Saturday 31 December 2011
A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part Four
Over the last few days I’ve managed to catch up with several more programmes, some of which have been the highlight of the festive period, others been very much low-lights.
BBC3 has a two part countdown of Most Annoying People: 2011 which was your typical b-list celebrity filled look at the fifty most annoying people of the year. Most of the choices were accurate, much of the chat funny. There have been worse ways of wasting three hours. I would like to say I’d never heard of some of the people but it was nice to finally find out who Kim Kardashian is.
The festive special of QI XL was as good as ever. How could it not with Brian “best episode of HIGNFY” Blessed on it? Sure he took over the show, even if Ross Noble was doing his best to combat his verbose opponent, so it was a little bit more of a chaotic show than usual but the interesting facts and humour were still there.
By far the highlight of the Christmas period for me was The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, an hour long surreal exploration of Charles Dickens adaptations featuring loads of stars from David Mitchell to Dave Lamb, from Celia Imrie to the headmaster from the Demon Headmaster. The story revolved around the owner of a shop finding his grandfather owes a great debt and he loses his house and his family are put in jail until he can pay the debt.
Let’s just say the story is surreal but hilarious. With some fantastic sets and some absolutely brilliant performances from Robert Webb and Stephen Fry, this was a laugh a minute adaptation that was funny in its own right thanks to a witty script, surreal plotting and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them visual jokes, but made all the more hilarious by obliterating the plotting and styles of every Dickens adaptation ever. Well worth picking up if they release it on DVD. I can’t emphasise how funny this show was.
Which is more than can be said for my biggest disappointment of the period. I love Armstrong and Miller in their solo work – Ben Miller in Johnny English, Primeval etc is fantastic; Armstrong is brilliant as a presenter and panel show guest – but I was severely disappointed by the compilation show of their fourth sketch series on channel four, just before they moved to the BBC which, aside from the funny concept of Nude Practice, was devoid of any good humour.
Though it was funnier than Felix and Murdo, written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye had it all on paper: the two leads, the writer, Katy Wix, a thumbs up review in the Radio Times. Sadly the pilot turned out to be terrible. Featuring jokes that were either unfunny or rude without any redeeming punch lines, I gave up after fifteen minutes as I’d not laughed once and frankly found the whole thing to be badly written and tedious. Perhaps I was missing something but it was a definite disappointment and I was expecting much more from such a combination of talent.
Otherwise I’ve been watching some of the Little Crackers from Sky Plus Anytime which, of the ones I’ve seen, were all brilliant. Harry Hill’s surreal 15-minute play was full of TV Burp-esque jokes and well worth seeing, and Sheridan Smith’s and Jane Horrack’s were well acted and very touching, with a really good cameo from Alan Davies in the first which was worth watching for that alone.
BBC3 has a two part countdown of Most Annoying People: 2011 which was your typical b-list celebrity filled look at the fifty most annoying people of the year. Most of the choices were accurate, much of the chat funny. There have been worse ways of wasting three hours. I would like to say I’d never heard of some of the people but it was nice to finally find out who Kim Kardashian is.
The festive special of QI XL was as good as ever. How could it not with Brian “best episode of HIGNFY” Blessed on it? Sure he took over the show, even if Ross Noble was doing his best to combat his verbose opponent, so it was a little bit more of a chaotic show than usual but the interesting facts and humour were still there.
By far the highlight of the Christmas period for me was The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, an hour long surreal exploration of Charles Dickens adaptations featuring loads of stars from David Mitchell to Dave Lamb, from Celia Imrie to the headmaster from the Demon Headmaster. The story revolved around the owner of a shop finding his grandfather owes a great debt and he loses his house and his family are put in jail until he can pay the debt.
Let’s just say the story is surreal but hilarious. With some fantastic sets and some absolutely brilliant performances from Robert Webb and Stephen Fry, this was a laugh a minute adaptation that was funny in its own right thanks to a witty script, surreal plotting and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them visual jokes, but made all the more hilarious by obliterating the plotting and styles of every Dickens adaptation ever. Well worth picking up if they release it on DVD. I can’t emphasise how funny this show was.
Which is more than can be said for my biggest disappointment of the period. I love Armstrong and Miller in their solo work – Ben Miller in Johnny English, Primeval etc is fantastic; Armstrong is brilliant as a presenter and panel show guest – but I was severely disappointed by the compilation show of their fourth sketch series on channel four, just before they moved to the BBC which, aside from the funny concept of Nude Practice, was devoid of any good humour.
Though it was funnier than Felix and Murdo, written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye had it all on paper: the two leads, the writer, Katy Wix, a thumbs up review in the Radio Times. Sadly the pilot turned out to be terrible. Featuring jokes that were either unfunny or rude without any redeeming punch lines, I gave up after fifteen minutes as I’d not laughed once and frankly found the whole thing to be badly written and tedious. Perhaps I was missing something but it was a definite disappointment and I was expecting much more from such a combination of talent.
Otherwise I’ve been watching some of the Little Crackers from Sky Plus Anytime which, of the ones I’ve seen, were all brilliant. Harry Hill’s surreal 15-minute play was full of TV Burp-esque jokes and well worth seeing, and Sheridan Smith’s and Jane Horrack’s were well acted and very touching, with a really good cameo from Alan Davies in the first which was worth watching for that alone.
Milton Jones Live: Universe Tour – Part One: Earth [DVD]
Having seen Milton live earlier this year I figured it would be worth digging out his older material so grabbed a copy of this DVD. I have to confess I didn’t immediately get the joke on the front of it being the Universe tour and this his first stop, but I must have had a slow morning.
Built around visits to various places in the world from London to China to prison, it’s split into little mini sections complete with Milton walking on and off between them.
Packed with hilarious one-liners and some extra filmed segments between the parts which are brilliant in their own right it’s just as good as his second DVD and, at times, actually better.
Jones does seem to run out of steam in the final third of the DVD as his visits to various places become shorter and shorter, which is a shame as the sketch on the ocean is possibly one of the best on the DVD, but there’s much to enjoy over its one hour running time.
Sadly, like his second DVD there are no extras and on this one not even an encore and if you can get over the stop-and-start nature of the set-up of this gig then there’s a lot to laugh at here and well worth a pick up if you live one-liners.
8/10
Built around visits to various places in the world from London to China to prison, it’s split into little mini sections complete with Milton walking on and off between them.
Packed with hilarious one-liners and some extra filmed segments between the parts which are brilliant in their own right it’s just as good as his second DVD and, at times, actually better.
Jones does seem to run out of steam in the final third of the DVD as his visits to various places become shorter and shorter, which is a shame as the sketch on the ocean is possibly one of the best on the DVD, but there’s much to enjoy over its one hour running time.
Sadly, like his second DVD there are no extras and on this one not even an encore and if you can get over the stop-and-start nature of the set-up of this gig then there’s a lot to laugh at here and well worth a pick up if you live one-liners.
8/10
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Stewart Francis Live – Tour de Francis [DVD]
As a big fan of comedians that specialise in one-liners – think Tim Vine or Milton Jones – and impressed by his brief appearances on panel shows, it would be obvious for me to pick up the ‘Tour De Francis’ DVD by ‘Stewart Francis’.
Delivering a seventy-minute set he was surprisingly more adult than his television appearances would suggest with many politically incorrect and close to the knuckle jokes strewn between his family-friendly one-liners. He’s certainly no Frankie Boyle but no Tim Vine either.
There has been a lot of attention paid to the DVD though with a special ‘Mock The Week’ opening to backstage filmed sections at the end and in between the main set and the encore, plus a selection of manufactured out-takes and a possibly also manufactured Q&A that bounce happily between funny, surreal and unusual, with more laughs than not. The whole DVD package comes in at around ninety minutes, so better than Milton Jones’ feature-less DVD but not exactly Tim Vine’s all-out bonus-fest.
The set itself features jokes you’ll have heard on his Mock The Week appearances but these are few and far between and the vast majority of the jokes are brand new if you’ve not seen him live. As I said there’s adult content here to justify its 15 rating but, for all the politically incorrect jokes, it’s all done with his tongue firmly in cheek and he’s good at taking swipes at all areas and peoples, including himself.
There are jokes for everyone in the set from plays-on-words, to visual jokes, to laughing at social stereotypes. There is some, limited, audience interaction and the odd lapse into sounding very much like Russell Kane.
As with all good shows there are running jokes and themes throughout it, and there’s much more of a loose story feel than Jones or Vine’s sets have. A lot of jokes are neatly tied together in a skit near the end which is satisfying for the audience.
Only a weird selection of back-slapping slips dropped in between the slides of the credits seem out of place with an expected joke to end them never coming.
If you like one-liners and puns with an adult edge then you’ll really enjoy this, and some of the extra bits filmed mean the extras are well worth diving into, plus they’re not massively long or tedious to sit through.
7/10
Delivering a seventy-minute set he was surprisingly more adult than his television appearances would suggest with many politically incorrect and close to the knuckle jokes strewn between his family-friendly one-liners. He’s certainly no Frankie Boyle but no Tim Vine either.
There has been a lot of attention paid to the DVD though with a special ‘Mock The Week’ opening to backstage filmed sections at the end and in between the main set and the encore, plus a selection of manufactured out-takes and a possibly also manufactured Q&A that bounce happily between funny, surreal and unusual, with more laughs than not. The whole DVD package comes in at around ninety minutes, so better than Milton Jones’ feature-less DVD but not exactly Tim Vine’s all-out bonus-fest.
The set itself features jokes you’ll have heard on his Mock The Week appearances but these are few and far between and the vast majority of the jokes are brand new if you’ve not seen him live. As I said there’s adult content here to justify its 15 rating but, for all the politically incorrect jokes, it’s all done with his tongue firmly in cheek and he’s good at taking swipes at all areas and peoples, including himself.
There are jokes for everyone in the set from plays-on-words, to visual jokes, to laughing at social stereotypes. There is some, limited, audience interaction and the odd lapse into sounding very much like Russell Kane.
As with all good shows there are running jokes and themes throughout it, and there’s much more of a loose story feel than Jones or Vine’s sets have. A lot of jokes are neatly tied together in a skit near the end which is satisfying for the audience.
Only a weird selection of back-slapping slips dropped in between the slides of the credits seem out of place with an expected joke to end them never coming.
If you like one-liners and puns with an adult edge then you’ll really enjoy this, and some of the extra bits filmed mean the extras are well worth diving into, plus they’re not massively long or tedious to sit through.
7/10
My 2011...
This quick blog post does come with a disclaimer that my memory is terrible and it’s only thanks to a quick browse through Facebook that I remembered some of these things and I could only rewind Twitter back to August because it was so slow so perhaps I’ve missed a few things here and there, but might revisit it as I remember!
2011 has definitely been an interesting year both with some big highs and some big lows. Here’s for an interesting 2012 to follow it!
The New Year started in pretty much the usual way in January, back to work and getting ready for another term. In fact, it was a quiet first few months of the year, either because not much happened or I didn’t make a record of it. I was back on air with Mike and Kev as part of the ...and be done with it show on RamAir 1350AM and I feel that we all stepped up a gear in 2011 to make the best show we could, throwing much more time into it in the way of features, content and expanding the presence of the show online and in podcast form, continuing the show well into February and, of course, beyond.
Still working as the Media and Marketing Co-ordinator at the University of Bradford, the term went by quickly. In March I could indulge my techy side by purchasing the new Nintendo 3DS console and, though it would struggle for games until the tail end of the year it was a great purchase and very entertaining.
April got all the more exciting with my twenty-fifth birthday which I spent with friends and then with family. It was also the month where we came up with an idea on the radio show that seemed like a good idea at the time – do a weekly spoof of the new Doctor Who series – which, though great fun to write and act out, did shackle me to writing by numbers especially when I did Torchwood as well which overlapped with the second half of the Doctor Who series, but what we all produced was great and was something else to add to our collection, and certainly added to our portfolio of what we can achieve!
Also in April I went down to London with friends Ian and Rachael to the Student Radio conference at the University of Hertfordshire. Experiencing my first time on a MegaBus and my first visit to London in a long time, it was a great few days of socialising, attending lectures and cementing in my mind that radio would be what I’d want to go into. I also got to meet one of my heroes, Dave Gorman, to ask him about radio and get a sound bite for ...and be done with it.
In May, not under the happiest of circumstances, I moved into a new flat in Little Germany. Suffice to say in a nutshell the first four months hadn’t panned out like I’d hoped and it was not a happy time. But, now living on my own for the first time in two-and-a-half years brought with it a new found freedom. I could finally get my space to set-up a home entertainment area, a radio studio (which I built up over the summer and used for podcasts for the radio show) and have the opportunity and space to invite friends over which happened many times over the summer from the flat warming to random nights, and it was nice to get back in touch with friends I’d maybe not spent as much time with as I should have. I made a pact that I would try and stay in contact with as many old friends as possible which lead me to over the course of the next few months meet up with an old school friend I’d not seen in eight years, which was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and a few other acquaintances from the past.
Seven months on and I love my flat. It’s a different experience not sharing a house with someone but it’s given me the time to help satisfy my love of writing, radio and – to a certain degree – cooking, and have held several Sunday dinners over my time there and not poisoned anyone yet!
Also in May my favourite television show Primeval made a return, so that was fun to watch!
With the uni term at work coming to an end, with the Party On The Amp end of term event going well with the fairground, Chase and Status and general buzz going down well (arguments over barbecues aside!) I had more free time to do things among work as there was that gap between the end of term and preparations for freshers’ week.
Having dabbled in parody songs over the years and in particularly the months leading up to June, myself, Mike and Kev finally took the plunge and recorded a whole spoof album of our own parodies, plus booklet, photographs and much more, adding another tick to our achievements in radio over the year. As well as the fun we had doing this with Phil, Poppy and others, I organised a small barbecue for friends in June to celebrate the summer but also looked further to expand my experience in radio by going to BCB – Bradford Community Broadcasting – and doing their training with the hope of going on air. As I write this at the end of December my first show is about to go on air. It was a great few months of training under the funny and friendly stewardship of John Gill and I met some great people from loads of different areas and backgrounds who also shared an interest in radio.
In July I was part of the team from work who went to Center Parcs, my first time there, as a staff-sabbatical get-to-know-you week. It was a fun week where I tried for the first time to ride a bike under the tuition of Chris (let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be doing the Tour de France anytime soon!) and also a time to really bond with colleagues and it was, mostly fun, with nights of Just Dance, cooking and walks plus much more. Also in the month I finally finished putting together ‘Studio P’ and I would meet up with Mike, Kev, Steph, Saz and others every Wednesday to record the ABDWI podcast whilst we were off air. I also attended a showing of the Harry Potter film in IMAX with some friends.
Throughout August I continued with my training at BCB and also started writing occasional blogs for the website All Noise, though would eventually stop as communicating with them proved tricky. I also went to my first ever stag do, proving that I’m not exactly the most social when it comes to drinking and dancing but it was a right laugh of a day even if I wasn’t feeling that well, plus attending the wedding of former RamAir presenter and friend Dave who got married that month. I was an usher for the first time and also did the DJing at the night, which was as tricky as I imagined it to be with such a wide range of attendees so I don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a hurry, but it was a great experience.
I also headed over to Scarborough for the day with Mike, Kev and Steph to film a summer promo video for the radio show which was great fun to do and, I think, came out really well!
Onto September and with the shadow of freshers’ week hanging over there was still time for me to go to the excellent Bingley Music Live once more, as well as see the Kaiser Chiefs live, satisfying my love of live music as well as having the opportunity to review them both, something I’ve been trying to do in the last few months to bolster my writing technique and portfolio via my blog, so much so it’s becoming on the verge of an obsession now that I seem to review anything and everything. But, hey, it’s all good experience!
Also in September we said a temporary goodbye to Phil Bowes from the ABDWI team who departed for American shores but would stay in touch with the show throughout the next term of shows and also got involved with the media side of the British Science Festival when it arrived at the University of Bradford the week before freshers, with RamAir used as a base for its media side.
Freshers’ week went by in its usual haze of late nights, early mornings and lots to do and cemented in my mind how things had changed since the first freshers’ week I’d been involved with as a staff member three years previously. Now onto the fourth I’d experienced working there the move to Student Central, the increased footfall, and the growing ambition each year from the Students’ Union of putting more on, plus the awakening of the University to how much the SU actually does during freshers’, was proving to be tiring on everyone concerned but equally rewarding, though it did come with its frustrations from certain quarters when we were victims of our own successes and demand.
After the pressures of that week were over, it was time for October and on a musical front new releases from Electric Six and Aqua to keep me, er, rocking over the month. I also dipped back into my childhood and won my first competition in years, netting some Johnny English: Reborn prizes ahead of seeing the film. As a child I was a “comper” in waiting, entering loads of competitions and being very successful in getting prizes.
Also in the month I saw Dave Gorman for the second time in a year, this time doing his hilarious PowerPoint Presentation show at St. George’s Hall, a show I missed eighteen months previously due to my incarceration in hospital. I nearly missed it again due to myself and Ant almost DJing a wedding on a night but that fell through. Possibly for the best!
In October I also started a brand new show with fellow RamAir presenter Carl. A northern show called ‘Bitter and Pies’ it’s been a laugh from the start to now and it’s refreshing to find someone with a similar daft sense of humour to myself and who has become a good friend and co-presenter over the last few months. Thanks Carl!
Autumn was also a time when I feel that things shifted back to the happier times of years gone by. It was a great to see more people joining ...and be done with it on a Wednesday, with Steph, Saz, Carl, Liam, Ryan and others becoming key part of the team, plus Sam returning on air and brilliantly becoming more involved again, plus shows like ‘Friday Night Live’ which, though I wasn’t able to contribute as much as I’d hoped, felt like both old and new presenters were coming together and forging new friendships.
November was mostly a good month. With some additional parody songs recorded in September and writing going on throughout the months, ...and be done with it also stretched out into the world of video again after the summer promo video with our cheerleading spoof which showed me struggling to do it thanks to a pulled muscle but also Kev in a skirt, with full credit to him for doing it.
Also in the month myself and Carl went to see Milton Jones live at St. George’s Hall, and also continued our voyages out and about to see both Electric Six and Lancashire Hotpots live in York.
Unfortunately it wasn’t all good news in November. Back in early summer my granddad, my dad’s dad, was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalised. Though I didn’t get the chance to see him in the summer, he was out relatively quickly before I got back to York, I did aim to see him when he became ill again in November. Sadly he passed away the day before I came back. In November we attended his funeral.
Families as they are, I hadn’t actually seen my granddad in probably fifteen years as we’d not been in touch with that side of the family for a long time, something that I’ve always found unusual but, knowing families of friends, it’s not that uncommon. It’s strange to attend a funeral of a relative but feeling a little bit out of place being there as I didn’t really have much of a connection to him like others in the room.
It was the first funeral I’d ever been to, which I consider lucky as I reach twenty-five and a half, and it was great to catch up with family members I’d not seen in many, many years. I just wish it had been under happier circumstances.
