Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Lucian Msamti, James Cosmo, Ariyon Bakare, Daniel Frogson, Anne-Marie Duff, Clarke Peters, Will Keen, Gary Lewis, Lewin Lloyd, James McAvoy, Georgina Campbell, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ruta Gedmintas, Lia Williams, Amir Wilson, Nina Sosanya, Simon Manyonda, Geoff Ball, Mat Fraser, David Langham, Robert Emms, Morfydd Clark, Frank Bourke, Jamie Wilkes, Joe Tandberg, Kit Connor, Harry Melling, Omid Djalali, Andrew Scott.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: David Jason, James Baxter, Stephanie Cole, Maggie Ollerenshaw, Brigit Forsyth, Johnny Vegas, Sally Lindsay, Tim Healy, Kulvinder Ghir, Geoffrey Whitehead, Sue Holderness, Katie Redford, Sophie Willan, Dean Smith, Archie Panjabi, Clive Mantle.
There is a place for consistency in this world, that not everything requires the phantasm of excess to thrill and delight an audience, that it is worth remembering that the so called gentle comedy can be just as subversive as the supposed anarchic; and across time it is to actors such as David Jason that provides the link between the two.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Wilf Scolding, Simon Williams, Sara Crowe, James Holmes, Fisayo Akinade, Elliot Levey, Jessica Temple.
Christmas isn’t Christmas without a good ghost story to chill the blood before the delight associated with the big day, it is perhaps one of the true reminders of our own mortality that we have taken for granted in an age of reason and excess, and one that cannot be dismissed easily when placed against the all- consuming thought of endings, of how the year is once more placed in darkness and shrouded in winter meaning.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Lee Mack, Sally Bretton, Bobby Ball, Deborah Grant, Geoffrey Whitehead.
The absurd lengths that some people will go to deliver the perfect Christmas is rarely seen as being a laughing matter, a day of peace hijacked by the sheer need to be triumphant and the one-upmanship of being considered the best parent in the world drives many to actions they wouldn’t even dream of committing the rest of the year.
Liverpool Sound and vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Guy Pearce, Stephen Graham, Joe Alwyn, Vinette Robinson, Lenny Rush, Jason Flemyng, Johnny Harris, Tiarna Williams, Billy Barratt, Carmel Laniado, Paul Chahidi, Tom Medcalf, Ninette Finch, Andy Serkis, Charlotte Riley, Kayvan Novak, Callum Evans, Earl Carpenter, Dan Fredenburgh, Elliot Warren, Niamh Lynch, Abraham Popoola.
There are many reasons why A Christmas Carol is so beloved, why it keeps enticing directors and adaptors to Charles Dickens’ most famous work and audiences enthralled with its message of redemption and hope; but a missing link to the truth of the human condition has not been one of them.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Bryony Corrigan, Dave Hearn, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields.
The Spirit of Christmas is such a dichotomy of appreciation, a split personality of complete embrace or the careful shun avoiding infection, that in the modern age it can leave you cold and wanting to leave the conceit of life behind, it is in this that the feelings of emotions can become overwhelming, that they can uplift to the point of ecstasy or plunge the soul into turmoil; the only reasonable course of action to take is to find something to laugh with and see the whole period for what it often is, a cosmic farce given the chance to smile.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Andrew Howard, Louis Gossett Jr., Jean Smart, Sara Vickers, Tom Mison, Tim Blake Nelson, Don Johnson, Frances Fisher, Yahya Abdul-Mateenn II, Jacob Ming-Trent, James Wolk, Jessica Camacho, Dustin Ingram, Cheyenne Jackson, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Chris Whitley, Jake McDorman, Hong Chau.
Who watches the watchers, probably the same enlightened people that first flocked to the writing and artwork of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons when the sensational and ground-breaking graphic comics and subsequent novel Watchmen was released, who watches the watchers, arguably those who saw the novel turned into a tremendous, if undervalued by the initial cinema going public at the time, film of the same name…who watches the Watchmen, anyone with sense should.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Matthew Beard, Jurgen Maurer, Luise von Finckh, Jessica De Gouw, Conleth Hill, Amelia Bullmore, Charlene McKenna, Oliver Stokowski, Raphaek von Bargan, Simon Hatzl.
A fellowship is only as noble as its intentions, one may look to the ideals of any organisation and believe that it is possible to fit in, to strive to be accepted into the ranks in which opportunities lay and reward follows suit, but in amongst such pursuits we may find that we become a little less whole, that the uniform handed to us fits uncomfortably and the handshake of acceptance is one that crushes the fingers.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Glenda Jackson, Helen Behan, Sophie Rundle, Liv Hill, Nell Williams, Mark Stanley, Neil Pendleton, Maggie Steed, Sam Hazeldine, Michelle Duncan, John-Paul Hurley, Tom Urie, Julia Hannan, Linda Hargreaves, Neil Pendleton, Tony Atherton, Anne-Marie Nabirve, Begonia Villalba, Nabs Aziz.
To gradually forget what has happened in your life is one of the great sources of unhappiness that anyone could arguably go through. To leave behind moments of love and tenderness, to fail to recall an event, to not recognise your child, to be powerless to get through the day without being capable of remembering the basics to be able to function, that is the greatest act of cruelty that the mind can play on a human being.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: John Turturro, Rupert Everett, Damian Hardung, James Cosmo, Michael Emerson, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Greta Scarno, Richard Sammel, Stefano Fresi, Roberto Herlitzka, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, Maurizio Lombardi, Nina Fotaras, Guglielmo Favilla, Piotr Adamczyk, Tcheky Karyo, Benjamin Stender, Claudio Bigagli, Corrado Invernizzi, Max Malatesta, Alessio Boni, Sebastian Koch, Rinat Khismatouline, Camilla Diana, David Brandon, Peter Davison.
If life is about having faith, then to tackle a classic novel over the course of several episodes on television and pray that it hits home with even greater intensity than it did in the cinema, then that is devotion and conviction in one fell swoop to the cause of the writer’s pen.