Monday

“Who’s Nicole Kidman ?” asked my 11-year-old. For God’s sake. “You know Nicole Kidman,” I said. “She’s in ...” I tried to think of a single thing she might have seen her in. “She’s that witch queen with the hair in Aquaman.” Blank stare. “She’s in … she’s an icon, she’s really famous. She used to be married to Tom Cruise.” A pause. “Oh for God’s sake, Tom Cruise, from Top Gun.” “Oh yes.” “She was the villain in Paddington!” Thank God.

Kidman had come to her attention, and that of every other 11-year-old girl in the land, via Adéla, the Slovakian singer whose song, Nicole Kidman , from her debut album, Prima, has caused a minor TikTok sensation and went to No 1 on Spotify earlier this month.

“Do you mean Adele?” I said, when we got to this part of what already seemed like a very long conversation. Excoriating, alright-grandma look. “It’s Adéla. With an ‘a’. She was in Dream Academy, she went out in the first round.” I knew what this meant and got briefly excited.…