Author Archives: admin

We Hunt Together. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Eve Myles, Babou Ceesay, Hermoine Corfield, Vicki Pepperdine, Dipo Ola, Kris Marshall, Babirya Bukilwa, Sharlene Whyte, Neil Stuke, Nigel Harman, Freya Durkan, Steffan Rhodri, Ayomidun Odunaiya, Anaya Beckford-Cole, Kate Dobson, Sylvie Erskine, Anthony Shuster, Perry Fitzpatrick, Kamare Abraham, Michael Bertenshaw, James Redmond.

We fear the murderer in our midst with quite rightful concern, the image of the lone slayer is one that frequents crime novels and the news with ever increasing abundance. From the insatiable to the silent and the patient killer, our screens are filled with the character to whom we see in our nightmares, whose figure is one to whom our own personal Grim Reaper leaves us dreading making their acquaintance.

We Hunt Together. Television Drama Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Limelight: An Eye For A Killing. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jack Lowden, Gavin Mitchell, James Boal, Robert Jack, Helen McKay, Nicola Roy, Maureen Carr, Kyle Gardiner, Ron Donachie, Stuart McQuarrie, Simon Donaldson, Andy Clark, Jimmy Chisholm, James Rottger, Lucianne McEvoy, Paul Young.

Even after two centuries, the names Burke and Hare are enough to spark dialogue and conversation in the darkest corners of any Edinburgh public house; it is in the collective DNA of the city, the fear that persists as the cold rain hits the streets of the narrow old town that human life is considered so cheap that murder for profit is an acceptable thought within the criminal fraternity, and those to whom we entrust our end of life care to, almost always those of a professional class.

Limelight: An Eye For A Killing. Radio Drama Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Calls From Far Away. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Maimie McCoy, Tom Glenister, Bertie Cresswell, Jonathan Forbes Elliott, Joanna Monro, Tom Kiteley, Ruth Everett, Roger Ringrose.

There are moments which truly bring existence into sharp focus. The individual shares the exceptional with maybe just a few others in their lifetime, but what makes one person stop and think is not the same as that which is witnessed with astonishment by the collective human race when that moment sparks a revolution of thought.

Calls From Far Away. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

Stevie Nicks: Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Even to the adoring listener, a single will only offer what amounts to a snap shot in time of what has been consuming the artist, the influence almost transitory…unless it forms part of the larger picture, the album in all its glory which is the equivalent perhaps of an Instagram message, but more of a detailed novel which frames the length of time in which the artist has given over which might be a few months, or in some cases, years between arrangements and full release.

Stevie Nicks: Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities. Box Set Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic. Album Review – 50th Anniversary Reissue.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Logic often be damned, and lucidity be unquiet, for to create art we need to listen to voices in the air that speak to the inner turmoil of existence, and be prepared for the brilliance that shines from being in tune with observation, being on the same wave length as the colours that shape the images that becomes the sculptures of music, of novels, of poetry and drama…for logic only takes you so far, what we need to truly love life is the translucence of self-expression.

Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic. Album Review – 50th Anniversary Reissue. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Dexys: The Feminine Divine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Whatever you may think of Kevin Rowlands, the voice behind the exceptional Dexys Midnight Runners, there can be no doubting of his commitment to the cause to which he sets his mind, the issues that get under his skin take root and manifest into actions and words, they are absolute and honest.

Dexys: The Feminine Divine. Album Review. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 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)

Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams: Should We Tell Him. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We have lost more than we know in the last few years, and whilst Time inevitably catches us all unawares, the shock of the legendary performer taking a final bow from the stage as the music slowly fades, will always leave a lasting sadness to all who have had the pleasure, the honour, of listening to them, and arguably so with greater conviction, those who have lost their mentor and friend.

Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams: Should We Tell Him. Album Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emma Sidi, Barney Fishwick, Kymberley Cochrane, Leah Marks, Gerard McDermott.

When does imagination cross the line, when does a podcast in the modern age transform itself into being a ritual to which people flock to and see it as more than just an exercise in indulgence or a way for a lesser-known story to be revealed.

Podcasting has become a form of entertainment that has opened up the narrative revolution in such a way that it could be argued that it rivals the emergence of the novel in the transformation of how a story can be told by all and listened by everyone.

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh: Fortune By Design. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Collaboration is a strange and magnificent beast.

To involve someone else in your imagination takes courage, you don’t know how they will react to even the slightest change in mood as ideas flow thickly, or as slowly as precision dictates. To collaborate in art is take on a greater degree of trust that is akin in many ways to that of a marriage. Each side has their own interpretation of what will ensure success or a brief beautiful liaison, each moment is a learning curve that is steep and possibly undermining to the overall creation; and this is never truer than in the debut offering rather than in the long-established contribution.

Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh: Fortune By Design. Album Review. full post

(347 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)