Book Review-Elisabeth Sladen’s autobiography

I can’t be critical about this book. Lis was a lovely, affectionate person who touched the heart of everyone she met and, everyone she didn’t. I remember hearing that she was going to be in the series 2 episode, school reunion. Despite never having seen an episode with Sarah Jane in, I knew who she was. Sarah Jane is the definitive companion.

Sadly, Elisabeth died in April 2011. Even now, a few months away from the anniversary, it still feels fresh and somehow unreal. It isn’t just the older viewer who has lost someone; it’s also the millions of younger viewers that knew her from The Sarah Jane Adventures.



The role of Sarah-Jane Smith is arguably her most famous. The book charts her early life in Liverpool, as well as her career on the stage, her break into TV and radio, her marriage and motherhood, and her return to the Doctor Who family, in 2006. Every tale is recounted in glorious detail. It’s easy to see how children have always been spellbound by Lis.

She is also warm and praising about her Doctor’s, although Tom Baker comes across slightly better than Jon Pertwee. She then praises her later Doctor’s, David Tennant and Matt Smith, as well as the young cast of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
This is a brilliant book, with a lovely message from her daughter and a foreword by David Tennant.
Russell T Davis summed it up best when he said, “The universe was lucky to have Sarah Jane Smith; the world was lucky to have Lis.”

Elisabeth Sladen: the autobiography, is published by Aurum Press and costs £18.99

Listen to our review of the final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures

Film Review-Puss In Boots

A Puss in Boots spin-off has been in development since he made his first appearance in Shrek 2 way back in 2004. Now that DreamWorks have milked the Shrek franchise for all its worth, it is finally time for the cat to have his day.

This is essentially an origin story. It’s set way before Puss met Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. Since Puss is the main character, he needs wacky, funny characters around him. The love interest is a feline named Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) is Puss’ best friend from childhood. Puss and Humpty Dumpty were once as close as brothers until Puss became famous. Humpty soon became jealous of Puss and betrayed him by tricking him into a bank robbery. Years later, Humpty tracks him down seeking forgiveness, as well as help with a new scheme. The scheme involves stealing some magic beans from an out-law couple, Jack and Jill. The magic beans will send them up the famous beanstalk to the golden-egg laying goose.



The first half of the movie is better than the second half. I think this is due to it being such a busy story, the ending is little anti-climatic, but strangely unlike most children’s CGI movies, it isn’t bogged down by the over-preachy moral of the tale. The performances are all solid, but special mention must go to Antonio Banderas, he manages a performance that is consistently amusing as well as moving. The moment he sees his heartbroken mother staring at him is gut-wrenching. Visually the film is a treat. The 3D works well but adds little to the overall experience. The film would still be funny, enjoyable and moving in 2D. Puss in Boots is not a great film, but it is an extremely good film.

Puss In Boots opens in the UK on December 9th 2011.

Episode 50: Doctor Who-Colony in Space

Which, after nearly two years, your heroes reach episode 50!

After a report on the Torchwood: Miracle Day signing attended by Martyn and Paul from The Pharos Project, we take a look at the Doctor Who episode ‘Colony in space’.  In this episode, we delve into the classic Doctor Who adventure “Colony in Space,” which originally aired in 1971. Starring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as his companion Jo Grant, “Colony in Space” takes the TARDIS crew to a distant planet where human colonists are struggling to survive against a ruthless mining corporation and the native alien inhabitants.

We explore the conflict between the human colonists and the mining corporation, and how it reflects real-world issues of corporate greed and exploitation. We also examine the portrayal of the alien race, and how it challenges traditional science fiction stereotypes. We discuss the performances of Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning, and how they embody the Doctor and his companion in this adventure.

The podcast is available from all good podcast services, such as but not limited to Amazon Music, Podchaser, Player FM, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

Check out our Youtube.

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Life’s Too Short: Episode 3

Warwick launches a new website in an effort to get himself more work, but it only ends up getting 12 hits and some nasty online comments. His clients at Dwarves For Hire believe that Warwick always takes the best roles for himself and he attempts to appease them by creating showreels re-enacting famous film scenes. I feel that this episode is where Life’s Too Short finally found its feet. This is what I’ve been waiting for, some quality time with Warwick. The celebrity cameo is in the last few minutes and the episode works so much better because of it. Helena Bonham-Carter doesn’t overshadow the episode, in the way the Neeson and Depp did. 

We were left with Warwick and Cheryl and this is when the show is at it’s strongest. For series 2 I’d rather they toned down the celebrity cameos, maybe go an episode or two without them.

