Doctor Who: The Lost Stories. Point Of Entry. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Matt Addis, Luis Salo, Sean Connolly, Tam Williams, Gemma Wardle, Ian Brooker.

It can be a source of bemusement to those seek the literary inside the Doctor Who universe that the soul of Kit Marlowe has not made an appearance, let alone an impression on the world; for a man to whom English literature would be sorely poorer without having picked up a pen and to whom the world of early espionage and skulduggery would be infinitely more boring to read about, Christopher Marlowe remains intriguingly still persona non grata, not only in the world we inhabit but in the fictional tales that could be wrought.

Doctor Who: The Lost Stories. Point Of Entry. Audio Drama Review. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Penguin Diplomacy. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Martin Clunes, Tom Goodman-Hill.

There is always the chance that the storm in the South Atlantic could once more blow cold, that any disputed island off the South Americas might find itself part of an invasion or at least the warmth and cordial act of diplomacy and the polite conversation regarding the sexual appetites of Penguins.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Penguin Diplomacy. Radio Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: The Rebel Alliance. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Una Stubbs, Tamzin Outhwaite.

Somewhere on a table at a wedding reception far away, sits those to whom were always the last to be invited, the ones to whom a small sense of gratitude is permanently and grudgingly displayed, nobody perhaps wants them there, the sense of embarrassment that they might bring to the proceedings outweighing the debt owed, and yet, there they sit, grateful for any small morsel of thanks that the organisers believe they deserve. For this, The Rebel Alliance, it is always surprising that any wedding they don’t make more of the opportunity to be the scene that many hope they would, with devilishly twinkling eyes, be.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: The Rebel Alliance. Radio Review. full post

(410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Gus Brown.

The point of comedy is that it has to be seen as possible, that the situations we encounter in today’s world can traverse the boundaries and still be funny no matter the time or setting, for the modern viewers can claim programmes such as Only Fools and Horses explore the world that it inhabited to such a point that many of the scrapes encountered by the loveable Trotter rogues can still be seen to be relevant almost 40 years after their first airing. It has criss-crossed the times it was set and is able to make people laugh; the same is said for any programme in which today’s circumstances can still be seen for what they are, no matter what context they are set in, it is why programmes such as Fawlty Towers, Yes Prime Minister or even the hit American series Frasier, still works.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Lethal Weapon, Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Damon Wayans, Clayne Crawford, Keesha Sharp, Kevin Rahm, Michelle Mitchenor, Jonathan Fernandez, Jordana Brewster, Chandler Kinney, Dante Browne, Richard Cabral, Floriana Lima, Tony Plana, Hilarie Burton, Andrew Patrick Ralston.

There are few films that truly capture the sense of the damaged and emotionally injured as the Lethal Weapon series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The first one especially was one of huge importance to the idea of the buddy movie, the two detective scenario which has by and large worked across the board since both television and film cottoned on to its appeal and the psyche in which such premises work.

Lethal Weapon, Series One. Television Review. full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Gracie! Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jane Horrocks, Tom Hollander, Ellie Haddington, Tony Haygarth, David Dawson, Ruth Kearney, Alistair Petrie, Ed Coleman, Tom Meredith, Stephen Lloyd, Matthew Aubrey, Paul Westwood, April Walker, Kieron Jecchinis, Harry Ditson, Christian Contreras, Nathan Nolan, Nigel Whitmey, Philip Desmeules, David Brooks, Laurence Belcher, Edward Lamont.

Gracie! Television Review. full post

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

Girls Were Just Girls.

Girls were just girls

just like us, the boys, only

with the knowledge

that they were better in the class room

than most of us in trousers, even

at eight, somehow more acute, articulate,

annoying but we had grown up

with each one of them

and in the school playground,

we at least could at least be heroes

with the ball at our feet, even if we felt

foolish in the classroom, our conversations

about the beautiful

game muted by constant spelling tests,

who cared how you spelt suspicious ,

Girls Were Just Girls. full post

(240 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Here’s To The Death Of Pac Man.

 

Bless you, sweet Ginsberg, you saw your generation destroyed by madness,

whereas mine, well we reaped what you sewed, crooked lines

of pop culture madness, here’s to the death of Pac Man,

junkie infused tablet eating, pill popping maniac,

spare the ghosts turning blue with cold, spare the next level up

for what did it prove in the end, that we were just part of Pop Culture,

that Generation X reaped the seeds of what was no longer normal

as we hid ourselves in the dark and chewed occasionally on food delivered

Here’s To The Death Of Pac Man. full post

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

Ashley Reaks, Track Marks. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is possible to get lost once in a while, to lose all sense of direction and notice that not even the stars can navigate you home; when that happens the best thing to do is look down, not in self pity, not in recrimination but in the assurance that the best way home is to follow the Track Marks laid down long before.

Ashley Reaks, Track Marks. Album Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Scott Midlane, Head Down. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To keep your Head Down can be seen as honourable and certainly wise as the gunfire ravages and takes no prisoners; in the end, when all is laid waste, what remains is the auditory sound of the blessed and the determined, the righteous and the indomitable.

The first of three sets of music performed, recorded and mixed by Scott Midlane, Head Down is a sultry affair of acoustic bliss but one that covers with the darkest of cowls a sense of rage and heat which is gritty, strong willed and beautiful to feel permeating across the airwaves.

Scott Midlane, Head Down. Album Review. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)