Yes, minister - series 2 (Paul Eddington)

(Amazon UK link)

Having finished watching the BBC sit-com ‘Yes minister, series 1’ towards the end of August, it was an easy decision to start watching the second series. It was broadcast in 1981, starting around a year after the first series began. I remember enjoying the show when it was on television, and we acquired the full set of DVDs for all the series many years ago.  But it’s been a long time since we watched them.

The first episode of series 2, is ‘The compassionate society’.  Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington), who is still somewhat idealistic, discovers that a new hospital is fully staffed with ancillary workers and administrative staff, but has no medical staff. So there are no patients. He feels that this is a terrible waste of resources and wants to fire the people who are working there until doctors and nurses can be found. Then the unions get involved…

It doesn’t sound like a source of amusing banter, but, as with the first series, it’s very cleverly scripted. Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne) comes out with some long, convoluted explanations which must have been quite difficult to learn… and his expressions are wonderful. Bernard (Derek Fowlds) tries to balance his loyalties, and Hacker is stuck between what he believes to be right and his image with the public. 

Hotel du lac (Anna Massey)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over ten years since we watched the film ‘Hotel du lac’, and we had totally forgotten what it was about. So we decided to watch it last night. It’s not a long film - well under 90 minutes - and it was made in 1986, based on a book of the same name (though I have not read it).

Anna Massey stars as the middle-aged writer Edith. She’s been quite successful in writing romantic fiction, though she mostly keeps quiet about it; she writes under a pseudonym. She lives in the UK, but at the start of the film she’s being sent into a kind of exile, to a hotel in Europe, by a lake. 

She’s apparently committed a terrible crime, though this seems at odds with her quiet, unassuming behaviour. But underneath the drab clothes and calm demeanor, there’s a woman of passion - as we discover through flashbacks, where she has an affair with a married man. I wondered if this, perhaps, was the terrible crime. But Edith regularly writes letters to the man she loves, speaking aloud as she writes so we learn what she’s thinking - and many of them lead to scenes from previous years and months.

Shadows in the sun (Joshua Jackson)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly eleven years since we watched the 2005 film ‘Shadows in the sun’. I hadn’t remembered anything about it; we watched it last night and I had no memory of it at all, though my husband recalled one or two brief scenes. 

The story features a thirty-something man called Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) who works for an editing company in London. His boss (John Rhys-Davies) notes that another company has just signed up a writer who had not produced anything for a decade. He asks Jeremy what he thinks of another writer, Weldon Parish. Jeremy mentions that he loved a book Weldon had written when Jeremy was a child. However, he had apparently stopped writing when his wife had died twenty years earlier.

The boss announces that Jeremy is to travel to Tuscany, in Italy, to recruit Weldon to their books. Jeremy doesn’t believe it’s possible, but has no choice. We see him travelling in a smart suit, with his briefcase and his determination to attempt what might be impossible.

The rewrite (Hugh Grant)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s ten years since we watched the 2014 film ‘The rewrite’. We hadn’t remembered anything about it, but saw a trailer for it last week, and thought it looked worth rewatching.

Hugh Grant stars as the screenwriter Keith who had a tremendous success fifteen years before the story begins. He won awards, and people still talk about his film ‘Paradise misplaced’. He did write some other screenplays, but had no more triumphs, and is now somewhat depressed, lacking money and uninspired.

Then he’s offered an unexpected post teaching screenwriting at a small university in New York. He hates the idea - he’s convinced that writing cannot be taught - but eventually agrees. He finds people very friendly - one of his potential students rather too friendly - and full of admiration for his famous film. Then he manages to upset one of his colleagues, first by being rude about Jane Austen, and then about women in films. He’s had a bit too much wine and gets himself into more and more trouble…

Yes, minister series 1 (Paul Eddington)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s a very long time since we watched the series ‘Yes, Minister’. I recall seeing them - or some of them - on TV when they were first broadcast in the early 1980s. And I’m pretty sure we watched the series on DVD about fifteen years ago; but I have no record of it. And only a general recollection of the content.

So we started watching in early August. Each episode is only about half an hour, so we watched two at a time. The first episode shows the results of the general election when Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) is elected, and a new party takes office. 

We never learn which party they are supposed to represent, and while that bothered me in the past, I think now that this was wise. The point is made, often, that even if political parties have different aims or goals, the way they function (and the role of the civil service) is much the same. 

