mon 25/08/2025

tv

The Steph Show, Channel 4 review - magazine show debuts from host's front room

Veronica Lee

As we are learning each day during lockdown, necessity is the mother of invention. In Channel 4's case, it is learning how the wonders of modern technology can save a situation: to wit, The Steph Show was meant to come live daily from a shiny new studio in Leeds Docks, but yesterday debuted from host Steph McGovern's front room in North Yorkshire. 

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Batwoman, E4 review - can Bruce Wayne's female cousin fill his bat-costume?

Adam Sweeting

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been saturating the globe with its multi-format superheroes, leaving its DC rival looking clumsy and disorganised by comparison.

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Island: Where Legends Were Born, BBC Four review - remembering rock's big bang

Liz Thomson

“Friday night is Amami night” – that was the ad that ran from the 1920s through to the 1950s for a brand of “setting lotion”, a delightfully old-fashioned term. Those were the days when young women stayed home and did their hair, in preparation for a Saturday night out.

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ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads, Netflix review - a story well told but marred by clichéd style

mark Kidel

Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson’s reputation was much enhanced by the story – never substantiated – that he’d met with the devil one night at a crossroads, and was miraculously taught exquisite guitar licks that astounded his juke-joint audiences and later the world.

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Mister Winner, BBC2 review - gentle comedy about one of life's losers

Veronica Lee

Spencer Jones, a clownish stand-up, has been responsible for some the cheeriest, daftest and most heart-warming shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he has twice been nominated in Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (ECA). Others may know him from his scene-stealing turn in Upstart Crow, where he channels Ricky Gervais in the character of Will Kempe.

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Our Girl, Series 5, BBC One review - where soap and warfare collide

Adam Sweeting

Some things never change in Our Girl. At the beginning of 2018’s Series 4, military heroine Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan) had been traumatised by the death of her fiance Elvis Harte, killed in Afghanistan at the end of Series 3.

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Comedy Against Living Miserably, Dave review - standups tread the boards for CALM charity

Adam Sweeting

This was the third collaboration between Dave and the mental health charity CALM (Comedy Against Living Miserably), hosted at EartH in Dalston by Joel Dommett.

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Putin: A Russian Spy Story, Channel 4 review - inside the mind of a man without a face

Tom Birchenough

Director Nick Green’s new three-parter follows on the heels of his A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad and comparisons are sure to be made between his two subjects.

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Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life, BBC iPlayer – masked metalheads reveal all

Guy Oddy

There aren’t many metal bands like Slipknot. For a start, the nine-piece line-up consists of the standard vocalist, two guitars, bass and drums – but then there are also two percussionists, sampler and decks. Their music is consistently ferocious, with a hardcore, high-speed, ragging thump and semi-comprehensible lyrics that leaves no room for chart-friendly power ballads.

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The English Game, Netflix review - it's the toffs versus the workers in this version of sporting history

Adam Sweeting

Julian Fellowes admits he knows little about football and has always hated sport in general, but this hasn’t prevented him from writing a TV series (for Netflix) about football’s 19th century origins.

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