Neil Brand

Don't think I can remember a Bafta awards season where so many of the films are adaptations of recent British literary sources. There's a Deborah Levy, a Jim Crace, a Maggie O'Farrell, a Kazuo Ishiguro, an Adam Mars-Jones, a Helen MacDonald (@hjm.bsky.social) and two (!) Max Porters.

My new plan is to harvest rage bait by inflaming the internet with my controversial views, such as Peeping Tom is wildly over-rated and Norman Wisdom was a bit of a twat.

Today, 2.15pm, Radio 4!

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It does lack a wild coastline....

Not me, Oxfordshire! (Stands well back...)

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Don't feel you have to hold back, Tanya!

Anyone in the weird nowhere that is Oxfordshire desperate for something good to go to? 👇🏻

Oxfordshire friends, I'm at Matrix Arts Centre, Sutton Courtenay OX14 4UA 4pm this afternoon with my laugh-a-minute silent movie show. See you there!

Extraordinary lingual acrobat, game player with a serious, ethical heart, a populist dramatist who could create rollercoaster character development alongside an elitist spokesman of timeless philosophical insight. The most influential writer in my life. RIP Tom.

Enjoyed hearing from Oliver Postgate's son Simon about Bagpuss (work is beginning on a new film) at Hammersmith's Riverside Studios which is very far from Blackeath. 🙀- this is intended as a Bagpuss yawn.

Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.

my parents took me to see rosencrantz & guildenstern are dead when i was young. i’d have been sixteen or so, so my memories are vague - i think it was the national’s adrian scarborough/simon russell beale version - but the opening is one of the best, and most enduring memories, i have

Translation: "PLEEEEASE forget about the EPSTEIN FILES!"

Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada to be released by BFI Distribution The time-travelling third feature from the BAFTA-winning director of Bait and Enys Men will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on 24 April.

Rose of Nevada in UK cinemas
24th April 2026

www.bfi.org.uk/news/mark-je...

Magic Rays season: the documentaries - Illuminations John Wyver writes: As noted earlier in the week, I have curated a screening season at BFI Southbank in January to tie in with the publication by Bloomsbury and the BFI of Magic Rays of Light: The Earl...

Magic Rays season: the documentaries

More on the screenings at BFI Southbank in January; go here for my first notes on the documentaries that we will screen on the 8th and 15th of the month.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/magic-rays-s...

Say no to bullying of NHS staff Treatment of striking NHS staff This helps to explain the treatment of NHS workers on strike in Gloucestershire in recent months.  A small but mighty group of workers have been on strike since...

I just learnt that over £100,000 of NHS funds have been wasted on defending bullying instead of paying frontline staff fairly.

Sign the petition to demand that Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust investigate how their CEO, Kevin McNamara, treats NHS staff. www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Excuse my language but …

I am so fucking tired of shit like this.

The Truth about The Truth About Christmas No matter what you may have read, the first BBC audio drama was actually broadcast on Christmas Eve 1922 – and it was genre-adjacent. The Truth About Christmas was written by Phyllis Twigg, a…

A key piece of radio history given its due finally
@b7media.bsky.social @soundliness.com @amsewell.bsky.social @neilkbrand.bsky.social
scifibulletin.com/2025/11/26/t...

Jack Shepherd as Renfield in the BBC adaptation of Dracula

Sorry to see 'Wycliffe' actor Jack Shepherd has gone. Watched him recently in the 1977 BBC adaptation of Dracula and he was fantastic as Renfield.

The president of the United States is insane. Full stop.

Jack Shepherd: English actor and star of Wycliffe dies at 85 He will be remembered for his roles as TV detective Charles Wycliffe and fictional Labour MP Bill Brand.

R.I.P. Jack Shepherd www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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and THIS is how i realise that sag-aftra includes radio artists!

BAFTRA works though!

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my campaign to have radio included in the baftas has once again been rejected on the grounds that “british academy radio, film and television awards” makes for a “frankly upsetting” acronym

It has been pointed out to me that this means 2.5 billion-dollar AI music company Suno has spent less money on music than many individual music fans

What can we learn from RFK's 'erotic poetry'? That Americans need to get better at enjoying a scandal | Marina Hyde The US health secretary’s ‘digital affair’ with Olivia Nuzzi doesn’t need sombre analysis. Take it from this Brit: sometimes laughter is the only option, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde on particularly fine form today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sack Sir Robbie Gibb from the BBC board Robbie Gibb said if he doesn't get his way, he'll blow the BBC up. It's ridiculous that a man like that has a spot on the BBC's board. Our public broadcaster MUST be independent. Agree? Sign to get Gi...

Robbie Gibb said if he doesn't get his way, he'll blow the BBC up. It's ridiculous that a man like that has a spot on the BBC's board. Our public broadcaster MUST be independent. Agree? Sign to get Gibb sacked: