Bridesmaids (2011)

Our second trip to the cinema in 2 days found us laughing ourselves silly once more, this time at live-action 'chick flick' Bridesmaids. In recent years 'chick flick' has become a dirty word, mostly used for desperately unfunny vehicles for the likes of Jennifer Aniston, but Bridesmaids bucks the trend by being a flick about chicks that is uproariously hilarious with a refreshingly unromantic flavour. 

Rather than your usual girl moons over boy set up, Bridesmaids concerns itself with the jealousy engendered by Annie's (Kristen Wiig) new rival for her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) affections, namely rich bitch Helen (Rose Byrne). When Lillian gets engaged, life-long best friend and maid of honour Annie feels threatened by Lillian's new friend Helen, the rich trophy wife of the fiance's boss. There is a romance thrown in in the form of Chris O'Dowd's Irish cop, and it's nicely done, but the real fun is to be had in Wiig's performance and the antics of the other bridesmaids, each and every one a comic masterpiece.

I laughed a lot in this movie, and I came out feeling as smiley and joyful as when I left Kung Fu Panda 2. Full of character humour, gross out vomiting (a priceless scene involving food poisoning in a wedding dress shop) and moments of flat-out hilarity like Annie's drugged up state on an airplane, Bridesmaids ticked so many boxes, none of which were marked 'dull'.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Though sadly no longer subtitled The Kaboom of Doom, Kung Fu Panda 2 can sit happily alongside also poorly monikered sequel Toy Story 2 as being that rare beast, an animated movie (heck any movie!) that manages to be even better than the brilliant first instalment. This film was all kinds of awesome, it had me laughing out loud, catching my breath at the imaginative action sequences, and marvelling at the beautifully animated Chinese city and rural landscapes. 

The gang's all back from the previous film, headed up by the charming and fluffy Po, voiced by Jack Black, just one of a cast of stellar actors including Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Victor Garber, Jackie Chan, and um Jean-Claude Van Damme who give life to an array of peacocks, geese, pandas, tigers, storks and rhinos. A brilliantly colourful mix of animal characters and stunning background work make Kung Fu Panda 2 one of the most visually arresting movies of recent memory, and they are well complemented by an unexpectedly emotional plot and sophisticated character work. Even the end credits looked great, eschewing the usual scrolling text on black background for beautiful images that look like production paintings. 

The CGI animation looks amazing, and the 3D was good although I continue my argument that 3D doesn't add anything to an already awesome movie. What surprised me were the segments of 2D traditionally animated flashbacks that looked just as good as the CGI stuff. Proof positive that there is still room for traditional animation in a world of ever-increasing numbers of CGI flicks. Kung Fu Panda 2 was a triumph from beginning to end, and I hope the inevitable threequel (is that a word?) can pull off a Toy Story 3 and be as good as if not better than the first sequel.

The Gormenghast Trilogy (Mervyn Peake, 1946-59)

Sitting on my shelf for the best part of a decade, The Gormenghast Trilogy is a 953 page behemoth comprising Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), and Titus Alone (1959). The page count alone, plus the size of the print on each of those pages, put me off even beginning the book, but determined to read the books that I keep moving around the shelves (in order to get them off my shelves and onto someone else's, via a charity shop) I finally took the plunge. I decided to read all three at once otherwise I'd probably not go back for ages, and so exactly a month after opening the book I'd finished the whole trilogy.

Titus Groan and Gormenghast are easily the best and most satisfying of the three, and they really form one continuous epic across the two, with Titus Alone feeling very much like an unnecessary extension. What I loved about the books was the wonderfully macabre, descriptive and humourous quality of Peake's prose. Featuring only a handful of named characters, the main one is the location, Gormenghast, a vast, sprawling city-like entity that is really a castle that has been expanded and built on over the centuries by the Groan family, of which Titus, born in the opening pages, is the 77th Earl. Titus Groan, the book, surprisingly features its titular protagonist very little for he remains a baby for the entirety. The second book sees him feature much more heavily from ages 7 to 17, and then he's the only original character to feature in Titus Alone. 

It would be hard to sum up the plot of this epic fantasy - even calling it a fantasy is contentious, there's no magic, no wizards, no alien lands. Gormenghast exists in an unspecified time and place but the feel is almost medieval, yet contained within the walls is a library (beloved of Titus' father, Sepulchrave), a school (headed by Bellgrove), and of course Doctor Prunesquallor, one of the most delightful of all the bizarre characters among the uppoer echelons of Gormenghast society. It is in Peake's complete absorption in the place of Gormenghast and it's people that drew me in and had me rattling through the pages. 

The characters are all wonderfully named with distinct personalities and roles to play in the strictly dictated traditions of the castle. There's Fuschia, sister to Titus and somewhat of a free spirit; Irma Prunesquallor, the doctor's sister; Clarice and Cora, Titus' twin aunts who are incredibly dim but also incredible dangerous; Gertrude, Titus' obese mother who loves birds and cats more than her children; Swelter, the grotesque cook; Flay, the spider-like manservant of Sepulchrave... And of course Steerpike (depicted on the front cover by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the antagonist to Titus' nominal protagonist. Steerpike is a curious creation, he's quite evil, but not in a camp or arch manor, he wishes to rise to the top of Gormenghast society and will stop and nothing including murder to get there. His and Titus' stories are told in parallel and the last half of Gormenghast (the book) involves the hunt to find and end the unmasked menace. It's a heady, exhilirating ride. 

Where Titus Alone falls down is in taking Titus out of Gormenghast and shedding excellent characters (must of whom ended up getting killed or dying somehow in the preceding books though) to replace them with less-well drawn ones with little backstory or motivation. The world Titus finds himself in also feels too modern, with lifts, motor cars and factories, that jars with the timeless, placeless majesty of the first two books. Unfortunately, Peake was suffering from Parkinson's that led to a rapid debilitation and the third book was not absolutely complete before he succumbed. It wasn't that there weren't moments of Titus Alone to enjoy, it just paled in comparison to the epic sweep of what had gone before, although at just 200 pages and 122 chapters it was a swift and painless read. 

I'm pleased that I took the plunge and immersed myself in Gormenghast for a month, I whole-heartedly enjoyed being there and meeting Peake's wonderful creations. The language was a delilcious pleasure to ingest and really brought alive this curious, dark, demented world and it is only a shame that the author's illness curtailed any further adventures of Titus and the citizens of Gormenghast's hallowed walls. 

Sounds Like Teen Spirit (2008)

Broadcaste on More4 in a double bill with the excellent 90 minute documentary The Secret History of Eurovision (2011), Sounds Like Teen Spirit follows a number of kids from across Europe as they prepare to compete in the 2007 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. Although I love Eurovision, I tend not to write about the show itself on my blog. I don't know why, maybe I don't want to analyse it too much. I have never seen Junior Eurovision - it's only been shown twice in the UK to my knowledge and the UK hasn't competed in it for a long time. But watching Teen Spirit it is clear how much other countries in Europe love it equally as much as its parent show.

The film follows entrants from Cyprus (a cute, camp little 11 year old boy), Georgia (their first entrant, a sweet girl who lives in a run down block after her family fled for their lives during tensions with Russia), Bulgaria (she lives in a vast, showy house with a pool, but her parents have split up and she's disillusioned with love), and Belgium (these are pretty normal kids). The Eastern European entrants are the most interesting, they have the most to gain from the contest, using it as a showcase for their oft-little-known countries - Belarus has won Junior Eurovision twice for example, but would be hard pressed to do the same at regular Eurovision. 

Watching the snippets of the show itself, there was a noticeable lack of the Big Five and countries from Scandinavia, with a heavy Eastern bias to those competing. I'm not sure whether this says more about the Western attitude to Eurovision as a whole or about the Eastern attitude. Either way, the young entrants stories are touchingly interwoven into an engrossing documentary. There is little narration, just a few onscreen prompts, and the children mostly tell their own stories. At times you fear the whole Junior Eurovision could be a horrendous Mini Pops / Little Miss Sunshine style grotesque, but what comes across is a happy, positive experience that cares for the contestants and is eager to share young European talent across the continent.

Case Histories (2011)

Adapted from the first three of Kate Atkinson's novels starring Yorkshire detective Jackson Brodie (who now lives and works in Edinburgh), Case Histories featured three separate stories over 6 episodes. We were drawn to it through Andrew's love of the books (I've yet to read them, and now I've seen them on screen do I need to?!) and stuck with it because it was so damn good. 

Jason Isaacs places Brodie and he's a very interesting detective to add to the pantheon of literary TV dicks. A private investigator with a troubled past and a turbulent personal life (his ex-wife moves to New Zealand with his precocious and hilarious young daughter), and a tendency to get beaten up and hit by trains, he's also unafraid to bend the law himself, if not out right break it. Being an ex-cop himself, he has a friend in DC Louise Munroe (Amanda Abbington), his only one on the force, the rest see him as a nutter, and she fills the sort-of role of long-suffering partner, albeit a reluctant one. 

The first and third stories were the best, the second one felt curiously uninvolving plotwise, and were packed with gorgeous shots of Edinburgh and Yorkshire, plus guest stars like Patterson Joseph, Sylvia Sims and Phil Davies who brought real depth and quality to the performances. Isaacs was excellent as a world weay, funny and extremely northern detective out for justice, even if that means covering up justifiable murders and helping witnesses flee the police. There's only 1 more book in the series (so far) so I'm not going to get my hopes up for another series, maybe a just a 2 parter based on book 4? Either way Case Histories was a great, multi-stranded series for Sunday and Monday nights.

Arrested Development: Season 2 (2004-05)

I ended my review of the first season of Arrested Development in December 2009 by saying I hoped that the second season would fill the comedy gap left by Miranda. Since then I've watched the second series of Miranda and a whole lot of other things, and eventually got round to watching and then finishing Arrested Development: season 2. It's every bit as high energy hilarious as the first season, with brilliant self-referential humour, pratfalls, recurring gags and a very game cast. 

This was the season I saw on BBC2 so much of it was familiar too me, but it never failed to make me laugh out loud. Watching Scott Pilgrim again shortly after finishing this was amusing too, as it features both George Michael (Michael Cera) and Anne (Mae Whitman), together again! I learnt to appreciate Alia Shawkat's Maebe more too - she's easily forgotten in a cast of extravagant characters like Tobias (David Cross), but her humour is equally as stinging and well crafted. 

Liza Minelli, Henry Winkler and Julia Louis-Dreyfus return to provide excellent comedy support and share time with other random cameos and roles from the likes of Ben Stiller and Zach Braff. The deleted scenes and outtakes on the DVDs are as good as the show itself and it'll be a sad day when we eventually get round to watching and finishing the 3rd and final season. I hope another series of Miranda hasn't been and gone before that happens!

Glee: Season 2 (2010-2011)

I've just had a quick skim of what I said about season 1 of Glee last year and it appears I loved it a heck of a lot. For some reason though, the second season didn't grab my passions the way that freshman year did. Maybe there was a bit too much pandering to the charts, maybe there was a lack of focus and Sue was underused. Or maybe I was just preparing myself for Channel 4 losing the rights to bloody Sky! They did this to me with Lost, I saw 2 seasons, got emotionally involved and then Ch4 couldn't be bothered and let Sky take it away, so I've never seen that since. Oh I could buy the TV but that's not the point. If they let them take Desperate Housewives away I'm getting rid of the TV. 

Anyway, back to Glee. Yes it still has the power to knock me off my feet with amazing song and dance numbers, and Sue et al are still capable of raising really belly laughs - Brittany particularly. And then in the penultimate episode - the best of the series - Glee actually brought me to the point where tears were rolling down my cheeks. This doesn't happen to me when I'm watching TV and movies, I can usually maintain a cool distance, but for some reason when they killed off Sue's sister it choked me up, I think it's the humanising of monster Sue that generates such an impact. 

