Buffy The Vampire Slayer Part 6

 The seventh and final series of Buffy The Vampire Slayer at least ensured that things ended with a bang. Weaving together elements from previous series while expanding the mythos of the Buffyverse and introducing plenty of new characters, it certainly didn't lack ambition. But was it successful? Well...

 

Unusually, the first scene of the series eschewed any existing characters or settings in favour of heading to Istanbul to show a young woman fighting - and ultimately failing - to escape from mysterious hooded pursuers. It isn't initially clear what's going on, but does seed the idea of a global conspiracy (and one which is keen on murdering young, powerful women).

If this is new, the reintroduction of a rebuilt Sunnydale High, with Dawn a student and Buffy swiftly given a job as a counsellor (you'd think the local education system would be wary of hiring people who haven't been appropriately vetted, but just go with it), felt like a return to first principles. Or should that be, ahem, The First principles? Because it turns out that The First, essentially the embodiment of evil, which appeared (if that's the right word for an incorporeal entity) in Season 3 trying to get Angel to go all bitey again, is also back. 

It appears to Spike, who's gone insane and is living in the high school basement, as a succession of previous (now dead) villains: first Warren, inspiring groans from all right-thinking viewers, then cycling through Glory, Adam, The Mayor, Drusilla and The Master before finishing as Buffy (as she's also died once or twice, it can take her form). Apart from wondering whether it was really worth the feller who plays Adam's time getting back in that costume for such a fleeting appearance, this scene also posits a question: is this season's Big Bad going to have a consistent look?

Well, it's not a quandary we have to ponder for a while, as the next few episodes are done-in-ones with little direct relation the season's primary arc. Again, these feel like a callback to the show's beginnings, particularly with high school back as a setting. Episodes about a giant underground demon and a magic American football jacket are fun but throwaway; another, about a student who's predicted her own death, is schlocky but ultimately sad. More significant is the return of Willow in Same Time, Safe Place; her invisibility to her friends (and vice versa) is a clever way of dealing with the feelings of guilt and mistrust caused by her dark turn in Season 6. Meanwhile, Selfless fills in Anya's backstory while pondering where she fits in. 

 

It isn't, appropriately, until the seventh episode of the seventh series that the demonic plot is fully addressed again. Conversations With Dead People fits into the mini-genre of Buffy episodes that mess with the usual format, with each of its main participants experiencing entirely separate (but parallel) stories. Buffy encounters a vampire in the cemetery - a literally old school turn of events, as he turns out to be a former classmate. The other titular conversations, however, are with manifestations of The First: Joyce appears to Dawn to tell her not to trust Buffy, while Willow is visited by Cassie (the student who predicted her own death a few episodes earlier), but sees through the ruse when she tries to convince the witch to take her own life. 

 

Unexpectedly, we also catch up with Jonathan and Andrew, who've come out of hiding and returned to Sunnydale. Andrew believes he's having visions of the ghost of Warren (that prick again), leading him to murder Jonathan on some sort of magic portal which, once again, happens to be in the school's basement. This doesn't bode well, does it?

From this point, the last fifteen episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer focus on the machinations of The First: Spike and Andrew are manipulated; Giles is shown about to be killed by an axe-swinging acolyte; the Watchers' Council building is blown up. Giles (OR IS IT?) turns up at the Summers House with three young ladies; it turns out that across the world there are a number of Potential Slayers ready to take the mantle should the Slayer die, and these are being hunted by The First's followers. Said dastardly henchmen kidnap Spike and use his blood to open that magic portal from the last paragraph, unleashing an absolute bastard of a primeval vampire called the Turok-Han. This creature nearly kills Buffy, who then uses a successful rematch to try and encourage the growing ranks of Potentials who keep showing up.

 

After this, there's a run of episodes which kinda drag. Aside from Kennedy (love interest for Willow), Amanda (local depressed girl) and Chao-Ahn (whose lack of English was used for arguably racist comedy, er, potential), the array of Potentials are too numerous to be given any distinguishing characteristics. Spike's struggle with his vampiric tendencies goes on so long it just gets boring. Fucking Warren Myers shows up again when a spell is cast on Willow making her transform into him - listen, maybe actor Adam Busch is a stand-up guy who was fun to have around, but the continuing presence of this mysoginistic murderer is an unwanted stench on the season.

