Nice to See It… The 1970s in Front of the Telly

Here are a selection of television clips, which for Brian Viner, author of Nice To See It, To See It, Nice symbolise the 1970s.

The Booklist – Christmas Cheer

Wave goodbye to boredom and sleep after this year’s Christmas dinner as Bookhugger’s publishers suggest several titles guaranteed to raise eyebrows, encourage debate and tickle out a laugh from even the most jaded.

In praise of Shouting at the Telly

What does Howards’ Way tell us about the eighties? And if you play the theme from Inspector Gadget in a nightclub, will people dance? George Miller talks to editor John Grindrod about a book that answers all of these questions and more.

Listen now

Oliver Postgate’s Seeing Things: an extract

‘Oliver Postgate was, for my money, the greatest children’s storyteller of the last 100 years. Together, the team of Postgate and Peter Firmin were apparently incapable of creating anything less than timelessly wonderful whenever they sat down to work.’ Charlie Brooker

Enter Bookhugger’s Quite Interesting competition and win QI goodies [closed]

We have five sets of great QI prizes to give away: each set features QI: The Book of the Dead and the 2010 QI Annual, in which you will learn many fascinating new facts about things that begin with the letter G.

It’s… Monty Python Live!

There hasn’t been a new Monty Python book by all the (surviving) Pythons in thirty years. On their fortieth anniversary, Monty Python Live! focuses primarily on their stage show and includes original material written for the book – oral histories, essays – from all living members, as well as much archival material never before in print.

An interview with David Simon, by Nick Hornby

“My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader.”

Win a copy of The Wire: Truth Be Told, signed by David Simon [closed]

The Wire has been widely hailed as the greatest television series of all time. It portrays the war of attrition between the city’s hardened police force, and its drug dealers, and the blurring of good and evil, justice and injustice, right and wrong. Truth Be Told is the definitive guide.