Tag Archives: Television review

Whitechapel, Series Four, Case Two. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Rupert Penry Jones, Phil Davies, Steve Pemberton, Sam Stockman, Ben Bishop, Hannah Walters, Mandeep Dhillon, Munir Khairdin, Hugh Mitchell, Natasha Joseph, Angela Pleasance, Gavin Marshall, John Hodgkinson, Tom Beard.

American television programmes that would be considered on par with the I.T.V. detective thriller Whitechapel would no doubt scream for the sense of history that surrounds the East-End of London, the chilling residue of time, death, murder and mayhem that seem to come out of every pore and alleyway of the area. America’s loss is Britain’s gain especially when it comes to Whitechapel and its abundance of historical murders that can be re-enacted with a new novel twist by today’s modern writers.

Whitechapel, Series Four, Case Two. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(494 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Max Irons, James Frain, Aneurin Barnard, Faye Marsey, Amanda Hale, Janet McTeer, Rupert Graves, Caroline Goodall, David Oakes, Eleanor Tomlinson, Juliet Aubrey, Sonny Ashbourne, Pixie Davies, Veerle Baetens, Joey Batey, Michael Marcus, Tom McKay, Francis Tomelty, Michael Maloney, Ben Lamb, Shaun Dooley,  Hugh Mitchell, Robert Pugh, Arthur Darvill.

As television blockbuster’s go, The White Queen has followed on the satisfying trend set by The Tudors to bring sections of history back to life and into the public consciousness.

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(486 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

The Real Great Escape, Television Review. B.B.C. 4

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *

The 1963 film The Great Escape which starred Steve McQueen, James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough is one of the iconic motion pictures, alongside Escape From Sobibor, that represent forever the spirit shown by Second World War prisoners of war or those incarcerated in death camps in their attempt to escape their surroundings. However the film, no matter how thrilling, never really captured the man behind the mass escape from Stalag Luft III, the resilient and self-assured Roger Bushell.

The Real Great Escape, Television Review. B.B.C. 4 full post

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

Burton And Taylor, Television Review. B.B.C. 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Dominic West, Helena Bonham-Carter, Lenora Crichlow, William Hope, Michael Jibson, Trevor White, Christopher Cowlin, Lucille Sharp, Isabella Brazier-Jones.

It was a love affair that captured millions of people’s imaginations. The unceasing desire between two people at the end of their long acting powers that both brought them together but also tore them apart, both mentally as well as physically, was captured in all its glory in the latest well produced one-off drama by B.B.C. 4 in Burton and Taylor.

Burton And Taylor, Television Review. B.B.C. 4. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Larry Hulme, Travis McMahon, Abe Forsythe, Caribe Heine, Peter Houghton, Clayton Watson, Dominic Gameau, Matthew Le Nevez, Ryan O’Kane, Brendan Cowell, Richard Davies, Alexander England, Nicholas Coghlan.

It could possibly leave younger viewers stumped at the fuss, however Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War is one of the finest pieces of television plays concerning cricket ever conceived for the medium. That though is not hard; as pretty much anything that tries to capture the intrigue, drama and microcosm of life that goes on within the test arena has been fairly awful. Unless it is one of those great documentaries narrated with elegance and knowledge of the game by the actor Jim Carter, then they tend to go the same way as the rather disappointing Bodyline miniseries from 1984, forgotten and not worthy of the moment in time it was ungraciously trying to capture.

Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(596 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Max Irons, Janet McTeer, James Frain, Robert Pugh, Juliet Aubrey, Caroline Goodall, Aneurin Barnard, David Oakes, Ashley Charles, Amanda Hale.

 

The demand for some sort of history is never truly satisfied or sated and after many years of watching Sky have a tight grip on historical dramas in screening of The Tudors, the B.B.C. finally get to dip their feet in the murky waters of the British Royal family in the adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen.

The White Queen, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(535 words, estimated 2:08 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)

Murder On The Home Front, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tazmin Merchant, Patrick Kennedy, James Fleet, Ryan Gage, John Bowe, Richard Bremmer, Amanda Fairbanks-Hynes, Emerald Fennell, Iain McKee, Siobhan Hayes, Susie Blake, John Heffernan, Patrick Knowles, Joey Batey.

Murder on the Home Front, the two-part television programme based on the memoirs of Molly Lefebure, may not have the stature of other crime/detective programmes that have become a staple of the diet, the fix of misdeed and felony that Britain seems to revel in watching but nonetheless it sparked and blossomed and in the end was enough to get the crime gastric juices flowing to make it quirky, watchable and in parts inspired.

Murder On The Home Front, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Life Of Crime, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Richard Coyle, Joel Beckett, Con O’Neill, Amanda Drew, Julian Lewis Jones, Ruth McCabe, Stephen McDade, Ray Pantthaki, Amaranthe Partridge.

Everywhere you go these days Hayley Atwell appears to be. The reason of course that she has been in some very high profile television programmes, films and even audio plays in the last couple of years and that all stems down from the fact that in every part she plays she is so believable and can hold the camera’s and audience’s attention unlike almost any other female actor working today, only Maggie Smith perhaps can have the same plaudits laid at her feet.

Life Of Crime, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(345 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Endeavour, Home. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Anton Lesser, Sean Rigby, Chris Barnes, James Bradshaw, Sonya Cassidy, Nick Court, Louise Dylan, Jamie Glover, Richard Hawley, John Hollingsworth, Edmund Kingsley, Jack Laskey, Lloyd McGuire, Poppy Miller, Marilyn O’ Brien, Caroline O’ Neill, Lynda Rooke, Abigail Thaw, Paul Venables, Guy Williams, Clive Wood.

Endeavour, Home. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(589 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)