Christmas 2023 Favourites – Part 1

A collage of 5 photos, including Glen smiling while wearing a Santa hat and a Christmas jumper with snowflakes on it, a sculpture of The Snowman featuring artwork of the character doing various activities in the snow, two large gold bells with a glittering red bow attached to the top of them, the cast of The Choir Of Men on the pub set of their stage show, and the stage for An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail.

Seasons greetings, I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well, November always feels a little bit festive, but for me it was even more so than normal this year, because I’ve already explored a variety of London’s displays, seen a bunch of snowmen on a sculpture trail, and had a free Christmas dinner courtesy of a PR invite. On top of that I’ve also seen a couple of theatre shows, while at home I’ve been enjoying some more TV and music as always.

Consequently it makes sense to treat this as a festive Favourites post and video, and spread the joy over 2 months. It’s not too early as far as I’m concerned. So with the usual disclaimer that all opinions are my own, including for the free food, let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Contents

Festive Outings

Bill’s Christmas Meal (PR Invite)

Just a few months after the birthday meal I had at Bill’s in Covent Garden, generously gifted by my friend Claire, I’ve now had a free Christmas dinner at their Greenwich branch as well, thanks to Emily Davison (aka Fashioneyesta). She was very kindly invited along by the restaurant to try their Christmas menu, so she could write a review about it, and as I’m her support worker she asked me along to join her. So while it may seem early, there was good reason for it, and I was perfectly ready to get into the festive spirit, even digging out one of my Christmas jumpers for the occasion!

The exterior of Bill's restaurant on the corner of a junction in Greenwich. Small orange canopies hang over the windows on the ground floor. Above the canopies, in white lettering on a black background, is the logo for Bill's alongside the words Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Glen smiling widely in Bill's restaurant while wearing a Santa hat, which is red with a white hem at the bottom and a white bobble on the top.
Glen in Bill's restaurant wearing an Only Fools And Horses Christmas jumper. The navy jumper has the words Cushty Christmas in large yellow letters above an image of a yellow three-wheeled Robin Reliant van, with Trotters Independent Trading Co written on the side and a green Christmas tree laid on its side on the roof. White snowflakes in different sizes decorate the rest of the jumper.

And we had a lovely time. The staff were very friendly and attentive, and there was plenty to choose from. They have a standard Christmas menu and a Christmas Specials menu, and even a festive menu for dogs as well, because they pride themselves on being a dog-friendly restaurant. Emily’s guide dog Rosie had already eaten earlier, so she didn’t try any of the canine offerings at the time, but the staff did give her a bowl of water while we were there, and a bag of festive treats to take home.

Bill's Christmas Specials Food menu. The main courses are the Notorious Pigs In Blankets Burger, Confit Duck with Bauble and Squeak, or Festive Fillet of Salmon with Beetroot and Feta Risotto. A side of Pigs In Blankets can be added. The dessert option is a Merry Berry Black Cherry and Dark Chocolate Eton Mess.
Bill's Christmas Specials Drinks menu, with the options of a Candy Cane Crush, Apple and Spice, or Cherry Berry Bramble.
Bill's Christmas Menu, 3 courses from £32.95. Starters are King Prawn Cocktail, Spiced Parsnip and Celeriac Soup, Pork and Caperberry Rillette, and Roast Beetroot, Cranberry and Apple Salad. The mains are a Pancetta Wrapped Turkey, Salmon and Saffron, Sirloin Steak, Santa's Burger Stack, and a plant-based wellington. Desserts are Sticky Toffee Pudding, Black Forest Chocolate Tart, White Chocolate Snowball, and Ogleshield Cheese and Oatcakes.

These are the dishes I went for, with the starter from their regular A La Carte menu, while the mains and desserts were from the Christmas Specials menu, and they were all very tasty:

  • Chicken & Sesame Dumplings (£6.95) – A plate of 6 crispy fried dumplings served with spicy chutney, which had a nice little kick to it without being strong. I also had a couple of slices of garlic bread as a side.
  • Notorious P.I.B. Burger (£15.95) – This pigs in blankets burger consisted of a double pork patty, double smoked bacon, sage & onion mayo & cranberry sauce, with truffle gravy dip & crispy fried onions. It was very big and really nice, with the meat complemented well by the other flavours, and came with some lovely rosemary salted fries as well.
  • Merry Black Cherry & Dark Chocolate Eton Mess (£7.95) – This is the only dessert option for the Christmas Specials, but there are others on the regular Christmas menu, and more still on their standard menu of course. It combines black cherries & kirsch with white chocolate mousse & meringue pieces, all topped with dark chocolate shavings & golden crumble. I really liked the mixture of flavours and textures in this, with the squashy cherries, the creamy meringue and mousse, the little bits of dark chocolate, and the crunchy crumble. It was a good combination.
The Notorious Pigs In Blankets Burger at Bill's, consisting of a double pork patty, double smoked bacon, sage & onion mayo & cranberry sauce, with truffle gravy dip & crispy fried onions, accompanied by a pot of rosemary salted fries.
Five chicken and sesame dumplings at Bill's, with a dipping pot of spicy sauce.
Merry Black Cherry & Dark Chocolate Eton Mess at Bill's, consisting of black cherries & kirsch with white chocolate mousse & meringue pieces, all topped with dark chocolate shavings & golden crumble.

I also had a bottle of their Sassy cider and a cocktail to drink, both of which were lovely, and we had some water as well. And by the end of it all we were very pleasantly full! So thank you to Emily for that early Christmas treat – you can read her article to find out more.

A bottle and glass of Sassy's cider at Bill's.
A cocktail at Bill's, with red berries floating on the top of it.

Greenwich Explorations

Prior to our big dinner at Bill’s, Emily and I had worked up an appetite by looking around the local area. To begin with, whilst waiting for her to arrive, I had a little wander down to the Cutty Sark and the Thames, both of which are always lovely to look at. I really must go on that ship and explore it one day. Emily even climbed the rigging earlier this year, which looked very cool.

The clipper ship the Cutty Sark, with its 3 huge masts.
The Cutty Sark, next to the round building with a domed roof that forms the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel beneath the Thames.
View of the River Thames from Greenwich.
Close up of the 3 huge masts on the Cutty Sark.

I then joined Emily for a look around Greenwich Market, where we picked up a few little things, and I bought Emily a lit-up paper-carved woodland scene from Paper Wonderland that she liked the look of as a Christmas present. After all, she’s kept me in work for nearly a year already and we’re good friends, so it was only right to get her something. And in return, later in the month she very kindly sent me a Thornton & France Chocolicious Hamper to share with Mum, which was very tasty, so thank you to her for that!

Instagram post by Emily at Fashioneyesta2012, showing a framed image of a woodland scene made out of card. It shows a silhouette of deer following a girl across a short bridge between two groups of trees. Behind them, in the clearing between the trees, the moon and stars are in the sky. which is lit in rainbow colours, moving from yellow at the bottom through to dark blue and a hint of pink at the top. Text below the image reads A beautiful gift from my dear friend Glen at Well Eye Never. A whimsical woodland scene that changes colour and sequence. My Dad added this gold frame to it to make it fit in with my room decor.
Various chocolate treats in a box lined with straw-like shavings of paper. The goodies include Mr Filbert's Chocolate Orange Nut Mix, Reids Scottish Shortbread Selection, Mighty Fine Honeycomb Bar covered in caramel chocolate, and Bon Bon's Gourmet Chocolate Orange Fudge.

Then we went into the Old Royal Naval College to admire the Painted Hall, which is such an exquisite space, with Sir James Thornhill’s huge artworks filling the ceilings and walls, featuring kings, queens, cherubs, mythological creatures and other figures. You can see more pictures of the Cutty Sark and Painted Hall on my Instagram.

The Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, with its arched windows along each side, and the long ceiling filled with highly detailed artworks.
A large section of the artwork on the ceiling of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College.
Detailed artwork on one of the walls of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College.
Artwork on one of the walls of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College.
Part of the artwork on the ceiling of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College.
The long ceiling of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, viewed through an ornately decorated archway.

Walking With The Snowman

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs has been a staple of Christmas TV for the past 4 decades, because it’s such a sweet story, told with beautiful animation and music. And in recent years there have also been sculptures of the character decorated in different ways, at various locations around the country. It’s organised by Wild In Art, who were also behind Morph’s Epic Art Adventure that I looked at in the summer.

So I recently went out and found the dozen statues that make up this year’s trail in the Fleet Street Quarter, themed around the Twelve Days Of Christmas. And they’re really nice, with colourful imagery of various birds, dancers, scenic landscapes the Snowman himself, and so on.

Check out my blog post about the trail for more information and to see my photos of all 12 sculptures.

Sculpture of The Snowman called Partridge In A Pear Tree. The front of his body, from his chest down to his feet, is painted to show a partridge sitting in a tall tree that has small pears hanging from its curling branches. There is a big bright yellow star just above the partridge, and there are white snowflakes falling in the starry night sky in the background. The Snowman's smiling face is white with a red nose, and he's wearing a green hat and a screen scarf.
Sculpture of The Snowman called Two Turtle Doves. The front of his body shows a large blue turtle dove, with lots of feathers, sitting on a snow covered tree branch. A few red and gold coloured hearts are hanging from other branches. The Snowman is also wearing a gold scarf and a gold hat.
Sculpture of The Snowman called Four Calling Birds. Over a scenic background of rolling green hills against a blue sky, a bird hovers next to the floating receiver of a red rotary dial phone, next to a speech bubble saying hello, while on the Snowman's feet a bird chirps 3 times at a smartphone that has musical notes coming out of it. The Snowman is also wearing a yellow and pink striped scarf and a red hat.
Sculpture of The Snowman called Nine Ladies Dancing. It features disco divas dancing on top of a vibrant background of colours and patterns in shades of pink, purple, blue and green, on which are stars in white, pink and blue colours and some black musical notes. The snowman is also wearing an orange scarf and a yellow hat.
Sculpture of The Snowman called Ten Lords a-Leaping. HIs body is covered in a snowy landscape scene, on which there are lots of images of the Snowman engaging in various snow-related activities, including sledging and skiing. Just like those small drawings on him, the sculpture of the Snowman is wearing a green scarf and a green hat, framing his smiling white face.
Sculpture of The Snowman called Eleven Pipers Piping. It shows a landscape of snowy hills, on which silhouettes of three bagpipers are standing, while in the distance 3 reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky, over the tops of houses and tower blocks.

Christmas Displays

As is traditional, I’ve been getting out and about to see some of the Christmas lights and displays in London as time allows. So here’s a selection of the ones I’ve looked at so far.

