Category Archives: TV

Back To Life. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Daisy Haggard, Geraldine James, Richard Durden, Liam Williams, Jamie Michie, Adeel Akhtar, Christine Bottomley, Frank Feys, Imogen Gurney, Jo Martin, Souad Feress, Jennifer Tollady, Rhona Cameron, Angus Kennedy, Juliet Cowan, Jade Harrison, Celia Henebury.

It takes a special kind of relationship between a writer and their possible audience to make any connection with comedy work, especially when it is one that is set against the backdrop of murder and the after-effects of the accused being released from prison.

Back To Life. Television Review. full post

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Years And Years. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Rory Kinnear, Jessica Hynes, Ruth Madeley, Russell Tovey, Emma Thompson, Maxim Baldry, Anne Reid, T’Nia Miller, Lydia West, Arran Ansari, Jade Alleyne, Dino Fetscher, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Rachel Logan, Callum Woolford, George Bukhari, Zita Sattar, Kieran O’Brien, Pauline Fleming, Ellie Haddington,  Jodie Prenger, Dan Starkey, John McGrellis.

Years And Years. Television Review. full post

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Killing Eve: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, Sean Delaney, Edward Bluemel, Henry Lloyd-Hughes Nina Sosanya, Adrian Scarborough, Jung Sun den Hollander, Emma Pierson, Adeel Akhtar, Shannon Tarbet, Zoe Wanamaker, Nickolas Grace, Julian Barratt, Nigel Betts, Barbara Flynn.

A new television serial might be a hit with viewers from the start, the initial rush of congratulations could well be deserved, but there is always a nagging doubt that it is born of quick sensationalism, rather than the embrace of complexity, a character who titillates rather than nourishes, and whilst in a modern world there is no problem with the idea of shock tactics to win over an audience, it can leave others feeling cold, numb to the pressure to enjoy.

Killing Eve: Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Summer Of Rockets. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Keeley Hawes, Lily Sacofsky, Linus Roache, Gary Beadle, Toby Woolf, Lucy Cohu, Mark Bonnar, Claire Bloom, Suanne Braun, Timothy Spall, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Leo Staar, Greg Austin, Peter Firth, Molly Casey, Safiyya Ingar, Ronald Pickup, Matthew James Thomas, Jordan Coulson, Fode Simbo, Tony Maudsey, Adrian Edmondson, James Faulkner, Richard Cordery, Cai Brigden,

It takes a special kind of writer to be able to bring to focus the everyday item which we take for granted and then make it part of a story which employs all the finest elements of the dark forces that govern our lives and installs the direction in which a Government and its people are taking.

Summer Of Rockets. Television Review. full post

(581 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Dark Angel. Television Review. (2016).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joanne Froggatt, Alun Armstrong, Isla Mowbray, Laura Morgan, George Kent, Jonas Armstrong, Emma Fielding, Hayley Walters, John Hollingworth, Alexander McMonigle, Seamus O’Neill, John Bowler, Sam Hoare, Tom Varey, Penny Layden, George Potts, Paul Bentall, Isobel Dobson, Bill Fellows, Mike Burnside, Edward Gower, Niall Ashdown, Thomas Howes, Mark Underwood, Nigel Cooke, Jake Lawson, Jacob Anderton, Mark Holgate, Joanna Horton, Laura Jane Matthewson, Paul Brennen, Ferdy Roberts, Michael Culkin, Shaun Prendergast, Phil Cheadle.

Dark Angel. Television Review. (2016). full post

(702 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

What We Do In The Shadows. Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kavyan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, Matt Berry, Harvey Guillen, Mark Proksch, Doug Jones, Beanie Feldstein, Gloria Laino, Jake McDorman, Anthony Atamanuik, Alexandra Henrikson,  Kristen Schaal,  Nick Kroll, Taika Waititi, Ari Barker, Jemaine Clement, Tilda Swinton, Jessica B. Hill, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Trejo, Wesley Snipes, Dave Bautista.

What We Do In The Shadows. Series One. Television Review. full post

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

Chernobyl. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Jessie Buckley, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, Adam Nagaitis, Sam Troughton, Robert Emms, Karl Davies, Con O’Neill, Adrian Rawlins, David Dencik, Barry Keoghan, Ralph Ineson, Mark Lewis Jones, Ron Cook, Donald Sumpter, Alex Fearns, Jamie Sives.

Chernobyl. Television Review. full post

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

Hatton Garden. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Kenneth Cranham, Timothy Spall, David Hayman, Alex Norton, Brian F. O’ Byrne, Geoff Bell, Nasser Memarzia, Amira Ghazalla, Lucy Thackeray, Tom Christian, Thomas Coombes, T’Nia Miller, Paul Blackwell, Karl Farrer, Ian Puleston-Davies, Deborah Rock, Toni Thorpe.

Hatton Garden. Television Review. full post

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

Ghosts. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Martha Howe-Douglas, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Lolly Adefope, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond, Katy Wix, Yani Xander, Jim Howick, Richard Durden, Ed Kear, Ania Marson, Anya McKenna-Bruce, Steve Oram, Tom Mackley, Paul Cawley, Peter Coe, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Caroline Guthrie, Geoffrey McGivern, Tim Plester, Sophie Thompson, Richard Thomson, Angela Yeoh, Simon Bubb, Rosie Cavaliero, Florian Schwienbacher, Simon Stache.

Ghosts. Television Series Review. full post

(573 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders: Drawing Dead. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Bill Bailey, Ruby Bentall, Will Brown, Nicholas Burns, Ben Caplan, Nicholas Farrell, Eloise Joseph, Jemma Redgrave, Elana Saurel, Ellen Thomas, Joshua Williams, Heather Wright.

There was a time when teachers would look upon their pupil’s reading habits and consciously judge them accordingly, no matter how interested in the source material, the children’s ability to report on what they had read and the lessons learned from the text, the snobbery and direct condescension placed at the student’s desk as they admitted to reading comic books whilst their peers and friends got praise for having spent their weekend with their noses pretending to have insight into the world of ‘serious’ literature was short sighted and demeaning.

Midsomer Murders: Drawing Dead. Television Review. full post

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