BBC1 - 30th December - 8.55pm

For me, this was the other television highlight of the Christmas season. I thoroughly enjoyed last year's adaptation of Philip Pullman's 'The Ruby In The Smoke' and was therefore looking forward to this immensely. And I have to say that Adrian Hodges' adaptation of 'The Shadow In The North' surpassed that of last year.

It opens with two dark figures against a bright white background, out of focus, with one of them committing a murder. Next we see blood dripping off a knife and then cut to a body, under the ice, floating away, eyes staring blankly heavenwards. Thus, the Gothic tone is admirably set and so too is John Anderson's breathtaking direction. His trademark is a mix of deep focus, wide shots with blurred figures suddenly springing into clarity and some dizzying crane shots. There's an opening shot of the villain's lair that spirals over a set of gates and then swoops down to capture Sally Lockhart's (Billie Piper) entrance, there's a conversation between the villain Axel Bellmann (Jared Harris) and a blackmailed victim that dives from an overhead into a very low angle shot and finally a bravura bit of editing and composition at a seance as a medium, off in a trance, starts to provide some of the pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of the plot.

The plot does have its twists and turns and the adaptation crams in an awful lot of narrative in 90 minutes and if you don't keep a focus on what's going on and who is connected to whom then you might have a tendency to wander off. It all starts when one of Sally's investors loses her money in a scam by Scandinavian industrialist Axel Bellmann. The plot about the development of a super-weapon by a twisted industrialist who rips off share holders feels very contemporary and the moral choices of the lead characters are equally as relevant.

As Sally digs deeper and connects the dots between a stage magician, a medium and a super-weapon we're taken on a mad ride through the Victorian streets, appropriately full of gas lamps, hansom cabs and fog. It's a beautifully mounted production and thanks to Anderson's direction it looks ravishing and he captures fully the details of the superb production design and costumes, uses the amazing locations to eye popping effect and gets some decent performances into the bargain.

Billie Piper is very good as Sally, feisty and independent with a quite marvellous parade of couture that matches her wits when facing up to the criminals. I did get mesmerised by her eyebrows at one point during the rather unconvincing bedroom scene between her and Fred (J.J. Fields) and she does do quite a bit of blubbing after her dog snuffs it during a savage attack on the street but her numbness when Fred gets killed in a house fire is quietly magnificent. J.J. Fields is less convincing for me and there is rather a lot of 'will they-won't they' between him and Sally when you know full well that they 'will' at some point after some emotional crisis melts Sally's heart (yes, it'll be the pet dog's untimely death). Jared Harris is impressive as the smoulderingly evil Axel and he's now a dead cert for casting as a Bond villain as he comes across here as a sort of Victorian Blofeld. Less said about Julian Rhind-Tutt's Scottish accent the better as he didn't really pull that off as the rather drippy stage magician Mackinnon.

But uneven performances aside, it's all done with great aplomb and you definitely feel you've been immersed in the period setting and done a fair bit of detecting along with Sally and her motley gang. Beautifully and satisfyingly done here, the plan is to adapt the next two books and I for one cannot wait for further Sally Lockhart adventures!

Gosh, I'm good to you. As many of you enjoyed the review of AFRO ROCK I thought I'd pitch in with a review of the other two volumes released in 2007 by Tummytouch.

THE BIG BEAT Volume 1

This showcases the compositions and arrangements of two library music heavyweights from 1969 - the legendary Alan Hawkshaw and Keith Mansfield. Mansfield provides six of the sixteen tracks here and kicks off in fine style with 'Exclusive Blend' a tremendously infectious mix of stabbing brass, meandering organ riffs and a cascade of drums and tom toms that will have you tapping away instantly. Hawkshaw then follows up with a tune that should be familiar to Dave Allen fans as 'Studio 69' was used as the theme on his comedy show in the 1970s. Again, Hammond organ and fat brass sections are to the fore in typical Hawkshaw jazz stylings and a brass hook that's complimented by more organ riffs and great rhythms. Fab.

Hawkshaw then provides a series of jazzy compositions that evoke subterranean late 60s nightclubs, all cigarette smoke and bizarre rotating oil lamp things that threw very psychedelic patterns on many a club wall. They show off Hawkshaw's mastery of the Hammond with 'Work Out', 'Rocky Mountain Runabout' and 'Beat Me 'Til I'm Blue'(a particular highlight) all now regarded as Hawkshaw classics with that unmistakable mix of brass, Hammond and fuzzy guitars. 'Roving Reporter' is just so incredibly groovy and funky and again shows off Hawkshaw's skillful playing and arranging.

