A Beatle was singing God Only Knows on my phone the other night. No, I thought. That can’t be right. The Beatles never recorded God Only Knows. That must be the Beach Boys. But having been listening to the voice of Paul McCartney for the best part of sixty years, I know Macca when… Continue reading…
Half a century ago Yoko Ono was probably the most vilified woman in the world. Believed by many to have been responsible for the break-up of the Beatles, she had, it was thought, ruined everything. Who does she think she is, was a widespread attitude, and not only among Beatles fans. This strange, zany, Japanese,… Continue reading…
No-one sets out to write a film that half a century later is considered a cult movie. But I did, by accident, when, in 1972, I wrote a film called That’ll Be The Day. Then I watched it go from being a story about a sixth form boy, his first sex in a holiday camp,… Continue reading…
More than almost any other artists, songwriters define their moments. Burt Bacharach was such a songwriter. His most prolific period being from the early-Sixties right through the Seventies when the hits just poured out of him and his song-writing partner, the late Hal David. That time is mainly remembered for the Beatles and Rolling Stones,… Continue reading…
Devoted Writer Ray Connolly spent six months in hospital fighting Covid 19. This is the story of how he survived. Starring Philip Jackson and Alison Steadman. Continue reading…
Half a century ago Yoko Ono was probably the most vilified woman in the world. Believed by many to have been responsible for the break-up of the Beatles, she had, it was thought, ruined everything. Who does she think she is, was a widespread attitude, and not only among Beatles fans. This strange, zany, Japanese,… Continue reading…
Alan had never been a fan. Not like his mother. When she was 70, and still liked to go on foreign holidays, she’d saved up and gone on a pilgrimage ‘to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee’, as she liked to say. He’d offered to go, too, but she wouldn’t have it. ‘You’ll only mock,’ she’d said.… Continue reading…
(1) The Fancy Dress Party Sam had a problem. His friend Abbie was having a fancy dress birthday party on the last day of the school holidays and he couldn’t decide what he wanted to go as. ‘What about being a wizard with a cloak, a wand and a pointed hat?’ his mum suggested.… Continue reading…
Who killed Elvis Presley? In his new film ‘Elvis’, which goes on release this week, writer-director Baz Luhrmann makes a pretty convincing argument that the singer’s manager, the phony ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker, bears much of the responsibility for the star’s early death. Many fans will agree with that, believing that, during those last months of… Continue reading…
You can’t beat a bit of real mystery as the background for dramatic super-reality, can you? Well, that’s what the latest Doctor Who series tapped into when the Tardis touched down in Liverpool on Sunday evening. Not being a time traveller myself, I can’t say that I completely followed the plot. But the bit that… Continue reading…
