gary treats Letitia to a pamper day as she awaits the results of a mammogram (r) 1.25-6.00 BBC News 7.00 Celebrity Antiques Road Trip TV star Gemma Collins and radio DJ Melvin Odoom compete to find the best antiques on a road trip through Essex with a budget of £400. They are joined by auctioneer James Braxton and dealer Margie Cooper to help them on their way 8.00 Secrets of the Aquarium Marcus and Emma embark on a mission to rescue an injured turtle in the Maldives. Back in Plymouth, Ian trains Zeus the zebra shark using a toy boat and Andrew collects fresh seaweed for Larry the lobster (3/6) (AD) 9.00 Louis Theroux Interviews — Raye Louis Theroux spends time with singersongwriter Rachel Keen, also known as Raye. See Viewing Guide (4/6) (AD) 9.45 Live at the Apollo Maisie Adam hosts the comedy show filmed at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, introducing stand-up routines by fellow comedians Michael Odewale and Susie McCabe (4/7) 10.30 Newsnight Headline analysis presented by Kirsty Wark 11.15 Snooker: UK Championship Action from the concluding day of last-32 matches, held at York Barbican and played over the best of 11 frames 12.05am Snooker: UK Championship Extra Extended highlights from one of today’s matches at York Barbican, where the last 32 concluded 2.05 Sign Zone: Liz Bonnin’s Wild Caribbean. Liz explores the Central American coastline (r) (AD, SL) 3.05 Doctor Who (r) (SL) 4.05-5.05 MasterChef: The Professionals (r) (AD, SL) 7.30 Emmerdale There is utter shock for David, while Caleb has unfinished business, Laurel asks questions, and Amit is worried (AD) 8.00 The Martin Lewis Money Show: Live The cash expert answers the financial questions that matter most, and offers tips and tricks for making finances go further 9.00 I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! The campmates face even more challenges as they compete to be crowned King or Queen of the Jungle 10.15 ITV News at Ten 10.50 Regional News 11.05 On Assignment Sangita Lal, Stacey Foster and Chris Choi investigate the efforts to tackle climate change ahead of Cop 28 11.35 The Voice UK Emma Willis hosts the spinning-chair singing contest (r) 12.50am The Chase (r) 1.40 Cash Trapped. Quiz show hosted by Bradley Walsh (r) 2.30 Loose Women. Topical debate from a female perspective (r) 3.15 Deal or No Deal. Game show hosted by Stephen Mulhern (r) (SL) 4.05 Unwind with ITV 5.10-6.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal. David Dickinson hosts from Barry (r) (AD, SL) 7.00 Channel 4 News 8.00 The Great British Bake Off The remaining bakers tackle a signature choux pastry, a sticky blast from the past and the ultimate celebration cake in the final. Last in the series. See Viewing Guide (AD) 9.15 The Couple Next Door Evie cannot stop thinking about partner swapping and Danny gets drawn further into illegal operations but a routine job takes a wrong turn. Meanwhile, Alan’s obsession with Becka grows. See Viewing Guide (2/6) (AD) 10.15 Gogglebox The armchair critics share their opinions on shows including The Challenge, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, The Crown, Deal or No Deal, Planet Earth III, Made in Chelsea and Saving Lives at Sea (r) (AD, SL) 11.20 Gogglebox The armchair critics share their opinions on what they have been watching during the week with cameras capturing their instant reactions (r) (AD) 12.20am Bangers: Mad for Cars Tinie and Naomi search for the best 4x4s of the 80s, 90s and 00s (r) (AD, SL) 1.15 First Dates Hotel (r) (AD, SL) 2.10 The Last Leg (r) 3.05 Couples Come Dine with Me (r) 4.00 The Great Pottery Throw Down (r) (AD, SL) 5.10-6.05 Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas. Crafting (r) 7.00 Shoplifters: Caught Red Handed In Newton Abbot a suspicious character is spotted in the crowds and a gang are caught scoping out the premises of a store. In Enfield, a well-turned-out thief is caught in the act 7.55 5 News Update 8.00 Police 999: Clear & Present Danger Police search for a missing pensioner, encounter a man setting his trousers on fire and become involved in a car chase with criminals in possession of a gun 9.00 Portillo’s Andalucia Michael Portillo travels to Huelva, meeting restaurant owner Ramon in Isla Cristina, before visiting the mines of Rio Tinto and the town of Aracena (4/6) 10.00 HMP Full Sutton: Evil Behind Bars Documentary exploring life inside HMP Full Sutton, a men’s high security prison in the East Riding of Yorkshire which has been home to some of Britain’s most notorious criminals (r) 11.30 Cause of Death The coroner’s team investigate the death of a man at home on his sofa (3/6) (r) 12.25am Killer at the Crime Scene A student is found dead in his car (r) 1.20 PlayOJO Live Casino Show 3.20 How the Victorians Built Britain (r) 4.10 Inside the Mind of Agatha Christie (r) 5.00 House Doctor (r) (SL) 5.25 Entertainment News on 5 5.40 Pip and Posy (r) (SL) 5.45-6.00 Paw Patrol (r) (SL) 6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Morning Live 10.00 Defenders: Busting the Bad Guys. A 15-year-old helps the Defenders bust shops selling vapes to children 10.45 Claimed and Shamed. An organised scamming network is exposed revealing fraud on an industrial scale (r) (AD) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer. Terraced houses in Grassmoor, Queenborough and St Helens (r) 12.15pm Bargain Hunt. The red and blue teams shop for bargains in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire (r) (AD) 1.00 BBC News at One; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 Doctors. Zara fears for a patient’s life (AD) 2.15 The Bidding Room. Items include a coin-operated giraffe