It’s been a long year for my mother and I, so we’re glad that Christmas has finally come around, and thankfully the preparations have been going well, just as I hope they have been for you. Granted, there is the potential loss of my job next year hanging over my head, through no fault of my own, but that won’t affect me as severely as the friend I provide support for. And given everything that’s already gone on at home during 2025, my mother and I just want to relax, forget about our problems and over-indulge to celebrate Christmas, as you’re supposed to do. And we’ve got everything we need for that.
So I’ve actually been able to go out and about in London a few times this month, now that Mum’s more comfortable being on her own in the house again, having got some of her independence and confidence back. Sometimes it’s just been for walks, but I’ve also met up with a friend as well.
And then at home I’ve been enjoying a lot of entertainment, including dramas, comedies and music. Some things are still ongoing or are on my to do list, so I won’t mention them just yet, but there are already plenty of bits and pieces I can talk about already. So with the usual disclaimer that none of this is sponsored or gifted, I hope you enjoy this varied selection.
Contents
Out & About
Bill’s Christmas Meal
Firstly, I was able to meet my good friend Claire for a lovely catch-up chat over a festive meal at Bill’s. And, as with previous visits, it was very nice. I had:
- Creamy Cauliflower & Truffle Soup – A pleasant soup topped with garlic croutons & white truffle oil.
- Turkey Breast with Festive Stuffing – A generous portion of delicious turkey wrapped in bacon, served with large pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, seasonal greens, maple & thyme roasted root veg & red wine gravy.
- Sticky Toffee Pudding – A lovely dessert with warm salted caramel sauce & clotted cream ice cream.
They also gave us a little bit of mulled wine while we were waiting to be seated. And I had a Clementine Margarita cocktail with my meal, made with Casamigos Blanco & clementine syrup shaken with fresh citrus, which was quite refreshing.
So my first festive meal of the season was very tasty and filling, and I was glad to have recovered fully from my wisdom tooth removal so I was able to enjoy it fully, along with all the goodies I’ll be stuffing my face with at home over Christmas!
Selfridges Disney Displays
If you were to believe right-wing politicians, journalists and social media accounts, one of the many lies they’ve tried to spread is that London isn’t celebrating Christmas and you’re not even allowed to say the word. As someone who has lived here for 9 years, visited countless times prior to that and has been out in the city this month, I can safely say that kind of accusation has always been absurdly untrue, and this year is no exception. London is actually the place to avoid if you hate Christmas – it’s everywhere!
I haven’t been able to take a thorough look at the city’s festive lights and displays like I used to a few years ago, as I haven’t had time, but I have seen some of them during my recent outings, including the Trafalgar Square tree.
However, the displays that have stood out to me most so far are by Selfridges. They’ve partnered with Disney and filled their windows with beautiful displays relating to classic films and characters, such as Pinocchio, Mary Poppins, Winnie The Pooh, Alice In Wonderland, The Lady And The Tramp, and Fantasia. So it was fun to spend a little while looking at those, as they’re very detailed and creative, and children were getting very excited when they saw them.
Doctor Who
The Sea Devils
In the absence of a Doctor Who Christmas special, which we won’t be getting until next year, we’ve been treated to an epic new spin-off from the show all about the Sea Devils instead. They’re an ancient race who inhabited the Earth long before humans existed, only to end up imprisoned deep in the oceans, but now they’ve resurfaced and want their planet back.
They first appeared in a 1972 adventure from the Classic era, so I began by watching a special re-edit of that original story, which was broadcast on the same day as the new show. I’ve never seen the original 6-part serial, so I can’t make any comparisons to it, but I’ve seen good feedback online from Classic Era fans regarding this new 90-minute version.
It doesn’t hold my interest as strongly as modern Doctor Who episodes, which is true for the few Classic Era stories I’ve seen in general. But it’s still good, as Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) go to an island where the Master (Roger Delgado) has been imprisoned. There they discover that ships have been going missing because of the Sea Devils, who the Master is in league with, aided by the man in charge of the jail, Colonel Trenchard (Clive Morton).
There’s quite a bit of action involved, including a sword fight between the Doctor and the Master, and while companion Jo doesn’t always have a lot to do, she does play an important role sometimes, including rescuing the Doctor when he’s imprisoned. There are moments of humour too, most memorably a scene where the Master is watching The Clangers and jokingly remarks to Trenchard about them being real.
So overall I liked it. It was worth a watch to add a bit of extra context, even though it’s not necessary to watch it before the new show.
