Jamie
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vanjpes.bsky.social
Jamie
@vanjpes.bsky.social
Tired enthusiast. I write weird things. Mostly here to post about old television shows, films, comedy, books, and horror.

Rambles and tangents on culture here: https://arowofopengraves.co.uk/
Reposted by Jamie
Quatermass and the Pit - Imps and Demons (5th January 1959). "It's all right, they're dead. They've been dead for a long time".
January 5, 2026 at 6:03 PM
One of the bleakest pieces of comedy there is. A wail of grief and longing and the deepest misery. But you know, with laughs.
On this day in 1962, the fourth episode of Comedy Playhouse (The Offer) was broadcast. Galton & Simpson didn't think it could be developed into a series but the Head of Light Entertainment, Tom Sloan, thought otherwise.
January 5, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Jamie
In case you missed yesterday's review, I take a look at a low budget crime dramedy with a spunky heroine saving the day.
January 5, 2026 at 2:29 PM
January 5, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Jamie
I knew Joe Dante had to have parodied this scene from somewhere, but I never knew where until know. GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990) / DAMES (1934)
Greta Gremlin only has eyes for you. #gremlins #dames
YouTube video by Gremlins Museum
youtube.com
January 4, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Wrote 431 words today, first time in, oh, months. Clap for me.
January 4, 2026 at 3:30 PM
I've now read a 'how to write' piece that I recognise and doesn't make me want to gag, wild times
My creative writing degree hasn’t been the most useful of qualifications but I feel it gives me some authority when I say this is one of the best how to start writing articles I’ve read in ages. www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
Dreaming of writing your novel this year? Rip up all the rules!
After 35 years of teaching fiction writing, the prize-winning author shares her wisdom. First tip? Don’t write what you know…
www.theguardian.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Jamie
It's here: the annual round-up of my favorite folk horror media! As always, these are not strictly 2025 releases but rather the movies I watched for the first time (mostly) throughout the year. What were your favorites?
2025 Year in Review: The Best Folk Horror Movies (and One TV Show) I Watched
Last year was rough, to put it lightly. Like many of you, I struggled to claw my attention back from a barrage of anxieties on the personal, national, and global levels. My resolution to document w…
theharvestmaidsrevenge.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:26 PM
The Penalty (1920, dir. Wallace Worsley) is a wiiiiild Lon Chaney classic. In this operatically pitched, gothic-edged melodrama, he rules over the mob underworld, plotting revenge against the doctor who operated on him as a boy. Gorgeously shot, one beautiful frame after another, Chaney outstanding.
January 3, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Jamie
Terry-Thomas and Arthur Lowe in Armchair Theatre - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (3rd January 1960)
January 3, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Jamie
ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930) just entered the public domain and it's already on Tubi (and elsewhere).

I remember its 1979 TV premiere on CBS, after decades of unavailability due to rights issues.

I hope a new generation discovers the Marx Bros. now, just like I did then. #FilmSky #PublicDomain
January 3, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Ray Newman described it thus, which I think is entirely accurate about one of last year's best, bravest books:

"It’s beautifully written... and there’s something thrilling about reading what feels like a forbidden text."
Snowy January in Fleischerei and snowy January in real life. Thank you to everyone who read this book last year and saw fit to put it on your best of 2025 lists 🫀
January 3, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Well, that was hardly a surprise for #letterboxd stats, as ever my finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist
January 2, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Not that I *needed* more books but these accumulated over the festive stretch and I can't complain
January 2, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Keaton is great, but as with Chaplin, Lloyd and others with often brilliant filmographies, you don't need to excuse them, or scrub them clean of their flaws, which include racist 'jokes', misogyny and an unwillingness to confront their complicity in institutions that trade in such things.
The utter unwillingness of his fandom to engage with anything like this makes me all the more determined to keep pressing the matter. I also saw one claim Keaton never included a racist joke in his films, which is demonstrably false. At a certain point, it's not a fandom, it's a cult.
January 2, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Jamie
This Day in Buster… January 2, 1936
"The Invader,” also known as “An Old Spanish Custom,” is released. Buster Keaton visits Mexico & falls in love with Lupita Tovar.

#oldhollywood #damfino #busterkeaton
January 2, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Jamie
For the BFI, 10 great films from 1926 www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-gre...
10 great films of 1926
As we hurtle into 2026, take a 10-film trip back in time to celebrate these 100th anniversaries.
www.bfi.org.uk
January 2, 2026 at 12:33 PM
In town, wandering around a large corporate clothes place, and it seems from what's on sale that the Farmer/College Lecturer Under Suspicion style did not sell well pre-festivities
January 2, 2026 at 10:47 AM
Speaking of podcasts, make yours better for 2026, invite me on it
January 2, 2026 at 10:31 AM
From a letter to Films in Review from Jan 1964, about melodrama in film's benefits, but speaks to me about the impact of a good film, song, book, etc:

"...beautiful little lamps are temporarily lit in the lousiest of us."
January 1, 2026 at 4:58 PM
But wait, not One Step Beyond hitting me on the first day of 2026 with musings on the ephemeral nature of our very existence and the relentless march of our own invention time in John Newland's opening narration.
January 1, 2026 at 2:58 PM
'The Visitor', S2 ep33 of One Step Beyond is a brutally sad tale of grief, ghosts real and imagined and what is left unsaid between people speaking the loudest. Joan Fontaine is great as troubled Ellen, Warren Beatty her cold husband. Tragedy is pulling them apart but could bring them back together.
January 1, 2026 at 2:53 PM
It's the *real* most wonderful time of any year: Happy New Year emails from corporations
January 1, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Might mess around and try and be less guarded/more open to trusting in 2026, maybe talk to some people (friends might be ambitious), we'll see.
December 31, 2025 at 12:35 PM