December has possibly been one of the busiest months yet. I’ve continued to make the effort in trying to get my work out there. I have been lucky enough to get my writing now on websites such as Brash Games and Den of Geek, with other websites running some material in the new year. The ABDWI team came together to finish off recording and production of the second parody album as well as enjoying a Christmas meal out in Wetherspoons and the UBU bar. My first BCB radio show makes it’s on-air debut at the tail end of the month and mid-month we were lucky enough to have been successful in being awarded the hosting of the 2012 Student Radio conference next year in early April, meaning I’ll be celebrating my twenty-sixth birthday with one of the best things in student radio. The best bit was that it justified the work that myself, Ian, Chris and Claire did in putting together the application in tight times around freshers’ week but will also highlight Bradford, the University of Bradford and RamAir as great places.
It wasn’t all happiness in December though. After noticeably losing weight earlier in the autumn and being diagnosed with cancer, and being put on medication, we made the difficult decision of putting one of our cats, Katie, to sleep as she was continuing to struggle going to the loo, bleeding and losing weight. On December 10th we headed to the vet and said our goodbyes before doing the deed and burying her in the garden, leaving her sister Charlie now as the sole cat, who we think now is coming to terms with her absence and has become much more of a house-cat than before, but we’ll see soon how much this is down to the weather and having people around the house on holiday.
Also in December my parents and I enjoyed some trips out, to the excellent York pantomime and to see Arthur Christmas in the cinema, as well as enjoying Christmas together and seeing the grandparents and my auntie over the New Year period.
So, that was my 2011. What will 2012 bring? I’m continuing to try and push for a career in radio and continue trying to get my writing published, even if it’s still for free. Here’s to more ...and be done with it and Bitter and Pies shows, more shows on BCB and more great radio, newspapers and events via work at the University of Bradford Union of Students. With the Student Radio Conference to look forward to and my first trip abroad - to Paris – coming up, and hopefully not the end of the world, let’s see what 2012 will be like!
2011 has definitely been an interesting year both with some big highs and some big lows. Here’s for an interesting 2012 to follow it!
The New Year started in pretty much the usual way in January, back to work and getting ready for another term. In fact, it was a quiet first few months of the year, either because not much happened or I didn’t make a record of it. I was back on air with Mike and Kev as part of the ...and be done with it show on RamAir 1350AM and I feel that we all stepped up a gear in 2011 to make the best show we could, throwing much more time into it in the way of features, content and expanding the presence of the show online and in podcast form, continuing the show well into February and, of course, beyond.
Still working as the Media and Marketing Co-ordinator at the University of Bradford, the term went by quickly. In March I could indulge my techy side by purchasing the new Nintendo 3DS console and, though it would struggle for games until the tail end of the year it was a great purchase and very entertaining.
April got all the more exciting with my twenty-fifth birthday which I spent with friends and then with family. It was also the month where we came up with an idea on the radio show that seemed like a good idea at the time – do a weekly spoof of the new Doctor Who series – which, though great fun to write and act out, did shackle me to writing by numbers especially when I did Torchwood as well which overlapped with the second half of the Doctor Who series, but what we all produced was great and was something else to add to our collection, and certainly added to our portfolio of what we can achieve!
Also in April I went down to London with friends Ian and Rachael to the Student Radio conference at the University of Hertfordshire. Experiencing my first time on a MegaBus and my first visit to London in a long time, it was a great few days of socialising, attending lectures and cementing in my mind that radio would be what I’d want to go into. I also got to meet one of my heroes, Dave Gorman, to ask him about radio and get a sound bite for ...and be done with it.
In May, not under the happiest of circumstances, I moved into a new flat in Little Germany. Suffice to say in a nutshell the first four months hadn’t panned out like I’d hoped and it was not a happy time. But, now living on my own for the first time in two-and-a-half years brought with it a new found freedom. I could finally get my space to set-up a home entertainment area, a radio studio (which I built up over the summer and used for podcasts for the radio show) and have the opportunity and space to invite friends over which happened many times over the summer from the flat warming to random nights, and it was nice to get back in touch with friends I’d maybe not spent as much time with as I should have. I made a pact that I would try and stay in contact with as many old friends as possible which lead me to over the course of the next few months meet up with an old school friend I’d not seen in eight years, which was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and a few other acquaintances from the past.
Seven months on and I love my flat. It’s a different experience not sharing a house with someone but it’s given me the time to help satisfy my love of writing, radio and – to a certain degree – cooking, and have held several Sunday dinners over my time there and not poisoned anyone yet!
Also in May my favourite television show Primeval made a return, so that was fun to watch!
With the uni term at work coming to an end, with the Party On The Amp end of term event going well with the fairground, Chase and Status and general buzz going down well (arguments over barbecues aside!) I had more free time to do things among work as there was that gap between the end of term and preparations for freshers’ week.
Having dabbled in parody songs over the years and in particularly the months leading up to June, myself, Mike and Kev finally took the plunge and recorded a whole spoof album of our own parodies, plus booklet, photographs and much more, adding another tick to our achievements in radio over the year. As well as the fun we had doing this with Phil, Poppy and others, I organised a small barbecue for friends in June to celebrate the summer but also looked further to expand my experience in radio by going to BCB – Bradford Community Broadcasting – and doing their training with the hope of going on air. As I write this at the end of December my first show is about to go on air. It was a great few months of training under the funny and friendly stewardship of John Gill and I met some great people from loads of different areas and backgrounds who also shared an interest in radio.
In July I was part of the team from work who went to Center Parcs, my first time there, as a staff-sabbatical get-to-know-you week. It was a fun week where I tried for the first time to ride a bike under the tuition of Chris (let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be doing the Tour de France anytime soon!) and also a time to really bond with colleagues and it was, mostly fun, with nights of Just Dance, cooking and walks plus much more. Also in the month I finally finished putting together ‘Studio P’ and I would meet up with Mike, Kev, Steph, Saz and others every Wednesday to record the ABDWI podcast whilst we were off air. I also attended a showing of the Harry Potter film in IMAX with some friends.
Throughout August I continued with my training at BCB and also started writing occasional blogs for the website All Noise, though would eventually stop as communicating with them proved tricky. I also went to my first ever stag do, proving that I’m not exactly the most social when it comes to drinking and dancing but it was a right laugh of a day even if I wasn’t feeling that well, plus attending the wedding of former RamAir presenter and friend Dave who got married that month. I was an usher for the first time and also did the DJing at the night, which was as tricky as I imagined it to be with such a wide range of attendees so I don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a hurry, but it was a great experience.
I also headed over to Scarborough for the day with Mike, Kev and Steph to film a summer promo video for the radio show which was great fun to do and, I think, came out really well!
Onto September and with the shadow of freshers’ week hanging over there was still time for me to go to the excellent Bingley Music Live once more, as well as see the Kaiser Chiefs live, satisfying my love of live music as well as having the opportunity to review them both, something I’ve been trying to do in the last few months to bolster my writing technique and portfolio via my blog, so much so it’s becoming on the verge of an obsession now that I seem to review anything and everything. But, hey, it’s all good experience!
Also in September we said a temporary goodbye to Phil Bowes from the ABDWI team who departed for American shores but would stay in touch with the show throughout the next term of shows and also got involved with the media side of the British Science Festival when it arrived at the University of Bradford the week before freshers, with RamAir used as a base for its media side.
Freshers’ week went by in its usual haze of late nights, early mornings and lots to do and cemented in my mind how things had changed since the first freshers’ week I’d been involved with as a staff member three years previously. Now onto the fourth I’d experienced working there the move to Student Central, the increased footfall, and the growing ambition each year from the Students’ Union of putting more on, plus the awakening of the University to how much the SU actually does during freshers’, was proving to be tiring on everyone concerned but equally rewarding, though it did come with its frustrations from certain quarters when we were victims of our own successes and demand.
After the pressures of that week were over, it was time for October and on a musical front new releases from Electric Six and Aqua to keep me, er, rocking over the month. I also dipped back into my childhood and won my first competition in years, netting some Johnny English: Reborn prizes ahead of seeing the film. As a child I was a “comper” in waiting, entering loads of competitions and being very successful in getting prizes.
Also in the month I saw Dave Gorman for the second time in a year, this time doing his hilarious PowerPoint Presentation show at St. George’s Hall, a show I missed eighteen months previously due to my incarceration in hospital. I nearly missed it again due to myself and Ant almost DJing a wedding on a night but that fell through. Possibly for the best!
In October I also started a brand new show with fellow RamAir presenter Carl. A northern show called ‘Bitter and Pies’ it’s been a laugh from the start to now and it’s refreshing to find someone with a similar daft sense of humour to myself and who has become a good friend and co-presenter over the last few months. Thanks Carl!
Autumn was also a time when I feel that things shifted back to the happier times of years gone by. It was a great to see more people joining ...and be done with it on a Wednesday, with Steph, Saz, Carl, Liam, Ryan and others becoming key part of the team, plus Sam returning on air and brilliantly becoming more involved again, plus shows like ‘Friday Night Live’ which, though I wasn’t able to contribute as much as I’d hoped, felt like both old and new presenters were coming together and forging new friendships.
November was mostly a good month. With some additional parody songs recorded in September and writing going on throughout the months, ...and be done with it also stretched out into the world of video again after the summer promo video with our cheerleading spoof which showed me struggling to do it thanks to a pulled muscle but also Kev in a skirt, with full credit to him for doing it.
Also in the month myself and Carl went to see Milton Jones live at St. George’s Hall, and also continued our voyages out and about to see both Electric Six and Lancashire Hotpots live in York.
Unfortunately it wasn’t all good news in November. Back in early summer my granddad, my dad’s dad, was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalised. Though I didn’t get the chance to see him in the summer, he was out relatively quickly before I got back to York, I did aim to see him when he became ill again in November. Sadly he passed away the day before I came back. In November we attended his funeral.
Families as they are, I hadn’t actually seen my granddad in probably fifteen years as we’d not been in touch with that side of the family for a long time, something that I’ve always found unusual but, knowing families of friends, it’s not that uncommon. It’s strange to attend a funeral of a relative but feeling a little bit out of place being there as I didn’t really have much of a connection to him like others in the room.
It was the first funeral I’d ever been to, which I consider lucky as I reach twenty-five and a half, and it was great to catch up with family members I’d not seen in many, many years. I just wish it had been under happier circumstances.
December has possibly been one of the busiest months yet. I’ve continued to make the effort in trying to get my work out there. I have been lucky enough to get my writing now on websites such as Brash Games and Den of Geek, with other websites running some material in the new year. The ABDWI team came together to finish off recording and production of the second parody album as well as enjoying a Christmas meal out in Wetherspoons and the UBU bar. My first BCB radio show makes it’s on-air debut at the tail end of the month and mid-month we were lucky enough to have been successful in being awarded the hosting of the 2012 Student Radio conference next year in early April, meaning I’ll be celebrating my twenty-sixth birthday with one of the best things in student radio. The best bit was that it justified the work that myself, Ian, Chris and Claire did in putting together the application in tight times around freshers’ week but will also highlight Bradford, the University of Bradford and RamAir as great places.
It wasn’t all happiness in December though. After noticeably losing weight earlier in the autumn and being diagnosed with cancer, and being put on medication, we made the difficult decision of putting one of our cats, Katie, to sleep as she was continuing to struggle going to the loo, bleeding and losing weight. On December 10th we headed to the vet and said our goodbyes before doing the deed and burying her in the garden, leaving her sister Charlie now as the sole cat, who we think now is coming to terms with her absence and has become much more of a house-cat than before, but we’ll see soon how much this is down to the weather and having people around the house on holiday.
Also in December my parents and I enjoyed some trips out, to the excellent York pantomime and to see Arthur Christmas in the cinema, as well as enjoying Christmas together and seeing the grandparents and my auntie over the New Year period.
So, that was my 2011. What will 2012 bring? I’m continuing to try and push for a career in radio and continue trying to get my writing published, even if it’s still for free. Here’s to more ...and be done with it and Bitter and Pies shows, more shows on BCB and more great radio, newspapers and events via work at the University of Bradford Union of Students. With the Student Radio Conference to look forward to and my first trip abroad - to Paris – coming up, and hopefully not the end of the world, let’s see what 2012 will be like!
Tuesday 27 December 2011
A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part Three
So I have finally got round to seeing The Borrowers from Boxing Day, one of the things I’ve been most looking forward to this Christmas period. I have a real soft spot for the 1992 television series starring Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton and enjoyed the 1997 film (was it really that long ago?) starring the excellent John Goodman, with of course Jim Broadbent and, as I found out today, a very young Tom Felton as the only-in-the-film young Borrower.
For those of you not familiar with the Borrowers, they are the creation of Mary Norton in her book series from 1952, which tells the story of families of tiny humans who live under floorboards, in sewers and other hidey-holes, borrowing food, belongings and items off humans as they live their life. They particular focus on Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter Arrietty, who are the characters that follow into the adaptations, often joined by wild borrower Spiller. The humans involved in the storyline change from book to book, adaptation to adaptation.
In this 2011 version the family consist of a father and son, and the son’s grandmother, whom they now live with after the off-screen death of the mother. After Arrietty, forbidden by her protective father from leaving the protection of their home under the floorboards, goes up into this house, she is discovered by the boy who, through talking to him, alerts the grandmother, played with a mix of eccentricity and warmth by comedienne Victoria Wood, who vows to rid the house of the borrowers, though never in a particularly menacing way. It is Stephen Fry as the scientist, and his assistant, who provides the evilness in the film, very much mirroring John Goodman’s role in the feature film, as the theorist behind a miniature version of the human race who captures the family in an aim to prove his theory and that he’s not as crazy as the press have painted him. Naturally, as expected, the story comes good and the Borrowers are freed from his grasp by the end; he’s proved to be a laughing stock; no one dies; the family are reunited; father and daughter learn lessons and grow as people; and the gran learns to live with the Borrowers in possibly the most underwritten character in the adaptation. Along the way we get to see a Borrower village, a little bit of teen romance for the thirteen year olds in the audience, and a little bit of heart-warming family matters for the humans that isn’t too far away from this year’s Doctor Who special. Minus the time travelling tower and people being brought back from the dead of course.
As adaptations go this was possibly my least favourite of the three adaptations. That’s not to say it was bad. The final third of the ninety-minute production was full of excitement, mixing in a miniature Great Escape, a funny chase sequence, and a heart-warming ending. Stephen Fry was as excellent as always, packaging up his QI boffin into a character, and adding some effective villainy to the piece. Credit should also go to all the rest of the cast. Christopher Eccleston and Sharon Horgan were realistic as a loving but arguing married couple; Aisling Loftus nailing the grumpy teenager perfectly; and Robert Sheehan the rebellious Spiller. The humans were equally good with Charlie Hishock as the friendly boy playing his part well and Anne Hirsch as Fry’s assistant Jenny making a lot out of her small part.
Overall the cast were great and the plotline adapting the book well, but there did seem to be something missing. Trying to wrestle off my rose-tinted spectacles for a moment there was something warming about the environment they lived in back in 1992. Yes, the props in the new version were great but with a limited timescale to see things in you couldn’t live and breathe in the world as six episodes allowed you to in the television series. There wasn’t as much obvious focus on how everyday human items and tools were used in the world of the Borrowers for different things, but again there were time limits to play with.
I think it’s because I see the Borrowers as quiet an old-fashioned tea-time show whereas this was much more modern. That’s not to say I don’t want references to mobile phones and such – actually for a contemporary adaptation there wasn’t that much of a 2011 feel to it – but it just felt too cold. It’s difficult to put my finger on it.
One thing that does improve on the 1992 version is the compositing. It’s very much dated in the 1992 version – I have it on DVD – but on this one it’s much more realistic and convincing, though it does suffer at times where the background is just a little too blurry which looks like the characters have just been placed over a backing plate, particularly noticeable in two scenes with Arrietty and Spiller; one where they land on the university roof, the other when they’re back at home at the end. I know television is always on a tight budget but shows like Doctor Who and Primeval have managed it on a BBC / ITV budget.
Overall the 2011 adaptation of the Borrowers was well done. Stephen Fry was a perfect piece of casting; the set pieces were great; and the various storylines of the books and previous interpretations were melded in nicely – borrowed, of course, not stolen! I just think as a standalone piece it didn’t have the magic of the 1992 television series or the 1997 film and I’m not quite sure why. The first thirty minutes seemed to drag but the final thirty made up for it, leaving me with a smile on my face on the end.
A good adaptation but not perfect. Perhaps something more suited to a series rather than a one-off.
6/10
For those of you not familiar with the Borrowers, they are the creation of Mary Norton in her book series from 1952, which tells the story of families of tiny humans who live under floorboards, in sewers and other hidey-holes, borrowing food, belongings and items off humans as they live their life. They particular focus on Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter Arrietty, who are the characters that follow into the adaptations, often joined by wild borrower Spiller. The humans involved in the storyline change from book to book, adaptation to adaptation.
In this 2011 version the family consist of a father and son, and the son’s grandmother, whom they now live with after the off-screen death of the mother. After Arrietty, forbidden by her protective father from leaving the protection of their home under the floorboards, goes up into this house, she is discovered by the boy who, through talking to him, alerts the grandmother, played with a mix of eccentricity and warmth by comedienne Victoria Wood, who vows to rid the house of the borrowers, though never in a particularly menacing way. It is Stephen Fry as the scientist, and his assistant, who provides the evilness in the film, very much mirroring John Goodman’s role in the feature film, as the theorist behind a miniature version of the human race who captures the family in an aim to prove his theory and that he’s not as crazy as the press have painted him. Naturally, as expected, the story comes good and the Borrowers are freed from his grasp by the end; he’s proved to be a laughing stock; no one dies; the family are reunited; father and daughter learn lessons and grow as people; and the gran learns to live with the Borrowers in possibly the most underwritten character in the adaptation. Along the way we get to see a Borrower village, a little bit of teen romance for the thirteen year olds in the audience, and a little bit of heart-warming family matters for the humans that isn’t too far away from this year’s Doctor Who special. Minus the time travelling tower and people being brought back from the dead of course.
As adaptations go this was possibly my least favourite of the three adaptations. That’s not to say it was bad. The final third of the ninety-minute production was full of excitement, mixing in a miniature Great Escape, a funny chase sequence, and a heart-warming ending. Stephen Fry was as excellent as always, packaging up his QI boffin into a character, and adding some effective villainy to the piece. Credit should also go to all the rest of the cast. Christopher Eccleston and Sharon Horgan were realistic as a loving but arguing married couple; Aisling Loftus nailing the grumpy teenager perfectly; and Robert Sheehan the rebellious Spiller. The humans were equally good with Charlie Hishock as the friendly boy playing his part well and Anne Hirsch as Fry’s assistant Jenny making a lot out of her small part.
Overall the cast were great and the plotline adapting the book well, but there did seem to be something missing. Trying to wrestle off my rose-tinted spectacles for a moment there was something warming about the environment they lived in back in 1992. Yes, the props in the new version were great but with a limited timescale to see things in you couldn’t live and breathe in the world as six episodes allowed you to in the television series. There wasn’t as much obvious focus on how everyday human items and tools were used in the world of the Borrowers for different things, but again there were time limits to play with.