The War Between The Land And The Sea
You don’t need to be a Doctor Who fan at all for this new spin-off, as it works very well on its own and doesn’t require any prior knowledge. There are a few mentions of the Doctor of course, but only sporadically and very briefly, and they have no bearing on the story. The style of this show is different as well, being more adult in tone, akin to Torchwood in that regard, particularly its Children Of Earth special that also spread a single story over multiple episodes.
The War Between The Land And The Sea is a clunky title, but it’s a line that’s used in the re-edited Sea Devils story, and it’s an apt description for this drama. Created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and co-written with Pete McTighe, it’s a short series, consisting of 4 episodes of 45 minutes each that were broadcast as 2 double-bills, followed by a finale that’s 10 minutes longer. But it’s epic in scale and feels very cinematic sometimes, especially with the visuals, music, action and effects. I’ve seen a few complaints that the music drowns out the speech, but I can’t say I encountered any such problem myself.
The story focuses on the UNIT organisation as they make contact with the Sea Devils – or Homo Aqua as they become referred to. UNIT attempt to make peace with them, in the hope that they can reach a compromise to enable aquakind and humanity to co-exist harmoniously, but of course that’s far from easy.
At the heart of it all is Barclay Pierre-Dupont, played brilliantly by Russell Tovey, who had previously been a different character (Midshipman Alonso Frame) in the Doctor Who Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned back in 2007.
Barclay is at the bottom of the pecking order in UNIT, doing menial jobs like ordering taxis for people. But thanks to a HR mix-up, he finds himself flown out to see a captured Sea Devil with a group of officers, and then he unwittingly ends up becoming an ambassador for the entire human race. This requires him to communicate with the ambassador for the Sea Devils and all aquatic creatures, a fish-like woman called Salt, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Gugu has also been in Doctor Who before, playing Martha Jones’ sister Tish in Series 3 in 2007, but here she gets a much more meaty… well, fishy… role, and is excellent.
So Barclay is, pun very much intended, a fish out of water in this situation, which he struggles to deal with, as do his family. But he and Salt form a strong bond during the series, the two actors having great chemistry. The way their connection develops is a bit predictable though, as is the way it ends, the final twist for Barclay being pretty obvious long before it happens. You can just see where it’s heading, thereby reducing its impact. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting to see how both of their characters evolve because of the situation they find themselves in.
It’s also wonderful to see Jemma Redgrave playing commander-in-chief Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Ruth Madeley as wheelchair-using scientific advisor Shirley Anne Bingham, Colin McFarlane as American General Austin Pierce, and Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim, all from the world of Doctor Who, as they get even more to do in this mini-series.
Kate in particular is pushed to her operational and emotional limits, far beyond anything she’s experienced in Doctor Who, and Jemma steps up to the task magnificently as you’d expect, making the character feel truly authentic. Maybe it’s because I already know and love her from Doctor Who, but she just feels much more interesting than Barclay, she’s fascinating to watch in this.
She’s very much in charge and takes no nonsense from anybody, to put it mildly, yet she’s also very vulnerable, and there are a few moments where you just want to reach out and give her a big hug. Yet on the lighter side she has some great one-liners as well, for example getting so frustrated at one point that she refers to the human ambassador as “Barclay Bloody Pierre Stupid Name Dupont!” The ending of the series, meanwhile, places her in a very interesting and possibly precarious position after all she’s been through, which has definite scope to be explored further.
The story has a strong and well-delivered environmental message weaved within it, effectively asking what could happen if the creatures of the sea could communicate with humanity and demand that we leave their home alone instead of dumping our waste in it. So here, aquakind are demanding that the human race relinquish the seas and waterways, stop polluting them, and stop travelling over them, even in the skies above them. They even demonstrate their power on a couple of occasions by causing chaos worldwide with impressive set pieces.
But acceding to their demands is far from easy. It would take many years and a lot of resources to clean up the rivers and oceans, if it’s even possible, and there would be massive impacts on the economy, travel, wealth, etc if we could no longer access or cross the waters. So there are many selfish beliefs and conflicts of interest, with Kate coming up against stiff opposition and secret schemes from businessmen, politicians and military personnel who feel the only course of action is to fight back.
So there’s a lot of action and tension in this series, including big twists, cliffhangers and deaths along the way, and it’s very nicely paced for the most part, so it doesn’t feel too dragged out.
