Autism on the telly: how to get it right

 

A few weeks ago, I sat in front of the telly and watched the first episode of Chris Packham’s series Inside Our Autistic Minds and cried most of the way through. Afterwards I told everyone how brilliant it was. 

Yesterday, I sat down in front of iPlayer and watched Christine McGuinness’s new documentary Unmasking My Autism with low expectations. 

Actually they both did a good job, and they both did different jobs. 

Women Who Rock: a review

When I heard that Jessica Hopper had directed a TV series about women musicians, I knew it would be good. 

Jessica is a music critic turned author, producer and director. Her first book was aimed at teenage girls and called The Girls’ Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom. Her next book was called The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic. And she once co-compiled a list of books about music by women, describing it as “writing on popular music that takes place outside the usual heteropatriarchal frame”. 

She is, to borrow a word from some of her interviewees, “badass”.

Ways of listening: Glastonbury, new music and old age

Too Much Stuff

I turned on the television last weekend and Supergrass were on stage at Glastonbury singing “We are young”. I remembered buying that song when it came out, and how much that line – the cheek and celebration of it – meant to me. They were about 20 and I was in my 30s, but I felt young because of new-found freedom. 

I realised that Supergrass are older now than I was when I first heard that song. A lot older.

Women at the BBC

Ten years ago, I wrote this in my blog:

“A group of middle-aged men are discussing 70s pop music and how good it was and I’m wondering why there are no middle-aged women there.”

Nothing has changed since then.

Never mind the Bagpuss, here’s the Pingwings

Some time in the 1990s when I bought my first Windows computer, it came with a Pingu screensaver and game, which I thought was pretty cool. Everyone knows about Pingu but I sometimes wonder if I am the only person who remembers the Pingwings. Sometimes I think I imagined them, but no, they did exist, and at least one other person remembers them too.

10 reasons why Peter Capaldi could be the best Doctor Who ever

When they brought back Doctor Who, I liked Christopher Eccleston a lot. I liked David Tennant even more. And although I worried about Matt Smith being so young, I ended up thinking he was the best doctor ever. But Peter Capaldi’s “my” doctor.

Book review: A History of Television in 100 Programmes

You know those lists you get of TV programmes, in (really annoying) TV programmes? This isn’t that sort of list.

It’s a list of TV programmes in a book and it’s much better.

Case Histories soundtrack - series 2

There are a  lot of things I like about Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books. I love the way she writes about the sad important things: life and death  and family and loss (subjects made for a country music soundtrack). I love that in Started Early, Took My Dog Jackson has turned 50. Listen to this: "His definition of elderly had changed as he himself had moved nearer to the event horizon of death." What an absolutely brilliant metaphor.

And I love the way she tells you what music Jackson is listening to.

Global weirding, media lies and why I miss knowing what month it is

That joke isn't funny any more.

I know when you get to this age, everything in the past looks better. But I'm pretty sure that when I was young, we had seasons.

I know people always complained about the Great British Summer, the same way that they complained about the Great British Rail Sandwich. Well, most of us miss British Rail now. And I miss knowing what time of year it is.

You're history: Punk Britannia review

In honour of the jubilee (yes, I know), the Guardian asked some 60-year-old writers to ruminate on their lives. Sean O'Brien, in a rather good piece, wrote: 'One of the mixed benefits of ageing is reading accounts of your lifetime by people who weren't there.'

Shit. That means I'm going to have to get used to it.

Complaining about The 70s: BBC response

I recently wrote to the BBC to complain about the bias in their programme The 70s. This was the reply. It came from the Complaints department when I would really have liked to have heard from the producers.

The 70s: don't believe everything you see on television

Ten years ago, the BBC launched BBC4 with the slogan "Everyone Needs a Place to Think". I wrote to them saying I already have one, thanks very much, and it's called BBC2 (they didn't reply).

Since then, I've gone digital and become a huge BBC4 fan. As for BBC2, it's obviously not a place to think any more. I was looking forward to the new BBC2 series The 70s. I should have known better.

Is Mad Men better than books?

I’ve just watched the last two episodes of Mad Men and I’m starting to think the unthinkable. It feels almost sacrilegious but I got more from that 90 minutes of TV drama than I would have done from reading a book.

I’ve always thought of myself as a book person. I’ve got two English degrees and have never forgiven my parents for not buying me a membership of the Puffin Club. But I can’t remember the last time I read a novel.