Reviews

Major label debut of grandiose Seattle-based punks

Impressive follow-up to 2001's acclaimed New American Language from prolific folk rocker

More manic skronk action from Brooklyn

Promising debut from Bay Area moodsmith Jason Lakis

Enigmatic Norwegian improvisational collective

Thirty-track two-CD collection from the Oz man's post-Sabbath oeuvre

Seriously hot B-movie schlock'n'roll on a flying saucer tip

Adaptation of Spike Milligan's cult 1963 novel

This 1938 Frank Capra outing may have won an Oscar but its tale of the son of a wealthy family (Jimmy Stewart) looking to buy up the property of Lionel Barrymore's cheerful brood of eccentrics (who include an improbably youthful Jean Arthur), is over-treacled with Capra-esque sentimentalism. Stewart's role is underplayed, the plot is slow-moving and the comedic pickings lean.

Sharon Osbourne, reviewing Series One, sighs wistfully to her son: "I wish it was back then, Jack... we were innocent then." Jack replies: "I think we've been robbed of our innocence."And it was precisely those naïve and spontaneous moments in the Osbourne family mansion that made the first series such a richly human, entertaining and unrepeatable TV experience.