The Season of Heavenly Gifts (1992 Robert Tronson)

Another original story from Richard Harris, concerning a smuggler (Michael Cochrane), a dodgy property investor Nicolas Chagrin, and Charlie's attempts to buy a hop garden. Also, Monty's getting trouble at naval academy. Ends up with nasty biker types invading the farm - the Larkin girls should have snuck out and let their tyres down. There's a beautiful collision of plot lines going on here, three separate elements heading into one: The police, working out it's Pop's car; a CND march; Pop twigging and racing towards home.

Fig. 1. Plots converging

Jon Gregory edited - Three Billboards, Peterloo, Four weddings, In Bruges, Mr Turner, Another Year.

A Stranger at the Gates (1992 Steve Goldie)

Another original story, written by Richard Harris. Helpful 'Dane' Benedict Taylor appears, dissent emerges when he's revealed to be a 'hun'. But he saves a boy from falling into the quarry. Ma intervenes to get him together with his sweetheart.

All episodes (films) photographed by Peter Jackson.

Sound of Metal (2019 Darius Marder & co-scr)

Riz Ahmed is a drummer with Olivia Cooke, but I wouldn't call what they do 'music', so it's quite a relief when he starts going deaf so we can't hear it. The Oscar-winning sound design is of course one of the reasons for seeing it - hearing it, even. (It also won for best editing, Mikkel Nielsen. I honestly didn't notice it.)

In a deaf camp run by Paul Raci (good, Oscar nominated along with Riz) he begins to find some happiness. It's an ironic tale, really. Quite interesting. Mathieu Amalric is Olivia's dad.

Oh! To Be in England (1992 David Giles)

Another HE Bates adaptation, source novella written in 1963, adapted by Richard Harris.

Pop stops old lady Phillada Sewell being ripped off by nephew Robert Lang (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont). He also buys a fair, runs into some teddy boys. Day saved by new vicar Tyler Butterworth, who Primrose has fallen for. Meanwhile Charlie tries to freeze strawberries.

Loved the moment - think it's in this one - where Pop drops his hat over baby Oscar's head. (Ross Marriott never took up acting. No idea what he does now. Philip Franks appears on our screens still sporadically - he was in Phantom Thread - but has also been a stage performer and director.)

Christmas Is Coming (1991 David Giles)

A Christmas special, just a 50 minute episode, and the first original story, written by Richard Harris, another prolific TV writer. Things like The Saint, Hancock, The Avengers, the film I Start Counting, Shoestring, A Touch of Frost and finally created and co-write The Last Detective with Peter Davison.

Primrose has been updated from Julie Stichbury to Abigail Rokison (who is now a lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute!)

Ian Bartholomew has escaped from prison, just wants to see his kids - Pop helps.

They don't seem to be drinking as much as they did in the first couple.

A Breath of French Air (1991 David Giles)

You know, the one where they go to France, and everyone has dodgy accents (including Anna Massey), and Pop is confused for 'Lord Sidcup'. 

Adapted by Robert Banks Stewart, a prolific TV writer who worked on everything from Dr Finlay's Casebook to The Sweeney to Dr Who, and also created Shoestring and Bergerac. From Bates' second novella, 1959 vintage.

For some reason I always remember this one really clearly.

Minari (2020 Lee Isaac Chung & scr)

An autobiographical tale of a family of Korean immigrants in Arkansas. Little David (Alan Kim) has a heart murmur, his dad (Steven Yeun) is trying to grow crops, he and his wife Yeri Han argue, their daughter is Noel Cho. Then granny Yuh-Jung Youn comes to stay, leaves with an Oscar and BAFTA (she's great, fully deserving of both). 'Bad granny' alienates the boy initially, can't cook, plays cards and swears, but they bond. Meanwhile the couple are on the verge of splitting up..

There's a nicely elliptical feel to all of this, for example, we don't know what will happen at the end, and there are lots of nice little details, like granny pocketing the church money, the sleepover, and the religious nutter Darryl Cox.

DP. Lachlan Milne, music by Emile Mosseri.

The Apartment (1960 Billy Wilder)

"Never again. I told him to either get a bigger car or a smaller girl." (Joan Shawlee.) Hope Holiday is the pissed one in the bar.

Wilder. Diamond. Lemmon. MacLaine. Magic. And that's about it, review-wise.

When the Green Woods Laugh (1991 Robert Tronson)

Adapted by Bob Larbey from the third HE Bates novella from 1960. Pop buys Bluff-Gore mansion for £5000 (plus £250 on the side to the wife), sells it for £17,000. And Celia Imrie accuses him of sexual molestation; the court case is on Charlie and Mariette's wedding day. Oh, la Larkin. (Oh no, that's the next one.)

Twenty years ago. Someone made out this series made David Jason beloved by the nation, but surely Only Fools and Horses had done that already.

Marple: Nemesis (2007 Nicholas Winding Refn)

The one with the coach tour, leading to the truth about missing girl (nun), instigated from beyond the grave. From 1971, it was the last novel Christie wrote. It seems Stephen Churchett has written a very different story - the nuns, the wounded airman, all new.

With Geraldine MacEwan are Richard E Grant, Laura Michelle Kelly, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Johnny Briggs, George Cole, Ronni Ancona, Anne Reid, Amanda Burton, Graeme Garden, Lee Ingleby, Adrian Rawlins, Will Mellor.

The Darling Buds of May (1991 Rodney Bennett)

Adapted by Bob Larbey from HE Bates 1958 novella. The double act of Pam Ferris and David Jason is unbeatable.

Do you think this is often watched in the Douglas household?

Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2006 Peter Medak)

Originally Christie's 1968 'Tommy and Tuppence' novel, reworked by Stewart Harcourt to bring in Marple (I guess to some extent replacing the Tommy role), they being Geraldine McEwan and Greta Scacchi. Tuppence is drinking too much, manages to break the case anyway. With June Whitfield, Claire Bloom, Steven Berkoff, O-T Fagbenle, Josie Lawrence (still in things here and there), Michael Maloney, Michelle Ryan, Charles Dance, Bonnie Langford, Leslie Phillips.

Love, Simon (2018 Greg Berlanti)

Bland, PC and PG gay romcom. Nick Robinson doesn't know how to come out, enters into online correspondence with mysterious 'Blu'.

Enlivened to some extent by OTT Vice Principal Tony Hale.

Oh, this is what young people do these days: 'Drink too much iced coffee, watch bad nineties films, hang out in Waffle House and eat way too many carbs.' Well, these young people, anyway. It's depressing. What they should be doing is drinking too much vodka, watching good nineties films (if there are any*), hanging out in comic shops and smoking way too many spliffs. And having sex.

* Yes there are: Out of Sight, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Groundhog Day, Husbands and Wives, Fargo, Before Sunrise, Pulp Fiction, The Silence of the Lambs, Short Cuts.

The Last Tree (2019 Shola Amoo & scr)

Young fostered black boy is reclaimed by his birth mother (Can you just do that? I wouldn't have thought so) and taken away to London, where almost inevitably he becomes a gang member. She doesn't seem to love him so I don't know why she did it really.

Anyway, he grows up and seems to have found a better path in life, then there's a really weird coda in his home country (in Africa) where his father turns out to be a rich shit.

Femi is played by Tai Golding and Sam Adewunmi.

It's all slightly annoying, though the sweetest moment is when he plays with the young foster kid - like he's his kid brother.

Time (2021 Lewis Arnold, scr Jimmy McGovern)

In Jimmy McGovern's latest comedy-drama-musical, an imprisoned teacher gains respect from fellow convicts by teaching them to sing. Cruel prison guard Stephen Graham is affected by this and ends up smuggling in custard creams to the singing criminals.

