Reviews
The Green RayFriday, 02 January 2015![]() French actress Marie Rivière had a specially close relationship with director Eric Rohmer. After seeing his work for the first time in the early 1970s, Rivière expressed her admiration in a letter, which led to a succession of parts and culminated... Read more... |
War and Peace, BBC Radio 4Friday, 02 January 2015![]() All happy families are alike, Tolstoy declares at the start of Anna Karenina, but this adaptation of War and Peace stresses how the surviving Rostovs and Bolkonskys went through various hells to get to that enviable state. In this one respect... Read more... |
Best of 2014: Mainstream VideogamesFriday, 02 January 2015![]() The videogames industry is rapidly changing. Many of the best and biggest games of the last few years have come from tiny, independent studios – we're back to the days of bedroom coders and quirky ideas. But that doesn't mean there haven't been... Read more... |
Miranda, BBC OneThursday, 01 January 2015![]() And so, after starting life as Miranda Hart's Joke Shop on Radio 4 in 2008, then continuing for three series on the BBC from 2009, Miranda is no more. Its co-creator, co-writer and star, Miranda Hart, has decided to pull the plug on her eponymously... Read more... |
Still AliceThursday, 01 January 2015![]() Read more... |
Best of 2014: Dance & BalletWednesday, 31 December 2014![]() You usually know a good piece or performance when you see one, but sometimes you only identify a great one as such significantly after the fact. What better way to test a work's durability, then, than by seeing what remains of it in the memory after... Read more... |
EnemyWednesday, 31 December 2014![]() Filmgoers will either find Denis Villeneuve's latest art-house thriller to be a tantalising head trip or so much celluloid posturing, but there's no denying its contribution to the rise and rise of leading man, Jake Gyllenhaal. Racing up the outside... Read more... |
Jack and the Beanstalk, Birmingham HippodromeWednesday, 31 December 2014![]() Birmingham Hippodrome claims to stage the UK's biggest pantomime – a proud boast that highlights its productions' West End-level of investment. And this year's venture, Jack and the Beanstalk, is certainly glitzy and star-laden, while the sets... Read more... |
Best of 2014: TVWednesday, 31 December 2014![]() Apologies in advance to fans of The Missing, The Honourable Woman, The Fall, Game of Thrones or House of Cards, none of which feature in the list below, but might well have done. So might The Good Wife, Ripper Street and Peaky Blinders. The fact is... Read more... |
Best of 2014: Classical ConcertsTuesday, 30 December 2014![]() Offshoots of the Venezuelan El Sistema’s worldwide dissemination as well as other youth and music projects continued to bloom and grow in 2014. The morning after what was the orchestral concert of the year for many who caught it, Alexandra Coghlan (... Read more... |
Top Gear Patagonia Special, BBC TwoMonday, 29 December 2014![]() Despite appearances, Jeremy Clarkson aspires to be taken seriously, as readers of The Sun and The Sunday Times will know. With this Top Gear Special he managed it, being chased from Argentina into Chile by a stone-wielding mob that appeared to have... Read more... |
Last Tango in Halifax, Series 3, BBC One / Homeland, Series 4 Finale, Channel 4Monday, 29 December 2014![]() Back for its third series [***], Sally Wainwright's saga of Yorkshire folk continues to tread a precarious line between syrupy soapfulness and a family drama with sharp little teeth. Its excellent cast helps to carry it over the worst of the soggy... Read more... |
