Category Archives: Uncategorized
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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Ladybird books: Constructing the future past of modern Britain
I used to visit a beloved university English professor and his wife. He had won the Military Cross for hand to hand combat in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 but never talked about the terrible things he’d seen. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Design, Environment, Germany, History, Media, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 60s, Bachelor of Hearts, books, conway hall, culture, Hardy Kruger, Ladybird books, media, michael balcon, politics, publishing, Sylvia Syms, war, wolf rilla
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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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Why Nerve is the selfie generation’s Desperately Seeking Susan
Discussing Nerve and immersive gaming in film with Naomi Alderman on BBC Front Row on Radio 4 on August 11th and iplayer after. The Green Dress. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before in New York the moment it appeared … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Games, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, aidan quinn, cinema, dave franco, desperately seeking susan, emma roberts, film, Hollywood, madonna, media, nerve, New York, rosanna arquette
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When Cathy met Ken: Revisiting Cathy Come Home in Brexit Britain
The other night I watched Ken Loach meet Cathy – or rather the young actress Elle Payne, playing Cathy in a Cardboard Citizens’ staging of his 1966 landmark TV play Cathy Come Home. The production featured many actors with experience of homelessness. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, journalism, Media, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, BIG ISSUE, cardboard citizens, Cathy Come Home, culture, Ken Loach, kitchen sink drama, London, media, politics, tv
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The economics of burkas, bikinis & The Nice Guys
According to a recent BBC World Service programme about Malawi, the nation’s population hit 17.6 million this year and is expected to double by 2040, which the country’s finance minister described as “scary”. “A ticking timebomb of poverty and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Comedy, Culture, Film, Media, Religion, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, BIG ISSUE, charlie perfume, Charlies Angels, cinema, culture, feminism, film, Hollywood, Islamic fashion, laurence rossignol, lynda carter, media, The Bionic Woman, the nice guys, virginia slims, Wonder Woman
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Johnny Guitar? You probably think this film is about you.
This is the text of an introduction I gave at a re-release screening of Johnny Guitar at the British Film Institute on May 6th 2016 I saw Johnny Guitar for first time here at the BFI to whom I”ll always … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, bfi, Bigger Than Life, cinema, feminism, film, Hollywood, James Mason, Joan Crawford, Johnny Guitar, mercedes mccambridge, Natalie Wood, Nicholas Ray, Rebel Without A Cause, westerns
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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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Why Obi Wan Kenobi is pure evil & why R2 D2 is Moses
An excellent panel of minds got together at Conway Hall’s latest #LondonThinks event last Thursday to discuss the theology and ethics of Star Wars films. You can watch it in full here on Youtube (below). Or open it in another … Continue reading
How the Space Shuttle Broke My Heart
This weekend’s Radio 4 Extra Floating In Space 3-hour special (9am and 7pm Saturday Mar 1th and iplayer after) with Simon Guerrier explores the history and the fantasy of manned space exploration from the cosmonauts to dreams of Mars … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Culture, Design, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Science, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, Carl Sagan, culture, film, FTW, nasa, Obama, politics, Space shuttle
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