Shondaland’s mega hit series Bridgerton Season Four drops tomorrow! ‘Nuff said, your Ladyship.

Canadian celebrity chef and actor Matty Matheson’s YouTube channel is a hit and now he’s landed a cooking series on Netflix. However, Just a Dash is the only cooking show that made me lose my appetite. He feeds the public in twelve restaurants and NEVER WASHES HIS HANDS., even after using the loo, proudly stating that bacteria “endorse” a person. I know of him from The Bear; he’s funny and idiosyncratic but his persona here is purposely out of control.  Episode 1 begins as

Ladies over forty, there’s finally a highly entertaining series aimed squarely at us and boy does it hit! Right in the heart and brain. The Riot Women concerns four women, empty nesters, in different marital places and at loose ends as to how to re-ignite their lives. They are Beth (Joanna Scanlan), Kitty (Rosalie Craig), Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne) and Holly (Tamsin Greig). Now Beth’s opening scenes are distressing, she’s trying to hang herself; her husband went off with anot

After generations have spoken out and made films about their experiences as Jews during the Holocaust ( holocaust , derived from a Greek word meaning “burnt offering”, we think we know what went down as racially hypnotised, craven German, Ukrainian Slovakian, Romanian, Croatian, Hungarian , Bulgarian and Vichy French, along with Norwegians, Belgians and the Dutch participated in the murder of millions of Jews in Europe.  In these and other states, military, law enforcement a

Amazon / Acorn TV ’s old fashioned pulse pounder Steal is a clever finance thriller that reveals itself slowly and assuredly; but its sense of dread and audacious twists  is pure catnip.  Set in a London business district high rise, it follows two successful young traders – Zara (Sophie Turner) and her best friend, the slightly less self-confident Luke (Archie Madekwe). They’re close and spend time together. One afternoon, three thieves, armed with machine guns, burst into th

Testament of Ann Lee is a gut-wrenching story of a woman’s faith that will have you spinning.  Ann Lee, (Amanda Seyfried) born in Manchester UK in 1736 had a peculiar life. The opening sequence finds a group of pioneer women bending to the ground and throwing themselves towards heaven while chanting their way through a forest. Lee sailed to Massachusetts where she proclaimed her Methodist beliefs in concert with fellow believers, who as their numbers increased came to be know

Apple Tree Yard, released theatrically in 2017 is now available as a series well worth resurrecting. Sure, there are problems with pacing and our changing feelings about the characters, but hang on – the slow burn is ideal, things feel lifelike and resonant and at the en when we are slammed with a wildly unexpected double twist, we say to ourselves, I thought I knew them, how did I miss that. The sexually driven suspense thriller based on the novel by Louise Doughty stars Em

The moodiest of moody murder mysteries, the original series Shetland now on BritBox enters its tenth season with the deeply shocking murder of an elderly woman on a remote, isolated island farm.  Septuagenarian Eadie ( Maria MacDonell ) is found dead by neighbour Colin, a gruesome outdoor scene in full view of the surrounding empty lands. Tulloch had been bound and strangled with heavy ropes the kind used in the local fishing industry, and left in place for several days. DI

It’s 1910 and Murdoch Mysteries takes us on a brief train ride to Calgary, where Det. Murdoch and Inspector Brackenreid are to attend the first ever Calgary Stampede, known then simply as The Stampede.  Google states stampede has many shades of meaning and they apply in tonight’s Murdoch in the Saddle . “ Key Characteristics Sudden & Uncontrolled: Movement happens quickly and without order. Fear/Excitement: Often driven by panic or high emotion. Directional: A shared, rapid

If you feel you’ve had too many happy moments during the holidays and need to balance your fate with something grim, be sure to catch  the multi -award winning thriller Rosemead.   Lucy Liu plays Irene, a struggling Los Angeles single mother with terminal cancer – she hasn’t told her schizophrenic son Joe ( Lawrence Shou ). He’s in a world of his own pain following the death of his father and is unpredictable, violent and acts out at school; his irresponsibility leads to prob

