SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Not far enough from the madding crowd

🍸 Locals in Edinburgh’s Roseburn and Glasgow’s Mount Florida love to complain about the noise of events at the nearby stadiums, despite the fact Murrayfield and Hampden pre-date any living resident. But it’s hard not to be a little more sympathetic with the good people of Chamartín, Madrid’s wealthiest enclave, who have found the newly renovated Real Madrid stadium, the Santiago Bernabéu, is not only still a huge football stadium - but now also a world-class concert venue, with a retractable pitch to make putting on gigs easier. Locals told the Financial Times they couldn’t hear their TVs or get kids to sleep during Taylor Swift’s double-header in the summer. And then the gigs kept coming. Unlike their Scottish counterparts, cold weather doesn’t halt outdoor concerts in Madrid’s winter: this threatens to be year-round for the next 20 years. We suspect Madrid’s lawyers won’t be getting any much sleep either, but for different reasons. (FT)

🍸 Spotify’s extraordinary influence on modern music is laid bare in a book published this week: Mood Machine - The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, by Liz Pelly. An excerpt makes the cover story in this month’s Harper’s Magazine, and it’s well worth a read: you’ll find out about “ghost artists” - the musicians making mood muzak to order for some of the tech giant’s playlists - and the impact that’s having on the music world. (Harper’s Magazine).

🍸 Have we passed the point of "peak" Scotch whisky? Kirsty Wark asks the question in a BBC podcast that's worth 27 minutes of your time if you're interested - or invested - in the industry. Trump tariffs provide the newsy hook - but it's clear global competition and shifting attitudes to alcohol are hitting sales of Scotch too. As our biggest export, and a big rural employer, the fate of “the water of life” matters. (BBC Sounds)

🍸 Speaking of shifting attitudes towards alcohol… the wheel turned again yesterday when the US Surgeon General added a little extra motivation to everyone’s dry January and called for cancer warnings on alcohol. Dr Vivek Murthy said drink contributed directly to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 deaths in the US every year. But there is a huge gap in public understanding of the risk. (New York Times) (Read the full advisory)

🍸 The Atlantic’s “20 best podcasts of 2024” offers a useful diversion from the ubiquitous “All the rest is…” guff that floods the UK charts. Best podcast name in the list: Fur & Loathing - a deep dive into a (very serious) cold case about a 2014 chemical weapon attack on a convention of self-identifying “furries” - those who recreationally dress in animal costumes. (The Atlantic)

🍸 What were your New Year resolutions? Have you broken them yet? While we hope yours involves reading a certain early morning email daily, other resolutions are available. YouGov did the research.

AT THE MOVIES
Terrifying

🎬 The movie being hailed as “one of the most profoundly frightening horror films in years” graces your local multiplex from this week: Nosferatu (★★★★★) is a vampire legend remake of a 1922 German expressionist silent film, but don’t let that put you off: it’s getting rave reviews, with - amid a star-studded cast - Lily-Rose Depp described as “magnificent” by The Independent and Wendy Ide in the Guardian hailing director Robert Eggers’ “gift for cinema that goes beyond storytelling”. She says that, even by his standards, this is “an unsettlingly atmospheric and richly realised work”, “an extraordinary achievement” in which “Eggers balances themes of feral abandon and wild, perverse urges against a tightly controlled, incremental buildup of unspeakable dread.” If this is your bag, it really will be your bag. (The Independent) (The Guardian)

🎬 We Live In Time (★★★☆☆) is an altogether more gentle experience if you’ve been left fragile after the festive season, although reviews are mixed. Empire hails this “weepy rom-com”: a love story between acclaimed chef Almut (Florence Pugh) and middle manager Tobias (Andrew Garfield) told largely out of chronological order. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian found it “supremely watchable while not quite believing in any of it for a single moment” while Deborah Ross, in The Spectator, notes the leads’ star quality but says: “I suspect this will be a big hit among those who are easily taken in. For the rest of us? Phony – and deeply annoying.” (Empire) (The Guardian) (The Spectator)

📽️ Also in your local multiplex this weekend, ranked by last week’s box office in the UK & Ireland with a critical verdict out of five:

1. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (★★☆☆☆) You can still hear reviewers rolling their eyes, but this comedy/action animation tops the charts by a long way.

2. Mufasa: The Lion King (★★★☆☆) Family favourite had solid reviews.

3. Wicked (★★★☆☆) Musical sequel divided critics, but not audiences.

4. Moana 2 (★★★☆☆) Musical sequel divided critics, but not audiences.

5. Better Man (★★★★☆) Warts-and-all biopic of Robbie Williams - with the star played by a CGI monkey - works better on screen than typed here.

TV THIS WEEKEND
Free Apple

📺 Apple TV is entirely free to watch this weekend, which is great news for those planning to do nothing today and tomorrow. You’ve an entire catalogue to play with: highlights include Ted Lasso, the gentle comedy about an American soccer coach put in charge of an English top-flight team. Emmy Award winner The Morning Show, and the gloriously entertaining Slow Horses, could also make delicious binges by themselves.

📺 The Masked Singer makes its return: a new season starts tonight (7pm, ITV1) with a dozen characters making an appearance over two evenings (the follow-up is on Sunday, 6.30pm, ITV1) and a panel deciding which famous face is sweating it out underneath the disguise.

📺 This year marks 20 years since the London Bombings. The BBC marks the year by launching a new four-part documentary on 7/7, starting on Sunday (9pm, BBC2/iPlayer) and continuing on Monday. The doc looks back on that appalling day with moving testimony from survivors, the families of victims, and also then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

📺 Celebrity Hunted returns for a new series on Sunday (9pm, Channel 4): you’ll not know that many of the “celebs”, of course, with only actor Denise Welch and dancer Giovanni Pernice registering high on my personal celeb Richter scale, but the point of the show isn’t that - it’s the thrill of the chase, and the reminder it’s incredibly hard to actually vanish these days.

SPORT THIS WEEKEND
A big game, for those who can remember why

⚽️ The weekend’s big TV game is not, in any sporting sense, that big. Such is the fall from grace of Manchester United, their game away to Liverpool (Sunday, 4.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event) is big only a tribal, bragging-rights-in-the-North-West sense, or in a sense that the great - and title-defining - battles of past years still echo today. And - not to rub it in for their long-suffering fans - a big portion of the TV audience will be settling down in expectation of seeing them ship a few goals as Liverpool continue their march to the title. But we all should know derby games can throw up a surprise or two. Goodness knows this United side could do with showing a little fight.

⚽️ In Scotland, Rangers bounce out their own surprising 3-0 derby victory over Celtic with a potentially tricky trip to Easter Road and Hibs (Sunday, 12 midday, Sky Sports Main Event). Both teams will feel they’re on the up, and the atmosphere is likely to be feisty.

🎯 And just in case you missed it last night, teenager Luke Littler demolished Michael Van Gerwen in the darts, to win the World Championship at Alexandra Palace. It will, one must suspect, be the first of many big pay days.