Music – Well Eye Never

Harry Hill – Stand-Up Comedy & TV Burp Reviews

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, full episodes, music, interviews and more, including videos from his own Youtube channel. So I hope you enjoy looking through it all!

Doctor Who Review – 50th Anniversary Specials

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.

April 2026 Favourites

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!

Doctor Who Review – Series 7 – Part 2

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 there are plenty of things to watch and listen to on my Youtube playlist for this part of the series. I hope you enjoy!

Doctor Who Review – Series 7 – Part 1

It’s time to move on to the next series in my Doctor Who reviews for the modern era, which means I’m now up to Series 7. As with the previous two series, it’s overseen by Steven Moffat (who did an incredible job considering his workload at the time), it stars Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor (who is at the top of his game), the music is provided by Murray Gold (who blessed us with 2 albums of his beautiful score), and it’s a lot of fun as usual, with a great variety of stories.

However, this is a strange series, because it’s really 2 separate shorter series that were originally spread out over a couple of years. Series 6 had also been split into 2 parts when first broadcast, but over a much shorter period of just over 9 months, and when you watch it all in one go it feels like one continuous series. But for Series 7 the two parts are very distinct, because major changes are made in Part 2.

It’s for that reason that I’m splitting my review into 2 posts over this Bank Holiday weekend. This first part is therefore about the final adventures of companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, before they get a very emotional send-off. They’ve been wonderful companions, so it’s a shame to see them go, but having been around for 2½ series it’s a good time for them to depart.

So here are my reviews of all the episodes and the Blu-ray extras for the first part of the series, plus you can see lots of clips, interviews, music tracks and much more on my related Youtube playlist. I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – Flash Gordon

Following on from my recent review of Queen’s first album of the 1980s, The Game, their next release was something very different, providing their first ever soundtrack for the sci-fi movie Flash Gordon.

It only has a couple of songs and a bunch of instrumentals, and therefore wasn’t as successful as their normal studio albums. But it did peak at number 10 in the UK albums chart, for 1 week out of its total 9 in the top 40, which is respectable.

A photo of Freddie Mercury singing into a microphone, while wearing a white t-shirt with the word Flash in large red letters on it. The photo is from the booklet with the Flash Gordon album, with a yellow streak of lightning above him.

A photo of Brian May playing guitar from the booklet with the Flash Gordon album, with a yellow streak of lightning above him.

I do have the album in my collection for completeness, but I rarely listen to it, partly because it isn’t anywhere near as good as their other stuff, but also because I’ve never actually watched the film before – until now. Given my love of Queen I always knew I ought to see it one day, but I didn’t think I’d be very interested in it from the clips I’d seen.

And to be honest, having now viewed it properly for the purposes of this review, my assumption was correct. I appreciate it’s a cult classic that is basically the comic strip brought to life, and Queen’s music does give it a boost. And chances are it’s a case of “you had to be there”, as I wasn’t born when it was released, whereas a lot of fans grew up with it. But unlike other surreal, low-budget masterpieces like The Rocky Horror Picture Show that I love, this movie simply doesn’t grab me. It just feels very dated with a nonsensical plot, poor performances (except perhaps for Brian Blessed and Max von Sydow), cringeworthy dialogue and substandard special effects even for its time. For some people its flaws are a big part of its charm, meaning it’s so bad it’s good, but I just can’t get on board with it. It just feels like some strange fever dream! Still, I’m glad I gave it a go, so I have a better frame of reference at least.

So this post is just going to be a quick run-through of Queen’s music on the album, along with some live versions, remixes and covers, as I have nothing else to say about the film itself. And that means it’s going to be short compared to my other Queen reviews, but I hope you find it interesting nonetheless.

February & March 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope your year’s been going well so far, and you’re enjoying the Easter weekend. For me, the first few months of 2026 have been a transition period, as I’ve been making the switch from my support worker role to a new zero-hours contract as an accessibility tester, so I can focus more on caring for my mother and looking after my own wellbeing. You can find out more about all of that in my latest Carer & Career Update post.

Because of that, along with the often cold and wet weather, I haven’t done many interesting things in London since my January Favourites. I’ve been out for a few walks, got a haircut and done some shopping when the weather allows, but that’s it – until very recently, when I saw my first theatre show of the year with a friend of mine, which was a much-needed bit of light relief.

So in this post I’ll be talking about my theatre visit, which involved a touch tour and audio description, as well as the variety of entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you find it interesting!

The Sweeney – 50th Anniversary Review

Five decades on from its initial broadcast, The Sweeney remains one of the all-time classic cop shows, with one of the greatest theme tunes as well (by Harry South). Back in the 1970s, it was notable for its gritty realism, action sequences and violence, and for shining a light on the imperfections within the police force, from innocent mistakes and failed investigations to casual rule-breaking and outright corruption. British police dramas had largely shied away from the more illicit and brutal aspects of the job until then, but this tackled them head-on, so it really stood out.

