Category Archives: TV

Gotham: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Morena Baccarin, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Carmen Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Jessica Lucas, Chris Chalk, Drew Powell, Maggie Geha, Benedict Samuel, Jamie Chung, James Carpinello, Naian Gonzalez Norvind, Ivana Milicevic, James Remar, Raymond J. Barry, Alexander Siddig.

It is often bewildering to see that some television series are not appreciated at the time of their showing, viewer apathy perhaps, a certain level of niggling tedium born arguably of the fact that society, in the main, has got too used to everything being on demand, too eager to binge and then becoming bored because the art form doesn’t move along as quick as their racing and almost jumbled thoughts.

Gotham: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

A Very English Scandal. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw, Alex Jennings, Patricia Thorpe, Naomi Battrick, Jason Watkins, Alice Orr-Ewing, Monica Dolan, Blake Harrison, Michelle Dotrice, Eve Myles, David Bamber, Jonathan Hyde, Rhys Parry-Jones, Dyfan Dwfor, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Susan Woolridge, Peter Gardiner, Michael Culkin, Paul Freeman, Adrian Scarborough.

The Establishment has a way of winning every war it comes across, no scandal it seems is big enough to truly able to topple a Government, no outrage large enough to permanently harm the elected body that are there to supposedly look after the nation, its interests and its people; it is not the done thing and no matter who gets hurt, or whose reputation comes under fire, the party, the machine, the leadership continues, even if the face changes.

A Very English Scandal. Television Review. full post

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

King Lear. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Florence Pugh, Jim Carter, Andrew Scott, John Macmillan, Tobias Menzies, Anthony Calf, Karl Johnson, Christopher Eccleston, John Standing, Simon Manyonda, Chukwudi Iwuji, Samuel Valentine, Arinze Kene, Sharon Watts, Kaye Brown, Raphael Desprez, Peter Forbes, Sam Redford, Liam McKenna, Paul Tinto, Eric Kofi-Abrefa.

King Lear. Television Review. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Home From Home. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Johnny Vegas, Emilia Fox, Adam James, Niky Wardley, Oscar Kennedy, Harvey Chaisty, Paul Barber, Elaine Paige, Pearce Quigley, Olive Gray, Susan Calman.

Johnny Vegas certainly deserves his chance to headline a major B.B.C. comedy, after all, he has provided fans of the series Still Open All Hours with plenty of laughter, and his relationship with David Jason, Kulvinder Ghir and above all Sally Lindsay, is to be admired, the transition made from stand up to small screen is seamless, even perhaps a greater virtue, one in which finally the actor can feel Home From Home.

Home From Home. Television Review. full post

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

Midsomer Murders: The Curse Of The Ninth. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Callum Blake, Simon Callow, Colin Michael Carmichael, Robert Daws, James Fleet, Rosie Holden, Matthew Jacobs Morgan, Caroline Langrishe, Cyril Nri, Maggie O’ Neill, Joseph Prowen, Flora Spencer-Longhurst.

You can be scarred for life by the sword as it maims you, cuts into your skin and draws blood, but it is death by the bow that leaves you cold and frightened, the artist’s revenge and thoughts of cold bloodied murder always more palpable as the strings are drawn and the fire in the cold stare is highlighted across the bridge and the arm, drawing back till something snaps and the music becomes a requiem.

Midsomer Murders: The Curse Of The Ninth. Television Review. full post

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

Innocent. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lee Ingleby, Daniel Ryan, Adrian Rawlins, Hermione Norris, Angel Coulby, Fionn O’Shea, Nigel Lindsay, Eloise Webb, Samuel Edward-Cook, Zahra Ahmadi, Hannah Britland, Christine Cole, Tony Gardner, Nicholas Asbury, Elliott Cowan.

To serve time, in any capacity, for a crime you didn’t commit; has to be arguably the most soul destroying, most seething with rage and contempt for your peers that you will ever feel, the emotions run high, the anger always at boiling point, and with no way to let off steam because you are locked away. The system, corrupt and dishonest, shakes your belief to the very core and no matter how hard it is to keep face, to show the world you are not beaten, the illusion of being Innocent soon slips away; society exacting its pound of flesh in revenge for the misdeeds you didn’t commit.

Innocent. Television Review. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders: Death By Persuassion. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Samuel West, Susie Blake, Abigail Cruttenden, Claire Skinner, Nicholas Gleaves, Georgie Glen, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, John Macmillan, Anamaria Marinca, Paul Shelley, Thalissa Teixera, Karl Theobald, Jodie Tyack, Lotte Rice.

You can arguably do no wrong by having the name Jane Austen come to lips of those you are indebted to performing in front of; a sure-fire winner, only the Brontes could lead the television or cinema audience to sit up and take notice more readily, even the most tenuous link will do, and it is that the scriptwriters have a moral duty to not let the work descend into a screenplay anarchy, dependent upon creating a pastiche which is below gratitude and honour to the much-loved writer, which sparks of desperation and folly.

Midsomer Murders: Death By Persuassion. Television Review. full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Woman In White. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Ben Hardy, Olivia Vinall, Art Malik, Ricardo Scamarcio, Sonya Cassidy, Joanna Scanlan, Ivan Kaye, Ruth Sheen, Dougray Scott, Charles Dance, Nicholas Jones, Vicki Pepperdine, Kerry Fox, Christopher Fairbank, Clare McMahon, James Flynn, Cathy Belton, Jesse Magee, Matthew Lawson, Frankie McCafferty, Cole Currin, James Flynn, Carla Bryson, Frankie McCafferty.

The Woman In White. Television Review. full post

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

The City & The City. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Morrissey, Mandeep Dhillion, Christian Camargo, Roon Cook, Robert Firth, Lara Pulver, Maria Schrader, Paprika Steen, Danny Webb, Lee Bagley, Cokey Falkow, Michael Moshonov, Amélie Chantrey, Barry Aird, Morfydd Clark, Corey Johnson, Kasia koleczek.

There was once a view point that there were books that just could not be filmed, regardless of cost, the story-line was just too complex or even off the scale in its imagination to hold a television or film audience’s attention, at least not without confusing them and losing interest. View points are subjective, The Lord of the Rings would have been considered impossible, Terry Pratchet’s work would have been consigned to this particular undead realm, and books such Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and ideas such as Alien would have long been left on the shelf.

The City & The City. Television Review. full post

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

The Merchant Of Venice: Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ray Fearon, Colin Morgan, Hayley Atwell, Andrew Scott, Ryan Whittle, Neerja Naik, Ryan Early, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Lauren Cornelius, Luke Bailey, Kerry Gooderson, Stefan Adegbola, Javier Marzan, Neil McCaul, Clive Hayward, Rupert Holliday-Evans.

Long regarded in the first folio of William Shakespeare’s works as perhaps nothing more than a romantic comedy, it is with fresh eyes in this more discerning and in part justly cynical age to look upon The Merchant of Venice as a problem play, one that deals with the idea of outspoken racism, of anti-Semitism and even inward contempt and intolerance towards a man of another faith, using his debt in which to berate him consciously for his words and supposed lack of loyalty to his God.

The Merchant Of Venice: Radio Drama Review. full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)