Reform have now lost six by-elections in a row in England, Scotland and Wales. Their national poll rating is 26% – below Labour in 1983 – and Farage’s approval rating is -37. They’re very far from the voice of the people and need to stop being treated as such.

At 11.30pm - they predicted Burnham would get over 50%, would beat Josh Simons majority and that Restore were underperforming. They are unparalleled.

Doctor Who's last episode of 1969, The War Games 10, is discontinuous from so much of what had come before while also feeling like its inevitable culmination-the Tardis-like travel machines, the anxieties of the War Chief and the Security Chief, the stony calm ambition of the War Lord... 1/17

For nearly 18 months, the Trump administration and many analysts have thought of the US, Russia, and China as great powers deciding the fate of the world, unconstrained by lesser states. Today, the US is the losing party in a Versailles peace agreement and Moscow looks like this:

The Beatles on ToTPs Film is Fabulous! is delighted to confirm the 35mm negative presented to John Franklin at the recent film convention in Oxted, contains the The Beatles first appearance on Top of the Tops.

journalistic phases of the end of a prime ministership: - beleaguered - defiant - (at time of writing) - outgoing - late - now beginning to be regarded with a nostalgic fondness

The War Games 9 is set almost entirely where, from the Doctor's plan in episode 3, it should be - in that space in the centre of the map. Yet the Doctor's route wasn't taken and he looked guilty and desperate at the end of part 8, a look which the reshot recap doesn't recapture. 1/7

The War Games 8 begins with the Doctor celebrating defiance in adversity, promising not to hurt the armed security guards. It's an important message in keeping with this story and a gift for Troughton's ability to find authority in the comedic - we are going to miss him. 1/7

It's out! Where We Stand, Where We Fall! Alive in the world! Available to order from Herne Books (www.hernebooks.com/product-page...)

The Newshour/World Tonight was proposed before, and rejected because of their very different news priorities. The end of Crossing Continents leaves Radio 4 with no scheduled foreign affairs outlet other than From Our Own Correspondent, which is a collection of 'talks', not on-the-ground reporting.

Does any one appointed to decision making positions in recent years at the BBC have any actual love for the institution ( at least what it aspires to be ) & its viewer’s & listeners ? As billionaires invest in media to control news, the BBC slashes its best current affairs & news shows . Grim .

That's the obvious catastrophic one.

These changes range from the editorially bad to catastrophic.

BREAKING – BBC CUTS: Radio 4 to end The World Tonight, Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show and Crossing Continents next year. Newshour will replace The World Tonight on Radio 4 and World Service.

The 3rd duke of Bedford was said to have lost £30,000 at a single sitting at Newmarket in 1731. According to the National Archives' currency converter, this would equate to around £3.5 million today, though other ways of calculating relative worth can suggest it was considerably more.

Peter Thomson was an immensely helpful external associate editor for the eighteenth-century stage when we were preparing the 2004 edition of the ODNB, combining great learning with comparable humour. Reading this Guardian obituary by David Edgar, I wish I'd known him better.

Insomnia is the friend of watchthroughs. The War Games 7 continues the deconstruction of late 1960s Doctor Who. The Doctor engineers a base under siege as a safe space, almost a parable about the series' sometime comfort zone; but it's vulnerable to a raid on its core from an overlooked route. 1/5

The War Games 6, and a line of dialogue which changes Doctor Who: 'Are you suggesting he's bringing in his own people, the Time Lords?' This adds new expectations around the meeting between the Doctor and the War Chief, when it arrives. Less momentously, the Doctor again decides... 1/5

The War Games 5 - the reprocessed Carstairs isn't too well at the start. David Savile portrays him as a ghost of the man we knew, only recovering strength when given orders. A commentary on the military breaking the human spirit, if we want. We don't know he won't shoot Zoe either. 1/6

“The BBC tender quite a lot of things, and there is not a single show that they have tendered which hasn’t gone on to have multiple series afterwards… Every tender the BBC has ever done is for a show that they are absolutely committed to.” 🔊 Worth a listen. 👀 Link below. ⬇️

'Where We Stand, Where We Fall' by @lizbethmyles.bsky.social has arrived. The politics of Doctor Who from nuclear annihilation to transhumanism, via feminism, colonialism, environmentalism and scientific responsibility.

I have lots of #DoctorWho art prints for sale, please check 'em out! (Reposts very appreciated!) 🙂 www.ebay.co.uk/usr/scotgra-57

Doctor Who - The War Games 4... everything becomes more ominous. The War Chief promises Jamie, Jennifer, and in due course the Doctor and Zoe to Vernon Dobtcheff's Scientist as 'specimens' for reprocessing experiments. Zoe, often happy to answer questions instead of the Doctor... 1/8

The War Games 3... and despite what I said to @thasceles.bsky.social, this isn't The Keys of Marinus on steroids. While there are similarities to Hartnell-era storytelling, anyone hoping for an episode or two with the Roman army will be disappointed, as it's back to the comparative safety... 1/8

Evidence from Australia six months after implementing its "total ban" on young people accessing social media indicated that SEVENTY PERCENT of young people were evading it. SEVENTY PERCENT. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...

