End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Louise Brealey, David Haig, Don Gilet, Peter Bankole, David Carlyle, Madeline Potter, Richard Laing, Joel MacCormack, Martina Laird.

We never think of how a disease comes into being, how it is ‘born’, how it evolves…we leave that to the scientists and we react with surprise when it is put to us that the wild speculation we have gossiped over when a friend is diagnosed with a particular illness, is in fact wrong, that it is far more sinister than we imagine, but also more acutely disturbing for our species.

End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams: Should We Tell Him. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We have lost more than we know in the last few years, and whilst Time inevitably catches us all unawares, the shock of the legendary performer taking a final bow from the stage as the music slowly fades, will always leave a lasting sadness to all who have had the pleasure, the honour, of listening to them, and arguably so with greater conviction, those who have lost their mentor and friend.

Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams: Should We Tell Him. Album Review. full post

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

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emma Sidi, Barney Fishwick, Kymberley Cochrane, Leah Marks, Gerard McDermott.

When does imagination cross the line, when does a podcast in the modern age transform itself into being a ritual to which people flock to and see it as more than just an exercise in indulgence or a way for a lesser-known story to be revealed.

Podcasting has become a form of entertainment that has opened up the narrative revolution in such a way that it could be argued that it rivals the emergence of the novel in the transformation of how a story can be told by all and listened by everyone.

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh: Fortune By Design. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Collaboration is a strange and magnificent beast.

To involve someone else in your imagination takes courage, you don’t know how they will react to even the slightest change in mood as ideas flow thickly, or as slowly as precision dictates. To collaborate in art is take on a greater degree of trust that is akin in many ways to that of a marriage. Each side has their own interpretation of what will ensure success or a brief beautiful liaison, each moment is a learning curve that is steep and possibly undermining to the overall creation; and this is never truer than in the debut offering rather than in the long-established contribution.

Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh: Fortune By Design. Album Review. full post

(347 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Secret Invasion. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Emilia Clarke, Don Cheadle, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Killian Scott, Ben Mendelsohn, Olivia Coleman, Charlayne Woodward, Samuel Adewunmi, Katie Finneran, Irmena Chichikova, Cobie Smulders, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Epp, Anna Madeley, Mark Bazeley, Mark Lewis, Christopher McDonald, Martin Freeman, Nisha Aaliya, Uriel Emil, Tony Curran.

There was a time when artists, actors of all persuasions and abilities, were being dragged to the Senate to give evidence, and to name those to whom they ‘suspected’ of what was euphemistically called ‘Anti-American Activities’, essentially of harbouring the supposed ill-will against the United States of America in the fight against America.

Secret Invasion. Television Series Review. full post

(548 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Yellowjackets: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Sophie Néilsse, Nicole Maines, Elijah Wood, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Kevin Alves, Alexa Barajas, Luciano Leroux, Mya Lowe, Ella Purnell, Sarah Desjardins, Jane Widdop, Alex Wyndham, Rukiya Bernard, Aiden Stoxx, Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, Nia Sondaya, Rekha Sharma, Nuha Jes Izman, John Reynolds, Jeff Holman.

Television series come and go with alarming ferocity, and to be caught in its glare for more than one series is to admit in modern terms that there is a seismic appreciation for the tale being played out for the benefit of the viewer.

Yellowjackets: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: James Robert McCrimmon. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Michael Troughton, Frazer Hines, Daisy Ashford, Barnaby Edwards, Nigel Havers, Mickey Knighton, Pepter Lunkuse, Glen McCready, Alec Newman, Emma Noakes, Gary Turner, Ony Uhiara.

James Robert McCrimmon is a name that brings arguably the vast majority of Doctor Who fans happy memories and fondness for the entire Patrick Troughton era. What though is in that name, and despite only returning once on screen since the character returned to his right place in history, that marks him out as consistently being voted among the finest of companions that the Time traveller ever had by their side.

Doctor Who: James Robert McCrimmon. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

The Death Of Molly Miller. Radio Play Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shireen Farkhoy, George Edwards.

The rise of the social influencer is perhaps one that was only to be expected in a world where the narrative has altered from one of substance to one where you only have to be seen as being presentable, to wear and say the right things and be an image of those who, for whatever reason believe that you are the embodiment of success, to be noticed.

The Death Of Molly Miller. Radio Play Review. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Oppenheimer. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Scott Grimes, Jason Clarke, Florence Pugh, Dane DeHaan, Kurt Koehler, Tony Goldwyn, John Gowans, Macon Blair, James D’Arcy, Kenneth Branagh, Harry Groener, Gregory Jbara, Ted King, Tim DeKay, Steven Houska, Tom Conti, David Krumholtz, Matthais Schweighöfer, Josh Hartnett, Alex Wolff, Josh Zuckerman, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Hap Lawrence, Matthew Modine, Louise Lombard, Matt Damon, Jack Quaid, David Dastmaichian.

Oppenheimer. Film Review. full post

(629 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Frederick Schmidt, Mariela Garriga, Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma.

You don’t escape from the rage of a volcano by standing still, you cannot avoid the avalanche by staring deep into the bleak white void as it hurtles towards you; and you don’t get to ignore the latest offering from the Mission Impossible franchise by declaring that it doesn’t appeal as an action film just because it is fronted by Tom Cruise.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One). Film Review. full post

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