Alan Bennett: The Author And His Typewriter

From Radio Times - click to enlarge.

Cumberbatch: Simpleton

Interviewed by [Andrew] Marr – who labelled him "the man they call Britain's favourite otter" [!!??] – Cumberbatch also defended The Imitation Game against suggestions that the film doesn't pay enough attention to Bletchley Park code-breaker Alan Turing's homosexuality.

"I don’t quite know what that means because to me his sexuality is very, very clear in the film. Because we don’t show him in bed with anybody? We don’t show anyone who’s heterosexual having a moment of sexual intimacy in the film.

"The specific importance of his sexuality is the fact that it was criminalised by that society at that time and that he was punished after saving the democracy and government that was in power by that democracy and government for his identity. And I just hope that this film is about his achievements, is about his life, is about his loves as well – and it is about his sexuality and that’s very, very strongly part of his identity, both in the film and his story."

Yet more first-class guff from upper-class twit Little Lord Cumberbatch in the new Radio Times.

See also...

Lucky readers of yesterday's Sunday Telegraph got a chance to pick up a copy of Andrew Hodge's Turing biography - an official tie-in to the release this week of The Imitation Game.

Interesting, as Hodges has denounced the film's heterosexualisation of Turing.

Fagburn notes the free book is an abridged version. 

I wonder which bits they left out?

Sir Ian McKellen: My Disillusionment With Russia

Sir Ian McKellen has said he was advised "not to go to Russia" by the Foreign Office because of the country's homosexuality laws.

"That's why I can't go... they couldn't protect me from those laws," Sir Ian, 74, told the Radio Times.

"Two and a half hours from London! In the land of Tchaikovsky, Diaghilev, Rudolf Nureyev - gay artists whose sexuality informed their work."

BBC News.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's special dedicated Advising Ian McKellen On Trips Abroad desk got straight on the phone to Serena and told her; "Ian, love, do not - and I repeat - do not go to Russia. We simply can not protect you from all these laws. Look at what happened to Sir Elton John over the weekend. After he played that concert in St Petersburg and gave a much-publicised speech in favour of gay rights, they sent him straight to the Gulag. I've had dolly David Furnish on the phone all day! We don't want that to happen to another much-loved gay national treasure like you, dear. Look, in Russia right now they arrest you just for being - how can I put this - a bit poofy. And you're more than a bit poofy! Only joking, love. No I'm not making all this up. I read it in the paper! What do you mean you weren't planning on going to Russia anyway?! Best stay in and paint your toe-nails. Ciao!"

Actual UK Foreign Office travel advice for Russia; "Homosexuality is legal in Russia, but there is still a degree of intolerance among some sections of the population. Be careful about public displays of affection. A law banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” entered into force in June 2013. These laws may affect public statements and assemblies on LGBT issues [They clearly don't]. It is unclear how this law will be applied, but it includes tougher penalties for non-Russians including arrest, fines and deportation."

Grayson Perry: Radio On!

Isn't this delightful?
First copy of Radio Times I've bought since this one, curiously.
There's a big interview with Grayson inside and everything- here's some excerpts if you're too foolish to invest £1.60 in one of your actual works of modern art.
His first Reith lecture, Democracy Has Bad Taste, is broadcast on Tuesday 15th October at 9am.
Yes, 9 o'clock in the morning!
Only Radio 4 could schedule their prize series of the year at such a ridiculous hour.
Don't forget to listen carefully for Fagburn's endearing laugh and clapping.
Loads more stuff on the Playing To The Gallery site.
Did I tell you I met him after?
Or Claire, maybe.
Anyway, I think we bonded...

• Grayson Perry: A master of rabble-rousing and little else: The critic of today's art is ironically its biggest benefactor: Perry has taken a fifth-rate talent and made himself an old master

Ooh! Get Jonathan Jones trying to be all controversial on The Guardian Art Blog!

"This is my moment..." There have been brief Beginner's Guide To... profiles of Grayson in most of the broadsheets this week.
No other interviews, most have just pulled quotes from Radio Times, usually headlining him being a bit rude about Damian Hirst. Here's a quite good one by Boyd Tonkin from Saturday's Independent. 

FT Weekend has an edited version of the first of his Reith lectures...

Proust said something to the effect that we only see beauty when we’re looking through an ornate gold frame, because beauty is very much about familiarity and it’s reinforcing an idea we have already. It’s like when we go on holiday, all we really want to do is take the photograph that we’ve seen in the brochure. Because our idea of beauty is constructed, by family, friends, education, nationality, race, religion, politics, all these things. When somebody chooses curtains, I’m sure they just think, “Oh I like those curtains, they’re nice,” but when you are thinking “What art do I like?” it’s a nightmare!

Q&A in The Observer...

