Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a wonderful time this festive season. Or if it’s been a difficult period, or even a tough year overall, then I hope 2026 works out better for you.
My mother and I are certainly hoping it will be more positive after everything we’ve been through in the last 12 months. I’ve written a lot about being a carer for her, and recently brought our story up to date by reflecting on the year and the considerable progress we’ve made. We did have a lovely, relaxing, over-indulgent Christmas, I’m pleased to say, so that’s put us in the right frame of mind for the year ahead. The future of my job is very uncertain, granted, but whatever happens with that I’ll be alright. So fingers crossed things continue to go well for us.
I previously posted about the things I enjoyed during the advent period leading up to Christmas, so now it’s time to catch up with all the other entertainment that’s been keeping me occupied since then. So let’s jump straight into it, and I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Drama
Stranger Things
There are no major spoilers here, promise.
Stranger Things, the sci-fi horror series about a small American town connected to a frightening parallel world, has had a pretty slow release schedule in recent years. The first three seasons dropped on Netflix relatively swiftly, between 2016 and 2019, but that was followed by a 3-year gap until Season 4, and then there’s been another 3-year wait until the 5th and final season, which has just been released in stages between the end of November and the New Year.
So it’s been nearly 3 years since I last caught up with the first 4 seasons, and having such large gaps has made it lose momentum somewhat. Thankfully I was able to see their brilliant theatre show last year, but in terms of the current storyline, I had to watch one of the recaps on Youtube just to make sure I was set for this final season, and I didn’t have the time or desire to binge-watch all the earlier episodes yet again. Some of them are very long – too long sometimes – and this latest season is no exception, with episodes ranging between 60-90 minutes, roughly, and the finale lasting 2 hours.
Season 4 had ended on a big cliffhanger, with rifts opening up all over the town of Hawkins. But the opening of Season 5 doesn’t carry on from there directly, instead picking up the story 18 months later to show how the town has changed. It’s been placed into a quarantine lockdown by the military, who have dangerous secret plans, while Eleven and the gang are attempting to find Vecna in the Upside Down to kill him once and for all.
The main team of characters we’ve been following since the start are back of course, and there’s the surprising but welcome return of someone we hadn’t expected to see again. One of the group also makes a big emotional announcement during this season, which isn’t integral to the plot, but it adds another layer of interest to the character, it’s handled really sensitively and it does bring everyone closer together, so it doesn’t do anyone any harm. Yet it’s predictably got the anti-woke crowd up in arms, as if it’s ruined the entire season when it really hasn’t. It’s not even the first time that kind of subject has been touched upon in the show anyway.
On the other hand, some of the interactions and disagreements between the characters do drag the story out too much, but then that’s always been an issue with this show. Even if their plans are urgent, and you just want them to get on with it, you still sometimes get lengthy dialogue scenes shoehorned in just to stretch the time out. So they can cause my interest to wane a bit here and there.
There’s also the return of a side character who has appeared in the previous 4 seasons, but has been recast and given a far more substantial role here, which rather distracts from the main group, who really should be the primary focus as this is the final season. Similarly, there’s a bunch of new characters introduced in this season as well, and it’s rather late in the day to be doing that. Mind you, it is great to see Linda Hamilton among them, as she’s known to millions as Sarah Connor in the Terminator films, and I also enjoyed her in the TV series Chuck. Her casting in this season is a bonus, she has a good part.
As for the central storyline about the group trying to defeat Vecna, that is very good on the whole. There’s a fair amount of action, danger, suspense, discoveries and twists, including big revelations about the enemy and the Upside Down, all accompanied by some cool special effects and atmospheric music. The psychological impact is also well portrayed and interesting to observe, especially for Will and Eleven at the centre of it all.
The finale is satisfyingly epic too, as you’d hope and expect after 5 seasons, although it’s really 2 episodes joined together – the last battle to save the world with a couple of particularly huge and impressive set pieces, followed by an extended and emotional epilogue to wrap things up. As much as some character stuff has slowed down the show before, I’m glad they took a decent amount of time to focus on everyone at the end, and I did actually feel quite moved in the closing scenes, more than I’d expected to. It does reach a very suitable conclusion, and the specially designed credits look very cool, with a great choice of song to go with them.
