type for books used to be set using little metal letters built into words in racks and then inked and pressed on to paper. If you had stock phrases you wanted to reuse a lot you could make a cast of them called a ‘stereotype’. The sound of them *clicking* into place, in French, is ‘cliché’

Apparently

Something I mention in today’s piece is the wider pressure and undervaluing of libraries and archives. Even less well known than the issues facing the British Library are the worrying proposals for the BBC Written Archives Centre. More here observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The WAC campaign to date More from me with details of progress (or lack thereof) in the campaign against the shutting down of access at the Written Archives Centre, and a summary of quite why this policy shift is, simply and straightforwardly, wrong. cstonline.net/defending-th...

Still room for a few more Jarnathans though… 🤭

OH MY HEARTS ❤️❤️

I made this meme 11 years ago today. knew it’d come in handy again.

Heck, cast Adam Driver as Force Ghost Bond and kill two birds with one stone. 🤨

Nobody tell Horowitz about this guy… 😬

Latest reports suggest #IgerSyndrome is highly virulent.

The new #Blakes7 blu-ray collection is a thing of beauty 😍 Dive even deeper into the making of that second series in the Blake's 7 Production Diary Series B. 318 pages of day-by-day rare untold insight and unseen photos. Grab 15% off this week with code CUSTOMBOOKS15. Available now from cultedge.art

Opening on this day in 1971, Birmingham's Pebble Mill studios was officially inaugurated by Princess Anne. artandhue.com/studios

inspired by this, I have done a free extract of this section of the book here. it is about understanding that *with all its problems* the BBC is as important for our intellectual health as the NHS is for our physical health: naomialderman.substack.com/p/the-bbc-an...

Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.

This. No kidding. Just this, 100%.

“Now it says here that you’re interested in the vacant position of Director General of the BBC?”

🎧 Did you catch our special anniversary broadcast on BBC Radio 4? Sharing stories from the BBC archive and beyond, ‘Jodrell Bank at 80’ is a fascinating look at our site’s heritage and legacy! Listen: https://ow.ly/6a6I50XonAO #JodrellBank

Harry Truman: If it benefits all the people, they call it socialism.

Just caught this live, and was transfixed throughout - not least by the breathtaking closing piece from @hannahpeel.bsky.social. Thanks to all involved. #somethinginmyeye

Quite a headline.

Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists.

This offer is expires on Friday at midnight. With the new blu ray collection released on Monday, the #Blakes7 Series B Production Diary is the perfect viewing companion, and this week you can claim 10% off with the code WRITER10. Available from cultedge.art

Completely missed the news that Peter Watkins died on October 30th. For all of his insightful and incredible work, for me, it's CULLODEN that *truly* astonishes, nothing in my life will *ever* beat that first viewing, my brain melted, my jaw needing picking up from the floor.

The trope in an IP revival where the beloved couple are now estranged but get back together in the end is so overdone. And I DEMAND they do it again anyway here. I will fall for it like a cartoon coyote.

My client meeting today is running late so I filled the time by farting out a new wallpaper for my phone. Here’s the pic if you want it. #Blakes7

Okay. Now this is something I can get genuinely excited about. 🥰

Don’t know about you, but I did *not* have Will Ferrell & Rami Malek on my bingo card for this year’s Shada rehash.

This is very surreal. It beats the moment some obsessive helped Jon Kay find the BBC Breakfast Time sofa of 1983. 😂

And you can relive this splendid occasion - albeit minus the actual programmes - from the comfort of your own phone, right here. youtube.com/playlist?lis...

BBCFOUR tonight (and onwards) is showing the original series Edge of Darkness - please book your seat now.. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

<Salutes> Absolutely, beautifully, perfectly right.

#RIP Prunella Scales. Photo by John Deakin, 1964.

Looking at you, UK government...

#DoctorWho The Leisure Hive, in TC3, 18th April 1980. Look at Tom Yardley-Jones' amazing composite set! The main hall, corridors, board room, lab, Brock's cabin, and the planet exterior, all linked in lovely white corrugated plastic. A new start! #CGSets

Dancing frogs have become a symbol of resistance in the USA. Interestingly, over a decade ago David Graeber wrote a piece on the power of such symbols in protest movements. The piece is called - On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets. Here is an extract.

It's official! 🏛️ 🎉 The SF Board of Supervisors has unanimously declared October 22, 2025 as Internet Archive Day — celebrating our 1️⃣ trillion webpages preserved & our mission to provide universal access to all knowledge. Learn more & celebrate with us tonight! ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/10/22/h...

see also…

Great thread… yet still incomplete.

The predator lands in a series of 1970s Public Information Films. Predator vs the Spirit of Dark & Lonely Water. It’s the perfect place… for an accident. Predator vs a Rug on a Polished Floor. You might as well set a mantrap. Predator vs the Green Cross Code. Stop. Look. Listen. Fight!!!

Reminds of the Alexi Sayle quote "Austerity is the idea that the global financial crash of 2008 was caused by there being too many libraries in Wolverhampton."

Six months later, reader - and I’m pretty damn close.

DOCTOR WHO FANS OF THE WEST MIDLANDS & BIRMINGHAM, YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

RIP John Woodvine

Delighted that Cory is having a moment with "Enshittification," because it's an accurate word for what's happening in tech and he's the right person to describe it. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/b...

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

"I never fully realized before how a small mind, allied to unlimited ambition and without scruple, can destroy a country full of clever men." Aired in 1976 based on books from the 1930s, I, Claudius is the show of 2025. (gift link)

This is how you get to be part of #Andor S3. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Just starting in on @kermodemovie.bsky.social & @nelsonjenny.bsky.social's wonderful new book #SurroundSound. Couldn't see an official Spotify playlist to pop on in the background though, so began one of my own. (Sadly no sign of 'Dougal and the Blue Cat' though.) open.spotify.com/playlist/2zU...

Giving a bully your lunch money is only a temporary downpayment for future bullying. We ALL need to step up for the first amendment. By-the-way, for the record, this ex-Disney employee finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny. mh