mon 13/10/2025

tv

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.

Read more...

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...

Read more...

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?

Read more...

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?

Read more...

The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4 review – a cake with adverts is still a cake

Barney Harsent

By the outrage it prompted, you’d be forgiven for thinking that The Great British Bake Off’s move to Channel 4 was a national disaster. If only the public felt so indignant about the sale of the Post Office, or the creeping privatisation of a beleaguered NHS… but hey-ho, cakes it is, then. 

Read more...

Trust Me, BBC One, series finale review - drama about fake doctor was also pretending

Jasper Rees

Trust Me made an eponymous plea to the audience. Its implausible premise – that a nurse might steal a doctor’s identity and land a job in A&E – called for your credulity.

Read more...

Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling, BBC One review - JK Rowling's debut in crime bows most promisingly

Tom Birchenough

There’s a new ‘tec in town. Cormoran Strike may look like one of life’s losers – he’s on the edge of bankruptcy, sleeps in the office, and what passes for a personal life is a right mess – but in Tom Burke’s portrayal I suspect he’s going to be winning audiences in a big way.

Read more...

Wasting Away, Channel 4 review - we can't fix people while the NHS is broken

Barney Harsent

Journalist Mark Austin is no stranger to conflict, having reported from war-torn landscapes including Rwanda, Iraq and even the ITN newsdesk. However, when the battle lines were drawn closer to home and involved an enemy he couldn’t see, the veteran journalist found himself in unfamiliar territory and without any kind of roadmap. 

Read more...

The State, Channel 4 review - dishonest portrait of British jihadis

Jasper Rees

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...

No More Boys and Girls, BBC Two – baby steps lead to great leaps for children

Barney Harsent

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...

Pages

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Solomon, OAE, Butt, QEH review - daft Biblical whitewashing...

Forty years ago, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born, and I heard Handel’s Solomon in concert for the first time. Charles...

The Woman in Cabin 10 review - Scandi noir meets Agatha Chri...

A fizzy mystery cocktail with a twist and a splash, The Woman in Cabin 10, based on Ruth Ware’s bestseller, sails along like the sleek...

Soulwax’s 'All Systems Are Lying' lays down some t...

It’s seven years since the Belgian brothers Dewaele unleashed their fine, largely instrumental and foot-stomping Essential album on the...

Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - shining constellations

Never mind the permutations (anything up to eight hands on the two pianos); feel the unwavering quality of the eight pianists and the 13 works,...

Music Reissues Weekly: Marc and the Mambas - Three Black Nig...

A month after Soft Cell’s "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" single peaked at number three in the UK charts, Marc Almond issued a single credited to Marc...

Troilus and Cressida, Globe Theatre review - a 'problem...

The Globe’s authenticity is its USP, so don’t expect the air-conditioning, the plush seats and the expectant hush of the National...

Album: Mobb Deep - Infinite

Eight years after Prodigy’s untimely passing, Mobb Deep are gracing our sound systems once again with unreleased vocals and brand new music. With...

London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and...

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

The third of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out...

I Swear review - taking stock of Tourette's

People sometimes go to the movies for the violence and maybe even for the sex. Until recently they didn’t particularly buy a ticket for...