David Wharton

I remember many years ago, you got a bit upset that I'd accused you of looking a bit like Richard Herring. This costume isn't doing anything to disabuse me of that perception.

Via the novel it's based on.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Knees and Bumps-a-daisy

Though it's a slightly different thing, because it was written for artistic purposes. It's also significantly different from the film.

...and this is why I should read the whole thread before pitching in.

That one was more a treatment than a novelization. Greene wrote the novella first, to get his juices going before he started on the script.

Cheers. I am - after a year of chemo and a stem cell transplant that would have bankrupted me in many societies. It does speak to your point, though, that much of the major stuff is still amazing, but day-to-day interactions can be ridiculously obstructive.

On the other hand, if you want impeccable care, I can totally recommend getting blood cancer in Leicester.

The Spanish City is a very cheesy bit of seaside architecture in Whitley Bay. Many's the coin I wasted in 2p Falls machines there during my childhood. It also gets a namecheck in Dire Straits 'Tunnel of Love'.

As is demonstrated by the tumbleweed blowing around that post.

Team on Only Connect called the Whitley Baes getting a connecting wall group of Spanish Cities right, and very few people in the world knowing why that is pleasing.

Consequently this should be the Time Of The Writers; the moment when unassuming types with a flair for the written sentence finally have their day. But plot twist: Chat GPT steals the Meek's chance to inherit the Earth.

‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely...

Reminds me of the gag in both Shawshank and Porridge when the only con who can write decent prose starts a business supplying love letters for the others to send to their wives and girlfriends. We've accidentally ended up in a text-driven world hardly anyone is competent to operate.

Clearly got a taste for publicity, as well as for cola bottles.

I wouldn't say he came over well in most of the doc - but he did kind of redeem himself in the final episode or two.

Channel 4's Go Back to Where You Came From is shocking. I’m glad it was made | Gareth Benest The backlash to the reality series misses a key point: if this was an educational documentary, would anyone watch it? asks Gareth Benest of the charity International Broadcasting Trust

Same guy was in that Channel 4 doc where they sent some anti-immigrant people and some non-racists to experience what it's like being a refugee. You can see him in the background here.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Just to say that teachers do an incredibly difficult job, with all the right intentions, and can be the defining influence on a young person's life. They are the exact opposite of poisoners because good teaching provides the antidote to so many dangers

What AI doesn't understand is how refreshing a completely off-the-leash assignment is for a bored marker, and how joyously we will sometimes reward it just for breaking the tedium. It's a high-risk strategy, but there are days when it pays the jackpot.

Oh, excellent work. Congratulations.

Teacher training bursaries announced for next year. Zero for English, but 20k per student for Latin and Greek. Really taking on the national shortages there, DfE.

Chimerand say that to my face

It's in no way an auteur film. He's no auteur. Better understood in the same way we might think about a Golden Age studio - as a bit of capitalist machinery that every so often produces something larger than itself.

Alien, I think, is one of those cinematic moments when everyone involved was right. Scott, desperate to break, put in an insane level of effort and imagination, so it looks like it cost ten times its budget. Cobb and Giger shouldn't fit together, but somehow do. And Weaver is a perfect star.

Alien is remarkable. Thelma and Louise and Blade Runner are really good. But all he's ever been is a gun for hire - making an impressive job of whatever he's given, whether or not the materials are worth the effort. It's why he was so good at directing TV ads.

Various wrong-uns on and off screen, plus some very 1990s suspect messaging. The twist is cool, but it overshadows the narrative on subsequent viewings, so you end up watching the plot machinery not the characters. Despite all of of which, if it was on TV in my hotel room I'd definitely watch it.

On side with all this. These may not be Spotify's most egregious crimes, though.

As sure as the sun rises in the east and God made little green apples, anyone who describes themself as unapologetically something or other should start apologizing immediately and never stop.

Oh yes. Fair