Dear Reader - Is Harrogate a glass half full (or more) place + reviewing the carpet

If we assume that our normal concerns are not about to be washed away by the tidal wave of coronavirus, which I think we all realise now is a far from safe assumption, I have one thing to say to anyone who thinks the main problem we have in Harrogate is simply people going on about problems.

In the last month, two separate long-running Harrogate stories have ended up in the national press.

A few weeks ago it was Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans running foul of Pinewoods Conservation Group.

Now it’s new figures showing, since the introduction of new timetables in December last year, the 7.13am Northern rail service from Harrogate to Leeds had been cancelled on 28 out of 55 days.

Divisions in the town on a range of issues have become so deep-seated, people are starting to run for cover whenever anything contentious is raised.

So I wasn’t too surprised that the reaction to last week’s launch of The Harrogate Story had, thus far, been somewhat muted.

The reluctance to champion the new marketing campaign loudly in public from some is nearly as pronounced as the reluctance to condemn it from others still waiting to be totally convinced of its value.

I suppose it’s a predictable response in a world where debate is fought in black and white viewpoints. What price for the reality that lies in the space between a glass half full and the one that’s half empty?

Tributes after death of popular pub landlord renowned in Harrogate district for many years

Before the lockdown comes for coronavirus and the final toilet rolls and bags of pasta run out, I decided to leave my house last Saturday night to venture to one of the events at Harrogate Film Festival.

I had no choice, really. I’d been asked by the festival’s impressively bright and breezy founder Adam Chandler to give out a prize at the annual short film competition.

With 500 entries from more than 50 different countries, it’s a substantial affair and a truly international one held right here in Yorkshire... in Harrogate.

Among the expectant crowd gathered in the Everyman cinema were filmmakers from the rest of Britain and abroad.

It was really exciting to see a young Harrogate filmmaker, Lewis Robinson, get the Audience Choice Award for his brave family drama Addiction which features a positive message on what is a serious social problem.

As it happens, a long time ago I, myself, decided to make a short film.

I got as far as writing the script, doing the storyboard and working out the music soundtrack for every single scene.

Then the moment passed.

Nowadays I think that anyone who makes a film deserves an award.

Announcing the best crime film, which came from Canada, by the way, I felt only one emotion. Envy.

I guess there is a simple reason why I never finished my film. I was made to be a critic.

Back in the 1990s a friend once said to me “the trouble with you, Graham, is you’d review anything, even a carpet.”

I was about to get annoyed when I paused to think for a second.

“Yes, you’re right,” I replied, “I would.”

Harrogate has most cancelled rail service in Britain