Celebrity Mastermind
Specialist subject: Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Tag Archives: tv
Space 1999: The visual genius of Brian Johnson
When Brian Johnson died in June 2026, Paul Franklin, another Oscar winning visual effects maestro and superfan, came on Front Row to help celebrate his life and art. Long before his Academy Award winning work on Alien and The Empire … Continue reading
The Prisoner: An Anglo Saxon poetic meditation
Was meditating on the enduring power of The Prisoner TV series for Matthew Sweet who wrote a rather excellent piece about its 50th anniversary. If you’ve read it you know I came up with a thesis that it has more … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, anglo saxon, culture, media, patrick mcgoohan, the avengers, the prisoner, tv
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Filth, fury and the funny way Britain feels about Joe Orton
You never forget your first time. I was 19 years old. I descended into a dark, cramped basement where student actors brought to life a weird, twisted sexual triangle. Going to student drama productions in odd spaces around the University … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Crime and Justice, Culture, Film, Media, Radio, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, crime, culture, dr emma parker, elitism, film, joe orton, john lahr, kenneth halliwell, Kenneth Williams, Leicester, leonie orton, literature, London, prick up your ears, satire, sheila hancock, soft touch arts, tv
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Oh Boy! Why certain Radio 1 DJs are missing believed wiped
If you sat down to watch a night of lost pop music TV shows from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, what would you expect to find? Fun, nostalgia, eye popping colour and experimentation, some great music. What I didn’t expect … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Media, Music, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, 60s, 70s, BBC, culture, david hamilton, debbie harry, Hot Gossip, jack good, jimmy savile, media, music, oh boy!, pete murray, top of the pops, totp, tv
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How to win the coming culture war in 2017
A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in January 2017. Journalism worth paying for. Available weekly from street vendors or subscriptions here. History rarely falls into neat numerical decades. I would assert the 1980s (yuppies, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Film, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged ali smith, BIG ISSUE, books, cinema, culture, culture war, Disney, dr quinn medicine woman, dreamgirls, everbody's talking about jamie, feminism, film, FTW, henry krieger, Hollywood, jane seymour, jon musker, media, moana, pauline boty, politics, rogue one, ron clements, susan faludi, tv, tyrus wong, unforgotten, Wonder Woman
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How should broadcast news journalists interview and talk about extremists?
Over the weekend I spoke to veteran ex BBC journalist Robin Lustig, Berlin correspondent Damien McGuinness for an insight into Germany’s media and Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s 2012 senior strategist for 2 articles I wrote for The Guardian and The … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, journalism, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, TV
Tagged AfD, alt right, BBC, Berlin, BIG ISSUE, Damien McGuinness, Donald Trump, journalism, Luegenpresse, media, Mitt Romney, Nazism, Newswatch, Nigel Farage, Pegida, politics, Robin Lustig, Stuart Stevens, terrorism, tv
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When Cathy met Ken: Revisiting Cathy Come Home in Brexit Britain
The other night I watched Ken Loach meet Cathy – or rather the young actress Elle Payne, playing Cathy in a Cardboard Citizens’ staging of his 1966 landmark TV play Cathy Come Home. The production featured many actors with experience of homelessness. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, journalism, Media, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, BIG ISSUE, cardboard citizens, Cathy Come Home, culture, Ken Loach, kitchen sink drama, London, media, politics, tv
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Inside the world of Angels: the secret history of film & TV costumes
The chill hits me and a slight tang of…meat. I’ve entered the Fur store room at Angels Costumiers. We stand in silence. There are racks of fur coats – like a multiverse of Narnia entry points. Fox stoles are piled … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Culture, Design, Film, History, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged angels costumiers, BBC, cinema, culture, film, Hollywood, Theatre Royal Stratford, tim angel, tv
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Is there a transphobic equivalent to blacking up?
I wrote a piece for the BBC News website today, originally commissioned about the idea of white actors playing black roles, but I wanted to explore further issues Juliet Jacques had touched on when she came on Front Row recently … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Film, History, Media, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged blacking up, culture, film, Hollywood, indians, juliet jacques, literature, media, race, Theatre Royal Stratford, trans, tv, zoolander 2
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The search for TV’s first interracial kiss and why it matters
This is the story behind the BFI’s news today that it may have found the earliest TV interracial kiss. Though in response there are already suggestions that it may not be the first. A few months ago the team behind It … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Media, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, adrian lester, art malik, bfi, culture, emergency ward 10, gurinder chadha, joan hooley, lalita ahmed, love, media, peter cellier, race, tv
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