It feels like we’ve been waiting for this short Doctor Who series for a long time but somehow, even though I was keen to see what happened, I didn’t feel the normal hype that I usually would. I can’t put my finger on why, although I’m wondering if at this point I just want to get on to the second Russell T Davies era and see what that brings.

This was a freebie book of the week on Apple Books but as it was a Christmas story, I figured now’s the time to read it! It was actually quite good, a lovely cheesy romance story with characters dealing with their baggage and working their way through misunderstandings. My only complaint is there were a few spelling and grammar mistakes - the kind that a spellcheck wouldn’t pick up but were still quite jarring. Looking aside from that, though, it was a cosy Christmas book with a happy ending.

It may just be the corners of the internet I dwell in, but Acapulco feels like a recent Apple TV+ offering that’s been slightly overlooked by the more high profile Foundation, Invasion and films with Tom Hanks. I’m here to say, if you haven’t watched it already, you absolutely should. It follows the story of a Mexican family and how their lives intertwine with a celebrity resort in Acapulco… in the 1980s.

We were greeted with two group dances by the professional this week, one at the start of each day’s show, but I much preferred the first one. Oti and Graziano portrayed a great story, I love it when the dance is completely mesmorising and even more so when the leads hug at the end. Good to see all the judges back in action, a full house of our favourites, but just five couples to take to the floor!

When I first heard about this book, I knew I had to read it straight away - I actually opted for the audiobook, so Josh Widdicombe talked me through the whole thing. As a concept, this is right up my street. I, too, watched a lot of TV in the nineties, although I didn’t know all of the shows that were mentioned. The ones that I did know, though, I love. Neighbours, Gladiators, Funhouse, etc, etc.

I’ve been a fan of Miranda since her sitcom first came out (2009, can you believe that?) and her unwavering dedication to joy and acceptance has been wonderful to follow. Recently, the lovely lady tweeted about some Christmas items for sale on her shop, with an element of the price going to charity, so it seemed rude not to snap up some of the goodies. I’ve long been searching for some comfortable jogging bottoms and should have known that if anyone knows comfort for a taller person, it would be Miranda. These are incredible.

Ah man, I really wanted to like this because I know M People from the more inspiring, proud, Miranda-style feel-good anthems. I know most of the main tracks, so the album started quite well, but it really disappeared into a dance album where the tracks are all many minutes of beats. Not really my thing for a full album. I don’t mind the odd dance track but it doesn’t sustain my interest this long. It doesn’t stop me wanting to listen to M People in future though, so it can’t be all bad.

This is a really good album, I was quite surprised. Not because you’d expect anything less from Sting, but sometimes the more modern albums of long-time artists loses a bit of its punch. I liked this one though. It grabs you from the start, sounds like Sting, takes you on that journey, and then leaves you at the other end feeling kinda chill and happy. Nothing to complain about really. Except the one song that is trying too hard to be Shape of My Heart.

Yea, this just wasn’t very good at all. No one’s going to say that the previous two were works of art, but they were Christmassy and fun and why not. This was the weakest of the lot by a long way. The fact that it was Christmas was tangential to the entire story, and two of the three Vanessa Hudgens characters took a back seat… presumably because they are both happily married and that’s the end of their story. They are no longer interesting people. Rage.

I’ve been a Les Mills subscriber for a good few years now, and love their output, but I’ve always had a niggling feeling in my head that I needed to write a post about representation. They have super-fit, fabulous presenters and do a great job at having that global feel with international trainers alongside the cosy consistency of a family business. My fitness journey is at the ambitious but rubbish stage and I sometimes got the feeling Les Mills is leaving me behind. Recently, I think I’ve seen a bit of a shift, though, and I don’t know whether it’s because of competition, because of a different lockdown demographic, or just the natural evolvement of a fitness company.

I’m really getting into David Baldacci books, the more of them that I read, but I have to admit that Will Robie has a bit of a special place in my heart because he’s the first of DB’s many series’ that I got into. This book, then, is a treat, because it gives us so much more information about Robie’s backstory, stuff that has never been revealed before. Our hero has to return to his hometown when his estranged father is arrested for murder, and of course nothing is quite what it seems and there’s a much bigger plot at work. The twist at the end was good too, I should have seen it coming but didn’t, and that made it so much more irritating/brilliant.

It’s the time of year where everyone, including me, starts posting top ten this and top five that, highlights and lowlights of the year gone by. The Guardian have kicked things off with the first part of their top 50s, specifically top books, albums, films and TV shows. Reading this list made me wonder if I need to think about what TV shows would make an end-of-year list. Pulling together my top albums of each year is a wrench, so I can only imagine TV would be far worse.

I have previously enjoyed Jon Ronson’s works, and his recent podcasts have been really interesting. I think the first time I stumbled across his investigations was the Men Who Stare at Goats, but this one pre-dates that. This time, we’re looking at… well, that’s the problem. I don’t really get what this book was about? Some conspiracy theorists, some racists, and some crusty old men playing golf. And…?

