wed 03/09/2025

tv

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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

Read more...

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?

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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?

Read more...

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”.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

The Beatles: Get Back, Disney+ review - 1969 revisited in Peter Jackson's three-part documentary

Adam Sweeting

A caption tells us that while filming the Beatles at Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969 for a planned TV broadcast, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and his crew amassed 60 hours of film and 150 hours of audio recordings. Some of it was seen in the 1970 film Let It Be, but the bulk of it has remained locked in the vaults ever since. Until now.

Read more...

Death of England: Face to Face, National Theatre at Home review - anti-racist trilogy ends with a bang

aleks Sierz

One of the absolute highpoints of new writing in the past couple of years has been the Death of England trilogy. Written by Roy Williams and Clint Dyer, these three brilliant monologues have not only explored vital questions of race and racism, identity and belonging, but have also provided a record of theatre-going before, during and after the pandemic lockdown.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
The Guest, BBC One review - be careful what you wish for

Why isn’t Eve Myles a superstar? Though well known for her appearances in the likes of Torchwood, Broadchurch and the brilliant...

Supersonic Festival 2025, Birmingham review - a deep dive in...

The annual Supersonic Festival is a major jewel in ...

Born with Teeth, Wyndham's Theatre review - electric sp...

The title refers to a line in Henry VI, Part III: the future Richard III boasts that midwives cried, "Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with...

Album: Saint Etienne - International

International is Saint Etienne’s 13th album. It is their last. According to the promotional material, it was written while recording...

BBC Proms: Barruk, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Kuusisto rev...

Every year, the Royal Albert Hall proves complicit in the magic of the quietest utterances if, as Barenboim put it, you let the audience come to...

Blu-ray: The Graduate

Can a film’s classic status expire, or be rescinded? If it can, I’d say The Graduate is a potential candidate.

...

BBC Proms: Alexander’s Feast, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whela...

Many Londoners would already have experienced the musicality incarnate of Peter Whelan and his Irish Baroque Orchestra. A smaller ensemble rocked...

Album: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the Sun

Brad Mehldau’s three trio concerts in the UK in June showed what it is he does so brilliantly. The group (with bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Outer Limits - Just One More Chan...

The Outer Limits were from Leeds. Active over 1965 to 1968, the...