AnneMarriott

I have often left at the interval or before the final ballet of a mixed bill, and have sat out the middle offering of a mixed bill, but the one walk-out I remember most vividly was at Sadler's Wells when, after the first few bars of Jimi Hendrix, seat-vibratingly amplified, William Tuckett's "License my roving hands ..." witnessed what amounted to a slow stampede of elderly patrons, many of whom were using walking aids. It was almost as impressive as the action on stage, which I remember with great fondness.

Good for you!

Oh dear - apologies if I have inadvertently opened a can or worms.

Thanks for this. I must admit I only know of him through his roles in television dramas so wasn't aware that he is obviously well-known as an individual. Since I don't follow any social media and avoid chat shows and the like I'm obviously out of the loop on how celebrities present themselves.

I've sat further back occasionally and have found the rake inadequate to prevent heads in front blocking the view. I'm 5'7" (or was - might be shrinking with age).

Me too, just curious as to why an actor who plays roles should inspire dislike, whereas I can quite see that a TV presenter or a columnist who "plays" him- or herself may arouse strong feelings for or against.

Can someone (Sim, Scheherezade) enlighten me as to why Greg Wise has come in for such opprobrium? Is it because he always seems to play a baddie or for some other reason?

Me too!

Oh dear - the clip makes me feel ancient! I never saw the race but heard it on the wireless. You can imagine the screams of delight as "my" horse romped home ahead of the field. I remember the extravagantly dressed tipster at the beginning of the clip who was called something like Prince Honolulu. Ah, memories!

My interest in racing began with a sad disappointment. As a very small girl, too many decades ago to admit to, I asked my uncle to put 6d (2.5-3 pence) on Pearl Diver, whose name intrigued me, to win the Derby. The favourite was Tudor Minstrel at the ridiculously short odds of 4/7 (i.e. bet £7 to win £4), but I was blissfully unaware of that at the time. Pearl Diver started at 40/1, and won! Unfortunately my uncle, thinking to save me the loss of my sixpence, didn't put the bet on and - miser that he was - didn't have the generosity to pay me the £1 I should have won. Getting my sixpence back instead of the huge amount of £1 was a bitter blow, the pain of which remains with me to this day!

Perhaps if you stop thinking of the return of your stake (£4 or £1 in your examples) as profit it will be easier to understand how the betting odds work. If you put £100 into a savings account and at the end of the year you get £100 back you haven't made a profit - just got your "stake" back. If the bank had gone bust (or "lost the race") you would have lost your stake. As I understand it (zxDaveM will correct me if I'm wrong) odds are decided on what the bookies think are the chances of a horse winning a race, their aim of paying out the least amount possible in the event of it winning and their estimation of how much of a risk they think people are willing to take on the loss of their stake if it doesn't win. They do, after all, want people to bet! The longer the odds (e.g. 100/1) the less likely they think it is the horse will win and vice versa. So you might be willing to risk a stake of £1 on a horse whose name you fancy but who stands little chance of winning but you may not want to risk a larger stake of, say £10. In your 5/4 versus 8/1 example, if you forget about the return of the stake, there is a difference between risking a £10 stake for a chance of winning £80 and risking a £40 stake on a chance of winning £50.

Agreed!

I agree that it is totally unacceptable to discriminate against people of a different race, religion or culture from ourselves. However there is something of a problem in respecting cultural differences. Some practices which may come under the heading of cultural differences are illegal in this country (I'm thinking of female genital mutilation and having more than one wife for example). Others go against our cultural norms, such as the forcible exorcism of "evil spirits" or the insistence on upholding family honour, no matter what the cost. Where respect for cultural differences leads to a failure to protect victims of such practices I think we need to think again.

Yes - and I recorded them!!!

How embarrassing - I got two wrong (but then I don't think I know anything about Spandau Ballet)

Good reasons for avoiding both football and social media in my opinion.

I wish the ROH had explained it when I first raised the query. Their reference to refunds misled me into expecting an actual refund appearing on my credit card account - I had not thought to look back at the debits. This is obviously one of the drawbacks of online/paperless banking. It reminds me how surprised I always am when I transfer funds from a maturing savings account into a nominated current account and thence into a new savings account. No matter how many hours elapse between the transactions, even though the transfer in always appears immediately on the current account statement, it always mysteriously appears to follow the transfer out in the order of transactions at the end of business. Result? a brief notional overdraft!

Final update (I hope). Having done a further careful search of my credit card statements in case I had missed any refunds, I was astonished to see that the two 72p debits had simply disappeared. I contacted the card provider who explained that Vimeo had not actually taken any payment - the debits were simply an electronic entry - so no refunds were due. I wish someone had explained this earlier - it would have saved a lot of time and effort, not to mention boring BalletcoForum readers with my woes.

The full price, hence my attempts to get a refund.

Update. I received a reply from ROH Customer Services quoting verbatim the information on the website about $1 (£0.72) charges to authenticate credit card payments and refunds thereof. Since my email query quoted some of the very same words and pointed out that I had received no such refunds I have now replied, rather tersely, that I thought it was obvious I knew all that but had not received any refunds. I know it's only tiny amounts but still ...

Lucky you! I've emailed ROH for an explanation. Watch this space...

No, I didn't because when I queried the charges with ROH they explained that Vimeo debited $1 (or 72p) to payment cards "to prevent fraudulent activity" and that the amounts would be refunded when the full cost of the streams had been debited. It's all mysterious and very frustrating!

Well I'm still waiting! The full cost of the stream was debited to my account and the email containing the link to view arrived less than half an hour before the stream was due to start. No sign of a refund ...

I agree. This was a thoroughly enjoyable programme but I felt that the long period without public performance highlighted a slight lack of "match fitness" in the classical items. The company looked (to me at least) far more comfortable in the contemporary pieces. Having said that, my highlight of the evening (first night) was the Ben Stevenson Three Preludes - beautiful, lyrical neoclassical steps delivered in stunning style by Emma Hawes and Junor Souza.

't'was ever thus ...