“Inside The Exorcist” Podcast Review. 3/5

The second season of Wondery’s “Inside…” series moved from the chiller of “Psycho” to the sheer horror of “The Exorcist”. Much like the first season, “Inside The Exorcist” takes a deep look into the making of a particularly iconic film and takes the viewer into parts of the story and the production that we may never have considered.

Released in a similar fashion to the first series, over 7 episodes of between 25 and 31 minutes published weekly between October and December of 2017, host and narrator Mark Ramsey covers “The Exorcist” from before it ever came into being. The original novel was based on a supposedly true event, involving the exorcism of a demon from a teenage boy by a Catholic priest. Whilst the novelist would take many years to write this down, the story started long before the film ever came into being.

The podcast does not just cover the film, but the writing of the novel and the personal lives of the people involved, both before and after the success it became. Due to the subject matter of both the novel and the film, some people were dismissive and not as keen to be involved as others, but others who were involved were unhappy that they had been sidelined more than they thought. It was a detailed look into many aspects of the film that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

As with the original series on “Psycho”, the information and presentation here shows that Mark Ramsey has a deep love for the film and in telling people about it. However, it is also evident that this is a show that has no official standing, so that there are no interviews, no clips from the film or anything that couldn’t be found from other sources. Whilst Ramsey is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, his voice also has a nasal quality that isn’t the easiest to listen to and there were a couple of scenes added for dramatic effect that were just a touch cliched and show that Ramsey’s future as a creative writer and actor is not likely to be a long and successful one.

“Inside the Exorcist” has all the best parts of “Inside Psycho” as well as all the worst parts of it, ultimately being no better and no worse. This is a podcast which contains around 4 1/2 hours of content which has been well-researched and written with great knowledge and enthusiasm. However, the presentation of all this information is not the best, as the story doesn’t have much of a through line and the narration is weak and occasionally annoying and lacks external input, which weakens the whole experience, regardless of how detailed the information here may be.

“Resident Evil: Afterlife” (2010) Review (DVD). 3/5

This review was originally posted on ciao.co.uk on 23/01/2011

Whilst it’s true that many film sequels are ill-advised, it’s even more so when a film reaches its fourth instalment. The fourth “Indiana Jones” film certainly wasn’t as strong as the previous in the trilogy and the “Police Academy” franchise had run out of ideas well before the fourth film. Even the fourth in the “Alien” sequence didn’t have the value of the original film and the “Saw” franchise had certainly had its day by “Saw 4”, not that this has stopped it. However, the “Resident Evil” franchise seems to be holding together reasonably well, especially for a series that started as a video game – films which, generally, have been pretty bad.

Deep in a secret underground facility in Tokyo, Alice takes her revenge on the Umbrella Corporation, which has continued to use her and others to experiment on in the wake of the virus that has affected the world. It’s the kind of thing that was bound to end badly and so it does; for her, for Umbrella and for the city of Tokyo in general.

Alice survives the events and goes in search of Arcadia, rumoured to be a town in Alaska where some of the survivors of the T-Virus have gathered and where a number of Alice’s friends were headed. Just as Alice has given up hope, she finds Claire Redfield, who has had her memory wiped and doesn’t know where the others are and doesn’t remember Alice. Together they look to find other survivors, but have no success until they find a group trapped in a former prison surrounded by the undead and find out the true location of Arcadia.

There’s not a huge amount to the story, but in films like this, that’s often the case, so it comes as no huge surprise. The story is largely there only to hold the action scenes together, which is what I (and most people, I suspect) watch action thrillers for anyway. On the action front, the film succeeds admirably, with the opening being action all the way and all sorts of stunts and scenes once Alice reaches the others in the prison. This makes it very watchable, as you can never be entirely sure exactly what will happen next, with the flying sequences and one on the roof being my particular favourites.

With so many action scenes, there are a number of special effects required, most of which are pretty effective. There were a couple of moments where characters did look pasted on to a background. However, part of this could be due to the film being originally shown in 3D and it could be that watching it in that format would make these scenes appear more effective. Generally speaking, though, the effects are pretty good and one scene where a number of the undead are wiped out by a plane was particularly nasty in its effectiveness.

The direction was quite good, although I thought the slow motion effect was a little overused. This did serve to remind me that I was watching a film based on a video game, as some of those scenes did recall the slow motion reply type shots used in things like “Grand Theft Auto” and some other racing games. There were also a number of scenes that were directed very much in the manner of a video game, particularly in the way some of the characters moved in some of the battle scenes. The sudden appearance of a fairly large enemy in a couple of scenes seemed to owe for to video game storytelling than to that of a film.

The soundtrack was akin to both a videogame and this type of film, in that it was quite loud and intrusive at some parts. Mostly the dialogue isn’t drowned out by the music, but frequently when there was some kind of action scene on screen, there would be some quite loud music over the top of it, frequently a rock-pop tune of some sort. This isn’t uncommon, but I do find it to be slightly distracting sometimes and it is a cliché really. Still, given how many ideas were borrowed from elsewhere, both games and other films, I don’t suppose that is a huge surprise.

It is this part that spoiled large parts of the film for me. A couple of major segments, which topped and tailed the film, seemed to owe rather a lot to “The Matrix”. The early scenes were a little like the lobby shoot out scene from that film and the whole character of Albert Wesker seemed a carbon copy of Agent Smith, even down to the voice. I quite enjoyed “The Matrix”, so it was good to watch again, but it did seem a shame that such important parts of this film seemed to be a copy and it did make it harder to take these parts of the film too seriously as they seemed to be patched in.

