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  • Blocked on Twitter by a Celebrity

    Remarkably, I’ve been on Twitter since 2006 – so getting on for ten years. And in that time I’ve always tried to be cordial. I don’t get involved in slanging matches, or go looking for idiots to retweet exclaiming my “shock and anger” that there are in fact, fools with internet access. That’s not to…

  • The Hateful Eight

    Like many others, I have something of a love/hate relationship with Quentin Tarantino. Actually it’s more a love/whatever relationship. I admire him enormously as a film-maker, but he does have missteps and I don’t worship the feet he walks on. I’ve not actually yet seen his previous film, Django Unchained! I say this to put…

  • Christmas TV… and Beyond

    You may or may not have seen my Christmas Radio Times scans with my helpful annotations, but what did I actually watch over the period? Oddly, one of the most captivating programmes was All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride!. This was the BBC’s latest example of “Slow TV” and remarkably our family sat down and watched…

  • The X-Files on UK TV

    I must admit that I’m getting more and more excited about the upcoming new episodes of The X-Files. Even though there’s probably too much “revisiting” of old TV series going on, I’m more than happy to catch up with Mulder and Scully again. The six part series airs in the US, starting Sunday 24th January…

  • A Comment-Free 2016

    There’s no two ways about it. Comments are broken. By that I mean, commenting systems on nearly any site that drives a large amount of traffic. There are too many trolls and people with little or nothing to add. There is way too much noise, and little to no signal. I used to enjoy comments.…

  • Boxing Day Sunrise

  • Boxing Day 2015 – Radio Times

    You’ve made it this far through. Hopefully Santa has been kind. But it looks like rain in good part of the country, so you may be thinking twice about that walk you were planning. Here are your viewing and listening choices through my ever-so-slightly myopic lens, courtesy of the Radio Times and some Post-Its. Here…

  • Christmas Day 2015 – Radio Times

    Happy Christmas all! You’ll no doubt be unwrapping presents, eating enormous quantities of food, having family arguments, and then perhaps sitting down and trying to decide what telly you should be watching. As ever, I’ve made my own suggestions to help you. You might even want to listen to the radio. Here’s the TV: (Click…

  • Christmas Eve 2015 – Radio Times

    You’re with friends and family. But what to watch or listen to? You know how I love to help out anyone who isn’t sure what’s worth your time. So here is my regular helpful guide to what to watch over the period, presented via the medium of an annotated Radio Times. (Click here to see…

  • Search Engines in Film

    In the Road Runner cartoons, Wily E Coyote often needed to buy various bits of equipment and products to try to stop said Road Runner. Invariably those anvils et al, were supplied by the Acme Corporation, a fictional company with a curious catalogue of products. It was always fun seeing what Acme was producing next.…

  • Virgin Media and the Premier League

    Judging from recent interviews across the media, Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge is out and about shouting loudly about his company’s complaint about how the Premier League sells its UK TV rights. His complaint is broadly that the league only sells 168 of the 360 fixtures each season, artificially limiting supply to keep prices high.…

  • The Tow Center Guide to Podcasting

    There’s a terrific new report that the Tow Center for Digital Journalism – an institute within the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. It has published called A Guide to Podcasting. It’s an unashemedly US-centric view of the podcasting market in 2015, detailing the history of the medium, and presenting a series of case studies…

Hadrian’s Wall

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