and a Thomas the Tank Engine pedal car (r) 3.00 Escape to the Country. Nicki Chapman is in Norfolk to help a family find their dream home in the countryside 3.45 Antiques Road Trip. David Harper and Hettie Jago visit the city of Glasgow on their search for antiques to sell at auction 4.30 Make It at Market. A potter from Staffordshire and an upholsterer from Hampshire are hoping to take their hobbies and make them into profitable businesses (AD) 5.15 Pointless. Quiz show (r) 6.00 BBC News at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 6.30am Antiques Road Trip (r) 7.15 Make It at Market (r) (AD) 8.00 Sign Zone: Expert Witness (r) (SL) 8.30 Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes. Robson and the crime author LJ Ross explore Northumberland’s Holy Island (r) (AD, SL) 9.00 BBC News 12.15pm Politics Live. The latest stories from Westminster and beyond 1.00 Live Snooker: UK Championship. Coverage of the afternoon session on day four from York Barbican, featuring two matches in the last 32, played over the best of 11 frames. Judd Trump was made to work hard for a 6-5 victory over Xiao Guodong at this stage last year, before Jack Lisowski enjoyed a considerably more comfortable 6-1 win against Xu Si 5.15 Flog It! At Penrhyn Castle in north Wales, antiques expert Claire Rawle uncovers a pristine vintage Barbie doll, and Adam Partridge finds a 300-year-old map of the area (r) 6.00 Richard Osman’s Hous e of Games. Clive Anderson, Sara Davies, Lutalo Muhammad and Alison Spittle test their knowledge in a series of quiz rounds 6.30 Strictly: It Takes Two. Another backstage round-up from Strictly Come Dancing, including interviews with the contestants and a review of Saturday’s routines in Clifton’s Choreography Corner 6.00am Good Morning Britain 9.00 Lorraine. Entertainment, current affairs and fashion news, as well as showbiz stories and interviews. Presented by Lorraine Kelly 10.00 This Morning. A mix of interviews, lifestyle features, advice and competitions. Including Local Weather 12.30pm Loose Women. More interviews and topical debate from a female perspective 1.30 ITV News; Weather 1.55 Regional News; Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal. David Dickinson hosts from Barry in South Wales, helping a 1970s Chopper bike get a spectacular price at auction, while a Ken Dodd tickling stick creates plenty of fun in the den, and Jan Keyne puts down big money for some gold (AD) 3.00 Lingo. A mother and daughter duo from Derry, new parents from Aberdeen, and a mother and daughter from London compete (r) 4.00 Deal or No Deal. Stephen Mulhern hosts as a contestant tries to open the 22 red boxes in the right order, taking on the infamous Banker for the chance to win a life-changing cash prize 5.00 The Chase. Bradley Walsh presents as four contestants answer general knowledge questions and work as a team to take on one of the ruthless Chasers 6.00 Regional News; Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather 6.05am Countdown (r) 6.45 3rd Rock from the Sun (r) (AD) 7.35 Everybody Loves Raymond (r) (AD) 8.25 Frasier (r) (AD) 9.55 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (r) 10.55 The Great House Giveaway (r) 11.55 Channel 4 News Summary 12.00 Steph’s Packed Lunch 2.10pm Countdown. Richard Coles is in Dictionary Corner 3.00 A Place in the Sun. Danni Menzies helps a couple who are looking for the perfect place to enjoy their retirement in Manilva on Spain’s Costa del Sol with a budget of £125,000 (r) 4.00 A Place in the Sun. Jean Johansson helps a pair from Grimsby and Northumberland find their perfect holiday home in St Lucia with a budget of £205,000 5.00 Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas. Kirstie Allsopp invites the festive crafters to deck the Christmas HQ halls with all things handmade in her best decoration competition (r) (AD) 6.00 Four in a Bed. The B&Bers are still in Cornwall for the week’s second visit, at The Llawnroc Hotel, where a pair of former Redcoats know what it takes to keep their guests entertained (r) 6.30 The Simpsons. Bart accidentally sees a new superhero film before its release, and realises he can use his plot-spoiling powers for his own ends (AD) 6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine. The broadcaster and guests discuss the issues of the day with co-host Storm Huntley joining him for phone-ins and reading out viewers’ correspondence 11.15 Storm Huntley. Debate on the day’s talking points continues with Storm Huntley, who takes viewers calls on the biggest stories 12.30pm Alexis Conran. The actor, writer and broadcaster examines the important stories of the day, getting viewers’ opinions and views on them 1.25 5 News at Lunchtime 1.30 FILM: A New Home for Christmas (TVM) To save her family business a woman her ex-boyfriend reunite to help the unsheltered community. Romantic comedy starring Rebecca Dalton and Christopher Seivright 3.15 FILM: Under the Christmas Tree (PG, TVM, 2021) Charlie finds the perfect tree for the Maine governor’s holiday celebration in Alma’s backyard. Romantic drama starring Elise Bauman and Tattiawna Jones 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00 Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly. Graeme Hall tries to help the owners of Bella the collie in Sheffield, whose aggression has become so extreme that people can no longer visit the house (r) (AD) 6.55 5 News Update