 

Spoilers ahead! There are points of interest around whether Giles might have been killed in London and now be a manifestation of The First (he wasn't and isn't, but this uncertainty creates some welcome dramatic tension), and whether new Sunnydale High Principal Wood might be a baddie (he suspiciously buried Jonathan's body in secret, but it turns out he's a demon hunter and son of a previous Slayer). Andrew, an irritating character whose sub-Big Bang Theory schtick is nowhere near as funny as the writers seem to think, is a drag on proceedings and effectively gets his own episode when he tries to make a documentary about events; admittedly, its downbeat ending somewhat redeems him.

 

The thrust of the storyline as it approaches the endgame is, basically, everything gets worse for our heroes. From the viewers' point of view, the return of Faith for the last five episodes is definitely welcome. And after almost a whole series where the Big Bad has appeared in the form of others, we finally get a more solid figure to despise: Caleb, a vicious one-time priest given super-strength by The First. This guy's hatred of women eclipses anything we've seen before; it's frankly horrible. In his first episode, he beats everybody up, kills two Potentials and blinds Xander in one eye with his thumb. Jeez.

 

Everyone bar Spike rejects Buffy's leadership in what feels like an uncharacteristic turn; sure, Wood and the Potentials have only known her for five minutes, but after everything they've been through, the idea that Willow, Dawn or Xander wouldn't stand by her just seems wrong. Spike's defence of Buffy, and his successful attempt to repair her shredded confidence, could be seen as a redemptive moment for him after he attempted to rape her in the previous season. This does, of course, raise the entirely valid question of whether such actions can be redeemed - though this is a line of enquiry with which the show doesn't seek to engage.

 

So anyway, Buffy gets her hands on a mystical scythe, pulling it from a stone in an Excaliburesque move, and re-establishes herself as top dog by stepping in to save the day when a Faith-led mission goes to hell (not literal hell). Angel turns up to give Buffy a magical amulet; Buffy scythes a powered-up Caleb in two. Plans are made for the final battle with the horde of Turok-Han just waiting to emerge from the Hellmouth and bring the apocalypse. Look, there they are. 

Everyone heads for Sunnydale High (in a school bus, no less). There's a nice scene when newer or more minor characters go to take up their positions, leaving an original line-up of Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles to share one last quiet, quippy moment before everything kicks off. Then Buffy, Faith, Spike and the Potentials head to the basement to kick arse, while Willow does some magicky stuff with the scythe which will grant full Slayer powers to Potentials worldwide. The unpowered cast members take up positions in the school, soon overrun by acolytes of The First and the odd Turok-Han. Various people are injured, including Principal Wood and Buffy herself; others are killed, including Amanda and Anya, the latter in a rather offhand way - such a significant character surely merited a grander farewell, but there isn't time in the melee.

Remember that amulet? Buffy gave it to Spike, and its deus ex machina role is revealed when it bursts into light and blasts a hole, refracting the ensuing sunlight into rays that dust the Turok-Han. Everybody gets out of there double quick except Buffy and Spike, who share a moment before the latter turns to dust himself.

There's time for one last moment of drama as Buffy manages to jump onto the top of the school bus, departing with the survivors as the whole of Sunnydale falls into the crater caused by the amulet's power. Previous episodes had shown the town's population fleeing on account of the apocalyptic vibes, and despite the characters' losses - their homes, the bodies and graves of deceased loved ones - I can't deny that there's something brilliant in this scorched earth approach to the finale. As the survivors get off the bus and survey the desolation, the past is clearly over. The future is unwritten, as implied in Dawn's unanswered question, and the final line of the whole show: "What are we going to do now?"

 

Of course, Angel's own series was still running, and Spike would be resurrected there in pretty short order. Incredibly, five more seasons of Buffy would be released in comic book form, running all the way up to 2018. I've only read synopses, and despite growing up with DC, Marvel, 2000AD etc, I'm not really interested in these. My understanding is that the events of Seasons 8-12 were written as canon; presumably, the now-cancelled return of Buffy The Vampire Slayer to TV might have had something to say about that.

I tried rewatching Angel, but just did not vibe with the first episode. Yer man was never my favourite Buffy character, and with no Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, etc involved (but for fleeting cameos on the odd crossover episode), the idea of wading through another five seasons of supernatural shenanigans held little appeal.

It's now over five years since I rewatched the whole of BTVS, back in the days of lockdown. In that time, the allegations against Joss Whedon gave me pause as to the wisdom of continuing with these chapters; however, even if the showrunner might have been a bully with (ironically) misogynistic tendencies, the show he created remains a beacon of inspirational feminist action, and the heart of it lies in the fantastic cast and their performances. 

