Scrolling through old pictures and being reminded of the time when one of my novels was an A/S Level set text and I vanity-searched Twitter to see what students were saying about it, and got a warm glow at the thought that I was inspiring a whole new generation of readers.

Please think about helping this wonderful shrine to all things cinematic! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/Onvr11Kn

Me and @whyoutloud.bsky.social, in 2024, on fringe candidates - a tradition long before the binman commeth. www.politicshome.com/thehouse/art...

'If a piece of meat held between the finger and thumb of the gloved hand is offered to the hawk, it will probably bend down and pull at the meat with its beak.' Yep, I'm entering the falconry discourse with this piece on Kes for BFI www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

Time and again I think that THIS is the stat universities should shout, shout & shout again about. New education export data again show HE responsible for nearly three-quarters of a £37bn UK revenue source. Fund our universities! Source: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...

More BFI object of the week stuff, and this time it's got that Ealing feeling www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

Did a Muriel seminar and now it's online for all to enjoy m.youtube.com/watch?v=WH1r...

Exeter is a great university, so what on earth is its management doing? Meanwhile, the government needs to get a grip: It's cut real term funding per student by 35% in the last decade, while doing its best to lose lucrative income from international students. #DefendExeterUni

It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes - like Julie Christie does at the end of Darling www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

It’s Dennis Price’s birthday. He’s superb as Wildean serial killer Louis in Kind Hearts. This is one of the most powerful scenes in cinema as he ensnares his final target & all ironic wit disappears, leaving only his anger at the vile class system that killed his mother. youtu.be/mDvSLHhhhs8?...

Oh Alec...

Walked to the 'office' and now sat wiping my forehead like Mike McShane halfway through the props round

I hope Hull History Centre won't mind me sharing this lovely letter from Roy Hattersley's papers, on the sad news of his passing aged 93. RIP.

Likewise very happy to have been involved in this great Hammer release ⏳️

Another BFI archival bit from me, this time on Pressburger, pre-Powell www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

HBD to the legendary joyful/angry feminist and superlative filmmaker Agnès Varda (1928-2019)!!! 🎊🎞️

In memory and honor of the sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin, who, in 1960, published the essay in which he coined the term cinéma-vérité and co-directed, with Jean Rouch, the film—Chronicle of a Summer—that showed what he had in mind. He passed away yesterday, at age 104.

One of the more unlikely artists to appear on the Motown label. From 1977, Albert Finney's Album.

Rewatching all of Poirot and a new reaction gif just dropped

#bestfilminlondontoday May 27 at capitalcelluloid.blogspot.com guide to rep cinema scene. @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social intros 35mm screening of neo-realist influenced TURN THE KEY SOFTLY (1953) in great British Post-War cinema season at BFI capitalcelluloid.blogspot.com/2026/05/capi...

Had a fab time intro-ing this at Magdalen College, Oxford, on Sunday: The Seventh Veil, starring Ann Todd, James Mason, and a gorgeous floofy cat

Cardiff Uni wants to scrap the 2nd floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library. We're talking 7km of books and vital study space gone to make way for classrooms. Please help us save this crucial campus resource before it's ripped out in June! Add your name here: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

So come on, did anyone else - apart from @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social - try to bounce off the sofa cushions in a bid to emulate the opening titles of Jamie And The Magic Torch? timworthington.org/2024/12/04/t...

Back with another of those block-rocking blogs www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

#bestfilminlondontoday May 27 at capitalcelluloid.blogspot.com guide to rep cinema scene. @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social intros 35mm screening of neo-realist influenced TURN THE KEY SOFTLY (1953) in great British Post-War cinema season at BFI capitalcelluloid.blogspot.com/2026/05/capi...

At #BFI Southbank today for Hunted on #35mm. Dirk Bogarde stars in this terrific man on the run thriller, hiding in the noirish shadows of postwar London & the Scottish Highlands, with kidnapped child in tow. Screening again with Humphrey Jennings’ A Diary for Timothy on 11 May. #filmsky

The blogpost which fell to earth: the story of a great film poster (and find out the secret link between Bowie and Iron Maiden) www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

His famous catchphrase

I wanted to share the wonderful collection of photobooth photos that we assembled for the cover of our forthcoming edition of Gale Wilhelm's 1935 novel, We Too Are Drifting, in the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social, with an introduction by @seeshespeak.bsky.social.

15 minutes; no questions; government got the blame; my department to have 60% of us sacked. Apparently sacking us will lead to a ‘new, improved’ curriculum. No voluntary scheme, straight to selection and legal minimum redundancy payment.

It's another BFI blog, this time on a Lean theme... www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

Another piece for the BFI, this time on costume design 🎭

"Easter Bunny on the Train" By German artist Michael Sowa (1996)

I have a new documentary coming out on BBC Sounds this week, about which I am very excited! Yes, I am serious - and don't call me Shirley... (poster by @andydrewz.bsky.social)

If you enjoyed the Nigel Kneale co-scripted film, perhaps have a listen to @parthenoid.bsky.social and myself chatting to @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social and Dr. Mark Fryers about whether a ship is the best metaphor for the British class system in this Woodfall of the high seas.

Queen's in Canada has done some of the resource-gathering about Nous: qcaa.ca/resources/no... But yes, we need a list. Because Nous itself has become *very* evasive in whom they're selling their nonsense to, no longer naming even when using 'testimonies' in casestudies: nousgroup.com/case-studies

FOURTEEN MILLION. Goldsmiths spent *14 MILLION* on consultants. That's just 1 uni. @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social, please do as ABC did in Australia & put a spotlight on just how much money gets funneled from public institutions to for-profit firms & the harm it causes abc.net.au/news/2026-03... #UKHE

Lovely! The journey from a Luton man writing copy for truck adverts, to the movie Airplane. Surely you can’t be serious?

It wouldn't be Good Friday with Billy Dainty!

Happy Eggmas🥚

I surely did enjoy contributing to this quirky story of TV and film history (don't call me Shirley) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

It brings me great pleasure to inform you the word "blurb" is named after a made-up woman named Belinda Blurb whose job is to tell everyone how great a book is

Graham McCann NEVER lets you down

Chuffed to have contributed to the extras for 36 HOURS (1953) from Hammer with such fine folk as Dr Josephine Botting, @barryf48.bsky.social, Maxim Jakubowski, Wayne Kinsey, @annodracula.bsky.social, @vicpratt.bsky.social, Toby Roan & @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social. hammerfilms.com/products/36-...

KEEP BRITAIN TIDY (1975): A beautifully bleak and devastatingly effective PIF. Pity the poor crew who had to clean up after that. And good old Harry Seacombe there, belting out 'Jerusalem' for all he's worth.

Another object of the week blogpost for BFI (written a little while back but freshly released today). Always very happy to indulge my passion for Toshiro Mifune 🤩https://www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-archive/features/object-week-academy-cinema-posters-seven-samurai

Man, one of the most depressing aspects of modern scholarship is finding a great article and then looking up the scholar to see what else they’ve done and just catching a glimpse of an abbreviated career hopping between visiting positions and publishing great pieces before disappearing from academia