Television
Why doesn't Doctor Who travel far from Britain?
If I could go back in time, I’d watch Doctor Who from the very first episode. I wasn’t born in…
James Delingpole: Is the fight against environmentalism the new Cold War?
Gosh it isn’t half irksome when someone who went to the same school as you but is considerably younger than…
Come to the Spectator office, Gareth Malone, and hear our 'Carmina Burana'
They’re now televising proceedings from the Court of Appeal. Great. As if I didn’t have enough to do already, keeping…
James Delingpole: All students need a 'sense of entitlement' — ask my fundie friend Rupert
‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,’ said John Lennon. Quite apposite from a man…
Will the women of The X Factor stop perving?
Will the women on ITV’s The X Factor (Saturday) stop perving? I suppose there are two ways to tackle the…
James Delingpole: The Wrong Mans leaves me gasping with exhilaration and glee
Among the criticisms rightly levelled at the BBC are that its commissioning editors are overcautious, unimaginative, unadventurous and over-reliant on…
Introducing the celebs of Victorian reality TV
Did Dr Jekyll turn into Jack the Ripper? Besides becoming evil Mr Hyde, did Robert L. Stevenson’s fictional creation morph…
Can you trade love for wealth? The economics of Breaking Bad
The acclaimed television series Breaking Bad has ended. Steffen Huck on what it can teach us about economics
'Atlantis' shows our civilisation is doomed
This week saw the final episode of possibly the greatest television series ever. Breaking Bad wasn’t made by the BBC,…
Downton Abbey is now a weird parallel universe of the royal family. Except with less action
Are you following the world’s most watched aristocratic family? If you recall, they recently took into their ranks a member…
James Delingpole: As a Brummie, I am aggrieved with Peaky Blinders
You wait a whole lifetime for a lavishly shot, starrily cast, mega-budget gangster drama set in Birmingham to come along.…
The Wipers Times - 100 years on, this newspaper still lives
Funny what rises from the rubble. In 1916 British army officer Captain Fred Roberts was searching the bombed-out remains of…
After watching Bad Education, Big School is as embarrassing as watching your dad trying to DJ
You know you’re getting old when TV starts getting nostalgic about eras during which you were already feeling old and…
The sight of a rose-and-pistachio cake with lychee flavouring, strewn with petals, makes Clarissa Tan’s heart lift
I’m not crazy about cookery shows. I suspect they indicate how little we are cooking, rather than how much. We’re…
Breaking Bad is so harrowing that for a while James Delingpole couldn’t watch it
One of Boy’s more annoying teenage rules of thumb is that, if Dad likes it, it must be crap. This…
Big School left me po-faced
How did our comedies become so sad? BBC1’s new sitcom Big School (Fridays) opened with a scene that would probably…
Is David Starkey God?
‘Somerset. Winter 877,’ said the subtitles below an arty, BBC-nature-doc style close-up of a coot paddling amid the reeds on…
Clarissa Tan experiences the greatest show on earth, and laughs
I watched Top Gear (BBC2, Sunday) for the first time in my life last week (the rock under which I’ve…
What was the point of Burton and Taylor?
Watching Burton and Taylor (BBC4, Monday) I felt a bit like I do when I go to the theatre —…
If you’re craving some Kiwi bush angst, Top of the Lake fits the bill
I sincerely hope you’re not watching television. With the glorious summer sun we’re having, you should be having picnics and…
Brainwashed from birth: the cult of the BBC
Last week I was on holiday with my family on the Algarve. The good news was that, thanks to the…
TV review: Get out of my way, Tessa Jowell. Women are not all touchy-feely
Luther is back, in Luther, and so is Donny Osmond, of Donny & Marie fame. Could there be two more…
