What I learnt from Michael Apted

It was sad to hear of the passing of Michael Apted on Saturday. His ‘Up’ series is one of the great achievements of documentary film and could never be replicated in the industry and the world as it is now. This is what I learnt from him when we crossed paths in Rome two years ago.
Bowie revelation

Listening to lots of David Bowie music over his birthday weekend (Friday was his birthday, 8th January) I had a bit of a revelation. One of my favourite LPs of all time – The Talking Heads’ Remain in the Light – I suspect was very heavily influenced by Bowie’s Lodger. I remember the release of Lodger, his third Berlin album, well, him explaining on some BBC radio show the background to the world sounds drawn from Turkey, Africa and other diverse places. Lodger was released in May 1979 (one of the great years for music) and Remain in the Light in October of the following year. The connection should have been obvious because both were produced by Brian Eno and he has proven himself one of the creative greats of our times.

Eno’s impact on Bowie’s work on Lodger and the other two Berlin records is very well captured in David Bowie: Verbatim, the archive programme made by my friend Des Shaw at Zinc in January 2016, which was repeated last night to mark the 5th anniversary of Bowie’s passing in that month – you can listen to it here.
Best of 2020

Film:
Lovers Rock
Babyteeth
Nomadland
The White Tiger
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Queen & Slim
Le Corbeau, Vertigo
Last year: Joker, Mid90s
Foreign-Language Film:
The White Tiger
Les Miserables (2019)
Last year: Parasite.
Documentary:
Crip Camp
Dick Johnson is Dead
Last year: Rolling Thunder Review
Male Lead:
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Adarsh Gourav – The White Tiger
Tom Hanks – News of the World
Ralph Fiennes – The Dig
Last year: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
Female Lead:
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Michelle Pfeiffer – French Exit
Eliza Scanlen – Babyteeth
Kate Winslet – Ammonite
Jodie Turner-Smith – Queen & Slim
Last year: Elizabeth Debicki (Virginia, Vita & Virginia)
Male Support:
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Mauritanian
Mark Rylance – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Last year: Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin in Joker
Female Support:
Helena Zengel – News of the World
Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy
Saoirse Ronan – Ammonite
Olivia Coleman – The Father
Last year: Kaitlyn Dever as Amy in Booksmart
Director:
Steve McQueen – Lovers Rock
Shannon Murphy – Babyteeth
Ramin Bahrani – The White Tiger
Last year: Todd Phillips (Joker), Jonah Hill (Mid 90s)
Writer:
Ramin Bahrani – The White Tiger
News of the World – Paul Greengrass & Luke Davies
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin (though I don’t generally like him as a writer, too many words)
Rita Kalnejais – Babyteeth
Last year: Jonah Hill (Mid 90s)
Editing:
?
Last year: ?
Cinematography:
Andrew Commis – Babyteeth
Paolo Carnera – The White Tiger
Dariusz Wolski – News of the World
Hoyte van Hoytema – Tenet
Last year: Roger Deakins – 1917
Film Music:
Lovers Rock
Last year: Rolling Thunder Review
Single/Song:
Long Tailed Winter Bird – Paul McCartney
Reborn a Queen – Naughty Alice
Kunta Kinte Dub – The Revolutionaries
Last year: Lately – Celeste
Album:
McCartney III – Paul McCartney
Letter to You – Bruce Springsteen
Last year: Ghosteen – Nick Cave
Gig:
Sarah Jane Morris – Ronnie Scott’s
ROE – The Waiting Room
A Bowie Celebration – Empire, Shepherd’s Bush
Last year: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets (Roundhouse)
Play:
0
Last year: A Taste of Honey (Trafalgar Studios)
Art Exhibition:
London Calling (Museum of London) – the only one I got to this year 😦
A Surge of Power by Marc Quinn going up on the base of the deposed Colston statue, Bristol
Boy & Bear – Brandon Hill, Bristol (thanks to Dylan on my birthday)
Last year: Van Gogh in Britain (Tate B)
Book:
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free – Andrew Miller
The Plague – Albert Camus
Summer – Ali Smith
Last year: A Woman of No Importance – Sonia Purnell; The Quiet American
TV:
Lovers Rock (BBC)
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
The Crown – S4 (Amazon)
The Romantics and Us (BBC2)
The Bridge S1
Last year: After Life (Netflix)
Podcast:
Heavyweight
Adam Buxton
The Happiness Lab
Last Year: 13 Minutes to the Moon
Sport:
Spurs 2 – Arsenal 1 (11.7.20)
Dance:
Mam (Sadlers Wells)
Last Year: The Red Shoes (Sadlers Wells)
Event:
Statue of Edward Colston being chucked in Bristol harbour
The Winter Solstice at Newgrange, Ireland
Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties
Dearly departed:
- Andy Taylor (with whom I worked at Little Dot and Channel 4)
- Albert Uderzo
- Jimmy Cobb
- Alan Parker
- Terry Jones
- Carl Reiner
- Kirk Douglas
- Sean Connery
- John Hume
- Ruth Bader Ginsberg
- Terence Conran
- JJ Williams
- Nobby Stiles
- Nicholas Parsons
- Tim Brooke Taylor

