Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Our food is seen as a joke outside our borders
Plans for a major Government-led export drive for British food and drink were unveiled at the NFU’s virtual conference this week. Not before time, Bridgwater and West Somerset Conservative MP tells Defra Secretary George Eustice
and decided that this man was the governor. As well as Graeme, Bill and myself, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were there that night and we were all crying with laughter.”
In 1970, Graeme, Tim and Bill would form The Goodies, an act that was heavily influenced by silent, slapstick comedy.
The Goodies television series ran from November 1970 to February 1982 on BBC2, with 70 episodes being made in all. Visual invention was a particular hallmark, with the team…
“We’ve always said that our main influences were Buster Keaton and Tom and Jerry,” laughs Graeme.
“We did a lot of silent, live action cartoon humour – that’s what appealed to us all.
“The Goodies’ episode The Movies has a lot of my favourite stunts, including our recreation of Keaton’s house falling around him. The Goodies and the Beanstalk also has some memorable moments, especially being divebombed by geese. In the days before computer-generated images it all had to be for real, with dummy geese on wires dropping egg
bombs on us. Tim seemed to get the most dangerous stunts and uncomfortable costumes. This was mainly because Bill and I were writing the scripts!”
Tim and Graeme were pals for over 60 years, and Tim will be much missed by Graeme, the Slapstick Festival
team and, of course, the audience.
So it is fitting that the online festival will conclude on Sunday, March 7 with the release of 47 Years Without A Clue, featuring Tim, shot at Bristol Old Vic during last year’s Slapstick Festival. At the time of the recording, nobody could have guessed that the world was about to be plunged into a global pandemic nor that we would be losing one of our best-loved comic talents.
“I have many very happy memories of Tim,” says Graeme.
“He was a joy to watch at work, and a delightful companion.
“However, I used to tease him about the fact that he was forever losing things – glasses, phone, passport, script, whatever. On tour once, I found him pacing the hotel foyer muttering ‘I can’t believe I left it behind!’ I said ‘What have you forgotten this time?’ He said ‘My suitcase!’.”
■ Graeme Garden’s Comedy Heroes: with Rob Brydon takes place on Wednesday, March 3 and Encore! 47 Years Without A Clue on Sunday, March 7. Visit www.slapstick.org.uk
Ian Liddell-Grainger
DEAR George, ‘Considerably bucked’ is the term which best expresses my mood after reading of the new Government-backed food and drink export campaign this week. Tempered, perhaps, by ‘puzzled’ – relating to my wondering why it has taken quite so long for something of this nature to be initiated.
You are absolutely right when you say British farm produce is worldclass and I can only applaud any genuine effort to ensure more of the rest of the world gets to try it and buy it.
Partly as a result of the industrialisation of our production, British food was, indeed, nothing much to shout about until the last 40 years or so. But then came the stirrings of the Great British Food Revolution, a surge of interest in local and regional foods and the spread of farmers’ markets: in short the creation of a whole new food culture within the space of a few decades.
Now we both know what a cornucopia of outstanding food and drink comes out of the South West, which I have always been told contains the highest concentration per square mile of specialist food producers anywhere in Europe.
At the same time despite the quality of the produce, the enthusiasm and skill of the producers and the brave efforts of organisations such as Taste of the West, opening up trade with the rest of the UK has been enough of a struggle, let alone tapping into the export market. All, sadly, as a result of a conspicuous lack of government enthusiasm or involvement.
Part of the problem we face is that our outdated reputation goes before us. British food is still regarded as something of a very bad joke by many other countries: a very unfortunate rating particularly since it is largely based on the food we were eating here after the war when in many instances we were scrimping and going short partly to ensure other war-torn areas were kept fed.
The result now is that any mention of British food abroad tends to be met with sniggering, shaking of the head and a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Cross over to our nearest neighbour, for instance, and the only manifestation of British produce you are likely to see in a supermarket (apart from the occasional token presence of a piece of cheddar) is a jar of Marmite, a bottle of Lea and Perrins or a packet of McVities digestives – all of course comfort food for the expats.
