Reading - April 2026

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1919)

An early collection of stories - some date originally to 1911 - and including some that don't actually feature Jeeves and Wooster at all, but an apparent Bertie Wooster prototype called Reggie Pepper. The Wodehouse style is all in place and just as enjoyable as ever.

Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson (2014)

I was keen to read this as the title promised an amusing look into why people behave in incomprehensible ways. That was scotched pretty quickly: the title is the funniest thing about it and in any case the author quickly explains that there aren't really any "idiots" at all, just people we don't understand. OK, that's fair enough - in my more tolerant moments, I recognise this perfectly well, even if it's not really what I wanted to read. But when Erikson then goes on to claim that everyone's personality traits derive from one of four categories (a theory derived from a piece of 1920s bunkum), he really lost me. Because even allowing for his stipulation that most people are mixtures of personality types, the central concept is still obviously and comically reductive. To quote Ben Goldacre: I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that. What Erikson presents is barely more useful or scientific than a horoscope: generic observations that allow people to say, "yes, I know someone just like that!" without offering any real insight. The whole thing is beautifully deconstructed in a detailed article by VoF, the Swedish Skeptics' Association, and exposed for the pseudoscience it is.

And Away ... by Bob Mortimer (2021)

A genial, leisurely tour through Bob Mortimer's life, in which he comes across as slightly bemused at what he's achieved. His emergence from behind Vic Reeves to become the much-loved comedian he is now is a sweet story, one that he implies kind of happened to him. As ever, I'm sure this fails to mention the amounts of hard work put into the achievement. But he's easy company and the book is never less than engaging.

Carry On Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1925)

A wonderfully amusing collection of short stories, including "Bertie Changes His Mind", the only Jeeves & Wooster story narrated from the perspective of Jeeves. Now available for free from Project Gutenberg, along with many other Wodehouse volumes.

Watching - April 2026

Zootropolis 2 (2025)

Lots of fun, and full of background jokes and moments that would make it worth rewatching and pausing. But there's too much going on in the plot and it all feels like they're trying a bit too hard. Good to watch with the family over cocktails though!

Man on the Run (2025)

Surprisingly low-key but engaging documentary about 70s era Paul McCartney, mostly as a member of Wings. I'm not sure if this was self-commissioned, as seems to be all the rage these days, but McCartney is credited as an exec producer, so what you gain in access to private films and photos you lose in objectivity. Nevertheless, it was an OK watch.

The Other Bennet Sister (2026)

This took a little while to warm up, but it developed into a sweet, if slightly predictable, period drama with an enjoyably different perspective on a familiar story. A few minor quibbles: Ella Bruccoleri as Mary Bennet could have used a few more facial expressions - the pained look on her face was perhaps understandable given her situations but became over-used; and Mrs Bennet (Ruth Jones) was too much of a pantomime dame yet again (I blame Alison Steadman). But that didn't stop this being a good watch that C, K and I binged over three nights.

Taskmaster (season 15, 2023)

I would say this was a good series but honestly, I remember very little about it now. Continues to be good watching over lunch.

McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass (2026)

A perfectly good 20-30 minute YouTube video forced to parade around in the costume of a "major documentary" with a heavily padded run time. What is it with the constant dramatisation of events? I have a good imagination, I don't need to be shown a broken padlock on the ground to know what is meant by "they broke the padlock". And the way they dragged out the fairly simple chain of events might have worked if there was more detective work actually involved, but either they fudged the telling or there just wasn't that much to tell. All that said though, I wasn't particularly bored and quite enjoyed it all.

Point Break (1991)

One of the ultimate boy's films. Patrick Swayze glamorises crime and walks a bit funny, but he's still commanding, and Keanu Reeves does Keanu to perfection.

Dave (1993)

A quiet gem of a film, in my opinion. Kevin Kline is understatedly superb, never leaving you in doubt of which of the two characters he is at any moment by using the subtlest of facial expressions. The plot is slightly preposterous but hey, it's a comedy!