Mansfield rejoins the album with 'Teenage Travelogue' which is much more laid back and loungey if you like that kind of thing. Thoroughly pleasant soft jazz picked out with a pulsing organ riff and some lovely persussion it then ascends the heights with a very gorgeous flute section. Quite sublime. 'Teenage Ton Up' is a sort of more up tempo sequel, moves quite fast, still has the breathy flute sections and drives along with an organ riff in the middle. Then its organ and flute together for the end section. Great.

Three more Hawkshaw tracks follow, again more Hammond with a jazz/blues inflection that seem to conjure up those old Saint Bruno tobacco adverts (showing my age now) with 'Delivery Date', 'A Touch Of Nonsense', 'Man On The Move' and 'Debsville' running the gamut of laid back jazz, latin and blues.

The final Mansfield tracks include 'The Mexican DJ' a quintessential late 60s piece of jazz with flaring fat brass lines, tinking and bouncy latin percussion and a very infectious groove. Quite fabulous music that makes you want to shimmy round the room. His bow out is 'Red Square Stomp' which is described as 'Cossack Samba' on the sleeve and it certainly is, coupled with a sort of Ipcress File espionage undercurrent.

Buy it, you'll love yourself forever.

THE BIG BEAT Volume 2

All the compositions on Volume 2 are from Alan Moorhouse and hail from 1972. Not perhaps as well known as Hawkshaw and Mansfield but it doesn't matter as these are lovely compositions. 'That's Nice' opens the album with a stabbing organ section and a moody, loungey feel that reminds me of the Pet Shop Boys song 'Nothing Has Been Proved' written for the late great Dusty Springfield. But it is the guitar work on this album that makes it special and 'West Coastin' 'Pop Pastime' and 'Boss Man' (with flamenco to the fore) all have great guitar and organ sections and are pulsating with wonderful hooks and riffs. Fabulous drums and piano on 'Soul Skimmer' are again joined by twangy guitars and by now you should have pushed the sofa back and should be shaking your stuff on the living room floor.

'Heavy Bopper' should ensure that you remain on the floor for longer than you anticipated but 'Angelic Gas' with its acoustic guitar and trembling organ gives you time to ease back. The organ work on this is rather cool. 'Expo In Tokyo', featured in many library compilations over the years is very tongue in cheek funk, Laurie Johnson style bass line, and great piano flourishes. Not very PC with its Japanese riffs but it's beautifully constructed driving funk.

Bit of country influence on the next track inevitably with a title like 'Nashville Country' but the guitars are to die for. Moorhouse carries this through to 'Hillbilly Child' which has echoes of the film 'Deliverance' for me. This ends with a bit of good ol' rockin' on 'Rock It Again' with some sweet organ swirls in the background, boogie woogie piano on 'Rockin' Boogie' and the trembling mandolins, guitar and organ on 'Pop Mandolin' chill things down nicely. The closer is the utterly bonkers 'Psychodale' which is a wig-out jamming session of screeching and wah-wah guitars and shimmering organ that's very Hendrix inspired. Makes you want to get your kaftan and love beads out. Superb. Essential purchase.

SOUND BOOTH Review of De Wolfe's Music Sampler Vol. 2 here: Bite Hard - De Wolfe Sampler

KPM Music Recorded Library - The Big Beat (Tuch1044CD) The Big Beat Volume 2 (Tuch1067CD)

As a wee Christmas treat, I've dug out my reviews of Doctor Who - Series 3 courtesy of my postings on Outpost Gallifrey and the next couple of weeks I'll be posting each one in season order. So, let's start right at the beginning with...



Smith & Jones
Originally transmitted 31st March 2007

'Like so...'

Essentially, this is 'Doctor Who' reboot 2.0. Russell T Davies takes all his experience from the first two series and distills them into a second pilot episode. But it's a pilot episode informed by the rules of engagement established since 'Rose'.

And what fun it is. Confident and witty, the introduction of Martha Jones feels more assured than that of Rose Tyler. Granted, back in 2005 an awful lot was being gambled on with the new series but here, two years in, we've been given something that takes the familiar tropes and gives them a jazz treatment, free associating playfully with our expectations and associations. Cue the Doctor in pyjamas and dressing gown again and Martha's cousin as well as a recap of various alien incursions on Earth in the last two years.

