We give it four years, tops. Maybe even just two. That’s how long it’ll be before a major brace of films snap up Sheridan Smith and makes her this decade’s Kate Winslet or Helen Bonham Carter: in other words, the go-to Brit actress to give your project a bit of class. Smith is remarkable in … >
“I’m going upstairs to take off my hat.” Downton Abbey is back and the opening episode of the period drama’s fifth season does not disappoint, placing numerous long-running storylines and a plethora of new subplots into the chute and setting them off. The sense of permanence that supplies Downton Abbey with much of its gravitational … >
Following on from last year’s one-off TV movie, Our Girl is back on BBC One for a new five-part season with EastEnders star Lacey Turner returning as troubled teen-turned-soldier Molly Dawes. Episode 1 deals with Molly, now an Army medic, being drafted out on her first tour of Afghanistan, and how she copes with the … >
Question. If Doctor Who has such a flexible format, why does it revisit its own ideas so often? Conjecture. Because ideas breed ideas – just not necessarily new ones. For the bulk of its running time, ‘Time Heist’ plays – as it intends to – like a sassy, spacey variation on the heist thriller. However, … >
It’s a brand new story in this week’s Chasing Shadows episode, and whilst ITV’s latest crime drama continues to underwhelm, it’s still oddly enjoyable, much like last week. The first of part a two-part tale, this time writer Rob Williams moves away from the obvious teenage runaway shtick that dominated the opening story, and instead … >
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, … >
Watching a nostalgia-fest with plenty of popular tunes and cobbled streets is, frankly, about as ITV as you can get. And so it is with Cilla, a three-part biopic all about – Surprise, Surprise (come on, it’s best we get that joke out of the way sooner rather than later) – Cilla Black, starring Sheridan … >
Back in 2007’s Season 3, Steven Moffat submitted the script for ‘Blink’, an episode of Doctor Who directly inspired by a story he had written for the previous year’s Doctor Who annual, which sought to explore the creepy possibilities of monsters inspired by nightmares and neuroses. Now, seven years later, he’s crafted ‘Listen’, an episode … >
Clara Oswald’s on a first date with Danny Pink. It’s maybe the most important date in all of Time and Space. More important even than 26/06/10. Or maybe it’s not. Or maybe it’s simultaneously significant and inconsequential. Just like how the episode that it’s centred around is all at once a good story told well … >
There’s a marked improvement in the second of instalment of Chasing Shadows, which, whilst only slight, definitely bodes well for the rest of ITV’s new crime series. Yes, the dialogue is still clichéd, unoriginal and rather clunky in a couple of places. But unlike last week’s underwhelming opening episode, this time there’s a much faster … >