Honey bee by Grinderman – plays over the end credits of True Detective episode 4, season 1. It’s like a hit of adrenaline that perfectly fits the final, frantic moments of the episode.

Read You’re Next by Gregg Hurwitz This is a rollicking thriller, but I found that it suffers from over written action scenes. The really good crime writer (I’m thinking the likes of Pelecanos, Leonard, Wil […]

Jaws. Every single role in Jaws in perfectly cast.

Well, that’s uncanny as I have been thinking of just this topic for a few days now as I have strolled into work. On any given day I can reel off a list of favourite books, categorised by genre, era, even l […]

I read it’s the 50th anniversary of the first episode of The Muppet Show, which can’t possibly be right as that would mean that I’m…oh. Anyway. I watched the new episode and it was all rather fab. I […]

Seen Knives Out – Wake up Dead Man. I enjoyed the first 2 films in this series, but I found this latest one a bit of plodder. Although I very much enjoyed Daniel Craig’s sartorial choice. He was rocking a nic […]

Agree whole heartedly on the Max / RUTH moment. It comes in the episode called Dear Billy, one of the most exciting episodes of any show, let alone Stranger Things. There’s the prison escape, and the visit […]

The play’s great fun and I’d happily go again. If you’ve not watched the TV show before, I would definitely watch at least the first series as some of the characters from the show appear in the play. There’s a […]

Yep – I get it was all a bit bloated, and that on too many occasions things ground to a halt for some exposition / explanation. But – some of those action scenes were extraordinary. The attack at the Wheeler […]

I’ve not posted one of these updates in a while, so this is a bit of an indulgent end of year review / catch up from the past few months. The Holdovers It’s set at Christmas in a prestigious boarding sch […]

Seen Cheers I caught a few episodes of Cheers over the summer. Channel 4 are currently in the Kirstie Alley era, which is my favourite. It had been years since I have seen an episode, but it remains eminently […]

Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. For me this is very vibey – and I always appreciate it most on those bright blue brittle days you occasionally get in November. Plus the cover is beautiful and looks handsome a […]

Well now I have retrospective jealousy… In mitigation to my parents, I was only 7.

Read Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes The very definition of a holiday read, this is a rollicking spy/adventure/sci-fi thriller that in its final stages goes utterly batshit crazy and morphs from spy thriller […]

Seen The Four Seasons Three affluent, middle-aged couples meet 4 times a year to indulge in 5-star quality weekend breaks. They deal with dissolving marriages and the sudden, unwelcome intrusion of mortality. […]

Read The Wanted by Robert Crais This LA-set detective thriller is good, tense stuff with well drawn characters. It does feature both first and third person narrative voices which always throw me out of a […]

Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree Durutti Column – Vini Reilly

There seems to be a lot of love / respect between players and manager on display at Spurs currently. And the players seem to be happy in each other’s company. Something not seen there since the days of […]

Yep – I’ve read all 3, and enjoyed them very much. I think my favourite was Ascension – it’s a tight combination of spy and detective thriller. Plus Ascension Island itself was a vivid and unusual backdrop. I […]

Read The Shame Archives by Oliver Harris A cache of files incriminating evidence is being used to blackmail royals, politicians, and general ne’er do wells – and when the blackmail doesn’t work, the files are d […]