Category Archives: TV

The King And The Playwright: A Jacobean History. Television Review.

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

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

It was a time of turmoil, political instability, plots, attempted assassinations, plague and unheard of unions and William Shakespeare was there to capture it all.

American Scholar James Shapiro’s insightful look at the decade between King James III coming to the English throne after the death of the much loved Queen Elizabeth, and William Shakespeare finally retiring to his beloved Stratford-Upon- Avon, was captured over the course of three programmes titled The King and The Playwright.

The King And The Playwright: A Jacobean History. Television Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The King Of The Teds. Television Review. Sky Arts.

Originally published by L.S. Media. May 6th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Jones, Alison Steadman, Brenda Blethyn.

Whoever thought of putting Sir Tom Jones in one of Sky Arts Playhouse Presents plays needs to be taken outside the old B.B.C. building and be told, “They would have loved you here in the heyday of drama production.”

The King Of The Teds. Television Review. Sky Arts. full post

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

Nixon’s The One. Televsion Review, Sky Arts.

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 30th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Harry Shearer, Demetri Goritsas, Jeff Mash, Corey Johnson.

American politics is littered with moments at the Oval Office being governed and run by those that are easily lampooned, satirised and generally ill thought after their death. Perhaps in modern times none so more than Richard Millhouse Nixon, he even beats Presidents Reagan and Bush in terms of those that want to try to understand how he ticked, none so more than American comedian and professional Nixon impersonator Harry Shearer.

Nixon’s The One. Televsion Review, Sky Arts. full post

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

The Minor Character. Television Review. Sky Arts.

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 15th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Lucy Cohu, Mark Bonnar, Sara Stewart, Richard McCabe, Saskia Reeves, Richard Lintern, Darrell D’ Silva.

Will Self’s half hour play The Minor Character kicked off a new season of performances for the Sky Arts channel and on the basis of the first offering, home grown drama still has a place for all. Invoking memories of the much loved B.B.C’s Play for the Day, Will Self penned a play that is both enjoyable, slightly psychologically disturbing and one that needs to be watched more than once just to catch every nuance of David Tennant’s sparkling delivery and interaction with the rest of this perfect cast.

The Minor Character. Television Review. Sky Arts. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Titanic. Episode Three. Television Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 8th 2012.

L.S Media Rating * * *

Cast: Stephen Campbell-Moore, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Celia Imrie, Toby Jones, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Lyndsey Marshal, Stephen Waddington, Sophie Winkleman, James Wilby, Lee Ross, Linus Roache, Geraldine Somerville, Dragos Bucar.

With the final episode of Titanic looming and drawing ever closer to the fateful moment where the death knells of the “unsinkable” ship will forever be remembered, the third episode looks primarily at three of the couples thrown together on board and shows the some of the back story that led them to the moment when the Titanic began to sink.

Titanic. Episode Three. Television Review. full post

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

She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens. Television Programme Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 30th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Written and presented by Dr. Helen Castor, a fellow of Sidney College, Cambridge University, She-Wolves was a three part series for the B.B.C. which looked at the lives of seven women who dominated early Medieval and Tudor England and drew the comparisons between them all, that as women they were viewed with suspicion and labelled She –Wolves by their detractors.

As Great Britain celebrates prepares to celebrate 60 years of reign by Queen Elizabeth II, Dr. Helen Castor looks back at the lives of Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I.

She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens. Television Programme Review. full post

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

Titanic. Television review. (2012).

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 25th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Stephen Campbell-Moore, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Celia Imrie, Toby Jones, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Lyndsey Marshal, Stephen Waddington, Sophie Winkleman, James Wilby, Linus Roache, Geraldine Somerville.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic is one that will touch many areas of Britain and Ireland, so much so in places such as Southampton, Belfast and Liverpool. Southampton due to the amount of men from the area who were employed as workers on the ill-fated ship, Belfast will feel this anniversary with heavy heart as they remember the loss of life from a ship built at Harland and Wolff ship yard and Liverpool as the place where she was registered and where the news broke to the world that the unsinkable, the most prestigious ship of its time had been lost.

Titanic. Television review. (2012). full post

(474 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Best Of Men. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Originally pulished by L.S. Media. August 17th 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Eddie Marsan, Rob Brydon, Naimh Cussack, Richard McCabe, George MacKay, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Ben Owen-Jones, David Proud, Leigh Quinn, Daniel Wilde.

Perhaps it took the Best of Men to prove that nobody should ever be written off just because they received spinal injuries during the war.

The B.B.C. Television drama The Best of Men looked at the lives of the pioneering work of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a German Jewish refugee whose care and compassion for those he found in the spinal unit of Stoke Mandeville proved a thorn in the sides of the British doctors.

The Best Of Men. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

Whitechapel. Television Review. Series Three, Episode Four.

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 20th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davies, Steve Pemberton, Claire Rushbrook, Sam Stockwell, Ben Bishop, Hannah Walters, Jacqueline Roberts, Camilla Power.

The continuity announcer said before the start of the second part of the second story of Whitechapel, that some viewers may find some scenes upsetting, she might have well as ushered into the phrase, “and you’ll kick yourself for not realising who the killer is.” Such were the latent and subtle clues strewn throughout this final part that it was easy to forget the one fleeting and seemingly innocuous moment in the first episode where the murderer was revealed.

Whitechapel. Television Review. Series Three, Episode Four. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Whitechapel. Television Review. Series Three, Episode Three.

Originally published b y L.S.Media. February 13th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Rupert Penry Jones, Phil Davies, Steve Pemberton, Claire Rushbrook, Sam Stockwell, Ben Bishop, Hannah Walters, Jacqueline Roberts, Camilla Power.

Series three of Whitechapel continues with the gruesome premise of a murderer and the brutality of dismemberment. The scene is set by that other act of social discourse and interaction that some can find squeamish and sends shudders down the spines of the strongest of police officers, namely the spectacle of a family christening attended by those family and friends who you never see except when there’s free drinks on offer by the host. Given the choice I think I’d rather investigate another of those historical patterned murders, no matter how insidious, than ever have to wipe new born baby sick of a freshly ironed shirt.

Whitechapel. Television Review. Series Three, Episode Three. full post

(631 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)