Nice to see a familiar face on ‘Looking for England’, a TV documentary in which veteran war photographer Don McCullin turns his reporter’s gaze on England (shown last Monday; still available on BBC iPlayer).

‘I am sometimes accused by my peers of printing my pictures too dark,’ McCullin once said, adding: ‘All I can say is that it goes with the mood of melancholy that is induced by witnessing at close quarters such intractable situations of conflict and joylessness.’

Could that be what, on an assignment that took in pre-opera refreshments at Glyndebourne, drew him to Hogan Lovells partner Charles Brasted? After all, as one of the City’s premier Brexit experts he too has seen quite a lot of intractability, conflict and joylessness.

Or possibly not. Confirming that he, his wife and a friend were photographed that day, Charles (pictured, right) tells the Gazette: ‘I think it was probably our picnic table that attracted his attention.’ 

‘Our consent was appropriately obtained,’ he adds approvingly. ‘What we did not know at the time is that Don McCullin usually favours warzones to country house gardens.’

Don McCullin, a retrospective, is at Tate Britain, London until 6 May.

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