Watching - May 2026

Jet Lag: The Game (season 3, 2022)

I signed up to Nebula to watch Tom Scott's new series and in the hope that perhaps there might be something there that wasn't just YouTube junk. But everything I've found so far is also on YouTube. Still, never mind, it wasn't expensive. This was recommended to me by B and it passes the time nicely enough - not brilliant but an OK watch. I'll probably watch more at some point.

Ghosts (season 1, 2019)

Revisiting a family favourite. Just as good as I remembered and several classes above what I see of BBC1 sitcoms these days.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

A fun and occasionally touching family-oriented action adventure.

The Sure Thing (1985)

Sometimes I just like to retreat to simpler times and this unassuming but incredibly sweet teen romcom is one of my favourites. I also found an early draft of the script online and the differences are really interesting.

Emma (1996)

This TV film makes four versions of Emma I've seen (excluding Clueless) and is probably the best and most faithful to the original book. While necessarily feeling somewhat rushed in the early stages - there's a lot to pack into one and a half hours - it doesn't feel like it's missing anything important. Kate Beckinsale is much better as Emma Woodhouse than any others I've seen and the production - by the same team coming straight from the previous year's legendary Pride and Prejudice - feels natural and realistic. If you don't know the book and want to start somewhere, this is where I'd recommend.

Taskmaster (series 17, 2024)

Reliably funny. I liked Nick Mohammed's good humour and occasional magic tricks, but the whole cast were good. Minor gripe though, and nothing to do with this particular season, but I do find it annoying that the last programme is always announced as the "grand final", when it's nothing of the sort: the competition is a league, not a knock-out.

Margin Call (2011)

I'd never heard of this film until I saw a couple of clips in a completely unrelated YouTube video, and so was pleased to find it streaming on Plex. If I remember correctly, The Big Short is a much better film about the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis but this is an interesting and different perspective from the inside of a fictional bank looking to save its own skin.

The Big Short (2015)

And just to check my memory, I re-watched this straight after. It's a brilliantly made film and an insane story, but what blows my mind the most is, bar a few name changes and one or two fictional scenes to make it a bit neater for film, it's all true. Information is Beautiful reports the film as 91% accurate (to the book, that is) and Steve Eisman - played by Steve Carell as "Mark Baum" in the film - recently did an interesting reaction video where he confirms most of his bits of the film, even the ones that you think are obviously just dramatic license.

Adam Hills: Inflatable (2011)

Amusing stand-up.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Thor (2011)

Avengers Assemble (2012)

Still watching (gradually) the MCU films in order, but the problem with seeing them back to back like this is that they merge into each other slightly, which is a shame because they're all individually impressive, engrossing and beautifully made. They hit a certain spot like nothing else, I guess, but it's not always what I want to be seeing.

Our Welsh Chapel Dream (season 3, 2026)

In which Keith finally gets to make some pots in his new pottery and Marj's glasses get improbably even larger. They seem a bit more present in this series, unlike last time when they felt like guests in their own documentary. They're both really sweet and it's gentle entertainment to see what they're doing. The intrusive and irritating recaps at the start of each episode and after each ad break need to go though. Are most TV viewers really morons with five second attention spans or is it just that documentary makers have a low opinion of their viewing public?

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Sunday's film night with Z, and what better to share with my youngest than this jolly tale of gambling, crime, drugs and guns? Still very stylish and blackly comic.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs

Ian Leslie

2025 

A very 2020s take on a 1950s relationship

There are one or two books about The Beatles already^{[citation needed]} so it would take a novel approach to make this much-analysed subject fresh. Thankfully, that's what Ian Leslie has achieved, using 43 songs as jumping off points for an in-depth look at the central relationship in the band, that between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It makes for an interesting, engrossing read, one I enjoyed very much.

But - you knew there was a "but" coming, surely - entertaining as it is, I can't take it too seriously. If you leave out the (very) well-known facts and biographical elements, what's left is basically just reams of speculation. Leslie - a psychologist, to judge by his previous books - has taken snippets of old interviews and pieces of lyrics that Lennon and McCartney both acknowledged were often just included because they fitted the music, and built upon them a castle of sand.

Leslie even points this out himself: in the chapter about "I Am The Walrus", he mentions how John Lennon:

"rails at 'experts textperts' - those who confidently offered interpretations of Beatles lyrics"

while literally doing the same thing himself in the same paragraph (and the rest of the book), apparently unaware of the irony. 

Overall, although it's an interesting approach, I'm not sure the conclusions are warranted based on the slender evidence. Lennon and McCartney met in the late 50s and barely more than twenty years later one of them was dead. What they went through together, no-one else will understand, but casting it in the light of a 21st century bromance is almost certainly not how they thought of it themselves. At least, that's my opinion. But what do I know, since I'm not them, and neither is Ian Leslie.