The acting wasn’t bad, but nothing particularly spectacular. Having only seen Boris Kudjoe previously in a fairly small role in “Surrogates”, it was good to see him get higher billing here and I thought he handled himself quite well. Shawn Nicholls as Wesker was told to play Agent Smith and did that quite well, but it would have been better to give him a proper chance to see what he could have achieved. Putting in “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller as a prisoner was either someone having a private joke or just being cruel to him, but he reprised his role quite well, being largely set dressing with a machine gun for the most part.

Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich as Claire and Alice did quite well and it’s rare to see two strong female characters in the same place. Towards the end, they did seem to alternate roles a little, which suggests more for Claire in future films. Jovovich has now played Alice four times, so she should be quite good in the role by now and she certainly wasn’t found lacking in the action sequences, although I was less convinced by her show of regret early on in the film. The one role I did enjoy was Kim Coates as Bennett, who got to ham it up and generally overact and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself; a feeling which his performance passed on to this viewer.

The extras on the DVD aren’t too bad, either, but like the film there was nothing terribly new or special about them. The first is the seemingly omnipresent (on newer films, at least) commentary. Here we have Paul W. S Anderson, who wrote and directed the film and a couple of the producers. Anderson takes the lead here and you hear little from the producers, but it is quite an interesting commentary. Anderson is clearly a fan of the “Resident Evil” games franchise as well as enjoying being a film maker and that comes across well. Responding to some of the producers’ questions, he also seems to be a thinking director, talking about how 3D technology altered both some of the way he had to shoot this film as well as how he feels it will affect films generally. In this way, he reminded me a little of Robert Rodriguez, being enthusiastic about new film technology and his love of the art. There are also some insights here that would have improved the featurettes had they been included there as well as, or instead of, in the feature commentary. The information here makes this worth a listen through the once, although there’s nothing essential enough to make it worth playing any more than that. I was also quite interested in the director’s thoughts on a scene that was edited together from loose shots when he decided to add it after filming.

The first of the two featurettes is “Band of Survivors: Casting Afterlife”, which really didn’t offer what I expected. It’s a short feature, at just over 6½ minutes. Rather than talking about the casting process, it’s mostly the actors talking about their characters and how they related to each other on set as characters and as people. There is virtually no insight into the film or the casting process itself, which to me makes the inclusion of this feature largely a waste of time.

The other featurette is “Fighting Back: the Action of Afterlife”, which is a 5½ minute feature talking about the stunts in the film. This mostly concentrates on Milla Jovovich, as her character has most of the stunts in the film, but these leaves little room for anything else. Whilst it’s interesting to hear a little about how she does most of her own stunts and how she prepared, it did leave the feature short on general insight and therefore short on value.

The last feature is simply a trailer for “Resident Evil: Damnation”, which looks to be taking the film franchise in a much different direction. Because it’s a computer generated film, the scenes have the look more of a game than a film and I originally thought it was a trailer for the next game in the series, rather than for a film and it doesn’t really appeal to me all that much.

There are also some trailers, which don’t always seem to fit in with the type of film on the DVD. There is an interesting mix of trailers, but not all of them are for action films, which I would have thought would have had more appeal to an audience watching this DVD.

For all its flaws and lack of originality in parts, “Resident Evil: Afterlife” isn’t a bad film. There is plenty of action and once the film proper gets going, the pace remains high throughout. Thanks to the story being based on a game, it has the leeway to present events and creatures without needing to explain how or why they got where they did, which can be a little frustrating, but does allow for things to happen at any moment and keeps the anticipation levels high.

Sadly, there is nothing in the 93 minute run time or in the DVD extras that makes the film an essential purchase and after you’ve seen it once, any slight novelty value and ability to surprise you it had is completely lost. Personally, this is a film best waited a little while to see on Sky, as you gain little by spending money on the DVD.

Neil Gaiman – “The Ocean At the End of the Lane” (2013) Review. 3/5

This review was originally published on ciao.co.uk and on Goodreads on 13/09/2016

Many years ago, I remember hearing that the stories we know of as Grimm’s Fairy Tales, such as Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and others were originally written to be much darker than the modern versions we know better today and much darker than the versions turned into films by Disney. Every time I read a Neil Gaiman novel, I’m reminded of this, as he is a writer who truly grasps the darker nature of fairy tales.

In “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”, a man breaks away from his mother’s funeral to return briefly to a home he recalled from his younger years, but his real destination was a farm house nearby, where Lettie Hempstock used to live with her mother and her grandmother. Lettie used to say that their duckpond was an ocean, which given the location of the farmhouse at the end of a lane, gives the book its title. Returning to this location brings back many memories of childhood for our narrator.

The events he recalls started when their lodger stole the family car and killed himself in it. Whilst this may be upsetting for a small boy, what was to follow was even more disturbing. Meeting the Hempstocks opens up new worlds for our narrator, as he gets to see strange new creatures inhabiting worlds that aren’t too far from our own. Unfortunately, not knowing enough to take the necessary precautions, he inadvertently invites one of these creatures back into our world and Lettie has to take extreme action to try and stop it.

I love Gaiman’s writing and I have done for a long time, but “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” just didn’t grab me the way his writing often does. I’ve been trying to work out why that might be the case and I’m still not sure, as the book seems to have all the elements that usually make Gaiman’s novels essential. The fantastical elements are all there, as is the childlike sense of wonder, perfectly portrayed through the eyes of a seven year old boy who acts as our narrator. The writing flows in the way Gaiman’s always does and the borders between the real and the fantastic seem so close together you expect to be able to see there from here sometimes.

That said, there is a certain something missing from this novel. It doesn’t help that the beginning and the end, where the narrator is there as an adult, feel a little tacked on, as if Gaiman had the story, but didn’t quite know how to get it started or finished. The result is that the ending in particular felt jarringly sudden and the story felt unfinished. This may be due to “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” being quite a short novel, possibly even a long novella, but that could also be said of his earlier works, “Neverwhere”, “Stardust” and “Coraline”. Whereas those left me wanting more at the end because they were so good, this novel only left me wanting more because it didn’t feel as if the whole of the story had made it onto the page when it finished.

