TV - Reviews by Quad5point1

TV - Reviews by Quad5point1

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Quad5point1 ● 27th Nov 2021		TV The Beatles: Get Back (2021)	Review What an absolute joy it was to sit through 8 - 9 hours of pure genius at work. After watching Episode 1 I was a little worried about what way the documentary was going. It wasn't unlike the original film as there was a lot of angst and heaviness going on and at the end George left the band. At the start of the Episode there was an awful lot of very fast cutting and at times was a little distracting, added to that there were clips of film overdubbed from an audio only source which looked a little weird so between that and all the aforementioned angst I was left feeling a little deflated. Day 2 and I settled down to watch Episode 2 which was so very different to the first one. I started to feel very positive and engaged with film. The boys were really having a great time and the good humour and banter was amazing to watch. It wasn't until they brought Billy Preston into the fold that the whole thing magically started to take shape. I would go as far as to say that if Billy Preston hadn't been brought onboard the album might never have happened, such was the positive influence he had on the other four guys it gave them room to concentrate on doing what they do best, writing some incredible music. This continued througout the whole of Episode 2 and into Episode 3 which for me only had 1 awkward moment when Paul looked as if he wasn't really into doing the rooftop gig but as we already know, the show went on. Barring my hesitancy about Episode 1, Peter Jackson has done us all a huge favour by letting us in on what it was really like to make the album and it wasn't anything like the funereal film that was released first time around. It was full of joy, happiness and humour and has changed my outlook on what it was really like, it was absolutely wonderful to watch. It's a much more positive and uplifting experience than the original film and I'm only sorry it didn't go on for another 8 hours!. Absolutely brilliant and a very highly recommended must see. Just can't wait now for the release of the Blu-Ray and if it's released soon it will be top of my Christmas list. 12 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 6th Jun 2021		TV The Trap (2007)	Rated 10/10 The Trap is a series of three films by Bafta-winning producer Adam Curtis that explains the origins of our contemporary, narrow idea of freedom. It shows how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. This model was derived from ideas and techniques developed by nuclear strategists during the Cold War to control the behaviour of the Soviet enemy. Mathematicians such as John Nash developed paranoid game theories whose equations required people to be seen as selfish and isolated creatures, constantly monitoring each other suspiciously always intent on their own advantage. This model was then developed by genetic biologists, anthropologists, radical psychiatrists and free market economists, and has come to dominate both political thinking since the Seventies and the way people think about themselves as human beings. However, within this simplistic idea lay the seeds of new forms of control. And what people have forgotten is that there are other ideas of freedom. We are, says Curtis, in a trap of our own making that controls us, deprives us of meaning and causes death and chaos abroad. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 4th Jun 2021		TV Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2021)	Rated 10/10 Adam Curtis has a whole series of documentaries running on BBC iPlayer at the moment and they are well worth the watch. He somehow manages to piece together allsorts of facts that lead to the reasons why we (the human race) are at the point where we are now by using archive footage and facts to make you think that things aren't always what they seem and why we are where we are at this point in time because of history. It's all a bit of a mind trip and awakening to to the realities of life as we know it. Offering in a very methodical way why the world is the way it is and that things aren't always that simple. Try and grab them while they are available or you will miss some of the most cogent and cohesive arguments for the human condition. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 24th Feb 2021		TV Blitz Spirit With Lucy Worsley (2021)	Rated 10/10 Lucy Worsley explores the lives of six real people who lived, worked and volunteered during the Blitz. Using the same style as Lucy's film about the Suffragettes, the film shows their remarkable resilience, as well as the terrible suffering they endured, shining a light on the role of the front-line workers and volunteers at the heart of it all. The six lives at the heart of the film are 17-year-old Jewish shopgirl Nina Masel, from Essex, who reported for Mass Observation; Frances Faviell, a Chelsea artist and socialite who received just a week’s training to become an auxiliary nurse and would end up treating a dying victim in a bomb crater; Ita Ekpenyon, a Nigerian teacher who moved to the UK to study law but who took on the role of an air-raid precaution warden to rally the people of his central London patch; Barbara Nixon, an out-of-work actress who worked long hours as an ARP warden, expressing her outrage at judgemental attitudes towards East Enders who had lost everything; Frank Hurd, a full-time fireman whose day job was to keep the raging fires of the bombing raids under control; and Robert Barltrop, too young to enlist, who worked as a porter in a Sainsbury's warehouse and volunteered as a firewatcher. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 22nd Feb 2021		TV Bloodlands (2021 - Now)	Rated 4/10 A car is pulled from Strangford Lough, the owner kidnapped. DCI Tom Brannick recognises the calling card of a legendary assassin known as Goliath. The legend goes he was a serving police officer who vanished without trace 20 years ago and among his original victims was Tom’s wife. Against opposition from old friend DCS Jackie Twomey, Brannick and his partner, DS Niamh McGovern, break open the Goliath case in the hope that it will help them solve the kidnapping. As they dig deeper, they find gaps in the original Goliath investigation. Someone tried to suppress the truth. When a vital clue leads them out to an island on Strangford Lough, a discovery is made that changes everything. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 18th Feb 2021		TV Totally Under Control: Trump And Covid-19 (2020)	Review Filmed during lockdown, this investigative documentary made by Academy Award-winning film-maker Alex Gibney, with co-directors Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, includes revealing testimonies from public health officials and senior White House staff, exposing a system-wide collapse. With the US election just around the corner, the film scrutinises the US response compared with South Korea, and how they handled the virus. On 20 January 2020, both countries discovered their first cases of Covid-19. Since then, however, the novel coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 220,000* Americans, while only claiming 447* lives in South Korea (*at the time of publication). 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 16th Feb 2021		TV Drama Out Of A Crisis: A Celebration Of Play For Today (2020)	Review Play for Today was a series of single dramas broadcast by the BBC between 1970 and 1984. These were years of crisis, a time when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world had begun to unravel. Industrial relations, education and the health service faced fundamental challenges, the country was struggling with the end of empire, and the personal had become increasingly political. Play for Today reflected and responded to all of this and more in 300 dramas, shown in primetime on BBC One to audiences numbered in millions. Many of the best actors, writers and directors of the time contributed to the series, with some of the best-remembered broadcasts being Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party, Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills and the strange fantasy, Penda’s Fen, written by Alan Rudkin and directed by Alan Clarke. The series was contemporary, often controversial and occasionally censored. But it was also immensely varied, showcasing social realism with comedy, costume drama with fantasy, and personal visions with state-of-the-nation overviews. It was mischievous, critical and challenging, and unafraid to tackle taboos. Marking the 50th anniversary of the first Play for Today in October 1970, this film is a celebration of the series, told by a number of its producers, directors and writers. It explores the origins of the series, its achievements and its controversies. Presenting a rich range of often surprising extracts from the archive, the film features interviews with, among others, producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and writer and director David Hare. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 15th Feb 2021		TV Berlin 1945: Diary Of A Metropolis (2020)	Rated 10/10 [Episode 1] - At the beginning of 1945, Berlin remains under the spell of the Nazi promise of salvation, an illusion at odds with the city’s daily reality. Every day there are bombing attacks, fires to be extinguished and corpses to be buried. Life goes on as the front lines of the war close in each day. Death comes for men, women, the old, the young, the National Socialists and the forced labourers. In April, the Red Army stands ready outside the city. In a time of uncertainty on the front lines, nobody has a clear view of what will happen. Civilians hiding, SS soldiers shooting deserters, and Red Army soldiers hoping to survive the final days of the war. As the war comes closer and closer to the metropolis, it returns everything to its roots, showing no mercy. [Episode 2] - The Battle for Berlin has begun. Step by step, the soon-to-be victorious powers advance. On 30 April, the Red Flag flies over the Reichstag and Adolf Hitler takes his own life. Another seven days pass before the Wehrmacht disassembles. National Socialism is finally beaten, along with Germany and Berlin. But for many, the fall of Nazism spells liberation rather than defeat. [Episode 3] - The British, French and Americans are waiting to enter Berlin. In the meantime, the Soviets appoint mayors, organise the food supply and go on the hunt for war criminals. The Jewish community, among whom there are few survivors, regroup. The fate of the city is determined at the Potsdam Conference. Life returns to the ruins, theatres reopen and orchestras play in the open air. By the end of 1945, the bond that held the Allies together is torn apart - and the Cold War begins. Journey back in time to Berlin's most fateful year - 1945 - through the eyes and voices of those who experienced it - ordinary German people and the Allies who entered the city. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 13th Feb 2021		TV DeLorean: Back From The Future (2021)	Rated 10/10 John Z DeLorean’s extraordinary and doomed attempt to build the sports car of the future in 1980s Northern Ireland is the stuff of legend. A buccaneering American entrepreneur, DeLorean had film star looks, a famous fashion model as a wife and an enormous ego that drove him to rival the giants of the US car industry. Millions of pounds of British tax-payers money later, an unprecedented social experiment where Catholics and Protestants worked side by side in relative harmony in West Belfast ends in a trail of corporate waste, greed, fraud and, incredibly, an FBI cocaine-trafficking sting. Using rare and unseen footage filmed by Oscar winning directors DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and through colourful news archive documenting his life and career, this is the first in-depth psychological profile of DeLorean, a man who rose from the ghettos of Detroit to build his American dream in war-torn Belfast. A dream that quickly went up in smoke... 