tv
The Little Drummer Girl, BBC One, series finale review - Le Carré drama comes to the boil at lastMonday, 03 December 2018
Was The Little Drummer Girl commissioned by algorithm? Those who liked The Night Manager might reasonably have been supposed to enjoy another le Carré adaptation. The two dramas had DNA in common. Read more...
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Kidding, Sky Atlantic review - tears of a clownFriday, 30 November 2018
There’s no one right way to grieve. It cuts through everyone differently, whether reverting to childhood traits or out-of-character impulses. The person you lose might mean one thing to you, and something completely different to someone else; it can hit you both differently, and equally hard. Read more... |
Death and Nightingales, BBC Two, review - slow, lyrical, slightly dullThursday, 29 November 2018
And now for something completely different from The Fall. The nerve-shredding drama from Northern Ireland was written by Allan Cubitt and featured, as its resident psychopathic hottie, Jamie Dornan (pictured below). Read more... |
Mrs Wilson, BBC One review - real-life secrets and liesWednesday, 28 November 2018
In which the titular Mrs Wilson is played by her real-life granddaughter Ruth Wilson, in an intriguing tale of subterfuge both personal and professional. The curtain rose over suburban west London in the 1960s, where Alison Wilson was married to Alec (Iain Glen) and was the proud mother of their two sons. Read more... |
The Last Kingdom, Series 3, Netflix review - idylls of the kingFriday, 23 November 2018
Destiny is all. The first two series of The Last Kingdom debuted on BBC Two, but for series three it has been fully embraced by Netflix. Read more... |
My Brilliant Friend, Sky Atlantic review - rich revelations of childhoodTuesday, 20 November 2018
This opening episode of My Brilliant Friend was a stunning symphony in grey. Read more... |
Louis Theroux's Altered States: Choosing Death, BBC Two review - profound and movingMonday, 19 November 2018
The toughest subject you can imagine: when, and how, would you choose death over life? This riveting film examined that excruciating dilemma within the legal frameworks on offer to some of the terminally ill in the United States. Read more... |
Our Classical Century, BBC Four review - enthusiasm and delightFriday, 16 November 2018
Jerusalem! Read more... |
They Shall Not Grow Old, BBC Two review - Peter Jackson's Great War finaleMonday, 12 November 2018
Peter Jackson has form when it comes to re-examining cinema history. In 1995 he made Forgotten Silver, a documentary about Colin McKenzie, a New Zealand filmmaker who not only made the first sound recordings but also invented the tracking shot and the close-up, and pioneered colour film, back in the 1910s long before his counterparts in America and France. Read more... |
WW1: The Last Tommies, BBC Four review - Great War storiesThursday, 08 November 2018
“Why should I go out and kill somebody I never knew? There was no reason at all in it in my way of thinking.” Britain’s very last Tommy was Harry Patch, born in 1898, conscripted in 1916 and still alive on his 111th birthday in 2009. 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...
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Gromes, Hallé, Chauhan, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review...
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The Last Showgirl review - Pamela Anderson stars as a middle...
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The Score, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - curious beast of...
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The Ferryman, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin review - Jez Butterwort...
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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...