Category Archives: Cowboys!

Alan Bennett: On the art of the monologue & being teenage “jailbait”

To mark Alan Bennett’s 80th birthday, this is an updated post based on an In Conversation with the playwright, diarist and screenwriter  at the British Film Institute in March last year. It was focussed on his skills with the monologue, as part … Continue reading

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How The West Was Fun: When Britain loved cowboys

The Unforgiven (1961) – The Searchers in reverse This is about the back ground to the April 6th documentary I made for Radio 4 about the Western in British culture. You can listen again here: Archive on Four documentary Riding … Continue reading

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Mocha in the Family Latte: Race on American screens

“He should not be here, ” said the fish in the pot. ” he should not be here when your mother is not.” – The Cat In the Hat Dr Seuss (1957) It is a conundrum worthy of the massive … Continue reading

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Code-name Geronimo: Parallels between the Apache hero and Osama Bin Laden

Played out via helmet cam, Hollywood-style still photos released of the Commander-In-Chief, in the Situation Room supervising the kill. For an operation that was reportedly a year in the planning, an elementary understanding of the history of the American West … Continue reading

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The romance of Apache: RIP Jet Harris

I’ve always loved The Shadows, and when important figures in music die amidst major world events, I feel sad that their contribution gets overlooked. Jet Harris, apparently one of the first people to play electric bass guitar in Britain, as … Continue reading

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Women Prefer Jane Russell

Ain't There Anyone Here For Love by avinot In my early 20s I started working my way through a lot of old movies I hadn’t yet seen. When I sat down to watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes this eye popping clip of Jane … Continue reading

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Why I love Westerns

A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born,” the Wild West was still – just about – in living memory. And … Continue reading

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Little Feminist on the Prairie

This is the full version of my Guardian article published in November 2010, about why I chose her as my specialist subject on Celebrity Mastermind. What Laura Ingalls Wilder still  teaches us about independence, and living through an age of austerity. … Continue reading

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