The American President (1995)

It's a little depressing to realise that this film is thirty years old and yet the issues being discussed haven't shifted an iota, and neither have the morals of the right wing improved. Richard Dreyfuss is excellent: two shades off from being a pantomime villain and yet entirely believable as a Republican senator and amoral arsehole (the two being seemingly synonymous - both in this film and real life, I'd contend) who sees nothing wrong with making appalling personal slurs and does so with apparent impunity (remind you of anyone?). Anyone not suffering from the US's bizarre cultural gun fetish would applaud the final scenes, so to learn that someone as apparently enlightened as Barack Obama described the film as a "liberal fantasy" tells you everything you need to know about US politics and culture.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

I was very happy to be able to introduce another person to a classic, and glad to say they enjoyed it very much.

Live and Let Die (1973)

So, so dated, and not really doing much for race relations either. But if you can ignore that then it's mildly entertaining.

Agatha Christie's Poirot (season 4, 1992)

Three feature length episodes of pretty famous books, told pretty faithfully. Nice to see the stories respected rather than mangled (I'm looking at you, Kenneth Branagh).

Taskmaster (season 16, 2023)

I couldn't quite understand what Julian Clary was doing on this as he never seemed to be interested, but overall it was just as funny as usual.

Reading - March 2026

Unexpected by Lori Foster (2003)

Some good bits, some "wtf??" moments, a sense of slightly different plots and fiction styles being stitched together, all made this an OK read but nothing more.

The Cornish Midwife by Jo Bartlett (2021)

A simple and straightforward romance. The main male character is too perfect but that's often the case in these things. I'm not sure why I chose this other than that I needed something to read, but it was fine. I probably won't bother with the other (checks ...) seven books in the series though.

You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry (2021)

Given the recent Netflix film, I was expecting the library's copies of the book to be all taken - which they were. But there were plenty of copies under the book's original title - so score one for doing a little bit of research! Anyway, my personal little victories and smugness aside, this is a very enjoyable, modern, friends-to-lovers romance that uses jumps between different periods in the relationship to good effect. The last minute misunderstanding that I complained about in the film is present here, but there's less of the slapstick, which is an improvement over the film, I think. All in all, a very satisfying read.

What Have I Done? by Ben Elton (2025)

I'm happy to say that this very readable book has changed my mind about about Ben Elton. Not that I disliked either him or his work, but since I was primarily aware of him through his standup comedy on TV, I thought of him as shouty, not particularly subtle comedian. However, he's always thought of himself as a writer and on the evidence presented here, which includes way more TV, books and plays than I realised, it's impossible not to agree. He's passionate about his work and the same way about his achievements and about defending himself against the unnecessary and unfair criticism he's faced over the years - all with justification, I'd say. The books never palls - he's met, worked with and has stories about a huge number of people - and I finished it in a few days. And crucially, it's inspired me to seek out more of his work. I mean, I probably will at some point, once I've cleared my backlog (this is a joke, I never clear my backlog ... but I will add some of his books to it!)

Celeb by Charles Peattie and Mark Warren (2002)

Amusing collection of the cartoons from Private Eye.

Bluff Your Way In Jazz by Peter Gammond & Peter Clayton (1987)

Part genuinely informative summary of jazz and part a series of jokes that assume you're already familiar with it (I always remembered the quote: "[...] the rumour that [John Coltrane] had a crush on Julie Andrews is unfounded", which assumes you know his version of "My Favourite Things"). I've owned this book since I was a student and, like all of the Bluffer's Guides, it never fails to make me smile.

One Moment by Becky Hunter (2023)

"Perfect for fans of David Nicholls" it says here on Borrow Box, and I can see the comparison: a bittersweet romance that has a dead person in it. The story is very readable and the people feel real - I mean apart from the supernatural element - and I enjoyed it. It's not quite as much of a time loop as the blurb promises (not at all, in fact) but the ending is sweet and gives a bit of closure.

Bluff Your Way in Motoring by John McManus (1989)

Amusing but dated.

Watching - March 2026

The Adam Project (2022)

Saw this on Netflix and was tempted to watch it again. Perfectly reasonable entertainment, if a slightly uneasy mix of action and sentimentality. But Ryan Reynolds is always fun to watch.

Definitely Maybe (2008)

One of my recent favourites and a nice example of how Reynolds - yes, him again - can do sarcastic for sure, but also tender and sincere, in a way that Glen Powell probably really wishes he could. Watching again, I do think the ending is somewhat tacked on but it's still moving. Up until then the film seems surprisingly realistic (for a romcom, anyway) but the final act is pure fantasy. Also another shout-out for Caroline Siede's spot-on review ...

