It's Christmas, David! (David Books [Shannon])

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A service of carols, hymns and readings, live from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The Scottish actor, 52, left the show in 2010 after five years. He decided to depart the role when Russell T Davies stepped down as the show's producer. He was tempted to stay on one more year with new producer Steven Moffat, but ultimately decided it was time to move on. The President welcomed the company to the meeting. He introduced Dr David Christmas, Consultant Psychiatrist in the Advanced Interventions Service and based in Dundee, inviting him to give his talk on ‘ Modern Management of Treatment-Refractory Depression and OCD’.

It is similarly difficult to be precise about appropriate referral criteria that allow the AIS to be helpful without taking over the secondary care role for referred patients. There have also been ongoing challenges of accurately defining what AIS can provide where staff and time resources are generally diminishing. Intensive inpatient treatment is occasionally thought appropriate, usually in the form of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy for OCD. Perhaps 4-6 admissions per year for ERP will each receive daily therapy over 3-4 weeks totalling up to 60 hours of personal treatment. Response is limited and similar to other complex OCD treatments in producing a reduction from around 30 to 20 in the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Despite this limited outcome, it is noted that there are no alternative interventions that are regularly more efficacious. My only disappointment is that David himself, as well as the stories, don't mature at all. I wish there was juuuuust a bit more to the text, that David looked juuusst a bit older than he did in his last book. Without that, I fear the series (and the repeated joke) may grow stale because while I was (audibly) excited to see a new book in the series, while reading it I also thought for a second "why is he still telling the same joke?" Their comments came after the arrival of retired boxer Tony Bellew, who was a latecomer to camp on Thursday night’s episode. The official collection includes a festive jumper, scarf and blanket which has taken inspiration from Raymond Briggs’ iconic and best-loved picture book of the same name, which was first published in 1978. Episode 2 - The second special will be airing on December 2 and is called 'Wild Blue Yonder'. The episode synopsis reads: "The Tardis takes the Doctor and Donna to the furthest edge of adventure. To escape, they must face the most desperate fight of their lives, with the fate of the universe at stake."

That's what I said upon finding this on the shelf in my local library. I love that. When something you would have anticipated the arrival of, had you known it was about to exist, is just There one day. Hurrah!

Dr Christmas then moved on to say more about the work of the AIS in Ninewells Hospital which was established with central Scottish Government funding in 2006. Much strategic emphasis has been put on differentiating between the intended quaternary level status of this unit, with the requirement to fill tertiary level need, there being no tertiary level psychiatry services anywhere in Scotland. This means that the majority of the work involves assessing referrals direct from secondary care. It was noted that referral requires no extra expenditure from referring health board to this specialist unit with its top-sliced central funding. These guidelines are never absolute and perhaps even more complex in relation to OCD: previous failed trials of 3 selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including clomipramine, 2 augmentation trials (including risperidone) and 1 ‘intensive therapy’ trial. Dr Christmas summed up by saying that for depression there is little new; ketamine is interesting but currently too short-lived to be useful. Possibly the use of psychedelic agents will be a future area for research. Most developmental work is in neuro-stimulation but there are few really useful outcomes of this to date. For OCD, the best advice is to use existing drugs better and, where tolerated, in higher doses. DBS may be better for OCD than depression but this is not yet substantiated. Sainsbury’s has done well to secure the services of one of the best producers in Rioja (CVNE) for this incredible bargain of a classic gran reserva. From one of the best vintages in recent memory in the region, it’s a harmonious combination of deep dark fruit, soft melting tannins and leathery savouriness. To get to return to something that meant so much 15 years ago, and was such a huge part of my life, was something I never really imagined was likely," David said. "To be the Doctor again, what a treat!"

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But about the book... I know David isn't for everyone. I know some find it garish, but I'm not one of those people. I might develop a staring problem looking at this book because David Small is SO. DAMN. GOOD. The expressions are perfect and funny, as usual, and his painting achieves a feeling of texture I've truly never gotten from any other picture book. References to earlier books (running down the street with nothing but a winter hat and boots on, for example) make a person "HA" outloud. And those snowman pajamas... I want a pair. Ant has been married to Anne-Marie Corbett since 2021, while Dec tied the knot with Ali Astall in 2015 and they have two children together.