The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 21

ARTS, PERSONAL 21 Michael Billington on revolution by negotiation in David Edgar's thoughtful new play, The Shape Of The Table, at the Cottesloe Table that straddles the wall Miss World weary THE GUARDIAN Saturday November 10 1990 Nancy Banks-Smith would give him freedom (echoing an earlier gesture by the once-banned writer) and warns against the insidious corruptions of office. The points are well-made but, in a play that argues there are no fairy tale happy-endings in politics, it is disconcerting to see a corrupt demon being miraculously transformed into a pragmatic spokesman. But it is a good play precisely because it understands that radical change derives from hard work rather than heroic gestures. Jenny Killick, who formerly ran the Traverse, also makes an exemplary debut at the National with this strongly-acted, well-paced production. Karl Johnson as the anti-Utopian Prus is first-rate.

It is an intelligent evening in which Mr Edgar suggests that the Common European Home, if it is to be a reality, will only be constructed through painstaking effort. between November 14 and December 16, 1989 in a stately, baroque banquetingroom dominated by a rectangular table. Around this table we see how a communist government collapses through a combination of its own internal contradictions, discreet Muscovite string-pulling, the reformist aspirations of a group called Public Platform and, significantly, the advances of modern technology. In a world where satellite TV can flash pictures of a popular demonstration round the globe in seconds it becomes difficult to keep the lid on protest. Mr Edgar is doing two things in this thoughtful play.

The first is to show how revolution can be accomplished partly through negotiation: where other dramatists give us images, Mr Edgar gives us committees. Thus we actually see Public Platform, led by a dissident writer and collector of fairy tales, haggling with the Communist Party over the detailed agenda for talks. But the second, and larger, thing Mr Edgar is doing is asking whether a new order will genuinely arise or whether it too will be compromised by power, economic uncertainty and its own naivete. It's the right question to be asking but there is a touch of theatrical manipulation about the way Mr Edgar poses it. The key figure here is Josef Lutz (memorably incarnated by Stratford Johns) who in the first half is pure fairytale ogre: a hardline First Secretary of the Party who has crushed earlier reforms with Stalinesque brusqueness.

In the second half, however, he becomes a rational critic of the new regime. In a final encounter with the fairy tale anthologist Pavel Prus, about to be installed as President, he refuses to sign a pardon that ONE of the few bright aspects of British theatre this year is the speed with which dramatists have responded to events in Eastern Europe. But, in so doing, they have also revealed a good deal about themselves. Brenton and Ali gave us a carnivalesque, Meyerholdian vision of Soviet history in Moscow Gold and Caryl Churchill an oblique, surreal evocation of Romania in Mad Forest. Now comes David Edgar's admirable The Shape Of The Table at the Cottesloe which displays his usual hard-headed fascination with the detailed processes of politics.

Mr Edgar sets his play in an unnamed East European country that bears a distinct resemblance to Czechoslovakia: you will find here rough equivalents of Havel, Dubcek and the former Czech prime minister, Ademec. The action takes place Karl Johnson: first rate as Pavel Prus we have inside. So, I am against materialism and what I do is I'm telling the people that money and materialism doesn't mean everything for all the world." The system of judging was impenetrable. There were panels in Norway and London. "Can you hear me, Ingeborg?" Mai shall shouted into the Norwegian night.

Static crackle "Hello?" said Ingeborg. "Thank you, Ingrid" said Marshall. After a tremendous struggle with Miss USA's stiffened stole, which leaped out sideways like Sue Ellen's shoulder pads, the Miss World sash was forced over her head. Thames apologised to confused viewers who had tuned in to watch Cell Block a soap about strapping Sheilas in an Australian jail. Miss World's last rating was 180,000 viewers.

Cell Block H's was 244,000. INSIDE Story's November Days by Marcel Ophuls (BBC 1), was a glorious fruit cake of viewing to celebrate the end of the Berlin Wall. Wherever you cut you came up with truth and amusement like candied peel and cherries. Ophuls himself, mischevious, witty and insistent, stirred it all up as with a spoon. Take his interview with Mar-kus Wolf, a former general in the East German secret police, who was explaining that he would not hurt a fly.

