The Top Ten BIGGEST Moments From Eastenders This Week!

So this week wasn’t as big as the one before it but then it never was going to be, was it? One thing that definitely did have an impact on the week in Walford was that most of the big names had been involved in the heist and so were now in hiding. This wasn’t completely awful as it allowed characters that don’t get as much screen time to make their mark but it did inevitably mean that, at times, it felt like the were lower. However we did still have a week full of drama with plot twists, returning faces and even one exit.

10. Ben has the money!                                     

Okay so I’ll admit that I did not see that twist coming. I mean in hindsight, it was quite obvious but we’d had absolutely no indication that Ben had any idea what was going on. It was a good twist but I couldn’t help but reminded of the old adage ‘don’t tell me, show me.’ If we’d even had a few hints that Ben was plotting to steal the money, it’d have made for a more exciting pay off.

Image:Daily Express

9. Everyone went racist for no reason.     

 One thing that didn’t settle with me this week was that not one but two characters became xenophobic and small minded for no real reason. Ian Beale went all conspiracy theory when he saw a white kid go into the home of Masood’s aunt and uncle. This, though difficult to watch, was at least releant and in keeping with Ian’s character who has shown himself to be xenophobic in the past. What really bugged me was the fact that Karen Taylor, out of nowhere, told a stranger who she found in the laundrette to ‘go back where he came from’.  It made absolutely no sense because Karen has never acted like that before. And though it was obviously a plot point to introduce conflict between her and the laundrette owner, it was built on the assumption that the audience would believe it because of Karen’s tendency to be loud and the fact she is poor. This is completely unfair and you can do better, ‘Eastenders’.

8. The laundrette is reopening.                 

Having said that, it did bring good news in that the laundrette is reopening! I’m hopeful that this will be a really good opportunity for Karen’s character to integrate herself in the Square as, once she attempted to apply, it was always inevitable she would get the job. Dot’s coming back to the Square next week and I think those two could make a very good team. I’m also hoping that we are going to see far more of Mr. Apostulous who did make a strong entrance this week.

7. Masood is living in an ice cream van.

So we found out Masood isn’t doing as well as he’d have liked everyone to believe. His ice cream empire is more an old broken down van that he sleeps in. Luckily the show decided not to have this as a slow burn storyline and it was all out in the open by the end of Thursday. This was a smart move because it gives a convincing reason to move him back into the house with his extended family and get him involved in the drama of the Square once more.

6. Ashard and Mariam’s foster child goes missing.

Yeah so it was rather quickly announced that Masood’s aunt and uncle, Mariam and Ashard, were foster parents and have been doing it for a very long time. We were introduced to their latest charge, Daisy. She’s found relatively quickly but it seems that we’re going to get a storyline about social services looking into their suitability given that a child in their care went missing. I just hope that a positive outcome is settled quickly and that we can start to see more of the children that they foster in the coming weeks.

5. Tiffany is back!

So it looked like Whitney might be leaving the square at the start of the week but this was thrown up in the air by the arrival of her younger sister, Tiff. It’s pretty clear that neither of them will be leaving Albert Square anytime soon as the final scene on Friday revealed that Bianca has apparently attempted suicide. I’m not entirely convinced on this because that would probably mean that Tiff and Whitney would head to Milton Keynes to be with her and that doesn’t seem to be on the cards. During the course of the week, Tiff already faked phone calls and even a pregnancy to stay on the Square so is it possible that she’s went as low to lie about Bianca’s mental health? I doubt that she’s lying but she might not be telling the whole truth. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

4. Ciara’s enforcer is Mel Owen.

Another old face returned to Watford and was revealed to be the enforcer that Ciara called to help get her money back on New Year’s Day. She makes sure to call around all the faces that she remembered from the old days but she was really there to find the money. It didn’t take long for her to realise that Ben had the money and as he planned his escape to France, Mel was quick on his heels.

3. Scenes on a ferry!!!

So on Friday’s episode we were treated to some scenes aboard the ferry from Dover. (Quick aside: the taxi that Ben took from Walford to Dover would cost about £250 which is mental but hey, he has just stolen loads of money so I guess it doesn’t matter much.) Now I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t entirely convinced that all the scenes were completely necessary but it was still quite nice to have drama away from the square.

