Review: Here Comes the Devil / Cert: TBC / Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano / Screenplay: Adrian Garcia Bogliano / Starring: Francisco Barreiro, Laura Caro, Alan Martinez / UK Release Date: TBC

Missing children, mad curses, sexual hysteria and blood curdling cries of anguish play out disturbingly well in this chilling, atmospheric horror. Here Comes the Devil is an homage to Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock and in the same vein as other influential 1970s mystery horror such as Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now with hints of Jodorowsky in appearance, setting and excessiveness. Spanish Director, Adrian Garcia Bogliano has set this story in Tijuana – a place that takes superstition and stories about el diablo seriously – and he uses the setting to great effect. The desolate hills full of mysterious caves hiding dark secrets make for an eerie playground to explore and get lost in.

On a family trip to the hills two children Sara (Michele Garcia) and Aldofo (Alan Martinez) go off walking on their own and disappear. Their parents Felix (Francisco Barreiro) and Sol (Laura Caro) spend a night worrying for their safety but they return unharmed a day later. When their behaviour changes and they start to develop strange habits their parents begin to question what exactly happened that fearful night in the hills. Who else was there that night and what did they do to their innocent children?

As Felix and Sol try to get to the truth they point the finger at an easy target, a local delivery man who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bob from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. But as they search for a monster they themselves turn into something terrible. Increasingly weird moments play out inducing frenzy in the characters and forcing them to commit terrible acts.

A film that has to be taken on the merit of what it is trying to achieve, which is confusion and an unsettling atmosphere, all accomplished with unusual camera work, piercing sound effects and loud music. Dramatic zooms and extreme close-up shots of faces are interweaved with quieter moments to create an air of mystery and suspense. The opening scene sets an uneasy and startling tone straight away. An intense lesbian sex scene and a machete laden mad man on the search for fingers  open up the lunacy that is about to unfold on the screen extremely well. Shifting between calm and distressing in tone, there is actually method in the madness as it builds psychological tension.

Bogliano uses techniques to unsettle and unnerve the audience in this investigation into human behaviour and the many faces of evil and he reaches palpable heights. Disorientating, disturbing viewing that will set your heart racing and envelop you in its warped hysteria.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Seven Psychopaths / Cert: TBC / Director: Martin McDonagh / Screenplay: Martin McDonagh / Staring: Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits / US Release Date: October 26th / UK Release Date: TBC

After his much lauded and surprisingly brilliant feature debut In Bruges,  writer/director Martin McDonagh delivers a clever, funny, violent satire about violence in films. It mixes elements of and references to Tarantino, Peckinpah and even Malick, and has much in common with Get Shorty, Short Cuts and Bowfinger. Witty dialogue, dark moments, fast paced action, shoot outs and the framework for a bloody revenge film are set in motion and just as you’re about ready to settle in for the usual proceedings McDonagh shifts gears and heads in a different direction.

Marty (Farrell) is writing the screenplay for Seven Psychopaths but is struggling for inspiration as he is aiming to incorporate a psychopath who doesn’t believe in violence and make it all about peace and love. Marty’s friend Billy Bickle (Rockwell who does an amusing De Niro impression) is in the dognapping business with his long-time associate Hans (Walken) and when they steal a Shih Tzu from gangster Charlie Costello (Harrelson) things spiral into gun toting madness.

As Marty and Billy come up with ideas for the psychopaths their imagination is played out in stories full of sick characters (such as the Quaker killer out for revenge, or the serial killer couple who murder other serial killers), the dark and funny skits integrated into the narrative cleverly rather than standing alone. Farrell is spot on in the role of a writer on the edge struggling with issues of integrity and alongside Rockwell who portrays the obnoxious voice of the studio system they work extremely well off each other, arguing their points with vehemence and humour. Add in the deadpan brilliance of Walken and you have a spectacular trio of actors breaking down the pyscho killer film and arguing the case for more refreshing and original films. The strong screenplay comments on the film industry in such a clever way there is no time spent interrupting the entertainment playing out on screen.

The supporting roles are just as rich as the leads with Waits playing a bunny loving psycho who delivers a brief history of some of the serial killers portrayed in film. He references The Town that Dreaded Sundown and Zodiac in some scenes that deliver comical comeuppance. Woody Harrelson’s character addresses the violence in gangster films, and poor female roles are addressed with the lack of outstanding traits given to the women players in the film.

Seven Psychopaths is full of colourful characters and noteworthy performances that plays the film industry at its own game by proving a clever film can also be extremely entertaining.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Sightseers / Cert: 18 / Director: Ben Wheatley / Screenplay: Steve Oram, Alice Lowe / Starring: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Eileen Davis / Release Date: November 30th

With director Ben Wheatley’s body of work headed for cult status he’s a filmmaker whose output you cannot afford to miss, and with Sightseers he delivers yet again with a dark concept dominated by caustic characters.

