Having been impressed by guest star Charlie Higson’s appearance as errant husband Ronnie Maguire in last week’s episode of Grantchester, it was an unexpected delight to see him pop up again this week. En route to leaving everything behind, Sidney wants to retrieve Mrs Maguire’s stolen savings and so tracks Ronnie down to a Romany … >
‘Extremis’, the 6th episode of Doctor Who season 10, is packed full of Steven Moffat’s trademark high-concept themes and plot twists. Oh, and it’s dark – very dark. Doctor Who has always been great at making you feel sympathy for the strangest things. Just this season, we’ve been invited to consider the perspective of alien puddles, … >
Kat & Alfie: Redwater continues the story of these Eastenders stalwarts in a place far away from Albert Square, both literally and metaphorically. As the opening helicopter shot of Redwater pans across the Atlantic ocean to settle on a beautiful, rural coastal village, it’s immediately obvious we’re not in soap-land anymore. Aesthetically, the show – with its large outdoor … >
There is a crime in this week’s Grantchester (an accidental death by dangerous driving and the subsequent cover-up) but it’s pretty lowkey. Of much more interest to the drama is the subplot of the guilty party’s father using his Masonic contacts to ensure the crime goes more or less unpunished. The Masons’ presence in the … >
Space: the final frontier. Doctor Who has always had an interesting relationship with the darker parts of our universe. Given a chance to sketch out humanity’s future, it will likely come down on something that’s flawed, but ultimately optimistic, with many of the societal issues that plague us here on Earth in 2017 stamped out … >
You could’ve called it ‘Deep Breath’, but it turns out that was taken, so ‘Oxygen’ is a satisfactory title for a blindingly good episode. The Venn Diagram of Doctor Who fans who watch ‘Oxygen’ and fans who enjoy breathing the said same gas will be pretty darn tight. Basically, everyone should enjoy it. The reasons … >
Grantchester is like a jigsaw puzzle, and the trick or the fun is in working out how the separate bits fit together. Within the first ten minutes of this week’s third episode, for example, we’ve been given all the pieces. The murdered husband. The catholic wife. The mechanic. The secretary. The lady at the post … >
I’ve been very fond of this show since it began due in no small part to growing up on Jersey where Gerald Durrell’s well-known zoo is located. Despite flirting with being called ‘Durrell Wildlife Conservation’ the CEO confirmed this year that the name is to revert to simply being Jersey Zoo. Part of what makes … >
Season 10, so far, has been a bit of a Doctor Who selection box. It’s aimed to include all the classic story formats, so far – a modern day opener, a futuristic alien planet and a period romp, and while this classical approach has come at the expense of narrative originality, it’s also allowed the … >
Following on from last week’s heartbreaking introduction, ITV’s Little Boy Blue shifts the focus of the story in this second episode, but is no less emotionally impactful as a result. “A killer whose identity everybody knows, but who we cannot charge. People are getting frustrated by our perceived lack of progress.” While last week’s opener, quite … >