The original role of the waterway was to ship coal from the field at Newent. Work started at the Gloucester end in 1790, and by 1798 the canal had advanced as far as Ledbury. Money then ran out, however, and for more than 40 years the project remained unfinished.
Only in 1839 did work start again, and Hereford at last came on stream in 1845. The problems are daunting, since most of the channel has been filled in, and some parts have been built over; but the 700-odd members of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust (known locally as “the H&G”) are convinced that the project is feasible, and they are courageously pressing ahead.

Yet now a courageous attempt is being made to reopen the 34-mile waterway. There can’t be a white person around who hasn’t simultaneously squirmed and laughed at the definitive “going for an English” sketch, in which a group of tanked-up Indian youngsters abuse the waiter at a Berni Inn in downtown Bombay. Lewisham Theatre (0181-690 0002) Fri; Dorking Halls (01306 881717) Sat 27 Nov; London Palladium (0171-494 5020) Sun 28 Nov
James Rampton. Nobody living can have travelled by boat from Hereford to Gloucester, for after a brief and not particularly successful life, the canal that once linked the two cities closed nearly 120 years ago. “It’s still an open verdict on art.”Schnecke, 58-59 Poland Street, London W1, 0171-287 6666 12 noon-midnight Mon-Sat; to 10.30pm Sun Disabled access All cards No reservations.. Goodness Gracious Me has become something of a phenomenon.

After two series, the British-Asian sketch-show was accorded its own theme night on BBC2. Now preparing the third (and reportedly final) series and with a new video on sale, the talented quartet (Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia) are this week taking their show on the road. Slickly directed by Anil Gupta, it is at its strongest in the role- reversal sketches. “Irony’s just an embellishment to sincerity now, it’s no longer the centre of everything At least in restaurants,” he added. Slithery and delicate, it was the kind of dish that has inspired generations of Parisians to queue at Alsatian brasseries such as Bofinger.We ended the meal with a single portion of thin chocolate tart, made with white and dark chocolate, followed by several cups of excellent coffee. Our bill totalled pounds 100, including two bottles of wine.Despite Schnecke’s wittily punning approach, the food is very much the real thing, rather than some fashionable pan-Euro concoction. Which turns out to be brilliantly in tune with the zeitgeist, according to Matt.”Sincerity is in,” he informed us.

Piled on top were boiled potatoes and meats, including thick, spiced pork sausage, slender frankfurter and hunks of meltingly soft jambonneau. Our rate of consumption soon dwindled to – well, a snail’s pace.Of the two main courses we shared, coq au Riesling was the brownest dish imaginable, though it tasted grand, creamier and stewier than Burgundian coq au vin. But the centrepiece of what was turning into a winning meal was a traditional Alsatian choucroute, a steaming heap of lightly pickled cabbage, sweet with juniper berries. Big and square as a tea-tray, it was cut into smaller slices at the table, to be eaten with the fingers. Much lighter and crisper than pizza, it proved the ideal finger food to accompany the dry kick of the Riesling, the creme fraiche-fromage frais mix providing a creamily neutral setting for the stronger flavours of high-quality bacon and meaty mushrooms.Entering into the spirit, we then applied ourselves to the snails, though we restricted ourselves to 12 rather than the full four dozen. Schnecke prepares them in the traditional Alsatian way, the garlic butter flavoured with wine stock, but the result was surprisingly bland, with little garlicky kick to enliven the rubbery scraps of protein.