Television
Bleak and brutal
Gomorrah (Sky Atlantic, Monday), the new, must-see Mafioso series, started promisingly. We met two hoods — one young, shaven-headed, good-looking;…
Trigger happy
Channel 4’s Kids and Guns (Thursday) began with an American TV advert in which a young boy’s eyes shone with…
Laugh a minute
If there’s one thing everyone knows about BBC comedy it’s that it’s going downhill. According to Danny Cohen, now Director…
Unforgettable riffs
A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old son, who’s taken up the guitar, announced that he’d learned something new. He then…
Question time
‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually…
Secrets and lies
BBC2’s The Honourable Woman (Thursday) began with a rather portentous voice-over bringing us the unsurprising news that ‘We all have…
Serpents’ tale
Did you know that the 8th-century Kingdom of Northumbria was the epicentre of an international exotic reptile trade? I only…
Dolphin watch
BBC4’s The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins (Tuesday) began with the overstated-sounding claim that it would be tackling ‘perhaps the…
Spectator sport
You know what the world needs most right now? What it needs is five good-looking-ish, talented-ish blokes dressed in a…
Dark tales
The work of John Banville — Booker-winning novelist and impeccably high-minded literary critic — might seem an unlikely source for…
Dipping should be outlawed
Admit it. Say it! ‘My name is Blah and I am a boxaholic.’ Life on hold, marriage in bits, job…
Comic genius
On Harry and Paul’s Story of the Twos (BBC 2, Sunday), there was a particularly cruel sketch in which Paul…
Alcohol overload
According to its executive producer Griff Rhys Jones, A Poet in New York (BBC2, Sunday) sought to rescue Dylan Thomas…
Touchstone of humanity
Which character are you in Game of Thrones? For me it’s got to be the imp, Tyrion Lannister. As Ed…
Watching the clock
Whatever worries Kiefer Sutherland may have had about reprising the role of Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day (Sky1,…
Cheating history
I was so looking forward to Generation War (BBC2, Saturday) — a three-part drama series covering the second world war…
Tricks of the trade
Television executives must be longing to make a programme about estate agents that casts the agents in a good light.…
Female strength
God bless the BBC. And I’m not being entirely sarcastic here. There are some things the BBC does very well…
Women at war
Sunday nights. What are they for? Eggs. Tea. Toast. Nerves about the week ahead. Something comforting on TV. But comfort…
Bad timing
For me, by far the most surprising revelation in Martin Durkin’s documentary Nigel Farage: Who Are You? (Channel 4, Monday)…
Our island story
A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Having recently learnt of his father’s beheading, the adolescent —…
Brothers under the skin
One of the stranger things about Eton is its near-total lack of class snobbery. Yes, all right, you still get…
Channel hopping
So BBC3 will be online-only from next autumn. If the Beeb had presented this news as the channel being the…
Winning formula
I’ve got this brilliant idea for a major new cop series. It’s called Chalk and Cheese and, though you won’t…
In pursuit of the Prince
What if Bonnie Prince Charlie, as he swept down from Scotland towards London to lay claim to the throne, hadn’t…
