The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
COULD you tell me please is Judge Rinder a real judge?
Mrs J Collins, Northampton NOT quite. Robert Rinder, who appears as Judge Rinder in the TV reality courtroom series, is a criminal law barrister and has specialised in international fraud and money laundering cases.
Apart from his legal and television achievements he was also one of the best men at Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s wedding in 2015.
I SHOULD like to know about the creation of the Christ the Redeemer monument. I believe someone once made a parachute drop from its outstretched arms.
AWF Hammett, Dorchester, Dorset THE Christ the Redeemer statue, created by French sculptor Paul Landowski, overlooks Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It took nine years to construct, with various engineers involved in the project before it was finally finished in 1931.
In December 1999, daredevil Austrian parachutist Felix Baumgartner made a freefall base jump from the statue’s right hand.
To avoid detection, he had hidden near the statue overnight and at dawn fired a cable from a crossbow over the right arm of the statue and climbed up to the outstretched hand.
Since he only had about 29 metres (95 feet) to fall, this left him with only about one second to open the parachute.
I SEEM to recollect a television programme in the late 1950s about a family called The Appleyards shown on a Saturday afternoon, or have I dreamt it up?
R. Worley, London YOU’RE quite right, except for one small thing. The Appleyards was a sort of children’s soap opera broadcast from 1952 to 1957. But it was shown on Thursdays, not Saturdays, from 4.30-5pm and was repeated on Sundays.
The early programmes were shown live and not recorded. All but one of the later programmes were wiped.
The Sunday repeats were not re-transmissions of recorded programmes but live programmes in which the cast repeated what they had done three days before. CAN you tell me about the music preceding the late night Shipping Forecast on Radio 4? I have never heard about this music and would love to know what it is so that I can get a recording. It is such a beautiful tune.
Mrs R Vernon, Glasgow THE music is called Sailing By and was composed in 1963 by Ronald Binge. Originally it was used to fill in the time, which often varied, between the end of the midnight news and the start of the Shipping Forecast on the radio.
Many people have admired it for its calming effect, including Jarvis Cocker who chose it as one of his Desert Island Discs in 2005.
It is included in several compilations of music by Ronald Binge or BBC theme tunes.
WHY are potatoes called “spuds”?
Maureen Cunningham, British Columbia, Canada THERE are various fanciful accounts of the origin of the word, including one that refers to a supposed Society for the Prevention of an Unwholesome Diet, but the truth is very much more mundane.
Before the word was used for a potato, which was around the 1840s, a “spud” was the name given to a variety of short-handled tools, possibly as a variation of the word “spade”.
Samuel Pepys in 1677 referred to a “spudd” as a digging implement and in the 19th Newgate Museum Cutlery Clock, £45. 0800 587 7645/ amara.com This rich red clock with a charming cutlery design would be a perfect addition to any kitchen. Composite wood with a paper dial. by century it became a digging fork, usually with three prongs, which was particularly associated with digging up potatoes.
From there it was only a short step to referring to the potatoes themselves as spuds. WHAT is the music in the background for the TV advert for Boots No7 – Lift And Luminate anti-ageing cream which shows a ballerina dancing with her younger self? Norman Eggett, Bourne, Lincolnshire IT IS an amazing advert, isn’t it? The dancer is Alessandra Ferri, who became a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet aged 19. Footage of her dancing at that age was used to create a hologram which is used in the advert alongside film of her dancing at 52, her age when the ad was shot.
The music is Way Down We Go by Icelandic indie band Kaleo, though in the original film from which her 19-year-old self was created she was dancing in Prokoviev’s Romeo And Juliet. Kitchen Craft Copper Finish Clock, £19.99. 0344 822 2321/very. co.uk A really cool clock made from plastic and metal. With a matching kettle, titanium knife block and DAB radio also available. inaccurate please go to www.express.co.uk/contactus where you will find an easy to use form. Alternatively you can write to Readers Editor, Daily Express, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN. We will do our best to correct it as soon as possible.
If you have a complaint concerning a breach of the Code please go
Is there anything you can’t answer? Try us! You can ask a question:
By email:
put “questions” in the subject line and send your question to william. hartston@express.co.uk
to Any Questions, c/o William Hartston, Daily Express, Number 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN
We cannot promise replies to everyone but the best will feature on this page.
By post:
CLOCKS WITH CHARACTER
to www.express.co.uk/contactus where you will find our complaints policy and procedure. Alternatively, once you have established that your complaint falls within the complaints procedure, you can put your complaint in writing to Complaints, Daily Express, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN.