THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR THE MATURE MODERN MAN | CALIBREMAG.CO.UK
Issue #11 | £4.99
LEGENDS Of ICELAND
Change And leave your job behind
WHY ARE MEN KILLING THEMSELVES?
Home Concerto!
Recreate a concert at home
Tony Robinson
THE RISE OF THE
4X4 Are You
STILL DOING it?
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The Blackadder actor on reprising roles, rock stardom and Bond villainy
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Publisher James Hurst Editor-in-Chief Barnaby Dracup Editorial Assistant Josh Stephenson Designer Robert Hearn Photographer Al Richardson
W
elcome to the 11th issue of CALIBRE magazine and our first new-look bi-monthly edition! Having been alive, kicking and improving since our launch issue hit the shelves back on 1st May 2014, we find ourselves in a position to up our frequency and bring you more of the lifestyle features, products, services, facts and figures that you enjoy. Another announcement we have to make is that we will be launching our new CALIBRE Luxury annual in the New Year. This beautifully crafted publication will bring you the latest and greatest in the world of luxury products and services. Back to our our first new-look edition and gracing the cover is none other than Sir Tony Robinson (p.32), who waxes lyrical on politics, Blackadder, his recent return to comedy and why he dreams of one day becoming a Bond villain. Of course, we all dream of different things and some things are more attainable than others, but it is important to appreciate that no matter at what stage in life you find yourself, setting goals – no matter how small – is a key element to happiness. For example, take the CALIBRE readers featured in our ‘Old Dog, New Tricks’ article (p.151), in which we talk to three people who decided it was never too late to change their lives and leave the day job behind (if just for a while). In the feature we speak to a 48-year-old who became a pilot, a 49-year-old who swapped a good job working at a bank in Sydney for eleven gruelling months at sea, and a 50-year-old who decided to put down their music critic’s pen and start their own rock band! Having a plan to follow your dreams and achieve your goals is healthy, fun and can be for anyone at any time. After all, as Billy Joel once said: “You can get what you want or you can just get old.”
Production Controller Jennifer Harland Contributors Richard Tarrant, Mark Williams, Jonny Evans, Rick Wakeman, Pip Gale, Mark Cronshaw, Craig MacLellan, Katie Watson, Cai Ross, Gina Miller, Al Richardson, Adrian Hailwood, Graham Clarke, Claire Zambuni, Joshua Williams, Dr. Jeremy Biggs, Simon Smith, Ruth Emery Head of Consumer Division James Smith Project Manager Jim Ellis Business Development Team Lionel Sheriff, Andrew Stevens, Robert Dugmore Finance & Administration Manager Ilknur Sil Finance & Administration Assisant Giulia Putzolu Administration Ashish Bhalsod Marketing Consultant Kevin Lavery Public Relations Palamedes With thanks to Nick Davies, Steven Price Brown, Douglas Jakeman, Arthur Ogden, Wes Stanton Matthew Fisher, Eilish Adams Special thanks to Sir Tony Robinson, Cover Image Sir Tony Robinson by Al Richardson Subscriptions Tel: 0203 770 4022 Printing Cliffe Enterprise Newsstand Distribution COMAG
Barnaby Dracup editor@calibrequarterly.com
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FOOD & DRINK Adventures in Storyland Pretty Cities In the Wake of Giants European Waterways
78 138
Restaurant Review Cellar Selection
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Cover Star Tony Robinson
We talk to Sir Tony Robinson about reprising roles, dreams of rock stardom and his potential for Bond villainy
TECHNOLOGY
26 108 142
Taste of Tech In The Frame Audiophile
CULTURE
151
Old Dog, New Tricks
Three readers who believed it was never too late to change their lives and leave their day jobs behind
46 64 80 82 85 134 167 171 172 177
COVER STORY
Property Problems Gina Miller’s Money
Taste and style never goes out of fashion
CALIBRE Debate A Soldier’s Story Veteran’s Stories Fake Watches Film & Music Reviews Subscribe to Crossword & Puzzles Rick’s Exhaust Pipe
Water of Life Winter Tipples
Some of the finest stocking fillers to keep you satisfied through the winter months
Financial Resolutions
Economic Eye
Winter Concerts
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MONEY
59 74 129 157
Military History
LIFESTYLE
18 89 104 114 161
Rise Of The 4x4 New Year, New You! Fashion: Woody Allen Sport For The Retired Charity Exposé
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» HISTORY: Settled by Norsemen from Scandinavia and Celts from the British isles in the 9th and 10th centuries
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TRAVEL
Adventures
in Storyland
I
t is said Icelanders do not talk, that they tell each other stories, continuing a grand tradition dating back to the extraordinary sagas of the 13th century and beyond. Recounted at fireside gatherings in the roundhouses of the earliest Viking settlers, such tales lent a reassuring layer of meaning to the country’s bizarre and spectacular landscapes – landscapes shaped by extreme natural forces. Authors, poets, travellers and other, non-native storytellers have swelled Iceland’s ranks in recent centuries and, today, whenever film and television directors seek to tell their own stories of the fantastical, they invariably come here. Among myriad star turns, Iceland has portrayed a snow planet in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the world beyond the wall in Game of Thrones and the epitome of wish fulfilment in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. To visit this northern wonderland is to invite a recalibration of one’s own imagination. I undertook a circumnavigation aboard the sleek MS Ocean Diamond, operated by Iceland Pro Cruises. This ice-class, expedition-style vessel plies the frigid waters of Antarctica during the winter and the bewitching fjord-indented coastlines of Iceland and Greenland in summer and spring. Carrying a maximum of just 224 passengers, this is no ‘floating city’ with spas and steakhouses, kids’ clubs and Broadway-style shows. Most of the fairly spacious cabins have a functional, no-nonsense feel to them. There is one dining option, dishing up local and international cuisine (more hearty than refined), a small theatre used almost exclusively for port talks and lectures, and a couple of comfortable lounges with tea and coffee stations. That is about it. But if MS Ocean Diamond is a ‘rough diamond’ in some ways, in others it genuinely excels. The service is flawless, the bridge is always open, and most importantly the destination is placed squarely at the heart of the cruise experience, both in terms of accessibility to the charming smaller ports and in an expedition team of enthusiastic experts. As well as Explore Iceland delivering bilingual lectures, these onboard the MS local specialists accompany the Ocean Diamond. majority of excursions, bringing to
A circumnavigation of Iceland is the best way to understand its rich and detailed mythological history, says Richard Tarrant HÚSAVÍK ISAFJÖRDUR AKUREYRI
ICELAND
STYKKISHOLMUR REYKJAVÍK
SEYDISFJÖRDUR DJÚPIVOGUR
START AND END
VESTMANNAEYJAR
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TRAVEL
Images: istock.com
Picture caption quia dolorum qui dolla nosam fuga.
