Hello again, I hope you’re all doing well. For me this has been a very difficult month to be honest, as my mother’s had a decline in her mental health due to issues relating to her blindness and sleep, and naturally that’s had a big impact on me too as her son and carer. We’re in the process of having appointments to try and get her some help though, and I’ll keep you posted.
Suffice to say, I haven’t been able to go out and do as much as I’d planned this month. I did meet a close friend for a good catchup, and I did manage to have a few walks, but there’s nothing for me to write about on that front. So this post is purely going to be about the entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home, which has been a good distraction for me.
My situation also means that I’m going to stop making videos to go with these Favourites posts for the time being, as I don’t have the time, privacy or mindset to film and edit them at the moment. Writing’s much easier, so I’m going to focus my efforts on that for now. I’m sorry to those who enjoy watching or listening to me ramble on, but I will get back to making videos when I feel ready. That might be in one or two months, or it could well be longer, I just don’t know yet. I’ll try and make little vlogs here and there though, just to quickly share how I’m doing.
So with all that said, let’s get on to nicer things with the TV shows and DVDs I want to talk about, none of which is sponsored as usual, and I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Drama
Doctor Who
The 15th series (aka Season 2) of Doctor Who has just finished, and it’s definitely been a step up from last year’s outing, which was still good but had a few weak points. Ncuti Gatwa‘s continued to be great as the Doctor, so it’s a real shame that it’s turned out to be his final series. Varada Sethu grew on me as new companion Belinda Chandra, but she didn’t have the chance to really flourish and contribute as much as she ought to have done. And it’s been lovely to see Millie Gibson back as Ruby Sunday in a couple of stories.
There have also been some great guest stars, including actor Alan Cumming, deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis (who I’ll be mentioning again later in this post), and of course Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood, whose identity was finally revealed in time for the big finale. The closing adventure brought back a couple of major villains from the Classic Era, as well as a former Doctor from the show’s more recent past, and the regeneration was a huge and baffling surprise!
I’ve been writing a detailed review post about the series, just as I’ve done with other series from the modern era, and I’ll then update it further after I get the Blu-ray in August. So do feel free to check that out.
Code Of Silence
Code Of Silence is a new ITV drama, which has had 2 episodes broadcast per week, while all 6 episodes were made available from the outset on ITVX. It stars Rose Ayling-Ellis, a deaf woman who was great as one of the presenters on Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics last year, and has just had a big guest role in the current series of Doctor Who (in the episode called The Well). But in this new series she gets a proper chance to show her range as an actress and she’s very good.
She plays a lady called Alison who works in the police canteen, as well as having a second job to try and make ends meet. But through necessity due to her deafness, she’s become an expert at lip-reading. So when detectives Ashleigh and James (Charlotte Ritchie and Andrew Buchan) are looking for someone to translate what’s being said in some footage of a criminal gang, they call on Alison, who impresses them with her skills.
However, Alison is a bit too keen to help with the case and gets more involved than the detectives had wanted, by befriending gang member Liam (Kieron Moore), which results in her going undercover as an informant. But that leads to conflicting emotions, difficult decisions and real danger. I’m not going to say any more than that about the story, because of the various twists and turns along the way, but it’s well written and performed, and has some very tense moments.
There are some nice touches in relation to Alison’s condition too, as we sometimes get to hear the world in the muffled way that she does, and whenever she’s lip-reading we see the words forming on screen, initially not making sense before they become clear to her. It’s a great way of helping the audience to understand and appreciate how intricate a skill lip-reading actually is. There’s also sign language involved when Alison is talking to her parents and ex-boyfriend, which is subtitled for our benefit, and it’s interesting to see the varied interactions she has with non-disabled people, especially when they first learn that she’s deaf.
On top of that, the excellent audio description is delivered by my friend Fern Lulham. I’ve met her in the past because she has aniridia like me, plus I’ve been interviewed by her on the BBC’s In Touch programme and the Canadian station AMI Audio. She’s done a lot of AD work, including for shows on Netflix, so I’m delighted that she’s narrated a major ITV drama like this.
Incidentally, it was also cool to see comedian John Bishop taking on a serious role as Alison’s father in a short but important cameo. John was able to use British Sign Language (BSL) in the scene because of his son Joe, who lost most of his hearing at the age of 15 due to a virus. There’s a moving documentary called John & Joe Bishop: Life After Deaf available on ITVX, where we see the two of them learning BSL and finding out more about the Deaf community together. And that’s accompanied by a stand-up comedy show delivered entirely in BSL (with audio and subtitles to make it accessible to all) where John tries to use his new skills to entertain a Deaf audience alongside experienced Deaf comedians, and does a decent job of it. So those programmes are well worth a look too.
