When discussing the order to watch the Star Wars films in, many people suggested leaving out the prequels altogether. That was hardly likely to happen, not least because I bought the digital box set and didn’t want to waste my pennies. So many people don’t like these three films though, I don’t think my expectations could have been any lower.

I was expecting this to be a quirky little comedy and wasn’t prepared for how engaging, dramatic and heartwarming it would be. Bill Murray is on top form as the grump with a good heart, and it was fab to see Melissa McCarthy doing a more serious role than her usual. The story of unlikely friendships between boy and unsuitable adult isn’t new, but it’s done really well, with many sides to each of the characters.

The second Morse book puts the Inspector in a position he’s not entirely comfortable with - a cold case of a missing person, rather than a murder with a body to work from. That makes it all the more fascinating as a reader - the twists and turns of the is she/isn’t she alive on top of the possibilities of who did what to whom and when.

The first book of the Inspector Morse series takes in a tragic murder of a young girl who was hitch-hiking with a friend from Oxford to Woodstock. I’m not sure what prompted me to check this book out, as I haven’t actually seen the TV series, but there’s nothing wrong with going straight to the source material.

At this point in the trilogy, you’re into the traditional formula with the plot based around the theme - people don’t quite believe in the magic that brings museum pieces to life, but then there is something risking their future, Ben Stiller comes to the rescue, and it all works out with a party at the end.

Finally, the one and only scene that I remembered! And actually there were a couple of other scenes that rang weird bells in my head, so perhaps I have seen more of Star Wars previously than I thought. Regardless, it was only this time that it made any sense.

We decided to binge watch the final two episodes of the original trilogy, which means they sort of blend in to each other a little bit. However, I was surprised that this was the one with the big father reveal, I would have assumed that came in the grand finale at the end. Also that it’s one of those quotes that is done wrong all the time just like ‘if you build it.’ Kind of annoying.

Was looking forward to this one, seeing Daniel Radcliffe doing something relatively normal compared to his history of wizards and horror and that kind of thing. The story is, of course, utterly predictable. Boy and girl are friends but fall in love, try to fight it and ultimately end up together.

Somehow I managed to get to a respectable age without seeing Star Wars. Of course it seeps into the consciousness, and there are a gazillion cultural references to it everywhere, but I had never seen it. I had one scene in my head, where there’s some kind of hole in the sand that sucks people in which I think had to do with Jabba, but I couldn’t have told you much else about the plot or the point of the whole thing.

Short and sweet, this book illustrates the author’s transition from sheep farmer and reluctant sailer to hardened adventurer crossing the Norwegian fjords and beyond. From the first tentative steps on board a sailing boat with a friend, through proper instruction, to the warmth of a Greek summer, and then the real challenge of an Icelandic adventure with friends, you get to feel how his spirit evolves through every stage.

I picked this up as I thought it was the start of a young adult series, and it is although it’s also a spin off of an existing set of books. I like to start things at the beginning, and there were some passages in the story that made me feel like I’d missed out on things - those catch up sentences summarising whole books as best they can.

I’ve had this book on my to-read list for a while but decided to hold off until I’d seen the film, just from a spoiler-free point of view. I had a previous book by Gillian Flynn though and knew it was probably going to be a bit darker than I might at first have thought.

I would usually try and avoid Statham movies like the plague. His style of muscle man who can barely move his mouth to whisper his lines doesn’t appeal to me. However, this one has Franco in it and he does intrigue me, so I figured we could at least give it a go.

I think they did a solid job. It does sort of seem like an unnecessary sequel, but then almost immediately you’re glad to be back in the company of these three imbeciles. Them trying to make a good impression on live morning television is just the start of a journey that should be simple but ends up being far more complicated thanks to their crazy antics.

This was an odd one, set out in a unique way with no chapter breaks and written in the first person, present tense. The story follows a bartender who discusses the various patrons that attend the bar, as well as the breakdown of his marriage and his ways of trying to deal with that.

I’ve not seen any of the Madagascar films but this penguins special had to be consumed. The trailers looked awesome and anyone who’s anyone knows that penguins are fabulous. It was your traditional children’s film - fast-paced and frantic, where you can’t even take a minute because you’ll miss a joke or a reference somewhere.

It was good, and there were some lighter moments to offset the dark. I enjoyed the occasional burst of French and seeing how much I could understand. But I think the trailer sells a different film to what you get, and it might not be one I’d have picked if I’d known ahead of time.