What we did on our holiday (David Tennant, Rosamunde Pike)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over ten years since we watched the 2014 film ‘What we did on our holiday’. I remembered that it starred two of my favourite actors (David Tennant and Billy Connolly). I also recalled that there was a very sad scene in the middle of what was otherwise a light-hearted story. But nothing else about it.

David Tennant stars as Doug, a Scotsman who has separated from his wife Abi (Rosamunde Pike). They have three children: Lottie (Emilia Jones), Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), and Jess (Harriet Turnbull). We learn towards the end of the film that Mickey is six; Lottie must be about ten, and Jess about four. All three of these children are excellent: they have a great on-screen chemistry, and they’re entirely believable, even in what must have been quite difficult scenes.

As the film starts, Doug and Abi are trying to get the children’s cases packed and into the car, as they’re all travelling to Scotland. There are some very amusing scenes involving Jess’s insistence on packing heavy rocks and a breezeblock. She insists that she can’t sleep without them. And if anyone tries to persuade her otherwise, she holds her breath until she passes out. It’s manipulative, but she’s very cute, and often gets her own way.

The Help (Emma Stone)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s eleven years since we saw the film ‘The Help’, which was based on the excellent novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett. I recalled most of the plot - it’s a very powerful, thought-provoking one - but had forgotten most of the details. We decided to watch it last night despite it being quite a long film by today’s standards: it’s almost two and a half hours long. 

Although we knew it was set in the 1960s, it still felt shocking to us that racial segregation was still legal - and popular with white people - in Mississippi. It all takes place in a small town, where there are a lot of socialite white women who all have black ‘maids’ - known collectively as ‘the help’. 

We get to know just a few of the households concerned. Aibileen (Viola Davies) works for a woman called Elizabeth (Ahna O’Reilly), looking after her young daughter Mae Mobley, who must be about two and a half or three. Elizabeth had post-natal depression and does almost nothing for her daughter, who adores ‘Aibie’. Apparently Mae Mobley, who is delightful, was played by identical twins. 

The King and I (Deborah Kerr)

(Amazon UK link)

A couple of years ago we were given several DVDs of old, classic films by an elderly friend who was downsizing. Many of them were musicals, and we’ve watched a few. But we’re not huge fans of musicals in general, so one is usually sufficient for several months.

Last night we decided to watch ‘The King and I’, which neither of us had ever seen before, although we had heard of it. The film was made in 1956, and it’s quite an extravaganza of colour, song and dance. Apparently it was based on a Broadway show, which was based on a book, which was roughly based on some true memoirs. 

The entire story takes place in Siam (now known as Thailand) in the 1860s. The first person we meet as a young widowed woman called Anna (Deborah Kerr) who is on a ship, accompanied by her son Louis. They sound artificially upper-class at first, and her huge, hooped skirt looks totally out of place as they talk to the captain, and Louis wonders whether the King of Siam will meet them. 

All creatures great and small series 2 (Christopher Timothy)

(Amazon UK link)

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the first series of the 1970s TV show ‘All creatures great and small’ (based on the books by James Herriot) earlier in the year. So when we finished, it wasn’t a difficult decision to move on to the second series. 

The same actors appear in the main roles. Christopher Timothy is excellent as James Herriot, now more comfortable in his role as partner in the vet surgery, and married to Helen (Carol Drinkwater).  Siegfried Farnon is perfectly portrayed by Robert Hardy: sometimes charming, sometimes irritable, always very gentle with animals. His younger brother Tristan is Peter Davison, rather younger than when he portrayed Doctor Who, and considerably more irresponsible.

In the first episode Siegfried shocks James and Helen by telling them they need to move out of their room within a couple of weeks. But he’s not turning them out on the streets… he has bigger rooms in the attic, which he’s making available to them. They need rather a lot of cleaning and decorating, but Helen proves proficient with wallpapering. 

Ella Enchanted (Anne Hathaway)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over a decade since we first saw - and liked - the DVD of ‘Ella enchanted’. I remembered that it was based, fairly loosely, on the classic story of Cinderella, but that was about all. We thought it would make a pleasant, undemanding (and not too long) film to watch.

Anne Hathaway stars as Ella, and she is perfect for the role. She’s feisty, athletic, and has excellent comic timing. She can also be very romantic. But the film doesn’t open with a grown-up Ella. It starts with a scene that could almost have been from Sleeping Beauty rather than Cinderella. Baby Ella is adored by her parents, and by the not-very-competent household fairy Mandy (Minnie Driver). 