Taking the brutal elements from Kill List with some gruesome and gory deaths, and featuring characters delivering smart dialogue as in his first feature film, Down Terrace, Wheatley has directed a sharp, standout film. For the first time Wheatley has not had a hand in the screenplay, with Steve Oram and Alice Lowe, who star in the film, writing a funny script full of macabre moments and hilarious one liners.

Chris (Oram) is a staunch advocate for green living who cannot abide litterbugs and society’s declining standards. Tina (Lowe) has been kept on a short leash by her controlling, bitter mother (played perfectly by Eileen Davis) who she lives with in a naïve bubble of a world. Tina and Chris go on a caravanning holiday around England’s green and pleasant land discovering the things that made this country great and setting the world to rights with their twisted ideology.

Oram and Lowe have been working on the characters of Chris and Tina for several years now and it really shows as their idiosyncratic ways give them depth and their interaction is naturalistic. The characters themselves pique interest from the start. Tina, a dog obsessed, knitted knicker wearing, potpourri enthusiast is hiding a terrible secret. When Chris declares Tina as his muse and takes her on a sexual odyssey their weird ways play out in cruel, comic fashion.

The soundtrack fits in superbly well with the psychotic tendencies of the couple who carry on a killing spree of those who make them irate. You will never listen to Tainted Love in the same way again as it bookends the film, first with the 1981 Soft Cell version and ending with the original recording by Gloria Jones. Along with Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s The Power of Love the mood of the early ‘80s recession is prevalent and it coincides with the frustration of the current economic climate.

Sightseers comments on the snap judgements we make of people and their upbringing and looks at what would happen if we simply eradicated that which we didn’t like or agree with. Envy and greed is at the heart of this sick love story and it’s all delivered with buckets of humour. With the location shooting, references to our heritage and the mounting tension indicative of the current mood, this is a smart British film made for our times.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Looper / Cert: 15 / Director: Rian Johnson / Screenplay: Rian Johnson / Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Tracie Thoms / Release Date: September 28th

In this high concept sci-fi thriller the principal players are both the same character (Joe), with Joseph Gordon-Levitt taking the role of his younger self and Bruce Willis playing the older and wiser version. Writer/Director Rian Johnson takes the concept of time travel, mixes it with a film noir feel and adds a gangster style narrative that leaps and bounds in unexpected directions.

In the future, when criminals want to dispose of people they send them 30 years back to the past with a time limit on their lives. Loopers (hit-men) are assigned to take out the future garbage when their time is up, the twist being they have to face themselves and pull the trigger. Each mark appears out of the blue in a specific time and location with their face covered for the Loopers to kill and close the loop.  If you are not strong enough to end your older self the punishment is severe.

When older Joe overpowers his younger self he sets a deadly, race against the clock game in motion with a storyline that pits the two against each other and introduces a mother and child into their violent head-to-head. Older Joe is intent on staying alive for the sake of a loved one and when he’s given the opportunity to end the infamous assassin called ‘The Rainmaker’, whose death he believes will allow him to make it back to his reality, he sets out to murder him at a young age. This of course, brings The Terminator to mind – time travel to alter the future and stop atrocities – but to reveal any more would be to ruin the film.

Looper looks tremendous throughout as it moves location and time. Young Joe’s world is one of overindulgence in drugs (taken through the eye in droplet form), fast cars and women. The final act of the film, where a face- off between the two Joes occurs in a desolate Kansas field, is timeless in appearance compared to the noir metropolis that Joe inhabits. There are hints of Dark City also, with the henchmen who pluck their victims away from their existence wearing similar attire to the mysterious Strangers.

The dialogue is comparable in style to Johnson’s breakthrough film Brick, with some great, humourours one-liners throughout. The performances are all top notch with Gordon-Levitt perfecting Willis’ mannerisms and Willis adding a much needed tenderness to the well-drawn character of Joe. Special mention goes to child actor Pierce Gagnon who delivers sweetness and sinister in equal measure.

You’ll want to go back and watch it again to pick it apart, and a second viewing should be well rewarded.  The strength of Looper lies in its intricacy, ambition and the questions it poses about a predetermined path. Johnson wraps it all up nicely in a darkly imagined, blue tinted world. “Loop closed baby.”

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Checking into hotels is great. The promise of a freshly-made bed waiting for you at the end of a long journey, staff tending to your every whim, Optimus Prime queuing up behind you to check in. Wait, what was that? Okay, admittedly, most visits to a hotel don’t include running into the Autobot’s stoic leader, or for that matter a man in a fluffy black Ravage onesie with a deftly-sewn Decepticon sign on the back. But if you’d happened to book a room at Birmingham’s Hilton Metropole hotel around the 4th of August, this is exactly what you would have found.

Celebrating their 11th year, Auto Assembly arrived with a bang as Transformers fans from around the world congregated to enjoy all that a fan convention of this magnitude had to offer. Having outgrown the local Holiday Inn, AA2012 relocated to the Metropole and managed to fill it out quite nicely. Throughout the three-day event there would be plenty of mini events to occupy the Transfans, including workshops covering kit-bashing, colouring, creating comic artwork and meetings for the Full Metal Hero Forum. But the main hall was where you wanted to be.

