2069 Another sporting weekend, some technology triumphs , a film find and a film disappointment and the Eurosong contestxt

Phew WoW success, I can relax after three hours last night and three hours this morning in digital gymnastics. It is just before 1 pm on Saturday May 14th 2011 on great weekend sports day. I am listening now to Sunderland playing Wolves in the lunchtime kick off while waiting to see if Andy Murray is to play Djokovic in the first semi final of the Rome Masters (Tennis) and great it is on this evening at 7. I can therefore keep one eye on the build up to the 3 pm cup final between Man City and Stoke where my loyalties are divided but In think on balance I will for Stoke as the underdogs compared to the multi million club that Man City has become, and also watch on the game between Manchester United and Blackburn which could decide the Premiership season. I am also checking on the latest cricket scores where Warwickshire had lost eight of points they are likely to win from their just announced 200 run win against struggling arrivals Worcestershire. The consequence of this is that Warwickshire who should have gone ahead of Durham into third place will remain behind and possibly below Sussex in fourth place at present. In the other first division game Yorkshire and Hampshire are in a great tussle with Yorkshire 250 runs ahead with two wickets remain and Hampshire waiting to try and get these runs in the remaining overs of the day. A draw is the most likely outcome. We shall see.

Man United and Sunderland are one down after 30 mins. Sunderland has equalised, Great, with 5 mins before half time. I watch the cup build up programme and then when I check the football scores Sunderland are losing again. Wolves need to win to stay out of the relegation places as Blackpool is winning 4 goals to 3 at home against Bolton. Man U having lost 4 of their last 7 away games are at risk still of losing another. Wolves are now 3.1 at Sunderland and Man United have equalised through a penalty and will win their 19th title if this score remains. It does, Sunderland loses 3.1 and Blackpool maintains the survival fight with a 4.3 win. Nearly time to watch the FAC Cup.

Now to the digital overdose. Over the past couple of months Sky has been advertising Sky anytime plus direct to the TV as well on the Internet and I phone. I telephoned and spoke to customer services assistant that could not help. Then in the monthly news magazine there it was. I had to connect the HD box to the Internet router with a standard Ethernet cable which I had spare from when I was using AOL wireless. My first effort was not successful as I connected the cable via the second Internet slot and not one of the lower slots. Having worked out what I was doing wrong by checking the information on the Sky Anytime Plus internet site visual explanation of what to do, it was lift. One has to press the red button to be in the master programme list. In addition to several hundred films most of which I have already seen or are not my things to experience before I die list there are important programmes from Sky Arts 1 and 2 channels and drama series.

However this only applies to Sky channels and not the BBC, ITV Channels 4 and 5 of which one needs the Internet. I had attempted to re-establish the link via the lap top only to run into problems where for some reason the software application link had altered without my having done anything to cause the variation. I failed at the time to find a solution having gone to the Control Panel Screen and Personalize and then to Display settings and after confirming that the lap top monitor is one and the TV. Late last night I worked out that I had to ignore these windows and move to connecting to another display system and to replicate what was on the laptop to the TV. Hopefully there will not more problems.

Having progressed to this stage I also confirmed that it was possible to have the Desk Top and the Lap Top connected to the Internet at the same time and this prompted to try and sort my other Lap top where I had various problems which I had promised to sort out sometime. There were various tasks and problem solving issues to confront. The main problem was that I was showing Internet connected via Sky and Internet not connected in task bar button at the same time. After finding the Sky installation disk this got the basic information into the laptop system but still there was no internet connects from the Windows explorer which had been up dated as part of 75 updates which were automatically uploaded such was the gap since being on line. I then did a search and found an AOL 9 disk which I uploaded and this did the trick as I came on line, restarted to confirm some more downloads and was still Internet connected via Sky Ethernet cable link. I also downloaded to the lap top the permitted third version of the Norton protection system. The opportunity was taken from housekeeping deleting defunct printer software and the stuff no longer required. Rereading this it barely describes the trial and error processes which were engaged hour after hour.

On Friday I noted that although it is before 10 am I am tired after an early start with a good swim, although interrupted a good night’s sleep and 24 hours which proved much more interesting that was anticipated because of a cold and blustery wind which made working outside uncomfortable and a Durham cricket collapse which made defeat a likelihood.

This morning I wrote it is 10 am another 24 hours later after staying up till midnight wrestling with digital technology and going for a swim but cutting short the exercise and having a sauna in attempt to revive the physical body. Alas I seem to have damaged my right big toe which has become painful after a series of unintentional knocks and I will examine further when I have caught on my writing and other ongoing activities. I visited Morrison’s for salad and found a great offer of three packets of scampi for the price of one at £3.59. I also bought a pack of 4 Haddock steaks for £3 and two packs of 4 Salmon fish cakes at £2 a pack. I also went over to Asda as I fancied a Baguette with the salad and had to ask the assistant for one as none were on display but there was a trolled unit with newly baked ready for wrapping and coding. I then spotted an offer of three of the packs of shell on prawns for £10 instead of £12. If I had thought more I would have obtained three more packs at the reduced price and will go back on Monday morning after the swim. I also bought some packets of liquorish and a jar of olives. The milk was off so I needed to walk to corner shop after returning when coffee beckoned to accompany one of the Danish bought from Asda.

I began yesterday morning with news in the Times which covered more information about the haul of Intel found with Osama bin laden, including his diaries and over 100 flash drives which he used to send emails with couriers taking them to internet cafes. The combined might of the US intelligences services through its Arabic speakers is working feverishly through the material to ensure that any current operational information and network identification is not missed and consequently acted upon. For me this only underlines the failure of the mission to bring him back alive. It is also understood that the Pakistan Army intelligence has apologised to a national Parliament committee for its failure to detect the location of Osama bin Laden under its very nose.

Having found out that the Atlantic channel was moving straight into the second season of the Sopranos I have been looking forward to the first episode all week.

The episode- Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist Office - is clever in the way it summarises the latest situation in a series of brief scenes. Livia Tony’s mother continues to be treated in hospital and in theory is out of the way of Tony’s life and therefore unable to affect him. Uncle Junior and the others arrested are in prison and again in theory unable to affect Tony. The last murder takes places eliminating those who tried to betray Tony one way or another. Psychiatrist Dr Melfi continues to hide away from her office, although she has returned to the area and lives and works from a motel from which she sees some of her patients. Tony’s special crew of Paulo and Silvio enjoy being top dogs buying designer clothes and enjoying the favours of the Bada Bing young women while Tony also enjoys his Russian mistress, being careful to immediate put in the wash any clothes with give away scent when he returns in the early hours.

There are two developments, one of which is to have an influence on the rest of the new season. Tony’s elder sister Janice who he has not seen for 20 years arrives seeking a place to stay and he reluctantly agrees. A family reunion, a barbecue, is organised with the young sister who lives in New York and Carmela’s parents as well as the crew. The two sisters discuss if they will get a fair share from the sale of their mother’s home which has been vandalised while unoccupied and up for sale.

The second is return of Pussy who arrives at Tony’s doorstep apprehensive about his reception. He explains that he went to Puerto Rico to get specialist help for his back problem and did not tell his wife because of a relationship with his female acupuncturist. He admits he became aware that Tony suspected he was the traitor and waited until the coast seemed clear to return. Tony pats him giving him a hug just to make sure he is not wired as previously suspected. However they make up and he is welcome back as a senior member of the family, with Tony saying that apart for some expenses, his taking have been kept for him.