Who, him? "You're the good cop?" said Ophuls ironically offering him a cigarette as the good cop does in an never saw myself as an interrogator. It'll make you laugh but I think of myself as naive" said Wolf. Cut to Egon Krenz, former general secretary of the Communist Party, laughing hugely. Ophuls sat on the parapet of a roof in Berlin with the mayor, singing a snatch of a sentimental song to him, asking him about the rebuilding of Pots-darner Platz with Mercedes Benz help. "Can these managers arrange it so that pretty girls stroll past cafe in spring?" he said.

The mayor, a solid citizen, was stumped. "You think they're incapable of that?" "Yes" "But why?" "Because" said Ophuls "they're Anyone who has lived in a raw redevelopment area, all commerce and no cake, would happily have helped Ophuls push the mayor off the parapet. WHO could have imagined such a headlong decline like watching a fat lady fall down a lift shaft. One moment there she is, singing and strewing roses from her hat, and then suddenly there is nothing but the soles of her socks receding into the bargain basement. There was a time when Miss World, I won't say mattered, more loomed.

Ashen reporters were detailed off with pins to check if the contestants were deflatable in any respect. Terry Wogan and Michael Aspel who would pay me folding money now to pretend I had forgotten this engaged in strained badinage with Nicara-guan models, who wanted to meet Beatty and work for world peace. Inchoate shouts from the balcony would indicate that the womens libbers had got in again, disguised as the Upper Volta Tourist Board. And the morning after Miss Banana Republic would be photographed in bed wearing a crown on the side of her head and raising a glass of champagne before she resigned in a flurry of sexual speculation. Ay-ay-ay, oh-oh-oh as the commercial for Consett crisps has it.

This year's 40th Miss World contest was shown after midnight by Thames TV alone. No-one else in Britain saw it because no-one else wanted to. Presenter Peter Marshall has hair that seems to fit unusually neatly like the FBI agent's in Twin Peaks. Once he looked as if he had been held by his heels and dipped into ink. Eleven years of saying "What can I say? Hey, weren't they great? has turned him grey.

In a breathtaking last minute change of career Miss Venezuela who (it says here) is a dance teacher, claimed to be a student of industrial engineering and eager to engineer industriously for her country. Miss Finland had helpfully studied English sq she could, she said, conver-sate. English difficult?" asked Marshall. "What?" said Miss Finland fluently). Best of all, Miss Turkey took a deep breath and took off: "We are losing the feeling of love that lence and sexual repression.

He still manages to point up the modern message of preserving the trees. The strange "net" device he uses and one or two of the noises are a distinct distraction but the work of designer Tim Reed is effectively naturalistic, rightly claustrophobic and always sound in detail. The inevitable lurching into farce as Vanya fires his revolver and misses is no less absurd than it normally is. Yet could anything be more silly than some aspects of the unrequited love offered from various directions to Yelena (Kate Lynn-Evans)? Patrick Malahide's Astrov, wearisome, embittered, idealism painfully thwarted, is portrayed with unrelenting despair. Here is both the most complicated and interesting character on view.

Mr West brings subtlety, as well as petulance, to the wretched Vanya. The Yelena we are given is consciously accessible and far less mannered than some of her predecessors: less Chekhovian and vocally impressive, too. Denys Hawthorne's self-pitying Serebryakov's and Saskia Wickham's natural, unworldly Sonya add to the strength of this strong cast. Until December 8. Royal Festival Hall Meirion Bowen Ashkenazy RPO SEX, sensuality, dreams and mysticism were the main ingredients in this heady brew of early 20th century orchestral music, boldly presented by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Berg's three pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6, at the start, was originally conceived as a symphony that ended with a setting of mystical text by Balzac, and it certainly unleashed the darker forces of the unconscious, reaching out continually towards expressionistic limits, in its distortions of waltz and march, its fragmented textures and inflected lyricism. The listener accustomed to Mahler's late music would have no difficulty understanding this as an extension in technical and psychological terms of, say, the Ninth Symphony. Disentangling the threads of this rich and complex score presents any conductor and orchestra with a formidable task, but Ashkenazy instilled an inexorable momentum and the RPO kept their heads. day and Wednesday.

