The Problematic Gaze

This week on The Problematic Gazette, apparently two days in the office is now enough to completely wipe us out. When did that happen? We talk about how ageing sneaks up on you, why work feels different than it did in our twenties, and we ask listeners to weigh in on the eternal struggle of work–life balance.Then we stumble across a brilliant showbiz connection that sends us down a disco rabbit hole. Legendary producer Biddu wrote Tina Charles’ smash hit I Love to Love — and the track also features Trevor Horn before he became one of the most influential producers of the 1980s. We talk about Tina’s meteoric success and her Streatham roots.Next up: huge Doctor Who news. Two missing episodes from 1965 have just been recovered, meaning the number of lost episodes drops from 95 to 93 — and they’re heading to iPlayer at Easter. We also celebrate Maximum Power, the documentary about Blake’s 7 icon Jacqueline Pearce, which has just landed an RTS award nomination and lands on Apple TV.From there we get stuck into a ridiculous Daily Mail headline policing women’s hair over 45 (because apparently that’s still a thing), catch up on the latest chaos in The Apprentice, and dive into the debate around Ryan Murphy’s portrayals of real people — including the controversy surrounding his upcoming series about JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette.

IN A CHANGE TO OUR ADVERTISED SCHEDULE (The Day Jobs Have Swamped Us This Week! Tune in next week for our take take on 1960's Psycho!) HERE'S ANOTHER CHANCE TO HEAR OUR MOTHER'S DAY TAKE ON 'MOMMIE DEAREST' FROM LAST YEAR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!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 cast our Gaze over the 1981 film 'Mommie Dearest' starring Faye Dunaway. Much derided by critics and viewers alike upon its release, it has since become a cult camp classic, deeply embedded in gay culture. But do the harrowing scenes of abuse lie easily alongside the fantastically colourful scenes of Hollywood glamour? Just how true is this story? And why you would NEVER want to get into a fight, scripted or not, with Faye Dunaway.Click here to follow us on all our socialsPlease 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 email us at theproblematicgaze@gmail.com. We love hearing from you!

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we begin by digging into gender inequality statistics before turning to one of British television’s strangest dystopias: The Worm That Turned, the 1980 eight-part serial from The Two Ronnies.Set in a nightmare vision of 2012 Britain, the serial imagines a world where women rule, men are domesticated and forced into women’s clothing, and law and order is enforced by a PVC-clad female Gestapo led by screen siren Diana Dors. We follow the unlikely heroes Janet and Betty (Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett) as they flee the regime, seek out the resistance, and attempt to escape to Wales.We place the serial in the political and cultural context of 1980 Britain — early Thatcherism, unrest, and rapidly shifting TV and music trends — and ask whether the comedy is mocking women’s power or exposing male fear of it. Along the way, we note the male-gaze elements and fascist aesthetics, but also the moments that highlight just how “shit” women’s lives are under patriarchy.Click here to watch 'The Worm That Turned' on YouTubeGAZER HOMEWORK: Next week for Mother's Day we focus on the Hitchcock classic: PSYCHO from 1960.

Welcome back to The Problematic Gazette — The Saturday spin off to our main show - The Problematic Gaze- the queer pop culture podcast where nothing is off limits.This week:🏋️ Why we’re suddenly obsessed with Gladiators (and yes… it’s homoerotic)📺 The reckoning of America’s Next Top Model and toxic 2000s reality TV culture🎭 Celebrating Kenneth Williams at 100 and the genius of the Carry On era📱 TikTok conspiracy rabbit holes — can social media rewrite history?🐩 A poodle haircut that channels Auntie Peggy💌 Listener emails & Pride Month film planningFrom noughties body-shaming to modern media literacy, from gladiatorial thighs to archive-based history, we cover it all — with laughs, nostalgia, and just a touch of feverish delirium.If you love:✔️ Queer cinema✔️ British comedy history✔️ 80s & 90s TV nostalgia✔️ Reality TV deep dives✔️ Smart cultural debate with chaos energyYou’re in the right place.🎧 New episodes every Tuesday & Saturday

