wed 30/07/2025

tv

100 Year Old Driving School, ITV review – a warning with history

Barney Harsent

While Horizon, on BBC2, was telling us that the first person to walk on Mars could well be walking among us now, ITV's 100 Year Old Driving School suggested that the space mission could take a major setback if that wannabe astronaut were to encounter Joan Beech on the roads.

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Rellik, BBC One review - tricksy procedural messes with time

Jasper Rees

There are two Williams brothers – Jack and Harry – who are mainly known for two series of The Missing. No chance of the Williamses going missing. Quite the reverse. As of today – Monday 11 September – they seem to have cloned.

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Liar, ITV - who, if anybody, is telling the truth?

Adam Sweeting

Could handsome, successful, designer-stubbly Ioan Gruffudd really be a rapist? Yes, according to schoolteacher Laura Nielson (Joanne Froggatt). No, according to Gruffudd’s character Andrew Earlham, a distinguished surgeon and widower apparently horrified to be accused of such a thing.

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Tin Star, Sky Atlantic - broken characters stalked by remorseless fate

Adam Sweeting

Sometimes you can find yourself hankering after those old-fashioned TV dramas where you got a self-contained story every week, so you can drop in on it at any time and still keep up with what’s going on. With Tin Star, on the other hand, you need to stick with it for at least four episodes before the scope of the story begins to reveal itself and it starts to exert a painful grip.

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Cold Feet, series 7, ITV review - more comedy than drama

Barney Harsent

When the ITV comedy drama Cold Feet returned last year after a 13-year break, it seemed something of a risk. Looking back, after the near-universal acclaim and excellent viewing figures, it’s difficult to think it could have been anything but a sure-fire hit.

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Safe House, series 2, ITV review - the abduction and captivity show returns

Mark Sanderson

Forget Christopher Eccleston and the Lake District. Two years on, Ed Whitmore’s ready-mix thriller Safe House returns with Stephen Moyer in Merseyside.

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Doctor Foster, Series 2, BBC One review - belief suspended for a pacy and tense return

Barney Harsent

They say that living well is the best revenge. To be fair, they also say it’s a dish best served cold and I’m pretty sure they’re thinking of gazpacho, so I’m not entirely clear how much real meaning is to be found in these dictums.

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Imagine... Alma Deutscher: Finding Cinderella, BBC One review - beguiling profile of a musical prodigy

graham Rickson

Morag Tinto’s documentary is a profile of composer Alma Deutscher, who hit the headlines at the end of last year when her opera based on the Cinderella story premiered in...

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Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC Two, series finale review - torpor not trauma

Mark Sanderson

So who killed Cinnamon? Six weeks ago we saw the strangled sex-worker – packed in a pink suitcase – pushed into Bondi Bay. The finale of Top of the Lake: China Girl withheld enlightenment. Puss, the chief suspect, denied responsibility. Why would the baby-farmer destroy such a valuable (pregnant) asset?

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Educating Greater Manchester, Channel 4 review - a study of hope, humanity and heart

Barney Harsent

Cast your minds back, if you will, to 2011. Remember Jamie Oliver’s Celebrity Fight School?

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