Then with a magical swirl, Lucinda arrives. Ella’s mother doesn’t quite manage to hide the baby, although she would like to, because Lucinda is reputed to give unhelpful gifts. Not that she’s a bad or evil fairy - but her gifts tend to backfire. And she becomes offended if anyone asks her to take them back. She decides to give Ella the gift of obedience. She assures the household that this will make her a very easy baby…

The time of the Doctor (Matt Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

We very much enjoyed rewatching series seven of Doctor Who recently. It was the last full series with Matt Smith, whom we had started to appreciate very much with his somewhat eccentric - and occasionally clumsy - portrayal of the Doctor. We then watched the 50th anniversary special, ‘The day of the Doctor’ a week or so back, and thought it excellent.  

Next in the series is the 2013 Christmas special, one which we had seen about ten years ago (on someone else’s i-player), but had totally forgotten. I spent some time trying to find it as a standalone DVD but ended up having to buy it on a ‘Christmas specials’ DVD set, which included three others which we had already seen, and had as part of their series (or, in the case of ‘The doctor, the widow and the wardrobe', as a standalone).

This wasn’t sold as part of series 8 for two reasons, or so I'm assuming. The first is that, rather than being Peter Capaldi’s first episode as the twelfth doctor, it’s Matt Smith’s final episode; he regenerates right at the end. The second is that series 8 didn’t start until August 2014, eight months after this one was broadcast.

Cabaret (Liza Minnelli)

(Amazon UK link)

We’ve had the film Cabaret on our shelves for over a decade. As far as I remember, it was a free DVD which a relative acquired with a Sunday newspaper, and then passed on to us. I’ve looked at the blurb a couple of times, and thought it sounded interesting… but it’s taken until now for us to finally sit down and watch it.

The film was made in 1972, so inevitably the style is a bit dated - and perhaps deliberately so because it’s set in the 1930s, in Germany. Apparently it was based on a stage show which was based on a book, but I’m not familiar with either of them. 

Quite a bit of the film is set in a popular night club in Berlin, with a cabaret show hosted by a made up man (Joel Grey) who is excellent at what he does, though it’s not a style that appeals to me at all. He makes crude jokes which the audience laugh at, and sometimes dances with the women (one of whom is a man in drag…). Sally (Liza Minnelli) is one of the stars of the show and it’s quickly clear that she lives a highly promiscuous lifestyle.

The day of the doctor (50th anniversary special)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished re-watching Doctor Who series 7 around a week ago. It ends with Matt Smith as the 11th doctor seeing the place where he will eventually die, but with no sign of regenerating. That happens before series 8, but in between the two series were a couple of ‘special’ episodes. We saw them in 2016 on a relative’s streaming system in 2016, but I decided to acquire the DVDs after that, as we enjoyed them both and I was pretty sure we would eventually want to re-watch them.

A decade later, we allowed longer than usual and watched ‘The day of the Doctor’, which was broadcast as the 50th anniversary ‘special’. I had forgotten, until we started watching, that it featured not just Matt Smith, but David Tennant who returned specially, as well as Billie Piper.  I had forgotten everything else about it, too…

The episode begins with the Doctor and Clara (Jenna Coleman) having rather an undignified ride over London when the tardis is requisitioned by UNIT, in particular by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). She wants them to investigate some 3d paintings which have apparently been vandalised… from inside. 

We bought a zoo (Matt Damon)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over ten years since we watched ‘We bought a zoo’, a 2011 film which we assumed, at first, was a children’s film. In more than a decade I had forgotten everything other than the overall story: a family who knew nothing about zoos decided to buy one. But I could not recall why, or the circumstances leading up to the purchase.

It turns out that the film was based on a true story. Benjamin (brilliantly portrayed by Matt Damon) has been recently widowed. He had lived quite an adventurous life as a reporter, but, as the introduction tells us, nothing prepared him for being a single father, not just grieving himself but having to deal with both the practical and emotional ramifications for his teenage son Dylan (Colin Ford) and his seven-year-old daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones). 

Dylan is going through a rough patch at school and after three incidents, triggered by his anger and depression, he is expelled. Benjamin decides they need to make a new start, in a house that doesn’t remind them all of his late wife. So he goes house-hunting with Rosie in quite an amusing sequence. None of the houses feel right to them at all, until they find out way out in the countryside, which they both feel is perfect.

Doctor Who series 7 (Matt Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

After rewatching the excellent 2011 Christmas special, ‘The doctor, the widow and the wardrobe’ towards the end of April, we embarked again on series 7, the last full series featuring Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor.  We first watched series 7 during 2014; it was originally broadcast during 2012. 

