Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 1

So, on Saturday the first episode of series 8 was shown, and we could finally make proper judgements on the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, after he took over from Matt Smith.

Was the episode good? That’s questionable. Is Capaldi a good Doctor? We can’t really say that yet, but of course he will be. It always takes a short while for the new doctor to grow on you. Will the series get better? Probably.

I understand that the new doctor has to be different but I feel as though it was badly directed and arranged, as the writer, Steven Moffat, seemed more intent on throwing in as many reference to other programmes, etc. than creating a good storyline. Also, at the beginning Capaldi was a bit difficult to hear as he kept mumbling, and it wasn’t very fast-paced at all so got a bit boring.

It had all been built up before it was shown, with the BBC showing pictures of scenery involving dinosaurs, when in actual fact the dinosaur was only a feature mainly at the beginning, not the main storyline. Instead it was a tool for the Doctor to try to show his humour by (sort of) flirting with it. It was only half way though when the storyline became decent and something was actually happening. I think that Jenna Coleman (Clara) will be a good companion for the new Doctor and it’s good that she’s stayed on as it’s nice to have some continuity. The brief appearance of the previous doctor Matt Smith also eased the transition between the two, which was a good addition to the episode.

When the storyline picked up it definitely picked up but I must admit that I was slightly underwhelmed with the episode overall.

The main problem with the episode was the lack of a strong plot and also some parts of the script where the aim was humour but it didn’t really seem to fit the character. Nevertheless, it’s good that Doctor Who is back, this time with a more serious doctor which should make the stories more interesting and different from before.

I’m sure Capaldi will be great as he’s a great actor, but I feel as though the script let it down a bit.

Sleeping With Sirens Concert, London

Being a fan of Sleeping With Sirens, I was pretty excited when I heard that they were going to perform at a small club in London, The Underworld, Camden. And it was on GCSE results day, so I chose to buy tickets so that I had something to look forward to and do after results, whether my results were good or bad. Luckily my results were good and I was pleased with them so was in a better mood.

It was a bit annoying, though, that results day was on the same day, as I had to go into school at 9 am but if I’d been at The Underworld before 8:30 am I might have been able to be in the music video they were shooting for a new song, ‘Kick Me.’ Oh well.

The support act wasn’t amazing really. I mean, I’m sure he’s good at what he’s doing but he was a DJ (DJ Scout, also a member of the band ‘Issues’). It’s kind of a weird act as the audience is quiet, not being able to jump or sing along much, as they wait for the main act to come on. I’d watched a video of DJ Scout before the event and he played basically the same things, whilst the crowd picked up and started joining in towards the end, when the Bring Me The Horizon song, ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ was played. But the track was mixed up a lot so as soon as the crowd started jumping it quietened down again and so everyone was still again.

After DJ Scout had finished his performance the crowd waited for Sleeping With Sirens to come on stage, and as soon as they did they started with ‘If You Can’t Hang,’ which they performed very well and the crowd jumped around and sang as loud as they could.

I must admit that I’d been a bit worried that Kellin Quinn (lead vocalist) wouldn’t be able to sing very well or get all of the notes as I’d been watching videos of fairly recent shows and he couldn’t always stay in tune properly, but I was really impressed with how the whole show went. Sleeping With Sirens seem to be good live performers.

The playlist was:
1. If You Can’t Hang
2. Congratulations
3. Here We Go
4. Low
5. A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son
6. Tally It Up, Settle The Score
7. With Ears To See and Eyes To Hear
8. Kick Me (live debut)
9. Do It Now, Remember It Later
10. If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn

It was surprising when the show ended after only 45 minutes as Kellin had said that he really meant it when he said it was the last song, though the audience waited for another 10 or so minutes, at the beginning chanting ‘One More Song,’ then seeming disappointed and leaving.

People hung around outside in the hope to meet them and gathered around the stage door, but were sent away by people working there who told them that they were coming out the front (which of course they weren’t) so we waited just around the corner. Then the members came out, but only Kellin came around to sign (which is kinda understandable as he’s the main guy but also weird as the others are hardly recognised).

BUT I GOT HIS AUTOGRAPH! I got it on a scrap of paper and also my hand. We weren’t allowed photos as there wasn’t enough time so I took a kinda awkward selfie nearby with him in the background. Aw, he held my hand and signed it 🙂 and my sister also got to hug him. Cute. He was incredibly nice and was talking to people and also stopped to cheer someone up and give encouraging words, which was so lovely.

It was a great night and although the show didn’t last as long as I’d wanted, meeting Kellin Quinn more than made up for this.

Dead Ringers recording

Recently I went to yet another radio recording, this time for Dead Ringers, the comedy impressions show starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey and Lewis MacLeod.

 The recording I went to was for Series 12, Episode 2. ‘Twas a pretty good recording for a radio show I’ve never listened to before and I liked it as I knew most of the people who the impressions were of (which is always good for an impressions show).

There were some brilliant sketches such as David Mitchell and Victoria Coren Mitchell being in Eastenders and Tony Blair on Money Box Live, as well as the random ones about made up programmes where titles were thought of before the content, including impressions of Barack Obama, Janet Street-Porter and Ian McKellen.

