I mean, the Doctor, Rose and Jack on an adventure in the depths of wintry Russia with submarines! What’s not to like? Well, the life-sucking blue monster blobs and a terrifyingly deadly Stonehenge-style circle, but otherwise, all good! It’s a great adventure, the Doctor thinking on his feet as always, and I loved Jack coming into his own with his fierce loyalty and no-man-left-behind attitude. I think Rose was a bit underused in this story, but there were a lot of characters to keep track of so no harm done.

If I’m honest, I did hold out a bit of a hope that this movie might be a return to form for the Kingsman series. The first was so good, the second so bad, but this being a prequel, I thought maybe it could break the pattern. I was so wrong. This movie really wasn’t great anyway, too long, dipping often into the ridiculous, and actually quite boring - the surprising shot to the head was the only bit I actually felt some kind of emotion.

The Book of Boba Fett has been a ride, hasn’t it? The reaction to this show has been so fascinating right from the start, with claims that it’s boring, that it has robbed people’s joy of a beloved character, that it relies too heavily on Mando, that it spends too much time on Tatooine… if there’s an aspect of the show you can name, you can also find people loving it or hating it in equal measure.

This is such a good week for music for me - Bastille rocking the dreamlike modern life, Roxette just blasting their way through the 1990s in great pop&rock form. Starting an album with Joyride is a risk because it’s such a good song but the rest of the album absolutely lives up to it. I don’t know that the songs were particularly identifiable by themselves, but as a whole it was a great ride. The only problem I had was the one song that sounds just like It Must Have Been Love, but hey, you can’t really rip off yourself!

I really liked this album, Bastille have such a unique sound, well, Dan Bastille’s voice is the real driver of that and it shines through in this collection of songs. There’s a slightly odd feel to the lyrics - a lot of dreaming to take away the pain of real life, and many, many cultural references focused on films. It’s not perfect, leaning just a bit too much towards oddity, and way too short, but I enjoyed it.

This time, our girls are having to deal with boyfriends - whether that is trying to keep your distance from an ex, having a crush on an inappropriate individual, or having your first boyfriend. Some of it felt a bit nonsense, the extra bit about Anna staying out late didn’t quite fit the rest and had no further repurcussions, but I did like some of the themes - I felt for Ellie having to choose between boyfriend and friends, and treading that fine line between having fun and abiding by your family rules. Always a good read from Jacqueline Wilson.

It was actually a pretty good movie - not without its questions and plot concerns, but ultimately some good action, an okay story, and the wonder that is Trinity and Neo together again. The downside is it just felt a bit lacking, in visuals (aside from the incredible nanobot crew members), in punchy story, in mind-bending twists and turns… it’s just a bit bland, and that’s the worst thing you can have from a Matrix movie.

This book has really fired my brain up in terms of reducing waste. It’s a great guide to the concept of zero waste, with hundreds of good tips and a journey to follow if you want to do it that way. It’s got no judgement and lots of encouragement - every little change you make can make a difference so you don’t have to suddenly be zero waste and living a poorer life for it. I was surprised how much of this I already do but there’s still plenty I can look at it in my own life to improve upon. Really recommend giving this a read.

I like that this, more than any of the previous books, really carries on from the previous one. I’m sure you could read it as a standalone but having devoured the previous book you’re really invested in this mission. I loved the info about Hinkley, some real behind the scenes access must have been granted to write about it with this much authority.

This has rave reviews but ultimately I just don’t think it was for me. It was beautifully written but I just ofund it meandering and odd and I didn’t feel like the various diversions added anything to the story. There was a really interesting concept underlying the prose but it took such a long time to get there, I don’t think we could really enjoy it. Then a sudden twist at the end that just felt out of pace with the rest. A great job but not for me.

I wanted a quick break from the crime series I’m currently reading so just whizzed through this book by Roald Dahl. I’m trying to do a bit of completionism on his main novels otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered reading this again - it’s really not one of my favourites. But I do like that there are elements of determination, of stubborn-ness, of sharing and caring, and of a family pulling together to do what it takes for the village. Nice enough.

