Hello again, hope you’re doing well. I know it’s lovely to have sunshine in the summer, but this exceptional period of hot and dry weather is getting a bit much now isn’t it? If you or someone you know is affected by wildfires, droughts or the heat in general at the moment, I hope you’re staying safe and comfortable as best you can.
Naturally it’s been having an impact on my mother, so even though after my foot injury I’m feeling well enough to go out a bit more again, I’ve still had to stick around at home a lot of the time to make sure she’s ok. I’ll be giving a little update about my caring situation in this post.
So again there’s nothing for me to write about in London just yet, but I’m hopeful that will finally change during August, particularly with a booking I have for my birthday that I’m very much looking forward to.
However, there is plenty of entertainment for me to review from July, including a couple of crime dramas I discussed on Radio 4’s In Touch, along with some audio and TV comedies, and I’ve even tried getting back into playing video games. And, as ever, none of it’s sponsored or gifted. So I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Carer Updates
Mum
Due to her old age, Mum finds it hard to adapt to significant changes in temperature these days, which is to be expected. But it’s compounded by the fact that she’s blind as well, as it takes a lot of concentration for her to get around and do things as it is, and that’s made more difficult when she gets particularly hot or cold. So in those situations, it’s much more likely that she’ll get a bit disorientated, confused or panicky. And she doesn’t always move around as carefully as she ought to, because she can’t think about it so clearly.
Despite that, she’s done very well not to have had any major falls for quite a while, as it’s now coming up to a year since the last big one, where she broke her wrist. The support she had in the weeks and months after that clearly helped to stabilise her, and it’s given her a lot of confidence back. So that in turn has been very reassuring for me too. She’s never going to be totally fine, but she’s much better than she was.
Nevertheless, given the impact of the heat, I feared it was only a matter of time before she took another tumble, and she did exactly that just over a week ago. It appears she had gone off course when walking across the lounge and leant on something unstable to steady herself. Fortunately she didn’t break anything though. She just gave herself a big cut on her arm near her elbow, so I cleaned it and put an extra large plaster over it. I’ve since changed the plaster a couple of times, and I’ve been happy to see that it’s healing up nicely. She was also starting to feel a bit unsafe in the shower, so I bought some non-slip matting which is working really well in there and has made her feel much better.
I’ve also taken Mum out in her wheelchair for a couple of medical appointments – one being a routine blood test, and the other being the RSV vaccine she was offered, which unlike the flu or Covid jabs she only needs to have once. When the heat finally settles down again, I’m hoping I’ll be able to take her out to nicer places as well.
Carer’s Allowance
As for me, I finally received a call about Carer’s Allowance last week. The guy was very nice, and just wanted to clarify the self-employment details in my claim. He sounded confident that I would be awarded the benefit based on the figures on my invoices, and explained that they would review my income every 13 weeks (i.e. every quarter) for the first year, and then just once a year thereafter. So hopefully I’ll get a confirmation letter and some back pay for that soon.
It’ll be a relief if it does happen, considering I was on the verge of giving up on it, in light of how other offices in the DWP deal with PIP and Access To Work. So I’m glad the Carer’s Allowance people seem nicer, even if the service is slow due to the backlog of claims. I also know that there’s a Carer’s Allowance review going on right now, where they’re seeking evidence from carers and representatives to ensure it’s fit for purpose. So if you’re in the UK and it affects you, do respond to that if you can.
If my claim is finally successful, then it will have other advantages too. For instance, I will automatically get Carer’s Credit, which plugs the gaps in my National Insurance record while I’m not working full time, so that I continue to build up my eligibility for the full State Pension. And I’ve also discovered that I should be able to get a Council Tax discount as a carer, whereby I’m disregarded as being eligible to pay and so 25% is taken off our bill, which is a substantial saving. Judging by my local authority’s website, it looks like it’ll be best to apply for that once I can send the Carer’s Allowance confirmation letter as proof, so I’ll wait for that, just to make things easier.