If there is a Transformers toy heaven, for three days it relocated to Birmingham. Aisle upon aisle of classic ’80s toys, mixed with everything else leading up to the latest treats were there in all their colourful eye-popping glory. It wasn’t just the tabletops you wanted to look at though. Take a peek below and there were hidden treasures to be found. Boxes of broken cons and bots dwelled, ready to provide that one bit from your favourite Transformer that was lost when your parents relocated your toys to the loft in celebration of you finally moving out.

But it’s not all about the toys. If you could pry your eyes away from the dealers tables for a moment, you’d notice a long line of people sitting sketching and talking to the attendees. A closer look revealed them to be no less than Transformers comic book royalty. Names such as John-Paul Bove, Stephen Baskerville, Jason Cardy, Kat Nicholson, Andrew Wildman and TF deity Simon Furman were in attendance.

“Back in the day when there weren’t things like this you operate in a kind of splendid isolation,” Furman recalled when quizzed about his inclusion in the weekend’s Transformers frivolity. “You had readers letters but that was about it in terms of feedback and there was no internet so we were in a bubble and in fact when we went to our first Transformers convention in 1997 it was a real revelation, you know, the fact that this has carried on kind of in our absence. People remembered this stuff, it was a big surprise. So I really like it, it’s great to meet the people who are reading the thing, talk to them, field their questions and all that kind of thing. And generally, they’re just good social events.”

He’s not alone in his love for the event. Although, TF artist supremo Andrew Wildman admits it took a while for him to warm to them.

“I didn’t use to enjoy it very much, I hated people watching me drawing, it was just really difficult. I know I had a period of time when I was on the other side of the table, I was a reader and it was really nice to meet the people who wrote the stuff and you’ve always got questions for them, so I make myself available to answer some questions. I think the more you do it, the more you get used to it and then it becomes fun.”

And fun it was. While episodes played and the guests popped up onto the stage as the attendees casually shopped around the stalls, the best was yet to come. With a burger and a beer hastily shoved down, the evening’s festivities soon began, and everyone was in for a treat.

Since the very beginning, fan conventions have walked hand in hand with Cosplay and Auto Assembly is no different. Insanely good costumes were paraded in front of the guest panel, along with some seriously suspect ones. All were incredibly entertaining though, including the stand up star, Erector. As it turned out, it would be the most inventive costume which won – a swarm of Scraplets made from 95 silver Christmas baubles with foil-covered pipe-cleaners stuck on, all attached to a man in a black body-stocking (below, right).

Following swiftly on, was the live script reading which included voice actors Michael Bell (G1’s Swoop and Prowl), Townsend Coleman (TF: Animated’s Sentinel Prime) and Paul Eiding (G1’s Perceptor) reprising their characters along with other guests filling in the gaps (TF artist Nick Roche almost stole the show with his Bobcat Goldthwait interpretation of Dirtbag).

Paul Eiding, Michael Bell, and Townsend Coleman

Messages from other TF alumni were played, followed by news of next year’s guests (including Generation 1’s Bumblebee, Dan Gilvezan) before attention was turned to another stage where Karaoke awaited. Yes, Karaoke. It wasn’t until some immensely talented guy took to the stage and sung Honō no Overdrive: Car Robot Cybertron the theme to Transformers: RoD in perfect Japanese that the association of this medium and Transformers really struck home. But while the tenuous link prevailed, it did sadly clear the Hall of most of the attendees, leaving only the hard-core fans to enjoy the immense deck skills of artist Jason Cardy who provided a superb set, giving the many Transformer’s tunes a dubstep edge.

Jason Cardy

As with all fan conventions, celebrations went on into the night, leading us swiftly into another day of Transformers revelry. For some, on very little sleep.

“I love them,” grins voice actor Townsend Coleman, a man who holds the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Michelangelo and The Tick in his incredible CV. “The fans are always so appreciative. They’re fun, they’re friendly, they’re real interested and asking questions and stuff so it’s a blast for me.”

“Really the first time that it ever occurred to me that we were having some kind of impact on people was long before the internet,” Coleman continues on the subject of coming out of the recording booth to meet his fans. “It was in the early ‘90s and I remember us doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and my son – who is a musician – had won a national song-writing contest (sponsored by Pepsi) back in the States and the prize was to be flown back to Cleveland to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and perform there while their tune was recorded for a Pepsi commercial. Well, we’re from Cleveland so it was ironic that we all got to go back and watch this whole thing happen. But this was maybe in 1994 or so and I’d been doing Turtles for six or seven years and when you’re confined in your little box and you don’t really get out – you know, we go in, we read a script and then months, maybe years later it actually airs – you don’t have any contact with the fans really. And so going to Cleveland for that was the first time that all of a sudden, people were coming up to me, parents with their kids, friends of Chris’s and stuff, coming up to me and just saying how much they loved the Turtles. So this crowd started to gather and it was like, really weird. All of a sudden it dawned on me, ‘Crap! There are people out there who actually watch this thing and dig it!’ So that was really the first indication to me that we were having some kind of impact beyond Southern California.”

