There’s a Word connection. Kate Mossman interviewing Ed Needham in the New Statesman about the book magazine, Strong Words which he produces single handed, mentioned that her father had been a similar one man band […]

Joan Littlewood’s Theatre workshop, produced quite a few actors who went on to become stalwarts of TV comedy: Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy (George and Mildred), Roy Kinnear, and Stephen Lewis who not only acted […]

It’s really about increasing capacity: getting the high speed trains onto separate lines will increase the capacity, passenger and freight, for both high speed and lower speed trains. I suppose they chose HS2 as […]

You get the impression from some of the coverage that the Last Night of the Proms is simply nationalistic songs. In fact, there are more serious pieces in the first half and always a new commission, this year by […]

I’ve no interest in nationalism and can’t think of a single occasion when I’ve had to sing either of these songs, which is probably just as well as I only know one note and I’m flat on that.

But this has being d […]

The idea of proper jobs reminds me of the “proper degrees” arguments that go on at this time of year. I’ve no idea what either is. I do know that quite a few of the people who I was at school with went into jobs […]

Wasn’t Moose from Hull? If he was, he probably thinks pearls are people from Warsaw.

In a documentary about Kubrick, either the one produced by his brother in law and collaborator or the other by Jon Ronson, I think they said he deliberately destroyed all of the footage that didn’t make it into t […]

Has a director’s cut ever been shorter than the original? Are there any examples of the auteur thinking they’ll tighten up the story and pace with a few actual cuts?

But England isn’t the UK is it, so it’s not simply “this” shower. Labour and the SNP seem to have cocked things up equally in Wales and Scotland (I can never work out who is in charge in N Ireland).

So much of […]

Was it Paul Brooke? Although I’d say he usually played world-weary rather than seedy.

Part of the reason for reading the old music press, was to read around a record to see if you might like it. Going out to buy something you might have only heard a few tracks from was a big commitment, and buying […]

I suppose Steve Coogan will always be Alan Partridge, a character he’s been doing for nearly thirty years, but to me it took a long time to work. I haven’t watched all of his shows, but in the early ones where he […]

I watched it again a couple of months ago, and it still stands up well. The first time was at a University film society in the seventies when there seemed to be new waves of films coming out of America and Europe. […]

I’ve always thought of Dylan as the ideal singer for his own songs. He can carry the melodies, and makes you listen to the words. If you ever see his early duets with Joan Baez, who might be thought of as a more s […]

It has a pleasant sound, including Dylan’s voice, but there isn’t an original phrase in it. Even the titles, I contain multitudes, Crossing the Rubicon and others are taken from elsewhere. You can see this as […]

I know we live in strange times, but I didn’t expect a sincere tribute to Dame Vera on Twitter from…. Hawkwind. (I think they did a charity concert together.)

RIP Vera 😢…..A great singer, a lovely lady….It was an honour to to share a stage… pic.twitter.com/70hZ0H08f4

— Hawkwind (@HawkwindHQ) June 18, 2020

Well, a lot of people do think sports players are creative, to the point where some get quite annoyed with people like me who can’t see it. And there was probably more creativity in Tommy Cooper’s conjuring tha […]

The same happens to a lot of writers. How many people could go beyond The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, A Clockwork Orange, Lucky Jim, Portnoy’s Complaint or Lord of the Flies in listing the works of their w […]

I don’t know. I’m not sure of your point, to be honest. Certain cases will get publicity, and it can’t simply be because race or class, as there instances of killings and abuse of people from many different […]