Great to hear The Killers again, such a distinctive voice and some great songs to go along with it. I didn’t really like the title track so the album got off to a very inauspicious start but it picked up as it went along, and I quite enjoyed the rest of the piece.

Recently, I’ve been trying to watch more educational television alongside all the more sensational Netflix stuff or traditional half-hour comedies. This desire has meant checking out a lot of BBC Four and BBC Two, and I really enjoyed the four-part factual show on the latter: World’s Busiest Cities. Presented by Anita Rani, Dan Snow and Ade Adepitan, the show delved into what makes four very different cities across the globe tick. After the first episode, I was a bit confused about what the aim of the programme was – it felt a bit like a random selection of insights into a city that didn’t necessarily tie together. However, after watching more episode, I realised that the randomness of it actually was the point. These cities are huge and sprawling and you never know what you’re going to find around the next corner.

Now that Rhyme and Sachs have been partnered up for a while, it’s nice to see new characters getting a look in. We’ve got Pulaski, who was featured previously but really steps into the new boy role here, and of course Kathryn Dance, who gets her own spin off series after this first appearance.

Been waiting for this film ever since the first trailers appeared, and there was so much fuss over it - the first proper female led superhero movie in a long time. I was supremely glad to see it, and not only because it was a good film but also because it didn’t stand out for me for being a female superhero movie. In fact, it stood out only in so much as it was a great superhero film and certainly the best one that DC have made in a considerable amount of time.

I listened to the audiobook of this, mostly because of the fabulous narration by Robert Glenister but also because I knew I wouldn’t have time to read the book before the TV show disappeared off the iPlayer. Now I’ve caught up, I’m really glad my hand was forced because this was a surprising and unusual take on the detective genre.

Not sure you’d have got me listening to an album that kicks off with an 11 minute song this time last year, but I’m all on board now. Very similar to the first Bat Out of Hell, this is piano rock opera at its finest, but I think if you pushed me I’d have to say I preferred the first album to this. All good though.

This is a pretty good album to chill out to but I was expecting more of it to stand out than it did. The fun game of “who is going to guest on each song and what are they going to sing” only lasts for so long. I really like Feels with Katy Perry, and the Nicki Minaj song was good, but otherwise it wasn’t as memorable as I’d thought it might be, considering the calibre of talent on it.

Surprised to find this film, hadn’t heard of it despite a relatively good cast, and it popped up at exactly the right time to be the perfect film for our viewing needs. It was your usual heist-doesn’t-go-quite-right-or-does-it film, not particularly ground-breaking in its plot and plot twists, but it was a lot of fun.

Really love this album, there are so many tunes on it, it’s a real collection of genius. Pink has always been kinda inspirational and her recent thoughts on just being yourself and proving you’re awesome by getting on with it and ignoring the haters just add to the weight behind great songs like on this album. Can’t wait for the new one.

Didn’t know this band before listening, but actually really enjoyed this one. They have a sort of blend of established guitar bands, like Muse, The Killers and Stereophonics, which kind of makes it a new take on a very saturated genre. Good stuff.

I’m working my way through the Lincoln Rhyme thrillers, some of which I’ve read before and some of which are new. This one I came to fresh and what I’m astounded by is how each presents a new set of challenges for the crime scene crew in Lincoln’s townhouse. Part of the draw to come back to the series is to find out what’s happening in Lincoln’s personal life - both romantic and health-wise - but I’m impressed that the crimes are never formulaic.

This was a good film, very much in the same vein as the other John Carney ones, although not as good as Begin Again, I’d argue. It was intensely eighties, and portrayed an Ireland that is sometimes hard to fathom, but I did enjoy how the main kid kept adapting his look as he watched more and more pop videos.

I was kind of in two minds about Carpool Karaoke branching out on its own. It works brilliantly as a sketch on the James Cordon late night show, but to stand on its own two feet? How would that work? Could it sustain a longer show? And what would it be like without James? Well, the answer is that for the most part, it’s still as brilliant as it was before. There are some niggles, but the overall result is an entertaining and still laugh out loud funny programme.

