Doghouse (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Jake West

Writer: Dan Schaffer

Cinematographer: Ali Asad

Composer: Richard Wells

Cast: Stephen Graham, Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Emil Marwa, Lee Ingleby, Keith-Lee Castle, Terry Stone, Neil Maskell, Christina Cole

In order to cheer up one of their number following his recent divorce, a group of friends travel to a remote village for a booze-dripping, misogyny-laden lads’ weekend, but their plans are upset by the military testing of a biological weapon, which has turned all of the local women into man-eating zombirds, leaving them to flee for their lives, in Jake West’s sporadically entertaining zombie-comedy, which features some cracking one-liners and excellent effects work. Iain.Stott

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4.3.2.1 (2010)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Directors: Noel Clarke, Mark Davis

Writer: Noel Clarke

Cinematographer: Franco Pezzino

Composers: Adam Lewis, Barnaby Robson

Cast: Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond, Shanika Warren-Markland, Noel Clarke, Adam Deacon, Susannah Fielding, Jacob Anderson, Freddie Stroma, Linzey Cocker, Ben Drew, Ashley Thomas, Alan McKenna

Reminiscent of Doug Liman’s Go (1999), Clarke and Davis’s stylish and fun if somewhat inconsistent comedy-thriller draws together four interconnecting storylines featuring 4 girls (all friends) over 3 days in 2 different cities (London and New York), involving stolen diamonds, stolen virginities, stolen flat keys, stolen scenes (by cameoing stars), and an awful lot of attractive young women walking around in their underwear. Iain.Stott

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Village of the Dolls (2010)

Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Original Title: Marwencol

Director: Jeff Malmberg

Cinematographers: Jeff Malmberg, Tom Putnam, Matt Radecki, Kevin Walsh

Composers: Ash Black Bufflo

Featuring: Mark Hogancamp

Jeff Malmberg’s fascinating and insightful yet warm and witty documentary paints a portrait of Mark Hogancamp, a man in his mid-40s who, in order to deal with the trauma of being beaten (literally) senseless by five youths in a pub car park in the year 2000, retreats into a doll-populated fantasy world of Second World War heroes and villains, where he therapeutically works through his hopes and fears, photographing the action as he goes along. Iain.Stott

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The Arbor (2010)

Highly Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Director: Clio Barnard

Cinematographer: Ole Bratt Birkeland

Composers: Harry Escott & Molly Nyman

Cast: Christine Bottomley, Neil Dudgeon, Robert Emms, Natalie Gavin, Manjinder Virk, George Costigan, Jimi Mistry, Monica Dolan, Neil Dudgeon

Strikingly photographed and disquietingly scored, Clio Barnard’s deliberate and innovative yet devastatingly moving documentary, filmed with actors lip-synching to recorded interviews and dramatized scenes from its subject’s eponymous play, gradually builds up a picture of the life of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar and her legacy, with particular attention paid to the drug-fuelled plight of her eldest daughter, Lorraine, a young woman of mixed race who has known nothing but pain and suffering. Iain.Stott

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1946 (2011)

1. Notorious (1946)
2. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
3. The Big Sleep (1946)
4. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
5. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
6. La Belle et la Bête (1946)
7. Great Expectations (1946)
8. My Darling Clementine (1946)
9. The Killers (1946)
10. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
11. Gilda (1946)
12. Shoeshine (1946)
13. Paisan (1946)
14. The Yearling (1946)
15. Duel in the Sun (1946)
16. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
17. The Dark Corner (1946)
18. The Blue Dahlia (1946)
19. Green for Danger (1946)
20. Cluny Brown (1946)
21. Song of the South (1946)
22. The Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
23. Humoresque (1946)
24. The Razor’s Edge (1946)
25. To Each His Own (1946)
26. No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
27. The Stranger (1946)
28. A Stolen Life (1946)
29. The Harvey Girls (1946)

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1946 (2011)

1. Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)
2. Under the Bridges (1946)
3. Deadline at Dawn (1946)
4. Decoy (1946)
5. The Battle of the Rails (1946)
6. Five Women Around Utamaro (1946)
7. Margie (1946)
8. Gates of the Night (1946)
9. Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)
10. Let There Be Light (1946)
11. Strange Impersonation (1946)
12. Nocturne (1946)
13. Sister Kenny (1946)
14. My Reputation (1946)
15. The Bandit (1946)
16. The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
17. Northwest Hounded Police (1946)
18. The Chase (1946)
    Devotion (1946)
    Enamorada (1946)
    The Other One (1946)

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ASIFA’s Top 50 Animated Short Films (2010)

1. Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)
2. Tale of Tales (1980)
3. The Hand (1966)
4. Tango (1981)
5. The Street of Crocodiles (1986)
6. Harpya (1979)
7. The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)
8. Tuning the Instruments (2000)
9. The Street (1977)
10. Ryan (2004)
11. Breakfast on the Grass (1987)
12. Pas de Deux (1968)
13. Father and Daughter (2000)
14. Satiemania (1978)
15. Repete (1995)
16. Creature Comforts (1989)
    Balance (1989)
17. When the Day Breaks (2000)
18. Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)
19. Mount Head (2002)
20. Hunger (1974)
21. The Big Snit (1985)
22. Hen, His Wife (1990)
23. Labirynt (1963)
24. Substitute (1961)
25. Le Nez (1963)
26. Felix in Exile (1994)
27. The Cow (1989)
28. Rowing Across the Atlantic (1978)
29. Two Sisters (1991)
30. Reflection (1979)
31. Asparagus (1979)
32. Luxo Jr. (1989)
33. Girls Night Out (1988)
34. The Hill Farm (1989)
35. Road to the Abyss (1992)
36. Hotel E (1992)
37. The Wrong Trousers (1993)
38. Sisyphus (1974)
39. Milk (2005)
40. Screenplay (1992)
41. Mindscape (1976)
42. Feelings of Mountains and Waters (1988)
43. Words, Words, Words (1991)
44. The Flying Man (1962)
45. Frank Film (1973)
46. The Thieving Magpie (1965)
47. Dojoji (1976)
48. The Roll Call (1970)
49. The Public Voice (1988)
50. Franz Kafka (1992)

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You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Not Recommended

Spain/USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Woody Allen

Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond

Cast: Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, Freida Pinto, Antonio Banderas

Rehashing a number of themes, characters, and scenarios from his earlier work, only with their heart ripped out and replaced with cynicism and bile, Allen’s London-set film casts a jaundiced eye over the coupling and uncoupling of a group of unhappy friends and family who are desperately trying to find comfort and meaning in their empty lives. Iain.Stott

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Shane Black

Writers: Shane Black, Brett Halliday

Cinematographer: Michael Barrett

Composer: John Ottman

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Rockmond Dunbar, Shannyn Sossamon

A petty criminal, via a fortuitous film audition-cum-escape attempt, is whisked off to Hollywood, where he attends the odd party, meets (after numerous years apart) the unrequited love of his life, becomes involved with a gay private detective, and accumulates several corpses whilst playing amateur sleuth, in Shane Black’s knowing, irreverent, and blackly comic action movie parody-cum-film noir homage. Iain.Stott

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In Treatment (2008-)

USA

Television Series

Developer: Rodrigo García

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Forbes

Developed by Garcia from Ori Sivan’s Israeli series, Be'Tipul (2005-2008), this intelligent, surprisingly dramatic, and very well-acted if never entirely credible HBO drama follows the therapy sessions of Dr. Paul Weston with a number of his patients over a course several weeks, as he gently brings forth the demons that haunt them, whilst also confronting his own personal and professional problems.

