guy-drakewilkes

Sam Tyler returns in Life On Mars, a story of a man who has been knocked unconscious in a road accident in 2006 and wakes up in 1973! Series 2 starts with Sam still in 1973 as part of the CID team led by Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and he is still haunted by 'future images' as he lies in a coma in 2006 but there is a shocking new twist in this episode. With Marc Warren guesting as a shady character who Sam has dealt with in the future there is a race against time as Sam needs to sort out matters in 1973 so that his 2006 self doesn't come to any harm.

Gripping stuff!!

Laura's Star is a magical story based on the hugely popular books of Klaus Baumgart and it is about a 7 year old girl who has moved from the country to the city with her younger brother and parents. She is unhappy about having to leave her friends and her garden (she lives on a top floor apartment in a German city now) and is a loner who doesn't want to make new friends.

One night Laura sees a little star falling out of the sky and it lands in a park not far from Laura's bedroom window, she rushes out to find a broken star and she takes it upon herself to make it better. The star is, of course, a magic star and whatever it touches it brings to life albeit in the form of her 2 soft toys but the star cannot survive if it stays on earth.

This is one of those movies that does just enough to keep the mind of a 7 year old focused for 80 minutes but rather lets the adult down however girls will love it no doubt.

Having grown up with The Magic Roundabout I couldn't wait to see this new version but I was rather disappointed unfortunately.

The vocal talents are good with Tom Baker excelling as ZeBadDee and Robbie Williams as Dougal has a future in this sort of thing but there wasn't enough to keep this 35 year old fixed on the screen as say Skrek could. Sir Ian McKellen gave a great version of Gandalf as Zeberdee and Lee Evens was good as the voice of the train. Kylie Minogue seemed to have a small part as Florence and was hardly noticeable, Jim Broadbent probably had the best lines as Brian and Bill Nighy as Dylan just seemed to be the same character as in Love Actually! Joanna Lumley was good as Ermintrude, the opera singing cow.

OK, so I have been kind with the vocal talents but where this magic of the original was put into 5 minute episodes this falls down with trying to stretch that 5 minutes worth of fun into 80 minutes.

It is for the children and my 6 year old loved it...