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Great idea but not one on any working producer's wish-list I suspect. Anyway there will (eventually) be a Vol 4 if I live to write it.

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Rich Hall puts it very concisely here. (Thanks to @swansonian.bsky.social for posting the interview.) www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/2...

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Two very good examples! However you need a truly visionary writer/director (a la PTA or JG) to pull off something like that, and there aren't many of those around ...

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Yes the four principal roles had all been cast. Christoph Waltz, John Turturro, Maya Hawke and John Hamm (as William Holden).

I haven't seen it for years so can't really say. Terrific cast! My memory is that Dick and Ian wrote it as four episodes but after the shooting started everyone was suddenly told it had to be three, which created difficulties all round.

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Here Come the Rattling Trees was written entirely by Sean. My collaboration with them was the earlier Say Hi to the Rivers and the Mountains. (Which you are not the only person to have missed! There were only about half a dozen performances.)

The plot is too complicated for a film. David Nobbs's radio adaptation (2005) was good.

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There were quite a few talks. But no ink on paper.

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Optioned, but never made: What a Carve Up (many times) The House of Sleep (many times) The Rain Before It Falls Expo 58 Middle England Mr Wilder and Me

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Meanwhile, currently under option: The Proof of My Innocence Never optioned: The Accidental Woman A Touch of Love The Closed Circle Number 11 Bournville

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Namely: The Dwarves of Death (as Five Seconds to Spare, UK feature film, 1999) The Rotters’ Club (UK TV series, 2005) The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (French feature film, 2015)

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This has got me looking back on my track record of screen adaptations, and remembering what a frustrating business it is. Out of fifteen novels, ten have been optioned, but only three actually made it to the screen.

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This is an excellent and moving tribute to Jeremy Thomas. I feel very lucky to have known him, and very guilty that because of me (in part) he spent so much time towards the end of his life on a project that ended up going nowhere. www.screendaily.com/features/a-h...

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I want to say Franzen or Safran Foer but neither of them fit.

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A unique combination - and a unique event! Pretty sure it was recorded, though I don't think I have a copy.

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Nobody likes them. (Except me, sometimes.)

... accompanied by Theo Travis's multitracked flute improvisations. She was really enthusiastic about the idea of this live performance and fascinated by the electronics and technicalities involved. It was a great event and I've remembered her generosity and open-mindedness ever since. RIP.

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One of the reasons I've largely given up on music/spoken word combinations is that actors often don't like them - they feel the music interferes with or inhibits their performance. But some years ago at Bath Festival Stephanie Cole brilliantly read extracts from my novel The Rain Before It Falls ...

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Authors! If you must respond to your bad reviews, do it as graciously as Oliver Hardy when Walter Winchell trashed the film 'Nothing But Trouble' in 1945. (Bookmarking this post in case I need it in November.)

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Thank you so much to @stuartmaconie.bsky.social and Clare Chambers for these extremely generous comments about LESSONS IN HARMONY. Out in two months! www.penguin.co.uk/books/476261...

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Reposted by Jonathan Coe

Bethany Black @bethanyblack.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I really need journalists to learn that every time OpenAI or Anthropic or xAI says that their model has broken containment and could destroy humanity that it’s a marketing pitch by companies running out of cash with high overheads and no profitable business model wanting more investment.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I think everyone's been stunned into silence by that AI guy telling us we're all going to die in three years. Same on X, except there they've decided to deal with it by obsessing over the cultural meaning of Sydney Sweeney's boobs.

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More gigs in the pipeline hopefully.

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A terrible month indeed. (But I think you might have got your rice and your curry mixed up.)

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I despair. If we end up (God forbid) with a Reform govt, BBC News will have played a large part in enabling it.

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Typical I'm afraid. You know they don't even have their own term for 'roman fleuve'?

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Well, I've had a very nice day listening to this album on repeat, so thank you, Fuzz Kitchen. It really is like finding a long lost Hatfield or Gilgamesh album.

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Fuzz Kitchen | Canterbury Scene | London, UK

I've now listened to the whole album and it's a gem. Especially liked Richard Sinclair's guest vocals on 'October'. There are a couple of gigs coming up (London and Hastings), neither of which I can go to sadly.

fuzzkitchen.com

Fuzz Kitchen is a group of pro musicians playing original music and songs in the Canterbury Scene/ Prog Rock style.

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I think it is actually Richard Sinclair guest-mouth-scatting in fact.

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btw I can't take credit for 'finding' this album. I was gifted by a link by the drummer, @nallum.bsky.social, whose BlueSky profile gives no indication of his membership of this band!

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Song of Canterbury (Part One), by Fuzz Kitchen

There now seem to be at least three artists (Zopp, Tom Penaguin and Fuzz Kitchen) whose mission is to recreate the 1970s Canterbury sound as exactly as possible. These guys might be the best. The resemblance to Hatfield and the North during the instrumental parts is uncanny. Lyrics are witty too.

fuzzkitchen.bandcamp.com

from the album FUZZ KITCHEN

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modernreview.substack.com

Issue One (Autumn 1991) of The Modern Review is now online, with more to follow, if anyone fancies a glimpse into a bygone cultural era.

ISSUE ONE

AUTUMN 1991 VOL 1 ISSUE 1

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Congratulations on the excellent reviews, Philip. I'm glad to see a modern history of the novel that gives Fielding his due.

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With Peter Sellers (who had to drop out after his first heart attacks) KMS could have been great. Ray Walston just isn't up to carrying the film. Thinking of using my platform on Nov 4 to make the case for The Emperor Waltz, but that might be career suicide. Five Graves to Cairo is very underrated.

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Such was the weird snobbery in my family that I had the novelisation of this but never saw the actual show because it was on ITV!

Sadly, a fact which I never managed to incorporate into the novel!

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Two whole months of Wilder at the bfi! Really looking forward to this, of course - not least my own participation, at a discussion event with @christinalefou.bsky.social and season curator Ruby McGuigan on November 4th.

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