I’m not really sure why I bought this book, as I’d seen the film and knew the book was going to be pretty much the same thing. The film was okay, hit and miss with the comedy but an interesting premise and a generally good story.

I devoured this book so quickly, it hooked me in right from the start and didn’t let go. I hadn’t expected it to do so, it’s not your normal crime thriller. Instead, a man looks back to his childhood after receiving fresh news about an old crime. A terrible being was stalking the neighbourhood and three friends decided to do something about it.

I might be admitting some ignorance here but I didn’t know Pellew was a real person, I assumed he was just a character in the Hornblower stories. Finding this book was a revelation, and reading it was fascinating. I’ve found history books, and biography books in particular, difficult to get on with. They have to really grab my attention to keep me reading.

Just like many people, I’ve been curious how James Corden would get on in the wild world of late night US talk shows. You’ll have noticed my obsession with Jimmy Fallon, I’m sure, and the concept of these daily evening entertainment extravaganzas fascinates me. By all accounts, he did okay and there’s at least something to work with. From the clips I’ve seen, it’s a good start but I just have one question. Why would you ever put Tom Hanks in your first show because how are you ever going to top this??

I, like many, was skeptical of this live action Paddington movie, bringing to life that bear of so many years ago. I love bears and I love Paddington and early trailers had me worried about this CGI creation that couldn’t possibly do justice to the bear I know and love.

This is a middle-of-the-road, good-natured nice film, reminiscent of the Marigold Hotel but not quite as good. It had similar themes running through it - underestimating various characters, businesses not doing well and then being turned around, the rivalry of characters old and new.

We had very different expectations going into this - Mr C assumed it was just a tame ballet tale, and I was under the impression it was a pretty twisted horror story. The truth is it was somewhere in between. It took an absolute age to get going, with that slow burn build that eventually pays off but takes some serious patience to get there. I did vaguely consider switching it off part way through, but we stuck with it.

It took a while to get back up to speed with what was happening in this one. All I could really remember was the destruction of the forcefield with the arrow, and the very end of the previous movie. But you quickly fall right back into the story, and the battle between the districts and the Capitol.

This turned out to be an interesting little crime thriller, far different to what I had thought when I first started reading. The snippy short paragraphs, the hands off approach and the incredibly distant switching between protagonists and perspectives didn’t appeal initially, and took a while to get used to. I thought halfway through that I’d just read to the end to see how it all played out but that I wasn’t particularly enjoying the process.

There was so much hype around Interstellar that it was impossible to ignore, but I was caught up in it anyway. Christopher Nolan at the helm of another epic premise, McConaughey on board and people heading off into space. Fab.

The second film in a row that has a weird naming situation. According to the people’s encyclopedia, this was called Laggies by the screenwriter, but the director wasn’t too sure as no one had ever heard of the term (apparently it means adult slackers). In the UK, it was released as Say When.

A short tale of a postman in Montreal who gets caught up in a twist of fate, after intercepting the post that he should be delivering straight away. He becomes obsessed with one particular set of correspondence which all takes place in haiku and the fallout is incredible.

I remember trying to read this when I was a lot younger, too young to really be interested in the goings on of a Yorkshire vet, newly qualified in the late 1930s. But now, it was a brilliant read. Tales of James Herriot, settling into a life far removed from his city days studying, with a variety of interesting characters providing each day with a new challenge.

I wouldn’t normally attempt one of these sprawling sci-fi fictions because I tend to get overwhelmed by the scope of them. So many new words to learn in such a short space of time. This was part of my Big Read list, though, so I dived in and gave it a go.

This film is confusing as a concept, before you even take a look into the details of plot and characters. Initially called I’ll Follow You Down, it was released in 2013. But we saw it called Continuum (which I thought was a TV show), released on iTunes in 2015. There was no film called Continuum on IMDB, and it took me ages to track down what was actually going on.

In the spirit of completing at least a couple of paragraphs, I’ll expand. Benedict did a great job with a complex character, and along with the smart script managed to make a really difficult and ultimately unlikeable personality sympathetic and even warm. Keira found her perfect accent at last, the ideal role for her. The scenes when she visited at the end were really hard to bear.

I’ll be honest, we were expecting this to be a little bit BBC, and it had an element of that in spotting some of the famous faces (Russell Tovey alert). But actually, it was probably the best Lottery funded film we’ve seen. A really strong story, great characters, and such heart.

The setup for this one does feel a little contrived - you’ll do things in tribute to your family, of course, but sit on a chair for seven days for a religion you don’t really follow? Not sure.

