People

Brian Friel can only be pleased with his new honor, as a Saoi of the Aosdana with the right to wear a golden torc around his neck. The Saoi are limited to five Irish citizens who have shown sustained distinction in the arts, as Friel has done through his plays. Officially entorced yesterday by Irish president Mary McAleese, he joins painter Louis le Brocquy and Anthony Cronin, Seamus Heaney and Benedict Kiely from his own world of writing. All 208 members of Aosdana (People of Art) can vote, but a Saoi (Wise One) must win the votes of at least half of them. Friel’s Faith Healer, starring Ralph Fiennes, is currently a sell-out at Dublin’s Gate theatre, nursery of acting talent including James Mason and Orson Welles

The cheerful Bolton tones of Peter Kay have won a poll for the least stressful voice to guide drivers with sat nav. Something about the warm accent of the town, shared by boxing Olympian Amir Khan, appealed to recipients of constant advice on the lines of: "At the next roundabout turn left, second exit." Kay pipped Homer Simpson in the survey, organized by the Co-op Bank.

More Americans than ever will be eating Wensleydale cheese during next week’s Oscars, where Nick Park is up for his fourth golden statuette. The Yorkshire creamery which makes Wallace and Gromit’s food of choice has landed orders from an unprecedented 165 stores at the San Francisco food fair. The move coincides with the continuing anthropomorphism of cheese via Wensleydales in the shape of the cartoon characters’ heads, marketed by the creamery’s production planner, Alice Amsden

The David Jenkins tradition at the bishopric of Durham is being kept alive by present incumbent Tom Wright, who charges the government with making people frightened of committing what he calls "thought crime". Ordinary people in his diocese, whose extraordinary residents include Tony and Cherie Blair when at their converted pit manager’s house at Trimdon Colliery, have told him they are scared to discuss politically incorrect matters, even at that sacred debating chamber the saloon bar. Dr Jenkins occupied a different part of the political spectrum at Durham, but knew all about thought police. His views on the resurrection were blamed by fundamentalist Christians for the York Minster lightning strike three days after his consecration in 1984.