Christopher arranges for someone to take the stocking broking examination for him and is then effectively put in charge of a broking firm which is dealing in a share scam. He is appointed the Securities and Exchange Commission compliance officer in the firm! Two family members find that one of the staff is continuing to give proper advice when Christopher is taking a day time break with his mistress. They pour hot coffee over and then beat up the broker for not doing what he has been told. Tony has to advise Christopher after other employees leave the firm sowing further seeds of Christopher resentment at the way Tony treats him.

Despite everything appearing to be back on track Tony remains anxious about the situation, his mother’s willingness to ask for his killing and believing she is faking her present condition and the return of the sister after an absence of 20 years. He has a panic attack while driving resulting in an accident. He goes to see another psychiatrist under another name but the man has seen the local TV news and has no wish to take Tony on. Much to her horror Tony finds out the location of Dr Melfi and asks to see her. She agrees to do so at a roadside diner, but makes it clear she does not want to have anything more to do with him. Tony tries to reassure her that she is no longer under threat because of the information she possesses about him, and that no one was killed because of this. Carmela had pressed Tony to back into treatment because of his moods and recent behaviour. He returns early, unusually and Carmela offers to heat up a bowl of pasta in the microwave. He asks her to sit with him while he eats and they appear relaxed together. Is this a new era in their relationship? Hmmn.

I enjoyed the music which in addition to the opening credit theme included Frank Sinatra It was a very good year, Time on My Side Irma Thomas and Andres Bocelli’s Con te partiro.

It was then I came across a film gem which I had previously missed. Shrink with Kevin Spacey in the title role as Dr Henry Carter, a celebrity himself because his work with Hollywood: actors, Directors and Studio bosses. He is at the edge of a precipice because his wife had committed suicide which he had no inkling was going to happen. When the film opens his confidant is the man (Jesus played Jesse Plemons) who provides a continuous supply of marijuana in various strengths and flavours. At one point both try the latest available to the market and nearly die as this produced is laced with some poison.

Dr Carter has a young friend where his wife was the god mother and he is one of several family and friends who confronts Carter about his increasingly self destructive ands unpredictable behaviour suggesting he should enter a therapy clinic. This Carter rejects.

As is the custom for all analytical psychiatrists he already has a counsellor with whom he shares his concerns as well as his father, also a psychiatrist Robert Carter. I cannot remember if it is the father or the counsellor who suggests that Kevin should take on a pro bono patient, a black high school girl whose mother has committed suicide who has started to cut classes and to self harm, smashing a fist into a mirror because should could not look at herself. She resists all of Kevin’s efforts to communicate with her until he goes to pieces on TV, mentioning the suicide of his wife and tells people not buy or trust his self help book.

There is an interaction between the girl Jemma (Keke Palmer) and the Godson Jeremy, a script writer, who encounters one of Carter’s other patients, Patrick, who I still believe is a commissioner of films, if not a studio boss, and not just a talent scout as suggested by Wikipedia. He has the big office, a personal assistant and others in studio team treat his statements as magisterial rulings. The personal assistant is another important and connecting character.

Jeremy takes at his word Patrick’s suggestion of sending his script into the office. Jeremy decides to hand the manuscript personally and gives it to the personal assistant who reads and tells him that the studio is already making a film with a similar theme although his script is much better. She invites Jeremy to a party and although heavily pregnant the two appear to beginning a relationship.

Jeremy also learns about the pro bono patient and manages to see the personal file and then a record shop where follows the girl who again skips school and goes to the pictures and then into a record shop where he makes contact and establishes a relationship. He then rite a new film script about the girl which he gives to personal assistant who presses the film mogul to read. It appears that he has not done so and drops the documents in the street just as he is entering the office of Dr Carter as Jemma leaves, picks it up and reads and is horrified at the betrayal of Dr Carter and Jeremy.

However Patrick has read the script and is impressed and convenes a meeting with Jemma and with Dr Carter and Jeremy without telling the latter why until assembled in his office. However these bare facts only begin to tell the tale. Jemma has always found escape from the realities of life by going to the cinema and fixing cinema tickets to her ceiling, she always wanted to be involved in films. In one of the last scenes she is seen in the hills by the Hollywood sign throwing the cinema tickets to the wind accompanied by Jeremy.

Patrick is a high powered neurotic character with a high anxiety about everything from germs to Armageddon who relies on his personal assistant. She is a surrogate mother for her sister and also wants to be a film producer. Patrick fires her saying that after the bird he will employ her as a producer.

Two films stars are also patients with aging actress struggling to keep her career and her relationship. The final scene, I think, is where Dr Carter calls her home after she the partner has left home to say that he has given up the drugs and will not see her again, as a patient!

There is one other character in the film, Robin Williams who plays a famous Hollywood director with a history of tabloid involvements who has become faithful to his wife but has also become an alcoholic which he is unable to admit. He seeks permission from the psychiatrist to be unfaithful again as he believes he has become as sex addict. However when gets the opportunity as a young starlet offers herself to him, he declines commenting that she is only a few years older than his daughter. The film has great wit and is full of one line valid insights into the world of physician heal thyself.

Two years ago when in London I debated going to see An Education but after seeing the Hurt Locker so affected by the film that I could not cope with another cinematic experience on the same day. It is just as well because the film liked by many critics at the time and nominated for three Academy awards including best film and best actress proved a big disappointment when shown on BBC 2 on Friday evening. Some five minutes of cuts were made to fit into a time slot before the 9 pm watershed (from 8.30 to 10pm). The film was a financial success grossing three times its budget, possibly because the media emphasised that this was a film about a come of age story of a 16 year school old girl, a few weeks before her 17th birthday.

My problem is that there was nothing original about the story or the form of expression although it did possess authenticity and overall credibility. The film is based on an autobiographical story published in the Cambridge University magazine Granta by British Journalist Lynn Barber who then wrote her book as the film was in the process of completion.

The girlhood is set in Ealing West London, an area which I came to know well during three years of working there for the local authority. She portrays her family as lower middle class although not boringly so with the splendid Alfred Molina as her determined but gullible father who one suspect would have preferred a boy in a single child couple family. Mother longs to break out from the rigidity and limitations of the relationship but her husband keeps her firmly in his box. As a young man I knew at least three young women from immediate memory in families such as these, who lacked parents with the education and social environment to have equipped their daughter to have avoided some of the pitfall experiences which fortunately Lynn manages to avoid the potentially most damaging aspects such as being locked as gangster’s moll or pregnant before her 18th birthday and perhaps worse of all missing out on an Oxford college Education.

She is picked up at the bus stop in torrential rain after attending a youth orchestra rehearsal by a man a decade older who she subsequently finds is a con man, thief, married with a child and whose basic income comes from Peter Rachman rented housing activities of which I had some first hand knowledge in advising Frank Allaun of a situation in Birmingham which he mentioned in the House of Commons in the Twilight Housing debate and which nearly led to be being asked to leave the Child Care course at Birmingham University in 1963.

He is clever introducing her into new and exciting situations social while persuading her parents to first agree to a late meal returning her home before midnight, to a weekend in Oxford and then a 17th birthday present of a trip to Paris.

