[politics] Who said it: Dominic Cummings or Nathan Barley? … ‘We need some true wild cards, artists … weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired by Bigend as a brand ‘diviner’ who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB.’

[tv] Totally Mexico! How the Nathan Barley nightmare came true … a look back at Nathan Barley …

“When he started out, Nathan wasn’t what we’d now call a Shoreditch hipster,” Brooker says. “I’d never even been to Shoreditch. It was more about moneyed young guys who claimed to be working in television when really they were living off their parents. He was more of a Made In Chelsea figure, and he kind of morphed into a Hoxton idiot for the TV show.”

Chris Morris, the creator of The Day Today and Brasseye, had written listings in secret for TVGoHome. Around 2000 he suggested that they try to develop a show around the Nathan character and east London’s increasingly absurd club/art scene. “We talked about the show for years before we made it,” says Brooker. “Chris was adamant very early on that there should be a tiny acorn of likability to Nathan, something irrepressible. He does terrible things but he has an endearing sort of rabbity enthusiasm to him. In the fake listings he really was a cunt, whereas in the TV show he’s a twat – and there is a difference.”

[tv] 14 Ways Nathan Barley Predicted The Future … ‘1. Camera phones with MP3 decks.’

[tv] Trendies twitch over a TV Tease — the Sunday Times covers Nathan Barley. Chris Morris: ‘Hoxton types are just a subset of Nathans. Before writing, we became Barley twitchers, spotting Nathans in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, and Penzance. Hosegate is not Hoxton — it’s a fictional construct in response to the fact that Nathans are absolutely bloody everywhere. This is worse than bird flu.’

[tv] So Was It “Well Weapon”? — the Londonist blog reviews Nathan Barley … ‘… the concept itself feels a bit less red hot. Since Nathan Barley emerged on Brooker’s (now defunct) TV Go Home website, something over five years ago, the dot-com boom has bust and, rather than being an apparently emergent master-race, its illegitimate Carhartt-wearing children now seem automatically self-mocking. That’s not to say that Nathan and his ilk aren’t funny on screen. They are. But they are also funny off screen, which means that Nathan Barley is not the vitriolic weapons-grade satire C**T was, and is instead more of a freakshow.’

[tv] Trashbat.co.ck — trailers for Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris’s TV comedy Nathan Barley.