  • Covent Garden has its usual gigantic Christmas tree towering over the buildings of course, which is always impressive. But I really like the new decorations they’ve got inside the market as well. It’s the first time they’ve changed them for almost a decade, with large golden bells decorated with glittering red bows, big red baubles and spinning mirror balls hanging from the ceiling. It’s their first change of decor for almost a decade, and my friend Emily got to go down there for the press launch, where Nicole Scherzinger turned the lights on.
Large golden bells red glittery bows on top hang from the arched ceiling inside Covent Garden Market, above the throng of people browsing the stalls. Hanging mirror balls scatter moving speckles of light all over the ceiling as well, and a few lamps from the ceiling throughout the market.
A mirror ball projecting spots of light on to the ceiling of Covent Garden Market. Behind it, just above the entrance, are two bells with a glittering red bow on top above a sign saying Apple Market. Behind that, outside the Market, part of a large Christmas tree is visible.
Close-up of a large golden bell hanging from the ceiling in Covent Garden Market, angled so that the round golden clapper inside it is visible
Large golden bells with red bows, big red baubles, spinning mirror balls and lamps hanging from the ceiling in Covent Garden Market.
Close-up view of the huge Christmas tree in Covent Garden, covered in lights and big reflective baubles.
The gigantic Christmas tree outside Covent Garden Market, towering far above all the buildings.
Christmas trees covered in lights, either side of a pathway leading into Covent Garden Market.
A wreath covered in lights, and with a red glittery bow underneath, attached to an arched window that has the words Covent Garden Market around the top of it.
  • Carnaby has gone for a universe theme, featuring a big planet in the centre above the crossroads, and lots of other little worlds and decorations along the length of the street. It’s not my favourite of their displays necessarily, as I think I’ve found them more interesting over the last few years, particularly the Queen display they did in 2018, as I’m a huge fan of that band. But their latest offering is still nice and colourful and worth a look.
An archway over the entrance to Carnaby Street, on which the words Carnaby Universe are written in bright blue neon letters.
Colourful decorations above Carnaby street, including a couple of small planets and intersecting waves of light.
A large orange planet, with a glittering ring of lights around it, hanging above the crossroads in Carnaby Street. Lots of smaller planets or moons, in various bright colours, are hovering around it.
The view from the end of Carnaby Street, with the colourful universe decorations, including planets and waves of light, extending far into the distance.
  • Oxford Street have got the same lights again this year, though that’s not a bad thing as the stars hanging across the road look very pretty. And they’re energy efficient too, being LED lights that only come on from 4pm-11pm each day. Since the start of December there’s also a singing postbox in the street, which plays a Christmas tune whenever you post something in it, but I haven’t checked that out yet. As for the shops, the John Lewis display isn’t very exciting really. One window has a model of the Venus flytrap from their rather strange advert, and another has a long Christmas table laid out for a festive feast, but the rest is just clothes and other bits and pieces really. There’s lots of nice stuff inside the shop though. Selfridges windows are better I think, with curtains that open and close to reveal displays on the theme of Showtime, accompanied by short audio tracks playing music and speech. And I also popped inside the reopened HMV out of curiosity. I didn’t buy anything and I don’t need to go back, as it’s easier for me to get whatever I need online. But it was nice to see that they had quite a big selection, I very much approve of the clear signage (large white text on a black background) above the different sections, and in general it’s just great to see it back for those who prefer to shop in person.
View across Oxford Street to Selfridges. Cables are suspended high across the street, hanging from which are bright stars on lit-up wires of varying lengths.
Selfridges window display, showing a mannequin wearing a long glittering dress and a white wig. On the window itself is large yellow text that says The star of the show, and it forms an arch through which you can see the view.
Selfridges window display, showing a gold mannequin in a red jacket standing up to its waist inside a large red and gold striped bauble. Large white text in the top left corner of the window says The Belle of the Bauble.
Selfridges window display, showing 3 mannequins dressed as angels with bright halos above their white headwear. Each is holding a red book and a silver microphone is hanging down in front of them, suggesting that they're singers.
Selfridges window display, showing a tangled collection of large red and white striped candy canes and lollipops. On the floor around them are lots of little models of houses, some with red and white striped roofs, while some other roofs have snow on them. There's also a model of the Selfridges store.
Selfridges window display, showing Santa Claus unloading a large sack of presents, while standing beside a car also filled with gifts, which has the registration number 54NT4. A bright sign behind him has the word Applause lit up in handwriting style lettering.
Large model of a 5-headed Venus flytrap in the John Lewis shop window, as seen in their Christmas advert. There is one large, tall central head, with 2 slightly smaller heads on each side.
John Lewis Christmas window display, showing a long dining table fully decked out for a festive feast, below an ornate chandelier.
The HMV shop in Oxford Street. The large sign above the doorway glows white on its black background, showing the iconic image of a dog looking into a gramophone, next to the words The HMV Shop, established 1921.
Sign inside HMV showing what's on each floor. The 1st floor, with a blue background, has 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, books, graphic novels and gaming. The ground floor, on a pink background, has posters, t-shirts, apparel, K-pop, manga and anime. And the basement, on a green background, has vinyl, compact discs, turntables, headphones, speakers, K-pop, and music books and t-shirts,
Lots of large, brightly lit golden orbs hanging over Villiers Street, viewed from above on an upper walkway on one side of the street.
Trees on the South Bank of the River Thames, with branches lit up in bright neon colours, green on one tree and purple on the next.
A lit up Christmas sign above St Martin's Lane, featuring the name of the street in the centre, ornate framing beneath it, and images of smiling and sad faces either side.
A lit-up figure of an angel with large wings stretched out to the sides, and three huge tail wings fanned out behind them, hanging over Regent Street.
Christmas lights above the Strand, made up of 5 discs lit up in gold, connected by strings lit up in white. The central disc has a yellow centre, containing the word Northbank above a blue arch. The other 4 discs - two either side of the central one - each contain a blue star, slightly stretched and offset from its centre.

Theatre Shows

An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail

I joined my friends James and Zoe this month to see An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail at the Cambridge Theatre (the home of Matilda The Musical). It’s produced by Festival Of The Spoken Nerd, and brings together a variety of different acts who give light-hearted but interesting presentations about things to do with maths, science, technology, nature, human behaviour, and so on. We’ve seen previous editions of the show at the Backyard Comedy Club in 2018, the Bloomsbury Theatre in 2019, and the Backyard again in 2020, with a different roster of guests each time, so it’s something we like to try and attend most years.

Close-up of the screen on stage in the Cambridge Theatre, showing the logo for An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail. The words An Evening Of are in dark lettering on a white bar, while the words Unnecessary Detail are in much larger white text beneath it, against a star-filled backdrop of space.
The Cambridge Theatre, with the large poster for Matilda The Musical dominating the building above the entrance on the corner, showing a silhouette of Matilda standing defiantly with her hands on her hips.
View towards the stage in the Cambridge Theatre for An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail, with the show's logo on the big screen at the back of the stage. The stage is surrounded by the many colourful alphabet blocks that normally frame the set for Matilda The Musical.

And it was a lot of fun, because there was a great mixture of performers as always. It was hosted by Spoken Nerd member Matt Parker (Standup Maths), who also had some material of his own, including his reinvention of the game Dobble, where you have to find the matching symbol on any pair of cards.

Helen Arney meanwhile, also from the Spoken Nerd team, performed a funny love song using romantic lyrics generated from Google’s auto-fill suggestions. She also did the famous Elements song by Tom Lehrer, which she’s performed in previous shows, as it always gets a good reaction, and she always includes the 16 new elements that were discovered since the original version.

Helen has also written a song about the first all-female fire brigade from Girton College as part of a new project, and she brought out a group of ladies to perform it, called Molly O’Gorman & The Firebrands. They were a 5-part ensemble specially created for the occasion – the other ladies in the group being Maddie Smith, Nora Perone, Nancy Doubledee, Mingke Li & Ledi Manurung – and they were very good. They joined a few other acts on stage during the evening as well.

Apart from the Spoken Nerd team (their other member, Steve Mould, couldn’t be there on this occasion), the other acts included broadcaster Lucy Cooke talking about the contrasting roles of females amongst naked mole rats and killer whales, Mithuna Yoganathan of Looking Glass Universe examining why the sky is blue, Grant Sanderson of 3Blue1Brown talking about prime numbers, maths historian Ayliean MacDonald showing us some enlightening properties of Morse Code, Japanese stand-up comedian Yuriko Kotani talking about some awkward translations between her native language and ours, and Yolanda Ohene capturing images of the inside of her body and creating a piece of music in the process with the group mentioned above.

Towards the end of the show we also had Count Binface, who has famously been standing as a spoof candidate in elections and still attracts some votes! But then he does have some sensible policies to be fair – that hand dryer in the Crown & Treaty clearly needs moving – and he performed a fun campaign song using the tune of National Express by The Divine Comedy.

And finally, the closing act was Dan Schreiber, one of the QI researchers from the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast, who regaled us with 10 of his favourite interesting or amusing facts – for example, Dolly Parton’s theme park has missed a trick by opening from 10 till 6 or 11 till 9, rather than the open goal that is 9 to 5!

So it was a very entertaining show altogether, with lots of humour and interesting trivia all rolled into one, and we really enjoyed it. Youtuber Matt Gray was also at the event, and posted some pictures on his Instagram that bring back some nice memories of it.

The Choir Of Man

Thanks to a recommendation from my aunt, who had seen it once before, we both went to see The Choir Of Man together at the Arts Theatre, and had a great time. Since starting life at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, it’s grown to become a very popular production that has been nominated in the Olivier Awards, and is currently in its second season in the West End. It’s also supporting CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) this year, which raises awareness and provides support services to combat suicide, given the alarming statistic that 125 lives are lost that way every week, of which 75% are men.

The 90-minute show, without an interval, is set in a community pub called The Jungle, to which the audience are warmly welcomed. So the intimate nature of the small auditorium lends itself perfectly to it. The stage is set up as a working bar, meaning that audience members are able to go up there and buy some drinks before the show starts, mingling with some of the cast members as they do so.

The stage for The Choir Of Man. It's set out like a pub, with a bar across the back of the space. Audience and cast members are on stage ordering from the bar or sitting at small tables before the show starts. Signs either side of the bar say Welcome to The Jungle. The backdrop of the bar is very colourful, and running across the top are white signs with black text saying Brandy, Wines, Spirits, Whiskey, Cigars, Port, Gin and Fine Ales. On an upper floor immediately above the bar is where the 4-piece backing band perform, so the drum kit is visible.

The show itself basically consists of a large group of guys – i.e. the pub regulars – performing their own interpretations of famous pop and rock songs, ranging from upbeat numbers to slow ballads. They have really good voices and harmonies, there’s nice choreography that makes effective use of the bar area, and some of them play instruments too. There’s also a 4-piece band on an upper level accompanying them. And in between some of the songs the lead member spoke in poetic ways about the different characters in the group, and also about the importance of the wonderful atmosphere, escapism and support that community spaces like pubs provide.

And in that vein, the show was very inclusive, because they made sure the audience were engaged and involved, often encouraging us to sing and clap along. And there were a few amusing instances where ladies in the front of the stalls were invited up on stage to be serenaded by one or more of the guys, such as renditions of Teenage Dream by Katy Perry and The Piña Colada Song by Rupert Holmes. Indeed, there was a quite a bit of comedy throughout the show, including an attempt by one guy to play 500 Miles by The Proclaimers while the others tried to overrule it with a faster version, and a trio performed another song while using the urinals!

Other hits they performed included the opening Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses, Save Tonight / Wake Me Up (an Eagle Eye Cherry / Avicii mashup), The Impossible Dream from Man Of La Mancha, Hello by Adele, Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chandelier by Sia, You’re The Voice by John Farnham, Somebody To Love by Queen (unsurprisingly my favourite as I love that band, and the guys did it very well), and a closing folk song called The Parting Glass (which they performed a cappella without microphones to give it a proper raw feel).

Many of those tunes are on their soundtrack album, and they’ve also released a Christmas album too. They do adjust their setlist every so often to keep things fresh, and my aunt noticed that some of the songs had changed since she went last year. But as you can see, the tracks span a variety of decades and styles, so there’s something in there for everyone. You might not recognise every song, and indeed I didn’t – if it weren’t for the album to enlighten me, I wouldn’t have had a clue about some of them – but there’s a very good chance you’ll be familiar with a fair few, like I was. And even the ones I didn’t know still sounded good.

So altogether it’s a very upbeat and uplifting show that my aunt and I really enjoyed, as did the rest of the audience, and I can certainly recommend it. It’s a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

TV & Video

Doctor Who

Happy 60th anniversary to Doctor Who! The BBC are quite rightly celebrating one of their longest-running and best shows in style at the moment, with the launch of the new Whoniverse collection on BBC iPlayer, a selection of radio shows and audiobooks (including a 60th anniversary collection of dramas) on BBC Sounds, an extensive library of material from their archives, and most importantly the new trilogy of TV specials that have got underway, featuring the return of David Tennant as the Doctor (the 14th rather than 10th incarnation this time), and Russell T Davies as showrunner.

However, because the specials are still ongoing, with the Blu-ray steelbook due out just before Christmas, and because I’m still working my way through all the online goodies, I will review all of that stuff at a later date.

In the meantime, following on from my deep dives into Series 1, 2, 3 & 4 earlier in the year, I published my extensive review of the 2008-10 specials in November, looking in depth at the final adventures of the 10th Doctor, with lots of bonus material in addition to the episodes themselves. So that’ll keep you busy if you want to look at that. I will move on to reviewing other series next year, though I’ll have a little break first to catch up on some other things. It was just important for me to get David Tennant’s earlier stories out of the way before seeing his latest specials.

The full cover spread artwork for the Doctor Who 2008 to 2010 Specials Blu-ray steelbook. The front cover shows David Tennant as the Doctor in a brown suit, standing in the Tardis, with glowing yellow regeneration energy around him. Meanwhile the back cover shows the main enemies and friends that he encounters during the episodes. There is a large picture of John Simm's grinning face as the Master at the top, with figures below including Donna, her grandfather Wilfred, Timothy Dalton as a Time Lord, and an Ood with spaghetti-like strands hanging from its mouth, while the Tardis is at the very bottom of the cover.

