In Bradford for Widescreen Weekend and staying at the grand but somewhat faded Midland Hotel where, I am perversely delighted to discover, in 1905 Sir Henry Irving breathed his last on this staircase. His manager, Bram Stoker, was in attendance.

#Starmer #BritCard

“BritCard?”

'And that underlying rhythm probably sounds quite familiar: it’s like a heartbeat. Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter because it sounds very close to natural, heart-felt speech': argh, this kind of thing (from Shakespeare's Globe website) drives me mad: someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/10-reasons...

Sat 20 Sept, 12noon-8.30pm THE 8th ROSE READATHON Our hugely popular fund-raiser returns! Choose to watch or take part, as we gallop through 1hr versions of six plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe & Jonson. Roles drawn from a hat & scripts provided. More info & book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on

Linked to yesterday's OTD post, this is terrific - thanks @jameswallace.bsky.social

🎵 Shitler has only got one ball Don junior has two but ve-ry small Ivanka’s are two great clankers But poor old Eric has no tes-tic-les 🎵

The Rose was the first theatre on Bankside, but the very first south of the Thames was built a mile away in Elephant & Castle in the mid-1570s. Henslowe records receipts for 10 performances there in 1594, just before it closed. Find out about the Newington Butts Playhouse @reedproject.bsky.social

We've replaced the rope-lights outlining The Rose's archaeological remains, currently preserved underwater. The red lights mark the inner & outer walls of the seating galleries. The blue lights show the front of the stage in 1587, and then pushed back in 1592/3. Looking south-north, & east-west.

I've found a jester! I HAVE FOUND A JESTER 🥸

David Lynch’s personal theramin, recently sold at auction for $10,400

I have just noticed that the clips holding the glass on this London Transport bus look like Homer Simpson

Wow

Brilliant

OTD in early British television: Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born 136 years ago today. To mark his 50th birthday on Sunday 16 April 1939, Alexandra Palace screened an afternoon programme of extracts from his early comedies. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/otd-in-early...

This is class

GCSE and A Level students and teachers working on Shakespeare - please join us on Thursday! Completely free, all very welcome. I’ll be there with actor @jameswallace.bsky.social to answer your questions 📚🎭 - sign up here👇

Brazilian author Marcelo Rubens Paiva has been dismayed at the outpouring of hatred directed at him since his book "I'm Still Here" became a movie, now competing for the Best Picture Oscar. But says he feels his mission has been achieved. 📝@msavarese.bsky.social apnews.com/article/braz...

Why I’m Still Here should win the best picture Oscar (by me) 👇👇🇧🇷

OTD in early British television: A short thread and post to mark the 93rd anniversary of the earliest Shakespeare performance on British television that I can identify. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/otd-in-early...

Happy Birthday Rupert Holmes! #BOTD 24 Feb 1947 Here he is singing his pineapple, cream of coconut ‘n rum themed classic ‘Escape’, oozing the kind of raw sexual charisma they just don’t allow anymore. No better way to brighten up your Monday. See you in O’Malley’s… www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGAe...

OTD in early British television: Today’s post is a melancholy little tale of a short, vibrant life in which early television played just a small part. The subject is dancer and acrobat Laurie Devine... www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/otd-in-early...

Lovely write-up about Grand Theft Hamlet in The New Yorker magazine: www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...

Such a wonderful and brilliantly written tribute to Claire van Kampen from the Globe’s former artistic director Dominic Dromgoole www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...

OTD in early British television: the evening of Monday 17 January 1938 saw the first broadcast (with a repeat on the following Friday afternoon) of Royston Morley‘s hour-long adaptation of John Webster’s Jacobean drama, The Duchess of Malfi. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/otd-in-early...

Love this! William Charles Macready (1793-1873) by William Etty (1787-1849), 93x70cm At auction 11 Feb Lot 101, est. £6-8,000 Dreweatts catalogue says ‘apparently in the role of Hamlet’, but given the toga, I’d guess Coriolanus, which he played in 1838 & invited Etty to see. Any better guesses?

Omg the Merchant Taylors owned the Mermaid Tavern!

This 👇😞 What's the worst Shax merch you can find, I wonder? #BrandingTheBard

Going to add my voice to calls for Fernanda Torres to be given an Oscar. What an amazing performance. What an amazing film! www.theguardian.com/film/2024/de...

The actual Daredevil comic in which l found the name - The Teardrop Explodes, back in 1978.

Heads up: a lost Clara Bow film from 1923, THE PILL POUNDER, has been found in an Omaha parking lot for a mere $20. Check out the local news story for more fascinating details: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHO6...

We've just been alerted about a fraudulent website - radiancefilms(dot)shop - masquerading as us. Please do not buy from them; if you have already, contact your bank's fraud team.

Stories like this make my heart sing - who knows what else that has been lost might one day be found? The entirety of a partially lost silent film directed by John Ford in 1918 has been rediscovered in Chile. www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...

Hello BlueSky, We’re just getting set up right now. Further episodes of the podcast coming in 2025… …until then, our archive of previous episodes with fantastic guests can still be found at: www.treesacrowd.fm TTFN, 🌳DO🌳

C’mon BlueSky, do your thing…

OTD in early British television: 16 November 1938 saw the first live outside broadcast from a theatre of a full play, J.B. Priestley’s ‘When We Are Married’, shown from St Martin’s Theatre in London’s West End; in 2011 I wrote about the broadcast here... screenplaystv.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/i...

If you’ve been feeling a bit misty-eyed & nostalgic listening to the new Beatles song ‘Now and Then’, just IMAGINE how Shakespeare fans felt in 1634 when Thomas Cotes followed up his remaster of the folio two years earlier by printing the FIRST EVER release of his final play, The Two Noble Kinsman…