Thinking about it, I preferred the latter half of the series, as it shed Terri and stopped banging Kurt's 'GAY IS OK' drum so loud, and the show seemed to become a bit more focussed somewhow. I know Kurt's story is probably inspirational for many young and old gay kids out there (and their parents) but sometimes it felt like the gay agenda got in the way of Glee's fun, ironic starting point. It seems churlish to moan, but at least they've given him a boyfriend and shown he can be happy. Maybe now they'll show how Kurt can just get on with his life as a human being first, and have his sexuality not be an issue. They might do this, but I won't be able to see it, thanks again Channel 4. One of the highlights of the show this year was finding out that Gwyneth Paltrow can really knock out a tune, her Forget You being a prime example! It also explained a lot about what she was doing singing the same song at the Grammy's (or whatever music awards it was).

I really liked some of the new characters, particularly geeky-yet-hot Sam, and Sharon Bieste the new football coach (who disappeared towards the end, why?) added an extra emotional depth to the show. I thought that the homophobic-bully-who's-really-gay was also a more interesting and realistic storyline than Kurt's drama queen display and I wanted to see more of it. Sometimes though it feels like there are too many characters and some inevitably get forgotten. At least there's still room for my new favourite star, Sue's sidekick Becky, who gets a tonne of great lines. There's much to love about the second season of Glee in retrospect, but the odd episode felt a bit flat or forced - especially when crow-barring themes or particular artists into a show. I will miss Glee's sense of fun and humour on a Monday night, but I'm sure there are plenty of other shows to fill the gap in the meantime.

The Shadow Line (2011)

Confusing, bloody, stylised and absolutely brilliant, The Shadow Line seemed to me as near perfect as a mini series can be. I imagine that's partly because the writer-producer-director Hugo Blick's multi-hyphenate creative status allowed him to stay true to his vision for the drama without toning things down for the masses. I'm itching to rewatch the whole thing to catch bits I missed, or to understand earlier scenes in light of later revelations, and to simply drink in the whole production. 

Some have criticised the drama for being glacially slow and over-mannered in terms of the acting, but for me the slow burn really drew me into the murky-yet-recognisable world. Not a world with comic book violence where death is clean with no jagged edges, the camera of The Shadow Line explored the horrible exit wounds, the surprising blood spatter, the reality of violence, and it's a violence that happens in an instant and is then gone, without fanfare. Telling a tale of corrupt cops, drug dealers and double-crossing, the piece (I think calling it a 'show' does it a disservice) also has a very human side to the drama, in the relationship between Joseph Bede (Christopher Eccleston) and his wife (Lesley Sharp), struggling with her early-onset dementia, or the other lead, amnesiac cop Jonah Gabrial (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his attempts to get pregnant with his wife (Clare Calbraith). There are moments of levity, but mostly there's a nervousness, an impending doom of sorts. 

That doom has a name, Gatehouse, played magnificently by Stephen Rea, a cold, trilby-topped assassin with a charming patter and an amazing ability to survive. I found it all plausible and dramatically believeable, even Rafe Spall's mesmerisingly manic Jay Wratten, who comes across as a young Heath Ledger-as-The-Joker. Layers of menace atop intrigue, shocks and a haunting soundtrack, including the opening title music, all add up to a deliciously dark and immersive experience. I don't think I've gushed over a drama quite so much before, but The Shadow Line really hit all the right notes for me. That last episode was a shocker too, piling up the revelations and the bodies, confirming that no one is really good or evil, but continuously walking the line between shadow and light.

The Sound of Music (14/06/11, Leeds Grand)

A number of years ago I was coerced by an ex into being an extra in an amateur dramatic production of The Sound of Music in which he was playing Rolf (or as I spell it in my head, Muppet-style, Rowlf). I got to wear a tux and watch the Von Trapp children sing So Long, Farewell, and later, dressed as a Nazi, I got to run around the auditorium blowing my whistle and flashing my torch, searching for the Von Trapps after the second So Long, Farewell. Other than knowing that particular song quite well I have never seen the film or actually watched the stage show all the way through ever since then. Until last week. 

I have to say that I was very surprised with how much I enjoyed the show, it was funny, full of great songs (nearly all of which I know in some form or other) and there was a really positive feel to the whole thing. I also like the adult themes and the dark side of the story, set against the Nazi takeover of Austria, in the shadow of WW2, where Captain Von Trapp is so crushed at the death of his wife he shuts out his children and music. It's really quite tragic, but then Verity Rushworth's perky Maria Rainer comes on the scene suddenly everything doesn't look quite so bleak. 

