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Essays

Why is Gen X so great?

A Letter from America

Sep 12 • Jonathan Rose

Just offer women elective caesarians

Given all the near-apocalyptic news stories we’ve been treated to over the last six months, you can be forgiven if you didn’t notice the recent Ockenden…

Aug 15 • Rowan Davies

I hate being on TV

The early 2000s weren’t all sparkles and rainbows (the clothes were awful, for one thing); but there was a sense that — to adapt the New Labour anthem …

Jun 13 • Rowan Davies

West End girls and East End boys

Midway through The Gold (BBC, 2023), Neil Forsyth’s series about the 1983 Brinks Mat robbery, there’s a truly great parable about British class.

May 23 • Rowan Davies

Reacher at rest

You can get a bit exhausted, sometimes, by the complexity of real life: the weight of people’s experiences and difficulties, and the way that absolutely…

May 9 • Rowan Davies

The Pitt: progressives in despair

SPOILER WARNING:

Apr 18 • Rowan Davies

The latest from

The Editors

1986: Your Funeral… My Trial

Tobias Sturt

1986: Your Funeral… My Trial

Rowan Davies

Just offer women elective caesarians

Jon Millington

November '24: A Christmas story

Chris Waywell

April '24: Ooh, you poor man

The Metropolitan

The Metropolitan

Weekly emails about pop culture & society, written by British Generation X. No dunking. No hot takes. No false nostalgia. Choose the 'Free' option when you subscribe to get the weekly newsletter.

Raised By Puffins

Jane Austen (John Murray, 1816)

Sep 5 • Tobias Sturt and The Editors

The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley (Titan Books, 1986)

Jun 20 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

1066 And All That

W C Sellar & R J Yeatman (Methuen, 1930)

Apr 4 • Rowan Davies

Iain M. Banks (Orbit, 1996)

Jan 3 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Can We Show The Kids?

There’s more to life than money, you know

Aug 22 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Can anyone else smell frying onions?

Jun 6 • Tobias Sturt and The Editors

Highlander (1986)

There can be only one. And a couple of sequels. And a TV series. And a remake.

Mar 7 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Say, what gives?

Dec 6, 2025 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

On The Box

Paddington (1976 - 1980)

Please look after this bear

Aug 8 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Moonlighting (1985 - 1989)

If people are missing, if objects are lost / we’ll find them for you, at reasonable cost

May 16 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Changing Rooms (1996-2004)

Mar 21 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Blackadder II (1986)

A sitcom so cunningly devised that you could put a silly hat on it and call it the court jester to the king of weasels.

Jan 17 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Track Listing

1986: Your Funeral… My Trial

Featuring Nick Cave on harmonica on tracks 1 & 2

Oct 3 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

1996: Irresistible Bliss

Deep Slacker Jazz

Jul 11 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

1986: Gone To Earth

Growing up with David Sylvian

May 2 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Ba buh-buh buh-buh buh

Feb 21 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Canon fodder

Paint It Black (1966)

They’re selling hippie wigs in Woolworths, man

Sep 19 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Taxi Driver (1976)

I’m the only one here

Jul 4 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Lake Wobegon Days (1986)

‘Wobegon’, from the Native American ‘the place where we waited all day in the rain [for you].’

Apr 11 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Titus Groan (1946)

A trip down the winding sentences and cluttered paragraphs of Gormenghast

Feb 7 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

Mixtape

Metropolitan Mixtape: September 2026

In which we finally get time to watch some films again

Sep 26 • The Editors

Metropolitan Mixtape: August 2026

One small step, Five long seasons

Aug 29 • The Editors

Metropolitan Mixtape: July 2026

Aux charmes, citoyens

Aug 1 • The Editors

Metropolitan Mixtape: June 2026

What The Metropolitan has been watching while delirious from the heat

Jun 27 • The Editors

Seasons

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (1892/1984/1991)

"Remarkable, Holmes!", "Meretricious, Watson." "And a Happy New Year."

Dec 20, 2025 • The Editors and Tobias Sturt

A Study in Pink (2010)

The scarlet thread of disappointment running through the colourful skein of TV

Nov 26, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

Sherlock Hound (1984) / The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

Holmes Movies: The game is a-paw

Oct 16, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

The Seven Per Cent Solution (1976)

Holmes Movies: Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud!

Sep 23, 2025 • The Editors

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