13 Monday Nov 2017
Posted in Madonna, Magazines, Marilyn Monroe, Radio, Television
≈ Comments Off on Liz Smith 1923-2017
Liz Smith, the veteran gossip columnist known as the ‘doyenne of dish’, has died aged 94. Continue reading
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in Film, History, Marilyn Monroe, Radio, Television
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn in Love … and Art
Tags
Arthur Miller, Artists in Love, Documentaries, Immortal Marilyn, Karina Longworth, Marilyn Monroe, Podcasts, Samantha Morton, You Must Remember This
I have written two new reviews for the Immortal Marilyn website. The first, Dead Blondes: You Must Remember Marilyn, covers film historian Karina Longworth’s podcast series from earlier this year, while Artists in Love: Marilyn and Arthur Miller looks back at a 2016 TV documentary for the Sky Arts channel.
26 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Books, Non-Fiction, Politics, Radio, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Refugee Radio Times
Refugee Radio is a Brighton-based human rights charity. Their projects include a weekly radio show, live events and media training, as well as mentoring, a post-traumatic resilience panel, and a cookery group. Refugee Radio Times, a new book, was compiled by Stephen Silverwood, the charity’s chief executive, and Lorna Stephenson, who also edits a monthly newsletter of the same name. The book includes personal testimonies from refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants, alongside journalism and analysis by human rights campaigners. Continue reading
26 Thursday Sep 2013
Posted in History, Profumo Affair, Radio, Theatre, Wicked Baby
≈ Comments Off on Rumours
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BBC, Christine Keeler, Christopher Booker, Colin Shindler, Harold Macmillan, John Profumo, Private Eye, Profumo Affair, Radio 4, Richard Ingrams, Rumours, Satire, Stephen Ward, Timothy Bligh, Wicked Baby, Willie Rushton
Lord Denning’s report on the Profumo Affair was published fifty years this week. Though dismissed as a government whitewash, its steamy topic made this official enquiry an unlikely bestseller. At the same time, a very different version was unfolding in the pages of a new satirical magazine, Private Eye. This is the subject of Colin Shindler’s radio play, Rumours. Continue reading
05 Thursday Sep 2013
Tags
Beatrice Colin, Bonnie and Clyde, Great Depression, Outlaws, Radio 4, The True Story of Bonnie Parker
Beatrice Colin lives in Glasgow, and is the author of one of my favourite novels in recent years: The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite (2008), which tells the fantastic tale of how a young waif endures the hardships of World War I and later becomes a movie siren in the decadent milieu of 1920s Berlin.
When I read in The Mirror last Saturday that Dr Colin had written an episodic radio play about the notorious Barrow Gang’s crime spree during America’s Great Depression, I knew I had to listen in. Continue reading
30 Thursday May 2013
Posted in History, Profumo Affair, Radio
Tags
Archive on 4, BBC, Christine Keeler, Denning Report, Eugene Ivanov, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Hod Dibben, John Blake, John Profumo, Lord Denning, Lord Hailsham, Mandy Rice-Davies, Mariella Novotny, Noel Howard-Jones, Profumo Affair, Profumo Confidential, Rupert Allason, Stephen Ward, That Was the Week That Was, Thomas Critchley, Tom Mangold, Valerie Profumo
Fifty years after one of Britain’s most notorious political scandals erupted, journalist Tom Mangold has looked back on events in Profumo Confidential, a special episode of BBC Radio’s Archive on 4 series. Continue reading
01 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in Profumo Affair, Radio, Wicked Baby
Well He Would, Wouldn’t He? is a radio play by Charlotte Williams (the pseudonym of Sussex-born author and musician Charlotte Greig.) It marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Profumo Affair, retold by one of its chief protagonists: Mandy Rice-Davies. Continue reading
28 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted in History, Radio, Witchcraft
Tags
Aquilon, BBC, Carol Ann Duffy, Diane Purkiss, Documentary, Jeanette Winterson, Lancashire Witches, Pendle Witches, Radio 4, Robert Poole, The Curse of Pendle
Installation on Pendle Hill: photo by Brett Dixon/BBC, 2012.
The Curse of Pendle is a 30-minute documentary, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on November 23rd, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Lancashire Witch Trials. It is presented by the novelist Jeanette Winterson, who grew up in Accrington, within view of Pendle Hill.
‘We all knew the stories of Chattox and Demdike – names you’d never forget,’ Winterson recalls. ‘Were they witches? Did they still haunt the hill? It scared us kids to death.’ Continue reading
03 Friday Aug 2012
Posted in Film, Interviews, Marilyn Monroe, Radio
The 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death falls this weekend. In tribute, I have reviewed a recent radio documentary, celebrating her beauty, talent and intelligence. Continue reading
