It took me a while to ease back into the world of Adrian Mole, this one seemed to start so far away from where we left off, although if I’m honest I’d totally forgotten Jo Jo existed. Anyway, it’s weird seeing Adrian as a father - and disappointing at how remote he is particularly at first. As always, the comedy and the warmth come from the characters we already know - Adrian’s parents, the Braithwaites, Pandora a particular highlight! Interested to see what happens next!

Our new rule of trying to watch everything that is early released due to the current circumstances has thrown up lots of movies that we wouldn’t normally watch. Sometimes that’s been a brilliant surprise. Sometimes, it is Tom & Jerry. I’m being a bit harsh, because it was actually a watchable movie, with a decent story that shows how even enemies can work together for the greater good. The problem with it is, the humans were much better than the cartoons, I preferred all the action that didn’t include Tom & Jerry, which isn’t great for a movie based around them.

I’ve been loving the new Star content that was released on Disney+ in the UK recently, and one of the first things I checked out was Cougar Town. Featuring the lovely Courtney Cox and a lot of people that used to be in Scrubs, the show revolves around a really tight-knit group of family and friends as they navigate divorce, new relationships, new parenthood, empty nests, and lots of other things.

This album popped out of nowhere - we were talking about The King of Wishful Thinking and realised these guys had a couple of albums to visit. I actually really enjoyed it, it has that crossover 80s/90s feel, and was a lot more soulful than I was expecting, although still very much rooted in the pop genre.

First impressions of this album were that it’s good, if a little bit too Southern country for my tastes. But the second listen through had it growing on me, there were a few moments with great individual riffs and the songs started to individualise. I don’t know if it would still continue to grow on me or not, but I do know that What Would Dolly Do is an exceptional tune. The concept alone is fantastic, the lyrics back it up and it’s all set to a fab tune. So maybe the whole album didn’t work for me, but that song definitely did.

A great book, really, one you can dip in and out of and find answers you’ve been searching for or just look at questions that you’ve never even thought of asking. Some of them were a bit obvious - the diet and health ones are more of the same: eat less, move more, etc, etc. But some of the stuff on sleep was really interesting, and it surprised me how many areas we really don’t know very much about.

Was worried this was going to ruin the first one, which was a delight, but thankfully it didn’t. It wasn’t as good, I’m not about to argue that, the story didn’t hold quite as much weight as the first one, but it held its own. It felt a bit more difficult to root for Elle in this scenario - of course animal is testing is should be banned but it is hard not to laugh at someone doing it because they want to invite their dog’s mother to their wedding.

Aww, this really was a lovely book. It was a super simple story that had plenty of drama but still somehow felt as though it was gently drawing you along the story of Evelyn. She goes to the big city after a break up and finds a brand new life that she would never have predicted for herself - running and restoring an authentic old pub back to its old self. Quite a lot of the story is just how the pub gradually comes back to life which is nice. The sad twist towards the end, of course, adds a bit of jeopardy but I never doubted for one second that it would all end happily. Which it did, and then some!

This is such a weird film. Genuinely for the first hour, I didn’t really understand what it was about. It was quite entertaining, these three guys bumbling about and making a mess of their lives, but it didn’t seem to have a point. It wasn’t until the dean got involved that it actually developed a plot and started to mean something.

Well first off it was nowhere near as bad as the Bogus journey, so that’s a good start. It was watchable and overall entertaining but I can’t say that it was actually very good. To be honest, the best bits were the bits that Bill & Ted weren’t in, which isn’t ideal. Dennis the Robot took over the spot from Death - stealing every scene he was in. And it was fun for the wives and daughters to have a good story to go alongside the main antics.

Everyone’s heard of Legally Blonde, I’m sure, but I really didn’t know a lot about it other than it recently becoming a musical. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to watch it, the film was so good from start to finish! It had echoes of Clueless and Mean Girls, but also had its own thing - a young woman realising she doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone, but herself.

