Pomona Rewind

Recently the BBC made a genuinely thrilling announcement about a new drama it had commissioned. After a critically acclaimed run in UK cinemas last year and on Netflix, the corporation  optioned plans for a TV series  of the movie ' Boiling Point ' with Stephen Graham. Philip Barantini's restaurant tale was a bravura one take, indie feature film, with the camera enabling the audience to get up close and personal with the kitchen and front of house staff of a high end London restaurant and their customers. A high octane drama, it captured the edgy energy and high stress of creating fine dining during a disastrous night. © FX, Hulu & Disney+ Along the way Barantini extracted stirring performances from Vinette Robinson, Ray Panthaki, Jason Flemyng, Izuka Hoyle, Thomas Coombes, Malachi Kirby, Alice Feetham, Stephen McMillan, Lauren Ajufo, Hannah Walters and, of course, Stephen Graham. In a  recent interview with Variety  ( be warned this article contains spoilers if ...

It's taken almost two years for 'Irvine Welsh's Crime' to make its way onto terrestrial television. An adaptation of his novel of the same name about a committed Edinburgh cop with a dark secret, the show originally appeared on the Britbox streaming service in November 2021. Welsh's 2008 novel was a sequel to his 1998 book ' Filth' which was made into a movie 15 years later  by Jon S Baird, with James McAvoy playing the misanthropic, manipulative cop Detective Sergeant Bruce Robinson. That black comedy featured Jamie Bell as a rookie Detective Ray Lennox who benefitted from the fall of McAvoy's corrupt cop. © Britbox & ITV Stepping into the role of Lennox, though, for this six part TV series is Dougray Scott who portrays him as a driven policeman whose career has seen better days. In the show, which has been made available for streaming on ITVx before its terrestrial television debut, Lennox wears the emotional scars of years of policing the grim und...

Starting Season Four of Amazon Prime's 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' is a little bit like watching a game of snakes and ladders. Having been on  an upward trajectory  for three seasons with the occasional setback, Rachel Brosnahan's stand up comic Midge Maisel suddenly finds herself sliding down the board. Unfortunately, this setback is of her own making. (PREVIOUS SEASON SPOILER ALERT!!) Jokes made in the Apollo Theater at expense of Leroy McLain's Shy Baldwin's effeminate nature left Midge and her agent, Alex Borstein's Susie Myerson stranded on a runway  at the end of Season Three  as the singer shut them out of a flight they should have been boarding for Europe. © Amazon Prime To add to their woes, the money earned touring the US with Shy has also been gambled away by Susie. In order to repay her friend and client, Susie cooks up an insurance scam with her sister, Emily Bergl's Tess. Gutted by her firing from the European tour, Midge is forced to make a...

The third season of Amazon Prime's 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' begins with a burst of optimism and the belief that she is about to have a real breakthrough. After  catching the eye of Leroy McClain's crooner Shy Baldwin in Season Two , Rachel Brosnahan's Midge Maisel is very much on the up. Her star is so much in the ascendant, she embarks on a tour supporting him that will ultimately lead to a slot in the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem. However as Midge basks in the glory, she is rocked by the discovery that her manager Alex Borstein's Susie Myerson has agreed to take on her comedy nemesis, Jane Lynch's Sophie Lennon as a client. © Amazon Prime Meanwhile Midge's ex, Michael Zengen's Joel Maisel is hoping to open up a club with the backing of his businessman father, Kevin Pollak's Moishe. They identify a potential property in Chinatown and strike a deal. Not long afterwards, he begins to realise his Chinese landlords are also operating an ille...

After a vivacious  debut season , can 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' build on its success? Season Two finds Rachel Brosnahan's Midge still struggling to adjust to the breakdown of her marriage. (SPOILER ALERT!!) Demoted to the role of switchboard operator at B Altman's department store after her ex's former mistress makes a scene, she has to deal with the fallout from dissing Jane Lynch's Sophie Lennon during a stand-up routine in the previous season's finale. Midge's manager Alex Borstein's Susie is feeling the heat too, with two low level Mafia hoodlums, Erik Palladino's Frank and John Scurti's Nicky being deployed by David Paymer's arrogant, powerful showbiz agent Harry Drake to abduct her in retaliation for her client's public trashing of Sophie. © Amazon Prime Realising they hail from the same neighbourhood, Susie befriends the duo and they let her go unharmed. There's a crisis in the Weissman household following the departure of...

There's something wonderful about those snappy New York comedies where family members trade banter and puncture each others' pomposity. Woody Allen has built a filmmaking career on that. So has Paul Mazursky, Noah Baumbach and the late Neil Simon. Add to the list Amy Sherman Palladino, whose Amazon Prime series 'The Marvellous Mrs Maisel' is a colourful tale of a 1950s Manhattan housewife finding her voice as a stand-up comic. At the start of Sherman Palladino's show, Rachel Brosnahan's Miriam "Midge" Masel seems to have it all. Midge is a bright, witty mother of two. She is married to a nice Jewish boy with great career prospects, Michael Zegen's Joel who works at his uncle's plastics factory and whose sarcastic father, Kevin Pollak's Moishe runs a garment company. Joel's mum, Caroline Aaron's Shirley dotes over him. © Amazon Prime Midge's socialite mum, Marin Hinkle's Rose and her academic father, Tony Shalhoub's Abe W...