(courtesy official Jo Thomas Facebook page) SNAPSHOTGwen has lived at Christmas Tree Farm for many years. It’s where she’s built a life, a business and a place to call home. But after her beloved husband Paddy dies, it’s time to downsize and move on. But when nine-year-old Willow, a distant Continue Reading
Christmas
Christmas movie preview: Violent Night 2
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIf you’re nice, you get presents from the Big Guy. If you’re naughty, you get justice. In 2022’s bare-knuckle holiday sensation, Violent Night, an embittered Santa, armed with lethal combat skills, took out a team of mercenaries to rescue a girl & her family. Now, not-so-jolly Saint Continue Reading
Christmas preview: Joy to the World by Beth Moran
(courtesy official Beth Moran Facebook page) This Christmas, the nation’s favourite life coach is in desperate need of a little holiday magic. Alex Nixon has built a glittering TV career teaching clients how to win at life. But when a disastrous viral awards speech reveals that she has zero friends, Continue Reading
Christmas preview: The Secret Holiday Kiss (The Secret Bookshop #3) by Cressy McLaughlin
(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 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