Section:GDN 12 PaGe:3 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 16:23 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian
Tuesday 27 August 2019 33
Say
what?An £80,000
Porsche has
been spray-
painted with
“show off ”
while parked
outside
Harrods in
London. Its
21-year-old
owner believes
his car was
targeted
because
“people
can’t stand
others being
successful”.Serengeti tests
our love of
wildlife fi lms
to the limit
T
o see Prince William last week, traipsing across the tarmac
to catch a budget fl ight to Aberdeen, was to watch what
some said was an excellent PR move. The papers say
William is feuding with his brother, and his brother just
got pilloried for taking four private jets in 11 days , and then
William and the kids head to Balmoral on Flybe. Genius.
Are the royal siblings really going full Game of Thrones, or is this
just a tabloid fantasy? Who can say? But still, I can relate because
if things aren’t going well, a sibling relationship can be just about
the worst thing going. Because siblings are dicks, and you are tied
to those dicks for your entire life. If you don’t like your spouse, you
can get divorced. If you don’t like your parents, at least they will
eventually age out and die. But your sibling was born within a few
years of you. They are probably not going anywhere. When things are
going well, that’s a comfort. But when things aren’t – and they quite
often aren’t – then it’s rough.
This might explain the public fi ghting between Julia Sawalha
(aka Saff y in Absolutely Fabulous ) and her sister, EastEnders actor
Nadia Sawalha. During an episode of ITV’s Loose Women last week,
Nadia said: “My younger sister and I have always had a really stormy
relationship. She’s totally amazing [but we] have always had periods
of time in our lives where we don’t speak”, causing Julia to tweet : “So
tired of #nadiasawalha talking about our ‘stormy’ relationship which
she created ... You have destroyed our family so don’t sit on TV with
your fake tears to gain sympathy & attention.”
Take it from an expert, this isn’t how to go about confronting a
sibling. By dragging their issues out into public, the Sawalha sisters
have ensured that this is all they will be asked about for decades. Just
like that, their relationship has become their one defi ning feature. It’s
the worst possible outcome for everyone.
I’m not one to talk – I literally wrote a book about my brother – but I
think I’ve fi nally cracked the right way to deal with a sibling dip. You just
have to wait it out. When we hit a rocky patch, it’s always for the exact
same reason: I get grumpy and he gets belligerent. It reaches a head, we
swing apart for a while and then we reunite. It happens every couple
of years. But we understand that this is just how it works, so we let it
happen. I love my brother and we are in this for the long haul. Sometimes
the healthiest thing to do is to learn to weather the bad bits with grace.
But William and Harry? If we take the tabloids’ word for it, the
budget fl ight last week was a manoeuvre that plays
to their deepest desires. Harry wants to look like
a celebrity, William wants to look like a man of
the people. This is the dance they are destined to
perform forever.
Next, Harry will be spotted accepting a Fortnum
& Mason delivery, so William will subsequently
be papped in a Tesco Express. Then Harry will
retaliate by shopping at Waitrose, forcing William
to be photographed staggering out of an Aldi with
a discount power tool under his arm or struggling
to unlock a trolley with a pound coin. It’s petty, but
they are brothers and this is how it works.Seagulls are awful. They have got away with it for years,
but now one of them has attacked beloved children’s
entertainer Dave Benson Phillips, there is serious
talk of a cull. Frankly, seagulls have brought this
on themselves. It isn’t enough that they divebomb
pensioners for their chips; they also have the temerity
to look and sound like characters from an ill-advised
Pixar fi lm about birds that decide to become football
hooligans. They are in urgent need of a makeover. The
petition to get all seagulls Queer Eyed starts here.The BBC wildlife series Serengeti
is an odd duck. If you haven’t seen
it, it’s a dramatisation of a wildlife
show. Masterminded by Pop Idol
creator Simon Fuller, it contains real
wildlife footage that’s been shaped
into narratives by writers. Multiple
animals represent the same
character. John Boyega is credited
as a “storyteller” rather than a
“narrator”. My colleague Rebecca
Nicholson called Serengeti “the
Made in Chelsea of nature docs” for
good reason. To watch it is to watch
the raw majesty of the natural world
being smothered to death by human
emotion.
This weekend, the show was
hit by accusations that it inserted
a composite shot of a zebra being
swept down a river to heighten the
drama of a scene. Serengeti is a
bold experiment into humanity’s
tolerance of anthropomorphism.
If it had worked, similar tactics
could have been used to heighten
awareness of the climate
emergency, maybe by letting James
Corden provide the voice of a
glacier as it crumbles into the sea.
But it doesn’t work. It’s really weird.
The incredible thing about
wildlife documentaries is how
invested you become in the
subjects. I had such a visceral
reaction to the Blue Planet 2
sequence where a marine iguana
ran for its life from a teeming
horde of snakes that I almost
burst into tears when I saw one
in a conservation park a couple
of months ago. And, yes, that
series benefi ted from beautiful
photography , snappy editing
and a pounding Hans Zimmer
score, but it still managed to
capture something as elemental
as the frantic struggle for survival.
That’s what viewers respond
to – not a vague sensation that
they are watching an episode of
Hollyoaks Pets.William, Harry – here’s
my guide to surviving
sibling rivalry
The seagulls
have gone too
far – it’s time for
a makeover
Stuart
Heritage
COVER: ANDREW FOX/THE GUARDIAN; POPPERFOTO/GETTY
The items are usually very old, often
one of a kind and almost always hold
enormous sentimental value for
their owners. One recent episode,
in which the team meticulously
restored a 130-year-old tiger
automaton by hand crafting new
brass parts and slowly building up
layer s of papier -mache, broke me.
A man had got it fi xed for his elderly
father, who had played with it as
a child after being given it by his
father, and the moment he saw his
old toy revived – his eyes glowing
with childlike wonder once more –
absolutely destroyed me.
What a show this is. When you
watch it, you can’t help but think of
all the thousands of worse versions
it could have been. The Repair Shop
could have gone the way of one of
those terrible American cable shows
about custom motorcycle garages,
fi lling the barn with obnoxious
“characters ” and cack-handedly
manufactured moments of faux-
peril. It could have gone the way of
Antiques Roadshow and undercut
the sentimentality by placing a
craven monetary value on all the
items. It could have gone the way
of any other daytime BBC show
and become a cheap and cheerful
competition, where David Dickinson
eggs on a hapless member of the
public to restore a Regency-era
dresser with a plank of MDF in 45
minutes for a chance to win £50.
But it doesn’t. The Repair Shop
gets everything right. It is slow and
charming, and superfi cially low-
stakes. It is an exhalation.
Stuart Heritageyscwhich can reduce loneliness and
boost self-esteem; and being
surrounded by nature, which can
boost your overall mood .”
The colours, sounds and smells ,
she says, “boost our wellbeing,
while nurturing a garden provides
the satisfaction of completing tasks
and a stronger connection with
the natural environment, which
are associated with improved
self-esteem ”.
Monty Don, the gardener and TV
presenter, has credited gardening
with helping with his depression. He
summed up the optimism gardening
instils: “When you plant something,
you invest in a beautiful future amid
a stressful, chaotic and, at times,
downright appalling world.”
Even if that doesn’t convince you
of the magic of gardening, there is a
strong possibility that other forms
of non-clinical “social prescribing”
might be on their way to your
surgery soon ; other alternative
treatments include arts and crafts,
walking and singing lessons.
Emine SanerRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws