The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
CAN you tell me if Max Hill QC, who was recently appointed Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, is related to the comedian Harry Hill? The resemblance is uncanny.
C Pope, Isle of Wight DESPITE both of them being bald and wearing glasses they are not related. In fact Harry Hill’s real name is Matthew Keith Hall. Also, neither of them was related to Benny Hill, whose real surname was Hill but his first names were Alfred Hawthorn. OVER the last few months my husband David and I have been watching an old police series called Scotland Yard on the Talking Pictures TV channel introduced by Edgar Lustgarten. It has made us wonder, what happened to the old Scotland Yard building and the Whitehall 1212 phone number?
Jean Baines, Wigan, Lancashire THE old Scotland Yard building is currently being transformed into a megaexpensive, Abu Dhabi-owned luxury hotel. The Whitehall 1212 number, dialled as WHI 1212, which was introduced in 1934, was retained in use for non-emergency calls until 1966 when all-figure dialling was introduced.
The WHI, which was previously dialled as 944, then changed to 930 but when the 020 code was introduced in 2000 the number for New Scotland Yard became 020 7230 1212, so at least we can say that the 1212 has never changed.
FOR years I believed Akim Tamiroff in Sleeping Car To Trieste said the following line: “My life is worth nothing beyond Zagreb.” But now I found he was not in the film. Can you help me?
Louis Woolfson, by email I BELIEVE you are thinking of the line spoken early in the film by the mysterious Zurta, played by Albert Lieven: “We shan’t reach Zagreb. We shan’t reach Trieste either. Beyond Trieste I’m a wanted man. If I want to stay alive I have to leave the train before we reach Trieste.”
Sleeping Car To Trieste was made in 1948 and was a spy tale featuring a stolen diary and a murder on the Orient Express, though it long pre-dated all the films of the Agatha Christie story of that name. REGARDING the film The Glenn Miller Story, my friend and I both know who played the title role but we’d like to know who played his wife. Can you help? Graham Roe, Penzance, Cornwall THE role of Helen Burger Miller was played by June Allyson who starred in a number of girl-next-door roles in Hollywood films of the 1940s.
She was cast opposite James Stewart in several films in the 1950s, including The Glenn Miller Story. In 1955 she was named the second most popular female star after Grace Kelly. WE have heard a great deal about the little boats involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk and I have been wondering whether a particular paddle steamer I worked on was part of it. It was called the PS Consul and operated out of Weymouth, Dorset when I served on it in 1953. I’m just curious whether my little ship was of any use all those years ago. D Bickerstaff, South Morang, Victoria, Australia THE Paddle Steamer Consul began life in 1896 as the Duke of Devonshire and it served as a minesweeper during the First World War. In 1938 it was sold to Cosens & Co for service out of Weymouth and its name was changed to PS Consul. It was not used at Dunkirk, though its sister ship PS Empress of India did play by a part in the evacuation. She was scrapped in 1968. DIDN’T you make a mistake in describing a hole-in-one at a par four as a “condor”? (Saturday Briefing last week). A hole-in-one on a par four is three under, which is an albatross. You need a hole-in-one on a par five for a condor. David Platt, by email (and many
others) YOU’RE quite right of course. My arithmetic was awful (which is shameful for someone with a maths degree).
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