Category Archives: TV and film

Charley Hasted

LGBT+ History Month – reviews and recommendations!

By Charley Hasted | Sun 19th February 2023 - 5:00 pm

As we all know by know February is LGBT+ History Month so here’s some of my favourite LGBT media I think you might be interested in!

Please share your favourites in the comments – Books, TV, Podcasts, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Whether it’s taught you, moved you, made you think, laugh or cry let everyone else know about it!

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Mark Valladares

Liberal Democrats and the world – the video!

By Mark Valladares | Mon 27th September 2021 - 11:15 am

In late July, the new Chair of the Party’s Federal International Relations Committee, Dr Phil Bennion, wrote in these pages of the Party’s renewed commitment to internationalism. It isn’t just words, as there’s now a video which outlines some of the work being done at home and abroad to promote our internationalist agenda, and here it is…

You may notice your friendly neighbourhood Day Editor at about 1:27 in…

* Mark Valladares is a directly elected member of Federal International Relations Committee and part of the Party’s delegation to the ALDE Party Council.

Also posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged | 1 Comment
NewsHound

All female Party Political Broadcast is a first for Wales

By NewsHound | Tue 13th April 2021 - 8:30 am


The Welsh Liberal Democrats made television history last night with this party political broadcast (above) comprising solely of women.

The broadcast shown on ITV Wales at 18:25 (to be repeated on Friday on BBC1 at 22:35) features Party Leader Jane Dodds, education minister Kirsty Williams and three female candidates who are all running for Parliament for the first time.

Speaking about the broadcast, Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds said:

Too often politics is seen as an all-male club. I’m proud to be a leading my party in this election, and I’m equally proud to be joined in this broadcast by Kirsty Williams who’s done an incredible job as Education Minister.

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Also posted in News and Wales | Tagged , and | 18 Comments
The Voice

Charles Kennedy documentary on BBC Alba tonight

By The Voice | Tue 23rd February 2021 - 9:27 am

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Scottish Lib Dems and others have been tweeting about “Tearlach Ceannadach/Charles Kennedy: A Good Man Speaking” which will air on BBC Alba tonight at 21:00 and follow online “shortly afterwards”. There are already substantial clips and extensive photo galleries available on the BBC Alba website. We hope to carry a review of the programme later today.

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Paul Walter

Perhaps the best TV series the BBC has ever produced – and what it tells us about our society

By Paul Walter | Tue 15th December 2020 - 11:00 am

Apologies for an England-centric article.

I’ve recently been catching up on my TV viewing. I have finally watched most of the episodes of Michael Wood’s “Story of England”.

This series follows the history of England from the Romans to the present day, through the prism of one village – Kibworth in Leicestershire.

It really is an amateur historian’s dream – because it focuses not on wars and kings, but instead uses basic digging by present-day villagers, and original documents (some of which haven’t been touched for over 500 years). Thereby, it focuses on history from the roots of our society. It dwells on the history of actual families through the centuries.

Two themes emerge which caught my eye.

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David Warren

A love that dare not speak its name

By David Warren | Tue 7th July 2020 - 11:16 am

On a quiet evening recently I watched the 2015 film “Carol” which is set in the 1950s and based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.

The “Carol” of the title is a wealthy middle aged woman in a marriage that is breaking up, who has a four year-old daughter she adores. On a pre-Christmas shopping trip she meets a young shop assistant, Therese, and they have a connection. Carol’s husband, who she is divorcing, knows that she has had same sex relationships in the past and uses this as part of a custody battle – citing her ‘immoral behaviour’ to secure sole custody of their daughter.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Graham Colley

Mr Jones – a film about a Liberal fighting for liberal values in 1930s Soviet Union

By Graham Colley | Tue 4th February 2020 - 2:05 pm


If you were told about a researcher for Lloyd George, who had links with George Orwell, who became a journalist and flew with Hitler and then discovered a famine in Ukraine, which Stalin wish to keep secret, you would have believed it was the plot for a film. It is, but it is also based on fact.

The film “Mr Jones” is on General Release from 7th February. It shows how a young Welshman (and a Liberal), Gareth Jones, who had worked for Lloyd George, in 1933 gained a visa to visit Moscow to seek to obtain an interview with Stalin for an explanation of his five-year plan. Whilst, as a journalist, he was officially confined to Moscow, he evaded Soviet security to travel to Hughesovka (Donetsk) and discovered the Holodomor; the deliberate starvation of between five and 10 million Ukrainians by the Soviet regime. On leaving the Soviet Union, he seeks to expose the truth in a story taken up by many newspapers, including the Guardian and the New York Evening Post.

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Also posted in Liberal History | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
Paul Walter

Guy Verhofstadt’s glorious private rant in BBC4’s “Brexit: Behind closed doors”

By Paul Walter | Sat 18th May 2019 - 9:50 am


Snapshot from BBC4’s “Storyville – Brexit: Behind Closed Doors“

If you haven’t already watched it, it’s very much worth watching BBC 4’s “Storyville – Brexit: Behind closed doors” made by Belgian filmmaker Lode Desmet. He had behind-the-scenes access to Guy Verhofstadt and his family and team during the two years of the Brexit negotiations. (Guy Verhofstadt is the Brexit co-ordinator for the European Parliament). Part 1 is available for the next 20 days on BBC iPlayer here. Part 2 is available for 21 days here.

