Anthony Smart explores the background to ten of the world’s most expensive food and drink products
Whilst Aldo Gucci once said that “quality is remembered long after price is forgotten,” some of the most expensive food and drinks products out there are very, very expensive with good reason.
Topping the list of steeply priced foods and drinks are items that are made with scarcely available ingredients or produced in peculiar ways that might be labour or time intense, or indeed both.
If you can stomach the outlay involved, here are ten of the most expensive food and drink products you might wish to add to your shopping list:
Almas caviar (as much as £40,000 per kilogram)
The world’s highest value caviar is known as Almas and harvested from albino beluga sturgeon eggs taken from the South Caspian Sea. It is so highly priced mainly because it is considered the “rarest of the rare” caviars and the process of harvesting it is laborious.
Alba white truffle (approximately £8,800 per kilogram)
Another pricey treasure is the Alba white truffle, which originates from Piedmont in Italy. Valued for the depth of flavour it provides; it is in high demand, but very difficult to grow due to its unique climate and soil needs.
Matsutake mushrooms (approximately £1,760 per kilogram)
The Japanese value matsutake mushrooms (pine mushrooms) for their distinctive aroma and flavour. This especially hard-to-find fungus, which can go for £800 a pound (around £1,760 a kilo), are wild foraged, not farmed, and require very particular growth conditions. In 2020, they were added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species for the first time.
Kobe beef (approximately £352 per kilogram)
Kobe beef is raised in Hyōgo prefecture in Japan, using a particular breed of Wagyu cattle. This beef can be sold for £160 per pound (around £352 per kilogram) because of its fat marbling and tenderness, according to Lottoland’s guide. One factor that adds to its high price is the strict regulation of its production and its limited supply.
Elvish honey is also known as ‘Fairy Honey’ and considered “the densest, highest and most magical honey harvested in the north-east Black Sea. It is cultivated “high in the untouched mountains of Arhavi and produced by a colony of Caucasian wild bees that pollinate from medicinal, endemic herbs and plants.”Almas caviar is lauded as “boasting the rich buttery notes of fresh beluga, enhanced by a natural aroma that is entirely its own.” The albino beluga sturgeon must reach the age of 100 years before its eggs can finally be harvested and the result is said to be a “caviar of breathtaking beauty, with a brilliant ethereal white hue that sparkles like diamonds.”Matsutake mushrooms are prized in Japanese cuisine for their distinct, spicy aroma. Whilst abundant in the country until the 1940s, the annual harvest of matsutake in Japan itself is now less than 1,000 tonnes per year – which has resulted in their price rocketing.Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of crocus sativus. It is used as a seasoning and colouring agent in food and is the world’s costliest spice by weight.
Saffron (approximately £8,800 per kilogram)
Often referred to as ‘red gold,’ saffron is the most expensive spice in the world, going for roughly £4,000 a pound (£8,800 a kilogram). It has a premium price because harvesting saffron is very labour-intensive, needing thousands of crocus flowers for a small number of saffron threads.
Bluefin tuna sushi (as much as £250,000 per fish)
At the top end of sushi cuisine, particularly in Japan, is bluefin tuna. This beautiful fish can touch six feet in length and weigh hundreds of pounds. With individual fish going for upwards of £250,000 at auction, the prices have rocketed because of overfishing and endangered species status. Seafood lovers will appreciate the deep flavour and texture.
Kopi luwak coffee (approximately £1,100 per kilogram)
Kopi luwak is the priciest coffee in the world, costing approximately £500 per pound (£1,100 per kilogram). Made from coffee beans that are consumed and then excreted by civets, this speciality coffee is fermented in the digestive system of these animals, which adds to its flavour.
Ibérico ham (between £400 to £5,500 per leg)
Ibérico ham is Spanish cured ham made from free-range Ibérico pigs fed on acorns during the ‘montanero’ period (October to February). Prices can range from £400 to more than £5,500 depending on grade and quality and the process of ageing can take a number of years. Its umami taste is rich and is in demand for gourmet goods.
