Television
If you're tired of Netflix's agendas, turn to BritBox's new Agatha Christie
Netflix’s share price has collapsed and a major factor, people are saying, is its relentless pushing of agendas. I think…
The chief characteristic so far has been nervousness: Chivalry reviewed
Chivalry – written by and starring Sarah Solemani and Steve Coogan – is a comedy drama about post-#MeToo Hollywood life.…
How did he even fool the Duke of Edinburgh? Netflix’s Jimmy Savile – A British Horror Story reviewed
The only impersonation I can do is my Jimmy Savile impersonation. This is not uncommon among people of my generation:…
An impeccably rule-observing programme from the BBC: Art That Made Us reviewed
Art That Made Us is an ambitious new series, firmly in the ‘history of something in a load of different…
If you want to avoid intrusive anachronisms on TV, you have to go foreign
The iron law of TV these days is that if you want to avoid series that are suffocatingly right-on the…
Relentless and shouty: BBC2's Then Barbara met Alan reviewed
BBC2’s one-off drama Then Barbara Met Alan(Monday) told the true story of how two disabled performers on the cabaret circuit…
Unhurried and accomplished whodunit: ITV's Holding reviewed
A couple of years ago, I happened to read Graham Norton’s third novel Home Stretch. Rather patronisingly, perhaps, I was…
What’ll happen next – or what’s happened so far – is anybody’s guess: The Ipcress File reviewed
ITV’s new version of The Ipcress File began with a close-up of a pair of black-rimmed glasses just like those…
Enthralling and unusual – even if you don't care about Kanye: Netflix's Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy reviewed
The most disappointing pop performance I’ve ever seen – and in the course of my 15-odd years as a music…
For all its absurdity, it delivers the goods: BBC2's Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America reviewed
In the latest episode of Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America, Louis asked a rapper called Broke Baby if ‘it’s important to…
Amusing and entertaining – though not very taxing: Amazon Prime's Reacher reviewed
Jack Reacher is back on the screen and aficionados of the hugely successful Lee Child airport thrillers in which he…
The medical equivalent of The Responder: BBC1's This is Going to Hurt reviewed
According to the makers, This is Going to Hurt is intended as ‘a love letter to the national health service’.…
Horrifying but gripping: Netflix's The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman reviewed
It’s 1993 and you’re studying at a top agricultural college with a bright future ahead of you, perhaps in farming…
Shades of Tony Soprano: BBC1's The Responder reviewed
Older readers may remember a time when people signalled their cultural superiority with the weird boast that they didn’t watch…
A dog’s breakfast but I’m rather enjoying it: Sky Atlantic's Yellowjackets reviewed
It has taken me a while to watch Yellowjacketsbecause I found the premise so offputting: in 1996 a plane carrying…
A cut above TV's usual #MeToo fare: BBC1's Rules of the Game reviewed
As you may have noticed, it’s something of a golden age for TV shows about how invisible middle-aged women are…
The drugs don’t work
One of my first jobs in journalism was as the arts correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. I’d hop on my…
Tells us more about today than the early 1960s: BBC1's A Very British Scandal reviewed
For people who like a good upper-class scandal (or ‘people’, as they’re also known), 1963 was definitely a vintage year.…
Even worse than the book: Amazon Prime's The Wheel of Time reviewed
A couple of years ago, in that near-forgotten era when we could travel almost freely, I canvassed social media as…
More mesmerising than it should be – Disney+'s The Beatles: Get Back reviewed
My late friend Alexander Nekrassov loathed the Beatles, which I used to think was a wantonly contrary position akin to…
Eddie Izzard is so bad I'm hoping he gets dismembered: Sky's The Lost Symbol reviewed
If it weren’t for this job I sometimes wonder whether I’d even bother watching TV at all. This mood strikes…
Some jolly TV artifice and a rare moment of authenticity: C4’s Miriam and Alan – Lost in Scotland reviewed
Thanks to Covid, the days are gone — or at least suspended — when a TV travel programme meant a…
Profound and original and unashamedly religious: Midnight Mass reviewed
I was turned on to Midnight Mass by Ricky Gervais who raved about it in one of his social media…
A blisteringly bonkers first episode: Doctor Who – Flux reviewed
BBC1 continuity excitedly introduced the first in the new series of Doctor Who as ‘bigger and better than ever’ —…
A highly polished exercise in treading water: Season 3 of Succession reviewed
At one point in an early Simpsons, Homer comes across an old issue of TV Guide, and finds the listing…
