Hello again. As you May have noticed, so to speak, from a few of my recent posts, this has been another very eventful and enjoyable month. Which means there’s plenty to mention in this latest roundup post and video, including a big royal event, a musical, explorations of nature and animals, and a few things I’ve been watching and listening to. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual. So I hope you enjoy!
Contents
The Coronation
Journalism Work
King Charles III’s Coronation was of course the first big event of the month. My mother listened to it all on the radio, but I was working that day, so I only had the live coverage on in the background, and therefore wasn’t paying close attention to a lot of it. So I recorded it and watched it back later.8
On the big day itself I was supporting my journalist friend Emily Davison and her colleagues as they produced a live blog for News Shopper, covering the celebrations in South East London as well as the main events from the centre of the city. Emily was out and about at a Coronation screening and a street party, doing Facebook Live broadcasts, interviewing various people (including the Mayor of Bromley) and taking some great photos (especially of children celebrating).
So everyone did an excellent job. I enjoyed getting a first-hand appreciation of how hard local journalists work during big occasions like this, and I was pleased that I could support them from home in some way.
Accessible Commentary
The RNIB worked with the BBC and ITV to ensure that people with sight loss weren’t excluded from coverage of the ceremony and the processions. So the BBC had an accessible commentary available on their Red Button channel and iPlayer, while ITV had optional audio description on their main broadcast. The BBC also had sign language available, and a feed without any commentary at all if you didn’t want people talking over it. So there were plenty of options for watching it.
So my mother and I watched the BBC’s coverage with accessible commentary that I’d recorded, spreading it out over several days, doing a bit at a time while having our dinners together. The commentary was provided by Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny and military expert Lincoln Jopp, and it was really good.
They clearly explained what was going on, including very useful descriptions of outfits, objects, locations, the Royal carriages, etc, and they also provided lots of interesting context about how and why things were being done in certain ways. Plus they left gaps where appropriate, so you could focus on listening to the music, speeches, prayers, etc and get a sense of the general atmosphere.
Hence it was called an “accessible commentary” rather than “audio description”, as there was much more to it than just descriptions of the visuals. And my mother, who’s blind, felt it gave her much more information than Radio 5 had done. So it really helped us to engage fully with the events of that special day.
Ceremony & Celebrations
The Coronation Ceremony did feel quite long to me, and there seemed to be a lot of repetition in the many prayers that were said, but then I’m not religious so that aspect of things doesn’t do anything for me personally. But it was still lovely to see the traditions being upheld regardless, on what was a beautifully immaculate occasion, as Westminster Abbey is stunning, the music was lovely, the choristers sounded amazing, the King looked spectacular, and the expensive objects used during the service were fascinating, including the sword that Penny Mordaunt had to hold for what seemed like forever!
The parades before and after the service were wonderful to watch as well. The sight of all the different personnel lined up in the garden of Buckingham Palace for inspection afterwards was very impressive, and it was great to see the family out on the balcony at the front of the building of course. It’s a shame that the typical British weather put a dampener on things, and forced the flypast to be scaled back, but at least we still got to see some helicopters and the Red Arrows.
I didn’t bother watching the Coronation Concert though, as the vast majority of the acts didn’t interest me. Out of curiosity I went online and saw Lionel Richie singing Easy & All Night Long and Prince William’s speech, but that was it, and they’re not things I’d watch again. The 2002 Golden Jubilee concerts have always been my favourite Royal gigs in recent decades, nothing’s topped them since.
So that’s all out of the way now, after all the build-up. And I’m glad it went well. Even if I hadn’t been working that day, I wouldn’t have gone into the city to try and watch it anyway, as it would have been impossible to get anywhere and see anything with that many people around. It’s much easier to see things on TV at home.
However, a few days later I did have a wander down part of Oxford Street, where I saw the crowns on the bus stops and Union Jacks over the street, which looked very nice, as you can also see in my Instagram photo set.
Out & About
BBC Earth Experience
Recently I’ve sung the praises of the BBC’s latest nature series Wild Isles, with beautiful footage of nature narrated by David Attenborough. So as a follow-up to that, and to enjoy more stunning images of nature from all over the world, I paid a visit to the BBC Earth Experience this month. It’s very immersive and also accessible, as I was able to use their audio description guide, so I really enjoyed it.
Check out my full review to find out more.
Phantom Of The Opera
A few years ago I booked tickets for the iconic Phantom Of The Opera, only for it to be cancelled when we went into lockdown, so I ended up watching the 25th anniversary version online at the time instead.
However, this month I finally got to see the show in person for the first time, complete with a touch tour and audio description, and it was an incredible experience. It was great to get up close to some of the costumes and props, the show looked and sounded amazing, and the theatre staff were really lovely. So it took a while for me to get there, but it was well worth the wait.
See my review post for all the details.