The imposing Barour Snaefellsas stone structure. life the culture and the sagas, the wildlife and the geology. If you visit Iceland only once, these are the people you would want to show you around. It quickly becomes obvious that theirs is an Iceland packed with unique experiences and fascinating stories. Our first tour (from Stykkisholmur in the western region of Iceland) took in the majestic Snæfellsnes peninsula, often called ‘Iceland in a nutshell’ due to its variety of landscapes. Conical mountains ringed with Only the brave, or foolish, try Iceland’s national dish of fermented shark. tonsures of cloud, serene beaches with paddling sheep and plains studded with millions of razorO T H ERW O R LD LY D ELI G H T S sharp denticulations of lava – this was fertile ground At the Bjarnarhöfn Shark Museum, a pretty for numerous sagas – epic tales blending fact and farmstead on the western peninsula’s north coast, fantasy that many scholars consider among the the adventurous and foolhardy may try kæstur greatest achievements of medieval hákarl, Iceland’s notoriously disgusting national literature: tales of the likes of the dish of fermented shark. If you consider sampling half-ogre Bárður, a guardian of the local delicacies an essential aspect of travel, you will local people, and the wily Snorri, not want to miss this singular taste… but steel who rid the region of bloodthirsty yourself. Untreated, the meat is toxic. The small berserkers who inhabited it. kidneys of the Greenland shark means its flesh has Latterly Snæfellsjökull, the high urea content – even after months of fermenting Iceland consumes more glacier-topped stratovolcano at the and drying – a strong smell of ammonia persists. Coca-Cola per capita than in peninsula’s heart, also found fame The more you chew, the more punishing the any other country as the embarkation point for the olfactory assault, so bite and swallow quickly, then Journey to the Centre of Earth in Jules wash it down with a triumphant shot of the local Verne’s 1864 sci-fi classic. Untouched by aquavit, Brennivín. industrialisation – indeed, barely even Isafjördur was our next stop. Gateway to the brushed by civilisation – Snæfellsnes plays a neat dramatic Westfjords region and the iconic seventemporal trick. Iceland may be Europe’s newest tiered waterfall, Dynjandi, a scramble up the rocks landmass in geological terms, but here it appears here richly rewards the adventurous with a glimpse most ancient and timeless, offering a privileged of the pretty opal tresses of its uppermost cascade. glimpse of how Gaia might have looked in those Then to Siglufjörður, centre of the lucrative early days of her existence. herring industry for more than half a century until
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TRAVEL storytellers have their own explanation – Odin, king of the Norse gods, was riding his eight-legged stallion, Sleipnir, among the Northern Lights one evening. He flew without care, and the canyon at Asbyrgi is the mighty imprint of one accidental hoof upon the land. Remarkably, we were invited to enjoy Odin’s playground for ourselves that night – as if envious of earthly marvels, the Northern Lights performed their celestial dance in the small hours. We got the cabin call to head out on deck and were greeted with a great painterly stroke of green light arcing and flexing across a canvas of stars. The Herring Era Museum charts how Iceland grew from its herring fishing industry roots. After a relatively sedate seventh day in Seyðisfjörður on the eastern side of Iceland, we undertook a overfishing depleted their stocks. Siglo is now home snowmobiling excursion on Europe’s largest glacier. to the surprisingly engaging Herring Era Museum, From Djúpivogur, it is a couple of hours’ drive to but the town will be more familiar to BBC4 viewers Vatnajökull, the Corsica-sized ice field that as the claustrophobic location for Trapped, Iceland’s dominates the southeast of the island and supplies accomplished contribution to Nordic Noir. the roaring waters of Dettifoss. Here, you can don Day five’s port stop was Akureyri, capital of the waterproof overalls and skidoo across the glacier north, inviting appreciation of the horseshoe surface. Here, however, we timed it rather badly, Godafoss falls, picturesque Lake Myvatn, and the heading out into the very first snowfall ‘dark castles’ of Dimmuborgir – peculiar of the season, though the almost total lava formations reputedly marking the whiteout lent an extra frisson of location where Satan landed after being excitement to the adventure. cast out of Heaven. Home to all manner of supernatural beings, including the thirteen mischievous Yule Lads and their EX T R E M E S P O RT S mother, the homicidal 800-year-old Our most memorable adventure was troll Grýla, it is only in Iceland that such reserved for the final day: golf in a a dark Christmas tradition could have arisen – an volcano! Vestmannaeyjar Golf Club, on the island of alternative Santa Claus who not only monitors Heimaey, is set entirely within an extinct caldera. children’s behaviour, but eats the naughty ones! With swirling wind and over-water tee shots, this course presents both a stern test of golf and the greater challenge of keeping your mind on the game G I A N T S & GEOLOGY when virtually every hole frames a remarkable vista. A difficult decision awaits on day six of the cruise. To one side: ancient lava cliffs home to nesting Set on a bay fed with nutrient-rich sediment from puffins, set captivatingly against the azure sea. two glacial rivers, the delightful port of Húsavík is the acclaimed whale watching capital of Europe, with some fifteen species of marine giant known to frequent its waters. Excursions here have a sightings success rate close to 100%. Húsavík is also the base for a full day excursion, which takes in Dettifoss, the continent’s most powerful waterfall. Every second more than 40,000 gallons of water roil, churn and crash 145ft downwards, kicking up clouds of rainbow tinged spray. This tour also takes in geothermal Hverir, with its porcelain-cracked earth, bubbling mud pools and steaming fumaroles, and tranquil Asbyrgi, a 4km-long semi-circular canyon in the basalt rock, with a very pleasant forest walk at the broadest part. Geologists have long disputed the forces behind its The Vestmannaeyjar Golf Club is world-renowned for its distracting views. formation but, as you would expect, Iceland’s
