Tag Archives: John Standing

Doctor Who: Vampire Of The Mind. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Alex MacQueen, Neil Edmond, Kate Kennedy, Catriona Knox, Elliot Levey, John Standing.

That moment when an old adversary is in town and you don’t know whether to avoid them like the plague, or greet them on their patch with a knowing smile in which you are the one carrying the means of their destruction, the choice is flattering, the decision is absolute, and it is one that we rarely get to follow through upon because of propriety, because we are human.

Doctor Who: Vampire Of The Mind. Audio Drama Review. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

James Bond: Thunderball. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Tom Conti, Alfred Molina, Janet Montgomery, John Sessions, Lisa Dillon, James Callis, Josh Stamberg, Ian Ogilvy, John Standing, Janie Dee, Julian Sands, Nigel Lindsay, Matthew Wolf, Alan Shearman, Darren Richardson, Aaron Lyons, Simon de Deney.

A film that suffers under the weight of its writer’s history is one that finds itself developing the human disorder of duel personality, and whilst Thunderball is film that sparks the imagination, it also leaves the fan wondering how the series could hope to capture the brilliance of the previous film, Goldfinger.

James Bond: Thunderball. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

James Bond: From Russia With Love. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Eileen Atkins, John Sessions, Tim Pigott-Smith, Mark Gatiss, John Glover, Aileen Mowat, John Standing, Janie Dee, Julian Sands, Matthew Wolf, Olga Fedori, Micky Stratford, Nathaniel Parker, Martin Jarvis.

It could be argued that the fan and the listener alike have been short changed when it comes to adaptations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels for the radio; whether this is down to the estate not wishing to decry from the scores of films or because it has been long thought that such books cannot be captured with just a voice rather than the dramatic sequence that film provides is for another debate, and yet there is something to be said for being able to see 007 aim his trilby at the hat stand, to see the devastation of his actions take place, rather than just match your imagination to the actor’s voice.

James Bond: From Russia With Love. Audio Drama Review. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Happy Prince. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor, Edwin Thomas, Beatrice Dalle, Julian Wadham, John Standing, Andre Penvern, Tom Colley, Stephen M. Gilbert, Alister Cameron, Benjamin Voisin, Antonio Spagnuolo, Franca Abategiovanni, Joshua McGuire, Ronald Pickup.

It takes a fearless and heroic person to bring a legend to the screen, to attempt, to undoubtedly crack, the enigma that lay behind their story, be it in the fascinating, gruesome, indecorous or the beautiful; or in the case of one of the more celebrated writers of the time, Oscar Wilde. It could be argued that all four states of human feeling and postured masks can be seen than in perhaps anybody else who strode across the world’s stage in an era which was harsh, unforgiving, brutal and by today’s standards ruthlessly riddled with toxic masculinity.

The Happy Prince. Film Review. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

King Lear. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Florence Pugh, Jim Carter, Andrew Scott, John Macmillan, Tobias Menzies, Anthony Calf, Karl Johnson, Christopher Eccleston, John Standing, Simon Manyonda, Chukwudi Iwuji, Samuel Valentine, Arinze Kene, Sharon Watts, Kaye Brown, Raphael Desprez, Peter Forbes, Sam Redford, Liam McKenna, Paul Tinto, Eric Kofi-Abrefa.

King Lear. Television Review. full post

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

Queen And Country. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Callum Turner, Caleb Landry Jones, Pat Shortt, David Thewlis, Richard E. Grant, Vanessa Kirby, Tasmin Egerton, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Sinéad Cusack, David Hayman, John Standing, Brian F.O’ Byrne, David Michael Claydon, Julian Wadham, Tom Stuart, Alfie Stuart, Gerran Howell, Simon Paisley Day, Maria Flacau, Constantin Florescu.

The life of Bill Rohan was always going to be exceptional, especially when he is the alter ego of British film maker John Boorman, it just always seemed a shame that the account of his life seemed to stop in mid flight in the superb 1987 British film Hope and Glory.

Queen And Country. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Curtain: Poirot’s Final Case. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Helen Baxendale, Anne Reid, Matthew McNulty, Shaun Dingwall, Philip Glenister, Anna Madeley, Claire Keelen, John Standing, Alice Orr-Ewing, Aiden McArdle, Adam Englander, Gregory Cox.

The last post is played, Poirot has died. Not before though the Belgian solves his last murder before it has even happened as the pace of this special, Curtain: Poirot’s Final Case goes deeper and darker than has been alluded to before, with the greatest of exceptions to the Poirot story of them all, Murder On The Orient Express.

Curtain: Poirot’s Final Case. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Gods And Monsters. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 164.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Maggie O’Neill, Amy Pemberton, John Standing, Blake Ritson, Gus Brown, Tim Treloar, Elizabeth Bennett.

The final part of the latest Sylvester McCoy Doctor trilogy sees the real villain of the piece make his deadliest and fatal move in Gods and Monsters.

The latest three-part series by Big Finish sees Mike Maddox finish an extraordinary story line on a stunning high and with the supposed loss of a companion, something that the television version and the audio series don’t do that often but both of whom now have taken the bold step to give the faithful listeners and viewers something to ponder over.

Doctor Who, Gods And Monsters. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 164. full post

(579 words, 1 image, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)