mon 18/08/2025

TV reviews, news & interviews

In Flight, Channel 4 review - drugs, thugs and Bulgarian gangsters

Adam Sweeting

What would TV screenwriters do without drugs? In Flight, created by Mike Walden and Adam Randall, is yet another drama depicting the perils and pitfalls of getting sucked into the narcotics trade, though it does deliver a twist or two to distinguish it from earlier specimens.

Alien: Earth, Disney+ review - was this interstellar journey really necessary?

Adam Sweeting

Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie from 1979 was an all-time sci-fi/horror classic, and even an endless stream of sequels and spin-offs – Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs Predator, Prometheus, Alien: Romulus et al – hasn’t diluted the electrifying impact of the original.

The Count of Monte Cristo, U&Drama review -...

Adam Sweeting

Alexandre Dumas’ novel has been filmed an immeasurable number of times (there was a new French version only last year) and televised even more...

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, BBC One review...

Adam Sweeting

Readers of Richard Flanagan’s Booker-winning novel will be familiar with its themes of war, extreme suffering, ageing, memory, fidelity and...

The Waterfront, Netflix review - fish, drugs and...

Adam Sweeting

You wouldn’t really want to belong to the Buckley family, a star-crossed dynasty who run their fishing business out of Havenport, North Carolina. As...

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theartsdesk Q&A: writer and actor Mark Gatiss on 'Bookish'

Pamela Jahn

The multi-talented performer ponders storytelling, crime and retiring to run a bookshop

Ballard, Prime Video review - there's something rotten in the LAPD

Adam Sweeting

Persuasive dramatisation of Michael Connelly's female detective

Bookish, U&Alibi review - sleuthing and skulduggery in a bomb-battered London

Adam Sweeting

Mark Gatiss's crime drama mixes period atmosphere with crafty clues

Too Much, Netflix - a romcom that's oversexed, and over here

Helen Hawkins

Lena Dunham's new series presents an England it's often hard to recognise

Insomnia, Channel 5 review - a chronicle of deaths foretold

Adam Sweeting

Sarah Pinborough's psychological thriller is cluttered but compelling

Live Aid at 40: When Rock'n'Roll Took on the World, BBC Two review - how Bob Geldof led pop's battle against Ethiopian famine

Adam Sweeting

When wackily-dressed pop stars banded together to give a little help to the helpless

Hill, Sky Documentaries review - how Damon Hill battled his demons

Adam Sweeting

Alex Holmes's film is both documentary and psychological portrait

Outrageous, U&Drama review - skilfully-executed depiction of the notorious Mitford sisters

Helen Hawkins

A crack cast, clever script and smart direction serve this story well

Prost, BBC 4 review - life and times of the driver they called 'The Professor'

Adam Sweeting

Alain Prost liked being world champion so much he did it four times

The Buccaneers, Apple TV+, Season 2 review - American adventuresses run riot in Cornwall

Adam Sweeting

Second helping of frothy Edith Wharton adaptation

The Gold, Series 2, BBC One review - back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits

Adam Sweeting

Following the money to the Isle of Man, Spain and the Caribbean

Dept. Q, Netflix review - Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh

Adam Sweeting

Matthew Goode stars as antisocial detective Carl Morck

The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade

Adam Sweeting

Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar

Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality of deaf people's experience

Helen Hawkins

Rose Ayling-Ellis maps out her muffled world in a so-so heist caper

The Bombing of Pan Am 103, BBC One review - new dramatisation of the horrific Lockerbie terror attack

Adam Sweeting

Six-part series focuses on the families and friends of the victims

theartsdesk Q&A: Zoë Telford on playing a stressed-out psychiatrist in ITV's 'Malpractice'

Adam Sweeting

She nearly became a dancer, but now she's one of TV's most familiar faces

The Trunk, Netflix review - stylish, noir-ish Korean drama wrapped around a beguiling love story

Helen Hawkins

Unusual psychological study of a stranger paid to save a toxic marriage

Malpractice, ITV1, Series 2 review - fear and loathing in the psychiatric unit

Adam Sweeting

Powerful return of Grace Ofori-Attah's scathing medical drama

Fake, ITV1 review - be careful what you wish for

Adam Sweeting

Australian drama probes the terrors of middle-aged matchmaking

Formula E: Driver, Prime Video review - inside the world's first zero-carbon sport

Adam Sweeting

F1's electric baby brother get its own documentary series

Flintoff, Disney+ review - tumultuous life and times of the great all-rounder

Adam Sweeting

John Dower's documentary is gritty, gruelling and uplifting

Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache

Adam Sweeting

Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'

MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie

Adam Sweeting

High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty

This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket

Adam Sweeting

Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga

Footnote: a brief history of British TV

You could almost chart the history of British TV by following the career of ITV's Coronation Street, as it has ridden 50 years of social change, seen off would-be rivals, survived accusations of racism and learned to live alongside the BBC's EastEnders. But no single programme, or even strand of programmes, can encompass the astonishing diversity and creativity of TV-UK since BBC TV was officially born in 1932.

Nostalgists lament the demise of single plays like Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home or Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, but drama series like The Jewel in the Crown, Edge of Darkness, Our Friends in the North, State of Play, the original Upstairs Downstairs or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will surely loom larger in history's rear-view mirror, while perhaps Julian Fellowes' surprise hit, Downton Abbey, heralds a new wave of the classic British costume drama. For that matter, indestructible comic creations like George Cole's Arthur Daley in Minder, Nigel Hawthorne's Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister, the Steptoes, Arthur Lowe and co in Dad's Army, John Cleese's Fawlty Towers or Only Fools and Horses insinuate themselves between the cracks of British life far more persuasively than the most earnest television documentary (at which Britain has become world-renowned).

British sci-fi will never out-gloss Hollywood monoliths like Battlestar Galactica, but Nigel Kneale's Quatermass stories are still influential 60 years later, and the reborn Doctor Who has been a creative coup for the BBC. British series from the Sixties like The Avengers, Patrick McGoohan's bizarre brainchild The Prisoner or The Saint (with the young Roger Moore) have bounced back as major influences on today's Hollywood, and re-echo through the BBC's enduringly successful Spooks.

Meanwhile, though British comedy depends more on maverick inspiration than the sleek industrialisation deployed by US television, that didn't stop Monty Python from becoming a global legend, or prevent Ricky Gervais being adopted as an American mascot. True, you might blame British TV (and Simon Cowell) for such monstrosities as The X Factor or Britain's Got Talent, but the entire planet has lapped them up. And we can console ourselves that Britain also gave the world Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, David Attenborough's epic nature series Life on Earth and The Blue Planet, as well as Kenneth Clark's Civilisation. The Arts Desk brings you overnight reviews and news of the best (and worst) of TV in Britain. Our writers include Adam Sweeting, Jasper Rees, Veronica Lee, Alexandra Coghlan, Fisun Güner, Josh Spero and Gerard Gilbert.

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