Writing
Notes from the work
Six decades in film and publishing, written down as it happened — on producing, writing, the industry, and the people in it.
Essays
11 min read
CAST AWAY ON AN ISLAND WITHOUT A PADDLE
I often listen to the choice of music of guests on the British radio show, “Desert Island Discs”. I often wonder if their mostly poncey choices of classical music were in any way a real reflection …
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6 min read
What Happened to Us?
Have you noticed how society seems to have become a bit of a mess lately? I see evidence of this everywhere I look. Have we really lost our direction? At the end of this article you can reach your …
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4 min read
Back To The Future Again
It was predicted with some certainty that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was going to administer the coup de grace and finally kill off Peter Mandelson's career in frontline politics when his term as …
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3 min read
A Tribute
Earlier this week the great film star Charlton Heston passed away in his Beverly Hills home. I want to pay a small personal tribute to the man and a selected few others for their help to me when I …
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7 min read
Waiting
Before we’re born our parents are waiting for us to arrive. After we do so it is the human condition for us to be forever waiting. We can’t wait to crawl, walk, run, grow, get a beard if we are mal…
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3 min read
Transfer Window
Last night at the witching hour the football transfer deadline was reached with frenetic activity, particularly in the city of Manchester. Two £30 million plus deals went through minutes before the…
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5 min read
BAADER/ MEINHOF REVIEW
I was in Cambridge with some academic colleagues and it was decided that we go to see a film, I was in the mood for something light, but then again, I was outvoted in a duly democratic decision and…
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3 min read
The Man Comes Around
Today I welcome President Barack Obama to his new post. Ironically, as I started to write this article the play list I was listening to automatically selected Johnny Cash singing “The Man Comes Aro…
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4 min read
Downton Abbey – Fun, Fizz or Flop?
The cinema was almost full although it was noon on a weekday so I think it’s safe to say this is not going to be a flop. But does it fizz? Not really. It’s fun, but I admit to a series of reservati…
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4 min read
Quantitatively Eased
Being Quantitatively Eased sounds like something someone might do with a plunger for a very high colonic. Perhaps that is precisely what is happening to us in the British body economic?
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10 min read
Anti-SEMITISM – THE OLDEST IDIOCY
Anti-Semites are idiots. All racism is idiotic. Anyone reading this who is a racist should stop reading now because they are about to become convinced they were right to be anti-Semitic because thi…
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4 min read
Holes
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" Hillel, Pirkei Avot, 1:14
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7 min read
Full Circle
Full Circle is a film that tells the poignant tale of a son and his unrelenting investigation to find his lost father and 68 fellow submariners. “The Men of the INS Dakar – Never Forgotten”.
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11 min read
Tony's Top Ten
I often listen to the choice of music of guests on the British radio show, “Desert Island Discs”. I often wonder if their mostly poncy choices of classical music were in any way a real reflection o…
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4 min read
Entertainment
Entertainment takes many forms and the entertainers are a group as diverse and intriguing as the rest of the world’s population.
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4 min read
Families
There are times when you are very lucky. For me, such a time is now. I have the joy of being surrounded by my family, for those of you who have shared such an experience you know what I mean, and I…
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5 min read
Pinewood
Recently I went for lunch at Pinewood Film Studios. I used to have an office there during the late 70’s. I more or less grew up there as a filmmaker and it holds many memories, fond and otherwise.
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3 min read
Living In The Shadows
Horrible Alzheimer’s disease could there be anything more cruel or arbitrary than this illness that robs us of our loved ones and leaves us with their shadows? This is an intensely personal article…
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4 min read
Still Fighting
There are very few openly pro Jewish and pro Israel politicians in this country. There are many in the USA. Is this because there are too few Jews in the UK to count politically whereas there is a …
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4 min read
Pak The Threat
With all of the awful problems confronting our leaders it is not the huge economic mess that we’re in that is their biggest problem. In the same week that President Obama met Prime Minister Brown w…
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3 min read
Choc Drop
Many years ago travel was fun. It has become progressively less like fun, and more like punishment with every passing year. Two incidents stand out in my mind that demonstrate how things have changed.
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7 min read
What's Missing For Labour
My father was a great film producer, and one of the elements that made him excel was his uncanny skill as a script editor. Being a writer myself I grew to trust and duplicate his methods. The most …
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