This video came as a complete surprise to me. I didn’t know that Josh from Drake and Josh was a video blogger, although I did know that he had got all thin and had fallen out with Drake about the wedding. Sad times. Except not sad times because that meant we got this amazing video. So much to love about this, but of course the reunion itself is the main thing. The joke about the wedding is wonderful, and the bonus appearance at the end too. Plus I love that Alexa gets a say in it.

I’m still quite new to the whole bass playing thing and I’ve been looking around the App Store for instructional apps. Whilst the scope is limited for bass guitar itself, the arena of musical tuition is incredible. I so wish these things existed when I was a kid and was trying my hand at all kinds of different instruments. For now, though, I’ve settled on Yousician, an app that covers four instruments including bass. They have instructional video and exercises that can pick up your playing and make sure you’re doing it properly. Of course there are badges and rewards, and a daily goal, but for the most part, Yousician is just a good encouragement to pick up the bass each day, learn something new, and get a bit of practice.

I was highly anticipating this, but it didn’t quite work for me. No question Janet Jackson is fab but as a whole, it was all just a bit eighties and the songs never quite seemed to go anywhere. A few of them were too repetitive and although not a bad listen, I wouldn’t pick this out again.

First listen through this was a bit disappointing – it doesn’t really stand out like previous singles and albums have, and it’s not as inspirational as previous work. However, second listen was better, there are some good ideas on there and it’s quite a chilled out album to relax with. The single Rain grew on me after many listens, so I reckon this album is also a grower.

I’ve attempted watching this before and was a bit too grumpy to look past the clip-clopping coconuts. This time round, I was right on board and that made all of it quite a lot of fun. I don’t think this film is as good as Life of Brian, and it certainly felt a lot more disjointed and random (even more random than you expect Monty Python to be!).

The one thing it is easy to forget when you have a blog is that people are occasionally reading what you’re saying. It really shouldn’t be a surprise when someone says “Hey, why don’t you try this food, I know you’re trying to taste new things, I saw it on your blog.” I wasn’t keen, if I’m honest, because this thing is called liquorice root. I don’t like liquorice, and it looked like a tree branch, which I’ve not previously had a fondness for eating either.

The first twenty minutes of this were great, setting up interesting ethical and moral questions alongside the unmistakable tension and suspense that a movie like Alien does so well. Unfortunately, once the action actually started, it was just too much grossness. That’s all I can say.

I can’t remember where I heard of the Serial reading app, but I downloaded it a while back and left it sitting on my phone for a while before I had time to play around with it. After finally investigating what it has to offer, I can’t now decide how I feel about it. As with all the best apps, Serial Reader offers up a simple solution to a problem you didn’t know you had. Classic works, from esteemed authors such as Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells or Philip K. Dick, are broken down into manageable bite-size chunks and delivered to your device in “issues” – twenty minute blocks to help you work through the task of reading.

I’ve heard this a few times, obviously, but somehow I’d forgotten that there were just so many great tracks on here. It’s a fab album from start to finish, and I can understand why Mr C loves it so much. Listened to this just in time to start enjoying her new stuff too!

At first, I was optimistic about this one - I liked the style and the different guests bringing unique voices to various tracks. Unfortunately, it still all managed to sound similar - and a couple of the songs were just like Closer with Halsey. Good but not great.

A quirky little true-ish story, this one. Totally adorable in places, moving and sad in others. Pretty much everyone under the sun made a bonus appearance in this film, so I was forever pointing at the screen trying to remember their names. But distractions aside, the story told within is so simple, tender and emotional that it’s hard not to like it.

Just as advertised, this was a totally different take on the superhero genre. I had a moment at the start wandering where this fitted into the mess that is the X-Men timeline, but then I sort of had to give that up. James Mangold has said he mostly ignored the universe and just told the story he had to tell, which I think is a bit weird (why enter a universe if you don’t want to engage with it?) but the end result is still a fascinating watch.

