At Bad Wilf Towers Martyn, Gerrod and Pete look at The Five Doctors. Martyn gets overly drunk and starts prank calling a good deal of the Western Hemisphere.
Author: Martyn
Blu Ray review: Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire is produced by heavyweight director Martin Scorsese, every episode feels cinematic and the costumes are as authentic as anything you would see in a BBC period drama and is another jewel in HBO’s crown, the US broadcaster has never made a bad series and is pioneers when it comes to gritty realism. The series is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the roaring twenties, just as prohibition laws are about to take effect. Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) is a leading political figure that also runs the murky underworld of the city, if you need anything, you see Nucky.
As prohibition laws are being implemented across America, Nucky takes advantage of his geographical proximity to Canada and starts illegally importing booze. This is a complex and rewarding show. The Scorsese-directed pilot is a great introduction to life on the Boardwalk.
Boardwalk Empire has won eight Emmy awards and two Golden Globes, with actors such as Steve Buscemi, Stephen Graham, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Pitt on the top of their game, that isn’t surprising. The complexities of the stories make it almost impossible to review without spoiling the series, so I’ll end the review here.
Special Features
A. Audio Commentary (E1) w/ Terry Winter
B. Audio Commentary (E4) w/ Terry Winter, Steve Buscemi, Michael Williams
C. Audio Commentary (E6) w/ Tim VanPatten, Howard Korder
D. Audio Commentary (E8) w/ Terry Winter, Brian Kirk
E. Audio Commentary (E11) w/ Howard Korder, Allen Coulter, Michael Shannon
F. Audio Commentary (E12) w/ Terry Winter, Tim VanPatten
G. Making Boardwalk Empire (25:00 appx.)
H. Creating the Boardwalk (8:00 appx.)
I. Atlantic City: The Original Sin City (30:00 appx.)
J. Speakeasy Tour (25:00 appx.)
K. Character Dossier (available in English only from the English menu set)
L. Previews & Recaps
M. Enhanced Viewing
DVD review: Endeavour
Endeavour was filmed as a one-off to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Inspector Morse. But, with overnight ratings of 6.5 million and rave reviews I fully expect this to become a regular 
series, or at the very least a series of yearly one-off specials.
Now I was never an Inspector Morse fan, but even I was sceptical, I thought that a prequel would be a huge misstep. I was wrong. I say I was never a Morse fan, as I was a bit too young to fully appreciate it. However, I do love the spin-off, Lewis.
It’s 1965 and rookie Detective Constable Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) has become disillusioned with the police force and is considering quitting when he, along with and a few other detectives are drafted in by Detective Inspector Thursday (Roger Allam) to assist in the investigation of a missing schoolgirl, the school girl soon turns up dead and it becomes a murder investigation.
Endeavour is an excellent police drama next to Sherlock this is the best thing I’ve seen on TV this year. The script is solid and stands out on its own, this still would have been an interesting piece of drama had in not been a prequel. There are a few references to the parent show, but they don’t overshadow your enjoyment.
The performances are solid everybody is at the top of their game here. Roger Allam is perfect as Morse’s mentor. Thursday sees something in Morse that he hasn’t seen before and is protective and encouraging of his young apprentice.
Shaun Evans as always gives a stand out performance here. Although he doesn’t look like John Thaw, he manages to capture the essence of Morse perfectly. He doesn’t overplay it; it’s sometimes just the way he stands or his smile that just immediately make you believe that he is the younger version of Inspector Morse. You can’t help but grin when he first sits behind the wheel of the famous red jag.
The end scene where he sees John Thaw’s reflection in the Jag’s rear-view mirror was touching and a nice little nod to fans. This is a great little gem of television and I really hope we get more.
Nina Sosanya interview
I was lucky enough to take part in an e-mail interview with Nina Sosanya, about her role in Sky One’s adaptation of Treasure Island.
What attracted you to this project??
I love dressing up! I’ve done a lot of Shakespeare and his contemporaries on stage, and I get to dress up in corsets and big wigs quite a lot for that. But on television, a lot of the stuff that I do is contemporary, where I’m wearing stuff from Next. This is just right up my street really and it’s a great adventure. The whole genre is incredibly romantic. It’s fun, though not in a Pirates of the Caribbean way – it’s quite dark, it’s quite earthy and I kind of liked all of that. I wish I could have played a pirate and I think Alibe is the next best thing.
Can you describe your character?
She is talked about very briefly at the end of the book when they’re talking about what Silver does and they say that he goes off with his ‘mulatto’ wife. She has no name and it’s about as much mention as she gets. I’m playing Alibe Silver who is that wife.
Barguments-Episode 1
In this new podcast, Martyn and Imran from Bad Wilf are joined by Tony Gallichan from The Flashing Blade podcast and Professor Dave from Professor Dave’s Ark in Space.
Pub issues are discussed. It’s just a pilot, so expect rough sound quality.
If you wish to take part in an episode of Barguments, you’ll be able to join our forthcoming Facebook page and leave us a comment.
Listen Now: bargumentspodcast.podbean.com
Episode 52: Christmas and K-9
In which your heroes look at this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, ‘The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe’. As well as the Aussie K-9 spin-off.
