tv
David Harewood: Psychosis and Me, BBC Two review - actor confronts his painful pastFriday, 17 May 2019
In the week that the Jeremy Kyle show has been yanked permanently off air after the death of one of its vulnerable guests, the timing couldn’t have been better for the BBC to show how sensitively the old-school broadcaster handles contributors with mental health problems. Read more... |
Mum, BBC Two, series 3 review - welcome last hurrah for adult family sitcomThursday, 16 May 2019
It is a cliché that never grows old. From Fawlty Towers via The Office all the way through to (so we are told) Fleabag, a great half-hour comedy that bows out after two series cements its place in the pantheon by ensuring posterity wants more. Twelve episodes seems to be the platonic ideal of the perfectly proportioned sitcom. Read more... |
The Virtues, Channel 4 review - close and personal with stunning Stephen GrahamThursday, 16 May 2019
The Virtues (Channel 4) sees director Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England) reunite with actor Stephen Graham in what is certainly their most raw and emotionally bruising project to date. Read more... |
Years and Years, BBC One review - ambitious but amorphousWednesday, 15 May 2019
As the double-edged Chinese proverb has it, “may you live in interesting times.” Screenwriter Russell T Davies evidently thanks that’s exactly where we’re at, and his new six-part drama Years and Years (BBC One) is a bold, sprawling but – as far as episode one is concerned at least – amorphous attempt to assess the... Read more... |
Bear's Mission with David Walliams, ITV review - celebs go wild in the countryWednesday, 15 May 2019
In the past, Bear Grylls has taken President Obama up an Alaskan glacier and trekked through the Swiss Alps with Roger Federer. Read more... |
Deep State, Series 2, Fox review - covert conspiracies in AfricaFriday, 10 May 2019
Last year’s first season of Deep State featured cloak and dagger exploitations of chaos in the Middle East by the capitalist West and its intelligence services. Read more... |
Chernobyl, Sky Atlantic review - a glimpse of ArmageddonWednesday, 08 May 2019
“I take it the safety test was a failure,” remarked Viktor Bryukhanov, director of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station. You could say that again. Read more... |
Trust Me, Series 2 Finale, BBC One review - dodgy doctors and unreliable nursesWednesday, 08 May 2019
Writer Dan Sefton’s four-part hospital drama reached a modestly satisfying conclusion as the phantom killer stalking the wards was finally unmasked, following the usual twists and misdirections obligatory in thrillerland. Read more... |
Line of Duty, BBC One, series 5 finale review - big highs and BiggeloeMonday, 06 May 2019
The porn was a bit disappointing, was it not? Dear old Ted, no longer romantically active, admitted to being a user. The Superintendent Hastings fanclub sighed for sorrow to witness him toss away his status as an essentially decent heartthrob for the Saga generation. Sorry for your loss, ladies. It was also disappointing because the high-risk act of wiping his laptop turned out to have such a bathetic explanation. Read more... |
My Extreme Drugs Diary, Channel 5 review - the tedium of taking heroinFriday, 03 May 2019
Jacob has just managed to shoot up. No easy matter because his veins are, he says, non-usable, and are like those of an 80-year-old man. He’s in his twenties and has been on heroin for six years. Unusually, he works full time, has a car and a flat – blood-spattered ones. When the heroin kicks in he doesn’t feel stoned but as if he could “work on some graphic design or art work”. Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Parsifal, Glyndebourne review - the music flies up, the dram...
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Ballet is hardly a stranger to Broadway. Until the late 1950s every other musical had its fantasy ballet sequence – think Cyd Charisse in ...
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Quoted in an early music press article on his band Chapterhouse, singer-guitarist Stephen Patman said their ambition was “to have our records on...
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