Helen Maw: The Beacon. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We search for the light that will guide us, for the lamp that warns, and our eyes are irrevocably focused on the darkness for the beacon that offers us hope, the substantial fire in the distance that calls for aid, that signals the moment to return home and leave the broken soul that you carry with heavy heart behind.

In the modern world we are summoned to ride the distance by the incessant ping of the artificial, the buzz of electronic, and unlike the beacon that grows steadily, and which asks your mind to fully accept that which glows, the damnation of the synthetic growls like a cornered wolf, offering urgency instead of warmth and heart.

Helen Maw: The Beacon. Single Review. full post

(332 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Amadeus. Television Drama Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul Bettany, Will Sharpe, Gabreille Creevy, Olivia-Mai Barrett, Orsolya Heletya, Emma Lowndes, Jonathan Aris, Rory Kinnear, Kristián Cser, Anastasia Martin, Lucy Cohu, Viola Preetejohn, Rupert Vansittart, Colin Hoult, Paul Bazely, Jack Farthing, Enyi Okoronkwo, Hugh Sachs.

In its attempt to appeal to all, television has found a way to sanitise even the most glorious of human beings that have created such works of art that their very presence gives us hope, that we explain away the madness in the mind and in the soul, and for the most part it has found a way to dissect and criticise, find a way to not exemplify the brilliance, but desecrate the self, find fault at every possible moment.

Amadeus. Television Drama Series Review. full post

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

A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Room In The Tower. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Joanna Lumley, Tobias Menzies, Nancy Carroll, Ben Mansfield, Polly Walker.

A tale told well is always worth the time spent watching it unfold, and yet its opposite is one that seems to spare itself from being truly explored feels to the viewer almost as if they are being punished for caring about previous encounters with the writer or the subject matter.

A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Room In The Tower. Television Drama Review. full post

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

Ian Dury: Too Nutty To Be Naughty -The Studio Recordings 1977-2002. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In a fair and just world Ian Dury would have been more than just a working class hero, he would have risen above the status of informed commentator, he would have surely been an assured laureate, esteemed in high circles, venerated as one of Britain’s finest poets…but then he would have been pressured to conform, to be seen as a voice of those that bore no consequence to how they took delight on keeping the lower classes in order; he would have had to show a kind of normalcy that was less about vision but of compliance, and the master word builder of his generation would never have allowed that.

Ian Dury: Too Nutty To Be Naughty -The Studio Recordings 1977-2002. Box Set Review. full post

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

The Revenge Club. Television Drama Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Martin Compston, Meera Syal, Douglas Henshall, Sharon Rooney, Chaneil Kular, Amit Shah, Aoife Kennan, Rob Malone, Wil Coban, Eion Duffy, Holly Harmon, Christina Bennington, Doireann McNally, Owen Teale, Catherine Walker, Niamh Walsh, Payal Mistry, Taru Devani.

Revenge is a dish best served with consequences understood, that by taking down those that wrong you can lead to a cost to your own soul, it can be the moment where the challenge of boundary will make you the perfect villain in the eyes of all; if though you can face that eventuality then why contemplate the act of reprisal on your own, the nature of vengeance as a solo effort, surely it is a better experience as part of like-minded group, The Revenge Club.

The Revenge Club. Television Drama Series Review. full post

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

Den Browne: Padlocks: Living With Sid And Nancy. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The term ‘Heroin chic’, popularised in the early 1990s by the world of fashion, provides a shameful reminder that at times we allow a glorification of some of the worst habits that a person can descend within, and whilst it often adds gravitas to a particular tale from an outsider’s point of view, it can but be galling to find that someone has fallen for a hero for more than their talent, that they openly admire their capacity for which ever drug of choice has led them to be remembered for.

Den Browne: Padlocks: Living With Sid And Nancy. Book Review. full post

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

The Death Of Bunny Munro. Television Drama Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Sarah Greene, Rafael Mathé, Johann Myers, Robert Glenister, Patrick Carswell, Alice Feetham, Ed Eales White, Lindsay Duncan, Francis Tomelty, Lydia Hunt, Bobby Rainsbury, Andrea Valls, Laura Doddington, Nick Cave, David Threlfall.

The Death Of Bunny Munro is arguably to be seen as a surreal exercise of indulgence that should not work, and yet it is a captivating sense of movement that details the length that some people will go to provide glorious colour to their own car crash of a life.

The Death Of Bunny Munro. Television Drama Series Review. full post

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

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here -50-. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Of all the albums that Pink Floyd produced perhaps none come close to exploring melancholy, ghosts of the past and bitterness, despair and anger in equal measure than the 1975 release of Wish You Were Here.

Much has been written of the album’s mythos, the strangeness of seeing an old friend and leader of the Progressive Rock group standing in close proximity, staring meaningfully as the songs came to life, as they seemed to echo the disconnect that had been suffered with a sense of drama and distress; yet interestingly not with any kind of disruption to the machine, to the Pink Floyd story.

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here -50-. Box Set Review. full post

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

It: Welcome To Derry. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Stephen Rider, Chris Chalk, Bill Skarsgård, Matilda Lawler, Amanda Christine, Clara Stack, Blake Cameron James, Arian S. Cartaya, James Remar, Thomas Mitchell, Madeline Stowe, Peter Outerbridge, Kimberly Guerrero, Joshia Odjick, Maya McNair, Hannah Storey, Maya Misaljevic, Alixandra Fuchs, Shane Marriott, Dorian Grey, Larry Day, Morningstar Angeline, Miles Ekhardt, Mikkal Karim Fidler, Craig Porritt, Sophia Lillis.

It: Welcome To Derry. Television Series Review. full post

(663 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Say Nothing. Television Drama Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lola Pettigrew, Hazel Doupe, Emily Healy, Maxine Peake, Anthony Boyle, Josh Finan, Judith Roddy, Seamus O’ Hara, Connor Trainor, Art Parkinson, Cúán Hosty-Blaney, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Amy Molloy, Martiin McCann, Michael Coglan, Helen Behan, Rory Kinnear, Kerri Quinn, Laura Donnelly, Stuart Graham, Frank Blake, Eileen Walsh, Adam Best, Damien Molony, Ian McElhinney.

The difference between fact and fiction is headlines.

Quite often in war the headline is the biggest winner, the larger the perceived outrage the more in draws in debate, both sides questioning what they are achieving, and by effect the more courage and conviction the aggrieved party will feel to justify their cause.

Say Nothing. Television Drama Series Review. full post

(597 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)