Tag Archives: Frances Barber

Inside No.9 : Love Is A Stranger. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Claire Rushbrook, Frances Barber, Matthew Horne, Asim Chaudhry.

The insular and the perpetually lonely, the shy and the sexually sly, have never had it so good when it comes to the advent of online dating. As near to anonymity as it is possible to go, the filters, the regulations, the privacy, all is in favour of finding the one, the perfect match which little engagement and effort; for nobody expects to find love online, no one imagines unearthing the one to die for in such a short space of time.

Inside No.9 : Love Is A Stranger. Television Review. full post

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

The Mezzotint. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Rory Kinnear, Frances Barber, Robert Bathurst, John Hopkins, Nikesh Patel, Emma Cunliffe, Tommaso Di Vincenzo.

It is the embracement of life, of being thankful for what you have, and not the chance to add want to the overburdened and groaning table or under pressure waiter serving you another daily dose of charm, reality, and thought, that makes Christmas special, for in reality we see the shadows that skulk at the door, we feel the draft at our feet whilst the heart is cosy, and in that heartbeat that makes us inhale deeply, that causes a string of sweat to form on the brow, we find the night before the ‘big day’ the true meaning of being alive.

The Mezzotint. Television Review. full post

(589 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julia Walters, Vanessa Redgrave, Stephen Graham, Leanne Best, James Bloor, Frances Barber, Kenneth Cranham, Isabelle Laughland, Peter Turner, Tom Brittney, Edward Bourne, Susanne Bertish, Joey Batey, Tim Ahern, Luana Di Pasquale.

Imagine, if you can, what it would be to be in a relationship with someone who was once considered Hollywood royalty, who held audiences captive with their ability on screen and who made crowds love them. It is surely impossible to believe such a thing could happen, even if you do read about in the gossip columns and the world of social media, it is almost too good to ever believe it would happen to you.

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool. Film Review. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders: Crime And Punishment. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Fiona Dolman, Nick Hendrix, James Atherton, Frances Barber, Neil Morrissey, Sam Troughton, Manjinder Virk, Philip Bird, Phoebe Campbell, Marty Cruikshank, Emilio Doorgasingh, Susan Fordham, Ty Hurley, Vicki Pepperdine, Sara Powell, Katy Cavanagh, Joe Sims, Clive Swift.

When those who watch become all powerful, is it any wonder that those under the microscope start to wreck a little havoc of their own, to tip the balance back in the favour of common sense rather than authoritarianism, the pettiness of the small minded that can lead to people in rural villages falling out with each other.

Midsomer Murders: Crime And Punishment. Television Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Frances de la Tour, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam, Philip Davis, Nicholas Rowe, Madeleine Worrall, Sarah Crowden, Takako Akashi, Zak Shukor, Michael Culkin, Sam Coulson, Frances Barber, John Sessions, Colin Starkey.

There is perhaps a question of whether age diminishes the achievements that have been made in youth or whether to be seen as fallible, to be seen as mortal actually enhances the great strides made when life was to be moulded, when Time was not feared and the weakness that must come to us all as frailty and memory forsake the owner.

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Mapp And Lucia, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast; Miranda Richardson, Anna Chancellor, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, Pippa Haywood, Nicholas Woodeson, Gemma Whelen,  Poppy Miller, Felicity Montague, Paul Ritter, Jenny Platt, Susan Porrett, Maxine Roach,  Joanna Scanlan, Simon Startin, Harish Patel, Frances Barber, Gavin Broker, Soo Drouet, Andy Godfrey, Sophie Leigh Stone, Peter Mould.

The English and their manners, it is a wonder at times that we haven’t tied ourselves up in knots and caused a type of inner combustion with the subtle one-upman, or indeed in the case of the three part television series Mapp And Lucia, one up-womanship that so leads to conflict with our neighbours and dearest friends. It is possibly the modern etiquette attached to an English Civil War, if we cannot get rid of a Government taking the country apart, lets kick down the social ladder.

Mapp And Lucia, Television Review. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

We’ll Take Manhattan. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Originally published by L.S. Media. January 27th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Aneurin Barnard, Karen Gillan, Helen McCrory, Joseph May, Frances Barber, Robert Glenister.

It can only be described as astonishing to think that nobody has filmed the love affair between two of the most iconic British people from the 1960’s before now. Before the Beatles and the Liverpool invasion of Ed Sullivan’s show, which made a generation of American teenagers sit and take notice for the first time what was happening across the pond in dear, tired old Britain, there was a seismic cultural revolution that took hold with just one camera shot.

We’ll Take Manhattan. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(604 words, 1 image, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)