ComicCon Liverpool 2nd/ 3rd May 2026

 The essential ingredients for attending a ComicCon are stamina and a good pair of shoes. There is a lot of walking and a lot of queuing which is inevitable when you realise there are 50,000 attendees. This was probably the largest Liverpool event yet staged though its only one of a number around the country.  In common with most events these days everything is done on a large scale while the guests are front of camera people so if you're after insights into production, direction or writing then you won't find them here. For those willing to pay there ae photos or autographs with the stars of some of your favourite tv shows. Plus its not unusual to see Darth Vader or Davros or Spiderman walking around.

Dracula review

 

Most people have a working knowledge of the Dracula story- or do they? There have been so many iterations, adaptations and interpretations of Bram Stoker’s novel, first published in 1897, that many of us are largely unaware of what the original book is like. This daring production aims goes back to the source while also utilising strikingly modern production techniques and an amazing performance by Cynthia Erivo to takes the audience deep into those gothic pages.

Top of the Pops 18th April 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening, and welcome along to Top of the Pops on BBC1 and of course we are live in stereo on Radio 1FM. We’ve got a right good rollocking show for you tonight, it’s a pleasure to be here. Will you welcome our first band of the night, with Sit Down, live on stage on Top of the Pops, it’s James.”

 [2] JAMES: SIT DOWN. If you haven’t watched it, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZHPUGPxfo and have a look at the behind the scenes report from the 8.15 From Manchester, 20/04/1991 edition. Michael Hurll is interviewed around 4 minutes in and says: “The producer Paul Ciani at the moment unfortunately is in hospital and they asked me to just pop in and do it. I haven’t done it for four years.”

It would be really interesting to find out when Michael Hurll stepped in to the production cycle. Who took the initiative for the redesign of the Film Strip stage? The big central circular element has been left in the scenery store. A huge grey cyclorama has been hung behind the stage and on it Graham Rimmington is projecting big colourful moving flower shapes. It looks really good. It makes the stage look massive, especially in comparison to the normal look which is designed to create an enclosed, performance space. This is a wide open blasted heath that King Lear could really dig.

Boarders review

A few years ago, a group of under privileged but intelligent pupils spent a period at Rugby public school and it is that as well as his own experiences as a black pupil at a mostly middle class, white University that inspired writer Daniel Lawrence Taylor to pen Boarders.  I would doubt though whether a lot of the scenarios depicted in this lively and occasionally riotous series actually happened which is a good call that pulls the series a\way from being too over earnest. Set over three six-episode series, Boarders charts the varying experience of five bright sixth formers who are plucked from urban surroundings by an outreach programme and placed in the somewhat rarefied country atmosphere of  St Gilberts school. It’s a place with a raft of traditions, some formal school activities with Latin names, others exuberant and often weird student traditions. The narrative tries to cover each of the pupils equally, their different journeys exploring all the possibilities of the experience.

 

Top of the Pops 11 April 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Anthea Turner: “Hallo there! Welcome to another edition of Top of the Pops! On BBC1 and Radio 1 in FM stereo! We’ve got a really lively show for you tonight! That’s going to include Danni Minogue, Madonna, Monie Love, and we’re starting with The Wonder Stuff at six!”

 [6] THE WONDER STUFF: THE SIZE OF A COW. There’s an immediate difference to the look of the programme. Gone are the blue and purple lights and careful use of black spaces, instead the studio is lit with bright yellow and purple lights. Sure enough, there’s a new (old) name on the credits. Replacing David Lock, Graham Rimmington. He last had a go in the summer of 1990. I do like the way the BBC rotates staff off Top of the Pops. It keeps it looking different.

Top of the Pops 4 April 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. We are all live tonight from Television Centre. We’re in stereo on Radio 1FM. In the studio we’ve got The Mock Turtles, Fergeal Sharkey, and N-joi, but first we start off with a song at number thirty in the charts. It’s called Caravan, Inspiral Carpets.”

 [30] INSPIRAL CARPETS: CARAVAN. There’s an odd detail on the VT Countdown clock at the start of this episode, a note that reads “P AS B” which stands for Programme AS Broadcast. I’m probably teaching everyone who reads this to suck eggs* but this note is there because this is a live edition. No time for edits. Cross your fingers and hope everyone behaves themselves.

Crookhaven review

This new series, showing on BBC and on the iPlayer,  adapted by Justin Young based on books by JJ Arcanjo and aimed at a family audience initially comes across as something of a cross between Alex Ryder and MI High. Yet it proves to be somewhat more complicated than the former and less comedic than the latter, dialling up conspiracies and double crosses aplenty. Its been a while since there’s been a drama for any audience with quite so many plot twists and turns. Neither does the series linger on its mysteries, for the most part answering them in an episode or two before moving on. The results are a strangely addictive show that benefits from bingeing if only to keep track of where the tangled plot is heading.

 

Robin and Marian (1976)

 There have been many versions of the Robin Hood story on both cinema and television all of which have essentially kept within the familiar timespan. Richard Leser’s 1976 film however takes up the story twenty years after those events introducing us to older versions of the characters. I suppose it’s a sequel to all of those versions that had gone before and after. The concept is definitely an intriguing one with the potential to explore a hero after their heroics are over, facing middle age and different problems. As it turns out, this is not quite that film but it makes a bold attempt to be different from the Robin Hood story we know.