Tonight's washing up music is The Notwist's haunting scratchy post-punk tune Exit Strategy to Myself www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM8r...

Wednesday...

The BBC has recently put their 1953 production of Ibsen’s 'The Lady from the Sea' on iPlayer. It is, I *think*, the second earliest surviving complete British TV drama, after 'It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer' from two months earlier. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Morning stroll image: a pearl catterpillar

Not long to go now - the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE starts on Friday 6th Feb, with three days of talks, interviews, workshops and more! www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #ghost #ghosts #ghoststories #ghoststory #writing #writers #authors #darkfiction #supernaturalfiction

That's tomorrow sorted then.

Currently craving...

The Signalman (Postgate, 1976)

In my ongoing attempts to give you a break from *gestures widely* THE HORRORS: Let's talk about the utterly bizarre science of cats' purring. Here's a weird starting point: There are NO cats (Felidae) that can BOTH roar AND purr. Cats that roar = genus Panthera Cats that purr = genus Felis

On his 77th birthday, here is the great and good John Cooper Clarke telling an absolutely tremendous joke (it’s only two minutes long). youtu.be/KZpa-tY8hzI?...

Street names that sound like forgotten British character actors. #1 Saxon Heights. Hazel Bank.

Thinking of setting up a site for some of my old articles, film/TV retrospectives, weird stuff. Looking at Wordpress at the moment, but is it any good? Alternative suggestions welcome.

Four candles. Candles for torch.

Just what everyone was after... another Dr Who podcast! 😉 Join @sarahhamstera.bsky.social and me, a newbie and a fan, rambling through Dr Who. First episodes now live! Links below: shorturl.at/fiwfU #drwho #doctorwho #podcast #ramblingthrougheternity

Thank you to John Galantini at The Friends of Arthur Machen, who calls Tales of Occult Britain “an excellent collection of contemporary weird tales” in their latest newsletter.

Earliest known photograph of a snowman, ca. 1854, taken by Mary Dillwyn (most likely in Wales). The first image in our post collecting photographs of snowmen through history (1854–1950) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-snowmen/

Improve a movie title by adding the words "with big naturals". Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness With Big Naturals?

I missed Tom Baker's birthday yesterday. So I have to post this.

I missed out on one of these lovelies last time so I've pre-ordered this time.

Davenport cinema, Stockport - we lived about 5 minutes walk around the corner and I saw all the 90s Disney classics here until it was knocked down in 1997 - to provide a car park for a private school! cinematreasures.org/theaters/1832

Strong Proustian rush seeing this again. The whole Chamber of Horrors was gory catnip for young horror heads.

What’s your #ChildhoodCinema? I saw my first film at Fleetwood’s Regent Cinema, shortly before it was demolished. After that, the ABC and The Odeon in Blackpool until the late 1990s when they were superseded by the multiplex.

#ChildhoodCinema White Palace, Pontypridd pre-teen with cousins Then as a teen with mates, Monica Cardiff Only went to the cinema with my whole family once & that was the Odeon in Cardiff, Queen Street (Star Wars general release Jan/Feb 1978) Both no longer there.

BATMAN KERB DRILL (1967): Holy PIF! While on a promotional tour for Batman, Adam West filmed this road safety public information film for British kids, in character as the caped crusader, and it's every bit as wonderful as you'd expect.

What's your #ChildhoodCinema? The magnificent looking Morecambe Odeon (later Classic Morecambe). Opened 1937, closed 1976. The building still stands and is now a DIY and bedroom furniture store. I later attended the 4 screen Empire cinema on the prom, but I first saw a film on the big screen here.

Prints going live in thirtie minutes... 👁️ slipperyjack.bigcartel.com

Realising I’m the only person I know who doesn’t watch Traitors.

Time to look back at 2025 one more time. My annual Doctor Who In Memoriam is on You Tube now. Please watch, like and circulate. Oh, and please just be nice about it and Doctor Who as there are plenty of other places you can be otherwise. youtu.be/mfNDgewmlEU?...

And the award for the best of use of a John Craven's Newsround sample (with bonus Linton Kwesi Johnson) goes to... www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDY6...

Tonight's next film is Ghost Warrior (1986). A frozen 400 year old samurai is defrosted in modern day Los Angeles!

Picture of the staff who operate my account.

First day of 2025 Vs last day of 2025

Tonight's film is The Lady and the Monster (1944). Erich Von Stroheim has a crack at playing a mad scientist in the first cinema adaptation of Donovan's Brain.

Dancer at Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet, Weimar Germany, 1926. Looking quite fabulous.

The laptop has been sounding like an asthmatic pigeon for a while now. So I've taken the leap, got a new one and I'm currently backing stuff up to transfer. Which gives me a chance to pick a few tunes of the year starting with this catchy punky rush... www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLcX...

And! I’ve been looking all over for this and finally found it

Just read that David Pinner, author of RITUAL, died on Christmas Eve. RITUAL famously inspired THE WICKER MAN.

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Sublime thread of the week.

Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

The port has been uncorked!

Today's mission was to find the weirdest Christmas card that ever existed. I think this a pretty good fit. Merry Christmas one and all!

Today is my annual Christmas Dash where I consume lots of tea and biscuits as I visit all my sisters to drop off/ pick up cards and presents. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Out for Christmas drinks. This beer garden has seen better days...

Today's the day! I'll be doing a talk on ILLUSIONS OF PRESENCE, my other British Library books, POSSESSED, and how I go about finding lost horror stories. Tonight from 7pm, tickets £8.83. Hope to see you there! LINK BELOW

Spooky Advent Day 17: The Stone Tape by Nigel Kneale. An ancient evil is unleashed by an electronics research team working in a renovated Victorian mansion with much older origins, apparently haunted by a maid falling to her death. Broadcast as BBC Ghost Story for Christmas in 1972.

Yuletide felicitations! The 1975 Christmas 'Radio TV Times' magazine is now available! 🎁 Explore 10 days of December 1975’s TV listings across both BBC and ITV. Open the PDF, click on a programme title and start streaming from various platforms. 🤶 visualmutterings.com/1975-christm...

Currently wrapping presents to a soundtrack by the band British Birds. I've quickly fallen in love with their album Silence Daedalus thanks to the huge influence of early XTC on their songs. This track, Sheena's Locket, is particularly indebted. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A343...

Bloody hell! Now Buck Rogers died. 2025 being particularly unforgiving. Rip Gil Gerard. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/g...