I love the concept of these celebratory books, one short story for each Doctor. Unfortunately, there are a lot of references in these early ones that I don’t get, due to my limited knowledge of the early Doctor Who episodes. I had to research all about the Scottish companion once I was finished reading.

Since writing about my desire to chronicle the connected life I’ve done a lot of playing around with gadgets but not so much reporting of my findings. One of the health and fitness gadgets I’ve been less keen on trying is the Fitbit fitness band, partly because it just doesn’t appeal to me and partly because of their refusal to embrace Apple’s HealthKit concept. (For those who missed it, HealthKit syncs all data from health apps to graph your progress in one handy place. Fitbit refused to be included, and Apple took their gadgets out of the online and retail stores.)

Was quite looking forward to this one, but now having seen it, I’m not convinced it was worth the wait. Brad Pitt was good, but I couldn’t sympathise with the character all that much - he didn’t seem a particularly nice guy, and granted you have to have a certain attitude to be able to withstand the horrors that these people went through, but it felt above and beyond that.

Life is, predictably, very busy at the moment and instead of flailing around as I make my way through a day, I’ve had to start thinking in the morning: “This is what I have to achieve today, how will I fit it in?” That means a bit of forward planning, which in turn means that Hugh Grant was right all along with his system, highlighted in About a Boy. I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes.

I love a good live-changing memoir and this one follows two adventurous souls who give up cushy city jobs for a run-down vineyard in France. The challenge sounds crazy and along the way it seems the problems will be insurmountable, from industrial accidents to mouse infestations to finding a buyer for the wine you have so you can make room to produce more.

A year in the life of professional tennis tournaments, through the eyes of a journalist who follows the players around the globe. Taking in 2012, from the early beginnings in Australia, through the bigger and smaller tournaments, Andy Murray’s loss at Wimbledon and subsequent victory at the Olympics, as well as all the political shenanigans going on in the background.

There was so much hype around this film, and it looked so good in trailers and early reviews, that we were pretty keen to watch it. From the very opening scenes, you can tell it was a finely crafted piece of art, with some exquisite shots and intense acting, high emotions and beautiful imagery.

This was such a bizarre mixed up film that it had me thinking about it hours, even days after watching. The concept is pure genius, a chicken and egg scenario that winds itself up into some incredible knots. I loved watching it all unfold, and enjoyed the 40 minutes of storytelling at the beginning - an incredibly brave way to kick off a film.

I’m not totally sure this would have been our kind of film if it hadn’t had Steve Carell in it, but I do love him so had to see what it was all about. It’s silly and childish, one of those films where you just can’t see how things can keep happening like that, and half the time you’re cringing behind a pillow.

If you’re a fan of the TV show, you’ll be a fan of this book. The panel show heads through hundreds of different facts, dispels the myths from the legends and rips up what you think you know, replacing it with new information - or at least some question marks. From history to science, technology and culture, there’s a little bit of everything.

Perhaps I am spoiled by the more modern fast-paced thriller, but this one took such a long time to get going. Perhaps, also, the reason people like it is the meticulous attention to detail, but that just wasn’t for me. We had the precise movements of the assassin on the hunt for French president Charles de Gaulle, what he did each day, where he went. At one point, I thought I needed to get out a map and trace his exact movements.

I so wanted Newsstand to be the answer. The concept is perfect: digital copies of magazines delivered to my device without me having to a) leave the house/rely on the postal service or b) find space for physical paper. Unfortunately, it’s just not that simple. I started my digital magazine explorations with Zinio, and then moved on to Newsstand when Apple kicked off their version of digital newspaper and magazines. Both do very similar things, allowing you to subscribe to a magazine, or download individual editions, read them on your device and then continue to access them later.

Major changes to the makeup of the grid set the tone for a promising 2015 Formula One season. Two World Champions have opted to switch teams in order to reinvigorate their careers following lacklustre results last year. Fernando Alonso returns to a team he almost destroyed back in 2007, while Sebastian Vettel makes a clean break from the team and personnel that have been responsible for his F1 success to date.

It took me a few false starts to really get going with this one, it’s such an odd start to a book. I often skip prefaces and introductions because they are usually big spoilers for the book ahead - written as though you know exactly what’s coming. For The Princess Bride, that’s the whole point!

I’ve seen this before, as well as about half an hour of the sequel. I got really annoyed at part 2, and that probably put me in a bad frame of mind rewatching this one. But it was Valentine’s weekend, and this seemed to be the right kind of film to be watching.