Andy Duncan

@SKrucican @DrHelenFry Aged 14, my father in law watched one of his classmates abducted from school by police officers. He never saw him again and of course, he was murdered. His memorial page at Yad Vashem now contains a class photo.

@DrHelenFry How my family, after having a 16-year old son taken out of classroom and shot, after my grandad spending years in a Lager and after losing its wealth still managed to not poison their mind, to carry on and not hate the Germans or Germany in general.

What is the most astonishing WW2 fact you know?

@SeaSpitfires Trouble is, he's got a somewhat soporific voice, even talking about the most horrific subjects. I regularly nod off to him narrating The Dictators on BBC Sounds. You wouldn't believe how soothing he can make one of Franco or Amin's crimes. And so many episodes to choose from!

Pretty sure the star of Withnail & I, Dr Who, Hornblower, The One That Got Away & The Monocled Mutineer is slightly more headline fare than I, but regardless if you’d like to learn the fate of the German High Seas Fleet after WWI, come along! Updates at mailchi.mp/cf06a5e0b392/c…?

@SallyAnnely @archer_rs The Pâté Lorrain from the bakery round the corner from my MiL is far better. She doesn’t live anywhere fancy, just a town that is probably the equivalent of Stoke.

@archer_rs Are sausage rolls a thing in France?

My nephew is in the UK, he just sent me this, captioned, "Le glamour du Lake District Anglais"

@TopOfchain666 @BGatesIsaPyscho It looks normal to me. But if it isn’t, it could easily be a symptom of what is now more widely referred to as climate change.

@BGatesIsaPyscho Is this global warming

🚨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Meanwhile in Scotland Scotland is used to seeing snow, it’s not however used to ever seeing amounts of snow like this before ‼️

@historyrock_ If you good folks over there had pubs, you’d have the cultural phenomenon that is the pub quiz. An excellent question for the music round would be ‘where was Paul Simon when he wrote Homeward Bound’?

One of the best moments of 2025. Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon opening SNL's 50th special by singing "Homeward Bound." Paul: "I sang this song with George Harrison on SNL in 1976." Sabrina: "I was not born then...and neither were my parents."

@histories_arch @Dr_TheHistories In Manchester, we have the descendants of the ‘Salford Sioux’. Charging Thunder was Lakota Sioux. He settled in Gorton, changed his name to George Williams and got a job as an elephant keeper at Belle Vue zoo. His grandchildren, Rita and Gary, were interviewed a few years ago.

In 1892, Chief Long Wolf, a Lakota Sioux warrior who had once performed with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, passed away in London. He caught pneumonia while touring and, far from the familiar lands of his people, died in solitude. His final moments were quiet, and he was buried in an unadorned grave in Brompton Cemetery, a place far removed from his home in the vast plains of America. There was no grand memorial or ceremony for this warrior, just a simple carving of a wolf to mark his resting place. Over the years, his story faded into obscurity, his name forgotten by most, lost in the flow of time. For many decades, no one remembered the man who had once been a star in the Wild West show. But in 1997, a British woman named Elizabeth Knight came across his name in a dusty old book at a market stall. She wasn’t a historian or an expert on Native American history. She was just someone who believed that everyone’s story was worth remembering. The name "Long Wolf" sparked something in her, and she felt compelled to find out more. Driven by this unexpected connection, she began a journey to uncover the story of this forgotten warrior. Elizabeth’s quest wasn’t easy. She spent years writing letters, searching through old archives, and speaking to anyone who might know something about Long Wolf. Slowly, piece by piece, she uncovered details of his life. And in 1997, after years of tireless work, Elizabeth succeeded in her mission. Chief Long Wolf’s remains were returned to South Dakota, where they were reburied with full Lakota honors on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Surrounded by Lakota elders, family, and ceremony, Long Wolf was finally laid to rest in the land where he belonged. It wasn’t the world that brought Long Wolf home. It was one person—Elizabeth Knight—who refused to let him be forgotten. Her dedication and belief in the importance of remembering the past brought a lost warrior back to his people, ensuring his legacy would never fade again. 📷 : a historical photograph of Oglala Lakota Chief Long Wolf and his family.  © Native American Legacy #archaeohistories

Such a shame to hear about Chris Rea. I think he went through life having folks mispronounce his name. The clue was in the video from 1984, he pronounced his name in the manner common in Ireland, which rhymes with Ray.

@The_Grey_Writer @anon_opin If you're expecting them to know how to change a headlight bulb through the wheel arch of a mark 2 Zafira, you're deluded.

@anon_opin I'll just check the travel time to Halfords...

Car manufacturers should be forced to publish the amount of time it would take an average untrained person to change both headlight bulbs. Easiest way to tell if a car is well designed.

