tue 23/09/2025

tv

The Other One, BBC One review - entertaining odd-couple sitcom

Veronica Lee

This engaging sitcom created by comedian Holly Walsh has had a long gestation: this, the pilot episode, was first broadcast back in 2017 but Walsh's pregnancy meant that the six-part series commissioned at the time was filmed last year.

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Little Fires Everywhere, Amazon Prime review - in every dream home a heartache

Adam Sweeting

Reese Witherspoon has evolved into a growth industry on the new frontier of Big Television. Her production company Hello Sunshine has a heap of projects on the go with a range of networks, and following her success with Big Little Lies (for HBO), Little Fires Everywhere comes to you courtesy of Hulu (in the US) and Amazon Prime.

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A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, Series Finale, Channel 4 review - let's hear it for Alasdair the hotel inspector

Adam Sweeting

It’s impossible to tell whether this reality-doc series (C4) came to praise Best Western hotels or kill it off entirely.

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Shutdown: The Virus That Changed Our World, Sky Documentaries review - a chaotic response and an uncertain future

Adam Sweeting

It’s too early for a definitive account of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this was very much a Sky News version of what we’ve been through so far. Although it seems the virus has peaked and we’re entering a tentative stage of partial de-lockdown, the message was relentlessly grim.

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Philharmonia, Channel 4 review - death on the podium

Adam Sweeting

Great idea to use a symphony orchestra as the basis for a TV drama, because all of human life is there.

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Space Force, Netflix review - fails to launch

Veronica Lee

Since Donald Trump's election as US President in 2016, I imagine satirists have slowly lost the will to live – as nothing they can write can outdo his buffoonery.

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Unprecedented, BBC Four review - perspectives on the pandemic

Adam Sweeting

This short series of new dramas (on BBC Four) by a group of leading playwrights was commissioned by Headlong and Century Films, a week before the virus lockdown was announced on 23 March, and represents an artistic first...

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A House Through Time, Series 3, BBC Two review - Bristol under the microscope

Adam Sweeting

David Olusoga’s A House Through Time concept (BBC Two) has proved a popular hit, using a specific property as a keyhole through which to observe historical and social changes. After previously picking sites in Liverpool and Newcastle, this time he’s chosen Bristol, the city where he has lived for over 20 years.

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Defending Jacob, Apple TV+ review - does murder run in the family?

Adam Sweeting

Since it debuted in November last year, Apple TV+ has barely made a dent in a market largely shaped by Netflix, but this eight-part adaptation of William Landay’s bestselling novel is a decisive step in the right direction.

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A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, Channel 4 review - requiem for the hospitality industry?

Adam Sweeting

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.

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