He’s not alone in his appreciation of the support of the fans who come to events like Auto Assembly. Legendary voice talent Paul Eiding (known to Transformers fans as Perceptor and now younger fans as Grandpa Max on cartoon sensation Ben 10) is similarly appreciative of the fan reaction.

“I already posted on my Facebook page this morning when I got up,” Eiding smiles, “I said, ‘Auto Assembly you are everything I’ve heard and more and a million thank yous.’ It’s been, really beyond my wildest dreams. It’s been just fabulous.”

Paul Eiding

“You do what you do because you love it,” Eiding sums it up, “you do what you do because it’s your job. You do what you do because any actor is happy to work. So when you get the response that you get sometimes, you don’t feel worthy. At least I don’t feel worthy. I’m not one of those that feels like everything that’s coming my way I truly deserve. A lot of times I’m thinking, ‘Why are they saying these things?’ And it also opens your eyes. Gordon Hunt, who was an acting coach of mine (who is Helen Hunt’s Dad), he said something at one point in class about 30 years ago. He said, ‘Never over-estimate or under-estimate what we do, because we can either get a tendency to believe our own press and believe that all the accolades that are coming your way are richly deserved and that you should be getting more. The other is to poo-poo what we do. I used to say, ‘What we’re doing isn’t brain surgery, we’re not saving lives, we’re not rescuing people, we’re not doing really, really important things. You can, at some point just say we’re filler between the commercials. We’re selling bread, we’re selling eggs, we’re selling automobiles, that kind of thing. It’s humbling, when people come and tell you stories of how they’ve identified with the show, of how they’ve identified with the character that you do. It slaps you in the face. We’re incredibly lucky, we do affect people.”

As things drew to a close on quite possibly the biggest and best Transformer convention seen on this side of the Atlantic, you couldn’t help but feel like you’d just relived your childhood (all the good bits anyway). Frankly, Auto Assembly 2013 can’t roll out quick enough.

For more information on Auto Assembly, visit their official site HERE.

After a successful stint at the Kensington Olympia 2 in London’s Earls Court last year the lavish, interactive Doctor Who Experience – which combines the best of the fondly-remembered 1970s and 1980s costume exhibitions at Blackpool and Longleat House with state-of-the-art visual effects and immersive 3D trickery – has moved into its new permanent home in a 3,000 square metre purpose-built complex in Cardiff Bay, just a stone’s throw from the Roath Lock studios where the series itself is now produced. Starburst’s Paul Mount armed himself with his sonic screwdriver and psychic paper and set his co-ordinates for Cardiff Bay for a date with the Doctor and some of his deadliest enemies…

There’s a very definitive buzz about the BBC Doctor Who Experience which isn’t just the thrill of a new venture opening its doors to an eager public for the very first time at its new long-term home. Nestled in a corner of former waste ground at Roath Lock in Cardiff the Experience is based in a massive, rather forbidding and vaguely-futuristic looking building and is especially noticeable by the amount of pedestrian traffic crossing the footbridge into an area of the city which has, since the disappearance of Cardiff’s traditional docklands industrial activity, been largely unloved and unvisited. The regeneration of the area – if you’ll pardon the pun – is set to continue with a number of new restaurants, cafes and retails units in a remaining section of long-abandoned former dock workings right outside the new BBC complex. What impact this activity will have on filming of long-running Welsh soap Pobol-y-Cwm just inside walls of the BBC Wales remains to be seen…

If you’ve been to the Doctor Who Experience in London – and I’d be willing to wager a month’s worth of grotzits that you have – you’ll be immediately struck by the sense of space at its new home, even if much of the core content has remained basically unchanged. Entering into the bright, airy vestibule, its walls decorated with snazzy artwork illustrations of the Doctor’s most famous enemies, including the Daleks (obviously), their creator Davros, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Silence, the first pleasant surprise is the presence of Bessie, the third Doctor’s canary-yellow T-Ford roadster roped off just inside the main doorway. It’s a reassuring sign that the Exhibition won’t be new-series obsessed and that the show’s rich heritage, as it approaches its fiftieth anniversary, hasn’t been brushed aside in the glare and glamour of the 21st century version. Visitors are ushered into the Experience itself in groups of thirty – Starburst spent about three hours on or around the premises and saw a steady stream of customers throughout the morning after an initial rush of groups during the first hour of opening – and into a small viewing area where Matt Smith prepares us for what’s ahead via a voiceover as images from his first two seasons – and did I see some sneaky new footage from as-yet-unscreened episodes in there? – rush by on a screen to the accompaniment of composer Murray Gold’s rousing ‘I Am the Doctor’ theme. 

