True Blood: Season 2 (2009)

I don't know why Season 2 has only just finished on Channel 4 since it was first broadcast in the US in 2009, but anyway, I should be grateful it's on and not stuck on Sky somewhere (as Mad Men is shortly to be). True Blood is a weird show when you think about it - I don't mean the vampires and the mind-reading and the whatever-the-hell-Maryann was - I mean that over a dozen episodes, that seem to be set over a short week or two, so much happens. I mean a crazy amount happens in the short time span, even for a TV show! 

This season saw Sookie and Bill travel to Dallas to infiltrate an anti-vampire cult who were holding Eric's maker (or 'sire' if this was Buffy) Godric captive. It just so happened that at the end of Season 1, Jason was brain-washed by a member of the Fellowship of the Sun church and this season he was in Dallas, in training with them for a war against vampires. At the same time back in Bon Temps, Tara and hot walking-abs Eggs had a lot of sex while Maryann shook about a bit, made the rest of the town have sex, and was eventually revealed to be an ancient demon who believed herself immortal. Sam was her number one prey during this time for his supernatural morphing ability, and he found solace in a fellow animal-changing-friend, until she was murder and her heart ripped out. Meanwhile, Sheriff Andy was stripped of his badge and dignity, Lafayette was rescued from Eric's bar, mummy's boy Hoyt got a vampire girlfriend, and by the end of the season, Bill and Sookie were back in town to save the day. 

That's quite a packed show! Even though in some episodes, not a lot seemed to happen to move things along. I've not even mentioned Jason's relationship with the head of the Fellowship's wife, nor Godric's decision to die, nor the introduction of an intriguing vampire Queen. Throughout it all, the writing has been strong, characters (a whole myriad of them) are interesting and plot twists come thick and fast. On reflection you wonder where some plots are going, or where they've gone - once she got back from Dallas, Sookie barely mentioned what she'd been up to there, for 6 or 7 episodes. Will we see her fellow mind-reader again? What exactly did she do to Maryann when that light came out of her hands? These questions make me want to see more and more episodes and now the damn season's finished!!

Maryann was one of my favourite characters this season, played deliciously by Michelle Forbes, who I'll always love from the movie Kalifornia. Her plot was intriguing and felt different, and almost felt like what the Cordelia-gives-birth-to-a-God plot arc at the end of Angel's 4th season should have been. The show will need a really decent villain to fill her place next season! There are so many other great characters it's hard to pick favourites... Jason's sweet and hot, and also really funny; Tara was a strong, witty woman in season 1, but here she got a bit bland, which I'll blame on Maryann's influence; Eric continues to intrigue but little is given away; Bill is not very excitin, although he's got a bit more humour about him now; Sookie continues to grow and Anna Paquin is just brilliant in every way... Oddly enough one of my favourite characters is Tara's mother Adina, played by Lettie Mae Thornton. In the first season she was a drunk, and she's now developed into a tee-total God-botherer, but she is becoming less selfish and wants to help Tara. Her motivations and the fact she's a guest star leave you guessing what she'll do next and when she might pop up. Why a drunken religious human would turn out to be so interesting in a show packed to the rafters with freaks and supernatural beings I do not know, or perhaps that's the very reason - she's so human.

Roll on Season 3! Perhaps I could just get the DVDs, although I have so many I haven't watched, I've time to wait until Channel 4 gets round to showing it without having to buy new stuff. 

Black Sheep (2007)

I was a bit unsure whether Black Sheep would live up to the premise, so when it turned out to be utterly hilarious I was very, very happy! Filmed and set in New Zealand, the movie is a comedy-horror where a mutant sheep species is accidentally released into the population at a sheep farm. People who are bitten begin to turn into sheep (in scenes parodying An American Werewolf in London), and others are not so lucky, as the killer sheep bite off limbs and eat entrails with gay abandon. The tongue is wedged so firmly in cheek in this movie it almost wears a hole through the side of it's mouth. 

The plucky trio who are being besieged by the sheep include a young guy with sheep-phobia, picked up from a disturbing incident as a young boy; a cheery Maori farm hand who's handy with sheep medicine guns; and a chirpy, vegetarian, animal-activist who of course is partly responsible for freeing the killer sheep mutant. They're a massively likable threesome, and the actors are all clearly loving what they're doing. The script is witty, knowing, yet has a keen originality in places. This isn't just some lame Scary Movie retread of other movies, although I did spot some wonderful takes on the raptor-Muldoon Jurassic Park showdown and the wildebeest stampede from The Lion King as rendered by a flock of sheep! 

The gore quotient is fairly high, but it's comedy gore, nothing too upsetting. There is great delight to be had in the sheep puppet work and their savagery is never upsetting, always funny. I'd rank Black Sheep in the horror-comedy pantheon alongside Shaun of the Dead and the aforementioned American Werewolf. Yes, it really is that good! Oh and the posters are the funniest I've ever seen.

