Massive Attack and Portishead: Glory Box

Meet the Phelpses

Continuing on the theme of strange American families. Louis Theroux recently met this bunch, who call themselves 'the most hated family in the America':

In any country, let alone one as patriotic as the US, few actions are as provocative as protesting at a soldier's funeral.

The Phelps family pickets mourners across the country, to mark what it describes as God's revenge on the US for tolerating homosexuality.

Their actions are in the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers 71 and is headed by "Gramps", preacher Fred Phelps. The church, which is based in Topeka, Kansas, mostly comprises his extended family.

Louis Theroux says the Phelpses are the most extreme people he has ever met, which is saying something, and in this interview at the BBC, he talks about how three weeks with them left him perplexed by their motivation.

The family have been in the news recently after the church was ordered to pay nearly $11 million to the the father of a fallen soldier whose funeral was the subject of one of their protests.

And just to add a final element of weirdness to this whole thing, they have a website too: www.thesignsofthetimes.net

Here's an extract from Louis Theroux's program which was originally aired earlier this year:

The Golden Compass

Channel 4 Says Sorry to Stoke

And not just for endless reruns of 'Friends' on E4:

Channel 4 has apologised to the mayor and people of Stoke-on-Trent for saying it had a homelessness problem.

In Location, Location, Location last week the show claimed that one-in-five of the city's families were homeless, a claim its mayor rejected.

The channel has now apologised on its website, admitting there was an error.

The rundown of the best and worst places to live named Stoke as the 13th worst. Producers said the homeless figures did not affects its ranking.

A profile about the city on the Location, Location, Location section of the channel's website previously said Stoke was "one of the most depressed - and depressing - areas in the country".

It said: "Nearly one-in-five families here is officially homeless - stuck in B&Bs and hostels."

The full article at the BBC can be found here.

Caleb Samuel Bettany... er, I mean Bassford

I can't wait to meet you Baby Caleb!

The Other Famous Bettany

Who remembers the notorious Michael Bettany, who was convicted of treason and sentenced to 23 years in 1984? First off, I should mention, he's not related to us!

He is, however, apparently still around, having been paroled in 1998. There's not a lot of information about him on the web but there is a short article at Wikipedia , a reference at the BBC and I did find a PDF document, the gist of which goes as follows:

One of the most recent examples of bungling concerned the case of Michael Bettany, convicted as a spy in 1984. He was the stuff of which Messiahs, not spies. are made. After enjoying a sudden conversion to Roman Catholicism at the age of sixteen, he went to university where he was defiantly traditionalist, refusing to make any concessions in clothes or manners to the 1960s generation. Because of his old fashioned ways he did not enjoy much success with the girls, but consoled himself by listening to Hitler's Nuremberg speeches on record. A friend recalled, "He was easily goaded and if ever rebuked he would storm off, goose-stepping and cursing in fluent German.

MI5 snapped him up as being just the man for them. During the summer of 1982 perhaps tiring of Roman Catholicism and Nazism, Bettany became a Communist. In October of that year he was arrested and fined on a drunk and disorderly charge in central London. The policeman reported that when he came up to Bettany. Our hero babbled, "I am a spy. I am a spy". Within days Bettany was in court again for failing to pay a railway ticket fine. If a police officer in Britain were to be found guilty of a criminal offence, he would automatically be suspended from duty and quite probably dismissed. Bettany's superiors at MI5 decided not to follow the example of the British Bobbies. Within two months, he was promoted to the ultra-sensitive 'Russian desk'. Four months later, Bettany was caught attempting to pass information to the Russians who, suspecting a ham-fisted attempt by MI5 to implicate embassy staff in London had ignored him.

My favourite line: "I am a spy. I am a spy"!

Interestingly I also found an article written by the KGB officer who turned Michael in, Oleg Gordievsky. He describes Michael as "the traitor who offered his services to the KGB..." Slightly rich coming from the man who, himself, turned double agent. More on Oleg here.

One for you, Howard