Richard Cooper
@richardhcooper.bsky.social
Reads, writes, watches, gets increasingly leftwing as he gets older. I live in Battle, East Sussex. I’m 41. I try & write essays (on literature, film, TV drama, TV comedy) for my blog. I have an MA. I’m on the Spectrum. Socialism or barbarism.
Pinned
One Foot in The Grave: some thoughts on a masterpiece
One Foot in the Grave is one of the least suburban, least traditional sitcoms ever made. It's worth stressing this, because the Daily M...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com
new followers won’t have seen these so what the hell: essays on each of the four greatest sitcoms
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/11/like...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/05/essa...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2011/12/geni...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/11/like...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/05/essa...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2011/12/geni...
Superb piece
Darran Anderson reflects on the work of the great Dennis Potter, an artist who saw the potential of television as medium, and a working class writer so "imaginative in the ways he defied containment"
How #DennisPotter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
How #DennisPotter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
November 13, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Superb piece
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Novels that appeared the same year: Memento Mori (Spark) and The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson) (1959); Quartet in Autumn (Pym) and The Honorable Schoolboy (Le Carré) (1977); The Transit of Venus (Hazzard) and Housekeeping (Robinson) (1980)
November 13, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Novels that appeared the same year: Memento Mori (Spark) and The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson) (1959); Quartet in Autumn (Pym) and The Honorable Schoolboy (Le Carré) (1977); The Transit of Venus (Hazzard) and Housekeeping (Robinson) (1980)
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Gavin Newsom is a repulsive transphobe who platformed Charlie Kirk and personally cleared a homeless encampment, and he'll burn in hell before I vote for him <3
democrats love all their moderate, progressive, and top-of-the-distribution leaders <3
they can all live in harmony together under a big diverse tent if they restore regional party identities and stop the circular firing squad on nationalized media <3
they can all live in harmony together under a big diverse tent if they restore regional party identities and stop the circular firing squad on nationalized media <3
November 13, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Gavin Newsom is a repulsive transphobe who platformed Charlie Kirk and personally cleared a homeless encampment, and he'll burn in hell before I vote for him <3
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Well done, guys.
November 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Well done, guys.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
you absolutely know Megyn would defend her sons from a rape charge at the age of 15 by saying they were just a kid.
Megyn Kelly: "I know somebody very close to this case…Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls…He wasn't into like 8 year olds…There's a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old."
November 13, 2025 at 6:34 PM
you absolutely know Megyn would defend her sons from a rape charge at the age of 15 by saying they were just a kid.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
"It's hard to imagine that any future editor will want to do a great deal more than to thank him for his labours."
Edward Mendelson gets some credit for his work on our edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Also, a fascinating read by David Trotter on Virginia Woolf & Mrs. D at @lrb.co.uk
Edward Mendelson gets some credit for his work on our edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Also, a fascinating read by David Trotter on Virginia Woolf & Mrs. D at @lrb.co.uk
David Trotter · Unconditional Looking: Mrs Dalloway’s Demons
Virginia Woolf admired Jane Austen above all for her ability to grasp the exceptional moment – ‘in which all the...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
"It's hard to imagine that any future editor will want to do a great deal more than to thank him for his labours."
Edward Mendelson gets some credit for his work on our edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Also, a fascinating read by David Trotter on Virginia Woolf & Mrs. D at @lrb.co.uk
Edward Mendelson gets some credit for his work on our edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Also, a fascinating read by David Trotter on Virginia Woolf & Mrs. D at @lrb.co.uk
Reposted by Richard Cooper
One day the US will have to face the shame and horror of what has happened here: that a cabal of wealthy people have elevated a monster into the most powerful person in the world www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
Epstein Alleged in Emails That Trump Knew of His Conduct
www.nytimes.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:05 PM
One day the US will have to face the shame and horror of what has happened here: that a cabal of wealthy people have elevated a monster into the most powerful person in the world www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Winter is coming and a tent is a poor shelter. Please donate if you can.
🚨URGENT🚨
We in Gaza are living in a very small tent. We have lost everything we owned: our house & everything we own😭
📍We are appealing to you to donate so we can buy a cover for the tent to protect us from the rain, and to buy blankets & mattresses to keep us safe.
Plz Help⬇️🤲🤲
paypal.me/nursehammam
We in Gaza are living in a very small tent. We have lost everything we owned: our house & everything we own😭
📍We are appealing to you to donate so we can buy a cover for the tent to protect us from the rain, and to buy blankets & mattresses to keep us safe.
Plz Help⬇️🤲🤲
paypal.me/nursehammam
November 13, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Winter is coming and a tent is a poor shelter. Please donate if you can.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
This is the guy Schumer laid down for the other night
November 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
This is the guy Schumer laid down for the other night
Reposted by Richard Cooper
oh neat--i'm actually rereading Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake, and it's perfect for this. i was in my twenties when i found Titus in the stacks while shelving at work, had never heard of it before, started reading it and just instantly fell in love. it helped me clarify my idea of what art is.
performative reading, lack of reading skills, nobody's reading anymore -- NO!