I really enjoyed this album, it was different to what I was expecting. Ellie’s gone for more of a country route recently, and whilst there is certainly plenty of country influence on this one, it also has a lot of pop and elements of rock. It’s not a coincidence that Apple list it as alternative. A few of the more up-tempo songs have a Jade Bird feel about them, Ellie singing with that raw throaty voice that must cause sore throats at the end of a studio session, surely? A really nice mix of songs, well worth a listen.

I think this album delivered exactly what I was expecting it too - the Jonas doing his thing with his pop beats and falsetto moments. It was fine but I don’t know that it’s something I’ll particularly remember or go back to in the future. It’s funny though, I did think as I was listening that this pop is starting to sound a bit nostalgic, like pop music has moved on already. You don’t always notice when you’re going along and who knows what it’s moved on towards but that’s the journey, isn’t it?

I wasn’t as keen on this book as I have been on others, the travel to Italy didn’t work for me as well as I’d hoped, there seemed to be quite a feature on the language barriers and different cultures without it really making any difference to the story. I did enjoy Ercole though, a fish out of water detective who was blamed for making errors when he was actually one of the smartest ones there. Still, interesting mystery that I didn’t guess any of the twists and turns to at all.

Watched the movie and almost immediately started reading the book. It’s interesting in the way it’s intensely similar but has a few differences. I feel like the book was slightly darker, some of the things that took place really take your breath away. But then there are some circumstances the film does better - the fact that the main guy was the son of the male principal in the book seems very specific, whereas the female principal in the film is a more likely occurance and creates a more nuanced story. But still, it’s girl power, it’s kick-ass, and it’s brilliant.

I assumed this would be quite similar to Alexander and his very bad day, given that it’s basically Jennifer Garner running around getting up to mischief with her family for a day. It was similar but really the exact opposite, good things as opposed to bad things happening. I think it was a lot better than that one, though. At heart, it has a good message - that parenting is really hard, that it can change you, and that easing up a bit can make a difference to both you and your kids… although be careful not to go too far. It was fun and funny, some moments were brilliant, the self-concious cop, and the youngest trying to be a bouncer when she can’t even read, hilarious.

Beautiful movie, this one, both in terms of visuals and in the message it gives about trust and humanity. I don’t know that we would have watched this if it hadn’t been an early release, but I’m so glad we did. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon film, full of hope alongside home truths about humanity, with some good laughs and cute characters along the way. Plus the majority of the main characters were women, which was brilliant to see.

I didn’t know anything about this film going into it, other than three quite impressive leads, and I’m always keen to watch Denzel doing his thing. On reflection, it might not have been the best time to watch a ‘women getting killed and male cops bumbling around trying to save the day’ given recent real world events. But then again, when’s a good time to watch a movie like that?

I knew more of these songs than I thought I was going to. They’re alright, good pop songs, sometimes catchy and they make you want to do that sway with a finger click thing. But it is cheesy, there’s no way around it. If you’re in the mood for some old school smiley pop, then this is exactly the right album.

I so very much loved WALLS, it was on my top ten albums of all time list for a long time. So I was keen to dip back into the world of these Kings, and thankfully this album is good. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of that previous outing, and I don’t know if there’s anything that particularly stands out but as a whole, I just love the sound and the flow. Good times.

A solid nautical adventure, it’s fun following Hornblower around, even if he does get a bit above his station at times! Confidence, rather than arrogance, though. This book also contains the interesting difficulties of a captain who is unstable, and the real consequences and terror that surrounds mutiny - even if it’s the right thing to do. I felt like the book came to a weird end, with Hornblower on shore, dealing with the day to day life of a non-naval existence… until the threat of war returned right at the end, almost like a cliffhanger! On to the next book!

This is a good thriller, plenty of suspense and twists and turns and I certainly didn’t see the end coming. I guess the only problem with it is it takes a long time to get where it’s going, and the characters aren’t particularly likeable, so it’s a long time to spend in their company. I did like that they are four women who have vastly different experiences of life and are at different stages, but still trying to keep their friendship alive… for as long as they can, even if that doesn’t last the weekend!

Brilliant, brilliant movie. Obviously it has that equality revolution vibe that makes it an incredible watch. But what I really loved about it is that none of the characters are perfect, they don’t just get everything they want, it’s not just a clean fight to the finish. They fight, they make mistakes, they’re insensitive to each other, they really are just teenagers trying to find out what they stand for. A really beautiful watch.

