Tag: not a book

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Not a Book: Only Murders in the Building

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Happy Sunday everyone, I’m back again with my latest binge watch, this time brought to you thanks to three months free Disney+ from my mobile phone provider!

So in case you’ve missed it, the set up here is that three strangers living in the same New York apartment building discover a shared interest in true crime after another resident of the building is found murdered. And as they investigate the murder together, the launch their own true crime podcast about it called… Only Murders in the Building. Oh and it’s a comedy. Steve Martin is Charles-Hayden Savage, star of a 90s crime drama but currently struggling for work, Martin’s long time friend and sometime collaborator Martin Short plays Oliver Putnam, a washed up theatre director and Selena Gomez is Mabel Mora, an artist living in her aunt’s unit in the Arconia.

At the end of each season, someone new gets murdered – and that case will be the subject of the next season – with Charles, Oliver and Mabel implicated in some sort of way in the crime. And I’m really trying not to say too much about the rest of the plot, because all the season build on each other and I don’t want to spoil anything. The episodes are all sitcom length (aka about 26-28 minutes, an American TV half hour) and it’s incredibly easy to binge. I think we did all of season one and two across about 4 (weekend) nights, and then waited a few weeks for all the season three episodes to be released before we binged that one – again across only a couple of nights. I know it sounds a bit weird to have a comedy series about murders, but it really works – and if you’ve listened to any true crime podcasts there are plenty of jokes here about them too – especially in season two.

Despite my caution above about spoilers, I’ve put the trailers for all three series in here (and I don’t think they’re going to ruin anything), because I think it’s fun to see how the show has developed – and how the guest stars have got bigger and bigger. At the start, aside from the main trio it’s faces you might recognise from TV but who have been bigger stars on stage (or at least they have if you know your Broadway) but by series three we have Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd (and not just as cameos) as well as Matthew Broderick (to complete original The Producers Broadway duo as Nathan Lane was in series one) and Jesse Williams – who did twelve years on Greys Anatomy and did a Tony nominated turn on Broadway in 2022 too, just to complete all the theatre links. And there are a lot of theatre links here. I started looking at how many people in the cast had won or been nominated for Tony Awards and it’s insane. Along with Short, Lane and Broderick who all have at least one, I counted at least 8 other Tony nominees or winners in the cast across the three seasons.

It’s been renewed for season four, but given that we’ve just had an actor and writers strike, who knows whether it will actually appear in autumn 2024 or whether we’ll have to wait a bit longer. It’s getting its US TV debut (on ABC) in the new years, so I guess it may come to UK TV at some point too – although it hasn’t so far. But if you happen to have a Disney+ subscription (or someone gives you one for Christmas) this is a really fun way to spend about 15 hours…

Have a great Sunday everyone.

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Not a Book: Duelling Docs about the Twin Flames Universe

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I was somewhat surprised that I had missed the furore about the Twin Flames Universe until a month or so ago when I started seeing articles about two documentaries coming along the track. And as you all know American Religion and Cults are one thing that will get me watching a documentary – or two – so of course I’ve watch the Amazon Prime and Netflix docs *and* I’ve listened to the Wondery Podcast series, and now I’m here to report back to you.

So lets start and in case you also haven’t encountered The Twin Flames Universe, the very basic summary is that it’s a cult run by a husband and wife, based on the idea that everyone has a “twin flame” soulmate and that they can find yours for you, if you just pay them enough money for classes and instruction…

Both the documentaries explain the early lives of Jeff and Shaleia and how they met and started making their own self help videos on YouTube and evolved into relationship coaches and then… well. It’s as lot and some of the allegations are pretty awful. And the two documentaries cover a lot of the same ground in many ways, but I would say that the Netflix doc is much, much bleaker. It gets to the grimmer end of the allegations much quicker than the Amazon one, which for two thirds of the time seems like it’s creepy rather than actively sinister. The Netflix one has more of a true crime feel from the start.

There is some crossover between the two documentaries – with some of the same former Twin Flames Universe members featuring in both, but there are different talking heads and experts. I’m glad I watched both because I think they both offer different things – the Amazon one is easier to see how people get hooked in to the content, the Netflix one goes deeper on the most serious allegations. And what makes these documentaries off from a lot of others is that the TFU operates by video conferencing and over Zoom – and they have recordings of Jeff and Shaleia’s sessions so you can see their coaching and what they’re doing rather than just being told about it over long shots of a house or blurry anonymised people recreating things. And it does make quite a difference.

