tv
The Responder, BBC One review - the loneliness of the long-distance copperTuesday, 25 January 2022
Cops on the box… don’t we just love ‘em? From Jimmy Perez and Ted Hastings to Inspector Reid from Ripper Street and Stella Gibson from The Fall the list is endless, but obviously we need more. The copper seems to have become the battered Everyperson we can dump all our fear, loathing and anxiety onto. Read more... |
Rules of the Game, BBC One review - feminist workplace drama topples into farceThursday, 13 January 2022
The BBC have billed this as a “four-part thriller about sexual politics in the modern workplace”, which is slightly misleading because it looks as though it’s taking place in about 1983. Read more... |
Witch Hunt, All 4 review - dark deeds and dirty moneySaturday, 08 January 2022
When business and politics collide, the result may very well be corruption. Such is the case in this taut, streamlined thriller from Norway, one of many gems from the Walter Presents stable. Read more... |
The Apprentice, Series 16, BBC One review - will they never learn?Friday, 07 January 2022
“Will they never learn?” people must have been screaming as they watched the opening episode of the 16th series of The Apprentice – I certainly was. After all these years, the hopefuls vying to take Lord Sugar's £250,000 to invest in their business idea seem blissfully unaware of how daft they look with their strutting boasts. Read more... |
The Tourist, BBC One review - gripping Outback thriller from the Williams brothersSunday, 02 January 2022
This latest outing from the astonishingly prolific Jack and Harry Williams (The Missing, Baptiste, The Widow, Strangers etc) gives itself a huge leg-up by exploiting the epic lonely spaces of the Australian Outback. Read more... |
Best of 2021: TVTuesday, 28 December 2021
There's so much stuff on TV, in all its many multi-streaming hats, that I somehow haven't got around to watching Succession. Apparently it's the best TV show ever made. Oh well, there's bound to be another one along in a minute. Theartsdesk's eagle-eyed reviewers have found plenty to amuse themseves with elsewhere during 2021, and we parade our particular predilections below. Adam Sweeting Read more... |
A Very British Scandal, BBC One review - the wild life and times of the Duchess of ArgyllMonday, 27 December 2021
The title might provoke a quick double-take. Wasn’t A Very British Scandal that series about Jeremy Thorpe and Norman Scott, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw? Read more... |
The Amazing Mr Blunden, Sky Max / The Mezzotint, BBC Two reviews - blundering Blunden eclipsed by M R JamesFriday, 24 December 2021
Friday night was Mark Gatiss night. Read more... |
The Girl Before, BBC One review - high-tech dream home contains many a heartacheMonday, 20 December 2021
Would you be willing to play the guinea pig in a designer-superhome created by a deranged architect? Read more... |
You Don't Know Me, BBC One review - true love meets inner-city crime waveTuesday, 07 December 2021
I sympathised with the prosecuting barrister when she put it to the court that the accused, a man called Hero (Samuel Adewunmi), was “using his closing speech to construct a work of fiction”. Read more... |
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Music Reissues Weekly: Pilot - The Singles Collection
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Tornado review - samurai swordswoman takes Scotland by storm
The opening images of Tornado are striking. A wild-haired young woman in Japanese peasant garb runs for her life through a barren forest...
Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC, Stratford review - Radiohead...
The safe transfer of power in post-war Western democracies was once a given. The homely Pickfords Removals van outside Number Ten...
Lollipop review - a family torn apart
On leaving prison, Lollipop’s thirtyish single mum Molly discovers that reclaiming her kids from social care is akin to doing lengths in...
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery review...
I first came across Rachel Jones in 2021 at the Hayward Gallery’s painting show Mixing it Up: Painting Today. I was blown away by the...
Album: The Young Gods - Appear Disappear
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Jane Austen Wrecked My Life review - persuading us that the...
Do the French do irony? Well, was Astérix a Gaul? Obviously they do, and do it pretty well to judge by many of their movies down the...
The King of Pangea, King's Head Theatre review - grief...
There’s an old theatre joke. “The electric chair is too good for a monster like that. They should send him out of town with a new...
Album: Sam Binga - Sam Binga Presents Club Orthodontics
When I was writing the introduction to my book, Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History of Soundsystem Culture, I came up with a phrase, which...