Perhaps the other reason is that I never quite felt engaged by the book for any real length of time. Whilst there were some gripping sections and a few brief moments of real peril and darkness, the story never swept me away like some of Gaiman’s other work. Part of the problem may have been the main characters, as they never really held any appeal to me, such that I didn’t particularly care about their part in the story, which I suspect was quite important to the reader’s involvement, especially the further into the story you go. There was never any real explanation as to what was going on, so that the appearance and denouement of various creatures was inexplicable and difficult to follow and, without this explanation, even harder to really become deeply involved in.

I would always recommend Gaiman’s work, but I struggle to recommend this one, as he has much better out there. The aforementioned “Stardust” and “Neverwhere” mix familiar and fantastic far better and have more engaging characters. This isn’t a bad book, it just lacks some of the special Gaiman magic that is sprinkled so liberally on his other novels.

Pontypridd Parkrun Laughs Run Report

After having a decent reaction to a previous mock run report I wrote, I was encouraged (if only by my ego, not by any readers) to write another when we did it again. This time, I took my wife along to meet a group with various interests, none of which coincided with her own, so I wrote the report from her perspective.

This piece was originally published on Facebook on 7th May 2019.

A Non-Saddo’s Parkrun Laughs Meetup Report

I dragged my non-parkrunner, non-Saddo wife along to Pontypridd on Saturday, for the Laughs meetup. I thought it might be useful to get her perspective on this group, from an outsiders point of view. This is her meetup report. Or what I imagine her report would have been, had I actually bothered to ask her…

06:00 What holy hell is this? I don’t get up this early on a working day! Oh, yes, Husband is dragging me to Wales to meet some strange people in return for taking me to Cardiff to meet a friend afterwards.

06:40 At least I get treated to a McDonald’s breakfast on the way. Today is looking up a little.

07:02 And we’re off to Wales!

07:03 Once we’ve stopped for petrol…

07:09 Wifey DJ picks Chris Stapleton’s “Traveler”. Bet Husband doesn’t pick music this appropriate when he goes places without me.

07:15 Overtake 2nd BMW doing less than 70 mph on inside lane of motorway. Wonder when they started selling BMWs to people who don’t drive BMWs…

07:44 Enter Wales over the Severn Bridge. The views are far more impressive than the last time we came this way when it was all fogged in.

08:34 Having found the parking, we now need to find the actual park. Ask Husband for the name of the park, but it doesn’t come up on Google Maps. Resort to following people who look like runners in the hope they’re going the same way we are.

08:39 Enter Ynysangharad Park. I figure it didn’t come up on the Google search as I can’t spell in Welsh.

08:40 Decide that the problem was not my spelling, but Husband’s pronunciation.

08:42 Meet Girl in Shiny Blue Dress, who indicates where the rest of the group are. She seems nice enough, so maybe today won’t be too bad, after all.

08:44 Husband attempts to remove tracksuit whilst standing up. Husband falls over. Best thing to happen so far today.

08:46 This is a really lovely park. There is pretty pink blossom on all the trees, which look beautiful. Point this out to Husband, who doesn’t seem impressed. Figure he’s still grumpy from landing on his bottom.

08:48 Husband goes to see people he knows. I’m not into all this running stuff, so I go to catch Pokemon I know. Suspect that I’ll have more fun and not be as tired as him afterwards.

09:26 Catch Husband at the end of his run. Husband tried to put tracksuit back on whilst standing up. Husband falls over again. Twice. That, at least, is funnier than Pokemon.

09:29 Go to watch other people running. Girl in Shiny Blue Dress comes past and shouts “Boobies” at me. Am slightly disturbed until Husband points out that it’s sort of a group motto. Settle for being very

disturbed instead…

09:31-09:37 Husband points out other people we are here to see. Man in Mask, Woman in Bandages, Naked Girl With Tail all come past. Followed by Short Lady Who Appears to Have Darth Vader on a Leash. You go, girlfriend!

09:41 Naked Girl With Tail chases after Girl in Shiny Blue Dress and hands her prosecco just before the finishing line. Now, THAT is the kind of drinks station I could become used to!

10:07 After many photos, one of which seems to involve Darth Vader on a Leash attempting to strangle himself with a selfie board, we wander off to the pub.

10:09 We walk out of the park in convoy, all following Man in Mask playing the Imperial March. Realise it looks like we’ve all been kidnapped by the Darth Vader of Hamelin

10:15 Arrive at pub. Discover there is a Probation Centre next door. From what I’ve seen so far, I worry there’s going to be a long queue outside by the time we’re done.

10:25 Find big tables and order drinks. Turns out that Darth Vader is simultaneously Scottish and from the Midlands. No wonder Luke wasn’t sure who his father was…

10:28 Midlands Darth Vader strips to waist to prepare for breakfast by swapping lycra for large t-shirt. Wonder how large the breakfast is that stretchy lycra won’t be able to contain it!

10:29 Tried not to look, but can’t help but wonder why Midlands Darth Vader didn’t just run stripped to waist and claim to be Chewbacca…

10:37 Bar staff come over with free tray of drinks left behind by people taking pictures. Clearly, some people have more Instagram than sense.

10:39 Scottish Darth Vader ends up drinking a cocktail. Don’t remember that from the films…

10:42 A couple of people ask Husband about the tree racist thing that Girl in Shiny Blue Dress keeps referring to. Am hoping for amusing story. Turns out Husband is just a bad person. Although that does explain why he was grumpy about pretty blossomy trees in park and why he’s never keen to decorate the Christmas tree, but always helps to shove it back in its box after New Year.