It says much about how slow I can be in writing these things that we're now in 2026, but it would have been nice to finish in the year which we might have got Buffy back on the telly. Instead, and with much sadness, this is being published after a couple of years when Michelle Trachtenberg, Nicholas Brendon and Anthony Head have all passed away. RIP to them all.

As time passes, maybe leaving BTVS at that original seven-year run is not the worst thing, and hey - we can always just start from the beginning and watch Buffy and chums save the world. A lot. Again.

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? 

 

2024

 It feels like this has been a rough year for a lot of people. That's obviously true in a global sense, but I'm thinking closer to home, where too many friends and loved ones have had to cope with brutal situations over the last twelve months. In the scheme of things, I've had precious little to complain about, though I will say that there was a large chunk of 2024 where it felt like all our time, energy and, frankly, money was being diverted away from anything you might describe as fun. On the positive side, we got away for a long weekend in Bristol and a few nights in a shepherd's hut on the Welsh border, plus daytrips to Whitstable and London, the Hampton Court Flower Show and a boat ride out to the wind farm off our patch of Sussex coast. I had an 80 minute chat with Paul out of Blood Incantation, and caught up with old friends at various times. And if I needed a boost towards the end of the year, I certainly got it from my birthday celebrations, seeing my Aunt and cousins for lunch before being staggered by a brilliant turn-out of chums old and new for drinks. Endless gratitude to everyone who could make it, and to Anna for making me celebrate the occasion in the first place. 

This column is dedicated to John Hunt, Chris Wild and Rob Brown, and to their loved ones.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 

As is so often the case, when everything else is going to shit, music has been a constant balm this year. In fact, it's been a ridiculously stacked year for excellent albums, with so many bands who've placed highly in previous year-end reviews returning that this has been one of the hardest ever to compile. It was a particularly strong year for noise rock and adjacent territories, meaning that this list is even more than usually dominated by bands of white blokes making a racket on guitar. I didn't listen to much (new) hip hop in 2024, and somehow not many electronic long-players really grabbed my attention. It was another great year for jazz, but in all honesty I didn't listen to any of those key albums enough for inclusion here; similarly, folk was twisted and revisited by an exciting bunch of sonic explorers - but only one such record made it into this Top 20, which I could easily have made a Top 25, or longer still...

20. Big Brave – A Chaos Of Flowers 

 

19. Uniform – American Standard

18. Shellac – To All Trains

 

17. St Vincent – All Born Screaming 

 

16. Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath 

 

 

15. Pallbearer – Mind Burns Alive

 

 

 

14. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja

 

 

 

13. Sect – Plagues Upon Plagues

 

 

 

12. High On Fire – Cometh The Storm

 

 

 

11. The Jesus Lizard – Rack

 

 

 

10. USA Nails – Feel Worse

 

 

 

9. Kurokuma – Of Amber And Sand

 

 

 

8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead

 

 

 

7. Thou – Umbilical

 

 

 

6. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere

 

 

 

5. Stick In The Wheel – A Thousand Pokes

 

 

4. Pascagoula – For Self Defence 

 

 

3. Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced

 

 

 

2. Bad Breeding – Contempt

 

https://badbreeding.bandcamp.com/track/devotion 

 

1. Chat Pile – Cool World

 

 

 

 

SONGS OF THE YEAR

 

 10. LCD Soundsystem – xray eyes

 

 

9. Bad Breeding – Liberty

 

 

 

8. Slift – Weavers' Weft

 

 

 

7. Nadine Shah – Greatest Dancer

 

 

 

6. Stick In The Wheel – A Thousand Pokes

 

 

 

5. Pissed Jeans – Anti-Sapio

 

https://pissedjeans.bandcamp.com/track/anti-sapio 

 

4. Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment

 

 

 

3. St Vincent – Big Time Nothing

 

 

 

2. Little Simz – Mood Swings

 

 

 

1. Chat Pile – Masc

 

 

 

