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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 5h

Loud voice: Good gracious. Low voice: Nor have I.

David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13h

You may not know of the 1997 West End musical Always which concerned itself with the love story of King Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson. It had dancing Welsh miners and lasted a bare six weeks. It was dire. And prior to opening night they CUT the Abdication Dream Ballet. WHAT WERE THEY THINKiNG?

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

FTR shattering letter about how the Conservative Government ignored the entirely credible threat from Putin in favour of feeding The City (& Tory Party) roubles👇 March 23 2022 Carl Scott, Air Commodore (Retired), UK defence attaché in Moscow for five years, 2011-2016 www.ft.com/content/857d...

[4x screenshots from FINANCIAL TIMES]

Letter: A defence attaché despairs at inevitability of conflict

From Carl Scott, Air Commodore (Retired), Oakham, Rutland, UK

[Photo of Sherlock Holmes and Watson monument at the British Embassy in Moscow]

MARCH 23 2022

The recent article by Maria Stepanova "The war of Putin's imagination" (Life & Arts, FT Weekend, March 19) was exemplary. However, one jarring note was the unfounded notion that no one expected this aggression from the Kremlin.

I served as the UK's defence attaché in Moscow for five years, 2011-2016, during which time this long, dark march to war was obvious, the path to conflict lit by the many pronouncements emanating from the dark red walls of Vladimir Putin's palace.

We reported the inevitability of conflict in detail, regularly and with the despair of Cassandra. One of the earliest reports opened with a line from Sherlock Holmes, whose statue stands outside the British Embassy wall: "There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast."

The evidence of Putin's chosen path was never concealed. His many declarations were meant to be heard and understood: the colossal rearmament programme, the demand for more complex, more lethal weaponry; the militarisation of society; the distortion and seizure of the popular narrative; domination of education, the media and the courts to exclude contrasting views and, ultimately, the alienation and destruction of those among the Russian people who understood the folly of his declared ambition.

The list is remorseless, the consequences could not be ignored. But they were.

It was not until I returned to the UK on the eve of our withdrawal from the EU, a manoeuvre which greatly emboldened those in Moscow, that I understood how our society had changed in the years I was serving overseas.

All was subjugated to the City, all served the interests of our lucrative status as a safe haven for corrupt, and corrupting, wealth. The values we were demanding of other nations had long since faded from our own actions.

I despair at the decisions Putin has taken, but even more at the prospect of finding credible leadership at home in the UK among those who have compromised so long with his regime and the wealth it offered.

Carl Scott

Air Commodore (Retired)

Oakham, Rutland, UK

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 18h

Everything is better with a Dream Ballet.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 20h

The episode in the car. Utterly magnificent.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 21h

Love that famous, wonderful story. My chum Lyn Ashley did an episode of The Saint with him. They were in a fierce car chase, she in the passenger seat. They did a take with the camera on them both as the car supposedly raced along. At the end, he turned to her approvingly and said “Oh! Real acting!”

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 21h

I was instructed to watch it by a friend and did not want to suffer alone.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 21h

Another of your pithy, accurate reviews.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 21h

The man had range. Well, a little. (Not that we should hold that against him - he was an absolute mensch.)

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

67 genuinely unforgettable seconds of Zack Polanski. x.com/ifindwankers...

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Wordle 1,943 3/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

67 genuinely unforgettable seconds of Zack Polanski. x.com/ifindwankers...

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

US spelling make total sense but the random “foreign” foodstuffs that do/don’t make the grade are infuriating. And words it regards erroneously as not needing a hyphen are endless. And accepting some slang words, not others. I could go on… The blanket apology issued is patronising in the extreme.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Am refusing to play it today now. That’ll learn ‘em… @nytimes.com

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Wordle is so exasperating over words it does and doesn’t allow. Neither of my first two words ORDINAND and PARD are deemed acceptable. Pah.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

At last, a disagreement. Sports night became great once they got rid of the ghastly laugh track. I came late to The West Wing but fell in love with it. And the cast. It sank when Sorkin left but picked up upon his return.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Better than The West Wing? Or even Sports Night?

