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The North Water, BBC Two review - a terrible voyage into the great beyondSaturday, 11 September 2021
It’s perhaps unfortunate that The North Water arrives on BBC Two only a few months after The Terror, since it’s impossible to avoid the parallels between them. Read more... |
The Blood Pact, All 4 review - a (tax) inspector fallsMonday, 06 September 2021
In Klem (meaning "clamp"’), we find ourselves in the calm, ordered and ordinary world of Amsterdam-Zuid. There are parents’ evenings to be attended, school plays to be watched. The area’s many pretty parks are just perfect for the early morning jog. Tall green bins stand in neat rows. Read more... |
Clickbait, Netflix review - fiendishly cunning thriller keeps everybody guessingSaturday, 04 September 2021
It seems Covid-19 may not be the only plague threatening mankind. Read more... |
The White Lotus, Sky Atlantic review - dark side of a tropical paradiseSunday, 29 August 2021
As we saw recently in M Night Shyamalan’s Old, a visit to a holiday resort in a tropical location can have ghastly consequences. Read more... |
Britannia, Series 3, Sky Atlantic review - murder, mysticism and anaemic slapstickWednesday, 25 August 2021
According to series newcomer Sophie Okonedo, arriving in Roman Britain as Hemple, the wife of David Morrissey’s General Aulus, "I was already a fan of the show. I love it so much… I’d been thinking this is such a brilliant show to be in.” Read more... |
Hit & Run, Netflix review - Lior Raz excels as a hard man on a hazardous missionFriday, 20 August 2021
Lior Raz is Israel’s very own man with a very particular set of skills. However, unlike the looming 6ft 4in Liam Neeson who plays Bryan Mills in the Taken films, Raz is stocky, shaven-headed and clocks in at a mere 5ft 7in. Read more... |
Deceit, Channel 4 review - how Colin Stagg became prime suspect in the Rachel Nickell caseSaturday, 14 August 2021
It seems unlikely that the Metropolitan Police will welcome Channel 4’s new four-part dramatisation of the hunt for the killer of Rachel Nickell, since it’s a reminder of yet another of the Met’s historic catastrophes. Read more... |
Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson, Apple TV+ review - riveting survey of the technology that transformed musicMonday, 09 August 2021
Producer to the stars and creator of the monstrously successful “Uptown Funk”, Mark Ronson knows a thing or two about making noises. He has combined this know-how with a laid-back knack for presenting to make this six-parter for Apple TV+, delving into the history of how developing technology has driven innovation in the music business. Read more... |
I Am Victoria, Channel 4 review - improvised drama in need of more substanceFriday, 06 August 2021
This opener to the second series of Dominic Savage’s I Am… dramas starred Suranne Jones as the titular Victoria, an ultra-driven career woman surrounded by the trappings of material success but spinning into a dark vortex of depression. Read more... |
Bo Burnham: Inside, Netflix review - a masterpiece about lockdown angstMonday, 02 August 2021
Some people perfected their banana loaf or sourdough bread during lockdown. Others tried to learn a new language or how to play an instrument. Bo Burnham produced this masterpiece. Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points –...
The Fifth Step, Soho Place review - wickedly funny two-hande...
The plays of David Ireland have a tendency to build to an explosion, after long stretches of caustic dialogue and very funny banter....
Josefowicz, LSO, Mälkki, Barbican review - two old favourite...
Every now and then a concert programme comes along that fits like a bespoke suit, and this one could have been specially designed for me. Two...
Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic trick...
Nick Mohammed invented his Mr Swallow character – camp, lisping, with an inflated ego and the mistaken belief that he has creative...
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of...
Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on...
Parsifal, Glyndebourne review - the music flies up, the dram...
There’s a grail, but it doesn't glow in a mundane if perverted Christian ritual. Three of the main characters have young and old actor versions...
Pygmalion, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Middle Temple Hall r...
With French baroque opera all but banished from the UK’s major opera companies, it’s left to concert halls and country houses to fill the void....
The Bombing of Pan Am 103, BBC One review - new dramatisatio...
The appalling destruction of Pan Am’s flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 was put under the spotlight in January this year in Sky Atlantic’s ...
Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works, Royal Ballet review - th...
Ballet is hardly a stranger to Broadway. Until the late 1950s every other musical had its fantasy ballet sequence – think Cyd Charisse in ...