The third episode of Downton Abbey’s new season opens with Lord Gillingham scrambling to his room as the hotel maid delivers Lady Mary’s breakfast tray. Have all their dreams come true? Alas, not so. He’s itching to trip down the aisle, but she’s not so enamored with a man that’s governed by routine and ritual. … >
This is more like it. In spite of all the good things we’ve seen since Peter Capaldi took control of the TARDIS, we’ve been waiting for something that is unmistakeably Doctor Who, something as comfortable as a sparkly black sweater and as inventive as exterminating a giant alien spider with disinfectant spray, as familiar as … >
After a steady start in last week’s opener – enjoyable but pedestrian in its predictableness – the second episode zooms out of the 30mph zone with its foot down, bringing some much needed excitement to a journey that might otherwise have become tedious. Having already been party to some dodgy deals since becoming driver for … >
“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 … >
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 … >
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 … >
The second episode of Downton Abbey’s new season finds Mr. Carson and Lord Grantham at odds over the site of the WWI memorial: the cricket pitch at Downton (Mr. Carson’s choice, though he is an avid enthusiast of the sport) or the centre of the village (Lord Grantham’s recommendation). Mr. Carson does not defer to … >
Having established the primary elements last week, this week’s Our Girl episode does a great job of balancing the character development with some very probing questions about Army life for young soldier, Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner). Proceedings here are definitely more character-based with equal development given to the main three players. Ben Aldridge, as Captain … >
One thing that has eluded Doctor Who in recent years is consistency. Matt Smith’s final season was let down by clunkers like ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ and ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’, but the gilt edges of the previous season were certainly rubbed off by ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ – and … >
Having recently narrated the audiobook of his namesake Steven Patrick’s Autobiography, it seems appropriate that David Morrissey’s latest television role takes him back to Manchester. This is not the cultured, steel-and-glass megalopolis that the city’s tourist board are keen to publicise, however, but the parts that haven’t changed since the days of the Smiths: the … >