I think it’s because I see the Borrowers as quiet an old-fashioned tea-time show whereas this was much more modern. That’s not to say I don’t want references to mobile phones and such – actually for a contemporary adaptation there wasn’t that much of a 2011 feel to it – but it just felt too cold. It’s difficult to put my finger on it.
One thing that does improve on the 1992 version is the compositing. It’s very much dated in the 1992 version – I have it on DVD – but on this one it’s much more realistic and convincing, though it does suffer at times where the background is just a little too blurry which looks like the characters have just been placed over a backing plate, particularly noticeable in two scenes with Arrietty and Spiller; one where they land on the university roof, the other when they’re back at home at the end. I know television is always on a tight budget but shows like Doctor Who and Primeval have managed it on a BBC / ITV budget.
Overall the 2011 adaptation of the Borrowers was well done. Stephen Fry was a perfect piece of casting; the set pieces were great; and the various storylines of the books and previous interpretations were melded in nicely – borrowed, of course, not stolen! I just think as a standalone piece it didn’t have the magic of the 1992 television series or the 1997 film and I’m not quite sure why. The first thirty minutes seemed to drag but the final thirty made up for it, leaving me with a smile on my face on the end.
A good adaptation but not perfect. Perhaps something more suited to a series rather than a one-off.
6/10
A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part Two
OK, having been busy with other things including some comedy DVDs and, you know, spending time with the family, I haven’t actually watched much extra television. The Borrowers is still sat on the PVR so I’ll be coming to that soon, but otherwise it’s because there wasn’t much exciting on on Boxing Day frankly, and the rest of the TV landscape still looks a bit tedious until Sherlock comes on in the new year.
I did, however, watch Toys That Made Christmas, fronted by the presenter par excellence Robert Webb who, though not on top form as he was on the pre-Christmas third movie mistakes programme when he was hilarious, made the show. Though, having watched a repeat of Jonathan Ross’ Top 100 Toys ever, it was very much déjà vu as practically all of the toys were repeated along with the same talking heads, stock images and video clips. In fact, if I was being cynical, would have suggested they were made by the same company but not sure about that. Besides, they didn’t mention Pogs, Boglins or Tracy Island, three of the best toys ever created!
The other programme I’ve managed to see, thanks to the power of iPlayer and on a friend’s recommendation, was Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow. Now I’ve not seen the standard show for a long time, especially weird considering my love of stand-up comedy, and this special was a weird beast.
The show is unsurprisingly fronted by comedian Michael McIntyre who, no matter how many other comedians seem quite snobby about his observational humour, I really like due to his Peter Kay-style jokes out of the everyday, which he demonstrated well as part of this hour-long show. I don’t think it was the usual thing for this show which usually sticks with one or two comedians but it was a shotgun visit through as many acts as they could seemingly fit into a show, with a guest lucky if they were on for more than four minutes which made it feel like a taster and a waste of talent, and more of a variety show, than necessarily a comedy event, but I suppose the selection and diverse showing of talent fits in with the Christmas theme.
As usual with the show the acts were interspersed with the cameraman playing celebrity Where’s Wally with the camera landing on famous people as they laugh, plus ordinary punters. Well I’m assuming they’re ordinary; if not they’re just not famous enough for me to recognise. Even Lulu managed to make it to the audience which was more than she could manage for the festive Strictly Come Dancing.
The set opened with the longest stint of the evening with twelve minutes of McIntyre doing some great sketches on Christmas and kids and childless couples at this time of year, and was very good at it, even if I still can’t get the image of Jon Culshaw impersonating him out of my head, as well as his apparent unhappiness at the spot-on version.
Jack Dee was the first guest on, bringing his usual brand of downbeat humour to the event, his jokes about cats and shredders (not connected I might add) were great but at just four minutes on-screen I was disappointed and could have watched more.
After an inspired sequence about pop records, in particular on Chris Rea, with a very well done duet between McIntyre and songstress Pixie Lott on the Pogues festive hit complete with interpretations of Sean McGowan’s incomprehensible vocals – surely a contender for next year’s Christmas number one, if Lott could ensure her singing was a little stronger, it was onto Rhod Gilbert, a comedian I’m not that familiar with aside from appearances on panel shows, but his five-minute surreal rant on an electric toothbrush was great and my favourite of the show.
After a quick skit from McIntyre on clocks it was the turn of David Mitchell from the Royal Box, delivering a speech from Autocue that was like Ronnie Corbett if he’d grown a beard and a sad resentment of life. In fact, I’m convinced that Mitchell is turning into Charlie Brooker in both delivery and facial look. His speech on Christmas-land and all the absurdities of the period was sharp and biting and fresh out of Brooker’s style of piece.
Heston Blumenthal, another member of the audience, was the cue for McIntyre to joke about glasses up to the two-third point, allowing Rob Brydon dressed as Santa to come on for five minutes, using the celebrities in the audience – which seemed to be mainly consisting of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing contestants – as targets for jokes at their expense which were, mostly, OK and the closing joke aimed at Holly Valance was funny, adult but a little bit mis-judged compared to the rest of the acts. He was good but not as good as Brydon can be, which was a shame.
It was more mick-taking of celebrities with some ok humour from McIntyre as he spoke to Gino D’Acampo before Sean Lock came to the stage to bring the level of humour back up with some dry humour. One of the best acts of the evening, which was good as next up were Miranda Hart and James Cordon, two comedians who I love in ‘Not Going Out’ and ‘Doctor Who’ respectively but don’t think much of as stand-up comedians. The set-up for their spoof of ‘Time of Your Life’ took a while to set-up and the pay back wasn’t that fantastic. I would have rather had that six minutes bolted onto Dee, Gilbert or Lock thanks!
At least the ending was nicely rounded up with Kylie Minogue appearing on stage to perform a truncated version of ‘Walking In A Winter Wonderland’ (sadly not the sexy ‘Santa Baby’).
Overall a cracking hour of comedy. I would rather have seen Hart and Corden dropped and maybe splitting the programme into two one-hours to give all the comedians more screentime, but as a sixty-minute festive selection box of comedians there was some great humour in there and well worth watching.
I did, however, watch Toys That Made Christmas, fronted by the presenter par excellence Robert Webb who, though not on top form as he was on the pre-Christmas third movie mistakes programme when he was hilarious, made the show. Though, having watched a repeat of Jonathan Ross’ Top 100 Toys ever, it was very much déjà vu as practically all of the toys were repeated along with the same talking heads, stock images and video clips. In fact, if I was being cynical, would have suggested they were made by the same company but not sure about that. Besides, they didn’t mention Pogs, Boglins or Tracy Island, three of the best toys ever created!
The other programme I’ve managed to see, thanks to the power of iPlayer and on a friend’s recommendation, was Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow. Now I’ve not seen the standard show for a long time, especially weird considering my love of stand-up comedy, and this special was a weird beast.
The show is unsurprisingly fronted by comedian Michael McIntyre who, no matter how many other comedians seem quite snobby about his observational humour, I really like due to his Peter Kay-style jokes out of the everyday, which he demonstrated well as part of this hour-long show. I don’t think it was the usual thing for this show which usually sticks with one or two comedians but it was a shotgun visit through as many acts as they could seemingly fit into a show, with a guest lucky if they were on for more than four minutes which made it feel like a taster and a waste of talent, and more of a variety show, than necessarily a comedy event, but I suppose the selection and diverse showing of talent fits in with the Christmas theme.
As usual with the show the acts were interspersed with the cameraman playing celebrity Where’s Wally with the camera landing on famous people as they laugh, plus ordinary punters. Well I’m assuming they’re ordinary; if not they’re just not famous enough for me to recognise. Even Lulu managed to make it to the audience which was more than she could manage for the festive Strictly Come Dancing.
The set opened with the longest stint of the evening with twelve minutes of McIntyre doing some great sketches on Christmas and kids and childless couples at this time of year, and was very good at it, even if I still can’t get the image of Jon Culshaw impersonating him out of my head, as well as his apparent unhappiness at the spot-on version.
Jack Dee was the first guest on, bringing his usual brand of downbeat humour to the event, his jokes about cats and shredders (not connected I might add) were great but at just four minutes on-screen I was disappointed and could have watched more.
After an inspired sequence about pop records, in particular on Chris Rea, with a very well done duet between McIntyre and songstress Pixie Lott on the Pogues festive hit complete with interpretations of Sean McGowan’s incomprehensible vocals – surely a contender for next year’s Christmas number one, if Lott could ensure her singing was a little stronger, it was onto Rhod Gilbert, a comedian I’m not that familiar with aside from appearances on panel shows, but his five-minute surreal rant on an electric toothbrush was great and my favourite of the show.
After a quick skit from McIntyre on clocks it was the turn of David Mitchell from the Royal Box, delivering a speech from Autocue that was like Ronnie Corbett if he’d grown a beard and a sad resentment of life. In fact, I’m convinced that Mitchell is turning into Charlie Brooker in both delivery and facial look. His speech on Christmas-land and all the absurdities of the period was sharp and biting and fresh out of Brooker’s style of piece.
Heston Blumenthal, another member of the audience, was the cue for McIntyre to joke about glasses up to the two-third point, allowing Rob Brydon dressed as Santa to come on for five minutes, using the celebrities in the audience – which seemed to be mainly consisting of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing contestants – as targets for jokes at their expense which were, mostly, OK and the closing joke aimed at Holly Valance was funny, adult but a little bit mis-judged compared to the rest of the acts. He was good but not as good as Brydon can be, which was a shame.
It was more mick-taking of celebrities with some ok humour from McIntyre as he spoke to Gino D’Acampo before Sean Lock came to the stage to bring the level of humour back up with some dry humour. One of the best acts of the evening, which was good as next up were Miranda Hart and James Cordon, two comedians who I love in ‘Not Going Out’ and ‘Doctor Who’ respectively but don’t think much of as stand-up comedians. The set-up for their spoof of ‘Time of Your Life’ took a while to set-up and the pay back wasn’t that fantastic. I would have rather had that six minutes bolted onto Dee, Gilbert or Lock thanks!
At least the ending was nicely rounded up with Kylie Minogue appearing on stage to perform a truncated version of ‘Walking In A Winter Wonderland’ (sadly not the sexy ‘Santa Baby’).
Overall a cracking hour of comedy. I would rather have seen Hart and Corden dropped and maybe splitting the programme into two one-hours to give all the comedians more screentime, but as a sixty-minute festive selection box of comedians there was some great humour in there and well worth watching.
Tim Vine - The Joke-Amotive (Live)
I had the pleasure of seeing one of my favourite all-time comedians live in Halifax almost two years ago. The master of the puns and one of most hilarious stand-ups of all time, I saw Tim Vine doing the first leg of his Joke-amotive tour live, mere days before I was admitted to hospital... but I don't think the events were connected.
Happily the tour has now been released on DVD and it was natural for me to ask for a copy for Christmas, and a copy I got!
Featuring a main set of just over an hout, it's pretty much standard fare here from Tim, in that he delivers pun after pun, interspersed with some eccentric and random props that naturally lead to more jokes, and a long line in off-the-wall songs, some crazy, some really funny.
Naturally if you hate one-liners and puns then there's nothing to change your mind here as it's pretty much more of the same from his last three DVDs but if you, like me, love his style and quick-fire delivery then the material on offer here is just as good as ever.
Though relatively short compared to other acts at sixty-five minutes it's just the right length for the style of jokes and there are many you'll be telling to your friends. And what was equally refreshing was that, coming two years after I saw them on stage, I'd forgotten many of the puns so it was new to me.
It's also noteworthy to mention how good the set is - which wasn't used when I saw him live - and testament to the eye for detail of the show. (Let's not talk about the use of gaffa tape on the props though!)
Alongside the main set there are plenty of extras which, compared to most comedy DVDs on the market where you're lucky to get anything more than a chapter menu as extras (Milton Jones I'm looking at you!), is a refreshing change. In fact, Tim Vine DVDs have always been good when it comes to extras.
Even if those extras are a little surreal. And when I say little I mean a lottle.
On this release we get Vine singing and pretending to be the King on stage in 'Blonde Elvis' and two of his self-penned short films from previous years: 'Strumming Carter', telling the story of a country and western singer brought out of retirement for a charity gig; and 'He Jumps In Fields', a mock Mid-western story about a man trying to stop his mother selling off the field he likes to jump around him. Both films have their funny moments but are rather unusual in their topics and style, and the acting and filming remains basic and amateur as defines when they were filmed, but they add to their charm. Think early student productions.
On top of these we get an insightful thirty-minute look at Vine on tour with his support and manager, and a couple of additional sketches not shown in the main feature including the popular box song and the return of Flag Hippo.
And if that's not enough Vine brings you a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the whole act.
Overall a fantastic fourth set from the pun-master and well worth picking up and watching for some hilarious and family friendly humour, with a good eye for detail on the DVD extras even if much of that content is head-scratchingly unusual.
Even if you just watch it for the main act you won't be disappointed.
8.5/10
Happily the tour has now been released on DVD and it was natural for me to ask for a copy for Christmas, and a copy I got!
Featuring a main set of just over an hout, it's pretty much standard fare here from Tim, in that he delivers pun after pun, interspersed with some eccentric and random props that naturally lead to more jokes, and a long line in off-the-wall songs, some crazy, some really funny.
Naturally if you hate one-liners and puns then there's nothing to change your mind here as it's pretty much more of the same from his last three DVDs but if you, like me, love his style and quick-fire delivery then the material on offer here is just as good as ever.
Though relatively short compared to other acts at sixty-five minutes it's just the right length for the style of jokes and there are many you'll be telling to your friends. And what was equally refreshing was that, coming two years after I saw them on stage, I'd forgotten many of the puns so it was new to me.
It's also noteworthy to mention how good the set is - which wasn't used when I saw him live - and testament to the eye for detail of the show. (Let's not talk about the use of gaffa tape on the props though!)
Alongside the main set there are plenty of extras which, compared to most comedy DVDs on the market where you're lucky to get anything more than a chapter menu as extras (Milton Jones I'm looking at you!), is a refreshing change. In fact, Tim Vine DVDs have always been good when it comes to extras.
Even if those extras are a little surreal. And when I say little I mean a lottle.
On this release we get Vine singing and pretending to be the King on stage in 'Blonde Elvis' and two of his self-penned short films from previous years: 'Strumming Carter', telling the story of a country and western singer brought out of retirement for a charity gig; and 'He Jumps In Fields', a mock Mid-western story about a man trying to stop his mother selling off the field he likes to jump around him. Both films have their funny moments but are rather unusual in their topics and style, and the acting and filming remains basic and amateur as defines when they were filmed, but they add to their charm. Think early student productions.
On top of these we get an insightful thirty-minute look at Vine on tour with his support and manager, and a couple of additional sketches not shown in the main feature including the popular box song and the return of Flag Hippo.
And if that's not enough Vine brings you a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the whole act.
Overall a fantastic fourth set from the pun-master and well worth picking up and watching for some hilarious and family friendly humour, with a good eye for detail on the DVD extras even if much of that content is head-scratchingly unusual.
Even if you just watch it for the main act you won't be disappointed.
8.5/10
Monday 26 December 2011
Milton Jones - Lion Whisperer [DVD]
Having already seen this tour live (Click here to read my review) I'm not going to go over old ground and talk about the gig which, if you read my review, know I really enjoyed.
For those of you who now have read that review pretty much all the excellent jokes of that set have come across onto the DVD with perhaps one or two extra laughs as well. There are a few changes that do impact on the overall feel. Firstly the jokes customised to the area of the gig obviously changed, and there's little that can be done about that, but with the moving of Milton's grandad from the beginning to the middle of the set, you do lose the great opening joke of late comers turning up. I can only assume that, with the setting of the night, this wasn't possible.
What you do get in replacement is a few extra filmed sections of Milton's grandad backstage with some jokes thrown in.
Though no DVD is ever going to replace the experience of seeing an act live this DVD includes most of what was in the performance I saw with those laughs now yours to treasure on tape.
Well worth a pick up for a subdued and easy-going but hilarious 70 mins of one-liners.
For those of you who now have read that review pretty much all the excellent jokes of that set have come across onto the DVD with perhaps one or two extra laughs as well. There are a few changes that do impact on the overall feel. Firstly the jokes customised to the area of the gig obviously changed, and there's little that can be done about that, but with the moving of Milton's grandad from the beginning to the middle of the set, you do lose the great opening joke of late comers turning up. I can only assume that, with the setting of the night, this wasn't possible.
What you do get in replacement is a few extra filmed sections of Milton's grandad backstage with some jokes thrown in.
Though no DVD is ever going to replace the experience of seeing an act live this DVD includes most of what was in the performance I saw with those laughs now yours to treasure on tape.
Well worth a pick up for a subdued and easy-going but hilarious 70 mins of one-liners.
A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part One: Christmas Day
Up there with family, presents and food is television on Christmas Day, a day when the television networks bring out their big guns with one-offs, festive specials and big budget versions of their hit shows. But how did this year’s Xmas shows stand up?
Obviously between unwrapping presents – 12:30, eating dinner – 3pm, and falling asleep – 11pm, it’s impossible to watch everything but, hey, I managed to catch most of what I wanted to see, starting with the Top of the Pops Christmas Show, the now annual look back at the preceding year’s music after the mainly weekly show was axed by the BBC several years ago. Though to be hypocritical and say that I rarely watched the show, I think it was a massive shame for live music that the show was dropped but I can understand their reasons as more acts are now American or are DJ based and require a bit of, er, assistance in the live department.
It was always well known that TOTP used to have the artists lip-synching but didn’t in its noughties shows but it was difficult to tell what was or wasn’t live in this show. I’m not convinced it was all live but it could have gone either way. ‘Rizzle Kicks’, performing ‘Down with the Trumpets’, certainly were as they changed some lyrics to Christmas ones, and did it well, also excelling on their appearance out of two presents on Olly Murs ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ which was equally live, Murs recreating the DJ effects of skipping well live.
Appearances by Example, Pixie Lott, Noah and the Whale and Jessie J, an earlier recorded acoustic version of ‘Price Tag’ sung beautifully, were all welcome, a tedious performance of the tedious ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, not a patch on the great ‘Lego House’, less so. ‘Little Mix’, this year’s X Factor winners, also dropped in to perform ‘Cannonball’, thankfully not the festive number one, and it was as average as you expect. And then, much to Radio 1’s annoyance I imagine, TOTP got to reveal this year’s Christmas chart topper with the promo video for ‘Wherever You Are’.
Overall a welcome return for the TOTP and aside from a few dodgy acts and some countdowns of the big tunes of the year which including songs that were so big I’ve never heard of them, it was well worth watching. They even managed to throw in a fitting tribute to Jimmy Saville. Now then, now then.
After a lovely Christmas dinner – thanks mum! – and with the power of Sky Plus we watched The Queen, helpfully revealed at the end to be a Sky News production, possibly their first of the year that doesn’t include ticker tape banners or phone hacking. Ooh.
Her speech was as great and rousing as usual and for an 85-year-old woman she can still hold the screen and stand for a considerable length of time. Obviously this year it was backed with the knowledge that her husband was in hospital having undergone a heart operation whilst she continued on with life as usual, so the message of family being important might not have been as strong as it would have been. At least she had Mike Tindall there for all her dwarf-tossing needs.
As I said to my parents, not everyone is lucky enough to have a Phil with them at Christmas dinner this year.
After the Queen’s speech it was a break until the next programme, a break I filled with Milton Jones on one of my Christmas DVDs and a scout around the music channels, one of which was showing ‘Queen at 3’ against her majesty with him Mercury. But, at 4:50 it was time for Ratatouille.
Being the penultimate Pixar film I had to see to complete the set – just Cars 2 to see now – I was eager to watch it. ‘Up’, one of their most recent efforts, is one of the best films of all time and I hoped that ‘Ratatouille’ from a similar era would be up to it. Sadly, it’s not one of their best films. The premise and animation are as clever and well implemented as ever, and the last half-an-hour of the film was an exciting mixture of chases, emotion, drama and a fitting conclusion to the story. It’s just a shame that the first hour wasn’t as exciting as it could have been and was just missing some sparkle that I can’t put my finger on. We’ve been spoilt recently with some cracking CGI films – ‘Arthur Christmas’ being the most recent example – and this seemed to be missing something. The premise seemed to take a while to set up and it took a while to care about the characters.
Still, it was an animated film well worth watching but not up there with ‘Up’ or ‘Toy Story 2’ from the Pixar stable.
With telephone calls to family members filling up the next half an hour, it was next onto Doctor Who and the Christmas special ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, a loose – very loose – take on the Narnia story.
It’s well documented on my blog that I much prefer the Steven Moffat / Matt Smith era of ‘Doctor Who’ over the RTD / David Tennant one. However, I didn’t much enjoy last year’s Christmas special even if it had one of the most sad, touching ends to the story ever. I think the combination of a flying shark, Michael Gambon’s shockingly tedious acting (ala his work in Harry Potter) and a so-so story did it for me. Though I do admit to sobbing a little at the fate of Katherine Jenkins’ character.
This year’s special was still very much tugging at the heartstrings. Starting with the Doctor blowing up a spaceship and landing on earth in an ill-fitting space-suit to be rescued by Claire Skinners’ war-time mother and taken to the TARDIS was a funny opening including getting the wrong Police Box, but seemed a waste of CGI with blowing up a spaceship that was only in for less than a minute. Following the Doctor’s departure we learn that her husband, played by Alexander Armstrong, has died three years later whilst in a bomber over the English Channel, but she hasn’t yet told their two children.
So, at Christmas, off they go to their uncle’s house which is deserted, apart from the Doctor as the Caretaker, who has turned the house into a magical playground with moving furniture, a kids bedroom stuffed with toys, tricks and, of course, two hammocks, and a Christmas tree with a mysterious blue parcel under it.
A special Christmas treat for the kids, Cyril, the young boy, opens it early and finds it takes him to a planet where decoration-covered Christmas trees grow naturally and there is a mysterious tower in the centre with strange wooden men in it. It’s not long before the Doctor with the daughter in tow find out where he’s gone and, instead of the safe forest he’d planned, there’s something remiss and they find the tower with none of them suitable to carry the spirits of the forest, who are to be killed by an extreme form of deforestation about to occur with acid rain, a plot stand found out by the mother who stumbles across the group of deforesters (is that even a word?) led by Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir who bring some great comic relief to the piece and are sadly underused in the story. I could have watched Bill Bailey all day in this story.
With the family all reunited in the tower the mother is found to be the perfect carrier for the souls and seemingly a lot of hair to hide the gold ring which quickly disappears from her head in possibly a prop malfunction and they head off through the time vortex to save the forest and get back home and, in a piece of lucky serendipity, become a guiding light for her husband in the fighter who survives the journey home to be reunited with the family. All that is left is for the Doctor to realise the importance of family and head over to the Pond household to join them for Christmas dinner, a tear coming to his eye.
Now, I’m going to be the first time to say that the storyline of this year’s Doctor Who wasn’t the best. Moffat once more refuses to kill off a character again and brings him back in a rather contrived way; it’s very sickly sweet in how they save the trees; and there’s a lot of tears. That said, however, I found the story very touching and a tear did come to my eye just like the Doctor’s. God, I must be getting more sentimental as I get older, but the combination of storyline, music and acting got to me.
Sure, it wasn’t the most original storyline ever and Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir deserved more screen time, but the locations and eye to detail were beautiful. Matt Smith was as spot-on with the Doctor as ever during the spacesuit sequence and the house-tour sketch, and managed to cover a whole range of emotions throughout the piece, cementing him as my favourite Doctor so far. Steven Moffat is proving to be a good writer of the series and though the storyline did once more hit the big reset button that plagued RTD’s era as well as his, there was a fair bit of emotion in it.
Now from one end of drama to the other and we come to Coronation Street. Now I’ve not watched this soap regularly for eight years now so I only really watch it when I’m seeing my parents or for big occasions like last year’s impressive fiftieth anniversary train crash plotline. This year’s big storylines involved a Nativity-birth parallel (tres original!) and the evil Tracy Barlow once more cooking up some lies, this time that Becky pushed her downstairs causing her to miscarry. This plotline also led to Becky almost killing herself in a drink-fuelled fire and her swearing revenge on Tracy, whilst Tracy’s mother knows that the truth that she lost the kids before meeting Becky.
It was quite a good episode of Corrie but there are several things to note. Firstly it started with the musical accompaniment of Shakin’ Steven’s ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ over a montage of happy and sad scenes. Since when did it become ‘Home and Away’? Secondly, is Steve an idiot? Tracy has already murdered her boyfriend, served time for it, tried to take Steve’s daughter off him and done all sorts of other unhinged things. Why would he get back with her? And thirdly, are all the men in soaps stupid? Why is Peter Barlow having an affair with Carla? Does he not learn after the whole bigamy things years ago?
Surely me criticising the reality of soap operas is an insane thing to do but the characters seem to change so wildly in their actions and motivations?
Coronation Street’s Christmas Day show wasn’t a patch on last year’s human drama, but it was never going to be. However, it is slowly turning into Eastenders with far less of the humour it once enjoyed and far more miscarriages, fires, hospital-isation, affairs and all that malarkey. Ho ho ho indeed.
After a trip to Manchester, which was covered in snow according to Corrie when nowhere in this part of England has had anything more than a light covering, it was back to the PVR to watch Strictly Come Dancing, a one-off light-hearted version of the show featuring Simon from Blue, Charlie from Eastenders, Barry the boxer, Debra the impressionist (not sure who she was dancing as), and my favourite Su Pollard. Now I didn’t see all the show as I was doing other things but what I did see was some pleasant Christmas Day night fun, with Craig dressed very well as the Grinch, some cheesy jokes from Bruce and a poor, but funny, dance routine by Su “You Rang M’Lord?” Pollard. It’s not a show I regularly watch but it was amusing to dip-in and –out of.
Earlier in the night we’d also taped The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to last year’s CGI adaptation of the first kiddies book. Worried that this was going to be a shameful cash-in of taking the original story and shoe-horning a sequel out of it, I realised at the end it was based on a second book. Having never read the Gruffalo as a kid – it’s 1999 release meant it was well out of my childhood – there was no emotional connection to watch either the first or the second film – and also being about twenty years too old for its target market, it would be a strange thing to watch but, like the first, the slow, pedestrian delivery of the story mixed in with some gentle humour and beautiful animation make it a joy to watch.
It’s often the little things that make these short animations and in this case it was bits like the hedgehog’s two cute appearances, and the detail of the footprints in the snow. The voice acting, style and detail were as impressive as last year and though, yes, it’s not the most dynamic of short films, well stretching out how long it should last for, it was a fun piece of story for kids and “big kids” too.
Last but not least was the festive edition of Have I Got A Bit More News For You and, thankfully, not a hastily cobbled together compilation of best bits as I thought it would be. With all fresh material, Christmas decorations and a great lead from one of the best guest presenters Martin Clunes, it was forty-minutes of great topical laughs, showing how great the programme is as it enters its twentieth year on air.
Overall, Christmas Day 2011 was a good day for television programmes with a good cross section of shows, and I didn’t even get a chance to re-watch Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ or McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow but hopefully will soon!
Obviously between unwrapping presents – 12:30, eating dinner – 3pm, and falling asleep – 11pm, it’s impossible to watch everything but, hey, I managed to catch most of what I wanted to see, starting with the Top of the Pops Christmas Show, the now annual look back at the preceding year’s music after the mainly weekly show was axed by the BBC several years ago. Though to be hypocritical and say that I rarely watched the show, I think it was a massive shame for live music that the show was dropped but I can understand their reasons as more acts are now American or are DJ based and require a bit of, er, assistance in the live department.
It was always well known that TOTP used to have the artists lip-synching but didn’t in its noughties shows but it was difficult to tell what was or wasn’t live in this show. I’m not convinced it was all live but it could have gone either way. ‘Rizzle Kicks’, performing ‘Down with the Trumpets’, certainly were as they changed some lyrics to Christmas ones, and did it well, also excelling on their appearance out of two presents on Olly Murs ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ which was equally live, Murs recreating the DJ effects of skipping well live.
Appearances by Example, Pixie Lott, Noah and the Whale and Jessie J, an earlier recorded acoustic version of ‘Price Tag’ sung beautifully, were all welcome, a tedious performance of the tedious ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, not a patch on the great ‘Lego House’, less so. ‘Little Mix’, this year’s X Factor winners, also dropped in to perform ‘Cannonball’, thankfully not the festive number one, and it was as average as you expect. And then, much to Radio 1’s annoyance I imagine, TOTP got to reveal this year’s Christmas chart topper with the promo video for ‘Wherever You Are’.
Overall a welcome return for the TOTP and aside from a few dodgy acts and some countdowns of the big tunes of the year which including songs that were so big I’ve never heard of them, it was well worth watching. They even managed to throw in a fitting tribute to Jimmy Saville. Now then, now then.
After a lovely Christmas dinner – thanks mum! – and with the power of Sky Plus we watched The Queen, helpfully revealed at the end to be a Sky News production, possibly their first of the year that doesn’t include ticker tape banners or phone hacking. Ooh.
Her speech was as great and rousing as usual and for an 85-year-old woman she can still hold the screen and stand for a considerable length of time. Obviously this year it was backed with the knowledge that her husband was in hospital having undergone a heart operation whilst she continued on with life as usual, so the message of family being important might not have been as strong as it would have been. At least she had Mike Tindall there for all her dwarf-tossing needs.
As I said to my parents, not everyone is lucky enough to have a Phil with them at Christmas dinner this year.
After the Queen’s speech it was a break until the next programme, a break I filled with Milton Jones on one of my Christmas DVDs and a scout around the music channels, one of which was showing ‘Queen at 3’ against her majesty with him Mercury. But, at 4:50 it was time for Ratatouille.
Being the penultimate Pixar film I had to see to complete the set – just Cars 2 to see now – I was eager to watch it. ‘Up’, one of their most recent efforts, is one of the best films of all time and I hoped that ‘Ratatouille’ from a similar era would be up to it. Sadly, it’s not one of their best films. The premise and animation are as clever and well implemented as ever, and the last half-an-hour of the film was an exciting mixture of chases, emotion, drama and a fitting conclusion to the story. It’s just a shame that the first hour wasn’t as exciting as it could have been and was just missing some sparkle that I can’t put my finger on. We’ve been spoilt recently with some cracking CGI films – ‘Arthur Christmas’ being the most recent example – and this seemed to be missing something. The premise seemed to take a while to set up and it took a while to care about the characters.
Still, it was an animated film well worth watching but not up there with ‘Up’ or ‘Toy Story 2’ from the Pixar stable.
With telephone calls to family members filling up the next half an hour, it was next onto Doctor Who and the Christmas special ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, a loose – very loose – take on the Narnia story.
It’s well documented on my blog that I much prefer the Steven Moffat / Matt Smith era of ‘Doctor Who’ over the RTD / David Tennant one. However, I didn’t much enjoy last year’s Christmas special even if it had one of the most sad, touching ends to the story ever. I think the combination of a flying shark, Michael Gambon’s shockingly tedious acting (ala his work in Harry Potter) and a so-so story did it for me. Though I do admit to sobbing a little at the fate of Katherine Jenkins’ character.
This year’s special was still very much tugging at the heartstrings. Starting with the Doctor blowing up a spaceship and landing on earth in an ill-fitting space-suit to be rescued by Claire Skinners’ war-time mother and taken to the TARDIS was a funny opening including getting the wrong Police Box, but seemed a waste of CGI with blowing up a spaceship that was only in for less than a minute. Following the Doctor’s departure we learn that her husband, played by Alexander Armstrong, has died three years later whilst in a bomber over the English Channel, but she hasn’t yet told their two children.
So, at Christmas, off they go to their uncle’s house which is deserted, apart from the Doctor as the Caretaker, who has turned the house into a magical playground with moving furniture, a kids bedroom stuffed with toys, tricks and, of course, two hammocks, and a Christmas tree with a mysterious blue parcel under it.
A special Christmas treat for the kids, Cyril, the young boy, opens it early and finds it takes him to a planet where decoration-covered Christmas trees grow naturally and there is a mysterious tower in the centre with strange wooden men in it. It’s not long before the Doctor with the daughter in tow find out where he’s gone and, instead of the safe forest he’d planned, there’s something remiss and they find the tower with none of them suitable to carry the spirits of the forest, who are to be killed by an extreme form of deforestation about to occur with acid rain, a plot stand found out by the mother who stumbles across the group of deforesters (is that even a word?) led by Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir who bring some great comic relief to the piece and are sadly underused in the story. I could have watched Bill Bailey all day in this story.
With the family all reunited in the tower the mother is found to be the perfect carrier for the souls and seemingly a lot of hair to hide the gold ring which quickly disappears from her head in possibly a prop malfunction and they head off through the time vortex to save the forest and get back home and, in a piece of lucky serendipity, become a guiding light for her husband in the fighter who survives the journey home to be reunited with the family. All that is left is for the Doctor to realise the importance of family and head over to the Pond household to join them for Christmas dinner, a tear coming to his eye.
Now, I’m going to be the first time to say that the storyline of this year’s Doctor Who wasn’t the best. Moffat once more refuses to kill off a character again and brings him back in a rather contrived way; it’s very sickly sweet in how they save the trees; and there’s a lot of tears. That said, however, I found the story very touching and a tear did come to my eye just like the Doctor’s. God, I must be getting more sentimental as I get older, but the combination of storyline, music and acting got to me.
Sure, it wasn’t the most original storyline ever and Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir deserved more screen time, but the locations and eye to detail were beautiful. Matt Smith was as spot-on with the Doctor as ever during the spacesuit sequence and the house-tour sketch, and managed to cover a whole range of emotions throughout the piece, cementing him as my favourite Doctor so far. Steven Moffat is proving to be a good writer of the series and though the storyline did once more hit the big reset button that plagued RTD’s era as well as his, there was a fair bit of emotion in it.
Now from one end of drama to the other and we come to Coronation Street. Now I’ve not watched this soap regularly for eight years now so I only really watch it when I’m seeing my parents or for big occasions like last year’s impressive fiftieth anniversary train crash plotline. This year’s big storylines involved a Nativity-birth parallel (tres original!) and the evil Tracy Barlow once more cooking up some lies, this time that Becky pushed her downstairs causing her to miscarry. This plotline also led to Becky almost killing herself in a drink-fuelled fire and her swearing revenge on Tracy, whilst Tracy’s mother knows that the truth that she lost the kids before meeting Becky.
It was quite a good episode of Corrie but there are several things to note. Firstly it started with the musical accompaniment of Shakin’ Steven’s ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ over a montage of happy and sad scenes. Since when did it become ‘Home and Away’? Secondly, is Steve an idiot? Tracy has already murdered her boyfriend, served time for it, tried to take Steve’s daughter off him and done all sorts of other unhinged things. Why would he get back with her? And thirdly, are all the men in soaps stupid? Why is Peter Barlow having an affair with Carla? Does he not learn after the whole bigamy things years ago?
Surely me criticising the reality of soap operas is an insane thing to do but the characters seem to change so wildly in their actions and motivations?
Coronation Street’s Christmas Day show wasn’t a patch on last year’s human drama, but it was never going to be. However, it is slowly turning into Eastenders with far less of the humour it once enjoyed and far more miscarriages, fires, hospital-isation, affairs and all that malarkey. Ho ho ho indeed.
After a trip to Manchester, which was covered in snow according to Corrie when nowhere in this part of England has had anything more than a light covering, it was back to the PVR to watch Strictly Come Dancing, a one-off light-hearted version of the show featuring Simon from Blue, Charlie from Eastenders, Barry the boxer, Debra the impressionist (not sure who she was dancing as), and my favourite Su Pollard. Now I didn’t see all the show as I was doing other things but what I did see was some pleasant Christmas Day night fun, with Craig dressed very well as the Grinch, some cheesy jokes from Bruce and a poor, but funny, dance routine by Su “You Rang M’Lord?” Pollard. It’s not a show I regularly watch but it was amusing to dip-in and –out of.
Earlier in the night we’d also taped The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to last year’s CGI adaptation of the first kiddies book. Worried that this was going to be a shameful cash-in of taking the original story and shoe-horning a sequel out of it, I realised at the end it was based on a second book. Having never read the Gruffalo as a kid – it’s 1999 release meant it was well out of my childhood – there was no emotional connection to watch either the first or the second film – and also being about twenty years too old for its target market, it would be a strange thing to watch but, like the first, the slow, pedestrian delivery of the story mixed in with some gentle humour and beautiful animation make it a joy to watch.
It’s often the little things that make these short animations and in this case it was bits like the hedgehog’s two cute appearances, and the detail of the footprints in the snow. The voice acting, style and detail were as impressive as last year and though, yes, it’s not the most dynamic of short films, well stretching out how long it should last for, it was a fun piece of story for kids and “big kids” too.
Last but not least was the festive edition of Have I Got A Bit More News For You and, thankfully, not a hastily cobbled together compilation of best bits as I thought it would be. With all fresh material, Christmas decorations and a great lead from one of the best guest presenters Martin Clunes, it was forty-minutes of great topical laughs, showing how great the programme is as it enters its twentieth year on air.
Overall, Christmas Day 2011 was a good day for television programmes with a good cross section of shows, and I didn’t even get a chance to re-watch Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ or McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow but hopefully will soon!