“The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2011, it is the seventh Doctor Who Christmas special since the show’s revival in 2005. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Farren Blackburn.
K-9 is a British-Australian comedy-adventure series focusing on the adventures of the robot dog K-9 from the television show Doctor Who, achieved by mixing computer animation and live-action. It is aimed at an audience of 11- to 15-year-olds. A single series of the programme was made in Brisbane, Australia, with co-production funding from Australia and the United Kingdom. It aired in 2009 and 2010 on Network Ten in Australia, and on Disney XD in the UK, as well as being broadcast on other Disney XD channels in Europe.
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Episode 51: Doctor Who-Genesis of the Daleks
In which Martyn, Gerrod and, Pete record in the same location for the first time. We discuss Genesis of the Daleks, then go off-topic.
Happy Merry New Year! 🎉
Genesis of the Daleks is the fourth serial of the twelfth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney, and originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975 on BBC1.
The podcast is available from all good podcast services, such as but not limited to Amazon Music, Podchaser, Player FM, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.
Check out our Youtube.
If you’d like to support the show, then please shop via our Amazon link. A small percentage goes our way, at no extra cost to you.
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DVD review: Micky Flanagan: The Out Out Tour
If you like stand up comedy then you can’t go wrong with this offering from Micky Flanagan.
The DVD includes a whole host of new material, as well as some of his older material, which includes the jokes “out-out” and asking for ketchup in a restaurant.
Flanagan’s charm is that he comes across as less of a performer and more as a friend, talking to a room full of friends. Which adds to his warmth and depth.
Micky went to a school, where driving a van was an ambition too far beyond the comprehension of the average student.
Micky is a skilful comedian and excels at observational humour. If you prefer your comedians safe, like Michael McIntyre, then this isn’t for you.
Micky Flanagan is a star in the making, it takes a serious amount of skill to turn the mundanity of watching a kettle boil, or running a bath into a laugh out loud stand-up routine, but he manages it effortlessly.
THOR Blu Ray review
Origin movies are incredibly difficult to get right, for every Spider-man there’s a Daredevil. 
Unfortunately Thor is more Matt Murdock, than Peter Parker.
The movie is a bit of a mess, the pacing is way off and they recycle the same gag, every three minutes. I could never escape the feeling that there were a few scenes missing.
The humans believe Thor’s story all too quickly and I would have liked to see more of Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman talking about Life, the universe and everything. Or at the very least convince me that there was something going on between them. I just didn’t believe in their romantic relationship. I believed they were friends, but nothing more. Some great characters were criminally underused, as a Marvel geek I was excited to see them in the movie, but I just got the feeling they were there for merchandising. It could be that their backstory was included in the missing scenes I spoke of earlier.
The cast is great, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Idris Elba as Heimdall and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, all put it great performances. But a special mention must go to Tom Hiddleston, he plays Loki brilliantly. With villains, there is always a danger of over, or underacting. He turns in a great, believable performance. Now whilst I have issues with the way certain characters are used, that doesn’t mean I thought they were miscast.
There are slight nods and references to other characters in the Marvel universe when Loki’s robot turns up on Earth the S.H.I.E.L.D agents ask “One of Stark’s?”. This movie handles the future setups better Iron Man 2 did, the references don’t just feel like a checklist to pave the way for future Marvel films.
I’m hoping that Thor will work better as part of an ensemble team, in The Avengers. But, he has yet to win me over. It’s really a telling sign, when the 1:45 minute, the post-credit sequence made me more excited than the whole movie.
Special Features:
- Commentary by director Kenneth Branagh
- Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant
- Featurettes
- Road to the Avengers
- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary
- Teaser Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
- Avengers Animated Trailer
Thor is out now on DVD, Triple Play and Blu Ray
Spoiler-Free Review: Sherlock
I’ll admit to being sceptical when I first heard the news that Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat were adapting Sherlock for the 21st century. But, it worked. Sherlock was easily the best thing on the television in 2010. 
Episode one picks up exactly where the last episode left our heroes, by the swimming pool with Moriarty and covered with sniper dots.
Some viewers will be disappointed by the resolution, but I loved it, it was bold, funny, cheeky and slightly outrageous. Moffat and Gattis know the online forums will be buzzing after this.
The relationship between Sherlock and Mrs Hudson is explored a little more and shows just how much they mean to each other. The already great cast has got a new addition in the form of Irene Adler, played by Lara Pulver. Pulver puts in a fantastic performance as Irene and provides the female counterpart to Sherlock.
This is a really great episode, the text effect is still being used but this time it’s accompanied by some excellent camera work to help give us a little bit more insight to just how Sherlock views the world. I’m going to stop now, as I don’t want to give anything away.
I’ve added some lines of dialogue underneath, don’t worry about spoilers, out of context they won’t give anything away
“Do you mind if I get that?”
“You have the rest of your life”
“Try not to punch him”
“How many times did he fall out the window?”.
“When I say run, run”.
“I knew what he liked”
“You always say the most horrible things”
“The iceman and the virgin”
Sherlock airs at 8:10 pm, New Years Day on BBC1