iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 03/10/2026

If it had been done by anyone with either a sense of craft, any wit at all, or any care for their work, it'd be the comet scene, with Truss and Kwarteng zooming over the bond markets. But sadly none of those are true so it'll be elided or glibly and blandly depicted :-(

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 02/10/2026

I was amused to have been at work in TVC when this interview went out and was shown on the big screens in the office

David Westhead in character as Neil Reid who in W1A is the BBC’s controller of news and current affairs, being interviewed on the real BBC News, at about 4pm on 10 November 2017 to celebrate the anniversary of the BBC News Channel. The interview is being shown on a TV which I took a photo of in my office (at the time) inside BBC Television Centre. Meta, huh?

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 02/10/2026

I'm delighted to learn that there's a Korean banking app called Toss, and not only that, but...

Screenshot of "Toss Pay" from the Toss website

Picture of a box labelled "Toss Shopping"

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 02/10/2026

Polanski as Sexx Tricker sort of works tbh

2018 Election candidates of note 3: Dorian Salazar O'Malley, Sexx Tricker, Hillary, Holden Bloodfeast (by @beanytuesday on ye olde Twitter)

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 30/09/2026

When you’ve got to defeat Vigo the Carpathian at five but you also have to get to Avonmouth dump before it shuts at four.

A photo from r/Bristol showing someone driving what appears to be the car from Ghostbusters, with junk strapped to its roof

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 28/09/2026

The Zone of Interest, specifically Hedwig, and specifically from the moment in the film at which it becomes extremely clear that not only does she know *precisely* what is going on on the other side of the garden wall, but that she revels in and takes some pleasure in it.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 28/09/2026

Feel like this post and your sean lennon post are linked by the "grandma/rap battle" classic x.com/ch000ch/stat...

hi, grandma? can u come pick me up from my rap battle? it's over. no, i lost. he saw u drop me off & did a pretty devastating rhyme about it

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 28/09/2026

For instance re Airplane this line (and the subsequent running gag) is a reference to an American TV ad that was popular at the time, and the woman who plays the wife is the same woman who stars in the ad.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 27/09/2026

This is a bit strange - presumably this person hasn't ever actually read or experienced Shakespeare and so hasn't noticed the dozens of extremely vulgar jokes in the texts, including at least three c-bombs I can think of (not to mention the "your mum" joke in the middle of Titus Andronicus).

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 25/09/2026

Here's a rough top 100, off the top of my head, of the greatest, or most innovative, or most important British television series of the 21st century so far.

1. A Very English Scandal
2. Absolute Power
3. Arm. Iannucci Shows
4. Big Brother
5. Black Books
6. Black Mirror
7. Burnistoun
8. Catastrophe
9. Catterick
10. Century of the Self
11. Come Dine With Me
12. The Crown
13. Danger Mouse
14. Dead Pixels
15. Derry Girls
16. Detectorists
17. Doctor Who
18. Downton Abbey
19. Endeavour
20. Extras
21. Fleabag
22. Fonejacker
23. Fresh Meat
24. Friday Night Dinner
25. Darkplace
26. Gavin and Stacey
27. Ghosts
28. Gogglebox
29. Grand Designs
30. Green Wing
31. Happy Valley
32. Hey Duggee
33. I May Destroy You
34. I’m Alan Partridge
35. Imagine
36. Inside No. 9
37. Lewis
38. Life of Mars
39. Line of Duty
40. Little Britain
41. Live At The Apollo
42. Ludwig
43. Luther
44. Motherland
45. Nathan Barley
46. Newsnight Review
47. Nighty Night
48. Normal People
49. Only Connect
50. Outnumbered
51. Peaky Blinders
52. Peep Show
53. People J. Do Nothing
54. Phoenix Nights
55. PhoneShop
56. Pointless
57. Red Riding
58. Rev
59. Roger & Val
60. It’s Harry and Paul
61. Sally4Eva
62. Sarah and Duck
63. Sex Education
64. Shameless
65. Sherlock
66. Skins
67. Slow Horses
68. Smack the Pony
69. Small Prophets
70. Spaced
71. State of Play
72. Stath Lets Flats
73. Strictly Come Dancing
74. Succession
75. Taskmaster
76. Great British Bake Off
77. Inbetweeners
78. IT Crowd
79. League of Gentlemen
80. Mighty Boosh
81. Night Manager
82. The Office
83. The Old Guys
84. Power of Nightmares
85. The Repair Shop
86. The Thick of It
87. This Country
88. This is England 86
89. Toast of London
90. Top Gear
91. The Trip
92. Twenty-Twelve
93. Unforgotten
94. Up (Michael Apted)
95. Veep
96. Vera
97. Videogaiden
98. W1A
99. Wolf Hall
100. Zero 30 (BBC News)

