TV
The Virtues, Channel 4 review - close and personal with stunning Stephen GrahamThursday, 16 May 2019
The Virtues (Channel 4) sees director Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England) reunite with actor Stephen Graham in what is certainly their most raw and emotionally bruising project to date. Meadows returns to familiar territory, with... Read more... |
Years and Years, BBC One review - ambitious but amorphousWednesday, 15 May 2019
As the double-edged Chinese proverb has it, “may you live in interesting times.” Screenwriter Russell T Davies evidently thanks that’s exactly where we’re at, and his new six-part drama Years and Years (BBC One) is a bold, sprawling but – as far as... Read more... |
Bear's Mission with David Walliams, ITV review - celebs go wild in the countryWednesday, 15 May 2019
In the past, Bear Grylls has taken President Obama up an Alaskan glacier and trekked through the Swiss Alps with Roger Federer. This jaunt with David Walliams (ITV) was on a more modest scale, merely requiring the Britain’s Got Talent judge to be... Read more... |
Deep State, Series 2, Fox review - covert conspiracies in AfricaFriday, 10 May 2019
Last year’s first season of Deep State featured cloak and dagger exploitations of chaos in the Middle East by the capitalist West and its intelligence services. Judging by its opening episode, this second iteration is about to do something similar,... Read more... |
Chernobyl, Sky Atlantic review - a glimpse of ArmageddonWednesday, 08 May 2019
“I take it the safety test was a failure,” remarked Viktor Bryukhanov, director of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station. You could say that again. The catastrophic explosions at the Vladimir I Lenin plant on 26 April 1986, caused by a safety... Read more... |
Trust Me, Series 2 Finale, BBC One review - dodgy doctors and unreliable nursesWednesday, 08 May 2019
Writer Dan Sefton’s four-part hospital drama reached a modestly satisfying conclusion as the phantom killer stalking the wards was finally unmasked, following the usual twists and misdirections obligatory in thrillerland. I felt quite pleased with... Read more... |
Line of Duty, BBC One, series 5 finale review - big highs and BiggeloeMonday, 06 May 2019
The porn was a bit disappointing, was it not? Dear old Ted, no longer romantically active, admitted to being a user. The Superintendent Hastings fanclub sighed for sorrow to witness him toss away his status as an essentially decent heartthrob for... Read more... |
My Extreme Drugs Diary, Channel 5 review - the tedium of taking heroinFriday, 03 May 2019
Jacob has just managed to shoot up. No easy matter because his veins are, he says, non-usable, and are like those of an 80-year-old man. He’s in his twenties and has been on heroin for six years. Unusually, he works full time, has a car and a flat... Read more... |
The Widow, Series Finale, ITV review - Congolese drama parts company with realityWednesday, 01 May 2019
Are brothers Harry and Jack Williams mounting a takeover bid for British TV? They’ve written (among other dramas) The Missing, Liar and Baptiste, and they produced Fleabag. However, judging by their co-writing efforts on The Widow (ITV) they’re... Read more... |
Bake Off: The Professionals, Channel 4 review - farcical but funWednesday, 01 May 2019
TV cooking shows are mostly a pain in the butt. Masterchef, featuring the thuggish Gregg Wallace and John Torode along with India Fisher’s excruciatingly arch voiceover, is enough to provoke a massed hunger strike. The BBC’s Great British Bake Off... Read more... |
Game of Thrones, Sky Atlantic review - The Battle of WinterfellTuesday, 30 April 2019
It’s been a memorable few days for audiences – big-screen and small – who happily invest years of their lives in epic storytelling. With the dust still settling on Avengers: Endgame, the final season of Game of Thrones has reached its... Read more... |
Run for Your Life, ITV review - giving the nation's youth a sporting chanceWednesday, 24 April 2019
With the knife crime epidemic seemingly raging out of control, and the government at its clueless worst as it stumbles around hoping for a quick fix, here was a look at a possible solution. Via her Track Academy charity, former triple-jumper and... Read more... |
