Every once in a while I dig out Radio 1's glossy promotional brochure from the mid-90s ('The Schedule: As It Is') and remind myself of the station in peak Bannister-era swagger. From the mouth of which "attitudinal" DJ could these statements possibly have tumbled?

30 YEARS AGO TODAY: the end of England vs Germany in the Euros and before cueing up the Cast, Des Lynam asks us reading this now a direct question.

Some reflections on when and how I first heard a recording by the Beatles. I hope this sort of experience still happens. nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/06/11/h...

Yes (left). No (right).

My love of #PetShopBoys only deepens as they (and I) get older.

I know the song is awful, but I do wish Millennium Prayer had stayed at number one for a bit longer, purely for statistical purposes, so that Cliff would have topped the charts in six consecutive decades.

My coping strategy today is to shut all windows, close all curtains and watch Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

Coronation Street - written by John Finch (20th May 1964). Martha's funeral cortege slowly wends its way to the cemetery.

Never mind this year's contest. Come back with me to the 1950s and 60s, from where I've picked eight of the best #Eurovision songs of the era, all of which deserve hearing and remembering. nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/05/15/e...

Never mind this year's contest. Come back with me to the 1950s and 60s, from where I've picked eight of the best #Eurovision songs of the era, all of which deserve hearing and remembering. nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/05/15/e...

R.I.P. David Burke. Seen here with Jeremy Brett in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Solitary Cyclist (15th May 1984)

Stop! It is necessary for you to see graphic designer extraordinaire Margaret Calvert’s 90th birthday cake. Perfection.

It's a seven-decade saga that charts the changing fortunes of the very long desk, co-starring ashtrays, telephones, banquettes, pulpits, piano lids and an over-enthusiastic electric fan. My history of BBC election studio furniture: nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/04/25/b...

Start of episode: "We really need to pick up the pace and not spend so much money." One minute later: "We've treated ourselves to a luxury trip to the middle of nowhere." End of episode: "We're gutted we finished so far behind the others." #RaceAcrossTheWorld

This is fantastic news. It's easily my favourite of John Barry's Bond scores and it's the only one where he gets to be both witty and sophisticated. Put a glass against the side of my head and most days at some point you'd hear the opening bars of 'The Whyte House' circling round and round.

Un. Bear. Able.

I’m sorry but the Cheltenham Festival has a long way to go before I think of it as anything but that massive super-spreader event in 2020.

As regards #EurovisionSongContest entries entitled One Two Three, there's a very high bar to clear. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zSK...

Probably the best version of Lal's "all down this side" routine.

Thank you for all the kind responses to my piece on #KennethWilliams. I'm glad it struck a chord and it's heartening to hear the man is still so appreciated and loved after all this time.

I've started a new site where I'll be writing periodically about TV, films, music and the like. To begin with, ahead of the 100th anniversary of his birth: Kenneth Williams and 1980s television - a story of commitment, triumph and upholstery. nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/02/15/k...

I've been 50 less than two weeks and I've already been invited to join a bowel cancer screening programme and attend a webinar on planning for retirement.

It's what he would have wanted.

The endgame will take place in the grounds of our glorious castle. (If wet, indoors) #thetraitorsuk

Hugo A-Go-Go #TheTraitors

Bought myself the 1989 Christmas Radio Times as a present for myself, and spotted the premiere of ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (which still holds the record for the UK’s single biggest TV audience on any Christmas Day since Barb began reporting in 1981) was billed as a “special presentation”.

Watching Tommy Cooper on the 1979 Parkinson Christmas special reminds me of how much I was terrified by him (Cooper, not Parky) as a young child. There was something quite brutish about his huge frame, gruff patter and missing teeth. I flinched every time he loomed at the camera.

He’ll finally get to see “those faces”.

No. And no.

