TV drama
Adam Sweeting
The poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal with the nerve agent novichok in 2018 was one of the more bizarre episodes in recent memory, a kind of delayed-action echo of the Cold War. Sergei, a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for Britain’s MI6 in the 1990s and early 2000s, had relocated to the UK in 2010 under a spy exchange agreement and was living in Salisbury, but evidently never felt entirely safe. As he was quoted as saying in this BBC One dramatisation of the affair, “Putin’s gonna get me”.Typically of the goings-on in the worlds of espionage and Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Das Boot made an impressive debut early last year with its entwined narratives of war by land and sea. This second instalment (Sky Atlantic) looks set to be better still, exploring the strata of life under Nazi occupation in the German-run port of La Rochelle while also developing the American connection which we saw glimpses of last time around.It opened with a bang, or a series of bangs, as we joined Johannes von Reinhartz (Clemens Schick), skippering his submarine U-822 in an attack on a merchant ship on a dark and turbulent Atlantic. As the ship sank, von Reinhartz was horrified to see Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Reese Witherspoon has evolved into a growth industry on the new frontier of Big Television. Her production company Hello Sunshine has a heap of projects on the go with a range of networks, and following her success with Big Little Lies (for HBO), Little Fires Everywhere comes to you courtesy of Hulu (in the US) and Amazon Prime.Varied as her plans may be, Reese the performer knows exactly who she is. It’s not too difficult to trace her character in Little Fires Everywhere, Elena Richardson, back to the ferociously focused and determined Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, while Elena could be a Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
This short series of new dramas (on BBC Four) by a group of leading playwrights was commissioned by Headlong and Century Films, a week before the virus lockdown was announced on 23 March, and represents an artistic first response to a situation nobody can fully comprehend. As the introductory caption said, “it changed our society in a way that is… Unprecedented.”Three separate pieces had been squeezed into this opening half-hour slot, each finding its own angle on the crisis and each featuring actors delivering their performances via the pandemic lifeline of video conferencing. James Graham’s Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Veterans of the first series of Blood will be familiar with writer Sophie Petzal’s fondness for leading the viewer up the garden path and round the mulberry bush as the story develops. Get ready to go through it all again.The setting is the rural heart of Ireland, and this sequel resumes the year after the tragic events of its predecessor, as disgraced doctor Jim Hogan (Adrian Dunbar, pictured below) returns to pick up the pieces with his family. It was the death of Jim’s wife Mary that fuelled the drama of the first series, with the truth about Jim’s complicity or guilt kept hanging Read more ...
Joseph Walsh
In the time since the show’s inception four years ago, arguments have raged as to whether Westworld is a dud or a cult classic. For every dedicated fan, there’s someone out there crying, "The Matrix did it first!" and complaining that the plot didn’t make sense (it did). Whichever side of the argument you fall, the question loomed as to where the show’s creators, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, could possibly take it next. Two years on from when we last entered Westworld (Sky Atlantic), we can finally find out. The violent delights at the end of Season 2 saw the "hosts" rising up against Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
You might consider equipping yourself with a shotgun and kevlar body armour before you start watching Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic), because this is a bruising, hair-raising ride. Created by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, it began with the televisual equivalent of being thrown from a fast-moving vehicle, as we saw a terrified man dangling on a rope over the edge of a high-rise building. His captor then doused him in petrol and set fire to him, his blazing body eventually plummeting to the pavement far below.Deliberately or not, the effect of this double-length opener was like being engulfed Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
James Graham’s play Quiz was a hit in Chichester in 2017 and then made a much-admired transfer to the West End. Considering its subject matter – the fabled “Coughing Major”, Charles Ingram, who allegedly cheated his way to the titular seven-figure sum on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – it was a natural for TV.Under the suave directorial hand of Stephen Frears, Graham’s three-part adaptation of his play told the Ingram story with wit and sparkle, though sadly viewers weren't able to vote in the way theatre-goers were. It didn't just focus on the supposed crime and its aftermath, but also Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
She's not quite a household name yet, but Leeds-born Gemma Whelan is heading speedily in that direction. Having started out as a standup comedian, winning the Funny Women Variety Award in 2010, Whelan began notching up film and TV roles, en route to making a significant breakthrough by being cast as Yara Greyjoy in HBO's Game of Thrones. As GoT aficionados will need no reminding, that meant she was the Lady of the Iron Islands and Lady Reaper of Pyke, and last surviving child of Balon Greyjoy. More than that though, Whelan was a regular in BBC Two's cod-Shakespearean comedy Upstart Crow, and Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
While not the most headline-catching show on Netflix, Ozark has been steadily accruing critical accolades (including a couple of Emmys) and a devoted audience. Perhaps this superb third series will mark the tipping point where Ozark crosses over from cliqueishness to mass adulation.It all began back with the first season in 2017, when Marty Byrde’s Chicago-based financial services company fell foul of their client, a Mexican drug cartel. Marty’s partner made the insane blunder of skimming off $8m of the cartel’s funds, which their company were supposed to be laundering. Long story short, a Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been saturating the globe with its multi-format superheroes, leaving its DC rival looking clumsy and disorganised by comparison. However, DC’s “Arrowverse” – a roster of TV shows including Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl – is part of its fight-back effort, and now joining its ranks is this new take on the Batwoman character (E4).Kate Kane and her Batwoman alter ego first appeared in comic form in 1956, but this latest reincarnation leaps into the present with its androgynous-looking lesbian heroine, played by Ruby Rose (familiar from Netflix’s Orange is the Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
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 this new fifth series (BBC One), Georgie is still haunted by flashbacks to the deceased SAS hero, even though she has settled into a medical instructor’s job, conducting noisy training exercises on Salisbury Plain amid fake bodies and billowing explosions.However, despite the chaotic diversion provided by the Manchester wedding of her sister Marie ( Read more ...