Created by Ian Kennedy Martin, it starred the magnificent John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan alongside the equally brilliant Dennis Waterman as Detective Sergeant George Carter, with Garfield Morgan as their boss Frank Haskins, all of whom are sadly no longer with us. Their characters worked for the Flying Squad – known in Cockney rhyming slang as Sweeney Todd, hence the show’s title – and were normal, vulnerable human beings with their own problems like the rest of us, rather than flawless superhero crime-solvers. They didn’t always get the results they wanted, and when they did it wasn’t always in a tidy or strictly legal manner. So they were relatable to the audience in many ways, even if they were stronger and more courageous than most of us. And in amongst all of the drama they had occasional moments of humour too, as in a dark job like that you need moments of light relief.

There was an impressive roster of guest stars as well, with a lot of current or future big names from stage and screen popping up in many of the episodes, giving the show even more gravitas and credibility. It’s a further testament to the quality of the writing that many of them were tempted to get involved in the first place. It was a real mark of pride to have The Sweeney on one’s CV.

At long last the show has now been remastered and released in its entirety on Blu-ray, with 50th anniversary editions having gone on sale between June 2025 and February 2026 for Series 1, 2, 3 & 4, all of which I’ve bought to replace my old DVDs (so nothing here is gifted or sponsored). It’s been the perfect excuse for me to revisit the show, having not watched it for quite a while. So here are my brief reviews of all the episodes and extras from the box sets, and I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – Queen II – Collector’s Edition

Back in 2024, Queen released a collector’s edition of their debut album with new mixes, session outtakes, backing tracks and live performances, which I reviewed at the time.

And now, as has been long anticipated since then, they’ve brought out a collector’s edition of Queen II, their fantastic and highly complex second album, in much the same vein. So naturally I’ve been looking forward to checking that out as well.

Once again, there are multiple formats available from various retailers, including a big box set with 5 CDs and 2 LPs, a much simpler 2-disc CD edition with the new mixes and the sessions material, and others.

And just like last time, I’ve plumped for the digital download instead. It’s just £17.99 for the contents of all 5 CDs compared to the frankly ludicrous £194.99 for the physical equivalent, which has 2 vinyl records I’d have no use for and 2 of the CDs contain live tracks I already have from older releases. Sure, the book and photo prints look really nice, but I can live without them in the circumstances.

Considering the 6-CD box set for their previous album was an already steep £149.99, I’m baffled as to how this new 5-CD set is £45 dearer! Maybe it’s because it has 2 LPs rather than 1 like the previous set, one of which is white vinyl rather than black (as the album has ‘Side White’ and ‘Side Black’ instead of Sides 1 & 2). But it’s a lot extra just for that. If there had been a similar set without the vinyl LPs for a much cheaper price, I’d have been tempted to get it, but it’s quite common for box sets these days to have vinyls I don’t want. It always bugs me when artists do that.

Anyway, back in lockdown I wrote an extensive post reviewing the tracks on Queen II, along with related live performances and covers, so I’m not going to repeat that kind of thing here. Instead, I just want to compare the new mixes to the originals and look through the bonus material, and I’ve added the new tracks to my Queen II playlist as well. Nothing here is sponsored or gifted, because I bought the new download myself, and I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – The Game

Way back in lockdown, to fill some of the time, I wrote in-depth reviews of the 1970s studio albums by Queen, my favourite band, which took me from their self-titled debut up to the Jazz album. And they’re about to release a new deluxe edition of Queen II, which I’m looking forward to downloading and reviewing, just like I did for their Queen I box set.

However, it’s long been my intention to review the rest of their albums as well, and now I’ve got more time on my hands, I’m going to delve back into them at long last.

So we’ll kick off the 80s with The Game, the album that produced Queen’s best-selling single of all time, and the only two number 1 hits they ever had in America (where it was also their only number 1 album, selling over 4 million copies). The Game also reached number 1 in the UK for 2 weeks, and stayed in the top 40 for 15 weeks altogether. Overall it sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

Freddie Mercury, sporting a moustache and wearing a black leather jacket over a red top, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

Brian May, with his hands in his light brown jacket pockets, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

It’s also the first Queen album to feature a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX), with their previous releases proudly stating that they never used them. Plus they had a new producer (Reinhold Mack, known simply as Mack), and they recorded the songs in a new location, at Musicland Studios in Munich. It therefore marked a new period of experimentation for the band, as they were persuaded to shift towards a more pop-friendly sound, although still infused with rock of course and it still sounds unmistakably like Queen.

It wasn’t always easy, with arguments in the studio as the band members were keen to be represented fairly on the record. But ultimately they were able to reach suitable compromises and produce another decent album with several great tracks. And as shown by the chart positions above, it enabled them to maintain their popularity in an era where other rock veterans were struggling, and even have their peak of success in the USA. The music scene was changing significantly in the 80s, but Queen were still very much in the game and still winning, at least for now.

So here are my reviews of all the songs, along with alternate versions, music videos, live performances, and a small selection of the many covers and remixes out there. And there’s lots more to see on my Queen & Covers playlists for this album as well that I haven’t mentioned here. I hope you enjoy!

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