CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I have a horrible feeling you may be right, but as long as it doesn't get too 'Twin Peaks' then I'm going to stick with it. Just to confuse the issue further, we learned in Episode Two that not all our resurrected frogies came from the coach crash. The 'returned' knifeman in the subway may have been knocked off my his brother, and his victims - including the single woman who is looking after that very odd little boy - seem strangely impervious to any amount of stab wounds. I suspect that understanding this mute child may well turn out to be key to this paranormal mystery.

Aye, rather good wasn't it. For those who missed out, a coach with a party of local teenage school kids aboard crashes off a high Alpine road with (apparently) fatal consequences for its young passengers. The action moves forward 4 years and we see the families of the dead children trying to cope with the aftermath of this awful tragedy as best they can. Then - out of the blue as it were - the kids start to reappear looking not a day older than they were and telling tells of waking up after finding themselves asleep in the mountains. There is no explanation for this, and the kids are left wondering just why their families are so shocked to see them! We can only imagine what confronting such an impossible situation would be like. Meanwhile, we learn more about why the coach crashed, a old man commits suicide, a young women is brutally stabbed in a underpass ... oh and the water level behind the reservoir starts to drop alarmingly! This is one of those mysteries where the viewer is presented with more questions than answers and where the hell it's going to end up is anybody's guess. But I'll tell you what - I can't wait to find out.

Take that gravity! We've got you licked now boy Great footage, but I can't help but wonder that had those detailed SRB images been available to NASA back in 2003 then perhaps the Columbia and her fine crew might not have been lost in such tragic circumstances. But being wise after the event is a poor substitute for being wise beforehand isn't it ...

Wow! What a breath of fresh air it is to see such a senior officer go on the record and express himself so forcefully on a issue like this. Articulate, tough and utterly uncompromising, he looks like the type of officer soldiers would follow into the gates of hell if need be. I only wish that more of our leaders would follow his example. It was said of Oliver Cromwell's inspiring 'General at Sea' Robert Blake that 'no man ever argued with him twice' - something tells me that General Morrison is cut from much the same cloth.

I've never heard of him, but notwithstanding doubts expressed by some Lyon fans, a 23 year old with 17 caps already for one of the best national teams in the game must mean he can play a bit you'd think. Signing young internationals like Gaston and Dejan confirms that we still have the wherewithal to abandon ASDA and do our player shopping at Waitrose - given the price of season tickets I would expect nothing else. However if we take talk of the Champions League seriously then we may end up rubbing shoulders with the likes of Man City and Chelsea at Fortnum & Masons one day ... which could become a very expensive business for both SFC fans and the Leibherrs alike.

I was sorry to see the excellent Swedish crime drama Arne Dahl come to a end last Saturday night. Not truely 'ground breaking' TV perhaps, but a well executed and densely plotted series in which the viewer got to know - and genuinely care about - the principle characters of the Swedish Police's elite 'A Unit' to a unusual degree. More please. I also much enjoyed Melvyn Bragg's programme about William Tyndale 'The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England'. Tyndale was a uncompromising puritan revolutionary who printed the very first bible in English. Now that may not seem like a big deal today I suppose, but trust me allowing ordinary people to read the bible in their own language (as opposed to having a Catholic priest read it to them from the Latin) was dangerous stuff back in the day. Bragg is obviously in love with his subject and that can sometimes lead to a loss a proper historical perspective. But the case Bragg makes here was so powerful that I'm forced to agree with him - Tyndale is a important historical figure and quite as influential as Shakesphere was on the development of the English language.

*gulp* I've just hit the 'confirm' button for my ST renewal and via the magic of the debit card that's a hefty £610 - a lot of money on my income - that has just gone the way of all flesh. Before anyone else says it, I know it's my choice what I do with my money and no one is twisting my arm etc ... but football is becoming a stupidly expense business for the less well off to indulge themselves in.

I think all those failed marriages and the enormous cod-piece her dad enjoyed wearing is most suspicious - sure signs of repressed homosexuality if you ask me. Can I have a nice fat book deal too mister ?

Umm ... if memory serves the full (not selectively edited by the Daily Mail) quote from good Queen Bess's famous 'Tillbury' speech is something like: "Although I have the body of a weak and feeble women, I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too" But apart from that small quibble this is one of the best conspiracy theories this site has seen in many a year.

I'm a semi regular visitor to a delightfully small and informal aircraft museum near me - Bournemouth Aviation Museum. Unlike some rather more stuffy museums I could name this place actually allows you and your kids to craw all over other similiar aircraft from this era - and I can confirm that many of them do indeed have nightmarishly 'busy' cockpits just like the B-36. Best of all they have salvaged the front end of a old Avro Vulcan - once you have entered you soon realise that only the pilot and co-pilot enjoy the benefit of sitting on ejector seats - which would have placed the rest of the crew in a rather uncomfortable situation in the event of the aircraft crashing I would have thought. Inexpensive and well worth a visit if you are interested in this type of thing. http://www.aviation-museum.co.uk/

I've been deeply immersed for a week now in BBC2's fascinating Tudor season, a proper TV treat for the history fan. Especial noteworthy I thought were two specially commissioned new programmes - 'Henry VII: Winter King', and 'The Time Travelers Guide to Elizabethan England'. Both programmes were written and presented by respected authors of well received books on these very subjects - both of which I'm fortune enough to have read by the way. Now historians may not always make the most polished and camera friendly of presenters I suppose, but I'd much rather have a true expert in the field tell me a story than take it from one of the usual suspects for this type of thing - such as Dan Snow for example. So bravo for BBC2's courage in not dumbing it down for we plebs!

