Hello again, I hope October was a good month for you. It’s been a busy few weeks for my mother and I, as we’ve had some work done on the house and she’s had a few medical appointments, all of which seem to have turned out well, touch wood. And then in terms of entertainment, there are various comedy shows I’ve been enjoying, and I’ve written a few big posts about other things too.
So there’s plenty to cover as usual, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy!
Forget all the soulless AI slop that plagues the internet now. If you want impressive computer animation that has true love and extensive creativity put into it by supremely talented and hard working people, I defy you to do better than the Toy Story films. It’s been over 30 years since the first one warmed our hearts with its stunning visuals, wonderful characters, entertaining storyline, great humour and uplifting music. It achieved that magical balance of appealing to both children and adults alike, and it still holds up as a masterpiece today.
The sequels have proven to be very good as well, and this year we’ve had the 5th instalment in the franchise. I’ve recently bought the Blu-ray for it, despite having never watched it before, purely on the strength of liking the previous films and reading the rave reviews for this new outing. It’s very rare that I buy a sequel I’ve never seen unless there’s very good reason, but that’s how much confidence I have that it will be up to a sufficient standard. I hope I’m right!
So as I’ve got plenty of time to do so, and as it feels like we’ve reached a significant milestone with the franchise, I figured I would rewatch all of the previous films, and then try out the new one for the first time, as well as exploring all the soundtracks and extra features.
There’s so much to look through that it really is like diving into another world, and I’m delighted to see that all of the Blu-rays have audio description available for those who need it. Also note that I’m watching the 2D versions of the Blu-rays, as I don’t have the eyesight or a suitable player to watch the 3D editions. But that’s fine, as the standard versions look amazing anyway.
So let’s get into it all. In this post I’m going to focus on the first 2 films, then in the next part I’ll explore the rest. None of this is sponsored or gifted, I’m just a big fan, and I hope you enjoy looking through it all with me!
Over the last decade, The Beatles have released big box sets of some of their classic albums, each containing a lot of fascinating extra material, the most recent being for Rubber Soul this month. Smaller and cheaper versions have also been available with fewer tracks, but I’ve shelled out for the biggest super deluxe box sets with everything in, as I love their music. They were such an iconic group, who produced countless classic songs and experimented in ways that others had never done before, inspiring many artists that followed.
Each set comes with a big hardback book full of insightful information about the genesis of the album, the music scene and the world in general at the time, the writing and production of the tracks, the story behind the album cover, and much more, along with loads of photos. Most of the text is by former radio producer and author Kevin Howlett, but there are introductions from Paul McCartney in all of the sets, additional forewords by Giles Martin (son of George Martin) in some cases, and input from other people here and there too. The print is small and occasionally poorly contrasted (e.g. black text on a red background), but I’m able to use my phone to take photos of the pages and then use my computer to enlarge the text on my big monitor, adjust the colours, and even have it spoken to me if I wish. So I still get to enjoy it.
As for the music, it goes without saying that it sounds fantastic now it’s been remastered, with great clarity to everything, and there’s plenty of variety to keep things interesting. The discs, which are housed in cardboard sleeves, include the remastered stereo and original mono versions of each album, a Blu-ray Audio disc in most cases (one of which also contains videos), alternate mixes for a couple of albums, and 4-track EPs in a couple of cases.
But the most interesting and important CDs in each set are the sessions discs, featuring demos, rehearsals, alternate takes, studio banter and so on. They present the songs in brand new ways, making you feel like a fly on the wall in the studio as you get to hear how they developed. Those discs should be listened to in conjunction with the track by track discussions in each book, which provide a detailed analysis of every song, including the stories and inspirations behind them, the recording dates, the instruments played, the tracks and overdubs on the master tapes, the relevant tracks on the sessions discs and in the Anthology sets, notable live performances and cover versions, and more.
I don’t have the equipment to play the Blu-ray audio discs in surround sound, so I’m only listening to the audio from the CDs, but I’m happy with that. There have also been separate sets for those who want vinyl instead, and while I’m pleased it’s still a popular format, I’m glad they’ve kept it separate, because I don’t buy or play music that way. It irks me when box sets force you to pay a lot extra for a vinyl record in order to get everything on CD, so I’m glad the Beatles haven’t gone down that route.
I therefore want to do a comprehensive review of all their box sets, and mention their other albums along the way for completeness. And because there’s so much material, I’m going to split it across 2 posts. So in this first post I’m going to cover their box sets for Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, and take a quick look at the albums that preceded them. None of this is sponsored or gifted, as I bought all the box sets myself, and I hope you enjoy!
Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. This has been another quiet month for me, which is a good thing, and there has been some positive progress too.
In terms of my home situation, there isn’t much to update you on. I’m still feeling good about the fact that I left my job to become a full-time carer for my mum 3 months ago, with a little bit of accessibility testing work on the side, because my days are now much less intensive. My time is still productive, as I have plenty of tasks I can do and lots of things I enjoy to keep me occupied, but I can also spread things out and relax much more easily. We’ve also survived another uncomfortable heatwave, so we’re quite relieved that’s over, although we know there are more on the way this summer, and there could be worse to come in the decades ahead.