I sort of can’t sum up my feelings about this film, it was so good. It’s just over two hours long, but quite honestly, it took us about four hours to watch because we had to keep pausing and rewatching the awesomeness. The David Hasselhoff bit, the Zune, Baby Groot being adorable, Drax being hilarious, it was all just brilliant.

After the exploits of the last book, where Rhyme and Sachs were somewhat out of their comfort zone in the country, this time they’re firmly back in New York. Instead, the foreign nature of the crimes comes to their door as they are dealing with Chinese people smuggling racket, and hunting the mastermind behind the whole thing.

This is one of the few albums that I listened to multiple times when it came out. I’m slightly obsessed with Alicia: such a good voice, amazing piano talent and just a wonderful presence, so it’s lovely to dip back into this familiar selection of R&B/pop goodness.

Was always under the impression that Legend was a bit whiney, you know, soppy laid back music, but I hadn’t realised Love Me Now was him. After being educated by Carpool Karaoke, I gave his album a go, but did find it to be a bit underwhelming. Love Me Now is a stand out track, the rest far less memorable.

There was a lot of pressure on this film’s shoulders, as we’d endured two out of the last three movies being absolute train wrecks. Precious time and money wasted on silly movies, so instead we put our faith in Tony Scott and Denzel Washington - a fantastic pairing that should never be doubted.

Like many people, I love Nadiya of Bake Off and now her own TV show fame. I’ve been watching her British Food Adventure with a sort of vague interest - experimenting in the kitchen is not high on my agenda at the moment. But, then I saw the third episode and realised I should pay more attention to this lady - she talks sense. Me too, Nadiya, me too.

Ooof, not good at all. I sort of thought this would be better, given the great cast, but it wasn’t enjoyable for me. Naturally, the gang of boys were childish and offensive to women whenever they were together, but that’s not really what got my goat. I didn’t like the message that this guy was a virgin because of his personality and lifestyle. The guys spent most of the movie trying to change him, when the reality is it was because he stopped trying.

This was a lovely film to watch, particularly after the horrors of Kong, it was a nice feel-good film with a relaxing feel to it. I’m not sure the story itself was particularly strong, but it was held up by the wonderful presence of Caine and Freeman, with Arkin shoring up the trio. It was funny in places, but not hugely comedic, it was more a drama than anything, and there were plenty of sentimental and family moments to give you all the feels.

I was planning on publishing another update to my Adventures in Netflix series, but was waiting until I’d watched one more series of something. Unfortunately, any Netflix watching I had planned has been delayed as I’ve become totally obsessed with Red Rock – an Irish police drama that airs on the BBC during the daytime, the iPlayer whenever you want, and I believe on Amazon Video as well. It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Dublin in our household, so the concept of a soap based in the Dublin area was quickly my favourite thing. At first, I was just enamoured by the scenery and the accents, but I soon became caught up in the story as well. A few inter-twining plots make up this soap, with your traditional Romeo and Juliet love story, alongside a particularly creepy grooming storyline as well as cops going bad, family loyalties and plenty more.

So, without an original idea to work with, they went all out on the CGI - it was some incredible work, but as Mr C quite rightly said: ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.’ There was some really graphic and gross things in there that I wasn’t prepared for, and really never want to think about ever again but can’t stop visualising. It had that Prometheus effect.

The third of Lincoln Rhyme’s adventures takes place away from home, in a story that feels like when your favourite TV show moves to a different location for a special episode. It feels uncomfortable from the start, and there are bits of it that I don’t totally get on board with - I feel like Amelia was acting out of character for a good portion of the book, and there were so many twists towards the end I couldn’t quite keep up with who was who.

This was a real surprise. I’ve had it on a ’to watch’ list for absolutely ages, and decided to finally get round to watching it. I thought, given that it’s Mr Bateman, that it was going to be more of an all-out comedy, but it was more subtle than that. I saw a review saying he was like Bill Murray, with that grumpy acerbic dialogue that makes you laugh despite generally having all the hallmarks of an evil person. That’s exactly what this was and Jason did an incredible job with it.

