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Divine Women, BBC Two

howard Male Thursday, 12 April 2012

I’ve long held the belief that much of what is wrong with the human race stems directly or indirectly from religion. But while this subject has had something of a renaissance in recent years, thanks to the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the absolutely central story of the global banishment of the Goddess - in all her many forms - has largely remained untold.

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Titanic Round-Up

Adam Sweeting Monday, 09 April 2012

I suspected that Julian Fellowes' Titanic (ITV1) would improve as it went along, but it hasn't. Sunday night's third episode churned along monotonously, listlessly keeping tabs on a list of characters who became less interesting the more you saw of them. We got a bit more of Italian waiter Paolo Sandrini and his instant undying love (just add water) for lady's maid Annie Desmond, plus the entirely spurious appearance of Latvian terrorist Peter Piatkow.

Perspectives: Sergeant on Spike, ITV1

ASH Smyth Monday, 09 April 2012

As a prelude to last night’s John Sergeant Perspectives doco, I made a note of the four things I thought I knew about Spike Milligan.

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Homeland, Channel 4

Emma Dibdin Monday, 09 April 2012

The opening credits of US television’s latest watercooler export Homeland have proved to be one of the critically lauded show’s few divisive elements, yet also encapsulate what could be most interesting about it.

Twenty Twelve, BBC Two

Veronica Lee Saturday, 07 April 2012

If Twenty Twelve's creators were looking for inspiration for their mockumentary about those making London 2012 happen, they need have gone no further than reading the headlines (now daily) in London newspapers about Tube drivers demanding more wedge to work during the Games, the Civil Service asking their staff to work from home and the London Mayor's transport officials suggesting that August may be a good time to find an alternative route to work - this after Londoners have put up...

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Horizon: The Hunt For AI, BBC Two

howard Male Wednesday, 04 April 2012

What is it with these scientists? Two spanking-new child-sized robots stand opposite each other in a room, talking. Their designer proclaims with barely concealed pride, “I don’t know which one is going to speak first.” In fact he says this twice, as if this very fact is proof that these bipedal assemblages are on the cusp, or have even reached some kind of sentient intelligence - rather than simply being mildly amazing, mildly amusing mimics of sentient intelligence.

Who Do You Think You Are? USA: Lionel Richie, BBC One

Kieron Tyler Wednesday, 04 April 2012

“It's about as close to a spiritual awakening as I’ve had in my entire life,” said Lionel Richie. He was standing close to the unmarked grave of his great-grandfather, in the pauper’s section of an overgrown Chattanooga cemetery. Richie began the search for the man he’d discovered was called John Louis Brown thinking he was on the trail of a scoundrel. He ended it discovering Brown was a former slave who had become a pioneer of the American civil rights movement.

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Silent Witness, BBC One/ Once Upon a Time, Channel 5/ The Voice, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Monday, 02 April 2012

It must have been a toss-up for the BBC whether to scrap Waking the Dead or Silent Witness, but evidently the latter won the race against extinction by a putrefying nose, probably attached to a hideously-charred corpse which may or may not have been raped but had been stabbed 47 times and bludgeoned with a... Funnily enough there was one a bit like that in this first episode of Series 15, along with an asphyxiated child and a man killed by knife and stun-gun.

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Arena: Jonathan Miller, BBC Two

ASH Smyth Sunday, 01 April 2012

A director who is “passionate about biology”; a humorist who “hardly ever mocks”; an artist who speaks fluently about the origin of species; a non-musician who has directed some of the best-received opera productions of the modern era; a doctor with his own profile on IMDB. In short, a man who puts the “poly” into “polymath” – and like as not does it in Greek. Don’t you just hate Jonathan Miller?

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Dexter, Series 6, FX

Emma Dibdin Saturday, 31 March 2012

Now on its third showrunner and entering its sixth season, it’s perhaps not a surprise that this once pitch-black drama, centring on a disturbed forensic analyst who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer, has lost its edge. The latest episode begins on a promisingly perilous note as Dexter (Michael C Hall) staggers through an abandoned lot having been stabbed, but there’s a characteristically punch-pulling reveal in the offing.