I have also kept my eye on reviews of the Series 1-4 & specials box set that’s come out, bringing together all of the episodes for the 9th and 10th Doctors. But having weighed up the pros and cons, which are nicely summarised by Matthew Purchase on X as well as other reviews, I’m not going to upgrade, my considerations being:

  • Audio Description: This is available for all episodes on the new set, which is brilliant news, as it was absent from the previous individual Blu-rays for Series 1-5 (as was audio navigation, which is still omitted here). But I don’t find that I need AD on this show, as I can see it well enough on my big TV screen. But should I need it in the future, it’s nice to know that it’s there.
  • Speed: The episodes now run at the correct speed, whereas the old Blu-rays had them running 4% slower due to the way they were converted. That’s also good news, but I’ve never noticed that very slight slowdown on my existing Blu-rays anyway, so it’s never spoiled my enjoyment. So I’m not tempted to upgrade just for that.
  • Quality: As expected, there isn’t a major change in the picture and sound quality from the old Blu-rays. There are some little differences here and there, but it’s only a major leap if you’re switching from DVD.
  • Fixes: The 2005 Children In Need special is now the proper version and not the rough cut (which had a temporary score and omitted the Cloister Bell). But I’m not buying a new set just for that, and I can see it online anyway. Some of the main episodes also have tiny faults corrected here and there, but they’re things I’d never been aware of or cared about before, so they don’t bother me.
  • Interview: The new 17-minute extra feature, with Russell T Davies and David Tennant reflecting on that era of the show and looking ahead to the future, is probably nice, but it isn’t worth getting the set for on its own. Some fans will no doubt post it online anyway, so I’ll be able to see it out of curiosity
  • Commentaries: The podcast commentaries have been added to the first 3 of David Tennant’s final specials, to make up for the lack of dedicated Blu-ray commentaries. But apparently they haven’t been synced up properly to the visuals, which is quite a big oversight in terms of quality control.
  • Confidential: Two episodes of the already cut-down Confidential extras in Series 1 have been edited further in this set for “compliance”, with the filming of John Barrowman’s naked scenes removed from Episode 12 (The World Of Who) and a tiny unknown edit in Episode 5 (Why On Earth?). Maybe it was to ensure the set doesn’t go above a 12 certificate, but who knows? In any case, you can still watch the full-length episodes on iPlayer.
  • Specials Extras: The set doesn’t include the bonus disc from the Specials steelbook, with the animated episodes, Sarah Jane Adventures story and David Tennant interview.
  • Menus & Artwork: The menus, box art and disc artwork are all much more basic and repetitive in the new set, whereas on my existing Blu-rays there’s very cool artwork on the covers, every disc has a unique appearance so it’s easy to distinguish between them, and the menus are nicely animated. It’s just a cosmetic thing, I know, but I rather like my current sets.

So I can see why people might want to get it, especially those who are frustrated by the slower speed of the older releases, those who are making the jump from DVD to Blu-ray, or the most obsessive collectors who like to have every possible release they can get hold of. In those scenarios, it’s probably worth it. But I’m very happy with the Blu-rays I’ve already got, which I’ve loved rewatching yet again in recent months. If they had also included the Specials bonus disc, left Confidential untouched, included all of the podcast commentaries as additional tracks and synced them up correctly, and done more with the artwork and menus like on older releases, then I might have been tempted.

But ultimately it’s a mixed bag, being an upgrade in some ways and a bit of a downgrade in others. So I’m not going to get it. I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve got, even with its little faults that usually don’t notice.

Taskmaster

The latest series of Taskmaster ended this month, and as usual it’s been very good. I’m not a fan of Sam Campbell’s comedy characters that I’ve seen elsewhere, but as himself he did deserve to win here, as he was often quite inventive and funny with his approach to the tasks. Julian Clary and Sue Perkins were the ones I was most familiar with, and they were both great, with very different personalities and ways of performing the tasks, which is one of the reasons why the show’s so great. Lucy Beaumont did have some humorous moments here and there, but she was the weakest of the bunch and I didn’t get into her much, just like I’m not a fan of her other work particularly. Susan Wokoma was the only one I’d never heard of before, and while I’m not interested in looking into her other stuff, she did give very good value here, and got on very well with Sue.

