I wear a stetson now...

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Time wimey stuff, Matt Smith in a stetson, aliens you forget as soon as you look at them, Amy Pond in danger, River Song kicking ass, Rory doing his Rory thing, and a dead cool FBI agent called Canton Delaware... It can only be the return of my favourite TV programme.

I was going to blog the first episode last week, but what with all these HOLIDAYS, I ran out of time, so I thought I'd try and get my head together and see if I can make any coherent sense out of the first two episodes. Both of which I've seen twice now. And do you know... I still can't.

Which is why I love Steven Moffat's writing so much. Cos he raised more questions then he answered, and by the end of episode two we were no further forward in knowing who a) the little girl was b) who River Song is and c) what happened to Amy's pregnancy.

But I really really don't care, because from the moment Amy, Rory, River and the Doctor met and had what turned out to (apparently - I don't trust you on this one, Mr Moffat, the Doctor can't possibly be dead) be a last supper of sorts, we were on a roller coaster ride, and I for one didn't want to get off.

There had been much teasing beforehand about who was going to die in episode one, and my money had been on Amy, because I really didn't think anyone would dare kill the Doctor - not properly, in the middle of his regeneration - but that's exactly what Steven Moffat did. Wow. I was totally blown away by that, and felt pretty much like Amy did, thinking SURELY someone can do something... when of course it turned out that the Doctor wasn't dead at all. Well not yet... it was a 200 year older self who died, and who'd known he was going to his death, so he sent his younger self an invitation to meet up with Amy & co to solve whatever mystery had to be solved in 1969. And bingo. We're back in Steven Moffat timey wimey hurty head land. And from here on in, I haven't got a CLUE what's going on.

Well, that's not quite true... thanks to the fourth mysterious guest (the aforementioned Canton Delaware) pitching up with some handy petrol to send the dead Doctor off in a blaze of glory, our intrepid heroes end up at the White House where a very puzzled President Nixon has been receiving mysterious phone calls from a young girl. In the meantime, Amy keeps seeing scary aliens - or doesn't. When she turns round she forgets they are there... I have to say I wasn't particularly spooked by the appearance of the much trumpeted Silence, but as ever Steven Moffat's special genius is making you afraid of your own shadow. The idea of an enemy hidden in time, all around us, only we forget them the minute we turn away is brilliant, and very very scary. AND the scene in the second episode where Amy walks into an empty room, and then looks up and sees a whole bunch of aliens, sleeping upside down like bats was properly spooky. EEK.

Episode one ended with the reappearance of the astronaut who apparently shot the Doctor at the start, causing Amy to react by shooting the astronaut, before she raised her visor and we realised that it was the mysterious little girl. Eek, and double eek. THAT was horrific...

Jump forward to episode two and it was as if the previous week's episode almost hadn't happened. We've fast forwarded three months, the Doctor is being held prisoner, Amy is chased to the edge of a cliff by Canton, and shot, Rory to the edge of a dam to meet the same fate, and River (oh River, you are so bloody marvellous!!! I could hug Steven Moffat for introducing an older actress into my favourite tv show) throws herself backwards out of a tower block to escape...

Of course, there are going to be people who bitch about this (in fact I've already read a couple of online reviews griping about it), as nothing from episode one was resolved and we didn't actually discover how they found out who the Silence were considering they are so easily forgotten. Except... I can't help thinking based on our previous experience of watching series 5, Steven Moffat is playing with us. There is going to turn out to be a reason for those missing three months you mark my words. And I bet it has something to do with Amy's on/off pregnancy. Why for example did Amy HAVE to tell the Doctor about the pregnancy in the middle of a stressful situation? I suspect timey wimey stuff will be at the heart of it, and she had to tell him before she forgot again/or it was a future version of Amy who told him.

As to who the baby is - I'm convinced it's got to be River Song, who may also be the little girl. Although this theory got kicked to touch when the little girl started apparently regenerating right at the end of episode two. BUT... the Doctor KNEW who she was when she shot him, and River Song is in prison for killing a good man... And I've thought from the off there must be some connection between River and Amy... And I'll probably be proved wrong in six months, time but what the hell, it's fun speculating. And I feel sure that Rory' s ability to compartmentalise his memory is also going to be important somehow...