Friday 23 December 2011
The York Family Robinson [York Theatre Royal Review]
The York Family Robinson
York Theatre Royal, Tuesday 20th December 2011
It’s been seventeen years since we started going to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal in York, quite possibly one of the most unique pantos in the country. Though it doesn’t contain any celebrities, soap-stars or big names that will sell tickets, it does contain Berwick Kaler (lead actor, writer, dame), Marin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard, who have become big names in the York area, attracting people from all over the country and the world to the annual pantomime, this year taking the story of the Swiss Family Robinson, as loosely as always of course, giving it a York makeover and delivering it to packed out audiences over seven weeks.
The storyline involves villain Zantanus Junior, son of the devil, attempting to find the horns of his father which will give him the ultimate power of evil, but only if he finds them within twelve months. Whilst attempting to find Devil’s Island, he stumbles across the Robinson family who, with Man Friday knowing where the island is, are kidnapped by him and land in Australia, only to find the island and ultimately stopping Zantanus from retrieving the horns. This is a very quick summary of what is, as usually, a twisty-turny mad-cap pantomime that puts humour over plotting.
If I’m being honest to myself I have found the pantomime going downhill over the last few years with the humour feeling a little tired even if the feel was as good as ever. However I feel that this year was very much a return to form.
The backdrops of the production were as glorious as usual with Whitby, Australia and Devil’s island all beautifully recreated with great use of lighting, moving parts and, of course, visual jokes. All the great trademarks of the panto were there from Berwick’s wacky dresses, to the blacked-out UV sequence (these year a dancing bones sequence), to the pre-filmed video bit which, this time, kicked off the second act, and was a well produced section on a boat filmed in Scarborough which has, year on year, get more ambitious and more funny. Plus, Harry Gration was back in it.
There was, however, something missing and that was the usual water sequence where Kaler and Barrass end up covering each other in water in a series of contrived, but funny, water sequences. Though there was a brief bit involving tea and some in the filmed section, this funny slapstick bit was missing and I missed it.
But it was somewhat made up by the ambition of the lead dame. Not exactly a spring chicken, I thought over the last few years Berwick had been calming down his energetic role, but the amount of high-wire work he did in this production, including a sequence over a bridge involving a skateboard and a unicycle that involved him hanging in the rafters for a considerable time, plus a hilarious rendition of Swan Lake, showed he was pretty much up for anything the younger cast members would do.
Song wise they were as varied as ever and thankfully lacking some of the more cheesy sentimental tunes they’ve included in recent years. ‘England’, a riff on Westlife’s ‘My Love’, ‘Whatever Happened To My Part’ and ‘Colour My World’ were all great songs with funny lyrics and well sung by the cast even if, as usual, the words from the chorus songs got lost in the music, which was a professionally played as ever by the four musicians. Only ‘Rock-A-Hula-Zumba’ I feel wasn’t up to the other songs, but that was just one out of over a dozen classic panto tunes.
The panto was as ambitious as ever this year. The sequence with the moving boat was very impressively done as well the slapstick bed sequence with moving parts, cast members disappearing and re-appearing, plus loads of quick costume changes. What they manage to pull off each year live on stage is always worth seeing and this year was definitely no exception.
The cast, together now for many years, naturally work well off each other. Berwick Kaler, as Annie Robinson the chief dame, was as enthusiastic and funny as ever and Marin Barrass as son Jim was the perfect foil as usual. Even though ill – more on that shortly – Suzy Cooper as Rosie was as bubbly as usual, and my favour cast member – David Leonard – once more played the villain with relish.
AJ Powell, Sian Howard, Julie-Anne Castro and Jamie Harris, the latter a very welcome return, all filled out the cast well and I’m sure AJ Powell will be a future replacement for one of them when the time comes for someone to retire.
Though the best year of the pantomime there has been in the past few years, the showing I attended was also hit with problems like I’d never seen at the York one. Firstly, unavoidably, Suzy Cooper was suffering from a chest infection so had to step out of singing, performing her tune to a backing track but using a ventriloquist dummy to great effect which added more to the song than there probably would have been without it. Though, to be honest, if it hadn’t been mentioned as part of a joke, I probably wouldn’t have noticed due to her still great delivery of her lines and the puppet explanation for the song.
Elsewhere, and I label some of these as mistakes warily as the productions are known for ad-libbing mistakes in, but Berwick missed a cue early on, there were some mic problems at a couple of times and the extendable leg near the end failed to extend, but all were used as spring boards for more jokes so added to the production, it’s just unusual to see a series of such problems in a usually flawless production, but we did see it only six performances in this time so is early in the run.
In ‘The York Family Robinson’ the ‘York Theatre Royal’ has once more got a great asset in a production with some fantastic sets, great characters, fantastic jokes and songs and a panto that attracts people from all over the country. An improvement on the last few years, if you can still get a ticket it’s well worth catching for a great night of jokes. I’ve managed to get tickets for the last night this year for the first time so it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out, and how mad the final show will be!
7/10
York Theatre Royal, Tuesday 20th December 2011
It’s been seventeen years since we started going to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal in York, quite possibly one of the most unique pantos in the country. Though it doesn’t contain any celebrities, soap-stars or big names that will sell tickets, it does contain Berwick Kaler (lead actor, writer, dame), Marin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard, who have become big names in the York area, attracting people from all over the country and the world to the annual pantomime, this year taking the story of the Swiss Family Robinson, as loosely as always of course, giving it a York makeover and delivering it to packed out audiences over seven weeks.
The storyline involves villain Zantanus Junior, son of the devil, attempting to find the horns of his father which will give him the ultimate power of evil, but only if he finds them within twelve months. Whilst attempting to find Devil’s Island, he stumbles across the Robinson family who, with Man Friday knowing where the island is, are kidnapped by him and land in Australia, only to find the island and ultimately stopping Zantanus from retrieving the horns. This is a very quick summary of what is, as usually, a twisty-turny mad-cap pantomime that puts humour over plotting.
If I’m being honest to myself I have found the pantomime going downhill over the last few years with the humour feeling a little tired even if the feel was as good as ever. However I feel that this year was very much a return to form.
The backdrops of the production were as glorious as usual with Whitby, Australia and Devil’s island all beautifully recreated with great use of lighting, moving parts and, of course, visual jokes. All the great trademarks of the panto were there from Berwick’s wacky dresses, to the blacked-out UV sequence (these year a dancing bones sequence), to the pre-filmed video bit which, this time, kicked off the second act, and was a well produced section on a boat filmed in Scarborough which has, year on year, get more ambitious and more funny. Plus, Harry Gration was back in it.
There was, however, something missing and that was the usual water sequence where Kaler and Barrass end up covering each other in water in a series of contrived, but funny, water sequences. Though there was a brief bit involving tea and some in the filmed section, this funny slapstick bit was missing and I missed it.
But it was somewhat made up by the ambition of the lead dame. Not exactly a spring chicken, I thought over the last few years Berwick had been calming down his energetic role, but the amount of high-wire work he did in this production, including a sequence over a bridge involving a skateboard and a unicycle that involved him hanging in the rafters for a considerable time, plus a hilarious rendition of Swan Lake, showed he was pretty much up for anything the younger cast members would do.
Song wise they were as varied as ever and thankfully lacking some of the more cheesy sentimental tunes they’ve included in recent years. ‘England’, a riff on Westlife’s ‘My Love’, ‘Whatever Happened To My Part’ and ‘Colour My World’ were all great songs with funny lyrics and well sung by the cast even if, as usual, the words from the chorus songs got lost in the music, which was a professionally played as ever by the four musicians. Only ‘Rock-A-Hula-Zumba’ I feel wasn’t up to the other songs, but that was just one out of over a dozen classic panto tunes.
The panto was as ambitious as ever this year. The sequence with the moving boat was very impressively done as well the slapstick bed sequence with moving parts, cast members disappearing and re-appearing, plus loads of quick costume changes. What they manage to pull off each year live on stage is always worth seeing and this year was definitely no exception.
The cast, together now for many years, naturally work well off each other. Berwick Kaler, as Annie Robinson the chief dame, was as enthusiastic and funny as ever and Marin Barrass as son Jim was the perfect foil as usual. Even though ill – more on that shortly – Suzy Cooper as Rosie was as bubbly as usual, and my favour cast member – David Leonard – once more played the villain with relish.
AJ Powell, Sian Howard, Julie-Anne Castro and Jamie Harris, the latter a very welcome return, all filled out the cast well and I’m sure AJ Powell will be a future replacement for one of them when the time comes for someone to retire.
Though the best year of the pantomime there has been in the past few years, the showing I attended was also hit with problems like I’d never seen at the York one. Firstly, unavoidably, Suzy Cooper was suffering from a chest infection so had to step out of singing, performing her tune to a backing track but using a ventriloquist dummy to great effect which added more to the song than there probably would have been without it. Though, to be honest, if it hadn’t been mentioned as part of a joke, I probably wouldn’t have noticed due to her still great delivery of her lines and the puppet explanation for the song.
Elsewhere, and I label some of these as mistakes warily as the productions are known for ad-libbing mistakes in, but Berwick missed a cue early on, there were some mic problems at a couple of times and the extendable leg near the end failed to extend, but all were used as spring boards for more jokes so added to the production, it’s just unusual to see a series of such problems in a usually flawless production, but we did see it only six performances in this time so is early in the run.
In ‘The York Family Robinson’ the ‘York Theatre Royal’ has once more got a great asset in a production with some fantastic sets, great characters, fantastic jokes and songs and a panto that attracts people from all over the country. An improvement on the last few years, if you can still get a ticket it’s well worth catching for a great night of jokes. I’ve managed to get tickets for the last night this year for the first time so it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out, and how mad the final show will be!
7/10
Sunday 18 December 2011
A Trip to Chiquitos and Arthur Christmas (Movie) – Review
I am afraid to say that I am disappointed in myself. As a massive fan of Aardman films I have only just got round to seeing their latest and fourth appearance in the cinema “Arthur Christmas”, their second CGI offering and the first of their new deal with Sony Pictures.
Today I finally righted the wrong of me not seeing it and I’m so glad I did.
But first there was the meal and a little side to this review. Today was the first time I tried a meal at Chiquito, a Mexican version of Nandos with less of an obsession with chicken. Having picked up the tickets early from Vue - £8 a ticket???? and they tell you where to sit??? – I wandered over to the restaurant and grabbed a drink whilst I waited for my parents. After the barman decided to spill the first attempt at the Mexican Milky Way - Amaretto, Baileys, chocolate liqueur, Eristoff Vodka, milk & cream, topped with whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate as their website says – knocking the blender over and covering himself in milky goodness (steady!) I managed to enjoy the £4.99 drink which was as nice as any of the Baileys-based cocktails you get at the chains and reasonably priced and sized.
With my parents having now arrived we could sit down to enjoy the meal. We were treated to some complimentary tortillas with tomato salsa that were like over-sized Doritos but obviously more home-made, but perhaps not enough salsa to really make it fair on the whole party, with every spooning up of salsa seriously depleting the pot.
For starters I remained as boring as ever and went with loaded potato skins but for £4.99 there was just a disappointing two skins, though they were tasty and the topping of bacon and sour cream was delicious, with a pot of barbecue sauce on the size. They were, ultimately, not as generous as the equally tasty skins you get at, say, Frankie and Bennys. The similarly priced chilli poppers and slightly cheaper duck taquito that my parents had were equally as tasty but equally as titchy.
Onto the main course and I’d definitely hit lucky with my choice of my favourite Mexican dishes, fajitas. I plumped for the sirloin steak version which was delivered on a sizzling plate at my chosen medium-rare with onion, tomato and pepper salad-thing, and was matched up with three pots of sour cream, tomato salsa, half-a-dozen fajita wraps, a plate of lettuce and cheese and some coleslaw I’d ordered as a side as I was a pig. Though a hefty £15.99 the amount of food there did justify its price and the amount of food was just right for a hefty appetite. Perhaps I would have liked a little bit more cheese and lettuce but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The food was served sizzling hot and at the end I was more than satisfied with the amount. The burger that my mum enjoyed seemed a fair size but my dad’s southern fried chicken perhaps not so much, but they were all very tasty.
Overall the bill came to just over £65 which for three people including drinks isn’t bad. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant with enough Mexican pictures to convince you the brand has been anywhere near the land of Tequila – as much as Frankie and Bennys tries to make itself look like an Italian-American diner, but thankfully Chiquito doesn’t try to teach you Mexican in the loos – with some Christmas songs slotted into the more Mexican offerings, plus the service was friendly and relatively prompt considering it was reasonably quiet, plus for those who want to delve further, the toilets were immaculate.
I think if they could plump up the size of the starters and learn not to pour cocktails over themselves then it would be almost a flawless meal.
Now onto the main reason I’m writing this review: ‘Arthur Christmas’. So it’s over to Vue, where they charge a lot for the showings (though, to be fair, not much more than Cineworld, my hang out in Bradford) and assign you seats (unlike Cineworld). However, with the screening being relatively quiet, we moved seats to a better sitting position mid-film so as not to damage our necks staring up at the screen. And for once the kids in front of us were well behaved and quiet, which made for a refreshing change in a kids screening.
Before we could get through to the actual theme there were obviously the adverts to endure. Vue, it seems, may be wanting you not to record the film. At least 1/3rd of the slides of the opening slide show were about not recording and then some disc jockey from Minster FM came onto repeat the message. Fine, got the message. Not that I’d be recording a film that’s been out for six weeks anyway; it will have already been torrented to hell.
Also before the feature presentation there was some more Aardman goodness with a new trailer for Pirates!, their next feature film, this time stop-motion, coming out next year. I’d only seen the first trailer and this one certainly expanded the premise of the movie and it looks hilarious, so can’t wait for that. They also did an extra advert to promote – yes, you guessed it – not pirating films, which was a great addition especially with the extra work it would have been of stop-motion.
So, ‘Arthur Christmas’. It tells the story of the latest in the line of the Christmas family with Malcolm Christmas approaching his seventieth festive delivery but it’s his son Steve who is the main contributor to the delivery of presents to children all around the world, a military-minded man voiced by Hugh Laurie, masterminding a hi-tech team of elves launched from an ‘Independence Day’-style spaceship sleigh who deliver the presents. Malcolm’s other son, Steve’s brother, Arthur – voiced by James McAvoy - is a clumsy, but well-meaning person who deals with the letter writing. When an elf drops a present after the completion of Christmas it’s up to Arthur, Malcolm’s father - the oldest living Father Christmas - and an old sleigh to get this one present to the only child not to receive a gift on Christmas Day before sunrise when she wakes up.
What follows the early exposition is a top-form pastiche of military, spy and alien films. Scenes are captioned by locations, times and witty statistics, with an over-arching focus on gadgets, military spoofs and tongue-in-cheek action pieces. And, as with any Aardman film, the attention to detail is immense with some many on-screen and background visual jokes it’s a shoe-in for DVD purchase to catch them all, with everything from funny notes, to background signs, to even a Shaun The Sheep on the floor.
The 97 minutes of the film shoots by. The script is as inventive as anything we’ve had so far from Aardman with the opening Christmas delivery montage fast-paced and incredibly tight and choreographed as the elves deliver the presents, with many tongue-in-cheek nods to mobile phones and modern living in the pursuit of delivering the presents. The use of gadgets as seen in the Wallace and Gromit serious is prevalent here and the sheer Britishness of the movie shines through, but without it seeming as forced as in, say, ‘Chicken Run’. And, as far as realism goes with a team of hundreds of elves, it does offer a plausible and well-thought-out explanation of how so many toys get delivered in such a short space of time.
Much of the film is taken up with Arthur and his grandfather attempting to deliver this one last present on the original sled, with some great pastiches to alien films, rolling news and the same modern-but-retro technology employed in the Wallace and Gromit films.
There are a few jokes here and there that fall flat and it does seem about thirty minutes in that the film has lost its direction (but it soon regains it) and is coming to a premature conclusion but in the most it’s a laugh-out-loud film with some great unexpected twists in the plot. The voice acting is superb and the animation very high quality, especially with the massive scenes of elves at times. The CGI also captures Aardman’s style of characters, but perhaps not as much as in ‘Flushed Away’. Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy and Ashley Jensen in particular all do some great voice acting but the whos-who of famous names all contribute to an excellent film. The film does wander close to sugary-sweet sentiment at its conclusion but it is genuinely touching and I’m not afraid to say that a tear did nearly come to my eyes at the end.
Filled with the Aardman magic we’ve come to expect, it’s a funny, touching, clever family film that is suitable for all ages with some very inventive set pieces and more visual jokes than you can shake an elf at. Sure, the plot line isn’t the most inventive in that Christmas has to be saved when something goes wrong, but it’s so well delivered you can forget this and enjoy the film and the scenes within it.
I’m not sure if it will become a Christmas classic but it’s a film that all the family can enjoy and there’s so much detail to enjoy in the CGI and visual jokes. I think at times it might be a little too uninteresting for very young kids but it’s a film not to be missed. A top festive film from Aardman and Sony and it bodes well for Pirates! next year.
Today I finally righted the wrong of me not seeing it and I’m so glad I did.
But first there was the meal and a little side to this review. Today was the first time I tried a meal at Chiquito, a Mexican version of Nandos with less of an obsession with chicken. Having picked up the tickets early from Vue - £8 a ticket???? and they tell you where to sit??? – I wandered over to the restaurant and grabbed a drink whilst I waited for my parents. After the barman decided to spill the first attempt at the Mexican Milky Way - Amaretto, Baileys, chocolate liqueur, Eristoff Vodka, milk & cream, topped with whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate as their website says – knocking the blender over and covering himself in milky goodness (steady!) I managed to enjoy the £4.99 drink which was as nice as any of the Baileys-based cocktails you get at the chains and reasonably priced and sized.
With my parents having now arrived we could sit down to enjoy the meal. We were treated to some complimentary tortillas with tomato salsa that were like over-sized Doritos but obviously more home-made, but perhaps not enough salsa to really make it fair on the whole party, with every spooning up of salsa seriously depleting the pot.
For starters I remained as boring as ever and went with loaded potato skins but for £4.99 there was just a disappointing two skins, though they were tasty and the topping of bacon and sour cream was delicious, with a pot of barbecue sauce on the size. They were, ultimately, not as generous as the equally tasty skins you get at, say, Frankie and Bennys. The similarly priced chilli poppers and slightly cheaper duck taquito that my parents had were equally as tasty but equally as titchy.
Onto the main course and I’d definitely hit lucky with my choice of my favourite Mexican dishes, fajitas. I plumped for the sirloin steak version which was delivered on a sizzling plate at my chosen medium-rare with onion, tomato and pepper salad-thing, and was matched up with three pots of sour cream, tomato salsa, half-a-dozen fajita wraps, a plate of lettuce and cheese and some coleslaw I’d ordered as a side as I was a pig. Though a hefty £15.99 the amount of food there did justify its price and the amount of food was just right for a hefty appetite. Perhaps I would have liked a little bit more cheese and lettuce but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The food was served sizzling hot and at the end I was more than satisfied with the amount. The burger that my mum enjoyed seemed a fair size but my dad’s southern fried chicken perhaps not so much, but they were all very tasty.
