Annual Click & Collect viewing done 🎄

And here's a happy-sad, slightly haunted midnight Christmas playlist to go with it. open.spotify.com/playlist/6i5...

Would honestly rather write another book than wrap one.

A newspaper thing I wrote a few years ago about the thrilling, melancholy shiver of winter darkness at the heart of Christmas.

NME's albums of 1995. No argument from me about the winner. I still think Maxinquaye is a masterpiece. But I feel like it's dropped off the radar, culturally, compared to The Bends, Different Class etc?

Without a James Bond, a Doctor Who, Strictly presenters and a prime minister, Britain is defenceless buff.ly/J26WFVK

I find the current allegations against David Walliams a lot easier to believe than the dumb conspiracy theory that he doesn't write his own books.

Yes! I know it's fashionable to hate the photo covers (and many are awful) but The Visitation got me back into buying Targets. (Yes, I did very much judge books by their covers.)

My 14-yo-son has recreated the climax of Back to the Future in gingerbread and I thought you should know.

Fresh ep of @SquareWindowpod.bsky.social is a fab celebration of good and awful Christmas TV past. Featuring Mark Gatiss’s time-haunted pick of The Ghosts of Motley Hall. And me & @gkw.bsky.social celebrating the Woolworths adverts as a document of social history. podfollow.com/1838296345

11 years today since The Guardian really stuck it to the CBeebies Panto.

we go live to David Walliams’ front door

Aw, Kylie sounds so delighted at being Christmas number one, I feel like a bit of a Grinch now. Maybe it's a grower.

Our Woodstock

Whereas this (starring Ian Chesterton's lad) is utterly delightful.

Still perfect.

"Even if you can't reach merry, you can still land at peaceful. And that's a nice place to be." A pleasure to bring you Lauren Laverne's Christmas message. Do give Save the Children a bob or two if you can spare it. interestingmedia.blog/2025/12/18/l...

2 ronnies? No sir. ALL 3

What a year. Even Kylie's let us down, with her half-arsed, sub-ChatGPT Christmas single. Would expect nothing less from 2025.

"Striped insects" @secondmentions.bsky.social

This is such a nailed-on premise for a feelgood Christmas comedy (egotistical Hollywood actor finds love and humility doing panto in Yorkshire), it's a mystery how they've managed to make it so shit. Still, at least they tried, which is more than you can say for the BBC and ITV this Christmas 🫤

Upsetting Rest is Ents story about Bernard Cribbins telling a small boy to piss off. On the plus side, that small boy was Simon Cowell.

My brain, every time someone mentions a Gaston movie.

a-ha's biggest UK hit (yes, even bigger than *that* one)

The Downtown Lights, plus press release from ‘89 #thebluenile #45rpm #MusicSky #VinylSky

Also a wonderful Christmas movie. #RobReiner

The cultural impact of Rob Reiner cannot be understated. Legend isn't big enough a word. It goes to 11. You can't handle the truth. As you wish. I'll have what she's having. I'm your number one fan. You guys wanna see a dead body? The very idea of a bucket list. The West Wing. All from his movies.

Just found this cheery family holiday photo we took of the Brighton bombing.

Interviewed Harry Enfield about why he can't quite be arsed with it all anymore. #relatable

Watching a film and briefly thought this was Jennifer Connelly, until I remembered that Jennifer Connelly is in her mid-50s. Anyway, she's called Poppy Drayton, and there's a great remake of The Substance to be had with her and Jennifer Connelly. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Spielberg's made a Sharaz Jek movie?!

Britain does feel like it's in terminal decline, to be fair. But not for the reasons Trump and Musk think it is.

Have interviewed Toni Collette about Goodbye June. (Yes, we had the nepo baby convo.) weekend-online.co.uk/issue774/#30

Finally, someone's* interviewed ME.

NOËLDRAD MUST LIVE!

In this week's @cambridgeindy.bsky.social: £2.3bn plan for #Cambridge acute hospital, row over Christmas in Cambridge private booking, pic specials from Christmas Head rowing & Mill Road Winter Fair, guided busway latest & @paulkirkley.bsky.social's verdict on @artstheatrecamb.bsky.social panto

Guys, can we just agree that we all know AI slop is bad, and not post about it every five fucking seconds?

At risk of sounding needy, or opening myself up for ridicule... I can't believe I'm the only so-called 'creative' struggling with an almost total lack of response to their work, post-Twitter? I was never in it for ego reasons, but it mattered, knowing your stuff was being *noticed*, at least... /1

Keep thinking about Kate Stewart trying to strategise a planetary emergency while being pawed by that UNIT horndog.

Always a joy to talk to everyone's favourite Auntie LaLa, Lauren Laverne. Interview is here weekend-online.co.uk/issue773/#30 – and you can get involved with this Thursday's Christmas Jumper Day at www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-ju...

An excellent deep dive into a brilliant film. (If only it hadn't taken me 40 years to realise it.)

I know I'm A Celeb wasn't exactly a cultural high watermark anyway, but the fact it was won by a Twitch-streaming gamer feels like another nail in the coffin of... everything.

The War Between the Land and the Sea and the Angry Ginge: This is up against the I'm A Celeb finale, traditionally ITV's biggest audience of the year, so forget about the overnights - all eyes will be on the iPlayer numbers.

[Me in the big Tesco] I'll push you off the end of the bloody conveyor in a minute.

*youth pastor voice* Let me tell you kids about another carpenter who wasn’t very popular with the authorities

Increasingly convinced that The Quietus is a Nathan Barley-style spoof that got out of control.

It’s at 11,000 now, lol

"Windows will evolve" (under his breath) "... TO DEATH!"

This Spotify listening age thing is an absolute nonsense. I got 76 because my son, 14, loves The Beatles. Surely Spotify, of all people, know that artists are entirely cross-generational now? (My knees, on the other hand, do feel 76.)

Lynda La Plante as Tamara Novek nursing the bedridden employees of Rentaghost in a tableau reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch at his most fevered.