Things really do begin to hot up in The Syndicate this week as secrets are revealed and battle lines begin to be drawn. And not just between the staff and the family of Hazelwood Manor, but between Lord and Lady Hazelwood themselves, who implode spectacularly as they ‘celebrate’ their 25th wedding anniversary. The tension between … >
That’s just fine, My Mad Fat Diary, just tear my heart straight out of my chest and stomp it into a fine purée. It’s all good. I swear, things were nowhere near this dramatic when I was accepted to university as they are for Rae (Sharon Rooney). On the one hand: hooray for Rae! All … >
Venice! Venizia! The city that has a terrible pizza named after it has seen a lot of crazy things in its history; from sexy alien fish vampires trying to flood the world, to an ageing British secret agent piloting a high-speed hover-gondola through its waterways and plazas, causing local wildlife to do double-takes. But its … >
Last week’s opening episode of Humans was watched by over 4 million viewers (all of them properly human, I’m sure), making it Channel 4’s highest-rated drama in over a decade. Couple that with Gemma Chan’s hint that there’s scope for a second season, and you may as well get used to Synths being around you … >
It’s mid-season finale time and Thunderbirds Are Go pulls out all the stops to deliver a solid, exhilarating and entertaining thrill ride to cap off the first half of the new season. Alan and Brains journey to the Supreme Hadron Collider, but soon find themselves caught in the eye of the storm when a gravity … >
This second part to the BBC’s Iain Banks adaptation has a lot to resolve, given all the plot elements set up in the first episode. With so much to tie up, it’s no wonder that this concluding episode of Stonemouth doesn’t quite deliver on a satisfying resolution. Director Charles Martin does an amazing job of … >
Sheridan Smith’s new three-part drama Black Work finally starts this Sunday after heavy trailing from ITV for what seems like an age. Smith plays the tough and feisty Jo Gillespie, a Leeds constable whose husband (also a police officer) is killed whilst he’s undercover. With information regarding the killing being thin on the ground, Jo … >
Paul Darrow (he who played Avon in Blake’s 7 in the series) brings to a close a trilogy of books with Lucifer: Genesis, an odd name, perhaps for the concluding title in a series. The trilogy gives a story for what happened to Avon (and Orac) after the events of the TV series where most … >
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 … >