If we hadn’t suddenly decided to work through all the Pixar movies that we’ve missed, I don’t know if we’d ever have watched and boy - what a shame that would have been. It was a bit of a rollercoaster watching this movie, because initially, it seemed like a nice, charming family story about music, happy to watch it.

Hooray, a new section has appeared on this website and it’s dedicated to games and gaming! I’m a fair-weather gamer, usually dipping in and out of iPhone apps until the next Tomb Raider adventure is released. Tomb Raider and Spider-Man have been the two most recent games I’ve been obsessed with and they were a while ago now (haven’t started the new Spider-Man yet!)

I was not aware of this game before seeing it appear in the Apple Arcade new and notable section, although it’s been around for quite a long time across a few different platforms. As a concept, I thought it would be right up my street, I do love the music platform games where you’re matching the patterns with whatever controllers you have - in this case, tying up to the maracas shown on screen.

This popped up in Apple Arcade as a new game, although I think the original has been around for a while and I may have even tried it before at some point. But this was a + version (whatever that means), so worth having another look at. It’s one of those simple games that is useful to have on the iPhone to dip in and out of when you have a few minutes, rather than something that’s going to keep you entertained for hours on end.

Sonic is a tried and true game character with a legendary history and plenty of future left in him and his friends, I’m sure. I think if we’re looking to the past, I was more of a Mario girl than a Sonic player, but I love the feeling of speed you can have with these games. Of course you can look around every inch of a level, but I love that you can also just fly through them, get through as fast as you can and feel that slighty out-of-control edge-of-your-seat buzz that only the blue hedgehog can bring.

I’ll be upfront about it, I didn’t enjoy the playthrough of the first few scenes in this game. As always, the graphics were incredible and the atmosphere really well done. I didn’t like the first person dynamic in play here, I’m not sure whether that’s a general personal taste or specific to this game though - more research required.

Of course, Hole popped up on a recent 1990s episode of Top of the Pops hence listening to them now. I’ve listened to one album before and loved it, and this was no different. Just really good grungy rock with fabulous vocals and a general feeling of anarchy that is great to grab hold of and run with.

So look, we all know where we stand with James Blunt, he is widely ridiculed for no real reason, but hugely self-deprecating thus somehow gets away with it all. I wasn’t expecting much from this album but it’s actually really good. Some grown up pop songs, thoughtful and in places moving - the song about his lost child, and of course the track about Carrie Fisher, both standing out. A surprisingly strong album all things considered!

The second season of Loki drew to a close this week, and I’m going to be honest, it was a pretty big disappointment. The whole series, in fact, hasn’t lived up to the fun and glory of the first one, even though this time out the stakes were higher and the time travel even more prevalent. The biggest problem I had with it was not enough time spent with the characters being themselves. The great thing about the first serious was the back and forth nature of the relationship between Mobius and Loki. We only got to see that fully in the third episode, title 1893, where they went back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair and chased around together like idiots. That was fun and brilliant.

This is a really interesting book, both from the point of view of the story being told, but also as a concept. Michael Palin delves into the history of his Great-Uncle and his various researches piece together a small but not insignificant life, cut tragically short by the First World War. I love how Palin tells this story, being completely frank about the fact that a lot of it is conjecture, but also comparing and contrasting the things he finds out with his own life. And he visits lots of the destinations, or has visited them in his travels, which gives an extra insight as well. Really loved it.

I’m sure last week they were referring to the half point of the competition but that appears to have been this week - they may have mentioned it once or twice, you’ll have noticed! We’re coming down from the stress of Halloween week and are without a theme for a couple of weeks now until everything heads north to Blackpool. We’re left with some really good dancers, and although there are still a few couples who look like they could go home over the next few weeks, it’s really getting hard to predict who is going to do well or not each week.

The BBC just added all available classic episodes of Doctor Who to their iPlayer streaming service, meaning they have the entire collection of Doctor Who series old and new all under one roof. This is superbly exciting. It’s always been in the back of my mind to watch some old Doctor Who episodes, partly because I do feel bad at being one of those ’new Who’ only fans, but also because you can never have too much TV in your life.

This was a really easy read, following the story of an unhappily married woman and how she ends up being something of a spy in her high class world. On top of that, a murder is committed and all the layers have to be unravelled to come to something of a happy ending. I whipped through this quickly, although I felt like some of the periphary characters could have been fleshed out more, and I wasn’t 100% sure that the way the staff were treated was realistic, but it was a quick and fun read.

