Lee "Scratch" Perry: supremely creative Reggae figure. Sound-shaper, producer, writer, otherworldly force. Great collaborations with Adrian Sherwood & Mad Professor. The original 'Upsetter', he shook up the scene with Return of Django, big Trojan hit, 1969 youtu.be/ax5phXqMjCU

'Chips' Channon Diaries give ringside view of Society/Politics, late-1930s. Vividly wrong-headed, but fun.State Opening of Parliament: Lady Curzon, like 'great meringue, vast, sugary & imposing'. King's Speech is written specially, because of his difficulty with 'some consonants'

#LionelBlair set dancing stage for The Beatles. Heel-clicking prelude to I'm Happy Just to Dance With You, in A Hard Day's Night. Light entertainment heralding beat group rhythm & Lennon's acerbic wit. Very 1964. Blair always the polished entertainer. youtu.be/SVLnvQv6I_c

#Jean-LucGodard's brilliant casting of Fritz Lang, as himself, imperious director, in film of Odyssey within G's 1963 film, 'Le Mépris' ('Contempt'). Also with Brigitte Bardot. Unsettling insight into movie-making & mighty auteur-egos. Here they are in creative tandem/face-off.

Extraordinary life & music of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopian nun,composer,pianist, who has died,aged 99, in Ethiopian monastery, Jerusalem. She found new audience via Ethiopiques disc series. Great audio documentary from 2017, by Kate Molleson: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0…

#AshesOldTraffordTest Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes', in 1938, set the scene for 85 years on. The ghosts of Charters & Caldicott have now witnessed yet more agonizing disappointment.

#RockandRoll as song title, long before the music style, goes back to rhythms on sea waves. Boswell Sisters in film,Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, 1934. But rawer slang meaning took over. Trixie Smith sang My Man Rocks Me,1922. youtu.be/6b5oWwFUhN0 youtu.be/Cg4weNGII1A

#TheLostGeneration was term applied to young people in aftermath of World War 1. Gertrude Stein coined it. Hemingway used it in The Sun Also Rises. Refers to directionless, even nihilistic US expats in Paris. A film, The Last Flight, (dir,William Dieterle,1931) dramatized it.

#DavidMcCallum Far beyond his U.N.C.L.E. adventures was musical career, conducting orchestral albums on Capitol Records. Parents were prominent classical musicians. He gave quirky zest to hits, elegant spins on muzak. Here's 'Downtown', reimagined by him. youtu.be/vX_pZAO58_I?si…

#GlynisJohns, already an established child actor, transformed her film career, as Canadian Hutterite in Powell & Pressburger's dazzling wartime 49th Parallel. Interesting cover image in Picture Post. Both film & mag celebrated true patriotism, courage, resistance.

Michael Jayston deftly captured the complexities & ambiguities in Siegfried Sassoon's character, questioning the Great War. This performance, in BBC Play for Today, Mad Jack, deserves re-airing. Jayston also gave interesting readings of Sassoon's poems. youtu.be/p2wmqXz-HOg?si…

#SteveHarley Unique 1970s musical filter of folkie busking, late-phase Beatles, Bolan, Bowie, early-Roxy M, diffused prog rock, pub rock, proto-punk. Live 1975 album @ Hammersmith Odeon as lasting showcase for his performance style & audience response to it.