Oscar odds and the hanging British Light Switch.

British bathroom hanging light switch.

Being relatively new to being back here, the mind wanders when I look around and think about what my American friends would think if they saw certain things here.

I know it's like that when you get to America; the one thing I have always known is that when you use the light switch in the USA you put it into the 'up' position to put the light on whereas over here you put it down.

Everything else is the other way around too, as you will know, like driving on the other side of the road and, which I found a surprise, the back brake on my bicycle over there was on the right handle bar.

Well I was in the bathroom the other day and I wondered what they would think of the light switch here in all bathrooms.

For the Americans who have never been to the UK, there are no electrical devices in bathrooms here, no electric sockets just a piece of string, with a weight, hanging from the ceiling - as above. This is everywhere and this is in case we would try to put the lights on or off with wet hands and be electrocuted.

By the way electrocution is death – in the USA they use electrocution when they mean a shock.

So it might be funny to them – it should be funny to us but we have got used to it. I mean we don't have the string in any other parts of the house such as the kitchen when our hands are nearly always wet. We use the electric mixer with wet hands so why don't they have hanging light switches in there - just a thought.

Now this is Academy Award weekend and I will really miss the sense of occasion by not being in Hollywood for the first time in 17 years – or 17 award shows apart from one one when I was filming over here; that was the year Helen Mirren won for The Queen and as she lived just around the corner from us we might have seen the limo.

The betting odds for the OSCARS are interesting. The best actor is a toss up between George Clooney for the Descendants and Jean Dujardin for The Artist; Dujardin is odds on at 4/6 and Clooney is slightly better than evens at 11/10.

Meryl Streep was the favourite at one time but the favourite now is Viola Davis from The Help at 8/13.

The best supporting actor should go to Christopher Plummer; at the moment he is not worth a bet as his odds are 1/33 – for those who know nothing about betting, you have to put £33 to win £1; which is hardly worth it unless you are putting £33,000 on and in that case the bookie would give you £34,000 back for your £33,000 staked. It's an easy grand but you would have to put it on in the UK where there is no gambling tax and there is a chance that he might not win – I liked Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn.

For Best adapted screenplay The Descendants is strong favourite at 1/5, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a good outside bet at 20/1.

If betting on the winners doesn't take your fancy, there are plenty of other ways to spread around you money at this year's event.

William Hill are offering 6/1 on Meryl Streep losing her shoe again if she wins Best Actress (she first did it at the BAFTAs).

There's a 3/1 chance one of the winners will swear during a speech, while you get 8/1 on a host to announce the wrong winner.

Based on the above here's what I say for the OSCARS; I have no special qualifications or knowledge and also I think it's too late to get a bet on here:

Best Actor – George Clooney. Best Actress - Viola Davis.

Best supporting actor - Christopher Plummer. Best adapted screenplay - The Descendants (Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon). Best Picture – The Artist.

You can only make money on this if you have a yankee bet so drop Christopher Plummer and go for the rest – that is 6 doubles, 4 trebles and one accumulator. A £1 yankee, which is 11 bets, will cost £11.

You won't make a fortune but the accumulator on the above odds for the £1 bet would bring you will bring you about 3/1 – put Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in there at 20/1 instead of The Descendants and it's worth doing as that is a really clever brilliant screenplay and my favourite film of the year.