I also have to say that the audio description has been fantastic. I don’t use it for a lot of programmes I watch, as I can sit close enough to the screen to understand what’s going on. But given the amount of action and dimly lit scenes in this particular show, I do use it, and it’s proven vital to help me keep track of things and not miss any important details. I also really like how the describer has echoed the atmosphere of the show in her narration style, particularly when things are tense and dangerous, rather than just flatly reading things out.
So ultimately, despite flaws with the storyline, characters and pacing, it was still worth sticking with the show to get to the finale. It has been fun and interesting overall, and they have ended it very nicely. There are some behind the scenes clips on their Youtube channel as well, for those who want to dig a bit deeper.
Finding Father Christmas
This was a really sweet festive comedy-drama film on Channel 4, lasting 1½ hours (or 70 minutes without ads). It stars Lenny Rush as a 16-year-old boy called Chris who still believes in Father Christmas, and refuses to believe his dad Nick (James Buckley) when he’s told that Santa doesn’t exist. So with the help of his cousin Holly (Ele McKenzie) he sets off on a mission to prove his dad wrong.
Following a meeting with a local Santa at a garden centre (Asim Chaudhry), he makes contact with brainbox Stephen Fry, who in turn leads him to mathematician Professor Hannah Fry, scientist Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock and ex-Special Forces soldier Jason Fox, who only add fuel to the fire by confirming that it is possible for Father Christmas to exist. All of those experts are good sports for playing themselves in the film, and really do make it sound plausible.
So Chris and Holly are all the more determined to investigate further, even though the Royal Mail naturally don’t want children to discover what really happens to the letters they write to Father Christmas. Their persistence pays off though, and Chris eventually gets a definitive answer from a very important person played by Greg Davies. So altogether it’s good fun, with lots of funny lines, a few plot twists and some heartwarming moments.
Comedy
Taskmaster
After Alex Horne had performed the song How Long non-stop for 24 hours earlier in December, to raise money for Stand Up To Cancer, we were then blessed with 2 special editions of Taskmaster over the festive period, which were a lot of fun as always.
First we had Champion Of Champions 4, which brought together the winners of Series 16-20, to see who would be the ultimate champion amongst Andy Zaltzman, John Robins, Maisie Adam (my personal favourite having seen her live before), Mathew Baynton and Sam Campbell.
The prize task was hilarious for a start, as they were challenged to do the best betrayal of some kind, which included sneaky acts against hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne, fellow contestants and the entire show, along with a complete misunderstanding by the 5th contestant. And such was the amount of material they filmed for that task alone that they’ve taken the unusual step of posting the full, uncut 25-minute section on Youtube (as well as other outtakes from the episode). It certainly makes you appreciate the skills of the editors when you discover how much good stuff they had to cut out, considering the final edit still flows really well.
And the other tasks were great too, involving poems on bucking broncos (adapted for Maisie as she had a back injury), a 2-metre race, doing ‘brilliant’ things and makeovers using sticky tape.
And then in early January we’ve had their New Year Treat. The New Year specials are an opportunity for other celebrities who aren’t comedians to have a go at the tasks, and this year the 6th edition has been extended to two episodes rather than one, which is brilliant.
My favourite contestants were deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis and Countdown dictionary expert Susie Dent, who were both great sports. But I also vaguely knew of the others too – footballer Jill Scott, singer Sam Ryder and rapper Big Zuu – and altogether it made for a fun variety of personalities.
The prizes included items you can whack and exotic things from people’s homes, the latter including magnets, a signed hat and a gold-decorated toilet seat. And then among other things the various tasks involved bear-hunting, self-portraits, dice rolls, marathon attempts and a finale of games played with shoes.
And of course Series 21 is on the horizon next, so I’m really looking forward to that too.
The Last Leg
As usual, The Last Leg gave us a couple of pre-recorded specials in late December that were both enjoyable, setting aside their satirical analysis of current affairs to have the welcome distraction of general banter, fun and games.
For the Christmas edition, the hosts dressed up as people who were somewhat connected to the festive season, Alex Brooker took on a few challenges in response to the series Finding Mr Christmas (not to be confused with the film I mentioned above), Harry Hill provided some typical off-the-wall humour with an impression of Morrissey singing a Christmas song and a model of the nativity made of savoury foods, Rick Astley sang Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and Alison Hammond helped them to film a spoof Hallmark movie scene set in a vets, among other things.
