Hello again, I hope your year’s been going well so far, and you’re enjoying the Easter weekend. For me, the first few months of 2026 have been a transition period, as I’ve been making the switch from my support worker role to a new zero-hours contract as an accessibility tester, so I can focus more on caring for my mother and looking after my own wellbeing. You can find out more about all of that in my latest Carer & Career Update post.
Because of that, along with the often cold and wet weather, I haven’t done many interesting things in London since my January Favourites. I’ve been out for a few walks, got a haircut and done some shopping when the weather allows, but that’s it – until very recently, when I saw my first theatre show of the year with a friend of mine, which was a much-needed bit of light relief.
So in this post I’ll be talking about my theatre visit, which involved a touch tour and audio description, as well as the variety of entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you find it interesting!
Contents
Theatre
The Play That Goes Wrong
In March my friend Claire very kindly invited me to join her for an audio described performance of The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess Theatre. So of course I said yes, as having seen it once before I already knew it was brilliant.
Last time, however, I wasn’t able to have a touch tour, because it was cancelled due to a new Covid variant doing the rounds. So on this occasion it was an even better experience, as we were able to go on stage before the show. All of the cast members were there to greet us, so they told us a bit about who they play in the show and their costumes, and they demonstrated their characters’ voices too. So that was very kind of them to spare some time for us. We were then able to explore the room in Haversham Manor that was the set throughout the show, seeing all the details of the furnishings up close, which was lovely.
The play itself was then hilarious. It’s the original show by the gang from Mischief Theatre, which has been running for over 13 years now, and sees the (very) amateur dramatic Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society attempting to put on a murder mystery play. But everything that can go wrong does go wrong, thanks to problems with the acting, props, set construction, etc. Yet they doggedly soldier on, adapting to the increasingly chaotic circumstances as best they can.
Often the issues happen immediately, while at other times innocent and seemingly unimportant actions or mistakes have major ramifications later. It all creates a domino effect that gets increasingly out of control, because of the way the cast have to work around the various issues. And it just goes to demonstrate the quality of the writing and choreography that it works so well, because it looks like a haphazard disaster, but it’s meticulously and expertly crafted to look that way.
The audio description is also absolutely vital, because without it I would have missed a lot of the important actions and details, which in turn would have made me wonder what people were laughing about a lot of the time. Normally audio describers use gaps in the dialogue to add their narration, and that is generally the case here too. But because this show is so busy and fast-moving, with a lot we need to be aware of for jokes to make sense, they have special permission to talk over the actors through our headsets when necessary. So they have to pick moments where the dialogue is relatively inconsequential compared to the action they need to tell us about. And it worked really well. So thank you to our amazing describers, who I could tell were enjoying the show as much as we were from the amusement in their voices.
All in all, therefore, I’m really glad I got to see the show again and was able to have the full experience this time. And after a year where I didn’t end up going to the theatre much, because of everything else going on, I’m really looking forward to seeing more shows again in the months ahead, and I have a few exciting things already booked in my calendar.
Drama
The War Between The Land And The Sea
The Blu-ray for the new Doctor Who spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea was released in February, so I’ve taken the opportunity to watch and review the episodes in detail, as well as looking through the extras.
It’s all about the Sea Devils – now called Homo Aqua – emerging from the oceans and demanding to have the waters for themselves, as they inhabited the planet long before humans evolved and took it over. And it is a good series overall, but it peaks in the middle before tailing off with a love story between Barclay (Russell Tovey) and the sea creature called Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) that dominates the final couple of episodes.
The best thing about it all is actually the journey taken by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the commander of UNIT, who is pushed to her absolute limits and it takes its toll on her. Jemma Redgrave knocks it out of the park with her acting here, as she’s able to take her character well beyond anything we’ve seen in Doctor Who.
The show also feels very cinematic, given the way it’s filmed, the scale of the story, the special effects, and the atmospheric music by Lorne Balfe. And there are some nice bonus features on the Blu-ray, including a couple of commentaries and a documentary.
So do check out my full review of the series if you want to find out more.
The Sweeney
Over the last few months I’ve also been working my way through the new 50th anniversary Blu-ray releases of classic 70s cop show The Sweeney, which started coming out last year. They’re all remastered so they look and sound amazing considering their age, with most of the bonus features carried over from the old Network DVDs, along with a few new extras.
The show still holds up really well, with its classic theme tune, interesting stories, lots of action, and even some humour thrown in too. John Thaw and Dennis Waterman are exceptional as Inspector Regan and DS Carter respectively, and there’s a really impressive array of guest stars as well.
