My Best TV of 2021

Unlike my films of 2021 post yesterday, there’s a bit more to this, even if looking back some of what I’ve enjoyed most this year are things that were made some time ago, so case in point:

Maigret (Michael Gambon) and Inspector Morse were both made back in the 1980’s and 1990’s but still stand up really well today, obviously the latter has had spin-offs (Lewis and Endeavour) and the former a more recent incarnation with Rowan Atkinson as the French detective, but we watched all of both of these series from start to finish when they were repeated this year and enjoyed them all.

More up-to-date but set back in 1970’s was Adam Dalgliesh based on the books by PD James, I liked that they kept the ’70’s setting (unlike the Martin Shaw adaptations) and a series that I hope we’ll see more of.

Shetland made a welcome return and ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I felt that this season wasn’t maybe as strong as previous ones but we still enjoyed it and I believe there’s another series to come so hopefully that will be resolved.

The excellent Ghosts was back for a third season and I believe that there’s a Christmas special to come. This season started to tell more about the ghost’s backstories and how they ended up as ghosts, I wanted a bit more about some of them, but maybe that will come.

And finally All Creatures Great and Small had a second season which continued the excellent retelling of the James Herriot books and is a worthy successor to the original BBC adaptations, and also has a Christmas special to come.

My Best Films of 2021

This is going to be a really short list for two reasons. Firstly Covid has meant that I haven’t been to a cinema in over two years and secondly I haven’t watched much that I’ve really enjoyed. There’s been more TV that I’ve watched which has been better. So a couple of honourable mentions:

Greyhound – made for Apple TV, with Tom Hanks as an escort destroyer Captain during the Atlantic convoys in the Second World War and adapted from C S Foresters book The Good Shepherd. Okay the book is better but they did a pretty good job of transferring it to the screen. It loses a bit by trying to hype up certain aspects and add things that never happened but it’s a pretty good film.

The Guilty – This is the original Swedish version and not the more recent Jake Gyllenhaal one (which I’m told isn’t as good. The films premise revolves around a single emergency service operator and there are no other major actors seen, most of the other characters are voices on the other end of the phone. Brilliantly suspenseful.

And that’s it, it seems everything else has been eminently forgettable. I would have liked to have watched Black Widow and No Time to Die, but haven’t yet, but I’m hoping I get a chance over Christmas / New Year.

My Best Books of 2021

At the time of writing GoodReads says that I’ve read 75 books this year. I suspect I’ll get at least a couple more in before the end of the year but I’m not sure whether I’ll read something that would displace a book from this list so I feel fairly safe posting this now. Here are my top 5 that I’ve read this year. Only two of them were actually published this year and three of them are second world war military history – but although this is an interest of mine, they are there on merit of being very good books and I would recommend them even if this is something that isn’t of a particular interest to you.

Brothers in Arms – James Holland

This is the story of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry and their journey from D-Day to VE-Day in the second world war. As a regiment they’ve been in the war from the start, originally as a mounted – on horses – cavalry regiment before moving into tanks. It’s incredibly well written and as well as the “back story” of what is going on generally it focuses on a handful of the men of the regiment. It shows the true horror of war and the sheer loss of life and attrition that happens, even to what is ultimately being the “victorious” side. It will make you stop and think and question what you think you already know about the second world war.

Diary of a War Artist – Edward Ardizzone

This is exactly what it says it is, and follows the artist through the invasion of Sicily and onto D-Day and towards the end of the European war during 1943 to 1945. You might think that you’ve never heard of Edward Ardizzone, but after the war he was a very well known illustrator and in particular of children’s books. If you’ve ever read Stig of the Dump you’ve probably seen his illustrations.

These are illustrated notebooks/diaries and again show what is going on generally as well as to the individual.

Brave Men – Ernie Pyle

My final second world war pick and again covering the war from 1943 to 1945 from Sicily to Normandy, Ernie Pyle was an American war correspondent who reported from the front line (and was ultimately killed in the Pacific towards the end of the war). These are in effect another diary type reportage, although not written explicitly at such and providing a day to day account of the progression and the individual units and men concerned. Pyle would attach himself to different units; Naval, engineers, artillery, infantry and report from being alongside them. As above it shows what the war was truly like and not the version that we have perhaps taught ourselves over the intervening period.

Together – Luke Adam Hawker

This is an illustrated tale of the artist author’s Grandfather and his dog. It’s set through the first lockdown period of 2020 and tells a tale that is both human and encapsulating what many of us went through in one way or another. It’s both heartwarming and heart pulling, but it is beautifully illustrated and well worth a look.

The Small Heart of Things – Julian Hoffman

I read this relatively recently and it’s a collection of essays, primarily about or linked to the natural world. It’s beautifully written and covers quite a wide range of topics from a natural point of view.

Robin Song

When I got up this morning at about 05.30 there was a robin singing in the garden, I could hear another in the far distance singing in response. I nipped back indoors and got my recorder, clipped the mic to a twig in a nearby tree, put the recorder on top of a waterbutt and pressed record. Here’s the results (best listened to with headphones):

Robin Song (with occasional car and plane)
Not the robin singing

Allotment by Headlamp

Headlamp – Thrunite TH10

It was still dark when I went to the allotment this morning. We stopped in there on our morning dog walk to see how wet the ground was and whether it was feasible to do anything practical there today. The result was a negative, the ground is still too wet to do any digging, and walking on the beds would do more harm than good. So instead I settled for digging a few leeks – I am thinking about a leek and brussels sprout cheese sauce over some pasta for supper tonight. This was all done by torchlight or rather the light from my headlamp, much better for the allotment as it leaves your hands free to work the tools. I forget now how long I’ve had this one but I’m pretty sure they don’t make this particular model anymore, although it still works pretty well.

Back home before the sun is up.

Car Service Part 2

The car service didn’t go quite as planned yesterday. When I collected the car I could tell straight away it wasn’t running right. So I took it straight back. They’d changed the spark plugs as part of the service and turns out one of the new plugs was cracked. They probably should have spotted it when they fitted it but they didn’t. Anyway new faulty spark plugs replaced and back on the road again.

Car Service

My car is at the garage for its annual service and MOT today. It’s passed without any issues and I’ll be picking it up soon. I’ve had a loan car today, which was an all electric Renault Zoe. It’s about five years or so since I last drove a fully electric car and it’s interesting to see how the technology has changed in that time. I’m pleased to say all for the better, not that it was bad before but if we are all to make the shift sooner or later to fully electric cars then this is certainly the way forward. The only remaining stumbling block, at least for me, remains the price. Even with the annual saving on the cost of fuel etc. I still couldn’t afford one. It’s likely that they’ll hit price parity with ICE cars in around 2025, but even then I’d still only be looking at being able to afford a secondhand one (assuming that the price differential is about the same). But who knows what will be happening by then.

The North Wind Blows

Just back from my morning dog walk and I have to say the wind chill is something else. The temperature is around 4ºC but the windchill is pushing that way down below zero. Not the coldest place in the world but we’ve had an unseasonably mild spell just recently so the sudden change is noticeable.

Gloves and wooly-hat weather!

Currently Reading / Read

I’ve finished reading March Violets by Philip Kerr, which was quite an enjoyable read. A skillful blend of history (pre-war Nazi Germany, the Berlin Olympics in 1936) with fiction. This is the second book in this series that I’ve read, and the first book in the series, the other one that I’ve read comes much later in the sequence. I think I’ll be returning to read more of these, and have the next couple on my kindle as they are part of an omnibus. At the moment though I’m reading Chasing Arizona by Ken Lamberton which is both interesting but also totally irrelevant to me having never visited the US state which the book is all about.