Prismark10 This television series from the celebrated Stephen Poliakoff portrays 1930s upper class London but focuses on a Black Jazz band travelling the clubs of Britain, mixing with the high ups of polite British society but reveals an underbelly of prejudice, secrets and murder.Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Louis Lester, trained in the USA but his jazz band takes London by storm when armed with two female singers. Matthew Goode plays a music journalist who champions the band in his music paper. John Goodman turns up as a mogul who wants to buy newspapers.Although there are twists and turns, Poliakoff needs to stick to writing, needs a stronger story editor and get someone else to direct and interpret his words to the screen.It looks good, there is a fine all star cast from Jacqueline Bisset, Jane Asher, Anthony Head. The music and song which was written originally for the series is fine with a few memorable tunes but it meanders too much. The murder story has little mystery as you have a rough idea who the culprit might be.

steven-222 Prepare yourself for six hours of bad writing, bad acting, and really, really bad music.Writer-director Stephen Poliakoff has become the M. Night Shyamalan of British TV drama. He started strong, with dramas that seemed to be new and different and even (hideous new modifier!) award-worthy. Then, with each new project, his threadbare bag of tricks became more familiar and predictable; what once seemed endearingly offbeat became simply irritating, and Poliakoff's narrative deceits became increasingly obvious, no longer distracting us from his inability to create living characters or coherent plots.The downward spiral has led to this sloppy, boring mess of a mini-series. Good luck getting through the whole thing, and if you do, you will almost certainly be disappointed by the limp ending.Particularly irritating is the music. Poliakoff presumes to resurrect a largely forgotten era of British entertainment, but the newly-written songs on offer here do not capture the spirit of the originals. Not only are they displeasing to the ear and badly sung, but the viewer is forced to hear them over and over and over.It is hard to see how Poliakoff's next project can be worse than this, but if the trajectory holds, he will find a way to make it so.

Mouth Box Oh dear, the BBC must have blown their casting budget for the entire year on this one. It's positively dripping with movie stars, household names and hot, rising talent – which is just as well, because Dancing on the Edge really has very little edge to speak of.The period atmosphere, of course, is immaculate. Stephen Poliakoff's five part 1930s drama about the birth of jazz in the UK is set against a background of thinly disguised racism, poverty and extreme right wing politics. There's also a lot of distressed wood and peeling paint, and the producers must have covered up every double yellow line in the West End.Stan Mitchell (Matthew Goode), is the chain-smoking head writer of a struggling music magazine. Stan discovers a band of black musicians and launches them into London society, helped by bored aristocrat and chain-smoking music fan Lady Cremone (Jacqueline Bisset).Bisset has been an international film star since the late 1960s, so one does wonder what she is doing playing opposite the likes of Mel Smith. But as beautiful as Bisset is, Smith frequently owns the screen as saggy-faced hotel manager Schlesinger. Mel has always given great saggy-face. His jowls were heading south even when he was a rising star in the nineteen seventies, so here's a role he was born to play.With callous immigration officials, sinister Freemasons and half the German Nazi Party hot on their heels, the band manage to land a residency at a posh hotel in Piccadilly, and fast become the favourite plaything of the Prince of Wales and his champagne-swilling, chain-smoking buddies.Chiwetel Ejiofor is hard to say but effortlessly smooth and polished as chain-smoking band leader Louis Lester – a character perhaps partly inspired by real-life, chain-smoking, black band leader Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, who died in the London Blitz in the early forties.John Goodman (the fat, miserable hubby from Rosanne) plays fat, miserable, chain-smoking millionaire Masterson – a man with so many skeletons in his cupboard there isn't room for his evening suit.Joanna Vanderham is pointless, vacant, chain-smoking rich girl Pamela. Vanderham does pointless and vacant beautifully, and luckily for her, in this series (unlike in The Paradise) she is not challenged with any tricky accents.Jenna-Louise Coleman is in it, of course. She's in everything. Coleman plays Mitchell's pretty, chain-smoking assistant, and so far she's managed to uncharacteristically keep her clothes on. Good for her.Dancing on the Edge is beautiful to look at and the original jazz music by Adrian Johnston is slick and authentically recorded. I just wish the series had been a little more faithful to the actual history of black jazz musicians in the 30s, and that Poliakoff had resisted the temptation to turn it into a tacky Agatha Christie murder mystery. Did I mention that everyone smokes all the time? Read more TV reviews at Mouthbox.co.uk

imattheendofmytether Well with two episodes to go I really am disappointed with this show. The trailers looked exciting, sexy and well... gripping. What have I seen instead? Stereotypes, lots of "terribly, terribly, awfully, awfully" speaking and contrived scenes.I don't get why Stanley is so hell bent on pushing the Louis Lester Band (although it's more a one man show as the rest of the band are sidelined except the two singers). The larger of the two singers is just so wet I want to slap her around just to get some form of response that isn't "wide-eyed wonder". Jess - well just don't care what happens to her.Where is the racism I was expecting to see? - sorry one mention of a couple on a boat wanting their cutlery changed, and seeing the same thing demonstrated in the dinner hall moments later, does not make for racial tensions.Where is the jazz for that matter? A program about jazz should have more jazz music in it, not two full songs and a few snippets. I don't ask for much but there should be more music involved somewhere.All the rejects from the Great Gatsby (sorry rest of the cast) are just annoying, pouty privileged spoilt brats who are ultimately forgettable.There is only one character I want to know more about and that is the legend that is John Goodman - more of him and his rise to wealth please. The story line is meant to be bringing Jazz to the old ballroom scene of London. While I don't know much about the history of London jazz I think it started a little earlier than 1932. The writing just seems stayed and pompous, I don't know about any of SP's work, but I am not sure I want to see other works by him. Don't get me wrong I love a slow burning thriller (Tinker Tailor TV series is as slow as it gets), but there is no "thrill" no tension, no drama - for a drama that's not good.I don't think I am alone in thinking this, but there are just as many who love this show. Watch it for yourself, but don't expect to be knotted up with tension waiting for the next episode, instead sit back with a cold gin on ice and enjoy the costumes, scenery and lighting.