Tag Archives: Kevin McNally

Hancock’s Half Hour, The Lost Sitcoms. The New Neighbour, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kevin McNally, Katy Wix, Kevin Eldon, Robin Sebastian, John Culshaw, Robert Jack.

The beauty, pathos and reflection of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s writing can be seen fully in two of Britain’s greatest ever sitcoms, Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son, both written with consideration and absolute wit, performed by comedic geniuses and with the knowledge that even after 60 years in the case of Hancock’s Half Hour, the words and situations are timeless, that no matter how much we move on in society, we still are products of the post Second World War generation.

Hancock’s Half Hour, The Lost Sitcoms. The New Neighbour, Television Review. full post

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

Legend, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton, Paul Bettany, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Colin Morgan, Paul Anderson, Aneurin Barnard, Chazz Palminteri, Tara Fitzgerald, Kevin McNally, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Sam Hoare, Shane Attwooll, Samantha Pearl, Jane Wood, John Sessions.

 

There was nothing glamorous about the Krays, not in the strictest sense of the word and yet they held the East End of London in such a thrall that glamour took on a completely different meaning. It was physical allure of charm personified to an area of London that had been treated for too long as the personal plaything of the destructive and warped; so why should the Swinging Sixties be any different.

Legend, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

The Missing Hancocks, Theatre Review. Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Kevin McNally, Robin Sebastian, Susy Kane, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall.

Two microphones stamped with the discerning, almost foreboding B.B.C. logo stand at the front of the stage and five perfectly placed chairs are to be seen in the background, the sense of occasion was already palpable, the sound of quite a number in the crowd already rehearsing under their breath the theme tune to perhaps the absolute master of British Comedy in the last 70 years and his sensational programme written by the only two men who could truly capture and harness his genius. This was not just any old event at the Edinburgh Fringe, this was one in which the spirit of The Lad himself, Birmingham’s Tony Hancock, was given a new voice in which to thrill the crowd all over again.

The Missing Hancocks, Theatre Review. Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Hancock’s Half Hour: The Matador. The Lost Episodes. 2014 Re-Recording.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian, Susy Kane.

As arguably one of the finest British comedies to grace both radio and television celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the first episode, The First Night Party, being aired to the nation; Hancock’s Half Hour has suffered from the short sightedness of the time that many programmes and serials had placed upon them, the constraints of not being recorded and documented for future posterity.

Hancock’s Half Hour: The Matador. The Lost Episodes. 2014 Re-Recording. full post

(624 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

I, Claudius. Television Review. B.B.C.4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Derek Jacobi, George Baker, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart, Siân Phillips, Patricia Quinn, Christopher Biggins, Ian Ogilvy, James Faulkner, Simon MacCorkindale, Sheila Ruskin, Angela Morant, Graham Seed, Jo Rowbottom, Bernard Hill, Norman Rossington, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hepton, Barbara Young, John Cater, Kevin McNally.

I, Claudius. Television Review. B.B.C.4. full post

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