Girl Power!

The concept that the male protagonist of one of Britain's most successful shows could potentially regenerate into a woman has created mass speculation and debate amongst Doctor Who fans for some time now. Since the announcement of Peter Capaldi's departure this discussion about whether a woman could play a traditionally male role dramatically increased.

It was something I'd personally never questioned before. I suppose it might be because I grew up watching the show and I'd just accepted that The Doctor was a white male as I didn't know any different. I think it is down to this that I always pictured myself as the companion, never The Doctor, and I believe this is the same for a quite a few female Doctor Who fans.

However, after the announcement today that Broadchurch's Jodie Whittaker will play the first ever female doctor I strongly believe this notion will change. Young girls will grow up with a strong, inspirational woman playing The Doctor and no longer only see themselves as companions which I absolutely adore!

The introduction of Missy, a female reincarnation of The Doctor's childhood friend The Master, was a big game changer. Michelle Gomez's fantastic portrayal of Missy affirmed the idea that Time Lords could in fact change gender or sex. This was a key factor in kickstarting the controversial discussion once again and planted the seed for change. Steven Moffat also strategically planted hints about the plans for a female 13th Doctor throughout Series 10 with the 12th Doctor openly confessing to Bill about the gender fluidity of Time Lords. The show also rallied for change recently with the
introduction of the first ever openly gay female companion, Bill Potts played by the wonderful Pearl Mackie.

This is a huge moment in history for the show and after this I couldn't be more excited for Chris Chibnall to take over as show runner! Jodie Whittaker will be an inspiration to young girls all over the world as the first ever leading lady of Doctor Who and I am so glad I get to witness and be a part of it!

xx Beth xx

Regarding Historical Musicals

Hello there! It's been a while hasn't it? It seems that I haven't made a blog post for almost a year now oops...

Anyway, I'm now at university in Manchester studying English, which is rather exciting!

If you know anything about me then you'll know that musicals are one of my favourite things in the whole world and I've come to the realisation that the musicals that affect me the most are the ones based on true stories and real people, i.e. Les Miserables. Two new musicals recently have deeply impacted me. One tells the story of an immigrant from the Caribbean who founded America's financial system and the other the story of an author and playwright's inspiration for Peter Pan - they of course are titled Hamilton and Finding Neverland. Funnily enough I have never seen either of these musicals as they have not yet landed on British soil but they are on their way over the pond!

I'll start of course with the revolutionary Hamilton... I am not kidding when I say that this musical has changed my life. It has made me question my existence and has influenced the way I behave. Any time I'm in a crisis or having a mental breakdown I now stop and think to myself, "What would Eliza Hamilton do?" The music is absolutely phenomenal and nothing like any other previous musical soundtrack, it gives me chills.

This show has also made me look at history in a whole new way. The musical visualisation of a historical story such as Alexander Hamilton's allows a connection to be made between the audience and historical figures/characters and people can actually relate to every single character. They no longer just become names on a page in a history book, they come alive and become real people with real problems who are extremely relatable to an audience. I personally can relate to Angelica Schuyler the most. Angelica puts other people's needs and happiness before her own, which I myself am guilty of! This is especially evident when she allows her younger sister Eliza to fall in love with Alexander despite the fact that she had an extremely strong flirtatious relationship with him, which made her extremely unsatisfied with her life. One of my favourite parts of the show is actually the ending in which the title Hamilton actually ends up referring to Eliza just as much as it does Alexander. Eliza tells the audience about her legacy and it is made clear by her that she is the one who made sure her husband was remembered in history and it is down to her that this musical even exists today. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius and I will love him forever for making, as Michelle Obama described it, "the best piece of art in any form."

Anyway moving on...

After I sat sobbing in my uni halls at 2am the other day having watched the stunning film Finding Neverland - the story behind J.M Barrie's inspiration for his famous play/novel Peter Pan, I decided to give Gary Barlow's musical adaptation a listen and wow did it make me emotional! Barlow's score perfectly captures the extremely moving story of Barrie's special relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her sons: Peter, Michael, Jack (John) and George. The song that really moves me the most has to be 'When Your Feet Don't Touch the Ground' which perfectly explores grief and hopelessness through both an adult's mind and a child's. The whole concept that Neverland effectively represents a kind of Heaven completely blew my mind and the music is simply stunning. I cannot wait for the West End transfer!

Never did I ever think that the story of one of America's founding fathers or of a struggling Scottish playwright would affect and move me so deeply. 

xx Beth xx

Goodbye 2015

Hello there, I can't quite believe I'm already writing this! It only seems like yesterday I was creating my resolutions for 2015! With 2016 rapidly approaching us it is time once again to reflect on the year gone by. This year has been pretty good overall (with the exception of Zayn leaving One Direction and all the other 1D drama but shhh we're not going to talk about that!)

