Earlier...

New book announcement! Not many single programmes deserve a big long look, but Penda's Fen does. A *lot* went into this and I'm very happy with how it's turned out. I hope you'll all agree when you see it. Out late June but you can pre-order here: tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com/product/pendas…

Read Part 1 of what happened during the brief time Verity Lambert became producer of a new BBC1 soap called 199 Park Lane and inadvertently sowed the scenes for a minor controversy featuring a Labour MP. michaelseely.substack.com/p/verity-lambe…

Articles on 'Doomwatch' and Verity Lambert's brief time on the failed soap 199 Park Lane (while still riding the success of #DoctorWho) can be found on a certain essay site - link in bio, as they say.

Last week on Substack: Sudden Death in 199 Park Lane, and why one MP was 'relieved'.michaelseely.substack.com/p/sudden-death…

Join me, Spencer Banks and Gareth Evans for a screening of Penda's Fen in the very handsome Cinema 1 at the Barbican on Saturday 6 September from 3pm. Copies of Scene By Scene will be on sale and for signing. Have I not said enough? Buy buy buy: barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/…

'Drama in the Lab: The R.3 Story' is back in print, 320 pp describing the short lived & lost 60s BBC1 series about the lives and work & struggles of trouble-shooting Ministry research scientists featuring John 'Quatermass II' Robinson & Oliver Reed. £11.99 shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk

Never mind Doctor Who, it's the problems getting a soap on air in 1965 and how its writer gave up on his own brainchild, possibly thanks to Verity Lambert. michaelseely.substack.com/p/ups-and-down…

Also available: 'A Message from the Stars The A for Andromeda Story.' Not as famous as Quatermass, but an absorbing & mostly missing, tale. A message picked up by a radio telescope turns out to be the blue prints of a machine that can create life & kill. shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk

I was delighted to return to the #DEC4 Podcast and chat to the mighty GeorgeFairbrother - DEC4 Publishing about #TheBillPodcast our Patreon community and my work with the legendary #larrydann on his autobiography #OhWhatALovelyMemoir #ghostwriter The Billaton OffTheBill youtube.com/watch?v=QExKFG…

9:05pm TODAY on Talking Pictures TV From 1971, s2 Ep 13 of #SciFi series📺 #Doomwatch - “Public Enemy” directed by #LennieMayne & written by #PatrickAlexander 🌟#JohnPaul #SimonOates #JohnNolan #JeanTrend #JobyBlanshard #VivienSherrard #TrevorBannister #GlynHouston #DerekBenfield

Starting Now on... VISION ON SOUND PAUL CHANDLER picks out some TV sidekicks Sunday June 8th 2025, 7:00pm (UK time) FAB Radio Channel 1 fabradiointernational.com Podcast version also available after 7:00pm via podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/visio… VoS Show 244 - Yr 5, Ep 36

Day of the Jackal is my favourite thriller in print. Magnificent. And Forsyth's tour de force appearance in the 90s defending the Royalty in a bearpit ITV stadium debate makes him my favourite Royalist. (I'm not bothered). RIP.