On the blog: The tale of how Lynda La Plante once caused a character's first name to disappear completely from a script - yet it stayed in the end credits. Oh, and her story about refusing to let Freddie Mercury into her flat to play the piano: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/t...

On the blog: My first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe. Christ, it really is unsustainable at that size, isn't it? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/26/f...

As I wrote the most recent online piece referencing this incident, I feel responsible for this snatch of Google AI batshittery. All I can say is: If only...

Have just sent the BBC Sport push alert to flag the first Premier League highlights edit under its new deal, and can't tell you how terrified I was of spelling Liverpool or Bournemouth wrong. Anyway, it's here: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

On the blog: Morecambe aren't my team, and it isn't my home town, but I've memories tied up with both, and not just because the local paper used to be edited by a man called Mike Whalley: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/n...

On the blog: St Johnstone won't recover from a difficult 12 months in one day, but the signs at least look positive for them: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/02/a...

On the blog: What it's like watching a live broadcast of Radio 4's Any Questions in a venue where you once attended a life drawing class: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/20/b...

On the blog: How the man who brought brass band music to the Proms couldn't quite bring it to Saturday night football, and how that wasn't really his fault: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/a...

On the blog: Accidentally taking my front door off its hinges, accidentally picking a 51-year-old for international football duty, accidentally assigning the wrong job title to the person who made the error. Everyone's having accidents this week: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/h...

Was wondering if Liverpool v Crystal Palace next Sunday will be the first English league game where the new league champions face the new FA Cup winners within the season. And technically, it's not, because of Michael Thomas and 1989 and all that. (Also, there may be other examples.)

On the blog: A new way of experiencing defeat, and the need to remain professional as it played out: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/a...

Thrilled to make my debut in Panenka magazine, writing about Alan Shearer, and the day/night in Huddersfield with Kevin Keegan and Bryan Adams that helped him become the world's most expensive footballer. Yet to hear if this means I'm now hip enough to sip cappuccinos with James Richardson.

Well, seeing as BBC Sport won a Bafta for its Paris Olympics coverage, and I snuck on to the end credits for my online contribution, that now makes me a Bafta winner, and I am putting that on my CV from now on and you can't stop me.

On the blog: A long one, this. The curious story of the only Screen One drama that went out without a writing credit. And no, it wasn't Ghostwatch: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/e...

On the blog: Watching the conclusion of the Championship relegation scrap, which produced an outcome to surprise much of Radio Humberside's audience: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/04/a...

By me for @wsc.co.uk (WSC 453, May 2025 issue): Substitute stadiums on TV and film - when one football ground stands in for another, convincingly or not. Featuring Alan Carr's Changing Ends, Ted Lasso, The Damned United, Porridge and, most famous of all, Fist of Fun's 'York City are magic' sketch.

Well, as I’m sure you all know, we mark something important today. Yes: happy 45th anniversary of the thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony to all who celebrate

Google AI really is absolute garbage, isn't it?

On the blog: What does Last One Laughing tell us about the current state of UK comedy? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/04/05/l...

Here are the US reciprocal tariffs against all the territories mentioned in Enya’s Orinoco Flow

On the blog: Notes on a trip to Cornwall - keeping my distance from the seagulls and rejecting the chance to follow in Gary Barlow's footsteps: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/17/t...

On the blog: What can the odder bits of Match of the Day's theme tune history tell us about the show's future? And when were the 1979 and 1990 remixes really scrapped? Let's look at the evidence, with a bit of help from Joy Division and Tony Christie: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/16/w...

Sky Sports tried the half-time show thing at the start of the Premier League era: Undercover came on at Maine Road to mime Baker Street. But it took so long to assemble the stage that they had to leave before the end of the song so the second half could start. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

After no blog posts in a month, two in 24 hours: One on sport's Donald Trump problem, the other a tale about Brian Clough, Saddam Hussein and Elton Welsby. So something for everyone: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/04/a... mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/03/t...

