Category Archives: TV

New Tricks, Bermondsey Boy. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Susie Blake, David Hayman, Barnaby Kay, John Macmillan, David Newman, Amy Nuttall, Tim Potter.

There is always a call for programmes to employ to show how vital the older acting community are to their profession, that not everything in life is supposed to pander to the youthful exuberant angle that on occasion, dominates television. The trouble is in days gone by that this meant being a star on the programmes such as, worthy as it is, Last of the Summer Wine or appearing as somebody’s grandmother of grandfather in the latest play for the day.

New Tricks, Bermondsey Boy. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(524 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C.

Cast: Luke Tittenson, Stuart Graham, Lewis Reeves, Michael Socha, Chris Mason, Hannah Britland, Paul Popplewell, Bobby Schofield, Sandy Batchelor, Anthony Schuster, Michael Peavoy, Andrew MacBean, Laurie Kynaston.

The second part of the B.B.C. series Our World War was one in which looked at the way the Battle of the Somme had an effect on the soldiers who fought in that bloody, unforgiving and devastating fight, especially two soldiers whose lives would become intertwined over the coming days of the offensive, Private Paddy Kennedy and Private William Hunt.

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Six. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Ruth Gemmel, Emilia Jones, Steven Robertson, Sacha Dhawan, Jennifer Hennersey, Emil Hostina, David Calder, Ansu Kabin, Bill Nash, John Voce.

It might take Channel 4 a decade or more to get involved with another story-line as riveting as Utopia has been for the last two series, if it does it will be well worth the wait, for Utopia has been so powerful, so seismic in its delivery that it stands shoulder to shoulder with other titans that went before it, such as Black Mirror and A Very British Coup.             .

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Six. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Our World War, Television Review. B.B.C.

Cast: Theo Barkham-Biggs, Callum Callaghan, Justin Michael Deuster, Brian Ferguson, Jefferson Hall, Daniel Kendrick, Stephen Leask, Dominic Thorburn, Frankie Wilson, Sion Young.

 

The trouble with being taught history at school is along the way it loses so many young minds to the way of the bored or disinterested. For many it is the sheer weight of facts to remember, perhaps the subject matter doesn’t grab the mind or imagination, for some they just cannot see the relevance to the our society today. That may be argued as understandable when looking at the lives of The Tudors or the Georgian society unless of course you are the type of person who is absorbed by all history, social, economic and personal. When it comes to the events that took the world on a course of destruction a 100 years ago, the relevance is palpable, you can almost hear the beating, thumping heart of your great-grandparents and their breathe clinging to the air around you as history is still so close and so real to many.

Our World War, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(632 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Five. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Geraldine James, Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Ruth Gemmel, Emilia Jones, Micah Blfour, Steven Robertson.

When the final curtain is raised or the apocalypse comes, just look for the person who has handed you their hat inside a fast food takeaway and shiver to the very core as they stops serving you, they smile and walk off with nothing more than the destruction of the Human Race in their head. Such is how Utopia will be achieved, not with the burst of an atomic weapon but within the mind of an employee who has just had enough of people asking if they do chocolate milkshakes in the value meal.

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Five. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Geraldine James, Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Michael Maloney, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Ruth Gemmel, Sacha Dhawan, Martin McDougal, Emilia Jones, Sofe Dirisu, Richard Laing.

Could you kill? Could you really think about pulling a trigger and blowing somebody’s head apart from their soul? The world is on the edge of extinction and somebody has a plan in which to save Humanity as a species, many billions will fade out of existence eventually but they will have at least lived, unlike the possible tens of thousands who are to become carriers of disease in which, to some is actually a better prospect than what could come.

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Four. Television Review. full post

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

Utopia, Season Two. Episode Three Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Geraldine James, Neil Maskell, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alistair Petrie, Alexandra Roach, Nathen Stewart- Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Kevin Eldon, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Michael Maloney, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Will Attenborough, Allan Corduner, Juliet Cowan, Keith Farnham, Candida Gubbins, Alex Lowe, Bruce Mackinnon, Gerard Monaco, Damien Thomas.

Utopia is never meant to be reached, if it was then Sir Thomas More completely missed the point as he wrote in praise to England before finding himself on the wrong side of a King’s wrath. Dystopia on the other hand is the easiest level of human attainment and for those on the run in Channel 4’s riveting series, Utopia, dystopia might actually be more preferable.

Utopia, Season Two. Episode Three Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Utopia. Series Two, Episode Two. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 81/2/10

Cast: Geraldine James, Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alistair Petrie, Alexandra Roach, Nathen Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Kevin Eldon, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Michael Maloney, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Alan Cordiner, Pixie Davies, Leemore Morrett Jnr, Diane Morgan.

It is the 21st Century equivalent of throwing yourself out of the window of a tall office block after wiping millions off the value of shares in the United States, the way of suicide compared to the office boredom and placing the stapler over the tongue ready to make sure you feel something, anything, to let the pain remind you are still alive…as Ian asks his colleague, is it possible to actually die of boredom?

Utopia. Series Two, Episode Two. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Utopia: Season Two, Pressing Matters. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Rose Leslie, Anca-Ioana Androne, Tim McInnerny, Trystan Gravelle, Clive Wood, Pamela Ashton, William Belchambers, Ed Birch, Vicenzo Ferrara, Aine Garvey, Lorna Gayle, Yare Michael Jegbefume, Solomon Mousley, Harley Rooney, Mason Rooney, James Stratton, Kevin Trainor, Velile Tshabalala.

In your life time, depending on how old you are, the population of the Earth has almost tripled. Seven billion people fighting for a scraps of land, for food, water, over religion, over the right to survive and the right to have a family, Seven billion souls, who thanks to the advancement in healthcare, the quick eradication of infectious diseases and peace keeping forces, seemingly take up more resources than the world can actually supply. Such is the dystopian plot that makes up one of Channel 4’s finest programmes in over a decade, Utopia.

Utopia: Season Two, Pressing Matters. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(569 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Fargo: Morton’s Fork. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Keith Carradine, Joey King, Susan Park, Gary Valentine, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Chantel Perron, Andrew Neil McKenzie, Amanda Guenther.

There is always one television series that stands out each year and Fargo could well be it for 2014. If they never make another series then the writer, the Coen brothers and the actors who have been associated with this terrific endeavour will have more than amply done their jobs.

Fargo: Morton’s Fork. Television Review. full post

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