Under 18 ban! They are curtailing the freedom of 16 and 17 year olds.

These proposals identify the wrong problem, and propose a solution which would create the ridiculous situation that 16-17yos can vote & join the army but not look at cat videos in the evening; though of course they won’t work. They don’t in Australia & clearly the Online Safety Act doesn’t work here

Agree. There’s so much about media & social media that I think is absolutely urgent and essential for the government to get to grips with. “Ban it for kids” is the dumbest and least effective approach I can think of. The kids aren’t even the problem! Radicalisation is happening to older generations

Back to Doctor Who and the War Games, part 2... and the Doctor is saved by a mysterious sniper firing on the firing squad. This turns out to be victim-on-victim fire. At least one of the firing squad seems to be killed. (A longer thread than usual.) 1/11

I hope Hull History Centre won't mind me sharing this lovely letter from Roy Hattersley's papers, on the sad news of his passing aged 93. RIP.

Beginning Patrick Troughton's ten-part farewell to Doctor Who, The War Games, tonight, and struck by the change of pace and tone to its predecessors. There's no long period establishing the new situation before the travellers arrive - instead we begin with their arrival in a foul and polluted 1/8

I’m resting my Doctor Who blog for a time while I work on other projects. The earlier articles didn’t get much exposure so if you have a spare ten minutes, please scroll down the archive of posts and see if anything takes your fancy: thehiddenplanet.substack.com/archive

Daleks’ Master Plan Screening A special screening of three Doctor Who episodes will be held at Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, Leicester, on Saturday, 15th August 2026. The event will offer fans of the series a chance to see “The Daleks’ Master Plan” on the big screen.

Once again, Brighton and Hove’s brave and inclusive city has massively outnumbered an attempted fascist march on our streets. Love will win. Pics: forward view, backward view, team view, street view. #gohomeracists #Brighton

Thanks to all the good people who turned out against the far right in Belfast, Glasgow and Brighton who have cheered up my timeline.

Aerial PARTIAL view of the anti racist, anti fascist crowd in Belfast right now. City Hall to the left for scale. This - this is the real Belfast. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

My scale doesn't work for non-fiction, but it's a stellar 5/5. Discovered it through @matthewkilburn.bsky.social and it's exactly the history I love: about the everyday things, how the big things impacted everyday lives, and written with dry wit. #AlwynTurner #Non-Fiction #ProfileBooks #BookSky

We're very pleased to see Colin Kidd's Twilight of the Dons reviewed in @litreview.bsky.social! This work looks at the rise and shifts of postwar Oxbridge and its influence. Read more here:

Can we do Oxford next please please pleaseeeeeeee

The Space Pirates 6, and here ends (at least as far as the credits are concerned) Peter Bryant's producership of Doctor Who. The reality was messier, more so though than this story which pulls remaining threads together well enough, though General Hermack accepts the demolition of his theories 1/8

And you know if the police are calling them fascists, they are very definitely fascists

“People are expressing their thoughts when they’re not always their thoughts. They haven’t worked out how to say things properly, so they say things simply, and they say things brutally." www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/russel...

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, part 5, faces the question of what to do now the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and Milo know that Madeleine Issigri is in charge of the piracy operation. One answer is to show that she is less the boss than we might have thought - Cavan is an untrustworthy partner, 1/4

Yes okay so let me explain another key thing about Oxford: there is no ‘campus’ Instead there are (36-43 depending how you count) colleges, most of which have a self contained ‘campus’ with dining hall, accommodation, library, etc solely for members of the college

For those Doctor Who fans wondering about the competitive tender process mentioned in the BBC press release yesterday: www.bbc.co.uk/commissionin...

Can we not “if you tolerate this, then your children will be next” when it is our country and they are our children. (I support Northern Ireland’s right to self-determination but right now, it’s not a foreign country).

Well, this is going to be worth a read... www.penguin.co.uk/books/482900...

Michael Keating obituary by me : Michael Keating obituary www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

New online article from the Georgian Lords. Robin Eagles considers the duke of Grafton's last ditch efforts to achieve conciliation and his intriguing attempt at correcting the record of what had been said in the Lords in an earlier debate... historyofparliament.com/2026/06/11/c...

Out today! 🥳 The King's Dinner: Family, nation, and identity on the British table, 1760-1820: uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin.... My book with Rachel Rich, @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social & @adamcrymble.bsky.social. It is #openaccess so come take a look! cc @uclpress.bsky.social #skystorians #foodhistory