Londoner's Diary: Guernsey cows find a curious place in history

Television studios take on the Trojan War at their risk: there’s a horde of historical fact-checkers out there armed with Twitter accounts and they’re not afraid to use them. But even among these pernickety viewers, there’s a hierarchy of sneer: to reach the top, you need to be able to distinguish cow breeds on the hoof.

Troy: Fall of a City, a BBC and Netflix co-production, which began on Saturday night on BBC One, is the Corporation’s eight-part take on the events made famous by Homer’s Iliad some 3,000 years ago.

As the show began, complainers-to-be were itching their palms and priming their keyboards. And they were not disappointed. Many viewers growled about horses saddled with stirrups, which only arrived in the West around the 7th century AD, as well as an ostrich that popped up on the screen.

But this was small beer in the accuracy stakes. The eagle-eyed Peter Whitbread complained on Twitter that the programme was “utter garbage.” So far, so standard. But he added that it was “complete with a Guernsey cow in Troy more than 3,000 years ago. Waste of a licence fee.” “My new fave historical accuracy complaint #Cows”, TV historian Greg Jenner tweeted.

Aside from the minor issues, producers have clearly at least tried to be true to the time with impressive costumes and sets. Are producers disappointed to find their painstaking work on historical accuracy undone by a single rogue bovine?

We reached out to the BBC who joked that they had been unable to source an ancient cow. Perhaps they consider it to be their Achilles heel?

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Farewell to Douglas Botting, the writer and explorer who died earlier this month. His daughter Anna recalled to Radio 4’s Last Word how a chance encounter with Ernest Hemingway in Kenya ordained his future career: “I would just like to say your book The Old Man and the Sea is the best book I’ve ever read,” said the young Botting. “Hey, Limey, turn around and get down that f***ing beach from where you came,” a less than taken Hemingway responded. “My dad knew at that moment he was destined to be a writer.”

And the winner for male actress is ...

An evening in with Jess Phillips turned into a political statement last night as she tuned in to watch the stars gather at last night’s Bafta Awards. The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley started keeping a tally of male and female award winners, and took to her Twitter account to share her findings. At one point she abandoned the commentary out of sheer frustration but gave it another try. The final score? She counted 24 male and four female winners. “I think a man might win supporting actress at this rate.”

Quote of the day

"Well done Ukip, exercising that excellent democratic insight: that if you've voted through a dreadful mistake, you can change your mind." Alastair Campbell praises Ukip members who voted to sack their leader Henry Bolton over the weekend.

Where the wild things are at LFW

London Fashion Week was in full swing this weekend with Roland Mouret and Alice Temperley among the designers with shows.

The Londoner kick-started it all with a Good Housekeeping dinner at MNKY House to celebrate DHELA, a new label from designer Daniella Helayel. Next, we hot-footed it over to a Deep Sea Disco at the London EDITION Hotel, thrown by Project 0 and Unemployed magazine to promote Salt-T’s new range of sustainable shirts. Alexa Chung and Edie Campbell were among the guests.

Then onto 180 The Strand, for an uber-trendy end to the evening as AnOther Magazine and Calvin Klein joined forces to toast the opening of Prints, Film, Posters and More by Willy Vanderperre. Yasmina Dexter, Clara 3000 and Helena Hauff DJ'd for guests including model Naomi Campbell, Paris Jackson, director Steve McQueen, actress Noomi Rapace and designer Raf Simons.

Members of the public can get a glimpse until March 17th.

Time’s Up lasts deep into the night

The Baftas after-parties last night provided nominees and revellers the chance to give their black ensembles the second outing of the evening.

Florence Pugh (right), star of Lady Macbeth, headed to Grosvenor House still wearing her Time’s Up ring. Celia Imrie, left, and Cressida Bonas were also there. Over at Soho House’s Grey Goose party, actor Will Poulter struck a sombre tone in his black shirt and tie. “I thought black tie was what I would normally do,” he said. “So I wore a black shirt to show solidarity. I’m also wearing black pants.” Evidently his commitment runs deep.

Tweet of the day

Paddington Bear's official Twitter account expresses doubts about missing out on a Bafta last night

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Slogan of the day: journalist and Corbynista Paul Mason signs off his Guardian book column today with a call to arms. “La lutte continue” — the struggle continues. It was the chant of the Paris protests in 1968. Does it work in Czech?

Outs and ins of Bailey check-out