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Which actor wanted to change career to be a surrealist painter after he saw a Max Ernst exhibition, is mad for the Cocteau Twins, and whose brush with acute myeloid leukaemia gives him pause to say to himself often: "for Christ’s sake, wind your neck in, you twat"?

Was talking about this piece only last night, a piece I thought about pitching after watching the credits to The Snowman, then wanting to interview everyone involved in bringing Bowie to the project, to find out why it had happened. I found out so much more. Thanks, Unkle Rupert!

I always enjoy a bit of bleakness and beauty at Christmas. Looking forward to listening to @lauracannellmusic.bsky.social's latest. Nice review from @juderogers.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/d...

Out now: The Nerve's Best Books of 2025. Feat: @elizabethalker.bsky.social @faberbooks.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social @jonathancape.bsky.social @beckybarnicoat.bsky.social @panmacmillan.bsky.social @sceptrebooks.bsky.social @jennashworth.bsky.social

I love this.

Also: why songs are like Rubik's cubes, why he carries a knife, and the scandal of knowing more about the Mariana Trench than the mind. www.thenerve.news/p/richard-ha...

What's @richardhawley.bsky.social's favourite joke? It doesn't contain any swear words, although the rest of this @thenerve.news interview (by me) certainly does.

What's @richardhawley.bsky.social's favourite joke? It doesn't contain any swear words, although the rest of this @thenerve.news interview (by me) certainly does.

I completely missed the fact that this was at the London Film Festival - but few reviews? Did anyone see it? It sounds fantastic. www.screendaily.com/reviews/haml...

If you haven't read Nick's original piece - which I RT'd from @joemungus.bsky.social the other day - you must. It's brilliant and chilling.

Truly one of the greatest shows that's ever been on television anywhere, thanks Jude

Lovely piece by @juderogers.bsky.social on Edge of Darkness. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

OK! Pan Amsterdam is live, and he takes us from dirt road blues to crypto hoes, Soulquarians to Iggy Pop, teenage talent shows with Destinys Child to drunkenly calling a beloved DJ “a McCauley Culkin-looking motherfuckerr”. This one is an absolute RIOT. GET INVOLVED.

This is a great piece - loved the final paragraph in particular which sums up why the best television happens.

Last Friday night and Saturday morning, Monmouthshire was hit by devastating floods. Monmouth’s high street, a place that I’ve barely known wet before, became a high roaring river (see the pictures of how it lies normally, as it did on Thursday, with the flooded Waitrose high above).

An utter masterpiece. It couldn’t be more different from our work, but it’s one of our great inspirations. It’s now on BBC iplayer and not to be missed!

Rewatching it this Christmas. Perfect festive viewing.

This is fascinating and if you have not yet watched Edge Of Darkness please do check it out. It is a really powerful drama and you’ll be surprised at how many well known character actors are in it.

And another! Stories and interviews with the team behind one of the BBC's greatest ever TV dramas – "a revenge thriller, a mystical nuclear-and-environmental-apocalypse fable, a clear-eyed political document of the mid-1980s, a ghost story" – by me for @thequietus.com thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

What makes the news... some great reporting from down the road inn south Wales

I must add our MP has been great but no national statement! I’m still shocked.

This is a great piece of reporting & writing

On the frontline of a deluge on the Welsh borders, @juderogers.bsky.social heard local stories of devastation and heroism – but incredibly, the disaster was barely referred to in Westminster and the national press www.thenerve.news/p/storm-clau...

Last Friday night and Saturday morning, Monmouthshire was hit by devastating floods. Monmouth’s high street, a place that I’ve barely known wet before, became a high roaring river (see the pictures of how it lies normally, as it did on Thursday, with the flooded Waitrose high above).

NEW: Former Reform MEP Nathan Gill is sentenced to 10.5 years at the Old Bailey on 8 counts of bribery by a Russian agent. The "ultimate source" of the funds came from "a close friend of Vladimir Putin," said Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb. Here is the evidence…

Saw Dick Gaughan at a small bar in Boston (shout out Johnny D’s!!!) great mix of song, politics, and a transfixing performance - will never forget the power of his version of Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

This is a stunning piece of writing about a beautiful songwriter.