A cash-filled briefcase, a missing shield and the beating of Australia - plus funding battles, vanishing kit and Hall of Fame recognition: My rugby league piece for BBC Sport on how Great Britain's Lionesses beat Australia in 1996, and how England might in Las Vegas: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

Been working on rugby league content for BBC Sport before the big Las Vegas showcase this weekend and wrote this: Woman of Steel, marriage, Vegas - Dagger's packed 12 months: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

Have written about Blackpool's remarkably enduring East Stand - obstructed views, underfoot bounce and all - for the new issue of @wsc.co.uk (WSC 451, March 2025). As the saga of its proposed rebuild plays out, I suspect it'll keep the excellent Shelagh Parkinson in stories for a bit longer yet.

On the blog: Is it possible to blow a dream job with one wrong word? Hmmm. There's a bit more to messing up than that, whatever Elaine Stritch once claimed about her Golden Girls audition: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/25/t...

On the blog: What better way to assess the potential pitfalls of the AI age than to remember the blood-chilling tales of Ashley Asthma and Cake Spigot, the footballers who never existed? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/a...

From doodlebug to jitterbug

On the blog: The only review of Robbie Williams' new biopic Better Man you'll read that references his appearance on the Central Match Live in 1995: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/31/t...

On the blog: The march of AI, and what it might mean for journalism, and why there will always be mistakes, whether by human or machine. As the post title promises, discussion of Peter Brackley and Spitting Image is included - eventually: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/27/p...

I Am, I Feel by Alisha's Attic pops up on the Spotify randomiser. "Wasn't that a theme tune to something?" I ask. A search brings up an online entry for late 90s ITV comedy-drama My Wonderful Life, featuring a description I can only hear read in the contemptuous voice of Dylan Moran in Black Books.

Had a lovely meal in Manchester last night, which cost less than the 12 first-class stamps I bought yesterday afternoon.

Genuinely wouldn't be surprised at this stage if Infantino said the next item on the agenda was planning permission for a block of 12 new-build flats in Eccles

On one side, a future BBC executive. On the other, my mum: Tenacious and sharp-witted. In the middle: 12-year-old me. In the new @wsc.co.uk - how my winning a replica shirt on Granada TV's Kick Off turned into an epic battle of wits that began in one decade and ended in another.

I think of all the reactions on Twitter to Everton confirming the Merseyside Derby is off because of the weather, my favourite two are "woke nonsense" and "could they not reverse the fixture and play it at Liverpool instead?"

On the blog: With the new series of The Big Match Revisited, has ITV finally found the outer limits of the 'good old days'? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/b...

On the blog: Last night, I inadvertently sparked a panic among some of the regulars, real and imaginary, at a creative writing group. What followed was an exploration of the idea of perception in fiction. Or maybe it didn't, and I just made one up: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/03/m...

If Ipswich wanted to support the campaign and Sam Morsy’s decision, why not give the captaincy to someone else this weekend? At the same time, it’s interesting that Sam Morsy’s religious beliefs didn’t stop him promoting gambling companies.

I'll do a poem to help any wealthy celebs in positions of power remember: If you see her with a Cath Kidston Bag Still don't harrass that stuck up hag If you think her top is boden Still don't harrass that awful oldun If you suspect she buys from ocado Still don't harrass that shrivelled mard-o

Question: Is this is the lowest number of profile views for which it's possible to receive a 'Your work and accomplishments are being recognized' email from LinkedIn?

On the blog: I was meant to be at Blackburn v Portsmouth but it was postponed, so for all you Championship fans, here's a piece looking at Jason Cowley's exit from the New Statesman, with some thoughts thrown in on all the recent social media upheaval: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2024/11/23/t...

My favourite football nostalgia social media account is the one that repeatedly posts clips of a 1979 FA Cup tie played in snow with a comment like "in the good old days they used to play in bad weather!", while not mentioning that most of that day's games were called off because of bad weather.

Hard to explain the audio experience, in Tesco's Manchester Market Street branch, of Don't Walk Away by Jade competing with the world's squeakiest escalator, but I suspect Martin Hannett would have loved it.

No posts yet. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBuu...