Illuminations

A month on from publication my book 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain' remains available from publishers Bloomsbury with discounts on the hardback, paperback and e-book versions. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-ray...

Aviationland by Mark Crinson from @yalepress.bsky.social is a really wonderful, excitingly stimulating book, drawing threads through and around Heathrow from architecture, history, geography, technology, visual culture, critical theory and critique-by-walking-around. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9781913...

Now *this* is a trigger warning. for Golden Boy @almeida.co.uk

#TheDiplomat S4 finale: great, just great, television drama.

Absolutely delighted to host on the blog Billy Smart's exceptional analysis of the BBC's 'Centre Play' drama series, 1973-77, with a ranking of 51 of the 55 episodes and links to three of the best. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/guest-post-c...

#TheDiplomat S4E7: sumptuous filming with an almost unbelievable first shot, glorious locations, compelling narrative, exceptional dialogue, pitch-perfect performances - this + #SlowHorses S6E6, seen last night, are among the very best recent episodes of great television (if we still call it that).

Absolutely delighted to host on the blog Billy Smart's exceptional analysis of the BBC's 'Centre Play' drama series, 1973-77, with a ranking of 51 of the 55 episodes and links to three of the best. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/guest-post-c...

I really like how Eddy Frankel's weekly @theguardian.com gallery round-up is highlighting spaces and exhibitions that otherwise the mainstream press mostly misses. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

That #SlowHorses finale - my goodness. Forget the critical sniping; this series has been remarkable, brilliantly filmed and as entirely satisfying as any of the others. And what a cliff-hanger! Thank goodness there's a series 7, and apparently also 8, on the way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZbJ...

Have to say it's becoming quite exhausting here in the UK avoiding all spoilers, and articles that might conceivably contain them, for 'You Can See Everything' - and we still have another month to wait! youtu.be/MEumvfKaL_w?...

My friend @lukemckernan.bsky.social married Marja yesterday, and he has written this beautiful post about what was a truly lovely day: lukemckernan.com/2026/10/18/t...

BBC Four schedules at iPlayer 1 - AI bot Veratify 0 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Additional artworks that I really liked from the exceptional 'Comrades in Art' exhibition at the Towner Eastbourne, which is only open until tomorrow, Sunday. I wrote more extensively about the show on yesterday's blog. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/more-comrades/

With Agnès Varda's 'Cleo from 5 to 7' on BBC Four tonight, and Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' next Saturday, it's almost like the golden days of BBC2's 'World Cinema' have returned. Bravo, BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

I feel as if the next month-plus is going to be like this only with “You Can See Everything” www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

With Agnès Varda's 'Cleo from 5 to 7' on BBC Four tonight, and Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' next Saturday, it's almost like the golden days of BBC2's 'World Cinema' have returned. Bravo, BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

In which I finally visit the Towner Art Gallery exhibition 'Comrades in Art', drawn from Andy Friend's exceptional book about the Artists International Association. It's a fascinating show but you only have until Sunday to get there, since it closes then www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/comrades-in-...

I feel as if the next month-plus is going to be like this only with “You Can See Everything” www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

In which I finally visit the Towner Art Gallery exhibition 'Comrades in Art', drawn from Andy Friend's exceptional book about the Artists International Association. It's a fascinating show but you only have until Sunday to get there, since it closes then www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/comrades-in-...

Essential, as is every @chrisgrey.bsky.social post.

Writing, or at least trying to (yes, I know, I know I'm dreadfully beyond the deadline), accompanied by this truly wonderful @anothertimbre.bsky.social set of John Tilbury recordings. A spectacular release. www.anothertimbre.com/products/joh...

The picture is Geoff Andrew hosting this morning's delightful, heart-warming, funny, moving and appropriately laudatory memorial event for Tony Rayns at King's College. I came of age reading Tony in 'Time Out', invariably with a touch of awe....

In danger of getting overlooked, what with airing at just after midnight this coming Sunday, an absolutely brilliant Omnibus film from 1988 about Caryl Churchill. I believe the only time anyone's ever attempted to film Fen and those sequences are unforgettable. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

See also the closing off of access to BBC Written Archives Centre, which has been widely challenged and brought negative publicity but cannot amount to much in the way of savings.

My schedule is all over the place, but here's a collection of interesting articles that I might have contributed on Sunday. The somewhat seasonal, socialist realist image is ‘Grain for the State’, 1953, by Viktor Karrus, seen recently in Tallinn's KUMU. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/another-catc...

Does anyone else find the new @artfund.bsky.social poster campaign for National Art Pass weird? "This gave my brain the afternoon off"! Are we not supposed to think in galleries? Are we being encouraged simply to look at art in an empty-headed manner?

Does anyone else find the new @artfund.bsky.social poster campaign for National Art Pass weird? "This gave my brain the afternoon off"! Are we not supposed to think in galleries? Are we being encouraged simply to look at art in an empty-headed manner?

My schedule is all over the place, but here's a collection of interesting articles that I might have contributed on Sunday. The somewhat seasonal, socialist realist image is ‘Grain for the State’, 1953, by Viktor Karrus, seen recently in Tallinn's KUMU. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/another-catc...

Very good news from the excellent Persephone Books - a second shop is coming, back in London, in Fitzrovia, alongside the one in Bath. persephonebooks.co.uk/blogs/the-pe...

Might this be the first comment "authored" by an AI agent to feature on the Illuminations blog? And if so, why? www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

Rarely agree w Jonathan Jones, and I haven't seen the show, but this feels like a necessary piece: "This is not a real exhibition. It’s a magazine spread. Not only are there style mags in the show, its design has the breathless superficiality of a glossy layout." www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Thoughtful, informed and, to a degree, encouraging from @samfr.bsky.social - I hope @chrisgrey.bsky.social might take this up in his next post. samf.substack.com/p/the-route-...

1956 seen through the eyes of an exile: free screening of Robert Vas's My Homeland (BBC, 1976) at the Liszt Institute London, 3 Nov, 6.30pm. Parkes Director James Jordan joins the panel with poet György Gömöri. Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hungar...

So much to love about Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, but one of the very best things for those who can't get there is publication of the full catalogue as a free .pdf www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/wp-content/u...

Robert Vas' 1976 BBC documentary My Homeland about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution is an extraordinary film about politics + poetry (w Michael Bryant + Judi Dench), memory + exile; this 3 Nov Hungarian Cultural Institute screening is a very rare chance to see it. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hungar...

Thrilled to share news of a screening of a major Robert Vas documentary, My Homeland (BBC, 1976), his powerful, poetic response to the Hungarian Revolution; showing w discussion at the Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Centre London, 3 November - to reserve: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hungar...

So farewell, then (from @theguardian.com at least) Marina Hyde. It's been real. And wonderful. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thrilled to share news of a screening of a major Robert Vas documentary, My Homeland (BBC, 1976), his powerful, poetic response to the Hungarian Revolution; showing w discussion at the Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Centre London, 3 November - to reserve: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hungar...

I too had a very brief stint working as a scaffolder’s mate www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...