Blog
Reaction Media Column 22: 'Washington' & the Biteback Chats Books' podcast
- 26 Sep 2020
This article first appeared on Reaction. Washington, History If there’s one thing that American TV channels do very well, it is making TV series about their presidents. I’ve written in previous columns about PBS America’s latest documentaries on Clinton, Bush and Re...
A Trip to North Devon - Book Festival, Family Visit & Road Troubles
- 21 Sep 2020
Let me tell you about my weekend. As you know, I don't take much time off, and in a sense part of this weekend has been a bit of a busman's holiday, since I'm ostensibly in North Devon to speak at the Appledore Book Festival. However, I have family here too, so I've taken the ...
Reaction Media Column 21: 'Me & My Penis' & the How to Fail Podcast
- 16 Sep 2020
This column appeared originally on Reaction. Me and My Penis, Channel 4 If you’re the sort of person who likes to see lots of willies on TV, you lucked out last Monday on Channel 4. It came on the back of (if you’ll pardon the expression) last year’s Channel 4 female equ...
Reaction Media Column 20: The Fast Show & Acting Prime Minister Podcast
- 10 Sep 2020
Originally published on Reaction. The Fast Show: More Blooming Catchphrases, Gold Last Saturday, my partner and I celebrated 25 years together. What better way to spend the evening than to watch a two hour Fast Show documentary and retrospective? Who said romance is dead...
Reaction Media Column 19: Normal People & Payne's Politics
- 3 Sep 2020
This article was originally published on Reaction.Life. Normal People – BBC3 & iPlayer “And now it’s time for BBC3 on BBC1”. Eight words which usually encourage me to change channel more quickly than Boris Johnson can execute a screeching U-Turn. Its programmes ...
Male on Male Sexual Assault Needs Talking About - It's One of Society's Last Great Taboos
- 28 Aug 2020
Some of you may recall that back at the beginning of August The Observer did an interview with me on a passage on my book about an attempted rape I had experience in my twenties. On the back of that, a national newspaper commissioned me to write an 1800 word feature on the sub...
Reaction Media Column 18: Planet Normal & Occupied
- 26 Aug 2020
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life. Occupied, Netflix It is, nowadays, almost de rigueur to be a fan of Scandinavian dramas. First, there was The Killing, then Borgen, then The Bridge. When we heard last week that Borgen is to return for a further series, I cou...
Reaction Media Column 17: Julia Gillard's 'A Podcast of One's Own' & Channel 5 Royal Documentaries
- 20 Aug 2020
This column first appeared on Reaction.Life A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard I’ve often wondered how former prime ministers and presidents cope with losing office. How does your brain adjust to being the most powerful person in the country one minute, and t...
Boris Johnson Needs to Grip the Exam Crisis & Grip it Today
- 17 Aug 2020
When you're in a political hole, the best thing to do is stop digging. You collect your thoughts, then you devise a strategy to climb out of the hole. That's what Gavin Williamson should be doing now. He needs to do it quickly because that hole is about to treble in size when ...
The Lost Fringe Photo
- 14 Aug 2020
In July a photographer called Richard Davenport emailed me asking if I would take part in a phot feature he was planning. Given the Edinburgh Fringe had been cancelled, he decided to take pictures of people who had been intending to perform in Edinburgh, but couldn't. And ...
New Statesman Diary: Beirut & Book Woes
- 14 Aug 2020
If we lived in normal times, I would be in the middle of a book tour, speaking at literary festivals up and down the country, from Appledore to Ilkley. I had forty odd speaking engagements planned to publicise my book on the decline of public discourse, ‘Why Can’t We All Just ...
Reaction Life Media Review 16: Full Disclosure Podcast with James O'Brien & Coronation Street
- 13 Aug 2020
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life Full Disclosure podcast with James O’Brien, Global Radio If the title of the podcast if ‘Full Disclosure’ I’d better disclose that James O’Brien is a colleague of mine on LBC, and Global Radio are the publishers of my own podc...
Iain Dale All Talk at the Edinburgh Digital Fringe
- 10 Aug 2020
By rights, I should be at the beginning of a run of ten shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. But it was cancelled this year, for obvious reasons. So I'm taking part in the digital fringe, with three of my ALL TALK shows on Zoom. They will take place at 1pm each Wednesday for the res...
Why Did I Write 'Why Can't We All Just Get Along'?
- 9 Aug 2020
Thursday was the official publication day for my book, WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG. I’ve done a whole host of media interviews over the last week talking about the book but the question I have most often been asked is this: Why did I write it? Well, it is down to tw...
Reaction Life Media Review 15: Fortunately Podcast & Charles Haughey
- 8 Aug 2020
This article was written for Reaction.Life. Haughey – The Charles Haughey Documentary (RTE, YouTube) One of the great delights of YouTube is that it contains a vast treasure trove of political documentaries, the existence of which is usually spread by word of mouth. A co...
Why the No 10 Spokesperson Job is a Poisoned Chalice
- 1 Aug 2020
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph. There’s nothing Westminster journalists like more than a process story that potentially involves one of their own. This week the Conservatives advertised for a new No 10 spokesperson, who will host a live, televised daily ...
Iain on the Big Travel Podcast
- 30 Jul 2020
Earlier this month I recorded an episode of Lisa Francesca Nand's BIG TRAVEL PODCAST, and it's out now on all podcast platforms. This is what the podcast blurb says. Quite how you can resist listening to it after reading this, I just don't know! A school trip to Commun...
Reaction Life Media Review 14: The Rise of the Murdochs & The Last Ship
- 29 Jul 2020
This article was originally published on Reaction.Life. I wrote a new column each Friday on the site. The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, BBC2 As you will know, if you are a regular reader of this column, I’m a sucker for a person based biographical documentary. So whe...
A Complete Stranger Explains Why I Wrote My Book (Better Than I Ever Could)
- 24 Jul 2020
I get a lot of emails from LBC listeners and For the Many podcast fans, but this one, from 22 year old Joseph Bryant*, was a corker. So I thought I'd share it with you. Hi Iain, I've just ordered a copy of your book from your website. I'm 22 and have just fini...
Reaction Life Media Review 13: 'Hillary' & 'Politics Live'
- 22 Jul 2020
This article first appeared on Reaction. Hillary, Sky Documentaries There’s nothing quite like a multi-part documentary series on leading American politicians. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about the Amazon Prime series on Bill Clinton and George W Bush, they provided fr...