If only.. His screenplay is typically dark and pretty depressing, has a nice symmetry - Bean ends up being released the day Grahame goes in for sentencing. Can't help wondering why Bean isn't in an open prison, though. Good acting by these two, and rest of cast:

Hannah Walters and Paddy Rowan (Grahame's wife and son), Brian McCardie (super-criminal), Sue Johnstone, Siobhan Finneran (nun, Downton, Happy Valley), James Nelson-Joyce (bully), Anuerin Barnard, Dean Fagan, Bobby Schofield, Kenin Harvey, Carl MacAninch, Nadine Marshall and Jack McMullen (Bean's wife and son), David Calder, Kadiff Kirwan, Terence Maynard (illiterate prisoner), Michael Socha (This Is England), Anna Madelely (victim's wife; All Creatures, Patrick Melrose, The Crown).

Sherlock: The Six Thatchers (2017 Rachel Talalay)

Taking 'The Six Napoleans' as its departure point but then spinning off creatively, also using the dog from 'The Missing Three-Quarter' (rather pointlessly)... (a lot of the Conan Doyle source material seems to be from around the same period, the Memoirs and The Return collections)... but allowing Mary to be killed in the London Aquarium. (Though knowing this show you're never that sure.)

Sacha Dhawan we've recently seen in The Great, plus other things like Last Tango in Halifax and LOD.

Gomorrah - La Serie - Season 4

There's a brilliant crane shot in the first episode which follows the progress of a car with a bomb in it - this may have been an homage to Touch of Evil. Ivan Casalgrandi is the DP.

Genna has started to build an airport - where the fuck did he get the money from? (from the dealing in Secondigliano.) Good story of farmer holding out to sell land - turns out he's buried poison which is why he's not selling, poison that may be killing his wife. Genna and Azzurra travel to London to buy a £20m company - where the fuck etc. - and almost get scammed by Louise Brearly. Lovely looking suite in the St Pancras Renaissance.

He's also reconnected with his uncle Don Levante, who has powerful Sicily connections, brokers a peace between the clans and leaves Patri' in charge of Secondigliano. She's doing all right, having to discipline two punks, but a huge drug delivery is intercepted by the police. She's also having a thing with Levante son Luciano Giugliano. Her No. 2 Nicola (Riccardo Ciccarelli) finds out it's the Levante gang, is killed. 

In parallel everything's falling apart for Blue Blood Enzo. His No.2 Valerio (Loris de Luna) - the one who can speak 'proper Italian' - is killed and there's an internal power struggle, but he does get the nasty Capaccio brother Carlo Caracciolo to admit to Patri' that her new husband Michaelangelo is 'screwing' her. (The other Capaccio brother, the one with the glasses, is the thinker. He's Andrea di Maria.)

Um. OK, The plotting does I think get rather murky from now on. Rather than just telling Patri the Levantes have put bombs under her premises, her new husband tells the police instead and they arrive when a consignment has been delivered - it would have been more straightforward just to tell her because now she's in prison, the judges are after her to betray Genna, and we're actually not sure if she does or not. Genna decides to get involved all over again, for no clear reason, with the involvement of someone we don't know, Mistral. Enzo tries a triple hit on the Levantes, manages to fuck up all three. Genna is more successful killing mom and pop, but you would have thought he would have got the other two brothers as well (particularly as they've all just met up together). Sprung from prison, Patri seems happy to go off with the double-crossing Michaelangelo, which seems to beggar belief, but Genna kills them both. Then goes into hiding in this tiny little cell?? WTF??

So although a lot happened, it wasn't the great series ending it should have been, something of a messy anti-climax.

Take a message to your brothers: Gennaro Savastano is back!

Talking of proper Italian, it's interesting how everything's been cropped. Thus brother is 'fra', crazy is 'pazz', everything's good is 'Tutt' a post' '. 'Jamme / Jamm Ja' is very specific to the region - 'let's go', which we've come across before.

This was broadcast in Italy from March 2019, but the film L'Immortal wasn't shown there until December.

Francesco Comencini has the 'supervizione artistica' credit and Marco D'Amore directed two.

Not sure how they managed to do all the filming in Forcella, though on film it looks cleaner than in real life. Good Guardian article here about the infamous Le Vele apartment blocks in Scampia.

The tireless Patrizio Marone edited all episodes again.

Sherlock - The Abominable Bride (2016 Douglas Mackinnon, scr Moffat & Gatiss)

1895: Watson meets Holmes all over again, and an Italian woman has come back from the dead to kill her husband. Bits of the 'Case of the Five Orange Pips' story come in, and Mycroft is excessively fat. There are one or two turns of phrase that aren't in period, and Q notices Sherlock's carrying a modern torch... In an audacious twist, we're actually in contemporary Sherlock's head, as he tries to figure out how Mycroft is still alive... There's an amusing variation on the original Reichenberg Falls scenario, and a trick with 'Pepper's Ghost'.

The dialogue is brilliant:
Lestrade: Mrs Hudson isn't talking.
Holmes: I fear she has branched into literary criticism by means of satire. It is a distressing trend in the modern landlady.

DP Suzie Lavelle, editor Andrew McClelland.

Sherlock: His Last Vow (2014 Nick Hurran, scr Steve Moffat)

The enemy is a media tycoon (Lars Mikkelsen) who blackmails everyone - including Molly, who it turns out isn't all she seems. Based on short story 'Charles Augustus Milverton'. Sherlock is shot, Watson is angry, Moriarty is back.

Booksmart (2019 Olivia Wilde)

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein attempt to have fun the night before graduation. Q was looking for another Clueless; this sort of is the update. See here.

Widows (2018 Steve McQueen & co-scr)

Based on Lynda La Plante's 80s TV series, also written by Gone Girl Gillian Flynn. Viola Davis has to pull off robbery or an extremely unpleasant Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi again) and Daniel Kaluuya will do 'er. She enlists the help of other widows Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo (we're now big fans of hers) to pull off heist; Robert Duvall and Colin Ferrell are also involved. And Liam Neeson.

Sean Bobbit's team responsible for some very smooth filming, such as the single take where Kaluuya shoots two gang members, or where we follow Farrell into his car and into the traffic; Bobbit operated, David Chameides did the Steadicam. It's shot on 35mm film in widescreen. Joe Walker edited, Hans Zimmer wrote the music.

Erivo plays Aretha Franklin in TV's Genius, season three, on Disney Plus.

Clueless (1995 Amy Heckerling)

Intelligente, scintillante e mai fuori moda.

Dopo 25 anni, Clueless rimane un classico intelligente, affascinante e esilarante che cattura davvero quello che era come essere un adolescente negli anni '90. Alicia Silverstone brilla come la studentessa della scuola superiore di Beverly Hills di 15 anni, che prospera nello shopping, gode della vita sociale perfetta, e gioca matchmaker per tutti i suoi amici… non chiederle chi sta frequentando, AS IF! 

Regia di Amy Heckerling, il film interpreta anche Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison, Stacey Dash e Wallace Shawn. (E Jeremy Sisto de Sei Piedi Sotto.)

L'Immortale (2019 Marco D'Amore)

He co-wrote it as well as directing (his debut), along with Leonardo Fasoli, Maddelena Ravagli, Francesco Giacchio and Giulia Forgione.

D'Amore got his break working with the theatre troupe of Toni Servillo, from La Grande Bellezza.

Directly following Gomorrah Season 3, we find out that Ciro really is Immortal, as Genna's bullet hasn't killed him. He's sent on a mission to work for Russians in Latvia, cross cut against his life when young, working with a disreputable crook Gianni Vastarella. Young Ciro is played by Giuseppe Aiello, called 'L'Immortale' because as a baby he was the only survivor of an earthquake that killed every one else in the building, who worships a young singer Martina Attanasio. (Fagin and the Artful Dodger, and Bill Sykes and his girl Nancy?)

Anyway, adult Ciro gains the respect of the local Italians, who help him when a shipment is stolen by warring Latvians.

I have to say this all works terrifically well, right down to the ending, which  is pure bromance... Photographed by Guido Michelotti, edited by the indefatigable Patrizio Marone (who also cut Romanzo Criminale and Suburra, a Rome-set organized crime series for Netflix), music by Mokadelic.

Gomorrah: Season 3 (2017)

Leonardo Fasoli writing / head writer. Genna' and Ciro together take out the killer of Ciro's daughter - this scene takes place in a deserted house which is decorated in a style which I can only describe as like an acid nightmare. Then Ciro's off...

Genna's new mate Gegè (Edoardo Sorgente), who was an interior designer, is now looking after the father-in-law Giuseppe's fortune, but the latter finds out he's being swindled. I feel there's going to be some knock on from Genna's Honduran mate chopping fellows up in a supermarket. There is - he's beheaded when the Dons find out Genna's tried to do a deal with the Calabrians and he's battered and essentially banished to Secondigliano (why they didn't just kill him I don't know).

Meanwhile Ciro's been in Russia, where he kills his employers (self-protection), meets some Neopolitans, helps a young girl escape and returns to Napoli. A wee bit of atonement. So much for not killing any more. It doesn't take but a minute before he's running a new gang headed by Enzo 'Blue Blood' (Arturo Muselli) and - bouff! - he and Genna' are 'brothers' again, building up a new business empire as easy as you and I can say 'fanook'. (Ciro's only agreed to help his frenemy if it's to get his wife and kid back.) Working in the old town Forcella area (next to the Spanish Quarter), the new gang takes it back from the bosses. (I'd forgotten we'd visited this area in 2013.)

However, the horrible Shanel (Cristina Donadio) has revealed to the Syndicate that Genna is behind it all, and they kidnap his child until he gets in line. He's totally on the back foot for for some uncomfortable time, and there's a tense and brilliant showdown when Enzo and Ciro have to be sacrificed so Genna can get the family back. Patrizia comes into action twice - she's gotta get a Donship or something.

But then we have that season finale where Enzo finds out one of them has killed his sister - how? (Only these two knew.) But, having nothing to live for, Ciro takes the rap and Genna has to kill him...

I keep wondering when To Rome With Love's Alessandra Mastronardi's going to show up... wrong series - it's Romanzo Criminale she's in (and Master of None).

The haircuts are looking quite Peaky Blinders - do you think they were inspired?

Bad Times at The El Royale (2018 Drew Goddard & scr)

A man and a woman check into a motel... It begins rather like a play, then moves around in time, like Pulp Fiction, with chapter headings (but remains largely there). Almost everyone is not who they seem to be. There's a 'priest' Jeff Bridges, a hotel clerk, Lewis Pullman (Battle of the Sexes, Lean on Pete, Catch-22), a singer, Cynthia Erivo (who's British and a great singer, Harriet, Widows), Dakota Johnson, 'salesman' (who you know isn't) John Hamm, Cailee Spaeny and Chris Hemsworth.

A long and merry puddle, quite watchable though somewhat bonkers, photographed by Seamus McGarvey in widescreen, music by Michael Giacchino. Goddard co-wrote the crazy The Cabin in the Woods and The Martian.

Erivo's standing up to the maniac Hemsworth is one of the highlights.

Together (2021 Stephen Daldry)

Partly to-camera two-hander looking at couple Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy's relationship during lockdown, composed of many long takes. The subtle reactions of their son (Samuel Logan) add something, as does story of supermarket worker McAvoy's insulted. Also have to agree with the reviewer who singled out Horgan's long take on the infections statistics her mother dying in a care home. Written by Dennis Kelly.

Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003 Joe Wright, scr Adrian Hodges)

Rufus Sewell (a lovely performance), Rupert Graves, Helen McCrory (great as the arch-manipulator), Charlie Creed-Miles, Who's the counsellor, Sir Edward Hyde? Ian McDiarmid, Christian Coulson, Shirley Henderson, Martin Freeman, Peter Wight, Diana Rigg, David Bradley, Alice Patten (Lady Frances), Emma Pierson (Nell Gwynne), Sean Biggerstaff, Anne-Marie Duff, Eddie Marsan. Marsan plays Titus Oates, who spreads a load of shit about conspiring Catholics, spurred on by Graves. This Protestant v. Catholic stuff is nuts - thank Wilder we've got beyond this, indeed becoming more secular.

Adrian Hodges of course wrote the fabulous My Week with Marilyn and Peter and Wendy. This is a four hour interpretation for the BBC, and launched Wright into feature films. It's not really my cup of tea.

Good imagery: sleet at Charles I's execution, light show at beginning of two, plague dead.

Despite Charles striving for religious tolerance, the Test Act effectively outlawed Catholics from holding public office.

DP Ryszard Lenczewski; Eigil Bryld additional photography. Music: Rob Lane. Lovely editing: Paul Tothill. Production design: Sarah Greenwood. No one smokes - it hasn't been invented yet. Wigs Way-Hay!

In the Mood for La La (2021 Q)

Having watched this infuriatingly good short so often it was she who suggested I write it up. A mash up of two of her favourite films, with music courtesy of Nick's Film Jottings, she has managed to transcend mere technique in favour of carving out a delicate story in two and a half short minutes - a remarkable achievement. 

Favourite moments: that very first slowed down shot, the two Tonys, the moment Emma comes into the story and those remarkable final seconds, which could make a very very short film in its own right.

Absolutely indescribable.

Full film here.

Sherlock: The Sign of Three (2014 Colm McCarthy, scr Gatiss Moffat Thompson)

Watson and Mary's wedding. Sherlock works out Major Sholto is going to be killed (he's in the original novel 'The Sign of Four'). No idea how Holmes and Watson manage to get so drunk on the stag do. Loved the scene where Sherlock's 'interviewing' the women who have all been on a date with a 'ghost'. Largely played for comedy, including that with a ghoulish kid. The play on titles alludes to a sweet final moment.

DP Steve Lawes, editor Mark Davis.

Sherlock: The Empty Hearse (2014 Jeremy Lovering, scr Mark Gatiss)

Watson is understandably annoyed Sherlock hasn't told him he's been alive these past two years, and keeps hitting him. Title is a play on the short story 'The Empty House' in which Sherlock returns from the dead, explaining he's had to remain 'dead' to continue to destroy Moriarty's network - same here. Watson has also found himself a woman, Amanda Abbington. Meanwhile a strange occurrence in the London Underground links to a November 5 bomb plot.

Sherlock: "You've been letting things slide, Graham."
LaStrade: "Greg."
Lastrade hugs Sherlock.

Involves Sherlock geek fans and we still don't know how he survived that fall from the roof.

Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall (2012 Toby Haynes, scr Steve Thompson)

A nice twist on the short story 'The Final Problem' in which Sherlock 'dies' at the Reichenberg Falls - here it's the title of a lost Turner rather than the deadly Swiss chasm. But is sets up the same problem, only Moriarty's scheme is to first make Sherlock seem a fraud, cuing an amusing scene where he pretends to be a struggling actor - Richard Brook aka 'Reichen Bach' - employed by Sherlock to play Moriarty. Now I now this isn't exactly a docu-drama but anyone who has worked with Holmes or seen him in action - and that's a lot of people over time - wouldn't believe he's a fraud for a second. Also the climactic rooftop showdown on St Bart's is slightly lacking (the 'Fall'of the title). Still - good fun, and he has a sweet scene with Molly (Louise Brealey), and there's a sad graveyard one played perfectly by Martin Freeman.

