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Saturday Night Primetime TV Pitches
Here’s a question: if it takes years of dedication and hours of practice to become decent at a particular activity or sport, why do we believe that a celebrity can become good at it in just 12 weeks? I mean, I know Malcolm Gladwell popularised the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something…
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Captain Phillips and Saving Mr Banks
Tom Hanks managed to somehow both open and close this year’s London Film Festival with a pair of very different films that I managed to see within twenty four hours of each other. Some film-makers demand to be seen, whatever they do. And Paul Greengrass is one such film-maker. Captain Phillips opened this year’s London…
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The Grandmaster
One of the fastest selling tickets at any London Film Festival is always the surprise film. As you’d imagine, it’s not a film that anyone knows about in advance. In the past I’ve seen Far From Heaven and Capitalism: A Love Story at the LFF. And I know that last year they showed Silver Linings…
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The Armstrong Lie
I’ve been watching the Tour de France for as long as I can remember. Back in the eighties, I readily adopted the new sports that Channel 4 brought to air – cycling, NFL, although perhaps not kabbadi. I certainly remember seeing Greg Lemond beat Lauren Fignon in a final stage time trial in 1989, to…
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Some Final Thoughts on Radio Festival 2013
Well it’s only been a little under twenty-four hours, but having essentially just published notes on what took place during the sessions I saw, I thought it was better to step back and have a more considered view. First of all, there are a few things I missed, but have since caught up with. Charlotte…
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Radio Festival 2013 – Day 2
Note: Again, these are uncorrected “notes” that I’m publishing live. Sorry for any typos or mistakes. I’ll try to tidy things up later. Day One’s notes are here. And we’re back with day two of the Radio Festival. Jane Garvey and Fi Glover are still our hosts in the main auditorium. The first session is…
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Radio Festival 2013 Day 1 – TechCon
Introductory Note: I’m writing these notes during this year’s Radio Festival. There will probably be typos and other errors. I’ll try to correct them as I go along. And with any luck, some of this might end up on the Radio Academy website! First up – TechCon! After a typically excellent introduction from Orion’s David…
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Northwest and Kon Tiki
The Northwest, or Nordvest, of Copenhagen seems to be rough part of town. Let’s put it this way, you didn’t see much of it in The Killing or Borgen. It’s where the impoverished working class live, with kids falling helplessly into a life of crime. Casper is a young lad who burgles for a living.…
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Nebraska and Pioneer
As the London Film Festival gets into gear, I’ve been trying to catch a few films before heading to Salford and the Radio Festival. Nebraska is the new film from Alexander Payne, whose breakout film was Election, but who has also made About Schmidt, Sideways and The Descendants. I’ve not seen all his work, but…
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Gravity
Wow. I’ve just seen Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film, Gravity, and, well, just… wow! It’s a stunning piece of work, and I was just blown away by it on every level. Fear not – I won’t be spoiling the film in any way, and will say as little about the plot here as I can. Because…
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LBC at Forty – Memories
Happy Birthday to LBC which is forty years old, and was the first – legal – commercial radio station in the UK, launching on 8th October 1973 just a few days ahead of Capital Radio and Radio Clyde. I’m not going to write a history about it here, because others will do that, and they’ll…
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Migrating from Movable Type to WordPress
For a long time now, I’ve been very frustrated with the blogging platform I’ve used since I started properly blogging here back in 2002. At the time, Movable Type seemed to be the “go to” platform. And it was fine for many years. I’m in no way a web-developer but a lot of Googling meant…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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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
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