iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 6h

Possibly apocryphal exchange between Jeffrey Archer and a constituent, related by Paul Merton on HIGNFY in the early 90s: "Mr. Archer, can I ask you a question?" "Yes, of course" "Why don't you piss off?"

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 8h

I was browsing back copies of THE STAGE when I found this article about Red Dwarf in the 14 November 1991 issue. The photo of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor reimagined as Zaphod Beeblebrox caught my eye. #RedDwarf

WRITE ATTITUDE
By SUZAN LEAVY
NOW in its fifth series, Red Dwarf is BBC 2's longest-running sitcom and probably the channel's most successful with the last series being watched by 4.8 million viewers.
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, creators and writers of Red Dwarf, established Grant and Naylor Productions in 1990 and became executive producers of the show.
The company also has a development deal with franchise winner Carlton Television for comedy, recently appointed Kathleen Hutchinson as head of development and is currently discussing new projects with other comedy writers for 1992.
It sounds like the sort of success story most young writers can only dream of. Grant and Naylor have been friends since the age of nine. Born and bred in Manchester, both attended Liverpool University to study psychology and both were thrown out after spending their second year, not on psychology, but writing their first sitcom together.
Their first script was rejected by the BBC but the fact that someone there said that the dialogue flowed quite smoothly convinced them that writing was the right career move.
Writing stints for Radio Manchester were followed by their first television work on A Kick Up The Eighties. Via Three of a Kind and Carrott's Lib, they went to Spitting Image as script editors and senior writers. After the first series, the duo created the pilot for Red Dwarf but it took producers Paul Jackson and John Lloyd three years to get it onto the screen through BBC North West.
So, Grant says "the only advice I can offer new writers is to be prepared to wait a long time. Keep on writing and generally good work will sur- face.
Grant explained that, despite their success, the pair still had to face the fact that on many television productions, writers tend not to be listened
to.
It is a situation which was quickly rectified once they became producers on Red Dwarf even though this meant extra work in pre-production and post-production.
"We became producers on the third series bec…

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 11h

(These were the Kickstarter-funded Steve Jackson Games reprints for the US, so a high chance a backer asked to make sure it was fixed, really...)

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Rectangular sticker that shows a simulation of the Oregon Trail game screen with the wagon and below it says you have died from American salad

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Graeme Garden in conversation this afternoon, asked who the worst person he'd ever worked with was, at the end of a long anecdote about an absolutely insufferable prat working as a runner in their gap year: "It was only much later on I found out his name... it was George Osborne."

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Would it have been too hard to get rid of that bit of audience reaction in the first clip, or is it indicative of a very last-minute edit?

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John J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 04/10/2026

Brand new on Dirty Feed: how did some dirty jokes in a famous episode of Mork & Mindy change between the shooting script and the final show? www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/10/the-...

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

passing the "zionism is racism" motion on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street is a bit on the fucking nose isn't it

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

(Over the course of the 90s all the strips that still existed as new material slowly switched to reprints, the last new things to go in 1999 were Buster and the letters page)

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Jimmy Hansen was the final artist to draw Buster, from April 1990 until he was let go in February 1999. Reprints of his strips were used for the last ten or so months of the comic's life.

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Robin Wilde @robinwilde.me · 03/10/2026

I can hear the screeching U-turn that happened during the naming of this business

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Comics fact of the day: Following the removal of the letters page in the previous edition, the drawing of the free gift on the cover of the 4 - 17 Aug 1999 edition of Buster was the only new art in the entire issue.

Cover of the 4 - 17 August 1999 issue of Buster, promoting a free jumping hopper.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Working on a 10th anniversary thing for my blog, and I am struck that I really love this piece and it's definitely going in, and also it's a bit of a structural mess and I probably need to have another go at it at some point. cwickham.blogspot.com/2025/08/trip...

cwickham.blogspot.com

Triple Dog Dare

"But now there came from out Ludicrously Niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head."

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Benjamin @benjaminschneider.ch · 01/10/2026

just came across this incredible picture of Terry Pratchett

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nickolas Grace plays Joel Cairo in this production. Four years later, he plays the equivalent role (more or less) in the film adaptation of The Falcon's Malteser!

Promo card for Just Ask for Diamond, depicting Nickolas Grace and Peter Eyre

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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Esther Rantzen hosts Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of children from the Holocaust youtu.be/OqqbM1B-mPY?...

youtu.be

Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton (That's Life - 1988)

YouTube video by Tops of the top

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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's a great shame that Parker's only score for Doctor Who was on such a terrible story.

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optiMSTie @optimstie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm still disproportionately miffed that the cowards at Letterboxd got rid of this screamingly demented alternate cover for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

A tonally inappropriate Letterboxd alternate cover for the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me that depicts a peppy, upbeat blue sky with clouds with Sheryl Lee smiling as Laura Palmer. It also has upbeat stylized typeface suggestive of a 1990s romcom.

Letterboxd got rid of this alternate cover, and that's ridiculous.

Tagline: "She's going nowhere fast... and you're not coming."

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A deep dive into a comic strip about a schoolgirl which takes at least two very strange turns. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-fu...

Belle turns away from a boy at a school gate, declaring "I shall easily find a boy who's keener on me than soppy cricket!" In the right-hand corner, a boy with branches growing out of his head is labelled "Know Your Nurks No. 107: Albert Frogpongle is going to the barbers for a prune."