I’ve compiled my reviews of all 4 series, plus the 2 spin-off films I have on DVD, in an epic 50th anniversary post to celebrate the show, and I’ve put together an extensive playlist of the music used in the series as well. So do feel free to check all of that out.
Comedy
Mock The Week
I’m delighted that Mock The Week has made a comeback this year, it’s been very much missed. But it’s no longer on the BBC, who cancelled the show in 2022. Instead, it’s now on a relatively unknown channel called TLC, who had a big relaunch in January, becoming free-to-air and broadcasting other big shows like The Big Bang Theory as well as new stuff.
So getting Mock The Week is a huge promotional coup for them, and they’ve really made the most of it on social media. It’s clearly been a success too, as a second series of the revival was confirmed before the first one had even finished.
Dara O Briain has continued as the host thankfully, and many familiar guests from the past have also returned. These include, to name a selection:
- Rhys James, who is now the resident weekly panelist, and he’s very good. He’s given great interviews about the show with Times Radio in February and the Happy Hour Podcast last year, revealing insights into how it all works.
- Hugh Dennis, who was previously the regular face, but was only able to do a few episodes this series due to other work commitments.
- Russell Howard, making his first appearance on the show since 2010, so it was fantastic to see him in the opening episode.
- Katherine Ryan, who last appeared in 2015, marking another long-overdue return.
- Ed Byrne, who always has great banter with Dara.
- Angela Barnes, another of the best female comedians they feature.
- Milton Jones, with his clever one-liners.
- Glenn Moore, who often has a great unique take on things.
- Sara Pascoe, yet another clever female comic.
And there have been first-timers on the show too, including Lou Sanders and Emmanuel Sonubi, who I’m not big fans of particularly, but it’s great that they’re continuing to bring in fresh faces.
There’s no Frankie Boyle though, who last appeared in 2009. Some people were hoping he might appear given Russell Howard’s return, but I would imagine either the producers or lawyers aren’t quite that brave, or he’s just not interested nowadays.
The show first hits you with its brand new title sequence by the experts at Moov. The music is still the same of course – News Of The World by The Jam – but it’s accompanied by a pretty cool animation of a large globe rolling through scenes relating to major news topics. It’s worth freeze-framing this to appreciate some of the text gags and visual touches along the way, as there are things that are easy to miss at a quick glance.
Another big change is that the episodes now last for an hour instead of 30 minutes – albeit with adverts, so you actually get 45 minutes of material, but that’s still significantly longer than before. It’s definitely given them more room to breathe and have fun. Having been to a recording myself in the past, I know it must be a tough job for the editors deciding what to cut out!
All the traditional rounds are still present, including the Wheel Of News, Picture Of The Week, the topically-named stand-up challenge, and of course the always hilarious Scenes We’d Like To See. But the extended duration means they’ve been able to add in other things too, such as the return of Between The Lines (where a comedian translates what an official figure really means), and new rounds that involve questions from the audience, finding connections between famous people, and seeing who has the greatest tale of misfortune.
So all in all I’ve really enjoyed its return, and I’m very much looking forward to the next series in the autumn. In the meantime, if you’ve missed the latest episodes, you can catch up with the show for free on Youtube or Discovery+.
Last One Laughing
The UK version of Last One Laughing, based on a Japanese format, returned for a second series on Amazon in March, much to my delight as I very much enjoyed the first series. Don’t worry, I’m not going to reveal who wins here!
Once again it’s hosted by Jimmy Carr with the help of Roisin Conaty, and Roisin has also presented a new podcast on Audible to go with it, which is fun and insightful too, featuring stars from the previous and current series along with other guests.
It basically involves a group of comedians being kept in a room together for 6 hours, and anyone who laughs more than once is eliminated. So they have to try and make each other crack up, while not falling victim to it themselves, which is a real challenge for professional comics. There are also various tasks, games and other surprises thrown in to keep things interesting and unpredictable.
Bob Mortimer, the winner of the first series, has returned for another go, which is fantastic – and the moment the other contestants see him return is great, as they know how dangerous he is. He can come out with the most random things to completely catch you off guard. Meanwhile, a couple of my other favourite comedians – Maisie Adam and David Mitchell – are also in the mix as well.
The rest of the line-up then includes Diane Morgan (whose Philomena Cunk character I enjoy), Alan Carr, Mel Giedroyc, Romesh Ranganathan, Amy Gledhill, Sam Campbell and Gbemisola Ikumelo, all of whom are good in their own way.
