Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
History is what defines us; it is what has shaped our nation and those around us, without the ability to learn from it, to take comfort in its meaning or to be able to look at the parallels in which we can draw conclusions of in today’s world. We may as well arguably find ourselves bereft of the ability to reason, to wonder and imagine; we may as well start again and scrap anything and everyone that has lived in the last thousand years.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Monica Dolan, Nick Moran, Reece Shearsmith, David Calder, Steve Pemberton, Emilia Fox, Rufus Jones.
The story never starts where you think it does; you could walk in to a narrative that is in its infancy and still find that there is a whole back story that you missed, that if you had got there ten minutes earlier then the whole complexion of the story would have been completely different, a scene missing might have seen you take another side in the argument, a stance taken. It all boils down to where you think the story actually starts and if you can live with being perhaps Once Removed from the beginning then that is something you have to live with.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Nine days in which to rule a nation, nine days in which you are thrust into the limelight from relative obscurity and ordered, God fearing, life, to one in which the state and the now dead King has decreed that you are Queen. In us all such power is unthinkable, the weight of history is enormous and chilling and it is the actions of an unwise soul that would dare take it on without a care in the world or who would relish the prospect. We only have to look at our modern day equivalent in politics, a week being a long time in that regards, nine days would seem like forever, and at the tender of 15; it is perhaps no wonder that many dispute the legitimacy of Lady Jane Grey’s period of time as England’s Queen.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Agyness Deyn, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Derek Riddell, Richard Coyle, Dermot Crowley, Jojo Macari, Varada Sethu, Owain Arthur, Joplin Sibtain, Adrian Rawlins, Lorraine Burroughs, Aisling Bea, Ukweli Roach, Kae Alexander, Cameron King, Maggie Daniels,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Sian Gibson.
All you need is laughter, all you need is a song and dance routine done with a cheeky smile and the television viewing public will take you to their hearts; but when tensions arise and the laughter isn’t there on screen anymore, where do old double acts go from there.
Whilst Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room doesn’t touch the absolute highs that the previous episode of the series, Zanzibar, reached, it nonetheless digs into the viewer’s soul for different reasons, for perhaps more personal ones, for as the viewer remembers what made them laugh in a different era, so too does the fondness for the two characters Tommy and Len grow.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Jaygann Ayeh, Reece Shearsmith, Rory Kinnear, Bill Paterson, Marcia Warren, Steve Pemberton, Hattie Morahan, Helen Monks, Tanya Franks, Kevin Eldon.
It is almost impossible to get anything 100 percent right in a half hour comedy, it needs so much to go according to plan, to hit every note possible and still have the conductor enough room to prise out just a little more from the lead and the passionate soprano on the edge of the stage.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Stephen Tompkinson, Mark Bonnar, Neil Maskell, Rufus Jones, Liz White, Alex Macqueen, Adam James, Katherine Kingsley, Natasha Joseph, Susan Twist, Isobel Middleton, Lisa Jackson, Louis Emerick, Darren Bransford, John Culshaw, Rosalind Halstead.
Who makes a song a popular hit, is it the singer that captures the soaring notes and melancholy beauty or is it the writer who sits alone and stares at a blank piece of paper waiting for inspiration to come knocking, scribbling down a line, scrawling and scoring, the provider of the smash in waiting. It is the chicken and egg question, who makes who the success?
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Emily Watson, Maya Hawke, Willa Fitzgerald, Kathryn Newton, Annes Elwy, Jonah Hauer-King, Julian Morris, Dylan Baker, Michael Gambon, Adrian Scarborough, Angela Lansbury, Eleanor Methven, Mark Stanley, Kathleen Warner Yates, Amelia Crowley, Ann Skelly, India Mullen, Amy Wren, Max Curnin, Erin Galway-Kendrick, Leah Temple-Lang, John Colleary, Nick Dunning, Nelly Henrion, Felix Mckenzie-Barrow, Mei Bignall, Patrick Flannery, Fode Simbo, Richard Pepple, Aleah Lennon, Will O’Connell.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai, Hayley Squires, Paapa Essiedu, Katy Carmichael, Lucas Bond, Lara Bond, Alex Hassell, Sally Messham, Caolan Byrne, Emily Berrington, Ziggy Heath, Aislin McGuckin, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Ian Hogg, Christopher Godwin, Jack Brady, Graham Elwell.
You can be let down if you have high expectations of anything, the possibility of major adaption of a piece of literature can have you believing that television will treat any new drama with respect sometimes falls short, can leave the festive desert leaving the stomach and the mind as lumpy as a debut Christmas pudding offered to the table; over filled with sweetness, too much brandy covering the meal and the chance that it could become a smouldering wreck before it has even had chance to settle.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Peter Capaldi, David Bradley, Mark Gatiss, Pearl Mackie, Lily Travers, Jared Garfield, Toby Whithouse, Jenna Coleman, Jodie Whittaker, Matt Lucas, Nikki Amuka-Bird.
How many regenerations have you lived through? It could be a question in which the critics decry as nostalgic, one that avoids a sense of action or purpose to the story line, the conclusion to a life is the only thing worthy as a new set of eyes to see the universe with fresh hope and a new catch phrase. To do this though misses the point, it shows that arguably you might not have been paying attention, or consumed with eager optimism for the fresh face to appear at the end.