Newspaper review: Gorillas and Marmite By Owen Amos

BBC News Published duration 14 October 2016

Kumbuka the gorilla broke out of his enclosure in London Zoo - and onto the front pages of Friday's tabloids.

According to the Mail, Kumbuka is 29 stone, 7ft tall, and has two children. And - the paper adds - he could "effortlessly kill or maim any human, should he chose to".

One worker tells the Sun: " He's a psycho, that ape . He's smacked the enclosure glass a couple of times."

In the Daily Mirror, Dan Bourke - described as a "London Zoo regular" - writes that he has "noticed an increased agitation in Kumbuka...he looks like he could quite easily rip your head off".

But the former rugby union player Matt Hampson, who was doing a talk at the zoo, was less concerned . "I had some bananas in my bag and made light of the situation," he said.

"I asked, 'Maybe the gorilla would like to eat the bananas?'"

Double-page spread

image copyright EPA

It's not often the Financial Times and the Daily Star lead with the same story. But when it comes to Marmite tales, newspapers either love them - or they love them.

In its headline, the Star says the "Tesco - Marmite wars are toast". But it's clear who the paper sides with. "Money-grabbing food giant Unilever (was) left covered in the brown stuff," it says.

The FT says the row is a distraction, as Unilever's focus is on emerging markets. "Despite recent appearances," the paper says, "UK sales do not count."

The Mail focuses on Tesco's chief executive - who it calls "Drastic" Dave Lewis.

"The bruising boss of Tesco...has a reputation for standing up to price-war bullies," says the Mail's city editor, Alex Brummer . "His defiance resulted in a hugely welcome victory for people power."

In the Guardian, Nils Pratley perhaps speaks for newspaper editors everywhere. "It's a shame that Tesco and Unilever have declared peace," he writes. "The great Marmite bust-up was just getting exciting."

Waving the flag

image copyright AP

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appeared before the foreign affairs select committee on Thursday. And - as the Mail's Quentin Letts put it , using a cricket metaphor - "the Press crouched in the slips, awaiting a loose flash of willow".

But, it seems, the sketch-writers were disappointed. "It was a strange mix of heavyweight discussion of global affairs, and MPs trying to coax him into saying something daft," writes Matt Chorley in the Times.

Mr Johnson's only slip, it seems, was when questioned about the Commonwealth flag.

"You are testing my vexillography," he replied.

Overall, Mr Letts was impressed. "He was forthright but controlled," he concluded. "It is possible to do the two simultaneously without being a bore. Foreign Secretary Boris is doing rather well."

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson's former Vote Leave colleague, Michael Gove, has a new role - a columnist at the Times.

"The attitudes that led so many to call the referendum wrong appear to have survived unscathed from collision with reality," he writes.

"You (remain campaigners) are repeating all the mistakes you made in the referendum campaign."

Ringing the changes

image copyright Richard Sowersby

An argument about bell-ringers - or campanologists, as the foreign secretary might put it - was only going to have one headline.

According to the Guardian, the "bells will fall silent for the festive period after the cathedral's management sacked all of its bell-ringers without warning".

The church is appointing a paid bell-ringer, who will recruit his own volunteers.

In the Mail, one bell-ringer accused the minster of "taking an increasingly corporate managerial approach".

A spokesman for the church said: "It's about ways of working, and to bring staff working practices with everyone else.

"The bell-ringers have their own way of working that has not been modernised in an awful long time."

Eye-catching headlines:

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