Season 1 (2008)

In this consistently gripping first season, which was very closely modelled on its Israeli progenitor, Paul treats a young woman who has fallen in love with him during their sessions, an over confident navy pilot with 16 dead Iraqi children on his conscience, a suicidal 16-year-old gymnast (Mia Wasikowska, scintillating), and an ill-matched married couple going through a myriad of difficulties, whilst also monitoring his own problems with a former colleague. Iain.Stott

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TONY's The 50 Best Documentaries of All Time (2010)

1. Shoah (1985)
2. Sans Soleil (1983)
3. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
4. Night and Fog (1955)
5. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
6. Dont Look Back (1967)
7. The War Game (1965)
8. Nanook of the North (1922)
9. Roger & Me (1989)
10. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
11. Salesman (1968)
12. Grizzly Man (2005)
13. Triumph of the Will (1935)
14. Hearts and Minds (1974)
15. Crumb (1994)
16. Titticut Follies (1967)
17. Stop Making Sense (1984)
18. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
19. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
20. Lake of Fire (2006)
21. Gimme Shelter (1970)
22. Hoop Dreams (1994)
23. Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977)
24. High School (1968)
25. Empire (1964)
26. In the Year of the Pig (1968)
27. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
28. Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896)
29. The Gleaners & I (2000)
30. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
31. Grey Gardens (1975)
32. Woodstock (1970)
33. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
34. The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
35. The Up Series (1964-)
36. Sherman's March (1986)
37. Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
38. Burden of Dreams (1982)
39. Point of Order (1964)
40. The Fog of War (2003)
41. Man on Wire (2008)
42. Monterey Pop (1968)
43. The Battle of Chile (1975-1979)
44. F for Fake (1974)
45. Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (2007)
46. Grin Without a Cat (1977)
47. When We Were Kings (1996)
48. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
49. The Last Waltz (1978)
50. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

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Annecy International Animated Film Festival's Top 100 Animated Shorts (1906 - 2006)

1. Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
2. Fantasmagorie (1908)
3. Dimensions of Dialogue (1983)
4. Crac (1981)
5. The Man Who Planted Trees (1988)
6. Tale of Tales (1980)
7. Night on Bald Mountain (1933)
8. A Colour Box (1935)
9. The Idea (1932)
10. The Street (1977)
11. Neighbours (1952)
12. Blinkity Blank (1955)
13. Duck Amuck (1953)
14. Harpya (1979)
15. Luxo Jr. (1986)
16. Snow-White (1933)
17. Creature Comforts (1989)
18. Tango (1981)
19. Street of Crocodiles (1987)
20. Begone Dull Care (1949)
21. Le Petit Soldat (1947)
22. What's Opera, Doc? (1957)
23. Father and Daughter (2001)
24. Red Hot Riding Hood (1943)
25. The Hand (1966)
26. Steamboat Willie (1928)
27. Le Nez (1963)
28. The Thieving Magpie (1965)
29. Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950)
30. La Joie de Vivre (1934)
31. The Cameraman's Revenge (1912)
32. Pas de Deux (1968)
33. Hunger (1974)
34. Girls Night Out (1988)
35. Satiemania (1978)
36. Composition in Blue (1935)
37. Rowing Across the Atlantic (1978)
38. Moonbird (1959)
39. The Public Voice (1988)
40. Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943)
41. Free Radicals (1958)
42. The Ride to the Abyss (1992)
43. Vincent (1982)
44. Franz Kafka (1992)
45. Dojoji (1976)
46. Two Sisters (1991)
47. Grey Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood (1991)
48. Balance (1989)
49. Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)
50. When the Day Breaks (1999)
51. Rooty Toot Toot (1951)
52. The Skeleton Dance (1929)
53. King-Size Canary (1942)
54. Frank Film (1973)
55. The Flying Man (1962)
56. Egged On (1926)
57. Mindscape (1976)
58. Jumping (1984)
59. Harvie Krumpet (2003)
60. The Wrong Trousers (1993)
61. Broken Down Film (1985)
62. Damon the Mower (1972)
63. Fast Film (2003)
64. Geri's Game (1997)
65. Monsieur Tête (1959)
66. Ryan (2004)
67. Café Bar (1974)
68. Repete (1995)
69. Hen, His Wife (1990)
70. Mount Head (2002)
71. Invisible Ink (1921)
72. 78 Tours (1986)
73. The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918)
74. Closed Mondays (1974)
75. Cat's Cradle (1974)
76. The Three Inventors (1980)
77. The Big Snit (1986)
78. The Sandman (1991)
79. Blitz Wolf (1942)
80. Feelings of Mountains and Waters (1988)
81. The Lady and the Cellist (1965)
82. Le Chapeau (2000)
83. The Lion and the Song (1959)
84. Le Château de Sable (1977)
85. Apel (1971)
86. 'A' (1965)
87. Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
88. Tuning the Instruments (2000)
89. Le Pas (1975)
90. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (1936)
91. Great (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) (1975)
92. Au Bout du Monde (1998)
93. Felix in Exile (1994)
94. The Band Concert (1935)
95. The Concert of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (1962)
96. Seiltänzer (1986)
97. Hotel E (1992)
98. Film, Film, Film (1968)
99. Les Jeux des Anges (1964)
100. Flux (2002)

