LAST Saturday this newspaper published a two-page interview with a lady we called Jenny Strong, who explained the harrowing circumstances of her husband’s death from a brain tumour. In a nutshell, Jenny wanted to know why her husband had to
PUB landlords are travelling to Westminster on May 20 to highlight the pressures they face and to ask for MPs’ support. The tied tenants, who have to buy all their beer and some of their other supplies from a set company, will tell MPs the consumer is
PEOPLE from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups are at least one-a-half times more likely to be stopped and searched by Dorset police officers than white people, new statistics have shown. The figures were revealed during a Police Authority professional
AN ALERT doctor may have saved the lives of an entire family after spotting signs that they were being poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes. Alarm bells rang when 40-year-old Peter Adams was sent to see Royal Bournemouth Hospital consultant Dr Alan Williams
OVER the past couple of days a debate has raged as to whether Fawlty Towers is the world’s greatest sitcom. It was. Until Gordon Brown gave us Fawlty Government. This week’s episode included The Gurkhas; a grand farce in which a Manuel-type character
IN A very silly parallel dimension, skilled swordsmen in Japan contest for headbands: number one and number two. The number one headband gives its wearer some spiffing abilities, and the number two headband gives its wearer the right to challenge for
AGEING action hero Jefferson Steele (Burt Reynolds) is conned into taking a job as King Lear, thinking it’s with the RSC. Instead, he’s appearing with a troupe of amateur dramatics players from an entirely different Stratford and, well, you can guess
Bigotted, blinkered and ignorant, Alf Garnett is one of those sitcom monsters we love to hate. Yet as he gets older – these episodes date from 1987 – there are signs that he just might be mellowing, even to the extent of subletting his spare room to
ENTERING the Daily Echo-backed Macmillan Dorset Bike Ride has just got a whole lot easier. A web site for the event has been launched, allowing pedal-powered fundraisers to register from the comfort of their own homes. Time lost to training
CONCERN is growing for a Poole man who has been missing for almost a week. Darryl Rowley, 27, was last seen at his home in Canford Cliffs on Sunday, May 3. Police are worried because he does not have with him his essential medication, without
“IT’S an absolute disgrace”. A Blandford policeman has spoken out over an attack on the town’s new public toilet block. PC Simon Evans has gone public in his disgust for the actions of vandals that have left the town council facing a
New Forest Show 2009 The New Forest and Hampshire County Show was first held in 1921 and it is now one of the highlights of Hampshire’s social calendar. It features all the attractions that have made it so popular for the best part of a century
A PACKED parish meeting has heard West Moors people vent their anger over an application to put up a mobile phone mast nearly 80 feet high in the village. It was standing room only at the Fryer’s Field Pavilion as villagers flooded in to make
TASTEBUDS will be tempted and tantalised over the next nine days as the Christchurch Food and Wine Festival officially kicks-off, starting with the town’s international market this weekend (May 9, 10). Organisers are pulling out all the
THERE aren’t many accounts of the Burma campaign, at least when weighed alongside the plethora of volumes covering the Second World War, so this stirring account of British and Commonwealth troops under the command of General William Slim is very
OUR two amateur sleuths are as you’d expect in an English detective novel – nice, middle class ladies of a certain age. But Jude has a secret vice. And one day she encounters a dying man as she collects her winnings. The police plod on with their work
STEPHANIE Mortimer has suffered a childhood without love. Neglect leaves her desperate to escape her loveless home, and the only way is to marry someone she doesn’t love. After he is killed in a tragic accident, she seems destined to
IF you didn’t know better, you might think you’d picked up a copy of Grumpy Old Men and Women. Burchill and Newkey-Burden present a compendium of jolly moaning while seeking to expose hypocrisy. The duo sneer at sneerers in a series
A ONE-TIME highlight of Ferndown’s horticultural calendar, abandoned because of dwindling interest, looks set for a spectacular 2009 comeback. Ferndown in Bloom had been consigned to the history books until a new committee of green-fingered
A “THANKSGIVING service” for the past year will be given by the Mayor of Wimborne on Sunday (10). Town mayor, Cllr Robin Cook, said he hoped the Minster Church of St Cuthburga would be full for the town council’s annual civic service.