Chelsea & Belgravia In Bloom
As well as doing journalism work with my friend Emily from Fashioneyesta, we also met up for a social outing as well, as we spent a gorgeously sunny day exploring the Chelsea In Bloom and Belgravia In Bloom installations, themed around films and wild animals respectively. These artistic floral masterpieces were being exhibited outside businesses on various streets to coincide with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It was quite hard to find specific displays sometimes, as the maps weren’t very helpful, but we persevered and found as much as we could.
See my gallery post for photos of my favourite displays.
Portraits Of Dogs
I also spent another nice afternoon with my friend Claire this month, and this time we decided to check out the new Portraits Of Dogs exhibition at the Wallace Collection, which is running until 15 October.
As the name suggests, it features paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc from a variety of artists and time periods about our canine companions. Some of them did have impressive levels of detail, and there was a little room devoted to works by David Hockney at the end.
They also had very useful large print books of all the label text, so we had one each as we wandered around. And there is an audio described tour on Tuesday 6 June, but being a work day that’s not suitable for us, otherwise we’d probably have gone along to that instead. There’s also a BSL tour on Tuesday 11 July if anyone’s interested in that.
So it was nice to look through the gallery, and worth it for the concessionary rate we got, and it’s great that it’s accessible with the large print guide and tours. But I wouldn’t rave about it or pay full price either to be honest. There wasn’t anything particularly exciting or memorable, we didn’t feel like we’d learnt anything, and it seemed quite short despite having a few rooms to go through, because we didn’t stop to look at things for very long. It was literally just some pleasant portraits of dogs, so it lived up to its name in that respect.
We also had a quick look at the small photo gallery of The Queen and her Corgis just behind the gift shop, which was a nice tribute to Her Majesty and those dogs are adorable. But we didn’t have time to look at anything else in the museum that day. I expect I’ll go back there at some point though. This is only the second time I’ve been to The Wallace Collection, since my last visit 5 years ago for an accessibility study, so I should go again.
TV & Film
Ready Or Not
The one movie I saw this month was Ready Or Not, a comedy horror flick from 2019 that was recommended by my friend Emily. And while films of that genre can sometimes fall flat and feel unoriginal, this was actually quite entertaining. It’s about a young lady called Grace (played by Samara Weaving), who is taken back to the huge house owned by her new in-laws after getting married, where she’s invited to play a game as an initiation into the family. Unfortunately, that turns out to be a deadly version of hide and seek, as her husband Alex (played by Mark O’Brien) hadn’t warned her that his family were Satan worshippers! So Grace has to try and stay alive, while Alex has to decide whether his loyalties lie with her or his folks. And it’s all good fun, with a mixture of action, tension and humour. It’s not something I’d buy, but it is an enjoyable way to kill an hour and a half.
Comedy Shows
In terms of stand-up comedy, after enjoying Russell Howard live at the Palladium in April, I naturally had to watch his Good News DVDs, stand-up DVDs and Netflix specials again. So I enjoyed going through all of those, and you can check out my detailed blog post to see my full reviews.
I’ve also watched some of the full episodes of Good News on his Youtube channel as well, as I do miss that show. The Russell Howard Hour that he does on Sky these days is similar, but has never grabbed me as much as his BBC show did, as there are segments and guests that don’t appeal to me so much.
Meanwhile, over on Channel 4, the latest series of Taskmaster has been great as usual. While none of the contestants are comedians I’m into outside of the show, they have all been very good in this. Of the ones I was familiar with, Frankie Boyle was my favourite (and I did like him on Mock The Week, I just haven’t been into his other solo stuff). And amongst those I didn’t know, Mae Martin grew on me as the episodes went on, as she often gave the tasks careful thought, and I’m pleased that she won the series. But Ivo Graham, Jenny Eclair & Kiell Smith-Bynoe gave good value too.
So it’ll be interesting to see who’s on the next series – though I’m doing my best to avoid any reports of who’s on it, so I can be pleasantly surprised when it’s actually broadcast, just like I did this time around. And I know there’s a junior version on the way too, hosted by Rose Matafeo with Mike Wozniak as her assistant, but I’m not bothered about that. I might briefly glance at an episode out of sheer curiosity, but it won’t be the same by its nature, and they won’t be as fun to watch as professional adult comedians. Nevertheless, I hope the kids have a blast taking part in their version, they’ll love it!
And talking of Channel 4’s game shows, there was also a surprise new episode of The Big Fat Quiz this month, themed around sport for a change. However, it wasn’t as good as their traditional quizzes about the past year or certain decades, as the comedians had barely any knowledge of the subject and weren’t very entertaining. My favourite people in the line-up were Roisin Conaty and Kerry Godliman, but even they didn’t get the opportunity to shine. So it all felt a bit pointless really.
Network Liquidation
I can’t talk about TV without mentioning the most shocking news of the month – the sudden collapse of DVD & Blu-ray experts Network Distributing, which caught everyone completely off guard as there wasn’t any warning or announcement.
