Category Archives: TV

Miss Scarlett And The Duke. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kate Phillips, Stuart Martin, Cathy Belton, Ansu Kabia, Danny Midwinter, Evan McCabe, Richard Evans, Nick Dunning, Simon Ludders, Amy McCallister, Andrew Gower, Kevin Doyle.

There are few places in time that make for the convenience of the private detective to ply their trade, and the later Victorian period with its pulse set firmly on the expansion of the Industrial Revolution, the sense of optimism shrouding the creeping decay, the rust of human life, as they fall foul to mechanisation, is up there with the very best of them.

Miss Scarlett And The Duke. Television Review. full post

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

Dalgliesh: A Shroud For A Nightingale. Television Review. (2021).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Bertie Carvel, Jeremy Irvine, Helen Aluko, Alice Nokes, Eliot Salt, Robin Krostoffy, Alex Krostoffy, Beccy Henderson, Fenella Woolgar, Amanda Root, Siobhan Cullen, Richard Dillane, Avin Shah, Natasha Little, Syd Ralph, Lily Newmark.

We have come to think of the past as a rusting, decaying, and in many cases unnecessary distraction from the objectives of today, and the hope for the future that we all wish to witness, the new sense of puritanism that has come replete with cancel culture, of objectifying key moments and simply erasing them as if they didn’t happen, rather than confronting them and placing them in their appropriate modern day thought; that is the past not only rusting, but being corrupted in the same way that the workers of the Ministry of Truth changed details daily under the terrifying eye of Big Brother.

Dalgliesh: A Shroud For A Nightingale. Television Review. (2021). full post

(614 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

The Goes Wrong Show: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Henry Shields, Bryony Corrigan, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Nancy Zamit, Dave Hearn, Greg Tannahill, Henry Lewis, Chris Leask, Ellie Morris.

British television comedy is in the middle of much need, and timely, renaissance, one that isn’t afraid of entertaining the populace, of holding true to value, and is fully versed in being witnessed as unique, adaptable, and fierce in its motives.

The Goes Wrong Show: Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Ridley Road. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Agnes O’Casey, Rory Kinnear, Eddie Marsan, Tom Varey, Rita Tushingham, Allan Corduner, Will Keen, Tracy Ann Oberman, Gabriel Akuwudike, Tamzin Outhwaite, James Craze, Danny Hatchard, Hannah Traylen, Samantha Spiro, Julia Krynke, Danny Sykes, Henry Wilton-Hunt, Hannah Onslow, Nigel Betts, Preston Nyman, Alastair Michael, Romane Portail, Stephen Hogan, Liza Sadovy, Ethan Moorhouse.

Ridley Road. Television Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Dark Universe 3. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Tennant, Jane Slavin, Alex Kingston, Terry Malloy, Ajjaz Awad, Nicholas Briggs, Noma Dumezweni, Matthew Jacobs-Morgan, Joseph Millson, Paul Panting, Joe Simms.

A species, a race, dedicated only to the extermination of all others in the universe is terrifying enough a prospect to deal with, add in the one crucial factor that makes it chilling, that recalls all the despotic, the evil, the cruelty and obnoxious malevolence that can only be found in the megalomania and psychopathic behaviour of a mind filled with absolute hatred, and you are either face to face with the foul and wicked presence of the worst of humanity, or you have been captured by the Daleks, and their foul, depraved creator, Davros.

Doctor Who: Dark Universe 3. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

Deception. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jack Cutmore-Scott, Ilfenesh Hadera, Lenora Crichlow, Justin Chon, Laila Robins, Amaury Nolasco, Vinnie Jones, Stephanie Corneliussen, Evan Parke, Billy Zane, Jack Davenport.

The existence of the magician and their sleight of hand proves that we all want to be fooled at some point in our lives. Perhaps it is the willing of the suspension of belief that attracts us, the chance that we might see through the mist and feel the satisfaction of being the only one to have worked out the illusion, whilst at the same time wondering what happened to the child within who was overawed by spectacle as well as exhibition.

Deception. Television Review. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

The North Water. Television Review.

Cast: Jack O’ Connell, Colin Farrell, Sam Spruell, Stephen Graham, Tom Courtney, Peter Mullan, Roland Møller, Philip Hill-Pearson, Gerry Lynch, Kieran Urquhart, Simon Rubaudo, Greg Dennis, Magnus Constable, Guillaume Cotre-Roux, Andrés Glattfelber, Martin Rasmussen, Kristoffer Ronning, Lars Ronning, Jack Wren, Stephen McMillan, Nive Nielsen, Rishi Kuppa, Paul Brennen, Kris Hitchen, Mark Rowley, Ipeelie Ootoova, Keenan Carpenter, Lee Knight, Tony Pitts, Eliza Butterworth, Natar Ungalaaq, Jerry Laisa, Bryony Miller, Chicho Tche, David Prosho, Benjámin Takács-Abaffy, Jonathan Aris, Jamie Maclachlan.

The North Water. Television Review. full post

(619 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders: Happy Families. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Rachel Stirling, Adrian Edmondson, Caroline Quentin, Stuart Milligan, Paul Bazely, Lee Byford, Vanessa Emme, Greg Lockett, Aki Omoshaybi, Georgina Rich, Ed White, Chris Wilson.

A country house murder, what could be more riveting for a party of guests to get their minds around when a storm plunges the home into darkness and the torrents of rain threaten to overwhelm the senses?

There is an element of the enigmatic, the ethereal and timeless when a writer places their observations into the world of the lonely house full of secrets in some neglected part of the country.

Midsomer Murders: Happy Families. Television Review. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Code 404 (Series Two). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Daniel Mays, Stephen Graham, Rosie Cavaliero, Amanda Payton, Anna Maxwell Martin, Michelle Greenidge, Richard Adeoye, Richard Gadd, Emily Lloyd-Saini, Steve Oram, Tracy Ann Oberman, Steve Meo, Beau Fowler, Clive Russell, Meera Syal, Precious Mustapha.

Code 404 (Series Two). Television Review. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

The Goes Wrong Show: Summer Once Again. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Charlie Russell, Greg Tannahill, Dave Hearn. Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, Bryony Corrigan, Henry Lewis, Nancy Zamit.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the company behind the uplifting farce that is provided in the comedy gold of The Goes Wrong Show are an inevitability of circumstance, time, and creation, an innovation that has no boundaries when it comes to placing trust in the conception of a well-timed slapstick moment and the televised charade of mock indignity. If necessity truly is the mother of invention, then the team are the 21st Century equivalent of every true original that ever-brought laughter to the audiences.

The Goes Wrong Show: Summer Once Again. Television Review. full post

(423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)