buttondown.com/cooray_smith... It's time to begin again. Free for all, but why not subscribe afterwards, at Psychic Paper.

Watching The Nightmare Begins again and pondering just when the Doctor invented that magnetic chair for restraining prisoners. My guess is he secretly built it shortly after Ian and Barbara came aboard the TARDIS, in case they turned on him.

Watch The Nightmare Begins again, but this time with a commentary recorded over the moving pictures with me, Tim Burrows and Oliver Crocker, including some background to its return: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...

The largely spoiler free delight about the returned episodes on the timeline is a proper delight. The extremes of fan behaviour often gets the focus but it’s a communal whirlwind of joy today. Anyway: no spoilers but I absolutely adored them and hope that you enjoy them as much as I did.

On New Old Doctor Who Eve, we’ve decked the halls with Varga Plants, decorated Sentreal with bright and shiny emms of Taranium and poured a glass to wish a merry Dalek-mas to all of you at home. Let the nightmare begin!

Latest update on the M.R. James manuscripts series I am editing with Paul M. Chapman. The first volume - 'Oh, Whistle' - is going live on Kickstarter very soon. Pre-launch page here: bit.ly/OhWhistle Subscribe for updates: www.crumpledlinenpress.com Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Forgive me, I’m giving this another bump (or should I say ‘wallop’), as I worked very hard on it.

A new episode of World of Telly is now available wherever you get your podcasts. This month we take a look at the 1970s crime drama Gangsters. A video version is also available (please like and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you can): youtu.be/Zloo0WZT8tk

Massively amused in the first chapter of the audiobook I’m currently listening to, <redacted national treasure> mocks SF fans, before the chapter ends with him absolutely revelling in his own geekishness towards his favourite. Don’t know if it’s deliberate, but a chef’s kiss of an editing choice.

It's tight but he is just on

How good must a record be to persuade Marcello that it’s a worthy capstone to Then Play Long? A yin to the yang of the other 21st century album he covered? This good a record. Don’t think anything wise I’ve read has quite captured the generosity, ambition and playfulness of it.

Everything else in the world can "go on asking for money" - wars, corporate bailouts etc - but not arts, entertainment or news. Noooooo they have to just "find their way" in the marketplace of ideas. Fuck off, Grade, Chris Morris was right about you.

I was already in love with Project Hail Mary and then a prop from Power of the Daleks turned up. 👌🏻

Strictly is back! The ultimate 5th Doctor love in as the team discuss the era, the actor, the character and decide the Strictly Come Hamster ultimate 5th Doctor story! @devondan.bsky.social @lucymccaul.bsky.social @paulcresser.bsky.social @grumpy2eb.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Mackenzie Crook’s magical suburban folk tale, #SmallProphets published by #PenguinBooks and #PuffinBooks down the years. A 🧵 1/

At just 5ft8”, Ringo is the only Beatle who was not bigger than Jesus 😭

As per the annual tradition, it is time for the traditional reading of the first book of the New Testament.

This is a great book. Don't worry about whether or not you're a Doctor Who fan, The Long Game should be in the library of anyone interested in television.

If you have ever wanted to hear me talk about folklore, Forteana and Hookland in an East End pub, this is your chance.

#TheTenx5 Day 50 Last day already? Damn. MAKE ME FEEL by JANELLE MONAÉ (2018) (12 pts) History’s become a genre in the age of everything available forever. The trick is making it your own. However many times I’ve heard this, I still want to dance every time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGRz...

Been a privilege to watch Mo Salah’s Liverpool career. Right player, right place, right time and so many as-good-as-football-gets moments. But especially this last one with Martin Tyler epically failing to capture the moment. ‘And now you’re gonna believe us…’ m.youtube.com/results?sp=m...

#TheTenx5 Day 49 OLD TOWN ROAD by LIL NAS X (2018) Here’s the future: a fun idea taking up exactly the time it needs and no more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ypv...

#TheTenx5 Day 48 AND I WILL KISS by UNDERWORLD ft DAME EVELYN GLENNIE (2012) The centrepiece of London’s Olympic opening ceremony, which at least showed a country coming to terms with itself. Fourteen years on it’s almost a lament for what’s been lost since. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka4M...