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 13 television & radio Film Life Is Sweet Film4, 1.15am Mike Leigh turned his lens to an outer suburb of north London and a lower-middle-class family held together by Alison Steadman’s exuberant Wendy. But while there is comedy in this study of an ordinary family, there are darker elements too. (15, 1990) protagonists take a day trip, and the chemistry between Evie and Danny is obvious, much to the horror of Evie’s partner, Pete (Alfred Enoch), and the amusement of Danny’s other half, Becka (Jessica De Gouw). Becka and Danny are seasoned swingers, so it just seems a matter of time before the bedsprings are tested. The Couple Next Door Channel 4, 9.15pm The last time we saw Eleanor Tomlinson’s Evie she was ogling her neighbour, Danny (Sam Heughan), as he put the bins out. You don’t get more sultry suburban sex saga than that, and this drama is unashamed. In this second episode our four uncommon, but life rumbles on. We know what is coming, and the brilliance of the director Volker Heise’s series lies in the editing and the deft weaving of hints, culminating towards the end of the first episode with the Reichstag fire. There was, one diarist notes, a “fear of pogroms ... but I don’t think things will go that far”. Berlin 1933 BBC4, 9.10pm As 1933 dawned, Berliners’ diary entries were noticeable for their mundanity. Yes, there was widespread unemployment, political division between the two leading parties (the Nazis and the Communists) and street fighting wasn’t Kennedy Sky History/Now, 9pm “What was it about that guy?” asks one of many talking heads in this latest examination of the life of the 35th American president, John F Kennedy, 60 years after he died on a Dallas road. Well, there is the good looks, the charm, the dedication to the cause and the money of his unscrupulous businessman father, Joseph Kennedy, for starters. This neatly made series is helped by plenty of footage with the man off-guard. However, the fact that this is described as “rarely seen” rather than “unseen” shows the level to which this tale has been trawled over. BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except: 7.00pm-7.30 EastEnders. Suki faces a new setback (AD) 10.40 Spotlight. Political issues 11.10 Kin. The robbery goes ahead (AD) 12.00 Kin. Michael realises he’s putting Anna in danger (AD) 12.55am Charlotte in Sunderland (r) 1.25 Charlotte in Sunderland (r) 1.55-6.00 BBC News BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 7.00pm-7.30 River City. Scarlett’s life hangs in the balance (r) (AD) 10.40 The Scotts. Vincent rescues all sorts of junk from his mum’s loft 11.10 Kin. The robbery goes ahead (AD) 12.00 Kin (AD) 12.50am The Edit. With Jonathan Watson (r) 1.05 Charlotte in Sunderland (r) 1.35 Charlotte in Sunderland (r) 2.05 Weather for the Week Ahead 2.10-6.00 BBC News BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 1.20am-6.00 BBC News BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 11.15pm First Minister’s Questions. Mark Drakeford answers questions from the Senedd 12.15am-2.05 Snooker: UK Championship Extra. Match highlights ITV1 Wales As ITV1 except: 11.35pm-12.50am Grand Slammers: Inside HMP the Mount. Part one of two. England rugby world cup winners train a team of inmates (r) (AD) STV As ITV1 except: 10.50pm STV News 10.55 Scotland Tonight. Current affairs show 11.25 On Assignment. Investigating efforts to tackle climate change ahead of Cop 28 11.55 The Voice UK. The blind auditions continue (r) 1.15am-1.40 The People’s History Show (r) 4.05-5.10 Night Vision UTV As ITV1 except: 11.35pm-12.50am Grand Slammers: Inside HMP the Mount. Part one of two. England rugby world cup winners train a team of inmates (r) (AD) BBC Scotland 7.00pm Who Owns Scotland? (r) (AD) 8.00 Back from the Brink (r) 8.50 Grand Tours of Scotland’s Lochs (r) 9.00 The Nine 10.00 David Wilson’s Crime Files: Scams & Scandals 10.30 Paramedics on Scene (r) (AD) 11.30-12.00 Darren McGarvey’s Scotland (r) (AD) BBC Alba 6.00am Alba Today 5.00pm AH-AH/No-No (r) 5.10 Lon le Linda (r) 5.25 Oscar & Ealasaid (r) 5.40 ’S E Iasg a Th’Annam (I’m a Fish) (r) 5.45 Meaban is Moo (r) 5.50 Peataichean/ Pets (r) 5.55 Stòiridh (r) 6.00 Triuir aig Tri (r) 6.15 An Teaghlach Rìoghail an Ath-dhoras 6.45 Clann Na Cruinne (r) 7.00 Gaisgich Oga an Darna Cogaidh (r) 7.25 Dàn (r) 7.30 SpeakGaelic (r) 8.00 An Là (News) 8.30 Immigration Tracks — Canada, le Anne NicAlpine 9.00 Opry le Daniel (r) 9.55 Dàn (r) 10.00 Trusadh — Ar Teaghlach/Our Family (r) 11.00 Machair (r) 11.25 Fraochy Bay (r) 11.30 Alleluia! (Spiritual Music & Verse) (r) 12.00-6.00am Alba Today S4C 6.00am Cyw: Bing (r) 6.10 Tomos a’i Ffrindiau (r) 6.20 Halibalw (r) 6.30 Twt (r) 6.45 Awyr Iach (r) 7.00 Blociau Rhif (r) 7.05 Digbi Draig (r) 7.20 Ein Byd Bach Ni (r) 7.30 Crawc a’i Ffrindiau 7.45 Cacamwnci (r) 8.00 Olobobs (r) 8.05 Shwshaswyn (r) 8.15 Oli Wyn (r) 8.25 Pablo (r) 8.40 Jen a Jim a’r Cywiadur (r) 8.55 Sali Mali (r) 9.00 Dathlu ’Da Dona (r) 9.15 Asra (r) 9.30 Stiw (r) 9.45 Kim a Cet a Twrch (r) 10.00 Y Ffair Aeaf 12.00 News; Weather 12.05pm Y Ffair Aeaf 2.00 News; Weather 2.05 Y Ffair Aeaf 4.00 Awr Fawr: Blociau Rhif (r) 4.05 Guto Gwningen (r) 4.20 Ein Byd Bach Ni (r) 4.30 Crawc a’i Ffrindiau (r) 4.45 Cacamwnci (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Mwy o Stwnsh Sadwrn 5.25 Cath-Od (r) 5.40 Rhyfeddodau Chwilengoch a Cath Ddu (r) 6.00 Cymry ar Gynfas (r) 6.57 News; Weather 7.00 Heno 7.30 News; Weather 8.00 Pobol y Cwm (AD) 8.25 Rownd a Rownd (AD) 8.55 News 9.00 Y Ffair Aeaf 10.00 Rocco Schiavone 11.00-11.35 Arfordir Cymru: Môn (r) Variations 6.00am NCIS: Los Angeles (r) 7.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD) 8.00 Supergirl (r) 9.00 Stargate SG-1 (r) 11.00 NCIS: Los Angeles (r) 12.00 Supergirl (r) 1.00pm MacGyver (r) 3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r) 4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD) 5.