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We're doing our first review on TwitterThursday, 15 July 2010As Jonathan Ross is an incorrigible tweeter, theartsdesk has decided to review his last stand on the BBC on Twitter. Adam Sweeting and Jasper Rees will watch Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and tweet a joint review live as the programme goes out. The show... Read more... |
Bragg and Cowell the polar ends of BAFTA TV award winsSunday, 06 June 2010
Melvyn Bragg last night won this year’s Bafta TV fellowship for his long championing of ITV’s arts with the now mothballed flagship The South Bank Show, which itself has been nominated for more than 30 Baftas and won nine. Ironically Simon Cowell was another winner at the London Palladium, with a special award for an outstanding contribution to entertainment and for furthering new talent in reality talent shows such as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. The... Read more... |
Chalk a line around it: Law & Order is deadMonday, 17 May 2010
American television network executives more concerned about remaking old dramas (Rockford Files 2010, anyone?) than maintaining a powerhouse drama which has wowed critics and fans for 20 years have finally killed off Law & Order. |
Lost Films of World War TwoSaturday, 10 April 2010
From Monday 12 April, retro channel History is airing a 10-part series called WWII Lost Films. It will present the story of the Second World War from the viewpoints of 12 Americans involved in the war effort, using a newly restored stash of rare and unseen colour footage. Read more... |
They didn't make them like that then either: Simon Gray back on screenWednesday, 07 April 2010
Every generation is inclined to moan that they don’t make them like they used to. It’s a favourite refrain of television dramatists. It scarcely seems credible now that a theatre animal like Simon Gray could regularly write single plays for television and attract audiences of millions. |
The Bible: A History: The BashThursday, 25 February 2010It could so easily have been just another bit of God-slot box-ticking. But The Bible: A History, in which Channel 4 has invited guest presenters to mull over some aspect of the Good Book, has been exciting a lot of comment from viewers. Summoning Gerry Adams to present a film about the life of Christ won't have done anything to dampen audience... Read more... |
Bafta interviews and reviewsTuesday, 23 February 2010
Read theartsdesk's reviews and interviews for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award-winners. Read more... |
BBC joins opera talent huntMonday, 25 January 2010
The BBC launched today its own popular opera talent hunt (details below), while ITV's Popstar to Operastar has suffered heavy critical attack and disappointing public ratings. The BBC's Commissioning Editor for Music and Events, Jan Younghusband, added a private comment to... Read more... |
theartsdesk an essential site of 2009: BBC Radio 5 LiveFriday, 01 January 2010
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Boxing Day Bloat: theartsdesk recommendsSaturday, 26 December 2009
The morning after the day before has dawned. If you're not inclined to join the shopping queues, theartsdesk is happy to suggest alternatives. Our writers recommend all sorts of cultural things you could get up to in the next week. Read more... |
theartsdesk received a New Year's gift last night when we were given a significant accolade from BBC Radio 5 Live. In Web 2009 with Helen and Olly, the station's podcasters and self-styled "internet obsessives" Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann recognised theartsdesk as one of the five "essential sites of 20...
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Music Reissues Weekly: Beggars Arkive - The Lurkers’ 1978 Jo...
On its own, the second session The Lurkers recorded for the BBC’s John Peel show on 18 April 1978 is arguably a curio, a footnote. Four tracks of...
Manchester Collective, RNCM review - something special in ne...
When a piece of music is heard for the first time ever, there’s always the delicious hope that, just by being there, an audience might witness...
The Marriage of Figaro, Welsh National Opera review - no con...
Drained as they are at present of crucial funds, WNO are managing to...
Jacqueline Feldman: Precarious Lease review - living on the...
Taking on some of the contingent, nebulous quality of its subject, Jacqueline Feldman’s ...
Elektra, Duke of York's Theatre review - Brie Larson...
We live in tragic times given over to cataclysmic events that require outsized emotions in return. That may be one reason to account for the...
Widmann, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - razor-sharp attack...
Perhaps all great music counterpoints and comments on the times, but Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra have been searingly...
Bring Them Down review - ramming it home in the west of Irel...
“You know what they say: where there’s livestock, there’s dead stock,” says Jack (a brilliant Barry Keoghan). Never a truer word. There’s an awful...