Maigret: Maigret In Montmartre. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Shaun Dingwall, Lucy Cohu, Lorraine Ashbourne, Cassie Clare, Sebastian De Souza, Simon Gregor, Mark Heap, Douglas Hodge, Sara Kestelman, Nike Kurta, Colin Mace, Gyula Mesterhazy, Adrian Scarborough, Hugh Simon, Nicola Sloane, Leo Starr, Olivia Vinall, Tilly Vosburgh, Jane Wood.

There may be murders in the Rue Morgue but then Paris, under the watchful eye of renowned Detective Maigret has always had its share of acts of homicide in which to fear the mist that rises off the Seine and through the artistic expression of Europe’s most romantic city. It is love that spurs on more murders than hate so it seems in detective fiction and in Maigret in Montmartre, that love is heightened, corrupted and put to the test of what even Jules Maigret can possibly solve.

Maigret: Maigret In Montmartre. Television Review. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Not Going Out (Christmas Special).2017. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lee Mack, Sally Breton, Bobby Ball, Geoffrey Whitehead, Hugh Dennis, Abigail Cruttenden, Deborah Grant, Keith Barron.

A Christmas special, especially one in which comedy writers are expected to create, can go either way, either it is one that defies the convention of the season and goes all out to produce anarchy and chaos or it submits and goes down the road of the pre-fabricated Christmas tree, complete with decorations and a rather sickly angel dressed in colours of Battenberg Cake rather than the off white purity. Either way, it has to be endured and if that is the case then chaos, anarchy and slight resentment are always the finer treat to laugh alongside.

Not Going Out (Christmas Special).2017. Television Review. full post

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

A Kind, Happy Christmas.

 

It was never a time for me,

I would smile and wish the same,

that you, my friend, would

see hope in the year to come

as Christmas came round again.

I would cook the dinner,

argue about sprouts,

force one down

the throat that craved, not turkey,

dry tasteless meat that had no right

to be served upon my table,

but perhaps a sense of humility

and an early bacon sandwich

covered in brown sauce.

 

Not for me this day

A Kind, Happy Christmas. full post

(331 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

The Selecter, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Art Comes First, those three words must be true, not only does the enigmatic and iconic Pauline Black declare it on the back of her jacket inside the Liverpool Olympia, in her presence on stage, in the way this woman to whom the world stops and trembles because of her honest and forthright views, shouted in many different phrases between songs, the small whisper of love and the wonderful sneered boom of derision to those who make life difficult for anyone who has an ounce of creativity in their bones.

The Selecter, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool. full post

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

The Beat, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The beat remains important, without it, without that palpitation in the chest, the rhythm in the soul and the expectation of the overwhelming passion for life, then what is the point of existence, it would just come down to a series of 0 and 1s, to the coldness of science and the drudgery of only letting off steam in a calculated, disciplined way. The beat, that recurring, rhythmic resonating in each of us if we listen closely, that is the sound of being alive and passionate. It is sound that The Beat remember and offer with charm and dexterity of purpose and it is still the one that snaps the fingers and makes the heart jump for joy.

The Beat, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool. full post

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Red Or Blue (Does It really Matter That Much What Colour Your Passport Is).

 

I don’t care what colour

my passport is, I care

that I have one, I care that

many don’t and will not ever

have the chance to travel, to experience

love and hope, regret and passion

in another country.

I don’t care what colour

of the rainbow it wants to be,

It could be gold with regal spots

or have the emblem of the house

of fools tattooed upon its outer shell,

I care that this is our red line in the sandbox,

Red Or Blue (Does It really Matter That Much What Colour Your Passport Is). full post

(145 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

Drink And Drive. This Is What Happens When a Fly Lands In your Food. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Chaos is the random art of unexpected beauty, the commotion that can be handled and ordered but to which somehow you let gather pace because when you see it unfold you start to understand that confusion is the Salvador Dali painting made universal and the turmoil of structure rebelling against itself. It is the dam that breaks, the hundred school children in a hall with one teacher, the island that sits in judgement on a group of boys and turns them to savages and chaos is at its finest when you appreciate that This Is What Happens When a Fly Lands In your Food.

Drink And Drive. This Is What Happens When a Fly Lands In your Food. Album Review. full post

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

Feud. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Judy Davies, Jackie Hoffman, Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, Alison Wright, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dominic Burgess, Joel Kelley Daunton, Kathy Bates, Kiernan Shipka, Molly Price, Serinda Swann, Sarah Paulson.

In many ways Hollywood has not changed a single bit since someone put up a soundstage, started the cameras rolling for the first time and a voice in the background shouted out with a booming voice, action. Men have always called the shots, it isn’t right, it can be downright obscene and for many, change has just not happened quickly enough.

Feud. Television Review. full post

(713 words, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

I Wish You A Merry Christmas.

 

Happy Holidays,

it was always worth a try

to inject a phrase into a time

to which I feel no connection.

Happy Christmas, goes, goes, goes

to the back of the pile,

not one for the season of Santa

and his air traffic controlled nose

reindeer, Blitzen and adding

Donner meat to the Kebab

rammed down the throat, drunk

on Christmas Eve, traffic cone on head

and singing loudly at midnight.

Having worked in retail and in catering,

the best thing about it was willing

I Wish You A Merry Christmas. full post

(232 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

Andrew Hesford, Any Moment Now. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Any Moment Now; an outburst of declaration, a quiet inward wish, a spoken treaty with fate, whichever way you tend to look those three small words, they are weighted with expectation, demand and more than enough hope inside of them. Any moment now, the realisation of years of practise, of dedication and often setback will conjoin and see the lightning strike in the same place twice, leaving the onlooker dazed by the flash of brilliance but rejoicing in having been able to witness its arrival.

Andrew Hesford, Any Moment Now. Album Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)