I've miraculously managed to actually meet quite a few amazing people including West End stars such as: Beverley Knight, Rob Houchen and Zoe Doano. I also managed to meet the wonderful Carrie Hope Fletcher and also got to see her perform as Eponine in Les Miserables! This means I have actually fulfilled one of my resolutions for this year which was to meet at least one of the people I look up to!

Being invited to London by Beverley Knight to see her in Memphis the Musical and then going on stage after to meet her was also a major highlight of the year.

Another amazing opportunity I've had this year was getting to visit the historic city of Berlin and also the concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland. This trip was truly significant and will stay with me forever.

I have actually managed to travel quite a lot this year, this is mainly thanks to university open days, and I have loved exploring new cities in both the UK and in Europe. New favourites of mine include: Manchester, Liverpool and Berlin.

2015 also saw the start of One Direction's break and another highlight this year has been seeing the boys live again in Birmingham (minus Zayn which was a tad weird.) I hadn't seen them since March 2013 as I was meant to go to the Where We Are Tour last year but was unfortunately ill so I was especially looking forward to seeing them again and had the best time ever!

Receiving offers from all of my university choices has also been extremely exciting and this time last year I honestly never thought it would never happen!

Seeing Dan and Phil on their tour in Salford was also a highlight as I've been watching their YouTube videos for over three years now so it was so lovely to actually see them in real life and witness a theatre full of teenagers singing along to Breaking Free from High School Musical!

So there we have it! Next year is already looking promising with many events lined up including: being a bridesmaid, going to Summer in the City, seeing Little Mix on tour and going to university!

See you in 2016! Happy New Year!

xx Beth xx

October aka The Month of New Music!

Hello there! It seems over the last couple of weeks every single artist ever decided to drop their new music and I'm certainly not complaining! So therefore I thought I'd share some of my favourite new tracks and albums with you.

Perfect - One Direction

This song actually destroyed me in the best and worst possible way. The chorus is extremely reminiscent of Taylor Swift's 'Style' which ruined my life especially since Harry and Taylor were my favourite couple ever when they dated. Also some of the lyrics made me enter a state of shock and awe as they are reminiscent of Taylor's song 'Wonderland':

Perfect: 'When I first saw you, from across the room, I could tell that you were curious'

Wonderland: 'Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?'

So yes I absolutely adore this song as it is basically Wonderland 2.0 and you can definitely tell Taylor was a major influence for this song! I cannot wait for 'Made in the A.M.' :D

Confident - Demi Lovato

I have been waiting for new Demi music for two years and so I was extremely hyped for this new album and Demi did certainly not disappoint!

It could be argued that 'Confident' is Demi's best album yet and I certainly agree. Her vocals on this album especially on tracks such as: 'Stone Cold', 'Lionheart' and 'Father' are absolutely breathtaking!

The balance of dance tracks and soulful ballads is perfect and even the more upbeat songs have meaningful lyrics.

Some of my favourite tracks include: 'Cool For the Summer', 'Stone Cold', 'Kingdom Come', 'Yes', 'Father' and 'Mr Hughes.'

Wasn't Expecting That - Jamie Lawson

I recently was lucky enough to attend One Direction's On The Road Again Tour (which was amazing by the way!) and their support act was an extremely talented humble guy called Jamie Lawson. 

I had heard a little bit about him before going to the show, he is the first person to be signed to Ed Sheeran's record label 'Gingerbread Man Records.' 

Of all the songs he played I was particularly drawn to 'Wasn't Expecting That' which is a heart wrenching bitter sweet tale of life and love. 

Should've Been Us - Tori Kelly

Tori Kelly has one of the most incredible voices I have ever heard and she is of course the queen of riffs and runs. I first heard of her through her cover of Pretty Young Thing by Michael Jackson on YouTube in which she does an absolutely insane riff! Go watch it you won't regret it! (The riff is at 2 mins 20 secs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVNgB_DS_g 

Tori's album has just come out in the UK and one of my favourite songs off of it is 'Should've Been Us.' It has such a funky beat and reminds me of the 90s for some reason? 

Some of my other new favourite songs include:

Ocean - Lauren Aquilina

Sweet Nothing - Gabrielle Aplin

Love Me Like You - Little Mix

xx Beth xx

Regarding Saving Mr Banks

Hello there! I have recently fallen in love with the heart breaking yet brilliant film 'Saving Mr Banks' which documents Disney's 20 year mission to obtain the film rights of P.L. Travers' book 'Mary Poppins.'

