Tag Archives: Toby Stephens

McDonald & Dodds: The Rule Of Three. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Watkins, Tala Gouveia, Claire Skinner, Charlie Jones, Bhavik C. Pankhania, Ace Bhatti, Daniel Lapaine, Lydia Leonard, Pixie Lott, Dipo Ola, John Gordon Sinclair, Toby Stephens, Rico Canadinhas, Siobhan O’ Carroll.

A return to the screens for a detective series that has grown with stature as it progresses to exemplify the sense of charismatic fortitude required when placing two oddly matched people together in order to solve a murder, is as welcome as a sunny, cloudless day after a month of constant storms that threaten to overwhelm the population with a sense of permanent gloom and floods of grief.

McDonald & Dodds: The Rule Of Three. Television Drama Review. full post

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

James Bond: Thunderball. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Tom Conti, Alfred Molina, Janet Montgomery, John Sessions, Lisa Dillon, James Callis, Josh Stamberg, Ian Ogilvy, John Standing, Janie Dee, Julian Sands, Nigel Lindsay, Matthew Wolf, Alan Shearman, Darren Richardson, Aaron Lyons, Simon de Deney.

A film that suffers under the weight of its writer’s history is one that finds itself developing the human disorder of duel personality, and whilst Thunderball is film that sparks the imagination, it also leaves the fan wondering how the series could hope to capture the brilliance of the previous film, Goldfinger.

James Bond: Thunderball. Audio Drama Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

James Bond: From Russia With Love. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Eileen Atkins, John Sessions, Tim Pigott-Smith, Mark Gatiss, John Glover, Aileen Mowat, John Standing, Janie Dee, Julian Sands, Matthew Wolf, Olga Fedori, Micky Stratford, Nathaniel Parker, Martin Jarvis.

It could be argued that the fan and the listener alike have been short changed when it comes to adaptations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels for the radio; whether this is down to the estate not wishing to decry from the scores of films or because it has been long thought that such books cannot be captured with just a voice rather than the dramatic sequence that film provides is for another debate, and yet there is something to be said for being able to see 007 aim his trilby at the hat stand, to see the devastation of his actions take place, rather than just match your imagination to the actor’s voice.

James Bond: From Russia With Love. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

Summer Of Rockets. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Toby Stephens, Keeley Hawes, Lily Sacofsky, Linus Roache, Gary Beadle, Toby Woolf, Lucy Cohu, Mark Bonnar, Claire Bloom, Suanne Braun, Timothy Spall, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Leo Staar, Greg Austin, Peter Firth, Molly Casey, Safiyya Ingar, Ronald Pickup, Matthew James Thomas, Jordan Coulson, Fode Simbo, Tony Maudsey, Adrian Edmondson, James Faulkner, Richard Cordery, Cai Brigden,

It takes a special kind of writer to be able to bring to focus the everyday item which we take for granted and then make it part of a story which employs all the finest elements of the dark forces that govern our lives and installs the direction in which a Government and its people are taking.

Summer Of Rockets. Television Review. full post

(581 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Hunter Killer. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating *

Cast: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Linda Cardellini, Toby Stephens, Common, Adam James,  Cory Johnson, Henry Goodman, Carter MacIntyre, Shane Taylor, Kola Bokinni, Mikey Collins, Will Attenborough, Kieron Bimpson, David Gyasi, Michael Nyqvist, Caroline Goodall, David Yelland, Stuart Milligan.

The land of cliche is under constant threat of never being allowed to die in peace, to be remembered for the small annoyances, for the large discomfort felt, a hero must be seen to stand tall and have the attention of the audience, but they must be seen as being more than a two dimensional caricature which sends a signal to the audience, that the land of cliche is being primed and prepped once more for boarding.

Hunter Killer. Film Review. full post

(524 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

And Then There Were None, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Catherine Bailey, Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman, Christopher Hatherall, Anne Maxwell Martin, Sam Neil, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens, Noah Taylor, Ben Deery, Jim Main, Daisy Waterstone.

The British obsession with murder owes more to the conditioning belief of understanding that order will always be restored rather than wanting to see someone get away with the act. Not for nothing is the book charts on any local high street bookshop always seen to have the latest crime novel within tidy ranks but the authors of such are seen arguably to be in the eyes of many people amongst the most interesting to read. Nobody wants to see anyone get away with murder but there is always something slightly devilish about hoping to see it attempted and in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None murder is drawn to a perfect art.

And Then There Were None, Television Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)