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 7th Feb 2021		TV Bletchley Park- Code-breaking's Forgotten Genius (2015)	Review Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite codebreakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park. Filmed extensively at Bletchley Park, the centre for codebreaking operations during World War II, this documentary features the abandoned buildings where thousands of people worked tirelessly trying to crack the codes; Hut 6, where Welchman pioneered his groundbreaking work; and the machines that Welchman helped design. Post-war, Welchman moved to the United States to be at the nerve centre of the computer revolution. He was employed by the Mitre Corporation, a US defence contractor, and engaged in top secret work. Recently released top secret documents reveal that the case of Gordon Welchman reached the desk of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, which then led to questions being asked in the House of Commons after Welchman's death. Welchman's legacy continues to this day as Professor John Naughton and former CIA analyst Cynthia Storer reveal how Welchman's pioneering work in the field of traffic analysis led directly to the modern secret surveillance state, and particularly the use of metadata - as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. 8 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 25th Dec 2020		TV Gerry Rafferty: Right Down The Line (2011)	Review Gerry Rafferty, who died in January 2011, was one of Scotland's best loved singer/songwriters, famous around the world for hits such as Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle With You. This ArtWorks Scotland film, narrated by David Tennant, tells the story of Rafferty's life through his often autobiographical songs and includes contributions from Gerry's daughter Martha and brother Jim, friends and colleagues including Billy Connolly, John Byrne and Joe Egan, admirers such as Tom Robinson and La Roux, and words and music from Rafferty himself. This documentary was first broadcast at 9pm, 29 Aug 2011. Well worth catching if you are in any way a fan of the man and his music. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 24th Nov 2020		TV All Creatures Great & Small [2020] (2020 - Now)	Review Having watched the original series from start to finish and thoroughly enjoyed it, I approached this new remake with some trepidation, knowing that remakes aren't always successful but this is one that bucks that trend. I really needn't have worried though because the casting is superb and the filming is amazing. I was already a big fan of Samuel West who plays Siegfried in this series and he doesn't disappoint. Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot is pretty good as well. I was disappointed that it didn't come out on blu-ray but maybe sometime in the future when they test the market with a DVD release. If you haven't seen it yet then keep an eye open for it, it doesn't disappoint 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 27th Aug 2020		TV Lost Home Movies Of Nazi Germany (2019)	Review Recently discovered home movie footage from 1936 offers a unique and powerful insight into what people in Germany were thinking and experiencing. In these pre-war days, Germany was on a high and the Hitler Youth seemed like fun and games, but Nazi control was soon to become an all-pervading force, militarising the nation. The rise of anti-Semitism is explicit and grotesque, shocking even though we now have the knowledge of what happens next. The film follows an infantry division during the invasion of France, fighting their way to Dunkirk, and reveals a new perspective on what the evacuation meant for the average German soldier. On the Eastern Front, a far darker and more visceral journey across the endless Russian steppe and the almost unimaginable horrors unleashed during Operation Barbarossa is captured by a soldier. As well as amateur movie footage, the film charts the progress of the war through the diaries of ordinary Germans, some dizzy with excitement at what Hitler had achieved, others horrified by the effect it was having on their friends and families. Christmas in Germany 1941 is an unsettling time. Food is scarce, the weather is freezing and news from the front line in Russia is causing Germans to realise the war is a very long way from over. The stage is set for the second half of the conflict. Through the home movies and diaries of ordinary Germans, this film charts Hitler’s dreams crumbling and the moral reckoning the German people must now face. It reveals the stories of people battling to save their families from deportation to the death camps, while others endure the horrors of ever more deadly bombing raids, all set against a backdrop of propaganda and false hope pouring forth from Nazi high command. In Russia we meet a German doctor who throws himself into the firing line at every opportunity, not to win glory but to save his wife and three young children from deportation to the death camps in the east, while in Dresden a Jewish diary writer struggles to deal with ever-mounting restrictions and deportations. We also meet some of those forced to live under German rule, including extraordinary footage of a group of Jews living in hiding just a mile from Anne Frank, and a family in Normandy enjoying a bucolic summer before they find themselves on the front line when the Allies take on the German troops on the Atlantic Wall. The film then moves to the endgame of the war, the choices faced as the net tightened and the crazy efforts to fight to the bitter end even as all hope is gone. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 26th Oct 2018		TV Finding Vivian Maier (2013)	Rated 10/10 An absolutely extrordinary documentary made by John Maloof who stumbled over some of Vivian Maier's photograph negatives at an auction room. He subsequently hunted down her storage locker and other box lots sold at the auction room and introduced the world to the many talents of a completely unknown gifted street photographer. WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide. During her lifetime, Maier's photographs were unknown and unpublished; many of her negatives were never printed. A Chicago collector, John Maloof, acquired some of Maier's photos in 2007, while two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, also found some of Maier's prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time. Maier's photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008, by Slattery, but the work received little response. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier's photographs on the image-sharing website Flickr, and the results went viral, with thousands of people expressing interest. Maier's work subsequently attracted critical acclaim, and since then, Maier's photographs have been exhibited around the world. ~ From Wikipedia I first heard about her through an Alan Yentob 'Imagine' documentary on BBC4 back in 2013. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 21st Jul 2017		TV Titanic (1996) (1996)	Rated 1/10 This production was a rush job to capitalise on the forthcoming James Cameron blockbuster in 1997. I am not surprised to learn the show sunk just like it's namesake. I know in the Genre list it states History but in the case of this series I would take that to be in its most loosest sense. It's a dreadful production with poor acting, poor dialogue, poor sets, poor CGI and littered with loads of inaccuracies, there's even people having a good old barn dance on the lower decks that looks more like a scene from Little House On The Prairie. I think this one belongs at the bottom of the ocean along with the ship. If you're a fan of the Titanic then truly give this one a by-ball it's three hours of your life you'll never get back. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 2nd Jul 2017		TV Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (2013)	Rated 10/10 A brilliant compilation of British Rock acts from the 70's. Containing a real gem of a clip in the form of Man playing Ain't Their Fight from the album Back Into The Future. Along with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band playing Faith Healer and a very rare example of a great version of Free's Alright Now that has Paul Rodgers singing live to a backing track, his vocals are amazing on this clip. There's also clips of Family, Babe Ruth, Status Quo and a brilliant clip of Humble Pie doing Honky Tonk Woman and Steve Marriott is in fine voice for this one. A Tour de Force of pure classic British 70's music that's an absolute must see. Running Order PT 1 Badfinger - Come And Get It - 1970 Free - All Right Now - 1970 Faces - Bad 'n' Ruin - 1971 Stone The Crows - Big Jim Salter - 1971 The Roy Young Band - Wild Country Wine - 1971 Family - In My Own Time - 1971 Humble Pie - Honky Tonk Woman - 1972 Babe Ruth - Black Dog - 1972 Kevin Ayers - Shouting In A Bucket Of Blues - 1973 Man - Ain't Their Fight - 1973 The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Faith Healer - 1973 Status Quo - Caroline - 1973 Thin Lizzy - The Rocker - 1973 Heavy Metal Kids - Hanging On - 1974 Pretty Things - Singapore Silk Torpedo - 1974 Nazareth - Silver Dollar Forger - 1974 Mott The Hoople - The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll - 1974 Running Order PT 2 Dr. Feelgood - Keep It Out Of Sight - 1975 Ducks Deluxe - Coast To Coast - 1975 Ace - I'm A Man - 1975 Ronnie Lane And Slim Chance - Anniversary - 1975 Kursaal Flyers - Little Does She Know - 1976 Eddie And The Hot Rods - Get Out Of Denver - 1976 Graham Parker And The Rumour - Heat Treatment - 1977 Tyla Gang - Young Lords - 1977 Steve Gibbons Band - Tulane - 1977 Meal Ticket - This Could Be The Town - 1977 Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll) - 1977 Elvis Costello - (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes - 1977 The Motors - Dancing The Night Away - 1978 Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing - 1978 Nick Lowe - Cruel To Be Kind - 1979 Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing - 1979 The Inmates - The Walk - 1979 Graham Parker And The Rumour - Hey Lord Don't Ask Me Questions - 1978 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 17th Feb 2017		TV The Moorside (2017)	Rated 7/10 Quite a good dramatic re-creation of events that took place in 2008. Sheridan Smith was great as usual but the one thing I didn't like was how thick the Yorkshire accents were. They were so strong that parts of the dialogue were Indecipherable. I've noticed in recent years the tendancy to subtitle programs with accents this thick, and in the case of "The Moorside" this probably wouldn't have gone amiss. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 ● 17th Aug 2016		TV Britain On Film (2012 - 2013)	Rated 10/10 In 1959, Britain’s biggest film company, The Rank Organisation, launched a bold experiment. Rank replaced its cinema newsreels with a series called Look at Life. These films observed all aspects of life in 60’s Britain. Rank sent its camera crews all over the country to record Britons at work and play. They recorded Britain’s passions and fashions. Our ancient traditions and modern anxieties. Their cameras also ventured further afield, to record Britons holidaying abroad and the men and women serving in the colonies and the Commonwealth. Shot on high-quality colour film, Look at Life was never broadcast on TV. The series offer unique insights into the passions, preoccupations and values of a pivotal era. The social and cultural shifts which took place in the 1960’s had a profound effect on British society. Traditional sources of authority were challenged as people questioned the established order. Demographic changes increased the diversity of towns and cities across Britain. Communities were forced to adapt to a newly modernised physical environment. It was an age that reshaped the character of British urban spaces, and fundamentally changed British lives. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?