Hello there, I hope you’ve had a good month. Thanks to my foot injury I haven’t been out much for a while, but I am doing fine, as it has been feeling a lot better. And my mother is doing well too, although she did struggle in the heatwave we just had. I’ve included a little update on my caring situation in this post for those who are interested.
For the most part, however, my focus here will be on entertainment. And on that front the most significant thing is that I’ve been on the radio! I was very kindly invited to join in a discussion about audio description, and it’s already had some excellent feedback. Then beyond that, my mother and I have been celebrating David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, and I’ve been watching Doctor Who and some comedies.
So there’s plenty to get through in this roundup as usual, and I hope you enjoy!
Yes, I know, we already celebrated Doctor’s Who’s 60th anniversary a few years ago. It’s all a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey. But this epic post for the bank holiday weekend is part of my ongoing series of reviews for all the series in the modern era, as I’ve been rewatching them in order. Recently I wrote about Series 7 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the cliffhanger at the end of it directly leads into the 50th anniversary specials, so naturally I wanted to move straight on to those.
The 2013 specials mark the end of Matt Smith’s stellar reign as the 11th Doctor. Some people had doubts about him when he took over from David Tennant – who also appears in the anniversary story, along with John Hurt as the War Doctor – but he really made the role his own, and showed he was capable of everything from chirpy humour to dark intensity. So he’s been very much missed ever since the brilliant send-off he had in these specials.
Meanwhile Jenna Coleman (who dropped the “Louise” from her name from this point onwards) continues to be a wonderful companion as Clara Oswald, with the mystery of why she’s the ‘Impossible Girl’ having been resolved at the end of Series 7. And there’s the welcome return of Billie Piper as a version of Rose that we’ve never seen before.
The score by Murray Gold is sublime as usual, so I’ll be picking out some of my favourite pieces from his soundtrack album in these reviews. And of course everything was overseen by showrunner Steven Moffat, who somehow managed to fit it all in alongside Series 7 of Doctor Who and Series 3 of Sherlock. Plus there was a biographical drama about the origins of the show, written by Mark Gatiss and featuring music by Edmund Butt, that I’ll also be reviewing in this post.
Altogether there’s a lot to mention from the Blu-ray set, along with additional stuff that wasn’t included in that release, and as always I’ve put together an extensive playlist of clips, behind the scenes material, music, interviews, reactions, conventions and much more. So I hope you enjoy celebrating this key milestone in the show’s history with me.
Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. As I explained in my carer update post yesterday, this has been a good month overall, apart from Mum and I picking up little injuries, but we are both slowly getting better.
Because of that, I still haven’t been out anywhere exciting just yet. But there’s still some entertainment for me to mention as usual, for which the main themes this month happen to be the cosmos and comedy. So let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!
Last updated on 17 April to mention new content published about the mission.
In a world filled with unnecessary turmoil and division, fuelled largely by what we’re subjected to by social media and news outlets, the past couple of weeks have demonstrated and reminded us that those platforms can also unite and uplift us with hope and joy, and should do so a lot more often.
Millions of people from all over the planet have been drawn together to support and celebrate four very special pioneers who escaped its clutches, broke records and made history, playing their part in a relay that aims to expand humanity’s horizons in new and exciting ways.
They did it by completing a test flight around the moon, travelling the greatest distance from Earth than anyone has ever done before, and gathering a treasure trove of imagery and scientific data along the way. This will enable NASA to move forward with plans to set up a base on our lunar companion, which they hope in turn will provide the opportunity for humans to travel to Mars.
To begin with, the Artemis II mission did fly under the radar a bit, while the astronauts soared high above our heads, as there have been far less pleasant stories dominating the headlines of late. So it was lovely to hear the launch had been successful, but I think I was one of many people who assumed that we wouldn’t get to learn much more about the mission until they got back.
But thankfully the algorithms did us all a favour, revealing NASA’s live streams and social media pages, which became as inescapable as Earth’s gravity and pulled people into a wormhole of discovery. I got drawn into it from around the third day I think, and just couldn’t let it go from there. The cheerful personalities of the astronauts, the clear communications from Mission Control, the stunning photography, the incredible technology and the dangers they had to overcome made it exciting and addictive to keep an eye on.
So now our heroes are back safely on Earth, here’s a look back through the mission to pick out some of my favourite moments.
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!