For anyone who loves 'Mary Poppins' this film gives a real insight into who inspired the beloved characters: Mary Poppins, Bert and of course Mr Banks and the rest of the Banks'. You begin to understand that Mary Poppins didn't come to save the children, she came to save their father and reconnect him with his family. 

We learn through flashbacks in the film that Travers' own father suffered from alcohol misuse and suffered a short, bleak end to his life due to his stressful job as a bank manager. Her father is clearly reflected in the character of Mr Banks, however Travers (played by Emma Thompson) changed Mr Banks' ending to a happier more pleasant one and I think this may have been her way of seeing her father, who she adored dearly, live on. 

As a result of the hardship Travers suffered in her early years we see she has become very headstrong and abrupt, she refuses to let Walt Disney (played by Tom Hanks) turn Mary Poppins into one of his "silly cartoons" and also claims that "Mary Poppins does not sing" which causes trouble for the Sherman brothers. However, by the end of the film we come to understand why Travers was so protective of her characters and we see that she has become more accepting of Disney and his work, even though she famously disliked the film.

This is a must see for anyone who is a big fan of 'Mary Poppins', it will tear at your heartstrings but from it you will begin to understand everything.

xx Beth xx

Trip to Berlin and Krakow

Hello there! This last week has been unforgettable, and I wanted to share with you some pictures of the incredible experiences I have gained from my visits to Berlin and Krakow.

Reichstag and Walking Tour of Berlin 

Exterior of Reichstag

Russian graffiti in the Reichstag written by the Soviet Union in World War Two.

Bullet holes from World War Two.

Check point Charlie.

One of the three remaining sections of the Berlin wall.

Brandenburg Gate.

Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz

This is the house in which the Nazis held their meetings and came up with the 'final solution'.

Soviet War Memorial and Berlin Wall

Krakow

Visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau

On Sunday we visited the infamous sites of Auschwitz and Birkenau. I cannot even begin to explain to you what I felt that day. Our first stop was Auschwitz, which used to be Army Barracks before the Nazis occupied it and turned it into a concentration camp. Shockingly it was rather commercialised and close to civilisation, I was expecting it to be in the middle of nowhere but it was in fact surrounded by restaurants, shops and houses.

During our extremely emotional walk around Auschwitz we walked through an actual gas chamber that was used to murder over 1.5 million innocent people. The atmosphere in that room was one of the darkest things I have ever felt in my life. In the old barracks there were displays of people's belongings such as: suitcases, shoes and even people's hair. The humungous piles of these items really made me realise the scale of the horrors carried out by the Nazis. 

We then made our way over to the second camp, Birkenau. The sheer size of Birkenau was very overwhelming and daunting, it's many times larger than Auschwitz. This purpose built death camp was more isolated than the previous camp but still relatively close to civilisation. A single ominous train track runs through the entrance and ends in the middle of the camp, this is where selection for either death or living would have taken place. The huts in which people would have been expected to live in were absolutely horrendous and resembled sheds in which you would expect animals to be kept in. Towards the end of the holocaust the Nazis tried to destroy any evidence of what they were doing in Birkenau, so they destroyed the gas chambers and to this day the remains of them lie in the same place and position that they did in 1945. 

Meeting a Survivor of the Holocaust

We had the honour to meet a wonderful, inspirational woman called Lydia on Monday. Lydia found herself in Auschwitz-Birkenau when she was just a child. She told us the story of how her mother had worked outside the camp during the day and found food hidden by the local people in the bushes. Her mother would sneak the food back into the camp and feed it to Lydia under the cover of night. Unfortunately Lydia never saw her mother again after the camp had been liberated and she had to be given a whole new identity as she couldn't remember her name or her age. It's due to her mother that she's alive today.

It's safe to say that visiting Berlin and Krakow is an experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life and if you really, truly want to understand what Auschwitz and Birkenau are like, you need to visit yourself because it is a very personal experience.

xx Beth xx

SCOTUS Legalises Gay Marriage!

Hello there! One of the most significant moments in American history has just occurred - GAY MARRIAGE IS NOW LEGAL AND A HUMAN RIGHT IN ALL 50 US STATES!

This absolutely revolutionary news means that no longer will gay couples be denied the right to marry the one they love, no longer will they be discriminated against in the church and this makes me unbelievably happy! Hopefully this will encourage more and more people to come out and not be afraid to embrace who they are!

This is the amazing statement that was delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States:

26th June 2015 is a date that our children will be reading about in history textbooks in the future and will be remembered for centuries. I am so proud that I have witnessed and experienced such an iconic event in my lifetime.

The LGBTQ+ community still has a long way to go but this is certainly a phenomenal event in LBGTQ+ history!

Here's to a fairer, equal future for everyone!

xx Beth xx