On the one hand, demented racist shit. On the other hand, it would get Boris Johnson deported. So swings and roundabouts really.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, however you’re gonna spend it.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, however you’re gonna spend it.

This was my biggest tweet over in the bad place. It will live here now. 🧙‍♀️🎄

Hurrah for this, the latest in a series of very fine pieces by Simon Guerrier exploring the evolution of the work of Terrance Dicks, and here taking a deep delve into the making of that seminal 1972 text ‘The Making of Doctor Who’.

I’m fairly convinced that there’s no finer set of opening titles than those that grace the first series of Blake’s 7. The vivid images and fast cuts introduce the format and backstory with absolute clarity. The music is thrilling. It’s a glorious, giddy promise of adventure. youtu.be/pnautWFuEnQ?...

Prompted by coming across a clip of Boney M performing their seminal 1978 smash hit Rasputin, I’ve just worked out that we have only another 15 years to go until the distance between Rasputin’s actual death and the Boney M song = the same as the distance between the Boney M song and now. Bit scary.

Setting aside the obvious remarks about the British public’s voting record, what does this tired old guff even mean? Like that thing about whether you put the jam or the cream on your scone first, out it comes again, year after year, fabricated and meaningless. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

I’m hoping they go for ‘Our Party’, because that will wreak havoc in political interviews, as Tory or Labour or Lib Dem people will end up saying things like ‘Our party is doing very badly in the polls,’ or ‘Nobody in their right mind would vote for our party,’ etc etc etc

David Bowie Kate Bush The Cure Steeleye Span The Wurzels

I’m delighted and honoured to be a part of this event at @britishlibrary.bsky.social on Saturday 17th January. A day dedicated to David Bowie, with live music and very special guests. I’ll be in conversation with David’s producer and friend, the legendary Tony Visconti. events.bl.uk/events/david...

Join me on 17/1, for a day with: Tony Visconti Nicholas Pegg Leah Kardos Mark Reeder Blixa Bargeld Gudrun Gut Paul Morley Francis Whately Donny McCaslin Samira Ahmed Jonathan Barnbrook Jehnny Beth Mary Ann Hobbs …and others Talks, performances, film and more! events.bl.uk/events/david...

I’m delighted and honoured to be a part of this event at @britishlibrary.bsky.social on Saturday 17th January. A day dedicated to David Bowie, with live music and very special guests. I’ll be in conversation with David’s producer and friend, the legendary Tony Visconti. events.bl.uk/events/david...

Take a minute.

Happy Doctor Who Day to all who celebrate. 62 years old, and it’s still the greatest show in the galaxy.

Like many youngsters of my generation, I was deliciously frightened by the original TV movie of Salem’s Lot. 45 years later, I’m reading the novel for the first time. It’s superb. And no word of a lie, I reach *that* scene just as a delivery man taps on the window outside in the dark. Jesus Christ.

I’ve only just stumbled across the fantastic fact that Margaret Thatcher’s 1970s voice coach, who taught her to lower her voice and speak more resonantly, was none other than Catherine Fleming, who voiced the evil Animus in bonkers 1965 Doctor Who serial The Web Planet. The Zarbi’s not for turning!

Another very fine piece by Simon about a book that I read and re-read countless times during my formative years.

It’s hardly the most important thing about this story, but could the entire news media please stop getting ‘letters patent’ wrong? It’s a plural noun. The king has issued letters patent. Saying he has issued ‘a letters patent’ is like saying that Wordsworth and Tennyson were ‘a poets laureate’. Bah.

It’s hardly the most important thing about this story, but could the entire news media please stop getting ‘letters patent’ wrong? It’s a plural noun. The king has issued letters patent. Saying he has issued ‘a letters patent’ is like saying that Wordsworth and Tennyson were ‘a poets laureate’. Bah.

This Specific Dalek has been played by both @nicholaspegg.bsky.social and me. We happily accept the accolade as a couple, though. Thank you, @pinknews.bsky.social. #DoctorWho

When the world feels grim, I remind myself that I’ve lived through the time of Alan Bennett, David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Oliver Postgate, ABBA, the Goodies, Kate Bush, I Claudius, Doctor Who, David Bowie and sun-dried tomatoes, and I think good god, we’re the luckiest generation in history.

When the world feels grim, I remind myself that I’ve lived through the time of Alan Bennett, David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Oliver Postgate, ABBA, the Goodies, Kate Bush, I Claudius, Doctor Who, David Bowie and sun-dried tomatoes, and I think good god, we’re the luckiest generation in history.

