I applaud Ian McKellen’s exhortations for more plays to be broadcast on television (Report, 23 October). Judging by the popularity of the live (and repeat) screenings from the National Theatre, Stratford, and the Globe at our local cinema, a simple option might be to show these on television. I appreciate that the theatres need to be able to sell these showings with some exclusivity to ensure profitability, but when the on-stage run has finished perhaps even our increasingly impoverished BBC could strike a bargain that would be to everyone’s benefit.
Chris Osborne
West Bridgford
• I remember my grandma telling us that in Heywood, Lancashire, which was then a town with many cotton mills, early last century, this notice appeared one day outside one of the mills: “No Irish need apply” (Letters, 26 October). Soon after someone wrote this rejoinder in chalk underneath: “Whoever wrote this wrote it well, for the same is written on the gates of hell, ‘No Irish need apply’.”
Kathleen Marcenac
Meylan, France
• My husband was an art student at Chelsea School of Art in the early 1960s. When looking for digs he encountered signs that read: “No Irish, No Blacks, No Art Students”.
Judy Sharpe
Leckhampstead, Buckinghamshire
• Rhik Samadder (Inspect a gadget, G2, 22 October) says that the only two words more depressing than “caravan holiday” are “oven chips”. I’d happily eat oven chips on a caravan holiday if I knew I’d never see the words “bus replacement” again.
Matthew Shooter
South Petherton, Somerset
• Ron Brewer (Letters, 20 October) complains about lack of pithy letters. Tell him that I do send such letters but it looks like the Guardian has stopped taking the pith.
Dr Khosro Jahdi
Leeds
• Given the proposal for a sugar tax and the inevitable responses from the food and drinks camp, can we now look forward to short, pithy and amusing letters from the head of advocacy for AB Sugar?
Chris Baker
Minety, Wiltshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
