Welcome to the slow road of weekly Hard Sun reviews. I’m sipping the series slowly, like a fine cognac, or Pepto Bismol. By now you may have watched the entire 8 episodes. In fact, you could’ve watched them all several times over. Judging by the iPlayer charts you might well have: it’s proved very popular. … >
Spoilers Last week, Inside No 9 delivered a joyous, life-affirming piece of sentiment, so it’s somewhat startling to see that for episode two of the fourth series, the dark shadows are still being held at bay. Not that the two characters don’t have their demons: It’s just that these demons are not from hell, and … >
In 2016, to honour the memory of a much missed colleague, Big Finish launched the first ‘Paul Spragg Short Trip Memorial Opportunity’. Offering writers new to the company the chance to submit a short story idea, with the prize of a commission and its subsequent release, it yielded the entertaining Seventh Doctor tale ‘Forever Fallen’ … >
If there’s one thing we need at Christmas (even accepting it’s a good few weeks gone) it’s a seasonal tale set in Victorian London and featuring Sherlock Holmes (Nick Briggs) and Dr Watson (Richard Earl). The Jonathan Barnes story The Adventure of the Fleet Street Conspiracy provides just that. The story is available on download … >
Take a cursory glance at Twitter (the best kind of glance), and you’d be misled into thinking that the world was going to end any day now. Fortunately BBC One’s new Saturday night diversion ‘Hard Sun’ gives us all a cheerily optimistic 5 years before the great big horrid orange death-ball eradicates us all. The … >
So that was Christmas and what have Big Finish done? They’ve created a story, as festive as they come. Of course, Doctor Who‘s first (and only until the modern era) Christmas Special featured the First Doctor, and with his final tale set at the South Pole, we are used to picturing him trudging through a … >
Bristol based writer / composer Timothy X Atack (who just won the biennial Bruntwood prize, Europe’s biggest playwriting prize, with Heartworn), makes his Big Finish debut with the Early Adventures story The Wreck of the World. It’s a big screen outing for the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, with plenty of atmosphere, a dark presence … >
Spoilers. This is now the fourth series of Inside No 9, which means by the time we’re done, there will be more episodes of this than the markedly more famous League Of Gentlemen¸ which recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary. There hasn’t yet been a film of Inside No 9 though, although it is presumably only … >
Over the years Big Finish have told some great stories with the wonderful Geoffrey Beevers – one of the emaciated “crispy” Masters – as well as their own inspired casting of Alex MacQueen. Setting stories in the Time War era however offers the chance for a slice of dream casting, with Sir Derek Jacobi returning … >
The middle-aged dads of alternative comedy return once more with a holiday special which -as can only be expected from the pair- has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas or the New Year. This return of the cult comedy hit conjures a half hour of surreal vignettes, made up of set-pieces and sketches which contain … >