Category Archives: TV

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 * * * *

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, Andrew Sachs, Fenella Woolgar.

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)

Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Celia Imrie, Richard E. Grant, Robert Whitlock, Dan Li, Manpreet Bachu, Sean Knopp, James Greene, Geff Francis, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Danielle Eames, Fred Pearson, Jade Anouka, Olivia Hill, Isabella Blake-Thomas, Matthew Earley, Antony Edridge.

The new series, or should that be the second part of the previous series or even the build-up to the 50^th Anniversary of the longest running science fiction show on British television has returned after its winter sabbatical and it seems it is going to become about obsession.

Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John. Television Review. full post

(739 words, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 11th 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Julie Walters, Maxine Peake, Tom Georgeson, Simon Russell Beale, Alun Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, Harry Lloyd, Michelle Dockery, Robert Pugh.

If the first in the B.B.C.’s Hollow Crown adaptations of William Shakespeare’s history plays Richard II focused on the nature of chivalry in the time of noble kings, then the second, Henry IV, Part One focused on the story of what was too come. With an elderly Henry on the throne of England and with the playboy Prince of Wales taking up with thieves, robbers and undesirables in the taverns of Cheapside, it was more of an eye on how the boy, one of the best loved characters in Shakespeare and royal history, became the man he was to become.

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Snipist. Sky Arts Televsion. Television Review. (2012)

Originally published by L.Media. May 27th 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, John Hurt, Kate O’ Flynn.

The opening moments of the latest Sky Arts one off dramas, The Snipist, draws on the fear of control and the misuse of information. The viewing is even more gritty and disturbing by having the disembodied voice of John Hurt relaying “the facts” of a Britain that has undergone a post-apocalyptic disaster when the deadly disease of rabies has got a foot hold in the country.

The Snipist. Sky Arts Televsion. Television Review. (2012) full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Lucky Day. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, Varada Sethu, Jonah Hauer-King, Anita Dobson, Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Benjamin Chivers, Kirsty Hoiles, Gethin Alderman, Kareem Alexander, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Faye McKeever, Madison Stock, Paddy Stafford, Blake Anderson, Aiofe Gaston, Paul Jerricho, Michael Woodford, Alexander Devrient, Tina Gray, Trinity Wells, Reeta Chakrabarti, Alex Jones, Lachele Carl, Joel Dommett, Calypso Cragg, James Craven, Selorm Adonu, Aiden Cook, Nicholas Briggs.

Doctor Who: Lucky Day. Television Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Jack The Ripper: Written In Blood. Television Documentary/Serial Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Moe Dunford, Tyger Drew-Honey, Mark Strepan, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Chelsea Halfpenny.

The Fourth Estate, the watchdogs and servers of accountability of government, law, and order, the press, whatever name you describe the journalists at the heart of many a tabloid exposure, one need not go too far to understand they have a complicity in the events of those quite rightly we deem unacceptable, reasoned with bad taste, and whilst they may be covering their backs as sales of newspapers fall worldwide, serve them with a juicy story and they could resort back to the days in which their ethics went out of the window and their imaginations run riot to the cost of human decency.

Jack The Ripper: Written In Blood. Television Documentary/Serial Review. full post

(659 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Feud. Television Television Series Review. (2025).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jill Halfpenny, Rupert Penry-Jones, Amy Nutall, Ray Fearon, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Tessa Peake-Jones, James Fleet, Alex Macqueen, Larry Lamb, Megan Trower, Chris Gascoyne, Judith Alexander, Joel Beckett, Luke Hammond, Joel Kai Ali.

You cannot buy good neighbours, the kind where you live in harmony with each other 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nothing ever getting you down with those that live next door, across the street, or around the close to which your presence counts…and yet neighbourhoods are pots of unspoken jealousy, they are the breeding ground of infidelities and trysts, and they are closest spots in which spying on you is readily available…and relished.

Feud. Television Television Series Review. (2025). full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Well. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Christopher Chung, Annabel Brook, Luke Rhodri, Bethany Antonia, Gaz Choudhry, Gary Pillai, Franki Lipman, Paul Kasey, Jermaine Dominique, Anita Dobson, Amy Tyger, Meg Abernethy-Hope, Beyagy Demba, Umit Gozuacik.

There are episodes of Doctor Who that rank so highly that they will not be forgotten, and they all have one major thread in common, that of the near unseen ubiquitous horror that waits just out of sight or that possesses the power to control from within; all other villains of the tales from the blue box are to be feared, but they, these unseen beings that wonderfully spread dread in their wake, they are the truth of terror given the confidence of anxiety.

Doctor Who: The Well. Television Drama Review. full post

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