The Guildhall School The Barbican, EC1 (071-628-2571). Bristol David Foot Uncle Vanya THIS, as the text keeps reminding us rather too courageously from the outset, is a play about cranks, bores and unutterable boredom. It might also trumpet, more worthily in the theatrical sense, that this modern Froud-Hampton version, is definitive copy for the Green Party. Chekhov's concern for nature was ever conspicuous; here, between the introspection and misanthropic exchanges, is an environmentalist's dream. The last time the Bristol Old Vic did Uncle Vanya on this Theatre Royal stage, O'Toole was in the name part and his shambling entry downstage was alone worth the admission money.

Timothy West's is altogether more perfunctory but the present production, even with its phases of moody brilliance and some delicate, wry, world-weary performances, is less successful. Paul Unwin, the director, is faithful enough to the pessimistic spirit of the play. His stage is riddled with anguish, indo Another Day Berlin. November 10. 1945: Cold and raw today, and the Germans in their unheated houses, many still roofless, windowless, must be feeling it.

Our military kicked the owner of our house out of the place today and hired a German worker to heat it with our meagre coal ration. The house was much warmer. Some of the old Nazis are changing their colours pretty fast. Bumped into Hasendorff the other day. He was a very able assistant to Goebbels in Lionel Darley Yesterday's weather Obituary: Tom Clancy Around the world Lunch-time reports fairy diversions is not necessarily escapist or mindless, and in A May Night, the Guildhall School opera department's latest show, it certainly offers a feast of energetic music, storytelling, dancing, mickey-taking and romance.

The string sections of the orchestra are large by student standards (12 firsts, eight cellos). The sound obtained by conductor David Lloyd-Jones is thrillingly full and the players seem well prepared. The young chorus project themselves exuberantly and joyfully, lining up and leaping about enthusiastically as choreographed by Chick Eldridge. There's some encouragingly stylish singing from principals too. Mark Luther as the young Levko, whose projected marriage to Hanna is being delayed by the Mayor (his father) because he fancies her himself, does not have a large enough tenor voice perhaps.

But his technique is assured, he gets the words over, and he attacks high phrases with elegant por-tamenrj and immaculately balanced tone. Karl Morgan as the drunken Kalenik is also a hit with the public, direct, appealing, with a natural-sounding ably covered baritone. He may not be the champion Gopak hoofer he should be, but this isn't primarily a dance school. Ann Taylor- Tom Clancy third from left thought the Clancys had pinched it all from the Scots. We needed the Clancys.

Irish music directed by classical musicians using classical techniques is all very well for West Britons (still wearing the Aran sweater) but I prefer the rawness of the Clancys, the Dub-liners, the Pogues, the Sex Pistols, just to let people know that arrangements of "folk be them by Beethoven, Britten or Bantock, insult the living, traditional music. I knew Tom Today: Sir Yue-Kong Pao, Hong Kong shipping Tim Rice, lyricist, 46; Sir William Ryrie, chief executive, International Finance Corporation at the World Bank, 62; Anne Shelton, band singer, 67; Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Staveley, 62; Screaming Lord Sutch, byelection veteran, 50. Tomorrow: Bibi Andersson, actress, 55; Ivy Benson, bandleader, 72; Lord Carr of Had-ley, former Home Secretary, 74; Lord Dainton, FRS, Chancel Irish singers gone west Berg's Violin Concerto was even more successful. Partly because the composer clarified his structure so well with tonal reference-points; also, the soloist, 25-year-old Kurt Nikkanen, gave a strong lead, playing with great strength and security of line, and sensitivity to fluctuations of pace and mood. The refinements of Debussy's La Mer charting a more symbolic realm of erotic feeling were rather lost in the RPO'S robust, extrovert performance.

But the mystical vision enshrined in Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy was rightly treated by conductor and orchestra as just a facade; the piece is one prolonged musical orgasm, which the greatly enlarged RPO here evidently relished. Guildhall School Tom Sutcliffe A May Night NO DOUBT if Wozzeck had attracted Rimsky-Korsakov the Doctor and Captain would bump into a Russalka (a spirit of a broken-hearted girl who's killed herself for love) walking round the moonlit pond where Wozzeck has engulfed himself. Rimsky's typically Slavonic recipe of low-life cavorting combined with atmospheric through "race" recordings from the 1920s onwards. The Clancy Brothers began within this culture and took the folk scene by storm. We certainly needed them here.

They also showed their compatriots that Irish music could make a bridgehead in the vast American market labelled "country Wherever you went there at that time there were Clancy clones we did an Irish concert in Bedford and there were four of them on the bill all boosting the Aran sweater trade, of course. In Scotland one group became famous using the Clancys' whole act so that when the genuine article made their own first appearance in Edinburgh, with Tommy Makem, the audience workers in a side room and set the timers to go off half an hour later. Two British officers arrived and clashed with the gang but one was shot dead and the other wounded. Outside, an Irgun cover team exchanged fire with British soldiers and then set off a firecracker. In the confusion, the bombers thoughtfully freed the Arabs and fled.

"Suddenly, the whole town seemed to shudder the entire wing of a huge building was cut off as with a knife," Begin wrote. There were 91 dead, among them senior British officers, 15 Jews who worked for the British government, and several Arabs. The Irgun lost one dead. Begin claimed that they had telephoned warnings to the hotel, the French Consulate and the Palestine Post 25 minutes before the blast, leaving "days of pain and nights of sorrow" for the Irgun. Levy was always haunted by the operation, it was said, but-stayed with Irgun until Israel became a state in 1948.

He led a quiet life with his family selling stationery in suburban Tel Aviv. (The real Gideon had 70 sons, many wives, and a concubine whose son, Abimelech, butchered the 70 "on a single stone You can't beat the Bible for blood.) C.P.D. Morley as Hanna had a fresh, well modulated singing voice and a nice easy stage manner. William Dazeley's town clerk with typewriter at the ready, Francesc Garrigosa's mature distiller, and Jenevora Williams's shrewish sister-in-law were also accomplished. Only Robert Torday as the mayor, a role created by Stravinsky's dad at the 1880 premiere, was disappointing with his rasping vocal style and smaller than life personality.

John Lloyd-Davies produced and designed, relying on selfconsciously slav formulas bright colours, coarse lines, a Gallery Five kiddies' storybook approach that limited the acting. Instead of exploiting the full width of the stage, the set cramped the movement with mobile miniature houses and a narrow central space surrounded by flapping drapes. Not lovely to behold, or atmospheric, or suggestive as an interpretation of the Ukrainian village story with its fairytale extension. And surely Guildhall programmes should include information about the performers? What audiences need to be told is: their age, the year they started as students, where they're from, and (above all) which singing teacher is responsible for them. More performances on Mon ALLAN TITMUSS Clancy as a fine man and a good singer.

He was also a well established actor on stage, televison and films, notably in plays by Eugene O'Neill. In their heyday, one name came to mind at the sight of that knitwear: the Clancy Brothers Tom, Paddy, Liam and Tommy Makem. Bob Davenport Tom Clancy born 1913; died November 7, 1990. lor, University of Sheffield, 76; Air Marshal Sir Donald Hall, chairman, Marconi Defence Systems, 60; Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, Chancellor, University of Oxford, 70; Stubby Kaye, actor, singer, 72; Rodney Marsh, Australian cricketer, 43; Dr Indraprasad Patel, economist, 66; Sir Peter She-pheard, architect, 77; Kurt Vonnegut jnr, novelist, 68; June Whitfield, actress, 65; Lord Wolfson, chairman, Wolfson Foundation and GUS, 63. modification of the Gouy method for solids which involved weighing a very small powerful magnet rather than the sample instead of weighing the small sample in the field of a very large magnet.

