Tag Archives: Television Review. B.B.C.

Cider With Rosie, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Timothy Spall, Samantha Morton, Georgie Smith, Archie Cox, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Bebe Cave, Georgie Brinkworth, Annette Crosbie, June Whitfield, Emma Curtis, Inis De Clercq, Libby Easton, Bob Goody, Maya Gerber, Jack Harris, Billy Howle, Jessica Hynes, Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen, Finn Bennett, Matthew Steer.

English literature may have moved on from the view of the world that was afforded writers between the two wars that shrouded Europe and the greater world in dusky veil of black, the pastoral has certainly suffered greatly since the ever encroaching urbanisation and the near submissive approach to building on more and more land.

Cider With Rosie, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Bertie Carvel, Eddie Marsan, Marc Warren, Charlotte Riley, Alice Englert, Samuel West, Enzo Cilenti, Paul Kaye, Edward Hogg, Brian Pettifer, Ariyon Bakare, Vincent Franklin, John Heffernan, Richard Durden, Robbie O’ Neil, John Sessions, Clive Mantle, Lucinda Dryzek, Ronan Vibart.

 

For all the other channels and subscriber based ways of watching television, for all the smoke and mirrors of television programmes being played out endlessly and arguably without diligence and care for the viewers intelligence, when the B.B.C. gets something completely right it normally becomes the best thing to have been seen in the comfort of your armchair all year and in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell such worthy praise and lofted heights is needed.

Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(564 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Banished, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Julian Rhind-Tutt, MyAnna Buring, Russell Tovey, David Wenham, Orla Brady, Ewen Bremner, Ryan Corr, David Dawson, Ned Dennehy, Brooke Harman, Joseph Millson, Nicholas Moss, Adam Nagaitis, Genevieve O’ Reilly, Joanna Vanderham, David Walmsley, Bianca Rudman, Jordan Patrick Smith, Tim McCunn.

 

Banished, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(569 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Remember Me, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Michael Palin, Mark Addy, Hodie Comer, Julia Sawalha, Jamie-Rooney-West, Tony Pitts, Eileen Davies, Mayuri Boonham, Kate Dobson, Mina Anwar, Noreen Kershaw, Kirsty Hoiles, Ubayd Rehman, Aqib Khan, Sheila Hancock, Rebekah Staton, Rita May, Marcus Garvey, Richard Lumsden, Orla Cottingham, Gary Pillai, Roger Grainger, Tony Monroe, Indra J. Adler, Hilly Barber, Garry Marriott.

Remember Me is the first outing in dramatic role for what seems an interminable age for one of Yorkshire’s favourite sons Michael Palin. It is a role that perhaps offered so much to one of the absolute greats of British comedy but ultimately fell flat with little hope of being considered one of the giant’s great visual feasts.

Remember Me, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Abigail Eames, Jayden Harris-Wallace, Ashley Foster, Harley Bird, Michelle Gomez, Siwan Morris, Harry Dickman, Jenny Hill, Eloise Barnes, James Weber Brown, Michelle Asante, Curtis Flowers, Kate Tydman, Nana Amoo-Gottfried, William Wright-Neblett.

In a series that has welcomed new writers to the home of Doctor Who, none perhaps come more equipped to weave a tale of intrigue, fun and the very essence of danger whilst highlighting humanity’s need to depend on the natural world more so than Liverpool’s Frank Cottrell-Boyce and his debut story, In The Forest Of The Night.                       .

Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

The Driver, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast:  David Morrissey, Ian Hart, Colm Meaney, Claudie Blakley, Darren Morfitt, Sacha Parkinson, Lee Ross, Harish Patel, Lewis Rainer, Andrew Tiernan, Chris Coghill, Shaun Dingwall, Andrew Knott, Nathan McMullen, Ciara Baxendale, Leanne Best, Dominic Coleman, Rick Bacon, Emma Bispham, Karl Collins, Alan Rothwell.

 

The British gangster drama, whether on television or in the cinema has never really captured the days of Brighton Rock with Richard Attenborough and William Hartnell or the fantastic The Long Good Friday with the much missed Bob Hoskins    and the excellent Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Since those days of cinematic greats the genre seems to have become too safe, it has waved a white flag in surrender to its American counterpart.

The Driver, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C.

Cast: Luke Tittenson, Stuart Graham, Lewis Reeves, Michael Socha, Chris Mason, Hannah Britland, Paul Popplewell, Bobby Schofield, Sandy Batchelor, Anthony Schuster, Michael Peavoy, Andrew MacBean, Laurie Kynaston.

The second part of the B.B.C. series Our World War was one in which looked at the way the Battle of the Somme had an effect on the soldiers who fought in that bloody, unforgiving and devastating fight, especially two soldiers whose lives would become intertwined over the coming days of the offensive, Private Paddy Kennedy and Private William Hunt.

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Our World War, Television Review. B.B.C.

Cast: Theo Barkham-Biggs, Callum Callaghan, Justin Michael Deuster, Brian Ferguson, Jefferson Hall, Daniel Kendrick, Stephen Leask, Dominic Thorburn, Frankie Wilson, Sion Young.

 

The trouble with being taught history at school is along the way it loses so many young minds to the way of the bored or disinterested. For many it is the sheer weight of facts to remember, perhaps the subject matter doesn’t grab the mind or imagination, for some they just cannot see the relevance to the our society today. That may be argued as understandable when looking at the lives of The Tudors or the Georgian society unless of course you are the type of person who is absorbed by all history, social, economic and personal. When it comes to the events that took the world on a course of destruction a 100 years ago, the relevance is palpable, you can almost hear the beating, thumping heart of your great-grandparents and their breathe clinging to the air around you as history is still so close and so real to many.

Our World War, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(632 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

The Musketeers: Musketeers Don’t Die Easily. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Peter Capaldi, Howard Charles, Maimie McCoy, Luke Pasqualino, Sean Pertwee, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Hugo Speer, Roger Ringrose, Charlotte Hope, Holly Earl, Bo Poraj, Virginia Fiol, Matt Slack.

The Musketeers has become one of those programmes in which to simply ignore it is just not good manners! The squeal of adventure thunders in on every episode and in this final chapter of the series, Musketeers Don’t Die Easily, many traps are laid, various deceptions are deployed by the writer and even if for one brief moment the pace of the action was going to be enhanced by the sound of someone whistling Ennio Morricone’s epic score to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the story was one that saw the whole creation of this adaptation be seen for what it is, just terrific!

The Musketeers: Musketeers Don’t Die Easily. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Arena: Whatever Happened To Spitting Image? Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whatever happened to Spitting Image?  Whatever happened to the truly anarchic satire that had the so called great quaking in their boots at the thought that at least some of the decisions they made on behalf the British population might be held up to the kind of scrutiny in which they would at least have to grin and bear the extra publicity or come out looking even more foolish than they do?

Arena: Whatever Happened To Spitting Image? Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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