Gok is pictured here atop St John’s Tower. Make up your own jokes.

• Thanks to Dave the Pap

Featuring a number of Liverpool FC and Everton FC cameos, the film appears to be the latest in a long line of scouseploitation films along the lines of Beating Berlusconi and One Night In Istanbul.

Can there be any other city in the UK that mythologises its own culture quite so much? Doubtful.

Anyway, you can order Reds and Blues (The Ballad of Dixie and Kenny) on DVD at £14.99 from www.redsblues.co.uk.

• Thanks to Dave the Pap for the image

I was grateful for the opportunity, and it goes to show the value of having FACT in Liverpool. The last four times I’ve been to the flicks there I’ve seen Antichrist, Moon, District 9 and The Thing – and I doubt Liverpool One would have given me the opportunity.

A year or so ago I also managed to see Blade Runner on the big screen at FACT, an experience that watching the film on a TV doesn’t even hint at.

The Philharmonic also deserves praise for its film nights, which often stray into some fairly interesting fare, though I managed to miss a rare showing of Forbidden Planet a couple of years ago.

Kudos also for the Film on the Waterfront weekend, which projected a number of films onto building at Pier Head.

All of which brings me onto another film-related happening in the city, namely Hurricane Films’ attempt to get the cash together to promote Liverpool film Under the Mud.

Received well by Hollywood celebrities and critics alike, the film has, nevertheless, struggled to find a distributor due to its lack of big-name slebs. As a result a guerilla marketing effort is under way.

The plan is to raise enough cash to decorate an old double decker and send it out around the streets of the city to promote the film.

Find out more about the film at the Under the Mud blog and make a pledge.

I’ve followed Smit ever since I read his book on Eden, an extraordinary, inspirational book about one man’s fight with nature, administrators, economics, common sense and received wisdom.

I read the book as I, along with two friends, were in the process of battling various Quangos, competitors, truculent advertisers, the dole office and abject penury to produce the magazine that eventually became Black+White.

The similarities don’t really go much beyond that, as Smit managed to build the eighth wonder of the world and we produced eight copies of the listings guide which was a critical success but a commercial disaster.

Still, I took a lot of the lessons learned to heart and have remained inordinately impressed by Smit, a likeable, charismatic, forward-thinking, self-deprecating and extremely able man.

Smit’s talk was based loosely on the theme of the environment and took the influence of Liverpool biologist Tony Bradshaw as a starting point.

But the talk soon veered away towards a more general approach ( I hesitate to use the word ‘holistic’, because it’s bloody awful), taking aim at nothing less than the entire received wisdom of politics, administration, housing, ecology and work.

With Heligan and Eden under his belt, Smit is now helping to save Mauritius (or, more accurately, helping Mauritius to save itself) and is involved in the bidding to build an eco town.

I hope he succeeds. Smit’s message is optimistic on the environment – he’s simply that kind of guy. I’m less optimistic, because while the likes of Smit are thought of highly they’re rarely indulged at the highest levels.

I get the impression that Smit’s approach to red tape, pessimism, realpolitik, vested interests, intransigence, institutionalism and rank stupidity would blow through the corridors of power like a cleansing hurricane if allowed – but how do you change decades of entrenched interests and mindsets?

During his talk I was reminded of Adam Curtis’s documentary on game theory – The Trap – which proposed the idea of government, civil service, people and business essentially at war with one another and themselves, thus maintaining a deliberate status quo.

Curtis’ documentary looks at the two concepts of liberty: positive liberty, involving the empowerment of people to take control of their own destinies; and negative liberty, the freedom to live a life free from the restraints of others.

Its a subtle distinction, but Smit’s talk seemed to me to propose a shift from the latter to the former, and his credentials and rhetoric indicate that, if there’s anyone capable of catalysing this transformation, it’s him.

We need more like him but, as a questioner pointed out, few of the rest of us are Tim Smits, as I found out several years ago.

• You can watch the first part of The Trap and watch Smit’s lecture at these respective links.

ITV has closed ITV Productions studios at Manchester, where The Street is made as part of the latest round of cuts. ITV has been badly hit by falling ad revenues and some fairly hopeless decision-making over recent years, with Michael Grade now on the way out too.

