iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Cruel, but funny, and well worth 1 minute 44 seconds of your time. (Sound up recommended for the full effect)

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sicilian Cross! I saw that version late one night on the newly twenty-four houred ITV. Without the The, as I recall.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Didn't this film have at least three different titles at various points in its existence?

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ah well - it was a lovely theory while it lasted...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I have asked, following my many long years in am dram and panto, that when the curtains close on my coffin, they then open again and the coffin comes back for an encore.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A bit of digging reveals this article reprinted on Transdiffusion, originally from 1957. The author says "three years ago" - 1954: transdiffusion.org/2024/07/29/s...

transdiffusion.org

SCRIPTS: they’re TV’s biggest problem

There's a shortage of scriptwriters – and the ones applying are terrible

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Two coffees this morning, one tea this afternoon.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Magnificent. One of my all time favourites of all time...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Is it just me, or is Victoria wearing green every week?

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Sharp, insightful writing from Joel about why SNL UK sings (literally *and* metaphorically...)

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

No, spellcorrect on my phone, I never mean 'tge' for 'the'. Never.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My son is now 40, so not only did I not have the technology to do this, but I would have *died* rather than even consider it...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I've been saying this for *years*. From The Saint to Hustle, and from Mr Rose to, yes, actually, Ludwig, there's always been an audience for clever, funny, exciting, well put together drama. It can't just be budgets that's stopped them, so where are they?

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'd forgotten how much of a proper rock star Jim Kerr is (complimentary). Playing the Stirling audience like a fiddle #Radio2InThePark

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

There's one in my town which is a proper stocks-everything. Lovely people as well.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

One of the all-time great reactors. Sells so many of the classic moments just by being there.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's genuinely magnificent. Every single player absolutely at the top of their game.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

And, funnily enough, both of his Watsons...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

There were a few we avoided for obvious reasons - Leader of the Pack and the rest of that peculiar strain - but nothing else we consciously barred...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The only thing we were never allowed to play was Only The Good Die Young - not because it's about death (it isn't), but because explaining would only make things worse...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Which is why there were three different songs called The Power of Love in the charts in the same year, and there's at least three called Forever and Ever...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

As someone who's had a cat bring in (dead) examples of both, that's a mouse.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It's a nicely crafted piece of post-war noir. I think you'll like it.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Apologies for butting in, but if you don't already know this one, I highly recommend it: The Long Memory (1953)

Poster for the 1953 film The Long Memory, a moody British post-war noir, showing a drawing of a man and woman embracing, hiding his face, along with the names of the leading players. I absolutely recommend it.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

As we've said elsewhere, why is Radio 2 playing rave, house and garage? Because Vernon and Sara are 50, and peak 90s was *thirty years ago*...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Equally, the death of Sing Something Simple when faced with disco, punk and new wave...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I was doing hospital radio in the late 80s and we noticed a massive cultural shift *then* - patient requests shifting away from big bands and show tunes towards early rock and pop. This was resisted by the presenters in the big-bands-&-show-tunes demographic themselves, but it was very, very real.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

"And what exactly do you do?" "I buttle" Farewell Tim Curry, one of the best to ever.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

There's an episode of the ITC also-ran The Adventurer (1972), which basically involves all the characters getting on or off the Schwebebahn for the entire riveting half-hour.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

My deep condolences, and thank you for your profound thoughts.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

It is glorious. Published by Methuen - and a quick websearch tells me there's copies out there for under a fiver...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Joe's chat with Barry Cryer concludes with this glorious insight which I've held close ever since.

The interviewer asks the great comedy writer Barry Cryer "Do you know what's funny?" Barry replies "... Nobody knows. I've never ever said... 'This is funny'. I've said 'We like this'."

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Whatever else he was doing, in 1998 he co-wrote/edited this magnificent work, which I've found invaluable over the years...

The vover of the 1998 publication Now That's Funny!: Writers on Writing Comedy - edited by David Bradbury and Joe McGrath and which interviews *everyone* who was anything to do with British comedy since the Second World War.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Ooh, pan and scan. How very... not great.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I managed to squeeze a Spinal Tap reference into last Sunday's sermon. The "darkest valley" of Psalm 23 - "How much more black can it get? And the answer is none. None more black".

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

They said 15, so that's where I stopped. There are, of course, many, many more...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I only know the UK market - barcodes unique to the individual book were certainly everywhere here by the early 90s...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

ISBN 10s (no barcode) were certainly around in the 80s...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A bookseller writes: All commercial books have ISBNs and barcodes now because most bookstores (including indies) have some form of Electronic Point of Sale system.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Casablanca The Titfield Thunderbolt Ride The High Country A Shot In The Dark Bullitt The Great Race The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) The Three Musketeers (1973) The Adventures of Robin Hood High Anxiety Jour de Fete Bob Le Flambeur Le Cercle Rouge Point Blank Charley Varrick Start anywhere...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

That is a startlingly strong cast - I'm not surprised it earned the peak time repeat.

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Williamson did do a Columbo in that period, and by all accounts everyone survived the experience - so perhaps not as far fetched as you fear...

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David Simpkin @simplerdave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The great Canadian band Barenaked Ladies will play an eight date tour in December. Half the set will be new or new-ish material, and they'll happily sell out all eight decent-sized venues - Corn Exchange, Cambridge; Albert Hall, Manchester; etc - despite not having had a hit since the 90s.

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