politics
Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment, Channel 4Tuesday, 26 February 2013
After the nightmarish vision of justice system turned spectator sport that was last week’s Black Mirror, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed that writer Charlie Brooker hadn’t ramped up the horror at the start of the final episode of... Read more... |
If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep, Royal Court TheatreThursday, 21 February 2013
Is this the most poetic title in London theatre today? Anders Lustgarten’s new play joins a ragged march of work, from David Hare’s The Power of Yes (2009) to Clare Duffy’s Money: The Gameshow (currently at the Bush Theatre), which attempts to... Read more... |
NoTuesday, 05 February 2013
There’s an episode in the first season of Mad Men in which the ad execs of Sterling Cooper brainstorm a campaign for Richard Nixon, just prior to the 1960 presidential election. Dramatic irony being what it is, it’s a rare opportunity to watch our... Read more... |
Borgen, Series 2 Finale, BBC FourSunday, 03 February 2013
After last week's spectacularly unconvincing foray into saving Africa (usually the last refuge of a doomed statesperson), Birgitte Nyborg returned to the centre of Denmark's political life for the concluding pair of episodes in series two. Back amid... Read more... |
Bob Servant Independent, BBC FourThursday, 24 January 2013
As political campaigns go, Bob Servant's bid to win a by-election in Broughty Ferry (a real-life seaside suburb of Dundee) looks more like a drunken practical joke, or the result of an ill-judged bet. A fluent and shameless liar whose only... Read more... |
American Justice, Arts TheatreWednesday, 16 January 2013
For all its ruminative merits, Richard Vergette's drama is not the “searing political thriller” it purports to be. It raises lots of interesting questions, but they get in the way of any deep emotive power.At the work's core is a relationship... Read more... |
Borgen, Series 2, BBC FourSunday, 06 January 2013
Is it possible to have a surfeit of Danish coalition politics? Anyone who recently ingested 10 hours of The Killing III may well be asking themselves as they sit down to a second serving of Borgen. Borgen is, in essence, The Killing without the... Read more... |
Secret State, Series Finale, C4Thursday, 29 November 2012
Was it a fluke that Secret State concluded its business on the day Lord Leveson handed in his homework? Maybe they really are that clever at Channel 4. Where Leveson has investigated the invisible nexus connecting the press, the police and... Read more... |
Royal Opera House chief Tony Hall to the BBC - now what?Thursday, 22 November 2012
So Tony Hall moves from heading the Royal Opera House to taking over the BBC as its new Director-General. I can't for a moment imagine a rerun of that crucial mini-conversation between Helen Boaden and George Entwistle over the Jimmy Savile... Read more... |
The Hour, Series 2, BBC TwoThursday, 15 November 2012
The first rule of temptation is to yield to it slowly, says a sozzled roué surrounded by semi-clad lovelies, it’s much more fun that way… The Hour is back and, the silly conspiracy strand sewn up at the end of the first series, better than ever.The... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Thessaloniki: Moving Pictures in the Cradle of AusteritySunday, 11 November 2012
Greece is in economic meltdown. Austerity is hitting most of the population very hard. Businesses are closing down. The amount of homeless has increased. There are strikes and huge anti-government demonstrations throughout the country. What better... Read more... |
Secret State, Channel 4Thursday, 08 November 2012
The political thriller may be alive and well but in recent years it has been spending time abroad. Elements of government conspiracy are intense flavourings of, for example, The Killing and Homeland, while back in Blighty there has been little to... Read more... |
