Tag Archives: Clare Holman

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 Two). 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.

Oxford may have its fair share of murders pro rata of population than almost anywhere in Europe aside from the towns that fall under Nordic Noir thrillers and Britain’s own Midsomer, but the way in which the police in that small but important county deal with the perpetrators is usually swift and to the point. The only trouble is that aside from the rumblings from within the colleges and pubs that run between the counties towns and villages of Bicester, Wendlebury, Launton and Woodstock is that the I.T.V. police drama of Lewis may be on hiatus for a while.

The Little Drummer Girl. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Shannon, Michael Moshonov, Simona Brown, Clare Holman, Kate Sumpter,  Gennady Fleyscher, Amir Khoury, Katharina Schuttler, Charles Dance, Lubna Azabal,  Daniel Litman, Charif Ghattas, Max Irons, Sam Troughton.

In the war to protect what you believe is yours, sometimes you have to employ methods in which are dubious at best, downright ugly at worst, it is the thinking and planning ahead in which wins the minds of the people you are charged with protecting, but one in which the enemy you have created will fight you every step of the way to kill you first.

Rellik. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Richard Dormer, Jodi Balfour, Paterson Joseph, Laerke Winther, Shannon Tarbet, Ray Stevenson, Kieran Bew, Michael Wildman, Joseph Macnab, Peter Coe, Alex Gillson, Tuncay Gunes, Susan Hughes, Faye Castelow, Mimi Ndiweni, Annabel Bates, Rosalind Eleazar, Paul Rhys, Tanya Reynolds, Clive Russell, Charlotte Dylan, Michael Shaeffer, Clare Holman, Rebecca Lacey, Reece Ritchie.

 

Lewis: What Lies Tangled. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Kevin Whatley, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Clare Holman, David Warner, Oliver Lansley, Zoë Tapper, Peter De Jersey, Mali Harries, Tristam Saunders, Ian Puleston-Davies, Emerald O’ Hanrahan, Steve Toussaint, Lynda Rooke, Tosin Cole.

The streets of Oxford will be poorer for the fact that Lewis, one of the true greats of British Crime Drama, has been allowed to finish before its time. Robbie Lewis, a man taught by the best that the dreaming spires of Oxford could wish to have investigating its murders and foul deeds, a man to whom honour was all and a man who came back after riding into the sunset, this was a man with a past so knotted in the streets of Oxford that to lose him, the audiences might find themselves bereft and asking What Lies Tangled?

Lewis: Magnum Opus. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Clare Holman, Honeysuckle Weeks, Jaygann Ayeh, Stephen Boxer, Serena Evans, Daniel Flynn, Paul Greenwood, Kaisa Hammarlund, Wil Johnson, Syreeta Kumar, Isabella Laughland, Bobby Lockwood, Richard Rowe-McGhie, Sally Scott, Steve Toussaint, Martin Wenner.

To forgive is divine…or so it is believed, but to truly love yourself, to not be crushed everyday by the stirrings of self hatred for any act of stupidity that may be caused by a moment of madness or reckless abandon, sometimes for peace of mind you have to let it go.

Lewis: One For Sorrow. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Tim Piggott-Smith, Clare Holman, Ralf Little, Nicholas Jones, Steve Pemberton, Emma Cunliffe, Helen Schlesinger, Shanaya Rafaat, Andreea Paduraru, Naomi Scott, Finn Cole, Steve Toussaint, Paul Bigley, Doreen Mantle.

 

Just when viewers have got used to the thought that there might never be another reason to long for the quiet of Oxfordshire, to revel in the mystery of the Isis and the quaintness of Middle-class murder, I.T.V. reel back Detective Inspector Lewis, D.I. Hathaway and Detective Sergeant Maddox for another round of homicides in the leafy university city.

Suite Française, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Matthais Schoenaerts, Sam Riley, Ruth Wilson, Margot Robbie, Harriet Walter, Eileen Atkins, Lambert Wilson, Tom Schilling, Clare Holman, Deborah Findlay, Eric Godon, Simon Dutton, Diana Kent, Juliet Howland, Nicholas Chagrin.

 

As the 21st Century grumbles on and the further we move away from the period of time in which our grandparents gave up on almost everything except hope, the more the apathy to maintaining the struggle against oppression grows more weary. In some cases it is possible to hear some people state out loud, “Shouldn’t we forget all this now?” Yet stories from the Second World War continue to surface and perhaps none more startling in recent years than that of Irène Némirovsky and her posthumously published unfinished novel Suite Française.

Lewis: Beyond Good And Evil. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Susan Wooldridge, Priyanga Burford, Alec Newman, Richie Campbell, Clare Holman, Rebecca Front, Robin Weaver, Tom Davey, Patrick Walshe Mcbride, Joe Dixon, Gruffudd Glyn, Emily Houghton, Martin Chamberlain, Paul Lacoux, Holly Blair, Sean Murray.

It is the terrifying grip that a mesmeric individual can wield over the thoughts of another that makes copy-cat killings so repellent. The mimic or the ventriloquist doll in the skin of a human being so transfixed by the evil in one person’s demeanour and plausible words that they lose sight of themselves, they lose their humanity to the point where they are actually more than an impersonator, they take on the residue of evil themselves in the final episode of the last series of Lewis, Beyond Good and Evil.

Lewis: The Lions of Nemea. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whatley, Laurence Fox, Rebecca Front, Angela Griffin, Clare Holman, Clive Merrison, John Light, Ian East, Kitty Rich, Sian Brooke, Jason Done, Jessica Henwick, Andrea Lowe, Rosie Cavaliero, Jenny Howe, Michael Ryan.

Heracles would have perhaps laboured in vain to understand to the 21st Century condition of false self pride and murderous intent that seems to be more prevalent than at any time in history, especially it seems in the academic halls of Oxford, to the point where he might have got in touch with Sisyphus and asked if it was possible to balance a collection of rocks on top of Everest for a while, than ever help the Thames Valley Police solve crimes in the area.