2. Masood and Karen went toe to toe for the laundrette job.

After Masood’s lack of an ice cream empire are exposed on Thursday’s episode, he tries to get the laundrette job. The eventual payoff – Masood convincing the owner to take a chance on Karen - was worth it but we were treated to more of Karen’s newly found racism. I’m really hoping that they cut this out in future because whilst some of the scenes between the two were funny, one which was essentially just them throwing unfair insults at each other just fell completely flat. It did so because neither had insults which fitted to their character, instead they were just generic and felt out of place. But as I say, all is well that end’s well and at least Karen has eventually secured the job – for now, at least!

1. Ben leaves the Square.

In the biggest development this week, Harry Reid bowed out as the sixth incarnation of Ben Mitchell. Whilst his final episode was decent enough, I did feel slightly short changed that we didn’t have a final iconic scene between him and Phil. The twist that someone had exchanged the money in the black bag for copies of the Walford Gazette was pretty good. I imagine that this will probably save him from the wrath of Ciara who was soon going after Ben as he arrived in France. The thing is that this final scene just reinforced that this exit felt very much like it wasn’t an exit at all. He is the latest in a string of characters that have been given exits which don’t really justify their run in the soap. Then again, it is almost inevitable that before the year is out Ben will be back on our screens, albeit played by a new actor!

Image: Digital Spy

The Top Ten Most EXPLOSIVE Moments in Eastenders This Week

As the first week of the New Year comes to a close, resolutions come into full swing. One of mine is a weekly run down of the ten biggest moments in Albert Square.  And what a great week to start off on with the episodes mainly taken up by plans for a heist and the arrival of a whole set of new characters. It goes without saying that if you’ve not watched this week’s antics and you don’t want to be spoiled then it’s probably best that you leave now.

10. Max is a changed man.

We find Max at the start of the week not at the bedside of Lauren or Abbie but sleeping rough in the backseat of a car. Bit random. He sets about doing a weird ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ parody as he tries to sell back all the properties that Weylands acquired. It didn’t really make sense. All you need to take from this is that the storyline about destroying Albert Square is over. Hurrah.

9. ‘It’s a lot of nonsense. Forget about it’

Staying on that note, we’re treated to an excellently brutal end of a storyline that just wasn’t meant to be. Do you remember that apeshit episode in August when Phil told Jay that Jase wasn’t actually his Dad and that he had in fact killed the biological father in the car lot fire? Well it doesn’t matter because it was all swept under the carpet in approximately ten seconds as Max told Jay that he’d dreamt the whole story up and it should be forgotten. It doesn’t make any sense but my advice is the fewer questions the better and we should all just be happy that everything in the world of Jay and Phil has been restored to normal.

8. Jack and Max are friends again.

Again, in a series of ‘We’re rewriting everything’, they’ve decided to make Max and Jack brothers in arms once more. It was probably for the best since in the coming weeks, Max is going to need all the support he can get. In fairness, it was a good scene and it made sense that Max would reach out to his brother on the first anniversary of Roxy and Ronnie dying. What was slightly strange but no one else remembered but hey, if you began poking holes in the realism of the square this week then we’d probably be here until the end of time.

7. Kathy has a tea party that is girls only.

Another feature of the New Year Episode was a party hosted in the café by Kathy. It was quite nice to have a reason to get all the female characters together. They laughed and bickered together showing that they could be a powerful unit on their own. It did annoy the feminist in me that whilst all the men were getting ready to have a heist, the girls were sat gossiping whilst drinking alcohol-infused tea. That’s probably a little harsh though as it was really an excuse to increase Kathy’s reputation as the matriarch of the Square and that can only be a good thing.

6. Kim emotionally comes clean about her miscarriage.

So basically ‘The Daily Express’ ran a stupid story about how people thought it was discussing that Kim, Denise and Carmel all sat on the floor of the pub toilet to talk about Kim’s loss. That was entirely missing the point though. Kim is forced to confess as Denise finds a pregnancy test and for once adds two and two together to get four. She is understanding and compassionate giving the Kim the closure she needed. Not only that but given the fact she came birth to one child in the same spot, it seemed quite fitting that she’d also find acceptance in the same spot.