Overall the bill came to just over £65 which for three people including drinks isn’t bad. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant with enough Mexican pictures to convince you the brand has been anywhere near the land of Tequila – as much as Frankie and Bennys tries to make itself look like an Italian-American diner, but thankfully Chiquito doesn’t try to teach you Mexican in the loos – with some Christmas songs slotted into the more Mexican offerings, plus the service was friendly and relatively prompt considering it was reasonably quiet, plus for those who want to delve further, the toilets were immaculate.
I think if they could plump up the size of the starters and learn not to pour cocktails over themselves then it would be almost a flawless meal.
Now onto the main reason I’m writing this review: ‘Arthur Christmas’. So it’s over to Vue, where they charge a lot for the showings (though, to be fair, not much more than Cineworld, my hang out in Bradford) and assign you seats (unlike Cineworld). However, with the screening being relatively quiet, we moved seats to a better sitting position mid-film so as not to damage our necks staring up at the screen. And for once the kids in front of us were well behaved and quiet, which made for a refreshing change in a kids screening.
Before we could get through to the actual theme there were obviously the adverts to endure. Vue, it seems, may be wanting you not to record the film. At least 1/3rd of the slides of the opening slide show were about not recording and then some disc jockey from Minster FM came onto repeat the message. Fine, got the message. Not that I’d be recording a film that’s been out for six weeks anyway; it will have already been torrented to hell.
Also before the feature presentation there was some more Aardman goodness with a new trailer for Pirates!, their next feature film, this time stop-motion, coming out next year. I’d only seen the first trailer and this one certainly expanded the premise of the movie and it looks hilarious, so can’t wait for that. They also did an extra advert to promote – yes, you guessed it – not pirating films, which was a great addition especially with the extra work it would have been of stop-motion.
So, ‘Arthur Christmas’. It tells the story of the latest in the line of the Christmas family with Malcolm Christmas approaching his seventieth festive delivery but it’s his son Steve who is the main contributor to the delivery of presents to children all around the world, a military-minded man voiced by Hugh Laurie, masterminding a hi-tech team of elves launched from an ‘Independence Day’-style spaceship sleigh who deliver the presents. Malcolm’s other son, Steve’s brother, Arthur – voiced by James McAvoy - is a clumsy, but well-meaning person who deals with the letter writing. When an elf drops a present after the completion of Christmas it’s up to Arthur, Malcolm’s father - the oldest living Father Christmas - and an old sleigh to get this one present to the only child not to receive a gift on Christmas Day before sunrise when she wakes up.
What follows the early exposition is a top-form pastiche of military, spy and alien films. Scenes are captioned by locations, times and witty statistics, with an over-arching focus on gadgets, military spoofs and tongue-in-cheek action pieces. And, as with any Aardman film, the attention to detail is immense with some many on-screen and background visual jokes it’s a shoe-in for DVD purchase to catch them all, with everything from funny notes, to background signs, to even a Shaun The Sheep on the floor.
The 97 minutes of the film shoots by. The script is as inventive as anything we’ve had so far from Aardman with the opening Christmas delivery montage fast-paced and incredibly tight and choreographed as the elves deliver the presents, with many tongue-in-cheek nods to mobile phones and modern living in the pursuit of delivering the presents. The use of gadgets as seen in the Wallace and Gromit serious is prevalent here and the sheer Britishness of the movie shines through, but without it seeming as forced as in, say, ‘Chicken Run’. And, as far as realism goes with a team of hundreds of elves, it does offer a plausible and well-thought-out explanation of how so many toys get delivered in such a short space of time.
Much of the film is taken up with Arthur and his grandfather attempting to deliver this one last present on the original sled, with some great pastiches to alien films, rolling news and the same modern-but-retro technology employed in the Wallace and Gromit films.
There are a few jokes here and there that fall flat and it does seem about thirty minutes in that the film has lost its direction (but it soon regains it) and is coming to a premature conclusion but in the most it’s a laugh-out-loud film with some great unexpected twists in the plot. The voice acting is superb and the animation very high quality, especially with the massive scenes of elves at times. The CGI also captures Aardman’s style of characters, but perhaps not as much as in ‘Flushed Away’. Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy and Ashley Jensen in particular all do some great voice acting but the whos-who of famous names all contribute to an excellent film. The film does wander close to sugary-sweet sentiment at its conclusion but it is genuinely touching and I’m not afraid to say that a tear did nearly come to my eyes at the end.
Filled with the Aardman magic we’ve come to expect, it’s a funny, touching, clever family film that is suitable for all ages with some very inventive set pieces and more visual jokes than you can shake an elf at. Sure, the plot line isn’t the most inventive in that Christmas has to be saved when something goes wrong, but it’s so well delivered you can forget this and enjoy the film and the scenes within it.
I’m not sure if it will become a Christmas classic but it’s a film that all the family can enjoy and there’s so much detail to enjoy in the CGI and visual jokes. I think at times it might be a little too uninteresting for very young kids but it’s a film not to be missed. A top festive film from Aardman and Sony and it bodes well for Pirates! next year.
Saturday 10 December 2011
A Small Piece on Cats and Christmas
Just a quick blog post to catch up on events over the weekend. It's been a mish-mash couple of days.
Friday was a laugh with the UBU staff / sabb Christmas part in the Midland Hotel with a meal that was very nice and just the right amount of food, though the dance that followed was unintentionally hilarious with the, lets say, older people elsewhere in the room preferring waltzes to Weezer. But, with games in the City Vaults after, it was a cracking night though I was in bed for ten thirty as I'm a lightweight!
Today was not so good. It's been coming for a couple of months but finally we had to make the decision to put one of our cats - Katie - down. Two months ago she was diagnosed with liver cancer and, though medication has helped her, she was in pain and struggling so the difficult decision had to be made. It was emotional to say goodbye and we buried her in the back garden. Only time will tell what impact it will have on our other cat, her sister, as she adapts to not having another cat with her.
I think the most eye opening part of the day was that the medication to put her down - an injection that took less than twenty seconds - cost £80. That's a lot of money for a short space of time. Not that I wouldn't have paid it but it's a lot for what it is.
So after ten years it was sad to say goodbye to Katie. It's true what they say about pets becoming part of the family.
Friday was a laugh with the UBU staff / sabb Christmas part in the Midland Hotel with a meal that was very nice and just the right amount of food, though the dance that followed was unintentionally hilarious with the, lets say, older people elsewhere in the room preferring waltzes to Weezer. But, with games in the City Vaults after, it was a cracking night though I was in bed for ten thirty as I'm a lightweight!
Today was not so good. It's been coming for a couple of months but finally we had to make the decision to put one of our cats - Katie - down. Two months ago she was diagnosed with liver cancer and, though medication has helped her, she was in pain and struggling so the difficult decision had to be made. It was emotional to say goodbye and we buried her in the back garden. Only time will tell what impact it will have on our other cat, her sister, as she adapts to not having another cat with her.
I think the most eye opening part of the day was that the medication to put her down - an injection that took less than twenty seconds - cost £80. That's a lot of money for a short space of time. Not that I wouldn't have paid it but it's a lot for what it is.
So after ten years it was sad to say goodbye to Katie. It's true what they say about pets becoming part of the family.
BUSOM – Around The World (And Beyond) in 80 Minutes (Or More*) *Probably Less
BUSOM – Around The World (And Beyond) in 80 Minutes (Or More*) *Probably Less
Escape, Student Central
Thursday 8th December 2011
As the snow began to fall in Bradford – well, sort of sleeted – it was time to grab a drink and head to Escape for the latest BUSOM – Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals - production, which was good as it meant I didn’t have to leave the same building that I work in and risk getting wet as I would have done if I’d had to dash across to the theatre.
Now, I’m going to get a reputation for giving BUSOM positive reviews but, once more, the ensemble put on a cracking show that entertained on the Thursday evening, with Escape being a good, intimate venue for the performance. A delayed start to the production benefitted the atmosphere with the venue, which was quite empty at the due start time, filling up completely within the following ten minutes, with a good fifty people down to enjoy the concert.
The concert, loosely themed around places of the world, opened with ‘Portabello Road’ from ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, a strong effort from all the singers who sang perfectly in time, with some great solos from Judith Mbanisi and Cartina Lodge. The segway into the next song, ‘Barcelona’ from ‘Company’ (not, sadly the Freddie Mercury version, as we’re no longer in Movember!), featured singer Dave Jennings pretending to sleep, which I assume must be something from the musical else I’m confused, so was a little unusual but was punctuated by a wild-eyed Bill Harding (or Studley McFingerman as he is credited in the programme) pointing out locations to songs as the show progressed on an inflatable globe, even if his Geography was a bit off as Spain appeared to be relocated to North Africa. His little inserts, bouncing well off Emelie Ollila, were great throughout the performance, especially as he appeared strangely demonic under a strong lilac light.
Back to the music and Dave’s duet was beautifully sung. They brought the song to life and punctuated the funny lines with some great acting.
‘Merano’ from ‘Chess’ was next and showcased some more great choral work with some great sections from Jon, Joel and Colin and a really nice soprano line from the female side. The more I hear from this musical the more I think I need to watch it. Certainly a well-performed song.
Next was ‘I Am Africa’ from the ‘Book of Mormon’ and the first big highlight from the conference even if it did suffer from a little mis-timing. Emelie and Lyndsey were great but the star was Stuart, whose voice shone and his acting made the song.
Suiting the nature of ‘The Producers’, ‘In Old Bavaria’ was introduced with a dodgy stereotypical German accent from the excellent Anna Garlick, who once more lit up the stage with her eccentric and comedic acting, and great singing of the track, aided by an enthusiastic backing.
Lyndsey’s solo of ‘What’s New Buenos Aires’ from ‘Evita’ was well done but the song itself wasn’t a particularly exciting choice, especially after the one that was before it.
The arrival of Joel and Jon on stage is always something to look forward to because of their comedic potential in the material. And though their rendition of ‘Santa Fe’ from ‘Rent’ wasn’t the strongest performance of the night their vocals complimented each other but there wasn’t so much opportunity for their personalities to come through. Stuart’s appearance in the song, though, was fantastic once more, leading well into ‘You Won’t Succeed On Broadway’ from ‘Spamalot’ which, with his plumy English accent and facial expressions, truly brought the madness of Monty Python to life, with Jon and Joel also coming alive in the performance of this really funny song.
‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ was up next and saw a great singing battle between the male and female sides of the chorus and was a very tight performance.
It was the final two songs of the first half, though, that would be the ones that would define the performance. For the first – ‘Girlfriend in Canada’ from ‘Avenue Q’ – Bill jumped from the piano to take centre stage, channelling a version of his character from ‘Fame’ earlier in the year, tackling the hilarious and, at times, rude lyrics with relish and some great acting and delivery, with support from the ever reliable Anna Garlick. With the audience in stitches, Bill successfully captured the attitude of the puppets from the musical it is taken from.
This was followed by ‘Blame Canada’ from the ‘South Park’ movie which is possibly the only way you could follow such a song that ends on the line it did (YouTube it!) and was played with relish by the whole chorus, with Dave, Stuart and Zoe Howe all bringing their own bits to it for maximum humour, and even adapting the song to throw in a reference to Justin Bieber.
This track brought the first thirty-minute set to a close, allowing for a twenty minute interval where I could chat to some people and fail to get served at the busy, but slow, bar, meaning I had to return to my seat without refreshment ready for part two, which is where the show went further into fantasy with ‘Welcome To Duloc’ from the film ‘Shrek’ being the opener, nicely labelled on the globe with a post-it note, with another great piece of interlude from Bill and Emelie. The song was well delivered by the chorus with a marvellous key change, and good delivery of the intentionally missed out swearing, if you remember that from the film.
With some more ad-libbing from Bill (“Stop kicking my world”) it was onto a Disney double, with ‘Under The Sea’ from ‘The Little Mermaid’, performed by new-comer Catrina Lodge with backing from Emily, Zoe and Catia. Catrina suffered from a few nerves, missing out a few lines, but after a shaky start grew in confidence and performed the song well, aided by the good backing singers, capturing the feel of the song even without tackling the challenging distinctive Caribbean accent.
Speaking of challenging, the next song of ‘A Whole New World’ from ‘Aladdin’ is a song often performed and often performed badly, due to its challenging notes. Just ask Jordan and Peter Andre, though in fairness she does find even writing a book herself difficult. Mike Alborough took the male lead and was superb and with Naomi excelling on female vocals, but not quite up to Mike’s level. It was song that could easily sound horrible but was performed really well, and there was a lot of character in their voices, particularly from Naomi, and their chemistry on-stage worked during the number.
‘One Short Day’ from ‘Wicked’ continued the fantasy theme with Poppy and Sarah-Jane dressed up for the parts. It was a great, strong rendition from them both and their voices suited each other very well.
The ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme continued to the next song with ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’, with the four singers doing a very good version of the song but it was Anna Garlick again who stood out with some more great character acting.
A festive-ish feel was brought to the performance after with ‘This Is Hallowe’en’ from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ and was as good as ever, with Colin and Dave adding in some fine sections and a massive evil cackle from everyone.
It was great to see the return of Colin Fine next to the stage for a performance of ‘Stranger In Paradise’ from ‘Kismet’. A member that hasn’t been in any productions for a while, it was a restrained but well done performance that nailed the feeling of the track.
It was also great to see Zoe Howe step up for the penultimate track of ‘A Million Miles Away Behind The Door’ from ‘Paint Your Wagon’. Often recently being in the background, it was great to see her tackling a solo, and one she performed magnificently, and we even got treated to a member of street dance doing an impromptu ballet piece to her work.
Finally the show came to an end with the appropriately titled ‘No Cure Like Travel / Bon Voyage’ from ‘Anything Goes’, which once more showed off the male / female sides in competition, both sides performing well, bringing the second thirty-minutes of music to an end.
Once more BUSOM proved to be good value of money once more with a score of great songs performed really well, with a good cross section of musical classics and more modern, comedic ditties. Stuart Sellens and Anna Garlick proved to be the stars of the show from an acting point of view, and many proved to be on top form with their singing, with a nice mix of returning faces and new members. Another enjoyable evening from the boys and girls of BUSOM.
7.5/10
Escape, Student Central
Thursday 8th December 2011
As the snow began to fall in Bradford – well, sort of sleeted – it was time to grab a drink and head to Escape for the latest BUSOM – Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals - production, which was good as it meant I didn’t have to leave the same building that I work in and risk getting wet as I would have done if I’d had to dash across to the theatre.
Now, I’m going to get a reputation for giving BUSOM positive reviews but, once more, the ensemble put on a cracking show that entertained on the Thursday evening, with Escape being a good, intimate venue for the performance. A delayed start to the production benefitted the atmosphere with the venue, which was quite empty at the due start time, filling up completely within the following ten minutes, with a good fifty people down to enjoy the concert.
The concert, loosely themed around places of the world, opened with ‘Portabello Road’ from ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, a strong effort from all the singers who sang perfectly in time, with some great solos from Judith Mbanisi and Cartina Lodge. The segway into the next song, ‘Barcelona’ from ‘Company’ (not, sadly the Freddie Mercury version, as we’re no longer in Movember!), featured singer Dave Jennings pretending to sleep, which I assume must be something from the musical else I’m confused, so was a little unusual but was punctuated by a wild-eyed Bill Harding (or Studley McFingerman as he is credited in the programme) pointing out locations to songs as the show progressed on an inflatable globe, even if his Geography was a bit off as Spain appeared to be relocated to North Africa. His little inserts, bouncing well off Emelie Ollila, were great throughout the performance, especially as he appeared strangely demonic under a strong lilac light.
Back to the music and Dave’s duet was beautifully sung. They brought the song to life and punctuated the funny lines with some great acting.
‘Merano’ from ‘Chess’ was next and showcased some more great choral work with some great sections from Jon, Joel and Colin and a really nice soprano line from the female side. The more I hear from this musical the more I think I need to watch it. Certainly a well-performed song.
Next was ‘I Am Africa’ from the ‘Book of Mormon’ and the first big highlight from the conference even if it did suffer from a little mis-timing. Emelie and Lyndsey were great but the star was Stuart, whose voice shone and his acting made the song.
Suiting the nature of ‘The Producers’, ‘In Old Bavaria’ was introduced with a dodgy stereotypical German accent from the excellent Anna Garlick, who once more lit up the stage with her eccentric and comedic acting, and great singing of the track, aided by an enthusiastic backing.
Lyndsey’s solo of ‘What’s New Buenos Aires’ from ‘Evita’ was well done but the song itself wasn’t a particularly exciting choice, especially after the one that was before it.
The arrival of Joel and Jon on stage is always something to look forward to because of their comedic potential in the material. And though their rendition of ‘Santa Fe’ from ‘Rent’ wasn’t the strongest performance of the night their vocals complimented each other but there wasn’t so much opportunity for their personalities to come through. Stuart’s appearance in the song, though, was fantastic once more, leading well into ‘You Won’t Succeed On Broadway’ from ‘Spamalot’ which, with his plumy English accent and facial expressions, truly brought the madness of Monty Python to life, with Jon and Joel also coming alive in the performance of this really funny song.
‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ was up next and saw a great singing battle between the male and female sides of the chorus and was a very tight performance.
It was the final two songs of the first half, though, that would be the ones that would define the performance. For the first – ‘Girlfriend in Canada’ from ‘Avenue Q’ – Bill jumped from the piano to take centre stage, channelling a version of his character from ‘Fame’ earlier in the year, tackling the hilarious and, at times, rude lyrics with relish and some great acting and delivery, with support from the ever reliable Anna Garlick. With the audience in stitches, Bill successfully captured the attitude of the puppets from the musical it is taken from.
This was followed by ‘Blame Canada’ from the ‘South Park’ movie which is possibly the only way you could follow such a song that ends on the line it did (YouTube it!) and was played with relish by the whole chorus, with Dave, Stuart and Zoe Howe all bringing their own bits to it for maximum humour, and even adapting the song to throw in a reference to Justin Bieber.
This track brought the first thirty-minute set to a close, allowing for a twenty minute interval where I could chat to some people and fail to get served at the busy, but slow, bar, meaning I had to return to my seat without refreshment ready for part two, which is where the show went further into fantasy with ‘Welcome To Duloc’ from the film ‘Shrek’ being the opener, nicely labelled on the globe with a post-it note, with another great piece of interlude from Bill and Emelie. The song was well delivered by the chorus with a marvellous key change, and good delivery of the intentionally missed out swearing, if you remember that from the film.
With some more ad-libbing from Bill (“Stop kicking my world”) it was onto a Disney double, with ‘Under The Sea’ from ‘The Little Mermaid’, performed by new-comer Catrina Lodge with backing from Emily, Zoe and Catia. Catrina suffered from a few nerves, missing out a few lines, but after a shaky start grew in confidence and performed the song well, aided by the good backing singers, capturing the feel of the song even without tackling the challenging distinctive Caribbean accent.
