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

Whatever happened to Jennifer Lopez?

Jan 24 • Rowan Davies

I don't think about you at all

There’s a famous dunk in Mad Men in which some young dweeb in a plaid coat (I don’t know who he is, because I’d stopped watching Mad Men by this point…

Jan 10 • Rowan Davies

The corporate theory of value

I seem to have accidentally retired at the grand age of 54 (thus becoming one of the 50--64-year-olds whose ‘economic inactivity’ forms part of the…

Nov 22, 2025 • Rowan Davies

SPOILER WARNING for Primary Colors (the novel and the film)

Nov 8, 2025 • Rowan Davies

Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think

When I was about 13, I overheard a piece of music in the background of a Radio 4 programme and found myself desperately needing to know what it was.

Oct 11, 2025 • Rowan Davies

The Sound of the Suburbs

Johnny's upstairs in his bedroom sitting in the dark / Annoying the neighbours with his punk rock electric guitar

Sep 13, 2025 • Tobias Sturt

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