The first episode, ‘Asylum of the daleks’ is a dramatic one. I have never liked the daleks, but they’re probably the most iconic aliens in the series. In this episode, the Doctor is summoned, to his astonishment, to help them figure out a problem with the planet where they have imprisoned daleks who have gone insane. 

They’re worried that they might escape, and the Doctor is the only person who can do what they want. They also send Amy (Karen Gillen) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), who - as we have seen in the first scenes of this episode - are about to get divorced.

It’s an exciting start to the new series, one with several twists and turns and the introduction of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin. She’s a self-proclaimed genius who has somehow survived a spaceship crash and is using her computer to control doors and other features around the plant.

A good woman (Helen Hunt)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over eleven years since we watched the DVD of the 2004 film ‘A good woman’, and we had both forgotten everything about it. As the story progressed, I remembered that it was an adaptation - or a film based on - the Oscar Wilde play ‘Lady Windermere’s fan’. But since I’m not familiar with the play, it didn’t help me recall any details of the film.

A woman called Mrs Erlynne (Helen Hunt) is really the main protagonist of this film, which is set in the 1930s. We meet her leaving New York where she has a lot of unpaid debts. And we quickly learn that she’s the kind of woman who attracts men, usually married ones. There’s a lot of gossip about her, much of it accurate.

The action moves to the Amalfi coast in Italy.  A young couple - Lord Windermere (Mark Umbers) and his American wife Meg (Scarlett Johansson) - are having a long holiday there. They’ve been married for a year, and she’s about to celebrate her 21st birthday. They are clearly devoted to each other, but Mrs Erlynne has her sights set on them… and we start seeing him arriving, secretly, at her house, followed by writing cheques to her. 

The magic of Belle Isle (Morgan Freeman)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over ten years since we watched ‘The magic of Belle Isle’. I had forgotten most of the story, but knew it featured Morgan Freeman, who is always excellent. We wanted something relaxing to watch, and decided on this 2012 film.

We were almost immediately captivated. 

Monty Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman) is a former novelist who was quite well-known for his western adventures. But life has not treated him well, and he’s lost both his faith and his mojo. He hasn’t written for years and has become an alcoholic. He’s in a wheelchair - we don’t learn why until much later in the film - and is both angry and depressed.

Monty’s nephew Henry (Kenan Thompson) persuades him to stay in a beach house, dog-sitting for the summer. He sets up Monty’s typewriter, hoping that the tranquillity of the location might persuade him to write again. 

Grease (Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over twenty years since we watched the DVD of the 1978 film ‘Grease’. We saw it at the cinema in the late 1970s, and then acquired the DVD in 2005 when we started collecting them. We watched it soon afterwards. But it’s been sitting on a shelf since then. I remembered the basic outline of the story, but had forgotten most of the details. It was clearly time to rewatch it.

We meet Sandy (Olivia Newton John) on a beach in the United States, saying a long farewell to her holiday romance boyfriend, Danny (John Travolta). These principal actors must have been 30 and 24 respectively, but are quite believable as 17-year-olds about to embark on their final year of high school. 

Sandy is Australian, and expects to return home with her parents. But plans change, and she enrols at the local high school, not knowing that it’s the one attended by Danny. But he’s in a group of friends who are quite tough and don’t treat girls particularly well, so when they do finally meet, he’s distant and abrupt with her. 

Flipper (Elijah Wood)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over twenty years since we watched the family film ‘Flipper’ about a teenage boy and his special relationship to a dolphin. I didn’t remember much about it, other than that it was a somewhat bittersweet ending with some tension along the way.

I had quite forgotten that the show stars Elijah Wood as fifteen-year-old Sandy, well before he became a household name as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings series. He was apparently prolific as a child actor, and plays the part of the somewhat fed-up Sandy very competently.

Sandy’s parents, we quickly learn, are separating, and they have sent Sandy to stay with his uncle, Porter (Paul Hogan), for the summer. Porter lives in a ramshackle building on the coast of Florida, and mostly lives on canned food, which he acquires in bulk from various ships. He doesn’t much want someone around, and Sandy doesn’t want to be there, but when Sandy tries to run away Porter follows him and brings him back.

All creatures great and small series 1 (Christopher Timothy)

(Amazon UK link)

Although we’ve had some DVD sets of the 1980s TV adaptation of ‘All creatures great and small’ on our shelves for many years, we’ve never sat down and watched them through. So we decided to make that our next ‘light’ DVD watching after finishing the fifth series of Dad’s Army in the middle of April. 