My second thirty day challenge of the year takes things away from the mental side of life (language learning) and more into the physical (health and fitness). Don’t worry, I’m sure not all the challenges will fit into the Crystal Maze categories. Almost as if they were listening to me, Apple Fitness+ released some updates this year that included a handful of curated collections - workout schedules to help you achieve certain goals. One is to get a stronger back, one is to get a better night’s sleep, and one, clearly made just for me, is a thirty day core challenge.

This book took the crime to the heart of our gang of protagonists, with a couple of abducted children in varying degrees of danger - one of whom is family of a member of the team. That meant the stakes were really high and I feel like this is the first time it’s been clear that our hero Nick Dixon is considered to be seriously good at his job. Obviously we know that he’s great having followed him through the series, but it’s never really been clear that anyone else has noticed how he goes the extra mile to get the job done and is thus revered for it. But this time, the pressure is on… a really interesting plot and also potentially, spoiler alert, the first time the main man got away.

Like the best people, I’m completely obsessed with Inside the Factory - the TV show where Gregg Wallace, Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman go behind the scenes in various factories to show us the history, the present and the future of how things are made. A recent episode featured the nation’s favourite tortilla chip (or better known as Doritos) and I was surprised at the lengthy process to get sweetcorn into those triangular treats.

After watching Phil Collins’ starring role in Buster, it seemed about time to do another album from the man himself. Of this album, I knew Sussudio and One More Night (a song that I love even if it sounds really outdated now), so the rest of it was a bit of an adventure. I quite liked it. Phil seems to be one of those artists that it’s cool not to like, but I can’t see anything wrong with this album - a collection of nice, solid 80s pop songs with a couple of stand-outs. What’s not to like?

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this album - Five are really not a band I would have put money on still being around in the 2020s. But here they are, even though there are only three of them left (so the band name might need a rethink), and it’s actually a pretty good album. The songs are all quality, if not groundbreaking, and the only problem with it is it’s almost impossible to describe. The songs seem to thread through all the decades - some a bit 80s, some a bit 90s pop, some totally up to date, some old school. It’s a fun listen!

Mixed feelings about this book - it was relatively short, so I can’t complain on that front, but it really did feel like nothing happened. It started out well and quite interesting, Sophia is a fascinating character in an odd situation, and I did like the many conversations between her and her grandmother, but as a book, it didn’t really seem to be going anywhere and if I’m honest, I wasn’t bothered when I got to the end of it. Well written but I’d love to have a bit more structure to it.

Ooh, this was right up my street, this one. Nick Dixon’s seventh adventure and it was a bit more like the Inspector Frost series, in which lots of different things were interlinked and layered and kept coming back around and being more important each time. The initial murder was really quite disturbing, well written, but quite graphic, and really made me care about who was behind it. There was lots going on: poaching, coastguards, organised crime, mobsters, various locations, lots of trains, plus a near death experience, and a lot of personal stuff piled on top. Loved it!

I absolutely devoured this, it was wonderful. It’s effectively twelve short stories or essays, one for each month of the year, and each focusing on a different character that lives or interacts somehow with Victoria Park. The glory of each story is how they are their own thing, of course, but also manage to link to the others, with characters popping up or being mentioned throughout even if they are not the focus of this particular month.

This was quite high up on the list as one of those lovely inoffensive Sunday night movies, particularly the ones where adorable people with Welsh accents fight for something they believe in (I’m looking at you Dream Horse). It took a little while to get going, and even longer for them to prove that this actually was a cinema and not a theatre, but it was such a good film.

I set myself the January challenge of getting a thirty day Duolingo streak, concentrating on their French language course that I’ve been dipping in and out of for as long as I can remember. I ALMOST made it. If I’m being honest with myself, for the first thirty day challenge of the year, and as a means to getting back in the habit of checking into Duolingo every day, I’m happy with the result of a 29 day streak.

This one jumped up the to-listen list to pay tribute to Meat Loaf after he passed away. I’ve already listened to the first two BooH albums so it’s good to complete the set. I’ve only ever really heard that this one is not as good as the other two, and I get that, but I still quite liked it. It does have a different vibe about it, more hard rock particularly in the opening number. You can tell that Jim Steinman is not involved - it’s a shame they were going through legal wranglings at this point, as this could have been another classic. It has potential.

