Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Edison Research Top 25 UK Podcasts – Q4 2025
Edison Research has just published their Top 25 Podcasts in the UK for Q4 2025. As ever, this chart is based on recall from 2,000 online interviews with weekly podcast listeners in the UK. As ever, I’m going to take the long view on this and show how the chart has changed over time. This…
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So the Censorship Begins
Good to hear that censorship is alive and kicking, as Al-Jazeera are kicked out of the New York Stock Exchange.
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Prisoners of War
Now I don’t doubt that it’s pretty awful that captured US soldiers are being paraded around on TV, but quoting the Geneva Convention not allowing prisoners to be put on TV seems just a tad rich considering that last week, I seem to remember seeing Iraqis surrendering and being searched by British soldiers. There certainly…
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The War
It continues, and somehow the TV news coverage enthralls and disappoints at the same time. It does strike me that correspondents have far too little time to actually do any reporting rather than pieces to camera. Sky has poor David Chater reporting live practically around the clock. Last night there were a few explosions in…
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Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s
Andrew Collins, sometime Eastenders script writer, Back Row presenter, regular contributor to Top Ten xxx and I Love the 19xx, and now Radio Six DJ has written this entertaining memoir of life growing up. Based largely on a diary he kept throughout his childhood, this brings homes the minutiae of toys, comics, TV programmes, music…
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Iraq
Well obviously less than two hours after I wrote my last entry, the war really did start. Albeit in an unexpected way. It seems as though the Americans are going directly after Saddam. And there was me thinking that they had some kind of law about deliberately killing another head of state? (Second question down,…
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It hasn’t happened yet
No war just yet – but it can surely only be a matter of time. The B52s are still in Britain, so I’d say that the onslaught won’t start tonight.
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Spam
Day three and I’m up to 99 items!
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War Imminent
It seems as though war will begin within the next few hours. There was something of a sandstorm earlier, but as well as causing problems, it might also be the cover they want. Not even the prospect of a cheap PDA from Amazon can lighten the mood. How quickly will the Americans clamp down on…
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Spam
Today’s total after full cleaning – 68. Can I break 200 by the end of the week?
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Clare Short… again
Well tomorrow’s Daily Mirror has Clare Short on the cover alongside the headline “Revolting”. I really don’t see that she’s done herself any good today. Meanwhile Blair’s won all the votes he was after although it was never likely he’d lose them – particularly with the support of the oppposition.
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Clare Short
She’s been defending herself about her u-turn, in an interview with Andrew Marr. Personally I don’t think her argument stacks up. I can’t say that I particularly liked Robin Cook before all this, while Clare Short seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve. Yet now the tables are reversed, and it’s Cook who comes…
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Spam
I’m running a bit of an experiment this week, checking to see how much Spam I get in the course of a week. I’m now using a superb program called POPfile to sort my spam from genuine mail. The user just has to identify some early mail, differentiating between spam and genuine mail, and it…
Hadrian’s Wall
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