“Home to all manner of supernatural beings”
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TRAVEL drifting apart at a speed of 2cm every year. In this auspicious place was built the 10th century Althing Meeting Hall of the Viking chieftains, an institution which lives on today as the Icelandic Parliament, and Thingvellir is also renowned for its ‘hidden folk’ (elves), whose tiny wooden houses grace many a local garden. And at Geysir, the geothermal field whose name would come to define all of the world’s spouting springs, visitors can walk an enchanting landscape of simmering pools, steaming vents and towering ejections of scalding water. Whilst you would be extraordinarily lucky to witness one of Great Geysir’s infrequent 50m jets, the smaller Strokkur geyser gaily spouts 10-20m every few minutes, enrapturing its spectators. Thingvellir: where North America and Eurasia meet. In short, if you have never visited Iceland before, you need to do it. And that is me And to the other: high slopes of red-brown drawing a line in the country’s beautiful, black rock, which did not even exist until an volcanic sand. As to how, a circumnavigation eruption formed them in 1973. aboard MS Ocean Diamond must be just about So, on this island at least, I am literally as 62% of Icelanders believe in the the most comfortable way to tour this old as the hills. The lava from this eruption existence of huldufólk, or as we breathtaking, storied land. As to when, go for covered hundreds of houses and garnered the know them, elves high-summer midnight sun. There were some nickname ‘the Pompeii of the North’, yet unlike gloriously sunny days during this cruise in late Pompeii, everyone survived. august, but seasonal change was already under way: the aurora, the first snows on Vatnajökull and the FA I RYTALE ENDING loss of some ten minutes of daylight every 24 hours. Finally, back to Reykjavík, and it was time to Such harbingers can mean only one thing, as Game conclude this most amazing of journeys – but of Thrones viewers, in particular, will appreciate. perhaps not just yet. Book a two-night extension in Winter is coming. this vibrant capital, and Iceland has a readymade encore for you. The Golden Circle may be the island’s most beaten path, but it is no less PLAN YOUR ADVENTURE! impressive for that – a final trinity of magnificent YOU CAN EXPLORE Iceland with Titan Travel’s natural phenomena. A couple of hours’ drive across unique Iceland coastline cruise. Spend nine glacier-flattened plains and through fairytale nights aboard the lovely MS Ocean Diamond mountains is Gullfoss (Golden Falls), another of where the knowledgeable crew will make sure Iceland’s mightiest cataracts, where the Hvítá river you see all that Iceland has to offer! Prices start plummets down 32m over two steps and into the at £2,599 per person with flights included. heart of a rugged canyon. Next on the itinerary was For more information visit their website at UNESCO World Heritage Site, Thingvellir, the only titantravel.co.uk, or alternatively, call them on place on earth where the boundary of tectonic 0808 256 9160. plates may be observed: North America and Eurasia,
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Iceland’s coastline is shaped by volcanic activity
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The Rise
Image: Atlas Overland
of the
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4x4
LIFESTYLE
Mark Williams Mark has over 30 years experience as a professional journalist in the automotive and countrysports industries thewideangle.net
O
n any Sunday, thousands of otherwise sane men and women converge on muddy fields and defunct quarries to experience the real thrill of the 4x4. On a day when most 4x4s are left in suburban driveways or being valeted, cars bearing the same badges are being coaxed up impossible slopes and through waist-high water, driven axle-deep in gloop and bounced off boulders, all in the name of fun. It is just what Maurice Wilks would have wanted. The elevation of the four-wheel-drive car to a position of high status – the ‘Chelsea tractor’ of the school run – has been a steady progression which will, in 2017, celebrate its 70th anniversary. There were 4x4s before this, but they were almost all in the hands of the armed forces. It took Maurice Wilks, in 1947, to realise that the Willys ‘Jeeps’ the UK encountered during World War Two might be worth putting to use off the battlefield. Maurice was the chief design engineer for the Rover company, and had support from his brother Spencer, Rover’s managing director. Maurice envisaged a halfway house between the farmer’s tractor and his car. In his mind’s eye, he saw a road car which could tackle the tough stuff and still be able to take a farmer’s produce to market – or even perhaps tackle some light ploughing! Using the axles and drivetrain from a scavenged Willys MB, Maurice built his prototype, oddly with the steering position dead centre, astride the gearbox like a tractor. It seemed to work and, in 1948, the Amsterdam Motor Show featured the Land-Rover Series I, a tough, small vehicle with a ladder chassis and four-wheel-drive. For practical reasons, it had aluminium bodywork, and was painted in a pale green colour: there was a shortage of sheet steel, and a surplus of aircraft paint. The Land-Rover was an immediate success. Built with a Power Take Off (PTO) shaft at the rear, so farmers could use it to run circular saws and | calibremag.co.uk
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LIFESTYLE