Elvish honey (around £4,500 per kilogram)
This ‘elixir’ is harvested under challenging conditions in Turkey and can reach a price of around £4,500 per kilogram. The steep cost is largely due to the specialised environment in which this ‘precious nectar’ is produced on the north-east Black Sea and the laborious process of harvesting it; honey hunters need to work extremely hard to access the hives and walk for eight hours to reach the ‘safeguard tree’ once per year.
Densuke watermelon (upto £5,000 each)
The Densuke watermelon, prized for its unique black skin, is only cultivated on Hokkaido Island in Japan. As there are only about 10,000 harvested each year, these watermelons can fetch as much as £5,000 each at auction.
As ‘MeGain’s’ bestie Omid Scobie claims Sadie Quinlan (AKA ‘Yankee Wally’) is “on a watch list” with the “good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard” and the “Fixated Threat Assessment Centre” also, the popular YouTuber reports him to the police herself
Whilst the Duchess of Sussex was quite rightly forced to apologise to the Appeal Court in London for making a misleading statement – which the BBC described as her (rather conveniently) having “forgotten events” – in December, it seems her number one PR peddler, the wretch that is Omid Scobie has turned his attention to the popular ‘Yankee Wally’ YouTuber Sadie Quinlan and isn’t allowing her to forget her own past.
Yesterday, in an 11:09-minute YouTube upload that has been watched over 17,700 times and ‘liked’ by 3,500 already, Quinlan shared a tweet from Scobie that described her as a “racist” and “deranged criminal.” He went further and claimed: “Don’t even waste a second on what that deranged, racist criminal thinks. Leave it to the good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard, whose Fixated Threat Assessment Centre have [Sadie Quinlan] on a watch list.”
Understandably upset by the harsh words of this so-called “royal editor” for Harpers Bazaar and self-proclaimed New York Times “bestselling author,” Quinlan – who made clear she had no prior knowledge of how Scobie could know of such a listing – decided to respond by herself calling the Metropolitan Police.
She remarked: “The last thing you need Omid Scobie is somebody calling you ‘deranged’” and added: “I am not a criminal. I shall take this absolutely all the way I can. When that lovely police officer rings me back next week from the Fixated Threat department, I am going to take it to the highest level.”
Of two others she believes have connections to such matters, Quinlan added: “Let’s have the bloody lot. I’m watching you and I’m going to make charges against you if I can… I’m coming for you… I am absolutely tamping [Welsh adjective meaning ‘extremely angry’] mad.”
The lesson to mouse-not-a-man Omid Scobie and his associates here should be laid clear: If you give it out, expect it back – especially when you take on the force to be reckoned with that is ‘Yankee Wally.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvOmZpLg0wY
The tweet by Omid Scobie, posted on Twitter on 19th February 2022 at 7:11pm, in which he described Sadie Quinlan as a “deranged, racist criminal.”In August 2020, the ‘Daily Mail’ shared that plastic-not-fantastic Omid previously worked at gossip magazine ‘Heat’ and partied with the ‘glamour model’ Jodie Marsh. They mentioned how somebody had “airbrushed” Meghan Markle’s “entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia… to include more flattering details days before her romance with Prince Harry became public” and illustrated the ‘Finding Freedom’ author’s “drastic transformation” in two very different photographs. Mr Scobie is someone who most definitely would like his past forgotten, but curiously he doesn’t want to allow Sadie Quinlan to have hers forgotten.Illustrating himself to be anything but a real journalist, “influencer” Scobie told the ‘Women in Leadership Publication’: “A casual follower be forgiven for thinking that royal news is just fizzy commentary on the pomp and soap opera of The Firm” in their spring 2021 edition. He self-importantly added: “Reaching millions on Twitter has also enabled my own views and advocacy to travel further” and concluded: “I want to do everything I can to ensure that individuals from every background can get a seat at the table.” Here is someone far from a journalist; here, in fact, is someone who should just be called out as the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddler.An analysis of Omid Scobie’s Twitter feed clearly shows that a large proportion of his followers are a bit like himself: FAKE.The Duchess of Sussex – pictured giving the clearly far more dignified by far Duchess of Cambridge a right old glare – likes to stir the pot. One of her chief pot stirrers is most definitely Omid Scobie – a poison pen pest described by Nikolay Kalinin in ‘The Steeple Times’ in July 2021 as “a washed-up, childish clot” and someone with “no legitimacy in the media industry.”
