tv
The First Election Debate, ITV1Thursday, 15 April 2010
The way the pundits were jumping up and down hailing a historic night in British politics, you'd think nobody had ever seen Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown on TV before. This, we were told, could be a historic 90 minutes that would transform our nation's political discourse. "The leaders' debate will be a direct confrontation with the voters that could change the election", according to a man wearing glasses in The Times. Read more... |
Outnumbered, BBC OneThursday, 15 April 2010
When it first aired in 2007, Outnumbered finally allowed viewers to see children on television really being children (hitting each other, lying, being naturally witty, shouting “Dad attacked that lady” in public), while ruthlessly exploiting the child’s unerring ability to say aloud what we’re really thinking, whether it's about terrorism (“What other religions have blown up planes, Mummy?”) or other cultural hot potatoes. Read more... |
Welcome to Lagos, BBC TwoThursday, 15 April 2010
You might think that an hour-long documentary mainly shot around a slaughter yard and rubbish dump might not make for particularly agreeable television, but trust me, this opener of a three-part series is by turns amusing, life-enhancing and gripping. Producer Will Anderson and director Gavin Searle have done an excellent job of getting under the surface of one of the worlds great megacities. A place that in the space of 50 years has grown from a population of about 300,000 to 16 million today. Read more... |
Beautiful Minds: James Lovelock, BBC FourThursday, 15 April 2010
At around the same time that Oliver Postgate, that singular genius of children’s television, was knocking up new worlds in his garden shed in Kent, so, in a garden shed in Wiltshire another remarkable maverick, Professor James Lovelock, was assembling a new world of his own. Read more... |
Later... with Jools Holland: in the studioWednesday, 14 April 2010
Welcome to the grown-up rock mothership. I've seen bands play in TV studios plenty of times over the years, but walking into the Later... With Jools Holland recording at BBC Television Centre for the first time, as I did last night, is something else. Studios generally have a disappointing feeling of smallness, or of looking behind the curtain to reveal artifice, but this genuinely was like stepping into the TV screen: the circle of bands and punters exactly as you see it when the... Read more... |
Goldsmiths: But is it Art? BBC FourTuesday, 13 April 2010
Goldsmiths has produced 20 Turner Prize winners. It produced Damien Hirst and the majority of the Brit Art pack that caused such a Nineties sensation. It has attracted some pretty impressive tutors to its fine art department – ground-breaking artists in their own right, in fact. As such, the school is considered to be something of a star in itself. So what’s its secret? This BBC Four two-parter aimed to find out - and, you’ve guessed it, in keeping with a certain jaunty documentary-making... Read more... |
Foyle's War, ITV1Sunday, 11 April 2010
Once upon a time, they all laughed at Inspector Morse because it was felt to be too "highbrow". In 2007, ITV axed Foyle's War, despite regular ratings of about 7 million, allegedly to go in pursuit of a "younger" audience. But people power swung into action, and a surge of protest caused ITV to think again. Hence, DCS Christopher Foyle returned for a sixth series, and now here he is again in a seventh. |
Starsuckers, More4Tuesday, 06 April 2010
That fame, and the pursuit thereof, is hurtful to the soul is the unexceptional if, I suppose, ever invaluable message of Starsuckers, the Chris Atkins documentary given genuine ballast by the details it selects with which to argue its case. Though overlong for what it is, and often veering off on tangents worthy of separate movies in themselves, it makes you laugh and wince in equal measure. Anonymity has rarely seemed a healthier place to be.
...
Read more...
|
The Pacific, Sky Movies PremiereMonday, 05 April 2010
For The Pacific, the 10-part saga of a group of US Marines involved in the campaign to drive back the rampant Japanese army in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Spielberg has resumed the executive producer role he adopted to make Band of Brothers nearly a decade ago, once again in partnership with Tom Hanks. Read more... |
Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me, BBC FourSunday, 04 April 2010
Jazz enthusiast Clint Eastwood, who co-produced this film with the BBC's Arena, clearly harbours a particular regard for songwriter, singer, impresario and record company mogul Johnny Mercer. When Eastwood made his film of John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was set in Mercer's home town of Savannah, Georgia and... Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Adolescence, Netflix review - Stephen Graham battles the pha...
A dictionary definition of adolescence is “the transitional phase of growth and development between childhood and adulthood”, but in this four-...
theartsdesk Q&A: Indian star Radhika Apte on 'Sist...
Radhika Apte has been acclaimed for her ebullient performance as a reluctant bride in Sister Midnight since...
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Marsalis, LSO, Pappano, Ba...
Few symphonies lasting over an hour hold the attention (Mahler’s can; even Messiaen’s Turangalîla feels two movements too...
Uproar, Rafferty, Royal Welsh College, Cardiff review - colo...
There’s a lot to be said for the planning that clearly went into this concert by the Cardiff-based new music ensemble, Uproar....
Attacca Quartet, Kings Place review - bridging the centuries...
Memorably described by Gramophone magazine as the “new kids on the classical block…with lavish pocket money”, Apple’s London-based label...
Music Reissues Weekly: Norma Tanega - I Don't Think It...
After scoring a hit in 1966 with the distinctive folk-pop of her jazz-inclined debut single "Walkin' my Cat Named Dog," US singer-songwriter Norma...
Manchester Collective, RNCM review - exploring new territory
Manchester Collective, now very much a part of the establishment world of new music, are still enlarging their territory. For this set, performed...
Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Ou...
Henry Gee’s previous book, A Brief History of Life on Earth, made an interestingly downbeat read for a title that won the UK...