Jon Reed

@jonreed.bsky.social

1434 Followers 2480 Following

📚 Writer and digital content consultant. Former publisher and ex-Twit. Politics geek and podcast addict. Mostly here for #TheArchers.

Susie Blake is thrilled to read out the birthdays in Birthday Parade, again, complete with wallaby hops from Wally Wallaby. (Within reason. She’s an announcer, not Fatima Whitbread.) From ‘Victoria Wood As Seen On TV’ (1985-1987).
The BBC Newsnight panel from 08 July 2026. From left to right: Count Binface, Nick Watt, Liz Truss’s deputy PM Thérèse Coffey, new SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan, Gillian Tett, presenter Paddy O’Connell.
Close-up of three Belgian buns on a cooling rack. They are buns containing sultanas, topped with white icing and half a shiny red glacé cherry.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tea tray with a mug on it. The tray is obscured by a large Texel sheep in the foreground. She peers over it and looks very pleased.
Mrs Overall gesticulates behind a large box, which has the word ‘VENUS’ printed on it, upside-down, at the top. She is raising her left hand, a couple of fingers raised as if hailing a cab. She’s delivering a tragically prophetic line about her macaroons, which have been on a low light since Tuesday: “Slice them finely, or somebody might choke to death! I don’t think she heard me…”
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
A screenshot of a tweet from GBNews linking to an article on their site (yes, one hellscape linking to another, but at least I’m sparing you from visiting either). It reads: “‘Red Ed Miliband’ as Chancellor would be a disaster for Britain - Kwasi Kwarteng.” The link to the piece on gbnews features an image of Ed Miliband giving a speech. The tweet is time-and-date stamped 06:06 25/06/2026, and has had 11K views as of the time the screenshot was taken (20:54, 28/06/2026).
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tea tray with a huge pile of colourful macaroons on it. She looks very pleased.
A Victorian parlour, complete with ferns in the foreground, a red velvet curtain, red Persian rug, fireplace, and leather armchairs.
‘Mother and Child (Divided)’ by Damien Hirst (1993). It’s a cow, cut in half lengthways, and displayed in two tanks of blue formaldehyde that one can walk around and in between. And also a calf, who has received the same brutal, artistic treatment.
An enormous tap on the shore of a gin lake. (Actually, it’s a weir sluice valve at the top of Goldsworth Park Lake, Woking, with the lake in the background on a hot sunny day.)
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
BBC Political Editor Chris Mason getting rather overexcited at the prospect of Keir Starmer resigning as Prime Minister. Actually, it’s Charlie Higson peaking too soon in a library, in a “Sorry, I’ve just ***” sketch in The Fast Show (1994-1997).
Miss Babs, in the foreground, is on the phone. In the background, an elderly couple browse the antiques, taking a particular interest in an antique soda siphon. They appear at the start of every episode of Acorn Antiques (this is their first appearance, in episode 1).
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) shows her ID card, from ‘The Silence of The Lambs’ (1991).
Saga Norén, from Nordic Noir drama The Bridge (2011-2018).
The ‘How Long Have You Known?’ scene from Breaking Bad (s5 ep10, ‘Buried’, 18 Aug 2013), in which Marie (Betsy Brandt) confronts Skyler (Anna Gunn).
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques. Possibly for the last time.
Andy Burnham winning the count in Makerfield, with his right hand raised in what looks like a ‘halt’ gesture as he stands in between a candidate in a fox suit to his left, and Count Binface (a man with a bin on his head) to his right.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tea tray with a mug on it. The tray also has a cricket bat balanced on it, with a cricket ball balanced at the end of the bat. In addition to the usual tabard, she is wearing protective headgear. She looks very pleased.
The coach from the end of 'The Italian Job' (1969), hanging precariously over the side of a cliff.
