Robert Hampton

A pantomime starring Jim Davidson has been accused of breaching the Geneva Convention, but not for inhumane treatment of its audience. Says the BBC:

The dress worn by Nurse Poltis in the Pavilion Theatre production of Robin Hood originally had red crosses on the hat and tunic.

These were changed to green crosses after the British Red Cross informed the theatre it was breaking the law and could face prosecution.

Apparently, the Red Cross symbol is protected by law. According to the British Red Cross, depicting its emblem in this context could lead to its effectiveness being diluted. Personally, I doubt many people living in war zones will have a chance to visit Glasgow to see the show.

I’m not sure how seriously the Red Cross pursue infringers, but I think the makers of hen party sexy nurse outfits should be very worried.

According to the Glasgow Pavilion web site, the show also features Colin and Justin. Given Davidson’s previous form, I bet that led to some — ahem — “interesting” backstage conversations.

What a year 2010 was! It had twelve months, each consisting of at least 28 days. On some of those days I made blog entries. Here are the highlights.

I began the year in January fretting about an alleged Crystal Maze remake starring Amanda Holden. This story fortunately turned out to be utter bollocks. Ginger people again proved that (yours truly excepted) they have no sense of humour or perspective. Britain experienced a deluge of snow, and Merseyrail impressed everyone by soldiering on throughout, a feat which they would surely repeat next time we experienced awful weather… right?

I finally joined the Wii owners’ club, just as the console stopped being cool. My rekindled love for video games did not result in me getting rickets. I also celebrated my first Twitterversary and cautiously welcomed the iPad.

I also took time to blog at length about a US comedian no-one has heard of over here, illustrating my post with YouTube clips which have now been removed for copyright infringement.

In more serious matters, the Haiti earthquake occupied people’s thoughts as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolded in the devastated country.

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We were up bright and early on Monday morning to head for Glasgow’s other main station, Queen Street. This is the starting point for services to the North, including the long and winding route to Mallaig. Armed with a bottle of Irn-Bru for refreshment (made in Scotland from girders… and E-numbers), we boarded a well-appointed ScotRail Super Sprinter and settled in to our table seat for the 5 hour, 2 minute journey ahead.

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I think it’s fair to say that I’m not well-travelled. Some people have world maps pinned up on the wall, with a mark on each place they’ve visited. If I did that, it would be confined to the UK, and would involve mainly those places that are reachable with a Saveaway ticket.

So when my friend, Nuno, invited me up to visit him in Glasgow, with a trip to the remote Highland peninsula of Knoydart thrown in, I couldn’t say no. What better way to expand my horizons and experience some new places and sights?

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