review

  • I’m a misery when it comes to children’s literature, films, television (although my wonderful young whirlwind of a niece is changing that – Hey Duggie is my ride or die. I’m ageing myself but I’ve never read or watched a Harry Potter. I’ve not watched a Disney film that wasn’t made post 80s and I…

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  • There was a certain excitement stroke cockiness as I strode, yes strode into the Lowry last night. I’ve been to the Lowry before. I’ve seen Nigel Havers on stage before. I’ve seen Nigel Havers in a play at the Lowry before. I’ve seen a production of Private Lives in Manchester before. But never had all…

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  • I’ve been tussling with this. I’ve been going back and forth. The grown up writer in me (it’s there somewhere) tells me to not be so obvious, cliched and obvious again. The forever child in me behind the blog reminds me that I’m here to document my experiences, thoughts, feelings, passions, obsessions and delectations. Yes…

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  • I LOVE going somewhere new and nothing takes me more places than fringe theatre. Last Friday night it was the turn of Salford Arts Theatre and Two in a Bed Theatre Company’s Hold Me Close. The theatre company, isn’t new to me having seen their work before at The Kings Arms a couple of years…

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  • I like to think that I have a fairly good grip on the entertainment zeitgeist. ‘Think’ and ‘fairly’ being the key words. As although I am aware of the theatre production The Play That Goes Wrong, I wasn’t aware of the television show ‘The Goes Wrong Show’, until asked by a friend whether it translated…

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  • My Dad was a professional museum, which led to him being away on tour a fair bit when I was growing up. ‘Gigs and digs’ were oft heard words in our house. And it’s all very rock and roll and glamorous, isn’t it? Well like everything, dig (not always deep) below the surface and there…

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  • Only a few days earlier, I’d enjoyed the wonder that was the Damon Albarn gig, as part of the very special Manchester International Festival. Friday it was back to GMEX (am I being tedious refusing to get upto date with this? Such a mouthful) and the space had been transformed into a very different place.…

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  • I was going to use a terrible title for this blog post – Purezza: Vegan Sparkle – a very terrible play on words involving Meghan Markle. But given I’ve had to explain it and it’s beyond cheesy, I haven’t. Speaking of cheese, and I so often do, when invited to the soft launch of Purezza,…

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  • It’s been so long. So long since I’ve got lost trying to find which door I need to enter to take my seat even though I’ve been a hundred times before. So long since I’ve gone up and down rows trying to find my seat number even though I’ve been a hundred times before. So…

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  • Film Review: Tenet

    This was my first visit to the cinema in months and since lockdown. As it was a sole visit in a reviewing capacity, it mattered not that I was socially distanced. Other measures taken were a groovy one way system and hand sanitiser stations. Elbows flailing to their hearts content, I settled down (extra points…

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  • I last wrote about the wonderful Northern Chamber Orchestra when I visited the rather lovely Stoller Hall for the first time, back in May 2018 – https://honorarymancblog.com/2018/05/18/the-northern-chamber-orchestra-mozart-and-elgar-and-beethoven-oh-my/ Yes I was rather taken with the acoustics of the environment and hall, and I’m not going to pretend to go down the ‘but was it the location…

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  • I can remember the first time I heard those ticking clocks. It was a friend’s birthday party at her house and we all sat round as the video was put on. The excitement was real as those clocks ticked and the camera panned across the Doc’s home and workshop in a garage in the fictional…

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  • Review: Insane Animals

    It’s true to say that I didn’t always know what I was watching last night. But I know that I liked it. Like the camp space landing that it depicted (are there any other kind?), the show launched itself on stage through plumes of smoke and a cacophony of noise, and with the arrival of…

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  • I will be honest, and I don’t mean this to be offensive to any film that is based on a true story about real people, with real life events and feelings, but I generally, and admittedly cynically, run a mile from anything that has a whiff of ‘feel-good’. But I’ll happily (yes i can do…

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  • Ghost Stories finally hit The Lowry on Tuesday and oh how it did. To whet the appetite, a couple of weeks ago a group of us were treated to a Ghost Walk round the Quays by Manchester writer and historian, Jonathan Schofield, all in anticipation of the arrival of acclaimed stage show, Ghost Stories, written…

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  • The press release promised a run-down B&B which doubled as a swinger’s club, a gambling man, a fortune teller and an elderly deviant. My immediate thoughts turned to Benidorm. It’ll be leopard print, ‘bosoms’, nudge nudge wink winks, Carry On Abroad (at home), that glorious feature length film that took the cast of Are You…

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  • Charlie Chaplin. He was instrumental in my phonics education. He was. And clearly on my cultural radar, and thus important to me, at a very young age (thank you mum and dad). 5 years old and engaged in a word game with my parents. The rules being thus – say the initials of a famous…

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  • FilmFear at HOME Mcr, the reviews…

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  • Politics, eh? What larks. I heavily, heavily jest. But if like me, you’re fascinated by the goings on in that big White House across the pond, you can would have been equally fascinated by BBC North America Editor, Jon Sopel, as he talked about his new book A Year at the Circus. Given a foot…

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  • It probably won’t have escaped your notice that I wasn’t born and bred in Manchester (and surrounding areas). I mean, the clue’s in the name. Growing up on the Fylde Coast until moving to Manchester in 2000, I was excited to find my two worlds colliding in the form of a fabulous fish restaurant. Marple…

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