His work on effects of oxygen on organic compounds involved him in some quite desperate experiments a high pressure cell with acetylene and oxygen blew up just after he looked through the windows, all the bolts sheared and the end bent itself on an oxygen cylinder which fortunately did not blow up. During his last years he devised a new procedure for generation of singlet oxygen, an important industrial oxidant, Trade in a bind Ajaceio 1 63 London 8 46 Wgieta 63 'L03 Angeles 22 12 Amsterdam 6 43 Luxombourg 3 37 Athens 12 54 'Mexico City 24 75 Bahrain 29 84 Madrid 14 57 Barbados 29 84 Majorca 17 63 Barcelona 16 61 Malaga 21 70 Belgrade 7 45 Malta 19 66 Berlin 4 39 Manchester 8 46 Bermuda 23 73 Melooutno 17 63 Biarritz 17 63 'Miami 29 64 Birmingham 6 43 Moscow Sn 0 32 Bombay 30 66 Munich 3 37 Bordeaux 15 59 Nairobi 23 73 'Boston 8 48 Naples 15 59 Bristol 7 45 "Nassau 27 81 Brussels 7 45 New Oelhl 28 82 Budapest 7 45 Newcastle 8 46 Aires 21 70 'New York 9 43 Cairo 25 77 Nice 16 61 Cape Town 22 72 Oporto Dr 15 59 Cardiff 6 43 Oslo Fg -1 30 Casablanca 23 73 Pans 7 45 Chicago 3 37 Peking 5 41 Cologns 8 46 Perth (Aus) 25 77 Copenhagen 6 43 Prague 8 46 Corfu 15 59 Reykjavik 8 46 'Denver 7 45 Rhodes 16 61 Dublin 9 48 'Rio de Jan 27 81 Dubrovnik 13 55 Riyadh 30 86 Edinburgh 9 48 Roma 15 59 Faro 19 66 Salzburg 5 8 46 Florence 15 59 Seoul 7 45 FfanMurt 8 46 Singapore 30 66 Funchal 22 72 Stockholm 6 43 Geneva 4 39 Strasbourg 4 39 Gibraltar 21 70 Sydney 23 73 Glasgow 5 41 Tangier 16 61 Helsinki 4 39 Tel Aviv 22 72 Hong Kong 23 73 Tenenfo 25 77 Inn3bruck 7 45 Tokyo 15 59 Inverness Fg 0 32 Tunis 20 68 Istanbul 7 45 Valencia 20 68 Jersey 11 52 Venice 11 52 Jo burg 25 77 Vienna 8 46 Karachi 30 88 'Washington 9 48 Larnaca 22 72 Warsaw 5 41 Us Patmas 25 77 Wellington 18 64 Lisbon 16 61 Zurich 4 39 tayifty. DrSdrizzV4. lair; Fg, fog; hail. R.

NE evening in the learly 1960s I was MC at the Singers club upstairs at the Pindar of Wakefield by King's Cross, where Bob Dylan had sung a few months earlier. The Clancy Brothers were in town and Tom, who died this week aged 67, and Paddy came along to the club. They both sang and even people who had dismissed them as "commercial" were impressed by their individual yet traditional styles. For British people, Irish traditional music at that time was collected (often exploited) more for sleeve notes than for the music itself, as sometimes happened to jazzmen too. In the US, however, Irish performers had become famous and successful Yisrael Levy Birthdays LIONEL Darley who has died at the age of 96 (three days short of his 97th birthday) was not only a great character in the field of publishers' bookbinding, but also a mine of fascinating trade lore.

He joined the wholesale binding firm of James Burn Co. in 1911 and served it with distinction until his retirement 52 years later. The company had had its modest origins in 1781 in Middle Row, Holborn, the home of its founder, Thomas Burn. It was his son William who, in 1827, invented and introduced the rolling-press, the first machine to be employed in the trade, for work which previously had been done by men who beat the printed sheets with 141b hammers. By then, the firm was in Hat-ton Garden and when Darley arrived it had become a large concern.

