Cool! That's good, I thought Manchester would be a good base from a cultural-urban standpoint. Mostly I just want an established queer culture and a good music scene, so I think I'll be set.

Mostly I just want an established queer culture and a good music scene, so I think I'll be set

Sorted!

When I think of the dodgy parts of Manchester, I think of The Royle Family .And when I think of The Royle Family my heart explodes with love.

YES! Fanfuckingtastic show, that. Caroline Aherne is one talented lady. It's excruciatingly good stuff - incisive as you like, toe-curlingly recognisable people and dialogue. I laughed my socks off, but it also had me weeping like a baby a couple of times. Damn.

...must get that on DVD. Stat.

...it always boggles my mind to think of her with Alexis Denisof. Gosh.

Fay, did you see the special a fortnight or so ago? It undid me; I was undone.

Fay, did you see the special a fortnight or so ago? It undid me; I was undone.

Sadly I don't have TV set up in my flat at present - pretty much all my TV viewing is via DVD (presently rewatching Alias season 4, with a view to appreciating my newly-purchased Alias season 5.)

Well, plus I'm in Thailand, rather than Blighty, so it probably wasn't viewable on whatever the cable telly here is.

Was it the Christmas ep? With the bathroom scene? That reduced me to a blubbering wreck. (Are you in the UK or the States, btw? Or elsewhere?)

No, no, it was a new episode. Baby David as a seven year old, the first glimpse of Anthony's child, "All I ever dreamed of was being laminated throughout" and a bunch of other quotes that have already insinuated themselves into my speech and the most quietly devastating scene yet.

I'm in Ireland but receiving the BBC is par for the course here now.

OMG, really? An all new episode? Is Caroline Aherne back from Australia then?

Argh!

Want. Take. Have!

It's ahemable. You must want. take. have it because it was freakin' brilliant. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it and I'm a manly man.

There was also a talking heads piece on after it with J.K. Rowling, Peter Kay and Noel Gallagher geeking out over it in the most affectionate ways.

There was also a talking heads piece on after it with J.K. Rowling, Peter Kay and Noel Gallagher geeking out over it in the most affectionate ways.

OMG. Bless.

Seriously, I could wax lyrical about The Royle Family at length. It's seriously fantastic writing and acting and it deserves to be studied alongside late 20th Century drama on University courses - it's really much more in the theatrical tradition than using the medium of television.

Christ, that sounds shockingly pretentious. But what I mean is that Aherne used only a handful of sets and it's all dialogue-based, character revealing stuff rather than action-y stuff. It could totally be done on stage with the most minimal changes and not lose anything, which isn't true of most television. And it's so painfully funny and funnily painful and just spot on... yeah. Go Team Aherne.

I'm in Ireland but receiving the BBC is par for the course here now.

You are? So am I! So is Jars! Where are you?

I smell F2F!