Llywela

To be fair, Elly's mum was always something of a flake, that's why both Elly and Bea ended up living with the Kennedys for extended periods when they were younger.

It was a very benign scheme, really. For all that Richie claimed Holly had told him Mack wanted to get back with him, she really didn't - we saw the message she sent, it just said that Mack would be pleased to see him, which she was. If you see someone fall into water, you should never walk away without at least checking that they have resurfaced, even if you know they can swim. Mack was absolutely in the wrong there.

Yes, it can and does happen, but is actually a lot rarer these days than you might think, watching this show. I can think of a bunch of episodes over the years where we've been told that the local lord-of-the-manor owns the entire village. In reality, there are now only a couple of examples where entire villages are still owned by their local lord - one of them was in the news recently, actually, because the village was sold in its entirety against the wishes of pretty much its entire population. Google Trevalga if you want to know more about that story. There is also a village on the north Devon coast that is completely owned by one person - Clovelly, that one is called, it's a popular tourist attraction these days, really pretty, but you have to pay an entry fee to enter the village, which consists of about 80 cottages and a couple of pubs perched on the edge of a cliff. (We won't go into the Duchy of Cornwall or the other royal estates.) It basically all goes back to the feudal system in the Middle Ages and the way land was divvied up when William the Conqueror invaded and captured the country, way back in 1066. In essence, in order to take and retain control over the country he had conquered, he imported a bunch of loyal supporters from his lands in Normandy and set them up as local lords across England. The modern peerage system also dates from this time, and in those days it wasn't just titles that were granted, they also came with vast swathes of land attached, as well as massive amounts of power. These dukes and earls and barons etc became representatives of the king, holding land on his behalf and wielding power on his behalf. They now owned the land and everyone else had to pay rent to them if they wanted to go on living there. They built new castles and manor houses, and new villages sprang up around them - villages which they owned in their entirety because they were built on their land. Freehold is everything, especially when the bulk of your income is derived from rents. And then centuries passed and these manors and estates were passed down and merged and split up, but it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that real change began to happen. Some of these landlords became enormously wealthy off the back of it, simply because they owned the land on which new towns and cities were springing up, so they got to control the planning, building and development of these settlements, and usually retained the freehold. That situation didn't change until as recently as the 1960s when the Leasehold Reform Act was passed, giving householders the right to purchase their freehold. And, of course, the introduction of inheritance tax in the 1890s led to a lot of the big old estates being broken up and sold off. TL;DR - once upon a time it was normal for entire villages to be owned by their local lords, because that was how the feudal system was set up, but these days it is now quite rare because most of those big old estates have been broken up. What it means in practice is that the local manor owns the freehold on all the land and property locally, because that's how the settlement developed hundreds of years ago, and for whatever reason they simply haven't caught up to modern times so that situation still remains. There are still big estates which own a scary amount of the land in this country - it is scarier still when you start looking into it and realise how many of those landowners are descendants of William the Conqueror's cronies, even to this day. But because householders now have the right to purchase their freehold, very few of those big estates now own entire villages outright. But a lot of them still own huge amounts of land and property in the settlements around their manors, just not the entire settlement. These days, they tend to own pockets of land and property dotted about the place - a bunch of farms here, a portfolio of houses and shops there, that kind of thing, whatever the estate has managed to hang onto in a changing world in which 40% inheritance tax is due over a certain threshold. Anyway, all that is how Midsomer Murders comes to have so many stories about inbred local lords on whom local populations are dependent for both their homes and livelihoods. It's all about residual feudalism and the significance of freehold.

This is the trouble with accents - even genuine ones can sound completely fake if they show up in the wrong context! The same thing can happen if an actor who you know best from a production where they use a fake accent then takes on a new role in which they use their real voice, I've had that happen to me before. The real accent can sound fake just because it isn't the voice you've come to expect from that person. Apparently, our ears are easily thrown and deceived!

It did make me think about that time in season one where Alison and Mike tried to find a non-haunted place to live, but there were ghosts everywhere they went.

Depends what you describe as the 'modern era'. I generally class 'modern Who' as starting with Eccleston in 2005. That season started at Easter, as did every season after it, for years. There was a brief experiment with an autumn airdate during Moffat's era, and the show only moved to autumn on a more ongoing basis with Chibnall, so very recently indeed. May is more like the traditional scheduling that we had for the first decade of the reboot.

Not sure which threads this fits in, but Richard Franklin, who played Mike Yates back in the UNIT era of the early 70s, passed away early on Christmas Day. His health has been failing for some time, but it's still really sad news.

