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David Hickman

@davidhickman.bsky.social
187 followers 210 following 449 posts

Documentary filmmaker. Taught film & TV University of York 2009-19. Visiting fellow Wolfson College Cambridge and CRASSH 2014. BAFTA film-voting member. Presently scribbling a lot.

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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Farage finally arrives at his "I was present but not involved" moment. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘I wasn’t even listening,’ Farage says of donations scandal meeting
Reform UK leader maintains innocence in overseas funding controversy on last day of party conference
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Round of applause to the Guardian subs for this headline. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Kitchen magnate finds recipe for Wakefield joy in historic rugby league city
Matt Ellis has transformed the club after spending £10m so far and they are now contenders to win Super League for the first time
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I have a question for those who study the media: Does anyone in corporate owned media wonder if their declining audience and trust is the product of events like we saw last night? Because, as someone who started an independent media outlet, it is definitely part of our growth.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
The treatment of this woman is absolutely outrageous and one of the most egregious corporate violations of free speech I've seen. I have just bought the book as a fuck you to Facebook. It's available here uk.bookshop.org/p/books/care...
uk.bookshop.org
Careless People: A story of where I used to work
The number one global bestseller and Book of the Year 2025 for Audible, The Times, Cosmopolitan, The Economist and more.‘Amazing: of all the books in all the world Mr Free Speech Zuckerberg wants to b...
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
"When you see your grandpa about to fling himself into a bush to retrieve an empty crisp packet, it’s hard not to get involved." A lovely little gem of an article. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
A moment that changed me: my grandpa risks his life to litter pick – and he taught me a profound lesson
I thought I knew what it was to be a good citizen. But after seeing him scramble up a ditch, beaming with pride at his rubbish-filled bag, I realised what it actually involves
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Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough Thank you for being a friend to all animals and for helping the world to cherish us x
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🇩🇰🇺🇦🇬🇪🇪🇺Tordenskjold🔔 @tordenskjoldcph.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I always liked Robert De Niro as an actor. I like him even more as a political activist. He is not intimidated like some others of influence and as many vital institutions and corporations in 🇺🇸. In particular shame on the lawyer firms who folded without a legal battle.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
This could be Act 1 for any number of terrific films. What a premise. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
‘It’s a world heritage site, but it’s my home’: the last resident of Casa Milà on life in Gaudí’s masterwork
Ana Viladomiu has been a ‘privileged’ resident of the once derided, now revered Barcelona apartment building for almost 40 years
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
This is just awful news. Doug was not just a brilliant wildlife cinematographer but a beautiful soul. I once had the unforgettable pleasure of producing a film that he shot, in sometimes dreadful, very rainforesty conditions (Madagascar), and he was in his element www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Doug Allan, cameraman on David Attenborough’s Planet series, dies trekking in Nepal
Wildlife film pioneer has died aged 74 ‘immersed in nature and surrounded by friends’, his representatives said
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Wouldn't be the worst idea to have a worldwide consumer, government and business boycott of OpenAI to counter the Trump junta's attempt to destroy Anthropic + Spain (Dear god, the world is catastrophically weird that such a post is possible).
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Wall-to-wall press coverage of Labour losing the Gorton and Denton by-election. Weirdly, practically nothing at all on Reform losing - in a seat they thought they had sewn up. It's Caerphilly all over again.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
McSweeney resigning brings to mind Dorothy Parker's "I have two words for you and the second one is off." For anyone in any doubt, "Get In", Maguire & Pogrund's account of Labour through the 2024 election period, makes clear that McSweeney would be a disaster - indeed was already causing mayhem.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The sheer number of in-jokes in this thread...
