The open letter is here, and contact info is at the top: tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

Good to see @andrewmale.bsky.social being on-point about the handling of old BBC material online and reflecting the Written Archives access campaign in his latest column for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social . The BBC gives with one hand, and takes with the other...

The Sunday dozen Cezanne + Florentina Holzinger, Jean-Pierre Gorin + James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Mike Figgis + 'The Fast and the Furious', Billie Eilish + Ron Carter, Eugène Atget + Willem de Kooning, along with Talking Heads on the Road to Nowhere... www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

We've decided to keep the video versions of the podcast going for the foreseeable future. Please subscribe to the channel if you can. youtube.com/@worldoftell...

There's a lot to digest in this advert from the Cambridge Evening News (26.11.1976) but the bit that really caught my eye is Victor Borge performing at the Kelsey Kerridge Sports Hall.

If your name's not down, you're not coming in (actually, you're all welcome). In next Wednesday's podcast, @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and @gkw.bsky.social are looking at shows from May 1987, including John Godber's The Ritz.

One for those Barbara Bray stans amongst you: the first repeat in a million years this coming Saturday of The Milk of Paradise, her adaptation of Alain-Fournier's le Grand Meaulnes. Albert Finney in the cast. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This is now happening. BBC Four to repeat A Very Peculiar Practice for its 40th anniversary on Wednesday 20 May. Includes a new intro from Andrew Davies. #AVeryPeculiarPractice

Part One of The Escape of RD7 for your inspection. open.substack.com/pub/michaels...

Finally... the day we thought would never come. Design is now complete on the #Blakes7 Production Diary Series C. Both volumes. It's been very hard work getting this book written and designed, but these 460 pages and 2000 pictures are a fitting tribute to a brilliant series. Coming this month!

1949: the first of many dreary "battle of the sexes" panel games, We Beg to Differ pits four actresses, including the great Joyce Grenfell, against the bloke off of The Four Feathers and "The Radio Doctor" off of the War, for "lively discussion" about squeezing toothpaste tubes and being "flighty".

I've got to say, covering a modern show has gone down like a lead balloon with our core audience. Still, you live and learn. youtu.be/Tvful0s5Aeo?...

I thought I'd seen everything #snooker

Wow. #snooker

I got back from work and started watching the snooker just as Mark Allen missed the black, so this is entirely my fault.

Hear me stumble my way through the MCU, saved only by Neil's guiding words of wisdom.

Just in case you missed this yesterday: youtu.be/Tvful0s5Aeo?...

Our new podcast is out now. And this time we take a look at something that was broadcast this century!

A new episode of World of Telly is out now. This week we look at Wonder Man, the latest TV show from Marvel. There's a video version that's full of clips (link below) and there's an audio version which is available wherever you get your podcasts. youtu.be/Tvful0s5Aeo

Obviously I don’t earn a penny from this offer (ask your library!) but if you’ve not encountered my stuff before, worth giving a go? #IntoTheGroove

Old quiz shows can tell you as much about social history as news footage.

And, by coincidence, it would have been Deryck Guyler’s 114th birthday today, if he’d only stuck around for a superhuman length of time. Here he is playing with his toy Roman legion in March 1970.

Turns out that my new book is out. It's about this docudrama's skilful techniques, its re-enactments of Doctor Who scenes, paratexts (such as trails and idents), historiography and school teaching of history in the 1960s... and it celebrates Hartnell's Doctor and Who's ambitious early years.

Robertson and Higgins were already breaking the well-oiled mechanism of the World Championship and now they’ve compounded things by going for a piss.

A quick post on The Case of the Missing Masterpiece (1978), the first of the 19 Baker Street Irregular novels by Terrance Dicks: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-...

You can listen to Jonathan and I wittering on about the making of the 'Blake's 7 Production Diary Series C' on the latest episode of @radiofreeskaro.bsky.social, which is available on all podcast platforms now, or you can listen on the website at radiofreeskaro.com/2026/04/26/r... #Blakes7

Should I say Yus or No to this tempting offer? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11715223...

