sat 23/08/2025

tv

Little Women, BBC One review - life during wartime with the March sisters

Marina Vaizey

One of the much-hyped jewels in the crown of the family-friendly BBC holiday season is this new three-episode adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's much loved novel by Heidi Thomas, the writer of Call the Midwife.

Read more...

Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time, BBC One review – a defiantly small and personal goodbye

Owen Richards

And so, with one last speech on the importance of kindness, Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat bid farewell to the TARDIS. In their final Doctor Who episode, Twice Upon a Time subverted expectations with a small, sweet adventure which valued character above plot.

Read more...

300 Years of French and Saunders, BBC1 review - seasonal treat from the sketch duo

Veronica Lee

What joy that Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were persuaded by the BBC to celebrate their 30 (ish) years as a comedy duo with this programme – and that this sweet confection was shown on Christmas Day.

Read more...

Maigret in Montmartre, ITV review - dirty deeds in clubland

Adam Sweeting

Whatever the Waitrose and Morrisons commercials are telling you, as far as TV schedulers are concerned ‘tis the season for murder. Thus a Christmas Maigret has become an instant tradition, with Rowan Atkinson reprising his performance as Georges Simenon’s dolorous detective.

Read more...

Peaky Blinders, Series 4 Finale, BBC Two review – Tommy faces his reckoning

Owen Richards

Luca Changretta got his just desserts, Alfie Solomons made a last gasp for the quiet life, and Thomas Shelby revealed his true enemy – Peaky Blinders wrapped up another exciting series in a high-octane and neat finale.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.”

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Dunedin Consort, Butt / D’Angelo, Muñoz, Edinburgh Internati...

Handel probably wrote his cantata Clori, Tirsi e Fileno in 1707 while he was in the service of the Marquis of Ruspoli in Rome. It tells...

The Maccabees, Barrowland, Glasgow review - indie band retur...

You wait years for a guitar group with brothers to reunite and then two come along at once. The Maccabees return might have attracted far less...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Refuse / Terry's / Sugar

Refuse, Assembly George Square Studios ...

Album: Blood Orange - Essex Honey

The more time goes by, the more it seems like Dev Hynes might be the antidote to what Guy Debord called “the society of the spectacle”. As is...

Faustus in Africa!, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 re...

What new light can the age-old legend of Faust selling his soul to the devil shed on colonialism in Africa, slavery, the rape and destruction of...

Houghton / We Out Here festivals review - an ultra-marathon...

The long, hot summer of 2025 has been something else, right? Hate rallies, creeping authoritarianism, a weird reluctance to discuss the extremity...

Sorry, Baby review - the healing power of friendship in the...

“I have a baby in me,” says Lydie (Naomi Ackie; Mickey 17). “What? Right now?” says her friend Agnes (Eva Victor), who may not be...

Album: Wolf Alice - Clearing

Wolf Alice are a band who consistently over-deliver. Their presentation is so staid, their cited influences so safe (The Beatles! Blur!), their...