R.I.P. John Woodvine - an RSC stalwart when I was a teenager, during that company's imperial period; Banquo to McKellen's Macbeth, Falstaff in Merry Wives, Ralph Nickleby. Less of a film career, but he was perfect in An American Werewolf in London. The definition of an actor with authority.

Not really a film, more a video show, with Sam Costa lying in bed watching mimed performances by various second division '60s singers and bands. Freddie and the Dreamers top the bill, with Freddie Garrity dressed as a court jester, which seems about right. (1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0060...

London vignette: a teenager on a Lime bike, in the classic uniform of black jeans, hoodie, and scarf, cycles round and stops in front of me. He holds up his hand for a high-five, which I give him. I hear a couple of young people behind me cheering. I think I might have just won somebody a bet.

I'm not quite sure how I got to the age i am without seeing this, especially given how present Danny Kaye was in the culture when I was growing up, but a recent reading of a biography of Moss Hart, who wrote the screenplay, inspired me to seek it out. (1/3) www.imdb.com/title/tt0044...

Two female students overheard in a corridor: First: Still, people are quite nice to us. Second: Yeah (Pause.). It's quite good being NPCs.

The Cardinal and the Corpse was directed by Chris Petit & features Martin (not Michael) Stone, legend, who once lent me a first edition of Fritz Leiber's Night's Black Agents, at a time when it was impossible to find (I have my own not-a-first copy now thanks to @annodracula.bsky.social)

Great talk at Highgate Cemetery Chapel, by t he ever-impressive Roger Luckhurst launching his new book on Graveyards, talking about the history of London's 'magnificent seven' cemeteries, and the campaigns of the Victorian philanthropist George 'Graveyard' Walker to get them built... I1/2)

A important film in the whole reappraisal of classic British cinema that's been going on lately, partly because of TPTV. An astonishing cast, and a tough, working-class milieu that's rare in the national cinema of the time, giving it a '30s Warner Brothers tone. (1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0051...

R.I.P Tony Harrison. So many masterpieces - The Misanthrope, the Oresteia, the Mysteries, Trackers of Oxyrynchus, V.... The later work is less consistent - he should never have started directing his own texts - but there are moments of glory even in a sprawling mess like Fram. A genuine legend.

Strange experience with new students: doing a get-to-know-you know exercise where I divide them into groups using a pack of cards, I discover that some of them don't know what the suits are. Is this a Gen Z thing?

Overheard. Woman sitting behind me in the NT: 'I'm going to see Vera: or the Nihilists at the Brockley Jack. It's by the same guy who wrote Earnest.' Can't help feeling she's going to have a strange evening.

It's a fairly safe rule of politics that anyone` who uses the phrases 'common sense', 'normal people' or 'the real world' has ruled themselves out of being taking seriously.

Angela Carter Alan Moore Iain Sinclair Jonathan Coe Hilary Mantel Tony Harrison

@secondmentions.bsky.social 'the anonymous artist'

for my old-time-radio friends, a recent "Romancing the Gothic" talk was on "Gothic Radio" (i.e. Suspense, Lights Out, Mercury Theatre, and Rod Serling's "The Zero Hour": youtu.be/vvkz7N_sXt8?... @romgothsam.bsky.social

P.P. Arnold at Clerkenwell Festival was terrific: in much better voice than anyone her age has any right to be (she's been performing professionally for sixty years - you work it out), with amazing stories between songs about Mick Jagger, Steve Marriott, the KLF and the Turners, among others. (1/2)

Film critic Penelope Houston wrote that Kneale was the perfect adapter because of his skill at “presenting action against a background that is both carefully realistic and morally charged’. @davidcottis.bsky.social wrote on these adaptations for my academic collection “Nigel Kneale and Horror”!

And while we're on the subject, one of my other books at the NT Bookshop:

R.I.P. Terence Stamp. I saw him onstage once, as Dracula with Edward Gorey designs, but his real home was the screen - great performances in Poor Cow, Theorem, and The Limey. One of the genuine faces of the '60s - hope he and Julie managed to meet at Waterloo Station.

My book at Middlesex University Library:

Screwball comedy about a reporter (Robert Williams) who investigates a scandal of a rich family, falls for the daughter (Jean Harlow), and marries her, leaving his tough-girl colleague (Loretta Young), only to return to her at the end. (1/3) www.imdb.com/title/tt0022...

