Ever since I started my dedicated theatre blog, this original one has been a lot quieter, but I've continued to use it for my Twitter roundups and occasional book and TV reviews. I want to continue having a personal blog but even though Livejournal hasn't been quite as bad lately as it has been in the past, it can still be a mess of regular ( Read more... )

Finally, Merlin ends, and the most frustrating thing remains that this was all supposedly planned from the start. When the programme started the writers said they had a specific five-year story arc planned, and indeed the series went on for those five years. It's baffling to think that "almost zero development for five years, then ( Spoilers for ‘The Diamond of the Day' )

This week on my Twitter feed was the week before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. At least I hope I don't have a vermin infestation. Also, the world was supposed to end, and then it didn't ( Read more... )

This week on my Twitter feed, I get excited over a little free chocolate with my latte, as you would ( Read more... )

Last week's Merlin ended with Morgana definitely declaring all-out war on Camelot, for realz this time, honest. So "The Drawing of the Dark" will definitely involve massed armies of warlocks and dragons going against Arthur, and not just another lone druid titting about in the woods, right? LOL WRONG!

( Spoilers for ‘The Drawing of the Dark' )

The last couple of Christmases I've made a habit of reading collections of ghost stories. Having used up M.R. James and Charles Dickens, I went for something more contemporary this year, a charity collection of short stories written to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Actually Voices from the Past isn't as much a ghost story collection ( Read more... )

This week on my Twitter feed, oh the relief as this year's X Factor limps to an end, and the even greater relief as I miss most of it ( Read more... )

Because I still persist with watching Merlin of a Saturday night, I usually record the overnight ITV2 repeat of The X Factor so I can do these recaps on a Sunday morning. But I was theatreing rather a lot this weekend, and when I finally got round to watching Saturday’s first leg of the 2012 final, it turned out all I’d recorded was hours and hours ( Read more... )

Hey, so, can you tell one episode of Merlin from another nowadays? Can anyone? I'm pretty sure they've not actually been repeating the same episode every week and slapping a different title on it, but I couldn't actually swear to it. This one had Sorcha Cusack in it, I don't think that's happened before.( Spoilers for ‘The Kindness of Strangers' )

Earlier this year, I really enjoyed Sofi Oksanen's stage version of Purge, about Estonia between the end of the Second World War and the early nineties, so when the original novel became a Kindle daily deal I figured it was worth a download. Starting at the end, when Zara, a prostitute who's escaped from her pimp, turns up at the isolated forest ( Read more... )