Something Something Gallifrey

What people usually ask me soon after Christmas Day: "Did you watch Doctor Who?" followed by "Did you enjoy it?"

What everyone asked me this year: "Did you watch Doctor Who?" followed by "Did you understand it?"

"The Time of the Doctor" by Steven Moffat, directed by Jamie Payne. Spoilers after the cut.

Dick Twittington 41: Fops on the tube

This week on my Twitter feed, bits of a theatre fall down, and programming at another one stops making sense.

Writing my American Psycho review; meanwhile the team at the next bank of desks is getting VERY excited about their new business cards.
10:37 AM - 18 Dec 13

@TootingGareth I wanted to do a #themorethingschange hashtag but the character limit was against me.
11:29 AM - 18 Dec 13

Theatre review: American Psycho http://partially-obstructed-view.blogspot.com/2013/12/theatre-review-american-psycho.html
1 RETWEET
11:54 AM - 18 Dec 13

Let Zygons be bygones

Yes, this post did take a little while for me to get round to. Still, I got there before the next episode aired (just.)

It's not often people on the internet agree about anything, let alone Doctor Who, but it seems to have worked in the case of "The Day of the Doctor," the 50th anniversary special - and indeed all the surrounding programming spread around the BBC.

"The Day of the Doctor" by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran. Spoilers after the cut.

Dick Twittington 40: Turned on beyond endurance

This week is a non-stop parade of filth on my Twitter feed.

Catching up with Only Connect. Hywel naming mathematical terms is strangely arousing.
1 FAVORITE
2:58 PM - 11 Dec 13

@bridgetorr I'm genuinely baffled by Twitter wetting its knickers over Kester and not noticing Hywel's existence.
3:11 PM - 11 Dec 13


"He needs to show me more respect innit - I'm his friend's best friend's cousin!" #overheardonthebus
9:33 PM - 12 Dec 13

Book review: Love All The People

I moved to the UK in 1993, and Bill Hicks died in early 1994, so I never got a feel for the huge popularity the US comedian had been building up over here. Having heard a lot about him subsequently I've watched a few performances to see what the fuss was about, and now read the book Love All The People, a collection of his writings and transcripts of his recorded performances. Although I feel like the angry but strangely loving comedian is someone whose influence and reputation is well-deserved, the book is irritating because the editors haven't really done any actual editing - the same routines are repeated in transcripts from various performances. The justification given is that it's to allow people to see how the same material evolved over time, but you'd have to be a real Hicks obsessive to want to re-read the same routine half a dozen times with small variations, so after a while there was a lot of pages getting skipped. Interesting man though.

Dick Twittington 39: Mexican vampires

This week on my Twitter feed included my birthday, but I kept quiet about that.

Well, I'm pretty sure there's nothing anyone on the internet will have Strongly Worded Opinions about today.
8:54 AM - 4 Dec 13

Jeez, Sean Foley's doing all right for himself lately isn't he? *other theatre directors are available*
3:15 PM - 5 Dec 13

Sloane Square http://twitpic.com/dno23a
3:17 PM - 5 Dec 13

Dick Twittington 38: Invisible trumpet

This week on my Twitter feed, something or other gets The Gaiety all excited. Can't imagine what.

Thought I saw Sam Claflin jogging but it was just some bloke. Good job I didn't shout out "YOU'RE NOT PRETTY ENOUGH TO BE FINNICK!"
9:16 AM - 27 Nov 13


Rargh Expressionism, look at me being an Expressionist, smell my Expressionzzz #intervaltweets
8:41 PM - 27 Nov 13

Just seen police tell off a cyclist for riding on the pavement. Marvellous.
9:25 AM - 28 Nov 13

Book review: Waking Nightmares

Waking Nightmares is the fifth in Christopher Golden's Shadow Saga series of books, that follows a post-Church world where the measures put into place to keep the supernatural at bay have been lost, and alternate dimensions now regularly creep into this one.

