Semi-serious point: this beats Destination X hands down. And it's what Destination X could have been. Could have had so much fun having getting out of the bus and working out where they are, instead of stupid pop culture references and manufactured infighting.

I've completed the preview. Coming up: * The interesting Dial 1 for UK and the innuendo-fest 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche at York. * Shuggy Boats and All at Sea at @livetheatre.bsky.social * Little Shops of Horrors at Northern Stage. chrisontheatre.wordpress.com/2026/03/04/w...

All AI proponents are lazy bastards who can't even be bothered with basic fact checking and probably get angry & defensive when you call them out for treating wrong AI output as fact case study #1,286,486.

Bold choices up now ... chrisontheatre.wordpress.com/2026/03/04/w...

Hear last year's participant Dan Husband talking about his poetry and prose book "Love in Shorts". www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (Starts at 17:00)

Act 1: "Richard, I can explain!" "Samantha, you bitch." [Richard pulls out a luger. Samantha pulls out an AK-47. Vicar walks in with a bazooka. Indiscriminate graphic violence until only Samantha is left standing, soaked in blood.] Act 2: You didn't think this was in chronological order, did you?

Check out our full list of FAQs and guidelines: https://prize.papatango.co.uk/ #PapatangoPrize

Which fictional characters do you think were having the nastiest sex off-screen?

Holy moly, things coming thick and fast today. Will tell you what I can, when I can.

Saw a trailer. Didn't make it to the end. Not sure whether it was a Scream movie trying to be funny and failing dismally, or a Scary Movie movie trying to be funny and failing dismally.

New bit of Darlington station opens in May. Finally. uk.news.yahoo.com/network-rail...

First sign of a Reform-run council threatening to pull funding from an arts organisation for no reason other than politics. Not clear if this was a serious threat or a stupid off-the-cuff remark, but a clear reason why Reform is no friend of the arts, www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/...

New blog post. What's Worth Watching, taking us up to September 2026. And we begin as always with safe choices: chrisontheatre.wordpress.com/2026/03/04/w...

That's a bit harsh on the Bollywood stars. Can we swap them for WWE fighters or something?

I'd been giving Grammarly the benefit of the doubt, with the stuff they call "AI" simply being a slightly better grammar checker. Looks like they're going down the route of full-blown techo-bullshit.

Unpopular opinion: I'm not that bothered about oil price rises, even ones caused by orange nutjobs. Anything that makes fossil fuels unreliable, and encourages the world to get a move on with renewables, is good thing in my books.

URGENT CLARIFICATION: When I posted a picture on my blog depicting Darren Grimes having sex with a Nazi watermelon titled "What the fuck is wrong with Darren Grimes?", it was an AI-generated image for illustrative purposes. Apparently, that's okay now. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking forward to the gung-ho supporters of the war on the British right blaming the price rise this brings on net zero policies

Given that a lot of Americans think Iran is in America - and given the lack of confidence that officials of the current government possess above average intelligence - should we worry that America might bomb itself?

My radical take is that the people primarily to blame for the inevitable wave of anti-Semitism we are already starting to see are in fact the people being anti-Semitic

Trump and Khamenei currently seem to be having a contest for who can make the most enemies in the Middle East the fastest.

A reminder that @pilottheatre.bsky.social's Noughts and Crosses returns to Northern Stage starting tonight and running to March 7th. Highly recommended. Simple concept of a Jim Crow-like world with the races reversed, but a far more complex story underneath. northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/nou...

Sit this one out lads.

TBH, I can't remember what Matt Goodwin has done that's bad. I'll take your work for it, but I've long since lost track of nutcases in politics. There's too many to keep up. Maybe someone needs to create a website called knowyournutcase.com, bit like knowyourmeme.com but tracking nutcases.

Good news for thirsty Sandy fans, commiserations to thirsty Robyn fans. Clint, I suppose, fills the niche market for pity shags.

TBH, I'm most concerned about Katie Hopkins trying to be funny. www.bbc.com/news/article...

TBF, there's so much race-baiting going on your description isn't too wrong.

Blimey. I wonder what it was about your sister and father that got everyone so furious?

And it's official! It's Not Cluedo is coming to @oldjointstock.bsky.social Theatre in Birmingham on 30th April, on my way to Brighton Fringe. Still pinching myself. More details here: chrisnevillesmith.info/wp/2026/02/2...

Okay, I'll bite.

Oh, this is big news. I knew Newcastle Theatre Royal and Jamie Eastlake has big ambitions, and now we know what it is.

Today's the day. Celebrating ten years of overthinking Stardew Valley.

First peek to the Bluesky crew. www.designmynight.com/birmingham/p...

Newcastle and Sunderland folks, the last new Metro train has been delivered. Should be moving to entirely new trains by the end of the summer. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Better idea: stop listening to think tanks. With a few honourable exceptions (who have a long track record of impartiality over successive government), think tank reports are basically man-in-the-pub quality guff with a shiny cover, that lazy/gullible journalists print as credible evidence.

Tomorrow's the big day for thirsty Stardew Valley fans.

I've one final point on this whole BAFTA thing, and that is: irrespective of who you think is the wronged party here, the BBC fucked up big-time by broadcasting that. That did no-one any favours, not the guy with Tourette's nor anyone who took offence.

#ElysiumTC’s most ambitious theatre project yet: the 70th Anniversary Tour of Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece #LongDaysJourneyIntoNight Coming to venues across the North of England this May: elysiumtc.co.uk/long-days-jo... A once in a lifetime chance to see one of the world’s greatest plays.

Reform's MO now seems to be adopting whatever policies their opponents claim they plan, no matter how insane it is. I swear, if somebody claimed that Nigel Farge wants to personally barbecue every kitten in the world on a skewer, Reform would announce that as their policy the following week.

Been thinking for years now that the worst thing about neurodivergent people's fight for equality is ... never knowing who your real friends are. There's real support and there's performative support. The latter group will - the moment solidarity becomes inconvenient - throw you under a bus.

Oh, I see it's "Keep the disableds out of sight in case one them offends me" day.

Four years ago, in the early hours of the morning driving back to my apartment.

Ha ha up yours America I mean oh dear, this is concerning.

Oh, looks like we've already reached the point where Trump is trying to distract from the scandals by going "Oh, look, aliens". news.sky.com/story/trump-...

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. I have been leafleted with a legendary Jack Chick booklet. The man responsible for telling us why Dungeons & Dragons is Satan-worship, Harry Potter is Satan-worship, and many many more. I can't wait to discover how football is Satan-worship.

For my small intersection of followers, north-east based and public transport anoraks, Northumberland Park's interchange to the Northumberland Line opened today. (Northumberland Park, of course, already existed as a Metro station.)

Are you dropping a hint?

Ingredient shopping for belated Pancake Day. Now, I could refuse to buy the mixture for American Pancakes, and I could also choose Canadian Maple Syrup as my topping. But am I really that petty?

The good old days when shops didn't have doors, windows had flags mounted in them, the local bakers sold baguettes and we used decimal currency?

Hot take: If you cozy up to people who turn out to be racists, it's defensible that you didn't know. If, however, you dismiss the masses of people telling you what they're really like, you do not deserve to claim ignorance if and when their racism - and your association - finally get exposed.