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I Know Who You Are, Series 2, BBC Four review - get on with it, por favorSunday, 05 November 2017
Here we go again then. The “first series”, as the BBC are calling it after the fact, of I Know Who You Are slammed the brakes on and juddered to a bewildering halt back in the middle of August. Almost everyone who’d sat through the plot dodgems of those 10 episodes will have had the same reaction: eh? Read more...
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Queen: Rock the World, BBC Four review - we won't rock youSaturday, 04 November 2017
Forty years ago Whispering Bob Harris made a documentary about Queen. He eavesdropped on them as they recorded the album News of the World and then followed them around America on tour. Read more... |
Strike Back, Series 6, Sky 1 review - more stories for boysWednesday, 01 November 2017
Laughable though it frequently – oh go on then, always – is, Strike Back is obviously a target-rich environment for those of a thespian persuasion. Read more... |
66 Days, BBC Four review - Bobby Sands strikes againWednesday, 01 November 2017
There was much more to Brendan J Byrne’s engrossing, even-handed documentary 66 Days (BBC Four) than its title might at first suggest. The timeline that led up to the death on 5 May 1981 of the IRA prisoner provided its immediate context – an increasingly dramatic one as the countdown of Sands’s hunger strike nears its inexorable conclusion. Read more... |
Inspector George Gently, BBC One review - power, corruption and lies in his last-ever caseTuesday, 31 October 2017
And now the end is near… and so Inspector George Gently faces his final case. Deemed too political to be broadcast in its original slot in May – 10 days before the General Election – Gently and the New Age was postponed until 8.30pm last night. Read more... |
W1A, Series 3 Finale, BBC Two review - the satire gets to the end of its jokeTuesday, 24 October 2017
Repetition can help clarity. It emphasises significance, and shines a light more directly onto something hidden. It can guide us gently into an area we might have otherwise circumvented, and urge us to stare at something for long enough to see beyond, and transcend previous, long-held opinions. Read more... |
Newsnight: Grenfell Tower - The 21st Floor, BBC Two review - a simple, moving reconstructionTuesday, 24 October 2017
The streets around Grenfell Tower on the morning after it was consumed by fire heaved with people. A stream of donors brought food, clothes and toiletries, while news crews and journalists came in vans or on foot as if arriving in a war zone. Read more... |
Jacqueline du Pré: A Gift Beyond Words, BBC Four review - ode to joyful cellistMonday, 23 October 2017
Hyperbole be damned. The most iconic English classical recording was made on 19 August 1965 in Kingsway Hall, London. Like Maria Callas singing Tosca, Jacqueline du Pré simply was the Elgar Cello Concerto once the LP hit the shops in time for Christmas. Read more... |
Gunpowder, BBC One review – death, horror, treason and a hint of farceSunday, 22 October 2017
Much is being made of the fact that Kit Harington is not only playing the Gunpowder Plot mastermind Robert Catesby, but is genuinely descended from him (and his middle name is Catesby). Read more... |
Chris Packham: Asperger's and Me, BBC Two review - 'like an alien from another planet'Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Chris Packham, who devises and presents programmes about nature and animals, has described himself as "a little bit weird". This autobiographical documentary about himself explained what being on the autistic spectrum meant to him in particular in daily life and beyond. 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...
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Music Reissues Weekly: Chapterhouse - White House Demos
Quoted in an early music press article on his band Chapterhouse, singer-guitarist Stephen Patman said their ambition was “to have our records on...