I didn’t know that I knew so many of Pat’s songs - mostly I started being aware of her from Pitch Perfect. It surprised me how rocky the whole album is, I really liked it! Although, on the flip side, there’s a cover of Wuthering Heights and it’s fine but I don’t know that anyone should bother doing a cover of that when Kate Bush nailed it first time. Otherwise, though, a really strong rock album!

Brilliant album! Honestly I hadn’t heard of Cam before I dived in but I did know some of the singles. I actually thought Diane was by Little Big Town so that was confusing, but I love that it’s on this album - and that it’s the other side of the Jolene story. Lots of good songs on here, great modern country sounds, and Cam has a lovely voice.

This is such a subtle, calm, slice of life style book - a series of letters that detail the mundanity of real life. Although it’s not quite real life, this is still high art London with people that can afford nannies and have Alan Bennett as a neighbour. But still, the best part of the book is the snippets of conversation between Nina and the family she has become a part of - the boys, the sarcastic mother, the intellectual neighbour, and her future husband. It’s nice to see her evolving to become a student, too, whilst still keeping strong bonds with the family.

This is an enigma of a movie - I have never know a film that I loathed so much and yet had something so wonderful in it, yes, I’m talking about Death. Every scene that Death is in is brilliant, he’s a fab addition to the movie, but it just means that every scene he’s not in is a disappointment.

If you’re in the mood for some of that wonderful late 90s/early 00s mindless action, then this is exactly the right film. Jason Statham doing some awesome work as an audition piece for Fast & Furious later - driving fast cars, participating in some wonderfully choreographed fight scenes, saving the feisty girl, whilst people keep trying to blow him up.

I thought I’d like this far more than I did. Vince Clarke is a musical idol to me and I love the vocals of Alison Moyet, so together they must make magic, right? And it’s fair to say that Only You is up there with one of my favourite songs of all time. Unfortunately, the rest of it wasn’t quite so good.

Good album, this one. One of those pretty steady country albums that’s very listenable. A couple of the tracks stand out, Kinfolks is good, and Breaking Up is doing the rounds at the moment. I do think that song would be better if he said easier rather than easy. Breaking up is never easy, is it? Also I was rather nervous about a song called Body Like a Back Road but thankfully it was just about knowing it as well as you know all those country roads in your hometown. Phew!

Good film this, considering the premise is two grumpy old men not speaking to each other. But it’s surprisingly moving in places, occasionally funny, and a really good story underneath about a struggling community trying to survive against all the odds.

Mixed feelings about this one. It’s a really good thriller, well written, and you do spend quite a lot of the time wondering what on earth is going on and about to happen. When the real twists and turns started happening, it felt a bit unbelievable at first but then weird things happen on the dark web. I suppose at heart it was a bit like that Black Mirror episode where people end up doing things they don’t want to because otherwise they face exposure of some other wrongdoings.

It’s taken me a long time to read this as it’s a gorgeous hardback coffee table style book, so I would just dip in and out every now and again. At the heart of it, it’s a week-by-week analysis of how the three Back to the Future films came together, from concept to shooting schedules, to release. There’s lots of great insight, behind the scenes knowledge, and it’s stacked full of great photographs I’ve never seen before.

It took a little while to get into the groove of this film because all the various services have it down as a comedy and it is not funny, not at all. Rosamund Pike plays a dead-hearted woman who cons the elderly out of their assets, until she bites off more than she can chew and comes up against a mafia boss. It’s somehow really interesting and entertaining whilst also raising that difficult question of who to root for when both sides are pretty evil?

I was 100% expecting this to be a twenty minute movie, one we watched and switched off and moved on. It seemed an inoffensive kid’s movie but hey, it’s about a superhero squirrel, it can’t be any good, right? Wrong! It was amazing. It was inspirational and funny and moving and really we had to keep pausing it to consider each amazing line!

Exquisite film, this one. Slow-paced, softly-spoken, not hard-hitting action but gentle drama which somehow manages to heighten the emotions of what could be a boring story (man digs a hole) but actually manages to be an enlightening piece about history and what it means to all of us.

