LW-08854

A very strange film, in many ways painfully dated in its look and feel yet its overall story blending horror and scifi has aged quite well. Starting off first with the bad, the overall look is pretty dated, the characters are largely stock types who the audience is nearly always one step ahead of, the music is dated, the lighting is mostly quite flat, some of the special effects look like an old dr who episode and theres even some unintentional comedy.

Where the film does work is in the excellent performances, the sense of paranoia that develops, the element of danger to it and the interesting blend of scifi and horror. The production design is also pretty good.

All in all then a strange film and an overall mixed review.

An early Rick Stein series filmed around his hometown in Cornwall. The best aspects of the programme are showing the life of Padstow back in 1995, the lives of the fishermen working there. There's a lovely feel to it, coming across as so authentic and real and shots of people on the beach seem to reveal a slower more relaxed life where distravtions weren't constantly sought. The recipes are quite good, there's a range of obviously fish recipes we are shown. We also get tiny glimpses into his family life too.

The programme has a softer gentler feel in its music and look compared to some of the more in your face programmes out there.

The main drawbacks of the show are some of the filler taking up the time.

Endless endless shots of his dog for example doing absolutely nothing but just sat around. Lord only knows why they thought it would be so interesting to the viewer...... There's also possibly a bit much of Rick rambling a bit about things and the series lacks a bit of sense of a journey having come to an end.

Overall though the passion in communicating a love of the sea is very effectively brought home to you.

Overall a very strong and compelling series. Alec Guinness is superb as the methodical relentless spymaster who plays the detective trying to piece together a new mystery. There's some level of making this a little more cinematic than Tinker Taylor Solider Spy with a slightly grander less claustrophobic setting including more European locations. The rest of the cast are all pretty terrific. Rather than focusing of simple good v evil themes the series instead explores the weaknesses the various characters exhibit. My only real issue with the series overall is the main character himself remains pretty aloof and distanced, we never really get a sense of what is that drives him and the scenes with his wife are the only real glimpse of him doing anything except his work.

In summary though a very compelling well crafted series.