Hey there, hope you had a wonderful Easter and a lovely April in general. This has been my busiest month for a while, as there’s lots to mention in terms of outings, including social events, a musical and a concert, along with TV shows and films I’ve been watching at home.
The concert I went to was a PR invite for me to review, but otherwise nothing is sponsored to appear here, and in any case all opinions are my own as usual. So let’s jump straight into April’s post and video roundup, and I hope you enjoy!
Hey there, hope you’re doing alright, and welcome to my latest roundup. March has been a bit of a mixed month for me, what with losing our Virgin Media service for almost a week (thankfully now fixed), and hearing about the government’s plans to cut disability benefits (which I’ve talked at length about in a separate post).
But there have been good things too, as I saw a couple of my favourite entertainers live for the first time, and enjoyed a variety of bits and pieces at home. So I’m going to focus on all of that in this post and video, which is relatively short I know, but I hope you find it interesting as usual!
Whereas the previous 2 series each had 13 episodes covering a variety of different storylines, Children Of Earth and Miracle Day each revolve around a single epic story that plays out across the entire series, with 5 episodes in the former and 10 in the latter. Children Of Earth is easily the best, and is where Torchwood really peaks, while Miracle Day is the weakest of all 4 series, but still has plenty to enjoy as long as you relax your expectations a bit.
So this is my review of both of those series, including the Blu-ray extras, and I hope you enjoy!
Welcome to the second part of my review binge of Torchwood. This is the brilliant Doctor Who spin-off for adults starring the magnificent John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, the handsome, funny, courageous, flirtatious and immortal hero whose team investigate aliens and other strange phenomena that have fallen through a rift in space and time over Cardiff.
I recently reviewed Series 1, where I also discussed Torchwood’s origins and early references in Doctor Who. So now I’m moving straight onto the second series, which stepped things up a gear and gave us some excellent storylines, as they had really found their feet by this point. Plus I’ll mention the Blu-ray extras and a lot of the music as well. I hope you enjoy!
Hello again. After a nice quiet January, this has been a slightly busier month for me, as I paid a visit to Kew Gardens to see their Orchid Festival, and I went to the cinema with a couple of friends. The latter in turn led to me watching a few more animated films at home, which has been a bit of a theme recently given my previous reviews of Wallace & Gromit and other Aardman productions, although this time they’re Disney films. So there are a few bits and pieces to mention in this month’s post and video, none of which is sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you enjoy!
Welcome to the next in my series of Doctor Who reviews for the modern era. Following on from my reviews of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 1-2 & Series 3-5, I’m now going to revisit Torchwood, the other much more adult spin-off created by Russell T Davies. The show includes sex, violence, swearing and topics that wouldn’t be at all suitable for Doctor Who. But it’s a lot of fun, with some really interesting stories, distinctive characters, great action, enjoyable humour, a solid soundtrack and beautiful high definition visuals.
I saw it on TV when it first came out and originally bought the DVDs, before I then got all 4 series on Blu-ray. So I already know I like the show, but it’s been quite a while since I last put time aside to watch it. Hence it’s nice to go back through it again, especially as I don’t remember all of the stories vividly. I’ve also compiled big Youtube playlists for Series 1-2 and Series 3-4, with episode clips, behind the scenes footage, music tracks and much more, as I’ve done for my other Doctor Who reviews.
So let’s get on with my in-depth review of the first series, and I hope you enjoy!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely time over Christmas!
Following on from Part 1 of my festive Favourites that I posted on Christmas Day, I’m now going to talk about a free exhibition I was given a tour of, give an update on events at home, and trawl through the many things I’ve been watching and listening to. And while the tour was courtesy of a PR invite, there have been no other incentives for anything to appear here, and all opinions are my own regardless.
So let’s dive into this bumper post, with an accompanying video that also features everything I mentioned in Part 1. I hope you enjoy!
