My new Get Carter inspired Newcastle-Gateshead Pub Tour

One of the things people most associate with Newcastle after its engineering and sometimes chilly climate is its pubs and nightlife. When I created my first pub tour here, as with London, it became obvious there were just too many interesting old pubs to fit into one tour. In the U.K. Newcastle is often depicted… Continue reading My new Get Carter inspired Newcastle-Gateshead Pub Tour

The Red Carpet Premiere of the new Netflix series, The Gentlemen

One of my favourite films of the last few years is The Gentlemen. I watched it several times during Covid in an empty cinema and when I could, I went out to visit one or two of the locations I wasn’t familiar with. It’s a hilarious, stylish and sometimes very violent London gangster film by… Continue reading The Red Carpet Premiere of the new Netflix series, The Gentlemen

The Holdovers Film Review

The last really great film I watched was Saltburn which was shockingly unique and often simply shocking. I remember when sitting down to watch Saltburn there was a trailer for The Holdovers and I made a mental note that this film was just my cup of tea.  Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham who is fantastically played… Continue reading The Holdovers Film Review

Top 10 Movies of 2023

Some years I do a TV and Movies countdown and some I pick one or the other. This year it’s going to be my favourite films of 2023 though it must be said I really enjoyed the recent Boat Story, The Tourist and the incredible Happy Valley… plus Doctor Who has been great too. I went… Continue reading Top 10 Movies of 2023

Saltburn – Film Review

I’ve managed to see a lot of great films this autumn and the tail end of summer and one or two less good ones but one that I’d been waiting to see for months based on the trailer alone is Saltburn, written and directed by the up and coming Emerald Fennell. It looked audacious and… Continue reading Saltburn – Film Review

Indiana Jones and the hunt for his Fedora Hat

Summer is traditionally the time for the biggest blockbuster, fan pleasing movies and whilst the recently opened Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still pulling in the punters, there is another company that is doing very well out of it all. They being Herbert Johnson, a 134-year-old London hatmaker that makes the original… Continue reading Indiana Jones and the hunt for his Fedora Hat

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

There is a rule in Star Trek films that the even numbered ones are usually considered better than the odd numbered ones. With Indiana Jones it seems to be the other way round. Everyone loves Raiders of the Lost Ark, except for some epic chase and action sequences, the Temple of Doom doesn’t seem to… Continue reading Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

In the footsteps of Stan Laurel

Whilst out and about on Tyneside, I wanted to visit a little spot that I’d never got to make it to previously, the one time home of Stan Laurel, one half of that legendary comedy duo of a century ago, Laurel and Hardy. Like myself, Stan was born in Cumbria and moved to Newcastle at… Continue reading In the footsteps of Stan Laurel

A London street transformed to look like WW2 in The Blitz

A few weeks ago I was giving a Churchill Walking Tour to a family of 8 in London. It was a cold wintery Sunday morning and the streets were largely quiet until towards the end of the tour we came across a filming unit down a side-street near Parliament. There were a few doorways surrounded… Continue reading A London street transformed to look like WW2 in The Blitz

A Man Called Otto Film Review

There was a time when the whole world seemed to love Tom Hanks, I never really knew why. He was always perfectly amiable but generally seemed to be just going through the motions in what happened to be often big and popular films. In truth I only really liked CastAway, Saving Private Ryan was too… Continue reading A Man Called Otto Film Review