Choose strife

“EVER wanted to creep a little closer to grime, disease and debilitating addiction?” begins a New York Times capsule review of the immersive stage version of Trainspotting, a current off-Broadway hit. Such has been the clamour to see the show that the collective response seems to be an emphatic ‘yes’.

Not everyone has been impressed, though. Greg Esplin, the play’s co-director, who doubles as Tommy on stage, tweeted earlier this month: “Just had a woman storm out saying “DISGUSTING!! You should all be ashamed of yourselves. You’ll hear from my lawyer! WE ARE DECENT PEOPLE!!”

She can’t say she wasn’t warned. There is, after all, a sizeable notice on display on the premises, cautioning patrons as to what they might expect. There are no fewer than 15 items listed, including violence, strong language, nudity, adult themes, simulated sex, heavy drug use, loud rave music, and the worst toilet in Scotland.

Possibly worst of all is item number 13: Scottish Accents. No wonder that woman was so upset.

Splashing it all over

READER Barrie Crawford emails the Diary to say that the recent bus-tour stories reminded him of a trip he and his wife took in the late 1970s to the Black Forest and Lake Constance. “As we neared the town of Singen, it began to pour, which prompted our tour guide to remark, ‘When you get back home, you can tell your friends you’ve been in Singen in the Rain.’”

Unwrapped

AND Roddy Young gets in touch to say that in Egypt, archaeologists have uncovered a mummy covered in chocolate and nuts. They’re apparently calling it a Pharoah Rocher.

Cup runneth over

THE Herald’s tribute to former Partick Thistle star David McPartland reminds Chris Bell of a conversation between her parents after the League Cup final in 1971.

They were both 65 at the time and had been married over 40 years, so they had shared a lot of disappointing Saturday results given that Chris’s dad was a Partick-born, lifelong Jags fan.

She writes: “My mum was in the kitchen making tea when she heard my dad arriving home from the match.

“Mum, calling through to the hall, ‘How did you get on?’

“Dad: ‘Four-one.’

“Mum: ‘Aw, never mind.’

“Dad: ‘For us!’, as he rushed into the kitchen, wreathed in smiles. To say Mum was stunned is an understatement.”

Chip on the shoulder?

GLASGOW’S West End is liked by many people but STV’s Mike Edwards plainly isn’t one of them. As he reveals in his entertaining book, The Road Home, he loathed the area on sight when he joined STV, and he loathes it to this day. “I was fed up of its putatively Bohemian label, I disliked the cachet which Ashton Lane held for no reason I ever understood ... It grew very tedious hearing people ... arranging to meet me for a beer in ‘The Chip’ ... As far as I was concerned,” he adds, “the area was full of workshy w------, pseuds and poseurs, and I detested it.”

And finally...

LAUREL and Hardy are working on a fishing boat and get entangled in a shrimp net, Martin Morrison says. That’s another fine mesh they’ve gotten themselves into.