TV
Saga's odours, Sara's jumpers, Birgitte's blokeThursday, 09 January 2014
How come there is always a free parking space right outside the police station’s front door as Saga Norén draws up? If she has malodourous armpits, what must her manky leather trousers smell like? What does her partner in investigation Martin Rohde... Read more... |
The Taste, Channel 4Wednesday, 08 January 2014
Take two television formats and blend in mixer, then serve on one platter. The Taste is essentially Mastervoice, fusing Masterchef’s wannabe kitchen creatives and The Voice’s blind auditions. An early tasting suggests that the stand-out ingredient... Read more... |
The 7.39, BBC OneTuesday, 07 January 2014
There are times us northerners watch your typical London-set big-budget BBC drama and think, well, this really is another world. Whether it’s the two-hour commutes or the estate agencies where there is so much business that nobody has time to sit... Read more... |
The Bletchley Circle, Series 2, ITVTuesday, 07 January 2014
For a drama as committed to the exploration of the changing role of women in post-war Britain, The Bletchley Circle isn’t above a little sleight of hand. The second series of the critically acclaimed whodunnit began with a flashback to 1943 and to... Read more... |
The Bridge, Series 2, BBC Four / Hinterland, BBC One WalesSunday, 05 January 2014
Why has Nordic noir been such an addictive novelty? Yes the plots are great, the locations moodily cool, the flat dialogue enigmatic. But in the end it’s all about gender. The detective who is a genius at work but clueless at life – we’ve seen it... Read more... |
Sherlock, Series 3, BBC OneThursday, 02 January 2014
In our big-bang globalised environment, Sherlock Holmes is now more like a Marvel Comics superhero than a mere "consulting detective". We take it for granted that his deductive powers can peel open the physical and psychological secrets of a... Read more... |
Tidy: Ruth Jones gets gongedWednesday, 01 January 2014
The late rise of Ruth Jones, who has been made an MBE, is a blessed relief. According to the prevailing rules of ageism and lookism, Jones should still be plugging away in supporting roles, typically as the large gobby sidekick which for years... Read more... |
Agatha Christie's Marple: Endless Night, ITVMonday, 30 December 2013
“Her most devastating surprise ever.” Thus spake The Guardian, a quote happily slapped across the cover of the first paperback edition of Agatha Christie’s 1967 thriller Endless Night. While I wouldn’t go quite that far – that honour goes to her... Read more... |
Moonfleet, Sky1Sunday, 29 December 2013
They've had Ray Winstone all over Sky this Christmas, gamely plugging this new dramatisation of J Meade Falkner's rumbustious crowd-pleaser, Moonfleet. Ray's theme is that we urgently need more quality drama with broad appeal on TV and shouldn't... Read more... |
Queer as Pop, Channel 4 / The Joy of Abba, BBC FourSaturday, 28 December 2013
Queer as Pop (****) was as much about social as musical history, and Nick Vaughan-Smith’s film told its story with a combination of outstanding archive material and some incisive interviewees, the archive taking fractionally more of the weight.... Read more... |
Television: 10 Top Performances from 2013Friday, 27 December 2013
No definitive answers to what was "the best" of 2013 of course, and I daresay opinions will differ wildly. For instance, despite the plaudits showered on it elsewhere, I felt that Broadchurch stretched itself too thin after showing initial promise.... Read more... |
Death Comes to Pemberley, BBC OneFriday, 27 December 2013
At the time a mere 90 years old, detective novelist PD James raised literary eyebrows in 2011 with the publication of Death Comes to Pemberley, a crime-based sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Deftly recognising that Jane Austen’s popular romance had,... Read more... |
