tv
The Story of Women and Art, BBC TwoSaturday, 17 May 2014
Last year, the German artist Georg Baselitz told Der Spiegel: “Women don't paint very well. It's a fact,” citing as evidence the failure of works by female artists to sell for the massive sums raised by their male counterparts. The amusing punchline to that story is that shortly afterwards a Berthe Morisot painting sold at auction for more than double the amount ever achieved by Baselitz himself. But be honest - come on, use your fingers - how many women artists can you think of? Read more... |
Episodes, Series 3, BBC TwoThursday, 15 May 2014
How much is too much of quite a good thing? They – whoever they are – always say that two series is the platonic ideal for the perfectly formed sitcom. The example forever cited is Fawlty Towers, joined latterly by The Office. To that short list you could now add Rev, which after two series ceased to be a comedy in order to become something else. Read more... |
Monks, BBC OneWednesday, 14 May 2014
At least no one can accuse BBC comedy of an obsession with youth and relevance with this one. In airing a trial episode of Monks, an idea that’s been lurking in their ideas department for over ten years, the corporation’s comedy team is focusing on a lifestyle that was largely banished from English life by Henry VIII. Read more... |
The Crimson Field, Series 1 Finale, BBC OneMonday, 12 May 2014
After a tentative start, and several episodes of insipidity, Sarah Phelps's World War One nursing drama started to hit its straps just as series one reached its conclusion. The pace accelerated, the characters flung off their camouflage of tepid blandness, and suddenly everyone was struggling with crises, guilt and dark secrets. Read more... |
The Comedy Vaults: BBC Two's Hidden Treasure, BBC TwoSunday, 11 May 2014
Remember that classic moment from the 1984 sitcom starring the chaps from Madness when their mate suddenly appears and makes them jump? No, of course you don’t, it was never shown, and what a blessing that was judging by a glimpse of it from BBC Two's documentary celebrating 50 years of its own comedy output. Read more... |
Blurred Lines: The New Battle of the Sexes, BBC TwoFriday, 09 May 2014
Almost 45 years after the publication of The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer - now 75 years old and working on a rainforest conservation project in her native Australia, but still “full of bile” - thinks that it is time for a new analysis; a go-to feminist text as succinct and divisive as the one that she created in 1970. Read more... |
Billy Connolly's Big Send Off, ITVThursday, 08 May 2014
How amusing is death? When stand-ups fail to get laughs on stage, they call it dying, because the silence is like the grave. When actors laugh when they’re not supposed to on stage or on camera, it’s called corpsing because it kills the scene. They can do birth, marriage, divorce and illness, but death is the one part of the journey a comedian can’t turn into first-person material. Not even Tommy Cooper, who literally died on stage. Read more... |
24: Live Another Day, Sky1Thursday, 08 May 2014
It wasn't a bad idea to change the scenery by locating the belated ninth season of 24 in London, even if they probably nicked the idea from The Bourne Ultimatum, and episode one opened with a passing shot of an East End mosque just to set the paranoia clock ticking. Read more... |
When Corden Met Barlow, BBC OneTuesday, 06 May 2014
This had all the makings of a celebrity backslapathon of nauseous proportions, but it turned out to be a painfully touching exploration of the fragility of fame. Not that this means we have to feel sorry for filthy-rich pop stars and happy-chappy light entertainers, but it does mean we have to grudgingly accept that some of them may be human after all. Read more... |
The First Georgians, BBC FourFriday, 02 May 2014
Reason, tolerance, liberalism…these are the qualities that defined the Georgian Age, and for which it deserves to be better known, and more widely admired. Lucy Worsley stated her argument with admirable clarity in the opening moments of the programme, and her intellectual confidence and rigour made this one of the most informative and enjoyable of the many recent BBC history series. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Heart of an Oak review - an adventure film starring a tree a...
On one level, Heart of an Oak is the most spectacular nature film you are ever likely to see. The camera glides over a forest before...
Next to Normal, Wyndham's Theatre review - rock musical...
We open on one of those suburban American families we know so well from Eighties and Nineties sitcoms - they’re not quite Homer,...
The Nature of Love review - disappointing French-Canadian ro...
The Nature of Love joins a recent spate of films where older...
Glastonbury Festival 2024: A Sunlit Epic of Music, Madness,...
SUNDAY 30th June 2024
It’s late. But not really. Not by the standards of this place. Photographer Finetime and I...
NMC Recordings at 35, Dutch Church, London review - a fittin...
NMC Recordings has spent 35 years promoting contemporary music by British composers, and this commitment to both emerging and established voices...
Mnemonic, Olivier Theatre review - thanks for the memories
I’m sitting in the Olivier waiting for the show to start, comfortable in the knowledge that I’ve seen the original production of Mnemonic...
Album: Enter Shikari - Dancing on the Frontline
For a band as creative as St Albans’ own electronic-...
In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930s, Ro...
Ukraine’s history is complex and often bitter. The territory has been endlessly fought over, divided, annexed and occupied. From 1917-20 it...
Album: Kasabian - Happenings
Great bands’ output can, famously, be predicated by the intense interaction between members, often between a central creative pairing. This can be...