GIGS OF THE YEAR

Amigo The Devil @ The Concorde 2 

Author & Punisher/KEN Mode @ Dust

Bad Breeding/Pascagoula/Traidora/The Swamp @ The Green Door Store

Big Brave @ The Green Door Store

Bohemian Death March @ The Pipeline

Drunk Mums/Rough Gutts @ The Albert

Gel @ The Green Door Store

Shawn James @ The Thekla, Bristol

Jess & The Mess @ The Brunswick 

Joeyfat/All Structures Align/Van Coeur @ The Komedia

Lazarus Lake/Haest @ The Pipeline

Melt Banana/Lower Slaughter @ The Concorde 2

Meryl Streek/Austerity @ The Hope & Ruin 

Midway Still/Dealing With Damage @ The Albert

Mudhoney @ The Concorde 2

Oranssi Pazuzu @ The Concorde 2

The Orb/Ozric Tentacles @ Chalk

Sairie/Kemper Norton @ The Cellar Arts Club, Worthing

Samantics @ The Brunswick

Slift @ Chalk 

Soft Play @ The Dome

Stick In The Wheel @ The Con Club, Lewes

The Unit AMA/Van Coeur/The Bloody Bones @ The Hope & Ruin

Zeke/Rash Decision/Moody Goods @ Volks

TV24

 It's got to the point, what with the nature of streaming services, foreign shows coming to UK TV later than their original screening, and my frequent tardiness at getting round to watching things, that any discussion of my year's viewing will inevitably end up covering stuff of an older vintage. With that in mind, two of the first things I watched in 2024 were shows I came to late, having previously written them off.

 

With Channel 4's BIG BOYS, that was a result of the promotion around 2022's Series 1 making it look a little, well, Inbetweenersy. In fact, while certainly involving the sort of humour almost inextricable from a show about students, this was actually a really sweet programme that covered sexual identity, grief and mental health in a sensitive and rewarding way. Based on creator Jack Rooke's own life, it tells the story of a shy 19 year old, coming to terms with the death of his father, his as-yet-unexpressed gayness and the shock of leaving a sheltered home for uni. I haven't researched how much of the story has been exaggerated for comic effect, but Jack finds himself living not in halls, but - due to an administrative error - in what is essentially a shed, along with the geezerish Danny. The latter is portrayed with a welcome disruption of cliche: sure, he's a lad from Kent with a can in hand and an eye for the ladies, but he's also immediately unfazed by his new roomie's sexuality and swiftly becomes (other than Jack's mum, played by the brilliant Camille Coduri) his biggest supporter. Anyway, Danny has his own issues, with his beloved grandmother (Sheila Reid) ailing, his dickhead dad (Marc Warren, appearing in this year's second series) estranged, and his mental health decidedly shaky. Jon Pointing's performance as Danny is brilliant, and the loving way he's written made me fear that the whole show could be some sort of posthumous tribute to the real person (though ultimately I've seen no evidence of this). Meanwhile, Dylan Llewellyn, best known for playing feckless youths in Derry Girls and Beyond Paradise, proves himself capable both of leading a show and portraying a more three-dimensional character. Excellent support comes from fellow students Izuka Hoyle and Olisa Odele, while scenes are stolen by Katy Wix's hapless student union officer Jules and Harriet Webb's turn as Jack's boisterous cousin Shannon. I devoured both series, and would greedily accept more - though Jack Rooke's cameo in the last episode made for a suitably lovely farewell.

 

In the case of OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH, I actually watched the first episode on its original UK broadcast and dismissed it, again due to the humour being a tad too broad. Happily, I was convinced to give it another go, and - waddayaknow? - discovered a real gem. Come for the jokes about a rubbish pirate crew, stay for a show that covers all manner of LGBTQ relationships with a deft and almost subtle skill. Turns out the notion of a chosen family fits pretty well with the wayward sailors of Stede Bonnet's ship The Revenge. It appears that plans for a third season have been snuffed out by HBO, but at least the second ended with a satisfying conclusion rather than a cliffhanger.

 

Of course, plenty of shows I did get on board with immediately also returned this year. Chief among them was BLUE LIGHTS, the near insanely blood-pumping story of coppers policing a volatile Belfast. Almost all of the cast returned, including Series 1's now more experienced rookies Grace (Siân Brooke), Tommy (Nathan Braniff) and Annie (Katherine Devlin); even the previously disgraced Jen (Hannah McClean) and Jonty (Jonathan Harden) were given redemptive storylines, the former now a lawyer investigating the security services' possible involvement in a historical act of terrorism. The principal antagonist this time was Lee Thompson (Seamus O'Hara), a charismatic Protestant and former soldier with a plan to rid his east Belfast manor of its duelling drug gangs. A man with noble aims but a ruthless streak, his relative calm made him a more sinister threat than Series 1's criminals, while the tension only ramped up as the principals found themselves in some pretty sticky situations - and if you've seen the first series, you know that nobody is safe. Throw in some dodgy characters amongst the police ranks, romantic subplots (including for the sweet-as-anything Tommy) and some humour to offset the griminess, and you've got one of the best shows currently running on telly.

