Nancy Banks-Smith meets Dennis Potter.

val kilmer’s turn in TOP SECRET is one of the single best comedy performances ever committed to film, both in terms of comic precision and mechanical virtuosity. just watch this whole clip in its entirety; it’s stunning

Not the obituary I wanted to read today. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/m...

Can’t make this up.

I needed this today

Gut-punch power! Staggering performances! A vital call to action for parents and their teens! I wrote about why #Adolescence is the TV drama of 2025 so far - and such powerful TV that it could save lives www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

A teacher in Idaho has been told to remove posters reading "Everyone is welcome here" - specifically because it features different skin tones. As I wrote last week, this is a global political movement that has explicitly set the goal of eradicating the very concept of equality.

Kind of awful, but I expect no less from this administration. It’s almost as if our mere existence irks them. They need to erase us so they can feel better about themselves. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Things Liz Truss is responsible for destroying: the British economy. Things Liz Truss is not responsible for destroying: the marriage of a grown man with free will and cognisance of what will surely happen if he pumps someone else.

This feels like a trap.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights was slashed in half on Tuesday as part of President Trump’s aggressive push to dismantle the agency.

NEW EPISODE. Ian is very much up for revenge on supermarket shelf-stacking producers. Join @ianmartin.bsky.social @quantick.bsky.social and @salihughes.bsky.social for this week's OLD FOOLS PODCAST

Seeing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s snivelling shit of a boyfriend have a pop at Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit a few days after Musk was druggily guffawing in the same building while wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap has caused me to run amok with a hammer and cause untold damage to my own property

A thing about loss. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

BREAKING: US voted against Ukraine's UN resolution which branded Russia the "aggressor" & demanded withdrawal of its troops. US on list of 18 nations also incl Russia, Iran and North Korea to vote against. UK & most European nations among 93 states to back Ukrainian resolution. China abstained.

It's always who you most suspect. www.joemygod.com/2025/02/wa-p...

this interview - Lynn Barber on Marianne Faithfull - is the sort of brilliant, bonkers thing nobody writes anymore. It reads like a meeting of fabulous monsters www.theguardian.com/film/2001/ju...

Just in from mammoth interview session to two bits of news. One that a DV perp got locked up because of something I did and that a vulnerable constituent had a a massive wrongful debt written off after our intervention. This is why I came to politics, this is why I'll just keep cracking on.

Word of the day is most definitely ‘hurkle-durkling’ (19th-century Scots): to linger in bed long after it’s time to get up.

It’s likely that you’ll have some bits of card or paper knocking about after Christmas, and here’s a great way to use up some of it: simply trim a piece to the right size and stick it on your screen to block out Google’s “AI Overview” results

My husband and I have taken to pausing our Christmas films while we finish eating our crisps. #elderly

A few years ago I established that the words for the Manics "A Design For Life" work better in "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" than they do in "A Design For Life", and the same was true of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" and "Hark The Herald Angels Sing", and thankfully there is video proof

Some quality #duvetknowitschristmas posts. It’s taken to Bluesky like a duck to water.

A full house tonight has relegated me to… the utility room. But handy if I need an ice cream in the night. #duvetknowitschristmas

This is the level to which we all aspire – peak #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

I’m 53. #DuvetKnowItsChristmas www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

It’s time! After 23 years of marriage, the in-laws are still putting us in the Peach Room of Doom, with the Formica Stool of Chastity, and new for this year, an ironing board for a splash of colour. #DuvetKnowItsChristmas #XmasAtTheInlaws and donate to Centrepoint via @rhodri.biz

6/ Incredibly, over the last few years around £200,000 has been raised for homeless charities as a result of this thing. So, this year, if you're enjoying the pix, you could fling a few quid to Centrepoint via this link: gofund.me/637d21d0

1/ So, where were we? Oh yep, #duvetknowitschristmas. Firstly, some admin: Twitter/X has evidently been run into the ground by a preening, self-radicalised clot, so while there's a slim possibility that this annual celebration might be thriving over there, I won't know cos I won't be looking.

So I'll be back around then. We'll be trying to raise a bit of money for Centrepoint, bearing in mind that there are a bunch of people who have nowhere to go this evening. gofund.me/637d21d0 ENDS FOR NOW 🎄🛏️

As the person who accidentally began this Yuletide event, it falls to me to give it some kind of shape. Clearly anyone can use hashtags whenever and wherever they like, but given that we've got presents to panic buy and wrap, I usually say "let's get going at 7.30pm?" 3/

Tradition has it (well, for the last 14 years) that photographs are taken of these austere, unkempt and impromptu setups and they're posted on social media with the hashtag #duvetknowitschristmas 2/

So, let's try doing #duvetknowitschristmas here this evening? People are literally Driving Home For Christmas right now, which MIGHT JUST mean that they'll be sleeping somewhere unusual. 1/

I have only just stopped crying after the Hairy Bikers documentary. What a very lovely and deeply moving thing.

While most of us are home and chilling, it is time to watch this again. Because it is the greatest.

There’s an antiques emporium in Norwich of such unfathomable strangeness every visit produces fresh gasps of bewilderment and terror. Recent finds: 1. Mounted photo print of depressed steam train driver (£1)

Friday mood: Carey 💘 #NowPlaying #CameraObscura youtu.be/ZfDg7Vz8Ow4?...

It's time for Harold Lloyd's Christmas tree

Massive Brexiter says what now?

Never not amazing that the best festival in the world ALSO gives millions and millions to help others. What a singular miracle it is.

Almost.

My husband just made the regrettable offer of a mince pie. “Thank you, but here’s what I want: the pie cut almost in half and fanned open to expose the filling. Very small bowl, 15 seconds in the microwave until mincemeat filling sizzles. Cold cream to the pie lid. Accompany with teaspoon only.” 🤶

Baffling that GW’s chosen line of defence is that only privileged, famous women are complaining, while unknown women with zero power on the set of a major TV show helmed by the celebrity who partially determined their fate as contestants, said nothing. Kind of trodden on your own point there, Gregg?

Hundreds of hours of painstaking work went into this, from journalists, editors, subs and lawyers. It is available for free in The Observer. For now. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Re my moaning about the dreadful Apple Photos update. This was helpfully sent to me and works a treat. Takes you almost back to normal.

Oh. Everyone hates it. It is almost unbelievably bad. Did no one test drive it?

Has anyone else, having done the iPhone software update, finding the previously simple photo organisation tools absolutely SHIT? Doing my head in.

I loathe a political culture that removes a passionate and effective minister over a decade-old minor offence that has zero bearing on her ability to do the job. A mixture of cowardice, malice and triviality.

This ⬇️

I hate this. Really sad.