While I was at this year’s Easter School in Durham, I have the chance to attend the book launch of a new book, which has several contributions from YMC tutors. The book looks excellent, and is available now in paper and Kindle format from Amazon. Once I’ve read a bit more of it I’ll do […]

I went to see Gravity recently – what an immense film. It’s definitely a slow burner – as has already been commented on, it’s something like 10 minutes before the first cut. But it is beautiful to watch. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are superb. Most of the screen time is devoted to Bullock, playing […]

Warning – Spoiler Alert! Went to see “Into Darkness” at the weekend. What an awesome film! I love what J.J. Abrams (and others) have done with this franchise, and the first outing was fabulous. At the time I commented about my appreciation of the fact there was no cheats way out of the paradox. Vulcan […]

I went to see The Hunger Games on Friday, at the Harrogate Odeon. Don’t go to the cinema very much, so it was a real treat. What a cracking film – really enjoyed it. The premise is that there is a brave new world order, with a ruling class and a lower class. The ruling […]

All in all a most satisfactory ending to Torchwood Miracle Day. Unlike the end of Children of the Earth, they couldn’t be shouting Next Season more clearly. So, the important bit – how were my predications? Jack gets immortality back, and death returns to everyone else. Pretty close. I really didn’t see Matheson coming, although […]

I’m quite enjoying this season of Torchwood (Miracle Day) – it’s moved a long way from the Alien of the week format. I could do without the sex, which seems to be solely about gratification and not about developing the plot, but otherwise it’s good. I’ve been mulling over what’s going to happen (I should […]

I’m really enjoying the recent revival of the Doctor Who series. David Tenant was, IMO, the best Doctor by a country mile, and several of his episodes instantly stood out as classics. Admittedly I only came on board with the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker, who is my second fave). One of the things that stood […]

Derren Brown’s latest stunt (where he ‘predicted’ the lottery numbers) has been the cause of masses of discussions at work about how he did it. There are plenty of theories about how he did it – so here’s my analysis. First of all, what do we know? He turned around a plastic podium containing 6 […]

Just got home from a fab evening with John Barrowman. Ok, so that might be slightly misleading. It wasn’t just me and John. Actually, I had to share him with several hundred other people. He did wave at me though. In fact, he was doing one night only at the Harrogate International Centre, which seemed […]

Chrysalis (Faith in an Emerging Culture), by Alan Jamieson, is a book that’s hard to fit into an exact category. The back of the book proclaims: Have you ever felt that the very things that once inspired and nurtured your faith now seem lifeless and perhaps even frustrating? I guess it says something about my […]