Category Archives: Radio
What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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Filth, fury and the funny way Britain feels about Joe Orton
You never forget your first time. I was 19 years old. I descended into a dark, cramped basement where student actors brought to life a weird, twisted sexual triangle. Going to student drama productions in odd spaces around the University … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Crime and Justice, Culture, Film, Media, Radio, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, crime, culture, dr emma parker, elitism, film, joe orton, john lahr, kenneth halliwell, Kenneth Williams, Leicester, leonie orton, literature, London, prick up your ears, satire, sheila hancock, soft touch arts, tv
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The making of Do Pass Go: boardgames in the internet age
Do Pass Go my BBC Radio 4 documentary, airing on Friday April 14th 2017, has its origins in a piece I wrote about the Libyan dictator General Gadaffi playing chess on TV in the run up to his toppling, and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Children, Culture, Design, Games, Germany, Radio
Tagged boardgames, british museum, climate oasis, culture, dagnis skurbe, essen, friedemanm friese, FTW, Germany, grant dalgliesh, irving finkel, James wallis, jessy bradish, magic the gathering, mombasa, pandemic, royal game of ur, the dice tower, the last spike, tom vasel
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The making of John Ruskin’s Eurythmic Girls
John Ruskin’s Eurythmic Girls is a Radio 3 Sunday Feature which airs this Sunday Feb 26th at 645pm Intellectual and art school champion of medieval art he may have been, but it is John Ruskin’s alleged horror of female pubic … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Education, History, Radio
Tagged culture, eurythmics, feminism, John Ruskin, of queens gardens, Queenswood School, sesame and lilies, Victorians
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How to win the coming culture war in 2017
A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in January 2017. Journalism worth paying for. Available weekly from street vendors or subscriptions here. History rarely falls into neat numerical decades. I would assert the 1980s (yuppies, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Film, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged ali smith, BIG ISSUE, books, cinema, culture, culture war, Disney, dr quinn medicine woman, dreamgirls, everbody's talking about jamie, feminism, film, FTW, henry krieger, Hollywood, jane seymour, jon musker, media, moana, pauline boty, politics, rogue one, ron clements, susan faludi, tv, tyrus wong, unforgotten, Wonder Woman
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How should broadcast news journalists interview and talk about extremists?
Over the weekend I spoke to veteran ex BBC journalist Robin Lustig, Berlin correspondent Damien McGuinness for an insight into Germany’s media and Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s 2012 senior strategist for 2 articles I wrote for The Guardian and The … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, journalism, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, TV
Tagged AfD, alt right, BBC, Berlin, BIG ISSUE, Damien McGuinness, Donald Trump, journalism, Luegenpresse, media, Mitt Romney, Nazism, Newswatch, Nigel Farage, Pegida, politics, Robin Lustig, Stuart Stevens, terrorism, tv
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We’ll get the President we deserve: Suzan Lori Parks on Hillary Clinton & America’s woman problem
“You’ve consumed too much of the Kool-Aid that the man has been serving you.” Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Susan Lori Parks came into the Front Row studio last week to talk about When Father Came Home From The Wars opening at … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, History, Media, Politics, Radio, Theatre, Uncategorized, War
Tagged American Civil War, culture, feminism, Hillary Clinton, media, politics, Suzan Lori Parks, Theatre Royal Stratford, US politics, war
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The future sound and vision of Liverpool: Biennial special preview
Tonight’s BBC Front Row is a special programme mostly recorded on location in Liverpool previewing this year’s Biennial of Contemporary Art that runs till October. I particularly enjoyed talking to Mark Leckey about his dreamscape film about his visual memory … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Environment, Media, Radio
Tagged BBC, betty woodman, front row, liverpool, liverpool biennial, mark leckey, marvin gaye chetwynd, radio 4
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At home with type: Alan Kitching – master of letter press
All photos copyright Jerome Weatherald/BBC. No re-use without permission To step inside Alan Kitching’s studio is to enter the past and the future present. The rich fragrance of ink and wooden trays transports you to a pre digital world. This … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Design, Media, Radio, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged Alan Kitching, graphic design, letter to my younger self, letterpress
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Up the Wellington Arch with Beatrice the Angel of Peace
English Heritage are doing a cleanup on the largest bronze sculpture in Europe – the quadriga of the Angel of Peace by Adrian Jones. Note the war booty in that chariot and the mixed message of the olive branch in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Design, History, Radio, War
Tagged adrian john, front row, hyde park corner, London, quadriga, wellington arch
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