Reading a biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard and it mentions that she found the process of working on this film very unsatisfying. So, of course, I had to watch it. (it’s very anti-cinema; playschool acting and terrible, distracting editing).

Loved this. Like a provincial precursor to Vertigo. Perfect Saturday afternoon film.

Still loving this series. James has an excellent sense of place and the peculiar English eccentrics who chose to live there.

Breath and Dawn and Gull and Yesterday; the rhythm of these poems was wonderful. Another great month of poetry from Faber.

Extraordinary film. Miserable and terrifying and grotty in a way that very few films can hope to be; the horror of being terminally alone.

Irresponsibly posting my location on social media.

Brookner on the Kindle… Stout Robin in the glass… Fleetwood Mac on the stereo… Doctor Who’s coming back… Sometimes life is alright.

Courtney Marie Andrews was incredible at the Norwich Arts Centre tonight

Rebecca Marnie Psycho

This was fine. He’s a great director and very charming, but it races through the misses to present a bit of a hagiography. He’s made better documentaries, that are directly or indirectly about himself in the past.

…I’m listening to Electric Nebraska…

Go Your Throne Way

Great set. Lovely to have everything in one place. You forget how much the deleted scenes are like a whole second movie.

Diving right in…

“Correction: free blood”

I don’t think Platonic is a great series, but I do think Rose Byrne is the greatest(?) comic actor ever. Her face is this constant stream of hilarious micro-expressions. It’s incredible

Jonathan Demme has always been the biggest influence on PTA: this was him working in the same vein as The Last Embrace or The Truth About Charlie

One Battle After Another on 70mm was dynamite!

Favourite 10 TV comedies, in no particular order. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace Arrested Development The Thick of It The Larry Sanders Show any and all Alan Partridge the first nine years of The Simpsons Hancock’s Half Hour/Hancock Danny McBride’s various series Fawlty Towers The League of Gentlemen

Well it only took 24hrs for the Dalai Starmer to issue these words of wisdom…

It’s a machine that goes PING!

“You tell him I’m coming…” R.I.P. Terence Stamp

I went for an 8-mile walk and I am now replicating this all-time great double-bill using the new 4K discs. Today feels like a bank holiday!

I wasn’t entirely convinced by Faber’s poetry subscription at the start, but it’s really stepped up a notch in the last two months.

F1®️ is a great film if you really like having absolutely everything explained to you throughout the film

I once wrote “there is no question in life to which the answer isn’t: watch ‘Jaws’” I don’t know how true that is, but a now disgraced Oscar-winning director certainly agreed with me at the time.

Richard Dawkins writes to the Guardian to make sure everyone knows he was right… www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Every epigraph nowadays: Quote 1: something old and pretentious. Quote 2: a lyric from a pop song.

Here’s mine:

David Lynch (1946 - 2025)

Doctor Who and The Dæmons. In pen and ink by me.

New piece of art based on John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’

There’s something special about rewatching films where you’d forgotten how good they are:

What’s in the box? (A single 4K disc that is almost impossible to remove…)

A History of the World in 47 Borders by Jon Elledge. Great book. I learnt a lot (I have already forgotten most of it…).

Reading remained my foundation through a year full of personal change and challenge. Here were a few highlights of 2024.

Living as I do with one foot in the past, I wanted to end the year watching a selection of films that revel in this strange and pleasant land.

Everyone’s grumbling, and I’ll admit that Season 1 of ‘Log Fire’ is very slow, but once you get to the twist in Season 3 it becomes the greatest TV ever…

Weirdly, the answer to this article is not ‘a dressing gown’… www.theguardian.com/fashion/gall...

‘A Midwife’s Carol’ by Michael Symmons Roberts. Merry Christmas everyone.

YouTube is great for cooking videos and for conveniently watching the best bits of movies… So frustrating to see ‘what to watch next’ windows and logos ruining the best part of this sequence from Singin’ in the Rain. youtu.be/iGCNBdCvzL4?...

On Sinéad O’Connor’s birthday, here is a very old piece of her

Things I love about this time of year: early Christmas presents to myself…

Saul Leiter was born on this day in 1923. Seeing an extraordinary exhibition of his work this year in Milton Keynes (of all places…) was truly life changing. His use of colour, reflection and shadow reveals the fragmentary beauty of the world.

Loved this so much: youtu.be/kGZvmngLfBI?...

Wanting to watch more Rita Hayworth has led to this gem… there’s a scene on a stairwell that just broke my heart. Accompanied by an Arnold Bennett Omelette.

Alex Turner in pen and ink from about a year ago or so

“I love you, June. You’re life, and I’m leaving you.”

I was once the surprise on Surprise, Surprise.

Maggie Cheung is one of those people who I draw over and over again