When he’s not bragging about wearing Balenciaga, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior or sharing photos of his dog, Yoshi, on his Instagram account, the ‘Finding Freedom’ author constantly bangs on about how he believes the royal family to have racist elements. His speculation is rarely supported by anything other than unnamed sources that give his suggestions little to no credibility.
Sadie Quinlan (AKA ‘Yankee Wally’ responds to Omid Scobie calling her a “deranged, racist criminal”
“All my content is found on the public domain with just my own views and opinions and I do follow the fair use and the fair dealing guidelines”
“I think this tripped me over the edge… They can get their just deserts. Scobie wrote this in reply to whatever her name is, Amanda @MattaOfFact.”
“I like it Amanda I thought you did a fabulous spiff of me and if gets you a bit of extra money after your ten grand from your gopher Lee and whatever money you manage to scrape from your Patreon. You’ve got every begging bowl on the Internet opening and waiting for the money, haven’t you? So, make a bit of money off me, my pleasure, fill your boots.”
“But anyway, Scobie replied to this and this is what he said: ‘Oh dear. Don’t even waste a second on what that deranged, racist criminal thinks. Leave it to the good folk at South Wales Police and Scotland Yard, whose Fixated Threat Assessment Centre have her on a watch list.’”
“Right, OK, so I thought to myself it’s got to be done. Now, you know what I say and I’ll say it again and I’m an absolute manic about it. Do not waste police time. Don’t do it. If you’ve got a little problem, your neighbour is giving you gyp, banging on a wall, wait until the next day and ring 101. Don’t dial 999. Don’t ring the police unless it’s urgent.”
“Having said that, who am I to judge what is urgent and what’s not, but you’ll find that yours truly will take an awful lot of s**t before I ring the police. Because, well, well this is the way I was taught.”
“I even apologised to the police officer today saying that somebody could be needing them a lot more than me. He said, erm, in his London accent: ‘Well, don’t worry about it Sadie,” erh.”
“Anyway, let me tell you what happened. So I see this and I’m thinking: ‘One step too far, one step too far.’ So, then I go looking online for whatever the Fixated Person’s thing is and I found all this information.”
“So, I’m thinking, I don’t wanna [sic] ring the police. I do not want to ring the police. So, yes, I can give them that [sharing a screenshot of what information is required], I can give that, I can give that, I’ve got a passport, I’ve got a licence, so I will do that, I do that.”
“Right ‘o. OK and then I got the number for Scotland Yard so I thought maybe I’ll ring them and ask them because I couldn’t find a number for the Fixated Threat people and I didn’t, at the time, see where I could fill in a form.”
“So, I’m on the phone waiting now. This is Scotland Yard. I took a screenshot the minute that they answered at 11:43am. You can see the time at the top there [sharing another screenshot], 16:36 so it is not even an hour ago now and then I found a form that you could fill in on that webpage that I just showed you and so I wrote down everything that I could.”
“Meanwhile, 25 minutes on the phone to Scotland Yard. ‘I’ve been told I’m on your list. It’s all over Twitter and also it has been claimed by Omid Scobie, a journalist, that I am on your ‘watch list.’ I am horrified.” I couldn’t put it all in one, so I scrolled.”
“’Please can you confirm this as a matter of urgency, if this is true? And if it is, why? This has upset me beyond words and I am also extremely cross at the insulting nature of Mr Omid Scobie’s claim. I look forward to your reply ASAP.” Then I said: “Regards.”
“Now, while I was in the middle of filling all this form in, though it didn’t take me long, Scotland Yard answered the phone to me, so then I am on the phone to Scotland Yard and, erm, they answered at around about 4:30pm and I was on the phone to them until about quarter to five.”
