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* Derry Girls season 3* The appearance of a Hollywood star with a particular set of skills (and still no match for Uncle Colm) in the season 3 premier of Derry Girls wasn't a surprise for me as it was with live viewers because it was trending on Twitter when I logged on to do podcast stuff (have I mentioned I make a podcast ?) early the next morning. Yes, in 2022 in the UK, the masses still don't consider that a load of us don't have or watch live broadcast television for a multitude of reasons and get caught up later, as is our wont well into the age of on-demand catch-up services.   Liam Neeson's turn as an RUC officer was quite the boon, and to see him bested by Uncle Colm's (Kevin McAleer) filibustering was nothing short of masterful, and the weans were acted off the screen all round by the older generations in this one. But the A-story's edgy hilarity served to mask the deep darkness of the B-story in which Granda Joe's (Ian McElhinney) taken-in-cat, Se...

Well, I've gone and fallen head over heels in love with Community and pretty much every character in it. It's a show I didn't see much of first time round, and since it released on Netflix last year it has received a new lease of life and a whole new fanbase, including me. One of the reasons its run on NBC (2009 - 2014) was dogged by low ratings (as well as being up against The Big Bang Theory in the US) was that internationally it was being shared and downloaded illegally. Oh the days when we had to wait up to two years in the UK for American shows! I'm sorry to say that this was how I ever saw the odd episode as I was seeing someone who downloaded it from bit torrents and it was part of a jumble with Parks and Recreation , Arrested Development and shows I didn't enjoy and can't remember the titles of. This was during my last PhD year so it's all a bit blurry, and if you know what I was researching, you'll know I needed escapism. And my goodness, is Co...

Devoid of television but feeling the need to wind down of an evening with short doses of effortless comedy, we’ve been going through the vaults of All4 , Channel 4’s catch-up service. Having loved Derry Girls (2017-), himself was curious about writer Lisa McKee’s earlier comedy which ran for only one series, London Irish (2013).  Guessing accurately that it would focus on a bunch of stereotypically drunken hallions in Big Smokie, and therefore wouldn’t have the charm of Derry Girls , I am neither surprised nor sorry about its demise. While there were some well-delivered corkers of lines and an episode-stealing performance from Siobhan McSweeney who plays Sister Michael so deliciously in Derry Girls , the highly-strung yet underdeveloped characters, the 0-60 ridiculousness of the scenarios, and the clunky writing shoehorning in Norn Irish sayin’s (notably, the culturally Catholic bunch only refer to Ireland, never the North, even though they all apparently hail from Belfas...

Before returning to Newcastle after a brilliant week and a half visiting family and friends and touring round Ulster, we hit up the Fringe. Last year we went to the closing weekend, leaving behind a tired, littered, dishevelled Edinburgh. This year we tried the opening weekend as the buzz was building and the acts still fresh. We learnt from last year’s rookie mistakes that we made despite warnings from hardened Fringers that venues can take longer to reach than maps indicate due to steeper-than-expected hills and the swelled volume of people occupying the streets. We had a relatively relaxed time this year, although we got roped into more audience participation than we’d bargained for. It was an excellent three days, and listed below are what we saw and my personal highlights. Saturday 5 Aug   Fringe Film Festival An intimate showcase of informative and thought-provoking international documentary and fiction shorts. The Guilty Feminist Our timing worke...