Film And TV
27 Oct 22

The Shows Must Go On: 'Cabinet Of Curiosities', 'The Devil’s Hour' and more

Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix).

A Swinging London comedy of errors leads the autumnal TV charge.

Cabinet Of Curiosities (Netflix, October 25)

Creator Guillermo del Toro enlists the help of half-a-dozen other hotshot directors, among them Twilight’s Catherine Hardwicke and Disclosure’s Keith Thomas, for this superior horror anthology, which includes a neat HP Lovecraft re-working. In amongst the impressive newbies, we also get to see such familiar faces as Geena Davies, Peter Weller, Julian Richings, Rupert Grint and F. Murray Abraham who needless to say steals every scene he’s in.

The Devil’s Hour (Amazon Prime, October 28)

Five years after last working together on Doctor Who, writer Steven Moffatt and leading man Peter Capaldi go the horror mini-series route with this yarn about Gideon, a murderous obsessive on a mission. This may or may not involve Lucy, a troubled mum played by Call The Midwife’s Jessica Raine who wakes up and has terrifying visions at precisely 3.33am every morning. Moffatt is also the creator of Inside Man, an ecclesiastical death row drama starring another ex-Doctor, David Tennant.

Funny Woman (Sky Max, October TBC)

Based on the Nick Hornby bestseller of the same name, this light-hearted retro drama stars Gemma Arterton as a Blackpool beauty queen determined to became a female comedy superstar in a slurry pit of “Take my wife… I wish you would” male gagmeisters. Rupert Everett, David Threlfall and Morwenna Banks’ presence underlines the pedigree of the Oliver Parker-directed six-parter, which recreates Swinging London beautifully.

The Peripheral (Amazon Prime, October 21)

Scott Smith, himself a fine horror sci-fi writer, clearly had a ball adapting the titular William Gibson novel, a time-hopping murder mystery involving Flynne and her former US Marine Corps brother Burton. Also enjoying themselves enormously are co-stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor who have that screen chemistry thing going on in spades.