The just-visible ‘crack’ on the screen splits open and the visitors enter ‘Starship UK’, inspired by the ‘Beast Below’ episode from 2010 where an ‘information node’ (from 2008’s ‘Silence in the Library’ two-parter) welcomes us aboard before being disrupted by an unauthorised transmission… and screens dotted about the room show the Doctor, trapped in “The Pandorica 2 – they had a spare” desperate for help and, in the absence of Amy, having to resort to a bunch of “shoppers” to get him out of his latest predicament. Impressive smoke-and-mirrors trickery sees the TARDIS materialise right before out eyes; the doors swing open and we’re hurried into a corridor leading to a wonderful facsimile of the 11th Doctor’s TARDIS console room. In a section especially aimed at the youngsters, the Doctor encourages his “shoppers” to navigate the TARDIS via some control panels dotted around the safety rail until it touches down and the crowd are moved out through more metallic corridors… and an encounter with the big ugly white Dalek from the 2010 series who, typically, threatens to exterminate everyone before the Doctor appears on screen again and tells him to give it a rest. Two more of the big new Daleks slide out the shadows before the Dalek spaceship we’re on comes under attack by an army of proper gold Daleks and the screen lights up and displays a CGI space battle with Dalek saucers ducking and diving and exploding. It’s a comic strip come to life.

Out of the Dalek section we move into a dimly-lit forest and the Doctor gives us just one warning – “don’t blink.” Weeping Angels lurk in the shadows as we collect our 3D glasses and the Doctor, freed from the Pandorica 2, unleashes all his deadliest enemies and 3D Daleks, Cybermen and Angels lurch out of the screen and lunge at the crowd before being flung back into the Time Vortex via a bit of Time Lord mumbo jumbo magic.

That’s it for the interactive part of the Experience and whilst it’s clearly aimed at the younger end of the Doctor Who audience it’s a lot of fun and it’s genuinely touching to see the little ones cowering from the barking Daleks and flinching as a 3D Angel reaches out from the screen. Cynical adults can sometimes be a bit sniffy about the show’s appeal to kids but let’s all remember that the reason we’re watching this show now is because it got its hooks into us when we were knee-high to a Sontaran…

Out from the Experience itself it’s up to the stiflingly-hot mezzanine area (fans and blowers can only do so much – the rising heat was always going to be a problem at the new Experience) and a big, sprawling, fascinating display of props and costumes from the show, some of them dating back to the 1960s. Alongside the usual array of Daleks-through-the-Ages and the costumes of all the Doctors and the post-2005 companions, Cardiff exclusives include the Silence in their spaceship control room, the junkyard TARDIS from ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ and the Wooden King and Queen from that Christmas Special from last year we’ve all forgotten about. Elsewhere there are Cybermen (generally under-represented, Starburst felt), Ood, Hath, Judoon, the Absorbaloff, Time Lords and, for the older fan, a refurbished Ice Warrior, Zygon and Giant Robot K1. There are photo opportunities, the chance to ‘move like a monster’, a Dalek for tiny hands to manipulate and displays of concept designs for props, sets and costumes.

You’ll easily spend an hour or so gazing at the exhibits – Tennant’s TARDIS console room is there alongside more basic control rooms from the 1980s, old TARDIS props, K9  – before drifting into the merchandise area. With little in the way of new stuff released since the show’s been off-air there’s not much here for the more determined collector – there are a few season 6 action figures reduced to about a fiver if you need an extra Silence or corroded Cyberman – but there are exclusive posters, T-shirts, torches and mugs alongside a selection of books and DVDs. Prepare to pay top dollar for most of this stuff too.

Out of the exhibition area visitors can spend some time in the bright, spacious café area – Starburst recommends the sausage sandwiches – soaking up an atmosphere where the Doctor Who theme is playing in the background on a loop and visitors of all ages and from all over the world can revel in the glorious, imaginative, rich and colourful heritage of the greatest show in the galaxy. The Doctor Who Experience will be based at Cardiff for at least the next five years and a visit – possibly even regular visits – are a must for all fans of this most remarkable and indestructible of television legends.

Starburst was in attendance at this weekend’s MCM Expo Comic Con and we’re pleased to report that its second Manchester event was a rousing success.

A staggering number of fans (a record breaking 11,300 to be precise!) descended on the City’s GMEX (it’s not a train station anymore, who knew?!) to enjoy the hundreds of merch stalls, admire the many props on display (Battle Droids are far scarier in person btw), take in the thousands of extraordinary cosplayers, and try out some of the latest video game properties.

Visitors were also able to chat with special guests such as hugely popular voice actor Vic Mignogna (Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragon Ball Z), Rupert Young (Merlin), Willow himself, the legendary Warwick Davis (sadly the AIDS line didn’t yield a discount), and the cast of Young Dracula. There were also some sports personalities, but we shouldn’t imagine you’re that arsed about them if you’re reading this site. We weren’t.

Our only downside (aside from the usual con gripes we’re used to – tip: go easy on the sodas, queuing for the toilets is a pain when you’re stuck behind a dude trying to find the zipper on his adult Pikachu costume), is that it’s almost impossible to fully appreciate all that’s on offer in the seven and a half hour opening time. It’d be great to see the next Manchester event grow to a two or three day event like its cousins, and considering ticket sales doubled from last year’s debut event, we expect this is something the organisers are looking into right now.