Speaking of challenging, the next song of ‘A Whole New World’ from ‘Aladdin’ is a song often performed and often performed badly, due to its challenging notes. Just ask Jordan and Peter Andre, though in fairness she does find even writing a book herself difficult. Mike Alborough took the male lead and was superb and with Naomi excelling on female vocals, but not quite up to Mike’s level. It was song that could easily sound horrible but was performed really well, and there was a lot of character in their voices, particularly from Naomi, and their chemistry on-stage worked during the number.
‘One Short Day’ from ‘Wicked’ continued the fantasy theme with Poppy and Sarah-Jane dressed up for the parts. It was a great, strong rendition from them both and their voices suited each other very well.
The ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme continued to the next song with ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’, with the four singers doing a very good version of the song but it was Anna Garlick again who stood out with some more great character acting.
A festive-ish feel was brought to the performance after with ‘This Is Hallowe’en’ from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ and was as good as ever, with Colin and Dave adding in some fine sections and a massive evil cackle from everyone.
It was great to see the return of Colin Fine next to the stage for a performance of ‘Stranger In Paradise’ from ‘Kismet’. A member that hasn’t been in any productions for a while, it was a restrained but well done performance that nailed the feeling of the track.
It was also great to see Zoe Howe step up for the penultimate track of ‘A Million Miles Away Behind The Door’ from ‘Paint Your Wagon’. Often recently being in the background, it was great to see her tackling a solo, and one she performed magnificently, and we even got treated to a member of street dance doing an impromptu ballet piece to her work.
Finally the show came to an end with the appropriately titled ‘No Cure Like Travel / Bon Voyage’ from ‘Anything Goes’, which once more showed off the male / female sides in competition, both sides performing well, bringing the second thirty-minutes of music to an end.
Once more BUSOM proved to be good value of money once more with a score of great songs performed really well, with a good cross section of musical classics and more modern, comedic ditties. Stuart Sellens and Anna Garlick proved to be the stars of the show from an acting point of view, and many proved to be on top form with their singing, with a nice mix of returning faces and new members. Another enjoyable evening from the boys and girls of BUSOM.
7.5/10
Sunday 4 December 2011
Have A Very Educated Christmas or What Has Happened to the Schott's Almanac Series?
Today's blog post is a little bit of a whinge, a moan and a complaint about this year's absense of one of my favourite Christmas gifts.
No, it's not novelty socks or the Beano annual, but an annual publishing occasion we've enjoyed for the past few years in the form of Ben Schott's Almanac, featuring a year of facts, news, figures and general trivia that really satisfies the fact hunter inside of me, following on from his excellent miscellany series.
Not only that but the almanacs make a great Christmas present for other people and, most importantly, are collectible. I imagined when they began coming out that they would be an annual occurrence until I was old and grey when I would have the space and the money to be able to afford some old antique bookshelves for all my books with fifty years of them all appearing in chronological order.
Sadly it looks like now it'll be copies of the Private Eye annual instead, though that's equally good to appear, but not as intellectual looking as, say, the nicely put together and serious looking almanacs.
Why they have stopped is unknown at the moment: Has Ben Schott tired of doing them? Are they not selling well and Bloomsbury have pulled the plug? Are they seen as too dry for people to read?
I've tweeted the author to ask and await the response, but I think it's a real missed opportunity why ever they have stopped. Maybe compared to the Top Gear annual (containing a handy public-service-worker-shoot-guide) or something written by a random author but branded as by Katie Price are what more people want in their stockings?
But they are not the only collection that have stopped. I'm a big fan of the series QI - surely the televisual form of Schott's book - and they stopped releasing DVDs after series three when we're now on series nine. It's a really popular series; the shows can be watched again and again (yes, I know you can on Dave but, like, not when you want!) and they're both funny and useful. Why have they stopped releasing those? You don't find a magazine company stopping their 100-part 'build the Titanic' magazine collection part-way so you're missing the funnels, lifeboats and iceberg!
Though the absense of the almanac won't keep me up or night or get me into a flood of tears over the brussel sprouts come Christmas Day I will miss it this year and miss having a record of the time for when I'm older, like a more interesting and accurate Wikipedia that you can dip in and out of.
Instead I'll have to go and by my grandad Frankie Boyle's new book. I'm sure he would love that.
RIP Ben Schott's almanac
No, it's not novelty socks or the Beano annual, but an annual publishing occasion we've enjoyed for the past few years in the form of Ben Schott's Almanac, featuring a year of facts, news, figures and general trivia that really satisfies the fact hunter inside of me, following on from his excellent miscellany series.
Not only that but the almanacs make a great Christmas present for other people and, most importantly, are collectible. I imagined when they began coming out that they would be an annual occurrence until I was old and grey when I would have the space and the money to be able to afford some old antique bookshelves for all my books with fifty years of them all appearing in chronological order.
Sadly it looks like now it'll be copies of the Private Eye annual instead, though that's equally good to appear, but not as intellectual looking as, say, the nicely put together and serious looking almanacs.
Why they have stopped is unknown at the moment: Has Ben Schott tired of doing them? Are they not selling well and Bloomsbury have pulled the plug? Are they seen as too dry for people to read?
I've tweeted the author to ask and await the response, but I think it's a real missed opportunity why ever they have stopped. Maybe compared to the Top Gear annual (containing a handy public-service-worker-shoot-guide) or something written by a random author but branded as by Katie Price are what more people want in their stockings?
But they are not the only collection that have stopped. I'm a big fan of the series QI - surely the televisual form of Schott's book - and they stopped releasing DVDs after series three when we're now on series nine. It's a really popular series; the shows can be watched again and again (yes, I know you can on Dave but, like, not when you want!) and they're both funny and useful. Why have they stopped releasing those? You don't find a magazine company stopping their 100-part 'build the Titanic' magazine collection part-way so you're missing the funnels, lifeboats and iceberg!
Though the absense of the almanac won't keep me up or night or get me into a flood of tears over the brussel sprouts come Christmas Day I will miss it this year and miss having a record of the time for when I'm older, like a more interesting and accurate Wikipedia that you can dip in and out of.
Instead I'll have to go and by my grandad Frankie Boyle's new book. I'm sure he would love that.
RIP Ben Schott's almanac
Saturday 26 November 2011
REVIEW: Milton Jones: Lion Whisperer (Saturday 26th November)
St. George’s Hall, Bradford. Support: James Acaster
Going to see Milton Jones live would be a little bit of a punt for me. Most of the comedians I’ve seen on stage live and been happy to shell out twenty quid for have been comedians I’ve seen a lot on the telly or have got a DVD of, such as the excellent Tim Vine. Though I’d only seen a few appearances of Londoner Milton Jones on shows such as ‘Mock The Week’ I was pretty confident he had my sort of humour, specialising in the one-liners that the aforementioned Tim Vine has specialised in with the sort of pun-trading, surreal-scenario setting, loud-out-loud humour that I most enjoy. And I wasn’t to be disappointed.
It also didn’t do any harm that the gig was happening with a ten minute walk from my front door so off on Saturday night to St. George’s Hall I went, for a pleasant view of the stage from up on the grand tier, even if the seats weren’t exactly built for the build of a 21st Century male who hasn’t been to the gym in a few months, with immovable arm rests hemming you into the seats and so little leg room I would have preferred to wrap my calves around the gentleman in front of me and forgo the norms of society, than to be squeezed into the seat.
But, the minor issues of the seats wasn’t enough to put me off what was an enjoyable, and good value, night of comedy.
It was also one of the most unusual openings of a comedy show yet with two support acts.
The first opener was billed as Milton Jones’ granddad, walking onto the sparse stage with just a few par can lights and a projector screen, with a shopping trolley and a limp. It would be stating the obvious for me to mention who the act really was but it was a great twist on the opening of a gig, with twenty minutes of quick-fire puns and a great bit of schtick about starting the act again everytime a late-comer walked in that, maybe went on one-time too many, but had a great pay-off at the end and the joke used, with a reference to Bradford thrown in, was a classic.
With some use of props thrown in for good measure it was a great start to the show and, though only really a taster of what was to come, was a quality bit of comedy to whet the audience’s appetite, an audience that throughout the night flip-flopped between members of the audience who would happily shout out but not interact with Milton when he replied, or others that were just shouting off random bits at random moments, but to the comedians credit he dealt with them to great comic effect.
The real support was comedian James Acaster, a down-beat, self-effacing comedian whose considerable forty minute set-time seemed to start with jokes mostly about food but his subject matter was all great and his jokes very funny. Although his delivery was meant to be sombre it was well executed none-the-less, following on from Milton’s granddad routine, it didn’t have the energy needed to keep the night buzzing, so at about twenty-five minutes into the set it began to lose momentum and some interactions with the front row seemed to ignore the majority of the room and it lost its flow. However, James made up for it with a corking concluding visual demonstration on stage, using a willing participant who seemed to be more than happy to play along, filled with cracking visual jokes and witty lines. As the act took us up to the fifteen minute interval it wasn’t the most exciting of supports to get us in the mood, being quite laid back and slow in the delivery, but James Acaster was definitely one of the best support acts I’ve seen for his material and fitted Milton’s style well.
After the interval it was onto the main act and Milton’s set was as funny as I could hope for. Seventy minutes of perfectly delivered one-liners, his jokes were both surreal but very, very funny. He echoed back at times to both the support acts to milk jokes that you thought had run out of steam but were made funny once again, and his ten-minute skit on photo slides, with its surprise interlude, was the highlight of the night. As mentioned before Milton jostled well with the crowd who, though enjoying the night, weren’t that responsive to his banter and he also used trios of jokes, scattered throughout the show, to great effect, with the shampoo / shamrock / champagne triplet absolutely amazing.
With some nicely added in local place names scattered throughout his set, and a series of hilarious OHP slides and connected jokes delivered perfectly, the crowd was in hysterics for much of his set and, even though the punchline of the joke was obvious, others were much more surreal and others falsely leading you in the wrong direction.
Not many comedians could pull off a gig where the title just refers to a one-off joke near the start of his set, but although there was little narrative pulling the whole show together it stayed firmly on track and the huge range of jokes from everything from jokes on the United Nations to Dr Who to Wales, there was much to enjoy.
Milton threw in two quick encores with more fast-paced one-liners, bringing to the end of quality show of really funny jokes that mostly hit their marks, plus it was totally family friendly as well. It was just a shame the audience members that were so keen to shout up to be involved didn’t follow up their initial confidence.
Definitely one for a DVD purchase or a live gig if you can still get tickets for any!
9/10
Going to see Milton Jones live would be a little bit of a punt for me. Most of the comedians I’ve seen on stage live and been happy to shell out twenty quid for have been comedians I’ve seen a lot on the telly or have got a DVD of, such as the excellent Tim Vine. Though I’d only seen a few appearances of Londoner Milton Jones on shows such as ‘Mock The Week’ I was pretty confident he had my sort of humour, specialising in the one-liners that the aforementioned Tim Vine has specialised in with the sort of pun-trading, surreal-scenario setting, loud-out-loud humour that I most enjoy. And I wasn’t to be disappointed.
It also didn’t do any harm that the gig was happening with a ten minute walk from my front door so off on Saturday night to St. George’s Hall I went, for a pleasant view of the stage from up on the grand tier, even if the seats weren’t exactly built for the build of a 21st Century male who hasn’t been to the gym in a few months, with immovable arm rests hemming you into the seats and so little leg room I would have preferred to wrap my calves around the gentleman in front of me and forgo the norms of society, than to be squeezed into the seat.
But, the minor issues of the seats wasn’t enough to put me off what was an enjoyable, and good value, night of comedy.
It was also one of the most unusual openings of a comedy show yet with two support acts.
The first opener was billed as Milton Jones’ granddad, walking onto the sparse stage with just a few par can lights and a projector screen, with a shopping trolley and a limp. It would be stating the obvious for me to mention who the act really was but it was a great twist on the opening of a gig, with twenty minutes of quick-fire puns and a great bit of schtick about starting the act again everytime a late-comer walked in that, maybe went on one-time too many, but had a great pay-off at the end and the joke used, with a reference to Bradford thrown in, was a classic.
With some use of props thrown in for good measure it was a great start to the show and, though only really a taster of what was to come, was a quality bit of comedy to whet the audience’s appetite, an audience that throughout the night flip-flopped between members of the audience who would happily shout out but not interact with Milton when he replied, or others that were just shouting off random bits at random moments, but to the comedians credit he dealt with them to great comic effect.
The real support was comedian James Acaster, a down-beat, self-effacing comedian whose considerable forty minute set-time seemed to start with jokes mostly about food but his subject matter was all great and his jokes very funny. Although his delivery was meant to be sombre it was well executed none-the-less, following on from Milton’s granddad routine, it didn’t have the energy needed to keep the night buzzing, so at about twenty-five minutes into the set it began to lose momentum and some interactions with the front row seemed to ignore the majority of the room and it lost its flow. However, James made up for it with a corking concluding visual demonstration on stage, using a willing participant who seemed to be more than happy to play along, filled with cracking visual jokes and witty lines. As the act took us up to the fifteen minute interval it wasn’t the most exciting of supports to get us in the mood, being quite laid back and slow in the delivery, but James Acaster was definitely one of the best support acts I’ve seen for his material and fitted Milton’s style well.
After the interval it was onto the main act and Milton’s set was as funny as I could hope for. Seventy minutes of perfectly delivered one-liners, his jokes were both surreal but very, very funny. He echoed back at times to both the support acts to milk jokes that you thought had run out of steam but were made funny once again, and his ten-minute skit on photo slides, with its surprise interlude, was the highlight of the night. As mentioned before Milton jostled well with the crowd who, though enjoying the night, weren’t that responsive to his banter and he also used trios of jokes, scattered throughout the show, to great effect, with the shampoo / shamrock / champagne triplet absolutely amazing.
With some nicely added in local place names scattered throughout his set, and a series of hilarious OHP slides and connected jokes delivered perfectly, the crowd was in hysterics for much of his set and, even though the punchline of the joke was obvious, others were much more surreal and others falsely leading you in the wrong direction.
Not many comedians could pull off a gig where the title just refers to a one-off joke near the start of his set, but although there was little narrative pulling the whole show together it stayed firmly on track and the huge range of jokes from everything from jokes on the United Nations to Dr Who to Wales, there was much to enjoy.
Milton threw in two quick encores with more fast-paced one-liners, bringing to the end of quality show of really funny jokes that mostly hit their marks, plus it was totally family friendly as well. It was just a shame the audience members that were so keen to shout up to be involved didn’t follow up their initial confidence.
Definitely one for a DVD purchase or a live gig if you can still get tickets for any!
9/10
Sunday 20 November 2011
Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) Review #supermario3dland
It’s always been a truth that, as long as there has been cinema, there have been film executives with a love of a good pun. Not that I can blame them; I’m not completely shy about doing some punnage myself. Hence why there have been films such as ‘Cradle 2 The Grave’, emphasising it’s the second film. Connected to this it has always been difficult for film makers to steer away from the obvious marketing ploy of making the third film in a series in 3D so they can slap a ‘D’ on the end of the title and hope that the audience chuckle a little whilst consuming their expensive tub of popcorn and losing patience with the idiots three rows back texting their mates.
Clue: they don’t.
It’s obvious in films such as the classic (I use it in the sense of old, of course) Jaws 3D and the upcoming Men In Black 3D, plus countless examples that I can’t name because my brain appears to have blocked them out. Therefore it follows that the new Super Mario game for the 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land, is a 3D version of Super Mario Bros 3. from the end of the eighties.
The first Mario platformer for Nintendo’s new-ish and struggling glasses-free 3D bag of tricks handheld console should be the shot in the arm that the 3DS needs, coming two weeks before the second cup of revitalising coffee that will be Mario Kart 7. You cannot deny that the 3DS is a powerful piece of kit with impressive 3D, augmented reality, StreetPass, 3D photographs and loads of other bells and whistles, but it’s hardly been well endowed in the games department and has annoyed fans with price drops, sticking two fingers up to early adopters, even if they have been offered a sticking plaster of a solution in the name of twenty free retro games.
So it seems the fat plumber has arrived in time to cheer up Nintendo’s ailing spreadsheets in the run up to the Christmas period.
Super Mario 3D Land, the title of preference by dyslexics it would seem (surely Super Mario Land 3D, or does that bring back too many memories of the Game Boy?), is an unusual beast in that it plays like a 2D platformer in the spirit of the classic NES and SNES games but with a three-dimensional twist. Not, like in the case of Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy and Galaxy 2 in that you can roam wherever you want, but on a linear path like the original expanded into a 3D environment, like if the horsepower of the N64 was mated with the stallion that was Super Mario Bros. 3. Though you are restricted to one path, there is some freedom to move around so it doesn’t often feel like you are ‘on rails’.
It’s a full retro trip for longstanding Mario fans like myself. All the hallmarks of Mario 3 are there – arguably the highlight of the Mario platformers – along with other nods to other episodes, from the classic level end flagpole from the first platformer, to the countdown clock, to the retro powers including the Tanooki suit (here, for the most part, as a cut down raccoon power up but with the full suit), plus loads of classic baddies.
There’s a great video on YouTube I saw that matched up scenes from old Mario games to almost note-perfect replicas in 3D in this game, showing the attention to detail for older fans given by the development team.
But it’s not all old, as we sees two brand new power ups in the forms of Boomerang Mario and the Propeller Block, plus new enemies, and the general feeling that it’s ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ in platform form, with some challenges mirrored from that game.
At this point I’d normally discuss the plot of the game but that would be just a waste of ASCII as, as always, the scriptwriters have not been original. But, that just means more time to get on with the game. Here you are presented with eight worlds of five levels each, a mixture of grass levels, underground ones, a few water levels, castles, airships, ghost houses and other staples of the Mario level canon. Taking its cue from the Galaxy games most levels are presented as floating in the sky, leading this to be one of the most palm-sweating-inducing Mario games in a long time as you know that one mis-timed jump means death.
But thankfully the controls of the game are as tight as ever, with jumps and movement so fluid you cannot fault the system, helped by the impressive glasses-free 3D that really gives the game a sense of death. The 3D has always been impressive on the Nintendo system and though, for the most part, it’s unobtrusive, there are times when things come at the screen or you are falling down vertical levels, that it’s really quite awe-inspiring and actually adds an extra level of fear to falling down those heights. The levels that utilise slides are particularly note worthy and, with some bonuses only possible by using the 3D, you’d be a fool to play it without it even though, as I’d forgotten, it drains the juice out of the power-hungry and under-capacitated 3DS battery faster than a hungry man at a poorly-stocked fridge.
Though the basic premise of each level is the same – get from the start to the final flagpole whilst collecting coins, avoiding enemies and picking up power-ups along the way, and ensuring you hit the half-way marker to save your progress – each episode is unique with a different enemy, or obstacle, or theme that keeps it fresh, be it a rollercoaster through Bowser’s castle, blocks that appear and disappear with the beat of the music, or running across a bridge avoiding Cheep-Cheeps. There are also three star coins on each level to collect which allow you to unlock secret levels as you progress.