This TV series was based on the books by James Herriot, and produced by the BBC. I watched some of them when they were first broadcast, but don’t think I’ve seen the series since. It looks quite dated in style, with the almost square layout of the screen, and it’s not as sharp as modern shows. Perhaps there are remastered editions of this, but ours must have been bought at least twenty years ago. I understand that another series was made a few years ago, too. 

The theme tune was immediately recognisable to me, but I’d forgotten how the series started: a rather nervous James (Christopher Timothy), smartly suited, is on a bus on his way to a job interview. He arrives, only to find that his prospective boss Seigfried (Robert Hardy) is out, and the housekeeper Mrs Hall (Mary Hignet) is not expecting him. But he gets thrown into local conversation, then goes out with Siegfried when he gets back, and - unsurprisingly - is offered the job. There’s a slightly stressful ending to the first episode as he is threatened with a possible lawsuit..

The shack (Sam Worthington)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s seventeen years since I read the bestselling Christian novel ‘The Shack’, which caused some controversy in American evangelical circles. I recalled disliking the first section which was cliché-ridden and described a heart-breaking family tragedy. But it got better. The main part was unexpected,  inspiring, and moving in places. 

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the film that was based on - or, at least, inspired by - the book, which was made in 2017. But my husband acquired the blu-ray, so we decided to watch it last night. 

The opening is quite disturbing; 13-year-old Mack (Carson Reaume) lives with a seriously abusive father who drinks too much and becomes violent. This is hidden behind an overly-religious front, demanding that children obey their parents, and expecting his wife to obey him. When Mack’s mother can’t take it any more, she leaves, and Mack takes matters into his own hands. 

A hard day's night (The Beatles)

(Amazon UK link)

We’ve had the DVD of the classic film ‘A hard day’s night’ on our shelves for years. I have no idea how or when we acquired it. But last night we decided, at last, that we would watch it. We knew nothing about it, other than that it featured The Beatles.

The film was made in 1964, but was in black-and-white. This didn’t worry us, after a moment’s initial surprise. And while there is, of course, quite a bit of Beatles music featured, the film doesn’t feel like a standard musical. Instead, it’s a story - fictional, but based loosely on the kinds of things that might have happened - starring the four Beatles as themselves.

We first see them chased and almost mobbed by screaming young women, but getting onto a train with their manager Norm (Norman Rossington) and his sidekick Shake (John Junkin). They are also accompanied by Paul’s grandfather (Wilfred Bramble). I could not understand the frequent references to Grandfather as ‘a very clean man’, until we watched one of the ‘extras’. Apparently he was better known in a sitcom from the same era, ‘Steptoe and Son’, where he played an elderly man who was known for being very grubby. 

I capture the castle (Romola Garai)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over twenty years since we watched the DVD of the film ‘I capture the castle’. I remembered that it was based on a book by Dodie Smith, and that it involved a writer who wasn’t writing. I also recalled that he got locked in a room by his children. But that’s all I could remember of it.

I had no idea until we started watching that the father in question is played - brilliantly - by Bill Nighy. He is perfect for the role, with the typical balance of grumpiness and kindness that this actor often displays. However the real star is 17-year-old Cassandra (Romola Garai), one of his daughters, who narrates the story, while writing it in her notebooks. 

We learn from flashbacks that her father published a novel twelve years before the story begins, and it was a major success. But he had a bad temper, and was in prison for a while; we only learn later what happened. Cassandra thinks they were a happy family when she was young, and recalls the day they saw a somewhat tumbledown castle, and decided that they would live there.

The last of the Blonde Bombshells (Judi Dench)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly 11 years since we last watched ‘The last of the blonde bombshells’. We wanted something fairly light and not too long to watch last night, and this seemed to fit the bill. I vaguely recalled that it starred Judi Dench, and that it referenced her character’s past as a showgirl. But that was all I could remember.

I’d quite forgotten that the opening scenes are rather sombre. Elizabeth (Judi Dench) recounts, off screen, that the story begins after the funeral of her husband. We see her dressed in black, and snippets of the service. We also see her daughter Patricia (Felicity Dean) and son Edward (Nicholas Palliser). They’re evidently a bit more conventional than their mother, and try to persuade her to think about her future.

Patricia has a daughter, Joanna (Millie Findlay) whom Elizabeth often looks after. The two are very close. And when Joanna hears her grandmother play the saxophone, she’s very impressed. We were too, although we later discovered that Judi Dench does not play the sax, but learned some scales for this film. She sees a street busker, Paul (Dom Chapman) and starts to play too. Her son and daughter are horrified.

