tv
Das Boot, Series 2, Sky Atlantic review - multi-layered war drama goes from strength to strengthWednesday, 10 June 2020
Das Boot made an impressive debut early last year with its entwined narratives of war by land and sea. Read more... |
The World's Greatest Paintings, Channel 5 review - enthusiastic presenter but no dazzling revelationsSunday, 07 June 2020
Andrew Marr’s art show is a lot of fun, although engulfed in almost overwhelming banality and cliché. Our enthusiastic presenter is a self-confessed addict of art. Read more... |
The Other One, BBC One review - entertaining odd-couple sitcomSaturday, 06 June 2020
This engaging sitcom created by comedian Holly Walsh has had a long gestation: this, the pilot episode, was first broadcast back in 2017 but Walsh's pregnancy meant that the six-part series commissioned at the time was filmed last year. Read more... |
Little Fires Everywhere, Amazon Prime review - in every dream home a heartacheFriday, 05 June 2020
Reese Witherspoon has evolved into a growth industry on the new frontier of Big Television. Her production company Hello Sunshine has a heap of projects on the go with a range of networks, and following her success with Big Little Lies (for HBO), Little Fires Everywhere comes to you courtesy of Hulu (in the US) and Amazon Prime. Read more... |
A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, Series Finale, Channel 4 review - let's hear it for Alasdair the hotel inspectorWednesday, 03 June 2020
It’s impossible to tell whether this reality-doc series (C4) came to praise Best Western hotels or kill it off entirely. Read more... |
Shutdown: The Virus That Changed Our World, Sky Documentaries review - a chaotic response and an uncertain futureWednesday, 03 June 2020
It’s too early for a definitive account of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this was very much a Sky News version of what we’ve been through so far. Although it seems the virus has peaked and we’re entering a tentative stage of partial de-lockdown, the message was relentlessly grim. Read more... |
Philharmonia, Channel 4 review - death on the podiumMonday, 01 June 2020
Great idea to use a symphony orchestra as the basis for a TV drama, because all of human life is there. Read more... |
Space Force, Netflix review - fails to launchFriday, 29 May 2020
Since Donald Trump's election as US President in 2016, I imagine satirists have slowly lost the will to live – as nothing they can write can outdo his buffoonery. Read more... |
Unprecedented, BBC Four review - perspectives on the pandemicWednesday, 27 May 2020
This short series of new dramas (on BBC Four) by a group of leading playwrights was commissioned by Headlong and Century Films, a week before the virus lockdown was announced on 23 March, and represents an artistic first... Read more... |
A House Through Time, Series 3, BBC Two review - Bristol under the microscopeWednesday, 27 May 2020
David Olusoga’s A House Through Time concept (BBC Two) has proved a popular hit, using a specific property as a keyhole through which to observe historical and social changes. After previously picking sites in Liverpool and Newcastle, this time he’s chosen Bristol, the city where he has lived for over 20 years. Read more... |
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Bellringers, Hampstead Theatre review - mordant comedy about...
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French Toast, Riverside Studios review - Racine-inspired sat...
It’s always fun jabbing at the permanently open wound that is Anglo-French relations, now with added snap post-Brexit, its fading, but...
Album: Ded Hyatt - Glossy
This record keeps you guessing. It starts off with “Hybrid Romance”, an ambient piece that’s very pretty but has swooping glassy synths that crack...
Ludwig, BBC One review - entertaining spin on the brainy det...
The latest incarnation of David Mitchell, TV actor, looks at first sight much like the familar one from Peep Show and Back...
Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix Special review - no mea culpa and f...
Hard to imagine it now, but just a few years ago Ellen DeGeneres was one of America’s biggest daytime TV stars; her chatshow The Ellen...
The Hardacres, Channel 5 review - a fishy tale of upward mob...
Set in Yorkshire in the 1890s, and based on the novels...
Juno and the Paycock, Gielgud Theatre review - a shockingly...
"Captain" Jack Boyle is a fantasist, a mythmaker, a storyteller. He relishes an audience – usually his sidekick, Joxer. There is a theatricality...
Hardenberger, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall,...
Two splendid pieces of orchestral virtuosity began and finished the second Saturday concert by the BBC Philharmonic under John Storgårds at the...
Angry and Young, Almeida Theatre review - vigorous and illum...
Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, the title of John Osborne’s seminal kitchen-sink drama –...
Blond Eckbert, English Touring Opera review - dark deeds afo...
Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert, presented by English Touring Opera...