Cultural highlights 2024: From bonkbusters to Bevan

Del Hughes

For me, this year has been an strange one. Being housebound for most of it has kept me from my usual adventures.

On the bright side, I’ve delved into countless books and binge-watched numerous boxsets – all in an effort to keep from going stir crazy.

Though it didn’t entirely succeed, I did uncover some real treasures.

There’s been an abundance of excellent TV this year, primarily from streaming services, but I must highlight BBC’s Ludwig. It’s a cosy murder mystery starring David Mitchell as a reclusive crossword compiler turned accidental detective. It’s a gentle, charming watch and, if you missed it, don’t worry because you can find it on iPlayer.

Darkly comic

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is a completely different beast; it’s a darkly comic, intense series based on the true story of Scottish comedian Richard Gadd’s harrowing experiences with a stalker. It received rave reviews for its chilling portrayal of psychological trauma and victimization, and is funny, frightening, and utterly bingeable.

Another banger from Netflix is The Gentlemen, directed by Guy Ritchie (and a spin-off from his 2019 film). The series follows aristocratic Eddie Halstead who inherits his family estate, only to discover it’s the centre of a massive weed empire. This series offers a blend of humour, tension, and stylish storytelling – definitely worth a watch.

However, my personal favourite was a series that took me back to my youth, when Jilly Cooper books were every teenage girl’s rite of passage, bridging the awkward gap between Jackie and Just 17. So, enter Rivals, the second of her bonkbuster books – collectively known as the Rutshire Chronicles – bawdily brought to the screen by none other than Disney.

It’s as unexpected a pairing as when Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox hosted the Brit Awards (Cringe!), but this coupling works brilliantly. With David Tennant and Aidan Turner as the titular rivals, it was always destined to be epic.

Set in the cutthroat world of independent television, it’s packed with romantic entanglements, steamy affairs, and dramatic rivalries. It’s very raunchy – naked tennis scene within 9 seconds – and has a nostalgic ’80’s vibe. Ending on a dramatic cliffhanger, it had me returning to my dog-eared copy to refresh my memory of what happens next, and I’m keeping everything crossed for a second series.

Old favourites

Bookwise, diving back into old favourites seems to have been a bit of a theme. There’s nothing like an Agatha Christie or Ngaio Marsh mystery when you’re feeling blue. But I did discover a couple of new-to-me authors whose books can definitely raise a smile.

Vivian Shaw’s, Greta Helsing trilogy is a joy of the surreal. Offering a delightful mix of supernatural elements and medical mysteries, Greta, Doctor to the Undead, navigates threats ranging from sinister monks to dangerous vampire cabals and malevolent forces.

Droll and witty dialogue, a cast of loveable misfits, and imaginative world-building, encapsulates a series which blends humour, horror, and heart. It’s a refreshingly unique take on urban fantasy, making it a must-read for fans of quirky and supernatural tales.

But it was Stephen Foster’s Walking Ollie (and his follow-up, Along came Dylan), that perked me up the most. These two books are humorous and heartfelt accounts of Foster’s experiences with his neurotic lurcher, Ollie – soon followed by the addition of Dylan.

Both books have genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and Forster’s storytelling captures the chaos, comedy, and challenges of attempting to manage man’s best friend. Suitable for anyone who’s ever had a dog, lost a dog, wanted a dog, or just shares their lives with these bundles of neurosis called canines. Wonderfully entertaining.

And one final recommendation, because this is something that makes me semi-enthused about getting up in the morning. Nope, it’s not Wordle… because now I’ve levelled up to ‘Murdle!’ This online logic puzzle has a whodunnit theme, with a new murder to solve daily. Featuring a list of suspects, weapons, locations, and clues, it’s similar to Cluedo but takes a fraction of the time. A great way to jumpstart your brain. Give it a whirl.

Gaynor Funnell

This year has been another smorgasbord of cultural delights, written, spoken, musical and visual. One of the most moving was Nye, written by Tim Price, and starring Michael Sheen as Aneurin, ‘Nye’ Bevan, the Welsh ‘architect’ of the NHS. We see Nye in his hospital bed, wearing slippers and red striped pyjamas. Through morphine-induced flashbacks as he awaits treatment, we meet amongst others, Churchill, Atlee, a bullying teacher, and, movingly, his dying father.

We live through his wish for health care to be free at the point of use, of his aim to ‘Tredegarise’ the nation.

‘Look what we built’ and ‘Did I look after everyone?’ Two phrases that sum up everything about Nye and the NHS for me. I wasn’t the only one who had tears in their eyes.

A masterclass in storytelling and a journey through music, was Johnny Flynn’s magical River Calls, held in the Tramshed, Cardiff. In collaboration with the writer Robert MacFarlane, music from the albums The Moon Also Rises and Lost In The Cedar Wood, were interspersed with poetic words from Macfarlane, weaving themes of darkness and light, death and rebirth. It was a show unlike anything I’ve seen, a mythological pilgrimage of a unique kind, showing the natural world in all of her face

Continuing with the themes of nature, the writer and poet Rae Howells wrote her poetry collection This Common Uncommon, as a response to the threat of a housing estate being built on a piece of common land near to where she lives, in West Cross, Swansea.

We discover the creatures which make the common their home as well as the people that walk there and delight in the life they find. Life that may soon be covered by concrete. To me, the book is an example of how words can be a powerful tool of communicating these ever-present issues, how words can be used as an act of resistance.