We’re already counting the days til MCM’s next event, which will be held at the ExCel in London on the 26th – 28th of October. You’ll find out more information by visiting the official site here.

Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live! / Based on the novels by Douglas Adams, adapted, written and directed by Dirk Maggs / Starring: Simon Jones, Geoff McGivern, Susan Sheridan, Mark Wing-Davey, Stephen Moore (voice)/ Music: Philip Pope 

Whether you’re a grizzled, hardened fan of the late Douglas Adams’ classic, timeless 1970s radio (and so much more besides) comedy The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy or just intrigued to see how such a mind-boggling Universe-spanning concept can be brought to the stage in the 21st century, it’s pretty much a certainty that you’ll feel a cheeky little thrill as the live stage band, led by Philip Pope, strikes up that familiar, ramshackle Paddy Kingsland theme tune. Moments later we’re pitched, for the umpteenth time, into the upside-down world of Arthur Dent (as in ‘the late Arthur Dent’) as he’s snatched from his mundane existence wearing nothing much more than a garish dressing gown, by his long-time good friend (and secret planet-hopping researcher for the titular Guide) Ford Prefect, just as the planet Earth is demolished to make way for an intergalactic bypass.

Hitchhiker’s has been done to death on stage over the years, of course, but this new show is a celebration – and recreation – of the radio production by the original cast, now thicker of waist and greyer of hair but their voices just as they were when we heard those original, ground-breaking broadcasts more years ago than we might care to remember. This is no boring, static presentation of ageing actors standing in front of microphone stands reading from scripts; well, there is a bit of that going on but there’s also a whole lot more. There’s the aforementioned live band, some natty screen-projected visual effects – including many of the more memorable Guide entries, a brilliant realisation of Marvin the Paranoid Android operated War Horse style and with Stephen Moore’s original vocals and, perhaps best of all, a guest narrator seated on a plinth at the back of the stage intoning the words of the book as so wonderfully presented by the late Peter Jones in the radio and TV series. Phill Jupitus was on book duties when Starburst paid a visit and he pretty much brought the house down with ad-libbed jokes about Jimmy Carr (the day after the comic’s tax indiscretions became public knowledge) and his later front-of-stage appearance as the Dish of the Day in a pair of tiny leopard-skin pants.

Director/adapter Dirk Maggs (who also appears on stage as one of the busy practical FX guys and occasional Foley artist) has skillfully sliced the very best material from Adam’s infamous trilogy-in-five-parts to create a more focused two-hour stage script. It’s a bit of a jolt to see almost all the original material with Arthur and Ford on Earth before its demolition excised but it allows the production to move on quickly to the really good stuff – and all the good stuff from the first series/book is here. We get the Vogons in full poetic flow, the (occasionally) two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox and his stolen Heart of Gold spaceship with its Infinite Improbability Drive, the landing on the ancient planet of Magrathea, the mice and even the curious tale of the whale and the vase of flowers. It’s a tight, fast first half and the audience responds to all the familiar jokes and gags as if they’re old friends. Part two is a bit less successful, plundering material the audience seems less at home with and much of it is more random, occasionally drifting into meandering slapstick and the storyline itself gets utterly lost in a muddle of time paradoxes, duplicate Earths and Arthur’s search for an acceptable cup of tea.

In many ways Hitchhiker’s is quintessentially British and distinctly of its time.  A 21st century version would be packed with trendy swearing and boundary-pushing offensiveness but there’s something reassuringly innocent about Adams’ clever wordplay and wild imaginative flights of fancy with barely a ‘damn’ or a ‘blast’ finding its way into his text and certainly nothing much more offensive than the suggestion that, in one reality or another, Arthur and Trillian did the deed and found themselves with a rebellious child.

The live show is a game of two halves, tight and focussed in the first half but a bit more obscure in the second. But it’s a joyful, exuberant production and a wonderful – and frankly unmissable – opportunity to see the original radio cast reunited and clearly having as much fun as the audience. And quite rightly, the last curtain call goes to the late Douglas Adams as his cast pay tribute to the man who made all the magic and the madness possible.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy Radio Show Live! Is touring the UK until 21st July 2012. Book your tickets HERE.

One of the things I learnt in early June 2012 was that if a zombie apocalypse actually did happen, both I and all my friends would die horribly within hours of the outbreak regardless of how cool we thought we looked. It’s a harsh life lesson to be sure, having watched zombie films with glee and delight for over ten years now and thought how cool you would look mowing down zombies with weaponry you could barely lift. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed in myself.

So how did I come to learn this lesson? Well someone had the so-obvious-it’s-genius idea of taking over an abandoned shopping mall in Reading and filling it with actors portraying zombies in authentic film standard make up and then getting the paying British public to test themselves in this apocalyptic scenario armed only with pump action BB guns. So me and five of my friends set off for Reading to test our mettle, our team work skills, our ingenuity and our bowels in this most desperate of scenarios.

