Newly released reports from the US Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office confirm their continuing influence over the political content of the productions they support and refer to a mysterious event called the 'Alaska CLT'. The role of the Science and Entertainment Exchange - technically a non-governmental body - was to assist with bringing entertainment industry bigwigs to this event on behalf of the Pentagon.
Pearse Redmond joins us to discuss the TV series Billions, which mixes elements of legal thrillers, human drama, sexual fetishes, 9/11 insider trading and deep politics. We examine the characters in the film and how they are metaphors for the philosophical conflict at the heart of American politics between individual free will and the need for government as a restricting force. In short, Axe represents Ayn Rand and Chuck represents James Madison.
Winston the police horse was named after Winston Churchill, having joined the Met in the 1940s. He featured in numerous royal events, ridden by both King George and princess and then Queen Elizabeth during the Trooping the Colour ceremonies in the 40s and early 50s. Winston was also the subject of a BBC teleview, which involved getting the Met Police to review and make changes to the script.(Read more...)
The Intercept recently published a leaked NSA report describing a cyberattack presumed to be carried out by Russia military intelligence. While many have seen this as the confirming proof that Trump only got elected because of Putin the truth is a lot more complicated. It seems the leaker wanted to get caught, and that The Intercept helped her do it.(Read more...)
In this month's subscriber-only podcast I review the TV series Braindead, which is about an invading army of extraterrestrial bugs who burrow into people's heads and eat their brains. On top of this comic-horror there is a lot of well-observed satire about the polarised political climate we've experienced in the last couple of years and some highly original scenes showing how government works behind the scenes.
A mini-documentary I made about the terror attacks on London Bridge and in Borough market last night, and how they fit into a pattern throughout this election campaign. I summarise events over the last few months, their political relevance and why the conventional explanations do not fit with what we know about these terrorist incidents. (Read more...)
The James Bond films, like the books on which they are based, have always pushed the boundaries of acceptable portraits of sex and violence. Documents from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) show how for Thunderball they reviewed the script, recommending many changes if the film was to achieve the 'A' certificate that the producers wanted.
The bombing in Manchester this week was an especially horrific act of terrorism. 22 people were killed and dozens more were injured – many of whom were children or teenagers who were exiting an Ariana Grande concert. This week I examine some of the questions I have about this bombing, and outline a lot of […](Read more...)
In post-war Britain the Metropolitan Police were concerned about how they were being portrayed in films so they instituted a policy of vetting film scripts. However, they were concerned that by seeking a more public profile and engaging with the film industry that they would lose the 'aura of secrecy and glamour' that had served them so well. (Read more...)
After the 9/11 attacks we were told that no one could have predicted that terrorists would hijack planes and use them as missiles against buildings. This lie quickly fell apart when it emerged that NORAD – the US air defence command – had run training exercises in the years and months leading up to the attacks that included this scenario. The history of real life suicide hijackings is several decades old and offers a different way of understanding how predictable 9/11 really was.