Swiss Toni (Charlie Higson), a character from BBC sketch show ‘The Fast Show’ (1994-2014), who appeared from series 3 (1997) onwards, and eventually his own spinoff sitcom (2003-4). Swiss Toni is a 50-something car dealer in a double-breasted grey suit with a tie, a tie pin and a pocket square and with his hair styled in a platinum blond bouffant quiff. He featured in sketches alongside Rhys Thomas as Paul, a junior employee, in which Swiss would typically compare some activity to “making love to a beautiful woman”, with the use of comically exaggerated sexual innuendo.
Hector, a glove puppet dog, from 1960s/70s children’s TV series ‘Hector’s House’ (originally ‘La Maison de Toutou’ – and that is your actual French). First broadcast in English on BBC1 in 1968, and repeated throughout the 1970s in 5-minute episodes just before the 6 o’clock news.
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tray with a HUGE slice of Borsetshire Blue on it. She looks very pleased.
A suburban bedroom full of imprisoned milkmen, some of them quite old, from the wordless, 1-minute Monty Python sketch ‘Seduced Milkmen’ (ep 3, 1969).
Swiss Toni (Charlie Higson), a character from BBC sketch show ‘The Fast Show’ (1994-2014), who appeared from series 3 (1997) onwards, and eventually his own spinoff sitcom (2003-4). Swiss Toni is a 50-something car dealer in a double-breasted grey suit with a tie, a tie pin and a pocket square and with his hair styled in a platinum blond bouffant quiff. He featured in sketches alongside Rhys Thomas as Paul, a junior employee, in which Swiss would typically compare some activity to “making love to a beautiful woman”, with the use of comically exaggerated sexual innuendo.
Mr Creosote (Terry Jones), a monstrously obese and vulgar restaurant patron, having been served a vast amount of food and alcohol (as he vomits repeatedly) is persuaded to eat an after-dinner mint by the French Maître d'hôtel (John Cleese), who says: “It's only wafer-thin”. After doing so, Mr Creosote graphically explodes. From Monty Python's ‘The Meaning of Life’ (1983), The sequence opens the film's segment titled ‘Part VI: The Autumn Years’.
The famous Midsomer Murders ‘cheese death’ scene (s15, e6, ‘Schooled in Murder’). In this episode, dairy worker Debbie Moffett (Martine McCutcheon) is lured to a cheese warehouse where she is knocked down by a falling shelf of cheese wheels and bludgeoned to death with a massive wheel of Midsomer Blue.
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tea tray with a mug on it. She looks very pleased.
The ‘How Long Have You Known?’ scene from Breaking Bad (s5 ep10, ‘Buried’, 18 Aug 2013), in which Marie (Betsy Brandt) confronts Skyler (Anna Gunn).
The coach from the end of The Italian Job (1969), hanging precariously over the side of a cliff.
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
A title screen from the deeply disturbing 1984 BBC nuclear apocalypse drama ‘Threads’, with blue writing on a black background. There are several of these interspersed throughout the drama. This one reads: Sunday May 29th Attack plus 3 days
The text of one of my tweets that appeared on screen on BBC News on the first of two dates former Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared before the Iraq Inquiry (the Chilcot Inquiry) to give evidence (29 January 2010, 19:30). Under the headline ‘Blair at Iraq Inquiry’, the tweet reads: “Blair will be remembered for his 'no regrets' soundbite. Legacy of his appearance today.” @jonreed twitter.com/BBC_haveyoursay
A Truth social post posted by Donald Trump on 22 May 2026. Below the words “Hello, Greenland!” is an image of a gigantic trump looming from behind a mountain in Greenland, holding onto the mountain, and eyeing a town below in a really creepy way. It’s very Pythonesque, and reminiscent of the gigantic, imaginary hedgehog Spiny Norman, who features in the ‘Piranha Brothers’ sketch in s2 ep1 of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (15 Sep 1970). The sketch is a mockumentary about gangsters Doug and Dinsdale Piranha. Dinsdale is terrified of Spiny Norman, whose reported size varies on the basis of his mood. At the end of the sketch, Spiny Norman is revealed to be real, and looms over various landmarks shouting “DINSDALE!”