"I'm always open to any kind of establishment position because I think it's an opportunity for some sort of mischief."

Fagburn would now like a book of Grayson Perry interviews, please.

Radio Times: 90 Glorious Years!

Looking for a suitable Radio Times' cover to mark this great occasion Fagburn typed "Radio Times gay" into Google Image.
Bafflingly, one featuring the notorious heterosexual young diver, Tom Daley, came up.
As this was clearly due to some kind of computer error, I went for this delightful one of Larry Grayson and Isla St Clair instead.
Can't you just smell the sexual chemistry?

Radio Times: By Royal Appointment

"Kate & Wills" are having a baby!
And leading racist gay historian David Starkey is back on the telly!
Cor blimey, makes you proud to be British, don't it guv?
Truly, these are wonderful times to be alive.

Thought For The Day: Simon Cowell

"I couldn't care less [if people think I'm gay] because it's nothing to be ashamed of. It feels like such an antiquated question now...

"If I was living 200 years ago in a coal mine, maybe [I'd mind], but I work in possibly the gayest industry in the world! Music and TV!

"It would make no difference to my life or my career. A lot of my friends are gay, but I'm not and don't even think that way any more."

Simon Cowell in a Radio Times interview, quoted in The Independent (and everywhere).
Not too sure what he means by that last sentence - anyone?

Tom Daley: Slut!

Something to do with Children In Need, apparently.

“As you can see, I’m not a great dancer, but I love making a fool of myself," our Tom tells Radio Times.
"My signature move is the ‘Daley ghetto slut drop’, which I must have picked up somewhere but have really made my own.”

Oh Tom, you're such a tease.
I will now spend the weekend imagining what a 'Daley Ghetto Slut Drop' involves... *cries*

Graham Norton: TV Times

"There are things we can't say and do on TV or radio that 10 years ago we absolutely could have said or shown.
"I think that's the BBC reading the mood of the audience - the audience don't particularly like cruel jokes, and I think they did."
[Asked whether it was an accurate or paranoid reflection of the audience]: "Probably a bit of both. We'd show a picture that might have had a penis in it, and we can't show that now. The audience really laughed at it, and that's sort of stopped."
"If you think back to some of the shows we watched growing up like I Claudius - that would never be shown now. I wonder would Queer As Folk happen now?... And the big drama hits now are so goody goody. Like you would never see a nipple on Downton Abbey.
"When we were growing up, you'd have thought that by now in EastEnders there could be nudity, but that's not the case."

Radio Times.
As regards the BBC, much of the problem is they keep caving into silly Daily Mail witch hunts and manufactured moral panics, lest the Tories slash their budget further, or privatise them.

Patrick Moore: The Reluctant Bachelor

'HIS fiancée Lorna, a nurse, was killed in a German air raid at the age of 20, which could explain why after a lifetime spent as a “reluctant bachelor” Sir Patrick Moore still fears that another European war is a possibility.

'The Sky At Night presenter, who lied about his age to join the RAF during the war, has never spoken about his wartime experiences but has told the Radio Times: “We must take care. There may be another war. The Germans will try again, given another chance.”'

Of his loss, astronomer Sir Patrick, 89, says: “That is why I’m a reluctant bachelor. It’s such a long time ago now, 1940. But I still feel the same about Lorna and, if it had been the other way round. I think she’d have done the same.”

The Daily Express, quoting a Radio Times interview.

Poor Patrick.

A friend swears they once heard Patrick Moore interviewed on the radio.

"And you've never married, have you Patrick?"

"No, I had a fiancee, but she died in the war."

"Oh, how very sad. What was her name?"
"I can't remember."

PS PM is also barkingly right-wing, though you might have guessed that from the above.

Radio Times: Circulation Boost

"Radio Times would like to apologise for a picture that has inadvertently been published in the new issue of the magazine.
"It has come to our attention that an apparently innocent photo of the Royal Marines’ 42 Commando unit – printed by Radio Times in good faith and issued by Channel 5’s publicity department to promote the documentary Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan – contains the sight of one of the marines playing a prank...
"The unnamed marine is, like the rest of his unit, posing for the photograph dressed only in shorts. What we took to be the marine’s finger proved, on closer inspection, to be another part of his anatomy.
"We have redacted the picture above, but the 28 January issue of Radio Times magazine – on sale today, priced £1.40 – went to press before the mistake was noticed."

Radio Times - on sale now and only £1.40!

Radio Times: Delicious

There are some really good dessert recipes by Rick Stein and an interview with Dolly Parton in the new Radio Times.
^ I've reprinted the cover above to help you find it in your local newsagent.
It costs £1.20 (Other TV listings magazines are available).

