fri 06/06/2025

tv

The League of Gentlemen, BBC2 review - an anniversary to celebrate

Veronica Lee

In 1994, a group of students at Bretton Hall drama school – Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith – began writing and performing together.

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Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees, BBC One review - an arboreal delight

Marina Vaizey

“I am going to find out how much my trees live, breath, and even communicate. I am Judi Dench, and I have been an actor for 60 years – but I have had another passion ever since I was a little girl: I have adored trees. My six acres are a secret woodland, and my trees are part of my extended life.”

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Agatha Christie's Crooked House, Channel 5 review - actresses chew furniture for fun

Jasper Rees

Crooked House is being released as a film in various territories, but has already been shown on television in America and has now surfaced as a drama on Channel 5 bearing the title Agatha Christie’s Crooked House.

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Witnesses: A Frozen Death finale, BBC Four review - weirdo childbirth cult hits the buffers

Adam Sweeting

It’s remarkable how pervasive the Scandi-noir formula has become, with its penchant for weird and perverted killers, labyrinthine plotting and intriguingly flawed protagonists.

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The Tunnel: Vengeance, Sky Atlantic review - entente not-so-cordiale

Adam Sweeting

For the third and allegedly final time, we hasten back to the Kent coast for another outbreak of cross-Channel crime.

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Bancroft, ITV review - Sarah Parish's very cold case

Jasper Rees

This week we were all meant to be gripped by a bunch of ancient geezers nicking diamonds in Hatton Gardens. The postponement of ITV’s nightly four-part drama – the second of four (four!!) different versions of the infamous burglary – is a bit of a mystery. Now you see it on the cover of the Radio Times.

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Blue Planet II, BBC One review - just how fragile?

Katherine Waters

The eel is dying. Its body flits through a series of complicated knots which become increasingly grotesque torques. Immersed in a pool of brine — concentrated salt water five times denser than seawater — it is succumbing to toxic shock. As biomatter on the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico decomposes, brine and methane are produced, and where these saline pockets collect, nothing grows.

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The Crown, Series 2, Netflix review - all our yesterdays, cunningly rewritten

Adam Sweeting

Beneath the creamy overlay of gowns, crystal chandeliers, palaces, uniformed flunkies and a sumptuous (albeit CGI-enhanced) Royal Yacht, a steely pulse of realpolitik fuels The Crown, returning to Netflix for its much-anticipated second series.

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Howards End finale, BBC One review - who isn't going to miss the Schlegel sisters?

Jasper Rees

How good was Howards End (BBC One)? Practically flawless.

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Imagine... Rachel Whiteread: Ghosts in the Room, BBC Two review - making memories solid

Sarah Kent

Eureka! A programme about a woman artist that doesn’t define her as a wife and mother first and an artist second.

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