Tag Archives: B.B.C. Television

The Musketeers: Knight Takes Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10

Cast:  Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Peter Capaldi, Luke Pasqualino, Howard Charles, Ryan Gage, Maimie McCoy, Hugo Speer, Alexandra Dowling, Charlotte Hope, Roger Ringrose, Sarah Belcher, Alice Patten, Gabrielle Reidy, Peter-Hugo Daly, Robert Krejcik, Miroslav Navrati, Leigh Jones, Filip Nespor.

The question may well have been asked, “Who will rid me of this troublesome barren queen?”  The penultimate episode of the B.B.C. Series, The Musketeers, sees the four heroic French swordsmen protect Queen Anne from the drunken amorous ravings of her husband who states that she must be murdered so that he is free to marry another woman.

The Musketeers: Knight Takes Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

The Musketeers, The Good Soldier. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Santiago Cabrera, Luke Pasqualino, Tom Burke, Howard Charles, Peter Capaldi, J.J. Field, Tamla Kari, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Hugo Speer, Anna Skellern, Adrian Schiller, Simon Paisley Day, Phoebe Fox, Peter- Hugo Daly, Jim High.

Sunday nights have not been the same since The Musketeers came swashbuckling into the living rooms of audiences up and down the country. The French tale of swords, honour and friendship has perhaps never been more popular and rightly so.

The Musketeers, The Good Soldier. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

The Musketeers: Sleight Of Hand. Television Review. B.B.C.Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Peter Capaldi, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabera, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Cage, Mainie McCoy, Hugo Speer, Jason Flemyng, Bo Poraj, John Poston, Carl McCrystal, Lukas Vychopen, Sean Cernow, Denise Gough, Jan Holik, Ian Barritt.

Two episodes in and B.B.C.’s The Musketeers already looks to be to living up to the ultimate ideal that has promised so much over the last 100 years but has never quite been able to live up to. With the very obvious exception of the set of films starring Michael York and Oliver Reed, all that has gone before this adaptation has been lacklustre, almost afraid to live to its full potential, the taste of an éclair filled with inedible garlic could not have not have left a more sour taste in the mouth of those entranced by Alexandre Dumas’ work.

The Musketeers: Sleight Of Hand. Television Review. B.B.C.Television. full post

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

Nina Conti: Her Master’s Voice, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The audience that recently made their way down to the Playhouse Theatre in Liverpool to watch one of the leading lights in the art of ventriloquism may or not have watched a particular programme tucked away on B.B.C. Television during the summer of 2012 on Nina Conti and her relationship with British theatre maverick Ken Campbell and the secondary bond with her mentor’s voice and dolls.

Nina Conti: Her Master’s Voice, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Joanna Page, Ingrid Oliver, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Jonjo O’Neill, Orlando James, Aiden Cook, Paul Kasey, Peter de Jersey, Tom Keller, Ankur Sengupta, Tom Baker, Peter Capaldi.

The Day of The Doctor…Thanks to the way the B.B.C. has taken very seriously the notion of the longest running science fiction programme of all time turning 50 years old, it’s been more like several months of snippet here, a smidgen of misinformation there, the release of a rumour, conjecture, assumption and speculation.

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Max Irons, James Frain, Aneurin Barnard, Faye Marsey, Amanda Hale, Janet McTeer, Rupert Graves, Caroline Goodall, David Oakes, Eleanor Tomlinson, Juliet Aubrey, Sonny Ashbourne, Pixie Davies, Veerle Baetens, Joey Batey, Michael Marcus, Tom McKay, Francis Tomelty, Michael Maloney, Ben Lamb, Shaun Dooley,  Hugh Mitchell, Robert Pugh, Arthur Darvill.

As television blockbuster’s go, The White Queen has followed on the satisfying trend set by The Tudors to bring sections of history back to life and into the public consciousness.

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Max Irons, Janet McTeer, James Frain, Robert Pugh, Juliet Aubrey, Caroline Goodall, Aneurin Barnard, David Oakes, Ashley Charles, Amanda Hale.

 

The demand for some sort of history is never truly satisfied or sated and after many years of watching Sky have a tight grip on historical dramas in screening of The Tudors, the B.B.C. finally get to dip their feet in the murky waters of the British Royal family in the adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen.

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

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

The Lady Vanishes, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast:  Tuppence Middleton, Tom Hughes, Selina Cadell, Keeley Hawes, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stephanie Cole, Gemma Jones, Alex Jennings, Sandy McDade, Pip Torrens, Benedickte Hansen, Jesper Christensen, Charles Aitken, Zsuzsu David.

In the best traditions of Agatha Christie do others dare attempt to follow and for the second time since the definitive version directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, The Lady Vanishes, originally written by Ethel Lina White, gets an all star treatment, a huge budget that would make some television and film directors wince at the thought at what they could achieve with a fraction and in the end whilst laudable unfortunately doesn’t stand up to any of the recent highs the B.B.C. has managed this year in its drama department.

The Lady Vanishes, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Shetland, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Gemma Chan, Steve Robinson, Alison O’ Donnell, Alexander Morton, Lewis Howden, Mark Bonnar, Martin Wenner, Claire Rafferty, Sophie Rundle, Geraldine Alexander, Finnden Hertog, Alison Peebles, Erin Armstrong, Jim Stugeon, Lindy Whiteford, James Greene.

Based upon the books by Ann Cleeves, the new drama vehicle for Douglas Henshall, Shetland, premiered over the last two nights and whilst it was up against I.T.V.’s superb Broadchurch, it had a lot going for it and provided another outlet for viewers starved in recent years with decent crime drama and who have been having to get their fix from either second rate thrillers from America that rely far too much on the application of science over genuine detective work, or intensely psychological brilliance from the Nordic Noir genre such as The Killing.

Shetland, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Four. B.B.C. Television, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, Janet Montgomery, Angel Coulby, Jacqueline Bisset, Joanna Vanderham, Anthony Head, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Goodman, Mel Smith, Allan Corduner, Mike Brett, Oroh Angiama, Jane Asher, Jamie Crew, Trevor Edwards, Austin Hardiman, Tom Hughes, Cosimo Keita, Neville Malcolm, Wunmi Mosaku, Jay Phelps, Caroline Quentin, Miles Richardson, Chris Storr, Steve Williamson.

The penultimate episode of Dancing on the Edge, Stephen Poloakoff’s jazz masterpiece, was turned up another notch as the police started to close the wrongly cast net on Louis Lester and in an episode in which echoed the rise and fall of the Louis Lester band, the heat and the mood was increased and given just that little extra spice in jazz movements.

Dancing On The Edge, Episode Four. B.B.C. Television, Television Review. full post

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