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As we start an unusually grim Christmas, here’s a thread of cheering/distracting TV programmes, books and podcasts to keep you going over Christmas. First up are two Christmassy things cos I feel Christmassy books, films and TV only works in the build up to Christmas Day...
1. Home for Christmas on Netflix. A v funny and charming Norwegian comedy-drama series about a woman who’s fed up with her family patronising her for being single and without kids so tells them she has a boyfriend. Heroine Johanne is amazing and it subverts all romcom cliches
2. Dash & Lily on Netflix. Absolutely delightful festive teen room-com about a boy who finds a notebook in the Strand bookstore with a challenge from a total stranger. Could have been annoying, was the total opposite. I loved it and would have ADORED it as a teen
Babylon Berlin on Now TV/Sky. One of the best things I watched this year - a complex twisty drama set in decadent, grubby Weimar Berlin. Watched third series when it came out in March and it made me feel “well, at least I’m not starving and dealing with actual Nazis”.
This is one for my fellow Babylon Berlin fans - let’s just remind ourselves of THIS moment (don’t worry, this gif isn’t a spoiler).
4. The podcast @nosuchthing - always very funny and smart without ever being meanspirited. I find it extremely cheering and comforting when I’m stressed - perfect distraction on a gloomy walk. Also I have learned many good facts from it.
5. The recent reissued novels of Eva Ibbotson - gorgeous, funny romances. The Morning Gift, about a girl who comes to London from Austria as a refugee (as did Ibbotson) is my fave but they’re all great. Also this piece by her is one of my fave things ever https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/09/fiction.features
Taking a break to have a v late lunch but will be back with more refs!
6. The Moomin books, especially this one, in which Moomintroll wakes up in the middle of hibernation and has to get used to a strange new lonely winter world.
7. Joan Aiken’s romances, which are just as funny and strange and wild as her children’s books (they distracted me and helped keep me sane during the referendum campaign in 2018). You can find more about them here https://www.joanaiken.com/book_category/period-novels/
8. I Lost My Girlish Laughter by Jane Allen, a very funny satire of the golden age of Hollywood co-written by David Selznick’s former secretary. Forget Mank, this is a real Hollywood insider tale.
8. One of the greatest black comedies of all time, Ernst Lubitsch’s incredible 1942 film To Be Or Not To Be, about a Polish theatre company that get involved in anti-Nazi intrigue. Stars my favourite classic Hollywood actress, the sublime Carole Lombard.
9. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries has been removed from Netflix which is a CRIME. But worth checking if it’s available to rent or stream on other services in your locale if you want a divinely glamorous and witty 1920s sleuth who has intense chemistry with a detective
10. The Hookup Plan on Netflix. French rom-com with v likeable heroine whose pal decides to help her get over her ex by hiring an escort to woo her. Actual swoon-worthy romance ensues. They returned for special 2020 ep set in lockdown which was both funny and genuinely v moving
11. What We Do In The Shadows. The film is amazing and the series is just as good. The ep in which Lazlo escaped his former landlord (played to perfection by Mark Hamill) and adopted the persona of ordinary human bartender Jackie Daytona might the funniest half hour of 2020 TV
Also Laszlo and Nadja’s musical act is basically me and @PatrickFreyne1 in lockdown
12. The andante movement from Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony, aka the most Christmassy music. I first heard it as a kid as credits music of The Box of Delights (an adaptation of most Christmassy book ever) and only discovered its name in recent years
BTW, this is a PSA to anyone watching non-anglophone series on Netflix and is automatically getting hideous dubbing: you can easily choose the original language version by clicking on the audio settings icon (generally appears as a speech bubble with lines in it).
3. You knew it was coming - Gran Hotel, the gleefully preposterous, wildly entertaining Spanish period melodrama that got me through the first lockdown. However it looks like it only up on Netflix until Jan 1st, so get watching!
BTW when I say it got me through lockdown, I mean it - I actually sent a thank you card to the production company afterwards. During lockdown I kept joking about doing that and then thought, why not? A Spanish friend kindly translated for me.
14. Another Spanish-language show that distracted me back in April was House of Flowers on Netflix, an extremely entertaining Mexican comedy drama that has been described, accurately, as Almodovar doing Succession
The (fantastic) opening credits to S1 of House of Flowers just gave me a total flashback to spring
More recs for Christmas holiday entertainment! 15. Call My Agent, the wonderful French comedy drama set in a Parisian acting agency and featuring various French stars as themselves. Final season arrives on Netflix in January!
BTW Call My Agent creator Fanny Herrero was one of the writers on the superb French wartime drama Un Village Français, which I became so obsessed with a few years ago, my husband joked that when he returned from a work trip I’d be dressing like them so I made sure I was
Yes that is an actual wartime edition of French Marie Claire that I’d got from a Paris bookstall years earlier, as if waiting for the day when I would dress up as Hortense from the Village
16. Casablanca is basically a perfect film and IT’S ON THIS AFTERNOON!! https://twitter.com/mrrobvalentine/status/1341692912703311873
If you’ve never seen it before, please watch it now. And when you see THIS scene, bear in mind that many of the extras - and some of the leads like Conrad Veidt who plays the German officer - were actual refugees.
17. @GWillowWilson’s entire run of Ms Marvel. Innovative, funny, exciting and full of heart. And Alphona’s art is fantastic too.
18. It’s very dark but also very funny and complex and one of the very best things I’ve watched all year. Barry, the story of a hitman who joins an acting class, is on Now TV/Sky
19. Queen of my heart Adriene Mischler of Yoga With Adriene, pictured here w/ a fan going goggle-eyed with joy at her live class in Kew Gardens (that fan is me. The class was amazing). If you’re feeling angry & sad now, this vid is perfect and VERY easy
BTW when I say it’s easy, I mean 99% of it is literally lying on your stomach. There’s about one downward dog and you could even leave that bit out. Also it really works as a way of relieving the general frustration and rage at the universe many of us are feeling right now.
20. My favourite film of all time, Powell & Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. Funny, strange, visually stunning, perfectly acted, it’s pure bliss. And you can watch it all here
BTW I am v grateful to @artscouncil_ie who recently gave me a bursary to work on a book set in WW2 London in a production company inspired by Powell & Pressburger’s Archers and featuring an American actress based on Carole Lombard (called Jane Peters, Lombard’s real name).
Book also features multiple German/Austrian refugees. As you can tell if you’ve followed this thread this far, this book is very reflective of my interests.
Speaking of classic films, this one might be harder to track down in time for Christmas break but you never know! 21. Gloria Swanson’s memoir Swanson on Swanson. Absolutely sensational, and brilliantly written by Swanson herself. There’s way more to her than Sunset Boulevard!
Behold baby goth Gloria Swanson
