Category Archives: TV

The Driver, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast:  David Morrissey, Ian Hart, Colm Meaney, Claudie Blakley, Darren Morfitt, Sacha Parkinson, Lee Ross, Harish Patel, Lewis Rainer, Andrew Tiernan, Chris Coghill, Shaun Dingwall, Andrew Knott, Nathan McMullen, Ciara Baxendale, Leanne Best, Dominic Coleman, Rick Bacon, Emma Bispham, Karl Collins, Alan Rothwell.

 

The British gangster drama, whether on television or in the cinema has never really captured the days of Brighton Rock with Richard Attenborough and William Hartnell or the fantastic The Long Good Friday with the much missed Bob Hoskins    and the excellent Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Since those days of cinematic greats the genre seems to have become too safe, it has waved a white flag in surrender to its American counterpart.

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

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

New Tricks: English Defence. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Anthony Calf, Julie Graham, Ian Hogg, Nicholas Woodeson, Mariah Gale, Finlay Robertson, Leanne Best, Anthony Barclay, Fox Jackson-Keen, Gertrude Thoma.

Chess, it’s nearly as bad as croquet for being a particularly vicious sport when the tempers flare and the too serious take their mind to murder. However all is not as black and white as it seems as several chequered paths start to treat the UCOS team like pawns in their own game in the latest episode of New Tricks, English Defence.

New Tricks: English Defence. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Doctor Who, Kill The Moon. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Hermione Norris, Samuel Anderson, Ellis George, Tony Osoba, Phil Nice, Christopher Dane.

Space for so long has been a conversation of banality to many, the interest in what lurks, glides and happens beyond our own atmospheric layer is not as awed as it was during the great Space Race or during the early use of the Space Shuttle programme. The Sun and The Moon seemingly as remote now as it was to ancestors who prayed to them as deities.

Doctor Who, Kill The Moon. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

New Tricks: In Vino Veritas. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Niamh Cusack, Phil Davis, Jack Ellis, Tom Georgeson, Pinar Ogun, Jan Knightley, Adam Astill, Alan Bayer.

A bottle of wine or champagne, for those who pay scant regards to such things, somehow can drive a person to more obsessive behaviour, can cause a person to murder and be underhand more so perhaps that religion, politics and for the promise of love from a calculating, cold beauty could ever manage to be.

New Tricks: In Vino Veritas. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(391 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Caretaker. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Elis George, Edward Harrison, Nigel Betts, Andy Giles, Nanya Campbell, Joshua Warner-Campbell, Oliver Barry-Brook, Ramone Morgan, Winston Ellis, Gracy Goldman, Diana Katis, Jimmy Vee, Chris Addison.

Coal Hill School in the centre of the East End of London seems to be the centre of the known universe when it comes to the stories concerning The Doctor and his fascination/exasperation for his favourite species and their planet. So much so that not only could the Doctor could be seen as the custodian of Humanity’s existence but when the time comes, he cannot keep away from the school in which some of his most memorable companions and perhaps pivotal moments have taken root. The Caretaker he has been and seems to relish in being.

Doctor Who: The Caretaker. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(561 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

New Tricks: Roman’s Ruined. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Denis Lawson, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Liz White, Louis Emerick, Storme Toolis, Carol Starks, Hermione Gulliford, Gary Oliver, Alix Wilston Regan, Elliot Levey.

What did the Romans ever do for us? It might have been possible to hear John Cleese remonstrate with the three life-hardened detectives in New Tricks’ latest episode Romans Ruined but far from the nice simple case that perhaps Gerry Standing was expecting, what they find at the end of the investigation is a crime that, at least in the team’s hearts, is not the ending they would have liked to pursue.

New Tricks: Roman’s Ruined. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Time Heist. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Keeley Hawes, Jonathan Bailey, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Trevor Sellers, Ross Mullan, Mark Ebulue, Junior Laniyan, Samuel Anderson.

Think of the most precious commodity or product you can lay your hands on, how good it will feel in your hands and the power you could wield with it, the people you might be able to bend to your will for even just a glance of it. Such things are what drives the world and yet many miss the point, it is not about having the latest gadget in which to download a picture of a cat onto the internet, nor is it Time, which is a more noble outlook, but Love and acceptance and that is really what is at the heart of the latest Doctor Who story, Time Heist.

Doctor Who: Time Heist. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

New Tricks: London Underground. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Anthony Calf, Barnaby Kay, Nicola Stephenson, Sophie Thompson, Benjamin Whitrow, Stephen Boswell, Adele Anderson, Jarred Christmas, Robin Berry.

The River Fleet, a stretch of water so steeped in London’s history, so pivotal to the narration of the capital of England’s chronicle and past account that so many legends, myths and stories have grown up around it, even more so since it was routed underneath the city of London itself. The river became essentially a place where the dregs, the sewage and the hopefully hidden are secreted and forgotten; such is the history of London Underground.

New Tricks: London Underground. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Listen. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Remi Gooding, Robert Goodman, Kiran Shah.

Listen, the biggest secret of them all, the one that is always hidden in plain sight but never quite shows itself; does the Doctor know fear?

It is a question that seems to be skirted round, passed over or answered in such a way that it makes the very action in which The Doctor resolves the problem is one of false bravado. It makes the loyal viewer, the unremitting fan, feel better about themselves because no matter what The Doctor has the answers.

Doctor Who, Listen. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

New Tricks: Ghosts. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Ann Firbank, Emily Taffe, Louis Mahoney, Julie Graham, Georgine Anderson, Samuel Taylor, Jasper Jacob, Keith Ramsey, Katherine Jakeways, Emma Ballantine, Ruby Thompson, Arthur Shuttleworth, Scott Stevenson, Emma Louise Williams.

New Tricks: Ghosts. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)