5. The heist goes completely wrong.

I mean you didn’t need to be a psychic to work out this one was going to happen, did you? Aidan gives the boys the full plan and everything seems to be going smoothly until Shirley decides to try and lock Mick away so that he can’t be part of the team. Eventually he gets out and I honestly thought they’d done that thing where you put the conflict in the middle so you can end with it all going swimmingly. LOL NO.

4. Mick gets SHOT.

Aye so I was totes wrong. The New Year’s Day special ends with someone getting shot. That person turns out to be Mick. It’s not really that serious an issue though and whilst the next episode was dedicated to getting him treatment without going to the hospital, we soon work out that he’s going to be totally fine. Got to hand it to the writers though, it was a very fun way to introduce two new characters and got the balance of fun but also jeopardy just about right.

3.  Masood is back and he’s brought some incredible family members with him!

So we already new Masood was coming back but isn’t it absolutely incredible to have him back for good? It was a joke – basically criminal, really – which the old governor gave Masood the boot and it’s brilliant to see him returned to the Square. He brings with him an Aunt and Uncle we’ve never seen before. It was nice for the soap to have some meta dialogue that basically bemoaned the lack of diversity in Walford. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of that. I’m hoping that along with more BAME diversity we might also see the Square become more queer as well. But that’s a chat for another time. Back to these new characters. Whilst I’m sure the Uncle will in time become a familiar face, the Aunt – Mariam - basically became an instant classic. Tough talking and also a one time nurse that’s able to help Mick, she was unbelievably incredible and loveable within the first twenty minutes of airtime.

2. The guy that shot Mick ends up working in the pub.

Alright, so this was random but in a brilliant way. Before the heist begins, Mick gets a text from an old friend of Lee’s saying he’ll be in town. His name is Halfway and it turns out that he’s one of the armed guards that is travelling with the van Aidan is planning to rob. Halfway is obviously out of his depth and is mortified to have shot Mick. He apologises and ends up working in the Queen Vic before the week is out. You couldn’t make this up!!!

1.  Aidan’s true intentions are revealed.

Well it turns out that Aidan had a reason for coming back to the Square and it’s all to do with Vincent. Basically, Aidan was planning on killing Vincent in a revenge act. When Vincent was a police informant he gave information that ended up getting Aidan’s brother, Conor, behind bars. Conor ended up killing himself so Aidan blames Vincent and decides to seek vengeance by murdering Vincent. Have no fear though because Phil steps in, saving Vincent.

I did say that it was a mammoth week in Eastenders and I wasn’t lying. I’ve not even been able to fit in that Lauren is on the mend but that Abby is brain dead. Max is refusing to let them turn the machines off though and has sought out a court order. Also, it turns out Aidan was robbing off his ex wife who is now on the Square looking for her money. She can’t find the money but it turns out that Aidan got Billy to hide it who has now lost it so no one knows where it is. We’ll have to tune in next week to work out what’s going on. I’m proper excited because Mel Owen is returning. Whoop, Whoop. 

Eastenders: In Yorke we Trust?

Ever had a bad couple of months that you wished you could just flush down the toilet? If only you were part of a soap opera. Eastenders, to be specific. If you’re just a casual viewer, you might be a little confused at what’s going on at the moment. Since Christmas Day, the soap has seemed barking mad at times. It’s just a readjustment period though, everything is going to be okay.

To understand what’s going on in the world of Albert Square, we’ve got to go back to Summer 2016 in the real world. Dominic Treadwell-Collins exits as executive producer with Sean O’Connor taking the reins. O’Connor was most famous for his work on The Arches. It’s a long running radio drama that gained a lot of praise for a storyline he developed around domestic abuse.

The trouble is that the pace and drama expected of a prime time TV soap is not the same as one that airs on Radio 4. Perhaps the writing was on the wall from then. O’Connor decided that the soap would take a back to basics approach. I was willing to get in on that. I wrote last December that I was excited he was making the soap less fantasy and more realistic.

