tv | Page 104 | The Arts Desk

tv

The Replacement, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 01 March 2017

Can women have it all? (Stop me if you’ve already heard this one). This is the premise of Joe Ahearne’s new three-part drama, set in the offices of a successful firm of architects in Glasgow. But he’s a bloke, what would he know about it?

Meet the Lords, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 28 February 2017

To Westminster and Meet the Lords, a series which Radio Times assures me follows “the larger-than-life characters” in one of our “most idiosyncratic and important institutions”.

Comment

Broadchurch, Series 3, ITV

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 28 February 2017

The first series of Broadchurch was a gigantic hit four years ago, though 2015’s follow-up suffered a bit of a slow puncture. Can this third and supposedly final outing restore the show to its former glories?

Comment

The Swingers, Channel 4

Jasper Rees Friday, 24 February 2017

Can something be gained in translation? From its title The Swingers promises much. Much more than the original Dutch title Nieuwe Buren, which the caption in the opening credit sequence translates as The Neighbours. Someone in syndication has asked themselves the question: who the hell watches Dutch TV dramas called The Neighbours (aside from captive Dutch audiences...

Comment

Roots, BBC Four

David Nice Thursday, 23 February 2017

Those of us who saw the first, 1977 TV adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots in our teens still remember the shock and horror at its handling of a subject about which we knew little, American slavery. We know a lot more now, but the visceral reaction to inhumanity and injustice is no less strong.

The Halcyon, Series 1 Finale, ITV

Mark Sanderson Tuesday, 21 February 2017

A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now…

Storyville: Life, Animated, BBC Four

Saskia Baron Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Slipped out in the Storyville slot without much fanfare, Life, Animated is the Oscar-nominated documentary which won a theatrical release and rave reviews in the US and UK last year.

Comment

SS–GB, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Monday, 20 February 2017

“What if the Germans had won the war?” has been a recurring theme in fiction, from Noel Coward’s Peace in Our Time to Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle and Robert Harris’s Fatherland. There was even a predictive pre-war “future history” version, in the form of Katherine Burdekin’s 1937 novel, Swastika Night.

The Kettering Incident, Sky Atlantic

Mark Sanderson Thursday, 16 February 2017

Tasmania, Down Under is like Canvey Island (although somewhat larger): everyone knows where it is but no one wants to go there. The Kettering Incident reveals why: the bleak but beautiful landscape is blasted by Antarctic gales and the natives, with few exceptions, are ugly devils, resentful of strangers and quarrelsome with their neighbours. And that’s just the humans.

Comment

Life of a Mountain: A Year on Blencathra, BBC Four

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 15 February 2017

Two years ago BBC Four had a film about a year in the life of Scafell Pike. Arriving at glacial pace is the sequel: Life of a Mountain: A Year on Blencathra. The star this time round is more of a best supporting character actor than a headline performer. It’s only the 18th highest of England’s peaks.