Comedian Micky Flanagan is a proper Cockney geezer from London, having grown up in the East End of the city not too far from where I live now. So I feel some affinity with him, and I do enjoy his humour. Not to the same level as some of my absolute favourite comedians, I wouldn’t put him in my top 10. But he is funny, and having bought his new DVD that came out recently, I figured it was a good excuse to rewatch his earlier shows that I have in my collection as well, just like I’ve done with some other comedians previously.
The shows in this post have all been repeated on Sky during December (as the latest release was first broadcast last year, though I didn’t get around to seeing it at the time), and the first two are also on Netflix. But I like to have my own copies of shows on DVD, as it’s much more convenient than relying on TV schedules and streaming services, and there are a small selection of extras on Micky’s first few DVDs.
So with a warning that the videos in this post contain strong language and adult humour, I hope you enjoy this little set of reviews.
Hello again, I hope you’re doing alright and are looking forward to Christmas.
During the last couple of months, my mother has been recovering well from her fractured wrist, both physically and mentally, thanks to all the support she’s received from the NHS and social services. There still are, and always will be, times when she gets anxious or finds things difficult of course. But having melatonin to help her sleep at night, and a wheelchair to help her get out and about more, has given her a real boost, along with various other forms of help she’s had. And at the very end of November I was even able to go out for a long walk and explore the shops by myself like I used to do, because she felt able to cope on her own.
You can find out more about all of that in my journal posts as usual, including some recovery of my own after I had a wisdom tooth extracted. You can also hear an interview I recorded in October for RNIB Connect Radio about my caring role, which was featured in their Good Company show and then released independently as a podcast.
All that aside, I’ve naturally been enjoying plenty of entertainment as well including Doctor Who, comedies, podcasts and audiobooks. So that’s what I’m going to focus on here, and I hope you enjoy this latest roundup!
Hello again, I hope you’re doing well and have been enjoying the summer. If you’ve continued to follow my blog over the last couple of months then (a) thank you so much and (b) you’ll have seen there’s good reason for me not going out much lately, given the issues at home that I’ve now opened up about. Looking after my mother has become a much bigger drain on my time and energy than it used to be, but we are gradually getting help now.
Still, beyond all the disability and care-related stuff I’ve been sharing recently, I’ve also kept myself occupied and distracted with various forms of entertainment, some of which I’ve written separate blog posts on as well.
So here’s a quick roundup of things I’ve written about and entertainment I’ve been enjoying over the last couple of months. I’m still not making videos to go with these posts for the time being, but I hope you find these bits and pieces interesting.
Now that the most recent series of Doctor Who is out of the way – and I’ve just updated that review with details of its Blu-ray steelbook release – and as there’s going to be a big gap until the next series while the BBC decide what to do, I’m going to continue rewatching the earlier series of the modern era.
I’ve already reviewed all of the series and spin-offs from Russell T Davies’ first stint as showrunner, so it’s time to move on to the fifth series overseen by Steven Moffat, which aired 15 years ago in 2010. Hard to believe it’s that old already.
With a new showrunner, Doctor, companions, Tardis and theme tune, this was another fresh start for the programme, and it worked really well. So I hope you enjoy my deep dive into it, and there are plenty of videos on my Series 5 playlist you can dig through too.
Hello again, I hope you’re all doing well. Those of you who saw last month’s roundup will know that I’m going through a difficult patch at the moment because of my mother’s health. We have started to get a bit of help, in terms of medical assistance and reaching out to support services, all of which takes time, and I will explain more in due course. Suffice to say for now that going totally blind has naturally had a big impact on her mental health and sleep, and by extension has affected my wellbeing as her carer. We are ok, but certain aspects are quite difficult to deal with
As a result, I’m not making videos to go with these posts for the time being, as it’s just not practical right now and I want to make things easier for myself. It also means I’m not doing as much out and about as usual, as my caring role is dominating my time much more than it used to – and I am therefore starting to explore the support that’s available for carers.
However, I did manage to go to the theatre a couple of times with friends early in the month, which I was really grateful for, as I needed to confide in them about what’s been going on, and the shows were great escapism, especially because of the touch tours and audio description.
So I’ve got those shows to tell you about, as well as some bits and pieces I’ve been watching at home, and none of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual. So let’s get on with it, and I hope you enjoy!
Well Eye Never 
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