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Cabin Pressure. B.B.C. Radio Four. Series Four Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Benedict Cumberpatch, Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole, John Finnemore.

The B.B.C. has always given comedy shows that gain a good following on the radio a big leg up to television when the time was right, the crossover a seamless and natural curve in the life of decent shows that grow up to big favourites on the small screen. From the days of Hancock’s Half Hour , the B.B.C. has nurtured the radio comedy like a gleaming talented child. It is a bit surprising to find that even after four series of the hilarious and cleverly written B.B.C. Four Extra programme Cabin Pressure, it still doesn’t seem to be any closer to getting the nod to transfer over.

Cabin Pressure. B.B.C. Radio Four. Series Four Review. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

The Lady Vanishes. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tuppence Middleton, Tom Hughes, Selina Cadell, Keeley Hawes, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stephanie Cole, Gemma Jones, Alex Jennings, Sandy McDade, Pip Torrens, Benedickte Hansen, Jesper Christensen, Charles Aitken, Zsuzsu David.

In the best traditions of Agatha Christie do others dare attempt to follow and for the second time since the definitive version directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, The Lady Vanishes, originally written by Ethel Lina White, gets an all star treatment, a huge budget that would make some television and film directors wince at the thought at what they could achieve with a fraction and in the end whilst laudable unfortunately doesn’t stand up to any of the recent highs the B.B.C. has managed this year in its drama department.

The Lady Vanishes. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Celia Imrie, Richard E. Grant, Robert Whitlock, Dan Li, Manpreet Bachu, Sean Knopp, James Greene, Geff Francis, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Danielle Eames, Fred Pearson, Jade Anouka, Olivia Hill, Isabella Blake-Thomas, Matthew Earley, Antony Edridge.

The new series, or should that be the second part of the previous series or even the build-up to the 50^th Anniversary of the longest running science fiction show on British television has returned after its winter sabbatical and it seems it is going to become about obsession.

Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John. Television Review. full post

(739 words, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

Dean Friedman: Live Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. (2025).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A man can surely not be all things to all men, but he can be an architect, a painter, and a social commentator in one timeless motion, a thinker, a polymath of the soul to whom art captures the most seemingly everyday emotions and sights and turns them into a dramatic exercise of human observations and the nuance of portrayal of stories and weaved musical charm.

Dean Friedman: Live Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. (2025). full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Gary Moore: Live – From Baloise Session. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some legends are taken far too early for the public to comprehend, the sense of unfinished business looms large in the conscious.

What we hold onto is the hope that those who have featured long in our lives have left us more than memories, they have squirreled away nuggets of gold in which the listener is given more than anticipated promise, they are endowed with faith; for the passing of a hero, especially one so prolific as one of the true greats of the Blues, Gary Moore, will always have something for the fans even in the event of Time’s inevitable passing.

Gary Moore: Live – From Baloise Session. Album Review. full post

(418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

I, Claudia: Storms & Silver Linings. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Storms gather, it is in the very fabric of existence that we must expect upheaval, but if we weather the storm, if we seize the silver linings on show as the lightning illuminates their positions and meanings to us, then we may find something unexpected, a tale of the unforeseen presented as a gift to us.

I, Claudia’s message in Storms & Silver Linings is one of impressionable intimacy, and for the woman behind the name, Claudia McKenzie, the intricacy of arrangements and vocals beguile the senses for the first time listener and confirm certainties of those who have followed the maker of the self-confessed chaos and essence.

I, Claudia: Storms & Silver Linings. Album Review. full post

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

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 11th 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Julie Walters, Maxine Peake, Tom Georgeson, Simon Russell Beale, Alun Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, Harry Lloyd, Michelle Dockery, Robert Pugh.

If the first in the B.B.C.’s Hollow Crown adaptations of William Shakespeare’s history plays Richard II focused on the nature of chivalry in the time of noble kings, then the second, Henry IV, Part One focused on the story of what was too come. With an elderly Henry on the throne of England and with the playboy Prince of Wales taking up with thieves, robbers and undesirables in the taverns of Cheapside, it was more of an eye on how the boy, one of the best loved characters in Shakespeare and royal history, became the man he was to become.

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Snipist. Sky Arts Televsion. Television Review. (2012)

Originally published by L.Media. May 27th 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, John Hurt, Kate O’ Flynn.

The opening moments of the latest Sky Arts one off dramas, The Snipist, draws on the fear of control and the misuse of information. The viewing is even more gritty and disturbing by having the disembodied voice of John Hurt relaying “the facts” of a Britain that has undergone a post-apocalyptic disaster when the deadly disease of rabies has got a foot hold in the country.

The Snipist. Sky Arts Televsion. Television Review. (2012) full post

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

Germany Edges Out Great Britain In Basketball Thriller.

Originally published by L.S. Media. August 31st 2012.

Wheelchair Basketball has been part of the Paralympic Games since Rome in 1960 but as the national anthems of both Great Britain and Germany rang round the North Greenwich Arena, there couldn’t have been a set of prouder players on the court, of either nationality, since those halcyon days of the initial Paralympics.

Germany Edges Out Great Britain In Basketball Thriller. full post

(993 words, estimated 3:58 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Lucky Day. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, Varada Sethu, Jonah Hauer-King, Anita Dobson, Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Benjamin Chivers, Kirsty Hoiles, Gethin Alderman, Kareem Alexander, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Faye McKeever, Madison Stock, Paddy Stafford, Blake Anderson, Aiofe Gaston, Paul Jerricho, Michael Woodford, Alexander Devrient, Tina Gray, Trinity Wells, Reeta Chakrabarti, Alex Jones, Lachele Carl, Joel Dommett, Calypso Cragg, James Craven, Selorm Adonu, Aiden Cook, Nicholas Briggs.

Doctor Who: Lucky Day. Television Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)