tue 12/08/2025

tv

Call My Agent!, Netflix review - French movie stars turn out for witty and waspish TV show

Adam Sweeting

Read theartsdesk review of Call My Agent!, Series 4

Read more...

Brexit: The Uncivil War, Channel 4 review - Benedict Cumberbatch gets the best tunes

Jasper Rees

One day this all will be over. Give it half a century. In 50 years' time, there will be documentaries in which today’s young, by then old, will explain to generations yet unborn exactly how and why Britain went round the twist in 2016.

Read more...

Luther, Series 5, BBC One review - welcome return for Idris Elba's maverick 'tec

Saskia Baron

“Can you breathe?’ “Yeah.” “Shame, that”. Another ne’er-do-well is being banged to rights after a chase through container stacks in the dark. Luther is back, and he hasn’t upgraded his Volvo or changed his tweed coat – but we don’t really mind, do we?

Read more...

Escape at Dannemora, Sky Atlantic review - Ben Stiller's breakout drama impresses

Jasper Rees

The facts of Escape at Dannemora (Sky Atlantic) are notorious in America. Convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Indeed a less enquiring version of the story might have been called Escape from Dannemora. But the preposition is key.

Read more...

Les Misérables, BBC One review - Dominic West looks the part in new Victor Hugo adaptation

Adam Sweeting

There’s no singing, no Hugh Jackman and no Anne Hathaway, and the dolorous tone of Andrew Davies’s new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel is established in the opening scene.

Read more...

Best of 2018: TV

theartsdesk

Bruce Springsteen once sang about there being "57 channels and nothin' on". Those were the days. Now we have so much to watch (including Netflix's Springsteen on Broadway) that all the world's remaining elephants couldn't remember them all.

Read more...

The ABC Murders, BBC One, review - John Malkovich's dark reboot of Poirot

Jasper Rees

Sarah Phelps’s annual reboot of a canonical murder mystery by Agatha Christie has rapidly established itself as a Christmas staple of TV drama.

Read more...

Upstart Crow, BBC Two review - Shakespeare does Dickens in seasonal tale

Veronica Lee

After the heart-breaking ending to the third series earlier this year, which covered the death of William Shakespeare's young son, Hamnet, it was back to the comedy for this seasonal special. 

Read more...

Torvill & Dean, ITV review - skating into history

Adam Sweeting

When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won their ice skating gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984, notching up an all-time record score which included 12 perfect sixes, it looked like a real-life fairytale.

Read more...

Merry Christmas Baby - Gregory Porter & Friends, BBC Two review - mellow becomes slo-mo

Sebastian Scotney

In 2017, the BBC Wales team with director Rhodri Huw filmed a Christmas show in the old 1888 Coal Exchange in Cardiff, now a hotel. Tom Jones and Beverley Knight’s Gospel Christmas was an exciting and upbeat show, which ended in an electrifying “Born in Bethlehem”.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
BBC Proms: Akhmetshina, LPO, Gardner review - liquid luxurie...

Water surged through this Prom from first spray to last drop....

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Lily Blumkin / Shamik Chakra...

Lily Blumkin Gilded Balloon @ Patter House ★★★

Lily Blumkin has always...

Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer, Edinburgh Interna...

Fresh from their triumph at the Proms, the Budapest Festival Orchestra arrived at the Edinburgh International Festival with a programme that...

Tom at the Farm, Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - desire and d...

As shockingly beautiful as it is horrifyingly brutal, actor Armando Babaioff’s deeply Brazilian adaptation of thriller Tom at the Farm...

MARS, Irish National Opera review - silly space oddity with...

The craft heads to Mars, the music remains below on earth. Which is partly intentional: composer Jennifer Walshe tells us she listened to “synth...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Desiree Burch / Andy Parsons

Desiree Burch, Monkey Barrel ★★★★

Desiree Burch is a bundle of energy as...

Album: Rise Against - Ricochet

Ricochet is Chicago punk veterans Rise Against’s 10th album and,...

Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review...

With the sheer density of theatrical creations jostling for attention across...