“And I spoke to an absolutely, and I’m not just saying this, he was so kind to me because I was almost crying. I was beside myself, I have to be honest because, I mean, erm, I’m not trying to get sympathy here, but I can’t bloody walk. How am I going to stalk anybody? And if I can’t walk, do you know how hard it is for me to post a letter? I’ve got to beg the postman, if I catch him when he delivers a letter. I can’t get out to the postbox, so as far as malicious letters and stuff, everything I do is online.”
“So, they answered the phone and I spoke to him and I explained and he said: ‘Well, you’ve hit lucky today, Sadie.’ I said: “Oh, why’s that?’ He said: ‘Well, because I’m covering here on the main switchboard, but my main job is in the Fixated Threat department.’ Ha ha ha… On my life, on my life, that’s his job. Ha ha ha…”
“So, he asks for my name, my date of birth and all the other things, my address and off he went and he came back and he said, and by now I am crying and I said: ‘Look, I’m worried sick about this.’ I said: ‘I’m not a stalker’ and he said: ‘We’re going to ring you back about this, Sadie,’ he said: ‘And who was the person that made this complaint?’”
“I said: ‘I believe it is Omid Scobie, but it could be somebody else. It’s on Twitter.’ He said: ‘Here’s a reference number.’ Here we are. He gave me his number, the policeman’s number and a reference number and there’s the ‘umpty’ [sic] form and that’s where you can get it if you want to fill it in.”
“So, erm, I’ve haven’t rung South Wales Police yet because I think Scotland Yard is all I need because I’ve looked at this Fixated Threat thing and it’s all based in London Metropolitan Police. So, I thought no, I’m not saying that the Welsh are organ grinders. Not the monkey, the organ grinder. Yeah, Metropolitan Police will be the organ grinder and we are the monkeys, I know that.”
“So, I’m waiting now to hear from them, probably next week and, erm, that’s that. So, I’m not letting this go because, what, what I don’t like, I’ll tell you what I don’t like: I’m not a racist, I can make jokes about people with black skin if I want to. Like, Ricky Gervais. If you don’t like it, don’t bloody listen to me.”
“I am not a criminal anymore. I am an ex-criminal. I’ve paid my price to society twenty bloody years ago.”
“Scobie, you, don’t throw stones unless your own house is clean and what’s the other one, er, ‘deranged.’ Now that, now that hurts because when you’ve been to a psychiatrist for the best part of ten years after you’ve been made homeless and God knows what and you are antidepressants and you’re doing OK thank you very much. And I can hold, I can string a sentence together, I can think coherently and there’s been times, and I don’t mind telling you, I wasn’t able to do that.”
“So, when somebody calls me ‘deranged,’ it kind of, it kind of trips a switch and it’s an angry switch because when you’ve worked hard on your mental health, when you’ve worked bloody hard to get your mental health back to normal, the last thing you need Omid Scobie is somebody calling you ‘deranged.’ That is very, very harmful and to call me a ‘racist’ is wrong. I’ve told you: My son-in-law is the same colour as you.”
“I am not a criminal. I shall take this absolutely all the way I can. When that lovely police officer rings me back next week from the Fixated Threat department, I am going to take it to the highest level.”
“And there’s two other people I’m after too. I’ll tell you who they are now. You [sharing a screenshot of the Twitter handle of Unstoppable-Chi, @dumielauxepices], Lorenzo, I know, you. I know it’s you that busted me in the beginning. It’s you that got into the ‘me-we’ group and it’s you that exposed my criminal past for all to see.”
“You hide in the shadows, you little creep. You hide in the shadows and you pop up with some really cruel things. You have been stalking me because you know more about me than what I know myself. I’m watching you, I’ve been watching you for two years, but now been as we’re going to bring it all out in the open, let’s have the bloody lot. I’m watching you and I’m going to make charges against you if I can.”
“And you [sharing a screenshot of the Twitter handle of Gin Perdide, @GPerdide], you little bastard. Who are you? You were watching me. Everytime you talk about me, you put the word ‘criminal,’ ‘convict,’ ‘madam.’ You’ve got a, I don’t even know who you are, but I’ll tell you what, I will get Twitter to find out who you are and anybody else who keeps calling me a ‘criminal’ or a ‘racist’ or ‘deranged.’”
