Happy Birthday Charles Dickens Popular and critical acclaim make uneasy bedfellows.  Popular acclaim steals all the blankets and critical acclaim starts lecturing popular acclaim saying it didn’t want all those blan…

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/h...

Be Upstanding (Ooh-err Missus!) for the Birthday of Mr Frankie Howerd. When it comes to puerile innuendo, I like to think that I can hold my own. I’m aware that the competition is stiff. If the word “titter” makes you titter, then you have a relation…

Be Upstanding (Ooh-err Missus!) for the Birthday of Mr Frankie Howerd. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/b...

Man on the Run. The Quest for Sanity. I’ve long been of the opinion that, all things considered, the sanity of Paul is crazier than the craziness of John. This documentary traces Paul McCartney’s life from 1969 to 1980 &#82…

Man on the Run. The Quest for Sanity. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/m...

Original first line of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In South Wiltshire.

Genuine question. During WWII, if your ship or sub sank an enemy ship or sub, you would rescue survivors - provided you weren't in imminent danger. Is that not a thing anymore? Why did it take Sri Lankans to rescue Iranian sailors?

It is 60 years today since THAT Lennon interview was published. John Lennon Interview: London Evening Standard 3/4/1966 – How Does A Beatle Live? Maureen Cleave – “We’re More popular than Jesus Now” – Beatles Interviews Datab…

It is 60 years today since THAT Lennon interview was published. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/03/04/i...

Happy Birthday William Godwin An odd cove to be sure.   I’m not sure that I’ve read Political Justice (1793) since my student days, but I think of it often enough. As John Lennon’s piano chords play in my head…

Happy Birthday William Godwin conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/h...

A Trump speech is more digressive than a Ronnie Corbett monologue. Except that Ronnie Corbett was trying (successfully) to be funny instead of trying to explain an ongoing and escalating military conflict.

"There's nothing boring about this." And then gets bored with the war and starts talking about the curtains.

I’m prejudiced against conspiracy theories. This may be a weakness. I am methodologically averse to historical and political explanations that pin decisive historical responsibility for events on small groups of people meeting in darkened rooms, gloating and cackli…

I'm prejudiced against conspiracy theories. This may be a weakness. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/i...

It was… fun… sort of… Star Trek Generations, Reviewed. Film reviewers back in 1994 complained that this film demanded too much prior knowledge of the Star Trek universe. I have to say that film reviewers must have been the only people in the cinema wit…

It was... fun... sort of... Star Trek Generations, Reviewed. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/i...

Happy Birthday Roger Daltrey. I refuse to name the thing that you are. One of my pet peeves is the overuse of the word “iconic”. I promised myself that I would only ever use this word in the context of meditative orthodox worship practices. Whenever I thin…

Happy Birthday Roger Daltrey. I refuse to name the thing that you are. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/h...

My life as an Italian flag: three stripes and I’m out. Home now, and wireless. I’m on oral antibiotics and trying to test and remember the amount of pain associated with various kinds of activity. I can empty a dishwasher now. Huzzah! Right now o…

My life as an Italian flag: three stripes and I'm out. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/m...

The Lost Will and Testament of Jake Thackray. A lovely present. This arrived in the post on Friday afternoon. An old friend of mine had promised that “something lovely” would arrive. Something did. John Watterson has made an album out of Jake Thackr…

The Lost Will and Testament of Jake Thackray. A lovely present. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/11/21/t...

This Bounty has the most star studded crew imaginable. Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Daniel Day Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and one of the Men Behaving Badly.

Tommy Robinson welcomed by Trump administration in visit to Washington Tommy Robinson was pictured smiling with a senior adviser at the US State Department in Washington

Where is ICE? Aren't they supposed to be deporting violent foreign criminals? uk.news.yahoo.com/tommy-robins...

Shatnerian acting and Star Trek VI (The Undiscovered Country) William Shatner and Christopher Plummer go way back. They have a long history of playing Shakespeare together in places like Stratford Ontario – Plummer being the slightly senior actor. It is…

Shatnerian acting and Star Trek VI (The Undiscovered Country) conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/26/s...

YES! I adore this book - the most complex, varied, thoughtful, politically aware, and heartbreaking expression of Romanticism in English prose.

Rasselas.

This is the point. When you listen to an audiobook you are a prisoner of an actor's interpretation - every stress - every pause - affects the meaning of the text. When you read for yourself - various different interpretations remain in play - remain available.

Why does the Far Right despise national distinctiveness? Take flags. Across the UK and even in Ireland, there’s a sudden need to festoon whole neighbourhoods with the national flag – as though people need aides de memoire to remind them of wh…

Why does the Far Right despise national distinctiveness? conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/w...

It’s been a long, long, long time hasn’t it? Happy Birthday George Harrison. It’s an astonishing face really.  You could stare at it for hours.  Plenty did.  Staring at him, I’m inclined to believe press officer Tony Barrow’s verdict that of all the Beatle…

It's been a long, long, long time hasn't it? Happy Birthday George Harrison. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/i...

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Learning to care again. Now I wasn’t altogether down on House of the Dragon. It has had some great scenes and some remarkable performances. But heart? Does it have heart? Or have there been times when we wondered wh…

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Learning to care again. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/a...

Ah Paroles. I got to play this wonderful part as a student in a production that included Olivia Williams.

Here again, on his birthday, is the entire life of Liam Theodore Cassidy Brunstrom. Save Me Time OR The Life and Times of Liam Theodore Cassidy Brunstrom Part 1 This is something that started to happen to us, over nineteen years ago. Before. There are few things more enjoyable tha…

He would have been 21 today.
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/02/24/t...

Lennon never sought canonisation. He was very confessional and admitted most if not all his flaws. He declared that his own violent tendencies made him a more urgent peace campaigner. A "hypocrite" as I understand it means someone who is self-righteous and judgmental. Not true of Lennon.

The Phoenician Scheme. Considered If you enjoy Wes Anderson film, you will enjoy this. If not, you won’t. This film offers the same stylistic elements of his previous films, applied to a different subject. It does not modify …

The Phoenician Scheme. Considered conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/t...

This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine. The 1939 version of Wuthering Heights William Wyler directs a very atmospheric version of a very truncated notion of Bronte’s novel. And to a greater extent than many subsequent adaptations, it’s a film about racism. Now of course ther…

This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine. The 1939 version of Wuthering Heights conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/19/t...

Ealing - just outside the studios. Used to take the 65 bus all the time as a kid.

If historical precedent is to be consulted, he will be rowed downstream to the Tower, and then left alone in a room with a vat of Malmsey.