Spy - series 1 (2011)

TV series review: Spy, series 1 (2011), directed by Ben Taylor, written by Simeon Goulden

One of the unexpected pleasures of 2011 was finding Sky1's new comedy series Spy. I caught it almost by accident one Friday afternoon as I had left the TV on (rare), on Sky1 (even rarer these days). Having seen a trailer or something for it before, I sat down to watch, and was hooked. Not just because "HEY IT'S MAT BAYNTON FROM HORRIBLE HISTORIES, YAY!" but because it was actually really funny.

Tim (Darren Boyd) is an ordinary, fairly boring, guy who enjoys Sudoku-puzzles and works in an electronics store with his probably only friend Chris (Mathew Baynton). He's bored and decides to quit to improve his life, because his ex-wife Judith (Dolly Wells) thinks he's a bit of a loser.

The local Jobcentre find him an interview for a job as a civil servant ... and because he's good with computers and puzzle-solving, he gets the job ... as an MI-5 agent. Surprise!! He gets to have a gun and everything! Tim the loser is suddenly pretty cool! ... If only he could actually talk about it. So at work, he's now in Her Majesty's Secret Service with a somewhat unhinged boss (Robert Lindsay), and a nice colleague, Caitlin (Rebekah Staton), whom he quite fancies.

At home, he has to deal with son Marcus (Jude Wright), who is far too smart for his own - and everyone else's - good, not to mention having to put up with cringeworthy counselling sessions with Marcus, Judith, and Judith's new partner Philip (Tom Goodman-Hill), who is headmaster of the school Marcus goes to, and is way too keen on man-hugs.

Thomas Anders - Strong (2010-2011)

Music album review: Thomas Anders Strong (Oriflame, 2010 + Amazon MP3, 2011)

1. Why Do You Cry? (Strong Version) (03:44)
2. Stay With Me (04:01)
3. Make You (03:46)
4. Stop! (03:14)
5. You Will Be Mine (04:13)
6. Suddenly (03:34)
7. Music, Dance (03:30)
8. My Angel (03:40)
9. I'll Be Strong (03:46)
10. Clear Sign (03:48)
11. One More Chance (03:45)
12. I Wanna (03:03)
13. Sorry, Baby (03:31)
14. All You Need (03:20) (I Miss You (03:56) instead & final track on physical album)
15. Dynamite (03:03)
16. Right Here, Right Now (Century of Love) (03:11)
17. Love You A Lifetime (02:59)
18. The Best of Me (03:22)

After the second split of Modern Talking (2003), Thomas Anders had released two albums: the one I really liked, This Time (2003), and the one I can't even remember the title of without looking it up, Songs Forever (2006), because I never cared much for it anyway, being full of covers. So when a new album was announced, I was thrilled and couldn't wait for it to come out. It just never seemed to have a release date for a year or two, and then it came out in 2010 ... in Russia, because it's an album written and produced over there. Herr Anders is very big in Russia, bless him. :)

When would Strong be released in Germany so I could actually buy it? And so the waiting game continued ... Until I finally had the idea to look for it on eBay in August 2011 ... and not long after, it was released as a digital download on Amazon. With bonus tracks not on the disc I had only just received. Gah!!

Back to the Secret Garden (2001)

Film review: Back to the Secret Garden (2001), directed by Michael Tuchner

This is the sort of thing Hallmark will come up with if you give them half a chance. Which obviously someone did. If that person was a Facebook friend of mine, I'd de-friend them, oh yes! But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

It's the 1940s or so, and Misslethwaite Manor is an orphanage. Martha Sowerby (Joan Plowright) is still around, as the manager or caretaker or what have you, while Lady Mary (Cherie Lunghi) and hubby Colin (Leigh Lawson) are somewhere in America doing something. I didn't particularly care what they were up to, to be honest.

In America, Lady Mary comes across orphan Lizzie Buscana (Camilla Belle), and sends her to Misslethwaite because she appears to have green fingers. At Misslethwaite (if you at any point feel like exclaiming "hey it's Downton Abbey!" you'd be right - they filmed it at Highclere Castle), Lizzie quickly finds the Secret Garden and tries to get it to live again because it seems to be dying. Martha has had the audacity to install a door, and not just the secret hidden door like before, yadda yadda.

Gearing up for FanstRAvaganza 2012

Back in 2010, there was an idea for a fanblogging event, where the current Richard Armitage fanblogs would participate, highlighting Richard Armitage's work and/or his fans for a whole week, and this venture was named FanstRAvaganza. You might recall this:

Then, in 2011, it was decided that the FanstRAvaganza, having been a big success and plenty of fun for everyone involved, should return, and return it did. With more participants than the year before.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Film review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), directed by Michael Bay

In this third, and what we can only hope is the last installment of the re-booted Transformers franchise (but you know it won't be), Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has dumped what's-her-face and is now with British hottie Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) instead. He's nagged by his parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White again) to get a job, and thanks to Carly's overly nice boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey), Sam lands a job at some technology company or other, headed by John Malkovich.

