Category Archives: TV

Restless (Part Two), Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Thekla Reuten, Adrian Scarborough, Bertie Carvel, Anthony Calf.

The second segment of William Boyd’s fantastic spy tale, Restless, continued the excellent and riveting start that would have had viewers gripped in part one. With the net beginning to close in Eva Delectorskaya and her daughter Ruth, the pair began to set up Eva’s old boss and lover in a great case of double bluff.

Restless (Part Two), Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

Ripper Street, Episode One, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Myanna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Jonathon Barnwell, David Wilmot, Ian Bannon, David Dawson.

London’s Whitechapel district is never far from a source of inspiration when it comes to gruesome tales, especially when it comes to its down at heel and salubrious past. Things may have improved in the 130 years since Jack the Ripper stalked its alleyways but in the 1880’s the police and the public were under siege by evil and danger that masqueraded itself as decency. The latest B.B.C. television series to look at the way Victorian detectives dealt with the disorder and death of the times is the tremendous Ripper Street.

Ripper Street, Episode One, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Frankie Howerd: The Lost Tapes. Channel 4. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When Frankie Howerd died in April 1992, the British public lost one of its dearest television and stage stars. Along with Tony Hancock, Sid James, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Frankie Howerd was a real superstar of his age and in three separate eras he managed to woo a different generation and grab them by both their funny bones.

Frankie Howerd: The Lost Tapes. Channel 4. Television Review. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Ripper Street, Episode Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Amanda Hale, Jonathon Barnwell, David Wilmot, Michael Smiley, Hugh O’ Conor, Giacomo Mancini, Joe Gilgun.

When it comes to British crime drama, you don’t get much better than basing the story on real events or authentic people and by placing in it in the sometimes squalid and mean streets of late Victorian era Whitchapel, it surely should be a ratings winner. Ripper Street continues the superb start it made in episode one and brings the claustrophobic, disease ridden and above the law contempt even closer to home in the second episode, In My Protection.

Ripper Street, Episode Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Lewis: Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode One), Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman, Rebecca Front, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Beatie Edney, Emily Joyce, Tuppence Middleton, Neil Stuke, Edwin Thomas, Dominic Mafham.

There is one sure fire way to tell that the schedulers at I.T.V. know that Christmas is over, out come the murder mystery programmes in their droves and whilst the likes of Midsomer Murders is good fare and excellent escapism, there is something worthy of spending quality time when it comes to the Oxford detective Lewis.

Lewis: Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode One), Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Spies Of Warsaw. Episode One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Janet Montgomery, Marcin Dorocinski, Linda Bassett, Piotr Baumann, Nicholas Blane, Kenneth Collard, Dan Fredenburgh, Adam Godley, Burn Gorman, Ellie Haddington, Julian Harries, Ann Eleonara Jorgensen, Radoslaw Kaim, Grzegorz Kowalczyk, Anton Lesser, Richard Lintern, Tuppence Middleton.

Audiences wait an eternity for television drama to make its way back to the Second World War espionage era and then two perfectly good ones come along in a matter of weeks. The second of these diverted away from the thrilling William Boyd penned Restless with the stunning Hayley Atwell as the heroine and focused on the months before the invasion of Poland in Spies of Warsaw with another television favourite, David Tennant, in the lead role.

Spies Of Warsaw. Episode One. Television Review. full post

(480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: The King Came Calling. Episode Three, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Patrick Baladi, Amanda Hale, Jonathon Barnwell.

Whitechapel’s one and half square miles of intrigue, disorder and death goes hand in hand with its seemingly rich neighbourhood of the city of London, even in the late Victorian era of the 1880s. In the third episode of Ripper Street, The King Came Calling, the mixture of misplaced and intolerable idolism, the flowering shoots of social reform and murder are all presented in what is in effect the best part of the series so far.

Ripper Street: The King Came Calling. Episode Three, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

Lewis, Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode Two). Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman, Rebecca Front, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Beatie Edney, Emily Joyce, Tuppence Middleton, Neil Stuke, Edwin Thomas, Dominic Mafham.

Oxford may have its fair share of murders pro rata of population than almost anywhere in Europe aside from the towns that fall under Nordic Noir thrillers and Britain’s own Midsomer, but the way in which the police in that small but important county deal with the perpetrators is usually swift and to the point. The only trouble is that aside from the rumblings from within the colleges and pubs that run between the counties towns and villages of Bicester, Wendlebury, Launton and Woodstock is that the I.T.V. police drama of Lewis may be on hiatus for a while.

Lewis, Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode Two). Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Spies Of Warsaw, (Episode Two). Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The noose around Poland that was being held between Germany and Russia was getting ever tighter as the second and final part of Ian La Frenais and Dick Clements’ adaptation of Alun Furst’s novel Spies of Warsaw came to its conclusion.

Spies Of Warsaw, (Episode Two). Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(391 words, estimated 1:34 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)