Paul Masterman

My Saturday Night Robert Redford tribute movie. Classic and classy conspiracy thriller from when conspiracies were real. You have to sit down in a darkened room afterwards to recover from Redford and Dunaway’s combined charisma.

Good work by fellow toilers in the comedy fields @jsdocherty.bsky.social @mikecooperrp.bsky.social and @iansearle.bsky.social And bravo to GOAT @gregorpatoncomedy.bsky.social. Two broadcast credits for me this series, so I’m taking that.

There’s also a question whether this is a good appointment even in comms terms. The days of obsessing over what the Sun and Mail think have long gone.

Starmer and The Sun: An Appointment that Shows Everything that Is Wrong with Power and the Press in Britain Keir Starmer has signalled the direction of his Government by appointing a former Editor of The Sun newspaper – who has a criminal conviction under the Sexual Offences Act – as a communications adviso...

"David Dinsmore is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong with the relationship between power and the press"

Starmer has appointed a former Editor of The Sun – who has a criminal conviction under the Sexual Offences Act – as a communications advisor.

Again, as always, the water we swim in.

Every day in every way you’re getting better and better.

 I liked this one from my submissions to #BTN last week:

Rock legend Ozzy Osbourn has died aged 76. An update of TV’s The Osbournes is now planned with former Chancellor George Osborne hilariously explaining to poor people that “we’re all in this together “.

#btnnb

Yep. Here’s to more.

Good work Jen. And always nice to hear you on Dead Ringers too (with other #BreakingTheNews alumni).

Well played @jsdocherty.bsky.social . You’re on a roll.

Good work @jsdocherty.bsky.social

Another topical news bit for me in today’s BBC’s #BreakingTheNews Two hits in three episodes is a personal best, so quite pleased with myself.

Wimbledon starts today. Then it’s the Last Night of the Proms, Bonfire Night and Christmas.

👏👏

👏

And I got a letter in the Guardian too. Perhaps Cosmic Ordering actually works.

Thanks, sir. And good to be in such high-class company.

The first joke on the first episode of a new series is some kind of achievement, particularly after a run of ducks and sitting out the last series. A lesson there.

Why do they call it the Spending Review when most of it is about not spending?

A bloody and empty stage at a performance of Shakespeare’a Titus Andronicus after a series of murders, mutilations and other horrors.

My Saturday Night Play (at the RSC, Stratford): Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare’s bloody, feverish, shocking, blackly funny Roman history play. Picture shows the empty stage at the end after a series of murders, mutilations and other horrors.

For a moment I thought it was coverage of an explosion at a Laura Ashley factory.

Amy Winehouse had a hairstylist as she couldn't beehive herself.

A shot from a moving car on the M6 motorway, showing a beautiful sunset.

Sunset over the M6, which coincidentally is the title of my new album.

A tad crowded in the Impressionist wing of the Musee d’Orsay, Paris today. I’m told the pictures are lovely.

From my Paris hotel balcony…

I’ve finally succumbed to the AI doll trend. Not sure I got the prompts spot on.

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

Just bought. About to take a deep dive with Zuck and Bill. The good. The bad. And the very ugly.

Scoop: Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus says she’s resigning after a column on Jeff Bezos’s Wall Street Journal-like opinion pivot was rejected by Will Lewis

65 new internal comms and change comms jobs in this week’s Strictly Internal, covering openings in the US, UK, and Canada. 7 remote roles, 6 transformation-focused comms roles, and a great lineup of companies.

Check it out and thanks for reading!

www.strictlyinternal.com/p/internal-c...

Grounds for a bit of optimism

a man with a mustache is sitting on a swing in the park . ALT: a man with a mustache is sitting on a swing in the park .

Hello, hello…is there anyone here?

In early 2020, a pandemic was spreading. The UK’s PM went on a 10 day half-term holiday during which he was uncontactable and the government went into panic mode, focusing, as Hancock related to the COVID enquiry, on buying enough body bags. 1/8