reality TV
Saving Lives at Sea, BBC Two review - derring-do on the ocean wave with the RNLIWednesday, 25 September 2019
Learning support officer. Student. Chip shop owner. Mobile caterer. Gym owner. These were the day jobs of some of the volunteers featured in this week’s portfolio of tales on BBC Two from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, who would all... Read more... |
Love in the Countryside, BBC Two review - reaping a harvest of marital bliss?Wednesday, 18 September 2019
If you’re a farmer who works round the clock to feed sheep, milk cows and so forth, how on earth do you make time to find a partner and reap a harvest of marital bliss? Well you could ask Sara Cox if you can join in her dating game for “lonely rural... Read more... |
Sink or Swim, Channel 4 review - the Channel awaits for these celebritiesWednesday, 28 August 2019
Is there any challenge that television producers haven't filmed celebrities doing? They won't be happy until they've followed a bunch of them snowboarding down an Alp while baking a cake, conducting an orchestra and researching their family history... Read more... |
Bear's Mission with David Walliams, ITV review - celebs go wild in the countryWednesday, 15 May 2019
In the past, Bear Grylls has taken President Obama up an Alaskan glacier and trekked through the Swiss Alps with Roger Federer. This jaunt with David Walliams (ITV) was on a more modest scale, merely requiring the Britain’s Got Talent judge to be... Read more... |
Olly Murs, SSE Hydro, Glasgow - a little cheesy, a little laddish, but sincerely entertainingMonday, 06 May 2019
In an alternate timeline, Olly Murs - runner-up on a TV talent show a full decade ago - would have faded into obscurity by now. This, as the relentlessly charming performer on stage delights in reminding us, is not that timeline. Some internet... Read more... |
CD: Olly Murs - You Know I KnowThursday, 08 November 2018
Olly Murs has done alright for himself. After finishing second in 2009’s X Factor, he’s managed to forge a successful pop career and made a genuinely decent fist of TV presenting (most recently as a mentor on The Voice). ... Read more... |
100 Year Old Driving School, ITV review – a warning with historyWednesday, 13 September 2017
While Horizon, on BBC2, was telling us that the first person to walk on Mars could well be walking among us now, ITV's 100 Year Old Driving School suggested that the space mission could take a major setback if that wannabe astronaut were to... Read more... |
The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4 review – a cake with adverts is still a cakeWednesday, 30 August 2017
By the outrage it prompted, you’d be forgiven for thinking that The Great British Bake Off’s move to Channel 4 was a national disaster. If only the public felt so indignant about the sale of the Post Office, or the creeping privatisation of a... Read more... |
Election Night 2017, BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Sky NewsFriday, 09 June 2017
The latest test of the nation’s perseverance and patience – a snap election called just before the negotiations for Brexit are due to start – seemed like an extraordinary act of hubris at the start. The initial billing of “Strong and... Read more... |
Mutiny, Channel 4Tuesday, 07 March 2017
The masochistic reality show heralds a culture with an inferiority complex. There have been documentary re-running the race to the South Pole. Countless series place modern Britons in historical contexts where the dietary, sanitary and heating... Read more... |
The Apprentice, Series 12, BBC OneFriday, 07 October 2016
Now back for a twelfth series, The Apprentice has recently burnished its reputation as a career launchpad. Not, of course, for the poor contestants, gurning and strutting their way to the judgement end of Lord Sugar’s finger, but for the pointy one... Read more... |
The Job Interview/My Worst Job, Channel 4Wednesday, 13 July 2016
First appearances can be deceptive. You should notice them, take heed of them and then park them. This was the advice of Phillipa Darcy who, along with her daughter, Bertie, was interviewing candidates for a job as assistant manager for Whickam... Read more... |