All that said, there is something a bit underwhelming about the finale after all the build-up and hype. Not only is there the predictable end to Barclay’s story, but there isn’t really the sort of battle that some people might be hoping for given UNIT’s history, and it’s not even UNIT who saves the world in the end, despite the story focusing on them. And those that do come up with the sudden and rather questionable ‘solution’ don’t put the human race in a good light. There’s also a post-credits scene which, while interesting and performed excellently by the actor in question, doesn’t live up the hype that Russell’s been giving it in interviews. It would have been better if it had been a surprise without him saying anything, because I think he just ramped up the expectations too much.
But then in fairness I think that’s the point of the series really, to challenge our expectations and to make you feel uncomfortable with how it concludes, and if it’s got people talking then it’s fulfilled that goal. It reminds us that there are no easy answers to a problem of this nature – which humanity is ultimately responsible for causing in the first place – because of its scale and the conflicts of interest at play. We know how we’d like it to end in a series like this, but that doesn’t mean it should. So I think there is certainly some degree of realism in how it’s resolved, even if we don’t like the solution. I can easily imagine the equivalent people in the real world doing the same thing.
On balance, therefore, I do think it’s a very good series that’s well worth a watch. Yes, it’s been overhyped and raises expectations a little too much in the early episodes, but it’s still very impressive, fun, interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless. If you’re a fan of Doctor Who then it’s essential viewing for Kate’s character alone, as you’ve never seen her like this before. But even for non-Doctor Who fans who like a bit of sci-fi and action, it’s well worth checking out.
Finally, the music for this series is by Lorne Balfe who, among many other things, was responsible for the score accompanying last year’s Wallace & Gromit adventure, Vengeance Most Fowl, and also this year’s comedy series Man vs Baby mentioned later in this post. Lorne also provided some musical updates for the re-edited Sea Devils story, alongside the original score by Malcolm Clarke.
The soundtrack album has been released digitally, with a physical release to follow next year. The first track was dropped as a preview before the series launched, called Barclay’s Theme, which is beautiful.
Nearly all of the other tracks were then released in one go, and they’re very atmospheric, working perfectly in the show while still sounding nice in isolation. There aren’t any big stand-out pieces necessarily, but my favourite tracks include Into The Unknown (which is quite calming for a while before getting very dramatic towards the end), All Over The World (which has a very epic feel befitting its name), Aqua Den (which invokes a feeling of floating and has an air of mystery and tension to it) and Survivor (which starts off calmly but then builds nicely).
The final track, which also concludes the series, was then unveiled on its own to complete the album – a cover of Heroes, the classic David Bowie track, by Alison Goldfrapp. It feels like the sort of adaptation that would be written for a Christmas advert, by turning it into a slow and powerful piano ballad, but it works very well. So it’s a good album altogether – nothing exceptional, but the music serves the series very nicely.
Comedy
Man vs Baby
3½ years ago, the magnificent Rowan Atkinson co-created and starred in a Netflix comedy series called Man vs Bee, where his nice, well-meaning character Trevor Bingley gets a job as a house-sitter at a fancy property, only to cause utter chaos and destruction as a result of trying to fight off a bee and deal with various other problems. I reviewed it at the time, and have just watched it again this December as well, and it’s very funny. Rowan is a master of physical comedy and slapstick, as fans of Mr Bean will know, though this is more sophisticated than that and there’s a lot more depth to Trevor’s character.
And now this Christmas we’ve been gifted with a sequel called Man vs Baby, which naturally is also on Netflix. This time there are only 4 episodes instead of 9, but they’re each more than twice as long as the episodes in the first series, lasting between 24 and 37 minutes each. So you’re actually getting more altogether, at nearly 2 hours in total. Indeed, it’s basically a film chopped into 4 pieces, as every episode carries on immediately from the one before.
Trevor is a calmer character this time, no doubt thanks to the consequences at the end of his previous adventure which taught him a valuable lesson. His life hasn’t improved much since then though, as he’s living on his own in a cold house in a small village, he’s lost his caretaker job at a school due to clumsy incidents there, and he’s miles away from his ex-wife and daughter who at the last minute have had to change their plans and can’t visit him for Christmas.
But then, by sheer chance, he’s offered another house-sitting job, by a man who has taken over the company and clearly doesn’t know Trevor’s history. This takes Trevor to London, where he has to look after an enormous and stunningly beautiful penthouse suite.
