Tag Archives: David Haig

COBRA: Series Three. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Robert Carlyle, Victoria Hamilton, David Haig, Lisa Palfrey, Marsha Thompson, Edward Bennett, Lucy Cohu, Richard Pepple, Alexa Davies, Ben Crompton, Jane Horrocks, Holly Cattle, Gregg Chilingirian, Anthony Flanagan, Emily Fairn, Cavan Clerkin, Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Geoffrey McGivern, Rina Mahoney, Wil Johnson, Khalid Laith.

Our perception of government is not only flawed, it is a dangerous and unsustainable in a modern setting; for what goes on behind the scenes of 10 Downing Street, the secret doors of power, and in the inner sanctum that is the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, is not for the faint hearted or those who deny that some meetings are not taken place in public for the fear of upsetting the children, the electorate, or as Orwell observantly wrote, The Proles.

COBRA: Series Three. Television Drama Review. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Louise Brealey, David Haig, Don Gilet, Peter Bankole, David Carlyle, Madeline Potter, Richard Laing, Joel MacCormack, Martina Laird.

We never think of how a disease comes into being, how it is ‘born’, how it evolves…we leave that to the scientists and we react with surprise when it is put to us that the wild speculation we have gossiped over when a friend is diagnosed with a particular illness, is in fact wrong, that it is far more sinister than we imagine, but also more acutely disturbing for our species.

End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Cobra: Cyberwar. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Robert Carlyle, Victoria Hamilton, David Haig, Richard Dormer, Marsha Thomason, Lisa Palfrey, Edward Bennett, Lucy Cohu, Joshua Hogan, Grace Hogg-Robinson, Richard Pepple, Andrew Buchan, Neil Stuke, Alexa Davies, Karan Gill, Dipo Ola, Georgie Bingham, Michael Jibson.

When it comes to politics, art and life are so entwinned that it can be difficult to discern the difference, to understand where fiction and fact blur and merge, where the lines of personal ambition overlap the need of entertainment; only politics seems to play with its own creation, and like Frankenstein looming over the unfortunate being as he pushes electricity through its monstrous shaped body, the result is one of indisputable carnage and denial of responsibility.

Cobra: Cyberwar. Television Review. full post

(555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Killing Eve. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Sean Delaney, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Owen McDonnell, David Haig, Darren Boyd, Ken Nwosu, Sonia Elliman, David Agranov.

The world of spies and espionage is nothing without its major villain, it is the binding reassurance that the tussle between two equally determined people plays out in front of an audience who always seem to have the appetite for the resource of the cloak and dagger, the thinly veiled appreciation of a war that has enthralled readers and viewers alike for decades.

Killing Eve. Television Review. full post

(619 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Witness For The Prosecution. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Toby Jones, Andrea Riseborough, Billy Howle, Hayley Carmichael, Monica Dolan, Kim Cattrall, David Haig, Miranda Nolan, Charles De’Ath, Dorian Lough, Paul Ready, Tim McMullan, Robert East, Adam Jowett, Andrew Havill, Ted Robins, Reid Anderson, William Atkinson, Grant Crookes, Carla Langley, Paul Dallison, Keith Lomas, Charlotte Mason-Apps, Dennis O’ Donnell, Graham Partington, Nicola-Jayne Wells, Patricia Winker.

Agatha Christie is such a staple of television and film that sometimes it can be hard to overlook or forgive when an adaptation has not quite hit the high marks expected of it, sometimes you have let it wash over you and remember the good times, when a marvellous suspense mystery would have the viewer glowing with anticipation and the television schedules would be moved accordingly.

Witness For The Prosecution. Television Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Florence Foster Jenkins, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Helberg, Nina Arianda, John Kavanagh, David Haig, John Sessions, Mark Arnold, Aida Garifullina, Christian McKay, Thelma Barlow, Nat Luurtsema, David Mills.

It seems that in the more cynical days of the 21^st Century, to offer yourself up as having creativity run through you is too paint a target on your back and shout loudly, please kick me, please bring me down. Regardless of your ability, if you have the courage to offer a piece of your soul in the name of art then surely you should be allowed the brief respite of illusion.

Florence Foster Jenkins, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

New Tricks, Life Expectancy. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, David Haig, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Geraldine Somerville, Ramon Tikaram, Denise Gough.

Not many police dramas have the guts to show what can happen to a murder suspect when the near relentless pressure of questioning becomes too much to bear, especially when that suspect has been on an emotional rollercoaster themselves having lost a parent to the person they are accused of murdering, then again and true to good form, not every programme is as acutely aware of the ramifications of such lines of enquiry as New Tricks.

New Tricks, Life Expectancy. Television Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)