tv
The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team, Amazon Prime review - how ball-tampering scandal forced a cricket revolutionSaturday, 14 March 2020
It was in March 2018 that Australia’s cricketers were caught ball-tampering during a Test match in Cape Town. The resulting public outcry and sanctions against the guilty players and assorted backroom staff shook the Australian game to the core. Read more... |
Five Guys a Week, Channel 4 review - lemming-like contestants make spectacles of themselvesWednesday, 11 March 2020
Channel 4 loves to walk the line between the compulsive and the repulsive, and this new dating show, complete with fake-salacious title, is a peerless specimen. Read more... |
Beyond the Grace Note, Sky Arts review - march of the women conductorsMonday, 09 March 2020
Perhaps the most surprising thing is how good natured they all sound. There’s no anger. At least, not much – one can’t help wondering what they say off air. Read more... |
RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 12, Netflix review - 13 queens up the gameMonday, 09 March 2020
As RuPaul's best squirrel friend Michelle Visage, co-doyenne of the amused and amusing judges, put it, "that was some next-level shit". Read more... |
Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall, BBC Two review - the storyteller and the truthSunday, 08 March 2020
Spectacular success couldn't have happened to a more interesting person, or a better writer. Read more... |
Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Netflix review - thrilling documentary series wreaks havoc in the paddockSaturday, 07 March 2020
The 2020 Formula 1 season will commence in Melbourne next weekend... unless the race is cancelled because of the mounting coronavirus panic. Everyone will have to self-isolate and watch Netflix instead, so how fortunate that the ‘flix has delivered this second series of Drive to Survive in the nick of time. Read more... |
The Trouble With Maggie Cole, ITV review - Dawn French stars in new comedy dramaThursday, 05 March 2020
ITV's drama department is in overdrive at the moment, with a seemingly endless release of series with high production values and stellar casts, and the latest is The Trouble With Maggie Cole. It's a six-parter based on an idea by Dawn French (who also stars) and is written by Mark Brotherhood. Read more... |
Beauty Laid Bare, BBC One review - a facial peel for the cosmetics businessWednesday, 04 March 2020
In this aptly-titled series (BBC One), four British 20-somethings visit the USA to investigate the inner workings of the beauty industry. Perhaps not surprisingly, they discover that it’s a hotbed of greed and exploitation. Read more... |
The Trip to Greece, Sky 1 review - jokes, jibes and indigestion in the footsteps of OdysseusWednesday, 04 March 2020
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan have been taking their bickering TV trips for a decade, beginning in the north of England in 2010 before working their way around Italy, Spain and now Greece (on Sky 1). They say this will be the last time, but believe that at your peril. Read more... |
Liar, Series 2, ITV review - more crime-by-numbers from the Williams brothersTuesday, 03 March 2020
The first series of Liar, one of many thrillers from the fertile keyboards of Jack and Harry Williams, was on ITV back in 2017, so you may have forgotten the somewhat labyrinthine details. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Songhoy Blues, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review – West A...
No-one needs to be living in Trump’s USA to be aware that governments never feel that it’s in their interest to prioritise great art and music...
Album: Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Turnstile’s NEVER ENOUGH is a vibrant, shape-shifting album that proves the Baltimore-based band is fully committed to evolution. Since...
Fiddler on the Roof, Barbican review - lean, muscular delive...
It’s always a risk when a production changes venue. In the curious alchemy of live performance, no-one can be sure whether a shift in surroundings...
In Praise of Love, Orange Tree Theatre review - subdued prod...
Terence Rattigan's rehabilitation – some...
Album: Little Simz - Lotus
Little Simz clearly believes in meeting situations head on. Her sixth full-length album kicks off, in every sense of the phrase, with “Thief”:...
Letters from Max, Hampstead Theatre review - inventively sta...
In 2012, the award-winning American writer Sarah Ruhl met a Yale playwriting student who became a special part of her life. Out of...
Bradford City of Culture 2025 review - new magic conjured fr...
Botanical forms, lurid and bright, now tower above a footpath on a moor otherwise famed for darkness and frankly terrible weather....
Album: Death In Vegas - Death Mask
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away called the late 1990s,...
La Straniera, Chelsea Opera Group, Barlow, Cadogan Hall revi...
Chelsea Opera Group has made its own luck in winning the devotion of two great bel canto exponents: Nelly Miricioiu between 1998 and 2010...