Jonathan Calder

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Southern Television's Midnight is a Place from 1977 The whole of the Southern Television adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight is a Place from 1977 has turned up on YouTube. Aiken was a wonderfu...

The whole of the Southern Television adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight is a Place from 1977 has turned up on YouTube.

Aiken was a wonderful writer for children – her gothic tales were at once funny and scary. If she's pastiching anyone here, it's the Charles Dickens of Hard Times.

A contemporary review of Lucy Masterman's biography of her husband Charles Masterman I once wrote of C.F.G. Masterman, Lucy Masterman's biography of her late husband Charles Masterman, in Liberator : There are too many undige...

"The intellectual movement behind those Liberal Governments with which Masterman was so closely identified, of which many of his contemporaries admitted him to be the leader, was really one of pessimism, of a profound sense that the odds against them were great and that the time was short."

Some spring flowers on #WorldBookDay at the graveside of James Leslie Mitchell, better known as Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the author of “Sunset Song”. He died in London when he was only in his early 30s, but his final resting place is in his beloved Aberdeenshire!

This oaf is fast becoming a serious challenger to Daniel Hannan for the ‘Wrongest Man In The World’ title.

The LNWR branch line from Weedon to Leamington Spa It's time we had another good disused railway video. This one follows the route of the old LNWR branch line between Weedon and Leamington Sp...

Wolfhampcote is mentioned. Here you will find a deserted medieval village whose church still survives, two abandoned railway lines (the one the video is about and the Great Central main line) and an abandoned meander of the Oxford Canal, complete with a tunnel.

Appeal for witnesses following arson – Oxford Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following an arson in Oxford.

Recent months have seen a spate of such incidents in the South-East. In 2023, conspiracy theorists marched through Oxford with placards protesting against 15-minute cities, vaccine passports, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 5G transmitters. www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-...

Title card with the season and episode number and the title Opening the Box of Delights

OUT NOW!

Season 11 Episode 189

OPENING THE BOX OF DELIGHTS

On your podcast app, on the website at
www.thefolklorepodcast.com/episode-189....

or for the full experience watch an extended edition at youtu.be/UOO6GZ5NJlM

A feature length episode on the Box of Delights with special expert panel

Did anyone think that Trump would willingly leave 'his' vulgar ballroom in three years' time? Of course he wants an illegal third term. That would end any vestige of democracy in the US, and an 87-year-old ventriloquist's dummy operated by Stephen Miller would be a terrifying threat.

Louis MacNeice: In a Between World Prof. Christopher J. Fauske April 2016 This powerful new perspective on MacNeice’s life and work explores his poetry, prose and drama as part of a biographical re-evaluation. Christopher Fauske places...

Feel it's time to mention this again. I am quite proud of it, so... #booksky #LouisMacNeice #poetry

Boos and boycotts as Russian flag returns to sporting stage at Winter Paralympics The Russian flag has returned to the global sporting stage, appearing at the Winter Paralympics for the first time in over a decade.

Boos and boycotts as Russian flag returns to sporting stage at Winter Paralympics

Ipswich Town in the early Sixties?

Police search home of former Labour MP’s husband amid China spying investigation James Robinson, husband of Gloria De Piero, says police visited their home with a warrant but he has not been detained or questioned

James Robinson, a former aide to the ex-Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, issued a statement confirming the raid on the home he shares with his wife, but said he had not been detained or questioned by police.

The LNWR branch line from Weedon to Leamington Spa It's time we had another good disused railway video. This one follows the route of the old LNWR branch line between Weedon and Leamington Sp...

Wolfhampcote is mentioned. Here you will find a deserted medieval village whose church still survives, two abandoned railway lines (the one the video is about and the Great Central main line) and an abandoned meander of the Oxford Canal, complete with a tunnel.

New York is investigating the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam AG Letitia James will head an "independent assessment" of what happened to the Blind Rohingya refugee who Border Patrol dumped in Buffalo.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Blind Rohingya refugee who died in the cold streets of Buffalo days after Border Patrol dumped him without coordinating with his family or lawyers.

Ken Weetch obituary Stalwart Labour MP for Ipswich who fought against the monopoly that solicitors held over property conveyancing

Four years later, in the Labour rout of 1983, he held on by 1,077 votes, thus becoming the only Labour MP in East Anglia and, outside London, one of only three Labour MPs in the south of England.

Kenith Trodd obituary Television producer whose long-running partnership with Dennis Potter resulted in landmark drama serials including Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective

Shortly before Potter’s death in 1994, he was visited by the producer, who recalled him “slugging Courvoisier, fortified by liquid heroin and morphine” and said: “After an hour ... he said, ‘I do have one very real fear of death. It is that you might get asked to speak at my memorial service.’”

BBC Two - Simon & Garfunkel: Concert in Central Park Simon & Garfunkel's famous 1981 reunion concert to help restore New York's Central Park.

9pm TODAY on @BBCFOUR

Simon & Garfunkel: Concert in Central Park

On 19 September 1981, Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a free public concert on the Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park, drawing one of the largest ever audiences for a single concert.

Children swinging from a lamppost in a Dublin street during a teachers' strike, 1946, photo by Czech photo‑journalist Paul Popper.

#FingerpostFriday

This almost reads like a spoof, right from the opening account of Nigel's adoration of the medals. I especially liked:

“Looking back, there were subtle signs the vote mightn’t go my way … one middle-aged cat lady on her door step [shouted] ‘You’re a total wanker!’”

Subtle indeed.

Oak leaf buds ready to open

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, THE OAK TREES ARE WAKING UP 🥳🤗🌳

#totp had a long tradition of playing out with the best record on the show.

The White House position is that it is no big deal that Putin is helping Iran try to kill US soldiers.

Always remember rule #1. Putin can do no wrong in Trump’s eyes.

Wonder why that is?

My photo shows a Roman fresco of a brown rabbit with long ears, curled on the ground, with a rounded, soft-looking body. Its head is lowered as if nibbling at three figs placed in front of it. The figs are small and round with short stems, painted in dark reddish and bluish tones. From Pompeii. Now on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Here’s a charming Roman fresco of a little rabbit eating figs 🐰❤️

From Pompeii, 45-79 AD.

Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. 📷 by me

#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology

Suddenly I'm pushing 18 again, with a Saturday job in a second-hand bookshop and a fistful of generous university offers despite my ropy O level results. In a way, that's as good as it got. #WutheringHeights #totp

You too will believe that one woman can sound like all the Bee Gees simultaneously

#TOTP

Darts were brilliant. #totp

Anne Murray? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. #totp

Nigel Farage is in Mar-a-Lago tonight (not Clacton, obvs). Via Politico: "What Farage should be doing: Sorting out his Reform documents with Companies House. The party is overdue on submitting a [legally mandatory] statement."