Stephen Witkowski
@stephenwitkowski.bsky.social
Retired archivist/librarian, reader, horror fan. Usually found in a sedentary position.
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
Coming on December 15th on #4K in the UK from @hammerfilms.bsky.social: #WhisperingSmithHitsLondon (1952)!
In this rediscovered classic, restored for a new generation, Private detective Steve "Whispering" Smith is intent on holidaying in England but soon becomes
Coming on December 15th on #4K in the UK from @hammerfilms.bsky.social: #WhisperingSmithHitsLondon (1952)!
In this rediscovered classic, restored for a new generation, Private detective Steve "Whispering" Smith is intent on holidaying in England but soon becomes
October 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
Coming on December 15th on #4K in the UK from @hammerfilms.bsky.social: #WhisperingSmithHitsLondon (1952)!
In this rediscovered classic, restored for a new generation, Private detective Steve "Whispering" Smith is intent on holidaying in England but soon becomes
Coming on December 15th on #4K in the UK from @hammerfilms.bsky.social: #WhisperingSmithHitsLondon (1952)!
In this rediscovered classic, restored for a new generation, Private detective Steve "Whispering" Smith is intent on holidaying in England but soon becomes
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
I should mention that the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (which I’m
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Festival of Fantastic Films Manchester – The unique annual celebration of horror, SF and fantasy in films, TV and books
fantastic-films.uk
October 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I should mention that the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (which I’m
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
I should mention that the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (which I’m
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Festival of Fantastic Films Manchester – The unique annual celebration of horror, SF and fantasy in films, TV and books
fantastic-films.uk
October 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I should mention that the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (which I’m
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Involved with) takes place in two Friday’s time. Guests include James Swanton, Dominic Brunt and Virginia Wetherall. We’ve talks, book launches, performances and much more. fantastic-films.uk
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
Time to write to your MP and make your feelings known. If Labour push the ban through it will be a huge vote loser for them. actionnetwork.org/letters/scra...
Scrap the Bathroom Ban
🚨This is urgent🚨
Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities, has a decision to make. The EHRC, a regulator mired in controversy over anti-trans views, has sent a new draft Code of Prac...
actionnetwork.org
October 13, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Time to write to your MP and make your feelings known. If Labour push the ban through it will be a huge vote loser for them. actionnetwork.org/letters/scra...
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
A reminder that tickets are now available for all my Halloween and Christmas shows at London's Dickens Museum! Choose from THE SIGNAL-MAN & THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, THE HAUNTED MAN and the immortal CHRISTMAS CAROL before they sell out: dickensmuseum.com/blogs/all-ev...
September 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
A reminder that tickets are now available for all my Halloween and Christmas shows at London's Dickens Museum! Choose from THE SIGNAL-MAN & THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, THE HAUNTED MAN and the immortal CHRISTMAS CAROL before they sell out: dickensmuseum.com/blogs/all-ev...
Fans of archive TV may be interested in this tonight. See you there? wegottickets.com/event/673651 @xsmalarkey.com
Peter Fleming's Dismally Ill-Prepared TV Pub Quiz
The retired BBC children’s pioneer puts you through your paces, with fearsome rounds on beloved TV memories best forgotten (mainly his).
Which celebrity actually vandalised the Blue Peter Garden in 1...
wegottickets.com
September 7, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Fans of archive TV may be interested in this tonight. See you there? wegottickets.com/event/673651 @xsmalarkey.com
This will be good.
And while we're at it, it's time to dust off your Blue Peter Annual (and burn your Magpie one): we've just released tickets for Peter Fleming's Dismally Ill-Prepared TV Pub Quiz, from @nottomburgess.bsky.social. Sunday 7th September, at regular XS prices! wegottickets.com/event/673651
August 18, 2025 at 10:52 PM
This will be good.
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign here:
tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign
tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign
Open letter BBC Written Archives - August 2025
Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre The following text is an open letter expressing the concern of historians and researchers about chan...
tinyurl.com
August 18, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign here:
tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign
tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign
Don’t look now has just started on BBC4, the opening sequence is among the most dazzling in cinema history. I never tire of watching it. Christie’s scream at the climax of the scene is utterly chilling.
