Lion & Unicorn

Imperial fiction: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde From 1886, it’s the greatest ever horror story, re-read by ALWYN TURNER.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born 175 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2019/11/16/i...

Image from BBC sitcom TO THE MANOR BORN showing character Audrey fforbes-Hamilton reading a newspaper at the dining table

News coming in that our @finlay24.bsky.social has committed content again...

Coming soon on @lionunicorn.bsky.social , yours truly on the quiet treasure trove that is BBC4....
#bbc #writingcommunity #drama #documentary #film #history #art

‘What is the BBC for?’ Sachsgate, Kittengate, the Queen ‘losing it’ – the BBC had a difficult few years, reflects ALWYN TURNER.

"The footage was heavily edited and shown out of sequence, so that it gave the impression of the Queen stomping prematurely out of the session. Or, as Peter Fincham, the controller of BBC One put it, it showed her ‘losing it a bit and walking out in a huff’."
thelionandunicorn.com/2021/05/21/w...

Thank you. When the sub turns up for work, he'll be given a bottle of whisky and a revolver and shown into a darkened room.

Final Cut: Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999) SIMON MATTHEWS watches Tom Courtenay in a comedy set in the 1970s.

He is working-class and a disco fan, she's a middle-class punk-rocker. Can love bridge the social and cultural divisions?
thelionandunicorn.com/2025/11/13/f...

Les McKeown: ‘A cheeky little upstart’ The late Bay City Rollers singer in his own words, as recorded by ALWYN TURNER.

"To tell you the truth, it’s all about the hype..."
Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers was born 70 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2021/04/22/l...

The Great Silence ALWYN TURNER tells the story of the first commemoration of Armistice Day in 1919.

On Armistice Day, the story of the first Two-Minute Silence.
thelionandunicorn.com/2017/11/06/t...

Re-watching BECKET was wonderful. Obviously Burton (born #OTD 1925) is brilliant. But O'Toole is an astonishingly charismatic monster as Henry — surely his best Sixties role, after Lawrence?

Peter Glenville's direction & Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography are gorgeous too. Spielberg gorgeous.

‘What is the BBC for?’ Sachsgate, Kittengate, the Queen ‘losing it’ – the BBC had a difficult few years, reflects ALWYN TURNER.

"Blue Peter had invited viewers to name a new cat, and then ignored the people’s choice (either Cookie or Pussy, depending on whether one believed the BBC or the Sun), deciding instead to call it Socks"

@alwynturner.bsky.social on Auntie's bloopers👇

thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/w...

Final Cut: Now Barabbas Was a Robber (1949) SIMON MATTHEWS on an anti-death-penalty movie written by the brother of a prime minister.

On the centenary of his birth, here's Richard Burton in an early movie role as an IRA man, jailed for bombing offences, who harbours a discreet liking for his fellow men...
thelionandunicorn.com/2023/05/24/f...

Strip The Times of its Royal Charter!

Labour leadership elections: Part 2 Continuing ALWYN TURNER’s history of the post-war Labour Party, seen through leadership elections past (1976-88).

"Labour history is full of missed opportunities and great leader-that-never-were. But 1980 was the most catastrophic mistake of them all."
Michael Foot became leader of the Labour Party 45 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2016/08/06/l...

Final Cut: Of Time and the City (2008) SIMON MATTHEWS watches Terence Davies’s rumination on the Liverpool that was.

"Soldiers march away to the Korean war, an Orange parade passes by, Ewan MacColl sings ‘Dirty Old Town’ whilst slum clearance happens and new estates are built."
Film-maker Terence Davies was born 80 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2024/11/03/f...

YouTube video by Shakespeare Network Becket - 1964 - Richard Burton - Peter O'Toole - Film - Multiple Subtitles - Restored - 2024 - 4K

Tonight on YouTube, BECKET (1964), starring Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole.

youtu.be/LMwgMDUjVf0

Made using the Zohran Mamdani political signs generator: https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/for.html

‘What is the BBC for?’ Sachsgate, Kittengate, the Queen ‘losing it’ – the BBC had a difficult few years, reflects ALWYN TURNER.