I stand by that. It shouldn’t be forgotten that he brought in one of the best families to join the square in recent times. The Taylors are a family written off as scum, scroungers and cheats but at their heart, they’re a close knitted unit just trying to get by. They worked because they were given time to fit into the fabric of the square. O’Connor’s mistake all too often was he’d jump far too fast without laying the groundwork. So all of the sudden Denise Fox has no money and can’t even afford a biscuit. It wasn’t bad or unrealistic but it came out of nowhere and so didn’t work. Denise also wasn’t acting in a way that made sense to her character by not reaching out to those close to her. He was choosing social realism over believable characters which reduced its effectiveness.

His treatment of fan favourites was also pretty diabolical. It is true that O’Connor couldn’t help Kellie Bright going on maternity leave therefore requiring Linda to be off screen by last Christmas but the way that the Carter family acted in her absence was just random and unbelievable. The defining feature of the Carter couple was that they would never cheat on each other and then all of a sudden Mick might be shagging his son’s fiancée?

It wasn’t going well. O’Connor seemed to be doubling down. He brought in this slow burn storyline about Max trying to bring down the square. The fact that it was a slow burn wasn’t the problem. Slow burn storylines can work excellently, curating realistic characters reacting to decisions and spiralling into a situation that a few short months ago wouldn’t have made sense. The reintroduction of Wilmott-Brown, the rapist of Kathy Beale, did work very well in one way. It reinvigorated the character of Kathy, making her an indispensable part of the Square once again.

But for every good character decision, we were treated to three or four terrible ones which were to facilitate the Wilmott-Brown storyline. Basically that storyline involved the rich Wilmott-Brown buying up everything in the square so that he could tear them all down and build stylish flats no one there could afford therefore destroying the community spirit of Walford. It’s not a bad storyline but it became all encompassing. For example, an ill thought out plot that had Phil confess to killing Jay’s Dad – who wasn’t who Jay thought he was – was done simply so that Jay would have a reason to sell a plot of land to the son of Wilmott-Brown.

This led to O’Connor almost certainly being fired from his position though the official line is that he left early to focus on films that he is working on. John Yorke, famous for his work on the Who shot Phil? Storyline, effectively replaced him as executive consultant. Whilst his first credited episode was Monday 27^th November, it was over the Christmas period that he really began to make his mark. He did this by systematically undoing all the work that had been set up by O’Connor.

In early December, Wilmott-Brown was suddenly revealed to have a terminal illness that had never been mentioned before. His son, Luke was ‘dealt with’ by Phil. By that I mean that we saw him being thrown into a van by a couple of goons and he was never mentioned again. Wilmott-Brown suffered some type of stroke and his daughter, Sophie, decided to sell back all the deeds to the rightful owners.

This led to a very strange New Year’s episode. Max, whose two daughters fell off the Queen Vic roof on Christmas Day spent the first day of the New Year negotiating the return of deeds to their rightful owners. It didn’t really make sense since he probably should have been at the bedside of his children but it did signal an end to the O’Conor storyline. In one hilarious scene, Max told Jay in one sentence that the stuff about his Dad was all nonsense dreamt up to make him not like Phil. Just like that, the storyline was thrown into the trash.

Things are looking up for Eastenders now. Yorke is now at the point that he’s got a clean slate to paint his own picture. It appears that he’s putting a lot of his efforts into a new storyline focusing on a heist carried out on New Year’s Day which was led by fan favourites. I’m excited to see what he has planned for the year to come. Can we trust in Yorke to restore the Square to its former glory? Only time will tell.

My favourite film of 2017: The Levelling

‘The Levelling’ was my favourite of the year by a country mile. You wouldn’t believe it was the feature film debut of its director and writer, Hope Dickson Leach because the film has a level of elegance and depth that many directors fail to reach in their entire careers. It’s rather short, at slightly less than ninety minutes, but it effortlessly delivers more emotion in that time than most films can hope to achieve.

The plot of the film is rather simple. A young woman who has made a life for herself in a city is brought back to her rural roots when her brother dies. It’s in this simplicity that the film thrives by becoming an intelligent study on grief and loss. Ellie Kendrick is a force of nature in her portrayal of  the protagonist Clover. In many ways, she is more cultured and modern than her father, Aubrey. She can accept that the death of her brother was suicide but is far less able to grapple with it than she would like to admit.

