UK
cover
High Hopes (1989) NeoDB Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
High Hopes
director: Mike Leigh actor: Phil Davis / Ruth Sheen …
other title: Belle speranze / Grandes Ambições …
Working-class couple Shirley and Cyril are in conflict over whether they should have children, their problems with 'yuppies' moving into the neighbourhood and outpricing them, and the advent of Cyril's ageing mother's seventieth birthday.
cover
Bizarro Spotify Discogs NeoDB
The Wedding Present genre: Indie Rock / Post-punk / Pop-punk / Noise Pop
release date Oct. 23, 1989 publisher: RCA
The Wedding Present's second studio album—and first "proper" album for RCA—came soon after the Ukrainian John Peel Sessions / Українські Виступи в Івана Піла folk music side project.

Technically speaking, only one single was taken from the album, "Kennedy", which provided the band with their first Top 40 hit, reaching #33. In early 1990, The Wedding Present re-recorded "Brassneck" with Steve Albini, which reached #24 in the UK charts. The single and its B-sides were later included on U.S. release of the album, and are also included on the Singles 1989-1991 compilation. The US CD version contains the Wedding Present's cover of "Box Elder", an early song by then unknown American band Pavement. A remastered CD version, released by BMG Camden in 2001, also features the B-sides of the "Kennedy" single, including a cover version of the Tom Jones hit "It's Not Unusual".
cover
Fin de Siècle Spotify
The Divine Comedy
release date Aug. 31, 1998 publisher: Divine Comedy
Jan. 12, 2026 listened
'National Express' never fails to bring joy to my heart, but the whole concept album impresses, too.

But then what do you expect when a chamber pop songsmith like Neil Hannon sits in a flat in Clapham listening to Jacques Brel, playing pirate games on the Playstation & musing on the end of the 20th century? :)
UK 1990s TheDivineComedy ChamberPop
cover
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (Miniseries) (2004) TMDB NeoDB Douban
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace Season 1 part of TV Series: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
director: Richard Ayoade / Paul King actor: Matthew Holness / Matt Berry …
In the 1980s horror writer Garth Marenghi wrote, produced, directed and starred in Darkplace, a groundbreaking series set in a hospital and exploring the depths of the author's imagination. At least that's what Marenghi and his publicist/co-star, Dean Learner, claim in modern-day interviews which both bookend and interrupt the episodes. In fact the show is cheap, chiché'd, full of gaping plot holes and startlingly misogynist. Garth Marenghi is a creation of comedian Matthew Holness, who won a Perrier award with the character at the 2001 Edinburgh festival. Written by Richard Smeltzer.
cover
Event Horizon (1997) NeoDB Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData Skybridge
Event Horizon
5.5 (14 ratings) director: Paul W. S. Anderson actor: Larry / Sam Neill …
other title: Punto di non ritorno / O Enigma do Horizonte …
In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.
cover
Night and the City (1950) TMDB IMDb WikiData
Night and the City
director: Jules Dassin actor: Richard Widmark / Francis L. Sullivan …
other title: I trafficanti della notte / Foragidos da Noite …
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
cover
Scala!!! (2024) IMDb TMDB
Scala!!!
director: Jane Giles / Ali Catterall actor: John Waters / Adam Buxton …
This feature-length big screen documentary tells the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years.
Dec. 28, 2025 to watch 1984-1989 the Scala was my local cinema!

Trigger: watching The Ladykillers (1955) & recognizing the Scala as someone leaves King's Cross Station
London Documentary 2020s Cinema UK
cover
Bernard and the Genie (1991) NeoDB IMDb Douban
Bernard and the Genie
director: Paul Welland actor: Lenny Henry / John Gabriel …
other title: Bernie und der Weihnachtsgeist
Bernard Bottle, a mild mannered art buyer, is fired by his greedy boss, abandoned by his girlfriend and discovers a genie in an old bottle. The genie immediately embraces the modern world and helps Bernard on the side.