When they first meet she is studying hard to gain a scholarship place Oxford which in those day required Latin and sitting a special exam usually taken after exceptional A level marks. She is the pride and joy of the English teacher who tries to warn her against the life she is beginning to lead as does the head teacher. She agrees to be seduced on her 17th birthday and eventually leaves school after accepting an engagement ring. It is only then she finds out he is married with a child and sees his wife and learns she is one in a long line although fortunately not one who has got pregnant.

Realising she was wasting a great opportunity she studies with the help of her English teacher and gains a place at Oxford where the film gives she impression she has met a nice young man who plans to take her Paris a place she would like to go to. This suggest she had an intense enjoyable period of experience before settling into normalcy, This is a betrayal of the truth of character and reality of an intentional attempt to mislead and misrepresent, This cane after what I thoughts was one of the best points in the films when she turns on her parents criticises them for failing to prevent her from making the mistakes having previously shown a wilful determination to have her own way and collude in various deceptions.

The true story is that as with many young women with broken hearts and early sexual experience she used her “maturity” to have a wild time on arrival in Oxford and subsequently admitted on Desert Island discs that she had sex with 50 men over two of her terms at the university. One of her university relationships was with Howard Marks hen at Balliol who later served a seven year prison term in the USA for drug offences. She worked for the soft porn magazine Penthouse also for seven years 1967 to 1974 before starting a family after which she achieved success writing for several national newspapers, winning several press awards and publishing several books. She became a widow in 2003.

I was impressed with the performance of Cary Mulligan as Jenny, the school girl because of its authenticity which struck chords with more than one young woman I knew during my time at Oxford and then subsequently. It is worth mentioning that she was 23/24 when she played the 16/18 year old. She received a BAFTA for the role.

On Saturday evening I switched from Andy Murray after he lost the first set badly and looked as if he was on a thrashing. Britain’s Got Talent auditions continue to be a mixture of the really good, the Ok and the embarrassingly awful. This evening there was a circus types troupe who packed in some amazing stunts in the time available and brought the housed own. There was one nearly naked young women performing Britany Spears song badly flaunting her body provocatively at the judges table and got the proverbial three crosses and strike out while a young woman from Thailand who was also scantily dressed and did an act with lots of British flags which was odd gained a three for vote. There was no one else worth commenting on.

Then to the European Song Context performed this year is former football stadium recreated over six weeks with a roof and a huge back screen, stupendous lighting effects and firework effects. However the choice of music and presentations this year was exceptional and on a different level than recently. It is difficult to take in 24 or 25 songs in one go with performances varying from single passionate numbers I liked the French who came no where in the voting, was not impressed with the British Blue number which scored ten times the number of pints than last time out but still ended in mid table and missed Jedward for Ireland to fared a little better than us. The winner from one former Soviet nation was OK but no more than that. I enjoyed a couple of jazz funky performances and some of the presentations were hot. Apparently we miss the dreaded semi final stage which cuts out a score of other entrants because we put up hard cash up front over £280000 in Euros.

And as for the sport. Murray had the opportunity to win the match twice but failed so that removes the inclination not to go to the cricket and watch the final after the Newcastle game. Manchester the city is all aglow to day at United win their 19th championship and City the F A Cup Final. Such a double has happened in London and possibly on Merseyside with the ascendancy of Liverpool but will never happen now in the Northeast or the Midlands unless there is the emergence of yet another unlimited money man. Newcastle Rugby Union survived a horrendous season managing to avoid relegation by bonus points. In Rugby League Warrington, Huddersfield and Wigan begin to edge away from St Helens and Leeds at the top of the table with Wigan in third having a game in hand and all three the same number of points. In County cricket, Notts Lancs and Warwickshire all have 3 wins with Durham Somerset and Sussex 2 and Lancs the front runner with a game in hand. It is going to be a tight race this year unless someone starts to win back to back or a trio of successive wins, especially against those above or just below. In the 40 over competition Durham must win at home today and away in Edinburgh tomorrow to stand a chance of qualifying for the semi finals later in the season.

1486 Silent Barricade, Newcastle Protest and some politics

My concern with the Republican Convention made me forget about the prospect of flooding in Texas from hurricane Gustav, or to check if the autumn like weather blitz we are experiencing in the UK is connected to the hurricane build up in the Atlantic. After three months where we did not experience consecutive hot days and there were only two, possibly, three spells of consecutive days of sunshine without rain, we now have torrential ain from dawn to dusk and throughout the night. Because the ground has not dried out from what happened two years ago the risk of flooding is always there and while some of the new or improved defences created from two years ago are working we are experiencing local flooding with last night two severe warnings issues and forty others placed on alert.

It rained all day yesterday, Washing out cricket at Durham, elsewhere and this morning although there is no rain at this moment more is promised which not only ruled out play today but possibly tomorrow when an important 40 40 match was scheduled.

Yesterday's rain dampened the level of protest outside the Newcastle football stadium but this did not prevent the future of the club and the impact on the region dominating local news programmes, filling the back pages of national newspapers where previous managers and players are all give their viewpoints. Because of the resignation at West Ham for similar reason this appears to have become a crucial time for the balance of power between Managers, players and the clubs, as understandably if players know that it is the owner, chairman or director of technical services who is controlling movements in and out they will talk direct and by pass managers thus further weakening their ability to manage the players and build them into a team.

While Mike Ashley the billionaire owner is alleged to be partying on champagne in New York, the most important of players in Newcastle's recent history broke silence and explained why although he would love, really love, to become the manager of Newcastle Football club he would not do so unless he was able to manage the players and just be the head coach. So far there has been only snippets of the interview with Alan Shearer which is to be shown on Saturday on BBC1 where he is already contracted as a football pundit for the weekend review of Premiership matches with highlights. What has been shown is sufficient for everyone to know that he considers the situation which Kevin Keegan found himself as unacceptable. The full interview will be shown tomorrow. There was also an interesting statement from the Football managers Association on what happened when they assisted Keegan at meetings and found they there was not one spokesperson for the club but three, presumably representing the owner, the chairman and Mr Wise, all outsiders to the club and the local population.

Clearly there is concern about how the situation will develop a week Saturday when Hull make their first visit as new entrants to the Premiership. It is important that any demonstrations inside and outside the ground are peaceful and this will be difficult with genuine protestors mingling with serious trouble makers and those wanting to protest within the stadium or just watch a game of football and the world's supports news media in attendance. My own view is that a boycott would be more effective and avoid trouble. I was unsure by what a fan's "representative" had to say in terms of everyone supporting team inside the ground unless he like me is concerned about what will happen if supporters stay outside the stadium while the targets for the protest stay away. He was accompanied at the interview by a well known vicar wearing the Newcastle shirt who previously had sang abide with me in an effort to unite everyone behind the team. My view is that only if one hits Ashley in his pocket will he decided to sell up and which in turn will lead to a new chairman and a director of technical services selected with help by the manager to ensure that they will be able to work as a team and that the manger will have the last word.

Usually they kind of story lasts a couple of days and the media move on to the next big thing, so that events at Man City or Man United only a weekend ago have become history. Conveniently the Manager of West Ham also resigned over the same issue of players bought and sold without having the final word. This is a great coincidence and smacks of the Premiership club owners having got together and developed a policy for the future designed to take control away from manager who will be renamed head coaches. Clearly something had to be done be following the scandals and allegations of Mangers and Clubs involved in bribes and back handers to secure the transfer of particular players but tit is one thing for Managers not to be directly involved in the negotiations about price and player wages and perhaps to have someone separately heading a team, identifying players to be brought into the club in the future. The situation has to change so it is time to man the barricades, metaphorically of course.

