April Update

Hello!! Hello!! Hello!!

Saints Preserve us!!

The Cheeser is back, back, BACK!!

Well, for one of my less than regular posts, any road.

And how have we all been? I have been popping over to your respective blogs to keep an eye on things, as you might have gathered ... Trust all is hanging, as they say, well, with y'all.

As for me, all is generally okay. Firstly I'm pleased to say that I have started doing some writing, as I said I would be doing in my last post. It's slow but I'm dipping my oar in, as it were. Initial stages and plans all that and I'm keeping things under wraps for now. It has also been nice to just have some spare time back for meself to be honest.

What else do I have to report?

I've been to the gym a bit.

I've varnised the surfaces in my kitchen.

I've been relieved that at long last this bloody English weather is getting warmer (the weekend just gone was a glorious one, especially Saturday).

I've been to Hampton Court which was lurvely. Last time I went was over 20 years ago.

Life, as you can tell, is just TOO exciting.

And, moving on to the things that REALLY matter, what about Dr Who!?

I'm pleased to announce that I'm enjoying the new series rather a lot. Every story broadcast to date has been of a decent standard with no major clunkers as of yet. Although there have of course only been four episodes televised so far. My, aren't I ever the optimist. Still I can hardly believe the show is now into its Fourth Season! One again DW becomes a national institution ... and so it bloody should be! I hope it runs for another 20 years at least!

And contrary to all my previous moanings, Ms Catherine Tate has (in my view) more or less acquited herself as Donna Noble. Okay, I wouldn't class the character as a brilliant creation of writing and there have been some grating Donna-isms along the way, but in general she's been nowhere near as awful as I was feared. Rather Donna has managed to demonstrate ... thoughtfulness (gasp!) ... sensitivity (double gasp!) ... humour (triple gasp!) ... a grasp of thorny issues (quadrupal - okay let's stop this now). Etc. Probably because Ms Tate is a decent actress with good comic timing, and a nack for doing accents and facial expressions... Who would have thought it? I still wish they'd chosen a non-Earth person for a companion though and hope that they break the now very predictable mould next time round.

An authentic Roman set

The Fires of Pompei was DW's attempt at doing an Italian epic and for the most part it worked. Very handy that the Beeb were able to use the set from Rome, must have saved them a bob or two. The set designs and costumes were jolly good and the whole look of the thing was authentic (okay a wee bit CGI above...) Although actually, in spite of the fact this was meant to be "big scale", the focus was quite small i.e. on just a handful of characters.

The rock monsters were quite good. That's about all I'm going to say on that score.

I wonder if my outfit would have made the House of Howard?

Good guest cast and solid performances, in particular Peter Capaldi and Tracy Childs...didn't really like Tracy's red haired perm though. The days of long-haired sloane Lynn Howard are long gone.

Oh great gods Dr, Donna, please send me some nice underpants from TK Maximus ... It gets awfully parky in this toga ...

Their son was quite a cutey (I half-wished there'd been a sudden gust of wind to lift his toga ... Carry on up Pompei anyone?). Loved the touch with him praying to the gods of Dr and Donna at the end.

I'm snarly! I'm nasty! I'm a bit underused!

As for Phil Davis he was okay and suitably snarly but could have been better used.

Going on up to the spirit in the sky...that's where I'm gonna be...when the volcano erupts and I get melted to nothing by the fiery hot magma (original lyrics!)

However the psychic sisters, as one of my friends pointed out, did look rather like the backing singers from Dr and the Medics ...

If you don't go back and save a few people, I'll pull this bleedin' lever! And pull a bleedin' fit while I'm about it! Bleedin' 'ell!

The whole issue of should we-shouldn't we save Pompei from destruction was well handled I felt, with Donna as an appropriate moral voice - her concern for the people and appeal to the Dr to do something was touching and gave a new dimension to the character. Whilst the Doc wanted to preserve established history we were shown it wasn't always that easy. So we got a nice compromise at the end.

