Television
High life
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…
Serial offenders
Modern soap operas have lost the plot
Diary
I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense…
Diary
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
Some time around 2006 my then flatmate, a filmmaker, had a good idea: why not make a programme of reverse…
Diary
The files arrived marked ‘STRICT EMBARGO’ and ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and ‘FORTH BRIDGE REVISED’ and stamped with various crests and insignia. My…
Loony tunes
The unstoppable rise of ‘background’ music
So damned French
For the past few weeks I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Call My Agent! (or Dix pour cent, as…
Mercurio rising
When a drama begins with news of a ‘Chis handler’ receiving ‘intel graded A1 on the matrix’ that causes a…
Diary
Piers Morgan may have been the UK equivalent of a TV shock-jock, but there’s another side to him. I’ve known…
Actress’s Notebook
To say that the past nine months have been tough is like saying a hurricane felt like a spring shower.…
Pension funds need a push to invest in the green revolution
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
Nous sommes tous Emily in Paris – why can’t we admit it?
A frothy new drama called Emily in Paris arrived on Netflix last month. Starring Lily Collins — daughter of Phil…
Does anyone recognise David Hare’s Britain?
Having not watched television for nine months and already growing bored of the 1,000-piece jigsaw of General Alfredo Stroessner (part…
Covid has ended the rail franchise fiasco at last
Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of…
Author’s Notebook
From the balcony where I take my daily exercise there is a view of the commercial centre of London that…
When life becomes art
Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise,…
Real Life
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
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
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
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
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
Because the rise of the Nazis is a topic so rarely mentioned these days, least of all in schools, the…
