Category Archives: TV

New Tricks, Life Expectancy. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, David Haig, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Geraldine Somerville, Ramon Tikaram, Denise Gough.

Not many police dramas have the guts to show what can happen to a murder suspect when the near relentless pressure of questioning becomes too much to bear, especially when that suspect has been on an emotional rollercoaster themselves having lost a parent to the person they are accused of murdering, then again and true to good form, not every programme is as acutely aware of the ramifications of such lines of enquiry as New Tricks.

New Tricks, Life Expectancy. Television Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Cider With Rosie, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Timothy Spall, Samantha Morton, Georgie Smith, Archie Cox, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Bebe Cave, Georgie Brinkworth, Annette Crosbie, June Whitfield, Emma Curtis, Inis De Clercq, Libby Easton, Bob Goody, Maya Gerber, Jack Harris, Billy Howle, Jessica Hynes, Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen, Finn Bennett, Matthew Steer.

English literature may have moved on from the view of the world that was afforded writers between the two wars that shrouded Europe and the greater world in dusky veil of black, the pastoral has certainly suffered greatly since the ever encroaching urbanisation and the near submissive approach to building on more and more land.

Cider With Rosie, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Joey Price, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg.

Two-part stories within the world of Doctor Who have a habit of being lost in the storm, the build up can be a let-down or the finale such a disappointment that the whole structure of the tale becomes a series of woes and misbegotten anecdotes struggling to breathe in the weight of expectation.

Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

New Tricks: Lottery Curse. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Jack Deam, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Derek Riddell, Amanda Root, Adie Allen, Henry Garrett, Glen Wallace, Lucy Thackeray.

Money has a habit of making the previously virtuous become greedy, almost ready to become a monster tied to the pursuit of its lure and the filth that can come with it arriving out of the blue and too much, too soon. If money makes the world go round then it’s surprising at times that any Bank worth its lecherous salt hasn’t dibbed ownership on the speed and velocity and tried to see it off in a hedge fund.

New Tricks: Lottery Curse. Television Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Jemma Redgrave, Jaye Griffiths, Harki Bhambra, Daniel Hoffman-Gill, Joey Price, Benjamin Cawley, Aaron Neil, Clare Higgins, Nicholas Briggs, Kelly Hunter, India Ria Amarteifio, Dasharn Anderson, Stefan Adegbola, Shin-Fei Chen, Lucy Newman-Williams, Demi Papaminas, Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Jonathan Ojinnaka.

Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street: The Peace of Edmund Reid. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Lydia Wilson, Clive Russell, David Dawson, Josh O’ Connor, Ian McElhinney, Louise Brealey, Anna Burnett, David Wilmot, Leanne Best, Anton Giltrap, Elliot Levey.

The Peace of Edmund Reid is perhaps one that the people of Whitechapel might never have thought might be attained, in real 19th Century London or indeed in the fictional portrayal, made seamless and near perfect by Matthew Macfadyen, yet peace after so much devastation is not so much an impossible ask, it only requires all the circles of Hell to finally close and be seen to banished.

Ripper Street: The Peace of Edmund Reid. Television Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

New Tricks: The Russian Cousin. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Dean Andrews, Christina Cole, Nadine Marshall, Sarah Crowden, Jonathan Forbes, Thaila Zucchi.

When a dying man’s house gets burgled, it sets off a chain of events that can only, and inevitably, lead to murder. It is a murder investigation that for the four members of U.C.O.S. has a giant riddle attached to it, just who exactly would want this solved when nobody is forthcoming about the victim.

New Tricks: The Russian Cousin. Television Review. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

An Inspector Calls, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Thewlis, Miranda Richardson, Ken Stott, Sophie Rundle, Kyle Sollar, Finn Cole, Chloe Pirrie, Lucy Chappell, Wanda Opalinska, Flora Nicholson, Charlotte Butler, Gary Davis.

When a writer of absolute conviction is adapted for television by one who shares the same passion, the same feel for the dramatic, it can only bring out the very best in television, so much so that it becomes one of the greats of the year.

An Inspector Calls, Television Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Live Free, Live True. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, David Wilmot, David Dawson, Josh O’ Connor, Louise Brealey, Ian McElhinney, Haydn Gwynne, Martin Compston, Peter McDonald, Emily Taaffe, Leanne Best, Anna Burnett, Danial Cerqueira, Enda Kilroy, Bradley Hall, Maeve O’ Mahony, Brendan Morrissey.

The issue of abortion is still one that causes heated debates, within wider society and also within the prospective family unit; it is a debate where the parameters change the closer it hits to home.

Ripper Street: Live Free, Live True. Television Review. full post

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

New Tricks: The Fame Game. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Michael Higgs, Tracey Ann Oberman, Eva Pope, Harry Lister Smith, Michael Fenton Stevens, Lucy Benjamin, Tim Chipping.

The world of fame has spawned some pretty weird moments, instances where to some the mind is blown that people would actively seek such celebrity without even having done anything in their life. The trickle-down effect of such adoration is even more prevalent when you can go into schools and ask what they want from life and the answer you can often hear is one, “I want to be famous”, yet they don’t know what for. Fame for fame’s sake is not something that truly should be encouraged and yet somehow the world of looking like somebody else, to pretend to be someone else is The Fame Game personified.

New Tricks: The Fame Game. Television Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)