10:48 Husband starts “who’s cow cowl is biggest” style pissing contest. Scottish Darth Vader wins. Husband is a loser. This is not news…

10:59 Group photo. Girl in Shiny Blue Dress holds sign upside down. This is a level of incompetence I expect from Husband. Start to understand how he fits into this group.

11:15 Group suddenly realises that will miss train back to Cardiff and decamps quickly. Husband realises that can’t remember name of car park, but fortunately those more local guess what he means and offer directions.

11:22 Say goodbye to group at station.

11:23 Midlands Darth Vader asks if I’m going to the Burnham Meetup. Tell him that if he can get undressed sitting next to me in a pub, there’s no way I’m going anywhere near a beach with him.

11:24 Scottish Darth Vader wishes me luck and offers his sympathies. He possibly also said something about force choking Husband, but that may just have been wishful thinking on my part

12:34 Husband gets text message. Your time was 25:31. Well done on marrying so far above your station. *sigh* Tell me about it, parkrun…

Hugh Laurie – “Let Them Talk” (2011) Review. 4/5

This review was originally published on ciao.co.uk on 03/07/2011

I’ve been a Hugh Laurie fan for quite a long time now. His comedy show with Stephen Fry, as well as appearances in “Blackadder” and “Jeeves and Wooster” were part of my early television watching and his more current role in “House” has made that one of the very few TV shows I refuse to miss. As soon as I heard he would be releasing a blues album, I had to have a copy and my resolve was only strengthened by an excellent documentary behind the scenes of the album.

As an accomplished pianist, Laurie makes a fine start to the album with “St James Infirmary”, which has a long, almost classical sounding piano intro before the double bass and vocals come in. At this point, it turns into a jazz-blues track, which flows past very nicely. Initially, I was a little worried about Laurie’s vocals, but he has a gritty voice that is perfectly suited to singing the blues. This is a long opening track and nearly 6 ½ minutes, but thanks to the two distinct parts, it almost feels that you get two songs for the price of one and it’s an impressive start to the album, all the more so considering that it’s performed by an actor, not a musician.

The next track “You Don’t Know My Mind” is a little more what I was expecting, being a slower paced traditional blues song, with a backing vocal that adds a slightly gospel feel to proceedings. It’s a track that drifts past most pleasantly, although there are a couple of moments where Laurie’s vocals seem to be straining a little around the edges, but not nearly as much as I thought they would.

“Six Cold Feet” opens with a very Southern feel and it sounds like the kind of thing you’d play at a blues player’s funeral. It’s got a slow beat guided along by the double bass and seems to plod along, much like a funeral march, even when the saxophone takes over for a spell. It’s a dirge like song and the pace and feel actually seems to suit Laurie’s vocals a little better. It’s a decent track, but the slow pace does seem to make it feel longer than the 5 minute run time.

Next up is “Buddy Bolden’s Blues”, which has a slightly more upbeat feel to it, although it’s still a slow Southern blues song, with the clarinet solo late on adding a slightly jazz hint to the song. There are a couple of parts where Laurie is speaking more than singing, which takes some of the edge off, as this is the kind of slow Southern blues that his voice seems to suit perfectly and it’s an enjoyable track.

Given that I’ve seen at least two episodes of “House” where Laurie’s character derides God and religion, it seems strange to hear him playing a song called “Battle of Jericho”, even allowing for the gospel influence on Southern music. That said, this is one of my favourite tracks, with Irma Thomas adding a soulful, gospel feel to the track with her backing vocals. Strangely, this is the one track where Laurie’s American accent on his singing voice seems a little more forced than on the other tracks or in his role as Gregory House. It’s a decent track, regardless, with the blues and gospel combination working well.

“After You’ve Gone” opens with a slightly mournful clarinet – an instrument perfectly suited to playing the blues with. Vocally, this song is performed by Dr. John with Hugh Laurie playing the piano. This is a beautifully put together blues song, with the mournful tempo and Dr. John’s voice combining perfectly. The piano is understated and sits nicely in the background and this is a song that drifts pleasantly past and is certainly one of my favourites on the album. Although Dr. John’s vocals do highlight some of the slight deficiencies in Laurie’s own singing, the accent and gritty tone suggest that Laurie has hit the right feel for the music in his vocals.

Laurie takes on a real classic with “Swanee River”, but does a great job of it. The slow intro hides a great upbeat, up tempo song with some wonderful boogie-woogie piano and it sounds like Laurie really enjoyed cutting loose. It’s just a shame it’s such a short song, as it’s an awful lot of fun for the listener, as well as for Laurie himself.

As with “Battle of Jericho”, the Biblical basis of “The Whale Has Swallowed Me” is slightly surprising, but it’s a real chance for Laurie’s guitar playing to take centre stage, with some decent slide guitar coming through at points and some of the lyrical content provides a wry smile as well. Once again, the slow blues nature of the music works well with Laurie’s vocals and this feels like his best vocal performance thus far.

“John Henry” is a duet with Irma Thomas and it’s a lovely laid back little blues track. Irma Thomas takes the lead on vocals and her clear voice acts as a lovely counterpoint to Laurie’s grittier sounding vocal. There is a lovely bass ended piano riff running through and a gorgeous flow to the whole song that makes it drift past most pleasantly and it’s one of my favourites from the album. It’s certainly one of the most complete songs here, in terms of the vocals and music working together perfectly.

I love the almost cheery guitar intro to Police Dog Blues”, which contrasts nicely with the downbeat vocals. This is the simplest song on the album with just an acoustic guitar, a quiet double bass in the background and Laurie’s vocals. This simplicity works very well, showing how good Laurie’s vocals actually are and whilst he’s not likely to be winning “X-Factor” any time soon with a performance like this, it proves he’s more than just an actor trying to sing here.