Zed Events is the company behind this fun day out and they have been running an event in Manchester known as ‘The Manor’ (which is reminiscent of the finale of 28 Days Later) for some time now. They currently have the Zombie Shopping Mall in Reading until January 2013 when the site is scheduled for demolition.

The first two hours of the four hour session are taken up with you and your team mates taking part in a story that involves two cops portrayed by actors taking you from the basement, through the zombie infested shopping concourse, into control rooms and the dark corners of stock rooms behind the empty shops. You have to complete missions of a sort which mostly involve sweep and clear scenarios and culminate in you finding a mad army person and having to leg it to the roof for an imaginary waiting helicopter as the zombies overwhelm the mall. The initial two hours are so much knackering fun, running about with the guides in a fashion similar to the Alien War attraction from the 90s. The location also offers production values that some simulations wouldn’t offer as part of the initial story takes place in a control room complete with CCTV so you can view the undead stumbling about and decide on a strategy as you are sent out in two smaller teams. You also have the opportunity to search abandoned kitchens and cupboards as you look for supplies although you are given goggles, water, a torch and some nifty SWAT cop style utility vests. The atmosphere is tense throughout with the actors never breaking character, equipped with loud replica firearms and then you have zombies shambling out of the dark corridors behind the group as you make your way through the basement.

After this first two hours you get a short break and then you get to go it alone. You are informed beforehand that the zombies only seem to die if you shoot them in the chest (to get round the fact that generally people don’t like being shot in the face with bb guns, regardless of how method they are) and that shooting them in the head will simply anger them. You are given the first of two missions which is to collect ammunition and then off you go into a mall infested with the living dead whilst soundtracks from zombie movies of the past plays through a PA system. Further adding to the coolness, the zombies are kitted out in a variety of costumes and you quickly learn that the zombie in full riot gear can’t be killed. Some of the zombies run at you like the more modern interpretation and some just shamble but they get everywhere. You start with the best intentions with squad pincer movements as you round corners and clear shops but one of them is usually waiting in the darkness to take out your point man. Adding to the fun, you are informed that the actors/zombies will react to your reactions, so if they touch you then you can just throw up your hands and shout ‘Infected!’ and return to base camp for a time out, or you can fall down screaming ‘Choke on em!’ and the actors will go with it. Shamefully in the solo sessions I was one of the first to die and fell to the floor screaming/laughing as an actress climbed on top of me and pretended to eat my guts.

The next solo hour is a mission involving bottles of liquid (some kind of toxin) and getting them to a safe place and then after 45 minutes you have to get to a safe point as the zombies storm at you and you have to try and survive. I’m quite proud of the fact that I was one of the last to die here, even though I was running like the wind to the top of the stairs.

Afterwards there are opportunities to have photos taken with the zombies (who are still in character) and overall the whole thing is tremendous fun. If I did have a complaint it’s that the two solo mission goals are a bit vague and don’t seem to really count for much when perhaps a capture the flag type scenario would have been better.

At £140 it’s not cheap but is well worth it if you ever enjoyed a zombie film, for the best effect get several of your best friends together and go for a great time. Zed Events currently are pretty much fully booked until January but they update their website and their Facebook page with any cancellations, so if you want to you can nip in there – but be quick!

Starburst braves torrential Cardiff rain to get the inside skinny on the first full public screening of two 1960s Doctor Who episodes thought lost forever…

You could have heard a pin drop. Literally. In the crowded Cinema 1 in Cardiff’s Chapter Arts centre, dozens of hardcore Doctor Who fans sat in silence in nervous anticipation as the lights went down and the screen went blank. Seconds later the original version of the most famous and evocative television theme tune in the world crackled over the speakers and a familiar title sequence flickered onto the screen. This was it. The assembled horde was about to watch, as Steven Moffat was to later put it, “new Doctor Who from the 1960s!” And the atmosphere was electric…

Last December Doctor Who fandom’s gob was severely smacked by the news, announced at a BFI event in London, that two long-lost black-and-white Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s had been recovered in the hands of a private collector. The story of the BBC’s astonishing early 1970s purging of its entire Doctor Who archive has been well-documented elsewhere, as have the remarkable and tireless efforts of a group of dedicated fans who have, over the years, managed to track down prints and copies of many of these lost treasures. But with the last old-episode recovery having occurred way back in 2004 most fans had resigned themselves to the fact that it was looking as if the show’s archive (and worse, their personal collections) would be forever missing 108 of its early instalments starring William Hartnell and his successor Patrick Troughton. The BFI announcement of the recovery of two further episodes was as astonishing as it was unsuspected and whilst the episodes themselves – ‘Air Lock’, the third episode of 1965 Hartnell story ‘Galaxy Four’ and episode two of the 1967 Troughton adventure ‘The Underwater Menace’ –  won’t have been high on any fan’s “I-wish-they’d-find” list, the news of their return was a very pleasant early Christmas gift for the show’s devotees. At the BFI event only a few minutes of ‘Airlock’ were shown followed by the entire Troughton episode – itself a significant find, incidentally, as it becomes the earliest Troughton episode now in the BBC Archives.