A Historic Scotland sign reading ‘Arthur's Seat summit’, with a left arrow pointing the way. The sign is attached to a rickety fence at the bottom of the image, with a steep green hill behind, and four isolated trees at the top left against a strip of cloudy sky.
An iPhone notification that reads: “Yesterday, 18:53 Move Goal 300% You tripled your daily Move goal. Three cheers!”
The iconic view of Edinburgh Castle from The Vennel steps in Edinburgh - 08:25.
A selfie of ME, taken as I’d just stepped out of Waverley Station in the blazing sun, with Princes Street Gardens and Edinburgh Castle in the background. People are sunbathing. I’m wearing shades and a BIG COAT with a fur-lined hood.
A Hungarian tourist (John Cleese) attempts to use a heavily mistranslated English-Hungarian phrasebook to buy cigarettes at a tobacconist's (Terry Jones) shop. The phrasebook turns simple questions into absurd, rude, or sexual phrases. After a policeman (Graham Chapman) arrests him, the Hungarian shouts the iconic line: "My nipples explode with delight!" From the "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus. It appeared in Episode 25, "Spam", originally aired in 1970.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a tea tray with a mug on it. The mug bears the text ‘I Chardonnayed GG’, with a picture of George Grundy underneath, rather in the style of those ‘I Shot JR’ mugs you could get in 1980, in the long summer between seasons 3 and 4 of ‘Dallas’. Also on the tray is a bottle of Chardonnay, appropriately enough named ‘Pitchfork’. She looks very pleased.
Logan Roy (Brian Cox) gives his “You are not serious people” speech to his children in the final season of Succession.
Dawn French shouting “It’s me, your comedy partner Dawn French” at Jennifer Saunders, through a letterbox, in a White Room sketch from French and Saunders.
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
BBC Political Editor Chris Mason getting rather overexcited at the prospect of Reform UK Ltd winning seats, even though hardly any votes have been counted yet. Actually, it’s Charlie Higson peaking too soon in a library, in a “Sorry, I’ve just ****” sketch in The Fast Show (1994-1997).
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, carries a mug of tea on a tray. She speaks into an iPhone filming her, positioned inside a ring light. She is creating viral content that will influence the whole of Manchesterford!
Shouty, whisky-drinking businessmen Peter and John (Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry) have a heated discussion about something trivial. They face each other, Hugh Laurie grimacing, their whisky glasses almost clinking. From ‘A Bit of Fry & Laurie’ (1989-1995).
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as the Country Ladies – sketch characters who are large, loud, whisky-drinking country ladies who take a robust, no-nonsense approach to life and routinely ignore serious injuries, dismissing any attention or concern as ‘fuss and nonsense’. They appeared in the French and Saunders sketch show between around 1990-1998.
A couple of Cybermen chatting in the TARDIS. In the background, between them, are the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant). From Attack of the Cybermen Part Two (12 Jan 1985).
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
Mrs Overall, wearing a tabard as usual, and a mortarboard not as usual, carries a tea tray with a mug and a diploma on it. She looks very pleased.
Lord Ralph Mayhew (Charlie Higson) and groundsman Ted (Paul Whitehouse) in a Ted and Ralph sketch from The Fast Show (1994-1997, 2000, 2014).
The characters from ‘Sweary Aussie Drama’, a regular slot on Channel 4 sketch show ‘Mitchell and Webb are Not Helping’ (2025).
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
Miss Babs brandishes an official-looking envelope, with Mrs Overall in the background.
The ‘How Long Have You Known?’ scene from Breaking Bad (s5 ep10, ‘Buried’, 18 Aug 2013), in which Marie (Betsy Brandt) confronts Skyler (Anna Gunn).
Susie Blake continuity announces this week’s Ambridge Antiques.
Liz Truss, the 49-day Catastro-Prime Minister, writing her diary in a drawing room from a Jane Austen novel.