Dancing On The Edge

This was a great five-part series that intrigued and made a big impact.

This 1930s period drama was a vibrant and well developed story around the struggle of the Louis Lester Band, a black jazz band who faced scrutiny, discrimination, but found fame. It had many aspects including journalist Stanley Mitchell who discovered the band run by its namesake and strove to get them heard and recognised. It was good how Louis and Stanley developed a friendship and the band were able to become famous through Stanley's connections to Arthur Donaldson and Lady Cremone, and their approval by royalty.

This, along with the music, added a stylish and unique quality, making me be able to enjoy the songs and made it a great soundtrack to help the story develop. In turn the series also used the scrutiny that black people faced as the band had to have constant employment in order to be allowed to stay in the country, apart from Louis who was originally born in the UK. This is emphasised by the deportation of the band's manager Wesley, who was actually also born in the UK, but couldn't find his birth certificate to prove it.

Louis' relationship with Sarah Peters added a sweat and light quality to the series and it helped to develop the characters well especially with their sad parting of the ways. In turn Stanley's relationship with Pamela Luscombe, his friendship with Lady Cremone, Donaldson's encourage towards Jessie to awaken from her coma and the changes made at Stanley's music magazine made the series full of various storylines and interesting ways to see the character's develop and form.

From the start there was a mystery of Walter Masterson and Julian Luscombe especially when Louis was pulled into helping to dealt with a drunken women found in Masterson's room. Also the plot thickened with the attack on the band's lead singer Jessie Taylor which further created mystery as Julian seemed to be the last person to see her before it happened and she herself didn't seem to be herself. Then her later death came as a shock and started to reveal what the flash forwards at the start of the episodes had been about Louis getting accused of Jessie's murder and having to go on the run. Then the ending was tense as Julian planned to shot Masterson but instead killed himself leaving a confession to Jessie's murder.

Matthew Goode and Chiwetel Ejiofor gave great performances as Stanley and Louis, along with Angel Coulby, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Head, Joanna Vanderman, Janet Montgomery and Tom Hughes who were really good and added a lot to the episode. Other cast including Wunmi Mosaku, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Goodman and Ariyon Bakare all did well to support the main cast and hold their own.

Silent Witness - Series 16

A very powerful series, displaying its strength and integrity.

Initially the series has to deal with the departure of Harry Cunningham played by Tom Ward who left the show between this and the last series and his replacement in the form of Jack does work well to bring another aspect to the show. Although not the most likable character, his knowledge and work in forensics brings an interesting new side to the investigations especially in the first story where the techniques he used were effectively created and made to look stylised and interesting. Moreover, this interaction with established characters Nikki Alexander and Leo Dalton worked well. The addition of Jack's assistant Clarrisa Mullery also helped to strength the team and to allow for more of the technically side to come out.

The stories in this series were, as ever, dark, gritty and poignant. The first story, Change, saw the lengths someone would go in order to secure the future of a suffering business, especially when faces from the past emerged. Although with this one I wasn't really sure about the sceptical attitude of the leading investigator DS Gold. The second one, Trust, saw to contrasting stories of trust where is had been abused in order to develop a deadly form of anthrax or it had been lost in the premature death of a baby believed to have been murdered but later found to have been natural causes.

The third, True Love Waits, saw the destructiveness of love as a man would do anything including murder in order to find his wife and control her life again. Within this there was a better development of the police officer character, DI Kate Warren, as she faced pressure from her high ranking father to solve the case quickly leading her to conceal evidence. Then the fourth, Legacy, revealed a conspiracy to hid a nuclear warhead that led to the deaths of two boys and the questioning of Leo's conduct by Nikki.

The final story, Greater Love, saw a lot of elements with a shock ending. It's quite a dark story, with the team going to Afghanistan to investigate human remains believed to be that of missing and presumed dead soldier Dan Lambert. The story was tense as it twisted and turned and often my suspicions over what really happened and who was responsible would shift from terrorists to rogue British soldiers. It also tried to highlight the motives behind terrorists through Nikki's interaction with some Taliban prisoners, one of which was later identified as Lambert having been forced to join and brainwashed. It ended in a very dramatic way as Lambert was forced to be a suicide bomber in order to destroy the water project, but Leo sacrifice himself by leading Lambert away before the blast took place.

William Gaminara is superb in his final series, along with great performances from Emilia Fox, David Caves and Liz Carr. The guest cast included Sharon Small, Anna Brewster, Derek Riddell, Bryan Dick, Bill Ward, Ashley Chin, Adam James, Christine Bottomley, Rob Jarvis, David Murray, Penny Downie, Ed Stoppard, Cal Macaninch, Richard Johnson, Mark Womack, Joe Doyle, Chris Reilly and Brana Bajic, who all gave good performances and made their stories unique and work well.

Black Mirror: Series 2 - Episode 3

This last episode highlighted issues of politics, satire and technology.

The story follows failed comedian Jamie Salter who voices a cartoon blue bear Waldo, whose appearance on a satirical comedy show. In this setting it was interesting to see how Waldo, portrayed as a children's character, was used in quite a grotesque satirical way in order to attack politicians and other figure, while Jamie expressed no interest in politics and was only in it for the comedy. In turn Jamie's struggle with life compared to the success of Waldo helped to create a believable and connectible character.

It was interesting to see how Jamie was constantly pressured into entering the world of politics as Waldo's success spiralled. This success came after a passionate speech that Jamie makes through Waldo about the state of politics and how useless it could be and used just to further a career. This is especially seen with the prospect that Waldo could win the election which would be a really weird situation. Although this doesn't happen, it raises good questions about the influence of technology, especially how it has become a central part of the political campaigning machine.

It was also good how Jamie's relationship with Gwendolyn Harris works well to add a bit of light to the episode and makes it more terrible when during the speech mentioned above on a televised debate show, he attacks the main rival Liam Morgan but also Gwendolyn after she rejected him because she was told by her campaign manager to not associate with him. This led to Jamie refusing to do anymore of Waldo, but under pressure relented and then tried to convince people to not vote for Waldo and left the van in which Waldo was created. It was also a sad ending to see that Jamie had become homeless while Waldo the brand had gone worldwide.

Daniel Rigby gave a great performance as Jamie, really holding the episode, while Chloe Pirrie, Jason Flemying, Tobias Menzies, Christina Chong, James Lance and Michael Shaeffer all gave good performances and really working to make it a strong story.

Black Mirror: Series 2 - Episode 2

This was an initially creepy and unusual story with a very surprising twist.

The episode opened with an intriguing mystery of Victoria Skillane who wakes up in a bedroom, not being able to remember who she is. It was interesting and creepy as she adventured outside to find everyone filming her every move. This was an weird and good idea explore and reflect as this does seem to be a thing nowadays that whenever something happens people start filming it. The apocalyptic situation is well thought through and was a scary concept.

The tension is built up again with the introduction of Jem, Damian and Baxter, especially as Baxter, who had initially saved Victoria and Jem from the voyageurs: the people constantly filming, then turned on them and was about to torture Victoria before being shot dead by Jem. The constant use of flashbacks also helps to create more mystery and intrigue around the truth identity of Victoria and why this world exists.

The revelation of the truth was in itself twisted and such a shock. Victoria was revealed to be an accomplice to the kidnap and murder of a toddler by her fiance. She had filmed the whole thing and was found guilty and sentenced in a kind of eye for an eye situation where she has to suffer this strange world everyday and then be made to remember in front of a baiting group as part of a reality tv show. This is a very twisted concept of punishment and it was kind of strange to feel sympathy for Victoria especially when her mind is being wiped by some electrodes while having to watch the footage she filmed.

Lenora Crichlow gave a fantastic performance as Victoria, really allowing for me to connect with the character and maintain that even when the character's true identity was revealed. The rest of the main cast, including Michael Smiley, Tuppence Middleton, Ian Bonar, Nick Ofield, Russell Barnett and Imani Jackman, all gave great portrayals of their characters enabling me to believe in the fake world that they aimed to create.

Mary & Martha

This was a powerful one-off drama about the effects of malaria on two mother's lives.

