Welcome to my first Favourites post and video for this year! As I had a very busy Christmas that lasted until mid-January, it made sense to combine the latter half of that month with February for this roundup.
Recent weeks have been quite relaxed compared to the festive period, as hoped and expected, but there’s still quite a variety of bits and pieces to mention. These include an audio described gallery tour, a free meal, a special scenic view of the city, an important new audio play, things I’ve been watching that have been recommended by friends, and other entertainment I’ve enjoyed. Some of these items are PR-related, as indicated when appropriate, but all opinions are my own regardless. So I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Out & About
Apart from going out for some nice walks in general as usual, I’ve also enjoyed meetups with friends to do a few special things.
National Portrait Gallery
In January I met up with Claire and my other friends on the VocalEyes user panel for my first ever visit to the National Portrait Gallery. We were working alongside some of the lovely, friendly staff from the gallery to test out their audio described guide for the Meet The Portraits tour, either using one of their own devices you can pick up at reception, or accessing the tracks using the Bloomberg Connect app or VocalEyes website on our own devices.
The tour takes you through 20 highlights across their many different exhibition rooms, including portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ada Lovelace, The Brontë sisters, Oscar Wilde, and even the footwear of the Spice Girls. We didn’t have time to do the whole tour, but the artworks I did see were beautiful, and they’re all described very well in the guide. It also provides interesting contextual information about them, along with some thoughts by the gallery’s curators.
There are improvements that need to be made to the navigational instructions, because we found it hard to locate the different rooms and the relevant artworks within them, and there are some tweaks that would improve the descriptions as well. But we had plenty of opportunity to discuss those issues and make various other suggestions in the comprehensive feedback session afterwards, which was the whole point of the afternoon.
It was all very friendly and constructive, and the staff were very grateful for our input, so it’ll be good to go back there in the future and explore some more once they’ve done some additional work on the guide. They have lots of other audio description tracks and some audio described films on their website as well, and I do need to give the place a proper visit at some point to make wider use of those access features.
So it was lovely to explore the gallery a bit, and thank you to the staff and volunteers who gave up so much of their time for us. It was also wonderful to meet my VocalEyes friends again, as it had been a while since our last in-person meeting (and if you’d like to join the panel, you can get in touch with VocalEyes about it). Hello in particular to everyone who gave me kind compliments on my blog and social media on the day as well, it’s always flattering to know that people are still enjoying the stuff I share! 🙂
Battersea Café & Power Station (PR Invites)
I’ve been a support worker for my friend Emily Davison from Fashioneyesta for over a year now already, which you can read about in my special post to mark the milestone. And for our first social outing of 2024, I joined her in Battersea to visit a couple of places that she had been invited to for review purposes.
First of all we went to The Table, which is a lovely little café, and relatively new compared to their original branch in Southwark. We were invited to choose from their Brunch menu, so I had a delicious stack of their Very Berries Waffles, topped with strawberries, blueberry compote, summer berries sauce,
crème fraîche and maple syrup. Emily, meanwhile, had some of their pancakes, which she also really liked. We also had a small side of tasty hash browns to share, and we each had a refreshing Raspberry Bramble cocktail to drink. So that filled us up nicely, and you can check out Emily’s review for her thoughts.
We then got a bus over to Battersea Power Station and found our way through the maze of the building to Lift 109 at the front, by the Thames. This is an experience that takes you up to the top of one of the chimneys, so you can admire its unique views of London from up high.
It’s organised on a carefully timed schedule for each group, beginning with a few minutes to explore a small exhibition area, where you learn about the history of the power station and how it generated electricity. Then you move into a room where the walls are filled with an animation celebrating the history of the power station along with a voiceover and soundscape. It’s partly interactive, in that elements like flames move with you in the early sections. It’s a gimmick to pad out the length of the experience really, but it is nicely animated and gives you a good overview of the historic landmark.
You then enter a small lift, which is just to take you up the 12th floor, from where you walk up a spiral flight of 39 steps around the chimney to access the big Lift 109 itself. A step-free route to avoid the steps is available via another small lift, but it must be booked in advance, as explained in their accessibility guide.
Lift 109 then ascends quickly but smoothly, with a dramatic soundtrack playing until you pop out of the top of the chimney, from which point you have 10 minutes to walk around the lift and admire the 360-degree views from its huge windows. There are panels in front of the windows that briefly tell you about key sights in the direction you’re facing, along with QR codes that allow you to access an Augmented Reality experience on your smartphone, where you can pan your camera around and it will point out what some of the buildings are. I only tried the AR feature briefly and couldn’t easily read what it was displaying, although it was certainly clever at recognising what you were looking at. But I was more interested in just admiring the scenery and taking photos anyway.
