Mad Men – I Want Season 3 (please)

The second season of Mad Men reached its finale this week with mergers, confessions and homecomings - and I'm gutted that it's over.

I know we can catch up with i-players and gorge ourselves on DVD boxsets, but I still like to make an effort with my favourite shows at the time that it's listed in the TV guide. And Mad Men is unmissable. Set in a New York advertising agency in the early sixties - everyone is superbly dressed and chain smoke despite a Cuban missile crisis and loose sexual morals. As one character claimed in series one, "I've been on shore leave for the last 20 years".

Here is a selection of some of its best moments (beware of spoilers if you're already hooked and catching up).









Mad Men season 2 DVD is out in July. And I think the US are screening season 3 in August. Lucky sods.

London Loves

Another post about David Hillman. And so soon, but why not - especially when there is work to be celebrated like London Life.

At his recent D&AD lecture, when talking about his work in the sixties, the title that created the biggest interest was this magazine. But at the time of writing the last post I could find no examples, but with the magic of the interweb, here they are and I'm thrilled. Take a look at that masthead; making the date of publication bigger than the magazine title is genius, plus the illustration is by a young gun called Ian Dury - a blockhead who was good with the words too.



Despite such originality, the publisher deemed it unsuccessful so a more conventional style was adopted. But by losing faith in its creative, London Life lost readership and ceased trading in 1966. Shame. It goes to show that it pays to keep to a ground breaking formula, as The Face and Arena went on to achieve later on in the '80s. Nice one Neville.



Fancy a road trip? A retrospective of David's work can be seen at The Hub in Lincolnshire. Details here.