tue 26/08/2025

tv

Hunters, Amazon Prime review - bringing God's justice to Nazis in America

Adam Sweeting

Apparently network executives initially reacted with alarm to the premise of Hunters, Amazon’s new big-ticket series chiefly (though by no means entirely) notable for hosting Al Pacino’s first full-scale television role.

Read more...

How To Stay out of Jail, Channel 4 review – a bold rehabilitation programme from Durham police

Adam Sweeting

With prison overcrowding reaching chronic proportions, police in County Durham have developed the Checkpoint programme to try to keep offenders out of jail with rehabilitation in the community. It’s like Felons Anonymous – candidates have to sign a contract confessing their crimes and stipulating that they won’t reoffend.

Read more...

Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, BBC Four review - is this version more valid than anyone else's?

Adam Sweeting

Perhaps somebody at BBC Four has had a quiet word with Lucy Worsley, because in this first of a new three-part series she did hardly did any of her usual irritating dressing up. There had to be a bit, though.

Read more...

Confronting Holocaust Denial with David Baddiel, BBC Two review - grappling with the incomprehensible

Marina Vaizey

It’s all in the timing. Here was David Baddiel beginning a stand-up turn at a gig in Finchley. A Holocaust survivor gets to heaven, and God asks for a Holocaust joke. God says that his joke isn't funny, and the survivor replies “Well, I guess you had to be there.” Baddiel believes there is nothing that is impervious to a joke.

Read more...

The Stranger, Netflix review - strong cast grapples with labyrinthine plotting

Adam Sweeting

This eight-part mystery from Netflix is based on the titular novel by American writer Harlan Coben, who has formed a production company with Rochdale’s own Nicola Schindler, the production brains behind Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax and many more.

Read more...

Classic Albums: Tears for Fears, Songs From The Big Chair, BBC Four review - anatomy of an anthem

Jill Chuah Masters

Roland Orzabal, co-founder and lead guitarist of Tears for Fears, laughs to himself often during this documentary — the latest in the BBC’s often-excellent, always-forensic Classic Albums series. “I agree, I agree, it sounds great,” says Orzabal. He’s listening to “Shout,” the band’s 1984 Billboard No. 1 hit.

Read more...

Sex Education, Series 2, Netflix review - the teen sex show we deserved

Jill Chuah Masters

Netflix’s Sex Education has returned to our screens and streams. The show made waves last year for its refreshing take on the teen comedy-drama. It took on abortion, consent and female pleasure — subjects strikingly absent from our actual high school educations.

Read more...

The Split, Series 2, BBC One review - where the law and family fortunes collide

Adam Sweeting

The return of screenwriter Abi Morgan’s series about a largely-female London law firm is no doubt in tune with our gender and equality-conscious times, but that doesn’t mean it’s great television.

Read more...

The Pale Horse, BBC One review - when in doubt, do another Agatha Christie remake

Adam Sweeting

You could sometimes begin to believe that the notion of original TV drama is dying out, replaced by an interminable stream of adaptations and remakes. Did somebody mention Dracula?

Read more...

Secrets of the Museum, BBC Two review - the incredible hidden worlds of the V&A

Marina Vaizey

The nation’s public attics – museums – hold a huge jumble of objects collected and used in all sorts of ways to tell us stories of past and present.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Blu-ray: Finis Terrae

British audiences of a certain age will note Finis Terrae’s similarity to Finisterre, one of the 31 sea areas listed in the BBC’s ...

BBC Proms: Jansen, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mäkelä rev...

How often is an orchestral concert perfect in every texture, every instrumental entry, every phrase? Wednesday's Phiharmonia Prom struck sound-...

The Gathered Leaves, Park Theatre review - dated script lift...

The Gathered Leaves is set on the tectonic plates of a middle-class family menu reunion, in which three generations grapple with the...

As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, Edinburgh International...

There is, let’s be honest, a certain self-congratulatory self-satisfaction among some particularly well-heeled sections of the Edinburgh...

Album: Nova Twins - Parasites & Butterflies

For Nova Twins, the alternative rock/metal duo of Amy Love and Georgia South, the years since 2020 have been a non-stop journey of evolution....

Oslo Stories Trilogy: Sex review - sexual identity slips, hu...

Two chimney sweeps sit by a window. The boss (Thorbjørn Harr) recounts a dream meeting with David Bowie, who disconcertingly looks at...

BBC Proms: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mäkelä review - de...

Klaus Mäkelä teased out all the fragility and the sense of impending mortality in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, revealing a vision that was as...

Hostage, Netflix review - entente not-too-cordiale

Conceived and written by Matt Charman, whose CV...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - What's The New, Ma...

“What's the New Mary Jane” is a nursery rhyme-like song, one of John Lennon’s most peculiar offerings. It was recorded for late 1968’s double...