Category Archives: TV

The Secret Of Crickley Hall. Part Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Suranne Jones, Tom Ellis, Douglas Henshall, David Warner, Sarah Smart, Iain DeCaestecker, Olivia Cooke, Maise Williams, Bill Milner, Kian Parsiani, Pixie Davies, Donald Sumpter.

The second part of Joe Ahearne’s adaptation of James Herbert’s The Secret of Crickley Hall sees the tension stoked up as the malevolent force of Douglas Henshall’s Augustus Cribben starts to take more of a hold on the lives of the young family that resides in the former orphanage.

The Secret Of Crickley Hall. Part Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

The Secret Of Crickley Hall (Part Three). B.B.C. Television. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Suranne Jones, Tom Ellis, Douglas Henshall, David Warner, Sarah Smart, Iain DeCaestecker, Olivia Cooke, Maise Williams, Bill Milner, Kian Parsiani, Pixie Davies, Donald Sumpter.

The final part of James Herbert’s acclaimed supernatural thriller, The Secret Of Crickley Hall, contained one of the most shocking scenes in recent memory on television and even though the scene was short, the chilling sight of children on the floor would have struck a nerve with anyone who has read anything of the disposal of human bodies during World War Two. Unnerving and it stuck in the craw but it proved to be an incredible piece of story-telling adapted for television by Joe Ahearne and for that the B.B.C. and the cast of the three part series deserve high credit for their acting.

The Secret Of Crickley Hall (Part Three). B.B.C. Television. Television Review. full post

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

The Fear. Episode 1. Channel 4, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Mullan, Anastasia Hille, Harry Lloyd, Paul Nicholls, Demosthenes Chrysan, Dragos Bucar, Shaban Arifi, Julia Ragnarsson, Danny Sapani, Nigel Lindsay, Osy Ikhile, Sidney Kean, Lisa McAllister, Catherine Winter, Amarildo Kola.

Gone it seems, are the days of Pinkie Brown and the black and white days of the south coast’s criminal underbelly in Brighton Rock. Now the terrifying prospect of Eastern European gang culture rears in head in the seedy dangerous world of The Fear and it’s a far more dangerous world than teen hoodlum Pinkie could have ever have imagined.

The Fear. Episode 1. Channel 4, Television Review. full post

(384 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The Fear (Episode Two), Channel Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Mullan, Anastasia Hille, Harry Lloyd, Paul Nicholls, Richard E. Grant, Demosthenes Chrysan, Dragos Bucar, Shaban Arifi, Julia Ragnarsson, Danny Sapani, Nigel Lindsay, Osy Ikhile, Sidney Kean, Lisa McAllister, Catherine Winter, Amarildo Kola.

Episode two of The Fear sees the further mental disintegration of crime lord Richie Beckett and the disturbing brutality that passes between the two warring families taken up to an even higher gear.

The Fear (Episode Two), Channel Four. Television Review. full post

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

The Fear (Episode Three), Channel Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The tension that had been building in the framework of The Fear reaches almost fever pitch proportions as the escalating war between the Kosovan’s and Richie’s family starts to mirror the war going on inside his head.

The Fear (Episode Three), Channel Four. Television Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

The Fear (Episode Four), Channel Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Richard Cotton’s acclaimed television drama, The Fear, reached its final destructive conclusion whilst retaining the excellent writing from beginning to end and not entertaining the idea of slipping into the realms of outlandish fantasy. It is for this that the writer and cast must be applauded fully for giving a distinctive and sensitive portrayal of Alzheimer’s Disease and yet also giving a huge shot in the arm to a hopeful resurgence in the British Noir art form.

The Fear (Episode Four), Channel Four. Television Review. full post

(379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Merlin.Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Katie McGrath, Richard Wilson, Nathaniel Parker, Anthony Head, John Hurt, Michael Cronin, Eion Macken, Rupert Young, Alexander Vhalos, Emila Fox.

After a five series run, the B.B.C. television programme Merlin has come to its final ending. The trials and tribulations of the young apprentice sorcerer at the court of Camelot has reached its final and prophetic conclusion and whilst it should be mourned as it passes over to the realms of future repeats on unneeded digital channels and the mythology of future Trivia Pursuit questions. It should be noted that it was a much needed boost for Saturday evening television programmes, dominated at times by the surreal and those only ever interested in fame.

Merlin.Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Snowmen. B.B.C. Television. Christmas 2012. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Richard E. Grant, Dan Starkey, Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, Tom Ward, Liz White, Sir Ian McKellen, Juliet Cadzow, Joseph Dacey-Alden, Ellie Darcey-Alden, Annabelle Dowler.

What do you do when the girl you meet twice keeps dying? It’s enough to make a good man come out of retirement and regain that boyish inquisitiveness once more.

Doctor Who: The Snowmen. B.B.C. Television. Christmas 2012. Television Review. full post

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

The Girl, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Toby Jones, Sienna Miller, Penelope Wilton, Imelda Staunton, Sean Cameron Michael, Candice D’Arcy, Patrick Lyster, Kate Tilley, Adrian Galley, Leon Clingham, Angelina Ingpen, Louis Joubert, Aubrey Shelton, Carel Nel.

Alfred Hitchcock’s fascination with Tippi Hedren, the young blonde woman who made a remarkable transformation from fashion model to actor, is the premise of the biopic The Girl.

The Girl, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Restless (Part One), B.B.C. Television. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Thekla Reuten, Adrian Scarborough, Bertie Carvel, Anthony Calf.

In recent years there have been some excellent modern stories which add more light onto the roles of women during World War Two, especially in the world of espionage, one of the greats is Paul Verhoeven’s Dutch masterpiece, Black Book. The B.B.C. has now aired its equivalent in the outstanding first part of Restless starring Hayley Atwell, Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling.

Restless (Part One), B.B.C. Television. Television Review. full post

(370 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)