My favourite songs were those sung by the children and the nuns, the group numbers. The children were very cute, and the nuns had great voices, particularly Mother Abbess (Marilyn Hill Smith) who knocked everyone else flat with her operatic Climb Ev'ry Mountain to close Act One. The big-name draw of the musical was Jason Donovan, playing the role of father of 7 Captain Von Trapp. It's a curious choice of role, particularly coming off the back of the extravagant Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and one which he pulled off well, acting wise. In terms of singing, Donovan did not really have a strong voice, he sounded fairly weak in comparison to Rushworth and co, but then he only gets about 2 and a half songs, so the addition of a big name in this part seems odd. It's for these reasons that we didn't hang around for an autograph afterwards! After seeing the stage show I'd be happy now to visit the classic movie - I think a great enough distance of time has passed since my Nazi days.

The Promise (2011)

Trying to follow the twists and turns in the Israel-Palestine conflict sometimes feels to me like starting a book 20 chapters in. I struggle to work out why the plot is at the points it's at, who the main players are, who I should be supporting... With this dilemma in mind I figured watching The Promise might help me go some way to figuring out my Gaza from my West Bank. The four part Channel 4 drama attempts to explain some of the causes of the differences and then puts them in a modern context. And in a brave move, the action is filmed in Israel itself. 

Christian Cooke plays Sergeant Leonard Matthews, a WW2 veteran and, in the 1940s, post war, he is part of an operation to settle fleeing European Jews in a new homeland of Israel. His half of The Promise tries to explain how the British treatment of the Jews, although trying to help them, fostered distrust and eventually made enemies of them. I'm oversimplifying wildly here, and I may even have read it wrong, but there is so much information and detail to impart in 4 packed episodes that I often struggled to keep up. 

In the modern day half of the drama, Claire Foy is Erin Matthews, Leonard's granddaughter, who is following his progress in his diaries. She also happens to be in Israel, where she is staying with her friend as she does her national service. As Erin tries to understand the situation her grandfather found himself in, she travels around modern Israel and the Palestinian territories with her friend's brother and his Arab friend. She tries to fulfil the promise that her grandfather made decades ago to return the key to an Arab's house to his family, and along the way is caught up in suicide bombings, shootings and the struggles of life on the borders between the territories. 

As a drama The Promise is thrilling stuff, peopled with an interesting cast. The only flaw in the whole really was Foy's portrayal of Erin, or at least the character of Erin, who's bolshy and rude, but then I suppose the drama wouldn't progress as quickly if she wasn't pushing soldiers around like she owns the place, or chaining herself to a building to try and prevent it being blown up. The historical scenes with Cooke were more emotional and impactful, but it was interesting to see how events in the past inform the struggles of the present. 

As a primer on the Israeli-Arab conflict The Promise raises as many questions as it answers. It felt like a rewatch would be rewarding, when I would be able to concentrate on the context more than the drama. From what I understood, neither side seems more to blame than the other for the continued violence and disharmony, or in other words, they're both as bad as each other. It would be wrong to tarnish all Arabs and Israelis with this reading though, and this is again something that the drama makes clear - contrary to news reports, not all residents are acting as martyrs or living in fear, most are getting on with living their lives. And that's as powerful a message as any to take from a brave, sweeping drama like The Promise.

Night Shift / Næturvaktin (2007)

It's been sometime since I watched a foreign film or TV show, and the latest, Night Shift, which started being shown as part of BBC4's mini Icelandic season, ranks up there with Danish The Killing for quality Scandinavian television. Where The Killing was a tense, atmospheric drama to find a killer, Night Shift is a 12-part comedy-drama about 3 men who work in a petrol station, but is no less gripping and enthralling. 

Georg (Jon Gnárr - now mayor of Reykjavik!), Ólafur (Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon) and Daniel (Jörundur Ragnarsson) all work the night shift at a Shell garage in the Icelandic capital. Georg, the boss, has bizarre facial hair, a tendency to wear socks and sandals, and is very proud of his 5 degrees. He's also a bit of a fascist, railing against Ólafur's misguided desires to manage a pop group, or getting angry at a drunken customer, who has actually had a stroke. Ólafur is picked on constantly by Georg, but doesn't stand up for himself. He's a sad figure sometimes, eternally optimistic but forever broke - he believes the Nigerian email scam, especially when the supposed prince turns up at the petrol station! Daniel, the newest employee, is rather quiet and has run away from uni in Sweden, shuns his girlfriend and family and instead chooses to take photographs of dead birds and work the night shift.

Aside from the comedy, which is often squirm inducing stuff, there is a real dark vein, a pathos running through Night Shift as these 3 lost souls try to find comfort where they can, and disfunction spectacularly together. There is some commentary of Icelandic politics along the way, and Georg happily reminisces about his time in a commune in Sweden, and wants to go back there with the holiday fund that he makes the others pay into. By turns gentle, gross-out (when Ólafur starts lactating after taking protein shakes) and pointed, the humour in Night Shift always comes from a real place and never feels forced. Georg is as quick to anger and jump to the wrong conclusion as Basil Fawlty, and Ólafur is a good Manuel-like suffering sidekick. The fact it's from Iceland just adds something extra for my tastes. I really hope that BBC4 decides to show the sequels, Day Shift and Prison Shift, and the 2009 movie spin off that beat Avatar at the Icelandic boxoffice! 

Bob's Burgers: Season 1 (2011)

Tucked quietly away in the E4 schedule either before or after The Cleveland Show, the first series of Bob's Burgers proved to be every bit as chucklesome as it's neighbour, perhaps even more so. It's another 'American couple and their 3 kids' animated comedy (see The Simpsons, Family Guy, Cleveland Show, etc.), although here the look of the show is more 'realistic', a bit more in King of the Hill territory, but the characters are as mad as a box of frogs. 

Bob himself owns the eponymous burger joint, and he's more than a little obsessed with the place, and with his rivalry with Jimmy Pesto, owner of the Italian restaurant across the street. Wife Linda (who like eldest daughter Tina is voiced by a man) is an oddity, prone to shouting 'awright' at inappropriate moments and being a little creepy at times. It's hard to put in words the effect she has. The kids are a real weird bunch, with my favourite, Tina, who's desire to be kissed and her pecurliarly vocal mannerisms have me in stitches. Son Gene was clearly dropped on his head at birth and finds enjoyment in weird places, while co-conspirator Louise, always wearing pink bunny ears for no explained reason, is a little like Family Guy's Stewie in her deviousness, but she's more endearing with it. 

The plots range from the mundane to the ridiculous, including Bob getting stuck between the walls of his house or being threatened with closure by the health inspector, to the Belchers putting on live dinner theatre or turning their apartment into a bed and breakfast with bizarre guests. Where Family Guy and The Simpsons revel in pop culture references and one liners, Bob's Burgers relies more on grounded stories, with the humour coming from the odd quirks of the main characters and their nutty neighbours. I know the show's been renewed for another season, so I hope it has an audience to let it grow. 

Doctor Who: The Daleks (1963)

The second ever Doctor Who story saw the introduction of his most enduring arch nemesis, the Daleks. It's a William Hartnell story, with companions Barbara, Ian and Susan and as such the quality of the surviving footage isn't amazing, but it's still an imaginative romp, with lots of running down corridors, scary Daleks and wooden Thals, the race who is/was at war with the Daleks on the planet Skaro. The Doctor and his companions land on the planet sometime after a nuclear war has wiped out much of the population, and the Daleks are living in a vast underground city with metal floors to enable them to glide around. 

It's amazing how fully formed the Daleks are, and how little they've changed decades later. They don't want to 'exterminate' and show some compassion and structured thought missing from the later killing machines, but they look and sound the same, and this is the first time they learn not to mess with the Doctor. Hartnell feels like a supporting player here, with Barbara and Ian taking centre stage - Ian carrying out most of the hero duties while Barbara proves she's made of stern stuff when exploring the jungles of Skaro. Susan screams a lot and is generally fairly irritating, while the Doctor is grumpy and variously unconcerned about helping the Thal race, and even pretends the TARDIS is broken in order to keep everyone on a planet that has dangerous radiation levels. 

