Somehow or other I met Gerry “The Monk” Hutch tonight.

I talked to my grate frend Kleber Mendonça Filho about the superb THE SECRET AGENT. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

Can’t imagine what faithfulness-internet would have been like around the time of the early Bond films. The Spy Who Loved Me had so little to do with its “source” they published a separate movie tie-in novel.

Raining again.

I'm watching The Rip. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are approximately the ages William Holden and Art Carney were when they made The Towering Inferno and Harry and Tonto.

Drop and album that was important to you when you were 19

Milles Na gCopaleen's Catechism of Cliché in full flow. And what card should we show the errant sporting nation?

I love the fact she’s reclining on a drawing board. So you can’t say the cover doesn’t tell you it’s all about architecture.

I had a long chat with the (more or less unquestioned) MVP from “WUTHERING HEIGHTS”. My old pal Alison Oliver. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

I’ll say this again (in different words) if the social media scolds upset about faithfulness had their way the 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights wouldn’t have been called that.

In all this talk of best Heathcliff and best Cathy on screen, everyone seems to have forgotten Terry Jones and Carol Cleveland. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIME...

First class run through of the Wuthering Heightses that gives due credit to the forgotten one with Orla Brady.

See is you find the WUTHERING HEIGHTS quiz too hot or too greedy. www.irishtimes.com/culture/musi...

Hilarious that the book club episode of Peep Show is literally about WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

Best rain songs... RAIN by the Beatles IT'S RAINING TODAY by Scott Walker RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS by the Carpenters HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS by The Jesus and Mary Chain PURPLE RAIN by Prince I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN by Ann Peebles HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN by CCR HARD RAIN'S A GONNA FALL by Bob Dylan

I’m so sick of the rain I’m starting to envy those morons doing “my great life in Dubai” TikToks. At least it’s a dry dystopia.

‘mon Oirland! I’ve spotted Jessie Buckley and Ed Guiney front and centre at the Oscar nominees lunch. Can’t see Andrew Lowe or Richie Baneham.

Mackenzie Crook’s rural dreamscape #Detectorists published by #PenguinBooks (and its offshoots) down the years. 🧵 1/

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

I wish this had occurred to me earlier. As Joe points out, Margot Robbie is only a few years younger than Miss Havisham at the start of Great Expectations (probably not quite 40).

Lovely review, but when did British people start saying 'Rube Goldberg' instead of 'Heath Robinson'? This makes me sad.

Post a banger not in English… youtu.be/52W1665yI1Y?...

The biggest problem in “WUTHERING HEIGHTS” is the casting of Margot Robbie. I don’t care that she’s far older than Cathy is in the book. I care that the screenplay fails to make sense of *this* Cathy as a thirtysomething. It’s as if she’s had a bash on the head.

"Better [this] than another politely reverent variation on Sunday-evening telly." I got on all right with "WUTHERING HEIGHTS". ‘Wuthering Heights’ review: Less 120 Days of Sodom, more Carry on Heathcliff www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

Allow me to dumb down film discourse a little further. Genuinely baffled as to how the reviews of “WUTHERING HEIGHTS” will land. Guesses on Rotten Tomatoes at, say, 10:00pm GMT (two hours after embargo? I’m going to say around 75.

I’m not the only person to note this, but it is jarring to consider, in comparison to today’s shabby bench, the options at the Labour Party’s disposal when Wilson resigned in ‘74. Denis Healey Michael Foot Barbara Castle Jim Callaghan Tony Crosland Shirley Williams Tony Benn Roy Jenkins David Ow…

All the most insufferable social media from now until early March.

Top 32 per cent. Not *that* ashamed I couldn't come up with a third Kevin James film after Paul Blart Mall Cop and its sequel. Vulture Cinematrix No. 682: Feb 6, 2026 I got 8/9 correct Score: 2295 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜ Play at: vulture.com/playcinematrix

subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz353bs

“Guess how long Chile is?” There is a real knack to dramatising the notes when interpreting an Olympics opening ceremony.

It is incredible how Trump keeps exceeding your capacity for plausible disgust. I saw that post of the Obamas yesterday and thought: “Oh well. That can’t be real.” What was I thinking? Where the fuck have been for the last decade?

Every now and then you nod your head at a “yup, raised in Belfast” opinion. Endorsed.

I have always argued that everyone is allowed one area of performative ignorance. Mine is rugby union. As demonstrated by my continuing puzzlement that we seem to be playing a five-nations game on a Thursday night (I know it’s now eight-nations)🏉

This is like launching The Graham Norton show with someone who isn’t Graham Norton. The Grand Tour (for good or ill) IS Clarkson, May and Hammond.

One day, Emily, it will be on a biscuit.

rules for watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) - try to guess the age of everyone in screen - shout “78!” or similar - look cast up on IMDb - discover they are all younger than you are now

Continuing the 457th Columbo rewatch. After last night’s confirmation that SWAN SONG is a relative dud, nice to watch the neat, near-perfect PLAYBACK. Featuring a lovely closing shot of forlorn Gena Rowlands. What telly. What supreme telly.

What internet have you been on?

Not the worst Columbo, but Swan Song — the Johnny Cash one — must be the most overrated. Interminably overlong. Packed with meandering asides. And Cash is truly awful.

Look we’re all of us likely to get a Grammy at some point. I may have one already and just not noticed.

Obviously I don’t want to defend the Melania doc or any of her more controversial life choices, but, if you’re making gags about the woman being a prostitute, I don’t think you’re one of the goodies anymore. (Yes, yes. Not that that’s a bad thing. I know.)

Edward VIII is seeming less and less ghastly each week.

See Melania & almost die www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...

Yeah. That seems legit.

I was pleasantly surprised by Brett Rattner’s insightful MELANIA… Ha, ha. Only joking. It is effluent. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

I wrote abut Nigella descending "from the heavens to redeem the lost and the dissolute with her sacred double entendres". www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-r...

Of all the monomaniacal takes on WUTHERING HEIGHTS the most persistently irritating is “It’s not a love story!” Yes, it is. Of course it is. It’s plenty of other things *besides*. But it’s certainly that.

‪Barry Keoghan is "Clouseau disguise Ringo". This was pointed out by the eagle-eyed @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social‬ and @frankshallot.bsky.social