Lesser is More

I QUESTIONED the peculiar shape of Beth's pregnancy bump in Broadchurch (ITV). A reader explains: "I have connections with Dorset and medicine-ball smuggling was a family tradition."

A MORE intriguing question is why the first series of Broadchurch was so good and this second series is poor. I suspect the answer is that the TV company was taken unawares by the success of the first series and rushed the next episodes into production. Film in haste, repent at leisure.

THERE is no bromance between Dave and Barack. The "Special Relationship" between the US and UK is a term not even recognised in the States. America's oldest ally is France, not Britain. Once Dave flew back to Britain, most of the White House staff will have forgotten who he was or where he came from. When will our rulers understand how hideously embarrassed most British people are by Downing Street constantly sucking up to Washington?

LESSER is More. You may recall this time last year I found myself at Stratford theatre sitting next to one of my screen heroes, the actor Anton Lesser who is probably best known as the deliciously hateful Superintendent Bright in Endeavour (ITV). The Stratford show was the RSC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Lesser said it was one of the best things he'd seen on stage. A year whizzes by and tonight the BBC launches its own version of Wolf Hall. And who should be playing the chief villain, Thomas More, but Anton Lesser? I bet he does a brilliant job.

INSURANCE premiums go up and up but the absolute basics of customer care get worse. A friend has just renewed her car insurance. The company does not even supply a policy booklet. If you want to study the small print you have to find it online. My home insurance has gone the same way. The simple business of picking up a printed leaflet has been replaced with an endless trawl through cyberspace with countless links. You can, of course, print the document off as a hard copy but why should the customer have to? Is it not the legal duty of insurers to supply us with relevant information in the most accessible form? Or does keeping the policy document in cyberspace mean the insurance company can update the terms and conditions without the customers finding out?

A FRIEND, having avoided the festive season's practical jokes, from presents in crackers to plastic canine faeces, arrived home to find a huge dog poo on the living-room floor. Well, he wasn't going to be fooled by what was clearly a prank. You don't want to hear the rest.

I WAS surprised to see the council offices in Oxfordshire reduced to ashes in an alleged arson attack, and to hear officials lamenting the loss of personnel and planning files in fire-wrecked computers. Surely all important files were saved on remote hard drives or in the Cloud? And aren't all modern offices fitted with sprinklers which are regularly tested? All will presumably be revealed.

A READER wonders what foreigners make of some English sayings. Her mother was a born and bred Brummie. If ever she was asked where she was going and didn't want to tell, she would say: "To Catney Nip to see them put the pig on the wall." Apparently it was something her own mother used to say.

AND does anyone know where the expression "I'll go to the foot of our stairs" comes from?