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THE CAMEL TROPHY LIKE AN OLYMPICS for 4x4s, the Camel Trophy began life in 1980 using Jeeps but, in 1981, was to become the showcase for Land Rover’s ‘go anywhere’ technology, tackling the jungles of Sumatra, with the teams all driving heavily equipped, but standard, Range Rovers. In its 20-year history, the Camel Trophy became a byword for extreme driving, eventually incorporating kayaking, mountain biking and even skiing. It also evolved to incorporate benefits for local people, rebuilding tracks and creating community projects. The logo and sand-yellow Camel Trophy paint scheme became iconic to 4x4 enthusiasts and merely completing, let alone winning, the Camel Trophy was a true badge of honour. In 1999, the organisers decided to take the event to Peru, but by that time the incursion of non-motoring activities into what had been a serious 4x4 driving event caused Land Rover to duck out. Finally, and facing cancellation for lack of a sponsor, the final Camel Trophy was in 2000, sadly using just powerboats.
Images: Eric Vargiolu / Dakar 2011
other tools, it was as intended, purely a farmer’s car. The dinky Series I was quickly followed by a Series II and III in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, each slightly bigger and better, and for each model there were choices of van, pick-up or seated forms. It was this ‘seated’ form which eventually morphed into the modern SUV. It was inevitable that Wilks’ 4x4 would be returned to its roots in the Armed Services – the British forces bought them for the next seven decades – with Land Rover developing them to order and into a huge and often bizarre number of variants. However, in Civvy Street, a revolution was about to take place. On a long wheelbase, and in its Station Wagon and ‘Country’ guises, the Series III became the ultimate way for landowners to carry their shooting guests to their pegs and butts, eight or even twelve at a time, over terrain normal cars could not tackle. Suddenly, the Land Rover (the hyphen in its name now gone) had been gentrified and, with the launch of the Range Rover in 1970, would never look back. Despite parallel evolution in the USA and Japan of ‘me-too’ 4x4s for the civilian market, Land Rover managed to stay comfortably ahead of the pack, with its luxury 4x4, the Range Rover, being its flagship model for the upwardly mobile. Seen to be driven by the Royal Family, it had no rival in terms of prestige. Powered by Rover’s remarkable aluminium-blocked V8 engine (ironically, one of Buick’s cast-offs), it was the doyen of the driven shoot. Land Rover were then faced with another problem: producing a car of the Range Rover’s cost, complexity and aspirational value meant it leapfrogged an
A Land Rover in Camel Trophy livery tackles tough terrain.
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LIFESTYLE
entire sector of the market – one into which Japanese and American carmakers were beginning to creep. In 1989, the first Discovery rolled out of the factory doors. It offered almost all of the ability of the Range Rover (in fact, it had the same chassis, driveline and engines) but in a boxy, more utilitarian body. Land Rover cunningly ignored all of the car interior design cues, and started again, creating a 4x4 with cargo nets inside it, and even (in one prototype) a sunglasses holder in the middle of the steering wheel! Despite the fact this 4x4 dipped into the British Leyland parts bin for switches (Montego), door handles (Morris Marina), light clusters (Freight Rover van) and other practical odds and ends, they managed to strike gold once again. The Discovery was just as capable as the Range Rover and even the Defender (as the original concept had then become) but at the ‘executive’ end of affordable. The Discovery evolved with newer and better engines and was built on ladder chassis technology until the Discovery 3 model – which incorporated the chassis into the monocoque body. The latest model, the Discovery 5, retains all that made the original good and more besides. Increasingly, Discovery has had to adopt features found in executive cars, but it remains at its core a 4x4, which looks great in its Dr Jekyll skin in Kensington but, with the flick of a switch and an adventurer at the wheel, can dive into the dirt as merrily as Maurice Wilks’ original. PARALLEL EVOLUTION
In the States the ‘Jeep’, which had been the source of Maurice Wilks’ inspiration – the name not a corruption of GP (general purpose) vehicle, but 22
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CARS HAVE AN engine, connected to a gearbox, then connected to a propshaft, connected to a differential, which connects to the drive axles. A 4x4 is more complex – a Land Rover has no fewer than three differentials, one for each axle and a centre differential. The differential is there because, when you corner, the wheel at the outer edge of your turning circle covers more ground than the one on the inside of the circle; the ‘diff’ shares the drive between the two wheels. In point of fact, on a poor surface, two-wheel drive becomes one-wheel drive, because if one wheel begins to spin, its opposite number no longer receives ‘power’ from the diff; it just stops turning and the diff spins the wheel which is in the mud. You are stuck. A 4x4 sends turning force to front and rear axles, giving you more possibility of maintaining traction, but get one front and one rear wheel in soft mud simultaneously, and you will still get stuck. Or even if both front wheels start to spin, you are stuck, because the centre diff now denies power to the rear axle. Many 4x4s were previously equipped with a ‘diff lock’ – a way of locking prop shafts to both the front and rear wheels to turn at the same speed. It is a temporary device, because once you are back on firm ground, and turn a corner, the rear wheels are travelling a shorter distance than the front and in pretty short order you will create tension in the propshafts and snap something. In modern 4x4s, brilliant electronics sense when a single wheel is spinning freely, and apply the brakes. By slowing the wheelspin, the diff is forced to send turning force to the other wheel, on firmer ground, so you start moving again. Add that system to all wheels, and you have a fourwheel drive machine of huge capability.
