Dirty Feed

Back in April, I complained about Letterboxd deleting one of my reviews without even telling me.

Did Colin Baker ever appear in The Young Ones?

As someone who has written a lot about the independent web in the past, then something like the newly-launched Pixel Area is like catnip to me.

I always love reading people’s obscure TV memories.

On the 21st March 1988, Danny John-Jules appeared as The Cat in the Red Dwarf episode “Me2“, the final episode of Series 1.

Disclaimer: this is a personal post, and does not represent the views of the BBC.

My recent four-part analysis of Mary was one of the hardest things I’ve ever written for Dirty Feed.

Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four Last time, I asked a simple question: Why is it that Mary attracts so much negative comment today, with people falling over themselves to slag it off, when I’ve rather enjoyed what I’ve seen of it so far?

In a world where television isn’t always all I want it to be, it’s delightful when something feels 100% entirely right.

It’s weird, the things you remember from when you were a teenager.

Remember when my friend Duncan Newmarch was Stuck in the 80s?

Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four Previously, we talked about the history of Mary Tyler Moore’s 1978 variety series Mary, and analysed a half-finished episode hanging around online which was never transmitted.

Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four Last time, I left you all with something of a poser.

The problem with finally getting round to watching loads of US sitcoms over the past year or so is that I immediately want to turn Dirty Feed into a fan site for each of them.

“There comes a moment in every electronic music fan’s journey when they discover Patrick Cowley.”

Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four On the 24th September 1978, a brand new Mary Tyler Moore variety series premiered on CBS.

In my day job, working in linear television, I have to deal quite a lot with compliance.

Sometimes it feels like the whole internet is a calculated exercise in talking at cross-purposes.

As long-time readers of this site will know, I have a fascination with television pilots.

For anybody who reads this1, it will not have escaped your attention that Dirty Feed has been pretty quiet over the last couple of months.

I don’t let the old Acorn/RISC OS fanboy in me out very much any more.

Seth Godin, “Freelancer empathy”: “When phone cameras got good enough, portrait photographers scolded people who took their own headshots.

MARY RICHARDS: I think you had a dream.

Roses are red Violets are purty Right, news have been given An extra 30

I have to be honest: I’ve been feeling a little guilty over the past couple of weeks.

It may not have escaped your attention that this year, Dirty Feed is taking a slightly different tack to normal.

The great thing about YouTube is that it’s full of unusual clips of TV programmes which used to be difficult or impossible to see any other way.

The problem with coming of age as an archive TV nerd through Red Dwarf DVDs is that you get thoroughly spoilt.

In 2025, I watched all of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-65) and its spiritual successor The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77), with a chaser of Rhoda (1974-78).

Something unexpected has happened with The Peter Serafinowicz Show over the years.

2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025 My plan for 2025: to not just write about comedy on here.

(You’ll need to have read this piece on the Fawlty Towers episode “Basil the Rat” and its two-day recording schedule, along with this short follow-up, in order to get anything out of this post.

Every so often, when struggling to analyse what I love about a TV show, I reach for the phrase “a complete comedy”.

Researching a programme like The Golden Shot (1967-75) is a nightmare.

If history is written by the winners, then television history is written by the survivors.

If you’re the kind of person who reads this site, it’s very likely that you have childhood memories of Bob Monkhouse.

This week, I have watched two things from 1977.

Last time, we talked about how “Basil the Rat” was unique among Fawlty Towers episodes, in that it had two days in the studio.

What is special about the Fawlty Towers episode known variously as “Rat”, “Rats”, and nowadays as “Basil the Rat”?

One problem I’ve always had with Dirty Feed is my desire to move onto the next big thing.

I received an email the other day.

Doing a parody of Fawlty Towers would, at first glance, seem a most inadvisable thing.

What is the most famous ending to an episode of Fawlty Towers?

There are, in general, two kinds of TV script books.

Some videos in this article contain racist views and language.

Recently, we had some tradesmen round to our house to fit a new hob.

Over the years, I’ve written plenty about comedy writers reusing jokes.

As I’ve spoken about many times before on this site, I’m constantly surprised at how often the generally accepted transmission dates for various TV shows turn out to be a load of rubbish.

Many years ago now, I had to study Seamus Heaney for A-Level.

Right, after my last piece about mocked-up newspapers in sitcoms, time to get on with some real work.