A Canterbury Tale (1944 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)

There's these scenes... Like when Dennis Price comes over to interview Eric Portman, where something very subtle happens. Because of the way the script turns, and the shot sizes and positions change, and the sprinkles of music, you suddenly find you're somewhere else, like alchemy. There's no other film, not even a P&P film, like it.

We went this way for a Charlie Hawtrey double bill. Actually, John Slater's in both too.

Passport to Pimlico (1949 Henry Cornelius)

Yes, despite the million times we've seen it, I would not have been able to tell you who directed it - grip on the cast names also lacking.

Like the way Barbara Murray keeps both John Slater and Paul Dupuis at arm's length.

Georges Auric's score most refreshing, like a cucumber in a desert. Brilliantly written by T.E.B. Clarke.

Sherlock:The Hounds of Baskerville (2012 Paul McGuigan, writer Mark Gatiss)

Russell Tovey's been traumatised by a black dog upon the moors, even Sherlock sees it. But something fishy's going on at the MoD Baskerville research institute involving Amelia Bullmore and Clive Mantle. It turns out luminous bunny rabbits are relevant after all.

The Courtship of Eddy's Father (1962 released 1963 Vincente Minnelli)

Written by John Gay (novel Mark Toby), and anticipating Sleepless in Seattle, Eddy (confidently played by Ronny Howard) wants his dad Glenn Ford to get remarried - not to snooty Dina Merrill but to their lovely neighbour (who keeps leaving her door open - see - Freudian invitation) Shirley Jones. In a baggy sub-plot Stella Stevens is romanced by womaniser Jerry Van Dyke (Dick's brother); best bit when she plays the drums. Roberta Sherwood (better known as a singer) is the housekeeper.

Quite long but enjoyable. Being at MGM, Milton Krasner flashes the Metrocolor reds.

In Plain Sight (2016 John Strickland)

Writer Nick Stevens. 1956. Violent criminal Martin Compston (good) comes out of prison and starts tormenting DI Douglas Henshall with new crimes. The latter's wife Shauna Macdonald proves useful. Joanne Thomson is the female detective.

ITV three-parter.

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia (2012 Paul McGuigan, scr Steven Moffat)

This I think has to be one of the best Sherlock films, as we begin to get into the heart of the man. He clearly cares for Mrs Hudson, not allowing Mycroft to tell her to shut up, then when she's assaulted he drops the villain out of the window several times. He actually apologises to Molly after he's been mean to her for the upteenth time, and even kisses her on the cheek (check out astonished reaction from Watson). Meanwhile he's fascinated by dominatrix (cue all sorts of puns) Lara Pulver, whose opening appearance nude gives Sherlock nothing to guess at. The ending is divine, and I'm not going to spoil it for myself the next time, but I LOVED it!

Very clever screenplay. 'The Geek Interpreter' etc. (Weirdly The Greek Interpreter is the next short story I have to read.)

Benedict is a fabulous Sherlock.

DP Fabian Wagner, editor Charlie Phillips.

Gomorrah - La Serie - Season Two (2016)

I thought at the time that Ciro should have shot Genny in the head - he survives. Meanwhile Ciro's wife is getting nervous - 'Everything's over' Ciro keeps reassuring her, knowing it isn't. As predicted, she doesn't survive the episode. A year later, Genny has built up the Honduras connection, reunites with dad in Germany where they run into a local Calabrian problem; Pietro isn't looking well. There's a lot of glowering in this show, lots of long aggressive looks...

Conte behaves mysteriously, alienates other gang members. Ciro uses this to stoke discontent. There's a power play when we think Ciro's been double-crossed but it's Conte who's slished, in the Basilica (ironically as he's always been a religious nut). Pietro comes back to Napoli, holed up in this mini flat with a tiny door - don't think there's an Alice in Wonderland allusion going on. In an attempt to make peace Gennaro and Ciro meet in Trieste, the former doesn't kill the latter. (All this stuff with the 3D printed gun is a bit silly really - I'm sure Ciro could just as easily have picked up a gun locally.)