PM Andy Burnham
And finally, talking of the government, I’ve been pleased to see our new Prime Minister Andy Burnham making a big commitment to improving social care in a speech that he gave. Whether he will be able to fulfil that promise and make breakthroughs where others have failed remains to be seen. Nor is it yet clear whether he and his team will treat the elderly and disabled people better than Keir Starmer and his cabinet did. It’s still very early days. But it was a good speech and, given his own experiences within his family, he’s clearly passionate about it. So I do hope he’s able to turn his words into actions.
I also feel that he has a much better personality, communication style and social media presence than his predecessor. So while Labour have lost a lot of trust in myself and many others in the past couple of years, which he now has to try and earn back, I have warmed to him enough that I’m happy to give him a chance to prove himself. Unless the people of Clacton do the right thing and vote in Count Binface of course, then my attention might be pulled away…
Crime Dramas
Back in May, I appeared on In Touch on BBC Radio 4, taking part in a round-table discussion where we reviewed the audio description provided for three shows on different streaming services. At the time we only looked at one episode of each programme, so this month I’ve watched the two crime dramas in their entirety. I’ll then watch the natural history programme next month.
The Night Manager
For The Night Manager on BBC iPlayer we discussed the first episode of Series 2, which was first broadcast in January this year. And despite the fact that I had never seen Series 1 before (which aired way back in 2016), it still hooked me in easily, because the audio description ensured I was able to follow along and enjoy it. So I’ve now watched both series in full.
I can’t say too much about it, as I don’t want to spoil things. But it’s a thriller based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré, which I’ve never read, and that helped because I didn’t have any expectations or knowledge going into it.
It stars Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a hotel night manager with a military history. He’s persuaded to become an undercover agent by Foreign Office investigator Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), in order to help her bring down an arms dealer called Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). So Jonathan puts his life on the line in exotic locations, with help from intelligence colleagues and people he builds a rapport with abroad. But Angela also has to be careful because certain high level personnel are involved and mustn’t get wind of the operation.
The story is therefore filled with dangerous subterfuge, conspiracies, violence and plenty of twists. It can feel a little bit slow now and again, but overall it’s a great story that really draws you in, and the scenic locations are stunning. Tom is excellent as the title character, although the night manager aspect quickly becomes irrelevant when he no longer does that job, so in that sense it’s a misleading title for the show.
But I particularly love Hugh as the no-nonsense villain, as it’s worlds away from the comedy roles I know him for. If you contrast it with his characters in Blackadder and his sketches with Stephen Fry, it’s a stark demonstration of his versatility as an actor. The supporting cast are really good as well.
The audio description is also first rate and proved to be vital, from reading out messages, documents and subtitles, to identifying people, locations and props, as well as clarifying body language and actions. While I can see what’s happening on screen fairly well, it saved me a lot of effort straining to read or understand things fully, and there were lots of key details I would have missed without it.
So if you like a good thriller, it’s well worth a go. And I’ll be sure to check out the third series when that comes along.
Scarpetta
Scarpetta is a new show that premiered in March this year, and we watched the very first episode on Amazon Prime Video for our discussion on In Touch. It seemed intriguing, and the audio description was really good, so I gave it another look this month by watching more of the series. It’s based on a set of books by Patricia Cornwell that I haven’t read, so as with The Night Manager I didn’t have any preconceived ideas going into it.
It stars Nicole Kidman as forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who is called upon to investigate a murder that appears to be linked to a case she had dealt with 28 years earlier. The episodes jump back and forth between that older time and the present day to keep things in context, and there are of course surprising twists as she looks into it further. So it’s an interesting premise for a story with a lot of potential. And as with The Night Manager above, the audio description is really helpful.
However, it’s difficult to really get engaged with it, because it’s mixed in with a subplot about Kay’s family that quickly becomes frustrating rather than adding anything useful. Having an insight into a character’s life and background is often a good thing, but here it feels like they’ve shoehorned a soap opera into a crime drama, and it makes the whole thing feel messy as you hop between the two.