The critic’s main problem with Life’s Too Short, is that it features an adult male dwarf playing an adult male dwarf, as opposed to a leprechaun or a goblin. It’s worth a pretty penny nowadays when dwarves want to play something other than an Oompa Loompa. This is almost the same problem Jon Watkins had with The Fosters, back in 1976. I thought we had moved on.

Life’s Too Short airs on Thursday’s at 9:30 pm, on BBC2



DVD REVIEW-Cars 2

I didn’t care much for the first Disney Cars film when it came out in 2006, however, since then I’ve had a son. He adores Cars and has just about every piece of merchandise with Lightning McQueen on it. He has watched the DVD so many times that the disc now sticks and requires replacing. Over the multiple viewings, it’s grown on me and I’ve even learnt to love Mater.

We went to see Cars 2 in 3D full of enthusiasm and excited to see the latest instalment. It was a letdown, my son got bored and wanted to run around and I wanted to go back and see the far superior Rio.

The story this time involves Mater being mistaken for a super-intelligent spy. Visually it is up to the high quality you’d expect from Pixar, but plot and story-wise it’s extremely poor. It’s a parody on a Bond film that we’ve seen done a thousand times. To me this movie was Pixar apologising to Disney for making Up, a film they couldn’t sell toys about. The best thing on this disc is the Toy Story short that is on the extra features.

A third instalment is inevitable, due to it being a huge cash-cow. Let’s just hope they actually have a story instead of a toy commercial.

DVD extras:

  • Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation
  • Air Mater

Cars 2 is available on DVD and Blu Ray



DVD REVIEW-An Idiot Abroad 2:The Bucket List

I have been a fan of Karl Pilkington for a long time and used to tune into Ricky Gervais’ Saturday Xfm radio show religiously to hear Karl’s ramblings. I have been a fan of the podcasts since they started them and I have read Karl’s books. Yes, he is a published author and I have enjoyed spotting Karl’s cameos in all of Gervais’ and Merchant’s work. Safe to say, I was always going to watch An Idiot Abroad.

Now, if you did not like An Idiot Abroad first time round, this series will do little to win you over. Karl had such a rough experience filming the first series that he vowed he wouldn’t make a second. However, An Idiot Abroad was the most-watched programme in the history of Sky 1, so a second series was always going to happen.



This time around Karl got to pick things he wanted to do from the bucket list. A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die. Swim with dolphins, drive along Route 66, etc. Ricky and Steve still pull out all the stops to make Karl’s experience as hellish as possible, from sending him to a hug-party, to getting him dressed up by Thai ladyboys and the result is hilarious. Karl is constantly out of his comfort zone and being pushed beyond his limits.

In typical Gervais/Merchant style there won’t be a third series of An Idiot Abroad, but there are plans for a 2012 Christmas special called An Idiot Abroad: The Short Way Round, where Pilkington travels the world on a bicycle with Warwick Davis sat in a basket on the front. Forget the Olympics, this will be the event of 2012.

An Idiot Abroad is available on DVD and Blu Ray



Review-Life’s Too Short: Episode 2

For some reason, critics haven’t been that keen on this new venture from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. I think that’s due to this being Gervais’ year, every year the media seem to pick a celebrity they’ve always liked, then tarnish them. Quite why this is happening is still a mystery to me and that’s probably why I’ll never be taken seriously as a critic.

This series is really starting to take shape, Warwick again puts in an amazing comic performance, everyone involved is perfectly suited for comedy.

My personal highlight happened when Warwick and his assistant, Cheryl (Rosamund Hanson) are discussing ways to expand and bring in new business, she suggests he should dress up as a little girl and wait in the woods, as paedophile bait. In fact, the best parts of this episode were the parts that just featured Warwick and Cheryl. The convention scene was genuinely funny. You felt sympathy for the young boy with the brain tumour, but also for Warwick as everyone in the line then used the tumour excuse to avoid paying the £25 for his autograph.