I was particularly heartened to recently read Raymond Blanc’s confession that he was 65 before he was introduced to British brown sauce (in a bacon butty) and was absolutely knocked out by it – particularly when he discovered all the ingredients were entirely natural.
There speaks someone who has become a real champion of British food and drink, proving the point as to how British produce is so woefully underrated outside our borders.
Although they are content to hoover up the shellfish caught in British waters the French, largely, have no idea we produce the world’s best smoked salmon, refuse to believe we are world leaders in cider production, and absolutely scoff at the notion that our sparkling wines are regularly knocking the chaussettes off champagne in international tastings.
I sincerely hope this new initiative can gather up a metaphorical hamper of British food and drink and hawk it round overseas markets so we can claim our rightful spot on the world’s gastronomic map.
Yours ever,
Ian
RURAL communities are facing a rise in fly-tipping as local councils dealt with nearly a million cases of dumped rubbish in the year up to March, 2020, up slightly on the previous year, the latest official figures show.
England’s rural areas are suffering a “fly-tipping farm-aggedon” with increased illegal rubbish dumping on agricultural land, even before the pandemic, district councils have warned in the wake of the figures.
Overall, the data for England shows there were 976,000 incidents of illegal waste dumping dealt with by local authorities in 2019/20, up 2% on the previous year.
The figures do not show the impact on fly-tipping of the pandemic, which saw municipal dumps closed, disrupted some waste collections, and forced people to stay home where many turned to spring cleaning, gardening and DIY.
The 2019/20 period covered by the figures published by the Environment Department (Defra) only includes the first week of the first lockdown, introduced on March 23 last year. But surveying of councils by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (Adept) in the past year show many have seen higher levels of fly-tipping.
The District Council Network (DCN) of 187 local authorities across England said its members had seen a major increase in incidents on farmland in recent years – and it had become a growing target for fly-tippers in the past year. Fly-tipping on agricultural land in district council areas increased 80% from 888 in 2012/13 to 1,600 in 2019/20, while total incidents in districts rose from 173,000 to 209,000 for the same period, the figures show.
Dan Humphreys, the DCN’s lead member for enhancing quality of life, said: “We are seeing this becoming more and more of an issue in the countryside, with rural communities experiencing what is tantamount to a fly-tipping farm-aggedon.”
He called for Government funding certainty to help district councils “wage war on fly-tippers”, and for sentencing guidelines to be reviewed
Rural communities are experiencing what is tantamount to a flytipping farm-aggedon DAN HUMPHREYS, DCN
so courts can be tougher on those found guilty of the more serious offences.
The official data shows that even before the pandemic, general fly-tipping of household rubbish was on the rise, with 632,000 incidents in 2019/20 – up 7% from 588,000 cases in 2018/19.
Household rubbish accounts for nearly two-thirds (65%) of the waste illegally dumped, while fly-tipping most commonly occurs on pavements or roads, making up more than two-fifths (43%) of incidents.
The most common size of fly-tips, accounting for more than a third (34%) of cases, is a small van-load of illegally tipped rubbish, followed by incidents the size of a car boot-load or less (28%).
There were 33,000 incidents where the rubbish dumped was the size of a tipper lorry-load or larger, down 8% on the previous year, but still costing £10.9 million for councils to clean up.
Enforcement actions, including fixed-penalty notices, were down slightly last year on 2018/19, but the number of court fines handed out was up 30% in a year, and the total value increased 7% to £1.17 million, the figures show.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “Fly-tipping is completely unacceptable and these cynical offenders need to know that councils are taking increasing action and that they face on-the-spot fines of £400 or up to five years in prison if convicted in court.”
She said that the number of fixedpenalty notices issued had increased by a third since 2016 and prosecutions had doubled in the same period.
“We are committed to tackling waste crime even further, but there is more that we must all do,” she said.
“Everyone has a legal duty of care when handling waste, and all householders and businesses must ensure that they pass their waste to licensed carriers, as failure to do so could result in a £400 fine,” Ms Pow added.