At Churchill's side

MONDAY evening brings the British premiere (BBC Two, 8.30pm) of Into The Storm, the double-Emmy-Award-winning drama about Winston Churchill in wartime, with James D'Arcy (LaA 84-91) - shown here with Janet McTeer as Clementine Churchill - playing Winston's close aide Jock Colville.

Hertford thespians

THIS fascinating Unofficial Forum thread, mainly about notable and/or interesting women educated at CH Hertford, has thrown up no fewer than five professional actresses: Pam Abas (Ross, 1's 36-43), best known for playing the Mother Superior in Clint Eastwood's Bronco Billy; Andrée Evans (4's 42-49), whose most recent screen credit was in My Spy Family last year; D Rosh Wright (Debbie Stone, 1's 57-66), a latecomer to the stage after a high-flying nursing career; Jane Hayward (1's, 2's 61-68), whose first recorded film appearance was in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey; and Louise Winstone (4's 77-83), already known to Houseyblog readers.

The octogenarian lifestyle

PIPE-SMOKING, knitting, gardening, a book or two, and heaps of world-class music-making: it seems to suit Sir Colin Davis (ThB 38-44).

Ibsen in Arundel

ALL next week at the Priory Playhouse, the Arundel Players are staging Ibsen's Hedda Gabler under director Paul Ward (Staff 91-04). He says "I have in recent times had a lot more to do with fairly frothy comedies. I wanted something rather meatier!" Learn more here and here.

55 more people have been added to the links page during October.

Protest is legal

SOMEONE should tell the police, suggests Mark Thomas (ColB 74-81), seen here on the right (for once).

They bred 'em tough in Lamb A

A PLEASINGLY unorthodox portrait photo of motorcyclist Jon Watson-Miller (LaA 72-79) has a story attached:

Jon … rode 5,200 miles of the Paris-Dakar Rally with a broken foot, finally retiring after a further fall damaged the tendons in his other foot. He managed to get the bike upright, remount and ride 20km to the end of the stage where he received medical attention.

No wonder he says he set up his motorcycle workshop because:

Due to no fault of his own (yeah right), crashing happened with monotonous regularity and Jon realised that he had so many BMW bits left over he may as well try and get some of his money back.

Sponsor our pilgrim

WELL on his way to Rome, Joshua Bell (PeA, GrW 02-09) is running short of funds and needs our help (as if being pepper sprayed weren't bad enough).

More to come

LIZZIE BALLAGHER (Glen, 4's 61-67), who as Elizabeth Gibson had six novels published in the Eighties and Nineties, now has a website - and three more novels in the pipeline.

A word from the chief

REPUTEDLY the highest-paid NHS official in Wales, Hugh Ross (MaB, ColB 64-71), chief executive of Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, gave this likeable interview in April (3 minutes):

No way in

TERM began badly at Solefield School, Sevenoaks, where Dougal Philps (Staff 91-97) is head.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

IS the Christ's Hospital Association about to metamorphose?

(Update: yes, it is.)

Scilly parishers

THE fourth series of An Island Parish, produced and narrated by Nigel Farrell (MdA 62-70), is currently going out on BBC Two on Monday evenings at 7 pm (repeated on Wednesday nights after midnight, and seemingly repeated again on BBC One the following Monday night, even later).

Dynamo in a bow tie

HIGHLIGHTS from last year's memorial service for the leading state school headteacher and educationalist Michael Marland (ThA 44-53) (9½ minutes):

"Our most important activity"

IN 1998 Elizabeth Tucker (Headmistress 72-82, Governor) was seriously injured in a road accident in Africa. Two years later she reflected on the experience of being prayed for.

Take warning

POP historian Vernon Joynson (ThA 62-71) can ruin your life.

Can we move beyond enmity?

AS the 7/7 memorial was unveiled in July, the director of St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, Simon Keyes (MdA 65-71), shared his thoughts.

Maximise your pleasure

MY eyesight never won any prizes. As a result this blog is written and laid out with "Text Size" in my View menu set at "Larger".

If at times the layout strikes you as odd or unlovely, switch your text size to "Larger" to witness a miracle of order, balance and harmony.

Darwin, faith and ethics

RIGHT and wrong ways of applying evolutionary theory to human behaviour, ethics and religion are examined by Philip Kitcher (PeA 58-66), philosopher of science (13 minutes):

Naught for their comfort

WHEN the storm over MPs' expenses started brewing, The Times went to Vincent Coughlin QC (PeB 68-75) for a legal view.

Spiritual revolutionary

CAN'T embed this 5-minute video, but it's worth the detour: David Starkey introduces Catholic martyr Edmund Campion, reputedly one of CH's earliest pupils.

More stressed than anyone knew

AN inquest in Oxford hears details of the tragic death of John Ddungu (MaA, GrE 05-07). John's mother's response is here.

My profound sympathy to all who loved him.

The illusion of flying

TWO minutes with the Heliosphere, best-known creation of the Dream Engine performance company formed by the late Tim Petter (LaB 71-76):

Voice of the trenches remembered

MCC cricketer, cricket administrator and renowned ex-Warden of Radley Dennis Silk (MaA 42-50, Senior Grecian), right, is to give a public lecture at CH next month on his friend Siegfried Sassoon, above.