Huge fun here from the always splendid Toby Hadoke, who invited a whole load of us to nominate the 17 missing Doctor Who episodes we’d most like to see recovered. Whittling it down from 97 was agony, but I hope you’ll approve of my choices… and David Tennant’s, and many more besides. Get clicking!

Huge fun here from the always splendid Toby Hadoke, who invited a whole load of us to nominate the 17 missing Doctor Who episodes we’d most like to see recovered. Whittling it down from 97 was agony, but I hope you’ll approve of my choices… and David Tennant’s, and many more besides. Get clicking!

I think music peaked in the year I turned 11. So that’ll be a no from me.

I’ve just learned that Patrick Troughton’s farewell words* to Jamie* and the Brigadier* in the last episode of The Tenth Planet* were “It’s the kindest person I’ve ever met,”* and this is “a classic moment in Doctor Who lore, cherished by fans.”* That should silence those pesky AI haters. *wrong

Very much enjoying all the indignant reviews of this new Frankenstein film, written by people who have clearly never read Frankenstein, taking issue with the fact that it appears for once to be based on Frankenstein.

Back in 1981 this extraordinary track was like nothing we’d ever heard before - a whole decade ahead of its time. All these years later, it’s still a total banger. Marc Almond and Cindy Ecstasy on vocals. The mighty Dave Ball on everything else. youtu.be/Yd6SR5VC5A0?...

Together with Marc, Dave Ball brought pleasure, power and positivity to countless young lives, my own included. Raising a glass to one of the greats.

Beginning to wonder if headline writers are deliberately trying to get that Day Today Chris Morris meme treatment.

Mansfield Park is Jane Austen’s best novel. Not sure if that opinion quite counts as unhinged, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who agrees. I hasten to add that I love all the others to pieces. But Mansfield Park is best.

Honoured to have contributed a chapter to this excellent new book, and thrilled to learn that it blasted through its Kickstarter target in a mere six hours! My piece is on Image of the Fendahl and where it sits among Doctor Who’s diverse dabblings in folk horror. www.kickstarter.com/projects/roo...

I’m delighted and honoured to have contributed a chapter to this excellent new book about one of my favourite periods of Doctor Who. As I type this, the Kickstarter page went live 45 minutes ago and it’s already over halfway to hitting the target! www.kickstarter.com/projects/roo...

I’m delighted and honoured to have contributed a chapter to this excellent new book about one of my favourite periods of Doctor Who. As I type this, the Kickstarter page went live 45 minutes ago and it’s already over halfway to hitting the target! www.kickstarter.com/projects/roo...

John Masefield, poet laureate and author of The Box of Delights, was alive at the time of the gunfight at the OK Corral. He could have seen Carry On Cowboy and Doctor Who and the Gunfighters.

In the garden today: it’s October, but the gorgeous honeyed fragrance of sweet alyssum is still filling the patio with perfume. The scent was once believed to cure mental anguish: the name ‘alyssum’ comes from the Greek, literally meaning ‘free of madness’. Would that we were.

In the garden today: Snapdragons basking in September’s final sunset.

Well, that was a complete and utter joy. So much so that we’re doing it all again tomorrow in Exeter.

I am so thrilled to be interviewing Miriam Margolyes live on stage at the Hall for Cornwall today. What a gorgeous venue! #TheLittleBookOfMiriam

‘Watched Attack of the Cybermen.’

I didn’t understand a word of this until I imagined Peter Davison’s Doctor breathlessly rattling it out at high speed while simultaneously trying to defuse a bomb, and then it made total sense.

Salvador Dalí could have seen Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, A Fish Called Wanda or The Happiness Patrol. (And he did see the Aladdin Sane tour.)

A couple of years ago, the actor Brian Cox recalled in his autobiography that back in the 1960s, he had worked on a TV drama with the teenage David Bowie. This was news to me, so I decided to investigate. It took a while, but here’s what I found out. gutsofabeggar.wordpress.com/2024/11/14/l...

This sounds terrific.

Today's painting from my Brave New Worlds exhibition: DUNE (2021, 2024, 2026) (acrylic on oil paper) To take a closer look (or to buy the original painting) follow this link: barnabyedwards.co.uk/brave-new-wo...

Today's exciting delivery: a few postcard prints of gorgeous classic science fiction film artwork by the brilliant @barnabyedwards.bsky.social - taken from his new exhibition, 'Brave New Worlds' at the Exeter Picturehouse.

I knew I recognised them from somewhere.

For the first time in many moons, just heard We Are Detective by the Thompson Twins. Takes me back to teenage times, so of course I love it, but (a) the tune is absurdly close to ABBA’s Head Over Heels, (b) omg the lyrics. ‘He left his footprints by the garden tree.’ The garden tree? As opposed to…?