Drostle and sculptures by Terence Clarke that pay homage to the town's history as a former Roman settlement. The Two Rivers shopping centre has two bronze sculptures by David Backhouse: The first, Time Continuum, celebrates the life of Staines through two millennia and the second, Water Sprites, references the life of the waterways that converge nearby. The Swanmaster, by Diana Thomson, commissioned by Spelthorne Borough Council in 1983, was moved to the Memorial Gardens in 2014. Film and Television Staines is the hometown of the fictional Ali G, created by the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The character, who first appeared on The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4 in 1998, has been described as a "disaffected wannabe homeboy of the suburbs" by the television producer, Harry Thompson. Baron Cohen has said that Ali G "believes that he is a black hip-hop artist from Staines. He believes his neighbourhood is a rough ghetto, when in fact it's this lovely, leafy, middle-class suburb outside Windsor, where swans swim under the beautiful bridge." Following the successful spin-off television series, Da Ali G Show, the character appeared in the 2002 feature film, Ali G Indahouse. In the film, Ali G is a member of a fictional gang, the West Staines Massive, when his hometown is threatened by the expansion of Heathrow Airport. The film concludes with the saving of Staines and the decision to demolish Slough instead. Literature William Shakespeare mentions Staines in Act II Scene 3 of Henry V, when the Hostess asks her husband, who is travelling to Southampton, if she can accompany him as far as the town. Much of chapters 911 of Three Men in a Boat (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome is set in the Staines area, as the main characters travel upriver from Kingston-upon-Thames to Oxford. In Chapter 15 of H. G. Wells' novel, The War of the Worlds (1897), an artillery unit engages a Martian close to Staines. In John Wyndham's novel The Kraken Wakes (1953), the main characters are stopped in their attempt to reach Cornwall on a dinghy through a flooded England in the "Staines-Weybridge area". Music The indie rock band Hard-Fi was formed in Staines in 2003. Many of the songs from their first album, Stars of CCTV, describe their small-town suburban origins. In 2011, lead singer Richard Archer, attracted criticism after describing Staines as a "ghost town". Sport Leisure Centre Spelthorne