“Those three things are like red rags to a bull and my birth sign is Taurus the bull and my birthday is the same day as the Queen. We are built with the same steel backbone. I’m thirty years younger than her. God bless her and I will come for all of you, but meanwhile, meanwhile, you can just sit there and s**t yourself quietly and I’ll be coming for you.”
“Thanks for listening everybody. I’ll be back later. Honestly, this will wash over me. It’s just right now, I am absolutely tamping [Welsh adjective meaning ‘extremely angry’] mad.”
In her uniquely chirpy ‘Yankee Wally’ style, in the description box, Quinlan added
“Sorry, I forgot to say Cheerio!”
“Now you’ve seen me at my worst…. Or, have you?”
“It’s very hard for me to keep an even keel when someone’s upset me so badly.”
“People that have mental health problems, never ever get them totally ‘fixed.’ They are usually suppressed with antidepressants and antipsychotics. I’m on huge doses of both.”
“But, when Scobie has the audacity to call me ‘deranged’ … It triggered me in a way only other sufferers can understand. “
“Heck, I have not worked with therapy counselling psychiatrists and drugs for 20 years to be diagnosed as DERANGED!”
“#omidscobie said a very very bad thing. and he will learn not to verbally abuse those who are not as strong as him
“And everybody else whose insulted me. You will all be made accountable.”
“I LOVE MY ONLINE FRIENDS DEARLY and I will defend you too.”
“CHEERIO!”
Responses to Omid Scobie’s vexatious tweet about Sadie Quinlan
Nikolay Kalinin digests the result of the Batley and Spen by-election and reminds firebrand fruitcake George Galloway to eat his hat
It didn’t seem likely, but Labour has managed to keep the Batley and Spen seat – albeit with a minimal majority of just 323 votes, with Kim Leadbeater narrowly beating Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson.
This result brings an end to what has been a campaign that has been described as “a battleground” by one constituent, mainly due to the divisions within the Muslim community, most of whom have condemned Labour’s stance on foreign policy issues such as Palestine and have not forgotten Blair’s support for the Iraq war.
The man who helped further inflame these divisions, George Galloway, who in the days leading up to the election complained about the Batley council taking down his posters for not meeting election requirements, has responded to Labour’s win by transforming into Britain’s answer to Donald Trump and telling reporters: “On multiple grounds, we will apply to the court for this election result.”
During the campaign Galloway claimed that if Labour came in any other place but third, he would eat his own hat, and if he truly is a politician of honour, he should now keep his word and do just such.
The campaign has also seen allegations of dirty tactics used by groups in order to ruin Labour’s chances, with the most notable example being the distribution of a fake TUC leaflet highlighting Sir Keir Starmer’s support for BLM and stating that “it is high time that white people acknowledged their privilege and gave something back to people of colour.”
What Labour must remember is that their minimal majority should actually be a wake-up call for them, even if Conservative MPs and members of the public have attributed the narrow defeat of the Tories to Matt Hancock’s affair and the government pushing back “freedom day.”
Ever since MP Jo Cox – who was the sister of the new MP Leadbeater – was murdered in 2016 by a member of the far-right, there have been attempts to divide the community, and the events at local grammar school are the latest which have allowed people like George Galloway to exploit divisions for their own gain.
Even though Galloway did not manage to topple Starmer and Labour, he did manage to cause significant damage to Labour by taking away a sizeable amount of their Muslim base, notably by condemning LGBTQ+ inclusive education and promising to give control of what children can learn to their parents, which appealed to much of the Muslim population.
Labour should work as hard as possible within their English constituencies in order to prevent division, not only regarding the issue of Brexit but also regarding local issues. Starmer should also not restrain himself from condemning Johnson’s government at every opportunity, because only then will ‘Bosie The Clown’ be made to take accountability.
After his antics in Batley & Spen simply caused division, but allowed Labour its narrow victory, it is time to remind George Galloway of his own words and to make him follow up on his promise and consume his own headwear.
