Mark Simpson on how we’re all Australian now (One from the vaults, originally appeared in the Guardian Guide, 2001 – at what now looks like Oz’s cultural high-water mark) If you listen carefully to the soundtrack on Puppetry of the Penis, a video of the show which recently toured… Read More »Fauxstralian Britain
Mark Simpson on lavender marriage – between the closeted star & the public. (Independent on Sunday, August 1995) [One from the vaults for LBGTQIA++ Pride. Probably because it came on the cowboy heels of Male Impersonators (1994), it’s rather more pretentious – and with fewer gags – than later work.… Read More »Purple Passions
When I first saw the images of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, the ones he had so helpfully included in his press pack that accompanied his ‘manifesto’, two thoughts immediately popped into my net-addled head: a) They look photoshopped. Especially the soft-focus glamour one in the Lacoste jumper with the collar… Read More »Anders Breivik: Metro-Psycho
(Originally appeared in The Guardian August, 2010) As a boy growing up in the 1960s and 70s I was raised to fight the Second World War all over again. Airfix models. Commando comics. Air tattoos in June. Watching The Battle of Britain and The Longest Day on telly with my dad,… Read More »Army Dreamers: A Backwards Salute to British Army Recruitment Films
By Mark Simpson So the Scots Nationalist Party has failed in its court action to force the BBC to include their leader Alex Salmond in the final TV leaders’ debate. Everyone south of the border working in politics and the media seems to be very much agreed that this was… Read More »I Agree With Alex