 

Did somebody say something about dodgy police? In the also-returning THE RESPONDER, there's nothing but. Martin Freeman's compromised copper Chris Carson is almost immediately thrown back into the shit, set up by a higher-ranking (and even more compromised) colleague and soon embroiled in the dealings of dealer Franny (Adam Nagaitis, once again crackling with the menace he brought to his role in The Terror). Also variously fucked are Chris's onetime work partner Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo), trying to get over domestic abuse and having failed her sergeants' exam; hapless Marco (Josh Finan), trying to stay off drugs and bring up his baby daughter; and Casey (Emily Fairn), now working for the unknowing widow of the dealer whose death she unwittingly triggered in the first series. There is humour here, though of the blackest kind (shout out to the inimitable Kevin Eldon for a cameo as a dementia sufferer). Really, it's no wonder Chris is so desperate to get off the night shift - The Responder paints nocturnal Liverpool as an absolute hellscape.

 

Also back on the box was SHERWOOD, taking a handful of characters from the first series (including David Morrissey's (now ex-)DCS Ian St Clair and Lesley Manville's widow Julie Jackson) into a new story. Where its initial run explored the fallout from the miners' strike and its policing, this year's sequel saw events sparked by a troubled young dealer shooting a man who turns out to be the scion of a feared local crime family, its heads played by Stephen Dillane and a frankly terrifying Monica Dolan. Actions have consequences, which is why Ronan (Bill Jones), youngest son of Series 1's crime family the Sparrows, is secretly meeting the half-sister he only just found out about in the same place as the shooting. As both the Sparrows and the foster family of shooter Ryan Bottomley (Oliver Huntingdon) are dragged into the ensuing retribution, things in Notts start to look no less intense than in the last two paragraphs' Belfast and Liverpool. It would also be remiss not to mention the real life fallout from the show, where Talk TV dimbulb Kevin O'Sullivan tried to stir up controversy about the casting of Ria Zmitrowicz as a gay, female Sheriff of Nottingham, seemingly under the illusion that this was a retelling of the Robin Hood myth. Incidentally, the first female Sheriff of Nottingham - a ceremonial position in modern times which involves a startling lack of shouting at wealth-redistributing outlaws in the forest - was Mrs. C. M. Harper in, er, 1931. God, the 1930s were so woke.

 

SHETLAND is clearly successful, now onto its ninth series and aired in prime time on BBC1, yet it seemingly sits sufficiently to the side of the cultural conversation that I don't remember the manosphere or the more fragile newspapers getting het up when Douglas Henshall's Jimmy Perez was replaced by not one but two female leads last time. Still helming proceedings this time round, the now fully-promoted Tosh (series stalwart Alison O'Donnell) and the apparently permanently resident Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) have a typically knotty plot to unravel when one of the former's mates goes missing. Spycraft, a diysfunctional family of fishermen, a shady medical facility, a Scandi couple with a sick daughter to enhance the Nordic Noir vibes, a conspiracy theorist called Campervan Angus... no matter how overloaded the elements look written down, you can be assured that everything fits together in the end. Perez is still missed, and Sandy (Steven Robertson and his wonderful, authentic accent) is underused this time, but the developing professional relationship and friendship between Tosh and Calder is a joy. The in media res opening was also a bold flourish to kick off the story.

A sense of place is crucial in the last four shows discussed, and so it is with Netflix's BODKIN. A cynical journalist, American podcaster and naive assistant travel to an Irish coastal town to investigate the disappearances of three people during a Samhain festival a quarter century before. The set-up and character types could lead to something rather predictable, but a slew of great performances and a rich streak of humour mixed into the folk horror and cold case tropes made for an eccentric gem. David Wilmot (Ripper Street) is particularly good value as shifty local Seamus Gallagher, while Chris Walley's feckless driver and Romanian hip hop enthusiast Sean O'Shea provides comic relief - his presence here perhaps explaining why he was largely absent from this year's disappointing fourth series of The Young Offenders.

 

Siobhán Cullen's portrayal of troubled Guardian hack Dove led us back to last year's OBITUARY. No, it wasn't an account of the career of the Floridian death metal veterans. Another tale of smalltown Ireland, this one had Cullen playing Elvira Clancy, who finds herself as the local paper's resident writer of, well, obituaries. With not much work incoming, she decides to make matters into her own hands - and it says much about the respective characters that Elvira is somehow much more sympathetic a character than Dove...

