Gimme Gimme Gimme (1998-2001)

And now for something completely different. Remember this?
How the hell did it ever get on the telly?! It is so flipping rude!! But it is fabulous.
On Christmas day with my family I watched two episodes of Gimme Gimme Gimme and the Inbetweeners movie, we are obviously disgusting.
Watching this though has made me realise how things have become more conservative lately even in comedy. Rev is on it's third season.... Seriously?!
Can you imagine 15 years ago a gentle sitcom about a vicar's daily life, what the fuck? We are not a religious country!! These are Tory values!! 15 years ago we had Father Ted and the Vicar of Dibley, yes they were religious characters but above that he was a chainsmoker trapped on an island with a load of arseholes and she was just a fat woman who liked chocolate also surrounded by arseholes! Religion is always something that we have poked fun at, why the fuck are we making this affectionate show about a vicar as though it's good comedy?! Gimme Gimme Gimme would never get commissioned under a Tory government, it's lewd, vile, disgusting and hilarious.

Tangled (2010)

This one on the other hand was fab. The plot was simple and easy to follow and there were loads of gags, the characters were dopes and no one was serious about anything.
Animation was stunning too, not just churned out because Disney noticed there's a black president.
A few too many songs but other than that the whole family enjoyed it, loved the horse!

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Disney's odd attempt to welcome the Obama administration failed miserably with bland bland characters as they tried so hard to be PC. Scared to give their black heroine any traits that might make her human the only interesting character was the cliche send-up of the spoiled white brat, she was funny and cute whilst all the bland black characters could have been anybody.
Also the plot was all over the place, kids don't know what voodoo is!! I refuse to believe any child could follow that.

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (BBC4)

Words cannot describe how disappointed I was by this.
I love Bleak Expectations on the radio but it's transfer to TV was utterly dire and lost all humour it once had.
Only one small joke made me laugh and that's because I like Una Stubbs.

The Illusionist (2010)

It was because of seeing old whatshisface that I remembered this film. I had seen it at the cinema and then been so overwhelmed by emotions that I had to have a lie down, I don't know why I didn't write about it at the time because I thought it was so good then.
The Illusionist is a stunning film, visually and emotionally. If you know Edinburgh well you will really appreciate it. I first watched it with a boy who lived in Edinburgh, then with my parents who had just been on a little holiday to the city and on New Year's Eve I watched it with my chap after earlier in the month we had ourselves had a little holiday there.
The artwork is beautiful, so much care has gone into each background painting and the watercoloured style is so fitting for the 1950s story. The characters too are well designed and all the animation is seemless and perfect. Scotland has the best scenery and the artwork does it such justice, some scenes are just breathtaking!
The story is sad but full of gentle humour. There is hardly any dialogue, he speaks French and she speaks Galic, you don't need to understand what they say as it's animated so well and the point of it is it can be enjyed by anyone in any country, ah, such a joy to have such thought put into a film!
Sorry Rob, that I made you watch something so sad when you were ill, but at least it was beautiful too, non?

27 (Edinburgh Lyceum)

I actually saw a play the night before I went to see this play in York put on by a little group of local actors, I can't remember what it was called but it was about this girl who had an imaginary friend who she played sex games with, it was really weird and ticked every cliche in the book but the set design and the costumes were good.
Then I went on a day trip and saw 27 up in Edinburgh, my main memory from seeing it was that the set looked SO dangerous. There was a huge steep staircase, open on one side and the older actors who played the nuns kept running up and down it, I was on edge and uncomfortable watching it. Nuns vs Scientists. Not my cup of tea really, seemed more suited to being a Radio 4 play as nothing was said that needed to use that giant staircase, in fact I might have been more able to concentrate on it if the distraction of the idea of Maureen Beattie plunging to her death of the edge hadn't been there! Can see why Nick le Prevost was cast as the American, he's sort of old Holywood in his looks, not as camp as Cary Grant but almost.

The Nutcracker (The Bolshoi Ballet)

The English Ballet did a version on BBC4 this Christmas but me and Anna went to the cinema to see the Russian company's version being broadcast from a French theatre. It was fabulous and seeing snippets of the English version on Christmas Eve I can safely say it is far superior than anything we can do.
Those Russians sure can dance! Ah, it was the Christmas show we needed to really get us in the mood! Beautiful costumes and sets, nothing artsy-fartsy, traditional, Christmassy kitsch!