EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: The Beatles had a giant Jewish affect

Writer Mordechai Beck muses about The Beatles on The Jewish Chronicle website: ‘Despite all the accolades the Fab Four received one aspect of their careers is often overlooked. This is the Jewish influence on their lives.’ 

He points out that their manager Brian Epstein was Jewish, insisting ‘they dress in uniform like bar mitzvah boys in their first suits’. 

Their careers were assisted, he says, by a host of Jewish professionals including lawyers (David Jacobs) promoters (Sidney Bernstein), film makers (Richard Lester) and accountants. 

He adds that three of The Beatles married Jewish women – Paul (Nancy Shevell), George (Olivia Arias) and Ringo (Barbara Bach). 

As for John, he sought spiritual guidance from an Orthodox rabbi in New York. ‘Perhaps that’s how The Beatles made it to the top, with a little help from their Jewish friends,’ says Beck.

Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell. Writer Mordechai Beck muses about The Beatles on The Jewish Chronicle website: ‘Despite all the accolades the Fab Four received one aspect of their careers is often overlooked. This is the Jewish influence on their lives’

Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach

The late George Harrison with his wife Olivia Arias 

Reeta Chakrabarti, 59, the least aggravating (in my view) BBC newscaster, on why she might not become a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing: ‘News is difficult, isn’t it? How can I do that and, you know, be sort of waltzing around the place in sequins, much as I’d love to. 

‘I do know that Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy did it spectacularly successfully, and good for him – he looked like he had such a good time and no-one takes him any less seriously.’ 

Is that really so?

Reeta Chakrabarti on why she might not become a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing: ‘News is difficult, isn’t it? How can I do that and, you know, be sort of waltzing around the place in sequins, much as I’d love to’

Halle Berry, confides in Total Film magazine: ‘I do hide away. A lot. After Covid-19 I gave myself permission to hide even more, because I realised that I liked it. 

And as I’ve gotten older I have less desire to be out in the world, and at ‘things’.’ Must try harder Halle!

Reflecting on his long-ago romance with fellow Swede Ulrika Jonsson, former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson remarks: ‘She was not married and I was not married. 

‘Probably I was stupid, but I think I didn’t do anything criminal.’ Thrice-divorced Ulrika claimed unkindly that sex with Sven ‘was about as exciting as assembling an Ikea bookcase’.

Reflecting on his long-ago romance with fellow Swede Ulrika Jonsson, former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson remarks: ‘She was not married and I was not married’

As the US presidential election heats up, commentators appear to question Donald Trump’s sanity while stopping short of calling him mad. 

There’s a reason for this. The last US presidential candidate to be so described – Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate in 1964 – sued a magazine for crossing this line and won damages. 

A court decided that he could not be described as insane unless judged to be so by doctors. 

A political adversary, Democrat Senator Eugene McCarthy, commented after gung-ho Barry lost the presidency to Lyndon Johnson: ‘Mr Goldwater is from Arizona where, at noon, the sun directly overhead, it is often difficult to discern the white horse of victory from the pale horse of death.’

As the US presidential election heats up, commentators appear to question Donald Trump’s sanity while stopping short of calling him mad