For example, there are difficulties in Kay’s marriage to FBI profiler Benton Wesley (Simon Baker), the regular arguments with her loud-mouthed and resentful sister Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis) soon get tiresome, and Dorothy’s daughter Lucy (Ariana DeBose), who lives with Kay, is a computer whizz who has an AI representation of her dead wife that she’s always chatting with. I just didn’t feel like I wanted to get to know most of those characters better, and their presence just slowed everything down.
So I gave it a fair go, and I’m glad I did, but ultimately I gave up during the third episode and looked up who the killer was online just to give it closure. If the focus had been on the serial killer investigation much more, it might have done enough to keep my curiosity heightened, and the final reveal and cliffhanger might have packed more of a punch. But ultimately it just felt underwhelming.
Audio Comedy
You’ve Got Braille
You’ve Got Braille is a new 4-part sitcom, released as a podcast, that has been made by Hat Trick Productions in collaboration with the RNIB. Each episode is about 15 minutes long, so it only takes an hour to listen to it all.
Written by Reece Finnegan and Jack Bernhardt, it stars Reece as a young blind man called Paddy, who is quite disorganised yet tries his best to look after himself. But he doesn’t always receive the right help from his family members or others, who don’t fully appreciate his needs. And the cast list is great, with Alison Steadman and Martin Trenaman as his parents, Chloe Petts as his sister Maxine, and League Of Gentlemen star Steve Pemberton as cab driver Frank, along with guest stars in each episode.
So as Paddy attempts to get to an interview in a taxi, meet up with an ex on a night out, play a game of blind tennis, and give an impromptu speech in his new job, we hear everything from his perspective. And so a lot of the comedy for me, and other visually impaired people I’m sure, comes from recognition of the assumptions and misunderstandings that most of us have encountered, and the amusing consequences that result. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s laugh out loud hilarious necessarily, but it is funny. There are also little references to the technology he uses, and a nice bit of pushback against the increasing reliance on AI.
So it’s a good hour of comedy altogether that’s very relatable, and hopefully it will help to entertain and educate others in a way that is fun and light-hearted.
Adrian Edmondson: Berserker!
Following on from the TV shows celebrating Rik Mayall in June, whose own memoirs sadly never became an audiobook, I’ve listened to the autobiography of his comedy partner Adrian Edmondson instead, called Berserker!, which is about 12 hours long. He has a suitably casual and often amusing writing style, so it’s fun and interesting to listen to.
While in general he does go through his life in chronological order, he often goes off on tangents as well, to tell additional stories from other points in time that are relevant to the topic at hand. He does get a little bit too rambly sometimes as a result, but to be fair he does forewarn you about that, and on the whole it works nicely, as it helps to keep anecdotes on a similar theme together.
He spends a lot of time reflecting on his childhood in the early parts of the book, and with good reason, because it explains a lot about his later career path. Being teased about his girly name by other children and being ruled at home by strict parents is frustrating enough for him, and having to spend some of his time living in other countries, due to his father’s job, is naturally unsettling.
But by far the biggest upheaval comes when he’s sent to boarding school, and the circumstances surrounding that are quite shocking. It’s a very disturbing, humiliating and painful experience for him, so it inevitably has a significant impact on his mindset and behaviour, and he explains how it was one of the factors that led to his anarchic, violent, rule-breaking style of comedy later on. I know at the time it was seen as normal and even encouraged to treat children in the ways he describes, but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable or any less traumatic. So it’s a dark but fascinating side of his story, and he deserves praise for being open about it, as I’m sure there are many people who would find it too hard to revisit such a time even now.
He then goes on to analyse the other driving forces behind his love of slapstick, comedic violence, swearing, acting and music, and explains how he found a way to be part of a local band. He also tells a story from later in life about how he once appeared on stage with The Who.
He then goes to Manchester University, where he starts to learn more musical instruments and has to deal with some mental health issues. And it’s also where he meets an intriguing fellow student by the name of Rik Mayall. So it’s wonderful to hear about their early days together, what it was like for them to write comedy as a double act, and how they got to know other comedians as a result (including Jennifer Saunders, who Adrian would later go on to marry).
