documentary
Putin, Russia and the West, BBC TwoFriday, 20 January 2012
“Who is Mr Putin?” That was the question being bandied about by journalists and Kremlin watchers in the months after Boris Yeltsin’s out-of-the-blue New Year’s Eve 1999 resignation. Vladimir Putin, ex-KGB operative in East Germany, was prominent in... Read more... |
Horizon: Playing God, BBC TwoWednesday, 18 January 2012
“So you’re telling me that somewhere on this farm there’s an animal that’s part spider and part something else?” No, this isn’t a snatch of dialogue from the climax of a shlocky B-movie. These words were spoken calmly if sceptically by biologist... Read more... |
Freddie Flintoff: Hidden Side of Sport, BBC OneThursday, 12 January 2012
The recent suicide of Wales's football manager Gary Speed prompted angstful outpourings about the hidden menace of depression in top-level sport, even though there was no evidence that Speed was a sufferer. But depression clearly is an occupational... Read more... |
DVD: Project NimFriday, 06 January 2012
The domesticating instinct runs deep: humankind cannot bear too much animality and the wilderness shrinks daily and exponentially. We love to see animals as if they were human: we’re victims of the anthropomorphising compulsion, to coin a phrase for... Read more... |
The Many Faces of Dame Judi Dench, BBC TwoSaturday, 31 December 2011
It's interesting to consider at what point in someone's career does he or she become a national treasure - as Alan Bennett once so scathingly remarked, “If you live to be 90 in England and can still eat a boiled egg they think you deserve the Nobel... Read more... |
Great Expectations, BBC One / True Stories: Sarah Palin - You Betcha!, More4Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Without wanting to sound humbuggy, do we really need another Great Expectations? Let alone two. There’s yet another movie coming next year but breasting the tape first is a new three-parter from the BBC. Cinema last visited the story of Pip Pirrip... Read more... |
Nick Broomfield on filming Sarah PalinTuesday, 20 December 2011
I didn’t really know that much about Sarah Palin. I remember being kind of blown away when she got up on that stage with all those kids and gave that rather brilliant speech which seemed to be an enormous breath of a fresh air for the Republican... Read more... |
Imagine: The Art of Stand-up, BBC OneTuesday, 20 December 2011
What makes something funny? Why do comics stand on stage in front of strangers and try to make them laugh? Is any subject beyond a joke? What is the purpose of Alan Yentob? Those questions – OK, only the first three – were raised by Imagine's... Read more... |
DVDs for Christmas: New MusicFriday, 16 December 2011
Whether it's via the Disc of the Day column or our eclectic mix of overnight live reviews, on theartsdesk we try to traverse as much of the world of New Music as we possibly can. As Christmas swings around we consider it our duty to help guide... Read more... |
Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy, BBC TwoThursday, 15 December 2011
He would not hesitate to wake up employees at all hours to yak about ideas. He could fire an underling in the seconds it took for the elevator to ferry him to or from his fourth-floor office. He shouted, like, a lot, even at Bill Gates. Especially... Read more... |
Dreams of a LifeWednesday, 14 December 2011
The decontamination squad scraped the remains of 38-year-old ex-City professional Joyce Vincent from her seat, in front of a TV which had flickered unseen for three years. They took her wrapped Christmas presents too, and left unsolvable mysteries.... Read more... |
Imagine: Books – the Last Chapter? BBC OneWednesday, 14 December 2011
“Will the app clicker replace the page turner?” asked Alan Yentob’s state-of-play rumination on the book. It’s a cutely phrased question and, as everyone reading this will be familiar with the digital world – this is theartsdesk, after all – a fair... Read more... |
