Tag Archives: Matthew Macfadyen

Ripper Street: A Brittle Thread. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Joseph Mawle, Jonas Armstrong, Lydia Wilson, Anna Burnett, Matthew Lewis, Ian Pirie, Ellie Haddington.

Society hangs by A Brittle Thread and when it is pulled the whole fabric that has been built up, cherished by some, loathed by others, indifferent to many to whose lives are just about the right side of desperate, when that thread is pulled, it can come crashing down. Since the days that Queen Victoria first sat on her throne, many have tried to pull that strand, some have been part of the so called elite or the institution themselves but somehow it remains, for now, intact; threadbare, wearing thin and scraggy but nonetheless still intact.

Ripper Street: A Brittle Thread. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street, Closed Casket. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Matthew Lewis, Benjamin O’Mahony, Jonas Armstrong, Joseph Mawle, Mimmi Morton, Anna Burnett, Kahl Murphy, Kye Murphy, Ian Pirie.

There is always the feeling of definitive and upturned world when it is the detective who finds themselves on the run, the officer who has upheld the law in the best way possible for the town and times he lives in, suddenly thrust into the world of dark, of the ignoble and the fear of being hunted. All those times they have chased down a criminal and won, now in the heat of moral decay, counting for nothing as other officers with grudges and jealousy of success running hot through their veins, close in on their quarry.

Ripper Street, Closed Casket. Television Review. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Edmund Reid Did This. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jonas Armstrong, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Anna Burnett, Charlene McKenna, Lucy Cohu, Matthew Lewis, Anna Koval, Finnion Duff Lennon, Matthew Lewis, Brandon Maher, Kahl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Lynn Rafferty, Annabell Rickerby, Killian Scott, David Threlfall, David Wilmot.

There are some killers that just defy explanation, no matter if it is in the blood of real life or the fear of literature and media intrusion, there are killers, murderers, people to whom such depths are crawled that the greatest anomaly, the strangest and unfathomable desire, just makes them such interesting case studies.

Ripper Street: Edmund Reid Did This. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street, No Wolves In Whitechapel. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Jonas Armstrong, Anna Burnett, Lucy Cohu, Anna Koval, Matthew Lewis, Giacomo Mancini, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Killian Scott, David Threlfall, David Warner.

The streets of the East-End have known pain throughout their existence, the proximity to the docks, the burden of being so close to the capital of a country once steeped in historical value and now one of the mega cities, one that stretches beyond its natural borders and boundaries. At one time full of disease, rancour and malcontent, full of life and the firm grip of humanity sucking on its tender breast, a place of fascination and toil and yet at least for quite a few years, and despite the best attempts of many to introduce metaphorical ones, there are No Wolves in Whitechapel that require taming.

Ripper Street, No Wolves In Whitechapel. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street: Men Of Iron, Men Of Smoke. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Lucy Cohu, David Threlfall, David Warner, Rob Compton, Owen Teale, Anna Burnett, Jonas Armstrong, Jack McEvoy, Anna Koval, Matthew Lewis, Jake Mann, Charlene McKenna, Karl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony.

Nothing much has changed in football, there has always been the odd case of corruption, of players being disloyal to the team, of bitter rivalries and even more bitter jealousies; murder though, that it quite new and usually appears in the form of a drug cartel’s anger over a particular player’s actions on the field of play.

Ripper Street: Men Of Iron, Men Of Smoke. Television Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Some Conscious Lost. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, David Threlfall, Killian Scott, Matthew Lewis, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Anna Burnett, Anna Koval, Sonya Cassidy, Jamie Ballard, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Jon Øigarden, Daragh Kearney.

There was no greater sentence of dread to the poor of the East End of London, save transportation to the colonies, than to be told they were to be sent to the workhouse; that place where the even the lowest of hearts tried their level best to keep out of and to which the sometimes sadistic tendencies of those in charge was as criminal as any who might work the lunatic asylums of the day or even the evil at large that often preyed upon the weak and suffering.

Ripper Street: Some Conscious Lost. Television Review. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: The Strangers’ Home. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, David Threlfall, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Lucy Cohu, Ronny Jhutti, Matthew Lewis, Michael Liebmann, Derek Riddell, Killian Scott, Stewart Scudamore, Jonas Armstrong, Andrew Brooke, Anna Burnett, Hamza Firdous, Michael Ford-Fitzgerald, Clare Foster, Ian Gelder, Ed Hughes, Anna Koval, Izzy Meikle-Small, Emer O’ Grady, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Karl O’ Neill, Isaac O’ Sullivan.

Ripper Street: The Strangers’ Home. Television Review. full post

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

The Last Kingdom, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Alexander Dreymon, Ian Hart, David Dawson, Adrian Bower, Brian Vernal, Eliza Butterworth, Emily Cox, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Harry McEntire, Tobias Santlemann, Simon Kunz, Amy Wren, Matthew Macfadyen, Rune Temte, Henning Valin Jakobsen, Charlie Murphy, Sean Gilder, Lorcan Cranitch, Alec Newman.

To love history, to love the chronicles of English Literature that delve further back than even that of the great works of art beloved by Geoffrey Chaucer or the stunning Beowulf, one must then surely admire just how the kingdom of England was forged in the fire of heat and war, to the point where even a committed pacifist could take up a sword to defend a hillside or see the Somerset Levels not as a housing estate but as a naturally occurring set of defences.

The Last Kingdom, Television Review. full post

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: The Peace of Edmund Reid. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, Lydia Wilson, Clive Russell, David Dawson, Josh O’ Connor, Ian McElhinney, Louise Brealey, Anna Burnett, David Wilmot, Leanne Best, Anton Giltrap, Elliot Levey.

The Peace of Edmund Reid is perhaps one that the people of Whitechapel might never have thought might be attained, in real 19th Century London or indeed in the fictional portrayal, made seamless and near perfect by Matthew Macfadyen, yet peace after so much devastation is not so much an impossible ask, it only requires all the circles of Hell to finally close and be seen to banished.

Ripper Street: The Peace of Edmund Reid. Television Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Live Free, Live True. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Charlene McKenna, David Wilmot, David Dawson, Josh O’ Connor, Louise Brealey, Ian McElhinney, Haydn Gwynne, Martin Compston, Peter McDonald, Emily Taaffe, Leanne Best, Anna Burnett, Danial Cerqueira, Enda Kilroy, Bradley Hall, Maeve O’ Mahony, Brendan Morrissey.

The issue of abortion is still one that causes heated debates, within wider society and also within the prospective family unit; it is a debate where the parameters change the closer it hits to home.

Ripper Street: Live Free, Live True. Television Review. full post

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