“A Monster Calls” offers a child’s-eye view of cancer. Patrick Ness’ children’s novel, the winner of the 2012 Carnegie Medal and adapted into a 2016 film that starred Felicity Jones, sits with a 13-year-old boy trying to make sense of the disease laying waste to his mother — a disease that rarely, if ever, makes sense. Visited nightly by a storytelling monster, he slowly comes to appreciate that life isn’t a fairytale; it follows no plot. It’s a story about complexity that’s staged, in Sally Cookson’s Old Vic production, with the utmost simplicity.
That is, in the end, its great strength: it allows a sentimental story to cut through with sincerity. For a long while, however, it merely looks slimline: a stock gallery of school bullies, sleepless nights and scary monsters that speak in deep, echoing booms. Childhood, at first, seems the stuff of cliché: all messy bedrooms and deskbound daydreams.
That is, in the end, its great strength: it allows a sentimental story to cut through with sincerity. For a long while, however, it merely looks slimline: a stock gallery of school bullies, sleepless nights and scary monsters that speak in deep, echoing booms. Childhood, at first, seems the stuff of cliché: all messy bedrooms and deskbound daydreams.
- 7/18/2018
- by Gordon Cox
- Variety Film + TV
The Living and the Dead TV show premieres on BBC America, on October 27, 2016, in a Halloween week "binge-a-thon." In UK, the show premiered on BBC One in June of this year. In mid-August, The Living and the Dead was cancelled by the BBC.From Ashley Pharaoh the six-episode supernatural period drama stars Colin Morgan and Charlotte Spencer. The Living and the Dead TV series cast also includes: Malcolm Storry, Kerrie Hayes, Tallulah Rose Haddon, Joel Gillman, Elizabeth Berrington, Chloe Pirrie, Amber Fernée, Marianne Oldham, Pooky Quesnel, Ben Fox, Sarah Counsell, and David Oakes.Read More…...
- 9/14/2016
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
Perhaps they should have called it The Quick and the Dead. The The Living and the Dead TV show has been cancelled by The BBC. The first and only season of the spooky supernatural series is slated to premiere on BBC America sometime this fall. In UK, Ashley Pharoah's six-episode drama aired on BBC One between June 28 and August 2, 2016. The British network has confirmed The Living and the Dead TV series will not be renewed for a second season, Digital Spy reports.The Living and the Dead stars Colin Morgan and Charlotte Spencer as newlyweds Nathan and Charlotte Appleby, and Nicholas Woodeson as Reverend Matthew Denning. The cast also includes: Malcolm Storry, Kerrie Hayes, Tallulah Rose Haddon, Joel Gillman, Elizabeth Berrington, Chloe Pirrie, Amber Fernée, Marianne Oldham, Pooky Quesnel,...
- 8/12/2016
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
The Musketeers return after being pushed aside by international sporting events, with another pleasingly strong episode...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 The Return
The Musketeers returns to our screens having endured another week of sporting interruptions, and it returns with a flourish. The Return is yet another strong episode, but that wasn’t all, as it also came accompanied by news of a series renewal. Yes, our favourite French swordsmen will be back on our screens next year for another season of derring-do. Despite the high quality we’ve seen from this series so far, jitters following the Beeb’s cancellation of Atlantis coupled with their scheduling of The Musketeers away from that prime Sunday evening slot had made renewal feel less than inevitable. Let’s hope the strength of the show won through and clinched the deal, if for no other reason than an acknowledgement of the stronger direction The Musketeers has gone in,...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 The Return
The Musketeers returns to our screens having endured another week of sporting interruptions, and it returns with a flourish. The Return is yet another strong episode, but that wasn’t all, as it also came accompanied by news of a series renewal. Yes, our favourite French swordsmen will be back on our screens next year for another season of derring-do. Despite the high quality we’ve seen from this series so far, jitters following the Beeb’s cancellation of Atlantis coupled with their scheduling of The Musketeers away from that prime Sunday evening slot had made renewal feel less than inevitable. Let’s hope the strength of the show won through and clinched the deal, if for no other reason than an acknowledgement of the stronger direction The Musketeers has gone in,...
- 2/13/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
BBC One has debuted a first-look image for its new drama The Crimson Field.
The six-part series - previously known as The Ark - will air in April.
Suranne Jones, Kerry Fox, Hermione Norris and Oona Chaplin lead the cast of the drama, which has been shooting since August.
The Crimson Field tells the story of a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers working together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches of the First World War.
Jones will play Sister Joan Livesey, Sister Margaret Quayle is played by Fox, while Norris is cast as Matron Grace Carter and Chaplin stars as Kitty Trevelyan.
The cast's male contingent includes Kevin Doyle (Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett), Richard Rankin (Captain Thomas Gillan) and Alex Wyndham (Captain Miles Hesketh-Thorne)
Marianne Oldham, Alice St Clair and Jack Gordon also star in the BBC Drama Production, from writer Sarah Phelps.
The six-part series - previously known as The Ark - will air in April.
Suranne Jones, Kerry Fox, Hermione Norris and Oona Chaplin lead the cast of the drama, which has been shooting since August.
The Crimson Field tells the story of a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers working together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches of the First World War.
Jones will play Sister Joan Livesey, Sister Margaret Quayle is played by Fox, while Norris is cast as Matron Grace Carter and Chaplin stars as Kitty Trevelyan.
The cast's male contingent includes Kevin Doyle (Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett), Richard Rankin (Captain Thomas Gillan) and Alex Wyndham (Captain Miles Hesketh-Thorne)
Marianne Oldham, Alice St Clair and Jack Gordon also star in the BBC Drama Production, from writer Sarah Phelps.
- 2/17/2014
- Digital Spy
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