Vanished… From The Schedules

Amid no fanfare and barely a trailer to be seen, the UK’s fifth terrestrial channel has begun to show another US import. Vanished appears to be a child of the genre that has brought us 24, Prison Break, or Murder One (if you’re a little older) where the action from the entire series revolves around a single story with lots of different threads and characters to provide added intrigue.� I was actually quite impressed.� There was enough mystery and revelation to keep up viewer

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Tags: 24, Five, Five-US, Modern Drama, Prison-Break, Vanished

Where Do We Go From Here?

Hustle is back on our screens, although it’s not as if the omni-present Marc Warren has actually been off screen for very long at all, given his roles in Dracula, Doctor Who, Hogfather et al. Not all of the old gang are back though because this time Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester) has been written out and is alledgedly on the far side of the world trying to sell the Sydney Opera House. Leaderless, the team rather oddly turn to Danny to take the reins, which is a decision that, in the

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Tags: BBC1, Billy-Bond, Hustle, Marc-Warren, Modern Drama, Patricia-Hodge

Kingdom/House

Well, who could’ve predicted the winding career paths of Messrs Fry and Laurie after they first came to our attention in the early days of Saturday Live, Blackadder and A Bit Of Fry and Laurie? A lot of water has passed under many a bridge since then but we now find each of them in weekly doses in two astonishingly different drama series.� In fact, “drama” is quite a strong word to describe Kingdom.� A classic, British, Sunday night viewing experience in the style of Heartbeat, i.e. it

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Tags: Five, Hermione-Norris, House, ITV, Kingdom, Modern Drama, Stephen-Fry, Tony-Slattery

Emilia Fox with Problems of Her Own

Fallen Angel was a compelling piece of drama and it took a different and refreshing approach from the traditional concept of the psychopath storytelling focussing on the “why” rather than the “who”.� It was shown over three nights on ITV in 90 minute installments but they were in reverse chronological order.� The first part saw Angela (Emilia Fox) sharing a house with Eddie (played brilliantly by Mark Benton) as a fairly unpleasant duo who were planning to kidnap a child.� Eddie was

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Tags: Charles-Dance, Clare-Holman, Emilia-Fox, Fallen-Angel, Mark-Benton, Modern Drama, Period Drama

Morris Hits Hides The Bottle

There is something wierd about 24 this season. We have now seen up to 5pm (after kicking off Series Six at 7am) and I’m starting to get the distinct impression that I’ve seen it all before.� Jack is alternating between following the rules and going completely off piste, inside CTU there is much back-stabbing and people being vaguely ridiculous as the lie and cheat to their bosses while trying to save the world, the president is off letting any old Tom, Dick or Unabomber into the

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Tags: 24, CTU, Jack-Bauer, Modern Drama

New Kid On The Block

The tragic death of John Thaw five years ago came just a couple of years after the broadcast of the final episode of Inspector Morse and, in the eyes of the ardent fans of the show, all but signalled the end of that particular chapter of their devotion. However, in not so much a flood of publicity but more of a trickle, it was announced that devoted sidekick Seargeant Lewis was to get a promotion and a series of his own. Lewis is certainly hewn from the same rock as Morse,

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Tags: ITV, John-Thaw, Lewis, Modern Drama, Morse