tv
Traitors, Channel 4 review - Cold War thriller fails to reach room temperatureMonday, 18 February 2019
It’s 1945 and World War Two is nearly over. Somewhere in England, Fiona Symonds (“Feef” to her friends) is training to be a spy and be dropped behind enemy lines. Read more... |
Baptiste, BBC One review - detective from The Missing gets his own hand-me-down showMonday, 18 February 2019
Is there an algorithm for writing this review? There seems to have been one used to create Baptiste, a spin-off from The Missing, and even the staunchest fans of Tchéky Karyo will be struggling not to see the all-too-familiar formula poking through the script. Read more... |
Catastrophe, Channel 4, series 4 finale review - sitcom saves the best till lastWednesday, 13 February 2019
When the third series ended with a car crash, I did wonder whether Catastrophe (Channel 4) should maybe think about calling it a day. Read more... |
Shetland, Series 5, BBC One review - uneven start to new seasonWednesday, 13 February 2019
And so back to the windswept landscapes of the Shetland archipelago, where stoical DI Jimmy Perez is still keeping the bad guys at bay while continuing to cope with life as an ageing widower. You do wonder, though, how he sustains his commitment to the job in a territory offering such a restricted career ladder. Read more... |
Endeavour, Series 6, ITV review - reassuringly accomplished return of the brainy copperMonday, 11 February 2019
The end of series five of Endeavour found PC George Fancy shot dead, Cowley police station closed and the old crew dispersed. With Led Zeppelin on the soundtrack (it’s 1969), the sixth series opened minus WPC Trewlove, but with Fred Thursday demoted and shunted off to Castle Gate police station. Read more... |
David Bowie: Finding Fame, BBC Two review - the most touching instalment of Francis Whately's trilogySunday, 10 February 2019
Even the most ardent Bowie fan might dismissively sum up their idol's pre-fame years with just these three words: The Laughing Gnome. Read more... |
Safe Harbour, Series Finale, BBC Four review - too much message, not enough dramaSunday, 10 February 2019
Picture this. You’re sailing in the Timor Sea with family and friends on your luxurious yacht, hoiking the occasional plump fish out of the ocean to provide a ready meal washed down with Aussie plonk, when you suddenly chance across a decrepit, broken-down fishing boat crammed with mostly Iraqi refugees. What do you do? Read more... |
Das Boot, Sky Atlantic review - menacing drama on land and seaThursday, 07 February 2019
Wolfgang Petersen’s film Das Boot is now nearly 40 years old, but in this new TV sequel time has moved forward a mere nine months from the original story, into the autumn of 1942. Read more... |
Don McCullin: Looking for England, BBC Four review - a hard look at homeTuesday, 05 February 2019
A picture is worth more than a thousand words, never more so than with the photographs of Don McCullin. The octogenarian photographer’s black-and-white imagery made the Sunday Times colour supplement the talk of international media in the 1970s. Read more... |
Les Misérables, BBC One, series finale review - more moving than revealingMonday, 04 February 2019
It took the best part of six episodes, but we got there in the end: the reason David Oyelowo accepted the confusingly underwritten part of Inspector Javert in BBC One’s adaptation of Les Misérables was finally revealed. Read more... |
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