Glen – Page 13 – Well Eye Never

Morph’s Epic Art Adventure

During the past couple of weeks I’ve been exploring one of the new art trails that’s been installed in London for the summer, as it was something fun and different that caught my eye in the newsletters and social media pages I keep an eye on (so nobody’s asked or sponsored me to write about it).

It relates to Morph, a Plasticine character that I remember from my youth. He was created by Aardman Animations (best known for Wallace and Gromit & Shaun the Sheep these days), and he appeared with artist Tony Hart on some of his children’s TV programmes in the late 70s, before getting an animated show of his own.

I didn’t watch those shows much, as I wasn’t heavily into art as a kid. But I do remember Morph, as he was a popular character back then. And it seems he still is today, having continued to appear on TV over the years. He’s even got into the modern age with his own website, Youtube channel, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram profile.

One of his most recent programmes is a Sky Kids show called The Epic Adventures Of Morph, which launched in 2020. And now, this summer, he’s embarking on an Epic Art Adventure in London. There are 79 sculptures to find across the city (well, 78 plus one coming soon at time of writing), all featuring Morph decorated and dressed in a myriad of creative ways by a variety of artists. 56 of them are huge 6-foot sculptures, while the rest are cute little Mini Morphs designed by school children.

It’s been organised by Aardman Animations & Wild In Art in association with Whizz-Kidz, a charity for young wheelchair users in the UK. As such, the trail is completely step-free, while also being designed to celebrate diversity and promote inclusion. The sculptures will be on display from 19 June to 20 August, and then most of them will be auctioned off to raise funds and awareness for the charity.

So I’ve been out and about recently to find all of the sculptures, which can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, as the designs are really cool. I spent a weekend finding most of them, then picked up a few others on a free weekday, followed by the final few on a visit to an art gallery. So here’s a complete list of all the sculptures with some of the photos I took, along with notes about how I found them, and I hope you enjoy looking through them all!

Science Museum – Sci-Fi & Vaccines

It’s been a few years since I went to the Science Museum before the pandemic, but I finally got back there recently to spend a nice afternoon looking around a couple of their exhibitions, one about science fiction and the other about the Covid vaccines.

I also downloaded the large print guides that are available via the Accessibility page on their website, and was therefore able to read them on my phone during my visit, so that was really helpful too. Now and again the order of objects presented in the guide wasn’t quite in the same order as I was looking at them, so I had to reorientate myself a bit, and use my monocular (my pocket telescope) to look at the small text on the labels to match them up to the book, but that wasn’t a major issue on the whole.

So here are little reviews of the two exhibitions I saw on my recent visit, with a selection of photos.

Guys & Dolls

During my youth, one of the school plays we did was a musical about an American road trip, and one of the songs in that play was Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat. And now, over 30 years later, I’ve finally seen the show from which it came – Guys & Dolls, which is currently running at the Bridge Theatre, on the South Bank of the Thames by Tower Bridge.

It was a wonderfully immersive and accessible performance, including a touch tour and audio description, so here’s a little review of my experience. This isn’t sponsored or gifted, as I bought my own tickets, so I hope you find it interesting.

May 2023 Favourites

Hello again. As you May have noticed, so to speak, from a few of my recent posts, this has been another very eventful and enjoyable month. Which means there’s plenty to mention in this latest roundup post and video, including a big royal event, a musical, explorations of nature and animals, and a few things I’ve been watching and listening to. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual. So I hope you enjoy!

Chelsea & Belgravia In Bloom

Last week I spent a gorgeously sunny day with my friend and work colleague Emily from Fashioneyesta, as we explored the Chelsea In Bloom and Belgravia In Bloom installations. These artistic floral masterpieces were being exhibited outside businesses on various streets to coincide with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as is traditional every year.

A lot of the displays were impressive and beautiful, and so inevitably we took lots of photos. It was easier to do that than I thought it was going to be really, because it wasn’t too busy, people didn’t spend too long taking their own pictures in front of us, and passers-by were happy to pause briefly as we quickly got our own snaps.

So I thought I’d compile some of my photos into this post, which you can click on to see in a larger size, as well as talking about the issues we had with finding everything. I hope you enjoy!

Phantom Of The Opera

I got there in the end. After my previous attempt at booking the iconic show 3 years ago was scuppered by lockdown, last weekend I finally got to see an accessible performance of Phantom Of The Opera at the recently-renamed His Majesty’s Theatre. I paid for my own ticket (hence this isn’t sponsored or gifted), and it was very much worth the wait and the money, as I knew it would be.

