Londoner's Diary: Theresa May appreciates Teutonic tone at the BBC Proms

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31 August 2016

With her Swiss summer hiking holiday over, Theresa May got straight back into London culture. Last night she was at the Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. On the Teutonic programme were Bach’s Cantata No 82 and Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, performed by Vienna’s Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. May and her husband Philip enjoyed the concert from the BBC’s box.

Downing Street has not commented on whether the Prime Minister was a guest of the corporation and director- general Tony Hall. However, a BBC spokesperson confirmed the visit, telling The Londoner that “we are delighted that the Prime Minister found time in her busy schedule to visit the Proms last night”.

It’s an interesting move in the image stakes. While Smiths-loving David Cameron might have been advised by his spin team that the Proms didn’t fit his brand, the new PM is more comfortable with the concert series, which is aimed at a popular audience.

And Mrs May follows in a cultured line of politicians at the Proms. George Osborne visited as Chancellor in 2012 — he was spotted singing along to Rule, Britannia and You’ll Never Walk Alone with the BBC’s Nick Robinson. John Major and his wife Norma were also keen visitors, as PM and afterwards. Norma Major is something of a classical music expert, having penned the authorised biography of soprano Joan Sutherland.

May has a broad taste in music. As well as Mozart and Elgar, her 2014 Desert Island Discs also included Walk Like a Man by Frankie Valli. At least she and Angela Merkel will have a good conversation opener: the German Chancellor enjoys seeing the Berlin Philharmonic and visiting Bayreuth.

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Sprightly 81-year-old shadow leader of the house Paul Flynn suggested yesterday that MPs’ expenses should be replaced with an automatic payment, saying filling in the forms was an “unnecessary chore”. Lib-Dem Tom Brake was quick on the attack. “With this kind of cloudy thinking we would call for Paul Flynn to resign from the shadow cabinet — but that’s not as big a thing as it used to be.” Let no one say the Lib-Dems lack wit.

US Embassy staff crease up at cricket

The US Embassy may be moving to Nine Elms, closer to The Oval, but that doesn’t mean the Yanks have a grasp on our most civilised sport. The US ambassador Matthew Barzun has just shared a video of his staff trying to decipher the game’s slang, and it’s rather a sticky wicket.

“Is ‘duck’ what you do when the ball is coming straight for your head?” asks one man on the YouTube video, before wondering if “Howzat” is how we Brits say “How did that go?” in a New York accent.

They do agree, though, that “stumped” “describes the feeling of an American trying to understand cricket”. No balls all round.

Jamie and Cillian in the wars

Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy were at the BFI Southbank last night for a screening of their new movie Anthropoid alongside co-star Anna Geislerova and her fellow model and actress Eva Herzigova. Dornan, fresh from flogging his co-star in the new Fifty Shades movie, arrived on the arm of his wife Amelia Warner. Filmed in Prague, Anthropoid is about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 by Czech partisans. Murphy has just finished filming another war movie, Dunkirk, alongside One Direction’s Harry Styles. “I’m attracted to a good story, not exclusively to World War II movies,” he insisted.

McEwan’s bid for Bad Sex glory

A unique crack at the prize at this year’s Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction from Ian McEwan. Previous star nominees have included carnally challenged efforts from Tony Blair and Morrissey, but McEwan has taken a unique approach. In his new novel, Nutshell, all the sex scenes are observed by a foetus from within the womb. Certainly gains kudos for originality.

The book is inspired by Hamlet, with the baby’s mother, Trudy, plotting with her lover Claude to kill her husband, Claude’s brother John. After their plan gains traction, murder proves to be an aphrodisiac.

“Claude crouches by my mother and might already be naked,” the baby explains, listening in. “I hear his breath on her neck. He’s undressing her, to date a peak of sensual generosity unscaled by him. ‘Careful,’ Trudy says. ‘Those buttons are pearls.’ He grunts in reply. His fingers are inexpert, working solely for his own needs. Something of his or hers lands on the bedroom floor. A shoe, or trousers with heavy belt. She’s writhing strangely. Impatience. He issues a command in the form of a second grunt. I’m cowering.”

The foetus displays a remarkable, and amphibious, grasp of vocabulary. “Like a mating toad, he clasps himself against her back. On her, now in her, and deep,” McEwan writes. “A glutinous drowning, like something pedantic crawling through a swamp.”

Whatever happened to lobster and champagne?

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With 1,000 miles between us, it’s easy to forget that Gibraltar is part of our fine nation. But along with London, its residents voted to remain in the EU. Are we more natural allies than previously thought? Perhaps. According to a list of received gifts, Sadiq Khan was given a crystal in the shape of the Rock of Gibraltar by the territory’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo. Stronger together, and all that.

Trudie shows her style

A new project for Trudie Styler. The wife of singer Sting has been busy behind the scenes of Hollywood for years, producing films such as Still Alice and Filth. But her new project may cement her status as a heavy-hitter.

Yesterday Variety reported that Maven Pictures, co-founded by Styler, is to make The Ripper, a drama about the friendship between late fashion designer Alexander McQueen and the late Isabella Blow. The pair became friends when Blow saw his graduate collection and bought the lot.

McQueen is proving a rich seam: last year the St James Theatre staged a play called McQueen about his life. And Styler’s film career is blooming. She is making her debut as director with the high-school film Freak Show, which is out soon. She’s yet to respond to The Londoner’s queries for more details.

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Stats of the day: a YouGov poll on Corbyn versus Smith within Labour shows that 57 per cent of men are pro-Jezza, and 67 per cent of women. The Bernie Sanders Effect?

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