You've Got Mail (1999)

... which then led me to this, via her review in the same series. It's a sweet film, with lots to enjoy, but despite Tom Hanks being superb at many things, including in this film, I just can't quite see him as a love interest in a romcom. This hasn't stopped me watching it many times!

Cars 2 (2011)

I'm not quite sure how I alighted on this as a Sunday afternoon watch, but it fitted perfectly. There are lots of clever little touches throughout the film and the entertainment never stops. So if it's a bit silly in places then who cares?

Taskmaster (season 14, 2022)

A very entertaining season - it's just as much of a joy to see Dara Ó Briain ace a task because he's approached it very intelligently as it is to see John Kearns bumble around.

Agatha Christie's Marple (season 1, 2004)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has a lot to answer for: Sherlock Holmes set the template for fictional detectives so completely that as a result, all others seem doomed to mimic him - particularly on TV and film. Agatha Christie deliberately set out to subvert this with Poirot and Marple and while that might work on the page, directors are still so eager to fit the Holmes mould that they have poor Miss Marple charging around all over the place and even identifying a discarded fag end as French at one point - quintessentially Holmes-ian but all wrong here. The plot changes are mostly a bit pointless and Geraldine McEwan is entirely too knowing and active for Miss Marple (and the overdone "twinkle in her eye" looks like she needs medical attention). But the four episodes here are all good clean fun and it's enjoyable spotting the array of Britain's finest actors.

The Fall Guy (2024)

Managing to be both tongue-in-cheek and over the top is a neat trick if you can pull it off and this pleasingly meta film-in-a-film-about-film mostly manages it while being suitably entertaining.

Agatha Christie's Poirot (season 1, 1989)

This classic David Suchet series is, I suppose, an institution. It ran for an incredible thirteen series and seventy episodes over almost 25 years. This first series starts in a fairly unassuming way, with short episodes of varying quality. However, the characterisation is much better than with Marple and from what I remember, closer to the source material. Diverting for lunchtime viewing, but I might skip forward to some of the more well-known books.

The Wedding Singer (1998)

To describe Adam Sandler as wooden at points during this film is an understatement, but for some reason it's only during more emotional scenes, as he's fine in lighter hearted moments. The story itself is easy-going with plenty of gentle and affectionate humour, and thankfully lacking in real silliness (unlike, say, 50 First Dates) and features some excellent supporting performances. But most of all it's saved by the luminous Drew Barrymore, who is endlessly watchable.

Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

I was listening to "Summer in the City" (by The Lovin' Spoonful) and it reminded me of the opening of this classic. Silly but fun.

Watching - February 2026

Calendar Girls (2003)

An amusing and quirky British story but a little underwhelming. Obviously a whole film about just making the calendar wouldn't have been very interesting and indeed here it only takes roughly the first thirty minutes. The rest follows a more familiar filmic pattern and deals with the fall out and impact of sudden fame on the women, their friendships and their families - a fairly standard plot which somehow wasn't what I was expecting. In this the film seems to divert from real life because of its need for a clear beginning, middle and end, whereas, as far as I can tell, in real life the women embraced it all.

Hit Man (2024)

Another film based on a real story, but this time I don't find it as annoying that they've obviously changed things to fit into a neat structure. I think it might be partly because it's not ostensibly telling a true story (although it's quite close), but mainly because it's very entertaining. It is also darker than I remembered, and genuinely quite tense, I found. Great stuff.

Sabrina (1995)

I didn't hate this, but I think it misses the mark for modern viewing. I think a twenty-five year age gap between the man and the woman supposedly falling in love was less remarked upon thirty years ago - in films anyway - but now it just feels ... icky. Harrison Ford does a good job of a man who has a mid-life crisis and develops an infatuation for a twenty-something Julia Ormond (totally understandable in my opinion), but the films fails to convince in the other direction, and it's not a pairing I want to see on screen. The pacing and direction feels dated too.

