Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on the end of meat, a vanishing hamster and a Lowry painting, for £40

Read today's column from Peter Rhodes.

Published
Timothy Spall as L S Lowry

Water, chemicals and an electric spark are the basic ingredients of a new laboratory-produced food. Some pundits believe this sort of healthy, low-fat gunk could replace farm-raised animals. But would Joe Public eat the stuff?

Not long ago I'd have said definitely not. But things change. There are moments in history when we spontaneously amend our ways because something that once seemed acceptable becomes unacceptable. We outlawed slavery. We stopped going to circuses with animal acts. We are switching to electric cars. The great change from meat to a meatless diet may be very close. Our grandchildren could be raised on lab-made protein and regard meat-eating with the sort of horror we reserve for public executions.

Until now, many folk have dismissed veggie diets as tasteless, time-consuming and of dubious nutritional value. But what if science can at last deliver meat-free protein that is tastier, healthier, quicker, cheaper and obviously kinder than the real thing? Why would anyone not try it?

The proof that veggiedom is upon us may be right under our noses, in the nearest high street. Greggs has become one of Britain's most successful food outlets thanks in part to its new range of vegan pasties which taste like meat, without involving any abattoirs. Sales are up 13 per cent, 100 new branches are planned and all staff are getting a £300 bonus. Nothing encourages a good cause quite like big profits.

The late, great Pete Postlethwaite who died of cancer nine years ago, was famously described by the director Steven Spielberg as “the best actor in the world”. If that title were up for grabs today, Timothy Spall would be among the contenders. I've finally got around to seeing him starring with Vanessa Redgrave in Mrs Lowry & Son, the story of the “matchstick men” artist L S Lowry and his controlling mother. Spall never disappoints and this performance is a cracker. This week, Jonathan Pryce and Sir Anthony Hopkins were nominated for Oscars for their double-act in The Two Popes. That inspired pairing made me wonder, if fate had been kinder, what magic Spall and Postlethwaite might have worked, together.

On the subject of Lowry, my late father recalled how, as a plumber in 1940s Bradford, he saw some of Lowry's matchstick-men paintings in a gallery. He was enchanted by them. But they were way beyond his means. Some were as much as £40. Today they fetch a couple of million.

Andy Murray says he had a hamster called Whisky when he was 10 and he was “devastated” when it went down a plughole, never to be seen again. So was my family some years ago when our hamster, Willow, vanished into the attic. She reappeared some days later and there was much rejoicing. However, as the months passed, the rejoicing dimmed as we discovered all the damage she had done during her freedom, including shredding a beautiful and much-loved old overcoat. Nothing chews quite like a hamster on the run.