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Celebrity Mastermind
Specialist subject: Laura Ingalls Wilder
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- Still think the Girl Guides should have gone with my more concise (&superhero tinged) suggestion: “To do the right thing.” 12 hours ago
- An entire R4 Thought For The Day comparing superheroes & villains, their powers&motivations. Sweet. 12 hours ago
- Well thanks all. My column about my life in municipal pools (including the one with Paul Weller in it) is for next week’s @BigIssue 2 days ago
- So is the Streatham common concrete paddling pool at the bottom the bigger one? 2 days ago
- Help a Sarf London hack filing a column: Is Streatham Common paddling pool ever filled anymore? Lambeth Council website is vague about it. 2 days ago
Tag Archives: elitism
Murder, Mirth and Care Bears: The uses of an Oxford English degree
Writing for news bulletins, writing for standup comedy, writing murders for tv drama, writing for comics and fantasy gaming novels. These were some of the uses to which a group of graduates from my old Oxford College have put our … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Education, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged culture, elitism, English literature, FTW, journalism, literature, media, oxford, publishing, St Edmund Hall, Stewart Lee, terrorism, tv, universities
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Poor Cows and Angry Young Men: 50 years of Kitchen Sink Drama
The director Ken Loach and the theatre critic Michael Billington remember the dawn of the 60s well. “The 50s weren’t bleak and depressing,” spluttered Loach, listening to art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston explain the grim postwar era that spawned the new … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Film, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, 60s, British social realism, cinema, culture, elitism, feminism, film, FTW, Ken Loach, kitchen sink drama, music, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, tv
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The Politics of Spin: Beware the bland bomb
Image copyright & courtesy of www.barrydbulsara.com “I’m not sure it says government is crap,” said Armando Iannucci recently, of his political satire The Thick of It. “I think it says the people in government are crap.” Nowadays politicians and their … Continue reading
Posted in journalism, Media, Politics, Radio, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged Armando Iannucci, BBC, culture, David Cameron, elitism, journalism, Malcolm Tucker, media, politics, The Thick Of It, tv
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Triumph of the Eastern Will: How the Olympics came clean about winning
A version of this article originally appeared in The Big Issue Magazine By the time you read this a couple of weeks will have passed since the end of the London 2012 Games. The Paralympics are about to start. Politicians … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, Sport, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, 80s, Anabolic steriods, communism, DDR, Doping, East Germany, elitism, FTW, GDR, Nadia Comeneci, Olga Korbut, Rebecca Adlington, Tom Daley, Ye Shiwen
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A Taste Of Honey: 50 years on
I’m an extraordinary person! There’s only one of me, like there’s only one of you. We’re unique! Young! Unrivalled! Smashing! Bloody marvellous!” (Jo and Geoff in A Taste of Honey) ”Now? We’d probably have to make it via reality TV.” … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Culture, Film, Theatre, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, A Taste of Honey, cinema, culture, Doctor Who, elitism, film, kitchen sink drama, Murray Melvin, Rita Tushingham, Shelagh Delaney, Smashing Time, Theatre Royal Stratford, Torchwood
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1951 then and now: Britain Mended, Britain on the Make
If you want to know what Britain was like before The Festival of Britain you should watch the masterful 1950 film noir, Night And The City. The clip is a bit of a spoiler, but features a chase around the … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Design, Film, Religion, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, cinema, culture, design, elitism, Festival of Britain, film, FTW, politics, Richard Widmark, universities
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How To Loot It — Who’s defining the riots?
UPDATE: Monday August 15th How interesting that the Prime Minister has today come out with a nation healing speech which concludes with a reference to bankers’ bonuses, MPs’ expenses and an insistence that “There is no them and us. Only … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Crime and Justice, Culture, journalism, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged bling, crime, culture, David Cameron, elitism, journalism, media, politics, riots
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Privilege: Lessons from the Swinging 60s and the Swingeing (cuts) 80s
This has been superceded by the longer post above which is the full comment piece on how far we really are re-living aspects of the 1980s: major strikes, job cuts, recession, Two Nations. Since the Royal wedding in April I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Culture, Media, Politics, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, 80s, cinema, culture, elitism, film, music, politics
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The Truth About The Jam Generation (80s remix)
Since David Cameron claimed class war anthem “Eton Rifles” as one his Desert Island Discs, many political journalists seem to have bought the argument that they are “The Jam Generation”; the subject of a recent Radio 4 series. It seemed … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Education, Film, journalism, Media, Music, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, books, cinema, culture, elitism, ferris bueller, film, FTW, gove, journalism, literature, media, music, oxford, politics, smiths, universities
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The Guinea Pig — experiments in schooling deprived teenagers
Looking at all the wistful posters for the new TV series, Jamie’s Dream School immediately made me think of the Boulting Brothers’ fascinating film 63 year old film The Guinea Pig — also for popular entertainment — about an educational … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Education, Film, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 40s, Boulting Brothers, cinema, culture, elitism, film, FTW, grammar schools, politics, Richard Attenborough, tv
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