Desperate for something to watch until Walking Dead and Being Human return next month, I checked out Ripper Street. This is the BBC’s new Victorian Whitechapel drama, featuring Matthew Macfadyen ( the original and best lead spy from Spooks) as a police inspector trying to keep order, in the … [Read more...]
In 1612 the Pendle Witch trials became the most famous of their day. One of the few trials to be fully documented, there were subsequent books from the court records, as well as novelisations from Dickens' (at the time) equally famous contemporary William Harrison Ainsworth. The witches … [Read more...]
The end! The finale! The last ever outing for the BBC’s Spooks, the spy show that dared to ask: Is there anything we can’t get away with, as long as we do it with conviction, shouting and a reasonable budget? For years, the sky was the limit for Spooks and their made-up intrigue, but now it’s … [Read more...]
This is it: the penultimate Spooks review. Next week, ten years of spy melodrama comes to a (hopefully) explosive climax, and all they need do first is get us all excited in advance of the big bang. So do they manage it? Are we ready for the culmination of literally everything ever to happen in … [Read more...]
Every so often, Spooks dives into the headlines and confronts religious extremism directly in the face. Unfortunately, this show is a simple beast, determined to keep us all happy with soap opera and explosions, so these are not always the complex issue explorations they want to be. Well, it’s … [Read more...]
It’s tough being a B-level spy on long-running BBC MI5 drama Spooks. You cruise along for months with nothing to do except chase people and mutter about it, safe in the knowledge that one day you’ll be killed off to make a major storyline seem important. But once every year or so, you get a … [Read more...]
The clock is ticking for both the final series of Spooks and the mighty Sir Harry Pearce – only four shows to go after this! But even in their last year, the guys still have time to tackle current affairs with their usual subtlety and lightness of touch. (Well, I imagine it was current when they … [Read more...]
This year, the BBC are pitting Spooks in a ratings battle with current UK drama darling Downton Abbey, a battle it probably will not win, no matter how many characters it slaughters. Fortunately, it’s the last series anyway, so the question of whether poor viewing figures might result in … [Read more...]
The renaissance in British science fiction and fantasy TV continues with Outcasts, a new proper grown-up sci-fi series on primetime BBC1. It features much of what you’d expect: other planets, space-ships, special effects and a range of British actors you recognise from somewhere trying to deliver … [Read more...]
After eight nailbiting episodes, the BBC’s Spooks has ended its ninth series. Former lead spy Lucas North has finally flipped, and when someone goes round the bend in Spooks, they don’t just sit in their room making obscene paper dolls. No, Lucas leaps straight from handsome hero to rogue agent … [Read more...]
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