Brett-Butler

ITV seem to be striking gold with their 3-part true crime dramas spread out over three days. The Pembrokeshire Murders, Des, Quiz... It wouldn't surprise me if they have another two or three ready to go before the end of the year, and I'm sure they'll be just as popular.

This, but with sincerity.

2 million for 3pm on a weekday must be much better than average for that slot - I presume that cracking a million would normally be good for that timeslot? I wonder if it's the show itself that's picking up an audience, or whether it's just because there's more people at home than usual.

That's one of my favourite podcast episodes ever, with one of the greatest endings (which I won't give away). The same podcast had a later episode on a similar theme, where a man who recorded a Christmas song but never shared it discovered it being played on a supermarket radio station & tried to discover how it happened. My favourite music-based podcast is Mad Notions. It's hosted by two Northern Irish musicians (Mick McCullough, who records as Son of The Hound, & Nathan O'Regan), and each week they talk about a musical urban legend or stories, which have included topics like Princess Diana & Freddie Mercury dressing in drag to go to a gay bar, the story behind "Friday" by Rebecca Black, and the time a band pretending to be The Beatles were kidnapped in South America and forced to appear on TV. They've also had occasional episodes over lockdown where they've interviewed local musicians and people in the music industry, which offer an insight into how musicians beyond the Top 40 get by. I've suggested a few of the stories they've talked about, so occasionally I'm mentioned by name on the podcast, which is lovely for my ego.

If getting it at 3.30 in the morning speeds up the chances of me getting protection from this gosh-awful plague earlier, you better believe I’d take it! My brother is getting his vaccination this Thursday, so my immediate family will soon be well protected.

The Government's Coronavirus Dashboard seems to suggest that Scotland & Wales haven't vaccinated anyone for the past 2 days. I'm presuming that the database is just missing data, because if no-one from those two regions was being vaccinated for 48 hours it would be a massive news story. Nice to see Northern Ireland pulling above its weight on the vaccine rollout so far.

My mum got her 1st dose of the vaccine this evening, so delighted that the circles of vaccination are coming closer to myself.

317k people in the United Kingdom received their 1st dose yesterday. You really love to see it.

Over 200,000 people in the UK received their 1st vaccine dose yesterday, up from around 150k the day before. Good that the numbers are going up, but would need to get closer to 300k a day to get everyone high risk started by mid February.

@1348620218868920320 A good start, although not clear how many of those include 2nd doses, and the rollout needs sped up as soon as possible. A breakdown of which groups have received the vaccine would also be pretty handy too.

The Masked Singer is one of those shows that you really have to watch on linier TV, as once the identity of the singer is revealed, it becomes very hard to avoid any spoilers as to who their identity is, which is why it's those kinds of shows that do much better as they air rather than TV dramas for instance.

Ah don't worry, I'm sure you'll get back at it. My girlfriend started the Couch to 5k last week. For the first time she did it I did it with her, and although I'm well beyond needing it, I'm tempted to keep it going because I like listening to Jo Wiley, who's one of the voices on the app! I'm back at the running in the new year. I'm scheduled to do a half-marathon in March (which will likely be delayed again), and May (which should hopefully go ahead), so I'm starting light with a few 5k runs, and will ramp things up to about 10 miles as it goes into the warmer weather to get ready for the half-marathon. My 5k was well off my usual pace as I'd been quite inactive in December, so hopefully I'll be back at my usual pace in a few weeks.

Just found out that my 1st cousin once removed (my dad's cousin) has died of COVID. He was over 70, and caught it in the hospital after being admitted for a heart issue. I didn't really know him that well, but it's the closest family member to date that has died from it, and I pray to God it's the last.

It looks like my question as to why they can't get the vaccines out quicker might have been partially answered - it's partly due to a shortage of GLASS VIALS of all things. People have talked about the whole Blitz Spirit when the lockdowns started, yet it's beggars belief that we haven't put everything in to ensuring the vaccines are rolled out 24/7 as soon as we get them. We've only vaccinated 1 million to date, yet in England 2 million a week will need to be vaccinated in order to meet the target of getting all over 70s vaccinated by mid-February. There isn't the sense of urgency that I would expect in sorted out the one thing that's needed to get things back to near-normality.

Still could see it getting a few one-off specials, mind.

Nigel Farage has said that Tony Blair should be put in charge of the vaccine program. It looks like 2021 marks the return of the Banter Era.

I'd say the opposite - their numbers likely fell off a cliff because Brexit has now happened and their flagship policy - "no Brexit", ain't going to happen for a long time. They need to find a new flagship, headline grabbing policy that fully sets them apart from Labour/Tories a la tuition fees, anti-Iraq War, if they want any chance of a revival. Rejoining won't be it in my humble, yet sexy, opinion.

What??? Grandfather Clock should have gone.

Bush Baby's singing voice sounds suspiciously like David Walliams.

Thought Harlequin could be Shirley Bassey, although she might be too old. Also suggested that Blob could be Dave Benson-Phillips. The 4-eyes clue could refer to his puppet on Playdays, Chester.

Probably the most solid episode of Doctor Who of the shaky Jodie Whittaker era. Great to see John Barrowman back.

Highest number of cases in Northern Ireland today as well. The vaccine can't come soon enough.

Watched this over the Christmas holidays. It's based on a manga that got a brief anime series a few years back, so very much up my street. If you can get over the OTT violence its a great show, in the same ballpark as Hunger Games or Battle Royale, and some interesting ideas,

I believe the views Northern Irish side of the N&P politics mods should be taken into consideration, as any decision regarding the closing of the Brexit thread will be disproportionally felt by those of us from this side of the Irish sea.

The Brexit deal passed the Commons 521-73. That would suggest that quite a lot of Labourites joined with the Tories to vote for the bill - will be interesting to see the breakdown of the vote. Now that the Commons has restored the UK to its democratic sovereignty, time for the bill to pass to the unelected House of Lords.