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD) 6.00 Stargate SG-1. A cadet team is needed (r) 7.00 Stargate SG-1. The team seeks help from the Russians to save Teal’c (r) 8.00 An Idiot Abroad 3. Karl Pilkington and Warwick Davis arrive in China (3/3) (r) (AD) 9.00 Never Mind the Buzzcocks. With Mike Wozniak, Jax Jones and Ella Henderson (r) (AD) 9.45 Never Mind the Buzzcocks (r) (AD) 10.30 The Overlap on Tour. Documentary following Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher on their live tour (r) (AD) 11.30 Flintoff: Lord of the Fries (r) (AD) 12.30am Road Wars. Double bill (r) 2.00 A League of Their Own. With Stuart Broad and Tom Davis 3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r) 4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD) 5.00 Highway Patrol (r) 6.00am Urban Secrets (r) 7.55 True Blood (r) 10.05 Billions (r) (AD) 12.15pm Game of Thrones (r) (AD) 1.20 Tin Star (r) (AD) 3.30 True Blood (r) 5.40 Billions (r) (AD) 7.55 Game of Thrones. House Lannister prepares for conflict, Ned confronts Cersei about Jon Arryn’s death, and Khal Drogo vows revenge on the Seven Kingdoms (r) (AD) 9.00 Landscapers. Susan and Christopher each take the stand for a final chance to prove their version of events from that fatal night in the Wycherley home (4/4) (r) (AD) 10.00 The Gilded Age. Bertha deals with rumours circulating about Larry after receiving discouraging news about the Met, while Ada asks Marian to cover for her as she continues to see Mr Forte (4/8) (r) 11.05 Tin Star: Liverpool. A wild night out leads to an unexpected turn of events (2/6) (r) (AD) 12.05am Westworld. Double bill (r) (AD) 2.30 Game of Thrones (r) (AD) 3.35 In Treatment (r) 4.05 Urban Secrets (r) 6.00am The Movies (r) 7.00 Discovering: Claudette Colbert (r) (AD) 8.00 The Directors (r) 9.00 The Nineties (r) 9.55 Edge of the Earth (r) (AD) 11.00 Kingdom of Dreams (r) (AD) 12.00 Arthur Miller: Writer (r) 2.00pm Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes. Archive footage (AD) 4.00 The Directors (r) 5.00 Discovering: Claudette Colbert. The life of the actress (r) (AD) 6.00 The Nineties (r) 6.55 Edge of the Earth (r) (AD) 8.00 Kingdom of Dreams (r) (AD) 9.00 Lockerbie (r) (AD) 10.00 Burden of Proof: Who Killed Jennifer Pandos? Stephen learns about emerging persons of interest. Last in the series (r) 11.10 FILM: McLaren (12, 2017) 1.00am FILM: You Cannot Kill David Arquette (15, 2020) Documentary (AD) 2.50 My Icon: Michael Holding (r) (AD) 3.00 FILM: Mama’s Boy — A Story from Our Americas (12, TVM, 2022) (AD) 5.00 Discovering: Claudette Colbert (r) (AD) 6.00am Spielberg and Williams: The Adventure Continues 6.30 Bruckner Cycle 8.00 The Joy of Painting (AD) 9.00 Tales of the Unexpected 10.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 11.00 Discovering: Brad Pitt 12.00 The Joy of Painting (AD) 1.00pm Tales of the Unexpected 2.00 Landscape Artist of the Year Canada 3.00 Vermeer from the National Gallery, London 4.00 Discovering: Matt Damon. The life and career of the actor 5.00 The Joy of Painting 6.00 Tales of the Unexpected 7.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 8.00 Classic Literature & Cinema (AD) 9.00 Wonderland: Gothic 10.00 The Art of Architecture Special: Saudi Arabia. The country’s feats of architecture 11.00 Discovering: Russell Crowe 12.00 Discovering Romance on Film (AD) 1.30am Why Do We Dance? 2.45 The Royal Ballet in Cuba 4.30 Spielberg and Williams: The Adventure Continues 5.00 Cheltenham Literature Festival. With Alastair Cook 6.00am Sky Sports News 7.00 Good Morning Sports Fans 8.00 Super League Gold (AD) 8.05 Live Women’s Big Bash League. Coverage of the Eliminator play-off match, which will see the losers eliminated from the competition and the winners progress to the Challenger play-off 11.10 The Football Show 12.00 Lunchtime Live 1.00pm Lunchtime Live 2.00 Sports Desk. Sports news 3.00 Sports Desk 4.00 Sports Desk 5.00 Sky Sports News at 5 6.00 Sky Sports News at 6 7.00 Gillette Labs Soccer Special 7.30 Live EFL: Watford v Norwich City (Kick-off 8.00). Coverage of the Championship encounter at Vicarage Road 10.30 Back Pages Tonight. A look at the sports headlines in tomorrow’s newspapers 11.00 Sky Sports News 12.00 Sky Sports News. Round-up of the sports news 1.00am Sky Sports News 2.00 Sky Sports News 3.00 Sky Sports News 4.00 Sky Sports News 5.00 Sky Sports News Sky Max Sky Atlantic Sky Documentaries Sky Arts Sky Main Event 6.00am CITV 9.00 Totally Bonkers Guinness World Records 10.00 Secret Crush 11.00 Dress to Impress 12.00 I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! 1.15pm Catchphrase 2.00 Secret Crush. A woman tells her best friend she has a crush on him 3.05 One Tree Hill 5.00 I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! 6.15 Catchphrase. Game show 7.00 Family Fortunes. Gino D’Acampo hosts 8.00 Bob’s Burgers (AD) 8.30 Bob’s Burgers (AD) 9.00 Family Guy. Stewie impregnates himself with Brian’s DNA to save their friendship (AD) 9.30 Family Guy (AD) 10.00 Plebs. The trio take in a lodger (AD) 10.30 Plebs. Marcus plans to make a move on Cynthia at the festival of Saturnalia (AD) 11.00 Family Guy (AD) 11.30 American Dad! (AD) 12.00 American Dad! (AD) 12.30am Don’t Hate the Playaz 1.15 Totally Bonkers Guinness World Records 1.45 Unwind with ITV 3.00 Teleshopping 5.00 Unwind with ITV 5.15 Totally Bonkers Guinness World Records 6.00am Classic Emmerdale 7.05 Classic Coronation Street (AD) 8.10 Never the Twain 9.15 Wild at Heart (AD) 11.25 Heartbeat (AD) 1.40pm Classic Emmerdale 2.40 Classic Coronation Street (AD) 3.45 Midsomer Murders. With John Nettles (AD) 5.50 Heartbeat (AD) 8.00 