Lady Grinning Soul all the way. It's one of the most beautiful piano songs ever recorded.

I remember asking them to cover the British ones too, so I'm glad this one does that. Wish they could explain Howard Jones though.

OK I think I can do that header picture without looking anything up.

Well if you hear a British man of an age of - well I'd hesitate to say what da yoot thinks - talk of corn then he really won't be talking about maize/sweetcorn. It'll be a generic grain, almost certainly wheat.

Pointless is such a great show. I can absolutely see that happening. They should use it when deprogramming ISIS recruits.

"This is a Low" may indeed be a tribute to the British Isles, but I think it's better known as a meditation on the shipping forecast - http://www.bbc.co.uk/progra…. This is a weather forecast for the coastal regions around the UK, and is a very odd

In a series that is markedly uneven, but improved rapidly as it went on, "The Work Outing" is so massively on the up side of uneven it lifts up the entire run simply by association. It's not just one of the funniest sitcom episodes, it's one of the funniest things ever.

Yeah Downton Abbey was the first thing I thought of - especially after seeing "get paralyzed / unparalyzed" in the first entry here. The first series was really tight and interesting. The second was overblown and melodramatic. I understand it's still going on?

tough
though
through
thorough

When I started university I met quite a few northern Irish and was informed that if I visited them in Belfast I'd have to be very wary of the question "are you a protestant or catholic?". I said I'd answer "I'm an atheist" but I would then be asked "is that a protestant atheist or a catholic atheist?"

Jean Teasdale!

Especially as the concept of the Rush Cygnus story is that on passing through a black hole you become an ancient Greek god literally on Olympus. Spoilers, I guess.

More a case of shared inspiration I think. Bit on the nose but not for the reasons you suggest. In the seventies Cygnus was probably the most famous candidate for being a black hole (subject of a wager between Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne in 1974 on this question, says Wikipedia). A Farewell to Kings is 1977,…

Oh is THAT what happened? I really didn't follow that bit at all. I was wondering why she didn't get the hole in chest. Just because she's super tough? No she just… what did she do again?

Being old enough I used to read Smash Hits when Tennant was writing for it, and remember his graduation to Pet Shop Boy being reported therein, so I'm surprised he's not in the article. He was a great writer, as I recall.

I liked "Boys and Girls in America", and afterwards picked up "Almost Killed Me" and "Separation Sunday" and loved them more. I was bored and unenthused by "Stay Positive", so completely skipped "Heaven is Whenever". Did I miss much? Not sure I like the idea of the Hold Steady gelling into "just another rock band".…

More to the point, is it their own jizz?

The 80's almost killed me, let's not recall them quite so fondly

Well I suppose some people don't like anal rape.

The trick with NYC G&F is to stop it when "Lightning" starts. It's pretty good if you do that.