Tag Archives: 80s
Duran Duran and the glamour v grit music wars of the 80s
Ahead of tonight’s BBC4 Duran Duran night.. There is one rather interesting section of my interview with John Taylor and Roger Taylor we couldn’t quite get into the final Front Row edit on Monday night.  So here’s the transcript. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1980s, 80s, culture, Duran Duran, front row, james bond, music, pop videos
1 Comment
Lessons for Trump and us all from the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library
“I wonder what it’s all about, and why We suffer so, when little things go wrong? We make our life a struggle When life should be a song…” We should perhaps we grateful that the teenage Ronald Reagan never grew … Continue reading
Posted in History, journalism, Media, Politics
Tagged 80s, BIG ISSUE, Donald Trump, politics, Ronald Reagan
3 Comments
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
4 Comments
I Dressed Ziggy Stardust – revisited
I Dressed Ziggy Stardust is getting a re-broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday afternoon. Here’s a bit about why: When I pitched I Dressed Ziggy Stardust to Radio 4 back in 2012 there was nothing more to it than a … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Music, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 1970s, 1980s, 70s, 80s, alice bloch, BBC, David Bowie, London, Rupa Huq, Shyama Perera, Ziggy Stardust
9 Comments
To go or not to go: The freakonomics of the school reunion
This article first appeared in The Big Issue Magazine: Journalism worth paying for. Available from street vendors across the UK or by subscription. “My generation thought we’d fix the world for free. We were LBJ (Lyndon B J cohnson) technocrats.” … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Education, Film, journalism, Media, Radio, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, freakonomics, Friends Reunited, Grosse Pointe Blank, Hairspray, Harvard, John Waters, Minnie Driver, Steven Levitt, The Red Book
5 Comments
Don Johnson on being a man’s man and “toooo much oestrogen”
I interviewed Don Johnson yesterday for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row programme about his new film Cold In July. Two things that stood out — the way he deploys a disarming exaggerated twang to the end of phrases and words … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, cinema, Cold In July, Django Unchained, dolly parton, don johnson, feminism, Fifty Shades of Grey, FTW, Guys and Dolls, Hollywood, masculinity, media, Miami Vice, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Shepard, Steel Magnolias, tv
3 Comments
The Drag Queen Tombola and other tales of cross dressing glory
This column first appeared in The Big Issue magazine. I was once asked what was the best night out I ever had in London. My husband, thought I’d say it was that romantic night we went to the National Theatre … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Film, Germany, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant, Amy Cudden, Berlin, cross dressing, culture, drag, film, Jeeves and Wooster, Monty Python, One Man Two Guvnors, pantomime, pop videos, Prince Charming, Roger Lloyd Pack, Spitting Image, Steve Nallon
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The only thing I hate more than politicians is puppets: Spitting Image extras
This post has the fun extras from my interviews with some of the core Spitting Image team and one of their targets, for a British Film Institute feature, Spitting Image: Still biting after all these years, about the 30th … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, Birmingham, Central television, culture, David Owen, David Steel, ITV, John Lloyd, Kenneth Baker, Liberal SDP Alliance, Margaret Thatcher, media, Murdoch, Norman Tebbit, Peter Fluck, politics, Roger Law, Roy Hattersley, satire, SDP, Steve Nallon, Swift, Thatcher, tv
3 Comments
Summertime and how to reclaim your inner teen
The heat of a real summer does funny things to your memory. I find myself instinctively wanting to wear pastels, frosted eyeshadow, roll the sleeves up above my elbow and go to the cinema for the nth time, to see … Continue reading
Ferris Bueller and Me
John Hughes died four years ago and I wrote this post that day August 6th 2009 before I had a blog of my own. Just found it again thanks to the interwebs. Four years on things aren’t quite the same … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comedy, Culture, Film, Media, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, Chicago, cinema, culture, ferris bueller, film, FTW, Generation X, Hollywood, John Hughes, Matthew Broderick, Molly Ringwald, Obama, politics
15 Comments
