Complicated even more by the fact that most people don’t actually pronounce it the way she does. The “aoi” part is an ee sound. Most people say Seersha, but probably because her parents are Dubliners, she has a very “posh Dublin” Sursha.

If the English insist on holding on to 1/5 of Ireland, they should learn to pronounce common Irish names.

And while they’re at it, anyone who wants a story set in Cork that isn’t depressing should check out The Young Offenders.

There’s already two books about the luckless Department of Temporal Investigations bureaucrats Lucsly and Dulmur from “Trials and Tribble-ations”. I believe they’re quite fun, because these guys treat any sort of time travel adventure as a dangerous, irresponsible and annoying source of paperwork.

Not as big as they once were, obviously, but BBC still make radio drama regularly and replay their extensive library. And the Doctor Who ones are by a company called Big Finish, who have pretty much cornered the market on licenced revivals of beloved series. They’ve been doing DW since ‘99 and have a lot of crossover…

“Eonism” is a great word that deserves a comeback. Especially with the association with such a fascinating figure. 

Hmm, maybe I did use a VPN, actually! I’d practically forgotten that they used to work on Netflix. I suspect you’re right.

I’m pretty sure I watched it on Netflix, actually. Ireland’s Netflix catalogue isn’t the same as the UK one, though, so that might explain it. Certainly I didn’t watch an imported DVD.

They were gorgeous. Moscow in particular.

It’s just cultural difference. It’s further down the seriousness scale on this side of the Atlantic. (Though, you know, if you called someone’s mother one with genuine malice, that’d be fairly serious.) To be honest, I’ve always found it a bit hypocritical of Americans to take that so seriously while letting children…

The interesting thing about Ennis is that he had it both ways in different stories. Sometimes he approaches the character with a splattery Mills’n’Wagner 2000AD tone and you get the likes of Barracuda and Ma Gnucci. And sometimes he played it absolutely deadly seriously and put Frank up against real-life monsters as a…

That would be an interesting subject for a column. A History of Violence, Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Road To Perdition, Snowpiercer, the French Lucky Luke adaptation... Armando Iannucci’s new The Death of Stalin is one too.

I wonder if anyone remembers that detail from Gotham Central that the cops don’t actually operate the Batsignal - the secretary turns it on and off because she hasn’t taken an oath, and officially it’s just a searchlight they happen to have or something. All so they can officially deny that Gotham PD has any such…

I don’t know either who wants to read this kind of story. If you want to read a serious story about police violence, a Batman comic doesn’t seem like the best place to find it.

“... Awdry disliked change, venerated order, and craved the administration of punishment...” Really? A priest, who thought like that? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

Put it in its historical context - in the late 60s, steam traction was being phased out on BR. By 1968 it was gone. The reason they don’t like diesel engines is because they’re all being scrapped and replaced by them. That’s why Oliver’s first story is essentially a WW2 Great Escape story - he’s escaping the mainland…

“However, a good deal of his patronage seems to be self-serving...”

Empire magazine, long ago, theorised the reason The Ladykillers doesn’t work is because Coen movies are usually distinct genres, but with a lot of Coen-y black comedy. But the original Ladykillers is already a black comedy. So the whole thing just feels redundant.

“These boys is not white! Hell, they ain’t even ole-timey! [...] Is you is, or is you ain’t, my constitchency?”

I do like Barrett’s work, though - like the review says, it’s very Hernandez-esque, which I like. (The guy’s face in the “’right, Jimmy? Fancy a pint?” panel could be by Gilbert himself.)