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Morse/Lewis/Hathaway: vote in our heretical Facebook pollMonday, 11 April 2011
There 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 interesting than the slightly ponderous master-and-servant routine Lewis used to go through with Morse.” Read more... |
No room for Room at the Top?Friday, 08 April 2011![]()
Anyone turning on BBC Four last night expecting to watch the first episode of Room at the Top will, at least in part, have got what they were expecting: lashings of sex. Only one problem. It wasn't in Room at the Top. Owing to a late-blooming rights dispute, the BBC decided on the day of broadcast not to go ahead with their new adaptation of John Braine's 1957 novel. On the principle that if you would have liked that, then you'll like this, they had a rummage in the... Read more... |
The Kennedys get the Dynasty treatmentSaturday, 02 April 2011![]()
Ever controversial, America's Kennedy clan continues to create turbulence. On Thursday, 7 April, the History Channel in the UK will begin airing a new $30 million miniseries, The Kennedys, which traces the lives and political fortunes of John F Kennedy, his brother Bobby and their domineering father Joe. But the History Channel's American counterpart announced in January it was dropping the show (which stars... Read more... |
BBC orders second helping of SilkWednesday, 30 March 2011![]()
theartsdesk readers were aghast and appalled when BBC One supremo Danny Cohen cancelled detective series Zen after a paltry three episodes. However, he has made amends of a sort by commissioning a second series of Peter Moffat's legal drama Silk, after series one ended... Read more... |
Hawaii Five-O comes to Sky1Thursday, 20 January 2011![]()
Thirty years after the original series came to the end of its 12-year history, Hawaii Five-0 is about to burst back onto British TV. The new-look Five-0 kicked off in September last year on the American CBS network, and will debut on Sky1/Sky1 HD in the UK in February. Read more... |
Sky Atlantic seeks TV's higher groundFriday, 14 January 2011![]()
Sky hasn't generally been synonymous with top TV drama, but its new channel, Sky Atlantic HD, is aiming to change that. Launching on 1 February, the channel has been built around Sky's deal with the American HBO network, which means viewers will get access to the entire history of The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City and The Wire. Read more... |
Geoffrey Burgon revisited, 1941-2010Wednesday, 22 September 2010![]()
To most the music will be more familiar than the name. Geoffrey Burgon, who has died, devoted only a minor portion of his career to composing for television. He also wrote for piano, for trumpet (which he studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama), for guitar quartet and all manner of chamber group. In 1991 he composed an operatic version of Dickens's Hard Times. Above all he composed for choirs - most notably his Requiem for the Three Choirs Festival in 1976. Read more... |
Blair/Marr: theartsdesk's second review on TwitterTuesday, 31 August 2010![]() Tony Blair has a book to flog. Andrew Marr has an interview to conduct. And theartsdesk has another TV programme to review live on Twitter. Read more... |
BBC Two announces The Crimson Petal and the WhiteWednesday, 11 August 2010
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Stoppard returns to TVSaturday, 31 July 2010After a 20-year absence from British TV, Sir Tom Stoppard returns to the small screen next year with his five-part adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's novel, Parade's End, on BBC Two. When the BBC approached Stoppard (pictured) with the idea two years ago, he had never read the book, but says that it "has been my preoccupation since then. The title covers a quartet of books set among the upper class in Edwardian England, mostly from 1911 to the end of the Great War." Read more... |
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