His television career then takes off with The Comic Strip Presents and The Young Ones, and while he talks at length about both, he knows it’s the latter that’s of most interest to people. It certainly is to me, as apart from Bad News I never got into The Comic Strip much. So it’s great to get his perspective on The Young Ones. It only took 14 weeks of his life to make, and he rarely watches his own stuff back after the first viewing, so to him it’s small in the grand scheme of things, but it had a huge cultural impact.
He discusses why it was so revolutionary and unique, and explains how it was cast, written and filmed, including how some of the effects and stunts were achieved. He also reflects on the impact it had on him and Rik, and how it felt to become a cult figure, including what it was like to work with Richard Briers following Vyvyan’s classic rant about The Good Life, and the surprising way he discovered that Joni Mitchell was a superfan of the sitcom, which is an amazing story that I’d love to hear more about and see photos of.
After that, it doesn’t take long before he talks about Bottom, the hilariously violent sitcom of which he is rightly proud. He first explains how it was written and the comedic influences behind it, and he gives a little insight into the stunts and effects. Then he pays particular attention to their brilliant live stage shows, reflecting on what it was like touring and filming them, how Rik actually got injured during a performance, how they entertained themselves in their downtime, and how it felt to be recognised by fans in the street.
He then openly discusses how their double act came to an end. It’s clear that Adrian still has a lot of love and affection for Rik, and always will, and cherished the time they worked together. But you can also understand why he had to call it a day given the changes in Rik’s behaviour as time went on, and not just because of the quad bike crash. It’s really sad to hear how Rik never fully understood and accepted that it was over, and how Adrian’s attempts to persuade him fell on deaf ears and even backfired on him at one point. But it sounds like the breakup was for the best, and at least they remained in touch as good friends.
After that, Adrian talks about the musical side of his career, as we learn about why Bad News split up, how he got to tour with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and his work with his own groups The Bad Shepherds and The Idiot Bastard Band. He then discovers that he wants to stop being a comedian as a result of his sitcom Teenage Kicks, and takes on a random variety of acting and presenting jobs after that.
Finally he writes moving chapters about the deaths of relatives and friends who meant a great deal to him, including Rik of course. It’s a dark and reflective end to the book, but he finishes on a positive note about the way he feels about himself.
So altogether it’s a really interesting, frank and comprehensive look at his life. It was great to get deeper insights into his shows that I’m a big fan of, learn a bit about some of his other work, and hear about aspects of his private life and personal thoughts. It’s well worth a read if you’re a fan of his.
Talking Bottom
Talking Bottom is an extremely comprehensive book about the much-loved sitcom. The print edition was released last year, but an audiobook version recently came out in June, read by Lee Cornes, who plays publican Dick Head in the series. So the audio edition is the one I’ve got.
It’s been written by the creators of the Talking Bottom podcast, which I’ve never listened to. Nothing against it, I’m just not a big podcast listener in general. But as they’re clearly diehard fans who have interviewed lots of people associated with the programme, I was curious to see what insights they could offer.
After a nice foreword from the show’s director Ed Bye, and a general introduction about Rik and Ade’s earlier work, the book devotes individual chapters to each of the TV episodes, the live shows and the film. And in each case they go into great depth, to the point where even the authors admit they over-analyse things sometimes. It’s impressively researched and compiled, that’s for sure.
The result is a mixed bag though. I’m naturally very familiar with the plotlines and jokes, as I’ve watched the series countless times and own all the DVDs. And the same will apply to most fans who buy this book I imagine. So I don’t need them to spell out what happens in every story and explain why the jokes are so funny. I get it, that’s why I love the series already. Sure, the praise the authors lavish on the show and its stars is warranted, and the attention to detail is amazing, so their write-up on the show is far better than anything I could ever do. But ultimately they’re preaching to the converted.
