thu 31/07/2025

tv

Vienna Blood, BBC Two review - psychoanalysis and murder in turn-of-the-century Vienna

Markie Robson-Scott

“Talking cures and exploring the darkness of men’s souls – are you sure this is a career for a gentleman?” This is Vienna, 1906. Freud is exerting an influence, to the disapproval of many, including the father of cool-as-a-cucumber Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard).

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The Crown, Series 3, Netflix review - if you want binge TV, there's none finer

Adam Sweeting

Although it conforms to a realistic chronology of events, this third season of Peter Morgan’s remarkable voyage around the House of Windsor (on Netflix) has the feel of a sequence of standalone dramas, linked together by its interrelated characters and their shared history.

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The Accident, Series Finale, Channel 4 review - ambitious mini-series leaves many unanswered questions

Jill Chuah Masters

Channel 4’s The Accident closed with a bang and a whimper. Jack Thorne provided a definitive answer to his series’ central question, but his characters and subplots petered out in the meantime.

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Britain’s Lost Masterpieces, Episode Three, BBC Four review – more than a bit of Botticelli

Tom Baily

Once again the whodunit becomes the whoforgedit in the newest installment of the Britain’s Lost Masterpieces series.

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Gold Digger, BBC One review - Julia Ormond tackles those mid-life blues

Adam Sweeting

A tip of the hat to Julia Ormond for boldly going where many an actress might have chosen not to. In this new six-parter by Marnie Dickens, she plays Julia Day, a mother of three who’s just divorced her husband and is turning 60.

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Ant Middleton and Liam Payne: Straight Talking, Sky 1 review - when the commando met the pop star

Adam Sweeting

“What is wrong with us? What are we doing here?” Liam Payne asked the camera, as we neared the end of his jaunt round picturesque Namibia with his quizmaster Ant Middleton. The short answer would be “it’s for the publicity, you idiot,” but of course he knows that full well. He’d just leapt off a cliff face and swung in wide circles on a rope above the russet-coloured desert far below.

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World on Fire, BBC One, series finale review - may this fine war drama fight on

Jasper Rees

A bit like all those people on the home front in 1940 (but only a little bit), we sit and nervously wait for news. Is World on Fire (BBC One) still listed among the living? Or even now is someone typing up the letter and sticking it in a brown envelope?

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Arena: Everything is Connected - George Eliot's Life, BBC Four review - innovative film brings the Victorian novelist into the present

India Lewis

Gillian Wearing’s Arena documentary Everything is Connected (BBC Four) is a quietly innovative biography of an author whose works still resonate with their readers and the country within which she wrote.

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The Fall of the Berlin Wall with John Simpson, BBC Four review – the future we’ve left behind

Tom Baily

John Simpson remains the BBC’s longest serving foreign correspondent. Here, he returns to the biggest moment of his career. This personalised retelling of the collapse of the Berlin wall encompasses fond remembrance, factual detail and the confidence of retrospective analysis. And, the big BUT question is addressed: where are we now?

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Dublin Murders, Series Finale, BBC One review - eerie detective drama grips tightly

Adam Sweeting

You wouldn’t expect a drama called Dublin Murders (BBC One) to be a laugh a minute, but the cumulative anguish, menace and torment of this eight-parter made it almost unbearable, even if viewers were thrown a tiny scrap of hope in the final frames.

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