tv
Civilisations, episode 2, BBC Two review - Mary Beard on the cultural offensiveFriday, 09 March 2018
The sheer ambition of the BBC’s new Civilisations is becoming apparent. Read more...
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Collateral, series finale, BBC Two - Carey Mulligan hares to the finishTuesday, 06 March 2018
In a revelatory interview for the Royal Court’s playwright’s podcast series, David Hare admits to a thin skin. In his adversarial worldview, to take issue with him is – his word – to denounce him. He’s quite a denouncer himself, of course. Read more... |
Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism, BBC Four - brilliant appraisalMonday, 05 March 2018
By most measures, minimalism is the most successful movement in 20th-century music, certainly orchestral music. Read more... |
Civilisations, BBC Two review - no shocks from SchamaFriday, 02 March 2018
Lord Clark – “of Civilisation”, as he was nicknamed, not necessarily affectionately – presented the 13 episodes of the eponymous series commissioned by David Attenborough for BBC Two in 1969; it was subtitled “A Personal View”, and encompassed only Western Europe (from which even Spain was excluded). Read more... |
Save Me, Sky Atlantic review - it's grim down southThursday, 01 March 2018
Workrate of the Week award goes to Lennie James, who not only stars in this new six-part drama but wrote and executive-produced it as well. James (who starred in the first series of Line of Duty, and has hit it big in The Walking Dead) plays the central character Nelly Rowe, a wily chancer living on a Deptford council estate who suddenly finds his chequered past catching up with him. Read more... |
Marcella, Series 2, ITV review - more twisted tales of detectionTuesday, 27 February 2018
Marcella’s writer Hans Rosenfeldt was the creator of Scandi classic TV drama The Bridge, the one that made detectives with emotional disorders the flavour du jour, but you do have to wonder what kind of police force would continue to employ DS Marcella Backland (Anna Friel). Read more... |
Working with Weinstein, Channel 4 review - portrait of a predatorWednesday, 21 February 2018
While this well-crafted documentary chose to open with footage of the stars and glitz of the American awards ceremonies, the focus of Working with Weinstein (Channel 4) was almost entirely on Harvey Weinstein’s involvement over more than 30 years in... Read more... |
Mum, BBC Two, series 2 review - Lesley Manville is a discreet delightWednesday, 21 February 2018
This week brings a tale of two comedies. Both half-hour sitcoms are about widowed mothers with grown-up sons still at home. Each woman has an unattached admirer. Both shows star fine comic actresses who learned much of their craft in the films of Mike Leigh. And the new series started two days apart. On BBC One was Hold the Sunset. Read more... |
Hold the Sunset, BBC One, review - this is an ex-sitcomMonday, 19 February 2018
You need to be of a certain vintage to have any memory of the traditional suburban family sitcom. Like the Raleigh Chopper and the Betamax video, like amateur athletics and glamrock and key parties, it is an extinct cultural artefact. What did for it? The internet, mainly, and the kids not watching scheduled telly any more, and maybe the rise of stand-up. Read more... |
Troy: Fall of a City, BBC One review - soapification of the Trojan WarSunday, 18 February 2018
The plan to bring drama back to Saturday nights on BBC One enjoyed mixed success with Hard Sun, but now threatens to slide over a cliff with this trip back to the Homeric era. In the era of Game of Thrones and now Britannia, you can see why somebody fancied having a go at the swords-sandals-and-sorcery of the Trojan War. The question is, how? Read more... |
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