sun 24/08/2025

tv

Big Cats About the House, BBC Two review - irresistible feline-human bonding

Marina Vaizey

There is a jaguar in the house. Aged five days, and having been rejected by her mother, Maya has arrived from the wildlife park where she was born for hand-rearing by Giles Clark at his home in Kent. The cub is going to spend her early days with his family, with round-the-clock care from Giles, obsessed as he is with the situation of big cats worldwide.

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The Durrells, Series 3, ITV review - a winter warmer from Corfu

Adam Sweeting

When ITV scheduled this new series of The Durrells for mid-March, they probably didn’t imagine it would coincide with the return of the Beast from the East, with its blizzards and plummeting temperatures.

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13 Commandments, Channel 4 review - murder most Flemish

Jasper Rees

To Belgium for the latest continental instalment of murder really rather unpleasant.

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Annihilation, Netflix review - not quite a sci-fi masterpiece

Adam Sweeting

Mild controversy hovers over the new film by Alex Garland, the novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-director. Garland’s 2015 directing debut, Ex Machina, was a slow-burning hit which found favour with critics and film festival juries.

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Being Blacker, BBC Two review - absorbing film about family, culture and society

Jasper Rees

They don’t commission many television documentaries like Being Blacker (BBC Two) any more. That is not unconnected to the fact that Molly Dineen downed her camera a decade ago.

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Below the Surface, BBC Four review - terror in Copenhagen

Adam Sweeting

Read Adam Sweeting's review of the Below the Surface Finale

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Civilisations, episode 2, BBC Two review - Mary Beard on the cultural offensive

Tom Birchenough

The sheer ambition of the BBC’s new Civilisations is becoming apparent.

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Collateral, series finale, BBC Two - Carey Mulligan hares to the finish

Jasper Rees

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.

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Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism, BBC Four - brilliant appraisal

Matthew Wright

By most measures, minimalism is the most successful movement in 20th-century music, certainly orchestral music.

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Civilisations, BBC Two review - no shocks from Schama

Marina Vaizey

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).

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