Public

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's

Hitchcock's work received tremendous success and critical acclaim. While he never won the competitive Academy Award for Best Director, he received five Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, a BAFTA Fellowship, multiple lifetime achievement awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nine of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry. His mastery of tension, innovative camera techniques, and psychological depth continue to inspire and influence modern filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, Jordan Peele, and Bong Joon Ho.

Drawing on new archival research, previously unpublished interviews, and a rigorous examination of key biographies, A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy (University Press of Kentucky, 2026) challenges the long-standing narratives that have shaped Hitchcock's legacy. Author Tony Lee Moral revisits controversial claims regarding Hitchcock's alleged abuses, scrutinizing biographer Donald Spoto's interpretations—particularly Spoto's portrayal of the director's relationship with actress Tippi Hedren. With his analysis of Spoto's 1980 interview of Hedren, Moral reveals for the first time how one key document contradicts decades of exaggeration.

In this comprehensive reappraisal of Hitchcock's career, Moral encourages readers to explore the complexities of creative collaboration and the risks of relying on a single biographical narrative. Marking one hundred years since Hitchcock's first film, The Pleasure Garden, and fifty years since his last film, Family Plot,

Tony Lee Moral is a British filmmaker and author who specializes in film history, especially the work of Alfred Hitchcock. He is the author of Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, The Young Alfred Hitchcock's Moviemaking Master Class, and Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th- and 19th-century British Literature. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

This is a catch-up version of James O'Brien's Mystery Hour. To join the game, call 0345 60 60 973, Thursdays at 12pm.

Michael Rosen finds out about fascinating literary errors from editor Rebecca Lee, the author of Rogues, Widows and Orphans: Mischief and Misadventures in the World of Books. They share favourite famous typos and find out where the phrase "out of sorts" originated.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University.

Rob Burley, writer and former BBC live political programming editor and Newsnight deputy editor, has recently published a long-form UnHerd article, “Inside the Capture of the BBC: How Transgenderism Killed Impartiality.” We discuss why he chose to examine the BBC’s handling of coverage related to sex and gender, how a 2013 change to the BBC style guide and subsequent diversity and inclusion policies shaped editorial decisions, and why he believes internal culture and restructuring affected the corporation’s approach to controversial issues.

We explore key moments, including Theresa May’s proposal on self-ID, the Cass Review, and early attempts to cover trans-related debates on programmes like Newsnight. We also look at the wider impact of budget cuts on the BBC’s capacity to interpret and apply due impartiality.

To support our journalism and receive a weekly blog sign up now for £1.99 per month www.patreon.com/BeebWatch/membership

@beebwatch.bsky.social

@BeebRoger

Instagram: rogerboltonsbeebwatch

LinkedIn: Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch

email: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philosopher and author Lea Ypi joins Adam Biles at Shakespeare and Company Paris to discuss her latest book Indignity: A Life Reimagined, an extraordinary work blending biography, history, and fiction. When a photo of her grandparents' 1941 honeymoon went viral in Albania, sparking online abuse, Ypi found herself compelled to investigate her grandmother Leman's life in full. The search took her into the Albanian Secret Service archives, back to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and deep into questions of memory, belonging, and what it means to preserve dignity in a world that conspires against it. Ypi discusses the dual narrative voices of the book, the "silence of the archives," the ethics of fictionalising real lives, and how writing as a novelist rather than a philosopher transformed her understanding of her subject. A conversation about history, imagination, and the moral necessity of hope.

Buy Indignity: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/indignity-2

*

Lea Ypi holds the Ralph Miliband Chair in Politics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Her first trade book, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History won the Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Costa Biography Award. It is translated into over thirty languages.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company.

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Segura, a comedian known for specials like "Completely Normal" and "Sledgehammer", is also the creator of the TV show "Bad Thoughts". He's appeared on "Conan" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Today, he's here to teach us how to write comedy.

What makes Tom's humor so distinct is its observational and story-based nature. He can look at something you've seen a thousand times and point out a hilarious detail, making you realize, "Yes, that's absolutely true!" That's why I asked him to come on the show and teach us how he finds and writes those kinds of jokes.

Here's his answer, along with a few moments that had me in tears of laughter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …

… playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets

… Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger

… punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”

… Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit

… Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”

… going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix

… supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”

… Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion

… “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”

… rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”

… Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.

Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roddy Doyle reflects on a lifetime telling the stories of working-class people in Dublin, with themes of domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy and life in the IRA. 

• Guest: Roddy Doyle, author of The women behind the door, published by Penguin Random House. Roddy is in Australia for Sydney Writers' Festival
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

CBS has canceled "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." As the show airs its final episodes, Bill Carter, editor at large for LateNighter.com, discusses what its loss says about today's media landscape.

Photo: US comedian Stephen Colbert speaks onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images) 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Peter Cook was at the centre of the satire boom of the early sixties, both on stage with Beyond the Fringe and with his Soho club, The Establishment. Later he became a famous double act with Dudley Moore, and was also less well known as Lord Gnome, the proprietor of Private Eye.

"I can't believe that after 600 episodes of Great Lives, no one has ever nominated him before."

A funny half hour on the life of Peter Cook, featuring archive of him both young and old. Jon Harvey makes the case for this comedy great along with the voices of biographer Harry Thompson, Jonathan Miller, Ian Hislop, Richard Ingrams, and - in an interview from 1993 - Chris Morris. Also includes an extract of The Strange Death of the Establishment from Radio 4 in 2004

The producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde