Njs2016

This is a very solid movie, it feels a little hemmed in by its budget and creative choice not to push out of the TV control room to see things happening in the Olympic village and get away from grainy footage. The sense of the media defining the modern age of reporting events like these is very palpable and a strong cast deliver a really taught and engaging drama. About half way through I felt that this would have made an excellent play, where you are even more claustrophobic in the tv control centre and the reports coming in are confusing.

'One Day In September' the Oscar winning documentary still remains the definitive account of the Munich Olympic tragedy and Spielberg's Munich and this movie feel a little like bookends to that amazing film. If you haven't seen it and found this movie engaging (like I did) then it would be worth your while checking it out.

A very tragic story from history. A final word for some fantastic editing.

The thing about this show is that it so nearly got it right. Straight up from the start it has a little to do with Batman and works in many ways as an 'overture' to V for Vendetta.

Across season one it finds a rhythm and it's a good watch with excellent cameos from Polly Walker and good support from Paloma Faith in a bonkers but brilliant role.

Season Two takes the theme and continues, very grounded for the first eight or so episodes as the Britain of a parallel time descends into a civil war with 1984 overtones.

Then it dips, a shift in tone, probably too over influenced by the marvel universe and pressure from HBO and Warner, the third season struggles to find the narrative line of One and Two and meandered its way to cancellation.

It's a shame as this is visually brilliant and also has well drawn and for the most part good dialogue. Like Bruno Heller's previous series Rome it hurtles toward a finale that the network doesn't support and that's a shame. I think he's a great conceptual producer and has a real affinity for long form sagas.

The quick review is it is good, gory and fun for one and a third seasons and then suffers a bit of a crisis. Score is great, photography great and all in all worth a watch. A curious one.

Sharpe is one of the 'go to' programmes that I like to watch when I'm stressed or feel a bit meh. The world slides away and it's fun to get absorbed in an adventure that is often like a classic western. I suppose in many ways it is a European version of a western.

I don't normally leave reviews for an individual episode but I love this one. Mainly because of the supporting players. Pete Postlethwaite and Clive Francis are so damn good in this. Clive Francis takes the character as far as he dares and there is a real truth to his character underneath all the bluster and for my money you don't get better character actors that Pete. He was a great loss to acting Finally, a word for Sean Bean. He has often gone underrated and only in his later career when you look back on his body of work do you realise what a star he is, a great screen actor and without him Sharpe wouldn't have been the success it was, his nods, his humour and his asides are on point throughout and even in the face of the amazing scene stealing cameos he holds his own.

I like bits of the score, but it often gets a bit 'rumpty tumpty' the music is at its best and most moving when it is in the hands of John Tams and that authentic folk sound. The main title and the end title are perfect.