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)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

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

The second segment of William Boyd’s fantastic spy tale, Restless, continued the excellent and riveting start that would have had viewers gripped in part one. With the net beginning to close in Eva Delectorskaya and her daughter Ruth, the pair began to set up Eva’s old boss and lover in a great case of double bluff.

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

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

Ripper Street, Episode One, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Myanna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Jonathon Barnwell, David Wilmot, Ian Bannon, David Dawson.

London’s Whitechapel district is never far from a source of inspiration when it comes to gruesome tales, especially when it comes to its down at heel and salubrious past. Things may have improved in the 130 years since Jack the Ripper stalked its alleyways but in the 1880’s the police and the public were under siege by evil and danger that masqueraded itself as decency. The latest B.B.C. television series to look at the way Victorian detectives dealt with the disorder and death of the times is the tremendous Ripper Street.

Ripper Street, Episode One, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

Frankie Howerd: The Lost Tapes. Channel 4. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When Frankie Howerd died in April 1992, the British public lost one of its dearest television and stage stars. Along with Tony Hancock, Sid James, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Frankie Howerd was a real superstar of his age and in three separate eras he managed to woo a different generation and grab them by both their funny bones.

Frankie Howerd: The Lost Tapes. Channel 4. Television Review. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Ripper Street, Episode Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Amanda Hale, Jonathon Barnwell, David Wilmot, Michael Smiley, Hugh O’ Conor, Giacomo Mancini, Joe Gilgun.

When it comes to British crime drama, you don’t get much better than basing the story on real events or authentic people and by placing in it in the sometimes squalid and mean streets of late Victorian era Whitchapel, it surely should be a ratings winner. Ripper Street continues the superb start it made in episode one and brings the claustrophobic, disease ridden and above the law contempt even closer to home in the second episode, In My Protection.

Ripper Street, Episode Two. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Lewis: Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode One), Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast:  Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman, Rebecca Front, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Beatie Edney, Emily Joyce, Tuppence Middleton, Neil Stuke, Edwin Thomas, Dominic Mafham.

There is one sure fire way to tell that the schedulers at I.T.V. know that Christmas is over, out come the murder mystery programmes in their droves and whilst the likes of Midsomer Murders is good fare and excellent escapism, there is something worthy of spending quality time when it comes to the Oxford detective Lewis.

Lewis: Down Amongst The Fearful (Episode One), Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Spies Of Warsaw. Episode One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Janet Montgomery, Marcin Dorocinski, Linda Bassett, Piotr Baumann, Nicholas Blane, Kenneth Collard, Dan Fredenburgh, Adam Godley, Burn Gorman, Ellie Haddington, Julian Harries, Ann Eleonara Jorgensen, Radoslaw Kaim, Grzegorz Kowalczyk, Anton Lesser, Richard Lintern, Tuppence Middleton.

Audiences wait an eternity for television drama to make its way back to the Second World War espionage era and then two perfectly good ones come along in a matter of weeks. The second of these diverted away from the thrilling William Boyd penned Restless with the stunning Hayley Atwell as the heroine and focused on the months before the invasion of Poland in Spies of Warsaw with another television favourite, David Tennant, in the lead role.

Spies Of Warsaw. Episode One. Television Review. full post

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