Yay, we managed to time it correctly to watch this on fireworks’ night which worked out perfectly because the noise of fireworks during any other film would have been annoying but for this one it made for the perfect background noise. I’ve seen this before, a long time ago, but I really couldn’t remember anything about it - other than when they were stood on the roof, I knew we were going to see some explosions.

On last week’s 1995 TOTP episode, Joshua Kadison popped up on the top 40 chart rundown, so just some words on a screen. It caught our attention though because, oof, Jessie is such a classic song. I thought this album was so good, obviously that opening track is a standout but the rest really lives up to the hype. It’s strong songwriting, intriguing lyrics, and although it’s all of that same piano-driven gentle vibe, there’s a lot to like. Roll on one week and Kadison appeared on the next TOTP episode, and starts trending on social media. That’s how good Jessie is.

It’s not often you get an album that is themed around a holiday other than Christmas, but this is Duran Duran’s effort to celebrate all things dark and Halloween. So I had to listen to it this week otherwise it wouldn’t have worked, and I’m glad I did because it was pretty good! It’s a mixture of old and new Duran songs, as well as some covers sprinkled in there too. They have mixed results (interesting take on Billie Eilish, less keen on The Specials). Overall a good album and maybe we can make Halloween records a thing!

This is a fun game that has cute characters and really good animations. The physics puzzles are just the right amount of challenging to keep it interesting while still being ultimately doable. I did find some of the cut scenes a bit annoying, and as mentioned, trying to play this on anything other than a phone isn’t going to work, but ultimately a good game to have installed to while away a few minutes waiting for the bus.

It’s not going to break the box office like the film counterpart but I really love that this is a game about thought and planning and not just shooting and running. The gameplay is easy to pick up and I found it totally engrossing, keeping me playing for ages and to the point I didn’t want to put it down. With that and the fun characters you know from the 007 universe, it’s an absolute winner.

I always love living vicariously through books, seeing into the lives of people who do jobs or have attempted challenges that ultimately boggle my mind. This book is one of those - firstly because Gray charts the course of his career in the military, getting a position flying the planes of his dreams, and then working through the ups and downs of war and various placements around the world and ultimately a test pilot position full of firsts. But secondly, because he does it all after a terrifying and tragic crash so early in his career that really informs the rest of his flying experiences. Well told and an enlightening story.

I quite liked the intro to this week’s Halloween show, particularly where Krishnan got to have a go on Dave’s keyboards - what an honour! Anton wins the costume competition amongst the judges, Shirley’s was a bad choice as it restricted her ability to talk, and Motsi’s hair was flipping about all over the place. But the contestants had great costumes throughout, although is it a rule that someone has to be green at least once a season?

This was a good film, another solid entry in the Scream franchise with the trademark elements that make them so popular - the jump scares, the meta breakdowns of what makes a horror movie work and how the current situation fits, and the big twist at the end. I don’t think it was as good as the previous couple - the gore was turned up a little bit too much, and I wasn’t completely convinced by the killers at the end. But the meta was there, the fun amongst the horror still evident, and Hayden came back! Hooray!

It’s so sad that Matthew Perry has died. Friends is such an integral part of my life, and of course it’s not going anywhere, but now it just has that extra layer of sadness and nostalgia that I wasn’t quite ready for. I recently read his autobiography which shared difficult but important stories about addiction, alongside lots of stories from his career. Perry did far more than Friends, obviously, but that’s the one that means the most to me. With that in mind, here are my five favourite moments from ten seasons of Chandler.

Chains popped up on our 1990s Top of the Pops adventure so I dived into this album with a lot of hope. I knew Sorrento Moon as well, which isn’t too bad a song, but if I’m being honest, it was quite middle of the road, sort of cruise ship singing. Even Chains, which is a tune, didn’t work as well because the album version is different to the radio edit - boo!

This is a pretty good album, it has that brilliant guitar rock pop vibe that McFly and Busted want so much to emulate. It’s fun to listen to but I don’t know that any of it stood out to me so there weren’t any highs or lows, it was just a lot of good stuff without reaching greatness. But hey, I’ll take more from blink-182 any time!

When I reviewed the second series of OMITB (we’re calling it that, right?), I was talking about the upward trajectory that it was on and hoping the third would continue that way. Did it? Didn’t it just! I really liked this murder as it was not connected to the first two series’ story so had a fresh take to it, and featured a lot of incredible new cast members - Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep as the headliners.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really considered playing a basketball game to any degree of detail before, but this is part of a new setup that just has to be tested. Of course getting a PS5 is on the list but availability of device and also of time has been a limiting factor. So instead, why not take a PS5 level game and stream it to the TV through an iPhone instead? OK!