Christopher And His Kind: Sign Of The Times

"Congratulations to Matilda Walter of London N1 for a potentially award-winning complaint to Radio Times about BBC2's bookish docudrama Christopher and His Kind. Instead of merely voicing the usual criticisms (Doctor Who having gay sex, a rerun of Cabaret without tunes, etc), she homed in on a central but overlooked issue: faced with a publicity still of 'semi-naked actors Matt Smith and Douglas Booth' sunbathing on lakeside decking, 'I couldn't take my eye off the photo. But the more I ogled, the more disappointed I became – Phillips decking screws used in a drama set before 1933?'"

From The Guardian's Media Monkey blog.

Midsomer Murders: The Village Green Preservation Society

"If it's incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality... terrific, put it in, because people can believe that people can murder for any of those reasons."

Brian True-May, co-creator and producer of Midsomer Murders.
True-May said the above in an interview with Radio Times in which he also explained that the series "wouldn't work" if there was any racial diversity portrayed in village life in Midsomer; "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work. Suddenly we might be in Slough... We're the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way."
An ITV spokesman said they were "shocked and appalled" by his comment about race, and True-May has been suspended by the production comapny, All3Media.

Coronation Street: The Outsider

Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street and one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, gives a rare interview with Radio Times to mark the soap's golden jubilee.
Of course magazines are always boasting they have "a rare interview" with someone, but Mr Warren is admirably self-publicity-shy and this one really is.
It's been picked up elsewhere mainly by Tony talking about how Corrie's success led to his own battle with the booze and a lost decade or more, which is well-known.
"Once I went to Amsterdam to get away from it, put on the television and there was Ena Sharples with Dutch subtitles. I put my foot through the screen. After Coronation Street, what do you do for an encore? I had a drink while I thought about it, and one turned into a million."
More interesting for Fagburn is the feeling that only a gay man could have created Coronation Street.
"I was the outsider – but, you see, the outsider sees more, the outsider hears more, the outsider has to do that to survive. And that's what qualified me to write Coronation Street."
But Warren says it was a battle from day one; "In those days, if you were going to work in television and you were gay, you had to be three times as good as anyone else," he says, fire in his voice. "The first Coronation Street writing team contained some of the biggest homophobes I've ever met. I remember getting to my feet in a story conference and saying: 'Gentlemen, I have sat here for two-and-a-half hours and listened to three poof jokes, a storyline dismissed as poofy and an actor described as 'useless for us as he's a poof'. As a matter of fact, he isn't. But I would point out that I am one, and without a poof none of you would be in work today.'"
The struggle continued. In spite of Warren's influence, Weatherfield didn't get its first gay resident until Todd Grimshaw appeared in in 2003; "I campaigned for years and years with subsequent producers to no avail. But I never theorise – I thought that it would all work itself out."

Take That: Take More

I've just been to the newsagents.
Because I live in Kemptown in Brighton they always have a huge pile of The Guardian.
But today they also had two (2!) piles of Radio Times.
No-one cares about the Take That reunion that much, do they?
I don't.
I am positively flummoxed!

Elton John: Wedding Balls

Sir Elton John tells Radio Times about his decision to perform for a million dollars at the wedding of right-wing goon Rush Limbaugh.
"I was incensed when people said I was throwing away 40 years of credibility for money. No. I don't need it. No-one was more surprised than I when Rush asked. Politically we're opposites. It was an opportunity to break the ice.
"I'm a builder of bridges and knocker-down of walls. I want him on side when I step up to the plate on civil partnerships."
Elton John is 63.

• BBC2 is broadcasting A Night With Elton John on October 30th.

Tom Daley: Golden Boy

"When Rob Daley gate-crashed a press conference given by his champion-diver son Tom and asked, "Tom, can you come and give me a cuddle please", teens around the globe cringed in empathy with a clearly embarrassed Tom while grannies went "Aaah". In a good-natured, poignant film, Jane Treays explores the relationship between father and son. The pair are extremely close; they have fun, make daft jokes and enjoy each other's company... Treays films Rob ferrying his son to and from school, and to competitions, where the handsome young swimmer is a big hit with hordes of teenage girls - and grannies, of course."
Radio Times previews Tom Daley: The Diver and His Dad on BBC1 tonight.
Sounds unmissable, doesn't it?
This morning Tom Daley won a gold medal in something called the men's 10m synchro platform at the Commonwealth Games.
Well done, Tom.
He also now has his own all-singing, all-diving website tomdaley.tv - Tom says he'd like to be a TV presenter.
And tomorrow, in what looks like a match made in heaven, Tom is up against Matthew Mitcham in Delhi.
Mitcham - a friend of Dorothy and a friend of Tom Daley - won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, thus proving that gay men can do sport, even if gay men are only any good at one sport - diving.
Can't wait.