grumpyf1

We WILL rock you... If you have even a passing interest in the music of Queen, I implore you to get along to your local cinema and see the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. Don’t knock back a litre of cola in the first ten minutes though – at well over two hours, it’s a long watch. The good news is, it uses every one of it’s many minutes to the full. Covering the period from the band’s formation though to their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, the film focuses on charismatic front man Freddie Mercury. That’s not to say the rest of the group are ignored, but come on – Fred’s flamboyant life certainly warrants the additional screen time. Faithfully recreating the look and fashions of the various eras, the film is funny, sad, touching, poignant and exhilarating in various proportions. The family-friendly rating means Mercury’s promiscuity is alluded to, rather than writ large on the screen, but you’re given enough in the way of visual clues and implications to get the gist of what happene...

It's very unlikely that any of this lot just killed a man... Do not adjust your set. It is NOT Christmas yet. It’s easy to see why you might be confused, though. It seems to have become an eagerly anticipated signifier that it’s OK to start the festivities when the John Lewis advert arrives. So when one suddenly appeared on Tuesday during that other institution, The Great British Bake Off, it’s easy to see why some of us might have had a sudden hankering for eggnog and mince pies. Although the lengthy spot, featuring children performing Bohemian Rhapsody as the centrepiece of the world’s most elaborate school play, had no branding until the very end, it was pretty obviously from the same people who give us the heartstring-tugging Xmas epics. But this one had a twist. At the end were not one, but two logos. Different, new, logos. For John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Brace yourselves, everyone – it’s a rebrand! As both are employee owned, the inclu...

Will they do the fandango? Malik and Lee as Mercury and May, Hot Space style I don’t go to the cinema that much. For starters, there’s no way I can drink a litre of cola (which appears to be the smallest size available now) and then sit for two hours without needing to take a ‘comfort break’. Then there’s the trauma of contending with other cinema-goers, most of whom seem to have come to talk, deliberately rustle crisp packets, or be unreasonably tall and sit immediately in front of me. It looks like I’ll have to brave all that come November, when a movie about rock band Queen scaramouches it’s flamboyant way in to your local flea pit. Cunningly titled “Bohemian Rhapsody”, it charts the history of the band from their early 1970s formation through to their remarkable performance at Live Aid in ’85, which is often cited as their best on-stage performance ever. Judging from the trailer, which was released this week, the attention to period detail looks to have been dialled up to...

Yes, I’ll admit it took me a long time to come up with that Bohemian Rhapsody-based headline, following two stories vying for my attention this week. First up, we have the latest victim in the greatest/strangest reality show on the planet, hosted by that zany guy with the overly-long tie, Donald “You’re Fired!” Trump. Maybe we could call it White House Big Bother? Since getting himself comfy in the Oval Office’s chair, the President has been busily increasing the unemployment level of the USofA by firing people so quickly, some of them probably hadn’t even had sufficient time to being their own mug in and figure out how many sugars everyone else had. I bet there’s hardly a day goes by without another “Sorry you’re leaving” card doing the rounds. Acting attorney general, Sally Yates, managed 10 days of employment before getting the boot – I’ve had colds that lasted longer than that. Michael Flynn was, briefly, national security adviser for a mammoth 23 days – a timeframe shor...