TV drama
I Know Who You Are, series finale, BBC Four review - gripping, but no one to root forSunday, 13 August 2017
The first thing to say is that this wasn’t the actual end. BBC Four scheduled I Know Who You Are to run two episodes a night over five Saturdays. The innocent punter might have assumed that after 10 x 70 minutes of the Spanish import, we’d arrive at... Read more... |
Trust Me, BBC One review - Jodie Whittaker's tense medical check-upWednesday, 09 August 2017
Even the canniest scheduler at BBC One couldn’t have arranged things so propitiously. Jodie Whittaker was already filming the medical drama Trust Me when she was cast as you know Who. Trolls unhappy at a female i/c the Tardis will have their quips... Read more... |
Fargo, Series 3 Finale, Channel 4 review - the best drama of the year?Thursday, 03 August 2017
“This is a true story. This is a story…” The self-referential nature of Noah Hawley’s baroque narrative arc was one of the great joys of the third season of Fargo. Over the past 10 weeks its constant invention, cinematic tricks and award-worthy... Read more... |
Man in an Orange Shirt, BBC Two review - soft-focus view of 1940s gay love affairTuesday, 01 August 2017
As chat-up lines go, “I can’t do my fly up single-handed” is pretty full on – even if it is true. Thomas March (James McArdle) is speaking to James Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who not only went to the same public school but has also just saved... Read more... |
The Handmaid's Tale, Series 1 finale, Channel 4 review - exquisite to look at but glacially slowMonday, 31 July 2017
Come awards time, it’s inevitable that Elisabeth Moss will be collecting a few for her portrayal of Offred, the endlessly-suffering lead character in The Handmaid’s Tale (her real name is June). But I reckon the real stars of the show are... Read more... |
Queer as Art, BBC Two review - showbusiness and the gay revolutionSunday, 30 July 2017
Part of the BBC's Gay Britannia season, here was a programme fulfilling what it said on the tin: prominent LGBTQ (when will all these expanding acronyms cease to confuse us all) figures narrating, examining, discussing, analysing, letting it... Read more... |
Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC Two review - thrillingly murkyFriday, 28 July 2017
In the riveting first series of Top of the Lake, it was personal for Down Under detective Robin Griffin. She headed to a hilly corner of New Zealand to be around for the death of her mother while looking into the disappearance of a young girl. There... Read more... |
Against the Law, BBC Two review - uplifting and deeply movingThursday, 27 July 2017
The thing almost no one remembers about the great Nora Ephron/Rob Reiner 1989 romcom When Harry Met Sally is that the love story is intercut with real couples talking to camera about the mechanics and longevity of their true-life loves. It shouldn’t... Read more... |
Fearless, Series Finale, ITV review - big build-up to an anticlimaxTuesday, 18 July 2017
It was a coup by ITV to get Homeland writer Patrick Harbinson to pen this paranoid-conspiracy series, and rather droll to get Helen McCrory (wife of Homeland’s Damian Lewis) to play the lead. Yet even though the story of high-minded human rights... Read more... |
Game of Thrones, Series 7, Sky Atlantic review – slow, but it's just the beginningTuesday, 18 July 2017
If nothing else, Game of Thrones has surely been the greatest boon to the British acting profession since they invented tights and greasepaint. Part of the fun is trying to think of somebody who hasn’t been in it yet. So far we haven’t seen Maggie... Read more... |
I Know Who You Are, BBC Four review - preposterous but hypnoticMonday, 17 July 2017
All’s fair in love and law in I Know Who You Are. BBC Four’s latest Euro-import hails from Spain and, as per the channel’s practice, is coming at you in intense double doses, two 70-minute episodes every Saturday night. Already it’s hard to imagine... Read more... |
'I were crap at school': Jodie Whittaker, the new Doctor WhoSunday, 16 July 2017
“Jodie is a remarkable young woman. She’s game. She’s a good actress, and she’s willing.” So said Peter O’Toole of the first female Doctor Who. Jodie Whittaker, born in 1982, is best known for Broadchurch on the small screen and Attack the Block on... Read more... |
