Category Archives: TV

The Game, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Hughes, Jonathan Aris, Brian Cox, Victoria Hamilton, Shaun Dooley, Paul Ritter, Chloe Pirrie, Rachel Stirling, Zana Marjanovic, Yevgeni Sitokhin, Judy Parfitt, Marcel Lures, Tim Bentinck, Gemma Chan, Jay Simpson, Anton Lesser, Craig Conway, Scott Handy, Richard McCabe, Alistair Petrie, Steven Mackintosh.

 

Gotham, Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Erin Richards, Robin Lord Taylor, David Mazouz, Zabryna Guevara,  Sean Pertwee, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Victoria Cartagena, Andrew Stewart-Jones, John Doman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nick D’Agosto, Morena Baccarin, Chelsea Spack, Richard Kind, Clare Foley, Carol Kane, Peter Scolari, Milo Ventimiglia, Julian Sands.

Inspector George Gently: Son Of A Gun. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Jody Latham, Elizabeth Carling, Simon Hubbard, Danny Cunningham, Patrick Mcnamee, Annabel Scholey, Tom Hutch, Emma Lundy, Rosie Wyatt, Lucian Msamati, William Graham, Paul Hamilton.

 

For every generation must come a time when it watches those who will replace them with wonder, dread and in some cases frightened to death of what will happen to them and those not wishing to follow in their size nines. For those that lived through the Second World War and fought for the peace that was won afterwards, to see the actions of some of the young, untempered by the hardships and reality of fighting against an enemy that wanted to destroy you but who in turn wanted to sweep away everything that you had fought desperately for, must have been like watching a tidal wave of exhausting hatred and bile.

Atlantis: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 1/10

Cast: Mark Addy, Jack Donnelly, Robert Emms, Aiysha Hart, Sarah Parish, Jemima Roper, Juliet Stevenson, Amy Manson, Ken Bones, Peter De Jersey, Lorcan Cranitch, Vincent Regan, Robert Lindsay, Joseph Timms, John Hannah, Robert Pugh, Ronald Pickup, Philip Correia, Anya Taylor-Joy.

The surprise was not that Atlantis was cancelled but the fact that it was made at all.

In one of the rare mistakes of drama production by the B.B.C., Atlantis finally washed up on the shores of discontent and died a long lingering death in a series that was split in two. Much heralded as a winter replacement for Doctor Who, the second series of the fantasy based drama descended to the point where arguably viewers were watching to see how bad it could actually become.

Inspector George Gently: Gently Between Friends. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Adrian Bower, Louise Brealey, Emma Cunniffe, Anthony Flanagan, Jim Moir, Nick Sidi, Kris Deedigan, Luke Maddison, Glyn Pritchard, Paul Brennen, Simon Hubbard, Annabel Scholey, Lawrence Neal, Jim Kitson, Shaughan Seymour, William Troughton.

Arguments between friends, especially life long ones, can be the source of much anger and hatred; yet somehow they blow over without much issue or ceremony, a drink and a proper handshake, one without descending into sarcasm and cynicism. It is the ones that don’t blow over, where hatred and jealousy become entwined and unable to be torn apart, that’s when the spectre of murder rears its ugly head and the free flowing nature of Gently Between Friends is disturbed.

Inspector George Gently: Breathe In The Air. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Simon Hubbard, Nicholas Woodeson,  Lesley Nicol, Mark Aiken, Ashleigh Armstrong, Emily Atkinson, Bryony Corrigan, Jonathan Cullen, Jason Done, Ben Fiske, Suzy Kane, Patsy Lowe, Deidre Mullins, Georgia Nicholson, Derek Riddell, Annabel Scholey, Richard Shanks.

The stench of corporate corruption is not a new, it is perhaps not even fashionable to look to hard into it when thousands of jobs are stake; however not a single penny of hush money should ever be paid, to the even more corrupt or to the victims of the abuse perpetrated in the name of profit and business. For Inspector George Gently the 60s may be coming to a close but the chance to Breathe in the Air and bring the corrupted to book is never a closed chapter.

Inspector George Gently: Gently With The Women. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Jeremy Swift, Lucy Liemann, Emily Woof, Derek Riddell, Denise Welch, Alice Blundell, Paul Charlton, Mickey Cochrane, Christine Berriman Dawson, Simon Hubbard, Madeline Knight, Lillian Macardle, Annabel Scholey, Robert Whitelock, Philippa Wilson.

There are few crimes that are as horrific as murder, and yet when they take place the nation is divided it seems between those who with macho intent deliver a sermon well worn and so outdated that it barely deserves repeating and those who understand how the unbalancing of the act can have on the local area, the people and nature.

Banished, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Julian Rhind-Tutt, MyAnna Buring, Russell Tovey, David Wenham, Orla Brady, Ewen Bremner, Ryan Corr, David Dawson, Ned Dennehy, Brooke Harman, Joseph Millson, Nicholas Moss, Adam Nagaitis, Genevieve O’ Reilly, Joanna Vanderham, David Walmsley, Bianca Rudman, Jordan Patrick Smith, Tim McCunn.

 

Dara And Ed’s Great Big Adventure, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For some older viewers there will never be another broadcaster or journalist to replace the calm authorative voice of Alan Whicker as the beacon of bringing scenes and a wide range of interesting people from other countries into the home. Perhaps there never will be his like again, like Jan Morris or Bill Bryson in literature, the essence of the reporting is quintessential to the understanding. They are also arguably for some the reason why they found their own adventures and did incredible things; the world after all is too small to be ignored and Dara O’ Briain and Ed Byrne are too good to be dismissed.

The Musketeers: Trial And Punishment. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Hugo Speer, Maimie McCoy, Marc Warren, Phil Rowson, Peter Sullivan, Alex Giannini, Charlotte Salt.

When the world turns on a single fateful decision to topple a King, the fall out is never going to be pretty, the lives that become embroiled in the plot, whether they know about it or not, are going to change, perhaps even ruined and the ultimate measure in Trial and Punishment is set, the pawns and the people placed in it all will feel the wrath of the King.