My hope in buying the book is that there would be behind the scenes info about the writing and filming of the series, and thankfully there is quite a bit of that too, including insights into the writing process, ideas in the early versions of the scripts that were cut, and extracts from interviews that took place on the podcast, the Bottom Exposed TV documentary and elsewhere. A lot of it is mixed in with the long description of each story, but some additional pieces of trivia are also provided in a “Bottom Nuggets” section at the end of each chapter.
In addition, there are a few other chapters included which are quite interesting, looking at the show’s connection with Waiting For Godot, comparisons with Galton & Simpson’s comedy work, and the fourth series of Bottom that was partly written but never made.
Overall, therefore, it is a very well written and extremely comprehensive celebration of the series by people who clearly know the show inside out. It does go a bit overboard in explaining the plots, jokes and characters to readers who are already very familiar with them, but the backstage information is very good. So for big fans of the show it is worth checking out, if you don’t mind hearing a lot of things you already know, as there are many other little details that you might not have been aware of.
TV Comedy
Al Murray: All You Need Is Guv!
Sky aired an hour-long stand-up special by Al Murray as his Pub Landlord character this month, which was filmed at the Soho Theatre Walthamstow back in April.
If you’ve seen his previous shows then you know exactly what to expect, because he has a formula that works and he sticks to it, including all his usual catchphrases. It means the show is nothing exceptional by his standards, and whenever I next get around to rewatching his old DVDs I might think some of those are better. But it’s still a fun way to kill an hour. And for those who don’t know him, he basically plays a pub landlord who’s very proud to be British, loves engaging in banter and has his own unique ideas for how to fix the country.
Audience interaction is therefore a big part of the experience, beginning with the people in the “Splash Zone” at the front, as Al playfully tosses frothy pints of beer at them. Anyone who bought a ticket for that section got a tour poncho to keep their clothes dry, a signed certificate and a special lanyard, so they were well prepared for it.
During the show he then talks to various people about their jobs and relationships, and because he’s in character, he’s able to say things that you wouldn’t normally get away with, because everybody knows it’s in jest and he’s being over the top.
Alongside all of that, he has routines about the new jabs for obese people, items and phrases that sound contradictory (vegan bacon, oat milk, pre-booking, etc), dating in the old days compared to the modern age, and he explains to the young virile men in the audience why they will actually have the best sex of their lives when they reach their fifties.
When out of character off stage he also has a big interest in wartime history, to the extent that he’s written books, presented TV documentaries and hosts a podcast about World War II and other conflicts. So it’s no surprise that the Pub Landlord devotes the second half of the show to humorous discussions on that theme, explaining why the British would win another war and why wars are like video games now. His best routine is then about how to recognise robots if they’re used in battle, illustrated by a detailed scenario of somebody trying to get home on a bus with an upset stomach. It’s crude but in his style it’s very funny, and he does have a point considering the clips I’ve seen of robots moving around.
Finally, he makes serious and important points about the amazing stories that we should be proud of from the Second World War, and why there were many more than just a few who fought for our freedoms, as implied by the famous Churchill quote “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. Then he closes by getting the audience to sing along with a silly song named after the title of the show.
So all in all, while it’s nothing amazing, it does have funny moments and it’s always good to spend an evening in Al’s company, so it was worth watching.
Mock The Week
I don’t need to say much about this, as I wrote about the show’s return earlier in the year. But Mock The Week wrapped up its summer specials at the start of the month, and they’ve been great fun. TLC are really giving the show some… well… TLC, even posting a behind the scenes video online. So that’s been great to see, and I’m looking forward to the next full series that’s coming in September. It’s also been recommissioned for 3 more series next year, which is fantastic news. I won’t write about every series in my Favourites posts, as I didn’t before when it was on the BBC, but I’m glad that its return has been such a success and I will keep watching it.
Other Shows
There were a couple of other shows I tried this month but didn’t get into, the first of which was the 15-minute preview of Ed Gamble’s new show Unacceptable on TLC. It’s a strange concept where comedians have to try and convince the audience to accept their unpopular opinions on certain topics, and it just didn’t work for me. TLC were confident that enough people would tune in though, as they commissioned a second series before the first had even started airing. So I won’t be watching it personally, but fair play to them if it’s a success.
