Television
The best thing on TV ever
I’ve been trying to avoid the house TV room as much as possible recently because it tends to be occupied…
The importance of being earnest
Ken Burns made his name in 1990 with The Civil War, the justly celebrated 11-and-a-half-hour documentary series that gave America’s…
Agricultural revolution
I was at a party the other day when who should accost me but Jeremy Clarkson. There were lots more…
GB News has chutzpah but does it have legs?
Help! If I’m too kind to GB News, my bosses at LBC will be cross as the channel nicked their…
The play’s the thing
Let me start with a spot of admin: if you’re wondering what The Speccie makes of GB News, it’ll be…
The only way is Israel
Tragically it wasn’t my turn to review when Channel 5’s groundbreaking Anne Boleyn came out so you’ll never find out…
History repeats itself
Fifty-one years ago, in the BBC’s much-acclaimed The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn was portrayed as a brave…
Skins in togas
I’ve been looking at the reviews so far of Sky’s new Romans series Domina and none seems to have noticed…
The best of British
There was certainly no lack of variety among new TV dramas this week, with a standard British thriller up against…
Under the radar
I’d been expecting the BBC to make a dreadful hash of The Pursuit of Love, especially when I read that…
Wright and wrong
Ian Wright: Home Truths began with the ex-footballer saying that the home he grew up in was ‘not a happy…
My rekindled love for the BBC
Here’s a thought that will make you feel old. Or worried. Or both. The poke-fun-at-celebrity-houses series Through the Keyhole —…
Filthy lucre
If you’re after an exciting, twisty programme about police corruption that doesn’t also feel a bit like sitting an exam…
Ill-judged sanctimony
I’m really not enjoying Your Honor, the latest vehicle for Bryan Cranston to play a good man driven to the…
Cooking the books
Agatha and Poirot was one of those programmes that had the annoying effect of making you feel distinctly snooty. ITV’s…
So damned French
For the past few weeks I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Call My Agent! (or Dix pour cent, as…
Mercurio rising
When a drama begins with news of a ‘Chis handler’ receiving ‘intel graded A1 on the matrix’ that causes a…
Nothing to see here
Calls is the very antithesis of televisual soma. In fact it’s so jarring and discomfiting and horrible that I think…
Double act
Well, this a bit awkward. A fortnight ago, in my last TV column, I confidently asserted that, despite the involvement…
Dumb and dumber
Here’s a worried question I want to plant in your head: when is TV drama going to start depicting the…
Thoughtful thriller
To begin on a cheerful note, it’s certainly been a good week for fans of slow-burn British crime dramas with…
Three plots for the price of one
ZeroZeroZero is the impossibly exciting new drugs series from Roberto Saviano — the author who gave us perhaps my all-time…
Joining the dots
‘History,’ wrote Edward Gibbon, ‘is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.’ In…
You’ll wish you were gay
To promote his new drama series about Aids in the early 1980s, Russell T. Davies insisted in an interview that…
Life in the fast lane
DeLorean: Back from the Future was one of those documentaries — for me at least — that takes a story…
