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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3h

Oooh, yessss.

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3h

Sistine.

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3h

Jury service suggests it'll be compulsory, too. And they might end up being sequestered in a hotel overnight.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 5h

Really interesting thread. I've written a lot about vintage television without having much understanding of the technical side, so some of this was rather embarrassingly revelatory.

Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · 19h

The death of multi-camera TV: a thread. I know most of you will know the technical parts of this (and may have read it in the other place) but bear with me. 1/ 🧵

A shot from the studio rehearsal of Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan episode 'Volcano', showing several actors ont he TARDIS set, with various video cameras around the scene.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 16h

No, but you wouldn’t expect any of them to be as much of a dickhead as him.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 16h

They're quite weird about this. I was shown some of Benjamin Britten's letters from the queen: the contrast between the warmth of the content – always beginning "Dear Ben" and expressing a touching concern for his health – and the sign=off, "Elizabeth R", felt odd to me.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 17h

If they were working on an exposé, they'd be pretty stupid to announce it publicly.

David Osland @davidosland.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure BBC investigative documentary strand Panorama is even now working on an incisive exposé of Reform's financial links to Russia and it's just that they haven't announced it publicly yet

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know how. You seem to be unstoppable

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 1d

I imagine the photo wouldn't be very different.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 1d

Stop it.

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Reposted by Robert Hanks

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 2d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 2d

“I THINK I’VE MADE MY POINT.”

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

fuxake, just open it.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

The silent what?!

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

America is an insane country.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 3d

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

But yes, Norman Conquests a good choice – or Intimate Exchanges (which I'm sure I saw, but I can't remember much about), where the play can take off in one of several prescribed directions, so you get a different sequence of events every night.

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

You can overstate that case. I think he got a lot of credit for smartness in the 80s and 90s – several of his plays were put on at the National Theatre in London. And Alain Resnais – the Last Year at Marienbad guy – directed a couple of films based on his plays.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

Oh god, yes. He's uneven, but some of them are just really, really funny and/or moving.

There are a few that are pretty small-scale: the double-bill of Dirty Linen/New-found-land was written for a lunchtime theatre club… Trying to think how Dogg's Hamlet/Cahoot's Macbeth works.

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

They haven't done that many, have they? Rock 'n' Roll, The Invention of Love… what else? But I like the idea of Stoppard replacing the Christmas panto as the big annual milch cow.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

I did that one for A-level, and saw the 1985 revival starring Kendal and Paul Eddington, as well as a later one withEssie Davis and Simon Russell Beale. It's possibly one of the ones that works better on the page (though I'd love to have seen Michael Hordern in the original production). So read it!

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, I can see the problem. Frustrating.

Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

Oh, thank you. I'll try to make that. Hampstead does some good work reviving Stoppard (even if Rock 'n' Roll, the last one I saw, is not one of his greatest plays).

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

You didn't? Arcadia, Indian Ink/In the Native State, Hapgood. I'm not sure whether The Real Thing was written with her in mind, but she was in the first production.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

Felicity Kendal.

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Robert Hanks @roberthanks.bsky.social · 3d

And had long-term relationship with Tom Stoppard, who wrote a number of plays for her.

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