There’s just one snag. A mix-up in the nativity play on Trevor’s final day at the school results in a baby being abandoned in the manger on stage. And thanks to a series of unfortunate events, Trevor is prevented from giving it to someone in authority so they can locate the mother. As a result, he ends up having to take the child to London with him, and just about manages to hide it from the lady who shows him around the penthouse before she goes off on holiday and leaves him to his duties.
In theory the job should then be pretty simple, especially as there are no bees this time. All he has to do is make the most of staying in a fancy pad over Christmas and ensure it’s kept in good order. But now there’s a baby to look after of course, with everything that entails, who has a tendency to go exploring when left to its own devices. Trevor also locks himself out by losing the key fob required to use the lift, there’s a dog that becomes obsessed with his shoes, there’s a homeless couple who sneak into the apartment, and the owners of the penthouse arrange to come back unexpectedly, among other issues he has to deal with. There’s clearly some sponsorship from Cadbury’s Heroes as well, given a few sporadic instances of blatant product placement. But they are nice, admittedly, so I don’t mind that.
So altogether it’s good fun. It’s not going to rival his biggest hits like Mr Bean or Blackadder of course, or Christmas films like Home Alone, but it is an enjoyable festive comedy that will be worth rewatching in the future. The style is a bit different to Man vs Bee, because it’s not about Trevor destroying things, but it still works well. And it’s obvious what some gags or mixups are going to be sometimes, but they’re still funny. There are also some clever early setups for things that pay off nicely later, and the penthouse itself looks incredible.
Trevor is a really nice guy too, as well as being very clever and resourceful when he gets into tricky situations, which means you’re rooting for him to succeed, and there is a heartwarming ending. So I’m very glad I watched that, it’s great to see something new from Rowan Atkinson.
An interesting final note is that Lorne Balfe, who I mentioned earlier for the Doctor Who spin-off, provides the music score for this series as well, just as he did for Man vs Bee. So naturally it sounds beautiful, fun, grand and atmospheric. I particularly like the cheerful title theme, which is incorporated into some of the other tracks, including the choral a cappella version that reminds me a little of the Mr Bean theme. And other pieces I like include Tis’ The Season, Interrupted House Tour, Man vs Dinner and Where’s The Baby?. But they’re all good.
Sarah Millican: Late Bloomer
Sarah Millican brought out the DVD from her latest tour this month, while also making it available to stream via her website. And just like all of her previous releases, it’s very funny, with some nice bonus material as well.
Late Bloomer is a show that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Hammersmith Apollo last year, the second occasion I’d seen her live since my first time in 2022. But this 90-minute DVD was filmed at The Hexagon in Reading.
Wearing a lovely colourful outfit, she explains that the show is loosely about how she got from childhood to where she is now, having been inspired by a photo from her youth. And she discusses the differences in the people that she terms “late bloomers” and “eager beavers”, of which I can safely consider myself the former.
She then talks about a wide variety of topics. Some of them are naturally about things specific to her as a woman, so there is talk of things like smear tests, the life stages of knickers, different types of periods, trimming or waxing downstairs, and reading women’s magazines. But even to a bloke like me those sections are still very funny and not at all off-putting.
And beyond that there are many other routines about things like unwanted gifts, putting her back out, cleaning the toilet, having a night of debauchery with friends while in Canada, having an experience in a flotation tank, gaining access to age-restricted content on her phone, being an emotional person, the contents of her old school reports, and the Channel 4 sex documentary Open House, among other things.
The biggest and most memorable section though is about the contents of her handbag, because she gets several members of the audience to share the unusual things they carry about with them as well. So that results in some very amusing stories and interactions. I won’t give away what items are revealed on the DVD, but to give a flavour of the type of responses she gets, people in the audience in the show I attended were carrying things like a voodoo doll keyring, poppers, a crochet hook and wool, and dog treats. Some of those audience members were given a round of applause at the end, but for a couple that weren’t quite as impressive Sarah got us all to do a single clap of the hands to acknowledge it without going further. On the DVD though, nobody gets a single-clap response. They all get proper applause, because they all prove to be quite interesting to her (unless she’s edited out the boring ones). There are some other examples from other gigs on her social media as well.
There’s over an hour of extras on the disc as well, including a 22-minute chat with her fellow members of the Standard Issue Podcast team (of which an extract is on Youtube), a 9-minute Q&A where she answers a wide variety of questions submitted on social media, a half-hour feature where she tries local snacks in different countries on her tour with her support acts, and a country-style Late Bloomer theme song that Sarah helped to write.