Some of the lines grated though, especially "TK Maximus" and the attempt to "normalise" the Romans speech didn't always work - the cockerney stall holder was just annoying. But fairly minor gripes.

And what's this about Donna having something on her back? Whilst it seems that the Dr's number might be up too (or should that be David Tennant? Leading to all those soon-to-regenerate rumours...)

Walking in a (interplanetary) Winter wonderland ... It's all real you know ...

Planet of the Oooooooooooddd! Ooooooh I liked it. And even me old blogging mate Timewarden (and did you know that he too is back, back, BACK?) did as well - blimey. It must have been a decent story to convince him! A cracking tale with proper sci-fi elements - a human base on another planet under seige, aliens going on the rampage ... A nicely bleak (there's an oxymoron if ever there was one) industrial setting with loadsa snow that didn't look too fake (lovely vista shot when the Doc and Donna stepped out of the TARDIS near the start). Liked the Ood marketing bits and the Warhol style Ood pictures. (Might have to get my own to go alongside my Divas one).

Persil balls ahoy ... And someone's tipped a whole box of Persil behind us by the looks of things ...

And darker undertones too with the story's treatise on the wrongs of slavery as presented via the Ood. It was great to see the spaghetti heads back - definitely one of the most successful of the new Who monsters, so deserving of a resurrection - and this time we got to find out more about them. I loved the Ood "song" which brought a poetry to their plight and the feel of the whole story.

No, I don't know who Edmund Blackadder is ...

Good performances from Tim "Blackadder" McInerry as Mr Halpin (his Ood transformation at the end was disgusting but arguably deserved).

I'm a gorgeous marketing person and I don't want to die!!

And the gorgeous doe-eyed Aeyesha Dharker as marketing girl Solana who also met a nasty end.

And I've just watched The Sontaran Strategem and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hoorah for the return of the two-parter! Hoorah for another Earth invasion story! (Yes I know we've had a lot of 'em, but...) And there are a few other hoorahs are in order too ...

If you ask to see Rik, Vivien or Neil one more time , I'll shoot you with my scary Sontaran shooting stick! (Oooh lovely siblilance ...)

Hoorah for the return of the potato heads! Yes after a 23 year hiatus, the mighty Sontarans are back, back, BACK! Their outfits were nicely militaristic and bulky and their faces didn't look as bad as some of the early publicity shots seemed to suggest, even if they were a bit rubbery and fake. Christopher Ryan as General Staal was great, full of swagger and typical rhetorical Sontaran warrior-talk and his (small) stature as an actor was an obvious blessing when it came to this role. I couldn't help thinking of Mike from The Young Ones though, as his voice wasn't exactly disguised or anything like that. The guy playing his sidekick, Storr, sounded even more human and not very menacing for a supposed alien warrior. Sack the voice coach!

And has anyone told the spud-heads that the Judoon nicked their uniforms? Another reason to get mad…

Oh and I loved the "Sontah" - chant! Very football holligan-ish.

The gassing everyone through car exhausts strategy was quite clever although why didn't Bernard "Wilf" Cribbins just smash the window of the car at the end?!

Colonel Mace at your service, Maam! I'm a military stereotype and I'm a bit bland!

Hoorah for the return of UNIT! They're back, back, BACK!! A proper resurrection this time after their not very proper appearance in "Aliens of London/World War Three". Here they’re obviously much more to the fore, with their own mobile HQ and led by the very English Colonel Mace who it has to be said is rather…bland. He doesn’t really possess the charisma of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, although I guess it's still early days. Why couldn’t they have brought the Brig back for a cameo anyhow?

And there was a nice jokey reference to the DW Unit stories of yore when Donna asks the Doc when he worked for them - "The 1970s. Or was it the 80s?" playing on all the past controversy about precisely WHEN the Unit stories did take place (which geeky DW fans always get sooo worked up about).

Crossroads motel can I help - sorry I mean, hello Dr! It's Martha! And I'm bringing you BACK toEarth! Back to life! Back to reality! Back to the - sniiiiiiiiip!!