Automotive Differential: The drive gear (2) is mounted on the carrier (5) which supports the planetary bevel gears (4) which engage the driven bevel gears (3) attached to the axles (1). «
Images: Josh Horwood, Atlas Overland / Andy Dingley HMSO
H O W 4x4s W O R K
LIFESTYLE
Images: Land Rover / Rex
from a Popeye character, Eugene the Jeep – continued to be developed. The Willys MB morphed into civilian forms, such as the Cherokee, but with no discernible improvement in passenger comfort. Across the Pacific, Japan had also cottoned on to the concept, and Toyota’s Land Cruiser was in production, in a hardtop and comfortable form, by 1960. Surprisingly, many other manufacturers were way behind the curve, and although Suzuki and Mercedes-Benz 4x4s came on to the consumer 4x4 market in the 1970s, Jeep, Toyota and Land Rover had the SUV market more or less to themselves for a considerably long time. The rest have now caught up. In the Middle East, Australia and Africa, Land Cruisers are the off-road vehicle of choice where once Land Rovers dominated. And, while the DIY nature of Land Rover still has a huge following, the choice of ‘real’ 4x4 enthusiasts now includes the marques of Suzuki and Mitsubishi amongst a host of new contenders to the throne.
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Gerry McGovern Do you feel a strong responsibility towards Land Rover’s heritage? “I think it’s important to recognise the heritage and pay homage to it but not in a retrospective way – all the vehicles that have gone before were relevant to their time. The world’s changed so much. With the new Discovery, I think we’ve demonstrated that you can create vehicles from that original DNA, stretch the brand, and give it greater resonance in today’s world. For me it’s about, ‘what’s the art of the possible?’” Bear Grylls What do you think it is about the Land Rover Discovery that so appeals to our nature? “I think if you strip out the brand, you are left with a vehicle you know is going to be reliable, you know is going to work. There’s enough things out in the wild to worry about! But, I think the magic that people connect with when it comes to Land Rover is the real spirit of it, that pioneering spirit of adventure, going that extra mile, above and beyond and all those notions. They resonate with a lot of us. Also, I think nearly everyone has a story which involves a Land Rover at some point in their lives!”
The new Discovery is one of the most capable Land Rovers to date.
WIN!
CALIBRE WAS AT the recent launch to speak to Land Rover’s chief design officer, Gerry McGovern, and global ambassador for Land Rover, Bear Grylls.
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Future Food
Jonny Evans Jonny is an independent journalist who has been writing about technology since the heady days of the late 1990s @jonnyevans_cw
TASTE OF TECH TASTE OF TECH
The latest in the world of food and home kitchen automation
TASTE OF TECH
F
ans of the Iron Man movie franchise already have some idea what a smart home might be like, an AI supercomputer with a range of sensors, connectivity and remote controls that let you control everything in your home. Others may have also seen the movie, Smart House, about a child who builds a smart home but then encounters problems when it develops a life of its own. We are not in either of these potentially dystopian futures yet, but ‘connected everything’ is catching on fast, with smart sensors inside all sorts of domestic devices, including the kitchen. The idea of processors inside your food processor may be the last thing on your mind, but as the first 1925 Electrolux refrigerator showed, technology is never far behind food preparation. So, what is happening in the world of food and kitchen automation? 26
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TEFAL ACTIFRY SMART XL WE ALL KNOW you should avoid it but if you get the urge to deep-fry something you may as well make sure it is ‘smart’ deep fried. That is what you get with this Bluetoothconnected deep fat fryer, which fries to order, following over 200 provided recipes beamed from your iPhone or iPad. You do not need to worry about temperature or when to stir your food as the app tells you everything! £299.99 tefal.com
CORAVIN MODEL 2 EXTRACTOR
TECHNOLOGY
FOR CENTURIES, THE cork has had to be removed in order to enjoy a glass of wine, but no longer. The Coravin Model Two is their most intuitive wine system yet, giving you the freedom to pour and enjoy a glass of wine from any bottle and feel confident that your wine will be protected until the next glass is poured. This device protects your wine from oxidation using inert argon gas – extracting wine while leaving the cork in place and the bottle sealed. £249 coravin.co.uk
It turns out the secret to keeping wine fresh is argon
Did you know?
Britain’s households spent a whopping £897 million on kitchen gadgets in 2016 I N S IDE THE SMARTHOME
A smarthome is one in which all your electronic items can communicate together over one network, which you are able to control from wherever you may be. This means everything from your fridge to your thermostat, your front door lock and electricity meter are all connected, communicate together, and can be controlled using your voice, smartphone, or even Apple watch.
