Alan Bennett’s On the Margin
A mid-60s television series that fell victim to the BBC’s bizarre tape recycling policy, Alan Bennett’s On the Margin is now reduced from six thirty minute episodes to just 47 minutes of audio. This presumably provides it with a degree of mythic status among Alan Bennett fans, promising some insight into the early development of the great man’s work. The twelve sketches here swing between slapstick and dry humour, with the dry humour we more

Turner Classic Movies: What’s the point?
Okay, so it’s a rubbish photo, but you will be able to see what I’m getting at. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a great pitch – ‘TCM celebrates landmark films of all genres from across the decades including Midnight Cowboy, Boogie Nights and Apocalypse Now’ – but ruins the films it shows by broadcasting them in the most ridiculous format. This is Boogie Nights, a film singled

Alistair Cooke’s Seasonal Letters from America
Each of these seasonal letters from Alistair Cooke is a gem. Dating from 1951 to 2003, they are now doubly impressive as they don’t just take the reader stateside, but back to another time. Just the right length, Cooke’s words are precise and his voice mellifluous. However, the package lets them down. Justin Webb’s introductions are at best redundant and at worst irritating; he provides a synopsis of each letter and on one occasion advises us to listen out for Cooke’s description of Osama Bin Laden. The letters require such little scene setting it would have been bett

The Swansong of Wilbur McCrum by Bronia Kita
Bronia Kita’s first novel, The Swansong of Wilbur McCrum, is a funny book in both senses. A Western told by its eponymous hero in his dying moments, the swansong is a slapstick comedy of accidents and misunderstandings that propel Wilber McCrum from a child too weak for the Wild West to infamous outlaw to circus freak to respectable town librarian. The novel certainly has its comic moments, but there is no emotion. The Swansong of Wilbur McCrum is never particularly convincing and an unfortunate quirk is Bronia Kita’s replacement of the word ‘if’ with ‘iffen,’ presumably as an attempt to give Wilbur McCrum an accent. Used in isolatio

2012 The Movie… so obviously going to flop
For weeks its been hard to move for posters pushing 2012, a big blockbuster, which opens tonight, that is so obviously going to flop. I’m sure it cost a fortune, yet it somehow it looks cheap. Worse that than that with just one glance of the poster — which looks like some silly fantasy art — you feel like you’ve seen the film. Th