Black Mirror
Last month I started rewatching Black Mirror on Netflix, the dark and often unsettling anthology series written by Charlie Brooker, looking at the very unlikely yet often disturbingly plausible impacts that technology and media could have on our lives in the not-too-distant future. So this month I’ve continued with Series 4 & 5.
July 19 Update: I’ve now made a separate post containing all of my reviews for Series 1-7, so do go and check that out for my opinions.
Comedy
Taskmaster
Taskmaster has returned for its 19th series this month. And after all that time on the air it was becoming increasingly likely that they’d have a line-up I wasn’t familiar with. So I’m not surprised or concerned that I barely know any of the contestants this time. I’m aware of who Rosie Ramsey is (the podcast-hosting wife of comedian Chris Ramsey), and vaguely know of Fatiha El-Ghorri, but I’m not familiar with their work. And I had never heard of Mathew Baynton, Stevie Martin or American Jason Mantzoukas. So I had to look them all up online to find out more about them, and even after doing that I’m not particularly interested in checking out other shows they’ve been in. Stevie does have some old sketch videos on technology and other subjects on her Youtube channel that are quite funny though.
It therefore took a little while for the contestants to grow on me, as I had to get a feel for their personalities and styles, so in that sense this is the weakest series for me. However, by the third episode I had become very settled with them and I’m still finding the show very funny as always. So I’m still happily watching it. We also already know that there are more series to come, as a 6-series deal was announced 2 years ago that will see the show continue until at least 2026, and it could get renewed beyond that. So there’s still plenty to look forward to as well.
Dad’s Army At The BBC
To coincide with all the VE Day celebrations for the 80th anniversary, there was a special programme called Dad’s Army At The BBC, which pulled together a lot of rare and never-before-repeated material featuring the cast and writers of the classic sitcom. Some of it I had seen before, but there was quite a bit that was unfamiliar to me or that I’d forgotten about, which made it all the more fun and interesting.
The footage included:
- A sketch from Christmas Night With The Stars in 1969, with the platoon getting ready for a pageant with historical costumes, and a longer one from the Royal Gala Television Performance in 1970, where they’re preparing to stand guard at Buckingham Palace.
- The song Could You Please Oblige Us With A Bren Gun? performed by Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn as their characters on the Noël Coward Revue, which was included as an extra on the Dad’s Army Christmas Specials DVD.
- Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson judging a children’s painting of the platoon on Blue Peter.
- Footage from rehearsals of the stage show, which must have been so much fun, albeit slightly odd with different people playing Walker, Fraser and sometimes Jones.
- A clip of Arthur Lowe on The Generation Game, as well as appearing with entertainers like Morecambe & Wise and Harry Secombe, and performing a few songs on other shows.
- Ian Lavender as Private Pike trying to capture Lulu on her programme.
- Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender acting together in a show called Your Move, which according to the internet was a programme designed to promote adult literacy, as a spin-off from a show called On The Move.
- Clips from interviews with the cast and writers, including Arthur Lowe’s final TV appearance on the day he died.
Obviously there was only so much they could squeeze into an hour, so it doesn’t contain every single rarity that’s out there. But this was a very enjoyable and fascinating selection of the most important ones, and it was a lovely tribute to the sitcom.
There was also a recreation of a scene from the show in the VE Day 80 concert shown on BBC One, which was ok but obviously not a patch on the original. And the concert itself was nice enough, incidentally, with lots of nice tributes to those who fought for our freedoms and made the ultimate sacrifice. But there were quite a few songs and artists I didn’t know, while inclusions of bands like the Darkness and Toploader performing their own hits felt rather odd, so it’s not something I feel the need to write in any depth about.
Music
John Barrowman DVDs
Back in March I really enjoyed seeing John Barrowman live in the final show of his comeback Laid Bare tour, as he’s an excellent singer, a great storyteller and has a fun sense of humour.
So because of that, and as I also reviewed Series 1, 2, 3 & 4 of Torchwood recently, I thought I would buy his old concert DVDs as well, as there’s a Collector’s Edition box set of both of them that’s now quite cheap. I’ve known about them for ages of course, but had just never got around to checking them out. So this was the perfect time to do so, and they’re both pretty good, with a nice variety in his song choices. There’s also a booklet of photos from the shows included with the set, which is nice.
The first concert is called An Evening With John Barrowman, and was filmed at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2009. Over the course of an hour and a half he performs some great songs with his band and dancers, putting real emotion into his singing. And he shows that he has a good approach to life, as he talks about his partner Scott, playing Captain Jack in Doctor Who, school days and dogs, among other things. It’s all very family-friendly too, with no swearing or rude bits like the recent show I attended.