Big brooding bear Justin does his time and tries to make a better life for himself, scooping up an adorable if precocious kid who just wants to live his own style. The challenges they face apart and together make for a fascinating story, and what I liked about it is it wasn’t so much about them growing and becoming better people, but learning how to live in a society that didn’t understand them.

Let’s be clear, Too Many Broken Hearts and Especially For You (added later, I think) are both absolute bops and to start and finish your album with those is a great thing. Unfortunately, everything in the middle is just that standard Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop - fine but almost identical to each other. It makes me want to give Jason a big hug and say, you’ve done some good work here but there’s so much more to come!

Just a good, easy-going album, this one. Enjoyable to listen to but nothing that’s going to stand the test of time. In my head I was expecting it to be more like Sara Bareilles, but actually it’s more upbeat than that, and I think I preferred it.

This book is simply incredible. It’s meticulous and detailed and there’s plenty of science in there but somehow the author makes it brilliantly readable, you don’t want to put it down. At the heart, despite all the politics and technical detail, it’s a story about the people who made poor decisions, who were thrust into the heart of it through no fault of their own, who showed incredible courage in the face of so many unknowns.

In my last post I mentioned that Inside the Factory inspired my purchase of a casserole dish. If you’re not aware, the show features Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey visiting various factories around the country, sometimes world, to find out how our staples are made. It’s always interesting to see how a factory works, how the weird machines do what they do, and our hosts give us lots of fascinating facts and figures along the way.

I’m always keen to read Robert’s output, initially this was Death In Paradise tie-in novels but this is a standalone book, although perhaps the first of a new series. This time an unlikely group of neighbours get together to solve a mystery, led by the formidable Judith who writes puzzles for a living and has her own history to deal with.

I’ve read a couple of Nora’s non-fiction memoir style books but this is a work of fiction, although it still just feels like Nora sitting you down and telling you a story. It’s a relatively short book and I think that’s good because there’s not a lot of story or plot progression to follow.

I don’t remember buying this book, the follow up to the first in the series from Rosie’s point of view. I don’t know that the first one blew me away but actually I quite liked dipping back into our travelling group, following them this time across the sea to France. Drama and romance are all over the place, but there were some good insights into dealing with grief and how hard it is to try and move on with your life when your heart is left in the past.

This movie is an absolute proof that trailers don’t do justice to full length films. We watched two trailers for this and both of them looked really poor, confusing and not funny. But we thought, you know what, it’s bright, it’s got Kristen Wiig in it, and we have to give it a go as an early rental. I’m so glad we did because it was BRILLIANT.

Last week, a Le Creseut casserole dish was delivered to my house. You know the ones, top of the range pots and pans that come with the associated price tag. I could tell you the excuses and reasons behind this - spending more time in the kitchen, should have the best tools you can, not spending on a lot else at the moment - but actually there are only two things that led to this purchase:

Ordinarily, I would shy away from this album. Firstly, it’s long, and secondly it has all those pesky interludes in there. But you know what? I really liked it, despite both of those things! The length didn’t feel too onerous which means the songs flowed well and were never dull. And the interludes worked, rather than being a distraction they were an enhancement.

This album is Foo Fighters all over, from the minute it starts you know exactly who you’re listening to. I don’t think there’s anything stand out on there, and to be honest I’ve already mostly forgotten the intricacies of the album. But when I was in the midst of listening to it, it was good!

I liked that in this book we got to see that temper tantrum side of George again, the fact that her uncle needs to use the island for some science that could affect the whole world - but hey, it’s HER island and he didn’t ask permission! It feels like the odds were really elevated in this one, the consequences of the bad guy’s actions could have blown up a whole island and destroyed some neat scientific technology. Blimey.

I really liked this book, it’s basically a guide to being grateful for your body, and just encouraging you to move more, however gently that may be. It builds up to guiding you through some workouts of various levels but I wasn’t so bothered about that bit. I just liked the information on the different types of exercise, what you should be focusing on and how to balance all the relevant areas, including recovery!