 

So for all the unpleasantness TV drama shows us in the Belfasts and Liverpools of the world, small town life is scarcely any safer. And so it was in two series set in Northern towns. PASSENGER was a wild ride, heading somewhere between Happy Valley and Royston Vasey. The excellent Wunmi Mosaku plays a weary Mancunian police detective, dividing her time between caring for her challenging mother-in-law and getting frustrated over the boredom of local policing. Litle does she know that Chadder Vale is about to become embroiled in a plot involving something nasty being smuggled via the bread factory, teens disappearing then returning slightly altered, dismembered stags, a weird computer game, a local fracking site... If that sounds a bit much, plenty was left unresolved at the last episode's cliffhanger, with writer Andrew Buchan revealing that he has plans for multiple series - though as yet there is no news of a potential recomissioning.

 

More self-contained was THE JETTY, starring Jenna Coleman as, yep, a weary police detective. Unlike Passenger's Riya, DC Ember Manning is still policing in the town in which she grew up, had a daughter at 17 and was later widowed. Consequently, she is more embedded in a community variously dealing with arson, the attempted suicide of a(nother) pregnant teenager and a visiting podcaster digging into the disappearance of (yet) a(nother) teenage girl 17 years earlier. You will note that much of this reads like a checklist of modern tropes - this isn't even the first mention of a true crime podcaster in this round-up! - but The Jetty transcends cliche to provide a layered examination of male violence, sexual exploitation and the cost of people turning a blind eye.

 

In theory, Michael Sheen's THE WAY was going to be a hard-hitting drama about tensions between unionised steelworkers and their bosses in Port Talbot, but it turned out to be a much stranger beast. Not so much in the basic storyline - a protest tuns violent, martial law is imposed in classic dystopian style, the central (dysfunctional) family goes on the run - but in the way it's presented, and the details inbetween the primary plot beats. The involvement of Best Living Documentary Maker Adam Curtis manifests in jerky editing involving CCTV footage, news clips both real and imaginary, and the potent imagery of the internet, including sections which the viewer knows to be either manipulated or taken out of context. These co-exist with weird fantasias to make everything, including the more kitchen sink/social realist heft of the main sequences, feel dreamlike, an effect amplified by the presence of a wild-eyed soothsayer, a red-clad monk, an Arthurian sword and Michael Sheen as a ghost. Arguably this show toppled under its own weight after the first episode as hostility towards the whole of Wales resulted in heavy-handed allusions to the refugee crisis and the presence of a bounty hunter called, preposterously, The Welshfinder. But it was quite unlike anything else on TV this year...

 

...although, weirdly, I found myself reminded of it while watching GENERATION Z. I didn't have a fight to the (un)death between Sue Johnston and Anita Dobson on my bingo card for the year, but that - amongst a lot, lot more - was what we got in Ben Wheatley's zombie satire. Like Passenger, it opened with something nasty escaping from a lorry on a country road, and like The Way it employed some speedy editing to show a town being shut down by the military. Shades there also of The Midwich Cuckoos I guess, although in this instance it was not sinister kiddywinks but the elderly who were the threat, turned hungry for flesh and restored to youthful stamina while retaining more sentience than yer average zombie. As in, say, Anna & The Apocalypse, it was a small band of local teens who ended up as heroes, and consequently the dullest viewer would have sussed that this was intended as a satire of the way that the Brexit-voting, GB News-watching section of the oldster populace seem to hold the youth in a sort of jealous contempt - even if that includes their literal grandchildren. (It's worth noting that one care home resident, Robert Lindsay's Morgan, who has retained the countercultural attitudes of his youth and is friends with teenager Finn, staves off the effects of a zombie bite - using science, no less). Of the younger actors, it's Viola Prettejohn and Lewis Gribben who make the largest impression; the former imbues Finn with sufficient spiky intelligence and cynicism to evade the misifit outsider cliches which could have attached to her character, while the latter understands both the vulnerability and comic timing required to make even a nascent incel like Steff sympathetic (incidentally, if anybody ever reboots Trainspotting, Gribben would be a shoo-in for a young Spud). Not sure whether it's relevant, but the younger characters all have gender-neutral first names - maybe another subliminal refenrece to different cross-generational attitudes/flashpoints? 

One more case of shit hitting the fan in a small town before we move on? HIGH COUNTRY was a drama involving missing persons in the Australian wilderness. In recent years, I've been impressed by Mystery Road, whose Aaron Pedersen shows up here, but it's a nice change to have an Aussie show set not in the outback, the big city or a sunny bay, but in a lush rural area. Anyway, Leah Purcell is excellent in the role of a senior police officer reassigned to perfectly-named small town Brokenridge, with a supporting cast including Ian McElhinney and, in a role that would have been perfect for our own Paul Ready, Henry Nixon. If High Country didn't do anything we haven't seen in plenty a Nordic Noir, it still proved a worthwile addition to the global stocks of mystery drama.

