(^8) DAILY MIRROR TUESDAY 30.07.
DM1ST
VOICE OF THE
Kid hunger
shames UK
MOST families look forward to the
summer holidays.
Yet for many parents what should be a happy
time is filled with dread and uncertainty.
That is because they do not have enough
money to feed their children properly.
They are the victims of austerity-driven cuts
to welfare, high rents and low pay.
During the term time children can benefit
from free school meals. In the holidays they go
hungry or rely on charities and foodbanks.
Figures show there are 4.5 million people,
including 2.3 million kids, living in destitution.
For one of the richest countries in the world
this should be a cause of national shame.
Some schools are now offering summer
clubs to stop children going hungry. A few
Labour-run councils also offer vouchers for
hard-pressed families.
A government that cared about inequality
would provide the funds so these schemes.
The summer should be time for kids to play,
rest and relax, not a time when they worry
where their next meal will come from.
Past his Prime
WE are less than a week into Boris John-
son’s premiership and there is already
confusion over his Brexit plans.
One day we are told no-deal is almost certain
and the next that an agreement is possible.
With just under a hundred days before the
Brexit deadline, the new PM is more interested
in photo calls than reaching out to EU leaders.
Mr Johnson should worry less about his
image and more about the chaos of a no-deal.
Vauxhall has said its Ellesmere Port plant
could close if we leave without a deal. Other
car makers have issued similar warnings.
The price of Johnson’s reckless approach will
be paid with people’s jobs and livelihoods.
Beaky blinder
THE cluck stops here: Boris Johnson has
poached a former Mirror Chicken to work
for him in No 10.
He should be right at home among the bird
brains in the Cabinet.
Telly hit s
we miss
BY KELLY ALLEN
TOP 10
Foyle’s War favourite for more
FOYLE’S War is the show
from the last 20 years view-
ers would most
like to see back
on our screens.
The Second
World War drama
ran for five years
from 2002, before
coming back in
2010 until 2015.
It topped a
Radio Times poll
of 21st century
TV favourites.
Starring
Michael Kitchen
as Det Chief Supt
Christopher Foyle
and Honeysuckle Weeks as his
resourceful driver Samantha, it
was written by Anthony Horo-
witz, creator of Alex Rider.
He said: “I’m thrilled. Years ago
ITV decided to
axe the show –
and we missed
the whole of 1944.
“I’d be up for a
Christ mas special
if anybody asked.
It was a passion
project for me
and I miss it.”
Here, the
Mirror’s writers
reveal which TV
favourite they’d
like to come back.
■ Radio Times is
on sale now.
[email protected]
@KellyAllen
FOYLE’S
GOLD
Kitchen and
Weeks were
wartime duo
PAUL ROUTLEDGE
THE LIKELY LADS
THEY’VE returned once
already in Whatever Happened
To The Likely Lads? So let’s
have the two Geordie boys back
for a third series.
Tearaway Terry, played by
James Bolam, and boring Bob –
the late Rodney Bewes –
desperate to become
respectable, were pals from
working-class schooldays
reunited in the 1960s sitcom.
There’s nothing funnier than
the Doncaster station sketch
where they pass each other like
trains in the night. Hilarious and
innocent stuff compared to
today’s so-called comedy.
TV suits would sneer today if
we suggested basing a comedy
in the depot of the Luxton
District Traction Company.
Yet Stan, Jack, Blakey, Olive,
Arthur and Mum portrayed a
working-class life now largely
ignored on the box.
Maybe I’m remembering with
rose-tinted glasses the nights I
laughed with mam and my
brothers and sisters at On The
Buses. Episodes would of
course need a warning about
the cringing sexism and casual
racism scarring the 1960s and
1970s. But, ding-ding, let the
buses roll again.
MAYBE it’s an age thing... but I
want The Golden Girls back.
The US sitcom ran from 1985
to 1992 and remains one of the
funniest shows ever written. I
miss the perfect putdowns of
Miami housemates Rose,
Dorothy, Blanche and Sophia.
Remember when Blanche said,
“I treat my body like a temple,”
and Sophia replied, “Yeah, open
to everyone day or night”?
But I’ll settle for re-runs as
Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue
McClanahan and Estelle Getty
are irreplaceable. The older you
get, the better you get. Unless,
as Rose said, you’re a banana.
THE Champions only ran for a
couple of years in the 60s but it
was thoughtful, ahead of its time
and ripe for a modern remake.
Basically, three secret agents
get superhuman powers after a
Himalayas plane crash and then,
on a weekly basis, save the
world (or parts of it).
Well-scripted with an excellent
cast – Stuart Damon, William
Gaunt and Alexandra Bastedo –
it did not rely on special effects,
blended mystery and fantasy
and was effortlessly cool as
nothing happened too quickly.
Tony Hatch’s music was stellar.
So don’t change that please.
THIS old favourite was inspired
by producer Jeremy Lloyd’s time
working at Simpsons of
Piccadilly in the 1950s.
But with the demise of the
high street and the death of the
department store a return to the
Grace Brothers shop floor would
probably fall into the period
drama genre now, not comedy.
And I’m not sure John Inman’s
“I’m free” is deemed quite so
socially correct, let alone Mrs
Slocombe’s pussy.
Maybe Little Britain’s Vicky
Pollard working on the women’s
department would make it a bit
more gritty and true to life?
I KNOW Noel Fielding has
moved on to the Great British
Bake Off, but I would love to see
the return of The Mighty Boosh.
Noel and fellow comedian
Julian Barratt were stars of this
colourful and chaotic BBC Three
show from 2004 to 2007.
Noel and Julian starred as
Vince Noir and Howard Moon
who had surreal adventures
while working at a zoo run by a
deranged boss. Throw in a
talking moon, a shaman called
Naboo and a gorilla called Bollo,
along with some brilliant songs
and you get the idea that this
was a sitcom unlike any other.
AMBER GRAAFLAND
ARE YOU BEING SERVED?
MARK JEFFERIES
THE MIGHTY BOOSH
KEVIN MAGUIRE
ON THE BUSES
RACHAEL BLETCHLY
THE GOLDEN GIRLS
NIGEL THOMPSON
THE CHAMPIONS
OUR greatest TV political satire, it
summed up with glorious
profanity the vanity, arrogance
and ineptitude of most of those in
the Westminster bubble.
It was Yes Minister on acid, with
Tourette’s. It was so realistic that
one of its invented words,
“omnishambles”, came into
common usage.
And if the writers regurgitated
this phrase to sum up our new
Prime Minister – “I’ve never seen
anyone look so f***ing ugly with
just one head. Who did your media
training, Myra Hindley? You’re like
a sweaty octopus trying to unhook
a bra” – nobody could argue with
its topical perception.
BRIAN READE THE THICK OF IT
MIRROR CHICKEN IN NO.
Well, I’d say I was a
leg man rather than
a breast man..
Whoa, whoa!.. You
talking about me?
Most missed TV shows of the 21st
century:
1 Foyle’s War ITV, 2002-
2 The Bill ITV, 1984-
3 Count Arthur Strong
BBC2/BBC1, 2013-
4 Spooks BBC1, 2002-
5 Home Fires ITV, 2015-
6 Life On Mars BBC1, 2006-
7 Detectorists BBC Four, 2014-
8 Downton Abbey ITV, 2010-
9 Phoenix Nights C4, 2001-
10 Happy Valley BBC 1, 2014-
tuis.
(Tuis.)
#1