The Saturday briefing
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
Q
Desert Crown won the Dante Stakes then followed it up by winning the Derby. How many other horses have achieved this magnificent feat?
Michael Parker, Evesham, Worcs
A
Eleven horses have achieved that double – winning the Dante Stakes, run over a mile and a quarter at York in May, and The Derby, run over a mile and a half at Epsom in June.
The first time it was done was by St Paddy in 1960, ridden by the incomparable Lester Piggott, who died in May.The others were Shirley Heights (1978), Shahrastani (1986), Reference Point (1987), Erhaab (1994), Benny The Dip (1997), North Light (2004), Motivator (2005), Authorized (2007), Golden Horn (2015) and this year’s Desert Crown (2022).
The Dante is a good test for the Derby, Britain’s richest flat race and one of the Queen’s favourites – although it is the only one of the five classics she has not won as an owner. Just four days after her coronation in 1953, Her Majesty attended the Epsom Downs racecourse to cheer on her first runner in the Derby. Aureole, bred by her father, King George VI, came in second, which is the closest Her Majesty has come to winning there.
Q
Can you settle an argument? Did Britain invent deckchairs?
Amy Harrison, Northenden, Manchester
A
Macclesfield can lay claim to being home of the first deckchair, with John Thomas Moore taking out a patent for portable folding chairs in 1886, and making them in the Cheshire town.
He had two types: the Waverley, billed as the “best ship or tennis chair”, and the Hygienic, a rocking version, which was “valuable for those with sluggish and constipated bowels”, its action a “perfect massage without the toilsome labour”.
The canvas was originally an olive green, with the stripes coming later.
Deckchairs were popular during ocean liner travel’s golden age
– six survived the sinking of the Titanic, with one selling at auction for £100,000 in 2015.
The style of chair soon spread to our beaches, piers and parks and also popped up at sporting events.
In 2004, Blackpool Council had 68,000 deckchairs available to
hire, at £1.50 a day. But they were phased out, with the council selling its stock in 2014.
But last summer, as staycations rocketed, they returned to the front, with many in tangerine stripes to match Blackpool Football Club’s colours.
Q
Was Michael Peterson paid for his story in Sky series The Staircase, starring Colin Firth? Patrick Geary, East Kilbride
A
In 2001, US author Michael Peterson’s wife Kathleen died on their staircase in North Carolina. Peterson claimed she had fallen, but in 2003 he was jailed for life for murder.
He was the subject of a 2004 documentary, directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, and freed in 2017 at a retrial after entering an Alford plea, where a defendant can plead guilty yet still maintain their innocence.
A notoriety-for-profit law came into force after the Son of Sam murders, when it was feared killer David Berkowitz was going to cash in with a book deal.
It aims to stop criminals profiting from their crimes and has been used to block royalties against John Lennon’s killer, Mark Chapman.
Peterson has released two memoirs, but all profits go to charity. He says he has made no money from either TV series, and was not involved with the Sky show, starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, and has been deeply critical of it.
De Lestrade did receive an undisclosed sum for releasing his footage to Antonio Campos, the maker of the new series.
De Lestrade argues it was a public story anyway, so they didn’t even need to buy the documentary rights to have Peterson and his family in the show.
Peterson, now aged 78, lives alone in a ground floor flat.
Makers of true-crime shows stay tight-lipped about cash changing hands, but no fees appear to have been paid to “stars” including “Tiger King” Joe Exotic and Steven Avery from Making A Murderer, although expenses are often paid.
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