Neither of them quite hit the bleakness of Keep Sweet – the documentary about Warren Jeffs and his Fundamentalist Mormon Church, but it’s still pretty grim. So maybe wait to watch until you’re in a good resilient frame of mind.

You obviously need a couple of subscriptions to be able to watch these – and for that I apologise, but they are worth a look the next time you have the appropriate subscription active.

Have a good week everyone.

theatre

Not A Book: Another Week in Theatre

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Ok, ok, this is starting to look a little like boasting, but these were the last things I had in the ticket box before Christmas so I’m going with it!

The first show of the week was Noises Off – again! Yes I only saw it at the start of the year, but it’s back in the West End for Christmas, with a slightly tweaked cast – with Tamzin Outhwaite, Matthew Horne and James Fleet joining Felicity Kendal, Alexander Hanson and the gang. This time I booked steaks tickets on the side that Lloyd-the-Director hangs out in during the first act, so that added a little some thing – and it’s still hilarious.

Tuesdaynight was a really last minute trip to see Private Lives – not the production that I saw at the Donmar Warehouse but one that had older leads with Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge as Elyot and Amanda before it closed this weekend. I still love the play – but this was the least favourite of the three productions of it that I’ve now seen ( and it should be noted that I loved the Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens so much I went twice) but it was interesting to see it done with a different age of cast.

And finally, no photo but on Thursday night we went to see some comedy – Dave Gorman at my local theatre’s and that was so, so, so funny. I nearly cried laughing at one point. If you’ve never seen Davec and his PowerPoints I thorough recommend him. I think this is the back end of this tour, but we’ve seen him before and he’s consistently very funny.

And that’s the lot, but it spreads feel like quite a lot – have a great Sunday everyone!

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: My Week in Theatre

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A bit of a change this week because I had two nights out at the theatre, both of which were great and both of which were sort of one off things. So I’m bundling them together today because I wanted to talk about them anyway!

So I started the week with a night out at the Jinkx and Dela Christmas show – I went last year and it was fab, and it was equally brilliant this year. BenDeLaCreme is my all time favourite from Drag Race and she and Jinkx Monsoon are a brilliant pair. This years show is a bit meta – they decide they don’t want to do a holiday show, but get trapped by the show and have to do it anyway to try and escape and it’s really a lot of fun. The UK dates are over now, but there’s nearly two dozen across the US before Christmas – and if they’re coming near to you it’s definitely worth the trip.

Tuesday night was Mandy Patinkin, doing a solo concert run in the West End for just under two weeks. I went because he’s a bit of a Broadway legend – Tony award for originating Che in Evita, original George from Sunday in the Park with George – and I like to see the big names from across the pond when they come over here if I possibly can, but I wasn’t expecting him to manage to make me cry – twice! It’s a really well put together show, with loads of songs, some you’ll have heard of, some you won’t (or at least I hadn’t) and it’s just him and his pianist and a chair (and a towel). That’s it. And yet his singing – even at seventy years old – can make you feel so much emotion. Really worth it, even though there is very little legroom in the side of the circle at the Lyric. So very little. I think it must have been where I saw Avenue Q with Him Indoors years ago where we were nearly late and the seats were so cramped that Him Indoors never managed to get into the spirit of the show. I won’t forget again…

I have two more trips planned this week – I’m making the most of the run in to Christmas while I can!

Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book

Remembrance Sunday

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I’m planning a quiet day this Sunday, but this year I’ve been thinking a lot about my great uncle Harold – because he’s popped up in a family history content. He signed up to fight in World War One when he was underage, and was wounded very early on – and left with a permanent leg injury. He worked at a model making company for his professional career, including making the model of the floating harbour at Arromanches that you can see in the museum there. How many other stories like that are there out there the people don’t know about?

tv

Not a Book: Home Renovation TV

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I’m slightly left field today, because this is part recommendation, part recommendation request! I really love home renovation and home improvement TV series. I think I always have – I watched Changing Rooms back in the day, and Justin and Colin’s Million Pound House Experiment or whatever it was called, and I’ve been watching Grand Designs for probably two decades at this point. But British home makeover programmes have limits – they’re called planning permission and brick houses. So the real joy for me these days are American home renovation shows.

