The first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on 23 November 1963. Radio Times announced “a new Saturday-afternoon television series of adventures in time and space”. Three of the original features are still with us – the ominous theme tune by Ron Grainer, arranged by Delia Derbyshire in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Tardis, a 1960s police box…. Continue reading
Posts by Gareth Huw Davies
Global warming – a 1989 view. Do we get it yet?
In June 1989 I wrote an article published in the Radio Times, entitled “Warming to the Problem”. It was based on an interview with the producers of a BBC2 documentary, one of the earliest (it was possibly even the first) on what was then referred to as the greenhouse effect. The introduction read: Our planet faces… Continue reading →
Looking at Stonehenge road scheme with future generations in mind
In July (2023) the UK government gave its consent to a £1.7 bn scheme to dual the A303 across the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS), with twin-bore tunnels, their portals well within the boundaries of the UNESCO-designated site. * * * * In 2020 a committee in Wales published detailed proposals for addressing traffic congestion, as an… Continue reading →
Brits love buses, but you’ll wait forever for one on the A303
Whose £2.5 billion tunnel and dual carriageway past Stonehenge is the A303 anyway? A public road (no tolls), funded by the public. Will it have that other ‘public’ thing? Public transport? After all, the A303 ‘improvements’ are designed to make life easier for motorists, all motorists. Car drivers, lorry and van drivers, even military vehicles –… Continue reading →
Is it time to ‘prioritise mass transport over the easy mobility of driving’?
In a leader (July 7, 2023) The Guardian concluded that the future of ‘mobility’ must involve much more than private cars. It said that the climate crisis should be a chance ‘to question whether the motorcar itself has become too embedded in our everyday lives. We must prioritise mass transport over easy mobility of driving.’… Continue reading →
How Tolkien’s Hobbit went there and back again
Was the language and invention of The Hobbit inspired by JRR Tolkien’s time at the University of Leeds? ” Bilbo found it… in Gollum’s cave.” So when did it all begin, The Hobbit? Formally on 21 September 1937, when the book was first published in hardback by George, Allen and Unwin. Informally, a little… Continue reading →