TV
Best of 2024: TVSunday, 29 December 2024
They say cinema is dying (you never know, they may be wrong), but you can’t help noticing the stampede of movie stars towards TV and streaming. Many of 2024’s most memorable shows had a big-screen name attached, even if it was impossible to be... Read more... |
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, BBC One review - hilarious high five to an indelible cast of charactersFriday, 27 December 2024
The most hyped special of the season came to a cosy comedy ending with pairings accomplished, evil witch Sonia and her coven dispatched and the usual everyday chaos reinstated. Tidy.Except that I almost wanted Ruth Jones and James Corden to put a... Read more... |
10 Questions for Mark Gatiss, writer-director of 'A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone'Wednesday, 25 December 2024
There are no white-sheeted ghosts in this year’s A Ghost Story for Christmas. The BBC’s annual adaptations of MR James’s best-known stories have been a holiday favourite since the 1970s.More recently, in the hands of writer-director... Read more... |
All Creatures Great and Small, Christmas Special, Channel 5 review - Mrs Hall steps into the spotlightTuesday, 24 December 2024
Since its revival in 2020, All Creatures Great and Small has drawn big audiences internationally and become Channel 5’s biggest hit, even if there have been occasional grumbles about how it takes liberties with James Herriot’s original books.The... Read more... |
Death in Paradise Christmas Special, BBC One review - who killed Santa Claus?Monday, 23 December 2024
Though Death in Paradise is an Anglo-French production filmed in Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, the Frenchness seems to have mysteriously leaked away. Where Sara Martins was a long-standing regular as DS Camille Bordey, and other French... Read more... |
Strike: The Ink Black Heart, BBC One review - protracted, convoluted puzzler lifted by its leadsThursday, 19 December 2024
The man whose name sounds like a major aviation accident, private detective Cormoran Strike, is back, with his sidekick Robin, for more of the lobster quadrille that is their relationship.This sixth series still uses those classy credits – footage... Read more... |
Black Doves, Netflix review - Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw battle against the implausibleTuesday, 10 December 2024
It’s rare to spot Keira Knightley in a TV series, and it’s no doubt a sign of changing times that she’s starring in this six-part spies-and-guns caper, penned by Joe Barton (of Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project fame).Set in a seasonally Christmassy... Read more... |
Senna, Netflix review - the life and legend of Brazil's greatest driverFriday, 29 November 2024
Brazilian Formula One triple-champion Ayrton Senna was already legendary during his lifetime, but his fatal crash at Imola in 1994 brought him virtual deification in his home country. The Brazilian government declared three days of national mourning... Read more... |
Landman, Paramount+ review - once upon a time in the WestThursday, 28 November 2024
Is there only one Taylor Sheridan? His output is so prolific you’d think there must be half a dozen of them. Although little acknowledged in the UK, over the last decade Sheridan has been amassing an extraordinary string of credits that has made him... Read more... |
Paris Has Fallen, Prime Video review - Afghan war veteran wreaks a terrible vengeanceThursday, 14 November 2024
You might assume that the “Has Fallen” in the title of this Anglo-French thriller connotes the presence of Scottish lunk Gerard Butler (as in Angel Has Fallen, London Has Fallen and Olympus Has Fallen), but there’s no Gerard in sight. Instead, in... Read more... |
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, BBC One review - handsome finale for Hilary Mantel adaptationMonday, 11 November 2024
“Previously on Wolf Hall…” It’s been nine years since Claire Foy memorably trembled her way to the block as Anne Boleyn, recapped at the start of the second and final season of the BBC’s handsome Hilary Mantel adaptation. It’s a deathbound affair... Read more... |
The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsyth's assassin gets a modern-day makeoverFriday, 08 November 2024
Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal was successful thanks to its lean, almost documentary-like treatment of its story of a professional assassin methodically stalking his prey, French President Charles de Gaulle. Based on Frederick... Read more... |
