2025

Let's focus on the positives, at least for now. After being landlocked for the whole of 2024, we made it abroad twice this year: first for a lovely week in Tenerife as winter turned to Spring, then to Czechia at the start of June for the Rock For People festival (preceded by an evening in Prague). Now, for the last couple years I've been telling anyone who'll listen that these days even an all-dayer is a bit much for me, so I admit I was apprehensive about committing to a five-day festival, but RFP was incredible. Smaller, cheaper and I think even friendlier than equivalent UK festivals, Anna and I had a blast; thanks to Nick for the opportunity, Nathan for looking after us so well and all the new friends we met, particularly Finn and Verka.

As with every year, there were lots of friends I didn't get to see, for which I can only apologise. However, along with more local chums, it was great to catch up, for various different reasons, with Jimmy, Adam, Gav, Lucy and her family, Pidge & Caro, Matt, Phil & Cali and Simon, Harvey and (another) Gav. The Jesus Lizard show in January was a hugely social event, with half of my Brighton friendgroup there plus out-of-towners like Dingo, Will, Stu and more. And then in August, the Instigators show at the Underworld was a gathering of the punks where, along with Jimmy (again) and Will from Angel Witch I saw James Sherry, Rich & Geraldine and PJ, Tony and Gaz Suspect, Pete Zonked... the latter gave me a shout about contributing to a piece on the event for the legendary zine Suspect Device, another definite highlight of the year.

After a solid couple years off, I'm in a band again. No singer yet, no name, no lyrics, but it's great playing with Piers (who I met in his last band Newts) and Kev (of Reynolds a long time ago and 1,000,000 Holy Mothers right now). We've got eight or nine songs written, a mixture of riffy rockers and moody slowcore pieces. If you fancy a go singing, or talking, or generally vocalising over that sort of thing, then give us a shout! 

Of course, 2025 came with its fair share of challenges and less happy situations. After a year of on-off health problems, we had to say goodbye to our cat Lachie a couple of weeks before Christmas. To be fair, at the end of January we were maybe 24 hours away from having him put down, so to get nearly the whole year with him was a bonus. Ultimately, though, our comeback king finally got to the point where he wasn't able to rally one last time, and we had to let him go.

I tend only to limit making public pronouncements on current affairs and issues to times I feel I have something original/witty/pertinent to say. Certainly, many of my peers probably view overly political chat as gauche or naive, though on the other hand I have at least a couple of toes in a punk scene never afraid to be direct on such matters. But given the state of both country and world at the close of 2025, I just wanted to make clear my position on a few things, and if it gets me banned from the USA then hey-ho.

Fuck fascism. Trans rights are human rights. Solidarity with the people of Palestine, as well as Ukraine, Sudan, the DRC and anywhere else that innocents are facing the horrors of war. Immigrants are not your enemy; the far right are not your friend. Protect the NHS. Only stupid bastards vote Reform UK. 

This year-end blog is for any of my friends who've lost a loved one this year, and is dedicated to David Fleet.

ALBUMS 

20. False Reality - FADED INTENTIONS 

https://falserealityhc.bandcamp.com/album/faded-intentions 

19. EYES – Spinner

https://eyeshxc.bandcamp.com/album/spinner 

18. mclusky – The World Is Still Here And So Are We

 https://mcluskymclusky.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-is-still-here-and-so-are-we

17. Inhuman Nature – Greater Than Death

https://inhumannature.bandcamp.com/album/greater-than-death 

16. Melvins – Thunderball

https://melvinsofficial.bandcamp.com/album/thunderball 

15. Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2pdpSTwN4 

14. Gumm - Beneath The Wheel 

https://convulserecords.bandcamp.com/album/beneath-the-wheel 

13. Blood Vulture – Die Close

https://twominutestolatenight.bandcamp.com/album/die-close 

12. The Murder Capital - Blindness 

https://themurdercapital.bandcamp.com/album/blindness

11. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious

https://pigspigspigspigspigspigspigs.bandcamp.com/album/death-hilarious 

10. Sumac/Moor Mother - The Film 

https://sumac.bandcamp.com/album/the-film 

9. Jessica Moss - Unfolding 

https://jessicamoss.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding 

8. BIG SPECIAL - NATIONAL AVERAGE 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRGiYchaSNMlLc9toNbB37WDSN-NiQ38 

7. Smote - Songs From The Free House 

https://smote.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-free-house 

6. Lower Slaughter - Deep Living 

https://lowerslaughter.bandcamp.com/album/deep-living 

5. Castle Rat – The Bestiary

https://castlerat.bandcamp.com/album/the-bestiary 

4. Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound

https://agriculturemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-spiritual-sound 

