Chronologies

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)