Love Will Smith. Inspired to listen to this after his Carpool Karaoke, and really enjoyed it. The pop-rap style is totally up my street, great rhythm in rapping but slightly more palatable subjects than more hardcore rappers. Plus I know all the words to Men in Black, so can end the album in style.

I was keen to listen to this one, heard good things, but this isn’t really my sort of thing. Bit heavy, ethereal, quite like Florence and the Machine. Lead singer has a great voice but there isn’t much else to it, and I found it a bit of a slog to get through the whole album.

When it was first announced that Miranda Hart would be taking the role of Miss Hannigan in the West End production of Annie, I knew I’d have to go and see it. Annie isn’t one of my favourite musicals – children and animals and all that jazz – but the chance to see Miranda in her first stage musical role was too good to pass up. Thus, I rocked up to the Picadilly Theatre one Saturday to see how it all went down.

I had a memory of watching the first half of this film and absolutely hating it, just as I didn’t really get on well with the book either. Why is this woman obsessed with not having been proposed to after only six or eight weeks? It makes no sense to me. And the fact that she gets herself into situations like the skiing thing really boggles my mind. Surely it’s more adorable to be a bit nervous than to be all brazen but rubbish?

Great film this, I had no idea of the story behind one of the world’s biggest brands, and this was an enlightening if ultimately very depressing glimpse at what it takes to make millions. I was left with an overwhelming feeling of sadness, because although the message about persistence and embracing change is a good one, clearly this guy took it too far in screwing over pretty much everyone he came into contact with.

The overwhelming thought throughout the whole of this film was simply: wtf? Who came up with the idea and how on earth did they make a whole film out of it? It was completely crazy, but also quite fun. I laughed a lot at several moments, and thought Alec Baldwin did a great job with the voice of a baby in a suit - not quite sure how you manage to capture that, but he did.

The trailer made this look kinda funny but also kinda rubbish, so that’s what I was expecting and that’s exactly what it was. It’s clearly just a vanity project for Shepard, wrote it, directed it, starred in it, did all his own motorcycle stunts, and I think it suffers a little from that. It’s uneven throughout, the pacing and the shoe-horned in jokes that don’t quite fit.

This was a really lovely film, from start to finish. The group of outcasts were lovely, all of them, and all had their own quirky story to tell - mostly quite sad but with occasional glimpses of happiness along the way. Once I got over my revulsion of the whole wedding thing, I was totally invested and wanted to know how it all worked out.

I hadn’t realised Graham Norton had turned his hand to writing, but was glad to pick up the book and indulge in the mysteries of a quiet Irish village for a change. Following the story of an overweight sergeant in the depths of the countryside who finally has a crime to investigate, the book is by turns deeply involved and also sort of hands off.

Excellent album, it’s very eighties, so maybe hasn’t aged as well as it might have done, but the songs are all still great – the singles stand out, naturally, but love it all. Some of the tracks remind me of Madonna, but the combination of the two voices gives it a slightly different vibe.

This was recommended to me by Jeremy, and I’d not heard of the band before. It’s proper country, not pop country that I usually indulge in, but it wasn’t as hoky as I’d thought it might be. The first half of the album is quite relaxing, and it’s all got a nice rhythm to it.

Really interesting book this one. It’s sits in a unique halfway house of crime fiction, in that it doesn’t get too bogged down in the details of the crime (although we are following an active investigation), instead there is more focus on the police staff going about their business and trying to deal with their lives. It’s more of a drama, with relationships starting and ending, inter-office politics going on, and plenty of self-loathing.

I listened to the audiobook of this, and really enjoyed it, although it’s definitely a book of two halves. The first half, with Bond being bored at his desk talking through the minutiae of the reports he has to read, and then heading into a card game to try and catch a cheater… well, that bit wasn’t exactly riveting. I’m rubbish at following card games anyway, let alone ones that I don’t really know the rules for. Still, it’s written and read very well so that you can at least feel the tension even if you don’t quite know what it’s for.