The general theme here is one of crime and punishment. The Judoon, beautifully designed space police rhino thugs by way of 'Hitch Hiker', are tracking down a Plasmavore, hiding in plain sight as a dotty old lady played by the marvellously arch Anne Reid. The kids won't sleep knowing their granny could be a blood sucking creature from outer space. Back to our theme then, prisons...prisons....prisons. Martha trapped in the escalating domestic disputes of her own family, caught in the mundane reality of death and taxes and the Doctor doomed to wander the universe alone whilst the Judoon catalogue anyone and anything in a merciless tyranny of numbers. A bizarre satire on the management hell of NHS trusts then? Even in space, you're a statistic. The hilarious squeeky marker pen crosses betray a deeper symbolism - you will conform or die. The cross represents the individual idealised, the crucifix an enforcement of conformity. Just don't go breaking vases over the heads of rhino space police any day soon. It upsets their cataloguing and the due process of the law.

And the Plasmavore has murdered a child. Yes, from the description it sounds like Shirley Temple meets Bonnie Langford but to kill another being because they had a fresh complexion and a curly barnet is a sign that you've been swallowed by the 'darkness' to come. The criminal is oh so familar with the underworld, has a deep relationship with the darker side of life, knows how to duck and dive. Strangely, the Plasmavore and the Doctor are functioning opposites - both pretend to be patients in the hospital to gain their own advantage. The Plasmavore is a hacker, swiping identities to hide in plain sight, the Doctor is a freakish Time Lord gigolo luring Martha into his TARDIS. Granted, he sacrifices his own identity to flush out the interloper.

So what of Martha? Personally, I think Freema hits the ground running. She's quite splendid in this opening episode and establishes the character not just in a broad sense but in the smaller details. Her humanism is right to the fore when she pauses to close the eyes of the now deceased consultant, Mr. Stoker (yes, a little nod to Bram there). She respects the dead and the dying and understands completely that the Doctor has sacrificed himself to save the day. She doesn't muck about and takes quite a lot in her stride. Her sentimental side will, I think, be the force that drives the forthcoming series as she tries to keep her feelings about our favourite Time Lord in check. That she bookends the entire episode is entirely fitting and like 'Rose' the story is told from her point of view. It's important that she remains the audience identification figure. The way Freema handles much of this in the episode is an indication that we're in safe hands.

Tennant's Doctor seems a little more world weary here. You get the sense he's been travelling alone for a while but I do think there was too heavy an emphasis on the 'seduction' of Martha to his lifestyle. There was a feeling of him shopping around for his next companion in this and the scene in the alley did have an odd predatory, sexual undertone that didn't belong to the series. However, overlooking this aspect, Tennant's performance throughout was confident and boisterous without recourse to some of the over-acting in the earlier parts of Series 2. The tone has shifted and he's picking up and recycling little physical ticks and speech patterns that are uniquely his own with a good deal of sensitivity. I really got a sense of his Doctor this time round.

And Anne Reid was both funny and frightening as Florence. Her lip-smacking performance was pitched just right and she clearly homed in on the requirements of the script with Russell's typical volte face of wit and horror.

On the production front we've moved up a notch again. Fantastic work from the boys at The Mill especially the fetishistic, phallic Judoon spaceships landing on the Moon which then carried through to the rhinos in leather look of the costumes. Great prosthetics from Millennium and Neil Gorton but it was obvious that the budget only allowed them to have one helmet-less Judoon in the story. And Murray Gold...will this man ever stop coming up with the goods? Lovely music, gorgeous theme for Martha which I'm sure will have many iterations over the coming weeks and some finely judged solo strings amongst the bombast of the Judoon's marching themes.

Overall, then...bureaucratic rhinos from outer space taking the free market to extraordinary lengths to try and keep their statistics up to date, identity theft from a little old lady called Florence and the Doctor's symbolic death and re-birth as witnessed by one Martha Jones. The fact that Russell T Davies juggled that lot and threw laughs aplenty in there too is quite astonishing. Plus some prefiguring of the coming darkness, an indication that the Doctor did have a 'brother' and Martha's take on the TARDIS as a spaceship made of wood.

Lovely.

BBC1 - Christmas Day - 6.50pm

There's a big present under the tree. You're very hyped up about it and as soon as Christmas Day arrives it's the first one you go for. However, after unwrapping it you find that it isn't all that it's cracked up to be even though you sort of like it. 'Voyage Of The Damned' was a gleaming toy where the batteries seemed to run out about half way through.

