-
Radio 2 Audiences and The Age of Listening
Here’s an interesting question related to the Ross/Brand affair. Yes, I know I said I was bored of the whole thing, but this is genuinely interesting. Did Russell Brand actually cost Radio 2 listeners when he was on-air with them? (Or perhaps more reasonably, did he cost them listening hours, when regular Radio 2 listeners…
-
Morals
Yesterday I was about to go into a newsagent, when a couple of kids stopped me just outside. If they gave me the money, would I go in and buy them a packet of cigarettes? “Sorry, no,” I replied. It’s a moral thing – I’m not buying their cigarettes for them. They’re under-age, and I’m…
-
Body of Lies
Another year – another Ridley Scott film. Scott is responsible for some of my favourite ever films. They tend to be earlier films like Blade Runner and Alien than later ones, but American Gangster last year was superb, while 2006’s A Good Year (also starring Russell Crowe) was abysmal. So where does Body of Lies…
-
Local News
This morning, the BBC Trust rejected plans for a local BBC video news service. Concurrently, Ofcom published the results of its Market Impact Assessment and concluded that the plans would have had a significant negative impact on commercial news providers. The BBC proposal would have seen it producing more localised news which would be delivered…
-
BBC Trust on Jonathan Ross
The BBC Trust reported today on lots of things. Of most interest to the press was the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand fiasco. But frankly, that’s so dull now, I can’t be bothered to get into it at all. Tomorrow’s papers will be all over it. Of far more interest, in the same report, is the response…
-
To Publish Or Not To Publish?
A simple one first of all. It seems that the names of the people allegedly responsible for the death of Baby P are being passed around quite freely via electronic media. But for legal reasons, they’ve not been named publicly in the mainstream media. It can obviously lead to a lynch-mob mentality that says that…
-
Voting Openness on TV?
So John Sergeant has quit Strictly. Don’t say that I don’t cover the important issues of the day. What’s that about Congo or pirates off Somalia? What I still find perplexing is the lack of openness in whole TV voting world even post the telephone voting scandals we’ve had over the last eighteen months or…
-
Irony Layered on Irony
There’s a new series of The IT Crowd starting this week on Channel 4. Hurrah! In the last series, one of the episodes opened with Roy and Moss sitting down to watch a DVD. We then saw a brilliant mock DVD piracy advert to warn viewers of how bad the criminals you’re supporting are if…
-
Asda DAB
A story in Marketing magazine leads me to the Asda site where it has launched a series of own brand electrical items. These include an Asda DAB digital radio that sells, online at least, for the princely sum of £24.47. A DAB radio for under twenty-five quid is fine by me, and thankfully, the set…
-
Radio at the Edge: Redux
It might have cost attendees (or their companies) cold hard cash to attend, but the audio from this year’s Radio at the Edge is now available as a series of downloads as well as a summary podcast. Entertainingly, the one session that isn’t available is the Collings and Herrin podcast which they’ve deemed “uncompliant”! Happily,…
-
Kangaroo: The State of Play
These are interesting times for Kanagroo – the BBC Worldwide/ITV/C4 joint venture that, simply put, is supposed to do for commercial (and commercially sold) TV, what the iPlayer does for the BBC. Last week Ashley Highfield quite the consortium after four months, having moved across from the BBC mothership to take charge. And a long…
-
Children in Need
I never know quite what to make of Children in Need. Simplistically it’s simply a fund-raiser to help children in variety of ways shapes and forms. And nobody can argue with that. But there are the other elements of it, that I always find uncomfortable. It’s notable that Channel 4 always gives its comedy programmes…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
-
Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
Check out some of my other photography
