Steve Pittard: Charters and Caldicott, two cricket obsessed English gents, stole the show in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. Cinema audiences chortled at the whimsical badinage between the bluff heavy-set Basil Radford (Charters) and dapper mild-mannered Naunton Wayne (Caldicott ). Their marvellous rapport owed to inspired casting, as the chaps had only met once before, appropriately… … Keep Reading
Neapolitan Nights – Patricia Hammond and Matt Redman 2013 Patricia Hammond, the silky-voiced singer often described as the Canadian Nightingale, familiar to readers of The Chap as the singer with headline act Albert Ball’s Flying Aces at the Grand Anarcho-Dandyist Ball last December, has recorded an exclusive track for The Chap, to coincide with her… … Keep Reading
A team of scientists working on Mount Everest has broken the world record for the highest altitude reading of The Chap. Dr. Martin, Dr. Hennis, Dr. Smedley, Dr. Vercueil, Dr. Couppis, Mr. Horscroft and Captain Carroll sent us this photograph of a reading of The Chap at South Base Camp in Nepal, at an altitude… … Keep Reading
The long-anticipated announcement of the date of this year’s Chap Olympiad – which can now return to its original title of The Chap Olympics without risk of being hauled before the now non-existent British Olympic Committee – has come: Saturday 13th July in Bedford Square Gardens, London. This year’s incarnation of this stunning attempt by… … Keep Reading
Hot on the heels of the Jimmy Saville scandal, writes Steve Pittard, the BBC has committed another dreadful faux pax, by axing Charters and Caldicott from their new production of The Lady Vanishes. In the original 1938 Hitchcock film, elderly rail traveller Miss Froy disappears, but the biggest mystery in this new production, due to… … Keep Reading
England’s best-loved and most eccentric astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore, has died aged 89 at his home in Sussex. Much loved for his enthusiastic delivery and extra curricular activities, which included playing the xylophone, writing children’s stories and composing operas, Sir Patrick was involved with BBC television’s The Sky at Night for over 55 years, and… … Keep Reading
Photographs of some of the guests at the Chap’s Fourth Grand Anarcho-Dandyist Ball on 1st December 2012. Photography by Russ Bell. … Keep Reading
The U.S. Presidential election became a two-horse race, and eventually it was the two candidates’ approach to wearing white tie that swung the contest in Barack Obama’s favour. He and Mitt Romney were speeding neck and neck towards the finishing line, when one small but essential detail helped voters decide whom they wanted in the… … Keep Reading
A cocktail maker has claimed to have set a new record for the most expensive cocktail in the world. Mixologist Salvatore Calabrese says “Salvatore’s Legacy”, made using ingredients dating back to before American independence and the French Revolution, will set you back a cool £5,500 per glass. Guinness World Records said it is investigating the… … Keep Reading
“Whilst others limbo under the lowest bar of dress code for the bar,” writes Tony Abdy, from Yorkshire, “I would like to think I uphold a little sartorial elegance in the taverns of this great nation. PS I have nearly every issue of The Chap in the downstairs privy.” Buying a round of drinks for… … Keep Reading
The self-styled ‘Count of Gutentag’, whose photograph was sent in by Sir Archibald Acheson, is in fact an elaborately designed, though poorly executed, doorbell. A real count, doorbell accessory or otherwise, would not wear a cardboard topper, an ill-fitting brown jacket with the pocket flaps tucked in and no pocket square, paired with black trousers,… … Keep Reading
“I would like to submit my Chappishness photos for consideration,” writes Lyndon Yorke, “taken on my amphibious bath chair, occasionally seen on the upper Thames, especially during Regatta.” This is more along the lines of how a count should comport himself. The built-in champagne cooler is a nice touch, the lack of headwear perfectly excusable… … Keep Reading