Hoorah for the return of Martha! She's back, back, B - okay this is getting tiresome...But I’m pleased to say that Ms Jones appears to have improved since Season Three. Probably cos the “Dr I lurve you” strand has finally been ditched and she's now working for UNIT as a proper medical scientist. (And her Torchwood appearances most likely helped to bolster up the character as a more mature, independent personality too). Okay so Ms Agyeman still delivered some of her lines somewhat woodenly, but overall she IS better. Talking of poorly delivered lines, at least Ms A CAN get away with that when playing Martha’s “evil double” – a fun sub-plot with the potential for some good drama, although personally I think the Dr is a tad thick not to have noticed the difference in Martha’s phone manner…And now she’s engaged to Dr Tom Milligan! (Who we didn’t even get to see, how cheap…) And no Donna-Martha bitchfight either – such a shame – it could have been just like this. Or maybe not. Actually there was a bit of tension at the start when the Dr and Martha were reunited and Donna gets acquainted with the former companion, but this was dealt with sparingly and convincingly with some sharp dialogue and soon got forgotten about … just as well, really as there were other things for the story to focus on.

Luke Brattigan looking pretty in pink but frankly rather annoying ...

The only thing I didn't much care for was the annoyingly clever-clever character Luke (B)Rattigan. (Who probably solved the Rubics cube the moment he came out the womb. Except he's probably too young to know what a Rubics cube is ...) But his irritating brattishness was kind of intentional. Let's hope he gets his just deserts in Part Two ...

Anyway, this looks set to be a classic Earth invasion story provided Part Two delivers! Here’s hoping!

I almost forgot to mention David Tennant. Now into his third series as the Doc, he's really hit his stride and thankfully quite a lot of his irritating tics and mannerisms seem to have vanished. Which I'm not especially sorry about. Okay we're still getting the wide-eyed, shouty Dr sometimes but on the whole he's doing alright and is very much THE DR. *

Well, that's about it for now. Byeeeeeeeee!!

* Actually I've just realised I said almost exactly the same thing about DT in a post below. Ahem!

Decisions, decisions...

Well. I haven't put up a post for over a week again. Obvious to say, but time is both fleeting and precious at the moment. In fact it ALWAYS seems to be. So much so that I've had to come to a decision.

I'm not going to be writing on my blog so much any more.

Hark! Can I hear a chorus of protest bubbling up in the background?! I hope so! Or maybe I'm just being a delusional Old Cheeser....

Anyway. At present there are other things which I need to be focusing on, job-hunting being one of the major ones. And the weekend just goes toooo quickly. I am sometimes neglecting my hubbie in favour of the computer which isn't a particularly desirable thing. Etc etc.

The thing is, I really do love to write and if I had one wish that could be granted, it's that I would be making a living from doing just that. In this respect, writing a blog is an excellent "apprenticeship" (though thankfully not of the Alan Sugar variety) or testing ground for practising one's writing skills. It's certainly kept me active in that department. God knows though, I am such a major perfectionist I have sometimes spent literally hours editing and tweaking just one post until I've got it the way I want (and then even when it's "up", I usually spot a spelling mistake or missing word and have to go back and correct it again...) I can also get seriously carried away when I'm waxing lyrical on a favourite topic and don't know when to cease my ramblings. I've stayed up past midnight finishing off some posts, such has been my intense and insane dedication to my craft.

But, if I'm to ever make it as a legitimate writer, I've got to finish off some of the stuff I started! And submit it to publishers! (Yes obvious again I know). And those hours dedicated to my blog have eaten into that time, in fact they've served as a diversion/distraction/excuse not to properly complete all my other writings!

It's funny, but with blogging you can almost feel "duty bound" and become very conscious of your readership. I know several of you out there who have had periods of "going quiet", so inviting the usual "where are you?" or "are you alive/okay?" type remarks. You almost feel like you're letting your audience down when you don't put up a post for a while and become very aware of time ticking by. But at the end of the day, one can't submit to such pressure, tempting though it is. To thine own self must thy be true.

