Articles by:

Rob Smedley

‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 2 Episode 2 review

Let’s talk about sound design. Hey where are you- no no, please stay, it’ll be interesting, I promise. We take good sound design for granted. TV practically expects us to: awards for it are always briskly packed away in the ‘Earlier in tonight’s show…’ montages at the BAFTAs and Academy Awards. People only notice it … >

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‘Glue’ Episode 4 review

It has taken a while to figure out while Glue is called Glue, but with Episode 4 the meaning behind the title feels clear. Given the debauchery in Episode 1 you’d think it was in reference to substance abuse. But as the story has cantered along and the show has proved itself more grown up … >

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‘Doctor Who’ spoiler-free review: ‘Kill the Moon’

“Certain moments in Time are fixed. Tiny, precious moments. Everything else is in flux, anything can happen. But those certain moments…they have to stand.” So said The Tenth Doctor in ‘The Waters of Mars’ – not the last time you’ll hear that episode mentioned in this review, or others. Viewers will draw close parallels between … >

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‘Glue’ Episode 3 review

As I said last week, there always seems to be something on fire in Glue. A car, a caravan, a pile of wood in a copse… the countryside is indeed a highly flammable place. It’s why you never see cows smoking. Or sheep having ‘baa’-rbeques. Ha. Ha. Ha. But all those flames do more than … >

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‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 2 Episode 1 spoiler-free review

Watching the opener to Peaky Blinders’ second season is like swaggering back into your old home town. Just as the streets, the faces, and the noises of your old manor are all as vibrantly familiar and much more impressively dismal than you remembered, so there’s an identical sensation as you hear the ferric beat of … >

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‘Doctor Who’: ‘The Caretaker’ spoiler-free review

With ‘The Caretaker’ we reach the halfway point of Doctor Who’s latest run. It’s a good time, then, to take a quick look back at the first half of Season 8. You’d probably agree it’s been pretty strong so far, though there’s bound to be an individual difference of opinion among where those strengths lie. … >

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‘Glue’ Episode 2 review

There’s a simple way to tell if you’re part of the viewer demographic that Glue has in its shot-glass sights. It’s this: when all those teens were having that shindig in the woods, if you didn’t think ‘Who lugged that sound system and stage into the middle of nowhere? And what’s powering it? A generator?’, … >

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‘Glue’ teasers: 10 hints for Episode 2

E4’s new murder-mystery drama Glue continues next week. Suspicions are running high after the discovery of Cal’s body. Cal’s friends – Rob, James, Tina, Janine and Annie – are questioned by the police about what happened on the night of the murder – or at least what they can recall of it. Episode 2 airs … >

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‘Doctor Who’: ‘Time Heist’ spoiler-free review

Bankers, eh? You know the drill. Boo, hiss, etc. Since the real-world economic crisis (now also canon in Doctor Who thanks to ‘The End of Time’) they’ve become besuited bogeyfolk. Like The Silence, but with champagne corks. Still, after ‘Listen’ it’s not like you can keep your savings under the bed. Callous, calculating, and ruthless, … >

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