tue 08/10/2024

tv

The Art Mysteries, BBC Four review - secrets and symbols of Van Gogh's famous self-portrait

Adam Sweeting

Presenter Waldemar Januszczak suffers from something very like Robert Peston Syndrome, which makes him bellow at the camera and distort words as if they’re chewing gum he’s peeling off the sole of his shoe. Nonetheless he has a knack for finding fresh and revealing angles on art history, as he aims to do in this new series.

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Penance, Channel 5 review - lust, disgust and mistrust in Kate O'Riordan's thrilller

Adam Sweeting

Adapted by Kate O’Riordan from her own novel, Penance is a taut little thriller spread over three consecutive nights.

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Sunnyside, Sky Comedy review - the immigrant experience and the American dream

Markie Robson-Scott

The multi-talented Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar, Designated Survivor, House) took a two-year acting sabbatical in 2009 to work for the Obama administration.

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Belgravia, ITV review - when the toffs and the nouveaux riches collided

Adam Sweeting

The prolific Lord Fellowes returns with this six-part adaptation of his own novel (for ITV), a niftily-wrought yarn (originally issued in online instalments) about the old aristocracy and the rise of new money in the early 19th Century. Some are inevitably calling it the “new Downton”, but it really isn’t.

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The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team, Amazon Prime review - how ball-tampering scandal forced a cricket revolution

Adam Sweeting

It was in March 2018 that Australia’s cricketers were caught ball-tampering during a Test match in Cape Town. The resulting public outcry and sanctions against the guilty players and assorted backroom staff shook the Australian game to the core.

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Five Guys a Week, Channel 4 review - lemming-like contestants make spectacles of themselves

Adam Sweeting

Channel 4 loves to walk the line between the compulsive and the repulsive, and this new dating show, complete with fake-salacious title, is a peerless specimen.

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Beyond the Grace Note, Sky Arts review - march of the women conductors

Jessica Duchen

Perhaps the most surprising thing is how good natured they all sound. There’s no anger. At least, not much – one can’t help wondering what they say off air.

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RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 12, Netflix review - 13 queens up the game

David Nice

As RuPaul's best squirrel friend Michelle Visage, co-doyenne of the amused and amusing judges, put it, "that was some next-level shit".

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Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall, BBC Two review - the storyteller and the truth

David Nice

Spectacular success couldn't have happened to a more interesting person, or a better writer.

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Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Netflix review - thrilling documentary series wreaks havoc in the paddock

Adam Sweeting

The 2020 Formula 1 season will commence in Melbourne next weekend... unless the race is cancelled because of the mounting coronavirus panic. Everyone will have to self-isolate and watch Netflix instead, so how fortunate that the ‘flix has delivered this second series of Drive to Survive in the nick of time.

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