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Friday Night Dinner (2011-)

UK

Television Series

Creator: Robert Popper

Cast: Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Paul Ritter, Tom Rosenthal, Mark Heap

Each Friday evening, Adam and Jonny return to their family home for dinner with their dopey dad and long-suffering mum, a ritual often interrupted by their strange, pervy neighbour, Jim, and their own sophomoric pranks and japes, in Popper’s frequently hilarious and vaguely perceptive (if perhaps a little lightweight) family sitcom.

Series 1 (2011)

Girlfriends of debatable legitimacy, Greek blokes’ bums, collectible vs. crap, “females”, piss-yellow curtains, Bitch-Face’s Mercedes, foot-faced relatives’ weddings, and baby penises all compete for dinnertime conversation in this generally warm and very funny if hardly ground-breaking first series. Iain.Stott

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The Killing (2007)

Recommended

Denmark/Norway/Sweden

Television Mini-Series

Original Title: Forbrydelsen

Head Writer: Søren Sveistrup

Cast: Sofie Gråbøl, Lars Mikkelsen, Søren Malling, Bjarne Henriksen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Marie Askehave, Michael Moritzen, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Bent Mejding, Johan Gry, Morten Suurballe, Farshad Kholghi

On her last day before leaving for a new life in Sweden, Sarah Lund, an obsessive police detective, gets drawn into a murder investigation, partnering up with her replacement to find the murderer of 19-year-old Nanna Birk Larsen, a case filled with twists, turns, and much political skulduggery, in Sveistrup’s hugely addictive, well acted, and often quite brilliant mini-series, which miraculously manages to survive its numerous clichés, its gratingly constant score, some occasionally over-zealous editing, and a horribly distracting star cameo. Iain.Stott

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Happy Gypsies (1967)

Cautiously Recommended

Yugoslavia

Feature Film

Original Title: Skupljaći perja

Writer/Director/Composer: Aleksandar Petrović

Cinematographer: Tomislav Pinter

Cast: Bekim Fehmiu, Olivera Vučo, Bata Živojinović, Gordana Jovanović, Mija Aleksić

A hard-drinking gypsy from a small town, when not losing heavily at cards or trying to avoid his ageing wife, whom he soon hopes to replace with a younger model, struggles manfully to build his goose feather business in the face of strong competition from a local rival, in Petrović’s sporadically humorous and mildly amusing film, which suffers somewhat from some rather wooden supporting performances and a couple of jolting plot turns. Iain.Stott

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The Green Ray (1986)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Le rayon vert