Reading - May 2026

Alex by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor (1987 - 2024)

I first came across Alex in The Independent, probably in the late 80s or early 90s. It was always a very sharp satire on City life and I've bought a few books from the early 2000s. Finding out that it was still being published as late as 2024 was a bit of a surprise - nearly forty years is some going! Luckily the cartoons - yes, all 9,021 of them - are on the Alex site and although it took me a while to go through them, I enjoyed it.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie (2025)

A very 2020s take on a 1950s relationship.

Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks (1998)

Gently amusing re-read that is a bit dated now perhaps.

The Sure Thing by Steven L. Bloom and Jonathan Roberts (second draft, 1983)

The Sure Thing is an little gem of a film that doesn't get much recognition. Having just watched the film and then the "Making of", I was curious to read the script. This second draft is fascinating because, although it contains most of the same scenes as the eventual film, most of the dialog is completely different; the characterisation is inconsistent, it's not clear why either of the main characters would like each other and in general it's a noticeably worse film. From things mentioned casually in the featurette, I suspect that Rob Reiner, then right at the beginning of his directing career, basically rewrote the script, or at least heavily guided the authors. It often seems unfair to talk of a "Rob Reiner film" but given the similarities in tone between this and When Harry Met Sally a few years later (which was written by Nora Ephron but developed in collaboration with Reiner) it seems fair to give him a reasonable amount of credit here.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1933)

Having just watched the TV dramatisation from 2010 (with David Suchet), I wanted to read the book again to remind myself of the plot and see how close the adaptation came. Well, it's pretty close: the book has less action, which is fitting for a locked-room mystery, and although the solution is now well known, it isn't any less impressive from a story telling point of view.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis (2010)

Having just re-watched the film (twice!), I wanted to re-read the book. It's ten years since I first did, and the story it tells is still just as shocking. I don't fully understand the financial products involved (although I'm slightly mollified that the same is true for all but a handful of people in the world), but it doesn't stop this being a fascinating read. That said, while we hear from the people who figured out that the whole sub-prime market was a house of cards waiting to fall, we don't hear from anyone who built it. Were they just kidding themselves or did they understand what was going on but just didn't care? I suspect, and Lewis hints, that they won't or are legally bound not to discuss it, but it would be good to know. Lewis weaves a compelling tale and concludes, as any rational person surely must, that the issue, while complex, is not unsolvable. But there has to be a political will to solve it, and that's the thing that was - and is - really lacking. Why is that absent? Now there's a question.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis (1989)

One of the themes that strike me from both this and The Big Short is the way that the money markets (is that the right term?) too often end up being the tail that wags the dog of actual industry. The sub-prime crisis was caused by the banks' demands for more and more mortgages that could be packaged up into bonds, and similarly here we learn that junk bonds were so profitable that investment banks, having run out of them, artificially created more by engineering corporate takeovers that would then end up being financed by more junk bonds. I'm sure I'm over-simplifying things, but there's an imbalance here surely. Anyway, Michael Lewis is as entertaining as always while maintaining a sane view into the madness of the 80s (a madness that is mild compared to what later occurred, of course).

Going Home by Stacy Finz (2014)

Our online library finally has the last two books in this series and so, as a reminder, I re-read this first one. No surprises of course, but still a sweet and wholesome romance.

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis (2015)

The last in the trilogy of Michael Lewis books I got a week ago and the first I hadn't read before, Flash Boys (he does give good title) is just as interesting, this time about the next way that the financial markets conspired to make money at the expense of ordinary people - high frequency trading (HFT). Again, though, in taking the perspective of the people who uncovered the shenanigans (those who then founded the stock exchange IEX), we're left with the impression of shadowy demons behind the scenes who created the mess in the first place, but who we never hear from. Someone - lots of people - figured out how HFT could work and made billions from it. I can understand why many of them wouldn't be keen to talk publicly but surely enough would to make the genesis of the story tellable. As it is, this is like coming in to the story when it's about to end; we find out what happened but not really who or how. Lewis makes it excellently readable though, as always.

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.

Watching - January 2026

Ocean's Eleven (2002)

Watched with Z. As enjoyable and ludicrous as ever.

The Two Popes (2019)

To say I find organised religion distasteful is an understatement, and that goes tenfold for Catholicism. But that's not really what this film is about, I don't think. Notwithstanding the setting, it's a story of friendship, and a rather sweet one at that. Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins (playing, respectively, an Argentinian and a German ... I suppose that needs Welsh actors, right?) are very good, as you'd expect.

Conclave (2024)

Blimey, you wait ages for a film about the election of a new pope and then two come along! (in this blog, that is). Obviously these look very similar (although I assume the Sistine Chapel was recreated separately for each film) but the focus is very different. It seems to me that the message here is more about the Catholic church, and I don't think it comes out particularly well. The film itself is very good, albeit a little slow and too long, and I think the twist at the end is a touch unnecessary - but that said, if it had ended just with the election of a new pope, perhaps that would have been a bit dull.

