TV
Gentleman Jack, Series 2, BBC One review - the queer Victorian heroine swaggers back in styleMonday, 11 April 2022
Into the BBC One Sunday slot just vacated by Tommy Shelby of the Peaky Blinders returns Suranne Jones’s Anne Lister, another costume-drama maverick with striking headgear, definite leadership qualities and a way with a pistol. “They’re all a bit... Read more... |
Hacks, Prime Video review - what's so funny about a career in comedy?Saturday, 09 April 2022
Acidic showbiz drama Hacks premiered on HBO Max in the States a year ago, and subsequently won a hatful of awards including three Emmys. Now, here it is on Prime Video, so we can get to see what all the fuss is about.Most of it is about Jean Smart’s... Read more... |
The Split, Series 3, BBC One review - the Defoes are back, more conflicted than everTuesday, 05 April 2022
After two years away, Abi Morgan’s acclaimed legal drama/juicy soap The Split returns for its third series, reuniting us with the closely knit, or, you might say, incestuous, law firm of Noble Hale Defoe.Ruth Defoe (Deborah Findlay) and her... Read more... |
Thatcher & Reagan: A Very Special Relationship, BBC Two review - when the Iron Lady met the Cowboy PresidentMonday, 04 April 2022
This two-part documentary about how the Eighties were partly shaped by the British Prime Minister and the US President was obviously planned long before the Russians invaded Ukraine, but it’s a powerful illustration of how history doesn’t stop, but... Read more... |
Slow Horses, Apple TV+ review - the sleazy underbelly of the espionage racketFriday, 01 April 2022
To a camp bluesy theme tune performed by what sounds like a yowling cat (actually the song’s co-writer, Mick Jagger), this prestige production from Apple TV+ opens up the world of the “slow horses”, the disgraced spies who are the anti-heroes of... Read more... |
Bridgerton, Season 2, Netflix review - power politics and love triangles as Regency fantasy returnsSaturday, 26 March 2022
The first series of Bridgerton (Netflix) became a ratings-blasting sensation because of the way it thrust a boldly multiracial cast into the midst of a Regency costume drama, and because of the camera-hogging presence of Regé-Jean Page as the... Read more... |
The Last Kingdom, Season 5, Netflix review - Danes-and-Saxons saga hurtles towards an epic climaxMonday, 21 March 2022
Two years ago, the fourth season of The Last Kingdom (Netflix) found the Saxon saga not quite hitting peak form, possibly reeling from the fallout of the haunting death of King Alfred (David Dawson). Happily, any doubts are blown away with the... Read more... |
Holding, ITV review - Graham Norton’s novel moves seamlessly to the small screenTuesday, 15 March 2022
The terrain Holding occupies is well travelled, but this new ITV four-part drama travels over it really well. The landmarks are familiar: a quiet rural community, a cop with an unhealthy lifestyle and a secret sorrow, a feud between rival lovers of... Read more... |
Drive to Survive, Season 4, Netflix review - bitter rivalries on and off the trackSaturday, 12 March 2022
Netflix’s fly-on-the-pitwall series has rapidly established itself as a vital ingredient in the tapestry of Formula One coverage, and is credited with giving the sport a huge boost in visibility and popularity, not least in the USA. This fourth... Read more... |
Shane, Amazon Prime review - the outsized life and times of cricket's King of SpinTuesday, 08 March 2022
Tragically, Shane Warne’s sudden death at age 52 means that Amazon’s new documentary about him has suddenly become an obituary as much as a celebration.Directed by John Carey, David Alrich and Jackie Munro, Shane does a solid job of tracing Warne’s... Read more... |
The Ipcress File, ITV review – adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylindersMonday, 07 March 2022
Sidney J Furie’s 1965 film The Ipcress File is a much-loved benchmark of its period. Stylish, sinister, witty and depicting a determinedly un-swinging London, it was conceived as the flipside to the absurdly glamorous James Bond movies and pulled it... Read more... |
Killing Eve, Series 4, BBC One review - has Villanelle found God?Sunday, 06 March 2022
“I’ve killed so many people. I don’t want to do it any more, any of it.” So said Villanelle (Jodie Comer) to Eve (Sandra Oh) in the last episode of the third series of Killing Eve, soon after she’d pushed Rhian Bevan, an assassin hired by the Twelve... Read more... |