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

A seat-of-his-pants action-thriller, to be sure.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Yesterday evening I picked up two packets of sage leaves half-price in Waitrose. (Is sage not the most underrated of herbs?) What, I wondered, could I do with them? And lo! As Tennessee Williams wrote: “Sometimes - there’s God - so quickly.”

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Ian Rennie @theangelremiel.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

This is definitely the name of an English "It Girl" actor who suddenly turns up in everything and when you look into it her father owns Shropshire.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

If only more people would programme Mahler.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I don’t recall anyone for whom my late mother had an irrational hatred but I once referred to the ghastly, gushy biography of Callas by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington - then something of a celebrity due to her affair with Bernard Levin - and was sternly rebuked because “She has lovely hair.”

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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Was that the same security services you dumped to visit ‘ex’ KGB colonel Alexander Lebedev and party in Umbria just after the Novichok Salisbury attack? Or the same security services whose advice you defied to put his son Evgeny in the House of Lords? Those security services?

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I saw it once long ago and as someone very, very rarely under Leigh’s spell - don’t get me started - found it mean-spirited. You have made me think I should try again.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Wordle 1,942 3/6 Better ⬛🟨🟨🟩⬛ ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Wordle 1,941 6/6 Idiotically, I had three letters by line 2… and forgot one of them until line 6! ⬛🟨⬛🟩⬛ ⬛🟩⬛🟩⬛ ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I am on a promise for John Wilson that if he ever records it, I shall perform it. Wonderful, neglected piece. youtu.be/YkE06EEVjso?...

youtu.be

Vaughan Williams: An Oxford Elegy (1968) Willcocks

YouTube video by Private Reserve

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

After The Muppet Christmas Carol no more need be said on the subject on screen.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I wrote about SB when it was re-released years ago. I knew it and rewatched it twice in a week. The day the piece appeared the BFI invited me to the gala screening. I was free so I went. I was genuinely shocked. It felt like a COMPLETELY different movie. What had been satirical was now terrifying!

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Your semi-regular reminder that, mercifully, no-one pretentiously uses the word “tragedic” when “tragedy” and “tragic” will do, so why are you using “comedic” when “comic” and “comedy”are still here? “It was a great comedic performance”? Trying to sound more “serious” and “clever”?

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Indeed. Am reviewing it for The Stage. And then writing about Caryl for The Observer.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Oh! Thanks for the reminder. That play is a work of genius and the cast is dynamite.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

A film as good as this is going to be ten times more powerful on the big screen. Looking forward to filling gaps in my viewing but also seeing comedies like One, Two, Three with, as intended, an audience. (OTOH I got cross as a screening of Some Like It Hot as the laughter drowned out dialogue!)

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

It being the peerless Joan Cusack’s birthday, I almost posted her telling Melanie Griffith: “Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna.” Or something from Toy Story 2. But let’s go with this since she steals the entire movie. youtu.be/0yYUlLFlw1I?...

youtu.be

In & Out (8/9) Movie CLIP - F*** Barbra Streisand! (1997) HD

YouTube video by Movieclips

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

My next concert is awash with seriously lush music, all by living composers, several of whom will be there. Come join us!

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

It’s a tremendous novel that completely delivers on the line.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Who else would start a (first-rate) thriller: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.”?

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

A case of all gong and no dinner.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

A Public Service Announcement. The VAT vs HMRC 1991 ruling taught us that Jaffa Cakes are cakes not biscuits. What was not made clear was that orange flavour might be part of their DNA. I am here to tell you that it is. This so-called cherry flavour is metallic and nasty. Accept No Substitutes.

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David Benedict @eggsbened.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

degree of taut musical drama. Every wannabe opera composer should study the meshing of the (superb) libretto and evocative music creating true drama not sung dialogue + tension-free arias + the odd ensemble. The character-driven emotional range and engagement of the audience is near unique. 2/2

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