Having previously tried a bit of gardening this year and not done very well, I’m more interested in the successes and failures of other people than I might have expected. Combine this interest with an enjoyment of gorgeous time lapse videos and you get Boxlapse - a YouTube channel that focuses on growing various veggies and showing how they evolve over time. I discovered these videos via Kottke, who recommended the red bell pepper video, but I personally adore this side on view of potatoes growing under the soil.

I’m always keen to try an indoor hobby, and usually around the time of the Apple live events and keynotes, I suddenly have a craving to make maximum use of my iPad. I’ve previously been dipping into coding, making apps, learning Swift, etc, which I love, but the last few weeks I’ve been looking for something a bit more relaxing, a bit less taxing. Step forward then - drawing and art. I’m a terrible artist, I can see things in my head how I want them to be but something always gets lost in translation on its way to the medium. The iPad is great for that because it’s so easy to delete the evidence. I was scouting around for a good tutorial app and stumbled across the highly-rated ShadowDraw.

I’ll be honest with you here: yes, there were a couple of things I wanted to point towards on the subject of the recent Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But the real reason for this post is an excuse to talk about Simu Liu, who I have become somewhat obsessed with ever since watching the film first time round. That’s the good thing about having a blog, no matter how much or little you post, you can spend lots and lots of time researching things that you’re interested in!

The show was only just over an hour this week, and it was really clear how few people are left when they were all waiting at the bottom of the stairs for the action to begin. Just six couples left and three spots in the final. Things are getting tough! Poor Motsi had to miss this show so we had the wonderful Cynthia Erivo back again, and it was very clear that she’d stepped right into Motsi’s shoes when it came to not putting up with any of Craig’s nonsense. The booing was a bit much this week though, even if he is sometimes overly grumpy, he’s usually got a point.

An interesting thriller that starts with a woman waking up in her car, in the middle of a field, in the early hours of the morning. She doesn’t know what happened or why she’s there or why her car has blood on it. A great premise and things kick off well. After a few days of suspecting everyone of everything, we wind up to a satisfying conclusion as we learn more about our protagonist’s history and how her friends and extended family fit into the picture.

I wanted to watch this the moment it came out but had to wait for it to be Christmas o’clock. It was worth the wait, a really good, mushy, rom-com for Christmas. The title’s a bit weird, and some of the character decisions don’t make perfect sense, but if you go with it, it’s a lot of fun and comes to a really heart-warming ending.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to any MJ but it takes only a moment to be plunged right back into the heart of his genius. This album is stacked full of little tweaks and accents and MJ vocals and 90s sounds and it’s just great from start to finish. I thought the album would suffer for having Black or White on it, which is arguably his greatest song, and really an incredible number. But because it is towards the middle, you’ve got plenty of time to get invested before the greatness happens.

I have to hold my hands up and admit, I don’t get why everyone is so crazy about Adele? She is undeniably talented and one of those artists that wears her heart on her sleeve, so to be applauded, for sure. But people go crazy for her and I don’t totally get it. But I couldn’t ignore the new album, being raved about as it was.

The biggest challenge with these movies is making the situation plausible - getting left behind is a pretty big deal so it needs to be believable. This one did a pretty good job, split flights, one parent thinking the child is with the other. I also liked that they weren’t just a big bad pair of burglars, there was another side to the story too.

I didn’t know this story but once I saw it had Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in it, I was on board. It’s a dense film, as you might expect from Aaron Sorkin, with a lot of politics and moving parts to keep track of. But it does a really good job, and even a fool like me could follow what was actually an emotional story.

I don’t usually delve too deeply into true crime books, because let’s be honest, if you want to see how awful human beings can be to each other, you just need to turn on the news. But this seemed like a well respected book written about a truly awful but very high profile pair of serial killers. The book very factually, concisely and neatly sets out the known facts and unknown guesswork that tell the story of Fred & Rose West, their extended family, and their many victims. It’s a sad tale of damaged people but also highlights how many different elements came together to overlook what was happening and allow the murder spree to continue for such a long time. Awful, but a good book.

It feels like you can’t move for seeing good press about The Outlaws, the recent comedy from Stephen Merchant. I finished watched it a week or so ago, and it was so good, I just wanted to add to the celebration of such a good show. Here are five things to love about it: The cast. From relative unknowns to the supremely famous Christopher Walken (how on earth did that happen?), the cast are a real odd mix of people… which is kind of the point! The show centres on a group that are forced to do community service together and it is how the different viewpoints clash and interact that make for some of the funniest and most interesting moments of the series. The lorry. In doing the rounds for promoting the show, Merchant was constantly having to explain that picture of the wardrobe lorry in the river. Awkward. But also somehow a great piece of promo for the show, as it’s about people not quite sticking to the rules, either on purpose or just because that’s how life goes. The Banksy. In the final moments of the final episode, Christopher Walken paints over a genuine Banksy artwork. That is all. The parents. The core cast are great but there were a few exceptional pop up characters too, particularly the parents - Nina Wadia as an overprotective mother and Richard E. Grant as an aloof and distant father. Amazing. The fact that we know there’s a second series. The two series were filmed back to back, so it’s great to know before you’ve even finished that there’s more joy where this comes from!

