Gordon Harcourt
Complete the sentence: 2015 was the year of… Streaming video services. We’ve got Lightbox and Premier League Pass (for the Arsenal matches). It’s a new golden age of TV drama, but not quite so golden for those of us who work in oldfashioned broadcast TV! That old Chinese proverb about living in a time of change has never felt so real. Best film of 2015? The Bond film [ Spectre] — it’s the only film I can remember actually going to this year, so not really much of a comparison. I loved Whiplash (on DVD) but I think that came out last year. Best performance of 2015? All Blacks v France quarter-final. I was in the crowd in Cardiff in 2007, so it felt very good to wipe that from the memory. Most addictive TV show: Luther with Idris Elba. Watched a boxed
set — bit late to discover it, but, wow, am glad we did. I vote for him as the next Bond. Before that it was Friday Night Lights. How have you consumed most of your TV viewing this year? Probably 50/50 live TV and Lightbox/ boxed sets, after the kids are asleep and the mess is cleaned up. How many hours of Netflix did you watch this year? Zero The showbiz story that stopped you in your tracks… Um, hang on, I’ll just ask my colleague Brodie Kane. She says Bruce becomes Caitlin Jenner. I’m old enough to remember Bruce Jenner at the Olympics so even I was taken aback by that story. The song you can’t stop singing? I often sing songs to my kids at night, and for some reason the easiest for me to remember are First World War songs like “It’s a long way to Tipperary” and “Mademoiselle from Armentieres”. I was a real WWI obsessive as a kid. The kids often sing “watcha gonna do with that big fat butt, Wiggle wiggle, wiggle” and then scream with laughter, so that one takes a bit of forgetting. The most interesting/entertaining person you’ve followed on social media this year: Brodie Kane. She’s just a hilarious colleague to have. What television show/movie franchise/music act did you give up — or nearly give up — on this year? Watched a few Mad Men, but think I got sick of all the smoking. Poor bloody actors — hope they are herbal cigarettes. What’s the live music event of the summer you are most looking forward to? Fat Freddy’s Drop gig.