3. Divide And Dissolve - Insatiable 

https://divideanddissolve.bandcamp.com/album/insatiable 

2. Human Leather - Here Comes The Mind, There Goes The Body 

https://humanleather.bandcamp.com/album/here-comes-the-mind-there-goes-the-body 

1. Maruja – Pain To Power

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9tY0BWXOZFtLDl1_lZBBtONSP2wkDA6y

 

 SONGS

10. Castle Rat - Wizard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWKmiTwjjHA 

9. The Murder Capital - Love Of Country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4p2htg8DOY 

8. Maruja - Trenches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UauJ5LMadk 

7. Melvins - Short Hair With A Wig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lViuUxpYMs4 

6. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Glib Tongued

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBuk1--RkE 

5. Princess Nokia - Blue Velvet

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfasDbP9j64

4. Agriculture - Bodhidharma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXB4kmwaCD0 

3. Wytch Hazel - I Lament

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtOl0gZBMHE 

2. Human Leather - They Enclosed The Common Land And Built A Fucking Lawn

 https://humanleather.bandcamp.com/track/they-enclosed-the-common-land-and-built-a-fucking-lawn

1. Militarie Gun - B A D I D E A 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLz4rnkCAM0 

GIGS

Another year where I missed a bunch of gigs, including some I'd bought tickets for, due to ill health, changed plans or just exhaustion. There was even one where I had to leave within seconds of the headliners coming onstage due to feeling sick - and I wasn't even drinking! Almost half of this list comes from the Rock For People fest in Czechia, where I watched over 40 bands (and reviewed most of them) - I've not included everyone I saw, just the most memorable or generally excellent, and the same goes for support bands etc at all the gigs referenced (though these are also often missing if I got there too late).

Bad Nerves @ Rock For People 

Battlesnake @ Rock For People 

Big Special @ Patterns 

Bootlicker/Draumar @ The Hope & Ruin 

Castle Rat @ Rock For People & The Concorde 

Chat Pile/HIRS Collective @ Chalk 

Coilguns @ Revenge 

Creeper @ Rock For People 

Deafheaven @ Rock For People 

Dvne @ Rock For People 

Echobelly @ Chalk 

Fontaines DC @ Rock For People 

grandson @ Rock For People 

House Of Protection @ Rock For People 

Human Leather @ The Charles Dickens 

IDLES @ Rock For People 

Instigators @ The Underworld 

The Jesus Lizard @ The Concorde

Kal Marks/Thank @ The Hope & Ruin

Kneecap @ Rock For People 

Lorna Shore @ Rock For People 

Lower Slaughter @ Chalk (twice)

Maruja @ Rock For People & Chalk 

Melvins/Red Kross @ Chalk 

Moloch/Harrowed @ The Green Door Store 

NewDad @ Chalk 

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs/Irked @ Chalk 

Pile @ Dust 

Pissed Jeans @ Chalk 

Poppy @ Rock For People

Samantics @ The Brunswick 

Sex Pistols @ Rock For People 

Slipknot @ Rock For People 

Speed @ Rock For People 

Spiritual Cramp @ Rock For People 

Sprints @ Chalk 

Stingray/Scab @ Daltons 

Teeth Of The Sea/Smote @ The ICA 

YARD @ Rock For People 

 

TV 2025

Prior to sitting down to put this together, I had it in my head that I hadn't watched as much telly as usual this year. Turns out that was absolute rubbish, even if some of the shows from earlier in 2025 feel like I watched them a couple of years ago. Maybe it's just because one of the things that stood out the most was a full rewatch of surrealist '00s hospital comedy Green Wing, or because at the time of writing we're trying to blaze through the early series of Slow Horses?

A clutch of well-regarded comedy dramas returned, led by the final series of BIG BOYS. Having an opener set in Faliraki risked bringing to mind a plethora of misjudged holiday episodes/film versions of many a beloved Britcom, but Danny's mental health struggles cast a cloud over the sunshine. This sad-sweet show continued to mine dual seams of comedy and tragedy, before a bold closer which found showrunner Jack Rooke rewriting his own history.

Also back this year was Bridget Christie's superlative THE CHANGE, balancing slippery rural traditions, familial revelations and a domestic revolution. Christie's Linda's pub chats with Paul Whitehouse's Tony were bite-size lessons in cutting through lazy reactionary thinking, but elsewhere there was plenty of room for the surreal and the hilarious. The episode that will stay with me, though, is the one where the Eel Sisters invite Linda to a Silent Supper to commemorate the spirits of women once maligned as witches - such beautiful scenes.

AM I BEING UNREASONABLE? just got weirder in its second series, at times bordering on an Inside No9-adjacent take on folk horror, what with witch trials and a badly-accented Dutch psychic (played by co-star/co-writer Daisy May Cooper's brother Charlie). With more revelations about Selin Hizli's stalkery Jen and possibly more than one murder by the end of the final episode, this was properly pitch-black but still frequently side-splitting - while a brief, partially obscured cameo suggested that this is all taking place in the same universe as the Coopers' beloved This Country.

The lady Cooper showed up as herself on the addictive LAST ONE LAUGHING UK. Earlier in the year, holed up in Tenerife, we'd messed with our host's streaming algorithms by viewing the preposterous but very fun first season of Reacher - and the Irish Last One Laughing. That was brilliant despite only really knowing two contestants (Aisling Bea and Jason Byrne, plus inevitable host Graham Norton), so the prospect of similar japes from a more familiar cast was more than exciting. For the uninitiated, the premise is that a bunch of comedians spend a day in a Big Brother-style house trying to make each other laugh. Those who crack up or even crack a smile are gradually eliminated, and each contestant (provided they last long enough) can also perform a comedy routine which is mandatory viewing for the rest. Too many highlights (and too many potential spoilers) to go into detail, but with the likes of Richard Ayoade, Bob Mortimer, Joe Wilkinson and Lou Sanders involved this was an absolute treat.

Of course, many of the folks just mentioned have been through the TASKMASTER ringer, and once again we had another couple of great series from Messrs Davies and Horne. The nineteenth instalment might even have been the best yet, with Jason Mantzoukas a gleefully destructive wild card and Matt Baynton an incredibly sweet man pushing himelf towards breakdown. Speaking of which, series 20 found Reece Shearsmith in danger of unravelling completely and Sanjeev Bhaskar not really giving a shit. Across both series it was often the people with whom I wasn't really familiar that impressed: Stevie Martin, Ania Magliano and Phil Ellis will all have made plenty of new friends this year.

Back to old friends, and Motherland spin-off AMANDALAND didn't entirely, er, land with me - the titular Amanda's travails navigating reduced circumstances brought fewer laughs, and the supporting cast didn't compensate for the lack of Anna Maxwell Martin, Paul Ready and Diane Morgan. That said, Philippa Dunne's Anne was very much the show's secret weapon, while the energy notably increased with the mid-season arrival of Peter Serafinowicz as South African suitor Johannes.

We caught up on both seasons of NOBODY WANTS THIS, the Netflix rom-com detailing the unlikely romance between sex podcaster Joanne (Kirsten Bell) and rabbi Noah (Adam Brody), At different times, and for different reasons, both characters can sometimes be insufferable, but this culture clash tale ultimately balanced wry cynicism and sweet nature with successful results - even if the show's best characters weren't the central characters but their respective siblings Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons). 

Staying on Netflix, FISK returned for a third (and maybe final?) series. This low-key tale of a small legal firm boasts a complement of great comedy characters, augmented here by a cameo from Taskmaster alumnus Sam Campbell. Similarly sweet-natured was the BBC's LEONARD & HUNGRY PAUL, and while I must admit I preferred the excellent novel by Ronan Hession, the quirky romance between Alex Lawther's Leonard and Shelley, played by Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (Derry Girls) shone through.

Those last two shows were from Australia and Ireland respectively, and not unusually there was much great TV set in NI/ROI or Australasia making its way to my eyeballs this year. From the former came Chris O'Dowd's SMALL TOWN, BIG STORY, where film producer Christina Hendricks finds herself returning to her small Irish hometown to film a big (though evidently terrible) Hollywood production - and, off the books, to get her former boyfriend, local GP Paddy Considine, to admit that they had an alien encounter as teenagers back at the turn of the millennium. While inferior to last year's similarly-vibed Bodkin, and perhaps providing a tipping point for the trope of comedy Irish bumpkins rubbing up against modern business, the show did just about wrangle its big ambitions into a small success.