Commenting on the result for the ‘Daily Mail,’ Simon Walters observed: “[The] Batley by-election loss proves Boris Johnson needs a shot in the arm all over again… One Conservative from a ‘Red Wall’ constituency who campaigned there told me: ‘I owe my seat to Boris but people in Batley were not happy with his dithering on Hancock. It was tin-eared.’”
Sir Keir Starmer may have been just about saved from obliteration in Batley and Spen, but what must be remembered about the campaign is that George Galloway used the seat to spark what Lady Shami Chakrabarti, the former attorney general for England and Wales, termed “complex northern brew toxic.” Going further, Lady Chakrabarti added: “Galloway has form for misogyny, having made offensive comments about forced marriage in the hateful campaign he ran against Naz Shah in Bradford West in 2015, and having speculated that sex assault allegations made against Julian Assange were merely ‘bad sexual etiquette.’ In his latest campaign, the dexterous shapeshifter has made hay from a nasty dispute about images of the prophet being shown in a classroom, one minute affirming people’s ‘right to defend religious sensibilities’ and the next sidling up to self-styled ‘free speech activist’ Lawrence Fox.”
George Galloway has now vowed to challenge the result in court. In a statement, he remarked: “The result of this by-election cannot stand. We will take whatever legal measures necessary to have that result set-aside. There are multiple reasons… But the tin hat was put on the banana republic exercise that has been called this parliamentary by-election by the returning officer’s decision to refuse to grant a recount when the margin of victory was less than one per cent.”
As Jim Davidson’s decision to come out in support of the paedophile nonce Gary Glitter is declared a step too far (even for him), we share 10 of this buffoon’s very worst moments
Jim Davidson – of whom fellow comedian Benny Hill once declared: “Went to a showbiz party. Met Jim Davidson, a fine comedian and a gentleman. Talked to all three of them” – has put his feet firmly in the proverbial yet again. No surprises there, but on this occasion this washed-up wazzock’s gone further than before and come out in support of one of the most reviled paedophiles on the planet.
This week, in comments shared first by the Dorset Echo and then the Mirror, former supermarket shelf stacker Davidson – a 5×3 due to his having had 5 kids by 3 of his 5 wives – came out as a supporter of the one-time glam rock singer Gary Glitter (real name: Paul Gadd) and commented: “I spoke to Paul when I visited The Verne [prison] two years. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life.”
‘Dimwitted Davidson,’ curiously however, showed no empathy for the victims of this perverted paedophile nonce in his comments. “Public hate figure” Glitter has been convicted on numerous occasions in Britain and Vietnam and aside from having downloaded more than 4,000 child pornography images, is convicted of drink driving on multiple occasions, indecent assault, having sex with a girl under the age of 13, obscene acts with minors and the attempted rape of minors amongst other things.
Though this monster will remain on the UK’s Sex Offenders Register for life and was last sentenced to 16 years in prison in February 2015, he has declared that he will return to the music scene as soon as he can. In 2008, he remarked: “I have an incomplete album that I want to finish. I have been thinking about the plan during my days in jail. I have sung rock ‘n’ roll for 40 years. After jail, I will continue to rock ‘n’ roll.”
Elsewhere yesterday on Twitter, Davidson attempted to portray himself as political aware to his 180,000 followers with a 2:18-minute video missive on Twitter during which he repeatedly praised Boris Johnson and mocked the Prince of Wales. He ended: “Don’t listen with mother.”
Jim Davidson OBE’s 10 worst moments…
On Great Yarmouth:
“Full of fat children of all colours.”
On London and the UK:
“I am never coming to London again… I may as well go to Dubai and be an ethnic minority there than wait five years till I become one here.”
On former UKIP leader Nigel Farage:
“The Jim Davidson of the political world.”
On beating up one of his 4 ex-wives:
“We’re like a couple of boxers. On the first occasion, I poked her in the eye by accident. I actually went for the mouth… The second time I gave her a shiner. I threw a bunch of keys which whacked her in the eye. Just for a giggle she kept blackening it up to make it look worse.”
“I took the wife out last night; one punch!”
On supposedly giving up on making jokes about black people:
“I can’t do impressions of Frank Bruno or Ian Wright? That’s racist, is it? But I can do Sven-Göran Eriksson?”
