Michael Mills

To fix the BBC, focus on competence and cash Corporation fails to learn from criticism, while politicians have consciously reduced its scope for quality journalism

I swear, someone *always* resigns when I go on holiday:

My commitments as BBC Director General will be clear:

Minus five points for any couple on Strictly that does a “notices and reacts to the camera” bit in their routine.

I wonder whether this or all the farting about LLMs will seem to have been more significant in ten years time.

Joe & @jameslark.bsky.social talk to one of their favourite authors about writing The Chimes of Midnight and Jubilee, coming to terms with your own work, and the creating unique short story collections. Insight into the writing process from one of the masters.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

The DVD cover of The Thick of It series one and two featuring a very unlikely still of Peter Capaldi mid-rant.

They had to go with what they could, but…

👏

Obviously right to criticise it when it makes mistakes but the BBC is broadly very good and British people don’t realise how lucky they are to have it.

The better casting of the Audible versions is, yes, largely down to how much easier it is to get Names on board, but it also smacks of the people involved having actually read the books and thought about them.

Child benefit: HMRC to review thousands of suspended payments The tax body had used travel data to conclude that thousands of parents had left the country permanently but many say they just went on holiday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Bloody hell. You wouldn’t pass a fairly basic data apprenticeship if you missed this yawning gap in your data.

Doctor Who: The Chimes of Midnight

AKA

The Cook, the Chauffeur, the Maid and Her Killer

Conservative PMs very much the So Solid Crew of politics.

Liz Truss turning up at these things always reminds me of the bit in The West Wing when they wonder if John Goodman will get a presidential library.

Tony Blair & Gordon Brown = 13 years

David Cameron through to the end = 14 years

La brea tar pits

Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists.

You're telling me that there's a black ichor under the earth made from the ancient dead, whose burning can realize all the dreams of man, but only at the price of slowly returning the earth to its primordial state?

Christ alive, can you imagine if Tomb Raider came out today? Female hero, female tech bro villain, gods with disabilities. If anything, we’ve gone backwards.

From the Bad Place: user @honeypluton posted "Honestly I've never seen lord of the rings that shit is none of my business", which @lukeisamazing has quote-tweeted with two words: "Tom Bombadil".

Entirely accurate.

We often speak of you.

And Another Thing

Hard agree - I interviewed Alan Cumming and director Jono McLeod about My Old School a few years ago, it's such a brilliant, gentle dissection of an extraordinary lie and it's consequences

A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?

Twelfth Doctor: "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"

I’m here for Joe and Nick’s beautiful friendship. #CelebrityTraitors

There we go, lads. Fill yer boots. #celebritytraitors

Frame 1: Bart Simpsons says to Lisa "Watch this, Lise. You can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half." Frame 2: Nick Mohammed on the Celebrity Traitors, shocked as he's just been told by Alan Carr that Alan is a traitor.

#CelebrityTraitors

Just perfect television. #traitors

FUCKING SHAKESPEARE #TheCelebrityTraitors

The metaphor alien from Star Trek: Darmok.

“Joe and Alan at the roundtable.” #TheTraitors

Hamster Book Club Merchandise has arrived! @devondan.bsky.social

what did anonymous do on the 5th of november

Next week, I’ll be interviewing the glorious Jacqueline Rayner for the Hamster Book Club opening weekend in January.

If you have any questions for Jac - pop them below.

This news is too damn sexy.