The Sunday dozen Public benches and micro-dramas; photographic materiality and Confederate monuments; DTF St Louis and David Adjaye; Victor Serge and Jan Morris; civil war, AI and digital fragility - and a wonderful Anna Karina clip. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

This very good. If you also listen to the Goon Pods with Gavin Sutherland and Louis Barfe then across the three podcasts you’ll get a ton of insight into why The Goon Show music is so special.

*THREAD* Two of the BBC's most significant and celebrated single dramas are to be repeated in the coming weeks. All-film productions, NEW transfers. In recent past people want to know about that work and it's a great reason to watch something again - but will the press office pull their finger out?

Excellent news. After the IRA sketch in the last recovered episode, I'm hoping for more terrorist-related hijinks.

The Morecambe And Wise Show Further to reports, Film is Fabulous! is delighted to confirm recovery of a missing ep of The Morecambe And Wise Show from 68. The team expects formal protocols to be agreed with BBC Archives on Tues, 28th April, at which time details of the recovery will be published

The Daily Star has been added to the British Newspaper Archive. Years covered 1978-1999. Handy. blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2026/04/21/i...

Didn’t help that the Stage newspaper in the 70s also had a column about pub entertainment called Puberama. (Did nobody think that through?) @GreavesIan.bsky.social was sitting next to me and it was like being in a school assembly.

Top left pic here: came across this in the early noughties in the dead silence of the Colindale Newspaper Library and could not contain my mirth.

Many Happy Returns to the mighty Lill.

Happy Birthday Denis Lill, born this day in 1942.

Does anyone have a copy of The Strauss Family DVD handy? If you do, could you check if the episodes have one ad break or two please? My copy is in the deepest corner of the loft.

Niche question about ATV ad breaks. I’m rewatching Nigel Kneale’s Beasts and each episode has a single ad break in the middle as opposed to the two that was more usual back then. I think that ATV’s Edward the Seventh was the same. Was it a prestige thing? Are there other examples?

‘Nothing Compares 2 Soups’

Barbara is coming … and here’s the cover. Out September, available to preorder now. www.amazon.co.uk/Barbara-Cart...

Sometimes being a one woman creative business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Today has been one of those days where I haven’t sold anything in my online shop. Have a look at my shop and please repost to spread the word. Thanks. gailmyerscough.co.uk

The #Blakes7 Production Diary Series C is available in May, featuring rare and never before seen photos; production documents; and fascinating insight from the cast and crew. Get the FULL story behind this much-loved series. The Series A and B Diaries are still available from www.cultedge.art

This caught my eye in Sainsbury's. Twinings may as well go the whole hog and launch some "Please make everything stop and go away" tea.

What did Terrance Dicks make of the sex in Lady Chatterley’s Lover? I’m glad you asked. 0tralala.blogspot.com/2026/04/a-ri...

🚨NEW EPISODE! 🚨 A conversation with friend of Gerry Davis, Anthony Clark, including a never before published interview with Gerry Davis himself! The archive interview has him sharing his memories of The Highlanders and The Moonbase. What a treat! Shares are much appreciated x Link ⬇️

Today, we're remembering Doctor Who script editor David Whitaker, born on this day in 1928. Here he is with his wife Joan Barry. We were proud to publish @0tralala.bsky.social's intimate biography of David back in 2023 and a new printing will be released next month. Order now from tenacrebooks.co.uk

I’m watching a Birmingham Bullring promo film from 1964 and it’s a joy: “Shopping in the Bullring Centre is a gay adventure!” narrates a sprightly sounding Richard Baker.

Started watching Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines this evening. I hope I’m not giving too much away by saying that they didn’t stop the pigeon in the first episode, but I’m looking forward to seeing how things unfold over the series.