With the characters and their respective storylines established in the opening two episodes, the story of Hazelwood Manor and its staff focuses attention mainly on one character this week. We learn more about Sean’s past and why he was so keen to avoid the publicity over the group’s lottery win. Richard Rankin is given a … >
Smallfilms are a peculiarly British animation studio: industrious, creative and successful but always too tiny and quaint to ever be called a powerhouse. Initially a two-man operation working out of an old barn – with Peter Firmin making models or providing traditional artwork alongside Oliver Postgate animating these elements and (in a voice that was … >
‘Can a magician kill a man by magic?’ The question was asked on Jonathan on The Peninsula, back in Episode 3. His reply, ‘A magician might. But a gentleman never could.’ So we assumed him a gentleman. But in the knock-your-socks-off impressive tumult of the Battle of Waterloo that opens Episode 5, we see that … >
The season finale finds us in May 1940 – in a world vastly different than the one when Home Fires started. The British expeditionary force has been driven back and France is expected to fall. The prospect of Nazi boots marching through Great Paxford is real. Steph teaches Frances how to shoot a rifle, and … >
We haven’t seen Thunderbird 4 since the show’s opening two-parter, so this week’s Thunderbirds Are Go redresses that balance somewhat, with an underwater rescue mission that puts the little yellow submarine front and centre. The hapless Ned Tedford from ‘Slingshot’ is back, this time trapped in an out-of-control underwater extraction platform that threatens to not … >
Stonemouth, the BBC’s new adaptation of Iain Banks’ crime novel bestseller, proves to be something of a mixed bag in its opening episode. It’s well-acted and features some truly beautiful cinematography, with the lovely seaside town of Macduff doubling as the fictional Stonemouth. A suicide under suspicious circumstances provides a compelling mystery at the heart … >
The term ‘Marmite viewing’ is sometimes bandied around too easily. However, it’s hard to avoid how accurate a description it is for Netflix’s new sci-fi series, Sense8. From the minds of The Matrix creators, Lana and Andy Wachowski (who most recently gave us the utterly bonkers Jupiter Ascending), this is a show that you will … >
When you lift your head from the screen for a moment and think about it, we have an odd relationship with our gadgets. We take a cold lump of circuits into our homes, bedrooms, pockets, and we train it into being our own, one swipe or tap of personal information at a time. Memories, selfies, … >
In our seventh visit to Game of Thrones this year, Jon and Tormund departed to the wildlings’ camp, Brienne continued to survey Winterfell and Daario’s marriage proposal was rejected by Daenerys. Elsewhere Diana Rigg and Jonathan Pryce continued to impress as Lady Olenna and the High Sparrow sparred over Margaery and Loras’ incarceration. Unsurprisingly, ‘The … >
When the BBC gets it right, it often gets it very right. You only need to look at the likes of Life on Mars, Spooks, Sherlock, Luther and more recently Happy Valley for evidence of that. Unfortunately, The Interceptor is not up there with those shows. It’s a shame, a real shame because the concept … >