Last Broadcast

Fabio Frizzi returns to Chills in the Chapel in London later this month.

Three years since his last sell out appearance at Union Chapel, Frizzi is back on Saturday 29 October with a show that will include new orchestrations of his scores for cult films by Lucio Fulci. For the first time he’ll also explore his work outside of his longstanding and hugely successful collaboration with the Italian director. Expect thrills, prog-rocking and funk vibes all set against a back drop of legendary film clips and shocking visuals!

Tickets for Chills in the Chapel with Fabio Frizzi: Saturday Night in the City of the Dead are available now here (£25 / £20 UC members / £40 VIP adv + booking fee) and money raised goes to the restoration and development of Union Chapel.

To coincide the legendary horror composer’s return, we revisit his vast and iconic synth scores with a look back at five of his most famous pieces…

Sette Note In Nero aka The Psychic (1977)

Amongst his earlier work, the film marked Frizzi’s third team-up with long term collaborator Lucio Fulci. Sette note in nero tells the story of a woman who experiences psychic visions, which leads her to discover a murder. After her husband is charged with the killing, a paranormal researcher joins her in an investigation to clear his name.

Frizzi’s soundtrack was praised for it’s simplicity and elegance, particularly in comparison to typical Italian thrillers. Segments of Frizzi’s score was used later in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1.

Zombi 2 (1979)

Frizzi and Fulci teamed up again for their first collaboration on a horror movie. Regarded as a strong influence on 1980’s Italian horror, the film follows the search for a young woman’s missing father on a tropical island where the …

Cheer up, Doctor Who fans!

Just because the TARDIS won’t be materialising on our screens this autumn doesn’t mean that there isn’t any great telly to watch over the coming months.

Here are nine British dramas – some brand new, some coming back for second or third seasons – that Whovians should be watching…

Crazyhead

This new supernatural comedy-drama comes from the mind of Howard Overman (Merlin, Atlantis, Dirk Gently) and pokes fun at the usual tropes of the genre.

In Crazyhead, there is not a Chosen One destined to fight the forces of darkness but a Chosen Two – two very different young women (Cara Theobold and Susan Wokoma), who are the only ones who can see the horrible demons that walk the earth.

Starts at 9pm on Wednesday 19 October on E4.

Hooten and the Lady

If you like old-fashioned adventure shows and movies, you’ll love Sky1’s Hooten and the Lady, a treasure-hunting action/adventure series from Hustle creator Tony Jordan. Starring Ophelia Lovibond and Michael Landes, it sees British Museum employee Lady Alexandra scour the globe looking for long-lost artefacts with rogueish charmer Hooten.

Each episode travels to a new country – including Italy, Egypt and the Amazon. It’s not quite all of time and space, but it’s still pretty impressive!

Airing at 9pm on Friday nights on Sky1.

Tutankhamun

ITV’s new four-part historical mini-series is based on the discovery of – you guessed it – King Tut’s tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. Max Irons is playing the lead while none other than Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill plays Lord Carnavon, a wealthy adrenaline junkie who funds Carter’s expeditions.

Doctor Who fans love a good trip back in time, so make sure to check this one out.

Starts at 9pm on Sunday 16 …

This news summary on the tenth 21st Century season of Doctor Who will be updated regularly as more details are revealed.

Buy the complete Season 9 box set on DVD on Amazon.

Buy the complete Season 9 box set on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Who is the showrunner?

Season 10 will be Steven Moffat’s final year as showrunner.

Steven Moffat: “I’ll be finishing up on the best job in the universe and keeping the TARDIS warm for [new showrunner Chris Chibnall].”

Chris Chibnall: “…hearing [Steven Moffat’s] plans and stories for 2017, it’s clear he’ll be going out with a bang.”

Steven Moffat: “I’m just embarking on the new [season] and it’s terrifying. I have to make all that again.”

Will this be Peter Capaldi’s final season as the Doctor?

Peter Capaldi will continue playing the Twelfth Doctor until at least 2017’s Christmas special. He has apparently not yet decided if he’ll stay on for a fourth season when Chris Chibnall takes over as showrunner.

Steven Moffat: “I have no reason to suppose that I’m writing out a Doctor! Peter is loving the role, and long may he do so.”

Peter Capaldi: “This could be my final year.”

Steven Moffat: “Peter Capaldi is going nowhere.”

The Mirror: Peter Capaldi has agreed to stay on for “at least one more [season] … Peter is keen to complete three years playing the Doctor to round off his storylines.”

When does filming begin?

Filming begins on Monday 20 June 2016 and is expected to finish at the end of March 2017.

How many episodes will there be?

Season 10 will be 12 episodes, preceded by 2016’s Christmas special and followed by 2017’s Christmas special.

Steven Moffat: “Ahead of me this year I’ve got fourteen Doctor Who‘s…”

Steven Moffat: “I know that what I’ve …

‘To Be Continued…’

That’s the caption that the fourth season of Ripper Street leaves us with.

In a lesser show, such a brazen indicator that the story is still incomplete would feel frustrating, robbing the season of any satisfying finality.