This is a shame, for obvious reasons, not least the fact The Street is one of the few remaining adult dramas on the BBC, much of the rest given over to rather silly programmes like Robin Hood and Survivors or soaps like Holby City.

The last edition of Black+White was to have featured an interview with Jimmy as its centrepiece, but our own round of cuts and poor decisions meant we didn’t have the cash, so it now lives on the web, though I also managed to get it in Tribune.

I’ve never printed an interview as a Q&A before or since, but the answers Jimmy gave were so interesting, frank and personable I didn’t feel I had anything to add.

I found him to be a lovely man, though we never met, and quite gentle, warm and humourous. He seemed quite irked by the fact that everyone expected him to be nutter, which I found amusing.

As Christopher Eccleston – a mate of Jimmy’s – had recently taken the lead role in Doctor Who, I rather mischievously asked him if he’d consider writing an episode – “Do me a favour!” – and he also gave me some great gossip about Doctor Who.

Anyway, the Jimmy McGovern interview is here, along with a fair bit on the genesis of The Street.

A number of trailer are currently playing on Dave, so I thought I’d round them up. Here’s hoping it’s not rubbish.

Edit: Oh dear preliminary thoughts

Kryten teaser

Rimmer teaser

Cat teaser

Red Dwarf teaser

Bullet trailer

Escalator trailer

Walk trailer

What’s small trailer

Full Back to Earth trailer

I’ve just been to see Hush – the latest film that’s got ‘The best British thriller in years’ written across it, written and directed by Mark Tonderai.

It’s actually really good, and without resorting to a list of adjectives like taut, efficient, claustrophobic and nerve-shattering it’s well-shot and pacy enough to keep adrenalin levels up, without descending into action-slasher farce.

The first 15 minutes are actually pretty bad, and calling the lead character Zakes is a bizarre choice that grates immediately, but stick with it. The film get better and better as it progresses.

The Liverpool connection? Art director Matt Gant, who studied at LIPA. Synopsis below. Production company link here.

Tired and irritable, Zakes (Will Ash) and Beth (Christine Bottomley) drive home along the M1, a familiar journey full of harshly lit service stations and bad coffee. When a white truck narrowly avoids hitting them, its back doors open to reveal a woman terrified and screaming caged up inside.

Unsure if what he has seen is real, Zakes calls the police but drives on. Beth is furious that he hasn’t done more to help and at the next petrol station storms off. When she doesn’t return, Zakes slowly realises that she too has been snatched by the white truck driver and is forced into a vicious game of cat and mouse with a ruthless killer who has terrifying plans for his human cargo.

Football fans are unlikely to change their opinion of Liverpool fans – whatever they may be – based on this video, which is marginally more restrained than Sky’s awful panel on Soccer Saturday hosted by Jeff Stelling.

Still, at least they managed to find a Liverpool fan who’s actually from Liverpool, eh?

• Via xxnapoleonsolo.

There’s a strong culture, in cricket and in Liverpool, of edgy humour that’s either part of the day-to-day banter or fairly threatening, depending on your point of view.

As one of the few people to be ever sent off a cricket pitch, it should come as no surprise that I’m not averse to a spot of piss-taking myself, but I generally know when to rein it in. When people don’t the line between what’s honest banter and what’s downright viciousness gets blurred, and I’ve played in many a cricket match that has turned nasty.

In cricket the practice, known as sledging, is widespread and is generally all in good fooling. In life scousers are the best in the world at it, probably along with Aussies, and certainly the biggest exponents.

Coming from the North-East, where it’s also rife, it was water off a duck’s back to me but I’ve noticed a few people new to the city struggling with this sort of chat. If you’re not used to it it can be confusing and intimidating, and which side of the fence you’re on probably depends on whether you’re in on the joke.

Scousers are famed for their humour, and proud of it. They’re quick-witted, generally funny, and usually pleased to find sparring partners in these unique contests. Frankly, though, there’s a minority that are simply unpleasant and cover their nastiness with the veneer of ‘am-I-or-aren’t-I-joking?’ humour.

This brings me to Stuart Slann, a man destined to wearily type his name into search engines to confirm the bad news he fully expects to find there. Stuart has fallen prey to a particularly elaborate and particularly Scouse practical joke. It’s cruel, skilfully executed and very, very funny.

