Stand Up …

By Elle, StilettoWheels & PlusBlack, July 17, 2017

You might look at the illustration above and think: Skiing … in July???

But this very short snippet from today’s Times Diary by Patrick Kidd, Stand up and take a bow, is all about the humorously inappropriate:

Here’s an early recommendation for your Christmas wish list: Question Time: A Journey Round Britain’s Quizzes by Mark Mason. And not just because it begins with The Times’s victory in the parliamentary press gallery quiz.

The book, due out in October, features an anecdote about Bullseye, the 1980s darts-based TV quiz featuring the mascot Bully, above. A contestant in a wheelchair was going to win the star prize. Just as he was about to throw, the producer screamed “Stop him!” in the ear of Jim Bowen, the host. They had just realised that the prize was a leather three-piece suite and thought it would not be appreciated by someone in a wheelchair. “We’ll swap it for next week’s star prize,” the producer said. The prizes were switched, the dart thrown and the contestant won. “Congratulations,” Bowen said as the screen was lifted. “You’ve won . . . a skiing holiday.”

Cue Monday Morning Smiles from this wheelchair user 😎

The illustration I’ve used here, half of it above, the full Christmassy version below, is by Hannah Ensor of Stickman Communications, commissioned by me for Christmas 2012 – so appropriate for this, don’t you think? And, never too early to start thinking about …