We Live In Time (2024)

A beautifully shot and told film, but I'm not quite sure what the non-linear structure is supposed to add. Then again, without it, we'd just have a fairly ordinary and unmemorable story of a woman with cancer. Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are both excellent though and I think that's what carried me through a plot that wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Captain Marvel (2019)

I had an itch for a bit of MCU, and since my Disney+ subscription expires in a few days, I thought I'd start with something I don't own. As always with the Marvel films, it's an amazing visual spectacle - something that's easy to take for granted with there being so many MCU films now - but I also enjoyed the story of this. Captain Marvel is so ludicrously over-powered that it would threaten to unbalance most other stories if she were involved in them, though, so perhaps that's why she's not in most of them.

Taskmaster (season 12, 2021)

Reliable entertainment for my lunch times. Only another six seasons to go before I'm caught up!

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

This feels like it was made before the idea of the MCU was really formulated, and was subsequently made canon. But then again, it was made after the first Iron Man, so what do I know. Edward Norton is perfectly decent as Bruce Banner, but still seems wrong to someone familiar with Mark Ruffalo in the role from later films.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

I hadn't realised until I counted, but we have twenty of the MCU films on DVD, and I'm not quite sure how that happened. Anyway, I had an idea to watch them in chronological order within their own timeline, and this is the first (Captain Marvel is second and The Incredible Hulk fifth, not counting shorts and TV shows, but I watched those before the Disney sub ran out). I don't remember watching this before, but it was good fun, and seeing a mini-Chris Evans in his pre-enhanced state was amusing. Obviously all the Marvel films require a fairly hefty suspension of disbelief but somehow this required even more though.

Iron Man (2008)

Robert Downey Junior is very watchable, even though his Tony Stark is frankly an annoying, sexist, over-privileged arsehole - but clearly that's a character enough people want to be that it works. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's just acting, but the presence of it in the film dates the whole thing somewhat.

Better Man (2024)

First, let's talk about the odd and constantly jarring decision to portray Robbie Williams as a chimp. Even I can understand the symbolism here, which means it must be fairly basic and thus not really up to supporting an entire film - and so it proves. I think it would have been better to have deployed the chimp at occasional moments to make the point. I suppose another consideration was that having someone as recognisable as Robbie played by an actor might pull you out of the moment, but other biopics manage: the obvious comparisons are Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, both better films. The heavy-handed life lessons give an air of trying too hard, which, in fairness, kind of sums up Robbie Williams and he admits as much in the film. And the insanity of a life in the spotlight is conveyed pretty effectively. So, overall, entertaining but fatally flawed because the chimp never stops being an irritating gimmick.

M*A*S*H (1970)

Ground-breaking and hugely influential, I'm guessing, and still very funny in places but very much of its time (is that different from "dated"?) - although in fairness it is coming up for sixty years old. It's basically undecided about what sort of a film it actually is. It's essentially a series of sketches, or one might say episodes, so unsurprising then that it was developed into a TV series. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it before.

Baby Driver (2017)

I heard the fantastic "Bellbottoms" by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and had to go and watch the opening scene of this film, which is sound-tracked brilliantly. And then the next scene is superbly choreographed to Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle", so I had to stay for that. And the rest of the film.

People We Meet On Vacation (2026)

I've read a few of Emily Henry's books and enjoyed them very much, so although I've not read this one (originally You and Me on Vacation) I was very happy to see this pop up on Netflix. The comedy is a bit broader in places than I expected, but overall that balances nicely with the developing relationship. There's a sudden misunderstanding about twenty minutes from the end that feels like it was added to make up the time to two hours, but possibly that's in the book.

Friends With Benefits (2011)

I feel I blinked and suddenly this is fifteen years old. Still very enjoyable, even if I think Woody Harrelson's character would be substantially toned down (and possibly recast) nowadays, and the surprisingly extensive (but tasteful) nudity might be omitted. None of these things spoil it for me though.

Taskmaster (season 13, 2022)

Not the best season, but solid, reliable entertainment.

The Karate Kid (1984)

I'm not sure I'd ever seen this before, or if I did it was a long, long time ago. Plenty to enjoy, but what strikes me most is the ending: from Daniel (Ralph Macchio's character) defeating his opponent to the end credits is, incredibly, just thirty seconds. This includes his rival presenting him with a trophy and saying "you're all right" - a whole character and plot resolution that would surely be given a good five minutes in a modern film, at least.

