The Steeple Times

Tag: spy

  • Cliff The Airhead

    Cliff The Airhead

    Crackpot Christian crooner Cliff Richard’s lawyers allude to him owning air

     

    The libel case brought by Sir Cliff Richard – a self-declared “genuine international celebrity” with an ego the size of China – against the BBC took an unexpected turn yesterday, according to a report on the corporation’s very own website.

     

    In an article published Tuesday, ‘Auntie’ remarked:

     

    “Sir Cliff’s barrister, Justin Rushbrooke QC, asked [Jonathan] Munro [the BBC’s head of newsgathering] if he thought it had been acceptable to fly a helicopter over a private estate to ‘spy’ on the singer’s home.”

     

    “Mr Munro said he would not use the word ‘spy’ and added he thought it was acceptable to film police searching the home of someone under investigation.”

     

    “Mr Rushbrooke said: ‘If that is your genuine belief I suggest to you that you are unfit for your job.’”

     

    Clearly, aside from being supposedly cheated out of winning Eurovision by General Franco, ‘Cliffy’ now plainly is of the belief he was robbed of the airspace above the apartment complex he used to live in. No congratulations required; the man’s an airhead.

     

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  • Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Dame Paddy Ridsdale, as she generally known, was an intelligence operative, secretary to Ian Fleming during WW2 and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny.

     

    A Conservative Party stalwart and married to Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1954 to 1992 Sir Julian Ridsdale CBE (1915 – 2004), Dame Paddy – or Vicky, as she was known to some – is best known for her role in ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a “famous caper” concerning a “man who never was” in 1943.

     

    In the war, Dame Paddy wrote love letters and telegrams that were planted on the body of ‘Major William Martin’, an invented, drowned naval officer, that was floated in the ocean off Spain. The body carried fictitious plans of a purported Allied invasion of Sardinia and Greece and formed part of a plot designed to deflect attention from the Allied landings in Sicily. Of it, she later remarked: “I was sent to buy clothes in all the best men’s shops and had to pose as his girlfriend. I had to go to post offices and rather loudly send this telegram to ‘my boyfriend’, hoping of course that somebody would overhear me”. In due course, the body was indeed found, the Axis powers completely taken in and “Mincemeat swallowed whole, hook, line, and sinker”. A BAFTA winning film directed by Ronald Neame, The Man Who Never Was, made about the deceptive scheme in 1956.

     

    Dame Paddy was known as a “political hostess in the style of a bygone era”, lived in a mansion “sandwiched between a sheikh and a Saudi prince” in The Boltons for the majority of her adult life and is buried in the grounds of the church there. She had one daughter, became Lady Ridsdale when her husband was knighted in 1981 and was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in her own right, for political services, in 1991.

     

    Of her relationship with her one-time employer Fleming, she concluded: “Ian had so many girlfriends that I was not tempted to become one of them”.

     

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xemGlAV6TAw

     

  • Bonded to a Rolls

    Bonded to a Rolls

    1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I drophead coupé owned by Bond set designer Sir Ken Adam to be auctioned at RM Sotheby’s Battersea sale tonight (more…)

  • Edward Holcroft

    Edward Holcroft

    Edward Holcroft

    Named the “UK’s star of tomorrow” by Screen Daily in 2014, Edward Holcroft has also been described as “a remarkable actor, a remarkable man” by fellow actor Mark Rylance. (more…)

  • Welcome to Donetsk

    Welcome to Donetsk

    Photographer Maximilian Clarke recounts his experiences at the hands of soldiers in Donetsk (more…)

  • The Rt. Hon. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller DCB

    The Rt. Hon. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller DCB

    Dame Eliza Manningham-BullerThe head of MI5 between 2002 and 2007 was once nearly thrown out of a pub after being mistaken for a prostitute whilst training to be a spy. In December 2013, Manningham-Buller guest presented Radio 4’s Today programme and interviewed an the actress who has played her fictional counterpart, Dame Judi Dench. Northampton born and the daughter of Viscount Dilhorne, the surname of this expert intelligence analyst’s husband has only ever been revealed as “David”. Spooky.

  • Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell (better known as Betty Maxwell, 1921 – 2013)

    Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell (better known as Betty Maxwell, 1921 – 2013)

    PKT5571-408088ROBERT MAXWELLBUSINESSMAN1996Robert Maxwell and wife BettyHer “fat fraudster” husband called this French Hugenot Protestant “the keeper of my Jewish soul”. Of her life with him, she wrote an autobiography titled A Mind of My Own: My Life With Robert Maxwell and in it described him “as bullying, unfaithful and frequently absent as he amassed his empire”. This mother of nine children’s expertise on the Holocaust was renowned. She put up with a lot and of the media tycoon concluded: “God forbid I run into him again”.

  • Fooling Fogle

    Fooling Fogle

    Ben Fogle suggests that he could have been poisoned by a Russian spy

     

    Ben Fogle’s rise to the middle realms of “fame” is something I’ve always found puzzling. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an affable chap and I have utterly no problem with him but whenever he comes on the screen, I find myself simply asking: “Why on earth is this man famous?”

     

    Mr Fogle featured in The Telegraph’s ‘Mandrake’ column, written by great friends of The Steeple Times Tim Walker and Richard Eden, this morning and frankly made the most preposterous of suggestions I’ve heard in years. Even though he had to admit it sounded “far-fetched”, he went ahead and alleged that he could have been poisoned by a Russian spy. Has the man gone bonkers?

      (more…)

  • Lord of the Bond

    Lord of the Bond

    The sale of a £400,000 castle owned by a man who was an inspiration for the creation of James Bond’s nom de plume Sir Hilary Bray, Bt and for many elements of 007’s character also

     

    Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees (1925 – 2012) is largely thought of as the man whose persona Ian Fleming “borrowed” to create James Bond’s assumed identity, Sir Hilary Bray, Bt. Now, following on from his death last year, there is an opportunity to buy one of his many properties, Inchdrewer Castle, and the title that goes with it, Baron of Inchdrewer.

      (more…)

  • Ejector seat? You must be joking

    Ejector seat? You must be joking

    The sale of a gadget laden James Bond-mobile

     

    “I never joke about my work” stated Q when James Bond enquires about the ejector seat in his new Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

     

    In October 2010, RM Auctions in association with Sotheby’s sold one of the four world famous 1964 Aston Martin DB5’s made for the film to an Ohio based property tycoon named Harry Yeaggy on behalf of Jerry Lee, a broadcaster and philanthropist. The car, which was used by Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball, achieved a price of £2,600,000 against an estimate of £3,500,000.

     

    Richard Stewart Williams seek £3 million for this promotional James Bond 1964 Aston Martin DB5
    Richard Stewart Williams seek £3 million for this promotional James Bond 1964 Aston Martin DB5

     

    Now Cobham based Aston Martin heritage specialist Richard Stewart Williams is marketing another of the DB5 vehicles produced for the franchise’s Thunderball. This one, though only used for promotional purposes, features all the gadgets Bond required including revolving licence plates, hubcap blades, hidden guns, a bulletproof screen, radar and a smoke machine.

     

    It features hidden guns ideal for seeing off anyone attacking from the front
    It features hidden guns ideal for seeing off anyone attacking from the front
    And a bullet proof screen that rises from the boot
    And a bullet proof screen that rises from the boot
    Advanced for its years, there is even a Sat Nav system and all manner of other special features
    Advanced for its years, there is even a Sat Nav system and all manner of other special features
    The design even incorporated a mobile telephone
    The design even incorporated a mobile telephone
    The vehicle was specially adapted by John Stears (1934 - 1999)
    The vehicle was specially adapted by John Stears (1934 – 1999)

     

    The adaptations to the vehicle, last sold in 2005 in Arizona for approximately £1,300,000, were orchestrated by the renowned special effects designer Michael John Stears (1934 – 1999). Better know as “The Real Q”, Stears also built flying cars for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Man with the Golden Gun and created mechanical effects for Star Wars. He won two Academy Awards for his work and his talent and vision plainly can be seen in this vehicle for which Richard Stewart Williams seek £3,000,000.

     

    For more information contact Richard Williams of Richard Stewart Williams Limited on +44 (0) 1932 868377.

     

    View further details on the car at: http://www.rswilliams.co.uk/aston-martin-sales/?carid=42