Labour rival takes swipe over Sarkozy mishap on TV quiz

Times

3 days ago

Nicolas Sarkozy proved to be a difficult figure to define for one Labour quiz contestant
THIBAULT CAMUS/AP
Barely a week into recess, it appears everyone is already bored and spending too much time on social media. That led to a spat on X between Mish Rahman, formerly a Labour national executive committee member, and Abdi Duale, a current one. It ended with Duale posting an old video of Rahman on the quiz show Head Hunters, answering the question 'Nicolas Sarkozy was president of which country?' with 'Russia'. He's not the only one to suffer a slip of memory under pressure. When one contestant on The Chase was asked which former UK prime minister had the middle name 'Hilda', she replied without hesitation: 'John Prescott.'
You may have noticed that Margaret Thatcher's opinion of her immediate successor as prime minister wasn't always that complimentary. But Peter Just's new book, Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street, reveals that her dislike of John Major even affected her vocabulary. Campaigning in Dorset during the 1997 general election, Thatcher conducted an interview in which she referred to 'the major issues'. Stopping herself, she said: 'I used the word 'major',' before starting again with 'the main issues'. This self-imposed limitation must have been pretty tricky. If Major had retaliated it would only have affected discussions about rural tradesmen and cider.
Celebrities store their awards in all kinds of places: a chicken coop, the bathroom, buried in the back garden. But James Cameron found a practical solution, using his Oscar as a doorstop. 'It's actually the best one to use, because it takes up the smallest footprint,' he tells Empire magazine. 'The fricking Saturn [awards] are too wide. You'd trip over 'em.' Some statues are known to develop a Toy Story-esque life of their own. Dame Helen Mirren once said: 'My theory is that my Screen Actors Guild award is having a very, very steamy affair with my Oscar. I catch them together and I swear to God that I haven't put them together.
• How to get a body like Helen Mirren at 79
We reported on the auction of items from John Peel's record collection. Let's hope the discs' new owners will honour his memory by playing their purchases (if only once) at the wrong speed. Peel was known for doing this on his radio shows, although it was accidental: many of the records didn't have lyrics and their labels didn't always provide a clue. Playing Josh Wink's Higher State of Consciousness one evening, he commented: 'I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that sounded better when I played it the other night at the wrong speed.' Occasionally Peel would ring up the record company to inquire about a disc's correct speed. Sometimes they replied: 'To be honest we're not entirely sure ourselves.'
Edinburgh Fringe kicks off this week but for the first time in 17 years there will be no funniest joke award. A sad affair considering past winners have included Tim Vine ('I decided to sell my Hoover … well it was just collecting dust), Lorna Rose Treen ('I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah') and, a personal favourite, Darren Walsh ('I just deleted all the German names off my phone. It's Hans free').