Then Don Pietro is being looked after by a feisty lady called Patrizia (Cristiana Dell'Anna), who burns off her tattoo after Pietro has glowered at her enough times. Genny has a bird back in Rome, and a horrible apartment that is supposedly in the height of taste. His mate Principe (Antonio Folletto) is having more success cutting the drugs and selling threefold, provoking jealousy - Pietro (who I'm heartily sick of) comes out of hiding to kill him.

Power play - power play - blah blah.

Patrizia's holding her own with Pietro.. but she's uncovered as the Messenger and is then in great danger - cue good car chase scene ending up going the wrong way on the motorway. She gets Gennaro and Pietro out of danger, herself in it - yet Ciro can't kill her - he says he's killed too much. She ends up in bed with Pietro. The war escalates and Ciro's daughter is murdered. This is too much for him and he quits, but Gennaro seeks him out (he's in such a state he hasn't shaved his face or head) and makes him kill Pietro, leaving a nice power vacuum.

Genna' himself has played a dangerous move, getting his father-in-law in Rome imprisoned so he can take over.

We still don't like anyone and there's no humour, so it's more in the Top Boy ballpark. The design, whether poor or rich houses - is horrible.  It seems a lot of this originates in the true account of the Di Lauro clan, described in detail by Vanity Fair.

Remarkably, Patrizio Marone continues to edit every single episode. And Paolo Carnero shot them all also. Stefano Sollima is still credited with 'Supervisione artistica'.

Sherlock: The Great Game (2010 Paul McGuigan, writer Mark Gatiss)

Sherlock is set a series of puzzles by his arch nemesis Moriarty, who is finally revealed in the delicious form of Andrew Scott, with innocent people at risk. The final showdown by a swimming pool has Watson in bomb vest - I would have jumped in the pool, but maybe that wouldn't have worked, and then there's a cliffhanger series ending. Watson is getting a little pissed off with Sherlock's lack of emotion, but as the latter points out, 'Does emotion save lives?'

Sherlock: The Blind Banker (2010 Steve Thompson, director Euros Lyn)

Watson tries to get a job, ends up dating Zoe Telford. Chinese are after precious artefacts. Gemma Chan's in it. Not quite as successful as the first one.

DP Steve Lawes, editor Mali Evans.

Sherlock: A Study in Pink (2010 Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, director Paul McGuigan)

I didn't know there had been a pilot, never broadcast, of 60 minutes, which the BBC decided wasn't long enough. This is incredibly brilliant in its reworking of the Sherlock Holmes myth into contemporary London, that Watson is still an ex-Afghanistan soldier is entirely and ironically fitting. Holmes' deductions are quite apt and clever; their growing friendship sets it apart. The actual murder story - Phil Davies forces people to choose between the good pill and the bad one - is somewhat crazy.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman - inspired casting. Plus Rupert Graves, Una Stubbs, Louise Brealy, Vinette Robinson, Stanley Townsend, Mark Gatiss.

Has a quite incredible editing style too Charlie Phillips, photographed by Steve Lawes.

The Woman in the Window (2021 Joe Wright)

I don't know why this is so reviled - it's a perfectly entertaining, slightly bonkers, somewhat old-fashioned thriller, with a flavour set up by the early film clip references - Rear Window, Laura, Spellbound and Dark Passage.

Amy Adams is the slightly loopy agoraphobic. Opposite are Fred Hechinger (young man), Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Julianne Moore. Wyatt Russell is the tenant, Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta's 'Paper Boi', also If Beale Street Could Talk) the nice cop.

DP Bruno Delbonnel, editor Valerio Bonnelli, music Danny Elfman. Screenplay Tracy Letts (August: Osage County), who is also the doctor, from A.J. Finn novel.

Loved the 'flashback' with the crashed car that actually is there in the apartment - the stairs missing sides at the end...

It was apparently rewritten without Letts after previews and extra scenes added - never a good sign - or is it?