ITV
Vera, ITV1Sunday, 01 May 2011
ITV1 really, really loves that succulent two-hour slot in the middle of Sunday evening, and anything that goes in there has the legacy of Morse, Lewis, Frost, Miss Marple et al to live up to. The latest cunning plan for Detective Sunday is to... Read more... |
The Royal Wedding, All ChannelsSaturday, 30 April 2011
The flying Twitter fragments said more about The Wedding than the battalions of experts, "palace insiders", historians and friends ever could (couldn't somebody have put a bag over Simon "infinite loop" Schama's head and had him bundled away from... Read more... |
The Reckoning, ITV1Monday, 18 April 2011
I made the mistake of catching up with the darkly sumptuous The Crimson Petal and the White just before knuckling down to review this new two-part drama, and it was like moving from fine vintage wine to warm supermarket-brand lager. To begin with, I... Read more... |
DVD: Alan Plater at ITVMonday, 18 April 2011
Seven works are collected on this sampler of the formidably prolific Plater’s television writing - a soupçon from a broth that is rich, flavoursome, and usually satisfying. Though omitting anything from The Stars Look Down, The Good Companions, Get... Read more... |
Monroe, Series Finale, ITV1/ Rubicon, BBC FourThursday, 14 April 2011
So Monroe reached the end of series one, and I still couldn't read what its tone was supposed to be. Some artsdesk readers have expressed enthusiasm for the theme tune, but I find its jogging Celtic jauntiness symptomatic of Monroe's wider... Read more... |
Morse/Lewis/Hathaway: vote in our heretical Facebook pollMonday, 11 April 2011There is an intriguing heresy planted several paragraphs down in Adam’s review of Lewis, which resumed last night on ITV. “It’s the relationship between Lewis and Hathaway that makes the thing worth watching. In fact, it sometimes seems more... Read more... |
Lewis, ITV1Sunday, 10 April 2011
Read Adam Sweeting's review of "Intelligent Design", the last-ever episode of LewisAlthough its steepling body count is almost enough to rival the trail of carnage in The Walking Dead (which rose from the grave on 5 last night after its original... Read more... |
Midsomer Murders, ITV1Wednesday, 23 March 2011
It'll be interesting to see what the recent race row - or more accurately, lack-of-race row - does for the ratings of Midsomer Murders. Possibly nothing, if the research that says that people from ethnic groups all hate the show and never watch... Read more... |
Monroe, ITV1Thursday, 10 March 2011
James Nesbitt has always looked full of himself and too bumptious for comfort, so who better to play a smart-arse neurosurgeon who prides himself on his rock-steady hands and steely nerves? "What really matters is how well you handle losing," he... Read more... |
Kidnap and Ransom, ITV1Friday, 14 January 2011
Notwithstanding his regrettable central role in the recent remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire, Trevor Eve is an actor who has improved vastly with age. Once cursed with a kind of shiny smugness, the 21st-century Eve is rougher round the edges and... Read more... |
Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent, ITV1Tuesday, 04 January 2011
What’s with the two titles? A crime drama so good that they had to name it twice? Or couldn’t anyone in production decide which one to ditch? Why not swap them around, or maybe call it "Prime Suspect", or "Prime Suspect: Deadly Intent", or... Read more... |
Year Out/Year In: Television on DemandWednesday, 29 December 2010
“Television is pretty awful at the moment,” said Eileen Atkins the other week. “Is that because I'm getting old?” Age wouldn’t dare to wither Dame Eileen, of course, who has just bounced back in fine sparky fettle in the BBC's remake of... Read more... |