The only criticism I have about Life’s Too Short is the celebrity cameos, with Warwick and Cheryl I don’t think you need them. It’s almost as if they’re making extras, without making extras. The post-credit scene made me realise, how much I miss extras.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Johnny Depp’s part in this episode, the confrontation between him and Gervais felt authentic, but if you had taken Depp out, it wouldn’t have affected the episode.
Another time you feel for Warwick is when he turns up at the couples, Star Wars-themed wedding and they expect him to be dressed as Wickett the Ewok. This reflects a real-life experience Warwick had when he was asked to open a garden centre at Christmas and told by the owner “bring your elf costume”. The speech Warwick gave at the wedding was the brilliant cringe-worthy comedy that Gervais writes so well.
Overall I’m enjoying this series and I look forward to episode 3

Life’s Too Short airs on Thursdays, at 9:30 pm on BBC2



Review-Mongrels Series 2: Episode 3

This was my favourite of the series yet. This episode is so crammed with little gems that it’s difficult to know where to begin.
Nelson is involved in a protest against the build, of a new supermarket. He foolishly leads his fellow protestors to their deaths, but in the process, he meets an older Vixen called Eileen.



Nelson and Eileen soon fall in love, but unknown to Nelson, Eileen is Vince’s mum. Nelson seeks Vince’s blessing and asks Eileen to marry him, but the surprise proposal causes her to have a fatal heart attack. Not wanting Vince to find out that, that’s how his mother died, Nelson asks Tim to take the body back to the nursing home. Along the way, Tim loses Eileen and she is sold to Zoe Ball, as a scarf.


Like last week, it was great to see a softer side to Vince. It’s a shame Eileen wasn’t kept around for a few more episodes. The father/son dynamic between Nelson and Vince would have been interesting to explore, but I’m starting to see that nothing lasts forever in the Mongrels universe.

Elsewhere, Kali has lost her spot on the fence to an African pigeon. Which leads to this week’s musical number, Immigration Nation. Which fitted the episode well. Kali tries all kinds of tactics to get rid of him and then joins a flock. Which after seeing human street-gangs, she believes will help her out. When this doesn’t work out, she tricks the immigrant pigeon into calling Eileen a slag, which prompts Vince to kill him, thus solving her problem. This was a funny subplot, which showed just how manipulative Kali could be when she isn’t getting her own way.

The other sub-plot involves Destiny and Marion, Destiny is angry with Gary after he takes her to the vets, so she pretends to run away, Gary finds him and takes him in. Which leads to bitter sibling rivalry between Destiny and Marion. It was great to see Destiny and Marion fight it out, like well, cat and dog.

Mongrels has hit the ground running this year, a third series is surely a must. This is fast becoming the television highlight of my week, its the only instance I’ve ever wished a British series was 22 episodes.
It won’t be long before we hear the word “American” quickly followed by the word “Remake”.

Mongrels airs on Mondays, 10:30 pm on BBC3



Mongrels: Series 2-Episode 2

The main movie parody here is Shaun Of The Dead. Destiny is in heat and it has turned every local dog into a sex-crazed zombie. Nelson, Destiny, Marion, and Vince lock themselves inside the pub.

I didn’t really like the main plot involving Nelson and Destiny, that could be because I haven’t seen the first series. I didn’t quite believe that a fox-like Nelson would fall for a dog like Destiny. It felt forced as if it were crafted just to suit the plot of this episode.

Nelson is trying to date Destiny, Destiny is hungry and knows that Nelson has access to food. There is an amusing moment which was a parallel to prostitution and what she would do for a dog biscuit.



It was the subplots that I found most interesting. It is Kali’s birthday so she celebrates by eating a badger on the road. A rickshaw driver runs it over and she wants revenge. She decides that the best way to do this is to blow him up. She then realises that the rickshaw driver had a seven-year-old son and feeling guilty she hits the bottle. Well, a brandy filled straw.

She decides to attend his funeral, so guilt-ridden she sits on his coffin and confesses. However, the rickshaw driver was a bird lover. The widow and her son think that Kali is the reincarnation of the driver and are overjoyed to see her. Kali’s mood is then lifted and she flies away, hitting the son in the face.

It was great to see an aloof character like Kali realise the consequence of her actions. The writers managed to capture her depression extremely well, I genuinely felt sympathy the murdering bird.

Back in the pub Marion has discovered a karaoke machine and attempts to throw a party which doesn’t go to plan. Vince hogs the karaoke machine after he discovers it helps with his Tourette Syndrome. Seeing a character like Vince belt out show tunes was funny. It was nice to see a softer side of him, even if it was just temporary.

The pop culture references are great in this episode, as well as the obvious Shaun Of The Dead, there is a nice moment where Marion reveals he lived in a house with the Being Human characters. This included a cameo from Russell Tovey, which now means he has starred in all three of the only three shows worth watching on BBC3. Whilst not as laugh out loud as episode one, episode two raised more than a few smiles. I hope Mongrels clears up come comedy award season.

Mongrels airs on Mondays at 10:30 pm, on BBC3