But not for long!! Or, okay, things don't stay quiet for very long. There are still the Autobots and the Decepticons to worry about, and they've found some sort of Ultimate Weapon, or rather, they've found the brains behind it - Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy...'s voice).

Then robots fight, Frances McDormand banishes the robots off Earth and the explosions begin, because this is a Michael Bay film.

The Borrowers (2011)

TV film review: The Borrowers (2011), directed by Tom Harper

If yesterday's review of the 1997 version of The Borrowers could be summed up with "we are not amused", how would the latest attempt fare? Again, based on the books by Mary Norton, but this time, it's perfectly clear where we stand in time and location: we're in London, in December 2011.

After the death of his mother, James Millman (Charlie Hiscock) with his dad Robert (Shaun Dooley), move in to live with his potty grandmother (Victoria Wood), who keeps believing there are "little people" living there, and she's determined to find them. Sadly, they're also on the brink of losing the house, as they're struggling financially, and Robert can't seem to find a job.

Underneath their floorboards, it's a different life altogether. There lives the Clock family - a family of tiny people called Borrowers, so called because they "borrow" things from us humans. Father Pod (Christopher Eccleston, looking very dad-like in that beard) is the one who ventures out into the house looking for scraps food and unused items the humans will never miss, while anxious mother Homily (Sharon Horgan) stays at home, where teenager Arrietty (Nottinghamster - yay! - Aisling Loftus) is getting more and more agitated over not getting to explore with her dad.

The Borrowers (1997)

Film review: The Borrowers (1997), directed by Peter Hewitt

Based on Mary Norton's books about the Borrowers, is this1997 adaptation (and I use that term loosely), where the Clocks are a family of "Borrowers" - a kind of miniature humans that live under our floorboards and in our walls, living of things which they "borrow" from us humans.

There's father Pod (Jim Broadbent), mother Homily (Celia Imrie), daugher Arrietty (Flora Newbigin), and son Peagreen (Tom Felton, five years before the first Harry Potter film, aww).

The "beings" (humans) that own the house they live in, are the Lenders: father Joe (Aden Gillett), mother Victoria (Doon Mackichan) and son Pete (Bradley Pierce). Pete spots the Borrowers, and is intrigued by having little people in the house.

Unfortunately, that same house belongs to a relative of theirs, and when she dies, the unscrupulous solicitor Ocious P Potter (John Goodman) says that ain't so, b'bye now, because he wants to knock the house down in order to build luxury apartments. He just needs to get into the house and find the old biddy's hidden will and destroy it, but never did he anticipate having to deal with Borrowers ...

Happy Burns Night

The Winter It Is Past

The winter it is past, and the summer comes at last
And the small birds, they sing on ev'ry tree;
Now ev'ry thing is glad, while I am very sad,
Since my true love is parted from me.

The rose upon the breer, by the waters running clear,
May have charms for the linnet or the bee;
Their little loves are blest, and their little hearts at rest,
But my true love is parted from me.

[Source: Robert Burns Country]

(Not seasonally accurate just yet, but the poem was short enough to keep my attention and easily enough read and understood to get a modicum of my affection. Robert Burns was a Scottish poet, from the times when cravats were all the rage. His birthday is celebrated in the UK, and in Scotland in particular. Thought I'd mention it for once, even if I can't stand poetry myself. :P)

From Time to Time (2009)

Film review: From Time to Time (2009), directed by Julian Fellowes

If this costume drama feels familiar, it's because it's a mixture of a lot of familiar stories. You've got elements of Narnia (WW2), Tom's Midnight Garden (time travel), Wuthering Heights (stray boy the finder's son hates), The Secret Garden (magic), Jane Eyre (house fire), Cluedo ("the butler did it") and I don't know what else, sprinkled with a liberal helping of Downton Abbey actors. All wrapped upsibling  in a cozy blanket of period drama for and about children, based on Lucy M. Boston's 1958 novel The Chimneys of Green Knowe.

World War II is raging, and young Tolly (Alex Etel) goes to live with his grandmother (or something like that), Mrs. Oldknow (Maggie Smith) in a big house in the country. He's worried about his father, away in the war, but with the stories told by Mrs. Oldknow, he soon comes out of his shell.

One night, he sees a girl and a servant, but ... they're not there. Is the house haunted? As it happens, it appears Tolly can jump through time, back to the Regency days, when the house was occupied by Captain Oldknow (Hugh Bonneville) with family. The captain's wife Maria (Carice van Houten) is Dutch, and finds her new country uninviting and strange, especially since her husband is gone a lot of the time.