They’re well worth going through, they’re all good fun, and it’s great that Sarah has provided a selection of extras that aren’t just your bog-standard Live At The Apollo appearances or video diaries or things like that. She always makes the effort to be original with her DVDs.
So I thoroughly enjoyed her latest DVD all in all, and that’s the last we’ll be seeing of her on stage for a little while. Having done 2 world tours in the past 4½ years, she’s taking a well-earned break next year to relax with her husband (fellow comedian Gary Delaney) and her dog. But hopefully she’ll do another tour as and when she feels ready, and hopefully I’ll be able to go and see it.
Micky Flanagan DVDs
Cockney comedian Micky Flanagan released a new DVD recently called If Ever We Needed It…, which had first been shown on Sky last year, though I didn’t get around to seeing it at the time. So I bought that, and decided to rewatch and review his previous DVDs I have in my collection as well, having not played them for quite a while. His older shows are the best, because they’re longer, the material feels fresher and there are a few extra features, but his latest release is still good too. So I enjoyed going through them all again, and you can check out my review post if you want to find out more about them.
Madness
BBC Two had an evening dedicated to Madness this month, with a few programmes showing performances by this great band, the first of which is brand new while the others are repeats.
Radio 2 In Concert
Madness performed a special 70-minute gig to a select group of lucky fans in December, for BBC Radio 2 at their BBC Radio Theatre in New Broadcasting House. So it was obviously made available on BBC Sounds, but was also filmed and shared on BBC iPlayer, where you can watch it until early January.
And it was fun, as they always are. They’re getting on a bit now of course, and it was a fairly small, intimate concert, so in comparison to some of their more powerful performances I’ve seen in the past, it was pretty run of the mill for them. But that’s not a bad thing, as they performed a solid repertoire of well-known, catchy hits, many of which the audience were singing along with in the appropriate moments, so it was enjoyable.
Suggs did a little bit of chat in between songs occasionally, such as recalling how he had to explain the chorus in Lovestruck about lampposts to the audience when performing in Dubai, equating it to palm trees for them. And he introduced Kevin Burdett, the stand-in guitarist while Chris Foreman is undergoing cancer treatment. But otherwise it was just all music, with 18 of their best tracks, before concluding with a ska cover of Wizzard’s festive classic I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, that works well in their style.
It was then followed on the radio by an after-party with Jo Whiley, where fans gave their gleeful reactions to the concert, and Jo had a fun interview with the band. So it was great to see that the Nutty Boys are still going strong, and long may they continue to do so, as long as their health allows.
Madness At The BBC
This is a great 90-minute compilation of the band’s performances on various BBC shows, including studio appearances and music videos on Top Of The Pops, along with songs played on The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Kenny Everett Television Show, The Young Ones, Later… With Jools Holland and at the Glastonbury Festival in 2009 & 2016. There are interesting pop-up facts that appear on screen during each song, and there are moments where the band members reminisce about the performances, the stories behind some of the songs and the time they split up.
Goodbye Television Centre
This concert was first broadcast in 2013, so I’ve seen it at least a couple of times before, but it is good. It was the last programme to be filmed live at Television Centre before the BBC sold it off, so it’s quite significant. It sees Madness performing for an hour, combining classic hits with a few tracks from their most recent album Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da, in front of a specially gathered audience outside the iconic building. Suggs also recalls some of the BBC programmes they performed on, including how they were banned from Top Of The Pops for messing around and not miming properly, and there’s an unnecessary appearance from rapper Kano on the song Shut Up.
So it’s a lot of fun. The crowd are clearly loving it, as are the people watching from the office windows and balconies, so the party atmosphere comes across well. It’s better than the Radio 2 concert above I’d say, as it feels like it has more energy to it, but they were 12 years younger then, so it’s to be expected.
Royal Variety Performance
I haven’t bothered to watch the Royal Variety Performance much in recent years, as a lot of the acts on it haven’t interested me. But this time around they did have a decent line-up, including Madness.
The event, broadcast on ITV, was hosted from the Royal Albert Hall by comedian Jason Manford, who is the perfect choice for an occasion like this. His opening routine about being working class yet having posh kids is very funny.
Musicals were particularly well-represented during the show, including:
- Paddington – I really hope I can get around to seeing this next year, as it looks amazing. The way they’ve brought the bear to life is so adorable, and the songs by Tom Fletcher that I’ve heard so far are a lot of fun.