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Paul Walter

Michael Palin’s superb documentary on North Korea

By Paul Walter | Sun 30th September 2018 - 3:19 pm

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Channel 5 have surpassed themselves in presenting Michael Palin’s two-episode programme on his travels in North Korea.

It is a surprise to find the great Python on Channel Five, but the show reminds one of his enormous skill at presenting charming and informed pictures of foreign places.

Palin makes clear, up front, that he and his crew went where they were allowed and an “entourage” of five or six North Korean government officials accompanied them, supervising their filming and every word said on camera.

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Paul Walter

Reporting Trump’s first year – fascinating insight into journalists on the ropes

By Paul Walter | Sat 28th July 2018 - 11:22 am

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I have a guilty secret.

Every so often, I retreat to Greggs for a Steak Slice, sausage roll, cup of tea and a read of last Saturday’s New York Times.

I get quite excited by the Anglo-American mixture of it all.

Why last Saturday’s New York Times? – I don’t hear you cry.

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Paul Walter

How the government tried to win hearts and minds during the Northern Ireland troubles

By Paul Walter | Tue 5th June 2018 - 2:16 pm


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Available for the next 17 days on BBC iPlayer, there’s a very interesting documentary produced by BBC Northern Ireland. It chronicles the public service television adverts that were commissioned by the Northern Ireland office between 1988 and 1998.

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Paul Walter

The secret world of Whitehall – and other BBC Michael Cockerell gems

By Paul Walter | Thu 8th March 2018 - 12:25 pm


British Houses of Parliament
If you’ve missed them when they were originally broadcast, YouTube has a wealth of BBC political documentaries for you to watch at leisure.

I missed Michael Cockerell’s “The Secret World of Whitehall” when it was originally broadcast. All three programmes from the series are on YouTube in full:

Episode 1 – The Real Sir Humphrey – This looks at the role of the Cabinet Secretary, chronicling the historic evolution of the role through its various job holders.

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Paul Walter

Vintage election nights: the time a painter had to come on screen to extend the Swingometer

By Paul Walter | Fri 9th February 2018 - 11:55 am

I have always remembered the classic moment when, during the BBC general election night TV coverage of 1970, a painter had to be brought on to extend the swingometer. This was because the Conservative swings were unexpectedly high, and the swingometer didn’t go far enough to cover some of them.

In these days of high tech, it is difficult to believe that such a thing happened. Indeed, as I have recalled the incident over the years, I don’t think many people have believed me.

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Also posted in General Election | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Superb TV programme: The Bombs that changed Britain

By Paul Walter | Wed 29th November 2017 - 3:00 pm


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The devastation of South Hallsville School in East Ham, London after a bomb hit it in 1940.

The BBC is to be congratulated on a superb history series currently going out on BBC2 – Blitz: The bombs that changed Britain.

We often think of the wartime blitz and see film footage of mounds of rubble and people trying to find loved ones.

But this TV series goes one step further and very specifically outlines the terrible impact of one bomb (in each of four episodes).

In the first programme, now on BBC iPlayer for the next 28 days, they follow the story of an unexploded bomb which fell on Number 5 Martindale Road, Canning Town in London. Because it was unexploded, the whole area had to be evacuated. This led to 600 people being crammed into nearby South Hallsville School. The idea was that people would be quickly moved from the school out of danger. But due to bureaucratic incompetence and official indifference to the plight of the mainly poor people there, the numbers mushroomed over several nights. Then the inevitable happened and the school was bombed, with horrific and widespread devastation.

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Paul Walter

Remarkable TV programme – Chris Packham: Asperger’s and me

By Paul Walter | Thu 26th October 2017 - 11:59 am


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Available on BBC iPlayer for the next 27 days is a remarkable TV programme – Chris Packham: Asperger’s and me. It’s a beautifully made film, in which Chris Packham is ‘brutally honest’ about his autism – he has Asperger’s syndrome. He welcomes the cameras into his home – deep in the New Forest where he lives with his dog, Scratchy. With the assistance of actors, Chris recalls his childhood and teenage years.

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Paul Walter

Is this why there is no rush to make Boris Johnson Prime Minister?

By Paul Walter | Sun 9th July 2017 - 11:02 am

Theresa v Boris: How May became PM is highly recommended viewing. It’s available for the next ten days on BBC iPlayer. Made for BBC2, it is an attractive mix of key player interviews, contemporaneous news footage and dramatised scenes.

Theresa May is played very well indeed by Jacqueline King (who I might gratuitously point out is well known to the legions of Lib Dem Doctor Who fans!) and Boris is captured brilliantly by Will Barton, even though his hair and nose make him look more like Michael Fabricant.

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Paul Walter

Dan Snow on Lloyd George: My Great-Great-Grandfather

By Paul Walter | Wed 24th May 2017 - 11:10 am


On BBC iPlayer, history broadcaster Dan Snow takes a look at Liberal Prime Minister from 1916-1922, David Lloyd George, who was his great-great-grandfather.

It’s an excellent documentary, drawing on photos and footage from the era of Lloyd George’s life, as well as commentary from a team of excellent historians and biographers.

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Paul Walter

Filmmaker shows the sinister and, sometimes, bizarre reality of life under dictators

By Paul Walter | Sat 1st April 2017 - 4:33 pm

I thoroughly recommend the TV series “Dictatorland”, which is going out on BBC Three at the moment. You can watch the episodes as they are published on BBC iPlayer. Young journalist and filmmaker Benjamin Zand travelled, at some risk to him and his crew, to a number of countries which still have dictatorships.

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