Potential line-up for a mid-1970s Celebrity Traitors. 10 men & nine women, as per this year: John Le Mesurier Joyce Grenfell Terry Wogan Gabrielle Drake Kenneth Williams (if unavailable, Larry Grayson) Yootha Joyce Roy Castle Diana Dors Jonathan Miller Linda Thorson John Conteh Ann Haydon-Jones...

"Pull out chairs and easy on the swears." Advice I think we can all live by, Will. #totp

Good to see the celebrities maintaining the round table traditions of spelling each other's names wrong and addressing each other as "yourself". #CelebrityTraitors

Imagine if ITV had chosen to mark its 70th anniversary by giving over half an hour of this evening's schedule to a new performance of those exact same scenes from The Importance of Being Earnest, Baker’s Dozen and Private Lives. No, I can't either.

I remember Simon Mayo being so smitten with Vindaloo that he played it on air twice in a row.

John Cleese moaning (again) in an undignified way about the BBC reminds me of the way Terry Wogan moaned (again and again) in an undignified way about the BBC for about 15 years. With Wogan it was worse, however, as he moaned about the BBC while at the same time taking money for working at the BBC.

It's October 1987 and Q magazine has categorised helpfully the celebrities du jour. There's good news for Ben Curiosity, Bill Wyman and Lindas Davidson and Lusardi; less good news for Chris Quentin, Belouis Some and "sundry" Curiosities. First reserves include Nino Firetto and Gary Glitter.

While we're celebrating 40 years of Howards' Way, let's also commemorate the faltering evolution of the typeface used during the opening titles, which progressed series by series from slap-this-on-anything to bespoke-ritzy.

40 years ago today, #HOWARDSWAY was first broadcast. This drama of ambition, love and shoulder pads was often dubbed 'Dallas-on-Sea' for its glamorous portrayal of the wealthy yachting and business elite in the fictional coastal town of Tarrant. 🧵...

40 years ago today, I began keeping a daily diary. The first entries are rather prosaic, but a) I was only nine and b) at the time I didn't know I'd carry on. But I did - and I never stopped. (The names of the days are in Cornish; they were printed in a different language each week. Very recherché).

Saw the first few minutes of At Bertram's Hotel on BBC4 - one of the most visually exciting openings of any of the BBC adaptations - and was struck by how pristine the remastered print looked. Then I checked and saw no Blu-rays are available in the UK *purses lips like Joan Hickson*.

Has it ever been definitely established who The Firm are depicting in their big budget #totp performance of Arthur Daley E's Alright? At times it seems they're meant to be Arthur and Terry - but then why is "Terry" is dressed like a city gent and "Arthur" like Jay Gatsby?

It was in this week 40 years ago that I went to the Curzon cinema in Loughborough to watch A View to a Kill: my very first James Bond film. I went largely on the recommendation of Jimmy Greaves, who had reviewed it on TV-am and shown a clip of what he hailed as "the best car chase I have EVER seen!"

Hmm - I get the funny feeling this "you", of whom Cliff sings repeatedly and enthusiastically, is not a real person. #totp

40 years ago today, my hometown does its bit for Live Aid. Sally should probably have checked Radio Times.

I hope they found whoever pulled the plug on The Who’s set… and gave them a medal. #HereAllWeek #LiveAid

Were you still up for Su Pollard and Duncan Goodhew? #LiveAid

*checks weather forecast* Looks like I might be able to use my oven on Tuesday, the first time this month! After that - who knows? Maybe I can risk heating a sausage in August.

Glad we don't have to do THAT any more! Anyway, here's that first listing in @radiotimes.bsky.social

60 years ago this evening, a TV programme created by my great uncle Glyn was launched on BBC1. Its name was coined by Glyn's wife, Daphne, when someone from Radio Times rang them at home in a flap, desperate to know how to bill the show in the next issue: "Tell them to call it Tomorrow's World."

These "secret sets" by musicians at Glastonbury don't seem very secret to me. I'm reading about them everywhere.