MISSING LINKS

HOW two seemingly unrelated figures in the news are joined by a series of unexpected connections.

CAMERON NORRIE

Britain’s No 1 had an excellent Wimbledon, making the semi-finals in a career-best performance. The 26-year-old ‘feels at home’ in the UK, having lived in several countries since he was born in Johannesburg – also the birthplace of…

BASIL RATHBONE

… despite playing the quintessential Englishman, Sherlock Holmes, in 14 films. In Hollywood, he threw lavish parties. The morning after one, he was having breakfast on the patio when the sprinklers came on, causing a hung-over Errol Flynn to spring from the foliage, bid him a cheery ‘good morning’ and leave. Rathbone served in the First World War, winning a Military Cross, an honour also bestowed on…

WILLIE WHITELAW

Mrs Thatcher’s deputy PM (‘Every Prime Minister needs a Willie,’ she said). He won his MC as a tank commander in Normandy, though he couldn’t always be trusted with weapons: he once peppered a friend in the buttocks while grouse-shooting. Another military hero who proved a menace on the moor was…

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

… who accidentally shot his host Lord Granville, at Wherstead Park in Suffolk. As prime minister, he said after his first Cabinet: ‘An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.’ Monuments honouring him include a statue in Glasgow that always has a traffic cone on its head after the council gave up expensive efforts to remove it. Also seen wearing a traffic cone was…

ALED JONES

… in ITV’s The Masked Singer. A less edifying sight than his illustrious list of stage appearances, including the lead in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. A role also taken by…

JASON DONOVAN

… who has returned to Neighbours for the TV soap’s final episode with Kylie Minogue. In the swansong, airing on Channel 5 on July 29, their characters, Scott and Charlene, go back to Ramsay Street after more than 30 years to say: ‘We’re home.’