 

Staying Down Under, regular readers will probably be fed up of my annual advocating of BUMP as one of the finest shows of the decade. Heartwarming without being schmaltzy, with engaging characters who rarely appear anything less than three-dimensional, this comedy-drama (initially) about teens dealing with a surprise pregnancy hit its fourth season this year. With Oly and Santi now settled, much of the drama this time out came from the faltering relationship of the lead couple's best mates Reema and absolute sweetheart Vince, though as usual there was plenty of other stuff going on: Oly dealing with a nightmare boss, mum Angie throwing herself into eco-protest, Santi finding himself in the world of Furries through an art commission, bumbling dad Dom continiung to bumble... Apparently the next season will be the last, so maybe it's time to get stuck in if you haven't already?

 

I have to admit, I've only got round to the first couple episodes of the second series of Colin From Accounts, so while we're on a dramedy tip let's look instead at a couple from closer to home. BIG MOOD featured the formidable pairing of woman-of-the-moment Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West, but - while nowhere near as bad as last year's I Hate You, which it superficially resembled - somehow it didn't quite hit the mark for me. Coughlan's portrayal of the bipolar Maggie felt authentic, and West has probably never been better, but after Big Boys, the lurching between brash comedy and the more sensitive study of mental health disorders felt jarring. Mind you, it could be said that that was a perfect metaphor for the condition it sought to explore.

 

More successful, in my book if not in column inches, was WE MIGHT REGRET THIS, created by and starring Kyla Harris. I'll try and summarise the basic set-up: Harris stars as Freya, a tetraplegic Canadian artist who's moved to London to live with older boyfriend Abe (Darren Boyd); her best friend Jo (Elena Saurel) moves in as her carer, before surreptitiously beginning an affair with Abe's son Levi (Sex Education's Edward Bluemel, cornering the market for troubled but charismatic young men). The excellent Sally Phillips is also in it as Abe's wife Jane. If the laughter is often of the uncomfortable kind, this is one of those rare shows that makes you consider disability from different angles, including - most importantly - the perspective of the person in the wheelchair. 

 

It's only been adapted twice now, but somehow the 2009 David Nicholls novel ONE DAY feels like a sort of modern classic already. This year's Netflix version was an astoundingly faithful reading of the original, with whole scenes appearing pretty much word-for-word from the book. There's something almost magical about the story of the intertwined lives of Emma Morley (Ambika Mod, really coming into her own here after This Is Going To Hurt) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall), with the conceit of dropping into their lives on St Swithin's Day each year far better suited to a 14-episode series than the film version. From the boozy excitement of graduation night onwards, both novel and series do a wondrous job of capturing the experience of growing up through your 20s and 30s - and specifically, through the late 80s to the '00s, the TV series including a number of signifiers which will resonate with a significant cohort very much including myself (I hadn't really considered before how much nostalgia can be triggered by a Suede song on a soundtrack). The notion of a 'will they/won't they' romance may have been done many times before, but compared to the slowly evolving nature of Dex and Emma's friendship, most previous examples have basically jumped into bed straight away. As I say, this is a modern classic so it's easy to forget that some people watching this won't be prepared for one of the biggest gut-punches in the 21st Century popular novel - no spoilers here exactly, but let's just say one of the performers here needs to play someone who gets a happy ending someday.

 

Netflix were all up in the adaptation game this year, but we haven't finished Ripley or The Decameron, or even started 100 Years Of Solitude, so let's head even further back for our source material and embrace KAOS. This bold reimagining of Greek mythology (particularly the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and the Minotaur) was headlined byJeff Goldblum as a petulant, paranoid Zeus in tracksuit and dressing gown, but impressive performances abounded, including Nabhaan Rizwan (who we might have shared a lift with in a London tube station this summer) as Dionysus and Stephen Dillane as a wily, fourth wall-breaking Prometheus. While Mount Olympus was an oligarch's mansion, the humans of Kaos inhabited an alternative Crete, modern but with a vivid out-of-time quality reminiscent of Baz Luhrmann's 90s retelling of Romeo And Juliet. And then there was the Underworld, rendered in monochrome. This was big, bold storytelling, that didn't stint on the cruelty of gods - and also recognised that in these ancient tales, fluidity between both species and genders was not uncommon. God, the eighth century BC was so woke.

