SOME people are expert wine-tasters. I am an expert cola taster. Give me diet, ordinary, Pepsi, Virgin or supermarket own brand, and I will name it.

My other great skill, refined over years of practice, is spotting John Barry's music and so it was a joy for me to see him honoured on the BBC's Omnibus programme at the start of the week.

Barry has won five Oscars for his filmscores. He wrote the music for Dances With Wolves, Indecent Proposal and Out of Africa, and for ten Bond films which means Shirley Bassey, Duran Duran, A-ha, Louis Armstrong and Nancy Sinatra have all sung his themes.

Each of his works has his sound, his signature, his trademark which makes them so distinctive.

Indeed most of us can hum his tunes - who doesn't know Goldfinger? - but very few of us remember that he is in fact one of the North Yorkshire's most famous sons. He was brought up in York where his father owned the Rialto cinema, and went to St Peter's School. He did his military service in Yorkshire's regiment, the Green Howards - as a bandsman - and formed his first band with musicians from York and Scarborough.

It does make me proud to know that a man who has had an enormous impact on many people's lives has come from our area.

The extent of his impact was also shown by the programme. Nowadays, people do not listen to classical music as they once did. I'm the same. I know a little Rachmaninov but I couldn't tell my Beethovens from my Mozarts. Barry, therefore, has become the keeper of classical music, only he writes it in a modern setting.

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the Omnibus programme was that Barry, despite his success, appeared to be a really nice down-to-earth guy. I've read in the past that he shies away from the trappings of fame to keep his feet firmly on the ground.

In 1999, he was awarded an OBE. He has had a far greater impact on the movie world than Michael Caine or Sean Connery - both of whom can call themselves "sir" - so I really cannot see why he hasn't received a knighthood for his services to music.

CONTINUING on a showbiz theme, I noticed that Liz Hurley's new movie, Bedazzled, broke all sorts of box office records over the weekend.

I noticed because Ms Hurley was pictured semi-clothed on the cover of some magazine. Similarly I've noticed that Kelly Brook is making a film, that Catherine Zeta Jones has got married, Kirsty Young has got a new job and Carol Vorderman is all over the telly. I even noticed that Davina McCall was wearing practically nothing - although I wasn't able to tell why.

I'm sure all these modern ladies are talented in their own way. With their in-your-face style they are certainly getting more publicity than their male counterparts.

But I remember an older generation of leading ladies: Meryl Streep, Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, Vivienne Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gardner.

They didn't have to take their clothes off to get publicity. They had true charisma, real star quality. They just had to smile to light up the world.

Or perhaps I'm just getting old.

I HOPE by the time you read this I am not eating humble pie. My deadlines are such that this was written hours before kick-off of last night's England against Italy game.

But I believe the back page headlines this morning will all be about England's youthful, exuberant, vibrant, energetic, positive team. They might not have won, but manager Peter Taylor cannot surely have lost: he has given youth its chance, as all the media were calling for.

I just wonder where it all goes from here. Whatever the result, this squad needs at least five or six games to mould itself into a team. But will the new manager Sven-Goran Eriksson see it that way