Category: Entertainment

A popular item for after our Christmas dinner! People always ask for a copy, so here it is (below, click for printable PDF). All you need to do is to identify the faces who have been in the news in …

Getting better! My last few years’ totals of new films viewed have been 46, 52, 61 and now 73. Beating that is going to be quite the challenge in 2019.…

Please Note: this year’s (2019) “Faces Of The Year” Printable Christmas Picture Quiz will be published on Monday 23 December. Sorry it’s late, but so is our Christmas party this year. If you like the look of last year’s quiz …

I always enjoy compiling end-of-year lists. For the past few years I’ve added all the new music I like to a Spotify playlist, then selected my favourite songs from that year’s list to make a top 10, or 20. It’s …

Another year, another Cambridge Folk Festival – our 27th in succession, by current reckoning. Many people have been going far longer: it really is an institution. I’m not a huge folk music fan, just a local resident who loves the …

So for the fifth year running, every time I came across some new music I liked in the last 12 months I added it to a ‘best of the year’ Spotify playlist. And for the third year running, the list …

It’s that time again. Absolutely delighted to report that after several years of trying, and always narrowly failing, I managed to watch 52 new release films at the cinema this year. Here then are my 10 favourites, and the rest …

A fantastic year for music for me, not necessarily because it was a fantastic year for music in general, but because I listened to about ten times as much new music as I’ve ever done in any one year in …

Christmas approaches, and that means it’s time for my Films Of The Year. By the looks of my email ticket confirmations from the Arts Picturehouse and the rather splendid myCineWorld Booking History page, I would appear to have seen about …

I’m pleased this morning to be part of the launch of OnVid.co.uk, a new site which is setting out to highlight the best YouTube channels from the UK. Covering a whole range of subjects, the site will chronicle the …

I’ve been making a Spotify playlist for the 2013 Cambridge Folk Festival over the past few months. Get in the mood (or if you’re reading this after the event, re-live the memories) with over 300 songs from artists on the …

You could argue that the best way to read James Joyce’s Ulysses is to just get stuck into it – but I do think this can be difficult. That’s why a reading guide is so helpful. Probably the best two …

I’ve had this theory for some time now that the reason I never set the world alight as a child was the competition from the freakishly talented generation which I grew up in. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to …

I bloody love the Eurovision Song Contest, me. Always have. I love the campness of the event, the absurdity of the voting and the way that any song which isn’t 100% Eurovision gets swept under the carpet. I love how …

Well, it took a couple of hours to be sure I hadn’t forgotten everything (and I’m still not sure I haven’t), but here’s my 100 Favourite Songs of 2012 as a Spotify playlist. I tried to limit myself to three …

OK, I’ll stand up and admit it: I’m a podcast addict. Whether it’s highlights of radio programmes I’d never have been able to listen to when broadcast live, or shows made by people who would be too niche or too …

Having that vaguely-OCD thing which is common to most males, as soon as I read someone else’s “Best music of the first half of 2012” list, I just had to do my own. Cue another hour wasted. I’d thought that …

Just got back from a showing of “Sherlock Holmes” (which was rather good, by the way) at Cambridge Cineworld. …

A fairly populist list as ever, but I’ve never been one for art house movies…

And so to the Corn Exchange for Cambridge’s almost annual dose of Pink Floyd tribute goodness. This year things have changed though; instead of the Australian Pink Floyd Show, tonight we see the second gig on the inaugural tour from …

Discussions of The Unthanks’ previous gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire loved the way the band made the large venue seem so intimate. At this one, they didn’t have to, because Cambridge’s Junction 2 isn’t that much bigger than some …

I just came across all of these in my loft, and it just made me think: why isn’t there a market for this sort of spin-off any more? Or is there no comedy cult enough to support this sort of …

Went to see Spamalot! in Cambridge last week. Very good for a touring production, if perhaps not quite up to the standards set by the considerably higher-budget performances I’d seen in the West End and, ahem, Las Vegas. Anyway, here’s …

The Fake Album Art idea has been around in its current form for at least a couple of years now, but it never ceases to amuse, and it’s been enjoying a revival on Facebook recently, so the young people tell …

For each day of Advent, I’m doing a different list of favourite things from the year. Today we look at gadgetry and tech. I bought my most recent camera at the end of last year, my TV is four years …

There’s been enough great stuff on YouTube this year for it to merit a list of its own. So here, as part of my list-a-day series during Advent, are my favourite bits o’YouTubery of 2010. Except that more than any …

In this instalment of my “list a day” Advent Calendar, I thought I’d choose the websites and online services which have meant most to me this year, either for entertainment or for usefulness. Or perhaps they just merit a mention …

24 lists of favourite things during Advent this year, and two of them are devoted to telly. The other list concentrates on comedy, but this one rounds up the rest.

My Favourite Non-Comedy TV Programmes of 2010

You might notice …

Continuing my one-per-day Advent list of favourite things this year, here’s the third list of blogs, this time ones which are vaguely to do with my current gainful employment, namely industrial marketing, web design and SEO.

My Favourite Online Marketing-Related