Shouldn’t Jim Broadbent have been classed as a National Treasure by now? Kept in The Tower of London with the Crown and whatnot, only to be released so that he can appear in top quality drama? Broadbent is, and always has been, the big birthday cake of drama – seeing him at once both excites and reassures. You know you’re in for something special.
It wasn’t always called ‘The Great Train Robbery’, but history has a way of swaddling itself in mythology.
Back in 1963 it was known as ‘The Cheddington Mail Van Raid’. And in the same way as that title removes any notion of excitement and romanticism from the act, so Chris Chibnall’s A Robber’s Tale strips away the mythology that has crystallised around the greatest folkloric tale in British larceny and presents us with the facts (or as close to them) of what was a train robbery that time wrongly mythologised into something ‘Great’.
The wait is over everyone. After a two-year gap, Sherlock is back for three more devilishly intricate, deliriously fun episodes. Written by co-creator Mark Gatiss (who also appears as Sherlock’s older brother Mycroft), first episode ‘The Empty Hearse’ sees our curly-haired hero “return from the dead” after two years travelling the world and dismantling Jim … >
These days Christmas TV isn’t scary. It’s all willowy-voiced renditions of classic anthems and children dressed like millionaires using iPads as sledges. There’s no fear to cut through the festive treacle.
Yet a ghost story at Christmas is as traditional as a crowd of villagers gazing at a convoy of lorries filled with fizzy pop. So it’s a thrill to see BBC Two return the ‘Ghost Story for Christmas’ to the schedules, and that horror aficionado Mark Gatiss is the man behind the resurrection.
And just like that, it’s time to bid farewell to Ripper Street. The good news is that, despite the series being axed after disappointing ratings (you can blame I’m A Celebrity), there remains a small glimmer of hope that LoveFilm could be funding a third series. Whatever happens, we couldn’t have asked for much more from this final gut punch of an episode.
There is something about effeminate German-accented men that will remain eternally funny, and there’s not a lot anyone can do about that.
With a two-part finale on the horizon, this week’s Atlantis felt very much like a one-shot, although it did reacquaint us with the city’s regal characters who have been out of the story for a while.
After fifteen years off-screen, a move to a new channel and the widening variety of decidedly more brash comedy filling our television screens these days, the return of fan favourite Brit-com Birds of a Feather was always going to be something of a gamble.
It’s fascinating to see how a show treats its final ever episode. Some revel in nostalgia. Some look to the future. Some go big before they go home, while others try for a more intimate personal story to wrap things up.
In its final hour Misfits manages to tick almost off all of the above by reciting its greatest hits – time travel, violence, moving deaths, and enough crudity to fill a septic tank.
About halfway into Episode 9 of The Tunnel our reviewing notes on the episode just stopped. No, we hadn’t hit our drinking-grade Boîte de Vin earlier than usual and passed out. We were so wrapped up in hoping that Laura Roebuck wasn’t smithereened into a fine red mist that we forgot we had hands. Good grief, that was tense. That was bloody tense.