Category Archives: TV

Midwinter Of The Spirit, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Anna Maxwell Martin, David Threlfall, Sally Messham, Leila Mimmack, Will Attenborough, Doc Brown, Katie Dickie, Oengus MacNamara, Ania Marson, Nicholas Pinnock, Simon Trinder, Rachel Atkins, Paul Bentall, Siobhan Finneran, Eileen Nicholas, Vivienne Soan, David Sterne, Josie Walker, Stephen Walsh, Scott Wright, Kai Alexander, Neil Ashton, Scott Cutmore, Holly Kavanagh, Geoffrey McGivern, Stephen McKenna, Nisha Nayar, Martin Walsh, Deon Williams, Alexis Platt, Adrian Dobson.

Midwinter Of The Spirit, Television Review. full post

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

New Tricks: The Crazy Gang. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Anthony Calf, Geraldine Somerville, Meera Syal, Lorraine Ashbourne, Peter Bramhill, Zara White, Sarah-Jane Potts.

It is perhaps a shame that the biggest case that U.C.O.S. will never have will be finding out the assailant at B.B.C. who decided that New Tricks had run its course and left to linger a death on a Tuesday night with a knife in its back that was unbecoming of such a widely appreciated and at times un-missable television.

New Tricks: The Crazy Gang. Television Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Under The Lake. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Colin McFarlane, Sophie Stone, Zaqi Ismail, Morven Christie, Arsher Ali, Steven Robertson.

The lesson to be learned around the Doctor is to be careful what you wish for, to never search for that what you seek, for in asking for adventure rather than it sneaking up on you, by taking you by surprise, the very real possibility that Death may come haunting you is to be remembered and observed.

Doctor Who: Under The Lake. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

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)