Bowie: The Final Act (2025)

Given the title, this documentary had more in it about Bowie's 70s work than I expected, and quite a lot less about his post-superstar, post-80s output. Then there was a sudden jump to Blackstar in the final part. So although it was interesting, and had a good range of interviewees from the essential (Tony Visconti, Earl Slick, Reeves Gabrels) to the inessential (any writer from the inkies), it felt a bit like a good thirty minute programme about Blackstar had been padded with a load of extras.

Taskmaster (season 7, 2018)

There's several moments in this series when I feel really sorry for Alex Horne, as he's put in some very demeaning situations - but then I guess he can always say no, and it is (usually) very funny. As is the whole series.

Ocean's Eleven (1960)

I was looking forward to seeing what I think it's supposed to be a classic Rat Pack movie, but I was disappointed. It's badly dated: slow paced, wooden and possessing what would now be considered unacceptable attitudes. As an ensemble piece, it only works because of the star power of the actors, but nearly sixty years later it doesn't even have that (I found it hard to follow at times because I couldn't really tell who was who). And if Julia Roberts is under-used in the remake, then Angie Dickenson is only decoration in this, because there's no reason for her character to exist that I can see.

Sliding Doors (1998)

I think this is a great film (I've seen it many times) but I was surprised to find that it wasn't particularly well received on its release. Roger Ebert's review said that neither individual story was very interesting, but I think that (unusually for him) he misses the point: the interest is in the contrast between the stories, stemming from such a minor difference. Gwyneth Paltrow - pre-weird pseudo-science promotion career - is very good, the accent is spot on and of course she's gorgeous. But the funniest moments in the film are unquestionably from Douglas McFerran as Russell, Gerry's pub mate, whose joy at Gerry's self-inflicted misfortunes is hilarious.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I really wanted to introduce this classic to the kids but I couldn't ever pin them down to a date. So I eventually gave up and watched it by myself for the first time in ages. Obviously it's fantastic, but this time around I was particularly struck by how good the music is: low-key but wonderfully scene-setting. Other than that, what's to say about a masterpiece? A majestic, slow burn of a film.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Wait, this is nearly four years old?

The Greatest Hits (2024)

Time travel as metaphor, more effective that some (yes, About Time, I'm looking at you). The main character is literally taken back to her tragic past when she hears certain music and can't escape this until she lets go of her past. It also has the most curated, hipster friendly soundtrack I've ever come across, which is great, but it carries too much of the film and the story is too slight. Sweet, but not quite as affecting as it wants to be - and could do with more humour (which, in fairness, About Time manages well ... mostly).

Taskmaster (season 10, 2020)

The first Taskmaster to be affected by covid restrictions, and it clearly caught them out a bit (as it did everyone, of course), as some of the tasks are a bit mundane. But Johnny Vegas is a reliable clown and, as ever, there's enough amusement and occasional laugh-out-loud moments to make it worth watching.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

It's great to see local boy made good Colin Firth all impeccable in a suit and then in a full-on action scene. There's a couple of elements that don't bear too much thinking about, and which seem a bit out of place in what's generally an action comedy. But the overall sense of excess carries it through.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

More over the top silliness. Highlight: Elton John saying "I'm gonna fuck you up" before doing some karate style moves on a heavy.

The Proposal (2009)

I think I originally watched this for Ryan Reynolds, but this time it is Sandra Bullock that impresses me most. She's so great at physical comedy but there's a great subtlety too. At the end when Andrew (Reynolds) proposes to her, there's a lovely little moment when she says "I'm scared" that is sweet and moving. A cute film (as long as we're ignoring the fact that the two of them fall in love over the course of just three days ...)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

We used to own this on VHS and we must have watched it a lot, because despite having not seen it now for many, many years, I am still very familiar with all of it. The animation sadly shows its age but that doesn't stop it being funny and very inventive. My favourite bit is Betty Boop, still in black and white, serving Eddie in the club.

Taskmaster (season 11, 2021)

I've taken to watching an episode of Taskmaster while I eat lunch every day, which is a nice way to take a break from my otherwise incredibly hectic life. It's amusing but undemanding entertainment that requires minimal emotional investment but nevertheless doesn't feel like a complete waste of time. I particularly enjoyed Mike Wozniak during this series - I don't know if his persona is natural or adopted but he was very entertaining.

Ocean's 8 (2018)

It's sufficiently rare to find a mainstream film that isn't just female led, but only really features men as incidental characters (there are only two with more than a couple of lines) that it kind of distracts from the fact that the whole film is just a complete, beat-for-beat retread of Ocean's 11. Still, that was a good film and so is this, in the same slightly ridiculous way. Sandra Bullock and Rihanna (who I didn't even recognise) are very good, but for some reason Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter can't seem to settle on their accents.