Freddie reflected upon learning he'd failed the audition to become the face of Oil of Olay

An alternative Halloween playlist

The Birthday Party - Release The Bats
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Halloween
Grooverider - Where’s Jack The Ripper [Origin Unknown Remix]
The Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf
The Phantom Band - The Howling
Ebsen & The Witch - Skeleton Swoon
Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
David Bowie - Scary Monsters And Super Creeps
Tricky - Hell Is Round The Corner
Aim - Demonique

Paul Bovey

Before the 1982 World Cup, England manager Ron Greenwood had a dilemma: who, between Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence, would be his number one goalkeeper in the forthcoming tournament?

Many commentators criticized him for his indecisiveness, but how much would Fabio Capello give to have such a luxurious dilemma? A dilemma between two brilliant, consistent keepers, proven at international level, each with at least two European Cup trophies to their name with their respective clubs. It just highlights the current dearth of world class keepers available for Capello in the run up to next year’s World Cup, a situation that The Mirror’s Martin Lipton has prophesised may turn out to be England’s ‘Achilles heel’.

Out of the current crop, David James seems to be the more preferable option for the number one position, although, at 39, his age indicates that he’s not a long-term prospect. He’s still a good shot-stopper, but his occasion blunders (remember Austria in 2004?) have seen him yo-yo in and out of favour on numerous occasions. He’s certainly a much improved player from ‘Calamity James’, the nickname he earned at Liverpool, but his lack of consistency has never seen him make that number one shirt his own, despite nearly 50 caps.

Robert Green’s sending off against Ukraine in the World Cup qualifier, which gave him the dubious record of being the first ever England goalkeeper to receive a red card, was unfortunate, but this shouldn’t dent his confidence too much. He made some good saves in the 5-1 defeat of Croatia and although he’s had little international experience compared to James, he’s arguably the most consistent England keeper at club level, despite West Ham’s struggle in the league. A good Premiership campaign to curb his team from relegation may do his cause the world of good.

So, James and Green look like current favourites to go the World Cup next year but when you start to look for a third choice, it’s not so clear-cut. Paul Robinson seems to have overcome his descent in form to put in some solid performances for Blackburn, while Ben Foster’s chances remain slim as second choice to Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United.

Manchester City’s Joe Hart has received praise from Capello but some commentators feel this World Cup has come ‘too soon’ for him. Scott Carson has overcome his howler against Croatia in the Euro 2008 qualifier but, like Green, Hart, Foster and Wigan’s Chris Kirkland, he’s yet to gain much international experience.

As is the case with outfield players, the lack of outstanding English goalkeepers is being attributed by some commentators to the influx of foreign players in the English league. Certainly, the top teams at the time of writing all have foreign first-choice keepers: van der Sar (Manchester United), ?ech (Chelsea), Cudicini (Spurs), Almunia (Arsenal) and Given (Manchester City), but surely that doesn’t explain the fact that England can’t produce at least one outstanding goalkeeper? We used to be renowned for it.

It’s something we’re in desperate need of; a solid back line can only improve if it has the confidence of a reliable goalkeeper between the sticks. The performances of the English goalkeepers for the remainder of this season will be keenly observed by Capello and Italo Galbiati. With a World Cup place to play for, the post of England number one is still very much in the players’ own hands.

Paul Bovey

Micro Men, BBC4, Thursday 8 October 2009

For a certain generation of computer gamers, the mere mention of names like Jet Set Willy or Repton are likely to induce a misty-eyed nostalgia, in the same way Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario do for gamers brought up on Sega and Nintendo.

Before the invasion of the Japanese gaming giants in the late 80s and early 90s, Britain already had a home-grown home computing heritage to boast of, as last night’s Micro Men reminded us.

Shown as part of BBC Four’s Electric Revolution season, Micro Men took an affectionate look at the early 80s home computing rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair (played by Alexander Armstrong) and his ex-employee Chris Curry (Martin Freeman), the entrepreneurial masterminds behind the Sinclair and Acorn companies respectively. The story focused on the race between the early home computer pioneers to gain the dominant market share, pivoting on a lucrative BBC literacy project that would see the victor’s machine in many of the UK’s schools.

Armstrong’s portrayal of Sinclair was particularly outstanding, playing him as a temperamental tyrant, prone to violent outbursts at anyone who questioned his visionary genius (at one point you expected Armstrong to hiss “kill them!” down the phone to his secretary, à la his Blowfeld-type character on The Armstrong and Miller Show). In one memorable scene, Sinclair tracks down his former colleague in a pub and assaults him with a rolled-up newspaper that carried an Acorn advert that dared to highlight the high return rate of faulty ZX Spectrums.

It was fun to see the period of the time so accurately evoked. This was a world where 48K RAM was a hot selling point and faulty connectors were fixed with Blu-Tack; where bosses and boffins chain-smoked in pokey, beige offices and ate takeaways with screwdrivers and soldering irons as cutlery; and where, in the face of nearly three million people out of work, Britain had a growth industry to be proud of (as evidenced by stock footage of Margaret Thatcher showing off a Sinclair computer to the Japanese prime minister).

There was also some lovely retrospective jokes, such as Sinclair scoffing at the notion that home computers could replace going to the supermarket or bank, and Curry’s bank manager, played by Peter Davidson (who, during the period Micro Men is set in, was playing Doctor Who) describing Curry’s career choice as “very science fiction”.

Inevitably, in typical boom and bust fashion, the glory days were not to last: Sinclair sold his computing division to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad in 1986 and Acorn sold its majority shares to Italian company Olivetti. In a somewhat poignant final scene, we saw Sir Clive driving defiantly down the road in his famous flop, the C5 electric tricycle, as he is overtaken either side by two massive juggernauts bearing the names Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.

Paul Bovey