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Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Repost endlessly
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti
Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti
"We are heartbroken but also very angry.
Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an
ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.
I do not throw around the 'hero' term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.
Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
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Trades Union Congress @tuc.org.uk · 05/01/2026
A Dutch worker went viral after explaining to their American boss that they have a life outside work.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Asian mums rule
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
So it seems that Big Tech, having sown a minefield of mental health crises, has found a way of profiting from them. And even though there are signs that its pulling back by small degrees, the fakery of unregulated AI empath-chatbots has fueled an addictive dependency. futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Doctors Warn That AI Companions Are Dangerous
The market incentives at play in the AI industry are creating a "perfect storm" for a public health crisis over chatbots, physicians warn.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
I grew up on the Stanhope estate, mentioned this piece. The 'posh-poor divide' is not new - it's as old as the estate itself, which had a fearsome reputation. The reason I didn't get bullied at school was because other pupils knew where I was from. www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
theguardian.com
‘Posh-poor divide’: the rise in areas of England where wealth and deprivation appear side by side
Data shows increase in neighbourhoods where few metres of asphalt, hedgerow, or wall can separate deep inequality
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Is The Times using AI to write its obits now? A weird one for the pirate DJ and broadcaster Tom Edwards makes a glaring error in the 1st par., calling the Radio Caroline ship in the 60s the Ross Revenge (it was the Mi Amigo); and amid the general cut-and-paste confusion are sentences like this:
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
This is the best example I've seen recently of how AI can reduce intelligent people - in this case actual university staff - to mindlessness. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
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Sam and King Lucy the 1st @kinglucythe1st.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
I am a lifelong Labour voter. I never imagined that a Labour Govt could be so repulsive. Unless they change course dramatically, I won't be able to vote Labour at the next GE.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Train Dreams is a poetic and cinematographic wonder. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it since Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and it's every bit as good. Try to see it on the big screen though - it's meant to be a shared experience. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nk8...
youtube.com
Train Dreams | Official Trailer | Netflix
YouTube video by Netflix
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
The BBC executives who are saying they were unaware of an edit in Trump's "fight like hell" speech are either being inattentive or disingenuous. Anyone involved in factual TV production and post will know that if there is a cutaway in the middle of a clip like this it almost certainly hides an edit
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Excellent piece by David Aaronovitch. The edit was the error; the Prescott report was the scandal. davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/murder-at-...
davidaaronovitch.substack.com
Murder at the BBC
With his little hatchet...
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Sorry but this is getting stupid now. The briefings against Streeting were made, face-to-face, to lobby journalists at The Times, The Guardian and others - all of whom therefore KNOW who the briefer was. Why not just say so instead of feigning ignorance? www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
theguardian.com
Starmer told by Downing St staff that none of them briefed against Streeting, says No 10 – UK politics live
Spokesperson says PM is not trying to whitewash situation despite lack of leak inquiry
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer. He is a computer safety researcher. And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine. In under 1600 words. aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Politics Chicago
2025-11-08

