With ‘The Caretaker’ we reach the halfway point of Doctor Who’s latest run. It’s a good time, then, to take a quick look back at the first half of Season 8. You’d probably agree it’s been pretty strong so far, though there’s bound to be an individual difference of opinion among where those strengths lie. … >
There’s a simple way to tell if you’re part of the viewer demographic that Glue has in its shot-glass sights. It’s this: when all those teens were having that shindig in the woods, if you didn’t think ‘Who lugged that sound system and stage into the middle of nowhere? And what’s powering it? A generator?’, … >
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 … >
Hannibal’s second season starts with a ferocious fight between our title character and FBI head Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) and never lets up for the next 13 episodes. There’s much more of a focus and drive to this season, unlike the more slow burn abstract nature of Season 1. The visuals remain some of the most … >
“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 … >
While the audience might guess the setting of Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk to be a fictional village in Ireland sometime in the late ‘60s / early ‘70s, the programme specifies that it takes place in “No time. No place.” Very well. Its characters are numbered rather than named. 1 (Cillian Murphy) and 2 (Mikel Murfi) spend … >
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, … >