On the more serious side of things, TRESPASSES was a literary adaptation carried out magnificently. Set in the '70s, this story of a love affair between a Catholic teacher (whose family pub serves a Protestant area) and an older Protestant lawyer (who defends IRA members) is devastating in print, and loses nothing in translation to the small screen. Gillian Anderson's involvement perhaps brings more attention to the role of Gina, but it's Lola Petticrew's performance as her daughter and female protagonist Cushla that is heartbreakingly powerful.

Looking down my list, I can't deny that BLUE LIGHTS was the best thing I watched this year. As hard-hitting as peak Line Of Duty but with more humour and heart, this Belfast-set police drama is so much more than mere procedural. The end of the fifth episode provided an almost unbearably tense cliffhanger through little more than words and worried glances, but was far from the only memorable moment; Aisling's unravelling after witnessing a man die, Grace's revelations about her past, Annie's mum's funeral and an old man singing a country song all made for scenes that will live long in the memory. Big names like Cathy Tyson and Michael Smiley joined the line-up, but it remains the core cast who light up this show. 

Linking Ireland and the Southern Hemisphere, THE GONE was one of two shows this year where we binged a prior instalment ready to enjoy Series 2. While made up of components familiar to post-Nordic Noir telly thrillers, this tale of an Irish detective sent to smalltown New Zealand to assist the search for a young (also Irish) couple was throughly enjoyable and cleverly-written. While the first series concluded with the central whodunnit resolved, it also left us with a central character in danger and the still-unsolved matter of potential serial killing in the area years before. Maori culture is successfully woven into both plot and community, while the wider cast's personal stories are allowed time to develop in the second series - and, wouldn't you know it, there's another cliffhanger!

As there is at the end of BLACK SNOW, another two-series binge, this time across the water in Australia. Travis Fimmel plays James Cormack, a cold case detective with a piercing stare, a wry sense of humour and a dark past which finds him self-harming with office stationery in alarming ways. Each series deals with an unsolved murder, with the narrative split between the present-day investigation and the slowly-unfolding story of what happened in the past - while Cormack also attempts to reckon with his own violent family history. On the sad, soulful side of modern TV thrillers, this show seems genuinely concerned with remembering the dead.

I haven't checked this, but Liane Moriarty is surely the most successful Australian author of these times. Big Little Lies was the big TV adaptation that took her stratospheric, but her work is so evidently filmable that I watched three more this year. Nine Perfect Strangers is of course a few years old by this point so out of the remit of this piece; like it (and Big Little Lies), APPLES NEVER FALL relocated the action to an American locale. So it was nice to find THE LAST ANNIVERSARY sticking to its Australian roots, and with a fine cast including Teresa Palmer and Danielle Macdonald (as well as the rather less Aussie Miranda Richardson).

There will be some more globe-trotting thrillers coming along shortly, but first let's head to Scotland. SHETLAND continued to be the most consistent series of its type, with investigations into a murder in a tiny coastal village inevitably spilling into historical tragedy, drug-running and  - less inevitably - revelations about the past of one of the team's best-loved members. Plenty of faces from past series cropped up in DEPT. Q, an often violent psychological drama with tremendous performances from Matthew Goode and Chloe Pirrie, as well as an unlikely action hero in Alexej Manvelov's polite (until he isn't) Syrian copper Akram. I wonder whether Chloe Pirrie is ever confused with KAREN PIRIE, the Val McDermid-created detective returning for a second eponymous series as engaging as the first. Mind you, while Lauren Lyle was an excellent lead in this, we couldn't get through even the first episode of her turn in The Ridge, all implausible behaviour and annoying zoom shots.

As you might anticipate from its title, NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE took us to a different part of the world. After a light aircraft crashes in Mexican jungle en route to the US, its survivors find themselves being picked off one by one. Given that we know from the scenes set nine days later that there are, yes, NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE, but there are, including the two swiftly-despatched crew members, ten souls involved in the crash (and ten passports recovered by the authorities) - well, it seems rather likely that one of our new chums is the killer, no? 9BIAMM was a fantastically watchable whodunnit with a decent cast including David Ajala, Lydia Wilson, Eric McCormack out of Will & Grace and Siobhan McSweeney (Derry Girls) as, improbably, a gun-toting MAGA type, with Anthony Horowitz on writing duties - and as with his Magpie Murders strand, this was a worthy modern successor to the great Christie stories.

