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Richard Cooper

@richardhcooper.bsky.social
751 followers 946 following 2K posts

Reads, writes, watches, gets increasingly leftwing as he gets older. I live in Battle, East Sussex. I’m 42. I try & write essays (on literature, film, TV drama, TV comedy) for my blog. I’m on the Spectrum. I have an MA. Socialism or barbarism.

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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Clearly it went on too long.
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obseyxx.bsky.social @obseyxx.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
So almost half of all voters are at least open to the possibility that "Zionism is racism" yet this is entirely absent from a public discourse that has closed ranks to shriek hysterically about it being evil?
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Jem Roberts: Author &c. @jemroberts.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Ian Hislop somehow seems to find it unfathomable that any political party could ever consider stating a patently true fact about genocide. Like the lies are permanently unquestionable. The Private Eye editor. But haha, Polanski runs funny. A new post-Boris nadir. #HIGNFY
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Jem Roberts: Author &c. @jemroberts.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
‘Nightingales’ comes full circle! “Turn thy wheel…” www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/o...
theguardian.com
King Lear review – David Threlfall makes a moving Lear, but why is he playing the Fool too?
Matthew Dunster’s disruptive reinvention of the tragedy merges two roles for its star and at times enters Game of Thrones territory
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Tom Reagan’s Witch’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Matt Damon is 56. That time he met Prince:
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obseyxx.bsky.social @obseyxx.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This is the shit that makes you feel insane. By any measure Labour is a profoundly racist party and its racism has an enormous body count. But cos its racism primarily impacts non-white and non-British people, they get to do this asinine posturing and the press lap it up.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It stinks how the tendency of money to go missing from charity campaigns Jeffrey Archer was in charge of always got downplayed in order to paint him as more of a harmless scoundrel. Journalists never pressed him on that brazen insider trading stuff either.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW | A corrective to the obituaries… HERE LIES JEFFREY ARCHER The death of one of Britain’s most infamous liars brings back memories of Monica Coghlan. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/here-lies-...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Here lies Jeffrey Archer
The death of one of Britain’s most infamous liars brings back memories of Monica Coghlan.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR2t... this moment from the opening of T-Bag strikes Again (Children’s ITV, 1986, though it was probably the 1987 repeat)
youtube.com
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Z7... Dramarama episode “back to front” (1989, I think)
youtube.com
Dramarama Back To Front
YouTube video by Henry Kelly
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“A rare audience”
Kim Kardashian: ‘I was single for five years. I needed to heal’
exclusive
She’s one of the most famous women in the world — worth £1.9bn and with 344m Instagram followers. Gavanndra Hodge is granted a rare audience
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T(errifying) C(ryptid) Parker (she/her) @tcparker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This owl has more of an appetite for dismantling the UK class system than anyone currently on the Labour left, and I salute it
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
We don’t do the Daily Mail, but as a public service, here is someone with far too much money being attacked by an owl.
Princess Beatrice's friend Alice Naylor-Leyland is attacked by rogue owl during chaotic photoshoot.
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Seán Costello @seanjcostello.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“I always feel a certain nostalgia now in recalling the city centre as it was in those days; the streets were not so filled with the noise of traffic, and the factories had yet to take the fragrance of seasonal blossoms from the night air.” Finally reading this beautifully crafted early Ishiguro
A copy of An Artist of the Floating World (1986) by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I wonder how many BBC presenters are private landlords?
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Okay so anyone but this guy www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-b...
doctorwhotv.co.uk
Doctor Who Bidder Wants Next Era to Recapture Tennant and Smith Magic
BBC Studios is looking to the Tennant and Smith years as a blueprint for Doctor Who’s future.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The first thing I heard when I turned on the radio this morning was a discussion about Christa Pike who was given two lethal injections and still has a heartbeat. The tone was prurient in the extreme, like overhearing visitors at a freak show.
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Persiflage @persiflage.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Why aren't I surprised to see Brett Kavanaugh's name on this barbaric cruelty?
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yeah, but what was that the manager said about the previous caretaker? Worries me a little.
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T(errifying) C(ryptid) Parker (she/her) @tcparker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm not a huge fan of Lewis - if he believes half what he purports to, why is he still a Labour MP? - but this is fucking terrifying And Tom Watson is grotesque
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The scene where the gloating Michael realises he has to carry out Toby’s gleefully-looked forward to exit interview with Pam and Holly present is one of the funniest scenes of all time.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
22 days ago. A Substack is coming bsky.app/profile/brok...
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You said it, you know *exactly* why you said it.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I just watched The Guardian podcast where Marina Hyde is asked why she picked JK Rowling as her dream Prime Minister and she just dodges the question saying, “Oh, I don’t want to get into a whole thing.” Such a coward’s trick from someone who markets themselves as a straight talker.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And in no particular order: Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sinner (season 1) The Last of Us, Severance, Bodies, Mum (Stefan Golaszewski, UK), This Country, The Office (US) The Curse, Happy Valley, Better Call Saul, Blade The Series, Unforgotten, Getting On, Pulling
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
my own choices: 1. Twin Peaks: the Return 2. The Sopranos 3. Breaking Bad 4. The Wire 5. Deadwood 6.Line of Duty
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Tomás Murray @tomasjmurray.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Today is T. S. Eliot’s birthday. From ‘Preludes’: “One thinks of all the hands That are raising dingy shades In a thousand furnished rooms.”
T. S. Eliot
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ItIsStevenRhodes @400footghost.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"Hey, i'm going to ring up and be rude to Peter Andre, I'll be like that kid who called Five Star!" "You absolute legend, mate." (Later) "How did it go, did he cry?" "He absolutely owned me with politeness and then loads of children cheered in celebration."
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Bad move
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Rachel Malik @rachelmalik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ziggy has disgraced himself on Hampstead Heath this morning. He galloped off at great speed for the How The Light Gets In festival at Kenwood - clearly smelling food. Very nice people working there caught him and phoned me.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Bluesky is still doing this to me. I want to see the dancing Bear 😢
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Possibly my favourite movie
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So fucking enraging and disgusting. The GOP has so much blood on its hands
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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Kamala Harris is seeing this blue wave coming and thinking she should run in 28. Please, please, please no.
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Hello, it's Dan McDaid @danmcdaid.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is going to lead to the Pope fighting an evil Pope in a junkyard, you mark my words.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My retirement plan of crawling into a ditch and expiring is looking right on track.
We must start weaning the nation off the state pension
The triple lock is unsustainable and we all know it. Why not pay out at birth rather than in retirement? That’s the sort of bold move we need

