Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Author: Steve

  • Moi, Robot

    Courtesy of Dave Young comes this promotional footage of an awesome wee chap; I’m a sucker for a wind-up tin robot but this, the Nao robot from Aldebaran Robotics, is really something else. While the practical school of thought dictates that the form of a robot should do no more than express its function, there’s…

  • The Traveler

    Well, that’s how those Americans spell it… 8.00pm, Saturday, January 24th on NBC… the first hour of my two-part Crusoe season finale, in which our backstory and main story come together and I can promise you answers to all the questions raised in the Sam Neill/Jeremiah Blackthorn subplot. No, of course you won’t find them…

  • Where’s Skippy?

    Here’s a piece of cultural history if you’re of a certain age… a visit to the standing sets of a 60’s TV show finds them in a state of ghostly preservation with props, sets and decor still intact…

  • Network DVD Sale

    Thanks to Ian Dickerson for the news that Network DVD have cut their stock prices for online sales by 40% until Sunday 25th January. I’m caving in and going for the Department S boxed set now it’s under thirty quid. Though for the moment I’m still working my way through forty-seven hours of Danger Man…

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    Thanks to Stephen Volk for a reminder that tomorrow marks the bicentenary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. Doesn’t matter which way you come at it, whether you see him as a giant of American literature or one of the key figures in a beloved genre, Edgar Allan Poe was The Business. As with…

  • Patrick McGoohan

    I just heard of the death of actor/writer/director Patrick McGoohan at the age of 80, following a short illness. A terrific and brooding screen presence, an actor of integrity and eccentricity, mad as a box of bats in the best possible way… otherwise how could he ever have become the creator and driving force of…

  • Three and Out

    I enjoyed this British black comedy far more than I expected to; for some reason the ad campaign had persuaded me that it was a story about a loser set on the London Underground, when in fact its structure more resembles that of My Favorite Year, with Mackenzie Crook being drawn along in the wake…

  • The Thirty-Nine Steps (2)

    Back in July I posted some thoughts inspired by a re-reading of John Buchan’s The Thirty-nine Steps. If so inclined, you can find them here. What I didn’t go on to explain was that my revisiting of the book had been part of a discussion between me and producer Archie Tait, whom I’ve known and…

  • Carnival of Souls

    If there’s any movie that comes a close second to Jason and the Argonauts in terms of the money that I’ve shelled out to own copies of it, this low-budget hand-made horror from the ‘sixties must surely be the one. I saw Carnival of Souls as the lower half of a Sunday horror double-bill at…

  • My Year

    Well, every other blogger seems to be doing it… but I’ll keep mine short because, frankly, it’s been one of those years where you can’t run through the best of it without the risk of sounding like a total arse. Let’s just say I’ve had a lot to be grateful for. But to put that…