IGNORE the photograph. Mary Portas has lost her red bob. Right at the start of her new series Mary Portas: On Style, Portas told us she’s grown it out during the pandemic.
Otherwise, little has changed on her Radio 4 series Mary Portas: On Style which returned on Tuesday morning, magazine format intact.
Perfume (selling well during lockdown, Portas pointed out), ethical flower-arranging and the appeal of the BBC TV series The Repair Shop were all briskly covered.
Which is a pity. Because the result can feel like a series of appetisers in search of a main course.
Still, Portas always makes a good case for the importance of style. “I’m often asked why style is important. Quite frankly the answer is this. It just is,” she said in her introduction.
“Whether we’re conscious of it or not, style underpins every aspect of our lives … Something as small as the right coffee cup that you pick up in the morning can lift your mood and change your day. That’s the power of style.”
Read More: American terrorists
Read More: Clemency Burton-Hill on life after a brain haemorrhage
Portis is a natural communicator, so there’s always a danger that her contributions outpower those of her guests. But even Mary was upstaged by one of her listeners whose message about perfumes, read out by Portas, was the highlight of the show.
“I’ve been thinking about smells a lot at the moment,” the message went. “I would rather go out without my knickers on than without perfume.”
Since we’re all self-isolating chez Jamieson, chance would be a fine thing.
On the Unbelievable Truth on Monday evening on Radio 4, Frankie Boyle admitted that when Sean Connery died, he thought of tweeting: “They’ve shaken him, and he’s not stirred,” before having second thoughts.
To which fellow comedian Sara Pascoe pointed out: “I think it’s called having a filter, Frankie. You’ll find it very useful.”
Listen Out For: The Happiness Map, 6 Music, tomorrow, 1pm.
Elvis Costello is travel journalist Rob Crossan’s first guest in this new series in which musicians talk about their favourite travel destinations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here