Thankfully, this season finale does more than enough to justify that ending caption. In fact, that cliffhanger is part and parcel of what makes ‘Edmund Reid Does This’ such an exceptional finale, because it strikes that difficult balance of closing off the season while teeing up the show’s final chapter effortlessly.

At the core of this finale was the Whitechapel Golem, now revealed to be Nathaniel (Jonas Armstrong), Croker’s foster son and the brother of Assistant Commissioner Dove. The Golem seemed like an all-too outlandish and silly concept for the gritty Ripper Street to really explore initially, but ‘Edmund Reid Does This’ does an excellent job of drilling down beneath the folklore and finding the raw, vulnerable humanity beneath.

Nathaniel is a compelling presence because he just about defies categorisation – is he a villain, when his actions are so clearly shown to be the product of impulses created by a traumatic childhood? Is he redeemable, given that he is courteous and even servile towards the people he create an attachment to?

He’s a complex, tragic presence, and his rich characterisation here ensures that he’s a valuable and fleshed out character who is much more than just the mindless brute he could be.

But, of course, the headliner here is the fate of Bennett Drake, who has been a constant presence of this show since its origins. The parallel between Drake and Nathaniel is one that the episode slowly, meticulously teases out, bringing Drake towards Nathaniel’s constant impulsive brutality as his personal and professional lives are destroyed by his own …

The adventure comes not a moment too soon this week, with the call to action from Lady Alex (Ophelia Lovibond) helping Hooten (Michael Landes) extricate himself from a sticky situation with a gang of Bolivian mobsters.

Summoned to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan by Penny McQuinn (Joanna Scanlan), the pair are soon on the trail of an ancient scroll purportedly written by the Buddah himself. To ratchet up the tension they are against the clock, as thanks to a charming local custom, Hooten is poisoned as motivation to return with the prize.

Accompanied on their perilous trek thought the snow-capped mountains by a taciturn giant named Hildigao, ensuring that Hooten keeps to his word and returns to settle his debts, the wise-cracking adventurer’s worsening condition makes the journey even more dangerous.

As the poisoning slowly robs him of his faculties, it also becomes the prompt for some great gags, with double vision repeatedly threatening to send him off the cliff edge and making an already hazardous rope-bridge crossing a heart-in-your-mouth moment.

This week’s episode also offered us a further glimpse into Alex’s home life as we briefly met her seemingly long-suffering boyfriend Ed, played by Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch, W1A), at the start and end of the tale. We are yet to find out anything substantive about him though, so fingers crossed he does not turn out to be a wrong’un.

For her part, Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It, No Offence) is hilarious as Penny – the beautifully mannered and quite PC Brit abroad, who has gone semi-native living amongst the villagers in the “eighth happiest country in the world”, but still retains her sense of identity. She is another guest star we would love to see return at some point.

Thanks to the …

We’re now getting to the last course, the final furlong – indeed, it’s time for desserts, as we knock out one more baker, clearing another space on the gingham altar in time for the quarter finals.

The first task this week is to whip up a roulade in such a way, Mary suggests, that it should put one in mind of a Catherine Wheel. Before the sparks fly, however, Paul is concerned about size. ‘You’re not going to get it into your mouth,’ he promises, looking like the plumber in that DVD movie you’ve certainly never watched. He considers. ‘I might. Most people won’t.’

Selasi is the only baker using butter in his mix, while Tom is making a Millionaire’s Roulade. Benjamina is making a Pina Colada roulade. She assures Mary that it’ll have a good rum kick to it, which earns her an approving wink. There’s a short sequence of Tom repeatedly attempting to pick up an oven tray which he already knows is hot, which tells you pretty much all you need to know about how good he is at listening to the facts.

Jane and Selasi fundamentally disagree about the correct way to roll a roulade (Jane says that it should go long ways, so that you get more slices). Candice is prepping a ‘crowd pleaser’, which she is somewhat – but only slightly – nervous about: ‘Look at the smile on her face,’ Mary says with undisguised admiration. ‘She knows it’s good.’

Tom, in a reasonably rare show of humble pie, mutters to himself ‘This is Week Seven. Good enough is not good enough any more,’ Andrew and Candice – who might well be the ones to be last bakers standing – are both trying out a passionfruit curd. Andrew has faith in his dad’s curd, …

Eight episodes in, and Victoria still hasn’t invented the Victoria sponge.

I suppose the queen has rather more pressing matters on her mind in this episode; namely, the tiny royal growing in her belly, and crackpots at every turn.

Not even queens are safe from Those Dudes who simply have no sense for when it’s time to admit that she’s not interested and it was jolly well time to move on the first time she didn’t answer your disconcerting love letter.  Captain Childers, at least, was a reasonably polite persistent creep with no grasp of reality.  Could have been worse, albeit still gross.

I can see why Bert would be worried, but really, there’s nothing less appealing to a woman than an over-over-protective gentleman.  It’s not as though Vicky doesn’t already have to rage constantly over the tendency of so many of those around her to smother.  It must have been so claustrophobic.