The Daleks felt more exciting than the first story, An Unearthly Child with its warring, unfantastical cavemen. The accompanying featurette on the creation of the Daleks was also fascinating and covered everything from inception to design.

The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2010)

Several things drew me to The Walking Dead - the presence of Frank 'Shawshank Redemption' Darabont behind the camera, plus Andrew 'Egg' Lincoln and Laurie 'Marita Covarrubias' Holden in front of it. Plus the subject matter - a bunch of characters try to survive following a zombie apocalypse - appeals to me, and has done since I read Stephen King's The Stand. I like fiction that posits the 'what if' for humanity if everything were to just stop, it's a fascinating concept. 

The Walking Dead's brief 6 episode first season wasn't actually packed with heaps of events - all that happened was lead Rick Grimes (Lincoln) wakes up in a hospital to find everyone dead from a zombie epidemic and tries to find his wife and kid. He finds them and the group she's travelling with and they eventually decide to try to get to the local CDC facility. Oh and there are a couple of trips into the city, Atlanta, which is packed to the gills with flesh-hungry dead people. As well as using some pretty horrific effects to create the zombies and their inevitably bloody destruction, the series takes a quieter, slower examination of the living and their relationships, especially in the context of the rest of the country being wiped out. 

Rick's wife, believing he was dead, has shacked up with his police-partner, only to ditch him when Rick came back, creating a bit of drama. Survivor Andrea loses her sister to the virus during the series, after their relationship had grown. There's also a wife-beater amongst the group, and a red-neck racist pair who naturally would rather pick on their black companion than concentrate on the zombies in hand. Some of this drama is a bit soapy, but it also shows that the people flung together after an apocalypse won't and don't have to get along harmoniously! Especially considering the stress levels caused by your dead loved ones trying to eat your face. I'll be searching out a second helping and hoping it returns to terrestrial TV next year.

Jane McDonald in Concert (01/06/11, The Grand)

Almost exactly a year to the day since I first took my Mum and Mum-in-law to see Jane McDonald at the Grand I was there again, with just my mother in tow this time, due to mid-week scheduling and work commitments. As before we were sat in a sea of grey-haired wrinklies, with pockets of gay dotted about the theatre (plus my Mum, who's neither!). And as before, Jane was sensational, very funny, with a massive voice that completely filled the auditorium. 

The set-list was very similar to last year, including the two Dreamgirls songs, the final disco medley, and a few tracks from her last album. Also included this time was a Stevie Wonder medley, a Burt Bacharach tune (Anyone Who Had a Heart), and a few other new songs. One of Jane's backing musicians also took part in a duet and then got a solo spot with a catchy song he'd written himself. Even though some of the songs (and jokes) were the same as last year, we both still had a really good time and would go again next year!

Hanna (2011)

Last weekend we popped to the cinema to see Hanna, a very stylish thriller starring Saorise Ronan as the eponymous 'hero', a teenage girl genetically-modified and trained to become a killer - a bit like Kick-Ass' Hit Girl but without the comic book stylings. The action is more Bourne and toned down a little for a 12A rating, which I still think is a bit low considering what goes on but hey. Hanna is also reminiscent of James Bond's travelogue-like attributes - the movie begins in a presumably Scandanavian snowscape and moves through Morocco, Spain and France to reach Berlin and the whole feels very European in tone, which makes sense as it's a German-UK-US co-production. Starring two Australians (Eric Bana as Hanna's 'father' and Cate Blanchett as baddie Marissa Weigler) and Irish Ronan. 

There's a lot to like about Hanna, from the gorgeous scenery, frenetic fight scenes and the performances of all involved. Tom Hollander pops up as a badly dressed mercenary, and Hanna makes friends with a young girl and her family on their camper van trip across Europe who add some humour to the otherwise serious plot. Really it's just a big chase movie, and there's very little that Hanna is trying to say, there doesn't appear to be a message. It's a hugely enjoyable tour de force of filmmaking, with not a CGI robot to be seen. If only all thrillers were as intelligent and visceral as this.