Frank Collins

@cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ He/him. Film/TV writer-researcher for hire. Black Archives books, Age of Thrills, Fantastic Fifties and Sensational Sixties magazines, booklets for Indicator & Arrow Films.
Writing: https://medium.com/cathode-ray-tube Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/6V3z

@geekonaleash.co.ukReposted by @cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

The BBC has already responded to my complaint from yesterday, via copy and paste. This is unacceptable. I’ve raised a complaint in response to demand that my complaint is adequately addressed.

"Thank you for contacting us about Strictly Come Dancing regarding the blurring of a message on a T-shirt seen in a training room clip. As is standard practice on any entertainment show on the BBC and in line with our editorial guidelines, appropriate steps are taken to reduce the inclusion of any overt branding or slogans that may be present, regardless of the wording or statement in question. Thanks again for getting in touch. We’ve shared your comments with the Strictly team and with senior BBC managers through our complaints reporting process. If you’d like to understand how your complaint is handled at the BBC, you might find it helpful to watch the short film on the BBC Complaints website about how the BBC responds to your feedback. It explains the BBC’s process for responding to complaints, what to do if you aren’t happy with your response and how we share the feedback we receive. Kind regards, BBC Complaints Team www.bbc.co.uk/complaints"" Your response acknowledges my complaint but fails to address it. You've repeated a generic statement about editorial guidelines while ignoring the points raised. I didn't contact you to hear your branding policy repeated back to me. I complained because the BBC blurred a message supporting transgender women's safety, visibility and respect. In December 2025, the BBC described "Protect the Dolls" as calling for "the safety, visibility and respect of transgender women against anti-trans rhetoric and violence". Which part of that message does the BBC not want its audience to see? You claim to remove "any overt branding or slogans" regardless of wording. Yet Carlos Gu wore a T-shirt repeating "Feminist" during week one rehearsals. As a feminist, I'm glad he wore it and support his right to do so. But if the policy applies regardless of the message, why was his shirt acceptable while Bethany's was blurred? Your explanation isn't consistently applied. Explain why. This also sits within the BBC's wider record on trans issues. A Good Law Project-commissioned poll found 70% of trans respondents considered BBC News's reporting about them hostile. TACC has documented patterns in UK media coverage of trans people and our rights. The BBC has helped sustain hostility towards trans people. Against that background, hiding a message calling for our safety and visibility raises serious questions about its role in our erasure. Your response has addressed none of this. Sharing my comments with senior managers doesn't answer my questions. I expect a substantive response identifying the exact guidelines that justified blurring Bethany's shirt, explaining the apparent inconsistency, and addressing the impact of suppressing messages of solidarity with trans women. The BBC knows what this message means. It explained it publicly, yet chose to hide it. Why? Answer the complaint I actually made, rather than repeating a generic statement that evades it."
@cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

My take: Lady French presents her compliments ? and expresses her sister’s approval of the portrait of Sir John French being reproduced? She considers it a very good likeness and the attitude is very characteristic

@cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

Was eccentric as a child. An oddball, compounded by confusion about my sexuality as a teen. Yeah, weird queer. But I got through school by making people laugh, having some talents with art and writing and didn’t experience bullying. Young adulthood, on the other hand, really sucked for bloody ages.

@cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

It is a horrible world out there but we can’t give in to it. The moments of joy are still out there, worth finding and worth creating for yourself. It’s just that bit harder to grasp them right now. Let them lead you on. I’m sure we’re all struggling. I know I am. Don’t want you to go. 🫂 🫂 🫂

@brightwalldarkroom.comReposted by @cathode-ray-tube.bsky.social

"Seen through the prism of Samsara—the Buddhist cycle of rebirth driven by ignorance and attachment—BARTON FINK becomes a spiritual classroom wherein karma serves as teacher and each turn of the wheel offers the same lesson until it's learned."

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