Vera. The detective investigates a robbery at a port and uncovers a web of intrigue when it turns out to be an inside job. However the insider’s motivation is not just money — his son has been kidnapped to make sure everyone sticks to the plan, which ends up going horribly wrong (3/6) (AD) 10.00 Grantchester. A young man covered in blood confesses to Sidney and Geordie that he attacked and killed his landlord, but when the pair investigate, they find the alleged victim alive and well (3/6) (AD) 11.05 Grantchester. As the trial of local teenager Gary Bell approaches, Sidney and Geordie find themselves in disagreement over his guilt (4/6) (AD) 12.05am Wild at Heart. Double bill (AD) 2.10 Unwind with ITV 2.30 Teleshopping 6.00am Dramatic Finishes 6.10 Minder (AD, SL) 7.15 The Sweeney 8.15 The Champions 9.20 Robin of Sherwood 10.30 Magnum, PI 11.30 BattleBots 12.30pm The Champions 1.35 Robin of Sherwood 2.45 Magnum, PI 3.45 The Sweeney 4.50 Minder (AD) 5.55 BattleBots 6.55 The Chase Celebrity Special (AD) 8.00 World Superbike Highlights. A look back at the 2023 season which began in Australia in February and reached its conclusion in Spain in October as the top rider in the field was crowned 9.00 FILM: Die Another Day (12, 2002) James Bond’s pursuit of a Korean terrorist leads to a British billionaire who has constructed a devastating orbital weapon. Spy adventure starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry (AD) 11.45 All Elite Wrestling: Rampage. Hard-hitting, high-flying wrestling action 12.50am FILM: Game of Death (18, 2011) A government agent protects a hospitalised diplomat when the hitmen who tried to kill him return to finish him off. Action thriller starring Wesley Snipes, Zoe Bell and Robert Davi (AD) 2.45 Unwind with ITV 3.00 Teleshopping 6.00am Teleshopping 7.10 All Creatures Great and Small 8.00 Doctors 9.20 Classic Holby City 10.40 Casualty 11.50 The Bill 12.50pm Classic EastEnders 2.05 Pie in the Sky 3.05 Bergerac 4.15 All Creatures Great and Small 5.25 The Upper Hand. Nick is released from prison 6.00 ’Allo ’Allo! It’s Rene’s birthday 6.40 Last of the Summer Wine 7.20 Last of the Summer Wine. The ladies inadvertently take a mystery tour 8.00 Dalziel & Pascoe. The discovery of a man’s body in a disused mineshaft reawakens villagers’ suspicions over a girl’s death (1/4) (AD) 10.00 New Tricks. The unsolved-crime squad re-examines an assault case that left the victim in a coma, and uncovers a possible connection with a private detective’s disappearance. Nina Wadiaand Navin Chowdhry guest star (2/8) (AD) 11.20 Dalziel & Pascoe. A leading football club’s team bus is hit by a train, and the post-mortem examination on the victims reveals it was not an accident (2/5) (AD) 1.20am Birds of a Feather 2.55 Classic Holby City 4.00 Teleshopping 6.10am Secrets of the Transport Museum (AD) 8.00 Abandoned Engineering (AD) 10.00 The World at War 11.00 War Factories 12.00 Great Continental Railway Journeys 1.00pm Antiques Roadshow 2.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics (AD) 4.00 War Factories 5.00 The World at War. The battle for North Africa 6.00 Great Continental Railway Journeys. Michael Portillo travels from Turin to Venice 7.00 Antiques Roadshow. Fiona Bruce presents from Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire 8.00 Tony Robinson’s Marvellous Machines. Tony Robinson explores machines that help us mere mortals become superhuman (AD) 9.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics. Bangers & Cash spin-off series that follows the journey of a vehicle being repaired, restored and re-auctioned (AD) 10.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics. The team restore a 1988 Golf GTI Convertible (AD) 11.00 Abandoned Engineering (7/12) (AD) 12.00 Great British Railway Journeys 1.00am Secrets of the Transport Museum (AD) 2.00 Abandoned Engineering (AD) 3.00 Teleshopping ITV2 ITV3 Yesterday 6.00am Talk Today with Jeremy Kyle and Nicola Thorp. Big stories from the world of politics, current affairs and showbiz 9.30 Kevin & Alex. Hosts Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips give their take on the front pages and the latest news 10.00 Julia Hartley-Brewer 1.00pm CrossTalk with Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips. The day’s biggest news with analysis, debate and humour 3.00 Ian Collins. Hard-hitting monologues and debates 4.00 Vanessa Feltz. The drivetime show with political debates 6.00 The Talk. A panel of famous faces debate the hot topics everybody’s talking about 7.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood. The presenter brings a wealth of journalistic experience to get inside the stories of the day 8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored. The host presents his verdict on the day’s global events 9.00 The Independent Republic of Mike Graham. The host looks through the morning newspapers 11.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored 12.00 Petrie Hosken 1.00am CrossTalk with Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips 3.