PANTELLIGENT YOU PROBABLY DID not see this one coming: Pantelligent is a smart frying pan that integrates a temperature sensor, so it can let you know when it reaches the optimum temperature to cook your chosen meat, and even offers up reminders of when to flip the contents and more. Controlled by an app on your smartphone, this is a must-have if you want to cook the perfect steak. £169.99 thefowndry.com
Images: istock.com
S A F E AS HOUSES
Unfortunately, the downside of the connected age is every device that is online can potentially be hacked. Having confidence that your smart home remains as ‘safe as houses’ is critical. However, this was rocked when ‘white hat hacker’ (an ethical computer hacker, or a computer security expert), Jmaxxz, explained how to undermine the security of a connected lock last summer. While the vulnerability was fixed, its existence illustrates that connected convenience comes at the cost of constant vigilance. A Hewlett Packard Fortify security report last year warned that many of the first wave of connected solutions on the market had poor security protections. This is now improving as Apple and others develop ‘tech ecosystems’ where devices must demonstrate better security protections. | calibremag.co.uk
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TECHNOLOGY B AT T L E OF THE GIANTS
Apple leads the industry in creating solutions that enable a connected home while encouraging privacy with its ‘Works With Apple HomeKit’ brand. When you see this you know manufacturers have had to meet Apple’s high standard of privacy, security and encryption. When choosing smarthome devices make sure they support your existing smarthome control systems and they can exist on the same networks. This is important because the last thing you really want is to be switching between different apps, control systems and networking types to keep everything working together correctly. That would defeat the point! All of these home automation solutions mean little without some kind of device to control them, and we are seeing increased competition here. Apple is expected to introduce its own voiceactivated HomeKit control system, while Amazon Echo and Google Home are two similar solutions that let you control gadgets in your home using simple voice commands.
HIKU SHOPPING LIST SOON TO HIT the shelves in the UK, this magnetic device attaches to your fridge for convenience, scans barcodes and recognises your voice – creating a shared shopping list on your phone so you always know what you need. It works with the developer’s own shopping list app on your smartphone and can also be hooked up to online shopping services from Amazon and Walmart. This integration means you can create your shopping list bit-bybit and then order the whole thing at the touch of a button. We throw away seven million $59 hiku.us tonnes of food each year, and
Did you know? more than half of it is still edible
WH AT I S COOKING?
Long-term kitchen innovator, Electrolux, is serious about the connected home. It recently demonstrated connected ovens running Google’s smarthome OS, Brillo, which lets you cook and check food remotely with your phone. Samsung is not far behind. It recently introduced a range of smart cooking appliances, including smartphone controlled ovens, gas, electric, and induction hobs and a range hob. The company already offers a huge four-door ‘Family Hub’ smartphone controlled
AGA TOTAL CONTROL THAT UBIQUITOUS CORNERSTONE of the countryside, the AGA, has arrived in the 21st century. The iTotal Control is the first smart AGA and boasts three ovens (baking, simmering, and roasting), each one of which can be controlled remotely using a Mac, PC, smartphone, or tablet, or using the touch-screen on the oven itself. The app lets you monitor oven temperature, turn things on and off, and you can even control your cooking remotely by text message. £10,190 agaliving.com
The iconic AGA has undergone an overhaul
Electrolux’s first fridge was rather low-tech. 28
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STOP
SCREWING
AROUND LOSE THE CORKSCREW FIND FREEDOM BY THE GLASS
You’ve returned from work ready for a glass of wine. Knowing you have a busy week ahead, you only want to enjoy one glass - but you worry that once you’ve opened the bottle the wine will start to oxidise. Now there is a solution: The Coravin™ Wine System.
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Coravin™ Model One
Coravin™ Model Two
Coravin™ Model Two Elite
TECHNOLOGY fridge. Samsung says you can use these connected kitchen solutions using only your voice and a smartphone.
iSOMMELIER SMART DECANTER
S E R IOUS BUSINESS
A MUST-HAVE for serious wine lovers, the iSommelier Smart Decanter does not just hold your wine, it also aerates it with purified oxygen in order to improve the flavour by softening the tannins in your reds. The smart base shows you the name of the wine, its vintage and tannin count, while the smartphone app allows you to get new information, updates and control your decanter. £1,299 harrods.com
Smarthome solutions are not solely the province of upwardly mobile gadget obsessives. Insurers are just as interested in these devices as they are in fitness trackers. US insurer, American Family (amfam.com), has a 600 square foot model home, complete with furniture, in which it is testing connected devices and now, along with other insurance firms, is offering reductions in insurance premiums – so long as you install approved connected smart devices in your home. However, this is simply not just because insurers believe these devices reduce risk, it is also because they hope to access new troves of data about their clients. Perhaps, in future, your health insurer will watch what you eat as you take it from your fridge and charge you extra if you eat too many bacon sandwiches…
FIND A BREW TO SUIT YOU
BELKIN CROCKPOT ALSO SOON TO land in the UK is the world’s first smartphone-controlled slow cooker. Using a WeMo, iOS or Android smartphone app you can adjust settings and temperature, change cooking time, receive reminders, calculate cooking times and calculate the status of your dish so a perfectly slow-cooked meal is prepared for when you arrive home. $129 belkin.com
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WORTH £ 800!
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Q For how long can Roomba 980 clean before it needs recharging?
