Ben Hamilton
November 28th, 2018

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“You’re a bum, you’re a punk, you’re an old slut on junk, lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed” – no, this wasn’t Istedgade on a regular Tuesday afternoon, but a few kilometres down the road at Copenhagen City Hall.

Pogue down the aisle
Forget about ‘The Fairy-tale of New York’, even if it is everyone’s favourite Christmas song, and hear ye all about this fairy-tale of Copenhagen, as Shane MacGowan, the lead singer of the Pogues, was yesterday married in Copenhagen – with Johnny Depp in attendance.

Johnny in Tivoli

MacGowan, now 60 and in a wheelchair after a bad fall, finally tied the knot with Victoria Mary Clarke, 52, his partner for 32 years and fiancée for 11, in a ceremony at the HQ of Copenhagen Municipality, which Depp attended as the official wedding guitarist.

MacGowan and Depp have been friends for 24 years after the movie star made a guest appearance on the Pogues’ 1994 album The Snake, directing and appearing in the video for ‘That Woman’s Got Me Drinking’.

Eloping somewhere private
Clarke, ahead of her big day, told the Irish Independent that the couple “decided  the only solution was to just elope together to someplace that we know nobody and nobody knows us, and keep it a secret”.

She added: “I have discovered something about weddings that I had not realised. People really, really want to show that they love the people that they care about. So, much as we might have liked our wedding to be a non-event, and because we have found it impossible to keep it a total secret, a few of our friends and family have elected to make it a tiny but beautiful thing.”

And this probably won’t be the last time Copenhagen see the pair, as talks are at an advanced stage to make a film about their romance, and it’s won’t be hard guessing where the final scene will take place.

‘Dinner for One’ to get British premiere … 55 years after being filmed
Every Dane knows it off by heart, but barely anyone in Britain has heard of it, even though the cast and language are English. But finally, after 55 years, it will be making its British premiere – at the Scottish Comedy Film Festival’s Slapstick Weekend at Campbeltown Picture House at the end of this week. Filmed in Germany in 1963, where it is also shown every year, no New Year’s Eve in Denmark is complete without watching the queen speak to the nation at 18:30 and the comedy ‘Dinner for One’ at 11:30, just before the big moment. The comedy features a butler (music hall star Freddie Frinton) getting sozzled as he drinks round after round of toasts on behalf of his employer’s fictitious guests. Frinton, who was originally from Grimsby, died in 1968 aged just 59, so never got to appreciate how popular the show became in Europe, but how unknown it would be in his home country.

READ MORE: Inside this week | Same procedure as last year

Danes get worst Netflix deal in the world
Netflix offers terrible value to Danish subscribers once the price and number of titles are factored in, according to a comparitech.com study of 78 countries. Clearly there’s a strategy to offer customers in countries with high salaries a high subscription cost, so it was no surprise to note the countries with the worst deals are all European. Denmark ranked worst, followed by Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Ireland. Still, to many Danes, 79 kroner a month won’t seem like a lot, even though it is 36.6 percent more than average. Canadian subscribers, meanwhile, got the best deal, finishing first in a top ten completed by Colombia, India, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, the US, Australia, the UK and Pakistan.

Phil Collins on his way to Aarhus
Is there something coming in the air tonight? Oh Lord!? No, not him, but the next best thing: Phil Collins, the legendary 1980s crooner and former drummer for Genesis. Collins, who retired in 2011 before making a comeback in 2015, will be performing at Ceres Park in Aarhus on June 8 as part of his ‘Still Not Dead Yet’ tour. It will be his first performance in Denmark since 2007 – an appearance with Genesis – although he hasn’t performed here as a solo artist since 1990. Tickets start at 600 kroner and go on sale this Friday at 10:00 at ticketmaster.dk.

John Cleese returning to perform again
John Cleese is returning to Denmark, this time to perform at DR Koncerthuset on August 27. As the co-creator of ‘Fawlty Towers’ and a member of Monty Python, the 79-year-old actor and comedian is an undisputed legend. Over the last decade, he has been a regular visitor to Denmark, bringing his ‘Last Time to see Me Before I Die’, ‘How To Finance Your Divorce’ and ‘Alimony’ tours. Tickets cost 445 kroner and go on sale on November 30 at 10:00 at drkoncerthuset.dk.

Buffet boys: Danes win world title in cooking
A catering team representing Denmark in the Cooking World Cup in Luxembourg have been crowned world champions in the buffet section. Charged with making enough food for 150 people, the team said they were “happy and exhausted”. The winning buffet menu featured a creamy celery soup, stewed cod with spicy quinoa and beer-braised pork chops.

Radio fire fire – is there one in your home?
Two Pinell radio models, released in 2013 and 2015, have been recalled after causing over a hundred fires in Norway. It is believed it was also sold widely in Denmark by Elgiganten and Power. The problem with the ‘Pinell GO’ and ‘Pinell GO +’ would appear to be the Chinese battery, which under certain conditions can explode. Consumers are advised to check with the store they purchased the radio from.