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood 4.00 The Talk 5.00 James Max 7.00pm Great British Railway Journeys. Michael Portillo explores the West Country (AD) 7.30 Winter Walks. The Rev Kate Bottley treks across Wensleydale and Coverdale (AD) 8.00 Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em. Frank takes a job as a motorcycle dispatch rider 8.40 Yes Minister. Sir Humphrey tries to conceal information due for release under the 30-year rule. Comedy, starring Nigel Hawthorne 9.10 Berlin 1933. New series. The changes that occurred in Berlin, and Germany, in 1933. The city becomes divides as National Socialists rise to power, and the Reichstag building is hit by arsonists. See Viewing Guide 10.00 HMS Brilliant. Kevin Gladys is accused of assaulting a superior officer (5/6) 10.50 HMS Brilliant. There is a change of command in Sardinia. Last in the series 11.40 Ken Dodd’s Happiness: Arena. A tribute to the comedian and singer, first shown in 2007 to mark his 80th birthday, in which he discusses more than 50 years of making people laugh 12.40am Great British Railway Journeys (AD) 1.10 Winter Walks (AD) 1.40 Berlin 1933 2.35-3.35 Simon Schama’s Power of Art (AD) 6.00am FILM: Bus Stop (U, 1956) 7.50 FILM: The Delavine Affair (PG, 1954) (b/w) 9.05 FILM: Fort Algiers (PG, 1953) (b/w) 10.40 Look at Life 10.50 FILM: The Aviator (PG, 1985) 12.50pm FILM: The Street with No Name (PG, 1948) (b/w) 2.35 FILM: Tonight’s the Night (U, 1954) Comedy (b/w) 4.20 FILM: Battle Taxi (12, 1955) (b/w) 6.00 The Black Arrow 6.30 Scotland Yard 7.05 The Four Just Men (b/w) 7.40 Dick Barton: Special Agent 7.55 Thunderbirds 9.00 Cinebox Memories 9.05 Maigret 11.00 Cellar Club with Caroline Munro 11.05 FILM: The Two Faces Of Dr Jekyll (15, 1960) Hammer Horror with Paul Massie 12.50am Cellar Club with Caroline Munro 12.55 FILM: Homicidal (12, 1961) Horror starring Glenn Corbett 2.40 Cellar Club with Caroline Munro 2.45 FILM: Fear No More (PG, 1961) Mystery starring Mala Powers (b/w) 4.20 Cellar Club with Caroline Munro 4.25 Four Star Theatre (b/w) 5.00 Stagecoach West (b/w) 11.00am Wake of the Red Witch (PG, 1948) Romantic seafaring adventure starring John Wayne and Gail Russell (b/w) 1.10pm Father Brown (U, 1954) Comedy drama starring Alec Guinness 2.55 Tomahawk (PG, 1951) Western starring Van Heflin 4.35 Strategic Air Command (U, 1955) Drama starring James Stewart (AD) 6.50 I, Robot (12, 2004) A detective is convinced a robot has killed its creator, even though it has been programmed never to harm humans. Sci-fi thriller starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan and Alan Tudyk (AD) 9.00 The Forever Purge (15, 2021) Members of an underground movement decide to take over the United States. Horror sequel starring Ana de la Reguera 11.05 Fanny Lye Deliver’d (18, 2019) On an isolated Shropshire farm in 1657, an unhappily married woman discovers a new world of possibility. Drama starring Maxine Peake 1.15am-3.25 Life Is Sweet (15, 1990) Mike Leigh’s comedy drama starring Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent (AD). See Viewing Guide 8.55am Kirstie’s House of Craft 9.15 A Place in the Sun 10.05 A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now? 11.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It 1.10pm Car SOS (AD) 2.10 Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It (AD) 3.10 Four in a Bed 5.50 The Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes (AD) 6.55 Escape to the Château. Dick and Angel try to live self-sufficiently, and invest in some chickens to provide them with eggs 7.55 Grand Designs. A couple decide to build a house heavily inspired by American modernist properties, after moving from London to Cornwall with their three children (2/7) (AD) 9.00 Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life. Documentary following pioneering surgeons at Royal Marsden Hospital (1/3) (AD) 10.00 24 Hours in A&E. A man suffers spinal injuries after falling off a mountain bike and an 83-year-old woman is struggling to breathe (AD) 11.05 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Christmas Special. Jon Richardson and Sarah Millican take on Sean Lock and David Mitchell 12.10am Emergency Helicopter Medics (AD) 1.15 999: On the Front Line 2.20 24 Hours in A&E (AD) 3.25-3.55 Food Unwrapped (AD) TalkTV BBC4 Talking Pictures Film4 More4 ITV4 Drama

14 Tuesday November 28 2023 | the times MindGames Fill the grid using the numbers 1 to 9 only. The numbers in each horizontal or vertical run of white squares add up to the total in the triangle to its left or above it. The same number may occur more than once in a row or column, but not within the same run of white squares. Kakuro No 3576 Fill the blank squares so that every row and column contains each of the numbers 1 to 5 once only. The symbols between the squares indicate whether a number is larger (>) or smaller (<) than the number next to it. All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every row and column. In each thick-line “block”, the target number in the top left-hand corner is calculated from the digits in all the cells in the block, using the operation indicated by the symbol. KenKen Medium No 6062 Futoshiki No 4617 Slide the letters either horizontally or vertically back into the grid to produce a completed crossword. Letters are allowed to slide over other letters Every letter in this crossword-style grid is represented by a number from 1 to 26. Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded. Yesterday’s solution, right Cluelines Stuck on Codeword? To receive 4 random clues call 0901 293 6262 or text TIMECODE to 64343. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. For the full solution call 0905 757 0142. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm). Lay tracks to enable the train to travel from village A to village B. The numbers indicate how many sections of track go in each row and column. There are only straight sections and curved sections. The track cannot cross itself. Train Tracks No 2103 Lexica No 7153 No 7154 G P R O O U X A L E E L T O R H L A E X V E N M S I E A S H N H A T S W A E A M F E M S I S Codeword No 5070 Winning Move Tetonor Black to play. This position is from Donchenko-Mishra, FIDE Grand Swiss, Douglas 2023. The FIDE Grand Swiss, which acted as a qualifier for next year’s Candidates event, was immensely strong. The qualifiers were Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Hikaru Nakamura. Many of the world’s elite players ended up as also-rans. Here Black has a strong passed b-pawn. How did he make the most of it? The next Tetonor puzzle will appear on Thursday When complete, the strip below the grid can be split into eight pairs of numbers. Adding the numbers in a pair gives one of the 16 numbers in the grid. Multiplying them gives a different number in the grid. For example, a 4 and 6 in the strip could be paired to make 10 (4+6) and 24 (4x6) in the grid. Enter each sum below the corresponding number in the grid. The blanks in the strip must be deduced, bearing in mind the numbers are listed in ascending order. 1 2 6 7 9 10 14 14 14 20 22 105 34 106 20 22 208 29 180 84 23 196 35 28 112 32 220 1 2 6 7 9 10 14 14 14 20 22 105 34 106 20 22 208 29 180 84 23 196 35 28 112 32 220 A A A A B B B B C C C D E E E F H H I I I L L N O R R R R S T U 1 Flog wood (5) 2 Ring back about island flower (5) 3 Court official, that woman behind us (5) 4 Ignoring man, Batman and Robin foolishly talk at length (6,2) 5 Shameless in pub, editor nicking mug (9) Solve all five cryptic clues using each letter underneath once only - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Quintagram® Solve all five cryptic clues using each letter underneath once only For more puzzles, including Mini Sudoku, extra Codeword, Train Tracks and Futoshiki go to page 10 What are your favourite puzzles in MindGames? Email: [email protected] Easy No 417 Challenge your mind with these fiendish word and number puzzles thetimes.co.uk/ bookshop

the times | Tuesday November 28 2023 15 MindGames Divide the grid into square or rectangular blocks, each containing one digit only. Every block must contain the number of cells indicated by the digit inside it. Enter each of the numbers from 1 to 9 in the grid, so that the six sums work. We’ve placed two numbers to get you started. Each sum should be calculated left to right or top to bottom. From these letters, make words of three or more letters, always including the central letter. Answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives. How you rate 6 words, average; 9, good; 13, very good; 18, excellent Kakuro 3575 Futoshiki 4616 D B F R U I T Y U V E M E A N M I J A U N T Y Lexica 7152 R V E R B A L D A E S P A M I N I N C U T Cell Blocks 4952 Set Square 3578 Lexica 7151 Suko 3971 Train Tracks 2102 Word watch 1 ... Rd1! is a clever move that leaves both the rook and bpawn en prise. However, 2 Qxd1 b2 (followed by ... b1Q) and 2 Qxb3 Rd3+ both leave Black a piece ahead. After 2 Qe5 (to prevent ... b2) Black plays 2 ... Rd2 when ... b2 and ...b1Q is unstoppable Lateritious (b) Resembling a brick in colour (Collins) Warday (b) Any day other than Sunday (OED) Shaddock (c) A citrus fruit, the pomelo (Collins) Chess — Winning Move 1 Tweet 2 Vista 3 Intuit 4 Stewing 5 Travelled Concise Quintagram 1 Great Fire of London 2 China 3 Margaret Thatcher 4 Seven 5 Dad’s Army 6 Chichester Cathedral 7 United Nations 8 Bristol Channel 9 Hong Kong Garden 10 Septimius Severus 11 Copper 12 Joseph Fouché, duke of Otranto 13 Gayatri Spivak 14 Pamela Anderson. Cipollini became the first cyclist to win four successive stages of the Tour de France since 1930 15 EPCOT, Walt Disney World, Florida Quiz Easy 29 Medium 636 Harder 1,710 Brain Trainer Yesterday’s answers den, dene, deny, don, done, donee, donné, donnée, doyen, doyenne, dyne, dyno, end, eon, ned, née, need, needy, nene, neon, nod, node, none, one, yen, yon times2 Crossword No 9386 Brain Trainer Just follow the instructions from left to right, starting with the number given to reach an answer at the end. ANSWER MEDIUM 15 x 14 DOUBLE IT + 112 – 47 + 62 + 32/ OF IT 87/ OF IT + 61/ OF IT 3 2/ OF IT ANSWER EASY 21 DOUBLE x 12 IT + 14 7 – 8 ÷ 6 – 15 + 6 5/ OF IT 31/ OF IT ANSWER HARDER 174 – 92 x 11 – 473 TREBLE IT 32/ OF IT x 13 – 2946 41/ OF IT 6 5/ OF IT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Across 1 Oysters, squid, cod etc (7) 5 Squander (5) 8 Power, might (5) 9 Piece of armour for the chest and back (7) 10 Fulfilling, gratifying (9) 12 Period of 24 hours (3) 13 Greenish film on metal (6) 14 Insult, affront (6) G R E A T B A R R I E R C R E A M L E C R G T T A L E N T A G O U T I M N U N O H E A T S E D I T I O N E R I S L A N D E R O W E D I E E L U N E T F U L M O L A R S N O P A O O K N O W T H E R O P E S A L I K E Solution to Crossword 9385 17 Look at (3) 18 Practice performance (9) 20 Member of an exclusive group (7) 21 Afresh (5) 23 Electrical weapon (5) 24 Time off from work (7) Down 1 More secure (5) 2 Breathable mix of gases (3) 3 Go on too long (7) 4 Duplicity, dishonesty (6) 5 Twist sharply (5) 6 Scottish university town (2,7) 7 Attempted, tried (7) 11 Observers (9) 13 Foretell (7) 15 Facecloth (7) 16 Place of worship (6) 18 Jockey (5) 19 Roadside stopping place (3-2) 22 Marry (3) Cell Blocks No 4953 Polygon Set Square No 3579 Please note, BODMAS does not apply Killer Moderate No 9185 Solutions Killer Tough No 9186 As with standard Sudoku, fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated. Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the answers. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm). Cluelines Stuck on Sudoku, Killer or KenKen? Call 0901 293 6263 before midnight to receive four clues for any of today’s puzzles. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm). Without a five-card suit or good working intermediates, you want 33 high-card points to bid 6NT. With no working intermediates, nor a 33rd high-card point, today’s 6NT from my wife’s Thursday morning supervised bridge session in Notting Hill was pretty poor. It would require a good dose of luck and skill to make, and Carol Rayman was up to the task. Declarer won West’s passive nine of diamonds lead with the ace, noting East’s ten. She counted ten top tricks and clearly needed the heart finesse to work. There was no point in delaying it, and at trick two declarer successfully led a heart to the jack. Declarer proceeded to cash four rounds of spades, discarding a diamond from dummy as East discarded a club and a heart. With East short in both spades and, apparently from trick one, diamonds, declarer formulated a plan that would succeed if East held both club pictures. At tricks seven and eight, she cashed dummy’s king-queen of diamonds. Here is the position as that queen is led. East had to discard a another heart — or declarer could give up a club to set up a second club trick. Declarer now crossed to the king of hearts and led back to dummy’s ace, stripping East of hearts. At trick 11, she led a low club from dummy. East was done in. She rose with the queen but her return of the ten could be won by declarer’s jack, dummy’s ace of clubs winning the 13th trick, beating East’s king. Slam made — only an initial club lead scuppers it. [email protected] Contract: 6NT, Opening Lead: ♦9 Dealer: South, Vulnerability: Neither N W E S 1♠ Pass 2♦ Pass 2NT(1) Pass 3♠(2) Pass 3NT Pass 4NT(3) Pass 6NT(4) End (1) Showing 15-19 and forcing to game, facing a Two-over-One. (2) Showing her three-card spade support to probe for a 5-3 fit. Although 4333 is a notrumpy shape, you don’t need to make an extra trick to win 6♠ (over 6NT). (3) Quantitative Notrump slam invitation. (4) Somewhat optimistic acceptance. Yes, South has a 16th high-card point but the one ten is probably not working (facing partner’s likely spade holding of Qxx). Still, I can’t lie — I did somewhat encourage South to bid 6NT as I could see there was a winning line and hoped to be able to nudge her a teeny bit in her quest to find it. S(Rayman) W N E ♠83 ♥108754 ♦J 10 ♣KQ108 Rubber ♠Q64 ♥AJ3 ♦KQ65 ♣A43 ♠AKJ10 ♥K92 ♦A3 ♣J752 ♠9752 ♥Q6 ♦98742 ♣96 N W E S ♠- ♥1087 ♦- ♣KQ 10 ♠- ♥A3 ♦Q (led) ♣A43 ♠- ♥K9 ♦- ♣J752 ♠- ♥Q ♦874 ♣96 Bridge Andrew Robson Sudoku 14,489 Killer 9183 Sudoku 14,490 Killer 9184 Sudoku 14,491 Quick Cryptic 2535 KenKen 6061 Codeword 5069 1 Birch 2 Lilac 3 Usher 4 Rabbit on 5 Barefaced Cryptic Quintagram Today’s solutions

28.11.23 Word watch Sudoku Mild No 14,492 Difficult No 14,493 Super fiendish No 14,494 David Parfitt Lateritious a Inclined to procrastinate b Resembling a brick in colour c Milky Warday a A caretaker in a hospital b Any day other than Sunday c To hold up or delay Shaddock a A marine food fish b A pick-like agricultural tool c A citrus fruit Answers on page 15 The Times Quick Cryptic No 2536 by Orpheus Across 6 Genial head of government in West African state (6) 7 Turn up with a soft fruit (6) 9 Help offered by bachelor in a sci-fi film (4) 10 Break during part of Edinburgh Festival (8) 11 Meddles with telly regularly, like the vicar perhaps (8) 13 Risqué account penned by Republican youth leader (4) 15 Pudding originally standard in the past (4) 16 Syrupy substance produced by Missouri girls (8) 18 Accumulating space for public notices (8) 20 Aggressively promote device for plumber or electrician (4) 21 Farm animals Tom possibly let out (6) 22 Protest in court unsettled jury ultimately (6) Down 1 A woman’s song about British dried plant collections (8) 2 Touring Tirol, tried to digest extremely tearful novel (6,6) 3 Recruit in French literature embracing son (6) 4 Insect that might possibly take to the wing (6) 5 Go to the Scots for a team of workmen (4) 8 Prudish women initially having a life of pleasure (8,4) 12 Sign used in battle occasionally (3) 14 Report of people looking over PM’s country retreat (8) 16 Girl’s assistance accepted by adult males (6) 17 Habitual criminal given oxygen on water in atoll (6) 19 Old king always in satisfactory state (4) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Yesterday’s solution on page 15 15 Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so that the number in each circle is equal to the sum of the four surrounding spaces, and each colour total is correct The Times Daily Quiz Olav Bjortomt Answers on page 15 1 Which event of 1666 rendered almost 85 per cent of London’s population homeless? 2 Which country is known for its “panda diplomacy”? 3 Vivienne Westwood dressed as which prime minister for the April 1989 cover of Tatler? 4 How many sides does a 50p coin have? 5 Starring John Le Mesurier, It Sticks Out Half a Mile (1983-84) was a radio sequel to which sitcom? 6 A feature of which Sussex cathedral inspired Philip Larkin’s 1956 poem An Arundel Tomb? 7 Marrack Goulding’s 2003 book Peacemonger is an insider’s account of which international organisation? 8 Which large inlet is known in Welsh as Mor Hafren, meaning “Severn Sea”? 9 Which 1978 Siouxsie and the Banshees single was named after a Chinese takeaway in Chislehurst? 10 Who was the first African-born Roman emperor? 11 Caledonite is a complex sulphate of lead and which other metal? 12 A priest who taught physics and maths, who became France’s minister of police in 1799? 13 Which Indian literary critic wrote the 1988 essay Can the Subaltern Speak?? 14 For the 1999 Tour de France, Mario Cipollini taped a picture of which Baywatch star to his handlebars? 15 Where is this geodesic dome Spaceship Earth located? Suko No 3971 For interactive puzzles visit thetimes.co.uk For extra puzzles See page 10