Pedagogue's progeny

BOTH the offspring of Dr Christopher Stace (Horsham Staff 65-73) have made their mark in the world: Wesley Stace is well known as "gangsta folk" singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding and writes best-selling novels under his own name, while Melanie Stace is a singer, dancer and actress who spent six years co-presenting The Generation Game.

Lost fatherhood

YORK MEMBERY (LaB 73-80) beats testicular cancer - but at a price.

"Call Me Lucky"

A THREE-minute instrumental composed by Paul Cuddeford (PeA 80-87), who's also playing guitar; plus pictures of someone called Ashley who's famous, apparently:



Check out Paul's three albums for JW Media: Buena Latina | Claret Everywhere | Big Blues Bash

Pillars of the right

IN the Telegraph's latest list of the UK's top 100 most influential right-wingers, Stephan Shakespeare (Kukowski, PeB 68-75) is #53 and Steve Hilton (MaA 81-83, LaA 83-86) is #6, between Boris Johnson and William Hague.

Go to extremes

OLD Blues now have their own Extreme Sports Club.

The cup that quells

CHRISTOPHER SMY (MaA 85-92) offers a teaching tip:

"It is amazing how good a prop a coffee cup can be… When I am waiting for their attention, I just stand in the same spot at the front of my room, leaning on my filing cabinet with a coffee cup in my hand, occasionally sipping it (if there is any coffee left). It is the most effective thing I have found for alerting them to pay attention. I am unstressed and not shouting"

Fearmaker

A TRIBUTE to the legendary Hammer Films director Terence Fisher (PeB 13-19), presented here in three parts (9 mins, 9 mins, 6 mins):

Seb Sco Jaz Blo

SEBASTIAN SCOTNEY (ColB 66-73) has just joined Con Coughlin (PeB 66-73) and Tim Collard (ColB 72-77) in the ranks of the Telegraph's army of bloggers, with a blog specifically about jazz. Drummer James Maddren (ThA, GrW 98-05) gets a namecheck in the inaugural posting. Sebastian's longer-established blog LondonJazz is here.

Running for James

INSPIRED by the achievements of the One Mile Closer crew, Lucy Morgan (Hertford, BaB 93-00) will be running the Amsterdam Marathon on 18 October in memory of James Atkinson (MaB, GrE 99-06) and to raise funds for the James Atkinson Bequest. She writes:

When I was at Christ's Hospital I was lucky enough to be given a number of chances to get involved in outdoor pursuits through the Scouts and Venture Scouts. I believe it is stretching opportunities such as these, which really enable young people to grow. I am therefore extremely passionate about encouraging such chances to be given to as many youngsters as possible. The 'James Atkinson Bequest' enables this to happen.

You can sponsor her here.

For viewers in Scotland

SAW a trailer for Return of the Maestro: Donald Runnicles (to be shown on BBC Two Scotland this Thursday at 8.30pm) and gained the impression that the cellist Anthony Sayer (LaB 59-66), longest-serving member of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, is one of those taking part. Shall try to confirm or deny.

(Update: seen it again and yes, it looks like our man.)

Big brother

IN Waterstone's last week I came across Roses and Rain, Heather Walker's life of the poet James Elroy Flecker.

Judging by the index, it has little to say about his younger sibling Oswald Flecker (Headmaster 1930-55) except that in World War One he was invalided out of the army and then taught classics at his father's school, but there's a striking photo of him aged about nine, looking mature and serious (extraordinary to see him cleanshaven and with a full head of hair).

The index does contain a good deal about the poet's close friendship with the classical scholar Sir John Beazley (Ward XI, ColA 1898-1903) and I hope someone will be able to write up this aspect of the tale for The Old Blue, with Oswald as a sort of garnish.

What a double bass can do

ILIN-DIME DIMOVSKI (MaA, GrE 00-01) plays the second movement of Bottesini's Concerto No 2 with pianist Hiromi Arai (5½ minutes):

Otter sacrilege?

MEET Lottie the Otter, reportedly a "feisty" new member of Winnie-the-Pooh's circle of friends, depicted by illustrator Mark Burgess (MdB 68-75) in the imminent official sequel to The House at Pooh Corner.

Film of the Week

ON Sunday at 3.55pm, Five will be screening the well-loved family adventure Fly Away Home (1996), inspired in part by the work of Professor William Sladen (PeA 30-37) and his colleagues at the Airlie Centre, Virginia, teaching Canada geese to follow ultralight aircraft and thus learn to migrate. Bill Sladen himself was a wildlife consultant on the movie.

Nocturnal visions

AFTER midnight last night I happened to see the opening minutes of Antiques Roadshow's visit to Jersey. Presenter Fiona Bruce, who has her own CH connections, was welcomed in the island's ancient language, Jèrriais, by a vigorous, burly, bearded bloke in old-fashioned garb - unmistakably the linguist, antiquary, journalist, painter, poet and independent politician Geraint Jennings (ColA 77-84) who by now must surely be Jersey's equivalent of a national treasure.