Christmas Eve. The perfect time for ghost stories… TOND A one-off story from the Broken Veil channel. Patreon.com/brokenveil (or wherever you get your podcasts.)

The scariest Christmas story: Twas the night before Christmas, And all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, Except for A DRACULA

Looking at the Christmas vinyl display at Rough Trade and underneath the Vince Guaraldi and Phil Spector was a square box containing a jigsaw of the cover of Nevermind, and for a minute I thought there was a Nirvana Christmas LP.

Essential Christmas television viewing names, if required. Wally St Gromit Bess Toftertu-Ronnies Erica Nernie Greta Scape Bex O’Delights Charles Lebrun-Christmas Itzhak Wonderful-Life Lou Vactually Ilsa Alive (with Lysander Music)

The flying Tiger The flying tiger He destroyed his rubbish cage Yes YES The flying tiger is OUT!

Happy Christmas to everyone who listened to or supported any of our podcasts this year. Lots more to come in the New Year. Now, to deal with the excess of unwanted Quality Street flavours by starting a set of colour coded local amnesty bins.

This is a good listen about what makes The Muppet Christmas Carol work so well. open.substack.com/pub/joelmorr...

I think this episode is where Reece and Steve went too far in harnessing 1970s unease.

“POV” as a modern joke form is just “set up”, but labelled, right? It’s like the tag “a parody”. Or the 90s vogue for “NOT!” A clue that you worry you are possibly not addressing the in-group for the joke. A safety measure for online audiences.

Definitely the 2nd best Christmas ghost story only being edged out by the other one gifting you 3 whole ghosts

This is GREAT. A perfect balance of a classic ghost story with modern fears. Really unsettling ❤️

The thing about structure is that it’s not a straitjacket, it’s a service. If you’re going to ignore it in your story, you’d better replace the expected beats with better, more engaging ones, or people will just wait for the expected beats and be annoyed you’re taking too long to deliver them.

It’s Christmas Eve and there’s a chill in the air. That’s because you’ve just listened to TOND, the excellent ghost story from Broken Veil.

A short interlude from promoting Phyllis Twigg now; a ghost story with an excellent cast, simple and effective execution and genuinely unsettling. Don’t turn out ALL your lights…

Christmas Eve. The perfect time for ghost stories… TOND A one-off story from the Broken Veil channel. Patreon.com/brokenveil (or wherever you get your podcasts.)

This is a really good 1/2 hr listen. Has quite given me the willies. #BrokenVeil

Ah this is a cracking little story. I’m sure everyone who hears it does the same thing straight after… phew! Nothing there.

‘Jimmy Page is a hologram’

This is the gist of what I’ve heard from people who do use AI / LLMs at work (outside actual data handling). Its best workplace use is to automate stuff that nobody should be asked to do in the first place. Automated time-saving generation of the things no human ever looks at.

I've stuck randomly generated conspiracies onto Matt from the Telegraph's cartoons to create "Tinfoil Matt" (Not AI, me writing templates, the good old fashioned way to do these things with a strong degree of authorship.) Follow @tinfoil-matt.bsky.social NOW.

Here’s what people are saying about ‘TOND’ the new Ghost Story for Christmas from the Broken Veil channel… pod.link/1745494718/e...

I felt guilty for how many Quality Street refills I’d bought, then I saw a picture of a vintage QS tin from my childhood, and it looked like the bass drum from a Premier kit, or one of Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot hat boxes. I want a tin that there’s a public information film about in case you fall in.

Didn’t realise this was Xmas 1977. If you want to understand what Star Wars added to pop culture, it’s this. Big budget Sci Fi before it was adult, troubling, dystopian, allegorical. So all the BBC can pick is stuff that also has ILM-grade VFX but is deeply unsuitable for family fun.

Here’s what people are saying about ‘TOND’ the new Ghost Story for Christmas from the Broken Veil channel… pod.link/1745494718/e...

And snowbound bearded men bearing surprise gifts… The Thing, with Will Maclean pod.link/1614879928/e... Thingle bells, thingle bells…

Wallace and Gromit, with Hattie Williams pod.link/1614879928/e...

Die Hard with Youssef Kerkour pod.link/1614879928/e...

Classic Comfort Blankets for the festive season… Carrie Quinlan on It’s A Wonderful Life pod.link/1614879928/e...

“All sci-fi is a family teatime treat” says 1970s BBC reeling from Star Wars, before scheduling a bleak eco-fable about an unstable man who murders his co-workers aboard a doomed space ship.

We are very excited to finally announce, For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music. An 8 part docuseries coming to screens next June. The entire history of music, from The Big Bang to AI, in a way that's never been told before. Presented by the wonderful Charlotte Ritchie. View the trailer now.

What did Alan Rickman have against Christmas?

Sad news about Chris Rea. I’ve got his old studio door in my shed, signed by Timmy Mallet*. Maybe I should give it a respectful polish. *Anecdote too complicated to retell here. Actually, that is the anecdote. It doesn’t get any clearer with details.

Do I have to have watched all the Smurf movies to understand the Avatar movies? Or are they standalone?

Trying to work out which episode of Quatermass is the Christmas Special. Is it when they open the big Martian Christmas cracker? Or the one where Westminster Abbey gets a colossal evergreen?

My Archive on Four doc on The Big Lebowski is getting a repeat over the festive period Dec 29 find it on BBC Sounds "THE CULT OF LEBOWSKI." Presented by Helen O'Hara it does include this BBC Radio 4 compliance note for the ages. With added @gralefrit.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Last-minute gig idea! A knock-off VHS that looks a bit like a classic Disney cartoon:

1964: A CURIOUS CASE OF BLACK MAGIC IN NORFOLK is a brilliant wee slice of folk horror.

OUT NOW Tond. A Broken Veil ghost story for Christmas. #BrokenVeil pod.link/1745494718/e...

Sadiq Khan cancelled Christmas in Leeds 🚫🎄

He’s making a list, He’s checking it twice And a third time, And then he stands accused of losing the list Yet his is the only name on it, Franz Kafka is coming to town

I don’t care what’s going on. I’ve worked out the controls at last, and after an hour or so’s falling-off work I’ve finally got into the little speedboat in Venice in Tomb Raider 2 and, you know, I’m happy here. This always was the place I was happy. I know now. I shan’t fight any more.

Q: What famous German carol does a vampire typesetter sing? A: Hei-ligature Nacht!

Just listened to listen. Properly good. Christmas is such a better time for ghost stories than Halloween.

A nice thing about this is how it gently weaves current AI tools into the ghost story. It’s not *about* that. It just plays on the uncanny and unnerving vibe of this tech we’re now surrounded by.

There’s still time to sign up before Christmas… www.patreon.com/AndrewHickey

It's a lovely 6th Day of Christmas at my true love's house, and you are six horrible geese

This might seem confusing or even hypocritical, but you have to understand that one of these people is much more famous than the other one. I mean, what are you going to do? Powerless, the poor loves.

I toured with @josienneclarke.com this year talking about her (wonderful) new album and this film; a strikingly honest and thought-provoking study of how art is made now. Every night was a chance to ask some serious questions, and come to some life-affirming conclusions. youtu.be/3Xy2A6IdiL0?...

Correcting typos in captions and subtitles counts as “engagement” and drives the algorithm. Often its done deliberately. Like I just did there. That alone should be depressing enough a fact to encourage you to be more like Bob. You know it make’s sense.

Elstree 76 is fantastic, so this looks like it’ll be worth your time…