Watch The Problematic Gaze on YouTubeIn this episode of The Problematic Gaze, we revisit Russ Meyer’s cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and ask: could it get away with it today?We explore its violent, quotable tale of three go-go dancers tearing through the California desert—drag racing, fighting, kidnapping, and flipping gender roles on their head. Is it pure exploitation, accidental feminism, or both?In our Culture Corner, we set the film against 1965 Britain: post-austerity optimism, Swinging London, strict gender expectations, censorship, racism, and a society on the brink of change. We look at what life was really like for women at the time—limited rights, rigid roles, and growing feminist unrest.We unpack the film’s kinky boots, hyper-feminine styling, and female rage; Russ Meyer’s provocative worldview; and the movie’s journey from box-office flop to cult touchstone. Along the way, we consider its influence on everyone from Quentin Tarantino to riot grrrl culture and pop icons like Madonna and Beyoncé.Can a film objectify women while also celebrating their power? We debate, we rate it, and we leave you to decide.Watch Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! on YouTubeGAZER HOMEWORK: Next week we watch The Worm That Turned from The Two Ronnies. Watch it here on YouTube

We return to the Problematic Gazette on our new Saturday slot and quickly tackle the Prince Andrew revelations, including the iconic photo of him being taken away. We recall the UK ‘Rear of the Year’ celebrity award, from Barbara Windsor as the first winner (1976) through Amanda Holden as the last (2019) We recap our recent Dempsey and Makepeace episode and talk about paparazzi, media scrutiny, and made-up tabloid narratives. And we mark the death of songwriter Billy Steinberg writer of major hits including ‘Like a Virgin,’ ‘True Colors,’ ‘Eternal Flame,’ ‘So Emotional,’ ‘Alone,’ ‘I’ll Stand by You,’ and ‘I Touch Myself.’ We chat about being glued to the Winter Olympics (including curling and moguls), and touch on the Instagram dialect debate we accidentally ignited about Geordie vs Northumbrian accents, which drew hundreds of comments and even input from a linguistics academic! We also discuss Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model documentary and Tyra Banks’ lack of accountability, recommend the gentle comedy-drama Small Profits (with Michael Palin and others), and get into Doctor Who rumour-mill talk about Russell T Davies, possible new showrunners, and speculation around David Tennant and Billie Piper returning. We share listeners reaction to Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights film and preview our next main-show episode on Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Watch 'Dempsey and Makepeace: Love You To Death' on YouTubeClick here to watch The Problematic Gaze on YouTubeIn this episode of The Problematic Gaze, we turn our attention to “Love You to Death” (TX 1985) from Dempsey and Makepeace — the glossy Anglo-American crime drama that paired hard-boiled NYPD import James Dempsey with aristocratic British detective Harriet Makepeace.“Love You to Death” trades on seduction, jealousy, and lethal obsession, but beneath its high-concept crime plot lies a fascinating web of gendered power dynamics. We explore how the episode frames female desire as dangerous, how male volatility is coded as charismatic rather than threatening, and how the camera lingers — inviting us to participate in a distinctly 1980s televisual gaze.What does this episode reveal about transatlantic masculinity? How does it negotiate Makepeace’s professional competence against Dempsey’s swaggering authority? And in a decade obsessed with glamour and excess, where does romance end and possession begin?Join us as we unpack the aesthetics, performances, and cultural assumptions embedded in this stylish slice of mid-80s prime-time drama — and ask whether “Love You to Death” is simply a product of its era, or a case study in how television taught audiences to look, desire, and judge.GAZER HOMEWORK: Before our next episode: Watch Faster Pussycat Kill Kill!!! on YouTube

POP CULTURE EMERGENCY!! New documentary “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” drops on Netflix on the 16th February. In anticipation of this, here’s another chance to hear our take on this iconic reality milestone. 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 milk! Click her to watch 'Top 20 Outrageous America's Next Top Model Moments' discussed in this podcast.Click here to follow us on all our socialsPlease 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 email us at theproblematicgaze@gmail.com. We love hearing from you!Gazer Homework: In our next episode we focus on the US sitcom Will and Grace with the two-part "Lows in the Mid-Eighties" episodes (episodes 8 and 9 of season 3)