Television

Why I don’t regret leaving the BBC

24 April 2021 9:00 am

I have just had my second jab and it poses a dilemma. As an assiduous Covid rule-taker, I have been…

The islanders who met their god – Prince Philip

17 April 2021 3:00 pm

Some time around 2006 my then flatmate, a filmmaker, had a good idea: why not make a programme of reverse…

My painstaking preparations for Prince Philip’s funeral

17 April 2021 9:00 am

The files arrived marked ‘STRICT EMBARGO’ and ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and ‘FORTH BRIDGE REVISED’ and stamped with various crests and insignia. My…

The deafening rise of ‘background’ music

17 April 2021 9:00 am

The unstoppable rise of ‘background’ music

Why I’m glad to see the back of Call My Agent!

3 April 2021 9:00 am

For the past few weeks I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Call My Agent! (or Dix pour cent, as…

Is Jed Mercurio bored with Line of Duty?

27 March 2021 9:00 am

When a drama begins with news of a ‘Chis handler’ receiving ‘intel graded A1 on the matrix’ that causes a…

Why I won’t be replacing Piers Morgan

20 March 2021 9:00 am

Piers Morgan may have been the UK equivalent of a TV shock-jock, but there’s another side to him. I’ve known…

Joan Collins: The politics of Christmas trees

19 December 2020 9:00 am

To say that the past nine months have been tough is like saying a hurricane felt like a spring shower.…

The Co-op Bank isn't worthy of its name

28 November 2020 9:00 am

We’ve heard a lot this week about infrastructure spending, and how much more will be needed if the UK is…

Sets appeal: the distracting beauty of TV backdrops

28 November 2020 9:00 am

The distracting beauty of TV backdrops

In defence of Emily in Paris

7 November 2020 9:00 am

A frothy new drama called Emily in Paris arrived on Netflix last month. Starring Lily Collins — daughter of Phil…

Spare us David Hare

24 October 2020 9:00 am

Having not watched television for nine months and already growing bored of the 1,000-piece jigsaw of General Alfredo Stroessner (part…

The end of the line for the rail franchise fiasco

26 September 2020 9:00 am

Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of…

The bluff and bluster of Boris’s bland boy Brexiteers

4 July 2020 9:00 am

From the balcony where I take my daily exercise there is a view of the commercial centre of London that…

Movie-makers should look to the Athenians before cashing in on this crisis

18 April 2020 9:00 am

Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise,…

How I fell out of love with the BBC

7 March 2020 9:00 am

One of the many technological things I don’t understand is, how come I’m paying to watch television? I know why…

Why the BBC licence fee makes sense

7 March 2020 9:00 am

A consensus seems to be forming that the BBC licence fee is for the chop. In a digital age, the…

Joan Collins: I’m an actress, not an actor. And yes, it matters

21 December 2019 9:00 am

I recently tried to put my profession down as ‘actress’ on Instagram, but the only option available from the drop-down…

This year’s top gadgets – according to my inner chimp

7 December 2019 9:00 am

I’d hoped to spend this week writing about my new Geberit Japanese-style toilet, but since the grout is not yet…

No one else has the weird levels of self-regard shown by people who appear regularly on TV

23 November 2019 9:00 am

One of the more tedious tropes of recent years is for journalists to bemoan the rise of populism while busily…

With these documentaries, the BBC has lost any claim to impartiality

14 September 2019 9:00 am

Because the rise of the Nazis is a topic so rarely mentioned these days, least of all in schools, the…

How to be a man

31 August 2019 9:00 am

Gstaad   I was reading in these here pages Julie Burchill’s review of Candace Bushnell’s Is There Still Sex in…

Why are there so few Polish people on British TV?

20 July 2019 9:00 am

Have you ever seen a Pole on British television? Poles are the biggest immigrant group in Britain, numbering between 900,000…

Letters: Stop and search is messy, confrontational and absolutely necessary

6 July 2019 9:00 am

Support for stop and search Sir: Mary Wakefield is rightly exasperated by fatuous comments over police use of stop and…

What I’ve learned from 20 years without a TV

22 June 2019 9:00 am

In the summer of 1999 I did something radical. Spurred on by my husband’s universal loathing of television I took…