A bidder paid £2,728 for an empty cardboard box, because it featured in the 1992 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses. The “Peckham Spring Water” box sparked a global bidding war, with more than 2,000 bidders monitoring the sale when it went on auction. A member of the episode’s production crew had kept it safe.
Times (David Lamming)
Pottering around the sights
Residents on a road in Pontfadog, North Wales, have taken matters into their own hands by turning their road full of potholes into a tourist attraction. Signs have been erected in the village advertising “Pothole Land”. According to the sign, the attraction features the “deepest, longest, widest potholes in Wales”. “Two kilometres of award-winning potholes with very little actual road to spoil your fun,” the caption on the sign adds. Local farmer Donald Roberts, 76, told Sky News lots of the potholes were “impassable”. “It has come to this signage down the road to get some result,” Mr Roberts said.
Sky News (Steve Morley)
Special air service
A crime-fighting bird left a burglar in a flap when he raided the bird’s home. Monk parakeet Steve repeatedly dive-bombed the intruder during the break-in in Manchester. Owner Lynsey Williamson, 41, said: “The bird just had this instinct the man shouldn’t be there. He saved the day.” The burglar, who fled empty-handed, is still at large.
Metro (Michael Meadowcroft)
[See also: The cost of net zero in the town that steel built]
This article appears in the 29 Jan 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Class War