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“London and Kent,” the latest episode of “Rick Stein’s Food Stories,” promises to take viewers on a delightful culinary journey through the heart of Britain’s diverse food scene. Airing on Thursday, 24 October 2024, at 7:00 Pm on BBC Two, this episode focuses on the vibrant city of London, known for its international flavors and rich culinary heritage.

In this episode, Rick Stein immerses himself in the world of food, exploring the art of making Chinese dim sum and Italian burrata. These dishes highlight how global influences have shaped Britain’s dining landscape. Rick’s passion for food shines through as he meets skilled chefs who share their techniques and stories behind these beloved dishes.

The episode also features a lively debate with Stuart Maconie about the Full English breakfast. This discussion delves into what makes this iconic meal truly English, or if it has become something more universal. With humor and insight,...

London, Oct 18 (Ians) Indian-origin British author and academic Preti Taneja has won the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize for “Aftermath”, her “unflinching work of narrative non-fiction”.

The Gordon Burn Prize celebrates the year’s most dazzlingly bold and forward-thinking fiction and non-fiction written in English.

“Aftermath” was selected by a panel of judges, made up of sportswriter and columnist Jonathan Liew, author Denise Mina (chair), broadcaster Stuart Maconie, artist and poet Heather Phillipson, and writer Chitra Ramaswamy.

The book strives to make sense of the London Bridge stabbing in 2019, when Usman Khan, 28, was a convicted terrorist who spent eight years in prison and went on to kill two people, Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt.

Taneja realised she had taught Khan creative writing when he was in prison, and Jack Merritt, one of the victims, was her colleague.

“Aftermath” is a profound attempt to regain trust after violence and rebuild faith in human...

To mark the release of Circus of Horrors on 12th October, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

A gem of classic 60s horror, Circus Of Horrors stars Anton Diffring as a manipulative plastic surgeon who, following a botched operation, flees the country with his assistants. Landing in France he meets the owner of a rundown circus (Donald Pleasence). The circus becomes the ideal front for him to continue his work, but his surgical exploits become increasingly deranged and experimental. Erika Remberg and Yvonne Monlaur star as two of the young women, disfigured in accidents, and lured in by ‘Dr Schuler’s’ promises to make them beautiful again.

Restored from the original camera negative Circus Of Horrors depicts all the scares and thrills of the circus in sensational and horrifying style. This new release from Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics Collection includes brand new interviews with Kim Newman and Stuart Maconie.

Jekyll and Hyde writer Charlie Higson has apologised after the show drew almost 500 complaints about its airing on Sunday (October 25).

Eyebrows were raised when ITV decided to show the new gory thriller at 6.30pm.

Speaking to Stuart Maconie on BBC Radio 6, Higson said: "I'm sorry that anyone got upset by it. It wasn't my intention to upset people by it. Obviously, it was my intention for it to be scary - it's a scary show."

He added: "I was expecting more people to complain that it wasn't scary enough, rather than people saying, 'This is a scary show and I found it scary'.

"You think, well that's slightly the point. It'd be like writing The Fast Show and someone writing in saying it is quite funny."

Explaining what he'd set out to do, Higson said: "I wanted to make a big, family entertainment that everybody can sit down together and watch,...

The BBC has unveiled its broadcasting plans for this year's Glastonbury Festival.

It will broadcast over 250 hours via radio, TV, the red button and online streaming, with coverage from six stages.

Presenters include Chris Evans, Jo Whiley, Fearne Cotton, Dermot O'Leary, Huw Stephens, Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Greg James, Stuart Maconie, Pete Tong, Cerys Matthews, Mark Radcliffe, Gemma Cairney, Annie Mac, Toddla T, MistaJam, DJ Target, Yasser and Alex Jones.

Controller of BBC Radio 2, 6 Music and Asian Network and director of BBC Music Bob Shennan said: "Glastonbury is one of the world's most famous music festivals, and once again the BBC will be providing audiences with a magical weekend of coverage, in a way that only the BBC can."

The full outline of coverage is as follows:

BBC TV

30 hours of coverage across BBC One (The One Show), BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four.

BBC Radio

50 hours of coverage...

The writer-director on silly sitcom Toast of London, Stuart Maconie's pop history and the force of Gravity

Writer and director Edgar Wright first joined forces with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes and Nira Park to create C4's cult sitcom Spaced in 1999. Continuing the collaboration, he co-wrote and directed the Cornetto film trilogy – Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013). In 2010, Wright made the action comedy Scott Pilgrim vs the World, before teaming up with Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish to write The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. The World's End is out now as a download or on DVD and Blu-ray.

Music: Reflektor by Arcade Fire

I've always been a fan of Arcade Fire, but this album I find even more hypnotic. It's interesting because it got a slightly mixed reaction: either rave reviews or people not liking it at all,...

The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me is to be re-recorded by a number of artists for a special BBC project. Stereophonics and Mick Hucknall will be among the acts involved in the recording at Abbey Road to mark the album's 50th anniversary. The artists will have 12 hours to complete the project, in the same manner as the iconic band's single session in 1963. They will be using the same studio, with each track recorded in the order it appears on the original LP. The project will take place on Monday, February 11, and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2. It will also be filmed for a special documentary titled 12 Hours to Please Me for BBC Four, to be broadcast on February 15. Stuart Maconie and Jo Whiley will (more)...

The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me is to be re-recorded by a number of artists for a special BBC project. Stereophonics and Mick Hucknall will be among the acts involved in the recording at Abbey Road to mark the album's 50th anniversary. The artists will have 12 hours to complete the project, in the same manner as the iconic band's single session in 1963. They will be using the same studio, with each track recorded in the order it appears on the original LP. The project will take place on Monday, February 11, and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2. It will also be filmed for a special documentary titled 12 Hours to Please Me for BBC Four, to be broadcast on February 15. Stuart Maconie and Jo Whiley will (more)...

The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me is to be re-recorded by a number of artists for a special BBC project. Stereophonics and Mick Hucknall will be among the acts involved in the recording at Abbey Road to mark the album's 50th anniversary. The artists will have 12 hours to complete the project, in the same manner as the iconic band's single session in 1963. They will be using the same studio, with each track recorded in the order it appears on the original LP. The project will take place on Monday, February 11, and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2. It will also be filmed for a special documentary titled 12 Hours to Please Me for BBC Four, to be broadcast on February 15. Stuart Maconie and Jo Whiley will (more)...

Calling Steve Coogan 'a bit of a turnip' is about as nasty as he can get

Small Man In A Book, Rob Brydon's memoir, stops rather abruptly the moment he becomes successful, which is just one of a number of endearing things about it. It was the end of the 90s and Brydon was making a living in radio, but not what you'd call a handsome one. He'd written Marion And Geoff, and he knew it would succeed; he'd also started collaborating with Julia Davis on Human Remains, and felt certain that would work as well. "But I remember saying to someone, 'I'm writing this thing with Julia Davis' and she said, 'Has it been commissioned?' I said, 'No, but it will be.' And she looked at me like I was simple. Like, 'Ah, bless him, he's got his hopes up.' But I knew by then I was on a wave.

Broadcaster Stuart Maconie and comedian Tommy Boyd have paid tribute to the late Gerry Rafferty, who passed away yesterday after a long illness. BBC DJ Maconie claimed in a column for The Mirror to have created the urban legend that Blockbusters host Bob Holness played the saxophone on Rafferty's 'Baker Street'. "I saw on Twitter that as well as Gerry's name being tweeted, so was that of Bob Holness," he said. "My personal and silly part in a sad story is that as an NME writer I invented the urban myth claiming that Bob played the sax solo on Gerry's 1978 hit 'Baker Street'. "That's not true. What is, is that Gerry's enigmatic, wry songcraft and his way with a nagging melody made him a reluctant star in successive eras of '70s pop." However, on his own website, comedian Tommy (more)...

Hannah Rothchild's documentary The Real Pm? follows the infamous spin doctor around in the run-up to the election. But what might have been going through his mind as the cameras rolled?

On Have I Got News For You recently, Andy Hamilton recounted an anecdote about Peter Mandelson complaining to DJ Stuart Maconie about his "prince of darkness" image, claiming it was all much exaggerated, before slipping away to take a phone call in which he could be heard to hiss the words, "This. Must. Be. Suppressed!" It's a tale that chimes perfectly with what we believe of the man. With his saturnine demeanour, sharp features and fixed, menacing glower, he looks every inch the henchman, as if he is the real-life creation of some fine character actor.

In Hannah Rothschild's clever, punningly titled film Mandelson: The Real Pm?, Mandelson, the grandson of Labour grandee Herbert Morrison, visibly retains the...

Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds will headline this year's Latitude Festival. Editors, Bat For Lashes and Doves are also set to play the event which takes place at Southwold in Suffolk.

The line-up for the Latitude festival was revealed last night. This summer's event will have the performers play on the Henham estate between Beccles and Southwold.

The fest takes place between July 16 and 19 with a full range of performance stages devoted to the likes of theatre, comedy and poetry.

Also joining the line-up is radio DJ, television presenter and critic Stuart Maconie. Poet laureate Andrew Motion has been confirmed and will be reading from The Cinder Path and a collection of essays, Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets.

Given the colossal worldwide success of Mamma Mia! ($569 million and counting), it’s not surprising to find that studios are suddenly sniffing around similar musicals in the hopes of hitting upon the next big cash cow.Cue New Line snapping up the rights today to the current Off-Broadway sensation, Rock Of Ages, which features a soundtrack so 80s-tastic it’ll make you grow a mullet and long for Spangles/the Rubik’s Cube/whatever other 80s nonsense Stuart Maconie and the usual suspects bang on about on those talking heads shows.How 80s-tastic? Try Foreigner. Reo Speedwagon. Journey. Pat Benatar. Bon Jovi. That’s how 80s-tastic.Still, Rock Of Ages has been a big hit since opening in October, and New Line sees much potential in the story of a doomed romance between two lovers who meet at a Sunset Strip club called… Rock Of Ages.Chris D’Arienzo, who...