Mercedes was crass and oversold, too easy and obvious and Made-it. BMW had gone from Sloane Boy Racer to yuppie to corporate parking space (and, second hand, to Brixton beatbox) in a decade. But Audi was the interesting OK, Dieter Rams-ish side of German, thoughtful and arty and stealth wealthy More Swedish and Saab than full-on Kraut. Audi is the Edinburgh Television Festival and Sundance and Babington House. Cleverly positioned, culturally aligned (when the London Eye was new, they put an Audi in a pod). They’re sleeked up and cashed out but they still like black linen They’re crucial to several global niche brands. They’ll commission architects to build or re-fix their houses and buy Dries Van Noten rather than Donatella V.They were in at the beginning of hip hotels in the 1980s as they got richer (and back at Claridge’s 10 years later).

He knew when to get wasted to some purpose.
In the Bowie industry there’s always that debate about when he was at his best, most inventive, most influential. I’d go for “Young Americans”(1975) and its Nicholas Roeg-directed film parallel of 1976, The Man Who Fell To Earth. The latter’s art direction is brilliant – designers are always visiting it surreptitiously for a few more steals – and “Young Americans” anticipated practically everything that mattered for 10 years from Superdisco to the Reagan presidency.It all set a look from Soho and Berlin to Tokyo for the developing art/design crowd, the Taschen types, a global minority that’s become an important babyboomer consumer group They’re the market for European, high-end design. He seemed to know where change was coming; he spent time in alpha cities when they were hotting up. Bowie becalmed, rich, content, but presumably rather hypochondrial after the heart attack Bowie into stock markets and contemporary art Bowie US/Global rather than anywhere in particular Bowie anything but androgynous now. But once Bowie drove and consolidated a whole sensibility to huge effect. You could see it in hairstyles, clothes, and record production, of course, but in bigger themes as well – a new take on new tech and ways of thinking about America and its everyday surreal without making fun of it.

I couldn’t watch Extras. Ricky Gervais went from Slough to Hollywood in three years max It was grim. But you couldn’t help noticing who was guesting, and the thought of David Bowie in there was deeply depressing. It has decided to close down the TV listings department at the paper, but has kindly given the editor, Terry Ramsey, and most of his footsoldiers time to tidy up their desks and negotiate their settlements from inside. The TV pages are now going to have their “quality” content provided by Press Association feeds..

But it will be particularly unwelcome news for columnist Alice Thomson. Her doting on David Cameron is only matched by Heffer’s loathing for the Tory upstart. Jan Moir is currently standing in for Thomson during her maternity leave, but Heffer would be unwise to think that this could give him time to plot her permanent removal from his beat. Thomson’s friends are letting it be known that she has become very chummy of late with Aidan Barclay, acting proprietor of the Telegraph Group.Sporting chance?An intriguing rumour is emanating from the upper echelons of The Guardian. The IPC offices can barely justify such ethnic diversity on the menu, let alone making it compulsory, notes one employee.