The film of the day, The Silent Barricade, a film which I can find nothing about on the internet and which looked as if it was produced during the time when Prague was part of the Russian Communist empire. The film is about the rise of the communist/trade unionist/people against the Germans towards the end of World War II creating barricades and defending them with limited weaponry with the focus on one family where both the adult daughter and teenage son join their father against his wishes and perform heroics, the sun blowing up a tank. Just when the ammunition ends and the German's bring big guns to destroy the barricades and the human resistance, they withdraw. The Russian Tanks arrive to general acclamation.

In the evening I watched the last part of the X Factor preliminaries just as a sixteen year old girl sang a version of a Damien Rice song and got herself into the next round and there was also another young women with great looks, personality and voice who struggled because after practicing for two months she had strained her throat but also impressed. In between here was he annual collection of awfuls some duly primed to behave badly. Big Brother House is reaching its ends of days after a series which failed to create the kind of public interest achieved since it was established. This time there were some redeeming features with a visually disabled participant taking the second prize and the winner a modest and kindly, but determined young woman who nevertheless will disappear from public view along with the £100000 cheque.

At last I had Saturday to look forward to, cricket at Durham if it stopped raining; the Belgium Grand Prix Formula One time trials for the last 5 places on the grid then 11 to 15th and then first ten; Andrew Murray in the Semi Final of the USA open, The Opening ceremony of the Paraplegic Olympic Games; Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England all playing in their first qualifying matches for the World Cup in 2010; and a box office Boxing night if all else fails; and of course I could receive that phone call to say I had won all or a share of the 92 million on offer in the European Lottery.

1342 Princess Diana Inquest and Mr and Mrs Bridges and To the Devil a Daughter

01 .40 April 13th 2008 I have discovered the limits of an individual Blog length as the last part of yesterday's writing could not be fitted and therefore I begin as the system left off.

Friday 20.45 I am tired, discontented, bordering on self pity. It will soon pass. Earlier on regional TV a couple discovered after her marriage that her partner had Huntingdon's disease and that it had been inherited by their two sons, Now she faces the loss of her family over the next decade. There would have been three moments, those stomach churning, feeling sick and helpless moments when the full nightmarish horror of the reality of what was happening occurred to her and to them. How we are able to cope with such experiences governs our destiny. My sympathies go with those who are unable to cope and my admiration with those who can.

21.00.It was then American Idol's a two hour programme raising funds at home and abroad and there were several reminders of what life is actually like for hundreds upon hundreds of thousands. In the finalist's show which followed Michael Johns was eliminated receiving the lowest public vote. It has been a good food day with the second part of the fish platter for lunch, the rest of the smoked salmon and horseradish. prawns from shell, some cold rice pudding, some coffee and one cup of tea, a glass of Marques Lavilla Tempranillo from North East Spain. And you felt sorry for yourself!

22.00 There was one film during the Day, To the Devil a daughter 1976 featuring Nastassja Kinski, the German actress who speaks fluent English, French Italian and Russian fluently in addition to her native German, and who was not harmed by this her second film portrayal as the virgin approaching her 19th birthday who is about to become the devil on earth when she was in fact on sixteen years of age. The previous performance experienced was the 1997 made for TV mini series Bella Mafia. I read Denis Wheatley before seeing the film editions having discovered his writing just before leaving school. This was the second of the Devil rides out, about a priest who switches to dark side after being ex communicated. The priest was played by Christopher Lee, now that was a surprise, and a phlegmatic miscast Richard Widmark, as the "playing with fire", I can take on real black magic believers and practitioners, amateur who in the process of rescuing the maid and saving us all, gets his closest friends played by Honour Blackman and Anthony Valentine killed, with Valentine going up in flames. Denholm Elliot plays Nastassja's father who stands by as his daughter is brought up isolated from the world to fulfil the ambitions of Mr Lee, the disillusioned priest.

00.00 A better prospect appeared to be Mr and Mrs Bridge starring Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, as a middle aged couple coping with the aging process as their three children grow up and leave home, in a Merchant Ivory production which I have seen before but only remembered its highly emotional but quirky ending when it happened, and then had to stay remembering and writing about my own similar experiences.

The couple live in middleclass America and although they are both strong on a conservative view of family life we learn next to nothing about their own family experiences as their grand parents are not shown or referred to, a Hollywood tendency which reflects a great flaw in the American dream, Where have all the grand parents gone, long long time ago? As with all the work of Merchant Ivory there is a calm gentleness as the story unfolds, and in this film nothing much disturbs the equilibrium of the father, although seeing a daughter sunbathe ignites marital passion for his wife and he enjoys in a quiet way the Can Can performed in a Paris tourist spot more than his wife. This appears to be the closest he ever gets to crossing the line or expressing emotions to his wife who longs for someone to share her doubts, fantasies and fears. When his obedient I will do anything for you, you just have to ask secretary" who has never married because no man came close to the standards and integrity of her employer, asks him out for a drink on anniversary of the first meeting, he accepts out of charity oblivious of the significance to her, but after having a little huff she returns to work for his law firm of Bridge.

He discovers that the Black maid (who has worked for then throughout the thirties and into the wartime forties gets mixed up with a male drug pusher, and gets her out of jail where she has spent two hours), that she has a nephew who has the academic ability and wants to go to Harvard, and it is this which shocks him, and tells his wife about, keeping quiet from her, the humiliation of the maid. When his wife's best friend commits suicide he has no understanding of the loss his wife feels or the horror of the predicament which led the woman to break down and take the overdose, " He," the husband, "provided her with everything a woman could want," he bemoans. Joanne Woodward, his real life partner, plays the "I am here at your beck and call wife, who accepts without complaint her maternal role, he abandonment while he is at the office and his need to do his own thing when he returns home. However these are not one dimensional characters. He attends the social functions arranged by his wife although even when they dine at the country club and a tornado passes nearby he insists they continue with their meal while everyone else takes to the cellar. In Paris having brought her on a surprise to England on the Queen Mary Liner en route to Rome and Florence, his wife is taken by a Girl with a Pearl Earring type of portrait being copied at the Louvre and the husband is shocked when the painter asks 450 pre war dollars, saying that the man should get a proper job and paint over weekends, but later he buys the work, against his better judgement as a surprise for his wife, on the day that Germany invades France and they make a hasty return home.

Both their daughters rebel against his approach of what their role in society should be. One escapes to New York to be an actress and well into adulthood keeps from her parents that she is having relationships with men of her choice. The youngest daughter tries to defy her father by marrying someone from the wrong side of the tracks and dropping out of college, but father takes to the young man when he finds he made of the same stock. She subsequently leaves her husband when she finds he is like her father, although in attitude rather than behaviour. The son also tries to rebel, seeking to volunteer rather than be called up, after seeing Battle of Britain pilots on the newsreels and finding his father's souvenirs of World War one experience. It is son who returns home, trains as a lawyer so the firm becomes Brown and Brown and eventually Brown, and Brown and Brown. Mr Brown is the kind of man who as soon as he has a slight heart problem starts to plan for what will happen to his wife if he dies before him, realising she is ill equipped to survive on her own, still trying to control the future, but in the quite way of the traditional English gentleman, unruffled, taking everything else about his life for granted.

