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Essays

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

Avoiding President Farage

Those who walk away from Sandringham

Mar 14 • Rowan Davies

Content warning for sexual assault

Feb 14 • Rowan Davies

The latest from

Rowan Davies

Blank space

The Editors

1996: Irresistible Bliss

Tobias Sturt

1996: Irresistible Bliss

Jon Millington

November '24: A Christmas story

Chris Waywell

April '24: Ooh, you poor man

The Metropolitan

The Metropolitan

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Raised By Puffins

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

Father Christmas

Raymond Briggs (Hamish Hamilton, 1973)

Dec 13, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

Can We Show The Kids?

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

The Wicker Man (1973)

In the wood there grew a tree, and a fine, fine tree was he

Oct 18, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

On The Box

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

‘A Bit Of’ Fry & Laurie (1989 - 1995)

…oh Christ, I’ve left the iron on

Sep 20, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

Track Listing

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

What a lovely way to burn

Nov 15, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

Canon fodder

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

Down with Skool (1953)

Nov 1, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

Mixtape

Metropolitan Mixtape: June 2026

What The Metropolitan has been watching while delirious from the heat

Jun 27 • The Editors

Metropolitan Mixtape: May 2026

Heroes, super and otherwise

May 30 • The Editors

Metropolitan Mixtape: April 2026

Comforts and discomforts

Apr 25 • The Editors, Tobias Sturt, and Rowan Davies

Metropolitan Mixtape: March 2026

Histories, cinematic, personal and otherwise

Mar 28 • The Editors, Rowan Davies, and Tobias Sturt

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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