tue 29/07/2025

tv

Derry Girls, Series Two, Channel 4 review - welcome back, gang

Owen Richards

When Derry Girls premiered on Channel 4 in early 2018, there was little fanfare. But it’s been a whirlwind year for the four girls from Derry (and the wee English lad), capturing British hearts before conquering the US through Netflix.

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Fleabag, Series 2 review - a standing ovation

Veronica Lee

What a super-talented woman Phoebe Waller-Bridge is.

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Marianne Faithfull, BBC Four review - more than a vagabond life

Tim Cumming

French actor and director Sandrine Bonnaire’s warm, langorous film portrait of la Faithfull may not the first – that accolade goes to Michael Collins’s feature-length Dreaming my Dreams (2000), featuring Mick, Keith, Anita and John Dunbar – but it does feel like a...

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Soft Cell: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, BBC Four review - an electro-pop celebration

Thomas H Green

“It’s never been about the success to me,” says Marc Almond, “It’s always been about the adventure.” It’s a great attitude that’s writ large over the band’s uncompromising flame-out of an early Eighties pop career.

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Strike Back: Silent War, Sky 1 review - bullets, bodies, baddies and a stolen atom bomb

Adam Sweeting

Some things never change. About 60 per cent of this first show in Strike Back’s seventh series consisted of Mac McAllister (Warren Brown) and his intrepid Section 20 squad mowing down members of a Malaysian triad gang with automatic weapons.

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This Time with Alan Partridge, BBC One review - a man out of time?

Adam Sweeting

“I’ve remained a vital presence on the fringes of TV Land,” argues Alan Partridge in an interview with Radio Times, the man whose latest claim to… well, not fame, but at least he has been presenting Mid Morning Matters on North Norfolk Digital.

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Curfew, Sky One, review - belt up for a budget-price Mad Max

Jasper Rees

Curfew (Sky One) is a new drama that begins as it means to go on, roaring from nought to 60 with a wildly implausible car chase. An electric blue McLaren is haring and weaving through London, with the law in hot pursuit. Forget the computer-generated high-speed U-turn and the armour-plated panda cars.

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Sleeping with Extremists: The Far Right, Channel 4 review - insightful but flawed documentary

Owen Richards

It’s always interesting to see how presenters make their presence known in documentaries. Louis Theroux hovers on the sidelines like an ethereal presence, Stacey Dooley connects immediately on an emotional level, and one-time host Keith Allen handled proceedings like a fight before a Millwall game.

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Traitors, Channel 4 review - Cold War thriller fails to reach room temperature

Adam Sweeting

It’s 1945 and World War Two is nearly over. Somewhere in England, Fiona Symonds (“Feef” to her friends) is training to be a spy and be dropped behind enemy lines.

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Baptiste, BBC One review - detective from The Missing gets his own hand-me-down show

Saskia Baron

Is there an algorithm for writing this review? There seems to have been one used to create Baptiste, a spin-off from The Missing, and even the staunchest fans of Tchéky Karyo will be struggling not to see the all-too-familiar formula poking through the script.

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