 

A very different literary adaptation came in the form of the BBC's MR LOVERMAN, based on the Bernardine Evaristo novel of the same name. Lennie James (aged up, as are other cast members, so as to be able to play younger versions in flashback) is Barry, a septuagenarian Antiguan who's lived in London for decades with wife Carmel (Sharon D. Clarke). Barry is a dapper rogue with a taste for boozy nights - and, so Carmel reckons, the ladies. In fact, he's lived his life in the closet while secretly maintaining a relationship with childhood friend Morris (Ariyon Bakare). All three of these actors are at the top of their game in a series which scrupulously shows things from all sides. If it's initially easy to be charmed by Barry, and to have sympathy for someone who's had to deny their sexuality for more than half a century, he's also shown to be selfish, and for the situation to be equally unfair on Carmel and Morris. Similarly, while Carmel first appears to be austere and overbearingly Christian, an episode soon comes along to focus on a younger version, torn between an unreliable husband and the possibility of a different, freer life. Throw in supporting turns from younger talent like Tamara Lawrance and Sharlene Whyte, and you have a series - like One Day, really - both vibrant and heartbreaking.

 

There's never a shortage of trad detective shows on British telly. The Death In Paradise behemoth continued to expand with a second spin-off show, the Aussie-set Return To Paradise. Grace continued to have engaging plots but a weirdly uncharismatic turn from John Simm in the title role; conversely, this year's Strike offered a ridiculously convoluted, unrealistic plot while remaining watchable thanks to the chemistry between leads Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger. Somewhat bizarrely, the most successful show of this kind, in terms of ratings and critical acclaim, turned out to be LUDWIG, starring David Mitchell as, well, as the exasperated, uncomfortable character he always plays. This time round he's an exasperated, uncomfortable puzzle-setter called John Taylor who - oh, Christ - ends up impersonating his missing twin, who happens to be a police detective, solving a series of  murders-of-the-week while trying to get to the bottom of what happened to his brother. The ongoing conspiracy storyline is just about enough to distract from the largely unengaging murder plots (which mostly have the feel of a less satisfying Death In Paradise, set in Cambridge rather than the Caribbean), while the regular cast is packed with familiar faces - Dorothy Atkinson, Ralph Ineson, Sophie Willan, Izuka Hoyle, Dipo Ola and Anna Maxwell Martin, the latter's presence as Taylor's sister-in-law singlehandedly elevating proceedings.

 

It seems likely that Ludwig will return, but will it become a stalwart of the schedules like the last three shows we're going to look at? You can take all yer other gameshows, even the ones featuring David Mitchell as an exasperated, uncomfortable contestant/presenter, and none of them can match the endless regenerations of TASKMASTER, which this year aired its 17th and 18th series, as well as a New Year's epiosde, the third Champion Of Champions contest, and a kids-based spin-off. You would think the formula would be stretched thin by now, but getting to see (mostly) British comedians and actors act the giddy goat and reveal something of their true selves in the process continues to be a delight. There wasn't much to choose between this year's two main servings, but Series 18 maybe clinched it thanks to the unlikely rapport between Rosie Jones and Jack Dee, and Emma Sidi's unfeigned Home Counties weirdness.

 

Speaking of regenerations, DOCTOR WHO returned with, well, depending on how you count it, Series 40, 14 or 1. Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor was bold, brash and full of energy and emotion; even forgetting the obvious reasons some viewers might be unhappy with his casting, I can see how his portrayal doesn't chime with everybody's idea(l) of the character, but I think he's brilliant. As has been the case for most of the show's long history, not every episode worked for me, and the famously anticlimactic reveal of the identity of Ruby's mother was such an unforced error that I'm still baffled. However, 73 Yards was amongst the best of Nu-Who's standalone oddities, Dot And Bubble transcended its Black Mirror-lite elevator pitch with its potentially audience-shaming twist and (up until that fumbled ending) the Legend Of Ruby Sunday/Empire Of Death two-parter was an epic finale that pulled at threads from the show's history with panache.

 

And so we reach the final curtain - as did INSIDE NO. 9, with (of course) its ninth series. Once again, some episodes worked better than others - of my favourites, Boo To A Goose worked a brilliant cast and a claustrophobic situation to great effect, and Mulberry Close managed to tell an involving story of suburban suspicion through the medium of a fixed doorball camera. A fitting end came with Plodding On, set at the wrap party for the series and bringing back many alumni of earlier episodes, including wonderfully self-satirising turns from Katherine Parkinson, Tim Key and Amanda Abbington. While obviously meta (including a subplot about the never-filmed On The Buses spoof episode misleadingly trailed for the previous series), this also served as a genuine celebration of one of the most impressive creative partnerships of their generation. Thanks for everything, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.