Magic in the moonlight (Colin Firth)

(Amazon UK link)

From time to time, Amazon recommends films to me, based on prior purchases. One of them which looked interesting a year or so back was the 2014 film  ‘Magic in the moonlight’, which stars Colin Firth. I put it on my wishlist, and had forgotten about it when I was given the blu-ray version for my recent birthday.

Colin Firth is best known for his Mr Darcy in the BBC ‘Pride and Prejudice’ film; he also seems to appear fairly often as a somewhat self-deprecating, slightly clumsy Englishman. So it was quite refreshing - and surprising - to see him as Wei Ling Soo, a suave, talented conjurer who stuns an audience in 1928 with his oriental routine. The film opens with him dressed as a tall Chinese magician, and we see, as his audience does, an elephant that disappears, and his finale when he vanishes from a box and reappears on a swivel chair.

He then shows himself as a rather big-headed and very irritable man called Stanley. He begins to remove his costume, criticises his assistants, and refuses to sign autographs or appear in photos with his fans. He knows he’s popular, he knows he’s brilliant, and he doesn’t care who he upsets.

The doctor, the widow and the wardrobe (Matt Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

Most of the Doctor Who series start with a Christmas special. It's usually broadcast as a kind of starter to the series, sometimes a month or more before the rest of the series gets going. In general, they don’t have much to do with the rest of the series; they also tend to be a bit longer (perhaps an hour rather than forty minutes). And usually they’re included in the DVD sets. 

However, series seven does not include the 2011 Christmas special - I don’t know why. When we realised this, the first time we were viewing the ‘new’ Doctor Who DVDs, I ordered it specially. And I am extremely glad that I did. We first watched it in January 2014, and loved it. 

It doesn’t add anything much to the ongoing story arcs, but it’s my absolute favourite Christmas special. We watched it as a standalone with one of our sons in December 2021, but I was eager to see it again after we finished watching series six at the end of March.

Dad's Army series five

(Amazon UK link)

We finished the fourth series of Dad’s Army in February, and were still enjoying it. We had one more DVD series, so decided to embark on series five. This TV sitcom was mainly broadcast in the 1970s and features a mixed group of volunteers in the 'home guard' during World War II. 

The first episode is mostly set in a bunker which has been hit by a bomb in an air raid. Unfortunately, Private Walker (James Beck) and Private Godfrey (Arnold Ridley) have been on duty there, and are trapped in a small room by fallen debris. Godfrey, moreover, is fast asleep and seems to be unwell…

So Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his troops hurry to the rescue, along with ARP Hodges (Bill Pertwee), who insists - at first - that it’s his responsibility, not that of the home guard. When they discover what the problem is, and that it will be quite dangerous to move the rubble, he wants to back out… it’s a potentially stressful situation, made worse by a burst water pipe, but as ever there’s plenty of humour. 

Batteries not included (Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s eighteen years since we watched the DVD of the 1987 film ‘Batteries not included’. I had not remembered much about it, other than that it started rather gloomily, then delved into slightly weird science fiction. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, which is probably why we acquired it in the first place.

The opening scenes are, indeed, decidedly depressing, even disturbing in places. We see building sites in part of New York, where homes have been demolished, with a lot of action. And we see the tenants of a crumbling apartment block, who are being given notice to quit - with a financial offer - but who have nowhere else to go. 

There’s a young, pregnant woman called Marisa (Elizabeth Peña) who hopes her boyfriend will come back. There’s a struggling artist called Mason (Dennis Boutsikaris) whose girlfriend becomes fed up with him, and leaves. There’s a former champion boxer called Harry (Frank McRae) who is quite lonely, and there’s an elderly couple, Frank (Hume Cronyn) and Faye (Jessica Tandy) who are perhaps the most poignant of all. They run a diner on the ground floor of the building, and it’s reasonably popular. But Faye clearly has a form of early dementia, and gets easily confused. She has some friends who also live in the building, who help to look after her. But after some deliberation, they decide to take the offered money and move elsewhere. 

Doctor Who series 6 (Matt Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished watching Doctor Who series 5 at the end of last year. We had become familiar with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, and with Amy Pond, portrayed by Karen Gillen, as his companion. At the end of the fifth series, Amy married Rory (Arthur Darvill), and both had decided to keep travelling with the Doctor. 

