Sandra Says Blog

  Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella When writing a book, essay or indeed anything, it is commonly known the first line is generally known as the hardest to write. This book is genius as it starts with emails exchanged. Although we only see the answers from the store to Mrs Becky Brandon you don’t the questions she asks as the responses says it all. Although what she has asked is not normally asked out loud, I for one and I expect a few others have thought along the same lines. After a wardrobe malfunction the idea to solve it is very clever. This is a fast paced book, Becky is hosting Christmas and her parents are moving. To me hosting Christmas is great fun, I love Christmas, hence I am reading this book. I do appreciate though that the thought of hosting a family Christmas can be daunting but to Becky who as in the title of this book in a series, as she loves to shop, I would have thought she would be more than up for the challenge. I can see Christmas being an ethical mon...

  Battle of the Bulge After a not so successful start, one scared German and a load of tanks missed, Col. Hessler (Robert Shaw) arrives at a, what can only be described as a ‘Bombed out town’ with a very well kitted out bunker underneath. This bunker not only has a crystal chandelier and art work on the walls, it has the German’s latest ideas of weapons, that they describe as ‘Toys’. There is a flaw in having all this equipment as we will see later on in the film and I will mention in this review. This part is told by the German point of view it is clever how they think they have the upper hand over the Americans. The script is well written. The Americans now are analysing the information they have collected and planning the next step. It is good to see they are not defeated. The singing is a light-hearted part of this film and a good example of how the German’s were. While the Americans and the British are working on strategies for the war effort the Germans sang and put themselv...

  The Cockfields The first episode, you can see that mum, Sue (Sue Johnston) and step dad Ray (Bobby Ball) mean well. They have really big hearts and yes they are ‘Sweet’. The program is realistic but, only, it seems they have tried to put every scenario of an awkward family get together into one series. The second episode, in the first episode Simon (Joe Wilkinson) and Donna (Diane Morgan) said about going to Ventnor the next day, but as with best laid plans and a family like the Cockfields , even the carefully worked out plans rarely, if ever get carried out. I can see why Simon got angry. If he hadn’t the situation, I don’t think would have been realistic enough. The program is actually believing it or not is getting more and more awkward. It is well done that it makes it interesting to watch. There are two life lessons here. One, you shouldn’t cut down your neighbour’s hedge and two, you shouldn’t interfere in the parenting of your neighbour’s children. This episode ends nicel...

  Stan and Ollie The start of this film goes right in, when they are at their height of fame, which is a very good place to start. We all are aware of Laurel and Hardy and their rise to fame, if not all of their films or shorts . Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly play the parts brilliantly. When I first heard about this film and Steve Coogan was going to play Stan Laurel, my first thought was ‘I know him as a long dark haired actor/comedian and not I could picture him playing Stan Laurel, but he pulls the part off phenomenally well. When I heard that John C. Reilly was going to play Oliver Hardy I didn’t know anything about him so had to have watched the film before I could comment. Now I have seen the film he again pulls the part off just as well as Steve Coogan . The story is well timed, as it is set sixteen years later as their fame is on a downward spiral in Stan and Ollie’s lives and as they embark on their British tour. It is heart-warming and it shows that they were hum...

  Warning Spoilers Years and Years In the first episode, it gets off to a confusing start as to how the characters/families are set up, but at the moment the focus is on what is being said on the TV. So there is time and it is not important at this time to know where the characters all fit in this program. The speech Daniel (Russell Tovey ) gave at the hospital after Lincoln was born is sadly truthful. What follows can only be seen as guess work over the years, but in-keeping with world events and not going over the top. Now we are five years later, the face technology is sadly, good and funny. This episode has now taken a very political, sensitive and dark turn off events. Trans human sounds interesting but strange, it is however, clever how realistic it could be. The episode is confusing again , I’m sure it was mentioned Gran Muriel (Anne Reid) had died. The conversation after a revelation that wasn’t the character they meant is cleverly scripted and yes germs not existing is wei...