tv
Les Misérables, BBC One, series finale review - more moving than revealingMonday, 04 February 2019
It took the best part of six episodes, but we got there in the end: the reason David Oyelowo accepted the confusingly underwritten part of Inspector Javert in BBC One’s adaptation of Les Misérables was finally revealed. Read more...
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Camping, Sky Atlantic, review - Lena Dunham's tentative British exportFriday, 01 February 2019
When British sitcoms head west anything can happen. For every success – The Office had a happy second life with Steve Carell – there are half a dozen others that got lost in translation, including Coupling, Getting On, Gavin and Stacey, The It Crowd and The Vicar of Dibley. Read more... |
The Last Survivors, BBC Two review - living onMonday, 28 January 2019
When they were children the interviewees in this film – the last survivors – were taken away in incomprehensible circumstances, on their way to be murdered for who they were, in Germany and places further east. Read more... |
Imagine... James Graham, BBC One review - deft analysis of a working lifeTuesday, 22 January 2019
How does an unassuming 36-year-old with a terrifyingly sensible haircut and a mildly flamboyant taste in jumpers become the political playwright par excellence of his generation? Read more... |
Nolan: Australia's Maverick Artist, BBC Four review – a lust for life in all its aspectsMonday, 21 January 2019
Reckless, unstoppable, one step ahead of everyone else, a hell of a lot of fun, utterly charming, street smart – descriptions of the artist Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) poured out from colleagues, rivals, curators, art historians and dealers, not to mention friends and family, in this persuasive film. Read more... |
Black Lake, Series 2 Finale, BBC Four review - Swedish chiller fails to thrillSunday, 20 January 2019
A bunch of young-ish people stuck in a rambling house in the middle of nowhere, a hatchet-faced senior citizen guarding a hoard of murky secrets, assorted missing persons, a derelict sanatorium, lots of creepy noises and no telephones… hang on, isn’t that exactly the same formula as in the first series of Black Lake... Read more... |
American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, BBC Four review - rewriting history in the Land of the FreeFriday, 18 January 2019
The multi-costumed Lucy Worsley is television marmite, loved or loathed: her gesticulating enthusiasm can grate, as can her stream of bland platitudes. Typically the title is Worsley-twee, evoking fibs instead of lies and falsehoods; are we in the nursery, as smart Nanny Worsley seems to think? Read more... |
Magnum P.I., Sky 1 review - slick and formulaic remake of Eighties originalThursday, 17 January 2019
Perhaps inspired by the success of the revived Hawaii Five-O, CBS and Universal have gone back to the Eighties, and back to Hawaii, to see if the venerable Magnum P.I. could benefit from a similar overhaul. Early evidence suggests that as formulaic American dramas go, it’s… sort of business as usual. Read more... |
Cold Feet, Series 8, ITV, review - mortality liteTuesday, 15 January 2019
How much more is there to say about the thrills and spills of midlife? Cold Feet made a surprisingly nimble return to ITV a couple of series ago after a long furlough. There was little evidence of stiff joints or saggy bottoms in Mike Bullen’s writing as he welcomed a gang of teens to the cast list. Read more... |
On Drums... Stewart Copeland!, BBC Four review - no drummer, no rock'n'rollFriday, 11 January 2019
On Drums was inhabited by a parade of fine-looking young and middle aged multi-ethnic anglophone drummers, all introduced by Stewart Copeland, the American drummer of the Police. Read more... |
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