TV
Stammer School: Musharaf Finds His Voice, Channel 4Friday, 29 August 2014
What a difference four days can make. Stammer School: Musharaf Finds His Voice took us on an emotional journey from deep frustration and pain towards something like triumph and hope. "Triumph" may seem a big word, but it was hard to think of a... Read more... |
Star Paws: The Rise of Superstar Pets, Channel 4Thursday, 28 August 2014
Mid-week at 9pm has always struck me as the perfect televisual sweet spot. It’s not so close to the weekend that you’re likely to want to go out, but enough of the week is done that it seems right to put your feet up and relax with a glass of wine... Read more... |
Worst Place To Be A Pilot, Channel 4Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Since Big Brother, Channel 4 has become expert at selecting naively self-promoting members of the public, and rubbing their unsuspecting apple cheeks into choice and unsavoury anatomical and psychological corners, for general public amusement. The... Read more... |
Al Murray's Great British War Films, BBC FourTuesday, 26 August 2014
Fifty-seven minutes into this hour-long programme entitled "Al Murray’s Great British War Films", our host put panellist Dan Snow on the spot and asked him to name his favourite war film. “Does it have to be British?” Snow wondered. For a second it... Read more... |
The Honourable Woman, Series Finale, BBC TwoMonday, 25 August 2014
In the current political climate, it would have been grotesquely inappropriate to conclude even the most fictionalised account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with any kind of neat resolution. But even if Hugo Blick’s absorbing thriller had ever... Read more... |
Doctor Who: Deep Breath, BBC OneSunday, 24 August 2014
Imagine that you were a TV executive producer, and that you had managed to cast one of the country’s finest actors in the lead role. To what use would you put his considerable talent and gravitas? If your answer was not “engage him in a five-minute... Read more... |
The Kate Bush Story: Running Up that Hill, BBC FourSaturday, 23 August 2014
Kate Bush’s return to live performance next week, after 35 years’ absence, has been one of the defining features of this musical year. Her announcement, in March, of the Hammersmith gigs left even David Bowie’s gifted coup in the shade, creating a... Read more... |
Match of the Day at 50, BBC OneSaturday, 23 August 2014
For most of us, reaching the age of 50 prompts a mature recognition of faded aspirations, balanced by some degree of respect, influence, and tender familial consolation. Most observers would say Match of the Day fits that pattern quite closely. Its... Read more... |
Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities, BBC FourThursday, 21 August 2014
Eight seconds in and my toes were already curling. Perhaps it was the authority with which the voiceover delivered some juicy clunkers. “If you wanted to be an artist in 1908, Vienna is where you’d come to make your name,” it intoned. Wow, who’d... Read more... |
Young Vets, BBC TwoWednesday, 20 August 2014
Britain, as Tamsin Greig’s soothing voiceover told us at the top of this hour, is a nation in love with its animals. Still, it’s unlikely that BBC Two is betting the house on this docu-soap, which will follow the lives of 10 students through their... Read more... |
The Great War: The People's Story, ITVMonday, 18 August 2014
The best thing about The Great War: The People’s Story is the variety of intonations and accents that reveal the characters of the individuals whose letters, memoirs and diaries are collected in the programme. Last week’s opening episode caught all... Read more... |
DVD: The ChangesFriday, 15 August 2014
Fantastic is the only word for The Changes. Fantastic as in fantasy, and fantastic because it's a television drama that's brilliantly conceived and impeccably executed – and also because it tackles issues of social cohesion and fragmentation head-on... Read more... |
