It’s been a busy few months of late. Tony has completed his latest book, Made in Yorkshire, concluded the programming for the 14th Bradford International Film Festival and filmed a cameo as a particularly gruesome zombie in the horror short Cinema of Horror.

Made in Yorkshire is Tony’s third book and focuses on the wealth of movies shot in the county from 1888 to the present day. The book concentrates on more than 30 well-known and more obscure feature films with a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes photographs to augment interviews with actors and directors such as Julie Christie, Ken Loach and current Doctor Who David Tennant. It’s due out in August. The book is a collaboration with Jim Moran, Tony’s longtime colleague on the Yorkshire Post, who took many of the photographs featured in it.

Cinema of Horror was a dream come true. A dedicated Z-head who grew up watching George Romero’s zombie epics, Tony finally got to play a member of the shuffling dead following an invitation from Harrogate-based filmmaker Peter Kershaw. The shoot took place in late February. Tony’s make-up was handled by rising star Hannah Ingleby.

Bradford International Film Festival ends on March 15. Over the last ten days Tony, as artistic director, has handled on-stage interviews with Michael Palin, Barry Norman and Kenneth Branagh. There are still more delights to come. Don’t miss out on what is rapidly becoming the biggest, best and most important UK festival outside of London and Edinburgh.

A new documentary series for HTV Wales focuses on the tragic stories of the Welsh men and women who sought fame and fortune in Tinseltown.

Tony was invited by director David Howard to give his opinion on the lives and times of Peg Entwistle, Rachel Roberts and Richard Marquand - three people who all, in one way or another, found themselves chewed up and spat out by Hollywood.

The series, entitled Burn Hollywood Burn, began on November 1 with a show dedicated to starlet Peg Entwistle, who achieved notoriety by being the first person to commit suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign. It continues this week with Rachel Roberts.

The latest edition of the excellent Cinema Retro contains a six-page retrospective, written by Tony, on the 1979 US mini-series Salem’s Lot.

The extensive piece, entitled ‘Life in a small town’, includes comments and memories from David Soul, Geoffrey Lewis and producer Richard Kobritz, along with many exclusive photographs from Tony’s own archive.

It is Tony’s third commission for the magazine. Previously he provided an overview of Night of the Demon and an interview with American producer Mitch (The Getaway) Brower.

Other projects on the boil for Cinema Retro include interviews with sci-fi legend Richard Matheson and character actor Joe Don Baker.

After 20 years of reviewing and writing about films, Tony has finally appeared in one.

He made his acting debut as a gangster named Lentz in Cricket, the first feature film from Daniel, Chris and Matthew Austin - the talented triumvirate of brothers behind the excellent horror short Bloodline.

An urban crime thriller, Cricket has been shooting in and around Manchester and Bolton. It will be released next year.

Tony has been commissioned to write a study of the movies made in the county of Yorkshire.

Made in Yorkshire, to be published by Guerilla Books, will present a historical overview of many of the cinematic classics to have been filmed in the Broad Acres since the late 1880s. Among the many titles under scrutiny will be Turn of the Tide, A Boy, a Girl and a Bike, Billy Liar, Lady L, The Railway Children, Yanks, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Brassed Off, The Full Monty and Calendar Girls.

Much of the background will come from Tony’s extensive collection of material as well as his own interviews conducted on the sets of a string of films including Brassed Off, LA Without a Map, Fairytale - A True Story and Little Voice.

Tony will be working with ace photographer Jim Moran whose images will accompany many of the location reports. Other images have been loaned by the Yorkshire Post and other regional newspapers.

If you were involved in a Yorkshire-made movie, then Tony wants to hear from you. And if you have a photographic record of a film made on your doorstep, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Made in Yorkshire is scheduled for publication at Christmas 2008.

Channel 4’s ever-popular The 100 Greatest War Films gets another airing tonight. Tony is among the scores of commentators offering their thoughts on some great cinematic moments.

Tony can be seen from the beginning (or the end; take your pick), debuting up on The Eagle Has Landed (No. 99) and then appearing on Went the Day Well? (No. 69), Kelly’s Heroes (No. 34), Where Eagles Dare (No. 21) and Black Hawk Down (No. 9).

Other commentators include pals like Alan Frank and Sheldon Hall, as well as luminaries such as Ken Loach, Dennis Hopper and Steven Spielberg.

Given that this is a six-hour epic, the repeat of Part II goes out next week.

Bradford International Film Festival’s ‘Crash Cinema’ symposium has made it into print.

Essays presented at the annual symposium, running since 2002, have been collected into a volume released by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Among the editors (and contributors) is Mark Goodall, a co-programmer of the festival, of which Tony is the artistic director.

The book - Crash Cinema: Representation in Film - marks the first venture into print for the symposium and the festival. It is hoped the volume may eventually be followed by others, perhaps covering some of the festival’s many ‘Screentalk’ interviews with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Bennett, Jean Simmons and Malcolm McDowell.

Those jolly chaps at Cinema Retro magazine were savvy enough to commission Tony to pen a lengthy piece on the making of Salem’s Lot.

The feature is based on two exclusive interviews with leading man David Soul and producer Richard Kobritz, both of whom spoke exclusively about this most ground-breaking of TV horrorthons.

The piece, which includes an amusing sidebar from Geoffrey Lewis, will appear in Issue # 9, out later this summer.

Tony has recorded an interview for a mini documentary to accompany the first-ever British DVD release of Night of the Demon.

He will appear alongside the film’s female lead, Peggy Cummins, and horror historian Jonathan Rigby, author of English Gothic, in the 15-minute short which will form part of the disc’s extras.

The DVD, set for release in late summer or early autumn, will also include a photo gallery drawn from Tony’s own extensive collection of images as well as both the UK and US versions of the film. An additional extra will be the 1979 TV version of Casting the Runes, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.

The DVD will be released by DD Home Entertainment.

Almost two years after its publication Beating the Devil continues to pick up favourable reviews.

The latest appears in All Hallows 42, the journal of the Ghost Story Society. Irish journalist Brian Showers has contributed an ‘inter-review’ - a review-cum-interview - of the book with comments by Tony.

Brian says: “Beating the Devil really does manage to tell you everything you want to know about Night of the Demon. [It] is the textbook for any serious fan.”