Grim listening but great interview with the brilliant @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social about conspiracy theories and contemporary politics

Absolutely captivating 1987 documentary about identical twins Freda & Greta Chaplin who moved & spoke as one. A sensitively made exploration of their intense co-dependency, obsessive behaviour & complex shared life story youtu.be/eAD9YbPNbCw?...

Happy birthday, ITV! I wrote a piece to give you the bumps. www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2025/09/2...

Just stop what you’re doing and read this.

Another chance to hear this episode of #BBCRadio3’s #SoundOfCinema with @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social. All about the film career of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023), with Matthew speaking to his son Neo Sora. Listen on #BBCSounds: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Join us for dinner

in Disney’s next Marvel film the hero won’t criticise the villain or even stand up to them

Serendipity on my feed

The most beautiful sight in the world

I’d say reeducate them in the countryside but a lot of private schools are in the countryside

I’d say reeducate them in the countryside but a lot of private schools are in the countryside

Had no idea this was being repeated. Features me demonstrating how you can sing the titles of many James Bernard scores

Intense meeting in Stockholm today

I have dealt with my BIG FEELINGS about people saying mean things about London by writing this about 57 things I love in London. There were 100 things I loved, but it got too long for one email. London is inexhaustible. naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...

Asked a leading royal historian today whether Prince Albert dressed to the left or right. “Upwards,” he said, pointing at a photograph. More news as we get it.

Yes!

Should be studied by professionals, quite frankly.

It's THE END. Of Downton Abbey, and a lot of other things. The lovely John Lunn is our guest. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Very sorry to read this. When I was young and green he took me under his wing on a trip to James Ensor's house in Ostend. We looked at the weird masks, the mermaids made from monkeys, and realised Ensor was just painting what he saw. A suitably Hitchcockian moment. www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

No Reform councillors agree with climate science! Following a debate at Worcestershire County Council about the science of climate change, it was revealed that not a single reform councillor could support the statement that "man-made climate change exists." Due to a lack of time, I was unable to…

That comparison seems both absurd and tasteless

One of the puzzling aspects of the new Downton film is that it’s about the passage of property and power from one generation to the next and everybody looks about the same age.

From the pen of the Queen of Crime, STUDIOCANAL is thrilled to bring #AgathaChristie's classics to stunning 4K. Featuring five of her memorable titles including one of the world's most iconic detectives Hercule Poirot, THE AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION is essential viewing for any murder mystery fan. 🔎

Who else got all Gonds leave the Learning Hall immediately?

Fortunately I think the worst was invented by by tongue-in-cheek biographers. There is no such publication as ‘Touched by Uncle’

Just reading about the novelist Kate O'Brien - the favourite of Laura in Brief Encounter. This was taken in 1926.

AI triumphs

When I was at Anglia TV about 25 yrs ago, a girl in our office sent out a team email that said, “It’s been a crap Monday, who wants to come to my flat for a smoke?” Sadly she sent it to everyone in ITV. Melvyn was one of the first to reply with “That sounds lovely but sadly I’m filming in Newcastle”

Weird to see Express clickbait about the death of Christopher H Bidmead.

Yes, I'm a journalist who's critical of Farage and Reform UK. But I'm an accredited journalist with a press card, I'm the political editor of a weekly magazine, and when I registered back in May I got confirmation it was "successful". Until today, when it's now "declined". Here's the pics:

End of an era. Seems almost unimaginable.

We’re so back. #Bookish

Well this is very nice

#Bookish is also 99p on (Canada-based) Kobo www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...

You can have it for a bob. Well, 99p. The #Bookish book is now a Kindle offer. www.amazon.co.uk/Bookish-warm...

I'm on BBC Radio 4 Front Row tonight, talking about the "death and possible rebirth" of sketch comedy... Wonder what I'll say... Tune in and find out. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

@jnraeside.bsky.social @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social Good morning. You may (or may not) enjoy this lengthy thread about Howards’ Way bsky.app/profile/adri...

If you see this, post a chef

"He said the earth was... hungry." This is how you write Doctor Who!

There’s so much to say about Chris Bidmead’s Dr Who. Its pleasing coldness, its determination to turn maths into drama, its victory over the chaos and entropy that plagued his predecessor. Traken/Logopolis/Castrovalva are all one story, aren’t they? His Master’s Masterplan. RIP

OMFG, someone asked the question: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/au...

It would have been so easy to devote a Bernard Herrmann episode of #soundsofcinema to the (splendid) usual suspects eg Psycho. But @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social typically had far more exciting ideas. A tremendous collection of wild, wonderfully orchestrated soundtracks. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

“Mass unrest” update

Work with Hitchcock was fruitful for Benny, Who scored loads of his movies, but then he Really wasn't that certain About doing Torn Curtain And thereafter he didn't score any.

Great #bookcoverart : 1943 - The Patriotic Murders by #AgathaChristie published by Pocket Books (USA). A true global first paperback. (UK Title: One, Two, Buckle my Shoe). #vintagebooks #bookcovers #booksky

Been outside the London Banana to Sharia-No-Go Greenwich.

An hour of Bernard Herrmann on this week's Sound of Cinema. Why does his work give us the shivers? All the analysis you need at 4pm on BBC Radio 3 & BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Very very good letter in the FT magazine this morning pinpointing what humans definitely do when we “learn” and why machine LLM “learning” isn’t that. (And also why LLMs take up so much more energy than we do for thinking.)

It's radio repeat day! Catch me and Prof @edithmayhall.bsky.social discussing the Nigella of Ancient Greece, goddess of hearth and home (and carbs and donkeys) Hestia, at 9:30am on BBC Radio 4 📻 🍞 🎧 Listen again on BBC Sounds: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

The irony of this dumb meme is that Hamid Karzai was such a big fan of Last of the Summer Wine that the British ambassador brought in box-sets for him by diplomatic bag.