It’s took me a long time to track down this film, it was on Channel 5 at Christmas but I managed to miss it, and then found it had been deleted as a DVD and the cost was astronomical, but I finally managed to get one at a decent price from eBay last week and it was definitely worth the wait and effort. Appointment With Death is a 1988 film, the last of the Peter Ustinov Poirot films, following on from Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, and three television movies. Appointment With Death was the last cinema release for the Ustinov films and the least well received,…

Overcoming the business hurdles that stand between you and opening your boutique is no small feat. Finding the right suppliers and building a client base takes determination, time, and lots of “Am I doing the right thing?” moments. That’s why the worst part of any business venture is chasing payment – after spending months of your time working late into the night to set up your boutique, the last thing you need is clients who don’t pay.  Clients who try to get away with not paying is all too common. And where they can’t quite pull off their attempt at daylight robbery, they may insist on a discount. They will…

While the benefits of drama as part of the school curriculum might not be immediately obvious, it’s actually a crucial subject in helping them develop various transferrable soft skills, particularly for younger children. I have teamed up with a private school in Somerset to explore this further.  Nursery-aged children benefit from drama because it helps them with their co-ordination and spatial awareness skills. What’s more, they must learn how to concentrate, follow directions and communicate with their teachers and peers. Drama is a great way to help children learn to express themselves, not only using words, but also through body language and facial expressions. Teamwork is also a skill they…

I have to say I have thought long and hard about writing this post. The Serpent is one of the most intoxicating and stylish programmes of recent times, shot in such a way that it actually looks like it could be a 1970’s original, and there is no doubt that the leads, Jenna Coleman and Tahar Rahim, as conman/gem dealer, Charles Sobhraj and his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc are both beautiful and oh so stylish. But the crimes they committed were amongst the coldest and most horrific you will ever hear about, so it feels awful to be sitting watching and thinking about Jenna’s (Marie-Andree aka Dominique) white kaftan. The 1970’s…