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 25/09/2026

The NYT is really nailing the "listicle-to-Bluesky-trending-topic pipeline", isn't it? My list of 36 (left image) included things that I've seen an hour of (my criteria was "at least one episode") and so the more-true version on the right is the 20 series that I've *seen* seen.

The list of 36 shows I've seen at least one episode of, generated by the NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/arts/television/best-tv-shows-21st-century.html

The list of 20 shows I've seen at least half of, or know quite well otherwise, generated by the NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/arts/television/best-tv-shows-21st-century.html

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 25/09/2026

this pairing made me laugh quite a bit

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 23/09/2026

Yeah, this is 100pc “sources” (yank twentysomethings in a production office wanting to sound cool to their friends) failing to understand the difference between what they overheard and what they think they heard.

When the deals closes, it will reteam Eggers with the Universal specialty arm that released his 2024 surprise hit Nosferatu and will be releasing his latest, Werwulf. Eggers will direct the feature and produce. It was not immediately clear who else was producing or executive producing.

As befitting a filmmaker who is known for his meticulous attention to detail in capturing a time period, even when it comes to dialogue, sources say that this adaptation will feature actors speaking in Olde English.

A tragic romance, Shakespeare’s play told the ill-fated story of the titular young lovers who hail from two warring families, the Capulets and the Montagues, in the city of Verona, Italy.

Written in the 1590s, it has been one of the Bard’s more enduring and famous plays and has consistently attracted cinematic attention. Among the more notable productions have been the 1968 iteration directed by Franco Zeffirelli and the 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, Baz Lurhman’s modern take (Verona Beach, anyone?) that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 15/09/2026

The post in question - I was telling this person that I (an actual brown man) don't appreciate his using us as pawns in his promoting a political party.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 12/09/2026

Revolving panorama from the top of BT Tower yesterday

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Incidentally, I realised yesterday that we can see the air traffic from home: we have an ads-b feeder and you can see the drop in overhead flights very clearly

ADS-B feed screenshot showing all flights seen. The ATC drop is visible on Tuesday afternoon. Ignore the grey bit - the feeder was rebooting and not reporting during that time.

ADS-B feed screenshot showing all flights seen. The ATC drop is visible on Tuesday.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Um, Siri, is it bad when a you are described as “bungling” on the front page of a national newspaper?

Today’s Metro front page, which describes NATS boss as “bungling”.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 08/09/2026

I'm quite pleased with having coined it tbh (I assume I've coined it and that it won't turn out that in fact Clayton Christensen came up with it in 1986). Feels like it fits in with:

The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.

–Grace (Edie McClurg), “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

The surprising answer was: not all that much

A graph showing my estimated blood glucose level at 6.4-9.0 mmol/L

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Went to Mallorca to see eclipse. Saw eclipse.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

It turned out KFC in Spain had a Simpsons tie-in chicken burger and it also turned out that this coincided with me wearing a CGM so that I could see in real(ish)time how badly it was going to spike my blood sugar. So: science…

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

The Centrepoint branch of Din Tai Fung isn’t anything special but it is particularly good for solo dinner before shows at @sohoplace if what you need on a warm day is some prawn dumplings, green beans and iced tea.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Back at Normah’s for roti canai

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Squid and a flat white on a roof - the trifecta

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

The former Surbiton Odeon, now the local Waitrose, looking like it’s been matted into the shot

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Arab Strap, in store at Banquet Records - September 2026

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Set list (Arab Strap, in store at Banquet Records - September 2026)

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 06/09/2026

An apt post to have seen a few minutes after seeing Arab Strap playing in store at my local record shop

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 03/09/2026

I know it's not the point, but: you can get *really pretty good* video out of pretty small hidden cameras these days, huh?

A still from footage from the Channel Four and Verbatim undercover investigation into Reform finances. One man is talking to another man. Both are seated and wearing suits, in a wood-panelled room.
Photograph: Verbatim/Channel 4 News

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 03/09/2026

Happy Thursday evening especially to the guy reading Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram’s book on the train home.

