Die Hard has been required Christmas viewing for my son and I for many years now. I'm old enough to have seen it in theatres when it debuted, and I loved it then; I'm proud that my son takes after me, and loves it too.

That never even registered with my son and I, possibly because by the time we saw the movie I'd been reading him classic ghost stories as well; and while they're not usually explicitly gory or horrific, they can be pretty dark (read M.R. James's 'Lost Hearts' - which first appeared in 1904 - if you think classic ghost…

Is there a down on the film version? I took my then-seven-year old son to see it when it came out, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. He was reading the series (or rather having it read to him, because although he was a good reader, he loved being read to) at the time, and we thought it was pretty good; I was sorry there…

Bless you!

HMS Terror was found in Terror Bay. While Lady Franklin and Charles Dickens could not deny that items John Rae obtained from the Inuit came from Franklin's expedition - hence proving that the expedition had, at very best, run into some trouble, but that some of the men might be alive still - they both claimed that the…

According to Wikipedia, "Rae Strait (between King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula), Rae Isthmus, Rae River, Mount Rae, Fort Rae and the village of Rae-Edzo (now Behchoko), Northwest Territories were all named for him." I'm old enough that I can remember when it was called Rae-Edzo, and not Behchoko.

No, she lived another 14 years after that. Oddly enough, John Rae came down the Fraser past Lady Franklin Rock several years later, in 1884 at age 71; a remarkable feat given that he did the dangerous voyage by canoe. There is no record as to whether anyone told him who the rock was named after. He died in 1893.

Just as any discussion of the Northwest Passage has to describe it as "fabled", every discussion of Sir John Franklin's wife Lady Jane Franklin has to describe her as "indomitable" (or, if you want to sound more high-falutin'. "redoubtable").

I thought of that; I know that rights for TV shows, especially older ones, can be mired in complications (especially if they used any then-popular songs, which they probably only paid one-time-use fees for). But there are a lot of older movies that aren't available due to rights issues, and TCM seems to do okay (that…

What a joyous way to start the day! Thank you, Will! Sometimes these Random Roles where everyone and everything is "terrific" can be a tad on the boring side, but Linden is so genuine, and so clearly grateful for, and appreciative of, the career he's had that this was a complete pleasure to read.

I love the idea of a "TCM for television shows", with knowledgeable hosts providing intros and extros, an "Essentials" slot once a week, original documentaries, evenings devoted to classic foreign (i.e. non-American) and rare 1950s shows, and maybe a few slots similar to syndication, where you get to see the entire…

There are already two Sherlock Homes musicals out there. Baker Street (book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Hessel) opened on Broadway in 1965, starring Fritz Weaver as Holmes, Peter Salis (yes, the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit animations), and Inga Swenson as…

I repeated this to my son - who's now living and working 450km north of where I am - and his reply was 'Cool!'

'Number 7 will blow you away!'

I watched it indoors at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver in the early 1980s, with three screens and a live orchestra. It was amazing.

Just after the first Pirates movie came out, my husband and I were staying at the Algonquin Hotel in New York for a Sherlock Holmes weekend. We were sitting in the lobby having a drink with some friends when we saw Bill Nighy had just walked in. We went over to him and said how much our then nine-year-old son liked…

'This commercial break that had Kate Beckinsale in a catsuit and the
knowledge that next week is the midseason finale are the high points of
this episode.'

Olivia smacking Negan was my favourite moment of the episode.

I've been on our town council (as a councillor) for two years, and have my local government leadership academy level one certificate (meaning I've gone out of my way to take extra training about how local government works).

I'm not a comic book fan (it took me a few seconds to figure out what MCU stood for), so gave Guardians a miss when it came out (like I've given a miss to every other comic book movie out there; I appreciate people geek out about them, they're just not my thing).