Remembering Annie Nightingale, the woman who smashed the glass ceiling in the radio industry
Annie Nightingale obituary: Thomas Bartley reflects on her extraordinary career.
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Thomas Bartley
Finland’s ‘Fallen Leaves’ is a quiet, unassuming masterpiece
The best films have a tendency to creep up on you – the ones which leave you reeling even days after first viewing and those which only improve on reappraisal. Fallen Leaves is certainly one of those. Marking the return of Aki Kaurismäki six years after his last feature and...
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Movers and Shakers review: a necessary education on Parkinson’s
Few diseases have been as misrepresented or misaccused as Parkinson’s, a progressive illness of the nervous system. It is a strongly stigmatised condition, one which until recent years many were reluctant to disclose even to family or friends. There is emotion to this podcast of course, but it also retains...
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Ofsted’s punitive culture needs to change
The worst thing about the tragic case of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who killed herself as a direct consequence of her school’s negative Ofsted inspection, is that it is not shocking. For several years, Ofsted has been governing British schools by fear, not authority. Its inspection culture has been overzealous...
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Coventry refuse collectors set to strike
Unite the Union has labelled plans to fire and rehire bin workers as “abhorrent” and warned Coventry City Council to prepare for imminent strikes. The union is expected to rally workers in opposition to the Council’s plans, which are aimed at avoiding equal pay claims. Current ‘task and finish’ terms...
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An audio institution through time: Desert Island Discs in the 1970s
There are few radio programmes which have stood the test of time like Desert Island Discs. Lasting over 70 years and 3,000 episodes, the programme has had a lasting impact on British culture. But how has this modern-day national institution evolved through the decades? It has a simple but magical...
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Banged Up review: eye-opening social experiment hits the spot
Sometimes one just has to sit back and applaud the telly gods for pulling it off. Banged Up is one of those. An eclectic and frankly bizarre mix of celebs enter a closed down prison re-filled with ex-cons for the purposes of social experiment. Perfect. It would be hard to...
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Youth knife crime rate in Coventry plummets
New statistics show a significant drop in youth knife crime rates in Coventry, a meeting of the City Council has heard. It follows the introduction of a new multi-million pound violence reduction project in the city. Data suggests that serious incidents involving blades in the last six months have dropped...
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The Covid inquiry is nothing more than perverse theatre
In the last series of political satire, The Thick of It, showrunner Armando Iannucci makes the big set-piece plot story a public inquiry into the ethics of leaking. A clear mimicry of the contemporaneous Leveson inquiry, it forces all the show’s deplorable characters to air their dirty laundry and wilt...
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TV’s evolution since the 70s
Reports about the death of linear TV have been grossly overstated. Or have they? It is often said that the days of appointment-to-view television are behind us, as streaming rules the roost and habits change. Is this the case, or was it ever so? It’s time to turn back the...
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Novak Djokovic’s unparalleled ability for regeneration
He has seen off Roger Federer and nearly Rafael Nadal. He has seen off Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev and the first act of great pretenders. Now is he poised to do it all over again? Novak Djokovic, regenerated, shows no signs of ceasing. There was a cool callousness to the...
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Multiculturalism is the spanner in the Conservative Party
It was a rare uncomfortable glimmer in Rishi Sunak’s armour, but boy did it show. The Prime Minister was being grilled by Today’s Nick Robinson on Suella Braverman’s suggestions multiculturalism “had failed”. And in one fell swoop, the challenge facing him was set clear. The PM’s first year in the...
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Partygate: a searing take on Covid rule breaking
It’s been nearly two years since the Boris Johnson premiership began to disintegrate against allegations of pandemic parties in Downing Street. The impact of the scandal both on Johnson’s reputation and public trust in the present government reverberates. But with the facts now outlined publicly in the Sue Gray report,...
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