Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Word on the Street: Hugh Cudlipp, Sue MacGregor, Eastenders' get-out clause, Good Housekeeping

Monday 09 September 2002 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Stephen Glover, in his Media Studies column in The Spectator, makes a gracious apology for getting the late Hugh Cudlipp's job title wrong – he was editorial director of the Daily Mirror from 1952 to 1963, but was never editor. And what was the context of the errors? It was an article chiding other media commentators for referring to the Mirror Group legend in pieces about the Daily Mirror today. Most media commentators, Glover opined, simply did not know enough about Cudlipp to pretend to be experts on his views.

¿ Sue MacGregor was intrigued to notice what looked like a famous name amid the fan mail for her Radio 4 series Fifty Years On. So she phoned to check. And, yes, it was Max Bygraves who had dropped her a note. And Ms MacGregor is now the happy recipient of tickets for his upcoming West End show.

¿ So Todd Carty, aka Mark Fowler, will escape EastEnders alive, it appears. Andrew Collins, a former EastEnders scriptwriter and now of the Radio Times, says that there's nothing a writer likes more than killing off a character, but Carty has agreed his departure with BBC bosses and so should survive. "If you've done a secret deal with ITV, like Martin Kemp [who played the gangster Steve Owen], you'll probably get killed off. If you leave on good terms, like Todd, the door's more likely to be left open."

¿ We don't wish to pour cold water on Good Housekeeping's 80th birthday celebrations. But can it really be true, as is claimed, that one of the first communications from the Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest was to its offices in London? "We'd heard that during her imprisonment, she liked to read copies of GH when she could get hold of them," the editor, Lindsay Nicholson, writes. The magazine must have one hell of a distribution team.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in