TV
Adam Sweeting
You might consider equipping yourself with a shotgun and kevlar body armour before you start watching Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic), because this is a bruising, hair-raising ride. Created by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, it began with the televisual equivalent of being thrown from a fast-moving vehicle, as we saw a terrified man dangling on a rope over the edge of a high-rise building. His captor then doused him in petrol and set fire to him, his blazing body eventually plummeting to the pavement far below.Deliberately or not, the effect of this double-length opener was like being engulfed Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Amazon had already been declared the world’s most valuable public company before COVID-19 struck, but under the current stay-indoors regime, its online retailing and streaming entertainment services have been given an astronomical extra boost. The now-ubiquitous Amazon Prime delivery boxes would probably stretch to the moon and back if laid end to end.In the USA, surveys have shown Amazon to be more trusted than the government, the police and even Tom Hanks, but is it all too good to be true? In this Supershoppers special (Channel 4), presenters Helen Skelton and Sabrina Grant set out to find Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
The “relocation in search of a new life” theme has become a dependable TV staple, from A New Life in the Sun to Relocation, Relocation and Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild, but this Channel 5 series by Kate Humble has been more entertaining than most. Perhaps it’s because we captive, locked-down TV viewers are yearning to roam free in wide-open spaces.Anyway, having moved from Chiswick to the Wye Valley, Humble (an expert on sustainable bee-keeping) knows all about swapping commuting and urban sprawl for the rural life. This third episode (out of six) was a hoot.Humble’s protagonists were Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Originally aired in BBC2’s “Theatre 625” slot in July 1968, Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics has gathered a reputation as a groundbreaking piece of TV drama which uncannily anticipated the broadcasting future. Its depiction of a society in which the audience are apathetic zombies pacified by crass, bottom-of-the-barrel “entertainment” might cause pangs of unease as we view such contemporary phenomena as Big Brother or I’m A Celebrity…, while the notion of audiences gaping at glamorous couples enacting competitive TV sex is too Love Island for words.However, while Kneale’s far- Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
James Graham’s play Quiz was a hit in Chichester in 2017 and then made a much-admired transfer to the West End. Considering its subject matter – the fabled “Coughing Major”, Charles Ingram, who allegedly cheated his way to the titular seven-figure sum on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – it was a natural for TV.Under the suave directorial hand of Stephen Frears, Graham’s three-part adaptation of his play told the Ingram story with wit and sparkle, though sadly viewers weren't able to vote in the way theatre-goers were. It didn't just focus on the supposed crime and its aftermath, but also Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Open-mouthed incredulity is a reasonable reaction to this 2012 documentary on one of the UK’s prime punk-spawned bands, available on catch-up via streaming service Now TV’s tie-in with Sky Arts. There’s not much “rise” but there’s an awful lot of “fall” in The Rise and Fall of The Clash.After coalescing between April and June 1976 in the slipstream of the Sex Pistols, The Clash fell apart in November 1985. The end came at the same time as the release of what became their final album, Cut The Crap. Reviewing it for the music weekly Melody Maker, Adam Sweeting said “Guess what? It’s CRAP! And Read more ...
Florence Hallett
One year on the world is drastically altered, but footage of Notre Dame’s stricken spire collapsing in flames is no less shocking. That this event, endlessly replayed, has not paled against the new reality of daily death tolls is testament to the scale of the loss. As the rector of Notre Dame, Patrick Chauvet put it: “Notre Dame is not just Paris, it’s France and beyond France, it’s the world.”By the time a fire was discovered at 6.43pm, more than 30 minutes had elapsed since a sensor had detected smoke in the attic, and Notre Dame, one of the great monuments of Gothic architecture, was Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
The case of the British teenager allegedly raped by a group of young Israeli men in Ayia Napa in Cyprus last year, only to find herself convicted of “public mischief”, has built up a head of steam in the international press and has provoked outrage among women’s movements and rights campaigners. Reactions were triggered not just by the nature of the act itself, but also by the way the case was handled by the Cypriot authorities.This ITV investigation, presented by a concerned-looking Julie Etchingham, did a thorough job of laying out the known facts, sifting through the legal arguments Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Days before the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, orphaned baby Li-Da was flown out of the country, and was eventually adopted by Prue Leith and her husband Rayne. Leith’s culinary star was rising rapidly, and her husband was a successful writer and businessman. Their Cotswolds home became a fairytale setting in which their adopted daughter could make a fresh start.In this fascinating film (for Channel 4) about her trip back to Cambodia with her daughter, Leith admitted that she never felt much curiosity about Li-Da’s family and her Cambodian background, and never Read more ...
Jill Chuah Masters
Watching Run, HBO’s newest seven-part series, feels like off-the-rails escapism: it’s a fast-paced thriller about dropping everything, chasing intimacy and courting danger. It’s a vicarious adventure centred on a woman who has spent too long stuck at home. Run has hit our screens at the best possible time.The series starts in a parking lot. Ruby Richardson (Merritt Wever) — the thriller’s presumed heroine — is a yoga-going, 4WD-driving suburban mum. Might not sound thrilling, but the atmosphere is there: from the opening shot the air is thick with tension. Ruby ends a call with her husband Read more ...
Markie Robson-Scott
Instant spoiler alert: she’s not dead. But do we care? Prepare for the plumbing of new psychological depths from showrunner Suzanne Heathcote, previously story editor, appropriately enough, on Fear the Walking Dead, but that may not be enough to keep series 3 from veering into slightly dull and serviceable territory, judging by the first three episodes. Murderous clowns at a kids’ party, for example, have surely been done to death.At the end of series 2, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) was, if you remember, shot and apparently killed by Villanelle (Jodie Comer) in a Roman ruin after Eve rejected her Read more ...
Liz Thomson
Interviewed in isolation last week by Hollywood Reporter, music mogul Clive Davis revealed that he’s using his time “either by listening to the newest singles that make the charts or by watching hit music videos. First to be aware of them and then to keep my ears as current as they can be.”Just turned 88 and sequestered in Palm Springs, Davis was missing his family. He’d been due at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and then at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, where he himself was to be honoured. Both events were of course cancelled but he needs to be “prepared Read more ...