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Interview series is a December delight

<span>Photograph: IBL/Shutterstock</span>
Photograph: IBL/Shutterstock

Hadley Freeman | The joy of musicals | School inspections | Burglars


George Clooney on Friday, Mel Brooks on Saturday, Chris Noth on Monday – this series of interviews by Hadley Freeman is almost as life-enhancing as our street’s advent windows.
Claudia Jones
Oxford

• In the mid-1960s, when I was a student, I took my landlady, who was in her 70s, to the cinema to see a new film, The Sound of Music. Afterwards she was ecstatic, and on the bus home she entertained all the passengers with her enthusiasm. This, considering her family’s war history, meant so much. Now I’m in my 70s, and each Christmas I look forward to seeing the film. Musicals are indeed “an important source of joy” (Editorial, 5 December).
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire

• Michael Rosen’s excellent letter (Dear Nadhim Zahawi, please sort out Ofsted’s lack of humanity, 4 December) reminds me of another instance of the fear aroused by school inspection. It comes from a 1940 logbook entry from a London school: “Monday am: bomb dropped on the field next door, children and staff calm. Monday pm: inspector visited, staff and children very agitated.”
Prof Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria

• Your article on deterring burglars at Christmas suggests leaving a radio on and playing barking dog noises (Money hacks, 6 December). It then suggests asking a friend or neighbour to put your bins out and back while you are away. But how many neighbours would stay friends if deafened for days by a non-stop blaring radio and intermittent mechanical barking?
Marcia Wheeler
Barnes, London

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