tv | The Arts Desk

tv

Guerrilla review – 'it takes itself fantastically seriously'

Adam Sweeting Friday, 14 April 2017

Devised and written by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning writer of 12 Years a Slave, Guerrilla (Sky Atlantic) takes us back to London, 1971.

Comment

Our Friend Victoria review – Victoria Wood’s genius is irreplaceable

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 12 April 2017

In the closing credits of Acorn Antiques, wobbling diagonally across the screen, it says the part of Berta was taken by “Victoria Woods”. Has there ever been a lovelier, truer typo? There was only one Victoria Wood, and yet she seemed somehow to be plural.

Vera, Series 7, review - 'brilliant Blethyn stuck in bog-standard drama'

Mark Sanderson Monday, 10 April 2017

Sunshine, sex and oodles of style: Vera (ITV) has no truck with any of them and is therefore unusual among Sunday evening dramas. There’s no escaping its mission to prove it’s grimy up north.

Comment

The Last Kingdom - 'one of the very best things on television'

Adam Sweeting Friday, 07 April 2017

The first series of The Last Kingdom in 2015 kicked off with a blockbuster episode which managed to encompass savage violence, dynastic rivalry and a speedy tour of the state of Britain in the ninth century, while allowing the central protagonist, Uhtred, to grow from boy to man. It was a virtuoso feat, and one which the opener of series two couldn’t quite repeat.

Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman, review - 'lugubrious'

Sarah Kent Friday, 07 April 2017

Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman (BBC Four) is, says art critic Waldemar Januszczak, a film about a woman who probably never existed. "So why,” he asks, “are we so obsessed with her?” He delivers the answer in breathy, lugubrious tones as if sharing a dirty secret. The story, he says, is “sweaty, sensuous and naughty...

Comment

Henry IX, UK Gold, review - 'return of sitcom classics'

Veronica Lee Thursday, 06 April 2017

It has been a long, long time since Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais wrote a new sitcom; in their heyday they created The Likely Lads and its sequel, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, all of which have become classics of the genre.

Catastrophe, Series 3, review - the end of the road?

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 05 April 2017

In the beginning it was about good catastrophes. A shotgun pregnancy after a hot hook-up. A dysfunctional transatlantic romance in which opposites attract. The boredom of looking after babies. The boredom of being a wage slave.

How To Be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry, review - 'exhilarating'

Sarah Kent Tuesday, 04 April 2017

Anyone with even a passing interest in surrealism should watch Philippa Perry finding out How to Be a Surrealist and, in the process, creating an exhilarating and richly informative BBC Four film.

Decline and Fall review - 'a riotously successful adaptation'

Mark Sanderson Saturday, 01 April 2017

Like many first novels, Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall has a strong whiff of autobiography. It is a revenge comedy in which Waugh – like Kingsley Amis after him in Lucky Jim – transmutes his miserable experiences of teaching in Wales into savage farce.

Harlots review - 'fun quasi-feminist costume romp'

Jasper Rees Tuesday, 28 March 2017

We like to think of Georgian England as a wellspring of elegance: the Chippendale chair and the Wedgwood teapot, the landscaped vista and the neoclassical townhouse. But, as subversively embodied in the mock heroic couplet, the seemly Age of Reason had a seamy underbelly. There was order, but also ordure.