Mojo

The Harold Pinter Theatre
Written by Jez Butterworth / Directed by Ian Rickson

Q, Ron Weasley, Mr Bates and Merlin get together – but someone else steals the show!

Not for the linguistically squeamish, Mojo is a play that rattles along at 200mph, characters barely catching their breath and sometimes even talking over each other. Jez Butterworth’s tale of seedy criminality in the summer of 1958 on the cusp of the rock and roll revolution is superficially macho. An all male cast of characters are boastfully riotous yet as matters proceed the artifice is lifted to reveal a bunch of scared, insecure people not necessarily ready to protect each other when things get tough. And they do get tough because before we’ve even met the manager of Ezra’s Atlantic club he has been cut in two. 

Q and Mr Bates begin their tango.

Top of the Pops 79

Now showing on BBC4
Reviewed by Chris Arnsby

I'm back after a short break for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary and then Christmas. What's changed? Top of the Pops is now on BBC4 in high definition and the difference in picture quality is amazing. New presenter Mike Read joined back in November 1978 which means the 1980s are approaching and there's nothing any of us can do about it. Soon we'll have Margaret Thatcher, Swap Shop replaced with Saturday Superstore, fear of nuclear war, the banning of We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney & The Frog Chorus (for containing the lyrics "bum bum bum bum bum bum"), and ZX Spectrums. Also several years of Grange Hill will leave me terrified of going to Big School but that's another story. Let's rock!
BBC4: Top of the Pops 1979
Mike Read. "Welcome to the 15th anniversary edition of Top of the Pops and we're looking forwards to some great music in 1979."
Chart music: Paul Evans: Hello, This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) [24]

Generation X: King Rocker [NEW] Billy Idol's wearing an iron cross. I wonder if anyone complained? The audience aren't any more lively in 1979 but a couple of them pogo furiously when they realise the camera is on them.

Generation X: They could sing and smoke at the same time. Unfortunately with the shades they had no idea where they were so had to glue themselves together.

Sherlock - His Last Vow

BBC1 12/01/14
Written by Steven Moffat / Directed by Nick Hurran

The reason people liked Sherlock from the start was because it didn’t conform to our expectations. Now it’s established and is not conforming to our new expectations some people are critical as if they have forgotten why they liked the show in the first place. So perhaps after the previous two episodes these critics will feel on safer ground with `His Last Vow`. That is at least until it spins around once, twice and at the very end a third time to once again confirm this is not a series to easily be pinned down. 

"And wait till you see the wallpaper in this room..."

Sherlock The Sign of Three

BBC1 05/01/14
Written by Stephen Thompson, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss/ Directed by Colm McCarthy

This episode skates very close to the edge of being self-indulgent and may baffle some casual viewers whom you can imagine are sitting there thinking `what’s going on?` The answer is the show’s first full comedy episode and why not? After all Sherlock is, as the character himself suggests, a ridiculous man and suits the comedic riffs of this freewheeling script co-authored by all three of the series’ writers. The results do follow on from the more human Sherlock last week’s episode unveiled and just as that was a platform for Martin Freeman, this week its Benedict Cumberbatch’s show. In a tour de force of a best man speech, interrupted by flashbacks, the great detective gets to the nub of more down to earth mysteries such as marriage and friendship as well as trying to solve a case.

Atlantis Touched By The Gods

BBC1 December 2013
Written by Howard Overman / Directed by Jeremy Webb

The biggest problem with the same production team’s Merlin was their inability to develop the narrative quickly enough. All too often drastic scenarios were reversed and the status quo restored and while this may be preferable when it comes to overseas sales it does render the end product rather dry and repetitive. To be fair, Merlin did advance across five series but it was very sluggish. Atlantis has the advantage of being a far broader scenario with a huge swathe of established and imagined mythology to mine and no legend (apart from it sinking which you’d presume won’t happen till the final episode!) in particular to stick to. The first season has already played fast and loose with different strands of myth to some effect and has also established a more natural rapport between its leading characters. There have been flashes of storytelling genius but rather too much sloth. This two part finale seems to be an attempt to re-calibrate the show and while sometimes choosing the obvious it makes for a dependable though not quite surprising end.

She wondered if her curry was just a little too hot.

Sherlock The Empty Hearse

BBC1 01/01/14
Written by Mark Gatiss / Directed by Jeremy Lovering

Just how good is this? Two years after Sherlock faked his own death and ignited a debate as to how he did it comes the revelation. We knew, of course, that he wasn’t dead because we saw him at the end of the last series but the question that has been debated right up until this episode was broadcast is how they did it. By which I mean how did the character do it and how did the television programme stage it? Brilliantly, both of these notions are addressed in a script that may just be the best thing Mark Gatiss has ever written and that’s saying something. Bristling with vigour, thrills and wit, `The Empty Hearse` is a ceaseless joy to watch from start to finish as it twists and turns through several developments. As for that explanation- well, just for fun you get several options during the course of the episode until the real one is revealed by Sherlock himself near the end. Or is it?

Actually, the way Sherlock cheated death was he can fly.

Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

Well 2013 has been the Time of the Doctor hasn’t it? So what better moniker for the year’s- and Matt Smith’s- final act especially as it deals with the passage of time, how it changes us and how we should stay true to who we are. The production also wraps up the remaining questions of the era so that we now know who blew up the Tardis and what the Silence were up to. There is a fair amount of repetition of some of writer Steven Moffat’s favourite things, but in the end the story manages to deliver both an enjoyable Christmas Day adventure and a satisfactory conclusion to the latest Doctor’s story.

As a special tribute the Silence perform a song and dance number for the departing Doctor

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

If I wanted to buy some barrels I’d definitely purchase them from the elves because they make them indestructible. In one of several thrilling sequences that propel the second of this trilogy at a rate of knots, a dozen of these barrels tumbled down waterfalls, along rivers and over land complete with a dwarf passenger in each/ Afterwards they are still sturdy enough to take a pile of fish. That’s craftsmanship. Such durability is at the heart of The Desolation of Smaug, a far more focussed film than its sometimes stodgy predecessor.