This time around the magician Peter Octavian is called upon to deal with an ancient chaos goddess who's been reawakened in an small college town, with the help of three women, a witch, a vampire, and a seemingly normal human with a family connection to the events. This is another fun supernatural thriller although it's very obvious The Shadow Saga is now something completely different than it originally was - the first three books were a separate trilogy with an ongoing epic sweep and huge cast of characters, but from the fourth book on it's been practically a reboot into a series of standalone adventures. Still good, but not quite what it was when I started reading the series.

Dick Twittington 37: Grand Theft Fudge

This week on my Twitter feed: The Doctor Who anniversary episode. I will get round to doing a post about it, I've just been busy. Playing the Doctor Who Google doodle game, mostly.

Hull's been named City of Culture? They know it doesn't mean the kind of culture that's in yoghurt, right?
11:11 AM - 20 Nov 13

Seeing posters in Soho for some Netto boyband called G.T.F. I do hope that stands for Get Tae Feck. Or maybe Grand Theft Fudge.
6:56 PM - 20 Nov 13

No that's fine, I love standing in the rain 20 minutes waiting for a bus that then decides it'll terminate early at the next stop.
10:42 PM - 20 Nov 13

Dick Twittington 36: A crumbling country estate

This week on my Twitter feed, I get grumpy at work, inquisitive in a bookshop, and comically inspired (NB your mileage may vary) by Cake.

Tovey as a footballer? Andrew Scott as a rock star? The return of sensible start times? OK Royal Court, I'm listening.
2 RETWEETS
1:23 PM - 13 Nov 13

Oh, the Tovey-is-a-footballer play also has Nico Mirallegro in it. I know for a fact nobody who follows me will care about that.
2:37 PM - 13 Nov 13

Sherbet Gravel remains my favourite Ridley character name #intervaltweets
8:33 PM - 13 Nov 13

Book review: The Boy From Reactor 4

The Kindle daily deal seems to do a lot of crime novels, doesn't it? I don't often go for them but I thought I'd give Orest Stelmach's The Boy From Reactor 4 a chance. I actually thought, reading it, that it was at least the second in a series because there's all these references to its heroine breaking up a crime ring the previous year, but it turns out it's the author's first novel. It sees a former banker go on a journey to her parents' birthplace of Ukraine, to find the uncle she thought was long-dead, and his son raised near Chernobyl, while various different gangs chase her for the fortune they believe the uncle has stashed away. It's quite enjoyable although the fact that the quest begins with a dying man telling her "the fate of the free world depends on" her returning to Ukraine meant I couldn't take it entirely seriously from the off.

Dick Twittington 35: Training montage

This week on my Twitter feed, have I found the new "so bad it's good" show? Probably not. It's probably just bad.

When I saw Spamalot, it starred Simon Russell Beale. Now it's Les Dennis. Next: Dick and Dom #diminishingreturns
2:37 PM - 6 Nov 1

Macbeth of Fire & Ice: It's like the Southwark Playhouse Henry V all over again.
9:04 PM - 6 Nov 13

@OughtToBeClowns every so often the cast breaks off mangling Shakespeare, to praise Thor.
10:06 PM - 6 Nov 13

Dick Twittington 34: :) :) :) :( :( :(

This week on my Twitter feed, in case there isn't enough of a theatre preoccupation already, the National theatre's 50th birthday celebrations take over Saturday night TV. Well, they do for sensible people. I suppose X Factor and Strictly might have still gone on, but broadcasting to nobody because everyone was glued to Dame Judi on BBC2. Right? Right?

Gemma Arterton as the Duchess of Malfi at the Wanamaker? Interesting...
11:16 AM - 30 Oct 13

I must admit, I did wonder if opening a theatre called the Wanamaker with a show with a female lead was a clue, but I like this casting.
11:24 AM - 30 Oct 13

So... no new Cheek By Jowl show next year? And two revivals but Russian Tempest isn't one of them? *sadface*
1:23 PM - 30 Oct 13

Book review: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Apparently The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is an "international sensation," although I hadn't really noticed it sensating anywhere near me, I just spotted it when I was browsing through the Kindle shop, as per. Jonas Jonasson's novel does what its title suggests, as a man called Allan climbs out of the window of his old people's home on his hundredth birthday, and goes off on an adventure, meeting new people, accidentally killing half the members of a criminal gang, and being chased by the police. This is entertaining enough, but better are the flashbacks every other chapter to Allan's century-long life. Singularly uninterested in politics, he stumbles into some of the biggest events of the 20th century, meeting everyone from Stalin to Mao Zedong, Churchill and Presidents Truman, LBJ and Nixon, like a Swedish Forrest Gump - or Forrest Gümp. As in his present life, his past also seems to have seen him leave a trail of death behind him wherever he went while he remained unscathed, and although it's a gently amusing story I did like the hint of a message underneath that keeping yourself clear of all important matters might leave you safe to live a long and happy life, but be disastrous for those around you.

