The fifth and, sadly, final series of the BBC One’s award-winning sitcom featuring the UK’s favourite fictional family, the Brockmans, is here and it’s very much a typical Outnumbered episode.
David Lavery’s book was originally intended to chart Joss Whedon’s successful television career and then ponder over his failure to translate it into big screen success. Fortunately, with his abortive Wonder Woman project now career footnote, it revels in the triumphant box office success of Marvel’s The Avengers.
Pass that popcorn-filled Deerstalker, would you? Because with that filmic running length, a principal duo of Hollywood stars, and the fact that each 90-minute feature is advertised with the hashtaggable anticipation of your average blockbuster, every episode of Sherlock is less a TV drama and more a movie that has escaped into your living room. So it stands to reason that it should be given a fittingly filmic score.
Adrian Hodges’ adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ novel occupies the post-Sherlock Sunday evening slot on BBC One and it looks the part. Prague doubles for a lived-in Seventeenth Century Paris, and the fight scenes are stylish and kinetic. A strong and charismatic cast delivers, though ultimately the end product is solid rather than exceptional.
As Mr Selfridge opens his department store doors for a second series, we are taken four years on from the events of Series 1’s finale, though the ramifications of it can still be felt.
Lord and West End legend Andrew Lloyd Webber is back with a brand new musical that revisits one of the biggest scandals of the Sixties.
Enlisting the help of Oscar-winning wordsmiths Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) and Don Black (Born Free), Stephen Ward tells the story of the Profumo Affair which rocked the Conservative government of the time.
The final entry of this anniversary collection is a reprint of a larger, more mature story. First published in 2012, the novel pits the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory against the Ice Warriors and predates Series 7’s ‘Cold War’.
Those of a certain age may remember the 90s show Breaking the Magician’s Code, wherein a chap in a mask and gaudy suit debunked a series of magic tricks, including falling from a great height, being shot, and getting rid of an elephant from a room…
Anything sound familiar, Holmes fans? For the audience it was a dual draw: fun to see the illusions performed, and equal fun to see how they were accomplished.
American Hustle is acclaimed director David O. Russell’s follow-up to the Academy Award-winning Silver Linings Playbook. And even though he took on that film’s two co-stars once again — Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, the latter fresh off The Hunger Games — Russell went in an entirely different direction with the two of them and the plot itself.
He’s abandoned his more of-the-time approach, with help from co-writer Eric Warren singer, and transported audiences back the late ’70s/early ’80s for a comedy-crime film. But does it work? Absolutely.
You remember how it was a few years ago. When the BBC announced that they were going to update Sherlock Holmes to the modern age, complete with mobile phones and blogs. It was all a bit worrying, wasn’t it?