It’s been a while since I purposely sat down and watched an episode of Doctor Who live as it aired on TV, but the combination of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode and the promise of centenary celebrations from the BBC made me think this was one to make the effort for. And it turns out, it really was. A ninety minute special, the show was packed full of great story and wonderful characters and did, ultimately, culminate in the cliffhanger to usher in the next DW era.

This is one of the original slasher films and was a really early entrant in that terrifying horror genre, so it has to be given the respect it deserves. There are moments of genius in there, great tension racking up and some scary deaths without actually showing anything too graphic or gory. Somehow upsetting despite the actual visuals being quite tame. However, it does take a long time to get going, and then the last half hour is really just a riotous noise that I couldn’t wait to be over. So I can appreciate this film’s cult status but I didn’t really like it much myself.

I was expecting this to be a really poor sequel and sure, by this time, the movies are Not Good. But they are fun horror films and this one is up there with the previous but for different reasons. The relationship between the main two characters grows gradually which gives you a really good basis for the rest of the adventures. The deaths are pretty gruesome, that tanning bed scene is horrific, but quite fun the way it cuts to the coffins.

I’ve seen this before but this is a pretty good sequel - the initial highway accident has stayed with me a long time after I originally watched it. I like how it connects with the first film, how all the characters had close calls with the original characters, and I like Clear’s story and how she comes back into it. I don’t fully understand the twist in the story this time, as in, Death is going in reverse order this time, apparently, but no one really says why? Never mind though, a good second film and a fun ending.

There’s been a growing feeling of dissent amongst Great British Bake Off viewers for a few years now - the challenges are getting too hard, we want to go back to basics, there’s nothing wrong with 12 different takes on a basic sponge cake. This year it seems to have hit harder than ever, wherever I look I see complaints about how hard the show is this year. So I thought I’d add my thoughts to them too.

I like some of Simon Brett’s radio work so I was interested in what his novel writing was going to be like. The cosy little murder mystery genre is huge at the moment so this fit the mood perfectly. A widow heads to an old people’s hotel and solves quite a few crimes along the way, but mostly a murder. The characters were well done, gradually revealing themselves as the story unfolded, and the backstory to Mrs Pargeter is really intriguing and I hope in the subsequent books we get to learn more.

I really like this film. I’ve seen it before and previously found it really gruesome - I guess watching a lot of more grim TV recently has made me enured to it because it wasn’t too bad. I think it’s a clever premise, even if it doesn’t all stack up 100%, and it makes for some edge-of-your-seat moments, even when you know what’s coming! I wanted to watch this one to be able to watch the next couple, but I’m glad I got to revisit this… it must be the strongest in the series.

In September, I wrote about the latest updates that iOS 16 brought to the Apple Books app, in particular a consternation about the stupid cross in the corner ruining the reading experience. Well, thank goodness, they’ve fixed it. This week saw a raft of updates to various devices, and as ever, I’m grateful to have a nerd in the house to make sure everything is up to date as and when it’s needed.

The animation of this film is absolutely gorgeous, it’s so well done, beautiful to look at. Every scene is basically a work of art. The voice acting is great too, featuring some of the best voices in the business, and particularly Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Unfortunately I think the story lets it down a bit. It’s quite drawn out, takes a long time to get going and get interesting, and ultimately feels quite rushed at the end. Not perfect but worth a look.

I’m not really happy about the setup for this film, I think it’s a pretty terrible thing the husband does to the wife and makes me lose a significant amount of sympathy for him. However, I do like the slow burn of the piece after that - the kid gradually showing signs of devilry and eventually it all getting darker and darker until the surprising ending with that creepy smile. It wasn’t really as full of horror as I thought, although that decapitation was pretty grim. But still a really good movie.

Throughout the Famous Five series, one of the features has been how much food they eat. Blyton really leans into it this time as they end up on holiday staying with a farmer’s wife who cooks literally everything in sight and wants to feed them up as much as possible. Meanwhile there’s an adventure to be had - they’re in Cornwall so naturally it includes caves and smugglers and all that jazz. Plus a new friend called Yan.

This is a much calmer and slower paced horror movie than the previous one I watched - nothing too hard on the special effects, other than the white eyes, and it’s more of a thoughtful piece than an all out horror. It did get a bit more adventurous towards the end, and a bit sillier, but ultimately it was a good story with some incredible actors. Why not?

