Oh good, the programme with the haunted automaton child is back on the telly.
Ian Potter
@ianzpotter.bsky.social
Writes, talks, listens, reads. Not always in that order. Writer for BBC, Big Finish, Obverse Books, RiffTrax, Jim French's Imagination Theatre and money.
Watching a 2002 TV Burp now is a lot like being on holiday abroad and trying to make sense of one of those very long variety quiz shows in Spanish that the audience finds hilarious.
The Tom Baker classic "Doctor Who and the Horror of the Anatidae".
Comics Outta Context 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️@comiccontext.bsky.social · 5d ago
The whale in Pinocchio World War 3 Not existing Poison ivy The Universe existing at all The things that lived in the clock on Vision On A recurring dream of coloured blobs moving along a white line in a black void A Public Information Film where a doll's hair gets ripped out on an escalator.
Jonny Morris@jonnymorris.bsky.social · 6d agoThings I was frightened of as a child: 1. The staircase in my grandparents' house that led nowhere. 2. Bagpuss, specifically the bird. 3. Mamma Mia by ABBA. 4. Henry Woolf. 5. Ruined cathedrals. 6. Sapphire & Steel. 7. The mirror on my wardrobe. 8. Bees. 9. The dark. 10. The smell of petrol.
Gosh, my bank card PIN number day comes 'round so regularly. It's almost like it's every year now. Never forget.
An extract of my new book Out Now in The Guardian. It is the most astonishing story of how a same sex kiss was broadcast on the BBC back in 1990, without BBC executives knowing at the time. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
‘That was all secret’: the ‘gay mole’ who fought the BBC to show the first queer kiss on kids’ TV
Everyone thinks Byker Grove broke the taboo in 1994, but another teen drama got there first. Here’s the astonishing story of Two of Us, which put a gay relationship on UK screens – and was the origina...
theguardian.com
My work on #PendasFen would not have been possible without the access provided by the BBC Written Archives Centre. That is, until a major policy change in January 2025 effectively shut down independent, exploratory research. Background here: cstonline.net/is-the-bbc-a...
DEFENDING THE WAC: IS THE BBC A FIT AND PROPER KEEPER OF ITS OWN PAPER ARCHIVE? Ian Greaves on Defending the Written Archives Centre (Part 1)
When the creation of the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham was agreed, at a meeting of the Board of Management on 17 November 1969, it was done so with a view to history. Kenneth Lamb…
cstonline.net
Do order, it’s a terrific book. #PendasFen
Ian Greaves@greavesian.bsky.social · last wk.Thanks for reading. This thread barely scratches the surface. You may like to investigate my even more detailed book #PendasFen : Scene By Scene (Ten Acre Books, 2025). We do not supply to Amazon, so please try your bookshop or order direct from the publisher. Link in bio. Goodnight.
Putting together some music for my mother's 80th. There are a lot more songs about braes than I ever knew.
This is not a drill, the deeply odd identical man boys who sing duets as "I" making you worry they don't clearly differentiate which of them is which when they pronounce their love to someone in song have now lost David Tennant. Less later as we learn it.
Bit odd when an Australian show does an Acknowledgement of Country caption before every episode of series 1 and then just doesn't on series 2. I'm going to assume it's something to do with the international distributors but dropping it comes over as weird.
At the theatre, on press night. Mark Lawson is here. I shall look forward to his review. If we cross paths at the urinals I shall remind him of our chats across the green baize table on Front Row and at the National Theatre. He's bound to remember.
Blimey, Sir Trevor kept that quiet. Less surprised about Morgan.
Drivers: if you ever given a cheery honk of your horn in recognition or encouragement to someone you know running on the pavement beside a busy road, know that a) it's always indistinguishable from a threat or warning, b) it's often really alarming for runners when you're coming up from behind them,
29 years ago we were refitting a museum, decanting all the exhibits so the building could be redeveloped. It was quite an undertaking, long days, hard physical labour, painstaking care. In the middle of that first day someone had to find the never flown Union Flag so it could be raised to half mast.
Pleased to announce I am ready for fewer films with a Winston Churchill in now.
Last night we watched Absurd Person Singular on the iPlayer. It's on your actual BBC FOUR tonight. I think Act 2 might be one of the best bits of anything ever. It's worth giving it a go, I reckon.
Happy birthday to Mrs Percy B. Shelley whose husband let her write a novel. She probably had another name I dunno.
Am watching another Crown Court. A 26 year old Wendy Padbury is playing a 14 year old. A) tellies were smaller in the mid 70s, B) we accepted it was theatrical, C) we didn't put actual kids in courtroom dramas about alleged abduction then (and not just because telly was smaller and more theatrical).
I am amazed to learn there are two songs that mention a "cucumber castle". I'm hoping it was late 1960s slang for something.
#RunBore 12 miles on the treadmill this morning, decided to accompany it with The Alexei Sayle Podcast instead of up tempo bangers. That's the kind of filthy hedonist I am.
Another iteration of a synopsis distilled from the long version of something I already have in my head. A necessary but painful process of evolution but this is the most involved back and forth I've ever had before doing any of the bit I always consider the "proper work". I've probably been spoilt.
All the poor ITV companies that used to do half decent shows. When anyone rediscovers them or they get sold overseas they get badged BBC.
Watching a film with Ron Pember in. He's playing a bit of a weaselly Cockney fella.
Someone is out to destroy our champion high heel wearers. This must stop immediately, I refuse to only have friends left who wear clumpy boots.
We, and more particularly my spouse, have been popping in and helping a neighbour given a terminal diagnosis a few months back. Their family was a long way away but local friends rallied and gave comfort and support, rehomed their dog and dealt with the madness of emergency NHS phone lines. etc.
You will hear a lot about creating two incredibly potent songs on the same day, to even quibble it might have just have been in the same week is beneath us. I hope we'll hear even more about her philanthropy.