Director: Eric Rohmer

Writers: Eric Rohmer, Marie Rivière

Cinematographer: Sophie Maintigneux

Composer: Jean-Louis Valéro

Cast: Marie Rivière, Lisa Hérédia, Béatrice Romand, Rosette, Eric Hamm, Carita, Joël Comarlot, Vincent Gauthier

Let down at the last minute by her friend and travelling companion, Delphine, a delicate young woman with cripplingly low self-esteem and equally cripplingly high standards, is forced to set off on her annual summer holidays alone, hoping (and, for the most part, failing) to find companionship and contentment, in Rohmer’s gently, unpredictably moving and painfully authentic feeling yet vaguely whimsical character study. Iain.Stott

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Brimstone and Treacle (1976)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)

Director: Barry Davis

Writer: Dennis Potter

Cinematographer: Peter Bartlett

Cast: Michael Kitchen, Denholm Elliott, Patricia Lawrence, Michelle Newell

Made to be shown as part of the BBC’s Play for Today strand in 1976, but not shown until 1987, Dennis Potter’s provocative and shocking yet thoughtful and intelligent play explores the effect that the Devil, masquerading as an old flame of their brain damaged daughter, has upon a middle-aged, middle-class couple when he imposes himself upon them, exposing their bigotries, hypocrisies, and moral inconsistencies as he indulges his dark desires. Iain.Stott

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The Insurance Man (1986)

Highly Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Screen Two (1985-1994)

Director: Richard Eyre

Writer: Alan Bennett

Cinematographer: Nat Crosby

Composer: Ilona Sekacz

Cast: Robert Hines, Daniel Day Lewis, Jim Broadbent, Vivien Pickles, Geoffrey Palmer, Tessa Wojtczak, Katy Behean, Trevor Peacock, Alan MacNaughton

A middle-aged man in Nazi-occupied Prague with a lung condition tells his doctor of how he came to work briefly in an asbestos factory thirty years earlier, telling of how a mysterious skin condition, contracted whilst working at a dye factory, had led to his meeting, after a tortuous journey through a nightmarish, uncaring world of labyrinthine corridors and bureaucracy, a kindly young Jewish insurance adjuster, named Kranz Kafka, who took pity upon him, in Alan Bennett’s strikingly photographed, brilliantly written, and consummately performed television play. Iain.Stott

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Dinner at Noon (1988)

Highly Recommended

UK

Short Television Documentary

Series Title: Byline (1988-1991)

Director: Stuart Burge

Writer/Presenter: Alan Bennett

Cinematographers: Mike Fox, Paola Ribeiro

In this wonderful little documentary, Alan Bennett spends time at the Crown Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, quietly observing its varied clientele, whilst ruminating on the changing face of class structure and his own personal family history of hotel stays, warmly and wittily yet honestly and critically remembering his modest upbringing and the dinners at noon that it brought. Iain.Stott

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1985 (2011)

1. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
2. Ran (1985)
3. Brazil (1985)
4. After Hours (1985)
5. Come and See (1985)
6. Back to the Future (1985)
7. Vagabond (1985)
8. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
9. Witness (1985)
10. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
11. My Life as a Dog (1985)
12. A Room with a View (1985)
13. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
14. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
15. Out of Africa (1985)
16. The Color Purple (1985)
17. Prizzi’s Honor (1985)
18. The Breakfast Club (1985)
19. Runaway Train (1985)
20. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
21. Day of the Dead (1985)
22. Lost in America (1985)
23. The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
24. The Official Story (1985)
25. The Quiet Earth (1985)
26. Shoah (1985)
27. Colonel Redl (1985)
28. Re-Animator (1985)
29. Tampopo (1985)
30. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1985 (2011)