Series 6 opens with a Christmas special entitled ‘A Christmas carol’. It was a good one to see towards the end of the Christmas period; it was first broadcast on Christmas Day 2010. We first saw it in September 2013 and had entirely forgotten the story. It features a very Scrooge-like character, brilliantly portrayed by Michael Gambon, who refuses to allow a spaceship to arrive. Rory and Amy are in it, on their honeymoon, and send out an SOS to the Doctor. 

The writing is clever, with more than a nod to Dickens; and we liked the resulting softening of the character. There are several Christmas carols featured in the background, too, and some amazing singing. It’s all very well done, we thought, with some tension and mildly scary effects - but overall, an excellent Christmas special. It’s an hour long, and then there’s an ‘extra’ on the same DVD, a Doctor Who ‘confidential’, which gives a lot of background to the episode. There are also a couple of brief ‘extra’ episodes filmed for Comic Relief. 

Little women (Winona Ryder)

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We have two DVDs with films based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel ‘Little Women’. We watched the 2019 version - updated for a modern audience - in 2020, and I liked it much more than I had expected to. But it was over twenty years since we watched the 1994 version which is rather closer to the original. So we decided to see it again. I am very familiar with the story, my husband much less so as he has never read the books.

On the whole, this is quite true to the original, although inevitably a lot has been cut out. The four March sisters are realistically portrayed: Trini Alvarado is the responsible Meg, and Winona Ryder is the impetuous Jo, who never quite manages to look tidy, and who spends most of her time writing. I thought Beth (Claire Danes) was the least believable of the four; but a lot of her story is removed from the film. Kirsten Dunst is an excellent young Amy; she’s the only sister who has a different actress (Samantha Mathis) playing her as an adult. But then Meg and Jo were older teenagers anyway at the start of the story.

Nim's Island (Abigail Breslin)

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We’ve picked up a lot of DVDs over the years, many of them second-hand. Since we have regularly had young friends coming to watch a DVD, we made sure that there was a good collection with U rating for them to select from when they were small. There were some which we were familiar with, of course; I bought quite a few children’s classics when our own sons were younger. But others were completely new to us. 

Recently I thought it would be a good idea for us to watch some of them - not the 3d animated ones which I dislike intently, but the ones with real people. Last night we decided to watch ‘Nim’s Island’.  I had no idea what it was about, but I know our young friends quite liked it a few years ago. 

The star of this film is Abigail Breslin, who is perfectly cast as 11-year-old Nim. She narrates the start of the story, illustrated with cartoons, showing how her mother was eaten by a whale when Nim was three. So she lives with her father, Jack (Gerard Butler). They went around the world a couple of times on his boat, as he’s a marine scientist, always looking for new forms of microscopic life.  And now they have settled on a tiny island which doesn’t have any other human inhabitants. 

My dog Skip (Frankie Muniz)

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Just over three years ago, I came across the DVD of ‘My dog Skip’ - and probably some others - in a thrift store, and bought it inexpensively. It looked like a pleasant family film, rated U, but for some reason we didn’t get around to watching it until last night. 

I was slightly concerned that it might be a ‘weepy’, but was relieved that it really wasn’t. The film was made in 2000 but set in the 1940s in Mississippi. It's based on a true story which was written in a book of the same name by Willie Morris. 

There’s an introductory voiceover from an adult, talking about looking back to his childhood. And then we meet young Willie, who is brilliantly played by Frankie Muniz. Willis is only supposed to be eight at the start of the film, and the actor must have been thirteen or fourteen, but he’s totally believable both then, and as he starts to grow up. 

Under the Tuscan sun (Diane Lane)

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It’s over ten years since we first saw the film ‘Under the Tuscan sun’, so it seemed like a good idea to watch it again. I had entirely forgotten what it was about. I realised, after seeing the credits and one of the extras, that it was based on a semi-autobiographical book with the same title. 

The main character is a woman called Frances, played entirely believably by Diane Lane. Frances is a writer, who learns that her husband has been unfaithful. The early scenes are short and rapid, and we see her trying to negotiate a divorce settlement, then moving into a small and rather seedy flat. 

Frances’ best friend is called Patti (Sandra Oh). She and her partner meet Frances for a celebratory dinner after the divorce is finalised… and Frances learns that her friend is pregnant. She is then given a very generous offer of an Italian tour, which she’s reluctant, at first, to take. 

Dad's Army series four

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We finished watching the third series of the classic TV series ‘Dad’s Army’ shortly before Christmas last year. On Boxing Day we started watching Series Four. Once again, we found that we didn’t recall much of this at all, although we had both seen the series as children, and some of the repeats over the years. This series was first broadcast in 1970. Each episode is around half an hour, so we usually watch two at a time. 