Harry and Jack Williams have a similarly strong reputation as writers and producers, and people who enjoyed The Tourist will have been cock-a-hoop for the similarly-toned THE ASSASSIN this year. Starring Keeley Hawes (three words that pretty much guarantee a certain quality there), the show's premise is a belated visit from her estranged son (Freddie Highmore) to the Greek island where she has holed up in retirement from her previous gig as a hitwoman. Before you have time to wonder whether that life is really done with her, most of the island's population has been wiped out at an alfresco wedding ceremony and the mother-son duo are on the run along with the local butcher (not a euphemism - literally the guy who supplied the island with meat). There's plenty of comedy to be found in the central pair's odd couple relationship - her steely and no-nonsense, him wry and shambling - along with various mysteries, some related to the family of son Edward's fiancee (played by The Tourist's Shalom Brune-Franklin), sun-kissed locations including Athens, France and Lybia, and supporting roles/extended cameos from the likes of Jack Davenport, Richard Dormer and Alan 'Jim from Neighbours' Dale. Fans of sweary, stylish violence are very much encouraged in this direction.

Rather less knockabout but possessed of a similarly strong female lead, THE VEIL found Elisabeth Moss as a secret agent tasked with ascertaining whether or not the woman she's rescued from a refugee camp is actually a senior member of ISIS involved in planning a significant terrorist attack. As such, while there are other characters, the meat of this series was a sequence of two-handers between Moss and Yumna Marwan, their characters trying to build trust while pursuing their own agendas and travelling across Europe.

Finally on to a few returning favourites. Ncuti Gatwa's second and final series of DOCTOR WHO was typically uneven and arguably wasted Varada Sethu as new companion Belinda, but still had some fine episodes. Set in a Lagos barbershop, The Story & The Engine was the most authentically Afrocentric Who story ever, its claustrophobic setting giving off Sapphire & Steel vibes married to the imagination of someone like Marlon James, while The Well was a tense horror guest starring Rose Ayling-Ellis (also decent in this year's REUNION, a revenge thriller that possibly could have been called Deaf Man's Shoes) and unexpectedly calling back to a one-off from the original Tennant era. This era's overarching story arc, centred around Anita Dobson's mysterious Mrs Flood, stepped up with the return of Ruby in the largely Doctorless Lucky Day, before reaching its conclusion in the intriguing Wish World and the disappointing The Reality War. No spoilers here, but the excellent Archie Panjabi was somewhat wasted, Belinda's fate felt wrong and the regeneration - well, let's just wait and see what that was all about. No idea when Who will return, but before year's end we did get spin-off THE WAR BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE SEA (amusingly referred to once by Anna as From The River To The Sea, which would have been a rather bolder move for the Whoniverse).This was a more grown-up affair than usual Who, but with a very different remit to something like Torchwood. Essentially an eco-thriller and spy story with a romantic leaning and philosophical musings threaded throughout, this was bold storyetelling if, ironically, at times a little dry. But Russell Tovey nailed it as everyman lead Barclay, while the imagery was often impressive - and the murky moralities of humankind explored with a tad more depth than is often possible in single-episode Who stories.

 Er, Who knows how long we'll be waiting to see The Doctor again now the deal with Disney has run its course - but it probably won't be as long as the twelve years between series of EDUCATING YORKSHIRE. With English teacher Mr Burton now headmaster, this return to Thornhill was funny, moving, eye-opening and refreshingly non-judgemental in its portrayals of the challenges of teenhood. Several of the staff seem like the types who would be absolutely iconic if they'd been your teacher, and nearly all of them seem excellent at their jobs; the kids remind you of the curious mixture of joy and angst of being in your early teens. A fan-servicing cameo from first series pupil Musharaf is the icing on the cake.

The child cast of STRANGER THINGS now look about as old as the now-28 Mushy, but given that the new and final season consists of the equivalent of several very expensive blockbuster movies filmed and broadcast back-to-back, it would take a hard heart to bemoan the opportunity to visit to Hawkins. At the time of writing, I've only seen the initial four-episode drop (others are now available, but like I said, I've been watching Slow Horses), but after a first episode where it seemed like everybody was just griping with each other, the old magic returned. As I write this, nobody knows whether they're gonna stick the landing - but at the risk of tempting fate, I have every faith in the Duffer Brothers...

... same time next year, yeah?