Its obvious inspiration was 'The Poseidon Adventure' and the story acts as a series of character sketches of the survivors making their way through the wrecked Titanic. Despite all being interesting characters you suspected the Van Hoffs and Bannakaffalatta were marked souls and would die horribly as most are expected to in disaster films. Despite the very broad strokes utilised by this script there was a much darker tone to the fates of these characters with many of them losing their lives either through sacrifice, blackmail or murder. Even the companion by proxy, Astrid, whose expectations for survival were high, was ultimately revived as a ghost and then reduced to star dust.

I liked the Van Hoffs and to me the writer Russell T. Davies was having a wry poke at television phone in competitions by making them winners from an under class but only because Mrs Van Hoff had spent a fortune calling in. Their class status, in opposition to some of the hee-hawing business types on the ship, was also a quick reference to the film 'Titanic' and its treatment of class structures and 'steerage'. Their best moment, provided by Davies, was when Mrs. Van Hoff confessed her phone bingeing and her husband touchingly professed his love for her anyway. The 'who ate all the pies' personal attacks from Rickston Slade didn't really strike me as funny. I know he's supposed to be a horrid, sneering businessman and the nature of the game is the survival of the characters you're not supposed to like but kids already labelled as obese who were watching may not have found any of it funny at all. The jokes overall just seemed a touch crueler this time around.

And Bannakaffalatta the brave little cyborg with the whole cyborg sub-plot was perhaps an opportunity where Davies could trot out his appreciation of 'otherness' and make certain social comments, including the one about 'cyborgs now being allowed to marry on planet Sto'.

Mr. Copper, as played by Clive Swift and who incidentally stole the show completely from both Tennant and Minogue in the acting stakes, was by far the most interesting character. A former travelling salesman pretending to be an authority on Earth history, Copper became the audience identification figure for me. He was just a man who wanted a house and a garden but had nothing to retire with. His main role was to contain the Doctor's messianic tendencies and the scene where he discussed the Doctor's potential to bestow life or death and offered the suggestion that such power would make him a 'monster' was a very welcome shift in tone after we had just seen the Doctor literally rise up to the heavens on the arms of two angels. Davies is still peddling a quasi religious notion of the Doctor that's now becoming rather predictable. Copper also appropriately formed the opposite side of the coin to Max Capricorn, the cyborg corporate, akin to something out of 2000AD or Hitch-Hikers, who simply wanted to burn the Earth for tax reasons and fund his own retirement. Capricorn was surely just another Cassandra and the villain's motive did seem rather a re-hash from 'The End Of The World' in Series One. Nicely played though by George Costigan.

Kylie Minogue aquitted herself well as Astrid and it was a genuine shock to see her perish. I would have laid off the heavy handed 'Alien' and 'Alien 3' visual references for her battle with Capricorn and her demise but her revival as 'atoms' was sad and quite a bleak ending for a Christmas episode. However, Davies was perhaps trying to say, at last, that the Doctor cannot fix everything and there is a limit to his abilities which is something that the series really needs to reinstate after the cosmic-godhead ending to Series 3. Minogue's performance was subtle and understated but as an actress I'm afraid she is no Billie Piper and I often found her underwhelming in some scenes. I would have liked just a bit more chemistry with Tennant.

David Tennant is now so confident in the role he could probably do it in his sleep and he was absolutely fine in this. The story didn't give him very much to work with emotionally - let's face it he's done the companion departure stuff an awful lot now - but I liked his scenes with Clive Swift and Bernard Cribbins. His scenes with Russell Tovey as Alonzo Frame were particularly good and Tovey was quietly impressive in handling all the solo scenes on the bridge. And it would have been great if Geoffrey Palmer had managed to get some more scenes as he turned in a very satisfying cameo as Captain Hardaker.

There is some very interesting material in the midst of this rather rich pudding. Certainly the trajectory of the Astrid character is akin to what the Sufi mystics referred to as the development step of the soul. The Doctor allowed her to broaden her horizons, to see creation as it were, and her willing sacrifice and her transformation into star dust is perhaps trying to say that there is an existence outside of the human body, with the death of self, the dissolving of ego into something more angelic. Swedenbourg wrote of the united souls of men and women entering heaven as angels after they had undergone an 'earthly death' and Astrid's relationship with the Doctor seems to follow this route. Max Capricorn also described the crash of the Titanic as a 'Christmas Inferno' and this reference to Dante's poetic vision of the afterlife fits with the story's concerns with how all of the characters have differently developed souls dependent on their closeness to God or, in this case, the Doctor. The title of the story, 'Voyage Of The Damned' is the biggest clue to a narrative that is about the complexity of earthly vices and sin and your class position in the afterlife.