And this brings to the moment where the film ends. It is a cold winter's day and the snow falls heavily on a residential community where only children scurry home among the tree lined avenues of spacious family homes in their grounds. Misfortune strikes as the car of Mrs Brown breaks down within the garage making it impossible for her to open either door or get out through the window and no one hears her cries. Soon she gives up and settles to wait until rescued by her husband, or whatever her fate is to be. The film ends as her husband working late as usual and unable to get an response when he rings his wife to say he is working late, assumes she is out shopping or with friends, and subsequently sets off home in the darkness. We learn from the after credits that she is rescued and their life continues as before. They both have trained themselves well for their respective roles in life.

She at least had someone who was able to rescue her, but what of those, such as the woman and her family shown on TV, what if there no rescue. It was impossible for me to go to bed. I remembered situations when good fortune had occurred at crucial moments. And times when it had not. I was in my mid thirties when my car broke down on the A 1 parallel with Nottingham and I was transported by the new AA relay system in stages to London. At one point I was left in a closed garage forecourt just outside London as fog descended. I was left there from about eight o'clock Sunday evening through to 2 am Monday in the thickest fog, without food, drink or warmth. I decided to toot my horn and eventually a police car called and I was able to explain my predicament. It was another half an hour before the AA arrived again but instead of taking me to where I was staying overnight with my birth and care mothers on the outskirts of South London I was taken across London to the North West, to the AA Headquarters to await for the morning shift. It was six am when we arrived and not until eight before the car was left at a garage close to the first destination, and then dropped off at their flat. There was time to have some food, some sleep, wash and change of clothes before completing my journey to a county house in Berkshire where the Department of Health had invited a representative group of the 1974 local Government and Health reorganised directors of social services, for a briefing seminar, commencing with a nice meal and introductory get-together. Usually the talk and drinking goes on until the early hours but I went early to bed. It was a good week but throughout I was haunted, and still am, but that feeling of helplessness, of being alone and forgotten. This contrasted with a similar vehicle break down en route to a holiday destination near St Ives, in Cornwall. Amazingly the car did not come to a stop until reaching a car park, in which was a coach, also from London, en route to within a short taxi ride of the destination and with seats available for all the party. The coach driver could not have been more helpful. I was able to arrange fort eh car to eb repaired and to collect it in order to make the homeward journey. I had a similar piece of good fortunate when my car developed a fault as I approached Leeds on my way to Manchester or Liverpool. I have the details someone, Again I was travelling late in the day to arrive at a hotel for the opportunity to become an assessor for the new National Lottery assessor of applications for Voluntary group grants. I found a 24 hour car park near Leeds central Station and a train so I was able to arrive in time for registration and to pass the assessment to be an assessor. As the car started when I returned made my way home although it required garage work. How one copes or does not cope in such situations is not a constant but depends on previous experience, whether one is alone or with others, and the kind of day, perhaps week one has had beforehand. I could not help think of those situation where what ever the circumstances or personal resources, what happens or what does not is outside of ones control, sometimes out of the control of anyone.


31 March 2008 - Afternoon session
(1.45 pm)(Jury present)
LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Members of the jury, embalming. Embalming can only conceivably be a relevant issue in these proceedings if Diana was pregnant when she died, for it was said that her body was unlawfully embalmed by the French on the instructions of the British Establishment for the express purpose of covering pregnancy. If you conclude that Diana was not pregnant, you can forget about the embalming aspect of the case. I shall deal with the evidence in broad outline very shortly. It is fairly clear. Maude Coujard was the deputy prosecutor on duty on the night of the crash. She told us that she was not involved at all in the decision to embalm Diana's body and her evidence was not challenged. Jean Monceau is a qualified embalmer. He was called to the hospital to apply ice. The body was in an ordinary room and it was very hot. Monceau considered, in his professional judgment, that the body was not presentable with dry ice and there was a need to embalm. Embalming was performed at his suggestion and Keith Moss from the Embassy agreed. Embalming was required for two reasons: first, to prevent decomposition and, second, for the presentation of the body. Dr Eva Steiner gave evidence as to the position in French law. Two authorities are required. The authorisation of the Mayor had to be based either on written expression of the last will of the deceased or request by a person having authority to organise the funeral. Where, as here, someone has died on foreign soil, a person like Moss from the Embassy would be appropriate to make their request and there would be no legal problem in Madame Monteil giving authorisation in lieu of the Prefect of Police. Monceau spoke to Madame Monteil, who was the head of the Brigade Criminelle, and when she was told
Prince Charles and President Chirac were coming, she said she would do what was necessary and authorisation would be issued. The embalming process took about two hours and started at 2 pm.Moss said that the treatment of the body was urgent and had to be done, but he could not remember whom he had contacted who actually authorised. He said it was possible he gave Monceau authority to do the work because of the difficulty of the situation. Neither Jay nor Coujard had any involvement in the decision, nor did Levertons, the English undertakers, who were sent to bring Diana's body home. They took embalmers with them just in case. Michael Gibbins, Diana's comptroller, says Tebbuttcalled him from the hospital several times -- Tebbutt was Diana's driver -- and said steps needed to be taken to make Diana's body presentable. He thinks that he says that if it was on the advice of the hospital, then it should be done. Tebbutt, you will recall, said that the presentability of Diana's body became a very important issue to him and, he thought, to others. In Dr Steiner's view everything was done to comply with French law. Be that as it may, you may think that everyone concerned acted in good faith and did their best in unusually trying circumstances. There is simply no basis for concluding that embalming was performed in furtherance of a conspiracy to hide pregnancy. Although there was evidence that embalming can produce false positive results in chemical tests for pregnancy, you will remember Dr Chapman's evidence that embalming made no difference to whether evidence of pregnancy could be seen in the uterus

