TV
Gunpowder, BBC One review – death, horror, treason and a hint of farceSunday, 22 October 2017
Much is being made of the fact that Kit Harington is not only playing the Gunpowder Plot mastermind Robert Catesby, but is genuinely descended from him (and his middle name is Catesby). However, despite its factual underpinnings and screenwriter... Read more... |
Chris Packham: Asperger's and Me, BBC Two review - 'like an alien from another planet'Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Chris Packham, who devises and presents programmes about nature and animals, has described himself as "a little bit weird". This autobiographical documentary about himself explained what being on the autistic spectrum meant to him in particular in... Read more... |
George Michael: Freedom, Channel 4 review - just a supersized commercial?Tuesday, 17 October 2017
You might expect a posthumous 90-minute documentary – and that’s before you insert the ad breaks – about one of the biggest stars in British pop music over the last 30 years to shed some light on how said artist became so huge, but also how his... Read more... |
Jonas Kaufmann: Tenor for the Ages, BBC Four review - a musical megastar with sword and shortbreadMonday, 16 October 2017
Now we know who sent Jonas Kaufmann the Union Jack boxer shorts for the Last Night of the Proms. Whether the sender’s identity is the bigger surprise, or the hint of ambiguity over whether the "Greatest Tenor in the World" had previously heard of... Read more... |
David Oakes: 'I haven’t done anything as bad as my characters'Monday, 16 October 2017
“He has something of Dillane about him.” Thus Patrick Marber on David Oakes. “I rate him very highly indeed. One of the very best of his generation.” Audiences at the Theatre Royal Haymarket will be able to judge for themselves this autumn. Oakes,... Read more... |
Lucy Worsley's Nights at the Opera, BBC Two review - there's anti-elitism, and there's infantilismSunday, 15 October 2017
The first thing to say about Lucy Worsley’s Nights at the Opera (BBC Two) is that it is laser-aimed at those who have not enjoyed many nights at the opera. Enjoyed in the sense of attended; also, probably, in the sense of enjoyed. Anyone who is a... Read more... |
Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution, BBC Two review - words stronger than pictures 100 years onWednesday, 11 October 2017
It’s getting to that time of the century. A hundred years ago to the month, if not quite the day, the Winter Palace was stormed, and the Russian Revolution came to pass. To commemorate the communists’ accession, Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution... Read more... |
Snowfall, BBC Two review - blizzard hits South CentralMonday, 09 October 2017
An American TV show about drugs and drug dealers? How frightfully novel. At least The Deuce (showing now on Sky Atlantic) is about pornography instead.Anyhow Snowfall has been created by John Singleton, of Boyz n the Hood fame, and whisks us back to... Read more... |
Black Lake, Series Finale, BBC Four review – Nordic noir comes to an unsatisfying endSunday, 08 October 2017
Beware – here be spoilers, though if you can make them out through the blizzard of cliché that engulfed the last double-bill of this thunderingly underwhelming Nordic noir then you’re already ahead of me.Black Lake (BBC Four) saw a group of largely... Read more... |
Nile Rodgers: How to Make It in the Music Business, BBC Four review - good times had by allSunday, 08 October 2017
One New Year’s Eve in the 1970s, hot young session musicians Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were assured by Grace Jones that they could penetrate the inner sanctum of Studio 54 by dropping her name at the door. A doorman thought otherwise and... Read more... |
Basquiat: Rage to Riches review, BBC Two – death rides an equine skeletonSunday, 08 October 2017
An irresistible tragedy: young man of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, from Brooklyn, multilingual, brilliantly precocious, who left his middle class home to turn to street life in Manhattan, metamorphosing into a mesmerising graffiti artist. SAMO... Read more... |
Doctor Foster, Series 2 finale, BBC One review - revenge is a dish best not served twiceWednesday, 04 October 2017
The second helping of Doctor Foster (BBC One) looked for a long time as if it would taste exactly like the first. Another plate of hell hath no fury, please, with extra bile on the side. That was essentially the plot up until the end of last week’s... Read more... |
