Tag Archives: Philip Olivier

The Ale House, Grand Central Hall. Theatre Review, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Philip Olivier, Lindzi Germain, Jake Abraham, George Wilson, Nick Birkinshaw, Bernie Foley, James McMartin, Les Doherty, Kivan Dene.

It is an institution almost unlike anything else in the world, often copied, sometimes mocked but never considered sincere or as authentic as the original; the great British public house remains, despite some knocks over the years, still the fabric of everyday life and it is one that should be lauded even as the so called sophistication of palates and life changes.

The Ale House, Grand Central Hall. Theatre Review, Liverpool. full post

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

Doctor Who: Signs And Wonders. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Amy Pemberton, Jessica Martin, Warren Brown, Jemma Churchill, Rory Keenan.

There are times, admittedly as rare as a Gallifryian rocking horse needing to excuse itself to go to the toilet, when the most manipulative of all the incarnations of The Doctor is just that little too calculating for his own good, that’s when the listener knows that they are in for a really decent ride of a story line with the Seventh Doctor and perhaps it is fitting that long standing writer Matt Fitton is the deliverer of all the problems heaped upon Hector, The Doctor and Ace in the very cool audio drama, Signs and Wonders.

Doctor Who: Signs And Wonders. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Mask Of Tragedy. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Samuel West, Alisdair Simpson, Russell Bentley, Tim Treloar, Emily Tucker.

Heroes, true heroes, those that seek no recompense for their actions in saving someone’s life and see no honour in reminding others what they have done for them in the past are so rare, so infrequent; that it is hardly surprising that tales of epic valour seems to be steeped in antiquity and legend. For those in ancient Greece, tales of heroes were what gave the collection of disparate nations and its people hope in times of war, pestilence and the invention of Greek comedy and one of its Godfathers, Aristophanes.

Doctor Who: The Mask Of Tragedy. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, John Leeson, Mandi Symonds, Maggie Service, John Heffernan, Phyllida Nash, Siobhan Redmond, John Dorney, Paul Panting.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, preferably being poured from a bucket with ice cubes the size of Norwegian glacier formation and over the head of someone you don’t like whilst they are sunbathing. Failing that, to be mastered in the form that Science Fiction adores, with plenty of back story and with an enemy that doesn’t quite fit the top echelons of master criminals or war mongering civilisations.

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(651 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Afterlife. Audio Drama 181, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Amy Pemberton, Jean Boht, Mandi Symonds, Jonathan Forbes, Andrew Dickens.

It depends on your point of view, but what if there really is life after death? How could you be sure that whatever higher power, what god or demon has had you in their charge whilst your memory has begun to fade in the minds you left behind, that they won’t have cheated you in yet another cosmic joke.

Doctor Who: Afterlife. Audio Drama 181, Big Finish. full post

(573 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Cinderella, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Sonia, Philip Olivier, Nikki Graham, Alison Crawfrod, Simon Greening, Stuart Campbell, Brian Dodd, Michael Chapman.

The Epstein Theatre has been up and running for just under a quarter of a season and already it has one of the top rated plays the city has had the pleasure to witness this year performed on its stage and now the acid test of the festive Pantomime, in the form of the much loved Cinderella, has made sure that the new theatre goes into 2013 with its head firmly held high and in fine exceptional spirits.

Cinderella, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(385 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 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)

Doctor Who, Black And White. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish Audio 163.

Picture from Big Finish.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 1st 2012.

L.S.Media Rating ****

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Maggie O’Neil, Amy Pemberton, Stuart Milligan, Michael Rouse, Richard Bremmer, John Banks, James Hayward.

It is a story as old and as dear to lovers of the English language as any…and it also contains the power of Beowulf thrown in for good measure.

Matt Fitton’s Doctor Who audio play for Big Finish, Black and White, combines cleverly the power of Sylvester McCoy’s incarnation of the Doctor and the sheer majesty of the oldest tale translated and written down in the English language and somewhere in between a tale of the future and that of the past merge and blur into legendry Doctor Who status.

Doctor Who, Black And White. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish Audio 163. full post

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