There’s a lovely smooth jazz influenced piano intro to “Tipitina”, which speeds up when the rest of the instruments come in and this is a lovely jazz-blues song. Although the piano isn’t quite as upbeat and let loose as on “Swanee River”, it’s a chance for Laurie to get his fingers working and this was the song that most appealed to me when I first saw the TV adverts for the album. Having heard the rest, there’s nothing here that has lowered it in my opinion and I love the jazz feel of the song and the brass section really adds something to the song.

“Whinin’ Boy Blues” takes us back to a slightly more traditional blues sound and it’s another simple song in the style of “Police Dog Blues”. It’s again a lovely slow paced track which also has a slightly jazzy feel rather than being straight up blues. It’s another song that drifts past quite pleasantly and shows once again that letting Hugh Laurie sing wasn’t a bad idea at all.

Following this, there’s a chance for a little fun, with “They’re Red Hot” being a silly little upbeat and up-tempo song which Southern blues has always done well for a change of pace and I’m delighted that Laurie has thought to include something like this here. It’s only a short little ditty, at around 75 seconds long, but it’s a lot of fun and Laurie once again seems to have revelled in the chance to cut loose and enjoy himself.

It’s a good thing there was something like that where it was on the track listing, as the next song is a surprising disappointment. “Baby, Please Make a Change” has Tom Jones taking the main vocal alongside Irma Thomas and it just doesn’t work for me. Tom Jones has a powerful clear voice, which works wonderfully in certain aspects, but it’s not a voice made for singing the blues. The musical background has a country blues feel to it thanks to the violin and musically it’s a great song, but the vocals overpower it far too much. I do feel that if this had been performed by a more traditional blues singer, this could have been one of my favourite tracks on the album, but as it is, it’s just a little overbearing. The one thing I never expected was to decide I prefer Hugh Laurie’s singing voice over Tom Jones’, but it’s a perfect example of picking the right voice for the right song. Unfortunately, at nearly 5 minutes, this is a long track and just seems to go on for far too long.

Fortunately the album doesn’t end there, with the wonderful simplicity of “Let Them Talk” closing the album instead. It starts off as a simple blues song, with just vocals and piano, before expanding into something wider when the rest of the instruments come to the fore. But it’s a beautiful song, again quite simply done and shows off Lurie’s vocals at their best in closing. It’s another song that’s perfect at the end of a long day and one you could listen to repeatedly.

Over the years, there has been plenty of evidence to suggest that actors shouldn’t be allowed to sing, with Lindsay Lohan and David Hasselhoff springing immediately to mind. However, “Let Them Talk” shows that with the right person and the right music, actors can actually put in a decent shift at the microphone stand. Laurie’s voice, whilst not perfect, sits comfortably within the blues structure of the album and whilst he’s not going to win any awards for his singing, he performs more than adequately here.

If you’re not already a fan of the blues, this album isn’t about to convert you, as it’s mostly just old blues songs and doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, or to the music world generally. What it does is cast Hugh Laurie in a slightly different and unexpected light and adds yet another string to a bow which now covers acting, writing, instrumentation and singing, all of which he does well.

For those who are blues fans, this isn’t going to be the best blues album you’ve ever heard, but there’s not an awful lot wrong with it. Laurie may be an interloper in the land of the blues, but he’s likely to be a welcome visitor, on this evidence. At 15 tracks and 58 minutes long, you get decent value for your money and there’s not a lot to lose. At the start of this album, I was a fan of the blues and a fan of Hugh Laurie and an hour later, nothing has happened here to diminish my appreciation of either.

Muller Light Cinnamon Bun Yogurt Review. 5/5

I always try to have a taste of any new Muller Light limited edition yogurt, as the majority of them turn out really well. I was especially keen on the Muller Light Cinnamon Bun variant, as I’m a huge fan of cinnamon buns and Muller Light yogurts have a favourable recent history with spices in their yogurts, particularly a Hot Cross Bun version they did a year or two ago.

Opening the lid gives you a slightly off white yogurt, which isn’t quite white enough to match the icing you often see on top of a Cinnamon Bun, but is paler and more yellow than the bun itself. The smell certainly gives away what the taste is supposed to be, as you get a slight hint of both cinnamon and the sweetness of the icing on top. As someone who prefers the cinnamon part of the bun to the icing, the proportions aren’t entirely to my personal preference, but they are in keeping with what the flavour promises.

The flavour is equally on point and matches the aroma almost perfectly. The taste of the cinnamon comes through to start with, but it’s the sweet cinnamon you get in baking rather than the sharper version from a curry. There is enough sugar in the taste to replicate the icing and whilst there isn’t enough depth to give the entire taste of the bun, my mind certain seems to extrapolate that in a way that makes the yogurt feel more filling than the calorific value would suggest.

Once again, Muller Light have hit all their marks with a limited edition yogurt. They have successfully combined the balance of spice and sugar to make a yogurt that tastes exactly the way it should. But more than just the taste, it smells and feels like it would do eating a cinnamon bun, but at a saving of several pounds in money and several hundred calories and the pounds in weight they may otherwise lead to if the real thing were consumed instead.

Berkeley Green parkrun Review. 5/5

Having done many different parkruns in the years since I first started venturing away from my home parkrun, I’ve found all sorts of courses, many of which aren’t even in parks.  However, it’s not often you find one that is in a car park rather than a traditional park, but that’s exactly what you get at Berkeley Green Parkrun, but whilst the course isn’t the best, the parkrun makes up for that.

As it happens, it’s a good thing that the parkrun is around a car park, as you will need a car to get there.  The nearest train station is over 8 miles away and there is no bus service going anywhere nearby.  Indeed, there isn’t much of anything nearby, as the course is run at the Science and Technology park roughly a mile and a half outside the town of Berkeley which is itself a few miles away from the A38 and even following a sat nav, I came out on a country road near my destination with nothing in sight and wondered if I was lost until I saw a runner headed in that direction.