1. Taipei Story (1985)
2. Wetherby (1985)
3. Broken Down Film (1985)
4. Alamo Bay (1985)
5. Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1985)
6. Angry Harvest (1985)
7. An Early Frost (1985)
8. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1985)
9. Treasure Island (1985)
10. Turtle Diary (1985)
11. Compromising Positions (1985)
12. A Gentle Spirit (1985)
13. Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme (1985)
14. Tea in the Harem (1985)
15. Wuthering Heights (1985)
16. The Satin Slipper (1985)
17. Letter to Brezhnev (1985)
18. Favourites of the Moon (1985)
19. The Story of the Voyages (1985)
20. Bayan Ko: My Own Country (1985)

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F (2010)

Not Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Johannes Roberts

Cinematographer: Tim Sidell

Composer: Neil Stemp

Cast: David Schofield, Eliza Bennett, Ruth Gemmell, Juliet Aubrey, Emma Cleasby, Finlay Robertson

Exploiting and exploring rather than embodying bourgeois paranoia about knife-wielding hooded youths, Johannes Roberts’s vaguely promising school-set horror flick is certainly a big step up from the execrable Eden Lake (2008), with which it shares some common traits and themes, but with its wafer-thin characters and bafflingly illogical plot turns the film is certainly far from being an accomplished one. Iain.Stott

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LOL (2006)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director/Cinematographer: Joe Swanberg

Writers: Kevin Bewersdorf, Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Wells

Composer: Kevin Bewersdorf

Cast: Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Wells, Kevin Bewersdorf, Brigid Reagan, Tipper Newton, Greta Gerwig, Kate Winterich

With mobile phones and computers dominating the way that they interact with others, three twenty-something Chicagan males struggle to make meaningful connections with the women in their lives, in Swanberg’s formally playful, authentically acted, and thoughtfully written Mumblecore flick. Iain.Stott

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The Children (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

UK/Cayman Islands

Feature Film

Director: Tom Shankland

Writers: Tom Shankland, Paul Andrew Williams

Cinematographer: Nanu Segal

Composer: Stephen Hilton

Cast: Eva Birthistle, Stephen Campbell Moore, Jeremy Sheffield, Rachel Shelley, Hannah Tointon, Rafiella Brooks, Jake Hathaway, William Howes, Eva Sayer

Two young families attempt to spend a relaxing new year’s eve in a remote, snowy idyll, but are met only with nightmarish pain and suffering when their children seemingly inexplicably turn into murderous beasts, in Shankland’s well paced and thoughtfully crafted if never entirely logically plotted horror flick, which is almost but not quite a zombie film. Iain.Stott

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Being Human (2009-)

UK/USA

Television Series

Creator: Toby Whithouse

Cast: Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey, Aidan Turner, Sinead Keenan, Jason Watkins, Donald Sumpter, Lyndsey Marshal

Being Human is a thoroughly entertaining series, following the misadventures of three housemates – a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost – as they do their very best to be seen as human, blending metaphors old and new, comedy and drama, and reality and fantasy.

Series 1 (2009)

A vampire and a werewolf move into new house together and discover that its murdered former tenant still lives there, and the three soon become good friends, helping each other as they attempt to retain/regain their humanity, in this thoroughly entertaining first series, a deft mix of comedy, drama, and horror.

Series 2 (2010)

Mitchell finds himself making more compromises than he would like, when he takes it upon himself to lead Bristol’s vampire community in the wake of Herrick’s death; whilst George’s complicated love life ensures that his continuing battle with his inner wolf is never as under control as he would like to think; and Annie finds herself feeling increasingly disconnected from the world around her, as she once again loses her corporeal form, in this highly entertaining and occasionally brilliant if slightly uneven second series.

Series 3 (2011)

Encounters with 46-year-old teenaged vampires, WAG zombies, father and son werewolves, dead dads, and returned-from-the-grave vampires ensure that the lives of Mitchell, George, Annie, and Nina are anything but uneventful, as they attempt to deal with romances and pregnancies, new and unexpected, in this entertainingly unpredictable third series. Iain.Stott

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