Words Dept.: archive

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while but haven’t got round to it. Last week I stayed in Edinburgh overnight and was able to catch a couple of Fringe shows with a local Haggis-eating Irn Bru enthusiast by the name of Adrian. Really. Firstly we saw Justin Moorhouse’s show, Justin Moorhouse’s Ever [...]

Peter Kay is coming back with a spoof on TV talent shows with the extraordinary title of Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar on Ice. Enough to fill-up the EPG listing on its own although, of course, no further explanation is really needed. The first time I really [...]

The Policy Exchange, a “centre right” think tank, has suggested in a new report that people in Liverpool and some other places in the north should abandon their cities, which are “beyond revival”, and move down south. While that is undoubtedly a daft suggestion aimed at stirring up controversy, the fact remains that Liverpool is [...]

I notice Nike is encouraging people to “sponsor” one of the 22,850 steps they have worked out Paula Radcliffe will need to complete in order to finish the Olympic marathon, promoted via a text message-backed campaign in halfwit’s comic the Sun this week. The reason I notice this is because my dad has put his [...]

I’m thoroughly enjoying Journey to the East, Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn’s animated title sequence for the BBC’s Olympics coverage. Much better than some of the dross that’s actually taking place in Beijing – I mean, really, who wants to watch the Czech Republic win gold in shooting, let alone watch it in high definition, [...]

The proposed Manchester congestion charge and the £3bn Transport Innovation Fund that the city is bidding for has created a turf war between two rival business lobbying groups in which few people - other than the odd business hack - seem to be interested. For those who may have missed it, one group, called United City (geddit?), is in favour of the TIF funding [...]

ABC presenter and former Michael Jackson/Princess Di botherer Martin Bashir is said to “bitterly regret” a jokey confession that he was turned on by “Asian babes” in a speech to Asian-American journalists last month. Channel Four News featured some video of the incident tonight, which should be viewable on their site but which I can’t [...]

James Corden, co-writer and co-star of Gavin and Stacey, says in this month’s Esquire that he doesn’t, er, have much time for the cast or production team of Hollyoaks, having spent an unhappy two months on the show several years ago. His character was, perhaps inevitably, supposed to be a tad overweight. But in a [...]

I went to the closing down sale of Danish furniture shop Ilva in Manchester today. Predictably, the place was a lot busier than the two previous times I’ve been there. When Ilva opened its three UK stores a couple of years ago – in Thurrock, Gateshead and Piccadilly – it was supposed to be the [...]