Ellis; The Day of the Jackal; Paris Has Fallen; Music by John Williams

“The possible flaw in Ellis is that Clarke plays a DCI who is parachuted into failing investigations at a different police station each week in a two-hour format like Vera or Endeavour. But with these cop shows, Blue Lights, Shetland and Unforgotten,much of the interest and poignancy comes from the interactions between a regularly appearing cast of colleagues and bosses whose characters develop over time. Here Ellis must establish a battery of new police characters as well (as crime victims) every week who will inevitably be hostile to a troubleshooter dropping in to correct their blind spots and failings. Might it get a bit “samey”? Maybe, but Clarke is the queen of the withering look. I could watch her glaring down hapless plods in regional police stations all day.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

There were two women, one black and one white, when a detective sergeant came down to collect his new boss in Ellis. The sergeant immediately introduced himself to the white visitor. Oh dear, rookie error. But worse was in store for DCI Ellis. When she was introduced to her new team, they stared at her as if they’d never seen a black woman before. And certainly not a black detective. They must have missed ITV’s McDonald & Dodds, which stars Tala Gouveia as DCI McDonald. It all felt a bit old-fashioned at a time when a woman of Nigerian descent is favourite to be the next Conservative party leader. As a plot line it was straight out of 1980, when Inspector Juliet Bravo took over Hartley station, and her plain-speaking Lancashire colleagues noticed straight away that she wasn’t one of the chaps. That said, the rest of the action looked rather promising.
Roland White, Daily Mail

“Policing is inextricably linked to power, and a series about it being wielded by a black woman could have been fascinating. Unfortunately, the drama’s politics never went more than skin deep. Ellis’s perma-expression of having one eyebrow almost imperceptibly raised above a frown might have insulated her from the surrounding hostility, but offered very little in the way of revealing an inner life to anyone watching.”
Emily Watkins, The i

“When cat and mouse are equally saddled with work/life balance issues, the main event of the chase is prone to misfire and mid-story sag. Still, the otherness of [Eddie] Redmayne compels. Having played Stephen Hawking and a Danish transsexual, he is a proven master of disguise. Yet somehow, even caked in Latex, there are always the ice-blue pupils and whip-thin frame, the Aardmanesque overbite and Etonian aura. Redmayne’s weird wanderer feels uncannily like an audition to play another ultra-English icon. The name’s Stewart. Rory Stewart.
Jasper Rees, Telegraph

“I’ve found the next James Bond – and she’s a British-Asian lesbian. Zara Taylor, a cool, sardonic MI6 agent played by Ritu Arya (last seen in The Umbrella Academy and Barbie), is the best thing about Paris Has Fallen, a silly but enjoyable action thriller clearly modelled on the 007 films.”
Neil Armstrong, The i

“What of the man behind the music? That proved a tough nut to crack for film-maker Laurent Bouzereau because you simply can’t separate the two. A jazz-loving kid from a musical family, Williams has been breathing music since he could talk and, though open and forthcoming as he recalled his enduring career, he was clearly happiest when talking about the nuts and bolts of his craft.”
Keith Watson, Telegraph