So Very Tired

So what with all the work I'm doing at the moment, and the dental surgery, and the helping my brother where I can, I was also attempting to move house. It turns out that I'm probably not going to get the flat that myself and Kerry were after, since both of our employers let us down on the credit rating checks. To be honest, we probably shouldn't have tried to move at Christmas time.

But that doesn't make it any less annoying to us. I mean, both our bosses are busy people, we know this, they work as hard as we do (he says, not quite believing it), but they could have done a better job of this for us. It's our future they're screwing over by not being on the ball. I know for a fact that I'm more prompt and more reliable at my job than my boss... but I don't want to sound like I'm bitching, so I won't talk about it anymore.

Gah, I'm not going to think about it anymore. I mean, trying to move house straight after all this panto work would probably have finished me off. I woke up this morning with sexy blues singer voice, or hacky death voice as Moina would put it. I started coughing a lot, the dressing on one of my teeth came off completely today, so it's fully exposed now and... I...

I'm so tired I could cry.

YOUNG JAMES HERRIOT.

Don't know why I wanted to talk about this show, but when I was looking around for one last thing to review for the year, I could only think of this, so this I shall talk about. I don't mean to be stalking the burgeoning career of Iain de Caestecker, but will be the second show in which he took a leading part that I'll be talking about in the last few days.

The series follows the beginning of university for young man by the name of James Herriot, who would go on in reality to become an exceptional vet and renowed author. Of course, in reality James Herriot was a page name for James Alfred Wight, while the series simply calls him Herriot, thus pushing it even further into the 'fictionalised' zone.

The main thing that struck me about this series was the underused potential. Like all BBC produced period pieces, it's gorgeous and has all the right Scottish accents. But like all BBC produced series that feature Amy Manson (a survivor of Being Human and Outcasts), something went wrong. Not that Amy was the cause, but she just seems to be around when it happens.

Basically, with all the build up to the Mid-War Politics (including some fiesty racism) and all the gender issues that were being thrown about, as well as the general meat and potatoes that goes with a character like Herriot learning his new trade and making all the mistakes and engaging in learning and all that... I was kind of expecting something a bit heftier.

Part of the problem was that there were only three episodes, making it quite difficult to get to grips with itself, it didn't quite find its own groove, despite having all the right pieces in the right places, none of it actually came together. It's like having all the right ingredients for a good cake and then accidently buying a prepacked one that looked better than it tasted.

Mind you, it got good performances out of Curran, de Caestecker and Mason, so it could have been worse. What does confuse me about the whole thing in the first place was why did anyone at the BBC think, James Herriot, everyone knows who he is, right? Everyone will want to see that. I'll watch almost anything, but even I was hesitant about this. Still, at least Ab Fab was indeed Fab.

Last for the year: THE THING