So as of today I am going part-time.

Sorry folks! What that means is that I'll probably do about 2-3 posts per month from now on, as opposed to the more frequent ones I was doing before.

But wait! The new series of Doctor Who has just kicked off! I hear you all cry. And he loves to write about that! Is he mad? All true (except perhaps the last bit) but I'm afraid that the reviews will have to wait....for now.

This does not mean that I am ceasing to exist.

This does not mean that I won't be returning on a more permanent basis at some point (though I can't say exactly when at the mo).

This does still mean that I will continue to read and comment on all of your blogs, because I love catching up with your news, gossip and info. Yes sirree.

This does mean that I will try to do some decent quality posts when I DO write.

This does mean that I still love you all, and thanks to all of you who have been with me to date. I really appreciate you being here!!

So ciao for now. And thank you!!!

Ta ta
OC xxx

Saturday nights are cool again...

It's back!! Unbelievably, last night I wasn't able to sit down and watch DW when it was actually on (we had friends round) so me and my hubbie caught up with it on BBC iPlayer instead. What a marvellous invention it is.

Well, I really enjoyed it.

A few Cheeser criticisms out of the way first though. Like Steve, I thought the Adipose plotline was kind of daft and ultimately they weren't really the "sinister" threat that the pre-programme publicity made them out to be - ultimately just a load of baby aliens waiting to be born and then depart Earth to return to their home world. The Adipose themselves were more cuddly and cute than scary, and reminded me of something out of Ghostbusters, with their Pilsbury Dough Boy/Marshmallow man appearance, baby/giggly noises and waddling - hardly a worldwide menace. Definitely one for the kiddie audience. Consequently the tone of the episode did sometimes veer towards the silly rather than serious. On reflection though it was probably a deliberate ploy on the part of the writers to start off with a fairly lightweight story, in order to focus on the reintroduction of Ms Donna Noble and the dynamics of her relationship with the Dr.

And, whilst on the subject of Ms Catherine Tate/Donna...

I thought... ... she was actually pretty good!

OMG!! Yes, after numerous posts slagging off RTD et al for deciding to resurrect the character of Donna, I may well have to go and munch on some humble pie. For this was a far more "reigned in" Donna that we got to see, some time after the events of Runaway Bride - and generally a much more restrained and reflective lady after the fishwife performance of her debut story. A lot of the screeching and moaning of yore had vanished. Okay, there were still some "comedy" CT moments but on the whole these slotted in quite well with everything else. For instance, the scene with the Dr and Donna silently mouthing at each other through glass. Dr: "Donna?" Donna: "Oh-my-GOD!"Dr: "How?"Donna: "It's me!" Etc... Odd, cos when viewed in the original Season Four trailer, Donna's "Doctaaaaaaaaaaaar!" bit seemed awful (prompting me to do a "What's Donna saying?" post) but here it was very funny (the p*ss-take "tense" orchestral score in the background was a nice counterpoint too).

It was also good to see Donna getting more backstory - having to put up with her nagging, continually whinging mum (now we know where the fishwife characteristics originated) her scene with her Grandpa (a lovely cameo from Bernard Cribbins) where she talks about the Dr (nicely acted/done) and the bit at the end with Donna and the Doc waving to Gramps from the airborn TARDIS was actually rather touching and sweet!

Another positive aspect of Donna is the fact that, unlike Rose and Martha, she's a stronger and older character who is NOT romantically fixated on the Dr. Actually that's rather inaccurate as Ms Tyler and Ms Jones DID have their "strengths" as well, but the fancying the Doc thing at times seriously undermined their respective personas. It was established pretty much early on in "Partners" that Donna didn't like the Dr "in that way", Donna's amusing lines "Mad Martha that one...blind Martha...charity Martha..." firmly establishing her p.o.v. on that subject. And I liked the clever bit of dialogue with the Dr stating: "I just want a mate" which Donna mistook to mean "I just wanna mate" (!) leading to her response: "You're not mating with me, sunshine!" Again, in the original Season Four trailer, the latter Donna declaration had sounded pretty cringeworthy, but here worked much better when viewed in the context of the whole scene. And now that one's under their belts the Dr and Donna can embark on a more mature relationship. Here's hoping...

