tv | The Arts Desk

tv

Mary and Martha, BBC One

Jasper Rees Saturday, 02 March 2013

It is now part of the fixtures and fittings on British television. Its original stars, once alternative comedians, have become leathery gerontosaurs of the establishment. And yet on Comic Relief the grammar of giving has been largely immune to evolution. A star – usually a comic - goes out to Africa and reports back from a community in dire need of a basic necessity to alleviate suffering and death. They mug charmingly for the camera, make friends with the children and ask for your money.

Comment

Lightfields, ITV

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 28 February 2013

The generational time-bomb is a popular dramatic device - ITV were at it only a couple of months ago with The Poison Tree - and new five-parter Lightfields boldly sprawls itself across three separate eras (1944, 1975 and 2012). Binding it all together is the titular location, a farmhouse in Suffolk, through which the different generations of characters pass.

Heading Out, BBC Two

Veronica Lee Wednesday, 27 February 2013

It's an interesting time for Sue Perkins's coming-out sitcom to debut, coming as it does a matter of weeks after the government has begun the process of introducing equal marriage in the UK.

Comment

Death in Paradise, Series Finale, BBC One

Tom Birchenough Wednesday, 27 February 2013

So, Death in Paradise has harrumphed its way to another series finale. DI Richard Poole (Ben Miller) was in a grumpier mood than usual by its closing episode, contending with Fidel’s distraction as he waits results of his Sergeant’s exam, and Dwayne, as ever, diverted by the laydeez.

Comment

Dancing on the Edge, Series Finale, BBC Two

Laura Silverman Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Stephen Poliakoff's slow-burning drama had turned into a propulsive whodunnit by this final episode, hurtling towards a resolution with panache and surprise. The five-part mini-series about a black jazz band in early 1930s high society has had the feel of an exploratory score at times. With syncopated beats and riffs decorating its unfolding narrative, the occasional scene and detail has seemed superfluous. But Poliakoff has had his reasons.

Comment

Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment, Channel 4

Lisa-Marie Ferla Tuesday, 26 February 2013

After the nightmarish vision of justice system turned spectator sport that was last week’s Black Mirror, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed that writer Charlie Brooker hadn’t ramped up the horror at the start of the final episode of this all-too-short second series.

Ripper Street, Series Finale, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Monday, 25 February 2013

Last week we left Homer Jackson, the raffish ex-Pinkerton detective with the exceedingly chequered past, languishing in jail, after being fitted up for a Ripper-style killing by the murderous Frank Goodnight (played by cultish US actor Edoardo Ballerini). For this week's finale, Matthew Macfadyen's DI Reid urgently needed to get Jackson out again in order to apply his advanced forensic skills to unravelling a white slaving racket.

Comment

Walking Wounded: Return to the Frontline, Channel 4

Terry Friel Thursday, 21 February 2013

The public rarely sees the human cost of journalists covering war. More rarely still does it see the real civilian cost. That makes Walking Wounded a frank and refreshing insight into the world at either end of the lens.

Comment

Storyville: Google and the World Brain/How Hackers Changed the World, BBC Four

Lisa-Marie Ferla Thursday, 21 February 2013

At what stage will the trend among journalists and documentarians to regard anything relating to the internet with suspicion or, worse, ignorance come to an end? Although I recognise that my relationship with information technology has never been exactly typical, this stuff has been easy enough to access for more than half of my life now. And I’m not exactly young.

Utopia, Series Finale, Channel 4

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 20 February 2013

"New Sars-like virus claims first Briton" according to a headline in yesterday's Times, news which will have sent spasms of alarm through Utopia-watchers. A couple of episodes ago we heard how the original Sars outbreak had been a fictional creation, and this series-closer began with overheard news reports of another attack of Russian flu in Britain, which was provoking "scenes of disorder".