The cover of the book Head North seen between two train seats.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 31/08/2026

The first post was... not a million miles off.

It's WW3 Posted Tue Sep 11 15:22:03 BST 2001 by 'MrBungle'

Psycho Bush is gonna blow the world up.

See you all in the Comedy Forum in the sky.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 31/08/2026

We’re at 27.5 per cent of sales being BEVs according to latest SMMT data (www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data...) and China is now up to 44 per cent. Not too shabby, but much more to do.

SMMT data sheet infographic for July 2026

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 31/08/2026

This all reminds me of one of my favourite ever old-reporter stories which IIRC @roberthutton.co.uk posted to Twitter many years ago

A screenshot of a book review telling an old reporting anecdote:

Rotter to the core - Guy Adams

Reflections of a Mirror Man: The Life and Times of Fleet Street's Chief Rotter, by John Jackson (Pp252, Amazon paperback £9.99, Kindle £5.99)

British Journalism Review VOL.32 NO3 SEPTEMBER 2021
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Once upon a time on Fleet Street, before email and the internet and pocket-sized smartphones that transmit video across continents at the swipe of a thumb, getting late-breaking foreign news on to an inky page was a perilous affair. Take, for example, the panic that unfolded at the offices of the Daily Mirror one afternoon in July 1958 when it emerged that US Marines were swarming into Beirut to prop up the anti-communist regime of Lebanon's elected president Camille Chamoun.
A news flash suggested that fierce battles were raging across the city. But since the paper's nearest writer was several hundred miles away - and with no Twitter to plunder for "citizen journalist" footage - there seemed little prospect of securing an eyewitness dispatch by deadline. Until, that is, a cry went up from the sports desk. By remarkable coincidence, Joe Humphreys, the Mirror's pipe-smoking rugby league correspondent, was at that very moment on the tarmac at Beirut airport, where a plane carrying the British squad had stopped to refuel. What's more, he'd just called, via a crackly payphone, promising to dictate "a real belter"
Cue silence in the newsroom. The back bench spiked everything in sight.
On the editor's orders, designers mocked up a front page headlined
"Mirror Man Watches the Horror Unfold". A copytaker's twitching fingers hovered over the typewriter keyboard as Humphreys began to clear his throat.
The opening sentence of his
"world exclusive" began thus: "Wigan wonder winger Billy Boston will miss the first match of the Great Britain tour due to a lingering leg injury. His likely replacement will be... Hang on... I can't hear a bloody thing...
Soldiers running and shouting everywh…

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 31/08/2026

So much from this series that lives with me 25 years on: - Royal Opera House Ibiza season - “a family struggling to come to terms with their butler’s autism” - “he’s a twat” - the railway with stairs - “did you badly cane it last night?” “Yes, Lord, I did” - management consultant elephants

An old cash register that says “HE’S A TWAT” on its green dot matrix screen.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 31/08/2026

Well, this story in my Google Discover feed was extremely confusing until I noticed the missing letter u

Victorian prisoners to be sent out to repair roads under Labor’s pothole plan

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 30/08/2026

Ten gigs from 2026: Truck Violence, Tamikrest, Meursault, Elvis Costello, Black Box Recorder, The Highchurches, Dave, Field Cmdr Ali, Richard Dawson, Graham Coxon

Montage of ten acts I've seen since March: Truck Violence, Tamikrest, Meursault, Elvis Costello, Black Box Recorder, The Highchurches, Dave, Field Cmdr Ali, Richard Dawson, Graham Coxon

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 29/08/2026

KFC Spain has this tie in. Did I have one, in the name of science? Yes I did.

Said burger - chicken burger in a glazed donut

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 28/08/2026

I’ve found it, I’ve found the world’s worst podcast, an ad for which was featured in this otherwise excellent podcast I’m listening to. It’s like a terrible stand-up routine that’s escaped containment from 1996 on a short-lived experimental ITV variety show that ran out of good bookings.

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Anthony Dhanendran @dhanendran.co.uk · 26/08/2026

I also don’t know who this is. The “thread” is two posts, neither of which names someone, so I’m also in the dark. I assume it’s someone from the Goalhanger crowd but otherwise I’m at a loss and am interested to know.

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