Lovely piece. If in any doubt of Routledge beyond Hyacinth (and, even then, it's enough to gurantee posterity), then her 2019 honory doctorate speech at Chester Cathedral should dispel it. A beautiful plea to take take creative risks via Heaney and Frost. youtube.com/watch?v=zkR-Yh…

Evelyn Waugh caused quite a stir in the fifties when he had this suit made by Anderson & Sheppard. It was made from a cloth used for things by the Household Cavalry that had a bright red (huge...) window-pane check. The photos likely don't do it justice. leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/co…

Farewell to the excellent John Woodvine (my feed is just one long obituary these days...). Loved him in everything but especially as John Kingdom in New Scotland Yard which was a series that got me through lockdown. Wonderful, authoritative voice and manner.

UK: In his first credited feature film performance, director François Truffaut stars in THE WILD CHILD as a kind-hearted doctor who takes in a feral child. A UK Blu-ray premiere, special features include a new interview with author Ginette Vincendeau and essay by Adam Scovell.

I have some writing on François Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970) in the upcoming release from Radiance Films. Pre-order is here. radiancefilms.co.uk/products/the-w…

For BBC Culture, I wrote about Out of the Unknown (sci-fi as social comment, classic anthology TV, Irene Shubik etc.), which turns 60 this month, and had a chat with Charlie Brooker about its likeness with Black Mirror. bbc.co.uk/culture/articl…

'The first time sci-fi was presented as serious drama': The forgotten 1960s show that was the original Black Mirror buff.ly/oKJIDHO The series mixed original scripts with adaptations of stories by John Wyndham, Ray Bradbury & more. By Adam Scovell BBC Culture #SciFi

My novel Nettles is in the Halloween sale from Influx Press, if wanting a mash-up of haunted Wirral marshlands, weird stone presences and Alan Clarke realist grit. influxpress.com/shop/nettles-p…

For Mick Rock's album photos for Pin Ups (1973), David Bowie worked with Tommy Nutter on his tailored look (early departure from his clothing thus far). Feels a hint at what was to come later in the decade, especially in the overt Nutter style in Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth.

I've made a trailer for what J.G. Ballard's Crash could have looked like if made by Thames Television in 1974 and starred Paul Eddington and Gabrielle Drake. celluloidwickerman.com/2025/10/24/tra…

As The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue comes to BFI Player, we went walking in search of its locations: theb.fi/42XUswn

Only recently indulged in Mapp & Lucia - which is wonderfult because of its cast as much as E.F. Benson's brilliance - so sad to hear of Prunella Scales. Amazing that her career could encompass working opposite Charles Laughton for Lean's Hobson's Choice to the very latest TV.

For the BFI, I revsited the Manchester and Derbyshire locations of Jorge Grau's The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974). bfi.org.uk/features/livin…

A lovely, spooky adaptation of Edith Wharton's Bewitched (as part of Shades of Darkness, 1983) for Halloween. It has a beautiful score by Geoffrey Burgon and it's great to see Alfred Burke and Ray Smith reunited after their roles in Public Eye. youtube.com/watch?v=vwtWhY…

Best films of October: A Night to Remember (1958) – Roy Ward Baker Lady Snowblood (1973) – Toshiya Fujita The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) – Basil Dearden Breakout (1959) – Don Chaffey All My Sons (1948) – Irving Reis

Best read of November was Winston Churchill’s third volume of the (12 part) Second World War, The Fall of France (1949). Covers the Home Guard's formation as well as Dunkirk which never ceases to amaze, especially when the raw stats for it are explored. The detail is astonishing.