He opens the show with the Queen song Don’t Stop Me Now, and while it obviously sounds nothing like them, it still sets the mood nicely. Other upbeat and catchy songs include Just Help Yourself, Life Is A Rollercoaster, Baby Give It Up, a disco medley, Knock Three Times (with audience participation and his elderly parents as guest dancers), and Livin’ La Vida Loca. And there are powerful and emotional tracks including When You Tell Me That You Love Me (dedicated to his fans), Both Sides Now, Goodbye My Friend (dedicated to his dogs), I Know Him So Well (a great duet with guest singer Daniel Boys, who also performs a song called Everything), I Won’t Send Roses (his most requested song) and I Am What I Am (his big finale). The latter two songs were both performed at the concert I went to as well.
The bonus features include over 40 minutes of extra concert footage, including a beautiful performance of Amazing Grace with his mother, a fun medley of musical theatre classics performed in an upbeat Scottish style, John ripping his trousers open while crediting the members of his band, and three more nice songs performed by Daniel Boys.
On top of that there’s also an interesting 13-minute behind the scenes feature, where we see clips from the final rehearsals, John shows us around backstage, and there are greetings from the musicians and other members of the team, followed by tours of John’s seaside house and tour bus. He also talks about his choice of songs, how his team is like a family and preparing to go on stage. So altogether it’s a great selection of extra material.
Meanwhile the concert on the second disc was filmed live at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. This is a generous 2 hours and 15 minutes in length, containing the full concert rather than separating bits out as extras, and it’s again full of great songs and stories, with John accompanied by a live band and dancers.
The more upbeat and catchy numbers include Get The Party Started (a very apt way to open the show), You To Me Are Everything, Viva Las Vegas, Let Your Love Flow, Copacabana and Let’s Get Loud. And there are plenty of slower songs mixed in, with beautiful heartfelt ballads like Don’t Cry Out Loud, Unusual Way, Memory, Rule The World, The Doctor And I (a nice reworking of The Wizard And I from Wicked in honour of Captain Jack in Doctor Who), Remember When (in tribute to his parents who join him on stage) and From This Moment (dedicated to his audience).
The dancers are good too, with nice choreography during songs like Don’t Rain On My Parade, and they even dress up appropriately for the Spiderman and Wonder Woman themes as well as the song Man, I Feel Like A Woman. John also performs I Am What I Am, just like on the first DVD and in the show I attended, because it’s his anthem. But that’s no bad thing, as he performs it wonderfully and it suits him perfectly.
Along the way John also tells stories about singing as a child, his earliest performances in musical theatre, playing Zaza in La Cage Aux Folles in the West End, appearing on Desperate Housewives (which I’ve never been interested in seeing but I know he played Patrick Logan in Series 6), being on the motoring show Fifth Gear, his BBC TV show Tonight’s The Night (where he made people’s dreams come true and I did see some of that), his parents, going skiing, and more.
On top of all that, there are also a couple of appearances by Jodie Prenger as well. She had won the part of Nancy in the West End revival of Oliver a couple of years previously, thanks to the talent show I’d Do Anything on which John had been one of the judges, and he had given her a lot of encouragement and guidance. So here she performs Cry Me A River, Mambo Italiano, Proud Mary and Nobody Does It Better, as well as a duet of So Close from the musical Enchanted with John, and to her credit she is a good, powerful singer. Obviously she wasn’t in the production of Oliver I saw in April, but I can imagine she was probably very good in it all those years ago.
Finally, the DVD has a behind the scenes bonus feature, which is just a 5-minute montage of clips and interviews. So it’s not as good as the equivalent feature on the first DVD, but it does have a few interesting and funny moments, and shows the camaraderie within the team nicely.
So altogether it’s an enjoyable box set with a couple of nice concerts, where John is very entertaining with his variety of song choices and amusing stories. Better late than never, but I’m glad I got around to it in the end.
Conclusion
So that’s it for this month, I hope you found that interesting. I’m sorry I didn’t have any interesting outings to tell you about, but I will do next time, as there are a couple of theatre shows I’ve already been to see with friends in early June, I’m happy to say. And I’ll keep you updated about my mother of course.
In the meantime, if you want something extra to read right now, I did also recently publish reviews of some research papers about visually impaired bloggers, one of which I was interviewed for back in 2021. And as a follow-up to my post in April about the government’s proposed changes to disability benefits called Taking The PIP, a campaign using the same name has since sprung up online. I have no connection with it, but I’m happy to give it a plug as it’s really important to get behind it.
But anyway, I’ll leave it there for now. I hope you have a good month whatever you have planned, and if you’re having troubles of your own then I hope you get the help you need. And I’ll have more posts for you soon as always!
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