A word next, members of the jury, about previous relationships. You may think that the previous relationships of Diana with Hasnat Khan and Kelly Fisher with Dodi have very little, if any, bearing on the strength or nature of the relationship between Diana and Dodi. Also, many of the witnesses who spoke about their impression of the relationship between Dodi and Diana were, you may think, inevitably likely to be influenced by their own perspective or prejudices. Khan and Kelly Fisher were obviously most directly placed to speak about their own relationships, but even they maybe influenced on how they would like the world to see them. Khan declined to give evidence even by videolink, which was, of course, his legal entitlement. But this meant that nothing he had said could be tested, nor was it on oath. Kelly Fisher did give evidence and was cross-examined. It may be that some of those who spoke about the relationships in fact said more about the reliability of their own evidence than they did about either of the relationships. Both Khan and Kelly Fisher were on the scene at the time the relationship between Dodi and Diana started in July 1997. Khan had been going out with Diana for the best part of two years and there is considerable evidence of a strong bond between them. There was a conflict between his desire for a private life and commitment to his profession as a heart surgeon and the inevitable publicity surrounding Diana. The two were not compatible on a long-term basis and he was not prepared to give up his life, albeit he said a lot of people had told him that even a married man would leave his wife if he had the chance of being with Diana. Khan said Diana ended the relationship and neither party had ever proposed marriage, but does it really matter who ended it? The fact that Khan was a Pakistani and a Muslim did not, on the evidence, concern anyone except possibly the late Mrs Shand Kydd. The real stumbling block to a permanent relationship was the difference in lifestyle between an up and coming heart surgeon who had a professional and a very private life and the life of a woman who at that time was probably the best known and most photographed woman in the world. The fact that the arrival of Dodi on the scene precipitated the end of the relationship you may think tells us nothing about the permanence of Dodi's relationship with Diana. As to Kelly Fisher, you may think that her evidence does not advance the issues in the case much further either. She says that she met Dodi in June or early July 1996. She was doing well as a model. She said Dodi seemed to be moving the relationship forward very fast, showering her with presents and, by August or September, was talking about marriage. She says she moved into his flat in Rue Arsene Houssaye, but there is some issue about that and about how much time she spent there. You were, incidentally, shown a series of photographs of various gifts of jewellery that he gave her and I hope it can now be shown on the screen. In November 1996, Dodi went to the United States of America for Kelly's sister's wedding. Part of the reason for going was to tell her mother he wanted to marry her. She is said to have been delighted. She was given an engagement ring, but not until February 1997, at the Beverley Hills Hotel. It was so big that she was to very happy about wearing it in public and picked out a smaller one in Harrods, you remember, some time later. She said that 9th August 1997 had been mentioned as a possible wedding day, but other than identifying a caterer, nothing seems to have seen done towards any arrangements. You heard the tape of a conversation between Dodi and Kelly Fisher after Diana came on the scene. You may think it gave a rather different picture of her from the demure and reasonable person she had presented to you when she gave evidence. That may have been the result of stress at the time. Be that as it may there was obviously a disagreement between them about whether there had been or still was an engagement. But again, resolving that issue one way or the other really does not matter. Myriah Daniels said that Dodi had told her quite early on he was not going to marry Kelly. Melissa Henning said Dodi asked Kelly Fisher more than once to stop saying they were engaged. Dodi, she said, was dating other woman and told Melissa that he would not be dating Kelly for much longer. even if you think Dodi behaved badly toward Kelly Fisher, does it really help you about how he and Diana came by their deaths?

