fri 15/08/2025

tv

8 Days: To the Moon and Back, BBC Two review - intimate peek at life in lunar capsule

Tom Baily

The Apollo 11 mission remains the most celebrated journey humanity has ever made. It produced some of our most iconic images, as well as the greatest speech gaffe, and a documentary of epic scale could be made that focused solely on the influence it has had on our popular culture.

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Charles I: Downfall of a King, BBC Four review - beheaded monarch upstaged by exotic presenter

Adam Sweeting

“I want to discover how our government could fall apart and the country become bitterly divided in just a few weeks,” historian Lisa Hilton announced at the start of her BBC Four account of the traumatic demise of Charles I.

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Cyclists: Scourge of the Streets?, Channel 5 review - can we make the roads a safer place?

Adam Sweeting

Healthy, efficient and carbon-neutral, cycling ought to be a transport panacea. But in the dash for lycra, perhaps not enough attention has been paid to letting bikes and motor vehicles co-exist peacefully. This deliberately provocative Channel 5 documentary, which has sparked an angry backlash from within the cycling community, found plenty of ammunition from both sides.

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Dark Money, BBC One review - powerful idea poorly executed

Adam Sweeting

It’s a topical idea, at least. Isaac Mensah, a child actor from a working-class family in London, has been cast in a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, and when he returns home his family and friends are agog to find out what his amazing movie experience was like.

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Stranger Things 3, Netflix review - bigger, dumber, better

Owen Richards

It sometimes feels like an age between Stranger Things seasons. Blame Netflix. The binge-watching trend that it helped solidify means that most people consume all eight hours of content in a single weekend. It comes and goes in a flash. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a disposable snack, the TV equivalent of those famous Eggo pancakes.

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Gentleman Jack, BBC One, series finale review - Anne Lister weds with pride

Jasper Rees

Not too long ago it would have been unthinkable for a BBC One Sunday-night period drama series to tell of one woman’s love for another. Whatever anyone thought of it – and not everyone bade it the hearty welcome it merited – Gentleman Jack has shifted the dial.

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Inside the Ritz Hotel, ITV review - glitz and glam, but no detail

Tom Baily

Should the Ritz catch up with modernity? This question is posed and immediately answered with another question: Does it need to? Not really, say the staff, clients and celebrity guests that populate this bubbly, formulaic and unashamed celebration of what is, rightly, a gorgeous and historic venue.

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Inside the Bank of England, BBC Two review - economical with the actualité

Adam Sweeting

The BBC is pleased with itself for having insinuated a documentary team inside the Bank of England, but was this august custodian of the nation’s finances really going to let slip any juicy revelations? The Bank’s role is too powerful and too political for its employees to be anything other than extremely tight-lipped.

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Judi Dench's Wild Borneo Adventure, ITV review - national treasure meets natural wonders

Adam Sweeting

Ecological awareness has become de rigueur for any self-respecting celebrity, and if the chances of saving the planet were in direct proportion to the number of renowned personages criss-crossing it on well-intentioned missions, we could all stop worrying. Still, one would much prefer to have Dame Judi Dench doing it than…. others we might mention.

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The Planets, Series Finale, BBC Two review - ice cold on Neptune

Adam Sweeting

As an aid to meditation, Professor Brian Cox’s latest series The Planets (BBC Two) could hardly be faulted. A majestic tour of the Solar System awash with computerised imagery, an eerie soundtrack and a travel budget the president of the United States might envy, it exerted a narcotic allure as Cox’s gaze roamed billions of kilometres into deep space.

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