Television
Biddy Baxter and the perils of remembering the past
I’ve been reading the cracking, crackling new biography Biddy Baxter: The Woman Who Made Blue Peter by Richard Marson (he’s a friend,…
Much of the mysteriousness is inadvertent: ITV’s The Reunion reviewed
The Reunion opened in 1997 with some young people being carefree: a fact they obligingly signalled by zipping around the…
Will we even notice if AI replaces screenwriters?
Will we even notice if AI replaces screenwriters?
The BBC’s biggest problem
As I write this, the director-general of the BBC is being quizzed on the corporation’s future by people who were…
The strange obsession with Phillip Schofield
As I have noted before, there is always another circle. I thought that last week’s scandal (originally entitled ‘Suellagate’ or…
TV dramas like Welcome to Wrexham are spoiling sport
The blurred lines between sport and entertainment
What Zelensky has taken from his former TV career
Volodymyr Zelensky is one of the few leaders of modern times whose charisma, determination and sheer cojones can be said,…
Boris, Sherwood and the politics of the past
It feels like the end, but we’ve been here before. The past months of Boris Johnson’s teetering administration have felt…
I’m a tourist in my own town
‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,’ groans a weary Al Pacino in The Godfather…
Changing channels: the new war for political broadcasting
The television will be revolutionised
The BBC’s obsession with youth
At long last the state of Oregon has got around to installing tampon machines in the male lavatories of its…
Is this Premier Inn all I’ll be remembered for?
It’s fairly commonplace for people to wonder what, if anything, they’ll be remembered for. I’m going to be 59 later…
How to watch YouTube on your TV – and why you should
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio Aemilianus was the first man to shave daily. The origin of the name Boeing…
The most disadvantaged group in Britain? White working-class men
I’m not sure what to think about the BBC’s announcement that it wants a quarter of its staff to be…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The unseen Victoria Wood
For a few years now I have been living with Victoria Wood. That sounds all wrong, obviously, and yet no…
Sky Sports is ruining my football season
When I promised my 13-year-old son, Charlie, that we would go to as many QPR games as possible in 2021-22…
In blockbuster Britain, the BBC is being left behind
There’s a great revival under way in the British TV and film industry, but it’s not the BBC that’s behind…
The BBC is being left behind in blockbuster Britain
There’s a great revival under way inthe British TV and film industry,but it’s not the BBC that’s behind it.Netflix is…
My literary heroes have led me astray
Gstaad Good manners aside, what I miss nowadays is a new, intelligent, finely acted movie. Never have I seen…
HBO’s The Prince should leave George alone
Last year Netflix refusedto add a disclaimer to the beginning of every episode of The Crown, warning viewers that it…
Modern soap operas have lost the plot
Modern soap operas have lost the plot
British broadcast news has gone badly wrong
I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense…