BBC One’s ‘kinda true’ biographical comedy drama based on the young life of Lenny Henry opens with cute nostalgia. A young Danny Fearon (Kascion Franklin) dancing in gold heels to ‘My Boy Lollipop’ cuts to an older Danny having the shit kicked out of him by Dudley’s cohort of oddly baby-faced teenage fascists. What’s expected … >
I’m not generally the sort of person who will gravitate towards gangster films. There’s something I find generally distasteful about the prospect of glorifying or making glamourous the basically sociopathic, violent nature of gang cultures. So when I was invited to a screening of Legend, based on the lives of real-life twin brothers and London … >
In 1993, the BBC produced Lady Chatterley: a four-part dramatisation of the DH Lawrence novel directed by Ken Russell, starring Joely Richardson in the title role and Sean Bean as her gamekeeper lover Mellors. A generation of horny teenagers tuned in, but in spite of the workmanlike woodland grunting from Bean (not to mention the … >
Ray Winstone plays – in a career first – a gruff criminal in ITV’s The Trials of Jimmy Rose, tasked with readjusting to the world and his family after a long prison sentence. The show’s alternate title could probably be A Painfully Out-Of-The-Loop Older Gentleman Makes a Dog’s Breakfast of All The Things. Kingdom writer … >
The infuriatingly amateur investigators somehow manage to wrap up the mystery of Partners in Crime’s second three-part story, though how they managed to make it out alive is once again beyond me. Okay, so Veronica the housekeeper caught Tuppence in the act pretending to be catering staff at the ball, but apparently Tuppence has forgotten … >
In a neat parallel to the dramatic climax of the first Captain America movie, ‘Valediction’ sees Peggy in radio contact with the pilot of an aircraft loaded with deadly weaponry and on a seemingly-doomed mission. This time the pilot is Howard Stark rather than Captain America. And this time the good guys win across the … >
With Reid’s life teetering on the edge after last week’s shooting, Ripper Street went back to basics for an entertaining, if fairly disposable episode that’s partially redeemed by an unexpectedly heartfelt final act. The previous two episodes of Ripper Street have been heavily character-focused, but ‘Heavy Boots’ flipped the switch for an episode that still … >
First we had Orange Is the New Black, then we had Transparent and now we have Boy Meets Girl, the latest TV series to feature a trans actress playing a trans character in a main role. The new six-part sitcom was created by Elliot Kerrigan, who submitted the script for the Trans Comedy Award. The … >
It’s the thrilling conclusion of Yonderland’s second season, and it’s jolly thrilling indeed. Two estranged sisters finally face off, and nothing will ever be the same again. *insert thrilling musical cue here* Dun dun dunnn!!! But seriously, while Imperatrix is busily transferring her life force into a fearsome new creature to do her evil bidding, … >
Big Finish has treated us to something very special in the form of ‘The Sixth Doctor – The Last Adventure’. Brought forward from September, this is a four-disc story telling how the Valeyard (Michael Jayston) schemes across the Sixth Doctor’s (Colin Baker) incarnation. We know in advance that this is the story which will regenerate … >