BBC One
The Prisoners, BBC OneTuesday, 23 April 2013![]() “The best times I've ever had were in prison,” says Crystal, aged 23, one of the three inmates being followed in The Prisoners (this was originally planned as episode one, but was bounced from the schedules by the death of Baroness Thatcher). On the... Read more... |
Doctor Who: The Bells of St John, BBC OneSunday, 31 March 2013![]() Ever since Steven Moffat made the transition from fan favourite writer to showrunner, certain storytelling tricks in Doctor Who have become increasingly frequent. I can’t have been the only one who groaned at the short prequel to The Bells of St... Read more... |
Mayday, BBC OneMonday, 04 March 2013![]() A drama that opens with the disappearance in the woods of a beautiful blonde teenage girl is going to evoke memories of Nanna Birk Larsen racing away from her murderer in The Killing. A drama set in a rural English village peopled by loamy... Read more... |
Death in Paradise, Series Finale, BBC OneWednesday, 27 February 2013![]() So, Death in Paradise has harrumphed its way to another series finale. DI Richard Poole (Ben Miller) was in a grumpier mood than usual by its closing episode, contending with Fidel’s distraction as he waits results of his Sergeant’s exam, and Dwayne... Read more... |
Call The Midwife, Series Two, BBC OneMonday, 21 January 2013![]() I somehow avoided the period medical drama phenomenon that Call the Midwife became in its first series until the Christmas special. As befits the holiday season its storyline was trite, focusing on a teenage mother who miraculously managed to single... Read more... |
The Secret of Crickley Hall, BBC OneMonday, 19 November 2012![]() The horror, the horror. Primetime television tends to give a wide berth to things that go bump in the night. However reliable a low-budget option for budding indie filmmakers, the chills are not multiplying on the small screen. There’s no need to... Read more... |
Imagine: Ian Rankin and the Case of the Disappearing Detective, BBC OneWednesday, 07 November 2012Over the past couple of years, since my husband’s first book was accepted for publication, I have had the dubious privilege of becoming intimately acquainted with the behind the scenes day-to-day workings of the crime novelist. For that reason... Read more... |
Brazil with Michael Palin, BBC OneThursday, 25 October 2012![]() We got to the beach around the 10-minute mark. Or “semi-naked suburbia”, as Michael Palin called it. And started patrolling the sands for rounded Brazilian rumps (female). Apparently only adolescent boys do this sort of thing, and television... Read more... |
Imagine: Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender, BBC OneWednesday, 17 October 2012![]() This film, promised Imagine's host Alan Yentob, would be "the nearest we'll get to the real Freddie Mercury, a shy man in search of love and a driven artist living behind the protection of his stage persona". Probably true, but the shyness and the... Read more... |
Good Cop, Finale, BBC OneSunday, 14 October 2012![]() It was tough luck for Good Cop that the real-life killing of two female police officers in Manchester prompted the BBC to postpone its fourth and final episode, judging that its plotline of rookie cop Amanda Morgan acting as bait for a couple of... Read more... |
Hunted, BBC OneFriday, 05 October 2012![]() I daresay some of you, like theartsdesk, have been pining for the sadly departed Spooks. Its production company, Kudos, knows how you feel, and has rustled up this pacey, knotty and deliberately complicated thriller in its place.The decision had... Read more... |
Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Still Lose Weight, BBC OneFriday, 03 August 2012![]() What do you do after nine series celebrating the cooking and eating of food? You make another, charting the effort to lose some of the weight gained. This time out, the bike-riding Si King and David Myers are still eating and travelling, but trying... Read more... |