There were a few odd plot points...an obsession with royalty where the Wilf Mott character remains behind in a deserted London just out of loyalty to his monarch. The bizarre thing was...who is he selling newspapers to in a deserted city? I felt the deserted London scenario was slightly unrealistic. Yes, some people would leave after such disasters but are you telling me that New York was deserted after the 9/11 attack? The whole scene with the Titanic almost crashing into Buckingham Palace and the Doctor being thanked by Her Majesty in her rollers and dressing gown was for me a ridiculous step too far. It's an in-joke about the Queen's apparent love of the series that's a tad over-indulgent. And if Rickston Slade had a working phone, as we clearly saw, then why didn't he phone for help and why exactly did Max Capricorn need to be on the ship to carry out his dastardly plan?

Visually, it looked splendid with the production design, visual effects and costume departments excelling. The ballroom of the Titanic looked magnificent and the CGI from The Mill was motion-picture quality and often breathtaking. The Host robots, reminiscent of the robots featured in 'Robots Of Death' were also lovely designs and the period costumes were stunning. The team should be applauded for creating such scale on a television budget.

However, at 70 minutes this did struggle to maintain its pace. The first two thirds were, on the whole, well constructed and exciting but there seemed to be a few longeurs beyond the Titanic's plunge into the atmosphere. The padding wasn't particularly badly written but it was padding nonetheless and I reckon they could have comfortably edited this into 60 minutes. James Strong's direction was visually pleasing, with a penchant for good close ups and breaking the fourth wall by looking through the scene behind windows or scanner screens. He did get over-indulgent in the use of slow motion, particularly in the sequence of the Doctor striding in slow motion through the explosions and wreckage on the ship which quite frankly was the kind of nonsense you'd see in a Michael Bay film. It was surplus to requirement and looked rather pompous. I can see the use of the cinema blockbuster as a template for the scale of the episode but touches like this are not necessary.

Overall, an entertaining episode, with some typical Davies metaphysical underpinnings and a brave decision to be a little bleaker in tone, but some badly handled and misjudged humour, pacing and directorial flourishes, a villain with little screen time and a poor motive do handicap it.

Transmitted precisely 30 years ago, the BBC television version of the Charles Dicken's classic ghost story, made in 1977, seemed an appropriate archive item to mark the Christmas period and to take an opportunity to say 'Merry Christmas' to all the visitors to this blog.

Published in 1843, the hugely successful novella is adapted here into a very lean but faithful version of the story by Elaine Morgan. Nothing is added and no attempt is made to contemporise any of the existing elements so you could approach this as being one of the most traditional versions ever made. It's so steeped in tradition that it even uses the original John Leech illustrations to compose some of the backgrounds. But don't let that put you off. Despite a short running time and slightly rushed conclusion, this is a quintessential slice of Seventies television. Many viewers might snigger at the now seemingly low-tech production but for me there is much virtue in its all studio production.

The sets are minimalistic and often dissolve wonderfully into and out of Leech's drawings, the lighting is very clever in the way it silhouettes and back-lights the main characters and most exciting of all is the use of deep focus, overlay and in vision video effects. Images are piled on top of one another, giving the main characters an impressionistic and transparent quality that befits the nature of the ghost story. There is a giddy, floating and dissolving of faces and backgrounds that shows off director Moira Armstrong's strong visual style and she has an ability to inlay illustrations, effects, objects and people electronically into the picture that is an addition to the atmosphere rather than a distracting one.

Much of Dickens original dialogue remains and the main cast seize the script and play it for all its worth. Michael Hordern is stunning as Scrooge and his journey is mapped out in a complex performance that takes us from the initial cruelty of the character to his final, abundant redemption. His playing considers the medium and it isn't overblown as so many Scrooges can be but rather he capitalises on a subtle use of facial movements and physicality to convey the repressed nature of the man. It isn't a sentimental portrayal at all but his re-emergence into society is heart-felt.