Then for the 2-hour New Year’s Eve special they had a wealth of guests including comedians Maisie Adam, Lenny Henry & Phil Wang, reality TV star Dani Dyer (who unlike her father Danny I’d never heard of), female sports stars Lucy Bronze & Hannah Botterman (who were in the England teams that won the Women’s Football Euros & Rugby World Cup this year respectively), male rugby star Joe Marler (who was very funny in his role as the barman during the show), and musicians Pete Doherty from The Libertines & Alex James from Blur.
It was entertaining as usual, including a look back at some of their favourite moments of 2025, a quiz with some silly games, and some other guests who’d had moments of fame during the year. It then finished with co-host Josh Widdicombe leading a singalong of Blur’s hit Parklife (inspired by his cameo appearance at Radio 2 In The Park), backed by Alex James, Pete Doherty and the Britpop Classical Orchestra, which was fun as it’s a great song.
The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year
An annual staple of Channel 4’s schedule for 21 years now, the light-hearted Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr, was back once again. I didn’t know a lot of the answers as usual, as a lot of social media trends, popular entertainment, sports, etc always pass me by. But I always get a few correct and am reminded of unusual things that did catch my attention.
The line-up was alright too, with teams consisting of Jonathan Ross with Nick Mohammed, Katherine Ryan with Roisin Conaty, and Richard Ayoade with Lou Sanders. They’re all comedians I know, although I’m not a big fan of Lou, as she puts herself across as thinking she’s funnier than she is, and I’m not into Nick’s comedy generally either, but here he was more his normal self and proved to be quite clever, taking the quiz more seriously than the others.
Alongside the traditional segments by Mitchell Brook Primary School and Charles Dance, there were also guest appearances by the viral Jet2 voiceover lady Zoë Lister, rugby star Joe Marler and a couple of Drag Race stars, who were all up for a laugh. So it wasn’t a classic vintage edition, but it was still good.
There’s also The Big Fat Quiz Of Telly that’s coming up on January 9. The last edition of that they had in 2024 didn’t have the most interesting guest list for me though, and nor does this new one, apart from Harry Hill. So I’ll give it a look, but if I don’t mention it next time, you’ll know I wasn’t particularly bothered about it.
8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown
Hosted by a croaky-voiced Jimmy Carr, the guests playing 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown this time were Jon Richardson, Daisy May Cooper, Rob Beckett and Judi Love, while Joe Wilkinson made a typically surreal appearance, playing a trick on Jon with some eggnog. It wasn’t one of their best line-ups, and as usual the guest in Dictionary Corner (Katie Norris this time) didn’t appeal to me. But overall it was still a nice bit of silly fun to watch, with Jimmy damaging the set in his sleigh and a mini-quiz about Christmas cracker jokes along the way.
Would I Lie To You?
Ahead of the new series that’s just started in January, the Christmas edition of Would I Lie To You? had a mixture of guests, my favourite being musician Jools Holland, who I saw live a few years ago. I did catch a few little bits of his Hootenanny show on New Year’s Eve, but I never feel inclined to watch it all, as a lot of his guests aren’t of interest to me, hence I never write about it.
Anyway, David Walliams was also on the show, and I know him too of course, though I’m not a big fan of his comedy and he wasn’t very interesting here. His appearance was controversial too, partly because he made a couple of Nazi salutes during the recording in the summer, which were rightly edited out prior to broadcast, but also given recent allegations about his behaviour (which he denies) that were enough for him to be dropped by his publisher.
I wasn’t familiar with the other two guests – BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra presenter Swarzy Shire and Call The Midwife actress Helen George – but they were good. The best moments are often when David Mitchell gets into an argument with Lee though, and his impassioned outburst during a chat about an Inspector Morse tour was hilarious. So on the whole the episode was enjoyable.