Hello! It doesn’t cost anything to repost but it helps me spread the word about my small business. My online shop is full of bold & colourful prints, homewares, T-shirts and cards. I’m also available for freelance design work and art licensing. gailmyerscough.co.uk

#TheTenx5 Day 47 INTO YOU by ARIANA GRANDE (2016) Mainly here for the way the fingerclicks under the verse turn into harder beats under the chorus and the way she trails off repeating the title. Four minutes of being given a very intense look. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ekZ...

Make more shows that make people do this, and less shows about chores.

45 years ago today, I watched a man I loved fall to his death and I’ve never really recovered.

It’s 45 years ago today since Part 4 of Logopolis, so here’s Paddy Kingsland’s 2009 live performance of Tom’s regeneration at The Roundhouse. youtu.be/AylGLL5RO9U?...

If you know anyone who’s dreading putting together their wedding speech - send them my way! www.mathew-owen.co.uk If you can re-post this I’d really appreciate it 👍

#TheTenx5 Day 46 TRACK 10 by CHARLI XCX (2017) Starts small and ends up intense and overwhelming. A definition of love in five minutes. m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpDH...

#TheTenx5 Day 45 VENOM by LITTLE SIMZ (2019) What a calling card: she comes on like a Terminator over the brutal beats. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh8Q...

#TheTenx5 Day 44 DANCING ON MY OWN by ROBYN (2010) The lesson of Dancing On My Own is simple: always trust the girls who dance over the ‘sensitive’ guy in the corner. The ‘banger’ in ‘sad banger’ is important. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcNo...

An "AI" or CGI or whatever recreation of a dead performer is a massive, massive insult to them irrespective of what one thinks of the technology, simply because it is a statement that all that matters about the person in question is their likeness, not their actual artistic ability.

The Cabinet of Light - a huge surprise for me and one of Michael's favourite books that we have covered, this Telos Novella serves as both a wonderful exploration of the myth of the Doctor and as a pilot to the Time Hunter series... podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

#TheTenx5 Day 43 COLD LITTLE HEART by MICHAEL KIWANUKA (2016) A friend stuck this on one of the end of year CDs he used to do: a song like this that I could lose myself in was exactly the right song I needed at exactly the right time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgoJ...

#TheTenx5 Day 42 ROLLING IN THE DEEP by ADELE (2010) Push Adele out of her comfort zone and she soars; the way the build to the chorus raises the tension before that big voice releases it all is one of the great cathartic pop moments of the decade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYED...

The last Strictly Come Hamster Season Cometh! Season Two! I may be asking again - admin nightmare - but can I kindly request your comments on the season and the individual stories for our exciting two part season story battle!

#TheTenx5 Day 41 THE WORDS THAT MAKETH MURDER by PJ HARVEY (2011) The bathos of Summertime Blues redirected with fury: if anything, the steel, irony and near despair of those last lines is even more biting in 2026. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws4...

#TheTenx5 Day 40 ALRIGHT by KENDRICK LAMAR (2015) (11 pts) For my son’s 18th, a highlight from one of our joint gigs. Fight The Power recast for the 2010s, a rallying call that’s only grown in stature over time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48...

#TheTenx5 Day 39 Catching up after a busy day yesterday left a… BLANK SPACE by TAYLOR SWIFT (2014) Obviously in the 2020s she’s become her own pop planet, but her breakthrough remains smart, self-deprecating funny, appealing and very human. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-OR...

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... On the lost and found.

#TheTenx5 Day 38 For my birthday, a song named after me (probably) JOHNNY DELUSIONAL by FFS (2015) Sparks’ barely suppressed hysteria meets Franz Ferdinand’s arched eyebrow and it’s everything you’d expect. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxL...

In case you missed it yesterday… our animated trailer for My Beloved Other. #comics #graphicnovels #antiracism #history #booksky open.substack.com/pub/nickabad...

Very kind of the BBC and FiF to go to such an effort for my birthday but I asked for The Myth Makers.

#TheTenx5 Day 37 FREEDOM by BEYONCÉ ft KENDRICK LAMAR (2016) In a year when the world often seemed skewed off its axis, Beyoncé could still make you believe there was nothing she couldn’t face down. The heart of what’s still her best album. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0m8...

Clem Fandango will be furious

Funny is back. BE FUNNY OR DIE will rise again. E-book and audiobook available now… New paperback edition next year.

#TheTenx5 Day 36 NOTHING BREAKS LIKE A HEART by MARK RONSON ft MILEY CYRUS (2018) Ronson’s contact book strikes again in finding a perfect collaborator: Miley’s smoky, bourbon soaked tones are perfect for a country flavoured sad banger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hc...