Reading - February 2026

Hello World by Hannah Fry (2018)

Subtitled "How to be human in the age of the machine", this is an interesting but possibly already slightly dated look at how algorithms affect our lives in the 21st century. The main thing that dates it is, of course, the rise of AI in the last 3-4 years. Then again, the LLMs (ChatGPT et al) are essentially just very sophisticated algorithms and the ethics and issues raised by using them haven't changed, even though their use has become more widely known and, to some extent, accepted. In her conclusion, Fry suggests that the main developments needed to accommodate algorithms into human life is to firstly make them more open, rather than proprietary black boxes, and secondly to properly understand and work with their limitations rather than just blindly accepting their results as truth - both suggestions that make perfect sense but sadly seem a little far away at the moment.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (2024)

I'm not normally particularly fond of magical realism, but Matt Haig's books have always hit a reasonable blend for me: not too fantastical, but just enough to make the metaphor work and the points come across. Here, however, it's just a bit too much and the main character just a bit too magical. Why this should be so when I am quite happy to watch MCU films that dress up the same kind of superpowers with "science", I'm not sure, but there we go. The narrative is always good - Haig writes with a deceptively simple clarity that I reminds me a little of Alexander McCall Smith - but the points being made, despite being ones I can't possibly disagree with, seem a little heavy-handed.

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (2019)

The ostensibly high concept of this novel ("Tiffy and Leon share a bed. Tiffy and Leon have never met ...") is actually largely irrelevant, as exactly the same story could have been told with a two bedroom flat. Luckily it doesn't stop the development of a sweet relationship and a good story. Once I got into it properly I polished the second half of the book off in an afternoon. A very welcome birthday present from K!

When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys by Lori Foster, Erin McCarthy & Helen Kay Dimon (2006)

Three short stories: two not bad, one a bit weird. All showing their age - thankfully we don't think it's romantic when men force themselves on women any more.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (1995)

Superficially, this is a little time capsule from thirty years ago - mixtapes, smoking in pubs, recording things off the telly, remember that? At a deeper level, of course, it's timeless: about a certain type of man who never really grew up. I can remember enjoying the novel when I last read it - probably only a couple of years after it came out, when I was in my mid-twenties, ten years younger than Rob is in the book - as I recognised a kindred spirit, someone a little too obsessive about music and prone to feeling lost in an adult world. But ten years later, I was that man in a suit with a good job, wife and kids that Rob finds so intimidating when he meets one of his ex-girlfriends (an episode that forms a much smaller part of the plot than I remember, interestingly). And now I'm twenty years older again, I just find him a bit irritating - a self-centred child who can't understand why people are annoyed with him. The book's still a good read though.

Reading - January 2026

The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont (~1993)

It always surprises me how quick it is to read a script compared to the impact it has on the screen. Since I'm very familiar with the film, it's easy to visualise it as I read, but taking something from words on a page to a film isn't something I can imagine. Perhaps, as an experiment, I need to find a script before I watch the film.

The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond by Chris Blackwell with Paul Morley (2022)

Chris Blackwell is a legend in the music industry, as the founder, chief exec and all round spiritual centre of Island records for decades. Oddly, Wikipedia just lists his occupation as "record producer", which is correct but includes less than 10% of what he did at Island, let alone afterwards. This autobiography covers it all nicely, in a dry, matter-of-fact way that initially seemed a bit boring. But as the chapters passed and the litany of his achievements and genre-defining artists build up, it becomes more and more impressive. Also, a nicely short book, which these things should be.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World by Edgar Wright & Michael Bacall (2010)

I don't know why so many film scripts are freely available on the web but it's great to be able to read them. This was great fun.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020)

There's plenty of wisdom here that goes deeper than the easy headline of "love the life you have rather than the one you don't", wrapped up in a story that's easy to read and easy to feel inspired by. It's obvious why it's been so popular.

Pride and Pleasure by Sylvia Day (2011)

A historical romance with a setting that seems like the author watched a single episode of a period drama for research and then guessed the rest. Points for featuring an independent woman in that day and age; minus more points for making her a simpering mess when the right man comes along. Passed the time but otherwise of little merit.