wed 08/10/2025

tv

The Child in Time, BBC One review - lost in translation

Adam Sweeting

Apparently this is the first time an Ian McEwan novel has been dramatised for television, but whether The Child in Time was the best choice for that singular honour is open to question.

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Bad Move, ITV review - Jack Dee resettles in the middle of the road

Jasper Rees

That the countryside is a dump where all good things come to a dead end is hardly a new punchline. There are plenty of novels and memoirs, and indeed newspaper columns, about trading the toxic metropolis for the green and unpleasant pastures of the rural life. The joke is it’s mainly horrible for a narrow spectrum of predictable reasons. It’s muddy, petrol costs a bomb, bored kids are forever after lifts, and as for the people…

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Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum, BBC Four review - moving pictures

Marina Vaizey

Magnum was founded just after the war in 1947 as a co-operative that ensured both the quality of its members, and their clout in dealing with the media world. Its longevity is testimony to its success. The original founders were war-hardened photo journalists and included Robert Capa and David “Chim” Seymour; the first woman member was Eve Arnold, who joined in 1951.

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Black Lake, BBC Four review – Nordic blanc falls flat

Adam Sweeting

What would Saturday nights be without BBC Four’s regular subtitle-fests?

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100 Year Old Driving School, ITV review – a warning with history

Barney Harsent

While Horizon, on BBC2, was telling us that the first person to walk on Mars could well be walking among us now, ITV's 100 Year Old Driving School suggested that the space mission could take a major setback if that wannabe astronaut were to encounter Joan Beech on the roads.

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Rellik, BBC One review - tricksy procedural messes with time

Jasper Rees

There are two Williams brothers – Jack and Harry – who are mainly known for two series of The Missing. No chance of the Williamses going missing. Quite the reverse. As of today – Monday 11 September – they seem to have cloned.

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Liar, ITV - who, if anybody, is telling the truth?

Adam Sweeting

Could handsome, successful, designer-stubbly Ioan Gruffudd really be a rapist? Yes, according to schoolteacher Laura Nielson (Joanne Froggatt). No, according to Gruffudd’s character Andrew Earlham, a distinguished surgeon and widower apparently horrified to be accused of such a thing.

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Tin Star, Sky Atlantic - broken characters stalked by remorseless fate

Adam Sweeting

Sometimes you can find yourself hankering after those old-fashioned TV dramas where you got a self-contained story every week, so you can drop in on it at any time and still keep up with what’s going on. With Tin Star, on the other hand, you need to stick with it for at least four episodes before the scope of the story begins to reveal itself and it starts to exert a painful grip.

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Cold Feet, series 7, ITV review - more comedy than drama

Barney Harsent

When the ITV comedy drama Cold Feet returned last year after a 13-year break, it seemed something of a risk. Looking back, after the near-universal acclaim and excellent viewing figures, it’s difficult to think it could have been anything but a sure-fire hit.

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Safe House, series 2, ITV review - the abduction and captivity show returns

Mark Sanderson

Forget Christopher Eccleston and the Lake District. Two years on, Ed Whitmore’s ready-mix thriller Safe House returns with Stephen Moyer in Merseyside.

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