The BBC needed to appoint a visionary at a time of crisis. Instead they’ve appointed someone who is now starting as Director-General with no experience of broadcasting or journalism whatsoever.

Back last summer , I was the first to call publicly in print for Tim Davies’ resignation as BBC Director-General after his abject failure over a whole series of managerial cockups – and pointed out in the Spectator his complete lack of credentials for the job in the first place, given he had never made a programme. The only creative decision he was said to have ever made was to have told Pepsi to turn their cans from red to blue when he had been a PR executive; advice which failed, as sales did not increase.

He went within months  – I can’t take any credit, as I suspect he is more likely to read Marketing Week than the Spectator – but in the usual way of the BBC, it’s taken until now  to replace him. It’s never been an organisation to have a sense of urgency; only those who have worked there, like me, can appreciate the institutional inertia at management level, where executives can play musical chairs all day long without ever making a decision about the direction the organisation needs to take.

Today, after all the vacillation, a new Director-General is finally starting in his place.

So, given the crying need for a strong figure who can lead the BBC into licence renewal against a declining share of the viewing figures, who have they chosen? …

A Very Modern Director-GeneralRead More »

So people have been stopping me in the street to ask why I haven’t been doing my usual annual BAFTA updates on what are the best films to watch in the winter months.

And the reason is simple – there haven’t been a lot of them ! And as one of the many voters, I’ve had to trudge through a fair few.

The  big number blockbusters like Sinners, One Battle After Another, let alone ‘Wuthering Heights’ – with those coy quotation marks to show that it’s just a ‘version’ of the original – have been full of sound and fury signifying nothing. And don’t get me started on Avatar.

There have been a few quieter films that have slipped through. Pleased to see Sentimental Value has done so well and is in the running for best film at the BAFTAs and up for lots of other awards. It’s not perfect – there are some scenes that are unintentionally funny for being a little too Nordic and Scandinavian serious – but it’s at least a grown up film about real people.

As often happens, the best film of the year isn’t up for any awards at all. Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, based on the brilliant memoir by Alexandra Fuller, is a pitch perfect film with a performance by its 7 year old star, Lexi Venter – on screen in almost every shot -that should have had her up for a best actress award if there wasn’t such a bias against child actors. As Wendy Ide of the Guardian, one of our best film critics, commentated, it’s bizarre how this got no awards notice, but maybe they just didn’t have the publicity machine you need these days –which let’s remember was invented by Harvey Weinstein when he wanted to promote his Miramax films for box office enhancing awards. And also it doesn’t tick any of the right diversity boxes in that it’s about white trailer trash in what was then Rhodesia, although it actually says more about ingrained racism then many a more right-on film.

.
Embeth Davidtz wrote, directed and stars as the girl’s mother, and is clearly a talent to watch.

‘But is there a good popcorn film this year?’ you ask.

I really enjoyed Frankenstein or at least the first half which is just about the mad inventor – another terrific performance by Oscar Isaac which has gone under acknowledged in the awards – and actually gets less interesting once the monster appears. Certainly it should clean up for cinematography and production design which are extraordinary – no surprise from the director of  Pan’s Labyrinth.

And Steve has the most integrity of just about any movie out at the moment with a terrific performance by Cillian Murphy and ensemble acting by the troubled borstal boys.

Be great if such lower budget films as Steve and Sentimental Value do well as it might persuade Hollywood you don’t have to be bombastic to succeed. Roll on the awards this weekend. And happy viewing ….

Hugh Thomson interviewed Tom Stoppard twice – which amused Stoppard, as few people ever got the chance at all with a writer who famously valued his privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1980, I saw Tom Stoppard give the annual Clark Lecture in Cambridge.

The Clark Lectures are usually sedate and resolutely formal affairs, in which an academic or man of letters is invited to opine. TS Eliot delivered a famous one back in his day.

Stoppard began his standing at the customary lectern on stage at the ADC Theatre, with the curtain behind him.

He was talking about how performance can alter the interpretation of a play and gave as an example the moment in Travesties when Lenin’s secretary opens a new Act with an exposition on the progress of the war in Russia. It is a long monologue for an audience to digest, and had caused problems for both the initial London and New York productions.

But the French producers telegrammed to him to say – a telegram was still a thing then – that the play was a huge success in Paris, particularly that scene.

He had not been present for the French rehearsals or opening night and hurried over.

‘And this,’ he said, ‘is how they played that scene with Lenin’s secretary.’ …

Tom Stoppard RememberedRead More »

What would have happened if the poet Lord Byron had not died an early death in Greece?

But instead had lived – and then some – by doing what his letters show he always wanted to do: escape to South America with the great last love of his life, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, and help Simon Bolivar liberate it from the Spanish.

This great sweep of a novel imagines just that and takes the poet and his lover into a New World of the Americas where nothing is ever quite as they expect.

‘Bold, bewitching and a touch dangerous – like Lord Byron himself’  Benedict Allen

‘Hugh Thomson is a mesmerising storyteller’  Sara Wheeler

‘Literally fabulous! Unmissable…’  Joanna Lumley

 

So if anyone’s wondered what I’ve been doing during the extended radio silence it’s because I have determinedly not been doing any other activities other than getting this novel finished!

Which has involved travelling to Colombia to research it and the usual amount of concentrated work…

But I’m very pleased with the result and I hope that all my readers feel it’s been worth the wait.

The Kindle ebook version is available from Amazon.

The hardback versions is also available from Amazon and all good booksellers  from January 2025.