But he returned from war service in the RASC to a book trade beset with strikes and periodic slumps throughout the Around Britain Report (or the 24 hours ended 6 pm yesterday. Sun- Temp shire Rain Weather hrs in (day) ENGLAND Aspatna Leeds 0 7 Cloudy 7 8 Cloudy 6 11 Sunny .02 4 7 Rain pm .10 9 13 Drizzle 04 3 7 Dnzzlo Ross-on-Wye EAST COAST Tynemoui Skeqness 7 9 Dull pm 7 11 Sunny 3 11 Sunny 6 12 Sunny 7 10 Sunny 7 9 Bright am 5 9 Cloudy pm 5 9 Bright am 3 9 Bright am Hunslantoi Cromer Lowestoft- Clacton Southend. Margate Heme Bay- SOUTH COAST Folkestone Haslmgs Eastbourne Brighton. WEST COAST Newquay Saunton Sands lllracombe Minehead Weston-s-Mare Southporl Blackpool Morecambe. 1 5 Douglas WALES Anglesey .05 11 13 Drizzle .10 6 12 Cloudy .04 7 12 Shwrs pm 6 9 Fog pm 3 10 Dull 3 8 Dull 1 8 Cloudy 5 9 Cloudy 7 8 Cloudy 1 9 Cloudy 7 11 Drizzle -2 10 Sunny -t 8 Bright -1 10 Sunny am -1 9 Sunny 6 8 Cloudy 6 10 Bright -2 8 Sunny am 0 9 Bright 7 8 Cloudy 7 9 Cloudy tenoy Edinburgh Eskdatamuir Glasgow Kinioss Lerwick Leuchars Prestwick Stornoway Tiree Wick NORTHERN IRELAND Ballast 0 2 7 9 Cloudy Reading not available.

Major roadworks South-East M40i contraflow 4 -5; restrictions J6-7 M3: contraflow J3-4. contraflow J11-12. M23 contrallow J8-9. M2i contrallow J4-5. M20i restrictions J8.

lano closures J3-5. M20i contrallow between J5 and M20, Alt long delays Barnet bypass, Stirling Corner to South Mimms. West Country and Wales M4i contraflow J14-16; reduced widths boih ways J39-41; M61 restrictions J29-30, contrallow J12-13; slip roads closed J12. contrallow J25-26. Midlands and Eaat Angllai Mli twolanos each way 23-24, contrallow J26-27, northbound exit slip closed at J27; contrallow J29-30, MOi two lanes open each way JB-10.

both entry slips closed al J9; northbound oxit slip road closed, contrallow at 14; northbound entry and exit slips closed, southbound entry slips road closed daily between 7am and 9.30am. North M08i contrallow at J29; contrallow J2I-22; MOi contrillow J17-18. Scotland MOi lane closures at J4; M9i contrallow J7-B. Road information compiled and supplied by AA Roadwatch, Manchester readings From 6pm Thursday lo 6am yo3lordny: Min tomp 3C (37F). From 6am to 6pm yes terday: Max tomp 9C 48F).

Total period: sunshine. 0,2 tits, roinlaU, 60 6.2 63 4.7 2.4 1.7 2.4 .2.9 5 10 Bright 7 11 Cloudy 11 Cloudy 5 9 Dull worming uc Littlehampton .01 5 12 Onzzlo Southsea -02 6 12 Rain am Sandown 02 9 12 Drizzle Shanklin. 04 9 12 Rain Ventnor 04 9 12 Drizzle am Bournemouth 05 5 12 Rain Poole .03 6 12 Drizzla Swanage 9 13 Cloudy Torquay. .13 11 13 Dull Falmouth 21 9 13 Fog Penzance -'5 11 13 Rain Isles ofScllly 02 .08 10 13 Bright pm Jersey- -06 6 13 Dull Guernsey 03 7 14 Cloudy St lves 10 13 Dull the Propaganda Ministry, specializing on American affairs when I was last here. "I've fallen on my feet," he laughed, when I told him I was surprised to see him even at large, considering his past.

"How come?" I said. "I'm managing editor of the British-licensed daily newspaper His attitude seemed to be: if the British are stupid, why should I be? (William Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary: Knopf, 1947) inter-war years. It was his task to visit customers such as Hein-emann, Hodder and Macmillan, and, later, Faber and Michael Joseph to discuss their requirements, delivery dates and so on. The publishersheld him in high regard for his reliability and good advice. At this time, too, he was involved with designs for some of the bindings, notably Macmillan's.

He used his material on the history of the company for his Bookbinding Then and Now (1959), a useful outline of wholesale binding, including the introduction of book-cloth in the early 1820s. With the deaths of Roger Powell (obituary, October 31) and Lionel Darley within the space of two days, each of the two main sides of the bookbinding trade, fine and wholesale, has lost a venerable figure. Bernard C. MIddlcton Lionel Darley, born October 21, 1893; died October 18, 1990. was often to be found.