Richard Franklin, who played Mike Yates in Doctor Who back in the early 70s, passed away in the early hours of Christmas Day.

That was fun. I watched with my entire family at my parents' house and we all had a good time. Also some really good location spotting in this one! That whole sequence with the giant snowman falling off the building - that building it fell off is the same one that played the shop where Rose worked, way back in 2005! There were a bunch of very British references, mind. The old lady who knew what a TARDIS was, she was played by Anita Dobson, who has had a long and celebrated career as an actress but is still best known for a Christmas episode of Eastenders way back in the 80s. And Davina McCall! My whole family sat there going, "Are they going to kill off Davina McCall on Doctor Who on Christmas Day?!?!" But do overseas viewers know who Davina McCall is? (Answer: TV presenter, very well known in these parts, well on her way toward national treasure status) We had the subtitles on to watch (room gets noisy with the whole family there) and they gave it as Lulubelle, all one word, for what it's worth.

Poor Winter. Midsomer sergeants are not allowed to have personal lives, still less settle down into a happy relationship with anyone. That is the prerogative of the Chief Inspectors, and for whatever reason the sergeants are always kept single as a contrast. They don't even get to have ongoing relationships that take place off-screen, not for longer than one episode. The closest Winter ever came was admitting how he felt about Kam right before she decided a job offer in America was more important to her. Even after they leave the show, the sergeants aren't allowed to settle down, it seems, even though it makes no difference at all in terms of storylines or needing to cast partners for them, or whatever. It would have been so easy to put a wedding ring on Troy when he came back for Cully's wedding, for instance, implying that his life had continued to move forward since he was promoted and left the show, but no. Still single. Or at least, not married. And then there's Jones, who did at least get to have a bit of a love life during his time on the show, without anything ever coming of it. The show went to all the trouble of telling us that Kate Wilding had followed him to Brighton (when she could have moved quite literally anywhere), made a point of letting us know that she was living with him (while house-hunting for herself, of course, can't imply that it is a permanent arrangement) and even showed us a picture of them together, and then when Jones came back for a visit a few years later, Sarah asked after Kate, so we know the two of them were still close at that point...yet the writers wouldn't commit to actually coming out and telling us that they were romantically involved, even though it could not have mattered less at that point and would have been a nice happy ending for both characters. But no. Just friends. It's weird, but it is the one thing the show has always been consistent about. Sergeants must remain terminally single, even when they are no longer sergeants and have long since left the show! I would really love to know that even just one of those former sergeants was now happily paired off! Betty was born (at least, that episode aired) in February 2014 so would be getting on for 10 years old now (although she is very tall, the actress may be older). Is she at boarding school? I don't remember ever being told that. We've been told she was away at camps and sleepovers to explain absences, but I don't remember anyone saying boarding school. I don't think there has been any time jump, either. Slightly longer gaps between seasons, perhaps, but that isn't the same thing. Betty was a toddler when Paddy joined the family, yes, and he was an adult dog then - but probably still a young adult dog. Smaller dogs tend to live much longer than larger dogs - the little terrier-cross we had when I was growing up lived to be 19 and remained fairly sprightly right up until her last years. So Paddy being full of beans doesn't surprise me. After all, it has been the same dog playing him all these years, so it isn't as if the show is faking his energy! That's just the type of dog he is.

I tend to go back and fore on Fleur. On the one hand, she is a fantastic example of an older female character with a successful career and a long, interesting history, someone who not only commands but demands respect, and Annette Badland always gives 100% in any performance. On the other hand, however, she tends to be increasingly overdone, so to speak. The writers found a comedic schtick that seemed to resonate and then leaned into it a bit too much, pushing her past humour and into parody. Less is usually more, especially with such an overpowering character. She isn't, of course, the first Midsomer character to start strongly and then suffer from flanderisation as the seasons passed.

Yes, there are no adverts on the BBC, so the original episodes were a full half hour. It's a shame you're getting them cut down.

The recycling of actors and prevalance of doppelgangers in Midsomer never ceases to entertain me. I sat through ep 24.02 going, "Oh look, there's Jones's murderous childhood friend...and he's the killer again, talk about typecast. Hey, that's the woman who got murdered in a tumble drier, back from the dead - but not for long!" 😄 I do enjoy when the writers remember that Winter is an enormous geek, beneath the surface, and lean into that side of him. He dresses down a bit more these days, often shows up in just a suit and tie compared to the three-piece suits he always wore back when he was shiny and new in the job. He still pulls those out, but they are no longer the only thing he wears.

