Category Archives: TV

The Film. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Henry Goodman, Jeremy Swift, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Fenella Woolgar, Hamilton Berstock.

It was not until Channel 4 had the sense of duty that had been denied Sidney Bernstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Crossman, and a whole platoon of film makers that made their way to various concentration camps as liberation from the Nazi terror that had engulfed Europe, then perhaps only a select few would have ever been privy to the immense documentary collaboration that became known at the time as German Concentration Camps Factual Survey , but which perhaps had even greater impact when released in the chilling 2015 release as Night Will Fall.

The Film. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

We The Young Strong. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10


Cast: Poppy Gilbert, Calvin Demba, Finlay Paul, Ruby Bentall, Abbigail Weinstock, Kiki May, Jenny Funnell, Paul Hinton, Abi McLoughlin, Tom Alexander.

The warning from history is not so much to be wary of certain political ideologies, but instead to shun those who wield the power and authority with charisma to pull in and manipulate the youth whose minds are easily swayed in the face of deprivation and neglect.


We The Young Strong. Radio Drama Review. full post

(523 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Anita Dobson, Jonny Green, Max Parker, Thalia Dudek, Stefan Haines, Belinda Owusu, Tom Storey, Stephen Love, Robert Strange, Nicholas Briggs, Evelyn Miller, Charles Sandford, Lucas Edwards, Caleb Hughes, Nadine Higgin, William Ellis.

In a timely reflection on the use of A.I. in the 21st Century, the ethics of appropriation of personal data and biometrics by governments, and the misuse, indeed theft of the individual artists work to train the aspects of artificial intelligence, years of authorship and writing stolen in what can be seen as a monumental reckless abandonment of ethics; so the opening episode of the new series of Doctor Who, The Robot Revolution casts its eye on an old favourite theme, the forgoing of the human existence and spirit in favour of the possibly oppressive, the creeping evil of binary A.I.

Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution. Television Review. full post

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

Yellowjackets: Series Three. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Christina Rikki, Sophie Nélisse, Tawny Cypress, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samatha Hanratty, Warren Kole, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Kevin Alves, Alexa Barajas, Steven Krueger, Sarah Desjardins, Lauren Ambrose, Hilary Swank, Jenna Burgess, Nia Sondaya, Ella Purnell, Elijah Wood, Simone Kessell, Rukiya Bernard, Aiden Stoxx, Keeya King, Nicole Maines, Anisa Harris, Silvana Estifanos, Vanessa Prasad, Jeff Holman, Joel McHale.

Yellowjackets: Series Three. Television Drama Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Miss Scarlet. Series Five. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Kate Phillips, Tom Durant-Pritchard, Cathy Belton, Paul Bazely, Simon Ludders, Evan McCabe, Tim Chipping, Felix Scott, Amy Marston, Paul Thornley, Nitin Ganatra, Lucy Liemann, Stephen Hartley, Stephen Boxer, Karl Theobald, Andrej Sepetkovski, Joseph May, Paul Leonard Murray, Rebecca Collingwood, Ian Hughes, Paul Lacoux, Petar Zekavica, Milos Pantic, Brian Bovell, Vahidin Prelic, Milan Cucilovic, Ivana Adzic, Milan Milosavljevic, Branislav Zeremski, Robin Weaver, Anna Wilson-Jones, David Sturzaker, Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, Nikola Surbanovic, Filip Radovanovic, Joakim Tasic.

Miss Scarlet. Series Five. Television Drama Review. full post

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

The Marlow Murder Club: Series 2. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Samantha Bond, Jo Martin, Cara Horgan, Natalie Dew, Hollie Dempsey, Phil Langhorne, Tijan Sarr, Niall Costigan, Ella Kenion, Rita Tushingham, Sophia Ally, Ian Barritt, Amelia Valentina Pankhania, Ethan Quinn, Tegan Imani, Lizzie Roper, Emily Bevan, Raphael Akuwudike, Sam Janus, Abigail Cruttenden, Caroline Langrishe, Nina Sosanya, William Willoughby, Hugh Quarshie, Dominic Mafham.

A second season of The Marlow Murder Club was always on the cards, but sometimes popular doesn’t always reach into the depths of the crime that begs to be solved by the armchair detective; sometimes the presented piece is too warm, too cosy to be anything other than a distraction offered with the best intentions of drama.

The Marlow Murder Club: Series 2. Television Drama Review. full post

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

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Toby Stephens, Mark Stephens, Joe Armstrong, Mark Stanley, Juliet Stephenson, Bessie Carter, Arthur Darvill, Laurie Davidson, Amanda Drew, Gloria Obianyo, Jack Staddon, Ed Sayer, Adam Lawrence, Tony Wadham, Sidney Jackson, Darren Charman, Tim Pierpoint, Maddy Hill, Rowan Robinson, Audrey Brisson, Nigel Havers.

We live in a different time, crimes for the most part that shocked a generation that was still living with the hangover from the Victorian era, and which carried a greater degree of punishment, now would be scoured over completely, every detail of the crime pursued and in some cases the public response would be more noticeable, more intense, as social media informed people of everything that was reported; and an awful lot that wasn’t.


A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. Television Drama Review. full post

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

Waiting For Waiting For Godot. Audio Play Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Adrian Edmondson, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Simon Callow, Christopher Ryan, Madeleine Paulson.

In many ways Waiting For Waiting For Godot is the play that Adrian Edmondson was born to write; full of pathos, a piece of art from Samuel Beckett that has had the actor/writer/comedian enthralled and obsessed since he was a young man.

Waiting For Waiting For Godot. Audio Play Review. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Moorgate: Inside/Outside. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jonathan Aris, Lorne MacFadyen, Lizzy Watts, Tyger Drew-Honey, Matt Addis, Joanna Brooks, Jessica Dennis, Paul Panting, Alistair McGowan, Barkha Bahar.

National tragedies have a habit of slowly fading from the memory over time, not least of all because those directly involved in the disaster will themselves succumb to the passing of time, but it is because of nature; we as citizens can carry placards in anger, we can weep in unison at the senselessness of the catastrophe, we can rage and demand tougher actions to keep people safe, and we will seek retribution against the one person we might hold responsible…even if it defined to have been caused by simple misfortune, or the most unfortunate of mistakes.

Moorgate: Inside/Outside. Audio Drama Review. full post

(497 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Towards Zero. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland, Matthew Rhys, Mimi Keene, Clarke Peters, Jack Farthing, Anjana Vasan, Adam Hugill, Khalil Ben Gharbia, Jackie Clune, Grace Doherty, Anjelica Huston, Ravi Multani, Jack Staddon, Alexander Cobb, James Brooker, Lyle Wren, Michael Culkin, Honor Davis-Pye, Samuel W. Hodgson, Tristan Beint, Peter Forbes, Alexander Squires.

Murder, at its most inventive, sells for television and cinema almost unlike any other genre; it is the basic desire to see the restitution of justice, the chance for the armchair detective to sharpen their wits against the author of the piece, and to satisfy a need to see if they could indeed also get away with the most horrendous of acts one human can commit on another.

Towards Zero. Television Drama Review. full post

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