This is LGBTQ+ History Month, and I urge my followers who are LGBTQ+ (or just curious) to dive into one thing--a movie, novel, TV show--from your childhood or before. Look at an older gay work as something other than a relic or an error. You'll be rewarded. Your world, your SELF, will get bigger. >

Is it comedy or horror? Vicki Mortimer tells me about her favourite play: Caryl Churchill’s extraordinarily daring, typically genre-busting 2016 Escaped Alone starring Linda Bassett, Deborah Findlay, Kika Markham and June Watson, directed by James Macdonald. www.thestage.co.uk/my-favourite...

If you’ve never seen Darling Lili may I suggest you keep it that way since nobody should have persuaded poor Julie Andrews to play a Nazi spy (honest) BUT… in it she sings this Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song exquisitely and today, for heaven’s sake, is her 90th birthday. youtu.be/0of8-MxqVRY

Is it comedy or horror? Vicki Mortimer tells me about her favourite play: Caryl Churchill’s extraordinarily daring, typically genre-busting 2016 Escaped Alone starring Linda Bassett, Deborah Findlay, Kika Markham and June Watson, directed by James Macdonald. www.thestage.co.uk/my-favourite...

An extraordinary Telegraph article from 2014 that reminds us where Nigel Farage stood on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Mr Putin 16 years ago.

Oh joy! A simply magnificent 2022 edition of Just A Minute, a total radio treasure (58 years and counting) exquisitely chaired by Sue Perkins. Perfectly deranged panellists: Dane Baptiste, Paul Merton, Stephen Fry and, the day before her 89th birthday, Sheila Hancock. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Check out the production company!

I loathe horror but even I am tempted by this 1973 necrophiliac horror-comedy recommended by @hellothisisivan.bsky.social due to its frankly unbeatable cast of Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Farley Granger, Elsa Lanchester, Shani Wallis, Victor Buono and Jamie “Klinger” Farr. youtu.be/-NCbYSQT4Kw

NEW - Keir Starmer says that Reform UK's policy to abolish indefinite leave to remain is " a racist policy. I do think it is immoral.”

There's something ironic about the Far Right adopting an anti apartheid song, written by a gay black man, as their anthem. @chadbourn.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The best thing about the disappointing show I saw last night - no names - was knowing I was coming home to this. #heressomethingipreparedearlier Mushroom, leek, lentil, Marmite, ale and sweet potato pie.

The V&A East Storehouse is full of stunning surprises like this complete office that Frank Lloyd Wright created for Pittsburgh retail magnate Edgar J Kaufmann in 1935-1937 (THREAD)

Tony Harrison’s 1977 The Mysteries was a massive @nationaltheatre.org.uk hit that I missed. But I loved his adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse, better known as Verdi’s Rigoletto. It was a flop but I’ve never forgotten it, esp. Richard Eyre’s staging and Bob Crowley’s set. Tony Harrison RIP.

The Original Broadway Cast album of My Fair Lady ran 53 mins. John Wilson’s new complete recording clocks in at 1 hour 45 mins + 24 mins of cut music. Jamie Parker & Scarlett Strallen headline it + the gleaming Sinfonia of London. The first review is a rave. musicwebinternational.com/2025/09/lern...

The Original Broadway Cast album of My Fair Lady ran 53 mins. John Wilson’s new complete recording clocks in at 1 hour 45 mins + 24 mins of cut music. Jamie Parker & Scarlett Strallen headline it + the gleaming Sinfonia of London. The first review is a rave. musicwebinternational.com/2025/09/lern...

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@nationalgalleryldn.bsky.social doesn’t just hang/care for paintings for us*, they sometimes clean them, like Crivelli’s Annunciation with St Emedius. Here’s a description of everything in the picture incl. the gherkin, a Crivelli fave. *Pop In: it’s free. mayasushiyoshi.weebly.com/investigatio...

TFW your bus stops en route “to even out the service” despite the fact that the bus was incredibly late setting off so there is no bus immediately ahead.

@nationalgalleryldn.bsky.social doesn’t just hang/care for paintings for us*, they sometimes clean them, like Crivelli’s Annunciation with St Emedius. Here’s a description of everything in the picture incl. the gherkin, a Crivelli fave. *Pop In: it’s free. mayasushiyoshi.weebly.com/investigatio...

Derek Nimmo, whose birthday was yesterday, was known for playing clueless, upper-class characters in British TV & film, not least the ecclesiastical sitcom All Gas And Gaiters. Less well-remembered is his recording career. Ok, he was a one-hit wonder. Which wasn’t really a hit. youtu.be/XqFEg-pORcU

Rosemary Harris is 98 Alfred Molina: ‘During Spider-Man 2, Rosemary & I were suspended in harnesses 40ft above the soundstage floor & we were left hanging there for ages & ran out of small talk. At one point, Rosemary said quietly ‘I’m classically trained, you know.’

Hosted the launch of John Wilson’s magnificent complete recording of the masterpiece My Fair Lady with a Rolls-Royce cast led by Jamie Parker & Scarlett Strallen. The original recording was 53 mins, a highlights disc compared with this: 1 hour 45 mins + 24 mins of cut material + liner notes by moi!

Hosted the launch of John Wilson’s magnificent complete recording of the masterpiece My Fair Lady with a Rolls-Royce cast led by Jamie Parker & Scarlett Strallen. The original recording was 53 mins, a highlights disc compared with this: 1 hour 45 mins + 24 mins of cut material + liner notes by moi!

