TV
Towards Zero, BBC One review - more entertaining parlour game than crime thrillerWednesday, 05 March 2025
The BBC’s latest “cool” Agatha Christie adaptation has many hallmarks of the decidedly dark ones that were considered prestige Christmas treats until recently. But although it’s lovely to look at, it’s low on chills and thrills.The 1944 Agatha... Read more... |
Bergerac, U&Drama review - the Jersey 'tec is born again after 34 yearsFriday, 28 February 2025
They stopped making the BBC’s original Bergerac in 1991, so you can hardly complain that this reboot is premature. John Nettles became closely identified with the titular detective Jim Bergerac before he decamped to Midsomer, murder capital of the... Read more... |
A Thousand Blows, Disney+ review - Peaky Blinders comes to Ripper Street?Monday, 24 February 2025
Steven Knight is beginning to resemble the British version of Taylor Sheridan. While Sheridan has been saturating our screens with Yellowstone, 1923, Landman etc, Knight has been reeling off Peaky Blinders, SAS Rogue Heroes and even the story of... Read more... |
Zero Day, Netflix review - can ex-President Robert De Niro save the Land of the Free?Thursday, 20 February 2025
It seems that esteemed former US President George Mullen is subsiding gently into retirement on his luxurious country estate, with a publishing contract for his memoirs if he can ever manage to knuckle down and write them, when fate throws a curve-... Read more... |
The White Lotus, Series 3, Sky Atlantic review - hit formula with few surprises but a new bewitching soundtrackWednesday, 19 February 2025
The return of Mike White’s hit series can be celebrated for one major reason: its extraordinary music. That may sound like a minor reason, but this third iteration of the show confirms that the show's sound world is key to its success.Composer... Read more... |
Hacks, Season 3, NOW review - acerbic showbiz comedy keeps up the good workWednesday, 19 February 2025
Dying is easy, comedy is hard, according to the Georgian actor Edmund Kean. Luckily, everybody involved with the much-awarded Hacks understands precisely the creative anguish that top-flight comedy demands, and in its third season the show puts... Read more... |
Surviving Black Hawk Down, Netflix review - the real story behind Ridley Scott's Oscar-winnerFriday, 14 February 2025
Ridley Scott’s 2001 film Black Hawk Down was a technically superb blockbuster bristling with thunderous action sequences and famous actors, though its gung-ho depiction of the heroics of American special forces during the appalling Somalian civil... Read more... |
Vietnam: The War That Changed America, Apple TV+ review - painful and poignant stories from a terrible conflictMonday, 03 February 2025
It’s been 50 years since the USA bowed to the inevitable and pulled out of Vietnam, in the midst of harrowing scenes of anguish and chaos. Apple’s new six-part documentary series doesn’t bring any astounding new revelations about America’s traumatic... Read more... |
Paradise, Disney+ review - enigmatic drama with an unknown destinationSaturday, 01 February 2025
The latest from the This Is Us creator, Dan Fogelman, is a futuristic take on relationships among survivors once Earth has suffered an extinction event, a popular concept in these troubled times. Except that it starts out by following an equally... Read more... |
Brian and Maggie, Channel 4 review - Thatcherism's date with TV destinyThursday, 30 January 2025
The thesis underlying this two-part drama is that Brian Walden’s 1989 TV interview with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher marked the end of the long-form, forensic political interview, while also being a catalyst for Thatcher’s resignation a year... Read more... |
Prime Target, Apple TV+ review - the appliance of scienceThursday, 23 January 2025
An opening sequence of a drone flying over a busy street in Baghdad, followed by a huge explosion that leaves many casualties and a gaping hole where a row of buildings used to be, suggests that Prime Target is going to be another special forces,... Read more... |
Out There, ITV1 review - drugs and thugs disfigure the Welsh landscapeWednesday, 22 January 2025
If nothing else, ITV’s new thriller Out There is a fabulous advertisement for the Welsh countryside. Many scenes were shot in Brecon and the Black Mountains, amid acres of wild, rambling moorland and majestic hillsides. But it’s not always a happy... Read more... |
