The classic series of Doctor Who ended on a council estate, and the revived series began on one. It’s tempting to see the choice of location as a subtle reassurance that Doctor Who was picking up where it left off. The impression was strengthened when Rona Munro, the writer of […]
Graham Williamson
House of Salem (2016) a confidently staged British occult-kidnap thriller debut (Review)
Sometimes you have to remind yourself that British people were frightened by things before the 1970s. Whether they’re sociopolitical (VIP paedophile rings, tensions with the EU and the Irish border) or cultural (strange electronic music, unnerving children’s programming), all of our modern nightmares come from the Glam Decade. James Crow’s […]
Myrkas of the World Unite: Is Doctor Who Posh? (Part 1)
Once more, Doctor Who fans look forward to a historic event set to change everything about their favourite show. For the first time, the Doctor will have a Yorkshire accent. And also be female, but let’s focus on what matters. Joking aside, Jodie Whittaker’s decision to keep her just-outside-Huddersfield twang […]
Iceman (2018) Payback in the Palaeolithic (Review)
Separate Tables (1963) sophisticated fun save for some inadvertent unpleasantness
One of the main extras on the BFI’s new dual-format reissue of Separate Tables is an archive commentary by director Delbert Mann, who died in 2007. Mann is still probably best known for his Oscar-winning 1955 debut Marty, but he’d worked extensively in television beforehand. Back then the medium was […]
The Miraculous Virgin (1966) a virtuoso exercise of imagery & poetry (Review)
Under the Tree (2017) Icelandic Black Comedy fails to live up to its early promise (Review)
Released in cinemas by Eureka Pictures, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurđsson’s Icelandic black comedy Under the Tree begins with an inspired contemporary take on an old joke. Atli, played by Steinthór Hróar Steinthórsson, is watching a sex tape of himself with his ex-girlfriend when his wife walks in. Panicked, he closes the […]