Ford kiernan should have been scotty and I’ll die on that hill

Are there celebrities the current generation has learned about exclusively through cartoon references, in the way that kids my age learned about like Frank Nelson & Charles Bronson through the Simpsons, or the generation right before me learned about Peter Lorre and such through Looney Tunes?

once again I lament the fact that our opponents are so utterly pathetic, so craven, so consumed by their petty obsessions, so trapped by the cage they have built themselves, and yet they have all the political power, all the money, and exclusive access to the british press

my least favourite suzanne moore article is the one where she explains the term “brick” to the reader. she nearly gets it right too but she thinks the dichotomy is doll/brick not fish/brick

To quote Germaine Greer on Suzanne Moore, "Hair bird's nested all over the place, fuck-me shoes and three fat inches of cleavage".

These articles are invariably ridiculous. As ever, the next Doctor Who will be either (a) a respected character actor who is not yet a household name or (b) a talented young actor who has not yet had their breakout role. (Though in this particular case we could add (c) Billie Piper.)

Dispiriting realisation from watching this and University Challenge that nobody watches films any more. They don't even have old favourites that they go back to time and time again.

I need to finish watching Terrahawks again.

LGB(T) Let's Go Birds (Twice)

@bonesdrawstuff.bsky.social What's the Welsh for Barge-Arse?

I recently had to explain the Wogan Bulge to someone who wasn't as online, and it didn't disappoint.

Since knowing he was bald it's always a joy to see the giveaway Big Chris is wearing a toup

This Week! 📽️ Premiere Saturday 3rd Jan, 9pm THE HAUNTING OF JULIA (1977) starring #MiaFarrow #KeirDullea #TomConti #JillBennett thriller #TPTVsubtitles

Catching up with the morning emails from pals

Trans women are women, and trans men are men, and that's why there's no conflict between trans rights and women's rights. As soon as you suggest there may be a conflict, it's clear that, no matter how supportive you think you are, you consider trans women to be men (and trans men to be women)

Your transphobia may not be expressed in a nasty or aggressive manner. You may well be comfortable around trans people. You can talk of your support for trans rights. But there's always going to be a limit to your support, as you fundamentally don't believe trans women are women

And that denial of the reality that trans women are women is, at its heart, and no matter how well intentioned you think are you, a form of bigotry. It is an inherently transphobic belief

The thing that the people who want to think of themselves of accepting of trans people but don't understand why they get called transphobes don't understand is that it all stems from their core beliefs that are made apparent by how they talk about trans issues and trans rights

I passed by Annaig Birdy on Westmoreland St today

2026 will be the year Suzanne Moore becomes too extreme for The Telegraph and is forced to present The Today Programme instead.

Suzanne is a complete nutjob. She's more concerned about some "Trans Cult" in America than her own daughter possibly getting drugged and raped in Laos.

Was singing at an event earlier this year when afterwards a very jittery woman who was drinking a lot and didn't appear to have any other options for conversation started telling me about her daughter's trip abroad. She seemed weak and insignificant. Fckn Suzanne Moore weren't it.

Suzanne Moore is gleefully embracing genocide. Would she like to explain herself in the Hague for genocide or crimes against humanity because either way is prosecutable. At a minimum she's like a public example of the racist on the bus. We know the type.

And how exactly do you propose to “kill trans ideology“ without killing trans people

This from @vizcomic.bsky.social will never get old.

Audiences spend more time watching BBC TV/iPlayer on average per week per person than Netflix, Disney+ & Amazon Prime combined. In the first quarter of 2025, the BBC had 5 out of the 10 most watched programmes in the UK across all broadcasters and streamers. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm no fan of the royal honours system, but Dame Meera Syal has got such a ring to it. What an icon.

The reason so many are surprised to find that Bardot was a POS is that the French took a novel approach. Instead of giving a racist old has-been's views the oxygen of outrage, they largely shunned her. We could all learn something here.

Like watching old 'An Audience With' shows and when the camera pans you go 'dead, dead, Yewtree...'

Ahem, SIR Roy Clarke

Funny that Sir Idris Elba means a knighted actor was in the Prom Night remake

Find it funny that Sir Idris Elba was in Law and Order in 2001. The second Sir Idris to appear as the great Roscoe Lee Browne played a character of that name in an episode a decade earlier. lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Idris_B...

Idris Elba is a great actor & that helps, but he got his knighthood aged 53 because he's a legendary recipient of the Prince's (King's) Trust, Charles's international charity for disadvantaged kids to get education, mentorship, etc. Elba started pushing it & raising money the moment he got famous.

I can’t confirm it, but there’s a non-zero chance Idris is the first electronica DJ to receive a knighthood.

If someone had drawn a portrait of John C. Reilly for an English satirical magazine in 1880, there would have been riots from Belfast to Cork.

Not everybody who succeeds in the arts in Britain is an unstinting delight but now and then you meet someone who is not just nice by celebrity standards but by any standards. (Those people are Meera Syal and Edith Bowman.)

Member of the British Empire

Now then.

Idris Elba being knighted after what happened with TREE? A fucking travesty. Am feeling for Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley tonight.

If anyone is in any doubt about Bernard Cribbins' cultural significance, I present to you Maya Angelou and Jessica Mitford (the non-Nazi Mitford Sister) covering Bernard's 'Right, Said Fred'. youtu.be/PHBWw6jRGy8?...

Cynthia Erivo only an MBE. I thought she'd at least be an OBE, even at this stage. Cush Jumbo was given an OBE at a similar age. Also Warwick Davis OBE - I wonder if it's goooollld....

I'm not a royalist and thinks the honours system is pish but delighted that Roy Clarke has been knighted. I didn't think he'd get one. Like his contemporary Alan Plater got a CBE. But Plater always was seen as a bit more of a 'proper' writer while Clarke was unfairly seen as a hack.

Out of the Unknown eps had a budget of about 5k (120k in todays money). Who had about half that in the 60s.

Watching the Bob Monkhouse thing on BBC4. Audience full of comics, it’s lovely spotting people. Oh look there’s Kev. And Steelie. Grrrr fuck it, what’s WALLIAMS doing there. Everything’s ruined.

Dean Koontz looks like a weird American adult Jimmy Krankie.

One time I had a dream about an alternate universe where Little Richard was appropriately seen as the King of Rock N Roll instead of Elvis and Little Richard movies in the 60s were basically him as an American version of the Third Doctor

Hello everyone. Keir Starmer, Lad Lawyer, here. Just to say that if you have enjoyed Smersh Pod's 2025 output, why not tell everyone? Why not review and rate on your platform of choice? Why not join the Patreon?

Having Micheal O'Hehir and the McWhirters in the same studio - god, the Unionist Nazi twins must have been disgusted by such a symbol of Irishness, especially the GAA.

The fourth ever Record Breakers today in 1973, featuring horse racing commentator Michael O'Hehir, Atlantic rower John Fairfax, sailing speed record attempts in Weymouth and an audience of scouts helping the McWhirters illustrate the world's longest word.

youtu.be/25ZYptUod_4?... Always weird to see US ie NBC footage of British sports, so you get NBC interviewing Willie Carson Also, Micheal O'Hehir doing the horse racing commentary. Wonder how much NBC paid him in comparison to Telly Eireann?