MY HEROES & VILLAINS OF THE YEAR
Fleabag and Old Testament Ted join J.K. Rowling and Boris in this annual reckoning — but John Bercow, well, you know which YOU are…
OH MY friends, it’s been a long, hard year. Brexit, a General Election, Cats the movie, Prince Andrew, Greggs vegan sausage rolls, and the celebrity version of The X Factor. How did we survive such unabated horror? As we stride through the darkness into the dawn of a new year, here are my heroes and villains of 2019. Those who somehow made us glad to be alive despite the distress — plus those who made us flee for the hills . . .
PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE
This was her year. And that joyous fact was captured in an inspirational photograph taken after she won a clutch of Emmy awards for Fleabag in september.
PWB was surrounded by her trophies, wearing a glorious dress while holding a cocktail and smoking a cigarette.
Fleabag may have started as a scruffy little one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival, but it ended up propelling Phoebe WallerBridge to hollywood and beyond. she proved to hopefuls everywhere that small ideas can turn into big dreams if you’re prepared for the hard work.
J.K. ROWLING
FEW celebrities have dared to speak out about the gender debate, but J.K. Rowling is not one of them. Recently she tweeted support for Maya
Forstater, who lost her job for expressing a not unreasonable view that human beings cannot change sex and that transwomen remain, despite their expressed gender identity, essentially male.
For this, Forstater was sacked from her job with the Centre for Global Development think-tank — and then, unthinkably, lost an employment tribunal.
J.K. Rowling (left) disagreed that the way forward in this fraught topic was to ‘force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real’. The abuse has been awful, but her truth endures. More must speak out to stop this nonsense and bullying
by the trans lobby.
THE QUEEN
O COME all ye faithful, for my love for this incredible woman does not dim. At the age of 93, her Majesty has been forced to contend with some of the biggest crises of her 67-year reign.
‘The path is not always smooth,’ was how she put it, with characteristic understatement, in her Christmas broadcast.
None of the rocks in the road is her fault, of course.
her idiot son Andrew, her hot-headed grandson harry and his modernising wife, plus the declining health of her husband, have all added up to another annus horribilis.
Yet still she endures, with grace, strength and not a trace of selfpity. Many royals could still learn from her example.
KATHERINE JENKINS
EARliER this month, darling Katherine went to the rescue of an elderly woman being mugged by two teenage girls in Chelsea, West london.
The classical singer scared off the muggers by singing an a cappella version of Time To say Goodbye.
NO shE DiD NOT! This is not a joking matter.
KJ showed considerable personal courage by stepping in to help and was subsequently mugged herself.
Not everyone is courageous enough to intervene in such situations, so hats off to Katherine; mother, saint, slayer of muggers, diva and doll.
Classical music runner-up: in another act of reckless operatic bravery, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa wore a skirt made from a sheet to present the BBC Cardiff singer of the World award in June. The £20 hydrangea-print flat sheet was from Zara home and has now sold out, thank goodness.
SUPT TED HASTINGS
NO JAN-hERO-lisT could be complete without an appearance by Old Testament Ted from line Of Duty (BBC One).
supt Ted hastings (Adrian Dunbar) has been the true north in the cop show’s moral compass
for five series now, rooting out bent coppers with zeal, nerves of irish steel and no little appeal.
LOD was one of the biggest shows on tV this year, with more than 13.5million tuning in to find out if ted was a bad egg himself, or being framed by darker forces.
it turned out that lawyer Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) was the rotten apple in the bent cop barrel. Mother of God, it was her all along!
She was the devious plotter trying to seduce/frame ted to get him kicked off the force and have his beloved Ac-12 unit shut down. Why? ‘it’s complicated,’ she shrugged.
LONDON BRIDGE HEROES
On nOVeMBer 4, the Uk terrorism threat level was reduced from ‘severe’ to ‘substantial’ for the first time since 2014. Before the month was out, convicted terrorist Usman khan murdered two people and injured more on a rampage in London.
the death toll would have been much worse had not members of the public stepped in to help.
they included civil servant Darryn Frost who held off knifeman khan with a narwhal tusk he’d grabbed from the wall in Fishmongers’ Hall where the attack started, and former prisoner John crilly who wielded a fire extinguisher.
these men could not have known, as they pursued him across London Bridge, that khan’s suicide belt was fake. Both are to receive bravery awards. And a nation’s grateful thanks, too.
BORIS JOHNSON
HeAr me out. Prime Minister Boris may have his critics, but he was there when we needed him. Over one of the most fractious years in politics this country has ever seen, it was Boris who pulled us through.
After years of doom and theresa May gloom, the electorate responded in kind to Johnson’s determination, confidence and optimism.
He romped home with a majority. Alone among leaders of other parties, he understood that people are still proud to be British and love their country.
Boris is not just a hero, he saved us from an alternative too awful to contemplate.
MORECAMBE AND WISE
StiLL crazy after all these years — and still the funniest thing on television this christmas. the only show that comes close are the old repeats of Father ted.
could everyone please try harder in 2020?