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The State, Channel 4 review - dishonest portrait of British jihadisMonday, 21 August 2017
It’s a burning question of western civilisation: what persuades young people brought up among us to walk out on their lives and join the cult of murderous fanatics who call themselves Islamic State? Read more...
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No More Boys and Girls, BBC Two – baby steps lead to great leaps for childrenThursday, 17 August 2017
Whether it’s the £400,000 that separates Mishal Husain from John Humphrys, or the 74 million miles between the metaphorical markers of Venus and Mars, there is a gulf between the genders. Despite legislation to enforce equality, the reality is that, right from the start, boys and girls are treated differently. Boys like trains, right? Read more... |
I Know Who You Are, series finale, BBC Four review - gripping, but no one to root forSunday, 13 August 2017
The first thing to say is that this wasn’t the actual end. BBC Four scheduled I Know Who You Are to run two episodes a night over five Saturdays. The innocent punter might have assumed that after 10 x 70 minutes of the Spanish import, we’d arrive at some sort of terminus. Read more... |
Citizen Jane review - portrait of a New York toughieThursday, 10 August 2017
When you’re next strolling through Washington Square Park, or SoHo, or the West Village, you can thank Jane Jacobs that those New York neighbourhoods have survived (though she'd blanch at the price of real estate). Four-lane highways almost dissected and ruined them in the mid-Fifties, but her grass-roots activism saved those higgledy-piggledy streets. Read more... |
Trust Me, BBC One review - Jodie Whittaker's tense medical check-upWednesday, 09 August 2017
Even the canniest scheduler at BBC One couldn’t have arranged things so propitiously. Jodie Whittaker was already filming the medical drama Trust Me when she was cast as you know Who. Read more... |
Utopia: In Search of the Dream, BBC Four review - the best of all possible documentaries?Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Only man is vile, goes the hymn, and yet humankind has always imagined ideal societies where people care for one another, everyone has access to anything necessary physical and emotional well-being, and all is for the best – without irony – in the best of all possible worlds. Read more... |
Fargo, Series 3 Finale, Channel 4 review - the best drama of the year?Thursday, 03 August 2017
“This is a true story. This is a story…” The self-referential nature of Noah Hawley’s baroque narrative arc was one of the great joys of the third season of Fargo. Over the past 10 weeks its constant invention, cinematic tricks and award-worthy performances have come together to produce the best drama of the year (so far). Read more... |
Man in an Orange Shirt, BBC Two review - soft-focus view of 1940s gay love affairTuesday, 01 August 2017
As chat-up lines go, “I can’t do my fly up single-handed” is pretty full on – even if it is true. Thomas March (James McArdle) is speaking to James Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who not only went to the same public school but has also just saved his life on the Italian front during World War Two. Furthermore, the come-on works. The wounded soldiers are soon sucking face. Read more... |
The Handmaid's Tale, Series 1 finale, Channel 4 review - exquisite to look at but glacially slowMonday, 31 July 2017
Come awards time, it’s inevitable that Elisabeth Moss will be collecting a few for her portrayal of Offred, the endlessly-suffering lead character in The Handmaid’s Tale (her real name is June). But I reckon the real stars of the show are cinematographer Colin Watkinson plus the production design and art direction teams. Read more... |
Queer as Art, BBC Two review - showbusiness and the gay revolutionSunday, 30 July 2017
Part of the BBC's Gay Britannia season, here was a programme fulfilling what it said on the tin: prominent LGBTQ (when will all these expanding acronyms cease to confuse us all) figures narrating, examining, discussing, analysing, letting it all hang out about LGBTQ folk and the arts during the past half-century. Read more... |
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