Marketing principles are no substitute for basic empathy. — When I first caught a glimpse of the TV ad, I guessed it was for MADD*. A slideshow of images against a stark black background, soft-focus family and friends frolicking together, accompanied by an achingly slow acoustic version of a song you used to like. But this is not a…

Three years into being a home owner, here’s what I’ve learned. Spend less than you can afford Getting pre-approved for a mortgage is an exciting moment. But don’t feel you have to spend the maximum a bank will lend you. Smart investors don’t put all their cash into a single asset, and nobody enjoys being too…

Warning: Contains spoilers. I heard about Host via Twitter, where it was highly recommended by a couple of British comedians whose taste I trust. I’m always initially a little suspicious of films that seem to hang on a gimmick. In this case, all the action takes place via Zoom, making…

When a reminder from my Netflix app popped up telling me that Season 2 of Criminal UK was available, my week took a significant turn for the better. If you didn’t catch this riveting drama first time around, you get the lucky experience of bingeing both seasons back to back…

Look, I can scarcely believe I’m weighing in on an Instagram drama around Alec Baldwin’s wife, but it’s been a weird year and I just don’t have the energy to put my feelings about Brexit into coherent words. It seems part of this social media pile-on is fuelled by similar…

What makes a ham? For me, it is not merely the kind of bad acting that is always turned up to an unconvincing 11 since the poor player is incapable of anything else. To truly ham it up, to my mind, it has to be intentional; an actor possessing a…

Warning: Contains spoilers. In those long ago ‘pre-Covid’ times, one of the great joys of a September trip to the cinema was watching trailers for all the year’s new horror releases. But I’ll admit to having a complicated relationship with movie trailers in this particular genre. The core of a…

Better pay someone to do it for you. Every so often, I see a product that makes me angry. These are usually limited to: beauty products that implicitly body shame women, oversized motor vehicles, and things that generate entirely unnecessary volumes of plastic waste (K-cups, I’m looking at ya.) …

I was one of the first wave of people in the UK to have access to Facebook, way back in 2005, when I happened to be at one of the universities chosen for their pilot program. Those were innocent days, posting albums of photos from drunken nights out without fear…