I was pleasantly surprised by Catherine Tate overall. One thing I will say is that unlike Freema Agymen, she is an accomplished character actress (having played a variety of roles in her own comedy show to perfection) and she's also got depth, range and excellent comic timing. There were several times during "Partners in Crime" when her facial expressions and line delivery were spot-on and this bodes well for the future.

What else? Having the Dr and Noble both investigating Adipose industries at the same time was a definite coincidence but a way of bringing them back together. The way in which they kept missing each other by a hair's breadth until their eventual "reunion" - e.g. the popping up and down between the cubicles - was a bit farcial and far-fetched though...

The "Close Encounters" style spaceship looked impressive (and funny when Gramps, watching out for alien lifeforms, totally misses it).

Sarah Lancashire as the villainous Miss Foster was excellent, a far cry from the days of Raquel Woltenshulme - icy, efficient, businesslike and humorous albeit in a controlled fashion. Even if the Adipose plot wasn't up to much, she helped to carry the whole thing. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her when she twigged that the Adipose had just used her and she plunged to her death. But what was she doing with a sonic device? Early rumour had it that she was Time Lord, even the Rani, but this was not the case...

David Tennant, now entering into his third season as the Doc, has really hit his stride in the role. His sometimes annoying tics and mannerisms were far less evident on this occasion. A good thing too. We got some of his "wide eyed acting" but on the whole he was good and his scenes with CT worked well.

And finally! Totally out of the blue we got a ... cameo from Rose Tyler!! Looking very moody and serious. How did she get back from the other side of the void? Why was she there? It was a great and genuinely surprising addition to the episode (even if she was only onscreen 10-15 seconds) and added nicely to the sense of anticipation re: the "proper" return of Rose later this season.

So, an entertaining start to the new series. Roll on the rest of Season Four!

PS I am intending to finish off my Torchwood reviews of Season Two... but as you know DW always take precedence for moi. Nah nah nah!

Cheeser's Choice: Prisoner: Cell Block H

Yep, it’s time for another Cheeser’s choice post. Welcome! It’s been a while, folks, since I waxed lyrical on the joys of Joanna Lumley. This time it’s the turn of a certain Australian soap opera/drama which ran from 1979-1986 (although it reached UK screens rather later than this).

It’s…Prisoner: Cell Block H (although originally entitled “Prisoner” in Aussieland, it’s name was lengthened over here, so as to avoid confusion with the Patrick McGoohan surreal fantasy drama of the 1960s – couldn’t be more different content wise though…) And I love the show. I’ve currently been addicted to watching loads of repeats of ""Prisoner", thanks to lots of uploads on You Tube – it’s been great to watch it again after all these years. They’ve even brought the programme out on DVD – all 692 episodes!! – and there’s a massive boxset you can purchase which I admit I’ve been sorely tempted by, if only a) it wasn’t so damned expensive b) I wasn’t paying a mortgage.

"Aaaah, fair go, Mrs M!" "I’m just going to the dunny for a smoko!" "You’re a rotten, flaming mongrel for dobbing me in to the governor, you beeeeeeeetch!"

Er, yes. Those are a few examples of some “classic” Prisoner dialogue, and any of you who are au fait with the show will know exactly what I’m going on about, I’m sure. If not, you’ll probably still know of the show by reputation – all about a load of loud, unattractive women in a prison wearing denim and getting into lots of fights and hair-pulling. The “fetching” brick wall interiors of the prison (they actually reminded me of Sussex University where I once studied) and the wobbling sets. The sub-standard acting. The fact that "Prisoner" was always shown really late on TV in some graveyard slot (usually after the news) and consequently made for essential trashy viewing after rolling in from the pub. Some of these things are true and some are apocryphal. Thus I am here to set the record straight. Or in some cases, confirm the rumours...