It’s a bit like Taskmaster this series, in the sense that even if I’m not big fans of some comedians when they’re doing their regular acts, it’s still interesting and funny to see them being taken out of their comfort zone to perform in ways they’re not used to, as it allows you to see a bit beyond their normal comedic personas. And because they’re trying to make their industry colleagues laugh, who understand the comedy game inside out, they try everything they can to achieve that, and they really take the game seriously. You can tell there’s a lot of admiration and respect amongst them as well, but they’re attempting to use every trick in the book, sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle. It’s quite fascinating to see the different methods they use, and very funny to see people struggling to hold themselves together.
Then when they do cave in, it can be quite incredible. For example, one contestant has a huge release after holding in their laughter for a long time, making a completely unexpected noise as they break down. And then there are the brilliant own goals, such as the person who gets themselves out just by burping!
So the series is once again hilarious, with lots of great moments. One of the best aspects is when the comedians are asked to play their Jokers, which means they have to do a performance they’ve prepared on the stage, and everybody else has to watch without laughing. These routines are often quite unusual or surreal in order to surprise the others, including David singing a classic old song, Diane reading a serious poem with added fart sounds, Alan presenting a strange gameshow, and Bob’s bizarre routine involving lard and a seagull, to name a few. One contestant even gets to perform a second Joker in the finale.
Meanwhile other funny moments include Maisie and Romesh sharing their biggest regrets, Alan taking helium, Bob singing to Diane & David, Bob giving David career advice, David ranting about the time KFC ran out of chicken, David and Sam having a chat that ends in a shouting contest, interviewer Richard Madeley making a surprise appearance, an opera singer introducing a singing challenge, intimacy coordinators played by Natasia Demetriou and Ellie White, Jimmy sharing some ideas for TV shows with one of the contestants, Jimmy having an accident that he creases up with laughter about, and a messy eating challenge between the two finalists.
So it’s been a lot of fun, and there was a very worthy winner who I was happy to see lifting the trophy at the end, as they had been brilliant all series.
I’m therefore really pleased that it will be returning for a Halloween special and a third series. It’s clearly proving to be very popular, given that Amazon’s announcement of its renewal came before anybody had even seen this second series!
I have had a look at a few of the other international versions as well, from Ireland, Canada and Australia, as they feature one or two comedians I know, but they haven’t appealed to me as much. So I’m quite happy to stick with the British series, it’s by far the best for me.
Fackham Hall
Having enjoyed Jimmy Carr hosting Last One Laughing again, I also decided to watch Fackham Hall, a new comedy film for which he’s one of the co-writers. I was sent a random discount by Amazon that allowed me to rent the film for just 49p instead of £15.99, so I decided to take the opportunity.
Set in 1931, it follows the Davenport family, who live at Fackham Hall. And they’re in a bit of a crisis, because they’re trying to retain the line of succession of male heirs to the estate, otherwise they’ll become homeless.
It’s tradition for marriage to happen within the family, so daughter Poppy (Emma Laird) is due to wed her cousin Archibald (Tom Felton). But she jilts him at the altar and runs off with a manure salesman, so pressure is put on her sister Rose (Thomasin McKenzie) to make Archibald fall for her instead. But Rose isn’t interested, having fallen in love with Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe), an orphan sent to the house to deliver an important letter, who then ends up working there as a servant, enabling the two of them to get close. Matters are further complicated, however, when Eric is arrested on suspicion of murder and sent to jail, so unless he can get out, Rose will have to marry Archibald after all.
It’s a silly story that befits a spoof film of this nature, which has lots of visual gags, some funny dialogue and even a few songs. It’s not high-brow humour by any means, and some of the jokes you can see coming quite easily, but it does what it sets out to do well enough.
Some of the other characters are fun too, including the butler called Cyril (Tim McMullan) who is the historical equivalent of the modern-day Siri, writer JRR Tolkien (Jason Done) who is looking for ideas for his next book, and Jimmy Carr’s vicar character whose inability to understand punctuation means that some sentences sound very rude until he corrects himself.
So I’m glad I checked it out. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s absolutely hilarious, so it’s not a film I want to buy on DVD to keep, and it’s not going to go down in history as an all-time classic. However, it is well made, it did make me laugh sometimes, and It is a good piece of entertaining nonsense to pass an hour and a half. So it’s worth a look if you like silly comedy and don’t mind it being a bit crude.
