tv
Black Classical Music: The Forgotten History, BBC Four review - sounds to treasureMonday, 05 October 2020
Classical music TV documentaries don’t often merit comparison to buses. Read more... |
Bernard Haitink: The Enigmatic Maestro, BBC Two review - saying goodbye with BrucknerSunday, 27 September 2020
Before his retirement last summer at the age of 90, Bernard Haitink worked magic on the podium, no one is in any doubt about that. Lining up one friend and musician after another to admit they don’t know how he does it hardly seems the most promising basis for a feature-length documentary. Yet John Bridcut’s film also works, rather like one of Haitink’s performances, by placing trust in his material and moulding its form with a nudge here, a pause there. Read more... |
The Movies: The Seventies review - a mirror on malaiseWednesday, 23 September 2020
Sky’s 12-part documentary series The Movies is an unabashed celebration of American cinema. Barrages of clips make it an entertaining survey of Hollywood (and occasionally Off-Hollywood) through the years. Read more... |
A Special School, BBC Wales review - heartwarming film about special needs educationTuesday, 15 September 2020
This warm-hearted and informative documentary series about life in a Welsh special education school probably isn’t going to be a ratings buster for the BBC but it’s one of the most touching and well-made shows I’ve seen in a long time. Read more... |
Extinction: The Facts, BBC One review - David Attenborough tells a devastating storyMonday, 14 September 2020
Fires are raging: by human agency – unthinking greed – in the Amazonian rainforest, by climate change, arson and accident in California and the American Northwest, and barely under control in Australia, another country whose leading politicians and media deny climate change. Read more... |
The Singapore Grip, ITV review - colonial clichésMonday, 14 September 2020
ITV’s Sunday evening costume drama slot is filled for the next six weeks with this lacklustre adaptation of JG Farrell’s satirical novel, The Singapore Grip. Read more... |
Away, Netflix review - pioneering voyage to Mars descends into astrosoapFriday, 11 September 2020
Could you cope with spending three years away from your family and loved ones while you went on the first crewed mission to Mars? This is the question that underpins Away, Netflix’s new space exploration drama. Read more... |
Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum, ITV review - will motherhood be the gateway to a new life?Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Apart from her acting abilities, the qualities which made Sheridan Smith a star were her authenticity and lack of pretension. Read more... |
All Creatures Great and Small, Channel 5 review - revival of vintage vet show is full of Yorkshire promiseWednesday, 02 September 2020
The BBC’s version of James Herriot’s books about his life as a Yorkshire vet became a weekend TV staple, running for seven series and a couple of Christmas specials between the late Seventies and the start of the Nineties. Read more... |
I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review - Billie Piper excels as an actress on the edgeFriday, 28 August 2020
“I’m going to be a Disney princess!” Thirty-five-year-old actress Suzie Pickles (Billie Piper) is screaming with joy at having got the part, and her deaf, seven-year-old son Frank (Matthew Jordan-Caws) looks excited too. Her husband’s reaction? “I thought you were too old.” Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning review - can this...
Whether it is or isn’t the final Mission: Impossible film, there’s a distinct fin-de-siècle feel about this eighth instalment, and not...
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In the guided tour of Britain’s cathedral cities that is the primetime TV...
Pixies, O2 Academy, Birmingham review – indie veterans pack...
Pixies might just be the ultimate Radio 6 Dad band. They’ve been around (on-and-off) for around 40 years; they’ve got a fine back catalogue of...
Album: Sports Team - Boys These Days
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Pygmalion, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Middle Temple Hall r...
With French baroque opera all but banished from the UK’s major...
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points –...
The Fifth Step, Soho Place review - wickedly funny two-hande...
The plays of David Ireland have a tendency to build to an explosion, after long stretches of caustic dialogue and very funny banter....
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Every now and then a concert programme comes along that fits like a bespoke suit, and this one could have been specially designed for me. Two...
Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic trick...
Nick Mohammed invented his Mr Swallow character – camp, lisping, with an inflated ego and the mistaken belief that he has creative...