We’ve got a bonus theme week this time round with the BBC celebrating 100 years and Strictly jumping right into the fun. When the list of songs and dances were revealed, it was quite eye-opening. Our stars would be dancing to a variety of BBC theme tunes and related songs and some of them looked like they would be more successful than others. I couldn’t see how the Grange Hill theme tune was going to work, and I couldn’t remember that Line of Duty had a theme tune anyway - but as always, judgement had to be withheld until we’d seen the performances on the dancefloor.

This is the movie that launched Sam Raimi’s career, and it got plenty of mentions in the behind the scenes of the recent Dr Strange - there were lots of references to this film in that one, particularly as it had taken a darker turn. With it being Halloween this week, and as Evil Dead was free on iPlayer, I figured I’d give it a watch.

Off on another adventure, this time the Five are camping in a field that also happens to have a travelling circus nearby. At first they’re not friends but the return of Jo who we met in a previous book softens them, and together they manage to rescue a scientist who has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner in the crumbling ruins of a castle. As you do. Fun, but pretty standard at this point for the group.

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn’t take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future but for now, I had to settle for just browsing the online store.

If you’re looking to dip right back into the 70s, then this is the album for you. It’s stacked full of strong 70s beats, a couple of those old songs that you know and love and otherwise just fun times. I don’t think I’d really understood what Earth, Wind & Fire were or that they were behind these songs - Boogie Wonderland is such a long-standing classic, how did I not know who the artist was? But lesson learned and another album ticked off the list.

This is a really good album from Willow, packed full of that pop rock angst that she does so well. The titles are a bit weird, but otherwise, it’s great. The only problem with it is it’s not as good as the last one, Lately I Feel Everything, which was outstanding. If that one didn’t exist, this would be fantastic, but as it is, it’s just living in the shadow of its predecessor. A shame but still totally listenable and great.

I wrote about Welcome to Wrexham after the first few episodes, gushing with love and admiration at a great series - particularly one about football. That all stands up now that the series has completed, it only served to get better and better. The stakes got higher, the emotional rollercoaster more incredible, and we cheered and cried along with everyone involved. Fantastic. It’s coming back for a series two and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Dipping into the next three adventures of the Famous Five, and this one saw them go for a long hike… although obviously that turned into not so much walking and more of an adventure. This time they were following a riddle that was inadvertently given to them - something of a treasure hunt - and I liked that aspect of it, unravelling the clues and determined to make it work. It’s so interesting how the characters develop in each book, this time the focus seemed to be on Julian who was very bolshy and almost rude this time out - standing up for their rights and not taking any nonsense from what could be quite scary strangers. Curious what their next adventure might be!

This is just an incredible book from start to finish. I’ve seen the film already and loved it, so was keen to read the source material and it’s even better. It’s wonderful writing, witty and insightful, full of honesty and humour and thoughtfulness and longing, and alongside all that it’s telling a fantastic story. I couldn’t necessarily relate to Johanna/Dolly but it didn’t matter because it was so well told that I was there for every moment of the journey. Wonderful.

We need to talk about Bad Sisters. This Apple TV+ show had all the hallmarks of being a promising comedy-drama, coming from the creative mind of Sharon Horgan and being firmly based in and around Dublin. The first episode was intriguing and instantly had me hooked and the show honestly just got better and better until an extremely satisfying and cathartic finale.

It felt like a bit of a comedown this week after the fun and games of movie week, but there were lots of tunes to behold this week and some great outfits… and also Ellie dressed like a bizarre Little Bo Peep. But I’m getting ahead of myself. During the intro, Anton brought out his NTA award for judging - Craig must be fuming, the guy’s only been doing it for about six months!

This was a good book, very moving and emotional in places. I do think the pacing of it was a bit weird, sometimes it felt like time was just dragging, other times everything seemed to be happening at once. It was kind of predictable but not in a bad way - the characters were acting exactly as you’d expect them to which ultimately made for an interesting romantic drama.

If the weather is anything to go by, we’re fully into autumn now. We’re either having those glorious days where the sun is shining but the air is brisk, or it’s absolutely hammering it down giving the earth some much needed moisture. I’m seeing plenty of info out there about things you can still do in your garden, but I have to admit I’ve lost a bit of steam this year.

I guess I just have to come to the conclusion that James isn’t my cup of tea. I like a couple of the main songs but as a whole, I can take or leave the albums. James was the choice this week after the drummer’s daughter appeared on Welcome to Wrexham - very random connection there. So good to tick this one off the list and all I can do now is prepare for many future disagreements with Mr C over the band.