You pretty much know what you’re getting with this, a truly British film where four friends go travelling in memory of their sadly deceased friend/mum. They all have their own issues and there are some interesting relationship dynamics between them as well, so there’s plenty of adventure along the way. I hadn’t expected it to have such an emotional punch, what with Judi Dench making an appearance as a grieving mother, and the fact that this was Kelly Preston’s last film before she died.

A really good book diving deep into the modern culture of social media outrage - endlessly picking on the next topic and tweet-shouting rage about it, achieving nothing except a half-hearted apology, and then moving on to the next thing. The book dives into the cause and effect of this phenomena, catching up with some people who have first hand experience of being the drivers of outrage or the unfortunates who have to live with the fallout. Most of all, it’s a treatise for actually using outrage for good, getting motivated to do something, rather than sticking with the easier route of keyboard warrior.

Musicals week has arrived, and it’s one of those that all the couples say they were desperate to participate in… but we’re getting to the sharp end now and the good have to be even greater to get through. Also, this is the first week in Strictly history that Craig Revel Horwood wasn’t on the judging panel, replaced by Cynthia Erivo. It was fitting, as she’s a superb theatre star with plenty to add on the couples performances. It was also fun for the women to outnumber the men on the judging panel, too - first time ever?

Ah, loved this. It’s a frothy fun heist movie and nothing more. The plotting isn’t intricate, other than the inevitable twists and turns and double-crossing along the way, but it grabs you and sweeps you along on a wave of the three fabulous leads and quite a lot of comedy. I wasn’t expecting to laugh as much as I did. I’ve seen some snippy reviews and critics opinions to this, but it’s supposedly the highest movie draw Netflix have seen, and I believe they’re going to make two sequels going forward, so it can’t be all that bad! I really enjoyed it, and to be honest, was sad when it was over!

Recently, I watched Shang-Chi, the latest Marvel movie, and it was really good but I couldn’t have predicted the road it would lead me down. After watching the movie, I dug into the behind the scenes documentary that also popped up on Disney+ at the same time. It was a great look at how the movie came together, the thoughts behind updating the character and bringing some legendary martial arts into the Marvel world.

This got off to a confusing start for me, because the first track, Girl On the Phone, sounds just like I Fought the Law by The Clash… different band, same decade. On the first listen through, I think I got hung up on that fact and felt like all the songs sounded the same. But actually on the second listen through, it was really good, highs and lows, Smithers-Jones stands out as different to the others and quite moving. Then of course Eton Rifles gets a bit shouty towards the end. A good punk-pop ride.

The one thing I remember from listening to Fender’s first album is that he sounded a bit like Bruce Springsteen. I think this time round he’s leaned into that quite a lot, but that’s no bad thing - why not emulate the Boss where you can? Fender comes across as an angry young man in this, he has things to say, but it’s not ranty, which is a really fine line to tread. I actually really liked it, despite not knowing any of the songs going into it.

I’m not sure why I suddenly want to read the bundle of Twilight books that I’ve had for ages, but having got through the first one relatively easily, I dipped into the second. It really feels like not a lot happens for a good portion of the book, until suddenly Jacob is a werewolf and Edward is in trouble and all the action is in the last couple of chapters. It’s better than I was expecting, and an interesting way to develop the series, but it’s not as good as the first one.

I’ve been excited about this for too long, the many, many delays and the big hype about it returning to the cinema when plenty of people still don’t feel comfortable about sitting in dark rooms with lots of strangers, all of which were somehow both frustrating but also just adding to my expectations. Firstly, it’s important to say, this is a better movie than Spectre. I don’t remember a lot about Spectre, only that it didn’t live up to Skyfall, and I wish I’d known this was going to carry on with a lot of the same characters, as I would have rewatched ahead of time.

I’m a big fan of script books, particularly when it’s something I’ve loved and admired, and that is Staged through and through. One of the few wonderful things that came out of lockdown, Staged became a huge hit and instantly lodged itself in our collective consciousness. This book is simply the scripts, laid out so neatly, with additional notes and scribbles and even a crossword. It’s nice to re-live it again in a different format, although it did just make me want to go back and watch the show again, so I could be stuck in an endless loop from this point forward. I wouldn’t complain!