» Smart enough to detect different floor
A: 30 minutes
surfaces and optimise its cleaning power based on the type of floor it is cleaning, the Roomba 980 is controlled from iRobot’s new ‘Home’ app. This lets you start the Roomba cleaning from anywhere, manage its schedule and create a map of the home. The Roomba 980 can clean an entire level of your home and run continuously for up to two hours, before returning to base to recharge and resume cleaning until the job is done! witt-ltd.com
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| calibremag.co.uk
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Sti
CULTURE
Cunning CALIBRE talks to Sir Tony Robinson about reprising roles, dreams of rock stardom and his potential for Bond villainy WORDS:
Barnaby Dracup Al Richardson
PHOTOGRAPHY:
W
can do as citizens, just like in the rest of our lives, is as the experience of writing your new to try and listen to as much as possible, hold on to as autobiography carthartic? much integrity as possible, be as kind as possible and “Yes, but I wasn’t nearly as aware of the hone ourselves as much as possible. Because, in a emotions I was going through as my wife was. I’m a storm, you’ve just got to rely on those human values.” bloke – and blokes don’t know what emotions we’ve been through until about three weeks later! But, Louise said she could really sense changes in me as I How do you feel about things post referendum? was tackling different parts of the book: re-conjuring Do you think anything will change? emotions, sadnesses, losses. “Yes, I do. Any gains will be short term. It’s going “It was cathartic in that all of us believe we to be a protracted mess. I don’t want to think, live an examined life. We believe we know ‘I told you so’ in five years’ time, because I’ll COVER who we are, where we come from, what be swept up in the mayhem just as much as STORY we’ve done. But in fact, most of the time we everybody else and, more importantly, my plough through the stuff of our lives and children and grandchildren. But, I still have a then we just park it and leave it semifeeling that in four or five years’ time, we are digested, rather than opening ourselves up to it. going to be in deep trouble.” But I did for the book, and I found that a very interesting process.” Has political correctness genuinely gone mad? “I don’t think the phrase is very useful anymore, because it can mean anything to anybody. It was You have been active in Labour and other union originally about liberal values being overdone to such politics since the 1980s; given all the current an extent that they became ridiculous. But there is a shenanigans, what do you see coming down the road new attitude towards human rights that has for the UK? developed in America over the last five or six years, “I’ve no idea! It’s extraordinary. I think the best we
| calibremag.co.uk
33
CULTURE and you can see it developing in this country now. It’s people saying, ‘I, as a person, have rights and if you say something that makes me move out of the parameters of those rights, I will ensure you are punished’. I think this is intellectually lazy, but you can see it more and more in England. It’s the terrain of moral outrage that a lot of people seem to be living in nowadays.”
Do you think that’s affecting the depth of comedy these days? “No, I don’t. There are an awful lot of notions that were no-go areas up to four or five years ago, which younger comedians are relishing in tearing apart. You don’t really have to go much further than Amy Schumer to understand what I’m referring to. “There are a lot of things in our lives that are stupid and funny and that we’re blind to. It’s only when you get a really good artist and musician, Victoria Wood or whoever, who suddenly says, ‘Do you realise how fucking ridiculous that part of our behavior is?’ that you suddenly realise how dumb it is.” Are there any parts of societal behavior you find ridiculous? “I feel very strongly about society’s treatment of the elderly, we are incarcerating people and putting them through something which is a kind of lazy torture, an ill-considered torture at the end of their lives. And the ridiculous thing is, they are us. We’ll be them in a short period of time, so even out of self-interest, why would we be doing this? “I sometimes ask myself ‘Didn’t people in the 19th century understand that children going down the mines was a bit painful? Didn’t they understand that putting slaves in chains wasn’t actually a terribly good idea?’ And I bet the answer is, most people didn’t actually consider it, or if they did, they wove it into such a benign explanation, they were able to carry on with their lives. It’s the same with us. Most of us don’t wake up in the morning thinking, ‘There are probably 60 people in an old people’s home just down the road, who are living the end of their lives in absolute misery’.” 34
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“In four or five year’s time, we are going to be in deep trouble” •
TONY ROBINSON
Tony made this turnip-shaped puppet for charity
The television series, Man Down, was the first time you have done comedy for a little while? “Yeah, I actually got a tweet the other day saying, ‘Tony Robinson deserves some kind of award for Daddy in Man Down’. Imagine how nice that was for me, 30-odd years after Baldrick happened. The character of Daddy was a tiny ‘villain’ part, virtually the last part to be cast, because Greg Davies [writer and main character] was wrestling with how to write it, in the same way that Baldrick developed.” Baldrick was originally the clever character in Blackadder. “That’s right. He was also virtually the last one to be cast because he only had eight or nine lines. The writers knew it was a key part, but there wasn’t a big imperative behind the casting. To receive such a reaction to Daddy, 30 years on, it’s just like I’m reliving those early days of Baldrick. So pleasurable. “Greg, bless his heart, really went out on a limb for me. When he wrote the part he imagined it being played by someone massive; someone who’d be really dominant and wrestle with him; someone who was as big as hell!” He’s about seven foot! “Yes! Greg is ridiculously high. So to go in the other direction and cast someone who was five-foot-five was a very funny idea, and it’s been an enormous pleasure.” Would you ever play a Bond villain? “I’d be a fantastic Bond villain! In fact, if you want to make that the headline, I’ll quite happily go with that. The producer of the Bond films, the esteemed Mrs Broccoli, might just happen to pick up your magazine on her travels, and I’ll be in it!” Why is that? What qualities? “Certainly the kind of villain that I played in
Images: Jeremy Durkin/REX/Shutterstock
People seem to think they have a right to not be offended by things. “Yeah, exactly. You’ve just said what I should have said, only you said it in about four words. As a comedian and someone who’s interested in politics, and as a parent, I think that’s where the madness lies. The idea that you can’t say something if it’s likely to offend somebody.”
