Monthly Archive: March 2018

The Team

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Team is an eight episode television police drama produced jointly by Denmark, Germany and Belgium. It is in English, Danish, German, Dutch and French, with English sub-titles. It is about a case given...

Occupied

Reading Time: 2 minutesRussia’s recent thinly veiled threats against Britain, and its political isolation make the Norwegian television series ‘ Occupied’ particularly pertinent. Norway’s most expensive television series is set in the near future and deals with...

Jonathan Elias – ‘The Prayer Cycle’

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe beautiful and haunting songs on this album are sung in twelve different languages, by singers from different religious, cultural and musical traditions including rock/contemporary pop music represented by Alanis Morissette, Perry Farrell, James Taylor, and  Linda Ronstadt. This complex and multilayered album deserves to be listened to uninterupted.

Collateral

Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently, police drama/crime series have been increasingly adopting the Nordic Noir style of classic television series such as ‘The Bridge’ or ‘The Killings’. While some of these shows have been spectacular successes, the Netflix...

‘The Bureau’ – Series 1-3

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe first 3 series of ‘The Bureau’ have been described as the most realistic depiction of international espionage and intelligence work. The French seem to excel in presenting characters realistically, and so lacking in Hollywood sheen that they seem real. Perhaps surprisingly, this realism makes the show more, rather than less addictive.

‘Three Billboards…’

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe only criticism that I have read of ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is that audiences have not liked the ending. Well I beg to differ and suggest that the ending was possibly the...

‘The Midwife’

Reading Time: < 1 minute‘The Midwife’ is a 2017 French film starring the two Catherines (Deneuve and Frot).  While two hours long, it is so well crafted and the storyline is so unpredictable that The film never drags....