Timeshift: How to Be Sherlock Holmes, The Many Faces Of A Master Detective. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sherlock Holmes, just his very name is enough to bring a smile of satisfaction to the millions of fans of the science of deduction. Whether in the abundance of stories created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, including the classics The Sign of Four, The Red Headed League and the gothic horror The Hound of The Baskervilles or in the many film adaptations staring such luminaries as Basil Rathbone, Roger Moore, Robert Downey Jr. and Peter Cushing.  There have been the very successful early stage production or in the television series’ that has caught the public imagination starring Jeremy Brett or Benedict Cumberbatch, everybody who has ever enjoyed the detective has a point of view on him and the many faces he has worn.

Timeshift: How to Be Sherlock Holmes, The Many Faces Of A Master Detective. Television Review. full post

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

Sherlock: His Last Vow (Series Three). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Amanda Abbington, Lars Mikkelsen, Louise Brealey, Mark Gatiss, Lindsay Duncan, Una Stubbs, Yasmine Akram, Rupert Graves, Andrew Scott, Jonathan Aris, Tom Brooke, Wanda Ventham, Timothy Carlton, Calvin Demba, Tim Wallers, Glen Davies, Brigid Zengeni, Matthew Welsa, Louis Oliver.

Some things are just over a little too quickly. They are still magnificent, they keep you entertained and intrigued but the sense of having to wait for a lengthy period of time for a new series just as the action has reached a boiling point, a natural high of deduction, is far too much for some to bear.

Sherlock: His Last Vow (Series Three). Television Review. full post

(610 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

The Railway Man, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Sam Reid, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tanroh Ishida, Marta Dusseldorp, Masa Yamaguchi, Keiichi Enomoto, James Fraser, Shoota Tanahashi, Akos Armont.

 

The Railway Man might face strong competition for the title of Best British film in 2014 but it won’t for the want of being an absolutely brilliant film with a cast that shines throughout and with the horrors of war not glossed over and forgotten. It is not a film to be taken lightly; it should be approached, just like the other film out this weekend, 12 Years A Slave, as not just a piece of cinema, to be sat through and then left discarded at the foot of the mind as other films get shown throughout the year, but as a piece of history, cinematic or otherwise.

The Railway Man, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

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

12 Years A Slave, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Adepero Oduye, Paul Giamatti, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Taran Killam, Chris Chalk, Michael K. Williams, Kelsey Scott, Alfre Woodward, Quvenzhane Wallis, Devyn A. Taylor, Cameron Zeigler, Rob Steinberg, Jay Huguley, Christopher Berry, Bryan Batt, Bill Camp, Dwight Henry, Ruth Negga.

12 Years A Slave, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(619 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Scottie Road, The Musical. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie.

When Scottie Road, The Musical was first performed it was genuine piece of Liverpool humour delivered by two of the finest female talents around. One sequel later, a vast swathe of the population who make it their duty to support local theatre, no matter the size of the venue, left feeling enraptured and laughing so hard it would make an ice bun melt, the two stars of the show, Caz and Britney, take the audience back to where it all started, where the music first played and the threat of prison was something that came along on a really bad throw at Monopoly and just as then as it is now, the audience fell completely and utterly in love with it all.

Scottie Road, The Musical. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre (2014) full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Iain Till, Gig Review. Brink, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The New Year is a week old and whilst many are feeling their way back into the way of 2014, the first stirrings of music can be heard through the alleyways and shelters from the inclement weather. If 2013 was a huge year for music in Liverpool, new artists and groups offering new blood to the sage, wise and considered, many brilliant bands from outside of the area and beyond making their way in some sort of momentous pilgrimage to the natural home of popular music and declaring that love with many hands on heart, then 2014 should be even better.

Iain Till, Gig Review. Brink, Liverpool. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders, Let Us Prey. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Tazmin Malleson, Rebecca Front, Michael Jayston, Roy Hudd, Andrea Lowe, Vincent Regan, William Postlethwaite, Patricia Brake, William Beck, Paul Copley, Gerald Horan.

In Midsomer, the trouble an old church relic can cause is enough to drive a whole village to thoughts of murder. In the latest episode of Midsomer Murders, Let Us Prey Detective Chief Inspector John Barnaby is not only coming to terms with impending fatherhood but also trying to capture the murderer who is using the finding of an old forgotten fresco in the village church, a disturbing piece which portrays gruesome ways of killing humans, as inspiration.

Midsomer Murders, Let Us Prey. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

The 7:39, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Morrissey, Sheridan Smith, Olivia Coleman, Sean McGuire, Izzy Meikle-Small, Bill Milner, Justin Salinger, Lashana Lynch, Mohammed Ali, Ancuta Breaban, Raj Ghatak, John Hiorns.

We have all looked at the person on the other side of train aisle at one time or another and caught a furtive glance coming our way, thoughts of introducing yourself brushed aside by responsibility and those waiting at home.

The 7:39, Television Review. full post

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

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Arts Centre, Liverpool

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Caitlin Clough, Jack Murray, Karl Falconer, Rhea Little, Sam Walton, Stewart McDonald, Abi Taylor Jones, Siobhan Crinson, Albert Hastings.

Quite simply you can never have too much of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off placed before you. It is a sumptuous comedy banquet that keeps giving and each serving is captured differently as the last. It is rightly regarded as one of the finest stage comedies of its time but it has to be captured right, one person miscast, one mistimed moment and the momentum goes completely. It is a play that is so giving and yet one wrong step, it can be a cruel mistress and leave the feeling of undiluted suffering in the audience and it takes real guts to even attempt to put it on. Thankfully PurpleCoat productions weren’t put off by the thought and gave a performance of high ability and virtue at the Arts Centre on Myrtle Street.

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Arts Centre, Liverpool full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)