Stay Another Day by East 17 (1994) Written by Tony Mortimer, Rob Kean and Dominic Hawken Stay Another Day is one of those classic “Non-Christmas, Christmas Songs”. No shame in that. If you’ve got a slow and sentimental ballad and you’re planning to release it in the last quarter of the year anyway, then why not Christmas it up a little?

Merry Christmas, Everybody by Slade (1973) Written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea Fun Fact (YMMV): The Slade song “Merry Christmas, Everybody” has played in six different Doctor Who episodes to date, including four Christmas specials. That means that Noddy Holder’s been in more Doctor Who episodes than at least one Doctor Who (Paul McGann in case you’re interested, although three if you count John Hurt and Jo Martin).

Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard (1988) Written by Jeremy Paul, Leslie Stewart and Keith Strachan I didn’t know this: “The song Mistletoe and Wine was written for a musical called ‘Scraps’ an adaption of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl’.  The show was adapted for television by HTV in 1987.  By the time the musical transferred to television, the song had become a lusty pub song sung by the local whore, as played by Twiggy.”

A Winter’s Tale by Queen (1995) Written by Queen (Freddie Mercury) I’ve started to listen to Queen again lately. I hadn’t stopped as such, but I’d listened to so many of the albums so many times that they’d become overfamiliar. I’d lost sight of the magic, if you’ll pardon the pun. What started me again was happening upon a reaction video on YouTube.

Step into Christmas by Elton John (1973) Written by Bernie Taupin & Elton John They got the weather. The Old Town, Swindon, Christmas Festival was blessed with blue skies after weeks of near constant rain. Not an umbrella in sight. It was reasonably temperate as well, although the wind had teeth. Perfect conditions to wrap up warm without freezing your sleigh bells off.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside By Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews (1999) Written by Frank Loesser Swindon used to have a gay and lesbian nightclub.  It may still have a gay and lesbian nightclub, not my area of expertise, but around the early years of the 21st century Swindon definitely had at least one gay and lesbian nightclub.  It was called the London Street Club. 

Little Things by ABBA (2021) Written by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus I should start by saying that I’m not an ABBA fan. Nothing against them. They’re a fine, upstanding group of people. Some of my best friends are ABBA fans. I wouldn’t want my daughter marrying one, obviously. Not that I have a daughter. And if I did and she wanted to marry a man who worshipped ABBA, she’d probably be barking up the wrong tree.

Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) by The Darkness (2003) Written by Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain & Ed Graham Arguably the last great Christmas single.  Do people re…

In our house we have a study.  It’s where I tend to work when I work from home, so there’s a desk.  There are many book cases on which there are many, many books.  And in one corner …

It was our last day in Turin and it felt like we’ve barely been here at all.  We didn’t have to check out of our lodgings until 11am.  I suspect our host, Nico, wanted a lie-in.  Not…

creating Podcasts

Out into Turin proper to do some proper holiday shit today.  I don’t really approve of doing stuff when I’m on holiday as a rule, but it was our first time in Turin, Caroline wanted to explore…

I didn’t really want to carry on being on holiday after the work call.  That’s not strictly true.  Carrying being on holiday would’ve been great, but all my remaining mental energies were…

“Change Programme”.  Who knows what a “Change Programme” is? I change programme when I turn the telly on and accidentally tune into Not Going Out with Lee Mack.  This is a different thing…

Our lodgings on Via Saluzzo were perfectly adequate, ignoring the six flights of stairs you had to climb to get there.  Were the fixtures and fittings a little tired?  Yes, but aren’t we …

I didn’t explain why we were travelling to London, did I?  That’s careless.  We were travelling to London as we were going away for a few days.  Abroad, no less.  On the contine…

Earlier, before the budget hotel in Kings Cross, I met an interesting gentleman outside of Swindon station.  I am often a magnet for oddities.  I’d hesitate to describe him as one of Swin…

On a Monday night Caroline and I found myself, not for the first time in our lives, in a Premier Inn.  We’ve all been there.  This was a London one, specifically near London St Pancreas S…

Netflix’s film misses the joy of Richard Osman’s novel – and now no one will make another version