The Daily Tonic: Ten-Inch, The Trunk and Tripod

One person to do pretty well out of the slow-roasting of Dominic Cummings is Richard Curtis. Shortly before news broke of Cummings’ Covid roadtrip, Curtis was coming under growing scrutiny for supposedly pilfering the work of a screenwriter who wrote the original draft of his film Yesterday.

Events have overtaken it now, but it reminded us of this old tale about the possible inspiration for another of his films…

M writes:
“About 30 years ago Richard Curtis was a guest at my first wedding. The priest, an old friend of my husband, was newly ordained and ours was his first wedding (sound familiar?). Poor Father Peter was understandably nervous and, in his confusion, managed to mix up our names.

In trying to correct himself, he transposed two of my husband’s middle names, which added to the hilarity among the largely alcohol-fuelled audience as he shared those names with a popular high-street offie at the time.

“Anyway, the one thing that is likely to remain in a memory of your wedding is the people who didn’t buy you a present – RC being the sole offender.”

Seeing as everything’s got very political this weekend, we thought we’d lean in to it. We want to know about the various MPs, wonks, politicos and spads that you’ve come into contact with over the years. At school, at uni, in their early careers – who have you had the pleasure of dealing with before they started ruling us?

Today’s Question: Which political figures do you know from their previous lives? And how were they back then?

Tell us your tales to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll send out digital goodies to the best of them.

Celebrities who get bang into the coke generally tend to develop a bit of a reputation for being selfish, boorish and egomaniacal. Not Anna Friel though. She earned herself the nickname “The Coke Fairy” as she was always very generous with her stash.

Anyone who was kept waiting by her locking herself away in a toilet cubicle to indulge would be treated to an effusive apology when she emerged – and a special little gift when they entered.

She’d have left out a little line for them to enjoy.

I writes:
“I attended an England Rugby training session in the early 90s, during which prop forward Jason Leonard was referred to as ‘Warren’ throughout. After the session, I asked scrum half, Dewi Morris, why Leonard was called ‘Warren’.

“Dewi explained that it was short for ‘Warren Ugly Bastard!'”

When Steps were originally formed, the idea was to replicate the successful Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh and Ginger nicknames of the Spice Girls, giving each member of Steps a recognisable identifier.

Lee was set to be known as “Sensible Steps”, Faye as “Smiley Steps”, H “Hyperactive Steps”, Lisa “Party Steps” and Claire, inexplicably, “Gadget Steps”. They never really took off though, and other nicknames soon developed.

Lisa was known for a while as “Brown-Eyed Girl” within the band, on account of her habit of mooning.

And when the band imploded and H and Claire went off to start their spin-off duo, they were henceforth referred to by the deserted members as “Huntley and Carr”.

We’ll spare you the rest of the dreck off of Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs compilations, and instead revert to normal for this week’s Sunday audio round.

Ten songs stitched together, twenty points in total for getting all of the titles and artists.

[Here you go]

Sorry, we cocked up the Eleanor Rigby link yesterday
[It’s here]

“Bolivian Orchestra Stranded At ‘Haunted’ German Castle”
[Headline of the week]

There’s a legal dispute growing in the world of wolf-kink erotica
[Read on NYTimes]