This was a bit of an odd book and I’ll be honest, I had to power through it but thankfully it was very easy to read and get to the end of it. The story was okay, and the mystery side of it kind of interesting but the main problem is that the characters were all just awful. I wasn’t rooting for anyone, or even that interested in their motivation, so that made it an ok book to read but not one that’s going to stick with me in any way.

Wow, this is quite the book. It’s creating headlines all over the place, and quite understandably as there are new revelations and shocking moments mentioned in the book. I found it to be a really interesting listen, perhaps not the most flamboyantly written memoir but a really solid piece of work that is honest and open and clearly speaking from the heart. I suspect some of the events in the book will have two sides to the story but it doesn’t matter, the most important thing about this is that Britney has taken control of her life and grabbed the opportunity to tell her side.

I read the first George Smiley book a while ago and quite liked it but if I’m honest, I’d forgotten most of the details. The only thing I could remember is that he was a spy… except in this story, he wasn’t! This time, Smiley is dispatched to Dorset to investigate a murder before which the victim wrote a letter suggesting her husband was going to kill her. It’s about private schools and the politics of class, and Smiley investigates without really having any legal recourse to do so. And so it’s perfectly fine but it feels just kind of lacking anything to really grab you and make it a pageturner.

Is it just me or did this week’s Strictly live show have a very weird feeling about it? Of course we were one contestant down with Amanda Abbington absent for non-specific medical reasons, but the remaining pairs seemed very tense and making a few mistakes. And the judging was all over the place! We are at that point in the competition where it swings from ’this is a good score for a non-dancer trying their best’ to ’now we expect greatness and nothing else’ but still, it felt like a rollercoaster of a show.

The weather has definitely turned autumnal now, so it seemed like a good time to try out a knitting pattern for fingerless gloves. I’ve found a few different ones available online, but opted to go for this free pattern that looked relatively simple. It was back to the double pointed needles, and although it took me two attempts at the first glove, it actually was quite easy.

This is pretty good and has some stand out classics on there - I LOVE Always on Time, that’s been a favourite song for a long time now. And J-Lo pops up too. I could do without the skits, of course, although the opening one is very atmospheric, dramatic, almost like setting the scene for a musical. It’s a good album, will stand the test of time.

Hmm, I love Pretenders and Chrissie’s voice but this album really didn’t do it for me. It’s hard to fully put a finger on why, but there were no stand out songs on there and the whole vibe of it was just a bit different to the normal Pretenders rock and ultimately was a bit depressing.

This is such a good, short book that breaks some of the barriers that you might have built up if you’ve ever thought about writing a song. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco talks through the basic mindset you need to start writing, and then gives some hints, tips and exercises on ways to kick off that creative process. What I love about it is that it makes songwriting seem possible, where most of the time it seems like a magical untouchable process. Tweedy admits there’s an element of that but the hard graft you put in makes that moment possible. I’m not in the right headspace to start a new hobby of writing songs but if and when I ever do want to, I’m reaching for this book first.

This was a weird book - an odd story and written in a really quirky way - but somehow it grabbed my attention and I didn’t want to give it up. And by the end, I loved it, it was really moving and somehow sad and uplifting at the same time. I think part of the reason I persevered with it was the structure - mostly super short chapters and snippets of a scene (a style referenced within the book itself) but you just think, okay one more quick chapter then… and one more… and maybe another… and then you’re hooked. Loved it.

I watched the TV show adaptation of this book which was good, but a while ago, so I couldn’t remember all of it until I started reading and it gradually came back to me. The book is pretty similar to the series, the plot was followed quite closely, except the end result of who actually started the fires. But it was a solid read, if not spectacular for me.

The week after a theme week, when we go back to normal and a random collection of dances and songs, always feels a bit flat. But this week there’s a really interesting selection of songs that mean I’m on board to see who can pull out all the stops and earn another week of dancing. Ellie & Vito - Samba I’m quite enjoying that each week Vito comes up with a new way of pronouncing something. This week, his attempt at peacock. Anyway, the dance, I felt like it was a bit frantic and I don’t know if it was the character but she didn’t look like she was enjoying herself. A good and entertaining dance for the samba, which is notoriously tough. All the judges mentioned her turned in feet, something to watch for in the future.

