Coincidences No.s 388, 389 & 390

No. 388 Smith & Cosgrove

Smith

I am sitting having dinner in Glasgow with my friend and former colleague Stuart Cosgrove. An alert comes up on his phone that Mark E. Smith of The Fall has died. Stuart interviewed Smith when he was at NME. This morning on the plane to Scotland I was reading Stuart’s book ‘Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul‘.  In the bit I was reading it mentioned the song ‘There’s a Ghost in My House’. It reminded me of an 80s cover version by The Yachts, a single I have but haven’t listened to or heard for years. As the plane taxied in I looked for that version on Spotify. Unusually couldn’t find it. The version that came up was by The Fall – Smith & co. would have known it from being in the Manchester-Wigan Northern Soul zone.

No. 389 Cosgrove & McCallum

Brown

I am waiting at City Airport when I bump into another old Channel 4 colleague, Neil McCallum, ex-Head of T4/Youth Entertainment & Music. He’s also on the 10.20 to Glasgow. When he was at C4 I used to call him “the hardest working man in showbiz” as he was always first in and last out of Horseferry Road. As I settle down to Stuart’s book on the plane, buffeted by Storm Georgina, the first sentence is about James Brown, using his “hardest working man in showbiz” tag, comparing his workrate to that of The Supremes (their’s was even harder, which Stuart shows lay to some degree behind their eventual split).

No. 390 Chopra & Chopra

Chopra

Last week Deepak Chopra, the American guru character, came up five times – once in Michael Woolf’s ‘Fire & Fury’ (which we are reading currently for our book group); once in relation to Princess Diana; once in the Finnair in-flight magazine; once in connection with an app his son is releasing. But the irony was receiving this text from my friend and colleague Professor Paul Moore at the University of Ulster about my interest in coincidences:

“Saw this with you came to mind…

Live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and you connect with the field of infinite possibilities. – Deepak Chopra

from Zen Moments”

A meta-coincidence of the most satisfying kind.

Top Documentaries on UK TV 2017

My favourite documentary series of the year

	Title	Channel	Share %	Viewers ‘000s
1	Blue Planet II	BBC 1	45.8	14,011
2	Diana, Our Mother: Her life + Legacy	ITV	36.7	9,390
3	Diana, Seven Days	BBC 1	32.9	6,425
4	Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum + Dad	BBC 1	26.2	6,345
5	Spy In The Wild	BBC 1	25.7	6,218
6	The Real Marigold Hotel	BBC 1	23.3	5,999
7	Wild Alaska Live	BBC 1	31.9	5,998
8	Attenborough and the Giant Elephant	BBC 1	20.3	5,378
9	The Real Full Monty	ITV	24.2	5,362
10	Fake Or Fortune?	BBC 1	26.0	5,127
11	Snow Bears	BBC 1	23.6	4,969
12	Paul O’Grady For the love of Dogs	ITV	21.1	4,960
13	Diana: In Her Own Words	CH4	20.6	4,923
14	The Truth About… Sleep	BBC 1	20.3	4,704
15	Ambulance	BBC 1	21.1	4,660
16	Police Tapes	ITV	20.5	4,522
17	Easyjet: Inside The Cockpit	ITV	20.2	4,488
18	The Real Marigold On Tour	BBC 1	18.3	4,411
19	An Hour To Catch A Killer	ITV	18.1	4,362
20	Inside London Fire Brigade	ITV	18.7	4,317
21	Britain’s Busiest Airport – Heathrow	ITV	18.5	4,309
22	The Met: Policing London	BBC 1	19.5	4,224
23	Martin Clunes: Islands Of Australia	ITV	19.4	4,222
24	The Cruise : Mediterranean	ITV	17.3	4,216
25	Galapagos	BBC 1	16.9	4,173
26	Elizabeth And Philip: Love & Duty	BBC 1	14.6	4,149
27	Sir Bruce Forsyth: Mr Entertainment	BBC 1	21.7	4,094
28	Reported Missing	BBC 1	16.6	4,051
29	Prince Harry & Meghan	ITV	16.8	4,034
30	Joanna Lumley’s India	ITV	18.3	4,025
31	The Week The Landlords Moved In	BBC 1	18.2	3,982
32	The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway	BBC 2	17.4	3,908
33	Italy’s Invisible Cities	BBC 1	14.6	3,859
34	Ross Kemp Behind Bars	ITV	17.1	3,848
35	Sugar Free Farm	ITV	16.3	3,840
36	Gordon Ramsay On Cocaine	ITV	16.4	3,839
37	Diana: The Day Britain Cried	ITV	14.6	3,817
38	Spy in the Wild: Meet the Spies	BBC 1	17.6	3,784
39	Serial Killer with Piers Morgan	ITV	15.9	3,683
40	The Ganges with Sue Perkins	BBC 1	15.9	3,671
41	How To Stay Young	BBC 1	15.9	3,648
42	Britain’s Best Walks with Julia Bradbury	ITV	17.1	3,619
43	A Very Royal Wedding	ITV	14.9	3,588
44	Gone To Pot: American Road Trip	ITV	13.5	3,585
45	Killer Women with Piers Morgan	ITV	15.7	3,553
46	Britain On The Fiddle	BBC 1	14.1	3,459
47	The Truth About Stress	BBC 1	14.7	3,451
48	The Harbour	ITV	14.4	3,431
49	I Am Bolt	BBC 1	15.8	3,409
50	The Sheriffs Are Coming	BBC 1	14.1	3,400
51	Orkney: When The Boat Comes	BBC 1	17.0	3,380
52	Winterwatch	BBC 2	14.0	3,378
53	Harry & Meghan: Royal Engagement	BBC 1	16.0	3,377
54	Russia With Simon Reeve	BBC 2	14.0	3,287
55	Call The Midwife: The Casebook	BBC 1	17.0	3,234
56	Devon & Cornwall Cops	ITV	14.6	3,206
57	Planet Earth II: A World Of Wonder	BBC 1	19.6	3,174

The Casting Game No. 133

Matt Damon

as

1961 – the year before he became Trampas in ‘The Virginian’

Doug McClure

All the Money in the World

Micro Movie Review:  would be improved by replacing all the performances – as well as the script – to make something less cold & simplistic

Kevin Spacey (L) replaced by Christopher Plummer (R) as J. Paul Getty