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Revisiting a favourite book can sometimes backfire. For instance, I used to rank Wodehouse’s Laughing Gas amongst my very favourites, until that is, I re-read it. Second time round I struggled to finish it and yet once I had thoroughly enjoyed Plum’s trans-atlantic romp, his variation of the prince and pauper theme. Times change. So too does taste it seems. Such is not the case with Burmese Days, Orwell’s novel of intrigue, adventure and romance set amid the dying embers of t

City boy (Manchester) goes to rural Wales to live with confirmed bachelor uncle – that’s the premise of Alick Rowe’s 1984 8-part drama Morgan’s Boy, and it’s one that creates more than its fair share of drama. Before it descended into the political pressure group of modern times, the BBC used to produce superb drama. Morgan’s Boy was a case in point. Lee (Martyn Hesford) is a troubled teenager. Like many others of his age, he has a chip on his shoulder which makes the charact

In January 1993 Jean-Claude Romand slaughtered his entire family: his parents, wife and two children. It was the inevitable – from his perspective – culmination to a double life whereby for eighteen years he had lived a total lie. Romand had somehow managed to convince family and friends he held a position of authority in the WHO, one of its top medical consultants no less. It was all a lie; Romand was in fact a real-life Walter Mitty, a dreamer, a fantasist and ultimately, a