Clover’s journey to try to understand the death of her brother, Harry is oddly detached. It’s maybe a coping mechanism that comes from when her mother died. She was at boarding school and Aubrey wouldn’t let her come back. Detachment may be one coping mechanism, her other is the demonization of her father. She has long blamed him for how he handled the death of her mother and now she blames him for the death of Harry.

Blame is not in short supply in this movie. Even if honest conversation is. It’s not a criticism of the film, it’s what makes it so brutally honest and excellent. In the shadow of a suicide, people often don’t really talk. They view it as an abstract because by doing that the rawness of it is somewhat diluted. Aubrey deludes himself by calling it an accident but Clover also deludes herself by pretending like she doesn’t blame herself.

Leach’s characterisation is done to perfection so that no character fits neatly into the role of villain or hero. One can’t help but notice though that a lot of what Clover carries on her shoulders could be attributed to problematic masculinity. Aubrey kept his daughter away when his wife died to protect her because he attributes strength with quietness. The expectations of masculinity are then thrusted onto Harry who is unable to cope and turns to suicide.

There is no way that Harry could win. The family farm that his father was handing over to him was already failing. Their home has already been ruined by a flood. They’ve been relegated to a caravan for months because the insurance won’t pay out. None of this is his fault but he’s expected to sort it all out without help and without showing emotion. Clover has escaped to the city but Harry never had that option. Or at least he never saw it as a potential avenue. That would be to admit failure and that is impossible for him to concede.

Clover must deal with the fear and guilt that if she had been there then Harry would still be alive. This obviously isn’t her fault and yet these feelings are obviously felt by those around her. The only other character that we get to know a lot about is a friend of Harry’s, James. Harry doesn’t like Clover very much. It’s obvious that he feels that she’s betrayed Harry in some way by not being around. It is also quite clear that Clover doesn’t really trust James.  

A lesser filmmaker would have had a plot twist in which James killed Harry. Instead their relationship is shown to have been as complicated and sincere as the one between Clover and Aubrey. It’s left ambiguous as to whether James and Harry were together. James called himself Harry’s best friend though he talks far more like someone that has lost the love of his life than a best friend. It is obvious though that James was a rock for Harry.

It’s a scene between Clover and James which makes ‘The Levelling’ my film of the year. Too often a narrative is created that suggests homophobia is done with now and that people can come out freely. Only this past month, Richard Hammond waxed lyrically about how effortlessly it seemed to be gay now in a way that only a straight, privileged white man could. Leech quietly and forcefully fights back against that in James.

James had a fight with Harry on the night that Clover’s brother killed himself. At one point, he’d get a black eye from Harry. Later on Harry would call him something in anger. James tells Clover that he can’t remember. He obviously can. My guess is that it was some gay slur. Interestingly, it’s one point that Clover doesn’t push. I couldn’t help but wonder if for all her professed progressiveness, she didn’t want to know about James sexuality. Because of her unwillingness to delve deeper, whatever the slur was, James will most likely carry it to his death. It’s not unlikely that he’ll spend his entire life in this village and that he’ll be forever in the closet.

Leach has delivered one of the best films I’ve ever watched in ‘The Levelling.’ It shows the English countryside to be beautiful but also doesn’t shy away from the brutality that rural life can be. There is grace and beauty in this emotional, true to life tale that will stay with you long after you’ve first watched it. I can’t wait to see what Leach does next because if this is what she’s capable of in her first feature film, the future looks incredibly bright.

Is Ireland going to have elections before Christmas?

What is the crisis threatening to bring down the Irish government?

It is all related to a police corruption scandal that goes all the way back to 2007. Sergeant Maurice McCabe acted as a Garda whistleblower. (The Garda is just the name of the police force in Ireland). In 2008, he alleged that corruption and malpractice was apparent in his division, Cavan—Monaghan. It eventually led to an independent review being launched in February by senior counsel Sean Guerin leading to the publication of the Guerin report. Even before the report was published, then Garda commissioner, Martin Callinan was forced to resign.

When the report was released publicly in May 2014. It was so critical of how the then justice minister, Alan Shatter had handled the situation that he resigned. (It’s really important to note who takes over from him – Frances Fitzgerald – as we’ll be coming back to her later.) It also argued than a far more extensive investigation was needed to further investigate McCabe’s allegations. It resulted in the O’Higgins Commission being established.

The O’Higgins commission would conclude in 2016 that McCabe had ‘acted out of genuine and legitimate concerns’ but did not find any evidence that supported claims of corruption though it did agree that not all victims were given the best treatment by the Garda force. It also attempted to rehabilitate Shatter suggesting he’d taken concerns ‘very seriously’.

You’d think that would be it all settled but no, this Irish edition of 'House of Cards' was given a new season when it was revealed that our whistleblower, McCabe, was subject to unfair allegations meant to smear him and dilute the veracity of his claims by the lawyers representing the new Garda commissioner, Noirin Sulivan.  This led to another investigation being launched this year in February which is referenced in the media as either the Disclosures Tribunal or the Charleton Tribunal. In September, Sulivan would step down as Garda chief arguing that their were too many investigations that were getting in the way of her ability to be a successful commissioner.

What’s this got to do with the Irish Government?

Remember Fitzgerald who took over as Justice minister? Well she’s now Tanaiste which is the Deputy Prime Minister. It came out on Friday that she had email correspondence which would suggest that as Justice minister, she was aware of a plan by the Garda to discredit McCabe.

The Fine Gale party is currently governing Ireland as a minority government. It is able to survive as it is a ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement with the second largest party, Fianna Fail. They have called a no confidence motion for today (Tuesday 28^th November) which would result in the government failing and elections before Christmas. However, Fianna Fail have said if Taoiseach (that’s the Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar gets rid of Fitzgerald then they’ll stop the no confidence motion.

It appears that Varadkar is not willing to push Fitzgerald to go and Fianna Fail are not willing to back down. Things appeared to look even bleaker for Fitzgerald on Monday evening when two more emails came to light showing that she was aware of the practices being carried out to discredit McCabe. It’s led to many in her own party beginning to suggest, off the record, that she should go to allow the government to continue. She argues that since the Charleton Tribunal is already existing, and she is due to give evidence in January, she has no reason to step down.

Frances Fitzgerald

Will it lead to elections before Christmas?

If Fitzgerald doesn’t resign then almost certainly yes. My instinct is that she’ll resign at some point this morning before the motion can be enacted. There is very little appetite for new elections from the public or even from any of the parties. The polls show that it’d only result in a very similar result to the current situation. It’s also being reported that business leaders within Ireland are against an election right now because they worry it’ll weaken Ireland’s hand as they attempt to reach a deal with the UK over the border question. Taken together, it seems incredibly unlikely that she’ll manage to stay on but then if politics of late has proven anything, it’s that anything can happen.

What really happen to Gareth Williams - the spy found dead in a sports bag?

the world of John Le Carre, deaths by the security services are usually carried out to look like accidents. It makes sense, they don’t want any fuss. An important agent or scientist that needs to be deposed of, in the cause of national security will therefore be made to look like a travel accident, heart attack or suicide. The reader, and the public by large, want something else. They enjoy scandal with their intrigue. They want to believe that the world of National Security is one of high espionage and high stakes. 

It is why the death of Gareth Williams in the Summer of 2010 enthralled the nation. Williams was found naked decomposing in a padlocked sports bag in an empty bathtub in a locked flat. The police arrived around a week after he died. At that point, they were convinced that foul play had taken place. This story would probably have made the news regardless of his profession but the fact that he worked for MI6 solidified it. It could easily be the plot of an airport novel.

For the next two years, the British public would eat up scandalous tales that the tabloid press were throwing out. Like seagulls on the seafront pier, they happily gorged on anything without much though. Stories that could not be at all verified – such as the allegation that Williams enjoyed crossdressing and had thousands of pounds worth of women’s clothing – were thrown out to further satisfy the needs of a hungry readership.

Of course, it also helped to delegitimise Williams in the eyes of the public. Though ‘The Sun’ and its ilk would never come out with it fully, its inference was clear. This man engaged in fetishes. He was not normal. His death therefore could have been a tragic accident and there was nothing more to see here. The press don’t mind doing that, they do it often enough. They’re quite happy to throw an entire group under the bus if it sells. There was no foundation for the crude way that they treated Williams. They happily painted a picture of a sexual deviant using the fact that his search history showed mild interest in bondage and his supposed crossdressing as evidence. Never mind that there is nothing at all connected between those two activities or that there is anything deviant either. It gave the tabloids enough to discredit Williams.

