For a small island, there’s a pretty substantial division between the British countryside and its urban neighbours. You can see it reflected in our film genres. Barring one brief flurry of rural realism about ten years ago (The Levelling, God’s Own Country etc.) most kitchen-sink dramas are set in towns […]
Graham Williamson
Senior Contributor
Welcome to G-Town (FrightFest 2026)
For all it’s a major horror festival, FrightFest always finds the space for little low-budget oddities, and sometimes these can be the most rewarding films on the schedule. A case in point is Welcome to G-Town, directed by twin brothers Nathan and Ben McQuaid. It opens with a caption explaining […]
The Fright Stuff (FrightFest 2026)
One thing that distinguishes horror fans from other genre fandoms is this; they have a healthy curiosity about why their chosen genre works for them. You cannot watch movies where people are chased, stabbed, tortured and dismembered without encountering at least one person who wrinkles their nose and asks “Why […]
Buddy (FrightFest 2026)
In the brief frenzy of deal-making that followed Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Mattel executive Kevin McKeon said the company was developing an “A24-style” Barney the Dinosaur movie with Daniel Kaluuya which would be “leaning into the millennial angst of the property”. At this, the world rose and spoke with one voice: […]
Jiří Trnka – Puppet Master: The Czech Year (1947), Old Czech Legends (1953), The Hand (1965)
Animation – it’s not just for adults any more! If the most internationally famous Czech animator is still that macabre Surrealist Jan Švankmajer, then Second Run have been doing their best to present global audiences with a more rounded picture of the country’s animated output. They’ve reissued several films by Karel […]
Doctor Who A-Z #129: The Five Doctors (1983)
When I’ve told fellow Doctor Who fans that the next story I’m reviewing is The Five Doctors, there’s generally been a knowing laugh. Not, to be clear, a mocking laugh – nothing like the “ha ha, you poor sod” response I got when it was The Underwater Menace. No, it’s […]
Doctor Who A-Z #128: The King’s Demons (1983)
You could argue that The King’s Demons is the last ordinary story of the classic series. Over the course of the ’80s, as the show becomes a bizarrely early victim of the streaming-era curse of shortened seasons with no filler episodes, the middle ground of Doctor Who falls away; everything […]
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969): Richard Attenborough’s radical roots
The late 1960s were a golden age for radical, anti-authoritarian Leftist cinema, and no wonder when you look at the stature of the directors making such films: Jean-Luc Godard, Costa-Gavras, Glauber Rocha, Richard Attenborough. Wait – Richard Attenborough? Sir Richard Attenborough? Sir Richard Santa Claus Attenborough, Oscar darling of the […]
Doctor Who A-Z #127: Enlightenment (1983)
By the end of Peter Davison’s second season there is an unbridgeable gap between what the show does well and what the production team and the fans both want it to do. What it does well – and what it’s been doing a lot of recently – is produce cerebral […]
Doctor Who A-Z #126: Terminus (1983)
Terminus is, at the very least, trying to do some distinctive things – and if you think that’s an unpromising introduction to a review, well, you’re right, but let’s take stock of the positive things first. It’s the middle story in a linked run of three adventures, which isn’t unprecedented […]