MISSING LINKS

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

KATE BUSH

…has topped the charts with Running Up That Hill, 37 years after its release, after featuring in Netflix hit Stranger Things. When she met the Queen at a 2005 Buckingham Palace reception, the singer broke protocol by asking for an autograph, a faux pas also committed by…

DENNIS LILLEE

…who whipped out a pen and paper in 1977, prompting the Queen to reply: ‘Not now.’ On a subsequent encounter the cricketer greeted the Monarch with the quintessentially Australian: ‘G’day, how ya’ goin’.’ Lillee also features in a pop song, as Men At Work’s No Restrictions has the line: ‘Hear the cricket calling, switch on the TV / Sit and stare for hours, and cheer Dennis Lillee’. In their hit, Down Under, the band also namechecked…

VEGEMITE

…the Marmitelike spread, which is banned from prisons to stop inmates extracting its yeast to make alcohol. Other items that have been prohibited include chewing gum (which can clog up locks), Christmas cards with glitter (in case they are laced with drugs) and…

CHARLIE BROWN

A Christmas pop-up book about the Peanuts cartoon character was banned in Texas jails (while Hitler’s Mein Kampf was allowed) as guards feared contraband could be hidden inside. Actors who have voiced Charlie Brown on film include…

MEL BLANC

…albeit indirectly. Animators borrowed the grunt he made for Daffy Duck lifting a rock in a 1965 Looney Toons cartoon to show Charlie struggling with a barbell in a later TV show. Blanc’s headstone bears his words ‘That’s all folks!’ and can be seen at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, last resting place of scores of stars including…

JAYNE MANSFIELD

…the former beauty queen (‘Miss Fire Prevention Week’ among others) who once won a Hollywood award for musical performance, as judges didn’t realise her voice had been so bad that singer Connie Francis was hired to overdub it. A similar fate happened to…

GEORGE CLOONEY

…on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, where even the actor admitted his singing was ‘just terrible’. Currently, he’s behind the camera, making headlines as he directs rowing film The Boys In The Boat on the Thames.