I remember when I first watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition back in the day and being perplexed at how quickly a house could be built – because I hadn’t properly absorbed that many American homes aren’t made of brick or stone like the houses that I grew up in, but are wood framed construction with cladding. And of course this means that you can do a lot of changes very quickly – and that flipping homes can be a a much quicker and more viable business than it is here in the UK. When I was living in the US five years ago (!) I discovered Fixer-Upper and Flip or Flop and thus it really started – and these days on any given week I’ve probably got episodes of two or three different shows on the TiVo box that I can watch while I’m doing the ironing (if I’m not watching Miss Marple or Inspector Alleyn or Doris Day). At the moment it’s the final series of Good Bones, the latest series of Home Town and Christina on the Coast. But basically if people are buying houses and ripping them apart – either to renovate for clients or to sell on, I will watch it. I find them tremendously relaxing. Yes there’s loads of money involved, but they feel quite low stakes compared to some of other reality TV options that are out there and I like watching houses be transformed. Whether I’d live in a haven of white and grey is another matter, but that’s not the point really is it?

But obviously renovating houses – even in America – takes time. So there aren’t a lot of programmes in a season which means you need to have your eyes open for quite a few different shows. At this point, I’ve done all the obvious things – as well as the shows I’ve mentioned I’ve done Flipping 101, Property Brothers (although I find them a bit wearing after a while so small doses), Christina in the Country, Fixer to Fabulous, Rock the Block and Hollywood Houselift on the renovation front and then Selling Sunset (the early series when there were actually houses) and Luxe Listings Sydney on the buying and selling houses front.

So if anyone has any recommendations for more stuff that I can add to the list – let me know! Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Colleen Rooney – The Real Wagatha Story

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It feels like I’m doing a documentary recommendation every other week at the moment (ED: you are) and this one is another football-related one after Beckham the other weekend, but hey the Wagatha Christie scandal transcended football (and wasn’t really about football in the first place) so I’m going with it!

In case you missed the original scandal, back in 2019 Colleen Rooney (the wife of former England captain Wayne) posted to her Instagram that she had been investigating the leak of stories from her private Instagram account to The Sune and had come to the conclusion that the culprit was “………Rebekah Vardy’s account”. Rebakah Vardy, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie, sued Rooney for defamation and the whole thing culminated in a High Court trial in the summer of 2022 and the whole case has spawned a string of podcasts, documentaries, dramas and even a West End show. This latest documentary, from Disney + tells Colleen’s side of the story across three parts.

There are elements here that have parallels to the Beckham’s story – Wayne has also been the subject of tabloid exposes and Colleen has been the focus of tabloid attention since she was still at school. But aside from that, this is quite a different beast. Colleen talks the viewer through her life with Wayne, the stories that started appearing in the Sun, the sting that she set up to try and prove who the source of the stories was and then the aftermath of her post. WHile the court case is estimated to have cost around £3m, it’s not life or death stuff and that makes it really good escapist viewing. I’ve already listened to a podcast about the case (the BBC’s It’s… Wagatha Christie) and the Channel 4 drama – as well as following the court case as it went on and I still found a few bits here that I didn’t already know. But even though I did already know most of it, it’s well packaged and it’s the first time we’ve really heard directly from Colleen and Wayne as well as their lawyers. I’m not saying go out and get a Disney + subscription just for this, but if you already have one, it’s a worth looking this up – or adding it to your list for the next time you do have access to Disney +.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

theatre

Not a Book: Old Friends

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This was my Tuesday evening entertainment this week and of course I was going to write about it, given that I bought the tickets the day that they went on sale and have been looking forward to it for months.

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is the West End run of the tribute show that Cameron Mackintosh put on with some of the best known and most loved songs from his long producing relationship with the late musical genius. It’s on a limited run in the West End with headline stars Bernadette Peters (her first ever West End show!!) and Lea Salonga (Princess Jasmine herself) along with support from West End powerhouses like Janie Dee and Joanna Riding.

And I was in musical theatre heaven – I’ve seen Company, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George, Follies (three times!), Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along so there were a lot of songs that were familiar to me. I have the Sondheim 80th birthday prom on the Tivo and have watched it more times than I can count, and I’ve watched the various documentaries about his life that have popped up in the last few years. So it was wonderful to get what is essentially a greatest hits concert – and to try and guess who was going to sing what – the programme has a song list but not who is doing which bits. And there are plenty of options for each one – as more than one of the cast have played each role. I was mostly right, but there are a few gender-swapped suprises. And it definitely brought home for me how wonderfully Sondheim wrote songs for older women. It’s not just Send in the Clowns, it’s Losing My Mind, and Everything’s Coming Up Roses, I’m Still Here, The Boy from and Ladies Who Lunch AND MORE. Just wonderful. I’ve been humming the songs for days.