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CULTURE
Images: REX/Shutterstock Mike Lawn/REX/Shutterstock
Rowan Atkinson laying down the law in Blackadder the Third.
Man Down was of Machiavellian proportion, it was Iago. It was somebody with no redeeming aspects to them whatsoever which is, I suppose, what all the great Bond villains are like. “They don’t often question themselves do they: ‘Am I really going down the right path?’” Am I doing the right thing with my life? “In fact, that would be a brilliant Bond villain.” Having an existential crisis before firing the big lazer? “Yes! It would be as big a change as Daniel Craig was to the franchise, if you did a villain like that – one who asked Bond if he was doing the right thing as he was torturing him.” Have you got any other exciting projects on the horizon? “I’m doing the coast-to-coast walk for Channel 5. As a Londoner, I’ve always seen Britain in terms of up and down, rather than side to side. For me, just walking from one side of England to the other has
Tony digging up ancient history in Canterbury. 36
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been such an eye-opener. I had no idea how fucking beautiful the Yorkshire Dales were. I didn’t have a clue! A 70-year-old who always goes on ‘blah, blah, blah’ about England, and I just didn’t know!” Time Team began in 1994. Did you have any idea it would be so successful and have such longevity? “No, not at all. At that time I was simply an actor who had done about four documentaries for Comic Relief. But I was really interested and quite liberated by the notion of doing some more. Suddenly I wasn’t being constrained by someone else’s vocabulary, not having a responsibility to the other actors. Almost over night I became an actor/presenter.” Has anyone ever fallen in a trench or anything on Time Team? “Yes! But when they do they get really blocked by the other archaeologists, because messing up the trenches is absolutely forbidden!” If anyone else were to play Baldrick, who would you choose and why do you think they would be good? “Dustin Hoffman. I’ve always thought that, as a performer, he was a kindred spirit. Right from The Graduate onwards, I just know why he’s made the acting choices he has. I can’t explain it, but when I see what you’re doing, Dustin, I just get it.” Would you look forward to stepping into the role of Baldrick one last time? “I don’t think it will it will happen because there isn’t sufficient will amongst the majority of people associated with Blackadder. I suspect that Rowan is quite agnostic about it. And Ben [Elton] is probably the one who’d most like to do another one. But you
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CULTURE look at somebody like Richard [Curtis] and he has got so many projects on. Tim McInnerny has always said, the problem with doing any more Blackadders is that, even if we made it the best series in the world, the audience has moved on. They would watch it wanting it to be imbued with the emotions they had when they watched Blackadder Goes Forth, and there’s no way we could deliver that. The only way we could do it would be to make a new series and then transport it back, literally 30 years in time, and show it on an old telly to 70-year-olds who are back in their thirties again! “The only way to do Blackadder now, and this was a brilliant idea that Rowan [Atkinson] had, would be to hijack the Royal Tournament, and we would be darting in and about all this heavy metal, and you would be able to marvel at the mechanics of the weaponry, but at the same time you would be getting all the comedy of Blackadder as well. So, in other words, something that broke the mould of Blackadder, but actually still used that comedy. It would have to be something as audacious as that.” What era do you think it would have to be set in? “I don’t think that matters. What was important was the relationship between the different actors. In the first series we knew that having a really big character like Rowan ignited the whole thing. In series two it was Miranda [Richardson], in series three it was Hugh [Laurie]. In series four, even though it was very much an ensemble, it was Stephen [Fry], because he was such a grotesque character, around who everybody else danced.” You created and starred in one of the most inventive children’s TV series of the 1980s, Maid Marian and her Merry Men. “Maid Marian was very important to me. If you can imagine, I’m ten years older than all the other guys in ‘adder, so I wanted to write about different things from them. “I was a dad, I was living in Bristol and taking the kids to school each day, being part of the school run. “The Young Ones was also very important for me. So, I thought if there is a way that I could create something that had that feeling of anarchy about it, but was for kids and deep down had a kind of responsibility about it, but was still naughty enough for kids to see it and have ownership of it, that would be brilliant. It was those drives that made me do Maid Marian, it was very much about who I was at that time.” What has been your worst job in acting or otherwise? “My worst job was presenting The Worst Jobs in History! For two reasons: firstly because I had to do all of them; secondly because I had neither the physique nor the robustness to do the jobs that ordinary people have done 38
| calibremag.co.uk
Did you know?
At one point half of the regimental goats in the armed forces were named after Baldrick
“I don’t need a cunning plan to defeat dementia.” Sir Tony Robinson Alzheimer’s Society Ambassador
I don’t have the foggiest idea how to kick dementia into the history books. Thankfully I don’t need to, because I can help the people who do. When dementia took my Mum and Dad I made a pledge that I didn’t want my grandchildren to fear going the same way, so I’m leaving a gift in my Will to Alzheimer’s Society. Without gifts in Wills one in four of Alzheimer’s Society projects would not be funded, affecting both crucial research and vital local services. I’m sure you also want to create a dementia-free future for your family, but without gifts in Wills it could remain a dream for generations to come. Please join me by leaving a gift in your Will to Alzheimer’s Society. For your free Will Guide, please call the charity’s Legacy team on:
0370 011 0290 Alternatively for more information visit:
alzheimers.org.uk/tonyrobinson
Alzheimer’s Society operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Registered charity no. 296645.
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