The Saturday Guardian - 18 June 2022

96 Pages·2022·93.4 MB·English

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lena Zelenska, wife of the Ukrainian president, speaks ou

INTERVIEW PAGE 16

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improve, repeat.

Charlie is a perfectionist,

and won’t stop refining a

recipe until it is the best it
can possibly be. And if it’s
not, he’ll start again. And
again. And again. And.....

you get the picture.

Find Charlie Bigham’s
delicious range in your
local supermarket

Obsession is my secret ingredient
CONTENTS

18.06.22

CUTTINGS

POSCS vcscsesceccoenineaies 5-15
ee
Smart shot

Cows to moove you
P5

Should I work from
home if I’m sick?

Coco Khan asks the
experts the big questions
P7

Down the rabbit hole
Lost in the flow of Baz
Luhrmann’s Elvis

P7

Flashback

Dick and Dom revisit
Da Bungalow

P8

Dining across

the divide

A Blairite meets an
anarcho-syndicalist
P11

SATURDAY Q&A
The Guardian Fran Lebowitz on
Kings Place managing not to kill

90 York Way, N1 9GU

anyone on a 24-hour,
no-smoking flight

Byline illustrations: P13

Delphine Lee

Spot illustrations: Experience
Lalalimola Iam the dullest man

Sign up

for our Inside Saturday
newsletter for a sneak
peek at each issue

in Britain
P15

FEATURES
POSCS.cessessessssesssersesssessssesesssesssessesssesssieseesseesseeseessseessenrel 0-37
ee
‘Thad the feeling I was inside a parallel reality’

Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tells Shaun Walker about
waking up to booms and an empty bed the night
Russia invaded, and her biggest fears for the future
P16

Steam players
Have you visited a pop-up sauna yet? (above)
P22

Abook, a battle, a blow-up

Kate Clanchy’s memoir about teaching won plaudits
and the Orwell prize. Then everything went wrong.
Gaby Hinsliff unravels a publishing industry furore
P28

What becomes of the broken hearted?

Annie Lord never imagined she could be grateful
for a break-up that left her reeling. But this is what
she learned from her emotional turmoil

P34

Edith Pritchett A week in Venn diagrams

New
housing
policy

Me

applying
fake tan

COVER: ANTOINE D'AGATA/MAGNUM FOR THE GUARDIAN. THIS PAGE: GEORGE CORY; GETTY IMAGES; GYNELLE LEON; JIM KAY

A broad brushstrokes approach
skimming over the tricky bits that’s
ultimately pretty unconvincing

Hot
weather

chub rub

Increasin
between opposite sides

This product is made from sustainable managed forest and controlled sources. Printed by Walstead Group, Bicester

gly unpleasant friction

CULTURE

All aboard for

great British art!

From Francis Bacon in
Aberdeen to Barbara
Hepworth in St Ives: get
your cultural kicks across
the UK with our guide

to the best paintings,
sculptures and more

P39

PODCASTS crssicccsivcssoweserciesd 7
What to do this week....48
50
152

Not so heavy metal
Converge diverge. Plus
Stephen Marley’s playlist
P54

Books

The chamber of secrets
As the first Harry Potter
hits 25, Lisa Allardice
hears the inside story
from the team who
brought the magic to life
P57

Nonfiction reviews......... 62
Fiction reviewS......0...0-65

The big idea

Are we responsible for
the things we do wrong?
P69

Trying to
get on public
transport

during a
strike

Contents squeezed
out in q messy way

Sex, money, that mess
your dog left behind ...
How to tackle the

trickiest conversations

P71

Blind date

Anna and Sam, and talk
that turned to potatoes
P74

Tim Dowling

Do my machines sense
the frailty of old age?
P75

You be the judge

Is it OK for my wife to
walk off mid-argument?
P76

Ask Annalisa Barbieri

I worry my grandson

is at risk from his father’s
negative behaviour

P77

Style & Body...
Interiors ay
PLANES ...seeseeseeeseesstee teste 83

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Travel

Hidden France

From car-free islands to
gourmet food galleries:
get off the beaten track
P84

How far to the pub:
A local’s guide...
PUZZICS...eseeeesessseerseeeiees

Guardian angel

The activist who founded
Trans Pride Brighton

P93

Overfilled
burrito

The Guardian | 18.06.22 | SATURDAY | 3
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“CUTTINGS

PEOPLE, ISSUES & CURIOSITIES of MODERN LIFE

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Smart shot
The best pictures
taken on phones

Shot on Oppo Reno 2Z
Jeremy Piloquet doesn’t
like shooting people.
Cows, he says, will
always be more honest.
“When I started out
three years ago, I tried
street photography,

but I was so much

more drawn to people’s
shadows or silhouettes.
With social media and
selfie culture, people try
to show their best smile,
their best selves. I don’t
like that. Animals don’t
perform - they act just
as they are.”

