TV
Great Expectations, BBC One review - modernised, muddied and muddledMonday, 27 March 2023![]() There’s no point in being upset with the writer Steven Knight for doing what he usually does; even so, many viewers will find what he has done with Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations far too Peaky for their tastes. Knight’s role is described... Read more... |
Endeavour: The Final Episode, ITV1 review - the final bow for Oxford's finestWednesday, 15 March 2023![]() Endeavour first landed way back in 2012, and suddenly here we are, bidding it a final farewell after the end of its ninth series. Not everybody learned to love Shaun Evans as the pre-John Thaw Inspector Morse, but some of us may even have come to... Read more... |
MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, Netflix review - a field day for conspiracy theoristsFriday, 10 March 2023![]() For fans of conspiracy theories, this three-part examination of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is irresistible, though the continuing anguish of friends and relatives of the 239 people aboard the flight makes for some painful... Read more... |
The Great British Bake Off Musical, Noel Coward Theatre review - blue-chip cast lift daft confectionWednesday, 08 March 2023![]() If you are hoping for some harmless fun at The Great British Bake Off Musical, probably with a few dodgy jokes about soggy bottoms mixed in, you won’t be disappointed. But what you might not expect is that the show will liberally ladle on the... Read more... |
Daisy Jones & The 6, Amazon Prime review - hit rock'n'roll novel doesn't make great TVMonday, 06 March 2023![]() Based on the bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six is the rags-to-riches-to-wreckage story of the titular Seventies rock band, supposedly somewhat based on Fleetwood Mac. Their journey from their fashion-defying... Read more... |
Liaison, Apple TV+ review - tangly Franglais thriller presses some hot buttonsThursday, 02 March 2023![]() Vive l’entente cordiale! “Despite Brexit” (as the BBC likes to say), Apple TV+ has successfully bridged the Channel to create this lurid Anglo-French thriller, in which Euro-skulduggery rubs shoulders with bribery, corruption and high treason.At... Read more... |
Fleishman Is in Trouble, Disney+ review - mid-life crises in ManhattanWednesday, 01 March 2023![]() As films and television series based in New York City tend to do, Fleishman Is in Trouble opens with an aerial shot of Manhattan – except, significantly, this sequence is presented upside down. To the celestial sound of tinkling arpeggios, the slim... Read more... |
Drive to Survive, Season 5, Netflix review - fly-on-the wall F1 show may need a rebootFriday, 24 February 2023![]() The backstage revelations about the politics and personalities that fuel Formula One have made Drive to Survive one of Netflix’s most reliable bestsellers, but on this fifth outing there’s a lurking sense that the novelty is wearing off.Viewers were... Read more... |
The Gold, BBC One review - gripping dramatisation of the 1983 Brink's-Mat bullion robberyTuesday, 14 February 2023![]() The raid on the Brink’s-Mat warehouse at Heathrow in November 1983 has entered the folklore of British crime and criminology. The gang of six armed robbers had expected to find £3m in cash, but instead got away with £26m worth of gold bullion. The... Read more... |
DVD: Babylon Berlin, Season FourTuesday, 07 February 2023![]() It’s coming up for two years since some of us watched the first three seasons of what’s increasingly coming to seem like television’s greatest dramatic triumph. Babylon Berlin. So we might be excused for being in a bit of brainwhirl when it comes to... Read more... |
Fauda, Season 4, Netflix review - Israeli terrorism thriller gets darker and dirtierSaturday, 04 February 2023![]() Bald, barrel-shaped and pugnacious, Doron Kavillio (Lior Raz) could have been conceived as the anti-Bond or the un-Ethan Hunt. But as action heroes go, Doron can mix it with the finest as he tracks down terrorists with his comrades in Israel’s Mista... Read more... |
Women at War, Netflix review - contrasting stories entwine during the chaos of World War OneThursday, 26 January 2023![]() A sprawling French-made drama set in the early days of the First World War in 1914, Women at War tells the stories of a quartet of female protagonists as they struggle to make sense of the mayhem which suddenly engulfs them. The series – its French... Read more... |
