TV drama
Our Girl, Series 5, BBC One review - where soap and warfare collideWednesday, 25 March 2020
Some things never change in Our Girl. At the beginning of 2018’s Series 4, military heroine Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan) had been traumatised by the death of her fiance Elvis Harte, killed in Afghanistan at the end of Series 3. At the start of... Read more... |
Penance, Channel 5 review - lust, disgust and mistrust in Kate O'Riordan's thrilllerWednesday, 18 March 2020
Adapted by Kate O’Riordan from her own novel, Penance is a taut little thriller spread over three consecutive nights. It’s not going to rock the planet off its axis, but there’s enough twisty and salacious intrigue to keep you coming back.There’s a... Read more... |
Belgravia, ITV review - when the toffs and the nouveaux riches collidedMonday, 16 March 2020
The prolific Lord Fellowes returns with this six-part adaptation of his own novel (for ITV), a niftily-wrought yarn (originally issued in online instalments) about the old aristocracy and the rise of new money in the early 19th Century. Some are... Read more... |
The Trouble With Maggie Cole, ITV review - Dawn French stars in new comedy dramaThursday, 05 March 2020
ITV's drama department is in overdrive at the moment, with a seemingly endless release of series with high production values and stellar casts, and the latest is The Trouble With Maggie Cole. It's a six-parter based on an idea by Dawn French (... Read more... |
Liar, Series 2, ITV review - more crime-by-numbers from the Williams brothersTuesday, 03 March 2020
The first series of Liar, one of many thrillers from the fertile keyboards of Jack and Harry Williams, was on ITV back in 2017, so you may have forgotten the somewhat labyrinthine details. In a nutshell, smarmy surgeon and serial rapist Andrew... Read more... |
Flesh and Blood, ITV review - Vivien's new love affair throws a cat among the family pigeonsTuesday, 25 February 2020
“Everybody lies," says property developer Tony to his PA and secret lover Natalie. “Even your mum probably.” And of course he’s not wrong.Sarah Williams’s drama, showing over four consecutive nights on ITV, is an easy-to-digest and deftly-wrought... Read more... |
Hunters, Amazon Prime review - bringing God's justice to Nazis in AmericaSaturday, 22 February 2020
Apparently network executives initially reacted with alarm to the premise of Hunters, Amazon’s new big-ticket series chiefly (though by no means entirely) notable for hosting Al Pacino’s first full-scale television role. Its story of Jewish Nazi-... Read more... |
The Stranger, Netflix review - strong cast grapples with labyrinthine plottingSaturday, 15 February 2020
This eight-part mystery from Netflix is based on the titular novel by American writer Harlan Coben, who has formed a production company with Rochdale’s own Nicola Schindler, the production brains behind Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax and many... Read more... |
Sex Education, Series 2, Netflix review - the teen sex show we deservedFriday, 14 February 2020
Netflix’s Sex Education has returned to our screens and streams. The show made waves last year for its refreshing take on the teen comedy-drama. It took on abortion, consent and female pleasure — subjects strikingly absent from our actual high... Read more... |
The Split, Series 2, BBC One review - where the law and family fortunes collideWednesday, 12 February 2020
The return of screenwriter Abi Morgan’s series about a largely-female London law firm is no doubt in tune with our gender and equality-conscious times, but that doesn’t mean it’s great television. Its legal storylines are counterpointed against... Read more... |
The Pale Horse, BBC One review - when in doubt, do another Agatha Christie remakeMonday, 10 February 2020
You could sometimes begin to believe that the notion of original TV drama is dying out, replaced by an interminable stream of adaptations and remakes. Did somebody mention Dracula? Screenwriter Sarah Phelps is currently the BBC’s go-to specialist... Read more... |
The L Word: Generation Q, Sky Atlantic review - is the new Word as good as the old Word?Wednesday, 05 February 2020
The L Word originally ran for six seasons between 2004 and 2009, and its then-revolutionary depiction of the lives of a group of lesbians in Los Angeles won it both a fanatical audience and acclaim for its game-changing content, exploring such... Read more... |
