The principal problem with The Shadow Line is its identity crisis. At times, it’s a fascinating noir-ish thriller; at others, it feels like an unwieldy Shakespearian melodrama that has somehow lost its way en route to the RSC and found itself on the telly instead.
If you grew up any-time between the late sixties and the early nineties, the chances are you may remember a curious clutch of kitsch science fiction shows under the stable of the prolific TV and film producer Irwin Allen. No? Well, how about the names Lost In Space, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and this release, Land Of The Giants?
There was a time when all live-action UK children’s TV shows were faintly disturbing with an oddly melancholic synth score. Or, at least from the success of ITV’s T-Bag, you could draw this conclusion.
It’s odd to see how much both Auton stories have dated in the past few years. Not since they were first screened, but in the last six years, since the return of the series. The reason for this is that both stories try terribly hard to be ultra-modern.
It’s arguable that (controversial claim, this) Doctor Who as we know it didn’t really start until 1970’s ‘Spearhead From Space’, here re-released as a Special Edition along with the following year’s ‘Terror Of The Autons’.
As many of you will know, this is one of the episodes fandom has been awaiting with some internet-beating excitement. The very notion of a Neil Gaiman Doctor Who story seems so perfect that we wonder why it’s taken just so long for this union to happen.
After six scintillating Saturdays’ worth of murder, mayhem and malheur, French crime drama Spiral concludes with a double-bill that untangles the criss-crossing cat’s cradle of storylines and brings the series to a grim but gripping conclusion.
There’s no easy way to describe this one-off 1981 kids show, starring what look like distant relations of the Smash family from the series of ‘70s adverts. It’s certainly very odd, occasionally very witty, and probably better enjoyed by immature grown-ups than any of the kids that it’s aimed at.
Appropriately, given that it begins with the discovery of a body, the opening episode of The Shadow Line moves at a pace that’s almost funereal, although that isn’t to say it’s boring.
After the tumultuous events of Series 6’s opening two-parter comes the more traditional “onesy” – and an historical episode at that! Pirates are the order of the day for Team TARDIS as they find themselves aboard a doomed ship…