The Family Jewels

Okay, so I’ve blogged out my comic strip, and my Litefoot & Jago Jago & Litefoot, what else? BBC 7 are broadcasting another of my Doctor Who plays in a few weeks time, don’t worry I’ll remind you, anyone who hasn’t listened to my Doctor Who play Bloodtide from many, many years ago (and let’s face it, that’s nearly all of you) have very little excuse not to have listened to it now that it’s been reduced to £5 (it can’t really get any cheaper) and mainly that’s it, save for things I can’t talk about.

Oh, my friend Paul has a drama pilot thing on BBC 3 tonight. It’s called Pulse. Not sure what it’s about, some sort of horrific goings-on in a hospital.

Anyway, this is my blog, what next? Pop music recommendations, I think. The album of the year in the Jonny household is undoubtedly The Family Jewels by Marina & The Diamonds. It’s quite hard to describe the music; journalists usually just say Kate Bush meets Sparks, but there’s all sorts of other things in there, the main one being originality. It does have that odd Sparks quality of being a bit like how a pop song would sound if the person who had written it had only ever read about pop music in a book, as the lyrics and the melodies are all wonderfully peculiar – Mowgli’s Road, for instance, is a sort of nightmare about having a crisis of confidence and being chased by cutlery (and of all the many, many songs about cutlery pursuit, this is definitely in the top 10). Then there’s Hermit The Frog, which sounds like Enya singing Wings, a combination to be treasured. It’s bonkers, basically, but compellingly re-listen-able-to. Best of all, though, is I Am Not A Robot, a totally genius, barking and heartbreaking tune about, well, about not being a robot.