The ladies of Wentworth enjoy a spot of light lunch. Or breakie. Dig the yellow chinaware...Was it from IKEA?

To start, a common perception of the show is that its female characters, in particular the prisoners, were all, erm, a load of dogs, never wore make up or bothered to do their hair properly, as well as being a bunch of lesbians. Alright, this was PARTIALLY true - in its efforts to be realistic a lot of the women were certainly made to look as unattractive as possible and no-one could honestly say that characters like Bea Smith or Lizzie Birdsworth were “lookers”… (although it you look above some of the ladies aren't half bad...) And remember, this was supposed to be about prison life wasn’t it? It wasn’t “Dynasty” after all…

The great Queen Bea ... she ruled the roost ...

However the absence of glamour was more than compensated for by the characterisation – Val Lehman as leading prisoner Bea for instance made a fine central protagonist – gutsy, outspoken and rebellious, with a take no sh*t attitude. Yes, I know some of you out there will probably be chortling away to yourselves as you read this, thinking “What the hell is he on??” It’s true that in classic Aussie soap tradition, the characterisation, not to mention the acting in “Prisoner” was not ALWAYS of a particularly high calibre. There were some very cliched and stereotypical characters – not to say situations - in “Prisoner” and the way in which these were written could be quite two-dimensional – uptight, repressed prison officer Vera Bennett for example is a continual ogre of a person throughout her time in the show and rarely lets up, jokes or cracks a smile – could anyone really be so horrid? Maybe she’s not the best example to use though, as old Vera (or Vinegar Tits as she was more fondly known) became a bit of a fan favourite but there were other instances of poor characterisation in the programme. Not to mention the fact that the characters sometimes became a peg onto which the series writers hung whatever issues they were dealing with that week e.g. wife-beating, drug abuse, pregnancy, teenage delinquency…the list goes on.

Which kind of leads into another point about the storylines. Although I’ve (mildly) berated “Prisoner” for its tokenism, it was at least willing and able to deal with some fairly controversial themes – albeit in watered-down, sometimes simplistic soap opera style – as well as tackling the issues I’ve mentioned above there was lesbianism, political intrigue amongst the prison staff and more besides…And Prisoner did this years ahead of its UK counterparts (Val Lehman has been quoted as saying that they showed gay/lesbian characters long before English soaps and this is true). Often though, when a storyline involving a particular character had run its course, the character/s involved would completely vanish from our TV screen, never to be seen and rarely mentioned again, what I call the SSS (Surreal Soap Syndrome).

Going back to the sexuality thing, the majority of the female inmates in “Prisoner” were mainly heterosexual, although there were some major lesbian ones who sprung up during the course of proceedings, in particular the show’s first proper dyke Frankie Doyle, followed later on by Judy Bryant and then evil warder Joan Ferguson. What was also quite interesting was that a few of the ostensibly heterosexual inmates would “turn to women” during times of loneliness and isolation, like Doreen with Frankie or Chrissie with Sharon. Probably truer than we know, after all if you were banged up without a fella for all that time, wouldn’t you have to “make do”?!

Queen Bea squashes young Lynn's hand whilst Dopey Doreen looks on. Nasty!

Another crucial element of “Prisoner” and life in Wentworth was the top dog. Charming term! The top dog was basically the leader of the women inmates and the point of contact between the prisoners and the Governor. Over the course of the show we saw several of them, and lots of power struggles ensued between the women over who was going to seize ultimate control. The focal point for the top dog was the, erm, steam press in the laundry room and whoever got to operate it was in charge! Woe betide anyone who got on the wrong side of the top dog too – they’d usually get their hand forced underneath the press by way of punishment like the naive Lynn Warner in the very first episode.