Once you get to the venue, parking is plentiful and with nothing nearby, all the facilities are on site, as they open toilets at the College on the park and have groups in providing refreshments for a cash donation each week afterwards.  Whilst there isn’t much in the way of scenery outside the buildings, some of the buildings are quite fascinating, as Berkeley Green was at the forefront of nuclear technology, so some of the history in the buildings is worth looking at, even if it is all concrete.

The course is the same, with three laps running around the site’s car parks, through some of the college buildings on the paths.  It’s not the simplest of courses, with plenty of switch backs and parts of the course where you approach the same point from different directions during a lap.  But this is where Berkeley Green parkrun has an advantage over some other parkruns, as the marshals and volunteers add the colour that is lacking in the scenery.  There is music playing from car radios and portable speakers, sometimes there are cowbells and other percussive instruments and everywhere there is full-throated approval for the runners, such that you’re barely looking at what is around you, but always for the next marshal on the course.

The difficulty of reaching Berkeley Green parkrun, even for someone like me who only lives a couple of counties away, means I probably won’t prioritise another visit.  However, it’s probably the parkrun I will think of first if I’m asked about atmosphere, as whilst virtually every parkrun has enthusiastic volunteers and marshals, the ones at Berkeley Green seem to step it up a level above most others, as if they are aware of the drab surroundings and want to make you forget them, which is an aim they definitely achieve.

“Headlong: Running From COPS” Podcast Review. 2/5

Whilst the first series of Dan Taberski’s “Headlong” series felt a little too invasive for my liking, the second was more based around events rather than people and I enjoyed it more. However, when the third season moved into reality television, it could have gone either way, so I turned to “Headlong: Running From COPS” with a little trepidation.

The title is stylised in that way, as it’s based around the American reality television show “COPS”, which follows police across the country as they go about their work. The show has been running for thirty years, but has been more under the spotlight in recent years as Black Lives Matter and police brutality have come to the fore. Does “COPS” show the police doing their jobs, or is it not as close to reality as the phrase claims?

For the podcast, Dan Taberski looks into the history and practice of the “COPS” show, from when it started to now. He speaks to people who have been featured on the show, both as police and as criminals and also to those who want the show to be taken off air, because it acts more as a distraction from proper police work and the issues really affecting the people in the cities it features. I recall a friend of mine in local Police in England saying their bosses had refused permission for a show to film in our area and their feelings seem to have been shared by some in American law enforcement.

The series was presented over 6 episodes, with a couple of bonus episodes added on, which were published weekly between April and May of 2019. Each episode ran between 35 and 45 minutes, giving a total running time of around 4 hours, which is typical of the earlier series of the podcast. Whilst this seemed too long for an overly simple first series, but about right for the second, it felt too short here, as there was a lot more to be said.

There are multiple issues which were raised over the course of the podcast, both in terms of police conduct and whether it shows people doing their jobs, to questions over whether the people featured had adequately signed release forms. There is a suspicion that at least one of the people arrested and featured had evidence planted on them by an officer who might have been a touch keen to be on the show and that other behaviours might be skewed away from normal averages under the supposedly watchful eye of the camera, particularly as the producers of the show would prefer better entertainment than better law enforcement, as that’s where they make their living.

All of these things are fascinating prospects, but very few of them are looked at in depth and “”Headlong: Running From COPS” asks a lot of questions, but doesn’t have the time to produce any of the answers. As someone observes, Taberski does seem to be more interested in digging up dirt than he is on running a balanced piece and the way he asks a lot of difficult questions, but doesn’t look deep enough to provide considered answers, does suggest there is an element of bias in the whole thing.

I wanted this season of “Headlong” to be much better than it was, as in terms of the questions it asked, it was the best so far, but in terms of any answers, it was desperately lacking. There was a lack of balance and insufficient due diligence and investigation into the issues, which seems somehow appropriate, as these are two of the things the podcast accuses the show of. Much like the show it covered, the podcast was made more for entertainment than for investigation, and was the weaker for it.

“An Idiot Abroad (Season 1)” (2010) Review (DVD). 3/5

This review was originally published on ciao.co.uk on 09/01/2011

The trailers for “An Idiot Abroad” put me in something of a quandary. On the one hand, they made the program look very amusing and I like Karl Pilkington; he’s round, bald, grumpy and funny. A lot like me in fact, only funny. On the other hand, I have pretty much hated everything Ricky Gervais has ever done; “The Office” irritated me, “Extras” bored me and the episode of “The Simpsons” that he wrote and starred in was the worst episode of that show I’ve ever seen. Thank heavens for Sky+, which is a boon for the indecisive like me, meaning I did eventually get to see the show.

Every time you see some travel shows, you know that weeks of planning have gone into it and the presenter knows exactly what to expect. In “An Idiot Abroad”, a lot of planning has gone into it, but the presenter hasn’t been involved in this in any way. Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais have set up their supposed friend to see the Seven Wonders of the World, but they frequently add in side trips and activities for him that he wasn’t expecting at all and usually won’t enjoy. The whole point is to unsettle Pilkington for Gervais’ amusement. If the viewers enjoy it as well, so be it.

The series opens with Pilkington being sent to China to see the Great Wall of China. Even before he goes, it’s obvious he’s not looking forward to it. As soon as he lands in China, he’s way out of his comfort zone. He’s worried by the reactions of the people and how he’s going to make himself understood and his concern gets worse once he sees the food and the toilets. Fortunately, some of Karl’s wry asides regarding what he finds in China are very funny. His reaction to the radio in his room and the massage he first has were quite funny and his astute comments regarding the need for High Definition filming were clever as well as amusing. There was also a great moment involving a pin, a piece of glass and a balloon which ended up looking like about the only bit of genuine fun Karl had.

