wed 28/05/2025

TV

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – The True Story, BBC Four

“There’s no place like home… there’s no place like home… there’s no place like home…” A wish became a mantra and then became a happy ending, when Dorothy wiggled her ruby-red shoes in the MGM movie version of L Frank Baum’s fairy story. But this...

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Giles and Sue's Royal Wedding, BBC Two

There is little rational explanation for why Giles Coren and Sue Perkins are still on the television, other than that the trained ferrets have still not yet been found. They brought their inimitable, emetic style to royal weddings with last night's...

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DVD: The Molly Dineen Collection Volume One

Molly Dineen would go on to make films about Tony Blair and Geri Halliwell, but her career began among cut-glass colonials of the (very) old school. Home from the Hill and My African Farm, two films for 40 Minutes in the late 1980s, portrayed a...

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United, BBC Two

As the makers of The Kennedys discovered recently, turning history into TV drama can be like locking yourself in the stocks and inviting all-comers to hurl coconuts at your head. This dramatisation of the 1950s Manchester United team and its...

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Q&A Special: Writer John Sullivan, 1946-2011

Comedy writer John Sullivan has died aged 64, writes Adam Sweeting, after spending six weeks in intensive care battling viral pneumonia. The creator of several hit comedy series for the BBC, Sullivan is guaranteed immortality for his masterpiece...

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Secrets of the Arabian Nights, BBC Four

Richard E Grant travels the ancient trade route that brought 'The Arabian Nights' to Europe

Everybody knows One Thousand and One Nights, even if they don’t know they do. Ever been to the panto to see Aladdin? Watched Sinbad the Sailor on stage, or Sheherazade at the opera or ballet, or perhaps watched one the many film versions of The...

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Filthy Cities, BBC Two

Dan Snow: TV's enthusiastic filthmeister

Dan Snow's toxic trilogy climaxed in New York, where he crawled voyeuristically through the rotten core of the Big Apple. It was part Discovery Channel documentary, part Gangs of New York dirty realism, as Snow took a frankly indecent relish in...

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The Reckoning, ITV1

'Don’t worry sweetheart, it’ll all be over in two episodes': Max Beesley assures Ashley Jensen

I made the mistake of catching up with the darkly sumptuous The Crimson Petal and the White just before knuckling down to review this new two-part drama, and it was like moving from fine vintage wine to warm supermarket-brand lager. To begin with, I...

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DVD: Alan Plater at ITV

Nothing but the truth: Kenneth Branagh as DH Lawrence in 'Coming Through'

Seven works are collected on this sampler of the formidably prolific Plater’s television writing - a  soupçon from a broth that is rich, flavoursome, and usually satisfying. Though omitting anything from The Stars Look Down, The Good Companions, Get...

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The Secrets of Scott's Hut, BBC Two

Captain Scott's doomed 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole has become one of the enduring myths of the later British Empire, a paradigm of pluck, grit and a refusal to surrender in the teeth of hideous odds. Subsequently, some historical...

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Monroe, Series Finale, ITV1/ Rubicon, BBC Four

(Left to right) Sarah Parish, James Nesbitt and Tom Riley on the alert for flying one-liners in 'Monroe'

So Monroe reached the end of series one, and I still couldn't read what its tone was supposed to be. Some artsdesk readers have expressed enthusiasm for the theme tune, but I find its jogging Celtic jauntiness symptomatic of Monroe's wider...

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If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home, BBC Four

Lucy Worsley: Engaging and jolly, and a tiny bit like Queenie in 'Blackadder'

I prefer "living room", but I have a friend who insists on "lounge". For some reason that probably goes deep into the psyche, I cringe at "sitting room". Same goes for "front room". As for "reception room", I’ve only ever seen that in the windows of...

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