Dick Twittington 33: One per boob

This week on my Twitter feed... oh I dunno, "various" I guess. My life can't always be themed.

"aphra behn benedict cumberbatch" #bloghitsoftheweek I'mma start an illicit time-travel affair rumour.
10:53 AM - 23 Oct 13

Theatrical Spot: Sam Troughton on Dean Street.
6:53 PM - 23 Oct 13

This Jamie Dornan casting news has definitely not made me any more interested in the Fifty Shades movie *innocent face*
11:10 AM - 24 Oct 13

Dick Twittington 32: Fabulously clear projection

This week for the second time in a row I'm illustrating this roundup of my Twitter feed with a photo of a Doctor Who star's stage work, but where Matt Smith was playing an all-singing, all-dancing serial killer, David Tennant's photo is much more disturbing.

While everyone else is still congratulating Rufus Norris, the whatsonstage boards have already dismissed his entire tenure as a disaster.
1 RETWEET
2:41 PM - 16 Oct 13

Southwark http://twitpic.com/dhlc2o
3:12 PM - 16 Oct 13

I've only just realised the actress from last night's play was Madame Vastra off Doctor Who. It was the lack of scales that threw me.
4:01 PM - 16 Oct 13

Dick Twittington 31: "I'm so excited"

This week on my Twitter feed has been one of those quiet ones.

Oh, so the lift at the Royal Court is making "aaargh!" noises again.
7:01 PM - 9 Oct 13

"The performance lasts 70 minutes without interval" #themostbeautifulsoundthatieverheard
7:15 PM - 9 Oct 13

I had a "back at school" dream so convincing it was actually a relief to wake up and remember I'm nearly 40 and work in an office.
10:12 AM - 10 Oct 13

Book review: For Richer, For Poorer

Rather confusingly, Victoria Coren's For Richer, For Pooerer is variously subtitled A Love Affair With Poker or Confessions of a Player - the kindle edition has one on the cover and the other on the contents page. Maybe it's some kind of bluff or distraction technique. Let's face it, I only read this because Coren's the host of Only Connect and is entertaining in that job, so hopefully would be in a memoir as well; it certainly wasn't through me having any great love or understanding of poker. And I can't say I understand it any better at the other end of the book, but as my other blog will attest, I do know something about getting addicted to a pastime that takes up all your evenings and cash, although theatre blogging is unlikely to turn around and net me half a million pounds one night like poker did for Coren.

So despite not being that interested in the subject I was still interested in Coren's exploration of it, and she makes it entertaining and (almost) comprehensible even for a non-gambler.

Dick Twittington 30: No effect on me

This week on my Twitter feed, booking theatre tickets gets tricky.

"Ohmygod a banjo!" says the girl sitting behind me. And it wasn't even @Weez #intervaltweets
9:08 PM - 3 Oct 13

Today's Evil Corporate lunch was venison medallions. THAT'S BAMBI BURGERS TO YOU! #Itoldyouitwasevil
2:54 PM - 4 Oct 13

This week since our manager quit has been our most efficient ever. Do try to look surprised.
5:49 PM - 4 Oct 13

Dick Twittington 29: Doing the accent

This week on my Twitter feed, it's all change at work, and a hasty escape from the theatre.

ZOMG two history bits this week! #GBBO
12:13 PM - 25 Sep 13

Wait, Damien Molony bakes cakes? Just when you think you couldn't be more attracted to someone.
6:30 PM - 25 Sep 13

I'm not sure how putting on a disguise made Kent's amputated legs grow back #intervaltweets
1 FAVORITE
8:36 PM - 25 Sep 13