Category Archives: TV

Broadchurch, Episode Three. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Will Mellor, Arthur Darvill, David Bradley, Jonathon Bailey, Vicky McClure, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke.

The first line of enquiry is over for the detectives of Broadchurch. The man, the father of the murdered lad certainly had something to hide but it wasn’t the taking of his son’s life. It certainly would have been far too easy for Chris Chibnall to go down that route and have suspicion hang over Andrew Buchan’s character for the next few weeks.

Broadchurch, Episode Three. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Shetland, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Gemma Chan, Steve Robinson, Alison O’ Donnell, Alexander Morton, Lewis Howden, Mark Bonnar, Martin Wenner, Claire Rafferty, Sophie Rundle, Geraldine Alexander, Finnden Hertog, Alison Peebles, Erin Armstrong, Jim Stugeon, Lindy Whiteford, James Greene.

Based upon the books by Ann Cleeves, the new drama vehicle for Douglas Henshall, Shetland, premiered over the last two nights and whilst it was up against I.T.V.’s superb Broadchurch, it had a lot going for it and provided another outlet for viewers starved in recent years with decent crime drama and who have been having to get their fix from either second rate thrillers from America that rely far too much on the application of science over genuine detective work, or intensely psychological brilliance from the Nordic Noir genre such as The Killing.

Shetland, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Broadchurch, Episode Two, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Tracy Childs, Will Mellor, Arthur Darvill, David Bradley, Jonathon Bailey, Vicky McClure, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke.

With the premise having been set in episode one, the attention of the police and in particular D.I. Hardy, start to focus their attentions on the people of Broadchurch, especially those it seems with secrets, many long held, secrets that may fragment the community they live in.

Broadchurch, Episode Two, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Broadchurch, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

I.T.V. may have lost D.I. Lewis but in the great tradition that the station has in unearthing the next generation of police who have the unenviable task of solving murders, all they have to do is move the drama to the next port of call and instantly those television that enjoy playing amateur detective get a brand new man or woman to cheer on and fall for. Following on from Morse, Frost and Lewis, viewers now have the recognisable face and familiar Scottish drawl of David Tennant as Detective Inspector Alec Hardy in the programme Broadchurch.

Broadchurch, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Black Mirror, The Waldo Moment. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Daniel Rigby, Chloe Pirrie, Jason Flemyng, Christina Chong, Pip Torrens, David Ajala, Amber Anderson, Kenneth Collard, Ed Gaughan, Tobias Menzies, Abigail Thaw.

Be careful what you wish for, it’s been an underlying theme for Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series. Whether it has been Hayley Atwell desiring to have one last moment with her husband who has been killed or the nightmarish and positively dystopian longing of perpetual retribution and televised public backlash for a heinous crime, the future has been a possibility; and decidedly and chillingly achievable.

Black Mirror, The Waldo Moment. Television Review. full post

(377 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Five. Television Review. B.B.C. 2.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, Janet Montgomery, Angel Coulby, Jacqueline Bisset, Joanna Vanderham, Anthony Head, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Goodman, Mel Smith, Allan Corduner, Mike Brett, Oroh Angiama, Jane Asher, Jamie Crew, Trevor Edwards, Austin Hardiman, Tom Hughes, Cosimo Keita, Neville Malcolm, Wunmi Mosaku, Jay Phelps, Caroline Quentin, Miles Richardson, Chris Storr, Steve Williamson.

With Louis Lester on the run and the options and choices he has being reduced by the minute, it seems that the conviction of murder that has been placed around his head is nearly as in place as the noose or the great jazz notes that he and the band have produced for this scintillating and keenly written Stephen Polokoff drama.

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Five. Television Review. B.B.C. 2. full post

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

Ripper Street, What Use Our Work. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Lucy Cohu, David Dawson, Ruta Gudmintas, Rebecca Grimes, Linal Haft, Amanda Hale, Charlene McKenna, Kristian Nairn, David Oakes, Clive Russell.

The final episode of Ripper Street, What Use Our Work, made sure the Victorian crime drama finished on a stunning high. With Chief Inspector Fred Abberline, portrayed by Clive Russell, so sure that he has finally caught the infamous Jack the Ripper that he is blinded by unreason, unsound evidence and professional grief to see that Captain Homer Jackson was innocent of the brutal murders that stalked London’s Whitechapel in 1888.

Ripper Street, What Use Our Work. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Four. B.B.C. Television, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The penultimate episode of Dancing on the Edge, Stephen Poloakoff’s jazz masterpiece, was turned up another notch as the police started to close the wrongly cast net on Louis Lester and in an episode in which echoed the rise and fall of the Louis Lester band, the heat and the mood was increased and given just that little extra spice in jazz movements.

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Four. B.B.C. Television, Television Review. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Black Mirror, White Bear. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tuppence Middleton, Lenora Crichlow, Michael Smiley, Ian Bonar, Elisbeth Hopper, Nick Ofield.

The world of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror takes a look at the dystopian future of voyeurism and the gratified spectacle of continued mob justice through the almost incestuous and baying eyes of television.

White Bear is the antidote to any viewer who may have been under the misapprehension that the previous week’s offering was in anyway diluted because of the very nature of love was at its heart. What better way to get rid of any feelings of nagging heartache than by watching a young lady slowly reach breaking point as all around her are filming her every move.

Black Mirror, White Bear. Television Review. full post

(387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Ripper Street, A Man Of My Company. Television Review, B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Burling, Luke Allen-Gale, Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Barnwell, Lucy Cohu, Oliver Cotton, David Dawson, Amanda Drew, Rebecca Grimes, Rod Hallett, Shauna MacDonald, Ian McElhinney, Charlene McKenna, Clive Russell, Gillian Saker, David Wilmot.

At long last the murky and disturbing past of Captain Homer Jackson and brothel madam Long Susan becomes exposed and it is one that Detective Reid might not be able to deal with as the thrilling Victorian crime drama Ripper Street reaches its penultimate episode in the story A Man Of My Company.

Ripper Street, A Man Of My Company. Television Review, B.B.C. Television. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)