BBC Earth Experience

Having enjoyed the Wild Isles series on TV recently, and inspired by an Instagram post by Shona Louise, I decided to go and see the BBC Earth Experience last week, as it sounded pretty cool and very accessible. So I bought a ticket and went along one afternoon, and I really liked it, because the visuals are incredible and the audio description was really helpful. So here’s my little review of it.

Russell Howard – Stand-Up DVD & Netflix Reviews

Wonky-eyed and from the Westcountry like me, Russell Howard is one of my favourite comedians, and not just for those reasons. I like his upbeat energy, positivity and common sense views, and he has a great variety of material in his routines, including crazy anecdotes about himself and his family, amusing observations about the weird and wonderful things he’s seen, and his reactions to people and events in the news.

I therefore took the opportunity to see him live at the London Palladium recently, and he was brilliant, unsurprisingly. So I thought I’d also do quick reviews of his DVDs and Netflix specials, just like I did for some other comedians whose shows I attended last year, as it’s always fun to watch them again. None of this is sponsored or gifted, and be aware that there is a bit of strong language and adult humour in some of the clips I’ve embedded. And with that, I hope you enjoy!

April 2023 Favourites

Well, what a busy month that was! During April I attended a couple of theatre shows, went out and about with a couple of good friends, had some lovely walks to take advantage of the nice weather, and watched a variety of things at home too.

All of which means there’s plenty to get through in this latest post and video recap. And none of it is sponsored or gifted, apart from a little press event that I’ll mention, and all opinions are my own regardless. So let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Doctor Who Review – Series 1

Doctor Who is one of Britain’s biggest cultural phenomenons and needs no introduction. With stories spanning all of time and space, encountering an infinite variety of locations, species and scenarios, and promoting the universal right and desire for everything to co-exist in peaceful harmony, along with the ability to regenerate the lead character using different actors, the series has a scope and versatility unlike any other. And the adventures, characters, drama, humour, special effects, music and other elements have all come together to make the show continuously exciting to watch.

Of course, everyone has their own favourite (and least favourite) Doctors, companions, enemies, stories, writers, showrunners, etc, even if we don’t all agree on which ones. For many Whovians, the first Doctor they watch becomes their favourite Doctor by default, because you form a special connection with the one who hooks you into the show to begin with. That won’t be the case for every fan, but it certainly is with me.

Christopher Eccleston is therefore my favourite Doctor, with David Tennant a tightly close second, while Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is my favourite companion, and Russell T Davies is my favourite showrunner. But I’ve continued to enjoy the show very much since they all departed, and I’m always happy to give new people a chance. Whilst every change takes a bit of time to bed in and get used to, I like seeing the show evolve with new faces, places and ideas, as it helps to keep it fresh and interesting. After all, it would get boring if it always stayed the same.

But it’s still a joy to see former stars returning too of course. And so this year, for the big 60th anniversary, I’m delighted to see David Tennant is back as the Doctor for a special trilogy. And it’s great to see Russell T Davies as showrunner once again, 18 years after his big revival of the show in 2005.

Therefore, given the special circumstances, and because I’m a huge fan of the modern era of the show, I figured it’s high time I try and do detailed reviews for each of the modern series, which I own on Blu-ray. It’s certainly a good excuse, as if one’s ever needed, to rewatch the episodes and extra features yet again. So for this post I’ll be going through the Series 1 Steelbook Edition Blu-ray, as well as mentioning the music soundtrack and a few relevant items online. I’ll never be able to mention absolutely everything to do with the show, nor would I want to. I just want to pick out the things that stand out to me, of which there are many in this first series.

I won’t complete all the series in time for the 60th anniversary of course, but I want to try and tick off the old Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant episodes by then if I can. And I fully intend to review the other Doctors beyond that as well. So we’ll see how far I get.

This first post is a particularly lengthy one, because I discuss how I got into the series, explore the 13 episodes and the various Blu-ray extras in depth, and express a lot of admiration for Christopher Eccleston as he was my first Doctor. And there’s an associated playlist on my Youtube channel with clips, music, interviews and other things relating to the series. So I hope you enjoy!

[Note: This post was edited in November 2023 to mention the new Whoniverse collection on iPlayer and the Series 1-4 & Specials box set.]

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