Stuart had managed to annoy a pair of holidaying Liverpudlians in Mexico. Taking offence at his unwillingness, as a Manchester United fan, to sing some Anfield chants they threw him in a pool. Slann may or may not have broken his ankle during his dunking, according to conflicting reports.

This, apparently, was insufficient payback for the scousers, who spent six weeks grooming Stuart over the internet with the promise of sex with a hottie called Emma. So besotted with Emma was Stuart that he videod himself sucking a pink dildo and then drove for ten hours to a remote Scottish outpost to meet ‘Emma’.

In a phone call the Liverpool lads drop the bombshell that Emma does not exist, and Stuart presumably gets a creeping sense of dread when he’s reminded of his fellating of a vibrator. “You’ve been framed!” shout the Liverpool lads, though it seems unlikely that this video will ever turn up on ITV’s programme of the same name.

It also transpires that Stuart has a wife and kid, who have now left him as a result of the prank going public.

I have to confess that I find this hilarious, but that’s tempered by the fact that this is an astonishingly cruel prank. The power of social media is likely to see this video spread like wildfire around the world and Slann will realise that everyone from friends, relatives, future girlfriends and future employers might have come across his very public, and very embarrassing, pranking.

Slann, clearly, is not in on this joke, though he appears to have taken it on the chin. In the matey, blokey environment of sports changing room or the pitch such behaviour is common and a even sign of affection. When the victim is a bloke you briefly met on holiday, and the vid then goes very public leading to end of his relationship, it’s another thing entirely.

So, I’m reminded of scouse humour. Cheeky, funny and driven by a vague sense of righteousness. To a point. Beyond that it’s increasingly hard to separate from cruelty and bullying.

• You can watch the video below, but it contains strong language.

I’ve got two Twitter accounts, one for MotorTorque and a personal account, and manage another, though I try to keep the three as separate as possible.

The site is a hive of creatives and PR types, so it’s almost a perfect forum for meeting like-minded people, exchanging idea and links, promoting links if you’re a little more mercenary, and generally indulging in what’s hopefully some mutually-beneficial banter.

It’s very trendy at the moment to write an article about how Twitter is very boring, how everyone on the site is a narcissistic show-off or a technophile snob. Luckily for me I’m all three.

Elsewhere on Twitter there are celebrities tweeting – Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry most notably – the occasional fake celebrity and some amusing parodies. The only celebs I’m following are Bill Oddie, Will Self, Robert Llewellyn and Wil Wheaton. Make of that what you will.

Liverpool Twitter and Twestival

I was going to write a post about which people from Liverpool to follow, but there are too many and I’m not sure how the relevant people would react to being outed on the wider web, so I’ll not bother.

Suffice to say if you are interested in what Liverpool’s Twitter ‘elite’ are up to you can check them out using Twittergrader.

This week I’ll be attending Liverpool Twestival – a meet-up of Liverpool’s great and good, assuming they’re on Twitter. As someone who met up with a bunch of blokes from a Doctor Who forum it holds little fear for me and should be a good opportunity to meet some fellow scribblers.

The dark side of Twitter

There are probably a hundred articles, mainly in the Daily Mail and Daily Express – the world’s worst newspapers – about how Twitter is a fertile breeding ground for spammers, scammers, paedophiles, swingers, socialists and Jonathan Ross.

I haven’t really experienced any of these – Peter Mandelson is clearly none of the above – but received quite a shock today when I dashed off an offhand tweet about Noel Edmonds, in light of his recent rant against a soulless minion on his Sky show Noel’s HQ.

Noel’s HQ is a programme that unsettles me somewhat – it seems to be part-That’s Life! and part-Nuremberg Rally, though it’s nice to see Cheggers in gainful employment again – and I said as much on Twitter.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I received an email indicating that Noel Edmonds had ‘followed’ me on Twitter.

It’s a genuine curveball, and one I feel singularly ill-equipped to deal with. Is it the real Noel? Will he be mad at me? Will he name me on his show? And what has this got to do with my Shatner’s Bassoon?

It’s the first genuine downside to Twitter I’ve come across thus far.