Category Archives: TV

Midsomer Murders, The Miniature Murders. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Rosalie Craig, Katy Brand, Roger Barclay, Clare Holman, Joanna Page, Eleanor Bron, Thomas Dominique, Rohan Need, Karl Collins, Ami Okumura Jones, Tom Anderson.

Midsomer Murders rarely disappoints, staple enough television fare sometimes, at other moments gripping the fascination of the armchair detective to the point of novel surprise and yet for all the time the long running detective serial has been on British television, it has rarely thrown up a character such as Fleur Perkins, and as Annette Badland’s time as the new pathologist continues, so too does Fleur Perkins become a person of absolute interest.

Midsomer Murders, The Miniature Murders. Television Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Inside No.9, The Referee’s A…. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, David Morrissey, Ralf Little, Steve Speirs, Dipo Ola.

Football may have changed to the point where many who filled the terraces after they came back from the battlefields of Europe, who stood on the side-lines as attendances dropped alarmingly as the spectre and disgrace of hooliganism ravaged the sport would now not recognise how much it has altered and boomed. However, one thing perhaps remains constant, and in amongst the wall to wall coverage, the upmarket cuisine that replaced the half time pies, sugar laden teas and copious amounts of Bovril; the roar of the crowd that declares that The Referee’s A…. (insert term of abuse of choice) has never left the game.

Inside No.9, The Referee’s A…. Television Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Praxeus. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole, Warren Brown, Matthew McNulty, Molly Harris, Gabriele Toloi, Soo Drouet, Tristan de Beer, Thapelo Maropefela.

There is a war of information and understanding that is hidden under the veil of the so-called generational divide, of those born and raised during the era of the supposed Millennial and the folks who were raised before the rise of Generation X, with those native to the idea of defiance but caught between the two opposing sides, one it could be argued defined by its persuasive shifting attitudes to the environment and the absolute carnage done in humanity’s name, and those to who the memory of annihilation at the hands of madmen have driven them to influence all that come after.

Doctor Who: Praxeus. Television Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Deadwater Fell. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Tennant, Anna Madeley, Maureen Beattie, Cush Jumbo, Matthew McNulty, Laurie Brett, Lisa McGrillis, Stuart Bowman, Gordon Brown, Grace Calder, Lewis Gribben, Seline Hizli, Phil McKee, Lorn Macdonald, Jamie Michie, Annelka Rose, Cooper Schofield, Jack Greenlees, June Miller, Ron Donachie, Izuka Hoyle, Hiftu Quasem, Scott Reid, Julia Whiteford.

It cannot be denied that the emotion felt by a viewer when confronted by the images of a house fire is one that leaves them feeling arguably more distraught than many other ways in which someone decides to murder, kill or frighten, someone who lives within the building which has been set alight.

Deadwater Fell. Television Review. full post

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

The Goes Wrong Show: 90 Degrees. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

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

A premise that not only captivates, which not only makes you laugh but makes you sweat with enthusiasm for the stunts performed, that is the point of physical theatre and comedy taken to its most natural and exhilarating high.

The team behind The Goes Wrong Show have taken their hugely successful stage performances and turned them into a television series which has surely garnered admiration and quite possibly the green eyed monster of jealousy, and to whom the best of the anarchic productions, 90 Degrees, was left till last.

The Goes Wrong Show: 90 Degrees. Television Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

The Trial Of Christine Keeler. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sophie Cookson, James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Emilia Fox, Ben Miles, Sam Troughton, Anthony Welsh, Jack Greenlees, Chloe Harris, Rosalind Halstead, Anton Lesser, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sam Crane, Amanda Drew, Michael Maloney, Charlene Boyd, Aiden McCardle, Tim McInnerny, Danny Webb, Paul Ryan, Visar Vishka, Peter Davison, Alex Macqueen, Neil Morrisey, Danny Webb.

The Trial Of Christine Keeler. Television Review. full post

(676 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Fugitive Of The Judoon. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole, Jo Martin, Lee Clayton, Ritu Arya, John Barrowman, Paul Kasey, Michael Begley, Judith Street, Katie Luckins, Nicholas Briggs, Simon Carew, Richard Highgate, Richard Price, Matthew Rohman.

When you find yourself in the position of actually being on the edge of your seat, when the moment comes and in which you realise you have stopped breathing and which has been denied you for such a long time, that is the point when some of the bland and uninspiring is forgiven, because you know it has been leading to that feeling for such a long time.

Doctor Who: Fugitive Of The Judoon. Television Review. full post

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

The Goes Wrong Show: Harper’s Locket. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

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

Croquet, in the words of Progressive Rock legend Peter Gabriel, “Is a particularly vicious sport” and as the mallet falls through the air and crashes into the head of the family maid, Mrs Hargreaves, one cannot but fail to appreciate just how the team behind The Goes Wrong Show have become, in one short season on television, the theatre team that have conquered the stage and the cameras with apparent ease.

The Goes Wrong Show: Harper’s Locket. Television Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders, The Point Of Balance. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Christopher Timothy, Tom Chambers, Jaye Griffiths, Natalie Gumede, Nigel Havers, Jack Hawkins, Ty Hurley, Michelle Jeram, Chen Yip Lai, Cassidy Little, Danny Mac, Carolina Main, Colin Murtagh, Guy Normas, Kazia Pelka, Steven Pereira, Luke Pierre, Mike Ray, Isabel Shaw, Faye Tozzer, Jo Wheatley, Susan Fordham, Tim Wildman, Chris Wilson.

Dance is not for everyone, like most art it can be a subjective pursuit, one that is open to interpretation and double meaning; like the lies we tell when we wish to impress, interpretation is one that either scores well or is seen to be lacking in its detail and glamour.

Midsomer Murders, The Point Of Balance. Television Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, Mandip Cole, Goran Visnjic, Robert Glenister, Anjli Mohindra, Haley McGee, Paul Kasey, Robin Guiver, Erick Hayden, Russell Bentley, Brian Caspe, Shaun Mason.

It would be easy to dismiss the dreamers, those who see beyond the structure of the present moment and who just, understandably, want to see their lives as a strict progression of birth to death and the fun, the love, the lessons in between. There is nothing wrong with that state of mind, nothing that can, or should be, taken away from the simplicity which marks our time on Earth.

Doctor Who: Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror. Television Review. full post

(564 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)