This is a really simple book with only a marginal story to actually tell but where it shines is in the descriptions and characters. It reminded me very much of Elizabeth Strout, where the characters movements and thoughts and day to day living are the priority. At heart, it’s a story about tribalism, about trying to break down some village walls (not literally) and sadly not being able to do so. It’s kind of sad, but didn’t leave me feeling maudlin, so that’s something.

Just your regularly scheduled week this time, with plenty of excitement building up to musicals week next time out. My only thought from the intro sequence is to pity the colour balancing people, Motsi’s dress was something else entirely. On with the show, predictions this week have to return to Dan, unfortunately, and perhaps Tilly following last week. Talking of which, Tilly opened the show! Tilly & Nikita - Quickstep Nice concept, I thought the dance was a bit kicky, and I was really concerned that she was going to trip over her own or Nikita’s feet, which suggests it wasn’t as smooth as you might like. Good personality in it, though, almost like a Charleston. The judges liked it but they’re starting to get really picky now… and only medium scores for this one.

The story of an adventure cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats, a journey that many have undertaken but only a handful of written about. I loved the writing in this book, the day to day adventure which was about more than just cycling - it was about how the journey affected the riders, with various snippets of information about a few of the places passed along the way.

Wahey, it’s been a while since I listened to some good country music and that’s exactly what this is - good, solid, modern country pop stacked with guitars and whiskey and broken hearts and wayward lovers. The stand out track is clearly the Miranda Lambert enhanced Drowns the Whiskey, and whilst the rest of it may not stand out on its own, as a whole, it’s a really good listen for country music fans.

It’s a really odd experience listening to new music from Abba, when they are clearly a band from decades ago and honestly haven’t changed their sound at all. But it’s not a bad thing. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster of an album, dipping into many different genres, mixing up the tempos, and filled with optimism in places alongside what appears to be the depths of despair. A few tracks have stuck with me, including the lead song I Still Have Faith With You, but also Keep An Eye On Dan, which really feels like something we’ve not really heard before. They paint good pictures and keep up the interest, almost storyteller-like, I want to know what happens next. Good stuff!

This felt like a stiff and stilted read, and I was tempted to give up halfway through but then it took a turn I wasn’t expecting at all, and I just had to see how it all played out. At heart it’s the traditional story of highly strung mother disliking the new girlfriend, but it goes so much deeper and darker than that! Twists and turns along the way, and some hair-raising moments, but ultimately an intriguing ride to the end.

I’ve still got mixed feelings about these sequel/prequel Detective Frost books, written to follow the six original R. D. Wingfield novels. They don’t quite have the same feel to them, but it’s nice to dip into this world every now and then. There was a lot more personal stuff in this one, as it kicks off with the funeral of Frost’s wife, and deals with a lot of the fallout from that. Also his colleagues are having their own issues… I was confused about Simms, because there was that prequel problem of it not fitting with what I know from the original series… but that was resolved quite quickly, so no complaints.

The length of the title of this film made me nervous, but I shouldn’t have been because it’s a top notch Marvel movie, and a great set of new characters to get on board with. I enjoyed it, and particularly liked the fact our main two protagonists were friends from start to finish. There were a few questions on some of the plot points but nothing so irritating to ruin the story.

This is a very useful visual reference book for any budding gardeners out there. The first part kicks off with a beginner’s guide to keeping plants - where to keep them, how often to water them, the best kind to buy for particular areas of your house. The second part of the book lists a whole variety of individual plants and how to look after them specifically. Useful, and one to keep on the shelf for future reference as well.

This is a controversial book and film, with much made of the lack of historical accuracy and concerns that it might lead children to think wrongly about the Holocaust. All of that may be true, but I have to admit, as a fable (which it is labelled as), it’s very good - tragic and brutal, the twist at the end makes me want to scream, it’s so awful. I don’t believe Bruno could have been quite so ignorant as he was, particularly not being able to learn the name or purpose of the place despite living there for a year, but the high level twists and turns do pack a punch.

Another Jacqueline Wilson adventure - at one point I was worried we were going down a really dark route with our two kids attempting to run away to London but thankfully they didn’t quite get there. Actually it was a really great way of reading and thinking about growing up and growing apart - it’s difficult to be separated from your best friend, but it can also broaden your horizons and make you see things differently. There were a LOT of cakes in it though, I felt sick just reading it.

Much is made of us being at the halfway point of the series, presumably because they can’t make a big deal about going to Blackpool anymore. The montage of contestants talking about how much the series means to them at the start of the show was using footage from two weeks ago (I’m assuming so that no one was painted green) but it really confused me.

I tried reading this book ages ago, perhaps when we watched the movies, and gave up after just a couple of chapters. But for some reason, I have the whole set of Twilight books sitting in my digital library, so I thought it was worth giving it another go. Actually it went better this time, it’s not the best writing we can all agree, but it’s a serviceable teen vampire rom com.