TV
They Shall Not Grow Old, BBC Two review - Peter Jackson's Great War finaleMonday, 12 November 2018
Peter Jackson has form when it comes to re-examining cinema history. In 1995 he made Forgotten Silver, a documentary about Colin McKenzie, a New Zealand filmmaker who not only made the first sound recordings but also invented the tracking shot and... Read more... |
WW1: The Last Tommies, BBC Four review - Great War storiesThursday, 08 November 2018
“Why should I go out and kill somebody I never knew? There was no reason at all in it in my way of thinking.” Britain’s very last Tommy was Harry Patch, born in 1898, conscripted in 1916 and still alive on his 111th birthday in 2009. He was one of... Read more... |
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix review - girl power goes supernaturalSaturday, 03 November 2018
Not to be confused with Nineties supernatural sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Netflix’s new incarnation of the high-schooler with infernal powers is a ghoulish thrill-ride which boldly surfs the dark side, with a pronounced feminist and gay slant... Read more... |
Imagine... Becoming Cary Grant, BBC One review - contemplative portrait of a starWednesday, 31 October 2018
Mark Kidel has made a beautiful, ethereal film projecting his version of Cary Grant and as such it’s destined to be picked over by the actor’s legions of fans, each of whom will have a different version. But what would the man himself have thought... Read more... |
Strangers, Series Finale, ITV review - Eastern promise goes unfulfilledTuesday, 30 October 2018
After seeming to spend an interminable amount of time wandering around in a daze and blundering up blind alleys, Strangers finally gathered its wits and cantered towards the finishing tape with a renewed sense of purpose in the final two episodes.... Read more... |
The Little Drummer Girl, BBC One, review - latest Le Carré just passes auditionMonday, 29 October 2018
When after six novels John Le Carré turned away from the Cold War, he turned towards another simmering post-war conflict, between Israel and Islam. The Little Drummer Girl was published in 1983, and filmed a year later with Diane Keaton and Klaus... Read more... |
Berlin Station, More 4 review - spooks in EurolandFriday, 26 October 2018
It’s eight years since Richard Armitage’s character Lucas North died in Spooks, but now Armitage is back undercover as CIA agent Daniel Miller in Berlin Station. Mind you, it’s already been touch and go – Miller was shot in in Berlin’s Potzdamer... Read more... |
Imagine... Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw the Line, BBC One review - entertaining but deferentialWednesday, 24 October 2018
It’s been a whirlwind year for Tracey Emin, CBE, RA. Her pink neon sign, “I want my time with you”, greets passengers at St Pancras station, she’s installed bronze birds all over Sydney city centre, she’s making a derelict print works in Margate... Read more... |
There She Goes, BBC Four review - mining disability for family comedy?Wednesday, 17 October 2018
What do you do after playing Doctor Who, the dream dad of the nation, quirky and compassionate, the adult who every child knows will be fun? Does it seem like a good idea to play the beleaguered father of a child with special needs? It must do... Read more... |
Informer, BBC One review - keeping tabs on terrorWednesday, 17 October 2018
Thanks heavens not all police officers spend their time trying to find “hate crime” on Twitter, or not going to the assistance of colleagues in peril. Take Gabe Waters, for instance, the central character in BBC One’s new undercover-policier.Gabe (... Read more... |
Barneys, Books and Bust Ups, BBC Four review - the Booker Prize at 50Tuesday, 16 October 2018
You had to keep your eyes skinned. Was that Iris Murdoch or AS Byatt, Kingsley Amis or John Banville, Margaret Atwood or Val McDermid – maybe, even, Joanna Lumley? Tables as far as the eye can see, dressed with white tablecloths and crowded with... Read more... |
Press, BBC One, series finale review - scarcely credible but highly entertainingThursday, 11 October 2018
It’s difficult to tell whether Press (BBC One) came to praise newspapers or to bury them. The slugfest between preachy liberal do-goodery and mucky market-led skulduggery ended in a score draw, with the main protagonists living to fight another day... Read more... |