@carl_thompson70 True. Sausage barm from there t'other day. Grand.

This little gem does a belting sausage and bacon barm. There's always a gaggle of hungry loyal punters here. Manchester

@carl_thompson70 Late 80s, I'd been working evenings as an usher at the Palace. Got some extra work at GMEX from the guy who sorted the bouncers at the Apollo. I'd get matched up with a pair of bikers and do the talking. Folks'd look over my shoulder, look nervous, then follow my every request.

To the right was Manchester Central train station. It became an event space. I've been for beer festivals, football matches and gigs by the likes of Oasis and Ian Brown. My favourite memory was the boxing two days after Eric Cantona signed for United. His name echoed all night.

@martharoberts My guess is it’s a sparrowhawk. We get a lot of birds in our garden, and they are regularly ambushed by one that, I think, lives up on a local hill. It’ll swoop down the ginnel at the side of the house and surprise a jackdaw or a pigeon.

My morning view. I’m no expert on birds - a youngster but which bird of prey?

@Thighboots2 In one instance in our area, the vendor turned out to be the local Green Party candidate.

Just noticed on local social media. Someone around here is selling their garden for 190 thousand. How many houses will they cram into that space?

@carl_thompson70 Walked various dogs down there for 20-odd years. Usually went up and over, only went through a handful of times.

One false step and a watery fate awaits. Huddersfield Narrow Canal Mossley

@BradRTorgersen @gwen_novak9 Who knew? Anyone who’s ever visited a bookshop. There are loads in the series, written by Bernard Cornwell, a well known writer of historical fiction. There are various TV adaptations of his works, eg The Last Kingdom. They’re cracking romps, albeit a bit formulaic.

I never even knew it existed until suddenly, about this time last year, YouTube began peppering my feed with Sharpe clips. I still don't know why. Then people had to explain that it was a series adapted from books. Who knew? 😄

Last year I stumbled over some clips on YouTube, and many of you said this was a very good series. I watched the first Sharpe episode, then got busy and distracted. Decided to re-start again last night. It's def 1990s low budget. But honestly? There's a kind of charm to that, now. Modern TV is so financed and slick, but also so putrid and empty. I'll take an older series that ran on a lean budget, but has good writing and good characters, vs. what we have now.

@news_numen @Jordan_W_Taylor In itself, Manchester may well be a net contributor. The north west covers a large area.

@Jordan_W_Taylor Let's hope so - it's second only to London, home of industry and home of some of the biggest football clubs. In some ways it's perplexing they are not also a net contributor.

Back I come from a weekend in Manchester: A perfect antidote to UK declinism here. It might not be as rich as, say, London or Dublin, but it manages to feel much more lively. I can even play count-the-cranes and unlike most UK cities there are some! There's life in the North.

@RealCounties @carl_thompson70 Postcodes put big chunks of Derbyshire in either Stockport or Sheffield.

@carl_thompson70 @AndyDuncanMJ Indeed - and St Helens in Warrington, Southport in Preston and Ormskirk in Liverpool!!!

It's very close or thereabouts to this spot where the historic counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire all meet. Folk don't realise how close to Manchester the West Riding of Yorkshire reaches. Mossley.

@GroomB @MENnewsdesk Bought a twin lens Yashica 124 in the camera shop down there. Lovely camera.

The Victorian market in Manchester's Corn Exchange. December 1990 (Mirrorpix/@MENnewsdesk).

@GroomB The Irish News was always a reliable source of non-partisan information when I lived in NI. A bit on the thin side though. If you were after a decent crossword, you'd have been advised to buy one of the nationals. I wouldn't have wiped the proverbial with an Ulster Newsletter.

IRA guns fall silent, photo by Brendan Murphy, Irish News picture editor and photographer, who died recently.

@carl_thompson70 @RealCounties It's a couple of hundred yards from where I live. I lived in Diggle when Saddleworth was still Yorkshire, I still have my old West Yorkshire Education Authority exercise books up in the loft.

@AndyDuncanMJ @RealCounties Cheers, Lad. I know it gets contentious down to the nearest tree. It's like that with Salford/Manchester

@carl_thompson70 @RealCounties Nominally in Yorkshire, but his dad worked for Lancashire Fire Brigade. Don't expect any fire engines heading over from Yorkshire, even in Diggle. Also, local 'Yorkshire' poet Ammon Wrigley described the Saddleworth dialect as Lancastrian.

@carl_thompson70 @RealCounties Forget Lancashire, l think you're bang on the border between Yorkshire and Cheshire. River Tame is the boundary, Woodend to the left in Yorkshire, Micklehurst to the right in Cheshire. To get it in perspective, my mate was born in the houses opposite the old fire station...