(courtesy official Cressy McLaughlin newsletter) SNAPSHOTIn a seaside village, where the winter sunset meets the sea, Daisy is coming home … When her perfect life falls apart, Daisy returns to Mistingham, determined it’s a temporary stop until she can find her feet again. She hasn’t counted on the community’s irresistible Continue Reading
Christmas
Christmas preview: Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol – a new take on a classic festive story
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTThis November, Johnny Depp is Ebenezer Scrooge. “A stingy, penny-pinching, cantankerous, lonely old man whose sheer miserly nature leads him to despise Christmas & all things which engender happiness.” The name you know, the story you don’t. From director Ti West – a Christmas fantasy set in Continue Reading
Christmas 2026 book preview: Stay Another Christmas by Phillipa Ashley
(courtesy Phillipa Ashley email) SNAPSHOTThe perfect festive Lake District escape from bestselling author Phillipa Ashley. After a life-changing accident, Katie’s plan for Christmas is simple: rent a spectacular island house in the Lake District, gather the people she loves, and enjoy snowy walks, crackling fires and the promise of a Continue Reading
Deck the Daleks … Happy holidays from Doctor Who! (Christmas special trailer)
SNAPSHOT The Christmas episode this year will have the Doctor join forces with a masked Superhero for adventure in New York. With aliens poised to attack, the Doctor and Nardole link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious figure known only as The Ghost. Can the Doctor save Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good movie-watching, TV-bingeing, music-listening, book-reading night
It’s Christmas time again and that means, as you well know, that it’s some time for festive pop culture fun. Actually, pop culture fun is a year round things and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for sticking around and reading the many posts hat have Continue Reading
Love Actually and the touching deleted scenes that never made it into the film
Love, Actually is deservedly one of those films that makes an appearance every Christmas come what may. Featuring eight interwoven couples whose own stories come with humour and special poignant meaning, the festive rom-com by Richard Curtis, is a touching reminder that everyone has a story, and that what Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas … I re-watched classic Vicar of Dibley ep “The Christmas Lunch Incident”
When you’re in the service of others, as is Vicar Geraldine Granger (Dawn French), the “babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom”, saying “No” even extremely nicely, can be a difficult undertaking. After all, your parishioners seeing you as their vicar, regardless of how many of them there Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I got ready to watch Robot Chicken’s Christmas special
There’s no arguing that Santa sits pretty atop the pop culture recognition tree? He may only get to strut his toy-giving festive stuff once a year but man does he make the most of it, and even when your thoughts may not necessarily turn to reindeers, tinsel and presents Continue Reading
On 1st day of Christmas … I watched the film Get Santa
Christmas films, especially those with good old Santa’s name in the title, generally tend to follow the same well-worn path. Someone, oh let’s say Santa himself, gets into trouble, caught in a situation that a man of hundreds of years experience and worldly-wiseness has never encountered in all his Continue Reading
Ho! Ho! WOOF! MEOW! Merry Christmas from The Secret Life of Pets
SNAPSHOT Comedy superstars Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet and Kevin Hart make their animated feature-film debuts in The Secret Life of Pets, which co-stars Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Jenny Slate, Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress and Albert Brooks. Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and his longtime collaborator Janet Healy produce Continue Reading