Heart strings

My seasonal gift to youse (from top): Anna Popplewell in "Prince Caspian", Eva Green in "300 - Rise Of An Empire", Evangeline Lilly in "Hobbit 2", elf-eared Felicia Day and Morgan Webb in an episode of "The Flog" x2, Jennifer Lawrence in "Mockingjay 2", Kate Bush for "Running Up That Hill", Keira Knightley in "King Arthur", Leelee Sobieski in "Hercules", Natalie Portman in "Your Highness", Rosamund Pike in "Wrath Of The Titans" and Rose Leslie in an ep of "Game Of Thrones".

Last five movies watched

Pick of the bunch: It was a lazy Saturday :-) "The Maze Runner" would make a cracking escape-the-inescapable-situation convention module, provided the lame ending was changed.

Old mate

Thoroughly enjoyed the new Animal Planet documentary "Hunt For The Tasmanian Tiger". I'm not just saying that because the trio of hunters includes a school chum of mine, WD. OK, that's partly why I'm saying it.

Nothing to do with reflected glory. It's neat to have a connection to a person engaging in a ballsy expedition on your TV screen. To ponder what led them there, after their path branched from yours. To search your data banks for indications of what was to be. To get wistful about a weird two-man form of cricket you played inside a tennis court in a hospital's grounds, where sections of the fence could be automatic fielders or yield different point values.

Ahem. Well-balanced team (zoologist, techie, bushman), problem tackled from clever angles (e.g. employing a sound engineer to help develop animal calls), infectious enthusiasm... I recommend "H/F/T/T/T". Hope they make more.

W. is the bloke in the middle.

Last five movies watched

Pick of the bunch: It wouldn't matter what the other four pictures were, the answer would always be "The Force Awakens".

Christmas is when

Christmas is when we celebrate something extraordinary.

That's right - the successful mission of a party with three magic users, but no fighter, thief or cleric!

Confession time

"The unexamined life is not worth living," Socrates supposedly declared. But what did he think about wallowing in the past? Buggered if I know. I should read more classical philosophy and do less wallowing. Nevertheless...

Twice I have been "out on the town", inebriated, and have had the girl I was talking to compliment my wristwatch.

Twice I've removed said timepiece and given it to the lass in question. To keep.

Why? Maybe because I'm a generous drunk. Perhaps because I vividly remember my father and one of my uncles boozily swapping watches when I was a child. Possibly 'cos I once read the Lonely Planet guide to Fiji (then went somewhere else), in which travellers were warned not to praise anything too much or the owner would feel obliged to give it to them - a concept I REALLY liked. Maybe I did it because I'm a fool.

On the first occasion, the girl had her friend return the wristwatch to me the following day.

In the second instance, that didn't happen. The next time I saw the lass, she half-heartedly said, "I should give you that watch back."

"Nah, don't worry about it," I replied.

Leave that to me and Socrates.

Last five movies watched

Pick of the bunch: It won't shock you to hear me say "A Most Wanted Man". Anti-terrorism espionage with the moral dimension Le Carre does so well, bolstered by some ace actoring, foremostly from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Don't overlook Aussie eve-of-global-destruction flick "These Final Hours", however. It's frightening and heartbreaking.

Last five movies watched

Pick of the bunch: "20,000 Days On Earth" is Nick Cave at his most fascinating - constantly performing, constantly self-analysing, agonising over his music and surprising us with his poetry. The best line belongs to Kylie Minogue, though, when she compares Nick's stage presence to a tree from a Hitchcock film!

LWT1

There's no point reporting on the DWCA's Look Who's Talking 1 event in any great detail as interview transcripts will likely be printed in a future "Data Extract", so I'll simply mention a couple of my favourite anecdotes.

Alexandra Tynan on designing the brilliant original Cybermen costumes: "I didn't want to do it!" AT explained that she (a) had seen how much work went into other "Doctor Who" monsters, and (b) wasn't into sci-fi. But once the BBC put her on the show, she just had to get on with it. Of course, Alexandra is rightly proud of her creations nowadays.

This next one you should maybe take with a grain of salt... The always entertaining Gary Russell reckons that when planning a novel - like his new Twelve/Benny adventure "Big Bang Generation" - he first chooses a band, then lists all of their song titles, then selects those that sound like exciting chapter titles, THEN starts writing. Cool idea!

Last five movies watched

Pick of the bunch: Coupled with 500ml cans of 7.9% piss, the "Vacation" reboot is a work of genius :-)