When Chris Patten and the Prince of Wales marked the handover of Britain’s last significant Asian colony to Beijing 10 years ago, I thought economic doom and gloom would descend on this corner of China.  It hasn’t and I am pleased for the residents of Hong Kong - many of whom did not want Britain to abandon sovereignty in the first place.

It is often assumed the agreement between the two powers to return Hong Kong to Chinese rule involved the entire territory.  It did not.  Under the original terms of the ‘lease’, only territory that formed part of the Chinese mainland would be returned: the islands would remain indefinitely under UK rule.  Alas, it wasn’t to be.  Britain was not going to risk angering an emerging significant world power by adhering to the original terms of an agreement concerning a colony which had lost much of its importance to the mother country.

Hong Kong retains some of the legacies of its former status.  Vehicles still drive on what I regard as the correct side of the road; English is an official language and the second most widely spoken tongue; some of the English traditions such as afternoon tea have become part of the social fabric; and Hong Kong has still infinitely more pro-Western sentiment and culture than the rest of China put together.

Economic growth is all well and good, with Beijing conducting a ‘hands-off’ approach when it comes to an economy modelled of Friedman’s principles.  On the other hand, there must be a commitment to greater democracy.  At present only half of the Hong Kong legislature (containing parties very much to Beijing’s approval) is elected.  Under UK rule the colony had full representative government.  It was a beacon for Chinese refugees during the 1960s and 1970s.  In the thirty years between 1967 and its handover to China, the population grew from 3 to 7 million, swelled by an endless tide of migrants.  So much for the ‘evils’ of the British Empire!

Communism is as outdated in China as it is everywhere else.  It is to be hoped the gradual economic expansion of that country, led and mentored by the experience of Hong Kong, will be the catalyst by which the death rattle of communist government will be heard.

On this day of floods, rain and psychotic Muslims, I want approach ATW with a light-hearted feel and talk about one of my favourite clips from my favourite movie.  Most of you will know my top flick is Jaws.  This movie, released in July 1975 across the USA (and December of that same year in Britain) was the first film ever to top $100,000,000 at the box office.  It spawned a genre of similar stories (though infinitely poorer in quality) that were still being released 20 years later.

Jaws is a famous story.  Residents on a tiny New England island are about to have their summer holiday season ruined by a maniacal killer shark that starts gorging on dawn swimmers and small children on rubber rafts.  The Mayor, blind to every reason obstructing his desire to rake in the dollars, refuses to close the beaches, leaving the hapless Chief Brody to confront the relatives of the victims on one hand, and irate hoteliers on the other.  It is only when Brody’s own son comes close to being eaten that sterling efforts are made to find and kill the beast.  Brody, together with icthyologist Matt Hooper and crusty fisherman Quint, set out on board the Orca to vanquish the menace.

Jaws brought together some excellent examples of British and American talent.  Robert Shaw, born in the suburbs of Bolton in Lancashire, was hired to play Quint.  The two American principal characters, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, had found fame in other less noticeable roles.  The screenplay was written in-part by the creator Peter Benchley, and directed by Seven Spielberg.  When it comes to directing movies, you don’t really get much better than that.

Sadly, a number of the actors are no longer with us.  Robert Shaw died on his farm in Tourmakeady, County Mayo (he had lived in Ireland for the last ten years of his life) in August 1978.  Murray Hamilton, who played Mayor Vaughan, died in 1986; and Chris Rebello, who played the eldest of Chief Brody’s two children (the one who nearly ended up being eaten), died of a heart attack in 2000 at the tender age of only 37.  Benchley succumbed to pulmonary fibrosis in 2006.

My chosen scene for your entertainment is the one when Hooper descends into the cage to battle the shark beneath the waves.  The scene was the very last one to be shot before the end of principal photography.  The part with Bruce (the mechanical shark) was shot in a tank on the back lot of Universal Studios in Los Angeles.  Clips were interspersed with real Great White Shark footage taken just outside Port Lincoln in South Australia.  Bruce was mounted on a crane arm which ran along a track (similar to a miniature railway track) along the bottom of the tank – enabling the shark to move backwards and forwards as it attacked the cage (sharks can’t swim backwards in real life).  In fact, in one of the very few mistakes in Jaws, if you look between the bars of Hooper’s cage 2:08 minutes into the clip, you can just get a brief glimpse of the crane arm manipulating the 1.5 ton model at the bottom of your screen (whoops, Steven, how did you miss that one!?)

Originally Hooper was meant to perish in the cage as he had done in the novel.  However, during the real shark filming Down Under, a 16ft Great White got caught up in the cables which held the cage to the boat – and promptly went berserk, giving a few seconds of fantastic footage of the power of these magnificent beasts in action.  Thus, at the last minute, it was decided that Hooper would escape from the cage and the ‘shark‘ would be ‘battling’ the empty contraption.  A bit of ingenuity, methinks.

Bruce was 25ft long.  No Great White has even been seen as big (though some 20-footers have been seen and caught not far from Port Lincoln).  As the sharks of the time were only around 15 to 16ft long, it was decided that a miniature cage with a midget stuntman would be flown to Australia and used (in the clip where the shark passes in front of the camera with the cage in the background) to give the impression that the real beasts were also around 25ft long.  Enjoy!

‘Here’s to swimmin’ with bow-legged women.’

‘The swing of a sword cannot cut the mist from the sky.’

(Li He)

Stephen Clarkson told the BBC he saw people panicking and running after a Cherokee jeep crashed into the airport. He saw an Asian man lying on the ground with "flames coming from his body".

"It was just lucky that I was there, I managed to knock the man to the ground with my forearm and the police got on top of him and restrained him."

To borrow a sentiment from the inimitable Rick Blaine: there are certain sections of Glasgow, gentlemen, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to attack

hatip: MrEugenides