Best of 2019 and links to earlier Bests Of
Winter Solstice at Newgrange
In this era of video streaming here is a particularly brilliant (literally) application – sharing the Winter Solstice at the Newgrange passage tomb in Co. Meath, Ireland. I first went there in the early 80s when there was no visitor centre or formality and the nearby tombs of Knowth and Dowth were largely overgrown. Now it is (very deservedly) a World Heritage Site and this morning’s live broadcast via YouTube was brought to the world by Brú na Bóinne / World Heritage Ireland and Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí / the Irish Office of Public Works (OPW). Starting as the sun rose over the horizon behind the loop of the River Boyne we were enabled through live streaming to witness the entrance of the sunlight into the passage of this neolithic tomb and watch its advance down the passage to illuminate this house of spirits and mark the rebirth of the sun after the darkest days of winter. Particularly resonant of course this year.
The live commentary by two authoritative and warm Irish experts explained that this area is an”inland island” being separated by a huge loop of the river. The whole area is rich in neolithic remains and traces. They showed some aerial photos from 2018, enabled by that other important new camera technology, drones, revealing crop marks and patterns in the countryside in drought showing the presence of huge perfectly circular constructions (a henge) on a grand scale, unknown until that driest of summers.
The ability to share in real time sights which are not otherwise accessible to the world at large is one of the fundamental benefits of streaming video.













Wishing Simple Pleasures Part 4 readers and the world at large light after the darkness and Simple Pleasures galore in 2021.
Andy Taylor – Little Dot Studios
Some cherished memories of an exceptional man who played a big part in my career, first at Channel 4, then at Little Dot Studios. Above all he was a mensch (the highest any of us can aspire to).




Oceanic Global Film Festival winner

‘Dive Tierra Bomba Dive‘, the second film I have commissioned/execed directed by Joya Berrow & Lucy Jane, the dynamic duo who go under the name The Right to Roam, has been selected as one of the four winners of the Oceanic Global Film Festival. It is centred on a young woman who aspires to lead the fight to protect the marine environment of her native island off the cost of Colombia.
The film received a special screening (with director Q&A) on Earth X TV last week.

The first film we worked on together was ‘Surf Girls Jamaica‘. It was recently spotlighted by The Guardian

This Real Stories podcast is a good listen about the making of Surf Girls.
Coincidences No.s 291 & 292 – A London Boy
No. 291 All Things Must Pass
I go for my last run (of hundreds) in St Pancras & Islington cemetery. It’s only open on weekends at the moment due to Lockdown/Covid so this Sunday is my last opportunity. I am due to move house on Tuesday. I know every inch of this huge cemetery-cum-nature reserve and have deeply enjoyed the hours I have spent here running, walking and meditating. I jog listening to a BBC Radio programme (‘Archive on 4‘) about George Harrison’s first solo record ‘All Things Must Pass’.
As I reach the gate coming out for the last time the narrator, Nitin Sawhney, reminds us that the record first came out in the UK 50 years ago on 30th November. This is 29th November. On the 30th I am packing up the house and home office of ArkAngel to move out.
As I reach the side gate of the house at the end of the run George says (referring to the long recording process):
“…and it’s finished.”
No. 292 A New Dawn
I just received the following message (30 seconds ago via Facebook):
“Listening to it myself. Dedicating Nina to you. Xx”
It refers to this playlist, ‘Weekend at Home‘, created by my Best Man, and the track ‘Feeling Good’ (by Nina Simone). I’ve been listening to the playlist all morning on the first Saturday in my new home, where I’m sitting at my new ArkAngel desk.
About two minutes before the message arrived I got an email from a colleague/friend at Little Dot Studios. It was about somebody pirating ‘Surf Girls Jamaica‘ and at the end he asked
“How’s the new place?”
Exactly as I read the email these were the very words I heard from Spotify…
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me
Yeah, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me
And I’m feelin’ good

‘Feeling Good’ was actually written by two Londoners – Anthony Newley (Hackney) & Leslie Bricusse (Pinner) for a musical, ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint’ . As I finish off this post, on the ‘Weekend at Home’ playlist I’ve reached the track ‘The London Boys‘ by David Bowie. It was a 1966 B-side on Deram records which put out his early work. He sings it in a very Anthony Newley London style as Newley was a huge influence on Bowie when he was starting out. My move takes me back to my native postcode: London NW7