Matthew Macfadyen

Film Review: Operation Mincemeat is an elaborate espionage thriller so intricate it can only be true

One of those true story tales that is so intricately outrageous it couldn’t possibly be fiction, Operation Mincemeat details a WWII espionage plot that centres itself around a heightened take on the classic Trojan Horse malware that so successfully aided the Greeks in their invasion of Troy. There’s a background story to the titular operation…

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Film Review: The Assistant is uncomfortable but necessary viewing

Though disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein does not physically appear in The Assistant, nor does his likeness or even his name, this quietly disturbing drama from Australian filmmaker Kitty Green very much has him in mind. There’s a humiliation and systemic mentality that rings true throughout the film’s brisk 85 minute running time as it…

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Film Review: The Nutcracker And The Four Realms (USA, 2018) is visual eye candy but needs a bit more filling

Disney once again brings a visually sumptuous live action adaptation to the big screen in the the lead up to the festive season. This time loosely taking E.T.A Hoffman’s original ‘The Nutcracker And The Mouse King’ story, and also a ballet by Tchaikovsky, and a novel by Dumas, and putting their own spin on it….

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TV Review: Ripper Street Season 4 (UK, 2016)

British period crime drama series Ripper Street has had a bit of a rickety ride. The show was cancelled after 2 seasons only to be resurrected by Amazon Prime (with a little help from the BBC) for a third series. Which was then extended to a fourth and fifth, only for the fifth to then…

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TV Review: Ripper Street Season 3 (UK, 2015)

At the end of Season 2 Ripper Street was cancelled by the BBC only to be resurrected by streaming service Amazon Prime who agreed to a third season after an online campaign by the show’s loyal and dismayed fans. In Season 3 of Ripper Street we return to Whitechapel and H Division and the grimy…

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Interview: Ripper Street star Matthew MacFadyen talks about what to expect in Season 4

When the BBC first commissioned the series Ripper Street it began as a crime drama procedural set in 1889 in Whitechapel, the infamous burrough that Jack The Ripper haunted. Investigating a range of crimes are Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew MacFadyen), Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg). After two…

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Ripper Street to end with fifth season

The infamous slayings of London’s Ripper Street are set to come to an end with Amazon confirming that the fifth season of the BAFTA award-winning crime series will be its last. Filming on the final season has begun in Dublin with Joseph Mawrie (In the Heart of the Sea) returning as Detective Jedediah Shine alongside the rest of the series regular…

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