Best of 2023

I got quite a lot of writing done this year -- by far the most since I moved the blog to an "ideally once a month" update schedule -- and some of it I'm really quite proud of.

Whilst 2021 and 2022's round-ups were mostly taken up with my quest regarding the 1991 Diamond Brothers TV series, that sort of hit a wall this year, because when I finally accomplished the goal of actually seeing it last year I was faced with an issue pertaining to the fact that episode 3 fell off-air halfway through its one and only UK broadcast: I still don't know who all of the actors in that episode are, and any further writing I want to do on the subject can't really proceed until I do. My offering from the 2022 round-up is still open: The full series is now on YouTube, and any thoughts you might have on the subject would be gratefully received. Someone must recognise those last few unidentified players...

One Foot in the Beezer

The legendary One Foot in the Grave Christmas special, One Foot in the Algarve, original TX 26/12/93: Margaret opens up the suitcase she believes to contain the bed linen they've brought from home, only to discover that, thanks to Victor failing to empty the case he brought down from the attic, it actually contains "ten years' worth of access statements and a hundred copies of the Beezer."

There are many reasons why David Renwick might have chosen that particular comic book. The Beezer is an inherently funnier name than the Beano or the Dandy, especially when said in a Scottish accent, and it isn't as comparatively obscure as, say, the Nutty. For the first twenty-five years of its run, the Beezer was printed in A3 size, making it twice as big as most of its stablemates, which might well come in handy when you're using it as a prop in a sitcom. Strips in the Beezer such as Colonel Blink, The Badd Lads and Pop, Dick and Harry, which leaned heavily on slapstick and a general ethos of things going wrong, make it a particularly appropriate one to appear in One Foot -- quite possibly it was a childhood favourite of Renwick's.

The topmost issue in the suitcase is a distinctive one: a special Christmas issue, quite probably chosen deliberately. That should make it easy enough to narrow things down to the exact issue the production used, you'd think.

31 on 4 2

"All the latest from Channel 4 News at 7 tonight, after Homer discovers an outlet for the sound of his own voice. Add Bart, and it's an algorithm for a viral sensation. Season 31 of The Simpsons starts now on Channel 4!"

-- Continuity announcement into "The Winter of Our Monetized Content"

* * *

The start of November seems to be the established time for Channel 4 to run their new-to-terrestrial season of The Simpsons, give or take a week, and Season 31 kicked off on Monday 6th November; avoiding all of that starting-on-Tuesday nonsense from last year, and also becoming the first season the station has debuted in Our Favourite Family's new timeslot of 6:30pm (and I have to say, I do find something preferable to the show leading into the news rather than Hollyoaks; between that and no longer clashing with House of Games, it just seems a nicer bit of scheduling, somehow). So, with the run having wrapped up earlier this week, just how much of it escaped C4's scissors, and how does that match up to my predictions from back in September?

Time and Relative Exhibition in Weston

There's a really quite wonderful exhibition of Doctor Who art currently on display in the Weston Museum, just a short train journey away from me, and if you can get down there before it closes I can't recommend it enough. Those of you who can't, however, will have to make do with my amateur photography.