Caroline Frost

Wednesday

Caroline Frost

Caroline Frost: Carry On Regardless

From our UK edition

43 min listen

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Caroline Frost, author of the new Carry On Regardless: Getting to the Bottom of Britain's Favourite Comedy Films. She tells me what those movies tell us about British social history, makes the case for their feminism, argues that their special magic belongs to a British sensibility that no longer exists – and explains why it took twenty or more attempts to get Barbara Windsor out of her bra.

Tuesday

Caroline Frost

At last, the UK has a decent Eurovision act

From our UK edition

Jemini sits on an unenviable plinth in the UK’s cultural history. In 2003, this pair of enthusiastic Liverpudlians were the first ever UK entry to score a spectacular nul points at the Eurovision Song Contest, with Cry Baby. Oh, we did. In 2021, it was the cruel and unusual fate of James Newman to follow in their footsteps all the way to the bottom of the right hand side of the board with an equally non-existent score for Embers, the ensuing headlines writing themselves.

Friday

Caroline Frost

The politics of Eurovision

From our UK edition

The Eurovision Song Contest has never been more important, and I don’t just mean for fans of feathers, sequins and some eyebrow-raising exhibitionism. This year’s Contest, with the grand final taking place in Rotterdam on Saturday evening where James Newman will represent the UK, will be the first competition post-Brexit and promises to test how good, or perhaps not, our relations really are with our European neighbours (and Israel and Australia, but let’s not get technical). The delightful paradox has always been that politics ‘in lyrics, speeches or gestures’ at Eurovision are all banned by the EBU, rules enforced by the sinister sounding’ Reference Group’.

Sunday

Caroline Frost

It’s time we gave the Kardashians some credit

As the Kardashians announced the retirement of their TV show after 14 years and 20 seasons, there was the usual roster of commentators lining up to disparage them. Leading the parade was Piers Morgan who dismissed them as ‘vacuous, talentless, globally renowned imbeciles, the most shameless, grasping family in America.’ But their detractors shouldn’t be too hasty with their disdain. Shameless self-promoters they may well be but the Kardashians have influenced culture more than we realize. ‘We never set out to be celebrities,’ wrote Kim, Khloe and Kourtney with impressively straight faces in their joint autobiography Kardashian Konfidential.

kardashians