TV

Crooked House
Part 3 The Knocker [final episode]
Short series of three horror tales set in the same house, by League of Gentlemen co-founder/member and Doctor Who & Lucifer Box writer Mark Gatiss, also showing as a portmanteau horror movie on December 27th.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who [new]
4x14 The Next Doctor [Christmas special]
Possibly a bit low-key for the Christmas Day episode, with a disappointing underuse of the Cybermen. Not sure about that finale either. Planet of the Dead is a good title for the next ep though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
5x08 The Party's Over

Strictly Come Dancing
2008 Christmas Special

Wallace and Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death
[#88a in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
Hurrah! Absolutely brilliant, though it was so packed with things you can't help wishing it were longer. Another Oscar nomination? It would be deserved.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mamma Mia! (2008)
[2nd watch]

Articles

Disney: No, No Narnia
(from Studio Briefing)
"Disney announced that it will not exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [the third in the series] with Walden Media. The film was reportedly already in preproduction with a May 2010 release planned... Walden said that it would seek another production partner."

Poem of the Day: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Merry Christmas!

Yes, it may be Christmas Day, but it's also a week day, so business continues as usual here on Poem of the Day... but with a festive spin.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

"Longfellow wrote Christmas Bells on Christmas Day 1864 in the midst of the American Civil War and the news of his son having suffered wounds as a soldier in battle. He had suffered the great loss of his wife two years prior to an accident with fire." Oh dear! (Source: Wikipedia)

Tomorrow, a Boxing Day poem.

Merry Christmas

to all readers of My Cultural Experience

Hope you have a good one.

(The site will be updated as usual today.)