Related: I think we’ve reached the point where we need an official Harry Beck diagrammatic representation of the Doctors. The placement and proportions of the Doctors here are upsetting.

The humiliation conga of (1) giving myself food poisoning from vegetable soup, (2) passing out in the bathroom while dealing with the consequences and hitting my head and (3) arriving at A&E in an ambulance to be met by my friend who was the attending physician.

Persuasive evidence that Pertwee would have crushed it on the Hot Ones Challenge.

The BFI screening *is* Warriors of the Deep. I do not intend to add to today’s grimness by failing to honour gambling debts so both @lewisbaston.bsky.social and @jonarnold.bsky.social will get a shiny 10 pence piece.

We're calling for submissions to the Black Archive from disabled authors and authors of colour, who we know have been underrepresented in the range. Please spread this as widely as you can, as we want it to reach as many eligible authors as possible. Thank you. obversebooks.co.uk/blackarchive...

TIL that Tom Baker’s reading of the Gremlins novelisation has an extra line not present in the book or the film, basically “frozen water doesn’t affect mogwai”. I like to think that Tom read the rules, saw the subsequent pages of snow scenes, and withdrew labour until there was an explanation.

As January will have a lot of guff about wellness and clean eating, it’s good to know that Sri Lankan cookery books don’t muck around when it comes to nutritional advice.

Happy New Year everyone! May you start 2026 like the Swedes- scoffing pizza as you argue about the work of Douglas Camfield.

Your occasional reminder that Angelica Houston and Brendan O'Carroll are playing the *same* character.

My brother’s sitting with a friend at a window table in a pub in Oxford. Friend says “Was that Brian Blessed in the street?” And then, right by the window: “YES IT’S ME, BRIAN BLESSED! BWAH HA HA HA!”. And then RAN away.

A story demonstrating that Brigitte Bardot’s animal rights activism was entirely consistent with her racism. She felt fully entitled to brutalise interlopers for spurious threats. Poor Charley 🫏

Update: Brother RedBubbled 8 yo’s dictator flag for our Christmas presents, in a transparent bid to curry favour with his future overlord.

What’s everyone’s favourite Avatar quote?

“Not you. You’re one of the good ones.”

Make a Bond film casual. BrassEye

Free for all. A Christmas Wishlist. @ Psychic Paper. buttondown.com/cooray_smith...

Tiny Tim was dead to begin with. Marley did NOT die. No one learned anything.

Drink responsibly this Christmas.

A festive mystery from 1978, over at Psychic Paper. buttondown.com/cooray_smith...

Timeline cleanse: Ke Huy Quan being shown his 1984 appearance on Blue Peter.

The Poirot novel Mrs McGinty’s Dead has key characters called Craig and Bentley (who is wrongly accused of murder). I assumed Christie named them after the defendants in the infamous miscarriage of justice. I just checked the dates and the novel comes out 9 months *before* the shooting 🤯.

Now looking up the other versions of Ghosts and getting FOMO.

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... New on Psychic Paper, for paid subscribers only, but you could always become one and get access to the whole archive as well.

Brother said they were trying to remember “that shop in Chelsea” from the 80s. I said it was probably Hard Core Leather. “How do you know that?” “Blake’s 7 Series B Production Diary.”

Brother went to a Silver screening of Pillion. The only other attendees were two couples. Couple 1 walked out. Couple 2 loved it and gave occasional commentary on how the scene had evolved since they’d got together.

Trump’s vile post shows how Rob Reiner was the ultimate refutation of the egocentric ‘Great Man’ theory. Rob Reiner produced great art through collaboration with Christopher Guest, Nora Ephron, William Goldman et al as equal participants. Because he viewed what he did as dialogue, not diatribe.

This ‘Marty DiBergi’ interview for This is Spinal Tap 2 encapsulates Rob Reiner’s talent as a director and a performer. He talks in character about his experiences with the band, his directing choices and that movie with Count Rugen. (Warning: intrusive ad breaks, but it’s worth persisting)

Dishwasher’s been emptied.

Getting barred from the USA because I said I was encouraging my son to be a Gooner.

You will be visited by three spirits.

actual bluesky challenge: post your favorite work of art from fifty years before you were born.

I have a joke about Damocles but it went over everyone’s heads

Also includes the option to retroactively replace the winner of the Season 21 DWAS story poll* with Caves.

Movie you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star (Wars or Trek), LOTR, or Marvel. Even harder mode: a film from before 1970 that you can find a gif of. Sublime. Love Lemmon’s eyebrow raise and moue.

My brother’s 1984 letter to Father Christmas, another bittersweet highlight of clearing house. I can confirm that he is still big hearted* and obsessed with dinosaurs 🦖 (* although I didn’t get the 10 foot teddy)

Trekkies: if you see this, post your first experience with Star Trek

My brother’s 1984 letter to Father Christmas, another bittersweet highlight of clearing house. I can confirm that he is still big hearted* and obsessed with dinosaurs 🦖 (* although I didn’t get the 10 foot teddy)

Gift link for any David Lynch fans out there: a wonderful and insightful interview with Kyle MacLachlan (pictured in ‘Sexy Peter Purves’ mode) ahead of the January BFI retrospective.

A late entry

Also featuring infotext on The Twin Dilemma by @cooraysmith.bsky.social He suffered for his art. Now it’s your turn.

If they’re doing the whizzy re-edit and sound mix on Warriors of the Deep (1) would this be the BFI screening and if so (2) to which of @jonarnold.bsky.social or @lewisbaston.bsky.social do I owe 10p?

Insert a movie into another movie: A Room with a View to a Kill Bill

Gonna troll @cooraysmith.bsky.social by claiming they’re doing colourised BBC4 reedit of Whistle and I’ll Come to You and showing him this.

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... Snow! New at psychic paper, the oddly specific crossover between Haisman & Lincoln and Lennon & McCartney.

Helping out on Kew Gardens school trip. Not my 8yo: The greenhouse staircase is dangerous! Me: Don’t worry, that staircase has been standing since I used it when I was your age. Not my 8yo: So it’s all old and rusty?

Three of these Fannys are the protagonist of Mansfield Park, and the remaining one is Cradock. Must do better at swears 🤬

TIL that Richard Dimbleby, Denis Thatcher, Francis Crick and Patrick Troughton attended the same school* at the same time and now I want to see the sitcom. *Mill Hill School, a school in Mill Hill

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... We're on the lip of apocalypse at Psychic Paper, as we revisit Serial C. In the right order this time. For paid subscribers only, but why not become one and get access to the archive?