David Biddle

Frontend Web Developer

2022 end of year roundup

For many people this year will have been a good one, being the year that things returned to some degree of ‘normality’ after the pandemic. For me 2022 has been less good. The year started with my grandad dying, and got worse in September with the sudden death of my dad. I don't really want to dwell on those things here, but I'm grateful for the people in my life who've supported me through it.

Despite the bad things that happened this year, I'm continuing my annual review of things I've enjoyed this year - even bad years aren't universally bad, and I think it's important to celebrate positive things when we encounter them.

Film

I usually do this as an unordered list, but this year I especially want to call out Aftersun - I know everyone else is also raving about it but it really is an oustanding film, and of all the films I've seen this year it's the one that has stuck with me the most.

Eligibility criteria: I've limited myself here to works that got a UK theatrical or streaming release in 2022.

TV

Eligibility criteria: here I've only included programmes which had at least 1 new episode in 2022.

Music

Eligibility criteria: albums or EPs listed as 2022 releases on Spotify or Bandcamp. I'm not including reissues, compilations, or rerecords, so Franz Ferdinand's Hits to the Head doesn't qualify.

Books

This year I continued with my attempt to read all the novels of John le Carré. I'm now firmly out of the Cold War and into events I actually remember and was politically engaged with at the time, which feels a bit odd.

Eligibility criteria: books of any age which I read for the first time in 2022.

Games

I didn't play many games this year. For video games, I enjoyed Return of the Obra Dinn, and sunk a bit more time into Cuphead. In board games, I got Burgle Bros. but haven't had a chance to play it yet, and I tried Wingspan which I enjoyed but haven't got my head round yet. I played some others but i haven't done a good job remembering or recording them, which is something to think about for next year.

Theatre

I saw a couple of good plays this year namely Punchdrunk's The Burnt City which lived up to my expectations despite the hype, and Gary Owen's Iphigenia in Splott, which I bought a discounted last-minute ticket for while in London for work, and which really moved me in a way I wasn't expecting.

Sport

At the end of January I broke my ankle while out running, which was incredibly painful and not particularly conducive to sport. I was lucky though - it was a minor fracture, and with a few weeks in a boot and some physio I was able to start training again - I even hit my distance goal for the year, which I assumed was a write off.