This was the story of two mothers, Mary and Martha, whose sons George and Ben tragically die of malaria after visiting Mozambique. Mary and Martha are contrasting characters with differing lives but they are united in grief and work well together. The chemistry between is well developed and the two act as very strong and empowering individuals. Their journey shows the need for help and resources that Africa needs in order to combat, not just malaria, but diseases in general.

It did show a good side to Africa, with its beauty, animals, its modernisation and the great work of that volunteers can achieve. In turn it showed the devastating effects of malaria, with the condition itself, the difficulty to get help in time and the way the death of George was shot in a fast paced manner was effective in showing how the disease rapidly takes the sufferer's life. The aftermath scenes are very powerful and emotive allowing for me to develop a great connection and concern for the characters.

Both women's reaction are very understandable and Richard Curtis' script goes far to make it a heart-breaking and yet positive story. This positivity came with their determination to make a change that led them to fight and tackle the political policy machine in order to increase aid tot he children affected. The scene in the committee was so powerful, well scripted and performance making it an important message about the work countries need to do in order to help prevent malaria.

Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn gave superb performances as Mary and Martha, along with Lux Haney-Jardine as George and Sam Claflin as Ben who also gave good performances. The supporting cast did well including Frank Grillo, Ian Redford, Bongo Mbutuma and Nokuthula  Ledwaba.

Spies Of Warsaw

This two-part period spy thriller was a great one-off epic.

 Based on the novel by Alan Furst, this story felt different from a usual spy drama, which was mainly due to the central character Lt. Col. Jean-Francois Mercier. He wasn’t the usual spy, who enjoys mingling with the wealthy, womanising and seeking the big action, but instead felt more like a normal person who didn’t like the pomp and ceremony and spied in a very secret and well organised way in order for him to remain undetected.

Mercier's relationship with Anna Skarbek was also different as it wasn't the usual thing of the woman just falls for the man. Mainly by the fact that Anna is in a relationship and the supposed death of her partner Max Mostov leads her to flee to Spain, while Mercier is sent to Czechoslovakia. It was good how having the two start an affair and then get torn apart allowed for me to want them to find each other again and reunite, which later happens. The two character alone do a lot to keep the story going and showing different aspects of the pre-war Europe that we may not know much about.

The setting of the story, in pre-war 1937 Warsaw where the emerging presence of the Nazis and the prospect of war make it a very interesting background. This setting allowed for much of the tension to be created as Mercier tried to discover what the Nazis were planning and at the end of the story where Mercier and Anna had to escape Warsaw, while a Jewish couple took their own lives after becoming informants for Mercier and pursued by the Nazis, which was done in a very touching and appropriate manner.

There were great performances from David Tennant as Mercier and Janet Montgomery as Anna, with good portrayals from Ellie Haddington, Piotr Baumann, Marcin Dorocinski, Radoslaw Kaim, Linda Bassett and Allan Corduner.

Black Mirror: Series 2 - Episode 1

This was a compelling opening episode to the second series dealing with a very interesting concept.

Centring around the idea of being able to talk to a virtual version pasted love one constructed from their social media content, the story of Martha's struggle in the aftermath of the death of her boyfriend Ash was very interesting. I have myself thought about how it could be possible to construct a clone version of yourself from the content we place on social network sites and this story shows the positives and negatives of this possibility. The scheme in the story uses public information at first to allow people to talk via email to the virtual versions of their love ones and then allowing the use of private information enables for a more authentic version to emerge. An idea which is terrifying and intriguing at the same time.

I can see how the idea would help people to cope with the grief but at the same time it would stop the person from moving on. It also fed into this idea of how much social media has integrated into their lives and how much control it could have over us. This can certainly be seen when the software was able to replicate Ash's voice and then when she moved onto the next level. This was where Martha was able to 'brew' a physical clone of Ash, which when revealed was creepy.

The character of Martha was a strong and very easy to sympathise with and it was understandable how she changed from disgust at initially learning of the scheme to her later use of it. She held and carried the story way and she makes me consider what I would do in that situation. Her development throughout worked well and her conflicting emotions over what she did were interesting to see, especially as she realises that the clone was not really Ash and how it couldn't portray the real character of its namesake. When she tells the clone to jump over a cliff it was very powerful and the ending left a few questions in the air.

Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson gave great performances and really made the story strong and powerful.