All the other performances gravitate towards Hordern's and there are some fine supporting turns from John Le Mesurier as Jacob Marley, Patricia Quinn as the Ghost Of Christmas Past and Bernard Lee as the Ghost Of Christmas Future. Mesurier captures the utter melancholic depression of Marley's existence in purgatory and his sense of remorse also dominates the performance. Quinn and Lee cut bizarre figures and although effective they don't get an awful lot of screen time and Lee in particular just about manages to get Dickens central message about poverty across before the story moves on. Quinn is particularly good where she gets to contrast Scrooge's curmudgeonly nature with sequences from his youth in order to instill in him doubt and remorse about his current nature.

Dickens original message is delivered without bombast, hyped up effects and acting. The production is stripped back and might now be considered rather thin but I see it as a fine example of televisual craft where studio based, multi-camera dramas provide an immediacy that is often lacking in big budget film versions of the story. Where they have gloss this has an hallucinatory brevity and deft performances to make it a classic piece of television.

The Charles Dickens Collection (Region 2 BBC DVD1745 Cert 12)

My word, this one has been a very long time coming. A special edition DVD of 'Blade Runner' was mooted as early as 2002 and those of us who passionately love this film have been very patient over the duration.

It has been worth it. This five disc set, which in Region 2, comes in a nifty little tin, is the last word in the 'Blade Runner' saga. It's everything you could possibly want - all versions of the film supported by a wealth of material, much of which has been talked about but never seen until now.

OK, let's start with the film itself. Sir Rid introduces his Final Cut on Disc 1 and categorically states this is his preferred version. He hasn't made any huge changes, just fine tuned a bone fide classic, so anyone getting hot under the collar about the re-shoots that were done recently should take a chill pill and relax.

Changes range from the very subtle, where various FX shots have been tweaked or alternate takes have been used through to extended scenes such as the unicorn day dream and Batty's murder of Tyrell, which is significantly more violent now. And I defy you to pick holes in the two sequences which have been corrected - Zhora's death and the conversation between Deckard and the owner of the snake emporium. It's quite amazing what they've done there. And the finale, with Batty's release of the dove, is much improved.

The film hasn't looked better in my opinion. It's a clean, pristine transfer and the blacks and detail in shadow are phenomenal. It's also clear that some attention has been paid to the colour grading and highlights and hues are certainly less fizzy here than on previous transfers I've seen. It's debatable if the grade here will please everyone but for me it suits the dystopian aesthetic.

The remixed sound is also a great improvement. Stereo elements are well placed across the sound stage, and you'll notice this particularly when Spinners go whizzing by your head, and Vangelis' music is treated with great subtlety and given its due prominence.

It's still a stunning, thought provoking film and one of the first truly immersive cinematic experiences where the future-world building is so detailed, complex and 'real' that Los Angeles 2019 and its inhabitants become second nature to those of us who love this film. And beneath all of the art direction and visual effects there is a very human story unfolding where the supposedly in-human, child like replicants undergo an emotional rites of passage and achieve a nobility that the humans who reject them can only dream of achieving. The central figure of Deckard is still the focus of all of our questions about humanity, whether that is the sum of our memories or our unconditional love or both. Sir Rid works on the premise that Deckard is a replicant but the film itself leaves it open to interpretation and I think it's better left that way. Ford's performance is restrained but appropriate, with bursts of emotion entirely fitting with his repressed nature.

All the performances are terrific, particularly Rutger Hauer as Batty, William Sanderson as J.F. Sebastian and Joe Turkel as Tyrell. Hauer specifically tunes into Batty's child-like view of the universe and brilliantly essays the character's enforced maturity and God-complex. If there is a weaker performance, then it's probably Sean Young as Rachel. It is clear that she was an inexperienced actor and it does often show in the performance with a little too much hesitation and tentativeness. But it doesn't unbalanced the film and she looks utterly stunning.

I haven't explored the three commentaries on the first disc yet but you'll be pleased to know that Sir Rid is featured on one track, the writers on a second track and the visual effects team on a third. Enough to satisfy ardent fans, I think.

Disc Two - This contains the three hour 'Dangerous Days' documentary and all I can say is you will not be disappointed. It is the most detailed film about the making of 'Blade Runner' and takes you in measured stages from the writing, through the casting, shooting and visual effects of the film. It covers in depth the screen testing for Pris and Rachel, the antagonisms between Sir Rid and the U.S. crew, including the infamous T-Shirt wars, and the building of sets, vehicles and the shooting of effects as well as the reception that awaited the film on release. It is exhaustive to the nth degree and features interviews with all the major players, including Harrison Ford. I sat down to just watch a segment of this and ended up stuck in my seat for nearly three hours! It is that engrossing, I assure you and all the way through you will be jumping up and down in your seat as all sorts of rare footage goes whizzing by.