Anyway, I digress. Once we'd established that Amy & Rory had only been shot to bamboozle the Silence, we were back to business as usual, with the Doctor going to rescue River as she fell out of the tower block - Open the doors to the swimming pool - hilarious; and a plan to discover who the missing little girl was, which led Amy and Canton to a really scary orphanage, where Amy discovers a room with pictures of the girl, including one of her holding a baby, before being taken prisoner by the Silence, while the Doctor breaks into the Apollo mission to do something clever as part of his scheme to defeat the Silence. Now here again, I'd say time went a bit wibbly wobbly. We had an AWFUL lot of time concentrating on Canton and Amy, and very little about what River, Rory and the Doctor were up to. Deliberate I'll bet. And I'm sure we'll find out why in Episode 13...

And time was very wibbly wobbly for Amy - given that she can't remember the Silence, nor how long she's been held prisoner, is it just possible that they have stolen her baby, and she doesn't remember? They certainly seem to be using the little girl for reasons unknown...

And weren't they defeated a little too easily? After all that time being invested in earth, would they really have given up without a fight. Surely, having created the Silence, Steven Moffat's not going to leave it there?

That said, those are questions which may or may not be answered by the series story arc - I decided to forget all that and simply enjoy the spectacle of the Doctor and River flirting (how Matt Smith acts so old/young is brilliant & makes their relationship utterly believable) and River taking out all of the Silence (only don't tell the old man how many, he doesn't like it.) I also loved the Doctor's line about her shooting people, I shouldn't like it, but I do a bit... Yes, sweetie, she's got the measure of you.

It all ended in a dazzling shootout, earth being saved, Canton accepting his inability to be the first married gay FBI agent (hilarious dialogue again between him and the President which left all my children, even the older two who think they know it all, going Duh?), River being dropped back at her cell door (but oh, the poignancy of the it's his first/her last kiss moment) and the Doctor, Amy and Rory off for another adventure. But being Steven Moffat, he can't just leave it there. We not only have the conundrum of Amy's is she/isn't she pregnant? , but also inexplicably the Doctor decides not to pursue the little girl. Why? Particularly as she appears to be a Time Lord (or does she? I am hazarding a guess she absorbed his regenerative powers when she killed the Doctor). And is there a significance to her regenerating nine months after the beginning of the story or am I overcomplicating things? I am sure there is an answer, and it will become clear. Only probably not till episode 13...

PS. Ooh, ooh, just had another thought. WHY didn't River realise the Doctor hadn't kissed her before? Once she'd established that this version is 200 years younger then dead version with whom she happily compared notes, she must have known they hadn't snogged yet. Soooo.... more timey wimey stuff? Did something happen to the doc those three months when he was in prison? Is it one of those apparent continuity errors which turn out not to be anything of the sort? Answers on a postcard please. Preferably, Tardis blue.


PPS OH, and another thing. Y'know the beginning, where I thought it started oddly with Amy & Rory at home just mooching about waiting for the Doctor, and Amy says, trying to attract their attention is the sort of thing the Doctor would do? - WELL, if eldest child is to be believed and this two parter is in fact the beginning of this series finale, which would be typically mind bending time changing nuttiness from Steven Moffat, perhaps she's right. Perhaps this series is all about adventures which have ALREADY HAPPENED, and Amy and Rory have to go back to the beginning to change it all, so it doesn't end with the Doctor getting shot by a psychotic child in a space suit. Now my head is REALLY hurting...

Better late then never...

... And about a thousand years after all the other Whovians online, here's my response to New Nu Who.

What can I say? It's the Easter holidays, I was away last week, and have painting a bedroom this week, so I haven't had any time to blog about the return of two of my favourite TV programmes (Thanks BBC for bringing Ashes to Ashes back the same weekend as Dr Who, magic...)

Anyway on to the new Doctor. Unlike a lot of people it seems, I wasn't too worried about Matt Smith. I'd seen (and liked) him in Party Animals, I think he has a very alien face, and I loved his opening lines at the end of the last Special. Plus, Steven Moffat is in charge. Steven Moffat who's written every single one of my favourite Nu Who episodes. Of course I would have loved to see David Tennant go on for ever, but I suspect we all might have got sick of him in the end, and part of the joy and brilliance of Dr Who, by the very nature of having a hero who periodically changes, is that it can constantly reinvent itself. And hurrah for that.

So, I was prepared to like it. I was prepared to even forgo the loss of David Tennant for the sake of Steven Moffat's writing, but I wasn't prepared to be so utterly blown away by last week's opener. It felt invigorating, energising, and most of all fresh again. I was just as excited as I was five years ago when Dr Who returned with Christopher Ecceleston. Spouse and I sat down to watch it rather nervously, wondering what RTD would do to our favourite nostalgic TV show, and then as now we were blown away by the sheer fun and raw energy of it. That fun and energy has ebbed away of late, much as I loved DT's swansong, so it's nice to get it back again, even if, being Steven Moffat we got a lot of monsters under the bed too.

From the moment the Doctor burst into young Amelia Pond's life, it felt like we were on a roller coaster - I loved the swimming pool in the library, the way he kept twitching, the food thing (fishfingers in custard - inspired!!). I loved young Amelia/Amy. Loved it that he came back twelve years too late. Loved grown up Amy handcuffing him to get some answers. Loved her calling him the Raggedy Doctor. Loved the scary aliens. Loved the retro feeling (both the village green and the hospital reminded me of the Jon Pertwee era). Well, I just loved the whole thing really.

I didn't love the new theme tune, but hey, that's a minor quibble. In five minutes Matt Smith made himself the Doctor and pretty much eradicated all thoughts of David Tennant from my mind. Pretty impressive (though I can't fancy someone who is young enough to be my son). I think I am going to really enjoy this version of the Doctor, he's quirky, bonkers and fun, while Amy is clearly going to be a match for him.

SO Woohoo, for new Nu Who. Can't wait until tomorrow.


Lucky I have Ashes to Ashes to keep me going till then isn't it?

Top Ten TV Characters to get stuck in a lift With

Thanks to Medium Rob I have been intending to do this meme all week. Instead I have been sidetracked by the hilarious conversation about it on his blog, and the fact that I am still catching up workwise from too much snow and vomity children. (So far this term of a possible 29 days I could have had children in school I've only managed 15), so to say I am behind on my work is something of an understatement, and it's half term next week...

Anyway. Here are my top ten choices. It's a bit Spookcentric, but I reckon MI5 would be a lot of help in a lift...

1. Ros from Spooks. Because she is dead cool and hard as nails and wouldn't panic. And if there happened to be a madman in the lift/someone had a massive panic attack , she would sort it no problem.

2. Lucas North. Well, he is the sexiest man on the planet after all. Also he'd be pretty cool headed too, and no doubt would be able to find a secret panel to help us all escape.

3. Which brings me to Malcolm. Who would no doubt be wired up to the lift and in communication with Ros and Lucas, and be able to spring us by using some kind of fiendishly clever electronic device. He wouldn't actually have to be in the lift to do this, so this is probably cheating. In which case I'm going to ditch him and the rest of the Spooks cast (all of whom would have their uses) and say :

3. (again) should by rights be Dr Who, but as he'd get his sonic screwdriver out and get us out in no time at all, that would be too easy. But Dr Who needs representing in this lift, so I'll opt for Mickey as he found such a useful trapdoor in The Age of Steel.

4. And Donna because she'd make me laugh. Particularly if she was still in Time Lord Doctor/Donna mode. (She'd also probably be better at getting us out then the Doctor in that state)

5. Then I'd also have to include Gene Hunt, because he looked so hot when he was trapped with Alex in Ashes to Ashes (though admittedly not in a lift) and I'd like to see him undo his tie in just that way again...

6. Richard Hammond because he wouldn't take up much room.

7. Dawn French who would take up a lot of room, but again would make me laugh. Plus she and Richard Armitage might get to have some interesting conversations of the, but I thought you loved me/I never knew you were leading a double life kind.

8. I know everyone else has chosen Stephen Fry for intellectual purposes, and I would too if no one else had, but for the sake of being different, I'll call in Robert Peston who can explain everything we need to know about the credit crunch, while Ros, Luke and Malcolm plot a way to blow a hole in the floor and get us out, Mickey searches for a trap door, and Doctor/Donna blinds us all with science.

9. As we might all be in need of having our spirits roused (and there aren't enough women in this lift), we'd better have Victoria Wood to sing us a silly song.

10. Lois from Family Guy who could mother us all, so I don't have to.


Everyone else's memes are here, here , here and here.