Throughout Series 3-5, Sarah Jane continues to be accompanied by Luke Smith (Tommy Knight, whose role was reduced due to his real-life studies), Rani Chandra (Anjli Mohindra) and Clyde Langer (Daniel Anthony), plus Sky (Sinead Michael) in Series 5. Vital assistance is also provided by supercomputer Mr Smith (Alexander Armstrong) and robot dog K9 (John Leeson), who have an amusing rivalry between one another throughout the series. Rani’s parents Haresh & Gita, who live across the road from Sarah Jane, also appear in some stories, played by Ace Bhatti & Mina Anwar, as does Clyde’s mother Carla (Jocelyn Jee Esien). And the Doctor also appears a couple of times, played by David Tennant and Matt Smith.
Clyde gives a generic introduction to every 25-minute episode (30 seconds in Series 3-4, and 45 seconds in Series 5) about what it’s like having adventures with Sarah Jane, with the illustrative clips updated accordingly in each series. This wasn’t a feature of the first two series. It makes sense to have it for the first episode of each series to guide any new viewers in, but it feels repetitive thereafter, so I always fast forward through it.
So let’s jump straight back into the episodes, as all the other introductory stuff was dealt with in the previous post. I’ve also created a Youtube playlist for Series 3-5 (just like I did for Series 1-2) with hundreds of clips, including a lot of videos from the show’s official Youtube channel, if you want to dig through that as well. I hope you enjoy!
Hey there, hope you’re all doing well. October has been quite a busy month for me, but not in many ways that will be of interest to you this time. So I do apologise from the get-go that this post is quite short. It’s not what I’d expected, but it’s a direction I’m glad it’s gone in on this occasion.
The main reason is that we’ve started to have a lot of work done on the house, which is something we’ve been wanting to do for ages. It’s only now that we’ve found someone reputable, reliable, affordable and available to do it, through a personal recommendation, and we have the financial stability to be able to pay for it, now that various issues over the last few years have been resolved. It started off as a relatively small job that the guy had been recommended to us for, but as we’ve got to know him and seen the quality of his work over recent weeks, and as he has time to focus on us, we’re keen to make full use of him while we have the opportunity. So he’s done quite a bit of work on the exterior of the house, and currently we’re working on a revamp of the kitchen. My bedroom will then hopefully be next.
I also didn’t have any shows, meals, etc booked this month anyway, and the weather’s been a bit iffy at weekends. So while I have been out for walks now and again, I haven’t done anything exciting in London during October. That should change in November and December though, as I do have a few nice things in the diary, including some with friends of mine. We’ll still be having work done as well, but I should have much more to talk about.
So for this post and video I’m just going to mention a music box set I’ve been listening to and a few things I’ve been watching, none of which are sponsored and all opinions are my own as usual. Again, I’m sorry it’s so brief this time, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless!
In my reviews from the modern era of Doctor Who so far, I’ve completed all of the series from Russell T Davies’ original tenure as showrunner, as well as the 60th anniversary specials and Season 1 we’ve had since his return. So before I move on to Matt Smith’s era under Steven Moffat, and to add a bit of variety, I want to watch and review the two spin-offs that began during Russell’s first period on the show as well.
So I’m going to start with The Sarah Jane Adventures, a children’s programme starring the late, great Elisabeth Sladen as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. It’s available on BBC iPlayer, but I’ve got the complete DVD boxset which I’ll be going through here. I didn’t see much of it when it originally aired, having dismissed it as a kids show in favour of the more adult Torchwood (which I plan to review after this), but watching it properly now, it really does hold up well. Many of the scenarios could easily have become Doctor Who stories.
Sarah Jane was one of the most beloved companions of the Doctor, because she was so warm, friendly, clever and fun, reflective of actress Elisabeth herself, so it was lovely that she was given her own series. She has a wonderful family around her, with her child companions, supercomputer Mr Smith and robot dog K9 all helping her to save the world. There’s also lots of exciting action, impressive special effects, good humour and an admirable roster of guest stars (including the Doctor on a couple of occasions).
In this post, therefore, I’ll be reviewing the first two series, including the relevant extras in the DVD set, plus some earlier programmes that add further context and a few other things I’ve seen online. Then in the next post I’ll look at Series 3-5. And I’ve also put together a big playlist of clips relating to Sarah Jane in Doctor Who and Series 1-2 of her spin-off series. So let’s dive in, and I hope you enjoy!
Well Eye Never 
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