tv | The Arts Desk

tv

Mistresses, BBC One

Fisun Güner Friday, 06 August 2010

We know we’re in cut-price Sex and the City territory when it’s not iPhones that are getting top product placement billing but Clearblue pregnancy tests. A box was held aloft between the trembling fingers of Jess as the camera slowly caressed its glistening cellophane surface for a lingering close-up.

The Normans, BBC Two

Gerard Gilbert Thursday, 05 August 2010

In the absence of newsreel footage, Professor Robert Bartlett leans heavily on the Bayeux Tapestry

My surname came to Britain with the Normans, and I must say that my forebears have had a bad press in their adopted homeland. From Hereward the Wake to Robin Hood, Anglo-Saxon legends have depicted us as despotic and cruel, whereas we were great builders of castles and cathedrals, brilliant horsemen and tip-top administrators, as well as being despotic and cruel. Anyway, it was...

Comment

The Great Outdoors, BBC Four

graeme Thomson Thursday, 05 August 2010

Mark Heap and Ruth Jones in 'The Great Outdoors': 'Irresistible force and immovable object'.

Now that Last of the Summer Wine has been strapped aboard the great Stairmaster to the Sky, there’s a gap in the market for a comedy in which the landscape has a starring role. Written by Kevin Cecil, whose credits include Black Books, and Andy Riley, The Great Outdoors is a bucolic al fresco sitcom following the members of a rambling club in the Chilterns as they trudge through their drab, rather lonely lives and negotiate their petty rivalries. Like the...

Comment

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? ITV1

Veronica Lee Wednesday, 04 August 2010

Chris Tarrant: speedier format gives less time for his annoying, repetitive twaddle

"Welcome to the new-look, high-risk, high-speed show,” said presenter Chris Tarrant at the top of the programme. Well, sort of new-look; the opening titles are new (although they still haven't managed to put the question mark in the logo), but the music is the same and the set appears to have had no more than a dust down since the last series. But let’s not quibble, as producers Celador have indeed rung the changes and in doing so have given the long-running show a much needed fillip.

Comment

The Deep, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 03 August 2010

Wasn't The Deep the title of a 1970s movie starring Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte? Something about sunken treasure and a stash of morphine off the coast of Bermuda. I have a hunch it may have been complete twaddle. No less preposterous is this five-part subaqueous saga from the BBC, in which a team of marine scientists take their research submarine, the Orpheus, into frozen Arctic waters to investigate the catastrophic wreck of another sub, the Hermes.

Comment

Stealing Shakespeare, BBC One

Jasper Rees Friday, 30 July 2010

Raymond Scott, antiquarian bookseller or purveyor of dodgy goods? Let the jury decide

“Well! It is now publique,...

Comment

Californication, Fiver

Veronica Lee Thursday, 29 July 2010

David Duchovny in 'Californication': full of sex, nudity and recreational drug-taking

This award-winning series, created by Tom Kapinos in 2007, is groundbreaking television even by Showtime’s daring standards. Californication is a dark - very dark - comedy drama about Hank Moody (David Duchovny), a bad-boy writer who has lost his literary mojo, but absolutely not his mojo mojo, as it were; it has nudity a-gogo, frequent sex scenes, recreational drug-taking and frank discussion of sexual matters.

The Men Who Jump Off Buildings, Channel 4

Gerard Gilbert Wednesday, 28 July 2010

The ace of base: Dan Witchalls is one of 'The Men Who Jump off Buildings'

There may be many benefits to living at the top of the Erno Goldfinger-designed Trellick Tower in north Kensington – the extensive views across London, perhaps, or the knowledge that one is inhabiting an iconic example of Brutalist architecture. Less obvious is the chance to earn a quick 50 quid for allowing Dan Witchalls to jump off your balcony.

Better Off Ted, FX

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Ted (Jay Harrington) and Veronica (Portia De Rossi) locked in a power-meeting at Veridian Dynamics

And first the bad news. The ABC network in the States has already declared Better Off Ted dead, after a paltry two seasons. Which is a pity, since acerbic, mildly surreal satires about the workings of corporate America don’t come along very often.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Rupert Everett, BBC One

Fisun Güner Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Rupert Everett knows who he is: he is English, he’s a toff and he’s a poof, thank you very much. And that’s just about all you need to know to tell you that, as a breed, they’re pretty damned sure of themselves, these English toffs, poofs or not. But he’s also a pretty memorable actor. Yes, really. Let me try to convince you.