Matthew Steeples reviews a Channel 5 documentary about UKIP supporters (more…)
Tag: documentary
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Confusing a castle
Confused.com founder puts castle on market for £1.5 million less than she spent on it
“Wild haired” Kate Armstrong, the Australian founder of Confused.com, bought the medieval Scottish castle Cassillis House in Ayrshire from the Kennedy clan in 2009 for £3 million. She spent four years and £3.5 million updating and improving it but is now selling it at a loss for just £5 million. (more…)
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Investigating Tulisa
In the wake of the collapse of the Tulisa Contostavlos drugs trial, we examine the merits of investigative journalism
Tulisa Contostavlos declared she’d had a “rollercoaster of a week” after she was convicted of assault in one case yet saw off another after it was thrown out due to the “serious misconduct” on the part of key witnesses for the prosecution. Tonight, the singer will appear in a BBC Three documentary that will “lift the lid” on that trial and provide her with a sounding board to share her thoughts on investigative journalism in general. (more…)
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Jackie Siegel
Her billionaire husband, David, calls this former Miss Florida a “psycho, but a lovable psycho” and adds that she is a “big-busted shopaholic”. Her main desire in life is to be famous and a documentary film about her was made in 2012 by Lauren Greenfield. When her current neighbour, Tiger Woods, crashed his car, she ran out and took a photo. She sold it to TMZ for $400. Her husband stated: “That was very enterprising of her, but I think she could have gotten more”. Together, they have eight children and began construction of a 90,000 square foot mansion in Windermere, Florida in 2006. They named it Versailles and boast that it will be the largest single family home in America. Of the rare Brazilian mahogany from which the doors of Versailles are to be made from, she commented: “They had to stop exporting it because they were cutting down the rain forest, or whatever”. She’s all class. -
Jess Black: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks artist and animal rights activist Jess Black: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
I think humour. Life is so blah when taking too seriously. I try to find the humour in everything.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“No one will fight for you harder than YOU”. You will get a lot of advice, solicited and unsolicited, but at the end of the day you have to trust your own instincts.
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Anna Wintour OBE
Her Evening Standard editor father was known as “Chilly Charlie” and she’s become “Nuclear Wintour”. This New York based Brit states that she’s “lost count” of the number of times she’s been attacked by activists and once retaliated by sending anti-fur campaigners a plate of roast beef when they picketed her Condé Nast offices. In her youth, Wintour went to parties with the Daily Mail’s Nigel Dempster, dated older men and set her stall out clearly in the remark: “You either know fashion, or you don’t”. Now, this divorced trendsetter has morphed into a grande dame and hidden behind her sunglasses and a pageboy bob, this powerhouse of fashion truly does deserve the title: “Unofficial Mayoress of New York”. The Devil Wears Prada may have indeed been based on her, but the reality is far more salacious. -
Kathy Clugston
Belfast born Clugston is known as “The Posh Radio 4 Lady” or “The PR4L” and is BBC Radio 4’s continuity announcer. This witty lady’s voice is familiar to millions as a result of this but she’s also the female Irish voice for TomTom satellite navigation systems and the creator of the “Radio4minus1letter” Twitter based game. In her spare time, she plays the ukulele. -
Knightsbridge’s playboy racers
A review of Channel 4’s Millionaire Playboy Races by Matthew Steeples
I watched last night’s Millionaire Playboy Racers expecting to find myself in agreement with Knightsbridge residents complaining about the noise generated by Arabs and their supercars. In many instances I would have previously agreed that they are bloody pests but surprisingly, by the end of the 45-minute Channel 4 documentary, I was left with feelings quite to the contrary.
My followers on Facebook often comment on the snaps I take of the supercars that come to London from Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Some are impressive and amazing. Others are vulgarity personified. A few are shown below.
A pink Rolls-Royce Phantom 
A purple Mercedes-Benz G-Class 
The white way to go? Millionaire Playboy Racers was commissioned, like most television these days, to provoke. It failed. The whingeing residents of The Royal Borough complaining about the cars, one of whom was bizarrely named “Panda” Morgan-Thomas, came across as spoilt and obnoxious whilst it was a Kuwaiti named Abdul Aziz Al Rashed who came across best.
Panda Morgan-Thomas and her daughter in Sloane Street 
Abdul Aziz Al Rashed in one of his supercars
This sensible young man expressed his views clearly. He understood the situation and though the British police treated him unfairly at one point, he remained reasonable. As the show ended he stated:
“I be very serious with you… At 12am I stop using this car as many people are sleeping… My friends are very sad to go back to Kuwait… I feel very sad to leave this nice place to go back to my desert… Give us London and we give you Kuwait.”
Morgan-Thomas, her daughter and their friends on the other hand came across as weird busybodies. These resentful, hectoring pests showed the people of this wealthy enclave in their worst light. As an example, Ms Morgan-Thomas showed the cameras a tree made out of roses that she had dried in her flat that she was building up towards her ceiling. She stated that when the top was reached she might marry her partner. Who on earth would do such a bizarre thing? The woman is plainly a loon.
Justin Downes, another of their number, did not help the cause of the anti-supercar crusaders with comments like:
“[They’ve created] a kingdom of Qatar in the middle of London… Idiots… I’ve seen the area move from being a very quiet residential area to being cosmopolitan in a way that is extreme… These Gulfies come in and use the area to drive recklessly. If they were UK citizens they’d be prosecuted… I am angry.”
Here were people who came across as racists and bigots. They damaged their cause and of the residents the only one I felt sorry for was an elderly lady who lived in a basement studio near Harrods. This poor woman came was indeed being disturbed late at night and if more like her had been interviewed then an entirely different perspective would have been presented. Instead, Channel 4, to satisfy their viewers, allowed a woman who lived in one of London’s main shopping streets to make residents come across as a bunch of utter weirdos and freaks.
I am still of the opinion that many of these Arab drivers are reckless and vulgar but having watched this programme, the ridiculousness of the “Knightsbridge girl” Panda and her chums has now truly been exposed. In fact, I’d rather it be her who is kept off the streets of SW1.
Watch Millionaire Playboy Racers at: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/millionaire-boy-racers/4od
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Derek Paravicini
This echolaliac prodigy has absolute pitch and has been described as “the human iPod.” His abilities as a musician are amazing given that he’s both blind and autistic. The cousin of The Duchess of Cornwall’s children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, Paravicini unexpectedly played Big Spender to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, in 2009 and made legal history when The Court of Protection was opened for the first time in 2010 to discuss his future care. He captivates audiences throughout the land. -
Hugh Bonneville
In his role as Downton Abbey’s Lord Grantham, this actor warned that “scandals” always have a habit of coming out. He graduated in Theology at Cambridge but, according to Adam Helliker of the Daily Express, Bonneville wasn’t especially keen to show Christian compassion towards Lord Archer at a party at The Cadogan Hotel when it was requested that the pair be photographed together.