"Fred West and his wife Rose seem to have a knack for getting into trouble!"

After a day of “Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least” – make blackberry and apple crumble and custard.

It was her birthday yesterday and I reckon Lauren “Betty” Bacall won a Tony for playing Bette Davis’ role in the All About Eve musical, Applause, because she managed to sing, 8 times a week, “I feel half-Tijuana, half-Boston/ Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austen” with a straight face. As 1/2

There is nothing so absurd as Jacob Rees-Mogg posing as an expert on the constitution.

Agree with every word. Gareth Southgate still at a loose end. Get him in to draft the speech.

Robert Redford (1936-2025) should be remembered as much for his social conscience as for his talents as a storyteller. This 1976 interview about ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN is a sobering reminder of what we’ve lost. #RobertRedford #FilmSky

Easeful, thoughtful, near-ridiculously handsome, Robert Redford was a bona fide star. He worked well with others, not least Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. At his absolute best he had an exceptionally light touch: see Barefoot in the Park or All The President’s Men. RIP

Share your favourite cover versions. youtu.be/OZ7EvYTCXGw

Share your favourite cover versions. m.youtube.com/watch?v=VTR8...

“This,” wrote Edward Elgar, “is the best of me.” I’ve always wanted to sing this deeply felt masterpiece of life and death with orchestra, soloists and chorus singing the roles of friends, demons and angels. @elysiansingers.bsky.social Sat Oct 4.
Book now! www.sinfoniasmithsq.org.uk/event/the-dr...

THE SELFISH CNUT THAT DESTROYED A COUNTRIES ECONOMY FOR DECADES WITH #BREXSHIT LINING HIS OWN POCKETS AND MORE 🤬🤬🤬 What Boris did next: files reveal troubling secrets of the ex-PM’s pursuit of profit www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

My friend @georgehallmusic.bsky.social is trying to locate a manuscript full score & orchestral parts of the cantata Once Upon a Time (Boosey & Co, 1903) by the composer Liza Lehmann having failed to locate them via Boosey & Hawkes, the British Library et al. If you have any ideas, do contact him.

Wow! Legendary violinist James Ehnes dazzled in Bernstein’s Serenade in John Wilson’s Prom with Sinfonia of London last night. But he loved playing with them so much that in the second half he joined the back desk of the violins to play a staggering Daphnis and Chloe with them. Unforgettable.

Britten’s astonishingly atmospheric setting of Wilfred Owen’s poetry interleaved with the Latin mass is unforgettably moving. I’m thrilled to FINALLY sing his War Requiem, a C20th musical masterpiece for soloists, choir, children’s choir and two orchestras. www.ticketsource.co.uk/outcry-ensem...

Who knows “In Othrr Words”? Lots of you, since Peggy Lee persuaded Bart Howard to change the title to “Fly Me To The Moon”. Howard wrote it for his partner Thomas “Bud” Fowler. Listen to the verse. A couple for 58 years until Howard’s death in 2004, they’re buried together. youtu.be/I5wikR5lcpQ

Britten’s astonishingly atmospheric setting of Wilfred Owen’s poetry interleaved with the Latin mass is unforgettably moving. I’m thrilled to FINALLY sing his War Requiem, a C20th musical masterpiece for soloists, choir, children’s choir and two orchestras. www.ticketsource.co.uk/outcry-ensem...

First watch: The Reckless Moment (1949), noirish 'Woman's Film' about a mother who gets caught up in a blackmail drama when her teenager daughter falls for a crook. It stars Joan Bennett as Lucia Harper, one of many female protagonists in Max Ophüls films whose first name begins with 'L'. 1/3

File under: The Land of Lost Camp... I long to have seen Komische Oper's rare revival this year of Gerd Natschinski's Mein Freund Bunbury – yes, a 1964 musical of The Importance of Being Earnest. Alas, it was cancelled. Worse still, I see absolutely NO sign of other Earnest musicals 1/2

A month before I turned 15, I sang the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ opera Taverner at the Royal Opera House. It was musically shocking and several members of the cast openly hated it but by the end of the run I realised that the experience had changed the way I thought about music 1/2

A month before I turned 15, I sang the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ opera Taverner at the Royal Opera House. It was musically shocking and several members of the cast openly hated it but by the end of the run I realised that the experience had changed the way I thought about music 1/2

Happy Birthday to the man with the brass neck to release a succession of EPs and finally an album of French songs entitled…

On Chris Mason, the new enthusiastic Farage fanboy. It’s absolutely irresponsible how the BBC has let him report on that party conference. And let me repeat : The BBC is an important institution and they are getting a lot right, as well. But here they haven’t.

“I just exchanged contracts on a house that [sic] I’ll be living there.” Repeats, “I’ve bought a house in Clacton.” Farage clearly stated he has a beneficiary interest in the property. If he provided the purchase costs, then he is the deemed owner - _exactly_ as Rayner was - and owes stamp duty.

I missed Edith Sitwell’s birthday yesterday. Here she is photographed by the wondrous Jane Bown, perfectly illustrating why Elizabeth Bowen described her as looking like “the high altar on the move.” This was taken years before I was lucky enough to commission Jane. I wish I’d asked her about her.

Ceilings, nothing more than ceilings… His Majesty’s Theatre, London

Helga, my mum, hated cooking until she - and Mary from next door - went on a Cordon Bleu course. It changed her life. She became a passionate good cook, especially of cakes and desserts, often using her beloved Kenwood Chef which is still going strong following her death in 2011. I love using it.

Vincente Minnelli’s Last Year At Marienbad