- Just For One Day – I have seen this Live Aid musical before, and it’s brilliant, but this was a very special performance to mark the global concert’s 40th anniversary. As well as the songs Blowin’ In The Wind and Rockin’ All Over The World, there were special appearances on stage by TV journalist Michael Buerk, nurse Dame Claire Bertschinger and music stars Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Roger Taylor and Gary Kemp, giving their recollections and thoughts on that historic event.
- Kinky Boots – I’ve not really looked into this musical much yet, it’s one of those that have passed me by a little bit even though I’m aware of it. But the performance here was very good and it is probably a show I ought to see one day.
- And one other that I’ll mention at the end…
Also in terms of music, Madness made their Royal Variety debut during the show, which seems amazing given the length of their career. They performed a fun medley of their hits, although they were clearly using a pre-recorded backing track with live vocals from Suggs, and maybe a little bit of extra instrumentation from the other band members, as the underlying music was identical to the studio recordings. So that was a bit of a shame really, but it still sounded good, and the audience clearly loved it as they got a standing ovation.
Beyond that, other performers I enjoyed included:
- The incredible Japanese air dance group AirFootWorks, who are able to get into some really tough positions using a metal frame on stage to hold on to. They must have a lot of strength in their legs and arms, and have practised for a long time to achieve such precision in their act.
- The clever and funny Adrian Stoica with his adorable border collie Hurricane. There must be lots of little signals that he’s giving to the dog to do each action, but as they’re built into the routine you don’t notice them.
- Stephen Fry playing the Victorian Lady Bracknell to talk about manners, which wasn’t hilarious but had moments of amusement.
- Magician Harry Moulding, who won this year’s series of Britain’s Got Talent, which I never pay any attention to, but his trick here was good.
- The cast of Dead Ringers, including Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens. I’ve never been into the radio or TV series, and am thus not bothered about seeing the touring stage show, as just watching people do impressions gets boring after a little while, especially if you don’t recognise some of them. But as this was just a short performance, it was quite fun, as they took on various well-known politicians and celebrities. When they did Prime Minister Keir Starmer though, the auditorium rang out with booing from the audience, and when ‘Keir’ mentioned that the people wanted to get rid of him, there were cheers. And without wanting to get political in this post, I would have joined in if I’d been there, it’s totally justified.
- A song celebrating pantomimes, led by Jason Manford, with guests including two of the Gladiators, Christopher Biggins, Lesley Joseph and Su Pollard, among others. That was a lot of fun.
- Comedians Mick Miller and Tom Davis, who were alright, though I’m not particularly interested in seeing full shows by either of them.
- The always divine Katherine Jenkins who, apart from delivering the National Anthem at the start, performed a cover of a K-pop track called Golden, which I don’t know at all but she made it sound beautiful.
There was also a lengthy section remembering people from the world of entertainment who had died this year. It went on for a long time, making you realise just how much incredible talent we’ve lost in these past 12 months. I wrote my own tribute to Patricia Routledge a couple of months ago, for instance. And as for some of the other acts, I skipped over Westlife, Jessie J and Laufey, as they don’t appeal to me personally.
And then came the big finale – a goosebumps-inducing, spellbinding and truly epic performance of songs from Les Miserables, to celebrate the musical’s 40th anniversary. I had the pleasure of seeing the show a couple of years ago, and will no doubt do so again one day, and this was an absolutely amazing tribute to it.
Introduced by the show’s creators, and beginning with Do You Hear The People Sing, it featured Michael Ball and Matt Lucas alongside the casts of no less than 11 amateur UK productions plus drummers from Guildhall Young Artists. And they were then joined by members of the French and West End productions for a spectacular performance of One Day More, with over 400 performers filling the stage and the aisles. It was a truly stunning way to finish.
So altogether it was a very good show, credit where it’s due. It won’t be like that every year I’m sure, but it was well worth tuning into this time at least.
Conclusion
So that’s all for the moment, I hope you found that interesting. I’ve got lots more to watch and listen to yet, including things I’m already in the middle of like the final series of Stranger Things and Chris McCausland’s excellent autobiography. Plus I have a lengthy watchlist of other things on TV and online that I either need to catch up with or that are coming up soon, and music releases I want to get and review too. I’m certainly not going to be bored! And there might be one or two other posts coming up on this blog that I’ve been working on for a while, so stay tuned.
In the meantime though, thank you for all the support as always. I wish you all the very best. and I hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year! 🙂
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