Next, engagement. The two people who could tell us whether Dodi and Diana were engaged or were about to get engaged are Dodi and Diana. Sadly they cannot because they are no longer alive. What we have heard about engagement has been almost entirely speculation. I say "almost entirely" because you have heard evidence from Mohamed Al Fayed about a conversation he had with Dodi and Diana shortly before the crash on the Saturday night. Mohamed Al Fayed says that during that conversation, they told him that they were engaged and that they would announce it on the Monday morning once Diana had spoken to her sons. It was, of course, the same conversation in which he says pregnancy was mentioned. Dodi told his father that he had already proposed and that Diana had accepted. He had got the ring. You will have to decide whether Mohamed Al Fayed is telling the truth, that there was such a conversation and that both pregnancy and engagement were disclosed to him. There is a wealth of evidence from Diana's friends and others in which discussions with Diana re referred to and opinions expressed about her relationship with Dodi. I shall come to it shortly. But before I come to it, let's pause and ask: what does the answer matter in the grand scheme of the case? You may think only to this extent. It is said that, along with pregnancy, engagement could have been -- and Mohamed Al Fayed says it was -- the motive for murder. It was the coming to light of this information that precipitated the plan for a staged collision. You may readily conclude that Dodi had quickly become very fond of Diana and that, from his point of view at any rate, this was more than a summer romance. There is a good deal of evidence to support this view and it may be that he indeed planned to pop the question on the night of the collision, if he had not done so already. But you may think it is unlikely that Dianawould have committed herself to marrying Dodi without having first discussed it pretty thoroughly with the two Princes. Those who have ventured an opinion on the permanence of the relationship are as follows. I summarise what they said. Richard Kay, the Daily Mail columnist and close friend of Diana, says he spoke to her between 6 and 6.30 pm on the night of the crash. Diana did not say anything to him about getting engaged or married or about a ring and he thinks she would have raised the subject, had it been relevant, because of a desire for his reaction. She was, however, as happy as he had ever known her. He said that they did speak earlier about marriage and her reply was, "Absolutely not I have just got out of one marriage and I am not getting into another". Back in 1997, it was Kay's opinion that it was likely they would have married, but now he has changed his mind and thinks it more likely that they would not. Simone Simmons said that Diana could not keep secrets; the implication being that if there were to be an announcement on the Monday, some at least of Diana's friends would have been told. On the other hand, you may think there is some substance in the suggestion that if she was going to marry Dodi, she would not have told anybody, just as she did not tell anybody about the Bashir Panorama interview. Michael Cole said Dodi told him there would never be anyone other than Diana. Cole also said he knew they were going to get married but that they had not announced it. I will return to his evidence later. Burrell said that by mid-August, Diana's relationship with Dodi was, as he put it, "fresh, new and exciting", but he did not have the impression that Dodi was "the one". He did not believe that they were engaged. He told us that Diana told him she was expecting to be given a ring and that he advised her to wear it on the fourth finger of her right hand, which she thought was a good idea. She told him she needed marriage like a bad rash Diana mentioned nothing to him about an engagement ring. If she had been going to announce her engagement, she would have told friends and the boys, but, because the return from Paris had been put back by a day, the boys were not due back at Kensington Palace until mid-morning on the Monday. Devorik, the Argentinean, said that on the Wednesday or Thursday before she died, she spoke about the relationship and she said, "Come on, Roberto, you are Latin and you Latin's know what a summer romance is all about". He did not think Diana would have married Dodi. At any rate it would have been discussed thoroughly with the boys before she did. She also, he said, told Elsa Bowker that Dodi was too generous and nice to her. Devorik said that Diana would not have announced her engagement on the Monday because the children were the cornerstone of her life. Diana told Rita Rogers she would never marry Dodi because of the religious problems it would cause.
Rita Rogers thinks that Diana would have told her if she had got engaged. Also, Rita Rogers had predicted the gift of a ring and Diana kept saying to her, "No ring yet". When Rita Rogers told her it would be an engagement ring, her reply was, "Oh dear, I hope not. what will I say?" Rita Rogers advised her to tell him that she would have to think about it. Sarah McCorquodale thought that there was a strong possibility that Diana might have married Hasnat Khan. She did not think that Diana really believed the relationship had ended. She spoke to Diana on the afternoon of Friday 29th August, but there was no mention then of engagement or pregnancy. Her impression was that the relationship had not much longer to run Any engagement would have been discussed first with William and Harry. Dodi phoned Benson on 29th August saying he could not really talk over the phone, but he and his friend(which was how he described Diana) had some very exciting news. He asked if Benson was around on Monday at lunchtime as this news would mean there were lots of issues to discuss. There was absolutely no doubt in Benson's mind that they were getting engaged. The only person he told was his partner, Fiona. No record of this telephone call was ever produced. Further, the press release by Cole on Friday 5th September was wholly inconsistent with this alleged phone call. Benson is sure he mentioned the telephone call to Mohamed Al Fayed some weeks later, but was unable to say when. Barbara Broccoli, whose evidence you heard read to you very recently, received a similar phone call the same day as Benson. Dodi told her he had something very important to tell her that he could not tell her overthe phone. She thought it related to his relationship with Diana. However, she was unable to speculate beyond that. He and Diana wanted to meet her on the Monday, which they agreed to do at Pinewood Studios, where a James Bond film was being made. You may think that they could not easily have combined that visit with a major announcement of an engagement on that day. When considering Benson's evidence, you may wish to bear in mind the observations of Mr Justice Mann about Benson's evidence in another case involving Mohamed Al Fayed. He described him as a witness who was reluctant to give evidence that he calculated might be against Mohamed Al Fayed, yet capable of exaggeration if the case required it. You may therefore wish to approach Benson's evidence with caution. You may remember he was asked about a passage in his statement to the police in which he said he had friends and contacts in the security services who told him there would have been no doubt whatsoever that Diana's movements and calls would have been constantly monitored. He was cross-examined about this, the suggestion being that what he had said about friends and contacts was an overstatement and untrue. Counsel also suggested that this fitted in neatly with Mr Justice Mann's description. But, members of the jury, the bottom line is that it is a matter for you and not counsel what you make of Benson's evidence. Melissa Henning, Dodi's assistant in California, discussed the relationship with Dodi and her impression was that it was going well. Dodi mentioned the possibility of Diana staying in Malibu in September. On one occasion, when he telephoned from the Jonikal, he told Miss Henning that he would "ask the question" and that he and Diana might be spending some time together in the future. No reference, however, was made to an engagement. I should mention briefly Rene Delorm, the butler. On 30th August, when Diana was not in earshot, Dodi told him to have the champagne on ice when they returned later. He said he was going to propose to the Princess and showed Delorm a ring. Delorm, you will recall, has written a book and there was something that he told the police that was not mentioned in the book. This was that he saw Dodi on his knee, with his hand on Diana's belly. Asked why he did not mention it in the book, he said he did not wish to take advantage of the situation. There was a rumour that Diana was pregnant and he said how could he, Delorm, tell whether she was. He then agreed that he had had no difficulty in giving that account to a film company. It was also put to him that he had said in the book that just before they were leaving the apartment, he made a signal to ask Dodi if he had proposed and Dodi shook his head slightly. You may think that it is perfectly possible that Dodi was indeed intending to propose to Diana that night and that he had bought the 'Dis-Moi Oui' -- Tell Me Yes -- ring in case he got a favourable answer, perhaps with the thought that the two of them might choose a more formal engagement ring later. You may think, however, that a proposal is one thing, an affirmative answer quite another. Raine Spencer said Diana felt Dodi was very special. The relationship was getting stronger and closer all the time. She said she thought it likely they would get engaged and then married. It was not, in her opinion, a summer romance. Rosa Monckton thought Raine Spencer's opinion was ill- informed. She also disagreed with Hasnat Khan saying in her view that he had ended the relationship with Diana because he could not stand the publicity. Hasnat Khan's account was that he was given the push after Diana returned from the first holiday with the Al Fayed's. Rosa Monckton spoke to Diana on Wednesday 27th August when Diana was just changing boats. She said it was bliss, but that she was looking forward to coming home to the boys and the gym. There was no indication of a forthcoming engagement and Rosa Monckton said Diana would have told her. She admits that she did not approve of the relationship with Dodi. It was suggested that her evidence was influenced by her attitude to the Al Fayed family. You will not overlook, however, that Diana gave Dodi her cherished late father's cufflinks -- I think you have the letter in the bundle at tab 24 -- and the affectionate letters to Dodi that were produced. Then there was Lady Annabel Goldsmith. Diana phoned her around 24th or 25th August (probably on the 24th because there was some question of Dodi wanting to buy her late husband's aeroplane. In the course of the conversation, Annabel said to Diana, "You are not doing anything silly, are you?" Diana's response was that she needed marriage like a rash on her face, which is said to be very much a Diana expression; the same expression she used to Burrell. Lady Annabel said Diana was plainly having a good time, but said nothing about the depth or intensity of the relationship. Diana told her that Hasnat Khan had finished their relationship. Lucia Flecha de Lima spoke to Diana on the Wednesday before Diana died and asked Diana if she thought Dodi was the one. The response was, "Well, he might be because he is very kind to me". She thought Diana was infatuated with Dodi, but that it was not a serious relationship. Lucia Flecha de Lima thought that she would have been told if it was Susan Kassem also used the word "infatuated". She spoke to Diana twice on Saturday 30th August. In the morning Diana told her she was looking forward to coming back to the boys and the gym and having her own space. The second call was at about 9 or 10 pm London-time. Susan Kassem wished her a safe flight and they agreed to meet on Monday. There was no mention of an engagement in either call. Lucia Flecha de Lima, like Hasnat Khan, says it was Diana who finished the relationship with him. The announcement that Diana was going to make was that she