Piloquet took this
picture of the herd when
returning from his local
rubbish dump. He pulled
up some grass and lured
them over with words of
encouragement. “I was
out running errands, so
didn’t have my proper
camera with me, but my
phone does the job well
enough,” he says.

Once he returned
home, about an hour
from the seaside town
of Les Sables-d’Olonne
on the west coast of
France, he applied
a black and white filter
using the Snapseed
app. “The clouds were
low and heavy, and
the filter emphasised
them and the cows’
expressions. Blue sky
wouldn’t have given the
same impression. Here,
there is drama.”

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CUTTINGS

Conversations
with Coco
Should I work
from home if
I'm sick?

some of the fewest sick days

in the developed world, with
employment experts putting this
down to poor sick pay (as little as 19%
of the average UK salary is covered).
This may explain what has become
a familiar sight in the workplace:
avideo call with someone who is
clearly unwell. According to the
government, we should all be “living
with Covid”. But should we be working
with it, too? asked Alison Collins, an
academic whose research explores
sickness and presenteeism.

| n 2021, British workers took

Is it possible that the reason Brits
have such low rates of absence from
sickness is because - plot twist! -
we’re super healthy?

Maybe. Though it could also be that
people are taking less time off because
they can work from home while ill.

Which would be bad, right?

Let’s take a step back. If you wake up
feeling unwell, you make a decision
about whether to go into work. Maybe
your company doesn’t pay sick leave,
or you’ve got so much work that it’ll
pile up. Or you just want to work.
These are what we call attendance
demands. When I’ve recently
interviewed people, they’ ve weighed

up those reasons, and decided to
work from home if feeling unwell.
So it’s not on their sick record, and
the organisation knows you’re doing
less but are glad to get some work.
So it’s win-win.

But surely in the long run

the employee is just making
themselves sicker?

Depends. If people have chronic
conditions and the organisation can
be flexible, it helps those people stay
in work when they wake up under
the weather. We do know that going
into work while sick has negative
consequences. In longitudinal studies,
they’ll get the same workers and test
them at two or three points in time.
And if people have gone to work while
sick, they may be at an increased risk
of sickness absence in the future:

so they are deferring their sickness
absence. There’s also evidence around
mental health. One study found that
sickness presenteeism could increase
the risk of depression among people
who were not depressed. The issue

is that we have lots of research on
working from home, and lots on
sickness presenteeism in workplaces,
but we don’t yet have research into the
impact of sickness presenteeism while
working from home, because this
situation is new. I reckon we'll start
seeing that next year.

So Ihave to wait before jumping to any
conclusions? No fun! Also I’m worried
about a culture developing where you
can’t just be sick in bed.

Yes, Ihave seen - anecdotally, so

I don’t know how widespread this is -
people saying there is an expectation
to do Zoom meetings with Covid.

For some people, Covid is terrible
while others can work through it. All
illnesses can hit in different ways. It’s
about managers and organisations
working with people to produce

a fairer, supportive workforce.

See, that concerns me, because while
some companies do the right thing,
there are so many that won’t.

Yes. Imean, people have told me about
going to work with ridiculously serious
illnesses. I’ve been shocked.

Oh really? Like what?
Iinterviewed a guy who went to work
the day after a heart attack, despite
having pains and not feeling well.
He only worked for a short while,
because he ended up in hospital.
Coco Khan

Illustration: Lalalimola

Look, no

Down the rabbit hole

Lost in the flow of pop culture
This week: Baz Luhrmann's Elvis

by Larry Ryan

From Memphis to Hollywood
Baz Luhrmann’s take on Elvis was never going to be
understated: “It’s not a movie so much as a 159-minute
trailer for a film called Elvis,” concluded Peter Bradshaw.
Fast-rising Austin Butler plays Presley, with Tom Hanks
as a dastardly Colonel Tom Parker. It’s two decades since
Luhrmann made a decent film: the new one is in UK
cinemas on Friday.

