David Cottis

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford review – a dazzling wartime fantasy Dark magic, fascism and romance in blitz-stricken London: this exuberant novel is a popcorny delight

Have you seen this? www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

i had two, both from Look-In, via the US TV show 'Big Blue Marble'. Neither lasted more than a couple of letters. so I can't honestly say how odd they were, or whether they thought that about me.

Strange to think that Victor Hugo and Thomas Hardy were in Tussaud's

I love the way Gilgamesh is the third named attraction, as if he had a big following within comic fandom

The Shitheads

years ago, obvs

I think part of the problem is that for decades the D'Oyly Carte held a monopoly on them, and they never changed a thing, to the extent that even the encores were rehearsed in. They lost the monopoly years but that remains in the folk memory.

I once overheard a group of ten year-olds discussing this on a train, and saying how terrible they thought it was.

The Player - Bicycle Thieves

Listen: Classic Folk Classic Folk with Mike Norris Classic Folk is unique. It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings. From the great source singers to the legends o...

Merry Pancake Day!

This week's Classic Folk includes tracks by:
The Demon Barbers
Cupola:Ward
Nick Drake
Vishtèn
Dr Strangely Strange
Sandy Denny
Shirley Collins
Blackbeard's Tea Party
Alistair Anderson & Northlands
Bottle Bank Band
Megson
Dave Burland
and more!
www.efdss.org/listen

Apart from anything else, what does he have against the Welsh?

Bit of a basic @secondmentions.bsky.social

... one gag towards the end needs the accompanist to provide its (musical) punchline. A few years later, Milestone made the first film version of The Front Page, and it's hard not to see this as a rehearsal. (4/4)

According to Bryony Dixon's introduction, Corinne Griffith was the actress for whom the phrase 'the camera loves her', was invented, and by god it does - weird that she'd been more or less forgotten. Surprisingly for a silent, the film uses music as a storytelling device; in particular... (3/4)

... the most commercially successful Broadway playwright of the 1920s. The story concerns a woman who seeks to be an opera singer, gets a job at a dodgy cabaret (with a lesbian-coded boss), runs off to Monte Carlo, and finds herself being pursued by both a middle-aged roue and his son. (2/4)

The Garden of Eden (1928) ⭐ 6.7 | Comedy, Drama 1h 19m | Not Rated

Proof that there are still masterpieces to be found, even in a field as well-examined as Hollywood cinema. Lewis Milestone invents the screwball comedy working from a script by Lubitsch collaborator Hans Kraly, itself based on a play by Avery Hopwood... (1/4) www.imdb.com/title/tt0018...

... and some of the dialogue, and gives it a new shape, more interesting than the serial duologues of the play, with less emphasis on the allegorical. Amazingly influential, both as play and film - start with A Canterbury Tale, Twelve Angry Men, Teorema, Brimstone and Treacle... (3/3)

Its message of tolerance must have felt timely, especially given that both director and star - the luminous Conrad Veidt - were refugees from Hitler's Germany. Screenplay, co-written by Alma Reville (who deserves to be known for more than being Mrs. Hitchcock), takes the basic premise... (2/3)

The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935) ⭐ 7.0 | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy 1h 30m | Approved

1935 version of Jerome K. Jerome's play about a modern-day Jesus changing the lives of the inhabitants of a London rooming-house, updated to the then present day. (1/3) (1/3)https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026854/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_0_in_0_q_passing%2520of%2520the%2520third%2520floor%2520back

the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style

(Leaving aside the obvious joke about the first line)

Romancing Wuthering Heights An interactive workshop with two different times to choose from

Wuthering Heights is not a romance.

Obviously.

But why do people think it is?

So many reasons but... I'm going to be exploring how we got here through adaptation history in a workshop so come join me!

www.eventbrite.com/cc/romancing...

'i Saw Her Standing There' should have been originally by Jerry Lee Lewis

In Our Time - Henry IV Part 1 - BBC Sounds Shakespeare's powerful exploration of power and succession with Hotspur, Hal and Falstaff.

Really enjoyed this, in which @oldfortunatus.bsky.social, @lucycmunro.bsky.social, and my esteemed colleague Laurence Publicover, all wearing lightly their massive learning, talk about how much fun the Henry IV plays are.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

So, Paul Simon (and Billy Bragg), if you were 21 years when you wrote the song, and 22 now you're singing it, does that mean you didn't sing it all while you were writing it? That must have been tricky.

Star of the Month: Bugs Bunny

@secondmentions.bsky.social 'the carrot-chomping icon' www.tcm.com/articles/now...

Woman overheard coming out of American Psycho at the Almeida theatre: 'Well, that was a headf*ck.'

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Sondheim

There are 14 great choices in this favorite-Sondheim-song roundup, and together, they still represent just a tiny fraction of his brilliance. Come for the wonderful picks; stay for the guy in comments insisting that he's a "fraud" and that musicals died 60 years ago. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/a...

... aren't necessarily the people best suited to keeping it. Also as in that film, the ideological rivalry is mirrored by a romantic one, as the two battle over a woman. Great performances by the three leads, and a surprising moral complexity. (3/3)

Glenn Ford and William Holden play two Federal officers returning from the Civil War, and reacting to peace in radically different ways, a subject that must have chimed with a lot of its audience in 1948. . As in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the people who won the West... (2/3)