Children in Need

Tomorrow is Children in Need Day. I know it's tacky and cheesy and Pudsey is a mushy sentimental little bear, but on the plus side you get to see newsreaders doing things you'd never ever imagine they'd do, we're getting an extra Dr Who episode and fans of Strictly Come Dancing can finally see Tess dance(and Terry Wogan for that matter - do you think he'll be as good as John Sergeant?).

We always watch every year as the kids love it tacky and all as it is, and despite the tack it also does an enormous amount of good for charity. Not least my favourite one, Tadworth Court's Children's Trust who do amazing work with children with very severe needs. I hadn't realised till today that Tadworth Court benefit from Children in Need, but if you go here you can find out all about it.

So I know it's credit crunch time, the economy's in a downturn etc etc, but if you even if all you can do is spare a few coins tomorrow, do it. So many children are helped as a result of CiN every year and despite the cheese I think it's a fantastic cause.

As sadly I couldn't afford to take part in the Things That Money Can't Buy (I don't think Spouse would have been happy for me to pay ten grand on The Strictly Come Dancing experience somehow) I am planning instead to get hold of a copy or two of this as well as phoning in a request the 24 hour music marathon on Radio 2 tomorrow ...

And another little bit of news I missed...

I really picked a bad week to go away...

I suppose it wasn't totally unexpected that David Tennant was going to leave Dr Who, but, sigh... rather like Rose (and Donna for that matter) I wanted to travel with him forever. I suppose I've got a year to get used to the idea...

But on two utterly more positive notes...

Paula Radcliffe won the New York Marathon again. Hurrah. I wish she could get it together for the Olympics, but hey, at least she's back on winning form...

And double hurrah, Lewis Hamilton is the youngest formula one world champion EVER. By the skin of his teeth admittedly, but what an exciting finish... A world championship decided two corners from the end. Fantastic. (And fantastic sportsmanship from Massa who thought he'd nailed it, then realised he hadn't).

I love Lewis Hamilton. He appears to have riled lots of people in the notoriously competitive and ruthless world of F1 (that's because he's winning y'see, they HATE it), but he deals with all the stuff that comes his way good and bad with politeness and dignity and never lets any of the crap get in the way of his singlemindeness about winning. When we have so much bad press about young black men, Lewis Hamilton is a welcome relief from all that and a great role model for the young (particularly in the light of the appalling racism to which he's been subjected this season). I couldn't actually watch the race because it was so close to the wire anyway I couldn't stand the tension, but hurrah, hurrah. It was a close run thing, but this year, the right guy won.

Dr Who Meme

medium rob has posted a Dr Who Meme on his blog. Rather unfairly he wants us to choose only three of our favourite episodes from NuWho. Only, three, Rob? That's harsh... However, if you insist.

There is a bit of a theme going here, as all of them are by the same author (and not just because I used to share his surname). It's simply because for me Steven Moffat is King of Nu Who. He consistently, scares, thrills, delights and moves. Plus he's got my children doing all manner of spooky things from asking if I'm their mummy to abjuring me not to blink. It's quite something for a kids' tv show to tap so much into all our imaginations that I end up spooked by my own offpspring...

The first offering is a bit of a cheat, as it's a double parter, but I regard it as the same story, so first honours go to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, for introducing us to scary gas mask child who was the first nuWho character to terrify the whole family, and for that wonderful ending when Christopher Eccleston revels in the fact that just for once, everybody lived. I loved the darkness and rawness of the new series when the ninth doctor was suffering from the loss of his planet and people in the Time War, and it felt like here he got a bit of compensation. I also loved the ending when he remembers how to dance (but I've already posted that one on the other place).




Second choice (but probably has to count as my favourite) is The Girl in the Fireplace. Once again Moffat does it with scary monsters - those sort of monsters under the bed would certainly give me nightmares - but also it's funny (I loved the incongruity of the horse and Mickey teasing Rose about the Doctor calling Cleopatra Cleo), moving, and has a tender love story to boot. Sophie Myles as Madame de Pompadour is stunning, particularly the moment when she tells Rose that the Doctor always comes with monsters, and the rapport between her and David Tennant is fabulous. I particularly like the fact that he is prepared to sacrifice himself to the slow path for her, and his pain when he realises he's come back several years too late for her. Love it, love it, love it. Don't think Moffat's really topped this yet...



And last but most definitely not least, the superlative Blink. Again, another great scary story - I will never ever look at statues in the same way again, and one which really creeped us all out. It also features David Tennant talking about timey wimey stuff (sigh), and a great warning: Whatever you do, don't blink! I also loved the absurdity of the end when Sally Sparrow finally meets the Doctor properly and he's wandering about with a bow and arrow. Priceless. Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow is just fantastic. Wouldn't she be great as the new companion? All in all another cracker from Steven Moffat. Let's hope he gives us more of the same in 2010...




And if I'd been left up to my own devices and not constrained by Rob, I'd also have added from Series 1: Father's Day for poignancy and brilliant you can't undo time kind of stuff, and The Parting of the Ways because I liked Bad Wolf, and I loved the way Christopher Ecclestone looks at Rose and says, Ah Rose, I had so much I wanted to show you (what can I say? I write romantic fiction). From Series 2 I'd have to add Tooth and Claw because I loved the werewolf and Doomsday for the hilarious meeting between the Cybermen and the Daleks, and bittersweet ending (which you should really have left alone Russell). In Series 3 I also loved the Human Nature/Family of Blood double parter. And finally, in Series 4. I thought Turn Left was stunning and The Stolen Earth had the best cliffhanger ever.

But as I can't include those, you'll have to make do with Moffat...

Sex and the Doctor

All right, all right. This is just another excuse to print a picture of David Tennant again.

There. Isn't he lovely?

Although, actually I did have something else to say.

Elsewhere in blogland there exist others as obsessed as I about the good Doctor, and they are having conversations here

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/2007/04/no_sex_please_were_time_lords.html

and here:

http://strugglingauthor.blogspot.com.

I decided that Dave and Marie had both made me think about it so much that I had too much to say and they'd get bored of me posting on their blogs, so I would just go and post on mine...

I have to confess when they first brought Dr Who back I was really nervous. I mean. Russell T Davies. He wrote Queer as Folk and The Second Coming for god's sake. And brilliant and all as that was, I couldn't quite see him toning it down for a Saturday teatime audience. But then I saw Mine all Mine, and thought, ok, maybe I got that one wrong then...

To my delight as a lifelong saddie Dr Who obsessed fan, Russell T more then delivered. I thought Rose was a huge improvement from the wet assistants of my day (even Sarah Jane who keeps being heralded as a really strong cookie. I thought she was a girly wuss... Russell hugely improved her when he brought her back).

I was a tad disconcerted by the burgeoning relationship between the Doctor and Rose - partly because Christopher Eccleston seemed way too old for Billie Piper, and partly because, well. it didn't seem like Dr Who, did it? I mean since when has the Doctor gone about fancying his companions? (Although I do remember Jon Pertwee being quite affected by Jo going off to get married...)

However, I have to confess, the very last episode of the first series, The Parting of the Ways, changed my mind.

I just LOVED the very tender kiss the Doctor planted on Rose to get the Vortex out of her head, and then the way he said as he regenerated, Oh Rose, I was going to show you such things... It was beautiful and haunting and well, romantic... For me that pressed all the right buttons. Moving, but not schmalzy, tender but not too sexy for a kid's programme.

And then of course the last series was a great long tease between Billie and David, who were much better suited to one another, and spent the whole of it getting separated as if to herald that final separation: Sarah Jane showed Rose her future without the Doctor, Madame de Pompadour his without her, she got trapped by the wire, he got trapped in a picture...

You have to hand it to Russell T, he does like to flag things up for us.

But...

It ended. The Doctor lost Rose and until he met Martha he was on his own again.

And, I really don't want the whole shebang to start again. If he falls for Martha the way he fell for Rose he's going to end up looking like some kind of lothario, and personally I'm with Dave Hill, I kind of like him being slightly asexual, and OUT of all that sort of thing. I do love all the depth of emotion that David Tennant portrays with the whole being the last of his line thing, and that he cannot be like other people. But if he keeps hopping from assistant to assistant he's just going to look like your average jack the lad down the pub. And that will never do...

And apart from anything else, without sounding too prudish about it, this is a kid's show. My lot are deeply embarrassed by any hint of what they call the kissy kissy stuff. They prefer straightforward daleks being blasted into smithereens kind of episodes. And despite the laughably ridiculous pig slaves of the last two weeks (though they did hark back to the idiotic kind of monsters from my childhood, so in that sense they were following a well worn tradition), the children thought they were great.

