BBC
Rushdie on how the best magical realism transcends fantasy
Ask the man in the street to quote a line from one of Salman Rushdie’s novels, and he might struggle.…
A helpful suggestion for Taylor Swift’s boyfriends
Sir Mark Rowley should not resign. We must try to break our habit of getting rid of each Metropolitan Police…
I’m not convinced Thomas Heatherwick is the best person to be discussing boring buildings
Architects are often snobby about – and no doubt jealous of – the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who isn’t an actual…
A Radio 3 doc that contains some of the best insults I’ve ever heard
A recent Sunday Feature on Radio 3 contained some of the best insults I have ever heard. Contributors to the…
Blood sports
In the year 2023, the Neo-Roman Empire was at the height of its powers. A potentially restive populace was kept…
Diary
To think I once thought cricket dull. For more than 40 days and 40 nights, I have been gripped by…
Death by a thousand cuts
I wish I could say that Bamber Gascoigne would be turning in his grave at what has happened to University…
Portrait of the week
Home Ben Wallace said he would cease to be the Defence Secretary at the next cabinet reshuffle and would not…
The BBC’s biggest problem
As I write this, the director-general of the BBC is being quizzed on the corporation’s future by people who were…
The BBC is self-destructing
There are still 27 people left in the British Isles – at the time of writing – who are unaware…
Comparing notes
The changing face of the BBC Proms
Hot air
Can anything serious come from podcasts, asks Sam Kriss
Time to start popping the pills
No one does agonising quite like Mobeen Azhar. In several BBC documentaries now, he’s set his face to pensive, gone…
Me and Mr Jones
Adam Sweeting talks to the documentary-maker Nick Broomfield about the forgotten Rolling Stone
Early birds
As the owner of a radio alarm clock, I could theoretically start listening to the Today programme before I’m even…
The Guardian’s shameful double standards
The Guardian thinks of itself as Britain’s fearless liberal conscience, trigger-sensitive to racist ‘dog whistles’ in the language and editorial…
Elon Musk is right about BBC funding
The BBC has today been using its various news platforms to protest against being described as ‘government funded’ by Twitter.…
Dog days of the USSR
Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone – even the title makes you want to scream – is Adam Curtis’s Metal Machine Music: the…
The Spectator’s Notes
In the House of Commons on Monday, someone accused Liz Truss’s government of being ‘in office but not in power’.…