QI XL
The special for the W series of QI starred Jimmy Carr, Julian Clary and first-time guest Fatiha El-Ghorri alongside Alan Davies and host Sandi Toksvig, and of course I watched the extended edition instead of the half-hour episode. This time it had various questions relating to Christmas gifts as well as other topics, and there was a small choir helping out with the General Ignorance round. Across the series there are often moments where Sandi has to restore order as well, when the guests go off on a tangent, and this time there were a few poo-related stories that amusingly derailed the show. So altogether it was very good as always.
Other Shows
Gladiators
I’ve been enjoying the BBC revival of Gladiators over the past couple of years, and the new celebrity special this Christmas was good too, hosted by Bradley and Barney Walsh as usual. The most well-known contender to me was boxer Nicola Adams, having seen her in the Olympics, and I’m also a little bit familiar with Joe Wicks given his efforts to keep everyone fit during lockdown. I didn’t know Sam Thompson or Vogue Williams though. But all of the competitors were in good spirits and rose to the challenge very well.
You could tell the Gladiators were holding back a little bit sometimes, and they were often gracious in being complimentary about their opponents – including a moving moment where one of them thanked Nicola for being the hero who inspired them in their childhood. But they still made it pretty tough for them, so it was far from easy. It was also good to see Nitro and Giant back amongst them, as they’d had to miss all or part of Series 2 respectively due to injury.
Then, once the Gladiators were out of the way, the final one-on-one Eliminator rounds – complete with a harder balance beam that goes up and down – were exciting to watch, one of them being extremely close at the end.
So I enjoyed it altogether, and I’m looking forward to the third series that’s coming soon, which will include 3 new events.
Wild London
It is truly remarkable to think that not only will Sir David Attenborough be 100 years old in May (hopefully anyway, he’s earned it!), but he’s still making TV programmes about animals and nature as well.
He’s travelled all over the globe during his long and distinguished career, but in Wild London, a special one-hour programme, he explores the wildlife of his home city. And as always, it’s really beautifully filmed by the experienced production team.
Some of the creatures he talks about are obvious candidates, including foxes, deer, pigeons and other birds found in the city’s parks. But because we just take their existence for granted and leave them be, we get some nice insights into their behaviour and gain an appreciation for why they act in certain ways.
I was less aware of the peregrine falcons and parakeets that grace the skies of the metropolis though, so it was fascinating to see them.
At the smaller end of the scale, the hedgehogs who creep about, often unnoticed, are surprisingly cute considering their spikiness. It’s really sweet that some residents have put “hedgehog highways” in their fences to allow them to move freely between neighbouring gardens.
It’s also nice to see how other animals like harvest mice and beavers have been successfully reintroduced into the city, and the benefits they bring to the local ecology. And at the Natural History Museum, their new ponds are helping creatures like tadpoles and dragonflies to thrive.
The programme naturally includes some footage of youngsters being looked after by their parents as well, which is always adorable. And there are some tense moments when there are predators around or when the animals are trying to navigate the busy urban environment.
Some behaviour is quite funny as well, like pigeons using the Tube, foxes storing bones in people’s cars, and the bees from Buckingham Palace getting a bit drunk at nearby pubs!
So it was really interesting, and a lovely reminder of just how much wildlife there is in the city. London may seem like a concrete jungle to many, but for those of us who live here – humans and animals alike – we’re well aware of the plethora of parks, green spaces, rivers, canals and other habitats that we’re blessed with, more so than a lot of other cities. We need to look after it, and it’s good to see that some efforts are being made to do that.
Conclusion
So that’s it for Christmas, but there’s still plenty for me to catch-up with, including a whole bunch of stand-up comedy specials for a start. Mum and I haven’t finished Chris McCausland’s autobiography yet either, as we took a little break from it to focus on more festive things, but it is really interesting and often very funny. And then there are lots of other things on my watchlist as well, along with an audiobook I was gifted that I need to listen to.
So there’s a good deal more to come in future Favourites posts. And in the meantime you may well have noticed that I’ve started posting hundreds of pictures from the Freddie Mercury exhibition I visited a couple of years ago, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody and the upcoming 10th anniversary of my blog. I’ve already posted about his love of Japanese art and other Japanese items, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m going to spread it out by doing 2 or 3 posts each week during the month.
So I hope you enjoy all of that, and anything else I end up posting during the weeks and months ahead as always. And I hope you have a good year too, whatever it brings you!
Share this:
Well Eye Never 