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
November 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
oh neat--i'm actually rereading Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake, and it's perfect for this. i was in my twenties when i found Titus in the stacks while shelving at work, had never heard of it before, started reading it and just instantly fell in love. it helped me clarify my idea of what art is.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Really worth a read particularly if you’re inclined to indulge Watson as a controversialist.
Scientific breakthroughs are rarely unique; someone else would’ve made them soon enough. But when prominent scientists cause harm, that harm isn’t inevitable; the world might simply have been better had the harm not been inflicted.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
James Watson in his own words
“Some anti-Semitism is justified” “Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them” “Japan should be bombed for d…
liorpachter.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Really worth a read particularly if you’re inclined to indulge Watson as a controversialist.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
At this point I do sincerely believe this anti phone and social media drive is rooted in the "social contagion" idea of being trans. They do not think she died because she used her phone, they think she died because people in her phone convinced her she was a girl.
Phones did not murder Brianna Ghey in cold blood.
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
At this point I do sincerely believe this anti phone and social media drive is rooted in the "social contagion" idea of being trans. They do not think she died because she used her phone, they think she died because people in her phone convinced her she was a girl.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Baby Barthes! 🤟
November 12, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Baby Barthes! 🤟
Reposted by Richard Cooper
'I used to think of #DennisPotter as a kind of escape artist, exploding the box in innumerable directions, but he’s more interesting. He’s already outside, already an outsider, examining the box from without'
Dennis Potter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
Dennis Potter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
November 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
'I used to think of #DennisPotter as a kind of escape artist, exploding the box in innumerable directions, but he’s more interesting. He’s already outside, already an outsider, examining the box from without'
Dennis Potter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
Dennis Potter’s TV Plays Were Guides to the Purgatory of the Modern Age
buff.ly/TFfOUzs
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Compared to thudders like John Redwood and Michael Portillo (yes before all his trains), Major was considered almost moderate but we seem to have forgotten that he used to say things like 'We should judge a little more, and understand a little less'.
Just saw an "I'm no Tory but what we wouldn't give for Major to be PM now looking back" post in the wild and, fucking hell, libs, no, you need to yearn for better than mild guy continuing everything eleven years in to Thatcherism. Stop longing for what got us here.
November 12, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Compared to thudders like John Redwood and Michael Portillo (yes before all his trains), Major was considered almost moderate but we seem to have forgotten that he used to say things like 'We should judge a little more, and understand a little less'.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
It was beautiful and bang on. He’s such a colossal douche that even the other Nazis found him really fucking annoying.
November 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
It was beautiful and bang on. He’s such a colossal douche that even the other Nazis found him really fucking annoying.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
If I wanted to prove to Joyce Carol Oates that I have, in fact, read some books, I definitely would make sure I linked to the right book. And maybe got the plot right.
November 11, 2025 at 2:43 PM
If I wanted to prove to Joyce Carol Oates that I have, in fact, read some books, I definitely would make sure I linked to the right book. And maybe got the plot right.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Joined Letterboxd so why not give me a follow if you’re on there. letterboxd.com/richardhcoop...
Favourites
A list of 168 films compiled on Letterboxd, including Stalker (1979), Blade (1998), Blade Runner (1982), The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and Duel (1971).
letterboxd.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Joined Letterboxd so why not give me a follow if you’re on there. letterboxd.com/richardhcoop...
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Was just listening to an old (2017) episode of In Our Time on Hannah Arendt, and the resonances for 2025 re authoritarianism, lies, etc., were extraordinary. Get it on BBC podcasts if you can.
November 11, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Was just listening to an old (2017) episode of In Our Time on Hannah Arendt, and the resonances for 2025 re authoritarianism, lies, etc., were extraordinary. Get it on BBC podcasts if you can.
Hence why every time they even pitch a film about King Arthur and Camelot it gets rejected because John Boorman selfishly killed him at the end in Excalibur.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Hence why every time they even pitch a film about King Arthur and Camelot it gets rejected because John Boorman selfishly killed him at the end in Excalibur.
Hence Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring as Batman in the Snyder/Whedon/Matt Reeves Batman films.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Hence Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring as Batman in the Snyder/Whedon/Matt Reeves Batman films.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Horowitz is a dunce
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Horowitz is a dunce
Hence plans for Linda Hamilton to reprise Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate were scrapped because she’d been killed off in T3.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Hence plans for Linda Hamilton to reprise Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate were scrapped because she’d been killed off in T3.
“How can they remake Get Carter with Stallone if in the original Caine died at the end?”
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:40 PM
“How can they remake Get Carter with Stallone if in the original Caine died at the end?”