Michael Holden

Jonathan Meades: Remember The Future (1997). The first documentary from his series Even Further Abroad, Meades asks about Britain and technological modernism and our national dread of awe. Big Tech was never going to fit into Little England he concludes, despite the postwar lurch towards the white heat of technology and a brief flirtation with architectural determinism. Instead "The shape of things to come is the shape of what's already been. We're invited to advance timorously into the past." What's old is new again and Meades's arguments about Nineties Britain are back in play: data centres and high speed rail, wind farms and modular nuclear reactors - is it really us? Is our suspicion of technological utopia a hangup, or a well honed defence against the petty tyrannies of planned progress? Or is it just an argument over taste? One person's national heritage is another person's Victorian monstrosity etc. We're headed into the future regardless, why argue about the brickwork there. Meades is acerbic as well as informed and thoughtful, and his documentaries should be Grade 2 listed: preserved for future generations to gawp at on school visits to the world of analogue television, where we thought 30 minutes of architecture on BBC2 before the snooker started was good for us.

Incredible bit of writing by Michael Holden about my new book.

The Prince Charles Cinema Secures its Future The Prince Charles Cinema is thrilled to announce that we have signed a new 25-year lease with no break clause, ensuring our projectors will keep rolling for years to come. #YouSavedThePCC

Watch out for The Firm on BBC4 at 10.0. The late, great Alan Clark’s last film. A young Gary Oldman at his very best, Lesley Manville, a bit of me. The first of the football hooliganism films. Made in 1989 it’s a stunning piece of work.