Discs Three And Five - These contain all the versions wou will ever want to own of 'Blade Runner'. You've got the one with the voice over, the international cut, the Director's Cut all branched on Disc Three and finally, the very rare Workprint on Disc Five. This is the version that sneaked out in 1990 and prompted the release of the Director's Cut in 1992. The Workprint also has a commentary on it from 'Blade Runner' expert Paul Sammon. Also on Disc 5 is a great little documentary - All Our Variant Futures - which delves into all the different versions of 'Blade Runner' and the restoration of the film as well as all the changes made for the Final Cut including the shooting of the new Zhora sequence. To see Joanna Cassidy's face as she watches the revised version is very sweet indeed.

Disc Four - All the documentaries you could possibly shake a stick at. Three featurettes on Philip K Dick, featurettes on graphic design, costume, a tribute to cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth....yadda....poster art....yadda....the true nature of Deckard....yadda. I haven't watched all of these yet - I've only dipped into the Dick, poster art, Deckard featurettes. But if you value your life make directly for the deleted and alternate scenes package. This is a lovingly put together 40 minute plus package with score and sound effects of all the deleted and alternate takes in film chronological order. Which means you watch a mini movie version of 'Blade Runner' that contains all the bits you've never seen with a Harrison Ford voice over you've never heard until now. It is fantastic!

I highly recommend this set if you're a fan. You'll think all your birthdays and Christmases have all come at once. If you've never seen the film, then now is the best time to experience it. There's a very comprehensive review here that I would recommend: www.thedigitalbits.com and this also looks at the Blue-Ray and HD-DVD versions too. And finally, a hearty congratulations to Charles de Lauzirika for masterminding it all. Fans will be worshipping your name from now on, sir.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut 5 Disc Ultimate Collectors Edition (Region 2 DVD Warner DY20836)

Manchester Evening News Area - Sunday 9th December

Like me, if you're a certain age, then you'll have a soft spot for one of the biggest selling concept albums of all time. I recall my excitement as a teenager looking at the Mike Trim, Peter Goodfellow and Geoff Taylor artwork whilst Phil Lynott belted out 'Spirit Of Man' on our very bog-standard record player. There was something very appealing about the songs for Jeff Wayne's musical version of 'War Of The Worlds' and the incidental music combines rock, funk and electronics with orchestra to provide a truly operatic feel to an already well loved science fiction novel.

I had the opportunity to watch the DVD of the live, touring version about a year ago in wonderful surround sound on a pretty big screen and was duly impressed. I noticed that the tour was coming to Manchester and so our friends booked us in and one year later, on a cold December evening we took our seats.

It is an amazing piece of showmanship: Wayne conducts an orchestra and a full rock band (containing some of the original musicians from the album) in front of a huge widescreen projection full of Martian war machines, battles, devastated landscapes, red weed and ghastly looking Martians all made possible by the wonders of CGI. The centre of the stage is periodically dominated by a fully realised war machine, belching out its heat ray, exploding as artillery shells supposedly hit it. Add in fantastic lighting and performers such as Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson from the original album cast and newcomers Alexis James and Sinead Quinn all bringing the original songs to life. Even Richard Burton is realised on stage as a 3D projection.

It's certainly one of those shows where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you get tingles down the spine immediately as Burton's famous narration begins and that fantastic string section goes into 'The Eve Of The War'. What also comes across is just how many people are really into this as the MEN arena is jam packed. There's a lovely sign of affection as Jeff Wayne walks on stage and a heckler yells out 'Go on Jeff, give it to them!' And by Jove, he did.

If it has any faults it is perhaps that the CGI could be better. The images, whilst impressive, now look a little primitive compared to what can be achieved in 2007. Justin Hayward, in fantastic voice it has to be said, is rather too stiff and needs to add some movement and passion into selling a song like 'Forever Autumn'. He should certainly take a leaf out of Alexis James' book as his performance as the Artillery Man was hands down the best of the lot and what I would consider an indifferent song on the album, 'Brave New World' is given a fantastic new lease of life through his performance alone. The demise of the Thunderchild is also very dramtically brought to life by the gravelly tones of Chris Thompson.

Minor niggles, I know. It's a powerful, eye-popping show, stunningly achieved and it loudly and proudly showcases the power of the music and songs that seemed to have sustained themselves since 1978. If you get a chance to see this then I urge you to go.