I also tried Diane Morgan’s new sitcom Ann Droid, about a robot carer (played by Diane) who’s given to an old lady called Sue (Sue Johnston) – or “Sue Sue Sue!” as the robot calls her initially. And it has been popular, getting very good ratings. But even though Sue is played wonderfully, and there are poignant elements I can relate to and empathise with given my own role as a carer, for some reason I just didn’t find it particularly funny or feel any interest in most of the other characters. It does have some mildly amusing moments, but some of the jokes felt too obvious and there was nothing that really tickled me. So I stuck with it for a few episodes to give it a fair go, but then dropped out. I didn’t get into Diane’s previous sitcom Mandy either, so maybe it’s just something about her writing or acting style that doesn’t quite gel with me. I do like her Philomena Cunk character though, written by Charlie Brooker.
We’ve also had the news that the stand-up showcase Live At The Apollo has been cancelled as part of cuts at the BBC. It is a shame, because it’s given a great boost to the careers of many comedians, but the reality is that the ratings have fallen, and it’s much easier to gain exposure on social media these days compared to when it started in 2004. I used to watch it a lot in the early years, but I did drift away from it as it featured fewer and fewer comedians who appealed to me, and I’ve rarely watched it in recent years unless there’s someone I really like on it. So after the 21st series has been filmed this autumn, that will be the end of it. Celebrity Mastermind and Bradley Walsh’s version of Blankety Blank have also been axed, but I haven’t been watching those anyway.
Gaming
As well as getting back into audiobooks, I’ve also been tempted to have a go at gaming again recently. Now that my new job is only a zero-hours role, so I don’t have to spend 8 intense hours every day in front of a computer, I’m able to take more control over my screen usage, which makes my eyes feel less tired and thus more able to enjoy games at my leisure.
To begin with, earlier in the year, I found myself drawn into playing a few of the free games on Youtube – especially 8 Ball Pool, as I used to enjoy playing it in person with friends, and it’s been a nice easy way to pass the time occasionally. On one occasion I managed to get a high score of 276,350, but that is quite exceptional by my standards, and I’m pleased if I get between 50,000 and 100,000. I had a go at playing Disney Solitaire on my phone earlier this year too, as I was able to earn a decent number of bonus Nectar points from it to get money off in Sainsbury’s. But I find gaming on my big iMac screen much easier on the eyes, so I’m generally going to focus on that.
So I thought I would have another dive into Apple Arcade, using an offer that gives me 3 months for the price of 1 (£6.99). I did play a few games there during lockdown, but I never got into it in a big way at the time. And I’m still not sure there are a lot of games on the service that I’ll be hugely interested in, or that will be accessible enough for me. For the really good stuff I know I’ll have to pay in Apple’s store or Steam or elsewhere, and that’s fine, I may well end up doing that. But for the moment I’m keen to see what Apple Arcade has to offer, and I’m enjoying what I’ve tried so far.
Return To Monkey Island
The Monkey Island titles were among my favourite computer games as a child, as they’re fun pirate adventures with daft humour and good puzzles to solve. Granted, I don’t really remember them much after all this time, but I know I enjoyed them. And there is a nice scrapbook in this 6th game in the series – Return To Monkey Island – which gives a little summary of Guybrush Threepwood’s earlier adventures. You don’t need to have played those games to enjoy and complete this one though, it just means you won’t fully appreciate some of the callbacks in the dialogue. It’s very much designed to welcome new players as well as old ones.
This time around, Guybrush is once again on the search for the mythical Secret of Monkey Island in the Caribbean, and has to try and beat his arch-enemy LeChuck to it. So you have to help him explore a variety of different locations, by talking to lots of people and locating items that he can use to help him on his way.