The lack of preparation he is able to do for what he finds becomes obvious quite early on in this show, when he gets a call from Stephen Merchant diverting him off course to see a fortune teller. This was to happen several times throughout the show and even more often through the series. As an opening episode, however, this was a great taster of the programme, amusing in parts, showing the format of what will happen throughout and how Karl will deal with them. This is usually pretty badly and with a grumpy attitude, but often in an entertaining way.

The second episode sends Karl to India to see the Taj Mahal. India was always going to be an eye opener for Karl, who had only left Europe once before and that was in the first episode. A couple of things happened early in this episode which, if typical, I knew would annoy me throughout the series. Firstly, Karl’s attitude towards someone who was trying to give him a place to stay for the evening seemed a little ungrateful. I realise that the situation was difficult for him, but he never attempted to put a brave face on things or even consider trying out a new experience or way of life. His reaction regarding his trainers being ruined just seemed like he was moaning and wasn’t funny at all. The second was when Gervais left a message for Karl telling him what he had been up to, which seemed to involve a first class flight from New York. This seemed unnecessarily cruel.

Fortunately, there were some aspects to this episode which salvaged it later on. Karl’s reaction to meeting the senior religious figures of the Babas was interesting as he seemed to be quite moved, as well as slightly alarmed and disgusted in turn. He also manages to find some of his more normal cynicism in one of the hotels, describing one part most artfully as an “en-suite shed”, which was one of the better lines. Sadly, repeating it to Gervais later on over the phone resulted in another of his maniacal cackles, which ruined the beauty of that line somewhat.

The third episode is to send Karl to see Petra in Jordan, but they decide to send him via Israel. His skewed way or looking at things is perfectly demonstrated by his reactions to seeing the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Nowhere else will you hear it mentioned as receiving junk mail or religious figures compared to Pac-Man. Karl also gets to take control for a brief moment in making a side trip to try out the Dead Sea, which is strangely one of the few parts of the show where genuine information is imparted, rather than just Karl’s skewed view of things.

The cruelty with which Gervais and Merchant treat Karl is perfectly shown in this episode. They set him up for some extreme situation training in Israel, and then make him ride across Jordan on the back of a camel and stay in a cave in Petra. Unfortunately this does mean that there is very little time to actually see and talk about the wonder of Petra itself, although watching a camel break down and be loaded on the back of a truck was quite funny. Karl also manages to get some form of revenge at the end of the show, enjoying his night in the cave and proving the point he made at the start of the show that Gervais disagreed with.

The fourth show takes Karl to Mexico to see the ancient Mayan settlement of Chichen Itza. As with the Petra episode, there is an awful lot going on before Karl even gets to see the wonder. There is a lot more physical exertion required in this episode, with him trying out Mexican wrestling, horse and bull riding and an Easter Sunday festival that involves running in abject terror from a cow loaded with fireworks. There are a few very funny parts in the show, particularly his ongoing quest to find some Mexican jumping beans and the opportunity to give some of his food to the Mexicans, instead of just having foreign foods thrust upon him.

As amusing as everything up to seeing the wonder was, there was again very little time at the wonder. Karl did try to go in with a slightly more positive attitude than he has had for most of the series thus far, but that didn’t last all that long. That said, he did quite enjoy the moments when he put his own music on and introduced a Mexican lizard to the joy of biscuits and when his partner called at possibly the worst moment to try and get the DVD player working.

Moving on to the second disc, the fifth episode takes Karl to Egypt to visit the Great Pyramids. Gervais evidently plans to make things as difficult on Karl as possible, which again hardly seems fair on someone he has made to suffer plenty already. Having seen what has gone so far, it was always likely that Karl would hate Egypt and with Gervais trying to make things even more difficult for him. He didn’t get on at all well with the traffic, the people hawking food, or the camel, but he was able to make amusing comments about all of them and his evening on a Nile cruise ended surprisingly well for him, as he attempted to ruin Gervais’ plans that he should have a bad time.

Karl’s first attempt at viewing the pyramids didn’t go well and he wasn’t overly impressed by the visit he did manage. Once again, however, Karl’s cynical and grumpy world view makes for some highly amusing observations, although I can’t imagine his description of a pyramid as “Jenga gone wrong” would attract tourism to the area. His third visit was even stranger and the realisation at the end of how badly Gervais had stitched him up on the hotel room, once again aided by a smug voicemail message from Gervais himself made me feel a little sorry for him.

In the sixth episode, Karl gets to go to Brazil where he sees the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer high on a hill outside Rio de Janeiro and gets to visit the famous Copacabana beach. Unfortunately, he’s reached Rio at carnival time, so the heat and the crowds were too much for him and he wasn’t happy pretty much from the point he landed. That said, this did result in one of the more visually stunning episodes, even if Karl was possibly wishing that his outfit for the carnival wasn’t going to be on show in high definition.

Once again, there were some very funny moments, especially with Karl’s new friend, who invited him to stay and then showed him what he did for a living. Karl was also put into a number of situations that made him uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally, with a visit to a gay beach and getting waxed. At the end, Karl did have the last laugh, as a helicopter trip around the Christ the Redeemer statue gave him one of his most enjoyable experiences of the series and his report of this to Stephen Merchant really annoyed the latter as they clearly never planned that he would have fun.

The final trip takes Karl to Peru to see the Inca site of Machu Picchu and he did at least try to go forwards with a slightly more positive attitude, it being his last trip. He was even looking forward to a long trek through the forest and camping out. His one concern was the toilet facilities and he came up with an amusing and ingenious solution for that. As you might expect, however, this positive feeling doesn’t last long and he doesn’t enjoy the camping at all, although his obvious distress is one of the more real moments in the series.

Karl is also slightly unnerved when he hears he’ll be spending time with a tribe of former cannibals. However, the trip turns out to have some amusing moments despite, or possibly even because of, Karl’s worry that he’s going to end up in a cooking pot. The long trek to the wonder isn’t quite so good as Karl doesn’t enjoy that and it’s back to him moaning rather than being funny, although how he ends the trip in television terms is pretty amusing.