Awful news. What a talent he was. 😔

Also worth noting that we have seen retired Time Lords hiding out on Earth before now, way back as far as the 70s. And the Doctor has taken extended timeouts before now as well, we are just usually told about them after the fact rather than up front.

Maimie McCoy was a series regular in the BBC's The Musketeers (seasons one and two, at least, she was on maternity leave through most of season three, although does appear in a few episodes), and was excellent in the role. Well worth watching.

No, it isn't. It just means a clever person. It was a very confusing exchange!

Eh, endless corridors have been a Who staple since the beginning, so what better way to celebrate the anniversary than by running around in a few of them!

Don't have the bandwidth for proper episode commentary right now, but I do just want to note that, just as the Doctor was not UNIT's first scientific advisor as he claimed the other week, Melanie was also not the Doctor's first red-headed companion (Turlough and Liz Shaw both preceded her, and even Ben Jackson back in the 60s was a bit of a ginge). I feel like I should be cross about the bigeneration, but it follows precedent set by the Watcher and the Valeyard way back in the 80s, so I can live with it. Fun episode. Looking forward to Christmas. I just hope fandom will now get over their aversion to calling Tennant's second go-round Fourteen, because that he unequivocally is. Gatwa is Fifteen.

Regeneration energy was always harmless to everyone and everything throughout the classic era, it was New Who that introduced the idea of it blowing the TARDIS up all around it, so this was more of a return to a previous standard than anything.

I can't get over how tall Betty is now. She should only be about 9 years old (the episode where she was born aired February 2014) - but 9year-olds can be very tall, of course. I should know. My favourite moment here was Betty and Sarah cracking up over the horrible soup they'd made John eat. John is looking much older, these days. I actually figured out most of the twists and the killer fairly early on in this one, unusually for me. That poor kid in the furnace!

I came down with covid over the weekend so have spent most of the last few days flaked out on the sofa watching TV - mostly seasons 9 and 10 of Midsomer Murders, absolutely perfect comfort viewing. I've decided that season 9 is my happy place. You've got Jones freshly transferred to CID all bright and eager to learn, and he is allowed by the writers to be really sharp and insightful in that first season especially, while Tom is very obviously getting a real kick out of actively mentoring a brand new baby detective. The dynamic between them is so warm and affectionate right from the start, they really are on the same wavelength most of the time, it's lovely to watch. Such a shame that when John came in, the show fell into the trap so many shows fall into of dumbing down the existing character so that the newbie will look good by comparison - it always backfires, I don't know why they insist on doing it, there could still have been tension and personality clash between John and Jones (by way of contrast with the Tom-Jones relationship) without the character assassination. Currently reassessing the season 10 episode Death and Dust. I always have mixed feelings about that one, since while it is great to have so many fantastic Welsh actors on-screen all at once (Sharon Morgan's daughter went through school with my little sister, I always cheer when I see her in anything), the motivation for the murder is weak and it bugs me that the episode showcases this entire family of Welsh characters and only one of them isn't a villain of some kind. The Welsh get villainised in English media an awful lot. Re-watching the episode today, though, I just enjoyed the long, luxurious views of Eryri (Snowdonia) and took pleasure in the fact that they made this field trip to Wales while they had a Welsh actor in their main cast who could actually pronounce all the place names correctly! After John Nettles mangled the name Marchogwr Allt quite horribly earlier in the episode, I got a real kick out of hearing Jason Hughes rattle off a whole list of Eryri locations along the hikers' route with perfect pronunciation. And I daresay Midsomer can get away with a whole family of Welsh villains, since the show does give so much more casual visibility to Welsh actors than any other English show I can think of - they pop up in supporting roles all the time, just existing on-screen as Welsh people with Welsh accents, which is really rare, so good on the show for that. The new season kicks off on Acorn today, doesn't it?

Ncuti is pronounced 'shooty', Gatwa is gat-wa.

The Donna of 15 years ago wouldn't have been able to let it go, either, but 15 years of family life has brought her a long way. It doesn't bother me that there are clumsy moments, as long as the rest of the story is good. I do just wanna note for the record that the Doctor claimed in this episode to have been UNIT's first ever scientific advisor. This is not strictly true. Liz Shaw was the first, she was specifically hired as such by the Brigadier before the Third Doctor turned up having been exiled to Earth. She kind of shared the role with him after that, but she was definitely the first to be given the job!

Yes, this. I watched the episode with my 8yo niece - her first time watching a new episode live - and she adored the Meep...and was distraught when it turned out to be evil, but then once the episode was over, practically the first thing she did was ask if there was a Meep toy she could have for Christmas!