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Sara Gibbs @sararoseg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

He imposed Shania Law

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

L: Final new edition of Terry Bave's "Double Trouble", from the 9 July 1996 edition of Buster. R: First rerun edition, from the 23 July 1996 edition... pretty seamless.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

L: What was *probably* the last new edition of X-Ray Specs, from the 12/05/98 edition of Buster. R: The reprint edition from the following 26/05/98 edition of Buster. There are more graceful transitions in the comic's final years.

A very obviously not new edition of X-Ray Specs.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

IIRC it's because Bake Off is a registered trademark of Pillsbury in the US?

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Graeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

*wakes up from a coma after 28 years* Hey, I wonder what happened to that 11 year old girl who rang This Morning to sing Pie Jesu.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

EARLY EVENING (not really but I'm about to go out) REPOST

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Colin claims in this interview "it's on the DVD"; obviously he's mistaken, but is it possible it was being prepared for one of the rereleases and they couldn't clear it or something? www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVTV...

youtube.com

Dr Who Colin Baker at Norcon 2024 Interview

YouTube video by Loon Vidz -Comedy Lovers Guide

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Asterix Archiv 🐗 @comedix.de · 20/09/2026

Eine schöne Bastel- und Malarbeit. Manchmal trägt Obelix den Hinkelstein. Manchmal ist Obelix der Hinkelstein. Dürfte nicht leicht gewesen sein, diesen Stein zu finden. #Asterix #Fanart

Das Bild zeigt einen kleinen, länglichen und nach oben abgerundeten Stein, dessen Form an einen Hinkelstein erinnert. Der Stein wurde rundherum so bemalt, dass er selbst zum Körper von Obelix wird.
Auf der Vorderseite sind Obelix’ Gesicht mit den roten Zöpfen, sein nackter Oberkörper sowie der grüne Gürtel mit großer gelber Schnalle zu sehen. Darunter setzt sich seine typische blau-weiß gestreifte Hose bis zum unteren Rand des Steins fort. Seine Füße stehen auf einer kleinen grünen Wiese, die mit roten Pilzen und Blumen verziert ist. Der obere, dunkelgraue Teil des Steins bleibt weitgehend unbemalt und wirkt dadurch wie ein Hinkelstein, der hinter Obelix aufragt.
Die Rückseite löst den kleinen optischen Scherz auf: Dort fehlen Kopf und Oberkörper völlig. Stattdessen sieht man nur Obelix’ Arme, die sich von beiden Seiten um den grauen Stein legen. Seine Hände greifen hinter dem „Hinkelstein“ ineinander. Darunter sind wiederum die gestreifte Hose und seine Füße auf der Wiese zu erkennen.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

There is probably some interesting metatextual commentary about Colin revealing this in the commentary for Mindwarp, a story which has been manipulatively edited to show the Doctor in a worse light than reality.

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John J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 20/09/2026

Hands up who wants some fun research into The Young Ones? Brand new on Dirty Feed: the truth about Colin Baker's appearance, or rather non-appearance, on the show. www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/09/evil...

Rick with his hands in the air, from The Young Ones, "Bambi"

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Conclusion of the Buster strip from the 07/04/90 edition of, er, Buster, also the final strip to be drawn by Tom Paterson. Note the farewell 'ta-ta!' in his signature, bottom right.

Buster and his friends try to go camping, but their backpacks are so big they get jammed in the front door.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

More reverse-engineering of adventure gamebooks from the 80s. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/09/trai...

Vladimir Utoshski, aka the Titanium Cyborg, a villainous figure drawn by 2000 AD artist Brian Bolland.

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HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 19/09/2026

"Yarrrr, me parents are dead in an alley"

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Dave Bulmer @demontomatodave.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Get your kids the Beano so you can read it yourself. Nigel Auchterlounie is really funny

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

(My post on Calamity James, by some distance the most-read thing I've published this year, is currently closing in on 1000 views.) cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/03/oh-c...

cwickham.blogspot.com

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you'd like some insight into how many people read the nonsense I write: This post has had over 400 hits in its first week, which is a truly exceptional performance.

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

THE GREATEST PAGE ON THE INTERNET HAS BEEN UPDATED simpsonsarchive.com/guides/openi...

simpsonsarchive.com

The Simpsons Archive: Opening Sequences

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Gamebooks fact of the day: In all four possible solutions to "Appointment with F.E.A.R.", you should ignore the story branch where you try to stop the President's assassination, which is a deliberate red herring.

Cover of Fighting Fantasy #17 "Appointment with F.E.A.R."

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Tonight's eps in my first-time watch of The X-Files: "Monday" and "Arcadia". One hell of a one-two punch.

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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The Doctor Who tender invitation is out, contrary to all those people who told me the show was dead and I was deluded to think the BBC had any intention of keeping it going. Broadcast target 2028/29, tight turnaround for submissions - just two weeks. www.bbc.co.uk/commissionin...

bbc.co.uk

New opportunity: Doctor Who invitation to tender

Deadline for initial submissions: 2 October

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Lenny van Dohlen's guest appearance in Back to Reality was broadcast thirteen months and two weeks after the last episode of Twin Peaks he was in aired on BBC Two. #reddwarf

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Christopher Wickham @cwickham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The 'new' Red Dwarf crew getting Kochanski within minutes is a truly excellent joke. #reddwarf

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