Ooh, I’ve been eagerly anticipating this one and it didn’t let me down. It’s really the first big release of 2022 and already I think it’s going to be a contender for the best of the year come December. It’s just incredible pop, it grabs you and sweeps you along so that you don’t want to let it go. There are some bangers, like Starstruck and Sweet Talker, and then there are some that just make you stop and listen, and then there’s everything in between. Loved it!

This has been on our list for ages but hasn’t been available for whatever reason - hoorah, it suddenly appeared and so we dived right in. Phil Collins, acting? Must see! It is an incredible cast, portraying some really interesting characters, and the story is obviously a fascinating one… it just didn’t quite work for me. I don’t know a lot about the Great Train Robbery, and so the minimal focus on the robbery itself and the subsequent jumps in time were a bit confusing for me.

Right, this is a complicated one. I remember watching this as part of my media studies class at school, and we went into so much detail on it, it was basically ruined for me. I vividly recall over-analysing the meaning of an indicator scene, it went on and on, ticking and ticking. What does this mean, is it like a stand-off in a Western, what did Spielberg intend with this, argh! But, you know what? Watching it fresh so many years later, it was fine… I didn’t even see the indicator bit happen and it was far more entertaining than it has any right to be.

I bought this, obviously, because of the submarine connection - submarines have fascinated me for a long time now, that claustrophobic and tense bullet of steel travelling under the sea to either cause chaos or mitigate the threat of others. The book was actually about leadership, with the author using examples from his time as captain of a poorly-performing submarine and how he turned things around. It’s about a new model of leadership, giving control to the people and guiding in as hands-off a way as possible. It’s very readable, not too preachy, and I think I learned a thing or two along the way! Plus submarines!

The next book in the Nick Dixon series and this one had an intriguing premise - a body found in one of those concrete pillboxes that were built along rivers during the war. So this one had a bit of military history and quite a lot of wrestling with legal concepts, but at the same time there was some levity in there too. I wasn’t so keen on the caving parts of it, went a bit too deep into that side of things (pun intended), but at the same time I like how the layers of the mystery slowly unravelled and led us to that really quite chilling conclusion. A good book.

Since The Grand Tour became more of An Occasional Jaunt, the three presenters have been trying their hand at other things, usually turning their hobbies into business ventures. James May learned to cook and bought a pub, Jeremy Clarkson got into farming in a big (tractor) way, and Richard Hammond ploughed all his time and money into a classic car restoration business. All of them have made TV shows along the way, and somehow, despite enjoying all three of them, I haven’t written about a single one.

Back in November, I wrote a post/whinge about how difficult it was to track down the Marvel One Shot shorts that complement the main series. They were all over the place, some as film extras, some their own thing on Disney+, some not appearing anywhere official. Well! Disney must have been listening because they’ve just released all the One Shots as their own special episodes on the Disney+ streaming service.

This book wasn’t as much fun as the previous couple, mostly because the case was set in the murky world of politics and to be honest, I read to try and escape the governmental goings on. However, I did like the way this was set up, especially at the start with Jane taking the lead early on and Nick in the background having to deal with a cold case as a direct result of his actions in the previous book.

I thought this was going to be a more outlandish comedy, the farcical style of Police Academy or similar, but actually it was much more serious than that, and a lot better for it. The comedy was there but it was about the characters bouncing off each other whilst a genuinely difficult crime was being investigataed. Eddie Murphy was great, obviously, but his star power has to reflect off those around him and they all did a fab job. I genuinely fell in love with Reinhold’s Billy.

The repeats of Top of the Pops that are showing up on BBC Four have reached the early 1990s so you can guarantee a lot of that era showing up on this album adventure. This first one is a random pick, I recognised the opening chords of Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover from Peter Kay’s Car Share, then realised I knew the song, then realised it was pretty good. The rest of the album follows the same pop sounds, with those occasional sweeping chords bursting in. I thought Sophie B might be a one-hit wonder but there are lots of albums that follow so watch this space.

This is a pretty good, relatively short, not-super-outstanding-but-fun album, you can whizz through it and get a burst of that iconic guitar pop sound and then move on to the next. It’s not going to break records or stand out but it’s a nice gentle album to get through January with.

We chose this film due to the sad passing of Meat Loaf (and the fact Spice World isn’t available online at the moment), and it’s an odd little number. Steve Martin absolutely owns the stage, and this character is right up his street, full of swagger and confidence and people-reading manipulations, a grumpy but troubled interior with a layer of extrovert sheen on top.

