Advantages: Out In paperback, Double Biography
Disadvantages: None

...better read. One diary entry 'I suggested we buy a couple of fold-up camp chairs and start sitting in lay-bys with our picnic. We really are becoming a couple of old farts. And it's lovely.' Sheila Hancocks way of writing is so open and honest you never get the feeling that some of the skeletons have been left in the cupboard like with other biographies. You also realise that these two people were such great friends and despit everything they went through they came out the other side and still adored each other. John Thaw's battle with drink consumed a large part of their life together and would have sent a lot of women to a divorce lawyer, but despite having her own battle with breast cancer to deal with Sheila still stuck by him. After reading this book I have a real sense of admiration for her, and even though she has told us about... Read review

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Advantages: Spares you the agony and full details of John's illness
Disadvantages: Too "Theatrical" in places , a real "luvvie" book

..." Just the two of us - we can make it if we try, just the two of us, you and I". I cannot help it but each time I reach for the cover of this book that darn song appears in my head. Don't let that start of my review fool you though, this is not a story to put a smile on your face. It's a pity that the book isn't as cheery as the song as there is no happy ending. The book is a true story about John Thaw of The Sweeney and Morse fame written by his wife, Sheila Hancock. As I have just finished reading it I decided to share my thoughts on this book with you if you are deciding on what next to read. ********The Cover***************** First impressions are good, 302 pages of what looks to be a compulsive read. A black and white picture of John on the front in what looks like it was taken in one of his Morse episodes... Read review

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Advantages: It's an enchanting, wonderful experience
Disadvantages: The flight home

...The thing with going on a two city holiday to the US and, in fact, anywhere in the world is that you visit two cities. And the thing about visiting two cities when you’re on Ciao is that you then have to write about two cities. And the problem with writing a travel diary when you’re a long-winded boring git like me is that it takes a separate opinion for each city. I did try to save you all from read two separate travel diaries by trying to combine them. Unfortunately, I was warned some time back that there is a 5000 word limit on Ciao. And between them, these two diaries total WAY more than that! Although this is very much a sequel, I hope it stands on its’ own as an opinion in a way that the second X-Men film didn’t. For those of you not up to speed, the first part ended with a touchdown in New York after six days... Read review

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Advantages: It does sell toys I guess.
Disadvantages: Where do I begin?

...the cot. £300 for a Mamas and Papas masterpiece plus all the bedding and a few other bits such as teddies etc. We got to the till and the bill should have come to about £485. We were at the till for two and a quarter hours since the bill kept ranging from £600 to £800. Be aware that there was only one member of staff on the till and there was a mad queue behind us. Isn't it weird that you feel embarrassed in those situations? Although there were dickheads tutting it's not like it's our fault is it? Anyway, there were a whole raft of managers and customer services people crowded round the till, trying to explain the inner workings of their systems to us which came across like quantum physics and after a couple of hours they did finally get the right amount and we were able to then go and wait twenty minutes while they dug out... Read review

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Advantages: Straightforward, honest and deeply moving
Disadvantages: Have some tissues to hand

...of the familiar characters which Thaw personified on screen rather than the man himself and it's perfectly true that none of us really 'knew' him. In spite of his profession, John Thaw remained an essentially private person who for the most part, achieved what many so-called celebrities find seemingly impossible, which was to keep his personal life out of the public eye. With that in mind, I confess that when Sheila Hancock decided to publish this book about their lives together, I was as intrigued as the next person to find out what he was really like. The book is written in a slightly unusual fashion; the main text, which begins with individual accounts of their lives as children, is interspersed with extracts from Sheila's diary, those extracts commencing a little over a year before John's death, and before his illness was diagnosed... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Emotional and technically very good.
Disadvantages: A little repetitive.

...Track Listing: Immure, Lessons, M(US)IC, Via Invested, I Am Pulse, Ember Eason, Departures, Flora: Yield, Broken Hands, Obsessions. After mountain sized trials and obstacles for each individual member of what was to be Damiera as we know them now, everything seemed to fall into place. Call it coincidence, call it fate, whatever was working away at getting Dave Raymond, Rock Whittington, Brad Mcrae and Mark Henry together has ended up producing a tight, dynamic band. M(US)IC is the band's debut album, having previously released a self produced EP in 2005, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. Produced by Jayson DeZuzio (My Chemical Romance) the entire album has a great feeling of energy, talent and knowledge of what they are doing. The first two tracks pave the way of the style Damiera want to portray to us. They fall in the middle... Read review

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Advantages: Great Actor, Great Book
Disadvantages: Spent most of the time crying !!

...years together. I decided that this was a book l had to read. Titled "The Two of Us, My Life with John Thaw" the book is split into 20 chapters, each chapter alternating between Sheila and John's lives from the day each was born, leading on to their early careers, previous marriages to their own turbulant but always passionate relationship, and then finally ending with John's death and the year that followed for Sheila. Throughout the book there are some fabulous photos giving you that extra bit of insight into their lives. Amalgamted into each chapter are excerts of Sheilas diary again another personal touch which keps you wanting to read more. The last few chapters of this book are possibly the most emotional l've ever read, leaving you with incredible admiration for Sheila, and feeling privaliged that she's allowed you... Read review

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Advantages: still as epic in scope and visuals, great acting, final battle is atmospheric and affecting, extra footage fleshes the story out nicely
Disadvantages: I still didn't find it quite as magical as the first

...Among the various interesting and amusing gifts that I received during our yuletide, er sorry Christmas season just recently, one of the more practical and, well, unexpected ones was the lovely and expensive 4-disc special extended super duper whizbang Two Towers DVD, which of course is released just nicely to coincide with the release of the grand finale. I did actually manage to fit in watching the first half of Two Towers before we were unable to contain our excitement, collectively, and went and saw the Return of the King on Boxing Day. This Special Extended Super Duper Whizbang Edition of the movie features, of course, about 45 minutes or suchlike of extra footage that was omitted in the cinematic version to appease the ADD-afflicted amongst us, those of us who were foolish enough to take small, fidgety children, and also... Read review

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Advantages: You can see the concert on DVD
Disadvantages: You get a lot of audience shots and documentary

...Paul McCartney’s ‘Back in the US’ concert tour of America in 2002 was captured on DVD. An icon of pop music, he changed countless lives and carved his name through whole cultures. Here he can be seen playing over thirty songs, live in front of huge audiences. Paul McCartney is a giant of musical creativity and a great singer and performer still rightly venerated by most of the world forty years after he first became famous. For those of us who were fortunate enough to have grown up in the 1960s there were other giants. John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin… the list goes on. What we didn’t know then is how spoilt we were. We thought that this standard of song writing and musical innovation was quite normal. Time has marched... Read review

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Advantages: none
Disadvantages: see op

..., and I apologise if it causes any distress, but as such you will get a better understanding of why I feel as I do, about my son & where he is and what he, no……. not just him, but all the guys & Gal’s out there could be facing, and what the consequences could be for all of us on this planet.. They are there, ready and waiting to do their job, to clean up the mess which in my view (and many others) was created by our governments in the first place************ To my understanding this situation is such a mess, the great powers are in a sense so like children. There was an ad on the TV not so long ago, where they were saying how demanding a small child could be, they forgot to include how destructive and spiteful they can be when things don’t go their way, get my drift? The ones of you who have had children... Read review

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