So is the game any good? Well it’s a resounding yes. Graphically the game is amazing, being as good as anything the Wii has pulled off. The 3D works marvellously – and is changeable from pop-out to depth depending on your preference – and adds peril to otherwise calm levels. There are graphical tweaks such as footprints in snow and sand, birds that shed feathers and much more. The controls couldn’t be more perfect. The music – a mixture of old and new songs – are just as catchy as they’ve always been, and the levels are inventive and the enemies intriguing, even if the humble Koopa Troopa gets very little screen time.
There is even a great throwback to Mario 3 with the screwed on scenery plus wooden cut-outs of baddies, which though random has a reason behind it which I won’t spoil here.
The most exciting about the game, though, is that the final boss is the first decent battle with Bowser in ages. Though the ending of ‘New Super Mario Bros Wii’ was a great battle and dramatic, it was one of many that were short, unimaginative and simple. This one beats that with more tension, false-ends and peril. Sure, it’s not massively difficult, but I consider myself a good player and it was exciting to play.
Difficulty wise the game is more of a challenge than other reviewers have said. It’s certainly not Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario Galaxy 2 difficult but it’s not a walk in the park. It’s just a shame that Nintendo keep liberally splashing coins and 1 Ups around so a ‘Game Over’ is never a likely outcome. They have thrown in two helps for less-able players with five deaths in a level allowing you to complete the level invincible; ten deaths sees the return of the P-Wing, now an immediate transport to the final flag.
There are a few bug-bears in the game, more down to personal preference. I still want the return of the Super Mario World-style overmap as that was great to explore, and the secret exits to levels were amazing; the star coins are, in the most, not that difficult to find; and the end world bosses are all very similar without the imagination of the Koopalings.
But these are just minor criticisms when you consider how much fun the game is to play. There are so many smile moments they’re difficult to count, from the ending of world 1-3, I think it was? – with its extreme retro throwback; the funny cut-scenes between worlds with images you can save to your SD card; and the impressive mix of graphics, challenge, 3D and music.
Plus there are very few games that would just have a random power-up, appearing in one of the last levels of the main game, in one third of one level. Most would milk it to its worth; here Nintendo allow you to enjoy it while it lasts, like it’s the 2011 Kuribo’s shoe.
And you’ll notice there that I said main game. Without spoiling too much, once you complete the first eight worlds – which took me eight hours to complete with all the star coins – you do get some extra, more challenging levels, a power-up wrong is righted, time attack challenges are made available, and some more surprises that I won’t spoil here – so although I’ve not done them all it’s not unreasonable that you’ll get fifteen hours out of this game with all the levels and star coins, and that’s not before you get to challenging your mates to beat your times. Which isn’t bad for what is a platformer and not an open-ended sandbox game.
With this game you can also throw in StreetPass assist, with friends you bump into on the street with the game giving you power-ups, even though it’s not an amazing feature.
Overall, Super Mario 3D Land is pretty much everything you’d want from a new Mario game. There’s plenty of challenge; a lot of retro love for the longstanding fan; a game that not only looks beautiful but plays beautiful, sounds beautiful and makes excellent use of the 3DS’ main selling point; and lots of content for a game you’ll be dipping in and out of for a while.
Until Mario Kart 7 comes out anyway.
But, most importantly, the game is just plain fun and it makes you smile, which is something a lot of games in 2011 just lack.
9.5/10
Clue: they don’t.
It’s obvious in films such as the classic (I use it in the sense of old, of course) Jaws 3D and the upcoming Men In Black 3D, plus countless examples that I can’t name because my brain appears to have blocked them out. Therefore it follows that the new Super Mario game for the 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land, is a 3D version of Super Mario Bros 3. from the end of the eighties.
The first Mario platformer for Nintendo’s new-ish and struggling glasses-free 3D bag of tricks handheld console should be the shot in the arm that the 3DS needs, coming two weeks before the second cup of revitalising coffee that will be Mario Kart 7. You cannot deny that the 3DS is a powerful piece of kit with impressive 3D, augmented reality, StreetPass, 3D photographs and loads of other bells and whistles, but it’s hardly been well endowed in the games department and has annoyed fans with price drops, sticking two fingers up to early adopters, even if they have been offered a sticking plaster of a solution in the name of twenty free retro games.
So it seems the fat plumber has arrived in time to cheer up Nintendo’s ailing spreadsheets in the run up to the Christmas period.
Super Mario 3D Land, the title of preference by dyslexics it would seem (surely Super Mario Land 3D, or does that bring back too many memories of the Game Boy?), is an unusual beast in that it plays like a 2D platformer in the spirit of the classic NES and SNES games but with a three-dimensional twist. Not, like in the case of Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy and Galaxy 2 in that you can roam wherever you want, but on a linear path like the original expanded into a 3D environment, like if the horsepower of the N64 was mated with the stallion that was Super Mario Bros. 3. Though you are restricted to one path, there is some freedom to move around so it doesn’t often feel like you are ‘on rails’.
It’s a full retro trip for longstanding Mario fans like myself. All the hallmarks of Mario 3 are there – arguably the highlight of the Mario platformers – along with other nods to other episodes, from the classic level end flagpole from the first platformer, to the countdown clock, to the retro powers including the Tanooki suit (here, for the most part, as a cut down raccoon power up but with the full suit), plus loads of classic baddies.
There’s a great video on YouTube I saw that matched up scenes from old Mario games to almost note-perfect replicas in 3D in this game, showing the attention to detail for older fans given by the development team.
But it’s not all old, as we sees two brand new power ups in the forms of Boomerang Mario and the Propeller Block, plus new enemies, and the general feeling that it’s ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ in platform form, with some challenges mirrored from that game.
At this point I’d normally discuss the plot of the game but that would be just a waste of ASCII as, as always, the scriptwriters have not been original. But, that just means more time to get on with the game. Here you are presented with eight worlds of five levels each, a mixture of grass levels, underground ones, a few water levels, castles, airships, ghost houses and other staples of the Mario level canon. Taking its cue from the Galaxy games most levels are presented as floating in the sky, leading this to be one of the most palm-sweating-inducing Mario games in a long time as you know that one mis-timed jump means death.
But thankfully the controls of the game are as tight as ever, with jumps and movement so fluid you cannot fault the system, helped by the impressive glasses-free 3D that really gives the game a sense of death. The 3D has always been impressive on the Nintendo system and though, for the most part, it’s unobtrusive, there are times when things come at the screen or you are falling down vertical levels, that it’s really quite awe-inspiring and actually adds an extra level of fear to falling down those heights. The levels that utilise slides are particularly note worthy and, with some bonuses only possible by using the 3D, you’d be a fool to play it without it even though, as I’d forgotten, it drains the juice out of the power-hungry and under-capacitated 3DS battery faster than a hungry man at a poorly-stocked fridge.
Though the basic premise of each level is the same – get from the start to the final flagpole whilst collecting coins, avoiding enemies and picking up power-ups along the way, and ensuring you hit the half-way marker to save your progress – each episode is unique with a different enemy, or obstacle, or theme that keeps it fresh, be it a rollercoaster through Bowser’s castle, blocks that appear and disappear with the beat of the music, or running across a bridge avoiding Cheep-Cheeps. There are also three star coins on each level to collect which allow you to unlock secret levels as you progress.
So is the game any good? Well it’s a resounding yes. Graphically the game is amazing, being as good as anything the Wii has pulled off. The 3D works marvellously – and is changeable from pop-out to depth depending on your preference – and adds peril to otherwise calm levels. There are graphical tweaks such as footprints in snow and sand, birds that shed feathers and much more. The controls couldn’t be more perfect. The music – a mixture of old and new songs – are just as catchy as they’ve always been, and the levels are inventive and the enemies intriguing, even if the humble Koopa Troopa gets very little screen time.
There is even a great throwback to Mario 3 with the screwed on scenery plus wooden cut-outs of baddies, which though random has a reason behind it which I won’t spoil here.
The most exciting about the game, though, is that the final boss is the first decent battle with Bowser in ages. Though the ending of ‘New Super Mario Bros Wii’ was a great battle and dramatic, it was one of many that were short, unimaginative and simple. This one beats that with more tension, false-ends and peril. Sure, it’s not massively difficult, but I consider myself a good player and it was exciting to play.
Difficulty wise the game is more of a challenge than other reviewers have said. It’s certainly not Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario Galaxy 2 difficult but it’s not a walk in the park. It’s just a shame that Nintendo keep liberally splashing coins and 1 Ups around so a ‘Game Over’ is never a likely outcome. They have thrown in two helps for less-able players with five deaths in a level allowing you to complete the level invincible; ten deaths sees the return of the P-Wing, now an immediate transport to the final flag.
There are a few bug-bears in the game, more down to personal preference. I still want the return of the Super Mario World-style overmap as that was great to explore, and the secret exits to levels were amazing; the star coins are, in the most, not that difficult to find; and the end world bosses are all very similar without the imagination of the Koopalings.
But these are just minor criticisms when you consider how much fun the game is to play. There are so many smile moments they’re difficult to count, from the ending of world 1-3, I think it was? – with its extreme retro throwback; the funny cut-scenes between worlds with images you can save to your SD card; and the impressive mix of graphics, challenge, 3D and music.
Plus there are very few games that would just have a random power-up, appearing in one of the last levels of the main game, in one third of one level. Most would milk it to its worth; here Nintendo allow you to enjoy it while it lasts, like it’s the 2011 Kuribo’s shoe.
And you’ll notice there that I said main game. Without spoiling too much, once you complete the first eight worlds – which took me eight hours to complete with all the star coins – you do get some extra, more challenging levels, a power-up wrong is righted, time attack challenges are made available, and some more surprises that I won’t spoil here – so although I’ve not done them all it’s not unreasonable that you’ll get fifteen hours out of this game with all the levels and star coins, and that’s not before you get to challenging your mates to beat your times. Which isn’t bad for what is a platformer and not an open-ended sandbox game.
With this game you can also throw in StreetPass assist, with friends you bump into on the street with the game giving you power-ups, even though it’s not an amazing feature.
Overall, Super Mario 3D Land is pretty much everything you’d want from a new Mario game. There’s plenty of challenge; a lot of retro love for the longstanding fan; a game that not only looks beautiful but plays beautiful, sounds beautiful and makes excellent use of the 3DS’ main selling point; and lots of content for a game you’ll be dipping in and out of for a while.
Until Mario Kart 7 comes out anyway.
But, most importantly, the game is just plain fun and it makes you smile, which is something a lot of games in 2011 just lack.
9.5/10
Sunday 13 November 2011
Ho Ho Ho…w early? This year’s Christmas adverts – the verdict! Part One
Yes, I’m fully aware it is still only November but, if you watch commercial television, you can’t have failed to have noticed the glut of shops thrusting their 2011 Christmas adverts in your face. So which are cracking and which are turkeys? Let’s find out.
Marks and Spencer aka “It Hasn’t Got The X-Factor”
Now, I need some clarification with this. Is it advertising Britain’s premium food and clothing shop or is it a sixty-second love letter and free publicity to the X-Factor? Yes, the good old Marks and Sparks adverts have often featured celebrities but no one quite this, erm, current. I can’t deny their version of the Disney classic ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ is good, if not a little bit scatter gun because of the range of the voices.
Already staying current has bitten them in the behind as Frankie, who has now left the X Factor because of snow of a different kind, it’s had to be edited from the version above.
With footage of the X Factor finalists mixed in with the necessary cross section of demographics unwrapping presents, I would say it doesn’t necessarily feel that Christmassy to me. Or maybe it’s because it’s still mid-November.
Not a bad advert but it doesn’t really have the X-Factor. [4 / 10]
Ann Summers, aka “Phwoar-ing but Boring”
Taking the form of another sort of talent competition, this advert will not surprise you. Consisting of everything you’d think would appear in an Ann Summers advert: slow motion cameras showing various aspects of their bodies, sexy underwear, provocative dancemoves, a rabbit (no, a real one, not *that* one) I wouldn’t say it’s particularly Christmassy. There’s no tinsel or trees to be seen, no snow sensually rubbed off flesh and no sign of any kissing under the mistletoe.
I’m not going to complain about two minutes and ten seconds of scantily clad amateur models appearing on my TV screen and, you know, if this was what Christmas is about I’m not going to moan either, but it’s not particular festive beyond the heavy use of the colour red. And the least said about the dance / techno backing music the better, unless Santa has invested in a pair of decks and Tracktor. [4/10]
John Lewis, aka “Nice Twist, Shame about the Morrissey”
To be honest, I could stop writing about this record after revealing its first achievement in that the cover of a Smiths song actually makes it sound good, even if it’s as depressing a song as you expect from a Morrissey penned ditty. Frankly, Santa would find himself on valium listening to this tune.
The advert sets up a simple story of a boy waiting around, not for something to actually happen in the video as I initially expected, but for Christmas so he can give a present to his parents, a neat twist on the expectation that he’s waiting for Christmas. The story is told well and the little twist is great and it’s the most Christmas-y of the adverts so far, capturing that excitement of Christmas Day you have as a kid.
Just pick a more cheerful song next time, John Lewis. Ellie Goulding’s murdering of the Elton John classic last year should have been enough for you! [6/10]
Littlewoods, aka “Anti-men, Illusion shattering Urban pantomime”
Santa is dead. That is according to this Littlewood’s advert. No longer is it a jolly fat man dressed in red who comes down your chimney, leaves you gifts and then sods off with his magical flying reindeer. No, it’s your mum. In her old slippers, with a mug of coffee in her hand and a sense of worry over the credit card bill rattling around in her head.
Laying thanks to Christmas at the door of mums everywhere instead of Santa – and, of course, fuelling the anti-feminists with the sentiment that, of course, no dads do the present shopping – it takes the form of a school pantomime where instead of celebrating the birth of Christ in a gorgeous nativity scene or perhaps recreating the three bears, the kids all grasp hold of the commercial side of Christmas with talk of X-Box consoles and watches. Oh, and let’s not forget to street it up with the token black child and the obligatory street hand gesture. Bo.
So within forty seconds we get sexism, casual racial stereotyping, and the shattering of the fantasy of Santa’s exciting. Great work Littlewoods. At least the song is catchy though, but mostly thanks to the amount of people in the audience whose names luckily rhyme. [3/10]
Boots, aka “Mission Charlie’s Angels Impossible”
With a cracking adaptation of the established Boots / Sugababes “Girls” theme to make it sound like it has come straight out of a James Bond film, this is possible the wittiest and most interesting advert so far this year, with lots of shots of the aforementioned girls planting presents around without being spotted before achieving a white Christmas through the use of a snow cannon and enough lights to cripple your electricity budget for the next ten millennia.
With enough movie pastiches to keep even the most ardent movie fan happy, it’s not very traditionally Christmas but at least it has snow and fairy lights. And a happy, up-tempo, tune. About fifty percent there on the festive stakes. [6.5/10]
I’ll be reviewing more adverts soon but at the moment none of the above come anywhere close to the ultimate festive classic…
Marks and Spencer aka “It Hasn’t Got The X-Factor”
Now, I need some clarification with this. Is it advertising Britain’s premium food and clothing shop or is it a sixty-second love letter and free publicity to the X-Factor? Yes, the good old Marks and Sparks adverts have often featured celebrities but no one quite this, erm, current. I can’t deny their version of the Disney classic ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ is good, if not a little bit scatter gun because of the range of the voices.
Already staying current has bitten them in the behind as Frankie, who has now left the X Factor because of snow of a different kind, it’s had to be edited from the version above.
With footage of the X Factor finalists mixed in with the necessary cross section of demographics unwrapping presents, I would say it doesn’t necessarily feel that Christmassy to me. Or maybe it’s because it’s still mid-November.
Not a bad advert but it doesn’t really have the X-Factor. [4 / 10]
Ann Summers, aka “Phwoar-ing but Boring”
Taking the form of another sort of talent competition, this advert will not surprise you. Consisting of everything you’d think would appear in an Ann Summers advert: slow motion cameras showing various aspects of their bodies, sexy underwear, provocative dancemoves, a rabbit (no, a real one, not *that* one) I wouldn’t say it’s particularly Christmassy. There’s no tinsel or trees to be seen, no snow sensually rubbed off flesh and no sign of any kissing under the mistletoe.
I’m not going to complain about two minutes and ten seconds of scantily clad amateur models appearing on my TV screen and, you know, if this was what Christmas is about I’m not going to moan either, but it’s not particular festive beyond the heavy use of the colour red. And the least said about the dance / techno backing music the better, unless Santa has invested in a pair of decks and Tracktor. [4/10]
John Lewis, aka “Nice Twist, Shame about the Morrissey”
To be honest, I could stop writing about this record after revealing its first achievement in that the cover of a Smiths song actually makes it sound good, even if it’s as depressing a song as you expect from a Morrissey penned ditty. Frankly, Santa would find himself on valium listening to this tune.
The advert sets up a simple story of a boy waiting around, not for something to actually happen in the video as I initially expected, but for Christmas so he can give a present to his parents, a neat twist on the expectation that he’s waiting for Christmas. The story is told well and the little twist is great and it’s the most Christmas-y of the adverts so far, capturing that excitement of Christmas Day you have as a kid.
Just pick a more cheerful song next time, John Lewis. Ellie Goulding’s murdering of the Elton John classic last year should have been enough for you! [6/10]
Littlewoods, aka “Anti-men, Illusion shattering Urban pantomime”
Santa is dead. That is according to this Littlewood’s advert. No longer is it a jolly fat man dressed in red who comes down your chimney, leaves you gifts and then sods off with his magical flying reindeer. No, it’s your mum. In her old slippers, with a mug of coffee in her hand and a sense of worry over the credit card bill rattling around in her head.
Laying thanks to Christmas at the door of mums everywhere instead of Santa – and, of course, fuelling the anti-feminists with the sentiment that, of course, no dads do the present shopping – it takes the form of a school pantomime where instead of celebrating the birth of Christ in a gorgeous nativity scene or perhaps recreating the three bears, the kids all grasp hold of the commercial side of Christmas with talk of X-Box consoles and watches. Oh, and let’s not forget to street it up with the token black child and the obligatory street hand gesture. Bo.
So within forty seconds we get sexism, casual racial stereotyping, and the shattering of the fantasy of Santa’s exciting. Great work Littlewoods. At least the song is catchy though, but mostly thanks to the amount of people in the audience whose names luckily rhyme. [3/10]
Boots, aka “Mission Charlie’s Angels Impossible”
With a cracking adaptation of the established Boots / Sugababes “Girls” theme to make it sound like it has come straight out of a James Bond film, this is possible the wittiest and most interesting advert so far this year, with lots of shots of the aforementioned girls planting presents around without being spotted before achieving a white Christmas through the use of a snow cannon and enough lights to cripple your electricity budget for the next ten millennia.
With enough movie pastiches to keep even the most ardent movie fan happy, it’s not very traditionally Christmas but at least it has snow and fairy lights. And a happy, up-tempo, tune. About fifty percent there on the festive stakes. [6.5/10]
I’ll be reviewing more adverts soon but at the moment none of the above come anywhere close to the ultimate festive classic…
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