Thanks to Kieran for informing me that Transatlantic Sessions is being repeated on BBC Alba. The Dick/Emmylou/McGariggles & Wainwright Wild Mountain Thyme performance (which I can't listen to without sobbing within about three seconds) is here. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Dick Gaughan is fantastic. I suddenly need to go and listen to his versions of Song of the Iron Road, and Tom Paine's Bones.

The mad mix of things I write about has been pretty clear this week. Sunday: Warp Films. Tuesday: TS Eliot's bleakest poem. Wednesday: Dick Gaughan's amazing music. Today: an interview with the very lovely Clive Owen. My favourite bit: him as a 2-Tone loving teenager who later befriends Terry Hall.

Simultaneously the gentlest and fiercest voice in folk music. A sad and eye-opening story but good to know DG is still around 🙏

Richard Hawley calls his music “a league away from most things in any genre". Rufus Wainwright says he was “so lucky” to work with him at an impressionable age. One of Billy Bragg's most famous covers came about because of him. But have you heard of Dick Gaughan?

Dick Gaughan is, without doubt, one of the most impactful musicians in my own life, his music was transforming when I found it in the late 00s. One of the best to do it

Dick Gaughan is easily one of the finest live performers I have ever seen; and consistently too, over a 24 year period. Never less than completely mesmerising.

A typically wonderful piece from @juderogers.bsky.social about a great man. Looking forward to the box set arriving.

Dick Gaughan is genius, why can’t we buy his classics until now? Great writing about an unbelievable tale from @juderogers.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

Have loved DG's music since the 80s and am looking forward to the box set. Last time I saw Dick play was in South London and had a chat with him afterwards about the Scottish Martyrs Memorial in nearby Nunhead Cemetery. Linking history, geography and social (in)justice is so typical of his work.

Richard Hawley calls his music “a league away from most things in any genre". Rufus Wainwright says he was “so lucky” to work with him at an impressionable age. One of Billy Bragg's most famous covers came about because of him. But have you heard of Dick Gaughan?

In 1925, T.S. Eliot was broken, depressed, ill. He thought the poem he was about to add to his anthology was so terrible that he wrote to Ezra Pound, a few weeks before it went to the printers. “1) Is it too bad to print? 2) If not, can anything be done about it?”

Oh well looky here, and yes it's better than I imagined. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDG4...

In 1925, T.S. Eliot was broken, depressed, ill. He thought the poem he was about to add to his anthology was so terrible that he wrote to Ezra Pound, a few weeks before it went to the printers. “1) Is it too bad to print? 2) If not, can anything be done about it?”

Voice notes from Stephen Graham, the better Potter, Ken Nordine on TV, wild Sandie, adolescent children falling for Kate and remembering Rachel Cooke, one of the truly great TV reviewers. juderogers.substack.com/p/10-spells-...

I'm very pleased to be doing some work with these diamonds. Great piece by @juderogers.bsky.social: observer.co.uk/culture/film...

Ffantasteg to hear @juderogers.bsky.social reading to kick off the launch for Folding Rock vol. 3 - a literary mag fron Wales whose theme this issue is, appropriately, music. And we're at The Canopi, my neighbourhood hang for an excellent open mic. foldingrock.com www.thecanopi.org

I interviewed one of the best actors on TV, in one of the best new programmes on TV, for @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

I interviewed a Smith! About the band's rapid ascent (their hairdresser's sister was their audience in Feb 83; they sold out the Hacienda, and then some, in Nov), Sinead, Suede, his favourite Smiths cover, and the last time he saw Morrissey – in the last decade. www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

“Rude jokes cracking through the polite surface of people bring me joy” In last week’s Q&A, @juderogers.bsky.social spoke to poet @holliemcnish.bsky.social about politics, parenthood and the enduring power of Dirty Dancing www.thenerve.news/p/poet-holli...

#NowPlaying This is truly bizarre. For a very wet Monday. Mentioned by @juderogers.bsky.social, I think. Stay Awake (Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. 1988 open.spotify.com/album/48eR76...

Folk and acoustic musicians! I'm excited to be part of a brilliant panel for this new folk album of the year prize, and am very heartened by everything @soundrootsuk.bsky.social are doing towards it. Entries are pouring in, but you can enter too. Read more here: www.soundroots.uk/folk-album-o...