Well it won't go down well on here, but the truth does hurt sometimes doesn't it? An usually insightful and well written piece by Martin Samuel in my view.

Nothing worse. Although we all grow to know how cruel life often is, that intellectual understanding of the world counts for nothing when a tragedy like this strikes. Losing a child so young runs counter to every notion of justice and compassion we can't help but hold and there's just nothing anyone can say or do that will make things 'right' again. So - as inadequate as it is - all we can do is express our sincere condolences, hope littleun didn't suffer too much, and thank our lucky stars we live in a age when this kind of thing is becoming increasing rare.

He's looks competitive enough in a PL midfield, and that's a real achievement for one so young, but if you asked me to list all the important contributions he's made this season then I'd struggle. So a young player who is very much still a 'work-in-progress' then. As for him already being better than Adam ... well that's just nonsense.

It goes without saying that in this era of 'player power' no football club can long keep a player who is really determined to leave. That fact - not the want of money - is why AOC is no longer here. Why on Earth would any football club want to keep a player who desires to leave anyway? My definition of a true 'selling club' is a club that needs the money more than the player. Given that our Chairman seems to have secured funding and is utterly determined to transform this club into a significant force in the Premier League, then I would say that this club needs the player more than the money. Therefore if I were a betting man I put a whole English £ on Luke Shaw still being here next season.

As a long time WWII enthusiast (if that's the right term) I have until recently shared in the long held view that this raid was, however courageously conducted by the men of 617 Squadron, costly and not terribly damaging to the Nazi war effort. But history is forever being rewritten, and it's most interesting to see that that old assessment is now being challenged by the latest research: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22510300

When you you have a prospect quite this good you are bound to get press speculation I suppose, but watching the posted OS interview with Luke Shaw, this lad talks like he plays - composed, level headed, and with a degree of maturity far beyond his years. A credit to his family, his club, and himself. He may go to a 'bigger' club one day, he has all the time in the world for that, but for now I see no reason at all to doubt that he will sign a full contract on his birthday and be here for years to come. Why is it so many of our fans still think we're your stereotypical impoverished 'selling club' ?

I too much enjoyed last nights Who, but just like many other Moffat written scripts what the younger children managed to made of it I don't know. Nevertheless the great John Hurt as Doctor Who - fantastic!

I checked a few days ago and the directorship of the holding company that actually owns the club (DMWSL 613 Limited) was still listed as 'in probate'.

Rather like Dell Boy would always manipulate Rodney with tales of their late mothers deathbed last wishes you mean ... Read the club statement carefully and the language employed is telling - the Don publicly expresses his thanks to Katrina Liebherr for being so "helpful" when it's been my experience that the normal relationship is that employees are paid to help their employers!

We're long on speculation and short on facts yet again, but if I were the owner of a significant business then I'm not so sure I'd appreciate seeing an employee of mine so publicly employ 'strong arm' tactics against me. This kind of thing is not conducive to harmonious long term relationships - not that Don Cortese has ever been overly concerned about that. But at least we appear back on a even keel for now, so back to football ...

You're pretty close to the heart of the matter here methinks. It makes no sense that ML's family should plow limitless amounts of cash into a foreign football club they know - or care - little about just so they can 'honour' their late fathers dream, or fund the grandiose ambitions of a mere employee. I'm far from convinced they have the level of uncommitted wealth required to do that anyway. I have a feeling that this business will be amicably sorted out soon. But if it rumbles on for much longer there can be only one winner here - and it's not Cortese.

Halsey's Typhoon by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin The Pacific Theater of war, December 1944: The enormous US 3rd Fleet under the command of Admiral William "Bull" Halsey is supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the Japanese held Philippine Islands. Halsey's Carrier Task Force mercilessly pounds the Japanese defences, but all too soon his fleet is forced to temporarily break off the attack in order that it can be refueled and resupplied. Via a unholy mixture of bad luck, poor forecasting, and human error, what should have been a routine operation soon becomes a veritable disaster as the Fleet is struck by a ferocious pacific typhoon. If mountainous seas and 100+mph winds soon make conditions aboard the Admiral's flagship, the huge 60,000 ton battleship New Jersey, uncomfortable, then the effect this storm has on the smaller ships of his fleet is nearly indescribable. Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Monterey planes break loose from their ties and crash violently into each other - the resulting explosions setting off an inferno that endangers the ship. Just as the Captain is considering ordering his crew to abandon ship, a young officer - Lieutenant Jerry Ford - manages to lead a fire fighting party onto the hanger deck and the blaze is eventually brought under control. The Monterey would survive to fight another day, Ford would go onto to become the 38th President of the United States. But it is the Destroyers that bare the worst of it. Low on fuel, and overloaded with extra AA armament fitted to defend themselves against Kamikaze attack, these unstable ships are in no state to safely ride out a storm of this magnitude. As the huge seas start to overwhelm them, young crews look towards their Captains and realise, to their horror, that the man in command may not be a good enough seamen to get them out of this fearsome situation ... I have long devoured this kind of thing, but naval history may not be everyones 'cup of tea' I suppose. But I've often found that sometimes a well written history book can read like a thriller. Three destroyers would flounder and 790 men would lose their lives on that terrible December day, so 'Halsey's Typhoon' is no work of fiction alas. It is however as thrilling a tale as you'll ever read shipmates.

I too don't think it should happen (this year anyway) but I do think it probably will happen ... and if everyone else is on the pitch then it would be churlish of me not to join in I suppose. I'd really prefer the old 'lap of honour' this time.