A Look back at one of the bravest, boldest and different crime dramas of the noughties"VIVA LAS VEGAS" - Peter Bowker's Blackpool.First aired Thursday 11th November 2004 on BBC One. Contributed by Michael Lee When Blackpool first launched on BBC...
It’s an irrefutable, scientific fact that a show is good if Charlotte Ritchie is in it. Fresh from her success in.. well, bloody everything, the second series of Dead Pixels arrived to dispel January and Lockdown gloom. Charlotte plays Alison, long-suffering housemate...
Sometimes it's the things that catch you off guard that impress the most. While suffering from Lockdown boredom it's not just social things that are being distanced, my brain is leaving reality too. The new normal is dull, isn't it? To make things worse there's...
Tommy has been on his own personal mission to overthrow fascism throughout series five but in a grand finale that chucks the rulebook onto the fire, conventions are also vanquished. He does not emerge victoriously, more enemies surround him than ever before and, worse...
It turns out Polly's aim with a bullet is as pinpoint as her sass and rumours of Linda's death have been greatly exaggerated. There's a strange hate directed at Linda in the fandom and many will be up in wound free arms. Strange, because all of Arthur's toxic actions...
Never has walking into an orphanage looked so cool. After the guitar riffing and hot stepping, Tommy and Polly have a sort of "moral off" with some nuns and for once the Shelbys come off better due to the fact they don't beat up children. It should probably go down as...
Tommy has been standing on landmines since the war, mostly metaphorically, but in quite possibly the most stunning opening seven minutes of a TV show ever he does it for real. For as long as we've known him he's always thought of himself as a dead man walking and this...
Cillian Murphy rides once more into the breach (on his one-horse open slay). His return is grander than a canyon and it's bloody spectacular. Tommy is a man full of his own importance and the cinematic opening sees him once more as the star of his own Hollywood...
There’s always scepticism when a series makes the move across the deceptively deep waters between BBC2 and BBC1. This isn’t family-friendly fare such as The Great British Bake Off though so if there’s compromise it will lose its whole raison d’etre. That and Tommy...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. Peaky Blinders producer Caryn Mandabach has taken the long route via horse and cart to end up...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. It's great to meet Sophie Rundle and Natasha O'Keeffe together, both are of a similar age and with CV's that are...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. Below is his chat with the youngest member of the Shelby family, Finn played by Harry Kirton. How's Finn settling...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. Series four was a tough ride for Michael Gray (Finn Cole) who suffered the loss of his brother at the...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. BBC/Harry Ward Steven Knight has become one of television's most successful writers since Peaky Blinders...
As we build up to Series 5 of Peaky Blinders at the end of the month, Our Michael Lee sits down with members of the cast to find out what we can expect. It's the day of the Peaky Blinders series 5 launch in London. Before the screening, we gather to chat with the...
Either by sheer coincidence or clever plotting, BBC schedulers made it a dystopian Tuesday evening by putting Our Next Prime Minister and Years And Years next to each other. Imperfect bedfellows to say the least. The awkward political wranglings of the quest for our...
The jollities of new year have never been so forced as the Lyons family see in 2028. There's blackouts, digital crashes, bomb explosions and floodings. It's also a case of old acquaintance not being forgot for a family struggling in the aftermath of Daniel's death....
As time lapses further into the future of 2027, governments are changing almost as quickly as the impending sense of doom. For the first time in the UK and by hook or by crook the new Prime Minister is Vivienne Rook. That's the country shook. The central focus this...
it's all system's go, or it is for the systems that haven't crashed yet because there are so many threads going on at this halfway stage of an intriguing series. Stephen (with a ph) is now a courier having lost over a million pounds. Hopefully, he doesn't lose his...
So it turns out the world hasn't ended which is a good job because the last five episodes of dead air might have been a tough watch for even the most hardened TV obsessive. After such a dramatic finale last week the mood is naturally rather subdued but on screen, this...
Ambition is perhaps a word that is overused when it comes to describing art, so much so that it has become unambitious. It's an oxymoron worthy of Years And Years, the latest creation from the much respected Russell T Davies. This opening episode is a bold statement...
Always the uninvited guest, Luther checks into George's hotel but his room service leaves a lot to be desired. The guns are called off. Both the snipers gun after his friends and the one he has trained at his sworn enemy. This is an enemy he keeps close as they form...
The Luther / Alice dynamic reaches ever more complicated levels following our favourite psychopaths' murder of George's son. Though it might not be to the liking of most fans, pitting the two together in a battle is the only logical conclusion in a highly Illogical...
It's the long-awaited return of the lawfully bent but morally straight copper. The introduction to series five proves age has not dimmed him as he chases a scally in the night amid beautifully constructed shots. Naturally, he gets his man but this man isn't important...