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Getting On, Series 3, BBC Four

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Getting On exists somewhere on the spectrum between Carry On and Samuel Beckett. Set in a hospital ward where mostly geriatric patients are tended by middle-aged staff all with problems of their own, it looks unflinchingly at the great maladjusted edifice that is the Health Service and all who ail in her. And in Vicki Pepperdine’s tightly coiled consultant Dr Pippa Moore it has perhaps the most delightful sitcom grotesque since Malcolm Tucker first started turning the air blue.

Imagine: Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 17 October 2012

This film, promised Imagine's host Alan Yentob, would be "the nearest we'll get to the real Freddie Mercury, a shy man in search of love and a driven artist living behind the protection of his stage persona". Probably true, but the shyness and the protective persona, coupled with vigorous policing by the Queen organisation, meant that film-maker Rhys Thomas couldn't add a great deal to what's already known about Mercury.

Wonderland: Walking With Dogs, BBC Two

Veronica Lee Tuesday, 16 October 2012

If you asked a bunch of foreigners to describe the British, I bet one of the phrases most frequently used would be “a nation of dog lovers”, so it was no surprise to discover that film-maker's Vanessa Engle's latest bulletin about the British and the way they live (shown as part of the excellent Wonderland strand) was about this nation's love affair with canines.

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Downton Abbey, ITV1: Death of Lady Sybil

Jasper Rees Monday, 15 October 2012

You suspected she was a goner the moment the doctors started to front up like King Kong and Godzilla. Having given birth to a girl, the rebellious bluestocking Lady Sybil got her marching orders last night on Downton Abbey and Jessica Brown Findlay’s husky larynx will be heard no more pouring oil on troubled waters. The rest of the cast can rely on a berth in Julian Fellowes’ gilded prison for all eternity. Ms Brown Findlay is available for work.

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Good Cop, Finale, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Sunday, 14 October 2012

It was tough luck for Good Cop that the real-life killing of two female police officers in Manchester prompted the BBC to postpone its fourth and final episode, judging that its plotline of rookie cop Amanda Morgan acting as bait for a couple of knife-wielding thugs who preyed on women was too near the knuckle.

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Me and Mrs Jones, BBC One

Veronica Lee Saturday, 13 October 2012

It's always either a very good or a very bad sign when my notebook remains untainted by my scrawl when I'm reviewing; either I am too busy enjoying myself to make notes or I'm so unengaged that I can barely be bothered to lift my pen.

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DCI Banks, Series 2, ITV1

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 11 October 2012

Charm, politeness and glittering repartee are clearly not considered important qualities for the Yorkshire-based policepersons who work alongside DCI Banks. TV coppers are rarely a barrel of laughs but for this bunch, spitting, snarling and glaring are their default modes of communication.

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Who Do You Think You Are? - Celia Imrie, BBC One

Jasper Rees Thursday, 11 October 2012

Isn’t the title a misnomer? Who Do You Think You Are? is the genealogical branch of the celebrity industry. It’s not really about who the subjects think they are: it’s who we think they are that counts. Inspecting the family trees of slebz is another way of confirming they are just like us. It’s the same as gawping at stars’ big bums in bikinis lovingly featured in the online Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame. Only nicer.

Wonderland: I Was Once a Beauty Queen, BBC Two

Lisa-Marie Ferla Tuesday, 09 October 2012

Even now, as revelation after revelation about what really went on backstage at Television Centre in the 1970s play out in the tabloids, there seems something almost wholesome about the heyday of the televised beauty pageant.

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Homeland, Series 2, Channel 4

Adam Sweeting Monday, 08 October 2012

Surfing in on the back of six Emmy awards, Homeland's second season opened with a sizzling episode which banished any lingering doubts about the improbabilities of the ending of series one.