I’ve been spotting opium references in popular culture with interest for a few years now (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 & 2012) – just how opium keeps fascinating us…
Well, 2020 was a funny year but anyway.
Let’s start with a few novels – Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s
Blood and Sugar was a great trip to 1780s Deptford and the slave trade. Opium addicts of course and a few on tinctures of laundanum for various eighteenth century ailments. Lydia Kang’s
Opium and Absinthe took us to 1889 New York, vampire scares, and opium. Elizabeth Bailey’s
The Opium Purge is back in 1790 England with mysteries that lead back to dope.
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Has there ever been a comedy straight man in a double act who found a new partner and switched role to become the funny guy? Bob Mortimer has done just that and I’m struggling to think of a precedent.
If you don’t know what the straight man’s role is, think of Ernie Wise’s face as Eric Morecambe slaps him round the chops. Ernie’s job was much more than setting up the laughs. He was the backbone of every routine . . . the maypole around which his brilliant pal cavorted.
That was Bob’s job, when he was one half of Reeves and Mortimer. He played the adoring acolyte, awe-struck by the confidence of Vic Reeves, in a partnership that took them through stand-up comedy, panel games and sitcoms.
Nigella s Cook, Eat, Repeat - Picture Shows: Steak with Anchovy Elixir. Nigella Lawson - (BBC - Photographer: Jay Brookes)
“Well, I do say it like that, but not because I think that’s how it’s actually pronounced,” she tweeted in response to a joke about it.
Lawson, 60, also admitted she couldn’t help chuckling about some of the posts the microwave moment sparked.
When one fan shared a mocked up advert for a “Meekro Wahve Milk warmer”, Lawson responded: “That made me laugh!”
Nigella Lawson (PA)
She then retweeted the post, confessing: “I know I said enough now, but couldn’t resist.”