Category Archives: TV

Upstart Crow: 2017 Christmas Special.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: David Mitchell, Liza Tarbuck, Emma Thompson, Gemma Whelen, Paula Wilcox, Harry Enfield, Rosanna Beacock, Dominic Coleman, Tim Downie, Mark Heap, Spencer Jones, Helen Monks, Rob Rouse, Steve Speirs, Joe Willis.

“Be not afraid of greatness”, words to live by and words in which there stands the golden possibility that Ben Elton’s Upstart Crow will gather the same attention bestowed upon the realm of Blackadder, for in the wit and humour of the show stands that greatness, a passion for the bard that never seems to fall out of favour and why should it, for in the greatest of them all lives much to pluck a juicy Christmas tender joint from.

Upstart Crow: 2017 Christmas Special. full post

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

Maigret: Maigret In Montmartre. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Shaun Dingwall, Lucy Cohu, Lorraine Ashbourne, Cassie Clare, Sebastian De Souza, Simon Gregor, Mark Heap, Douglas Hodge, Sara Kestelman, Nike Kurta, Colin Mace, Gyula Mesterhazy, Adrian Scarborough, Hugh Simon, Nicola Sloane, Leo Starr, Olivia Vinall, Tilly Vosburgh, Jane Wood.

There may be murders in the Rue Morgue but then Paris, under the watchful eye of renowned Detective Maigret has always had its share of acts of homicide in which to fear the mist that rises off the Seine and through the artistic expression of Europe’s most romantic city. It is love that spurs on more murders than hate so it seems in detective fiction and in Maigret in Montmartre, that love is heightened, corrupted and put to the test of what even Jules Maigret can possibly solve.

Maigret: Maigret In Montmartre. Television Review. full post

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

Not Going Out (Christmas Special).2017. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lee Mack, Sally Breton, Bobby Ball, Geoffrey Whitehead, Hugh Dennis, Abigail Cruttenden, Deborah Grant, Keith Barron.

A Christmas special, especially one in which comedy writers are expected to create, can go either way, either it is one that defies the convention of the season and goes all out to produce anarchy and chaos or it submits and goes down the road of the pre-fabricated Christmas tree, complete with decorations and a rather sickly angel dressed in colours of Battenberg Cake rather than the off white purity. Either way, it has to be endured and if that is the case then chaos, anarchy and slight resentment are always the finer treat to laugh alongside.

Not Going Out (Christmas Special).2017. Television Review. full post

(423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Feud. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Judy Davies, Jackie Hoffman, Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, Alison Wright, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dominic Burgess, Joel Kelley Daunton, Kathy Bates, Kiernan Shipka, Molly Price, Serinda Swann, Sarah Paulson.

In many ways Hollywood has not changed a single bit since someone put up a soundstage, started the cameras rolling for the first time and a voice in the background shouted out with a booming voice, action. Men have always called the shots, it isn’t right, it can be downright obscene and for many, change has just not happened quickly enough.

Feud. Television Review. full post

(713 words, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

Crooked House. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Max Irons, Stefanie Martini, Terence Stamp, Julian Sands, Amanda Abbington, Christian McKay, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, John Heffernan, Preston Nyman, Madeleine Hyland, Petros L. Ioannou, David Cann, Gino Picciano, Andreas Karras, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, David Kirkbride, Ricky Gabbrielini, David Seddon, Reuben Greeph, Ani Nelson, Lauren Poveda,  Honor Kneafsey.

Crooked House. Television Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Howards End (2017). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen, Joe Bannister, Bessie Carter, Philippa Coulthard, Alex Lawther, Donna Banya, Tracey Ullman, Joseph Quinn, Rosalind Eleazer, Yolanda Kettle, Sandra Voe, Miles Jupp, Jonah Hauer-King, Julia Ormond.

 

For all television’s preoccupation with fiction that tries to capture the times in which our great grandparents would have lived through, from the dichotomy of the wonders of invention and adventure in the Victorian era and its more fragile, disgusting more sneering side in which the poor were treated with absolute revulsion and through to the period in which an entire generation were almost wiped out in the horror of the First World War; television in the last few years has done its best to glorify in this time and tried to draw parallels with our own sense of time on the planet.

Howards End (2017). Television Review. full post

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

Inspector George Gently: Gently And The New Age. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Richard Harrington, Adam Levy, Naomi Frederick, Steve Robertson, Tom Andrews, Louis Hilyer, David Prosho, Simon Hubbard, Michelle Bonnard, Jon Culshaw, Rachel Bavidge, Mandeep Dhillon, Grant Gillespie, Don Gallagher, Phil Corbitt, Christopher Brand, Geoffrey Breton, Katie West, Damien Matthews, Roger Barclay, Pip Chamberlin.

In the last few years the image of George Gently on television has been a reminder of less hectic times, still dogged by the sense of criminality that has weaved itself throughout society since records began, but one that was dealt with perhaps a more studious approach to policing and detective work, rather than relying on the science, the drip feed of automation against the human brain.

Inspector George Gently: Gently And The New Age. Television Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Gunpowder. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Kit Harington, Peter Mullan, Liv Tyler, Mark Gatiss, Shaun Dooley, Tom Cullen, Edward Holcroft, Robert Emms, Derek Riddell, Pedro Casablanc, David Bamber, Daniel West, Luke Neal, Luke Broughton, Philip Hill-Pearson, Richard Glover, Hugh Alexander, Simon Kunz, Fergus O’ Donnell,  Thom Ashley, Sian Webber, Kate Wood,  Sean Rigby, Beatrice Comins, Martin Lindley, Kevin Eldon, Robert Gwylim.

Gunpowder. Television Review. full post

(510 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Rellik. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Richard Dormer, Jodi Balfour, Paterson Joseph, Laerke Winther, Shannon Tarbet, Ray Stevenson, Kieran Bew, Michael Wildman, Joseph Macnab, Peter Coe, Alex Gillson, Tuncay Gunes, Susan Hughes, Faye Castelow, Mimi Ndiweni, Annabel Bates, Rosalind Eleazar, Paul Rhys, Tanya Reynolds, Clive Russell, Charlotte Dylan, Michael Shaeffer, Clare Holman, Rebecca Lacey, Reece Ritchie.

 

Rellik. Television Review. full post

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

Porridge. Series One (2017). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kevin Bishop, Mark Bonnar, Pippa Haywood, Dominic Coleman, Dave Hill, Harman Singh, Jason Barnett, Ricky Grover, Harry Peacock, Moyo Akande, Amina Zia, Rory Gallagher, John Marquez.

You can be spoiled in life, the little things, the small moments of brilliance can seem so monumental that they, in most people’s eyes, cannot be seen to be bettered, not even equalled and it is a shame because the monumental should be inspiring; it should be a light that shines, not to intimidate, but to at least emulate, to carry on the noble tradition of something worthwhile.

Porridge. Series One (2017). Television Review. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)