What we learned this week:
Unexpected bestseller
Nicola Sturgeon sparked a stooshie when she said, in an interview during the SNP conference in Aberdeen, that she “detested the Tories”. This led to a ruckus with the Scottish Conservatives, who argued her words could be a “hate crime” and released a poster attacking the use of such “dangerous” language. This poster has now become a T-shirt of choice for many of Sturgeon’s followers. Ah politics, don’t you love it.
Star of stage and screen
Angela Lansbury, the star of such films as Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Manchurian Candidate and the hit TV series Murder She Wrote, who died at the age of 96, made her theatrical debut in a school play about Mary Queen of Scots. The drama depicted the life of the tragic Scottish monarch and the 14-year-old Lansbury played one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. It launched an eight-decade career.
Train unable to moo-ve
We’ve heard about leaves on the line and the “wrong type of snow”, but passengers on the morning train from Inverness to Aberdeen faced an unexpected delay after a cow blocked the tracks at Kintore. The 6am service from the Highland capital was brought to a standstill for 20 minutes after the creature somehow made its way to the level crossing. Press and Journal reporter Kelly Wilson said a “big laugh” erupted through the carriages when the conductor announced the reason for the hold-up.
The pleasure is all yours…
King Charles III’s weekly audience with Liz Truss hasn’t brought a boost for the beleaguered PM on the evidence of 15 seconds of video from their meeting at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday night. As Truss curtseyed and said: “Your Majesty,” Charles replied: “So you’ve come back again?” When Truss replied: “It’s a great pleasure,” he could only mutter: “Dear, oh dear. Anyway…”
London calling
North-east commuters haven’t had their problems to seek in the last two years, but there was delight at the news that British Airways is adding an Aberdeen Airport to London City route to complement the daily flights it already runs to Heathrow. The airline has said it is aiming to provide “stronger domestic connectivity” to the capital city and flights will begin operating on November 1 and will run until January 22.
Bet your bottom dollar he’ll be A-MA-ZING
He’s notorious for his acerbic comments on Strictly, but Craig Revel Horwood is more of a pantomime villain than Dick Dastardly, so Granite City audiences are looking forward to him starring in the hit musical Annie next spring. The judge on the BBC dancing extravaganza will take on the leading role of Miss Hannigan when the West End show arrives at His Majesty’s Theatre. That’s FAB-U-LOUS, darling!
Award-winning story
The nominations were announced for the Scottish BAFTA awards and featured some of the country’s finest talent, including Peter Capaldi, Mark Bonnar, Tilda Swinton and the new Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa. But there was also recognition for the documentary Being Mum with MND, which chronicles Moray’s Lucy Lintott, the first woman in the world with the neurological disease to twice become a mother and who married Tommy Smith near Fochabers earlier this year. Her story is worthy of a prize.
Audio treasure found
More than 90 lost recordings of Desert Island Discs were discovered by an audio collector from Lowestoft in Suffolk. Bing Crosby, Dame Margot Fonteyn, James Stewart, Bob Monkhouse and Dirk Bogarde are among the big names who appear in the episodes from the 1960s and 1970s which were found by Richard Harrison.
We’ll drink to that
It will be drams all round following the news that distiller Ardbeg has bought the Islay Hotel in a multi-million-pound deal to create a whisky and hospitality experience. The company’s chief executive Thomas Moradpour said: “Ardbeg has been rooted on Islay for over 200 years. And since we plan to be distilling on the island for at least 200 more, we are excited to invest even further in our homeland.” Slainte.
Global issue
Scotland is completely free of snow for the fourth time in the last six years. The Sphinx, in the Cairngorms, historically the longest-lasting patch of snow in the UK, has melted.
It is the fourth time it has gone in the last six years, after only melting nine times in the previous 300 years. And that’s snow joke.
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