We’ve got a New Year special to look forward to next, but I’ve been deliberately avoiding the trailer and reports about that, as I like the surprise of discovering who’s in it when it’s broadcast. It’s a little challenge to myself to see if I can avoid spoilers, like I do for Doctor Who, and so far I’m succeeding!

Nina Conti

The Dating Show is a free one-hour special on Youtube by the fantastic ventriloquist Nina Conti, from her latest tour. Accompanied by her puppet friend Monkey, she invites audience members up on stage, either to talk about their current relationships or to talk about the ideal dates they’d like to have.

But of course, they don’t talk for themselves, because she puts special masks on them so she can make them say whatever she wants, just as she’s done in previous shows. It’s always very funny when she does this, because when she asks them questions about themselves, they have to try and act out the answers as they can’t talk, and her improvised interpretations are brilliant. She spins whole routines out of their responses very effectively, and occasionally gets people to dance a bit as well. Everyone who comes on stage is always a very good sport about it – she never forces anyone to come up who doesn’t want to, and equally she avoids people who are clearly too keen and would only try to show off.

It also means that every show is different, which must help to keep things fun and interesting for her. So in this particular show, filmed in Edinburgh, she firstly meets a couple of scientists who are already in a relationship, followed by a female drama student who’s single. Monkey then has a speed dating session with audience members being themselves, as a result of which Nina invites the most popular guy back on stage, along with his family, and puts masks on all of them, so she very impressively juggles 4 voices in one big conversation. All in all, therefore, it’s a really funny show, and it’s very generous of Nina to put it online.

Music

Madness

As well as reopening HMV in Oxford Street this month (which wasn’t the day I visited), Madness have also just released their 13th studio album, called Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie. I bought the exclusive deluxe digital edition from their online store, which includes 6 live tracks from their launch gig in KOKO, Camden on 18 October. It cost just £4.99, which is quite a bargain compared to £10.99 for the standard edition on iTunes.

There isn’t anything exceptional on here to rival their huge singalong hits of the past, but it’s still a pretty good collection of tracks, many of which are quite catchy. It even became their first studio album to reach Number 1, having had only a couple of greatest hits compilations reach the top spot before. I already knew a few of the tracks from previous live performances that I’ve seen or heard online over the past few years, but it’s nice to hear studio versions of them, and the rest are new to me.

It’s designed to feel a little bit like a cabaret show, including a few brief spoken word tracks interspersed between the songs to link things together. If I had to pick a top 3, the ones that have grabbed me the most are Hour Of Need (my top choice as I really like the lyrics, music and rhythm of it), Baby Burglar (for which they’ve posted a live performance from Camden online) and C’est La Vie (they’ve also posted a live rendition of this, along with a clip of Dame Helen Mirren reading the lyrics).

Ultimately though, it’s just a fun album to listen to. There aren’t any tracks that hugely stand out from the rest really, but it’s great to hear some new material from those Nutty Boys as usual.

The Beatles

The Beatles have released a new track that they consider to be their final song, which they had tried to work on for their Anthology project with no success, due to the poor quality of the original demo recording. But now, with the help of some clever AI software that had been used by Peter Jackson for his Get Back documentary, surviving band members Paul and Ringo were able to extract John’s vocal and piano parts from the demo, bring in some guitar parts and overdubs that George had done in the Anthology sessions, and add other elements including a strings section to complete the song.

The outcome is a really beautiful ballad called Now and Then, for which the music video was directed by Peter Jackson, and there’s also a short film about how it came together. The track has been included on the expanded reissue of their Blue compilation album, alongside a deluxe re-release of its Red counterpart, but of course you can also stream and download it as a single. So I’m glad they’ve put so much effort into restoring it, because it’s a lovely song.

Conclusion

And that’s it, I hope you enjoyed that as usual. I’ve got quite a bit to look forward to over the coming weeks as well, including several meetings with friends, a few theatre shows, a trip to Devon, Christmas shopping, eating too much food, and lots of things I want to watch and listen to. So – with fingers tightly crossed that none of it gets disrupted by illness, the weather, strikes or whatever – I should have plenty to tell you about next month.

Until then, I hope you have a wonderful time over Christmas, whatever you’re getting up to, and all the best for a Happy New Year! 🙂

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Author: Glen

Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.

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