Category Archives: TV

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 * * * *

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.

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 20th 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)

Lewis, The Ramblin’ Boy. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Clare Holman, Laurence Fox, Peter Davison, Rebecca Front, Babou Ceesay, Tom Brooke, Simon Wilson, Mark Powley, Lia Williams, Lucy Speed, Camilla Power, Harriet Ballard, Taron Egerton, Nicholas McGauhey.

The second of the new series of Lewis sees the more human side, a nod to the domestic that forever eluded the Inspector’s old boss Morse in an episode where the deduction of just exactly who was killed caused more of a problem than finding the murderer. With Hathaway enjoying his first holiday away from the treacherous and murder filled streets of Oxford, the position was effectively vacant for a new side-kick to help Lewis solve the case.

Lewis, The Ramblin’ Boy. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Victoria’s Children, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Victorian age is something that gets a lot of attention when studying History as a subject. As a Monarch, Victoria ruled over a quarter of the globe at the beginning of the British Empire and commanded respect from Prime Ministers, the public and indeed her husband Prince Albert at all times.

However, there was a part of her life that didn’t seem to be in control, her relationship with her children, especially after the death of her Consort, which was fractious at best and as her children got older the more it seems they couldn’t wait to rebel against her and carve out lives for themselves. Such was the intriguing premise behind the B.B.C.’s three part series Victoria’s Children.

Victoria’s Children, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

Ripper Street, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Iain Glen, Sam Hazeldine, Michael James Ford, Laura Hitchings, Charlene McKenna, David Wilmot, Jonathan Barnwell, Liam Carney.

 

When loyalties are tested between past glories and those that present and future hold where does a person go. This is the premise of the latest in the excellently made Ripper Street series, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart.

Ripper Street, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)