Lovely Dawn French is back with another memoir of sorts - this time leaning heavily in to embarrassing incidents and moments she feels somewhat ashamed of. It’s all about times when she’s been a twat, either being funny, embarrassing, or very occasionally, a bit mean. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, so it was a wonderful listen, and is one of those books that makes you feel less alone in this awful universe.

We’ve been working through the Bring It On movies and were keen on getting to this one as the two main stars are slightly more famous than the pair in the previous movie. It follows the same sort of pattern - two cheerleading teams are going head to head and there’s rivalry and trash talk and romance and bitching, and plenty of cheerleading in between.

Just like the other album I listened to this week, this one was really good but it just went on for too long. Particularly on this one, it started out well, great guitar music that clearly inspired the Busted and McFly of this world, but by the end it sort of became just background music and one song not that indistinguishable from the next. Talented but just a tad too long.

This is a perfectly good country album, Old Dominion know what they’re doing by now, and it does have some good songs on there. But if I’m being honest, it just went on a bit long - almost an hour - so that by the end I was just ready for it to end. Also finishing the album with a repeat song featuring Blake Shelton seems unnecessary but hey, artistic choice isn’t it!

I’ve collected quite a few of the Star Wars books (since they rebooted the ‘canon’ ones anyway, I’ve not really dipped into Legends at all), and I believe this is among the first of the new legitimate stories. It was great! It has that traditional Star Wars story at the heart of it, the Empire creeping their way to commit atrocities and a plucky bunch of resistence fighters trying to stop them. But it also has the added element of telling the story of Kanan and Hera’s first meeting, before they became a formidable part of the Ghost’s Crew. Good stuff.

I’ve seen the film of this a long time ago, and I don’t know that it grabbed me so much that I wanted to read the book but somehow I ended up with this in my to read pile, so got to it eventually! It’s a good book, an interesting story about a life well lived in service of making other people’s speech and therefore lives a bit better. I guess by the end it was a little repetitive - the king was nervous about this speech but they practiced and then he did it, hooray! - but ultimately it’s a nice uplifting story.

This is another movie that I’ve seen before a long time ago, but I really couldn’t remember anything about it. I thought there was something to do with the choir but perhaps raising money for the convent or something? Of course not, this is all about the delectable Whoopi Goldbergy causing trouble wherever she does but being absolutely adorable at the same time. I love the tension between her and Maggie Smith’s character, these two need more screen time together! It’s just a good movie, funny in places although not laugh out loud, really, and with some good songs. Although, My Guy being changed to My God is stuck in my head something chronic now. Thanks, choir.

Earlier this year, Apple TV+ released Drops of God, a multi-lingual series set in the serious world of wine-tasting. I’ve just wrapped up watching the series, and I want to write about it but I don’t really know where to begin. It took a while to start watching, and a while to get into it, and it wasn’t a priority series so it took longer than expected to complete the eight episodes. But every time I watched an episode, I absolutely loved it, even though I can’t put my finger on why.

Oh, you have to love Peter Kay’s stories, and I always choose the audiobook version when it comes to his books like this, as he goes off-piste and starts chatting sometimes, so it’s often just like listening to a friend. This book focuses on Peter’s relationship with and in television, from early viewing experiences to then making the brilliant content we know. Of course I would have loved more about Car Share but there was so much I didn’t know about previous shows and how a lot of the characters and stories link together… it was really great and very entertaining, a must listen.

Movie week! Disney celebrations. Incredible costumes. And lovely AMY!! Overwhelming and we’re only minutes in. Let’s go! Nigel & Katya - Jive (Batman) I like the glitterball bat signal but I do not like this dance. I guess expectations were high as Nigel’s been so good for two weeks but this just wasn’t his dance. The kicking wasn’t great, and there were quite a few mistakes. He wasn’t put off by them though and the character was good. The judge’s comments were surprisingly positive, although agree it did get better as it went on.

I’ve seen this before because I remembered the fact that mother and daughter were pregnant at the same time, but I could only really remember the scene where they were running across the corridor of the hospital between rooms. Everything that came before that was a surprise, and a pleasant one.

I’m a little bit late posting this, we’re already a week into the final quarter of the year - but the films will wait for me, I’m sure. There’s a real mix of stuff coming up, but we’re still on a bit of a lull from the various strikes and I’m also wondering what on earth the Christmas output is going to be like this year. But I’ve avoided the festive stuff here, and gone for the big hitters that interest me.