How it will work for you if you don’t know your Sondheim, I’m not sure, so I had a bit of a hunt around to find the trailer for it with the most singing in it (see above!) but I think there are enough songs here that you would know – there’s West Side Story here too and A Little Night Music that you would probably enjoy it – and at least come away wanting to see the full version of some of the shows. I loved it so much I would go back again. And who knows, I might well go back and see it again.

It would be remiss of me to end this post without mentioning the amazingly talented Haydn Gwynne, who died this week and who should have been in this show. She had to withdraw days before previews started for “sudden personal reasons” – which sadly turned out to be a cancer diagnosis. And now, just weeks later she’s gone. I saw her in Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown and The Audience – and I know she would have been fabulous in this – because she was in the original tribute show last year. So leave you with part of her performance of Ladies Who Lunch from that show, which if you’re in the UK you can find on iPlayer to watch again – which we did on Friday night.

See you tomorrow everyone.

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Beckham

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This week in Not a Book it’s (yet) another Netflix documentary. I’m sorry. I do try to mix it up a bit, but they’ve had a really good run and it’s what I’ve been watching this week. DOn’t worry though, I have other plans for next week and maybe the week after. I hope.

Anyway this latest pick is a four-part look at the life and career of David Beckham. It’s a decade or so since he retired now, but at his peak he was one of the best footballers in the world, as well as being one of the first footballers to become a truly global brand. He also married Posh Spice aka Victoria Adams at the height of both his and her fame. I mean if you haven’t heard of Posh and Becks, I don’t nkow where you’ve been for the last twenty five years, although these days it’s understandable if you know her mostly for her fashion line and him for… well being him.

It’s actually been really interesting in the office the last week or so trying to explain to people how big the Beckhams were at their peak. Really difficult. I’m old enough that I was there the first time – the World Cup 98 sending off, the purple suits and thrones at the wedding, the whole Rebecca Loos situation, everything. I don’t know that there is a modern day analogy really. Anything they did was front page news. Things they didn’t do were news. Victoria’s look was copied everywhere, David’s hair likewise – especially the bleached mohawk for the 2002 World Cup (How is that 21 years ago!). I think you get a bit of a sense of that from the documentary, but it’s really hard to convey. In a pre-smartphone world, they had cameras watching their every move, and the hunger for gossip or news about them was unquenchable.

Anyway, this has got all the access you could want (unless you want them to talk about the affair rumours) and has a sense of humour about it all. David is seen pottering around his outdoor kitchen cooking a single mushroom. Victoria is pretty frank about football (she doesn’t like football, but she likes watching David play football) and David’s teammates are also pretty frank about him. It’s hilarious in places – in the trailer you can see the bit where David says he doesn’t change, immediately followed by Fergie saying that he changed, and it’s not the only time it pulls that sort of trick. Roy Keane’s talking heads are consistently brilliant, as is Gary Neville on clubbing. Each episode is more than an hour long and they go by fast. It’s at its best when dealing with the early days and the Manchester United peak (partly because of those great talking heads from the teammates) but some of the Madrid and LA era stuff is good too. It’s not the whole story, but it is enough of the story that you come away feeling happy and as you’ve had a laugh you don’t mind.

Have a great Sunday.

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Not a Book: Wham!

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A music documentary this week and I’m a bit behind because this came out early in July. But a good music documentary is always worth catching up on. And this is a good one.

This is the story of wham, as told by archive footage and interviews. I’m still sad that George Michael is dead, but there is plenty of archive material of him talking about the band, but there’s also loads of Andrew Ridgeley who comes out of this as just such a lovely guy. He and George were friends from the moment they met at school and he just seems to have been happy for his friend’s success and never jealous that George went on to solo stardom. It has great music, great stories and great archive – including scrapbooks of press cuttings collated at the time.

It’s only 90 minutes but it’s a really entertaining hour and a half, even though the story isn’t always sunshine and roses. But it will remind you how insanely talented George was and what a shame he’s not still around to make music. I defy you to come away without a Wham song stuck in your head. I was humming I’m Your Man for days!

Like so many of these things, it’s on Netflix and made for Netflix, so it won’t turn up anywhere else. Which means if you’re someone who cycles through which streaming services you’re paying at any given time, add it to your list for next time you have Netflix!

Have a great Sunday.