Just for the historical record - I was at Edinburgh Waverley Station yesterday afternoon, where trains were delayed after a bridge strike and points failure. The longest queue I've ever seen in my life - a multi-racial, multi-class, multi-age mix of Oasis fans, Festival-goers and others -... (1/2)

First thoughts on looking through the Edinburgh Fringe Programme; the trend for confessional one-person shows continues, to the extent that there is a sub-category of shows with titles starting "I... followed by a description of what the author/actor did, lots of shows about neurodiversity... (1/2)

Woman in Norwich, overheard talking to her young teenage son: 'Stop calling me "bro". I'm not your bro, I'm your mother.'

RIP Tom Lehrer, an admirable man in so many respects, but two that are particularly striking: 1) he retired when he felt he was done, and stuck to it, and 2) he put all his work in the public domain a few years ago, so that no estate will profit by it.

Lovely piece. For me, disdaining either Stephen Sondheim or Chet Baker would be a red flag. Also, Li'l Abner is a great score.

Nigel Kneale and Horror analyses Kneale’s horror work on film, radio and television from a range of perspectives, emphasising the role that time plays in Kneale’s horror, and how he connected to wider cultural concerns. Find out more: bit.ly/NigelKnealeH...

I've got a chapter in this.

At Ely Folk Festival, watching Martin Simpson singing 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright'. At one point, the elderly couple sitting in front of me turn to each other and simultaneously mouth along to the line 'I gave her heart, but she wanted my soul', as if sharing a private joke.

One for @secondmentions.bsky.social - 'the online encyclopedia'

At this rate, it's only a matter of time before France asks for the Statue of Liberty back.

The last Carry On film isn't hideous and embarrassing like its immediate predecessors, England and Emmannuelle. Worse than that; it's just dull, without any sense of what it's trying to do. The central premise is weak... (1/3) www.imdb.com/title/tt0103...

Stephen King once said, a propos of The Shining, that when directors who aren't horror specialists work within the genre, they often fall into cliches, simple because they don't know them well enough. I'm not sure I agree about Kubrick...(1/4) www.imdb.com/title/tt0111...

The seagull outside my window goes 'Oh-!' 'Oh'!' 'Oh-!', like it's constantly trying to interrupt someone who won't finish a sentence

After forty years of trying, finally caught this at the BFI Film on Film season. A lovely, one-of-a-kind comedy; after he sacked the director, Clive Brook took over the film, moved the period back 30 years, and added a knowing, Hellzapoppin'-esque frame device. (1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0037...

Rattigan adapted his own masterpiece for the screen, but made a bit of a mess of it, adding flashbacks that tell us things we don't need to know. A great cast, with Kenneth More repeating his role from the stage production and Vivien Leigh glam and glacial, as ever.(1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0047...

RIP Brian Wilson. The one time I saw him live was when he was performing Pet Sounds at the Festival Hall. He was brilliant, but obviously a bit befuddled. Two things that stick in my mind: 1) the number that really took the roof off wasn't 'Good Vibrations', as you might expect, but ... (1/2)

The hand drier in the gents loo in a park cafe is directly above the bin for hand towels, so that when you turn it on, a roll of blue paper jumps up and gyrates, like a snake being charmed.

A man walking the Taff trail tries to keep up with his dog, who dodges around his feet., and finally says to the dog 'You're stressing me out!'

Thoughts on @davidcottis.bsky.social How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930–1956 — a sharp, readable cultural history of how the well-made play influenced the flowering of British film. Recommended. link👇

Pretty sure he was aiming for ‪@secondmentions.bsky.social‬ 'the besuited artist duo'

Went to this today - great fun. Don't miss it if you're London-based.

A day of overheard nicknames: a young couple on the train from Crystal Palace ask if 'Shagging Kevin' is coming to a party, later a well-spoken older man on the way to Putney refers to (I think) his wife and daughter as 'Dragon and Smaller Dragon'.

Covering a song in which he's actually mentioned - that's class.

One for @secondmentions.bsky.social, 'The anthropomorphic, animatronic Anatidae' www.avclub.com/howard-the-d...

Lincoln Michel recommends 10 novels with mind-blowing structures by Alejandro Zambra, Renee Gladman, Percival Everett and more!

30% off on my book at Bloomsbury Academic, just for this week: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/how-stage...

A couple of bits of good news this week...

Useful reminder: "If you want to give people easy access to an AI-overview-free Google search, send them to this page." udm14.com

It's rare for a famously poor film to be as bad as its reputation - this one is. Paul Morrissey wanted to make a Carry On-style spoof, but doesn't understand the genre. Pete and Dud retread a few old sketches, Williams borrows some gags from Round the Horne... (1/3) www.imdb.com/title/tt0076...