I believe that this episode has already been broadcast, but it was very funny and I’ve listened to a few more recently and really enjoy many of the impressions. I’d been to the recording of ‘Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself,’ the new BBC Radio 4 programme written by, of course, Lewis Macleod, and I must say that the recording of Dead Ringers seemed to be much better with funnier and more amusing jokes as well as more variety.

As per usual I waited afterwards and met some of the cast, Lewis Macleod who I’ve met before (in the image above) and also Jon Culshaw (below). They were both willing to stop and chat and take a picture with me. My friend was also a bit annoyingly enthusiastic about Lewis Macleod because he is the voice of Postman Pat, a show which my friend still seems to love and watch (despite being 16).

‘Twas a fun recording and it’s cool to have met Jon Culshaw as I’ve seen him on the TV a fair bit.

World Challenge, Iceland

This holiday I went on a World Challenge expedition after (trying to) raise around £1,300 to pay for the costs through helping out, volunteering to work, selling things at fairs, etc. Although I didn’t quite manage to meet the necessary amount I’m now paying it off from my parents as the idea is that you raise it all yourself!

My expedition was in Iceland, and World Challenge operates in many different countries all over the world. There are often community projects involved, such as helping to build facilities in local villages, etc. which sound pretty cool, but as our expedition was only for a short period of time – one week – we didn’t do a community project. Our expedition mainly consisted of trekking around Iceland and admiring the scenery, which was pretty cool and I’m glad to have been able to see Iceland as I’ve never been there before. It was really good fun, and I went with my school and got to talk and get to know some people I hadn’t really spoken to before.

We flew to Keflavik and then travelled to Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland). We stayed in this area for a while and then got a bus to Pingvellir and Þórsmörk and stayed around this area, looking at the Geysirs and magnificent Gullfoss waterfall. Then at the end we returned to Reykjavik and took a plane back from Keflavik.

There was a fair bit of travelling for a week but not as much walking as I’d expected as we often walked around roughly the same places and we went around the Golden Circle in a bus. Nevertheless, the sights were great though it was a bit frustrating having to walk at ‘alpine pace’ which literally meant that we had to walk so slowly that it was frustrating and made walking more difficult, in order to make sure all of the group could keep up and stayed together.

Also, there was a really cool looking area which we started walking down and then were told we had to come back as “looking at the path and looking at the group” it was not safe, basically meaning that our group wasn’t good enough to go down it. I mean, it was kinda understandable as I was leading and sorta expecting to fall down off the edge of the cliff-thing, but I also really wanted to go down it. Our school were split in two groups, and I was in group 2, but group 1 seemed to do much longer and more advanced walks which was a tad annoying.

We arranged our R&R, which was the extra activities we wanted to do as well as the trekking, so we chose to do whale watching, go to the Blue Lagoon and have a meal out.

I must admit that I didn’t enjoy the whale watching much as we gathered around on a boat in the hope to see a whale and only got a brief sighting, though I didn’t see any. I also sometimes get travel sick, and the sea was rough and the boat kept turning round in the hope to follow a whale so I felt really ill by the end of it. Despite this, it was still enjoyable as there were some good, funny people playing guitars and singing downstairs, which was entertaining and we got to wear interesting warm, orange suits!

The Blue lagoon was very nice, with lots to do including a sauna and face mud bit as well as being able to buy smoothies whilst you were in the water. The main off-putting part was the showering as you had to shower nude in cubicles that didn’t lock and the walls were translucent so I found the experience kinda awkward, but everything else was really fun, relaxing and enjoyable!

It was definitely an experience worth doing, and the week went surprisingly quickly. Now to raise the rest of the money to pay off my parents!

Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself

Well, fairly recently I went to a radio recording of Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself at the RADA Studios in London.

Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself is a new impression and sketch show starring Lewis Macleod, Kate O’Sullivan, Duncan Wisbey and Julian Dutton. I chose to go to it as I’ve seen Lewis Macleod in previous recordings such as Newsjack and found him funny so thought I’d see what his own show would be like.

As we sat down and waited for the recording to start we admired the lighting as we haven’t been to a recording at RADA for a while and hadn’t seen the fancy lighting!

We’d only got tickets to the first recording but they seemed to be somewhat under-booked so we were able to go to both.

The episodes included such sketches as Miranda Hart looking at endangered animals, Sean Bean not being able to stay alive for a whole film, Louis Walsh and Gary Barlow’s relationship and impressionists being asked to do impressions of other impressionists. I shan’t give away too much because I can’t really remember much of all of them and don’t want to give away too much or make it sound dull.

I thoroughly enjoyed some of the sketches although there were a few which I didn’t fully understand or didn’t know the people who the impressions were of, which made it slightly less enjoyable. Also, not all of the impressions were too strong (which is understandable as there are so many people for four people to do impressions of) but some of the impressions such as the voice of Gary Barlow wouldn’t have been recognisable out of context had they not been paired with Louis Walsh, etc.

The sketches weren’t all brilliant, but it was still a good recording and you can tell from the quick thinking and actors’ speech between sketches or at mistakes they made that they were all genuinely funny people.

There were also occasional songs or brief parts in which Duncan Wisbey played the keyboard, which was quite nice, as well as good songs to finish off each episode, one of them being about Barack Obama and the other about Mary Berry and Gregg Wallace, which were pretty humorous and a good end to the recordings.

Afterwards I got the cast to sign my ticket and had a brief chat with some of them. It was quite a shame that more people didn’t turn up as not all of the seats for the second recording were full!