The easiest sights to recognise are Grosvenor Bridge (aka the Victoria Railway Bridge), with Chelsea Bridge and Royal Hospital Chelsea a bit further up the river. In the other direction, you can see the MI6 Building and the Shard in the distance, and even Big Ben and the London Eye if you’re able to see that far or zoom in on your photos.
It was raining a little bit that day, but London always looks incredible from up high, whatever the weather. And for someone like me who’s very sensitive to bright light and glare, I was grateful the sun wasn’t out anyway, as it made it a lot easier to see things.
So we loved the views and had a good time overall, and you can check out Emily’s review of the experience too. I can see why they’ve added on the exhibition and animation at the beginning, as it would be a very short experience otherwise, and it is nice to learn a little bit about the history of the impressive building for context. But it is ultimately the lift ride that you go there for. It’s not something I’d go back and do again necessarily, but it is the sort of unique London experience that’s well worth doing once.
Dramas
I’ve been drawn towards several dramas since the start of the year, thanks to recommendations from my best friends, chatter on social media, or in one case a PR invitation. The first few below focus on topics that some people may find distressing, and it’s pure coincidence that such hard-hitting stories have all come at once, I hadn’t planned things that way. But I’m fortunate not to have personal experience of the events in each case, and I’ve found them all compelling and important, even when they’ve been tough to get through. So I can highly recommend them.
However, if you’d rather not read about domestic abuse, the Post Office scandal or Covid deaths, then feel free to skip ahead to the Netflix drama I saw, which is much more fun.
Unseen (AD)
Content Warning: Domestic abuse. There is support available. If this topic is too triggering or uncomfortable, you can skip to the next section of this post.
Unseen is an important new audio drama about the domestic abuse of visually impaired people, and it’s been produced by Extant, the UK’s leading performing arts company of blind and visually impaired actors and practitioners. It has just been released on March 4th, for people to stream free of charge, but I was kindly offered early access at the end of February to review it.
The 45-minute production is inspired by the Unseen Report from the Vision Foundation, which reveals that at least 1 in 12 visually impaired people in the UK (around 188,000) are a victim or survivor of domestic abuse, and that less than 1 in 5 domestic abuse professionals have had specialist training to support visually impaired victims or survivors. Those are shocking and sobering statistics.
Having never watched or listened to a drama on this subject before, I didn’t know whether I would find it too heavy-going or disturbing. But it’s very well made and did keep me engaged throughout. The two central characters – Lucy (played by Georgie Morrell) and Joli (Anita Barzey) – are ordinary people who are perfectly capable of living happy and successful lives, but are prevented from doing so by their abusers. Lucy has her independence and cheerful personality eroded by a new love interest, while Joli is deterred from being independent in the first place by a family member.
In each case it takes a serious incident to compel them to try and reach out for help, but it’s extremely difficult for them to do so. There is help out there, as the drama makes clear, but they need to find the strength and courage to make that initial contact.
The directing by Ben Wilson and soundscape by Ian Rattray further help to bring the story to life, while the regular narration of facts from the Unseen Report by Maisie Greenwood emphasises how the drama closely reflects reality. And it’s been released to coincide with No More Week (3rd-9th March), an annual event that raises awareness of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and educates individuals and organisations about how to take a stand against it.
Check out my review of the drama and interviews with members of the team for more details, and do listen to the drama if you can, I recommend it.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Content Warning: Includes mentions of trauma and suicide resulting from the Post Office scandal. You can skip to the next section if you prefer.
I didn’t see this ITV drama when it was first broadcast at the beginning of January, but when it became clear in the news and on social media what a profound impact it was having, and as my friend Simon highly recommended it to me as well, it was clear it was essential viewing.
Written by Gwyneth Hughes, it tells the true story of the Horizon scandal, where over 3,500 subpostmasters in charge of local Post Office branches were wrongly accused of fraud, false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015, with over 900 of them convicted in court. It was all down to shortfalls in their accounts that had actually been caused by the Horizon system from Fujitsu that had been installed by the Post Office, which both companies denied was faulty for many years.
It’s regarded as the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history, and the sheer scale of how appalling it is cannot be overstated. People were sent to jail, lost their jobs, went bankrupt, had their marriages, families and social lives destroyed, developed serious mental health issues, and in some cases attempted or actually committed suicide.
Yet the Post Office publicly insisted that Horizon was robust, whilst also hindering investigations, covering up the truth and threatening journalists trying to report on the issue. They even tried to change the script of this new drama to improve their image, and it was only after 1.2 million people signed a petition in response to the programme that former CEO Paula Vennells agreed to hand back her CBE medal, a title that has since been formally stripped from her. She has said that she’s “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families”, although it’s rather hard to believe that her apology is sincere after watching this drama, and losing her CBE in no way excuses her from serving justice for the part she knowingly played in destroying so many lives.
One of the tactics the Post Office used was to tell individual subpostmasters that nobody else was having problems, so it couldn’t be an error with the system, and so it left many believing they were on their own. But many knew that couldn’t be true, particularly Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones in the drama. He set about investigating and campaigning on the issue, and founded the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, which brought together hundreds of his fellow victims, and they eventually took the Post Office to court with a group litigation action.
The drama therefore follows Alan’s journey, alongside the stories of some other victims who he meets along the way. One of them is played by Will Mellor, the only other actor I personally recognise, as he was in the comedy Two Pints Of Lager, so this is a much deeper role for him and he’s excellent. But the whole cast are superb.
It’s not an easy drama to watch, because it does make you feel utterly infuriated and in total despair on behalf of everyone affected. And even though I was a little bit aware of the scandal from news reports before, I was shocked to learn details from this series that made it worse still, it really is mind-blowing. Indeed, if you were somehow completely oblivious to the events beforehand, you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s totally far-fetched, and that’s because it should be. Yet it’s all true. The lengths that the Post Office went to were just extraordinary, and each episode has twists that just beggar belief.
But It’s portrayed very well by all the actors involved, so it feels real and relatable as you follow each of the victims on their awful journey. And it’s ultimately a David vs Goliath story of an ordinary man working extremely hard over many years and refusing to back down in his quest to get justice from a hugely powerful company. That’s why it struck such a chord with the nation, and it even inspired many more subpostmasters to approach lawyers and speak publicly for the first time about suffering the same problems.
So it’s a deeply unsettling drama, but it’s excellently made and a really important one to watch. Very well done to ITV and everyone involved with it, and all of the victims who have shared their stories publicly in the media alongside it.
Over on the BBC, meanwhile, you can also watch Panorama and listen to the Radio 4 podcast to learn more about the scandal and hear stories from real people who were affected. Computer Weekly and Private Eye also deserve credit for exposing the scandal and giving the story a lot of traction in the press over the years. And it will keep being prominent in the media while the public inquiry continues.
So while nothing can ever fully make amends for everything that’s happened, especially for those who have sadly passed away already, I very much hope that the subpostmasters, many of whom are still fighting for compensation and to have their convictions overturned, get the answers they need and the justice they deserve for the horrific way they’ve been treated, and that those responsible are suitably punished. It was announced in February that the government is planning legislation to clear the names of hundreds of subpostmasters later this year, so let’s hope that happens. In any case, the fight is still far from over, but at least the scandal has finally got the widespread publicity it needs and deserves, which is allowing some long-overdue progress to be made.
Breathtaking
Content Warning: Covid hospitalisations and deaths. If this is a triggering or uncomfortable subject for you, please skip to the next section.
Hot on the heels of the Post Office drama, ITV followed it up in February with an even more traumatic and important recreation of real-life events, looking at the impact of the first year of Covid on the hard-working heroes of the NHS and the patients they battled to care for. The 3-part drama is written by Dr Rachel Clarke, based on her book called Breathtaking about her own experiences, and follows the story of a fictional character called Dr Abbey Henderson, played fantastically by Joanne Froggatt.
From the outset the production lays bare the distressing and infuriating disparity between the experiences of doctors on the frontline and the often unsuitable and regularly out of date guidelines being forced upon them by their managers and a woefully unprepared government, who wouldn’t listen to what healthcare professionals on the ground were desperately trying to tell them.
Real audio and video from the archives, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcements, government press briefings and news reports, is regularly weaved into the programme to illustrate this further. Health workers, scientists, journalists and the public were fobbed off time and time again with excuses and lies from those in power, who claimed they cared about us and knew what they were doing.
Yet in actuality, as we knew at the time, the government were winging it, or were more focused on the economy than people’s safety, often despite the warnings and pleas of their own scientific and health advisors, because they didn’t have the knowledge or resources to do things properly. And as we later learned of course, they were often wilfully breaking the very rules they were setting for us, despite the vital importance of those rules for keeping our loved ones safe.
As a result of such incompetence from the government, at the start of the pandemic there was a chronic shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment), respirators, beds and other vital resources, along with dangerous limitations on testing, constantly changing guidance and a refusal to implement lockdown until it was too late. All of which enabled Covid to spread like wildfire, overwhelming hospitals in a matter of days and causing utter chaos. The first 2 episodes deal with that first wave, before the final episode jumps ahead to the end of the year, when the guidance about people getting together at Christmas was regularly changing, and again hospitals were swamped with cases.
This drama doesn’t pull any punches in showing the impact of all that. It places us right in the thick of the action, alongside Abbey and her colleagues, as we see how staff were working extremely long hours under overwhelming pressure, with severely limited resources, little to no sleep and barely any contact with their own families.
They were putting their own lives on the line to try and help the seemingly endless flood of cases coming through the doors, and indeed one of the doctors in this mini-series pays the ultimate price (like many did in reality). The inevitably devastating consequences of patients being discharged back to care homes without being tested is also a big part of the story here. And in the final episode, the hospital is forced into making tragic choices about who receives life-saving treatment and who doesn’t, because their capacity has become so limited, as well as having to contend with conspiracy theorists and protestors (who unsurprisingly have come out of the woodwork again on social media in response to this series).
So ultimately it’s the most difficult, anger-inducing and powerfully moving piece of TV I’ve ever seen, but then it’s all the more critical to watch it because of that. We all had some idea of how the health service was struggling, along with the patients they were treating, but this really brings it home in unflinching detail. It gives you even greater admiration for all the NHS staff who went far above and beyond the call of duty to try and keep us all safe. We all owe them more than can ever be adequately expressed, for the work they always do but particularly during one of the most exceptional challenges the world has ever faced.
ITV have also commissioned a drama about the infected blood scandal, in the hope that it will raise awareness and push for justice and compensation in the same way that the Post Office drama did. So I’ll probably end up watching that as well when it comes out in the future, as I only know the headline basics of it, not the finer details.
Lupin
This is a French drama series on Netflix that was recommended to me by my good friend Claire. Obviously I watched it dubbed into English, with audio description to read the text translations and clarify the finer details in the visuals, and it’s a lot of fun.
It’s all about a charming man called Assane Diop (played by Omar Sy), who is an exceptionally good thief and master of disguise, inspired by the works of fiction about Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc that he was given as a child. The first series is all about him seeking vengeance for the framing of his father who died in prison, the consequences of which feed into the story arcs for the second and third series, as well as putting a big strain on his relationship with his wife and son. Indeed, Assane’s big vulnerability is his family, whom he’ll do anything to protect, and he does look after his friends too. So we do see that he’s a caring and emotional human being, not some evil, dysfunctional crook, and you are rooting for him throughout the series.
The police are also doing all they can to try and capture him of course, including one detective in particular who is also a fan of the Lupin books. So it’s very much a game of cat and mouse, and Assane has some very narrow and ingenious escapes. He’s quite audacious at committing some of his acts right under people’s noses, which is both impressive and amusing.
I won’t give anything else away plot-wise, as by its nature this series has lots of twists and surprises. But I do like the way it’s put together. Assane’s plans are very elaborate, to the point of being enjoyably far-fetched without going too crazy, and he appears to take all eventualities into account. He even deceives us as viewers now and again, as sometimes we don’t discover what his plans have been until later in the episode or even later in the series, at which point all the jigsaw pieces come together quite cleverly. The show does give me little vibes of Sherlock here and there, given Assane’s level of intelligence along with his skills at observation and criminality.
There are also regular flashbacks to Assane’s childhood, which give interesting insights into the character’s background and add further context to the storylines. And visually it’s beautiful, thanks to the stunning locations in Paris and other parts of France, along with the way it’s directed in general. The actors doing the English dubbing are also very good to be fair, and the soundtracks by Mathieu Lamboley for Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 are really nice.
So, all in all, it’s a multi-layered, entertaining, award-winning series on Netflix that’s worth looking into, I’m glad I gave it a go. It’s not yet been confirmed if there will be a 4th series, but given the cliffhanger we’ve been left with and the quality of the series so far, I hope it happens.
Comedy
I’ve been enjoying the new series of my favourite comedy shows as usual, including QI XL, Would I Lie To You?, The Last Leg and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, so there isn’t anything special to say about those. But there are a few other comedy shows I want to mention.
Blackadder & Dad’s Army
As you may have noticed, I’ve reviewed Blu-ray and DVD releases of a couple of my favourite sitcoms recently, which I bought late last year but only caught up with during January and February. Click the titles below to see my posts about them.
- Blackadder – 40th Anniversary Collection (Blu-ray) – A fantastic box set containing remastered versions of all 4 series and the specials, all of the extras from the previous DVD set, and a wealth of new bonus material including 7 new audio commentaries, over 5 hours of raw studio recordings, and lots of additional rare footage. The only major thing it doesn’t contain is the pilot, which is a real pity.
- Dad’s Army – The Missing Episodes (DVD) – These are the animated recreations of the 3 missing episodes and 2 Christmas sketches that were broadcast on Gold last year. I have mixed feelings about the style of the animations, as they serve their purpose well enough but I wish they looked more realistic. However, the episodes are very funny and there’s a good selection of extra features, including the colourised version of Room At The Bottom that’s never been issued on DVD before.
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
This BBC show recently returned for its 7th run, with its enjoyable mix of surprises on members of the public and celebrities, and I think it’s been one of the better series in terms of the guests that Michael McIntyre has had on.
My favourite edition of the Midnight Gameshow – where Michael sneaks into a celebrity’s house to wake them up and play some games – was the one with Bradley Walsh. The surprise guests included Anne Hegerty from his quiz show The Chase and fellow entertainer Brian Conley, but the best was Fanny Chmelar, whose name had made Bradley break down in giggles in a very funny viral clip from The Chase, so his shock at meeting her for the first time was hilarious. He was also very grateful afterwards, saying what an amazing experience it was to have so many people he loves brought together like that.
Elsewhere, Michael also had some good sports on his prank game Send To All, where he sends embarrassing text messages to all the contacts in a celebrity’s phone. My favourites this series were Joe Lycett (with a cameo from TV critic Scott Bryan and the unexpected involvement of some audience members), Dermot O’Leary and Katherine Ryan.
As for the Unexpected Stars, I was particularly happy for Alfie Draper, who has a great singing voice and a wonderfully positive attitude to life, having worked so hard to overcome the difficulties from his cerebral palsy, so well done to him. But this segment of the show has also evolved to surprise some established music stars as well for the first time, who are tricked into coming on stage to perform one or two of their big hits without prior warning – namely Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet, Ricky Wilson from Kaiser Chiefs and the “One And Only” Chesney Hawkes – and they were all great.
Sport
Gladiators
This was a classic ITV show back in the 90s when I was growing up, pitting contestants against the super-fit elite Gladiators in a variety of physically demanding challenges, before taking on the gruelling Eliminator obstacle course at the end of each episode. There was a short-lived revival on Sky between 2008-2009, which I only glanced at but never got into, but now it’s back for a new generation on the BBC.
And they’ve done a very good job with it, as they haven’t messed about with it too much. Thankfully they’ve retained the iconic theme tune for a start, even if the way they’ve chopped it about during the opening titles doesn’t feel right, but thankfully it’s better over the closing credits. And they’ve also kept many of the best-loved games, while also adding a few new events that slot in nicely.
There’s a good variety of characters amongst the Gladiators themselves too, who each have their own tough-sounding names, impressive skills and great entrance music. And while a few of them put across an angry persona to strike fear into their opponents, or act as villains to get the crowd booing, there’s actually great camaraderie and support amongst everyone involved, which becomes most apparent when contestants are struggling or get injured.
Indeed, the contestants have all been excellent and courageous athletes. Special mention should of course go to partially sighted Nia Rutter, who has no sight in her left eye, but that didn’t stop her being a formidable contender and getting through to the quarter finals, so very well done to her.
Meanwhile it’s all hosted by Bradley Walsh with his son Barney. You can tell that Barney isn’t as natural and experienced a presenter as his father, and the scripted jokey remarks they share fall a bit flat, but they do a good enough job as they’re clearly enjoying it, and they’re very supportive of the contestants. Meanwhile Mark Clattenberg is great as the referee, taking no nonsense from the Gladiators when they misbehave, and Guy Mowbray is the perfect choice as commentator.
So it’s great to see Gladiators back after all these years, and I’m glad it’s still exciting to watch. It’s a fun bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember the original version and hopefully it’s attracting new fans as well.
Beckham
I’ve never been a big fan of football. I do vaguely monitor the scores of a few teams that have local relevance to my family, and I keep a casual eye on England if we’re playing in a major international tournament, but generally speaking it just doesn’t interest me. However, my friend Claire, who knows me very well, recommended the 4-part Beckham documentary on Netflix to me recently, explaining that you don’t need to be a fan of football to enjoy it. And, having now given it a go, I can attest that she’s right, it is surprisingly good.
