tv
A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, Channel 4 review - requiem for the hospitality industry?Wednesday, 20 May 2020
Do TV companies get some sort of financial incentive to use the phrase “A Very British…” in their programme titles? This now-meaningless descriptor has been applied to airlines, brothels, political coups, the Renaissance, Margaret Thatcher, sex scandals, Brexit and lord knows what else. When you can’t think of an original title, you know what to do. Read more... |
Harry's Heroes: Euro Having a Laugh, ITV review - jokey documentary delivers painful emotional truthsWednesday, 20 May 2020
Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously commented that football is far more serious than a matter of life and death. Read more... |
Arena: The Changin' Times of Ike White, BBC Four review - musical mystery becomes personalTuesday, 19 May 2020
The most obvious comparison for The Changin’ Times of Ike White (BBC Four) is 2012’s Searching for Sugar Man, with its story of a potential star having vanished into thin air at the brink of fame and fortune. Read more... |
Hollywood, Netflix review - rosy escapism serving good causesThursday, 14 May 2020
If you're catering for wish fulfilment, you might as well go the whole hog. Some say that Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, in their latest peachy extravaganza, aim no higher than the cheesier fantasies of the late 1940s Hollywood they take into neverland. Read more... |
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs The Reverend, Netflix review - bold, but only a partial successWednesday, 13 May 2020
Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s hit comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) ended its fourth series in January last year, but this belated interactive special suggested there could be new life in it yet. Read more... |
I Know This Much Is True, Sky Atlantic review - riding a carousel of catastropheTuesday, 12 May 2020
Adapted by writer-director Derek Cianfrance from Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel, this HBO production (on Sky Atlantic) presents a huge canvas for Mark Ruffalo, who plays the twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. Read more... |
The Last Kingdom, Season 4, Netflix review - blood, guts and dirty politicsSaturday, 09 May 2020
Meanwhile back in the Dark Ages, Uhtred (son of Uhtred) is still seeking to reclaim his ancestral seat of Bebbanburg and manoeuvre through the treacherous currents of Saxon politics. Read more... |
Rob and Romesh vs Ballet, Sky 1 review - unlikely lads throw themselves in as baitWednesday, 06 May 2020
The odd-couple comedy duo is a time-tested concept, and Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan have discovered a chemistry that works. Rob is the giggling excitable one, while Romesh, aided by a sleepy right eye which conveys a sense of harsh judgmentalism, adds a blast of deadpan scepticism. Read more... |
The A Word, Series 3, BBC One review - Christopher Eccleston steals the showWednesday, 06 May 2020
Christopher Eccleston isn’t the easiest actor to love, because he gives the impression he’ll reach through the screen and grab you by the throat if you don’t appreciate his ferocious thespian intensity, but with the role of Maurice Scott in The A Word (BBC One), he’s found the perfect vehicle for his particular set of skills. Read more... |
Westworld, Season 3 Finale, Sky Atlantic review - Dolores’s plans come to fruitionTuesday, 05 May 2020
After a season that sought to redefine what Westworld could become, the finale exposed the confused arc, before limping towards an emotionally weak ending. Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Album: Doves - Constellations for the Lonely
Doves really are quite prog rock aren’t they? It’s never really leapt out at me before, probably because I’d always thought of them as brooding...
Ridout, 12 Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - brilliant Britten...
Last night was the first time I had heard the 12 Ensemble, a string group currently Artist-in-Residence at the Wigmore Hall, and I was very...
Mickalene Thomas, All About Love, Hayward Gallery review - a...
On walking into Mikalene Thomas’s exhibition at the...
Helen Charlston, Sholto Kynoch, Temple Church review - fine...
Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston just gets better and better, both as singer and as actor. Last night’s recital at Temple Church had an unusual and...
Album: bdrmm - Microtonic
Microtonic comes into focus on its third track, “Infinity Peaking.” Album opener “Goit,” featuring a guest vocal by Working Men’s Club’s...
Argerich, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Papadopoulos, Barbi...
At the age of 83, Martha Argerich contains more personality in...
Jessica Duchen: Myra Hess - National Treasure review - well-...
Myra Hess was one of the most important figures in British cultural life in the mid-20th century: the pre-eminent...
Interview: Polar photographer Sebastian Copeland talks about...
Sebastian Copeland’s images of the Arctic may look otherworldly – with their tilting cathedrals of ice, hypnotic light, and fractured seascapes...
Rats on Rafts, The Victoria review - crepuscular Dutch quint...
An album is one thing, a live show is another. A truism of course, but one which is inescapable during this London date by the Rotterdam-based...