tv
Black Narcissus, BBC One review - a haunting in the HimalayasMonday, 28 December 2020
It’s dangerous territory, remaking a classic British film as a TV mini-series. In 1947 when Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created Black Narcissus, a heady adaptation of Rumer Godden’s 1939 novel, they never set foot in the Himalayas. Read more...
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Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, Sky One review – twinkly tale for troubled timesFriday, 25 December 2020
They say "never meet your heroes". That may be true, but it forms the premise of a new TV drama concerning two of the world’s most famous children’s authors – Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl – who encounter each other at opposite ends of their life. Read more... |
Bridgerton, Netflix review - bodice-ripper cliches recycled in Regency rompFriday, 25 December 2020
At first glance you might mistake Bridgerton (Netflix) for the latest effusion from the pen of Lord Fellowes, since it conforms so closely to the Fellowesian pattern of manners, money and mores among the English aristocracy. Even the title sounds like a mashup of Downton and Belgravia. Read more... |
All Creatures Great and Small: Christmas Special, Channel 5 review - big and little dramas in the DalesWednesday, 23 December 2020
Having launched their new-look All Creatures… back in September to wild acclaim, it was a no-brainer for Channel 5 to commission this Christmas Special. The only mystery is why they didn’t schedule it for Christmas Day, where it would probably have seen off most of the not-very-thrilling competition. Read more... |
Upstart Crow: Lockdown Christmas 1603, BBC Two review – plaguey beaks and bubonidiotsTuesday, 22 December 2020
If you’ve loved every episode of Ben Elton’s Shakespeare and Co comedy, you’ll know what to expect – but you’ll have to swallow bittersweet pills from only two of the excellent ensemble who’ve given us such comfort and joyous rapid-fire delivery of wordsmithery over three series (and on the London stage, as it was... Read more... |
Small Axe: Education, BBC One review - domestic drama concludes groundbreaking film series with quiet powerMonday, 14 December 2020
The fifth and final film in the Small Axe series is titled Education. Read more... |
Tin Star: Liverpool, Sky Atlantic review - massed mayhem on MerseysideFriday, 11 December 2020
Breaking away from the outlandish shenanigans in Little Big Bear in the Canadian wilds of its first two series, this third outing for Tin Star brings Jack Worth (Tim Roth), wife Angela (Genevieve O’Reilly) and daughter Anna (Abigail Lawrie) back across the Atlantic to Liverpool to confront dirty secrets they’ve... Read more... |
Coronation Street: 60 Unforgettable Years, ITV review - inside story of the world's longest-running TV soapTuesday, 08 December 2020
The seductively breathy Joanna Lumley supplied the voice-over for this hugely entertaining romp through the history of Coronation Street, celebrating “the Diamond Jubilee of the world’s longest-running soap.” Yet wasn’t the uber-posh Lumley, scion of the British Raj, a discordant choice for this long-running saga of Mancunian... Read more... |
Small Axe: Alex Wheatle, BBC One review - elliptical telling of a writer's troubled early lifeMonday, 07 December 2020
Anyone who expects traditional narrative in Steve McQueen’s five Small Axe films about the black experience in the London of the 1970s and 80s will be disappointed. Read more... |
The Dambusters, Channel 5 review - yet another telling of the Bouncing Bomb storyFriday, 04 December 2020
The story of the raid on dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley by the RAF’s 617 Squadron in May 1943 has become a subject of perennial fascination as well as a potent national myth. Read more... |
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