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.

Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again.

An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next.

Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st.

Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Quite the charge here by The Standard. Khan has been Mayor for 9 1/2 years, so that's around 10,500 miles per year. The distance from London to, say, Los Angeles is 5,450 miles. So Khan couldn't complete a single round trip there without exceeding his yearly total www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
standard.co.uk
Plane stupid? 'Green' Sadiq Khan clocks up over 100,000 air miles on mayoral duties
Full extent of London mayor’s foreign travel catalogued for first time since he was elected to City Hall in 2016
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
There's more to this story than there is in the article, but the Guardian does ask the right questions at the end. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
theguardian.com
Mediocre movies, millions in taxpayer cash: how scores of films from low-profile UK producers were funded mainly by public money
Creative industries are ‘crucial to the economy’ but film-making and tax have long had an uneasy relationship in Britain
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
How is it possible for someone to "lose everything" and yet continue to live in a style of unimaginable wealth and privilege? www.standard.co.uk/comment/prin...
standard.co.uk
Andrew has lost everything but other Epstein associates have got away
The King’s action was brutal and necessary, yet he still has obligations to his brother
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
More evidence of Silicon Valley tech bros using their wealth to advance batshit ideas. Eg: “The Church embraced that great invention of the day [the printing press] to literally change humanity," which erases the Church's censorious Librorum Prohibitorum. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
An ex-Intel CEO’s mission to build a Christian AI: ‘hasten the coming of Christ’s return’
Patrick Gelsinger, executive chairman of Gloo, has made it his mission to advance Christian principles in Silicon Valley
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Sorry but I just assumed that that White House video was a subversive confirmation from an insider that Trump can never not voluminously crap himself.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
This just in from our told-you-so department... www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Tel Aviv football derby between Hapoel and Maccabi called off after rioting
Israeli police make nine arrests, citing ‘disorderly conduct, riots, injured police officers’ and infrastructure damage
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
This is a chaotically bonkers post from such a respected sports journalist. Also, practically none of it is relevant. Here's what the people of Birmingham can look forward to, based on the "performance" of Maccabi fans in Amsterdam last year: /1 www.henrywinter.football/p/banning-ma...
henrywinter.football
Banning Maccabi fans sets a dangerous precedent
Where do you then draw the line.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
There's an old story from Stalin's day that when the Soviet Union set targets for rivet production they did it by weight. So steel foundries just made bigger, very useless rivets. Smaller, meaner, more isolated housing could just be modern London developers' de-regulated dream of bigger rivets.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Although Hat Trick, the production co behind HIGNFY, is an indy, the same problem inhabits BBC News itself, where experienced subs and production editors are often edged out in favour of inexperienced 'digital natives'. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
theguardian.com
BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’
Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
This is deeply disturbing. Have the European news picked up on it at all yet?
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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’ I have been forced to move my classes online. If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
I have no interest whatsoever in golf, but good grief that was satisfying.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
A little piece of heaven www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
theguardian.com
‘A hub of humanity’: National Railway Museum space reopens after £11m refit
Station Hall displays from a microwave-burger box to royal carriages intended to showcase best and worst of rail travel
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Fully expecting a comedy version of this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLUk...
youtube.com
Saddam Hussein's Very Public Purge
YouTube video by American Heroes Channel
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Sorry but has a certain someone not seen Slow Horses? The agency in the novels and TV series maps on to MI5 not MI6. And any comparison in terms of seniority would be Diana Taverner or Claude Whelan, not Jackson Lamb. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
The new MI6 chief is a far cry from Slow Horses
Jackson Lamb returns to our screens this week and Blaise Metreweli settles into her new office. The two are a study in contrasts
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Trust Paul Thomas Anderson to come up with just the movie we need right now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUP...
youtube.com
One Battle After Another | Official Trailer 2
YouTube video by Warner Bros.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
I'm a Londoner and I endorse this message
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
No. Also, don't be stupid.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Then why are we still laughing? www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...
standard.co.uk
Nigel Farage: 'Reform UK will take winning London seriously'
Reform leader encourages members to volunteer as councillor candidates ahead of the local elections in May next year
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
Lord Brocket has been charged with rape, which he denies. Who's up for chanting outside expensive hotels where peers of the realm stay to get them evicted and deported? news.sky.com/story/celebr...
news.sky.com
Celebrity peer Lord Charles Brocket charged with rape
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard Brocket, who finished fourth on the 2004 series of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, denies the allegations.
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David Hickman @davidhickman.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
This is a terrific read. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...
theguardian.com
‘The King Lear in I Am the Walrus? That came from John Cage’: Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ debt to great avant-garde composers
In the mid-60s, the Beatles tuned in to the world’s most audacious experimental musicians. Paul McCartney reveals how many of the Fab Four’s ‘far-out’ masterpieces were inspired by their sonic breakth...
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Joseph Menn @joemenn.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
The IDF planned a journalist’s killing.
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Adil Ray @adilray.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
The killings of Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa by the IDF is a war crime. They are civilians. The IDF must provide evidence of the terrorist claims, and explain why an entire tent was targeted when they would know other civilians would be present.
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