Linkies!

www.sineadquinn.info
www.moodytalk.com

Season 14 - September 1976

‘They say there are places where the bat droppings are as high as a man’

That'll be San Marco, then.

It’s the opening story of Season 14 and, my, the times, they are a‘changing. Holmes and Hinchcliffe really set out their store from this point on. The title sequences get a new font (no more early 70s big blocky lettering) and they go for a romantic looking serif. And we get a mini-tour of the TARDIS in the opening episode that eventually leads us to the secondary control room. This is an emphatic statement by the production team that they are intent on moving the show firmly into Byronic gothic romance mode and the wood panelled room, with its totems of the past that include Pertwee’s dusty shirt and Troughton’s recorder, is their framing structure for the season as a whole. It’s a campaign that climaxes in the Holmes/Hinchcliffe story par excellence ‘Talons Of Weng-Chiang’.

Masque has a lot going for it. It looks sumptuous with really ambitious costuming and sets and the script is literary and intelligent. But somehow it all seems a bit flat. The opening episode doesn’t really get going until the TARDIS arrives in San Marco and the Helix energy escapes into the countryside (some smashing location filming at Portmeirion). The sequences showing the Helix attacking various peasants and soldiers are very well done, particularly in the shot of the Helix cresting across a pond there is a well handled mix of location film and in-laid video effects.

The Brotherhood of Demnos are well realised with their golden masks and cowls and the scenes in the temple are very moody and effective. The lighting on the entire serial is superb, mainly dark areas penetrated with slivers of light and some very Giorgio De Chirico like archways with light streaming out of them fit very well with the Mediterranean feel of the story.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this was the very tangible sense of time passing. It’s very clear that the Doctor and Sarah spend several days in San Marco, daylight is seen to give way to darkness rather than it seeming to be a vague place where time does not seem to affect the proceedings. It gives the story a real sense of time and place as does the number of scenes where characters are attending to their daily rituals – the Doctor and Sarah having breakfast, Count Federico being shaved by his servant. It’s a heightened reality that makes sense within the elaborate costumes and sets. Again, you could put that down to the BBC’s skill at handling period dramas and that certainly shows here.

The performances are almost suffocated by the surroundings. This may be why it feels flat. Tom and Lis are great but I did sense that even despite their best efforts their impression on the story was of a lesser effectiveness. Lis is very much the focus of the two, again playing a little too much of the ‘victim’ but also holding her own and particularly delightful in the masque sequence.

Norman Jones’ as Hieronymous and Jon Laurimore as Count Federico were both having a contest as to who could chew through the scenery fast enough judging by Jones’ almost….Shatner….like…pauses and Laurimore’s rolling ‘rs’. However, a production like this needed bigger performances to bring it all off and they are all variable at best here.

Overall though, the story is more about a triumph of the themes it discusses than the trappings and the manner in which it is played. The story is as much about the juxtaposition of science and magic, rationalism and superstition as it is about what Doctor Who itself should be about. It’s very much about a humanist central character adrift in a society that is not of his making where the very ideas that he represents are under threat by the forces at large within that society. The fact that he actually heightens that threat by bringing an alien energy being along for the ride is not as important as the real historical debate that’s going on.

The Helix is astral energy and very much fits into Hieronymous’ world view and he doesn’t use his astrology as magical mumbo-jumbo, he uses it as a psychological profiling tool, a typology of human nature as a basic understanding to the political machinations going on at Court. When he’s possessed by the Helix he obviously sees this small scale battle between science and superstition and the dominance of ideas on a universal scale. He can see how the Helix will help him selfishly stifle mankind’s capacity to make conceptual leaps and use imagination as a tool.

In the end, the story is about how imagination can be snuffed out at the local and universal levels by those who wish to keep it in check for their own purposes. With it unchecked, human beings are more than capable of understanding the magic/science connection and this is signified by the final masque where the dance symbolises a humanitarian and creative solution to bringing together the rather chaotic threads of the Dark Ages and to order them on a cosmic as well as personal level. If Juliano hadn’t managed to get his guests to San Marco and dancing at the court then the Helix and Hieronymous would certainly have won on an intellectual level.

Oh, and one last thing. Mandragora is the Greek name for the mandrake root. It has a soporific effect rather like an anaesthetic. So you see, the Mandragora Helix energy was, by its very nature, all about putting out that spark of creativity on a cosmic scale.

THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA BBC Video VHS (BBCV 4642 Cert U -deleted)