Yay for Paul and Jacqui, they always seem to deliver. Great tunes, insightful lyrics and the great variations between upbeat and more thoughtful tunes. Still is just beautiful. However, I’m really not sure what’s goign on with Baby It’s Cold Inside - taking that Christmas song but making it not Christmassy and… what instead? Not sure. But ultimately the album as a whole is a winner so thanks team!

I had mixed feelings going into this series - I was curious how they would give She-Hulk a believable origin story in a short time, and somehow keep that alongside the legal drama that it was promised to be. However, it looked like it was going to be fun and Tatiana Maslany is absolutely outstanding so I knew whatever it did turn out to be we could at least trust in her.

I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and I’m glad I finally got round to it. Bella tells the story of how she discovered running after a painful divorce and found it really helped with her anxiety and other mental health struggles. This is an unflinchingly honest look at how difficult and far-reaching mental health issues can be, and how there’s no one solution fits all. But for Bella, and for others that she talks to throughout the book, it was running that did it. This is a great, and important read. I felt it was a little bit repetitious in places, but I think it will be unfailingly useful for others going through the same thing. Just to know you’re not alone is the first step on a difficult journey and Bella’s done a brilliant job here of reaching out a hand.

The latest Star Wars TV offering, Andor, reached its sixth episode this week on Disney+, and that’s the halfway point of the series. It seems like a good time to take a moment and review what we’ve seen so far because, boy oh boy, it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride. Firstly, I totally understand why three episodes were released at once in the first week… because the first two were dull, dull, dull. If it wasn’t Star Wars and the lovely Diego Luna, I don’t think I’d have carried on watching. I’m not sure if they just took too long in the world-building, or if the characters just weren’t that interesting, but it wasn’t until Cassian had left the planet and started on his current adventure that things picked up. And let me tell you, it’s a significant fail to make the fantastic Fiona Shaw a weak link in a show.

True to my word, after reading the biography of Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley, I dipped straight into the author’s back catalogue, starting with this first book featuring everyone’s favourite Belgian detective, Poirot. I really enjoyed the mystery, the cast of characters are set up with all of them being slightly suspicious, and the clues and twists are thrown at us until the answer is revealed. Very good.

This was a good action/adventure story that I can absolutely see being a movie - the characters and the thriller story are almost made for the big screen. It had a very mild time travel element that I obviously liked but it was grounded in reality, if the science was a little stretched. But it kept me turning the pages and I’m intrigued what the follow up has in store.

Movie week! I’m always surprised how quickly the first theme week rolls in but I was ready for it this time - bring on the costumes! The opening number from the professionals didn’t really get me in the mood, though, I have to say. I don’t know Encanto, it’s still on the ’to watch’ list, but it wasn’t a rip-roaring number which is a shame. However, the Anton glitterball heist made up for it, and led us straight into the dancing.

It’s so sad that Buddy Holly only had time to make two albums in his short life, he surely had so much more to give. This is a really good early pop/rock album, although I have to admit that I preferred the first one. That felt like it had more of the iconic Holly sounds that you know and love whereas this one was a little bit less of that and a bit more smooth. Still very good though!

Not a bad album, this one, it’s just very Craig David right from the start. In fact, the very first track sounds like it’s going old school into one of his previous songs but we soon head in a slightly different, albeit very similar direction. I’m making this sound like it’s a bad thing, which it isn’t, Craig does what he does very well so why rock the boat? Good guests prop up the second half of the album and it’s a good, if unspectacular, listen.

We live in a world of reduce, reuse, recycle, and that can be difficult even when you’re talking about quite small household objects. It gets even harder when you start thinking about very niche, very complex robots built for a specific purpose. Of course my eye was attracted to this story, about a potential Mars rover that’s ’looking for a new job.’

I love Lucy Worsley’s informative but relaxed style and so was interested to listen to the audiobook of this, her biography of the most infamous of female detective writers. It was great - absolutely fascinating, well researched, a balanced view that was favourable towards the author but with plenty of caveats along the way. It made me want to read Christie’s works, of which I have only enjoyed a few. Really well done and well read.

