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Harry's Heroes: Euro Having a Laugh, ITV review - jokey documentary delivers painful emotional truthsWednesday, 20 May 2020
Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously commented that football is far more serious than a matter of life and death. Read more... |
Arena: The Changin' Times of Ike White, BBC Four review - musical mystery becomes personalTuesday, 19 May 2020
The most obvious comparison for The Changin’ Times of Ike White (BBC Four) is 2012’s Searching for Sugar Man, with its story of a potential star having vanished into thin air at the brink of fame and fortune. Read more... |
Hollywood, Netflix review - rosy escapism serving good causesThursday, 14 May 2020
If you're catering for wish fulfilment, you might as well go the whole hog. Some say that Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, in their latest peachy extravaganza, aim no higher than the cheesier fantasies of the late 1940s Hollywood they take into neverland. Read more... |
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs The Reverend, Netflix review - bold, but only a partial successWednesday, 13 May 2020
Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s hit comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) ended its fourth series in January last year, but this belated interactive special suggested there could be new life in it yet. Read more... |
I Know This Much Is True, Sky Atlantic review - riding a carousel of catastropheTuesday, 12 May 2020
Adapted by writer-director Derek Cianfrance from Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel, this HBO production (on Sky Atlantic) presents a huge canvas for Mark Ruffalo, who plays the twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. Read more... |
The Last Kingdom, Season 4, Netflix review - blood, guts and dirty politicsSaturday, 09 May 2020
Meanwhile back in the Dark Ages, Uhtred (son of Uhtred) is still seeking to reclaim his ancestral seat of Bebbanburg and manoeuvre through the treacherous currents of Saxon politics. Read more... |
Rob and Romesh vs Ballet, Sky 1 review - unlikely lads throw themselves in as baitWednesday, 06 May 2020
The odd-couple comedy duo is a time-tested concept, and Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan have discovered a chemistry that works. Rob is the giggling excitable one, while Romesh, aided by a sleepy right eye which conveys a sense of harsh judgmentalism, adds a blast of deadpan scepticism. Read more... |
The A Word, Series 3, BBC One review - Christopher Eccleston steals the showWednesday, 06 May 2020
Christopher Eccleston isn’t the easiest actor to love, because he gives the impression he’ll reach through the screen and grab you by the throat if you don’t appreciate his ferocious thespian intensity, but with the role of Maurice Scott in The A Word (BBC One), he’s found the perfect vehicle for his particular set of skills. Read more... |
Westworld, Season 3 Finale, Sky Atlantic review - Dolores’s plans come to fruitionTuesday, 05 May 2020
After a season that sought to redefine what Westworld could become, the finale exposed the confused arc, before limping towards an emotionally weak ending. Read more... |
Code 404, Sky One review - surreal cop comedy presses the right buttonsThursday, 30 April 2020
DI John Major (Daniel Mays) has been dead a year, shot in the line of duty, though we’re far from that series in terms of tone. Now he’s back at the London Met, artificially augmented, but not very intelligently. If anything he’s a bit more shit than he was before, as one of those involved in the shooting observes. 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...
Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck...
A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV and,...
Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story - compelling portrait...
“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by Sinéad O’Shea, this...
Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse
In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes (piano) work...
Donohoe, RPO, Brabbins, Cadogan Hall review - rarely heard B...
The name Arthur Bliss always summoned up for me the image of a fuddy-duddy old buffer writing boring music. But as I’ve discovered his work over...
Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone
For lovers of British folk from the 1970s on, Peter Knight is a potent force – renowned for his years with Steeleye Span, in their 1970s heyday...
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, b...
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that effect. This quote from Milton’s ...
London Choral Sinfonia, Waldron, Smith Square Hall review -...
The London Choral Sinfonia are a very impressive group, a professional choir who are churning out terrific recordings at a breakneck pace – I...
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - bra...
It’s hard to think of anyone even half as persistent as William Forsythe in changing the conversation around ballet. The American...