An Evening with Dara O'Briain (23/11/10, The Grand)

Last week we paid another visit to Leeds' Grand Theatre, for the 10th and final time this year (and 3rd time this month!) - that's just 2 visits fewer than to West Yorkshire Playhouse. An Evening with Dara O'Briain was the first comedy gig I've seen at The Grand, and one of the few times I've been sat in the stalls. It's a really good venue for comedy, especially sat so close, and Dara was nothing short of hilarious. 

The first act seemed more improvisational, with the traditional stand up bit of talking to people in the front row, and the second act was more rehearsed material, although saying that he was on the last 3 dates in Leeds of a 149 date UK tour, everything felt fresh and spontaneous. The only negative thing I have to say about the show was that, although I'm no prude, there was a preponderance of foul language. For some reason it really stood out to me just how much Dara swore, particularly during the first half of the show. It didn't get in the way of the comedy or the material, it just surprised me, but then I'm used to seeing him on Mock the Week and more recently The Apprentice: You're Fired where he's a lot more restrained. 

Dara O'Briain is a fantastic improviser, he's up there with Ross Noble, though he's not quite as 'out there'. There were a few heckles that he dealt with admirably, and his delight in his comedy and the stories of some of the audience (such as the woman who saved a man's life by putting out his burning car, and then sitting with him until help arrived) was infectious. I think that's one of the reason's I really enjoy Dara O'Briain, he's clearly loving what he does. He's also fecking hilarious - the highlights were bits about baby chiropractors, with an impression of a baby bending to pick up a Peppa Pig and putting his back out; a great description of how video games are nothing like books and punish you for not being good enough; a wry take on the movie 2012 and latinos; and some great stuff about his observations at his wife's maternity classes. Brilliant work.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

1937 Theatrical Release

Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White needs little introduction. As we watched this on Blu-Ray recently I was amazed by how much of the movie - songs, names, the look, whole scenes - has become part of popular culture, and indeed cliché in Disney or fairytale imaginings. I was also quite shocked by how much this movie stands up to anything that has been produced in the 73 years since it was first released. It's still funny, moving, sad, exciting and beautiful, and in Blu-Ray it looks exquisite. 

One particularly good trick on this and a couple of other Disney Blu-Rays is the use of something called 'DisneyView' which fills in the black strips on either side of the movie (for the early movies were not created in widescreen) with new art in keeping with the style of the film, which changes from scene to scene. It could be potentially distracting, but it fills a widescreen and complements the movie.

I intend to view all of Disney's Classics on DVD and Blu-Ray over the coming weeks and months, in order, and along with the often copious special features. Snow White's recent Blu-Ray is packed with featurettes and

2001 Collector's Edition DVD

galleries detailing not only the fascinating production of the film, but also revealing the history of Disney's Hyperion Studios, where the feature was made, along with Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts. At the moment I'm reading an enthralling Walt Disney biography by Neal Gabler, and reading about the immense amount of work that Disney and his hundreds of employees put into Snow White complemented by the hours of informative talking heads and archive footage on the Blu-Ray combines to provide a first rate account that could hardly be bettered.

As well as the Blu-Ray features, we also watched those features from the original DVD release a decade or so ago (I think it was one of the first Disney releases of an old classic) that did not appear on the new release. It's a shame that not all features can make it to the new editions, and it means I have to keep the old

2009 Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD

copies hanging around, so I now have two copies of Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio... but it's worth it to see the additional Disneyland extracts, other deleted scenes and galleries of publicity. The Blu-Ray has an updated version of the DVD's Disney Through the Decades documentary, a 40 minute overview of Disney from the Alice cartoons to their acquisition of Pixar told by the likes of Angela Lansbury and Robby Benson, and split up by trailers of each re-release of Snow White. It's a fascinating look at how the Disney name and brand has grown and now reaches books, theatre, sports, TV, theme parks, and a few movies too.

I can't wait to view more Disney Classics, some of which I haven't revisited since I was a child, and a handful I've never even seen, and if all of the extra features are as good as they are for Snow White, it's going to be a fascinating experience.

New Tricks: Series 7 (2010)

Jack, Brian, Sandra & Jerry

It pains me to say it, but I think that New Tricks has gone on long enough. Although it's a ratings juggernaut and it's always a nice easy watch, I think that the show has become a little tired. I didn't sit down to watch the latest series with the same anticipation, the plots seemed to have become uninvolving, the guest stars uninteresting, and they didn't do a lot with the main characters' development. 

