Don't bother, they're here
Outstanding Comedy Series
Black-ish (ABC)
Cobra Kai (Netflix)
Emily in Paris (Netflix)
The Flight Attendant (HBO Max)
Hacks (HBO Max)
The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
PEN15 (Hulu)
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
Outstanding Drama Series
The Boys (Prime Video)
Bridgerton (Netflix)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Pose (FX)
This Is Us (NBC) Continue reading “73rd Primetime Emmy Awards nominees”
“The gateway is active”
Time Fracture isn’t the first time Doctor Who has ventured into the world of immersive theatre. Punchdrunk’s The Crash of the Elysium was a triumph a decade ago so it’s about time (and relative dimension in space) that we got another and fresh from the success of their Gatsby experience, Immersive Everywhere have launched this huge new immersive endeavour. A time bomb has been dropped in 1940s London but its cataclysmic explosion is only due in the near future. Only us – a team of volunteers recruited by the Doctor – can save the day – sonic screwdrivers at the ready.
The need for #spoilers means that I can’t give too much away but the show takes full advantage of the cracks in time caused by the bomb falling to offer up vignettes that involve major historical figures, explore far-future technological innovation and nod to the rich and varied legacy of Doctor Who and its iconic characters. I can safely say I had two properly wish-I-could-hide-behind-the-sofa moments – one of which is ingeniously staged late on – and two hairs-on-end moments, one of which reconfirming just how brilliant Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor is. Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – Time Fracture”
Best Drama Series
Save Me Too (Sky Atlantic)
The Crown (Netflix)
I Hate Suzie (Sky Atlantic)
Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic)
Best Mini-Series
I May Destroy You (BBC One)
Adult Material (Channel 4)
Normal People (BBC Three)
Small Axe (BBC One) Continue reading “2021 British Academy Television Awards winners”
“Everything they stole from me, I want it all back”
Three years after its first series, Matthew Arlidge and Chris Lang’s Innocent returns to ITV, re-emerging as an anthology series. So we’re now in the Lake District, focusing on the murder of 16-year-old Matty Taylor for which teacher Sally Wright has done several years inside. Five years down the line, new evidence has exonerated her and laced with vengeance, she returns to Keswick to reclaim what she believes is hers.
Initially, it’s an intriguing twist on the format as Katherine Kelly plays Sally with all the spikiness and rough edges that you would expect from someone who believes they’ve been wrongfully imprisoned. Removing children from the equation, which instantly created sympathy for Season 1’s ‘victim’ David, there’s a more visceral sense of injustice permeating this narrative, which is paired with Kelly’s impassive forthrightness as Sally. Continue reading “TV Review: Innocent (Series 2)”
“This is Wales Gwen, not Los Angeles”
Ooh, well this was fun. Julie Hesmondhalgh has slowly but surely developed into the kind of actor I want to watch in everything she does. Her latest project started on BBC1 a couple of weeks ago but such is the way things are done these days, you can stream all six episodes of The Pact on the iPlayer now.
Written by Pete McTighe, it’s a murderous drama set by in a mid-Wales community where everyone knows each other. So much so that it’s best not to commit a major crime as your husband might end up being the one to investigates it. Such is the case for Laura Fraser’s Anna who, along with her best pals Nancy (Hesmondhalgh), Cat (Heledd Gwynn) and Louie (Eiry Thomas), plays a prank on their entitled a-hole of a boss, the ramifications of which unfold in ways which no-one could imagine. Continue reading “TV Review: The Pact (BBC1)”
“Do you still think he did it?”
Matthew Arlidge and Chris Lang’s Innocent passed me by when it premiered on ITV in 2018 but with the arrival of a second series and an unavoidable publicity push, I thought I’d go back and visit the first, not least because Lang’s stock has never been higher as the creator of Unforgotten. And before the review proper starts, a mildly silly note about names in dramas. I went to school with a David Collins so found it highly amusing but to name his brother Phil? And then never reference it…madness I tell you!
The show centres on the case of Collins who has spent seven years in prison, convicted of murdering his wife Tara. When a legal technicality sees him acquitted, he attempts the process of rebuilding his life. But with his sister-in-law now in custody of his two children and a high degree of suspicion still floating around the air as the police reopen the case to try and find out once and for all who killed Tara, that is much easier said than done. Continue reading “TV Review: Innocent (Series 1)”
Best Drama Series
The Crown (Netflix)
I Hate Suzie (Sky Atlantic)
Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic)
Save Me Too (Sky Atlantic)
Best Mini-Series
Adult Material (Channel 4)
I May Destroy You (BBC One)
Normal People (BBC Three)
Small Axe (BBC One) Continue reading “2021 British Academy Television Awards nominations”
Film
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom as Levee Green
Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal as Ruben Stone
Anthony Hopkins – The Father as Anthony
Gary Oldman – Mank as Herman J. Mankiewicz
Steven Yeun – Minari as Jacob Yi
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom as Ma Rainey
Amy Adams – Hillbilly Elegy as Beverly “Bev” Vance
Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman as Martha Weiss
Frances McDormand – Nomadland as Fern
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman as Cassandra “Cassie” Thomas Continue reading “27th Screen Actors Guild Awards winners”
“We are who we are – I don’t think you can ever really change that”
It’s a good job that Series 4 of Unforgotten aired as spring arrives in the air and the promise of easements is finally taking some of the sting out of lockdown life. For had it been on in the endless depths of the last few dark months, I don’t think I could have coped. Indeed, I’m not sure I can still really cope now even with it being 23 degrees outside.
They killed Nicola Walker! Again! I’ve barely recovered from how they did Ruth dirty, but given the way that episode 5 ended and the way people were talking at the beginning of episode 6, the writing was on the wall. And so as Sunny finally cracked the case and unwound the puzzle of Matthew Walsh’s death and the four young police officers intimately involved with it, DCI Cassie Stuart breathed her last. Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten, Series 4”
“People don’t just walk in here and solve crimes”
The injection of dollars has revived the fortunes of many of a TV show but as with the case of Torchwood, it can come at quite the cost. Financed as a British and Canadian co-production The Bletchley Circle – San Francisco came as a spin-off of The Bletchley Circle but as it lost half its cast on the trip over the ocean, it also lost more than half the magic that made it work.
The series follows Millie (Rachael Stirling) and Jean (Julie Graham) as they decamp to San Francisco when a couple of murders there follow the pattern of the killing of one of their former colleagues Claire. Naturally, they fall in with a pair of former US codebreakers Iris (Crystal Balint) and Hailey (Chanelle Peloso) to try and crack the case the best way they know how. Continue reading “TV Review: The Bletchley Circle – San Francisco”