Tag: Peter Capaldi

The Hour, Series 2

The Hour, Series 2

by Abi Morgan (BBC, 2012)

TV poster: “The Hour, Series 2” by Abi Morgan (BBC, 2012)

An intelligent drama that builds across six episodes but then doesn’t quite deliver (despite compelling characters and top-notch acting). Perhaps the historical realism, centred around news journalism in the late 1950s, precludes a truly satisfying denouement. Peter Capaldi is a welcome addition.

The Devil’s Hour

The Devil’s Hour

by Tom Moran; dir. Johnny Allan & Isabelle Sieb (Amazon Prime, 2022)

Series poster: “The Devil’s Hour” by Tom Moran; dir. Johnny Allan & Isabelle Sieb (Amazon Prime, 2022)

A twisty supernatural crime drama, unsettling for five episodes then rushed and chaotic in the sixth. Peter Capaldi is underused until this concluding instalment. Jessica Raine is exceptional throughout, making the series work moment-by-moment but unable to salvage the botched not-quite resolution.

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth

by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2016); audiobook read by Peter Capaldi (HarperCollins, 2019)

Cottrell-Boyce_Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

At first this comes across as merely scattershot; then the madcap antics take a half-step back, allowing room for a story about family and dementia. The Scottish setting is very appealing and Peter Capaldi’s audiobook reading adds considerably to the overall effect.

 

 

Doctor Who, Series 8

Doctor Who, Series 8

(BBC, 2014)

Doctor Who 08

Series Eight starts with an apology, ends with a folly turned helter-skelter. In-between this, Peter Capaldi simmers rakishly: the sort of caustic, ‘dislikeable’ Doctor that Colin Baker was aiming for, only with the necessary scripts and production values to support the characterisation.

 

 

Doctor Who, Series 9

Doctor Who, Series 9

BBC, 2015

Doctor Who_Series 9

Bookended by Steven Moffat’s tulipomaniacal stake-raising and overblown (if ingenious) retrofitting of Doctor Who’s mythology, the other writers of Series 9 have crafted a straight flush of dark, self-contained science fantasy; gothic disturbances in which Peter Capaldi adds depth to his characterisation.

 

1,024 Word Review: Doctor Who Series 8

Unflinching Beyond Midnight

(The Derelict Space Sheep Review of Doctor Who Series 8)

 

Never one to shy away from the sort of perilous escapade made famous by Danger Mouse and Penfold, Arthur Graeme Smith has ventured into Fish Fingers & Custard to review Peter Capaldi’s first season of Doctor Who.

 

Unflinching

Arthur’s review appears in FF&C #16, which is available in print or as a (free) .pdf download.

Crumbs, you might well say. Ooh, ‘eck!

 

 

Derelict Space Sheep