Posts

World Cup Mascots - Which is Best?

Image
There are a lot of things that the modern World Cup has killed off: embarrassing team songs ; clearly carved-up group games between sides ; any sense of sodding perspective about England's progress . But oddly, the existence of a tournament mascot goes from strength to strength. This is for two reasons. Firstly, it's so the organisers can sell a load of old tat to kids, and secondly, it's because it's a representative shorthand for the host nation, like that dull overlong bit they put on while you're voting in Eurovision . But there's no denying that the marketing of the mascot has become both slicker and in some ways, slightly sadder for it. I decided to run the rule over every football World Cup mascot since the concept began, having a ponder on the who, why and what the hell. At the end I'll have a bash at the one I think I like the most, so if you've got any thoughts, drop me a line in the comments below: 1966 - World Cup Willie The trailblazer by wh

"We Don't Want to Give Anybody Sleepless Nights": Revisiting 'Ghostwatch'

Image
Lights explode and the studio is plunged into demonic darkness. The souls manning the telephone lines have long since vanished, leaving only  Mike Smith ’s panicked requests after his wife's welfare. Papers whip across the screen, caught in a maelstrom of malevolence. Watches attached to wrists hundreds of miles away have come to a dead stop, and there have been multiple reports of inanimate objects tearing themselves from surfaces and throwing themselves across rooms all across the land. The people of Great Britain watch entranced as Michael Parkinson , controlled by some force that earlier in the evening he’d foolishly dismissed, sleepwalks beyond the camera’s lens, muttering a nursery rhyme. Yes, the BBC has paid heavily for messing with the supernatural alright, and on Hallowe’en , of all nights. Samhain ; the night the divide between the living and the dead is gossamer thin. Sarah Greene has passed through a doorway of her own, until this night just a cupboard beneath the sta