14 MAR 2023 · Perhaps an ironic title for this crushingly bleak finale to probably the TV event of the year - and a fitting strong episode that is centered on a massive moral question - would you sacrifice the person you love the most to save everyone else in the world.

14 MAR 2023 · I suspect that Ukraine played a big part in the awards success of this German anti-war film, which even the Germans called "Shallow, cynical and horny for Oscars", because other than the awards-worthy cinematography, sound and score - everything else is decidedly mid-tier. Almost as basic and trite as a modern war film could be without being directed by Steven Spielberg.

10 MAR 2023 · After a righteous victory lap with last years 30 Something celebrations, where would one of the all time greatest and most important electronic music acts go? For me they've successfully welded their past and modern electronic music into a highly political album that hits a surprisingly sweet spot.

7 MAR 2023 · After the middling episode 7 the series roars back into life, with one of the most powerhouse and satisfying episodes (perhaps alongside Ep 5) and also the darkest and most brutal. Bella Ramsey has her finest hour as Ellie and an excellent Scott Shepherd as preacher David, is the lowest humanity has sunk so far. Great stuff.

7 MAR 2023 · The Velvet Underground legend's fine seventeenth solo album makes the unexpected detour into Yacht-rock/pop and electronica with a raft of contemporary artists. I wouldn't mind a bit of trimming over its occasionally duller first half but it's and album that grows through its duration and also repeated listens.

6 MAR 2023 · Gradually getting back into newer album releases, with this surprise-around-christmas victory-lap release from the recent Mercury Music Prize winner and correct speller of little. Another consistent and solid album from the UK rap star and her in house producer, the already legendary Sault alumni, Inflo - if the least impressive of her golden run.

28 FEB 2023 · Oh dear, after the hugely successful Ep3 pulled the same stunt, stopping the forward momentum built up from Ep's 4-6 dead for another (gay) love story (a really tiny bit) falls a bit flatter this time. We get the necessary back story of Ellie (Bella Ramsey), her past at the military academy and her relationship with her room-mate and love, Riley. It's good but the weakest episode, quite repetitive, a slog, feels like low stakes filler and curiously like an episode of Stranger Things. Ellie only spends minutes with Joel this time but those minutes are more compelling than all the time spent with Riley. A victim of its excellent policy of only showing one episode a week, leading viewers to need a massive episode each time.

28 FEB 2023 · The English Trainspotting. I've decided to include movies in "Gone But Forgotten" where I focus on something either denied classic status on release or ignored today or both in the case of this Nick Love adaption of epic writer, John Kings novel about football hooliganism. It's impeccably cast, moves like a rocket, has surprisingly great cinematography, awesome dialogue and a soundtrack that aces even Trainspotting itself. It also tells a few unknowable truths about working-class Britain.

28 FEB 2023 · Old M. Night Shyamalan has been on one wild ride these last fifteen years, a run of some of the worst films this century, followed by a couple of the worst films of all time - the ship seems to be righting though. Mainly his last few Unbreakable films and this book adaption have fared far better. He is still his own films worst enemy though, going PG or Spielberg when he should be going R-rated or confrontational, even reversing two major elements from the award winning novel to make them happier!?!? Still these are intriguing themes, reasonably well explored and with a soulful, committed turn from David Bautista - and the blandest gay couple in history - it just gets over the line.

27 FEB 2023 · Even Scottish band, Simple Minds, rote story is all but forgotten - that they were purveyors of bombastic stadium rock alongside the peers U2, throughout the mid eighties, draping themselves in worthy social issues. This completely misses the even more hidden truth - in the four years between 1979 and 1982, the band released six albums in what was one of the most progressive and brilliant runs by any band, including The Beatles and Can. A look through that period - so deserving of reappraisal - and how the rest of the decade played out for them. It started as a review of the masterpiece (10/10) album New Gold Dream but I felt the wider story needed addressing.