Tag Archives: Julia Mckenzie

Doctor Who: Time War- Volume Four. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Rakhee Thakrar, Terry Malloy, Adèle Anderson, Isla Blair, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Chris Jarman, Julia McKenzie, Suzanne Proctor, Jemima Rooper.

The Daleks may well be the ultimate embodiment of what it means to think of an enemy that is relentless, unfeeling, without emotion, and whilst you know that they will never understand compassion or empathy, they are but dust when the fan comes to think of their creator, when Davros enters the narrative, for in just one being you have a fictional character that can be seen in the most evil of men that have ever walked the Earth; that this creature who first locked intellect with the Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks, is in every way the master of genocide, of propaganda and lies, and to whom the viewer associates completely with the malevolent wickedness of Fascism.

Doctor Who: Time War- Volume Four. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(659 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Time War 2. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Rakhee Thakrar, Jaqueline Pearce, Nicholas Briggs, Guy Adams, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Anya Ayola, Jon Culshaw, Victor McGuire, Julia McKenzie, Tania Rodrigues, Amanda Root, Simon Slater.

The Time War rages on, and The Doctor, free of being pressed into Galactic Service as a recruit, still finds his freedom to help where he can, the reluctant warrior in a senseless never-ending war, curtailed by the machinations of the evil on both sides; be it the Daleks or the Timelords, the war between them is bringing destruction to a wider scope of existence…and at the very basis of life they both show how little they care for the innocent casualty, for the races that scream in horror as they are erased or slaughtered in the name of victory.

Doctor Who: Time War 2. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(643 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Gus Brown.

The point of comedy is that it has to be seen as possible, that the situations we encounter in today’s world can traverse the boundaries and still be funny no matter the time or setting, for the modern viewers can claim programmes such as Only Fools and Horses explore the world that it inhabited to such a point that many of the scrapes encountered by the loveable Trotter rogues can still be seen to be relevant almost 40 years after their first airing. It has criss-crossed the times it was set and is able to make people laugh; the same is said for any programme in which today’s circumstances can still be seen for what they are, no matter what context they are set in, it is why programmes such as Fawlty Towers, Yes Prime Minister or even the hit American series Frasier, still works.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review. full post

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

Miss Marple: Endless Night. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Tom Hughes, Aneurin Barnard, Joanna Vanderham, Birgitte Hjort Sorrensen, Hugh Dennis, Tazmin Outhwaite, Adam Wadsworth, Janet Henfrey, William Hope, Glynis Barber, Michael McKell, Rosalind Halstead, Celyn Jones, Stephen Churchett.

Sunday nights aren’t quite the same without a murder to solve on television, it is a pre-occupation with the darkest of crimes that seems to capture the British public’s imagination more than anything in the world, if you include cricket into the equation, there can’t be more anything else in the world that gets more intriguing to the armchair detective/umpire than introducing facts and statistics to the case.

Miss Marple: Endless Night. Television Review. full post

(565 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Miss Marple, Greenshaw’s Folly. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Julia Sawalha, Fiona Shaw, Robert Glenister, John Gordon Sinclair, Judy Parfitt, Vic Reeves, Kimberley Nixon, Rufus Jones, Matt Wills, Joanna David, Bobby Smalldridge, Candida Gubbins, Sam Reid, Martin Compston,

Rarely does Miss Marple stray into the domain held dear by Agatha Christie’s other great creation of Hercule Poirot, that of the understated darkness in greed or supposed glory. Mostly whatever deeds have been committed in the cases of Miss Marple it has been for love or lust. Greenshaw’s Folly though perhaps sees the elderly spinster at her very best as she deals not only with horrifying aftermath of spousal abuse but the very worst case of murder, premeditated and for gain.

Miss Marple, Greenshaw’s Folly. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Robert Webb, Antony Sher, Charity Wakefield, Hermione Norris, Alistair Mackenzie, Daniel Rigby, Montserrat Lombard, Oliver Ford-Davis, MyAnna Buring, Anele Matoti, Joe Vaz, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charles Mesure, Piipa Bennett-Warner, Warren Brown, Jeremy Crutchley, Charlie Higson.

Not even in the Caribbean are you safe from Miss. Marple, the woman with the scent of murder in her nose even when she is sent abroad to recuperate after a bout of illness always finds the murderer in the end.

Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Auntie Matter. Big Finish Audio Play. 2.01.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Julia McKenzie, Robert Portal, Lucy Griffiths, Alan Cox, Jane Slavin.

 

Even if it just for a collection of stories, the fact that the listeners of the Big Finish Doctor Who range get to hear the one of the most celebrated companions reprise her role again, a role that she played with a sense of elegance that really has never been matched in all the years following her departure, then the second series of Tom Baker’s tales and the appearance of Mary Tamm as Romana is something to be celebrated and enjoyed. However it is an enjoyment that is tempered by the knowledge that Mart Tamm sadly passed on in the last year.

Doctor Who, The Auntie Matter. Big Finish Audio Play. 2.01. full post

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

The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Television Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. January 13th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Matthew Rhys, Alun Armstrong, Ron Cook, Julia Mckenzie, Janet Dale, Rory Kinnear, Freddie Fox, Tamzin Merchant, Sacha Dhawan

How exactly do you finish of someone else’s work after they have died so that’s its deemed worthy enough for an audience’s appreciation? Beethoven, Schubert,  and Charles Dickens have one thing in common and that is they died before they could finish a major piece of work.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Television Review. full post

(485 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)