You have to visit places and interact with characters multiple times, as the dialogue choices and actions you can take vary depending on the items you’ve found and the progress you’ve made. And you have to explore everything, because you never know what might come in useful or what secrets you’ll find. Some items in the inventory even need to be combined to make use of them. And you can also earn achievements for uncovering certain moments of dialogue or completing special actions in addition to the main story.
So there’s a lot to see and do, and I was delightfully surprised by how extensive the story is. It doesn’t get too complicated though, because the plot’s fun and easy to follow, with surprises along the way to ensure it’s not too simple for our hero, and there’s a handy to-do list if you really can’t remember what your priorities are.
And once you’ve picked up the hints book early on, you can also open that at any time to get prompts to help you, without being penalised for it. I’m happy to say that I didn’t need to use it for the most part, but I did have to call upon it a couple of times in particular, when I knew what I needed to do but couldn’t figure out how. In both cases the hints pointed out important visual details that I simply hadn’t noticed, and I don’t think I ever would have done without prompting. The way you have to cheat on a test at one point, for instance, requires you to notice a couple of really tiny details that are incredibly easy to miss.
So those hints actually helped to make the game a bit more accessible for me, without feeling like I was cheating. I also like the fact that the hints don’t spoil the solutions, and instead give you gentle nudges in the right direction, encouraging you to think for yourself with just a little clue. You can ask it to be more and more specific until it does tell you exactly what to do, of course, but I never needed to go that far.
Talking of accessibility though, I have found the game easy to play for the most part with my eyesight, especially because In the settings you can choose a larger text size for the dialogue choices and hover text prompts, which all show up clearly on screen most of the time. There were just a few locations and moments where the light-coloured dialogue choices were over a bright background, so I had to focus much more intensely to read them. There are also subtitles for the speech in the game, for which you can change the size and background colour if you need to – and so it would have been helpful to be able to change the background colour for the dialogue choices as well.
Some of the items you have to find are also really small and hard to spot, but I soon learnt to be systematic in looking around the screen, moving my mouse around the space as much as possible, to see if there was anything I had missed. Once your cursor touches something interactive, text appears to indicate what you can do by clicking the left and right mouse buttons, so it’s very obvious then. You can also hold down the Tab key to highlight all the interactive objects on the screen, but all that does is put very faint, small circles over the items, which are hard or impossible to see in some environments. That feature did still come in useful a few times though.
So overall I really enjoyed it, because It’s a light-hearted adventure with beautiful visuals, great acting, good humour, lovely music, and puzzles that are challenging without being absurdly difficult. It’s definitely encouraged me to get back into gaming more again, by reminding me how absorbing it can be.
I’m therefore pleased I was able to complete it without having to resort to any online walkthroughs, and the only hints I used proved to be necessary from an accessibility perspective. I didn’t get all the bonus achievements, but then that’s going to be the case for pretty much every game I play, and just completing the core storyline is what matters most to me.
August 2026 Update: I’ve had a look at the Hard Mode as well, but I found myself needing several more hints to be made aware of visual clues I hadn’t noticed. And while some of the puzzles have been made more challenging by requiring additional steps, it still felt repetitive doing them again so soon after my initial playthrough. So I think the Casual Mode is more accessible for me. The harder mode was well worth a look though.
Perchang World
This is a fun new game that launched on Apple Arcade in May this year, where you have to guide coloured balls from one part of the screen to another, either to exit the level or hit targets, by using platforms, flippers, wheels, fans, magnets, cannons, portals and so on. It really encourages you to think logically, and some of the puzzles are naturally more complicated than others.
It’s all set within a vividly colourful world that has come under attack, so the different levels are part of an epic storyline that covers multiple locations. And that’s where the most surprising aspect of the game comes in, because the narrator is comedian James Acaster, marking his first time doing a video game voiceover. He does a very good job as well, guiding you through with his silly and sarcastic humour, while also regularly panicking about the dangers you’re facing together. The music by Mark Sparling is really nice as well.
