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Harper's IslandFriday, 11 September 2009Caught in a crossfire between licence-payers and rival media groups, the BBC has reached the frankly surreal conclusion that the answer is to cut down on imported programmes. Luckily Harper's Island (BBC3) has snuck in under the wire. Read more... |
Lunch MonkeysThursday, 10 September 2009BBC3 must sometimes feel very strange to its target audience – reflecting back a gallery of skunk-addled obese teenage single-mums not far removed from the nightmares of a Daily Mail reader. There’s no doubting the fruits of its comedy department however, and the likes of Man Stroke Woman, Monkey Dust, The Mighty Boosh, Gavin and Stacey and Being Human are shows that any averagely well-adjusted 16-34-year-old might actually enjoy. The sparky... Read more... |
The Last Days of Lehman Brothers, BBC Two review - big money gone badWednesday, 09 September 2009
In July the BBC brought us Freefall, writer/director Dominic Savage's credit crunch drama. It was a crude morality tale of greed and gullibility, just about compensating for its blatantly schematic characters with sheer pace. Read more... |
Beeb Babes Go To WarTuesday, 08 September 2009Slickness is not always a virtue in a television presenter, and Katherine Jenkins (The Week We Went To War, BBC1) has some way to go before she risks being accused of it. Her chief weapons are her blonde hair, cleavage and searchlight smile -- she isn't so much the new Vera Lynn as one of those pneumatic dream-babes that American aircrews used to paint on the noses of their B17s -- but even so she struggles to... Read more... |
Beatles For (Multiplatform) SaleMonday, 07 September 2009
Oasis have split up, but The Beatles keep getting bigger. This week, in a synchronised splurge of Beatle product of almost D-Day like proportions, their complete remastered albums are being reissued, the group appear in virtual form in the computer game The Beatles: Rock Band, and the BBC continues the Beatles Week which kicked off in a blaze of Kleenex-moistening nostalgia on Saturday. Read more... |
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The Band Back Together, Arcola Theatre review - three is a d...
We meet Joe first at the keys, singing a pretty good song, but we can hear the pain in the voice – but is that...
Music Reissues Weekly: Sean Buckley & The Breadcrumbs
Although Dagenham’s Sean Buckley & The Breadcrumbs are less than a footnote in the story of beat boom-era Britain, appearances on archive...
The Critic review - beware the acid-tipped pen
The setting is the lively 1930s London theatre world, but any sense that The Critic will be a lighthearted thriller should soon be...
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers, National Gallery review - pass...
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers includes many of his best known pictures and, amazingly, it is the first exhibition the...
Kim's Convenience, Riverside Studios review - KC and th...
One wonders what sitcom writers will do when supermarkets finally sweep the last corner shops away with nobody left old enough to buy...
The Real Ones, Bush Theatre review - engrossing, enjoyable a...
Platonic love should be simple – basically you’re best mates. And without the complications of sex, what could go wrong? Waleed...
Prom 71, Seong-Jin Cho review - refined Romantic journeys
Out of emergencies may come revelations. Sir András Schiff has broken his leg, and we wish him a super-speedy recovery. At the Proms, his promised...
Frang, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a concerto performanc...
Hauntings, memories, echoes: Antonio Pappano has started his official tenure as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra by looking back...