https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08zhgmb/traces-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08zhgs6/traces-series-1-episode-2 ‘You’re unbelievably beautiful, you are.’ Daniel (Martin Compston) tells Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor). It must be dispiriting for a young actor thinking if any series is set in Scotland, I must have a chance, but only if Martin Compston is busy and doesn’t want the part. She’s got baggage. He’s got...

Don’t wait for God to put his hand on your shoulder—unless you’re the Virgin Mary—that’s not going to happen any time soon. Start writing now. All you need is you. Yes, I procrastinate, which sounds like masturbate, or maybe only to my sick mind. Do something you enjoy with yourself without the need for paper hankies. Having a sick mind is an advantage, because you’re going to have to tell lots of lies. That’s what fiction is, without having to...

1/1/2021, 12:02am...I sit on my porch watching the fireworks bursting in the night sky over the rooftops of celebratory neighbors, reflecting on those drizzling, dazzling colors of isolated celebrations and it takes me back in time. All the New Year day celebrations I've partied through with bright eyes filled with the promise of a new year, celebrating that hope with friends and family...and yes, that look back is very clear to me…as turning...

Good morning from a lockdown Dublin. I'd like to wish everyone here a safe and happy 2021. I was going through some old notebooks and files last year during the idle months of April Level 5. As a writer, I tend to hoard; I have spaces jammed with half-filled notebooks, random idea pages, and newspaper and magazine clippings, so with all the unexpected free time, I decided to purge a lot of old or unused material and get it out of the house. I...

Happy New Year! It feels a bit like tempting fate, but I'm determined to be optimistic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qvk5/disclosure-series-3-stair... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cxfvh Sixty-six Rangers’ fans died and another 145 injured in the Ibrox Disaster after the New Year’s Day Old Firm game ended in a 1-1 draw. Rangers’ equaliser came at the end of a game watched by 80 000 supporters. Fans on the way out of the ground on Stairway 13 heard the crowd roaring and turned back to be met by a surge of jubilant...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08x8kml/black-narcissus-series-1-episode-1 Gemma Arterton plays the lead role of Sister Clodagh, famously taken by Deborah Kerr (from Helensburgh). Diana Rigg, who died this year, plays a cameo of Mother Dorothea. From the safety of Darjeeling she gets to task of warning Sister Clodagh that it won’t all be peaches and cream at Mopu in the Himalayas when the snow sets in. A missionary group of brothers have...

Once Upon a Time in Iraq, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, Narrator Andy Serkis and Director James Bluemel. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kxwq/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-1-war https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l43w/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-2-insurgency https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08kr4ws/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-3-fallujah https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08kr52c/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qrrc/the-death-of-stalin I’ve read a couple of books on Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I get who he is, or was. Armando Iannucci concentrates on Stalin’s death and the scramble for power among his henchmen of torturers and mass murderers. It’s played out as farce. For example, in the opening scenes Stalin, who loved music (and books) rings a studio in Moscow and tells the presenter of the radio...

Lynn + Lucy (Roxanne Scrimshaw + Nichola Burley) wasn’t the kind of film I usually watch. It seemed like Brookside transported to Harlow, Essex. Yeh, I’m snobby that way. ‘You alright? Yeh, I’m alright. You alright?’ Lynn + Lucy went to school together, best mates, forever. Lynn has been married to Paul (Shaq B Grant) for ten years and they have a daughter Lola (Tia Nelson). They got married when she was sixteen and pregnant. He’s off sick from...