I've enjoyed the adventures of UCOS, the Unsolved Crimes and Open cases Squad, particularly as the cast are all excellent actors: James Bolam and Dennis Waterman do surly and grumpy very well, Amanda Redman's been a favourite since At Home With the Braithwaites, and Alun Armstrong is worth watching whatever he's in. His Brian Lane is the highlight of the show, with his obsessive compulsive ways and photographic memory, and his long-suffering wife Esther, lovingly played by Susan Jameson, Bolam's real-life wife. 

Anne Reid & David Ryall in one of the stronger episodes

The banter between the leads is still the best bit of the show, with the mystery's proving mildly engaging at best, none of which are particularly memorable. New Trick's set up suffers from something Without a Trace doesn't - both programmes involve teams solving crimes that have happened up to many years ago, but where the US drama employs effective flashbacks to fill in the blanks, the British drama resorts to exposition. Because we never meet the murder victims, or many of the people involved in the unsolved crimes and open cases, it's up to Sandra and the team to keep reiterating to the viewer who's who and who did what. This can get wearing after a while, and sometimes I find it a struggle to keep up or care for a victim I only know from a photograph. 

After 7 series, New Tricks needs to shake things up. It's very much the antithesis of Spooks, a youthful, fast-paced, adrenaline ride, with innovative directing techniques that continues to fire on all cylinders, compared with New Tricks' old-fashioned look and feel, which was originally it's charm. In these days of HD TV (which I don't have) New Tricks looks grainy and past it. The cast still makes New Tricks an entertaining prospect, but it needs a Spooks producer to come in and be unafraid to inject some real jeopardy into the stories. Saying this, I'll probably still watch series 8.

A Town Called Panic (2009)

One of the weirdest, funniest animations I've seen all year, A Town Called Panic is a bizarre stop-motion movie co-produced by Belgium, France and Luxembourg. It sees the characters Cowboy and Indian accidentally ordering millions of bricks over the internet for their friend Horse's birthday present, undersea creatures stealing their walls, Horse having romantic feelings for music teacher Madame Longray (also a horse)... and a heck of a lot of other weirdness inbetween.

From the beginning I was laughing out loud at the quirky, jerky movements and the low-tech stop-motion. The movie's setting and population look like what a child's playtime may look like, a mish-mash of different creatures, a bit like Toy Story in that respect, but as the Empire quote on the DVD cover says 'like Toy Story on absinthe'. The film isn't just a load of craziness, there's a plot or two, including the aformentioned equine romance. Although the characters have hilarious French voices (it's a subtitled animation, not a dubbed one), farmer Stephen's being my favourite, they also have personalities and although they have no facial expressions, you can tell what the characters are feeling - mostly panic! Especially for Cowboy, the more antsy one. Cowboy and Indian share a room and are a very dim pair, like children, and Horse is in a paternal role.

A Town Called Panic is simply hilarious and an utter joy. Even the trailer, one of only a couple of DVD extras, is absolutle gold, with captions comparing the movie to other live-action classics. I hope that the pair of directors who made this go on to do more of this refreshingly original work (not just the Cravendale adverts), and that it gets released over here!

Goldfrapp (16/11/10, 02 Academy, Leeds)

Goldfrapp was the first gig Andrew and I attended together, 5 years ago. It was in Leeds University's student union, a club called Stylus I think, and it was horribly warm, we were jostled about and had to keep an eye on the clock in order not to miss our train home. Despite this, Alison Goldfrapp was simply awesome. 

This week, we saw Goldfrapp again (when you see Goldfrapp live, it meets you see Alison singing with a band, who knows where the other half of the group, Will Gregory, is), this time at the 02 Academy in Leeds. A bigger, better venue than before, and with home a 10 minute walk away, the experience was much nicer. And more importantly Alison was sounding exquisite. I really like Goldfrapp's Black Cherry and Supernature albums, not so keen on the first one or Seventh Tree, and I've only heard the recent one when Andrew's played it, but I 've liked what I've heard. I was pleased then that the set list (below) featured just 1 song each from the 2 albums I've not keen on, and everything else I knew. 

1. Voicething (Intro)
2. Crystalline Green
3. You Never Know
4. Dreaming
5. Head First
6. Number 1
7. Alive
8. Believer
9. Shiny and Warm
10. Train
11. Ride A White Horse
12. Ooh La La
13. Black Cherry
14. Little Bird
15. Lovely Head
16. Strict Machine

I swear that Goldfrapp never sound better than when they're live. The louder they are the more transcendant is Alison's voice, which has a real operatic quality. There was a preponderance of up-tempo numbers, things only really slowed down for Black Cherry and Little Bird, and Ooh La La, Train and Strict Machine were highlights. Alison was dressed in a strange outfit that looked like an ostrich, which moved as she stood in front of a wind machine, giving an ethereal quality, especially when coupled with Alison's haunting vocals. Occasionally, I can't tell a word of what she's singing, but the noises she makes are so good, I just don't care. A top class gig.

The Habit of Art (10/11/10, The Grand)

We booked to see The Habit of Art, knowing nothing at all about it other than it's written by Alan Bennett, and we really enjoyed The History Boys that we saw in Leeds 27/10/07. I liked the new play, and it's not hard to pin point why... It was well acted, the set was amazing and the dialogue believable and often utterly filthy. 

The Habit of Art features a play within a play, as the audience watches a theatre group rehearsing a play about the lives of poet W.H. Auden, composer Benjamin Britten and Auden's biographer Humphrey Carpenter at a point when they all came together in Oxford. All were partial to young boys, although Britten aparently liked them a bit too young, and Auden has an encounter with a rent boy who gets involved in the main meat of the company's play. The 'actors' step in and out of their characters to compare notes, complain to the script-writer and to make suggestions. It could possibly be quite taxing to follow for some of the audience, indeed a row of old ladies in front of us left in the interval, I think because they couldn't hear what was going on.

I'm surprised more people didn't leave as the mostly geriatric audience was treated to long speeches about cock, cock-sucking, and other such things. There was some lovely language used, and it's great to think that Bennett himself is in his 70's when these words were written. I know very little about Auden or Britten, in fact I know nothing about them other than their names, and I don't think I learnt a great deal about them here - I did have a good evening at the theatre though. I was a little unsure what the 'message' of the play was, it may have gone over my head, although the construction of the play within a play helped when the 'actors' asked questions about the real-life artists' motivations and feelings. Not as immediately accessible as The History Boys, The Habit of Art was still well written and not dumbed down in the slightest.

Spooks: Series 9 (2010)

I love Spooks. I think it's the best drama on British TV since ever. I can't believe it's 9th series has recently finished! Has it really been going almost a decade?! I really enjoyed the 8th series, with it's duplicitous American agent and the force of nation that was Ros Myers. Sadly, series 8's cliff-hanger ending was resolved in a low key manner with Ros' funeral at the beginning of series 9, leaving a large hole in the series where Hermione Norris used to be.

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) took centre stage this series, and I have to say, he's no Ros, and he's no Adam (Rupert Penry-Jones), but with the continued revelations about who 'Lucas North' really is, the character became not just interesting, but fascinating. New recruits Dimitri (Max Brown) and Beth (Sophia Myles) were introduced in episode 1, and despite being rather pretty, they never really got given much personality. There was a bit of a charisma void in Spooks this series. Technician Tariq (Shazad Latif), introduced to replace Malcolm last series, is another character who's beautiful but undeveloped.

However, Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) and Ruth (Nicola Walker) were there to save the day, many times, in many ways. Their relationship has always been multi-layered, leading up to Ruth turning down Harry's proposal this series, and eventually leading to Harry giving away state secrets to save Ruth's life. I've enjoyed how Ruth's character has been given more to do this series, and even chance to get off the grid. Nicola Walker is a great actress, and it's a shame she doesn't do more TV, and she's turned Ruth into a major player, with real emotions who really feels the impact of every service death. She is the heart of the series.

Simon Russell Beale added some much needed levity as the new Home Secretary. He's been an absolute delight, and he follows some great actors in the role. A new addition I hope isn't going to hang around long next series was introduced in the last episode, Alec White. He was played by Vincent Regan in too broad strokes, he felt cartoonish in the realistic (!) world in which Spooks resides. Either he needs toning down or axing. 

There seemed to be more standalone episodes this series, and with more variety than just having Islamic extremist bad guys as the villain's of the week. China seemed to be the main big bad, until Lucas revealed his true colours. I talked in my review of Wallander how it was brave of that show to have Stefan kill himself in the last episode, and it looks like someone at Spooks has been taking notes. To reveal a major character as not only a killer and a terrorist (he planted a bomb in a foreign embassy), but then to deny him redemption and force his end over the edge of a building... It gave the final episode an emotional wallop, and allowed Lucas the kind of memorable exit that Ros, killed off screen, was denied. Even with the gripes mentioned above, I still maintain Spooks is head and shoulders above other UK dramas, even in it's ninth year.

This Is England '86 (2010)

This Is England '86: The Series

I found the Shane Meadows movie This Is England to be surprisingly good - I'd never seen anything by him, and from the descriptions and films stills I'd seen, it looked a bit gritty and grim, so I was pleased that it was genuinely funny and enjoyable, though dealing with some very serious issues, not least of which was racism. 

The Channel 4 mini-series picks up the characters from the movie a couple of years later in 1986, and again the tone veers from laugh-out-loud characters and situations to incredible serious, harrowing scenes of rape and violence. It's a tough mix and it's one that is handled well. The characters are all instantly likeable, although I wouldn't want to be friends with them! It's a real ensemble affair, with Thomas Turgoose's Shaun, the lead in the movie, now left school and trying to find his way. Shaun's very sympathetic, and Turgoose plays him sweetly naive and as a bit of an underdog. His relationship with his mum, and his integration back into the old gang are fun to watch, and the various gang members are good value. 

This Is England ('83): The Movie

Woody, Milky, Smell, Kelly, Meggy, Banjo... it's hard to keep up with who's who sometimes, though all look incredibly distinctive, especially Smell, the interesting looking and sounding Rosamund Hanson. I know it's set in the '80's, but some of the fashions and hair styles seem utterly bizarre. Lol, played by Vicky McClure gets to lead on the more serious storylines, including her malfunctioning relationship with Woody, affair with Milky, and of course dealing with her creepy, rapey father, whose return to her life is very unwelcome.

I was only 2 in 1986, so I don't remember it that well (!), and I didn't live in such a run down area (though it's never clear where it's set, either north or south), but the whole thing feels very authentic - the use of news footage of the football, Thatcher and the Falklands helps place events in time and gives the characters lives context. Despite the abuse and casual violence, This Is England '86 has at it's heart a close-knit family of disparate individuals who look out for each other, and if there is a further series I'd like to join them to see how they're getting on.

Whites (2010)

Whites is another one of those great sitcoms that pops up out of no-where on BBC2 and proceeds to be very funny and diverting indeed. Starring Alan Davies as Roland White, head chef at a fancy country-hotel restaurant... there's not much more set up than that! The plots are the standard comedy tropes, and the comedy comes from misunderstandings and good character work, with Roland being a traditional sitcom lead in the vein of Basil Fawlty and David Brent, namely he's quick to anger and often does some unforgiveable things, but he's never nasty or unlikeable. Davies looks perfect for the part and I find him so pleasurable to watch, it's such a shame he does act more often than he does (the odd Jonathan Creek special once every blue moon isn't enough!). 

The kitchen staff (and the rest of the cast) are made up of restaurant manager and will-they-won't-they love interest of Roland, Caroline, and new apprentice chef Skoose. I pair these two together as they're played by Katharine Parkinson and Stephen Wight, who I recently saw playing husband and wife in BBC4 sitcom The Great Outdoors. It's odd to see them together again, although not in similar roles. Parkinson I'm loving every time I see her, and Wight is a character you love to hate here as he gives his boss, sous chef Bib (Darren Boyd) a hard time. Bib (where these ridiculous names come from I've no idea) is Roland's long-suffering 'side-kick' who longs to come out of Roland's shadow, if only Roland would let him. 

Isy Suttie plays Kiki, a gormless waitress who is almost too dim to function, yet Suttie plays her with a charming guilelessness that she doesn't grate. The wonderful Maggie Steed (who I last saw in Hayfever at the WYP) is the owner of the hotel and an absolute blast every time she appears. She's a typical toff, not recognising Bib, getting Roland to cook individual meals for her in his office and generally floating around not doing much. Although I described the 'typical sitcom' set ups above, the polished, likeable cast make Whites a show I'd be happy to see gain another series.

05/03/11 Update: Alan Davies has apparently confirmed, via Twitter, that there won't be another series.

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

The rave reviews for The Kids Are All Right are spot on in my opinion. It's a funny, heartwarming, very real movie, and the fact that the couple at the centre of it are 'middle-aged sad sack lesbians' is barely given time to be an issue. Obviously the fact that Julianne Moore and Annette Bening's Jules and Nic are in a long-term same sex relationship does draw comment it doesn't mean the film is about that. Rather it's a movie about a family, who's children, Laser and Joni are growing up and trying to find their way in the world, and how they begin to do this is by contacting their biological, sperm-donating 'father', Paul (Mark Ruffalo).

It's difficult to single out a favourite performance from this outstanding cast, but I've always liked Julianne Moore. Bening is unrecognisable in her short crop and she brings so much to Nic, not least in the stand out, wordless scene when she discovers that Jules and Paul have been sleeping together - the emotions written across her face left me gasping for breath, it was heart-breaking. The relationship between Nic and Jules is wonderfully drawn, the annoying quirks and sweet exchanges make you believe they've been together over a decade

Mark Ruffalo does a great job with Paul, managing to make him sympathetic and rounded, not just a bad guy who sleeps with Jules out of spite or anything other than genuine affection. It's sad to know that he won't be able to keep it up. Josh Hutcherson (Laser) continues to shine as he did in Bridge to Terabithia, although now he's 18 and I can quite happily say he's looking hot, and it's a shame Laser doesn't turn out gay! The scenes when he discovers his moms' gay man porn, and then he's assumed to be gay, are a hoot. Mia Wasikowska, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, is good, though I'm still not sure whether she's intentionally a little bland, but she's not awful by any means.

The Kids... isn't a laugh riot, it's more touching, though there are some very funny moments that come from the characters. As in life, not everything ties up neatly at the film's end, but it's clear that whatever trials this family go through, they are strong enough to survive. And that's a great message, in a movie that isn't about any particular message.

Wallander: Series 1 (2005-06)

The Swedish series of Wallander is one of the best shows I've seen. Utterly gripping, beautifully shot (especially the stories that also received Swedish cinema releases), and terrifically played by a very talented cast, every 90 minute episode was a gem. Obviously some stories were weaker than others, but a weak Wallander was still  better than most bog standard detective dramas.

The series wasn't based on Henning Mankell's source novels, rather on new ideas from him, although not having read any I wouldn't notice! Krister Henriksson plays the oft dour, occasionally fun Kurt Wallander, but the show is not just named for him as the character's daughter, Linda is also part of the Ystad police force. Sadly, Johanna Sällström who played Linda committed suicide following the first series, and knowing this while watching the latter half of the season gives extra poiniancy to her performance, for the poor policewoman is put through the wringer. 

Among the other staff, some of whom leave half way through the season, shrink the police presence somewhat, are the very funny Nyberg (Mats Bergman), uniformed  Svartman (Fredrik Gunnarsson) and loose cannon Stefan Lindman, played by husband-of-Girl-With-The-Dragon-Tattoo's-Noomi-Rapace, Ola Rapace. He is a tough character to like sometimes, and his relationship with Linda goes sour, creating tension between them as the season progresses, and Stefan ultimately steps further over the line with suspects until the final episode when events reach an incredibly powerful and shocking conclusion, not to mention brave for TV show. 

Being filmed in Swedish, the mini-movies offer interesting insights into Swedish life (though obviously allowing for distortion of seeing this life through a TV drama) - although you'd take from Wallander that everyone lives in a detached house in the middle of nowhere as that's usually where the victims or murders live! Wallander presents interesting, genuinely intriguing mysteries, and is unafraid of a grisly murder scene, sometimes feeling a bit too graphic. However, that's the only criticism I'd level at the series, bar the strange fact that you never really get to know Kurt Wallander all that well - we're shown glimpses of his home life and certain things remain unexplained, but this is in keeping with the character, who is wedded to his work. I'm eagerly looking forward to BBC4 repeating the second and final Swedish series, and I'm interested to know how it will work without Stefan and without Linda - the first departure planned for, the second sadly not.  

Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show (03/11/10, The Grand)

The Rocky Horror Show was an experience, I'll say that much. Distinctly unmoved but intrigued by the movie version, I thought it would be worth seeing the original stage show when it came to Leeds last week. Watching this bizarre 1950's sci-fi pastiche, featuring a transvestite from Transylvania and his creepy, lascivious ways as a stage musical didn't enamour the whole premise to me any more, but it didn't make me dislike it. 

What I disliked was the pantomime element where the audience shouted at the actors, sang (or spoke) along with the lyrics, and generally behaved liked drunks on a bus. I understand that the show's a bit of cult hit (and I saw many 'cults', both male and female, dressed in basques, high heels and fishnets) but if I hadn't sort of expected this I think I would have been very pissed off. Unfortunately, to counteract the shouting, the mics were turned up VERY LOUD and as a result I could barely tell what a couple of the characters were singing, and since I've seen the film once and can't recite every word, I wanted to hear what was going on. 

Part of me thinks I was being a bit miserable - I have to say, watching the entire population in the stalls stand up and do the Time Warp was quite breathtaking! - but actually, the other part of me felt that I'd paid £21 to watch the actors perform, not the audience. I found it a bit disrespectful to the actors, although you know they were expecting it, and they did have some amusing come backs, particularly narrator Michael Starke, who reacted to shouts of 'Sinbad' (from Brookside, not the Sailor) with a hearty 'Fuck off!' You got the feeling from the over-reactions from the crowd that they'd love it whatever the cast were like, which if I was in the cast, found feel it devalued my performance somewhat.

As it is the cast were uniformly brilliant, with special mention for Frank 'N' Furter played by David Bedella - he had a killer voice and strutted around in the outrageous outfits incredibly comfortably. The constantly-in-pants Rocky, played by Julian Essex-Spurrier was incredibly buff and fantastically fit, though I actually thought he looked hotter with his drag on! Overall, I liked most of the songs, though some were forgettable, and the cast were great, but the story's just off somehow - like the movie, I found the musical Rocky Horror to be less than the sum of its parts.

Blaze (Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, 2007)

It's been a few months since I last read any Stephen King, which is a shame as I have loads of his stuff on my shelf (every book in fact, apart from the new hardback ones). I zipped through Blaze in 4 days, a book King wrote but didn't publish back in the 1970's that he has since updated and rewritten in the style of his psuedonym Richard Bachman. Now I've read all but one of the previous Bachman works - Rage, The Running Man, Roadwork, The Long Walk, and Thinner - and to be perfectly honest, I don't really see how they differ from King's other writings. I enjoyed them all, particularly The Long Walk, and I enjoyed Blaze just as much.

Blaze is the nickname of Clayton Blaisdell III, a man who was beaten so badly by his father when young, he know has a permanent dented forehead and a poorly developed IQ. The book follows Blaze's attempt to kidnap and ransom a baby, interweaved with details of his quite tragic childhood and past life. The supernatural element to all this are Blaze's conversations with George, his recently deceased friend. It is established late on that George is inside Blaze's head, and Blaze knows this, but this doesn't explain how when the protagonist is supposed to be mentally challenged, 'George' manages to offer intelligent advice. 

I thought that it would turn out George never really existed and Blaze had a split personality, but the truth was more vague than that! Leaving the eerie aspect aside, King does a great job of making Blaze a sympathetic anti-hero, even as he kidnaps the baby, Joe, who he comes to care for and protect. We see as Blaze grew up he suffered psychological and emotional traumas that help to explain his mental state today. King makes you reassess how the mentally ill are treated, and makes you consider how they got to where they are - I don't think this was intentional, but a by-product of how much King makes you care for Blaze. Needless to say, the ending was quite sad.

Jeremy Hardy (WYP, 30/10/10)

For our final trip to the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2010 - this would be the 12th visit of the year, that averages 1 a month! - we saw another stand up comedy act, a few days after Julian Clary, namely Jeremy Hardy, who I know from Have I Got News For You and QI.

This was an altogether different act to the last show - Jeremy Hardy didn't interact with the audience, come on in roller blades, or change his outfit between acts. Rathery, Hardy seemed to have little structure and his comedy observations came out as more of a linked stream of consciousness - it was certainly difficult to pick out an scripted jokes. He must have been enjoying himself too, as he went on for over 2 hours, covering topics like politics, the middle classes and generally things and people that irk him. 

One of my favourite observations was when Hardy referred to Primark's all you can wear for £6 buffet! I have to say that I agreed with pretty much everything Hardy said - though I'm not sure all the audience did, I mean there were gasps when he described Princess Diana as a bad mother - too soon? There was no malice in what he said, but there was some vitriol and I think some of his opinions may have divided the audience - I though found the evening hilarious and intelligent - what other comedians use the word perspicacious with nary a blink?

Julian Clary: Lord of the Mince (WYP, 26/10/10)

Last week we had an evening of camp entertainment from 'National Trinket' Julian Clary in his Lord of the Mince show. Coming on in roller blades, before having a member of the audience remove them so that he could mince properly, Clary was consistantly hilarious, spouting innuendo after innuendo, and generally giving the audience a great time. 

Nervously sat on the front row, we escaped any comments, but a couple of audience members were brought down so that Julian could perform some 'mind-reading', and pretend to pull sex toys out of their asses of course! You would think that so much campery and innuendo would be wearing after a couple of hours, but he never outstayed his welcome, and there's something oddly sweet about how Julian Clary delivers a line, even if the subject is fisting or rimming... 

The show was clearly scripted, and performed well, yet the best bits I thought involved Julian's interactions with the audience, and his ad libs to their answers. He also read a couple of pieces out of the Yorkshire Evening Post to demonstrate how poor the news outside the South is - it turns out that Julian Clary can make anything sound rude. I had a gay old time.

The X-Files (Spotnitz, Wolfman, Moench, Denham, 2009)

I'm always excited to read anything new about The X-Files, and the recent new graphic novel that has been published under the simple title 'The X-Files' was therefore something I was eager to get my hands on. Consisting of 4 stories, including a couple written by Frank Spotnitz, the book gathers the first few issues of a new X-Files comic that sees Mulder and Scully back at the FBI, investigating unusual and paranormal phenomena, overseen by Skinner, and aided by the Lone Gunmen - even Senator Matheson makes an appearance!

Clearly, the stories do not follow the 9th season or I Want To Believe, and it's never specified where they fit in the X-Files chronology (I suspect they don't, since date and time stamps put the adventures clearly in the here and now), but that doesn't matter - Mulder and Scully of old are back! To be frank, the stories aren't that exciting or memorable - I'm having to flick through the book to remember what they're about - there's an evil spirit that jumps between people (seen in the TV series already I think), a deadly psychological drug being developed by the government, some sort of cloning thing, and a scary tale of monsters living underground. No new ground is covered really, yet the stories are a welcome addition to the X-Files world. 