The final show is a welcome home, which is just highlights of the show with Karl talking it through with Ricky and Stephen. Much like the preview show, this is simply used to take the mickey out of Karl. Once again, Ricky’s insane cackling ruins much of the show. Karl is at his funniest here as he’s more relaxed and back in his comfort zone and it’s just a shame Gervais had to ruin it by being smug when he scores a point off Karl in the battle of wits and cackling wildly when he doesn’t. Sadly, when Karl tries to make a serious point about how he feels when other people react to how Gervais treats him, Gervais just brushes it off as a joke.

The extra on the first disc of this 2 disc set is simply a 22 minute preview show, which is pretty much just a glorified trailer. It would have been the perfect opportunity to sell the series, but is unfortunately mostly Ricky Gervais getting to take the mickey out of Karl Pilkington. What both worried and annoyed me the most is that Gervais spent large amounts of this show cackling like a witch. Admittedly, Pilkington had usually said something amusing when this occurred, but the end result was that it was like watching a TV show that had a very badly recorded and very obtrusive laughter track. I think it had the potential to be a fairly decent preview of the series, had it not been hijacked by Gervais.

On the second disc, there is nothing extra other than some deleted scenes. There are only 8 of these and they’re generally really funny, usually more so than what ended up in the show. Generally these are pieces where Karl gets to cast a wry and cynical eye over the situations he’s in naturally, rather than simply moaning about the situation. It feels as if these scenes have deliberately been cut out so the viewer doesn’t think of Karl as the funniest person on the show, even though it’s obvious he has more natural humour than either Merchant or Gervais, who are only funny when they’re picking on Karl, which is a kind of cruel and sadistic humour I don’t enjoy.

Given how popular the “Grumpy Old Men” show on BBC 2 has become, spawning books as well as several series of the show being aired, the basic idea behind “An Idiot Abroad” was a good one. Take a grumpy old man out of his comfort zone and leave him off balance and that result could be comedy genius. Unfortunately, his handlers were in the show purely for what would amuse them rather than what could possibly amuse the greatest number of people. The deleted scenes prove the comedy potential of the show, but the editing makes Karl seem more like a moaner than the funny grumpy person he can actually be.

As I have often felt about Gervais, he’s simply playing to his own ego and what may please other people is largely irrelevant. He’s treated this show exactly the same way and taken the edge off what could have been a really good show. If it had been allowed to be what it had the potential to be, “An Idiot Abroad” could have been something worth watching over and over again. As it is, this is really only worth watching the once.

Owen Martell – “Intermission” (2013) Review. 4/5

This review was originally posted at http://www.thebookbag.co.uk in January 2013 and was subsequently also published on ciao.co.uk on 20/10/2013 and on Goodreads on 31/12/2014

There is a line in Alan Bennett’s play ”The History Boys” that I love. It talks about ”subjunctive history”, imagining things that might have happened. In ”Intermission”, his first book in English as opposed to Welsh, Owen Martell borrows this idea, taking an event a surmising what may have happened afterwards.

The event in this case is the death of Scott LaFaro, bass player for jazz group The Bill Evans Trio, who was killed in a car crash shortly after a series of concerts in New York in June 1961. History records that band leader Bill Evans went on hiatus for a spell after LaFaro’s death and ”Intermission” suggests what may have been going on in his life during this period.

Bill’s story is told in four parts from the perspective of those closest to him; his brother Harry, his parents Mary and Harry Senior and, finally, Bill himself. It charts the time Bill spends with his family as he takes some time and space to deal with the tragedy, firstly with Harry and his family in New York and then with Mary and Harry senior in Florida. We get to see how various members of the family relate to each other and the distances, both emotional and physical, that time has put between them.

The story is very well written and the four parts have their distinctive voices and their differing themes. Harry’s is told in the dull voice of someone who has watched their younger brother overtake them and you sense his jealousy as Bill’s relationship with Harry’s daughter Debby threatens to overtake his own. Whereas his story frequently looks backwards, Mary’s and Harry Senior’s are mostly concerned with the present, wanting to do what they can to help their son. Mary tries to do this by treating him like her little boy, Bill by treating him like a man. Bill’s section, as he returns to his old life, is the only one that shows much glimpse of a future and this section is brighter in tone and a little flightier, reflecting the jazz musician that Bill is.

The quality of the writing was what kept me reading more than anything else. Harry’s opening section had a slightly noir feel to it, reflecting more the times of Raymond Chandler than the 1960s setting of the book. The sections written from the perspectives of Bill’s parents had the slower nature of a couple still trying to find ways to spend their time now their children are grown and the only work to be done is on a garden slowly wilting under the high Florida temperatures. Bill’s section had all the feel of a musician returning to life and gave a real sense of recovery and rebirth, like he was a butterfly escaping his cocoon of grief and finding out what his wings are for.

The only issue I found with the story was that, as it was snapshots of life, it didn’t go anywhere much. With a main character being a jazz musician in the 1960s, I expected a little more life than I found. The whole story, up until the very end, takes on a downbeat cast that is more dirge than jazz. Although the writing reflects well on the downbeat nature of the story as a whole, there was nothing in the story I found particularly gripping.

That said, for readers who revel in the beauty of great writing, there is much here to enjoy and this is made only more admirable by it being Martell’s first novel in the language. For those like me who prefer to read for escapism and entertainment, there may be something a little lacking until the latter stages. There is, however, more than enough here to suggest than Martell’s name will grow in time and whilst it may not be spoken with in quite the same reverence Bill Evans is held in jazz circles, there may well be acclaim beyond the Wales Book of the Year award one of his earlier novels has already won.