As ever @davidhendy.bsky.social is bang on the money when it comes to events at and surrounding the BBC. davidhendy.substack.com/p/crisis-at-...

This is the thing I have never understood.

Is there anything to be said for another Lord Reith?

Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.

No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.

Tim Davie expected to resign as BBC DG. The person who SHOULD go is Robbie Gibb. His presence is a poison in the bloodstream of the national broadcaster.

Gravestone of Earl Cooley, who died “by a casual Blow in a well” in 1809. Carved by John Ely, and located in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Mass. And to clarify, “casual” in this context means “accidental,” and the “blow” was from a mallet that fell on his head while he was digging a well.

One of my favourite ever absolute ship shows last night at the magnificent Royal Theatre in Northampton. What a venue, just beautiful, and a fantastic crowd.

The company that can’t survive unless it’s allowed to steal all human creative endeavour also can’t survive unless it’s given all human money. Only then can mankind have the automatic noncing machine.

Hard cheese.

All set for tonight’s absolute ship show at the Royal in Northampton tonight. What a gem of a place.

#OTD #DrRontgen #XRays

Guy Fawkes' signature before and after hearing Paul Shane's You've lost that loving feeling on Pebble Mill at One

Thank you Launceston! Up early now to drive from Cornwall to Hampshire where in a triumph of planning I’m doing two two-hour shows at The Spring Arts Centre today after a four-hour drive. Evening’s long sold out, still a few seats for the matinee.

Tristram Shandy's birthday! - born, as the book says, #onthisday into ‘this scurvy and disasterous world of ours’ "the fifth day of November 1718" #OTD #TristramShandy www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/sterne/tristram-shandy/

Remembering Gram on his birthday youtu.be/ibuUU9uxT8I

Away ends in the 1980s.

Woo hoo! www.library.wales/news/article....

If ever you find yourself forgetting that physics and, indeed, the universe itself is there purely to take the piss out of you, try rehanging a Venetian blind atop a tall stepladder.

Last punt for Halloween-themed newsletter, it being Halloween Boxing Day and all. open.substack.com/pub/charliec...

Polish Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka, The Blue Scarf, 1930 #womensart

this will save lives

First time living on a street where kids do trick or treat. Turns out YOU have to give THEM treats. Shouldn’t have raised my voice. Certainly shouldn’t have called them ‘chancing pricks’.

Wish I could make this - if you're in the vicinity go and hang.

Halloween horror from Mike Harding – Disco Vampire

Frankenstein. Overwrought clumsy mishmash of pointless subplots that fizzle out and excruciating worthiness. About 40 minutes too long into the bargain. Also couldn’t really get past this:

For the day that’s in it, my newsletter is out with some timely spooky season content. Iffy gothic novelists and Lewisham’s finest horror film alumnus, among other things. charlieconnelly.substack.com/p/north-atla...

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

Frankenstein. Overwrought clumsy mishmash of pointless subplots that fizzle out and excruciating worthiness. About 40 minutes too long into the bargain. Also couldn’t really get past this:

This opposite Clapham Common feels like a belle epoque sanatorium

As it’s October, how about a thread of lost German horror / weird films from the 1920s? Films we can only watch in our mind’s eye based on limited available info; an ever-fascinating “what if” alternative cinematic horror canon Synopses and posters (where available) to follow…🧵 #filmsky

New newsletter out, pals. Top Halloween content, given the time of year and that. open.substack.com/pub/charliec...

If you see this, post four female characters you love.

Cracking evening at the Mills Observatory’s 90th birthday in Dundee last night. Got to see Saturn and its rings looking close enough to strap on a pair of roller skates and do a couple of circuits.

Prunella Scales had a such a long varied and successful career. What joy she brought to every role.

“Puritanism- the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” -HL Mencken

The bitterly ironic transformation of the iconography of the poppy, from sombre reminder of the senseless futility of a war in which the British ruling class systematically ordered the wholesale slaughter of millions of working-class men, to 'War Christmas', says everything about the current crisis

Prejudiced people don’t notice what they consider to be normal; they’re just hypersensitive to everything they consider “abnormal”…

CAREFUL CHARLIE (1970) | https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-careful-charlie-1970-online

People kvetch about the chaos-inducing serial comma, but you can also do a lot with a colon! Beware, biographers!!

This is great! (Although filing Alison Killilea's Corkonion translation of Beowulf under 'GB' is a bit of a clanger.)

A good news publishing story is always welcome. Bluemoose have introduced me to some terrific writers, not least @ronanhession.bsky.social, but the Bluemoose book I think about most often is 'Man With a Seagull On His Head' by Harriet Paige, from 2017. www.theguardian.com/books/2017/s...

This is how you blurb

Frank Kelly – a 1979 compilation of sketches from the popular RTÉ radio show, Let's Go With The Glen Abbey Show

Been signing off work emails all day with "have a great weekend!" because I woke up thinking it was Friday. Just realised it's Thursday and now everyone thinks I have a right easy life.

I'll have a new piece for the BBC coming out this weekend, when the clocks change. It's about the BBC's role as the nation's timekeeper. In the meantime, I'm going to repost links to my four most recent pieces - starting with a brief history of TV's most influential comedy priests ...

Scooby Doo tried to teach us the real monsters are white men with shady business practices and we just never learned the lesson

My 2026 wall calendar is printed and ready to post! All based on the words and phrases found in the #shippingforecast www.alicedrawstheline.co.uk/collections/... #theships

Idi Amin deported 80,000 Asians from Uganda in 1972. So although the Conservatives want to propose the first mass deportation of legal migrants since Idi Amin - especially with the retrospective changes in ILR - Lam is proposing to deport 20 times as many people as Idi Amin.