Recently I’ve been trying to dive a bit deeper on the Disney+ streaming app, looking beyond the obvious Marvel and Star Wars categories to see what else is out there. Lots of people were talking about Extraordinary, a new comedy that is, admittedly, set in the world of superheroes, but couldn’t be further from the multiverses we are dominated by. I watched this in super quick time - the episodes …

Last year one of my monthly projects was learning British Sign Language, which was really a lot of fun, very insightful whilst still being challenging, and something I want to dive into more. I stumbled across this article a while back, that discusses the evolution of language generally but more specifically how sign languages change with the times. I found it a really interesting read. Sign language is, obviously, a …

For a while now, I've had access to a digital Financial Times subscription and have I made any effort to make use of it? No, I haven't. Mostly, I think the politics puts me off, but there's so much the FT covers that I've really been missing out on some good journalism. They cover politics, sure, and particularly the financial impact of such goings on, but there's also a lot …

When I kicked off my February challenge of knitting, it was my intention to pop back in several times during the month and show off what I had made. I knew I wasn't going to be producing sweaters and complicated patterns, but I thought there might be something worth shouting about. Turns out, knitting takes quite a bit of practice and time. I spent the first part of the month …

Every now and then, a topic on Mastermind catches my attention and I have to know whether I would do very well if I was sitting in the hot seat. This time, the contestant Hannah picked the topic of guest stars on Friends. I assumed this might be questions like 'who appeared in this episode' and 'what guest star did this silly thing on the show' but it was much …

P!nk recently appeared on the Graham Norton Show on the BBC to sing her latest release TRUSTFALL and promote her new album of the same name. It was an incredible live performance. You can rely on P!nk to add a bit of gymnastics or circus skills to her sets and this time it was all about the trampoline. P!nk was focused on vocals rather than bouncing off the mat, but …

I was in two minds about watching the second series of Clarkson’s Farm. Some of the recent comments by the eponymous presenter are no good at all and he never really seems to show any motivation to think about what he’s said or change his ways. However, this show is one of the only ones out there that’s really managing to highlight how difficult farming is at the moment, in …

I recently listened to the audiobook of Phil Wang's sort-of-memoir Sidesplitter, where the comedian talks about many areas of his life particularly where cultures intersect - food, family, comedy, and more global topics like the British Empire past, present and future, and how race and racism affects people every single day. They're heavy topics in places but the book is really well done, with wit and humour but also a …

I love, love, loved the first series of Little America - an anthology show on Apple TV that focuses in on true stories of immigrants finding their way in the US, although ultimately it's simply stories about being human. Sometimes that's a drama in a family, sometimes it is someone doing something brave and heroic, sometimes it's an unexpected person absolutely smashing it out of the park and inspiring us …

Sometimes when I watch something really good and think about doing a post about it, I worry if it's an old show that it's not really relevant. But in this day and age when you can stream pretty much anything at your convenience, there's no such thing as a late review. Heck, if people are still coming to Friends for the first time, then I'm good to write about something …

Last year, in preparation for the new series of Trying, I started rewatching the show from the beginning and loved it so much that I had to start pulling out the best quotes from each episode to refer back to. I only got a couple of episodes done last year but I'm picking up the thread again now with some more absolute gems. In case you're not aware of the …

In a further effort to reach out and communicate with fans and players of The Sims 4, the team behind the game started the first of a series of streams called Behind the Sims where they shared lots of sneak peaks and updates about what's happening and what's coming soon. I didn't watch the video myself but have seen plenty of the news that's been reported on since, and some …

In my recent round up of movies to look forward to, I didn't notice or consider 80 for Brady, which is a film about a group of older friends travelling together to see their idol Tom Brady do what he does best on the football field. It's got a great cast and is bound to be one of those charming movies where a handful of brilliant female actresses gel together …

It feels like forever since there has been any news of Lara Croft and her tomb raiding business, so I was very happy to hear about a new TV show potentially in development for Amazon Prime. The names attached look good, particularly Phoebe Waller-Bridge who would be able to bring a great level of drama and humour that would fit very well with the character. This new series and movie …

February has arrived, and that means a fresh challenge, another chance to try something new. Actually, this isn't something new to me but something I've tried my hand at a long time ago and since mostly forgotten: knitting! A lot of my previous experience was based on knitting rows and rows of just plain stitches, marvelling as the length of knitted material grew, then frogging the sort-of scarf I made …

Wired writer Amelia Tait published an article this weekend about the fact that recent cinema releases have focused on a new kind of villain - the tech giant gone rogue. The new Knives Out movie is heavily focused on a tech billionaire, the surprisingly good Santa Clauses TV show had an Amazon style delivery company at heart, and further back the animations Ron’s Gone Wrong and Mitchells vs the Machines …

It's not the best start for a new year of 30-day-or-thereabouts challenges to have given up halfway through the month, is it? Actually, it wasn't so much giving up as realising it wasn't working. Therefore I'm refraining from using the word fail because even though I didn't do a full month like I hoped, I learnt a lot along the way. This month, I was supposed to be following a …