It also feels like my injury has almost fully healed now, touch wood, as I’m not getting pain in the ball of my foot any more. But I know I need to be careful, given how long it took to go away, as it’s probably still repairing and strengthening itself, and I’m anxious not to trigger the issue again if I can help it. So I’m currently taking some short local strolls to ease myself back into things, and I’m seeing if I can get better trainers and socks as well. It’s all a bit trial and error really, and my foot is still giving me occasional gentle warnings not to push things too far too quickly, as if the issue is still a bit borderline. The hot weather probably hasn’t helped either. But I’m glad I’m a lot better now.
All of which means there are no major outings to mention again this month, which is a shame as I had a theatre show booked that I really wanted to see, but never mind. I still have other things arranged in the months ahead, one of which is a birthday surprise from a close friend, so that’ll be fun.
I can, however, talk about things that I’ve been watching and listening to as usual. In particular, there are 3 new Blu-rays that I’ve bought, so I’ve devoted most of my viewing time to those. But there are other things that I’ve been watching and listening to as well, in terms of comedy and music. So there’s a nice variety for you to look through here, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy!
However, I have very little experience of the Classic era. I was still in my childhood for most of the Wilderness Years, when the programme was off air between 1989 and 2005, so it wasn’t a big part of my life growing up.
I did of course become aware of the show, particularly via a couple of charity specials that were broadcast on TV in the 90s, because it is a British institution that is deeply embedded in popular culture. It’s impossible to live here in the UK and not know about it. But I was too young to care. It was just one of those many old programmes that the adults used to watch, and it had long gone. And since getting into the Modern era, I’ve only seen occasional stories from the old days, either in their original form or via modern re-edits.
During its 16-year absence, however, there was an attempt to bring the show back in 1996, via a feature-length American TV pilot simply known as Doctor Who: The Movie, featuring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. A lot of fans in the UK liked it, but there wasn’t enough interest in the States to resurrect the show fully.
So it completely passed me by at the time. But I did eventually see it many years later, on Netflix in December 2013, when it was available there alongside a tiny selection of Classic era episodes that I also watched. I had taken the opportunity to check out those stories because of the 50th anniversary of the show – which means my first experience of Paul McGann had actually been his Night Of The Doctor mini-episode the previous month, showing his regeneration into the War Doctor. And as it happens I’ve recently seen that story again, having just rewatched the 50th anniversary specials during May. He also later made a cameo in The Power Of The Doctor in 2022 that I enjoyed.
12½ years on from my one and only viewing, therefore, I have no clear recollection of the film or whether I liked it. So buying the new 30th anniversary Blu-ray is a bit of a gamble for me, but a fascinating one too, as it’s my first proper deep dive into any Doctor Who story before 2005. It feels like I’m watching the movie for the first time again, and all of the special features (apart from the trailer for this release) are completely new to me, as I’ve never owned any previous editions.
So join me as I experience the movie in all its remastered glory and explore all the bonus material. I’ve also put together a playlist of highlights, music tracks, interviews, convention appearances, etc that you can look through too. I hope you enjoy!
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!
Former doctor Harry Hill has been on the comedy scene for over 30 years, and is renowned for his surreal mind and daft antics, including the use of silly stories, observational humour, slapstick, music, props, puppets and other quirky characters, often with cultural references, running gags and callbacks woven throughout his performances. Yet beneath all the nonsense there is a lot of structure, creativity and cleverness as well. So sometimes you’ll find him mocking TV shows, celebrities, human behaviour, language, the world around us, and so on, while at other times he’s just delightfully absurd for the sheer fun of it.
He recently had a great new stand-up special broadcast on Sky this month. So because I enjoyed that, I thought I would revisit all of his previous specials as well, just as I’ve done for several other comedians in recent years. And while I’m at it, I figured I would go through his TV Burp DVDs that I own too, because I loved that programme. Plus I’ll briefly mention some of his other work. I’ve also put together a playlist with a wide selection of clips, music, interviews and more, including videos from his own Youtube channel. So I hope you enjoy looking through it all!
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. 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!
Welcome back to the second part of my review for Series 7 of Doctor Who. As explained in my previous post, I’ve split it in two to reflect how the series was divided up, because each part is very distinctive.
This part of the series properly introduces Jenna-Louise Coleman (who would later drop the “Louise” from the anniversary special onwards) as new companion Clara Oswald, following her surprise appearance in Asylum Of The Daleks. I like her combination of cheeky humour, intelligence and bravery, and she has great chemistry with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, so she’s another of my favourite companions. The big story arc looks at why the Doctor has met different versions of her already, while a related subplot is about the threat of the Great Intelligence. These episodes also take us towards the 50th anniversary of the show, as they were broadcast in that milestone year (2013), so they include occasional references to the Classic era for those familiar with it.
So once again, here are my reviews of the episodes and bonus features, and I hope you enjoy!
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