Johanna Noble, Money Editor
Thursday September 17 2026, 6.00am, The Sunday Times
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Dwight, similarly, while often monstrous, has surprising moments of nobility, which makes him a lot more interesting than Gareth. The depiction of the Warehouse characters is much more nuanced than in the Uk version too.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It’s not that sitcom should be tactful about such things, it’s that the those characters should not only exist for such moments: actors should be given more to work with. In the US version, Michael is incredibly crass with Oscar, but Oscar is a decent part which the actor brings to life.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
UK one is at its worst when Brent or Gareth are saying crass things about race to Oliver or about disability to the (not even named onscreen!) girl in the wheelchair.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
UK one overdoes “no-one likes Brent or finds him funny”, US one varies this: Michael as a leader is not entirely unsuccessful, for all his monumental idiocy, his staff’s feelings for him are more complicated and vary from person to person…
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
yes, it still stands up, but it has flaws (much more manifest in all of Gervais’s other stuff) which fascinatingly the US show seizes on and inverts. UK one gives the other office workers too little to do, US one fleshes them all out…
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Grapes of Wrath www.ft.com/content/b36a...
ft.com
Human brain tissue grown in mice for first time
New genetic engineering technique promises to aid quest for treatments for incurable neurological conditions
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
East of Eden www.ft.com/content/b36a...
ft.com
Human brain tissue grown in mice for first time
New genetic engineering technique promises to aid quest for treatments for incurable neurological conditions
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Red Pony www.ft.com/content/b36a...
ft.com
Human brain tissue grown in mice for first time
New genetic engineering technique promises to aid quest for treatments for incurable neurological conditions
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Tortilla Flat www.ft.com/content/b36a...
ft.com
Human brain tissue grown in mice for first time
New genetic engineering technique promises to aid quest for treatments for incurable neurological conditions
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Cannery Row www.ft.com/content/b36a...
ft.com
Human brain tissue grown in mice for first time
New genetic engineering technique promises to aid quest for treatments for incurable neurological conditions
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Thank god for Dunder Mifflin. Watching The Office: An American Workplace for the third time and it’s still a tonic.
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Richard Cooper @richardhcooper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Few things more embarrassing than that 2008 Doctor Who episode where the Doctor meets the real Agatha Christie and insists to her that only she can solve the mystery because no-one else truly *understands people*
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Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Such fuckers. 1984 language too by way of The Office.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Got the formal notification of my half-sacking. Apparently congratulations are due!
'Your appointment is subject to a variation to your contractual terms and conditions. Your substantive contractual hours will reduce from 1.0FTE to 0.5 FTE, equivalent to 18.5 hours per week effective from 1st October 2026Once again thank you for your valuable contribution throughout this process and congratulations on your successful appointment to your new role.
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