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His early life was filled with 'gardeners, maids, Bentleys and jets'.
So it seemed entirely natural that by the time he was 21, Paul Bessell should have a flat in Chelsea and an apartment in Manhattan, and 'flit between London and New York almost weekly'.
Then his benefactor – his father, the Liberal MP Peter Bessell, later a star witness in the 'Trial of the Century' when his best friend Jeremy Thorpe was charged with attempted murder – vanished, leaving a hasty note and huge debts.
asserted
friend → see → note
Now, I can disclose Paul's quest to unearth the truth about his father has put him on the brink of reviving the family fortune in a manner beyond the imagination even of the extraordinary Peter.
asserted
quest → disclose → Peter
Since his death in 1985, Peter has been described as an internationally successful businessman, a shameless fraudster, a serial womaniser, a Christian pacifist, 'a pro-war, Right-wing hawk', and accused of having been an agent for MI6 or the CIA or the FBI – and even head of Stalin's secret police.
Paul hasn't been any of those things, but at 74 he has become a TikTok sensation, racking up more than three million views for videos posted in the past few weeks, amassing around 200,000 followers and attracting offers from corporations that want to harness his success.
All of it results from the publication this year of Finding Dad, his account of Peter's different lives, all 'running at the same time, and all largely secret'.
asserted
all → describe → time
Yet, compelling and often very moving though Finding Dad is, its influence on Paul's TikTok status was accidental.
asserted
influence → find → status
Paul Bessell, 74, makes TikTok videos with his daughter Daisy, 26.
asserted
Bessell → make → Daisy
She plays him songs he doesn't know and he has to decide whether he's 'sign or decline' them
asserted
he → play → songs
'I went to America and drove from New York down to Miami,' he tells me.
asserted
he → go → me
Each day I'd send back short videos and my daughter Daisy would make TikTok videos from them – basically to help the book.'
asserted
daughter → send → book
Back in the UK, Paul and Daisy, 26, wondered how to continue the videos.
asserted
Paul → wonder → videos
'We'd had an idea – because I'd been a music publisher – about her playing me songs I didn't know and I had to decide whether I'd sign or decline them.
asserted
I → have → them
The first 'Sign or Decline' duly went up – and clearly struck a chord.
asserted
Sign → go → chord
'It just went crazy,' says Paul, who, in his career secured a global deal with Billy Ocean and had a hand in bagging the UK rights to Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are.
asserted
You → go → Way
It almost seems the richest chapter yet in the Bessell story.
asserted
It → seem → story
Paul, who appears with Daisy in each video, adds: 'We've now got management advising us.
asserted
management → appear → us
'Who would have believed it?
asserted
Who → believe → it
Meta drops a Who clanger
asserted
Meta → drop → clanger
Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan announced their new podcast, The Pondcast, from an empty convention hall
As Matt Smith's companions in Doctor Who, Amy Pond and Rory Williams vanished after being attacked by aliens called the Weeping Angels.
asserted
Pond → announce → aliens
In a spooky example of life imitating art, the actors who played them, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, vanished from Instagram last week after it deleted the page for their podcast, The Pondcast.
asserted
it → imitate → podcast
Thanks to a misunderstanding at Meta, which owns Instagram, admins took the page down just days after the actors announced it.
asserted
actors → own → it
'We just got suspended for impersonating ourselves,' explains Darvill, who shared a notification from Instagram explaining that their account had been suspended.
asserted
account → suspend → Instagram
It has now been reinstated.
asserted
It → reinstate → ?
In The Pondcast, Jumanji star Gillan, 38, and Darvill, 44, look back at their time starring with Smith, the 11th Doctor.
asserted
Gillan → look → Smith
Angela Rippon's guests do a double take when she fills their wine glasses.
asserted
she → do → glasses
At a red-carpet event in Mayfair, the BBC veteran, 81, tells me: 'There's a Rippon Vineyard in New Zealand and they produce some of the best organic wine.
asserted
they → tell → wine
I want to go.
asserted
I → want → ?
When I serve it, people say, 'Ange, have you put your labels on that?'
asserted
you → serve → that
Lady Victoria Hervey, the the elder daughter of the late 6th Marquess of Bristol, met Donald Trump at the US President's golf club in Florida
Britain's 'special relationship' with the US might not be what it was, but Lady Victoria Hervey is doing her best to counter that.
uncertain
Hervey → meet → that
At the Thirsty Work Bar at Smith & Wollensky's restaurant in London, the elder daughter of the late 6th Marquess of Bristol tells me of a recent encounter with Donald Trump at the US President's golf club in Florida: 'He started chatting to me.
asserted
He → tell → me
He signed my hat and then handed me his pen.
asserted
He → sign → pen
It has 'White House' on it – and his signature.
asserted
It → have → it
Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone Lager is one of Britain's fastest growing beer brands.
asserted
Lager → grow → brands
But fellow Top Gear veteran James May, aka 'Captain Slow', may be closing in with a brew of his own.
uncertain
May → close → own
'I thought, 'Well, I drink a lot of beer.
asserted
I → think → beer
May declares online from his Wiltshire pub, The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe, adding: 'People could walk up to a bar and say, 'Can I have two pints of James, please?'
uncertain
I → declare → James
May, 63, who already has his own gin, sets out his vision for 'James', explaining: 'I am a fan of what I call industrial beers.
uncertain
I → have → what
Not too strong, not too hoppy, flavoursome, a session beer that fuels intellectualism – or, as it's sometimes known, b******t.'
asserted
it → fuel → b******t
Ladyva sings the blues over scam
Ladyva – the stage name of Swiss blues pianist Vanessa Gnaegi – said she was horrified when scammers cashed in on her acclaim by using AI deepfakes
She's been dubbed 'The Queen of Boogie Woogie', often duets with Jools Holland and has performed with the likes of Bonnie Tyler and Jerry Lee Lewis.
asserted
She → sing → Tyler
But Ladyva – the stage name of Swiss blues pianist Vanessa Gnaegi – said she was horrified when scammers cashed in on her acclaim by using AI deepfakes to defraud fans over FaceTime.
asserted
scammers → say → FaceTime
'Fake social media profiles have been contacting fans directly,' Ladyva tells me.
asserted
Ladyva → contact → me
In a warning to her fellow musicians and their online fans, Ladyva explains: 'A fan was manipulated by scammers pretending to be me and lost around 6,000 Swiss francs [£5,500].
'
asserted
fan → explain → francs
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
