documentary
Timeshift: All the Fun of the Fair, BBC FourWednesday, 03 August 2011
Is there a place for the travelling fun fair any more? Static attractions like Alton Towers and Thorpe Park have rides that are bigger, grander, more varied and scarier than anything a traditional, transient fair could ever transport. All the Fun of... Read more... |
Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words, BBC FourMonday, 01 August 2011
The only voice recording Sigmund Freud ever made was for the BBC. It was made in December 1938, at Freud’s West Hampstead home just a few months before the father of psychoanalysis succumbed to throat cancer. He was 82 and wouldn’t see out another... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Sarajevo Film FestivalMonday, 01 August 2011
There is an interesting tension at the Sarajevo Film Festival which, though this was my first time, I suspect exists as a matter of course. And this is a tension between the spirit of the people I meet here – ebullient, good-humoured and... Read more... |
The Code, BBC TwoThursday, 28 July 2011
Can Marcus du Sautoy do for maths what Brian Cox did for physics? Can he convince us of the beauty of numbers and help us fall in love with pi? It’s a tall order, but not only does Professor du Sautoy have an unstoppable passion for ratios, he’s... Read more... |
Imagine: Iraq in Venice, BBC TwoTuesday, 26 July 2011
For 35 years, contemporary art in Iraq was a no-no unless it was grimly, dully figurative or a gaudy mural glorifying Saddam Hussein. But this year, six Iraqi artists were invited to the most prestigious annual contemporary art event in the world;... Read more... |
Holiday Hijack, Channel 4Sunday, 24 July 2011
Dan, a tall ginger streak of entitlement, had an issue with the hygiene. Channel 4 were about to lift him out of a five-star hotel in the Gambia and send him off to see how the other half lives. “They’re not going to be as clean as us,” he predicted... Read more... |
Regional TV: Life Through a Local Lens/ Britain Through a Lens - The Documentary Film Mob, BBC FourThursday, 21 July 2011
I was once shown around Anglia TV’s studios by the bloke who used to say, "And now, from Norwich - the quiz of the week!” by way of introduction to the immortal Sale of the Century. A tremendous thrill, as you can imagine. It all came back to me... Read more... |
First Cut: Double Lesson, Channel 4Friday, 15 July 2011
If I'm being honest, I never saw the charm of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. Too many quiet disappointments, too much capital-A Acting. They lacked naturalism in presentation and content, whereas Double Lesson, from Channel 4's First Cut series of... Read more... |
This World: Italy's Bloodiest Mafia, BBC TwoWednesday, 13 July 2011
Programmes about Italian organised crime made by the foreign media are always hampered by the finnicky nature of the beast itself: there is so much background detail that needs to be staked out at the outset that your head is whirling from... Read more... |
Bobby Fischer Against the WorldTuesday, 12 July 2011
Chess grand masters have a reputation for possessing the kind of brilliance that’s inclined to tip into madness. Victor Korchnoi claimed he'd played against a dead man, while Wilhelm Steinitz insisted he'd played chess against God by wireless. As... Read more... |
DVD: Dancing DreamsThursday, 07 July 2011
This is the one DVD of all the recent issues of dance on film that will show you simply and honestly the rigour and the beguilement of how people are drawn to dance, and what dance draws out of them. A straight documentary about the dance-theatre... Read more... |
Time Shift, BBC FourWednesday, 29 June 2011
You might say that the grand hotels brought this on themselves. Time Shift: Hotel DeLuxe on BBC Four last night saw beneath the shine of their marble atria and heard the uncomfortable murmurs under the joyful gossip of their chic bars. What... Read more... |
