About me

You know how modern parents are very conscious of their children’s screen use? I’m what happens when you let your kids watch too much TV.

Raised by parents often exhausted by doing night shifts, TV was the easiest thing to put on to keep me quiet. Through the slow drip of cheap ‘top 100 moments’ documentaries, reruns of vintage comedies, quiz shows and late-night movies, I became the person I am today: A pop cultural obsessive, with a head full of TV, music and film.

Luckily for me, I was able to use this fairly useless knowledge to become a culture writer and critic. Amazingly, I now get paid to explore the weird corners of the pop cultural landscape – which is a relief, as I’m not great with my hands.

Currently, I work at the BBC as a journalist, writing interviews, features and SEO content to promote the latest shows from good ol’ Auntie Beeb (alas, my dream of having an Apprentice rewatch podcast has come to nothing yet).

Previous roles have included three years as Newsweek’s deputy culture editor and a year as a TV reporter at the Daily Express (don’t judge me, those of us without parents whose coat-tails we can nepotistically ride on have to do what we can).

I am also a freelance culture critic and member of GALECA: The Society for LGBTQ+ Entertainment Critics (that’s critics who are LGBTQ+ rather than critics of LGBTQ+ culture – though if you’ve ever heard me talk about latter-day Drag Race, you know I’m the latter too.)

I am available to write interviews, features, op-eds and other sparkling copy. I don’t really so social media, but you can reach me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelspencerwrites/ for commissions. My favourite subjects are actresses, Madonna and weird forgotten pop culture of the late ’90s and early ’00s.