Friday 25 December 2020

TV

Blankety Blank
Christmas Special
I'm always up for a revival of Blankety Blank (the last one was on ITV in 2016), and this is no exception. It was pitched as a Christmas one-off, but I would imagine they'll be more if it was a hit.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
Mammy of the People [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
18x18 2020 Christmas Special
Unable to do their usual Christmas special, Strictly resorted to a viewer-voted countdown of the 25 best dances from the show's history — which, in many respects, made for a more entertaining special than usual.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wheel
1x05 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

And also...

La La Land (2016)
[final 20 minutes]
I'm counting this in the TV section rather than Film because we only caught the last 20 minutes on BBC Two before calling it a night for Christmas Day (so it's not a proper, i.e. full, rewatch). But I have to mention it anyway because, my God, what an ending! And what a remarkable, strangely fitting capstone to this most unusual Christmas.

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories
Part V: Christmas Adventures
edited by David Marcum
The Adventure of the Missing Irregular by Amy Thomas
The Adventure of the Knighted Watchmaker by Derrick Belanger

These were both pretty good, I thought. Glad to see the collection picking up.