July 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Don’t look now has just started on BBC4, the opening sequence is among the most dazzling in cinema history. I never tire of watching it. Christie’s scream at the climax of the scene is utterly chilling.
I am up to page 112 of HORROR MOVIE by @paultremblay.bsky.social . I am unnerved and disturbed in equal measure. ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’
July 7, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I am up to page 112 of HORROR MOVIE by @paultremblay.bsky.social . I am unnerved and disturbed in equal measure. ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
Excellent deep dive by Frank as usual. Here is my own piece on the film: cinephiliabeyond.org/silent-runni...
June 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Excellent deep dive by Frank as usual. Here is my own piece on the film: cinephiliabeyond.org/silent-runni...
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
Pat Troughton and Sylvia Sims as Winston and Julia in this recovered radio production of Nineteen Eighty Four www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Hidden Treasures - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - BBC Sounds
Winston Smith rebels against Big Brother.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 1, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Pat Troughton and Sylvia Sims as Winston and Julia in this recovered radio production of Nineteen Eighty Four www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I fancied a bit of cheering up.
March 22, 2025 at 11:47 AM
I fancied a bit of cheering up.
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
6: "You might as well just blow your brains out on the first day."
January 16, 2025 at 7:00 PM
6: "You might as well just blow your brains out on the first day."
So, a double bill of Hawk’s SCARFACE and Eggars’s NOSFERATU in 35mm. A lovely old theatre.
December 28, 2024 at 4:25 PM
So, a double bill of Hawk’s SCARFACE and Eggars’s NOSFERATU in 35mm. A lovely old theatre.
Boxing Day breakfast in Bolingbrook
December 26, 2024 at 4:26 PM
Boxing Day breakfast in Bolingbrook
Lovely to catch up with @cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social for lunch and gossip. Always an excellent afternoon spent in his company.
December 15, 2024 at 3:46 PM
Lovely to catch up with @cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social for lunch and gossip. Always an excellent afternoon spent in his company.
Treated myself to the QUATERMASS and the Pit Blu-ray. Still an impressive effort all these years later. The first three episodes just flew by. It has some great cliffhanger endings as the story slowly tightens the screws.
December 15, 2024 at 1:00 AM
Treated myself to the QUATERMASS and the Pit Blu-ray. Still an impressive effort all these years later. The first three episodes just flew by. It has some great cliffhanger endings as the story slowly tightens the screws.
It has arrived!
November 26, 2024 at 9:36 PM
It has arrived!
Apropos of nothing…
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
November 22, 2024 at 3:58 PM
Apropos of nothing…
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Reposted by Stephen Witkowski
Which judge resigned because the books were "mere pornography"? Which author, according to another judge, "puts one off sex"? Which book did Saul Bellow dismiss as a "tinkling teacup thing"? Who refused to give the prize to a book about cannibalism?
I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
The Booker in the 1970s: 10 novels that are well worth rediscovering, five decades later | The Booker Prizes
The Booker shortlists of the 1970s are of exceptionally high quality, and while some of the novels may have fallen out of fashion, they’re essential volumes for any keen reader’s library
thebookerprizes.com
November 19, 2024 at 5:34 PM
Which judge resigned because the books were "mere pornography"? Which author, according to another judge, "puts one off sex"? Which book did Saul Bellow dismiss as a "tinkling teacup thing"? Who refused to give the prize to a book about cannibalism?
I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
Spent a very enjoyable evening watching Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger. Martin Scorsese narrates this deep dive into the Archers filmography, skating lightly over P&P’s biographies. Pressburger is the more shadowy of the two but he does get the last word.
November 13, 2024 at 12:13 AM
Spent a very enjoyable evening watching Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger. Martin Scorsese narrates this deep dive into the Archers filmography, skating lightly over P&P’s biographies. Pressburger is the more shadowy of the two but he does get the last word.
@headpress.bsky.social Hello, nice to see you!
November 12, 2024 at 9:32 AM
@headpress.bsky.social Hello, nice to see you!
Quite enjoyed watching this modern feral children movie. The performances and cinematography are excellent but any savvy viewer will always be slightly ahead of our protagonist. Title gives a lot away.
November 10, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Quite enjoyed watching this modern feral children movie. The performances and cinematography are excellent but any savvy viewer will always be slightly ahead of our protagonist. Title gives a lot away.