The sunscreen sessions
Elvis had 21 UK No 1 singles. Baz Luhrmann also
achieved the feat with his Everybody’s Free (To Wear
Sunscreen), an unexpected No 1in 1999. It was the
era’s equivalent of a Live, Laugh, Love poster. That
was a good year for one-hit wonders, with Mambo
No 5, Blue (Da Ba De) and Mr Oizo’s Flat Beat, which
bounced from Levi’s ad to the top of the charts.

AFrench touch
Quentin Dupieux, the Frenchman behind

Mr Oizo, also directs surrealist films. 2019’s
Deerskin, a black comedy about a vintage jacket,
was the first to get a UK cinema release. Among
its cast is Albert Delpy, a prolific stage and
screen actor, as well as father of Julie Delpy - he
played her dad on screen in two of her films and
in her 2021 Netflix/Canal+ series On the Verge.

If the Shue fits
The show followed the LA lives of four friends in

their late 40s, played by Delpy, Sarah Jones, Alexia
Landeau and Elisabeth Shue. For a brief period in the
90s, her brother Andrew Shue almost became the more
recognisable Shue, with his role as Billy in Melrose
Place. He also had a minor career as a footballer, even
occasionally playing for LA Galaxy while on TV.

The marriage plot
Joining for a character arc as Nurse Benson in mid-
period Melrose Place was Priscilla Presley. Long before
her turn to acting in Dallas and the Naked Guns, she
married Elvis in 1967. She’s played in Luhrmann’s film
by Australian actor Olivia DeJonge, previously seen in
Netflix’s “sci-fi Dawson’s Creek”, The Society. And with
that, this mystery train reaches the end of the line.

] _______ Pairing notes

Read Greil Marcus’s revered 1975 book Mystery Train examines
American culture through rock’n’roll - in 1991 he followed on with

Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession.

rink In 2015, Luhrmann and costume designer wife Catherine Martin

collaborated on interiors for Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Their signature

cocktail includes vodka, champagne, aperol, rose and hibiscus.

The Guardian | 18.06.22 | SATURDAY | 7
CUTTINGS

Flashback

Dick and Dom recreate
an old photo and
recall Da Bungalow
bogies and Baftas

Interview: Harriet Gibsone
Main portrait: Pal Hansen
Styling: Andie Redman

It upset viewers. Angry parents
tried to take us off air Dom

2000

8 | SATURDAY | 18.06.22 | The Guardian

ichard McCourt and
Dominic Wood are the
TV personalities best
known for bringing
anarchy and shrieks of
“bogies!” to the BBC
Saturday morning slot. With its blend
of surreal, gross-out humour, their
crowning glory, Dick and Dom in Da
Bungalow, won them two Baftas,
better viewing figures than Ant and
Dec and the hearts of students,
parents and school kids alike. Since its
final series in 2006, they have worked
ona number of shows together
including Are You Smarter than a
10 Year Old? and Absolute Genius with
Dick and Dom. To mark its 20th
anniversary, they take Da Bungalow
on an interactive tour this autumn.

Richard (left)

Looking at my highlighted hair and
prominent suntan, I’d say this picture
was from a time just before Da
Bungalow began. Before I met Dom,

I was a professional tea boy for
children’s shows on the BBC, and then
I got ajob presenting The Broom
Cupboard. Dom was a magician doing
bits on programmes like The Friday
Zone. Our first encounter was in the
cafe at the BBC Television Centre: he
was getting a cup of tea, I was getting
a bacon roll and a coffee, and we just
started chatting. We got on straight
away because we were both teenagers
wanting to break into this amazing but
quite scary industry. I said to him, “We
should go to the pub sometime.” And
we did. Soon after that, the BBC boss
saw that we were becoming mates and
thought he should put us together

on screen. We ended up sharing a flat,
where we'd stay for the next five
years. We’re very different people,

but it was a relief to find we both liked
a tidy home.

There were times during the filming
of Da Bungalow where I can remember
lying on the floor holding my sides
because I was laughing so hard. Once
we’d finished on a Saturday afternoon
we'd go to the pub for a couple of beers
and laugh about what just happened
all over again. We haven’t laughed like
that since. But despite the silliness of it
all, Da Bungalow had its difficult
moments. My mum was diagnosed
with dementia during our last series,
and it became tough to look after her
at the same time as trying to be
high-energy Dick on BBC One every
weekend. It’s when I needed Dom the
most - and he was so great at
supporting me and stepping up

when he knew I couldn’t handle the
mental load.

