Good Week: Nelson Mandela, Andy Murray, Kim Jong Il, John Howell

By Greg McDonald

It was a happy week for Nelson Mandela, as stars and statesmen lined up to pay tribute to the freedom fighter in the week of his 90th birthday. The world has come a long way since the 1988 Mandela Concert, where Dire Straits dedicated "Brothers in Arms" to the great man, and since the historic moment, when Mandela was released from captivity in 1990. Happy birthday Nelson - and may your example continue to inspire us.

It was a good first week at Wimbledon for Britain’s new tennis hero Andy Murray as he cruised into the third round. By the end of the young pretender’s demolition of Xavier Mallise, they were even calling Henman Hill “Murray Mount”. For nostalgic Henmaniacs, here’s the time Tim came closest – and here are Henman and Murray in a best of British.

It was a good week for Kim Jong Il, the self-styled supreme leader of possibly the world's least supreme country, North Korea, who was removed from George Bush's axis of evil after coming (half) clean about his nation’s nukes. For a man written off as crazy, that’s not a bad few years’ diplomacy.

It was a good week for newly elected Henley MP John Howell, as he and David Cameron romped to victory in the Henley by-election, where voters voiced their approval to leave Labour trailing in a dismal fifth. Here at GWBW the only Henley whose voice we listen to is Don Henley - here with a message for Labour candidate Richard McKenzie who lost his deposit.