Tag Archives: BBC
Oh Boy! Why certain Radio 1 DJs are missing believed wiped
If you sat down to watch a night of lost pop music TV shows from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, what would you expect to find? Fun, nostalgia, eye popping colour and experimentation, some great music. What I didn’t expect … Continue reading
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
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
Inside the world of Angels: the secret history of film & TV costumes
The chill hits me and a slight tang of…meat. I’ve entered the Fur store room at Angels Costumiers. We stand in silence. There are racks of fur coats – like a multiverse of Narnia entry points. Fox stoles are piled … Continue reading
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
A brief history of the News At Ten: one of the biggest mistakes in the British TV News business
The Culture Secretary’s speech to the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge last night included an observation about whether the BBC should be presenting its flagship evening bulletin at 10 pm – the same time as its main commercial rival … Continue reading
Young, British and Imam-in-Training: Who we met and why
There were two things producer Georgia Catt and I tried to do with this half hour documentary for Radio 4. One: avoid random isolated Muslim voices claiming to speak for a majority saying “That’s not Islam” about anything problematic, like … Continue reading
On The Road with Buddha: The Prince Who Walked Out of His Fairy Tale
UPDATED SEPT 2 What happens when a prince walks away from his kingdom? I love the symbolism and and dream like metaphors of fairy stories. So a “real life” one is all the more intriguing. I’d been fascinated with the … Continue reading
The Outer Limits: A fantastic voyage
“To God there is no zero. I still exist.” – Richard Matheson’s The Incredible Shrinking Man screenplay (1957) The summer solstice has just passed — marking the extreme tipping point of the earth’s axis and the longest day. It was … Continue reading
Nigel Farage & BBC’s UKIP election coverage: Nick Robinson on the “marmite” politician
This is the full transcript of my interview with the BBC’s Political Editor Nick Robinson for this week’s edition of Newswatch, about BBC News coverage of the Local and European Parliamentary elections. A slightly shorter version was used in transmission. The BBC … Continue reading