“I’m not going to get on my knee, and I’m not going to go ever black person I see, ‘hail you.’ I’m not going to apologise for the past; the past was the past.”
On Black Lives Matter protestors:
“Pondlife… F**king stupid.”
On Piers Morgan (after he was paid to appear on his Life Stories programme):
“You don’t deserve to listen to anyone’s life story because you don’t f**king listen.”
Proving himself the ultimate ‘Brain of Britain’:
“People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die.”
After being declared bankrupt:
“My problem is money.”
On himself:
“I’m a homophobic arsehole.”
Reactions to Jim Davidson’s offensive remarks on Twitter:
In October 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ joined those condemning Warner Brothers for deciding to use a song by the incarcerated paedophile Gary Glitter (also known as Paul Raven, G.G., The Leader, Rubber Bucket, Paul Monday and Paul Russell) in their film, ‘Joker.’
Actor Dudley Sutton – AKA ‘Lovejoy’s’ Tinker – passes away aged 85 shortly after giving an interview lauding the NHS
The talented actor and regular at the Chelsea Arts Club, Dudley Sutton sadly died yesterday after a short battle with cancer.
Best known for playing Tinker Dill in the brilliant BBC comedy-drama series Lovejoy in 1986 and from 1991 to 1994, Sutton most recently took the lead role in a video for the Tom Chaplin song Midnight Mass and also appeared in everything from the first production of Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1964 to Emmerdale and Eastenders.
Speaking about Lovejoy and himself in general in 2017, Sutton commented:
“It’s what they’re going to say on my obituary when I die, regardless of all the different and diverse stuff I’ve done throughout my life.”
“It’s good fun because Lovejoy is so popular throughout the world, wherever you go. But people recognise Tinker, they don’t recognise Dudley Sutton.”
Dudley Sutton (6th April 1933 – 15th September 2018)
In July, Sutton gave a video interview from his bed in the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham in which he spoke about the NHS. He spoke of how he was a Socialist and lauded doctors and nurses for “caring about people, caring about folk, caring about people who can’t look after themselves” and said: “Don’t let the NHS go. Don’t flog it away with all the rest of the rubbish… That’s all I’m saying.”
In a statement yesterday, Sutton’s family remarked:
“Today we’re devastated by the loss of our beautiful Dudley, who leaves a gaping hole in all our lives.”
“We’re grateful for the love expressed by friends and fans everywhere and for the extraordinary care he received at the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham, south London, where he went out fighting for our NHS.”
To those that encountered “this wonderfully disruptive cherub” at the Chelsea Arts Club and elsewhere, Dudley will be remembered for much more. This “neo-Wildean” actor and gent was charming, witty and fun and he added great colour to the lives of so many. May he rest in peace.
John Stoddart exhibition of silkscreen prints of his iconic works at Chelsea Arts Club attracts the attention of some BBC heavyweights
On Tuesday, at the Chelsea Arts Club in London, photographer John Stoddart illustrated his versatility as an artist in exhibiting silkscreen prints created from his works.
Present at the preview were a whole array of characters – amongst them both former host of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs Sue Lawley and political commentator and BBC One’s The Marr Show host Andrew Marr – and as the wine flowed, guests got to admire images of Joan Collins, Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Of the exhibition, Claire Rubinstein, herself formerly of the BBC also, remarked: “I love the vibrancy and colour of these images. John has injected some joie de vivre into the faces and I am especially taken with the one of Hugh Grant. Doesn’t he look camp?”
The works – which are limited to editions of ten and titled ‘Famous! by Stoddart’ – are priced at £300 ($388, €334 or درهم1,425) per print or £2,000 ($2,587, €2,226 or درهم9,500) for a boxed set of all ten prints.
The exhibition will remain on show for the next two weeks and those interested in purchasing prints are invited to telephone the Chelsea Arts Club.
Chelsea Arts Club, 143 Old Church Street, London, SW3 6EB. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7376 3311.
Matthew Steeples celebrates red fashion as Debenhams ditch red braces
Debenhams and the Mail Online recently suggested that the “garish” red braces, as sported by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, have fallen out of fashion. (more…)
