Below are topics I cover on this Substack, listed in historical order. Most of the essays have not been written yet, but each will be linked from here upon publishing. This page indicates the scope of my intentions. It is a large body of work and will obviously take several years to complete. If anything is omitted on this page, please let me know.
General
1635-1969 the GPO
1676-2024 British blasphemy law
1939-45 World War II
1967 Joe Orton
1977 Gay News blasphemy trial
1985 Ray Honeyford
1997 the British art world in the 1990s
1999 Freestyler
2000-2020 cultural change in the early 21st Century
2001 the early 2000s
2002 Angus Deayton’s sex scandal
2005 the evolution of Doctor Who fans
2005 the mid 2000s
2009 taboo in late 2000s comedy
2018 the Chemnitz rock concert
2020 COVID-19 (brief)
2022 Elon Musk, Twitter, and the blue check
2023 Richard Dawkins’ strange interview
2023 the death of Sinéad O’Connor
2024 the Post Office computer scandal
Television
1960 The Strange World of Gurney Slade
1965-2016 Alf Garnett
1969 Civilisation (Kenneth Clark)
1976 Brimstone and Treacle (Dennis Potter)
1977 Bamber Gascoigne’s The Christians
1980 Funny Man
1990-? Have I Got News For You
1994 The Day Today (Chris Morris)
1996 Cold Lazarus and Karaoke (Dennis Potter)
1997 Brass Eye (Chris Morris)
1999 Queer as Folk
2000 Nature Boy
2000 Jam (Chris Morris)
2001 Brass Eye: Paedogeddon (Chris Morris)
2005 Doctor Who
2005 Nathan Barley (Chris Morris)
2006 Torchwood
2023 Doctor Who
Cinema
1936 Night Mail
1947 It Always Rains on Sunday
1959 Room at the Top
1959 Look Back in Anger
1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
1960 The Entertainer
1961 A Taste of Honey
1962 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
1962 The L-Shaped Room
1962 A Kind of Loving
1963 Billy Liar
1963 This Sporting Life
1964 The Leather Boys
1964 The Comedy Man
1964 This Is My Street
1965 Up the Junction (Ken Loach)
1966 Alfie
1966 Georgie Girl
1966 Cathy Come Home (Ken Loach)
1967 Poor Cow
1969 Bronco Bullfrog
1969 The Big Flame (Ken Loach)
1969 Kes (Ken Loach)
1971 Family Life (Ken Loach)
1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1976 Nuts in May
1977 Abigail’s Party
1979 Monty Python’s Life of Brian
1985 V (Tony Harrison)
1986 Night Mail 2
1987 Prick Up Your Ears
1987 Wall Street
1987 Withnail & I
1987 Robocop
1989 Blasphemers’ Banquet (Tony Harrison)
1992 A Sense of History
1992 Alien 3
1995 The Mangler
1996 Trainspotting
1998 Prometheus (Tony Harrison)
2002 Crossings (Tony Harrison)
2002 My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 (Chris Morris)
2010 Four Lions (Chris Morris)
2010 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
2013 Texas Chainsaw 3D
2017 T2 Trainspotting
2019 The Day Shall Come (Chris Morris)