deathrey

This, Thumbs up and Maaza are the taste of my childhood. I remember this being both bitter and incredibly sweet, a weird mix.

He is very Mark Labbett-esque

Apparently based on the male lead - Richard Gadd's experience of being stalked in real life.

I don't like either but 100% agree that are series getting cancelled without an ending is very annoying. I watched a crappy sitcom on Disney Plus called Single Parents recently which I quite enjoyed and it ended on a bloody cliffhanger (as much as it can be with a sitcom) and then got cancelled.

It is very irritating when you invest your time in to something and then they don't give you a resolution. I want stories tied up. I hope open ended endings. I don't want to use my brain to interpret an ending, I want you to tell me, it's your story, not mine.

I can only imagine how difficult this is for you all, especially for you and his mum. Doing counselling is a really good idea, it's important to have somewhere to channel all your feelings and no doubt, you will be experiencing a whole host of them on this journey. How are your daughters coping with it all? I imagine the eldest is fairly aware of everything? Glad to hear the treatment has switched to being at home and your son is more comfortable.

@lanky316 I also loved The Worst Witch which did have a similar premise. It starred a young Felicity Jones of Star Wars: Rogue One fame. @ReturnOfTheMack those books would probably have been worth quite a lot before JKR TERF'd herself.

+1 I was going to post this

That's how managed to live there without having a job! Martin and Mandy paid him rent

@FLips The cover to The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness is fantastic, great album name too and the video to 'Tonight, Tonight's which always seemed inspired by the album cover to me was also brilliant - all that said, I'm not actually a fan of Smashing Pumpkins but credit where it's due.

I read them as teen so not quite a child but they were an entry in to these kind of books for me. I went from Goosebumps , Sweet Valley High and Point Horror to Harry Potter so they were, at the time, a revelation to me and I looked forward to every subsequent book release. Obviously, I have grown up now and my reading tastes have matured but they will always hold a place in my heart, but no longer a special place due to JKR's views ruining it a bit for me. I always looked forward to one day sharing this with my kids but I'm not sure I will do that anymore.

I was a huge Harry Potter fan for many many years and adored the books, but always found some of her tropes very lazy i.e all the nasty lazy characters are fat. Her portrayal of the Patel twins always made me roll my eyes, they were so token, they may as well have had a big siren over their heads going 'I'm inclusive, look at me'. The books are essentially a fantasy retelling of World War 2 so for her to partake in any kind of Holocaust denial makes me baulk.

Fantastic and well written post as always @BomberPat, I always learn so much from your posts on this subject. I know this was not the point of your post as you are speaking specifically about Nazi's treatment of Trans people but I do think it was worth mentioning that this is a very western view of Trans people and for many Eastern countries Trans people were recognised in their own right for many centuries - in India this was only undone by the British Raaj.

Ooo I'd forgotten about him 'singing' in the band! For a random BBC2 show, it was surprisingly memorable, I still occasionally ask my sister put my cup of tea 'in the hand'. Being a northern, I just a assumed it was somewhere south which is generally anywhere from Watford to the end of the country is London.

Wasn't that part of the juxtaposition of the character though? That he was handsome, so you want to like him, and he has everything going for him so to speak but he won't leave his house and his views are as outlined by @Mr_Danger

No fucking way! First Matthew was wonderful, the second was a pale comparison, living in the shadow of the man who made the character.

The joys of being over 35! I've signed up for walking Mount Snowdon with some of my cousins in August in memory of my uncle and my cousin who both passed away from cancer last year. I climbed it 8 years ago with my friends but didn't make it to the top, I got about a third of the way up and started to have issues with my asthma and had forgotten my inhaler because I'm an idiot. This time round I will be 41, I've had 2 kids in the last few years and I'm about 2 stone heavier than last time (I was under weight previously so still have a good BMI) and currently do no exercise other than running around after my kids, I've had 2 c-sections, have a collapsed arch in my left foot and my back has seen better days. I'm determined to reach the summit this time - I don't know how many mountains I'll get to climb but can't imagine it will be many so I want to do it this time. My parents are joining us, they are both seasoned walkers and just shy of 70, and they will make the summit, I can't be left behind, my dad will never let me hear the end of it! As I have this to aim for I'm hoping it will kick my ass in to gear for exercising. We have a cross trainer in the garage which I need to start using. I've been going out for walks at lunch times since I signed up last week (only manage Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays as the kids are at nursery). I'm really going to step myself up, three months is enough time isn't it?

I don't think we have had this thread before - delete this if we have. I was inspired by the best film posters thread but music was always more my thing so what are some of your favourite album artworks? Mine is all decidedly stuck in the 90's, a bit like my music taste. I always loved the cover of Dirt by Alice in Chains Cypress Hill - Black Sunday was also another favourite. The album artwork is very gothic and it doesn't actually suit the album but I always remember my cousin having a big poster of it on the wall and thinking it looked so so cool, I'd only ever heard Insane in the Brain at that stage. Nirvana - In Utero is another favourite. I know Nevermind is probably the more iconic one but I always preferred this cover. It reminds me of a decrepit, fucked up angel statue I saw in the Vatican museum.

Happy birthday @Devon Malcolm

Its lunchtime staff now #woke.

Great post, thanks @lanky316. I'm guessing this production is getting a lot more press than other productions because Tom Holland (of Spiderman fame) is playing Romeo and it's not everyday that big Hollywood starts do theatre. It interesting, whilst I know it's not a description of her, but the only race that is mentioned in that quote that you posted is Ethiop which was common parlance for black back in Ye Olde days.

All very fair points @Carbomb but I am finding it all very heavy at the moment, it's easy to forget the decent people out there. Misogynoir, my friend. (I know you are joking)

I think @westlondonmist summed that up really well. The character of Hayley was embraced - she was not the butt of public jokes or sneered at, it was generally very positively received as a storyline. Another example is Orange is the New Black which debuted in 2013, Laverne Cox's character didn't really stir up a controversy, people just watched and embraced it. For me the turning point for the hate influx began after the Brexit vote - all the cretins came out thinking their questionable views were valid and that most people secretly thought like them but we're too afraid to admit it in public. Anecdotally all the marginally people I know felt some impact of this. I don't know if any of you have been watching Defiance in Channel 4? Its been a very difficult but compelling watch for me, I've had to watch it in small chunks as it's a lot to stomach but I think a lot of the extreme thinking Brexit voters felt Brexit was going to usher in some of the suggested laws that are discussed in that show (but never saw the light of day) were actually going to happen now. Laws such as all people of colour 'black, brown and yellow, regardless of their country of birth will be forced to leave the country within 6 months [of the National Front] being voted in'. I had heard of laws like this being proposed but assumed they were very much in the past but it was actually 1979 - a few years before I was born. At the time of my birth, I wasn't eligible for a British passport because my parents were both born in India so my first passport was an Indian one despite the fact I'd never even been to the country. Anyway, I think I've gone off on a tangent now, I should probably stop typing and go to sleep.

Oh I know the answer it just astounds me that we aren't past this yet. Its something that has been debated to death over the last few years and people are still getting there knickers in a twist about it. Is Juliet's appearance even described in Romeo & Juliet?

I think this belongs here but I'm not sure. The furore over the casting of a black actress to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is mind boggling. Why are people so mad about a fictional character being portrayed by someone who isn't white? I was talking to a friend who is a drag queen about this the other day and I really despair at how much England has gone backwards in the last 10 years or so. I never thought I would look back at my life and think that the 2000's were the golden years of tolerance but it really seems like they were the peak and everything has gone ass backwards since, they concerned that their experience was pretty much the same.