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show also returned in January & February, for its 9th series this time. The guests and features are, by the nature of it being a variety programme, of mixed levels of interest to me, but on the whole it’s always good fun.
For instance Remember Me, where celebrity guests try to recall people they’ve met, continues to be an interesting and funny new game, often with emotional reunions for some of the guests, my favourite this series being Frank Skinner. The Midnight Gameshow has also continued, with an enjoyable awakening for Jonathan Ross. And in Send To All, while I’d never heard of Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix before, her segment was quite unique as it involved people sending videos back, including Jools Holland (who I saw live once, he’s great).
There was also a lovely surprise for two fundraising children when they went to a WWE wrestling event. And as for the Unexpected Stars, from members of the public to celebrity singers like Sophie Ellis Bextor, there were some amusing pranks in which other celebrities and members of the audience got involved, including one in a mock Tube station for a lady with a hearing disability.
So it’s often quite silly, but that’s the point really. It’s just about having some fun and games as a bit of escapism on a Saturday night, while rewarding people who really deserve a special experience.
Other Comedy Shows
I’ve enjoyed the new series of Would I Lie To You? as usual, including the Unseen Bits compilation they traditionally include at the end, particularly when Bob Mortimer sent David Mitchell into absolute hysterics over a story about a toilet in his car.
The Last Leg is also still a lot of fun, pulling apart the crazy news we’ve been having every week, celebrating disabled sports stars and just having silly fun every Friday night. This series has been most memorable for the moment when comedian Vittorio Angelone made a couple of perfectly-timed jokes about Tory Penny Mordaunt‘s involvement in arms deals, which immediately went viral and boosted his profile. She was fuming about it for the rest of the show, and the audience were rightly on his side and not hers. Meanwhile illustrator Henry Paker, who appeared the following week, was also really clever. And there have been other good guests too.
Finally on the comedy front, I have also tried the new UK version of Saturday Night Live on Sky, as it was being promoted quite heavily. But I didn’t get into it personally, as the sketches didn’t make me laugh much, and the musical guests aren’t my kind of thing. Most of the line-up of comedians I’ve never heard of either, apart from a couple I only know because of Taskmaster, but that in itself isn’t a problem. It’s just the type of show that either grabs you or it doesn’t, and it didn’t for me. I wish them well for it though, I know it’s a lot of work.
Sport
Gladiators
Gladiators has been back for its third series on the BBC and it’s still great fun, with lots of incredible performances by the contestants, one of whom was even wearing an original tracksuit from the original ITV series that his father had worn when he’d taken part. It’s always nice to have little callbacks like that, acknowledging the show’s roots. The Eliminators at the end of each episode have often been thrilling to watch too, as you can never rule anyone out in that round, even if they seem a long way behind at first. The updated balance beam has caught a few out, and the Travelator has tripped up many of them as usual.
The Gladiators themselves are amazing as well, obviously. But they’re only human at the end of the day, so they’re not invincible. There have been one or two injuries in previous years, and this time around is no exception. Legend in particular had to sit out for most of the series, but in typical fashion he still made his presence felt in various ways. And Diamond brought one of the games to a premature end when she had a bad fall.
There were a few new events in this series as well, which added a nice bit of extra variety to proceedings. Destruction sees the contestants having to smash, ram, climb and crash through a series of 4 doors to try and beat a Gladiator doing the same. Everest involves a contestant facing a Gladiator as they push a 220kg sliding wall across a 10m platform, to try and shove their opponent off the end into a 16ft drop – and if they don’t do it quick enough, the platform tilts, first giving the contestant the advantage, and then tipping in favour of the Gladiator. And then there’s Suspension Bridge, which is basically Duel on the wobbly walkway from Collision, using hammerhead props instead of pugil sticks.
So I’ve still enjoyed the show very much, and it came to a suitably epic conclusion in the grand final as the champions were crowned. I’ll therefore be looking forward to the next series when it comes around, which they’re already taking applications for.
Paralympics
I did keep a casual eye on the Winter Paralympics, as Channel 4 were showing it on TV and online. And it’s wonderful that visually impaired skier Neil Simpson and his guide Rob Poth won a silver medal, which was Britain’s only medal in the end. But I’m always more interested in the summer Paralympics as there’s a lot more going on and we naturally win a lot more. We’re not much of a winter sports nation with our climate!
