Blog
Reaction.Life Media Review 11: 'Eurovision' & Westmonster News Podcast
- 7 Jul 2020
This column first appeared on Reaction.Life. Eurovision – The Story of Fire Saga, Netflix I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Will Ferrell, so it was with some degree of trepidation that I decided to take the advice of several friends who had seen “Eurovision” with...
Expect a Chinese Cyber-Attack on Britain Anytime Soon
- 4 Jul 2020
Wednesday was a sad day for every right thinking person in Hong Kong, and it is a day that will be full of consequence, not just for the people of Hong Kong, but for the future of international relations and the world’s dealings with China. China has been flexing its muscle...
Reaction Life Media Review 10: The Return of Football & Mahyer Tousi
- 30 Jun 2020
Last week's review on Reaction.Life. The Return of Premier League Football, Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC1 Back in early March I remember saying to a colleague that I wouldn’t be going to the London Stadium to see West Ham v Wolves on 17 March because of Coronavirus. This wa...
Reaction Life Media Column 9: 'The Salisbury Poisonings' & 'One of the Family'
- 23 Jun 2020
The Salisbury Poisonings, BBC1 Spread over three consecutive nights, this series sought to tell the story of the poisonings of Julia and Sergei Skripal from the point of view of the residents of Salisbury. And it succeeded in spades. It’s just the sort of thing I wish ...
Reaction Life Media Review 8: 'You', Iain Lee & 'Confessions'
- 19 Jun 2020
You, Series 2, Netflix “You” has been one of Netflix’s greatest hits. It is summed up very simply by the Netflix PR blurb: “Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy obsesses over girl. Just how far will boy go to get girl?” But it’s darker than that. Far darker. In fact, it’...
Gillian Reynolds Reviews Iain Dale in the Evening in the Sunday Times
- 14 Jun 2020
This is from Gillian Reynolds' weekly Radio Review in the Sunday Times Culture Magazine... Happy birthday to June Spencer, Peggy on The Archers. She’s 101 today, active as ever, but absent from Ambridge, which seems to have been invaded by aliens. I used to be glued to Th...
Radio Review in The Guardian: Iain & Denise
- 13 Jun 2020
From a Radio Review in The Guardian by Stuart Jeffries. One evening last week, Denise from Enfield rang in to Iain Dale’s show. Dale is having a good lockdown – his ratings are up and his kindly, intelligent, albeit Tory, persona has been soothing for many of us....
Reaction Life Media Review 7: Naked Attraction, Nigel Farage on LBC & Desert Island Dicks
- 10 Jun 2020
Last week's review on Reaction.Life. Naked Attraction, Channel 4/E4 If you ask someone if they have ever seen Naked Attraction the usual answer is ‘no, but I did catch sight of it while channel hopping’. Yeah, right. The show has a strange addictive quality. It’s th...
Evening Standard Column: Violent Protest Persuades No One
- 9 Jun 2020
“You’re looking at this through your own prism as a white man,” said Denise in Enfield during a phone-in on the Black Lives Matter protests on Wednesday on LBC. “Am, I?” I said. “Do tell me what my prism is!” Her reply really set me thinking about how I view race issues. ...
Reaction Life Media Column 6: Emily Maitlis, Newsnight and why newsrooms need more plurality
- 2 Jun 2020
This is the fifth of a new weekly column I am writing for Reaction.Life Back in the day it was clear what Newsnight’s role was. Put simply it was there to cover the day’s news stories in more depth than is possible on a news bulletin, to explain more complicated storie...
Reaction Life Media Column 5: Outlander, Eurovision, World at One & Never Mind the Barcharts
- 26 May 2020
This is the fourth of a new weekly column I am writing for Reaction.Life Outlander (Series 5), Amazon Prime Eurovision Night, BBC1 Prepare yourself for quote a big claim. Outlander is the best TV drama series I have seen in the last ten years Forget ‘Bodygua...
Cummings & (Not) Goings
- 24 May 2020
I write this as the Prime Minister has announced he's standing by Dominic Cummings and a lot of what follows is based on a Twitter thread that I posted last night. I've been in isolation for 67 days in Kent. I could have driven 158 miles to my house in Norfolk, where in the...
A Tribute to Peter Cropper
- 24 May 2020
Peter Cropper was a very great man, and I don't use the word 'great' about many people. I first met Peter in 1990 when Nicholas Finney and I started a new transport based public affairs consultancy, The Waterfront Partnership, and he joined us in the venture. Up to that po...
Who are the 100 Most Powerful & Influential People in British Politics?
- 22 May 2020
Twelve years ago I founded Total Politics magazine. It was a monthly magazine for people who were part of the political process. It wasn't a good time to start a magazine, seeing as the financial crash led to a bit of a collapse in the advertising sector. It was sent free of c...
What I Did to Mark Mental Health Awareness Week
- 22 May 2020
Over the ten years I have been on LBC I have hosted many programmes on a whole range of mental health issues, such as loneliness, anxiety, suicide, bereavement etc. Each time I do so I am humbled by the calls I get, many from people who have never discussed their mental he...
Reaction Life Media Column 4: US Documentaries, Steve Wright & Eamonn Holmes
- 19 May 2020
This is the fourth of a new weekly column I am writing for Reaction.Life Clinton, PBS America, Amazon Prime George W Bush, PBS America I’m a sucker for political and historical documentaries, but if I am honest, when I started to watch Amazon Prime’s CLINTON...
Reaction Life Media Column 3: The Killing Season, Radio Norfolk & The Politics of Sound Podcast
- 12 May 2020
This is the third of a new weekly column I am writing for the Reaction.Life website. It's published each Friday on Reaction. The Killing Season, ABC News It’s rare that you could describe a political documentary as ‘gripping’ but given this documentary is all about ...
The 50 Most Famous People I've Ever Met
- 7 May 2020
Celebrity is a weird thing. You recognise it when you see it. But what makes someone a celebrity, and why are so many people desperate to become one? I've never sought fame or celebrity, although I am happy to admit that it's sometimes nice to be recognised. I am certainly not...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 73: Isolation Station Podcast
- 6 May 2020
This is a 17 minute podcast interview I did for Radio Today's 'Isolation Station' with Tony Dibbin. We covered a lot of ground but concentrated on what it's like broadcasting my radio show from home each night, what reaction I'm getting from listeners and what it was like bre...
Reaction.Life Media Review Column 2: The Test, Sunderland Till I Die, Angie Greaves & Women with Balls Podcast
- 5 May 2020
This is the second of a new weekly column I am writing for the Reaction.Life website. It's published each Friday on Reaction. The Test, Amazon Prime Sunderland Til I Die, Amazon Prime Fly on the wall sporting documentaries have become a bit of ‘a thing’ with the ...