The story had moved on from the fact that he was a secret service agent to the fact that he had strange sexual fantasies. One really must marvel at the power of the press. A spy is found in a padlocked holdhall in an empty bathtub. His phone is found to have been wiped and the actual bag has no fingerprints of Williams anywhere on it. The key to the lock is underneath the bag. All evidence in those initial assessments points to foul play. However, the press was able to formulate a juicer story on far less evidence that somehow discounted the notion of foul play in the eyes of many.   

Having said that, the initial coroner, Dr. Fiona Wilcox would eventually conclude that it was most likely criminally motivated. She did however state that she didn’t have enough evidence to conclude this for sure which resulted in the investigation being reopened.  It would however conclude that it was most likely a tragic accident.

It’s not entirely unfathomable that it was an accidentaldeath. In the first inquest, Williams’ landlady would give evidence that one night in 2007 she was awaken at around half one in the morning by Williamscalling for help. He’d managed to tie himself to his bed and couldn’t get out. She, along with her husband, helped him out and they never spoke of it again. However she believed it was probably more to do with a sexual fantasy than escapology. Then again, people often explain the unexplainable by using their own frame of reference so perhaps explaining it away as misadventure was easier than believing her lodger was an able spy.

Whatever the truth, this story will continue to run. In 2015 his death was again questioned in the British press. The Daily Mail would suggest that MI6 were angered when Williams accessed confidential data on Bill Clinton. Then again, this was just as Hillary was beginning her Presidential run so it is entirely possible that this story was completely fabricated to make the Clinton’s look bad. Later that same year, a former KGB agent would claim that Williams death had came at the hands of Russians who wanted to protect a source they had in GCHQ.

In the end, the enigma that was Gareth Williams will likely never be fully decoded. A undeniably intelligent and bright light whose candle became unlit in the strangest of circumstances. It was enough to result in a TV series, London Spy, being created based on him. That is unsurprising considering how interesting the story was. It’s just unfortunate that it was real life and not just a work of fiction. Williams was not an interesting character brought to life by an impressive novelist. He was a man with a family who have had to suffer not only the loss of a son and brother but also the constant invasion of the press hungry for a good story.

Who will be the next Prime Minister?

Okay so before we get started, I don’t think Theresa May will be out on her ear anything soon. However given the fact that she did have a particularly disastrous conference speech, anyone who had knives at the ready might be tempted to strike. Even if she isn’t ousted in the next couple of days, I don’t think she’ll be the PM at the announcement of the next General Election. It’s with that in mind that I’ve created a list of those most likely to succeed her.

9. Ruth Davidson. 

She’s marked herself out as the hero of the Tories in a lot of senses. She’s a fan favourite, along with Johnson, at party conferences. This is quite a good sign because if any of the public ever vote on the next leader, it’ll be members of the party. The route to her ever being Prime Minister is hard to imagine though, never mind being the next one. She’d have to be an MP and currently she isn’t. The decision to leave Holyrood to run at Westminster comes with its own political challenges. She’s successfully won the position of leader of the opposition at the Scottish Parliament, she has no real incentive to make the move anytime soon.

8. Jacob Rees-Mogg.

 I’m fully aware that saying ‘this absolutely will not happen’ is a surefire way of predicting what will happen in politics as of late but I’m pretty confident in asserting Rees-Mogg will not be the next PM. He’s benefited from publicity as of late and did come first in a poll of members earlier this year for Conservative Home. This poll had the benefit though of being purely hypothetical and it’s unbelievably unlikely that this would transpire to actual support. His outdated views on marriage and abortion would confine the Tories to defeat in a General Election and the Party may be many things but electorally suicidal is not one of them.

7. Dominic Raab.

 Raab has the makings of a Golden Boy for voters. He supported Brexit for one. Much earlier on in his career as an MP, he argued against ‘positive discrimination’ that was adversely affecting white men applying to the Foreign Office work experience scheme. He’s also quite handsome and performs well on TV. Then again, he is a bit young - he only joined the commons in 2010. That has its bonuses in a campaign though. He lost some support among fellow Tory MPs when he jumped ship from Johnson to Gove during the last leadership contest in 2015. My money says he waits out his Prime Ministerial ambitions for an election cycle or two.