For a man who felt only at home in London, he was nevertheless fond of travel to exotic places, particularly if a revolution was imminent. Evans was born in Nottingham, had a distinguished record at Oxford and after a year with Professor Mullikan in Chicago returned to Oxford and was appointed lecturer at Imperial College in 1956, being elected FRS in 1981. He leaves a daughter and two grandchildren. Qeoffroy Wilkinson Professor Dennis Frederick Evans, FRS, born March 27, 1928; died November 6 1990. Midianite Brits Dennis Evans: midnight chemist for a desperate experiment with oxygen rain, SI, sleet, Sn.

snow; sunny, Th, thunder (Previous cays reaomgsj Sun and moon Today SUN RISES 0708 1620 1335 MOON. New 17th November 0710 1618 0038 1349 MOON: New 17th November Lightfng-up Today Bellas! 1633 1623 1630 1621 1620 1622 1613 1621 1631 1621 1628 1619 1618 1620 to 0744 to 0720 10 0719 10 0742 to 0710 to 0725 to 0728 to 0719 to 0746 to 0722 to 0721 lo 0744 to 0711 lo 0727 lo 0730 lo 0720 Nottingham High tides Today London Bridge 0703 Dover 0424 Liverpool 0447 Avonmouth 0022 Hull Greenock 0554 Leilh 0829 Oun LaoQhaire 0528 Tomorrow London Bridge 0606 Dover 0547 Liverpool 0604 Avonmoulh 0127 Hull 0022 Greenock 0723 Leilh 0942 Dun Laogbalro 0651 61 1345 57 1718 77 1715 10.3 1246 1221 3.0 1734 4 8 2101 35 1752 6.0 2054 56 1846 7.6 1831 0.1 1357 62 1347 30 1846 4 8 2213 3.5 1908 London readings From 6pm Thursday to 6am yesterday: Mirt temp 5C(41F). From 6am to 6pm yes-terday: Max temp 10C (50F). Total period; sunshine, nit hrs; rainfall, nil. WMtlwr Forecast, page 24 Tomorrow UNTIL Lockerbie and other jumbo-scale outrages, the palm for terrorist operations in so-called peacetime went to a Jewish organisation, led by Menachem Begin, the future prime minister of Israel.

(The IRA are nowhere.) The man in charge was who has died at the age of 64. (See the Book of Judges, chapters 6-8: "The Lord turned to Gideon and said, 'Go and use this strength of yours to free Israel from the "Gideon" was Yisrael Levy, an early recruit to Be-gin's Irgun Zvai Leumi during the British Mandate. He had already bombed the Jerusalem police headquarters in 1945. But the King David hotel, the British military headquarters, was a harder, larger target, and as Begin recalled in his memoirs, "Giddy's tremendous inventive and creative powers were called upon to the full." On the morning of July 22, 1946, Levy's group entered La Regence Cafe in the hotel basement. Dressed as Arabs (an ironic touch, just now), they planted milk cans packed with 5001b of explosiv es no Semtex in those days.

Levy was disguised as a Sudanese waiter. No customers were in the cafe. The bombers locked its 15 Arab and a potentially important new method for making hydrogen peroxide. At his death his students were working on aluminium and silicon complexes in aqueous solution, of biological importance as aluminium in Alzheimer's disease. An early sideline interest on the effects of drugs led Evans to become known to the legal profession as an expert witness on detection of drugs.

Dennis was a man of many talents often unusual. Those who saw his party tricks such as eating wine glasses and blowing oxygen through a lighted cigarette will miss him, as will friends at Chelsea Arts Club where he DENNIS Evans, FRS, Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College, has died after a very short illness. Though he was a very private person and not known to the public, he was one of this country's truly unusual and both eccentric and outstanding scientists. Working, commonly late at night and mostly alone in the laboratory, he achieved an international reputation, initially for his work on oxygen and on the magnetic properties of materials. His nuclear magnetic resonance method for measuring magnetic moments of compounds in solution is known worldwide as the Evans' method, as is his ingenious.