I’ve only been on Mastodon for just a couple of days but already been very curious about the discussion over ‘quote tweeting’. On Twitter, the quote tweet is a much-used feature that allows you to embed a previous tweet in your own and add thoughts. It was brought in to help users share other posts without eating too much into your own character count. This hasn’t been a feature on …

It took me a little while to get up the courage to watch the TV show Willow, based on the film of the same name. We’ve only just recently watched the movie - something we’d both seen before and yet could remember almost nothing about. So the world was fresh in my mind, but even so, I couldn’t see how a TV show would add anything to what is a …

Wahey, I'm on Mastodon! You can find me here and I hope to be using it as a full on Twitter replacement and actually engaging with it rather than falling into the on-again-off-again pattern that I had with the bird one. My path to Mastodon has essentially been: Oh, something's up with Twitter, it'll probably be alright though, continue as usual All anyone talks about on Twitter now is the …

When Netflix announced they were making a documentary series about tennis, similar to their work focused on Formula One in Drive to Survive, I was intrigued. I didn't watch the motorsport one, having spent too much of my time already watching that sport, but people seemed to think it did a good job telling the stories behind the races, and even non-F1 fans were raving about it. Imagine if they …

Variety published a story yesterday detailing a walkout by the jury at the Sundance film festival from a film where closed captioning wasn't available. They've been striving for greater accessability anyway, but in this instance it was a specific problem for the jury, which includes wonderful actress Marlee Matlin. The article suggests it was a dramatic walkout after a captioning device didn't work, whilst the statement from the Sundance organisers …

It’s no secret how much I love Kellyoke - the moment on Kelly Clarkson’s talk show where she covers a popular song, usually doing a much better job than the original! Another thing I love is behind the scenes info about music, tv and production, which makes this set of videos absolutely perfect. Called the Kellyoke Afterparty, this series of three videos features music director Jason Halbert and guitarist Jaco …

One of the easiest switches in the battle to reduce plastic is from shower gel and shampoo bottles to soap bars. Soap has, obviously, been around forever, but there's been a real revolution recently in making it as eco-friendly as possible, as accessible as possible, whilst not being the skin-drying-boring-smelling compromise that some bars are. Who Gives A Crap, the plastic-free toilet roll delivery organisation, recently launched a new brand …

The third series of For All Mankind started streaming on Apple last June. For something that I proclaim to be one of my favourite shows, it’s shameful that it’s taken me over six months to get round to watching it. But you know what it’s like, there’s always something shiny and new to try and more TV that its possible to watch, plus it’s always nice to have an old …

We’re halfway through January now so those who were going to set resolutions have no doubt done so by now. If anyone is still looking for something to get more active and get out there, the Walk 1000 Miles initiative by Country Walking magazine caught my eye. It’s a challenge to do exactly what it says on the tin, although really the goal isn’t necessarily the target but really to …

I’ll be honest that I don’t watch a lot of stuff on YouTube, other than the memes and clips from talk shows that gain a lot of popularity. There are a couple of channels I keep an eye on (Pitch Meetings and Tom Scott have been mentioned here previously), but I never mind a new creator to add to the list - particularly when they have fascinating videos that teach …

I don’t remember being particularly fond of the Mr Men & Little Miss books as a child or at any point in my lifetime, but they were certainly around. I potentially had an affinity with Mr Bump and was suitably horrified by Mr Tickle. I didn’t know they were still being created and books were still being released with new characters all the time, it must be quite the universe …

Apple have released a comprehensive round up of their 2022 entertainment and services - inevitably happy about how successful they have been - with wisdom from VP of the sector, Eddy Cue. There are lots of facts and figures, as you might imagine, but I do like the summary from Mr Cue: It’s remarkable how much great content is at our fingertips; that’s a testament to the extraordinary work of …

The Guardian published an interesting post last week about audiobook narration and the impact artificial intelligence could have on it. The post talks to an author who was working with Apple on a secret project that allows AI voices to provide the narration on an audiobook - and evaluates whether it’s any good or not. From sentence to sentence, the cadence of the narrator’s voice glides forward, then snags on …

I was so busy watching Sam Ryder do his thing on New Year's Eve for the BBC that I totally missed what was happening in other corners of the world - in particular Miley Cyrus pulling out all the stops and performing with a variety of guests for NBC. Dolly Parton was one of the featured friends, and the pair cruised through Wrecking Ball and Jolene and a few other …

While we’re talking about books, one of the new year resolutions I haven’t specifically talked about is the one about not buying any more books to take up space on my digital bookshelf. I don’t want to talk numbers because I’m embarrassed, but I’ve built up quite a collection of books for an excessive TBR (to be read) list, and it’s going to take some time to get through them. …

I read a lot last year, in all sorts of formats. Along with the poetry and comics that I was trying out for the first time, there were the regularly scheduled books, audiobooks, reference books, shorts and a great mix of genres through them all. I've noticed a few more physical books creeping into my life, mostly as gifts but occasionally because that just is the best format for reading …

