thu 14/08/2025

tv

The Singapore Grip, ITV review - colonial clichés

Saskia Baron

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.

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Away, Netflix review - pioneering voyage to Mars descends into astrosoap

Adam Sweeting

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.

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Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum, ITV review - will motherhood be the gateway to a new life?

Adam Sweeting

Apart from her acting abilities, the qualities which made Sheridan Smith a star were her authenticity and lack of pretension.

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All Creatures Great and Small, Channel 5 review - revival of vintage vet show is full of Yorkshire promise

Adam Sweeting

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.

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I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review - Billie Piper excels as an actress on the edge

Markie Robson-Scott

“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.”

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Our World: Colombia - Saving Eden, BBC Two review - the war is over, but can they save the rainforests?

Adam Sweeting

Stories of the destruction of the natural environment are depressingly common, but Frank Gardner brought a fresh slant to this punchy account of a botanical expedition to Colombia (BBC Two).

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The Truth about Cosmetic Treatments, BBC One review - pain, but not much gain?

Adam Sweeting

According to one interviewee here, a young Mancunian woman festooned with eyeliner, tattoos, pumped-up lips and huge hoop earrings, a major motivation for having cosmetic treatments is to make yourself look like Kylie Jenner and the Kardashians.

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The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech, BBC Two review - a stomach-turning swamp of lies and incompetence

Adam Sweeting

The story of the malignant fantasist Carl Beech is one of the more iniquitous episodes in British legal history, a stomach-turning swamp of lies, gullibility and heinous incompetence. It shook faith in some of our supposedly most robust institutions to the core, and Beech’s lies tainted the reputations of some innocent victims who went to their graves with a shadow still hanging over them.

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Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom, BBC Two review - winners and losers as Manchester becomes Manc-hattan

Adam Sweeting

“Manctopia” sounds like a blissed-out buzzword from the golden years of New Order and Happy Mondays, but in this four-part series (BBC Two) it’s used to describe the explosive redevelopment of Manchester.

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Lovecraft Country, Sky Atlantic review - Misha Green, Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams take us on horror-driven road trip

Joseph Walsh

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for a series like Lovecraft Country (Sky Atlantic) in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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