Ah, automated switchboard for my broadband provider, my mother has only ever had one maiden name, but because it has a silent letter, you will never ever recognise it when I say it out loud. Put me through to a human being...

Coming soon, based on the show that's entirely responsible for the way I say the word 'tablet'...

Share your favourite black & white film (apart from all the others...)

Hurrah! #SewingBee

@eggsbened.bsky.social David, quick question if I may: are you aware of any good articles on the set design for the new Godot, and how they got it past the notoriously fastidious Beckett estate? No worries if not, but please and thank you if there's anything out there.

Friends don't let friends clap on one and three #TheProms

And that was just beautiful #TheProms

Black and white footage of New York City in musical form #TheProms

Fuck me, that was brilliant #TheProms #BohemianRhapsody

I love a montage #TheProms

By the way, this performance of the Sorcerer's Apprentice has been exceptional #TheProms

Slightly diminish a book: The Two Towels

1,184 (Location in alt text)

The BBC thriller music Prom is seriously, seriously good. BBC4 now or iPlayer if your region permits.

Delighted to learn that Mitchell and Webb are, like all good comedy writing partners, a planter and a pacer. Excellent.

I think I've worked it out. On Bake-Off, Bee, Masterchef, etc., we learn who these people are by watching them do stuff - so we care about their ups & downs, highs & lows. On Destination X, on the other hand, we watch them sit on a bus & occasionally do puzzles they can't solve. Not quite there, eh.

Just spent a very happy couple of hours seeing the Thursday Murder Club in an actual cinema. Exceptional casting all the way down, and (as Stephen regularly points out) Chris Columbus is a very fine director. Nonsense on stilts, obviously, but huge, huge fun.

Destination X - it's just not quite there, is it. The bits on the bus are dull - and could have been filmed anywhere, for all we know; the clues are too cryptic - how many more times must we watch someone go "I have no idea what that means"; and there's just not enough of that gorgeous scenery.

Part of my big fat theory about the longevity of Sherlock Holmes is that he was adapted for the stage *just* before the invention of cinema (see also Dracula); and that in all media he presents a strong visual image (see also Dracula) and a gift of a part for an actor (see also Dracula)...

My review of Ian Penman's brilliant book on Erik Satie, published by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Still processing yesterday's collapse of Spurgeon’s College, where I recently completed a Theology MA. It seems very precarious out there in academia at the moment, and my heart goes out to those who were currently studying there - what now for them? - and to those who've suddenly lost their jobs...

Oh my goodness me!

I've just verified my age by calling it "tin foil"

Bookish, then. Lovely cast, lovely writing, exquisite attention to detail, and excellent use of Chekhov's spotlight. More of this, I think.

Oh, automated menu on my broadband provider, don't ask me my mother's maiden name as you'll never recognise the answer. (It's got a silent 'h').

Spectacular thread (and beautifully written) about the point of doing good in an increasingly dark-seeming world...

Age verification? When I saw Star Wars, Declan Mulholland was still in it.

Charity shop bargain: four novels and two books of short stories in a single (massive) volume for the princely sum of £1.50. Drinks coaster for scale.

I've been spending some time with Lalo Schifrin's back catalogue, as you do, and here's a lovely little thing from the original original Mission Impossible soundtrack called "Self Destruct". Moody, atmospheric, and with a cheerfully extended *chimes* solo... music.youtube.com/watch?v=dGVq...

Still one of the greatest album titles by one of the greatest TV and film music composers. The soundtrack to Bullitt, amongst many, many others, is the absolute business. Farewell, Lalo. You were magnificent.

This is *such* a good idea...

Just caught up with The Gold (BBC), episode 5 - saving the finale for tomorrow. Obviously Tom Cullen gets all the awards - and, as someone else said on here, Charlotte Spencer should be in *everything* - but lovely to see Phil Davis doing some brilliant work in there.

I once sold two books to Colin Firth: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (in hardback if you want to work out when this was); and Paris Trout by Pete Dexter. "What's the last thing *you* read?", he said, and that was my answer.

Always insightful, and well worth your time...

New level of AI horror unlocked: Trying to restart my phone (Solitaire is playing up, thank you for asking) & every time I press and hold the off switch, Google asks me if I want to start my assistant. 'No thank you', I say, which takes me back to where I was before. Try again, same again, again.

As a supporter of/subscriber to several of these authors, I absolutely endorse this. Also (a bookseller writes), if they've bought back their stock, do please support them by buying directly from them...

"Some places" including right here, right now. This is the basic principle behind Applied Theatre, where a play is created or presented in order to speak into the current problems of a local or marginalised community...

Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland, thank you for asking #Eurovision

@gralefrit.bsky.social Just listened to your splendid dissection of what's right & wrong with Top Secret. There's a brilliantly terrible Elvis movie called Double Trouble (1967), which could have been part of the template - set in Swinging Europe, shot entirely on the MGM backlog.

The Dad's Army sketch was a fun little thing - with a *really* strong cast - can anyone tell me who wrote it?

Nice twist, retitling Thunderbolts as the New Avengers, but for those of us of a certain vintage, there can still only be one... (well, three...)

Movies produced abroad are a threat to national security #FilmSky

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie. A Kid For A Penny Ha'penny. #OneForTheKidsThere

Chuggers on the upper level over Clapham Junction, trying to stop people as we run from platform to platform. 'Have you got a minute...", he says. "Not now", I say, "I've got a train to catch." He looked slightly aggrieved and a bit surprised by my response. Oh, mate.

Rooting for the Welsh teens, but I can absolutely see the brothers winning the whole thing by accident #RaceAcrossTheWorld

Hello, hive mind - can anyone confirm if that was Barbara Flynn doing the narration on the BBC obituary for Pope Francis? No credits on the broadcast version - I'll check the iPlayer in the morning. Thanks.

#Ghostsign on the side of a house near the Trent Lock, Sawley, Nottinghamshire, UK

There's a lovely b/w episode of The Saint called The Good Medicine (1964), which seems to have been (deliberately) cast the wrong way round. The excellent Jean Marsh plays one of the good guys! (As does the great Bill Nagy - they're both brilliant).