fri 25/07/2025

tv

Getting On, Series 3, BBC Four

Jasper Rees

Getting On exists somewhere on the spectrum between Carry On and Samuel Beckett. Set in a hospital ward where mostly geriatric patients are tended by middle-aged staff all with problems of their own, it looks unflinchingly at the great maladjusted edifice that is the Health Service and all who ail in her. And in Vicki Pepperdine’s tightly coiled consultant Dr Pippa Moore it has perhaps the most delightful sitcom grotesque since Malcolm Tucker first started turning the air blue.

Read more...

Imagine: Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender, BBC One

Adam Sweeting

This film, promised Imagine's host Alan Yentob, would be "the nearest we'll get to the real Freddie Mercury, a shy man in search of love and a driven artist living behind the protection of his stage persona". Probably true, but the shyness and the protective persona, coupled with vigorous policing by the Queen organisation, meant that film-maker Rhys Thomas couldn't add a great deal to what's already known about Mercury.

Read more...

Wonderland: Walking With Dogs, BBC Two

Veronica Lee

If you asked a bunch of foreigners to describe the British, I bet one of the phrases most frequently used would be “a nation of dog lovers”, so it was no surprise to discover that film-maker's Vanessa Engle's latest bulletin about the British and the way they live (shown as part of the excellent Wonderland strand) was about this nation's love affair with canines.

Read more...

Downton Abbey, ITV1: Death of Lady Sybil

Jasper Rees

You suspected she was a goner the moment the doctors started to front up like King Kong and Godzilla. Having given birth to a girl, the rebellious bluestocking Lady Sybil got her marching orders last night on Downton Abbey and Jessica Brown Findlay’s husky larynx will be heard no more pouring oil on troubled waters. The rest of the cast can rely on a berth in Julian Fellowes’ gilded prison for all eternity. Ms Brown Findlay is available for work.

Read more...

Good Cop, Finale, BBC One

Adam Sweeting

It was tough luck for Good Cop that the real-life killing of two female police officers in Manchester prompted the BBC to postpone its fourth and final episode, judging that its plotline of rookie cop Amanda Morgan acting as bait for a couple of knife-wielding thugs who preyed on women was too near the knuckle.

Read more...

Me and Mrs Jones, BBC One

Veronica Lee

It's always either a very good or a very bad sign when my notebook remains untainted by my scrawl when I'm reviewing; either I am too busy enjoying myself to make notes or I'm so unengaged that I can barely be bothered to lift my pen.

Read more...

DCI Banks, Series 2, ITV1

Adam Sweeting

Charm, politeness and glittering repartee are clearly not considered important qualities for the Yorkshire-based policepersons who work alongside DCI Banks. TV coppers are rarely a barrel of laughs but for this bunch, spitting, snarling and glaring are their default modes of communication.

Read more...

Who Do You Think You Are? - Celia Imrie, BBC One

Jasper Rees

Isn’t the title a misnomer? Who Do You Think You Are? is the genealogical branch of the celebrity industry. It’s not really about who the subjects think they are: it’s who we think they are that counts. Inspecting the family trees of slebz is another way of confirming they are just like us. It’s the same as gawping at stars’ big bums in bikinis lovingly featured in the online Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame. Only nicer.

Read more...

Wonderland: I Was Once a Beauty Queen, BBC Two

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Even now, as revelation after revelation about what really went on backstage at Television Centre in the 1970s play out in the tabloids, there seems something almost wholesome about the heyday of the televised beauty pageant.

Read more...

Homeland, Series 2, Channel 4

Adam Sweeting

Surfing in on the back of six Emmy awards, Homeland's second season opened with a sizzling episode which banished any lingering doubts about the improbabilities of the ending of series one.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Dying review - they fuck you up, your mum and dad

Despite the title of Matthias Glasner’s award-winning drama, and the death that swirls around its characters, dying isn’t really its subject, but...

Album: Mádé Kuti - Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From...

There can be few musicians on the planet from a more storied musical dynasty than Mádé Kuti. He is the son of Femi, the grandson of Fela. He grew...

theartsdesk Q&A: director Athina Rachel Tsangari on her...

Over a decade ago, a handful of Greek filmmakers set out to reinvent the national cinema amid the country's social and economic decline...

The Human League/Marc Almond/Toyah, Brighton Beach review -...

Today gradually blossoms from unpromising beginnings. LouderUK’s On The Beach event series takes place throughout the summer and runs the gamut...

A Moon for the Misbegotten, Almeida Theatre review - Michael...

Michael Shannon's long legs reach to the stars – or perhaps one should say the moon – in the Almeida's...

Album: Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper

Great (and not so great) bands reforming, either in the studio or in the live arena, is something of a trend at the moment. However, who would...

Burlesque, Savoy Theatre review - exhaustingly vapid

"It all starts with a snap," or so we're told early in the decidedly un-snappy Burlesque, which spends three hours borrowing shamelessly...

Tosca, Clonter Opera review - beauty and integrity in miniat...

At first sight, it seemed that Clonter Opera’s decision to tackle Tosca this year might be a leap too far. Its once-a-year complete...

Album: Paul Weller - Find El Dorado

Paul Weller occupies a strange place in the cultural sphere. Especially since he was adopted as an elder statesman of Britpop in the mid 1990s, he...