Category Archives: TV

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

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.

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)

Black Mirror, Be Right Back. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Damhnall Gleeson, Claire Keelan, Sinead Matthews, Flora Nicholson, Glenn Hanning, Tim Delap, Indira Ingram.

When a person dies, it is understandable for those left behind to feel so much grief that the desire to hang on any part of them at all is so overwhelming. Their clothes, their favourite mug, a much loved picture of a wedding day are all there to cherish and hold onto for as long as it takes, but could you restore their voice, their physical mental being and download it into a synthetic machine that knows everything about the person they have supplanted but not how to act with instinctive. Such is the haunting premise of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series and its opening episode of the new series Be Right Back.

Black Mirror, Be Right Back. Television Review. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Just exactly what is Louis Lester on the run from? A tantalising question that the makers of Dancing on the Edge are drawing out in spectacular style and in which shows no sign of answer…just yet!

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

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

Lewis, Intelligent Design. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman, Edward Fox, Rebecca Front, Isabella Parriss, Josh Bolt, Ariyon Bakare, Jane Slavin, Norman Gregory, Glen Davies, Miranda Raison, Alison Steadman, Stephen Churchett, Crystal Leaity.

When does the line blur between faith, science and protecting the law? In the final episode of the latest, perhaps the final series, of Lewis deals with dark question and like any question of faith, whether it is in a spiritual being, the answers in laboratory or what you know is your duty in protecting the public is all brought to bear as the man of faith, Hathaway, starts to question his belief in at least two of the facets of truth in Intelligent Design.

Lewis, Intelligent Design. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, Janet Montgomery, Angel Coulby, Sam Troughton, 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, Emily Joyce.

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

(503 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Richard III: The King In The Car Park, Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A monster who died at the hands of the Tudor dynasty and whose reputation was further sullied by a playwright from Stratford in the greatest piece of political spin or a misunderstood, kind and benevolent man who was wrongly usurped by Henry VII. Whatever the point or stance you take on it there was something compelling about the programme Richard III: The King in the Car Park and the woman who it seems had spent most of her life trying to find the man that history had demonised.

Richard III: The King In The Car Park, Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(358 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, Janet Montgomery, Angel Coulby, Sam Troughton, 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.

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

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Ripper Street, Tournament Of Shadows. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Justin Avoth, Jonathan Barnwell, Lucy Cohu, Peter Ferninando, Amanda Hale, Michael McElhatton, Clive Russell, Derek Riddell.

The sixth instalment of the series Ripper Street, Tournament of Shadows, was one in which secrets were revealed, the memories of a turn of the 20^th Century crime classic, a great historical backdrop was used, unfortunately sparingly and in the end had the awkward feel of an episode that would have been better had it been allowed to go in one direction rather than the three or four strands it tried to follow.

Ripper Street, Tournament Of Shadows. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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