AT a time when I have no idea where my next kitten heel is coming from, the last thing I need is a show that’s supposed to be all about looking stylish for next to nothing being hijacked by a celebrity crowing about the absolute fortune she spends
SPACE: the final frontier. This is the maiden voyage of a shiny new Starship Enterprise under the captainship of director JJ Abrams. Its mission: to revitalise a flagging yet beloved franchise, to breathe new life into iconic characters; to
DODGY dossiers, omnipresent spin doctors and wars that should never have been waged; In the Loop sounds like a 2003 retrospective. But in fact it is the scathing new satire from writer/director Armando Iannucci. And it’s about to invade
LYNDHURST is to celebrate the life of one of its most famous residents. Alice Liddell, the little girl behind Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories, lived in the New Forest village with husband Reginald Hargreaves from 1881 and was buried
THERE’S no place like home in Coraline, the first ever stop-motion animated feature created in stereoscopic 3D. Adapted from Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel by writer-director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas), this colourful,
DARELL Martin’s dramatisation of the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists affirms the image of the music industry as a beast that chews up its best talent, sucks out their creativity and spits them out when they are no longer of any
FOLLOWING the acclaim of The Seedling and Sprout, The Present is the eagerly anticipated third surf movie from artist Thomas Campbell. Filmed in West Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sumatra, Java, Hawaii and California, the film promises to delight
WENDY Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin
Mercedes-Benz and smart of Poole will be dropping the tops of its cabriolet range and lowering the prices of approved used models this weekend. The Holes Bay Road retailer’s special event will showcase the line-up of coupés and cabriolets as well as
HOLIDAYMAKERS are being urged to forget exchange rates and make the most of British coastal resorts after the South West secured more than 50 awards for its beaches. The number of Blue Flags awarded in England this year has fallen by 11 to 71 but the
GRAFFITI vandals have painted swastikas on headstones at a New Milton cemetery. Five headstones were damaged in the attack with swearwords also being written on the ground’s walls earlier this week at the graveyard in Church Lane. The Rev Andrew Bailey
THE body of a man was discovered outside Marks & Spencer in Westbourne this morning. The body was found just after 7am on the pavement outside the shop in Seamoor Road. The shop was closed for a time but has now re-opened. Police
LOVE is in the air for balloon pilot Simon Redman, who has witnessed five marriage proposals since taking to the skies above the Dorset countryside. During the past year the 43-year-old from Stalbridge said: “The coastline is a spectacular
I lay awake to a chorus of snoring. Completely oblivious, one of the drunker guests stumbled around the room before trying to climb onto his bunk like an undignified jockey attempting to mount an oversized horse. This was my first taste
IS it me or, with June looming, are more people displaying that loving feeling? First, a fellow gets hoofed off The Apprentice after becoming besotted with another contestant. Next, a balloon pilot reveals he’s heard no fewer than five swains propose
ONE of the two men accused of beating a pensioner to death in his home has insisted he only intended to scare the man for his money. Joby Barney, 25, has admitted conspiracy to burgle the Landford home of 75-year-old Reginald Baker on September 5 but
THE real heart of any country is often to be found away from the beaten track – something that very much applies to France. Travellers head in their droves for Paris or Provence, ski in the Alps or surf the Atlantic. Our favourite destination
GLAUCOMA is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the UK today. About two per cent of the population over the age of 40 have glaucoma, but half of them are undiagnosed and in danger of progressive irreversible sight loss. Early diagnosis
WITH regard to Branksome Rec and the recommendation from the council environment scrutiny panel that Poole Town FC’s proposals should go ahead, I can’t see that the opposition group can claim, as they do, to speak for all residents in Branksome
POOLE Town Football Club seems to take up a lot of the Echo’s letters page. Having read most of them, I wonder why Cllr Eades and his Liberal Democrats so oppose this scheme. It will bring life back to the very large and sadly under utilised open
FOLLOWING Tuesday’s presentation in a local hotel on assisted suicide by Dr Philip Nitschke (Dr Death’s suicide lessons, Daily Echo, April 30), I would like to confirm the position of Bournemouth council. The council finds the nature of this event morally
ON Saturday, May 2, the Bournemouth and District Multiple Sclerosis Society held their annual street collection throughout the Poole area. Our collectors, most of them with MS, turned out in force and collected a marvellous £2,082.88. The money collected
LEFT on the steps outside during Tuesday’s meeting on Branksome Rec, did I miss much? (‘Decision Recs it for majority’, Daily Echo, May 7). It appears the four Conservative councillors who supported the scheme said nothing during the debate
THE voice of reason says that Branksome Rec requires improvements to cope with today’s needs. This is the same with all parks and open spaces. As a founder member of the Friends of Poole Park, we received violent opposition from, primarily,
I CANNOT begin to describe how shocked I am at the letter from Mr Wealands (Have Your Say, April 30). Both the council and public in general fully appreciate the hard work and dedication of the street cleaning crew. Recently we experienced a mechanical
THE courageous daughter of heart attack victim Mark Watton is planning a charity skydive in memory of her dad. Jodie and Mark were planning to take on the challenge together before he collapsed and died suddenly in December last year.
HATE crimes prompted by race, religion and homophobia have risen by almost nine per cent in the last year across Dorset, latest figures have revealed. Police Authority members have been told there were 324 such crimes, as well as 357 incidents not classified
CHERRIES co-owner Paul Baker has confirmed he will include boss Eddie Howe in the decision-making process for the sale of the club. Baker is waiting to see whether any of six parties follow up their initial interest in the club after revealing
BOURNEMOUTH skipper Craig de Weymarn believes his team can perform strongly this season – but he will be keeping a cautious eye on the progress of Lymington. The New Forest outfit were promoted into the Southern Electric Premier League Division One last
DORSET’S Daniel Lloyd (Cervélo TestTeam) will be one of nine British riders in this year’s centenary Tour of Italy. Lloyd, who was down as first reserve for the Cervélo team, packed his bags on Tuesday after getting a late call-up to ride the Giro d’
A POLICE officers leader has slammed the government for providing the cash-strapped force with 50 Taser stun guns without funding the necessary training costs. Dorset Police Federation chairman Clive Chamberlain told the Daily Echo: “It’s a
IS it me or, with June looming, are more people displaying that loving feeling? First, a fellow gets hoofed off The Apprentice after becoming besotted with another contestant. Next, a balloon pilot reveals he’s heard no fewer than five swains propose
CHERRIES prospect Josh McQuoid is hungry for more after having his appetite whetted by two unexpected starts for club and country this week. The 19-year-old frontman made his first appearance under Eddie Howe’s stewardship during Cherries’ emphatic 4
IAIN Weaver insists live TV coverage of his Amateur Boxing Association senior featherweight title fight won’t put him off his game. The Ferndown-based teenager takes on Manchester’s Blain Younis in front of a live audience at Sheffield tonight. But
Submit your event to our FREE calendar listings Art Loan Exhibition 2008-09 – Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus A-Z A Handbook – Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth (until August 9) Manga to Mural: The Sketches of John