These days, we’re on WhatsApp
every single day. I talk with Dom more
than Ido my partner, and Ireckon
that’s the key to preserving a
professional friendship. We lived
together, went on holidays to Ibiza
together and became a business
together. Throughout it all, we’ve
always been able to communicate
and compromise.

Once we left kids’ TV, Dom and
Istarted thinking of ways of
reinventing ourselves. We always
loved DJ-ing and had decks when we
lived in our flatshare. So we began
with some low-key shows, just to see
what it was like. Six years later, we’re
gigging all over the country.

When we turn up, we normally see
the crew wondering: “Dick and Dom
DJ-ing? This is bizarre.” The audience
think we’re about to blast out kids’ pop
but then we play drum’n’bass,
mashups and hard house. The crowd
go nuts! And the fact that nobody
expects it makes it even more brilliant.

This industry is quite tough, and to
have someone to share the hard times
with as well as the good ones is
amazing. We’re doing the job we both
wanted to do since we were kids. The
fact I’ve been doing it for this long and
with my best friend is incredible. I
couldn’t ask for more.

Dominic

This was almost certainly from

the basement of the BBC. It looks
pre-Bungalow - I’ve got frosted tips,
cords anda silver chain hanging from
my pocket. Those boyband-ish

styles were very much in fashion

at the time.

From a very early age, both of us
knew that we wanted to be on TV.
Iwas watching telly one day when
Iwas doing my A-levels, and Rich
popped up as the new presenter in The
Broom Cupboard. I remember
thinking, “Well, that’s me stuffed - I’m
not going to get a job there fora long
time.” But then I managed to get a slot
ona show ona Friday afternoon, and
Rich and I met each other after that.
He looked at meas if to say, “All right,
mate?” and I looked at him asif to say,
“Allright, mate?” and we clicked
straight away.

We were described by a boss of
aradio station as the “slightly odd kids
that hang out with each other”, which
pretty much hit the nail on the head.
We'd just turn up at fancy functions
and hide behind each other, really.

GROOMING: CELINE NONON USING DERMALOGICA AND KERASTASE. ARCHIVE IMAGE: BBC
4
222

Our friendship is strongerthan —
it’s ever been Dick

Richard was a very quiet, shy bloke -
and still is. It’s why we work so well
together. He’s methodical and takes
time to think about things, whereas
I’m “Go! Go! Go!” - firing on all
cylinders. Having both of those
superpowers is the key.

When the Da Bungalow took off, we
just rode the wave. As soon as we
started seeing the figures going up, we

new something interesting was
happening. We got a lot of complaints
- Terry Wogan on Points of View was
having to read a lot of them out, and it
was hilarious. There was one game we
played - Puppies That Lick Their Own
Vases - where we got a couple of vases
covered in dog meat, and we got the
ids to hold a dog each, and the dogs
had to lick the dog meat off as fast as
possible. It upset viewers. We had
angry parents trying to get us taken off
air. There was another game called
ake Dick Sick - Rich spewing up
vegetable soup when kids told gory
stories to him. That went down badly
with the complainers, too. But it was
feeding the media, the media was
feeding the viewing figures, and the
viewing figures were fuelling our
passion for the product. It grew and
grew, and before we knew it, we were
standing there with a couple of Baftas
in our hands.

As wellas the good times, we’ve
always been able to make sure that
the person who’s having a bit of a
tough time doesn’t have to just try
to motor on. My dear father-in-law,
one of my greatest mates, was very ill
in hospital while we were in the
middle of filming a show witha full
studio audience and contestants.

I told Rich: “I can’t do this - I’ve got to
go to be with my family,” and he was
just fantastic. He said: “Mate,
concentrate on life, and I’I] host the
show on my own. You do what you
need to do.” It was a horrific time for
everyone, but he did a brilliant job.

We're both in relationships now
(?'m married, with children), but
often, if one of us has got an empty
house, we’ll invite the other one
around. We just sit and watch stupid
stuff on YouTube or old dance music
videos. Hang out together, talking
nonsense. The friendship is far
stronger than it’s ever been. But it
doesn’t stop us from asking:

“How much longer are we going to
work in this ridiculous industry? Do
we DJ drum’n’bass until we’re in our
60s?” I’ve no idea what’s next, but
Rich will always remain my best mate
in the world.

The Guardian | 18.06.22 | SATURDAY | 9
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