6. Amber Rudd.

 She’s Home Secretary, was a remainer and unfortunately is probably just too linked to May to be seen as a viable alternative. I think that’s unfair and her gender definitely plays a role in that which wouldn’t be as issue if the current PM was a man. Before the last election, there was a general feeling that she’d been over promoted but proved the doubters wrong during the campaign. She performed well at the debate and was very prominent in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. She would definitely face an uphill battle to even get nominated for the leadership contest given her Remainer credentials. Then again she’s a more liberal candidate than many which could see a rise in her chances. One additional issue is that she only won her seat by 346 votes. It would be a monumental upset if she were to win the leadership contents only to be unseated at the General election.

5. David Davis. 

I’m not going to lie, before Brexit I had little idea as to who this man was. However he’s now a powerful player in the Brexit negotiations and has been seen as somewhat of an ally of May. It’s this, along with his genuine desire for Brexit, that has makes his name consistently come up in talks about the next leader. Then again, the relationship with May isn’t all rosy given the fact she might hold him responsible for talking her into the ill fated election campaign. My instinct is that he doesn’t particularly want the top job and that Brexit is really what is close to his heart. If he can be convinced that another leader will let him plough on with Brexit then I imagine he’d settle for that.

4. Philip Hammond. 

He’s the Chancellor, aligned with business interests and very much the face of soft Brexit in the cabinet. Compared to Davis and Johnson, he’s far less often talked as a contender for PM. However an interesting story published in The Spectator in late June floated the idea of Hammond as a caretaker PM. This option would stop a grueling leadership contest. In truth this is an option that most  Tory MPs would like as they know that they can ill afford a hostile and long internal battle. The problem is that Hammond is just too light on Brexit for many Leave MPs. Given this scenario is probably the only one that leads to Hammond being PM, it’s unlikely to come to fruition.

3. Jeremy Corbyn. 

It’d be remiss to mention the Labour leader. Ironically, perhaps he gives May some twisted sense of hope that her predicament is only temporary. Corbyn after all was almost booted out too and fought an incredible fightback. Unfortunately for her, it’s unlikely her party will ever let her run another election campaign as leader. This is actually why I think the odds of Corbyn being the next PM are unbelievably low. It’s an incredibly high possibility he’ll be PM after the next General Election but chances are that he’ll be facing someone other than May.

2. Boris Johnson. 

The former Mayor of London and current Foreign Secretary. His name recognition is so high that if Cabinet Members was a round on Pointless, I’m pretty sure he’d be mentioned more times that May herself. However being recognised isn’t always an advantage. We’re all aware that being seen as a laugh doesn’t necessarily transfer to votes and whilst he’s guaranteed a standing ovation at a Conference, he doesn’t inspire confidence as a leader in as half as many people. Not only that but a lot of MPs who have talked shit about Johnson won’t want him as the big boss man because it’ll dampen their political futures.  Whilst conventional wisdom holds that he’ll be the next leader, I can’t help but think he’ll be the political version of always the bridesmaid and never the bride. After all everyone is talking about how embarrassing and pitiful May is after her coughing fit but in my eyes, it's far less pitiful than having a supposed ally stab you in the back right before you make your move to PM. Then again, I guess the silver lining is that if he does run again, it would be hard pressed to have as disastrous non-campaign as his first one. 

1. Damian Green. 

He is probably the closest thing to an ally that Theresa May has. They trust each other a lot and May has granted him quite some power. He’s the First Secretary of State and Cabinet Office minister. When she can’t do PMQ, he stands in. In the absence of a deputy, he is for all intents and purposes hers. He’s very much an outsider but if the Party did decide against a leadership contest but weren't keen on Hammond then he’d a good shout for a compromise candidate. It could also work to appease May and give her a somewhat dignified exit. The problem is he’s not seen as very electable and that could put a lot of people off. Then again we live in a time of political upsets and I'd suggest a little flutter on Green as an outsider.