Music
Queen
As many of you will already know, my favourite band of all time is Queen. And back in the days of the Covid lockdown – thankfully now a long way behind us – I filled some of the time by doing in-depth reviews of their albums from the 1970s.
And now recently, in March, they’ve brought out a special deluxe box set of Queen II, with newly mixed tracks that sound amazing plus some fascinating outtakes from their recording sessions. So I’ve written a review of that new edition, which I hope you find interesting, following on from my previous analysis of their Queen I box set.
On top of that, I’ve always intended to write reviews for the rest of their albums, and now I’ve got more time on my hands, I’m finally getting around to it. So I’ve started with my review of The Game, the album that gave us hits like Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and I hope you find that interesting too.
Big Night Of Musicals
Big Night Of Musicals, sponsored by the National Lottery and hosted by Jason Manford, returned to BBC One again in March for the 5th year running, with a selection of incredible songs and stunning choreography from a variety of big shows.
It included performances from a number of musicals I’ve seen and thoroughly enjoyed live before:
- The Lion King (Circle Of Life & He Lives In You)
- Oliver! (As Long As He Needs Me)
- Wicked (For Good)
- Choir Of Man (You’re The Voice, with Infant Hercules and Jason Manford).
And then the rest of the productions I haven’t yet seen, although most of them I want to at some point:
- Paddington (Pretty Little Dead Things) – This is highest on my to-do list out of all these.
- The Producers (We Can Do It & I Wanna Be A Producer)
- Annie (It’s A Hard-Knock Life, with some very talented children from Wild Things Performing Arts)
- Sunny Afternoon (Waterloo Sunset & You Really Got Me from the musical about The Kinks)
- Miss Saigon (Last Night Of The World & The American Dream)
- A Disney medley in honour of composer Alan Menken.
- Jesus Christ Superstar (Gethsemane, with pop star Sam Ryder making a respectable debut as Jesus Christ)
- I’m Every Woman (Ain’t Nobody & I’m Every Woman, from the musical about Chaka Khan, with Alexandra Burke in that role)
Audiobook
All The Light We Cannot See
At Christmas my friend Claire very kindly gifted me the audiobook All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I’ve never heard of the book or the author before, and I don’t usually read war novels, but Claire knows me well enough to be pretty astute about what I might like, and this did sound very interesting. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in addition to its glowing reviews. So I finally got around to listening to it in February, and it is good.
It’s set in the Second World War and focuses on two people. In France we get to know Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind teenage girl who has to flee Paris with her father when the Nazis attack, staying with an uncle severely impacted by his experience of the previous World War. And in Germany we follow a boy called Werner Pfennig, whose self-taught expertise at fixing radio equipment lands him a role in the military, an experience that naturally has a huge impact on him. So the effects of war and technology are central topics throughout the novel.
The chapters, which are short and easy to digest, alternate between the two characters, and there are some jumps backwards and forwards in time so that the central story about the war is interspersed with details of their earlier lives for added context. And this structure works very well. Their stories run in parallel to one another for quite a while, but they eventually meet during the Battle Of Saint-Malo in 1944, driven by another key facet of the tale, a special but supposedly cursed diamond called the Sea Of Flames. So there’s a lot going on, which keeps it interesting.
The writing is also beautifully and poetically descriptive, sparking the imagination and evoking the senses, particularly from Marie-Laure’s perspective. And naturally her side of the story is of the most interest to me. For example, it’s lovely to hear how she uses a scale replica of Paris, made for her by her father, to learn how to navigate the city independently, and indeed his model-making skills are another key part of the story.
All in all, therefore, it’s a very well-written and interesting novel, which is inevitably moving and thought-provoking at times given the subject matter. I am aware that there’s a Netflix adaptation as well, but I’m not too bothered about that. Listening to the book is enough for me, and the 4-part mini-series has had mixed reviews given some of the changes they’ve made to the storyline, so I don’t want that to detract from my experience of the original and more powerful story. Maybe I’ll check it out one day, but I don’t need to right now.
Conclusion
And that’s it, I hope you enjoyed that run-through of things that I’ve been watching and listening to.
Going forward, this Easter marks the beginning of a new chapter of my life in London, with more time to look after Mum and take her out, and more leisure time to give myself a break sometimes, while also being able to gain some valuable experience and earn a bit of income in my accessibility testing role. So I’m hoping to get back to seeing theatre shows, visiting exhibitions, attending socials, etc more regularly than I have done for a while.
But we’ll see what happens. As last year proved, we can’t take anything for granted, but hopefully this year will continue in a positive way.
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