The Conversation at 50: Why the paranoid thriller is more relevant than ever bbc.com/culture/articl…

A nice day rummaging around North Wales. Found some nice Puffin editions of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, and sat next to a nice Breakfast at Tiffany's poster while freezing.

For BBC Culture, I wrote about Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and what it has to say about private surveillance fifty years after its release. bbc.com/culture/articl…

Had a really great time with Andrew V. McLaglen's silly but accomplished North Sea Hijack (1980). I didn't think my adoration of Roger Moore could go any higher but it did. Basically captures by vibe on Hinge dates unfortunately (but a fun film all the same).

Presence, or Polaroid Ghosts (Part 8) celluloidwickerman.com/2024/04/06/pre…

25 years after its premiere, we revisit the London locations featured in Michael Winterbottom’s vital portrait of life in the capital, Wonderland. theb.fi/3TKOCJl

For the BFI, I revisited the London locations of Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland (1999). bfi.org.uk/features/wonde…

Best TV of March was Budgie (1971-72). Behind its silly cockney runabout is a really nasty, sleazy drama. Adam Faith is astonishing as he works/fails at every scheme going around 70s Soho. Iain Cuthbertson is great too but really the series is replete with amazingly grim moments.

Location job for Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets took me to Denham today, and ended up spotting plaques on local houses for Ben Nicholson and John Mills, the latter right next to the church seen in Hamer's film.

Best read of March was Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced (1950). Never ceases to amaze with her ability to contrast a funny chocolate box England and severe darkness. Reading her is like slowly being shown the inner workings of a meticulous, macabre watch a cog at a time.

For the BFI, I revisited Thamesmead and South East London as seen in Hettie Macdonald's Beautiful Thing (1996). bfi.org.uk/features/beaut…

Best films watched in March:
The Fiances (1963) – Ermanno Olmi
The Desert of the Tartars (1976) – Valerio Zurlini
The Bravados (1958) – Henry King
Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) – Robert Wise
Youth of the Beast (1963) – Seijun Suzuki

Nice event at Foyles Bookshop last night for the launch of Gareth E. Rees's new book Sunken Lands. Lots of interesting discussion with Gary Budden about Global Weirding, the cultural spectre of biblical flooding, and the role of weird fiction in the age of climate change.

Romance blossoms during a hot summer in south London in the 1996 film Beautiful Thing, filmed on some of the same locations as A Clockwork Orange. How do they look today? theb.fi/3TF57rj

For the BFI, I revisited Thamesmead and South East London as seen in Hettie Macdonald's Beautiful Thing (1996). bfi.org.uk/features/beaut…

For the BFI, I revisited some of the locations used by Stanley Kubrick throughout his career of making films in Britain. bfi.org.uk/features/stanl…

Twenty-five years after Stanley Kubrick’s death, we go in search of the British locations that he made truly Kubrickian. theb.fi/48Jx71l

For the BFI, I revisited some of the locations used by Stanley Kubrick throughout his career of making films in Britain. bfi.org.uk/features/stanl…