Review - The Night Agent

Amenadiel (Lucifer's brother) returns in the guise of Erik Monks in Season 1 of The Night Agent - an actor I like, playing a character I like... Here follows my review of The Night Agent.

 Based on a book by author Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent has been brought to our screens by Netflix and, wow, it's fast-paced action all the way. 

The basic story is that Peter Sutherland (junior) is driven to find the truth about Peter Sutherland (senior) but other things get in the way, such as saving Rose Larkin from being killed, as she was a witness to the murder of her aunt and uncle, who know that there are professional assassins outside the house and instruct Rose to head for a neighbour's house, dial a specific telephone number, repeat a code and request immediate help. The number goes through to The White House, the person who receives her call is Peter.

Twists and turns of the plot plus not knowing who can be trusted - Rose overheard her aunt and uncle discussing that there is a traitor in The White House - leaves Peter and Rose on the run from both 'goodies' and 'baddies'. Eventually, the story cullminates at Camp David. For me, this was the point where the production seemed disjointed, as if the film editor wasn't sure about what scenes to include and in what order. Anyway, despite several deaths throughout the series, the show concluded with an 'okay' ending.

Some of the cast from Season 1 will be returning for a second series, expected later this year: 

• Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland
• Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin
• Hong Chau as Diane Farr
• Sarah Desjardins as Maddie Redfield
• Christopher Shyer as Vice President Redfield
• Fola Evans-Akingbola as Chelsea Arrington 

 

Review - Slow Horses

The next series of Slow Horses is rumoured to be released on AppleTV+ in November 2024. So... are we looking forward to this?

Absolutely. It's a bit of a weird show. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) heads up a team of 'frowned-upon' government agents, ones who are being punished for messing up in some way. But, of course, this is the team that, under Oldman's character's guidance, continues to successfully take down 'baddies' where other agents have failed - and without any praise or acknowledgement, obviously. 

Jacson Lamb's boss, Diana Taverner (Kristin ScottThomas), is the only one who appreciates the team's worth but it suits her to keep it to herself, a kind of secret backup team. 

The main characters are:

• Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb
• Jack Lowden as River Cartright
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner
  

It's not obvious why River Cartwright is the agent who is singled out for top billing but he is certainly the agent who is featured the most in the series. 

When I've suggested to friends that they might enjoy this series, I've felt compelled to warn them about Gary Oldman's character. He's repulsive - you can almost smell him when he appears onto your TV set. Eventually, though, this renegade makes you appreciate his experience, tactics and so much more. 

And the humour makes me smile. 

If you're thinking of watching the new series, take the next few months to bring yourself up to date with the three previoius seasons. According to AppleTV+

      

50 Years of Cars

At a family gathering, we were trying to remember which cars we'd each owned in the past 5 decades. It wasn't conclusive but we remembered most of them. I'll kick this off with the fact that I passed my driving test in a Morris Marina.

There were four of us. At some point, everyone had owned a Ford. One was a Z-back Anglia which had so much rust that large stickers of Magic Roundabout characters were holding it together! There were also Cortinas, Escorts, a Ford Fiesta and at least two Ford Sierras. At one time, two of us drove a Sierra 4x4 to Cannes, Côte d'Azure; apparently this model wasn't available in France at the time and some local car enthusiasts stopped us to chat about it. Oh, and a Galaxy MPV.

We've all had Triumphs, too - in fact, three of us owned the same blue estate car. Other Triumph models included a Toledo, Dolomite and a TR7. Alpha Romeo's AlphaSud was another car that passed from one of us to another - at only 3 or 4 years old, it had more rust than the ancient Ford Anglia mentioned earlier. We followed this with an Alpha Romeo Giulietta. Another Italian car we had was a Lancia Thema, which was brilliant - they stopped making right-hand drive Lancias at some point.

We had a Saab Aero 9000. Whatever it was, it looked amazing but I hated it. The leather seats were so smooth that I kept sliding down, despite wearing a seatbelt. That didn't last long, either.

Our older cars included Austin Mini, Mini Clubman and an Austin 1100. At one point, I even owed a small generic van but couldn't tell you what make/model it might have been - I didn't have it for long. 

Onto Vauhall: the first was a Vauxhall Viva in the 1980s, which I owned for one week and it was so awful that I then swapped it for another car. It's been almost 30 years since I bought a Frontera repplaced by a top-of-the-range Vauxhall Carlton Estate (our second Carlton). More recently, I owned a Vauxhall Astra and a Mokka. 

We've had a few 'Asian' cars: Mazda 626 (also owned by 2 other familly members), Toyota MR2, Nissan 300ZX Sport, a Honda Civic, a Mazda RX7, Toyota MPV plus three Lexus SUV hybrids. We also ownedan American brand - a Grand Cherokee.

British cars not yet mentioned: We've had a classic Jaguar MkII, a very old Range Rover, a Discovery, and two Freelanders. 

I've only ever bought one French car, it's an electric Peugeot e208, my current car. 

German cars: we've had a couple of VW Golfs, a Scirocco, a Mercedes 300SL, an Audi TT, three BMWs (3 series soft top, 5 series and X5) and, yes, my other car is a Porsche (Cayenne).