Thursday was the official publication day for my book, WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG. I’ve done a whole host of media interviews over the last week talking about the book but the question I have most often been asked is this: Why did I write it? Well, it is down to tw...
This article was written for Reaction.Life. Haughey – The Charles Haughey Documentary (RTE, YouTube) One of the great delights of YouTube is that it contains a vast treasure trove of political documentaries, the existence of which is usually spread by word of mouth. A co...
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph. There’s nothing Westminster journalists like more than a process story that potentially involves one of their own. This week the Conservatives advertised for a new No 10 spokesperson, who will host a live, televised daily ...
Earlier this month I recorded an episode of Lisa Francesca Nand's BIG TRAVEL PODCAST, and it's out now on all podcast platforms. This is what the podcast blurb says. Quite how you can resist listening to it after reading this, I just don't know! A school trip to Commun...
This article was originally published on Reaction.Life. I wrote a new column each Friday on the site. The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, BBC2 As you will know, if you are a regular reader of this column, I’m a sucker for a person based biographical documentary. So whe...
I get a lot of emails from LBC listeners and For the Many podcast fans, but this one, from 22 year old Joseph Bryant*, was a corker. So I thought I'd share it with you. Hi Iain, I've just ordered a copy of your book from your website. I'm 22 and have just fini...
This article first appeared on Reaction. Hillary, Sky Documentaries There’s nothing quite like a multi-part documentary series on leading American politicians. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about the Amazon Prime series on Bill Clinton and George W Bush, they provided fr...
Jacqui Smith and I have taken a perverse pride in describing our offering as the 'yet to be award winning 'For the Many Podcast''. Well, no longer. No, we're not being cancelled, but we have won an award! It's the Civility in Politics Award for 'Co-operation of the Yea...
IainDale · Iain Dale takes BA Management to Task This evening I hosted another phone-in asking people to comment on British Airways' treatment of its workers by sending them so-called 'Fire & Rehire' letters and emails. It's a terrible way to treat loyal worker...
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life Test Match Cricket, Sky Sports Test Match Special, 5 Live Sports Extra On Wednesday cricket fans around the world finally got what they were almost panting for – some live test match action. It didn’t last long, given ...
This column first appeared on Reaction.Life. Eurovision – The Story of Fire Saga, Netflix I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Will Ferrell, so it was with some degree of trepidation that I decided to take the advice of several friends who had seen “Eurovision” with...
Wednesday was a sad day for every right thinking person in Hong Kong, and it is a day that will be full of consequence, not just for the people of Hong Kong, but for the future of international relations and the world’s dealings with China. China has been flexing its muscle...
Last week's review on Reaction.Life. The Return of Premier League Football, Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC1 Back in early March I remember saying to a colleague that I wouldn’t be going to the London Stadium to see West Ham v Wolves on 17 March because of Coronavirus. This wa...
The Salisbury Poisonings, BBC1 Spread over three consecutive nights, this series sought to tell the story of the poisonings of Julia and Sergei Skripal from the point of view of the residents of Salisbury. And it succeeded in spades. It’s just the sort of thing I wish ...
You, Series 2, Netflix “You” has been one of Netflix’s greatest hits. It is summed up very simply by the Netflix PR blurb: “Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy obsesses over girl. Just how far will boy go to get girl?” But it’s darker than that. Far darker. In fact, it’...
This is from Gillian Reynolds' weekly Radio Review in the Sunday Times Culture Magazine... Happy birthday to June Spencer, Peggy on The Archers. She’s 101 today, active as ever, but absent from Ambridge, which seems to have been invaded by aliens. I used to be glued to Th...
From a Radio Review in The Guardian by Stuart Jeffries. One evening last week, Denise from Enfield rang in to Iain Dale’s show. Dale is having a good lockdown – his ratings are up and his kindly, intelligent, albeit Tory, persona has been soothing for many of us....
Last week's review on Reaction.Life. Naked Attraction, Channel 4/E4 If you ask someone if they have ever seen Naked Attraction the usual answer is ‘no, but I did catch sight of it while channel hopping’. Yeah, right. The show has a strange addictive quality. It’s th...
“You’re looking at this through your own prism as a white man,” said Denise in Enfield during a phone-in on the Black Lives Matter protests on Wednesday on LBC. “Am, I?” I said. “Do tell me what my prism is!” Her reply really set me thinking about how I view race issues. ...
This is the fifth of a new weekly column I am writing for Reaction.Life Back in the day it was clear what Newsnight’s role was. Put simply it was there to cover the day’s news stories in more depth than is possible on a news bulletin, to explain more complicated storie...