Meanwhile, Uncle Cumberland is now also Uncle King of Hanover, and what an unpleasant fellow he continues to be.  Indeed, this wouldn’t be ‘Episode 8 of 8’ without some serious-business climactic drama, and oh dear, there’s an assassination attempt while Victoria goes out for a ride with Albert, and while it seems the young man responsible was receiving orders from Evil Uncle King of Hanover all along, even that turns out to be too simple a conclusion.  Doesn’t stop him being a miserable bum, though.

Also meanwhile, Mr. Francatelli has been offered his own establishment, and lovely Nancy considers whether to stay on as Vicky’s stylist, or go on a new adventure with her handsome pal.  After all, he sure is smitten, and I can see the appeal of hooking up with a gentleman who knows how to make a good trifle.

I do like a good …

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! Comes earlier every year, doesn’t it?

It’s been announced that ITV’s Victoria is getting a Christmas special in December 2017, but Poldark is the drama that’s bold enough to bring you Christmas in October, just like all the big shops do. No Christmas trees though, because as history buffs will know, Prince Albert hasn’t brought them to ITV yet.

Unlike at your nearest supermarket, the festive goodies are being kept out of sight in Poldark: Demelza’s so worried this’ll be Ross’s last Christmas for a while that she’s squirrelling food away in a secret space, much like a squirrel would do. Meanwhile, against her wishes, her husband’s doing the same; bunging barrels of contraband under the floorboards, all so he can fill his ‘Keep me out of debtor’s prison’ jar. It’s a big jar.

To use the proper financial terminology, Ross is really on his arse this week. And yet he’s oddly inured to the idea of having to leave his wife and rarely-seen child and go live in debtor’s prison.

He’s too busy smouldering at the bereaved Elizabeth and making his own financial sacrifices trying to keep her solvent. It’s another one of those vexing Ross-isms that straddles the boundary between noble and reckless, and veers toward the latter given Ross’s breeches-tightening attraction to Elizabeth. It wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t consistently ignoring his own wife, but there’s more than simple restitution at play in selling off his Wheal Leisure shares and anonymously giving the profits to Elizabeth, even if Ross himself won’t admit it.

Maybe she could use some of the money to buy a better portrait of Francis, because that one she currently has looks nothing like him.

Ross isn’t the only one whose concentration is fixed on the …

For all the fans of the crime and punishment genre, a new television series can be seen on ABC every Monday night called Conviction.

The series takes place in New York City with Eddie Cahill playing the part of Conner Wallace the district attorney creating a new unit known as the Conviction Integrity Unit and wanting Hayley Atwell playing as Hayes Morrison to head the new unit. This new unit will go through old court cases to determine if any of the prosecutions put innocent suspects in prison.

Morrison is not interested in leading the team but due to her scandalous activities of the past put her in the right position for being blackmailed. It does not help that she is the daughter of a former president and her mother is running for the Senate.

Even her law school credentials that show she was top in her class cannot overshadow her bad behavior. Wallace knows what triggers to pull to get her to do just as he wants or he could spill the beans on all of her sleazy background and even recent discolored activity. Due to wanting to keep a lid on her reckless behavior, she concedes to lead the team. Of course, there is more to their relationship or was at one time which puts an awkwardness between the two along with a few heated scenes.

On top of all this that makes you wonder about the past and just how bad Morrison truly is, you get caught up fast in the action of the team as they must investigate and resolve each case in only five days. As the clock ticks, you will be on your seat wondering if the case will be solved or if the side activities will be hindering the investigations.

Morrison’s team of …

This autumn has seen a few audio Doctor Who re-releases from Big Finish.

First the epic 50th Anniversary series ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ in new packaging, and secondly a bunch of hard to find tales under the banner of ‘Short Trip Rarities’.

‘Destiny of the Doctor – The Complete Adventure’

Originally appearing monthly throughout 2013, this gently linked series features an adventure for each of the first eleven Doctors, narrated by an era appropriate reader.

Produced in the Companion Chronicles format, with a primary narrator plus an additional voice actor, the stories fit well within the eras they represent; the Second Doctor’s tale concerns a base-under-siege, while the Third Doctor is accompanied by UNIT and the Fourth Doctor’s story is in the vein of a Douglas Adams script.

Across the months, Nev Fountain’s Sixth Doctor tale ‘Trouble in Paradise’ was a highlight, both highly entertaining and gloriously silly, while ‘Enemy Aliens’ starring Eight and Charlie, evoked the energetic spirit of the TV movie. In a rare trip into the Eccleston era, the series also took us on an adventure with Nine, Rose and Jack, throwing the trio into a vivid comic book-story set in the 23^rd Century environment of New Vegas.

Released before Big Finish broke through their contractual time lock and were allowed to play with post-2005 elements, the series was a partnership with AudioGo – who then held a licence for new series related content.

At CultBox, we covered most of the tales during their original release but sadly the schedule rather fell foul of AudioGo’s financial problems, which ultimately led to its demise. Consequently, a couple of the later titles, plus the accompanying documentary had become hard to come by.

With a stellar cast list of DW luminaries reading- Carole Ann Ford, Frazer Hines, Richard …