TV

James Delingpole remembers why he never watched TFI Friday - because it's dreadful

27 June 2015 9:00 am

‘Cringe!’ said Boy, after I’d exposed him to a few seconds of last week’s special nostalgia edition of TFI Friday.…

Heroically unoriginal: Channel 4’s Humans reviewed

20 June 2015 9:00 am

You’d think scientists might have realised by now that creating a race of super-robots is about as wise as opening…

BBC2’s Napoleon reviewed: does Andrew Roberts’s pet Frog need rehabilitating?

13 June 2015 9:00 am

I adore Andrew Roberts. We go back a long way. Once, on a boating expedition gone wrong in the south…

Imagine if Are You Being Served? had starred Laurence Olivier: ITV’s Vicious reviewed

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Monday saw the return of possibly the weirdest TV series in living memory. Imagine a parallel universe in which Are…

Anita Dobson as Queen Elizabeth I in ‘Armada: 12 Days to Save England’

BBC2’s Armada has something for everybody - including three yummy female historians

30 May 2015 9:00 am

It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…

A bit silly: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reviewed

23 May 2015 9:00 am

BBC One’s 2015 choice of Sunday-night drama series is beginning to resemble the career of the kind of Hollywood actor…

Spirited, indomitable and proud: matriarch Julie Young

Benefits Street reviewed: if anyone’s being exploited, it’s the taxpayers, says James Delingpole

16 May 2015 9:00 am

My favourite scene in the first episode of the new series of Benefits Street (Mondays, Channel 4) — now relocated…

Titanic: Orson Welles as Falstaff in ‘Chimes at Midnight’ (1966)

Don’t believe Orson Welles, says his biographer Simon Callow — especially when he calls himself a failure

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Orson Welles would have been 100 this month. When he died in 1985, aged 70, the wonder was that he…

Channel 4’s No Offence reviewed: ‘hugely entertaining and wildly unconvincing’

9 May 2015 9:00 am

With Clocking Off, Shameless and State of Play among his credits, Paul Abbott is undoubtedly one of the most respected…

Keith Murdoch (Simon Harrison) appearing before the Dardanelles Commission (Photo: BBC)

Without Gallipoli, we’d have no Page 3

2 May 2015 9:00 am

Some years ago I paid a visit to the site of the Gallipoli landings because I was mildly obsessed with…

W1A reviewed: so pitch-perfect as to be profoundly depressing

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Ever since the days of Tony Hancock, many of the best British sitcoms — from Dad’s Army to Fawlty Towers,…

I wish Daenerys Targaryen would free the nipple: Game of Thrones series five reviewed

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Blimey, there has been so much good stuff to watch on telly of late: the Grand National, the Boat Race…

Our hero worship of Bach is to blame for rubbish like ‘Written By Mrs Bach’

4 April 2015 8:00 am

My impression that Bach has come to rival Shakespeare as a flawless reference point in the cultural life of the…

Why James Delingpole is addicted to Pointless

4 April 2015 8:00 am

Ever since Boy got back from school my work schedule has fallen to pieces. Every few minutes, just when I’ve…

Channel 4's The Coalition reviewed: heroically free of cynicism

28 March 2015 9:00 am

In a late schedule change, Channel 4’s Coalition was shifted from Thursday to Saturday to make room for Jeremy Paxman…

Style council: left to right, Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper), January Jones (Betty Draper), Jessica Paré (Megan Draper), Jon Hamm (Donald Draper)

Will you miss Mad Men? James Delingpole won’t

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Mad Men looked great but, as the final season draws to a close, was there really anything to it, wonders James Delingpole

Raised by Wolves review: council-estate life but not as you know it

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Journalist, novelist, broadcaster and figurehead of British feminism Caitlin Moran, who writes most of the Times and even had her…

Jeffrey Archer’s diary: a pirate at the traffic lights, and other Indian wonders

14 March 2015 9:00 am

This last week, in India, I visited six cities in seven days: Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta and New Delhi.…

Should he stay or should he go: Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark

Poldark review: drama by committee

14 March 2015 9:00 am

By my calculations, the remake of Poldark (BBC1, Sunday) is the first time BBC drama has returned to Cornwall since…

The Great European Disaster on BBC4 reviewed: propaganda worthy of Leni Riefenstahl

7 March 2015 9:00 am

My favourite bit of The Great European Disaster (BBC4, Sunday) was the lingering shot that showed golden heads of corn…

UKIP: The First 100 Days, Channel 4, review: a sad, predictable, desperate hatchet job

21 February 2015 9:00 am

Just three months into Ukip’s shock victory as the party of government and already Nigel Farage’s mob are starting to…

The Heckler: how funny really was Spitting Image?

21 February 2015 9:00 am

Hold the front page! Spitting Image is back! Well, sort of. A new six-part series, from (some of) the team…

Law in action: Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman

Better Call Saul review: the box set equivalent of a (very) well-made play

14 February 2015 9:00 am

I lost count long ago of the number of dinner parties and pub conversations where I’ve had to utter the…

Rambo wannabe, Matthew VanDyke: ‘Everybody wants cool stuff they can show their friends on Facebook’

Arabian Motorcycle Adventures review: enthralling and constantly surprising

7 February 2015 9:00 am

There were great numbers of young men who had never been in a war and were consequently far from unwilling…

Dark thoughts: Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell

Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?

31 January 2015 9:00 am

In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…