WITH the wonderful Mrs O’D taking a well-earned break this week, I’ve been asked to step in and gather this week’s Gazette Gossip.
I suppose it’s only polite to introduce myself. I’m Richard and I’m from Manchester, home of two world famous football teams – Manchester United and Manchester United reserves.
And I’ve been casting my non-local eye on a few goings-on in Dunstable, and how the town compares to my homeland.
The main difference between the North and the South, I find, is food-related. Since living here I’ve been laughed at for trying to order Spam on a butty and curry sauce on my chips.
You’ll be telling me I can’t have bread and dripping next, Dunstable!
Speaking of food, last week I went to the opening of the new Holiday Inn in London Road and shared a few beers with celebrity chef Jean Christophe Novelli – well, the Frenchman was on white wine – and had a fantastic evening.
He told me of his friendship with Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, tales of kitchen knife-related customs struggles, and that he is asked to appear on ‘I’m A Celebrity...’ every single year – something he is not keen on doing!
He is very fond of the area – he must be, he left northern France to live here – but feels the town’s name doesn’t sound “glamorous” enough, and that’s why he lovingly refers to it as “Dunstable-on-Sea”.
> Hollywood legend and Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine passed away at the weekend, aged 95. He won the Academy Award for best actor in the 1955 film Marty, but he was welcomed to the Dunstable area in the 1960s when he was filming scenes for The Dirty Dozen.
All the guide books tell us the shoot took place on Dunstable Downs, but John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society, says he’s “pretty certain” that no filming was done there.
John said the Gazette covered a scene filmed at Markyate School, and Ashridge College and the village of Aldbury were used as locations, and Ivinghoe Beacon can be seen in the film.
Comments on Twitter about Borgnine’s death include this from @HungryHatter: “Great actor, classic film.”
@Ironman_LTFC said: “I didn’t know that re Dunstable Downs, how interesting, need to watch it again with that knowledge!”
Borgnine boasted a wealth of varied acting experience – his CV also included the role of Mermaid Man in cartoon series Spongebob Squarepants!
He was a much-loved actor and will be sorely missed.
> It seems we can’t all have brains as well as brawn, as demonstrated by a sign a colleague spotted in Church Street, Dunstable.
If the promotional material that surrounds the notice is anything to go by, this empty shop once traded in something along the lines of protein supplements or weightlifting accessories.
Now it has moved on to pastures new, presumably Hockliffe.
All I’ll say is this: I knew how to spell ‘Dunstable’ before I moved here.
