Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

Merry Christmas VT (from the Secret Story of the BBC Christmas Tapes, tx 23rd December 2018)

The BBC Scandal That Went Unnoticed Christian Kriticos for the Telegraph on the disastrous changes to access at the BBC Written Archives Centre. The article does an excellent job at detailing the issues at stake [gift link] www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/65a1031...

Your annual reminder that if you want someone to chat or have a laugh with over the Christmas period there will be lots of folk on the #JoinIn and #DuvetKnowItsChristmas threads. 🎄

Tomorrow is the last day of the #LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 and I'm taking suggestions for the final extract.

I particularly love the ginger mog with the kitchen roll. Absolutely weapons-grade catting.

I remember the production secretaries opening a secret document on the primitive BBC Lime Grove editorial computer system that we used as a kind of chatroom. I'm pretty sure it was password-protected, too. And this was in *counts on fingers* 1986.

“He’s very clever, rather highly strung.” “Yes, he should be.”

#LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 Day 19. From the fabulously-funny Standard Deviation, by Katherine Heiny - here's the magnificent Audra, viewed through the wondering eyes of her spouse.

#LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 Day 18. Alan Bennett on Thora Hird (are there five more evocative words in the English language?)

#LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 Day 17. From The Art of Coarse Sailing by Michael Green:- a scene in which old friends swap unlikely stories about military service. For younger readers, I must point out that this is a very accurate portrayal of what adult conversations were often like in the 60s.

#LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 Day13 One from my own archive (and, incidentally, the first thing I ever had published): a New Statesman competition in which the brief was to write a love letter from one fictional character to another. Molesworth woos Madame Bovary.

#LiteraryAdventCalendar2025 Day 22. From Saki's marvellous 'The Storyteller', in which a bachelor is forced to sit in a railway carriage with three small children and their aunt.

The great cosmic dance, our endless revolution around our life-giving star, continues with inevitability beyond the reach of human mechanism. We have passed the solstice and, in a natural cycle 4.6Bn years old, the last-minute Christmas gift spam has stopped & I have my first Boxing Day sale email.

Story from Joolz Denby over on Facebook. A bad day at TotP in 1985 with New Model Army, and Chris Rea suddenly appearing and being compassionate and gernerally decent.

Labour has begun a generational overhaul of children's social care, but we know care leavers need help right now. We're stepping in to back them with better physical and mental health support. Breaking down barriers to opportunity, for all. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

"we wish to speak to the manager" "he's already shot himself to save some time" "good, good"

@oddthisday.bsky.social Roses are Red, Some mirrors have a bevel,

To celebrate #ITV70, I have released two singles - reconstructions of the famous pieces used to start the day - firstly on @itvtynetees.bsky.social, played by the wonderful #RoyalBalletSinfonia and available at all streaming platforms #ThreeRiversFantasy open.spotify.com/track/3RFmDW...

An extraordinary piece, with this particularly notable paragraph:

Obligatory. #TOTP

Everyone went on about Agnetha but Anni-Frid looks like she knows some filthy jokes, could drink you under the table and slap the taste out of your mouth. Now that's a woman. #TOTP

lol power move

Whenever a music person dies, I ask my aunt (who was the cook at a big recording studio for years) how many thumbs up, from one to five. She says: Chris Rea 👍👍👍👍👍 Chris Rea's wife 👍👍👍👍👍 Chris Rea's baby 👍👍👍👍👍

Jesus Christ, Biddy! Poor Lesley barely gets through it, even laid in bed…

Goodness GRACIOUS, Legs & Co. #totp #naughtynighties #oneforthedads

Jesus Christ. Poor woman! news.sky.com/story/ex-hus...

Gonna encourage the use of "Terminating at Paddington" as a euphemism.

Credit where it’s due, “NON-ROYAL EXCLUSIVE” is pretty good

Reminded of the immortal letter from Nöel Coward to Rebecca West when the Nazi round-up-and-execute list for their planned invasion was published, "...my dear, the *people* we'd have been seen dead with".

Roses are red Violets are fun

Never forget

Around Christmas I always think of this sketch with Ronnie Corbett and Gabrielle Drake (at 21min20sec mark): so perfectly done. Gabrielle playing the comedy perfectly. The whole programme is on TV over the Christmas period: Two Ronnies Christmas Mystery. youtu.be/mRUCgY0K2xo?...

The Times is constantly finger-wagging about the GLP-1 drugs and really unwilling to concede that actually, they're helping millions of people live healthier lives.

The Andrew Tate one is much more satisfying than the Logan Paul one. The latter profited massively from a genuinely brave fight against a top heavyweight renowned for punching hard. The former went up against a hand picked amateur and was made to look like a chump.

After 61 years I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS

Fucking hell, that uppercut was telegraphed from a separate timezone.

Half Ma’am Half Brisket

Attacks on feminism are similar to attacks on vaccines. We begin to take for granted a world where women have rights and most children live to see adulthood, and then, over time, we begin to forget, neglect, and (now) reject the movements and innovations that brought us here.

when you have to release the epstein files while also trying to selectively omit the guy who's in them more than anyone else

Christian Clothing CEO: You finish that sweatshirt about saving as many souls as possible? Christian Clothing Designer: Sure did, boss. Real fuckin’ ominous and with an implied threat of mass murder, just like you asked. Christian Clothing CEO: What.

This may become my favourite celebspiracy theory since Olly Murs' Oxford Street Thrutherism

If you see this, share a redhead

Sounds like you will appreciate the legendary pre-gentrification 'barred list' from my local.

Tonight at 2000 on BBC Four... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

*doesn’t everyone

In a parallel universe, we got at least 26 of these, and it's as fondly remembered as The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Well worth a watch, even if you think you hate Mary's variety stuff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AUB...

I think the thing I love most about Rhoda is the subtle way it tells the story.