Like many people, whether soccer fans or not, I’ve always had a quiet admiration for David Beckham. While he’s undoubtedly rich and powerful, and one of the greatest footballers of all time, he’s always come across as a nice, cheerful, down-to-earth guy, who loves football and his family, and he isn’t an arrogant show-off.
Just a couple of years ago, for instance, he queued up for 12 hours with the public to see the late Queen Elizabeth II lying in state. He’d have had no problem acquiring a VIP pass to get in straight away, and nobody would have complained, but he chose to join everyone else, and that shows a lot of respect and decency. I also remember him helping to bring the Olympic flame to the London Stadium in 2012, his appearance in an Only Fools And Horses sketch for Sport Relief, and of course the famous Ali G interview for Comic Relief that he did with his wife Victoria (even though I’m not a fan of Ali G, the Beckhams were good sports in that).
But beyond that kind of thing, and seeing occasional clips of him playing football, I’ve never followed his life and career closely, so I’ve never known much about him.
So I wasn’t expecting to get much out of this series, which was released last year, but it really does hook you in from the start. It’s very well constructed and edited, mixing specially filmed interviews with lots of great archive footage and photos, much of it never made public before, and the audio description is really good as well. So even though each of the 4 episodes lasts for roughly 1 hour and 10 minutes, it doesn’t feel too long.
Most of it is of course about his football career, and how it evolved and changed over time. We see lots of his greatest goals, and I found some of the match highlights quite exciting to watch, because I didn’t know what the results would be. But we also see various occasions where he wasn’t at his best, because of issues behind the scenes or in his home life. So he’s not always been a perfect player, and we see how extensively and abusively the fans made their displeasure known when they felt he had let them down. There are also lots of interviews with players and managers from Manchester United, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy, including Alex Ferguson of course, and it’s interesting to get their perspectives on events as we go along.
In addition, David is quite open in talking about his private life as well, including his deep love for his wife and children, the challenges in dealing with attention from the media, the consequences of moving overseas, and the impact of allegations about affairs. There have certainly been some big strains on his mental health and his family over the years, and they’re still quite difficult for him to talk about.
His wife Victoria is also interviewed extensively of course. And I didn’t know much about her either, because I’ve never been a big Spice Girls fan. So again it was nice to get some insights into her life, and she is quite frank about her feelings and opinions. Like most couples there are things they’ve disagreed on, but ultimately they’re a perfect fit for each other, and she comes across as being as grounded as him despite her wealth and fame. And David’s parents are also heavily involved, speaking with great pride about his achievements. There are lots of old videos and photos of David as a child too, which are adorable.
So all in all I really enjoyed it, more than I expected to, although I’m not going to get into lots of other sporting documentaries as a result. I watched this one because David is exceptional as a footballer and a media personality, and it’s fascinating to get such a thorough insight into one of our biggest celebrities.
Music
Big Night Of Musicals
Presented in association with the National Lottery and hosted by Jason Manford, in front of 12,000 people in Manchester’s AO Arena, this show returned once again this year with a fun variety of songs from well-known musicals. There were several fantastic cast performances from shows that I’ve seen, including:
- The title song from Phantom Of The Opera, which I finally got around to last May.
- Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat from Guys & Dolls, which I saw in June.
- Over The Rainbow from The Wizard Of Oz, which I attended in August.
- Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, which I went to in September.
- A megamix for the big finale from Grease, which I remember seeing in June 2022.
- The brief cameo appearance by Marty and Doc Brown from Back To The Future, which I reviewed last April.
As for musicals I’d like to see one day, I also particularly enjoyed the performances of Friend Like Me from Aladdin, Your Song from Moulin Rouge, and Make Me A Woman from Mrs Doubtfire. And the biggest guest star was Beverley Knight, who duetted with Jason Manford on The Greatest Show from The Greatest Showman, and then later teamed up with a couple of youth theatre groups to perform Seasons Of Love from Rent.
So there was a great mixture in the show, with something for everyone, which has hopefully inspired people, particularly of the younger generation, to see more theatre productions and even seek work in the industry.
Conclusion
And that’s all for this latest roundup, I hope you enjoyed it and found things of interest as usual. March is going to be pretty busy, including a few theatre shows that I’m really looking forward to, so there will be a fair amount to mention next time. But until then, I hope you have a good month as well!
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Well Eye Never 
Glad you have been having a good year.
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