"Blue Peter had invited viewers to name a new cat, and then ignored the people’s choice (either Cookie or Pussy, depending on whether one believed the BBC or the Sun), deciding instead to call it Socks"

@alwynturner.bsky.social on Auntie's bloopers👇

thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/w...

Anthony Barnett: “The Sixties were a catastrophic failure” The writer and campaigner on nationalism, the rise of the new right and how a fractured left can organise in response

"Liberalism, with a capital ‘L’ sees itself as knowing what is best, it regards the population as illiberal and dangerous, it is a ruling point of view. Paternalism is its middle name"

A fantastic, moving interview with the great @anthonybarnett.bsky.social.👇

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Final Cut: Now Barabbas Was a Robber (1949) SIMON MATTHEWS on an anti-death-penalty movie written by the brother of a prime minister.

On the centenary of his birth, here's Richard Burton in an early movie role as an IRA man, jailed for bombing offences, who harbours a discreet liking for his fellow men...
thelionandunicorn.com/2023/05/24/f...

Labour leadership elections: Part 2 Continuing ALWYN TURNER’s history of the post-war Labour Party, seen through leadership elections past (1976-88).

"Labour history is full of missed opportunities and great leader-that-never-were. But 1980 was the most catastrophic mistake of them all."
Michael Foot became leader of the Labour Party 45 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2016/08/06/l...

Final Cut: Of Time and the City (2008) SIMON MATTHEWS watches Terence Davies’s rumination on the Liverpool that was.

"Soldiers march away to the Korean war, an Orange parade passes by, Ewan MacColl sings ‘Dirty Old Town’ whilst slum clearance happens and new estates are built."
Film-maker Terence Davies was born 80 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2024/11/03/f...

BBC Radio 4 - The Last Post The untold story of The Last Post, one of the world's most famous pieces of music.

How did a simple British Army bugle call from the 18th century become a sacred anthem of death and remembrance?

Our @alwynturner.bsky.social tells the story of the Last Post for Radio 4.👇

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

The Great Silence ALWYN TURNER tells the story of the first commemoration of Armistice Day in 1919.

"Absolute stillness descended upon the vast crowds at the Cenotaph, a hush so total that the chimes of Big Ben were heard for miles around, in places never before reached in daylight hours. At the centre of the greatest city on Earth, all human activity ceased"
thelionandunicorn.com/2017/11/06/t...

‘The most degrading and bestial business in the world’ Remembrance hasn’t always been a pageant of national unity. ALWYN TURNER reveals how the British state once feared its veterans.

"If every ex-soldier would tell his own children the truth, the whole truth, about war, the war-spirit would be stamped out for ever"

— Ernest Mander, general secretary NUX

@alwynturner.bsky.social on radicalism and remembrance after the Great War👇

thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/t...

‘A wreath of poppies’ ALWYN TURNER on the early days of the British Legion’s Poppy.

"Clumps of crimson poppies, thrusting out from the lips of craters, straggling in drifts between the hummocks, undaunted by the desolation, heedless of human fury and stupidity..."
thelionandunicorn.com/2016/11/07/a...

Remembering the Referendum Party The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.

It's 30 years since Bovril tycoon James Goldsmith officially launched the Referendum Party in his usual modest fashion - and eventually changed British politics, but not in the way you think @lionunicorn.bsky.social

Remembering the Referendum Party The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.

"Suspicious of German domination and the benefits of free trade, James Goldsmith decided to set up a rival party, pledging to spend £20m on the cause, including £10m at the forthcoming General Election."
thelionandunicorn.com/2025/11/07/r...

Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt interview the Leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch on BBC Breakfast.

"Have you watched the John Lewis Christmas advert yet?"