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Direct from PG Towers, join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture of yesteryear that has since been considered problematic. Each week we focus on a different piece of pop culture, and put it into context by looking at the news events and cultural landscape of the year it was released. Out and proud, Dr Lee and Our Dave present a humorous take on life as LGBTQ+ men of a glorious age, and present a digestible mix of academic social commentary, unflinching life lessons, media analysis, and hot takes on feminism, race, politics and cancel culture.
70 Episodes
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Welcome Gazers to The Problematic Gazette, a welcome bonus addition to our main show. Our Dave and Dr Lee chew the fat, read out Gazer comments and discuss things we've seen, read and heard this week. In this mini-episode we announce our future special guests, Michael and Hilary Whitehall from The Wittering Whitehalls podcast. We're giddy kippers as we've been nominated for 3 awards at The Independent Podcast Awards!! And we chat about our short film about Molly Houses which is up...
In this episode of The Problematic Gaze, we take a closer look at one of The Office (UK)’s most painfully awkward episodes: “Training.” From David Brent’s relentless need to perform authority to the complete breakdown of professionalism, “Training” is a masterclass in how power, ego, and insecurity collide in everyday workplaces. We break down how the episode uses discomfort as comedy, what it reveals about early 2000s office culture, and whether the cringe still lands—or just feels exhaustin...
Welcome Gazers to The Problematic Gazette, a welcome bonus addition to our main show. Our Dave and Dr Lee chew the fat, read out Gazer comments and discuss things we've seen, read and heard this week. Click here to follow us on all our socials Please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. They really help to spread the word of The Problematic Gaze. And if our fellow Gazers want to comment on what they've heard in our episodes, or to suggest future topics, please...
Secret Diary of a Call Girl wants you to think it's in control — sexy, smart, subversive. But is it really? In this episode of The Problematic Gaze, we peel back the glossy layers of the pilot episode to expose the contradictions hiding beneath the lingerie. Who’s really being seduced here? We break down how Secret Diary plays with fantasy, flirts with feminism, and whether its bold aesthetic is actually reinforcing the very gaze it claims to subvert. With its playful fourth-wall breaks and p...
Welcome Gazers to The Problematic Gazette, a welcome bonus addition to our main show. Our Dave and Dr Lee chew the fat, read out Gazer comments and discuss things we've seen, read and heard this week. Click here to follow us on all our socials Please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. They really help to spread the word of The Problematic Gaze. And if our fellow Gazers want to comment on what they've heard in our episodes, or to suggest future topics, please...
Buckle up Gazers this ain't gonna be pretty! In 1965, the BBC made a film so terrifying, so brutally honest about nuclear war, they banned it before it ever aired. The War Game wasn’t a horror movie—it was a government-funded drama-documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK that hit too close to home. Why did the BBC pull the plug? What did Peter Watkins show the public that authorities didn’t want seen? And how did this “lost” film become one of the most chilling—and prophetic—anti-war sta...
Welcome Gazers to The Problematic Gazette, a welcome bonus addition to our main show. Our Dave and Dr Lee chew the fat, read out Gazer comments and discuss things we've seen, read and heard this week. Click here to follow us on all our socials Please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. They really help to spread the word of The Problematic Gaze. And if our fellow Gazers want to comment on what they've heard in our episodes, or to suggest future topics, please...
In this episode of The Problematic Gaze, we revisit Only Fools and Horses' classic 1989 outing The Unlucky Winner Is—the one where Del enters Rodney’s teenage artwork into a kids’ competition and wins a family holiday to Spain… with a few strings attached. We explore how this sun-soaked farce touches on the cultural landscape of late-80s Britain—from the rise of the yuppie dream to the era’s growing emphasis on safe sex messaging, and how these ideas filter through the show’s humour and chara...
In this episode of The Problematic Gaze, Dr. Lee and Our Dave dive deep into the glossy paranoia of The Stepford Wives (1975) — a chilling suburban satire that’s part sci-fi horror, part feminist nightmare. What does this cult classic really say about gender roles, domesticity, and the backlash to second-wave feminism? We explore the film’s historical context, its uncanny aesthetic, and its lasting influence on how society frames women, perfection, control, and conformity. Whether...
This week on The Problematic Gaze, we hop in our Telly Tardis and jump between the year 2000 and 1985 — courtesy of Will & Grace’s infamous two-parter, Lows in the Mid-Eighties. It’s the big bang of the Will & Grace universe, where we witness the origin stories of our favorite neurotic New Yorkers: Will's awkward coming out, Grace's wedding-that-wasn’t, Jack’s dramatic entrance (obviously), and Karen… just being Karen, with fewer highlights, even less shame and Martina Navratilova! In...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, we deep dive into 'America's Next Top Model', the US reality show launched in 2003. Now heavily criticised for its promotion of unhealthy body images and questionable racist undertones, this immensely popular show highlights how the modelling industry, and reality TV can age like a glass of fine mil...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, we deep dive into the one off TV event 'It's A Royal Knockout' from 1987. It's a time when Princess Diana had the world in her thrall and the rest of the Royal family fumed in her shadow. Prince Edward decided it would be a great idea to plunge Princess Anne, Fergie and (ahem) Prince Andrew into the...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, we step back to into the world of high glam, high fashion and crime busting women with an episode of hit US crime drama 'Charlie's Angels' from 1976. What can these plucky females tell us about the representation of women on the television in the mid seventies? Feminist statement or yet more female ...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, we step back into the world of the grotty student flatshare with an episode of the anarchic cult sitcom 'The Young Ones' from 1984. Click here to watch our chosen episode of 'The Young Ones' from 1984. Click here to follow us on all our socials Please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, as we attempt to record ourselves for YouTube (watch this space!) we cast out Gaze back to the year 2000 and join spirit animals Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha for a dissecting of the international smash hit comedy series Sex And The City. What can this show teach us about the advance (or d...
Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week, as the UK swelters in a heatwave, we turn up the heat and cast our gaze on 80's blockbuster action film Top Gun. There's aerial dogfights, a plucky but tortured hero, shiny Hollywood masculinity, power ballads and THAT volleyball scene. If we weren't already hot under the collar we discuss those fam...
PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. Continuing our Pride Month special curation, we watch the celebrated, Academy Award winning film musical Cabaret. Starring Liza Minelli and Michael York and Joel Grey, the film celebrates the decadence of early 1930's Berlin, in all its LGBTQIA+ glory, amidst a backdrop of looming fascism. ...
PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. Continuing our Pride Month special curation, we watch the cult LGBT+ comedy film 'But I'm A Cheerleader' starring Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Rupaul, and Cathy Moriarty. Megan Bloomfield is a lesbian in denial, and is sent away to be 'cured'. We also look at the history of conv...
PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. Continuing our Pride Month special curation, we watch the critically acclaimed US documentary Paris Is Burning from 1990. Set in New York during the late 80's, it follows the lives of a number of characters associated with the New York Ballroom scene. Loud and unashamedly proud, it explores...
PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL Greetings from PG Towers! Join social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV Producer Dave Moor for a lighthearted look at the world of TV, Film and Popular Culture from yesteryear. This week we kick start our special month of shows, curated to celebrate Pride Month. We take a look at a pioneering magazine show, first broadcast in the UK in 1980. We visit Heaven Nightclub and The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. We watch interviews with Drag Queens, Leather Queens and ...
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