In the course of an occasionally star-studded journalistic career (I'm exaggerating) I've had the chance to bump into the odd childhood hero. Iron Maiden specifically - their guitarist once offered me a lift home. I've never interviewed a Bond, but I did once do an interview with a very pleasant...

A report out this week suggested that smartphones had become "the new Swiss Army Knives", which is patently ridiculous, as your iPhone does not have a tool for getting stones out of horses' hooves. But what if it did? What if it had a little pair of scissors, and a...

They used to be somewhere to change the oil, have a quick wee and perhaps stock up on a bent sandwich.

If you were in the mood, you could grab a gift for someone you didn't care for (Jim Reeves boxed-set, anyone?), you could waste a pound on a...

Imagine for a moment that it's your 75th birthday. You get dressed, spring downstairs (sort of) and start opening your cards. There's probably an Amazon parcel from the kids, maybe a cheery email from your teenage grandson (actually sent by his mum because he was out rioting), and life is...

It's Christmas Eve, and huddled in the darkness atop a snow-covered bridge are three familiar figures, each contemplating the jump into the icy depths below. Suddenly, an angel appears - not a very good one; he's not even got any wings - and addresses the sorry-looking trio thusly: "James! Richard!...

I missed Attack Of The Trip Advisors on ITV1 on Monday night because I was enjoying the oikish squabbles of The Junior Apprentice, but seeing it listed reminded me of a review I recently found on the omnipresent travel site which I thought quite spectacular. I'll get to...

Oh bother. It was the headline, wasn't it? You popped in because you thought I'd unearthed evidence that Master Of Puppets was only one third of an intended triple album, or I'd found a version of Enter Sandman that segued into a nursery rhyme and sent small children to sleep....

So my good lady turned to me two minutes into the Young Apprentice on Monday night and said, "Aren't you bored of all this yet?"

She took me by surprise, to be honest, as I thought she loved The Apprentice as much as I do. We always watch it. We...