wed 23/07/2025

tv

Rules of the Game, BBC One review - feminist workplace drama topples into farce

Adam Sweeting

The BBC have billed this as a “four-part thriller about sexual politics in the modern workplace”, which is slightly misleading because it looks as though it’s taking place in about 1983.

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Witch Hunt, All 4 review - dark deeds and dirty money

Adam Sweeting

When business and politics collide, the result may very well be corruption. Such is the case in this taut, streamlined thriller from Norway, one of many gems from the Walter Presents stable.

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The Apprentice, Series 16, BBC One review - will they never learn?

Veronica Lee

“Will they never learn?” people must have been screaming as they watched the opening episode of the 16th series of The Apprentice – I certainly was. After all these years, the hopefuls vying to take Lord Sugar's £250,000 to invest in their business idea seem blissfully unaware of how daft they look with their strutting boasts.

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The Tourist, BBC One review - gripping Outback thriller from the Williams brothers

Adam Sweeting

This latest outing from the astonishingly prolific Jack and Harry Williams (The Missing, Baptiste, The Widow, Strangers etc) gives itself a huge leg-up by exploiting the epic lonely spaces of the Australian Outback.

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Best of 2021: TV

theartsdesk

There's so much stuff on TV, in all its many multi-streaming hats, that I somehow haven't got around to watching Succession. Apparently it's the best TV show ever made.

Oh well, there's bound to be another one along in a minute. Theartsdesk's eagle-eyed reviewers have found plenty to amuse themseves with elsewhere during 2021, and we parade our particular predilections below. Adam Sweeting

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A Very British Scandal, BBC One review - the wild life and times of the Duchess of Argyll

Adam Sweeting

The title might provoke a quick double-take. Wasn’t A Very British Scandal that series about Jeremy Thorpe and Norman Scott, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw?

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The Amazing Mr Blunden, Sky Max / The Mezzotint, BBC Two reviews - blundering Blunden eclipsed by M R James

Adam Sweeting

Friday night was Mark Gatiss night.

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The Girl Before, BBC One review - high-tech dream home contains many a heartache

Adam Sweeting

Would you be willing to play the guinea pig in a designer-superhome created by a deranged architect?

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You Don't Know Me, BBC One review - true love meets inner-city crime wave

Adam Sweeting

I sympathised with the prosecuting barrister when she put it to the court that the accused, a man called Hero (Samuel Adewunmi), was “using his closing speech to construct a work of fiction”.

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Hellbound, Netflix review - supernatural assassins usher in an age of terror

Adam Sweeting

Netflix is sometimes criticised for bringing too much of everything to its online feast, but the way it’s opening up previously under-exposed territories is becoming seriously impressive.

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