The importance of being allowed to act up

Film roles | Face masks | Privileged men | Party funding | Postal addresses

The inconclusive ending of David Baddiel’s article (‘Why don’t Jews play Jews?’ – David Baddiel on the row over Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, 12 January) is unavoidable, because the only way to achieve consistency is to revert to the assumption that actors can act. Take the case of the late Richard Griffiths’s posh gay Uncle Monty in Withnail and I. He came from an underprivileged background and was married to a woman. To have disqualified him on the basis of the latter but not the former seems risibly arbitrary.
Peter Davis
Welwyn, Hertfordshire

• Re “Face masks make people look more attractive, study finds” (13 January), I can confirm they do. As an 83-year-old, they cover 80% of my wrinkles, leaving only laughter lines showing.
Joyce Turcotte
Winster, Derbyshire

• How interesting. Three rich, privileged men – Prince Andrew, Boris Johnson and Novak Djokovic – all finally realise that the rules actually do apply to them. Who’d have thought it?
Judith French
Lichfield, Staffordshire

• When can we expect an interference alert over the Conservative party and Russian oligarchs (MI5 accuses lawyer of trying to influence politicians on behalf of China, 13 January)?
Jeremy Cushing
Exeter

• Am I missing something, or is it acceptable for anyone to go around offering MPs money unless they are Chinese?
Andrew Ruff
Bedford

• My friend Abdul used to say that everyone in Liverpool knew him (Letters, 13 January). So I sent a Christmas card to “Abdul, Liverpool”, which he received.
Elizabeth Bailey
Edinburgh

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