tv
Ten Percent, Amazon Prime review - a hit and miss British makeover of the French comedy 'Call My Agent'Thursday, 28 April 2022
When the English-language version of Dix Pour Cent (aka Call My Agent!) was announced, my cafe au lait went down the wrong way. The French TV comedy about machinations at a top-flight Parisian talent agency is a miraculous mix of insouciant charm, an hommage to France’s beloved cinema history and a lot of naughty fun, with just a hint of sadness at its core. Read more...
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Life After Life, BBC Two review - déjà vu all over againWednesday, 27 April 2022
If we could keep living our life over and over again, would we get better at it? This is the premise underpinning Life After Life, the BBC’s four-part adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s novel. Read more... |
Anatomy of a Scandal, Netflix review - sex, sexism and the abuse of powerFriday, 15 April 2022
British political life in the Boris Johnson era routinely seems stranger than fiction, and this adaptation of Sarah Vaughan’s novel about a Flashman-style Tory MP should delight all those who view Westminster as a sewer of privilege, corruption and back-slapping old-boy networks. Read more... |
Gentleman Jack, Series 2, BBC One review - the queer Victorian heroine swaggers back in styleMonday, 11 April 2022
Into the BBC One Sunday slot just vacated by Tommy Shelby of the Peaky Blinders returns Suranne Jones’s Anne Lister, another costume-drama maverick with striking headgear, definite leadership qualities and a way with a pistol. “They’re all a bit scared of you,” her younger sister Marian (Gemma Whelan) tries to explain to her after she has given an insubordinate servant 20 minutes to pack up and leave. Read more... |
Hacks, Prime Video review - what's so funny about a career in comedy?Saturday, 09 April 2022
Acidic showbiz drama Hacks premiered on HBO Max in the States a year ago, and subsequently won a hatful of awards including three Emmys. Now, here it is on Prime Video, so we can get to see what all the fuss is about. Read more... |
The Split, Series 3, BBC One review - the Defoes are back, more conflicted than everTuesday, 05 April 2022
After two years away, Abi Morgan’s acclaimed legal drama/juicy soap The Split returns for its third series, reuniting us with the closely knit, or, you might say, incestuous, law firm of Noble Hale Defoe. Read more... |
Thatcher & Reagan: A Very Special Relationship, BBC Two review - when the Iron Lady met the Cowboy PresidentMonday, 04 April 2022
This two-part documentary about how the Eighties were partly shaped by the British Prime Minister and the US President was obviously planned long before the Russians invaded Ukraine, but it’s a powerful illustration of how history doesn’t stop, but keeps coming around again in a slightly reformatted guise. Read more... |
Slow Horses, Apple TV+ review - the sleazy underbelly of the espionage racketFriday, 01 April 2022
To a camp bluesy theme tune performed by what sounds like a yowling cat (actually the song’s co-writer, Mick Jagger), this prestige production from Apple TV+ opens up the world of the “slow horses”, the disgraced spies who are the anti-heroes of Mick Herron’s bestselling spy novels. Read more... |
Bridgerton, Season 2, Netflix review - power politics and love triangles as Regency fantasy returnsSaturday, 26 March 2022
The first series of Bridgerton (Netflix) became a ratings-blasting sensation because of the way it thrust a boldly multiracial cast into the midst of a Regency costume drama, and because of the camera-hogging presence of Regé-Jean Page as the swashbuckling Duke of Hastings. Above all, it had countless astonishingly graphic sex scenes. Read more... |
The Last Kingdom, Season 5, Netflix review - Danes-and-Saxons saga hurtles towards an epic climaxMonday, 21 March 2022
Two years ago, the fourth season of The Last Kingdom (Netflix) found the Saxon saga not quite hitting peak form, possibly reeling from the fallout of the haunting death of King Alfred (David Dawson). Read more... |
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