Episode One sees the platoon preparing for a big parade through the town. They come into conflict with the ARP warden - as ever - about who should be leading (after the town band, that is). Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) thinks it would be a good idea to have a mascot. But Private Walker (James Beck) doesn’t quite come up with what he was expecting. This is a fast-moving episode with a very amusing ending. 

Honeymoon in Vegas (Sarah Jessica Parker)

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We’ve had the DVD of the film ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’ on our shelves for a long time. It was a freebie that one of our relatives acquired, some years ago, with a Sunday newspaper. I don’t know why we never got around to seeing it, but we finally rectified the omission last night.

It feels like quite an old film, given the style of the titles, which are cartoonish, reminiscent of the 1960s. So I’m a bit surprised to find that it was made as recently as 1992. The star of the film is a very young-looking Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays a glamorous, feisty woman called Betsy. She’s the girlfriend of Jack (Nicolas Cage), and they’ve been together for quite some time. She really wants to get married and have children, but he is afraid of commitment.

The reason for his fear is that, on her deathbed, his mother made him promise that he would never love anyone as much as he loved her, and that he would not get married. He didn’t quite make the promise, but it haunts him. And in his work as a private detective, he has seen so much evidence of marriages falling apart and infidelity that he begins to think his mother is right. Except that he really loves Betsy, and doesn’t want to lose her.

The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (2005)

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When Disney adapted the first of the ‘Narnia’ books - The lion, the witch and the wardrobe - to a film, I was eager to see it. I had heard some controversy about it, but also that it was very well done. We went to see it in the cinema at the end of 2005 - just over twenty years ago - which, as far as I remember, is the last time I went to the cinema. I did enjoy the film, on the whole, but found it too loud, and too bright. And I can’t stand the smell of cinema popcorn.

We bought the DVD some years later, which various family members and friends have watched, but I had not seen it again myself until last night. I reread the book in May last year, so recalled most of the details. 

I knew that the film had a kind of prequel scene - actually several scenes, most of which I had forgotten. These showed warplanes in WWII, and the Pevensie family running for shelter as bombs started raining around them. It cleverly shows Edmund (Skandar Keynes) as a rather prickly boy, desperately missing his father, who was away fighting, and determined not to be bossed around by his older siblings. 

Chef (Jon Favreau)

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I’m not sure why I put the DVD of the 2014 film ‘Chef’ on my wishlist. Possibly Amazon recommended it to me because Dustin Hoffman is one of the cast, and I have previously liked films in which he featured. I was given it for Christmas, and we decided to watch it last night. We didn’t really know anything about it, but the image on the front and bylines on the back suggested an amusing ‘feel-good’ film. 

In the first fifteen minutes or so, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it at all. The scene is a large kitchen at a restaurant, with the head chef Carl (Jon Favreau) frantically preparing food. There’s a huge whole pig carcass that they deal with; I closed my eyes during that segment, and hoped there wouldn’t be much more like that. I was also rather disturbed that there was an excessive amount of ‘strong’ language. It was perhaps a good way to denote stress, but rather spoiled the dialogue in my opinion.

Monster-in-law (Jennifer Lopez)

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Someone recommended the 2005 film ‘Monster-in-law’ to my husband some time last year. So he put it on his wishlist, and was given it for Christmas. It claims to be a romantic comedy, and features a rather young-looking Jennifer Lopez. It also stars Jane Fonda, in what turns out to be her return to acting after a break of fifteen years.

Charlie (Charlotte) is the main character, portrayed extremely well by Jennifer Lopez. She has a series of different jobs, some of them temporary, all of them part-time. We see her walking dogs, working as a waitress, and working in a doctor’s office. She hasn’t had much success with romantic relationships but she has two very close friends who are convinced she needs a man in her life.

Her majesty, Mrs Brown (Judi Dench)

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It’s nearly thirteen years since we watched the 1997 drama ‘Her majesty, Mrs Brown’. I wasn’t sure, when we first saw it, if we would be interested in seeing it again, but decided that we would. We recalled that it was about Queen Victoria, brilliantly portrayed by Judi Dench, and that it involved Billy Connolly. But we had forgotten most of the storyline.

Some of the film is based on true events, some is speculation, but it’s all extremely well done. It opens - after a couple of brief foreshadowing scenes that don’t come into play until almost the end - with the Queen in deep mourning after the loss of her beloved Albert. She has refused to make any public appearances, and won’t allow her son, the prince consort, to do so either.