Rowan Atkinson stars as Trevor Bingley in the comedy series Man vs Baby a meek fellow separated from his beloved wife and daughter and living alone in an isolated farmhouse. Christmas nears and he expects be with them but they’re both going to Barbados with his wife’s new beau. He’s a caretaker and oddsbody at a local school setting up for the Christmas Pageant.  He finds an infant in a basket on the front step, no note and everyone’s gone. He pits it in the manger. He can’t

One of the most enduring marriages in the world of entertainment, between Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon has lasted thirty-seven years. They made three films together – Lemon Sky, Pyrates and Murder in the First and their fourth, The Best You Can opens on Christmas Day. Quite a statement about enduring and enjoying one another personally and professionally – it warms the heart.   The film opens as Kyra’s Cynthia is told her much older husband Warren (Judd Hirsch) has dementia;

Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar opens with her powerful statement. “Ill use my pain. If you want to hear something from me, you’ll hear it. I’m gonna thunder this through their brain”.  Given her life story, forced into acting as a child, based on her beauty and fortunately, talent, as a “commodity” (in her words) there seems to have been strong resentment and a sense of rebellion, but there was lnothing she could do.  She was forced to do love scenes with middle actors whe

If you were conscious in 1975 and lived in North America, you will remember it as a turbulent year, of upheaval, new ideas and post hippy social awareness. It was a banner year for bold, impressive and timely films; that’s the lens through which Morgan Neville illustrates what happened and why in his superb documentary Breakdown: 1975 .  His premise is that America suffered a “nervous breakdown” due to the pressures of old values that were no longer viable.  Twenty years figh

Maria Friedman’s feature direction of the live version of 4-time Tony-winning Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along surprised me in all the right ways. Now in theatrical release it follows a trio of friends, lyricist Charley played by Daniel Radcliffe, composer Franklin from Jonathan Groff with Lindsay Mendez as writer Mary over twenty years -backwards!  Expecting it to feel hemmed in, limited to a single set, “theatrical” and confusing, it’s a brilliant experiment that cas

Jane Seymour’s Irish private investigator series Harry Wild has proven to be a fan favourite for Acorn TV.   To celebrate, the current S4 ends with a bang with a feature length episode that has all the series’ bells and whistles. Seymour’s deeply intuitive approach to her work, is aided by her young, rather brilliant “intern” Fergus (Rohan Nedd) who shares her gift and drive for the job. They attend the wedding of Vicky and Cormac, a couple of upper crusties and everyone’s

Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice and Michelle Thrush lead a small cast in Meadowlarks from Tasha Hubbard. They’re Cree siblings – Anthony, Connie, Marianne and Gwen, taken from their shared mother and sent to non-Indigenous homes. The Canadian government took by force native children from their home and families to send them to residential schools. There, they would be taught to be white Christians.  The horrific practice under four Prime Ministers – John Diefenbake

Ok, so Frank Hathaway and Lu Shakespeare (Mark Benton, Jo Joyner) had a “disagreement” and broke up their two-person detective agency in Stratford-Upon-Avon after four seasons. Shakespeare and Hathaway S5 launches on BritBox Nov 25 but what to expect? After two years not speaking, and launching separate agencies, they find themselves thrown together to investigate Rina and Preston a pair of celebrity TV home renovators.  Both “couples” are spatting.  Our dicks are called in

Publishing feminist pioneer Jule Campbell is the subject of a documentary with a cultural edge, written and directed by her daughter Jill. Beyond the Gaze looks at the groundbreaking career of the photographer’s decades putting together the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. The annual issue dramatically outpaced any other by leaps and bounds , the highest earner, typically bringing in $15 M a year (equivalent $78M today). A no brainer, right?  Sports fans – presumed to be

How heartbreakingly ironic that just days before the release of Sallywood , the fact-based feature on her career and bond of friendship with a fan that could have relaunched it, Sally Kirkland passed away. She’d entered hospice in Palm Springs yesterday for an unknown condition. She died today (Nov 11) leaving a legacy of 275 film projects, one Best Actress Oscar and a heartbroken young friend. Kirkland plays herself in the true story of a young dreamer/writer and number one