Tag Archives: Dan Starkey

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 3, The Springers. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Dan Starkey, Miranda Raison, Peter Barrett, Derek Hutchinson, Emily Joyce, Sarah Lark, Mark Goldthorp, Geoffrey Breton, Philip Pope, Nicholas Briggs, Nick Hendrix, Angus Wright.

The third volume of stories from Big Finish concerning The Avengers team of Dr. David keel and John Stead starts with the premise of a prison break out. It is a premise that has been done before the 1960s series first aired and has been done perhaps more successfully since, notably in one of the best films ever in the Shawshank Redemption and in the highly popular Prison Break television series, and yet there is something nostalgic and homely about revisiting an idea when you take away the modern bells and whistles attached to a story.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 3, The Springers. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Last Christmas. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Nick Frost, Samuel Anderson, Dan Starkey, Nathan McMullen, Faye Marsay, Michael Troughton, Maureen Beattie, Natalie Gumede.

Ever since Doctor Who was bought back with a blaze of undeniable glory in 2005, the Christmas special has been a much look-forward to event, on the whole it has delivered, sometimes, thankfully not often, it has been a major let down, like finding out there are no roast potatoes on offer at your in-laws house but they spent all year preparing a room full of stinking and putrid sprouts.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(735 words, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, Dance With Death. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Jaqueline King, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Anjella Mackintosh, Gemma Whelan, Derek Carlyle, Martin Hutson, Francesca Hunt, Penelope Rawlins, Terry Malloy, Michael Hrycek-Robinson.

There is nothing quite like the dance floor to bring out the murderer in the dark heart of the criminal mastermind, the quick step or the rumba to get the killer in the mood for a spot of the gamble and the gambol whilst they search for riches, no matter who gets in their way.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, Dance With Death. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Emily Woodward, Nicholas Briggs, Derek Carlyle, Anna Lukis, Penelope Rawlins, Richard Hope, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Francesca Hunt, Martin Hudson.

 

Who could ever foresee that hairdressing was such a risky business?  The shampoo set that could go wrong, the gossip that turns to grudges being held, the heated dryer rigged to give a nasty surprise, arson! All these are par for the course as John Steed and Dr. David Keel return for the second set of classic The Avengers stories to be adapted by John Dorney and Big Finish starting with the tale, Ashes Of Roses.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Doctor Who: Deep Breath. Television Review, B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Neve McIntosh, Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart, Peter Ferdinando, Paul Hickey, Tony Way, Maggie Service, Mark Kempner, Brian Miller, Graham Duff, Ellis George, Peter Hannah, Paul Kasey.

The Doctor is in, he just might not see you just yet.

The thirteenth man to take on the titular role of the long lasting and very popular series of Doctor Who might take some getting used to for some. After nearly a decade of having arguably a more youthful outlook but for many, surely the more than capable, erudite and wonderfully strange Peter Capaldi is a return to what bought success for the programme in its 1970s heyday.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath. Television Review, B.B.C. full post

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

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Stuart Milligan, Dan Starkey, Jo Woodcock, Lizzie Roper.

There are just so many excellent elements to Starlight Robbery that it is surely impossible to dislike. Aside from the sublime writing of Matt Fitton, who makes a welcome return after a few months away, you have the erstwhile Elizabeth Klein, portrayed as usual with great assurance and ease by Tracey Childs, the sublime Stuart Milligan reprising his role as Garundel and the inclusion of the great Dan Starkey playing every Sontaran under the sun, what more could you ever want in an audio C.D.?

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176. full post

(635 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Name Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Hurt, Alex Kingston, Richard E. Grant, Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Eve de Leon, Kassius Carey Johnson, Nasi Voustsas, David Avery, Michael Jenn, Rab Affleck, Samuel Irvine, Sophie Downham, Paul Kasey.

 

Doctor Who, The Name Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling, Neve McIntosh, Cartrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Brendan Patricks, Graham Turner, Olivia Vinall, Michelle Tate, Scott Stevenson, Jack Oliver Hudson.

The Crimson Horror, the type of tale that would make readers of Victorian melodrama and penny dreadful salivates with the expectation of a reader enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the first time, transpose this expectation to the type of Doctor Who-lite story, add a splash of immense acting royalty from Dame Diana Rigg and her superb daughter, the incredible Rachael Stirling and it becomes not just Doctor-lite but extra-lite, no additives, no fat, just a wonderful story that was edging on the macabre  that writer Mark Gatiss obviously enjoys.

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Doctor Who,The Oseidon Adventure, Big Finish Audio Play 1.06.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 8th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Cochrane, Dan Starkey, John Banks.

Just who do you trust when you cannot even tell your enemies from those that look and act like your deadliest foes!

The second part of Alan Barnes’ story involving the Doctor’s adversary and fellow Time lord, The Master has one of those wonderful plays on words that ingratiates you into the story long before the end credits. Titled The Oseidon Adventure, (think of the 1970’s disaster film The Poseidon Adventure) the action follows on The Trail of the White Worm and the pace, the tempo and overall enjoyment of the writing picks up a notch from the semi lacklustre affair of the previous episode.

Doctor Who,The Oseidon Adventure, Big Finish Audio Play 1.06. full post

(503 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)