Yes Minister: Party Games
by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1984)
Broadcast two years after Series 3 concluded, this Christmas special served first and foremost as a nostalgic coda, but also to test the waters for Yes, Prime Minister. Not as punchy as a regular episode, but suggestive of the programme’s ongoing appeal.
Captain Kremmen and the Krells
by Chris Browne; ill. Roger Wade Walker (Corgi, 1977)
More comic than graphic novel, and not very good. Kenny Everett’s zany irreverence and fast-moving, throwaway delivery doesn’t lend itself to being pinned down. The story is slight—as expected!—but in visual form sags under a preponderance of (eye dialect-heavy) dialogue.
Inspector Montalbano, Season 1
(Rai 2, 1999) [Italian, subtitled]
![TV poster: “Inspector Montalbano, Season 1” (Rai 2, 1999) [Italian, subtitled]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Montalbano-01.jpg)
Two feature-length investigations. The first wobbles a bit in establishing tone—the early characters are hammed-up, Franco Piersanti’s soundtrack bludgeons the viewer with comedic overtures before allowing for more serious developments—but Montalbano is well established by the end of the second.
Flash Gordon
by Arthur Byron Cover (New English Library, 1980), from the screenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr
The prose is less than ordinary, the plot decidedly front-loaded (dawdling to Mongo, ending in a mad babble). While Cover does flesh out characters and events from the film, he mostly just shades/saddles them with a base sexual overlay (his idée fixe?).
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl (George Allen & Unwin, 1964)
audiobook read by David Tennant (Penguin Audio, 2023)
Gleeful and deranged, yet Dahl’s most famous novel is actually a bit of a mess, narrative-wise, establishing Charlie then elbowing him aside to revel in smudgelumptious flights of comeuppance and misopedic wish-fulfilment. David Tennant gives us one of the great Willy Wonkas.
Urn Burial
by Kerry Greenwood (Penguin, 1996)
audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2011)
Greenwood’s take on Golden Age manor-house murder mysteries plays merry with tropes. Phryne, while inscrutably piecing together the various puzzles, does very little with the revelations thus garnered, instead being swept along towards the denouement. Miss Mary Mead is a nice touch.
Squeeze Box
by Philip E. High (New Worlds, March 1959)
reprinted in “Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction Invasions” ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh (Roc, 1990), 350-364.
Workmanlike prose, artless storytelling, humanity triumphing (abruptly and at extreme odds) through dint of doughty everyman qualities and British wartime fortitude recrudescing at a species-wide level. Though lacking finesse, this alien invasion short story neatly captures High’s knack for imaginative SF wish-fulfilment.
The Monsters
by Robert Sheckley
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1953; reprinted in “Perilous Planets” ed. Brian Aldiss (Futura, 1980), 104-114.
A slight tale, which Sheckley narrates from the casually parochial perspective of non-human protagonists, thus making the serious point that ‘humanity’ (or ‘normalcy’ in general) is very much species-centric. The prose is suitably lighthearted, the species differences artfully whimsical in their extremity.
Valérian and Laureline: Heroes of the Equinox
by Jean-Claude Mézières & Pierre Christin (Hodder Dargaud, 1985)
[from “Les Héros de l’équinoxe”, 1978]
![Graphic novel cover: “Valérian and Laureline: Heroes of the Equinox” by Jean-Claude Mézières & Pierre Christin (Hodder Dargaud, 1985) [from “Les Héros de l’équinoxe”, 1978]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Valerian_Laureline_Heroes-Equinox.jpg)
Laureline is mostly sidelined, and even Valérian is relegated to fourth billing, a mooching Lucky Luke-type working through his imposter syndrome behind three SF-styled ideological archetypes representing Hindu mysticism, socialism, and aggressive capitalism. There remain some nice artwork intricacies and storytelling finesses.
#ifdefDEBUG + ‘world/enough’ + ‘time’
by Terry Pratchett
in “Digital Dreams” ed. David V. Barrett (New English Library, 1990), pp. 77-93.
Portable reality overlays. Knowledge/reality loss. Humans existing as data/virus. Deliberately murky in the execution? Perhaps somewhat ahead of its time conceptually, but Pratchett rather loses himself in the attempt to present an everyman voice (while still being a bit Pratchett-like and clever!).