Dan Cleary is one clever guy - actor, writer, producer and someone who doesn't mind poking the borax.

Mark Lynch does love his rugby. I remember once when Lynch and I and a few stragglers went to see the Waratahs play the Stormers in Sydney.

To state the bleeding obvious, we can be a nation of blunt-ended rugby fanatics. As 1987 All Blacks captain David Kirk quips in his foreword of Ian Grant's book Having A Ball, "it's part of the rhythm of life, and long may it remain so".

When the sumptuous Great Gardens of Italy series recently screened here, you couldn't help but notice quite a few shots of its host, British garden guru Monty Don, staring pensively out at the scenery, chiselled chin on hand.

The most recent addition to the Late Night Tales stable is a typically pyschedelic, dreamy, and occasionally niggly collection of songs pulled together by New York electronic rockers MGMT.

You'd have to be in a pretty cynical mood not to smile at their light-as-air, finger-skipping arrangements, sunny strumming and casual vocal harmonies.

Alexandre Dumas' classic story has been adapted many times, its film history stretching back to the silent era. The last time Hollywood took a decent stab at it was in 1993 with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt attempting some rapier wit.

Four films set in London, one in Barcelona and he's just finished shooting in Rome: that Woody Allen sure gets around.

More percussive sorcery, soul jazz wizardry and seductive sounds from the south Pacific courtesy of human metranome Will Ricketts (aka Wild Bill) from the Phoenix Foundation, and many other bands.

A traditional-style epic tale, this well-paced musical extravaganza is by turns cheesy, dramatic and genuinely moving.

Where the Dum Dum Girls' debut album I Will Be was an accomplished addition to the world of fuzzy, sugar-driven surf rock, their sophomore effort is a clear step up for the Californian all-female four-piece..

Sharon Finn brings out the quirky, playful musical side of Neil. They started having jams at Roundhead Studios on Friday nights, with Neil on drums and Sharon on bass, having a bit of fun with a glass of wine or two.

Quite when one might listen to Bjork's eighth album is hard to figure - apart from when you get the chance to lock yourself away in seclusion so you can appreciate Biophilia's mighty feat of sonic beauty and its many elaborate layers.

The vinyl reissue is something of a victory lap for contemporary musicians – and if there’s any artist from the last 10 years who could claim to having ‘won’ at music, Ariel Pink’s a likely contender.

Bo Diddley was the originator – without him there’d be no Beatles, Mick’n’Keef, no Pistols, no rap. Big call? Yes. Is it true? Absolutely.

This particular Bachelorette performance was always going to be weighted by sentimentality.

Minrose Gwin clearly had a miserable time of it. Her father, Al the airman, only stuck around long enough to witness her birth, then fled to parts unknown, never to be seen again, although, to be fair, he did send Minrose a birthday present every year.

Murders, battles, seduction, witchcraft ... and a water goddess. It would be hard not to write a ripping history of the English War of the Roses.

Christchurch-born, Britain-based Edlin's first novel, The Widow's Daughter, was a crammed narrative of World War II Auckland, and the reverberations of a sexual liaison across decades and oceans. It was commendably ambitious and inevitably uneven.

Linda Olsson's novels sell in mega-numbers overseas. There are many places in this tender, loving story where you can understand why.

When the stone deer was placed in position in the pool in front of the Chalabi home in Kazimiya, near Baghdad, locals immediately named the palatial home the Deer Palace.

First came Transformers, Tron, The A-Team, Clash of the Titans, and The Karate Kid, to name just a few, and now Hollywood has re-opened the 80s vault again with a remake of pop culture classic Footloose.

Thirty-five years on (or thereabouts), this is the sequel to Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare album, his first solo outing following a clutch of classic records with the original Alice Cooper band.