Prison officer Vera "Vinegar Tits" Bennett and Margaret-Thatcher-lookalike Governor Erica Davidson

Another good aspect of the show was that it focused not only on the lives of the prisoners but also some of the prison officers too - the firm but fair Meg Jackson/Morris, the acerbic Vera Bennett, governor Erica Davidson, and others too. As for the prisoners, we got to see what happened to some of them before they became incarcerated "on the inside" and the crimes which led to their imprisonment. With some ex-cons, we saw their life "on the outside" once they were released and whether or not they could cope with this adjustment.

The “Prisoner” dialogue was another mainstay of the programme – some examples of which I have already provided above. From the point of view of us whinging Poms, all of this Aussie speak was highly entertaining as well as amusing. Of course we had the more refined and well-spoken characters like Erica Davidson too, so there were some "normal" conversations going on somewhere. Relatively speaking.

And the music? The “Prisoner” theme tune, “On The Inside” - played over the closing credits in which an officer locks up the prisoner cells for the night - has become iconic and one of the show’s most successful elements. I’m sure most of you will have heard it even if you never actually watched the show. “You used to bring me roses, I wish you could again…” A gentle, slightly camp folksy number sung by vocalist Lynne Hamilton (it even made the charts over here) it’s somewhat in contrast to the “tough” and sometimes violent situations we see portrayed in the programme itself. If you want to see the lyrics, try here…

Toothpaste tripping (with appropriate background music)

The show’s incidental music was a different matter entirely and sometimes side-splittingly funny for the wrong reasons. In the early episodes it was kind of 1970s stabbing strings (when something dramatic occurred, like Karen Travers stabbing her husband in the shower), replaced later by tacky 1980s synthesisers that could easily induce a migraine (I remember one scene in which a prisoner is tripping on LCD and drawing a face with toothpaste on a cabinet in her cell. The music which accompanied it was … unusual).

One more thing: contrary to popular expectations, the walls of Wentworth did NOT wobble.

Well, that’s the general lowdown on “Prisoner”. Now, as you all know, once I get onto a subject I like, I’m capable of rattling on for eons, so I shall now cease. Rather than turning this into another Cheese-a-thon and in the interests of making my musings more palatable, I will be returning a bit later on with some more Prisoner posts.

And if you want to know more about "Prisoner" I'd really recommend this website and this one.

Next time on Cheeser's Choice: The leading ladies (and fellas) of Wentworth.

And the winner...

...of the Old Cheeser Certificate of Commendation for Deliciously Diabolical Donna Dialogue goes to...

*drumroll*

LOST BOY!!!

*Thunderous applause*

Well, he was actually the first blogger to submit a suggestion and I have to say, my own personal favourite. But the rest of you all did very well indeed and I was amused and entertained by many of your suggestions. So ta muchly for participating, everyone! Your certificate's in the post, Lost Boy.

And as this blog is far too tasteful to actually reproduce the winning entry here, I'm afraid you will just have to click on the "comments" link on the previous post, to see why Lost Boy fared so well...

Meanwhile...

...it's just a few days until the unveiling of Season Four! I can hardly believe it! It seems to have come round very fast.


Bought the new Radio Times yesterday which comes in a choice of four Dr Who-themed covers (well naturally, what else could possibly be taking precedence next week) like the one above, which I chose. There's a nice preview section of all the forthcoming stories too, some of which sound very interesting indeed. I'm particularly looking forward to the Sontaran two-parter, the Agatha Christie one and the Steven Moffat one. Oh, and "The Doctor's Daughter", provided Georgia Moffat can cut the mustard and it's a decent script for such a revelatory theme. Have to say though, giving this episode such a name totally blows the gaff, and although we'd all heard the rumours about Peter Whats-his-face's daughter playing the offspring of a Time Lord, it would have been nice to have kept the lid on that one a little longer, by NOT going for such an obvious title. Conversely, they HAVEN'T revealed the title of Episode 12 for fear that it will give the game away, but we all know it's going to include "Davros" or "Daleks" in the title don't we?! RTD is a bit of a law unto himself.

Anyway, Saturday 5 April, BBC 6.20pm...THE place to be.

And apologies for the lack of posts. Real life has been getting in the way again. I will try to write more soon...