Analysts tell us that the UK’s top-rated TV show this Christmas was the King’s speech, with the Strictly Christmas special coming in a mere third. If this means anything at all, perhaps it’s just indicative of the bafflingly-expanding TV universe where it’s becoming impossible to keep tabs on everything that’s out there on a seemingly countless number of channels (and who on earth decided that “U&Drama” was a name to titillate the punters?). Even newspaper TV critics can’t seem to agree on what’s worth reviewing.
But on the subject of U&Drama, they at least deserve a tip of the hat for their overhaul of vintage ‘tec show Bergerac, in which Damien Molony delivered a plausible update of the titular Jim Bergerac, and Zoë Wanamaker cheekily played a gender-swapped version of Terence Alexander’s Charlie Hungerford of yesteryear. In addition, we might give ‘em a pat on the back for Whitstable Pearl and The Chelsea Detective.
Also cruising along pleasantly in the “comfort telly” lane is Acorn TV – where you can “experience the world’s best mysteries, from the criminally cosy to the daringly dark” – who brought us the telly-isation of the Rev Richard Coles’s Murder Before Evensong. This starred Matthew Lewis as Canon Daniel Clement, whose cunning plan is to allow himself to be overshadowed by such robust co-stars as Amanda Redman and Tamzin Outhwaite while he quietly figures out whodunnit.
A murkier mystery by far was Channel 5’s Insomnia, adapted for TV by Sarah Pinborough from her own novel. An eerily addictive mix of nightmarish horror, medical drama and psychological trauma, it was almost enough to persuade you that you too were going round the bend. Equally, and indeed possibly more, addictive was The Guest (BBC One), starring a superb Eve Myles as a wealthy Cardiff businesswoman playing a long and unscrupulous game. Myles also starred in ITV1’s Coldwater, David Ireland’s fascinating thriller about two couples entwined in sinister psychological combat.
Ways in which crime doesn’t pay were explored in the splendid second series of The Gold (BBC One), and also in the dynastic-villains drama This City Is Ours (BBC One). The latter was screenwriter Stephen Butchard’s tour-de-force examination of Scouse crime family the Phelans, locked in a fateful danse macabre with a Colombian drug syndicate. The latter was also notable for its squad of powerfully-drawn female characters, who frequently overshadowed the macho machinations of the menfolk (pictured above, James Nelson-Joyce in This City is Ours).
But of course the big-bucks streamers couldn’t be denied. Jon Hamm scored his best role since Mad Men in the superb Your Friends and Neighbors (Apple TV+), where he played Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a Manhattan hedge-fund manager who suddenly finds himself on the mid-life skids and contemplating a new life of upscale crime. Season two is due in April (hooray).
There were sinister undercurrents in Netflix’s The Beast In Me, where frustrated author Aggie Wiggs (Clare Danes) found herself embroiled in psychological combat with her menacing Long Island neighbour Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys). Netflix also transported us to the Carolinas with their family-crime-dynasty pot-boiler The Waterfront, which sported a great soundtrack as well as Topher Grace as a giggling psychopath.
Meanwhile, Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ TV empire continued its inexorable march. Billy Bob Thornton is having a whale of a time as Tommy Norris, star of the rambunctious Texas oil drama Landman, while the fourth season of the Jeremy Renner vehicle Mayor of Kingstown boiled up to a climax of staggering violence and brutality. Among the latter’s generous selection of villains, Richard Brake’s portrayal of Merle Callahan stood out for its tangible aura of evil (Jeremy Renner pictured right).
And finally, it was a bumper year for music documentaries. There was Taylor Swift: The End of an Era (Disney +), the Fab Four all over again in The Beatles Anthology (Disney Debut), Live Aid at 40 (BBC Two), One to One: John & Yoko (HBO), and films about Jeff Buckley, The Zombies and Sly Stone. Coming soon: Netflix’s Take That. Meanwhile, still in the throes of production is Oasis Live ‘25, documenting the band’s astonishingly lucrative comeback tour. Perhaps it’ll be the first film to deploy surge pricing.
- Adam Sweeting
This is a confession session: I don’t enjoy network TV with my old enthusiasm. Its dreary diet of crime dramas (rape, murder, torture, with fraud the least violent) is a literal turnoff. The streamers still have the money and taste to produce highly watchable series, and more than half my top choices are from that sector. Documentaries, especially, are the beneficiaries of a streamer budget, and two this year were outstanding, Cover Up (Netflix), by the redoubtable Laura Poitras; and Rebecca Miller’s enthralling five-part Mr Scorsese (Apple TV+).
Comedy was, as is now typical, scantily served, though I enjoyed The Paper (Sky Max) and Film Club (BBC3). There was more humour, alongside some tears, in the returning reality series Educating Yorkshire (C4), Freddie Flintoff's big-hearted Field of Dreams (BBC One) and Clarkson’s Farm (Amazon). Period drama was underwhelming: I preferred the entertaining recreation of 1998 Seoul in Typhoon Family (Netflix), all clunky analogue devices and smirking villains.
The drama departments at least came up with the harrowing Adolescence (Netflix), starring Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco (pictured above), more Slow Horses (Apple) and a poignant new spin on the familiar world of Miss Austen (BBC). Best drama of all for me was the second series of The Gold (BBC), where the casting of classy acting talent really paid off. Jack Lowden, Hugh Bonneville and Dominic Cooper were exceptional, the latter delivering a sombre epitaph for his life of crime worthy of a Thackeray anti-hero.
- Helen Hawkins
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