Of Benoit Blanc, boffins, break-ins, bang!, bad smells and Bardot

Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor in the utterly brilliant Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, that we watched at John-John's last night. One of the best films of the year!

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Apocalypse news: Apparently our universe isn't expanding as much as boffins once thought, and may even collapse. Not in our lifetimes, of course... We hope.
• Winged intruder news: Imagine sitting down to watch telly, then being terrified by the sound of someone trying to break your front door down - only to discover it was a bloody enormous Canada Goose wedged in the broken glass? It certainly gave them something to talk about in the village of Countesthorpe, Leicestershire.
• Picked the wrong moment go skiing news: As people were enjoying the snowy slopes of the ski resorts of Sicily, Mount-bloody-Etna erupted! I imagine the snows turned brown after that shock...
• Love it or hate it news: Unsurprisingly, a Marmite-scented deodorant spray has been voted the most unwanted Xmas gift in 2025! Ewwwww.

[click any pic to embiggen]

• And finally: RIP, Brigitte Bardot, the ground-breaking "face" of 50s/60s French cinema, and of the sexual liberation revolution to come. Such a shame she ended up as an embittered, homophobic old lady...

And the weather? Gloomy, chilly, dank. Just about right for this time of year.

Eclectic viewing...

...at our "film club day" at John-John's yesterday!

This all-time John Waters classic:

Serial Mom [Official Trailer]

A bit of this, the show that launched Alan Cumming on an unexpecting world:

This brand new slice of genius from Aardman Animations [home of Wallace and Gromit]:

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget [Official Trailer]

And, best of all, this!

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery [Official Trailer]

A remarkable film - all the more so for the unexpected (and excellent) presence of one of our house faves here at Dolores Delargo Towers, more well-known for her singing than acting prowess...

Janelle Monáe - Make Me Feel

A great way to spend "that bit in the middle", I'd say!

Totty of the Season

Jon Bon Jovi (60 years old on 2nd March 1962)

Javier Bardem (born 1st March 1969)

Pete Duel (24th February 1940 – 31st December 1971)

Antonio Sabàto Jr. (50 years old on 29th February, but it's not a leap year)

Daniel Craig (born 2nd March 1968)

Jean-Jacques "JJ" Burnel of The Stranglers, 70 on 21st February)

Peter Andre (born 27th February 1973)

Harry Belafonte (95 on 1st March)

Here's some "Sunday music" that might be appropriate for the occasion...

Layton & Johnstone - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man Of Mine [1928}

[Almost 100 years old, yet so bold!]

[NB click any image to embiggen]

Arise...

...Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Jenny Harries (chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency), Dame June Raine (head of the vaccines regulator MHRA) - and, of course, Dame Patsy Stone Joanna Lumley - coronavirus "heroes" Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, broadcaster and former politician Sir Trevor Phillips, filmmaker Sir John Boorman, and [erm] Sir Tony Blair (Order of the Garter); as well as Gold-medal-winning Olympian couple Dame Laura and Sir Jason Kenny. Daniel Craig was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and veteran poitician Frank Field becomes a Companion of Honour.

Joining them in getting gongs are Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) Bernie Taupin, cookery writer Claudia Roden, newsreader and presenter Moira Stuart, "money saving expert" Martin Lewis, and filmmakers Barbara Broccoli, Michael G Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Paul Greengrass (as well as someone I was close to way back in the 1990s when I was secretary of the Gwent AIDS Support Group, Neil Wooding); Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) June Brown (aka "Dot Cotton"), Bill Roache ("Ken Barlow"), sex god Tom Daley and fellow trunks-wearer Adam Peaty, gardening guru Dan Pearson and Pauline Black of The Selecter; Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), journalist and presenter Kate Garraway, Tom Daley's synchronised dive partner Matty Lee, dancer Ashley Banjo, Classic FM presenter Margherita Taylor, best-selling author Adele Parks and tennis champion Emma Raducanu.

Congratulations, all!

My Damehood is obviously still in the post. Again.

HM The Queen's New Year Honours List 2022

Totty of the season

Jack Kerouac (12th March 1922 – 21st October 1969)

Murat Boz (born 7th March 1980) - more here

Jon Hamm and his incredible performing trousers (50 on 10th March)

Rob Lowe (born 17th March 1964)

John Barrowman (born 11th March 1967)

Jon Bon Jovi (born 2nd March 1962)

Daniel Craig (born 2nd March 1968)

Rudolf Nureyev (17th March 1964 - 6th January 1993) - much more here

Totty of the (perfect) day

Another day, another milestone - and today, scarily, it is sex-god Daniel Craig's turn to hit the "big 5-0"..! I'd help blow out his candle.

Mr Craig shares a birthday with a mixed bag of luminaries including Smetana, Desi Arnaz, Kurt Weill, Rebel Wilson, Dr Seuss, Chris Martin from Coldplay, Mikhail Gorbachev, Gates McFadden, Karen Carpenter, Jon Bon Jovi and Lou Reed - and it is the latter to whom we turn, to help us get into the party spirit for the weekend...

...or rather, to a dance cover of the great man's classic Perfect Day (with a video of sunshine and blue seas about which we can only dream, here in only-slightly-thawing-out, dank North London) - and, with that, Thank Disco It's Friday!

Indigo - Perfect Day (Almighty Definitive mix)

"Drink Sangria in the park"? I somehow doubt we will be.

Totty of the Day #2

Mr Daniel Wroughton Craig blows out 45 candles on his cake today.

"Just purse your lips... and blow!"

Mmmmmm.

My name is Bond, Jemima Bond?

The incredibly sultry Daniel Craig makes a statement for International Women's Day... in drag!

Daniel Craig in drag for Women's Day