They still haven’t made an official statement, but the widespread reports of their liquidation appear to be true. Their website has been down since the end of May, they haven’t posted on social media since then either, some people got surprise refunds for pre-ordered items in the days before the closure, and several industry insiders have confirmed the news (including TV producer Richard Marson, Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, and news outlet The British Comedy Guide).
But why does this matter? Well, names like Network Distributing, Network DVD or Network On Air may not mean much to some of you, but this a genuinely huge loss in the industry of physical media entertainment.
For 25 years, since being founded by the sadly-missed Tim Beddows, Network were incredibly passionate about hunting down, licensing and releasing a huge number of archive TV shows and films on DVD & Blu-ray (such as this long list of comedies). These covered a remarkably broad range from major classics to extremely niche titles, which other distributors weren’t interested in or even knew about. Many of their titles were expertly remastered and came bundled with extra features, while some of their special editions also had books accompanying them that went into extraordinary levels of detail. And even their bare-bones releases (i.e. those without remastering or extras) were treasured by collectors for their mere existence, as they were shows you couldn’t get anywhere else.
So if, like me, you’ve collected a variety of old TV shows on DVD over the years, there’s a good chance you own Network titles among them, even if you’ve never looked closely at the packaging.
My favourite Network titles in my collection are the excellently remastered editions of Monty Python (Norwegian Blu-ray Edition), The Professionals and The Sweeney. And I also have their DVDs and Blu-rays relating to The Bill (all their episodes up to mid-1990), Dad’s Army (the remade lost episodes), Ever Decreasing Circles (complete sitcom starring Richard Briers & Penelope Wilton), Frost On Sunday (sketch show compilation), The Kenny Everett Video Show (complete sketch show with a few music cuts), Morecambe & Wise (their surviving ITV sketch shows), The New Statesman (complete sitcom starring Rik Mayall), The Piglet Files (complete sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst), QI (all of the Stephen Fry episodes), Rik Mayall Presents (complete comedy-drama series), Saturday Live (sketch show compilations) and The Tube (music compilation from Series 1).
My mother has quite the bundle of TV shows in her own DVD & Blu-ray collection too, including Black Beauty (which only came out in May and she’s really happy to be watching it again for the first time in decades), Boon, Gideon’s Way, Hazell, Maigret (the Rupert Davies & Michael Gambon versions) and Public Eye, plus she has the old movies The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Return Of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
So thank you to Network for all of the joy their incredible efforts have brought to myself and many others, as is apparent from the outpouring of love shown online – including the Twitter threads by Tim Worthington & Pip Madeley, the blog post by Film Stories, and the video by Vintage Media Millennial.
There are other DVD producers out there of course, and lots of expertise within the redundant Network employees, who I feel very sorry for. So we’ll just have to wait and hope that someone else is prepared to dig into the archives and restore things in the way that Network did. But nobody knows what’ll happen yet. All we can be certain of is that Network’s closure is the end of an era. Thank you for everything you did Network!
Music
Finally for this month, I’ve downloaded new albums by two of my favourite artists.
Kerry Ellis: Kings & Queens
I’ve previously reviewed Kerry’s other albums and I saw her live at a Queen tribute show last year, so naturally I had to get Kings & Queens too.
And it is of course a great selection of songs. The opening title track is catchy and uplifting, Battlefield featuring Brian May is beautiful, and other tracks that particularly grabbed me included The Only One, My All, Love Wins and Home Again. So it’s another classy release from Kerry, and I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
Def Leppard: Drastic Symphonies
This new album is an unusual one for Def Leppard, because they’ve teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to record new arrangements of some of their big hits and a few lesser-known tracks. And it works very nicely.
The band have always had great power to their music, so the mighty RPO complement them well. Generally speaking, some of the rock elements have been dialled down or stripped out, leaving room for the orchestra to do their thing, and other little changes have been made to the songs as well.
If I had to pick some favourite tracks I would probably say Animal, Hysteria, Gods Of War, the instrumental Switch 625, Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?, When Love & Hate Collide & Kings Of The World, but they’re nearly all good.
The only time it falls down is with Pour Some Sugar On Me, which has clearly divided the fanbase. Some adore this ballad-style duet between Joe Elliott & Emm Gryner, and there’s no denying that they harmonise well while the orchestra are working their socks off. And yet I’m in the camp of people that just can’t get on board with it. It just doesn’t really work as a ballad, given the nature of the lyrics and the strange melody in which they’re sung. So it’s a valiant attempt, but it feels wrong to me somehow. Otherwise, however, the album’s great.
Conclusion
And that’s it, I hope you enjoyed this latest recap as usual. I have another theatre show booked for June that I’m really looking forward to, and if the nice weather continues then I will be trying to make the most of it. And who knows what else the month will have in store? We’ll soon find out, and I hope you have a lovely month too!
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