Mexican stand-off
Three guns, three lives, one heartbeat
Uncertain outcome
Watching the new series of The Night Manager. I don’t think everyone is going to make it… (No spoilers on the Mexican Stand-Off, that’s not happened, at least not yet!)
(30.01.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Martin SoulStealer via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
It was only the size of a postage stamp,
a pixelated blur that came and went
with sound that didn’t match the picture,
but it was a kind of magic back then.
Transported to your Surrey garden,
six-hundred thousand strangers streamed
down phone lines crossing continents
into this tiny buffering barn.
We held our breath and squeezed into
that distant doorway, willed the image
to appear until its spluttering
sounds and colours burst to life.
In awe we cheered distorted sounds,
squinting to make you out across
the many miles that lay between us,
clapping, we hoped, in unison.
Could we be hyperlinked? Connected
through our screens? It seemed surreal.
But now HD, the wonder’s leeched
become mundane and yesterday.
I’ve been working on a painfully slow internet connection today. This reminded me of watching Roger Taylor’s record-breaking concert ‘Live at the Cyberbarn’ on dial up internet. How quickly things have changed!
(See: https://www.rogertaylor.info/facts-and-trivia/accolades/the-guinness-book-of-records/)
(25.01.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
The knights are gathered
With swords unsheathed
A castle divided
Round table split
Plans have been hatched
The end comes soon
Destruction draws near
Its seeds have been sown
The Traitor and the Faithful
Are sat in their seats
Mordred and Arthur
But which is which…
Watching the penultimate episode of Traitors with no idea how it’s going to open out…
(22.01.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash
To steal, or not to steal, that is the question:
Whether ’tis better to grasp immunity
And run the risk of being banished, or
To face the blows of traitors’ bows and arrows?
Which fearful fate is worse: to walk or sleep;
The paranoia of the table or
The letter on the chair that passive slays?
Whichever choice is made, the chance is real:
‘Cos other’s hands the dagger doth employ,
Considering options that perchance destroy.
Loving The Traitors again this year, what gripping TV.
(16.01.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Albert Stoynov on Unsplash
‘I’m going to ABBA tomorrow’, he said
Fantastic, I replied. I’d heard
so many good things about the show,
and how the holograms seemed so real.
Not having seen the gig myself,
and wanting to add to the conversation,
I started to talk about a show
that I’d just seen the night before.
I saw a jolt upon his face,
a mental change of gear, but ever
composed and mindful of the other,
he quickly engaged with what I’d said.
Realising, perhaps, that I had moved
too quickly from his coming joy,
I returned the conversation to
our quartet of Seventies songsters.
His features creased a merry crease,
‘I must have miscommunicated,
I didn’t mean the sequinned Swedes,
but Aber as in Aberystwyth!
The moral of this mutual blunder?
The danger of assuming shared
perception, a common understanding,
obvious isn’t always so.
A comic conversation from this morning that makes a perfect illustration.
(23.11.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Andrew Ebrahim on Unsplash
At the play tonight
Gandalf sat down behind me
And magic happened
Went to see the fantastic Nicola Walker tonight in The Unbelievers. Ian McKellen was also in the audience.
(22.11.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
A gothic castle stands alone and distant,
Alluring to friends and strangers seeking fame,
Its silent turrets loom aloof and stark,
Above those players in their chilling game.
Each night the corridors are stalked by death,
Dressed in its cloak and visage drained bone pale,
Inside the traitors mass and roll their dice,
Whilst outside in the woods the banshee wails.
Traitors. Fantastic.
(16.10.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Mike van den Bos on Unsplash
I woke to an ear-worm wriggling in my mind,
a whisper of a melody, a hint
of background music that nestled into my thoughts.
Its theme persisted in my breakfast dish,
developed in my morning’s meditations,
and found a nest within my walking rhythm.
Having gestated for the day, by evening
it broke free. Born in my unconscious humming
it found life in this evening’s congregation.
Today has been a day spent looking forward to seeing The Divine Comedy at the Barbican. Their new album has been the perfect backing track.
(11.10.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Wisecracks, one-liners, knowing looks
Join sassy walks and L.A. flats
Fat kipper ties and shoulder pads
The swelling sound of mellow sax
The fizzing tension between the leads
Temperature’s rising getting hot
Solving cases when all seems lost
With angry flirting on the job
Before Die Hard our action hero
Joined a model for a different tack
Maddie and David return tonight
Our guilty pleasure, Moonlighting’s back
Returning to the 90’s tonight with the discovery that Moonlighting’s available to stream on STV Player.
(10.10.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
From church to Traitors
Sublime to ridiculous
In just one evening
My evening!
(08.10.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Ode for the Day 