I've written about previously stumbling on Richard Hammond's Workshop, the Discovery+ programme that follows Mr Hammond trying to get his new classic car restoration business off the ground. A second series just finished in December, and I enjoyed the second just as much as the first, although found it just as frustrating. Hammond still likes to throw money at a problem before actually sitting and thinking about the consequences but …

Thanks to a Halloween binge and the inevitable Christmas slush-fest of films, we just about managed to watch 100+ movies last year. That's always the aim, but it was a close run thing. There just haven't been many that really grab attention, aside from the regularly scheduled Marvel and Star Wars releases. But it's always worth keeping an eye on what else is coming up and these are the movies …

I have not been very good at following global news over the last couple of years, mostly because the news tends to focus on all those things that are, you know, the end of the world. I find it hard. But I'm maybe starting to lift my head out of the sand a little bit and do want to keep up with events where I can, so have been approaching …

To kick off the new year, my first challenge is a health and fitness related one - to stick to a Les Mills challenge schedule. I was in two minds about this because, you know, the new year resolution to keep fit and change your life and be the absolute epitome of health is such a cliché and I am fully aware of that. But when I sat down and …

Wahey, we have reached a new year and there's a fresh 365 days awaiting us. Last year was a bit of a rollercoaster on many levels, and although this is just another night turning into another day, it's nice to have that clean slate feel of a New Year. I usually take this space to talk about what my aims and goals are for the year but for 2022 I …

I can be a snob when it comes to reality TV, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Oh, of course I was on the bandwagon when things like Big Brother, The Apprentice and I’m A Celebrity first appeared, but have long since given them up (or they themselves have given up). I love a Bake Off or a Strictly, as you well know, but the jungles and islands and …

The festive holidays have previously been a time when stand up comedians release some of their recent content for the public to buy. It used to be DVDs that could be given as gifts, but of course, more recently that has been a show popping up on streaming services to be enjoyed from the sofa. The pandemic put a bit of a hold on stand up comedians doing what they …

There was no Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops this year, which was both completely understandable and also a real shock. The show has been drifting further and further from the TV schedules and therefore the public consciousness that it was inevitable it would one day drop off the festive TV guides. But it was still a shame to see it was missing. However, BBC Four is still …

Yesterday, I wrote a very short post about photos of the moon that didn't have a lot of point to it other than 'wahey, photos of the moon!' I realised that previously, I might have just tweeted something like that, but I don't know if you've noticed, Twitter is going through some stuff right now. Some people are sticking with the social networking site, others are abandoning it for alternatives …

The main aim of the Artemis I mission this year was to test out the Orion ship and the SLS rocket in an unmanned capacity, to make sure it would be fit for future missions with humans on board. It succeeded in its testing, but along the way, it also managed to take lots of fantastic pictures - particularly of the moon. I love a moon photo and there are …

My seventh year of listening to albums has drawn to a close and it's that agonising time where I need to decide on a top five. Each year I listen to 100 albums, one new and one old each week for fifty weeks, and they each get two listens to make sure I really get a feel for the sound. Then, at the end of the year, I pull together …

When I heard there was going to be a tv series continuing the Santa Clause film franchise on the small screen, I was… bemused. I watched the first film a long while back, and thought it was okay, but hadn’t got round to watching the next two so it obviously wasn’t that special. And I didn’t know they were popular enough to warrant a return of the characters to the …

Sometimes I write about festive episodes of series that I like but this time I thought it'd be fun to focus on every Christmas episode from ten years' of Friends. They spend more time on Thanksgiving, obviously, with some really classic episodes in November: the football game, Brad Pitt, Joey with a turkey stuck on his head, etc. But Christmas does crop up every now and again, quite inconsistently, through …

This time last year, I wrote a quick review of the first series of Acapulco which was good and bright and fun, and exactly what we needed in the dark winter months. The second series has just finished being released on Apple TV+ and I had to come back to say this new collection of ten episodes is even better than the first. With the characters now firmly embedded in …

I'm going to be honest, going into this final I really wasn't very excited. Two of the four finalists weren't my favourites. I feel like they've all been so good at the dances that we're not going to learn much by seeing the same dances over again. And we all knew right from the start that Hamza was going to win. The guy was trending first thing in the morning, …

I finished watching the third series of Staged recently and I've been trying to decide how I feel about it to be able to write this post. The truth is, I don't know how I feel about it. Oh, it was good, obviously. In Simon Evans we trust, because this was another series that subverted the format of the previous two and added an extra layer of complexity and 'how …

Semi-finals and two dances each, this week is a real challenge. Although technically the dances had a bit more time due to the earlier than usual scheduling last weekend and the later than usual scheduling this weekend. Thank goodness it's the final next week so we can stop getting sompletely confused about what day it is. On with the dances! --- Fleur & Vito - Paso Doble Shirley: "Fleur, Paso …