tv
The Same Sky, More4 review - Cold War thriller from both sides of the Berlin wallFriday, 30 October 2020
“Make contact with the left eye - it is a direct pathway to the emotions. Then make yourself scarce so that the desire in her can grow.” This fine flirting advice comes from a Stasi officer to his students, preparing them for a honey-trap mission to seduce West Berlin intelligence officers. Read more...
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The Sister, ITV review - half-baked dramatisation of esteemed novelThursday, 29 October 2020
Neil Cross’s novel Burial was hailed for its skilful plotting and insightful characterisations, as well as its macabre atmosphere. Disappointingly, the author’s own adaptation of the book looks clumsy and uncomfortable on TV. Read more... |
The Undoing, Sky Atlantic review - trouble in paradise for gilded Manhattan coupleTuesday, 27 October 2020
Plenty of pedigree wattage has been packed into this slickly addictive new HBO drama (showing on Sky Atlantic). The twin headliners are affluent Manhattan couple Grace and Jonathan Fraser (Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, the latter basking in the high-end prestige which has accrued since his virtuoso performance as Jeremy Thorpe in A Very English Scandal). Read more... |
Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You, Apple TV+ review - his new album is a matter of life and deathTuesday, 20 October 2020
Towards the end of this new documentary, an account of how he recorded his new album Letter to You at his home studio in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen delivers a eulogy to the E Street Band. Read more... |
Roadkill, BBC One review - David Hare pokes under the floorboards of the Conservative partyMonday, 19 October 2020
A lifelong socialist who has regularly written about the Labour party, playwright David Hare admits that in his career he has “rarely looked closely at the appeal of Conservative values”. Read more... |
Taskmaster, Channel 4 review - comedy show makes seamless transferFriday, 16 October 2020
After nine successful series, a Bafta and an Emmy nomination, Taskmaster has moved from Dave to Channel 4 – amusingly, the broadcaster that its creator Alex Horne first took it to but which turned it down. Read more... |
Emily in Paris, Netflix review - addictive escapism in the City of LightWednesday, 14 October 2020
Is Emily in Paris “the dumbest thing on Netflix right now?” or a sugar-rush of escapism in the midst of our global pandemic misery? “We need things to make us smile,” commented one Parisian viewer. “In the time of Covid,we don’t need more to stress us out.” Read more... |
Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson, BBC Two review - ambitious history of the slave trade falls shortMonday, 12 October 2020
Enlisting Hollywood giant Samuel L Jackson to host a series about the history of slavery, his own ancestors having been trafficked from West Africa to the Americas, was a headline-grabbing move, and scenes where we travelled with Jackson to the historic slaving hotspot of Gabon rang with a steely sense of commitment. Read more... |
Brave New World, Sky 1 review - Aldous Huxley's novel doesn't look very happy on TVSaturday, 10 October 2020
Famous dystopian novels are reliably popular with TV adapters, so it’s strange that this is the first time Aldous Huxley’s treatise on a society controlled by technology and psychological manipulation has been turned into a TV series. Read more... |
Black Classical Music: The Forgotten History, BBC Four review - sounds to treasureMonday, 05 October 2020
Classical music TV documentaries don’t often merit comparison to buses. Read more... |
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Album: Willie Nelson – Last Leaf on the Tree
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Anora review - life lesson for a kick-ass sex worker
Anora has had so much hype since it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May that it doesn’t really need another reviewer weighing in. Sean...
The Buddha of Suburbia, Barbican Theatre review – farcical f...
Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost...
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Rigoletto, English National Opera review - another hit for M...
How we used to mock those stuck-in-the-mud opera houses that wheeled out the same moth-eaten production of some box-office favourite decade after...
How To Survive Your Mother, King's Head Theatre review...
It is unsurprising to learn in the post-show Q&A that each audience receives Jonathan Maitland’s new play based on his 2006...
Album: The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Could melancholia be an elixir of creative youth? Or is it that sad people were never really that youthful, so age suits them? Certainly it seems...