Granny Smiths, charity shops, wine gums, bagels, walking in the countryside, having singers articulate my emotions for me, brown leather suitcases, hugs, velvet jackets, post offices, writing adoring fan letters to unknown actors, Van Heusen shirts, small seaside resorts, setting the world to rights, white chocolate, having a cluttered room, clock-dial telephones and wondering how the hell someone as ugly as Adrian Chiles gets on national television.
Klaus Kinski, but only from a distance...
Guess I'd better put a 'proper' list here, so... The Smiths, Talking Heads, Jens Lekman, The Beatles, Idlewild, The Divine Comedy, Ride, Ivor Cutler, The Libertines, Belle and Sebastian, Galaxie 500, Nina Simone, Dubstar, Babyshambles, Neils Children, The Shangri-La's, The Pixies, Lightning Seeds, The Fall, Dirty Pretty Things, Everything But The Girl, Arctic Monkeys, Rialto, My Life Story, Felt, Alma Cogan, The Delgados, Kathleen Ferrier, The Pogues, Sons and Daughters, Alisha's Attic, The White Stripes, Van Morrison, The Charlatans, The Go! Team, British Sea Power, The Magnetic Fields, Jeffrey Lewis, I Am Kloot, The Dears, Love Is All, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Gossip, The La's, Arcade Fire, Sandie Shaw, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Dandy Warhols, The Yell, The Vichy Government, Portishead, Morrissey, Saint Etienne, Camera Obscura, The Beautiful South, Patrick Wolf, The Undertones, Tindersticks, Nick Drake, The Vaselines, theaudience, Pulp, The Velvet Underground, The Specials, The Rapture, The Long Blondes, The Streets, Patti Smith... you get the general idea.
Mike Leigh films. British New Wave stuff. Some silly comedies. And 'Network', which should tell you all you need to know about media manipulation:
The Simpsons, Peep Show, Black Books, This Life, Jam, Our Friends In The North, Brass Eye, M*A*S*H, Blackpool, Shooting Stars, Nathan Barley, Curb Your Enthusiasm, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Queer As Folk, The Likely Lads, The Day Today, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, The Singing Detective. I also like to watch far more of 'The Jeremy Kyle Show' than I'm happy to admit to.
Oscar Wilde, Stan Barstow, John Fowles, Harold Pinter, Shelagh Delaney, Joe Orton, Edwin Morgan, Alan Bennett, Samuel Beckett, Edward Bond and Zadie Smith to name a few. 'Billy Liar', 'Lolita' and 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' are great books too.
Jarvis Cocker. Hell yeah