On a slightly wider point, I do think this constant obsession with sex in everything is also an indication of something that has gone slightly awry in our society. Given that I have girls, I am constantly cross when I come to buy them clothes and find it damn nigh impossible to find them anything that doesn't make them look like little tarts. It's not just having images like the inexcrable Bratz dolls thrown at them (mind you, what we think is just tarty, they think is pretty and on the upside, the kids do play fantastically imaginative - and no not what you're thinking - games with them, so they're not all bad), or the fact that even magazines for eight year olds are full of pictures of skinny popstars, there seems to have been a change in society which assumes that we shouldn't hold back. Kids should know about this stuff. It's the way the world works.

Now granted, when I was growing up, we were shielded alot from That Kind of Thing, and it wasn't always helpful, but I hear horror stories (I have no idea yet as to how apocraphyl) about sex education lessons at secondary school including discussions about bestiality and s&m behaviour and think, aren't we taking honesty and openness a bit far? Last year no 1 came home from a talk about puberty with a leaflet about periods which earnestly explained that you can still have sex when you are having a period. Why on earth did she need to know that?

And from where I'm sitting, all this sex education appears to be having no effect whatsoever, given that we have the highest teen pregnancy count in Europe. Now there's a statistic to be proud of. Because there seems to be an assumption that as everyone is at it, it is having safe sex that counts, instead of an assumption that it is probably in the main better to wait till you're old enough, and for most of us the whole thing works a lot better when the relationship involved is a reasonably important one.

Which brings me back to Dr Who. Without making too much of a mountain out of it (ok, I probably am), what sort of subliminal message are kids going to get from seeing Martha jumping into the Tardis with an alien she's only just met, and then moaning that he isn't interested in sleeping with her (see episode two about Shakespeare, in every other respect, totally brilliant)? And if the doctor does get it on with her, it kind of implies that commitment is an out of sight out of mind kind of thing.

I had an interesting if rather oblique discussion with no 1 about this the other week. We were watching Mansfield Park and she came to the (correct) conclusion that Henry Crawford wasn't the One for Fanny. I explained as unscarily as I could that no 1 in time might meet the odd Henry Crawford, but really it was Edmund Bertram she should bother with. Jane Austen. Sexual politics in a nutshell.

I kind of hope therefore that the Doctor doesn't turn in to Henry Crawford (they can have Captain Jack for that), but remains if not Edmund Bertram (ok he is a bit wet), Mr Darcy or Mr Knightly through and through...

Either that or he regenerate as a woman...

Three and a half hours to go till...

Denanana, Denanana, Denanana,

Oeeoooo... oooo,

Dadada, dada, daddaaaaa......



Well you get the gist. John Barrowmore did it much better on Celebrity Weakest Link last night.





But....





Huzzah, my hero is back tonight fighting aliens...

And isn't he gorgeous???

Hopefully his return will help no 3 get over her distress at Rose leaving.

I'm off to prepare for my dinner party so I have time to watch instead of cook...


But I might just have to stare at lovely David Tennant for a bit longer....


PS h&b have you any idea what I'm talking about? Do you get Dr Who in Oz?

Post Dr Who and Dinner Party Script....

And he was lovely. And didn't disappoint. Neither did Martha. No 3 spent the whole thing on my lap with a cushion over her head, but hey, that's what Dr Who's all about. As Madame Pompadour put it you don't get the doctor without the monsters... Spouse thought rhino aliens as police were a bit naff, but I with all due respect as a scientist, he is not very hot on the suspension of disbelief stuff that we English grads take for granted, so it didn't bother me none. A triumphant return I'd say...

Oh and the dinner went well too...

Mushrooms and stilton wrapped in pancietta (yes, it was stolen from the Sainsbury's ad, via some writing friends... my version was a bit burn, but what the hell)

chicken and herb parcels (thank you lovely butcher who sold them to me yesterday at great, but worth it, expense), with lemon/garlic/rosemary spuds a le Hugh Fearningly Whittingswotsit, mashed sweet potatoe and swede, roast parsnips and carrots.

Cheesecake (Hugh FW again) and Chocolate mousse courtesy of the child genius Sam Stern. In my excitement about David Tennant, I did cock it up as I chucked the whites of the eggs in first,THEN read, mix in yolks first, whip whites into peaks and fold them in. I did a bit of frantic whipping of whites and chocolate, but I don't think it was enough. It tasted ok, but it was chocolate runny mousse.

Well you can't win them all.

And I'd take David Tennant any day...