Joan Baez has NOT sacked all the journalists. Blatant misinformation

If you fancy a nostalgia rush watch the repeat of Kenneth Williams’s Comic Roots episode on BBC iPlayer. Wonderful lump in the throat scenes of working class life in St Pancras, already disappearing by then. Classic telly

Will we get to throw turnips at him?

The thing nobody ever says about Wuthering Heights (the book) is how funny bits of it are. Where does tha think Emmerdale got t’ Dingles from?

Mirthful stuff as ever by Mr K about t’ origins of Mrs M open.substack.com/pub/martinke...

Some of whose previously unseen work is also featured in ‘Beware of the Bull’, the Jake Thackray bio by @jakethackrayfan.bsky.social that we published. Brilliant Tish pic on the cover of ‘The Unsung Writer’ too

Radio phone ins. ‘Can I just say hello to…’ Yeah, of course you can. Ring ‘em up. Why are you boring every other bugger with it?

Just found myself getting annoyed by what someone wrote in 1764 about Horace Walpole. Probably need to get out more

Sunday afternoon radio presenter heard on BBC Sounds just now: ‘The Animals! from Newcastle! Who knew?’ Wasn’t joking either. Can’t get the staff, these days

I don’t think they’ve thought this ‘Reform’ name through. What are they going to call themselves once this so-called ‘reform’ has been completed? Farage’s Peoples Front? I suppose that would have rhyming slang going for it

Have heard this now. I’m biased but, honestly, it’s the best hour’s podcast listening you’ll have all year. Magnificent

*in the voice of Jake Thackray introducing one of his songs* "This is a very good episode of Backlisted all about Jake Thackray, and if you like things that are very good, perhaps you will enjoy it. See what you think." @backlisted.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/255...

Jake Thackray: ‘If you must put people on pedestals, wear a big hat’ He had it right, did Jake (although was prepared to overlook that when it came to Georges Brassens. Life can be complicated, eh?)

Aw, one of my absolute favourites. Wonderfully wise and funny writer. RIP

‘And the next pot will be drawn by Christ on a bike…’

If you get another chance to see this, do so. Directed by Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz had a hand in it too. Hauntingly beautiful, I found it

Without downloading any new pics, describe your vibe for today using an image from your gallery

That time of year again… and I’ll be using a very special bookmark @stevenallon.bsky.social

Highly recommended for film buffs everywhere and them as like laughing shop.printtrail.com/product/the-...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. New Jake Thackray release coming soon…

Hadn’t known Tom had passed away but this is great. He’s done his dad proud www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

That time Nancy Pelosi almost signed to play rugby league for Warrington

Time to read this again. How I love this book. One of the absolute greats

I, Tonya

‘This place is beginning to smell like an owl’s foot’

He is, and always has been, a faithful

Folk who think sport is just people messing around with bats and balls are like folk who think music is just people making noises

Love this film. High recommend 💣

Wrote this the other month about The White Bus davehaslam.substack.com/p/shelagh-de...

The White Bus, a short film written by Shelagh Delaney & directed by Lindsay Anderson, has just come on Amazon Prime, should you be interested

If you are interested in the history of sport, class and British culture, this little @itvx.com documentary may be an eye opener. Rugby has never just been about throwing a ball around www.itv.com/news/border/...

How had I never heard of this book by Frankenstein’s grandad? It’s terrific - absolute page turner. Any film directors out there? Get on it

Rock on, Tommy! Launch day for 'This Is Me', Tommy Cannon's memoir, at Blackpool Waterstones. Ask for a copy in your nearest Waterstone's and they might stock a few too! #RockOnTommy #Cannon&Ball

Telling Hollywood like it was! #DickVanDyke stars in THE COMIC (1969) at 9:55pm #TPTVsubtitles Co-starring #MicheleLee #MickeyRooney in this comedy-drama.

STEVE NALLON’S GHOST STORIES – now in Waterstones shop window – is a darkly humorous collection of tales with modern takes on classic supernatural story traditions. Haunted houses, enchanted mirrors, spooky graveyards… as the nights grow longer, why not share them with a fiend? #Halloween

This means nothing to me

Absolutely love Old Grey Whistle Test repeats this time of a Sunday, especially after half a bottle of red. Whispering Bob introducing Emmylou tonight #mellow

Hawk just tore past with a bird in its claws. Quite the sight. Too fast for my phone camera. Wild, fierce and not bothered about anybody, as someone from Barnsley once said (not Dickie Bird)

I am now so old I no longer have any idea whether this actually means something or not

Richard Hines, hawk-keeping brother of Barry, directly inspired 'A Kestrel for a Knave', adapted for film by Ken Loach as 'Kes'. 'The Place That Knows Me' is a touching memoir of the family's South Yorkshire roots – roots that seem set to be pulled up www.scratchingshedpublishing.com/products-pag...

This is really quite something - a magnificently odd watch. You don’t have to have haunted second hand bookshops in the 1970s, but it helps

New Alan Bennett diaries in-coming early next year - praise be to heaven, Booths’ supermarkets (where he does his shopping), mam, dad etc www.waterstones.com/book/enough-...

I’m past the point of caring if older films and music “hold up” or not. I love it when art is a perfect product of its time.

Three favourite Banksys

I deplore your taste in 19th century French artists, but I do so more in Seurat than in Ingres.

‘Tolkien and Lewis moved their pint glasses from the Eagle and Child to the Lamb and Flag when the landlady installed a dartboard – you can imagine their reaction to today’s modernising horrors…’ www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/opening...

Listening to Michael Smiley on BBC Ulster via BBC Sounds and delighted to hear how, in the 1970s, he was a driver for Fox’s Biscuits in Batley

It's August 1 – Happy Yorkshire Day! Out now, the collected writings of the late great Jake Thackray. Paul Thompson has done it again. To buy direct from Scratching Shed, please visit: www.scratchingshedpublishing.com/products-pag... #JakeThackray #Genius

1968. Ena Sharples, on a fire escape above Moss Side, Manchester. 📸 John C Madden

Trigger warning