The controls are very simple, as you use the left and right arrows on the keyboard to move the red and blue elements on screen respectively. However, each colour activates multiple items at the same time, so you have to think carefully about how you use them, and you need to get the timing just right so the balls can reach their destination.
The goal in each level is to get a set number of balls to one or more targets within a set time limit, and sometimes there can be multiple screens to complete in a row, so you need to ensure you leave enough time for the later ones. There are gold, silver and bronze trophies available if you finish within certain durations, or you just get a pass if you do them before the time runs out altogether. Thankfully the time limit is very generous though, and you can restart each level with a fresh timer as often as you need to.
By its nature, therefore, it is visually intensive to play, and I often had to look quite closely to figure things out, so I only played the game in short sessions to ensure my eyes didn’t get too strained. Some of the levels did get a bit frustrating initially, but then once I got used to the pattern for guiding the balls around, I was able to complete them. And a few of the levels have bright, glary backgrounds, particularly those that take place in the snow, so when necessary I made it easier on myself by inverting the colours on screen using my Mac’s accessibility settings, just like I do when reading text in documents, web pages, etc.
So even though I’m naturally slower to work things out and do the tasks with my impaired vision, which means there’s no way I would ever be able to earn all the gold trophies or rank high on the leaderboards, I’m really pleased that I was able to complete every level, which is all I was aiming for. I’m lucky that I still have a reasonable level of vision to do it though, I know that, so it’s nice to make the most of it.
Gray Still Plays
Youtube has a ton of gaming content, and not just in terms of people posting trailers and reviews. There’s a whole Let’s Play genre, where people share their own experiences of playing games, often with commentaries so people can hear their thoughts and reactions. And the algorithm has clearly recognised my heightened interest in gaming, as it’s been recommending various channels to me.
As a result, I’ve become hooked on the videos by Gray Still Plays, particularly his Grand Theft Auto 5 series. He has hundreds of videos in which he completes challenging custom courses in the game – which usually require him to drive a variety of vehicles, but sometimes he has to ride on animals, go skydiving, fly down waterslides, get around on foot, etc.
The videos are particularly fun because of his hilarious commentary, where he’s driven to frustration and despair as he attempts to get through the various obstacles. Yet you can also see that he’s an excellent player of the game – which is why people like Alex, Danny and Pete, with their impressive creativity and coding skills, come up with an amazing selection of evil trials to torture him with. And Gray also deliberately looks for other difficult custom boards online to test himself against. Credit also needs to go to his editors, who make great use of cuts, sound effects, music, etc to give each video a really good pace and additional humour. Many of his videos have millions of views with good reason.
So if you like gaming videos and having a good laugh, the videos of Gray putting himself through hell time and time again are really good. I hadn’t expected to stumble upon them or like them, but they really hook you in.
Other Posts
Finally, you may already have noticed that I made a couple of posts during the month about other things, but just in case you haven’t, you can check out:
- Scam: Mr Latif Returns – I first wrote about this scammer eight years ago, who claims he can heal anybody and solve anyone’s problems. But it appears he’s back, in Australia this time! I had a message from a guy in Perth about it, who had found my old post, and that sent me down a rabbit hole of information. So I’ve shared my findings in this new post, which in turn has resulted in someone else from Perth contacting me to say they’ve had some of his leaflets left in an institution where they work with vulnerable patients. So I’m glad both posts are getting attention now. I can’t stop his operation, but it’s nice to know I’m disrupting it a little bit.
- Queen: The Works – I’m still pressing on with my reviews of Queen’s albums, as they’re my favourite band and I want to finish going through their stuff. So this release from 1984 brought us bangers like Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free and Hammer To Fall, along with other great songs, and there are several non-album tracks from around that time that are worth listening to as well.
Conclusion
And that’s it for another bumper month of entertainment, I hope you found things of interest to you there. As I said earlier, I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to go out more in August and start getting Carer’s Allowance too. And of course there are various things I’ll be watching, listening to, playing and writing about in the weeks ahead. So there will be plenty to mention next time as usual. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the summer, whatever you’re getting up to!
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