Category Archives: TV

Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories. The Adventure of The Speckled Band. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Hugh Bonneville.

One of Sherlock Holmes finest adventures, and a particular favourite of his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of The Speckled Band is always worthy of adaption; its use of sleight of hand and its ability to blend into the gothic marks out in the realm of stories such as The Hound of the Baskervilles, or even the sense of inevitable of doom as found in The Final Solution, as one of grandness and the science behind deduction firmly established.

Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories. The Adventure of The Speckled Band. Audio Drama Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

White Lies. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Natalie Dormer, Brendon Daniels, Daniel Schultz, Morgan Santo, Clayton Evertson, Langley Kirkwood, Kiroshan Naidoo, Daniel Janks, Sunny Yoon, Daniah De Villiers, Robert Hobbs, Athenkosi Mfamela, Katlego Lebogang, Ivan Abrahams, Roxanne Prentice, Caely-Jo Levy, Robert Hobbs.

Sex and death go hand in hand, it is a staple of fiction within the crime genre, and in real life when the news reports on the various murders that chastise and upset the nation’s sensibilities, that shock and rightly disgust the morality of the natural world.

White Lies. Television Drama Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Strike: The Ink Black Heart. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger, Kevin Bishop, Ruth Sheen, Tupele Dorgu, Jacob Abraham, Ewan Bailey, Ellise Chappell, Jack Donoghue, Emma Fielding, Mirren Mack, Christian McKay, James Nelson-Joyce, Luke Norris, David Westhead, Madeline Akua, Matt Rawle, Jack Greenless, Ben Caplan, Caitlin Innes Edwards, Stephen Hagan, Badria Timimi, Joseph Mydell, David Westhead, Ewan Bailey, Yong Kim, Liza Sadovy, Eloise Thomas, Jack Trueman, Natasha O’Keefe.

Strike: The Ink Black Heart. Television Series Review. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories. The Adventure of the Dancing Men. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Hugh Bonneville.

Unless you have been privileged to find yourself curled up with the complete works, or have had the self-discipline to sit through the master of detective fiction’s presence on screen thanks to invaluable performances by Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, you could be forgiven for missing out on some of the more obscure tales that don’t involve the idea of glowing, spectral growling dogs, the plaster casts of Napoleon, or even the much admired trip to the falls of Reichenbach.

Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories. The Adventure of the Dancing Men. Audio Drama Review. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

What If…?: Series Three. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Haley Atwell, Anthony Mackie, Mark Ruffalo, Teyonah Parris, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Simu Liu, Oscar Issac, Kathryn Hahn, Kumail Nanjiani, Dominic Cooper, James D’ Arcy, David Kaye, Laurence Fishbourne, Gene Farber, Kat Dennings, Seth Green, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Michael Rooker, Josh Brolin, Rachel House, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Dominique Thorne, Emily VanCamp, Tessa Thompson, Hailee Steinfeld, Wyatt Russell, Walton Coggins, Karen Gillan, Taika Waititi, Alison Sealy-Smith, Matt Friend, Jared Butler, Alejandro Saab, America Ferrera, Natasha Lyonne, Jason Issacs, Darin De Paul.

What If…?: Series Three. Television Series Review. full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Beyond Paradise. Christmas Special 2024. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kris Marshall, Sally Breton, Zahra Ahmadi, Barbara Flynn, Dylan Llewellyn, Felicity Montague, Mark Heap, Tamla Kari, Seann Walsh, Rosalind Adler, Amalia Vitale, Austin Taylor, Chizzy Akudolu, Simon Nagra, Jade Harrison, Melina Sinadinou, Sami Amber.

The maxim of perfection is placed upon such an unachievable high alter when it comes to certain traditions and celebrations. We place too much emphasis on the desire to see life, especially on the festive period, as one of the picture perfect, unspoiled, and flawless; and if something should go awry then the arms are raised in exasperation and the hysterical use of ‘Christmas is cancelled’ or ‘It’s ruined’ as though every cog that makes up the holiday dare not suffer a malfunction that does even impact the operation of anything else within the sphere of control or enjoyment.

Beyond Paradise. Christmas Special 2024. Television Review. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Dark Winds. Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten, Jeri Ryan, Deanna Allison, Elva Guerra, Natalie Benally, DezBaa’, A Martinez, Ryan Begay, Nicholas Logan, Jaqueline Byers, John Diehl, Anderson Kee, Wade Adakai, Betty Ann Tsosie, Ernest Tsosie III, Gary Yazzie, Ramona DuBarry, Joseph Runningfox,

Dark Winds’ second season is one that sees the Native American belief and tradition blend even further with the notion of reluctance of adoption of what has been called Western civilisation.

Dark Winds. Series Two. Television Review. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Outnumbered: Christmas Special 2024. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Dennis, Claire Skinner, Tyger Drew-Honey, Ramona Marquez, Daniel Roche, Hattie Morahan, Kerena Jagpal, Aurora Skarli, Mark Silcox, Louis Tyrell, Adam Morris.

Like the family members who drop in unannounced over the festive period, armed with a smile and a carrier bag in which to take home leftover food from the table, television has formed a habit of producing the occasional passing by of a character or a family that the audience once took to their hearts and giving them the briefest glimpse of what they are up to, showing the fan what they look like now in the hope that it may spark some interest in the art of revival.

Outnumbered: Christmas Special 2024. Television Review. full post

(486 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Joy To The World. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ncuto Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan, Joel Fry, Steph de Whalley, Jonathan Aris, Julia Watson, Peter Benedict, Niamh Marie Smith, Phil Baxter, Samuel Sherpa-Moore, Ruchi Rai, Joshua Leese, Ell Potter, Liam Prince-Donnelly, Fiona Marr, Millie Gibson.

Rarely does one character outshine The Doctor, or even the companion, on screen or across the various outlets of the tales of Doctor Who, especially in the Christmas offering to which is often intended to add a little pleasure to a day wrapped up in a modern dystopia of its own making.

Doctor Who: Joy To The World. Television Review. full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The War Games. (2024). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Patrick Troughton, Fraser Hines, Wendy Padbury, David Saville, Jane Sherwin, Noel Coleman, Richard Steele, Terence Bayler, Hubert Rees, David Valla, Esmond Webb, Brian Forster, Pat Gorman, Peter Stanton, David Garfield, Gregg Palmer, Philip Madoc, Edward Brayshaw, Bill Hutchinson, Bernard Horsfall, James Vree, Vernon Dobtcheff.

With a huge pool of stories in which to choose from, it is perhaps fitting that the second serial to find itself being scrutinised and digitally coloured after the offering for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary of The Daleks, should be the lengthy ten-part story of The War Games.

Doctor Who: The War Games. (2024). Television Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)