was going to step out of public life. Members of the jury, at the end of the day, does the precise state of the relationship between Dodi and Diana when they died really matter? The tabloid press were obviously going to speculate and the events of August 1997 had provided some basis for their doing so. If you think the issue of engagement has any relevance as a motive for murder, it may be that there is not much of a line to be drawn between an actual or
an imminent engagement on the one hand and the perception that one was likely on the other. Having considered all the evidence, you may think it improbable that Diana was going to rush into anengagement, particularly bearing in mind her concern for the young Princes. On the other hand, Dodi and Diana were obviously getting on very well together and who can tell what the future might have held? Perhaps Cole got it right on this occasion, when he said in Churchillian style on 5th September, and repeated on ITV on 20th September 1997, that if the planet lasts for another thousand years, people would still be wondering about the significance of the ring. You may think it is difficult to believe he would have said that if Dodi and Diana had really told Mohamed Al Fayed on the night of the crash that they were engaged. The first public indication of engagement by anyone in the Mohamed Al Fayed team was when it was mentioned by Mohamed Al Fayed in an interview with Piers Morgan that was published in The Mirror on 12th February 1998. The ring. There has been a vast amount of evidence about rings, but let's cut through it and try to see where it
leads us. The gift of a ring may be relevant as evidence of an engagement or it may be relevant as evidence of the depth of feeling by one person for another. As to the latter, there is no doubt that Dodi was an extremely generous person. Witness, for example, the jewellery he gave to Kelly Fisher and, in particular, rings. Further, it cannot be in doubt that he had strong feelings of affection towards Diana Given those factors, you may think that gifts of jewellery generally, whether it be rings, brooches, earrings or anything else, does not advance the case any further from what we already know. Let's concentrate therefore on an engagement ring The ring that has been identified is the 'Dis-Moi Oui' or Tell Me Yes ring, purchased from Repossi across the Place Vendome on the Saturday afternoon. The mere fact that it came from the 'Dis-Moi Oui' range does not necessarily mean that it was an engagement ring. You will recollect that Diana was not present in Repossi's shop that afternoon. The ring only came to the forefront of events when Claude Roulet found it at Repossi, took it across to the Ritz and showed it to Dodi, who then jumped at it as being what he wanted. The ring was found at Rue Arsene oussaye by Rene Delorm in a briefcase in the wardrobe on the day after Dodi and Diana died. You may think that suggests it never reached Diana. There is no evidence that Diana participated in choosing it, and if the true situation is that the ring was not purchased to reflect an already existing engagement, there are two other possibilities: either Dodi was going to propose that night, in the hope of getting an affirmative answer, or it was simply bought as a present for the Princess It is a matter for you what you make of Repossi's evidence, but you may think you cannot rely on significant parts of it and that, in particular, his story about Dodi and Diana visiting a hotel in St Tropez and choosing a ring is unreliable. What could be better publicity for a jeweller than that he was the supplier of Princess Diana's engagement ring and closely involved in its selection? Despite promises to supply documents that would confirm his oral evidence, not a single piece of paper has been forthcoming from Repossi since he gave evidence. The cost of the ring was 115,000 francs or about £11,500 sterling, with the exchange rate at the time lot by most people's standards, but was it the sort of ring that you would expect an Al Fayed to give as an engagement present to a Princess? You may think it was something that did not compare too favourably with some of the gifts to Kelly Fisher, who Mohamed Al Fayed said in evidence was never engaged to his son and was no more than a casual girlfriend. Interestingly, you may think, the price of the ring was omitted from the document that Mohamed Al Fayed allowed Repossi to show the press, but the price of the other ring, offered to Dodi and not selected, was there. You might see this on [INQ0006249]. One price is there and the other has been deleted.How, you may ask, did the price of £130,000 get into the newspapers? Mohamed Al Fayed's evidence was that Dodi told him on the Saturday night, when he spoke to him, that he had bought the ring; this was the ring that he had seen in the window in Monte Carlo and then bought it in Paris that day. Now, it is established that the only days that Dodi and Diana were in Monte Carlo were 5th and 23rd August 1997. Delorm says that on the first visit to Monte Carlo, Dodi and Diana spent 20 minutes in the jewellers while he stayed outside with the bodyguard. although Delorm devoted three pages of his book to Monte Carlo, there is no mention of any visit to a jeweller. John Johnson was on the first Jonikal cruise and recollects going ashore in Monte Carlo for about an hour. It was, he said, a "stretch your legs window-shopping trip". He did not remember Dodi and Diana going into a jewellers and it would have stuck in his mind if they had. Cross- examined by Mr Horwell, he said there was no possibility of their having gone into a jeweller on that cruise and they did not visit
St Tropez. Wingfield and Rees-Jones were on the second Jonikal cruise. Dodi and Diana went ashore and the bodyguards went with them. This was when the boat put into Monte Carlo on 23rd August. Dodi and Diana went ashore with Wingfield, Delorm and Rees-Jones. Rees-Jones says they had a steady walk but did not go into any shop. The name of "Repossi" meant nothing to him. There was, however, some evidence from Ritz employees about Dodi's interest in jewellery in Monte Carlo. Dodi telephoned Franck Klein, the president of the Ritz, around 18th or 19th August 1997, saying he needed to buy some jewellery; he was 5 getting engaged. Klein said he was sure Dodi was in Monte Carlo at the time, but other evidence tells us that Dodi was only there on 5th and 23rd August.Klein says he spoke to Madame Ray of Van Cleef in Monte Carlo just before he left to go on holiday to Antibes. That inquiry does not seem to have come to anything, but Roulet said Dodi had told him he had seen a ring he liked which was in a window, near a platinum watch. Roulet thinks he probably asked Franco Mora, who speaks Italian, to make inquiries, and we have a fax addressed to Klein, dated 23rd August, which prices various items of jewellery at Repossi. Perhaps that can be put on screen. That would tie in with Dodi having seen something in Repossi's window when passing that day.Mora agrees he spoke to a saleswoman at Repossi. He never asked about 'Dis-Moi Oui' rings and was never asked to assist in getting an engagement ring. What his evidence amounts to is that Klein wanted him to call Repossi because somebody unnamed had seen something there and wanted to know exactly what they had. He said Klein would not have told him if it was Dodi. He could not remember Roulet being involved. After ten years you cannot expect everyone's memory to be identical Roulet's account was that he received a phone call from Klein saying Dodi wanted a ring he had seen with Diana in Monte Carlo. This call was on 23rd August or the day before. He wanted the ring brought to Paris. He asked Mora to get in touch with Repossi. Mora came back to him and said Repossi did not know which ring was being referred to. Roulet called Klein and Klein said Roulet should ask Dodi, which he did. Dodi gave a very vague description, saying it was a simple ring in gold close to a platinum watch. The fax was a list of what Mora was provided with. Mora made arrangements for the items to be available in Paris. There was no mention of any engagement ring. Incidentally, Roulet said that on 26th July 1997, he went with Dodi to another jeweller in Place Vendome looking for a watch. They looked at lots but purchased nothing. Diana was staying with Dodi in the Imperial Suite in the Ritz at the time and Dodi gave her a watch. Members of the jury, you have seen CCTV footage of the two visits on the Saturday afternoon to Repossi across the square. When Dodi and Diana arrived and Roulet took them up to the Imperial Suite, Dodi told him he would let him know when he was ready to go to Repossi. He marked the items on the Repossi brochure inwhich he was interested. You have the marked brochure in your bundle at section 3.5. I am not asking you to look at it at the moment. Dodi went with Roulet on the first visit, but no purchase was made and nothing was taken back to the Ritz. Five items were, however, set aside as possibilities. Roulet stayed and made an inventory of what Dodi had set aside, writing the prices on the back of Mora's fax. He returned to the hotel and went up to the Imperial Suite where he gave Dodi the prices. Dodi was interested in a discount. Roulet went back to Repossi to ask. At that point there was no settled view of which piece of jewellery Dodi would buy or indeed whether it would be a ring or a bracelet.Roulet visited Repossi a second time, on this occasion without Dodi. You may remember Mrs Repossi showed him a ring she had previously forgotten to show him. It was on her finger and was from the 'Dis-Moi Oui' range. Roulet returned to the Ritz with the two items shown on [INQ0006248] which perhaps can be put up, and, he thought, two or three others. When he arrived at the Imperial Suite, Dodi told Roulet to keep his voice down and immediately said he would take the 'Dis-Moi Oui' ring. The others were put in the Ritz safe. The other ring shown on that piece of paper, the £60,000 ring which was not chosen by Dodi, went back to Repossi on 3rd September 1997. Roulet handed that ring and, he thought, others to Emanuele Gobbo, who was Repossi's mployee. After the crash, the 'Dis-Moi Oui' ring was invoiced to Klein without, incidentally, any discount. Finally I remind you of what Mr Cole said on 5th September at the press conference at Harrods. He said: "Incidentally, we did not leak the news of the ring hich Dodi gave to the Princess only hours before their deaths. What that ring meant we shall probably never know, and if the plant lasts for another thousand years, I am quite sure that people will continue to speculate about its significance." If Dodi did indeed give the 'Dis-Moi Oui' ring to Diana, one has to ask why it is that it ended up in Dodi's briefcase in the wardrobe. If it was given to Diana and if Mohamed Al Fayed was indeed told before the crash that his son had given Diana an engagement ring, why on earth was his trusted press spokesman saying what he did five days after the crash? You have heard the explanation given, that Cole was not fully informed. On the other hand, the one thing you may think a press spokesman would do before making a statement on behalf of his employer would be to make sure that what he was saying accorded with what his employer wanted. Before leaving the subject of rings, I should remind you that there was another ring, the Bulgari ring. That ring can be seen in some photographs and I ask for them to be put up now. Diana can be seen wearing it onthe fourth finger of her right hand on her arrival in Paris. I thought we had a colour photograph, but it seems to have disappeared, members of the jury. There we are. We will have to make do with a black and white one. It does not look so good in black and white, I am afraid There is no suggestion by anyone, except possibly Mr Faux, that this was an engagement ring. I will refer to it in a little more detail when I come to Burrell. Next topic: letters from Prince Philip.

I had written for a couple of hours about my Saturday but then lost the work have no heart to reconstitute immediately, so will publish this and then see how I feel.