I love Claudia Winkleman and her tone is all over this book, you can almost hear her reading it to you in that scatty, warm way of hers. The book isn’t your usual memoir, and it’s not your normal self-help, it’s somewhere in between - Claudia is sharing her wisdom learned through living, and although it sometimes comes across as a little bit bossy, overall, it’s great.

Dived straight into this one off the back of the previous book and in this outing we get a lot more information about our protagonist, Inspector Dixon. He’s got a past and it involves missing persons and boarding schools and lots of secrets. I felt like the case at the heart of the story was a bit odd, it didn’t quite feel true to life to me, but I was happy to go along with it as it was interesting to watch Dixon undercover and how he managed to deal with communicating some things and keeping other things secret. A pretty scary ending as well, a proper thrilling conclusion!

It’s amazing I haven’t listened to this before, it’s an iconic album. I was a bit worried, because I obviously know Perfect Day from the BBC collective version and have that so firmly in my mind that I wasn’t sure the original was going to be as good. Of course it was, and combine that with Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love, and what a stellar album you’ve got on your hands.

I went into this with mixed feelings - I’ve liked a few of The Weeknd’s songs but the last album wasn’t as good as I was hoping. And then I knew that there were ’talky bits’ in this and I tend to struggle with that on albums. However… I actually really liked it! The whole vibe has some kind of fever dream feel towards it.

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this one. The trailers didn’t make it look that interesting, and it seems quite removed from the rest of the universe, and although it was a stellar cast, it felt like too many people to get invested in. Unfortunately, my expectations were bang on - this was so boring and it felt like it dragged the rest of the universe down a couple of notches with it.

Halfway through the first month of the year, and that means halfway through my first 30 day challenge. It was a deliberately easy one - not having to go too far out of my way to make it happen, and something I have done before and know I can do. But even with that, resuming my Duolingo streak has meant remembering to do it each day for the fifteen days so far.

The film became more and more compelling. By 20 minutes we wanted to see where it was going, by the hour mark, I was totally invested and wanted to know who was behind it all. In some ways the film tried to be a bit too clever, I like dipping back and forth in time but the transitions weren’t that great. But there were no plot holes, and although Statham did his precision shooting in style, it wasn’t just about muscle, there was more to it. Despite the frustrating start, I really came to enjoy it!

There was a special deal on some of this Inspector Nick Dixon series, so having read through the first two, I figured it couldn’t hurt to go all in. These are relatively easy books to whip through, and getting invested and following regular characters can be a lot of fun. In this one, it felt like the relationship and partnership with Jane was building a lot more - they work well together and are going to have to navigate spending a lot of time together at home and at work.

The new year is always a good time for new dramas to start appearing on TV, and the big bang for 2022 was Around the World in 80 Days, a big budget drama starring David Tennant as the hero in this Jules Vergne adaptation. The eight episode series followed Tennant’s Phileas Fogg as he attempts that circumnavigation of the globe all for a simple bet with the others at his gentleman’s club.

I’m surprised this album hasn’t popped up on my list before because Ashes and Gravity are two songs I totally loved when they were out and about at the time. As a full album, the rest doesn’t necessarily live up to the heights of those two openers, but it’s a good pop-rock joy to listen to. Apparently this album features the band’s first songwriting attempts as a band, which seems odd given it’s their fourth studio album!

Pretty good album, this one. I became aware of Maisie from her work on the soundtrack for the TV show Trying and was keen to hear what a full album of her own would be like. She’s supported both in terms of record label and song writing by Ed Sheeran, and you can hear the influences occasionally. But it’s a nice album with songs that speak to certain times in your life - John Hughes Movie and Psycho stick in my mind.

This was a great movie, kick-ass in all the right ways. The visuals were amazing - those colours during the fight scene in the bowling alley, delicious. Karen Gillan was great as the sullen but talented assassin, you can tell she has a fun side deep down. And Chloe Coleman continues to amaze as a super talented child actress. There were unique things in there - the fight with paralysed arms, the men taking each other out before Sam even got there. But there were also plenty of moments that reminded of other things. It was very John Wick, in a lot of ways.