It fell to Bafta Cymru Wales, from the current series’ production home in Cardiff, to arrange screenings of both ‘Air Lock’ in its entirety for the first time in nearly 50 years and, most excitingly, the first screening of the Troughton episode in its newly-restored form, rushed across the Severn Bridge by the Restoration Team who do such spectacular work in tidying up scratchy old Doctor Who tapes and making them look shiny and brand new for DVD release. In attendance for this momentous screening were Moffat and his fellow executive producer Caroline Skinner and stars Peter Purves (Steven in ’Airlock’) and Frazer Hines and Anneke Wills (Jamie and Polly in ‘The Underwater Menace.’)

The episodes? Great, great fun. Classic Doctor Who? Probably not. Neither ‘Galaxy Four’ or ‘The Underwater Menace’ have ever been held in especially high regard by the fan community, but that’s more than likely because both stories haven’t been well served visually with only random clips existing from the former and just one episode from the latter. ‘Galaxy Four’ sees the Doctor (Hartnell) and his companions, astronaut Steven Taylor and space orphan Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) on a doomed and hostile planet where the occupants of two crashed spacecraft are antagonising one another. The Drahvins are powerful, beautiful yet war faring women and the Rills are ugly, gas-breathing walrus-type beasts with a bunch of whirring, buzzing robots dubbed ’Chumblies’ by Vicki as their servants. ’Air Lock’ rattles along at a right old clip and whilst its production values are desperately primitive by today’s standards – Vicki trapped behind by a wobbling security gate with holes so huge she could easily clamber through it got a bit of a chuckle form the crowd as did the Drahvin soldier who nods off whilst on guard duty – it remains terrifically entertaining. Actress Stephanie Bidmead impressed as Maaga, leader of the Drahvins, as she makes an impassioned soliloquy – in one take, apparently – on the deficiencies of her race as soldiers. Hartnell himself looks less out of his depth than usual in a sci-fi setting but then he has the support of the brilliant Maureen O’Brien who gives proceedings a real lift as she disarms a Drahvin and marches about carrying her huge space-gun like a 1960’s Sigourney Weaver. The Chumblies, with their weird whirring humming and discreetly flashing lights, are surprisingly effective too – although it’s no huge surprise that they weren’t able to replace the Daleks in the affections of the show’s 1960s viewers.

‘The Underwater Menace’ sees the new Doctor and his companions Jamie, Polly and Ben (the late Michael Craze) in Atlantis battling to thwart the plans of barking mad Professor Zaroff (Joseph Furst) who intends to raise Atlantis by draining one of the world’s oceans into the core of the Earth. The Doctor reasons that the super-heated steam created will cause the whole planet to crack open. Silly, pulpy stuff full of people in outlandish costumes speaking with silly accents – but Troughton’s performance is a joy. This is classic second Doctor stuff, Troughton looking innocent and baffled as he tampers with Zaroff’s equipment and indulging in some wonderfully-subtle comic asides as the Doctor gets enthusiastic about dressing up in a silly costume and makes hugely disparaging remarks about his adversary’s sanity. He even gets to ask Zaroff the question heroes never think to ask villains with similar world-destroying ambitions: “Why do you want to blow up the world?” I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in attendance who could have done with seeing the next episode as the credits rolled…

Following the screening new series former script-editor and novelist Gary Russell took to the stage to introduce the guests and to moderate a relaxed, entertaining and informative sixty-odd minute discussion and Q&A with the crowd. Purves was especially thoughtful and erudite, sharing his memories of working with Hartnell and the frustrations of recording episodes of Doctor Who ‘as live’ with allowances made for only three recording breaks during taping. Frazer Hines was typically playful, chiding his colleagues and recalling his early days working on the show and “keeping his head down” amongst his more experienced contemporaries. Anneke Wills fizzed with enthusiasm for the show and her part in its history and, with Hines, recalled working on ‘The Underwater Menace’ with surprising clarity. Steven Moffat was on hand to enthuse about the joy of old Doctor Who and suggested that Patrick Troughton, the contribution of Hartnell notwithstanding, was the first actor to really ‘act’ the character and to define who and what the Doctor is, drawing obvious parallels with current incumbent Matt Smith. Moffat blanched at the idea of a ‘live’ episode of Doctor Who – “it’s not going to bloody happen” – and marvelled at how the 1960s production teams were able to create episodes as ambitious as these in tiny studios and with next to no money.

The screening over, Moffat and the actors mingled with the fans in the busy Chapter Bar. Here’s where it goes a bit fuzzy…   Restoration work continues on these two lost episodes which are likely to be made commercially available later this year. Let’s hope it’s not too long before BAFTA Cymru are able to organise a similar event to celebrate the return of yet more lost-forever Doctor Who classics. They’re out there somewhere…