tue 24/06/2025

tv

Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie, Sky Documentaries review - the classic motor racing film that never was

Adam Sweeting

The motor racing passion of movie star Steve McQueen is well documented, from his motorcycling exploits in The Great Escape to the rubber-burning car chase around San Francisco in Bullitt to his weird but mesmeric sports car odyssey Le Mans. Less widely known, however, was his plan to shoot a movie about Formula One during the mid-Sixties.

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The Great, Channel 4 review - Russian history gets a whirl in the fictional blender

Adam Sweeting

History ain’t what it used to be, not on television at any rate. Recently we’ve witnessed the ongoing furore about the factual accuracy or otherwise of The Crown, while Bridgerton has cheekily galloped bareback over the conventional cliches of telly costume dramas.

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The Serpent, BBC One review - tracking down the hippie-trail murderer

Markie Robson-Scott

“They’re only rich assholes.They don’t merit your concern,” serial killer and psychopath Charles Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim, A Prophet, Heal the Living), aka rich French gem-dealer Alain Gautier, tells his girlfriend Marie-Andrée in The Serpent as he steals passports and money from a couple of unconscious

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Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks, BBC One review - a perfectly predictable romp

Laura De Lisle

The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) has a simple routine: she gets up at the same time every day, tramps out for her allotted hour of exercise, and spends the rest of the day staring out of the window, yearning for freedom. Sound familiar? That’s a bit worrying, she’s in prison. 

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Best of 2020: TV

theartsdesk

Okay, so some people taught themselves the violin or wrote a novel, but under this year’s circumstances, it was inevitable that television (terrestrial, cable, online or otherwise) was going to clean up.

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Black Narcissus, BBC One review - a haunting in the Himalayas

Saskia Baron

It’s dangerous territory, remaking a classic British film as a TV mini-series. In 1947 when Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created Black Narcissus, a heady adaptation of Rumer Godden’s 1939 novel, they never set foot in the Himalayas.

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Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, Sky One review – twinkly tale for troubled times

Joseph Walsh

They say "never meet your heroes". That may be true, but it forms the premise of a new TV drama concerning two of the worlds most famous childrens authors – Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl – who encounter each other at opposite ends of their life. 

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Bridgerton, Netflix review - bodice-ripper cliches recycled in Regency romp

Adam Sweeting

At first glance you might mistake Bridgerton (Netflix) for the latest effusion from the pen of Lord Fellowes, since it conforms so closely to the Fellowesian pattern of manners, money and mores among the English aristocracy. Even the title sounds like a mashup of Downton and Belgravia.

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All Creatures Great and Small: Christmas Special, Channel 5 review - big and little dramas in the Dales

Adam Sweeting

Having launched their new-look All Creatures… back in September to wild acclaim, it was a no-brainer for Channel 5 to commission this Christmas Special. The only mystery is why they didn’t schedule it for Christmas Day, where it would probably have seen off most of the not-very-thrilling competition.

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Upstart Crow: Lockdown Christmas 1603, BBC Two review – plaguey beaks and bubonidiots

David Nice

If you’ve loved every episode of Ben Elton’s Shakespeare and Co comedy, you’ll know what to expect – but you’ll have to swallow bittersweet pills from only two of the excellent ensemble who’ve given us such comfort and joyous rapid-fire delivery of wordsmithery over three series (and on the London stage, as it was...

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