Ah yes, I forgot about the range A Splash of Paltrow.

It’s the ultimate in the triumph of a great idea and talented team over budget.

It should be streaming on Amazon Prime and the DVD is only a couple of quid (I think I own a copy but would need to check).

It feels like this year franchise films haven’t been the dead cert people thought they were (even though some topped the charts, it was more hit and miss) while so low budget films have made their budget back many times over. I’m hopeful we’ll see more lower budget films commissioned going forward, as you can afford to take a few misses there and still make money. Of course, that would require someone in charge to have a good eye for potential which is harder than just greenlighting a sequel or prequel but A24 and Neon are doing well on this front.

Train operators Greater Anglia and West Midlands’ core contract terms expire on Sunday, potentially putting the services on course to be the first ones nationalised by the Labour government.

The ending of the core term of their contracts means Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has the power to terminate their deal with 12 weeks’ notice.

She is not expected to act until the government’s nationalisation legislation completes its passage through Parliament.

But she said she would be “wasting no time” in bringing services back under public ownership.

These are the first two operators to reach the end of their core terms since Labour came to power in July.

The operators’ full contracts are not due to expire until September 2026.

Sounds like the Transport Secretary is up for the fight! I look forward to seeing how this goes.

But then they’d have to admit they aren’t carrying loaded guns.

Lest we forget that most consumers typically pay more attention to things like service speed and price than industry jargon and technology acronyms.

Most people are going to use price comparison sites to compare speed to price and go with the best balance for them. Being a nerd I’ll be up for checking out what they actually mean but I can see it being just another thing people click right through along with all the T&Cs.

I’m still traumatised from watching it all these many years later.

I watched it in England (not English though so…) and it didn’t seem any more interesting to me than any one else. It was less about playing to an English audience and more that it did annoy the French a lot.

They’ve never used ceremonial rifles presumably because they have to be ready to fight if needed. They are cagey about whether they are loaded or not (just in case) but former soldiers say they tend not to be unless there is an emergency situation - loaded magazines are kept in a locked guardhouse (or somewhere else nearby). Most of the actual guarding of Buckingham House and other big houses in London we’ll be having back is done by the Met (and presumably discrete members of the secret service).

Most ceremonial get stuck at some point, like the Vatican Guards or the Greek Presidential Guards. Some British soldiers tend to use a ceremonial uniform based on what they wore before the introduction of khaki in 1902 (which handily coincides with the start of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1901 on the death of Queen Victoria) as colourful uniforms got phased out when smokeless ammunition was developed (although it started to be dropped in the late 19th Century). All ceremonial dress was phased out at the start of WW1 and only reintroduced afterwards for the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards.

I’d imagine that, if we abolished the monarchy, we’d retain these for the tourists around the Buck House Museum of the Outmoded Ruling Class as we do with the Beefeaters at the Tower of London.

Well they could likely wrestle someone to the ground or hit them with their hats.

I’d assume there would have to be actual armed guards around anyway while they are doing all the walking up and down in lines.

Just south of a million quid - throw some beavers at it and they’ll get the job done.

Eventually, yes. They’d help manage the deer population which is out of control in some areas. I’d even not rule out reintroducing bears, but they’d be a slight danger to people so that may have to be more tightly controlled.

However, reintroducing once native species will have to be gradual. The government now seem to be taking steps to make the release of beavers better planned and that could lead to the release of lynx and bison in some areas. If we do bring wolves back a compensation scheme would have to be in place for farmers losing their stock.

That does, kinda, make sense as I felt the original was rather weird in tone, contrasting the spectacular battle scenes with borderline Carry On (especially Up the Khyber) antics in his personal life, in particular the bedroom antics.

That’s it - building work had disturb some scorpions and the hotel doesn’t seem to have done anything about them.

He is being represented by My Bed Bug Lawyer who, presumably, specialise in suing hotels who don’t take steps to remove insect infestations.

Blazing Saddles, Terminator and Hardware for me.

“People”? 🤔

since that’s the primary concern for them.

Their primary focus is to stand around in ceremonial uniform. They have modern guns and can, presumably, take someone down, if required but most of the time it is looking ornate outside palaces wearing big hats.

Cat sack fever.