The art work is gorgeous, everyone is recognisable from the series, and my favourite bit of Spotnitz's stories are the myriad in-jokes and series references lurking within the art. The ones I picked out included: the obligatory 10:13 time stamp; a store selling 'Carbo Boost' (Kitsunegari) bars, Great Mutato comics (The Post-Modern Prometheus), and, of course, Morley cigarettes; the Manners motel; Skinner watching Holman Hardt's weather broadcast (The Rain King); Kaplan's coffee shop; an advert for Fried Chaco Chicken (Our Town)... That's probably enough uber-geekery for now.

Red (2010)

Last Orange Wednesday we went to the cinema for the first time since Scott Pilgrim, back in early September, which seems like so long ago. The subject of the trip was Red, an action comedy from the director of The Time Traveller's Wife, a movie I didn't expect to like and ended up really getting into.  And no, following my last post about Blue, this isn't one of the films in the Three Colours Trilogy!

Red stars (deep breath): Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss and Julian McMahon... It's quite a cast, and although it has an Ocean's Eleven/Thirteen feel that they had a lot of fun making the movie, it's slick but not as fun as it might think. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Red, I certainly did, and I'd watch it again, it's just there was something a little subdued about it, not enough action and not frequent enough comedy. 

Having said that, the joy of Red is seeing these older actors cutting loose in the sort of movie usually reserved for characters in their twenties and thirties. Bruce Willis still kicks ass, and my favourite bit of the movie, when he steps out of a moving, spinning car, narrowly missing the boot smacking him in the ass to unload a gun into a pursuing vehicle... it was like vintage Die Hard! It had the audacity of the stunt in Die Hard 4.0 when he kills a helicopter with a car, along with the typical Willis smirk. In fact, Willis seemed permanently set to smirk, and he was a bit reigned in -  I'm watching Moonlighting at the moment, so I wanted more of that Bruce Willis.

The film undeniably looks great, and Helen Mirren is a delight, once she turns up, firing machine guns in a beautiful cocktail dress. The plot is fine, no awards for originality but it kept my interest. The reason I'd happily watch Red again is that it's a lot of fun, a good solid movie with no frills.

Trois Couleurs: Bleu / Three Colours: Blue (1993)

I was going to wait until we'd watched the other films in the Three Colours Trilogy, White and Red, before I posted about them, but so far we've only watched Blue and we've got loads of stuff on the DVD recorder to watch before we get round to them. 

I was looking forward to the Three Colours, as I'd read nothing but good things about them, so I was a bit disappointed when Blue turned out to be a bit, well, boring, and somewhat pretentious. That's always the danger when a foreign movie (particularly a French one!) is given high praise by critics, so I should have been ready. Juliette Binoche stars as a woman who's famous composer husband and child are killed in a car crash that she manages to walk away from, and from what I could figure out, the movie is a depiction of her grief. It typical French style though, this is done through minimal dialogue, random shots of not very much and scenes that don't seem to have much of a purpose. 

The movie did look good, and Binoche was achingly sad and I liked her performance. I have to admit that I was nodding off towards the end, never a sign that I'm really into a movie (Blade Runner had the same effect on me). I am looking forward to the next one in the trilogy, which I believe is White, as I know it's a comedy, so at least if there's not much plot, there should be some laughs.

The Inbetweeners: Series 3 (2010)

Sadly, the 3rd series of The Inbetweeners seems to be the last, which is a shame as it has consistantly been utterly hilarious over its 18 episodes. It shouldn't be funny - it's crass, rude, full of foul language and characters doing idioitic things, but what makes it stand out is that it is (literally!) balls out funny, and oh so easy to relate to the 4 teenage leads, or at least to recognise the teenage condition.

Will's the geeky one, Simon tries too hard with girls, Neil is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and Jay is just a little boy at heart who uses outrageous lies to try to be a big man with his friends. Increasingly over series 3, Jay became my favourite character, particularly as this series his mates were more likely to pick holes in his claims, and James Buckley was very good at letting Jay's innate vulnerability shine through. Simon (Joe Thomas) also had a sweet side, as well as a crushing ability to say exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. 

Greg Davies, as the head of sixth form, towered over the lads and every line was a gold comedy nugget. The streams of profanity, and Jay's predeliction for calling lady's bits 'clunge' (a horrible yet hilarious word), portrayed an honesty for how teenage boys really speak, while also taking the piss. The third series was only marred, and in it's closing minutes too, by a disgusting vomiting scene. Now I can watch sex, violence and swearing, and I can cope with it, but I really dislike seeing people vomiting on screen, even for comic effect. I think it's a lazy way to get a cheap laugh, and it's never good if it happens while you're eating your tea. So other than that, this was a top comedy show, and if the purported movie version happens, I'll be buying a ticket!