There’s been a marked decline in Film Watch posts recently and that’s not coincidentally timed with the fact that all the TV out there at the moment is SO GOOD. The amount of choice and content available on TV and via streaming services just keeps growing and growing, and not only that, it keeps getting better and better. It’s fantastic, we’re living in a golden age of TV, I’m sure of it. But it does also make it quite tricky to know what to watch. It’s not about sitting there bored and saying ‘oh, I wish there was something to watch’, now it’s about ’there’s so much out there, what do I start with?’

I quite liked the last story that featured people trying to get their hands on Uncle Quentin’s important scientific work and this was another of the same. The adults go off on holiday and strange things start to happen, ultimately ending with George getting kidnapped. The remaining kids have the help of a new friend, Jo, although it takes them quite a long time to warm to her! Lots of threats to poor Timmy this time, but they all survive unscathed, no harm done!

I wrote recently about the new The Line building revealed as a concept design based in Saudi Arabia. Whilst I was busy marvelling at the structure’s size and scope, I hadn’t considered two additional reasons why buildings like this might be the future. I did touch upon the fact that you’d be hard pushed to convince people to live in the Saudi Arabia desert if they’re just rocking up to inhabit a suburban two-bed, but that this insular-style building might be more of a draw.

Apple released a press release announcing they have hit 100 million songs on their Apple Music streaming service yesterday, which, by my calculations, is quite a lot. The release is your traditional back-patting piece but there are some interesting little nuggets in there that caught my attention. The first is about the history of music and how it’s possible we even have this many songs to play with in the first place.

We had fun last week, but this was the real start of the competition where things hot up and someone has to go home. I managed to swot up via It Takes Two in a hurried fashion over just a couple of days, so I was ready to be super knowledgeable about everything. Except then you get to the live show and anything can happen! It felt like there were so many mistakes this week, right from the start… everyone’s forgotten how to do the live shows. But they’ve remembered how to dance and that’s all that matters.

I heard Kryptonite recently, love that song, and realised I know nothing about 3 Doors Down and it was worth checking out a full album. It was good! Great fun rock, that really guitar-based late-90s soft rock that I love. Starting off with Kryptonite is a risk because it’s such a tune but actually the rest of the album holds its own and I enjoyed listening from start to finish. This was a really good week in the album adventure!

Love, love, loved this! I thought I probably would and I did, so hooray! Kelsea is back, opening up her heart more than ever, but with great country pop tunes that are catchy and moving in equal measure. Heartfirst is a fantastic song, and makes perfect sense to have been the lead single off this album, but you can’t overlook You’re Drunk, Go Home, featuring two fellow hardhitters in the world of country music. Fantastic album and will be one to listen over and over in future.

I quite liked this one, it feels like the adventures are getting a bit more dangerous as the kids are just that little bit older. They continue to go off out and about without parental supervision which I find amazing, but this time they are joined by a friend, Richard, who ends up effectively getting them all kidnapped. It had a locked room vibe, because they were in a house and had to figure out how to get help and/or escape. Quite fun!

Last year, when Rose won Strictly, I was one of those people who had been completely intrigued by sign language and curious about learning some myself. I didn’t do anything about it at the time, and somehow an entire year has passed, but my thoughts returned to the subject when Rose popped up on this year’s launch show, and then a small amount of research later highlighted that it was International Sign Languages day on September 23rd.

My 30 days of walking has come to an end, and this was a challenge that I really enjoyed. It was nice to have the oomph to get outside every day and nice to know that it didn’t have to be a long walk… although sometimes it was. September was a pretty reasonably month for weather, so I was quite lucky. Only a couple of my outings were in full on rain, although the final walk of all 30 was in horrible wind and drizzly conditions. Not a great way to finish but could have been much worse!

I think each of these books should be called Famous Five Get Into Trouble again because you go into each book like you would an episode of Casualty, watching all the signs as they point to the gang falling into another adventure. I quite like that this one was very meta about it - they kept chatting on about whether they wanted to have an adventure or not, although ultimately it wasn’t their choice. The only thing I didn’t like about this one was the word spook-train. Don’t know why, it just annoyed me.

One of the reasons I drifted away from podcasts in the last few years was due to the vast amount that were just celebrities interviewing other celebrities. It all got a bit circular, especially during lockdown when our favourite stars didn’t have much else to do. My podcast of the month this time is one of those though, because it’s too good not to mention. Alan Carr started a show called Life’s A Beach that talked to a different celebrity each week about their favourite travel destinations, tips and experiences. It was specifically launched in lockdown, revelling in the talk about holidays where real life wouldn’t allow the practicalities of actual travel.