The Mystery of Mary Magdalene - Melvyn Bragg BBC documentary showcasing current thinking about Mary Magdalene: definitely not a prostitute, but a financial supporter of Jesus and possibly his number one disciple and "tower" (which is what Magdalene means).
The DaVinci Code - okay, so Mary Magdalene probably wasn't really Jesus's wife, but re-watching this super film on DVD seemed the natural follow-up to Melvyn Bragg's documentary.
The National Gallery - celebrating the fact that it's free, and a great place to spend a spare hour in central London and make discoveries: beside Titian's erotically-charged Noli Me Tangere I found another painting of Mary Magdalene at the scene of the resurrection, by Savoldo. (What is the message in those eyes? Perhaps: "He is not here; he is risen.")
Broadchurch - ITV crime drama with David Tennant and Olivia Coleman. Not so much a story about whodunnit (though that was compelling enough) as a story about a place and its people; tremendous TV.
Paradise - another lovingly crafted adventure game from the pen (both graphic and textual) of Benoît Sokal; not as great as his Syberia series (One and Two), but with the same vivid sense of place and wistful mood.
Neverwhere - radio version of Neil Gaiman's TV drama and novel by Dirk Maggs, who also did the radio dramatisations of the later Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy novels after the death of Douglas Adams. Both confirm my sense that fantasy novels are best dramatised on the radio (though I'll make an exception for Stardust).
Third International Festival of Choirs and Orchestras held in Poreč, Croatia, where Polymnia (in which I sing) was performing.
80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin - a collection of tributes and gift offerings to Ursula Le Guin on her eightieth birthday last year.
Dans la maison (In the House) - new French film. A teacher becomes obsesed with the writing of his one promising student, whose homework essays on "what I did at the weekend" relate how he first spies on, then insinuates himself into the enviably normal family of another pupil at the school. A neatly crafted film about writer and reader, pupil and teacher, in which you're never quite sure how much is real and how much is fantasy.
Scott and Bailey - third series of the ITV cop drama, which I regret not having followed earlier. Rather as the disreputable surgeons of M*A*S*H remeeded themselves by their professionalism in the operating theatre, the cops with the chaotic personal lives display their professionalism in the authentically-scripted suspect interview scenes.
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