Category Archives: TV

The Great Train Robbery: The Copper’s Tale. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jim Broadbent, Luke Evans, Philip Glenister, Nick Moran, James Fox, Tim Piggott-Smith, James Wilby, Gwyneth Strong, Ken Bones, Tom Beard, Richard Hope, Tom Chambers, John Salthouse, Lee Starkey, Kelly Marie Autumnberg, Mark Ashwell, Ross McCormack, Eric Hulme, Alexa Morden, Tommy McDonnell, Al Powell, Alistair Donegan, Matthew Jure, Christine Cox, David Halliwell, Mark Mathieson, Anthony Hunt, Jacob Smyth, James McGregor, Bradley Snelling.

The Great Train Robbery: The Robber’s Tale. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Luke Evans, Neil Maskell, Jack Roth, Bethany Muir, Martin Compston, Paul Anderson, Nicholas Murchie, Del Synott, Jack Gordon, Nigel Collins, Eliza Doolittle, Robert Glenister, Stuart Graham, Bill Thomas, Eric Hulme.

Those behind the 1988 film Buster should look upon The Great Train Robbery: The Robber’s Tale as a way to tell a story properly and without the large amount of buckets of whitewash in which to dip the carcass of post-war police work and the glamorisation of those involved in a crime that shook the very foundations of life in the U.K. already rocked by the scandal surrounding John Profumo and Christine Keeler.

Lucan, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Rory Kinnear, Christopher Ecclestone, Paul Freeman, Michael Gambon, Catherine McCormack, Leanne Best, Gemma Jones, Alistair Petrie,  Lasco Atkins, Ann Bell, Tim Bentinck, Alexander Bracq, Helen Bradbury, James Bradshaw, Alan Cox, Benjamin Dilloway, Rupert Evans, Julian Firth, Michael Gould, Claudia Harrison, Leo Hart, Erick Hayden, Robert Horwell, Kevin Hudson, Jane Lapotaire, Olivia Llewllyn, Ruth McCabe.

The passage of time has never seemed to erase any interest or mawkish fascination in the case of Lord Lucan and his alleged crime of murder, in fact like Jack the Ripper nearly 90 years before him or Dr. Crippen, the more years pass, the stronger the interest seems to get, human nature becomes overwhelming in the search for the truth; even when that truth will certainly never be found.

Ripper Street, Our Betrayal. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Joseph Mawle, Clive Russell, David Dawson, David Wilmot, Damien Molony, Leanne Best, Frank Harper, David Costabile, Justin Salinger, Robert Goodman, Joel Gilman.

Ripper Street: A Stronger Loving World. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Gillian Sakar, Charlene McKenna, Paul Kaye, MyAnna Buring, Gina Bellman, Justin Avoth, Chris Patrick Simpson, David Wilmot, David Dawson, Damien Molony, Kirsty Oswald, Callum Turner, Liam Burke, Gwynne McElveen.

The writers of Ripper Street have never been afraid to head down the path afforded the rich history of Whitechapel for its inspiration. Whether it is the world of male prostitution, the salaciousness of Molly Houses, the rights of women, the Irish question or the straight poison that stalked the streets of the East End in 1888, there is not a moment in that dark history of Whitechapel that isn’t worth exploring.

Narnia’s Lost Poet: The Secret Lives And Loves Of C.S. Lewis, Television Review. B.B.C. Four.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Clive Staples Lewis was man who was driven by love and loss. The writer of many books, papers and poetry, the man who bought to life the world of Narnia, of Aslan and a flickering lamppost that marked the end of the wardrobe and the beginnings of a series of children’s stories that dominated the world of English fantasy literature alongside his Oxford University friend J.R.R. Tolkien.

Ripper Street: Threads Of Silk And Gold. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, David Wilmot, Damien Molony, Leanne Best, David Dawson, Frank Harper, Peter Sullivan, Frank McCafferty, Jassa Ahluwalia, Dale Leadon Bolger, Gillian Saker, Stephen Jones, Kirsty Oswald, Alexander Cobb, David Crowley, Scott Handy, Alfie Stewart, Bella Stewart-Wilson, Andrew Tieman, David Walsh.

The way that Ripper Street has incorporated the life of Detective Inspector Reid and his surroundings of Whitechapel, London and given the audience that watch this ever increasing popular programme a lesson in some of the more historical emergences of the time is never anything but gratifying.

Nina Conti: Her Master’s Voice, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The audience that recently made their way down to the Playhouse Theatre in Liverpool to watch one of the leading lights in the art of ventriloquism may or not have watched a particular programme tucked away on B.B.C. Television during the summer of 2012 on Nina Conti and her relationship with British theatre maverick Ken Campbell and the secondary bond with her mentor’s voice and dolls.

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Joanna Page, Ingrid Oliver, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Jonjo O’Neill, Orlando James, Aiden Cook, Paul Kasey, Peter de Jersey, Tom Keller, Ankur Sengupta, Tom Baker, Peter Capaldi.

The Day of The Doctor…Thanks to the way the B.B.C. has taken very seriously the notion of the longest running science fiction programme of all time turning 50 years old, it’s been more like several months of snippet here, a smidgen of misinformation there, the release of a rumour, conjecture, assumption and speculation.

J.F.K.: News Of A Shooting, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

History turns on the flash of a camera, of the captured moving moments in time which changes the world forever. It seems nothing now that is significant, noteworthy or even seemingly inconsequential is not captured by a reporter, a journalist or even the feed of any social network, it is all secured for future posterity. History was changed on November 22nd, for America and for the news organisations that came of age on that fateful day in Dallas as President Kennedy was assassinated.